78 Return
It was already late at night when Leng Ci returned to the dormitory.
She removed her makeup in the bathroom. Today's stage makeup had put a lot of glitter on her face and hair. It looked good, but it was really hard to wash off.
She roughly showered, and it might still be a little dirty, but it didn't matter. She just wanted to lie down on the bed as soon as possible. She was really tired and had to get up early tomorrow to record the second public group.
After the tryout, Xin Mengting became her roommate. She lay on the bed like a cat and fell asleep while waiting for her to use the bathroom. Leng Ci dragged his legs, which were so heavy that he could hardly lift them, to her side and gently woke her up, telling her to quickly remove her makeup, change clothes and have a good sleep. He had to get up early tomorrow to record.
The most torturous thing is not the few minutes of full-throttle performance on the stage, but the seemingly endless waiting backstage.
The waiting time for girl groups is much longer than that for boy groups.
They went to the venue in the morning, and their makeup and hair were done as soon as they arrived backstage. Yuanxin's own makeup team and the outsourced team hired on short notice were divided into several groups, and they started doing their makeup at the same time. Even so, it took several hours to finish everything.
The makeup of female idols is much more complicated, and there are many trainees in the second season. In order to ensure the stage makeup, the program team can only let the trainees go backstage early and start preparing early.
Many trainees never expected that their first official performance on stage would be like this. They had to wait in the backstage, put on makeup, and wait again. The backstage was noisy, with many people and many cameras, which always made people feel very confused. They dared not eat lunch, and sang when they were full. In order to be in the best condition on stage, they only dared to take a few bites of the lunch and dinner boxes provided by the program team. By the end of the show, they were already too hungry and didn't want to eat much.
Leng Ci counted her own heartbeats while sitting backstage. It was more than ninety beats a minute, and she felt a little tired from beating so fast.
They kept practicing while waiting, and the whole day seemed so long in the anxiety. They stayed backstage for more than ten hours, and each person only had ten minutes on stage. Why is the stage so beautiful and so desirable? People who have not prepared for it thousands of times may find it difficult to truly empathize with it.
The combined identities of a female idol and a trainee multiply the hardship.
Fortunately, Leng Ci and her group performed well today. They ranked third in the evaluation of mentor group Yuan Xiao and their group, and first in the audience evaluation. Overall, they ranked second in the first public performance. No matter what the competition system of the second public performance is, they should be able to get priority in selecting groups and songs.
Leng Ci's voice is special among female voices. If it can be matched with a suitable song, the effect of her performance will be that one plus one is greater than two.
For the first public performance, their group chose an adaptation of an English country ballad. It was very difficult and they performed well, but it was not Leng Ci's first choice.
Before falling asleep quickly, she still remembered making a last wish in her heart, wishing that tomorrow during the second public group selection, a melody rap song would be left for her.
During the tryout, Teacher Fu actually suggested to Lengci that she should try rap. She has always defined herself as a dancer and folk singer who is trying hard to transform herself. She was very surprised when she first heard the suggestion. Rap has never been on her playlist. How could Teacher Fu be so sure that she would be suitable for rap?
She had never listened to rap before, and her backward concept was still limited to a bunch of unclear fast talk and underground wording. She didn't know what had happened in her that caused Teacher Fu to have such a misunderstanding.
Fu Daoyun didn't explain much to her. He just threw a list of songs for her to listen to and then decide whether she wanted to try to specialize in rap.
Leng Ci listened for three days and felt that his life had been baptized.
Sure enough, every extra grain of salt that Teacher Fu paid attention to was not in vain. Leng Ci followed suit and learned from them. By the end of the second month of the tryout, she sang a fast-paced rap and directly moved herself up the list in Yuan Xiao's hands from the vocal group and the dancer group to the rap group.
Yuan Xiao thought about it and gave her an ACE as well.
This was definitely a pleasant surprise. Yuan Xiao originally thought that there would be fewer girls rapping, but she didn't expect that the suggestions Fu Daoyun gave to each person were very reliable and he was very good at teaching. Among those who stayed after the tryout, eight or nine girls rapped beautifully with their own unique characteristics, and most of the remaining people were able to master the basic flow.
When the groups were formed the next day, if Leng Ci had not been ranked high enough in the first public performance, she would have almost missed out. The most competitive songs in the second public performance were this rap and another fast song. Yuan Xiao found that her girls were even more keen on challenging high-difficulty songs than the male trainees in the first period. According to the ranking order, almost no one would choose songs with slightly lower difficulty.
They are like a group of young eagles, whose wings are not yet fully strong, but they never lack the courage to soar into the sky.
After the second public performance, they were not asked to immediately start intensive practice like in the first public performance. Instead, they kept everyone behind. Multiple cameras were focused on Yuan Xiao who had just announced the rules of the second public performance. She put down her cue card, held the microphone and waved to the outside of the practice room: "Encore guests, you two, come in. It's your turn."
Several trainees near the door had seen someone sneaking around the door from the corner of their eyes, but they couldn't see his face clearly. Because they were recording, they could only suppress their curiosity and didn't dare to look openly. Yuan Xiao also saw it, and from her angle it was even clearer, and she felt helpless.
