During the exclusive interview livestream for Xie Feiran, Shi Baiyan was pulling his colleague, Sun Yuanbai, the leader of the modeling group, to watch the stream together.
When Shi Baiyan heard Xie Feiran mention that his parents would go out for skewers together after work, he immediately slapped Sun Yuanbai’s thigh.
Sun Yuanbai, who was working seriously, trembled and couldn’t help but curse, “What’s wrong with you?”
Shi Baiyan pointed at Xie Feiran in the video, “Feiran’s parents go for skewers together after work. Don’t you think that’s just like us?”
“Are you crazy?”
Sun Yuanbai glanced at Shi Baiyan in disgust.
After giving Shi Baiyan a glare, Sun Yuanbai went back to work.
It wasn’t long before Sun Yuanbai realized the paper on his desk was gone.
“You…”
Before Sun Yuanbai could finish speaking, he turned and saw Shi Baiyan wiping away tears.
“My baby is so pitiful.”
Shi Baiyan choked up.
“Isn’t that your male idol?”
In the end, Sun Yuanbai voiced the question.
Shi Baiyan looked at Xie Feiran in the video, whose eyes were hollow, and clutched his chest.
“Now he’s my baby.”
“Baby! Mama loves you!”
Shi Baiyan wasn’t the only one who felt this way.
When everyone saw the host pressing Xie Feiran with relentless questions, forcing him to open up old wounds, they all felt a surge of sympathy for him.
Especially when they saw the hollow look in Xie Feiran’s eyes as he stared at the ceiling, their hearts ached.
Shi Baiyan took the initiative and founded the Mama Fan Club for Xie Feiran.
Thus, the Mama Fan phenomenon that Xie Feiran couldn’t understand appeared.
Completely bewildered, Xie Feiran turned to Ye Ansheng, whom he was most familiar with.
“Why do they want to be my mama fans?”
Ye Ansheng ruffled Xie Feiran’s hair.
“Maybe because you make their motherly love overflow.”
Xie Feiran still couldn’t fully grasp it, but the Knight’s Code told him that he should protect others, not be protected by them.
After thinking it over, he posted a Weibo.
Xie Feiran xfr: I am not a weak person. I can bear all pain alone. My mission is to protect others, not to be protected.
The moment the Weibo was posted, the comment section exploded.
[Baby, it’s okay to be weak sometimes.]
[Baby, mama wants to protect you.]
[Baby, if you want to cry, then cry.]
This situation left Xie Feiran both amused and helpless. He didn’t need anyone’s protection.
There were also conspiracy theorists guessing whether Xie Feiran was trying to garner sympathy, but they were quickly rebutted.
[Why say it now, not sooner or later? Must be trying to fish for votes.]
[It’s 2021. How are there still people selling tragedy?]
[If you don’t sell misery, how do you stay popular?]
These people with sarcastic comments were directly overwhelmed by the fans.
Polar Bear suddenly started personal interviews, Xie Feiran was the first to go live, with no time to prepare a script, and the situation was created only because the host kept pushing.
If the host hadn’t pushed, none of this would have happened.
In the end, those people muttered about whether the host was arranged by Polar Bear and then left in defeat.
On the other side, when Wen Qingyun, the second interviewee, came out of the interview room, he was full of confidence.
But the moment he checked his phone, his expression collapsed.
He had followed the company’s script, describing his struggles in the Entertainment Circle and how his parents didn’t support him when he entered the talent show, doing his best to present himself as a young man who would go against the world to pursue his dreams.
However, all his efforts couldn’t compare to Xie Feiran’s single look toward the sky.
Wen Qingyun looked at the topic #Be gentle, don’t open others’ wounds# ranking high, then at his own hot search ranking in the twenties, and felt that Xie Feiran had stolen his spotlight.
“It’s 2021, and people are still using the ‘tragic’ angle. Don’t you think so?”
Wen Qingyun smiled at his teammate beside him.
Ye Ansheng, about to go in for his interview, chuckled.
“It’s 2021, and people are still using such outdated character settings?”
“You!”
The person beside Wen Qingyun wanted to curse.
However, Ye Ansheng was quick and darted into the room, poked his head back out, and said:
“Some people have stuck to their persona for so long, but after one act, it’s all self-delusion.”
With that, Ye Ansheng closed the door, blocking Wen Qingyun and his team’s view.
By the time Ye Ansheng and the others finished their interviews, it was already evening.
The hot search for today was destined to belong to Xie Feiran.
Whether it was Xie Feiran’s 4S performance on stage or the hollow look in his eyes during the interview, both were worthy of trending.
Combined, these two topics made Xie Feiran appear as a beautifully strong but tragic figure.
