"Title: Speculation/Is it the new boy group from Random Entertainment?"
"Someone saw Yao Shuo, Gao Xiayu, and five androids playing basketball together on the rooftop of the dormitory building, but there were seven extra people, whose figures didn't resemble assistants."
"The number seven matches the recent rumors, which we thought were just rumors, but it seems they are true."
There have always been rumors that Random Entertainment is preparing a new boy group, but the public tends to disbelieve it, as Random Entertainment has already launched so many groups in a short period. Currently, they have three girl groups and two boy groups, and managing them all is already a challenge, let alone introducing a new group.
But today, a video was leaked, and the situation is different now.
"Whether it's a new boy group or not, where was this video taken from?"
"Reply: From the building opposite the factory, where the lights are still on, and everyone hasn't gone home yet. The upper floors can see Random Entertainment's side."
"This post just came out, and the fan club is already set up. You superfans are too quick."
Just a video leaked, and even the number of members and who will eventually debut is uncertain, yet someone on Weibo has already set up a fan club named 'Random Entertainment New Boy Group National Fan Club.'
They posted three Weibo updates: the first was the establishment of the fan club, the second was a lottery, and the third was the video that was leaked today.
"Adding this makes it six groups. Can Random Entertainment handle it?"
"I'm not worried about Random Entertainment's operations, just worried if they can steal fans from the other groups."
"If they can play basketball together, it means they get along well. Could it be the countdown members again? They haven't been seen in recent public performances. Could it really be them?"
Random Entertainment had just finalized the debut lineup and wasn't ready yet, but was prematurely exposed by a video.
Yao Shuo, who woke up and scrolled through Weibo, saw the trending topic and his first reaction was that they were going to get scolded.
This winter in Beijing, the sky hasn't been clear for a few days, and neither have they escaped scolding.
Yao Shuo threw his phone aside and lay back in bed, deciding to pretend he hadn't seen it and continue enjoying his day off.
But just as he adjusted to a comfortable position, someone knocked on the door.
"Yao Shuo, gather in the practice room." It was Gao Xiayu at the door.
"Five minutes—" Yao Shuo resignedly got out of bed.
He put on a short-sleeved shirt and casually grabbed a jacket from the hanger at the foot of the bed.
After quickly dressing, he went to the bathroom to wash up, and before leaving, he opened the door for the person outside.
It was Gao Xiayu who called the meeting, but Chi Qiao slipped in, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. "We're trending on Weibo again."
"But nothing's been said in the group chat," Pei Luming said, wearing a thin jacket with the hood on his head, leaning on Chi Qiao's shoulder and nervously scrolling through his phone.
Usually, if they did something wrong, their work group chat would already be tagging them, asking them to gather downstairs for a scolding.
Today, it was unusually quiet.
Yao Shuo, who was brushing his teeth in the bathroom, looked up and spat out the foam before saying, "It's just a game of basketball."
As they said, it was just a casual game of basketball late at night, but such ordinary actions could lead to many things, like this game causing the company's unannounced new boy group to be prematurely exposed.
But such things are unavoidable; they can't stop all private interactions or leisure activities.
Still, they worry about being scolded by the company for this incident, and the five of them are a bit on edge.
Different reactions to the same event.
Jiang Wangran and the others, who live downstairs, saw the trending topic on Weibo when they got up in the morning and read comments saying that the fan club for the new boy group had already been set up.
He directly screenshot it and sent it to someone he's close with in Flos Datur, congratulating them on trending.
In his opinion, this is a good thing. Pre-debut hype is much better than a sudden debut.
The seven members of Flos Datur also saw the trending topic after waking up and checked the work group chat.
"Manager: Gather in the practice room at ten."
After seeing this, they felt a sense of foreboding.
Around nine-thirty, the seven of them were already sitting in the practice room. There was a dance class in the morning, and everyone was smartly warming up in front of the mirror.
Ke Youming, the leader, had a lot of responsibilities. While the others were warming up, he sat at the back, looking troubled, thinking about how to explain to the manager when he arrived.
"Alright, gather."
The practice room door suddenly opened, and the manager appeared without warning. He strode in, his gaze lingering on the seven of them.
Their manager was tall and burly, with a stern appearance, always serious and strict with them.
Seeing him enter like this, the seven little wolves tightened their skins and stood in a row in the middle of the practice room, lowering their heads obediently.
"Did you play basketball after your practice yesterday?" The manager asked, glancing at the seven of them, finally stopping his gaze on Ke Youming.
