Xu Zhaixing said her reason in a very serious manner and saw that her idol just nodded his head.
Now, she was really embarrassed so she hurriedly changed the subject. “Brother, where are you going?”
“To buy a cup of coffee,” Cen Feng replied.
Xu Zhaixing helped him press the thirteenth floor.
She was worried that there were employees resting in the coffee shop who would recognize her, so she didn’t dare to follow him, and could only say, “Brother, I have to go to a meeting, so I can’t accompany you.”
Cen Feng knew that she was currently employed by Chenxing, so he did not doubt her and nodded, by this time the elevator arrived at the thirteenth floor and the elevator door opened with a ding. Xu Zhaixing had a meeting on the fifteenth floor.
He smiled at her and said. “See you later.”
Xu Zhaixing obediently waved her hand as she said, “Hmm!” When suddenly a thought came to mind, she then hurriedly called him. “Brother!”
Cen Feng who was already out of the elevator turned around.
And saw the young girl gesturing a small heart sign to him.
This time, she learned a new gesture, different from the previous two times. Gesturing her two hands and forming them into a heart shape as she smiled very sweetly, “I love you very much today!”
The elevator door slowly closed, and once again she happily waved to him from inside.
Because of the lightning, Xu Zhaixing didn’t see her baby idol’s ears turning crimson.
Cen Feng sat in the coffee shop for more than half an hour, during which several employees came to him for signatures, and he signed them all one by one, it wasn’t until the music director called. You Tao, who had been guarding not far away, accompanied him back.
The ID group all followed the staff to the studio to try out their respective demos, leaving only the music director and Wu Zhiyun in the conference room.
When Cen Feng sat down, the director pushed a document over. “The company wanted to produce an album for you, this is the first album plan made by the music department. Tell me if you have any more ideas.”
Releasing an album was not part of the limited contract.
The limited contract he signed with Chenxing only requires the other party to produce a single for him within a year, just like the other eight people in the ID group.
But suddenly Chenxing wanted to release an album for him which surprised him a bit.
Making an album was not a casual matter that someone could do as he pleases, it involves a large amount of engineering, both in terms of investment costs and market launch, which was much more complex than a single song.
Moreover, with the development of new Internet media, the prospects for digital albums were getting better and better, and the market for physical albums has shrunk. Overall, for a newcomer like him, releasing an album was a very risky thing.
Nowadays, there were fewer and fewer companies willing to seriously make music albums, so how could Chenxing risk showing him favor?
Cen Feng didn’t express his opinion directly but looked through the plan first, and looking at it, it was clearly not something they just sloppy decided to do, they really planned it with thorough steps. The copyright issue has also been explicitly written and belongs to the singer himself.
It’s like giving away benefits.
Seeing that he finished reading it, the music director continued. “Although the song was written on, we prefer more that you make your own work. Your previous song ‘The Fight’ is very good, have you continued to write songs recently?”
Making an album was his dream.
It’s a pity that it didn’t come true until the end. Before he died, he formatted the folder full of demos and disappeared into the world with him.
The dream was now suddenly shining again in his hands.
Wu Zhiyun and the music director waited for a while before they heard him say, “Yes.”
The director was overjoyed. “That’s great, send us the demo when you get back, and we’ll listen to the style first. My idea is that your debut album can take a multi-genre route, whether it’s rock or classical, you can make an attempt.”
People who truly love music always have unlimited enthusiasm when talking about albums.
Hence, Cen Feng’s meeting lasted longer than the previous eight people. According to the existing plans, and listening to Cen Feng’s opinion, the music director made some adjustments and finally happily said. “Okay, then first, we’ll listen to the demo and then talk again.”
After finalizing the album, Cen Feng didn’t leave the house much in the next two days.
There was a piano room on the third floor of the villa, which was equipped with recording equipment and musical instruments, and this was still specially arranged by Xu Zhaixing.
Cen Feng stayed in the piano room for two days and recovered the music he had previously destroyed with his own hands before.
There were more than ten demo songs that were handed to the music director, which shocked the latter a lot. The quantity was good but the director was a little worried about the quality, and this was because he hasn’t heard it yet.
