Chapter 21

She had once treated Shen Junyi as her only dream.

To chase that ethereal, intangible goal, she’d stumbled and fumbled her way forward, driven by that single conviction, all the way onto a stage.

It wasn’t the highest stage, but it was surrounded by applause and spotlights. And every time she stood on it, it felt like warmth and strength surged through her entire body.

That deep, fulfilling joy—it wasn’t Shen Junyi who gave her that.

It was the stage.

Yeah. Ever since she was little, she’d never been good at anything. Her habit of giving up halfway had become so normal in everyone’s eyes that it seemed like that was just who she was—like giving up was the expected Zhao Yu thing to do.

But Zhao Yu wanted to shine too. She wanted to be praised too.

These past six months, as exhausting and painful as they’d been—even in that moment when the water hit her and made her question if it was all worth it—

They were still the most brilliant six months of her life.

Her life had always been smooth sailing. She could get anything she wanted with ease. Only standing on that stage was something she’d fought for with everything she had.

So why should she give up?

Chasing after that light had been too hard. How could anyone ever catch a light?

Make yourself a light instead.

Become a light yourself—and draw that other light closer.

Jiang Lei and Zhao Kangning watched their daughter on the screen, eyes red but smiling, and felt both heartache and pride. “You’re really not coming back?”

She nodded earnestly. “Mm! I love the stage. I don’t want to leave.”

Jiang Lei smiled too. “Alright. Then Mom and Dad will support you.”

After hanging up, Zhao Yu sat on the sofa in a daze for a while, then suddenly sprang up like a fish leaping out of water and ran to weigh herself.

Staring at the three extra pounds on the scale, a piercing scream echoed through the living room.

That evening, her teammates finally returned to the dorm after finishing their schedules.

Lin Zhinan was exhausted, but she’d still stopped by the street near their place to buy a portion of spicy stir-fried rice cakes—Zhao Yu’s favorite—and brought it home. As soon as she walked in, she saw Zhao Yu doing a plank on the yoga mat in the living room.

Around her were jump ropes, dumbbells, and all sorts of exercise equipment.

She’d been listless and dull for days, and Lin Zhinan had been worried sick. Now, suddenly seeing her doing strength training, she was a little caught off guard.

“What are you doing?”

Zhao Yu had been holding the plank for three minutes, drenched in sweat, and spoke through gritted teeth: “I gained three pounds this week. Working it off.”

Lin Zhinan glanced at the rice cakes in her hand, feeling a bit complicated.

She put them in the fridge to eat tomorrow. When she came back out, Zhao Yu was doing sit-ups. Lin Zhinan sat cross-legged beside her, counting and chatting.

“Ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine… Oh, by the way, did you hear your idol got rear-ended by a sasaeng fan a few days ago?”

Zhao Yu’s breath hitched, and she flopped back with a thud, then quickly sat up. “Huh? Was it serious? When?”

Lin Zhinan thought for a moment. “Around the same time your thing happened, I think. The car got rear-ended, but he’s fine. Huachang put out a statement condemning sasaeng fans, and Shen Junyi posted on Weibo too.”

She pulled it up and showed her.

– @Shen Junyi: Be rational, whether as a person or a fan.

Zhao Yu stared at the phone without speaking.

Lin Zhinan leaned over to stretch her hamstrings. “You two are really something—a fan and her idol—both getting into trouble at the same time, and both because of extreme fans.”

Zhao Yu didn’t know if it was from the workout, but her heart was pounding a little fast. Looking at Shen Junyi’s Weibo post, she had a feeling he somehow knew about what had happened to her.

Ugh, kill me now. He must have seen that humiliating video.

Zhao Yu shoved the phone back at Lin Zhinan. “From now on, you’re banned from mentioning Shen Junyi in front of me!”

It was messing with her head too much.

Lin Zhinan: “What, you’re not a fan anymore?”

