In the first round of group competitions, the preparation time for each group to perform a song was about two weeks.
Within two weeks, the group members not only had to learn a new song and a new dance but also had to bond with their new teammates.
This task was not easy, especially since Mu Cai was the lead singer in the group, and the singing capabilities were much higher than the other group members. The team also chose him as the C-position in the group, so the burden on Mu Cai was heavier.
Fortunately, Zhao An and Li Shengmin were once his teammates, and the tacit understanding between them was still there. And although An looked like a loner, he was unexpectedly very good at communicating.
What surprised Mu Cai the most was the cooperation of Lin Jiayi. Based on his previous understanding of the other party, he had expected Lin Jiayi to be very self-contained and to not pay any attention to him at all.
And when Mu Cai watched the first broadcast of the program, he also saw that Lin Jiayi had a conflict with his mentor. Mu Cai had been prepared, thinking it would be difficult to cooperate but he did not expect the other party to be so easy to talk to. As long as it was a piece of reasonable advice, Lin Jiayi would listen.
Although he obviously did not deal well with An.
The whole group was very diligent. They arrived on time every morning to receive corrections from their mentors on their shortcomings. And every night, all five of them had a tacit understanding and would collectively train until 10 pm. Individuals who had more problems would stay behind to train individually.
Before their first public appearance began, they were led by Gu Yunchen for the first time on the formal stage for rehearsals. When they finished their performance, Gu Yunchen, who was always stern and cold, nodded at them.
It was because of this one nod, that Mu Cai smiled —standing on the stage panting, with sweat dripping from the corners of his forehead like a stream winding down. With his eyebrows arched, his whole being was shining under the lightning coming from above his head.
Gu Yunchen's heart moved, and he added a rare extra sentence, "Now, this is quite good, as long as you keep it up until tomorrow, the performance will not be a problem."
The smile on the teenager's face was even bigger, and a little soft flesh piled up on the side of his cheeks, looking good enough to pinch. He nodded obediently, "Mmm! Thank you, Teacher Gu!"
Gu Yunchen stood in the dimly lit area below the stage, the corners of his lips unknowingly followed suit and raised a little.
The next day was the group competition and Mu Cai's group's performance was a great success, winning most of the votes from the audience and easily achieving victory. The individual votes Mu Cai received far exceeded those of the others in the two groups.
Liang Yunxi and Li Yuzhe's group was also doing well, and they both received a lot of votes.
When all the groups finished their performances and the results were finally announced, the atmosphere was tense and enthusiastic. The big screen quickly announced the winning groups of all the matches, alongside the number of votes of the 100 trainees present.
When all the members in the winning group got another five hundred votes added to their score, the hundred practitioners were re-ranked and the last forty practitioners in the ranking got eliminated.
After some summarization and evaluation, the recording of the episode ended. Following the group competition, the program team also prepared an interview with the eliminated practitioners. The rest of the trainees were given a three-day break before continuing with the recording of the next episode.
Mu Cai hurriedly found his v6 teammates in the crowd. They were originally a group of six, but five of them remained after this first issue, only Ding Nan had been eliminated.
According to the rules of the program, the eliminated practitioners had to leave the program within a few days, and Ding Nan was no exception. A few of them quickly discussed having a farewell dinner with each other to send off Ding Nan.
Mu Cai should have been very happy with the success of the promotion, but he felt a headache when he thought about the upcoming meal.
When the results came out that day, Mu Cai had noticed that Ding Nan was not the same as the other trainees who had been eliminated. The boy's face looked very gloomy and seemed especially angry. The first time Mu Cai thought of the other party's hopeful look, he had an unspeakable feeling in his heart that he couldn't explain.
Liang Yunxi noticed that Mu Cai was not alright. He frowned slightly and reached out to gently put his hand on the other party's shoulder, "Thinking about Ding Nan?"
Mu Cai nodded his head.
On the side, Li Yuzhe spoke directly, "Don't blame yourself, Ding Nan was eliminated because he was not strong enough, it has nothing to do with you."
Mu Cai was a little surprised. He didn't expect Li Yuzhe to be so sharp-minded. He guessed what he was really worried about right away.
Li Yuzhe smiled and said, "I saw him ask you for help when he was teaming up before. But what can you do, this is an elimination tournament. Who does not want to win? But as long as he had talent and endurance, it would not come to this."
Zhao An nodded next to him, "That's right. After training for the theme song, so many people from class F were promoted, as long as there was some progress. Only him and another person remained in the same place. If Ding Nan had been in a good frame of mind or had worked hard, would he be like this now?"
They talked as they walked. Although they comforted Mu Cai, they still had to go send off Ding Nan.
Only when the five people finally returned to the dormitory building, they saw that Ding Nan had already packed his suitcase and was heading for the main gate of the venue.
Mu Cai and the others hurriedly shouted in the direction of the other party, "Ding Nan, Ding Nan, wait!"
But the boy seemed to have not heard their shouts, and just kept walking forward.
