On this day, the official Weibo account of "Wings" posted an update—
Wearing a birthday hat, Ji Yan was surrounded by the members. He closed his eyes and made a wish. Xie Mingxuan, Lu Wei, and Fang Yu smiled brightly and made peace signs at the camera. It was clearly the most authentic version of "Yi". Without makeup or fancy styling, fans could still see the joyful atmosphere among the members - just like they usually are.
The scene wasn't a big party, but rather a simple crayfish restaurant with a square table and a picture of a menacing crayfish hanging on the wall. The members of "Wing" were all wearing identical dinosaur T-shirts, except that each dinosaur was a slightly different color.
Happy birthday, Ji Yan!
Happy birthday, Teacher Ji!
"Same dinosaur T-shirt, same crayfish, so I'm practically a member of the Wings Group now."
"Only 49 yuan a piece on the orange app, with free shipping. The four members of the Wings Group are just like our company during team building."
"The Wings Group is celebrating Ji Yan's birthday together! At this moment, a friend quietly started searching for the same T-shirts worn by the handsome guys."
"One more friend like me."
The official Weibo account of the "Wings" group has been updating frequently this month. After all, "At 23" is still in the promotion period, and fans can see fresh updates from the Wings group every day. But today—the promotion is behind the scenes, showing the members' daily lives.
Fans absolutely love watching Tsubasa's daily life posts. Perhaps it's because the members are so down-to-earth that their posts are full of silly or goofy moments. Even though Tsubasa is usually very low-key, fans can still find a lot of sweetness in their interactions.
Many idol groups nowadays are keen on creating on-screen couples within the group, which is part of the fun of following boy groups. "Wings" also has fans who ship them, but "Wings" has relatively few members, with only six couples in total, which is not enough to fill the super topic list. Moreover, the members themselves are not keen on creating on-screen couples. They get along very casually and don't make fans feel uncomfortable at all.
Rather than being remembered as a couple, the members prefer to be remembered for their work.
Many fans remembered Ji Yan's birthday, and some even thought about giving him gifts. However, DW Entertainment, including Ye Ying, opposed this idea. In terms of revenue, the number of albums purchased by fans was already enough for "Wings" to dominate the entire idol industry, and they did not need fans to spend money on gifts.
...
Ji Yan and the others ate crayfish until they were stuffed—the crayfish were already plump enough this season, and with a platter full of garlic, salted egg yolk, and spicy flavors, all the pain from exercising disappeared at that moment.
After a meal of crayfish, the group had no doubt that their average weight had increased by at least two pounds.
“Crayfish isn’t meat, it’s all protein,” Fang Yu said confidently. “Crayfish can grow in any environment, and after sufficient exercise, they have a healthy body and a rounded waistline.”
Ji Yan and the others: "..."
That makes perfect sense.
That evening, Xie Mingxuan, Lu Wei, and Fang Yu all reposted Ji Yan's Weibo post wishing him a happy birthday. The official Weibo account of "The Voice of China," which Ji Yan had worked with, and the crew of "I, Nameless" also reposted it. Besides them, another official Weibo account's repost attracted netizens' attention—
Ji Group @Ji Yan: Happy Birthday!
"Bookmark this!"
"...As far as I can remember, this is the first time the Ji family has retweeted Ji Yan's Weibo post, right?"
"It's really not easy, after all, it used to be Ji Ruan's special blog for celebrating birthdays."
"I have mixed feelings, but I don't feel happy."
Ji Yan: "..." He really wanted to tell those people who weren't quite right in the head, "Stop messing around here. Why don't you do something else with this free time?"
During the "Idol Century" era, Ji Yan might have needed the Ji family's approval to prove himself, but now there's really no need. He feels that maintaining a completely unrelated relationship with the Ji family is the best course of action.
Perhaps due to the different upbringing, or perhaps because he grew up in poverty, he was never able to reach the level of the wealthy Ji family.
Thinking of this, Ji Yan silently opened his phone and transferred the 6.66 million yuan that someone from the Ji family had transferred to him back, adding a note: "Handling fee XXX yuan, remember to pay me back."
He calculates every single penny meticulously, and no one can take advantage of him even for two decimal places.
As soon as he transferred the money, Ji Yan opened Weibo. The number of reposts, comments, and likes on his latest post was rising sharply. There were also many messages from fans in his private messages. Ji Yan didn't read many private messages, since there were too many for him to read by himself. However, none of the "Wing" members' Weibo accounts were handed over to the company for management. They didn't like Weibo being full of advertisements. Occasionally sharing their lives and reading the fans' comments was quite interesting.
Ji Yan happened to see a private message.
The other person first sent him a few [smile][smile][smile] emojis, the kind that's in the first row and first column of everyone's built-in emojis, which looks like a smile but is actually an idiot. Then they left the words "comparison" in a haughty and aloof tone, and sent Ji Yan a few screenshots from Instagram.
The image is from Ji Ruan's Instagram account; Ji Yan still recognizes her.
Ji Ruan and he share the same birthday.
In contrast to Ji Yan's birthday celebration at a "shabby" crayfish restaurant, Ji Ruan's birthday party seemed to have been held in a European castle, with handsome men and women dressed in bright clothes dancing gracefully in a magnificent banquet hall.
