Translated by juurensha
Edited by Noks
Lots of online comments, don’t like don’t read
“Okay! Kaleido’s Break Through recording is over! Hard work everyone.”
After hearing the director’s voice, the six people relaxed, stood in a row, and bowed deeply towards the audience. Their names were being called out in every direction of the stage, the voices of the audience seeming to rush towards them in waves.
Fang Juexia was standing in the very center, and as he bowed, his nose actually stung a bit, even despite him keeping up his usual calm and controlled self. The cold reception that they had received ever since their debut, and the sadness that they had experienced at wanting to perform but having no stage to do so—clearly, all these were feelings that he had long gotten used to, but standing on the stage to perform and promote their song after a whole year made all these feelings come rushing back up again.
Despite the popularity he had gained in recent days, which had never had before, and even gaining new fans who liked them, as far as Fang Juexia was concerned, being able to win everyone’s applause while on the stage was the thing that he really loved.
When they left the stage, they all bowed to the different staff members they encountered on the way, saying “hard work everyone” to each person. Even Pei Tingsong, who had disdained to do something like this before, had been subtly influenced to do so. He supported Fang Juexia in walking through the dark by the sash around his waist, all the way until they came to the brightly lit passageway.
“We’re clocking out! We’re clocking out!” Ling Yi was extremely happy as he exclaimed, “We’re off work at last!”
Lu Yuan also followed him in swaying around, and the two people inexplicably went from walking normally into jumping around like zombies. “Suddenly, I want to eat sea worm dumplings, I’m starving.”
“Let’s order take out later ba!”
“Okay ah!”
Seeing his bandmates being so cute, Fang Juexia’s mood calmed down a little. Once they were back in the lounge, as soon as the door closed, Fang Juexia suddenly felt that his overcoat, which had been hanging over him, get taken away. A hand grabbed his waist and moved him back and forth, and when he turned his head, he saw that the culprit was Pei Tingsong.
“What’s the matter?”
“Are you all right?” Pei Tingsong checked carefully and said, ” I just saw your mic box fall from the side of the stage, it didn’t pull at your waist ba?”
Fang Juexia’s eyes immediately widened a bit, and in a rare instance, his words sped up as he asked a little nervously, “You saw that? Was it very obvious? What to do? Maybe everyone saw it, this belt doesn’t really fix the mic box in place, and it gets thrown around as soon as I execute any big movements.” He sighed and added, “After practicing for so long, I still slipped up.”
As soon as he said that, Pei Tingsong took hold of his face with both of his hands, and then proceeded to squeeze his face out of shape. “What are you talking about ah, I asked if there was something wrong with your waist, and you tell me you slipped up instead.”
Fang Juexia froze for a moment, and then broke away from his hands, and rubbed his face. “My waist is fine, that mic box isn’t heavy.” He didn’t look at Pei Tingsong directly, but added in a low voice, “Don’t worry.”
Jiang Miao heard what Fang Juexia had said just now, and came over to pinch his shoulder. “Juexia, that didn’t count as you slipping up at all, that’s called rescuing the performance. I was right behind you playing the guzheng, and I was really scared when I saw it, but you were really handsome when you flipped over that mic box. And by the reaction below the stage, it shouldn’t have been noticed by many people.” With that, he purposefully glanced over at Pei Tingsong. “It was just Xiao Pei, I guess his eyes don’t blink at all.”
In the past, Pei Tingsong would definitely have been in a hurry to refute that statement, but now he shamelessly admitted it straightforwardly, “That’s true, how could I blink with you guys performing like that?”
Fang Juexia was a little embarrassed, so he looked down and didn’t talk any further.
Cheng Qiang came in through the door and hugged them one by one. “Too great, you guys were too great! Worthy of being my puppies! While watching, I nearly turned into an old man with tears streaming down my cheeks.”
Lu Yuan started laughing after being hugged. “Strong Ge has become more and more educated recently.”
“What nonsense!” Cheng Qiang pulled Pei Tingsong in and hugged him, then pointed at him, chiding, “You ah, you changed your lyrics again.”
Pei Tingsong shrugged. “That was just what I wrote last night. It was too late to add it to the studio version, but I thought it was too much of a pity, and that I should sing it anyway.”
When it came to the topic of changing the lyrics, Fang Juexia thought of a point, and couldn’t wait to say, “Just now, Xiao Pei said some lyrics of ‘The original lone forces cut a wound with due care’, and then it’s…”
“And drank the hot blood to live immortal and fair,” Pei Tingsong took over.
“Yes!” Fang Juexia’s expression was full of praise. “Those words were too wonderful, it was really great.”
Pei Tingsong hadn’t not heard praise from others before; he had actually heard too much of it, and there had also been all kinds of exaggerations. One simple sentence of ‘it was really great’ didn’t count as much, but as long as it was uttered by Fang Juexia, he felt that it was better than anything. He had never been so happy.
Fang Juexia continued to elaborate on his idea, “Our choreography was based on the original lyrics, but since the live version has been changed, I think we can change our actions to match the lyrics in our next performance.” Then, he made a motion of digging out his heart and said, “What do you guys think?”
Lu Yuan clapped. “This is good, six people depicting the scene together should make a great impact. When we get back, let’s arrange it!”
Watching them start a discussion centered around the stage again, Cheng Qiang felt emotional. These children had just finished a very difficult performance, but even after descending from the stage, they actually didn’t take the time to relax as if having survived a disaster, and they also didn’t go to fuss over their comeback album’s numbers and ranking. Instead, they wholeheartedly focused on the stage and on their performance, just thinking about how to make their performance even more brilliant.
They deserved a better future.
Thinking of this, Cheng Qiang clapped his hands and said, “I’ve already greeted the program team, and we won’t be participating in the award ceremony that’ll happen in a bit. Anyway, we’re not candidates, so it’s meaningless to waste time here.”
“After this, there is a fan meeting being hosted for the new album, and that will be entirely livestreamed, so nothing can go wrong there. Go back first and rest, have a meal, and then practice all the programs you will perform at the meeting, especially each of your solos.”
When they exited MLH’s studio, they discovered that fans had surrounded the building from the outside. All of these fans were holding Klein blue fan signs and kaleidoscope lights. As soon as they saw Cheng Qiang coming out of the studio, they began to scream. The group members lined up in a straight line as they came out, and their path forward was very narrow since everyone was crowding in.
“Good luck Kaleido!!”
“Juexia!! How are you this good looking, Juexia!”
