The voice on the phone was very cold. Xia Zhi inexplicably felt a little nervous. He coughed lightly and whispered, "It's me."
There was silence on the other side for a moment. When the voice came again, Jiang Zhixia's tone didn't seem as calm as before.
"Xia Xia?" The familiar name came out of his mouth unconsciously.
The awkwardness and awkwardness that had been expected before the call seemed to disappear with Jiang Zhixia's familiar address as before. Xia Zhi raised the corners of her mouth slightly, and her tone became more natural: "Yes, it's me. I heard from Sang Luo that you agreed to Chuan Xing?"
Jiang Zhixia hummed and asked in understanding, "You called to ask me why I agreed, right?"
Xia Zhi touched his nose and said, "I'm just a little surprised. You're so busy with work, you probably don't have time to participate. And don't you never appear on variety shows?"
"I just finished filming a movie last month, so I don't plan to take on any new scripts in the short term. I just happen to have a two-month vacation, so there's no problem with the schedule." Jiang Zhixia's tone seemed quite pleasant, and he patiently explained to Xia Zhi, "And I don't participate in variety shows because I think it's meaningless."
After listening to his explanation, Xia Zhi added, "Do you think this program is meaningful?"
Jiang Zhixia did not answer immediately. After a while, he whispered, "I think given your feelings for Victoria, you might agree to participate."
Xia Zhi didn't expect him to say that. He was stunned for a moment and didn't know what to say.
Jiang Zhixia went on to say: "It is impossible for Victoria to reunite. If the group variety show can be successful, this may be the last chance for the five of us to be on the same stage together."
Xia Zhi was somewhat speechless: "But if you do that, everyone will know that you were once a member of a boy band."
"It doesn't matter," Jiang Zhixia said calmly, "It's not a shameful past, so it's okay to make it public."
When Victoria was facing the crisis of disbanding, Jiang Zhixia was the first member to agree to disband and propose to go solo. In addition, after he switched to the film and television industry, he never mentioned his experience of forming a boy band. Therefore, Xia Zhi always felt that Jiang Zhixia had no feelings for Victoria. Perhaps in his heart this was still a shameful black history.
But now Jiang Zhixia's words overturned all his years of cognition.
With Jiang Zhixia's current achievements, it is not necessarily a good thing to expose his former identity as a member of a boy band. Because for so many years, everyone thought that he became popular as soon as he debuted, and many media often used this topic to earn traffic. Once this history is exposed, the so-called "debut is the peak" will be self-defeating. If it is used by someone with ulterior motives to hype it up again, Jiang Zhixia is likely to be labeled as self-hype.
Thinking back to Jiang Zhixia's determination to leave Victoria, Xia Zhi suddenly felt a little confused. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and couldn't help but speak out the question that had been in his heart for many years.
"If you care so much about Victoria, why did you insist on leaving in the first place?"
Jiang Zhixia had been answering every question since the call was connected, but this time he remained silent.
Xia Zhi's originally wavering heart suddenly cooled down again. He chuckled lightly, and his tone was a little cold: "Don't you want to say it or haven't made up a good excuse yet?"
"No, I didn't lie to you." Jiang Zhixia said, "As for the reason why I left the group, I originally wanted to wait until we recorded the show to tell you."
Xia Zhi frowned: "Are you sure I will participate?"
"I'm not sure," Jiang Zhixia said sincerely, "but I hope you can participate."
"… "
The conversation ended here. Xia Zhi hung up the phone, and Jiang Zhixia's last words kept echoing in his mind. That night, Xia Zhi tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep all night.
The next day, Xia Zhi woke up with dark circles under her eyes, and was ridiculed by Sheng Yingying as soon as she left the bedroom. However, Xia Zhi did not argue with her sister as usual, and went into the study after breakfast.
Xia Zhi turned on his computer, logged into WeChat, and opened the group chat of the five tough guys out of habit. He felt that something was wrong with the group chat today. After a closer look, he found that the number of members behind the group name had changed from "4" to "5".
