Chapter 002 Chapter 2
"Ding ding" the alarm clock on the bedside rang. In the dark room, Zhou Xiao rubbed the soft pillow and finally reached out to accurately turn off the alarm clock.
Zhou Xiao, buried in the pillow, looked at the alarm clock. It was now 5:30 in the morning. She quickly turned on the bedside lamp and leaned her back against the soft headboard. She closed her eyes, smelled the faint aroma in the air, and her consciousness was slowly awakening.
After a quick wash, Zhou Xiao sat at the dining table and ate some simple toast and soy milk, then prepared to go out with her equipment. She had already booked a car the night before.
When he was about to close the door and leave, Zhou Xiao paused, walked silently to the kitchen, opened the cabinet, and stuffed a bag of toast and a bottle of milk into his bag. After all, he didn't know how long he would have to wait, so he decided to take some food with him.
In the early morning outside Shanghai, the chinaberry trees lining the streets and alleys are blooming with tiny lavender flowers in clusters, emitting a faint fragrance. It is a beautiful sight at the turn of spring and summer.
Zhou Xiao stood under the tree and took a deep breath. The fragrance of the chinaberry flowers filled his nose and lingered for a long time. He had not felt this feeling for a long time.
It was almost 7 o'clock when she got off the bus and arrived at Huashang Times Square. While she was still wondering if there would be anyone there in the bus, when she followed the map and approached the northwest gate of the square, she saw a lot of young girls gathered there. A rough count showed that there were about 20 to 30 people.
Zhou Xiao checked some directions from fans on a certain blog yesterday and learned that the northwest gate of the square is the only way for trainees to get from the dormitory building to the training room, so it is also a must-see place for fans to take pictures.
Zhou Xiao thought for a moment and quickly walked over to blend in. The closer he got, the more he could hear the girls' chatter. The two girls in front of him were chatting animatedly, and their voices drifted in on the wind. It turned out that one of them was complimenting the other on her photo editing skills.
It seems that this is the place. Zhou Xiao quietly moved closer and blended into the "organization" with his charming eyes.
"Here I come," "Time to go to work," "Yan Bao! Look at mommy," "Chu Cheng! Xiang Rui!" "Keep going!" As the crowd suddenly became excited, the people who were originally scattered around the door now rushed towards the iron gate.
Inside the iron gate, the morning breeze ruffled the boys' short hair. Several of them looked over at the noise at the door. Zhou Xiao stood a little further away, but he could hear the girls' voices, responding to the boys' calls, becoming louder and more excited.
Although those teenagers looked a little listless, they were all cheered up by the group of fans at the door.
Zhou Xiao hadn't gotten used to the enthusiasm of offline support yet, so she just stood on the periphery and watched everyone's enthusiastic cheering. At this moment, an enthusiastic girl saw that Zhou Xiao seemed to be alone, so she waved to her and asked her to come over.
Zhou Xiao quickly thanked the unknown woman. By the time she squeezed in next to the girl, the group of teenagers in colorful T-shirts were already approaching the entrance. As the sun rose, its golden rays bathed their youthful faces. Standing at the entrance, Zhou Xiao could suddenly sense their youth and the ambitions hidden beneath their immature exteriors.
"Yan Shu!" A girl with a single ponytail raised a cannon [Note 1] in her hand and shouted to one of the boys. Zhou Xiao saw a handsome but pale boy who immediately smiled at the girl and made a big heart with his hands when he heard the voice.
......
After standing at the iron gate for nearly an hour, most of the trainees had rushed to the practice room. Only Zhou Xiao and a few other girls were left outside. Some of them left early after waiting for the boy they liked.
The reason Zhou Xiao stayed was because the girl who had greeted her that morning had told her that a few trainees might not have finished work yet. At first, she didn't realize it, and naively asked, "Aren't they just starting work?"
This girl was Qi Sisi. She looked at Zhou Xiao's puzzled expression and said, "They announced the theme song yesterday. Based on experience from overseas auditions, some trainees might have made it until this morning."
Qi Sisi pulled out her phone, flipped through a photo album, and pointed to a trainee in pink. She said to Zhou Xiao, "That guy is very handsome! Last night, a few girls and I wanted to wait for him to get off work, but it was almost midnight, and we didn't see him, so we left."
