Almost the moment she saw Jiang Juyou, Liu Yue discreetly turned her head away, covering her face with her hand and quickly putting on a face mask, afraid of being discovered.
The consequence of being caught here would be having to sit quietly under Jiang Juyou's watchful eye for the next few hours, unable to take out her camera. That was the best-case scenario; in the worst case, she might even end up on a blacklist.
Jiang Juyou, walking down the aisle with her arms crossed, swept her gaze across the crowd. Many people noticed her, and a few even took out their phones to secretly snap photos. Jiang Juyou looked away and let out a quiet sigh.
She moved to a position further back, where there were seats reserved for staff members. Sitting there was like being a teacher at the back of a classroom, able to see all the small movements in front.
As soon as Jiang Juyou sat down, she noticed a few girls in front studying their light sticks. These light sticks were designed by her and Zhao Xu together. Like most light sticks, they consisted of a handle and a round ball, but they had taken inspiration from maracas, filling them with light-emitting beads that glowed upon impact, requiring no batteries.
Seeing that they couldn't figure it out after a while, Jiang Juyou stood up and went over to help.
"Let me..." Jiang Juyou suddenly reached out, startling the two unprepared girls. Amused by their reaction, Jiang Juyou apologized sheepishly, "Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to scare you."
"Oh, oh, oh, it's--"
"Holy crap!"
Jiang Juyou began gesturing, "I saw from the back that you couldn't figure it out. Here, let me show you how to use it."
As the commotion attracted attention, other fans noticed Jiang Juyou standing in the back row. They turned their heads to look, hurriedly taking out their phones to photograph her.
Jiang Juyou took the light stick, turned on the switch at the bottom, and shook it a couple of times. The two fans' eyes immediately lit up. She explained to the surrounding fans, "This doesn't need batteries, but there's still a switch at the bottom. Once it's on, it will react. If you shake the light stick like this, it will light up. If you don't move it, it will go dark after a while."
She shook the light stick a few times, and the little light beads inside not only lit up but also made a crisp sound.
"Wow--"
The fans in this small area let out a unified exclamation, making Jiang Juyou smile again.
She teased them, "You didn't listen carefully to the instructions at the entrance, did you?"
A fan next to Jiang Juyou, after receiving the light stick and trying it a few times, looked at her and asked what everyone was wondering, "How does this work?"
With that question, everyone turned to look at her.
They were curious not only about the principle behind the light sticks but also about the small cards, especially the Live cards - how some things remained static while other items could move.
Standing on the steps, Jiang Juyou put on a mysterious expression and said, "It's a secret."
They knew she would say that!!!
The fans were given half an hour to enter the venue. During this time, Jiang Juyou walked around, touring the entire venue. Along the way, some fans boldly called out to her, insisting that certain trainees must debut.
This shouting soon spread, and every fan who saw Jiang Juyou felt compelled to call out to her, as if making a wish.
"21 Heartbeats of Youth" was special. It had a voting mechanism, but it wasn't an elimination competition. The voting was only to give their favorite trainees more solo stage time, more face time with the teachers, and more opportunities to showcase themselves to the audience.
The final selection power still lay with the teachers, especially Jiang Juyou, who basically held the power of life and death over all the trainees.
More and more people started calling out to Jiang Juyou, to the point where it became a game of trying to catch her attention. Fortunately, most of the fans had entered by then, and the venue began to darken.
As the lights dimmed, fans in the venue waved their light sticks and let out small screams to express their excitement.
The rustling sound mixed with cheers, like waves crashing on a beach, suddenly giving the sound a tangible image.
Jiang Juyou also returned to her area in the darkness, taking her seat.
The big screen in the venue began to play the viewing instructions, once again emphasizing the prohibition on photography and requesting everyone to create a good viewing environment together. This was followed by a VCR about how to use the light sticks, which was narrated by Jiang Tang.
Jiang Tang was involved throughout the entire show, from the trainees' practice sessions in the training room to hosting the performances. After a while, the audience got to know her and started calling her Sister Tang Tang along with the trainees.
After the VCR finished playing, the venue went dark for a moment. When it lit up again, the content on the screen was the opening VCR for this concert.
It was as if a fire had been lit, and the venue slowly began to heat up.
Jiang Juyou, holding a light stick she had snagged from backstage, started waving and screaming along with the fans. A few fans sitting closer to her turned to look, finding it quite amusing.
All the trainees' materials were filmed in the park, which not only had practice rooms but also photography studios. They didn't need to go elsewhere for props; the film studio could generate everything automatically.