Liang Yunxi gave a "tsk", drew his legs and went after him, leaving the remaining four people waiting for them in the same place.
He soon caught up with Ding Nan. But the two men didn't dwell for long before Liang Yunxi came back alone.
Mu Cai watched Ding Nan disappear at the gate and asked with some concern, "What's going on? Is he still angry?"
Liang Yunxi looked at the teenager's slightly knitted brow, suppressing the irritation in his heart and revealing a smile, "Nothing, it's just that he's quite uncomfortable now and says he wants to be alone. Let's get together again when we get back."
Mu Cai nodded.
Liang Yunxi looked at the person in front of him and felt a little uncomfortable.
In fact, Ding Nan had just been blaming them for not helping him, with a harshness in those words and a look of resentment on his face that even startled Liang Yunxi for a moment. He opened his mouth to explain to Ding Nan, but the other did not even listen.
Liang Yunxi was helpless, none of the other five people in the team had been captains, and they had had no right to choose. Not to mention, that several of them had been in strong teams —Ding Nan's strength was not enough, even if they had helped him get in, it would have been easy to be rendered useless, and they wouldn't have gotten many votes.
But Ding Nan didn't want to understand their position, instead he just blindly blamed them, which was a waste of Mu Cai's worries.
Liang Yunxi looked at the teenager's worried look, eased his mood, and smiled, "Well, don't think about that. We all advanced today, let's go have a good meal together."
The rest of the teammates agreed and Mu Cai thought too, that Ding Nan was already like this —he did not need to add to his worries, so why not go out with his teammates to eat a good meal? So he nodded dryly and smiled, "Good!"
That night, on the cafeteria's third floor, several people asked for barbecue and beer, and ate from the afternoon until it closed at night.
Mu Cai did not like beer and felt that the taste was a bit bitter, so he just ate the barbecue and filled his stomach.
Today they had performed again and were nervously waiting for the results. When they returned to the room, they were exhausted. After taking a shower hurriedly, Mu Cai dropped on his pillow and fell asleep.
As a result, the next morning Mu Cai was yelled at, at six in the morning.
He opened his eyes in a daze and saw Su Xingyun standing by his bed, which startled him.
Mu Cai had just woken up and his mind was still a bit dizzy, so he just grunted and asked, "Brother Su, why are you here? What happened?"
The surrounding teammates were all looking at him with worried faces, but Su Xingyun was calm, his lenses reflecting the sunlight coming from outside the window, "Woke up? Come with me if you're awake."
Mu Cai mechanically got up, washed up, and followed Su Xingyun to the dressing room. Waiting for someone to speak, he was pressed on the chair by Du Wei to put on makeup, only to get the phone and then, he finally understood what was going on.
It turned out that, around 11 p.m. last night, a marketing account suddenly broke the news on Weibo, saying that Mu Cai was the younger brother of Mo Hengqing, the mentor of the program "Rookie Star". The wording in the long Weibo post was implying that Mu Cai had a backer and the show was promoting him.
This was not at all a big deal, but the long post also mentioned that his personality was eccentric, and had upset Gu Yunchen, as he once chased him to the toilet and attempted to sexually harass… and the… the other day, he was beaten up. Gu Yunchen hated Mu Cai very much, but since he was Mo Hengqing's brother, he had to endure it.
Mu Cai scrolled through the screen, looking at the marketing account's article, and then looked at the many comments below cursing him a lot —suddenly he sobered up.
Here it comes, here it comes! His plot point is coming!
Su Xingyun on the side told him, "The program team will record a clarification video for you later." Afterwards, remembering the instructions Tang Feng had given him, he added, "Answer whatever the staff asks you. No need to be nervous. We'll let you start over if it's not right."
Du Wei was applying eyeshadow on Mu Cai. He was not able to nod, so he responded a little to show his approval.
In the original plot, the original body had also been exposed about the matter with Gu Yunchen and the backer news. However, in the original story, the original Mu Cai did not have much presence in the show, and everyone's focus was centered on him stalking Gu Yunchen.
This was the beginning of the previous Mu Cai's blackening, driven by the whole internet. In accordance with the novel's plot, he was also being asked to record a clarification video.
It's just that, although the original body was withdrawn, barely spoke to people, and had never confessed to Gu Yunchen in person, he didn't hide his heart in front of others, saying straight out that he just likes Gu Yunchen and hates Mo Hengqing.
This caused Gu Yunchen to be dissatisfied and, no longer caring about the fact that the boy was Mo Hengqing's brother, he directly called the marketing account to broadcast this passage, killing the original body's reputation on the spot.
And now, Mu Cai was about to follow this story!
After Du Wei meticulously put on Mu Cai's makeup, Su Xingyun took him to the room where the interview would take place and had him sit in front of the camera.
The staff smiled and asked him, "The internet says you are Mo Hengqing's brother, is this true?"
Mu Cai thought about it and pretended to be angry and said, "I'm not his brother. I don't have a dark secret, he is not good to me at all, and even unites with outsiders to bully me."
