The rehearsals over the following days went very smoothly.
It had to be said that Zhang Fu was very suited to the image of the “senior sister” in the song. And when you carefully looked at each member’s corresponding “position” in the team, you could see that among Aurora’s seven senior sisters, Zhang Fu was indeed the most suitable for Quentin’s group.
After all, their team didn’t lack capable people. They had everything: main vocal, main dancer, rapper… Any other Aurora senior sister would have clashed with their positioning.
Although there was no situation like fighting over parts within the team, objectively speaking, the senior sisters were here to assist, not to be background boards. Therefore, clashing positions would inevitably lead to some members’ highlight moments being taken away. Only with the visual coming could they avoid worrying about this issue.
Regardless of whether the team members considered these factors, in the absence of conflicting interests, the rehearsal atmosphere in Quentin’s team was incredibly harmonious.
This smooth progress continued until the first rehearsal. However, after the first rehearsal ended, some overlooked “small problems” gradually revealed themselves…
The young man wearing a letter-print T-shirt pulled his hand through his hair, took off the sunglasses perched on his head, and jumped down from the edge of the stage.
His jumping motion was very graceful. He didn’t bend his knees before jumping, simply standing on the edge, extending one leg, and walking forward naturally as if stepping down. Without making a sound, he landed on the ground from the approximately two-meter-high platform.
After jumping down from the stage, Quentin walked towards the director’s group not far away.
He didn’t walk fast, but his strides were large, and his upper body was very stable as he walked. Although he didn’t deliberately raise his head and puff out his chest, his open and upright posture was still pleasing to the eye.
The yellow and black plaid shirt tied around his waist swayed with the frequency of his steps. He was wearing ripped jeans, classic style high-top canvas shoes, a backpack-style strap accessory, and bright yellow over-ear headphones hanging around his neck.
The seemingly simple outfit created a trendy street style image.
For the first rehearsal, he didn’t have his hair styled or makeup applied. It was said that for the official performance, the makeup artist would give Quentin a flamboyant frizzy hairstyle and also put a cartoon band-aid on the bridge of his nose, thus matching the image of the “rebellious boy” in the lyrics.
This look was undoubtedly very suitable for Quentin. Of course, among the several sets of costumes tried so far, there wasn’t a single one he couldn’t pull off.
The stage was brightly lit, but the area in front of the stage was somewhat dim. Therefore, it was only after getting closer that Quentin noticed the frown on the face of Director Wang, who was surrounded by filming equipment.
He was the first to jump off the stage. His teammates were still slowly making their way over.
Quentin’s gaze swept across the director’s face without saying a word. Instead, he looked towards the screen that was about to replay his team’s rehearsal process with a serious expression.
“…Ahem, Quentin, do you see the problem?”
Unable to wait for Quentin to ask, Director Wang had to speak up: “Your team didn’t perform as well as before this time. Several members, including you, all have some small issues.”
The “your team before” in his words clearly didn’t refer to the others in Quentin’s team, but specifically to the small teams Quentin had led as team leader.
After two months of interaction, Director Wang’s relationship with Quentin had become quite familiar. He stared at the young man’s focused profile and teased: “Logically speaking, this shouldn’t happen. The average ability of your team this time is much better than before, and they all listen to you. How could you still make such low-level mistakes? Quentin, how are you being the team leader?”
Before Quentin could speak, a teammate who had just walked over spoke up in protest.
“Director Wang, what are you saying? Why are you starting to put pressure on our team leader?”
The tall, tanned young man smiled and raised his hand to pat Quentin’s shoulder, turning his head to look at the screen and saying as he looked: “We rehearsed in the practice room so many times before coming to this rehearsal. It’s not as serious as you say. What small issues? Don’t keep us in suspense.”
Director Wang looked at Cui Yan: “You all take a careful look. The problem is quite obvious. You’re fine, you performed well. As for the others behind you… Zhang Fu goes without saying, Yan Qiao, Wen Xinyi, Qi Yang, the three of you also did well. The rest, including Quentin, all made the same mistake.”
He spoke so seriously, the young people also brought their heads together, then crowded around to watch the small screen, muttering as they watched.
