CH 105

Chapter 105 – Award Presentation

This scene made the fans below the stage boil over.

Fang Juexia lifted his eyes and raised his eyebrows. The red at the corner of his eye mixed with the pride in his eyes, catalyzing a wonderful chemical reaction.

After he let Fang Juexia go, the corners of Pei Tingsong’s mouth rose, and he walked to Fang Juexia’s side once again. In the midst of the boiling uproar of cheers, the remaining four members came to the center of the stage from different directions. All the lights were on, and the stage setting looked especially grand as the six people gathered together to group up.

BMA’s annual awards ceremony was one of the most important events in the entire music industry. No matter whether it was the sound effects or the stage set-up, they were all top-class in the industry. This was the first time that Kaleido had been on such a grand stage since their debut.

They first performed their new winter album song “Xmas & U”. The style of this song was different from that of their second album or their summer album, it had more of a wintery feel to it, and it was dance music mixed with the style of blues jazz. All six members of Kaleido used live mics, and their ability was head and shoulders above the rest. After singing one song, they immediately followed it up with the remixed versions of “Break Through” and “Last Summer”. There was completely no chance to breathe at all.

The completely new arrangement revitalised the explosively popular song “Break Through.” Kaleido’s charm lay in the strength and appeal of their performances. As long as they stood on the stage, no matter how large the stage was, they would manage to get the atmosphere pumping, changing that stage into a concert arena, one dedicated just to their group. The audience below would unconsciously start to follow them in waving their arms, clapping their hands, or even singing the chorus.

The solo part of the dance break in the middle of “Break Through” remained, but this time, the music for this part was no longer a pure guzheng solo, but rather newly remixed electronic music. The dance also wasn’t the same classical dance they had shown during the promotional performances, but a new group dance with all six people.

After the music changed, Fang Juexia removed the long black scarf tied to his sleeve, placed it in front of his eyes, and tied it behind his head.

Ever since people had found out about his hidden night blindness disease, many netizens wanted to know how he had practiced so as to not make any mistakes. Many people also questioned him, saying that he only had a slight degree of night blindness and was deliberately exaggerating the facts in order to hype himself up by pretending that he really couldn’t see anything on the dark stage.

Actions spoke louder than words.

Fang Juexia decided to dance blindfolded on the BMA stage.

If this decision had been put in front of him a year ago, he would not have not done it no matter what. It was too risky to make such a decision, one which possessed such a high likelihood of failure on such a high-profile stage.

But he was already no longer the Fang Juexia from back then.

His action of blindfolding himself once again triggered cheers and screams from all corners of the venue; no one had thought they would get to witness such a special segment. 

His vision had gone completely dark now; there was no stage and no bandmates. Fang Juexia eliminated the sound of the cheers coming at him like waves, focusing all of his attention on the music.

He closed his eyes under the black cloth and returned to the familiar practice room.

All of his bandmates’ clothes were drenched with sweat. They were talking and shouting Fang Juexia’s name.

“Do you remember my spot? Don’t bump into me oh.”

“Don’t bother Juexia la.“

Each person’s complete face gradually emerged, and soon, his memory began to project images. Ling Yi, Lu Yuan, He Ziyan, Jiang Miao…

“He definitely will not make any mistakes.”

And Pei Tingsong, who had been standing beside him the entire time.

His heart calmed down in a flash. On-stage, it seemed as if the blindfolded Fang Juexia was completely able to see things normally. Every movement of his was very accurate, and his control and explosive power were amazing. Even when it came to the complicated movements of the six people, he could work with them and complete his moves without making any mistakes. 

At first, the cheers underneath consisted mostly of, ‘Kaleido,’ but gradually, more and more people started shouting for Fang Juexia, with each cheer louder than the next.

He used facts to prove to everyone that even if he couldn’t see anything, he was still the center of the stage.

This lasted until the last measure of the dance break came, when Pei Tingsong, who had by now walked to stand behind him, stretched out his hand and took off the black scarf in a flash. During the following rap, he walked around in front of Fang Juexia, and looked right at the camera, with that scarf stuffed into his front pocket. Kaleido then did their usual thing, with the gangster-like maknae leading his Geges to walk to the extension of the stage.The six people wore six different colors, and perfectly, there were also six extensions. Everyone sang the last chorus together.

“Listen to me break through the line with one song, fool.”

