This action immediately sparked a wave of screams, with cheers almost breaking through the entire studio. Fang Juexia, who had been teased, remained calm, leaning back and snatching the phone from his hand.
The other members watched the commotion without batting an eye, with Ling Yi’s little tongue clicking incessantly, “So this is the kind of person Pei Tingsong is!”
He Ziyan, sitting at the far end, joked, “Besides being beautiful, he’s still beautiful. This is actually Pei Tingsong’s note to his teammates. Can you believe it?”
After saying that, he pointed the microphone at the audience below, only to have the fans below shout in unison, “We dare!”
“You guys really believe anything.” “ Lu Yuan interjected, ”To be honest, I would too.”
The fans below all laughed. Jiang Miao, however, smiled at the person involved and suggested, “I think this might be more fun. Xiao Pei just revealed Jue Xia’s note, so let’s see how Jue Xia notes Xiao Pei. What do you think?”
Xiao Pei’s words perfectly echoed the thoughts of the fans below, who started screaming before he could finish, drowning out the rest of his sentence.
The host joked, “This is the easiest artist I’ve ever worked with. The captain is already helping me cue the process.”
Lu Yuan laughed, “The captain is a cueing process maniac.”
Just a moment ago, the hot potato was still with Pei Tingsong, but now it had been passed to Fang Juexia.
Fang Juexia hadn’t quite processed it yet. Hearing the girls below chanting his name in waves, he picked up the microphone, still dazed, “Is it my turn to speak now?”
Ling Yi: “Juexia, don’t let me down!”
He Ziyan: “It’s time to hurt each other.”
Lu Yuan shifted his high stool, “Front row selling sunflower seeds, peanuts, and snacks!”
Listening to his teammates teasing him without mercy, Pei Tingsong shook his head with a smile, then looked at Fang Juexia.
To be honest, he had randomly chosen a nickname for her based on prejudice and stereotypes, and now he felt a bit guilty toward Fang Juexia.
However, Pei Tingsong was also curious about how the person in front of him would nickname him. Given his personality, he probably wouldn’t make one up on the spot.
“Hmm…” Fang Juexia held the microphone and smiled as he adjusted the choker around his neck, which was too tight. “Actually, my notes aren’t particularly interesting, so don’t expect too much.”
“That’s probably for the best,” Pei Tingsong nodded in satisfaction.
Ling Yi boldly guessed, “It could be the devilish Pei Tingsong!”
Lu Yuan: “No, it’s ‘Little Pei Pei Invested and Lost Everything.’”
“It could also be ‘Amen, the Grapevine Before Me,’” He Ziyan said.
“Hahahaha, what’s going on with this group!”
“Can’t do anything right, but first in betraying teammates, hahaha!”
Feeling that he was about to speak into the microphone, Pei Tingsong pretended to rub his ears and turned around with an expression of attentive listening.
Fang Juexia said calmly, “Kaleido Pei Tingsong.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the entire venue erupted in laughter, with a few teammates laughing especially exaggeratedly.
Pei Tingsong’s face fell visibly, and he stood up from the bar stool, pretending to leave. “I’m going solo, I’m going solo, I’m quitting!”
But then a fan below shouted loudly, “Pretty Baby is still here, you can’t quit!”
“Hahaha, your voice is too loud, sister!”
Fang Juexia pursed his lips and said naturally, “I’m not your Baidu Encyclopedia.”
“Hahaha!”
“Hahaha Baidu Encyclopedia!”
Lu Yuan laughed so hard he almost passed out, “Even the little devil has his day!”
Pei Tingsong sighed deeply and complained to the fans below, “Look at this. I labeled this person as ‘handsome,’ but he labeled me as ‘Kaleido Pei Tingsong.’ How infuriating!”
He Ziyan clutched his chest, “Little Pei’s heart was ultimately misplaced.”
Lu Yuan: He only knows the beautiful Pei Tingsong; Fang Juexia is just a colleague.”
Ling Yi: “Horizontal inscription—karma comes around.”
“Hahahahahahaha”
“The comedy troupe is really enough!”
Facing the laughter of the entire audience, Pei Tingsong could only shake his head repeatedly, “Fang Juexia has no heart.”
After he said that, Fang Juexia felt a little embarrassed, but that’s exactly how he had noted it down—everyone else did too.
Isn’t that a bit too hurtful?
