Huayu: Starting with binding the front desk

In the summer of 2014, Wang Zhe's mini-album was officially released on Tencent Music.

With the encouragement of his father, Wang Yuejin, and the fact that the lyrics and music of "The Wind Rises" and "The Remaining Summer" were indeed of high quality, Penguin Music internally rated this mini-album as S-level after listening to the final version.

After obtaining the entry for "[Succubus]", Wang Zhe recorded it again before its release, and the final product was a step up from the original.

However, at that time, Wang Zhe was not famous at all.

The so-called pre-release promotion is nothing more than a new song banner and a recommendation on the top chart homepage—this amount of exposure is just a drop in the ocean compared to the platform's overall resource pool.

Even so, Wang Zhe was already very satisfied.

He knew very well that if it weren't for his father Wang Yuejin's connections, no matter how good the lyrics and music were, he wouldn't get any preferential treatment in terms of publicity resources.

Then, the advantages of the mother, Xu Ying, also began to come into play.

Although she is currently only the head of the film purchasing team, she is familiar with many film and television companies, so it is only natural for her artists to help promote the films.

As an employee of Hunan TV, she naturally knew He Jiong, a pillar of the station. Although they weren't in the same department, He Jiong's reputation as a kind-hearted person in the entertainment industry wasn't for nothing, and he readily agreed to help out.

It was through this gradual accumulation, coupled with the high quality of the lyrics and music themselves, that word-of-mouth spread quietly and organically.

"The Wind Rises" broke out of its niche early on, like an unexpected gust of wind blowing into the summer of 2014.

Tencent Music reacted quickly—after "The Wind Rises" topped the new song chart for two weeks, it was immediately featured on the splash screen and added to Tencent Music pop-ups.

The effects of investing resources at this level are immediate.

Over the course of the summer, Wang Zhe went from an unknown newcomer to a somewhat famous new singer.

  

He then opened a Weibo account and gained 500,000 followers.

In this year, 500,000 is a genuine number of active fans. Although most of them followed him because of his songs, at least Wang Zhe's name is no longer "unknown" in the entertainment industry.

At this time, the "Big Four and Small Three" pattern in the Chinese entertainment industry was still in its infancy.

Wang Zhe wondered if this young man who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere would rewrite the landscape of history.

……

Just after the Spring Festival in 15, Wang Zhe was dragged back to his maternal grandmother's house in the mountain city by his mother, Xu Ying.

Wang Yuejin carried large and small bags of gifts and walked ahead with Xu Ying.

Wang Zhe followed behind the two at a leisurely pace, his head down, staring at his phone the whole way.

This year, WeChat red envelopes became incredibly popular on Lunar New Year's Eve, and Wang Zhe also started using WeChat. As a reborn person, he still prefers to chat on WeChat.

He is currently chatting with Zhang Jingyi.

Her favorability rating has already risen to 75, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to improve it further, as if it's stuck.

"Wang Zhe, hurry up!" Mom urged from ahead before she and Dad went into the apartment building first.

Wang Zhe responded verbally, but his steps remained slow and leisurely, and he didn't even raise his head.

When he reached the entrance of the building, the couple had already gone upstairs.

As soon as Wang Zhe stepped into the building, he bumped right into a girl who rushed out from inside.

"Ouch!"

The girl covered her forehead and took a step back, somewhat annoyed, saying, "Can't you watch where you're going?!"

Wang Zhe rubbed his forehead, which was sore from the impact, bent down to pick up his phone, and looked up at the girl opposite him who was standing with her hands on her hips and glaring at him. He felt that her face looked strangely familiar.

"You talk like you're the one who sees the road, the wicked one is the one accusing others first." He looked down to check his phone and saw a crack on the corner of the screen. He cursed his bad luck inwardly.

"Who are you calling the guilty party? Kid, get out of my way."

Seeing that he was not very old, Tian Xiwei was too lazy to argue with him. She reached out and pushed him aside, then ran out of the building in a hurry.

Wang Zhe looked back at her retreating figure, feeling utterly bewildered.

Little brat? You're almost 1.75 meters tall, and you're still growing, okay?

And he's clearly half a head taller than her now, yet he calls himself a little kid?

But this girl's face... why does it look so familiar the more I look at it?

Wang Zhe shook his head, unable to recall and too lazy to think about it anymore.

He glanced down at the crack on the screen again, his lips twitched, and when he looked up, the person was already gone. He had no choice but to put his phone away, turn around and go upstairs, accepting his bad luck.

Little girl, don't let me see you again.

……

After lunch, Wang Zhe curled up on the sofa and played on his phone.

