Chapter 49

The last member to join their team was a young trainee they had never seen before. Since he was rather introverted and seldom spoke, Luo Jiayu couldn't tell whether he was normal or not.

After all members have finished selecting their songs and forming groups, a new round of training, rehearsals and performances will begin.

After completing the grouping in the morning, they had to start the preliminary transcription and dancing as well as part allocation in the afternoon. Because their group was pure singing, the preparation process was simpler than that of other groups. They only had to transcribe the music and allocate the lyrics.

According to the usual routine of Ding Lian's program, one or two open or covert quarrels in the competition for the C position are considered few. In the original book, the fourth song collectively chosen by the protagonists had already been torn into a bloody storm due to various royal family and spotlight-grabbing disputes.

But the two vicious villains who caused the bloody storm in the original plot were now sitting peacefully in the practice room for the sixth song, Makabaka. Captain Luo was holding a lyrics paper, humming the melody while underlining the lyrics with colored pens of different colors. Chu Yu was sitting next to him, resting his eyes with his hands on his head, catching up on his morning sleep.

"It's out of tune." Chu Yu said in a daze without even opening his eyes.

"Um?"

Chu Yu hummed the part that Luo Jiayu had just sung, and Luo Jiayu hummed along again, then continued to sing out of tune.

Chu Yu opened his eyes and sang a scale to his childhood friend.

Luo Jiayu closed his eyes and tried to feel the changes in the scale of the little song while singing.

"..." Chu Yu narrowed his eyes, "Why can't you sing Big Ear Tutu's theme song out of tune?"

"Maybe it's because of love?" Luo Jiayu fumbled and hummed the previous part again, then nodded with satisfaction, "Don't worry, I'm gradually understanding everything."

“…” It’s indeed a little progress. Just now it was out of tune and ran to the Atlantic Ocean, but now it’s only reached the Pacific Ocean.

"Am I a genius?" Luo Jiayu approached Chu Yu with shining eyes, asking for praise.

"Yes, you are a genius." Chu Yu raised his hand and gave his childhood friend a joyful slap of self-deception.

On the other side, Song Lai was enthusiastically discussing the research topic he had just mentioned with Tang Yanning. "Let me tell you, I've been doing this social research for over five years. I've read a lot of books, from flash marriages and beautiful wives running away with the baby to innocent girls and hot girls. I believe that with time, I will become an expert in this field."

"Come on, you can do it." Tang Yanning offered his sincere blessings.

"Forget about that crappy third-rate novel of yours for now." Captain Luo slapped the lyrics board in his hand and began to give orders, "Everyone, come quickly and assign your parts."

According to the principle of fairness in international practice, all highlight parts need to be obtained through individual competition. However, the atmosphere in this group is extremely harmonious. Apart from making fun of each other and chatting, everyone does not have a strong sense of competition.

In line with the principle of solidarity and friendship, Song Lai looked at the fifth trainee, who had been silent the entire time, with a friendly look: "I remember your name was that something... What was your name?"

The young trainee wasn't ranked high, only 49th, barely third in the team. But perhaps it was Song Lai's face, resembling Zhang Fei after makeup, that was too powerful. Tears welled up in his eyes, his lips trembled slightly, and he whispered in a mosquito-like voice, "My name is Li Sheng."

"Oh, Li Sheng."

The young trainee burst into tears, gasping for breath: "My...my name is Li Sheng."

Tang Yanning asked, "How old are you?"

Li Sheng burst into tears: "I, I'm eighteen."

Chu Yu looked at the other party's tearful cat head that broke through the defense three times in one second, and felt a sense of intimacy in his heart. He turned his head and poked Luo Jiayu and whispered something to him.

Luo Jiayu: "He asked you what your zodiac sign is."

Li Sheng burst into tears: "I, I'm an Aquarius."

Chu Yu poked Luo Jiayu again and whispered something.

Luo Jiayu: "He said he's also an Aquarius, what a coincidence for you."

Li Sheng exclaimed again: "Thank you, thank you...but, but, you could have told me directly."

Chu Yu pursed her lips. After being exposed, she felt a little embarrassed to whisper in her childhood friend's ear, but Luo Jiayu leaned forward first and asked, "What else do you want to say?"

