AITFYMIBP Chaper 31.1

TL: Hua

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After the livestream, Lin Yanran not only trended because of the incident with Pei Luo but also for a second reason.

The new trending topic was about Xia Xingxing’s hilarious “3285 times” comment.

Initially, this clip was just a funny inside joke among fans, with a lot of people laughing about it. But after it was picked up by marketing accounts and immediately trended due to its hilariousness, the subsequent developments became even more dramatic.

A popular influencer with over 3 million followers, who specialized in creating unique content, saw the trending topic and was intrigued. He decided to make a video challenging Xia Xingxing’s “3285 times.”

In the beginning, the influencer talked big, saying it was just a matter of time and couldn’t possibly be that difficult. But once he officially started the challenge, he couldn’t even get through one full listen. He left a comment saying, “Brother Yanran, I respect your hard work,” and then ran away in the middle of the night.

While the influencer’s video was a bit exaggerated for entertainment purposes, it still quickly gained over 10 million views.

The video went viral, and soon many other influencers followed suit, especially the masters of comical remixes, who repeatedly used Lin Yanran’s songs as material for their parodies.

Thanks to all the jokes and memes, Lin Yanran’s six long-forgotten black-history songs on a certain music platform saw their play counts skyrocket, landing them in the top 10 on both the weekly rising and most popular charts. The comment sections, which had been dormant for ages, suddenly became lively, with over 10,000 comments in two days from people attempting the challenge.

So, everyone learned two things:

Xia Xingxing has a deep and abiding love for Lin Yanran.

While Lin Yanran is a strong dancer and a good mentor, his singing and songwriting are seriously lacking.

Although his “black-history” songs were unearthed and parodied, it was all in good fun. People’s opinions of Lin Yanran had changed for the better, and they also understood that his former company was responsible for giving him such terrible songs. So, overall, the public’s perception of him remained positive. They found it both hilarious and a bit sad, leaving comments on his Weibo like:

[Yanran, as long as you don’t sing, you’ll always be my idol.]

[Yanran, as long as you only dance, you’ll always be my idol.]

[Yanran, as long as you… Never mind, we’re all family here; don’t say it.]

After this newfound fame, everyone, including Lin Yanran’s fans, came to a consensus: Yanran, please don’t sing!

For a celebrity, it’s better to be the subject of jokes and go viral than to be completely ignored. Popularity means traffic and opportunities. So, riding this wave of attention, several shows reached out to Lin Yanran.

One singing show called “Guess Who I Am” immediately extended an invitation.

The staff’s message was simple and direct: “It’s okay if you’re not a good singer, as long as you can bring a ‘surprise’ to the audience!”

Lin Yanran read the message three times.

The subtext was clear: “We love that you’re a bad singer!”

Modern TV show producers were full of tricks.

“Brother, the Weibo post is up! I see fans are celebrating by drawing prizes in the super topic.”

Yingying, who had just posted Lin Yanran’s contract termination news on Weibo, told him about the fans’ reactions.

This morning, Lin Yanran had finally signed the contract to terminate his agreement with Day and Night Entertainment, and he was now a free agent.

Yingying smiled happily, looking at the contract. “We don’t have to worry about what they think when we take on jobs now. Ah, this feels so easy and happy!”

Just as Yingying finished speaking, Lin Yanran’s phone vibrated a few times. He quickly checked the screen and saw a congratulatory message from Gu Siye.

Gu Siye: Congrats

Seeing that Gu Siye had messaged him right away, Lin Yanran quickly replied: [Thank you, Brother Gu.]

After replying, Lin Yanran looked at Yingying in front of him and then at the time stamp on Gu Siye’s message.

It had been less than a minute since Yingying posted the termination announcement on Weibo, so how was Gu Siye’s information so up-to-date?

While Lin Yanran was puzzled, another message came in.

Gu Siye: Are you going to Super Idol this afternoon?

Lin Yanran: Yes.

After answering Gu Siye, Lin Yanran asked him, [Are you going this afternoon, too?]

Gu Siye didn’t reply immediately this time. It was several minutes before he messaged back.

Gu Siye: I was busy just now.

Gu Siye: Yes, I am.

I was busy just now.

Lin Yanran’s eyes lingered on those words.

Was Gu Siye explaining why he was late in replying?

He also remembered that as a super mentor, Gu Siye didn’t have any recording work during this period…

Could it be that the production team was now forcing even Gu Siye to work overtime?

Just as Lin Yanran felt something was off, Yingying interrupted him. “Brother, are you going to take all these variety shows?”

She was referring to the shows that had just contacted him.

Lin Yanran shook his head. “I’ll go on ‘Guess Who I Am’ but turn down the others.”

Although the recent viral moment had brought him many invitations, most were not what he wanted and didn’t suit him.

While he could make a good amount of money by accepting them all, doing so would damage his reputation and burn through his goodwill. That would be short-sighted and self-destructive.

His career had just started to get some momentum, and everything needed to be taken slowly.

Yingying trusted Lin Yanran’s judgment. After hearing his decision, she went to contact the “Guess Who I Am” production team. They quickly settled on a date for him to appear on the live broadcast for the latest episode next Saturday night.

After dealing with these matters and having lunch, Lin Yanran changed into a jacket, skipped the makeup, grabbed a thermos, and headed straight to the Super Idol studio with Yingying to check on the trainees’ progress.