Although the original story did not show what specific questions were asked in the interview, in any case, he should try his best to discredit Mo Hengqing on it!
The staff held back laughter and asked again, "Then, the Internet says you like Gu Yunchen, is this true?"
Mu Cai's heart moved, here comes the key play! His face showed a yearning and a little shy look, as he said, "Yes, I originally wanted to enter the entertainment industry because of Mr. Gu. I wanted to chase my idol, what's wrong with doing that?!"
The teenager's eyes were open, and his cheeks were slightly puffed up, looking particularly righteous.
Su Xingyun stood outside the camera and saw this scene, couldn't help but ask Tang Feng at the side, "Will this work?"
Tang Feng smiled like a fox, "Of course it will, you can rest assured. Gu Yunchen's side, I'll handle it."
Today the staff had been granted a rest day, since Gu Yunchen had temporarily gone back to the capital to shoot a commercial, and would probably not return until tonight. So, Tang feng decided to take the initiative, and handle this matter with Mu Cai for the other man.
Now it seems that Mu Cai was being very cooperative.
Tang Feng raised his eyebrows.
After the interview was completed, the post-production staff edited it briefly and sent it out through the official Weibo of the "Rookie Star" program, before 8 a.m. in the morning.
By then, Mu Cai had been let out early from his schedule to eat with his teammates. He sat in the cafeteria, drinking his soy milk as people around him watched, and finally waited until the program team released the following Weibo post.
[Rookie Stars official Weibo: What is there to laugh at when you enter the entertainment industry for your idol!]
And below was the video of his interview.
Mu Cai clicked on the comments at the bottom and was ready to accept the fate of being cursed head-on.
Let the storm come with a fierce wind!
Then he saw that the Weibo had the highest number of likes in just a few minutes.
[Your style is unmatched: Gosh, what a little cutie Cai Cai is!]
Number of likes 1000
Mu Cai, "???"
It seems like the plot is never going quite the way it was planned.
Gu Yunchen had just finished his commercial shoot and was removing his makeup, when assistant Lin approached him with his phone, looking concerned.
Even though Gu Yunchen couldn't compare to Mo Henqging's early child star debut, he'd still been in the entertainment industry for five or six years. As soon as he saw the look on the man's face, he knew there must have been something the media uncovered which involved him.
He lifted his chin slightly towards the makeup artist next to him, asking them to continue removing it, while simultaneously taking the phone from assistant Lin's hands. On the screen was the Weibo interface.
Assistant Lin, and hurriedly added on, "Gu Ge, this is what happened: Last night, at around 10 p.m., a gossip account spread some scandals about Mu Cai, claiming that he was stalking you, and once even… sexually harassed you in the bathroom. Since this post is harmful to your reputation, Cheng Ge wants to know what you plan to do about it.
Cheng Ge, full name Yang Cheng, was Gu Yunchen's manager.
Gu Yunchen didn't rush to reply after hearing the news, his fingers lingering on a particular video at the top of the app's home page.
It was a Weibo posted by the official account of the TV program "Rookie Stars", and at the bottom there was a video with an interview featuring Mu Cai.
The young man in the video, perhaps because of his makeup, appeared softer than he normally did. His irises were naturally slightly bigger than others, and the eyeshadow applied above tactfully created the effect of an even rounder eye. This made the young man staring into the camera lens look especially innocent.
"I wanted to join the entertainment industry originally because of Mr. Gu. I chased after my idol, what's wrong with that?!" the young man said with a look of yearning in his eyes, a thin veil of red spreading across his pale face.
The tone of his speech was particularly self-righteous, and gave the impression that he would not tolerate questions or refutes. However, as the boy finished his spiel, he happened to purse his blush-red lips tightly, making his cheeks puff up slightly and a bit of soft, supple skin rose up. They looked so pinchable, it made others unable to develop even a hint of dislike for him.
Gu Yunchen's finger pressed lightly on the video, over Mu Cai's cheek, as if he could touch that bit of flesh this way.
Just as he was watching the interview, a WeChat message appeared in the notification bar from Tang Feng.
Tang Feng: You had a slight problem come up, I helped you solve it. No need to thank me.
The production team for "Rookie Stars" made this Weibo post at 8 in the morning to respond to the online discussion that was happening. It was now after 10 o'clock, and Tang Feng had just contacted him about the situation —if someone told him Tang Feng hadn't timed his message in order to have a laugh at his expense, Gu Yunchen would call them a liar.
He was just about to reply to the message when he heard assistant Lin's call, "Gu Ge."
Gu Yunchen raised his head and saw him handing his phone over, "It's a call from Cheng Ge."
When assistant Lin saw that Gu Yunchen didn't acknowledge him, and instead focused intently on the video, he didn't press the matter. He was the one that wrote his checks, so if the boss didn't say anything, there was no room for the employee to comment.
But the one calling now was Cheng Ge —that was different.
Gu Yunchen took the phone from assistant Lin's hand, and pressed the answer button.
