The Bromance Marketing Battle

“Who says?!”

Having spent the entire night devouring a beginner’s guide to ‘bromance marketing’ and absorbing a basic dose of ‘slash knowledge,’ Ling Tinglan stormed up to Jiao Wangshu.

“What makes you the ‘top’?!”

“I’m the top… mmph—”

His voice was so loud that Jiao Wangshu quickly clamped a hand over Ling Tinglan’s mouth. “Keep your voice down!”

“Is this something you can shout about?!”

Jiao Wangshu was deeply touched but firmly refused. “No way. I have experience, so listen to me. I’m the professional when it comes to bromance marketing.”

“The classic ‘strong top, weak bottom’ dynamic is no longer popular. We need to find a new path, study differentiated tactics.”

“I suspect you’re messing with me.”

Ling Tinglan squinted and immediately started to act spoiled. “I don’t care. I’ve finally transformed from a scrawny chick into this—the hardware is all here. If I don’t become a big top, it’d be a waste of these muscles!”

“Fine, fine, you be the top,” Jiao Wangshu said perfunctorily, but in his mind, he thought, With my superior experience in bromance marketing, can’t I handle a newbie like Ling Tinglan? In front of the camera, I’ll call the shots on how we market ourselves.

After a quick tidy-up, the two arrived at the F-class training room.

The F-class training uniforms were all gray. On top of that, the trainees assigned to F-class were generally less dazzling in looks and talent than the others. Dressed in the drab gray suits, they looked even more sallow and dispirited. No wonder they say fame nourishes a person’s looks—confidence and success really do transform a person’s aura.

Of course, Ling Tinglan and Jiao Wangshu, those ‘models,’ were exceptions.

After all, they were all aiming to make a living with their looks. Even the roughest trainees had put on some base makeup and styled their hair. The only two in the entire training room who showed up with bare faces were Ling Tinglan and Jiao Wangshu. In fact, Jiao Wangshu still had a cowlick from sleeping that hadn’t flattened.

Li Shu, watching them shine even brighter against the crowd, sighed inwardly:

Are we really wearing the same uniform?

Yes, he had also been placed in F-class. His skill level wasn’t particularly good or bad—normally, he would have ended up in C or D-class.

Li Shu was just plain unlucky. Because of nervousness, his throat had tightened during the initial stage, and a high note that should have been his strength fell flat, turning into a big fail.

Unlike Ling Tinglan and Jiao Wangshu, who seemed to have their own force field, Li Shu blended into F-class like a fish in water. He even chatted with a Thai trainee who didn’t speak much Chinese, mixing English and gestures.

“Are you from Room 3502 too?”

Nio’s eyes sparkled. He glanced at the two in the corner, then back at Li Shu, full of admiration.

“The legendary ‘No Man’s Land’! Everyone says the people living in that dorm aren’t human—they’re gods! And you can actually stay there with them without feeling awkward? That’s amazing!”

Li Shu was speechless. “Why do I feel like you’re insulting me?”

“Where did you learn such interesting Chinese…”

As they were talking, dance instructor Jin entered with the camera crew.

“Hello, everyone.”

Jin had light golden hair and a uniformly bronze tan from sunbathing. Despite the extreme color contrast, it didn’t look odd on him. On the contrary, his strong aura made him seem imposing, even though he wasn’t very tall.

“This is the theme song for ‘Super Star,’ titled ‘Super Star.’”

It seemed like an easy, not-so-aesthetic pop song. But when they actually started dancing, they realized how fast the rhythm was and how intricate the moves were.

“Can we really learn this in three days?”

Just watching for the first time, Ling Tinglan felt his bones ache. What the hell? He would never again say being an idol was easy.

Cafeteria hours were from 7:30 to 9:00, but since many trainees skipped breakfast, the breakfast spread was sparse and unappealing. That didn’t bother Ling Tinglan—after three years of high school torment, he was used to it.

But nobody told him that even these few mediocre dishes were limited!

