A Mid-Autumn special?! Being part of a special was certainly excellent! The program’s games and props would all be upgraded, and holiday specials always had much higher viewership than regular episodes, with guaranteed platform promotion.
Xu Baichuan agreed on the spot: “That works, I’ll put it on their schedule.”
Director Luo said with a smile: “Then it’s settled.”
****
Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian walked side by side toward their apartment.
The street at 10 PM was brightly lit. Mo Xun looked back and carefully observed Fang Yinnian, whose face appeared fair and delicate in the streetlight. His eyebrows and eyes were particularly handsome, as if carved by the creator himself as a work of art.
With his long, slender eyelashes, his entire face appeared especially gentle—the kind of boy-next-door look that elders and girls typically favored.
But no matter how you looked at him, he was still a handsome young man—both of them had the same male biology.
Mo Xun couldn’t help but laugh softly.
Fang Yinnian asked with confusion: “What are you laughing at?”
Mo Xun said: “Why do they think we have CP chemistry?”
Right in front of them was a clothing store with a mirrored entrance.
Mo Xun stopped walking, pulled Fang Yinnian to stand beside him, and thoughtfully looked at their reflection in the mirror: “Do we look compatible?”
Fang Yinnian tilted his head and glanced at him: “What’s gotten into you?”
Mo Xun burst out laughing, casually ruffled Fang Yinnian’s hair, and said softly: “You really don’t understand anything.”
Fang Yinnian replied defiantly: “I understand now. CP chemistry is metaphysical, based on a vibe—it’s just that this concept of ‘vibe’ is difficult to grasp.”
In the mirror, the two young men stood side by side, one 19 and one 18 years old. Mo Xun was half a head taller than Fang Yinnian, and there was an obvious difference in their height and skin tone. Perhaps in the fans’ eyes, their images complemented each other?
Anyway, if fans wanted to ship them, let them ship. Fang Yinnian didn’t find it offensive or problematic.
Mo Xun looked at him and said gently: “It’s okay if you don’t understand. CP fans will do their own shipping—we don’t need to deliberately do anything. We’re still young, let’s focus on our careers first. Didn’t you really want to be a singer?”
Fang Yinnian said seriously: “Unfortunately, the vocal abilities of boy band idols rarely receive recognition from the mainstream music industry. Even though we’re a harmony group, truly becoming ‘singers’ is still far away.”
Mo Xun said: “Let’s take it step by step. I’m looking forward to Teacher Yu coming back in October to write songs for us. Variety shows are just for maintaining visibility—we’re not variety specialists, so we shouldn’t lose sight of our main focus.”
Fang Yinnian nodded in agreement: “Yes, I think so too. Dance and vocals should be our priority, with variety shows just as support—we shouldn’t invert our priorities.”
Rather than CP fans, they both hoped FTM could attract fans who genuinely appreciated their songs and dances, as that was the true foundation of their career.
The two exchanged smiles, and just as the pedestrian light turned green, they walked side by side across the street toward their apartment building.
When they returned to the dormitory, their three teammates were watching the replay of “Red-Blue Competition” on the TV in the living room.
Hearing the door, all three turned around. Tan Junwen said with a smile: “The couple is back? Did Old Xu tell you to continue your CP marketing?”
Mo Xun walked over and knocked on his head: “What couple? Watch what you’re saying—want me to hit you?”
Tan Junwen quickly said: “Brother Nian, protect me! The captain’s threatening to hit me.”
Fang Yinnian said: “Hit him an extra time for me.”
Tan Junwen: “…”
Fu Fei scratched his head with a smile: “What did Brother Xu talk to you guys about?”
Mo Xun changed his shoes and came to the living room, saying: “He just asked about our thoughts on CP marketing, then said the company hadn’t prepared any plans and hadn’t expected our CP to take off, so we should just act naturally.”
The three: “…”
Tang Che coldly remarked: “Act naturally—truly worthy of being called a makeshift operation.”
Fang Yinnian said: “I don’t understand marketing either. CP fans will use their imagination regardless. Mo Xun and I just discussed that dance and vocals are still the most important right now. Everyone should continue to focus on classes starting tomorrow and work on our weaknesses.”
Fu Fei scratched his head: “Why does this feel like parents returning from a parent-teacher conference and assigning family tasks?”
Tan Junwen collapsed laughing on the sofa: “Hahaha, daddy and mommy. Xiao Fei, you’ve already grasped the essence of CP shipping.”
Tang Che rolled his eyes: “Can’t you all be more serious?”
Mo Xun said: “By the way, this variety show had good results—everyone should post something on Weibo to interact with fans.”
Speaking of this, Fu Fei suddenly opened Weibo and pointed at the data: “Our Weibo followers are growing so fast—this growth is even more intense than our debut day.”
Tan Junwen said: “Today is Friday—more people will probably discover this variety show over the weekend, right?”
Fu Fei nodded excitedly: “I think we’ve had a small breakthrough!”
This was a result no one had anticipated.
The small unknown group’s first variety show appearance—they had lost all three rounds, yet broke through to mainstream attention because they were so funny, attracting a large number of casual viewers.