A deep voice came from the other end of the phone, "Yunchen, what are you going to do about this?"
The news had broken out suddenly last night, but when Gu Yunchen looked up the sources for the different pieces of information, he didn't see many remarks that related to himself.
Yang Cheng was a champion celebrity agent, so of course he had seen early on that this had been a premeditated attack. His response tactics were seasoned and adept, and he took the lead to guide public opinion in order to minimize the repercussions to his artist. Although the target was not Gu Yunchen specifically, he was still one of the parties involved, and so naturally, his team had to take a firm stance.
Because Gu Yunchen had set up his own acting studio early on, he was now Yang Cheng's boss and as such, it was natural for Yang Cheng to ask for his opinion before handling the matter.
Gu Yunchen glimpsed at Mu Cai's face in the video, paused momentarily and then said, "First, issue a statement to refute the inappropriate claims, then prepare a legal letter to warn those gossip accounts. I'll post on Weibo myself to dispel the rumors later."
Also, contact the "Rookie Stars" production team later. For tomorrow night's program, have them show the clip of me teaching Mu Cai to dance."
"On another note-" And as he said those words, his already expressionless face turned even colder, "Go find out who's behind this."
"You got it!" Yang Cheng replied cheerily. Before they could finish, he paused, and followed up, "Boss, those ChenCai ship fans, do we need to redirect or deal with them?"
Although one could say Gu Yunchen's previous decisions were all to help Mu Cai, it could also just be because he didn't want to draw more heat to himself, while still establishing his newcomer-helping, good samaritan image. All these reasons could be used to justify Gu Yunchen's actions.
As for the ChengCai ship, if this matter wasn't dealt with soon, it might break the loner image his boss had always maintained for marketing purposes.
Yang Cheng was quite curious about why he had chosen to deal with the matter this way now.
Gu Yunchen paused for a moment, his voice lowering, "Don't concern yourself with it for now, I have to think about it more…."
At noon, Mu Cai, who genuinely believed there had been something wrong with his eyes all morning, opened Weibo again while he was eating lunch, and came across a promoted post on his homepage.
Gu Yunchen: I'm happy to have such an adorable fan. It would be better if this fan was a bit more skilled at dancing, otherwise it would be too tiresome to keep teaching him [doge emoji] / "Rookie Stars" Official Weibo: Entering the entertainment world for your idol – is that something to make fun of?
Mu Cai: ???
This Weibo post immediately stirred up big waves
As soon as Gu Yunchen made his stance clear, the news previously released by the gossip accounts backfired —If the earlier Weibo posts were right about Mu Cai pursuing Gu Yuchen onesidedly and even sexually harassing him, then why would he speak up in defense of Mu Cai now?
Of course, some anti-fans attempted to use the fact that Mu Cai was Mo Hengqing's younger brother, saying that Gu Yunchen must have been thinking of Mo Hengqing when he chose to justify those actions. But the statement released simultaneously, by the Gu Yunchen Actor Studio, was a big slap in the face to the naysayers.
The statement released by the studio severely condemned the gossip account's interpretation of a fan's love for their idol as an unsolicited, one-sided pursuit. It also expressed that Mu Cai and Gu Yunchen had known each for a while, and the so-called bathroom sexual harassment incident was from a time when they were simply met each other in the bathroom while coincidentally eating at the same restaurant.
At the same time, a legal letter was posted alongside the official statement. With that the gossip accounts finally admitted defeat, and deleted their previous Weibo posts.
Mu Cai was almost in a daze when he clicked open the comments beneath the Idol's Weibo post:
[Mu Cai's Little Fan Girl: I got to see Gu Ge use the doge emoji in my lifetime [doge emoji]
8000 likes
[Caicai Worldwide Number One Cutey: Thank you Gu Ge! I knew our Caicai wasn't that kind of a person, *cries*.]
7000 likes
[lilililili: Gu Ge is teaching Caicai to dance! I'm so excited for tomorrow night's broadcast!]
6000 likes
Mu Cai: "……"
One must say, Gu Yuchen really was the main character gong —he was so quick-witted, that with just a short sentence, not only did he manage to dispel the rumors but also cause a big surge of interest in the show!
As Mu Cai thought this, he clicked the follow button next to Gu Yunchen's account with a bit of guilt. He had just been saying he liked Gu Yunchen in the interview posted that morning, but he didn't even follow him on Weibo —his actions really didn't match his words.
He had to correct it!
Then a second after, a new notification appeared on Mu Cai's Weibo.
[You have a new follower in the past 7 days: Gu Yunchen.]
That was so fast!
Mu Cai felt a little guilty, as if he had gotten caught doing something bad. He quickly contemplated a response, and made the repost on Weibo:
Mu Caicaicai: Thanks Gu Ge, I had always followed Gu Ge with my private account before, now I can finally follow you with my main account [happy emoji] / Gu Yunchen: I'm happy to have such an adorable fan. It would be better if this fan was a bit more skilled at dancing, otherwise it would be too tiresome to keep teaching him [doge emoji]
This way, he could explain why his actions hadn't matched his earlier words! Mu Cai felt that his tactic was very smart. He turned off his phone, and continued merrily eating his lunch.
