All of the participating models had signed a competition contract, and had to abide by all the competition rules and comply with all of the organizers' arrangements. Anyone who violated these rules would be disqualified, and may even face legal liabilities.
Every competing model could only bring one assistant or agent during the competition.
The entire competition process would be broadcast live on the network, and netizens could watch the competition live, and at the same time, they could vote for their favorite models.
All of the netizens were very excited about being able to see the modeling process live. In general, no one would be willing to broadcast live the modeling and shooting process, because during the process of shooting, there would not only be a lot of mistakes, but it would also expose the model's shortcomings in their skills or body. The advertising film after being edited and cut would naturally show only the best parts.
So all of the netizens were very curious about what the models' shooting process would be like, and whether the difference would be very big from the publicity images and advertising they usually saw. They really wanted to know what would happen with their own favorite idols during the process of filming.
The scoring of the competition was calculated so that the netizen votes counted for 30%, the designers counted for 20%, staff vote for 10%, the view counts for ads or videos after the shooting would count for 10%, and Regulus would count for 30%.
The first part of the competition was held at one of the marine park style hotels owned by the Fernelea company. The competition content was naturally also related to promoting the hotel's rides.
Jing Yang quite admired Regulus's business acumen. This competition could give his group a really big advertisement. Even though the cost was high, it was definitely worth it in terms of the level of public attention.
The staff brought Jing Yang to the room arranged for him, and as soon as he went in Jing Yang was surprised. He had even lived in an emperor's palace, and could be considered to have seen the world. But this room could barely be described with the word luxury, even if the decoration was very simple here, it could be seen that they were all very valuable things. The renovation was extremely tasteful and stylish, you could tell at once that it had been carefully arranged by a well-known designer.
Jing Yang walked to the huge aerial terrace that had a pool, and from this angle he could see the ocean below, both magnificent and beautiful. At this height, it seemed like you could touch the clouds just by raising your hand.
"Do you like it here?"
Jing Yang turned and looked at Regulus, who had suddenly appeared behind him. "Mr. Fernelea is really generous, just for a competition, you actually arranged such good rooms for the participating models. The amount of money needed to live here for a few days is enough to buy a house, right?"
Regulus walked to his side. "There are only two of these kinds of rooms, I'm living in the other one, and this one is for you. How could I give every model in the competition such a room."
Jing Yang froze. He had thought that all of the models' rooms would be about the same, and didn't think that Regulus would give him preferential treatment in such an aboveboard manner. But besides the competition being broadcast live, there would be no cameras following them around, so he didn't need to worry about whether some bad words would spread out. In case someone did want to pass some rumors, Regulus would never sit idly by, so he had nothing to worry about.
"Do you like the ocean?" Regulus asked.
"I do." Jing Yang looked at the endless ocean.
"How long can you stay in the water without using an oxygen tank?"
"My lung capacity is pretty good, holding my breath for around five minutes is not a problem." Jing Yang spoke quite conservatively. In fact, if he relied on the system, he could even breathe underwater, and if he had to he could stay underwater without oxygen for twenty minutes. "What are you asking this for?"
"Clarifying would make it easier for me to make a decision about whether the competition would be above water or in the water." Regulus looked at Jing Yang from very close and said, "Five minutes is not short, much longer than the average person. It seems that you like diving."
"I do quite like it, but your meaning…could it be that the content of the competition wasn't decided very early on, but you're just casually deciding it?" Jing Yang didn't think that he would say this, the competition that he originally thought was very rigorous immediately became not as serious.
Regulus smiled and rubbed his hair. "The competition was originally just held just for other people to see. I know that you want to prove yourself, and I believe that you will do better than all of them. Even so, I still want to confirm your safety for the competition, I don't care in the least about anyone else."
Jing Yang was stunned by his action and his words. He was incomparably familiar with his action, and only one person could do this to him without making him annoyed, and only one person, besides himself, would not care about anyone else.
