Day 7
"How's your practice going?"
Ou Ruo pushed open the door. He was wearing a casual suit and holding the lyrics book handed to him by the program crew.
As a veteran, Ou Ruo's rise to fame wasn't very early, and he toiled in the music industry for over a decade before finally becoming a household name in recent years thanks to a few hits. He doesn't have the airs of a celebrity; on the contrary, he's incredibly approachable.
Ou Ruo took a look around. Most of the trainees, who filled the entire room, looked timid. In his opinion, they lacked star quality. Indeed, this was the case. Although he had seen everyone's performances before, Ou Ruo found that he didn't remember many of the students in Class B. However, he was impressed by Fu Xunyan.
Because of his own compositions, his very good voice and his strangely clumsy singing skills.
He sat down. "It's been a day since we last started, so you should have memorized the lyrics, right? The teacher the director hired should have taught you how to sing. So let's speed things up. You guys sing it one by one, and then I'll see if there's anything else we can improve."
But as soon as he said this, he saw several people lowering their heads guiltily.
"Huh? You still can't sing?"
A man named Zhang Chi raised his hand: "Teacher, we mainly practiced dancing yesterday, so..."
Ou Ruo frowned. "What do you mean by mainly practicing dancing? Don't you move your mouth when you dance? Even if you don't move your mouth, don't you listen to the music? Don't you sing along in your heart? That still means you don't know how to do it at all?"
"These are two completely different things."
Perhaps it was because Ou Ruo was too calm, Zhang Chi could still mutter and refute in a low voice, which made Ou Ruo very angry.
Knowing that time is tight, you should allocate your practice time reasonably.
"You think I don't know that's an excuse? You just think you don't need to use your voice when filming a music video, and it doesn't matter if the singing is bad, as long as the dancing is on point, it's fine, right?"
Zhang Chi was embarrassed and lowered his head, not daring to speak again.
Ou Ruo didn't want to waste time, so she just coldly reminded him, "Don't forget, there's still another evaluation before you go on stage. With your attitude... your attitude, I'll definitely give you an F in vocals. And if the final comprehensive test is an F, then there's really no need to practice singing properly, because you won't be able to go on stage at all."
The threatening words shocked all the trainees.
"Fu Xunyan, right? You go first."
When their call was made at this point, everyone looked at Fu Xunyan with pity, but found that he did not seem as nervous and scared as they thought.
Holding a thin piece of paper in his hand, Fu Xunyan's eyes shuttled between the lines. The words blurred into black, but memory was like a beacon guiding his throat.
"To get warmth, we run towards the sun
Mud and hills, against the storm
We want to be as bright as shooting stars
Disappearing from the eyes of the people on Earth, escaping to another star
Run away, fight again
Break through the darkness of the universe and shatter the eternal night
Back to the New Century Castle"
It was just a short aria, but it was steady and pleasant. Fu Xunyan's voice could be high or low, clear and transparent when he was speaking, and when he deliberately lowered his voice, it retained its purity amidst the rough hoarseness.
Even if some of the trainees present lacked professional knowledge, they at least knew that it sounded good, very good, and full of emotion.
Ou Ruo didn't expect that Fu Xunyan would give him such a surprise right away, and he couldn't help but applaud.
"Hiss, how come you've improved so much in just two days? I originally thought your skills were lacking on your first stage, but now it seems your performance was awful—I'm not scolding you, but compared to how you are now."
"Maybe?" Fu Xunyan didn't know how to explain the situation that day. "Thanks to the program teacher for his help over the past two days. He helped me correct many of my vocal errors."
Ou Ruo then remembered that, although they were mentors in name, it was impossible for them to stay in the base all the time to teach courses. Usually, the teaching was done by amateur teachers invited by the program team.
The cameraman's camera was locked on Fu Xunyan's face, and his serious expression made it clear that the director was behind the scenes manipulating the scene to keep it.
Fu Xunyan did not feel uncomfortable, but the other trainees in the same classroom now looked dejected.
"Ahhh, I have an irreconcilable feud with these academic masters." Zhang Chi scratched his hair and stared at the lyrics, his brows furrowed enough to kill a fly.
"Brother! Brother! Don't talk like that! If you're done for, I'm done for too." The dreadlocked boy beside him covered his face in agony. Zhang Chi and the boy named R.TAI both came from the hip-hop scene. Unlike Dal-bae, these two rose to fame through domestic hip-hop shows.
I guess the company wanted to take advantage of the talent show revival to promote them again, so they packaged it up and sent them "New Century".
