Chapter 9 Auditions (Part 2)
On the stage, warm lights shone down, and Mo Bei felt that his body was like the ice thawing on the river, starting to soften from being rigid.
However, he did not dance, not only because his body flexibility and agility were far from enough, but also because the song itself was not meant to be danced.
"Fearless" is the most popular song in Mo Bei's career. It is also one of the most popular hits in the Chinese music scene over the past twenty years.
Its production style is not as avant-garde as his other masterpieces, but the catchy melody made this song spread widely on the Internet as soon as it was released.
Its uplifting and motivational lyrics and powerful singing have inspired many ordinary people, making it still popular even 21 years after its release.
It was also thanks to "Fearless" that Mo Bei's career, having just returned to China two years ago, took a huge leap forward. It also changed the public's stereotype that singing and dancing idols only sing meaningless garbage music.
But now, Mo Bei, who has nothing, has changed his appearance and stands here as the zombie Jiang Monan, reinterpreting the song.
Even if you have nothing, you are still fearless.
For a moment, reality and the lyrics formed a perfect contrast.
Compared to his high-spirited and youthful self 21 years ago, his feelings about this song have become even deeper now.
The familiar accompaniment echoed in my ears, and the melody I had sung countless times was already engraved in my heart. I closed my eyes and sang softly.
The plain melody contains a small but tenacious power.
Like the fish swimming upstream, the trees broken by the strong wind, the rocks beaten by the waves, or like Sisyphus who was punished by the gods to push the boulder uphill, even if he was thrown to the bottom of the valley, he still persevered in climbing towards the mountain ahead.
Be indomitable in the face of difficulties. Even if you fail and fall again and again, you will still stand up again bravely and fearlessly like a warrior.
Because what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger.
Until the last syllable fell, Mo Bei slowly opened his eyes.
The scene became extremely quiet.
At some point, the judges below all sat up straight, with expressions of surprise on their faces.
Not only the director team, but also other staff members on the scene couldn't help but stop what they were doing and looked at the contestants on the stage in disbelief.
“Like…this is too similar!”
"This face, and this voice! They're exactly like Mo Bei!"
I don't know who broke the silence first, but in an instant, the originally quiet judging room was suddenly filled with all kinds of whispers and discussions.
No one expected that the candidate in front of them not only looked similar to Mo Bei, but also had an almost identical voice!
Even the emotional investment in the song is replicated one to one!
No, it may even be more emotional than the original version!
Because when the other party sang the climax of the chorus just now, they couldn't help but feel a sour taste in their noses several times.
If they didn't know that Mo Bei died young and that the age of this candidate didn't match, they would almost doubt whether the other party was Mo Bei himself!
Feeling emotional, Zhuo Yanbin, the chief director of the program team, picked up the registration form in front of him and took a careful look at it.
Name: Jiang Mo Nan
Age: 23
Birthplace: Yujiang
Specialties: singing, dancing, and songwriting.
After that, the columns for occupation, graduation school, personal honors, contact information, and home address are all blank.
Seeing this, Zhuo Yanbin sighed silently. This was truly the simplest registration form he had ever seen.
In order to make the director team remember them, the other candidates treated the application form as a resume and took great pains to fill it up, sometimes even leaving no space for writing.
On the other hand, this one is very cryptic and seems to have no sense of competition at all.
This made him wonder if the other party really wanted to participate in the audition for their show?
The director team had no idea that it wasn't that Mo Bei left the columns blank on purpose, it was simply because he had no way of answering the questions in the remaining columns.
As a former top-tier figure who has been dead for 20 years and has just turned into a zombie for two days, he is now an illegal resident. Neither his identity before death nor his identity after death can be recorded.
As for his home address and contact information, he currently didn't even have a proper place to stay, and even his cell phone was looted from tomb robbers, so it was even more difficult to fill it out.
I can’t even fill in these most basic information, let alone other things.
However, Mo Bei's helpless move was interpreted differently by the program director.
Perhaps good-looking people will always be cast through a filter no matter what they do, so even if he left large blank spaces on the application form, the director team still didn't think there was anything wrong.
Especially when coupled with Mo Bei's face which had become stern due to rigor mortis, it made people feel that this was just his personality.
With this misunderstanding, Director Zhuo Yanbin's eyes turned towards Mo Bei with increasingly burning passion.
