Jing Lu said: "My dream is to sing, is this okay?"
The director shook his head. The production head thought for a while and said: "Do you have anyone you're concerned about, or have you been a drifter in Beijing, anything with a special touch..... Our show should be as sensational as possible, let the audience sympathize with you. You are the key target of your company, you are different from Xiao Yi who's a freelance singer and composer."
Xiao Yi got up, pushed the door to step out to the corridor, took out his phone, and sent a message to Luzou's WeChat. These days, he would send Luzhou a good night message every night before he went to bed, and send him a message saying he had gotten up in the morning when he woke up.
ăZhou Ge, I'm participating in the talent show.ă
Xiao Yi faced the floor-to-ceiling windows in the corridor and took a picture. It was misty.
ăAre you doing well in Canada? Can you watch local channels there? ă
Luzhou still did not reply. Xiao Yi pushed the door and entered. Jing Lu's video would have probably been finalized.
Three days later, there was a judges' meeting this time. There were four judges. The contestants were waiting outside, and entered when they were called. After Xiao Yi had entered, he had an encounter with Qi Quan.
Xiao Yi had known that he was going to be a judge. Qi Quan was full of smiles, and was holding a pen near to the side of his mouth. This situation was very awkward, after all, the two could be considered to have a prior feud, but now that Luzhou had cancelled his contract with the company, it was not easy for Qi Quan to say anything about it.
"Are you Xiao Yi?" A middle-aged man stood up, his identity was a music producer called Wang Jing. Xiao Yi immediately went to shake hands with him, and Wang Jing smiled saying: "Director Guo mentioned you to me."
Xiao Yi did not expect that Director Guo would still care about him after just knowing each other for a few months, and felt very moved for a while. Wang Jing then said to the other two female judges: "A song in this was written by Xiao Yi."
Xiao Yi nodded and said: "Seeking the four judges for advice."
"You're Luzhou's assistant ah." A Hong Kong singer, Pang Niu, asked.
"Yes." Xiao Yi's mind returned to the venue and said with a smile, "I used to be....."
One of the judges who was a folk song singer asked with a smile: "Why is Luzhou not accepting any new dramas recently?"
"He got hurt while filming." Xiao Yi answered, "He needs to take a break."
"Let's begin." Qi Quan's expression did not look too well. Xiao Yi took a deep breath, pondered for a while, and then began to sing a song he had chosen before.
Halfway through his song, Xiao Yi looked at the expressions of the four judges. Everyone seemed bored. Qi Quan was picking his nose, Pang Niu was playing with her phone, folk music teacher Ji Zi had taken off her high heels, and was rubbing her feet together under the table, and Wang Jing was looking in a mirror.
Xiao Yi stopped.
"Not bad." Pang Niu kept her phone and said, "Much better than many of the previous contestants."
"I sing bel canto." The judge that was called Ji Zi said, "It's hard to listen, it might have a better effect on stage than here, what do you guys think?"
"All right." Wang Jing said, "When the time comes I'll turn on the light button for you according to this. What about the other three?"
Pang Niu gestured to Xiao Yi and said: "Go for it, you'll have no problem."
Ji Zi said: "I can too."
Qi Quan laughed and said: "Then I'll follow the rest, and let you pass."
Xiao Yi nodded. He was to be eliminated anyways, it did not matter who would turn their lights on. When he was about to thank them, Qi Quan suddenly said: "Xiao Yi ah."
Xiao Yi smiled and looked at Qi Quan.
Qi Quan said: "You are also half an entertainment insider."
Qi Quan squinted and smiled at Xiao Yi. Wang Jing smiled again and said: "His song is well written, Director Guo has liked it all along."
Xiao Yi smiled: "It's a pity that the broadcasting license has not been approved yet."
Qi Quan then said again: "Your Sister Xinran was talking about you the other day. Luzhou and Huaxing have terminated their contract, we don't know where you will be goingââ"
Xiao Yi said: "I'm still serving the company."
Pang Niu said: "Looking forward to hearing more of your songs! I'll go back and check it out!"
Xiao Yi smiled: "Great."