After they sang this line, a more shocking electro acoustic drop than in the original song burst out, and the whole stage was turned into a disco.

When they were about to finish, they came back to the middle of the stage from all the different sides. Fang Juexia stood in C position, with the gorgeous lights shining down on him, making even the sweat on his forehead shine. As he rotated around in the center, he pulled out the black scarf from the front of Pei Tingsong’s suit. Just after Captain Jiang Miao finished singing his part, the camera aimed at Fang Juexia’s face.

“All my ways forward have been blown,”

He raised his hand and wiped at the “bloodstain” at the corner of his mouth with the long black scarf. His sweaty wet hair gave off an inexplicably sexy feel, but his eyes were cold. When his finger released, the scarf fluttered down. 

“All that is left is to wait for your ambush to be thrown.”

Everything that fell down was Fang Juexia’s dark past. 

In the camera, the corner of his mouth rose. 

The future would only be bright.

The entire audience below was impressed with this fluid and lucid set; even if many of the audience weren’t fans of Kaleido, their ability was enough to convince anyone.

As soon as they got off the stage, the six cool boys, who had been so cool and alpha onstage, now returned back to their original forms. Cheng Qiang had been trembling for them backstage, and as soon as he saw them coming back in good condition, his heart that had just been hanging there in suspense finally came to a rest. “You guys were so great, especially great. Even while listening backstage, goosebumps kept directly popping out of my body.”

Ling Yi fiercely hugged Cheng Qiang and said that he was so nervous just now, he nearly cried. “Finally we can focus on watching other people’s performances!”

He Ziyan moved his neck around like an old man. “I almost twisted my neck just now, really scared me.”

“Hahaha, who told you to sleep in the car the entire time?!”

Fang Juexia just let out a long breath. He felt that he was happy all over; even if they didn’t win any awards today, he thought it was worth it. At least he had finally dared to show everyone how he had practiced alone in the dark for so many years.

After taking the water from Xiao Wen’s hand, Pei Tingsong unscrewed the bottle cap and handed it to Fang Juexia. “Drink some water.”

Fang Juexia let out an “en.” After taking the water, he didn’t immediately drink it. Instead, he looked up at Pei Tingsong’s eyes, wearing an expression so sincere that it was a little cute.

“Thank you.”

“What for?” Taking care of Fang Juexia had already become a subconscious action for him, and being suddenly thanked made Pei Tingsong feel a little unaccustomed to it. “Isn’t it just a bottle of water?”

“No,” Fang Juexia said to him with a smile, “I’m talking about your proposal before, to let me perform blindfolded.”

At that time, it had been Pei Tingsong who had proposed it to Cheng Qiang and Chen Zhengyun at the meeting. Prior to that, Fang Juexia had never thought of doing so, but he heard Pei Tingsong say that he really could do it and that he wouldn’t make mistakes, and then he had also heard the other members give him their complete trust.

So when Chen Zhengyun confirmed it with him, on whether he wanted to adopt this plan, Fang Juexia gave a confident and positive answer for the first time—

No problem. I can do it.

“That ah.” Pei Tingsong laughed. “You should thank yourself.”

Thank yourself for your persistence and efforts over the years.

After that, he covered up this slightly heavy topic with a joke. “Besides, I just satisfied a little special hobby of mine…”

Fang Juexia was drinking a mouthful of water at this moment, and choked upon hearing his words. The quiet and adorably clever expression from just now suddenly changed, and with the water still in his mouth, he angrily pushed him. “Wuwu!”

“Yeah, I’m a hooligan.” Pei Tingsong, who could fully understand Fang Juexia’s scolding, just laughed shamelessly.

After changing into more formal suits as quickly as possible, Kaleido came from the backstage to the celebrity audience seated below the stage, coming to a stop at their seats. Other singers had already started performing onstage now. They only had to watch two acts before the award segment started. One award after another was issued, and several groups were happy while several other groups were sad.

Fang Juexia didn’t really care whether Kaleido would win an award here. He was used to minimizing his psychological expectations and increasing his initiative when doing anything. Only in this way could he accept frustration more calmly, treating it as a temporary setback, and have a sense of surprise for the results.

Kaleido had been nominated for four categories this time: Best Composition of the Year for “Last Summer,” Best Lyrics of the Year for “Break Through,” Best Album of the Year for “Last Summer,” and Best Group of the Year. With their number of nominations, they ranked third in the entire audience and first among idol groups. This was a very high starting point for them, since they had been shortlisted for the BMA for the very first time.

