TL: Hua
Perhaps the three days of intense practice last time had exhausted a lot of the trainees, so this time the production team finally showed some mercy and extended the preparation time to ten days.
Lin Yanran’s team had already finished their choreography and arrangements, so he did have time to film another show. From Song Yingming’s description, the show was undoubtedly appealing.
But based on his understanding of the director, Lin Yanran felt there was something he wasn’t saying.
Seeing Lin Yanran’s puzzled hesitation, Song Yingming promised him, “They’re very rich and treat their guests extremely well. Go on, don’t worry.”
With things having gotten to this point, and considering that Song Yingming, the director of a popular survival show, had helped him so many times and was now graciously offering him another resource, Lin Yanran didn’t want to be ungrateful. So he didn’t say anything more and simply agreed.
After talking about the variety show with Song Yingming, Lin Yanran immediately headed toward his team’s practice room. But he had barely taken a few steps out the door when he almost collided with someone walking quickly toward him. Luckily, he reacted and stopped in time.
Stepping back to a safe distance, Lin Yanran looked up and found that the person who almost hit him was Pei Luo.
He rarely interacted with Pei Luo, except when they were filming the show together, and never saw him in private.
They met by chance today, and out of politeness and self-cultivation, he nodded slightly to the other party as a greeting.
Pei Luo stared at Lin Yanran, who was bare-faced and bundled in a puffer coat.
He froze for several seconds. He suddenly realized that because of Xuan Yihan, he had always had a preconceived notion that Lin Yanran was annoying. That’s why he’d never really taken a good look at him.
Now, with them so close and with the stage makeup gone, he realized that Lin Yanran looked even more stunning without it and that he also had a very good demeanor.
Lin Yanran saw that Pei Luo was blocking his way and didn’t seem to be moving, so he had to speak up. “Could you please move?”
Pei Luo snapped out of his daze at Lin Yanran’s request and quickly moved aside, saying with an awkward expression, “Sorry.”
Yingying, who was behind Lin Yanran, couldn’t help but look out.
Has the sun risen from the west today?
—
Back in his team’s practice room, Pei Luo was completely out of it.
Xuan Yihan saw him and took the initiative to speak.
Although he didn’t like Pei Luo, he still had some use for him. Knowing that Pei Luo had lost a lot of fans because of the livestream, he wanted to offer some comfort.
But as soon as he opened his mouth to say “Teacher Pei,” he saw Pei Luo turn his gaze away.
Pei Luo also completely changed his usual doting attitude and told everyone to vote for the center position.
With a fair vote, the center position naturally went to the most skilled person in their group, Li Yuan.
And Xuan Yihan wasn’t given special treatment in the arrangement of the other positions. Not only that, but when he later sat dejectedly in the corner on purpose, Pei Luo didn’t even come over to comfort him.
Xuan Yihan buried his head in his arms, his brow deeply furrowed.
What went wrong? Just a few days ago, Pei Luo was still so warm and clingy.
Why was he suddenly distancing himself?
—
Meanwhile, in Lin Yanran’s team’s practice room…
He was playing the piano to give the trainees vocal training. Since the air conditioning was on and it wasn’t cold, he had taken off his thick coat. He was only wearing a simple white T-shirt. His fair and slender wrists were exposed, and his long, thin fingers elegantly played on the keys.
Last time, the schedule was too tight, and he had to use extreme crash-course methods to help the trainees, leaving no time for extra vocal training. Now, with plenty of time, vocal training was a must.
After all, the live performance would be with open mics, and the audience would be able to hear any flaws in their singing.
Before officially practicing the performance song, Lin Yanran chose songs for them to practice based on each person’s unique qualities.
After the trainees had obediently finished singing one by one, Ye Xiyuan took advantage of the break after training to show Lin Yanran one of his original songs, hoping he could give him some pointers.
Because he had never worked with Lin Yanran before, he initially had no idea he could arrange music.
It was only thanks to the theme of the second public performance that he discovered Lin Yanran’s remarkable ability as an arranger.
The theme the production team gave this time was “reversal.”
Each team was required to rearrange the song’s composition, choreography, and vocals to create a style that was completely different from the original.
Their team had drawn “Truth,” a heartbreaking and melancholic song about a breakup. It was extremely difficult to rearrange.
After they drew the song, a few trainees who were more familiar with him had entrusted the task to him, as he had extensive songwriting experience before his debut.
After a group discussion, they decided to completely change the song’s style to a darker theme. So, he spent the entire afternoon rearranging the song.
But because the difficulty was too high and the style was too different, the rearranged song had a “reversal,” but the effect was not ideal.
Everyone listened to it and didn’t like it, so they were ready to change the song in a simpler direction.
But Xia Xingxing and a few other former members of Yanran’s group objected. They all said that they should let their mentor help.
Ye Xiyuan remembered clearly that at the time, he thought they were joking.
He had his phone and knew that Lin Yanran had just trended because of his six terrible songs.
He admitted that Lin Yanran was a good person and a talented dancer, but when it came to songwriting, he didn’t think the other could be as professional as him.
That belief didn’t last long, as he was quickly proven wrong.
During the afternoon mentor session, Lin Yanran took his composition, listened to it once, and immediately made a few changes.
He didn’t spend much time on it, nor did he make huge alterations. He simply added some embellishments to a few minor details.
Even though he used Ye Xiyuan’s original arrangement as a base, the final result was a thousand times better.
There were a few parts that Ye Xiyuan had found awkward and choppy, but Lin Yanran handled them with effortless grace.
