For fans of the Domestic Entertainment Industry, Random Entertainment's operational approach is very novel. Although this approach is already common abroad, for the domestic industry without an idol culture, seeing and experiencing it are truly different.
Random Entertainment's debut announcement not only piqued the interest of their own fans but also caught the attention of other fans in the industry. Because it's a Random Entertainment production, everyone is more curious and concerned. Every day's announcement is chased by countless marketing accounts following this trend. Whether people know this group or not, they're aware that they're debuting on March 5th.
March 1st is the first day of recording for their debut stage. Except for the debut day itself, the other days of recording are for future promotional performances. Because of the live broadcast, time is needed for costume changes and breaks, so some stages need to be pre-recorded to be interspersed with the live broadcast, allowing them to catch their breath.
Today is the 1st, a Tuesday. Recording starts at 8 AM and continues until evening. The 300 selected fans are fully taken care of by Random Entertainment, with three meals a day provided, along with snacks and fruits. Additionally, they get to record exclusive photo cards.
This group of fans is referred to as the "Lucky Ones' Camp" by others outside, as it includes not only those who were selected but also some who won multiple sessions.
The recording location is at Galaxy's Beijing venue. By 6 AM, many fans are already waiting in the plaza. The spring chill is bone-penetrating. Just standing for a while is very cold. Fans who arrived early squeeze onto benches after verification, as the benches retain some warmth to warm their bottoms, though hands and feet remain cold.
Zhou Keke walks through the gate with her backpack and hears a staff member shouting with a megaphone, "First, store your belongings. Phones are not allowed inside, and only official fan support items are permitted. After storing your items, come to me for a number tag. We'll enter according to the number order later."
"Also, breakfast prepared by the five members for everyone is available at the food truck stand on the left side of the plaza. Please eat while it's hot!"
Zhou Keke stands on tiptoe to look after hearing this, understanding why so many people are gathered there.
The staff member's megaphone keeps repeating. With this background noise, she first goes to store her things, then rubs her hands, reddened by the cold wind, as she goes to get her number tag from the staff.
She has always followed actors, so this is Zhou Keke's first time following an idol. It feels so fresh to her.
The food truck is a small bus, with fans lining up to get their breakfast. Some who have already eaten are just looking around to see what good food is available.
Zhou Keke brought bread and milk, thinking she could eat while waiting, but now with breakfast provided, this is turning out to be the best star-chasing experience ever.
The steamer is constantly working, with steam rising, making the temperature here noticeably higher. While queuing, Zhou Keke only regrets storing her phone too early, otherwise she could have taken a photo to commemorate the moment.
When it's her turn, Zhou Keke takes a small paper box and uses tongs to put several buns in the box. She also takes a cup of red date soybean milk. Just as she's about to leave, a staff member approaches the car and says to the uncle inside, "Brother, do you still have any beef and vermicelli filled buns?"
"Yes! Plenty!"
As she frowns, preparing to criticize the person for cutting in line, the staff member speaks up, "Then please pack ten for me." He then apologetically says to the fans, "I'm sorry, Pei Luming says he's still hungry. Really sorry about this."
The fans behind, who were frowning, burst into laughter upon hearing Pei Luming's name.
"What?"
"Hahahahaha, it's okay, it's okay!"
"Wow, he sure can eat!"
"This is hilarious, ten more buns!"
The staff member, now holding a bag of buns, hugs it to his chest and runs quickly towards the venue. Fans with phones quickly snap photos of this moment to share with friends.
Pei Luming probably never imagined that on the first day of debut recording, what would spread wasn't his handsomeness, but his appetite.
At this moment backstage, the five members who have finished their styling and makeup are eating breakfast. Chi Qiao, who finishes first, wipes his mouth and sits in front of the mirror, letting the makeup artist touch up his lip makeup. The others, having woken up too early, are eating slowly as they feel drowsy.
The only one full of energy is Pei Luming, who is rubbing his stomach waiting for the next wave of buns, while thoughtfully checking on his brothers' needs.
"Are you sure you don't want to eat more?"
Across from him, Gao Xiayu shakes his head, resting with his eyes closed. Yao Shuo cleans up the trash in front of him and stands up, saying, "I'm done. You should eat less too, or you won't be able to dance later."
Pei Luming pats his stomach, looking troubled, "But I'm still very hungry." However, he also thinks Yao Shuo has a point, wondering what if he can't dance well later.
Ye Xing also stands up and walks towards the mirror, "Eat if you want to. The first recording is just standing and singing."
"That makes sense!"
Just as he finishes speaking, the buns arrive. To prevent his stomach from bulging out, Pei Luming stands in front of the mirror eating while watching himself.
