Chapter 47

-[What's wrong, can't sleep?]

-[Talk to me if something's bothering you.]

Gu Zhijing lay facedown in his pillow. The moment he saw the message pop up, his heart skipped a beat.

He lifted his head and glanced up again.

It was quiet above him, with no sound of movement.

When he thought about it, he and Sheng Chi were only a bunk apart.

But to avoid waking their other teammates, they had to message each other like this.

It was a little strange, but also... a little heart-fluttering.

Gu Zhijing had typed that he was fine, then deleted it.

He hesitated for a long while. As the night grew deeper and his hormones surged out of control, he acted on impulse, summoned his courage, and sent a message.

[Brother Chi, if you had a very close friend who liked you,]

[what would you do?]

After sending the messages, Gu Zhijing looked them over and felt he had made himself too obvious. He wanted to unsend them.

But a reply came back quickly.

-[Who likes you?]

-[Jiang Yu or Xu Linyuan?]

Gu Zhijing: "???"

Wasn't Brother Chi's line of thought a little too bizarre?

[...Not me. I was just asking.]

[It's nothing. Go to sleep. Good night.]

Gu Zhijing quickly sent all three messages, then pressed and held the power button, ready to turn his phone off.

But the instant before it shut down,

he saw Sheng Chi's reply.

-[That depends on the person.]

-[But if Jiang Yu or Xu Linyuan really likes you, I suggest rejecting them outright.]

Gu Zhijing: "..."

The consequence of Gu Zhijing's late-night impulse was that when they got up the next morning, Sheng Chi looked at Jiang Yu and Xu Linyuan as if they were traitors.

Xu Linyuan, who was already sensitive to other people's moods, ended up quietly messaging Gu Zhijing to ask whether he had accidentally offended Sheng Chi somehow.

Gu Zhijing: "..."

It was his fault. All his fault.

Both groups had handed in their cameras yesterday.

Although the footage the amateurs had shot really hadn't turned out very well, Yu Wenwen said it wasn't a big problem.

After all, fans were always indulgent. Even if the footage looked like that, once they knew their own idols had shot it, they would only type through their tears as they reposted it: "Baby worked so hard on his first attempt at filming a vlog."

Besides, that wasn't the main event.

Yu Wenwen arrived at the practice room early to check on their progress. "Tell me, how did you all feel after spending the day out yesterday?"

Xu Linyuan thought about it and answered honestly, "I didn't feel much."

"How am I supposed to feel going on a date with a teammate?"

Jiang Yu was even more forthright. He thought hard and said, "Oh, there was one thing. Standing in line for the popular rides at the amusement park in the middle of winter was really tiring. I don't get why couples like going to places like that."

He added without a care, "Oh, right, the food they sold there was really expensive too. I really don't understand it. Maybe it's just so boyfriends can show how generous they are."

Yu Wenwen: "..."

Yu Wenwen tried hard to restrain herself and looked over at Sheng Chi and Gu Zhijing. "What about you two? How did you feel?"

Caught off guard by the question, Gu Zhijing visibly tensed.

Perhaps remembering what had happened yesterday, he drew his knees in a little. His ears were red, but he pretended to be calm. "Uh, Brother Chi was really nice."

Yu Wenwen: "..."

"What about you, Sheng Chi? How did you feel?"

"Gu Zhijing was very well-behaved."

Sheng Chi's lips curved, and there was laughter hidden in his calm voice. "And cute."

Yu Wenwen finally lost her patience. "Who asked you about that?!"

"Who wanted to hear what you thought of the amusement park?! Who wanted to know what you thought of your teammates?! I was asking what you thought about the performance!"

All of Color4 huddled together meekly, accepting the scolding in silence.

"Forget it. I can't really blame you."

Yu Wenwen calmed herself and continued, "It would be pretty strange if you did feel something going out with your own teammate."

Gu Zhijing: "..."

