The next day, the video's views surpassed ten million, and its likes were closing in on one million.
No one had expected Ye Zexi to attract so many male fans with just one dance!
Not only had Ye Zexi's personal Weibo gained nearly a million followers, but even his comment section had been taken over by male fans.
The moment one opened the comments, they were filled with the unmistakable style of straight guys:
"Keep it up, brother Ye Zexi!"
"Man, I'm rooting for you. Keep going and debut!"
"What dance are you doing next? How about 'Love Loop'? Looking forward to it.jpg."
Overnight, Ye Zexi's personal supertopic had even been established by his male fans. Female fans could only step aside, leaving everyone dumbfounded.
The following day was Saturday. This time, the finished episodes were not released over two days. The post-production team worked overtime to finish both episodes, and they went live simultaneously at eight that evening.
Less than an hour after release, the view count hit another record high.
When it came to Ye Zexi's part, the entire screen was flooded with barrage comments, all cheering him on.
The finished footage of Ye Zexi was also edited into separate clips, which major marketing accounts rushed to repost.
Discussion across the internet was feverish. Memes and GIFs were everywhere, and Ye Zexi went viral beyond the fandom.
One female fan, stunned silly by it all, finally could not hold herself back and posted on the supertopic—
"I seriously suspect Ye Zexi gave up advancing before just so he could dance for us!"
Top comment: Be more confident. Drop the "suspect."
The post was quickly reposted by countless people and made the trending list again.
Yu Yan, an avid internet surfer, secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the post.
Luckily, Ye Zexi had not fallen for him!
After all, he had already thought of how he would turn him down!
But Yu Yan also knew perfectly well how he had gotten where he was now, so he still felt grateful toward Ye Zexi.
It was just that Yu Yan really was not familiar with Ye Zexi, so it would have been awkward to approach him directly. After thinking it over, Yu Yan went to Tang Jing.
After hearing why Yu Yan had come, Tang Jing's expression became complicated.
Tang Jing had anticipated Ye Zexi going viral, but it would have been a lie to say he was not jealous.
The scene of Ye Zexi and Tang Jing talking on the night of the second public performance had also been captured by the camera crew. When the episode aired the next day, a netizen specially edited out that segment and posted it on Weibo: Does anyone else feel like Tang Jing and Ye Zexi have gotten closer?
In the footage, two handsome men of entirely different types—one cool and aloof, the other flamboyant—looked at each other and smiled in perfect understanding.
There had been no sound recorded on-site, so no one could hear what they were talking about. Yet from the way they smiled into each other's eyes, one could sense a trace of appreciation.
If one asked Tang Jing's fans who they hated most, Ye Zexi would rank first. No one would dare rank second.
This man who had repeatedly harassed their beloved brother—so what if he was a rich second-generation heir? In the fans' eyes, his crimes were beyond counting.
At last week's public performance, Ye Zexi had even used his pursuit of Tang Jing to whitewash himself!
The fans ground their teeth in fury, but Tang Jing's fanbase was simply no match for the crowd of spectators. More often than not, the moment they posted criticism, it was quickly drowned without a trace.
Sometimes, after great difficulty, a comment listing Ye Zexi's offenses in harassing Tang Jing would make it to the top. Yet beneath it, there would always be a group of netizens:
"Ye Zexi already apologized. Forgive people when you can."
"Yeah, Tang Jing already said it was fine."
"Who doesn't have an ex? His fans should let it go too."
Tang Jing's fans became even angrier, but they were outnumbered. So they could only cling to the thought that enduring for now would bring peace, hoping Tang Jing would stun everyone and prove them wrong at the second public performance.
After all, everyone knew how Ye Zexi had gotten first place in the first performance. Wasn't it just by deliberately acting weird for publicity?
But the fans never expected the second public performance to turn out like this.
Had Tang Jing stunned everyone?
At least, his fans thought he had.
But what about Ye Zexi?
Countless Sugar Fans fell silent.
Ye Zexi was simply too astonishing!
When Ye Zexi had voluntarily given up advancing, countless Sugar Fans had celebrated wildly, looking forward to his elimination.
But who could have expected that, in the final losers' group, Ye Zexi would pull something like this!
There were plenty of anime fans among the Sugar Fans, and quite a few had nearly screamed along while watching the livestream!
Ye Zexi had danced so well! With such intense dance moves, he could still sing while dancing, and even his high notes had not trembled in the slightest!
At that moment, the fans understood that Ye Zexi truly had ability, and he was not inferior to their beloved brother at all.
Ye Zexi took first place in the rankings once again, and the Sugar Fans no longer dared say much.
Until the Sugar Fans saw the video of Ye Zexi and Tang Jing smiling at each other.
Holy shit!
Tang Jing was so handsome! Ye Zexi's looks were incredible too!
Why had they never noticed that before?
The two of them looked so swoon-worthy when they smiled!
They even had the tiniest bit... of CP chemistry!
It was not only Tang Jing's fans who noticed this. Countless passersby felt their hearts skip a beat when they saw the scene of the two smiling at each other.
That was way too sweet!
They were kind of well matched!
Besides, Ye Zexi had liked Tang Jing in the first place.
Could that smile now mean that Ye Zexi had not gotten over Tang Jing yet?!
The more they thought about it, the more thrilling it felt; the more they thought about it, the more excited they became.
The pounding hearts of the fangirls could not be restrained, and the Xi-Tang CP was born out of nowhere!
Xi was Ye Zexi, and Tang naturally referred to Tang Jing! Tang Jing's fans called themselves Sugar Fans, while Tang Tang was another name for Tang Jing.
XiTang, XiTang—it sounded like wedding candy! It could not be sweeter!
In less than half a day, the Xi-Tang CP had already grown to a decent size.
Riding the trending topic, Ye Zexi's Weibo followers surged. Because of this post, Tang Jing's Weibo followers also increased by nearly a hundred thousand.
A large portion of them were freshly minted Xi-Tang CP fans.