After thinking it over, Fang Juexia didn’t know what to say, so he poked Pei Tingsong’s waist with his microphone.
At first, Pei Tingsong deliberately ignored him and turned away, but after Fang Juexia poked his back again, Pei Tingsong turned around, grabbed his microphone, and said, “This segment is too heartbreaking for me. I request to skip directly to the next segment. My phone notes are the pain of my life.”
The event had a time limit, and the host wanted to control the flow, so he went along with Pei Tingsong’s suggestion and moved on to the next segment.
In truth, Pei Tingsong wasn’t really unwilling to continue this segment; he just worried that if he kept going, what if Fang Juexia had given everyone else nice notes?
Ling Yi had been his roommate before debuting, and they were always close. His note would definitely be “Yi Yi,” and the captain’s note would probably be “Miao Ge” or “Xiao Dui.” Either way, it would be better than his “Kaleido Pei Tingsong.”
Wouldn’t that make him look bad?
The more he thought about it, the more upset Pei Tingsong felt, but after all, their relationship within the team was what it was, worse than strangers. Fang Juexia’s notes were understandable, and hadn’t he himself said that he was good for nothing but his looks?
In any case, Pei Tingsong didn’t want to hear Fang Juexia’s affectionate notes to others, so he had to stop this part of the conversation and cut his losses.
Later, they talked about the fun of shooting new product advertisements, which was not Fang Juexia’s forte. However, he felt that Pei Tingsong was not talking much and was not very engaged, so he wondered if it was because of the notes.
Judging by his appearance and daily demeanor, Fang Juexia seemed like the sensitive and delicate type, but in reality, his way of thinking was simple and direct, always maintaining a barrier with the outside world. He often resembled the “steel-hearted straight man” type mentioned by netizens.
And now he also realized that Pei Tingsong, who seemed so tough, was actually the more sensitive one.
Therefore, Fang Juexia, who had always regarded the note as an index for reference, couldn’t help but wonder if he should change it to a less cold and impersonal code name.
Besides being beautiful, he was still beautiful…
To be honest, Fang Juexia is skeptical about this note. After all, he’s already used to Pei Tingsong’s wordplay, and this might just be another made-up note for show.
He couldn’t help but wonder what the real note was.
The event didn’t end until the afternoon. The brand had invested a lot of money in promotion, and the live stream was quite popular. Later, due to the group’s creative group comedy and the dense sweet moments between the auditory CP, it trended on social media, with good discussion.
The brand was very satisfied and promised Xingtu that they would increase advertising and offline promotion in the future.
“Your endorsements will only increase in the future,” Cheng Qiang said with a mix of joy and nostalgia. “Ah, I feel like an old mother now, watching the kids I’ve raised start earning money to support their families. It’s really not easy.”
But the six members of the card group were all distracted in the car and didn’t hear a word he said.
“Ling Yi, can you stop eating? Your crumbs are falling into my pants!”
“I’ll eat! I’ll eat! I’ll even feed it to Jue Xia to drive you crazy!”
“Thank you… uh, this is so spicy.”
“Oh, I forgot this is Indian devil pepper flavor.”
“Hahaha, are you a devil? Feeding Jue Xia devil-spicy food!”
“Excuse me, isn’t the devil pepper from Mexico?”
Seeing the boss being completely ignored by his own artist, Xiao Wen, sitting in the passenger seat, awkwardly clapped to save his face, “Qiang Ge is right.”
Cheng Qiang gave a domineering expression, started the car, and then tilted his neck and pointed at Xiao Wen, “Fasten your seatbelt.”
Upon returning to the company, they received more good news. Thanks to the preliminary live stream “Sugar Paper Kiss” and the recent continuous exposure of Kaleido, the first episode of the group variety show aired last weekend broke five million views on a certain online platform on its first day. Although it couldn’t compare to many groups with extremely high exposure, for a fan-oriented group variety show with almost zero promotion aside from the preliminary live stream, this number was already quite astonishing.
During the planning meeting, the boss mentioned the group variety show, “Since the first episode received positive feedback, the staff analyzed the data, and the highest discussion volume in the live chat comments was about Xiao Pei and Jue Xia’s CP.”
Chen Zhengyun looked at the two of them, “It seems our planning direction was correct. Promoting CPs clearly benefits the entire group. The remaining discussion levels are actually not that different. Everyone is very entertaining, so keep up the good work.”
