Idol Chapter 92

This award seemed to be given to the wrong person. When it came to the “Male Artist Most Wanted for Dating” category, many people within Gem leaned towards Horus and Long Jia, so it seemed that Chi Ji should have been placed lower on the list.

However, this list required real votes. Starting from last year, Weibo and various major websites began to launch voting activities one after another. Fans who placed their idols in the top three would unlock various benefits.

It started with Super Topic Rankings and Star Power Rankings, but gradually expanded with new and innovative categories. Fans who were overwhelmed with voting and rankings couldn’t keep up.

As a result, the number of fans for every idol group skyrocketed, and the Onlyfans were so busy that they couldn’t keep up.

So when they heard about the “Best Boyfriend” award, the Breguet Dragon Scales and Clouds all decided to ignore it for now. Are you kidding? Did we already win the Sky Awards? Or did we secure the Artist of the Year? Sisters, let’s focus our firepower on that!!

Chi Ji’s fans suddenly had a light bulb moment. Now was the time to seize the opportunity!

Chi Ji had a relatively lower profile within the group due to his unique background. Horus was the main vocalist, so he naturally received the most attention and camera time. There was no doubt that he was the most popular member.

Xie Lianyun had been in the industry for ten years and had countless representative works. Many straight men were die-hard fans of his.

Mei Shengyao, as the main dancer, had always been eye-catching, and being the son of a megastar added to his popularity. Even before his debut, he had a considerable fan base.

Long Jia had the bonus of being a rich heir, and Bo Jue’s classical music background gave him an air of nobility. Both of them had high popularity, and their respective CP pairings were also very popular, making them well-liked members.

Chi Ji was no less talented than the others, but he came from a musical theater background, which was relatively less recognized in China. Most people couldn’t differentiate between musical theater and opera; they just knew that he had a great singing voice and was a good dancer. However, the other five members were also like this, so Chi Ji had relatively less individual recognition.

It wasn’t until the concert last year that Chi Ji’s bathtub dance went viral and brought him into the limelight, with an astonishingly high fan conversion rate.

 

—Why isn’t anyone a fan of this cute and sexy fairy boy from Corona??

—If nobody wants this little Chi, I’ll take him home!!!

 

Ji (霁) means clear weather after rain or snow, and his fans spontaneously nicknamed him “Sunny Sister.” They started voting for him on small charts as an internal group-building activity.

The “Best Boyfriend” category on “Musi’s Ultimate Chart” offered different rewards for the top three.

The first-place winner would have their Weibo featured as the cover for an entire day, subway advertisements, signed posters, and album lottery events, among others.

The Sunny Sisters were originally quite humble in their goals. Getting first place seemed too difficult, so third place would do. So when they approached sixth place and were about to reach fifth, some of the more established large fanbases reached out to ask if they had any extra votes to spare.

The fans of various idols were surprisingly unanimous in their attitude: “It’s just votes, right? We’ll help you vote!”

The Cloud fans had a straightforward view on the matter. They thought that Xie Lianyun, that guy, was always playing games and music. A bunch of straight guys were even clamoring for him to livestream gaming and have fun together. These straight guys could just buy his albums; there was no need for all this boyfriend stuff. Love? It didn’t exist.

The Dragon fans and girlfriend fans of Horus shared a common mindset. Their idol’s brothers were like gods, making them more suitable to be looked up to from a distance. Besides, whether it was because concert tickets were too difficult to get or there weren’t enough romantic rivals, they didn’t care much about this small ranking.

The CP fans of “All Chi,” “Horus and Chi,” “Mei and Chi,” “Xie and Chi Spring,” and “Long and Chi Music” all had the same idea.

 

It was time to vote for our beloved Chi! I could even create fifty small accounts if needed to support Chi Chi!

Attack, my lord! Look at how amazing our precious Chi Chi looks on Weibo’s cover!

Today was the day for fans of various couples to put down their knives and come together for some team-building!

 

As a result, many fan groups started a voting frenzy simultaneously. In three days, Chi Ji jumped from sixth place to second place, with only a 20,000-vote difference from first place, Qi Lin.

No one expected that the third-place ranking would be so easily attainable. They joined forces and, in the end, managed to steal first place from the others.

Corona’s members were still unaware of the excitement within the fan circle when they saw the Golden Strawberry Trophy. Chi Ji clutched the trophy nervously and said, “Thank you…”

“Eh?” Xie Lianyun tilted his head.

“Cough.” Chi Ji cleared his throat and bowed to the camera, “Thank you all for liking me.”

Xie Lianyun chuckled and nodded, joining the others in taking a group photo with Xiao Chi.

“The fans have recorded a VCR together,” the host said with a smile. “Let’s hear their thoughts.”

The screen transitioned to a scene with three girls holding posters, their smiles bright.

“Chi Ji is the perfect boyfriend!”

“He’s gentle, caring, respectful to girls, and his cheerful personality is very healing!”

Off-screen, the host asked, “Aren’t Horus, Long Jia suitable too?”

The girls responded in unison, “They’re suitable for marriage!”