Xue Mingzhu looked puzzled: “Who are the rest? Me, Quentin, and Fang Xu? The three of us all made mistakes? How can you tell?”
Their parts weren’t even next to each other. What common mistake could they make?
This time, Quentin wasn’t doing a dual rap with him. The rap part was solely handled by Xue Mingzhu, while Fang Xu sang and danced the third verse chorus.
That is, Quentin’s part was purely singing the first verse without dancing, Xue Mingzhu’s solo was inserted in the middle of the second chorus, and Fang Xu was the center position singing and dancing with Cui Yan during the third chorus group dance.
Xue Mingzhu watched from beginning to end and didn’t feel anything was wrong. Although this song’s style wasn’t the rap style he excelled in, he wasn’t stuck in the old ways. When writing the rap lyrics, he followed the song itself.
The most feared thing in a rap solo is that the inserted part comes out fragmented and lacking cohesion with the original song. This was usually the rapper’s fault, having not paid attention to the connection with the original song during creation.
Xue Mingzhu sometimes made this mistake too. After all, the player is often blind. However, with Quentin supervising this time, he was very confident in his solo rap.
“……Wait.” Yan Qiao narrowed his eyes, thoughtfully resting his chin on his hand. “I think I understand.”
Beside him, Wen Xinyi hesitated for two seconds, his tone uncertain as he said: “I might understand too.”
Xue Mingzhu snorted: “Hmph, are you two riddlers?”
“If you single someone out, I might not be able to tell, but Director Wang said the three of you have problems…”
Yan Qiao stared at the screen and suddenly smiled: “I didn’t notice it in the practice room earlier. Hey, did the three of you forget what the theme of this song is? Especially you, Xue Mingzhu, you were too focused on looking cool, weren’t you?”
“Damn it, what looking cool…”
Xue Mingzhu’s eyes widened, about to retort, when he heard Wen Xinyi interject: “What Yan Qiao and I are talking about should be the same issue. Our song is mainly about young love in a campus setting. The song itself is very heart-fluttering, and has a strong first-love feel. So, logically, our stage should also match that feeling of love.”
“Mingzhu, your solo part is too cool and arrogant. It’s the same style as your previous rap stages, very intense and explosive, but it’s not like being in love.”
“Fang Xu’s singing and dancing are very good, but because you and Cui Yan are standing in the C position, the contrast between you two is very obvious. Your expression is too restrained, and it didn’t feel very romantic either.”
Wen Xinyi paused here, then turned to look at Quentin: “As for Quentin… actually, his expression management isn’t a problem, it fits the lyrics quite well. But if you ignore the sound of his singing and just look at his performance, it indeed doesn’t feel very romantic.”
After he finished, Quentin’s expression didn’t change much, as if he were pondering. Fang Xu frowned, as if he didn’t understand what Wen Xinyi meant, but he didn’t voice any opposition either.
Xue Mingzhu seemed to understand but not fully, asking in confusion: “Then how do you make it seem like love? My lyrics are exactly about showing off. This rap doesn’t have any big principles. Just like we discussed before, putting yourself in the perspective of a young man deep in love, isn’t looking cool all just to attract girls?”
Yan Qiao chuckled: “But the fact is you can’t attract girls. It’s pure narcissism, self-appreciation.”
Xue Mingzhu choked: “…You’re not a girl, how do you know?”
“Then ask Senior Sister, ask Director Wang, and ask the other sisters in the production team. Were you just looking cool for the camera?”
“I’m not as thick-skinned as you, I won’t ask!”
“What does that have to do with being thick-skinned…”
Quentin seemed not to hear the two of them bickering. He slowly raised his hand holding the sunglasses, casually clipping the frames to his collar, and withdrew his gaze from the screen.
“I roughly understand,” he said. “Director Wang means we should convey the feeling of being in love to the audience outside the camera.”
The blue light from the screen reflected on his face, making him look calm and serious. Whatever problem came out of his mouth, he could analyze it in a serious manner.
“To convey the feeling of love, you need an object to receive that feeling. That object could be Senior Sister Zhang Fu, or it could be the audience of the show.”
“Wen Xinyi and Qi Yang chose Senior Sister as their object because they both have scenes with her. Yan Qiao and Cui Yan chose the audience, so they flirt with the audience directly through the camera.”
