Chapter 59
Two days before the concert, the entire stage set was already fully built. Zhao Yu always did two full on-site rehearsals before each official performance — two consecutive nights of testing equipment and stage design to ensure zero mistakes on the actual day.
Shen Juanyi returned to Beijing and first met with the costume and styling team to finalize his outfits and makeup for the show, then headed to the venue.
There was only one day left until the concert. This was Zhao Yu’s second rehearsal.
As the car pulled into the underground garage, Shen Juanyi noticed fans already milling about outside the venue. Most had arrived a day early — they’d hang out with fellow fan girls, explore local food spots, and finally come to the venue to catch some muffled rehearsal sounds. It was an essential part of the concert-going experience; without it, the whole trip felt incomplete!
When Shen Juanyi walked in, the rehearsal had already been going on for a while.
He made his way along the staff corridor to the railing area, where a wooden platform had been set up, offering a slightly higher view than the audience seats. He rested his arms on the railing, leaned forward, turned his cap down low, and watched the stage with a grin.
Rehearsals were mainly for testing equipment and stage effects — they didn’t need to sing through the entire show, since preserving their voices and stamina before the actual performance was crucial. The midsummer night was still sweltering. Zhao Yu wore a black camisole with wide-leg pants, which made her already tall figure look even more elongated. The camisole’s straps were leather, with metal buckles resting right at her collarbones, giving off a subtle, understated sexiness.
The song she was rehearsing had a high-note section toward the end, but she only sang the first half. For the rest, she just hummed along casually while bouncing and strolling across the stage in her white sneakers.
Shen Juanyi had seen too many artists who had no natural chemistry with the stage — they could never quite merge with it, and no matter how good their performance, it always felt disconnected.
But when Zhao Yu stood on stage, even during a casual rehearsal where she wasn’t even trying, you just felt she was born to be there.
She was born for the stage.
After watching for a while, Shen Juanyi leaned against the railing, pulled out his phone, opened the camera, found the right angle, and snapped several photos of her. Someone with good bone structure looked photogenic even in candid shots. Satisfied, Shen Juanyi admired his photographic work, nodded to himself, then swiped over to record a video.
The phone lens shrunk the entire scene. Shen Juanyi looked at his phone, then looked up at the stage — and finally understood how fans felt every time they were in the audience filming him.
While he was recording, Zhao Yu’s voice came through the microphone: “Security? Is security there? Kick out that person taking sneak photos down there.”
A security guard actually started walking over.
Shen Juanyi turned around indignantly and made a “stop” gesture at the guard, then braced his arms on the railing and vaulted over, his long legs clearing it in one stride as he jumped onto the stage.
Zhao Yu jeered at him from below. “If you’ve got guts, make your entrance like that tomorrow.”
Shen Juanyi slicked back his hair with a flourish and walked over to the lift platform. “Almost my turn, right? You keep singing. Pretend I’m rising up from here.”
Zhao Yu gave him a deadpan look, then waved to the band to keep going.
The concert was two and a half hours long, with Shen Juanyi scheduled to appear at about the one-hour-ten-minute mark. He was currently sitting on the lift mechanism — which offered an even better photography angle — and despite Zhao Yu’s several murderous glares, he happily snapped away with his phone.
He took a bunch, deleted some, and even sent a few video clips to Xia Yuan, who was absolutely green with envy.
It wasn’t until his part was almost up that he finally put his phone away, dusted himself off, and stood up.
His entrance was his solo performance first. The crew had already fitted him with a microphone. Once he started rehearsing, Zhao Yu did the same thing — she sat on the lift platform and pointed her phone at him, snapping away.
She was determined to catch some ugly shots to hold over his head!
Come to think of it, she’d actually seen very few of Shen Juanyi’s live performances — only whenever she happened to be at the same event. She had to admit, fans describing him as “a goofball in life and a king on stage” was spot on.
At first, Zhao Yu was deliberately trying to take unflattering pictures, but eventually, she unconsciously lowered her phone and just watched.
He made setting the stage on fire look effortless.