After saying that, he pulled out two more contracts. “These are new cooperation requests from two other online platforms. They approached us after seeing the show’s viewership and online discussion levels. Fortunately, we didn’t sell exclusive rights when we initially signed with the streaming platform, so now we have more distribution channels.”
Ling Yi was surprised, “Really? I thought this was only for fans to watch.”
Cheng Qiang explained, “Mainly because your initial fan base was small, there was a lot of room for casual viewers. Now you’re at a turning point where your national popularity is gradually increasing, and there will be a large number of casual viewers who watched part of the performance or program and want to become fans. The group variety show is the fastest way for them to get to know you.”
“So, the high viewership of the group variety show also indicates that your recent attention has indeed increased significantly.”
Fang Juexia could also feel this change, even though he rarely browsed online comments, he received a lot of feedback from his mother and former classmates.
A few days ago, a university classmate messaged him, saying that various photos of him taken during his school days had already been posted on forums, including photos of him in class, giving presentations, participating in school math competitions and basketball games, and even photos from the sports meet.
These photos were reportedly also reposted on Weibo, where they sparked a lot of discussion.
“Cheng Qiang is right,” Chen Zhengyun continued. “People want to watch this variety show because they want to understand the real you, which is why we haven’t over-planned it. Moreover, this group variety show may be a testament to your journey from nothing to something, with every hard-earned work opportunity documented, which is precious to both the fans and you.”
After finishing, he returned to the topic of album planning, “Everyone has been working hard on their schedules these past few days, and we haven’t stopped either. I and a few producers have been discussing these demos for days and have decided on the lead track for this album.”
Upon hearing the news about the lead track, everyone’s mood became excited. Fang Juexia even felt a bit nervous—their hiatus had been so long that he’d forgotten what it felt like to enter a recording studio to record a song.
“We’ve decided to use Zi Yan’s demo.”
Upon hearing this, Ling Yi and Lu Yuan cheered for He Ziyan first: “Yay!”
Seeing everyone so happy, Fang Juexia’s mood also lifted, but then he heard Chen Zhengyun say, “The arrangement is very distinctive and fits your style well. However, the composition still needs adjustment. It lacks a catchy melody, especially in the chorus. There’s still room for discussion.”
Speaking of composition…
Fang Juexia felt like he had forgotten something, but he couldn’t remember what it was. Pei Tingsong, who had been twirling his pen, suddenly raised his hand and said, “Boss, I have a suggestion.”
“You’ve made progress,” Chen Zhengyun teased. “You even know how to use the word ‘suggestion’ now.”
The others burst into laughter, and even Fang Juexia couldn’t help but smile. He played with the miniature teacup in front of him, made of boxwood, which belonged to the boss’s collection.
Pei Tingsong glared at them and continued, “When it comes to composing, I’d like to recommend Brother Juexia.”
Fang Juexia never expected Pei Tingsong to suddenly put him forward. The small wooden cup in his hand fell with a clatter, hitting the table with a loud thud.
He looked like a little mouse that had failed to steal oil and bumped into the lamp oil. He glanced at the boss while reaching out to grab the rolling teacup and put it back in place, then patted it gently.
Chen Zhengyun smiled slightly and turned his head to look at Pei Tingsong, “Why did you suddenly drag Jue Xia into this?”
Jiang Miao thought for a moment and said, “That’s right, how does Little Pei know that Jue Xia can compose music? None of us knew that.”
Lu Yuan: “Could it be that Little Pei is playing a prank?”
Pei Tingsong picked up the small cup in front of him and pretended to throw it at him, “Do I look that bored?”
He Ziyan smiled enigmatically, “So that means Little Pei has heard Jue Xia’s music? Even I haven’t heard it.”
“Wow, I’m so sad. I’m Juexia’s dearest roommate,” Ling Yi lay on the table, “Juexia, you don’t love me anymore.”
Listening to his teammates’ relentless barrage, Fang Juexia’s ears turned red, and he waved his hands repeatedly, “No, it’s all just a coincidence…”
Pei Tingsong interrupted his explanation, “Boss, believe me, Fang Juexia is truly talented.”
Hearing this, Fang Juexia froze. All the words he had prepared to clarify the situation vanished from his mind in an instant.
He suddenly thought of a phrase—resounding. Even though he knew the phrase was extremely inaccurate in this context, at that moment, every word Pei Tingsong spoke felt like a heavy blow to his heart, echoing repeatedly in his empty chest.
