Chapter 112: You Chase Me, I Chase You 1 (Extra 12)
StarEpoch’s first full-group album, Nebula, was officially released.
In addition to the basic and most important internal promotions that made up the bulk of sales, external publicity couldn’t be neglected—such as buying front-page slots on music apps, trending on Weibo, and having industry connections help repost content.
This time, the company arranged for them to appear on a variety show to promote the album.
“Countdown to Survival” was a live-action racing show where players had to evade NPCs and complete missions—in simple terms, a large-scale version of cops and robbers. Each episode invited different celebrity guests based on a specific theme. While repeat appearances were allowed, there were no fixed cast members.
The first season featured actors, all of whom were invited from the acting industry. This current season focused on idols—anyone who debuted as or could be considered an idol, whether through a company launch or a survival show, qualified.
For example, previous episodes featured Qu Junwei and Cheng Jinghao; the last episode had Yin Zizhen.
Because of its special guest system, the show’s advantage was its wide general-audience reach—and its drawback was the same: the audience reach was wide. Viewers cared more about the show itself than about individual guests, so whether one could leave a good impression depended entirely on luck and personal performance.
This episode was a StarEpoch special.
“—Welcome StarEpoch to Countdown to Survival!“
On the bus heading to the filming location, the staff greeted the guests with enthusiasm and began introducing the group’s performance history and new album, which had been prepared in advance.
The live director smoothly switched to the accompanying introduction clip.
[Dream collaboration! My favorite group on my favorite show!]
[This group’s visuals are insane.]
[Personally, I think they’re the best-looking boy group that’s ever been on the show.]
[Be bold—better-looking than 99% of male idols out there.]
[Sure, SE is known as the “perfect visuals” group, but only 2 and 5 could rival 99% of idols…]
[There’s still a difference—5 can only rival 98%.]
[Who’s the silver-haired guy, second from the left? This is very important to me.]
The long-missed sight of scrolling comments filled the screen again, giving Lai Yudong a feeling that was both strange and familiar.
It had been a while since he’d last seen live comments—not because of any tragic yet faintly realistic reason like “debuted at the peak, disbanded into obscurity,” but simply because he had been too busy with work, constantly on the move.
Comments were only enabled during live broadcasts of shows and performances, but not every endorsement or variety show was like Climbing to Stardom, which aired both live and recorded versions. And without company permission, he wasn’t allowed to start his own livestreams.
On top of that, he had been buried in album production lately—participating in lyric writing, music video design, and styling concepts—so his workload suddenly skyrocketed.
Some less important interviews and photo shoots were either postponed or canceled altogether; there was no such thing as the “adults want everything.jpg” option for him.
He had already started being selective about the projects he took on, instead of waiting around for work like when he’d just debuted from the talent show.
It was a situation that career-focused fans found deeply satisfying.
“Let’s start with self-introductions,” the staff prompted, moving the program along.
SE didn’t have the habit of always introducing themselves according to seniority or screen time, so the order followed their seating, from left to right.
The first to speak was Li Xu, who kept it short and neat:
“I’m StarEpoch’s Li Xu.”
In sharp contrast, Lai Yudong, who followed him, was much more personable:
“Hello everyone, I’m StarEpoch’s Lai Yudong, and also the leader of our group. I’ve been watching this show for a long time, so I’m really happy to be here with my teammates on Countdown to Survival.”
[That’s such a captain-style introduction, lol 233]
[Whoa! Xiao Yu dyed his hair silver!]
[First time seeing a male idol pull off that color without a disaster]
[He’s so pale he’s practically glowing]
[Shouldn’t they be buying a trending tag like #LaiYudongMangaBoyComeToLife#?]
[Why do I feel like I’ve seen this guy somewhere before?]
[I thought he was the cold, aloof type, but once he spoke… he actually sounds really gentle?]
[That’s exactly how he tricked fans back in the day, lol (doge)]
Just as the comments said, Lai Yudong’s hair was now a shade of silver even lighter than platinum—under the blazing summer sun, it looked like a patch of snow that had accidentally wandered into the heat.
