TTIG Chapter 59.2

The news of FTM winning the fourth week of May’s “Music Billboard” weekly championship shocked the industry.

 

This week had several singers with decent vocal skills competing on the same stage, yet FTM, a group of rookie idols, actually won the championship?

 

Many industry insiders interested in this group went back to rewatch this stage performance and were shocked by FTM’s rapid growth and progress.

 

These five young men had changed tremendously!

 

From initially naive and inexperienced “newbies” to now—all in black pants and red leather jackets, with synchronized knife-group choreography so handsome that people couldn’t look away, they really danced with impressive presence.

 

This wasn’t inferior to those top international groups, right?

 

They could even compete with Asia’s top group BNC, right?

 

Many UP masters on Bilibili began excitedly creating content.

 

“I give FTM’s ‘Blazing’ stage five stars. I haven’t seen a stage that made me this fired up in a long time—this is the charm of idols!”

 

“Live mic singing and dancing—this level destroys other domestic boy groups!”

 

“I dare say some groups don’t look as good as FTM even when lip-syncing”

 

“Domestic boy groups really have hope now!”

 

The overwhelmingly positive reviews online caused FTM’s five members to gain followers like crazy.

 

Some people speculated: “Are they still coming to Music Billboard?”

 

“Coming to grind dungeons every week, it would be weird if they suddenly stopped.”

 

“Having won the weekly championship, they probably won’t come sing this song again, right? Wouldn’t they get tired of singing ‘Blazing’ all the time?”

 

“I guess FTM won’t come next week. Let’s wait for the production team’s announcement.”

 

Music Billboard soon released next week’s music promotion lineup.

 

FTM wasn’t on it.

 

Netizens let out sighs of “as expected,” but suddenly felt somewhat disappointed—without these idols, the music promotion show didn’t seem as exciting as before!

 

FTM’s official studio released June’s schedule.

 

Fans discovered the schedule only had one brief line—

 

“June: attending classes at the company, preparing for album recording”

 

Album recording! This keyword made fans extremely excited. FTM was finally going to have their own album!

 

After returning to Jiangzhou, Xu Baichuan indeed gave them all the songs for the new album.

 

Looking at the thick stack of sheet music, the five couldn’t have been happier. These were all songs they would sing, with FTM’s name on them!

 

Teacher Yu had originally written 10 songs for them.

 

The first song “For the Music,” the second “Secret Garden,” and the third “Blazing” were all released as singles.

 

But you can’t release too many singles—that would drag the timeline out too long, and listeners would get tired of it.

 

This album would have 7 new songs, plus these 3 included tracks, for a total of 10 songs—a very standard album capacity in the industry.

 

Most domestic boy group albums are fan circle exclusives, with 80% of the songs being terrible. But FTM was taking the music group route, so the album’s song quality was also very high.

 

After all, with Teacher Yu Ziluo personally handling it, the songwriting couldn’t possibly be perfunctory. Of the 7 new songs, Fang Yinnian thought every single one sounded amazing!

 

Among them were 3 fast-paced dance tracks and 4 ballads.

 

They didn’t need to master the choreography for every dance track, since they would definitely have title songs for stage performances.

 

This album’s title song was called “Sunny Coast.”

 

Sunshine, beaches, waves—it evoked images of passionate, energetic seaside summer carnivals.

 

The music promotion outfits for this song would use summer vacation-style macaron colors, very fresh and crisp colored shirts.

 

The choreography was personally handled by Teacher Yan Chi. His choreography was full of energy with many highlight moves that made people feel happy just watching.

 

The other sub-title track was called “Night Scene.”

 

This song was very much like the quiet seaside after dark, with lovers nestled together, listening to the sea breeze, admiring the moon, and sharing their innermost thoughts.

 

One passionate and energetic, one gentle and graceful.

 

As the title and sub-title tracks of FTM’s first album, these two songs were also what FTM would focus on practicing next.

 

They would definitely return to “Music Billboard” to perform them in the future.

 

Although Fang Yinnian thought the other included tracks sounded great, when singers release albums they need to have priorities—they can’t give equal attention to every song.

 

These included tracks could be sung at future events and performances, and at future concerts as well.

 

Practicing songs, practicing dance, repeatedly correcting pronunciation and movements…

 

The days became increasingly busy, and time passed especially quickly.

 

They practiced the new album’s songs one by one in order, recording the audio tracks and instrumental backing tracks.

 

Each time they finished recording a song, everyone felt as happy as if they had conquered a difficult problem together.

 

June flew by in what felt like the blink of an eye.

 

Progress on the new album was going smoothly—they completed recording 4 songs, with the remaining 3 less important included tracks to be recorded in July.

 

July brought final exam week, and they were busy like spinning tops, taking exams while practicing songs.

 

On July 15th, all five finally finished their exams.