Gu Yunchen waited for a while on his phone, until he finally received the notification. When he saw Mu Cai's Weibo repost, he almost couldn't help but lift up the corners of his mouth .
Although Tang Feng didn't seem dependable usually, it appeared he could still be reliable on occasion.
It also seemed that Mu Cai did indeed have a private account for following him.
The situation on Gu Yunchen's end was basically handled, but the whole thing wasn't over yet.
In the afternoon, at around 1 o'clock, the newly minted Best Actor Award winner, Mo Hengqing, posted on his long neglected Weibo:
Mo Hengqing: I'm sorry, from now on I'll make sure no one enters your room randomly [crying emoji, I hope Caicai can continue singing for me [tearing emoji] / "Rookie Stars" Official Weibo: Entering the entertainment world for your idol – is that something to make fun of?
Mo Hengqing differed from the other "online popular" celebrities —he didn't really use Weibo, and on the rare occasion that he did post something, it's always promotional material for a new project. It was almost as if he was an old man who had entered his retirement already.
But this time, he had especially made the post on Weibo to help clarify the situation with Mu Cai. Even though it could have only been a move to protect his own image, Mu Cai's fans were already extremely satisfied.
Their dear Caicai, he really was the treasured little brother!
At the same time, Gu Yunchen received a WeChat message, just as he was about to board his flight, from Yang Cheng.
He glanced at the notification and his expression turned a little cold, but in the end he only replied:
[Send it to Uncle Mo first, see how he would handle it.]
……
In a mansion on the outskirts of the capital city, Wang Li clenched her hands in anger.
That little bitch Mu Cai… After receiving encouragement from father Mo, his wings grew so hard, he even dared to stop her from contacting him by blocking her everywhere.
He used to be at the mercy of Wang Li, but now that he was out of her control, Wang Li wanted to find someone to teach him a lesson.
That way, when Mu Cai got to his lowest point, she could adopt a gentler approach and let him know who he should respect the most!
It's a pity that Ding Nan had been so useless, her plan only made it to the first step before it failed.
She really didn't know what kind of brain-washing pill that vixen Mu Cai had fed Gu Yunchen and Mo Hengqing, for them to actually help him like this!
Wang Li felt upset, but still had to force a smile.
Because Mo Yuan had come back.
This was a villa on the outskirts of the capital city, and he'd normally only visit on weekends. So naturally, Wang Li had to properly capture the other's heart.
She smiled as she greeted Mo Yuan at the door and, just as she was about to reach out her hand to take his coat, she noticed that he didn't hand it to her like before, but rather gave it to the nanny, who had been cooking.
The nanny had worked in the Mo family for many years, and she'd already become an astute character. She took the coat and immediately walked away —she'd never listen to a word not meant for her ears.
Wang Li felt her heart skip a beat, but still forcefully smiled and said, "What's wrong sir?"
Mo Yuan walked directly to the sofa, sat down, and got straight to the point, "Wang Li, you've been with me for several years, but you still don't remember. I'm growing old now —I like the peace and quiet, so I've always kept one eye shut towards the little tricks you play, but this time you've crossed the line."
Wang Li felt a shock throughout her body. Just as she was about to explain herself, she saw that Mo Yuan would not give her the chance. He waved his hand, and two burly bodyguards immediately appeared at the door.
Mo Yuan said coldly, "You don't need to follow me anymore. I'll have someone transfer the money to your account later. But this child, Caicai, I really like him. If he doesn't want to be with you, I can have him come over to keep me company, you understand?"
The man sitting across from her no longer had the usual gentleness about him, instead revealing the cold and decisive face of a businessman. Wang Li had been pampered in luxury for so long, she almost forgot that this man was the president of the Yaomo Group —even if he was old, he was still as fierce as a lion.
The lowly tricks she had been plotting vanished in an instant. She could only squeeze her hands tightly, as her body bowed, and reply submissively, "Yes, Wang Li understands."
It came as a result of Gu Yunchen and Mo Hengqing's actions during this incident, and the highlights of the next show that they had, intentionally or not, revealed in their Weibo. The enthusiasm of the melon seed-eating masses for the next episode's release was unprecedented.
The following night, after the timely "Rookie Star" program team update, the number of people watching the Sweet Orange video skyrocketed, in a seemingly unstoppable rise. Within minutes, the number of viewers had risen to several million, which was a clear sign of the level of public expectation.
In this episode, the post-production staff of the program had complied with Gu Yunchen's request and edited his and Mu Cai's interactions during all the dance practice training sessions with all the trainees, while preparing the show's theme song.
But when Gu Yunchen took Mu Cai's hand, turned him around and wrapped his arms around the boy's waist, the barrage on the screen instantly exploded, and dense and colorful flying messages almost buried the entire picture.