Xia Zhi quickly clicked on the member list and saw Jiang Zhixia's name. He went back to look at the group chat and saw that Sang Luo had added Jiang Zhixia to the group at about one o'clock last night. Within five minutes, Cheng Yunan and Xiao Han also appeared and welcomed Jiang Zhixia.
Maybe because it was too late, they thought Xia Zhi had fallen asleep, so they didn't call him. The four chatted for a few minutes in the group and said goodnight to each other and ended the chat. After a quiet night, at 7 o'clock this morning, the group became lively again.
Cheng Yunan, Jiang Zhixia and Sang Luo were discussing the group show in the group. Currently, only Jiang Zhixia was confirmed to participate in the group show, but Xia Zhi could see that Sang Luo and the others were not completely unwilling to participate.
Victoria may be just a light English word in the eyes of most people, and in Chuanxing's eyes, it is just one of the countless insignificant groups under his control, but it has extraordinary significance for the five of them. When the group disbanded, each of them was reluctant and unwilling to let it go, and they dreamed of appearing in the public eye again under the name of Victoria. Now that there is such an opportunity, how can they not be tempted.
Xia Zhi lurked in the group and took a peek, then clicked on Sang Luo's avatar and chatted with him privately.
Xia Zhi: [Why did you add him to the group? ]
Sang Luo: [You two have reconciled, right? Now that you have reconciled, you can release her from the cold palace. ]
Sang Luo: [Zhen Huan only went out of the palace to practice for three years, but our Concubine Jiang has been banished to the cold palace for eight years! Your Majesty should calm down.]
Sang Luo: [Prostrate on the ground.GIF]
Ignoring Sang Luo's nonsense, Xia Zhi asked calmly: [Have you all decided to participate? ]
Sang Luo replied after 30 seconds: [Since Lao Jiang is participating, we can't lose our brotherhood, right? What about you? Do you want to participate? ]
Xia Zhi frowned and didn't reply to him. Sang Luo then called him directly.
"You don't have to worry. If you don't want to participate, then don't participate." Sang Luo told him, "At worst, the four of us will go, and we will tell the public that the fifth team member has settled abroad and cannot be contacted. We will also ask Star Transmission to keep your identity information confidential, and it will definitely not cause you any trouble."
Because of his job, Xia Zhi is indeed reluctant to show up in public, but at the same time he cannot deny that he is looking forward to standing in front of the camera again as a member of Victoria with his former teammates.
Moreover, he was very concerned about what Jiang Zhixia said on the phone last night.
After a long time, Xia Zhi finally made up his mind.
"Since you are all participating, I will join too."
"Um."
"What about the school?" Sang Luo was still a little worried.
"I will report this to the school." Xia Zhi said, "If the show is filmed during the holidays, it won't affect classes, so there shouldn't be any problem."
The next day, Fang Yuan was very happy to learn that all five people had decided to participate in the recording. He immediately organized a meeting to finalize the details of the program. A week later, the production team was found, and the group variety show project was officially launched.
As the show had to be produced before Victoria's popularity cooled, the filming schedule was very tight and the first episode was scheduled to be filmed a week later.
After the shooting time was confirmed, Xia Zhi reported the matter to the school.
As Xia Zhi expected, the school leaders were shocked to learn that he had debuted as an artist before, but they did not object to him recording a group show. Not only did they not object, but they were very supportive.
Before Xia Zhi left the office, his boss patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Xiao Xia, our U University's enrollment quota for the second half of the school year depends on you, so you must promote it well."
Xia Zhi: “…”
Xia Zhi was not planning to tell his family about his upcoming recording of a variety show, but he did not hide it from Sheng Yingying, who knew the inside story.
When Sheng Yingying heard the news, she was stunned at first, then overjoyed. She excitedly grabbed her brother's arm and asked, "How many people are going? Are all the team members going?"
Xia Zhi didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Well, everyone will go."
"Who is it!" Sheng Yingying asked, "So who is the fifth member?!"
Xia Zhiqu raised his index finger and tapped his sister's head gently: "You will know when the show is broadcast."
Sheng Yingying was anxious: "I have to appear on camera anyway, you will die if you tell me earlier!"
"Well," Xia Zhi smiled calmly, "I'm afraid you'll be scared to death after you find out."