“Xiao Pei, look at Mama ba! He Ziyan is such a hot Ge!”
“Miaomiao! Captain Miao is the greatest! You’re the best group leader!”
“Ling Yi! Ling Yi, your blue hair looks so good! Teacher Yuan, you’re too hot!”
Many fans were very emotional, and the difficulty of this comeback worried them more than anyone else.
Fang Juexia, who was being pushed around by the crowd, saw a girl crying noisily in front of him. His heart squeezed, and he pulled out a package of tissues from his coat pocket; he had just drawn one out when he had been wiping away his sweat moments ago. Taking advantage of being pushed to the front, Fang Juexia reached out and handed the tissue packet to the girl. His face, which had been completely expressionless up until now, smiled, and his voice was gentle as he asked, “What are you crying for ah?“
This move made the fans all around them scream. Pei Tingsong protected him as they walked forward. “As soon as you gave out those tissues, I knew that if it were me, I would be able to cry all night to get those.” The fans who heard him started to laugh again.
“You are…” Fang Juexia didn’t know what to say about him, so after speaking half a sentence, he stopped talking. When everyone got in the car, Jiang Miao rolled down the window and said to the fans with a smile, “Go back quickly ba. Remember to watch our meeting livestream oh.”
Suddenly, a girl’s voice appeared from the crowd; it was very loud and penetrating. “Our little obscure K is the most powerful!”
Ling Yi’s head poked out of the window. “Wow, you have such a good voice. You should be the lead singer instead of me.”
“Hahahahaha!”
Due to the sharp contraction in their comeback launch date, the individual member previews that had been shot previously, were all mainly broadcast in the morning, and the MV was posted at 9 p.m. Although the MV was shot in a hurry, with everyone working tirelessly to hurry the work along, the overall effect and expressiveness of the MV were all very strong.
Fans forwarded it over and over again and didn’t even sleep. They played the MV repeatedly on CloudTV and several other video platforms to increase the playback counts for their idols. Although this wasn’t enough to let Kaleido parachute onto the Top Songs board, it was still already a big improvement over their past numbers.
After Kaleido’s journey of how they were even able to participate in filming the song program was revealed, the heated rampant online debate over K’s comeback running into that of Seven Luminaries’ grew even more heated. Most of the netizens took on the attitude of watching a good show while getting to taunt people at the same time, while the better ones showed a sympathetic attitude towards K who came from such a small company. The uglier sounding ones though, dared to say anything and everything, such as that this group that was selling rot was just getting what they deserved, that they were overstepping their ability, and some even believed that Star Chart and Kaleido had leaked the song themselves to create speculation online in order to improve the popularity of their comeback.
If the whole Kaleido was up to the chin in the entire Internet’s violent words, then in the very center of this violence was Fang Juexia. As before, it was still Fang Juexia. There were many anti threads about Fang Juexia in the anonymous forums, and many people, whose eyes had turned red from how Fang Juexia had continuously managed to get and stay onto the Hot Search list, while also getting onto big variety shows, took advantage of this opportunity to trample him to death.
[I hope you know that FJX can never really become popular, hyped up genius characters always backfire, okay? There are so many people who are good-looking and talented, and what’s the use? Big popularity depends on fate.]
[Who says that it was a loss for Astar not to let FJX debut? Fortunately he didn’t debut with 7L, okay? A bad luck magnet doesn’t deceive me, whoever gets involved in him will have bad luck.]
[If they like hype so much, maybe the leaked song was also deliberate hype]
[As long as FJX doesn’t quit the group, obscure K will always be dead hehe]
These kinds of comments had been popping up endlessly within the whole fan circle environment, and Fang Juexia had already accepted it. He just disconnected from the Internet and pretended nothing was going on. He took every stage he got to perform on as the last one and tried his very best to successfully complete the performance, while not caring about the rest in the least.
It was just that no one thought that Kaleido, who had been trampled to the point that it was left nearly unable to fight back, began to actually rebound when the ‘Music live house’ was broadcast.
When it was broadcast, the cover photo for the MLH push notification on CloudTV’s homepage was still that of the top group Seven Luminaries, and the banner was also theirs, all in order to make them as widely acclaimed as possible. Although this program was a comprehensive network program, its viewership had always been very high, and it also boasted of a considerable audience.
There were 16 performances in the whole program, as well as the subsequent awards part and the encore stage. 16 groups or individual singers would have corresponding direct videos, which were linked in the relevant sidebar of the song playing program, and then sorted in real time based on the number of views. For group performances, a camera followed each member around during their performance and recorded the performance of his or her whole song.
At the beginning, no one really noticed it, and it was only after the broadcast that Fang Juexia’s performance soundlessly shot to the number one most viewed direct video on that day that the trend of them bottoming out and then rebounding first appeared.
At 10 p.m., after the song program was broadcasted, a verified Weibo account who specially commented on livestreams and had millions of followers, actually posted up the direct video of Fang Juexia’s “Break Through”.
[@King MO of watching performances: As you guys know, I usually don’t pay much attention to the direct videos of song programs. I always thought that no one would watch the direct videos of idols except the fans, but Fang Juexia’s direct video has the highest view count for this episode of MLH. It’s eight times ahead of the rest after only five hours, with a view count of more than 150,000, while the second place has just broken 20,000. I was curious, so I went in to have a look, and after I discovered the reason, and it’s not too much of a boast to describe it as an immortal saving the show. I dare say that with this level of appearance, singing skills, stage expression, and adaptability, he’s right up there at the ceiling of all idols. (You can not agree with this, but you can only argue about it after watching the whole direct video) PS this is Kaleido’s ‘Break Through’]
In addition to sharing high-quality music and excellent stage performances from home and abroad, this blogger’s daily activity was to critique and attack local performances. Most of their fans were passers-by in the music circle, and it wasn’t long before this Weibo post was published that it became popular.
[@Study hard and make progress every day: Holy crap, King MO actually posted a direct video of an idol, they’re breaking into the real world.]
[@My San also didn’t make a comeback today: Ah, it’s pretty much great minds think alike! As soon as I finished watching the performance of the junior group on CloudTV, I saw the direct video posted by Lord Mo. Fang Juexia is just too amazing in this performance, his aura is so obvious, so right in front of you, and the dance break’s classical dance is so beautiful. I strongly recommend everyone to take a look at K’s full performance, kneeling here and selling them!]
[@ Bobbi Doll: Are there any sisters who can tell me, did the mic box drop at the 2:43 timestamp? This way of dealing with that is really awesome, I went back to watch it several times. I thought that he was actually tossing some kind of weapon around x it’s really the first time anyone has saved a show so beautifully.]
