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Hearing the unexpected declaration, everyone turned their heads at Jian Xingsui in surprise.
Jian Xingsui took a deep breath and bravely expressed himself, “I have experience in both writing and composing songs, please believe me and give me a chance.”
Li Xu’an took a deep look at him with unsmiling eyes. But he knew he was in front of the camera, so he forced a smile as he replied, “We all know you have experience, Little Jian.”
Anran, who was sitting next to Jian Xingsui, pursed his lips.
Seeing that Jian Xingsui wanted to be the captain, he argued, “Suisui, Xu’an-gege is very experienced. Besides, he has also composed many songs. In comparison, haven’t you just graduated from a Music Academy recently? You must have less experience than Xu’an-gege.”
Jian Xingsui did not give up: “Although I have just graduated, I know I will not be much worse than others.”
After Zhou Xun listened to his words and sneered in response, deliberately provoking trouble, “If you are brave enough to claim that, how about you and Xu’an-ge both create a song within a day. We can publicly vote which one is better.”
Jian Xing Sui knew about Zhou Xun and Anran’s close relationship.
So undoubtedly, they would support each other’s opinion.
But this was his last chance, he had no choice but to nod, “Okay.”
Li Xu’an was riding a tiger1. In reality, he didn’t have a particularly high creative talent. Most of his previous creations were actually written by ghostwriters. This time, his bid for the captaincy was actually planned long ago. When the time comes, he would secretly ask his agent to pay someone to write a song for him. He could also use this occasion to establish his image as a talented genius in composing.
But Zhou Xun, this troublemaking piece of turd, suddenly suggested that. Where the fuck would he find a good song within a day??
On the other hand, Jian Xingsui didn’t know the others’ complicated thoughts. After deciding on his goals, he didn’t waste any time and immediately walked aside and started to do it.
Anran comforted Li Xu’an and said, “Xu’an-gege, just do your best, I believe you can!”
Li Xu’an smiled while forcing down his heated heart..
He had no choice but to bite the bullet and get in front of the computer and begin to pretend to write lyrics and compose the melody. At first he could pretend, but later he found that he always felt uncontrollable – no inspiration came to him, so he kept going to the toilet or distracting himself by talking to others.
As for Jian Xingsui, he was immersed in his creative process. He could go on about all morning, seemingly unmoving from his table.
At night, many trainees have left to rest. Only Jian Xingsui remained.
The next day, about 4 or 5 in the morning, Li Xu’an couldn’t stand it any longer, and took the initiative to come over and said, “Suisui, why don’t you… go to rest?”
Jian Xingsui smiled – he looked tired, but his eyes were still bright. It seemed he was a bit startled, as if he had been pulled out of his own world. “No, Xu’an-ge, I’m fine. I’m not sleepy.”
At this moment, Li Xu’an suddenly felt that in this tenacious state, Jian Xingsui had a quality of ruthless focus that was a bit scary. It made Jian Xingsui seemingly able to take everything and anything fearlessly. Jian Xingsui looked like someone who was very determined to win – even if he had to sacrifice his well-being.
“…”
Was this second stage so important to him?
Li Xu’an really couldn’t figure it out. But since he had no way out of his sticky situation, he could only continue to try to compose a song with his best ability.
When the one-day deadline came, the six of them got together. Jian Xingsui and Li Xu’an, who were competing for captaincy, both presented their own composition.
Li Xu’an’s song was called “Peak of War2“. It had cool, radical lyrics, with some nice rhymes here and there. The overall feeling of the song was that of a bragging song, the kind that shouting out “my father is going to blow up the sky!”.
Jian Xingsui’s song was called “Shimmer3”.
When everyone saw the title of the song, they thought it would be a tender love song. They didn’t expect that the lyrics of this song were very subtle yet restrained. It was powerfully emotional. And the most impressive thing was that there were rap parts in the middle, with soulful lyrics and clever rhymes. All in all, it moved people by just reading the written lyrics.
《Maybe I am just a shimmering light, but I also shine it on you.》
《Maybe I am just a shimmering light, but I want to be the one who give you the brilliance.》
《Among the sea of stars, I am just a sparkle of dust, or maybe a stray light. But I want to quietly illuminate you alone in the dark night.》
《In this lonely hour.》
《No matter where I am, I will continue to glitter, giving you an infinite gleam.》
The lyrics might be a bit simple and repetitive, but it gave an overall sense of cohesion beauty. It felt heartwarming, with a palpable sense of longing.
Between the two choices, it was clear which one was the winner. Jian Xingsui’s creation was very impressive.
Li Xu’an stiffly smiled and said, “I already have a clue about the melodic arrangement of “Peak of War”, and we will have a musician to guide us later.”
This sentence was a clear hint of canvassing vote.
Anran silently put down the lyrics page. He looked at Jian Xingsui meaningfully, and said, “I also think ‘Peak of War’ is good.”
Zhou Xun has been more impressed with “Shimmer”, but when he heard Anran say this, he finally decided to mimic Anran’s action and said, “I also support ‘Peak of War’, I think this song is very good.”
The other two members thought that “Shimmer” was better, but they didn’t dare to go against the first and fourth ranking men. Naturally, they had no choice but to choose “Peak of War”.
Jian Xingsui held his lyrics book and said: “Although I haven’t arranged the composition of ‘Shimmer’, I can arrange and create it according to everyone’s situation.”
He was still thinking about struggling to win everyone’s votes.
But he didn’t expect that his musical arrangement didn’t matter if nobody chose him.