Zhou Xiao looked at the boy that Qi Sisi was pointing at on the phone. He had slightly curly black hair and a particularly small face. What was particularly eye-catching was his extremely beautiful peach blossom eyes.
The corners of his eyes were slightly raised. If the angle of the photo hadn't been so good, Zhou Xiao would have thought that the face in this photo could have been used directly as the cover of a youth literature magazine.
"Gurgle..." Suddenly, her stomach growled. Qi Sisi looked at Zhou Xiao, feeling a little embarrassed. She had come to the training camp early in the morning and had run out of the house without even having breakfast. Zhou Xiao leaned against the wall and shared the toast he had brought in his bag with Qi Sisi. Qi Sisi was a talkative and somewhat naive girl. In front of Zhou Xiao, whom she had only known for a short time, she immediately told him the reason for her visit.
Zhou Xiao also learned from her that she came here on the one hand to join in the fun, and on the other hand because her home was right next door and it was very convenient.
Qi Sisi, with messy hair sticking to her cheeks, swallowed the toast and looked at Zhou Xiao in front of her with her bright eyes. She didn't know why, maybe it was the good impression she had when they just met. After all, who doesn't like to be close to a beautiful sister? Or maybe it was because Zhou Xiao shared food with her. The chat with Zhou Xiao was also very pleasant. She also told Zhou Xiao about some trainees she knew while eating.
"Here they come!" Zhou Xiao was listening to Qi Sisi's popular science lecture when she suddenly heard someone shout. She looked inside the door and saw that the teenagers were walking towards the dormitory building from the training room, in the opposite direction of the trainees that morning.
Zhou Xiao looked inside the door and saw several trainees walking shoulder to shoulder, all wearing pink tops (Zhou Xiao had just been briefed by Qi Sisi about the ratings, and pink generally represents an A rating).
What caught Zhou Xiao's attention was one of the young men. He looked a little tired, as if the sun was glaring at his eyes. He half-closed his eyes, raised his chin slightly, and his beautiful eyes were a little watery.
When Zhou Xiao saw this picture, she had only one thought in her mind: it's not photogenic... But Zhou Xiao really felt that this picture really suited her aesthetic taste. Just as she took out her camera to take a picture, the system's electronic sound suddenly rang out [Master-level shooting automatically starts, do you want to stop reminding (yes/no)].
After Zhou Xiao nodded yes subconsciously, she suddenly had a deeper understanding of her shooting angles and postures. Her body spontaneously corrected the shooting angle. It was a very wonderful feeling. Although she was infused with master-level shooting techniques, it seemed natural. When Zhou Xiao held the camera, she knew in her heart that this feeling was far beyond her normal level.
——
[Ding! The task system is activated! Please choose the system task you want to complete. There is no penalty for failure! The rewards will be distributed by the system!]
Zhou Xiao was already at home looking through the photos she had taken. Ever since she took the first photo, the system had started daily tasks, but she forced herself to wait until she got home to open the task page.
【System Tasks:
1. Open a support station (0/1)
2. Upload a photo you took on the support site (0/1)
3. The first blog post gets 1000 fame points (0/1)]
Zhou Xiao looked at the screen and asked, "Why aren't there any rewards for these tasks?" System: [Rewards are automatically distributed by the system! Please complete more tasks, the rewards are very generous!]
Zhou Xiao listened to the system's electronic voice and accepted the daily tasks. But what should she name the support station? Thinking of this, her thoughts went back to that morning...
The trainees who stayed up all night to train did not expect that there were fans at the door at this time. Everyone waved politely to Zhou Xiao and others at the door.
When the girls who stayed where they were like Zhou Xiao saw the person coming, they excitedly shouted "Ji Shao", and the people who were called had a bit more surprise and smile in their eyes.
The boy's long eyelashes trembled slightly, and his beautiful peach blossom eyes curved, and in an instant, it was like a clear spring flowing through his body, making him feel extremely comfortable.
"Click", Zhou Xiao pressed the shutter.
She looked at the screen. The boy was standing in front of a chinaberry tree. The drooping branches just reached his ears. Dreamy flowers were blooming beside his ears. Along with the shallow dimples at the corners of his mouth, his youthful, refreshing and handsome appearance filled the screen.