Taking into account the variety show effect of the program, most of the contestants selected by the program team so far have extroverted and lively personalities, and there are almost no cool and handsome guys like the one in front of him.
After all, if the contestants are too aloof and taciturn, the recorded material will be very boring, and the program crew won’t even be able to edit the film.
But Jiang Mo Nan is an exception.
Because both his appearance and voice are extremely similar to those of Mo Bei, the top idol who died young 20 years ago.
Putting such a person on the show will definitely make him a hot topic maker!
Although Jiang Mo Nan's face and voice will inevitably be accused by some people of imitating others and trying to gain popularity when he appears on TV shows in the future, if he has a cold and arrogant personality, then nothing will happen. He may even attract fans and netizens to speak up for him.
My brother's face and voice are naturally like this, and can this be called riding on the popularity? He is obviously such a proud person.
The more haters you step on, the more backlash from fans will grow.
A sense of belief that "I'm fighting for my reputation" and "I'm the only brother in our family" will support them in voting crazily for Jiang Mo Nan.
As long as he doesn't reveal any fatal flaws in the subsequent shows, his future will be very promising.
Although the program has not yet officially started recording, the director has already designed a plot line for the prospective contestant to advance in his ranking.
Mo Bei had no idea what the director was thinking.
It was his first time performing on stage with almost no preparation, and he was undoubtedly nervous.
However, what worried him more than the performance just now was his own appearance.
Although he had asked a makeup artist to put makeup on him yesterday, he spent the whole day wearing a hat and a mask and didn't know if his makeup was smudged.
What if the makeup on his face is accidentally rubbed off, exposing his zombie identity?
Although the reaction on the scene showed that this did not happen, he still couldn't help but worry because he was carrying a secret.
In addition, the results of the auditions are also worrying.
Although Mo Bei is confident in his own strength, everything is still unknown until the dust settles.
Moreover, 20 years had already passed. He didn't know if his performance would be in line with current aesthetics. If it didn't suit the production team's taste, then no matter how good his performance was, it would be useless.
With an expressionless face, Mo Bei's mind was in a whirlwind.
"Your performance was great. It was almost exactly like Mo Bei back then."
Without sparing words, Zhuo Yanbin, the chief director of the program team, praised Mo Bei's performance.
Hearing this, Mo Bei's tense heartstrings relaxed slightly.
"Thanks."
Although he had already decided to extend an olive branch to the candidate in front of him, Zhuo Yanbin couldn't help but ask tentatively: "Are you really not deliberately imitating him?"
Hearing this, Mo Bei couldn't help but pause.
How to imitate?
He is Mo Bei, Mo Bei is him.
Even though he was in a state of resurrection, the facial features of this corpse were 95% similar to his past face. If the makeup was done right, it would be even more similar. Not to mention the almost identical voice.
Given these objective conditions, it would be difficult for him to perform differently from "Mo Bei".
But of course I can't tell the other person about this.
So he had no choice but to say with a straight face: "No."
Hearing this, the director nodded and said nothing more.
"Leave me your contact information. We'll let you know when the show is taping."
Mo Bei was stunned when he heard this, "So... you mean, did I pass?"
"certainly."
Zhuo Yanbin smiled slightly. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have asked for your contact information. After all, your application form doesn't contain anything other than basic information like your name and age."
Although he received the good news that he passed the audition, Mo Bei felt mixed emotions because he couldn't give anyone his contact information.
After a pause, he finally came up with the words he had thought of earlier -
"I'm sorry, I lost my phone and haven't had time to get a new SIM card. If it's not too much trouble, could you please give me the program crew's contact information?"
"Or, you could just tell me the time and location of the show recording. Then I'll go there myself."
The director was a little surprised.
No wonder the other party didn’t fill in his phone number just now. It turns out that he lost his phone.
However, this kind of thing is also a force majeure factor. Therefore, Zhuo Yanbin did not reject Mo Bei's proposal, and directly wrote a string of phone numbers on the white paper at hand and handed it over.
"This is my cell phone number. You can contact me once you have completed the number application."
"The show's recording location is at the Xingyue Film and Television Park in Yuehai City, but we haven't decided on the exact time yet. Once we've decided, we'll inform all contestants."
As he spoke, Zhuo Yanbin couldn't help but sigh, and muttered with a mixture of regret and lament: "Why is it such an unfortunate coincidence?"
