Chapter 49: The unexpectedly fitting song choice and the eye contact

The three waited in the lounge for a short while before a staff member came to remind them that the recording time was approaching and they could go to the waiting area to prepare.

The first recording location for the guest stars was a large practice room where the five flight instructors met, exchanged ideas briefly, received their task cards, and then went to their respective practice rooms to wait for their trainees to be selected.

Shi Yao already knew who the remaining three guests were when she took her work photos in the morning, but Pei Zixuan and Fang Xuran didn't know. They were both a little surprised when they saw the remaining guests.

There are five people in total, three men and two women. Only Pei Zixuan is a legitimate idol. The other four are all actors. What they have in common is that they all have hit dramas or have just finished airing hit dramas, and they have a high level of attention. It can be seen that the production team invited these people just to take advantage of their popularity, and the guests are happy to have exposure, so it is a win-win situation.

The production team thoughtfully considered the guests' lack of singing and dancing skills and prepared very friendly songs for them. The lyrics and choreography were very well done, with most of the choreography done by the trainees. The guest mentors only needed to cooperate and interact briefly.

Of course, except for Pei Zixuan.

He chose the song for his performance, and the production team was very supportive. Singing other people's songs is never as effective as singing your own, not to mention that the song was quite popular.

Furthermore, Pei Zixuan made things very easy for the production team. He was responsible for everything on his stage, from adapting lyrics and music to choreography, adding rap, and even the camera work. He came up with a complete plan.

The production team was naturally happy to cooperate; they were overjoyed to have someone share the workload, especially since it was Pei Zixuan.

Previously, the controversy surrounding the vote-rigging incident in "Shining Idol" caused a huge uproar. Later, the emergence of Yingxu brought the matter up again. Although it gradually subsided over time, there were always people who would point fingers and nitpick. For example, Pei Zixuan's fans, who have hated the Kuyu platform ever since they learned about the vote-swapping incident, are the main force behind their widespread smear campaign against the platform.

But there's no way around it; as long as they can't produce credible and genuine vote counts, this will forever remain a stain on the "Shining Idol" program that they can't get rid of.

However, all of this will soon be resolved, because Pei Zixuan participated in the recording of "Shining Idol". After the "ticket swapping incident", those people on the Internet who said that he was a pitiful victim who was persecuted by the company and the platform will find that after this episode airs, seeing the victim himself happily cooperating with the platform that persecuted him, no matter how much they want to smear him, they will not be convincing.

The show's PD still finds it amazing when he thinks about it, because he had extended an invitation to Pei Zixuan to participate in the recording a long time ago. After all, Pei Zixuan is the most outstanding artist in all the seasons of "Shining Idol," a walking blood transfusion.

In previous seasons, Pei Zixuan participated in the recording of the show, sometimes even recording several episodes in a row. There was no other reason than to take advantage of his popularity and attract more new viewers through Pei Zixuan.

When the first two seasons aired, Pei Zixuan was still under contract and was a joint artist of YueDong and KuYu platforms. The platform could just call him to come and record several episodes without any obstacles.

However, when the fourth season aired last year, the limited-time talent show group that Pei Zixuan debuted in had already expired and disbanded, and the contract returned to Yue Dong's hands. It would be difficult to get him to cooperate in recording again, but fortunately, Yue Dong was greedy for money and finally got him to participate, although he only recorded one episode.

Actually, if there were other candidates, the production team wouldn't have kept focusing on Pei Zixuan. But Pei Zixuan's status in the talent show world is special. If his face is on the cover, many casual viewers will be willing to click to watch. The production team had no choice but to ask him to help out.

When it came to recording this season, the production team still wanted to invite Pei Zixuan to participate in the recording as before, and preferably record several episodes. However, unfortunately, it ran into Jian Mingzhou's matter. YueDong employees came out and revealed the discord from their debut, and Pei Zixuan directly terminated his contract, so naturally he did not agree to the recording.

The platform is suffering immensely every day, being attacked, scolded, and beaten by Pei Zixuan's fans, being cursed by Yingxu's fans, and having to withstand public opinion pressure from passersby.

