Chapter 31
!!Sorry for the late update, everyone!
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The digital album plaza really is a thing. Whenever an idol releases a new song, someone gives albums away there. That's how I scored lots and lots of digital albums from lesser-known idols for free! (x)
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Thanks to the little angels who threw landmines: T#T*^O^* for 2; Shipping Everything All Day for 1;
Thanks to the little angels who gave nutrient solution: Guan Zhen, Meng Fuzhou, and Xiwu for 10 bottles; Saijou Takato for 8 bottles; Xiao, Little Purple Sweet Potato, and Erithacus for 5 bottles; Sweet and Sour Fish, Clouds Steaming Along the Pine Path, and Lazy Luo for 1 bottle;
Kisses for all my darlings!
Chapter 32
The audience at the venue and the viewers in the livestream erupted at once.
Onstage, however, almost none of the members of Color4 or Shooter had processed what had happened.
It was a long time before the roaring cheers, screams, and applause from the other groups slowly brought them back to their senses.
Sheng Chi recovered first and led his three teammates in a sincere bow to the audience.
Beside them, Chen Bei kept his expression in check and politely applauded along with the others. It was impossible to tell whether he was happy or upset.
"All the match results are in."
The host said, "Let's look at the big screen."
On the big screen, the eight winning groups and eight losing groups were listed on opposite sides.
With nearly 150,000 votes in total, Color4 had beaten every other group to take first place among the winners, nearly 40,000 votes ahead of Comet in second place.
Quite a few audience members looked at the numbers, then at Shooter's, and couldn't help feeling a little sorry for Shooter.
But considering their performance in the previous round,
it really would have felt unreasonable if they'd won with a train wreck like that.
The host filled time onstage by reading advertisements as preparations were made for the next round of draws.
All the groups returned to their own backstage lounges to briefly regroup mentally, ready to go onstage at any moment.
In Shooter's lounge, everyone's faces were impossibly dark.
After a long silence, someone stepped forward to take the blame. "Brother Bei, this round was my fault."
"It's not your fault."
Chen Bei was surprisingly calm. "A result like this isn't one person's fault. Don't take it too much to heart."
The atmosphere in the group had been off ever since they finished filming the previous episode.
To be honest, their project group was different from a group like Color4 to begin with.
Almost everyone on the team had solo schedules to attend to, and they hadn't lived together for a long time. They had far less time to practice together than their opponents, so it was only natural for problems to arise from a lack of coordination.
They just hadn't expected to lose the vote.
After all, everything had gone smoothly for Shooter since their debut.
They had debuted amid everyone's attention and anticipation. After that, every song they released took first place, and whenever there was a competition, their fans would always vote them to an award.
To put it rather boastfully,
leaving aside groups that had gone solo, disbanded, or become inactive, they had almost no rivals in the country in terms of popularity.
Who could have known Color4 would come out of nowhere?
This defeat was a heavy blow to Shooter.
They weren't quite so invincible after all.
Idols who were popular for a time were easily forgotten. Someone who said they'd love you forever one second might leave the next.
When fans loved you, they saw you through rose-colored glasses. No matter how poorly you performed onstage, they would make excuses and praise you blindly: "Our babies have improved again!" But when they stopped being fans and turned against you, they trampled all your efforts into worthlessness.
It was time for them to wake up.
"All right."
Chen Bei leaned back on the sofa and looked around at his eight dispirited teammates. "It's not like it's all over and we're going home."
"Get some rest and get ready for the next round."
"If you really can't accept it, find a chance to fight your way back. When the time comes..."
Chen Bei's eyes darkened, and he suddenly smiled. "We'll see Color4 in the finals."
Meanwhile, in the lounge on the other side, the mood was jubilant.
Sheng Chi was still trying to work out which opponents they might face and their chances of winning when he heard Jiang Yu call out loudly, "What does everyone want for a late-night snack? My treat today."
Sheng Chi: "..."
Xu Linyuan smiled and cautioned him, "Watch it. The livestream cameras are still on. Let's see what you do if they cut to us in a moment."
"Oh, it's fine. The production team knows better than we do what should and shouldn't be broadcast."
Jiang Yu said, "So what do you want to eat? Hey, Gu Jing, Gu Jing, stop looking at your phone. What do you want?"
Gu Zhijing, who was usually enthusiastic about food, was tapping away at his phone without even looking up. "Anything's fine with me."
Hearing that, Sheng Chi glanced at him, his eyes darkening.
He had been looking at his phone a little too often lately.
And not only that, he would occasionally smile at the screen.
Putting that together with what had happened before-
He really suspected that Gu Zhijing might be in an online relationship.
Tsk.
Oblivious to his captain's suspicions about his love life, Gu Zhijing was watching the situation among the fans unfold.
He had thought that since they'd won, the fans would be overjoyed.
After all, as Jiang Yu had said, beating Shooter was something they could boast about in the survival show fandom for at least two years.
But when he took a look,
rather than happy, they seemed terrified.
[Level-one alert, level-one alert!! Color4 fans [danger][danger][danger]]
[If the senior group's fans really come looking for trouble! Just drop to your knees! Say thank you and sorry more often, and don't try to reason with lunatics.]
[We already won, so we haven't lost anything. Whatever you do, don't get into a shouting match! Don't bring hate down on our kids!]
Gu Zhijing: "..."
It was as if a group of little girls clutching their vegetable baskets and trembling with fear had suddenly appeared on the screen.
He couldn't help chuckling.
Fortunately, Shooter's fans probably didn't have time to settle scores with them right now.
After all, the fans themselves had brought about this result, so even if they wanted to shift the blame, they couldn't pin it on Color4.
