Fang Yinnian smiled without saying anything—he felt the later cover contests wouldn’t make much of a splash.
Because the first person to eat the cake gets the most benefits.
Sure enough, the singers who later copied FTM’s cover contest format, although some generated buzz through marketing, were far from matching FTM’s original viral nationwide coverage.
Netizens complained: “Why is everyone copying FTM’s cover contests?” “FTM’s separate tracks were more fun.”
So every time a singer held a cover contest, netizens would dig up FTM’s original cover contest works to revisit.
This actually became free promotion for FTM.
Soon it was April. The five spent their days attending classes at school, with the rest of their time at the company singing and practicing dance.
Fang Yinnian’s follower growth was amazing during this period, and he gained high recognition at school.
Although Jiangzhou Music Academy had produced many singers, among the younger generation, especially current students, Fang Yinnian was currently the only one who had made a name for himself.
Teachers treated him especially well. When he needed leave, approvals came quickly, since “celebrity students” helped with art school recruitment.
After class one day, two underclassmen boldly approached him for autographs: “Senior Yinnian, we’re first-year vocal majors and really love you. Could you sign autographs for us?”
Fang Yinnian was stunned for a moment, then smiled: “Of course.”
Encountering fans at school was actually quite awkward. When he was signing just now, all his classmates were watching.
Fang Yinnian walked to the subway station feeling unsettled, but when he saw Mo Xun waiting for him in the distance, his heart suddenly felt much more at ease.
He relaxed his brow and walked over quickly: “Mo Xun.”
Mo Xun smiled and nodded at Fang Yinnian: “Let’s go.”
Just as they were about to enter the subway station, suddenly over a dozen girls rushed over and surrounded them.
“Ahhh Mo Ge, it’s really you guys!”
“Yinnian, Yinnian, can you sign autographs for us?”
“Ahhh so handsome!”
Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun exchanged surprised glances.
The fans were too crowded, their screams deafening.
Mo Xun calmly reached out to protect Fang Yinnian, smiling: “Everyone line up, we’ll sign autographs for you, okay? Don’t push.”
Several fans immediately formed a line.
Fortunately there weren’t many people. Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian quickly signed autographs. While signing, Fang Yinnian asked the braided girl in front of him: “How did you know Mo Xun and I would be at this subway station?”
The girl was so excited to be asked by her idol that her voice trembled: “On-online, your class schedules were exposed…”
Another relatively calmer girl said: “We came to try our luck after seeing the news. We didn’t expect to actually meet you two.”
“Keep it up! Many people in our class like FTM!”
“Thank you.” Fang Yinnian handed back the autograph book. “Everyone should head back now. We need to return to the company.”
“Bye bye Nian Nian!” “Mo Ge is so handsome, keep fighting!”
Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian quickly walked into the subway station.
After the subway started moving, Mo Xun frowned and whispered in Fang Yinnian’s ear: “Good thing they were just fans wanting autographs, not sasaeng fans who would follow us relentlessly.”
Fang Yinnian’s heart was still racing irregularly. Previously, he’d only met fans at airports, gala venues, and other public events.
Today was the first time fans had invaded his daily life. He felt very uncomfortable, like his privacy had been violated.
At least they weren’t sasaeng fans.
If they’d encountered sasaeng fans following them on the subway, they’d probably have to call police and go to the station for statements.
Fang Yinnian took a deep breath and whispered: “That girl said our class schedules were exposed online?”
Mo Xun’s eyes darkened: “Yes, seems like someone wants to deliberately annoy us and cause trouble.”
Fang Yinnian grew more irritated thinking about it: “This will affect our normal classes. What should we do?”
Mo Xun said: “Starting tomorrow we’ll drive to school. If we leave early, there won’t be traffic, and no one should recognize my car.”
Fang Yinnian nodded helplessly: “That’s all we can do for now.”
After returning to the dorm, Fang Yinnian asked the other teammates.
Everyone had actually encountered fans.
Mo Xun called their manager to report this. Xu Baichuan said: “I’ve already contacted them to delete the posts exposing your schedules online, but fans have already downloaded and shared them among themselves—can’t clean it up completely.”
Mo Xun frowned: “Can we restrain them somehow? I’m afraid if too many people gather, there could be safety issues, and FTM would end up on social news headlines.”
