Rebirth from the Ashes

Li Yuan looked at the bright red underwear in front of him with a tenderness in his eyes. He called out to Kun Lun. “Push me to the dressing room.”

Kun Lun was used to this. As long as it was something from Ms. Shen, Boss would be very happy regardless of what it was. Even if she gave him a potato sack, Boss would gladly put it on and say it looked good.

**

Su Muyan released his latest album on March 18. No one in the music industry dared to release any new songs this month for fear of getting crushed by his good ratings, sales, and popularity.

However, this time, a new singer from Cosmos Entertainment, Qi Xiu, also released an album on the same day. He did not have much publicity and only relied on other artists from the same company to advertise his album.

Even so, Qi Xiu’s seniors in the same company were not menial artists. Half of them acted in “The Smiling Nation” and their popularity had risen rapidly in the entertainment industry.

The crew and scriptwriter of “The Smiling Nation” also promoted Qi Xiu.

The entertainment influencers were involved in the publicity while fans of the TV series also took the initiative to drive publicity for the new singer.

Slowly but surely, many people got to know about Qi Xiu, the new singer who would soon make a debut.

Tianheng Entertainment thought that the newcomer was so arrogant and saw it as a deliberate provocation to release his album on the same day as Su Muyan.

The newcomer’s publicity was going strong in the beginning. Tianheng Entertainment was afraid that he would overpower Su Muyan and began to buy tabloids and hot topics, and even encouraged fans to attack Qi Xiu.

On Weibo and other social media platforms, Su Muyan’s fans scolded Qi Xiu for stealing their idol’s thunder, besides being disrespectful and ignorant.

The masses were most easily rattled, especially because Tianheng had also dug up a lot of dirt on Qi Xiu and hurled mud at him. They desperately tried to pull him down and stepped on him relentlessly. Many uninformed netizens went with the flow and bashed Qi Xiu.

After Tianheng put in so much effort to step on the newcomer, Qi Xiu’s side went quiet after a week of publicity and no longer posted anything.

Su Muyan’s fans were unreasonable and troublesome. If Qi Xiu responded, they would say he was shamelessly riding on Su Muyan’s wave. If Qi Xiu kept low and did not respond, they would call him a coward. Anyway, whatever he did was wrong.

Shen Xi understood the rules of generating hype in the entertainment industry. The appropriate hype could increase popularity, but everything should be done in moderation. Excessive hype would just be repetitive and annoying.

Qi Xiu had caught the public’s eyes and that was enough because they knew his name and that he was a singer. Whatever that came next would have to rely on his capabilities.

Su Muyan had been dominating the Internet for more than a month promoting his new songs like a clown. If his new album could beat Qi Xiu, then so be it.

However, if he could not defeat the newcomer, this would backfire on him. He would then get a taste of retribution.

March 18th fell on a weekend.

All senior high school students had long begun the countdown to the entrance exams. They would seize every minute to study and there was no such thing as rest.

When Shen Xi arrived at school, everyone was discussing Su Muyan’s new song with great interest. Many of them were his hardcore fans saying that his songs were great and showed off how many albums they had bought.

Su Muyan was an alumnus of No. 4 High School. He was the pride of the school and everyone here was naturally biased towards him.

The newcomer, Qi Xiu, who dared to release his songs on the same day as their idol, became public enemy No. 1. Everyone said that he was shameless to ride on Su Muyan’s wave and did not deserve any attention, so they did not even bother to listen to his songs. They thought that he would just quietly disappear.

However, some people noticed the new singer’s capabilities and eagerly promoted him to their friends. They gushed about his songs and handsome face, then begged their friends to listen to Qi Xiu’s songs before making a decision.

For those who had held a preconceived notion of Qi Xiu, no matter how good Qi Xiu was or how hard others tried to persuade them to listen to his songs, they still refused to acknowledge him simply because Qi Xiu disrespected their idol.

On Weibo’s hot topics, except for Su Muyan’s new songs which were hyped up by the tabloids and his fans, the rest were just cursing Qi Xiu for being trash.

