AITFYMIBP Chapter 69

TL: Hua

Lin Yanran was already asleep at midnight.

By the time he saw Song Yingming’s message the next day, there was also a reply from Gu Siye.

It was just one word: “Cute.”

It had been sent the night before. Lin Yanran read the words twice and scrolled up to see the context. Gu Siye was replying to the photo Lin Yanran had sent of himself wearing a dog mascot costume.

Lin Yanran looked at his own message.

He had clearly asked Gu Siye if he looked like Ultraman…

Seeing Gu Siye’s description of him as “cute,” Lin Yanran didn’t quite know how to respond. He opened his sticker gallery, intending to pick one of the silly memes Gao Zitai had sent him.

Just then, Hong Huixue called. While his finger was moving quickly, he accidentally tapped an image and answered the phone.

Hong Huixue told him there were some changes to the Super Idol finale workflow.

To ensure fairness, every trainee’s vote count would be verified by a notary on-site, which meant they needed a significant chunk of time to tally the final results.

Since a live broadcast can’t be edited like a recording, the production team didn’t want the atmosphere to go cold while the audience waited.

Therefore, they wanted the mentors to help with an interactive segment while the trainees changed clothes.

To satisfy the fans’ desire to vote for the mentors, the show decided to open a voting channel for them.

They prepared several dance and song clips for fans to choose from.

There were solos, group performances, and group dances, each lasting about a minute.

Whichever mentor received the most votes for a specific category would perform that segment. If the highest-voted option was a collaborative song and dance, the two mentors involved would perform it together.

After hearing the rundown from Hong Huixue, Lin Yanran didn’t think it was a big deal and agreed immediately.

Once he hung up the phone, his screen automatically returned to his chat interface with Gu Siye.

Just as Lin Yanran was about to exit the app, he discovered that while he was busy answering the call, his finger had slipped. He had sent a sticker to Gu Siye that meant something else….

Lin Yanran: [I love you, mwah! ].jpg

…

How did he even have that sticker on his phone?

With no time to ponder where the sticker came from, Lin Yanran frantically tapped the screen, trying to unsend it.

But no matter how many times he tapped, he couldn’t recall it.

It had timed out!

Lin Yanran couldn’t help but glance at the dialogue between himself and Gu Siye.

The other party: Cute

Himself: I love you, mwah!

Feeling incredibly embarrassed, he immediately started typing to explain.

Lin Yanran: Sorry, Brother Gu, I clicked the wrong thing just now.

After sending the explanation, Lin Yanran saw the WeChat interface flicker. The text at the very top changed to “The other party is typing…”

He felt inexplicably nervous.

Fortunately, he soon saw the reply.

Gu Siye: It’s fine.

Lin Yanran stared at the words “It’s fine” for a moment. Seeing that Gu Siye didn’t seem to mind, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He then lowered his head and began typing again, wanting to ask if Gu Siye had received the notification from the production team.

But before he could finish the message, a familiar sticker appeared on the screen.

Gu Siye: [I love you, mwah! ].jpg

????

On the phone screen, two adorable little bears were pressing against each other, enthusiastically blowing kisses.

Watching the bears mwah-mwahing back and forth, Lin Yanran leaned his forehead against his hand. After a long moment, he couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

On the other side, inside a spacious and luxurious car, a man’s soft, low chuckle rang out.

Zhong Xiao, sitting in the front seat, couldn’t help but turn around upon hearing it.

Seeing the unmistakable smile on Gu Siye’s face as he stared at his phone, a thought instantly popped into Zhong Xiao’s head: Old Gu, you’re too much!!!

*

The new segment proposed by Song Yingming wasn’t difficult and was quite interesting, so the mentors quickly agreed.

Thus, the next day, on the Super Idol video website, a voting channel was opened under the mentor section for fans to choose songs for them.

The show’s core focus was still the trainees. To avoid overshadowing them, the production team didn’t promote it heavily and didn’t even post about it on Weibo.

However, this couldn’t escape the sharp eyes of the fans.

Fans who were constantly monitoring Super Idol discovered this surprise immediately.

Especially Lin Yanran’s fans.

