AITFYMIBP Chapter 15

TL: Hua

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The next day, when the production team came to work, they pulled up the video footage from the night before.

The first thing they saw was the scene of the 15 boys in Lin Yanran’s group, sitting face-to-face in a row, blissfully soaking their feet in the middle of the night.

A few assistant directors looked at each other, their faces full of confusion.

Did they all take the wrong medicine?

The head director, however, burst out laughing.

He pointed at the foot basins with a smug look on his face. “I told you these foot basins were good, but you didn’t believe me. Look, even these young kids have started using them.”

He rubbed his hands together with an expectant look. “The same model I ordered arrived today. I’m going to try it as soon as I get home.”

An assistant director secretly rolled his eyes, not wanting to get into a conversation about foot basins with the director, who had recently become obsessed with health and wellness after listening to Lin Yanran’s explanation about herbal foot soak bags. He immediately changed the subject.

The director didn’t respond. He just held his thermos with a smile, slowly watching the footage from the night before.

Then he told the staff, “For tonight’s preview, cut in a segment of Yanran’s group.”

The assistant director, with his head down, casually responded, “The foot-soaking segment?”

The head director shook his head and paused the video.

“No, cut this segment. Remember to put a good mosaic on it.”

So, at 8 p.m. that evening, the official Super Idol Weibo and video site released the preview for the latest episode.

As the first trainee survival show in China, Super Idol had seen its popularity soar from not even making the top ten on the variety show charts to third place on the hot shows list after its first three episodes, thanks to its fresh format and high quality.

With a full week’s worth of material, the editors had put a lot of effort into the cuts.

To highlight the trainees’ hard work and some of their standout moments without giving anything away, the editing was exceptionally clever.

For example, when Pei Luo was choosing Qiao Ye, they intentionally left it as a cliffhanger without revealing the final decision.

When the trainees were dancing, they only showed them from behind to prevent people from finding out who was in which team.

These little tricks might have been deceptive to the general public, but they were no secret to the fans.

With so many fansites’ managers on the front lines every day, fans had long since figured out the team divisions.

[Editor, you can’t trick me with your little schemes.]

[Qiao Ye and Xuan Yihan are in Pei Luo’s group, Zhang Yang and Li Jin are in Han Zhe’s group, Ji Shuai and Lu Xiaomeng are in Yanran’s group… (The comment was folded due to the character limit)]

The comments directly exposed the entire list of people in each group, spoiling it for non-fans.

However, even though the fans had deciphered the carefully hidden team divisions, two shots in the preview still managed to uphold the show’s dignity. They also grabbed the attention of every viewer because they were so difficult to decode.

The first was the scene of the super mentor on the stage.

In a preview that was already very short, the editors spent a full six seconds highlighting this super mentor, showing how important and popular he was.

Viewers saw the trainees’ disbelieving expressions and the host’s mysterious introduction. Although the super mentor was covered in a mosaic and his voice was muted, it didn’t stop the audience from wanting to figure out who he was.

[I thought you were joking when you first mentioned a super mentor, but there actually is one.]

[The production team is amazing; they kept it a complete secret. Even with so many fans on the front lines, no one managed to get a picture!]

[Sisters, I can’t see past the mosaic, but I feel like the super mentor looks a bit like Gu Siye?]

[Gu Siye?? No way! Isn’t he abroad?]

[He came back last week.]

[Wow~]

[I’ll take your word for it. If the production team really invited my idol, I’ll kneel and call the show ‘daddy’ immediately.]

[While I feel like the hype fits Gu Siye’s status, he… he’s hard to invite, isn’t he?]

[This faithful female fan is willing to go vegetarian for three days and prays that the super mentor is Gu Siye.]

Although many people leaned toward the super mentor being Gu Siye, the editors’ mosaics were top-notch, and no one could find Gu Siye’s specific schedule, so the discussion was temporarily dropped.

However, even though the audience gave up on identifying the super mentor, their excitement didn’t fade. Their attention was immediately drawn to another shot in the preview.

Unlike the super mentor’s simple and crude mosaic, the editor didn’t put a mosaic on the person in this shot, instead giving a close-up of a specific part of him.

