Chapter 12: Mud Swamp

"This is my home. It's a bit simple, so you'll have to be wronged for a while." Miss Luo Quan opened the door and took off her shoes.

"You live in Tokyo alone?" Wen Xia pulled her suitcase in and asked curiously.

Miss Luo Quan walked into the bedroom, turned on the air conditioner, and said: "Originally I lived with my mother, but she went traveling to some small island in the Pacific recently."

"Do you want to drink Coke?" Miss Luo Quan opened the refrigerator, took out two cans of Pepsi, held them in front of her, and asked.

Wen Xia waved her hand: "Mineral water is fine. It's easy to get fat if you drink Coke."

Miss Luo Quan curled her lips: "I drink it every day, and I'm only 100 pounds."

Saying that, she changed one of the colas in her hand to mineral water and threw it to Wen Xia.

Wen Xia glared at Miss Luo Quan angrily: "You just want to anger me! Wait until you grow to 150 pounds one day, see if I don't laugh you to death!"

Miss Luo Quan finished the Coke and burped, saying: "By the way, you haven't told me about the matter I asked you before."

"What matter?"

"It's why you suddenly quit the group. I heard you were quite successful as the captain of this girl group, with 30 million fans in China and even entered the world's top 100 beauties."

"Couldn't go on in South Korea, so I naturally came back." Wen Xia put down the water bottle and lowered her voice slightly: "I heard from a friend around March that the above is going to limit Korea, and it won't be long before all Korean groups and individuals are prohibited from conducting activities in China. And it's not just idol stars; even Korean dramas and movies are going to be banned for the most part. The intensity is beyond imagination."

Miss Luo Quan was not too surprised, because she also experienced this incident in her previous life.

The timeline of this world was basically the same as her previous life, but there was a slight difference in the specific date, ranging from two or three years to two or three months. And the date of the release of the limit-Korea order in her previous life happened to be September 2016, which was only a few days away from now.

"But this shouldn't have a particularly big impact on you." Miss Luo Quan still couldn't understand: "For a Korean girl group, shouldn't the biggest market be in South Korea? As long as the fans in South Korea buy your account, it will be fine, right?"

"The limit-Korea order is just one of the reasons. Actually, there is another main reason." When it came to this, Wen Xia suddenly became shy.

Miss Luo Quan asked in surprise: "What's wrong with you? Continue."

Wen Xia's face was flushed: "If you say it, you can't mock me. I haven't told anyone about this!"

"We've been friends for so many years, would I mock you?" Miss Luo Quan raised four fingers and made a vow: "I swear, no matter what I hear, I won't mock you."

Wen Xia took a deep breath, finally made up her mind, and said: "You know the chaebols in South Korea... they can cover the sky with one hand in the entire Korean entertainment industry. Originally, I thought it was just an individual situation, but I didn't expect that one day it would fall on me."

Although Wen Xia expressed it very ambiguously, Miss Luo Quan was so smart that she immediately guessed what she meant.

"You were... slept with?" Miss Luo Quan asked in a low voice.

"You were the one slept with!" Wen Xia rushed towards Miss Luo Quan angrily, pressed her on the tatami, and the two rolled on the floor. In the end, Wen Xia, who was a head shorter, actually gained the upper hand.

Miss Luo Quan, who was pressed by Wen Xia, struggled in vain and finally gave up resistance, begging for mercy: "I was wrong, I was wrong, I shouldn't have said that."

Actually, Miss Luo Quan didn't have any malice; she just asked subconsciously. She didn't expect Wen Xia to care so much about this matter.

But thinking about it, which girl could not care about this kind of thing?

Wen Xia got up from Miss Luo Quan and sighed quietly: "I was called by the agent. Originally, I thought it was just a simple meal with some official. My teammates had all experienced this kind of thing. As a result, before the dishes were served, that big fat pig started hinting at me. I felt something was wrong and got up and left immediately.

Come to think of it, I was really naive to go to dinner so stupidly. If those people were more despicable..."

When Wen Xia said this, she squatted on the ground, hugged her knees tightly with both hands, buried her head deeply, and her shoulders couldn't stop trembling.

