Do we need to continue this awkward conversation? his eyes asked the host.
The female host adjusted her earpiece, seemingly receiving some instruction, and smiled at Mo Xun: “Thank you again to FTM for this wonderful surprise. Next, we invite the five members of FTM to sign the 10th anniversary memorial wall with their good wishes.”
She made a welcoming gesture.
The five members felt immensely relieved and hurried to the signature wall, taking pens handed to them by staff members.
Tan Junwen drew a simplified FTM logo in the bottom left corner, and the members arranged their signatures around this emblem.
Mo Xun wrote a simple message beside it: “Happy 10th Birthday, Shengyao!”
Host: “Goodbye FTM, we look forward to your next performance.”
The five walked side by side to the elevator platform, bowed neatly to the audience, and waved goodbye: “Thank you everyone!”
The stage lights dimmed as the elevator platform began descending.
Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian exchanged glances and exhaled deeply.
That was close!
After the platform reached the underground level and the skylight closed above them, Fu Fei patted his chest and exclaimed, “What the hell just happened? Why did the host suddenly ask us to harmonize live?”
Xu Baichuan quickly approached and explained, “The next performer twisted their ankle on the stairs just now. Doctors were treating it urgently, so the director had you stall for two minutes.”
The five suddenly understood—no wonder they were mysteriously kept on stage.
Fang Yinnian asked, “Is that performer okay? Was it serious?”
“Nothing serious—they’ve already gone up to perform,” Xu Baichuan paused, then asked, “By the way, why did you choose to sing a children’s song during that unexpected situation?”
Mo Xun looked toward Fang Yinnian.
Fang Yinnian explained, “We haven’t practiced many songs together. With this children’s song, as long as the main melody remained stable, even if our harmony had errors, nobody would notice. Besides, except for Teacher Qiao, no outsiders have heard our harmonized version of this song.”
Fu Fei sighed with relief: “Being suddenly asked to sing a cappella gave me quite a scare.”
Tan Junwen rubbed his eyes and said, “I was a bit confused too, but the song was simple enough—we managed to get through it.”
Xu Baichuan: “…”
To handle emergency situations well, you need to think quickly.
The unexpected children’s song not only prevented FTM from looking chaotic and embarrassing themselves, but actually enhanced their image. Plus, the song they chose was “Colorful Castle,” perfectly matching today’s castle theme—Yinnian was truly clever.
Mo Xun’s reaction was also quick. When faced with the host’s sudden request, he maintained his composure while continuing the conversation, showing no signs of panic—although internally he was extremely anxious, he maintained a polite smile on the surface.
The captain and lead vocalist together handled this small unexpected incident, leaving their debut performance without regrets.
Xu Baichuan gave them two thumbs up: “You performed exceptionally well today!”
Hearing their manager’s affirmation, the five finally relaxed their anxious hearts, smiles appearing on their faces.
What a fortunate escape!
After returning to the waiting room, Xu Baichuan returned their phones.
Fu Fei logged into his alternate Weibo account and exclaimed excitedly, “We’ve got fans on our Weibo! Wow, our followers are growing so fast!”
His alternate account followed the official Weibo accounts of all five FTM members, plus numerous entertainment celebrities, paparazzi, marketing accounts, and fan super topics—he browsed gossip online daily.
Fang Yinnian leaned over to look: “How many followers have we gained?”
Fu Fei replied, “Several thousand already, right after our performance! Brother Nian is gaining the fastest!”
Fang Yinnian picked up his phone and opened Weibo, happily watching the constantly increasing follower count in the upper right corner. “Brother Xu, should we post something on Weibo? My account is currently empty.”
Fu Fei added, “Yeah, shouldn’t we engage with fans?”
Xu Baichuan said, “TaoHe official will release the performance video shortly. When they do, you should all repost it. After tonight’s concert ends, the FTM Studio official account will also post promotional materials—whenever they tag you, repost those as well.”
He paused, then added, “Be extremely cautious with your official accounts. Don’t casually like or comment on matters related to other celebrities. Focus on yourselves, and when you have time, interact with fans.”
The five immediately nodded. Since their manager was willing to return control of their Weibo accounts, they naturally needed to be careful.
Today’s concert was being livestreamed entirely on the TaoHe app, and each artist’s individual performance would be posted on TaoHe’s official Weibo.
As one of the three major video platforms in the industry, TaoHe Video’s official Weibo had over 20 million followers, with tens of millions of daily active app users—this was an excellent opportunity for exposure.
However, TaoHe was primarily a drama platform, focusing on TV series with some self-produced variety shows. Its followers were mainly interested in dramas rather than concerts.
The platform released numerous drama promotions daily, and now during summer season, they were airing a popular historical drama. Their singing video would likely only stay on the homepage for about ten minutes, so the promotional effect was difficult to predict.
The five followed TaoHe’s official account, anxiously waiting for them to post the video.
