My Years as a Backup in a Girl Group

[Pre-registration: We Love Being This Free and Happy] -Synopsis- [Title: Just curious, what's it like to be the less popular member of a girl group? Can you feel the popularity gap? Do you have to watch the popular members' moods? Any little idols want to answer anonymously?] After a late-night bout of the blues, Jiang Wenbai wrote an answer to this question through her tears. "A currently active, less popular member here. Our group has a bit of name recognition, but there's a big popularity gap within the group. For example, if the company forgets to release some content featuring one of the popular members, her fans might bombard every one of the company's platforms the very next second. But if it happened to me, people might not even notice the missing content, because we don't have many group fans, and I don't have many individual fans either." "You can clearly feel the popularity gap: where the cameras point, how loud the cheers are, the differences in our outfits, the way the staff treat us. All of that makes me feel how different I am from the other members." "But the members are very close. We didn't know the language well when we were overseas, went through one evaluation after another, and were split up and regrouped hundreds of times before we finally reached the threshold of debuting. Years of friendship can't be destroyed by these things, so there's no need to watch anyone's mood. If anything, the popular members take better care of me. They stand beside me and make sure the cameras catch me, and remember to bring me into the conversation when we're on a show." "But as the popularity gap grew, the fans stopped allowing them to interact with the other members. Even though we haven't been seen together or interacted publicly these past few years, we still get together for meals in private all the time." "As for why the popularity gap is so big, I think I can only look for the problem in myself. Maybe I don't have enough charm, maybe I'm not pretty enough, maybe I'm not talented enough. But I still have work for now, and I might stay in this industry for a few more years, so I'll work hard to improve myself. I hope that the next time we're seen together, people won't call me a has-been dragging everyone down!" Drinking had gotten her into trouble. When Jiang Wenbai woke up the next day, she found her answer trending, with the tag [Viral] beside it. She didn't dare click on it at all, afraid people might dig up clues that would lead back to her. Jiang Wenbai had made her happy debut as a girl group member in her first year of high school. She later realized she'd celebrated too soon: there was no idol market in China, and in the end, all performers switched over to acting. The older girls in her group were already at each other's throats, fighting over who would be the top young actress, while she'd spent ten years working for nothing and returned to being an ordinary person. But where there's a will, there's a way. Or, as they say, she got insanely lucky. In the middle of an industry-wide slump, she signed with a film and television company, effectively landing a secure job. She was even the company's only female artist. Jiang Wenbai went from being unwanted by both her parents to having the luxury of picking what she wanted to eat. The future that had once looked so bleak suddenly had a little light in it. Jiang Wenbai swore she'd become the company's cash cow, preferably one they could shake to death. She wasn't afraid of hardship. She was afraid of going back to how things were. "Even if the road ahead is as dark as the night sky, I still want to give it my all and become a dazzling firework in the night." -Tips- 1. There is a male lead. 2. [Career-focused] [Romance is secondary] No torturous, drawn-out romantic push and pull. 3. Lighthearted and funny. 4. If you care about whether the characters are each other's first, this isn't for you. ■Pre-registration: We Love Being This Free and Happy■ [Story's focus: friendship first, family second, romance third] [Ensemble cast] [Only one couple] [Passionate and youthful] At seventeen or eighteen, aside from studying, the only thing to pass the time at school is a little gossip. As it happens, four students at No. 22 High School fit the bill. One is a capybara girl who gets perfect scores in science, but whose English and Chinese grades periodically plummet. Another is the vampire heartthrob who comes first in the monthly exams every time, but gets a stomachache or headache whenever a major exam comes around. There's also the righteous girl, 173 centimeters tall and as beautiful as a celebrity, who can't take the arts entrance exam because her limbs won't get along until tomorrow. And then there's the guy who once said, "Seriously, I'll love you for ten thousand years." Hence, Ten-Thousand-Year Bro. "Hey! Your Ten-Thousand-Year Bro is here." Jin Lixing said, then looked at Yu Chuying and winked. Yu Chuying glanced at the person in the distance, rolled her eyes, and cursed at Jin Li: "Get lost." Jin Li had also heard that the girls in the junior high division had voted his deskmate the school's heartthrob. So the moment his deskmate arrived, Yu Chuying told him, "Hey, heartthrob, did you know you've been voted the school heartthrob?" The moment Shen Cangdong set down his bag and sat down, he started attacking indiscriminately. "You two head cases, don't come crying to me later and ask me to highlight the important English reading passages for you." The two head cases: "..." The four of them only ever hung out in their own little circle, completely unaware that their classmates considered them school celebrities. The kind of people who became the talk of the entire school as soon as there was even a little new gossip. Everyone at No. 22 High School is a blabbermouth! - "I love how free and happy we are like this, " "We only get one youth, so I refuse to have regrets." "Even if I died tomorrow, I wouldn't have any regrets." "Thank you for making my boring youth special." "I mean, long live friendship!" - Theme: Don't blame everyone else for every misfortune. Self-reflection is the path to growth.