 

Fang Yinnian successfully completed his sophomore year and would be a junior next semester. Mo Xun would be a senior when school started, and could graduate this time next year.

 

Mo Xun’s film academy had arranged a summer internship.

 

It was said to be a major investment S+ project crew from some platform, coming to their school to recruit extras, with countless applicants.

 

Mo Xun had originally wanted to go, but the schedule conflicted with team activities, so he decisively gave it up.

 

When Fang Yinnian learned about this, he asked softly: “Don’t you feel regretful? I’ve heard of Director Qi Jing—he’s a famous big director. Having their crew come to your school to recruit extras is a very rare opportunity.”

 

Mo Xun said: “It doesn’t matter. There will be other opportunities later. Right now I’m naturally focused on team activities—I don’t want to think about all that.”

 

Fang Yinnian thought to himself that many film academy students start taking roles from their freshman and sophomore years, playing various supporting characters to build their resumes and gain experience, but Mo Xun still hadn’t acted in anything.

 

After he graduated from university, if there were opportunities, they couldn’t let team activities hold him back anymore.

 

On July 20th, they finally finished recording all the songs for the new album. That very evening, Xu Baichuan arranged for them to fly to Binhai City in the south.

 

This was a famous domestic tourist resort destination, with the 5A-level scenic area “Yunlan Island” having the whitest beaches and clearest seawater.

 

This was Fang Yinnian’s first time visiting this city.

 

Looking at the neat rows of coconut trees outside the car window, the spacious and clean boulevards, and the various street foods, he was extremely excited, taking out his phone to snap several photos to send to his grandmother.

 

Mo Xun proactively asked: “Brother Xu, how are we going to film our travel variety show? Is there a script?”

 

Xu Baichuan said: “This variety show will mainly film your daily travel life. We might arrange some live streams, and we’ll give you tasks each day, but don’t feel any pressure—just treat it as a vacation and relaxation.”

 

Besides filming the travel variety show, this trip to Binhai City would also involve shooting MVs for the album’s title songs “Sunny Coast” and “Night Scene.”

 

They would stay in Binhai City for 20 days, returning to Jiangzhou around August 10th to prepare for the album’s release and promotion.

 

Brother Xu generously booked them a five-star hotel by the sea, complete with ocean view rooms.

 

Fang Yinnian came out onto the balcony, looking at the vast blue ocean and fine white sand beach. The humid sea breeze blew past his ears, as if it had blown away all the fatigue from the past month and more.

 

So comfortable… Fang Yinnian closed his eyes, enjoying this rare moment of relaxation, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned.

 

Today he wore a short-sleeved white shirt and simple jeans. Leaning over the balcony, when the sea breeze blew, his shirt hem lifted up, revealing a small section of pale abdominal skin.

 

During this period, Fang Yinnian had been working out with Mo Xun and had actually developed a thin layer of abs that looked quite good.

 

Mo Xun walked over to stand beside him, enjoying the sea breeze together, saying: “The ocean view room really has great views.”

 

Fang Yinnian squinted and said: “I’ve never stayed in a five-star ocean view hotel before. This is my first time seeing such white and fine private beach sand.”

 

Public free beaches during tourist season always had low-quality people from all over the country littering, and the beaches would be covered with footprints.

 

But the hotel’s private beach was different.

 

Only hotel guests could enter the private beach, and it had dedicated staff for maintenance—not only fewer people, but also very clean.

 

Since they needed to shoot an MV, it wasn’t convenient to go to crowded public beaches, so they stayed here to use the private beach for filming.

 

Blue skies and white clouds, beaches and waves—this place was so beautiful that any random shot could serve as a computer desktop wallpaper.

 

Fang Yinnian was very much looking forward to the MV’s effect.

 

As it was getting dark, Xu Baichuan suddenly said in the group chat: “Let’s go watch the sunset over the ocean—I’ve prepared a beach barbecue for you.”

 

The five excitedly changed into casual clothes and ran down in flip-flops.

 

The accompanying photographer was also there, and Xu Baichuan said: “Let Brother Zhang film some footage for you to use when editing the variety show.”

 

Everyone came to the beach and set up tables, chairs, and barbecue equipment. The five worked together and quickly set up the barbecue grill.

 

Since Xu Baichuan had told them not to feel pressure and to act naturally, the five simply ignored the camera’s presence.

 

They treated it like a private gathering, just having fun.

 

Fu Fei said: “Does anyone know how to barbecue?”

 

Everyone’s eyes turned to head chef Fang Yinnian.

 

Fang Yinnian indeed smiled and said: “I do. My grilled chicken wings are delicious—want to try some?”

 

Everyone immediately nodded: “Yes, yes!”

 

Fang Yinnian sprinkled sauce on several chicken wings, skewered them one by one, and began working at the grill with sizzling sounds. He occasionally picked up a small brush to coat them with marinade, his movements quite professional.

