DYUTVOBGA Chapter 5

Yanhai University, a girls’ dormitory.

“Eh? Tongtong, it looks like that [Next Stage] has released the first batch of the trainees’ official photos.”

Wei Man lifted the curtain of the upper bunk, poked her head out, and chatted with her roommate who was eating breakfast at the desk opposite: “I saw a lot of people discussing it on the forum. The first batch seems to be all from big companies.”

“Official photos?”

**Officially released profile photos of trainees.

Mi Tong was a BKL family fan. She had been chasing boy groups since middle school, and her footprints as a big fan could be found in the fourth, fifth, and sixth generation groups.

She was very familiar with routines like releasing official photos in batches. Every generation of BKL’s boy groups had to do this before the official announcement, releasing the leader, ace, main vocal, main dancer, and visual in order. Each photo could spark online abuse across the entire internet.

The reason was none other than – BKL’s official photos are so ugly!

Compared to the boy group members themselves, their attractiveness dropped by at least 3 levels. Other photo scams used heavy photoshop, only BKL was dedicated to supplying ugly pictures to anti-fans.

Real fans scolded and scolded until they gradually became immune. Whatever, they would spoil them anyway, but the damn company still needed to be scolded (smile).

Mi Tong remembered the initially released official photos for last year’s first domestic girl group survival show [Shining queen], jointly created by Youth TV and BKL. 99 beautiful girls were actually photographed to be even more unspeakable than ID card photos. The forums hot searches were flooded with negative reviews. She no longer had any expectations for official photos.

Although this year’s [NS] was jointly held by Youth TV and Galaxy Entertainment, Galaxy was even worse than BKL!

“What are the forum’s hot searches saying?” Mi Tong asked cautiously.

Wei Man, unaware of her roommate’s complex inner thoughts, lay on the bed scrolling through her phone: “Hot searches. Let me see, ‘BKL Trainee Surprisingly Appears in [NS]’?”

“Huh?”

Mi Tong abruptly sat up, immediately put down the chopsticks in her hand, picked up her phone, and clicked into the forum: “BKL? Are they crazy? BKL actually sent trainees to [NS]? Didn’t they have a falling out with the production team?”

As soon as she opened the forum, she saw a prominent high-ranking hot search at the top. Clicking in, the first hot post was the first batch of official photos released by the [NS[ official account.

@[Next Stage] Official

Topic: [The long-awaited first batch of official photo posters are here, come quickly to see if there’s a little brother you want to pick~ Likes exceeding 100k will unlock the next batch of trainee official photos oh [scatter flowers][scatter flowers][scatter flowers]] Content: [[picture.jpg]*9]

Mi Tong opened the large images, swiping through them one by one, her vision going dark, flashing, dark again, then flashing again.

“Ugly, ugly, average, ugly. This one is passable.” She muttered to herself, “Ugly, uglier, average, ugly.”

Mi Tong’s finger paused, her eyebrows raised slightly: “Huh? This one is quite handsome, he actually held up such a rigid official photo?”

A cheerful voice came from behind the upper bunk curtain: “Right, right? BKL’s Yan Qiao is so handsome, I really like his type of visuals!”

“What.” Mi Tong’s fingers flipped through the photos a few more times, “Yan Qiao. You mean the fifth photo? Not ugly, quite distinctive, but if we’re talking about the most handsome, it’s definitely Wen Xinyi in the last picture.”

Wei Man: “Wen Xinyi? He’s okay, his type of handsome is too standard, feels like you can’t remember his face.”

Mi Tong was helpless: “But objectively speaking, the most handsome is definitely Wen Xinyi. I estimate that just with this face, as long as it’s not a photo scam, he will definitely make it into the debut group, and most likely be the group’s visual.”

If she didn’t use fan filters, judging with her rich experience and sharp eye, this face could even compete with her favorite visual in the currently popular BKL sixth-generation boy group.

Wei Man wasn’t wrong either, Wen Xinyi’s face was indeed standard handsome guy material, with fair skin, clear and bright eyes and eyebrows, and a gentlemanly demeanor.

As for whether his recognition factor was high… this was a matter of opinion.

