Chapter 17

Color4 had debuted, and Color4 was Color4. They couldn't have one person more or one person less.

Gu Zhijing sighed again.

He felt terribly frustrated.

He had thought that once they debuted, a bright future would lie ahead: stages, flowers, applause, red carpets, and a glorious career slowly unfolding before them.

He hadn't expected every step to be so difficult right from the start.

Beginnings really were hard.

Then the middle was hard.

And finally, the end was hard.

"Don't think about it too much."

Sheng Chi paused, then comforted him. "If we don't have a stage, we don't have one. Worst comes to worst, we can perform on the street."

Gu Zhijing looked up and finally smiled. "And form the Color4 street acrobatics troupe?"

He pretended to give the suggestion serious thought, making the best of a bad situation. "Yeah, we could put a bowl in front of us. Maybe passersby would give us tips."

Just as he finished speaking, his watch beeped twice, marking the hour.

It was eight in the evening.

At eight tonight, Color4's official Weibo account was going live, releasing their first EP and debut documentary.

They had long since listened to the EP's two songs many times, and their training these past few days had focused mainly on performing them onstage.

But they hadn't seen the finished documentary yet, so they had set aside a time especially for it.

Sheng Chi knew about it too. "Want to watch?"

Gu Zhijing rubbed his face, quickly putting his earlier gloom behind him. "Yes!"

The two sat down against the practice room wall.

Sheng Chi opened Weibo and pulled up the documentary.

The documentary was quite long, thirty minutes in all.

It opened in black and white, showing the four of them from behind as they trained in the practice room.

A caption appeared.

"Have you ever seen young people working hard?"

The camera gathered up countless fragments of their training, bit by bit: sweat blurring their vision, practice leaving them utterly exhausted, tears shed when they wanted to give up, voices turned hoarse when they wanted to struggle on.

The road to making dreams was so hard.

There were no spotlights, no color, just like a dull, monotonous black-and-white photograph.

Then it cut to highlights from their evaluation performance.

Color gradually spread across the screen. Under the spotlights, the young men were dazzlingly beautiful in every frame, every instant.

The camera shook a little.

Sheng Chi's face appeared in front of it.

"My name is Sheng Chi."

He spoke without expression. "I'm currently the leader of Color4."

"In the future, I hope I can lead Color4 onto the highest stage together, so the whole world can see us."

"My name is Jiang Yu."

Jiang Yu raised a clenched fist and cheered. "My dream is simple. I hope Color4 can dominate the entire idol scene in the future."

"My name is Xu Linyuan."

"The future?"

Xu Linyuan chuckled, pressed his palms together, and bowed slightly. "I hope our hard work will be seen, that Color4 will keep getting better, and that we can keep going together."

"My name is Gu Zhijing. I'm eighteen and a member of Color4."

"You're asking about the future? I haven't thought about it."

His peach blossom eyes curved, shining with happiness and anticipation. "But I want to stay with the people I like and do the things I like."

What was a dream?

It was turning a black-and-white world into color alongside your companions.

At the end of the documentary, the four of them stood in a row in the practice room.

Sunlight poured down.

The young men bowed to the camera. When they straightened, their smiles were even brighter than the sunlight. "Hello, everyone, we're Color4!"

"Our goal is-"

"To become the number one idol boy group in the domestic entertainment industry!"

Their words rang with certainty, youthful energy, and the arrogance unique to young men.

Yet one couldn't help feeling

that they really might do it.

The image froze, then faded to black, reflecting the two people in front of the screen.

Sheng Chi was silent for a long time before he finally pressed the exit button.

Gu Zhijing suddenly called softly, "Leader."

Sheng Chi turned to look at him.

The corners of Gu Zhijing's beautiful peach blossom eyes were slightly red, and he looked close to tears. In the end, he held them back and said firmly, with a touch of unwillingness, a touch of stubbornness, and a touch of youthful spirit, "I believe we'll definitely do it."

