Me And My Four Dancers - Chapter 1
Chapter 1: My Account Was Hijacked
When manager Li Linjia arrived, Yan Shuo was the only one of the five M.E.N members who was awake.
Their dormitory was located in a very private, upscale complex. The building was spacious, with each person having their own room, a pet room, and a gym. It was said that many celebrities lived in this complex, including popular actress XX, renowned director XXX, Asian supermodel XXX, and even Bai Fangshi, the president of Yueshi Entertainment.
Yan Shuo heard the doorbell and emerged from the bathroom, smoothing his hair before opening the door for Li Linjia.
“Good morning, Sister Jia.”
“Good morning.” Li Linjia gave Yan Shuo a businesslike smile, revealing two adorable canine teeth—her signature expression. She was one of the entertainment industry’s most renowned agents, known as “Sister Ya,” a nickname Yan Shuo certainly couldn’t call her.
Li Linjia slumped down on the sofa and got straight to the point: “Did you see the trending searches?”
“What trending searches?” Yan Shuo feigned indifference.
Li Linjia opened Weibo and slid her phone across the coffee table, shoving it in front of him. Yan Shuo looked down and saw several trending searches related to him—
“Yan Shuo’s secondary account”
“Yan Shuo’s character collapses”
“Double Yan BE”
“M.E.N. plastic group”
“Yan Shuo’s teammates dance with him”
…
Yan Shuo: “…”
How come there are more than last night? At dawn, all the netizens who just watched the show have woken up?
Li Linjia looked at him calmly. Yan Shuo suspected this was the last calm before the storm. He thought for a moment and then steeled himself to defend himself, “I didn’t expect—”
“I didn’t expect your smurf account would be exposed?” As expected, Li Linjia launched into a rage. “Didn’t I tell you repeatedly not to talk nonsense online! Don’t talk nonsense! Even using fake accounts is not allowed! Why are you just creating a smurf account when you can’t be bothered? You might as well learn from Fu Xinyan and go crazy on your main account!”
Yan Shuo: “…”
Fu Xinyan is truly clueless, and I’m not.
Yan Shuo suppressed his objection and obediently said, “I’m sorry, Sister Jia, I was wrong.”
He readily admitted his mistake, but in reality, he didn’t feel ashamed. He just felt unlucky. After all, among the five members of M.E.N., he wasn’t the only one with smurf accounts, yet he was the only one to be exposed. How unlucky was that?
Yan Shuo looked at Li Linjia’s expression and coughed lightly. “Should I delete those Weibo posts?”
“Why delete them? Trying to cover up makes things worse,” Li Linjia said. “I’ll have someone send a lawyer’s letter later to clarify. Just say you were fabricated and that we don’t own that fake account.”
“Okay.”
“As for you—” Li Linjia stood up from the sofa and gave him a warning look. “You’re banned from the internet until the filming of ‘Superstar’ begins. You’re not allowed to go online or use WeChat during this time.”
“…”
Yan Shuo nodded repeatedly and watched his agent leave.
As soon as Li Linjia left, he yawned and wondered, “I don’t have work this morning. Should I take a nap now, or go surfing for a while before I’m forcibly disconnected from the internet?”
Yan Shuo chose the latter.
He wasn’t actually addicted to the internet, but as a popular idol star, he had little personal entertainment. He had nothing else to do except find fun online.
—That was why he created the fake account.
People like them can’t post anything on their verified accounts, nor can they post on WeChat Moments. They don’t have many close friends, so what do they do when they’re feeling down or stressed? With nowhere to vent, they feel suffocated and can only use their Weibo accounts.
Because of their accounts, Yan Shuo occasionally observes them secretly, and has a certain understanding of their M.E.N. fans.
As of this month, M.E.N. has debuted for two and a half years, and Yan Shuo has been their leader for two and a half years. From day one, his marketing persona has been mature, tolerant, gentle, and considerate, caring for his teammates like an older brother. For example, when a teammate does something stupid, he puts on a gentle, doting face and helps them out—usually, it’s Fu Xinyan who does this stupid thing. He and Fu Xinyan’s marketing duo, known as “Shuangyan,” are incredibly popular, the most popular of all the duos in the group.
The only pairing that could rival Shuangyan’s popularity was “Zexin.” Zexin was the CP pairing of Shen Ze and Fu Xinyan. It wasn’t officially promoted by the company, but Shen Ze was a very noticeable character in their group. He constantly put on a deadpan expression, as if someone owed him eight million. Yan Shuo found it suffocating, but the fans fell for it, believing him to be handsome, cool, and domineering, so Shen Ze was also paired with Fu Xinyan.
In other words, Yan Shuo and Shen Ze were in the same boat; they were both paired with Fu Xinyan.
Why was Fu Xinyan the center?