[@Sleiyoujh: Have I seen this person on the Hot Search list before? His voice is very special ah. It’s plainly a cold voice, but because it resonates well, and is both full and special, I can’t really describe it, how annoying! And this singing skill, if it’s all live singing, it’s too strong. It’s such a high-energy choreography, but he’s not out of breath at all, and his high pitch is very stable.]
[@Beautiful Fine Jewelike Xeriscape replying to @Sleiyoujh: It was live singing oh, and by the way, his name is Fang Juexia, Kaleido’s ace. This song was also created by the whole Kaleido group; it’s their own original work, including the choreography oh.]
[@To be a person means to have a dog: The tune of this song is a little familiar ah, is it the song that got leaked a few days ago? The demo totally can’t compare with the completed song at all ah, looking at this version, the post production is too strong.]
[@No one wants to see your nonsense: Cold popular knowledge: Fang Juexia was a very popular trainee before he even debuted, and he was known as an overkill pick. However, he changed companies, and there was also some talk about hidden rules. People talked, but anyway, I don’t believe it. With this ability, if there really was some owner in the background, wouldn’t he be blazingly popular ah? He certainly offended someone to have been so miserable this whole time. Although I’m not a fan of idols, I really like this Ge’s direct video.]
[@Small Blueberry Cheesecake: I’m a classical Chinese dancer, and with one look at his solo part, I can tell he has a foundation ah. He saved the show with barely a trace, and no matter whether the main camera was on him or not, his expression and state never relaxed, and he didn’t make even a single superfluous little action. His hair was stuck all over him because of sweat, but he didn’t even raise his hand to draw it back. He’s very professional. Great stage attitude.]
[@Just telling the truth: I really want to work hard to try to analyze how excellent this performance is just like the other sisters, but I’m too superficial. I’m just staring at this little Gege’s face the entire time, it’s so beautiful…]
Soon, the forwards on this direct video Weibo post broke through 30,000, and the entries of #Fang Juexia’s direct video# and #Fang Juexia saved the show# climbed up the Hot Search list bit by bit, all under just the spontaneous power of the masses. With this sort of network effect, more and more people went to CloudTV to watch Fang Juexia’s direct video and the whole group’s performance video.
Many entertainment bloggers and marketing accounts seized on this hot topic, creating cuts of the highlights of Fang Juexia’s performance—such as him saving the show, him and Pei Tingsong colliding together as part of the choreography, and the killing segment, where he gestured a gun with his hand, which was just before the movie segment, and then the final ending segment. All of these were turned into gifs and then posted on Weibo. More and more people saw and discussed them, and even many passers-by who never watched idol singing programs were attracted by these gifs.
Under this joint effect, the full version of Kaleido’s performance also climbed onto the Hot Search list, and even got itself reposted on major social platforms. A Chinese classical music performance mixed with electronic dance music was something unprecedented in boybands, and unexpectedly became the most popular performance that had come out of the idol circle through MLH in recent years. By the next day, all of the group’s six members’ direct videos had reached the top of the CloudTV’s direct video list. Fang Juexia was still the highest, leading by leaps and bounds, while second place was Pei Tingsong.
If they said it was Fang Juexia’s attitude of being a new force that made him capable of changing the situation that led them on a counterattack out of the circle, then Pei Tingsong was the bomb that continued the counterattack’s momentum and made their popularity explode.
Observant people had already noticed that his rap part was different from the lyrics of the main song that had first been officially released, so they made a comparison video. Most netizens liked sharp, incisive, and conflicting things, and marvelously, Pei Tingsong was just such a person, especially when it came to his lyrics.
[@Homeless Tortoise: I’m inclined to think that the lyrics of this live version was a rap freshly written by Pei Tingsong after the leaked song incident. Pretty much every word is cutting—”Heart festering with a jealousy flare, there’s still no medicine for this evil affair. The original lone forces cut a wound with due care, and drink the hot blood to live immortal and fair.” You guys judge, it’s starkly mocking and damning the malicious behavior caused by the leaked song. Only when I went to listen to the song did I discover that the lyrics of all the songs were basically written by him alone. I sincerely suggest everyone listen to it, but that part is only in the live performance.]
[@User 1234567: I almost started yelling out in front of my mom when I watched the program! He’s so haughty! That last line of “to lift up your heads and break the heavens bare” really shocked me. The whole song is full of murderous spirit, everyone must listen to it!]
[@Words fail to convey meaning: Finally someone said something about the lyrics of this new song! I saw the push notification yesterday and listened to it casually, but it’s really excellent ah, they’re just too much of a dark horse. My favorite was the ending, it has a very soothing melody with the words, “All my ways forward have been blown, all that is left is to wait for your ambush to be thrown.” It gives off the feeling that after slaughtering everywhere, just calmly putting your sword back in its sheath.]
[@The beautiful Fine Jewelike Xeriscape of Putuo Temple Site: The lyrics and the music in the final part of the main song were Fang Juexia’s oh, and the middle part was Xiao Pei’s. In fact, both of their two styles are very different; Pei Tingsong is very straightforward and bloodthirsty, very much with a rapper’s boldness, while Juexia’s lyric is very similar to his Buddhist style. “Anyway, I’ve been forced with no ways to go, so you guys can ambush me casually ba. I’m not afraid at all.”]
[@Crying for nearly cancelled K today again: Let’s have a look at the whole stage ba. In addition to the two beautiful aces who saved the show and created the lyrics, there’s also the super lead singer Ling Yi at the beginning with the Beijing opera, group leader Jiang Miao playing the guzheng, rapper, musical arranger, and DJ He Ziyan, and the choreographer of the whole song, our main dancer, Lu Yuan. Our K may not be popular, but they are really treasure boys ah. This song has been created with painstaking effort from each of them. It’s really worth it to listen to it every three minutes!]
[@Severe procrastination critical patient: Didn’t they say Pei Tingsong grew up abroad? Why is his Chinese ability so strong?]
[@Has Pinot Tree Supreme grown up today? Replying to @Severe procrastination critical patient: He has been bilingual since he was a child, and he likes Chinese traditional culture very much. They’ve said all this during the livestream.]
@Listening to songs makes people intelligent: “Just be a wordless vase, and mess around less with real voices in place. I admit my besieged base, but let’s see you after karma’s grace.” —aren’t these words really fragrant? Mocking professional idols and speaking frankly about the attacks and oppression they have received all this time. The leaked song incident almost drove them into a corner ba. No wonder everyone says that Pei Tingsong is especially tiger-like.]
