TL: Hua
The second public performance still followed the live broadcast format of the first performance.
However, as the show continued to air and the reputation and popularity accumulated from the first successful stage performances spread, the audience’s and fans’ attention and expectation for this second performance were countless times higher than during the first live broadcast.
The number of applicants for in-person audience tickets for the second performance alone exceeded seven figures. The number of online live stream reservations had long surpassed ten million, and the live stream chat room was already flooded with bullet comments from the audience even before the broadcast began.
The popularity was unprecedented.
To reward the audience’s enthusiasm, the production team also rented a larger venue, expanding the number of in-person audience spots to two thousand, and the stage was larger and more spectacular than last time.
At four o’clock in the afternoon, two thousand lucky audience members began verifying their identities and entering the venue.
Although the spots for the in-person audience were randomly drawn, those who were willing to ignore the cost of round-trip airfare and fly thousands of miles to watch the show live were basically fans.
After these fans entered the venue, they set up their camps, took out the light boards and cheering sticks they brought, and started cheering for their respective idols.
Chen Xixi was lucky enough to win a ticket this time. She found her seat, set up her equipment, and then turned on her light board to cheer for Lin Yanran.
Just as the white character “Ran” lit up on her board, a foreign man next to her grabbed her light board.
“Are you a fan of Yanran too?”
His Mandarin had an accent, but his tone was particularly excited because he had found a fellow fan.
Chen Xixi nodded, glanced at Lin Yanran’s photo in the man’s hand, and immediately understood.
It wasn’t the first time she had seen a male fan, but… she truly hadn’t expected to see a foreign male fan in this setting where tickets were extremely scarce.
Is her darling this popular???
After two seconds of hesitation and shock, Chen Xixi replied, “You’re also his fan?”
The other party was clearly happy to communicate with Chen Xixi, “Yes, yes, I fell in love with him after seeing him play the guzheng. He’s so handsome and so charming.”
After that, he proudly educated Chen Xixi, “Yanran is very popular abroad, but it’s a pity he hasn’t opened any social media accounts.”
Chen Xixi thought for a moment and still asked the question she cared about most, “So, did you specially chase him from overseas? Is the production team now open to overseas spots?”
If so, that would be truly insane!
However, the other party shook his head, “No, I live in China, so I was luckier. I signed up and was selected to come to the venue.”
He then added, “But other fans aren’t so lucky. They heard Yanran has a live performance today, and since they can’t come in person, they can only climb the firewall or stream someone else’s live broadcast.”
The other party smiled, “But many of them don’t even understand Chinese! I don’t know how they’re going to watch, hahaha.”
Chen Xixi felt the description was a bit exaggerated.
But in fact, Lin Yanran’s international fans were exactly as this in-person fan described.
Ever since they became obsessed with Lin Yanran, they had frantically tried to catch up on his information.
However, Lin Yanran had too little content available. Currently, the only show broadcasting was Super Idol stage tonight.
The highly motivated fans heard that he would have a performance, so they learned various wall-climbing techniques, enduring the pressure of slow internet speed and language barriers to find Super Idol‘s live stream room.
And at this moment, on the other side of the ocean, Harold, who was slightly more proficient in Chinese, was teaching online, both showing everyone how to climb the wall to watch the live stream and specially opening a channel to broadcast the live stream here to everyone.
Because this competition format involved online voting, this group of bewildered overseas fans didn’t quite understand the rules and thought the mentors also needed votes.
So, the fans, unwilling to see their idol fall behind, went to Lin Yanran’s Super Topic and the Super Idol live stream room to send bullet comments, sincerely asking everyone how they could vote for Yanran.
At first, everyone was confused, thinking there was something wrong with these people’s minds for wanting to vote for a mentor.
It was only after seeing the sentences these people sent, which were obviously machine-translated, that they finally figured out their nature…
The bullet comments replied directly to them:
[No need to vote; you don’t have a Chinese ID card!]
[Is our little Super Idol that amazing? Is its international influence this big?]
[They came for Yanran, hahahaha]
[Yanran is that popular abroad???]
[Seeing how hard foreigners work to chase our country’s celebrities is so fun, hahahaha]
Soon, the news that Lin Yanran’s overseas fans were coming in a large-scale, organized manner, bypassing the firewall to support their idol, spread within the fan community.
Of course, it’s not a big deal for an artist to have a few overseas fans. Many idols who returned from Korea and actors with hit dramas that exploded in Southeast Asia have them.
But it was rare to see a public figure like Harold leading the fan-chase and making it so hilarious.
While the passersby in the fan community were laughing, they also thought Lin Yanran was really lucky, managing to gain so many fans abroad just by playing the guzheng.
While everyone was discussing Lin Yanran’s fans, the unaware Lin Yanran was currently in Gu Siye’s dressing room.
The makeup artist who was supposed to do his styling had a minor car accident on the way and couldn’t make it in time.
When Ming found out, she volunteered to take over the task of styling Lin Yanran.