Although they gained attention not for their stage performances or works, getting noticed was a good thing.
Fans accumulated gradually, bit by bit. In industry terms, their variety show appearance qualified as “effective exposure.”
Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun also sat down in the living room, and everyone watched the replay of “Red-Blue Competition” Episode 30 again.
When recording the show, all five had been nervous, afraid of being mocked for losing and afraid their manager would scold them. But now, watching the show from an observer’s perspective… it was indeed quite funny.
No wonder netizens called them “meme generators”—many of their actions could be screenshotted to make emojis.
Especially the final animal imitation segment. Xiao Fei imitating a sparrow and Tang Che imitating a penguin were super funny, and Fang Yinnian’s lamb imitation at the end was particularly cute.
Everyone laughed while watching.
Finally, Fu Fei couldn’t help saying: “It’s over—I don’t think we’ll ever shake off this ‘comedy boy band’ label.”
Everyone: “…”
They hadn’t intentionally tried to be funny. Unfortunately, they had natural comedic talent and had generated dozens of memes from just one variety show appearance.
Weibo even featured an “FTM Meme Collection.”
The five silently downloaded the meme collection and sent each other’s embarrassing images in their group chat. After mutually inflicting this emotional damage, they felt better and lined up to shower and sleep.
The next day was August 31st, Saturday.
After a night of public opinion fermentation, the Taohe platform’s “Red-Blue Competition” variety show saw another surge in viewership, with bullet comments even exceeding 5 million.
Such a high number of comments for a single episode was enough to rank on the annual charts. Taohe’s staff were extremely excited—their year-end bonuses were secured!
FTM, this small unknown group, was truly their lucky star, having managed to make an obscure variety show popular right after their debut.
The Taohe platform pinned a large promotional banner on their homepage, seizing this tremendous wave of traffic.
Meanwhile, on this Saturday, the #MagicCubeWorld# CP super topic actually broke into the top five of Weibo’s “CP Popularity Rankings.”
These were rookies who had just debuted and only made two public appearances!
Their popularity was so puzzling even to industry insiders.
When Mo Xun woke up in the morning, he saw that Fu Fei had sent a message to the group: “Brothers, the Magic Cube CP super topic has broken into the top five, and there’s another trending video on Bilibili. Damn, we’re about to blow up!”
Xiao Fei was always at the forefront of following trends, constantly reporting news to the group.
Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian immediately opened their computers and logged into Bilibili.
Besides critique and ranking content creators, Bilibili also had a group of incredibly skilled content creators—those who specialized in video editing, known in the community as “scissors masters.”
There was no CP you could imagine that they couldn’t create through editing. There was no CP beyond their editing capabilities.
Under the operations of these “scissors masters,” all kinds of cross-drama pairings emerged in abundance. Even actors in the entertainment industry with absolutely no connection could be paired with appropriate background music and edited into emotional stories of joy, sorrow, separation, reunion, and tragic love.
This was especially true for boy band members who already had interactions.
Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian had made very few public appearances—just the August 18th debut stage performance and the August 30th variety show debut.
Yet from just these short two-plus hours, a content creator named “I Ship CPs Proudly” with millions of followers had created an incredibly sweet CP promotional video.
Their debut stage duet harmony, with deep and bright voices blending together, was not only pleasant to the ears, but crucially, when they sang their duet harmony, they also exchanged smiles and made eye contact.
“Do you understand this eye contact?”
Although the content creator’s voice had been mechanically processed in post-production, the obvious excitement was still audible: “It’s truly amazing—I immediately joined the fandom in a second!”
The bullet comment section was scrolling frantically.
[The eye contact was so sweet]
[Just joined the fandom yesterday and already getting content? The content creator is incredibly fast!]
[I’m eagerly consuming this sweetness, already lying comfortably at the bottom of this fandom pit]
[Never expected their voices to complement each other so well ahhh]
Fang Yinnian looked at the video footage with confusion: “This isn’t the officially shot video, right? The angle is different.”
Mo Xun said: “This is a fan site admin’s direct recording.”
Fang Yinnian heard an unfamiliar term: “Fan site admin?”
Mo Xun explained: “They’re dedicated fans with money and time who are willing to support their favorite celebrities offline, carrying professional-grade photography equipment to record videos and take photos at events, then process and share them online.”
Fang Yinnian nodded in understanding: “Oh, we definitely didn’t have fan site admins on our debut day. Was this shot by another celebrity’s fan site admin?”
Mo Xun said: “Let me check the video watermark… QiQiMiaoMiao? This should be Xie Shiqi’s fan site admin who happened to record our performance.”
This fan site admin was clearly sitting in the front row of the venue, very close to the stage, and the footage was quite high-definition.
The official debut stage recording was the concert’s livestream version, with many wide-angle shots of the stage and audience. There weren’t many close-up shots of the five members, making their faces often invisible.
But this fan site admin had recorded entirely in close-up. Her angle perfectly captured Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian’s faces.
So her “live direct recording” uploaded online was a perfect close-up of Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun throughout.
