Redemption

Announcement: The novel will be available for purchase on September 1. Three chapters will be posted that day, for a total of 9,000 words. Thank you for your support.

Blurb: The six-member girl group To Dawn Coming (TDC), which became a top-tier star group right after debut, was reduced to four members after the leader fell in love with the group's lead dancer and left. Rumors ran wild, and countless fans left.

As the group's only remaining main vocalist, Qi Yang has won countless fans since debut with her beauty that blends East and West, her cool and sweet personality, and her powerful stage presence. The one thing haters pick on is that Qi Yang's status as the group's most popular member is supposedly thanks to a wealthy sugar daddy, with hints that her private life is a mess.

Because of this, Qi Yang is often compared by the group's three remaining members' fans to Lu Ningzhu. Both are TDC members, but Lu Ningzhu comes from a distinguished family and has a gentle, easygoing personality. She's the group's resident fairy and is practically immune to rumors. Fans therefore speculate that she's dating the current leader, Su Yuexi, and that this is why she hasn't left the group. The Su-Lu ship soon trends on Weibo.

The ever-gossip-hungry media camp outside TDC's company building, hoping to confirm whether the two are really dating. Instead, they catch Qi Yang going out to buy rice noodles for her wife.

Media: What do you think of the reports that Su and Lu are dating?

Qi Yang: Keep your shipping within the fandom. Don't project it onto the idols.

With that, she leaves, giving the media only a proud, aloof silhouette.

Qi Yang's indirect denial quickly sparks plenty of debate online, and a rare ship is born: the Qi-Lu ship.

Later, when TDC disbands, all four members make sweet public announcements on Weibo that same day. But what shocks the fans most is that the Qi-Lu ship is actually real, stunning all the ship fans. Even the Qi-Lu fans, who'd kept their shipping within the fandom, never expected their idols to do nothing for ages and then deliver a feast the moment they finally did. They all say, "I ship it! I ship it! I get it now."

Cool, sweet younger main vocalist x gentle, slow-to-warm older lead dancer

The younger one is the pursuer at first; later they switch roles.

Happy ending, sweet little story, entertainment industry, girl group

Note: The characters are entirely fictional. Please don't associate them with real people.

Author's Weibo: Xiang Chao Arthur

Theme: Redemption is a process of spiritual cleansing. Only by leaving behind your reckless former self and embracing the future can you find happiness amid a life of splendor.