My voice is still a little hoarse.
Last night, Gu Chen insisted that he say "Gu Chen, I love you" a thousand times during the video call, and even performed some high-definition, uncensored paid content on the video while he was saying it, which kept him from sleeping well all night.
Fortunately, on the first day, the contestants in each group got to know each other and worked out together, and determined what programs to perform and when, so they didn't need to use their voices.
After tidying himself up, Zhang Yun returned to his bedroom and saw that his Fetion phone had 99+ messages.
He picked it up and saw that Lü Jiaojiao had created a small group and added him and the other two people to it.
Zhang Yun opened the group chat and first set the message to "accept but do not notify".
Then he started reading the group chat content.
Oh, so it turns out that three noobs were practicing mutual flattery after they became famous.
The most impressive one has to be amateur Zhao Qiji, who has already started dreaming about becoming famous and singing a duet with pop diva Wang Yan, and then having her ask him for her autograph.
After he sent this message, the other two people remained silent.
Lü and Li: We really don't know how to respond to this!
At this moment, Zhang Yun sent a message: "Has everyone had breakfast yet?"
No. *2
"I've already eaten! The food at the cafeteria downstairs is awful, let me tell you..."
"There's nothing to eat, do you want to come down and get something to eat?"
Zhang Yun ignored Zhao Qiji, who could type and send messages with such eloquence, and sent this sentence between the dense gaps in his messages.
"Okay." *2
The other two quickly replied to the message and then disappeared into the background.
“Wait, I’ll go too,” Zhao Qiji said.
Soon, in the cafeteria on the first floor, four people shared a table.
Lü Jiaojiao looked at Zhao Qiji and said, "Didn't you say you had already eaten?"
"My digestive system digests quickly, so I can eat a little more," Zhao Qiji said.
Lu Jiaojiao looked at his excessively plump figure and was somewhat speechless.
After finishing their meal, the four of them went downstairs and got the key to their training room from the staff.
There are ten training rooms in total, one for each group and each room is clearly marked, so there's no fighting or scrambling.
On his way to the training room, the system suddenly reminded him: "You need to be careful of Li Shaobai."
"Oh? He's been in contact with Chen Chujie?" Zhang Yun wondered to himself.
How did you know?
Zhang Yun smiled gently.
“I was so arrogant and confident in front of Chen Chujie before, he must have been worried that Gu Chen would prepare a trump card for me. In order not to lose to me in the group stage, he would definitely think of other ways to deal with me.”
“There was a saying in my previous life on Earth: ‘A leopard can’t change its spots.’ I could guess with my toes how someone like Chen Chujie could come up with the methods to deal with me. They were all old tricks that my opponents in my previous life had already exhausted.”
"At first I thought he was dealing with Zhao Qiji, after all, that guy is a bit dramatic, and he almost made us leave a bad impression on the production team right away."
"But since Chen Chujie found Li Shaobai, it seems that Zhao Qiji is just a simpleton."
System: You've taken all the bamboo shoots from the mountain!
The four of them entered the training room and each found a place to sit down.
"Since we all know each other, there's no need for introductions, right?" Zhang Yun said, getting straight to the point as they sat down.
"Mmm." "No need." "I know him."
"Okay, Zhao Qiji said that everyone unanimously elected me as the team leader?"
"Yes." *3
Zhang Yun nodded, "I'll take that offer. Do you have any ideas about the program for our group stage matches?"
No. *3
Li Shaobai added, "We will all follow your arrangements, Captain."
Alright, let's just start setting up shop!
"Alright then, I'll prepare the songs and dances. By the way, who among you plays an instrument?"
Again, everyone shook their heads. Zhao Qiji, after shaking his head for a while, suddenly raised his hand: "I can whistle, does that count?"
Three pairs of eyes turned to him.
What kind of mistake did the judges make to let this thing slip in? Aren't they afraid of being criticized?
Zhang Yun: "No, that doesn't count."
I'm so angry, but I still have to keep smiling.
Because there are surveillance cameras in this training room!
"Captain, may I ask what piece of music we're using for the competition?" Lü Jiaojiao asked.
The other two remained silent, looking at Zhang Yun with expectant expressions.
Zhang Yun smiled at them, "The piece is still being composed, but it should be finished soon."
During the video call last night, Gu Chen mentioned that because one of his teammates in the group stage was a girl, the songs he had written before were no longer suitable, and he would write a new song for her today.
"A new song?" All three of them lit up.
“It’s absolutely tailor-made.” Zhang Yun gave them a knowing look.
The three understood instantly, and were overjoyed at the same time.
Is this what it feels like to be carried away?!
The conversation basically ended there. Practice would have to wait until Gu Chen's song was finished. Zhang Yun was too lazy to say anything sentimental to increase the group's cohesion, so he just told everyone to go home.
