Xia Lan nodded in agreement. Xu Yi had a very good voice and a better sense of rhythm than most people. She was young, beautiful, and very individualistic. Her cold exterior concealed a warm heart, which could be seen from her usual dance instruction to Zheng Wan.
"How can we guarantee that she will definitely participate in the revival competition?" Liu Dai was worried about this. What if Xu Yi didn't come? Wouldn't their plan fall through?
Gu Yueyue thought for a while and said very seriously, "Xu Yi is short of money. As long as the prize money for the revival competition is generous enough, she is more eager to participate than anyone else."
Liu Dai had also heard about Xu Yi's real purpose for participating, but that only made him more worried.
"Xu Yi came to participate in the competition to earn tuition fees. After passing the preliminary round, we gave her a prize. As long as she spends her money frugally, paying tuition fees will not be a problem. What if she stops participating in the competition later because she has to study?"
Gu Yueyue thought to herself, "It's better if they don't come."
Gu Yueyue said to Liu Dai with certainty, "She will definitely come. Because she also loves this stage."
Upon hearing this, Xia Lan and Yuan Beidu exchanged a glance, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.
Xia Lan is relatively young and inexperienced, so she speaks directly when she encounters something she doesn't understand.
“Teacher Gu, I always feel that Xu Yi’s performance lately is just for the prize money. Does she really love this stage?” To verify her words, Xia Lan even found a collection of Xu Yi’s training videos that she had seen online. “Look at her. She just dances perfunctorily when the teacher is around. When the teacher lets everyone rest, everyone else is seizing the time to practice more and work on the details. Look at her.”
In the video, Xu Yi silently took a water cup and sat down to meditate in the corner of the training room. The number of meditations increased by one, the number of meditations increased by two, the number of meditations increased by... twenty-nine.
In just one week of training, she slacked off 29 times.
Gu Yueyue frowned slightly, took out her phone, and opened a video that Xiao Ye had sent her earlier.
When Xiao Ye posted the video, he also sent her a message: "Sister, look, Xu Yi is very passionate about the stage and really likes you. Every time you visit her, she practices very diligently. Why don't you reconsider and bring her to our studio? It would be a great thing for both of us."
Xu Yi is her fan, Gu Yueyue thought to herself, it's perfectly normal for fans to like their idols.
She didn't think much of what Ono said; she just focused all her attention on Xu Yi, who was training diligently in the video.
In the video that Gu Yueyue showed to everyone, Xu Yi was extremely serious, and every time she was serious, there was one thing in common: there was always Gu Yueyue watching from the side.
Moreover, the person who edited the video was quite interesting; they only kept the scenes of Gu Yueyue and Xu Yi together, without including any footage of Xu Yi slacking off.
After all, this was a short video that Ono personally edited in order to encourage the boss to get Xu Yi to sign a contract.
Xia Lan, an elderly man on the subway, looked at his phone. Looking at Xu Yi on Gu Yueyue's phone, she thought, "Goodness, this person has two faces. Is this the same Xu Yi?"
A note from the author:
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 19:00:39 on January 2, 2022 and 19:40:15 on January 3, 2022!
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: Jun the Little Liar, for 1 bottle;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter Thirty-Nine
After watching Gu Yueyue's video, Xia Lan was very confused and couldn't understand how Xu Yi could have such drastically different appearances in the two videos.
Although she didn't understand, she still decided to follow Gu Yueyue's decision.
Yuan Beidu silently crossed out Han Shixue and Shen Ningjiao's names, and circled Xu Yi's name.
Seeing their actions, Liu Dai knew the final outcome.
"Now that we've decided on these two, let's discuss the specific elimination details."
This is to let them discuss the script when the mentor announces the results, so that the audience won't notice anything amiss.
Gu Yueyue asked Liu Dai, "When is Zhao Sheng coming?"
The other two looked over curiously. Liu Dai said, "He'll arrive early tomorrow morning and will replace Fan Weiwei. However, he'll only be a guest judge and won't participate in your selection, so don't worry."
"That's good." Yuan Beidu and Xia Lan both breathed a sigh of relief. If Zhao Sheng had also participated in the selection tomorrow, and the result had contradicted their choice, one of them was afraid that he was not smart enough to handle it well, and the other was afraid that he was not experienced enough to control the situation.
Gu Yueyue, however, seemed to be deep in thought. If Ma Youcai's gossip this time was even slightly more reliable, then Zhao Sheng's arrival was definitely not simple.
