Chapter Four: The Propaganda Campaign

Early morning, a quiet and beautiful campus.
"Let's begin."
"These are the promotional data for the debut album. Currently, all songs from the album are in the top ten on all platforms." With that, Xiaomin turned on the TV. "The promotional activities are also proceeding smoothly on various platforms. They are currently the most popular group."
The students in the debut class were secretly delighted to see their photos on TV and be called a "popular group." "In addition, the poster distribution and operational promotion have kept the online buzz going." The screen suddenly changed: "Macarons," "Dolais is the best!" "I will always love Purple Queen!" Many fans held up signs with their idols' photos and waved them, laughing. The students in the debut class in front of the TV squinted, their lips curving upwards. Nine youthful and lovely faces were like nine lively and vibrant flowers, blooming freely in the spring of Fei Meng Academy.
"This promotional offensive is amazing!"
"The school will also do its utmost to support the debut class. You must seize this opportunity and work hard," Vice Principal Olivier said earnestly.
"That concludes the meeting report. Thank you everyone."
"Okay." The students left the classroom one after another, leaving only Xueyan behind.
"Is there anything else, Ning Xueyan?" Xueyan seemed to have something on her mind, as if she had been preoccupied with something lately.
"I don't understand why, in the debut class, only our schedules at Dores are constantly changing." Xueyan said through gritted teeth.
"So?" Oliver asked coldly.
"I don't understand why our schedules are always scheduled with Melody's. Can't we have our own stage?" Xueyan was still agonizing over this.
"Are you afraid of Melody and the others?"
"No way," Xueyan pouted and said disdainfully, "Qiao Kexing and I are not even on the same level." Xueyan always felt that she was very capable, and that being paired with someone like Kexing would be a waste of her talent.
"I don't understand why we are always being compared?"
"I understand. You can go back now."
Xueyan calmly went back, but a trace of dissatisfaction lingered in her heart.
"No need to say anything more. I've already made up my mind."
We sat in the classroom, habitually opening the Fei Meng Assistant. Suddenly, we were drawn to a bunch of colorful things. What were these?
"These are the rankings of the debut class's albums,"
"Macaron is eighth,"
"Purple Queen is fourth,"
"First place is Dorex."
"Everyone's album rankings are so high," I said enviously. I really envy the debut class, but the principal made us come to this pre-debut class.
"Let me see."
"This is like scouting the enemy."
"I'm so envious."
"Our album is still in production."
"This won't do, I'll ask the principal about the progress." Why are other people's albums out, while ours is still in production?
"Where is he?"
I was about to push open the door when I was suddenly startled. The principal was outside doing his morning exercise. "Running is definitely the best thing to do early in the morning."
"Principal Gao Wei!" We tried to get him to stop.
The principal fell to the ground with a thud.
He suddenly stood up again.
"Okay, let me stretch again."
"Principal, our album..." I wanted to take advantage of his stretching to ask about the album.
"Album,"
"Don't worry, you'll see it soon." The principal was stretching and didn't have time to answer.
"Really? The album's already made!"
"This is our first album!"
We were looking forward to being like the students in a debut class, charting, attending autograph sessions, surrounded by a huge fanbase, and shouting, "I'll always love My Melody!" Mom and Dad sat on the sofa, cracking sunflower seeds, watching us on TV with satisfaction.
"It should be here soon. Look, it's over there."
As they spoke, Jinghao slowly pushed a handcart over, panting.
"A handcart?"
"He just pushed the album over like that?"
We thought it was a bit unbelievable.
"No way."
"Principal, why didn't you call a courier?" Jinghao was a little tired.
"No, no, I'm training you, kid."
"The album's promotion should be all set up, right?"
"TV, radio, and definitely online promotion too."
"Now we can chart too!"
We were immersed in wonderful fantasies.
"Nothing's right,"
"Take a good look at this handcart,"
the principal's words shattered our illusions,
"This is for you to promote it yourselves."
Promote it yourselves?
“Listen carefully,” the principal continued, “We’ve used up all our budget to produce this album. In other words, we don’t even have a single bit of budget left for promotion.”
“What kind of situation is this!” Pinky suddenly yelled.
I shooed Pinky away with the album in my hand.
