TTIG Chapter 96

FTM’s tenth anniversary world tour received tremendous attention.

 

This was China’s first male group daring to hold world tours, with the first stop at London’s largest stadium accommodating tens of thousands of audience members.

 

Did they have so many overseas fans? Would tickets sell?

 

The industry questioned while major entertainment forums discussed attendance issues.

 

“FTM is very popular domestically with sold-out concerts, but world tours are uncertain”

 

“Will international students and overseas Chinese pay for them?”

 

“Time to test FTM’s fame!”

 

Haters preemptively mocked:

 

“They’re visiting many countries this time—if tickets don’t sell, wouldn’t overseas concerts bankrupt them?”

 

“Spending money for publicity to hype themselves as world TOP male group afterward.”

 

“Anyway, these guys have enough money—lose money on concerts, then give free tickets to passersby, pretending high popularity.”

 

“Sound Wave Entertainment is most familiar with hiring online trolls, hehe.”

 

However, FTM’s world tour first stop sold out on ticket release day!

 

Netizens monitoring ticket sales couldn’t believe their eyes.

 

“No way? Already sold out?!”

 

“Who’s buying these?!”

 

“FTM’s devoted fans include many willing to spend money flying overseas for concerts.”

 

“Envious of musical note sisters’ economic strength~”

 

But no matter how many devoted fans, tens of thousands couldn’t possibly spend money on overseas concerts.

 

International shows selling out only proved FTM had extremely high worldwide recognition, with massive overseas student and diaspora purchases.

 

Perhaps attracting many foreigners to hear them sing.

 

Haters fell silent.

Another premature mockery.

 

Stubborn haters claimed on forums: “How could tens of thousands of tickets sell so fast? Definitely ticketing platforms only released small portions publicly—the rest are trolls.”

 

Musical notes immediately countered: “Always trolls, trolls—I think you’re the troll!”

 

“Five cents per comment? Let me earn this money too?”

 

“So concerned about FTM concert sales—why not turn from hater to fan [dog head]”

 

“FTM has any movement and you jump out mocking—even funeral attendees aren’t this active!”

 

“I don’t care who you stan, but you’re especially concerned about my stan’s activities~”

 

After years of training, musical notes were skilled at countering haters. Forum haters questioning FTM’s troll hiring were countered for hundreds of floors.

 

Due to hot concert ticket sales, with organizer coordination, FTM’s first London stop added April 16th besides the originally scheduled April 15th.

 

Singers adding overseas tour shows were extremely rare.

 

Such high popularity convinced the industry—truly worthy of Chinese music’s top group!

 

***

 

FTM’s five members began intensive concert preparation.

 

After Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun’s wedding, they temporarily skipped honeymoons—with teammates and management teams all abroad, they couldn’t leave everyone to vacation alone.

 

They tacitly decided to make up the honeymoon after concerts ended.

 

This world tour, besides classic songs from FTM’s first three albums, Fang Yinnian specially wrote two concert-exclusive English songs requiring urgent practice.

 

Additionally, each member had 1-2 solo performances.

 

These years, Fang Yinnian had firmly established himself in music as a new generation powerhouse singer representative, releasing two high-quality, high-sales personal original ballad albums.

 

Tang Che’s rock band grew increasingly popular, releasing rock albums and planning domestic tours.

 

While hosting variety shows, Xiao Fei didn’t forget his singer identity—Sound Wave Entertainment’s production team custom-created lively singing-dancing solo albums for him.

 

Junwen continued acting in TV dramas with constantly improving skills, gradually transitioning from idol dramas while writing rap songs during breaks. His several original rap singles received good responses.

 

Only Mo Xun completely switched to cinema, no longer singing.

 

But he’d record team albums with teammates—fans wanting to hear him sing could only listen to FTM group albums or attend FTM concerts.

 

This concert’s approved setlist contained over 60 songs.

 

Someone leaked the approved setlist before concerts began.

 

Fans and passersby were shocked.

 

“Artists with many works have confidence!”

 

“One concert can sing about 30 songs—they submitted 60, seems each show will change songs?”

 

“Ahhh there’s Yinnian’s ‘Jiangnan Misty Rain’—I love his traditional-style song most”

 

“Mo Xun actually has two solo songs, seems like concert debuts?”