Because Fu Xinyan was the core of M.E.N., heavily promoted by the official team, and the most popular—this popularity ranking was something Yan Shuo actually disagreed with. Their group’s full name was M.E.N., and their nickname was the “Alphabet Group.” The “Alphabet” here wasn’t literal; it had a historical origin.
M.E.N. is under Yueshi Entertainment. As everyone knows, Yueshi’s boss, Bo Fangshi, was once a member of the entertainment industry, but later retired due to personal issues and moved behind the scenes. Bo Fangshi’s role as boss was so absent-minded that even though M.E.N. was his most popular artist, he didn’t take them seriously. He couldn’t even remember the names of the five members of the group, and he actually asked his manager to rank them by popularity, calling them A, B, C, and D.
Although Bo Fangshi never called them that to their faces, there’s no such thing as a wall without airtightness. This little gossip became known to everyone at the company, spread within the industry, and even to his fans, who eventually nicknamed them the “Alphabet Group.”
What’s the big deal? Yan Shuo didn’t mind. What bothered him was that Li Linjia actually ranked Fu Xinyan first.
Since their debut, he and Shen Ze have clearly been the most popular figures. Whether it’s the number of followers, the scale of their support, fundraising, or the purchasing power of their personal merchandise, they’ve always been competing for the top spot, leaving Fu Xinyan to watch.
Is it because Fu Xinyan is a dramatic actor, skilled at attracting attention?
—If Yan Shuo had asked Li Linjia this question, she would have answered without hesitation, “Yes.”
But that was Yan Shuo’s question, a question he had when he was still naive. He later saw through it.
Their group needed publicity, and Fu Xinyan, a pretentious and impulsive actor, was able to cooperate with the company’s hype, making him a veritable topic king. Although the topics were often negative, the hype earned him recognition. Judging by Fu Xinyan’s frequency on trending searches, his public awareness is indeed the highest.
These days, whether positive or negative, whether black or red, is also red. First build up your fame, then use public relations to whitewash and build goodwill. Isn’t it easy? After all, they’re not actually black spots.
But despite this, Yan Shuo still felt a little dissatisfied. He was a very ambitious person. As the saying goes, “It’s not the lack of resources that worries you, but the inequality of resources.” The company prioritized the best resources for Fu Xinyan, allowing him to enjoy the benefits while the other four members could only enjoy the benefits. This situation had always made him unhappy, even though he was clearly the most capable.
However, that was already in the past.
Two months ago, the company suddenly announced that the center position of their group would be replaced from Fu Xinyan to Yan Shuo. Yan Shuo would also replace Fu Xinyan on the variety show “Super Star,” which Fu Xinyan was about to appear on.
This news was not publicly announced, but their positions in promotional posters for their new song and stage performances were changed, with Yan Shuo taking the center stage. How sensitive were their fans? Because of this, his fans and Fu Xinyan’s fans engaged in a bloody war. Although they were openly attacking the company, he was secretly criticized.
The company didn’t respond to this, leaving fans bewildered by the inside story. However, those within the company knew all too well: Fu Xinyan’s repeated troublemaking had angered Bai Fangshi, and Yueshi Entertainment would no longer support him as it had in the past.
While they knew the truth, netizens didn’t. The online rumors had escalated into a palace drama, with unscrupulous marketing accounts arranging multiple sponsors for Yan Shuo, claiming they had helped propel him to the top, leaving Fu Xinyan as the unfortunate but unfortunate cannon fodder.
The blame fell from the sky, and Yan Shuo was devastated.
However, Fu Xinyan, who had been constantly courting disaster, had used this opportunity to win favor and become the beloved and pitiful figure everyone cherished.
Yan Shuo cursed inwardly.
Cursing inwardly wasn’t enough, so he took to his secondary Weibo account to vent. He didn’t say anything particularly outrageous, just a few casual rants. He suggested that he and Fu Xinyan might have had a grudge in a past life, and that Fu Xinyan was too dramatic. He even wrote long, lyrical Weibo posts on his main account, asking, “Will you ever stop being so hypocritical?”
He also took the opportunity to criticize Bo Fangshi, saying that Boss Bai was a tyrant who, just to please his wife, decided to change the C-suite without a care in the world. He didn’t care about the consequences.
To prevent fans from searching for them, he deliberately typed the names of Fu Xinyan and Bai Fangshi in their phonetic abbreviations: fxy, bfs, with separators in between. He was sure they wouldn’t be found.
This was his habit, a precautionary measure.
Unfortunately, his secondary account was somehow discovered, and his emotional comments were publicly displayed on trending searches, completely shattering his image as the “gentle, tolerant, and good captain.”
Everyone has their moments of emotional outbursts. When you’re arguing with your parents, you might get angry and say some extreme, irrational things. But once you calm down, things will continue as they always have, with no real impact.
Yan Shuo is like that. His second account is full of diss posts about his teammates and the company, like complaining about Li Linjia’s age being a mystery, Chen Ze’s dancing sounding like calisthenics, and Qi Haoyu’s off-key singing that completely distracted him. Some of these posts are tongue-in-cheek, while others are just angry outbursts, and he forgets them the next day.