However, as soon as he heard the demo, each song exceeded his expectations, it was not inferior to the popular song “The Fight”, also the style was not only one-dimensional at all, and instead it really showed Cen Feng’s amazing musical talent.
After listening to the demo, the music director immediately convened a meeting with the department and finally determined that they don’t need to invite anyone for Cen Feng’s first album, and all of the songs written by him would be included, which would also be a big selling point. After all, singer-songwriters were a minority, and this singer was a top-tier performer with both strength and appearance.
The matter about his solo album has been decided like this, however, the arrangements and lyrics were selected in accordance with the style of the song and were not rushed, making sure to produce a refined song.
After talking with the music director a few times, Cen Feng knew that he would not be sloppy in dealing with music, so he trusted him to handle it.
Now that InDream’s popularity was growing each day, it was time to increase their exposure making everyone’s schedule full. In midsummer of August, InDream had their first public performance after becoming a group—the annual summer music awards ceremony.
The Summer Music Awards have been around for a long time and have a high gold content. The organizers invite the hottest and most popular artists to perform at the awards ceremony every year.
Over the years, the circle has tried to launch many boy groups, but the water was not big enough until the ID group came out to detonate this summer. Although they only have one masterpiece, “Towards the Sun”, which was still too new in the music world, but with the support of Chenxing’s matchmaking and popularity, the organizers ultimately chose the ID group among several top performers.
The tickets to the Summer Music Awards were not cheap since the singers and artists who would receive awards at this event were all very popular, and many of them were top performers. But as soon as the news spread that the ID group was going to perform, the tickets simply sold-out under the crazy scramble of the ID girl.
Among them, kites have the strongest momentum.
In ZOL*, fans joked that other idols have frequent business, not to mention Reuters, live broadcasts, and Weibo, so how could they understand the hardship of waiting for their idol to open for business.
(*online jokes library provides the latest classic jokes)
Apart from this kind of public trip, they don’t really see their idol even a strand of his hair.
Moreover, this was the first large-scale public performance since his debut and supporting him was the top priority. What the orange sea promised to him must be done!
This mixed public performance was the time to compare the headcount, and because of this, Supertalk was also busy looking for tickets, Xu Zhaixing also followed her fellow mothers in the activity group but after a few days of doing waiting and scrambling, she couldn’t even get a single ticket.
She couldn’t believe that she couldn’t buy it with money?
Seeing that the event was approaching and she still has no ticket, in a fit of anger she used her power for personal gain and directly asked the organizer for a ticket in the name of the company.
Originally, she wanted to ask for a few more tickets for her little sisters who didn’t have tickets, but the organizers didn’t have any more extra tickets. There was too much traffic making it harder to get a ticket and the organizers already sold out the tickets. As for Xu Zhaixing’s ticket, since the organizers couldn’t just say “the ticket is sold out”, they found a way to give her one.
For the first large-scale support, after counting the number of people in this activity group, the support club uniformly customized orange light boards. Xu Zhaixing’s previous sign board “Feng” was a bit small, so this new one was made.
A few days before the event, she received the new signboard. As soon as she got the delivery, she couldn’t wait to go to the store downtown to buy new batteries and immediately return home, she then installed them and check the signboard. The official customization was truly a good choice! It was very bright and almost blinded her!
She placed the lighted signboard on the tea table, stood a little farther away, and took a photo, then happily sent it to Cen Feng: [Brother, I’ll bring this to see you on Saturday!]
Cen Feng didn’t see WeChat until the rehearsal was over in the evening. He looked at the photos and silently noted the style of the signboard, and replied, “Okay.”
Early Saturday morning, Xu Zhaixing finished breakfast and happily went outside the event venue, carrying the support items and positioning herself earlier.
She was a big fan and has long posted on Weibo in supertalk that she would be handing out free banners and small badges outside the arena today on a first-come, first-served basis.
In the past, when pursuing events of her idol, she was particularly envious of those little sisters who give free merchandise to their fans every time. What they were giving was not merchandise but full enthusiasm and love!
At that time, she was incapable, and could only dream that once she made money in the future, she would also distribute free merchandise!
Now that her dream has finally come true, she was even happier than the thirty million contract she negotiated the day before yesterday.
In order to follow the event with peace of mind this time, she entrusted the task of styling her idol to two other stylists on the team.
