Huayu: Starting with binding the front desk

Changsha, Tongshenghu Middle School, Grade 11 Art Class.

"Wang Zhe, let's go out and play together tomorrow?" Zhang Jingyi packed her schoolbag and turned around to look at the student behind her.

Wang Zhe shook his head: "I'm not free tomorrow, I have to go to an audition."

"Oh, I see. Then let's meet again during the next holiday..."

Zhang Jingyi was halfway through her sentence when she suddenly realized what she meant, her eyes widening in surprise. "Wait, what did you say? You're going to audition?"

"Yeah, is it really that surprising?"

Seeing her mouth slightly open and her expression of disbelief, Wang Zhe couldn't help but reach out and gently poke her forehead. "If you open your mouth any wider, a fly will fly in."

Zhang Jingyi was completely oblivious to his fingers messing with her forehead; her mind was still preoccupied with those two words—audience.

She stared at Wang Zhe for several seconds before squeezing out the rest of her words: "I just didn't expect... you'd be acting so soon. Are you the male lead?"

"It's just a minor supporting role; whether it will even pass the test is still uncertain." Wang Zhe smiled and didn't say anything more.

This audition opportunity was secured for him by his mother, Xu Ying—the Hunan TV self-produced drama "Whirlwind Girl".

The role he auditioned for was Hu Yifeng, played by Wu Lei in his previous life.

It was called an audition, but it was more like going through the motions. My mother's connections had already laid the groundwork for it.

This role is perfect for Wang Zhe right now.

The filming location was in Changsha, so there was no need to take time off work to travel to other places. The role wasn't very demanding, and the acting requirements weren't high either.

Moreover, he knew that the show would be filmed in two seasons. Although the second season was not as popular as the first, it was a perfect springboard for him to gain exposure and build a fan base at this stage.

More importantly, the show also has several popular OSTs, and as a reborn person, he naturally wants to acquire these songs in advance.

……

As expected, Wang Zhe landed the role of Hu Yifeng.

At the same time, his pre-written OST "Fireworks" was also selected by the director team.

The song "Past Life" was sung by Chen Xiang, who played Fang Tinghao, and successfully captured the hearts of many female drama fans, but he failed to win over Qi Baicao in the drama.

Thus, Wang Zhe's high school life became a series of parallel paths: completing his studies at school while traveling back and forth to the film set to participate in filming.

Xu Ying said, "Studies should be the priority now," but then she had Wang Yuejin set up a personal studio for Wang Zhe.

However, the studio's main function at present is still to manage the copyrights of the songs written by Wang Zhe.

At the current rate at which he's releasing songs, it's no longer realistic for Wang Yuejin to handle everything personally.

The couple originally planned to wait until Wang Zhe went to university before making these plans, but neither of them expected his progress to be so rapid.

All the changes stemmed from the 2015 Chinese Golden Melody Awards.

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That night, Wang Zhe took home two trophies—the Best Newcomer Award and the Best Lyricist Award for "The Wind Rises".

Even Wang Zhe himself was somewhat surprised at first.

The Golden Melody Awards are nominally the most prestigious awards in the Chinese music scene, but the organizers are based in Taiwan, and those in the know understand the ins and outs.

Later he learned that it was Penguin Music, which was behind his father, that gave him a push. As for how much resource exchange and benefit exchange were involved, Wang Yuejin did not go into details, and Wang Zhe did not ask.

As it turns out, the entertainment industry is ultimately just a "circle".

However, the Golden Melody Awards today are not as inflated and ridiculous as they have become in the past, and the two trophies are still highly prestigious.

The average listener might not pay much attention to a "Best Newcomer" award, but this award has genuinely made Wang Zhe well-known in the industry.

He went from being "the newcomer who sang 'The Wind Rises'" to "Wang Zhe, winner of the Golden Melody Award for Best New Artist".

After the Golden Melody Awards, Wang Zhe returned to the set of "Whirlwind Girl".

"Hey, our big star is back!" Bai Jingting shouted from afar.

Tan Songyun's eyes lit up, and she quickly came over: "Little brother, where's the trophy? Let your big sister see it."

Wang Zhe smiled and handed over the gift box containing the trophy.

Tan Songyun carefully opened it, couldn't help but exclaim "Wow!", and looked at it over and over in her hands.

Yang Yang walked over from behind, stretched out his long arm and put it around Wang Zhe's neck, his tone teasing like an older brother: "Hey kid, did you bring this here specifically to show off on set?"

