Day 2
Logically speaking, these thorns shouldn't appear on Fu Xunyan again. From the audition stage to being frozen out by the company after the incident broke out, and then entering society with the penalty for breach of contract, he has already suffered enough of the so-called "society's beatings."
Fu Xunyan knew the reason behind it because he had figured it out.
He has always been a very stubborn person, but last time, Li Pengcheng thought that kind of sharp and straightforward temperament was not pleasing, so he asked him to be humble and sweet.
But Fu Xunyan couldn't pretend, so he could only say less and make fewer mistakes. He became dull in front of the camera and ultimately became "unlikable" in another way.
The astonishment felt by everyone on the stage finally faded away with time. The mentors were friendly to the two of them. They also did not forget Jiang Han who was standing next to them and cue him to dance.
This time, Jiang Han did not receive any negative comments from the mentors because of the greasy "Touring Love Song", so he was in a good mood and performed exceptionally well.
As for Fu Xunyan, the instructors had already mentioned his own compositions, so even if they wanted to give him more time to perform, they wouldn't allow it. Seeing the directors across from him subtly raise a sign to speed up, Jiang Sulin gave up on letting Fu Xunyan sing a solo.
"We think you two have great chemistry together and your overall performance was fantastic, but..."
The other trainees on the pyramid also held their breath following this "but". Some of them had already sensed from the turn of events that this group would not receive an A rating.
"But there are still some flaws. For example, Jiang Han, your singing breath is very unstable, and you split your legs on the high notes. Since you have been preparing for this stage for a month, there shouldn't be such problems."
Jiang Han glanced at Ou Ruo and swallowed what he wanted to say - they didn't practice for a month. After Li Pengcheng handed over the planning, Fu Xunyan spent two weeks negotiating with the company and changed the song from "Touring Love Song" to the self-composed "Love Thorn".
The company's top management was somewhat dissatisfied with Fu Xunyan's "outspokenness", and because Fu Xunyan's new proposal increased their burden and cost, the service installation, recording and other work were delayed again and again. Even with Li Pengcheng's help, their actual practice time did not exceed one week.
During this period, Fu Xunyan was also responsible for clothing selection, styling design and other tasks.
But such an answer would push Fu Xunyan to the forefront. Jiang Han didn't know whether the result would be good or bad, so he gave the choice to Fu Xunyan and did not take the initiative to raise it.
Fu Xunyan also chose to remain silent.
"Then there's Fu Xunyan. Your voice is quite good, but for some reason, your technique feels a bit rusty. Your dancing is not bad either, but it lacks a certain feeling... You know, your biggest problem is your expression management. Your face can give you an advantage, and this time it barely covered up your other flaws. However, this sense of novelty will gradually fade, and you can't expect it to work every time."
"In other words, you have to improve your dancing and stage performance - oh, and your singing too." When it was Fu Xunyan's turn, the evaluator changed to Jiang Sulin. He seemed to give more negative comments, but everyone present could hear his earnestness.
This means that he thinks Fu Xunyan can do better, and that he recognizes Fu Xunyan's potential.
But the audience will not think so. All the trainees present are certain that the program team will not release all the causes and consequences. In the fragmented presentation, the audience will only hear that Jiang Sulin thinks Fu Xunyan has many shortcomings.
"So, the result of our unanimous discussion is..."
The lights seemed to dim for a second, making people feel uneasy and foreshadowing some unsatisfactory ending.
"Trainee from Baoyin Entertainment, Jiang Han - B grade, Fu Xunyan -"
In the silence, Jiang Sulin glanced at Fu Xunyan, perhaps wanting to comfort and encourage him, but in the end he still uttered the cruel word "Grade B".
Isn't that cruel?
Fu Xunyan subconsciously clenched his hands, but fortunately his sleeves hid them from view. He quickly released them, his thoughts drifting as he followed Jiang Han's bow. Without a particularly dramatic reaction, he circled the stage and returned to his seat.
During this time, everyone was whispering, either intentionally or unintentionally, and no one even paid attention to who was the last group to appear.
"Oh my god, this is too strict! I can't even get an A?"
"Hey, I feel like they're obviously better than the trainees from Aurora Media, so why..."
"Shh!"
Their seats were around the 50th, sandwiched between many people. When they passed by, many trainees cast looks of relief, relief, or confusion. Fortunately, Jiang Han used his social versatility to stand in front of them, and Fu Xunyan was spared from reacting.
The B rating he received was not an unacceptable result. The program team needed someone to come out and take over the "turnaround" script. If these trainees had good eyesight, they would have realized that this was not a suppression for Fu Xunyan, but a promise of future shots.
But Fu Xunyan was still not happy about it.
The first stage was very long. Fu Xunyan sat at the middle height of the pyramid, watching the trainees from each company below pass by with cold eyes. Those faces were familiar yet unfamiliar, as if separated by a layer of fog.
It will be fine - Fu Xunyan told himself, everything will be fine.
Even if he can't get better, at least he tried his best to fight it with his truest self and left no regrets. That's enough.