Supposedly to avoid waste, the result was that besides him and Jiao Wangshu, almost everyone else was on a diet: no carbs, no sugar, no spicy food… peanut allergies, nut allergies, fruit allergies…

After filtering, there was hardly anything left to eat. And then they had to spend all day in the practice room dancing, exercising, and working out. Wasn’t this kind of devilish schedule lethal? No wonder they said idols consume their youth. They were just abusing their young bodies.

“It’s fine if we can’t learn it,” Jiao Wangshu said, rubbing his own flat stomach. “We’ve already completed our face-exposure mission. Getting eliminated early is the real goal.”

“No way!” Ling Tinglan disagreed. “Ability is ability; attitude is attitude. Even if we can’t dance the whole song, we should at least memorize the moves. How can we be like those talentless slackers we used to mock?”

Ling Tinglan’s competitive spirit flared up. He turned, grabbed Jiao Wangshu, and pulled him up. They retreated to a corner of the practice room, trying to recall the dance moves from earlier.

Unexpectedly, this caught Jin’s attention. “That trainee, please come over here.”

“Huh? Me?”

Ling Tinglan pointed at himself in confusion, but obediently walked over, dragging Jiao Wangshu along.

Jin nodded. “The move you just did was wrong. Stand here and watch carefully.”

With that, he began to demonstrate. No wonder he was a mentor, especially a world-class dancer. His wave, his kick, his arm movements—all carried an indescribable, aesthetically pleasing rhythm.

Seeing the teacher giving special instruction, the other trainees stopped and gathered around.

“Wow, is that hand-twist arc even humanly possible?”

“Mr. Jin is amazing!”

“So strong! Such a distinctive dance style—so much detail in every move…”

The trainees praised him endlessly, their eyes full of awe and admiration.

After the demonstration, Jin emphasized, “I know that F-class trainees have weaker foundations, but don’t give up just because you might not have a chance to perform the theme song. Look at trainee Ling Tinglan and trainee Wu Yuze.”

Wu Yuze? Who’s that?

Ling Tinglan raised his head in surprise and saw a trainee standing right beside them, with a slightly layered haircut and a Korean-style single-lid look.

That person was also silently sizing him up. For some reason, Ling Tinglan sensed a faint hostility.

When did this guy get here?

Sensing something wrong, Jiao Wangshu quickly pulled Ling Tinglan to thank the instructor. After Jin and the camera crew left, and the other trainees dispersed, the two retreated to their corner, pretending to be invisible, though it didn’t help much.

Jiao Wangshu covered his mouth and whispered into Ling Tinglan’s ear, “You need to be more alert. It’s obvious the one who got the ‘dark horse comeback’ script this time is this Wu Yuze.”

As it turned out, Jiao Wangshu’s guess was correct. Wu Yuze was one of the Jiuchuang Entertainment trainees, who belonged to the Chinese Group. Their company had sent three people to compete. Supposedly, he had trained for eight years in Korea but never debuted, so he returned to China last year and signed with Jiuchuang.

Given his eight years of training abroad, he shouldn’t have ended up in F-class—but his initial stage performance happened to be a flop.

In truth, Wu Yuze had deliberately messed it up. His looks weren’t outstanding, and there were plenty of trainees with similar stage presence and singing/dancing skills. Overall, he was neither good nor bad. But for someone who wanted to be an idol, that was the deadliest flaw: mediocrity.

Therefore, to stand out, he had to work on his persona.

Thinking this, Wu Yuze clenched his teeth. He had already arranged with the production team for instructor Jin to single him out for praise during F-class dance practice. He had gotten the theme song dance video a month ago and had been secretly practicing, waiting for this moment to shine. With a bunch of F-class ‘green leaves’ as background, he would hype up his titles ‘dance ace’ and ‘strongest dark horse.’

But then this meddler had to jump in. How could he not hate that?

Wu Yuze even held a grudge against dance instructor Jin. If he was going to praise him, why did he have to drag Ling Tinglan into it?