Daxiong was even more excited than I was, already rushing forward to shake hands with the nearest one, Nicholas Tse. But after calling out those few names, I felt something odd.

Because I wondered why such huge stars would dye their hair in a riot of colors. The crucial thing was, Nicholas Tse, whose son could already buy soy sauce, still sported the exact hairstyle from when he debuted in '98, complete with a few streaks of bleached-white hair in the middle.

"Hello, Brother Feng, I truly admire you. Every time I go to KTV, I sing your songs.

I admit, it was the moon that caused the trouble!" Daxiong started singing along as he spoke, his voice utterly painful to hear. At that moment, Nicholas Tse pulled his hand free from Daxiong's grasp, shook it slightly, gave a faint smile that revealed a gold tooth, and said in Mandarin heavily accented with Hong Kong/Taiwanese tones, "Brother, the song you're singing is by Phil Chang." Hearing that voice—hoarse, like a chain smoker of decades—I knew it couldn't possibly be Nicholas Tse's voice.

Looking at the others, although they were all wearing designer brands, their clothes looked wrinkled, and some stitching on the seams hadn't even been finished—they were definitely not genuine articles. At this point, Xie Yuting chuckled from the side, "Stop looking.

The facsimiles they're wearing were made by our Xie family; they’re almost indistinguishable from the real thing." Saying that, he placed the case he was carrying onto the table, opened it, pointed at the contents, and said, "I have Daniel Wu here, and Jaycee Chan. Which one do you want?" Daxiong heard this, rubbed his hands together, and asked, "Do you have Andy Lau?" We all looked at Daxiong, and then Nie Chuan beat me to the punch with a jab, "With your physique, you want to be Andy Lau?

I think you’d look more like Ronaldo after failing a diet." I chimed in from the side, "Ronaldo has never succeeded at losing weight." We thought our jabs were pretty sharp, but then Xie Yuting spoke up, "You? Since we don't have a facsimile for you, you can just play the role of the bodyguard carrying our cases.

Besides, with that generic face of yours, you won't draw any attention anyway." Without waiting for Daxiong to protest, we all clapped our hands and exclaimed, "That’s great, that’s perfect, let’s do that." After sharing that joke, I suddenly remembered something and asked Xie Yuting, "But why do we have to dress up as other people?" Xie Yuting smiled slightly and said, "You can’t just go out like this, obviously. So, we need to disguise ourselves, put on the facsimiles, and pose as artists from a Hong Kong super impersonation show to attend a commercial event in Japan.

That way, we won't arouse suspicion." After a few seconds, Xie Yuting added, "Oh, right, since they’re all celebrity faces, it’s actually very easy to get the facsimiles—just download the photos online." "But won’t this be a bit too flashy, and besides, none of us can actually sing," Nie Chuan pointed out. Xie Yuting pointed at the Nicholas Tse figure, "Do you think he sings well?" We were all momentarily speechless, because the voice of this Nicholas Tse was truly impossible to compliment.

"You don't have to sing, nor do you have to dance. Once we get to Japan, you can take off the facsimiles." This was merely a cover.

Hearing that put my mind at ease, because pretending to be a celebrity would actually hinder our operations. Finally, to maintain a low profile, I chose the Daniel Wu facsimile, while Nie Chuan opted for the Jaycee Chan one.

Although Xie Yuting didn't prepare a headpiece for Daxiong, he did affix a fake beard and a fedora onto him. After the transformation, the dark-skinned Daxiong actually bore a slight resemblance to Ding Li from The Bund, which made him incredibly pleased with himself.

Once the disguise was complete, Xie Yuting asked us whether we preferred to take a boat or a plane to Japan. We chorused in unison, "Take the plane!" It seemed our previous experience on the ship had left us with nightmare-like memories.

After making suitable arrangements for Liang Qian, we flew out of Hong Kong. Our flight was scheduled to depart at eight in the evening, and we arrived in Kobe, Japan, at four in the morning.

Since there was no need to adjust for time zones, after checking into our seaside hotel, we went straight to sleep. We slept until noon before someone woke us up.

When I saw who was knocking on the door, I jumped in surprise, because it was none other than Edison Chen. Seeing his face immediately brought countless photos of female celebrities to mind, making me feel a bit awkward.

