[Birthday]
Sunday morning, in a certain group chat at Xingmang Entertainment.
“Fang Yinnian of FTM has broken one million followers.” A colleague responsible for internet public opinion monitoring posted a screenshot. “This group is rising very quickly!”
“I followed Shengyao’s group since their debut day. That day, Fang Yinnian led the team with 200,000 new followers. After the last variety show, he gained another 200,000. Recently he’s been gaining 30-40 thousand daily. After breaking the escape room record last night, his followers also broke one million—he seems to surge with every public appearance.”
“Is Fang Yinnian’s ability to attract fans really that strong?” someone questioned. “Maybe Shengyao bought zombie followers to save face.”
“There are definitely some zombie followers, but there are also many real fans. His Weibo metrics all match up, with no obvious signs of artificial inflation.”
“Last night’s record-breaking hashtag hung on the trending topics for four hours, with tens of millions of views. I heard this escape room episode was originally Sonic’s resource, and they picked up the leftovers. Unexpectedly, they actually broke the record.”
“For a hastily assembled makeshift group to rise so quickly, Shengyao must have invested heavily in marketing, right?” Everyone began discussing curiously.
“That Magic Cube CP is incomprehensible—how did it become so popular?”
“I checked, and neither Fang Yinnian nor Tang Che have ever been trainees, so their dancing definitely isn’t presentable—they don’t even dare to dance.”
“They’re a harmony group.”
“Harmony groups can’t get popular. Idols gain fans through stage performances; pure singing doesn’t go far. They surely can’t compete in the singer category? Don’t make people laugh.”
“FTM is, after all, Shengyao’s group, and their manager has some skill. Keep an eye on them—this group might become our biggest threat.”
***
Meanwhile, at a hotel in Japan.
The blonde-haired young man blurted out a curse: “Damn! FTM broke the ‘Desperate Escape Room’ record last night?”
“Xiao Yun, what are you shouting about?” The buzz-cut young man eating nearby impatiently rolled his eyes.
“FTM replaced us on ‘Desperate Escape Room’ and broke the completion record. They’re even trending,” the blonde-haired young man muttered quietly. “We might as well have gone to the escape room instead. This awards ceremony has no meaning at all.”
“Who’s FTM?” asked Qu Yan, a good-looking young man with fresh black layered hair, smiling.
“Ah, Brother Yan, you don’t know? They’re a boy band that just debuted last month from Shengyao Media. Their debut with piano playing was quite special,” Xu Jiayuan enthusiastically explained.
“Is that so? Are you really getting so excited about a newly debuted unknown group?” Qu Yan appeared uninterested.
After turning around, he sat down on the bed, took out his phone, and searched for FTM.
In the group photo posted by the official blog, the young man standing in the middle had a gentle smile with curved eyes, looking quite handsome—his name was Fang Yinnian.
Qu Yan slightly raised an eyebrow.
As a fellow center position and face of a boy band, Qu Yan currently had 10 million followers, ten times that of Fang Yinnian. But Fang Yinnian had just debuted, starting from zero, and breaking one million so quickly was quite impressive.
He suddenly developed some interest in this person.
Out of curiosity, Qu Yan clicked into FTM’s official blog and opened their debut stage video.
At the concert venue, the young man sat at the piano playing and singing. Smooth melodies flowed through the eardrum, followed by a voice that cleansed the ears like a clear spring.
Qu Yan: “…”
Fang Yinnian’s timbre had incredibly high recognition—it was too special, a natural good voice that could completely stand on its own in the music industry.
The most difficult thing for idols is transitioning as they age. After all, boy bands rely on youth, and future development is of paramount importance.
He had a feeling.
Fang Yinnian might be the biggest dark horse in the boy band circuit.
Qu Yan casually followed Fang Yinnian with his alternate account, then put down his phone as if nothing had happened.
***
At ten o’clock Sunday morning, after waking up, Fu Fei habitually logged into his alternate account to check his teammates’ follower status. Then he suddenly widened his eyes: “Damn, Brother Nian has broken one million followers?!”
Fu Fei excitedly shared this good news in the group chat: “@Fang Yinnian, congratulations to my Brother Nian for being the first to break one million followers ahhh! [Firecracker.jpg]”
Xiao Fei’s dramatic firecracker spamming in the group chat startled Fang Yinnian.
Tan Junwen also jumped in to congratulate him: “Yinnian’s followers have broken one million. Should you treat your brothers to a meal?”
Fang Yinnian: “You’re quite good at rhyming?”
Tan Junwen: “After all, I can rap [covering mouth laughing].”
Fang Yinnian: “By age, you should call me brother.”