 

“45 group songs, 15 solo songs—super anticipated~”

 

“This world tour starts from London, international first then domestic—hope domestic adds more cities, preferably our hometown. I’ll definitely bring the whole family!”

 

“Bringing whole family +1”

 

“Planning to take my daughter, hehe”

 

“Former musical notes have mostly married and established careers?”

 

“After all, this group has ten-year anniversary—those early fans have grown up!”

 

Ten years—in this commemorative year, FTM’s world tour was magnificently organized with stage aesthetics reaching new levels.

 

Reportedly, overseas stage construction costs reached tens of millions.

 

Concert attendees were incredibly shocked.

 

World tours meant exponentially increased costs for overseas venue rentals, stage construction, plus team accommodation and expenses.

 

Stages could be built adequately to save costs.

 

But FTM invested heavily in stage effects, giving concert audiences the best audiovisual feasts—still spoiling fans as before.

 

London’s debut received excellent reviews, with some fansite videos quickly exceeding ten million clicks on domestic websites.

 

“Ahhh London actually sang two English songs!”

 

“Holy crap, seems like English songs Yinnian specially wrote for world tours~”

 

“This group is really sincere.”

 

“Wuwuwu, international student present—ready to faint from happiness. Yinnian even greeted overseas fans in English—his pronunciation sounds super good~”

 

“Not bragging—Fang Yinnian studying abroad for years has real skills.”

 

“Obviously, our Yinnian is a Lausanne Academy master’s graduate!”

 

“Hahaha Fang Yinnian single-handedly raised FTM’s education level~”

 

“Tang Che is also a top student, Junwen and Mo Xun’s English are good—everyone can laugh at Xiao Fei’s broken English hahaha”

 

“Fu Fei’s English—FTM’s only weakness~”

 

“Don’t mock our cute youngest! What’s wrong with broken English? Our Xiao Fei dances super handsomely and the solo song performance was perfect!”

 

“Mo Xun’s solo singing and dancing this time was also impressive—seems the Best Actor hasn’t neglected dancing?”

 

“After all, FTM has a group of overachievers. As dance leader captain, if Mo Xun neglected his skills, he’d be mercilessly mocked by teammates.”

 

“Ahhh envious of those who can watch overseas concerts—when will the tour come domestically?”

 

“Ten overseas stops—after the tour ends and they return home, it’ll probably be August”

 

“Looking forward to an 8/18 anniversary celebration!”

 

“Wonder which city the anniversary will be in?”

 

Online discussions about FTM’s world tour were quite heated.

 

The Weibo topic “FTM Ten-Year Anniversary World Tour” quickly exceeded 100 million views. The first London stop received widespread praise, followed by New York second stop, Singapore third stop… The music group’s tour visited city after city, surprisingly selling out overseas too!

 

Some overseas passersby initially unfamiliar with them gave extremely high praise after curiously attending concerts.

 

Facebook, Instagram and other social media had many overseas netizens posting concert-related photos and videos with praising captions.

 

Many netizens called “FTM the male group with the strongest professional abilities.”

 

Full live vocals with dancing, singing continuously for three hours, stage performances full of sincerity. Their voices were super stable, dance choreography was cool, each member’s solo performance had distinct characteristics—combined together, simply perfect.

 

…

 

In August, after completing ten overseas cities’ tours, FTM finally returned domestically under countless people’s anticipation.

 

Paparazzi photographed the five’s airport photos.

 

Fans examining their photos with magnifying glasses surprisingly discovered—Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian were actually wearing matching silver rings.

 

Solo fans said: “Just matching items, nothing surprising.”

 

“Men can wear so few ring styles—only shows they both like this design?”

 

“Heh, I have matching sunglasses and pajamas with Yinnian too!”

 

“Aren’t you bored using magnifying glasses to find matching items? Aren’t there enough celebrity fashion coincidences?”

 

But CP fans began celebrating wildly.

 

“Ahhh couple rings!”

 

“MoFang 99, walking together looking so matched~”

 

“Why do I feel these look more like wedding rings?”

 

“Too bad paparazzi photos are blurry—can’t see the ring details clearly”

 

“Can anyone find similar ones?”

 

“Searched several major brands but found nothing identical—might be custom-made?”

 

“Holy crap! Custom-made? Bold guess—after FTM went abroad and disappeared for days with both families all overseas, did they go get married?”