“As for me, Xue Mingzhu, and Fang Xu, the three of us don’t have an ‘object,’ so naturally we don’t have the feeling of being in love.”
Yan Qiao smiled again: “Like three single dogs singing a love song?”
Xue Mingzhu looked over meaningfully: “Is there anyone here who is not a single dog?”
Zhang Fu also laughed when she heard this: “It’s not entirely a single dog problem. The feeling you three give is like you haven’t awakened yet?”
From her perspective as a performance major, she suggested: “Regardless of whether you’ve been in love or not, haven’t you ever liked anyone before? Haven’t you experienced the feeling of having a crush? Haven’t you gone through puberty? You can try to empathize with past experiences, imagine…”
Zhang Fu’s voice paused as she stared at their subtle expressions, hesitating: “You… you wouldn’t actually have never had that, would you?”
Hearing this question, Quentin didn’t first think of himself, but of his conversation with the system two months earlier.
At that time, he was worried that the original main characters’ bad endings would fall on cliché melodramatic romance, so he specifically asked the system. He then learned that the original novel was categorized as no CP, meaning all the main characters were career-oriented, without any romantic entanglements from beginning to end.
But what Zhang Fu called having a crush, or the first stirrings of love during puberty, probably wasn’t included in that…
Otherwise, the protagonist group in the original novel shouldn’t have appeared in an entertainment industry novel. They should have switched paths to the cultivation channel. The Way of the Emotionless Sword would definitely welcome them.
While Quentin was expressionlessly imagining all sorts of things, Zhang Fu, who hadn’t yet received an answer from the others, first denied herself.
“Mm… this topic is still quite sensitive, it’s not easy to discuss in front of the camera, right?”
Zhang Fu looked at the camera that had been working the whole time, smiled, and said: “When our idol groups sing love songs, empathy is still quite important. I suggest you have a good talk when you go back.”
“But it’s a bit late now… By the way, don’t you boys chat in your dorms before bed?”
She thought for a moment and said: “How about this, the theme of your chat tonight is love. Cover the camera then, and no one will know what you said. Yan Qiao, you help guide them a bit. We’ll see how you perform in rehearsal tomorrow.”
Director Wang sighed helplessly: “Everyone, don’t talk about covering the camera right in front of me, okay? And especially when you’re going to talk about such a juicy topic… what a pity.”
Yan Qiao wanted to ask why he had to guide them, but thought better of it and didn’t ask, only saying: “A few of us aren’t in the same dorm.”
Xue Mingzhu grinned: “What’s the problem? Use your head a bit. I can move my quilt to Quentin’s dorm. It just so happens that everyone from 303 is on our team.”
Wen Xinyi smiled slightly: “I agree. It’s good to talk. Not just this topic, we can talk about other things too.”
Qi Yang replied quietly: “I’m fine with anything.”
Quentin also didn’t mind. If they didn’t chat, he would go to the system space and watch a few romance movies. Although it most likely wouldn’t help, since he indeed didn’t understand “love”. He could just imitate Yan Qiao and Cui Yan anyway.
Attracting the audience wasn’t very difficult for him. His advantage in looks was there. He just needed to use it. He never felt ashamed about this.
To be honest, Director Wang was being a bit overly critical this time. While there might be some fault with Xue Mingzhu and Fang Xu, Quentin’s looks and stage presence were undeniable.
Regardless of whether he was portraying a crush, his existence alone was enough to make people’s hearts flutter. No one doubted Quentin’s charm on stage.
Perhaps Director Wang raised this issue just to get some behind-the-scenes footage, or perhaps purely to make a joke and tease them.
In any kiss, everyone knew in their hearts that this was just a “small problem”, nothing serious.
Even if this stage was limited by the theme and was more “conventional” compared to Quentin’s two previous public performances, if compared with the other teams, their team’s rehearsal was still way better.
Although the problem was small, it didn’t affect their plan for a “dorm night talk” that evening.
When encountering a problem, of course, you try to solve it. Who doesn’t want to perform better?
Besides, with the finals approaching, those of them listed in the debut group would benefit from chatting more privately and getting to know each other better. It couldn’t hurt.