The two performed well on the first stage, but that was all thanks to the guidance of people from the same company. After practicing together for a month, their stage movements were at least standard. In addition, their rap skills were indeed strong, so they received a B rating.
But when the real hellish practice began, they realized they were doomed. Their appearance made it hard to make friends, and their somewhat volatile personalities made it even harder to find anyone to mentor them. As a result, they'd been practically stuck in the same spot for two days. From being completely exhausted to completely defeated, it only took them one morning.
Fu Xunyan noticed the two burning gazes and couldn't help but tilt his head to look over in confusion.
"Hiss, he's looking at me, get out of the way!" R.TAI has a talent for comedy and his early character setting was also very good. I believe he will be very popular after the show is broadcast.
Fu Xunyan didn't hear what he said specifically, and quickly turned back to listen to Ou Ruo correcting him. In the large classroom, with the patient and encouraging teacher and the attentive students, it looked truly peaceful and beautiful.
But this beauty ended after Fu Xunyan returned to the team. Since then, the trainees in Class B have been scolded more and more miserably, and Jiang Han is no exception. He has been learning dance since he was a child, but his singing is only at KTV level.
After Ou Ruo left, everyone looked dejected.
Chen Yujie, who had tried to talk to Fu Xunyan during the first stage, was also among them. It was not that he wanted to pay special attention to him, but it was arranged by his agent last night - of course he hid his mobile phone and kept in touch with the company at all times.
Pennyline, the company where Chen Yujie works, is an overseas company. Strictly speaking, Chen Yujie is actually a returning member. Their original group was hovering around the twelfth-tier overseas, but there was one person in the group who was particularly popular.
The man is called Kenny, of H descent, and is a very orthodox idol. In Chen Yujie's group, he is the most handsome and delicate one.
In fact, Chen Yujie believes that his positioning and Fu Xunyan’s positioning do not conflict, because Kenny is that kind of feminine and beautiful, while Fu Xunyan is more aggressive and very domineering on stage.
In other words, one is the Little Flower Fairy and the other is the Seer, and the painting styles of the dressing-up and combat series are incompatible.
But the agent doesn't think so. Although there are many beautiful people in a show, only the one who is recognized as the best-looking can have the opportunity to stand out. If Fu Xunyan is here, he will undoubtedly divert Kenny's attention.
Fu Xunyan's little outburst during this period has proved this point. If this continues, Kenny will become a foil.
What's even more coincidental is that Pennyline also sent trainees to "Go Forward", and those people happened to know people from Fu Xunyan's company, and Fu Xunyan's colleagues happened to be innocent, and they happened to tell the agent some things about Fu Xunyan.
Wow, it was effortless. The agent was so happy that he was grinning from ear to ear. He immediately reported it to the company and started their operation.
"New Century" is different from "Go Forward". It very riskily adopts a semi-live broadcast method, that is, at some important nodes, the program will be directly broadcast live (not 24-hour live broadcast), and then edited later to provide the finished product for viewers who cannot watch the live broadcast.
Because of this, "New Century" struggled with early-stage promotion and couldn't keep up in the mid-term. This, however, gave various companies ample room to maneuver. Currently, the program only features official photos and has opened a pre-show voting channel.
Since there are so many reruns on the show, Fu Xunyan's ranking is not good at this time. Even though he has an infuriatingly handsome face, his fans will not easily switch to him before they clearly explore his dynamic charm.
As for the self-fans...the show is not well-known enough, so there are not many of them.
All in all, Fu Xunyan is currently ranked around 40th, Jiang Han is ranked 53rd, and Kenny is ranked 9th. Pennyline has two pieces of information about Fu Xunyan and thinks it is a good time to vote for the first one.
If this can be effective in preventing him from turning over, then the cost of the second point can be saved.
Pennyline has long been a habitual offender in this kind of thing. Relying on the fact that the company is difficult to be caught abroad, they act very recklessly.
Fu Xunyan was completely unaware of the crisis behind it.
Although he understands that companies should take action at this time, he does not think his experience is something that should be criticized.
So much so that during the last practice session on the morning of the re-evaluation day, when the trainees whispered to him and Chen Chi dragged him out of the practice room, he was completely stunned.
"Brother, are you okay?" Chen Chi's concern was genuine. He came wearing Class D's practice uniform, standing out among the crowd of people in blue.
"Me?" Fu Xunyan looked up at the sky. "I should be fine, but I wonder if something happened outside that might be related to me."
