blueteamnovel Chapter 71, Pampering Fans
Chapter 71, Pampering Fans
After the first segment ended, the six people were taken into a small building to rest.
Huang Bo leaned back in his chair, drinking water; Wang Xun slumped on the sofa, lost in thought; Luo Zhixiang was on his phone, seemingly making a voice message to someone; Zhang Yixing squatted quietly in the corner, stretching; and Sun Honglei stood by the window, looking out.
Gao Huan did not sit down.
He stood at the doorway and glanced out through the glass door.
The crowd outside hadn't dispersed.
The fans were still standing behind the barrier, their blue support uniforms forming a continuous line, their light sticks flickering in the afternoon sunlight.
They had been waiting all morning.
Gao Huan turned around and walked up to director Yan Min.
"Director Yan, how long is the halftime break?"
"About forty minutes, then we'll regroup and record the second segment."
Gao Huan nodded without saying anything more.
He walked back, picked up his coat, draped it over his shoulder, and headed for the door.
"Huan-ge, where are you going?" Yangyang Jin chased after him for two steps.
"I'm going out for a bit."
He pushed open the door and went out.
When the crowd outside the cordon saw Gao Huan walk out, they instantly erupted in cheers, with screams surging from the front row to the back like waves.
Some people held up light boards and stood on tiptoe, some shouted "Brother Huan" before they could even take out their phones, and some just stood there with tears in their eyes without saying anything.
Gao Huan stopped two meters in front of the isolation zone and did not cross it.
A staff member handed him a megaphone. He took it, but instead of raising it immediately, he first glanced at the crowd.
He saw that the hands holding up the light boards were trembling.
I saw those support headbands that had been pushed askew.
I saw a girl at the very front of the crowd whose shoe had been stepped on and who was standing barefoot on the ground, but the light sign she was holding remained perfectly still.
Gao Huan picked up the megaphone.
"Thank you all for your hard work. I know you've been waiting a long time since this morning."
His voice was very penetrating; it came out of the loudspeaker like an invisible wave, pushing the crowd from the front row to the back.
"I have nothing else to offer you, so I'll sing you a song."
The cheers nearly overturned the makeshift safety barrier.
Gao Huan handed the megaphone to a staff member and took two steps forward. There was no sound system, no accompaniment; he stood alone in front of the safety barrier.
He thought for a moment, then spoke.
"Coffee shops on the Left Bank of the Seine..."
"Confession Balloon" is not a song that requires hitting high notes, but its difficulty lies in its relaxation.
When Gao Huan sang this song, when she sang the line "Gifts don't need to be the most expensive, just the fallen leaves of Champs-Élysées," a slight smile appeared on her lips. That smile was conveyed through the camera to everyone's eyes, and some people burst into tears.
The crowd swayed gently to his rhythm; some held up their phones to take pictures, some hummed along softly, and some just stood there without doing anything, tears streaming down their faces.
After singing the chorus, Gao Huan stopped and said to the crowd, "Next song, 'The Ordinary Road'."
This song is completely different from the previous one.
"Confession Balloon" is sweet, gentle, and sounds like one person speaking to another.
"The Ordinary Road" is heavy, oppressive, and is a person's cry to the world from the bottom of their heart.
When Gao Huan sang "I have crossed mountains and seas and passed through crowds of people," he didn't push the notes to high notes, but instead lowered them and sank them to the middle, letting the sound resonate from his chest cavity. It wasn't explosive or cracking, but every word clearly struck people's hearts.
When he sang the line "Until I see that ordinariness is the only answer," he paused for a very short time, but the fans standing in the front row noticed it.
His eyes blinked, his lower eyelids tightened slightly for a moment, and then quickly returned to normal.
Many fans cried as soon as the song started.
Some burst into tears, while others simply shed tears without even realizing it.
Someone next to her offered her a tissue, but she didn't take it because she was holding up a light sign with one hand and filming a video with the other, so both hands were occupied. She hesitated for two seconds after the tissue was handed to her, but in the end she didn't take it, and tears streamed down her face.
Gao Huan finished singing.
He took the microphone away from his mouth, stepped back, and bowed to the crowd.
"Be careful and maintain order."
Then he turned around and walked back to the small building.
The moment the door closed, a deafening roar erupted behind him. He couldn't make out what they were shouting, but he could clearly feel the intensity of the sound.
Sun Honglei witnessed the whole thing from the window. He leaned against the window frame, arms crossed, and glanced at Gao Huan.
"You sing very well."
"Thank you, Brother Honglei."
I'm serious.
Gao Huan smiled and said sincerely, "I especially like the song 'My Faithful Heart Misses You' that you sang at the Heilongjiang TV Gala in 1995, Brother Hong Lei. It was very sincere and showed the vibrant energy of a young actor."