The production team knew that in this situation, the only way to get Pei Zixuan to show his face was to have him come in person; no other method would work. They tried to persuade him for a long time, but Pei Zixuan just wouldn't budge, insisting that he was in seclusion working on an album and didn't have time.

Other artists, upon learning that the Kuyu platform had recently been receiving negative publicity, especially regarding "Shining Idol," politely declined the recording invitations they received.

So after "Shining Idol" started airing, there were no guest mentors, and it just dragged on until the end of the third public performance.

The production team had planned to insert a mentor collaboration stage after the third public performance of this talent show. However, things didn't go as planned, and it was uncertain whether it could be done again. The production PD didn't have high hopes, but he invited Pei Zixuan again as usual. To everyone's surprise, she suddenly agreed.

The production team was overjoyed and almost thought they had misheard. They only breathed a sigh of relief after receiving Pei Zixuan's official reply, and then immediately started to invite other guests.

With Pei Zixuan's good start, everything went much more smoothly afterward. After hearing that Pei Zixuan had also agreed to record, the artists' studios basically stopped preventing their artists from appearing on variety shows.

To be fair, "Shining Idol" does have a lot of viewership right now, and many of its viewers are students. If it can attract a few new fans, it will be very profitable.

The reason I refused to accept the invitation before was simply because I was afraid of being implicated.

Since the victim himself doesn't care about going on the show, they don't need to worry about being held accountable.

So the mentor collaboration stage was decided so quickly and hastily. The plane tickets for the guest stars were even bought at the last minute. The only pity was that the production team originally planned to invite at least two or three idol mentors to balance the mentor strength, but unfortunately those people were either busy with commercial performances or writing songs in seclusion. This episode was also decided at the last minute, so in the end they only managed to get Pei Zixuan, who is good at singing and dancing, and the rest were actors.

However, the mentor collaboration stage is not a competition of strength. There is no competition, so there is no need to worry about the votes. Everyone is just "playing" on the same stage. In the end, the program team and choreographers will cover for you, so there is no need to worry too much about other things.

Of the five guests, Pei Zixuan sang her own work, Fang Xuran was assigned a light and refreshing first love-themed boy band song, the two female guests were assigned a collaborative dance song with a strong sense of interaction and story, and the last male guest was assigned a rap song.

Because he sings a little off-key, he can barely cover it up when he raps.

After the songs were assigned, the guests watched the video clips of the songs they were responsible for and were quite satisfied with the selections.

The PD patiently explained the rules to them: "In a little while, our staff will take you to the practice room corresponding to your group. Then we will introduce your identities and stage songs to the trainees, and then they can choose the group they want to join."

The male guest who sang off-key said somewhat discontentedly, "Let them choose us, not let us choose the people we want!"

The PD's smile froze. The mentor collaboration stage wasn't a brand new segment, and the rules hadn't changed. The fact that the other person asked such a question clearly showed that they had never watched a talent show before.

"Yes, Teacher Zheng, the selection rules are to start with the trainees, and then you will make a reverse selection. After the trainees have listened to five songs, they will choose the corresponding classroom they want to go to. However, the number of people for each song is limited. If the number of people exceeds the limit, the mentors will make a reverse selection in the end to choose the trainees who are more suitable for the song in their hearts."

The male guest curiously said, "So you mean we have to choose from both sides, but they choose first and we choose later. If I'm not satisfied with someone, I can kick them out when they come, is that what you mean?"

The PD awkwardly laughed and agreed, "That's right, Teacher Zheng."

"That's fine then." The male guest surnamed Zheng nodded in satisfaction. "As long as I have the right to choose, I don't want just anyone to be able to come."

Another female guest overheard this and couldn't help but say, "It's also possible that your group can't even find enough people. Each group has a limited number of people. Some groups have more than enough, while others don't. How can you be sure that you're one of the extra people?"

The male guest surnamed Zheng looked displeased after being confronted. He had indeed overlooked this point, only thinking that the number of people choosing songs would exceed the limit, without considering where the excess quota would come from.

The number of trainees is fixed, and the number of people in each group is also fixed. If some groups have more people than they can choose, then some groups will not have enough people.

He glanced subconsciously towards the center, where Pei Zixuan stood. He was standing in front of the signboard for his assigned song, his expression indifferent, as if he didn't care about the controversy at all.