“But Yan Qiao is actually from BKL.” Mi Tong stared at the fifth photo, “The first five are all BKL trainees. Are these people getting the sacrifice to heaven script?”

**A “sacrifice to heaven script” is a scenario in competition shows where a popular and skilled contestant is unfairly eliminated to generate online drama, boost ratings, and clear the path for the show’s preferred winner by sacrificing a strong competitor.

Wei Man, however, was relieved: “Since they are trainees from BKL, their skills must be amazing. Tongtong, don’t you think this Yan Qiao’s face just screams the two words ‘strong’!”

Mi Tong laughed: “He really looks like he can dance, and his dancing should be very handsome.”

“Hey hey, then I can really look forward to it! When the show starts broadcasting, I want to vote for him!”

Wei Man, having gained her roommate’s agreement, happily got up from the bed and excitedly refreshed the forum: “100k likes to release the next batch. It’s already at 87k now, almost there!”

[NS] official released the photos in batches of 5-10 people. The first few batches were basically artists from well-known major companies, such as BKL, Wanming, Xinda, etc.

The middle batches featured companies that weren’t famous, and also included individual trainees, but the program team stamped certification on the lower right corner of their posters with attention-grabbing titles like “vocal king”, “top main dancer”, “national rapper competition champion”.

The last few batches were the “older group” who were once somewhat famous but now obscure. Most of them were faces familiar to melon-eating onlookers, mixed with a few internet celebrities active in their respective fields.

Topic: [Let’s discuss, 93 trainee official photos have been released so far, what does everyone think?]

1L: [Hehe :)]

2L: [My anticipation was wasted, so many guys, but the number of handsome ones can be counted on one hand]

3L: [What kind of fake AI faces. It was a mix of absolutely donkey-series, horse-series, and rat-series boys, either the photoshopper should consciously resign and change jobs, or the kids should go lie on the operating table, my eyes hurt:-(]

4L: [Damn it, I’m going to be scolded by the girls again for having an ugly fetish [crying]]

5L: [Currently ranked by looks: Qi Yang, Wen Xinyi, Cheng Shaozhi, Cui Yan. Only these four are barely acceptable]

6L: [Is it possible it’s a problem with the official photo shooting. Xue Mingzhu… that national rapper competition champion, he was on a Youth TV rap show before, he was very handsome even with no makeup on the show, the most handsome among those rappers, I don’t understand why the official photo turned out like this]

7L: [Is being the most handsome among rappers something to be proud of, dear?]

8L: [Never mind whether they’re handsome or not, the heat is certainly there, fuck, over a dozen hot searches! Other posts in our group are already tearing into each other. Aren’t Wen Xinyi and Qi Yang both ordinary people? Where did so many fans come from to fight over who’s the visual? They might not even debut, and they’re already arguing about who’s the visual?]

9L: [? Wrong, these two aren’t pure ordinary people. One performed on the Spring Festival Gala when he was little, one acted as a supporting male lead in a web drama, they both have fan bases, ok?]

10L: [7L, look more carefully, it’s not just those two families tearing into each other, Cheng Shaozhi and Yan Qiao are also fighting]

11L: [It’s all the program team’s fault. Yan Qiao has been a trainee at BKL for seven years, always trained to be the main dancer. He’s been a backup dancer for BKL’s fifth and sixth generation boy groups before, super amazing! But the program team put the “top main dancer” label on Cheng Shaozhi, on purpose, right!]

12L: [Hehe, of course it’s on purpose 🙂 The two families’ fans tear into each other and the heat rises, outsiders will mistakenly think their dance skills are on par, and then someone gains both heat and skill certification, it’s really awesome XP]

13L: [Don’t rush to argue yet, there’s still the last batch of official photos not released, maybe there’s still a hidden ace contestant [dog head][dog head]]
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853L: [Help, there’s a god in the last batch!!!!]

“Bang!!!”

Mi Tong heard a loud noise, turned around and saw Wei Man’s phone fall from the upper bunk and hit the ground.

She quickly got up, helped Wei Man pick it up, and checked if the phone screen was cracked, but unexpectedly came face to face with a [NS] trainee’s white-background official photo poster.

It should be [NS]’s, right?

Mi Tong unconsciously widened her eyes, staring blankly at the boy on the screen, thinking: “Is this a real person? A [NS> trainee? Not something photoshopped by a netizen.”

