The younger generation, starting from where the wind blows...

Chapter 157 The Birth of the Square Dance Anthem
Soldiers are valuable and quick.

As soon as the welcome party wrapped up, Lin Shaotao rushed back to his dormitory.

By this time, Zhou Yiming and Jia Kuan had already roughly edited the two videos: the afternoon rehearsal and the evening performance.

Lin Shaotao looked it over and found no problems.

Zhou Yiming used the Sanrenxing Band account he had registered beforehand to upload the video to Youku.

In order to become an instant sensation, the three of them deliberately came up with a catchy title.

#A phenomenal cover of "The Lone Warrior" graces university welcome party, leaving the principal stunned! Those who saw it are blown away!#
In addition, Lin Shaotao also paid out of his own pocket to hire a group of online trolls to post advertisements and promotional videos of the trio's cover songs on various websites such as Baidu Tieba, Tianya, and Mop.

These were all leftovers from when Yang Muyi was promoting the cow/sheep mini-game. Lin Shaotao simply copied them and used them directly.

-

Alley entrance.

Sun Xin waved goodbye to Yang Tao, who was driving her home.

Yang Tao was driving her own car.

That G-Class was returned to Yang Muyi a long time ago.

After Yang Tao drove away, Sun Xin walked into the alley alone.

When I got home, my parents and grandmother were already asleep.

Sun Xin locked the door and returned to the small house she shared with her sister.

Considering that Sun Xiang is a senior in high school this year and needs to concentrate on his studies, Sun Xin specially bought two curtains and hung them in the middle of the room.

Once the curtains are drawn, the room is divided into two small spaces, so the two sisters won't disturb each other.

When Sun Xin entered the room, the lights were off.

After closing the door, Sun Xin tiptoed to the small desk, which was less than a meter wide, and sat down, turning on the desk lamp and laptop.

"Sister, you're back!"

A voice suddenly rang out, startling Sun Xin.

She turned her head and saw Sun Xiang sticking his head out from between the two curtains, his eyes looking at her curiously.

"What are you doing? Why aren't you asleep so late?"

"I can't sleep, I want to talk to you."

Sun Xin turned around from her chair.

"say what?"

Sun Xiang lifted the curtain and sat down in front of Sun Xin's bed in her pajamas.

"Did you see the guy who's been pursuing you at your class reunion today?"

"I met him. After graduation, his family arranged for him to take over the family business, and now he is the chairman of a large company."

"Regret it now, don't you?"

"You're asking for it, aren't you? You even dare to make fun of me?"

Sun Xin raised his hand, as if to strike.

Seeing that things were going badly, Sun Xiang quickly begged for mercy and apologized.

Actually, it wasn't that Sun Xiang himself liked gossiping; rather, Chu Xiaoyu asked Sun Xiang to help her find out.

Sun Xin recounted the entire class reunion to Sun Xiang.

Actually, there wasn't much of a process; she just showed up, toasted her classmates, and left.

"Huh? Then you wasted your 500 yuan dinner fee?" Sun Xiang looked distressed.

Sun Xin, however, was completely unconcerned.

Five hundred yuan was enough to expose the true colors of a group of classmates. To be honest, Sun Xin felt like he had made a profit.

However, Sun Xin doesn't want to talk to Sun Xiang about these overly realistic interpersonal relationships right now.

"So you haven't eaten a single bite of food and have been starving ever since?"

Sun asked again.

"How could that be? I already ate there beforehand. I went to the Yanjingmao canteen and had the popular braised pork knuckle rice. It was delicious. I'll take you there sometime when I have the chance."

"Sis, what you're saying makes my mouth water."

"If you're craving it, then work hard. As long as you get into Yanjingmao, you can eat it every day."

After Sun Xin finished speaking, she told Sun Xiang to go to sleep quickly, as she herself wanted to stay online for a while longer before going to bed.

Sun wanted to stay and refused to leave, so they forced a conversation.

"Sis, something's not right. You only showed up at the class reunion and left. Why are you so late coming back?"

Sun Xin turned around from in front of the computer screen and glared at Sun Xiang.

"I'm a grown-up now, and my parents don't care about me anymore. Do I need to report to you where I go?"

Sun hurriedly waved his hand to indicate that he did not mean that.

"I'm just concerned about you."

"I went to the welcome party for new students at Yanjing Business School this year."

Before Sun Xin could finish speaking, Sun Xiang exclaimed in surprise.

"Really?"

Sun Xin glared at Sun Xiang and lowered her voice, saying, "Keep your voice down, do you want to wake Mom and Dad up?"

Sun quickly covered his mouth and nodded to indicate that he understood.

Sun Xin then said, "Do you know what my biggest feeling was after watching the gala?"

"Missing your college days?"

"No, it's that I think I started college too early. College life now is much more exciting than it was back then."

