Chapter 29

"It's really not that we didn't want to sing properly. These in-ear monitors-"

Chen Bei raised a hand to stop him and nodded. "I know."

But he had also seen Sheng Chi take out his in-ear monitors.

That meant Color4 had used the same faulty equipment and put on a performance several times better than theirs.

After this, Weibo, forums, and marketing accounts would probably put out hundreds of posts mocking them and putting them down by comparison, jeering that this was all the country's most popular project group could manage.

If the other group's company had even a little skill, it could even use this for a publicity push and ride their downfall straight to the top.

Was he unwilling to accept it?

Of course he was.

But even so, he still had to admit it.

If Color4 had delivered a performance of that caliber under those circumstances, he was genuinely convinced.

And besides that-

Chen Bei's gaze fell on the peach-blossom-eyed young man getting up onstage.

The thin sheen of sweat from dancing made his profile shine all the more brightly. Even after coming out of the headspace of the song, he still radiated an alluring mix of innocence and desire.

He licked his lower lip and suddenly chuckled.

Interesting.

The young man sitting to his right wore a thin shirt, and his ripped black pants exposed knees that were white tinged with pink. He was so cute it was like a tickle against Sheng Chi's heart.

Every time Sheng Chi glanced at him, he remembered the sight of the young man pressing his fingertips against Sheng Chi's neck onstage.

His peach-blossom eyes had shimmered with moisture, hazy and beautiful.

It was practically... seductive.

Sheng Chi's throat tightened. He hurriedly took another sip of water, trying to look away from Gu Zhijing.

Unexpectedly, Gu Zhijing suddenly turned and met his gaze. "Brother Chi, what is it? Did you need something?"

Sheng Chi: "..."

Sheng Chi felt that something really did seem to be a little off with him.

Author's note: In Guozi Jiang's dreams: Oh my god! This look makes me the ultimate top alpha!

Fans in reality: Oh my gosh! Hot girl! (Scratch that, scratch that.)

After midnight, I revised yesterday's stage performance, adding some details-around seven or eight hundred characters in all, qvq.

If you read it before midnight, you can go back and read it again! You won't be charged twice for the added text.

What I wrote before was a bit awful, sob sob sob. Thank you all for being so patient with me too (bows)!

Some people said they didn't understand common fandom terms, so I'll explain the ones in this chapter that might be confusing.

Random pairing: pairing two people who aren't close as a CP.

Top ship: the most popular CP in a fandom.

Rival shippers: fans of a rival CP that breaks up my CP. For example, if I ship A x B, then B x C is my rival ship.

Maknae: the youngest member of a group.

doi: an activity that can't pass censorship here (?)

ggcw is explained in the text.

Also, a note: after using the "buying vegetables and selling vegetables" meme, I remembered that Sister Yu from Zone Three also uses selling and buying vegetables to mean recommending something and getting into it. The overlap was purely coincidental, qvq.

Thanks to the little angels who donated nutrient solution: Qi Zui, 38 bottles; My Brother Owes Me a Hundred Million, 30 bottles; Beautiful and Amorous, 10 bottles; Sweet-and-Sour Fish, Lazy Luo, Hmph ╯^╰, 2 bottles each; Yuan Yu Junqi Is Real, Doggo, Clouds Rising on the Pine Path, and Lemon, 1 bottle each.

Kisses for everyone! Thank you!

Chapter 31

For Color4, this recording of Starlight Show was indeed very important.

But their head manager, Fei Yue, had uncharacteristically not gone with them.

For one thing, he trusted that his four boys had the ability to pull through without a hitch during the livestream.

For another, he had more important things to do.

Inside Leap Entertainment's office.

"We've made the trending searches, and we've paid the marketing accounts."

"The organic buzz is also continuing to grow, and it's mostly positive."

A staff member clattered away at his keyboard and glanced at the genuine comments from passersby who were neither paid posters nor fans. "A lot of people seem to have noticed the in-ear monitors too. If we handle it well, that's another point we can use for promotion. We can keep following up on it afterward."

"As for what comes next..."

He paused and asked his boss in front of him, "Should we use Shooter as a stepping stone to promote them as a talented boy group?"

That was right.

Fei Yue was at the company monitoring public opinion in real time.

He couldn't do much by staying with the four of them anyway, so he might as well keep an eye on what was happening online for them from the office.

If Color4's livestream performance was a train wreck, he would immediately clean up the search results; if they performed well, he would immediately roll out a full promotional campaign, trending searches and all.