"Ahhhhh, ChenCai Girl is satisfied!"
"Sorry, I'm going to climb the wall!"1
"Whoever says that Gu Ge and Cai Cai have a bad relationship, I will show him this video!"
"For a while, I didn't know who to envy."
"Cai Cai, go for it!"
"…"
When Gu Yunchen, who was sitting on the bed with his phone, saw this paragraph, the corners of his mouth twitched up unconsciously.
Tang Feng, while on the side, saw the opportunity to come over, "Heh, so you can also play this kind of hand. I just ran to Weibo to check, and now the number of people who call themselves ChenCai cp supporters has skyrocketed and even surpassed the number of YunCai fans, becoming the first place couple related to Mu Cai!"
Gu Yunchen was indifferent to those words, and didn't even give him a look, "What does this have to do with me?"
"Yes, yes, it has nothing to do with you." Tang Feng knew that the detrimental sullenness of his friend comes from deep within his bones. Seeing that there was no cure or medicine, he told him, "You are just sheltering the younger generation while sacrificing yourself. Such a moving gesture, makes me wonder when Father Gu will be willing to look after poor little me?"
Gu Yunchen finally raised his gaze towards Tang Feng, but quickly lowered it again, "Ugly, rejected."
The tone was exceedingly disgusted.
Tang Feng, "…"
If not for Gu Yunchen's years of dance practice and the fact that he couldn't defeat him, Tang Feng really wanted to beat him up now.
But Gu Yunchen didn't care what Tang Feng was thinking. He was engrossed in watching the behind-the-scenes footage of the second episode of the program.
Some behind-the-scenes highlights would always be put at the end of each episode of "Rookie Stars" to show the audience some interesting things that had happened during the shooting. This was also a good opportunity for the competitors to show their faces. After all, even if there were only a few shots, it was possible for the audience to remember the boys.
The behind-the-scenes of this episode was the visit to the dressing room. This clip had been shot without Gu Yunchen's knowledge.Therefore, he was extra curious and immediately watched it attentively.
In the video, as the camera moved, the front door opened and revealed the messy and crowded environment of the dressing room.
The walls on both sides were lined with mirrors and tables filled with all kinds of cosmetics. Several chairs were placed in front of each table, and almost every chair had someone sitting on it, with makeup artists standing beside the chairs as they worked.
As the camera continued to move forward, the trainees sitting on the chairs looked over and greeted the staff with smiles. When the cameraman reached the innermost point, one of the trainees seemed to be unable to turn his head and could only look over out of the corner of his eye.
That trainee was Mu Cai.
The teenager's pair of dark and large eyes turned around, reflecting two shiny dots inside, like a deep pool that drew people in. His chin was held securely in place by the makeup artist, and his sweet red lips shimmered with a dazzling luster under the light.
The picture at that moment resembled that of a carefully shot advertisement for a major cosmetic brand.
It perfectly showed the exquisite and stunning beauty of the person sitting on the chair.
And the dazzling brilliance of the lipstick.
Gu Yunchen's eyes were locked tightly on the two sweet red moist lips that resembled two pieces of plump jelly ready to tremble at the slightest touch.
He stared for a long time until the camera moved on. He woke up, as if from a dream, and his stagnant mind started working again.
What a little… vixen.
Gu Yunchen secretly thought in his heart that once this segment came out, he really couldn't predict how many people's attention would be captured.
After the program was broadcasted that evening, Weibo was flooded with searches, as Gu Yunchen expected, but this time Mu Cai's name was tied to him alone, and there were no other annoying people.
1. Climbing walls have multiple meanings, such as, someone has a favorite celebrity, and then suddenly falling in love with another celebrity[forgetting the previous one]; there are also meanings such as having an affair or just reading posts without replying.
However, this wave of enthusiasm was not over yet. At about 10 p.m., the official account of Capitol Hill Entertainment, the agency where Mu Cai worked, issued another statement. The statement confirmed that the previous claims that had circulated on the Internet were purely malicious. The person who started the rumors about Mu Cai had been found. It was a trainee who was eliminated during the same period, who had done this out of jealousy.
There were countless replies on Weibo, some who cursed the gossip account without conscience, some who denounced the previous online violence, and some who were fairly sure they had guessed the trainee's identity. And the majority of the messages were like "I feel sorry for my family's Cai Cai", and "Don't be afraid, Mom loves you".
Late that night, fans who were concerned for Mu Cai, organized a mass vote on the official website of Sweet Orange Video. However, due to the incredible amount of people accessing, the voting system even experienced a ten-minute freeze, which caused another bloody controversy.
Mu Cai didn't know of these things, because he had gone to bed and was already asleep.
In the following days, Mu Cai continued his training step by step, preparing for the next challenge.
The second group competition would cut 60 trainees into 35 through elimination. This time, An had made a mistake in picking the song. It was clear that the group members had listened to a normal and fast-paced song, but somehow, the dance they needed to learn was actually cute!