He looked up at Pei Tingsong. Strangely, Pei Tingsong, who had been staring at his boss the whole time, seemed to sense something and turned his face. Their eyes met by chance.
It was always like this, so frequent that it could no longer be defined as a coincidence.
But this time, Fang Juexia didn’t avert his gaze; his eyelashes trembled slightly.
Pei Tingsong thought of the snow-white flowering trees swaying outside the hospital.
Chen Zhengyun shrugged, “Alright, Juexia, send me what you’ve written later, and I’ll take a look.”
He hadn’t expected the meeting to end up like this. Caught off guard, he was sold out by Pei Tingsong, and Fang Juexia could only nod in agreement, “Alright.”
If it had been before, he would have been very resistant. Even if he had held onto the demo for an entire week and couldn’t show it to anyone, he wouldn’t have wanted to be exposed passively.
But he had to admit that hearing Pei Tingsong’s approval and praise was something that made him happy. The level of happiness even surpassed most other people’s praise.
However, Fang Juexia hadn’t realized that in his heart, he had already subconsciously divided people into two groups: [Pei Tingsong] and [everyone else].
After the meeting, while all six of them were present, they began practicing. Singing and dancing are technical skills; if you don’t practice for a day, you’ll lose your touch. Previously, since there wasn’t much work, they practiced almost every day. Fang Juexia practiced the most intensely, while Pei Tingsong was the laziest.
Lu Yuan had already compiled part of the choreography using a demo and took the opportunity to demonstrate it for everyone.
“Wow, that’s cool!” Ling Yi clapped like a little seal, “That move was so cool!”
“No wonder it’s Master Yuan.” Jiang Miao also clapped.
He Ziyan crossed his arms and sighed, “This is so hard…”
Pei Tingsong was a last-minute addition to the group and had hardly practiced before, so his dance skills were far inferior to the others. However, he was naturally talented and had good rhythm, so while he couldn’t match Fang Juexia and Lu Yuan in dance, he didn’t hold them back either, relying on his stage presence to win over the audience.
However, this choreography was indeed quite difficult, with intense movements and frequent changes. He sat cross-legged on the ground, watching, and gradually moved closer to Fang Juexia.
The music in the practice room was loud, so Pei Tingsong spoke loudly, “This dance is really difficult.”
So what? Fang Juexia didn’t understand his meaning, “It is a bit.”
“So,” Pei Tingsong wrapped his arm around Fang Juexia, “I want to hire you as my personal dance teacher to help me redeem myself and not hold me back!”
“You…” Fang Juexia blinked, “The dance was choreographed by Lu Yuan. You should ask him to teach you.”
“Hmph,” Pei Tingsong was speechless at Fang Juexia’s stubborn way of thinking.
He mimicked Fang Juexia’s posture, spreading his legs wide and pressing his right leg against hers. “I’m Kaleido Pei Tingsong, aren’t I? Don’t forget the name Kaleido in front of me. If I can’t dance well, it’s because Kaleido can’t dance well, and if Kaleido can’t dance well, it’s because you, Fang Juexia, can’t dance well.”
What kind of logic is that?
Going back and forth, it sounded like a tongue twister.
Fang Juexia knew he was still holding a grudge over the note, and he remembered he had promised to be less cold toward him afterward. So he started thinking about how to change the note.
Should he remove “Kaleido”?
Or call him “Xiao Pei”?
Neither seemed ideal. Fang Juexia couldn’t think of a good idea, so he decided it would be better to let Pei Tingsong handle it himself.
Pei Tingsong had been waiting for his response for a long time, and he was getting tired of waiting. He propped himself up with both hands behind him, wondering if he had been too sarcastic and had upset Fang Juexia again.
It couldn’t be that bad, could it? Was Fang Juexia really such a little master that he couldn’t even say a word?
Suddenly, he felt a warmth by his ear and heard Fang Juexia’s cold voice and warm breath.
“Why don’t you say it?” His words came out like a soft, moist cloud, enveloping Pei Tingsong’s wandering thoughts. “What kind of note do you like? I can change it.”
Unless you truly fall into the clouds, you’ll never know that a cloud can be both cold and soft.
Every strand of mist carries a faint sweetness.
A large mirror reflects their figures. Fang Juexia is about to rest his head on his shoulder, his profile as beautiful as a painting, a delight to the eyes.