Tan Junwen: “Alright, brother who’s one month older than me, will you treat us to a meal~”
Seeing them chatting in the group, Mo Xun smiled at Fang Yinnian and said: “We won’t return to Jiangzhou until 8 PM tonight. Since we’re free during the day, want to go out for a walk?”
Fang Yinnian asked: “Are we all going together?”
Mo Xun: “Yes. Although our Weibo followers have increased, our offline recognition isn’t high. Even if we go shopping, we won’t easily encounter people who recognize us.”
This was Fang Yinnian’s first visit to South City, and he was quite interested in exploring. He wavered a bit and asked: “Should we check with the manager?”
Mo Xun smiled and said: “Already asked. Brother Xu said we can have free activities today, just need to gather by 5 PM.”
Fang Yinnian immediately made his decision and said in the group chat: “Everyone want to go out for a walk? I’ll treat you to a meal ^^”
Fu Fei and Tan Junwen immediately sent “thank you, boss” emoji stickers.
However, Tang Che said: “You all go ahead, I’m not going.”
The other teammates suddenly felt awkward.
Tang Che was usually quite cold, but Fang Yinnian knew he wasn’t the type to deliberately snub others—there must be a reason for not going.
Fang Yinnian asked: “Are you staying at the hotel to do homework?”
Indeed, the person who understood Tang Che best was still Fang Yinnian. Tang Che said: “I have an assignment due Monday, plus I need to write a review. I really don’t have enough time, so I need to stay at the hotel all day to research materials.”
Fu Fei sighed: “Is this the world of a scholar?”
Tan Junwen sighed: “Hard work, hard work, being a top student isn’t easy.”
Mo Xun asked: “Shall we bring food back for you?”
Tang Che: “I’ll just order takeout, you all enjoy yourselves.”
Mo Xun: “Alright, if you need anything, just call us in the group chat.”
Tang Che sent an OK emoji.
A moment later, the four members except Tang Che gathered in the hotel lobby.
Fu Fei excitedly said: “This is my first time in South City. Should we do a one-day tour of famous attractions?”
Fang Yinnian said: “It’s my first time in South City too. Since we rarely come here, visiting attractions is fine.”
Fu Fei enthusiastically prepared a plan and took them on the subway.
The small unknown group didn’t have many fans offline. Wearing masks, no one recognized them along the way. They visited attractions and took photos together.
Fu Fei’s social boldness kicked in as he randomly grabbed a middle-aged pedestrian: “Auntie, could you take a group photo for the four of us? Thank you, auntie!”
He smiled brilliantly and looked cute. The auntie’s maternal instincts activated, and she smiled while taking several photos for them.
Fu Fei looked at the photos and scratched his head: “It feels like something’s missing, like it’s off.”
Fang Yinnian leaned over to look and said: “Tang Che is missing.”
Fu Fei suddenly realized: “Oh, that’s right! Our five-person formation has always been fixed. Without Tang Che, the overall look is unbalanced.”
Tan Junwen smiled and said: “I’ll photoshop him in later.”
Fu Fei stared in amazement: “You can do that?”
Tan Junwen shrugged: “Don’t underestimate art students—I know the basics of photo editing. The four of us are standing in a row. We can crop Tang Che and place him next to Mo Xun, and then the team will be complete, right?”
Fu Fei gave a thumbs up: “You always have solutions!”
Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun exchanged glances and smiled simultaneously.
Somehow, at some point, their recognition of “team” in their hearts had become—all five people must be present, and no one can be missing.
Today, with Tang Che writing homework instead of going out, the four of them felt something was off in their group photos. Without the cool-faced guy, the photos lacked spirit.
The four were smiling too happily.
They needed Tang Che’s cold face to balance it out.
Fu Fei put away the photos: “Later, when Junwen photoshops Tang Che in, we’ll send it to the group chat. Hehe, we’ll pretend Tang Che came along too.”
Tan Junwen said: “He’ll probably think we’re all crazy.”
Mo Xun said: “He’ll call us crazy out loud, but privately he’ll save this photo, pretending he actually came.”
Everyone laughed together.
Tang Che, writing homework at the hotel, sneezed several times in a row… who was talking about him behind his back?
***
After visiting the attractions with his teammates, Fang Yinnian happily arrived at a nearby mall. Everyone deliberated for a while on “what to eat,” and finally unanimously decided to try local specialties, with Fang Yinnian—the first to break one million followers—treating everyone.
During the meal, Fang Yinnian suddenly said softly: “By the way, September 21st is Tang Che’s birthday. Should we prepare something to give him a birthday surprise?”
The three were startled. They hadn’t actually remembered their teammate’s birthday, and had been so busy lately that they completely forgot about it.
But Fang Yinnian was very attentive and had remembered this date.
Tang Che is a Virgo born on September 21.