Even in the empty, pitch-black expanse of the venue with no audience, he could still light up the stage like he was the center of the universe. Once your eyes landed on him, you simply couldn’t look away.
She was born for the stage.
And so was he, for that matter.
After the solo performance, there was supposed to be an interactive segment with the audience, but it couldn’t exceed two minutes. The two of them skipped that part and went straight into the collaboration.
The fans still didn’t know what songs they’d be performing — it was meant to be a little surprise.
A formal rehearsal was completely different from practicing in the rehearsal room. With stage design, lighting, and sound effects all fully in place — minus only the audience — it was essentially a full performance.
Under the dazzling lights and the surround-sound music booming through the venue, Shen Juanyi should have been even more focused. Yet at that moment, his mind began to wander.
Her slender waist, wrapped in that black camisole, swayed like a willow branch in the wind — appearing and disappearing before his eyes with every movement. He could almost feel the smooth, warm sensation of his palm against it every time he pulled her close.
Shen Juanyi inexplicably felt flustered all over, even his fingertips tingling with heat.
When they reached the part where they spun and he was supposed to hold her waist, he suddenly couldn’t bring himself to do it. His hand, which should have landed on her waist, froze awkwardly in midair.
Zhao Yu waited, then looked up at him with a puzzled expression. “What are you thinking about?”
Shen Juanyi blinked innocently.
Expressionless, Zhao Yu grabbed his wrist and pressed his hand against her waist. “If you space out like that on stage tomorrow night in front of fifty thousand fans, I’ll beat your head in right there.”
In his mind, Shen Juanyi cursed Xia Yuan out a thousand times.
It was all that idiot’s fault — with his “no brother wants to touch his sister’s waist” nonsense. Now he had a complex about it!
After they finished the two collaborative songs, Zhao Yu signaled the band to pause, grabbed two bottles of water and tossed one to Shen Juanyi. She took a sip before speaking. “What’s going on with you? Can you still do this or not?”
Shen Juanyi had been in the industry for years, and this was the first time anyone had ever told him he couldn’t “do it” on stage.
But he had, admittedly, just failed to “do it.” It was a massive embarrassment.
Especially embarrassing in front of Zhao Yu — he experienced shame for the first time in his life.
He looked at the water bottle in his hand, paused, then said, “I’m just worried.”
Zhao Yu tilted her head. “About what?”
“Tomorrow, when we do those intimate moves in front of all those fans — your fans aren’t gonna throw water bottles at me, are they?”
Zhao Yu said, “No, there’s security checks at the entrance. Water bottles can’t get in.” She paused, then added, “But shoes and insoles and stuff — that’s harder to say.”
Shen Juanyi: “…………”
After the collaboration ended, Shen Juanyi exited the stage, and Zhao Yu continued rehearsing.
By the time the full rehearsal wrapped up, news of their performance of By the next night had already hit number one on trending searches. Fans lurking outside the venue had heard the music drifting out — and at an occasion like this, hearing the By track made it obvious what the two would be performing.
Just as the music director had predicted, the news of two top-tier stars reprising By after all these years instantly sparked a frenzy. Netizens who were already hyped for the concert grew even more excited, flooding social media with cries of “My youth is back!” Many fans went back to rewatch The Path of Thorns to relive that classic collaboration, and their original performance video got reshared back onto the trending charts.
To stay in peak condition for tomorrow night, they didn’t plan any late-night food outings after rehearsals — no risk of something unpredictable like an upset stomach. They returned to the hotel, washed up, rested, and conserved their energy. The next day, they slept in, had a meal, then headed to the venue to start preparing for the performance just hours away.
Both styling teams were top-tier domestic groups. Their costumes had been shipped according to their measurements. Zhao Yu had five outfits total; Shen Juanyi, as a guest performer, had only one.
For the tie-tugging move in KO, the designer had specially paired him with a jacket that could accommodate a tie.
The fans’ enthusiasm burned hotter than the June sun.
Entry began at 5:30. By nearly 7:00, the chants inside the venue had already crested wave after wave.
Summer evenings were slow to darken — the afterglow of sunset still lingered. Pink lights began to glow one by one in that fading light, eventually merging into a shimmering, brilliant sea of pink.