He didn't scold them for playing basketball at night or getting photographed; instead, he asked, "How did you divide into teams?"
"..."
The seven of them, who had been looking down, finally looked at each other. Ke Youming hesitated and said, "We were a team of seven, with Chen Wu as the referee, and the other two joined Gao Xiayu's team."
"Did you win?" The manager lifted his eyelids and looked at Ke Youming.
"We played for two hours... it was a draw."
The manager chuckled, "Hmph, you still weren't tired."
He flipped open the folder and looked at today's schedule. "You have four hours of free time after tonight's acting class. You might as well not rest. After the English class next door, I'll call the teacher over to give you an English speaking class."
"Boss, we're still pretty tired..." someone muttered in protest.
The manager closed the folder and looked at them, laughing and scolding, "Tired? You started class at twelve yesterday and went until midnight. After that, you played basketball for two hours. What's there to be tired about? If you were tired, you should have gone back to the dormitory and slept after practice. I see you're not tired at all."
"But don't worry, I'm not that heartless. Yesterday's classes were all dance, vocal, and free practice. Oh, and you played basketball for two hours."
"Today, let's take it easy and just exercise our brains." After saying that, he opened the folder and handed today's schedule to Ke Youming.
Ke Youming took it and glanced at it, his legs almost giving out.
Four hours of dance class, two hours of English class, two hours of math tutoring, two hours of acting class, and four hours of English speaking class.
Someone else leaned over to take a look, and just seeing the first two lines of English and math classes, he closed his eyes in pain, as if pretending not to see it.
The manager clapped his hands and straightened up the discipline, stopping their complaints. "Alright, warm up a bit and get ready for class; the teacher will be here soon."
The seven members of Flos Datur didn't have time to enjoy the excitement and joy of trending on Weibo; they were thrown into the sea of learning.
Those who like to speculate and follow new stars were excited, guessing who the new boy group from Random Entertainment might be.
The one-minute video, blurry enough to only see silhouettes, identified people based on details.
"No need to guess about the one from 'Tou Ao Tou'; even a passerby like me knows that's Yao Shuo."
"Who's the pink-haired one? Does Five Androids have someone with dyed hair?"
"The pink-haired one looks like my bias... but I dare not confirm."
"The tall guy next to 'Tou Ao Tou' should be Chi Qiao; he's close with Sang Mo."
"There's one that looks like Ke Youming, but I dare not misidentify."
"Who's Ke Youming?"
"Reply: Like Jiang Wangran, he's an airdrop, except Jiang Wangran debuted through an airdrop, and Ke Youming made his public performance debut. He became the most popular trainee after the first month-end evaluation and has the highest card price among the trainees."
"There are a lot of trainee fans in the comments."
"I don't recognize any of the current trainees at Random Entertainment."
"I stopped following the trainees after the five androids debuted, but I've heard of Ke Youming's name. They say he's handsome, a lead dancer, a lead vocalist, eighteen years old, one hundred and eighty-eight centimeters tall, a genius trainee."
In that video, there was a guy whose figure resembled Ke Youming's, which suddenly stirred up excitement among Ke Youming's fans.
The Weibo fan group usually has no more than one or two messages a day, but today everyone surfaced.
"Is it really Ke Youming?"
"It looks very much like him... but no one dares to say for sure."
"Ke Youming hasn't appeared for two months."
"Random Entertainment didn't have any public performances during the winter break... waiting is so painful."
"We can only wait until the end of March for the public performance. If Ke Youming isn't there, does that mean he's in the debut group?"
"Or maybe he was eliminated (just kidding)."
"Random Entertainment, you damn kidnappers! I recognized my child at a glance! Give my child back to me! Let me see my child!"
"I think it's Ke Youming. The one next to him, who's a bit shorter, isn't that Gao Xiayu, and the one wearing work pants isn't that Chi Qiao."
"Now that you mention it, it seems true."
"So the Golden Triangle is all in the debut group?"
Regarding the news of the new boy group, Random Entertainment hasn't disclosed a single word to the public.
Everyone still doesn't know what the group's name is, nor do they know what the current status of the debut group is—whether the number of members has been finalized or if there will be further eliminations.
A video with unclear figures can push the new boy group to the hot search, showing just how much curiosity the public has about Random Entertainment's idol groups.
Riding on this heat, Random Entertainment's official Weibo, which usually only acts as a forwarding machine, posted a message.