Therefore, when the second match officially started, and Mu Cai and his group came out on stage, the audience who had bought tickets to watch the scene were all boiling!
All the group members were wearing pink tops, light blue pants, and white cat ears and claws. After they introduced the group collectively, they also "meowed" together.
The meowing sounds varied, like that of tigers and cats, and even the option of "Woo" appeared, which made the audience overjoyed.
After being teased, a thin layer of red appeared on the white face of the young man standing in the middle of the stage. Between the cat ears and the claws that had been used to cover his blushing cheeks, the audience could only burst screaming.
Not surprisingly, this time Mu Cai's group won the group stage again.
But when the voting results appeared on the big screen, Mu Cai was still taken aback.
Although he knew that he was the first place in online voting, the gap between him and the second place had not been particularly wide at that time. Unexpectedly, in just a few days, his vote count had pulled ahead from second place so much, that it was almost 100,000 votes over second place!
Mu Cai, "…"
Things seem to be getting more and more ridiculous.
Mu Cai urgently checked the system's energy detection lights in his mind.
If there was no red light, then there should be no problem…
When the recording was over, Mu Cai, still wearing the cat ears on his head, thanked the camera somewhat awkwardly, "Thank you all for your support! Thank you very much!"
After speaking, Mu Cai bowed deeply to the camera.
Although this was just a world projected by an energy field, Mu Cai expressed his gratitude to these people for their support.
It felt good to be liked, like a ball of sweet cotton candy filling his chest, so he thanked all those who liked him.
As the program continued with the weekly challenges, Mu Cai's performances in the group competitions also became very diverse.
When he sang and danced with cat ears, he caused countless fans to scream, and when he wore black leather clothes and boots with stern eyes, he still caused countless fans to scream for him. Even when he was on the stage singing love songs with sad eyes, countless people still screamed for him.
When the last episode of "Rookie Stars" was broadcasted, the seven most popular trainees were voted for by the audience to be part of the seven stars that would debut.
And Mu Cai, because of his high number of votes and popularity, made his C-place2debut!
At the same time, Su Xingyun, who was about to get on a plane to the capita to pick up some people, received a message.
"Pure Love", a major cosmetics brand known for its lipstick and lip gloss, wanted to invite Mu Cai to shoot their upcoming new summer product's promotional video.
The author has something to say:
Gu Yunchen: Cai Cai, when will you fulfill your promise of filming with me?
Liang Yunxi sneered: He still has a concert with us.
Li Yuzhe also sneered: He still has a concert with us.
Zhao An trying to sneer: He still has a…
The first three: Shut up, you have been eliminated!
Zhao An: QAQ, I also want to be with Cai Cai!
2. center position
As Mu Cai sat on his plane seat, he took advantage of the time before take off to scroll through his phone, that he had finally gotten back two days ago.
The "Rookie Stars" program had just finished recording, and all episodes had been broadcasted already. Mu Cai and Liang Yunxi, Li Yuzhe, Alan, Lin Jiayi, and two other trainees he wasn't familiar with, formed the group Seven Stars and officially debuted.
In the Sweet Orange Video live stream of the first performance with the seven of them together, Mu Cai stood on the brightly lit stage singing and dancing, with the music booming in his ears and the sweat on his forehead dripping down like a flowing stream.
As he looked at the audience below cheering for him, he felt his mood swell up high, a rush of happiness coursing through him.
No wonder so many people wanted to become idols, Mu Cai thought. To be under the spotlight and under the gaze of thousands, millions, mobilizing their emotions; to be able to both infect and be infected by the feelings of others –it really was an exceedingly happy thing.
Now that the seven members of Seven Stars had officially debuted, according to their previous promise, Sweet Orange Video prepared for them an official concert in Beijing. Sweet Orange Video would then exclusively live stream and broadcast the recording of the entire concert.
Before the concert date, Mu Cai and the others would need to stay at the show's filming venue for "closed doors" private training. But since "Rookie Star" had just recently finished broadcasting, now was the time when the group's members were at the peak of their popularity. As such their talent agencies must strike fast while the iron is hot, and find ways to increase the exposure of the artists under their management to ride the wave of their current fame and maintain it.
Although the songs for the concert had been prepared in advance, and were almost completed, and the concert location had already been arranged, Sweet Orange Video still needed the members to be comfortable working as a group. For this purpose, they allotted two months ime for them to learn the new songs and choreography.
However, it wouldn't be good for Sweet Orange Video, the host, if the popularity of any of the members declined, so if any of the talent agencies arranged individual work for their artists, the concert team would grant "vacations" to those members, under discretion.
Now, Mu Cai was sitting on a flight back to Beijing. As soon as he finished the competition, Su Xingyun sent him a message saying that Chun Lian wanted him to shoot a promotional video for their new summer products.
Chun Lian was an established and well-known global makeup brand. They had a very complete selection of makeup products under their label and of those, their lip gloss was the most exceptional. For the different types of new products they launch each year during different seasons, they always find distinct celebrities to endorse the products and different teams to shoot the promotional videos.