That's called——@FlippedPan Ran Xin Dong·Ji Shao
After returning home, Zhou Xiao sat on the sofa and opened the system template. He felt speechless. Not only because the templates required fame points to redeem, but also because these templates were not very friendly to real-life photos. Instead, the secondary effects were very brilliant.
She quietly exited the software and opened the photo editing software. As an office worker in an advertising company, she was quite good at using these software.
After slightly adjusting the picture, Zhou Xiao uploaded the photo directly to the newly created account, and also made a simple avatar and uploaded it.
Later, when Zhou Xiao clicked on the rewards for daily tasks, he was a little surprised. Isn’t this reward too generous?
[Daily Task: Open a support station (1/1), and receive a reward of 50,000 yuan in system funds. Note: System funds will be automatically transferred to the host account (no prompt will be given by default)]
[Daily Task: Upload a photo you took at the support station (1/1) and receive 50,000 yuan in system funds.]
Zhou Xiao thought, it seemed that the system really wanted her to devote herself to being a fan club member, and gave her funds with such a simple task to directly solve her financial problems of chasing stars.
Unbeknownst to Zhou Xiao, this photo of her in the Star Path 101 forum group was forced to become the fuse.
——Forum Late Night High-Rise——[May 3]
[Topic] It’s hard not to instantly miss the photo of newcomer Ji Shao, right?
Main Building: Ji Shao [Picture]/Xiang Rui [Picture]
1L
The new guy is so handsome, I can buy some shares (Note 2) and see
2L
Xiang Rui is very handsome! Don’t bring Xiang Rui!
3L
What does twice-cooked pork mean?
4L
Back to the topic above, "returning to the stage" refers to artists who have already debuted but are not yet famous and are returning to talent shows, or have participated in similar programs and are now returning to talent shows. Xiang Rui and Chu Cheng previously debuted in Japan, but failed to gain popularity and returned to participate in talent shows.
8L
Xiang Rui was really defeated by Ji Shao
10L
Are you annoying? Why are you posting to Xiangrui? Can you promote your own products?
18L
Xiang Rui fans are too domineering. Why can't we discuss it?
26L
Why is there so much noise in the building? Are you still awake so late at night?
34L
I know who you are a fan of, please don't stir up trouble.
67L
If you don't understand, just ask, why did this thread turn into a fight between Xiang Rui fans and Wang Quan fans?
68L
Upstairs, the poster of this post is a Wang Quan fan
102L
They're both twice-cooked pork, what's there to fight about?
131L
Although, Ji Shao is really handsome! Does anyone have a link? Squat down!
163L
Reply 131L: Sister, I sent you a private message with the link
…
Passersby attracted by Ji Shao's photo followed the URL to find Zhou Xiaokai's website and discovered that it was still a new website. After saving the original picture, some people thought about it and clicked to follow it, preparing to keep it to buy stocks.
——@Flipped · Ji Shao: #Ji Shao Super Talk# (Note 3) Thrilling under the chinaberry tree [Picture]
[Oh my god... I came here from the forum... This fangirl is really good at taking photos! ]
【Ah ...
[Ji Shao? Sure, I'll put him on the wall.]
【……】
Of course, the situation has gone far beyond this. A marketing account on a certain blog has always been paying attention to the trends on the forum. Recently, the most discussed topic is Xingtu 101. Seeing that such a tall building could be created late at night, he also took action and plagiarized the content of the post and published it:
@瓜田吃个瓜V: Some netizens noticed that fans of "Twice-cooked Pork" Wang Quan compared Ji Shao and Xiang Rui, mocking Xiang Rui as "twice-cooked pork." Then their identities were revealed, and the two fan groups started arguing over this. What are your thoughts on this? [Image] *6, posting a screenshot of the main post, one of Ji Shao, one of Xiang Rui, one of Wang Quan, and two screenshots of highly-rated posts from the forum.
[I want all the information about this guy named Ji Shao within ten minutes]
[This picture of Ji Shao is amazing! ]
[Dizzy, what a stunning face]
[Who is this person? Why is this the first time I see him?!]
How can I see it? I can see it with my eyes.
[Found the station, directions @FlippedPan Ran Xin Dong·Ji Shao]
【……】
There were a few scattered comments praising Xiang Rui/Wang Quan, but the public opinion did not turn into a fight as the marketing accounts had expected. Instead, Ji Shao's appearance triggered a large wave of traffic. Although it was contrary to the original intention, the popularity was still earned.
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