Such a combination would be an extreme torment for each other if they existed for even a second longer (except for Zhao Qiji).
Back in his dorm, Zhang Yuncai saw a compressed file on his phone sent by Gu Chen. When he opened it, he found it contained an instrumental track, sheet music, and lyrics.
The song is called "Fly North". The lyrics tell the story of the hardships and struggles of young people who come to Beijing to pursue their dreams, and express the idea of never giving up and working hard. It is full of positive energy.
This song is very touching and can resonate with many migrant workers and dream chasers.
Zhang Yun is a veteran in the industry, and he knows how difficult it is to create such a high-quality song in just one day. Gu Chen is truly talented.
After watching it, he immediately made a video call to Gu Chen.
Gu Chen answered the call; it was very dark on his end, and he seemed to be sleeping.
"Brother, you're not staying up all night writing songs for me again, are you?" Zhang Yun was a little angry, a little sorry for him, and mostly touched.
"Hmm," Gu Chen replied with a yawn, "I'm more likely to have inspiration at night."
"Have you seen the piece? What do you think of it?"
"Great! This song is good enough to be on the Spring Festival Gala! Using it in the group stage is like a game-changer!"
Gu Chen couldn't help but laugh, "You're so sweet-talking."
“I’m telling the truth!” Zhang Yun said earnestly.
"Um……"
Seeing that Gu Chen was forcing himself to talk to him, Zhang Yun quickly said, "Brother, if you're sleepy, go to sleep first. I'll call you back later. Love you, mua~"
"This way." Gu Chen turned the other side of his face toward the camera.
"mua~"
After kissing through the screen, Zhang Yun finally hung up the phone.
While still savoring the sweetness of the moment, the system's voice suddenly rang out.
"I've detected a recording of a phone call targeting you. Do you want to listen to it?"
"Oh? They've finally arrived!"
Zhang Yun smiled and said, "Come on."
The system directly transmitted a recording of the call to his phone.
Zhang Yun listened to the audio and immediately recognized the two voices inside—Chen Chujie and Li Shaobai.
The content was nothing more than Chen Chujie asking Li Shaobai to tell him that Zhang Yun needed to use a new song for the competition, and then instructing him to find a way to steal the song for him to use.
In return, Chen Chujie offered him a sum of money and said he could get Huayu Entertainment to sign him.
Hehe, Zhang Yun couldn't help but laugh.
Young man, you're incredibly young!
"I was originally planning to wait until the semifinals or finals to make my move, since there would be more attention then. But since he's in such a hurry to jump out and get himself killed, so be it..."
Zhang Yun chuckled, took out her phone, and opened the group chat.
"@Everyone, the new song is ready! Everyone, assemble in the practice room!"
After training that night, Zhang Yun returned to his dorm and video-chatted with Gu Chen, complaining, "Brother, they're all so stupid! No matter how I teach them, they just can't learn. Could you help me record a version of this song that you sing yourself? I'll play it for them to hear and get a feel for it."
Gu Chen smiled and said, "Of course."
The next morning, Gu Chen sent him the audio.
Zhang Yun: "System, immediately upload it to a niche music platform for me, and then find a way to block everyone who can find this song."
"no problem!"
Although the system cannot block songs posted by others, it has no problem blocking songs sung by the main character himself.
And so, a song called "Fly North," with lyrics and music originally written and sung by Gu Chen, appeared on a platform called Coolbox Music in some inconspicuous corner, without attracting anyone's attention.
You can't even find the song "Fly North" by searching in the Coolbox search bar.
Zhang Yun's lips curled slightly. The net was already set, and he was just waiting for the fish to come in!
On this day, the two idiots and one inner were gathered in the training room to practice singing and dancing as usual.
There was a little incident in the middle, when they ran into Chen Chujie, who was also there, on their way to the training room, and the two of them naturally exchanged some sarcastic remarks.
Chen Chujie's teammates also joined the war of words. Zhang Yun's two silly teammates were completely captivated by Chen Chujie, a second-tier singer, and Li Shaobai, being an inside man, naturally wouldn't speak up for him.
Zhang Yun still won a complete victory against four opponents.
He felt a little lonely when he left; there wasn't a single capable young person in this generation!
Inside the training room, Zhang Yun was playing a song.
Yesterday he only played half of the song for them to practice. Today, Zhang Yun didn't hold back and played the entire accompaniment. He also printed out four copies of the lyrics and gave one to each of them.
That evening, Zhang Yun received a system notification that Li Shaobai had copied the music and sent it to Chen Chujie.
Chen Chujie changed the song title to "Blowing North," but kept everything else the same. He is currently practicing with his teammates in the training room.