She had been swimming in this pink sea for years.
When she rose from the lift platform, the entire venue roared in unison.
Shen Juanyi sat in the second-floor section, taking in the full scope of the arena. He was usually the one on stage soaking up that adulation. Now, for once, he was part of the audience.
It was a strange feeling.
He saw the pink sea flickering. The earthly enchantress descended into it, worshipped by tens of thousands.
— Zhao Yu.
Just two plain, ordinary Chinese characters. Just the same ordinary name he’d been calling since childhood. But at this moment, with the roar of ten thousand voices echoing through the night sky, that ordinary name suddenly became earth-shattering.
For the first time, he thought — Zhao Yu was a beautiful name.
Zhao Yu opened with Encountering Fish, a song that set the entire venue ablaze. The whole audience sang along, their voices weaving through the surround sound like a unique chorus just for her.
The dazzling lights crisscrossed the stage, illuminating the night sky. But the spotlight on her was the brightest of all. She burned and shone within it — even outshining the light itself.
Shen Juanyi had once joked in an interview that his greatest regret in life was never being able to watch his own concert.
Now, that regret was gone.
His concert would probably feel just like this.
Half an hour later, a crew member came to escort him backstage to prepare.
Zhao Yu, who had been singing and dancing for an hour, held the microphone and smiled. “I’m getting a little tired. Let me find someone to help me sing.”
After the arena erupted in screams, the Yiren, who’d been holding back for an hour, began shouting Shen Juanyi’s name at the top of their lungs.
Zhao Yu listened for a moment, then raised an eyebrow. “Hey? What’s this? Why are you shouting someone else’s name so loudly at my concert?”
The Yumeiren heard that and immediately thought, No way! They had to reclaim their home turf!
So the two fanbases started a live battle right there.
Until Shen Juanyi’s voice, laced with a grin, came through the speakers: “It’s her show, let’s give her some face. A little cheer when I come out will be enough.”
After years apart — a reunion on stage. The two top-tier stars finally shared the spotlight once again.
The screams nearly tore open the night sky.
The peak of the night’s fervor had arrived.
During Shen Juanyi’s solo performance, Zhao Yu left to change outfits. When the song ended, the stage lit up bright. The two stood side by side, smiling and waving to the crowd.
When the screams died down, Zhao Yu said, “None of you expected me to invite him as a guest, right?”
The crowd shouted, “YES!”
Zhao Yu added, “And you definitely don’t know what we’re performing next.”
But the fans weren’t playing along: “We do! By!”
Zhao Yu raised an eyebrow. “Wow, how’d you know?”
Shen Juanyi: “I know this one — because it was trending last night.” He turned to Zhao Yu. “Does your hotel not have Wi-Fi?”
The whole arena burst into laughter.
Zhao Yu waved her hand, waiting for everyone to quiet down before continuing. “You’ve all seen By, right?”
Fifty thousand voices answered in unison: “YES!”
She smiled. “Then here’s a brand-new By for you.”
With that, the lights went dark. As the music began, stage effects flooded the arena.
They had rehearsed this dance countless times — every step was muscle memory. Yet at this moment, it felt completely different.
In this atmosphere, every sense felt magnified a hundredfold.
He heard ten thousand voices shouting her name. He felt the faint electric tingle of her fingers brushing across his body. Her scorching breath hit his arm and neck, and the scent of her skin, released after exertion, wrapped around him even more tightly than the music.
And then his palm settled on that impossibly slender waist.
The lights flickered. In that pulse of shifting brightness, the earthly enchantress looked up at him — half-smiling, half-ethereal, not quite mortal. The rhinestones at the corner of her eyes glittered, refracting light that was utterly unique, piercing straight into his eyes — and his heart.
Never before had Shen Juanyi been so keenly aware of her radiant, one-of-a-kind allure.
She had built her own kingdom with strength and tenacity, conquered her own sea of stars. She stood atop the peak, dazzling and brilliant, worshipped as a goddess by countless souls.
She was no longer the neighbor’s little sister he used to nag.
It was a pity he’d only just fully realized it.