The key word in Chapter 180 is the College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) 657.
Ma Zhiyuan had proposed leaving MX to go solo a long time ago, but when the day actually came, he felt a little reluctant.
After all, it's the group I've been in since my debut.
Ma Zhiyuan kept this reluctance to part with his wife to himself and showed it to no avail.
He never showed vulnerability in front of others, and it was even less likely that he would show any reluctance to leave in front of them.
"They're gone."
Ma Zhiyuan opened the door and left without looking back.
Neither Wei Zhuoran nor Qu Yousong expected Ma Zhiyuan to leave so decisively and without any hesitation.
"It seems he really has no feelings for us at all." Qu Yousong smiled bitterly.
Wei Zhuoran glanced back at Jiang Bai and Chen Jing, who were still sitting motionless on the sofa.
He frowned slightly and said, "Ma Zhiyuan is leaving. Even if his relationship with you was just so-so before, it shouldn't have reached the point where you're unwilling to even see him off, right?"
Chen Jing raised the corners of his mouth in a rather sarcastic manner.
In their eyes, the relationship between Ma Zhiyuan and him could still be considered "normal". In their eyes, were the things Ma Zhiyuan had done before insignificant?
Chen Jing glanced at Jiang Bai with surprise.
Why didn't Jiang Bai get up to see Ma Zhiyuan off?
Jiang Bai and Ma Zhiyuan's relationship is only superficial in the literal sense, so giving them gifts out of courtesy is nothing unusual.
Jiang Bai didn't say a word, got up and went back to his room.
Wei Zhuoran's expression turned even uglier.
He said to Qu Yousong with displeasure, "This Jiang Bai always has a stern face. Who among us has wronged him?"
Qu Yousong offered a word of advice: "He's always been like that, so just ignore him."
His gaze fell on Chen Jing.
Chen Jing returned his gaze expressionlessly.
In the past, besides Ma Zhiyuan, Qu Yousong was also one of the people who bullied him.
Although Qu Yousong never did anything to him on his own initiative, he was the one who always turned Ma Zhiyuan's anger towards him.
Chen Jing stood up, looked at Qu Yousong with an unfriendly expression, and said, "Now that Ma Zhiyuan is gone, the captaincy of our MX team is vacant. Have you two discussed whether to take over as captain or Wei Zhuoran?"
He left the question behind and went back to his room.
Qu Yousong and Wei Zhuoran were left looking at each other, neither of them saying a word.
-
Lu Yanhe felt that he had overestimated himself.
He originally thought that after drinking two small cups of baijiu, his stomach would just feel a little hot. In the meantime, he was worried about Li Zhibai's family affairs and overheard a discussion about Ma Zhiyuan. Unexpectedly, after fifteen minutes, the aftereffects kicked in, and a dizzy feeling rushed straight to his eyes.
The others didn't notice anything unusual about him and continued talking.
Only Chen Ziyan noticed that Lu Yanhe's eyes were not as clear as usual, and after observing more closely, she knew what was going on.
Lu Yanhe was getting a bit tipsy; the effects of the alcohol were kicking in.
Chen Ziyan wanted to take Lu Yanhe back to rest as soon as possible, but today was a dinner party for Luo Yuzhong and the others, and everyone was in the middle of a lively conversation. If Chen Ziyan suggested taking Lu Yanhe to leave first at this time, it would be a bit of a downer.
Lu Yanhe himself realized that he was feeling a little dizzy.
Is it getting a little too much?
A wave of dizziness washed over him; Lu Yanhe not only felt dizzy but also had a headache.
Fortunately, Jiang Yuqian said at this moment, "Director, we have to film tomorrow, so let's call it a day tonight. I'm worried that if I stay up too late, I'll get pimples on my face."
Luo Yuzhong nodded and said, "That's true, it's getting late, let's call it a day and leave."
Lu Yanhe forced himself to stand up and followed the others out.
Lei Shuangcheng had already arranged for a car to pick them up and take them back to the hotel.
Lu Yanhe and Chen Ziyan were in the same car.