“Then what should we do, Principal?”
“You’ll have to rely on yourselves.” The principal’s answer was unexpected.
It seems the entertainment industry is truly unfair!
“Why don’t the debut group have to promote it themselves?”
“Yeah, at most they’ll attend a signing event.”
“It’s all my fault. I’m just a poor principal with no ability, so I can’t help you promote it!”
We
said dejectedly. The principal continued, “But I wholeheartedly want you to become the best group. You have to believe me!”
As he spoke, tears streamed down his face. This was the first time I’d ever seen him cry!
“I understand, Principal, please don’t cry!” I said, tears welling up in my eyes as well.
Song’er’s tears also flowed down her cheeks.
"Alright, we still have to do our promotional work." The calm and collected Shiyu couldn't stand this sentimental scene.
Shiyu pulled the cart in front, while Song'er and I pushed from behind, like pulling an oxcart on a farm.
Jinghao, seeing our pathetic state, felt a pang of sympathy: "I'll go help them." I felt a glimmer of hope.
"No, they have to do this themselves."
The principal's words completely dashed our hopes. " That's so kind of
us
."
"Yeah, yeah."
Song'er and I saw the debut group's albums displayed in the record store.
They were all placed at the very front, along with beautiful posters!
Shiyu wondered what Song'er and I were looking at.
"Look!"
"The debut group's albums are all at the front!"
"And so many promotional posters!"
"This is amazing!"
"This is incomparable!" Shiyu exclaimed.
Pedestrians hurried past, noticing our cart.
"What is this? A roadside stall?"
It's definitely not on the same level.
"Let's go, we still have to do promotions."
I glanced back at the albums: "So many, can we distribute them all?"
"This task is too difficult."
Shiyu habitually picked up her notebook again: "According to my analysis, we each need to distribute two hundred copies to get all the promotional albums out."
"Two hundred?" Hearing such a large number, we were both startled.
"Okay, then I'll give it my all. It's just two hundred copies! I'll definitely distribute them all!" I thought to myself, since there's no other way, let's accept reality and try our best!
“Once you hear our songs, I think everyone will love our album!” Song’er started to “think positively about everything.”
“Me too,” Shiyu also became optimistic.
“Let’s all cheer up!”
We put our palms together, raised our hands in the air, and jumped up.
“Go, go, go!”
Go, Melody!
We then split up and went our separate ways to promote the album.
I walked several streets and found that nobody wanted our album. So I thought, I’ll give them to my parents.
“Dad, Mom, I’m home!”
I rushed home carrying a big bag of albums.
“Kexing, why did you come back so suddenly this time?”
“How have things been lately, my big star?”
To be honest, not so much. Preparing for debut… But my only goal is to give the album to my parents, so let’s not say too much.
I pulled the album over hard, “Look at this!”
“Melody’s freshly baked album!”
“That’s great! I didn’t expect you guys to release an album so quickly. That’s wonderful, wonderful.” My mother was moved to tears. "Dad is so touched." Even my usually calm and collected father said this.
It seems Mom doesn't know about Macaron, Dores, Purple Queen, and their album yet. High rankings, promotion on major platforms, the store is already overflowing with them… and posters too. Me…
"Then I won't be polite."
"Wait…" They don't know I'm promoting the album!
"This is Melody's most important first album, Mom and Dad will definitely support it wholeheartedly, right?"
Mom and Dad nodded with smiles.
"Okay, please accept all of these." I stuffed the albums into their hands.
"That's too many!"
There are two hundred copies!
"You can give them to your friends!"
"Don't forget to promote it for us!"
"Thank you, my daughter."
"Thank you then. I still have to promote it!"
"I'll go now, goodbye!"
Mom and Dad smiled.
I smiled and said goodbye to them too.
"Hello, Teacher Nanfei." Song'er probably felt her album wasn't popular, so she thought she'd give it to the teacher; maybe he'd help promote it.
"It's you, Yang Song'er. Your debut performance was great!"
"Thank you."
"Um, teacher, this is our first album."
"That's wonderful! It's my pride as a teacher that my student released an album!"
Perhaps Teacher Nanfei didn't know about the debut class.