The five hastily formed their group in July this year. The first to have a birthday after forming was Tang Che in September. Mo Xun is a Sagittarius born in December, while the other three have birthdays in February, March, and April of the first half of the year, so they’ll need to wait until next year to celebrate.
Fu Fei immediately agreed: “We definitely need to prepare something. It’s Brother Che’s first birthday in our group.”
Mo Xun said: “That’s right. It’s the first time a teammate has a birthday after we formed. We should have some sense of ceremony.”
Tan Junwen frustratedly grabbed his hair: “Tang Che has such a bad temper. Last time I broke his headphones, and when I tried to give him new ones, he refused to accept them no matter what, almost getting into a fight with me… I don’t know what gift would be good for him.”
Fu Fei also started scratching his head: “Yeah, should we each prepare a gift, or should the four of us buy one together?”
Fang Yinnian said: “I have an idea. Want to hear it?”
The three quickly gathered around.
With their four heads close together, Fang Yinnian lowered his voice: “Doesn’t Tang Che like rock music the most? Let’s give him a rock band performance.”
The three looked at Fang Yinnian in surprise.
This idea was great!
Mo Xun said: “Yinnian is a piano expert and can play keyboard. I can play bass. What instruments can you two play?”
Tan Junwen: “I’ve learned drums. Xiao Fei, can you play electric guitar?”
Fu Fei quickly nodded: “I can play guitar, but it’s been a while. I can practice when I have time.”
Fang Yinnian said: “Let’s give Tang Che a surprise, form a limited-time rock band, let him sing a few songs he likes, and record it as a memento. I think this kind of birthday gift is more meaningful.”
The three simultaneously gave thumbs up: “Brilliant.”
All physical items have a limited lifespan and can break. Giving Tang Che songs performed by a temporary rock band formed by FTM, these songs can be preserved permanently. Even decades later, he can still listen to them.
Such a gift has extraordinary meaning.
Tang Che loves rock music the most. Before joining the FTM boy band, he was originally going to pursue the path of a rock band vocalist. Why his band disbanded, he didn’t want to say, and no one dared to ask in detail.
But at Shengyao’s tenth anniversary concert, Fang Yinnian observed that when the Black Sky band performed, Tang Che listened most attentively, his fingers constantly tapping to the beat.
Tang Che still retained a love for rock music deep in his bones.
However, after joining the FTM boy band, he had to practice harmonies and dance, inevitably unable to form a rock band for several years.
—But he has teammates.
Teammates can help him fulfill this wish.
Even if it’s just a limited-time band on his birthday, it can temporarily help Tang Che fulfill his dream. In the future, when opportunity arises, Tang Che might be able to truly realize his dream.
After the four agreed, they immediately arranged their upcoming tasks.
The seemingly most innocent and naive Xiao Fei would act as the “undercover agent,” first discovering which rock songs Tang Che likes most, while Fang Yinnian would be responsible for transcribing the sheet music.
Shengyao is a music company with all kinds of instruments available, so Mo Xun would be responsible for borrowing instruments and a recording studio from Old Xu.
Tan Junwen would be in charge of creating the birthday album, drawing promotional artwork of the five-person rock band singing to use as the cover.
A single CD would be difficult to produce, so they’d store the recorded songs on a USB drive to include in the album as a memento for Tang Che. The digital versions could also be downloaded to everyone’s phones/computers as keepsakes.
The four discussed for a long time, even creating a “schedule” for the plan.
Tang Che was the busiest academically among them.
Every Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon, while the others had no classes, only Tang Che had classes. During these times, they could secretly practice the songs until they were proficient.
And so the plan was happily decided.
**
After returning to the hotel in the afternoon, Tan Junwen took out his computer and began photoshopping.
A moment later, a group photo appeared in the FTM small group chat. The five of them stood side by side at the ancient city wall. Except for Tang Che’s cold face, the other four were smiling.
Tang Che: “???”
He hadn’t gone out today, so why was he in the group photo?
Tan Junwen said: “Does my photoshop look realistic?”
Tang Che: “…You’re crazy.”
The four sent consecutive “covering mouth laughing” emoji stickers in the group chat. They had indeed guessed correctly—Tang Che would call them crazy and then secretly save the photo.
Fu Fei said: “Brother Che, although your body was at the hotel doing homework, your spirit was with us. Consider yourself having visited the ancient city wall with us!”
Tang Che: “…”
Fang Yinnian laughed and said: “Xiao Fei said a four-person photo felt off, so Junwen photoshopped you in. Junwen’s photoshop skills are pretty good [thumbs up]”
Tan Junwen: “You flatter me [shy].”
Tang Che was somewhat speechless.
But a moment later, he expressionlessly saved the group photo.
Not bad, it’s as if he had actually gone there.
Loving it , please continue