There are only a few mobile games these days, and Honor of Kings hasn't even been released yet, so he can only play Temple Run to pass the time.

Just as I finished running a run, the doorbell rang.

Grandma poked her head out of the kitchen: "Xiao Zhe, stop playing on your phone and go see who's here."

"Oh, okay, Grandma." Wang Zhe got up to open the door.

As soon as the door opened, a clear female voice floated in: "Aunt Li, my mom made some cured pork, she asked me to bring some over for you..."

Halfway through her sentence, upon recognizing who opened the door, Tian Xiwei's signature sweet smile froze on her face.

Why is it this little brat?

Wang Zhe leaned against the door frame, his expression a half-smile.

"It's Xiaotian, come in and sit down!" Grandma's voice came from inside the house.

Wang Zhe stepped aside, making room for the doorway, and said with a smirk, "Come in."

Tian Xi gave an awkward laugh and called into the house, "Aunt Li, I won't sit down, I'll go back first."

She put the cured meat in the kitchen and turned to leave.

"Xiao Zhe, do you still remember Xiao Tian?" Grandma's voice rang out slowly. "You two used to play together when you were little."

Wang Zhe nodded, his gaze falling on Tian Xiwei's face, his smile deepening: "Of course I remember, we even greeted each other downstairs this morning. Right?"

Tian Xi paused slightly, turned around and glared at him, but still had to keep a smile on her face.

Wang Zhe finally understood why that face looked so familiar—the one who bumped into him that morning was none other than Tian Xiwei, the 95-born actress and representative of sweet girls in the Chinese entertainment industry.

In his mind, the system's notification tone also sounded at the right time:

"A bindable object detected. Bind?"

"A host has already been bound to an object, with a current affinity level of 75. You cannot bind again. You can prioritize binding to increase affinity, but no rewards will be given."

Without saying a word, Wang Zhe first established a binding.

I glanced at the favorability rating—0.

Is this a system issue? Are you serious?

"Oh, okay. Xiaotian, why don't you take Xiaozhe out for a walk? Don't let him stay at home playing on his phone all the time," Grandma said, looking at the two of them.

Wang Zhe looked at Tian Xiwei and blinked: "Is it okay?"

Tian Xiwei met her grandmother's smiling face, then looked at Wang Zhe's innocent expression, and could only force a smile: "Of course."

……

In the neighborhood park, Tian Xi tilted her head slightly and glanced at Wang Zhe, then asked, "Kid, are you Aunt Li's grandson?"

Wang Zhe nodded, then raised an eyebrow: "Kid? I admit I'm not very old, but you don't seem to be that much older than me, do you?"

"I'm turning 18 this year, and you're still in high school, right? What else should I call you but a kid?"

As Tian Xiwei spoke, she gestured to her chest, "Back when you were following me around, you couldn't even reach this far."

Wang Zhe watched her gestures and silently nodded to himself – she's developing well.

As for his childhood, he really couldn't remember anything, but he did play with a little girl at his maternal grandmother's house in his previous life.

But he didn't expect that this person was Tian Xiwei. He seemed to remember that she had bullied him before.

He took a step forward, looked down at her slightly, and smiled, "But I'm taller than you now, aren't I? Besides, you're only two years older than me."

The distance between them suddenly closed. Tian Xi stared at his face for two seconds, then abruptly took a step back: "Why are you so close!"

She coughed lightly and waved her hand casually: "As for what happened this morning, I'll let it go since you're Aunt Li's grandson."

"Huh? You're not going to hold it against me?" Wang Zhe almost laughed out of anger, just about to bring up the phone screen issue...

"Yes, you don't need to apologize anymore, I forgive you." Tian Xi waved her hand generously, her smile sweet and self-righteous.

"Okay..." Wang Zhe swallowed his words.

Tian Xiwei suddenly remembered something and muttered to herself, "Hmm, your name is Wang Zhe... Hmm? Wait, your name is Wang Zhe?"

"What's wrong with my name?" Wang Zhe was a little puzzled as to why mentioning his name would elicit such a strong reaction.

Tian Xi patted her head, her eyes lighting up: "What a coincidence! I've heard a song by the same singer, Wang Zhe, called 'The Wind Rises,' have you heard it?"

After listening, Wang Zhe patted his head in imitation of her, his expression very sincere: "That's such a coincidence—I just released a mini album last summer, and there just happened to be a song called 'The Wind Rises' in it."

"Wow, what a coincidence..."

Tian Xiwei stopped midway through her sentence.

Her eyes widened suddenly, staring intently at Wang Zhe, and it took her a while to realize: "Wait, you're Wang Zhe?"