With the song becoming more and more popular, several well-known music bloggers pulled out the leaked demo that had spread all over the Internet and compared it with the live completed version of the song.
[@Uncle A doesn’t play around with music: Since yesterday, many fans have asked me to listen to Kaleido’s new song, “Break Through”. I have said before that a leaked song would greatly impact the life of a song, and it can be said to be a heavy blow to the original song. But now I have to say that that’s not so certain with this leaked demo. This song, “Break Through” is an example of this exception. In fact, when I heard the demo, I was skeptical. The arrangement was very chaotic and the melody was too full. You just managed to create one emotion when suddenly, it changed to another arrangement and atmosphere; it was definitely not a successful work.
But I was very surprised at this finished product, which cut off a lot of the melodies, which many producers won’t do because they can’t bear to part with it. The Beijing opera by the lead singer set the tune immediately, and the sense of arrangement is very good. After listening to it, you get the sensation of having witnessed a battle fought to life or death. It is said that this song was made by the members of K themselves. Giving a suggestion to the brokerage company: let them write their own songs in the future ba.]
The analysis and essays of music bloggers soon attracted a large number of music lovers online. It seemed like a small group, but these people were actually heavy users of online music apps. Star Chart took advantage of this opportunity to talk about promotions on the opening screen of music apps and homepages, attracting passers-by’s eyes. Under this dual effect, by 10 pm the next day, after “Break Through” was broadcast, it climbed from a rank in the few hundreds range to the second place at the speed of light, directly pushing Seven Luminaries’ song to third place.
And seeing which way the wind was blowing online, CloudTV changed the cover of their MLH program to Kaleido’s “Break Through”, and also changed the banner: “Kaleido’s strong comeback and word-of-mouth counterattack.” Fang Juexia’s direct video also broke MLH’s direct video record by reaching beyond one million views the fastest ever, achieving fame with victory within a single battle.
This matter of bucking the trend came on too fast. Just like how Kaleido had been forced to make their comeback early in the beginning, this backlash of popularity came on just as quickly, and all because of that first action of saving the show. The small mic box, like a butterfly flapping its wings, triggered a subversive tsunami within the whole network in just two days.
The contribution of each member in this song “Break Through”, from its melody, arrangement, choreography, stage design, and to everyone’s stage expression, won them the praise of most netizens.
Plainly this had been the worst of the worst start, but in the end, it was a very successful counter-attack. The reality of the situation and the lyrics coincided perfectly, and it really became a fight against the trend.
The electronic sales volume of Kaleido’s new album soon caught up with that of Seven Luminaries, which possessed a huge fan base, and most of these sales were attributed to passers-by. Many people predicted that with such an increase, it would soon surpass Seven Luminaries.
In order to control the public opinion, Cheng Qiang observed the way the wind was blowing online the entire time. During the process, he only screenshotted one comment and saved it in his photo album.
[After watching the whole process, going from the leaked song to this instance of bucking against the trend, I learned that no matter what happens, the strength and enthusiasm of creation will never be buried. What I’m very moved by is that, from these boys who were not favored by anyone, I can see what is called “originality never dies”.]
At this time, Fang Juexia, who was at the center of the storm, was urged by Ling Yi to login into his Weibo. He had just come back from having finished recording the third song and was resting in the dorms. Because of his fear of having his phone get stuck under the deluge of Weibo notifications every time after he logged into Weibo after a long while,, he simply let Xiao Wen login into his account every day now. This way, if one day he used Weibo himself, it wouldn’t collapse as soon as he opened it.
He received a lot of comments, most of which were from fans’, who were calling him an immortal and using other such flowery words. Sliding his fingers and scrolling through, he saw a fan with a special ID.
[@Has Pinot Tree Supreme been bent today: Juexia Gege, how can you sing so well ah! Today is my birthday, and I want to hear you sing a Cantonese song. Really, really want to, no matter, now I’m going to make a wish here, although I know you definitely won’t see this….]
Cantonese songs.
Fang Juexia thought about it. Since his debut, he had never sung any Cantonese songs, whether it had been on a variety show or on a livestream. Plainly it was his own dialect, but he hadn’t even sung a song in it once.
Anyway, there would be solo performances by each member at the face-to-face meeting tomorrow. He had originally chosen an English song, but it would be better to change it to a Cantonese one. When he thought of it, he sent a WeChat message to Cheng Qiang. The company had always been flexible and had said beforehand that if he wanted to change it, it could be changed.
So Fang Juexia sat down on the bed and opened his Cantonese songs list, ready to find a familiar song to practice for a bit.
All of a sudden, he heard the sound of the guitar, playing a very familiar melody.
Fang Juexia was given a start; wasn’t this the song he had written?
His fingers accidentally clicked on a song randomly, and a Cantonese ballad automatically started playing. Fang Juexia took off his earphones and went to the balcony. Sure enough, the sound of the guitar came from next door. Fang Juexia turned around, ready to go to the room on the opposite side. He wanted to ask Pei Tingsong why he was playing his song in the dormitory, when he suddenly stopped in his steps, realising that he didn’t want Ling Yi and He Ziyan to get involved in this. He then spent two seconds calming down and opened up WeChat.
[Just a pretty face and also pretty: Are you playing the song I wrote?]
After a while, he received a reply.
[Guide Dog: Ah, I forgot you were at home too. I wrote the lyrics, so I played a section to try it out. Do you want to see my lyrics?]
This was a bit beyond Fang Juexia’s expectations. Before he could reply, the other party sent another message.
[Even if it’s a one in ten thousand chance
You have to try
The spark of a flint before falling
Is enough for me to be happy until death]
He didn’t know why, but even though there were only four short lines, it made Fang Juexia’s heart seize, and he felt as if he could see all the pores on his body shudder for an instant.
The lyrics of the Cantonese song playing randomly in his earphones flowed out, and they realistically and straightforwardly beat on Fang Juexia’s heart, telling him to stay where he was, and that there was no way for him to escape.
His phone vibrated again, but this time it was Cheng Qiang.
[Qiang Ge: By the way, I just forgot to ask you, did you choose a song? I’ll go report it.]
Fang Juexia sat back on his bed, clicked on the lyrics of the song currently playing using the music app’s interface, and looked at them very carefully while listening to it again, despite the fact that it was a Cantonese song he was clearly very familiar with.
Finally, he input the name of this ballad into the chat box and clicked send.
