CH 17

Chapter 17 – Bouncing Up From The Bottom

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While they were on-stage, they maintained the quality and air that idols should have no matter how difficult the situation became. However, once they stepped off the stage and returned to the lounge, the six big boys all had lingering fears in their hearts, with Ling Yi even directly starting to shed tears. 

“Did I sing badly?” He reached out in a panic and wiped his eyes. “I couldn’t hear what I was singing, what to do, I’m really sorry everyone, I shouldn’t have said anything about my voice breaking before the show.” 

“Aiya, it’s okay. You sang so well, and your voice didn’t break. The wails that came out of your throat caused me to directly break out into goosebumps.” Lu Yuan pulled him into his arms, but then energetically rubbed his hair. “Purr, purr, little kitty, there’s no need to get scared silly.”

“Don’t mess up my hair! It took a long time to blow dry it and style it that way! ” Ling Yi pushed him away, and his bitter expression just happened to get caught by the ensemble show camera. He immediately covered his face up. “Don’t film me, cut it out!”

“Cutting it, cutting it, this section has to be cut.” Jiang Miao was about to go up and hug him, but He Ziyan seized him instead and handed him some candy. “Don’t go too fast. You didn’t eat before you went on-stage, and you didn’t crouch or sit down after getting down, so be careful you don’t feel faint later.”

Pei Tingsong was originally watching the fun when he suddenly realized they were missing a person. Only after turning his head did he realize that Fang Juexia was sitting alone, right by the corner of a wall.

He walked up, and although he was concerned, he still used a tone that made him seem completely unconcerned. “Hey, there’s a sofa, so why are you sitting on the ground?”

Fang Juexia didn’t answer, his head still buried in his arms. 

Seeing him like this, Pei Tingsong wanted to pull him up, but also felt that if he did so, it would be very strange. “Your ears have been defeated, right?” Saying that, he went to pull at Fang Juexia’s arm but didn’t manage to move it.

However, at last, he heard this guy speak.

“My legs have gone soft…”

Pfft.

Pei Tingsong couldn’t help laughing, and it got to the point where he couldn’t stop. Fang Juexia was a bit dissatisfied and looked up at him as he asked, “Is it that funny?”

“En, funny.” Pei Tingsong crouched down, facing his icy cold face, and replied, “On the stage just now, you were so bold, leading the entire venue in charging forward. I thought you weren’t afraid at all.”

When smiling, he looked more childlike. “So it turns out that you also have times when you panic ah.”

Fang Juexia just kept staring at him, but this look of his just made Pei Tingsong feel that he was cute, and reminded him of the kind of kitty that didn’t like to stick close to people. 

“Alright, if you let them see this later, they’ll think that I’m bullying you again.” Pei Tingsong pulled at his arm, and propped him up, off of the ground. “If your legs have gone soft, don’t be arrogant, sitting on the sofa is better than being on the ground.”

“…… Thank you.” Fang Juexia sat down, his heart beat still not having returned to normal, and the remnant of a hum from the stage still in his ears. In the situation from just now, all of them had basically been walking a tightrope; any carelessness, and the entire group wouldn’t have any way to make a turnaround. 

Thankfully, they gritted their teeth and got through it.

The makeup artists came into the lounge to help remove their makeup, and they were really excited, even hating that they couldn’t praise these boys up into the skies. Adding on the laptop that was playing the livestream the entire time, the whole lounge had become very lively.

A new performance was being shown on the livestream, and it was again a lip-synching performance, with the movements of the performers’ mouths not even matching up to the song. The movements of their mouths were about the same as their expressions for the performance. 

“Ah, it’s lip synching again.” A makeup artist little Jiejie took a cotton swab and went to Fang Juexia, chatting and joking, “At this time, the sound actually manages to work well.” Fang Juexia just sat on the sofa and let the makeup artist little Jiejie take off his eye makeup without saying a word.

Xiao Wen said, “But it is pretty miserable to appear after you guys now la. Anyway, Xiao Pei, your freestyle rap just now, really, I was trembling as I heard it down there.”

Pei Tingsong declined the makeup artist’s help and took the cotton swab himself. “What, I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”

He Ziyan smiled and repeated his previously improvised lines, “Your little bitches love me so~”

Sitting in front of the mirror, Lu Yuan was getting carried away as he spoke up, “No, no, no, the sentence that was the most awesome was, ‘The original lyrics have been thrown below, and we’re singing right into the mic, do you have any woes?’ At that time, my heart shuddered and nearly missed a beat. I was worrying whether I would get frozen out because of Pei Tingsong, this little Lao Di.”

Ling Yi shook his head. “Xiao Pei is too shameless. Every time he writes lyrics, if they’re not praising himself, then they’re dissing someone else.”

“I’ll diss you next time.”

Jiang Miao interjected, “But fortunately, Xiao Pei and He Ziyan’s beatboxing was there to save us.”

Fang Juexia closed his eyes and didn’t participate in the discussion. Whenever someone said something, he would silently nod. Pei Tingsong was sitting in a spot not far away from him, leaning back on the sofa and wiping his face with a cotton swab, joining in on He Ziyan’s jokes sometimes.