Regulus raised Jing Yang's chin. "In fact, I really want to personally test your lung capacity, but since I said I wouldn't force you, I'll have to put up with it until you're willing."
"I also want, to test it…" Jing Yang wanted to say, you can test my lung capacity, and I also want to test whether or not you are my lover.
"Are you sure?" Regulus asked this but his arm had already wrapped around Jing Yang's waist, and without waiting for his response, he had already kissed him.
The moment their tongues touched, that familiar feeling shocked Jing Yang's soul. This was his lover, he had once again found himself, and as always, only had deep feelings for himself.
Jing Yang wrapped his arms around his neck and raised his head to bear his deep kiss, and also kissed him back from time to time. The wind on the terrace was quite strong, but it could not extinguish in the least the enthusiasm of the two men. Their tongues entangled, as if it was already not enough to satisfy the two men's desire for each other.
Regulus seemed to be tasting the most delicious food in his life, not only reluctant to let go, but also wanting to swallow him into his stomach, so that he could forever become part of his body, and no one could ever separate them.
The kiss lasted a long time, Regulus finally let go of his lips and leaned his forehead on Jing Yang's, saying, "It seems that your lung capacity is even better than you said, I can rest assured to let you go in the water."
~
All of the models were brought to a clear, almost transparent sea, where the water was still quite deep even though it was clear.
The netizens were all huddled in front of their computer screens, watching the countdown to the start of the live broadcast. When the number jumped to zero, they finally saw the live scene and felt uncontrollable excitement, searching for their own favorite models on the screen.
The host, Gore, announced to all of the models, "The first part of the competition, as you can see in front of you, is going to be in the water. Beneath the water, there is a wonderful paradise, and one of the hotel's entertainment activities is dedicated to giving guests who enjoy diving a place to play. The content of the competition is for everyone to spend thirty minutes in the water to shoot an entire advertisement. Of course, for better aesthetics and so that we can use the filming content, you are not allowed to use oxygen tanks."
As soon as the host finished speaking, the faces of several models who weren't great with water instantly changed, including Dilumo.
Dilumo originally thought that going to the ocean they would definitely be shooting on the beach, he had shot many commercials on the beach, and it was one of his strengths. He was originally very confident, but instantly lost some of his confidence. He felt that his luck was too bad, he encountered underwater competition content at the very beginning.
But Dilumo's fans were confident in him, since Dilumo had previously taken some very good underwater shots. What they didn't know, however, was that very short video clip had taken Dilumo several days to complete, and had also needed a lot of external help in order to finish.
The host continued, "This is the designer of the water park, Mr. Dennis, and when all of you are finished shooting, he will comment on your shooting process. And his comments will serve as a reference for other people's ratings, so while you are showing your own skills, do not forget to show the fun of the water park."
All of the models went to prepare. The shooting order would be done based on a draw, and the models who weren't shooting would wait in the lounge area of the boat.
Conley crouched down next to Dilumo's seat and said, "You are bad with water, and your lung capacity in water is shorter than the average person. The possibility of getting a high score is very low, do you want to think of some other way?"
Dilumo was wearing sunglasses. He turned his face in a direction that the camera couldn't catch, saying in a bad mood, "What can I do, if I withdraw from this it would be equivalent to abstaining, and I can't even receive a single point."
"I certainly didn't mean to get you out of the race." Conley said quietly. "I wanted to say, later you could show that you have a cramp but still want to persevere in shooting, that way you can not only cover up your flaws but also gain some sympathy votes."
Dilumo thought a bit and felt that this was a viable method. He didn't perform well enough because of cramps, and the other judges couldn't put his score too low for that. What's more, fans accounted for a large amount of the scoring percentage, and seeing him cramp but still continue shooting, his fans would definitely feel bad for him.
Jing Yang was arranged first. When he was about to start filming, he took off his bathrobe and walked to the bow of the ship in only his swimming trunks. Everyone's eyes were attracted by that pair of long legs.