Brother Edison told me that Xie Yuting instructed us not to remove the facsimiles for the time being because we were being watched. My heart tightened; how could we possibly be targeted already, right after arriving?

We quickly got dressed and went downstairs; everyone was already in the lobby. In our group, the facsimiles weren't central figures, so several times when I arrived, they were already in a meeting.

This time was no exception. Xie Yuting just nodded at me when he saw me, then continued addressing the others, "It’s settled then.

We stick to the original plan: first, we go to the mall for promotion, and then we decide on the next steps." As soon as he finished speaking, several subordinates in black uniforms brought out several rolls of posters and unrolled one for us to see. The poster was covered in Japanese text.

Although I didn't understand Japanese, I could make out a few Chinese characters that suggested slogans like, "Hong Kong's Mega Heavenly Kings Land in..." It also featured large portraits of Nicholas Tse, Daniel Wu, and the others. It seemed we were committed to seeing this deception through.

Was it really right to take advantage of the Japanese public's limited familiarity with Chinese celebrities? But the announcement had already been made.

To avoid arousing suspicion, we had to act the part of the stars convincingly, I told myself internally. Xie Yuting glanced at his watch and said, "The bus should be here soon.

Let's go outside and wait." With that, he led the group toward the hotel exit. Before we even stepped outside, I caught sight of the massive crowd through the revolving glass doors.

We all looked at Xie Yuting, clearly surprised by such a grand reception. Xie Yuting shrugged, "Don't assume Chinese stars are only popular domestically.

In many parts of Asia, any top-tier Chinese celebrity can draw a huge following, let alone having so many stars arriving together this time." "But they've blocked the entrance entirely. How are we supposed to get out?" Nicholas Tse asked.

Xie Yuting gestured with his chin toward Daxiong nearby, "This is a perfect situation for the bodyguard to handle." Daxiong blinked, then adjusted his hat and declared, "I am Ding Li!" "Cut it out. If Ding Li looked like a big fatty such as yourself, he’d probably only end up as a security guard," Xie Yuting said without reservation.

Daxiong was having none of it. He plopped down onto a nearby lounge chair meant for guests, his face dark, refusing to speak.

Xie Yuting then smiled and said, "To train you into a professional bodyguard, I was even going to have someone teach you how to fly a military helicopter. Guess that’s canceled now." Daxiong, being a military enthusiast, couldn't resist such a temptation.

He immediately stood up, straightened his clothes, and announced, "Just watch, your Lord Xiong will part the seas and carve out a bloody path." Seeing him like this made me find it rather amusing. Next, the few of us followed the swaggering Daxiong out the door.

The moment I stepped out, I regretted wearing the Daniel Wu headpiece because more than a dozen Japanese girls, waving photos of Daniel Wu, shrieked and lunged forward. Fortunately, Daxiong promptly extended his arms to stop the first few girls, saving me from being crushed into a pancake.

But those girls were still desperately trying to push forward, shouting Daniel Wu's name in Chinese. If those girls had been good-looking, it might have been one thing, but they were all incredibly ugly Japanese brain-dead fans; their foundation makeup looked thick enough to be scraped off and made into steamed buns.

So, I quickly lowered my stature and tried to push my way forward. But as soon as I ducked my head, I saw Edison Chen in an even worse predicament, pinned to the ground by an overweight girl wearing a green wig, looking close to rolling his eyes back.

The girls nearby, witnessing this scene, were filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred, pulling desperately at that large girl but unable to move her, turning the scene into near-total chaos. Luckily, Daxiong possessed a strange strength and lifted that girl, whose size was comparable to his own, tossing her into the crowd, which instantly caused a pile-up.

Taking advantage of the momentary disorder, the rest of us scrambled forward with our heads down, as if evading a fighter jet bombing run, racing toward the tour bus. When we finally navigated past all the hurdles and squeezed onto the bus, our fake suits were already slashed in several places.

Disheveled and messy, we looked like vagrants. Nicholas Tse was wearing a green pointed hat on his head—put there by someone unknown—as he stared with a wry smile at the panting Edison Chen.