The lounge was noisy, but it was not as noisy as when they had been on the stage. Fang Juexia’s mind was currently filled with Pei Tingsong’s smile, the scene of him rapping, and the indescribable presence he radiated—which gave off the feel of a newborn calf who didn’t even fear tigers. He wasn’t sure whether he had fallen into the trap of his imagination of them on a suspension bridge from before, but at that moment, he had really been moved by Pei Tingsong’s rap. 

As time went by, no more accidents happened, and the hosts of the live broadcast read off of the script that had been written for them. 

Fang Juexia’s little internal clock was also ticking along, pretty much like before, never dragging or stumbling. The second hand moved bit by bit, ten, nine, eight, seven…

“Xiao Pei will treat us all later.”

Pei Tingsong threw the cotton swab that he had just used on one side of his face at He Ziyan. “Based on what, are you the Gege, or am I the Gege?”

“I’m the Gege, and you’re the tyrant ah. Look at your pace just now, at the end of the performance, where you were acting as if you were disowning all your relatives and friends, were you taking us to head into a fight ah?”

Pei Tingsong closed his eyes and laughed. “Then you call me Gege, and I’ll….”

A soft, low voice interrupted his banter.

“New Year’s Eve is here.”

From the laptop came the background sound of the host’s announcement of the time, as well as the large-scale singing and dancing performance that started right on time at 00:00. This noisy and excited madness wanted to get into his brain, occupy his mind, and prod him into joining in the revelry.

But right now, he could only hear one person’s voice. Pei Tingsong opened his eyes, which he had closed to douse with make-up cleanser. He hazily saw Fang Juexia’s fresh and clean face. His eyes were also closed, and he looked unexpectedly not ice-cold, but very warm. 

“Happy birthday,” he said softly.

Pei Tingsong fell into a rare daze, while still clenching the cotton swab in his hand. His mind went entirely blank, his usual glib tongue had degenerated into a state of blunt silence, and only his auditory senses felt as if they had grown more sensitive. 

He had heard Fang Juexia’s words, had heard them clearly and distinctly, with the words even echoing repeatedly in his heart.

“Thank you…”

As soon as he said it, he regretted it. He felt that he had sounded so weak and not cool at all. He had actually been so dazzled by this guy Fang Juexia that he had even dumbly just said thank you to him.

It must have been because that terrifying performance had exhausted all of his energy. 

“You’re welcome. Maybe you don’t celebrate your birthday according to the lunar calendar.”

In fact… it wasn’t like he couldn’t celebrate it now, after all, they were all Chinese. Pei Tingsong mumbled in his heart—

Yeah, he’s Chinese, so he could celebrate his birthday according to the lunar calendar, what about it? 

Pei Tingsong said, “Actually…”

“Yes ah! Xiao Pei’s birthday is today!” Ling Yi’s appearance interrupted the possibility of conveying his reply to Fang Juexia. The ability of a lead singer with a loud voice was to call all the people to his side in a flash, and thus this single birthday wish was turned into a wishing carnival by a large group of people.

Jiang Miao glanced at the time and said, “Hey, then that’s just perfect. We’ll go out and have some delicious food in a moment, and let’s all celebrate together.”

Ling Yi exclaimed, “Hot pot! Hot pot!”

Lu Yuan retorted, “Kebabs! Kebabs!”

He Ziyan raised his hand. “Captain, I want to drink alcohol.”

Fang Juexia, who had made this all happen, retreated and was squeezed aside as he quietly watched everyone argue. He just laughed and didn’t speak any more.

Pei Tingsong was happy, but he kept feeling as if something was stuck in his heart. It felt really uncomfortable to be forcefully interrupted before he could utter what he wanted to say. He finally understood what it was meant for someone to steal his initiative. 

At this time, Agent Cheng Qiang rushed through the door into the lounge, and exclaimed in an excited voice, “You guys are on the Hot Search list again!”

“Really?” Lu Yuan quickly logged into his Weibo side account and scrolled through his homepage a bit. A big-name verified entertainment account that he was following was actually forwarding the recording of their performance. 

[@Wave after wave: Did you guys see Kaleido’s (thank you ppl for telling me the name) completely live singing performance?! F*ck! Too amazing! Watching it, I jumped out of bed like a carp, feeling doughty as a dragon and lively as a tiger, and dashed around like a tiger running down the mountain! They really turned a scene of an accident into a rave, quickly go watch it for me! High energy starts at the 32 second mark! However, we still have to curse out the garbage hardware of a certain platform. They had such a big venue, and yet such an accident could still occur.]

[@Can I pass the CPA exam this year: Watched it! As soon as the lead singer wearing the grey shirt opened his mouth, I began to break out in goosebumps. The whole group singing into hand-held mics was really awesome, did these six all debut as vocals?]

[@Little smart guy is me: Two days ago, when they were crazily climbing the Hot Search, I actually thought they were just selling rotten fanservice and was a little disgusted. I didn’t expect my reversal to come so quickly. PS: CloudTV is as garbage as ever ah]

[@woxiaole: Selling rot is pretty good, but this level of performance already reaches the ceiling of an idol group’s professional ability. After all, some idols find it even hard just to match up the shape of their mouth with lip synching.]

