Performance Preparations

"Huh? Music producer? When did this happen?"

"She seems really confident though..."

"Hey, isn't that the East Records logo? No way someone in our school has connections with East Records."

"East Records? Is that impressive?"

"East Records is China's most popular electronic music label, with multiple top 100 DJs. They are also one of China's largest, if not the largest label."

"Wait, so what's the connection between Tang Miaoyi and East Records?"

"Didn't she say she was a music producer? At this point, if you don't see the connection, you should take an IQ test."

"There's no way. She's just showing off and picked the most prominent way to 'prove' her words. Do you think someone at our school would be a prominent enough producer to be noticed by East Records? I'll bet she has no connection to East Records, and I even think she isn't even a music producer."

"It does seem a little strange..."

"Why would it be strange? Wasn't Lin Roufang at our school? He's on tv right now for "Street Dance of China." Why would having two talented people be any weirder?"

"She seems too confident to be lying."

"That logo looks pretty photoshopped..."

"My dad owns Nintendo. See, I sounded pretty confident, too."

"Who's T/A? I've never heard of them before."

"Couldn't you photoshop the logo easily? it's obviously a lie."

"Bro, don't just say my point but louder."

"..."

Within half an hour, the post had over 200 comments from students who were either following Miaoyi or redirected from Zhao Bin's initial post. While Miaoyi's other account enjoyed much higher ratings, it was still a large jump from her previous numbers.

The conversation mostly revolved around the validity of her initial post and not the controversy sparked by Zhao Bin, although it was brought up sparingly. Zhao Bin didn't have a great reputation amongst the students, as his pompous attitude attracted the ire of his classmates and anyone unfortunate enough to deal with him regularly.

The main arguments centred around the poster. However, very few students believed in the poster's authenticity. The remaining comments were either indifferent, with occasional commenters defending the sign and criticizing any doubters of Miaoyi.

About an hour after the post was uploaded, an account with the username "TMY_Guardian-Knignt_No.1" appeared, becoming a turning point in the discussion.

Post 547: Dear classmates, for details, please visit the official accounts of 'East Records,' 'Light Cloud Music,' and 'Damai Ticketmaster.' You will find the answers you seek. Below are three links; I'm posting them first.

Afterwards, three URL links were posted.

The chatter slowed as curious onlookers clicked on the links one by one. Like a lake after a storm, the waters stilled, for just a moment...

Then, all hell broke loose.

"Oh my god..."

"Oh my god..."

"I said 'Oh my god' first! Don't steal my lines!!!"

"Is anyone else praying to their phone rn?"

"MY MOM CAUGHT ME KISSING MY PHONE SCREEN!!!"

"I haven't clicked yet. What's going on?"

"It looks like it's true!"

"What? What's happening?"

"I'm so excited!!!"

"Huh??"

"Did Tang Miaoyi do this?"

"WHAT IS ITTTT?????"

"..."

"PLEEASSE TELLL MEEEE!!!!!"

"TMY IS COMING TO OUR SCHOOL!!"

"Why'd you have to ruin it?"

"How did our school get the Canxing Nova electronic producer of the year? (Side note, so T/A = TMY + Jing Qiuhua?)"

"Oh damn. No wonder they cancelled the performance. Would TMY even show up if the opening act was a talent show?"

"Nah, the school just wants extra money."

"I bet Zhao Bin wants to delete his post now haha."

"I still want to know if Tang Miaoyi did this."

"Wait, didn't Principle Zheng say that Tang Miaoyi was in charge of the entire anniversary celebration?"

"ahahaaha found 'internet celebrity Zhao Bin' do something like this? ahahahahhhah."

"Are you laughing, or dying?"

"Wait... Guys, TMY... Tang Miao Yi..."

"..."

"That's it, I'm done for today. I quit."

"You can't quit, You're FIRED!"

"You can't fire me, I QUIT!"

...

..

.

Meanwhile, after spending half an hour working on her three new songs, Miaoyi saved and exited the program. She had no interest in how well her post would perform, nor any interest in the online debates. She knew that some more intelligent people would piece together some information, but soon that information would be common knowledge anyway.

Besides, Zhao Ban was talking with no substance. Any of his words could be disproved in three seconds by either Miaoyi, Qiuying, Yun Jie, Light Cloud, East Records, Tianyou, Damai Ticketmaster, Song Ziyin or Tang Lina.

So Miaoyi wasn't worried about him anymore.

After closing her computer, she made a phone call, bypassing her cousin/homeroom teacher, Tang Lina, and directly contacting the School Affairs Office to request leave.

Of course, she only requested leave for herself. This time, the leave would be for a week and six days, while Qiuying would continue attending classes as usual.

The reason for taking this extended leave was quite simple.

In two weeks' time, the official debut performance for TMY was scheduled to take place. It was estimated that ticket sales would begin tomorrow through Damai, and Miaoyi needed to start preparing accordingly.

Currently, she only had a few songs to her name: "Fox," "Solo Dance," "Closer," and the unreleased tracks "Countdown" and "Levels." If you were to count the currently unnamed track made by Qiuying, it would add up to six, but Miaoyi didn't count it as her song.

Undoubtedly, each of these five songs was a rare masterpiece. However, the problem now lay with these songs. Aside from "Levels," ask yourself which of the remaining singles would be suitable for a live DJ performance?

Probably none of them.

"Fox" was an unfinished song that was much too short. "Countdown" was supposed to be a romantic song, so it was out. "Closer" was much too slow, and along with "Solo Dance," it had the wrong feel for a live performance. Both songs would need serious modifications if they were to be used in this setting, which usually made the song sound worse than the original.

So, it was unrealistic for Miaoyi to rely solely on these existing songs to complete her debut performance. It simply wouldn't work.

Ideally, a live performance would last between 20 to 40 minutes, with 60 minutes being the optimal duration.

Miaoyi had some serious work to do...

- - - - - - - - - -

Within the Weibo circle of Shanghai No. 7 High School, the influence of Miaoyi's post continued to grow.

At this point, it seemed that the entire school's online community were on the verge of exploding, except for Zhao Bin, who was still absorbed in his live stream and unaware of the events that had unfolded today.

The reason behind this frenzy was simply due to the profound implications of the post shared by Miaoyi...

On Weibo, a new trending hashtag emerged: #TMYIdentity.

This trending topic was initially created by a user claiming to be a Shanghai No. 7 High School student, who provided a detailed account of the various aspects of Miaoyi and Zhao Bin's relationship.

This night was destined to be sleepless...

The following morning, as many students arrived at Shanghai No. 7 High School, ready to start a new day of campus life, they immediately noticed something was different from previous days.

The most noticeable change was... the school gates had been removed...

That's right, both the east and west gates with their automatic barriers had been completely dismantled! In their place, a large poster had been hung.

It was the poster with the half-rusted letter 'E' embedded in a disc!

Furthermore, many poster stands, and unassembled metal frames appeared on the pathway leading to the school gates.

Although none of these poster stands had any advertisements on them yet, the scene was quite spectacular to behold.