After waiting for a long time, they finally arrived at the first award that included them— the Best Composition of the Year.

“This award really brings together a lot of excellent composers, and some of these songs are the works of quite famous foreign producers.” The award presenter held the envelope with the results. “Let’s see which works were shortlisted first ba.”

The clips appeared one by one on the big screen, with the MV of “Last Summer” also mixed into them. When it appeared, the fans on the scene let out a huge cheer.

He Ziyan was very nervous, but he wouldn’t show his nervousness. Ling Yi couldn’t be considered calm anymore, for he had even begun to shake his legs around. Jiang Miao pressed his knee and gently reminded him to look at the camera and smile.

After looking at the other nominated works, Fang Juexia had already made a very objective judgment in his mind. So, when the award presenter said the name of another work, he wasn’t too surprised. He only told He Ziyan, “It’s alright, getting nominated already proves that you are very strong, and you still have a lot of room for improvement.”

He Ziyan nodded his head, and there was no expression of disappointment on his face. On the contrary, he laughed very easily. “Of course.”

Soon, their second nominated award, Album of the Year, was presented, but unfortunately, they lost again.

Fang Juexia’s mood was very stable, for he had guessed that it would be like this. The winner was a solo female singer with deep experience in the music world. Her whole album had been created by gathering the highest level producers at home and abroad, so it would be hard to explain if she didn’t win the award.

Although their “Last Summer” had also earned very good reviews, it was a self-produced and self-sold mini album with only four songs. It wasn’t unfair for them to lose to such a singer.

Two awards in a row had passed them by, and Ling Yi was a little disappointed. “It can’t be that we won’t be able to get on stage all night ba.”

To which Lu Yuan said, “That would be good. I’m afraid you’ll start bawling as soon as you get on stage, it’d be too embarrassing.”

Pei Tingsong also nodded. “Seconded.”

As the camera swept past them, the six people smiled again.

After several awards were presented, two performances were shown, interspersed in the middle, with Zhai Ying’s group making an appearance in one of them. Interestingly, they also seemed to have made new musical arrangements, by mixing in several hot singles of some big popular groups, and then cueing up the chorus of Kaleido’s “Last Summer.”

Kaleido, who was sitting below the stage, naturally followed them in doing the dance movements with great enthusiasm. Before Zhai Ying’s comeback, Fang Juexia had seen their MV, and he had learned all the iconic dance moves that were in the middle of their song. Although he was sitting in the audience, he still cooperated with those on-stage by doing the hand movements.

“You dance it really well ma.” Pei Tingsong tilted his head and drew closer to tease him, “You can go on stage.”

Fang Juexia glanced at him and ignored him.

“If I win the lyric award, you’ll dance this dance for me, okay?”

“Let’s talk about it after you get it ba.” Fang Juexia couldn’t hide how the corners of his mouth drew up.

All of this was being recorded by a fan station sister, who was focused on photographing these two.

The award ceremony started again, and the host went on stage to introduce the next award.

“Next up is a very important award.”

“Yes, and a heavyweight award, of course, must have a heavyweight guest presenter.” The hostess laughed and built up suspense. 

The male host went along with her and said, “His name is really impressive in our Chinese music world.”

“It shouldn’t be just the Chinese music world now,” the hostess said with a smile. “It should be the business world. Come, let’s welcome the award presenter— Li Luo! Welcome President Li!”

It actually turned out to be him. This really surprised Fang Juexia a little.

Li Luo was wearing a trim white suit, and his face wasn’t much different from those days when he had been most popular; it was just a bit more mature and cooler than before. He walked to the mic stand with a smile and said, “Good evening, everyone. I’m Li Luo, long time no see.”

There were cheers and applause below the stage, with the Astar artist area being especially loud. 

“It’s a great honor to be invited to the BMA as an award presenter. It was also here, ten years ago, that I won the first important award in my life, so I can understand everyone’s feelings right now. You’re all very nervous ba.”

Everybody laughed.

Fang Juexia also smiled while looking down. After exchanging some greetings, Li Luo took the envelope from the host’s hand and glanced at the front. “The award I’m going to present to everyone today is—”

“Best Group of the Year.”