He's just stuffed in three buns when the door opens. Pei Luming turns his head and meets eyes with Jiang Juyou who has just entered, startling him into instinctively hiding his buns.
"Jiang Producer!" Pei Luming is the first to greet.
The other four, hearing the voice, quickly stand up. Gao Xiayu greets her and then yawns, covering his mouth to hide his fatigue.
Jiang Juyou, wearing the standard staff vest, enters and checks the time on her raised hand, "One hour left. Get up and move around, warm up. Be very careful during today's recording, don't get injured."
"Okay―"
The five young boys towered over Jiang Producer, yet they all tensed up, seeming even more afraid of her than before.
Over the past month, they had been in close contact with Jiang Producer almost constantly. They would see her in the practice room in the morning, in the recording studio in the afternoon, and in meetings at night.
When practicing dance moves under her watchful eye, their progress accelerated noticeably. During recordings, she was present on-site, scrutinizing every word and phrase. Meetings were even more intense, with the five of them feeling like they were under constant attack from her.
Despite spending a month together, they hadn't grown any closer to her.
The recording tasks these past few days weren't too heavy, just tedious with costume and set changes. To prevent songs from leaking early, they only recorded two stage performances per day, albeit in several versions.
At this moment, the inner area of the venue was being urgently checked and prepared. To save time, the inner space had been divided into three zones, with three stages already set up.
Fans were now entering the venue, curiously looking around at the setup, their eyes darting everywhere.
Zhou Keke arrived relatively late, her seat in a corner. But because the three stages were arranged surrounding the audience seats, her view wasn't bad.
After entering, a staff member with a headset stood on stage, holding a roll of A4 paper, and addressed the fans below: "Since we're recording stage performances, we may need to film multiple takes for the best effect. If any fans need to use the restroom, please try to do so during break times. If you return and find recording in progress, please wait in the stands to avoid appearing on camera."
She then waved the stack of papers in her hand, "Also... these are lyric sheets. The highlighted parts are for everyone to sing along together. We're only recording two songs today, so it's not too demanding. I hope everyone can put in their best effort to create the best debut stage performance together with the members of Timetrain."
"There will be several more recording sessions in the coming days. I think since we're the first session, everyone's energy will be at its peak. Let's set the bar high and create something amazing for the fans participating in later days to catch up to, okay?"
The director acted like a kindergarten teacher, getting the group of young girls all fired up. The atmosphere of excitement was palpable.
Other staff members distributed the lyric sheets. After confirming everyone had received one, the director on stage signaled to the backstage to start the music.
As the whistling intro began, the melody hit their ears--
-
"Title: Report/True European Royalty Here! I Attended All Four Days of Recording, Here's a Simple Report [Mainly PLM and GXY]!"
"First of all, the songs are really great. I've already learned to sing them. I've heard eight out of the twelve songs, the remaining four will probably only be revealed during the live broadcast. For the debut stage, besides songs from the album, they also recorded performances of previously released songs."
"Little Deer had black hair for the past few days, but today it changed to light chestnut color. Plus, in one outfit today he wore very baggy clothes in a brown color, looking exactly like a personified Corgi, so adorable! The back pockets of his jeans even had cotton paw pads attached, swaying as he danced, making you want to pinch his butt."
"Dumb Emperor showed his forehead today. When he came out singing the protagonist part, the other solo fans around me couldn't help but scream. He wore a one-piece flight suit, all black, with a belt around his waist, looking just like a Doberman. During break time, after fixing his makeup and hair, he came over to ask if our breakfast was good. When the fans on-site answered him, they kept calling him 'Daddy', and I saw his ears turn red with my own eyes."
"Hangover Cure has also been here these past few days, always watching by the side of the stage. When reviewing playbacks, if there's anything unsatisfactory, she speaks up directly. It feels like all five of them are really afraid of Hangover Cure. As soon as someone says Jiang Producer is coming, they immediately straighten their backs."
"..."
The post was very long, describing in detail from the first day to the fourth, making those fans who weren't selected to attend feel very envious. They became even more excited for the live broadcast on debut day, wishing they could fast-forward time directly to when they would be streaming.
As fans read anxiously, the MV teaser was also released, making them even more impatient.
The MV teaser didn't contain any valuable new scenes, all footage had been leaked before, even the styling was identical. The teaser didn't even have vocals, just instrumental.
But even just the instrumental sounded amazing.
"Crash Landing on You! Here we come!"
"Now let's get 'Sounds Great' trending!"
"The addition of the ocarina is really the finishing touch, so distinctive."
"Enough! I can't wait anymore!"
Random Entertainment managed to stretch two weeks of teasers into what felt like two months. When March 5th finally arrived, it felt like the last piece of a puzzle falling into place.