Qi Quan said: "Let's have a meal together when you're free?"
Xiao Yi said: "Sure, it's my treat."
Xiao Yi thought I wouldn't eat with you..... after he exited, he heard people gossiping along the corridor. Their voices were very soft, but Xiao Yi still heard them.
"Luzhou that stupid bird, if he doesn't pounce who would? After the fall he must have become an idiot....."
Xiao Yi immediately raised his head. The whole corridor was quiet for an instant.
Xiao Yi got up and asked the person who had spoken: "Which company are you from?"
That person glared at Xiao Yi and said: "I wasn't the one who said it."
Xiao Yi recognized this voice, it was clearly him who had spoken just now.
"Do you have time? Let me explain to you, and not have any misunderstandings." Xiao Yi sincerely said, "Everyone is here as a contestant...."
Everyone in that surrounding circle knew this person. Looking around, everyone started laughing.
"Say it." That newcomer answered, "No problem."
Xiao Yi thought for a while, and punched the newcomer in the face.
The entire corridor was in chaos and the situation went completely out of control. Five to six people were pressing onto Xiao Yi, but Xiao Yi used to get into group fights along with Duma, and did not care if he was getting beaten by others. He would just grab the main target and greet death together. However, this fight stopped in less than a minute. Xiao Yi's head was buzzing when he was pulled away by the security, and both sides were taken to the office.
Xiao Yi was beaten to the point where he had a bruised nose and swollen face, but that newcomer was even more beaten up, his face was full of blood from his nose. When Jing Lu came to the corridor earlier and saw Xiao Yi getting beaten up, he had actually gone up to help Xiao Yi throw a few punches to the other party. The director and production head were all going to be very pissed.
Dumei personally made a trip over, and had a meeting with the other party. Xiao Yi was waiting next door, and said to Jing Lu: "Next time if you meet this sort of situation, don't do anything, let me do the beating. You see who you don't like, who's talking behind our backs, just let me know."
Jing Lu: "They have done this for a few days, I didn't dare to tell you."
"Sing well." Xiao Yi said to him, "You will be popular, and at that time you can trample him under your feet."
Jing Lu nodded.
After Dumei finished discussing about the matter, she came over with the producer in tow, and was actually cheerful. The publicity personnel was following behind Dumei, and they were talking and laughing.
"Okay." The producer said, "The two of you shake hands, and we shall let this matter pass."
The program's producer was a big shot, Dumei and the other party's agent did not dare to cross him. There were a few greetings on both sides. With a face covered with bruises, Xiao Yi smiled and reached his hand out to that newcomer, and the two shook hands. Xiao Yi stepped forward and said: "Sorry, don't take this to heart." Xiao Yi then took the initiative to hold the other's hand and gave him a little hug. The newcomer whispered into Xiao Yi's ear: "Fuck your mother."
Xiao Yi did not say anything. He knew this guy had offended the producer, and that his career would definitely be unable to survive. Many people around them heard that sentence, and the producer's expression had changed instantly, but he did not throw any fit over it. The other party's agent immediately took that newcomer away.
"President Du." The publicity personnel asked, "How should the manuscript be drafted?"
"Love-hate relationship." Dumei said, "Let's head back to the company to discuss this, and try our best to rely on selling rot [1] ."
"Sure." The publicity personnel replied.
Xiao Yi thought Dumei, you learned this from Li Ye right? The ability to cover up everything in one move. After they exited the building, Xiao Yi drove them back to the company. Dumei said: "That newcomer today is from Xinghua, Wu Henggu's previous agency. Great hit, you."
"Oh?" Xiao Yi said, "Anyone else require a beating too?"
"No more." Dumei glanced at Xiao Yi and said, "Go back and take care of your injuries, don't show them when you begin filming for the program."
Xiao Yi knew the matter was over and relaxed. The publicity news came out that very day, and there was a lot of hype on Weibo. Xiao Yi was so used to it that he could not be bothered to care about the hype. The program team even posted a photograph of the two of them hugging each other online.