Translated by juurensha
Edited by Noks
Lots of online comments, don’t like don’t read
“Okay! Kaleido’s Break Through recording is over! Hard work everyone.”
After hearing the director’s voice, the six people relaxed, stood in a row, and bowed deeply towards the audience. Their names were being called out in every direction of the stage, the voices of the audience seeming to rush towards them in waves.
Fang Juexia was standing in the very center, and as he bowed, his nose actually stung a bit, even despite him keeping up his usual calm and controlled self. The cold reception that they had received ever since their debut, and the sadness that they had experienced at wanting to perform but having no stage to do so—clearly, all these were feelings that he had long gotten used to, but standing on the stage to perform and promote their song after a whole year made all these feelings come rushing back up again.
Despite the popularity he had gained in recent days, which had never had before, and even gaining new fans who liked them, as far as Fang Juexia was concerned, being able to win everyone’s applause while on the stage was the thing that he really loved.
When they left the stage, they all bowed to the different staff members they encountered on the way, saying “hard work everyone” to each person. Even Pei Tingsong, who had disdained to do something like this before, had been subtly influenced to do so. He supported Fang Juexia in walking through the dark by the sash around his waist, all the way until they came to the brightly lit passageway.
“We’re clocking out! We’re clocking out!” Ling Yi was extremely happy as he exclaimed, “We’re off work at last!”
Lu Yuan also followed him in swaying around, and the two people inexplicably went from walking normally into jumping around like zombies. “Suddenly, I want to eat sea worm dumplings, I’m starving.”
“Let’s order take out later ba!”
“Okay ah!”
Seeing his bandmates being so cute, Fang Juexia’s mood calmed down a little. Once they were back in the lounge, as soon as the door closed, Fang Juexia suddenly felt that his overcoat, which had been hanging over him, get taken away. A hand grabbed his waist and moved him back and forth, and when he turned his head, he saw that the culprit was Pei Tingsong.
“What’s the matter?”
“Are you all right?” Pei Tingsong checked carefully and said, ” I just saw your mic box fall from the side of the stage, it didn’t pull at your waist ba?”
Fang Juexia’s eyes immediately widened a bit, and in a rare instance, his words sped up as he asked a little nervously, “You saw that? Was it very obvious? What to do? Maybe everyone saw it, this belt doesn’t really fix the mic box in place, and it gets thrown around as soon as I execute any big movements.” He sighed and added, “After practicing for so long, I still slipped up.”
As soon as he said that, Pei Tingsong took hold of his face with both of his hands, and then proceeded to squeeze his face out of shape. “What are you talking about ah, I asked if there was something wrong with your waist, and you tell me you slipped up instead.”
Fang Juexia froze for a moment, and then broke away from his hands, and rubbed his face. “My waist is fine, that mic box isn’t heavy.” He didn’t look at Pei Tingsong directly, but added in a low voice, “Don’t worry.”
Jiang Miao heard what Fang Juexia had said just now, and came over to pinch his shoulder. “Juexia, that didn’t count as you slipping up at all, that’s called rescuing the performance. I was right behind you playing the guzheng, and I was really scared when I saw it, but you were really handsome when you flipped over that mic box. And by the reaction below the stage, it shouldn’t have been noticed by many people.” With that, he purposefully glanced over at Pei Tingsong. “It was just Xiao Pei, I guess his eyes don’t blink at all.”
In the past, Pei Tingsong would definitely have been in a hurry to refute that statement, but now he shamelessly admitted it straightforwardly, “That’s true, how could I blink with you guys performing like that?”
Fang Juexia was a little embarrassed, so he looked down and didn’t talk any further.
Cheng Qiang came in through the door and hugged them one by one. “Too great, you guys were too great! Worthy of being my puppies! While watching, I nearly turned into an old man with tears streaming down my cheeks.”
Lu Yuan started laughing after being hugged. “Strong Ge has become more and more educated recently.”
“What nonsense!” Cheng Qiang pulled Pei Tingsong in and hugged him, then pointed at him, chiding, “You ah, you changed your lyrics again.”
Pei Tingsong shrugged. “That was just what I wrote last night. It was too late to add it to the studio version, but I thought it was too much of a pity, and that I should sing it anyway.”
When it came to the topic of changing the lyrics, Fang Juexia thought of a point, and couldn’t wait to say, “Just now, Xiao Pei said some lyrics of ‘The original lone forces cut a wound with due care’, and then it’s…”
“And drank the hot blood to live immortal and fair,” Pei Tingsong took over.
“Yes!” Fang Juexia’s expression was full of praise. “Those words were too wonderful, it was really great.”
Pei Tingsong hadn’t not heard praise from others before; he had actually heard too much of it, and there had also been all kinds of exaggerations. One simple sentence of ‘it was really great’ didn’t count as much, but as long as it was uttered by Fang Juexia, he felt that it was better than anything. He had never been so happy.
Fang Juexia continued to elaborate on his idea, “Our choreography was based on the original lyrics, but since the live version has been changed, I think we can change our actions to match the lyrics in our next performance.” Then, he made a motion of digging out his heart and said, “What do you guys think?”
Lu Yuan clapped. “This is good, six people depicting the scene together should make a great impact. When we get back, let’s arrange it!”
Watching them start a discussion centered around the stage again, Cheng Qiang felt emotional. These children had just finished a very difficult performance, but even after descending from the stage, they actually didn’t take the time to relax as if having survived a disaster, and they also didn’t go to fuss over their comeback album’s numbers and ranking. Instead, they wholeheartedly focused on the stage and on their performance, just thinking about how to make their performance even more brilliant.
They deserved a better future.
Thinking of this, Cheng Qiang clapped his hands and said, “I’ve already greeted the program team, and we won’t be participating in the award ceremony that’ll happen in a bit. Anyway, we’re not candidates, so it’s meaningless to waste time here.”
“After this, there is a fan meeting being hosted for the new album, and that will be entirely livestreamed, so nothing can go wrong there. Go back first and rest, have a meal, and then practice all the programs you will perform at the meeting, especially each of your solos.”
When they exited MLH’s studio, they discovered that fans had surrounded the building from the outside. All of these fans were holding Klein blue fan signs and kaleidoscope lights. As soon as they saw Cheng Qiang coming out of the studio, they began to scream. The group members lined up in a straight line as they came out, and their path forward was very narrow since everyone was crowding in.
“Good luck Kaleido!!”
“Juexia!! How are you this good looking, Juexia!”