Ji Ruan's post read: "An unforgettable birthday, thank you to my family."
Ji Yan: "Oh."
"Just a heads up, he photoshopped the pillars crooked; his legs aren't actually that long."
Ji Yan had always considered himself a magnanimous person, open-minded and broad-minded, and he didn't care what others said. But what did it mean to provoke him again and again?
He's right to be open to all things, but he's never heard of Haina being a piece of dog shit.
...
An hour later, Ji Yan truly understood the meaning of the saying, "With fame comes trouble."
He felt he hadn't said anything, but the hashtag "Ji Yan's legs aren't actually that long" had already appeared on Weibo's trending topics list. It seemed that right after he replied to that message, the fan who sent him the private message posted his reply on Weibo.
"Is Ji Yan really not jealous? I feel like he is a little jealous."
"...Do you have to be so petty? I've always felt that a person's living environment does indeed affect their character. Ji Yan is famous now, but is there any difference between what he says now and when he first debuted?"
"+1, that's blatant malice."
"Ji Ruan is doing so well in the entertainment industry, and he can go abroad whenever he wants. But Ji Yan is nitpicking over such a trivial matter. You are the real young master of the Ji family, surely you can't be less magnanimous than an adopted son?"
The saying "familiarity breeds contempt" applies here. Ji Ruan has already gone to JS Academy, and his fans have long forgotten what he did before. Ji Yan, on the other hand, is still popular, and whatever he says will be scrutinized by those with ulterior motives.
Ye Ying was exasperated by Ji Yan's actions: "Why did you reply to him?"
“Because I’m annoyed.” Ji Yan replied with the same word, “annoyed.”
"Forget it, forget it." Ye Ying sighed. "Don't worry about this anymore, I'll handle it." Ji Yan: "..."
Looking at his expression, Ye Ying felt even more helpless: "Do you still feel wronged?"
Ji Yan nodded, nodded, nodded.
Ye Ying: "..."
Well, it's the manager's responsibility. Although Ji Yan is becoming more and more mischievous, he's much more lively now than before. Ye Ying didn't like how Ji Yan was in the Ji family before, so he's fine as he is now.
After Ye Ying approached Ji Yan, Fang Yu found a magnifying glass from somewhere and stared intently at the picture: "It's definitely been photoshopped quite distorted."
"Those legs are longer than two vases in the picture, why did he have to Photoshop them like that?"
Fang Yu and the others didn't blame Ji Yan for talking too much. If they were Ji Yan, they would probably faint from shock after seeing the "comparison" posted by the fans.
What are we comparing? Is Ji Yan's life more impoverished than Ji Ruan's?
Ji Yan didn't host his birthday party by himself; it was a unanimous vote by the four of them to go to a crayfish restaurant.
Where is it shabby?
They also felt looked down upon, okay?
Ha, how dare they look down on the noble crayfish.
The annual consumption of crayfish is 45,000 tons, with a total output value of 360 billion yuan!
Fang Yu first posted on Weibo: "I'm sorry I can't afford to rent a European castle, and I'm sorry I can only afford crayfish."
Lu Wei was much more reserved than him; she simply posted a large picture of a crayfish with the words, "Quickly apologize to the crayfish!"
"The funniest thing I find is that no matter what Ji Ruan rents in Europe, even if he rents a football stadium, it's still the Ji family's money, right? Don't tell me it's his own income. When making comparisons, please remember that the only reason these comparisons are possible is because he stole Ji Yan's life."
"At least Ji Yan is spending his own money, right? He just likes to eat crayfish, what's there to compare?"
Among Ji Yan's fans, there were some who were particularly protective of him. They directly extracted the picture from Ji Ruan's Instagram and made more than a dozen comments on it: "The pillar was indeed photoshopped crooked, and the vase was also crooked. Why can't we say that?"
"It's crooked, crooked, crooked!"
"That's called maintaining a 'golden' spirit even after retiring from the entertainment industry. You bumpkins who only deserve to eat crayfish don't know anything!"
"The local bastards are eating crayfish while spewing insults, which makes the crayfish taste even better."
Just as Fang Yu and the others finished posting on Weibo, Ye Ying sent an angry emoji in the group chat: "Why are you all starting this now?"
Ji Yan, Fang Yu, and Lu Wei simultaneously tagged Xie Mingxuan: "Sister Ying, there's still a good person here."
Xie Mingxuan: "..."
He actually wanted to post it too, but Fang Yu and Lu Wei stopped him, saying that a mocking face didn't suit Xie Mingxuan's temperament.
Xie Mingxuan now understood that this was where his usefulness lay.
...
However, because of this incident, Ji Yan's image of honesty, kindness and simplicity, which he had always maintained, was shattered once again, even though his teammates said that he had never had that kind of image.
Ji Yan also reflected on it. He might have been too impulsive, or rather, he seemed to be a little bothered by others using Ji Ruan to mock him, and his reply made it seem like he cared.
But upon closer reflection, it wasn't his fault.
Ji Yan had always believed that he remained untainted by the mud...
"You can shut up now, I'm about to throw up." Fang Yu urged him to stop, "You're getting more and more outrageous."
Lu Wei threw a pillow at him: "First, explain what it means to emerge from the mud unsullied, and who is the mud?"
Ji Yan: "...Actually, it was me."
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