"Then please send these out, teacher." She handed the teacher a large bag of albums.
"What, so many?"
Two hundred albums!
"Song'er, give me one too." Teacher Caiwen wanted her album as well.
"I'll prepare a special lesson to promote My Melody."
"Really?" She thought to herself, someone is helping her promote it.
"Thank you, Teacher Caiwen."
"It's nothing, I'll be going now."
"Here, I'll take one, I'll take the rest."
"No way, wait, you can lend a hand too, Teacher Caiwen." Teacher Nanfei couldn't carry two hundred albums.
At the bustling street corner, two students sat on a bench, leisurely drinking beverages. Shiyu arrived. "Long time no see."
"You scared me."
"It's Shiyu. It really has been a long time. What's up?"
Maybe her return was too sudden.
"I have something to tell you, we released an album!"
"Congratulations!"
Shiyu walked to a bulletin board with My Melody's information on it. "I think you all know how much potential My Melody has. Qiao Kexing, who was at the bottom of the class, and me, and Yang Song'er actually debuted as a group as first-level trainees. You could say that My Melody's future is incredibly bright. This time, our first album is limited to only 500 copies, which is extremely precious." She was clearly trying to "brainwash" the two classmates and get them to accept her album. The two classmates were completely confused.
"So, you want one too,
right?" "Here you go. You're welcome."
After saying that, she ran off. The two classmates "accepted" her album.
"We didn't say we wanted one."
But there are still so many left to distribute.
We gathered together at Sister Lena's shop to think of a solution.
Shiyu came up with the idea of giving away free gifts, and we all agreed.
So Shiyu tried to snatch my favorite Feiyang group poster.
We started a tug-of-war.
"No, no, this is really not allowed! This is a rare, limited-edition Feiyang poster!" I was looking forward to Junyu's concert! How could I let someone take it away so easily?
But Shiyu was strong, and she pulled it away: "The better the free gift, the more attractive it will be. It's a form of promotion, you know?"
I tried my best, but Shiyu still managed to snatch the poster away. "Song'er, what did you prepare?"
"This is my treasured dessert voucher. What about you, Shiyu?"
"The limited edition album for the 7th anniversary of the Four Seasons group," Shiyu said, a little reluctantly,
"That's my favorite."
Shiyu loved the Four Seasons group the most. She always thought they were amazing and popular, and she loved their songs and performances. But for this "promotional campaign," she still had to "reluctantly give it up."
"It's all that principal's fault! No way, I'm going to go settle the score with him!" Shiyu was furious, thinking, why do we have to promote the album ourselves? We can't even promote it, and we still have to "sacrifice" something we love.
"Calm down, Shiyu, don't be impulsive." Shiyu's sudden impulsiveness was a bit much for me too.
"Who's talking about me behind my back?"
The principal heard it.
But where were we going to promote it?
We walked and walked until we came to the base of a shed. I thought, this is the perfect place to promote. So we started promoting it here.
"Hello everyone, this is our Melody album, and it comes with a valuable gift!" A large crowd gathered around, and the albums were all gone in no time. Shiyu's method really worked.
"Finally all gone!"
"Our promotion was pretty successful!"
"Even though I sacrificed my voucher." Song'er was still a little reluctant to lose something she liked. They'd given out all the singles records, so what was this little thing?
"We got Fei Yang's poster!" Just as we were happy, we suddenly heard a sound. I looked, and there they were—the people who had just gotten the albums!
"How come?"
We went closer and saw that the trash can was full of our albums, all sorts of colors.
"Our albums?
It seems everyone took the freebies and didn't want our albums anymore. Are our songs that unpopular? "
We went back to school.
"How did the promotion go?" the principal asked us.
"No way, there are still so many left?"
They threw all our albums into the trash can.
"This is absolutely terrible! Do you want these to be Melody's last albums?"
"No, no," we hadn't thought that, we just had no other choice.
"We promoted very seriously." “
Stop talking,” the principal said, not wanting to hear our explanations.
“The facts are clear: if this continues, when will the audience ever recognize My Melody?”
“We still have so many left! What are we going to do?”
“I don’t want them all to end up in the trash.”
“Everyone, please take a look at our album! The singles are really good!”
