The voices were getting closer and closer to the door, so Alex quickly slowed his steps and quietly retreated the way he came.
After transmigrating, he visited several music stores. Unless it was a superstar or a deluxe edition cassette, the price of a single cassette was usually no more than five dollars. If all seven thousand cassettes were sold, the maximum revenue would be 35,000 dollars. This did not even take into account any costs. No wonder the people in the office were shouting, "We're doomed."
"So that means..."
Hiding myself in the shadows behind the DJ booth, I looked out at the dance floor, which was still bustling. The silhouettes of men and women were bathed in a white light from the camera lights. When the director told them to dance, they danced, sweat flying everywhere, too focused to even wipe it away.
Emily's smile was so pure, devoid of anything but happiness. When the director called "cut," she quickly bent over, supporting herself on her knees with her hands, panting heavily. Too young, her frail physique was almost unable to keep up.
Connie had already taken off her coat, and the barely-there evening gown she was wearing was one she had rented from a secondhand store that morning. The photographer deliberately pushed the camera towards her hips, and she understood perfectly, proudly shaking her plump buttocks like an electric motor.
Al kept puffing out his cheeks, his face turning bright red, his explosive vocalizations really testing one's lung capacity. Besides rapping, he also devoted almost all his spare time to working as a waiter at a restaurant to make a living.
The protagonist, Little Lowry, swaggered around with the microphone, striking all sorts of poses he thought were the coolest and most stylish. Two years ago, after being scouted and signed by a music company, he chose to drop out of school. Since then, he has spent most of his time on tedious songwriting and singing practice, with playing basketball being his only pastime. He wrote the lyrics for all of the dozen or so songs on the album entirely on his own.
Tony, standing beside him, gazed at the dance floor with eyes full of joy and anticipation. 'Get rich,' 'rise to prominence,' 'leave this damn slum' were words he'd been constantly using these past few days. Alex would often mentally scoff at his petty dream of becoming someone else's 'follower,' but…
Alex recalled her failure the previous week.
On Monday, 'ET' collapsed on the roadside two blocks from his home, shot five times. Alex accompanied Tony to the place where 'ET' died and laid a bouquet of flowers. It is said that 'ET's' gang swore revenge, but what can they do? Apart from making the surrounding residents more fearful, it will only result in a few more pairs of shoes being hung on the power lines at the intersection in the future.
During orchestra rehearsals, Alex still played the triangle wrong, barely managing to save his credits by feigning pitifulness in front of the furious music teacher. Then he encountered setbacks in mathematics as well; the advanced class included calculus, and the competition among his classmates increased dramatically, making it impossible to pass as easily as the standard course.
Since Alex accepted the nickname APLUS, the teasing and bullying have indeed decreased. However, the biggest problem with this public school is that there is no quiet and relaxed learning environment. If you want to find a secluded place to read for a while, you will either be chased away by thugs who are eager to smoke marijuana, or you will accidentally witness a couple having an affair.
Yesterday, led by Aunt Susie, the whole family set off early in the morning to queue for free donations at various charities, each with their assigned tasks. Alex, clutching his food coupons, queued for five hours before finally exchanging them at a store with heavily reinforced metal security bars, where only the cash register was visible. He managed to get just enough flour and other food for the family for a week. Then, the family gathered at the church and queued again for a free simple lunch of bread and soup. In the afternoon, they queued again, finally waiting at Walmart to get a discount on their soon-to-expire eggs and meat before closing time. After nightfall, the family, without a car, carried their bags and queued for another half hour for the bus home.
Having weathered the adjustment period after his transmigration, Alex felt less like he was ready to take flight and more like he was being assimilated by this hopeless existence. If this continued for another year or two, he knew that if even a minor celebrity beckoned him, he wouldn't be able to resist the temptation. He might as well become a lackey.
It's better than staying here and one day impulsively grabbing a gun and starting a drug trade.
"That's enough, let's call it a day!"
