Chapter 19

When they arrived and saw the place, they were sorely disappointed.

The platform for the commercial performance was extremely crude and so small that it could barely fit a few people, leaving no room for dancing at all.

They arrived early, with some time still to go before the event started.

They had planned to rehearse and run through the proceedings first, but the staff ignored them completely and gave them no chance to rehearse.

All they could do was wait.

As they waited, the event was postponed at the last minute.

They waited from afternoon until evening, and by the time their stomachs were growling, someone finally brought them boxed meals, seemingly with reluctance.

The meals came in foam containers and were cheap and skimpy.

Just looking at them killed their appetites.

There was nowhere to settle down backstage, either, so the group found a clean spot and sat down to eat in the dim light, surrounded by equipment strewn all over the place.

After two bites, Jiang Yu frowned and tossed down his chopsticks. "I'm full."

Xu Linyuan could tell at a glance that he was sulking and tried to coax him. "Come on, eat."

Making the best of a bad situation, he imagined the future. "Maybe once we're famous, we'll even miss these hard times."

"No way. Definitely not."

Gu Zhijing gave a faint, mocking smile and snapped his disposable chopsticks in two with his fingers. "Where's Brother Fei? I'll go ask him if we can go out and get ourselves something extra to eat. As long as we're back in time, it should be fine."

Their partners clearly didn't care much about them anyway, so they probably wouldn't mind.

Jiang Yu said, "Wait for me! I'm coming too!"

Gu Zhijing nodded. "Come on, let's go find Brother Fei together."

Fei Yue was speaking with the person in charge at that moment.

Their partners really weren't good ones. They kept hemming and hawing over the contract without signing it, hadn't paid the deposit, and then, after Color4 arrived, changed their minds at the last minute and demanded additional content.

But the fact was, they were nobodies right now.

Fei Yue rubbed his brow, swallowed his resentment, and said politely, "Mr. Wang, we agreed on everything before we came. We're only obligated to perform, not to play games with your people and promote your products."

The event had been postponed because a singer their partners had booked had suddenly stood them up.

Fei Yue had sensed something was wrong, and after looking into it a little, he discovered there was a problem.

As it turned out, this wasn't just a commercial performance. They had also concealed their intention to have Color4 join the host onstage for some rather excessive, malicious games designed to attract attention, so they could promote their products.

The person in charge was a middle-aged man. He smiled. "People like you? Don't talk to me about obligations."

Fei Yue said, "What do you mean?"

"Go ask around. Does anyone even know who you are?"

"You say you're a boy group. What's a boy group? You wiggle your hips, sing, and dance. Everyone knows that. Do you really think you're some high-and-mighty superstars?"

Dreams, dignity, the meaning of being a boy group.

In their eyes, it was all worthless.

They were just entertainers selling smiles.

Fei Yue had been speaking calmly and politely, but his expression changed at once.

He paused, then repeated the man's words. "People like us?"

Fei Yue raised an eyebrow, his voice turning cold. "What kind of people are we?"

"As it happens, you've been dragging your feet and still haven't signed the contract, so that saves us the trouble."

"We won't consider working with a partner who doesn't respect us again."

As Fei Yue left, he heard the man shout after him, "Who cares! Who do you think you are-"

Fei Yue didn't even look back.

When he returned to Color4, he was ready to apologize, tell them he'd made a mistake in his work, and take them away.

But he found that all four had already packed everything up, as if they were waiting especially for him to come back.

Some things could be endured, and some things couldn't.

They knew that better than anyone.

In the dusty, cluttered backstage preparation room, the young men were as clean as light breaking through the dust.

"Let's go home, Brother Fei."

They said.

Chapter 22

Color4 had left without hesitation, but once they were back, they couldn't help feeling a little uneasy.

They were afraid that if their partners had any connections in the industry, they could trip them up at any time and make their path even harder.

But a couple of days passed, and there was no sign of any trouble.

Instead, they unexpectedly received an invitation to the City D Autumn Music Festival.

When Fei Yue came to tell them about the schedule, Sheng Chi's expression shifted slightly. "A music festival?"

D City's autumn music festival was fairly well-known in the industry, and quite a few bands and singers attended every year. He didn't know why they had invited an unknown group like theirs this time.

"Business is bad this year, and there's not much money to be made at music festivals, so a lot of people turned it down."

Fei Yue said, "And I heard the organizers want to change direction this time and include more than just mainstream musicians. They invited a few other boy groups besides us, but unfortunately, the pay was too low and they all refused. We're the only ones left."

For Color4 as they were now, making money wasn't essential. Getting exposure was.

Besides, Sheng Chi and Jiang Yu were both the type who would give their lives for the stage. Let alone being paid too little, they'd go even if they had to pay for it themselves.

Gu Zhijing came over with a candy in his mouth and glanced at the time. "Huh? Six to eleven in the evening? Doesn't that overlap with the broadcast of our episode of the music show?"

"Oh, right."

Xu Linyuan sighed softly, a little regretful. "I really wanted to watch our episode when it aired."

"We can watch the show whenever! But lots of bands and rappers are going to this music festival!!"

Jiang Yu counted through the other bands and groups on the invitation one by one, his eyes shining. "We have to go! Maybe we can even get their autographs!"

And so the matter was settled.

Everyone in Color4 was exceptionally excited about the new job. The only problem was that D City was relatively far away, so they had to fly out a day early.

So before they left, Gu Zhijing reluctantly went to pet the kitten he'd brought home.

