By the time it was approaching their lunch break, Wen Rui had figured out the choreography of three of their dances, 'Boom', 'Cherry Girl', and 'Odette' respectively. His favourite was the last one, which had a background accompaniment of classical violins and dance moves that fit his style.
"You wrote the tune," Mu Feng said after Wen Rui had saved the song on QQ Music and listened to it three times in a row.
"Did I write the lyrics too?"
"Oh, no, that was the production team's lyricist."
Thank goodness. The instrumentals were Wen Rui's vibe but the dark over-dramatic passionate lyrics were too much for him. He took a good look at the album cover and wrinkled his nose. The outfits themselves were all right, pretty much your run-of-the-mill vampire concept that had already been done to death. But it helped that HEX4's visuals were overall strong enough to pull it off.
Not to mention Wen Rui's hard carry. On the album cover, he was seated on a velvet throne, with his groupmates lounging around him in various poses. His legs were crossed and his arms were folded, with thorny roses entwined around him. They looked real enough that he wondered whether they had snagged on the costumes during the photoshoot.
In the picture, Wen Rui was dressed like an aristocrat from a western fantasy novel. It brought back memories of the masquerade that had earned him the title of 'little prince' and he couldn't help but laugh ruefully at that.
Mu Feng ogled him. "Wah," he said, impressed. "No wonder Rui Ge's been voted 'Most Handsome Idol' two years in a row."
"…" Wen Rui could do without that kind of award, thanks.
He spent the remaining half an hour of practice going through the different lyrics and checking with Mu Feng to make sure that he'd memorised them correctly and gotten the tune down-pat. It was obvious by now that the members of HEX4 weren't as close as the promotion videos and fan cams Wen Rui had trawled through earlier portrayed. Only Mu Feng came over to talk to Wen Rui. Hong Si—this must be the 'Sisi' whose fans hated Wen Rui's guts—kept to himself at the furthest end and practised his solo.
And the last guy was sitting near the entrance of the studio scribbling something.
Was practice usually this uncoordinated?
"Ah, no," Mu Feng said with a laugh. "We're actually on break at the moment, but Manager Qu asked us to come back in and um…" he trailed off with a hesitant smile but Wen Rui could guess what he meant.
"You guys got called back in to show me the moves," he said bluntly. If Manager Qu was trying to sow discord among the group, he was certainly doing an excellent job at it. Wen Rui could tell that he hadn't had a very good relationship with any of them beforehand, not even Mu Feng, who was still politely distant, despite being friendly.
But Hong Si was outright antagonistic and the last boy, whose name Wen Rui still didn't know, just acted like Wen Rui didn't exist.
"What's his name?" Wen Rui asked as he pointed towards the hunched figure by the doors.
"Oh, that's Pei Ge," Mu Feng introduced. "Um, he's older than us so that's what you're, uh, supposed to call him too? But his full name is Pei Jun." The hidden implication here was that Wen Rui didn't use the respectful term of 'Ge'—meaning 'Older Brother'—when addressing his seniors in the industry.
He wondered just how arrogantly he'd behaved before losing his memories and whether it was still salvageable.
"Is Hong Si my age?"
"Oh, yeah, he is."
Okay, that was one piece of good news, at least. Wen Rui didn't think he would be able to call someone who openly disliked him 'older brother'. There was fake and then there was very, very fake. He'd rather be known as rude than put up that sort of pretence.
It soon turned midday and Mu Feng was about to usher Wen Rui to his feet and lead him to the staff cafeteria when Manager Qu barged back into the studio again.
"Hong Si, Wen Rui," he barked. "Come with me." Turning sharply on his heel, he walked back out without checking to see if they were following. Like he was used to them trailing after him like well-trained dogs.
Hong Si tossed Wen Rui a derisive look before heading towards the exit. There was a small, smug twist to his lips that gave Wen Rui the sense that he knew what Manager Qu was calling them for.
"Rui Ge…" Mu Feng mumbled, his brows furrowing in worry.
"It's all right," Wen Rui said. Maybe it wasn't, but he didn't have any option but to deal with troubles as they cropped up. "Reserve a seat for me at lunch?"
"Okay…shall I buy food for you too?"