Previously when Xiao Yi had written songs for Luzhou, he had a bit of fame online. Hearing that he was going to participate in the talent show, his fans started to increase. With the previous fame of Luzhou and the happenings from the past year, everything was out in the open once again, as if re-frying cold rice.
Looking at the comments left by his fans, Xiao Yi felt both sad and touched. There were actually many people who still remembered the songs he once sang.
There was a particular message:
I like you so much, I know you will become popular.
When Xiao Yi saw the title of the song, he almost cried. The once snowy Houhai, the long nights of feasting in Lijiang, the Lan Kwai Fong bar in Guangzhou.....
It was not so much a song as it was a memory.
Xiao Yi's Weibo had never been as busy as this day. Notifications of private messages continuously popped up and made him feel overwhelmed. After he had replied to one another would come, and after finishing his chats with the last few people, the first few came back to chat with him again. It was as if rolling a snowball, rolling and rolling into a bigger snowball.
Xiao Yi almost wanted to cry and beg his fans to stop talking, it was already so late, did they not need to go to school tomorrow. In the end he really could not keep up, so after reading all the messages he did not reply.
However, as he was scrolling through, there was one amongst the endless messages.
I am the genius Luzhou: What is the name of the person who beat you?
Xiao Tzuki: I'm the one who beat up someone.
I am the genius Luzhou: Fuck stop talking nonsense, what is that person's name?
Xiao Tzuki: It was really me who beat him up.
I am the genius Luzhou: Are you an automatic reply bot?!
Xiao Tzuki: Zhou Ge where are you? I miss you so much, how could you be like this, how could you just abandon me like this, how could you bear to?
I am the genius Luzhou: Not going to do a comic gag with you, if you're not telling I will check it out myself.
Xiao Tzuki: Are you back in the country?
Luzhou did not reply anymore. Xiao Yi spammed a lot of messages, and then Luzhou blocked Xiao Yi.
Xiao Yi: "......"
Xiao Yi yelled, he rolled to and fro while hugging the Luzhou doll. Finally, he laid his entire person on the doll, picked up his phone, and dialled Luzhou's number. It was off.
And thus he was completely mad, in his heart he was furiously complaining I must blackmail you in order for you to bother about me is that right?
Xiao Yi then sent a series of messages to Luzhou's WeChat. Luzhou did not reply him there either. He did not dare to speak nonsense on Weibo, in fear that fans would dig out the unknown, and so he went to create a side account to send a private message to Luzhou. He found out that the side account had insufficient permissions to send the message, and thus could only give up.
He got up in the middle of the night and browsed through Luzhou's Weibo. It was the same few posts from the beginning of the year. Luzhou seemed to have completely stopped all publicity. There were still some die-hard fans posting on Weibo pleading: Male god where have you gone, faster come back, no matter what you turn into I will always love you.
Xiao Yi browsed for a while, and with a sudden realization that he was not blocked anymore, he quickly sent a private message to Luzhou.
Xiao Tzuki: I will expose all your scandals on Tianya if you dare to ignore me again.
I am the genius Luzhou: You dare? Lao Zi will find someone to do you and Kuang Yan in together.
Xiao Tzuki: Who is Kuang Yan???
Xiao Tzuki: .?
Luzhou then blocked Xiao Yi again, and Xiao Yi had to stop talking.
Xiao Yi stared at his own Weibo, and sure enough, Luzhou removed him from the blacklist again. Xiao Yi immediately sent him another private message.
Xiao Tzuki: I love you so much, how can you bear to treat me like this.
I am the genius Luzhou: Piss off.
Blocked again. Xiao Yi could only continue to scroll through Weibo. He then started to watch an American TV show, while staring at his Weibo status at all times. At 3am, Luzhou removed Xiao Yi from the blacklist again.
Xiao Tzuki: How about I sing you a song, listen to me, the one who loves you most is me.....
I am the genius Luzhou: Are you done!
This time after Xiao Yi was blocked, Luzhou did not seem to intend to remove him from the blacklist. Xiao Yi could only prepare for bed. When he got up the next day, he found that his Weibo username had been changed to:Â Masochist Xiao Tzuki.
Xiao Yi: "......"
