IDOL PRODUCER 2 - DISCONTINUED

47.

"Now onto the top four," PD said. "Wow, this is actually quite interesting! The fourth and the fifth ranks are really close in votes. Just now Yingyue received 6025755 votes from the Youth producers... the trainee in rank number four received 6025757 votes; just two more!"

We were all shocked by PDs statement as that was something which I don't think had ever happened in the history of the program and even less in the top ranks. Mostly everyone had at least a thousand votes between each other.

"What's with this year and tying..." PD said chuckling before continuing. "His smile looks very good. He is from... team «Neighboring Tarzan» too. He has blonde hair and is from Star Master Entertainment. Congratulations, Jia Yi."

He then went on stage to give his speech while holding PD's stage prop, which was a cute sight, to say the least.

"Firstly, thank you, ZhangPD, for the tanghulu and thank you and the teacher's guidance to make me even more outstanding," he said. "And still, I'd like to thank my groupmates from TyGer. Thank you for your concern and care. Without you guys, I wouldn't be who I am today. Thank you, guys."

"Don't cry!" Wenhan told him from his seat.

I wasn't able to see him from my spot and there were no screens there that showed us his reactions, so I couldn't see whether he was crying or not, something that seemed to pain me.

"I would like to thank «Neighboring Tarzan»'s Li Wenhan and Jiang Yingyue for choosing me for their team and letting me be in such a great atmosphere. I'm very happy with you guys. Although recently there has been some misunderstandings, I know that our bond is far stronger than that," he said making me smile a little. "Lastly, I want to say for those who have dreams and abilities that you must persevere in your dreams. No matter what happens, even if you encounter many setbacks, you must persevere in your dreams because we are the real dream chasers. Thank you."

 He then went up and sat down next to me since our seats were right beside each other. For a second there was an awkward silence until I turned towards him and wrapped him in a tight hug, using that moment to whisper in his ear.

"You better have a fucking good explanation," I said and chuckled to give it less importance before pulling away and paying attention to the rankings back again.

Just as expected, the last two seats belonged to Guan Yue, Chen Youwei and Li Wenhan. No matter what had happened between us we still were a team, so I was extremely happy that all of the members had been on the top twenty and four out of five were on the top nine.

It then was time to reveal the trainee sitting on the dreaded number 60 spot and one of the candidates was Jia Yi's labelmates, so he was even more troubled by it than the rest of us. It only seemed fair to return the favour, so I did what he had done with me before and grabbed his hand before placing it on my lap and rubbing circles in the back of it as reassurance and to ease him.

"He is from..." PD began saying. "BGProyect. Trainee Yao Bolan."

Jia Yi, who had stood up wishing it was Zhen Nan, was frozen on the spot after the name was revealed and tears threatened to fall from his eyes. He was also starting to tremble and I needed to take immediate action before things escalated and something worse happened.

"Hey, Jia Yi!" I said turning him towards me. "Look at me. Look at my eyes, okay?"

He then did what I said and I told him to sit down so we didn't interrupt Yao Bolan's speech.

"Close your eyes and imagine... Imagine there is no one here, okay? It's just the two of us," I told him and he did so. "It doesn't have to be me even. You are in a very calm place with a person whose mere existence seems to bring you joy and peace. There are no worries at the safe place."

Once he seemed to calm down and his trembling stopped, I let go of one of his hands and cupped his face, making him open his eyes.

"Are you okay now?" I asked him and he nodded.

"Thank you," he told me. 

"Don't worry about it. Just remember to do this every time you seem to get very nervous or anxious about something," I told him before we both paid attention once again to what was going on.

Bolan seemed to already have finished his speech and PD was in the middle of announcing the names of the people who had received the artistic instruction team's praise. I then asked Chen Youwei, who was sitting above us, whose names had been called and he told me it was Bo Yuan's and Lin Mo's.

Then, PD called Jia Yi's name and I didn't know whether to feel happy or sad about it. Many people were losing the opportunity to stand on the stage again because the names of people who already made it kept being called.

"In light of outstanding performance in the first stage, the trainee that they recommend to enter the next phase is... Fu Hongyi," PD said finally announcing a name which wasn't already on the top 60.

"In light of outstanding performance in the first stage, the trainee that they recommend to enter the next phase is... Jiang Yingyue," PD announced.

I then bowed as a thank you although my face showed the complete opposite. I was really fed up about the wasted opportunity of saving someone but I was thankful that the artistic instruction team had seen my hard work. It was really conflicting and there was no way I could be happy about it no matter how much I tried.

After another person in the top sixty, PD called Manny and we all congratulated him. Still, I could sense Jia Yi's uneasy feeling from beside me, so I grabbed his hand and squeezed it once again, which he returned.

Deng Chaoyuan and Li Wenhan were then called which left only one more chance for someone to be saved.

"In light of outstanding performance in the first stage, the trainee that they recommend to enter the next phase is... " PD said. "Congratulations, Wang Yi."

As he too was on the top sixty, all of the hopes of the people standing below vanished in an instant. Their last chance went once again to the ones who already made it, the bittersweet feeling filling the air once again.

After PD's last encouraging words and our bow, we were left some time to be with each other and everyone immediately ran downstairs to be with the ones leaving the program. I was about to go too but I noticed Jia Yi wasn't moving.

"Aren't you going?" I asked him.

"I can't," he said fighting back his tears.

"You need to, Jia Yi," I said grabbing his hand. "Come on, I will go with you."

He then reluctantly followed me and I left him with his groupmates before going with Yao Chi, who was with Lou Jiongze. They both seemed to be bawling their eyes out and I didn't want to be in the middle, so I quietly left to my room to start writing goodbye letters to the trainees before it was time to meet up with Jia Yi to have our conversation.