Chapter 36: The Entire Group Enters Early Retirement Life

The two of them returned to the car.

Sui Lingfang was the first to chastise herself: "It's my fault; I didn't notice your condition in time and let you work for so long."

She asked with concern, "Is your body holding up? I heard you telling the photographer just now that you could continue shooting tomorrow; can you manage it?"

Jin Li shook her head and smiled. "Sister Fang, it's fine. I feel my physical condition is quite good; you don't need to worry so much."

Sui Lingfang breathed a sigh of relief. "Your outfit this afternoon was truly stunning; I was captivated the moment I saw it. I thought to myself that if the Koi Fish had truly manifested in the human world, she would look exactly like you."

"And during your subsequent shoot, I was initially playing on my phone, but the moment I casually glanced up, I couldn't look away again; I just kept staring at you."

Jin Li laughed helplessly. "Surely it's not that exaggerated?"

Sui Lingfang affirmed, "It is. Time passed incredibly quickly while watching you, and I didn't feel tired at all; my spirits were quite high."

A thoughtful glint flashed in Jin Li's eyes. Not tired, and spirits quite high?

She recalled that during the later stages of the shoot, her [Twice the Result with Half the Effort] state had activated increasingly well, and the photographer had also quickly entered the zone in the latter half, with photo output efficiency growing higher and higher.

For a moment, Jin Li felt somewhat uncertain.

Could this state of hers really have no effect on others?

After returning to the apartment to rest, Jin Li took a break, then picked up her phone only to discover that the [Universe Invincible Ultimate Cute Pink Girl Group] was exceptionally active today, with messages flooding the chat to 99+.

Jin Li started scrolling from the first message and soon reached the link and photos Qinglian had shared from her livestream.

Jin Li: Σ(⊙▽⊙!

Although the comments below were all full of praise, uploading only her photos still made her feel a bit shy!

So Jin Li searched for each of the other members one by one, downloaded their recent beautiful photos, and uploaded them to the group chat one by one.

Koi Fish: [Image] x4

Koi Fish: [Popping up to say hello!]

Koi Fish: [Don't praise me; I'm getting embarrassed reading all this. It's not as exaggerated as you say; I just wanted to learn a bit, not expecting to get into any prestigious university.]

In previous group chats, her teammates had praised her for being so focused and serious, saying she clearly had what it took to achieve great things, which had left Jin Li completely bewildered.

If she weren't just a tiny koi spirit, she would have started believing she was perhaps the reincarnation of the Star of Literature, destined to undergo trials in the human world and secure a "counterattack" script.

Before long, the WeChat group became lively again.

Lotus: [The Koi Fish is shy, haha!]

NANA: [With the intensity of your efforts, not getting into a Tier-One university would be a disservice to your hard work [grinning face].]

Pearl: [Exactly, exactly! Go for it, Little Koi Fish! The cutest girls in the universe are cheering and calling support for you!]

Koi Fish: [Wait, was that just casual encouragement? Aren't you going to offer some tangible rewards?]

Lotus: [What do you want? Sister will buy you anything under one hundred yuan!]

The other few members added a [+1].

Jin Li didn't actually want any gifts from them; she revealed her true intention: [You must have a lot of merchandise, right? Give me all your extra, unwanted merch. I'll take it to bribe the fans later; it would be even better if they could be autographed!]

Tongtong: [Little Koi Fish has grown up; she actually knows to bribe fans. My old heart is so comforted.jpg]

Mengmeng: [Back when Koi was in the group, she was just a straightforward girl who only knew how to keep her head down and work, knowing nothing about social niceties. She's grown up, she's grown up; so comforting.jpg]

Jin Li felt awkward; she...

Well, the original owner indeed wasn't good at scheming; otherwise, she wouldn't have ruined her health so badly.

Given her inherently poor physical constitution, if she had merely left herself some room for error and only given seventy percent effort instead of going all out, she wouldn't have collapsed from exhaustion.

But the original owner was different; she was the type who either didn't do something at all, or threw her entire being into it.

Unfortunately, very few people noticed her sacrifices; limited by her stamina, she could only remain a "half-time vase."

After chatting with her teammates in a way that healed both body and mind, Jin Li was just about to put down her phone when Ji Qinglian suddenly spoke up in the group:

[The advance trailer will be released tomorrow. Do you think we should all post about it on our blogs to cheer for Little Koi Fish? I'm very optimistic about her return to the stage; it will be stunning.]

The other teammates agreed that it was no problem, but someone asked back with concern:

[Lotus, will your company allow you to post this? I recall that even your account is managed by the company, right?]

Reunited members interacting on their blogs to spark a wave of nostalgia was not an idea that no one had proposed before.

But back then, Ji Qinglian had always refused.

The reason was simple: the company would not allow her to post anything related to the Pink Girl Group, including even her thoughts.

And since the other teammates felt that either they all did it together, or none of them did it at all, standing together in advance or retreat, everyone very tacitly chose not to post.

They had long passed the age where they needed to fight for traffic for everything; having experienced glory very early on, everyone had already achieved financial freedom.

Working in the entertainment industry was truly just "getting by."

They would attend suitable engagements and skip the unsuitable ones; the members had collectively entered a retirement state.

Otherwise, given the soaring popularity the Pink Girl Group once enjoyed, if they had really wanted to exert themselves after joining new companies, returning to the top tier would have been a matter of minutes.

Ji Qinglian was considered the most career-driven among the members; she had signed with LP and had been fighting on the front lines all along.

As for Mengmeng, who was recently looking to terminate her contract with her company, the reason was that the company kept trying to send her out for activities, which she was unwilling to do, believing the company had violated their contract and failed to respect her opinions.

It had to be said that everyone was very Zen, except for Ji Qinglian.

Lotus: [It's fine; I've reclaimed all my social media accounts and changed the passwords one by one. Now, whenever there are ad copies to be posted, I make them send them to me first, and I upload them myself; my agent can't control me in this aspect anymore.]

Koi Fish: [So, your company agreed to let you do this?]

Lotus: [...]

Lotus: [They didn't agree, but I want to do it anyway.]

From just these few words, everyone could sense Ji Qinglian's firm attitude.

Since she had said so, the others naturally had no objections, telling her to let them know once the trailer premiered.

After finishing the WeChat chat, Jin Li checked the time; she still had two hours left to study, so she started her livestream again.

On the other side, at the Jinse Charity Gala.

The atmosphere in the venue had also reached a white-hot stage.

More and more celebrities' auction items were being brought out, a dazzling array of all sorts.

Some stars were auctioning off their own handicrafts, props from film sets that held great significance to their acting careers, luxury garments gifted by brands, paintings they had drawn by hand...

But when the March Sky boy band presented the item they had prepared for bidding, everyone couldn't help but be startled.

What they offered was a ruby necklace from the Mogok region of Burma.

Rubies from the Burmese region possess a high chromium content and low iron content, resulting in rich, vivid colors; the most intense and brilliant among them are known as "pigeon's blood red."

Currently, ruby production in Burma has been exhausted.

This ruby necklace itself held immense value, worth at least three million.

Everyone couldn't help but feel shocked by March Sky's grand gesture.

With a base value of three million, the final auction price would only be higher.

As for the members of the March Sky boy band, who were now the focus of everyone's attention, each remained relatively low-key with calm expressions; even Chen Lin, who usually loved to make a loud fuss, was no exception.

Gu Cheng was maintaining his expression when he suddenly felt his phone vibrate once; he lowered his head, took it out, and glanced at it.

Good night~

(End of Chapter)