As soon as they got in the car, Chen Ziyan asked Lu Yanhe, "How are you feeling? Are you alright? Do you feel nauseous?"
"It's nothing," Lu Yanhe denied first, then said, "I'm just a little dizzy."
You can tell the truth in front of Sister Ziyan.
Lu Yanhe didn't want to be someone who kept everything to himself. He had a few people he could talk to about the truth and his true feelings, and Chen Ziyan was one of them.
Chen Ziyan: "I didn't expect you to be so bad at drinking. Why didn't you tell me?"
Two small, thumb-sized glasses for drinking baijiu (Chinese liquor) were nothing to Chen Ziyan, and she also underestimated Lu Yanhe's alcohol tolerance—she was fooled by Lu Yanhe. Lu Yanhe had told her that he occasionally drank with Li Zhibai and Yan Liang, which made her mistakenly believe that Lu Yanhe was not someone who couldn't drink.
Lu Yanhe said, "I overestimated myself and thought I had made some progress."
"Be more careful next time, and try not to drink," Chen Ziyan said. "There's no job that can be earned by drinking."
Lu Yanhe hummed in agreement.
"Next time you can't do something, just tell me. Don't force yourself, okay?" Chen Ziyan reminded her again.
"good."
Lu Yanhe responded, but the corners of his mouth curled up.
Chen Ziyan's care for him always offered him comfort in silence.
-
Back at the hotel, Chen Ziyan told Lu Yanhe to get some rest and set an alarm so they could leave for a makeup session at nine o'clock the next morning.
Lu Yanhe hasn't started filming yet tomorrow; he needs to finalize his costume for the drama.
The main cast members had already completed this step, but Lu Yanhe postponed it until tomorrow because he was preparing for an exam.
Lu Yanhe returned to his room, washed his face with cold water, and at least felt a little more awake.
He was preoccupied with the matter at Li Zhibai's home, so he opened his phone to check the chat history he had just missed.
After scanning through hundreds of records, little valuable information was found.
Li Zhibai and Yan Liang were simply discussing various possibilities.
Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and then spoke in the group: Your parents would never disappear without a reason. Even if something really happened to the company, they wouldn't just run away without telling you. You are their son, not an ordinary person. Don't let it be like last time, where they lost contact just because they were on an international flight. Do you have the contact information for your parents' secretary or assistant? Ask them.
Five minutes later, Li Zhibai excitedly said in the group: It really is! They are flying to the UK and are on the plane now. The acquisition is true, but it has nothing to do with my family's bankruptcy. Thank goodness, my family is not bankrupt.
Lu Yanhe breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Zhibai's words were terrifying, causing him and Yan Liang to live in constant fear.
He said: I told you long ago, don't believe everything you hear.
Li Zhibai said: Huan Jin is shameless. In order to lower the acquisition price, he has been hiring online trolls to smear my company for the past half month.
Hiring online trolls to attack people isn't just a practice in the entertainment industry; it's also common in business.
The term "smear campaign" was never coined specifically for the entertainment industry.
Lu Yanhe breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Okay, it's good that nothing happened. I drank some alcohol tonight and I'm feeling really dizzy. I'm going to sleep now."
He turned off his phone after saying that and prepared to go to sleep.
Therefore, he did not immediately see Li Zhibai and Yan Liang's doubts and sarcasm in the group.
Li Zhibai: Drinking?
Li Zhibai: How much did you drink?
Yan Liang: You've been drinking and you've still managed to hold on until now? Brother Bai, you really need to give Lao Lu a red envelope.
-
I slept for an incredibly long and restful time.
Lu Yanhe even felt that he hadn't slept so comfortably in a long time.
He woke up at five in the morning, earlier than his usual wake-up time.
After getting up, I took a shower, then turned on my laptop and started my live stream.
At five o'clock in the morning, when he started his live broadcast, thousands of people flocked to the site, which shocked Lu Yanhe.
His viewers were even more shocked, asking what kind of bizarre time Lu Yanhe was going to start his live stream.
Lu Yanhe explained, "I went to bed early yesterday and just woke up."
Although it was only five o'clock, the sky outside the window was no longer completely dark.
