After the program ended, the trainees' popularity did not dissipate. In fact, due to Random Entertainment's controversial actions, their attention only increased.
Before Random Entertainment announced the closure of the trainees' 1-on-1 chat rooms, the online chaos looked like this:
Sang Mo's and Chi Qiao's fans were fighting, with bystanders siding with Sang Mo and feeling Chi Qiao didn't deserve to debut. Pei Luming and Ye Xing had their weekly battles over who was the true top-ranked trainee with broad popularity.
Meanwhile, Chen Wu's fans were constantly in tears, worried about his family situation and mental state. Gao Xiayu's fans were steady and carefree, with no rivals to worry about, only needing to focus on their idol. Yao Shuo's fans rewatched all his fancams, working on boosting his data.
Due to information bubbles, except for the big fight between Sang Mo's and Chi Qiao's fans, most of this was filtered out for casual observers.
Fans fighting fans didn't stop Sang Mo from going viral.
He was like everyone's ideal love, with his failure to debut tugging at everyone's heartstrings. Any little movement could spark discussions and go viral.
He was going back to the basement to continue training, but after the final performance, seven new fansites opened for him.
"How is this different from joining that thing in '49?"
"Huh? How will they take photos now? Did the fansite admins get some inside information?"
"Can't some kind company just buy out Sang Mo's contract? Please, I'm begging."
One fansite's opening photo wasn't the usual gift inventory, but Sang Mo covering his eyes amidst confetti fragments. His slender fingers were pink from the cold wind. He used his hands to hide his crying face, but his bitten lip and restrained expression betrayed him. A tear streamed down his cheek, impossible to hide despite the confetti obscuring the view.
These celebration streamers for the debuting group - not a single one was for him.
The heartbreaking, shattered feeling in the photo moved both fans and bystanders. It was shared and reshared, ultimately reaching 20,000 reposts.
After three days of rest, the trainees received notice to come to the company, but not together.
The five who were debuting were taken to formally meet the A&R department, as they'd be working together often from now on. The others waited to meet with Director Jiang for individual talks.
Jiang Juyou was in a small meeting room on the second basement level. She had just sent one trainee out when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," she said, looking over. From the shadow on the frosted glass, she could roughly make out Chen Wu's figure.
Among all the trainees, Chen Wu was probably the one with the poorest family background. Although the company covered most expenses, there were still times when they had to spend their own money. At those times, Chen Wu was always the one who didn't go out or buy anything.
"Hello, Director Jiang," Chen Wu bowed politely after entering. Jiang Juyou nodded and pointed to a chair, "Have a seat, no need to be formal."
This kind of meeting shouldn't really be handled by Jiang Juyou, but since she held the highest position in the company and her words carried the most weight, she decided to talk to them herself.
She put down her pen and crossed her hands on the desk, asking him, "So... what are your plans for yourself going forward?"
Hearing this, Chen Wu couldn't help glancing at the director, trying hard to guess the meaning behind her words. As his mind raced, Jiang Juyou told him: "Don't worry, the company has no intention of terminating your contract at the moment. We just want to know which direction of training you want to focus on more. You've been told about being assigned to S class, right?"
Chen Wu nodded, "The teacher just told us."
The trainees eliminated from the show were placed in a separate class, now called S class. It was higher than A class and offered opportunities for overseas training.
"The company's official statement is that we have no plans to produce a boy group in the near future, but you know that groups are usually prepared well in advance..."
It wasn't just an official statement - until yesterday, Jiang Juyou really had no plans to produce another boy group. Originally, she was thinking of considering it again in three years. But the reality was that there were no competing idol groups domestically, so she needed to create her own competition.
This was the conclusion reached in yesterday's meeting with Yang Siyu and the others. Not only did they need to speed up producing a girl group, but they also had to prepare for a boy group.
She not only had to produce her own groups, but also support other companies. Being a monopoly was a beautiful dream, but in reality it would lead to a cycle of complacency and arrogance.
Only by "fighting it out" could they heat up the whole industry. A hundred flowers blooming was what the public wanted to see.
"The company may prepare one or two boy groups in the future. Depending on the concept and style, we may need different types of trainees," Jiang Juyou said all this to let him know that he might have to stay in the practice room for the next few years.
For those who had never been on stage, never felt the cheers, never seen the audience, the road ahead wouldn't be too difficult. But they had experienced it, felt it - it would definitely be hard to accept this drop.
Jiang Juyou had already received news from the new talent development department that some trainees wanted to terminate their contracts. Some trainees came to the company today specifically for this matter.
The purpose of her talks today was to build more trust in the company among the trainees. Although there was no clear timeline, at least the path ahead was clear.