Xie Feiran frowned at the growing number of odd comments under his Weibo.
He felt his persona was becoming more and more bizarre.
He wanted to clarify, but worried it would only make things worse, so he let it be.
Rather than dwelling on it, Xie Feiran thought it better to teach his teammates how to quickly master “only my railgun”.
Although this song has an English name, it is a Japanese song, which was why most contestants didn’t choose it—out of unfamiliarity and caution, they picked other songs.
But they didn’t know that “only my railgun” is a battle anthem in the 2D world; when the music plays, it’s a day of 2D celebration.
Wei Yunnian and the others, holding the lyrics, were a bit troubled, since none of them spoke Japanese or knew how to pronounce it.
Ye Ansheng, on the other hand, could say a few phrases of broken Japanese, making everyone laugh the moment he opened his mouth.
Xie Feiran reached over and took the lyrics from Wei Yunnian, then seriously marked out the Romanized pronunciations one by one.
“You know Japanese?”
Chen Linxi, standing beside Xie Feiran, asked.
Actually, Chen Linxi had planned to look up the Romanized Japanese on Baidu, but didn’t expect Xie Feiran to start marking it directly.
“Sort of.”
Xie Feiran replied uncertainly.
He wasn’t sure if he counted as knowing it either.
As a game character, he was often exported by players who liked him to dance in mmd, from Extreme Elysium to Love Circulation.
Even if he didn’t know the meaning, he could still sing along.
Moreover, since Xie Feiran was a game character, he could directly import Japanese data into himself, though sometimes the translation might not be entirely accurate.
Once Xie Feiran finished marking the Romanized lyrics, he handed copies to everyone.
“I’ll teach you all how to sing it in a bit.”
Ye Ansheng and the others had music backgrounds, so after a few lessons from Xie Feiran, they could sing using the Romanized lyrics he provided.
But being able to sing didn’t mean singing well. “only my railgun” has a powerful melody and fast tempo, so it’s easy to go off-key if you’re not careful.
“I finally understand why they didn’t pick this song.”
Ye Ansheng lay on the floor, staring at the lyrics.
“Can’t reach the high notes, can’t get the low notes, nasals are obvious, falsetto and chest voice changes are stiff—this song is their nightmare.”
Luo Wen couldn’t help but pinch Ye Ansheng’s cheek.
“The camera’s fixed.”
Yes, after Xie Feiran led them to get four S Ratings, Polar Bear repaired the vocal room’s camera at lightning speed.
[Ye Ansheng, why say such brutal truths.]
[It took ten days to fix the camera? What is Polar Bear doing?]
[Right now, I just want to hear Feiran sing the full version of “only my railgun”. Please.]
After saying this, Ye Ansheng smiled, grabbed Xie Feiran’s sleeve.
“Boss, show us your true strength.”
The next moment, Wei Yunnian started the music, and the eight-bar electronic prelude instantly fired everyone up.
Xie Feiran looked helplessly at the group, then started singing.
The boy’s clear voice rang out, different from the sweet original, but equally rhythmic and cool, with seamless breath transitions and agile shifts between falsetto and chest voice.
Combined with the fast-paced electronic sound, it fired everyone up.
When he sang “Beyond that lies a distant longing.”, the bullet screen was flooded with, “The electric light at your fingertips is my unchanging faith for life.”
Just as Xie Feiran was about to reach the climax, the livestream suddenly went black, and the singing abruptly stopped.
Moments later, the collective outcry erupted on Weibo: It’s 2021, how is there still a power outage? Does this make sense?
At the same time, the clip of Xie Feiran singing was uploaded to Weibo.
That electrifying voice was quickly shared, and many who had heard the original and watched the anime commented, “To be honest, I want to hear it live.”
Female fans watching the show told them to go buy figures instead of causing trouble—there were only three hundred tickets, not even enough for themselves, so why let others snatch them?
If all else failed, they could fly to Tokyo to hear the original, just don’t make a mess!
Whether it was the original singer or Xie Feiran, both were in demand among Railgun fans.
Though fans of Railgun couldn’t out-argue the others, they were still formidable at grabbing tickets.
When official sales opened, all three hundred tickets vanished in 0.001 seconds, leaving everyone stunned.
But, you have your schemes, I have my workarounds—if you can’t get tickets, there’s always scalpers!
As the third public performance approached, everyone was fully prepared, determined to leave their best impression on the three hundred female audience members.
However, when the third public performance began and Wen Qingyun, as the first boy group on stage, saw the audience, they were dumbfounded.
The audience was evenly split between men and women.
Polar Bear, are you sure this is a boy group talent show and not a girl group show?
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