According to Su Xingyun, the brand hoped Mu Cai could shoot a promotional video for their new summer lip gloss with them.
It just so happened that the recording for "Rookie Star" had ended two days prior. The training schedule for the upcoming concert was not too tight yet, and the members of the group were still at the song-learning stage. Thus, Mu Cai took this opportunity to return to the capital city and shoot the commercial.
He was not a big-name celebrity, and he didn't even have an assistant, so he declined Su Ge's offer to pick him up. Mu Cai put on a mask, packed some necessities in a backpack, got in the car he'd contacted in advance, and arrived at the airport himself.
Mu Cai scrolled through the Weibo homepage, but there was no news. He scrolled through Wechat, but there was only a message from Su Xingyun sent an hour ago, that said for him to take the VIP passageway when he got off the plane and that he would be there waiting to pick up Mu Cai.
Because "Rookie Star" just finished broadcasting, Mu Cai's popularity at the moment wasn't low —his company even granted him permission to book a first-class ticket. Even though he didn't think he was so famous that he would get recognized on a plane, he'd still get reimbursed for his ticket by the company anyways, and first-class was definitely not bad —at the very least he'd have some leg room to stretch.
Mu Cai turned off his phone. Just as he was about to rest for a bit, he saw another two people entering through the cabin door.
One of them was tall and long-legged, their aura especially captivating. He had on a hat and face mask, and a gaze under the brim of the hat that swept across the cabin coldly.
Mu Cai's seat was relatively close to the front of the cabin, and quickly met the other person's gaze. When their eyes landed on Mu Cai, they paused, and then quickly walked towards him.
Mu Cai froze for a second. Even from a distance, he felt this person seemed familiar. When they got closer he realized —it was Gu Yunchen!
Mu Cai was about to call out subconsciously, "Gu Ge…."
But Gu Yunchen stopped him immediately.
Mu Cai sat on the innermost seat of the row, next to the window. Gu Yunchen walked into his row from the aisle, and sat next to him.
His assistant, right behind him, read the situation and acted quickly. He placed the suitcase in the overhead compartment, and then sat down on the row's outermost seat.
Even though he was stopped earlier from calling out to Gu Yunchen, Mu Cai couldn't help but say, "Gu Ge, this seat might be someone else's…."
Gu Yunchen: "…….."
Gu Yunchen never expected this to be the first sentence he'd hear from him when they met.
In his previous interviews Mu Cai said he admired him very much and liked him a lot, what happened to that?! Now that he took the lead to sit next to Mu Cai first, shouldn't he be excited, enthralled? Why was he paying attention to such trivial little details?!
Gu Yunchen said, a cold look on his face, "When someone comes to claim these seats, we'll swap with them."
To which Mu Cai replied, "……Ok."
He glanced at Gu Yunchen's side profile. No matter how he looked at him, he felt that the other party seemed slightly unhappy. Of course, he thought, Gu Yunchen was always annoyed by him and now that he was sitting next to him, of course he wouldn't be too happy.
But if he wasn't happy, why did he still choose to sit next to him?
When Mu Cai thought of this, he couldn't help sneaking another glance at the person sitting next to him.
The lines shaping the young man's side profile were extremely soft. After being met with his own indifference, the boy seemed to be feeling aggrieved, his pair of bright black eyes quickly darting up to steal a glance, and drooping down again, then secretly looking back up.
It was like those eyes were veiled by a thin layer of water, reflecting only two small shadows of himself, some doubt and helplessness mixed in there as well, gazing anxiously at this man sitting next to him.
Gu Yunchen felt as if an arrow had struck his heart.
He sighed deeply to himself, deep down in his heart.
Nevermind, It wasn't as if he had just found out about Mu Cai's introverted personality. Although, he had professed his feelings in a very straightforward manner when he had been interviewed on the internet before. Truthfully however, from the very beginning until now, Mu Cai had never expressed anything to him directly. All he did was watch him secretly from afar.
Maybe he was still shy.
Gu Yunchen felt better when he thought of this.
He decided he'd accept Mu Cai's incomprehensible feelings.
Gu Yunchen suddenly remembered the purpose of him coming here in the first place, and locked eyes with the other from under the brim of his hat. As he was wearing a face mask, his voice was slightly muffled when he said, "Why aren't you covering yourself up on the plane?
Mu Cai said quickly, "I wore a mask on the way here."
Gu Yunchen disagreed vehemently, "Wear it now as well, you'll get recognized even on the plane."
Mu Cai thought to himself, he'd been sitting here for so long now yet no one seemed to recognize him. He was just a rookie that debuted through an online talent competition program, he couldn't be compared to Gu Yunchen with his level of fame.
The majority of those who can fly in first class are definitely people busy making money in real life who rarely have time to pay attention to a trainee well-known only on the internet.
But there was no way he would defy the wishes of the other party.
And so Mu Cai nodded obediently.