Not long ago, they had watched the video of him dancing in the Super Idol trainee uniform, and just two days ago, they had heard his live performances of “Moonlight Serenade” and “Missing Period.”

Currently starving for new stage content, the fans were thrilled to find out the production team had provided such a massive benefit. They gave Song Yingming a mental thumbs-up and rushed to the voting page.

However, the fans, who had arrived with aggressive enthusiasm, were stunned when they saw the options.

They really wanted to hear a solo song, but they also really wanted to see an idol boy-group dance…

After looking through every option provided by the team, the fans sadly realized they were greedy—they wanted Lin Yanran to perform everything.

But the cruel reality was that each person only had one vote…

So the solo fans began agonizing over their choice.

Meanwhile, while the solo fans were still undecided, the Siran CP fans had already quietly made their decision.

They planned to put all their effort into voting for the only sexy duo collaboration dance on the list: “Crazy.”

The Siran CP fans were highly efficient. Once they decided, they didn’t waste any time and immediately pinned a post on Weibo:

Friends, as long as you vote Crazy for Siran, you are my long-lost sibling! If you ever have trouble, I’ll take a bullet for you! Be a friend and don’t be shy; the voting tutorial is below:

Voting Link: siranjintianjiujiehun (Siran gets married today)

How to get more tickets: siranjinwanjiudo (Siran do it tonight)

While the mentor fans were choosing songs, the trainee fans didn’t even dare to blink. They seized every last second to frantically vote for their picks.

Twenty-eight people were fighting for nine debut spots.

And the much-anticipated center position could only belong to one person.

After months of brutal competition, they had reached the final step. No fan base wanted to give up this position easily.

On the Super Idol voting page, during these final few days, the trainees’ rankings changed almost every time the page was refreshed.

One second they were in the top nine; the next, they dropped to tenth.

No one dared to relax for a moment, even though the current vote counts for every trainee had already surpassed their personal historical records.

After the final week of sprint voting, the vote counts stopped being displayed at midnight on the day of the finale.

To maintain the mystery, the production team would no longer update the latest vote counts or rankings.

According to the last public ranking, Qiao Ye was temporarily in first place, leading the second-place contestant by nearly three million votes.

However, this gap wasn’t impossible to bridge. Therefore, the second-place contestant Qin Jun’s fans were still organizing voting blocks, hoping to use the final twenty-two hours to flip the results.

While the various fan bases were tensely voting, Super Idol, which had lasted nearly four months, finally welcomed its Grand Finale.

Since the show was sponsored by a wealthy sponsor, they weren’t worried about the budget.

To give the trainees the most perfect final stage, the production team chose a massive stadium capable of holding 50,000 people for the live finale.

On the day of the finale, fans arrived early outside the stadium to set up support stations. Support walls and huge posters from various groups covered the entire area around the venue.

As a mentor, Lin Yanran also had many fans present.

Chen Qianqian had just finished setting up her booth with candid photos she had taken of Lin Yanran’s daily life when a long line formed to collect the free support items.

After a girl received a photo, she turned back to ask Chen Qianqian, “Sister, which period is this photo of Yanran from? I don’t think I’ve seen it before. You must have followed him for a long time, right?”

Chen Qianqian looked down and saw the photo was a candid shot of Lin Yanran looking back over his shoulder.

That was the first time she had seen him up close.

She would always remember that day: he had arrived at the filming site in a taxi, holding an ink-wash-style thermos.

At that time, she wasn’t his fan yet. Many fansite managers on the scene saw how shabby his arrival was and were laughing at him.

But he didn’t care at all. He greeted everyone kindly and chatted with total composure.

That scene felt like it was only yesterday, but in just a few months, everything had changed.

Back at the Super Idol training camp filming area, not a single fan on-site had been there for him.

But now, at the Grand Finale, even as a mentor rather than the main protagonist, he had still attracted countless people who loved him to come and support him.

Through the Super Idol competition, Chen Qianqian felt her greatest gain was getting to know and falling in love with Yanran.

How fortunate she was to silently stand by as a spectator, witnessing with her own eyes how he shone and how he turned the tide against all odds.

Chen Qianqian looked down at the photo and smiled faintly at the girl. “This was the first time he truly sparkled.”