Cosmos Entertainment did not show any signs of clarifying the situation and rather just let the masses be with their scolding and slandering. Thus, the company was dragged into the mud alongside Qi Xiu.

Shen Xi casually looked at Weibo’s hot topics and sneered. ‘Go ahead and hurl mud at us. Our main platform isn’t on Weibo anyway. Tianheng and Su Muyan are just playing with fire to burn themselves!’

She just arrived at the classroom door.

Song Wenye ran over to her and excitedly pulled her hand. “Xixi! Do you know who’s my new favorite artist?”

Shen Xi raised her eyebrows in curiosity. ‘Who’s her new favorite?’

Song Wenye continued, “It’s Qi Xiu! Chu Ying told me that you stood up for him the other day. Do you know him very well?”

Shen Xi said, “I spoke up for him because I can’t stand seeing Su Ruowan and the others being so arrogant.”

Shen Xi could not tell Song Wenye that she was the boss of Cosmos Entertainment because, with Song Wenye’s temper, she would be a big bully once she signed with them.

Song Wenye was fangirling. “He’s really good-looking and he sings so well! I can guarantee that he’ll go viral!”

Shen Xi laughed. “I think so too.”

Song Wenye was excited. “Can you help me ask when I can start my training? I’m a singer in a girl group and I heard that he’s the company’s Music Director. He’s too talented. Am I going to work with him too?”

Shen Xi nodded. “Of course!”

Song Wenye was next to her, asking questions about this and that. She said that since she was the first to sign with the company, Qi Xiu should technically call her his senior. She even fantasized about how she would talk to him when she started her training.

After fangirling about her new favorite, Song Wenye began to scroll her phone. When she saw the hot topics, she felt indignant and cursed, “Su Muyan, this son of a b*tch! He’s horrendous! My Qi Xiu didn’t say anything and only did routine publicity, but they stomped on my man for one whole month and it’s still ongoing?! What’s wrong with releasing a song on the same day? I think he’s just jealous and can’t admit that others are better than him. He’s just afraid that Qi Xiu will surpass him and crush him!”

Shen Xi was doing her homework quietly. When she heard Song Wenye, she answered, “Yeah, you’re right.”

Su Muyan’s main turf was Weibo. His fans, tabloid accounts, and keyboard warriors were on Weibo. He also bought the hot topics on Weibo.

However, Qi Xiu’s turf was not Weibo, but Cosmos Short Vid.

Shen Xi had just received an update that the actors of Cosmos Entertainment released a 30-second trial of Qi Xiu’s new song on Cosmos Short Vid.

The hot topic on Cosmos Short Vid was quietly dominated by Qi Xiu as he rose in popularity. With his charming voice, rhythmic, and catchy music, Qi Xiu quickly captured the attention of a group of people. His rankings were slowly accumulating and it was only a matter of time before he went viral.

The last competition for senior students was the National Physics Olympiad for high school students, which would be held on March 28, ten days after the album release.

On March 18, the contestants attended the training together.

Song Wenye, who was also a top physics student, had signed up for the competition to keep Shen Xi teasing her.

After the bell, Shen Xi and Song Wenye went to the training classroom. Besides the two of them, the rest of the contestants were from the Top Class.

At this moment, it was quite lively.

“Come, let’s take a look at the real-time statistics!” Chen Bingbing stood on the podium and drew on the board with chalk. “Our Brother Yan sold 200,000 copies within an hour of release. As of now, he’s sold 450,000 copies. His main song is the top search on the music app and the first on the billboard. He also got the most downloads and eight of his new songs are all in the top ten of the new release chart. A round of applause!”

She was smug and looked at Shen Xi and Song Wenye provocatively. “Some people spent so much money to save their idol, but they just got slapped in the face. As of now, their dumb idol only sold 2000 albums and none of his songs are in the music app charts.”

The Top Class burst into laughter arrogantly as they looked at Shen Xi with contempt and laughed even louder.