Huge cheers broke out immediately underneath the stage, especially from those fans who had been waiting for this for a long time. Unlike many not-as-authoritative awards, BMA didn’t distinguish between genders when it came to groups, and the winners of this award were always bands, few of which were idol boy-bands or girl groups. 

“Now, let’s see which groups were shortlisted?”

The big screen started to show clips from the MVs of each of the nominated groups. There were a total of four groups— two bands, one combined male and female chorus group, and Kaleido was the last one to appear on -screen.

When Kaleido appeared on-screen, the fans’ cheers instantly boiled over, and the screams lasted for a long time.

He Ziyan had already started a new round of betting with Lu Yuan. Fang Juexia, afraid that Ling Yi would grow nervous, quietly stretched out his hand and patted him on the back of his hand. However, Ling Yi grabbed him instead, and his grip was especially tight, while he also held onto their captain with the other hand. It seemed that as long as he grabbed the two calmest people in the group, he wouldn’t be so nervous.

Looking at Fang Juexia beside him, who was still relieving Ling Yi’s nervousness, Pei Tingsong leaned towards him and drew close to his ear. “Why aren’t you nervous at all?”

Fang Juexia looked at him, but then heard Pei Tingsong add, “With you so calm, I have no room left to perform.”

What ah? He couldn’t help laughing. Just as he wanted to say something, he heard a voice coming from the stage which pulled his attention back.

“Well then…”

Li Luo, on the stage, opened the envelope and smiled at the audience. “The one who won the award of Best Group of the Year is—”

After a three second pause, he looked in Fang Juexia’s direction and said, “Kaleido, congratulations!”

The loudest cheers of the whole night broke out throughout the entire venue. It was a historic moment— BMA’s Best Group Award being awarded to a male idol group.

Fang Juexia was still a little confused after hearing the name of their group. All night long, he had held onto the idea that they wouldn’t be going onstage. He hadn’t imagined that what they had been waiting for was such an important award. Pei Tingsong, who was sitting on the outermost seat, took the lead in standing up. Fang Juexia and their other bandmates followed after him, and they walked from the audience area to the stage together.

He heard Ling Yi encourage himself in a low voice from behind him, “I can’t cry, I can’t cry, I definitely can’t cry…”

Fang Juexia couldn’t help laughing out loud.

Such a short road of just ten or so meters was covered with red carpet, and with every step he took, he would recall the past days.

The dreariness of their debut, then all six of them trying their best to perform on one small commercial stage after the next. 

Everyone laughing together, staying up all night in the practice room, writing and recording songs together.

Getting through all large and small difficulties together.

This crystal-clear past in front of his eyes now overlapped with the reality blooming in front of him, and Fang Juexia and his bandmates stood together on the stage that they had once thought was out of reach, in front of the talent scout who had recruited him. 

Li Luo handed the trophy to group leader Jiang Miao with a smile, then hugged the six of them one by one. Finally, when he hugged Fang Juexia, he whispered a word of congratulations to him.

“Thank you,” Fang Juexia replied to him, then turned around and faced the audience with the rest of their group, using their usual way of greeting as the opening line, “Hello everyone, we are Kaleido!”

Ling Yi was still crying, the kind of crying where he just couldn’t stop, but his position was next to their group leader, who was going to speak, so he knew he would definitely be photographed. Even though he found it disgraceful, he still had to hide behind Fang Juexia.

Jiang Miao held the microphone, and his face still maintained the usual calm of a group leader, but his words were not as official as before. “In fact, we didn’t expect to win this award. Especially after seeing the shortlist, where we saw so many excellent band seniors and excellent creative groups, so at that time, we felt that being shortlisted with these senior artists was already the luckiest thing to happen to us.”

The other shortlisted bands also took the lead in clapping for them here. Jiang Miao looked down at the trophy in his hand. “Because we can compete with excellent people, this trophy has become extremely valuable to us. Kaleido is not only the six of us, but also the crystallization of many other people. We would like to thank the Star Chart company, our boss President Chen Zhengyun, our best agent Qiang Ge, and also Xiao Wen, and all the Dominos who have given us courage and confidence this entire time. This trophy belongs to all of you.”

Then he made a deep bow, and the other five members bowed together with him. When he straightened up, Jiang Miao handed the microphone to Fang Juexia, but he was unprepared, while the crying Ling Yi was still hiding behind him.

