"Xiao Xia, please think about it again."
Xia Zhi held the phone in one hand and punched in the password to open the door with the other. A food takeout bag was hanging on his wrist. He looked a little helpless: "Brother Yuan, I'm really sorry. I've been busy with work recently and I really can't spare the time."
"It won't take you too long, just half a month! If you think half a month is too long, ten days will do... or seven days!" The man almost begged, "Xiao Xia, since we used to work together, please help me! The appearance fee can be negotiated!"
"Brother Yuan, you know, this is not a question of appearance fee." Xia Zhi sighed silently and reminded, "I have retired from the circle and am just an ordinary person now."
As he spoke, he pushed the door open, changed into indoor slippers at the entrance, and walked into the dining room.
The dining room and living room are opposite each other.
On the sofa in the living room, a short-haired girl was sitting cross-legged, holding half a watermelon and eating it while watching TV. When she heard Xia Zhi calling, she curiously stuck her head out and looked back.
Xia Zhi put dinner on the table, hooked his finger at the girl, motioning her to come over for dinner, and then he walked to the window and continued to make a phone call.
"We don't necessarily want you to return to the entertainment industry." The person on the other end of the phone said in a negotiating manner, "Just think of it as making some extra money, how about that?"
Fang Yuan had been arguing all the way since they got off the car. Xia Zhi's patience was almost at its limit and she pinched her nose tiredly.
The other party probably knew that he was annoying, so he gave up trying to persuade him and changed the subject: "It's hard to explain over the phone, so why don't we make an appointment to talk in person. How about this Saturday? Is it convenient for you to come? If you don't have time, I can go over there too."
"No, I..."
"I have made an appointment with Sang Luo and the others to treat them to a meal at Jin Hui Pavilion this weekend. Will you come?"
The words I wanted to say to refuse were stuck in my throat.
"I think you haven't seen each other for a long time. City U and City A are not far away. Just come here to catch up with old friends. The company will reimburse the round-trip fare! How do you think?"
"..." This was the fifth time the man had called. Xia Zhi's repeated rejections had failed to make him give up. If he rejected him again this time, Xia Zhi had no doubt that he would receive the sixth call soon. He had no choice but to agree to the man's proposal.
"Great! I won't bother you anymore. See you this weekend!" The man achieved his goal and stopped pestering her. He hung up the phone.
"Goodbye..." Xia Zhi's mood did not relax, but became heavier instead.
When Xia Zhi returned to the restaurant, Sheng Yingying had already started eating, slurping her beef noodles. Seeing Xia Zhi coming over, she swallowed the noodles in one gulp, looked up at him curiously and asked, "Who's calling? Why is it taking so long?"
Xia Zhi sat down opposite him, opened another bowl of beef noodles, and explained casually, "Chuanxing."
"Oh~ your former boss from eight hundred years ago." Sheng Yingying shoveled rice noodles into her mouth, but did not delay talking, "You have retired for many years, why are they still calling you?"
Xia Zhi said calmly to Mi Fan: "Chuanxing is planning to do a reality show and wants me to participate."
“Cough cough cough…” Sheng Yingying was choked by this unexpected answer.
Xia Zhi quickly poured her a glass of water.
Sheng Yingying drank half a glass of water and finally stopped coughing, but she was still in shock: "Participating in a reality show?!"
Xia Zhi smiled bitterly.
Sheng Yingying bit her chopsticks and suddenly muttered, "It turns out that what they say on the Internet is true!"
Xia Zhi asked curiously, "What did people say on the Internet?"
Sheng Yingying said: "Victoria has been very popular recently. There was indeed a marketing account that broke the news that Chuanxing wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to attract traffic and organize a group variety show. But you also know that your group has been disbanded for almost ten years. It's hard to say whether you can get the members together, so everyone thinks this is fake news."
When talking about this, Xia Zhi wanted to smile bitterly.
Ten years ago, Chuanxing launched a five-member boy band, Victoria, of which Xia Zhi was one.
At that time, Chuanxing was full of ambition and determined to create a first-class idol boy group in China. They prepared for this for three years. However, the group was unlucky and failed to become popular after its debut. Later, because the group's development did not improve, it disbanded in disgrace after a year.
Victoria was a flash in the pan in the entertainment industry. It came silently and left without a splash. Until the group disbanded, most people didn't even know there had been such a boy band in the entertainment industry.
It has been nearly ten years since Victoria disbanded and has long since turned into dust in the history of the entertainment industry. No one should remember it anymore, but it just so happens.
Some time ago, a marketing account started an online vote for the "most obscure male group in the domestic entertainment industry". In the end, a seven-member male group that was newly launched last year received the highest number of votes.