We had no choice but to resort to this crude method.
“Please take a look at our debut album!”
“We are the My Melody group!”
But passersby hurried past, ignoring us completely.
“What do we do? They seem completely indifferent.”
Shiyu rushed to the riverbank, like Columbus discovering a new continent.
“I suddenly had an idea! Why don’t we perform somewhere?”
So we walked over to the stage.
“This seems to be a public stage.”
“I’ll ask Jinghao to come and help as a guest host.”
I was about to approach Jinghao when… “Who are you?”
I looked up and saw a woman, probably in her thirties, wearing a floral dress and with short blonde hair. She was holding a guitar and seemed to be a singer with a beautiful voice. "The performance is about to start." "
We're the new group Melody, and we'd like to perform here too. We'll also promote our album."
"Promote?" The singer rolled her eyes, then gave a dismissive smile. "You can perform on TV, but this isn't your stage."
"What do you mean by that?" Shiyu felt it was very impolite. "Besides, we were here first." Song'er and I nodded.
She took a few steps forward: "Here, are you capable of performing live?"
"We've been practicing, of course, no problem." "I feel like she looks down on us, making it seem like we're useless. Even though our popularity is a bit low, we debuted as first-level trainees and even won first place in our debut performance at a music festival. Surely we can sing live, right?"
"We might even sing better than you, sister," Song'er chimed in.
"What?"
"What did you just say?"
Song'er realized she'd said something wrong and quickly hid behind Shiyu.
"There's a performance!"
"Let's see!"
Passersby came over. It would be so embarrassing for us to fight here!
"A performance?"
"It's about to start."
"There's no fancy stage or effects here; it's not suitable for you at all."
"No matter the stage, it's all the same. Once we're on stage, we'll give it our all and show our best." We quoted all the lessons Jinghao had taught us.
"All you can do is lip-sync and move a few times—what good are you? Really." She glanced at us.
But her next words filled us with anticipation: "It's almost time for my regular performance, so you can give me the stage. I'll formally introduce you later, and you'll prove yourselves with your performance."
"Okay," Shiyu said, "I guarantee you'll be amazed."
"Okay, I'll wait and see. See you later, Melody."
After a whole day of hard work, and this mess at the end...
Her voice was indeed beautiful, clear and ethereal yet steady and sweet, captivating the entire audience. The delicate and lingering guitar accompaniment was like a cup of fine tea, very memorable.
"Thank you everyone. Next up is a special performance prepared by the new group Melody."
"What? A new group?"
"Do those newbies even have the ability to sing live?"
"I don't want to see them lip-sync."
"Everyone seems unwelcoming of our performance!"
"What if they all leave?" "
Should we skip the show?"
"Nobody wants to watch us."
"Melody, do you want to give up the performance?" A familiar voice came from beside me.
We looked up and saw Chu Jinghao!
What was he doing here? Jinghao always showed up at crucial moments.
“But nobody here wants to see us perform,” I told him, confiding in him about our situation.
“That’s the difficulty of a roadshow; it’s different from a stage performance where there’s already an audience. That singer probably wasn’t noticed at first either, but she didn’t give up. She worked hard little by little, eventually turning passersby into fans. If you give up now, you’ll lose people who might have become your fans.”
We felt that Jinghao was right. We had experienced something similar at the Baozi Festival and during the stand-in rehearsals. At first, nobody knew us and wasn’t very optimistic, but later everyone liked us, didn’t they? Someone at the Baozi Festival even wanted our autograph. Maybe if we perform well, people here will be surprised, and maybe someone will ask for our autograph! And maybe all these albums will be gone! “That’s right, it’s precisely because nobody will listen that we need to promote.”
“I want everyone to hear our song.”
“Let’s go on stage!”
So we went on stage, changed into the “Sunny Flower Rain” series outfits we won at the last music festival, and sang our new song, “Happiness Sense,” full of positive energy. "Who are they?"
"They seem to be some new group."
Someone said that as soon as they came up. I think everyone will like this song. Precisely because no one knows us, we should sing the melody of My Melody's happiness even more!
"Their voices are quite stable."
"The song is good too."
Even the singer from before said, "This kind of performance, how many days and nights must they have practiced?"