Carrying a bulging backpack and a large bag, Xu Zhaixing found a location with obvious landmarks, took photos, and posted on Weibo:
——@If you turn into wind: I’m here! Come here and find me!
The kites quickly followed the photos to find her.
The first thing she heard them ask her was, “Are you Ruo Ruo?”
Second sentence was, “Wow, you’re so beautiful!”
Xu Zhaixing didn’t wear makeup today; she only wore a simple T-shirt paired with jeans and sneakers. She tied her hair into a high ponytail with an orange ribbon, making her look youthful and beautiful.
The banner was made of paper, and the photo was the refined version of Cen Feng in “The Fight”, she also put on the caption, ‘May you always be a free wind’ which she sought authorization from the station in advance.
The small badge shows the drawing in “Idol Travels Around the World”, the background color was orange which looked particularly cute. After the kites receives these badges, they happily wore them on their chests. There were too many fans outside the stadium, so it was fun to identify everyone with their badges.
Towards noon, the five hundred badges Xu Zhaixing prepared were all taken away. The little sisters in the fan group who were usually relatively well connected have come to meet with her, and they happily go to lunch together. After lunch, they continue to look for other kite leaders around the venue.
This long-lost feeling of chasing events with little sisters made Xu Zhaixing happy all day and felt she was drifting the whole day.
She didn’t even hear the phone call from her idol.
When she sat down in the coffee shop with a few little sisters, Xu Zhaixing just saw a missed call from “my kid”.
Well, it should be okay, anyways, she always missed her idol’s call.
It may be the case but, Xu Zhaixing always makes sure to call back, so she sneaked to the washroom to return the call.
When the call was connected, there was loud music on the other end. She heard her idol say, “Wait a minute.” After about a minute, the music quieted down, and the voice on the other line was clearer, “Can you hear me?”
Xu Zhaixing repeatedly nodded as if her idol could see her and said, “Mmm, I can hear you! Brother, where are you?”
“Rehearsing, now in the washroom.”
She was particularly happy and said, “I am in the washroom, too. What a coincidence!”
Cen Feng was amused by her and said, “Which washroom?”
Xu Zhaixing obediently replied, “The washroom in the cafe outside the arena.”
Cen Feng was a little surprised: “So early?”
She laughed, “I’ve been here for hours.”
There was a moment of silence at the other end before Xu Zhaixing heard him say in a lowered voice, “It’s too hot outside, don’t get heatstroke.’”
“Mm-hmm.” She agreed straight away then she carefully checked if there was no one around the washroom before lowering her voice and continued, “Brother, I will cheer you up with the loudest voice tonight!”
He smiled and said, “Okay.”
The afternoon passed quickly, and the audience began to enter the arena after five o’clock. At the same time, the artists who were shortlisted for this music festival also began to walk on the red carpet. The ID group was just a guest performer, and there was no need to walk on the red carpet, so the ID girls were also too lazy to join the excitement.
Once she enters the venue, she immediately finds a place to sit down and looked around the colorful venue. Because it was random tickets, the fans were scattered, next to Xu Zhaixing were fans of two other artists.
On her side, there were not many oranges light but as more audience enter the venue, there was almost orange light at every corner.
There were five kites sitting in the row behind Xu Zhaixing, all of which have the official customized light signs. After they turned on the lights together, an orange light burst out, and then Xu Zhaixing heard two people who were sitting next to her say, “Woah”.
Hearing their surprise, she was a little happy and felt pride.
As the guest performer, ID group was arranged to perform first.
As the time approached, the stadium began to hear the cheers of various fans supporting their idols one after another. The ID group who were waiting backstage could also hear it, Ying Xuze carefully listened for a while before he turned to Cen Feng and said, “Brother Feng, your fans are so loud. Ai, what are you looking at?”
Cen Feng took a final look at the sign pattern sent by Xu Zhaixing before and handed the phone to You Tao. “It’s nothing, get ready to go on stage.”
She said she would use this to cheer him up, it was so big and bright so it should be easy to see on the stage.
Cen Feng thinks so.
Until after he was on the stage.
The same type of sign boards were all over the place, shining with exactly the same light.
Cen Feng: “….”