"@Random Entertainment: The long-awaited Random Entertainment group variety show is here! Any artist or employee under Random Entertainment can participate—hurry up and sign up!"
The reactions in the comments were quite different from the main post.
"Sister, did you go to the wrong place?"
"Did you get lost while slacking off at work, sister?"
"You should post this in your company's work group, why post it on Weibo? We can't sign up."
"You're as foolish as ever."
"The winner can get an 880,000 RMB cash prize and a month of paid vacation?!?!"
"I get it, you're giving us time to join Random Entertainment, right? Okay, I'm coming now, send me your company's email, I'll send my resume right away!"
Random Entertainment's official Weibo only has fans of the company's artists following it.
Usually, its comment section is filled with various rights protection content, and it's rare not to be scolded.
Sometimes, if the forwarding is a step late, it will be reprimanded by the fans. Today, they finally posted an original Weibo, but they were still scolded.
This variety show, prepared for Random Entertainment's fourth anniversary, started four months in advance to warm up. Posting it on Weibo was also to use a big megaphone to shout, so that the artists who wanted to participate could free up their schedules in advance.
After seeing the poster and understanding the situation, the fans started to have fun in the comment section again.
"Teacher, our Jiang Tang is busy on set in June, you should look for someone else. You can just transfer the 880,000 RMB to our Jiang Tang's card directly."
"Teacher, if our Jiang Tang can stand in the middle, I'll sign her up for our Tang Tang. If not, forget it."
"Teacher, our Fu Ximing is not available at that time. Do you think I'm okay? I'm not after the 880,000 RMB, I just want to experience the working environment of my husband's company."
"I advise you to delete it. It's not that I'm breaking down, it's a friend of mine. Really, a friend of mine thinks that giving 880,000 RMB for a company outing is a bit much. Not me, it's a friend of mine who thinks so. There's no other reason, it's just that my friend doesn't work at your company. If so, give her an offer, and I'll say some good words for you."
"My friend also said that to you. She's young, give her an offer to slap her face, please, I'm begging you."
"Everyone is making friends out of thin air."
"Can cleaners participate? I saw you're hiring cleaners, can an eighteen-year-old apply? There shouldn't be an age limit for cleaners, right? Or I can be a parking lot manager, I'm good at registration and gatekeeping, my mom says I'm best suited to be a gatekeeper!"
"Woof!"
"There's an illiterate above, woof woof woof!"
The news of the group variety show was posted on Weibo to inform the fans, and the company employees and artists were not left out, with an internal announcement also issued.
Jiang Tang and Zhai Ke'er were on set and didn't have time to check the message. When they finished shooting and turned around, they found the staff all looking at their phones and no one came over to touch up their makeup.
The assistants, who arrived a step late, quickly put away their phones and draped down jackets over them.
"What's going on?" Jiang Tang's dog nose caught the scent of gossip.
Jiang Tang's assistant's eyes lit up and quickly took out her phone to show her, "Sister! The company's group variety show! Both artists and employees can participate, and the first prize is an 880,000 RMB cash prize and a month of paid vacation!"
"How much?!" Jiang Tang and Zhai Ke'er both let out high-pitched screams.
The two of them huddled together, reading word by word, and after confirming that it was a company notification, their eyes lit up.
Jiang Tang quickly turned back to ask her assistant, "Do I have any schedule in late June?"
Zhai Ke'er also quickly asked.
"Sister, you can't, you're on set at that time, your fans have already said you can't go."
Zhai Ke'er's heart shattered at this moment.
"Sister, you can't either." The assistant said and turned the phone to show Jiang Tang. She had a business event on the day of the company's variety show shoot.
The two of them were thus far from the 880,000 RMB.
The operation team of Floristin was also excited. Their original plan was to prepare for their debut with the goal of November this year, but it would be a pity not to show up at such a big event as Random Entertainment's company outing.
The internal notice had just been released when the person in charge hurriedly got up from their seat.
"Go ahead and start the meeting, I'll be right down, I'm going upstairs to see Jiang Producer now."
-
In the morning, it was Random Entertainment's new boy group on the hot search, at noon it was Random Entertainment's variety show on the hot search, and in the afternoon it was Random Entertainment's Timetrain album planning on the hot search.
Netizens couldn't help but sigh, Random Entertainment's brand really has a lot of heat.
This winter break, they've been like clockwork, with a hot topic in the morning and another in the afternoon, feeding the marketing accounts and entertaining the public.
