Zhang Yun took out his key, opened the door, and the three of them came in.
Zhang Yun went to the refrigerator and got him a bottle of milk, "This is all we have at home."
Lu Chengjin expressed his gratitude.
"What is it?" Gu Chen asked, sitting on the sofa.
"It's about Zhang Yun's debut, of course. The preliminary rounds start next Wednesday. Can't you guys be a little nervous?"
"What song will you sing in the preliminary selection? Have you practiced it? Is the accompaniment ready?"
Zhang Yun took the stack of songs Gu Chen had written for him, pulled out one of them and showed it to him, "I'm going to sing this one."
Cheng Lujin took it and was immediately drawn to the lyrics.
After reading the lyrics, he glanced at Zhang Yun before saying to Gu Chen, "This song is very well written, even better than your song from back then..."
Thinking about how their song was falsely accused of plagiarism and how they had fallen into a slump, Cheng Lujin felt it was a bad omen and didn't finish his sentence.
"In short, this song is good enough to be the title track."
“Every song my brother wrote for me is great,” Zhang Yun said.
Yes, yes, yes, the Northeast Errenzhuan your brother wrote for you is all in the colors of rainbows!
"Let's not delay. Once you've finished the accompaniment, we'll go to the recording studio today and have Zhang Yun try singing it. It would be best if we could record the finished product. You two should be free today, right?"
Zhang Yun nodded, "It's summer vacation now, and I haven't started school yet. I'll have some free time to visit you, brother."
“Then let’s go,” Cheng Lujin said.
He couldn't be bothered to ask Gu Chen; he didn't have a proper job, and if asked, Gu Chen would just say he was always free.
The three of them took Cheng Lujin's car to a special recording studio. Cheng Lujin knew the staff there and had already made arrangements beforehand to rent a recording studio.
Gu Chen used his computer to create the instrumental version of the song Zhang Yun performed in the preliminary round.
Zhang Yun watched from the side, occasionally offering suggestions, which Gu Chen nodded in agreement and made the necessary modifications.
Looking at the two people around her who seemed to be surrounded by pink bubbles, Cheng Lujin silently shed tears: I feel so superfluous...
Soon the accompaniment for the song was ready, and Zhang Yun went into the recording studio to start rehearsing.
I passed the audition on the first try.
It took less than half an hour from beginning to end.
Cheng Lujin checked his watch; he still had three and a half hours left in the recording studio.
“We still have time, let’s work on the other songs,” Gu Chen said.
Zhang Yun agreed.
This time, Gu Chen prepared the accompaniments for the other songs all at once, and then Zhang Yun took them to sing.
He sings one song after another, as fast as someone singing songs in a karaoke bar, it's outrageous!
"Hey, be strict! You can't just give him special treatment just because he's your boyfriend!" Cheng Lujin said to Gu Chen.
"He sang very well, his emotions were perfectly captured, and his voice and singing skills were perfect. I couldn't find any fault with him," Gu Chen said truthfully.
He was also extremely surprised.
Because he was unsure of Zhang Yun's abilities, Gu Chen used relatively gentle and ordinary melodies for these songs, which did not test his voice and singing skills too much. However, after recording ten songs, Gu Chen realized that he had seriously underestimated Zhang Yun's talent.
He is truly an undiscovered gem!
Looking at Zhang Yun in the recording studio, Gu Chen once again felt ashamed and inferior.
Am I really worthy of such a perfect person?
After recording ten songs, Zhang Yun and the others walked out of the recording studio.
Because the scheduled usage time exceeded one hour, Cheng Lujin gave the car keys and USB drive to Gu Chen, asking him to take Zhang Yun to get the car first, while he would pay the overtime fee himself.
Gu Chen and Zhang Yun went to the parking lot together. Gu Chen drove the car near the store entrance and waited for Cheng Jin to come out.
The two waited for a while before Cheng Jin came out of the shop, looking rather unwell.
"What happened?" Zhang Yun asked Cheng Jin, who was sitting in the back seat, after starting the car.
Cheng Lujin forced a smile. "It's nothing. I just ran into a few disgusting people at the company. I'm used to it."
Zhang Yun remembered that Cheng Jin had said that after he was fired from Huayu Entertainment, he went to work for Xingchen Entertainment, a rival company of Huayu Entertainment.
He used to be an agent at Huayu Entertainment, and he probably offended a lot of people at Xingchen Entertainment. It would be strange if anyone at Xingchen Entertainment treated him well.
"Why don't you quit your job and become my full-time agent?"
Now that Cheng Jin has become a teammate, there's no reason to let our own people be bullied by others.
Zhang Yun is still very protective of his own.
Cheng Lujin was taken aback, but her displeasure dissipated, and she gave a genuine smile. "Okay."
He was right; Zhang Yun was indeed an angel sent by heaven to save him!
The day before the preliminary rounds began arrived quickly.
Cheng Lujin drove Zhang Yun and Gu Chen to the competition venue.
Many of the people in the production crew were acquaintances of Cheng Jin. He spoke with the person in charge of the venue, and they agreed to let him take Zhang Yun in to familiarize himself with the venue.