On her way back to her dorm, Gu Yueyue was wondering whether she should remind Xu Yi, but before she could even go to see Xu Yi, Xu Yi was already waiting for her at the dorm entrance.
"Xiao Xu, what brings you here?" Gu Yueyue knew from Dr. Wei that Xu Yi was perfectly fine, so her guard lowered considerably, and she felt guilty for having doubted Xu Yi behind his back.
Xu Yi came here on a whim. Just now, when Zhang Ya's mobilization meeting was about to end, Han Shixue and Shen Ningjiao got into a fight again, causing chaos in the dormitory. She came out to find some peace and quiet and unknowingly ended up here.
“Teacher Gu.” Xu Yi was pleasantly surprised, not expecting to run into Miss Gu who had just returned.
Xu Yi didn't answer her question. She herself couldn't figure out why she had come here. She noticed that Gu Yueyue seemed uneasy, so she asked directly, "Teacher Gu, is something bothering you?"
Gu Yueyue wasn't offended by her blunt question; instead, she laughed. "You figured it out?"
"Yes. I can feel it."
Gu Yueyue took out the room key and led her into the room, poured her a glass of water, and gave her some snacks that Xiao Ye had given her before.
"Do you like this stage?" Gu Yueyue sat down next to her and chatted with her like a caring older sister.
Xu Yi didn't understand why Miss Gu asked that question, but she saw expectation in Gu Yueyue's amber eyes.
"I like it." Xu Yi thought, Miss Gu must really want to hear this answer.
Gu Yueyue lowered her eyelids, her thoughts unreadable. After a few moments, she smiled and asked her again, "Which do you like more, studying or studying?"
Xu Yi was a little unsure of her intentions, and after thinking for a moment, she tentatively said, "Study."
Just those two words made Gu Yueyue feel much better.
Xu Yi breathed a sigh of relief; she had guessed right again. But she wondered why Miss Gu asked that question, and what her purpose was.
"Is the tuition fee enough?" Gu Yueyue's gentle and friendly tone made Xu Yi forget to think about the meaning behind her words.
Xu Yi thought about the prize money the program team gave her, and realized it was enough to cover her tuition fees.
Xu Yi nodded, and Gu Yueyue breathed a sigh of relief.
Gu Yueyue had already made up her mind that she would definitely eliminate Xu Yi tomorrow.
Xu Yi didn't stay long. Although she was not worldly-wise, she could tell that Gu Yueyue looked tired, so she sat for a while, finished her glass of water, and then said goodbye to Gu Yueyue and left.
The second day of the elimination rounds had everyone watching the show on the edge of their seats.
This includes Liu Wenxin, who has already started her summer vacation after finishing her final exams.
While others had their own plans after finishing their final exams, most of them slept until late morning, then got up to eat, play games, or watch TV series. But she, a student at a martial arts academy, was forced to kneel before the family's ancestral longsword by her father.
"What kind of talk is this? You fail every subject in your academic studies, what's the use of being so good at swordsmanship? Does our Liu family lack martial arts practitioners?"
Liu Wenxin was indignant at being criticized. She came from a family of martial arts practitioners, so of course she had to inherit the family business and practice swordsmanship. What did academic subjects have to do with a martial artist like her?
"Didn't you study properly?" Liu Bai noticed she was daydreaming and angrily pinched her ear to make her reflect on her behavior. "I heard you were still playing on your phone and watching TV during the final exams. Why can't you study properly? Even that brat next door can pass, so why can't my daughter?"
"He can't beat me anyway." Liu Wenxin retorted defiantly, making Liu Bai so angry that he clutched his heart and could hardly breathe.
Hearing her father mention watching TV during the final exams, Liu Wenxin suddenly realized that the elimination rounds were about to begin in a few minutes.
"Hey Dad! Can you scold me a few minutes less today? I'm meeting up with a friend to watch a live stream." Liu Wenxin checked the time; she was running out of time, so she stood up to grab her laptop.
This infuriated Liu Bai, who called her a rebellious daughter.
Liu Wenxin had already opened the Fanxing Idol live streaming platform, and the host Liu Dai was already introducing the competition on it, creating a lively atmosphere.
"Watching TV all day long instead of studying, not reading books or practicing swordsmanship, all you do is idolize celebrities. How many of those celebrities are good? They have no culture, no skills, all they know is to dress up and swindle money from you young girls."
Liu Wenxin's head was throbbing from her father's nagging, so she started to argue back, "That's someone else's idol. My idol is not like that. She's a first-rate swordswoman and a great singer. She could definitely debut as the center."
