Ch57 - I Hope It’s Because I’m Overthinking

After the first public performance, the program team specially arranged for a day of relaxation in order for the trainees to discuss their feelings.

Lu Xu and the others changed into their casual clothing and met up in the practise room, only to see the mentors show up wearing cool, dark sunglasses. There was a hint of a beach party in their bearings.

“Wa, is this the main event for today?”

“Now that you mention it, ever since I’ve come to the training camp I haven’t gone outside. I really want to go outside and see the scenery.”

“I want to see the scenery too. I even want to go out for fresh air in my dreams.”

…

The program recording had been set with the concept of completely closed off training. Once the trainees had entered the building, they understood this. But it was normal for them to want to go outside every once in a while after being cooped up in one place for too long.

Just as they were chattering on about their guesses for today’s theme, Qin Kewei suddenly took off her sunglasses and smiled, her eyes turning into crescents as she gave them a new announcement. “In order to celebrate your success at the first performance, the program staff especially spent a lot of money for a feast including the sea and the sky…”

The term ‘spending a lot of money’ was usually used as a term to uplift the image of the show. Everyone merely smiled after they heard it and didn’t really take it to heart.

But Qin Kewei’s following words aroused their nerves into excitement. “The program team has already rented a cruise ship by the East Sea. Everyone can relax today; we can play along the coast.”

“!!!”

“Our dreams have actually come true?! We can really go outside?”

“Aaaa, a cruise ship ai! Long live the program staff!”

…

Knowing that they could go outside and play, the trainees started wildly shouting.

They were just a group of twenty-something year old youths. Now that they could go outside and refresh themselves after much difficulty, they were naturally happy.

The trainees left the dorm in order by their ranks, before discovering the buses that had already been waiting at the entrance for a long time.

Lu Xu originally thought he would stick with his teammates, but he was suddenly called over by one of the staff coordinators.

“Xiao Xu has come.” Fan Zeng was discussing something with Ji Xiunian. When he saw Lu Xu come over, he couldn’t help but start to smile.

“Good morning Fan ge, good morning Nian ge.” Lu Xu walked over quickly and politely greeted the two of them.

“Good morning.” Ji Xiunian saw Lu Xu smiling as he walked towards them, and his mouth unconsciously followed up.

“Xiao Xu ah, there are two commercials today and we need you to film them.”

At the beginning of the creation of ‘Birth of an Idol’, many brands had announced their desire to do a collaboration, but at that time, the prices everyone set at that time were about the same. They didn’t think the trainees would become popular and had planned on using their usual representatives instead.

Now that they saw that the popularity of the show was very high after two weeks of broadcasting, there were immediately new variety show investors who wanted to receive a few crowns for themselves. Two companies even had a common point of view in noticing Lu Xu, wanting him to become their representative.

In regards to something like SK company, which wanted to advertise their fresh, rejuvenating facial masks, Fan Zeng thought to bring the entire A-rank trainees to film. Lu Xu was both the Charisma King and the representative all the investors wanted. He was naturally the centre position in the commercial.

“Other than SK company’s face masks, you still have a DR perfume ad to film today.”

“DR? Isn’t that the company Nian ge is a spokesperson for?” After hearing this, Lu Xu subconsciously looked towards Ji Xiunian, feeling that this was somewhat strange.

As a world-famous luxury brand, DR’s choice of representative had relatively high standards.

In the past two years, only Ji Xiunian had been chosen out of their entire country to be a spokesperson. His representative position was originally only for within the country, but Ji Xiunian was different from others. His first contract with DR was to become a global representative.

This also meant that the commercials Ji Xiunian filmed for DR were not only broadcasted within the country; others in foreign countries could see a black-haired, yellow-skinned person of their country on their major broadcasting stations.

In the beginning, Lu Xu had adhered to the philosophy of ‘one will not lose a hundred battles if one knows one’s enemy’, and had basically memorised all the information about Ji Xiunian. It was because of this that when Fan Zeng had mentioned DR perfume just now, Lu Xu had immediately thought of Ji Xiunian.

“Hahaha, what did I say, Xiao Xu, you really are Ji Xiunian’s dedicated fan.” Not being happy and immediately thinking of Ji Xiunian at the casual mention of a brand, weren’t those the actions of a fan?

Ji Xiunian heard this and was in an exceptionally good mood. He nodded gently. “Not bad to be my collaborator.”

When Lu Xu heard that, he was even more confused, not understanding what that meant.