“Xiao Pei, look at Mama ba! He Ziyan is such a hot Ge!”
“Miaomiao! Captain Miao is the greatest! You’re the best group leader!”
“Ling Yi! Ling Yi, your blue hair looks so good! Teacher Yuan, you’re too hot!”
Many fans were very emotional, and the difficulty of this comeback worried them more than anyone else.
Fang Juexia, who was being pushed around by the crowd, saw a girl crying noisily in front of him. His heart squeezed, and he pulled out a package of tissues from his coat pocket; he had just drawn one out when he had been wiping away his sweat moments ago. Taking advantage of being pushed to the front, Fang Juexia reached out and handed the tissue packet to the girl. His face, which had been completely expressionless up until now, smiled, and his voice was gentle as he asked, “What are you crying for ah?“
This move made the fans all around them scream. Pei Tingsong protected him as they walked forward. “As soon as you gave out those tissues, I knew that if it were me, I would be able to cry all night to get those.” The fans who heard him started to laugh again.
“You are…” Fang Juexia didn’t know what to say about him, so after speaking half a sentence, he stopped talking. When everyone got in the car, Jiang Miao rolled down the window and said to the fans with a smile, “Go back quickly ba. Remember to watch our meeting livestream oh.”
Suddenly, a girl’s voice appeared from the crowd; it was very loud and penetrating. “Our little obscure K is the most powerful!”
Ling Yi’s head poked out of the window. “Wow, you have such a good voice. You should be the lead singer instead of me.”
“Hahahahaha!”
Due to the sharp contraction in their comeback launch date, the individual member previews that had been shot previously, were all mainly broadcast in the morning, and the MV was posted at 9 p.m. Although the MV was shot in a hurry, with everyone working tirelessly to hurry the work along, the overall effect and expressiveness of the MV were all very strong.
Fans forwarded it over and over again and didn’t even sleep. They played the MV repeatedly on CloudTV and several other video platforms to increase the playback counts for their idols. Although this wasn’t enough to let Kaleido parachute onto the Top Songs board, it was still already a big improvement over their past numbers.
After Kaleido’s journey of how they were even able to participate in filming the song program was revealed, the heated rampant online debate over K’s comeback running into that of Seven Luminaries’ grew even more heated. Most of the netizens took on the attitude of watching a good show while getting to taunt people at the same time, while the better ones showed a sympathetic attitude towards K who came from such a small company. The uglier sounding ones though, dared to say anything and everything, such as that this group that was selling rot was just getting what they deserved, that they were overstepping their ability, and some even believed that Star Chart and Kaleido had leaked the song themselves to create speculation online in order to improve the popularity of their comeback.
If the whole Kaleido was up to the chin in the entire Internet’s violent words, then in the very center of this violence was Fang Juexia. As before, it was still Fang Juexia. There were many anti threads about Fang Juexia in the anonymous forums, and many people, whose eyes had turned red from how Fang Juexia had continuously managed to get and stay onto the Hot Search list, while also getting onto big variety shows, took advantage of this opportunity to trample him to death.
[I hope you know that FJX can never really become popular, hyped up genius characters always backfire, okay? There are so many people who are good-looking and talented, and what’s the use? Big popularity depends on fate.]
[Who says that it was a loss for Astar not to let FJX debut? Fortunately he didn’t debut with 7L, okay? A bad luck magnet doesn’t deceive me, whoever gets involved in him will have bad luck.]
[If they like hype so much, maybe the leaked song was also deliberate hype]
[As long as FJX doesn’t quit the group, obscure K will always be dead hehe]
These kinds of comments had been popping up endlessly within the whole fan circle environment, and Fang Juexia had already accepted it. He just disconnected from the Internet and pretended nothing was going on. He took every stage he got to perform on as the last one and tried his very best to successfully complete the performance, while not caring about the rest in the least.
It was just that no one thought that Kaleido, who had been trampled to the point that it was left nearly unable to fight back, began to actually rebound when the ‘Music live house’ was broadcast.
When it was broadcast, the cover photo for the MLH push notification on CloudTV’s homepage was still that of the top group Seven Luminaries, and the banner was also theirs, all in order to make them as widely acclaimed as possible. Although this program was a comprehensive network program, its viewership had always been very high, and it also boasted of a considerable audience.
There were 16 performances in the whole program, as well as the subsequent awards part and the encore stage. 16 groups or individual singers would have corresponding direct videos, which were linked in the relevant sidebar of the song playing program, and then sorted in real time based on the number of views. For group performances, a camera followed each member around during their performance and recorded the performance of his or her whole song.
At the beginning, no one really noticed it, and it was only after the broadcast that Fang Juexia’s performance soundlessly shot to the number one most viewed direct video on that day that the trend of them bottoming out and then rebounding first appeared.
At 10 p.m., after the song program was broadcasted, a verified Weibo account who specially commented on livestreams and had millions of followers, actually posted up the direct video of Fang Juexia’s “Break Through”.
[@King MO of watching performances: As you guys know, I usually don’t pay much attention to the direct videos of song programs. I always thought that no one would watch the direct videos of idols except the fans, but Fang Juexia’s direct video has the highest view count for this episode of MLH. It’s eight times ahead of the rest after only five hours, with a view count of more than 150,000, while the second place has just broken 20,000. I was curious, so I went in to have a look, and after I discovered the reason, and it’s not too much of a boast to describe it as an immortal saving the show. I dare say that with this level of appearance, singing skills, stage expression, and adaptability, he’s right up there at the ceiling of all idols. (You can not agree with this, but you can only argue about it after watching the whole direct video) PS this is Kaleido’s ‘Break Through’]
In addition to sharing high-quality music and excellent stage performances from home and abroad, this blogger’s daily activity was to critique and attack local performances. Most of their fans were passers-by in the music circle, and it wasn’t long before this Weibo post was published that it became popular.
[@Study hard and make progress every day: Holy crap, King MO actually posted a direct video of an idol, they’re breaking into the real world.]
[@My San also didn’t make a comeback today: Ah, it’s pretty much great minds think alike! As soon as I finished watching the performance of the junior group on CloudTV, I saw the direct video posted by Lord Mo. Fang Juexia is just too amazing in this performance, his aura is so obvious, so right in front of you, and the dance break’s classical dance is so beautiful. I strongly recommend everyone to take a look at K’s full performance, kneeling here and selling them!]
[@ Bobbi Doll: Are there any sisters who can tell me, did the mic box drop at the 2:43 timestamp? This way of dealing with that is really awesome, I went back to watch it several times. I thought that he was actually tossing some kind of weapon around x it’s really the first time anyone has saved a show so beautifully.]