And given Shooter's fans' habit of blaming other members whenever anything went wrong, the familiar drama was probably about to play out: group fans would berate toxic solo stans for ruining their idols' futures, while solo stans would call group fans a bunch of good-for-nothings who only paid lip service to group solidarity and couldn't stream or vote, then take a few shots at the other members and sincerely wish for the group to disband soon.
For now, that fire wouldn't reach Color4.
"Stop looking, stop looking."
Jiang Yu poked him. "I think the draw results are about to come out."
Gu Zhijing locked his phone screen and looked up.
Sure enough, the system's draw results appeared on the lounge's broadcast screen.
He read down the list line by line.
[Color4 VS Miracle Girls]
Gu Zhijing was slightly taken aback. "A girl group?"
Sheng Chi flipped through the information. "Yes."
"Miracle Girls, a seven-member girl group with a sweet, girl-next-door style."
Gu Zhijing smiled. "What was the production team thinking? Their style is completely different from ours. How are we supposed to battle?"
Jiang Yu, however, seemed to breathe a huge sigh of relief. "How else? We'll just have to make it work."
As everyone knew, however, girl groups relied first on casual fans and second on fans willing to spend money. The proportion of fans who streamed and voted for them was relatively low.
On top of that, the domestic entertainment industry wasn't particularly receptive to sweet-style girl groups. Three years after their debut, they were still a pitiful, obscure eighteenth-tier group, having only scraped through the previous round thanks to some luck in the draw and the diehard fans they'd accumulated.
It could be said that they would face practically no pressure winning this round.
Color4's fans watching the livestream couldn't help feeling relieved when they saw the draw results, either.
Last week, they had voted frantically while under pressure from the production team's vote purges. Of every ten votes cast using purchased accounts, perhaps only one had ultimately counted, and the effort had nearly driven them silly.
On top of that, the first album had just come out that week. Besides voting for Starlight Show, they also had to push the album up the charts and try to secure first place. They had a heavy workload and a lot to do.
Female streaming and voting workers were people too; they had feelings too.
Now, at last, they had an easy opponent, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Except Sheng Chi.
He glanced at the draw order. They were the last of the winning groups to go onstage.
He rubbed his wrist, still not relaxing in the slightest. "Don't get ahead of yourselves."
"Take every performance as seriously as if it were your last."
"Do your best."
"Don't disappoint the people who like us."
Returning to the stage once more amid the crowd's cheers, Color4 was much more composed than last time.
First, they had practiced the lead single from their first album many times before, and since they would also be performing it on various music shows afterward, it was a song they knew very well.
Second, their in-ear monitors finally worked without a hitch this time, allowing Color4 to complete the performance perfectly.
When the music ended, fireworks erupted all around them.
Standing amid the golden sparks, the young men in red jackets and white shirts were like a dazzling, vibrant arc of youth, drawing another wave of cheers.
After all the groups had finished performing, the production team announced the rules for the next episode.
There would be no stage performances next episode. Instead, four groups would first be sent home based on the voting results, after which the winning groups would begin choosing teammates for a collaboration round.
The remaining time would be filled with entertaining prerecorded backstage interviews and games.
So after this episode's livestream ended, the members of all the groups still couldn't leave. They headed to various recording studios together and queued up to film the relevant content.
Color4 had just come offstage and was preparing to follow a staff member inside when someone suddenly called out to them.
"Wait a moment."
In the hallway, Chen Bei held out a hand. "Sorry to interrupt. Do you have a moment?"
He smiled. "I'd like to talk to Gu Zhijing."
Sheng Chi's expression immediately darkened.
Gu Zhijing looked at Chen Bei, puzzled.
He had only met Chen Bei once before. They could hardly be called familiar, and he had no idea what the other man wanted to talk to him about.
...There's no chance of poaching someone from a project group, is there?
Gu Zhijing thought for a moment, then said to his teammates, "Why don't you go on ahead? I'll be there soon."
Sheng Chi was just about to say something when the single-minded Jiang Yu pulled him away.
"Come on, Captain, let's go grab a good spot. Otherwise we'll have to wait for everyone else to finish recording before we can leave again."
The hallway fell quiet.
Gu Zhijing had just taken off his mic and still had his stage makeup on. He tilted his head up to look at the 1.9-meter-tall man and asked politely, "Senior, did you need something?"
"Nothing much."
Chen Bei stepped closer, a smile playing on his lips. "I just wanted to ask-"
"If you win next time, would you consider choosing us as your collaboration partners?"
Gu Zhijing froze for a moment.
Chen Bei was a little too close, nearly invading his personal space, and Gu Zhijing faltered for a moment before saying, "That... should be up to our captain. I can't make that decision."
"All right."
"You can't make that decision, but there are things you should be able to decide for yourself."
Chen Bei lowered his head slightly and suddenly reached out, brushing his fingertips over Gu Zhijing's right ear and giving his earring a very gentle pinch. He chuckled and said very discreetly, "You are, aren't you?"
Gu Zhijing's back pressed against the hallway wall, and he instantly stiffened. He played dumb. "Am what?"
"We're both in the circle, so I don't want to beat around the bush."
"I am too. And honestly, I really like your type."
Chen Bei licked his lips and leaned closer, lowering his voice. "Would you consider giving me your contact information?"
This time, Gu Zhijing was truly dumbfounded.
For the first eighteen years of his life, Gu Zhijing had grown up under the Gu Family's protection and had never encountered such a direct approach from someone of the same sex.
Chen Bei was admiring the faint blush on his earlobes and his bewildered expression with satisfaction, and was just about to tease him some more when a voice sounded behind him.
"Excuse me."
"Senior, may I ask why you're blocking my teammate and stopping him from leaving? Is there something you need?"
Sheng Chi stood behind them and said calmly, "If there is,"
"you can ask me directly."
The author has something to say: Brother Chi: Calm my ass!!!!
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Because later there's still