Sun Xin was not exaggerating.

Not only her, but Yang Tao had the same feeling after watching the welcome party.

Yang Tao was even more moved than Sun Xin after watching Yang Muyi's final performance.

I was born before you were born, but when you were born, I was already old.

Of course, Sun Xin brought this up in front of Sun Xiang mainly to encourage her younger sister to get into Yanjingmao next year.

"Sis, was that party really as amazing as you described?" Sun Xiang asked with anticipation.

To prove her point, Sun Xin opened Internet Explorer and went to the Yanjingmao forum.

I originally wanted to see if anyone had posted photos or videos of the welcome party, but when I went in, I saw an advertisement posted on the forum by Lin Shaotao's hired online trolls.

Driven by curiosity, Sun Xin couldn't resist clicking the video link.

Thankfully, it wasn't a link to a Trojan virus, nor was it a redirect from a malicious website.

In July of this year, 360 launched its free antivirus software.

Before 360 ​​completely wiped out all those paid antivirus software, Trojan viruses were rampant online and impossible to guard against.

If one of those webpages that you can't close pops up on the screen in front of your sister, Sun Xin would be mortified.

Sun Xiang then leaned his head closer to the screen.

The videos on Youku load very quickly; it took less than half a minute for the video to be available to watch.

Lin Shaotao specially commissioned someone to shoot the video with a DSLR camera, which is considered a rare high-definition video in an era where most selfie videos are still only 360P.

The entire video is a single, uninterrupted shot of the stage, with no camera cuts. Only after Lin Shaotao and his two companions finished singing did the camera focus on the first row of the audience, capturing the expressions of the school leaders in the audience.

Sun Xin even paused the screen and pointed to the screen to introduce Sun Xiang, saying that this was the principal and that was the secretary of the business school.

"Sister, these three people are really bold to sing such a song in front of the principal."

"Yes, this Lin Shaotao is also the chairman of the business school student union, and he also fools around with his two roommates."

"Sis, will those three be punished?"

"Do you think they would dare to post the video online if they were punished? In high school, deliberately provoking the principal or dean of students might be a serious matter, but it's not that exaggerated in college. That's why they say the greatness of a university lies in its openness and inclusiveness."

Sun Xin showed this video to Sun Xiang in order to encourage her to work hard and get into university.

After hearing it so many times, Sun Xiang's rebellious streak was stirred up, and he muttered under his breath, "It's not as exciting as you described." Not exciting enough?
Row!
Without saying a word, Sun Xin turned back to the computer and searched for "Little Apple" on Youku.

I started out just to give it a try, but I didn't expect to actually find a video.

Sun Xin thought she had searched for the wrong thing, so she moved the mouse to the upper right corner, ready to click the "X".

A second before clicking the mouse, Sun Xin noticed the username of the video publisher.

Plastic brothers!

Realizing that the video content might actually be related to "Little Apple", Sun Xin released the mouse button.

Immediately afterwards, Sun Xin clicked on the video.

Xu Kaiyang and Zhang Kai appeared in front of the camera.

The video was probably taken in the morning, with the two people standing at the entrance of Yanjingmao School.

Xu Kaiyang was the first to wave to the camera:
Hello everyone, we are—

Zhang Kai, standing to the side, answered loudly:
"Old Boys!"

His voice was loud and clear, full of imposing presence.

Xu Kaiyang immediately turned his head and looked at Zhang Kai as if he were a lunatic.

"—The hottest imitators, Plastic Brothers!"

Zhang Kai followed with a barely audible whisper, barely able to finish the sentence.

Upon seeing this, Sun Xiang, who was standing to the side, chuckled and covered her mouth with her hand.

Sun Xin couldn't help but chuckle.

Neither of them dared to speak too loudly, for fear of waking their parents.

In the video, Xu Kaiyang stands with his hands on his hips, staring wide-eyed at Zhang Kai.

"While we may be the most successful group to imitate Old Boys, can't you have some self-respect? Everyone looks down on us—"

"But we're just not up to par!"

Zhang Kai weakly added a sentence.

Xu Kaiyang was so angry that smoke was practically billowing from his head, and he almost shouted out his next line.

"No one will support my lofty ambitions!"

“I can’t get up there myself,” Zhang Kai replied immediately.

Before he could finish speaking, Xu Kaiyang grabbed Zhang Kai's collar and gritted his teeth as he uttered the next line.

"Everyone is laughing at us!"

"And ironically, we're the funniest."

Xu Kaiyang went completely crazy, covering his forehead and waving at the camera.

"Cut this part out, or we can't record this video anymore!"

The video then rewound at 10x speed, returning to the beginning where the two were standing at the school gate.

Now, with two bright red handprints on his face, he stopped his pranks and obediently cooperated with Xu Kai to finish his lines.