Xu Baichuan said: “Having many offline fans shows your popularity is rising. Don’t worry, tomorrow I’ll have the fan club issue a statement asking fans to keep their distance and not disturb your normal school life.”
With the manager’s assurance, everyone finally relaxed.
The next day, FTM’s official studio and fan club jointly issued statements hoping everyone would “chase stars” without “plucking stars.” The five FTM members were students in addition to being artists. They asked fans not to block them at schools or subway stations, affecting their normal study life.
Most fans were rational and listened to advice.
A small portion of uncontrollable radical fans still camped at subway stations—from that day on, the five didn’t dare take the subway anymore.
Fu Fei’s school was close, Tang Che and Junwen went the same way, so Xu Baichuan arranged for Driver Jiang to pick them up daily.
Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian drove themselves to school. After several days of fans not finding them, they gradually dispersed.
The management team suppressed this incident.
But the mastermind who exposed their schedules still made Fang Yinnian uneasy—FTM was rising too fast, with many industry people watching them, hoping they’d make mistakes.
Even if they didn’t make mistakes themselves, someone would maliciously set traps to lead them into errors. In this industry, every step was truly like walking on thin ice.
The more this happened, the harder the five worked.
They had to become top stars and let those pulling strings behind their backs be jealous!
At the end of April.
Everyone had finally mastered the choreography for “Blazing,” and the studio version audio was completed.
Fu Fei curiously asked their manager: “Brother Xu, when will our third single be released? Can we make it for the May Day holiday?”
The first song “For the Music” and second song “Secret Garden” were both directly uploaded to music platforms.
Everyone naturally assumed the third would also be directly uploaded.
Unexpectedly, Xu Baichuan kept it mysterious: “The release format for the third single will have some novelty.”
Fang Yinnian noticed their manager had been very busy recently.
Previously, when they practiced at the company, Xu Baichuan would often come by to check on them, but in the past month, they’d barely seen him.
Could his busyness be related to the new song?
Fang Yinnian smiled: “Brother Xu, what novelty? Can’t you tell us?”
Meeting Fang Yinnian’s curious eyes, Xu Baichuan’s heart softened. He said helplessly: “Alright, alright. I originally wanted to wait until the contract was signed, but I’ll tell you now since it’s almost finalized.”
Contract signing? Everyone immediately perked up their ears.
Xu Baichuan cleared his throat and explained: “Yuntu Satellite TV and Taohe Platform are jointly creating a program called ‘Music Billboard.’ This will be Chinese entertainment’s first official music show stage.”
Mo Xun’s eyes lit up—music show stage?!
Japan and Korea had many music show stages, especially Korea, where their music show format was quite competitive. Solo singers and idol groups releasing new songs would compete on the same stage, with live rankings.
Such music show stages were also the best promotional avenue for singers.
Chinese entertainment currently had no official live music show stages. Most music variety shows were recorded and edited before broadcast.
Yuntu Satellite TV was one of the three major stations with highest domestic ratings, and Taohe Platform was a massive video platform with over 100 million users. Their collaboration on a music show would definitely create a new trend!
Mo Xun loved dancing and stages. Hearing this news excited him, and he couldn’t help asking: “Is it live performance with on-site ranking selection?”
“Exactly.” Xu Baichuan smiled. “The first episode officially airs in May. Singers who released new songs this year can bring their works to perform on this stage, with live voting by a public jury.”
The five exchanged glances, excited but nervous.
Live performance, live voting, fully open mics—the pressure would be enormous. If they messed up singing, the vote count would look terrible, right?
“Where did the judging panel come from?” Fang Yinnian asked curiously.
“Yuntu Satellite TV found 1,000 people from across the country, including music critics, music producers, media reporters, and others,” Xu Baichuan revealed. “They will listen to the songs live and vote for them, selecting a weekly champion each week with a 50,000 yuan prize.”
“There’s actually prize money?” Fu Fei scratched his head. “Isn’t that prize a bit small?”
“The prize money is just a gimmick. The key is that this is the first live music show stage in Chinese entertainment, which will definitely attract massive attention.”
Xu Baichuan smiled and said, “Do you want to be the first to try something new?”
“Yes!” all five answered without hesitation.
“Great, I’ll sign the contract tomorrow. You’ll be on the first week’s show, singing our third single ‘Blazing.'”