Before 7 PM, the entrance of the Galaxy building was already packed with people.
Zhou Keke thought she had arrived early, but to her surprise, others were even earlier. By the time she arrived, the queue at the entrance had already spontaneously divided into six lines, and she couldn't even see the main door.
These were all people coming to buy the album.
For this album release, besides being available for online purchase, it could also be bought offline. Except for the Galaxy venue in Beijing, mobile album trucks were set up outside venues in other cities, selling this album and merchandise.
The songs wouldn't be released online until 8 PM, but if you bought the album now, you could listen immediately. Who wouldn't want that?
The fans outside the merchandise building stood waiting until the doors opened. As soon as they did, everyone rushed in, afraid of missing out. Zhou Keke originally didn't plan to run, but seeing how excited everyone else was, she couldn't help but start running too.
By the time she got up there, several fans were already at the checkout with their albums. Stacks and stacks of albums were piled up, almost burying the people.
Seeing this, Zhou Keke quickly squeezed in to choose albums, buying one of each version, and spent the rest of her money on photocard albums.
Soon, she too became a woman embracing a wall of merchandise. After checking out, Zhou Keke carried her things to a corner of the lounge area and placed them on a table.
Just as she sat down, two girls came over to ask her, "Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?"
"No, no one!"
Jiang Liuxing waved to Liu Yue in the distance, who was carrying bags, "Over here!"
Zhou Keke couldn't help but turn to look, and was stunned. That girl was carrying six bags, and the one who had asked about the seats also had several bags.
"..."
This was the closest she had ever been to rich people.
Less than ten minutes after the building opened for business, the entire place was already bustling with noise.
Zhou Keke turned her attention back to unboxing her own albums.
She originally thought the albums would be quite large, as the example images showed square boxes, but in reality they were normal album size, just square-shaped.
As she slowly peeled off the plastic wrap, the two girls sharing her table also started organizing their purchased albums.
"Huh? Isn't it supposed to be a square box? Don't tell me we have to assemble it ourselves?"
"You only noticed it's not a box after bringing it back?"
"How could I think about that at the time? Just grabbing one was difficult enough."
The two of them stacked their purchased albums on the table, while Zhou Keke had already opened one album.
The acrylic square box was there, just folded up. After removing the paper cover, she could see a photobook and a base machine, with five acrylic plates underneath.
Zhou Keke inserted the acrylic plates into the base machine, just as she was about to ask a question, the girl opposite her voiced it for her.
"Wasn't there supposed to be small furniture inside too?" the shorter girl asked, staring at the album in front of Zhou Keke.
"Oh oh oh--"
A sound came from nearby, and the three of them looked over to see that someone else's box did contain small furniture.
Jiang Liuxing had a question mark above her head, "Why is that?"
Meanwhile, Zhou Keke had already started examining the album. She flipped the switch at the bottom, and--click!
Furniture appeared in the originally empty transparent box. Though it was made of clear acrylic, when you looked inside, there were walls, creating a visual effect just like a real room. You could see the furniture arrangement inside, even clothes draped over the bed looked lifelike. From another angle, you could see a computer emitting a soft blue glow in the dim room.
All of this happened right before the eyes of the three of them, and they simultaneously exclaimed:
"Holy crap!!!"
This exclamation echoed throughout the entire building, growing louder with each repetition.
Jiang Liuxing and Liu Yue sped up their album unpacking, eager to see what the other rooms looked like.
Zhou Keke was still in awe of this spectacle. She wanted to understand how it worked, so she removed the top acrylic cover, but as soon as she did, the image disappeared. She had to put it back.
She even recorded a video for her friends, describing this magical experience.
Liu Yue and Jiang Liuxing worked quickly, and soon they had assembled all five boxes for the Timetrain members.
The albums didn't take up much space before being assembled, but once put together, they occupied a lot of room. Jiang Liuxing pushed their boxes to one side, stacking the extra ones on top. As she picked up the album belonging to the girl across from her, she said, "I'm putting your album here, the one below is yours."
"Okay, thanks," Zhou Keke replied briefly, glancing up. She noticed the box was on the edge of the table, looking as if it might fall, so she reached out and pushed the five boxes together.
"Creak—"
The three of them looked towards the source of the door-opening sound, which came from the stacked albums.
In the next moment, they witnessed the most unforgettable scene in all their years of being fans—
The small doors in the boxes opened, and five people entered as if returning to their own homes. One took off their jacket, another sat at the computer, one lay down on the bed, another sat on the floor playing guitar, and one wore headphones listening to music.
"Holy crap———"
This time, all three of them shouted in unison.
Jiang Liuxing: It's magic!!!!!!!!
Zhou Keke: They're moving—
Liu Yue: Single album sales breaking 10 million, here we come!
