DYUTVOBGA Chapter 25

One of the main reasons Wei Man followed Yu Qiqi’s live stream was her rich playlist; she knew many niche but good songs.

From classical to pop, she had all types, and they almost always matched Wei Man’s preferences. Some were suitable as background music while studying, others were good for waking up when feeling drowsy or tired.

She wondered what kind of song it would be this time.

Wei Man didn’t pay attention to the live stream room. Her eyes were fixed on the 100 refreshed questions on her computer, which she had to answer within a time limit of half an hour.

She browsed very quickly, clicking the mouse continuously and thinking: “The question bank wasn’t brushed in vain, these are all familiar questions so far……”

A guitar intro started in her earphones; it was a very unfamiliar melody.

Wei Man’s mouse-moving actions didn’t stop as she muttered, dividing her attention: “Sister Yu’s taste is as good as ever.”

The intro passed quickly. As soon as she finished speaking, the verse smoothly cut in.

‘Huh? this voice…’

Wei Man’s breath hitched. Her finger pressing the left mouse button unconsciously tightened, and her eyes glanced towards the tablet placed beside her.

The live stream screen was split into two parts. On the left was the Light Music interface with lyrics scrolling with the progress bar, on the right were Yu Qiqi’s fair fingers resting on the keyboard, her nude-colored manicure shining with a rounded luster under the light.

Wei Man was stunned, her gaze fixed on the song title and author displayed at the top of the lyrics page.

[Leap]

Lyrics: Cupid

Composition: Cupid

Arrangement: Cupid

She stared straight at it, as if sucked in by the line-by-line lyrics scrolling on the left screen.

The magnetic, high-pitched voice in her earphones flowed unimpeded into her brain, singing a story with a simple meaning deeply into her heart, making her scalp tingle and her shoulders and arms tremble.

The switch between falsetto and chest voice in the chorus’ high notes was exceptionally smooth, and the explosive power of the head voice resonance was thrilling.

The lyrics were easy to understand, telling the story of a footless bird flying tirelessly past the suffering and prosperity of the world, meeting all kinds of people and events, getting hurt and shedding tears, but forced by reality to bid farewell to those attachments and reluctances, continuing to flap its wings, flying higher and higher.

It flew towards the boundless blue sky, breaking through the dome it could never reach before. The thin oxygen and sharply dropping temperature continuously weakened its strength.

It was very tired, and really wanted to stop, but thinking of the passionate, determined people on the ground, thinking of its departed friend’s yearning for the vast starry sky, it gritted its teeth, mustered its courage, and burned its life to continue flying.

Finally, it passed through the atmosphere and successfully reached its ideal destination.

Looking back, the azure blue planet hung quietly in the universe, and billions of specks of dust swirled and flowed in space, indescribably beautiful.

It seemed to hear the cheers and applause of countless people weeping with joy.

Those blessings and hopes turned into an invisible force, lifting its wings and gently pushing it into a safe orbit.

It was finally no longer a footless bird, rushing through wind and rain, alone and helpless.

People named it “Leap”, wrote it and its friends into history books, and spread its achievements far and wide.

It would coexist with the sun and moon, becoming one of the most brilliant stars.

…..

Wei Man sniffled.

‘Damn, that was so f***ing awesome!!’

She wasn’t about to cry, but she was indeed touched. Who hadn’t had a period of tirelessly pursuit of their ideals?

Mainly, the lyrics were well-written, the composition was good, the electric guitar connected to the effect pedal roared freely, the deep, husky bass tightly grasped the rhythmic framework of the entire arrangement, and the drum beats and cymbal crashes of the drum set crisply and powerfully echoed the listener’s heartbeat.

The direct, heart-striking charm of rock music was fully displayed in this song. Every note burst forth with a shocking energy full of primitive vitality; it was really good.

In terms of singing skills, Cupid didn’t use too many techniques while singing. The entire song gave more of a sense of pure unadorned power.

The verse was like a steady, heavy bell hammer, striking a giant bronze bell. The resounding sound was like a revelation, instantly pulling one into deep emotion.

The chorus, however, made the blood rush up, as if a large hand was dragging the listener forward, upward.

It made Wei Man secrete too much adrenaline; she was so excited she was unlike herself, even more thrilling than drinking a large bowl of steaming hot chicken soup.

She wished she could madly brush 8000 questions right now, take her computer to the library and study like crazy, self-study the entire first semester of freshman year!

“Cupid……judging by the voice, it sounds like he’s in his twenties or thirties. Is he a new original singer?”

Wei Man took out her phone and deftly followed Cupid, thinking: “He sounds like someone from a band. I’ve never heard of this person before, but the quality of this song doesn’t seem like a new artist’s work at all……Could it be some big boss using a side account to promote something?”

Uh, probably not, no big boss would be that idle.

But this song sounded like a big production; there must be a complete team behind it. Probably a newcomer launched by a big company like Xinda Media?

Wei Man stared at the lone song on Cupid’s homepage.

It was released just the day before yesterday, but the play count had already broken thirty thousand. The power of a big boss is terrifying!