Hearing that Fu Xunyan had no idea what was going on behind the scenes, Shen Chi felt as if his head had been hit hard. He was dazed and felt that he was still not steady enough.
I shouldn't have come to Fu Xunyan rashly.
Fu Xunyan could clearly sense the apology from the child in front of him. He felt a little amused and patted his furry head: "Alright, it's okay. Just tell me. The atmosphere in the practice room is like that. Even if you don't say it, I should know it after a while."
"Look, if you tell me now, you can still be of comfort."
Fu Xunyan did not avoid the camera, or rather, every trainee and every star, when surrounded by cameras for a long time, will occasionally forget that their every move is being recorded.
Fu Xunyan also forgot because Chen Chi's expression in front of him was too ugly.
It was the kind of sadness that made her feel pitiful, afraid that he would blame her, yet very sorry for having done something so bad to the boss.
"They said on the Internet that you were a gangster who was expelled from high school for bullying your classmates. You don't even have a high school diploma..." Chen Chi spoke softly and softly. He felt like a drowning fish. Gradually, he couldn't even open his mouth and didn't dare to look into Fu Xunyan's eyes.
The air was filled with silence, and it was a long time before the young man's ridiculous laughter was heard.
Chen Chi felt that Fu Xunyan didn't realize the seriousness of the problem, and hurriedly grabbed his arm and covered the microphone: "Brother, don't laugh, they also found your classmates, it was those classmates who pointed it out, I believe it must be a script, but..."
Fu Xunyan was not underestimating the seriousness of the matter, but it was ridiculous that those people who were bad by nature would do bad things for their own selfish desires no matter when they were tempted.
In his previous life, this incident was the trigger for him being blacklisted after the game. The company didn't even verify the authenticity of the matter with Fu Xunyan, spent over 200,000 yuan to suppress it, and then turned around and asked Fu Xunyan for it, using the excuse of "look how much we paid for you" to engage in PUA.
But this life is different.
Because Fu Xunyan knew very well that due to the outbreak of some incidents in neighboring countries H and R, the topic of "bullying" was hanging in the air, and every idol caught in the storm was "either dead or injured."
There is actually no impact in the country for the time being, but now Fu Xunyan has become the first one, which shows what his reputation on the Internet is like now.
The facts were just as Fu Xunyan expected.
"Sister!! What should I do?" Liu Yu was extremely anxious. She had been away from the fan circle for several years and had just built Fu Xunyan's fan site with over a hundred fans, but she was slaughtered in the square.
The point is, this isn't some hair-pulling conflict between idols, but social news.
After work, Liu Yu was so distracted while cooking that she burned herself. She was really scared. She was really scared that the trainee she had just fallen in love with was really such a terrible person.
So she called "Lotus Pods Who Love to Eat Me" hoping to get comfort from him.
"I love to eat my lotus pods" sounds young, but he is very emotionally stable.
"Liu Yu, you need to calm down. First, I have to make my position clear. Before I get any evidence, I don't believe this report is true. Secondly, to confirm whether it's true, I'll go to Baoyin Entertainment and check with his agent right away. If you're willing, you can come too."
"If he really is that kind of person, I will close the site and leave immediately." To Liu Yu, the words of "Love to Eat My Lotus Pods" were powerful and calmed her emotions.
But in fact, the girl lying alone in the rental house was flipping through the camera with one hand and unconsciously browsing Fu Xunyan's previous Weibo posts with the other.
"I love to eat my lotus pods" or in other words, Chen Lianqing was not sure about Fu Xunyan's character. She just liked him because of his face and didn't understand him at all.
But looking at the young man's slightly sloppy and rough style of Weibo, Chen Lianqing felt that he would not be like that.
**
Normally, even if a trainee collapsed during filming, the production team wouldn't help them clarify in order to maintain the hype. However, Fu Xunyan's case was too special, and it might even drag down the entire program.
So since the incident broke out last night, the program team has been discussing countermeasures, and finally called Fu Xunyan to the conference room at 11 o'clock to ask questions.
Looking at the leaders in front of him, Fu Xunyan even felt a little funny. Because of this funny feeling, he was surprisingly calm, so calm that the leaders felt that he did not take this matter seriously at all.
"We know this is fake, but if there's no evidence to prove it, then sorry, trainee Fu Xunyan, we can only withdraw you from the competition."
The young man, who was questioned before he could even speak, looked straight ahead calmly. He was silent for a while, and then he spoke slowly after a long time.
"I have a solution that will benefit everyone."
"I'm going to sue."