"Is it true?" Sheng Yingying opened her eyes wide. "Could it be that what is said on the Internet is true? Could the fifth member really be a big star?"
Xia Zhi wondered: "What big star?"
"You don't know about this?" Sheng Yingying was surprised to see her brother's confused face, so she explained, "In fact, Victoria's popularity had almost dropped a few days ago, because netizens couldn't find out the identity of the members after digging for a long time, and they were getting a little impatient. Then three days ago, an insider suddenly appeared online and posted a message saying that one of Victoria's members is still in the entertainment industry and is very popular. He also gave some information, so netizens started guessing again."
Xia Zhi narrowed his eyes and asked, "Where is that post?"
"I saved it!" Sheng Yingying took out her phone and pulled up the picture to show her brother. "I wanted to verify it with you, but I was having so much fun hanging out with my bestie a few days ago that I didn't have time to do it."
Xia Zhi took the phone and took a look at the content of the post. He was sure that the netizen who broke the news was indeed an insider. Because the member information he wrote in the post was indeed Jiang Zhixia. But the degree of this revelation was very cleverly controlled, so that those who knew knew, and those who didn't know became more and more confused the more they read.
Xia Zhi opened the comment section again, and sure enough, netizens were confused. The candidates they guessed were all over the place, and they guessed almost all the artists with a little fame in the entertainment industry.
On the contrary, Jiang Zhixia's name did not appear in the comment section. Perhaps because he became famous overnight, netizens could not connect him with the obscure group members.
Since Jiang Zhixia's identity was not exposed, Xia Zhi did not pay much attention to this matter. He thought that this time should be the same as before. Netizens gave up after not getting answers for a long time.
But what he didn't expect was that this artist guessing activity lasted for three days, and many suspected candidates appeared during these three days, which unknowingly brought up Victoria's popularity.
Although Xia Zhi has retired from the entertainment industry for many years, he still has some understanding of some operations in the entertainment industry. He has already reacted by now - from the time the explosive post appeared, he was afraid that all of this was the result of Chuanxing's manipulation behind the scenes. The purpose was naturally to maintain Victoria's popularity and build momentum for the next group variety show.
Victoria's popularity has not diminished for a long time. Some netizens who are more familiar with the operation of the entertainment industry have begun to realize that something is wrong and speculated whether Victoria is going to reunite. The frequent appearance on hot searches during this period is actually a warm-up.
This speculation was recognized by many netizens, and Victoria was labeled with some negative labels, which damaged her reputation. However, Chuanxing was not worried at all and continued to prepare for the shooting in an orderly manner.
Due to the hasty planning and tight time, Chuanxing plans to produce only six episodes, with a filming period of half a month. When the filming is needed, it will be filmed in other places. As for the filming location and program content, in order to maintain the mystery, the five guests were not told in advance.
Xia Zhi originally planned to go to City A a day in advance to meet up with everyone and go there together, but she received a temporary assignment from the school and couldn't leave all of a sudden. After communicating with the program team, the program team decided to rush to the shooting location as planned. Xia Zhi could go there later and go directly from City U to the shooting location after finishing her work.
On the morning of the official shooting day, Xia Zhi finally finished all the work. In order to get there as soon as possible, he hurriedly set off with his luggage without even having lunch.
While Xia Zhi was taking the high-speed train to the filming city - City Y, Chuanxing also released news online - Victoria was about to record a group variety show.
However, netizens' attitude towards this matter is completely different from before.
[Ah? Didn’t Victoria disband? What the hell is this group variety show! ]
[Although I don’t understand it, I am shocked]
[What did I say! The hot searches these days are definitely not normal! How can a group with no such name in the entertainment industry be so popular! It must be hype! ]
[What are you thinking? You want to make a comeback after being a failure. Netizens may be curious about Victoria, but there is no need to reunite and make a comeback! ]
[From the company to the members, they all seem to have that serious problem. They have been disbanded for eight years but still haven’t given up. Who would watch a variety show featuring a bunch of outdated old men? ]
[Even dogs don’t look! Get lost!]
(End of this chapter)