To match the outfits of the trainees in their group performance, Ming didn’t use the show’s provided clothes. Instead, she directly styled Lin Yanran in a retro, European-style high-collar white shirt.
Lin Yanran has a slender waist and long legs, and paired with high-waisted dress pants, he looked both handsome and ethereal.
After his styling was complete, he immediately went to the trainees’ makeup room to see how their styling was progressing.
The trainees had arrived there early in the morning to start queuing for styling. Now, with just over an hour until the performance began, everyone was finished, except for Ji Shuai, whose styling was taking longer because of repeated bleaching and dyeing of his hair.
When Lin Yanran arrived, Xia Xingxing and Lu Tianlang were enthusiastically belting “A Love That Will Not Die Until Death” at the wall.
Gao Yu was plugging his ears, telling them to stop with the noise pollution.
Ye Xiyuan was acting cool alone.
He was leaning back on a chair with one foot propped up, hugging his guitar diagonally, and lightly shaking his head while humming a song. “If I were wearing a punk leather jacket, I could sing rock and roll right now.”
Regardless of their popularity, all the trainees were more or less nervous.
Everyone was using their own method to relieve pre-competition stress.
This competition was different from the first public performance. If they could secure first place in the performance, all of them would directly advance, which meant they were practically halfway to securing a debut spot.
After all, this competition would eliminate 17 people, leaving 28 people to advance directly to the finals.
And the first-place team would directly take up ten of those 28 spots!
Therefore, if they failed to get first place, the competition for the remaining eighteen spots would be an exceptionally brutal struggle.
Nervous energy needed to be vented, and seeing everyone engaging in self-regulation, Lin Yanran did not intervene.
He directed his attention to Qiao Ye, who was in the corner. Unlike the other lively and restless trainees, he was quietly listening to music alone.
After pushing the door open, Lin Yanran walked over to his side.
The moment he sat down, Qiao Ye sensed his presence, took off his headphones, and those deep, dark eyes turned to look at him.
“Teacher Yanran.”
After saying that, he quickly glanced at the collar tightly wrapping Lin Yanran’s neck and added, “This outfit suits you very well.”
Lin Yanran smiled faintly. “But this look doesn’t really suit you.”
He pointed to Qiao Ye’s collarbone. “Your persona is that of an ascetic, refined rogue young master. Button up your shirt; button it all the way to the last one.”
As he spoke, Lin Yanran began to recall if he had failed to communicate properly with the stylist.
He remembered the plan he gave the stylist was for the ultimate elite look with the shirt buttons neatly fastened all the way to the top.
Unbuttoning two buttons introduced a hint of sexiness, which ruined the intended atmosphere.
Seeing that the styling differed slightly from the persona and worried it might affect the final presentation, Lin Yanran reminded him.
Qiao Ye lowered his gaze and paused the song playing.
The song’s title was “Secret Love.”
After pausing it, he simply gave a faint “Mm.”
Of course, he knew his persona and his styling.
However, it was quite stuffy here, so he had asked the stylist to unbutton two buttons to get some air.
When Lin Yanran pointed it out, Qiao Ye didn’t explain the misunderstanding but obediently raised his hands to pull his collar closed.
But because the buttons were of the internal-fastening style, he couldn’t see the holes, and after trying a few times, he couldn’t button them.
Seeing him struggling, Lin Yanran leaned forward slightly and extended his slender fingers to help him. “Don’t move, I’ll help you.”
He then lowered his head and helped Qiao Ye fasten all the buttons.
The young man sat motionless, but his Adam’s apple, lightly brushed by the cool fingertips, couldn’t help but bob up and down.
“All done.”
Lin Yanran buttoned it quickly; it probably only took about ten seconds in total.
But for that moment, Qiao Ye was incredibly nervous, so tense he didn’t dare to breathe.
However, this tension vanished amidst the cool touch. He even began to secretly pray for time to stand still, making this moment eternal.
“All done.”
After Lin Yanran finished buttoning, he couldn’t help but blink his dry eyes.
His eyes had been uncomfortable earlier in Gu Siyue’s dressing room, but he had too much going on today and didn’t pay much attention to it.
Just now, he was very focused while buttoning Qiao Ye’s shirt, looking very closely, so the discomfort surged back again.
Qiao Ye and Lin Yanran were very close. With just a slight downward glance, he saw the redness in his eyes.
He immediately asked nervously, “Teacher, are your eyes uncomfortable?”
Lin Yanran was startled and instinctively wanted to rub his eyes.
But just as he was about to rub them, he heard the trainees’ voices simultaneously, “Teacher Gu!”
Learning that Gu Siyue had arrived, Lin Yanran ignored his eyes and immediately stood up.
As soon as he turned around, he met Gu Siyue’s gaze, which was directed toward him.
However, he realized that the other person wasn’t looking at him, but at Qiao Ye.
“Brother Gu.”
Lin Yanran originally intended to walk towards Gu Siyue but then saw the other person striding quickly towards him.
In his hand, he was clutching a bottle of eye drops.