 

In no time, rich aromas wafted to their noses.

 

Mo Xun stared longingly at the chicken wings on the grill, thinking: when would they be ready? He was getting a bit hungry.

 

Seeing Mo Xun sitting beside him staring at the barbecue grill and occasionally swallowing, clearly craving the food, Fang Yinnian’s heart softened slightly. He picked up a chicken wing and held it to Mo Xun’s mouth, smiling: “Try it.”

 

Mo Xun immediately opened his mouth and bit into the chicken wing.

 

The skin was crispy, the wrapped chicken meat was fresh and tender, with a spicy flavor—incredibly delicious, giving his taste buds the most perfect comfort.

 

Mo Xun contentedly squinted his eyes and said: “The chicken wings grilled by my Yinnian are truly the most delicious in the world.”

 

Beside them, Fu Fei couldn’t help drooling: “I want some too! Brother Nian, you’re playing favorites—you always let Brother Mo eat first!”

 

Fang Yinnian laughingly took a piece and handed it to him to shut him up.

 

Fu Fei opened his mouth to catch it, eating while beaming: “Ahh, so delicious, crispy outside and tender inside—how did you grill it?”

 

Fang Yinnian gave Tan Junwen and Tang Che each a piece: “Try it, if you like it I’ll grill more.”

 

Tang Che’s eyes lit up: “Delicious, it’s the spicy flavor I like.”

 

Tan Junwen also gave a thumbs up: “The chef’s skills are amazing.”

 

Mo Xun noticed that Fang Yinnian hadn’t eaten any himself, so he walked over to sit by the barbecue grill, saying: “You go eat first, I’ll grill some meat skewers.”

 

Fang Yinnian asked: “Do you know how?”

 

Mo Xun said: “I can grill meat skewers, let you try some.”

 

So Fang Yinnian went to sit and eat while Mo Xun started grilling meat skewers. The other three sat there staring at the barbecue grill, eagerly waiting to be fed.

 

Fang Yinnian simply walked over to sit beside Mo Xun: “Let’s do it together—you grill meat skewers on this half of the grill, I’ll grill chicken wings on this half. There are also vegetables, we’ll do those slowly later.”

 

The barbecue grill was nearly 1.2 meters long, so the two sitting side by side didn’t feel crowded. After grilling, they would first feed each other a skewer to taste how it was, then share the rest with their three teammates.

 

The three teammates weren’t idle either, organizing ingredients and cleaning up trash nearby. Xiao Fei also nimbly skewered many potato slices.

 

This scene was harmonious and happy, with the filming crew capturing many warm moments.

 

By the seaside, the sunset gradually descended.

 

Mo Xun picked up several bottles of beer, saying: “Come on, let’s watch the sunset!”

 

The five sat barefoot side by side on the beach, watching the sunset dye the entire ocean golden-red.

 

The sparkling sea surface was scattered with countless golden diamonds.

 

Beautiful and unreal like an oil painting.

 

Although Fang Yinnian had often traveled with his parents as a child, at this moment he suddenly felt this was the most beautiful scenery he had ever seen.

 

Maybe it’s because they have a group of like-minded friends around them—when everyone is together, no matter what scenery they see, they’ll be happy, right?

 

Mo Xun raised his beer: “Come on, let’s toast to FTM!”

 

Fang Yinnian met his gaze, smiled slightly, and clinked glasses with him. The other teammates also quickly opened their beers.

 

Everyone said in unison: “Cheers!”

 

It was extremely low-alcohol pineapple beer, almost like a soft drink. Mo Xun knew Fang Yinnian couldn’t handle alcohol well, so he had specifically bought this kind.

 

Fu Fei excitedly said: “We should take a group photo!”

 

Mo Xun immediately stood up: “Come on, before the sunset gets swallowed by the sea, let’s take some sunset photos.”

 

Tan Junwen drew an FTM logo in the sand, and the five gathered around the logo, smiling brilliantly at the camera.

 

Tan Junwen suggested: “Let’s form a circle?”

 

Everyone quickly adjusted their positions—two in front, three in back—stretching out their arms to link together, forming a circle.

 

The photographer captured this warm moment for them.

 

Xu Baichuan stood in the distance watching this scene, feeling very gratified.

 

These kids had been under too much pressure since their debut, their nerves constantly tense. The New Year’s mic malfunction got them criticized, and not long after, they were cyberbullied when negative rumors broke out. Even losing a shoe on the music promotion stage could get them trending with criticism…

 

They must have been exhausted from all the song and dance practice during this period.

 

This was the first time he’d seen the young men so relaxed and happy.

 

Have a good time for a few days. The hard work you’ve put in will definitely pay off—he had great confidence in FTM’s new album!

 

**

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 (advanced chapters available on kofi)