 

“Above poster, that guess is too scary…”

 

“Even CP fan fiction wouldn’t dare be this bold”

 

“You actually guessed they went to get married—dreams have everything!”

 

Though CP fans hoped the two could be together, such bold speculation about secretly going abroad to marry was still subconsciously denied by many.

 

After all, China’s current environment didn’t allow same-sex marriage. Artists’ relationships and marriages would definitely be extremely cautious. With one Vocal King and one Best Actor, how could they possibly marry so young?

 

In fact, this fan’s guess wasn’t wrong.

 

—Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian had indeed secretly gone abroad to register their marriage.

 

Though married, they wouldn’t be overly intimate in public—after all, teammates were around, and concert audiences weren’t all CP fans but included many solo fans and group fans.

 

Announcing relationships at concerts would be extremely off-putting, definitely causing many fans to turn against them on the spot. They needed to give fans time to accept.

 

FTM’s first domestic tour stop after returning was set at Ya’an City’s Galaxy Stadium, perfectly timed for August 18th—their tenth debut anniversary.

 

Domestic fans frantically grabbed tickets.

 

Tenth anniversary show—a once-in-a-lifetime commemorative performance!

 

Getting tickets meant winning.

 

The ticketing website’s “interested viewers” for this show exceeded 1.5 million, becoming Chinese music industry’s highest “interested viewer” count in recent years.

 

On ticket release day, 50,000 tickets sold out in almost 3 seconds, with Damai website directly crashing from millions of simultaneous ticket-grabbing fans and passersby.

 

Fans who missed out lamented on social platforms.

 

Those who succeeded happily posted on Weibo and WeChat Moments celebrating.

 

Under countless people’s anticipation, time finally reached August 18th.

 

Inside Ya’an City’s Galaxy Stadium, the stage was built as a gorgeous colorful castle—nostalgic return to debut day ten years ago!

 

The five actually appeared on rising platforms.

 

Fang Yinnian sat at the piano with Mo Xun, Tan Junwen, Tang Che, and Fu Fei standing around it. Familiar piano melodies flowed from Fang Yinnian’s fingertips.

 

After the intro ended, Fang Yinnian’s clear, gentle voice spread throughout the stadium.

 

“Sunshine through leaf gaps

Casting mottled shadows on ground

Piece by piece writing our past”

 

The five-part harmony followed closely.

 

“Dawn we watched together

Storms we weathered together”

 

Fang Yinnian softly concluded: “I will never forget”

 

—They were actually singing FTM’s debut song “Won’t Forget.”

 

Ten years ago, at Sheng Yao Media’s tenth anniversary family concert, five green teenagers hurriedly pushed onto stage with anxious hearts had also covered diva Xie Shiqi’s song in this same stadium, adapting it into five-part harmony.

 

That was the five-part harmony’s first public appearance.

 

Debuting without original songs, only covering others’ work, they were once mocked by netizens. Some even called them Sheng Yao princes, Sheng Yao royalty, with the entire company’s singers carrying their sedan chairs.

 

The male group debuting amid countless controversies was the ridiculed “makeshift troupe.”

 

Who could have imagined this “makeshift troupe” would become domestic entertainment history’s most popular, most musically prolific male group with record-breaking album sales?

 

The former green teenagers had now grown up.

 

Ten years passed in a flash. Fang Yinnian won Vocal King, Mo Xun earned Best Actor, Tang Che had his dream rock band, Fu Fei became the industry’s most popular variety show host, Junwen’s TV dramas grew increasingly popular.

 

All five developed exceptionally well in their respective fields.

 

But on this special tenth anniversary day, they still decided to open with this FTM debut collaboration song—”Won’t Forget.”

 

Never forgetting original intentions.

Never forgetting the path traveled.

They never forgot these pasts.

 

Familiar melodies brought countless memories to mind.

 

Back then, the five had just been grouped together with no chemistry—Tang Che and Junwen even fought, getting scolded daily while practicing harmonies in recording studios.

 

Everyone was uncertain about the group’s prospects, not knowing how far they could go.

 

As a makeshift troupe, hastily debuted FTM faced various doubts, rival smearing, terrible cyberbullying with family information completely exposed.

 

But they weathered it time and again.

 

The five gradually developed mutual understanding and brotherhood.

 

Even after experiencing their former company’s disbandment, they ultimately overcame difficulties and reunited. Male groups reuniting after disbandment became domestic entertainment’s first case.