Upon arrival, as soon as Lin Yanran got out of the car, before he could greet the fansite managers waiting outside, he saw a few girls in the distance carrying their cameras and excitedly waving at him.

“Ranran!!”

He was familiar with these girls since he saw them every time he came and went.

He even knew which ones were fans of certain people and which ones were just professional photographers.

But this time, he noticed two new faces among them. The one standing at the very end was a professional photographer. This girl usually didn’t say much. She would just take her photos and leave, rarely interacting with anyone else.

But at that moment, her eyes were filled with a smile as she gently pointed to the pin on her jacket. The pin had his photo on it. Then she raised her camera and took several photos of Lin Yanran.

Seeing her taking pictures of him, Lin Yanran suddenly realized that she and the other two girls were there to photograph him. In other words, they were his fans!

This was the first time he had seen fans waiting for him here, even though he had been to the Super Idol studio at least 20 times. He had only ever seen the photographers taking pictures of other trainees and mentors. This feeling was incredible.

“Ranran, you’ve worked hard!”

“I thought you weren’t coming today, but I actually got to see you!”

The two new fans excitedly spoke to him.

Lin Yanran remembered how fans would wait all day just to catch a glimpse of a trainee, so he advised them, “It’s pretty cold here. You don’t have to wait all the time.”

The fans shook their heads. “No, no! We don’t have enough unedited photos of you, so we need to take more to benefit the fandom!”

Oh, so that’s why?

After understanding what his fans meant, Lin Yanran remembered Yingying’s previous reminders.

“Then I’ll post more photos?”

Hearing that their idol was so considerate, the fans became even happier.

“Yes, yes! Baby, please remember to be more active online!”

As he was about to reach the entrance, Lin Yanran’s heart skipped a beat when he heard the word “baby.” His expression became a bit unnatural.

In his entire life, few people had dared to call him that to his face…

Except for his good friend, who did it once as a joke.

He remembered very clearly that after the other party called him “baby,” he was directly suppressed by force. He wrestled him to the grass, but they accidentally rolled down a hill, barely avoiding scraping their faces. Although he had seen people say things like “Mom loves you” online, hearing it in person was still something he wasn’t used to.

Lin Yanran took a deep breath and quietly told himself that he needed to get used to it.

While Lin Yanran was trying to adjust to his fans’ affectionate words, they were already live-streaming from their fan community.

Tian Shui Yun Yan Ranran Sheng: AHHHHH I just saw our baby!!

Tian Shui Yun Yan Ranran Sheng: He’s so handsome in person; oh my god, the show completely makes him look ugly. I won’t allow you to not see him in real life.

Tian Shui Yun Yan Ranran Sheng: He’s so nice, wuwuwu. He heard us complain about the lack of unedited photos and promised to be more active.

Tian Shui Yun Yan Ranran Sheng: And then today, when he heard us call him “baby,” his ears turned red. Wuwuwu, he’s so cute.

In the evening, the professional photographer posted the pictures she took that afternoon on her Weibo and in Lin Yanran’s super topic.

Chen Xixi was a well-known professional photographer in the industry. Her high-quality, well-composed photos were very popular. Before this, she had no fandom affiliation; she just took photos for money.

When she posted the high-definition, bare-faced photos of Lin Yanran tonight, his fans went wild, thanking her and calling him their “handsome husband.”

Everyone else was surprised. Some of her followers couldn’t accept it and commented directly: Don’t do this, please pick another idol. Yanran has a bad reputation and no future.

Chen Xixi shot back: I have my own eyes and can see for myself.

She didn’t become a fan because of his popularity anyway.

Chen Xixi looked down at the photos she had taken today. In an ordinary moment, the evening breeze was gentle, and the sunset was fiery. She had unintentionally looked up, and from the galaxy of stars, she had seen only Lin Yanran.

She could always find the quiet kindness in him.

He would smile and greet people who weren’t his fans without jealousy and would even good-naturedly help them pass messages to their trainees.

When the weather turned cold, he would remind them to add more layers and often had staff send them food and hot water.

She had followed him quietly for a long time and only recently realized that she had been watching this gentle moon for a long time now.

Liking Yanran was truly a beautiful and happy thing.

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After entering the Super Idol building, Lin Yanran was stopped by Song Yingming before he could even get to his team’s practice room.

Song Yingming was holding a thermos cup just like Lin Yanran’s. But while Lin Yanran held his with a sense of graceful style, Song Yingming held his like a middle-aged man focused on his health.

Song Yingming didn’t care about his appearance. When he saw Lin Yanran, his small eyes squinted into a slit, and he immediately started with congratulations.

“Congrats, Yanran. You’ve finally broken free from your old company.”

Lin Yanran had known Song Yingming for a while, and he knew from the director’s smile that things were never simple. So after thanking him, he got straight to the point. “Director Song, what else is on your mind? Just tell me.”

Song Yingming chuckled and began to explain himself.

“Well, I mentioned it to you once before… Even though your old agent turned down Old Li’s show, how about you go on Old Zhang’s variety show for one episode? Now that you’ve terminated your contract, no one can tell you what to do.”

Afraid that Lin Yanran didn’t know the format, Song Yingming thoughtfully explained in detail. “I think his show is perfect for you. It’s a travel reality show. You just eat and drink with the other guests; it’s very relaxed. The filming only takes two or three days, and you can come back in time for our show.”

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