Just as she was considering how to plan Chen Wu's future training, he suddenly sat up straight and looked at her earnestly, "...Director Jiang, unless I'm eliminated, I won't leave."
"..."
Jiang Juyou lowered her head and smiled, "I understand... Alright, you can arrange your own training plan for the future. You can take it easy during this winter break."
As Chen Wu was about to leave, Jiang Juyou suddenly called him back, "Oh, by the way, go check your settlement details with the finance department later. The profit sharing should be credited to your account within this week."
"...Uh, okay." Chen Wu took a moment to react, still unable to recall what she was referring to.
After leaving the meeting room, Chen Wu ran into Sang Mo coming towards him. Sang Mo stopped him first, "What did Director Jiang say?"
"Nothing much, just that we can take it easy with training during winter break. Oh! And she said they'll produce boy groups later, sounds like they'll choose from S class." Chen Wu shared everything he knew.
Sang Mo sighed in relief, "That's good. I thought we were going to be let go. Two guys from B group seem to have had their contracts terminated, I just heard them arguing about it."
"They were arguing?"
"Yeah... Well, I better go in now. I'll message you later." Sang Mo kept glancing at the meeting room as he spoke, afraid of keeping Director Jiang waiting.
After they said goodbye, Sang Mo stood in front of the meeting room, taking several deep breaths to calm his fear of meeting Director Jiang.
Inside, Jiang Juyou watched the shadow on the door: "..."
She muttered softly, "Such a big guy, but with such a small heart."
Just as she finished speaking, Sang Mo opened the door and entered--
At the same time, Chen Wu took the elevator upstairs to check some details with the finance department.
The upper floors were full of employees, all busy with their heads down. When Chen Wu walked into the office area, he lightened his footsteps, almost holding his breath, afraid of disturbing them.
An employee noticed him come in and pointed in a direction, "The finance office is that way."
They must have been asked quite a few times to know so clearly.
Chen Wu bowed in thanks and walked in that direction. After turning a corner, he saw several trainees from A group. They were sitting on sofas in the corridor and waved him over when they saw him, "Sit here, sit here."
"What's going on?" Chen Wu was still completely confused.
Seeing the little lamb arrive, the gossip-loving A group members immediately huddled around, speaking in hushed voices to tell Chen Wu what had just happened.
"You're late, you don't know how exciting it was just now."
"Wang Shaoyu and Bai Yancheng want to terminate their contracts. They just went to talk to the teachers about it, and then the other B group members felt betrayed and started arguing with them."
"We have a termination fee, you know. Several million. Scared the life out of them."
"What?" Chen Wu wasn't too concerned about the first few sentences, but he was shocked when he heard about the millions.
They all knew about the contract termination fee, but they didn't realize the amount would be so large.
"If we propose to terminate the contract, we'll have to pay the fee. But if the company eliminates us, there's no fee," said one of the boys, making a heart gesture towards the upper floor. "I'll stay with the company until the day I'm kicked out."
Another person explained to Chen Wu, "Our food, lodging, and lesson fees constitute the termination fee. If we want to leave, we have to pay back this money. If we debut, we don't need to repay it and can start earning directly."
This was basically the rule for all companies. Random Entertainment was a bit better; there would be no debt after debut, and no situations where trainees were still settling accounts years after debuting.
On average, a trainee costs four to five hundred thousand yuan per year.
Random Entertainment had a generous training system. Over these two years, the average cost per person was two million yuan, and this was just for their group of twenty-one people.
After listening to them, Chen Wu glanced towards the financial consultation room and asked, pointing in that direction, "So what are we settling now?"
"The merchandise money!"
"Probably around one or two hundred thousand."
"...I heard the merchandise sales reached several hundred million."
"Then you go tell the company to give you a bigger share."
They waited outside like this, with one person being called in at a time. It was quick, just a few minutes per person. Soon it was Chen Wu's turn.
"Hello..." Chen Wu bowed as he entered. The staff member inside cleared their throat and pointed to a chair, saying, "Have a seat."
As soon as he sat down, the person across from him began.
"This is the contract you signed at the time. The trainees' share of merchandise profits is 12%. Based on the profits, this is the amount you're entitled to. After tax, it's 1.16 million..." As the female staff member spoke, she pointed at the string of numbers. But in Chen Wu's eyes, that long string of numbers twisted into a mosquito coil. After hearing the amount, his brain could no longer function.
The other party continued, "Additionally, you have music royalties. In total, it comes to 1.21 million..."
At this moment, Chen Wu's mind could only focus on one thing:
He could buy an electric wheelchair for his grandmother now.
Buy! Buy ten of them for grandma to switch between!!!