Generally, contestants will not repeat the same song on the show. After the contestants decide on the song, they will first report the song title to the production team. If there is a duplicate name, the production team will check whether it is the same song. If it is the same song, the production team will ask them to negotiate which party should change the song.
Chen Chujie deliberately changed the song title to be different from his own, clearly intending to sabotage him as well.
By the third day, they had almost finished practicing the song and had also choreographed the dance.
Zhang Yun eventually found Lü Jiaojiao and Zhao Qiji and asked them to practice a short duet.
Although the two didn't understand why they had to practice another chorus that was completely unrelated to "Flying North," they saw that the chorus was just a simple "la la la la" and had no difficulty, so they naturally had no objections.
Two more days passed, and the official group stage matches finally began.
Cheng Lujin drove Gu Chen to the game.
They no longer need Cheng Jin to pull strings to get in; the production team sent them invitations directly, and they were even placed in the contestants' friends and family section.
The group stage rules are that each pair of groups will play against each other, and five winning groups and five losing groups will be determined first.
The five winning groups are ranked according to their scores. The members of the top three groups advance directly, while the two groups with the lowest scores enter the revival round.
Of the five failing groups, the three with the lowest scores were eliminated, while the two with the highest scores entered the revival round.
Finally, the four groups that entered the revival round performed in turn, with the group that scored the most points advancing and the remaining three groups being eliminated.
Zhang Yun's fourth team faced off against Chen Chujie's second team, and they were scheduled to perform second.
After groups one and three finished their performances, it was Zhang Yun and Chen Chujie's group's turn.
Chen Chujie is in Group Two; groups with lower serial numbers have priority to perform.
Just as Chen Chujie and his team stepped onto the stage, Li Shaobai, who was in the fourth rest area, suddenly clutched his stomach and cried out in pain.
After examination, the program's medical staff found that the patient had acute gastroenteritis caused by eating incompatible foods and was no longer able to participate in the competition.
After inquiry and confirmation, the production team canceled Li Shaobai's eligibility to participate and agreed to Zhang Yun's request to send only three people to the stage.
As Chen Chujie's team took the stage and the accompaniment started, Gu Chen, who was in one of the four groups of relatives and friends, suddenly stood up!
The camera lens keenly captured him, and Cheng Lujin quickly pulled him down to sit.
"Are you crazy? What do you want to do?" Cheng Lujin asked.
"This is my song! It's a song I wrote for A-Yun! A new song for him to use in the group stage!" Gu Chen clenched his fists tightly, his nostrils flaring, clearly suppressing his extreme anger.
“You mean…” Cheng Lujin gasped, “I’ll go contact the person in charge.”
“It’s no use…” Gu Chen closed his eyes. “They’ve already started singing, it’s no use!”
Thinking back to the time when he lost a plagiarism case and was condemned by thousands and forced to leave the internet, Gu Chen felt as if his heart was being torn apart.
His angel, the one he swore to protect with his life, is now facing the same thing he did back then!
No, no! No! Absolutely not! I can't let him follow in my footsteps!
I must protect him. I'll think of a way; I'm sure I can!
"Gu Chen, Gu Chen! Gu Chen!" Cheng Lujin shook him awake.
Gu Chen looked at him, his eyes red, like a hungry wolf ready to devour its prey.
Cheng Lujin was startled by his appearance. He shrank back fearfully before saying, "Don't panic, there's still a chance. At worst, we can forfeit. If this program doesn't happen, we have another one! As long as Zhang Yun's group doesn't perform next, his prepared song won't be broadcast, and the plagiarism won't be established..."
Gu Chen's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and he quickly took out his phone to inform Zhang Yun that he was withdrawing from the competition. However, he saw a voice message from Zhang Yun on Fetion.
The time was given out before Chen Chujie's group went on stage. Gu Chen was distracted by the accompaniment at the time and only saw it now.
"Brother, don't worry about me, I have a surprise for you later!"
Upon hearing this voice message, Gu Chen and Cheng Lujin were both taken aback and looked at each other in surprise.
Because of this delay, Chen Chujie's group's performance on stage had already ended, the judges' comments were finished, and the host came on stage.
"I have some very sad news to share. Li Shaobai from Group 4 has to leave our stage due to a sudden onset of acute gastroenteritis..."
"Ah!" The fans at the scene were in an uproar. Many of them had bought tickets to support Zhang Yun after watching the third episode of the show. Now that they heard that someone in their idol's team was absent, they were naturally indignant.
"...But don't worry, everyone. Zhang Yun, the team leader of Group Four, said that Li Shaobai mainly plays instruments in the team. His absence will not affect their performance. The three of them can still complete this performance. So, please welcome our angel boy Zhang Yun and his two teammates to bring you a wonderful performance!"
"Let's give them a round of applause!"
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