After saying that, he ignored the smiling Sun Honglei, walked to the side, grabbed a bottle of water, unscrewed the cap, and took a sip.
Huang Bo leaned over from the sofa: "You went out just to sing for your fans?"
"Um."
"Nothing else?"
Gao Huan thought for a moment and said something that surprised Huang Bo: "They've waited so long, I have to give them something."
Huang Bo stared at him for two seconds, then said nothing more.
How should I put this person?
He has a large following, but he doesn't live off that.
He genuinely cared about those people standing outside the cordon holding up signs, and it wasn't just lip service to his concern.
In this industry, this kind of thing is even rarer than talent.
……
Before the second segment began, Time Master, wearing a black knight mask, reappeared, followed by a group of men in black pushing several cryo-chambers.
It's one of those giant boxes, about the height of a person, that were used to put the eliminated people in.
"The winner of the first round is," the Black Knight drawled, "Gao Huan."
"Here are the rules." The Black Knight flipped over the card in his hand, "Gao Huan, as the winner of the first round, automatically becomes the captain of the Blue Team."
Huang Lei became the captain of the red team.
The remaining four members have the right to choose which team to join.
Sun Honglei was the first to come out. He looked at Huang Lei, then at Gao Huan, and then stood next to Huang Lei.
"I'm in a group with Lao Huang. Lao Huang is smart."
Wang Xun hesitated for a moment, then followed.
Luo Zhixiang stood still, glancing at Gao Huan and then at the three people opposite him.
"Little Pig Brother, come here," Gao Huan said.
Luo Zhixiang thought for a moment and walked over to Gao Huan's side.
Zhang Yixing looked at both sides and stood next to Luo Zhixiang.
There were three people on the other side, and exactly two team captains each picked one member plus one who automatically returned to their team.
Huang Bo stood in the middle, choosing no one.
"And you, Professor Huang Bo?" Gao Huan asked.
Huang Bo glanced at him, then at Huang Lei, and then said something that surprised everyone:
"I think Xiao Gao is capable of doing the work of two people by himself. He's a real little fox, and his stamina is so good. Let's team up with Teacher Huang, otherwise it's not fair."
As he spoke, he walked to the opposite side and stood between Sun Honglei and Wang Xun.
Gao Huan looked at the four people opposite him.
Huang Lei, Sun Honglei, Wang Xun, and Huang Bo glanced at Luo Zhixiang and Zhang Yixing beside them and smiled.
"Brother Bo, are you misunderstanding something about me?"
"There's no misunderstanding." Huang Bo's expression was very serious, so serious that it didn't seem like he was joking.
"Count how many you killed yourself in the first round. You and your bodyguard could have killed your way through the entire chain by yourself. Now you have two teammates left, why would we fight you?"
Sun Honglei added from the side, "Exactly, are you even human? You're a little fox."
Upon hearing this, Luo Zhixiang immediately objected: "Brother Honglei, who are you calling a fox? Our Gao Huan is clever, you know what cleverness is!"
"Cleverness is like a fox," Sun Honglei said confidently.
"Brother Honglei, I can't respond to that," Gao Huan said. "Is 'fox' an insult?"
"It's not an insult, it's a compliment that you're clever."
"Essence is also an insult," Huang Lei casually added from the side.
Sun Honglei: "...Then what do you call him?"
Huang Lei looked at Gao Huan, paused for a moment, and then smiled: "Of course he's a smart guy, a talent! He's from the Beijing Film Academy!"
He said it casually, but the pride in his tone—that "Beijing Film Academy produces talented people"—was unmistakable.
Darth Vader cleared his throat, interrupting the academic discussion about "foxes".
"Red Team".
Huang Lei, Sun Honglei, Wang Xun, Huang Bo.
Blue Team.
Gao Huan, Luo Zhixiang, and Zhang Yixing.
When Gao Huan heard the group assignments, the corners of his mouth involuntarily curled up slightly.
There are four people on the other side: three clever ones and one idiot. There are three people on this side: an Asian dance king, someone who works hard, hard, and even harder, plus himself.
This situation was more interesting and more difficult than he had imagined.
"The rules for the second round are as follows." The Black Knight flipped over a card. "The red and blue teams need to find twelve time coordinates scattered throughout the Expo Park and activate them in order from 1 to 12. The first team to activate 12 wins."
"Notice.
Only the team leader has the authority to activate the numbers.
Team members can search for coordinates, but only the team leader can press the button.
If a team member runs out of time, the team leader can use their own time to recharge the team member.
If the team captain runs out of time, the entire team is eliminated.
Sun Honglei raised his hand: "Wait a minute, you mean to say..."