Conley still maintained that squatting position, and as he turned his head he just happened to see that pair of straight and slender legs, his line of sight unable to move away.
Dilumo stared hatefully at that pair of long legs that he couldn't match, and turning to see the obsession in Conley's eyes, he felt even more furious. His foot stepped on Conley's foot, and he viciously crushed it. But Conley seemed to have lost his mind, completely forgetting the pain, and no matter how hard Dilumo stepped on him, he did not come back to his senses.
Dilumo was absolutely furious. If it weren't because there were cameras and he couldn't make any big movements, right now he would throw a slap at Conley and let him sober up.
Dilumo glared at Jing Yang, who was standing at the end of the ship ready to enter the water. So what if he had a good figure? Underwater shooting was the most difficult challenge for a model, and with only half an hour, he didn't believe that he could show anything good. A man without any fans, his final score couldn't exceed his. He would just wait to see how he would make a fool of himself.
Jing Yang stood at the end of the ship wearing his swim trunks, with four or five cameras aimed at him from different angles. He leapt into the water, drawing a perfect arc in the air.
His movement entering the water was comparable to that of the best diver, beautiful and pleasing, and the director and staff couldn't help but exclaim in praise.
After Jing Yang entered the water, there immediately was a camera following behind him. After he swam out a certain distance, the staff members immediately followed behind to protect his safety and to help him deliver oxygen if needed.
In front of the camera, a pair of long legs swung around. From this point of view, the sexiness made people feel like they were about to have a nosebleed.
Regulus sat alone in the ship lounge, staring intently at the screen. Through the screen, he saw the beautiful swinging long legs, and then the taut butt, and then the smooth, glossy back lines. His heart seemed to burn with a flame, burning to his stomach, and then across his entire body.
But as long as he thought that there must be a lot of people who felt the same way as him at this moment, he would feel very unhappy. He wanted to hide this man, so that no one could see him. His legs, his body, his everything, all belonged to him, and only he could see, only he could have him.
~
Jing Yang swam to the area above the underwater park, and after coming up for some air, he began to dive down.
Since it was called an underwater park, there naturally would be a lot of fun and beautiful things under the water. These not only had to have the expected aquatic style, but also needed to allow the guests to feel enjoyment, in order to be termed a paradise.
Jing Yang lay on a bed made from a huge shell, posing in a lazy position and winking at the camera. Many netizens looked at this scene and forgot to breathe, it was too tempting.
Then he swam to a table set with cutlery, using a fork to pick up a small piece of food, and then moving to put it in his mouth. Suddenly a very beautiful fish swam over and opened its mouth to take the food on his fork. He pretended to angrily look at this fish, and that fish also looked at him, and even swirled its tail, as if it was very proud.
This food was originally used to feed fish, but the netizens watching the live stream didn't know that, so Jing Yang's deliberate appearance of having his food taken away made the netizens unable to resist smiling. The image was really too cute.
That fish that stole his food seemed particularly courageous, it not only did not swim away, but even swam over to kiss Jing Yang on the face, as if to apologize for grabbing his food earlier. Jing Yang immediately smiled and reached out his finger to tap its head.
A person and a fish interacted, the cuteness making people unable to stop from melting.
When Jing Yang was swimming, he made people think that maybe because his posture was too natural and beautiful, it made those beautiful little fish think that he was the same kind, and all gathered around him to swim with him. In fact, it was because he was holding food in his hand, and then slowly crumbled it, but no one could see his movements.
A fish twice as big as Jing Yang swam over, and when it passed by, Jing Yang smoothly sat onto its body. That big fish carried Jing Yang through all kinds of beautiful and wondrous buildings, followed by a pile of beautiful small fish. That scene was simply like a mermaid prince going out for a ride.
The staff members filming behind him all felt like this was really too mystical. If they weren't seeing it personally, they wouldn't believe it was real, and this was even happening right in front of their eyes.
The netizens were even more shocked, such a scene probably only appeared in dreams. Is this really a live stream? This dream was a little too real?