When he looked away, he met the gaze of the female guest who had just confronted him, and he also noticed that the other two guests, Fang Xuran and Ye Jingyu, were also looking in Pei Zixuan's direction.

As expected, everyone assumed that Pei Zixuan would be the most popular mentor.

Debuting in the center position, excelling in both singing and dancing, possessing massive popularity, creating independent works and adaptations, and having highly popular works—how could such a group not be in high demand?

Zheng Cong felt a pang of jealousy. In his opinion, Pei Zixuan had just gotten lucky and wasn't any better than anyone else. But that's how things are in the entertainment industry. Small fame depends on promotion, while big fame depends on fate. Those with that kind of luck can't be stopped, and those without that kind of fate can't be forced to become famous.

Fortunately, Pei Zixuan is focused on her singing and dancing career and has no plans to enter the film and television industry; otherwise, many promising young actors would be losing sleep over it.

Zheng Cong looked away and reassessed his competitiveness in his mind. Excluding Pei Zixuan as a problem, he was definitely in the upper echelon among the remaining four mentors.

The other three are not enough. Even if Pei Zixuan's group is full, it is impossible for everyone to choose him. There will always be people who are interested in other songs, and that is where his advantage comes in.

He can't compare to Pei Zixuan, but he's more than capable of the other three.

Zheng Cong quickly calmed himself down and stopped worrying about the selection process.

Although the show's PD didn't know what Zheng Cong was thinking, he was relieved that the other party had finally stopped nitpicking.

So, while the instructors were still easy to talk to, they quickly urged the staff to take them to their respective practice rooms.

The practice rooms for the mentor collaboration stage were located on the second and third floors. Fang Xuran and the other two were on the second floor, while Pei Zixuan and Ye Jingyu were on the third floor. Shi Yao didn't follow anyone and skillfully used her temporary work badge to patrol around and familiarize herself with the structure of Factory No. 1.

During the process of getting acquainted, Shi Yao discovered that the management of the program team was really lax. Shi Yao was not wearing a uniform at all, but only a temporary employee badge, and she could come and go freely. Everyone naturally treated her as a new outsourced worker, and no one asked her identity.

But this work badge doesn't have any of her personal information recorded, so doesn't that mean that if she gives this work badge to someone else, that person can also freely come and go here?

Shi Yao shook her head, unable to bear thinking about it any further.

No wonder there was that absurd story about sasaeng fans sneaking into the dorm before. And according to the staff member's description, although he deliberately blurred the time, it was clear that the two sasaeng fans had been sneaking into the dorm for quite a while, spanning at least several days. Even when they were caught in the middle, they were able to continue pretending to be someone else and stealing things until the amount of stolen items became too much to ignore before they were caught.

The management of this large factory is quite abstract. It's not strict, but the old man at the main gate is really strict, and the security at the gate of Factory No. 1 is also strict. However, it's not particularly strict either, because it doesn't pay attention to details in many places, and is even quite lax.

During her stroll, Shi Yao discovered the location where the trainees were recording. To save time, the trainees and the five mentors started almost simultaneously, but because there were many trainees, the preparation before filming took a relatively long time.

The trainees were only informed last night about the collaboration stage with the mentors, and they got up especially early this morning. They didn't even have time to do their makeup and hair. The show's own makeup artists were too busy, so many trainees had to fend for themselves. In the end, many of them just quickly applied some foundation and touched up their lip color before starting to record, without even having time to style their hair.

The trainees' first recording venue was a huge lecture hall, the same classroom that had been with them since their first song selection. The production team first introduced the identities of the five mentors, and then revealed their corresponding stages one by one on the big screen.

The trainees' reactions upon hearing the mentors' names truly reflected the reputation of the invited guests. To whet the appetite, the production team deliberately saved Pei Zixuan for last, with Fang Xuran being the first to be announced.

Although many trainees were puzzled, Fang Xuran had a high level of popularity and often performed singing on various TV stations. Although it was a task song, it was clear that she was not completely clueless, so everyone still applauded and cheered.

The second person to be announced was Ye Jingyu. She was more popular because firstly, she is currently starring in a hit drama, and her female lead is very famous; secondly, she is also somewhat related to talent shows and is a beautiful mentor, so many trainees were very excited to see her as a guest performer.