After hearing the whisper, he turned around and continued, "He feels more comfortable speaking through my medium, please forgive me."

Mr. Li finally stopped crying and sobbed, "Okay, okay, no, it's okay."

Luo Jiayu: "One plus one equals what?"

Li Sheng burst into tears again and answered with a choked voice, "Equal to two."

Luo Jiayu continued to ask: "If Dad and Mom fell into the water, who would you save first?"

Li Sheng burst into tears again, this time even louder than before: "I will commit suicide."

"That's right." Captain Luo leaned his head on Chu Yu's shoulder, his lips pressed against his childhood friend's neck and moved desperately, "A room full of psychos."

Chu Yu blinked, and under Song Lai's gaze, which looked as if he had seen a ghost, he placed his hand on Luo Jiayu's head and rubbed it as if he were soothing a Samoyed: "It's okay."

Luo Jiayu rested his head on Chu Yu's neck and stopped moving. He lazily turned his head to continue reading the lyrics he had just marked:

"First, let's determine the chorus part. This part is actually the shortest, with only two lines at the end and one line at the climax; then there are the individual parts."

There are two solo parts, one at the very beginning and the other after the climax of the first part. It requires a lot of techniques such as vibrato and falsetto, and it will be very eye-catching if sung well.

"I want to compete for the opening paragraph." Song Lai raised his hand high.

Although he seems to be eccentric and jokes around every day, he is very serious about his career, otherwise he would not have won the ninth place in the votes again and again.

"I want one too." Tang Yanning raised his hand.

"Okay, he wants one too." Luo Jiayu lowered his head to write down the name while lifting Chu Yu's arm. Song Lai narrowed his eyes and glanced back and forth, then found that Chu Yu didn't show any intention of resisting. His expression was calm as if they had long been accustomed to this way of getting along.

Luo Jiayu didn't mention his intention to run for the election, and the remaining few people all turned their eyes to Li Sheng. The latter trembled under the gaze and cried out again: "No need, I'm the dance leader... I, I just need to sing."

So the first round started with the three of them battling each other. Since Tang Yanning had already battled Chu Yu once when they first appeared on the stage, and he didn't win then, he was still inferior in terms of skills this time.

As for Song Lai, his singing skills are actually very good, comparable to or even better than Capibara. The only problem is that his voice and temperament are too incompatible with the style of the song "December".

To put it in an analogy, it's like a nightclub party queen suddenly changing her career to go the innocent sister confession route, but the smoky makeup on her face has not been removed yet.

From the audience's perspective, it might be more appropriate for a contestant like Chu Yu, who has a clear and cool voice and a clean youthful aura, to sing this song.

So at the end of the first round, Capibara won the championship and got the solo highlight part in the opening section.

Trainees who have won the opportunity to sing solo cannot participate in the second election, so the solo part after the climax of the first section was given to Song Lai.

"Okay, next is... the allocation of double parts." Luo Jiayu paused when he said this.

There are also two duet parts, one of which is the duet at the climax, where the confessor and the confessed express their true feelings to each other, which is also the most tender part in the whole song.

"I want to sing this part." Luo Jiayu was still racking his brains with his head down, thinking about how to start, when he suddenly heard his childhood friend beside him speak up, pointing his finger at the part he had been staring at.

He raised his head and looked at Chu Yu: "Actually, I also..."

Song Lai's eyes lit up: "Me! I want to sing this part too. I'll sing with you!"

Luo Jiayu narrowed his eyes.

He was just waiting here when he was not competing for the solo part. He has not forgotten his great ambition of earning 400 popularity points to get a bank card. He must mobilize his childhood friends to do a lot of business in this performance, and this duet is the best opportunity. How can he miss it!

It is bound to surpass the popularity of the CP super topic of the two protagonists!

"You can't," he said calmly, "Your solo part follows this duet part. You can't sing it continuously. There's a conflict."

Song Lai bit her lip, hesitated again and again, and finally said with tears in her eyes, "Then I don't want my solo part."

Luo Jiayu: "Are you sure?"

"I'm not sure."

The love brain dissipated and the IQ returned temporarily. Song Lai thought about it and felt that the other duet part was equally eye-catching, so he gladly gave way.

As for Tang Yanning, he chose the same part as Song Lai.