In the blurry shot, a young man in a white outfit appeared on screen.

The camera moved from the bottom up, first capturing a quick shot of his dance moves below his jaw, then immediately switching to a close-up of his beautiful eyes.

His head was turned slightly, and beneath his thick, long eyelashes, his eyes were proud and cold, like a clear, frosty lake.

But these cold and beautiful eyes had a slight upward curve at the corners, like a small hook that made people’s hearts itch.

This shot was less than a second long, a quick flash of a small, blurry clip, but it still managed to capture everyone’s attention and went viral.

[Ahhhhhhh, I can handle this little brother in white!!]

[The vibe is absolutely amazing!!]

[Brother, kill me! I want to marry him!]

[My god, what is with that gaze? It’s so innocent yet seductive. I love it.]

[I’m just going to call him my husband.]

[I need to know this trainee’s name in one minute!]

The close-up was so beautiful that it was quickly screenshotted and shared everywhere.

People were talking about it on Weibo and various forums, but since the sneaky editor hadn’t shown his face, people began to tag the fans of various trainees to identify him.

Seeing how popular the shot was, many fans blindly claimed it was their idol. Among them, Xuan Yihan’s fans were the most vocal, as they believed he was the best-looking trainee.

However, when everyone compared the shots more closely, they found no resemblance at all.

Xuan Yihan’s eyes weren’t as expressive, and their shape was completely different from the person in the video. He was immediately eliminated from the running.

Later, people expanded their search and even went through every single trainee, but no fan base could confidently say it was their idol.

Since the identity of the trainee couldn’t be confirmed, someone thought of the mentors.

But after comparing them, there were still no suitable candidates. Finally, someone thought of a person they had all forgotten.

[Sisters, I have a bold idea… Could this person… be Yanran?]

[We’ve gone through everyone, and he’s the only one left. And to be fair, he is quite pretty.]

As soon as this idea came out, it was immediately dismissed.

[What nonsense are you talking about? Didn’t you see the guy in the white outfit dance? To do those moves so well, you’d need at least three years of training. Yanran is useless, sings horribly, and can’t dance, so you should know that.]

[Yanran’s fans, stop taking credit. Does your idol have this level of skill?]

[If Yanran can dance, a sow can climb a tree.]

[I don’t want to hear the name Yanran. Get him out of my sight. Don’t taint the little brother in the white outfit.]

Someone had just made the suggestion when they were immediately attacked by anti-fans and were scared into silence.

No one was willing to believe that this person could be Lin Yanran, because in their eyes, his dancing alone was enough to disqualify him from being a candidate.

After that, when people realized they couldn’t figure out who the person was, the frustrated audience went straight to the show’s official Weibo account.

[You there? One minute, give me the name of the little brother in the white outfit!]

[Tell me who it is right now, or I’m not watching the show tomorrow, I swear.]

[I advise you, editor, to be smart and cut out the full clip right now, or you’re losing your chicken drumsticks.]

But no matter how the audience asked, the official Weibo account just played dumb and replied with QWQ, QAQ, and TAT.

Seeing that being aggressive didn’t work, they tried a softer approach.

[Wuwuwu, Official Weibo, I’ll give you kisses and hugs and lift you up, please just put me out of my misery QWQ.]

[If you won’t give me the name, at least give me a frontal shot. I love this beautiful brother so much; I can’t sleep tonight QAQ.]

[I strongly advise you to tell me who the brother in the white outfit is right now, or I might just have to kneel and beg you TAT.]

However, the official Weibo’s response was still the same three-piece set: QWQ, QAQ, and TAT.

The audience was going crazy from being teased by the production team.

This preview from the official Weibo account directly boosted the popularity of the first performance. The next morning, a full twelve hours before the show, the number of people who had reserved spots in the official live stream room had already reached seven digits.

On the day of the performance, Lin Yanran arrived at the studio very early.

Although the production team had said they would provide assistance with the trainees’ makeup, styling, and stage design, it was only assistance.

So, the mentors were responsible for their team’s costumes, props, makeup, and hairstyles for the performance.

The other three mentors were fine; they only had to voice their ideas, and their teams would handle the rest.