"Brother Yang, Sister Songyun asked me to bring it." Wang Zhe said innocently.

After spending more than a month together, Wang Zhe has become familiar with several of the main actors in the crew.

Moreover, he was the youngest and it was his first time acting, so everyone took good care of him.

Yang Yang and Bai Jingting got along particularly well, and Yang Yang treated Bai Jingting like a younger brother both on and off screen.

Bai Jingting is still a relatively unknown figure in the Chinese entertainment industry, gentle and inexperienced. He still has many years to go before becoming the "King of Jokes" who frequently utters witty remarks on variety shows.

Yang Yang has only recently become a rising star among young celebrities.

The series "The Lost Tomb," which officially brought him fame, won't air for another two weeks. He doesn't yet know that he will be called "Prince Duan" and "Oil King" in the future. His eyes and brows exude a refreshing, youthful charm that he is unaware of.

Tan Songyun held the trophy, looking at it from left to right, and suddenly raised her phone: "Little brother, can I take a picture and post it on Weibo?"

Wang Zhe nodded: "Of course, Sister Songyun can take pictures if she wants."

……

On June 12, "The Lost Tomb" was launched on the Kiwi platform.

Li Moufeng, who became a sensation last year with "Swords of Legends," played Wu Xie. Coupled with the massive fan base of the original "Tomb Raiders" series, the show garnered over 100 million views in less than 24 hours after its release.

Capital witnessed for the first time the terrifying money-making efficiency of "big traffic + big IP", and the paid model of "watching dramas and paying for memberships" also started with "The Lost Tomb".

The "Four Big and Three Small" pattern of the first generation of top idols was officially formed in this year.

In comparison, Wang Zhe started a step too late.

Luhan and Wu, who both left EXO, already had a huge fan base, especially the former.

Li Moufeng and Yang Yang, on the other hand, reaped the benefits of IP adaptations, with works such as "Gu Jian Qi Tan," "The Lost Tomb," and "Love O2O"...

As for the "three little ones," their huge fan base, built up over many years, has a deep foundation.

At present, Wang Zhe is just a new singer who has made some achievements in music.

On July 7, "The Whirlwind Girl" premiered on Hunan TV's "Youth Time" weekly drama slot.

At that time, Yang Yang was very popular, and Hunan TV's weekly drama slot already had a group of loyal viewers, so the drama was a hot topic as soon as it started airing.

Riding this wave of popularity, Wang Zhe also gained a surge in followers.

When viewers discovered that the actor playing Hu Yifeng in the drama was actually the singer of "The Wind Rises," Wang Zhe's fan base experienced an explosive growth.

His Weibo followers have skyrocketed from just over a million to nearly five million.

Although most of them are still casual fans and music lovers, a considerable number of them have turned into true fans.

Because Wang Zhe is still young, "mommy fans" and "older sister fans" make up the largest proportion of his new fans, and the comment section is flooded with "baby" and "little brother".

The rapid growth of fans is naturally due to the current golden age of the booming entertainment industry.

However, the surge in attention has also brought some discordant voices.

Since Wang Zhe and the "Three Little Ones" are of similar age and belong to the new generation of artists, it is inevitable that they will be compared.

At that time, the term "four big and three small" was not yet fully used together.

Lu Han, Wu Lei, Li Yuchun, and Yang Mi are known as the "Four Greats," while TFBOYS are known as the "Three Littles."

Wang Zhe's fans, on top of that, forcibly added him in, calling it "Four Big and Four Small".

This immediately drew fierce backlash from the fans, who believed that Wang Zhe was simply trying to extort money.

The fighting power of a fan group that can directly confront the most popular EXO-Ls is self-evident.

Fortunately, Wang Zhe's fan base is predominantly older, with a large number of music fans and mothers; otherwise, a "primary school student war of words 2.0" would have been staged in a spectacular fashion.

However, this verbal battle also turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Wang Zhe.

Compared to the others, Wang Zhe's professional skills, whether in singing or songwriting, are clearly superior to those of the "Three Little Ones," which has attracted many casual fans to join him.

The online feud ironically became a catalyst for uniting fans, and Wang Zhe's fan base gradually took shape amidst this controversy.

Of course, in terms of overall scale, he is still quite far from those top-tier celebrities, but at least, his name is no longer an insignificant supporting character.

Wang Zhe's fans and TF fans had just gone through a war of words, and to everyone's surprise, the two stars were seen together in the same frame in the blink of an eye.