"What I mean is," Darth Vader looked at him, "your lives are in the captain's hands."
Sun Honglei turned his head and glanced at Huang Lei.
Huang Lei didn't look at him; he was already looking at the map.
Gao Huan brought Luo Zhixiang and Zhang Yixing together on the blue team's side.
"Little Pig Brother, Yi Xing Brother," he said, "we are outnumbered, but we have two advantages."
First, if the other side feels they have a sure win, they will definitely lower their guard.
Secondly, their large numbers might hinder each other, as they wouldn't know how to coordinate.
It refers to Hong Lei, who is very familiar with Huang Lei. Who knows what kind of trouble he might cause.
Furthermore, I discovered that he had no experience with variety shows.
Luo Zhixiang nodded: "That makes sense."
"Brother Yixing, your task isn't to find the number points, it's to follow me. Then, the two of us will work with Brother Xiaozhu to confirm each other's movements before you set off."
Zhang Yixing didn't ask why, and simply nodded.
Gao Huan opened the map and quickly swiped his finger around the numbers 1 to 12.
This timeline is slightly different from the original one. Gao Huan provided the production team with some planning suggestions for the filming of the first season of "Go Fighting!". He sent them to Yan Min's private email address, and it seems he took some of the advice to heart; it was indeed effective.
The game "Metaverse" is poorly designed; the distances are too far, and there's no map displayed.
The entertainment value of a variety show comes from the reactions of the guests. To be honest, the game setup in the first episode was far inferior to some of the games on Running Man.
Now, everyone has a map, even though the coordinates are scattered, with number 1 on the east side, number 2 on the west side, and number 3 on the south side.
There is no discernible pattern, yet the entire plan may still be realized.
Although this distribution means that you can't run in one direction, you have to go back and forth, which means that the physical exertion is much greater than in the first stage.
"Teacher Huang Lei will definitely go and snatch number 12 himself, because he knows that number 12 is the key to victory."
Hong Lei and Bo will split up to find the numbers in front, while Wang Xun will fill in the gaps.
This is their most likely tactic.
Luo Zhixiang looked at Gao Huan, and his expression changed.
"So how should we play?" Zhang Yixing asked.
Gao Huan drew a line between number 1 and number 12, and then drew several circles in the middle of the line: "We won't play number 12."
"Not call 12?" Show Lo was taken aback.
"No."
Teacher Huang Lei will be waiting at point 12. After the people waiting for him have finished pressing the numbers in front of him, he will press 12.
If we try to seize 12, we're just walking into the line of fire.
We don't rush for 12, we rush for the front.
We've almost filled up spots 1 through 11, so spot 12 is practically empty. His pressing it won't do any good.
Zhang Yixing didn't fully understand, but he remembered it.
……
Darth Vader raised his hand, and the stopwatch began to tick.
"Countdown. Begin!"
Gao Huan did not run towards point 1.
He ran in the opposite direction, heading deeper into the Expo Park.
Show Lo followed behind him, and Zhang Yixing followed behind Show Lo.
The three of them moved like a small team through the gaps in the noisy crowd.
Fans surged out from behind the barrier, their blue support shirts flowing like a tide in the direction the three were moving.
Some people were running with light signs in their hands, some were running and shouting Gao Huan's name, and some were on the phone saying, "Gao Huan ran east, come quickly."
The entire Expo Park was in an uproar.
When Gao Huan ran to point 1, the opposing red team had also arrived.
Wang Xun came running from the other side, panting, holding his phone. He stumbled and almost fell, but after regaining his balance, he saw that Gao Huan was already standing next to point 1.
"you."
Gao Huan ignored him, glanced down at the number buttons, and turned to Luo Zhixiang: "Little Pig, keep watch in the direction of point 2. If anyone comes over, tell me."
He then turned to Zhang Yixing: "Brother Yixing, go check on the situation at point 3."
Zhang Yixing responded and ran out.
Luo Zhixiang stood guard at the position designated by Gao Huan, his body slightly hunched over, his eyes fixed on every possible member of the red team in the crowd.
Gao Huan didn't rush to press number 1; he was waiting for Huang Lei's team to react.
He's betting on something.
Huang Lei will not personally come to fight for number 1.
Because number 1 is too small and too far forward, Huang Lei will likely focus his energy on the larger numbers later on, while the smaller numbers will be left to Sun Honglei and Wang Xun.
Sun Honglei and Wang Xun have very distinct characteristics: one is fierce, and the other is slow.
Those who are impulsive make mistakes, and those who are slow delay.
Of course, Sun Honglei might also follow Huang Lei around, nagging about what his role is, but he just won't do what Huang Lei tells him to do.