Throughout the filming process, Jing Yang came out of the water every ten minutes to catch his breath, and the staff never had to give him oxygen. Even the picture of him swimming to the surface of the water was very beautiful, and when he turned to dive down, his movements were natural like a mermaid.
After his filming ended, Jing Yang swam back to the side of the boat, and as soon as he got on the boat, an assistant lay his bath towel on his body.
The host walked up to the director and the designer of the water park for commentary.
The stunned look in the director's eyes and on his face still had not subsided. He somewhat absent-mindedly exclaimed, "This was absolutely the most meaningful and perfect shot I have done as a director in so many years! I can't even believe that this is a real scene done without the use of any special effects. I don't know how he did it, but I have to say, this was really too amazing. I'm really lucky to have been able to film such a shot."
The host said, "We all felt that the scene just now was really magical, so I can also understand the director's mood right now. Then can I ask the director to talk about the model's performance from a professional point of view?"
"From a professional view, I can still only use a single word to sum it up, and that's perfection." The director said somewhat excitedly, "In the end, with this kind of shot, we never had to restart and there were no NGs, which would be very difficult to do even on land, not to mention in the water. His every movement, and every gaze, was expressed perfectly, making people unable to help being attracted. What's more is that as a model, he did not forget that he needed to also show and highlight the product, and not just his body and himself. I believe that after seeing this shot, anyone will be very interested in the water park."
The host said, "Our director gave Arthur's performance a very high evaluation, so the score he will eventually give will certainly not be low. Now, let's listen to the views and commentary of designer Dennis."
"Arthur's performance was completely beyond my imagination." Dennis felt like he could not find any better words to express his feelings at the moment, but still wanted to try to convey the shock in his heart as much as possible. "This was really too shocking, he fully expressed everything that I invested into the design of the park. I think he might be able to read minds, in order to be able to guess my mind so completely. Previously I never understood why people would worship a model so crazily, but now I finally understand. That kind of fan mindset, I have also experienced it today."
Invisibly, Jing Yang's performance gave the other models in the competition even more pressure. They thought that they not only could not perform to that degree, but also had no way to not have to restart or NG in the water. But they were also popular models and supermodels, if their gap with him was too big, it would really be too humiliating.
Dilumo barely forced himself to maintain a calm expression, but his heart was already burning from anxiety. Someone who had not picked up any work for three years could actually perform to this extent. He was now extremely curious about what he had done in the past three years. Dilumo had thought that Arthur must have been wallowing in sorrow or regret for three years, and then he would become depressed and sallow, unable to ever recover. But from this current situation, he must have just been biding his time these three years, waiting for the chance to bounce back to appear.
Dilumo secretly clenched his teeth and swore that he would never let him succeed. He definitely still could find a way, and could wait for the opportunity to deal with him, and make it so that he could never recover!
Conley lowered his head in thought, his eyes occasionally glancing toward Jing Yang, who was sitting down to rest. He had not seen this person for three years, and didn't expect that he would be even better looking than in the pictures. Amongst so many models and supermodels, he was still the most outstanding one. Unfortunately, because of his phobia, he had never touched him before, or else he might be able to think back as an aftertaste now.
The netizens could be said to have feasted their eyes. They all thought, originally the filming process was just like this ah, it looks very relaxed and quite easy ah. They certainly couldn't do it themselves, but it shouldn't be too hard for models to do it? After all, they were in this career, and usually there must be special training for these things.
The fans' expectations for their idols were instantly even higher, and they all quietly hoped that their favorite models would be able to perform better than the others.
Just as the expectations were higher, the disappointment was bigger. The models filming later had to redo even the move diving into the water three or four times and it was still not perfect. The netizens' excitement and anticipation also gradually cooled down.
The previous scenes that looked like special effects never appeared again. Most of the models asked the staff for oxygen less than a minute after entering the water. The time when the staff were in the lens was even longer than the time the model was in the lens by himself. And with the oxygen equipment, it was really hard to make a relaxed expression, and it was even harder to make natural movements.