Seeing Timetrain on the hot search, Ling Cheng leisurely sat back at her desk, leaning on her chair and flipping through their official Weibo.
After starting work, she hasn't paid much attention to Timetrain's schedule for a long time. Except for the occasional encounters with Pei Luming at the company, which made her feel like she was back in her youth, most of the time she couldn't muster up the enthusiasm to follow the stars.
"Let me see..."
The planning between the various groups is confidential, Ling Cheng works in the operation group of Equals3, and she can't know the planning of Timetrain's side, so she can only wait for the official release like the outside netizens and fans.
From the hot search topic, she knew that today's announcement was about the album configuration, and it seemed to be related to "The Strange Country," otherwise the heat wouldn't be so terrifying.
She didn't have the patience to read the main content, and the comment section was all controlled reviews, so Ling Cheng directly switched to the forum to see what they were saying.
"Title: Gossip Discussion/As long as the five of them don't break the law, 'The Strange Country' can guarantee them a lifetime of wealth and honor."
"The aftermath of last year's VR glasses is still lingering. At that time, the VR glasses plus the album cost how much? This year, the second-hand price of VR glasses has reached tens of thousands, and even can't be bought."
"I thought this game should be unable to squeeze out any more wool, but it was still found by sjyl."
"Directly grasping my lifeblood..."
"Those of you who haven't raised cats or dogs are in luck!"
Comment section:
"The cat I raised in the game is modeled after my own cat, even down to the shape of the paw pads and the color spots, but my cat didn't make it recently... If I could see Mianmian come to life again, I wouldn't hesitate to buy ten sets of exclusive items, let alone just one."
"I knew there would be a follow-up to the projection cards!! Random Entertainment really knows how to maximize profits!"
"I know Random Entertainment's planning is all for sales, but this is much more sincere than other companies that release hundreds of cards with each album. It's no wonder Random Entertainment is so popular."
"What do you mean? I still don't quite understand."
"Reply: This time, the cards come in three versions: official, self-defined, and pet-defined. Meaning, official projection cards, self-uploaded photo projection cards, and projection cards featuring cats and dogs from the mysterious land for players."
"Once the link was activated, the sales of the mysterious land version skyrocketed. I've never seen anything like it in all my years of being a fan—two thousand sales in just one minute."
"Random Entertainment's sincere planning is why I spoil them so much. I really love it."
"It seems that all the imaginative planning comes from the five androids' team, huh? Are the five androids still under the management of Jiang Producer now?"
"The LP version also includes self-designed dolls. It seems like the LP version is more cost-effective."
"So the sales of the five androids are going to break records again. Today's sales are already higher than the same period last time."
"Every time I think the fans of the five androids are about to disappear, their sales figures wake me up."
"I won't run away this time. The quality of this album is really good, so I'm turning back."
Ling Cheng looked around for a while and finally understood. She glanced at her colleague who was busy packing up to leave work and asked, "Have we finalized the album configuration for the next one?"
"Ah? The design? I just talked to the graphic design team about the concept. The design will take a few more days."
"No, I mean the configuration."
She pulled her colleague back to their desk and began to count on her fingers, "Look, Timetrain's albums, previously with VR glasses, now with self-defined projection cards, and the big IP of the mysterious land. AIcho's albums are even more impressive, with magazine bundling items, not just albums but also small gifts. Our albums are too focused on the album itself, lacking creativity."
The colleague across from her: "..."
Several other colleagues who were about to leave also picked up their bags and said, "We can definitely think about it, but not at this time. We're already off work. Can we go home first? We've been in meetings all day, our butts are sore."
Ling Cheng let go of the sleeve she was holding, "Go ahead, go home. We'll talk about it when the boss comes in tomorrow!"
Striving and internal competition are the hallmarks of the AIcho Team. AIcho's debut is like a catfish thrown into the river, not only giving Timetrain a sense of crisis, prompting them to change their album configuration plans on the fly, but also making the Equals3 operations team, with their different operational strategies, vigilant.
AIcho's magazine bundling item strategy makes each album release pique the curiosity of female fans, making it a long-term plan.
Timetrain's operations team also thought of the big IP of the mysterious land and didn't forget to bundle it with their plans.
So what about their Equals3 team?
In the elevator, several members of their team discussed how to stimulate fans' purchasing power with their albums.
After all, for the brand, these traffic-driven artists' most important reference data is sales.
Jiang Juyou: I support you all in competing fiercely.