Zhao Yu: “…………”

Un-fan my ass. She was never a fan in the first place!

Who wanted to be his fan? She wanted to be his—cough, cough—

Zhao Yu got up. “I’m going to wash up. Isn’t the EP signing in a couple days?”

Lin Zhinan said, “Yeah. I saw online that your fans are asking if you’re going. They said they’d return their tickets if you weren’t.”

Zhao Yu shot her a disdainful look. “You should really spend less time surfing the web.”

A couple days later, Shining Five held their first signing event since debut.

The physical sales of their debut EP were decent. Digital sales ranked in the top three for rookie groups, with physical sales slightly lower. But since the EP only had one new single—the other four tracks had already been performed before debut—the results were better than expected.

It was both a signing event and a fan meeting—a way to report back to fans on their achievements over the past six months.

Zhao Yu finally ended her break and returned to work, posting a lively selfie on both Weibo and INS:

– Shining Five-Zhao Yu: I’m doing great. I can keep running forward!

Fans were overjoyed. No one mentioned the dousing incident, but their comments were filled with warmth, promising to run alongside her.

Shining Five’s signing event was held in a small venue that held three thousand people, and every seat had been snapped up immediately. Many fans were desperately searching for resale tickets.

This was Zhao Yu’s first public appearance since her break, so she’d prepared well in advance, determined to face her supporters in her best form.

She understood what it felt like to like someone. She didn’t want the people who liked her to worry about her.

The host was already warming up the crowd onstage. Zhao Yu gave her makeup one final check, then curved her lips and walked out.

As she stepped onto the stage and swept her gaze across the audience, she froze for a moment.

So much pink.

Wave after wave of it—pink clothes, pink shoes, pink hair, pink light sticks. She saw a girl in the front row whose hair clip was even pink.

The truth was, pink was a hard color to pull off. Many people didn’t look good in it.

But every single Yu Meiren at the venue was wearing pink, head to toe. Even if it didn’t suit them perfectly, they smiled so brightly—proudly, earnestly—wanting their idol to see her color.

Zhao Yu’s eyes suddenly stung. She quickly ducked her head and rubbed them.

A sharp-eyed Yu Meiren in the front row caught it and shouted tearfully, “Zhao Yu, don’t cry!”

Zhao Yu laughed at that and yelled back, “I’m not crying!”

After the host went through the formalities, it was time for the fans’ favorite part—the signing session, where they went onstage with their EP to get autographs.

Though some fans were group fans and others solo stans, usually no one deliberately skipped a member once onstage—it would be awkward for the idol in front of them.

Everyone started with Lin Zhinan at the far end, then Kristen. Zhao Yu was in the middle, with Lin Xiuxi and Heya beside her.

Zhao Yu could tell a fan was hers the moment she saw the pink clothes.

When one reached her, Zhao Yu smiled and was about to speak when the fan, like a magician, pulled out a pink poppy and handed it to her with a smile. “A flower for our baby.”

Zhao Yu’s eyes widened in surprise and delight.

She took the flower, wrote a personalized signature on the fan’s EP, smiled, waved, and moved on to the next.

After two more fans, another pink-haired girl bounded up to her excitedly and shouted, “Daughter!”

Zhao Yu tilted her head with a laugh, and the girl whipped out a pink poppy from behind her back. “A flower for you!”

The pink poppies were beautiful and soft, their layered petals seeming to hold all the precious sentiments they wanted to give her.

One after another, every fan who came up had a flower hidden. The poppies piled up on the table, soon becoming a large, gorgeous bouquet.

It was all their love and tenderness.

They knew she’d been wronged. They knew she’d been hurting inside. They said nothing—just smiled and gave her flowers. They knew she would understand.

So how could she not love this stage?

She was their light too.

…

At year-end, at the Korean Music Awards ceremony, Shining Five’s debut single Missing God won Best Single of the Year, and Shining Five won Best New Artist of the Year.