The general idea is that people online now think they only became popular because they imitated Old Boys, and that without Old Boys they would be nothing.

Finally, Xu Kaiyang stated that he wanted to show everyone their true strength.

As they spoke, the two arrived at a public open space in a residential area next to the school.

There's a group of middle-aged women doing square dancing over here.

The music playing was "Above the Moon," currently the most popular song for square dancing.

Xu Kaiyang went up, and after a brief, fast-forwarded negotiation, he returned and announced to the camera that he had already discussed with the aunties there and they were going to have a fair square dance battle.

Whoever wins is the king of square dancing in this neighborhood.

"Didn't you say we could only imitate Old Boys? Today we're going to prove you all wrong for looking down on us and saying we can't do it!"

Xu Kaiyang had just finished making his tough remarks to the camera when Zhang Kai, who was standing next to him, started to sabotage him.

"No, do we really need to set the bar so high?"

Xu Kaiyang's face was full of disdain:
"What, are you chickening out?"

"No, I'm afraid I'll take too big a step and hurt myself."

After yelling "Get out!" at Zhang Kai, Xu Kaiyang said very seriously to the camera:
"A while ago, we filmed two videos with Old Boys, right? After enduring hardship, humiliation, and flattery, I finally got their new song from them."

He then took out a USB drive and proudly waved it in front of the camera.

Zhang Kai, who had been pushed out of the frame, ran back and grabbed the USB drive in Xu Kaiyang's hand with an expression of adoration.

"You really got Old Boys' new song?"

"Hahahaha!"

Xu Kaiyang imitated Stephen Chow's infectious laughter in the movie, and then said with a smug look: "That's right, Old Boys' new song is right here. They were originally going to wait until tonight's business school welcome party to officially perform this song."

My eyes lit up when I opened them.

"So if we release this song first, it won't be us imitating Old Boys, but Old Boys imitating us?"

Xu Kaiyang had a cigarette in his mouth, took out a picture of Old Boy, and imitated Little Ma's gesture of lighting a cigarette with US dollars.

The scene seamlessly switches to Chow Yun-fat's character Mark in the movie "A Better Tomorrow".

"I endured for three years, waiting for an opportunity. I wanted to prove myself, not to show off, but to tell people that I would definitely get back what I lost!"

The scene then switches back to the public open space in the residential area.

Xu Kaiyang and Zhang Kai were dressed in the exact same outfits as the "Old Boys" at the New Year's Eve party, and were accompanied by nine middle-aged women as backup dancers.

Even their positions are exactly the same as those of the "Sisters Who Make Waves".

Upbeat music started playing.

The "Plastic Brothers" and nine square-dancing aunties started dancing in perfect unison.

Every movement is a one-to-one recreation of the performance by the Old Boys and Sisters Who Make Waves at the welcome party.

Xu Kaiyang and Zhang Kai only mouthed the words; the original voices of the Old Boys were used when they were dancing.

For Sun Xin, who had seen the live performances of "Old Boys" and "Sisters Who Make Waves," this scene was simply an eyesore.

Sun Xiang, who was hearing the song "Little Apple" for the first time, actually found it very enjoyable.

A catchy, addictive melody, lyrics that are both corny and trendy!

Sun Xiang was still not satisfied after listening to it once, so he asked Sun Xin to drag the progress bar back and watch it again.

Without saying a word, Sun Xin immediately gave up her seat in front of the computer.

Sun can watch it if he wants; Sun Xin, for one, simply can't stand it anymore.

Sun Xin now only hopes that the live videos of Old Boys and Sisters Who Make Waves can be released online as soon as possible so that she can cleanse her eyes.

At the same time, Lin Shaotao, Zhou Yiming, and Jia Kuan also watched the video of "Plastic Brothers" in their dormitory.

All three of them had solemn expressions.

I thought I was fast enough in releasing the failed version of "The Lone Warrior," but I didn't expect others to be even faster.

Judging from the video content and the release time, all of this was clearly premeditated.

This is not a simple collaboration.

Plastic Brothers, who started by imitating and parodying, released "Little Apple" first.

This approach serves as both excellent publicity and pre-release promotion, and also uses a "competition to be worse" method to lower the excessively high expectations that people had for Old Boys because of "The Lone Warrior".

Once the official version of "Little Apple" is released, they can then use the girl group dance from "Sisters Who Make Waves" to divert attention and boost its reputation.

This will minimize the negative reviews and controversies surrounding the song.

In Lin Shaotao's view.

Yang Muyi used "Plastic Brothers" as the lower horse, "Old Boys" as the middle horse, and "Sisters Who Make Waves" as the upper horse, playing a brilliant game of "Tian Ji's Horse Racing" (a strategy involving strategic maneuvering between two opposing forces).

At the same time, it taught me a harsh lesson.

(End of this chapter)