It has already turned a little bit white.
It's 5 a.m. in summer. In half an hour, the sky will brighten and the sun will rise.
Lu Yanhe yawned, but he was still awake.
He scratched his head and asked, "Why are you guys watching the live stream at this hour?"
Messages flashed by in the live chat.
Some people said they were still working the night shift, and the shift change didn't start until 8 a.m.
Some people said they were studying all night because they had an important exam the next day.
Some people said that they had just woken up when a notification popped up on their phones that Lu Yanhe was going live.
...
In short, no matter how quiet you think it is at night, there are always people awake for various reasons.
Lu Yanhe rubbed his face and said, "Alright, everyone please make yourselves at home. I'll stick to the old rule and mute the phone."
He muted the live stream and started reading.
-
Chen Ziyan also woke up early, at six o'clock. She had a video conference with the United States at six-thirty in the morning. When she habitually checked her phone messages, she found a notification that Lu Yanhe's live broadcast room was going live. Upon closer inspection, she realized that it had been half an hour earlier.
Up so early?
Chen Ziyan was extremely surprised.
Lu Yanhe is still live streaming.
When Chen Ziyan clicked into Lu Yanhe's live stream, she saw that he was indeed reading.
Chen Ziyan was actually quite curious about Lu Yanhe. Before choosing him as her artist, Chen Ziyan had conducted a very detailed background investigation on Lu Yanhe.
In Chen Ziyan's opinion, before Lu Yanhe's senior year of high school, every step he took was mostly due to luck.
His participation in the competition unexpectedly resonated with the public, evoking sympathy for the vulnerable and prompting a frenzy of votes for him, ultimately securing his debut spot through overwhelming public support.
However, their actual abilities were not enough to support such a large following, so after their debut, they lost a lot of fans—of course, this is also related to the decline of Fengzhi Boys.
Chen Ziyan couldn't see anything about Lu Yanhe that was worth investing in.
This is someone who can't even stand on their own two feet.
However, after entering his senior year of high school, Lu Yanhe seemed to become a different person.
He proactively started a live stream.
He proactively set goals for Zhenhua and Yuming.
He wrote a poem entitled "Remembering".
He began to develop his own personal charm, attracting all sorts of people, including Hou Jun, Li Zhibai, Li Pengfei, and Lin Yu, to become his friends and to help him.
If a person can get up from their past, they will start to rise again.
Chen Ziyan has always believed this.
After getting to know Lu Yanhe, she learned more and more about him, and was not surprised at all that he was able to get into Zhenhua and Yuming.
People who put in 100% effort often get stuck in a rut, becoming bound by stubbornness and extremism.
Lu Yanhe, however, maintained a cheerful and open-minded attitude throughout, displaying a magnanimous attitude towards life that said, "Management is in my own hands, and fate is in my own hands." This kind of mentality moved Chen Ziyan.
At last night's dinner, Lu Yanhe's performance was adequate but not particularly impressive, which was exactly the effect Chen Ziyan wanted. Being too reserved and unable to relax would have made everyone feel awkward. Being too enthusiastic and initiating conversations with others would also have created awkwardness. For Lu Yanhe, the most important aspect of last night's dinner was simply "appearance." Since others were unfamiliar with him, he just needed to play the role of "Chen Ziyan's artist."
Chen Ziyan hadn't specifically explained any of this; she just wanted to observe how Lu Yanhe would behave in such a situation.
She is the manager, and she understands the true nature of the artists, which allows her to address problems effectively later on.
-
At 7:30 a.m., Chen Ziyan finished her video conference and sent a message to Lu Yanhe: "Are you done with the live stream? Let's go have breakfast together."
Lu Yanhe replied with an "okay".
Chen Ziyan: See you at the restaurant.
After putting down her phone, Chen Ziyan tied her hair up.
Since the weather got hot, Chen Ziyan has stopped liking to wear her hair down.
She went downstairs to the restaurant and met Lu Yanhe there.
"You got up pretty early today, starting your live stream so early," Chen Ziyan said.
Lu Yanhe explained, "I woke up relatively early."