The third is another female guest. The trainees were quite surprised to see two female mentors appear. Due to the nature of their profession, idols need to be very careful about the scope of their collaborations with male artists. Especially now, interactions between male and female idols are almost considered a sin. Many young artists will create a persona of being afraid of men and women in order to reassure their fans.

But on a collaboration stage, there's bound to be interaction since they've already collaborated. There's only so much interaction between male and female performers, so it's a rather sensitive area. The production team actually invited two of them at once.

The fourth one was Zheng Cong, who loved to nitpick. After he was announced, the trainees were silent for a moment. The lecture hall was eerily quiet. Then, the few trainees who loved to cheer seemed to have just realized what was happening and started clapping. The applause was sparse and in stark contrast to their previous enthusiasm.

Even though the production team didn't like Zheng Cong, they couldn't help feeling awkward at this moment. These were all footage that had to be edited into the final cut, and if they included this kind of material, they would probably be torn apart by Zheng Cong's fans.

Zheng Cong is actually quite popular, with several of his dramas airing for three consecutive years. Although his roles are never the most popular, the reason he is not very popular is his personality. Every time he collaborates with a brand, he gets anonymous complaints and submissions from the other party's employees. At first, no one noticed this pattern, but after it was compiled, everyone realized how much trouble he was involved in.

Zheng Cong's public image instantly soured after he easily made so much money and still liked to make things difficult for working people. However, the dramas he has aired in recent years have earned him a lot of die-hard fans, so he has become a representative of "black and red" (a term referring to fame and fortune based on controversy). He is a top star in many entertainment groups, with both fans and haters. Whenever something happens, everyone rushes to the scene. Fans are there to see if there is anything that needs to be done to save face, while haters are there to see if there is anything to laugh at.

With such attention, it's hard for Zheng Cong to fade into obscurity; on the contrary, he's becoming increasingly popular.

The trainees' silence towards him is largely due to Zheng Cong's fans, who are a fearsome force; no one who has worked with him has escaped being criticized.

Not to mention that Zheng Cong himself is not easy to get along with; if you go to his group, you might be manipulated in some way.

Therefore, even though the song selection hasn't been released yet, many people have already mentally marked this person as someone they absolutely cannot choose for their group.

Pei Zixuan was the last to be revealed, and as expected, he received a warm response from the trainees. Some even stood up excitedly. Shi Yao stood at the back of the classroom, holding a camera and pretending to be one of the official photographers.

She could sense that the trainees' affection and admiration for Pei Zixuan was completely different from that of the previous guests. Although the previous guests had also welcomed him earnestly, it was mostly out of politeness. But when Pei Zixuan was revealed, they were all eager to try their luck and join his group.

The song selection hasn't even been made public yet.

The production team did not deliberately keep the audience in suspense. After announcing the mentors, they immediately announced the song selection. The choreography videos for the five songs were played continuously on the big screen. Just like the previous performances, the choreography formations for each part of the song were displayed. The only difference was that there was an additional mentor and one or two more interactive dance segments.

Zheng Cong and another female mentor's performances were the first two to be revealed. Zheng Cong's performance was a rather unremarkable rap stage. It can be said that there was no dance in "Where Are We Going?". He could only choreograph some movement moves himself. The interaction was not very strong. The song he chose was quite energetic, but it is unknown whether he can carry it.

His stage had seven contestant slots, but the reaction after the video was shown was rather lukewarm; it wasn't clear who particularly wanted to be chosen.

The production team observed the trainees' reactions and immediately switched to the next stage, which was the female mentor's. It was fairly standard, with two interactive dance segments and several remixes of currently popular hit songs, making it a safe bet.

The third performance featured Fang Xuran, and his performance was unexpectedly well-received. This was perhaps because he chose a classic, refreshing boy band song with a youthful, unrequited love vibe, the dance was also well-designed, and most importantly, there wasn't a significant gap between Fang Xuran and the other trainees in terms of appearance. He hadn't even graduated from university yet, and some of the trainees in the factory were even older than him, so performing on stage with him wouldn't feel out of place.