*

At six in the afternoon, the sky had completely darkened.

With his makeup finished, Lin Yanran joined the other mentors backstage.

At the request of the production team, they were there to give a pre-competition pep talk to all the trainees.

After all, this would be their final public performance as trainees.

Once this ends, everyone’s destiny will head in different directions.

Some will secure a debut spot and form a group, welcoming a brand-new path to stardom.

Some may reach the pinnacle and become kings, transforming into the hottest new top-tier celebrities.

Others will face elimination, packing their bags to go home and return to the life of an ordinary person.

“Regardless of the final result, right now, on this stage today, you are still trainees.”

Tangtang said with a smile, looking at the 28 trainees.

Pei Luo picked up the thread, offering sincere advice. “So tonight, you must go all out. Bring out your best ability and deliver a perfect performance.”

Lin Yanran nodded, his gaze sweeping over everyone. “Until the very last moment, everything is unknown.”

“Right, everything is unknown. Fighting!”

Han Zhe gave the concluding remark.

After grinding through so many rounds of competition, the trainees had improved significantly, not just in skill, but in mentality.

After listening to the mentors’ encouragement, they gathered in a circle, arms around each other’s shoulders, encouraging one another: “Fighting!”

In this moment, they didn’t look like rivals; they looked more like comrades-in-arms.

Afterwards, to lighten the atmosphere, Han Zhe asked everyone, “If you debut, what is the first thing you want to do?”

“I want a good sleep.”

“I want to play on my phone all night, hahaha.”

“I want to eat a meal cooked by my mom.”

“I want to travel and relax…”

“I want to hurry up and release my own album.”

Tangtang listened to everyone’s wishes, then her gaze landed on Qiao Ye.

“Qiao Ye, what about you? Why aren’t you speaking?”

Qiao Ye, who had been standing at the edge watching everyone, shook his head with a smile. “I haven’t thought of it yet.”

The mentors’ brief visit ended, and they were notified to head to the stage for standby.

Lin Yanran had just walked a short distance when Qiao Ye, who hadn’t said much earlier, jogged up to his side.

“Teacher Yanran.”

Lin Yanran stopped and looked at the handsome youth before him.

His eyebrows were striking, and the corners of his mouth held a hint of a smile.

With his exquisite stage makeup, there was a certain intensity in his eyes; he looked even more dazzling than usual.

Qiao Ye adjusted his position and breathing slightly.

He stood face-to-face with Lin Yanran, gazing into the beautiful eyes of the person before him, and asked in a low voice, “After the competition ends, I’d like to add you on WeChat. Is that okay?”

Lin Yanran had assumed Qiao Ye had a question to ask, not expecting such a simple request.

Seeing the youth’s sincere gaze and hearing the slight caution in his tone, he immediately nodded and agreed readily.

“Of course.”

Qiao Ye seemed very happy.

Before parting, he gazed at Lin Yanran and said with a tone that sounded like both a promise and a solemn vow, “Teacher Yanran, wait for me.”

……

At 8 PM, the highly anticipated Super Idol finale finally kicked off.

This time was different from before. The first to appear wasn’t the host, nor was it Gu Siye.

It was the 72 previously eliminated trainees.

Wearing the uniforms from when they first recorded the theme song, they returned to where their dreams began and danced to that familiar tune.

“Call me by your name”

“Show me your hands”

“Please listen to me, pick me, pick me”

Colorful light sticks lit up the dark night. Every fan present raised their hands high for these dream-chasing youths, shouting out that simplest yet most melodious word.

Pick you!

When Lin Yanran arrived in this world, the show was already in its third episode, and 40 people had already been cut.

So, this was his first time seeing so many trainees performing the theme song collectively on stage.

Watching these youths who had fought hard for their dreams, Lin Yanran clapped softly, involuntarily moved by their unyielding vitality.

This, perhaps, is the charm of idols!

In a spot beyond Lin Yanran’s view, two figures sat down in the VIP seats.

The top personnel behind Super Idol accompanied them with utmost respect. “Mr. Lin, Mrs. Lin, please have a seat.”

Xie Roufei nodded elegantly to the person before her. After sitting down, her gaze immediately went toward the mentor seats at the very front.

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