“A website approached me about a collaboration, wanting to invite you to join their site and write reading notes,” Chen Ziyan said. “You love reading and have influence in the book market, so I think this collaboration would be quite suitable for you.”
Lu Yanhe was somewhat surprised, but nodded and said, "Sure."
"However, the pay isn't much. It's just a small website, not very big. It's 100,000 yuan a year, and the requirement is that you post an update on the website at least once a month and write at least five book reviews a year," Chen Ziyan said.
“Okay.” Lu Yanhe didn’t feel any pressure about this, but he didn’t expect there to be this kind of cooperation. It felt like he was going down the path of becoming a book blogger and there was no turning back.
“Okay, I’ll go and sign the contract.” Chen Ziyan smiled. “Actually, this website is quite interesting. Although it’s not very popular right now, the various community designs are quite artistic, which should be very attractive to the artistic youth group.”
Upon hearing Chen Ziyan's words, Lu Yanhe suddenly thought of Douban.
This website sounds a lot like Douban?
There is no such website as Douban in the world today, but there are dedicated movie rating websites that are just as popular.
Unlike Douban, dedicated movie rating websites are just rating websites and haven't been developed into an online community like Douban.
With the development of the internet age, the term "artistic youth" has gradually become a derogatory term associated with "artistic youth syndrome."
However, those who truly understand the development of the internet know how much these people with "artsy youth syndrome" have contributed to the development of online communities.
What truly makes a website stand out in an increasingly homogenized online world is its unique people, style, and atmosphere—these are the things that make a website truly special and allow it to endure.
Isn't that what Douban is all about?
Any company could create a rating website, but only Douban has survived. Its scores have become a kind of reference point because generations of literary and artistic youths have followed their own aesthetic views and become "opinion leaders" on it, rather than following the rules of capital.
Artistic youth are the group most hated by capital, because they are self-important and objectively pretentious. At the same time, they are also a group of people who are genuinely cultured and thoughtful, not so easily led by the nose. Once they find themselves being led by the nose, they become angry and act unpredictably, which is a crazy group.
Lu Yanhe wondered if the world also needed an online community like Douban.
I used to think there weren't many idealists left, but just when I thought they were about to disappear, a spark would appear, telling you they were still around.
Lu Yanhe thought of the fans in his live stream.
Now, a group of them has even gathered together and spontaneously formed a reading group, following his lead in reading and even checking in every day.
-
"Check-in, planning, and community are the three most crucial concepts in our app."
At the company meeting, Li Luzhi introduced this new product to the shareholders.
"We originally planned to launch it in the first half of this year, but it was delayed by six months because we added a few new features along the way," said Li Luzhi. "This learning app is scheduled to be launched in August this year."
The shareholders reacted differently to Li Luzhi's introduction.
Where is the profit potential for learning apps?
“Memberships and advertising,” Li Luzhi said.
"Since it's about building a community, the target student group can't be elementary school students, right?"
"Of course, it's aimed at high school and college students," Li Luzhi said. "According to our survey, there's a phenomenon among high school and college students who, due to loneliness or laziness, need companionship and supervision while studying. Take Lu Yanhe's live stream, for example. I wonder if anyone here knows about it? His live stream doesn't involve chatting or any performances. Most of the time, he just reads and does exercises by himself. But his audience is growing. In fact, about 70% of his viewers see him as their companion, turning on the live stream to study or read with him."
The shareholders began to whisper among themselves and discuss the matter.
"And for our learning app, I also plan to invite Lu Yanhe to be our spokesperson," said Li Luzhi. "A learning app with a proactive community concept, this is a new product that fills a gap in the needs of high school and college students."
"But... Lu Yanhe isn't that famous, is he? Will having him as a spokesperson increase the brand awareness of our app?" someone questioned.
“Lu Yanhe scored 657 points in this year’s college entrance examination, ranking 13th in Yuming. He is 100% guaranteed to be admitted to Zhenhua or Yuming,” said Li Luzhi. “Compared to whether he is famous or not, his resume is the most important keyword for our APP to be a spokesperson.”
(End of this chapter)
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