But Lin Yanran was different. He only had one assistant, Yingying, and he didn’t want her to work too hard.

So, he personally handled his team’s costumes and styling.

The costumes were fine; he had already talked to the production team two days prior, and they were ready.

But for the makeup and styling, since the makeup artists only came on the day of the show, he had to communicate with each one on the spot, explaining his vision for each trainee on stage.

Going through each person took a lot of his time, and his throat was starting to feel sore.

On top of the fact that he had barely slept in the past few days, after finishing the trainees’ styling, he went to the sofa in his lounge to rest, feeling very tired.

This was the scene that Gu Siye saw when he came to find Lin Yanran.

As his gaze fell on the faint dark circles under Lin Yanran’s eyes, a pang of sympathy went through him.

He had constantly shown a lively and positive side to the trainees in his team to encourage them, but now he was secretly hiding all his hard work and exhaustion, not letting anyone know.

When Yingying saw Gu Siye, she was about to greet him, but he raised his index finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet.

Gu Siye gently walked over to Lin Yanran’s side, looked around, and, not finding any blankets, took off his own jacket and covered him with it.

The man’s movements were gentle and delicate. As he bent down, from Yingying’s perspective, it looked as if he had kissed Lin Yanran’s face.

Ahhhhhh

Yingying held back the urge to ship them and mouthed a thank you to Gu Siye.

She had been so busy that she had completely forgotten to get a blanket for Brother Yanran…

An hour before the performance, all the trainees were called backstage.

The time and effort Lin Yanran had put into his team’s makeup and styling were now fully on display.

Every person in their group looked several times better than usual, and their costumes looked much nicer compared to the other groups.

Many trainees couldn’t help but take a few extra glances at their group.

The trainees in Pei Luo’s group, in particular, were extremely envious of Lin Yanran’s group’s makeup.

“You guys stayed up late training, too, so why does everyone in your group look so good? Your skin looks great, too.”

The person speaking was Li Feiye from Pei Luo’s group. They had been eating snacks sent by their mentor, Pei Luo, and many of them had broken out in acne just before the performance.

Their skin was already in bad condition from staying up late, and now with acne on their faces, not even concealer could hide it. It was a nightmare.

Xia Xingxing glanced at the acne on his face and said proudly, “Because we all soak our feet.”

Hearing Xia Xingxing’s ridiculous answer, Li Feiye looked at him as if he had just seen a ghost, completely in disbelief.

Lin Yanran woke up to find an extra jacket on him.

He asked Yingying and found out that Gu Siye had been here.

He looked at the time, and, seeing that the show was about to start, he quickly held the jacket in his hands, intending to return it to Gu Siye.

However, he had only walked a few steps when a staff member called him back to his group to give them a pep talk as their mentor.

Lin Yanran stood in front of the 15 trainees and asked them directly, “Are you nervous?”

Many of them nodded, and a lot of them showed their nervousness on their faces.

After all, people would be eliminated during the performance, and there was a chance that their entire group would be sent home after they performed.

Thinking about this possibility, the trainees, who didn’t have much stage experience, couldn’t help but feel concerned.

Lu Xiaomeng spoke his mind directly. “I actually think this might be our last stage.”

His tone wasn’t defeated; he seemed to have calmly accepted this fact.

But when he looked at the stage, his eyes still trembled slightly.

It was a mix of reluctance to leave the stage, a sense of resignation, and a refusal to give up on his dreams.

The others in his group felt the same way.

But there was nothing they could do; the rules of the show required live audience voting.

Although they were confident in their performance, their group’s popularity was relatively low, and they were up against the highly popular Pei Luo’s group, which put them at a disadvantage in terms of votes.

Lin Yanran patted Lu Xiaomeng’s shoulder, then gave each trainee a hug.

He didn’t encourage them as he had before. He simply stated a fact to them.

“Then let’s treat this as our last stage.”

“When we are unable to change others, we must hold fast to ourselves.”

“We’ve worked hard for three days. Tonight, let’s forget everything else and just enjoy the stage.”

As Lin Yanran finished, the 500 audience members took their seats.

With the clapboard countdown from the stage manager, the first Super Idol performance officially began.

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