"Tch." Liu Bai scoffed. "Do you think I don't know what kind of fancy moves celebrities have? I'm their martial arts instructor. These grown men, their swords are like they're holding embroidery needles. It's embarrassing."
Liu Wenxin simply put on her headphones, stopped talking to her father, and focused on watching the show.
Xu Yi and the others were preparing backstage, taking turns to go on stage according to their villa area numbers; they were third in line.
This is a sexy and playful song and dance performance. The makeup of all the performers leans towards a mature and charming look, and their clothes are all sexy black leather outfits. The outfits have been modified and adjusted according to each person's role, which has greatly enhanced the sexiness of all the team members.
Zhang Ya, who was in the center position, dyed her hair a light color and grew long hair. The others also made changes to varying degrees.
Xu Yi lifted a strand of her hair, looked at the orange color on it, and frowned slightly. "Our bodies and hair are given to us by our parents. How could we let them turn out like this?"
She prefers red. I wonder if we can talk to the stylist in advance next time and make changes according to her preferences. Actually, green is also nice, and she likes it very much.
"What are you thinking about?" Zhang Ya, sporting light pink hair, came over and roared in her ear, interrupting Xu Yi's idea about hair color.
Xu Yi rubbed her ears. It was too close to the stage. The music was loud, the audience was shouting, and the backstage staff were shouting to each other. Everything made Xu Yi feel like her ears were about to burst.
Zhang Ya took her hand and led her to Zheng Wan.
Zhang Yachao shouted, "She's got a sore throat! Her voice is so hoarse she can't sing!"
No one expected Zheng Wan to have such an accident. Zheng Wan's eyes also welled up with tears, and she said in a hoarse voice, "I'm sorry, sob sob... I didn't expect this to happen either."
"What did you do last night? How could you get so angry?" Shen Ningjiao didn't get along with her a little, but she wasn't the kind of person to kick someone when they're down in a crisis. She was still very concerned about her teammate's accident.
"I'm so anxious."
Zhang Ya looked at her with exasperation, "Why didn't you say so this morning? We're about to go on stage, what are we going to do now? Why are you so anxious? You're so strong, who are you afraid of losing to?"
Zheng Wan wanted to cry but dared not, afraid of ruining her makeup.
“Let’s redistribute the songs. The dance also needs to be changed at the last minute. Zheng Wan can’t sing, so we have to find someone to replace her. I’m the captain and the center, so I can’t take on too much responsibility, otherwise any stage mishaps will be too obvious. You guys can divide them up.”
Everyone was hesitant. To put it nicely, this was a rescue operation, but if word got out and was used by someone with ulterior motives, it would be seen as teammates collectively suppressing Zheng Wan.
"What are you still hesitating about? The first performance is over, and Team Two has already gone up." Zhang Ya felt like she was about to lose her voice from anger.
"It's too sudden. We've rehearsed for so long, is it possible to rearrange it in just ten minutes?" Han Shixue was not optimistic.
Zheng Wan was about to cry again. "Waaah, I'm sorry. I should have gone to bed earlier. I thought if I rested well, I would be able to sing on stage, but the more I worried, the worse my voice became."
Her rough, raspy voice made Xu Yi's ears uncomfortable. Xu Yi frowned slightly and stepped forward. "It won't be too troublesome. Miao Lele's singing skills are good, but this time she's mostly assigned to dance. As long as Miao Lele and Zheng Wan switch roles, it should be fine."
Miao Lele's eyes lit up as she squeezed her way to Xu Yi, grabbed her hand, and said, "My savior! Making me dance is worse than killing me, but making me sing is a different story. I'd even dare to take the center position."
Zheng Wan was somewhat unwilling. She had trained hard and had a lot of lines and dances, but she had to switch with her teammate right before going on stage. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became, angry at herself for not being good enough and letting her down at the crucial moment.
Compared to Zhang Ya's suggestion that no one share Zheng Wan's lines, it's clearly more appropriate for Zheng Wan and Miao Lele to switch roles.
However, Miao Lele originally had two lines of lyrics, but now they've been given to Zheng Wan, and Zheng Wan still can't sing them.
"What about Zheng Wan's two lines of the song?" Shen Ningjiao asked.
Zhang Ya then said, "You and Han Shixue each say one sentence."
As a result, the two argued over the two lines of dialogue, which made Zhang Ya so angry that she wanted to quit the performance.
After much hesitation, he finally went on stage.