He had dyed it for the new album. Most of the members had changed their hair color too. While they could discuss with the MV director, brand stylist, and the company’s styling team, the final decision on color was made by the company.
Fortunately, Sijia Entertainment’s aesthetics were reliable—they didn’t force anyone into bizarre or tacky looks.
For example, Li Xu went from bright red to dark crimson, Mo Li from gold to blue-black, and Qu Xincheng from black to peach pink.
Lai Yudong’s hair color, however, was his own choice. He believed silver fit the album’s concept better and suited his styling, so after several rounds of negotiation with the team, he managed to get it approved.
As for the trending tag fans mentioned, the company only planned to buy one for the group album, not for individual members.
Still, on the day his new hair color was officially revealed, he was instantly posted across major forums and fan bots, shared countless times, and went viral almost immediately.
Even his old college roommate—someone who barely cared about pop culture—sent him a private message with a screenshot of one of those posts, asking if the person in the picture was really him and whether he needed help managing the comments.
Lai Yudong honestly hadn’t expected a simple dye job to cause such a stir.
To be fair, he was the member of StarEpoch who went viral the most often—though always for looks-related reasons, which made it seem like his only redeeming quality was his face. But at least his popularity wasn’t artificially inflated with “bought” hashtags that had only a few pity comments under them.
And truthfully, he couldn’t think of anything else about himself that could go viral anyway. Still, going viral is better than not going viral at all—he might as well be content with that.
Compared to his previous viral moments—from live stages and fan meetings to the finale of the survival show—this time’s reaction was on another level. The buzz around his new hair color seemed to rival even that legendary debut-defining moment—the god-tier ending pose from the show’s theme song performance.
And the key point was—he hadn’t even done anything.
Just a few candid photos taken by a fansite preview master, and boom.
His old college roommate commented,
“What’s that saying again? Oh right—‘Every Chinese person is secretly into white-haired characters.’ You probably just hit everyone’s aesthetic kink.”
Lai Yudong: “……”
Why did that sound so uncomfortably close to the truth?
He quickly gave up trying to make sense of it.
Going viral was practically a form of mysticism. Whether you blew up or not depended entirely on luck—no matter how much capital or planning went into it, the ripples it caused were never as powerful as the waves kicked up by pure chance.
But that was getting off track.
The self-introductions wrapped up with Mo Li, after which the staff began explaining this episode’s mission plot.
“Year SC2023. The apocalypse has arrived. Humanity is suffering from a massive zombie virus outbreak, and cities around the world have fallen into ruins. Recently, the shelter received news that Dr. Shi has developed an effective antidote for the zombie infection. However, along with that message came a distress signal—and since then, all contact has been lost.
With the shelter’s manpower insufficient to send in a full rescue team, you seven have been entrusted with a critical mission: form a squad and head to the research facility to investigate.”
“Your objectives are as follows:
Find Dr. Shi.
Obtain the antidote and its formula.
Escape successfully.”
“Elimination rules:
If you are caught by a zombie.
If you are scratched by a zombie and fail to use the antidote within thirty seconds.”
“Any questions?”
[Yesss! It’s a zombie theme!]
[Sounds like a big-budget setup!]
[Curious if the NPCs will have full zombie makeup or just lazy smears of paint lol]
[I want to see something straight out of a movie scene!]
[Qu’er looks petrified]
[LMAO even outside, he still can’t escape horror scenarios]
Lai Yudong raised his hand and asked, “What exactly counts as a successful escape? Do we need to reach a specific location?”
“The criteria for a successful escape will change according to the storyline,” the staff explained.
“When that happens, the information will be sent to you through the smartwatches provided by the production team. Besides mission updates, the watches will also show your teammates’ elimination status in real time.”
Got it—this time it was an open-ended mission.
Lai Yudong asked again, “What exactly makes us get spotted by zombies?”