The boy in the photo had sharp and smooth facial contours, deep-set eyes, tight and full skin and bones, three-dimensional features with moderate volume, a striking appearance that was stunning at first glance.

However, his cheeks still had a bit of flesh, and the tip of his nose was slightly round, giving his whole face some youthful childishness, so it was clear he was not very old. Paired with his expressionless, fierce and cold demeanor, the contrast was instantly maximized.

Mi Tong swallowed, her fingertips on the screen twitching slightly.

‘Fuck, so handsome!’

“Tongtong! Tongtong! My phone!”

Wei Man started wailing: “It’s over, I’ve fallen in love at first sight, mom! So handsome, so handsome, how can someone look like this, ahhh Tongtong!!”

Mi Tong slowly handed the phone back: “…Xiao Man, is this the last batch of trainees?”

Wei Man: “Yes yes!! Holy shit, someone said his green eyes are natural, is it true…Oh my god, is he mixed race? Right right, his mixed race features are quite obvious, they’re mixed so perfectly, so perfectly wuuuu.”

Mi Tong took a deep breath, trying hard to control her wildly beating heart, sat back at her own desk, and opened the forum with trembling hands.

She was a face-con, a very very very appearance-focused face-con.

As long as her bias had a good face, she could endlessly tolerate their skills, personality, IQ, and EQ.

Obviously, she was never a group fan of BKL’s boy groups, but always a die-hard solo fan of the boy group’s visual.

As for whether she was a toxic solo fan or a sweet solo fan, it varied from person to person.

Mi Tong stared at the name marked in the lower right corner of the poster…Quentin? Is it a Chinese name or a transliteration of an English name?

Her expression still looked calm, but her finger movements were nimble, quickly following the account @ mentioned in the program team’s announcement hot post to find Quentin, and immediately clicked follow.

‘Hmm, let’s set a special follow too.’

Quentin’s forum account was empty, with 0 posts and 0 follows, clearly a new account, only the fan count was skyrocketing.

Mi Tong went back to check the time when [NS] officially announced the last batch of trainee official photos; only a few dozen minutes had passed, and Quentin’s fan count had already risen to 50k. You should know, the program team’s announcement post only had 40k likes!

This meant that many people forgot to even like after seeing this post, and like Mi Tong, directly crawled to Quentin’s account and clicked follow without hesitation.

It was really…hard not to be moved when stared at by these emerald-like eyes.

Within half an hour after all trainee posters were officially announced, #[Next Stage] mixed race god-like visual# climbed up the hot search step by step relying on organic traffic.

The discussion group surged wildly with countless related hot posts, filled with various rainbow farts and comments howling and screaming, @ the program team to release more behind-the-scenes information.

Topic: [NS, you’ve done so much evil!! What were you thinking saving the best-looking kid for last?!

Saving him for last is one thing, but you actually didn’t give this god-like visual any screen time in the promotional short??? The food is delivered to your mouth and you still won’t eat?!]

1L: [I was wondering how I could have no impression of Quentin’s face, turns out he didn’t appear in the promotional video at all?]

2L: [Everyone calm down, Quentin seems to be that temporarily added 101st trainee, he wasn’t there when they filmed the promotional video]

3L: [I want to know who has such unique insight to dig up this level of handsome guy and put him in a survival show, BKL’s gold medal talent scout must have a place for you!]

4L: [The most amazing thing is not just this face, but also the temperament, ahhh too amazing!!

So fierce, so spicy, NS I will never complain about your poor photography skills again wuwuwu]

5L: [This guy and everyone else are not in the same style…it’s just outrageous. It’s hard to imagine how brutal the side-by-side comparison will be during program recording]

6L: [Seriously, even if Quentin only has a face to look at, I would still vote him into debut, this face is born to be in a boy group ahhh!!]

7L: [Correct, objective, fair, hits the nail on the head]

8L: [Is anyone in the group still fighting over who’s the visual? No more, right? No one is humiliating themselves here anymore [shrugs]]

9L: [Okay, the perfect face group in my mind is already 5/7 formed, the remaining two spots just don’t be too ugly [lotus][lotus][lotus]]