Seeing the microphone and camera transfer over, Ling Yi, like a little mouse who saw the light turn on, quickly hid behind Jiang Miao this time.

Fang Juexia thought for a moment and said into the microphone, “Thank you very much to BMA’s judging panel for giving the Best Group of the Year to us.”

He used the quickest time to organize his own language, but his tone was calm, and his attitude was neither humble nor overbearing. “This year was a very special year for our entire group. From being ignored to being able to stand here, there was a turning point in-between this, and that was when each and every one of our members transformed from a singer to a creator.

“Music is precise and free, full of rules and yet ever-changing, and it is the smoothest medium to connect consciousness and matter. It is also a small world that we are willing to explore for our entire lifetime. This occasion is definitely a beginning, one that will make our future steps more sure and give us more courage to face the future.”

Pei Tingsong, with one hand behind his back, stood beside Fang Juexia with a complete gentleman-like attitude. Just as in his first interview with the magazine, every feeling that Fang Juexia talked about pierced his heart. He was sober, rational, but also full of romantic idealism.

“Thank you everyone, and thank you, music and dreams.”

With that, they all bowed again. Taking advantage of all of them bending over, Lu Yuan passed a paper towel stuffed in his trouser pocket to Ling Yi through Jiang Miao, so that he could wipe his face.

When they straightened up, the host said with a smile, “Congratulations Kaleido. So with this award, does the company have any activities planned in celebration?”

Fang Juexia handed the microphone to Ling Yi. Ling Yi’s face was red from crying, and he didn’t want to take the microphone, but he didn’t have time to refuse. “En… I don’t know.”

The audience laughed below.

“No ba, there should be,” Ling Yi sniffled, sounding especially sincere. “Qiang Ge told us just now that we were going to help him move after this is over, and we’d eat after we finished helping him move.”

This really was the most pitiful Best of the Year boy-band in history.

—

The author has something to say:

(There’s still another award. P.S: They won’t come out in public at the award ceremony. This is the rising period for the group, and it’s also the top award ceremony, so it’d be unrealistic for them to come out here. They’ll come out to the public in the extras.)

————A long lost omake————

During the livestream of the awards ceremony, the Weibos of the Kaleido fan circles:

[@Kaleido’s First Chinese Station: Today’s intro and performance are really amazing! [Video]]

[AAAAHHAHHHH GEGES! Our nearly cancelled K is a perfect match for this stage!]

[Shit, all live singing, this ability is too strong, they’re worthy of being the group I stan!]

[Wuwuwuwuwuwu, our Juexia Gege is dancing blindfolded! Both beautiful and strong!]

[#Blindfold# is booked for the Hot Search List, not a single misstep, he’s really too strong! Just asking who else is like this in the entire entertainment circle??]

[Xiao Pei’s vampire makeup is so hot ah, my God! Three Water and Yuanyuan’s duet is also very strong]

[Whether or not they get an award, that performance is worth it, really]

[@Snow Imprisoned in Spring: There’s a little friend who pretended not to understand the request for a girl group dance who is very happily dancing below the stage. Pinot Tree Supreme is even biting his ear, so please tell your Ge to dance it for us la [Video]]

[5555 is there anyone more lovely than Beautiful Baby?]

[If I were Pinot Tree Supreme, I would just directly grab Gege’s swaying hands. What can I do if he’s so cute?!]

[Holy shit, did you see Juexia’s glance at Pinot Tree Supreme, that rebuking look…]

[Alright ba, TingJue is coming to screw with me again. Isn’t it enough for me to eat this dog food?]

[Yi? At 1 minute and 21 seconds, when Xiao Pei raised his hand, what’s that black thing on his hand? Did he draw it on?]

——————-——————

Award ceremony begins:

When not winning any award — Calm and generous Dominos

[It’s okay, it’s okay, getting nominated is already good!]

[It’s alright! Our nearly cancelled K will still have opportunities in the future!]

[Congratulations senior artists! All senior artists are wonderful la!]

After winning an award—Madness

[AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH]

—

Juurensha: They definitely deserved that award, I’m so proud of them! And I’m proud of FJX being able to show off his dance skills!

Noks: All their hard work has paid off! Especially FJX, that blindfolded dance, and that courage! He really is awesome!

And some lovely fanart by ykr623 of devil PTS and angel FJX!