The other two members laughed, trying to diffuse the situation, and said, “It’s okay, it’s okay, you can save yourself trouble. Xu’an-ge’s song already has a ready-made melody, so it’s more convenient also, right?”
Jian Xingsui held on to his lyrics book and refused to back down.
This was his hard work, and it was also the result he showed to the audience and everyone to see.
But Li Xu’an started to make a decision: “Since it’s decided, let’s start creating together. Suisui, can you come over and help me change ‘Peak of War’ lyrics? In fact, I also think some of the words could be better.”
Jian Xingsui knew that the matter was a foregone conclusion, so he had no choice but to put it down and come to join the team.
Regarding the division of labor, Li Xu’an asked Zhou Xun to compose the choreography, Anran and Jian Xingsui to arrange the song, and the others to follow suit and help around. But soon, they found themselves in a bottleneck. The lyrics of the song “Peak of War” were too difficult to memorize. Coupled that with the high notes of the melody, which means that the dance moves have to be difficult as well to match the song. This was like adding insult to injury for Zhou Xun, who choreographed the dance.
At 3 or 4 in the morning, Jian Xingsui came to the training room from the dormitory.
“Squeak!”
The door opened and he walked in.
Zhou Xun, who was smoking in the corner, was so startled that his cigarette fell to the ground.
Jian Xingsui gave him a deep look, and said: “Pick it up quickly, don’t burn the floor.”
Zhou Xun finally realized, and he tentatively said: “Don’t you tattle to the director team.”
The program team did not allow the trainees to smoke during training, let alone in the training room. In the early hours of the morning, the monitoring will be closed for a period of time. Zhou Xun was a little stressed, so he secretly smokes.
Jian Xingsui said softly, “I’m not that boring.”
Zhou Xun was taken aback for a moment. He saw Jian Xingsui sitting down in front of the computer desk, so he went over and said, “Why did you come here in the early morning?”
Jian Xingsui put on his earphones, as he prepared to continue arranging the music. He replied: “There are only five days left from our deadline. Only by doing a good job in arranging the music can I help you choreograph. I checked during the day, your progress is very slow.”
Zhou Xun had a bad temper. He didn’t hesitate, sneering, “Can you blame me? There are so many chorus parts in this song, and they are all high-energy. I can only make the choreography complicated, or else I’ll dampen the lyrics!”
Jian Xingsui said: “I know, that’s why I’m composing the melody as soon as possible.”
Zhou Xun didn’t expect that Jian Xingsui didn’t make things difficult for him. He wasn’t also annoyed or angry, continuing to focus on making the stage as good as possible. And… it ended up benefiting Zhou Xun, didn’t it?
With a hint of hesitation in his voice, he asked, “Why are you helping me?”
“I’m not helping you, I’m helping myself.” Jian Xingsui replied unexpectedly in a confident tone, “Didn’t Instructor Fu say that we only have one chance to perform on stage? We must grasp the opportunity and not fumble it, no matter how it ends.”
Zhou Xun choked.
Sitting next to Jian Xingsui, he suddenly found that this person didn’t seem to be so troublesome. He didn’t know when Jian Xingsui started… to become different from what he remembered. Before, whenever Zhou Xun bullied him, Jian Xingsui wouldn’t fight back with this attitude.
Zhou Xun thought of “Shimmer”, and suddenly his heart moved. He said, “Your song… do you have an arrangement ready now?”
Jian Xingsui paused, nodded and said, “Yes.”
“Sing it to me.” Zhou Xun tentatively said, “Anyway, there is no one else who can hear it now.”
He was joking, but Jian Xingsui took it seriously.
He took off the earphones and picked up his lyrics book again. When he was composing “Shimmer”, he already had an inkling of the melody in his heart. So he had no problem humming it out loud smoothly. The young man’s voice was a little deep, but not hoarse; instead it was very crisp with a pure feeling. Just like what Tuya said, Jian Xingsui excelled at infusing emotion into his singing, making it more effectively heart-rendering.
Under the light, he lowered his brows and eyes, gentle yet powerful.
At the beginning, the gentle singing relieved people’s fatigue. It steadily ramping up, until it swelled out in an emotional climax. Zhou Xun subconsciously stared blankly and immersed in it, and even the song’s choreography movements slowly appeared in his mind. He had a hunch that this song would make a great stage.
Jian Xingsui said: “I’m done singing.”
Zhou Xun didn’t want it to end, so he asked, “Already?”
“That’s right.” Jian Xingsui put the lyrics aside, then stopped looking at him and said: “You smoked a cigarette and it will make your throat feel sore tomorrow. I have always prepared throat lozenges in the drawer, you can eat them.”
Zhou Xun opened the drawer. Lo and behold, there were really throat lozenges in it. He took a piece into his mouth, the cold sweetness of the mint burst on his tongue.
If he thought about it… if felt like Jian Xingui. It has a hard shell, but if you looked at it closely, you could find a hint of the sweet sugary mint inside, making you feel refreshed.
Maybe… Jian Xingsui was actually a pretty okay guy?
The author has something to say:
I would like to make a special statement that “Shimmer” is not Jian Xingsui’s original creation, it was just designed for the plot.
The original singer of “Shimmer” (微光) is Teacher Hua Chenyu (华晨宇)
If there is any offense, I would like to say sorry to Mr. Hua Chenyu and his fans.
1
putting himself into a dire situation where he can’t get out easily.
2
战峰; Zhàn fēng
3
微光; Wéi guāng