Soon, they received a notification that they had been tagged in a post—
“#Shining Voices 10th Anniversary Concert# Presenting a surprise special! From Shengyao Media, the rookie male group @FTM-FangYinnian @FTM-FuFei @FTM-TanJunwen @FTM-TangChe @FTM-MoXun (arranged alphabetically by surname), performing their debut showcase. Official live recording on site—an incredibly beautiful harmony performance, come check it out! [Video link]”
TaoHe had a dedicated promotional team that had already coordinated with Shengyao’s PR team. After they published the video, a trending topic immediately appeared on the entertainment hot search rankings.
#FTMBoyBandOfficiallyDebutsToday#
The topic linked to this Weibo post with the concert video pinned at the top. It also linked to FTM’s official studio Weibo, featuring promotional photos and profile cards of all five members.
Fu Fei exclaimed excitedly, “Shengyao bought a hot search spot to promote us!”
Fang Yinnian was surprised. “The company purchased this?”
Xu Baichuan confirmed, “Of course. Many trending topics on the entertainment rankings are purchased by PR teams.”
Fang Yinnian didn’t understand entertainment industry marketing strategies at all. He had previously thought trending topics were purely based on public discussion. So many were actually purchased by PR teams?
Xu Baichuan explained, “This is the normal promotional procedure for major events. Besides you, every artist participating from our company will have trending topics. Xie Shiqi even reached the top three on the main hot search list earlier.”
Fang Yinnian opened the hot search rankings and saw the #ShiningVoices10thAnniversaryConcert# topic consistently ranked first on the entertainment list. Clicking into it revealed live performance videos of various singers.
Videos of Tao Yizhou, He Yan, and Xie Shiqi had particularly high share and comment numbers.
Tao Yizhou’s video of singing on the moon already had over 10 million views. His personal Weibo had gained 500,000+ comments in just one hour—terrifying numbers…
Xie Shiqi and He Yan’s names were also on the hot search list.
These three were Shengyao’s current popular singers.
As a newly debuted unknown group, FTM’s video shares and views couldn’t compare with these major stars.
However, the trending topic was having an immediate effect—ranking 10th on the main hot search and 5th on the entertainment list. This high position would definitely attract more casual viewers.
The video’s view count was increasing rapidly, accompanied by numerous comments:
[What is this? Piano performance?]
[The stage design looks so high-end]
[A newly debuted boy band? Caught them fresh!]
[Doesn’t Shengyao usually have solo artists? Why are they making boy bands now?]
[A sudden boy band appearance shocked my whole family]
[Five parachuted members? Is this really so hasty?]
[Shengyao is truly unprofessional—at least do some pre-release promotion? They just directly debut like this?]
[Not exaggerating or downplaying, their singing is decent]
[This new group seems worth investing in, I’ll follow them for now]
FTM’s harmony version of “Never Forget” in the official high-definition video, with their novel piano performance debut style, had attracted considerable attention from casual viewers.
All five members’ Weibo accounts were rapidly gaining followers.
Lead vocalist Fang Yinnian’s follower growth rate was particularly astonishing.
Xu Baichuan instructed, “Repost TaoHe’s official video and add a few words of gratitude.”
They quickly reposted TaoHe’s video.
Fang Yinnian wrote: “Thank you everyone for your attention. This was our first stage performance, and due to our lack of experience, there might have been some imperfections. We will continue to work hard and improve to bring you more wonderful performances in the future~ [Bow][Bow]”
After posting this message, comments quickly exceeded a thousand, with many new followers rushing to comment.
“So few fans? Such a fresh rookie~”
“With a face that handsome, I declare myself your looks-based fan starting today!”
“When I followed you there were only a few thousand fans, and in the blink of an eye it’s over ten thousand! Feeling the joy of watching you grow~”
“Your harmony group is quite interesting, keep it up”
“Came here from TaoHe’s official account, you sang well, following you now”
“I’m a voice enthusiast and your voice is very friendly to my ears. Can I be your fan? Just please don’t disappoint!”
“…”
There were too many comments—Fang Yinnian scrolled through them one by one until his vision blurred.
His teammates were also absorbed in browsing Weibo, all overwhelmed by the sudden flood of comments.
The netizens were chattering away, each more enthusiastic than the last.
Experiencing such warmth for the first time, along with numerous compliments like “so handsome” and “sounds so good,” all five were somewhat overwhelmed by the attention.
Watching the excited youngsters, Xu Baichuan’s lips curved upward involuntarily—they were indeed rookies, so happy just from gaining some fans. The rookie period was the purest time, when satisfaction came easiest.
Xu Baichuan gave them about ten minutes to immerse themselves in the joy of being noticed and praised.
The time reached 10:25 PM.
Xu Baichuan clapped his hands. “Alright, hand me your phones and get ready for the final group number.”
The five quickly handed their phones to their manager and stood up to prepare.
Holy crap, they was so excited they almost forgot about the grand finale!