 

Ten years walked side by side held countless memories—some bitter, some beautiful.

 

At this moment, singing that debut song from ten years ago, when the five looked at each other, only smiles remained on their faces.

 

—How wonderful to have walked such long times alongside you all.

 

The rising platform floated in air, continuously rotating. Laser lights and snow machines created diamond galaxy light effects identical to years ago.

 

The five sang on the rising platform while fans below wept uncontrollably.

 

After one song ended, the platform slowly descended. The five walked to stage center, holding hands and bowing side by side: “Hello everyone, we are FTM!”

 

Deafening cheers and screams erupted below.

 

This greeting phrase—how many years had it been? Every time hearing it still warmed hearts.

 

After screaming subsided, Mo Xun took the microphone, smiling: “Ten years ago on August 18th, we debuted covering ‘Won’t Forget’ in this very stadium.”

 

Fang Yinnian continued: “Today is FTM’s tenth debut anniversary. We’ve brought you this song again. Thank you very much for ten years of companionship and support—we will never forget everything from the past!”

 

In the tens-of-thousands-person stadium, applause and screams nearly broke through the roof.

 

Ten years!

 

How many groups could still hold concerts after ten years?

 

As domestic entertainment’s most “long-lived” male group, FTM’s journey truly wasn’t easy. Their ability to reach today’s success was most crucially because the five never forgot original intentions, treating each other as best brothers and family, willing to sacrifice some personal interests for the team.

 

—FTM’s group spirit was unmatched.

 

Tang Che looked at the audience: “I notice many fans brought children today—several babies under three years old? Little friends, can you understand?”

 

Laughter erupted below.

 

Tan Junwen smiled: “Many of our fans have successful careers and many have had babies, right? Sigh, I’m still single—sorry for not keeping up with your pace.”

 

More laughter below.

 

Fu Fei continued: “Musical notes who married and had children must play our songs for your kids—your children should continue liking FTM in the future! Then, three generations together watching our concerts, telling your grandchildren—these are the old idols grandma once followed.”

 

Below: “Hahahaha!”

 

Xiao Fei was indeed a comedian—what the hell, three generations watching concerts together.

 

But that scene seemed very heartwarming to imagine.

 

Mo Xun said: “Thank you everyone for watching FTM’s tenth anniversary concert. We’re honored to have accompanied you through these ten years.”

 

Fang Yinnian said: “We’re also grateful to everyone for accompanying us as we continue to grow. Today is FTM’s tenth anniversary—we hope for future fifteenth, even twentieth anniversaries, that FTM can still gather here and continue singing for everyone.”

 

Mo Xun looked at Fang Yinnian with gentle eyes: “In the future, we’ll also continue walking side by side.”

 

Fang Yinnian smiled: “That’s right, FTM will forever fly solo without disbanding!”

 

Fu Fei declared loudly: “Forever FTM!”

 

The audience shouted in unison: “Forever FTM!”

 

This was also the name of FTM’s first album—they had once written “Forever FTM” on a beach years ago.

 

Forever music group—they’d achieved it!

 

Fu Fei began acting as temporary host: “Next, please enjoy a performance by five handsome men of FTM’s first original song, ‘For the Music’—born for music.”

 

Fu Fei pointed the microphone toward the audience: “Where’s the applause?!”

 

Enthusiastic applause below was the best response.

 

Again the familiar musical intro—FTM’s first original song “For the Music,” with Tan Junwen’s cool rap opening.

 

When Junwen came to the front stage surrounded by backup dancers while rapping, many longtime fans cried again.

 

Tonight’s concert was truly countless memory triggers—practically a “tear-inducing concert.”

 

They said they were honored to accompany everyone through these ten years.

 

But for fans, it was also an honor to know such a top-tier male group with outstanding professional abilities, all-handsome members, serious music treatment, and full live vocal dancing!

 

Liking and accompanying their growth was also fans’ pride!

 

FTM gave fans the ultimate experience of a development-type male group.

 

Each generation has its own idols.

 

Perhaps as Fu Fei said, for future twentieth or even thirtieth anniversary concerts, there truly would be heartwarming scenes of three generations attending together.

 

By then, everyone could proudly tell their descendants—

 

This was the male group grandpa/grandma and dad/mom once liked.

 

Domestic entertainment’s strongest legendary top group.

 

**

 

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