There was a group of fans on Weibo shouting so cute, so cute ah. Xiao Yi knew for sure that Luzhou must have changed his Weibo name. He gave Luzhou a call, but it was still switched off.
The program team notified the contestants about recording in batches today. Xiao Yi got on the vehicle and greeted the contestants. No one dared to talk about him in private anymore, and Xiao Yi got to know yesterday that the newcomer previously was called Kuang Yan.
Xiao Yi did not expect that he would be the one followed by cameras one day. He was familiar with simple scripts, and after filming in several locations in Beijing, they went back to the program's office to do the dubbing on the same day. After reading the script eloquently, he watched his own short film.
"Can I copy it back?" Xiao Yi asked.
"The show hasn't been recorded yet." The editor said, "It's okay after it has broadcasted."
Xiao Yi nodded his head. These days, he had been calling Luzhou's phone, and looking for him on Weibo. Luzhou never responded.
The show would commence filming on 1st April, and start broadcasting on 5th April. It was just the preliminary round, and all the selected contestants will appear. The program team received registrations from contestants all over the country, and there were sixty-four people who remained. Out of these sixty-four people, thirty-two would be eliminated in the beginning.
Among the contestants, there were many who were in various film and television companies. And even if there was no contract, after passing the preliminary round, they would be contacted and signed on by the sponsoring company of the program. Of course, if no company wanted to offer a contract, it would be absolutely impossible to dream of reaching the finals just by singing.
In fact, the program head himself was complaining that there were too many people who had no contracts in the preliminary round, a whole fifteen of them.
In order to make the show more realistic, he could only do so.
1st April. The audience were all in place. The program team even sent a lot of tickets to Xiao Yi, asking him to bring his friends to join in. Who would Xiao Yi look for?
He could only say: "I have no friends, there's no need."
Dumei called, and Xiao Yi had to explain the situation. Dumei said: "How can you say that you have no friends? You this guy, hey..... wait."
Hence on that same day, Dumei brought a group of fans to the scene for Xiao Yi. Most of them were hired with money, and filled up quite a few rows.
Xiao Yi sat backstage, it was not his turn to go up on stage yet, and the makeup artist was still putting on makeup for the others. Xiao Yi could not help but think about the first time he had participated in this kind of talent show. He had been so nervous he felt that he would have peed. That year Duma and all his friends were there to cheer Xiao Yi on, and Xiao Yi had even urged the makeup artist to hurry up, and didn't finish his makeup until three minutes before he had to go up on stage....
Now, Xiao Yi was not in a hurry anymore, he was sitting on one side and scrolling Weibo.
"Jing Lu." Xiao Yi smiled and said, "Do your best, you will become popular."
Jing Lu was a little nervous, and nodded to Xiao Yi.
Xiao Yi blocked off private messaging for people he did not follow, in this way, not everyone could send him private messages, and the world seemed much cleaner. But after scrolling for a while, he still found an unknown username.
lz009: Older brother hello.
Masochist Xiao Tzuki: ? ? Who are you?
lz009: I'm your fan, you followed me previously, did you forget? [âĽď¸]
Xiao Yi: "......"
Xiao Yi did not remember paying any attention to this guy before. He took a look and found that it was a side account, a Weibo account that had been opened recently.
lz009: Older brother is participating in Beautiful Voices?
Masochist Xiao Tzuki: Yes, are you here today?
lz009: Nope, you do your best, I like your songs the most.
Masochist Xiao Tzuki: Thank you.
Xiao Yi laughed, and while browsing the fan's Weibo, he found that it was recently full of annoying complaints, some of which were quite funny.
lz009: Older brother, when you are famous, can you sign an autograph for me?
Masochist Xiao Tzuki: I will not be famous, but even if I'm not, Iâll still sign it for you, okay?
lz009: You will be famous, I really like the mv you did before [:)]
From the day I first saw your work, I knew you would be popular!
Masochist Xiao Tzuki: Thank you.
Xiao Yi remembered that when he had checked Weibo that day, it was this person who had mentioned his song, and a burst of tears filled Xiao Yi's eyes immediately.