The entire song, while having a bizarre and dark style, sounded sophisticated and catchy. It flowed smoothly from beginning to end, as if it was always meant to be that way.
Ye Xiyuan listened to the new song five times in a row and was completely in awe of Lin Yanran. He finally understood why Xia Xingxing and the others trusted him so much.
In his mind, Lin Yanran was a god!
“Teacher Yanran, can you please take a look for me? I feel like this song is missing something.”
Ye Xiyuan used to think that his compositions were perfect, but ever since Lin Yanran completely outclassed him, he now found problems with everything he wrote.
Taking advantage of this precious time, he quickly took out a score he had prepared and asked Lin Yanran to help him revise it.
Lin Yanran took the score, read it, and thought for a moment. He lowered his head, tuned his guitar, and then his fingers glided over the strings, gently playing the piece titled Love Poem.
A chord suddenly echoed in the empty practice room.
Qiao Ye, who was drinking water in the corner, couldn’t help but turn to face the sound.
Lin Yanran, in his crisp white T-shirt, looked down at his guitar. Sunlight streamed through the windows behind him, casting a few beams of light. His long, fair fingers rested on the acoustic guitar. When he strummed the strings, a beautiful melody filled every corner of the room. The young man, bathed in light and shadow, was a fresh love poem himself.
Gu Siye had just finished a charity event in a neighboring city and rushed to the Super Idol building without stopping.
Song Yingming saw him and joked, “Why have you been coming so often lately? If I didn’t know that Old Tan asked you three times to be on his show and you said no, I’d think you’d finally found some interest in reality TV.”
Gu Siye smiled faintly. “No filming today. I’m just looking around.”
After that, he didn’t chat much with Song Yingming and went straight to Lin Yanran’s practice room.
He opened the door just as Lin Yanran finished the last chord.
Gu Siye’s gaze swept over the room and landed on Qiao Ye, who was watching in a daze in the corner.
Lin Yanran was sitting facing the door, so he saw Gu Siye as soon as he entered.
“Teacher Gu.”
Lin Yanran’s voice brought the trainees, who had been lost in the melody, back to reality.
Ye Xiyuan, who had been about to applaud for Lin Yanran, stopped with his hands mid-clap when he saw Gu Siye had arrived.
Gu Siye subtly withdrew his gaze and looked at Lin Yanran with a smile. “How’s your team’s progress? Is the song rearrangement finished?”
Lin Yanran, looking very familiar with him, walked over to Gu Siye, nodded, and offered him the chair he had been sitting on.
“The arrangement and choreography are almost done, but we haven’t run through it as a whole yet. It’s great that you’re here, Teacher Gu. Would you mind giving us some guidance?”
The trainees heard Lin Yanran’s suggestion and immediately started waving their hands. “No way, we’re too nervous.”
But despite what they said, they obediently took their positions and began to dance to the music.
Everyone had progressed quickly this time, and Lin Yanran didn’t have to work as hard as he did before because their team had Qiao Ye, who was a master.
After he and Lin Yanran finished the choreography, Qiao Ye responsibly taught the other trainees in the group step-by-step. Even though it was their first time dancing for a mentor, the overall effect was still good.
Gu Siye had no filming duties today and wasn’t there to watch the trainees’ practice.
But he saw that Lin Yanran was very invested and looked forward to his feedback, so after watching, he gave most of them positive feedback and also provided some detailed guidance.
“Your overall choreography is good, but there’s one part that I think you didn’t handle well.”
Gu Siye’s gaze swept over Qiao Ye and Ji Shuai.
“The interaction between you two is supposed to be the most exciting part of the performance, but you both act like you don’t know each other at all. The interaction lacks atmosphere and tension.”
When Gu Siye brought up this issue, Lin Yanran couldn’t help but look at him. They had both felt the exact same way.
“Let’s do that section again.”
After Gu Siye said that, Ji Shuai and Qiao Ye started dancing to the music again.
But Gu Siye still shook his head.
The two of them tried several more times, but it was still stiff.
Lin Yanran saw that they couldn’t get it right, so he walked up to them. “How about I demonstrate it for both of you separately?”
Hearing that the mentor was going to demonstrate himself, the trainees couldn’t help but scream and cheer for Lin Yanran.
“I’ll demonstrate Ji Shuai’s role first. Qiao Ye, come here.”
Qiao Ye didn’t say anything and walked straight to Lin Yanran’s side.
Since the interaction between Ji Shuai and Qiao Ye involved a hug, Lin Yanran was about to reach out to wrap his arms around Qiao Ye’s neck.
Qiao Ye looked at Lin Yanran’s beautiful and pure face, which was so close to him, and couldn’t help but recall the image of him playing the guitar.
That scene was seared into his mind, tugging at his heartstrings over and over again.
This person had reached out to him several times when he was at his lowest.
The first time, he gave him a bottle of water at 3 a.m. when he was exhausted.
The second time, he gave him the best performer vote when everyone’s eyes were focused on Xuan Yihan in the center.
The third time, he chose him without hesitation when the other mentors had given up on him.
The young man’s throat bobbed.
His fingers twitched, and when he saw Lin Yanran’s fair and slender wrist rise, Qiao Ye also reached out to put his arm around his waist.
However, just as his hand was about to touch Lin Yanran’s clothes, Gu Siye reached out and grabbed Lin Yanran’s hand.
His deep voice echoed in the practice room. “We’ll do it.”
Along with that voice, the beautiful figure in front of Qiao Ye suddenly disappeared.
Qiao Ye looked up and saw Gu Siye staring at him. His lips were slightly curved, his eyes were narrowed, and they were full of warning.