When the host went to ask the director and designer for their reviews, their expressions were evidently unpleasant.
The director said with great disappointment, "If Arthur's performance was unexpectedly amazing, the other models we have filmed so far were unexpectedly bad. I know that it is hard to control your body in the water, and not as easy as on land, but as a model, only when you can control your own body regardless of the circumstances can you be considered a supermodel. But I think that if we gave them some more time, and then edited and cut the film, we can still create a quite good film. But in the case of live broadcasts like this, their performance is sure to disappoint the audience because the difference from the film is too big."
Dennis's expression was also not very good. He felt that these models' performance would make the audience feel some resistance to the water park he designed, so he explained, "Here I would like to tell everyone, don't think that the underwater park is very scary because of the other model's pain and struggles. They were like this because they did not always wear their oxygen equipment, but when the guests come to play, we will have the most advanced and most convenient oxygen equipment for you. You would be able to swim and play in the water freely like Arthur Yang."
Dilumo's filming order was farther back, and in front of him, there had already been four models who deliberately made it seem like they had cramps and so could not film well. It was obvious that they had all thought the same way, and wanted to cover up their shortcomings with some undeniable reasons.
Since four people had already used the same trick before him, if Dilumo also used it he would seem very fake, and even fools would be able to see that they were just pretending. But there was no way, he was even worse in the water than the average person, and he couldn't not use this method.
When Dilumo was entering the water, the director made him repeatedly shoot this move five or six times without being satisfied. If not because of time constraints, he may have just made him shoot this one move all day.
Dilumo dived down with the oxygen equipment, and still needed the staff members to pull him down because he simply could not dive. Once the oxygen was taken away for a few seconds he would need to suck on it again, and the director simply could not shoot anything useful. He held his leg and made a painful expression of cramping, but unfortunately because he was in the water, his acting was affected. This made him look too fake, making even his fans feel embarrassed for him.
The director frowned and looked impatiently at the screen. He simply did not direct him to make any movements or restart, just waiting for thirty minutes to pass like this.
The netizens watched Dilumo struggle in the water, this action was not only not aesthetic in the least, but also appeared extremely comical yet made people feel like they couldn't laugh out. They couldn't help but wonder how Dilumo's previously shot water films were filmed.
Dilumo's fans felt like they really could not keep watching because his open-mouthed, wildly flailing appearance was really too ugly. Even if you wanted to fake cramping, you at least had to act more realistically a little. Then we can help you speak ah, or else we would really be speaking blindly with our eyes wide open. Like those people before, they acted quite well, so at least in the beginning they made people unable to tell whether they were really cramping, or just faking it.
Fortunately, besides Jing Yang's ultra-perfect play, there were still a few models whose shots were still quite good, or else it would be really hard to finish the shoot.
In the end when the host asked the director to make some concluding comments, the director said, "I encountered two of the biggest problems of my career today. One is Arthur Yang's shot, every scene is perfect, and I think I may have a hard time cutting the 30-minute shoot into a five-minute film. This is really difficult. There's another problem, and that is what Dilumo gave me. I don't know how to get a five minute long shot from his 30 minutes of film. Here I would like to state in advance, if Dilumo's shot isn't good enough, it was really not me and my editing problems, but that there were no good scenes to include."
Dennis said to the camera very seriously, "I would also like to declare in advance that as long as you warm up properly, not everyone would cramp so easily in the water. We also have professionals on the side as protection, so please rest assured to play. Whether or not some people were really cramping, I believe that everyone could tell. I am just strongly condemning this damage to the reputation of our hotel entertainment program, on my own behalf."
Translator Notes:
[1] Gore – 戈尔, pinyin ge er, apparently this is the translation, kind of an unfortunate name just by itself if you ask me
[2] unable to recover – 一蹶不振, idiom, means totally collapsing after a setback
[3] biding his time – 卧薪尝胆, means to maintain his resolve for revenge, suffering patiently