This VCR was shot in the film studio. At the time, Jiang Juyou had approached the director, explained the effect she wanted, and assured him not to worry about the special effects. During the filming, everything was shot against a green screen, and even the director was a bit uncertain about how the final result would turn out.
But judging from the fans' reactions--
"Holy crap?"
"I knew the pop-up store couldn't suddenly go cyberpunk!!!"
"Could this possibly have been shot on location?"
"I've never seen a concert this worth it in my life."
"I'm getting goosebumps!"
The original pop-up stores were all done in a cyberpunk style, with various neon signs on site, but this was just a superficial representation. What was more advanced was in the VCR.
The train that always appeared at the beginning of the show passed through a jungle and then a tunnel. After emerging from the tunnel, it suddenly transformed into a slightly dilapidated maglev train, traveling on an elevated bridge above sea level.
The moon hung in the sky like a giant light bulb, and in the distance, a futuristic city rose with towering buildings, stacked like building blocks, layer upon layer.
Slowly, dark clouds obscured the moon, and a light rain began to fall from the sky.
The train stopped at the platform, where there were pedestrians wearing hats to shield from the rain, as well as people holding umbrellas. On the train were the sixty-three trainees, who lowered their hat brims to cover their eyes as the train came to a stop.
Suddenly, an alarm sounded, and subtitles appeared at the bottom of the screen: [Emergency! A replicant escape situation has occurred! Citizens, please remain calm and report any suspicious individuals to the authorities immediately!]
The previously apathetic people on the platform finally reacted, but most just looked up briefly at the source of the broadcast before lowering their heads again, continuing to be soulless corporate drones heading home after work.
The train doors opened, and the passengers inside streamed out, splitting up in unison and heading in different directions, blending into the crowd.
The rain-soaked streets were crowded with people. Neon lights from the buildings were the only illumination in the night, their high-saturation glow making the night seem even more desolate. Flying cars darted chaotically through the air, while on the ground there was no semblance of order, with vehicles and people moving side by side. The rusted androids by the traffic lights had become mere decorations, mechanically carrying out their programmed responses.
This wet night, coupled with the metallic buildings, created a post-apocalyptic wasteland feel despite being a futuristic city.
The VCR provided a close-up of the entire city, from the tech-filled building clusters and old urban areas down to the screws on metal walls and plants squeezing out tender shoots in corners. The final shot focused on the sixty-three escaped replicants.
The surveillance cameras swiveled erratically before focusing on one person, zooming in on his image and broadcasting:
[Replicant No. 031 detected, wearing a gray hoodie, grayish-blue jeans, and a hat.]
Ye Xing's face appeared on the big screen, and the fans in the venue screamed--
"Ahhhhhhh!"
The fans, stunned by the scale of the VCR, finally found their breakthrough moment and screamed in unison.
Blood boiled in their bodies, hearts pounding like drums. After the screaming subsided, everyone realized that the heartbeat sound wasn't their own, but coming from the venue's speakers.
As more and more androids were captured by surveillance, panic finally erupted in the crowd. The androids about to be caught suddenly emitted bright lights and disappeared into the crowd.
A girl wearing headphones was knocked down, her old-style headphones falling to the ground. The sound from them merged with the heartbeat, and the music grew louder and louder—
The stage began to light up, and an elevator platform brought people onto the stage. The screams from the audience intensified, almost loud enough to lift the roof. The image on the big screen shifted to the enormous moon, and as fans looked up, the sheer size of it instilled a sense of fear.
But those who looked up also noticed people on it – the trainees were descending from the sky on wire harnesses.
The music's intro grew louder, the unique sound of synthesizers igniting the venue. This catchy melody triggered a physical response in the fans. Goosebumps rose, scalps tightened, heartbeats synced with the drum beats, and hands involuntarily waved light sticks to the rhythm.
"This is insane!"
"Random Entertainment, you're too much!"
"Damn, the scale of this is terrifying!"
"Chinese entertainment industry, here we come!!!!"
The trainees, having landed smoothly on the stage, quickly undid their safety harnesses when the spotlights went out. When the lights came back on, they began dancing to the music.
The opening song had no solo parts; they sang in unison—
"The acid rain of Midnight corrodes the cage, the standstill of Neonlight marks my escape. With the tower standing before sunset as my backdrop, I'll flee this apocalypse called the future—"
Sorry, the last few lyrics took me an hour to figure out...
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