"Sure, thanks. Just get me whatever you're having." Mu Feng's dressing wasn't too extravagant. Wen Rui could recognise the brand of his T-shirt as a casual streetwear label. Hopefully, Mu Feng wasn't going to be a massive spendthrift when it came to meals because Wen Rui couldn't afford to splurge now.
Although, a staff cafeteria shouldn't break an employee's bank, right?
Manager Qu and Hong Si had already entered the office by the time Wen Rui sauntered over. He wasn't sure whether it was done on purpose or not, but Hong Si had appropriated the only guest chair in the room, so Wen Rui was left standing.
He raised an eyebrow. "What can I do for the both of you?" he said when it became obvious that this was a showdown against him.
"How was practice?" Manager Qu asked instead of answering Wen Rui's question. "Did you manage to trigger any of those elusive memories of yours?" He'd been angered with Wen Rui's earlier dismissive attitude towards him but had had no choice but to contain it when Wen Rui appeared to be in deep concentration on learning the 'Boom' choreo.
Wen Rui shrugged. "It is what it is," he said without elaboration. "Is that all you've called me here for? You already gave me a list of songs to learn. Did you expect hourly updates too?" He knew he was being catty for no good reason but there was something about Manager Qu that just rubbed him the wrong way. He didn't know if this was residual dislike from his 21-year-old subconscious or a brand new feeling of annoyance.
Manager Qu folded his arms. "Don't be so impatient," he said in an oily tone. "Of course, I wouldn't trouble Young Master to come all this way for no good reason."
He slid a contract across the table at Wen Rui. "Originally, you were signed to act as the male lead in the upcoming web drama 'The Wallflower Becomes a Diva'. But out of concern for your current health issues, I've discussed an alternative with the director and the production team has decided to give your role to Sisi instead, just so you'll be able to recover." His smile turned nasty. "I trust Young Master doesn't mind? Health is wealth, after all."
Wen Rui laughed quietly. No wonder Hong Si looked like he'd just won the lottery. This was where they were lying in wait for Wen Rui.
"Of course, I don't mind." Wen Rui honestly didn't. He couldn't care less about being a celebrity, except that now his finances depended on it. But acting some B-list web drama based on a soppy romance novel—he was, of course, just guessing from the title, but still—wasn't something he would beg Manager Qu to return to him. "But may I see the script?"
"What for?" Hong Si interrupted in irritation. "You have nothing to do with it anymore, go get treatment for your head."
"Mm, hang on a second." Coming up with a better idea, Wen Rui dug out his phone and searched up the drama name on Baidu.
'The Wallflower Becomes a Diva', a high school romantic comedy adapted from author Wang Maomi's novel of the same title.
He read the synopsis and couldn't help but chortle while giving Hong Si a loaded once-over.
Hong Si's face darkened. "What's so funny?" he spat out.
Wen Rui just shrugged. "Oh, no, don't mind me," he said breezily. "I was just confirming for myself that our management is as bias as it gets."
"WEN RUI!" Manager Qu slammed a hand down on his desk. "Watch your mouth!"
"I'm sorry, have I said something untrue?" He blinked with mocking innocence. "Let me read this excerpt for the both of you: 'Chen Wen, the carefree, good-natured school grass, was the first person to acknowledge Bai Juli's existence.' The key words being 'carefree' and 'good-natured'."
He pointed at Hong Si, whose expression was currently contorted with foul-tempered seething.
"If you're telling me that management isn't biased towards our dear Sisi here, then are you saying he's secretly so good at acting that he's film emperor material?" Wen Rui gave Hong Si another obvious once over before shaking his head. He could see that this deliberately goading action made Hong Si nearly explode with rage.
"Nope," he concluded. "I don't see any good temper in our dear Sisi here. Are you sure this isn't a miscast? That can really make or break an acting career, you know." His tone dripped with faux concern.
Just because Wen Rui liked being the better person didn't mean he wasn't capable of retaliation. He grew up among high society ladies. He'd long since mastered the art of being a green tea bitch, even if he didn't enjoy being one.
Well, most of the time.
"So what?" Hong Si bit out. "The director obviously would rather have me than your scandal-ridden ass—"
"My scandal-ridden derriere is not interested in the role, thank you." Wen Rui picked up a pen and cancelled Hong Si's name out in the contract, eliciting an angry shout from Manager Qu. "But if we're talking about 'carefree' and 'good-natured', isn't there someone else in our little group that's so much more suitable for the role?"