The fourth is Ye Jingyu's stage performance. Her song was quite unexpected, and it can be said that it hit all the sore spots of many show fans. Not only were there interactive elements and duets, but there were also many of them. The overall stage had a theatrical feel, using a storyline to make up for the relatively simple choreography.

This group has a total of six trainees, and each of them has an interaction part with the mentor. One of them even interacted several times, looking like the male and female leads in a stage play, leaving a suspenseful ending at the end.

After Ye Jingyu's song selection video ended, the atmosphere in the classroom became somewhat turbulent. It was clear that many people were tempted and wanted to give it a try. Although this stage was very unconventional, and could even be said to have crossed some boundaries, the male lead who had the most interaction would actually gain a lot of fans if he performed well on stage, especially the female fans.

But this song is indeed special. Even if the trainees like it, they don't dare to express it explicitly. They just secretly remember the song's number in their hearts.

The last song was by Pei Zixuan. After the name "Galaxy" was announced, the trainees present were not surprised. However, after the new arrangement and choreography were announced, many people became excited. In particular, when Pei Zixuan himself introduced the song to the camera, he said that this performance would be recorded in a special venue with a specially configured team. The re-arranged version of the song would also be made into a single, and the performance would be edited into a music video. In the future, this re-arranged version will be a new work jointly created by Pei Zixuan and the trainees.

These words immediately caused a stir among the audience. In fact, Pei Zixuan didn't need to promise so many new tricks; many people would still want to choose him. The appeal of that song alone would have been enough. But he was incredibly generous, helping them record a single and film a music video. It was practically an act of charity.

As a result, many of the trainees who had just decided on their song choices began to waver again, struggling with which song to choose.

The most people would definitely want to choose Pei Zixuan, but this is precisely what makes many people hesitate. Everyone knows that the selection of songs is not a one-sided selection, but a mutual selection. They can all flock to Pei Zixuan's team, but Pei Zixuan will only select seven people in the end, and the others will have to go to other groups.

The mentors in other groups will definitely be more biased and choose their trainees first. If they fail the interview with Pei Zixuan and waste their time, they will still not be favored by the mentors in other groups, thus losing the opportunity to choose the highlight part, which is even more of a loss.

Urged by the production team, the trainees set off with heavy hearts, wishing they could climb a single floor in ten minutes.

Shi Yao asked the photographer next to her for a mask, put it on, and followed with her camera. Her main focus was naturally on Ying Xu, but she hadn't managed to get many shots of him earlier.

Yingxu was ranked second in the previous round and sat in the middle right of the first row, while Shiyao only dared to stand at the back and couldn't even see the back of Yingxu's head.

After the song selection began, the trainees scattered like birds and beasts. Shi Yao caught sight of Ying Xu's figure and slowly followed behind, wanting to see which group he would choose.

Although she had always felt that there was a high probability that Yingxu would choose Pei Zixuan, the song she just heard made her waver. To be fair, the production team did have some talent. This time, at least three groups attracted her attention. Fang Xuran, whom she hadn't been very optimistic about, was also a good fit for the song, and the final response might be very good.

Most of the trainees walked slowly upstairs, hesitating as they went, but Yingxu was different. He resolutely skipped the second floor and headed straight for the third floor.

That is, one of Pei Zixuan and Ye Jingyu.

Shi Yao was not surprised at all, but she felt a little regretful because she felt that the refreshing boy band song with the theme of unrequited love would also be suitable for Ying Xu. He was not old, but he had never danced to this style of song before.

Both songs on the third floor were very popular, but the popularity was completely different. If the song was chosen by Ye Jingyu, it would be quite interesting, even though it is a bit sexy and has a similar style to his third performance.

But the promise didn't allow her to speculate too much. After going upstairs, she went straight to Pei Zixuan's classroom and was the first to knock on that door.

really.

Shi Yao couldn't help but click her tongue, but Ying Xu's hearing was exceptional. Hearing the noise, he suddenly turned around and met her gaze directly.

Author's note: I switched to a new word processing software, but it was incredibly laggy, so much so that it would automatically quit after writing just a few sentences. I obediently switched back to WPS. I'll give you one more chance, though.

Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2024-07-07 21:58:49 and 2024-07-08 21:14:01!

Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine: It's Pipi Yi 1;

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Thank you so much for your support, I will continue to work hard!