"Little color, we're going now. I've asked our assistant to come look after you, so don't forget to miss us."

In the end, the cat's name had simply and bluntly been settled as color.

The reason was that Gu Zhijing had said that when they appeared on camera with the cat in the future, they could make the corny joke: "Hello, everyone, this is color, and we're four. Only the four of us and the cat together make Color4."

Gu Zhijing clung to the cat as he said goodbye, looking just short of curling up there and becoming a big cat himself.

Sheng Chi's eyelids twitched as he watched. He hauled him away. "Let's go."

-

The autumn music festival held in D City this time was considerably larger than in previous years, and the stage was grand and beautiful.

During the day, there were mainly flash performances, DJ sets, a creative market, and some on-site entertainment.

The musical performances by bands and singers didn't begin until after six in the evening, marking the climax of the entire festival.

During a break in the backstage preparations.

Jiang Yu watched one well-known senior musician after another pass by and couldn't help trembling. "I don't think we deserve to perform here."

"Don't overthink it."

As Sheng Chi got things ready, he asked, "What number are we?"

Gu Zhijing glanced at the list. "Seventh."

Sheng Chi froze for a moment.

Generally, at an event like a music festival, the later an act performed, the better; it meant they were there to anchor the show.

A group with little fame like theirs would usually be used to warm up the crowd.

Getting a slot around the middle, like seventh, meant Fei Yue must have put in a lot of effort.

He thought for a moment and said, "That's good."

He clenched his hand. "We have to do our best out there."

At six that evening, the lively autumn music festival began.

In an instant, the atmosphere caught fire.

The audience members who came to the music festival were generally quite supportive.

Whether or not the band or singer onstage was one they liked, and whether or not they were famous, the audience would cheer along to the music. They were mainly there to enjoy the musical atmosphere.

Gu Zhijing had thought it would be much the same when they went onstage.

This performance was also very important to them.

Although it wasn't their first, there had only been staff in the audience when they recorded their first stage.

No audience, no applause, no cheers.

This time, they could finally perform before the public.

But when the host announced Color4 and they came onstage, a different kind of commotion broke out in the audience.

"What? Who's this?"

"Never heard of them. Looks like a boy group?"

"Oh-idols."

"Tch, you can tell just by looking. Four sissies."

The crowd below buzzed with discussion. Someone whistled, and boos immediately filled the venue.

Gu Zhijing clenched his slightly trembling fingers.

It was different.

This wasn't what he'd imagined.

Only then did he belatedly realize that, at a music festival dominated by rock bands and underground rappers,

a boy group was like an alien species that didn't belong.

The audience looked down on them and disdained even to appreciate their performance.

Onstage, Jiang Yu and Xu Linyuan didn't look too good either.

Only Sheng Chi kept his eyes lowered and said nothing, calmly continuing to adjust his microphone as usual.

The people below were still heckling them.

Some even began shouting the names of other domestic idols, asking if they were planning to dance to xxx's choreography and how they thought they compared to xxx, before bursting into malicious laughter.

Color4 had no fans.

There wasn't even anyone who knew them.

Everyone was susceptible to herd mentality, more or less.

At a time like this, no one would speak up for them.

Gu Zhijing closed his eyes, swallowed his anger, and returned to his position. He was preparing to do his best to finish the performance once the music started when he suddenly heard a woman's voice from the audience.

"If you don't want to watch, get lost. If you know you're a fucking idiot, shut up."

"All you can do is run your mouth down there. What's so impressive about that?"

The entire venue was stunned.

The girl had another band's support merchandise on her, so she had clearly come for someone else.

But she searched for a long time through the crumpled program in her hand, made an effort to find their name, then looked up, cupped her hands around her mouth, and shouted, "Color4, go!"

Gu Zhijing froze.

Then someone beside her, who seemed to be her friend, shouted too. "Color4, go!"

Encouraged by them, more and more people began shouting Color4's name.

They didn't know them or how good they were. They were simply giving them the respect they deserved as members of the audience at a music festival.

Onstage, Gu Zhijing listened to the calls of "Color4, go!" rising one after another from below.

An unprecedented current of warmth seemed to pass through his body, so hot that both his heart and fingertips trembled.

Sheng Chi finally finished adjusting the equipment.

He turned to his teammates. "Are you ready?"

"If you're ready-"

The corner of his mouth lifted, fighting spirit flaring in his eyes. "Then let's begin."

Chapter 23

A music festival stage was very different from the stage where they'd previously recorded their music-show performance.

The sound equipment at an outdoor venue certainly couldn't compare to an indoor setup. Even at a large-scale event like the City D Autumn Music Festival, the live sound capture couldn't be perfect.

So every tiny detail could become a factor affecting the integrity of a performance.

Secondly, a music festival was live.

Bands and singers had extensive experience performing live. They had played countless in-person shows and spent a long time getting in sync, so they had the confidence and ability to handle any unexpected situation.

But Color4 couldn't do that yet.

Color4 had debuted less than half a month ago and had only performed onstage once. They had no live experience at all.

Besides, as an idol group, they weren't like bands and singers, whose responsibilities were clearly divided.

They had to sing and dance at the same time.

That was why many idol groups were reluctant to perform at music festivals.

Leaving aside the low pay and hard work, it was an inherently high-risk undertaking.

Although it was a chance to gain experience, if they slipped up and the performance became a train wreck, they could easily be mocked and become a permanent