[@My precious is so Sue: Even me, a person who never pays attention to boybands, by the time I finished watching it, I felt on fire, really wanting to dance! That plgg with the red at the corner of his eyes is really powerful, his reaction time is amazing!]

[@Taking 8 days off a week: Before, I didn’t find that this obscure group (fans don’t hit me) was very strong. I just saw that the two faces of the group formed a CP to get on the Hot Search, and I thought they were an empty flower vase, but they turned out to actually be aces. The second when they took off their ear pieces, they looked so hot, I was about to fall over. The rappers are also very strong, and this is the first time I’ve seen such good flow in a boyband. The whole group performed without earpieces, and their rhythm, intonation, and expressiveness weren’t affected. What’s more, was the last fading echoes of background sound there just to magnify their awesomeness XD? Perfectly on point, and even if you’re not a fan, you should praise them, they really brought light to their obscure group.]

[@Inherit my Huabei: You don’t say, but they may not be an obscure group after this. Take a look at how many threads this has spawned ba, and they’ve exploded on the Hot Search list. Conspiracy theory wave, this accident couldn’t have been created to make sure things couldn’t result in a scandal ba.]

[@ Smile and don’t talk replying to @Inherit my Huabei: This “created accident” is too miserable, not even preventing trouble but causing more popularity hahahah. PS: I fell in love with the main dancer Gege with the slicked back hair, his explosive and controlled moves were so strong! And the Gege with the blue hair, when he smiles, his eyes droop down, and it’s too sweet!]

[@Hugging close my little obscure K: This fan feels ashamed, can’t praise as well as some passersby, can only silently like their statements.]

[@LOLLOLlollol: No one mentioned that rapper with the glasses? Holy shit, when he was acting so gangster in front of the camera, he killed me! His beatboxing was infused with soul.]

[@Pinot Tree Supreme needs to grow well replying to @LOLLOLlollol: I’m here, I’m here. Letting you understand our 19-year-old suit-wearing, gangster-like wolf pup Pei Tingsong—he’s the youngest member of the group, and the lyrics of this song were also written by him! What’s more, his lines changed when he was rapping during the performance, the original version is more harmonious hh]

[@LOLLOLlollol replying to @Pinot Tree Supreme needs to grow well: The youngest??? WTF, I thought he was the oldest. I was just saying how his words seemed to be satirizing the situation with the mics at the gala tonight. Shit, he can still freestyle under these circumstances, respect…]

[@Did the little artist post a selfie today: Wasn’t there a group before who had mocked this group as being bargain-bin artists just shoved together, but now it seems that’s not the case oh. All the ones carried out seem to be beautiful, strong, pitiful characters.]

Later, CloudTV’s official Weibo released the live video of Kaleido’s performance. Very quickly, the video became the first real hard core program to make it’s way out of the entertainment circle that night, under the numerous forwards it was given by many big verified accounts. Kaleido once again appeared on the Hot Search list, becoming truly worthy of being called a Hot Search group. Station B’s video editors matched their live performance that didn’t have any accompanying music, with the original CD accompaniment music for comparison, and the comparison video also appeared on the homepage of the video website.

Overnight, the follower count on all six of their Weibos doubled and skyrocketed. The most exaggerated accounts belonged to Fang Juexia and Pei Tingsong, who were quickly becoming the favorite of the fan circle. However, these heartless boys didn’t pay any attention to that at all. They forced their family’s youngest to celebrate his birthday, eating and drinking, and then staying at a KTV all night, only returning to their dormitories in the early hours of the morning. Relying on the fact that their schedules were temporarily empty, they all went to sleep the entire day away.

They don’t know how much of an online tsunami that performance of theirs had caused.

The CloudTV network program group was cursed out by people online until they had no choice but to put out an apology statement for the previous stage accident. The next day, #Star Chart Scout#  and #Kaleido member experience# appeared on the Hot Search list. Various marketing accounts appeared on the Hot Search list by picking out and publishing their photos and videos from their debut, and by sharing the clips of Lu Yuan and Ling Yi participating in their competitions, the video of He Ziyan performing at bars, and even Jiang Miao’s guzheng livestreams. Of course, they didn’t miss the news articles of Fang Juexia being selected as his department idol when he was in university, or early posts by a certain official in his old company who had designated him as a treasure that absolutely had to make an official debut. 

The only mystery was Pei Tingsong, with any explosive headlines about him being deleted in a second. There was also a blogger claiming to be an informed person, who sent an image of an attendance register from a famous American school, and Pei Tingsong’s name was circled in red in it. He vividly described his family background and his legendary childhood of when he had dropped out of school without permission, and had then gotten beaten up and sent to the hospital by his dad because he was mixing in the underground rap scene without his permission, and then had run away from the hospital. However, this post was also quickly deleted, with this person’s Weibo ID even being completely suspended. 

The power of gossip was infinite. Netizens were more curious about such a combination of mysteries. It seemed that every person in this group had quite a story, which had taken the form for many different styles of “protagonist” scripts.

This group of six beautiful, strong, and pitiful people was completely worthy of its name.