Having a veteran agent brings many advantages; otherwise, Zhang Yun wouldn't have been able to enter the venue and see the competition until the preliminary rounds began.
The preliminary round had a total of 200 participants. The rules were that the participants were randomly divided into four groups of fifty people each. The performance order of each group was determined by random selection. The fifty people in each group took turns performing on stage, and the judges scored them on the spot.
The maximum score is 100 points, and the top 10 scorers from each group will advance.
In other words, after the preliminary round, only 40 people remained out of the 200 participants, making the competition extremely fierce.
Among the participants in this competition were newcomers and established artists whom major entertainment companies wanted to cultivate, second- and third-tier singers who wanted to use this opportunity to reach new heights, as well as some internet celebrity singers and ordinary people like Zhang Yun.
The next morning, Zhang Yun entered the venue with the other singers who came to compete. First, they took a quick look at the stage under the guidance of the staff, and then they drew groups.
Zhang Yun was assigned to the third group. After the group was drawn, he and the other contestants in his group followed the staff to the rest and waiting area for the three groups of contestants.
The rest area is public, after all, there are so many people, and most of them will be eliminated after this round, the production team doesn't have that much spare money to set up a separate rest area for everyone.
Wearing sunglasses and a sun hat, Zhang Yun sat discreetly on a chair in the corner, attracting no attention and no one came to find him.
After all, they didn't know each other before, and they were competitors, so they didn't have time to be on guard.
If a stranger tries to get close to you, you should be more vigilant.
"My God, isn't that Lin Kexin? Why is she here?" A murmur arose from the surrounding crowd.
"She's already a third-tier singer! Oh no, I'm under so much pressure."
"And another one, look at the one on the left, that's Xu Chengzhi!"
"Holy crap, it's that famous online singer-songwriter! He's here too!"
"And there's Yu Shao, He Linlin, Guan Sheng... Are our three groups the death group?" One person's tone was filled with despair.
Someone else said, "Not necessarily. I saw Chen Chujie just before the group draw; he was in the same group."
The contestants suddenly fell silent.
After a moment, someone said, "Chen Chujie is already a second-tier singer!"
"Yes, he's from CETV, a major domestic entertainment company."
"Luckily, he wasn't in my group..." one girl said thankfully.
"You're talking like you'd qualify just because you're in Group 3," someone next to her retorted.
"It's all about participation!" The girl had a very optimistic attitude.
Zhang Yun listened to their discussion and a slight smile appeared on his lips. Chen Chujie also participated, right?
It's time to slap Gu Chen in the face and get revenge!
While the contestants were discussing, the show had already started, and the first group to be drawn to perform was Group Two.
The players fell silent and watched the live stream on the split screen in the rest area.
The first contestant in Group Two was an amateur. As the first to perform, she was under a lot of pressure. She had no performance experience, and her nervousness caused her to perform poorly. She even sang off-key halfway through the song.
But she still insisted on finishing the song.
Out of a possible score of 100, she only received 26 points. After bowing to the judges and audience, she ran off in tears.
Because of this poor start, the other members of the second group were also affected. The players who took the stage one after another performed only so-so, and their scores fluctuated between 40 and 50.
It wasn't until a singer named Zhong Yuming went on stage that Zhang Yun heard from those around him that he was a newcomer that Xingchen wanted to promote.
After Zhong Yuming finished singing, he received a high score of 71 points, breaking the curse that no one in the second group had scored more than 50 points.
After Zhong Yuming, the scores of the singers who went on stage were noticeably higher, but they were only above 50, and none of them even managed to score above 71.
In the end, all fifty people in Group Two finished their performances, and Zhong Yuming's name was still listed as the first in Group Two.
The judges were too strict with their scoring this year!
This pressure also extends to members of other groups.
Of course, some people have an optimistic attitude.
After all, the preliminary round is not based on scores, but on rankings. As long as everyone is bad enough, I can make it into the top ten and advance.
But this optimistic idea disappeared after the fourth group appeared on the second day.
Having witnessed Group Two's performance yesterday, everyone in Group Four started putting in their best effort.
They also realized that in this competition format, the score didn't matter; as long as they could beat the other contestants, that was enough.
High scores were frequently seen in all four groups. Ouyang Nini, who ranked first, achieved a high score of 86.81. Even Li Shaobai, who ranked tenth, scored 79.33, which was higher than Zhong Yuming, who ranked first in the second group yesterday.
On the third day, Group A took the stage, and Chen Chujie won first place with a high score of 91.83 for a love song tailored for him by his company.
This is the only score above 90 since the preliminary round, and if nothing unexpected happens, it is likely to be the highest score in this preliminary round.
Unfortunately, there's a bug involving Zhang Yun.
Zhang Yun's group competed on the last day, which wasn't a good order.
After listening to three days of terrible songs, the judges were exhausted, both mentally and physically. It would be difficult to impress them without a song that could offer them something fresh and new.
Moreover, Zhang Yun was the first to go on stage.