After this incident became a hot topic, the group suddenly became a joke on the Internet. The management team tried to reduce the trending searches and hired trolls, but it was still unable to stop the flood of ridicule and mockery on the Internet. Finally, they came up with an idea to divert the blame - they pulled out Victoria, who had already disbanded for many years, and said that this was the most obscure boy band in the domestic entertainment industry.
Facts have proved that Victoria is indeed worthy of the title of the most obscure boy band in the domestic entertainment industry, because 80% of netizens have never even heard of this group, and the other 20% of netizens who know about it have only heard of it.
All of a sudden, netizens developed a strong interest in this obscure group. They began to search for Victoria's information on the Internet, wanting to know what kind of group this was that could be so obscure.
However, since Victoria debuted relatively early and her few performances were all offline events, there is almost no useful information to be found online.
I thought the matter ended here, but the more netizens couldn't find the information, the more curious they became. Later, a campaign to "reveal the secret of the mysterious Victoria group" was launched on the Internet.
Victoria has reached unprecedented popularity and frequently appears on the topic lists of major platforms.
No one expected that this boy band, which had been unknown when it debuted, would become popular on the Internet in such a bizarre way eight years after the group disbanded.
Victoria's former agency, Star Entertainment, saw Victoria's current high popularity and discussion, and suddenly came up with the idea of taking the opportunity to launch a group variety show to earn some traffic.
However, four of Victoria's five members, including Xia Zhi, became disillusioned with the entertainment industry after the group disbanded and have since returned to ordinary life.
As for the only member who continues to stay in the entertainment industry, he is no longer the 18th-tier newcomer he used to be, so it is not easy to invite him again.
Because of this, when Chuan Xing approached Xia Zhi, he refused without a second thought. But Chuan Xing was surprisingly persistent, and after being rejected by Xia Zhi, he still did not give up and called every day to lobby. Xia Zhi was exhausted just dealing with these calls these days.
Sheng Yingying was very interested in the group variety show. After dinner, she continued to ask her brother: "Brother, if Victoria really organizes a group variety show, do you want to participate?"
"Who said there's nothing to see!" Sheng Yingying retorted, smiling and holding up her brother's chin with both hands, "Isn't this face the biggest attraction?"
"Stop messing around." Xia Zhi couldn't help but smile bitterly and slapped his sister's hand away.
"I'm serious," Sheng Yingying puffed her cheeks and said seriously, "Although Chuanxing's idea sounds a bit far-fetched, it's not completely unfeasible. Although Victoria was not well-known at the time, she's very popular now!"
"It was just an accident," Xia Zhi said, "Besides, what's the point of making a fuss now? Victoria can no longer be reorganized."
"So we need to take advantage of the traffic now to create a group variety show!" Sheng Yingying said excitedly, "And I think your worry is totally unnecessary. Even if Victoria has no fans, this show will definitely be popular in the end."
"Why are you so sure?" Xia Zhi was curious.
"Again, this face is the biggest attraction." Sheng Yingying reached out to support her brother's chin again, "Everyone loves beauty. If there are handsome guys in the show, people will watch it even if the planning is bad. What's more, there are four people with a face like yours in your group!"
"..." Xia Zhi laughed and waved his hand like he was chasing away a mosquito, "Go watch TV." He obviously didn't want to say more.
Sheng Yingying pouted, snorted in dissatisfaction, and took out her cell phone to surf the Internet.
She habitually clicked on the entertainment hot search list first, and sure enough, she saw Victoria's name on it.
These days, Victoria has been on the hot search list every other day, and the entries following it are varied, from [What is Victoria] at the beginning, to [Why is Victoria so mysterious], and finally to [Who are the members of Victoria].
However, because Victoria is so obscure, these questions have not been accurately answered. In all these days, no one who claims to be a fan of Victoria has come out to solve the mystery. Netizens can't help but become more and more certain that Victoria is indeed obscure.
Sheng Yingying knew a little about the inside story because she was Xia Zhi's sister, but she knew very little. Because when Xia Zhi formed the boy band, he was still studying in another city, and he kept it a secret from his family from the time he entered the company for training to his debut.
Sheng Yingying also found out about this incident by chance. At that time, Xia Zhi had been out of the entertainment industry for almost three years. Sheng Yingying chased her brother to ask for information about the group, but Xia Zhi only told her the name of the agency and the group, and refused to say anything else.
Sheng Yingying was extremely curious about her brother's former group and had searched online, but because the group was so obscure, there was not much news online. In addition, when Victoria debuted, Chuanxing wanted to take the group international, so they gave all five members English stage names, so almost no one knew their real names. This is why netizens have been investigating for so long but have not been able to dig out information about the members.
Later, Xia Zhi couldn't stand his sister's questioning ten times a day anymore, so he introduced her to the other three teammates who had also retired, but he refused to tell her who the fifth member was.