Jinghao is over there promoting our album.
Pinky exclaimed, "Come and see, this is My Melody's album!"
"I want one!"
"Give it to me, I want one too!"
There was no Feiyang poster or Four Seasons album included. No dessert vouchers. Nothing else that would interest people. But everyone was scrambling for our album. It seems everyone was attracted by our singing. This time, the album won't end up in the trash.
"Don't rush."
"My Melody?"
The singer couldn't believe his eyes. Just as Shiyu said, he was very surprised.
"Thank you everyone."
It was getting late. We sat by the roadside, the cool evening breeze blowing on us, making us feel refreshed. "That was awesome! All those promotional records were gone in a flash!" It was Pinky's voice.
"That's really great."
The singer walked over.
"You three did a great job."
"Thank you for giving us this opportunity."
"We really learned a lot."
"We're so sorry about what happened earlier."
We all bowed.
"It was all because I looked down on you first, we're really sorry. Consider this an apology."
We looked and saw a set of Nightfire Diamond brand "Hunting Beauty" Fimengka, full of passion and energy. We really loved it!
"Go Melody!"
We had to give a gift in return, but what should we give? I had a brilliant idea, our album! Maybe she'd help us promote it!
"Please accept our album," Shiyu said.
"Okay. Here's my business card."
"Record shop." "I'm planning to put your album in my shop. That way it'll help you with some promotion. How about that?"
Great! So that shop by the roadside was related to her?
The next morning, we went to the record shop to take a look.
Look, they had our album and posters! This way, more people will see it!
"Look at our rankings." Our album actually made it into the top 100! I can't believe it!
Luckily, we didn't give up on performing back then. "We have to work hard, and one day this place will be filled with our albums!"
Jinghao said. "They did a good job this time."
The principal said, "This way, they'll understand how grateful they are to be liked."
"Could it be that everything was planned by you?"
"You're only realizing it now?"
The singer suddenly popped up: "No way, isn't this all thanks to me?"
At school. "Wait, Ning Xueyan."
"Sorry, Vice Principal, I already stopped her." Xiaomin was helpless with Xueyan.
"It's okay. Tell me, what does Ning Xueyan want with me?"
Xueyan threw out the Dorles album. On the album cover, Lin Lili and Dai Jiali, as well as the background color, were unchanged, except that Xueyan in the center position had been replaced by Xia Ling. "Why did someone take my place?"
"That's a simple question, because I removed you from the list." Olivier said coldly.
"What exactly happened?"
"What's wrong? Isn't this the result you wanted?"
"What did you say? I didn't!" These seemingly innocuous words pierced her heart like a steel needle.
"Didn't you say you wanted your own stage? Now, please start looking for your stage again." Actually, she just didn't want to perform with Melody; she felt it would "tarnish" her perfect girl image.
"No, I just don't want to perform with Melody," she began, but was interrupted by Oliver before she could finish: "By the way, Melody's been promoting her album lately. Why don't you start from scratch like Melody?"
"Melody, it's Melody again!" Xueyan trembled with anger at the mention of that name.
"Of course, you've also been removed from the debut class."
"Sorry, you've been demoted to a trainee."
It felt like two knives were plunged into her. "Trainee? If that's the case, I might as well leave school."
She walked out the door and bumped into Lily and Carrie. She glared at them angrily and walked away without looking back.
"No way, Ning Xueyan is really leaving school?"
Despite encountering so many people along the way, she remained the same as before, like a proud swan. But deep down, she couldn't maintain that pride.
"What happened? And where's Xia Ling?"
"Yeah, we haven't seen her lately."
And Xia Ling was about to become the new captain of Dorles.
Xueyan got into Uncle Lin's car. Uncle Lin said, "Miss, are you really giving up like this?"
"This kind of childish dream, I was just playing around with it anyway." Clearly, it was sour grapes.
"But, Miss..."
"Let's go."
Tears streamed down Xueyan's face, but she covered her eyes, not wanting anyone outside the window to see her vulnerable side. She pretended she was just asleep. In front of others, she always wanted to be an elegant and proud swan.
The car drove further and further away, until it faded into the boundless blue sky. And Xueyan's "elegant" figure grew ever more distant...