"Now, please welcome Zhang Yun, the first contestant from Group 3!" the host's voice rang out on the stage.
The three groups of people in the rest area looked at each other from left to right until they saw Zhang Yun standing up in the corner.
Zhang Yun had already taken off her sunglasses.
Today he was wearing a white casual shirt and black slim-fit jeans, which accentuated his long and well-proportioned legs.
With his neat short hair, clean-cut demeanor, delicate features, and red lips and white teeth, he looked like a fresh-faced boy who had just graduated from school.
Who is this person?
The people in all three groups were stunned. When did our group get such a handsome guy?
Lu Jiaojiao, the girl who had been sitting in the chair in front of Zhang Yun, was even more shocked.
She had certainly met Zhang Yun before, but seeing him always wearing sunglasses and a sun hat and sitting in the corner, she assumed he was the kind of person who valued participation more than anything else, just like her.
She even had a moment of unrequited love for Zhang Yun.
I never expected this guy to be so good-looking!
Zhang Yun, of course, had no idea what these people were thinking.
Stepping back onto the music stage, he felt a long-lost surge of ambition.
Entertainment industry, here I come!
From this moment on, I will rule the stage!
After calming himself down, Zhang Yun walked step by step to the center of the stage.
Taking the microphone from the host, Zhang Yun smiled and introduced herself: "Hello, judges. My name is Zhang Yun, I am nineteen years old, and I am a freshman at Haitian Art Academy. Today, I will be performing a new song for you."
"He's a very handsome young man," the female judge on the left said with a smile.
"Original?" asked the judge to the right of the female judge.
"no."
The four judges nodded. If it was original, it would naturally earn extra points, but if it wasn't, it wouldn't matter.
Among the contestants in the preliminary round, only a handful sang their own original songs.
"Please begin your performance," said one of the older judges.
The surroundings quieted down, and a gentle accompaniment began to play. Zhang Yun closed his eyes and calmed himself down.
Exclusive Angel
Singer: Zhang Yun (tank)
Lyrics: Gu Chen (Shi Rencheng)
Music: Gu Chen (Lü Jianzhong)
(The original author is in parentheses)
"I won't blame you for my pretense. Angels on earth should hide their wings."
The eyes of the four judges suddenly lit up.
The female judge sitting on the far left gestured to the staff.
Judges generally don't want to see the lyrics because they've heard most of the songs the contestants sing. But regardless of whether they want to see them or not, the staff will print out the lyrics in advance.
Seeing the judges' signal, the staff member handed them four printed copies of the lyrics.
Zhang Yun ultimately refused Gu Chen's request to change the lyricist and composer's names to her own.
"...Your small hands, so warm and comforting, always soothe my restless nights~"
"Dreams I dared not even imagine, through your eyes, I finally see them lying ahead."
No one can take you away from me; you are my personal angel, and only I can possess you.
"No one can replace you in my heart. Having a personal angel, what other wishes could I possibly have..."
"...Oh~ If you hadn't appeared, I would still be asleep, despairingly believing that life was only darkness..."
"...What other wishes could I possibly have?"
When the music ended, the lingering sound remained so vivid that you could hear a pin drop.
It wasn't until a moment after the accompaniment ended that applause suddenly broke out from the judges' panel. Then, as if it were contagious, the applause grew louder and louder, spreading throughout the entire venue.
"Thank you." Zhang Yun bowed to the audience.
The host then snapped out of his daze and walked over to Zhang Yun. "Thank you, Zhang Yun, for bringing us your new song, 'Exclusive Angel'! Next up is the live voting segment! Audience members, please pick up your voting devices. If you like this song, please cast your precious vote for contestant number one, Zhang Yun, from group three!"
"Now, let's invite our four judges to score contestant Zhang Yun!"
"Your voice is very clean, with a clear and ethereal quality. I really like it. I actually wanted to give you a perfect score, but they wouldn't let me. So I'll give you 99 points. I'm afraid you'll get arrogant if I give you an extra point!" The female judge on the far left laughed and made an old joke.
The second judge said, "Honestly, you sang very well, and your emotions were spot on. I was moved. I give you 100 points."
The first female judge to give a score laughed and questioned, "We agreed on only giving 99, didn't we? You lied to me again!"
Everyone burst into laughter.
The third person said, "The lyrics of this song are beautifully written. It feels like there's a beautiful love story hidden in the song. You performed it very well. 100 points."
Fourth: "They've said everything they could say, so I only have 100 points left. Keep it up, I believe in you!"
Zhang Yun: "Thank you, judges."
"Is it too late for me to change my score now?" the female judge asked with a smile.
The host laughed and retorted, "Teacher Qi Ying, it can't be changed!"
"You three are all trying to trick me, aren't you!" Qi Ying laughed and scolded.
Host: "...Alright, the audience has finished scoring. Let's take a look at the final results. Contestant number 1, Zhang Yun, has a final score of 99.79! Let's give Zhang Yun a round of applause!"
The audience erupted in enthusiastic applause once again, and Zhang Yun bowed in gratitude.
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