[What kind of note do you like? I can change it.] Pei Tingsong almost dissected the sentence in his mind, savoring every radical and every component, more so than when he was savoring snow pear syrup.
But he still restrained his excitement, making a expression similar to when he teased him, and turned his head away.
“Let me think about it.”
The distance between their noses suddenly closed to five centimeters.
After exercising, Fang Juexia’s pale face was flushed, and there was a Band-Aid on his Adam’s apple. In Pei Tingsong’s eyes, it looked like a medal marking a trophy.
He raised one hand and tapped Fang Juexia’s forehead. “You’re dreaming.”
He raised an eyebrow, “Don’t even think about slacking off. Until you genuinely change my nickname, I’ll be called Kaleido Pei Tingsong.” Although it was already midnight, there were still fans waiting downstairs at the company building. There had been fans before, but the numbers were much smaller, and they wouldn’t stay this late.
“He Ziyan! Huo Ge, your leather jacket looks great! So cool!”
“Miao Miao! Yuan Laoshi! I love you guys!”
He Ziyan led the way, waving casually at the fans, then naturally sat in the passenger seat of the van, rolled down the window, and said, “Hurry home. It’s so late, and you’re still hanging around outside. I’m going to get angry.”
“Yiyi, take a look at Mom!”
“Lingling! Mom loves you!”
Ling Yi was particularly good at saving face, smiling and waving to everyone, “Alright, moms, you’ve seen your son, so you can go home now!”
“Hahaha, Mom can’t save you! I’ll leave it to Teacher Yuan!”
Jue Xia followed Jiang Miao out, wrapped in a large coat, with the hood of his sweatshirt covering most of his face. He kept his head slightly lowered, bowing to the fans outside since he left the door, softly saying things like “Hello everyone,” but his words were drowned out by the fans’ loud screams.
“Jue Xia!!! Jue Xia Brother!!!”
“Mom doesn’t want you to bow! Stand up straight for Mom!!”
“Pei Tingsong, have you grown taller again? How come your legs are so long?”
He was exhausted. Even on an early spring night, it was still quite cool, and the cold wind made him squint his eyes as he lazily walked at the back. “Aren’t you going home yet? You must not have enough homework.”
“Hahahaha!”
“Grapevine, you have no heart! I’m going to unfollow you! I’m going to climb the wall!”
“You dare.” Pei Tingsong pretended to look for that person, glancing up, “Who are you going to climb to?”
“I’m going to climb to Fang Juexia!”
At that moment, Fang Juexia, who had been called out, was about to step into the car. Upon hearing his name, he paused and turned around, seeing the girls laughing, feeling a bit confused.
Pei Tingsong first glanced at Fang Juexia, then turned to the fan who had earlier said she wanted to climb the wall, feigning disgust, “Go, go, go. Hurry up. I must see you in his Weibo comments tomorrow.”
After saying that, he stepped into the car. He saw that Fang Juexia had already found a seat by the window and opened it to talk to the fans, “Go home quickly, don’t make your parents worry.” His voice was always soft, and it was drowned out as soon as he spoke, but his expression was serious, and he slightly furrowed his brows, looking like a concerned older brother.
Pei Tingsong sat down next to him and deliberately squeezed up to the window with him to tell the fans, “Go home quickly!”
“Grapevine, shut up!”
“Hey, are you guys fake fans?”
The car started, and everyone was tired from practicing. It was rare for Xiao Wen to be quiet for a moment, but he felt like there was something he hadn’t said, yet he couldn’t remember what it was. While waiting for the traffic light, he flipped through his phone’s memo app and finally remembered that he hadn’t mentioned the schedule announcement Cheng Qiang had instructed him to make.
“Hey, are you guys still awake?”
As soon as he asked, Ling Yi and Lu Yuan started snoring in unison.
Xiao Wen knew they were doing it on purpose. He glanced at the rearview mirror and said, “Isn’t tomorrow the group variety show recording? It’s an outdoor shoot.”
All six of them in the car suddenly woke up. “Outdoor shoot?!”
“It must be the Maldives. Thank you, company. Thank you, boss and Qiang Ge…”
“No, it’s not.” Xiao Wen changed the subject, “Tomorrow is the amusement park special.”
“Um…” Xiao Wen hesitated for a moment before continuing, “Actually, to be more precise, it’s a haunted house special, and everything else is just a bonus.”
The roof of the car almost flew off.
“Haunted house??!!”
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