Jiang Mo Nan didn't have a cell phone, so they could only wait for the other party to contact them. But what if the other party changed his mind and didn't want to come during this period, or if something suddenly happened and he couldn't come, wouldn't his plans be disrupted?
Perhaps it's due to his occupational disease, or perhaps it's simply his personality, but Zhuo Yanbin doesn't like things to get out of his control.
Although he felt that since the other party came to participate in the audition, he was most likely willing to record the show, but there was always a chance of something happening.
Being overconfident is rarely a good thing.
Just when he was feeling anxious about this, a voice suddenly came from behind him——
"Well...if you don't mind, you can contact Brother Mo Nan through me before he gets a new SIM card."
Upon hearing this, not only Mo Bei, but also the entire staff, including the program's director Zhuo Yanbin, turned to look over. They saw three young men with different striking hair colors, carrying instrument bags, standing timidly not far away.
Zhuo Yanbin was stunned.
These three seem to be from the previous group of candidates. Why haven't they left yet?
Being stared at by so many people, the red-haired boy who spoke couldn't help but flinch.
"Well, he's my dad... er, our friend! Right, Brother Mo Nan?"
Lu Yu didn't know why he said this.
Obviously his mood should be complicated.
Who could have expected that the scene of "a friend accompanied him to the audition but he was not selected while the other person was" would happen to him?
He never expected that this big brother who claimed to be his father's friend actually had a celebrity face and sang so well!
However, compared to the loss of being deceived, he wanted to hold on to the other person's thighs more.
Although he failed, his father's friend... no, his friend was selected!
How awesome would that be to say that!
Mo Bei was originally worried about how to contact the production team next, after all, his explanation was just a temporary solution. But he never expected Lu Yu to take the initiative to help him out, which was beyond his expectations.
Upon hearing this, the director subconsciously looked at Mo Bei, as if wanting to verify with him whether this was the case.
Mo Bei nodded and said half-truthfully, "I do know his father."
Knowing his father? How can this be explained?
Shouldn't we normally say that they are indeed friends?
Although he was puzzled by Mo Bei's answer, Zhuo Yanbin still took out his cell phone.
“…Okay, let’s add WeChat.”
"I'll send you the specific precautions when the time comes, and you can help convey them."
Looking at the new friend profile pictures on his phone, Lu Yu was a little excited. However, he still cared about his image and nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.
The group left the audition site, but there were still crowds of people outside.
In order to avoid attracting other people's attention, Mo Bei put on his hat and mask again and wrapped himself tightly.
Seeing that he still looked ashamed, Lu Yu finally couldn't hold it in any longer and spoke -
"Brother Mo Nan, there's something I wanted to ask you just now. Are you and Mo Bei really not related by blood?"
"Are you his illegitimate child?"
Lu Yu's sudden words made Mo Bei stumble as he was walking down the stairs.
Not only Mo Bei, but even Lu Yu's two good brothers were startled and looked over in unison.
Noticing the unnatural behavior of the person in front of him, Lu Yu suddenly widened his eyes, "No way! Are you really..."
"Don't make blind guesses about what's true or false."
Standing up straight, Mo Bei said with an expressionless face, "I'm just shocked by your rich imagination."
"Mo Bei and I have no blood relationship, we just look alike."
Seeing Lu Yu's "I don't believe it" expression, Mo Bei sighed silently: "If I really had something to do with him, would I be in this situation now?"
As he spoke, he glanced meaningfully at his clothes.
He was wearing a navy blue polo shirt that looked very old, wrinkled jeans, and gray sneakers.
Seeing this, Lu Yu was suddenly startled, "Now that you put it that way, it seems to be true."
Twenty years ago, Mo Bei was incredibly popular. How could such a big star, if he had a child, let him live such a hard life?
What's more, Mo Bei seems to be an only child. If he has a child, even if it is an illegitimate child, Mo Bei's parents will not prevent the child from recognizing his ancestors.
Thinking of this, Lu Yu finally dispelled his previous doubts.
Maybe it's just a simple resemblance. After all, the country is so big, there are ordinary people who look like celebrities.
Thinking of this, Lu Yu suddenly paused, and looked at the tall and thin young man in front of him who was wrapped like a mummy with a puzzled look -
"Speaking of which, brother, how did you get to where you are now with this face? You can make money by live streaming and imitating Mo Bei on the Internet!"
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