Everyone finally looked at Mr. Li, who sobbed and choked, "I, I'm not good at singing, but, but can you arrange an instrumental solo for me? I can play the violin."

The last potential competitor disappeared. Luo Jiayu squinted his eyes and bumped fists with Chu Yu: "Happy cooperation."

Chu Yu also touched his lips: "Happy cooperation."

The overall lyrics and music style of "December" are very gentle. The general content is a love letter written by a secret admirer when he meets his sweetheart again after several years of separation.

The duet at the climax is the only positive confession in the entire song. After years of separation, both parties who have been apart for a long time have lost the haste and urgency of their youth, and have gained a bit of calmness and tranquility without forcing an ending.

This calmness and tranquility allowed Chu Yulai to play the role very well, because even though he was young, his movements and temperament were as slow as a thousand-year-old turtle, and he had never been in a hurry in his life.

As for Luo Jiayu, he has been studying how to tone down his cool, crazy and awesome self and become mature, steady and profound. He feels that he has been reformed well and is now terrifyingly strong.

However, vocal instructor Ji Fengzhu, who came to inspect them that day, had some objections to this.

"The essence of this song lies in a kind of tranquil affection. First you have to be affectionate, then you have to achieve tranquility. In comparison, the feeling of tranquility is more important because it is closely related to the style of the song's scenery, costumes, and props."

After Ji Fengzhu finished speaking, he pointed at Chu Yu and said, "I remember you sang well. You go first."

In the practice room, Chu Yu held the microphone in his left hand and lyrics paper in his right hand, and performed the climax of the confession in front of Ji Fengzhu.

Before he sang, Ji Fengzhu was still guiding and encouraging him: "Don't be impatient, don't be anxious, go slower, take it easy... I know you young people are the most likely to get impatient."

However, Chu Yu used his strength to show him what it meant to be a youthful old man at the age of nineteen.

"...You showed your calmness." Ji Fengzhu hesitated, "But I was talking about 'don't rush to get a response from the other party'. What did you show?"

"You're acting like someone who's like, 'I'll take pictures when the house is on fire, I'll sleep when life is a mess, I don't know when disaster is coming, and the worst that can happen is I'll just hang myself!' That has nothing to do with love!"

Chu Yu lowered his head and buried it in his collar.

The little trumpet of my heart sounded at an inopportune time.

You are really good at judging people.

"..."The feeling of heart attack during the initial evaluation came back to Ji Fengzhu.

He turned to Luo Jiayu who was watching from the side and said, "You, you come."

Luo Jiayu threw the lyrics paper back and made a confident and shining appearance.

He touched the microphone in front of him and began to demonstrate the results of his half-hour practice: "If memory is destined to fold in the dead of winter, can snowflakes cut through time and bring back longing..."

"Affectionate! Affectionate!"

"This isn't a good season for writing letters. Those dusty love poems should probably be turned over long ago..."

"Silence! Silence!"

"I'm writing the final page of love, the final chapter continuing from the year after the beginning of the story..."

"I always feel like you are showing off." Ji Fengzhu said expressionlessly.

The time for instruction was limited, so Luo Jiayu looked at Chu Yu happily as he left: "Did you hear that? I didn't sing out of tune!"

"Excellent." Chu Yu nodded calmly and clapped his hands.

After inspecting their practice room, Ji Fengzhu left first, but the camera teacher who followed him did not leave. He stayed here and set up the camera, saying that he wanted to shoot some clips of their daily training as highlights of the show.

"I'm going to go talk to Teacher Ji first. You guys can just practice as usual. Don't be too restrained."

The camera teacher left after giving his instructions. Luo Jiayu didn't take it seriously at first. He was still holding the lyrics paper and trying to figure out the core of Ji Fengzhu's abstract "affection and tranquility". Halfway through, a flash of lightning suddenly struck his mind.

He remembered that there was also a camera like this placed in their practice room during the first public training. He remembered that after those daily training videos were released, the number of CP fans of Wei Ziyu and Jiang Chenglu increased almost exponentially, and the popularity of the two also soared.

The competitive spirit and the ambition to earn bank cards rose up again.

He poked Chu Yu beside him and whispered to him.