The young master who had dared to run away from home alone at eighteen

had an exceptionally soft heart and the courage to fear neither heaven nor earth.

"Mm."

Sheng Chi's fingers curled slightly. He restrained the urge to wipe away his tears and said softly, "I believe it too."

Chapter 19

Fortunately, Fei Yue brought back good news the next day.

Music Show had agreed to their request for a promotional performance.

Although both were promotional performance platforms, Music Show fell short of New Direction in every respect. But for Color4 as they were now, being able to show their debut stage to more people was already incredibly good news.

And so it was settled: three days later, the four members of Color4 would go to record their first promotional stage.

When they arrived, it was nearly four in the morning, and the sky was still dark.

According to the schedule, they first had to get their makeup done and change into their outfits, then greet the seniors who had also come, do a backstage interview for the cameras, settle the stage arrangements, and rehearse. Only after all that could they begin prerecording their promotional stage.

It was busy and full of small tasks.

And they couldn't simply record the stage whenever they wanted.

After all, they weren't the only group recording a promotional stage at the same time. Senior groups who had debuted earlier naturally went before them, and if a hugely popular group with a busy schedule suddenly dropped in, they had to move further back in line.

The domestic idol industry's development system was not yet mature, and there were relatively few groups.

So besides idols, promotional music shows also had singers and bands coming to promote new songs. And according to the usual domestic hierarchy of disdain, idols had to stand even further back.

And so they waited, from the early morning before dawn until eleven at night, and it still wasn't their turn.

When a staff member came over with coffee, Sheng Chi was still outside finalizing the stage plan.

He was usually cold and quiet, but whenever the subject was the stage, he became more proactive than anyone.

Jiang Yu and Xu Linyuan had already fallen asleep while waiting in line.

Neither Brother Fei nor the personal assistant was in the waiting room, and Gu Zhijing was the only one free, so he hurried forward to accept the six coffees. He leaned forward in a slight bow, curved his peach blossom eyes, and smiled politely. "Thank you, sis. Thanks for all your hard work too."

It was already nearly midnight.

Yet even at this late hour, he was still beautiful and lively, without the slightest sign of fatigue.

Even the makeup he'd had done that morning hadn't smudged.

In the entertainment industry, it was indeed common to fawn over the popular and trample on the obscure.

But who wouldn't like a handsome little boy who was polite and sweet-talking?

The staff member was delighted and gave him a few extra words of consideration before adding, "We didn't mean to keep you waiting this late. We thought it would be your turn sometime after nine, but who knew Shooter would change their plans and decide to come tonight? I'm really sorry."

"But it'll be soon. The plan is for them to record their stage first, then their interview. I'd say it'll be your turn in an hour at most."

Shooter.

Gu Zhijing had some impression of the group. They were a temporary group that had debuted through a boy group show last year and were quite popular.

He smiled understandingly. "It's all right. Thank you, sis."

When they finally came to tell them it was Color4's turn to go onstage, Gu Zhijing woke his two teammates on the couch.

Jiang Yu blearily wiped his mouth. "What time is it?"

Gu Zhijing glanced at his phone. "One in the morning."

"Get up. We need to touch up our makeup, rehearse our positions, and finally record the stage. Let's hurry, or we probably won't get back until daybreak."

Jiang Yu was so sleepy that he kept getting cranky at being woken. He scratched his sleep-mussed hair and resigned himself to having it restyled later. "We've been here for almost a whole day and night. People on the three-hundred-and-sixtieth tier really have no rights."

Beside him, Xu Linyuan was already fully awake. He smiled. "Aren't all these people here keeping you company? Hurry up."

"Got it."

Jiang Yu sounded listless. After a moment, he turned around and asked in confusion, "Where's our leader?"

Gu Zhijing said, "Brother Chi's already gone over to the stage."

Sheng Chi clearly attached great importance to this performance.