[@Sleiyoujh: Have I seen this person on the Hot Search list before? His voice is very special ah. It’s plainly a cold voice, but because it resonates well, and is both full and special, I can’t really describe it, how annoying! And this singing skill, if it’s all live singing, it’s too strong. It’s such a high-energy choreography, but he’s not out of breath at all, and his high pitch is very stable.]
[@Beautiful Fine Jewelike Xeriscape replying to @Sleiyoujh: It was live singing oh, and by the way, his name is Fang Juexia, Kaleido’s ace. This song was also created by the whole Kaleido group; it’s their own original work, including the choreography oh.]
[@To be a person means to have a dog: The tune of this song is a little familiar ah, is it the song that got leaked a few days ago? The demo totally can’t compare with the completed song at all ah, looking at this version, the post production is too strong.]
[@No one wants to see your nonsense: Cold popular knowledge: Fang Juexia was a very popular trainee before he even debuted, and he was known as an overkill pick. However, he changed companies, and there was also some talk about hidden rules. People talked, but anyway, I don’t believe it. With this ability, if there really was some owner in the background, wouldn’t he be blazingly popular ah? He certainly offended someone to have been so miserable this whole time. Although I’m not a fan of idols, I really like this Ge’s direct video.]
[@Small Blueberry Cheesecake: I’m a classical Chinese dancer, and with one look at his solo part, I can tell he has a foundation ah. He saved the show with barely a trace, and no matter whether the main camera was on him or not, his expression and state never relaxed, and he didn’t make even a single superfluous little action. His hair was stuck all over him because of sweat, but he didn’t even raise his hand to draw it back. He’s very professional. Great stage attitude.]
[@Just telling the truth: I really want to work hard to try to analyze how excellent this performance is just like the other sisters, but I’m too superficial. I’m just staring at this little Gege’s face the entire time, it’s so beautiful…]
Soon, the forwards on this direct video Weibo post broke through 30,000, and the entries of #Fang Juexia’s direct video# and #Fang Juexia saved the show# climbed up the Hot Search list bit by bit, all under just the spontaneous power of the masses. With this sort of network effect, more and more people went to CloudTV to watch Fang Juexia’s direct video and the whole group’s performance video.
Many entertainment bloggers and marketing accounts seized on this hot topic, creating cuts of the highlights of Fang Juexia’s performance—such as him saving the show, him and Pei Tingsong colliding together as part of the choreography, and the killing segment, where he gestured a gun with his hand, which was just before the movie segment, and then the final ending segment. All of these were turned into gifs and then posted on Weibo. More and more people saw and discussed them, and even many passers-by who never watched idol singing programs were attracted by these gifs.
Under this joint effect, the full version of Kaleido’s performance also climbed onto the Hot Search list, and even got itself reposted on major social platforms. A Chinese classical music performance mixed with electronic dance music was something unprecedented in boybands, and unexpectedly became the most popular performance that had come out of the idol circle through MLH in recent years. By the next day, all of the group’s six members’ direct videos had reached the top of the CloudTV’s direct video list. Fang Juexia was still the highest, leading by leaps and bounds, while second place was Pei Tingsong.
If they said it was Fang Juexia’s attitude of being a new force that made him capable of changing the situation that led them on a counterattack out of the circle, then Pei Tingsong was the bomb that continued the counterattack’s momentum and made their popularity explode.
Observant people had already noticed that his rap part was different from the lyrics of the main song that had first been officially released, so they made a comparison video. Most netizens liked sharp, incisive, and conflicting things, and marvelously, Pei Tingsong was just such a person, especially when it came to his lyrics.
[@Homeless Tortoise: I’m inclined to think that the lyrics of this live version was a rap freshly written by Pei Tingsong after the leaked song incident. Pretty much every word is cutting—”Heart festering with a jealousy flare, there’s still no medicine for this evil affair. The original lone forces cut a wound with due care, and drink the hot blood to live immortal and fair.” You guys judge, it’s starkly mocking and damning the malicious behavior caused by the leaked song. Only when I went to listen to the song did I discover that the lyrics of all the songs were basically written by him alone. I sincerely suggest everyone listen to it, but that part is only in the live performance.]
[@User 1234567: I almost started yelling out in front of my mom when I watched the program! He’s so haughty! That last line of “to lift up your heads and break the heavens bare” really shocked me. The whole song is full of murderous spirit, everyone must listen to it!]
[@Words fail to convey meaning: Finally someone said something about the lyrics of this new song! I saw the push notification yesterday and listened to it casually, but it’s really excellent ah, they’re just too much of a dark horse. My favorite was the ending, it has a very soothing melody with the words, “All my ways forward have been blown, all that is left is to wait for your ambush to be thrown.” It gives off the feeling that after slaughtering everywhere, just calmly putting your sword back in its sheath.]
[@The beautiful Fine Jewelike Xeriscape of Putuo Temple Site: The lyrics and the music in the final part of the main song were Fang Juexia’s oh, and the middle part was Xiao Pei’s. In fact, both of their two styles are very different; Pei Tingsong is very straightforward and bloodthirsty, very much with a rapper’s boldness, while Juexia’s lyric is very similar to his Buddhist style. “Anyway, I’ve been forced with no ways to go, so you guys can ambush me casually ba. I’m not afraid at all.”]
[@Crying for nearly cancelled K today again: Let’s have a look at the whole stage ba. In addition to the two beautiful aces who saved the show and created the lyrics, there’s also the super lead singer Ling Yi at the beginning with the Beijing opera, group leader Jiang Miao playing the guzheng, rapper, musical arranger, and DJ He Ziyan, and the choreographer of the whole song, our main dancer, Lu Yuan. Our K may not be popular, but they are really treasure boys ah. This song has been created with painstaking effort from each of them. It’s really worth it to listen to it every three minutes!]
[@Severe procrastination critical patient: Didn’t they say Pei Tingsong grew up abroad? Why is his Chinese ability so strong?]
[@Has Pinot Tree Supreme grown up today? Replying to @Severe procrastination critical patient: He has been bilingual since he was a child, and he likes Chinese traditional culture very much. They’ve said all this during the livestream.]
@Listening to songs makes people intelligent: “Just be a wordless vase, and mess around less with real voices in place. I admit my besieged base, but let’s see you after karma’s grace.” —aren’t these words really fragrant? Mocking professional idols and speaking frankly about the attacks and oppression they have received all this time. The leaked song incident almost drove them into a corner ba. No wonder everyone says that Pei Tingsong is especially tiger-like.]