“If you enter their line of sight, you’ll be noticed,” the staff replied. “They also react to sound, but they won’t bend down or look around without reason. So you can hide when necessary—as long as they’re not already chasing you.”
“How many NPCs are there?”
“You’ll find out when you get there,” the staff said mysteriously. “It’s the apocalypse, after all—you never know what’s waiting out there. Any other questions?”
Qu Xincheng had only one concern: “Is it scary?”
“Only mildly,” the staff reassured him. “About as scary as a typical zombie movie. Don’t worry too much—our show focuses on racing and evasion, not on horror or jump scares like a haunted house.”
[Qu’er’s definition of “mildly scary” is probably very different from everyone else’s]
[It’s fine, just stick with Captain Yuzu 😎]
[Right! There’s no traitor role this time—we can leave everything to Yuzu!]
[Though technically… Lai Yudong’s just brave. This is a racing game. He can’t seriously carry Qu’er on his back while running, right?]
[Captain shouldering responsibility = Captain literally shouldering his teammates]
Lai Yudong: “?”
Please don’t assign him weird extra challenges!
“Shouldering responsibility” was one thing, but dragging Qu Xincheng along was more realistic—though even then, he couldn’t guarantee avoiding the NPCs. Rumor had it the zombies were all professionally trained performers; he might not even be able to protect himself.
The bus finally arrived at the filming site.
Before they got off, staff handed out gear: each member received a smartwatch, a walkie-talkie, and a set of protective pads.
Su Junzhe pointed excitedly out the window: “Look! What a huge base!”
Zhao Yifeng took one glance and sighed wearily: “Looks like we’re gonna run ourselves to death…”
His stamina and running speed were both atrocious—so bad it was almost painful to watch. Exercise had always been his lifelong enemy, and he’d already mentally prepared himself to be the first one eliminated.
The research facility was about the size of a hospital building. In front of it stretched a wide open field, with scattered groups of zombie NPCs shambling about. The number didn’t look too high from here, but who knew what awaited inside the facility.
To get in, they would first have to cross that open field.
“Just hearing the background story already makes me feel doomed,” Li Xu said, leaning against the window. The zombie NPCs’ makeup was way too realistic—it made his scalp tingle.
“What if there’s no antidote at all, and that so-called doctor just made it up to save his own skin?”
“Or maybe the shelter just doesn’t like us,” Lai Yudong replied as he bent down to strap on his knee pads.
“Like, you ate one extra bowl of rice one day, and they’ve held a grudge ever since—so they sent us out here to die.”
“You sure have an imagination.”
“Not really. Internal conflict plots in shows always go like that.”
“…Who fights to the death over an extra bowl of rice!?”
“Food’s scarce in the apocalypse,” Lai Yudong said with a perfectly straight face, spouting nonsense.
“What if we just stay on the bus and refuse to go out—would that count as a successful escape? We can coordinate our statements ahead of time and report that Dr. Shi passed away inside.”
“And just lie here in the bus with the AC on?” Li Xu retorted. “I don’t know about ‘escaping successfully,’ but we’d definitely make the hot search.”
Lai Yudong straightened up and solemnly patted his shoulder.
“Then I’ll leave that glorious mission to you. I’m getting off first.”
Li Xu’s face darkened as he smacked the hand away.
“Get lost.”
[Mind officially opened.jpg]
[Not gonna lie, they actually have a point]
[Is Yuzu about to play prophet again?]
[‘I’m getting off first’ — the movie]
After getting out of the car, the seven of them stood in their designated spots, facing the open field.
“The duration of this game is 90 minutes. Please make sure to protect yourselves, complete your tasks, and survive until the end!”
“Now, the game begins—”
At the staff member’s command, the countdown on their watches started ticking.
Remaining time —
1:29:59
—————————————————————
Author’s note:
Info Drop —
Strength ranking:
Su Junzhe > Bai Xuanhe > Lai Yudong > Mo Li > Qu Xincheng > Li Xu > Zhao Yifeng