Feeling guilty, he hurriedly opened a packet of chocolate and ate it, pretending to lower his eyes and listen attentively to the lecture.

Yu Wenwen still refused to give up. "But there are still four days until the next recording of Starlight Show. Why don't you find a few romance movies to watch in the meantime? Get a feel for it?"

The four members of Color4: "..."

Yu Wenwen looked troubled. "Do I really have to find someone to pair up with you? All right, it's a little troublesome, but it's not-"

Gu Zhijing swallowed a mouthful of chocolate and quickly raised his hand. "I think maybe... let's not."

"It's our own performance, after all. We should... overcome this kind of problem ourselves."

Sheng Chi glanced at him and nodded in agreement. "I agree."

"A performance isn't the same as real life. What matters most is expressiveness. We'll find a way to keep working well together."

"And even if it doesn't turn out well when it airs, so what? What's wrong with not understanding romance?"

Jiang Yu hurriedly chimed in, "I think the company might even be able to use it to give us an image as a group that's a blank slate when it comes to love. Someone's bound to be into that!"

The others: "..."

Four days later, at the Starlight Show recording venue.

In this round, eight groups competed in head-to-head matchups for four spots.

By this point, nearly every idol group appearing had some measure of fame, and eliminating any of them would leave plenty of people disappointed.

Color4's opponent, Comet, had debuted three years ago and had steadily cultivated a "nation's boyfriends" image ever since. All five members were highly conscious of their roles as idols, and girlfriend fans made up ninety percent of their fanbase.

A couple of days earlier, wanting to know the enemy as well as himself, Gu Zhijing had watched their previous stage performances and music videos.

They really knew what they were doing.

He didn't know what big move they would pull out this time. The spotlights lit up onstage.

In the backstage preparation room, all of Color4 held their breath and concentrated.

Red petals drifted slowly down from above.

The five members of Comet, dressed in suits, walked out from behind a flower wall.

Jiang Yu clicked his tongue. "What a setup. Is this the wedding march?"

It really was.

The theme of Comet's performance was a wedding.

Backstage, Xu Linyuan couldn't help sweating for them. "Their girlfriend fans are definitely going to go crazy over this. I don't know whether our final performance can top theirs."

"But..."

Gu Zhijing paused, then said, "Aren't they off topic?"

The other three were all taken aback.

Gu Zhijing said, "The theme this time is Fall in Love with Me, not Marry Me."

He frowned. "Their approach is wrong from the start."

"That's true, but..."

Xu Linyuan shrugged. "They won't lose points for going off topic."

Onstage, Comet's performance was drawing to a close.

"It's our turn. Let's go."

Sheng Chi said, "Don't pay them too much mind. We just have to do things our own way."

Onstage, after a brief moment of darkness, the spotlights and music came on together.

The moment the music started, some members of the audience stirred, evidently surprised that Color4 had chosen this song.

After all, Leap Entertainment had only issued a statement clarifying the plagiarism allegations involving this song a few days ago.

Color4 really had guts.

A spotlight swept over and fell on the soft sofa at the center of the stage.

On the sofa, Gu Zhijing sat holding a teddy bear.

He was dressed casually for today's performance, with a baseball cap on backward. He was clearly going for a younger-boyfriend image.

The four of them had agreed to let Gu Zhijing open the performance.

The song wasn't difficult; what mattered entirely was the atmosphere. It had to feel swoonworthy and sweet.

And besides winning the competition, they had an even more important goal.

To make people distinguish this song completely from Wei Ming's, they needed something distinctive and memorable.

That was something Gu Zhijing could pull off.

The camera swept toward him.

He raised his eyes and suddenly smiled.

His gaze quickly passed over the camera, then swept from the left side of the venue to the right. After appearing to take in the whole audience, he stood up and held the teddy bear out in front of him.

Gu Zhijing's peach-blossom eyes curved, a beautiful pool of starlight gleaming in them.

His voice was light, carrying a gentle smile. "Want to come with me?"