She didn’t believe there wasn’t a big company secretly behind this, because the Light Music app was notoriously extremely unfriendly to newcomers. It had no charts whatsoever, relying purely on randomly refreshed personalized recommendations.

What kind of heaven-sent lucky star could single-handedly stand out from the tens of thousands of new songs added daily?

Wei Man clicked into the homepage daily chart, scrolled all the way to the bottom, and then slowly worked her way up.

She quickly found the name [Leap] at position 487, followed by a green upward arrow, indicating the song’s ranking was steadily rising.

The rankings before and after it were all popular songs released by somewhat famous singers in the past five years.

‘So! Awesome!’

Wei Man’s eyes shone.

This Cupid was definitely a newcomer being strongly promoted by Xinda Media. Only Xinda could be so rich and generous as to push a new song by a new artist, released just two days ago, into the top 500 of the daily chart!

She had caught a rising new star.

Wei Man clicked into the comments section for the song [Leap]. It was full of positive reviews, interspersed with a few long comments. There were no traces of professional music critics yet.

She opened the input box and left a message…

[Great song! Already added to my playlist! Looking forward to more new songs from Teacher Cupid[sprinkle flowers]]

Then she put down her phone in satisfaction. Looking up, she saw the bright computer screen, and her eyes widened suddenly.

“….Ahhh! My exam!!!”

The girl hugged her head and wailed: “Help, how is there only three minutes left? The question automatically jumped to number 37? Who answered them for me? Did the question bank system bug out again?! I only have two retake chances left!!”

Mi Tong glanced at her lightly: “Focus on the questions, play less on your phone, little sister.”

Wei Man: QAQ

*

Quentin stood in front of the sink, staring unblinkingly at the boy in the mirror.

He had just washed his face with cold water and glistening water droplets slid down his nose bridge and cheeks, falling into the basin.

He recalled stages worth appreciating from his previous life in his mind, as well as the expression management of the few Class A classmates he had observed closely earlier, then tentatively curved his lips to replicate them.

Quentin’s mouth slowly straightened, and a pair of green eyes calmly met his own in the mirror. He felt something was off somewhere.

“…”

Could it be that he didn’t have the talent for this? But he remembered the acting teacher he had briefly spent a few days with in his previous life had praised him for having great potential…Well, it might have just been polite talk.

To be honest, Quentin’s smile was quite good-looking.

His facial muscle structure was very smooth; he wouldn’t “face-collapse” even making exaggerated expressions. He was naturally suited for the camera.

But the problem was, there was no trace of laughter in his eyes; his pupils were silent and deep. His overly light pupil color made him appear cold-hearted and unfeeling. No wonder everyone previously assumed he was a silent, unapproachable, aloof handsome guy.

Quentin was not someone who didn’t like to smile, but his past experiences in the US had taught him that smiles would only bring him endless harassment. Aloofness and fierceness were the weapons to intimidate petty people.

Fortunately, as he grew older, his emotions gradually stabilized. Over time, “smiling” was no longer a way for him to express happiness, but a necessary courtesy in social situations.

That kind of smile specifically used to deal with people perfunctorily certainly didn’t meet Quentin’s idea of excellent expression management!

He rubbed his cheeks and tried to replicate the fierce gaze from when he filmed MVs in his past life.

—Hmm, this one wasn’t bad.

After that, Quentin tried squinting, frowning, wrinkling his nose, grinning, and baring his teeth one after another. He finally reached a conclusion: the fiercer the expression, the more naturally he could do it, and the stronger the emotion he conveyed.

However, [next!next!] was a lively, youthful boy group survival show theme song. Its core was to express the positive, striving spirit and passion of young men.

Obviously, a sunny, cheerful smile was more suitable. Which sunny youth would look at the camera coldly and fiercely?!

But forcing a smile felt too fake; even he couldn’t stand the sight of his own fake smile expression.

Indeed, expression management wasn’t something one could master just by wanting to practice it.

Quentin thought: “Should I spend energy points to hire a teacher?”

But the system could only use data to synthesize teachers for four skill slots. If one slot was used for expression management or stage presence, what could the other three hold?

Actually, the dance teacher invited by the [NS] program to teach the trainees was quite skilled and had decent recognition in the industry. It was said that the minimum fee for their 1v1 lessons outside was 1500.

But so far, the teacher hadn’t given guidance on expressions…if you didn’t count atmosphere-building commands like “smile a bit” or “smile” accompanied by counts of 1234.

In the morning, Lin Qifeng and the other three mentors had come by for guidance and Q&A. Unfortunately, Quentin hadn’t realized the issue with his expressions at that time, and no one had pointed it out to him.

After all, less than five hours had passed. Normal people were still focused on memorizing the moves, learning the lyrics, and practicing the singing and dancing. Only the abnormal monsters in Class A could perform the entire song at the original speed.

Those with fast self-learning progress, like Yan Qiao, Zhou Zilin, and Yan Wenbing, were consciously controlling their expressions in front of the mirror and flexibly making eye contact with their own reflections, like professional idols capturing the camera.