Horus couldn’t help but find their words a bit strange. Chi Ji, on the other hand, was surprised and blushing as he didn’t expect so many people to like him.

The screen transitioned to an area near the shopping center’s elevator.

“Choose Chi Ji!” a well-dressed woman said, brushing her hair back, speaking earnestly. “In variety shows, Chi Ji is the best at cooking, making desserts, and brewing coffee. Plus, he’s full of youthful energy, and his dancing is fantastic. He’s definitely the perfect candidate for a romantic partner.”

“I want to date Chi Ji!” a high school girl, dressed in a JK uniform, held up an album with sparkling eyes. “Chi Chi looked so charming in his school uniform and white shirt in last year’s music video. When will SPF send Corona to film a drama? Chi Chi is the number one campus romance lead!”

Corona was currently going through a transformation phase. Their albums and performance style had incorporated more youthful elements, becoming brighter, softer, and more relatable.

When the VCR finished playing, and after two performances on the music show stage, almost all the audience members were captivated.

They had previously known Corona for their synchronized knife-like dance routines and their cool, distant image, which made them seem unapproachable.

However, the songs in “Peach Soda” had a different charm, pulling them closer.

It was as if the six young men were living right next door, like senior high school students, like aloof bosses, like the handsome guy with fox-like eyes in the same class.

Chi Ji’s performance today, dressed in a mint-green shirt with a long tie while dancing on a desk, was both pure and seductive. He naturally became the center of attention.

As he sang, his long legs and fair wrists were beautiful to behold. Sometimes, when he made a serious expression, it made people want to give him a kiss.

Inside and outside the venue, the audience was left in a state of mixed emotions.

“Corona actually changed their style?”

“Why am I strangely captivated by this style this year?”

“Who chose this high school student neighbor style? I want to give the director a hundred points!”

 

[42l]: “I used to think that Corona mainly went for the high-energy style, but now I see that this group can handle anything. Their overall performance is so strong, and it feels like they’ve put a lot of effort into perfecting their stage. I really love them o3o.”

[153l]: “Honestly, Chi Ji wearing a school uniform this year really surprised me. If I had a senior like Chi Chi in high school, I would’ve worked hard for three years to get into Tsinghua University!”

[767l]: “Long Jia cosplayed as the boss during the second performance! If my boss were Long Jia, I would willingly work overtime all the time!!! He even wore glasses and scolded people in such a cool way! My fangirl heart is gone, I’m dead!”

[1113l]: “Am I the only one crying tears of joy for Ren Ren? In the Corona uniform, it’s only Ren who looks the best in the trench coat! Xie Lianyun almost made a wrong move and got scolded by him! Haha, today, I’ll stand by the genius duo for a second!”

 

Casual fans were enjoying their daily banter, while dedicated fans, fan groups, and CP fans were passionately casting their votes.

Originally, this wasn’t the case. However, since early last year, the tide had gradually been changing.

Before 2014, most talent shows and voting were based on spontaneous text message voting, where one vote represented one person’s genuine opinion, so the vote counts were not too high.

But gradually, various fan groups formed data teams and vote teams, where one person could act as ten or twenty people, and businesses took advantage by releasing cheating software to manipulate the votes.

By 2014, while Corona’s previous albums still stood at the top, many younger idol groups were catching up. Groups like “Rum and White Boys,” as second or third-tier boy bands, were getting six to eight million votes, revealing a lot of inflated numbers.

IP addresses could be simulated or changed with software, and restrictions based on phone numbers and identification cards were practically non-existent.

So, while casual fans enjoyed the show, true fans were all engaged in a fierce battle.

They didn’t want to manipulate data; they just wanted to chat and enjoy the show while munching on melon seeds.

But if they didn’t seize this opportunity, it would signal to everyone else that Corona was vulnerable, and anyone with ulterior motives could surpass this mythological group.

That was absolutely not acceptable.

Corona had to continue to reign at the top because there could only be one peak.

In the super fan group of thousands of people, there were hundreds of data teams and statistic teams working tirelessly since the voting channels opened. They continuously pushed the data higher and higher.

They had been waiting for a whole year, during which several boy and girl groups had attempted to surpass Corona’s existing records.

However, the high mountain always stood at the top of the sky, completely out of reach.

In 2013, Corona’s double win in the data department earned them a total of 10.32 million votes.

In 2014, with the unexpected twist involving Huo Ren’s father, coupled with a massive guilt-trip voting campaign by a large number of spectators, they achieved a staggering 16.44 million votes.

As the final note came to an abrupt stop, the real-time data on both sides soared to an unbelievable new height.

“And Corona’s final vote count is,” the host, who thought she could keep her composure, let out a long gasp, “362.7 million votes!”

It had more than doubled—this was impossible!

The male host standing beside her quickly took over to salvage the situation, but his eyes were filled with astonishment that was hard to conceal. “Let’s congratulate Corona for their third consecutive victory and for breaking their previous record!”

Huo Ren didn’t expect the results to be this high, and as he accepted the trophy, his eyes welled up with tears.

“Bro, look above your head,” Chi Ji smiled and pointed upwards. “The crown has always been there.”

It glistened like the sun.