The girls in the audience and in front of their screens all went wild.

The way Gu Zhijing gazed into the camera was irresistibly heart-fluttering, his eyes sparkling as he looked at you.

Even if you knew perfectly well that he couldn't see you at all, you couldn't stop your heart from beating faster.

That was an idol's expressiveness at its most exquisite.

He had plainly sent millions of declarations of love out into the world, yet when he gave one to you, he still seemed utterly devoted.

It was as if, in the entire world before his eyes, you were the only one there now.

And behind him,

Sheng Chi listened to the wave of screams from the girls below the stage and understood that Gu Zhijing's opening had already achieved its full effect.

At a moment when he should have been happy, he suddenly recalled a fan's comment he had come across yesterday.

The CP fan had been delighted.

[The way Fruit Jam looks at his gege in this interview is way too real, sob, I'm shipping them so hard! I think he must really, really like gege, sob!]

But a solo fan had poured cold water on them.

[Wake up, okay?]

[He just has peach-blossom eyes naturally, so he looks at everyone like he's in love.]

Author's note: The solo fans' most common debunking line has arrived (not really).

Thanks to the little angels who gave nutrient solution: Gusu Chengniang, 20 bottles; Meitian Dou Bei Ziji Kunxing, 16 bottles; Bufu, 10 bottles; Pi Zai Yang, 2 bottles; Tangcu Yu, Songjing Zhengyun, Meng Fuzhou, 1 bottle each;

Mwah, my darlings!

Chapter 49

The instant Sheng Chi's mind wandered, all the spotlights onstage came on.

Behind them, the dreamy, pink-toned stage backdrop instantly began to shift and flow.

Gu Zhijing suddenly flashed a brilliant smile, then tossed the teddy bear high into the audience.

The audience erupted.

Amid the screams from people scrambling for the bear, he stepped back twice, held his headset mic, and began singing the first verse.

Since the song wasn't a lead track and the choreography had been put together on short notice over a few days, everything had been kept simple.

But that happened to put it right in Gu Zhijing's comfort zone.

The simple melody meant there was no need for a backing vocal track, and his pitch was steady.

The simple choreography also gave him room to improvise.

As an idol, he hadn't distributed his talent points evenly between singing and dancing; he had put them all into stage presence.

Although his experience onstage was quite limited, he had already mastered techniques such as finding the camera, looking at the audience, and turning his face to the angle that brought out his charm to the fullest.

In other words, he knew exactly what kind of Gu Zhijing his fans wanted to see.

Since a large proportion of his fans were usually mom fans, he played a cute, well-behaved child, letting them enjoy the experience of raising him from afar.

But now,

Gu Zhijing finished the first verse and tilted his peach-blossom eyes slightly upward, bringing out a shimmering, tender, captivating gleam.

Then he gave a soft "mua" into his headset mic.

-Your friend Fruit Jam has sent you a mic kiss from afar!

The livestream comments suddenly exploded.

Some mom fans were gratified.

-[Our Fruit Jam has grown up and even knows how to flirt with girls now, aaaaah!]

Other mom fans were devastated.

-[Baby!!! No!!! Mommy won't allow it, sob sob sob!!!]

Even more were girlfriend fans who had previously disguised themselves as mom fans, now throwing off their disguises and standing up.

--[I'm not being a mom fan anymore! I've got my household registration booklet ready. Gege, see you at the civil affairs bureau, ahhh!!]

Gu Zhijing's peach blossom eyes curved as he happily stepped back.

Jiang Yu came onstage after him.

He wore a headband and a sporty outfit, looking every bit like the swoon-worthy basketball heartthrob at school.

The choreography for this performance was simple, so he improvised a street dance freestyle on the spot, drawing wave after wave of screams from the audience.

After Jiang Yu came Xu Linyuan.

He wore glasses and made a graceful entrance, radiating a warm glow from head to toe.

His voice was gentle, and a faint smile graced his face, as if he were