"...That's how they sold homosexuality before." Luo Jiayu said, "Let's do it too."

This was the first time they had consciously done something like this. Chu Yu was not very experienced in the business and asked his partner, "How do you sell it?"

"I've seen similar couple videos. I'll whisper a few words into your ear later. Just turn your ears red after you listen." Luo Jiayu said, "It's very simple. Do you know how to do it?"

"?" Chu Yu turned around and looked at him with a puzzled expression, "Brother, do you think I'm a reptile that can change temperature?"

"Don't you crawl in the dark every day?" Luo Jiayu looked very happy with his eyes curved.

“…”

He excitedly tugged at his childhood friend's sleeve again: "Come on, let me start first."

As Luo Jiayu spoke, he put his lips close to Chu Yu's, the distance closer than when they usually whispered. Chu Yu only felt a burst of heat rubbing against his earlobe, and then exploring deeper inside.

The picture captured by the camera is even more ambiguous because of the blur. At first glance, it seems as if one person's lips have rubbed against the other person's earlobe and are still rubbing slowly.

Later, I saw the comments of this section and it went crazy:

What the hell are they doing?

[Are you crazy for getting so close?!]

[They kissed, they definitely kissed, right?]

Ahh ...

At this time, Chu Yu, whose ear was bitten, could only hear Luo Jiayu talking to him slowly. Luo Jiayu's voice in a relaxed state was praised by countless fans as sexy, with a lazy voice and a slight hoarseness.

The other party said to him in this sexy, slightly hoarse voice:

"A lama has come from the south, carrying a pound of sole."

【Aa ...

[I can’t do it anymore, I can’t do it anymore, I need oxygen tube]

"A mute has come from the north, with a trumpet on his waist."

Chu Yu's expression twisted for a moment.

[Have they kissed on the lips?! Is it true?! ! !]

[Ahhhhhhhh mom, our CP is real ahhhhhh]

"The lama in the south, who is carrying a flounder, wants to exchange his flounder for the dumb trumpet in the north."

Chu Yu lowered his head, trying hard not to be captured by the camera with the corners of his twitching mouth.

[I say you young lovers, don’t be too ambiguous]

Xiao Yu is shy! Shy! I don't even dare look at the camera! What shameful things are you guys talking about?!

"The mute wouldn't trade his trumpet for the lama's sole. The trumpet... no, the mute... no, la, la, hiss, my tongue is tied."

Chu Yu couldn't hold it in any longer: "Puff."

Luo Jiayu was shocked: Oh no, it’s all ruined.

The next second, his childhood friend turned around and covered his face with his hands, holding onto his shoulders. He buried his face in his arms, and his shoulders shook uncontrollably.

After finally laughing enough, Chu Yu wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and whispered, "You are really fucking sick."

Luo Jiayu blinked and tried to hug the back of the person in his arms.

...seems to have succeeded.

The reason why Chu Yu threw himself into his childhood friend's arms was simple. He couldn't hold back his laughter, and if he didn't find something to block his laughter, he was afraid that he would burst out laughing.

So he made a quick decision and buried his face in his childhood friend's arms just before the camera captured his exposure, and finally succeeded in preventing Luo Jiayu's business plan from being ruined by himself.

The camera was taken away by the returning photographer not long after. Chu Yu leaned on his childhood friend's shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief as if he had survived a disaster.

“Almost.”

Luo Jiayu hadn't let go of her arms around him yet, but when she raised her eyelids, she saw Song Lai staring at them in amazement not far away.

Song Lai had been staring at the two of them since they huddled together and whispered.

He saw with his own eyes how Luo Jiayu put his lips close to Chu Yu's, and even touched the tip of Chu Yu's ear;

Then when Chu Yu lay in his arms, Luo Jiayu rested his chin on her shoulder and held her in his arms for a long time without letting go.

"What?" Perhaps because Song Lai's gaze was too hot, Luo Jiayu finally spoke.

Song Lai was held captivated by their actions for half a minute, and finally asked, "What were you doing just now?"

Luo Jiayu thought about it and realized that since they were all teammates, there was nothing to hide. So he admitted frankly, "Selling homosexuality, what's wrong? Haven't I seen it before?"

"Oh," Song Lai said, "you city people call this selling rotten things."