The half-year of hard work had finally paid off.

With the Single Award and the Rookie Award in hand, Shining Five’s popularity and status skyrocketed. Back then, FLY had dared to steal their slot because they’d won a rookie award—even though their popularity lagged behind Shining Five’s, their seniority and credentials were higher.

But now, it was different. Awards opened doors. Winning them meant the market recognized them.

After New Year’s, Shining Five’s first full album Look Me was officially released.

Look Me had ten tracks, each with a different style—electronic, rock, pop, psychedelic, mainstream—all polished and well-produced.

After the album dropped, Shining Five dove into a packed promotional schedule. This was the most critical phase after release—performing the new songs on various music chart shows to garner votes and support from viewers.

While they were actively appearing on music programs, the latest episode of the ultra-popular variety show Hi Fight finally aired.

From the previous episode’s preview and the recent promotional buzz, everyone already knew that this episode’s guests were Shining Five. In the teaser the production team had released, screams filled the entire clip—it was clear this episode would have a thrilling theme. Audiences loved that kind of excitement and were eagerly looking forward to it.

Shining Five hadn’t appeared on many variety shows—mostly just talk-style programs. This was their first outdoor reality experience. Their fans were equally excited, camping out in front of their screens early.

The screams in the preview hadn’t surprised anyone when the audience saw the six MCs dressed as female ghosts sneaking around to knock on the guests’ doors early in the morning.

One by one, Shining Five’s members appeared barefaced in their morning routines, each getting startled into losing their composure. The scenes were hilarious.

Until it was Zhao Yu’s turn.

Not only was she not scared, her expression even seemed to say, “You guys are kind of boring.” After yawning with her head tilted, she even kindly invited the “ghosts” inside for a sit.

The post-production team bluntly slapped the caption “Zhao the Bold” across the screen.

As the episode aired, online discussions about the new Hi Fight episode exploded. Comments poured in:

– Zhao Yu’s bare face??? Why does she look better than me with makeup?!

– Like a sleeping beauty waking up—my heart literally skipped a beat.

– Why isn’t she scared at all?! What are her four teammates supposed to think?!

– Zhao Yu’s personality offstage is different from onstage—so cute!

…

After the opening ghost prank, most of the later interactions focused on Lin Xiuxi and Kristen, so discussions about Zhao Yu gradually died down—until the first challenge round.

After watching several senior MCs fail, viewers were convinced no one would clear this mission.

Then the camera cut to Zhao Yu, in a ballet tutu.

She always made an impact with her visuals. The girl in white stepped onto the pillar, heels slightly raised, chin lifted—a graceful swan rising and spinning to the tinkling piano melody.

Sunlight poured down, lighting up her white skirt.

As the pillar drew closer to the handbell, every viewer held their breath.

The girl onscreen grabbed the bell—and then she fell backward, dropping off the pillar.

The white tulle skirt swept through wind and light as the girl fell, like a noble swan descending from the heavens. The editing slowed the moment down, accompanied by a poignant soundtrack—it looked like a scene from a film.

Zhao Yu “fell into fame” overnight, gaining a million followers on INS within a day.

That “Swan’s Fall” moment became an enduring classic in the K-pop industry—imitated many times, but never surpassed.

True to its reputation as “the lucky variety show,” the episode sent Shining Five’s national recognition and popularity soaring. They took first place on both the Popular Song Chart and Music Bank with their album, becoming the hottest girl group of the new year.

Zhao Yu’s performance on the show, in particular, left a lasting impression on Korean audiences—a Chinese girl who feared nothing but flopping.

Yu Meiren fans mocked her mercilessly while vowing support: Don’t worry, daughter!!! We will NEVER let you flop! Zhao Yu, take over all of Asia!

Fans poured all their energy into promoting their idol across the internet:

– Know the Swan’s Fall? My daughter IS the greatest falling swan of all time!

Netizens: ?