There were two songs on their debut EP. One was relatively more positive; in Jiang Yu's words, it was for performing if they ever got a chance to appear on an official mainstream platform.

For this occasion, they had chosen the other song, which had somewhat bolder stage choreography. When they heard they were coming to Music Show, they had even adjusted some of its dance elements.

And the day before the performance, Sheng Chi had made a last-minute change to a move, striving to make the stage presentation perfect.

At two in the morning, after Color4 finished their first rehearsal, they checked how it looked on camera. Once they were sure there were no problems, they decided not to delay and started recording straight away.

Before going onstage, Gu Zhijing thought again of that move and asked Sheng Chi nervously, "Did you bring knee pads?"

"No."

Bracing himself with one hand, Sheng Chi jumped onto the stage with ease. "They get in the way, and I'm afraid they might make it look bad too."

Gu Zhijing's eyes widened. He was about to say something when Sheng Chi, crouching at the edge of the stage, ruffled his hair. "Don't worry. Get ready."

"I said we'd give the audience the best performance possible."

At two thirty in the morning, recording officially began for Color4's first promotional stage.

Smoke swirled across the stage, and the predominantly red-and-black stage backdrop shone dazzlingly bright.

Suddenly, spotlights came down, dispelling the smoke and illuminating the four people onstage in matching promotional outfits.

Sheng Chi stood near the center, a little ahead of the others. He looked sharply into the camera and raised his chin slightly.

He was like a king of the stage, long accustomed to the camera and performing.

The music started.

Sheng Chi flung the rose tucked into his breast. He watched it burn and vanish in midair as if by magic, then began to sing and dance on the beat.

They had chosen this song precisely because it was so dynamic, bold, and explosive, making it the perfect dance number to bring down the house.

And so the young men's irresistible charm burst forth.

During the verses, the four took turns in center position. Jiang Yu's dancing, Xu Linyuan's vocals, Sheng Chi's overwhelming skill and presence, and Gu Zhijing's distinctive stage expressiveness each had their moment, then blended harmoniously and exquisitely in the final chorus, when they danced together.

They had polished this chorus countless times. The four moved in perfect unison, as though they could cleave ripples into the air itself.

There was no way to tell that this was a rookie group that had debuted only a few days ago.

After the chorus came the rap section.

The spotlight quickly focused on Gu Zhijing. He reached out and flung his jacket into the air, then slid straight into position in front of the only standing microphone onstage.

His hair was dyed dark chestnut today, giving him a hint of rebellious wildness that broke entirely from his usual sweet, obedient image.

But when Gu Zhijing jumped in front of the standing mic, he suddenly tilted his head, lifted the corner of one eye, and smiled at the camera.

His peach blossom eyes shimmered. That smile brought the beauty of his features to its peak, like the burning rose Sheng Chi had used in his opening trick, so beautiful it shook one to the core.

At the side of the stage, in a corner the camera didn't capture, Sheng Chi's gaze darkened slightly, and he pressed the tip of his tongue against his cheek.

Gu Zhijing began to rap.

Sheng Chi had taught him his rap step by step, and his flow and diction bore a strong trace of Sheng Chi's style. Though still a little raw, the atmosphere carried it to an explosive new height.

When the rap ended, before the camera cut away, Gu Zhijing swept a hand at the camera and quirked the corner of his mouth.

Wild and gorgeous.

Finally, the end of the song was designed as the climax.

Xu Linyuan and Jiang Yu knelt on one knee at the sides of the stage, while Gu Zhijing stood at the back and performed a classic dance move miming a sniper.

He worked the bolt, snapped the gun upward, and aimed at the camera, and at Sheng Chi, who stood in front of it.

In time with the sniper move, the music gave a jolt, and Sheng Chi dropped to his knees with a thud, his back slowly bending.

As if he had been shot dead by a sniper.

This was the part Sheng Chi had changed.

The original performance hadn't included this sequence, but he had changed it to an ending imbued with tragedy.