If we don't let these two in, the images recorded on the camera will be too weird.
The door opened, and two tall and handsome boys appeared at the door of the practice room. The one who was laughing and joking put his arm around the shoulder of the calmer and more aloof one, raised his hand and greeted Yuan Xiao first: "Sister Xiaoxiao."
Yuan Xiao nodded at them, and handed the microphone to them amid the trainees' incessant exclamations: "Here, introduce yourselves."
"Hello everyone, I'm Avery."
"I'm Jiang Tong."
"We are members of the first season of Idol Unnamed and first-term trainees of Yuanxin." Although they haven't been trainees for more than half a year, their instincts have not been forgotten. The two brothers bowed to their juniors and the camera together. This was their first public appearance in more than half a year after the group formation night.
He is a returning trainee from the first season!
Most of the trainees of the second phase came to the show after watching the first season. It just so happened that some of them shed tears together that night because the two of them didn’t debut. Many people guessed that according to convention, the seniors from the first season should return, but they didn’t expect that the second public performance would welcome the two most regrettable people in the hearts of fans of the first season.
The moment Jiang Tong walked in, Song Lianqing couldn't hold back the tears in her eyes. Although Yuanxin announced that the trainees who had not debuted would have other arrangements after the end of the first season, Song Lianqing had been training at Yuanxin for more than half a year but had never met the two of them. She thought they had both left Yuanxin.
Last year, she wanted to sign with a company but was frustrated. The idol she picked at first sight on the show failed to debut successfully as a group. She felt that the time was not right, the people were not on her side, and she almost gave up. If Yuan Xiao hadn't found her on Random Dance, Song Lianqing might not have continued to pursue her dream.
Now she is standing on the stage of the second season of "I Am Not Here", and she seems to be happily moving towards a new life. This is a very good implication, as if everything is striding towards a bright future. Song Lianqing lowered her head and quickly wiped away the tears that could not be restrained from flowing from the corners of her eyes, raised her most sincere smile and clapped vigorously with the people around her.
Moreover, after not seeing him for half a year, Brother Jiang looks even more handsome.
Yuan Xiao cueed them both, addressing the trainees in the audience and the fans in front of the camera: "Can you please introduce what you two are busy with recently?"
It just so happened that their affairs have been settled recently, so they took the opportunity of the show to announce it, and also to give an explanation to themselves and the fans who were on the same stage last year.
Jiang Tong's fans are more or less aware of his current situation. After all, the three major schools' art exams had already ended at the beginning of the year. Every year, if there is a well-known person on the art exam list, people will pay attention to it. Even if he is an ordinary person, people will buy stocks to see who will become a big star in the future. When Jiang Tong's results came out, he was on the top ten hot searches. After all, the results of being first in the art exams of two performing arts schools and third in the art exam of another one are still worth bragging about. It's no different for a child star.
Jiang Tong's academic performance has never been a concern. Although he is only a sophomore this year, he has always passed the key university entrance line in every mock exam. His training career in Yuanxin has not delayed anyone's academic performance. Even when all members of Stary were working on their second album, Yu Le still had to make up for his math class every night.
Recently, this guy listened to Stary and others talking about their travel plan, and was so envious that he ran out to travel, under the pretext of experiencing life and preparing for future performance studies. He just came back from Guangdong the day before yesterday.
The company assigned him an assistant. After all, although Jiang Tong is mature, he has only been an adult for two months. He helps to shoot vlogs on weekends and when he goes out to play, and also posts reports on public platforms.
Avery also has good news. His first original physical album has entered the final production stage. Compared with Jiang Tong's occasional movements, Avery seems to be lost. After releasing a single last year, there has been no movement. He entered the closed-door creation stage earlier than Stary and his brothers, and made his first original album before them. He is currently working on the beat. He and Pei Zijin are the most diligent in Gu Yuchen's studio. It seems that he can no longer hold back his desire to steal Gu's mantle of all-round producer.
When the second season reaches the second public performance, it is about time that the variety show that was originally given to Avery will be officially announced. This program was not easy to prepare, and Yuan Xiao even made an additional investment for it, but the final lineup was also quite good. If Avery can really get a place in this program, he will at least have some fame in the rap circle.
The reason we called them back this time is to cheer up the second-term students.
The girls are all great, but there are bound to be winners and losers in a competition. Yuan Xiao hopes that while they can stay nervous, they won’t be too tense all the time, which would be detrimental to their daily practice and not suitable for them to go on stage in such a state.
Yuan Xiao did not plan to have any male-female collaboration performances this season, and Jiang Tong and Avery's performance would no longer be on the show "I Have Not Seen You". She did not intend to let these people disturb her sisters' performances, nor would Stary's people. However, experience could still be shared, whether it was the initial stage experience or the experience of how to adjust one's mentality. Yuan Xiao left the morning practice room for them to hold a symposium, and quietly left the room with the mentor group.
That’s great. I’ll wait until the next performance to bring back Stary, who has finished writing the second album, to play around and warm up for the new songs.
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