“FTM will debut their single on ‘Music Billboard,’ and the production team will also help with promotion. I hope this novel way of releasing songs can bring some surprises to your fans and the entire Chinese entertainment industry.”
The five exchanged glances, all feeling incredibly excited.
Their manager was really thoughtful, having them appear on a music show instead of continuing with those comedy variety shows.
Music shows test professional skills. Appearing on more of these shows could train their vocals and help them improve faster.
That night, everyone practiced dancing until very late before going back.
Fu Fei said happily, “Our knife formation dance this time is even cooler than last time. I’m very confident about the music show stage!”
Mo Xun said calmly, “It also depends on who the opponents are. The first episode will probably invite some heavyweight singers to anchor the show.”
Fang Yinnian agreed, “That’s right. With this live music show and on-site competition format, if the opponents are strong, we might not necessarily win.”
Fu Fei scratched his head, “Will we get criticized if we lose?”
Mo Xun said, “It doesn’t matter. We’ll just do our best and treat it as a promotional platform. Don’t put too much pressure on yourselves.”
Although he said this, everyone still felt quite pressured.
After all, with live voting and competition, if they performed poorly and came in last place, how embarrassing would that be?
Mo Xun was quite calm, saying, “Music show stages won’t be as complex and massive as the New Year’s Eve galas or Spring Festival galas we’ve participated in. Singers won’t design particularly flashy entrance methods either. With limited stage space, we’ll just treat it like dancing in the practice room. Everyone relax.”
After hearing the captain’s words, the others also felt relieved.
No matter what, as the first music show in Chinese entertainment, the broadcast would definitely cause various controversies. The results didn’t matter—by daring to go on stage, they had already surpassed a bunch of “studio singers” who didn’t dare to sing live.
On May 1st, the five FTM members flew to Yun City together.
At the same time, the official Weibo account called “Music Billboard” finally released official news—
“The first episode of ‘Music Billboard,’ jointly created by Yuntu Satellite TV and Taohe Platform, will air simultaneously on Yuntu Satellite TV and the Taohe Video APP on Saturday, May 3rd at 8 PM!”
“Music show rules: A judging panel of 1,000 volunteers will score the singers based on their performances that day and rank them.”
“The first episode’s participating guests are listed below in alphabetical order—”
“FTM Boy Band ‘Blazing'”
“He Yan ‘Chasing Light'”
“Ji Ying ‘Thorn Bird'”
“Tang Liao ‘Nights Missing You'”
“Zhong Xiulin ‘Against the Wind'”
Seeing this lineup and promotion, the entire Chinese entertainment industry was stunned.
Fully live music performances?! How dare they!
And how did FTM, those idols, get in there too? Such courage.
Online public opinion exploded completely, with #MusicBillboard# being discussed into trending topics.
“Damn, does Chinese entertainment finally have a music show stage?”
“Now there’s something exciting to watch!”
“Whether you’re a mule or a horse, let’s see you perform. All those big singers should come and show their skills~”
“I bet some people won’t dare to come, especially the lip-sync faction”
“And the half-open mic faction and 20% open mic faction—coming to embarrass themselves?”
“Everyone who’s released songs recently should go. Such a good promotional opportunity—sing live and let’s see!”
“This show will definitely have lots of drama. I must check it out.”
At this time, in FTM’s dorm, Mo Xun’s expression was complex because he had received a message from He Yan: “Damn, you guys are also going to Music Billboard? We’re going head-to-head!”
Mo Xun sent back a smiley face: “Brother Yan, what a coincidence.”
He Yan sent back a sharpening-knives emoji: “I won’t go easy on you guys.”
Mo Xun: “…”
Xiao Fei was already wailing nearby: “My god, the first episode is all senior artists! Even our company’s Brother Yan would be considered a junior in this lineup, right? Teacher Ji Ying is actually coming!”
Ji Ying was already 50 years old. During the New Year’s Eve gala, her four consecutive fully live songs had impressed Fang Yinnian greatly.
He didn’t expect her to come to this music show stage too.
Weren’t these anchoring guests a bit too impressive?
Fang Yinnian took a deep breath and smiled, “Our vocals can’t compare with our seniors. Everyone, let’s work hard. No matter what the final results are, we’ll give it our all!”
##