Based on personal aesthetic alone, Quentin preferred Yan Qiao’s expression management.

He felt that Yan Qiao truly achieved a perfect fusion of personal style with the song. His timing for smiling and not smiling was just right, making a very obvious contrast with others.

For example, Zhou Zilin and Yan Wenbing maintained bright, sunny smiles almost from start to finish, exuding vitality and energy.

Yan Qiao on the other hand integrated every detail…lifting his gaze, raising an eyebrow, curving his lips…into the song, constantly exuding stage charm that attracted the audience.

A bit more would be greasy, a bit less would be bland. He grasped the audience’s psychology firmly and precisely, which was very professional, worthy of being BKL’s super A-level trainee.

After pondering, Quentin thought this matter couldn’t be rushed for now; he should take it slow.

Expression management and acting shared the same origin. He could have the system construct an acting teacher for him after he fell asleep at night to temporarily take a few acting lessons. During the day, he could seize opportunities to ask Yang Xu and Vinki, the two experienced senior boy group members, for advice. He could also communicate more with other Class A students daily. Who knows, one day he might suddenly have an epiphany.

After figuring out this problem, Quentin called out to the system in his mind: “Do you know the content of my dream last night?”

The system: “No, the system does not invade the host’s mental space. That is your privacy.”

“Alright, let me tell you first…”

Quentin organized his words and roughly informed the system about the plot he dreamed of. Then he politely asked: “System, do you have functions like invading phones to obtain chat records or similar things?”

Given the system’s high efficiency in using the forum, its technological level should be a dimensionality reduction attack in this world.

But the system quickly rejected it: “No, host! This system can only use fixed functions to assist you in completing tasks. Invading people’s phones is illegal in this world! Unless it’s a futuristic high-tech setting like a cyberpunk interstellar world, the system is prohibited from providing high-dimensional invasion at the technological level.”

Quentin tilted his head: “Then, won’t your actions of helping me find information on the forums affect you?”

System: “No. Finding information on forums doesn’t count as a high-dimensional invasion; ordinary people can do it too.”

The system spoke hesitantly: “Host, you don’t need to worry. This system has rich work experience and hasn’t violated any regulations for thousands of years. These are small favors; being able to help the host is enough.”

“Okay, I understand.”

Quentin said without changing his expression: “It’s like this: regardless of the task progress bar, I personally believe Zhong Qu is not suitable to continue staying in the [NS] program. I want to make Zhong Qu completely withdraw from the program recording before the main episodes air.”

He couldn’t completely trust the original plot because he couldn’t determine how much butterfly effect his existence would cause.

In the original book, Zhong Qu’s relationship scandal broke out half a year after debut. But what if it broke out during the [NS] broadcast this time? How much would public opinion affect the program? Who would pay for the subsequent chain reaction?

So, sorry, but please let this time bomb be eliminated first.

He said: “I’d like to trouble you to filter posts on the forum where people show off expensive sneakers or watches, specifically by high school boys in Yanhai City. It’s best to accurately target those in their second year of high school.”

The system: “No problem, simple!”

Quentin continued: “Then, use a side account to send private messages to these people, pretending to be Zhong Qu’s new boyfriend. First say……… then…… if……”

He explained concisely, then paused for two seconds, worried that this study-promoting system might have too high a moral sense, and added an explanation: “I’m doing this to lure out the boy who did the live stream in the original plot, and try to get some information out of him.”

The system was receptive: “I understand! Everything for the mission!”

Quentin: “Hmm…… Anyway, if any suspected targets appear, remember to notify me. Let’s get this done in the next few days, make good use of the time..”

He wasn’t sure if Zhong Qu had secretly hidden a phone, so he assumed he had.

But these two days of theme song training were very busy. Given Zhong Qu’s personality, he would probably spend more time building interpersonal relationships, making him busier than the average trainee. He likely had no time to pay attention to his phone.

Moreover, the high school boy who actively exposed the relationship in the original plot was clearly an ultimate love-brained idiot who was easily used by others. He was impulsive and reckless, and easily agitated whenever it came to matters related to his relationship with Zhong Qu.

He was both incompetent yet fond of showing off.

Such a person’s weaknesses are too obvious, making them easy to deceive; they would take the bait easily.

Quentin currently only had a vague memory of the live stream scene with that high school boy in his mind. But he believed his intuition; his judgment of this boy must have come from his complete dream experience.

When it came to judging people, he hadn’t made a mistake since reaching adulthood in his previous life.

Quentin continued to discuss some details with the system, then prepared to leave the bathroom.

However, the moment he turned on the faucet to wash his hands, a heavy sound of something falling came from one of the toilet stalls behind him.

“Bang! Clatter!!”

It seemed to be the sound of a metal object colliding with the floor.

It sounded……kind of like a phone?

The thought “Which trainee is so bold to be playing with their phone in the restroom on the second day of filming?” had just crossed Quentin’s mind when the system exclaimed in his head the next second:

“Host! The progress bar for Main Character No. 2 moved!”