His eyes were wandering in the void and he didn't notice that someone in the distance was staring at him for a while.
"Brother? Do you know Fu Xunyan? Why are you always looking at him?" A trainee from the same company approached Ye Lai cautiously and asked curiously.
The young man being asked tilted his head slightly, and under the spotlight, his eyebrows and eyes looked very beautiful.
Like the green willows by the river on a spring day, radiating vitality and the warmth of the first melting snow, though his expression seemed anything but gentle. Yet, he himself was so pure and clean, reminiscent of the fluttering white sleeves of a green campus.
"Nothing." Ye Lai didn't seem to have any desire to share. She pursed her lips and turned away.
That's Fu Xunyan.
Yes, it’s Fu Xunyan.
Ye Lai's eyes flickered between light and darkness. This wasn't the first time he'd seen Fu Xunyan. The last time was on a snowy street in a foreign country. The boy, looking even more plain than he was today, was wearing only a thin jacket, his hands in his pockets, leaning against the doorway of a convenience store.
And then - that day he lost face in front of Fu Xunyan.
But he thought Fu Xunyan would not remember this incident - the other person's eyes told him so at that time.
Indifferent, eyes even more indifferent than Ye Lai's own, like gorgeous butterflies flying through the dense forest, not stopping for anything along the way.
Ha. Ye Lai sneered inwardly. What did he say at that time?
“I won’t debut.”
So now, what is the arrogant convenience store employee who claims that he will not debut doing?
There were one hundred and one trainees and nearly forty stages, and it was not ruled out that some trainees would have to take additional tests during the period. By the time everything was over, ten hours had passed.
Recording lasted from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and exhaustion washed over every face, leaving many trainees in poor condition. The five mentors and staff provided touch-ups for their faces, but these trainees didn't have any, so they could only use the loose powder they brought with them to apply some makeup.
"Hello, I'm Yin Xingheng, I really like your self-composed music."
The man approached, his eyes burning in the light.
Fu Xunyan turned around and found that it was someone he was quite familiar with.
Yin Xingheng.
"Thanks."
The lazy young man stood above him, facing the light, his entire face tending to be dim, but Yin Xingheng still felt a little dazzled.
It's normal, anyone would be distracted by such beauty, Yin Xingheng justified his stunned state.
"You're a bit aloof," Yin Xingheng smiled, oblivious to the furtive, concerned glances from those around him. In fact, he had already dodged several people who tried to strike up a conversation. "Can I sit next to you?"
Who made him the favorite before the game?
"certainly."
Fu Xunyan didn't expect that Yin Xingheng would take the initiative to come to him this time. The young man in front of him was the kind of child that was particularly likable in the eyes of the elders - very well-behaved, not in the sense of being childish, but with a face that looked very kind at first glance.
He has thick eyebrows and big eyes, and because he is young, his face is a little round.
A handsome guy is naturally a handsome guy, but unfortunately he is not the special type of handsome guy that girls like. This also led to Yin Xingheng losing his advantage in the later 1pick stage. As a big vocal, he finally debuted in sixth place.
"How come you talk less than me?" Yin Xingheng was a little helpless. "I thought you had some killer trick up your sleeve, like you're actually a bit of a nag in private."
"I'm sorry to have let you down." Fu Xunyan curled the corners of his mouth.
"It's a bit strange to say. I came to see you not just because of your self-composed music - I always feel that you look familiar, but I should have never seen you before?" Yin Xingheng scratched his forehead with a confused expression.
But he didn't reveal the truth. Rather than feeling "familiar", he felt that after seeing Fu Xunyan's face just now, he felt "depressed".
The kind of suffocating feeling where you can't breathe.
He was sure that he was not sick, so the one with the problem must be Fu Xunyan.
Fu Xunyan curled his fingers, lowered his eyes and chuckled: "Indeed, I have never met you before. Maybe we hit it off right away."
Yin Xingheng didn't really want to get to the bottom of this strange, sudden feeling, so she didn't object. Anyway, Fu Xunyan was pretty easy to get along with.
Fu Xunyan's heart was stirred by Yin Xingheng's words. He had thought that time and space were single-threaded, but Yin Xingheng's reaction was different. Perhaps his return had also affected something.
But it did not prevent him from continuing to communicate with Yin Xingheng.
When the trainees around saw Yin Xingheng sitting next to Fu Xun, many of them gritted their teeth and despised Yin Xingheng for not knowing how to maximize the use of resources - he had the advantage before the show, and Fu Xunyan had the "face", they could obviously separate and bring other trainees to fame!
What a waste to put them together.
Does Yin Xingheng have the popularity to piggyback on? Undoubtedly.
There are four favorites before the "New Century" competition: Ye Lai, the all-round green card who returned from the neighboring country, Bo Mi, a trainee from the hottest entertainment company in the industry, vocal Yin Xingheng who participated in other talent shows and won fourth place, and Min Hai, a re-employed contestant.
If Ye Lai has captured the hearts of most star-chasing girls, then Yin Xingheng is undoubtedly the most well-known among all the trainees.