Huh? The production crew was shocked, and even more shocked was the next sentence.
"It's not a matter of reputation rights. I want to directly file a criminal lawsuit and sue the student who appeared on the video for 'defamation'. By the way, if we can find out which company is fueling this, I wouldn't mind suing them as well."
The production crew couldn't sit still. The expressions on the faces of the two men and one woman could have been used to shoot a thriller. Of course, Li Pengcheng, who was called in at short notice, was also quite surprised.
He knew Fu Xunyan's past very well, but he didn't expect him to be so tough at this time.
He had always had the impression that Fu Xunyan, although a bit angular, was generally obedient and sensible, and was calm and steady in his work, and would not be so aggressive.
But the young man had not yet stopped talking. The expression on his face was so calm, but people could still clearly read a kind of disappointment, anger and sadness in his dancing eyes, as if his eyes were stung by the light, and moisture slowly climbed up his eyeballs.
It is only limited to moisture. The bright and handsome young man will never shed a tear for those people. What he wants to do is to fight, to fight back, and to punish those dirty words and indiscriminate slander.
He knew clearly that acting like a weak person would make people feel more sympathetic, but he didn't.
He was born with a strong character. If the 21-year-old Fu Xunyan could afford a million-dollar penalty for breach of contract, then the 20-year-old Fu Xunyan now can still withstand the torrential criticism and clear his name.
The production crew was silent for five minutes, with only the cameras working tirelessly. They had originally been prepared to prevent Fu Xunyan from going crazy, but they hadn't expected to record such a reversal.
The female leader who had the final say stood up. She controlled her emotions and leaned over to look at Fu Xunyan: "Can you guarantee that you can turn the tables?"
Fu Xunyan didn't hesitate: "Yes."
"I can."
"Okay." The female leader made the decision and made arrangements immediately regardless of the hesitation of the two men next to her.
"I think this is a great opportunity for our show, a chance to make a comeback. Hasn't 'Onward' been buying negative publicity for us? We have to win this battle by taking advantage of Xiao Fu's incident."
After the meeting, Li Pengcheng did not leave. Although the program team probably stood on Fu Xunyan's side, they did not provide any substantial help.
"You said you wanted to sue, is that true?" Li Pengcheng confirmed again.
"Yes." Fu Xunyan calmly shifted his gaze to Li Pengcheng. "The person who came out to identify me was a participant in that incident. He thought he had no record of his youthful offense, but he did. Officer Zhang gave me a backup. This can be used to prove that their character is absolutely untrustworthy."
"As for the so-called bullying, I'm still in touch with the teachers back then, and the students they mentioned being bullied should still be found in town. Contrary to what they say, I've already prepared the evidence of their bullying. It's in the company dormitory. If it doesn't bother you, Brother Li, you can go get it."
"You..." Li Pengcheng began to feel something was wrong when he heard Fu Xunyan's well-organized arrangements. Why did it seem like everything had been prepared in advance?
"Don't doubt me, Brother Li. If they hadn't provoked me this time, I wouldn't want to dig up the past. For me, those things should never be an excuse to build momentum."
Li Pengcheng took a deep breath as he looked at Fu Xunyan's eyes, which seemed to be restrained and calm, but were secretly burning with fire.
"Okay, I'll help you with this."
Brother Li also left, leaving Fu Xunyan alone in the conference room. Everyone probably tacitly provided him with an environment to vent. But Fu Xunyan would not be here because the camera was still running.
He forced himself to walk out the door, nauseous, intending to go to the bathroom, but couldn't hold it in any longer and had to turn around and walk into an empty classroom. The moment the door closed, Fu Xunyan was about to punch the wall, but at the last second, he stopped.
This is the hand, an exposed part of the body, and once it is injured, it will be exposed to the audience.
But he really hates it...
Collapsing against the wall, he could only pinch his thighs, which were covered by his clothes. When they became numb, he moved on to his arms, until at some point, the intense emotion within him was suddenly drained away, leaving Fu Xunyan feeling completely empty.
In fact, he had thought countless times why he had to go back to the age of 20 to save Jiang Han, why he couldn't go back to the age of 16 to save the old man who adopted him.
The emotions flowed from the head into the throat, and then from the throat to the stomach, causing a burning sensation.
Evildoers will be punished, but the retribution comes too late. Fu Xunyan, a guy who is too much of a failure, cannot call the wind and rain and eliminate all evil as in the novel.
But this time, they took the initiative to jump up. Since the law cannot punish them, they will let all the eyes of the world come!
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