It just so happens that today the event of "Unveiling the Mysterious Group Victoria" has finally reached the stage of revealing the members, but after digging for so long, only five English names were revealed.
Since there is too little known information, netizens have started to speculate irresponsibly. Some netizens said that they are probably middle-aged now, and maybe their lives are not going well after retiring from the entertainment industry, and they are bald and fat, and have become greasy middle-aged uncles, so they are embarrassed to come out and claim their identities.
Sheng Yingying was furious when she saw this comment. She looked up at her brother—thick hair, slender waist, smooth skin, and flawless and exquisite profile... Greasy uncle! He is clearly a fairy!
What’s even more infuriating is that this comment was recognized by many netizens and was ranked number one on the list.
Sheng Yingying held her breath and read on. The result was that the thousands of comments were either mocking voices or irresponsible malicious speculations, without a single piece of useful information. Sheng Yingying became more and more angry, and simply quit Weibo, thinking that out of sight, out of mind.
She threw the phone away, and slid back to Xia Zhi's side. She leaned over and called out sweetly, "Brother~"
Xia Zhi was replying to an email on her phone. When she heard her sister's shout, her typing hand suddenly stopped. She squinted her eyes and asked warily, "What are you doing?"
Sheng Yingying smiled more and more obediently: "Who is that member named Zaahir? Tell me~"
A strange look flashed across Xia Zhi's face, and he said helplessly: "You have asked me this question eight hundred times."
"That's because you didn't tell me the previous 799 times!" Sheng Yingying looked resentful and held her brother's hand and acted coquettishly, "Just tell me! My dear brother! Didn't you tell me the other three? Why didn't you tell me the last one?"
"He..." Xia Zhi hesitated, "He is quite special."
"How special is it?" Sheng Yingying asked in disbelief, "Could it be that his identity is even more special than that of your teammate who is a CEO from a wealthy family?"
Xia Zhi didn't want to say more. He patted his sister's head and said, "You'd better give up. I won't tell."
"Why?" Sheng Yingying was puzzled. "Could it be that you two have a bad relationship?"
"… "
“Hiss—” Sheng Yingying gasped and said in disbelief, “You two really don’t get along! No wonder you four never bring him to your gatherings!”
Xia Zhi admitted it without hesitation: "Well, so you better not ask me again in the future."
Sheng Yingying became more and more curious, "Is that person a bad person? That's why he forced someone as good-tempered as you to break off the friendship."
Xia Zhi couldn't lie against his conscience, so he explained with a tangled look on his face: "There is no problem with his character..."
"Then why did you break up?" Sheng Yingying was a very curious child. When she encountered something that interested her, she would get to the bottom of it. "Did he offend you?"
"No." Xia Zhi didn't want to say more. In order to stop his sister from asking questions, he quickly changed the subject. "I'm going to City A this Saturday. My parents should be back from their trip this Friday. You can stay at home then."
"City A? Is this another gathering of old friends?" Sheng Yingying asked excitedly, "Take me there, take me there! I want to go too!"
"Not this time," Xia Zhi refused, "I'm going to discuss serious matters, so it's not convenient for me to bring you along. Maybe next time."
Sheng Yingying frowned and sighed in frustration.
The next day was a weekday. After dinner, the brother and sister chatted in the living room for a while and then went back to their rooms to rest.
After taking a shower, Xia Zhi lay on the bed, habitually took the phone on the bedside table and opened WeChat. After replying to the unread messages one by one, he finally clicked on the chat group at the top.
V Group Five Strong Men (4)
15:15 pm, June 23
Sang Luo: Damn, I can’t stay in this house for even one more day!
Xiao Han: Let’s play a game~
Cheng Yunan: [picture.jpg] Baby went to experience farm fun, today we are farmer style~~
Sang Luo: Shi Mudong, this dog Dengxi, feels uncomfortable if he doesn't act like a jerk for a day! I want to run away from home!
Xiao Han: Go to the number
Cheng Yunan: [picture.jpg] The baby is helping his father wash vegetables~
Sang Luo: Shi Gou must be in the prime of his life! I can’t stand it anymore! I’m going to go abroad to avoid the limelight!
Xiao Han: Log in! You guys better log in quickly!!!
Cheng Yunan: [picture.jpg] The baby went to the field to touch snails for the first time, and he became a little clay doll, haha
Sang Luo: I want to go to Africa! I heard that this period is the lion's budding period. I want to see which one is more terrifying, the budding lion or the budding Shi Mudong!
Xiao Han: Get lost! The game is about to begin [smile]
Cheng Yunan: [picture.jpg] Whose baby is this? He looks so pretty.
Cheng Yunan: Oh, it turns out it’s my house~
(End of this chapter)