Miss Luo Quan had heard before that the entertainment industry was very deep, with all kinds of rules and hints, but there were very few that could be exposed. Even in South Korea, which was a disaster area, this kind of thing had only attracted relatively large social attention recently, and this was at the cost of the lives of many female artists!

Thinking that this girl in front of her almost experienced such a thing, Miss Luo Quan's heart felt as uncomfortable as being stabbed by a steel knife. She didn't know how to comfort people with words, so she could only sit beside Wen Xia and put her arm around her shoulder.

Feeling the hug of her best friend, Wen Xia's low mood eased a lot, and she showed a hearty smile: "Actually, I'm not that fragile. I'm just a bit scared, and I'm worried about my teammates. They are not like me, having the capital to retreat from such a mud swamp."

Miss Luo Quan didn't know how to answer, because this heavy question was destined to have no answer. She could only change the topic: "Since you've escaped, don't think about those things for the time being... By the way, teach me some experience in dealing with reporters and lenses. Maybe I'll be on TV tomorrow."

Wen Xia laughed: "You can be considered to have asked the right person. I specifically underwent training in this area when I was a trainee in South Korea. I have a deep understanding..."

Once talking about her profession, Wen Xia seemed to be a different person, starting to talk endlessly to Miss Luo Quan about various situations that might appear when facing reporters, as well as coping methods.

While chatting, they also talked about the gossip of the Korean entertainment industry. No girl could refuse the gossip of stars, even Wen Xia, who was in the circle, was no exception.

But unfortunately, Miss Luo Quan was not very familiar with the stars of this world. She basically didn't know the names mentioned by Wen Xia, so she could only use a professional fake smile to cope, which was considered accompanying Wen Xia to adjust her mood.

Unknowingly, the two chatted until the afternoon, and the page about the sale of Miss Luo Quan's record on the Sony official website had also entered the countdown.

At this time, you could start pre-ordering records. Miss Luo Quan and Wen Xia both pre-ordered one, but looking at the stock of the records, the pre-sale situation didn't seem particularly ideal.

Sony's sales method this time was online combined with offline. The first printing was 100,000 copies, 60,000 of which were placed offline, and record store owners would stock up according to demand, while the other 40,000 were placed online for sale.

The online price was more expensive because it included delivery costs, but the current pre-sale volume only reached 863 copies. Adding Miss Luo Quan and Wen Xia's two copies, it was 865 copies.

This was quite different from Miss Luo Quan's expected pre-sale volume. Wasn't it said that it would sell well? How could it sell so little?

Seeing Miss Luo Quan getting a bit angry, constantly refreshing the record pre-sale page, Miss Luo Quan comforted: "The Japanese record market has always been 'don't see the rabbit, don't release the eagle.' You have no fame, and it's your first time releasing a record. It's already very good to have more than 800 pre-sales.

Your song quality is absolutely hard. As long as it enters the market, it will be a matter of time before it sells out."

"I hope so." Miss Luo Quan put down her phone with anxiety and hurriedly did a set of eye exercises to calm her mood.

But after finishing, she opened her phone to refresh the page again and found that the pre-sale volume had increased by another 20 copies, which made Miss Luo Quan's mood slightly better.

For the sake of this record, Miss Luo Quan didn't even have the mood to cook, so she directly ordered two takeaways to deal with dinner. With a nervous mood, Miss Luo Quan held her phone and waited for the arrival of twelve o'clock.

Seeing that her good friend was sweating from anxiety, Wen Xia was both amused and felt it was unbearable, so she said: "Why don't I post a Weibo and let the fans support you? I think they will definitely like these songs."

"Absolutely not!" Miss Luo Quan refused Wen Xia's kindness without hesitation. "I just want to see if I can really stand in the Japanese record market by myself. This is really important!"

Wen Xia asked curiously: "If you can't stand, what do you plan to do?"

"If I can't stand, then I can only go to develop domestically." The melody of "Learn to Meow" echoed in Miss Luo Quan's mind. It would be too simple for this kind of song to become popular overnight in China.

In Miss Luo Quan's ambitious expectation, the time finally reached zero on July 19th. Her record finally started to be sold officially, and the three songs also landed on major online music platforms such as iTunes. ===== CHAPTER 13 =====