Just after four o'clock, the director announced that the filming of the music video was officially completed, and the crowd in the dance floor cheered.
"Thank you, Tony, you're so kind."
Tony's ex-girlfriend pounced on him and clung to his body, kissing his face repeatedly.
"No problem." Tony was practically floating on air. "It's not time yet, let's find a place…" He got excited, took off his headphones, and led the other person directly to 'find a place'.
Connie rolled her eyes again as she watched the two figures disappear into the distance. She handed the exhausted Emily to Alex and said, "Never mind them. Come with me to return the clothes." She put on her coat as she spoke.
Like the end of a movie, people exchange brief greetings and then begin to leave.
Alex turned his head and saw Little Lowry and Al talking to two elderly black men, one fat and one thin. Judging from their voices, they were indeed the two men he had overheard talking in the office.
The slightly chubby one was the bass voice from earlier. Judging from the conversation, he should be a record company owner. He had the aura of a big shot in his speech and manner. Even though he wore a bright pink suit, he didn't look effeminate at all. He also had a big gold chain, gold ring, and gold watch. He was wearing all three pieces of a classic black suit.
That skinny guy must be Little Lowry's agent. He was wearing a very well-tailored dark suit, spoke politely, and had a meticulously styled slicked-back hairstyle. He looked like a very old-fashioned person.
Little Lori and Al are definitely too busy to pay attention to him right now, so Tony doesn't need to wait any longer. Alex carried Emily and left with Connie.
Hey, Aplux!
As they stepped outside,'Silencer' was helping the photographer move equipment. While they were exchanging greetings, AK came out from inside and called them back.
"And Connie, right? Come here! Everyone, come here."
AK called Alex and Connie to his side, blocking the view of others with his body. He took out three bills from a stack of twenty-yuan notes in his hand, one for Connie and one for Alex, "Little Emily has one too." He smiled and stuffed the last bill into Emily's little hand.
"Not everyone has it?" Connie stuffed the money into her bosom.
"Only our own people have it. We're already being generous by letting those guys get screen time in the music video," AK replied.
"Uh…" Alex felt a bit like he was being given something for nothing. "But I didn't jump, so this money…" He handed the money back to AK.
"Haha, Tony's right, there's a problem here." AK laughed, pointing at Alex's forehead. "Don't be stupid. It's not my money. You're Tony's brother, we're family. We'll take care of each other, OK?"
"Ignore him."
Connie glared at Alex. "Say thank you." She taught little Emily to say thank you. "Let's go, I'm going shopping today!" she shouted happily.
"I want to buy a tutu!" Emily shouted along with her.
Alex could only clutch the money and say goodbye to AK, then go to the bus stop with Connie to wait for the bus.
Twenty dollars was the largest sum of money he had acquired since transmigrating. Of course, calling it a huge sum of money wasn't an exaggeration. In the current India black market, one dollar could be exchanged for about 40 rupees, so twenty dollars was more than a month's salary for an average person in India
Second hand stores that offer evening gown rentals are usually quite large. "Puffy skirt!" Emily knew exactly where she was going. She slid off Alex and ran quickly toward her target.
"You watch her, I'm going to change." Connie walked into the changing room.
As Alex followed Emily through row after row of clothes racks, he suddenly felt as if he had seen this scene somewhere before.
"But I've never been to this store before!"
He was puzzled, and his eyes suddenly caught sight of a pink suit hanging on the wall, which was somewhat similar to the one that Little Lowry had been wearing earlier.
"Um?"
He frantically tried to remember, then suddenly reached for the twenty dollars in his pocket. "Twenty dollars, shopping, pink suit, deep voice, rap... put it all together, and it's..."
His body trembled violently, as if it were a Flash back, and countless music video scenes accompanied by highly rhythmic rap and music instantly flooded his mind.
I'm gonna pop some tags, only got twenty in my pocket
I'm, I'm, I'm hunting, looking for a come up
This is FXXXing awesome!
"This is the Thrift Shop! This is a secondhand shop!