With the song becoming more and more popular, several well-known music bloggers pulled out the leaked demo that had spread all over the Internet and compared it with the live completed version of the song.
[@Uncle A doesn’t play around with music: Since yesterday, many fans have asked me to listen to Kaleido’s new song, “Break Through”. I have said before that a leaked song would greatly impact the life of a song, and it can be said to be a heavy blow to the original song. But now I have to say that that’s not so certain with this leaked demo. This song, “Break Through” is an example of this exception. In fact, when I heard the demo, I was skeptical. The arrangement was very chaotic and the melody was too full. You just managed to create one emotion when suddenly, it changed to another arrangement and atmosphere; it was definitely not a successful work.
But I was very surprised at this finished product, which cut off a lot of the melodies, which many producers won’t do because they can’t bear to part with it. The Beijing opera by the lead singer set the tune immediately, and the sense of arrangement is very good. After listening to it, you get the sensation of having witnessed a battle fought to life or death. It is said that this song was made by the members of K themselves. Giving a suggestion to the brokerage company: let them write their own songs in the future ba.]
The analysis and essays of music bloggers soon attracted a large number of music lovers online. It seemed like a small group, but these people were actually heavy users of online music apps. Star Chart took advantage of this opportunity to talk about promotions on the opening screen of music apps and homepages, attracting passers-by’s eyes. Under this dual effect, by 10 pm the next day, after “Break Through” was broadcast, it climbed from a rank in the few hundreds range to the second place at the speed of light, directly pushing Seven Luminaries’ song to third place.
And seeing which way the wind was blowing online, CloudTV changed the cover of their MLH program to Kaleido’s “Break Through”, and also changed the banner: “Kaleido’s strong comeback and word-of-mouth counterattack.” Fang Juexia’s direct video also broke MLH’s direct video record by reaching beyond one million views the fastest ever, achieving fame with victory within a single battle.
This matter of bucking the trend came on too fast. Just like how Kaleido had been forced to make their comeback early in the beginning, this backlash of popularity came on just as quickly, and all because of that first action of saving the show. The small mic box, like a butterfly flapping its wings, triggered a subversive tsunami within the whole network in just two days.
The contribution of each member in this song “Break Through”, from its melody, arrangement, choreography, stage design, and to everyone’s stage expression, won them the praise of most netizens.
Plainly this had been the worst of the worst start, but in the end, it was a very successful counter-attack. The reality of the situation and the lyrics coincided perfectly, and it really became a fight against the trend.
The electronic sales volume of Kaleido’s new album soon caught up with that of Seven Luminaries, which possessed a huge fan base, and most of these sales were attributed to passers-by. Many people predicted that with such an increase, it would soon surpass Seven Luminaries.
In order to control the public opinion, Cheng Qiang observed the way the wind was blowing online the entire time. During the process, he only screenshotted one comment and saved it in his photo album.
[After watching the whole process, going from the leaked song to this instance of bucking against the trend, I learned that no matter what happens, the strength and enthusiasm of creation will never be buried. What I’m very moved by is that, from these boys who were not favored by anyone, I can see what is called “originality never dies”.]
At this time, Fang Juexia, who was at the center of the storm, was urged by Ling Yi to login into his Weibo. He had just come back from having finished recording the third song and was resting in the dorms. Because of his fear of having his phone get stuck under the deluge of Weibo notifications every time after he logged into Weibo after a long while,, he simply let Xiao Wen login into his account every day now. This way, if one day he used Weibo himself, it wouldn’t collapse as soon as he opened it.
He received a lot of comments, most of which were from fans’, who were calling him an immortal and using other such flowery words. Sliding his fingers and scrolling through, he saw a fan with a special ID.
[@Has Pinot Tree Supreme been bent today: Juexia Gege, how can you sing so well ah! Today is my birthday, and I want to hear you sing a Cantonese song. Really, really want to, no matter, now I’m going to make a wish here, although I know you definitely won’t see this….]
Cantonese songs.
Fang Juexia thought about it. Since his debut, he had never sung any Cantonese songs, whether it had been on a variety show or on a livestream. Plainly it was his own dialect, but he hadn’t even sung a song in it once.
Anyway, there would be solo performances by each member at the face-to-face meeting tomorrow. He had originally chosen an English song, but it would be better to change it to a Cantonese one. When he thought of it, he sent a WeChat message to Cheng Qiang. The company had always been flexible and had said beforehand that if he wanted to change it, it could be changed.
So Fang Juexia sat down on the bed and opened his Cantonese songs list, ready to find a familiar song to practice for a bit.
All of a sudden, he heard the sound of the guitar, playing a very familiar melody.
Fang Juexia was given a start; wasn’t this the song he had written?
His fingers accidentally clicked on a song randomly, and a Cantonese ballad automatically started playing. Fang Juexia took off his earphones and went to the balcony. Sure enough, the sound of the guitar came from next door. Fang Juexia turned around, ready to go to the room on the opposite side. He wanted to ask Pei Tingsong why he was playing his song in the dormitory, when he suddenly stopped in his steps, realising that he didn’t want Ling Yi and He Ziyan to get involved in this. He then spent two seconds calming down and opened up WeChat.
[Just a pretty face and also pretty: Are you playing the song I wrote?]
After a while, he received a reply.
[Guide Dog: Ah, I forgot you were at home too. I wrote the lyrics, so I played a section to try it out. Do you want to see my lyrics?]
This was a bit beyond Fang Juexia’s expectations. Before he could reply, the other party sent another message.
[Even if it’s a one in ten thousand chance
You have to try
The spark of a flint before falling
Is enough for me to be happy until death]
He didn’t know why, but even though there were only four short lines, it made Fang Juexia’s heart seize, and he felt as if he could see all the pores on his body shudder for an instant.
The lyrics of the Cantonese song playing randomly in his earphones flowed out, and they realistically and straightforwardly beat on Fang Juexia’s heart, telling him to stay where he was, and that there was no way for him to escape.
His phone vibrated again, but this time it was Cheng Qiang.
[Qiang Ge: By the way, I just forgot to ask you, did you choose a song? I’ll go report it.]
Fang Juexia sat back on his bed, clicked on the lyrics of the song currently playing using the music app’s interface, and looked at them very carefully while listening to it again, despite the fact that it was a Cantonese song he was clearly very familiar with.
Finally, he input the name of this ballad into the chat box and clicked send.