Fan Zeng laughed and explained, “You know it too, before DR, they only looked for Xiunian to shoot ads. But the general manager in Huazhong district occasionally saw your performance, and wanted you and Nian ge to shoot an ad together for their new product.”

“Am I collaborating with Nian ge?” Lu Xu was asking Fan Zeng, but his gaze was on Ji Xiunian. Something like filming an ad didn’t hold any kind of attraction for him, but if it was together with his human goal, then that was another matter entirely.

How could Fan Zeng know that Lu Xu joining the competition was for a job. When he heard Lu Xu talk like that, he thought that it was because he was young, and couldn’t react in time in response to receiving DR’s endorsement.

“Yes, you’ll be working with Nian ge, and it’s for DR’s perfume. How is it, are you so happy that you want to film it right now?”

Fan Zeng was asking it in such a straightforward fashion, Lu Xu couldn’t say much. He just looked at Ji Xiunian and smiled brightly. “Yes, I’m super happy that I get to work together with Nian ge.”

He had wondered why the production team was willing to spend the money to rent the cruise ship. It turned out that it was for the convenience of shooting the commercial.

He had to say that no one could compare to Fan Zeng’s sense for economics.

Just as Lu Xu was thinking about it, he heard that Fan Zeng suddenly sigh. “Ai ai ai, the news of Lan Gaojie’s withdrawal is about to get out, and we don’t know what the fans’ reaction will be either. Say, that Lan Gaojie, he was doing so well in the competition, and he was rising. He gathered some fans and then wanted to withdraw, what kind of situation is this?”

Most of the time, Fan Zeng was behind the scenes, and didn’t interact much with the trainees themselves.

So he didn’t have any particular bias or a trainee that he particularly liked. He didn’t look at what the trainees were like before they came, but at their performance after joining the competition.

Fan Zeng, of course, valued someone like Lu Xu who was good-looking as well as talented, and even came first in two episodes. Others like Lan Gaojie who rose up to A-rank from F-rank amongst the countless number of contestants were also very favoured by Fan Zeng.

Although Lan Gaojie’s team had lost to Lu Xu during the vote, this alone wouldn’t affect the final result.

If Lan Gaojie had continued rising according to his current popularity, then he would have definitely been guaranteed to end up in the lineup for the final eleven.

But who would have thought that after losing but one competition, Lan Gaojie fainted, was sent to the hospital and never came back.

“Did he say why he withdrew?” Lu Xu pretended to be confused, wanting to know how Lan Gaojie had prepared to deal with matters after his passing.

“Hai!” Fan Zeng shook his head, and said rather regretfully, “How should I put this, he called and said himself that he wanted to withdraw. I tried to advise him but he was impatient. When I asked him for the reason he just said it was a personal reason and nothing else. Say, it’s not like our show is a playhouse, since he had already signed up, even if he had some matter that made him withdraw, he should also have just come and said it…”

Fan Zeng was indignant, thinking that Lan Gaojie was causing trouble.

His popularity was quite high. He didn’t know what the fans would think when his withdrawal was suddenly announced.

After Fan Zeng had said so much, Ji Xiunian frowned, clearly troubled over something. “Fan ge, have you contacted Lan Gaojie after?”

Fan Zeng didn’t understand. “We did contact him. Someone picked up the phone the first two times, but we couldn’t find him after that.”

Ji Xiunian’s frown grew deeper, and he couldn’t help but ask, “Did you contact him today?”

“Not today, and we’re not going to anymore. He can withdraw if he wants to withdraw, anyway I won’t consider working with him in the future.”

Lu Xu stood at the side listening to them speak. His gaze subconsciously landed on Ji Xiunian.

Most people were either regretful or angry when they suddenly heard the withdrawal news. Only Ji Xiunian was different. When Fan Zeng mentioned Lan Gaojie, Ji Xiunian’s expression was complicated, even worried.

Lu Xu couldn’t help but wonder if Ji Xiunian knew something.

Fan Zeng finally went to look at the cameras. The two of them then had a short moment of time alone.

Lu Xu tilted his head, looking at Ji Xiunian and asking in curiosity, “Nian ge, I saw that you looked like you wanted Fan ge to contact Lan Gaojie just now. Is there a reason?”

When Ji Xiunian heard this he couldn’t help but hesitate. He had originally planned on never telling others, but when he looked at Lu Xu’s face, there was no way he could lie, so he opened his mouth after a moment of conflict. “I don’t know why either, but I always feel like his time is running out. Ai, I hope I’m wrong.”