While the relationships among the five members of his group are certainly stilted, he doesn’t particularly dislike anyone—including Fu Xinyan.
They’re all just ordinary colleagues. They’re exhausted from their daily work schedules, and when they have free time, they practice dancing and singing non-stop. Who would complain about practicing too much?
When people are particularly exhausted, they don’t really have the energy to dwell on trivial matters. The posts on Yan Shuo’s second account are mostly casual, meant to vent stress, then he closes Weibo and continues working hard.
But there was one thing he said with genuine sincerity: “What’s that dance you guys are doing? If you can’t dance well next time, just stand back and be my backup dancer. It’ll save you some trouble.”
Yan Shuo had posted this six months ago. He’d forgotten the context, but his dissatisfaction with his teammates’ skills was commonplace, and he could imagine how he felt at the time.
When netizens dug up his fake account, unsurprisingly, this sentence was highlighted, leading to a coordinated attack from fans of all four of his teammates. As for the casual observers, some found it hilarious, some called him arrogant, and some, surprisingly, became his fans.
Yan Shuo casually scrolled through Weibo for a moment before clicking on the trending search for “Shuangyan BE.”
The comments were just as he’d imagined: Shuangyan CP fans were wailing. Only a few believed Li Linjia’s lies, insisting the fake account was fabricating rumors and that he and Fu Xinyan were still in a good relationship.
Yan Shuo breathed a sigh of relief. He’d wanted to break up with Fu Xinyan for a while, and they’d probably call it quits. But even if they broke up, there would still be another. Who knows, maybe Fu Xinyan’s official business partner would switch to Chen Ze.
That was none of his business. Let him be beautiful on his own.
Yan Shuo logged out of Weibo and opened an entertainment forum.
As soon as he reached the homepage, a bright red, bold post caught his eye.
“Congratulations, Brother Yan Shuo, for becoming the new center of the group! Congratulations, four useless backup dancers!”
Yan Shuo: “…”
The title was clear to him, a smear campaign post.
Nutrified by the trolls, Yan Shuo fearlessly clicked on it. Unexpectedly, the content was quite different from what he’d imagined.
Of course, the first few posts were the familiar fan-haters’ back-and-forth, but things got increasingly awry later on—
“I knew it, Yan Shuo is a complete scoundrel.”
“It’s obvious. The contrast between his on-stage and off-stage aura is stark. With that domineering aura, who would believe he’s so gentle and thoughtful in person…”
“I’m just saying it, QAQ. I don’t believe Shuang Yan is truly BEIJING!”
“Shuang Yan is dead, Ze Xin should be in power. Accept reality.”
“Take Chen Ze away. You Shuang Yan couple are fighting, and I’m the straight guy dancing with him. I don’t want a name.”
“CP “Get lost! If you pull Shen Ze again, you’re dead.”
“I’m raising my hand weakly. Can I, the Flash player, please make my presence felt?”
“What is Flash?”
“Shen Shuo!”
“…Chen Ze x Yan Shuo? This isn’t a good match, isn’t it? Yan Shuo stole Fu Xinyan’s center position, and now she’s trying to steal Fu Xinyan’s man? So it’s not a story of lovers turning against each other, but a story of best sisters fighting over love?”
“That’s so shocking.”
“No! You’re so heartless! I won’t allow Yan Shuo and Shen Ze to be together!”
…
What a mess.
Yan Shuo was half-comprehending and was about to turn it off when the sofa next to him suddenly sank and someone sat down next to him.
“What are you looking at?” It was Shen Ze.
Shen Ze is the lead singer of M.E.N. He has a beautiful voice, excellent vocal skills, and is a creative genius. However, geniuses often have unapproachable personalities, and Shen Ze is a typical example. He looks at people as if they are kneeling at his feet a hundred steps away from him. He glances down at you, giving you a condescending glance—
Yan Shuo admires this and even jokes on Weibo that Shen Ze might be from a certain royal family, so noble and aloof.
…I wonder if Shen Ze saw his second account.
Yan Shuo was a little embarrassed when his colleagues caught him secretly complaining about a colleague.
Thankfully, Shen Ze, as always, maintained his aloof expression. He said crisply, “Li Linjia asked me to change the Wi-Fi password, confiscate your phone, and block you from the internet.”
“Oh,” Yan Shuo readily handed over his phone. He had a spare one anyway.
However, after handing the phone over, Yan Shuo realized he had forgotten to close the page he had just been on.
Chen Ze glanced down and saw the line, “I don’t allow Yan Shuo and Shen Ze to be together,” followed immediately by, “You say no, so no? Chen Ze and Yan Shuo are made for each other. Let’s go to bed tonight!”
Chen Ze: “?”
Yan Shuo: “…”
Even more awkwardness.