Masochist Xiao Tzuki: You do your best too.
lz009: Well, do your best in the competition! Muahââ [âĽď¸]
Masochist Xiao Tzuki: Mu-
Masochist Xiao Tzuki: ah.
Xiao Yi's face was full of awkwardness, he had not used that style to chat with fans in so many years. It was okay if he had not seen it, but now echoes of muah muah muah muah were resounding in his mind..... mu ah mu ah mu ah ah..... Xiao Yi was almost about to sing along to the tune.
"Number 7." The makeup artist called.
Xiao Yi sat over that side to put on makeup, and saw that the contestants in his group had received gifts from fans.
"You look so handsome." The makeup artist said with a smile.
"Thank you." Xiao Yi said.
In front of the mirror, he was miraculously handsomer than before. During the time he was following Lu Zhou, he was forced to run, train, work, and rest regularly every day, and had gone to bed early and gotten up early as well. Lu Zhou was like a person who could never run out of energy. The Xiao Yi now looked like the state he was in when he had just graduated from university.
All kinds of melody accompaniment echoed in his mind with the muah, and he realized a serious matter. He could no longer expel this word from his mind.
"Done." The makeup artist smiled and said: "Do your best."
"Thank you." Xiao Yi replied, and he took the initiative to hug the makeup artist. When he was with the crew, he saw that every time Luzhou put on makeup or did his hair, he would take the initiative to say thank you to the staff. Luzhou was more well-liked compared to many of the actors who would just leave after their makeup.
Luzhou also taught Xiao Yi that he must always be polite to the makeup artist and hair stylist no matter what. Your head was in their hands, if they really had a grudge with you, they would just need to mess things up a little and you would be finished.
Xiao Yi stood backstage, and took a deep breath.
Jing Lu was still on stage, and had finished his song.
"I am from Shenyang, Shenyang's Little Shenyang." Jing Lu said, "From young, I wanted to sing er ren zhuan [2] ......"
There was a burst of laughter in the audience. Pang Niu said: "Not bad! What is er ren zhuan?"
So, the several judges explained to each other what was er ren zhuan. After a round of laughter, Wang Jing said: "Did you graduate from university?"
Xiao Yi glanced at his own script. He knew that once he went up on stage, he had to act according to the script, and that there was nothing creative he could do. But no matter what, Xiao Yi was still a little nervous.
"Cut!" The director shouted from the front of the stage.
"Fix up your makeup, there's too much sweat." The director said.
Qi Quan comforted with a smile: "Don't be too nervous."
Jing Lu nodded his head. The makeup artist went up to fix the makeup, the judges drank water, and then filming continued after a while.
"Are you ready?" The host asked Xiao Yi.
"Ready." Xiao Yi replied.
The host spoke again: "Don't be nervous, if you make a mistake or forget the words, just start over, it's a recording."
Xiao Yi hugged the host and prepared to go up on stage.
The video wall on the stage began to broadcast Xiao Yi's video.
"My name is Xiao Yi."
In the spring of Beijing, flying catkins were all over the skies.
"I'm from Hubei, including the four years of studying in Beijing, I've spent nine years drifting in the North."
The endless stream of people, and Xiao Yi who was carrying a backpack was walking on the streets, looking up at the China Central Place Building.
"No car or house, a bewildered look." Xiao Yi's voice said in the video, "My job is to do video and mv pre-processing. I like music, like mv, I like everything that makes people feel good. I want to be an ordinary person, so if I can pass the elimination rounds smoothly and stay on stage, then I......"
The view of the camera was on the slowly setting sun, and Xiao Yi's lonely back view as he walked on a road in Beijing.
"I wish to tell someone a sentence."
It was a beautiful scene, but Xiao Yi did not know why at the time when he heard "I wish to tell someone a sentence.", his mind automatically connected to that brainwashing word "Muah!".
The stage lights went dark. The host whispered: "Go, the mike is already on, don't try to test the mike."
In frustration, Xiao Yi walked onto the stage with all kinds of muah in his mind.
He took the microphone, stood in the dark, and took a deep breath.