At 16, he ambitiously signed up for a popular singing program in China. Despite his immature voice and lack of technique, it was precisely that unpolished simplicity that captivated audiences nationwide. On the show, he gradually blossomed, and with his inexplicable charm, he made it all the way to the semifinals.
After the competition, he received offers from several companies, but surprisingly, he chose not to sign and instead continued his studies. Four years passed in a flash, and with the rapid pace of change, he lost most of his fans.
This is also the main reason why he is not as good as Ye Lai now.
"Huh? Why are you standing together? Hello, I'm Jiang Han, a trainee from the same company as Xun Yan." Jiang Han was very outgoing and quickly got to know Yin Xingheng.
The three of them walked together, changed their positions according to the director's instructions, and waited for the recording of the initial evaluation.
Yin Xingheng was not very old, but he was extremely sleepy at this point. He yawned and leaned his head on the shoulder of Fu Xunyan, who was taller than him. "I'm so sleepy. Don't we already know the result? We still have to record it again."
Fu Xunyan did not respond. He looked at the spotlight in the center of the stage, where Jiang Sulin stood tall and gracefully with a word card in his hand.
There were 12 people in the A-level, just like last time, and with the addition of himself and Jiang Han, there were 21 people in the B-level. Looking at the 12 people in Group A who stood up after being called by Jiang Sulin, Fu Xunyan's eyes flickered, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but straighten.
There were 101 people, but only 7 made their debut.
Sadly, this is not an elementary school exam, and strength does not represent everything - the company's marketing, the operation of the program, there are too many uncontrollable factors that determine the ranking, which makes "hard work" often a joke.
When marketing outweighs talent and hard work, it's understandable that most trainees would crumble. They're like small boats on a river, with no say before their debut, their direction determined by others.
Most of the seemingly glamorous stars are actually symbols of capital. They have no freedom and are just commodities. What’s even more tragic is that sometimes they themselves don’t even feel that they are being dehumanized, and even complacently enjoy the spotlight and the love of fans, only to go astray and be abandoned in the end.
I vaguely remember that the most successful day for that group was the day they were announced. After that, due to a lack of domestic performances, the members spent less time together, and each pursued their own goals, so they only collaborated on one album before disbanding.
The initial evaluation results were announced very quickly, and the crew members were so busy that they briefly forgot about all the trainees on the stage. Everyone stood there bored, some dozing off sleepily, and some chatting animatedly.
The trainees around Ye Lai noticed that his colleague who got an A did not look very happy. Instead, he was staring at the trainee named Fu Xunyan openly. They couldn't help but feel very confused.
That is to say, even if Fu Xunyan's face is really good-looking, there is no need to stare at him like that, right?
Ye Lai curled up his hands. Even though Fu Xunyan's initial rating was B, the deep sense of crisis brought by the other party immediately hit him.
But for some reason, even though he had just listed him as an opponent who needed to be wary of, the next second he saw Yin Xingheng quickly getting familiar with him, Ye Lai still felt extremely uncomfortable.
Why? Wasn't it me who knew him first? If he had to find someone he knew among the 100 trainees to talk to, besides Jiang Han, shouldn't I be his second choice?
Ye Lai's expression became colder and colder. He knew that his reaction was wrong, so he forced himself to divert his attention and think about other things.
For example, the current situation of the program.
The start of "New Century Idol" was too unfavorable.
The next-door show "Go! Boys" obviously wanted to crush the competition by choosing to broadcast it at the same time as "New Century Idol". The pre-match marketing was terrifying.
To use data as an example, the top trending search before the next game was an amateur who was the second generation of a star, and his fans had reached 220,000. Even if I have a hit single, I only have about 300,000 fans.
Fu Xunyan's fan count just broke 10,000 today, while the amateur trainees from the same company who participated in "Go Forward! Youth" have already reached 100,000.
This shows the difference in publicity between the two programs.
The saying "good wine needs no bush" is pure bullshit in modern times. The Internet and big data always make people have preconceived ideas. As long as "Go Forward" can get a passing score, fans will give it 90% recommendation.
What's even worse is that on the last night before the show, Ye Lai learned from his agent that the other party had been buying negative press releases for "New Century", but sadly, the "New Century" production team had no way to deal with the remaining balance.
As for the trainees in the show... they were so miserable that Ye Lai could not have imagined before her investigation.
The current top trainees of "New Century" are all single parents, poor, or have seriously ill patients at home... each one has a harder time than the other.
In other words, it is impossible for them to pay for marketing out of their own pockets, and of course, most of their companies will not do so either.
In comparison, "Go Forward" is simply a meeting of rich young men, and there are even several second-generation stars and rich second-generations to support the scene. It is said that there is also a prince from a small country.
In recent years, the trend in the idol circle has changed. Fans' admiration for the strong has shifted from physical strength to family background. Under such a disadvantage, how can "New Century" have a future?
Worried about the show and his own future, Ye Lai walked down the aisle with his head down.
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