When Fang Yinnian was playing the piano with his eyes closed, Mo Xun was watching him.
When they sang in harmony, they smiled and looked at each other.
When Fang Yinnian performed the final a cappella ending, Mo Xun smiled at him again, and after finishing, the two exchanged another glance.
When the five walked down from the lifting platform to the center stage, due to unexpected circumstances, FTM was kept on stage by the host. While Mo Xun was talking to the host, Fang Yinnian watched him the entire time.
The content creator’s excited voice came again: “The captain is speaking, and Nian Nian is smiling while watching the captain the whole time. My goodness, this gaze… it’s like, a wife watching her husband speak—you know what I mean?”
The bullet comment section was full of “I know!” and “I’m shipping them to death!”
Fang Yinnian: “…”
Why don’t I, the actual person, understand this?
Later, when the host asked them to harmonize on the spot, Mo Xun leaned close to Fang Yinnian’s ear to discuss quietly, and Fang Yinnian also whispered in his ear.
“This is practically forcing us to ship them!”
“Their mouths and ears are almost touching…”
“They exchange a glance, nod in confirmation—so shippable!”
Mo Xun: “…”
When the host asked them to harmonize on the spot, wasn’t it completely normal for him to consult with the main vocalist Fang Yinnian?
The following edits were also full of various “sweet moments.”
For instance, Mo Xun instinctively reaching out to protect Fang Yinnian during their chain fall; the two asking if each other was hurt; exchanging food during the dark cuisine punishment.
The content creator even specifically enlarged the image of their used spoons, saying that using each other’s spoons was equivalent to an indirect kiss.
Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian: “…”
Sorry, they truly hadn’t realized this.
Watching this video, the two had expressions like the “confused elderly person looking at a smartphone” meme.
After finishing it, Mo Xun couldn’t help laughing: “They really can imagine things!”
Fang Yinnian casually followed the content creator, liked the video, and sent coins (a form of support on Bilibili).
Mo Xun: “You’re even liking and sending coins for this?”
Fang Yinnian said: “She collected so many materials, even finding direct recordings from fan site admins. Editing this video must have been quite laborious—I’ll support with all three interactions.”
Mo Xun laughed helplessly: “You don’t mind them imagining things like this?”
Fang Yinnian turned to look at Mo Xun: “What’s there to mind?”
Netizens shipping CPs was just self-entertainment.
Fang Yinnian said with a smile: “I think they’re quite lively and cute. From a simple glance, they can imagine a 10,000-word novel.”
Hearing this, Mo Xun couldn’t help laughing too: “Indeed, shipping CPs is all about imagination. Only the fake ones can be shipped—real couples in the entertainment industry usually hide very well.”
Fang Yinnian nodded: “Exactly. If one day we started avoiding each other or felt awkward appearing together, that’s when we’d be showing guilty consciences…”
Mo Xun interrupted him: “That day will never come.”
Fang Yinnian paused, realizing he had misspoken.
How could that day ever come for him and Mo Xun?
They would only interact normally like good friends, while fans amused themselves with imaginative shipping, and the FTM boy band would continue to steadily progress.
***
Over the weekend, the viewership of “Red-Blue Competition” Episode 30 continued to increase. At the same time, the #MagicCubeWorld# CP super topic exceeded 200,000 followers, almost rivaling the CPs from summer hit dramas in popularity.
The five FTM members’ Weibo accounts also experienced a new wave of explosive follower growth.
Fang Yinnian was the first to exceed 500,000 followers, with Mo Xun close behind. Tan Junwen, Tang Che, and Fu Fei all reached around 400,000 as well.
The following September was the school term. The five attended school during the day and company classes at night. When Fang Yinnian and Tang Che had free time, they practiced dance even more, keeping as busy as non-stop spinning tops.
When they had time, Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun would log into Weibo to interact with fans, but they never commented on each other’s posts. There was no need to sell it too obviously—it was more comfortable to interact just as they always had.
FTM’s official studio released “FTM-September Schedule.”
Many celebrity studios released monthly schedules to let fans know about upcoming activities, and some fans would follow these offline events.
As soon as this schedule was published, it immediately sparked discussion.
The schedule was simple, consisting of only three lines:
September 14, Saturday: Recording for variety show “Desperate Escape Room.”
September 27, Friday: Recording for “Red-Blue Competition” Mid-Autumn Festival special.
Remaining time: Classes at the company.
Fans: “!!!”
The topic area immediately erupted with discussion.
“The small unknown group actually got booked for an escape room show?”
“I have to say our small unknown group’s manager is quite impressive”
“Desperate Escape Room?! Damn, real-life battle royale, looking forward to it!”
“I heard this show is really scary, go small unknown group!”
“Can a comedy boy band complete an escape room? Let’s wait and see!”
![After losing all his wealth, the ancestor rose from his coffin [BL]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Your-paragraph-text-1.png "After losing all his wealth, the ancestor rose from his coffin [BL]")
![President Huo Wants Me to Restore His Reputation [Entertainment Circle]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/03-cd6f642.jpg "President Huo Wants Me to Restore His Reputation [Entertainment Circle]")
