DYUTVOBGA Chapter 35

“Sigh, this voting interview was basically just a Quentin praise session.”

It was still the staff member responsible for asking questions.

He held a notebook, flipping through the vote counts recorded in the post-interviews. Looking at the name “Quentin” ranking at the top in multiple questions, he sighed with a headache and looked up at the sky: “What do we do now? This vote ranking is completely different from what we expected!”

The seven questions in tonight’s post-interview were actually a secret vote related to the team selection for the first performance. The top 1st and 2nd vote-getters in each question would automatically become the two team leaders for the opponent groups in the first performance.

For example, in the first question about the “leader,” Zhou Zilin, who got the most votes, and He Quan, who came in second, would form their own teams as leaders and perform the same song consecutively during the first performance.

After both teams performed, the live audience would vote for one of the two, and the team with more votes would win.

The winning team’s leader would receive one elimination exemption spot, allowing them to protect one team member during the “100 to 72” elimination round after the first performance.

The seven questions prepared by the director team involved choices for seven titles: leader, main vocal, dance position, rap position, visual center (face), most popular teammate, and the opponent one most wanted to defeat.

Their originally envisioned script was like this…

Vocal group: The rising star Wen Xinyi VS the veteran singer Wu Qichang in a “the new generation replaces the old generation – new vs. old showdown”;

Dancer group: BKL’s original 7th generation idol group debut reserve, super A-level dance position Yan Qiao VS “Dance World Storm” Season 2 third-place winner Cheng Shaozhi;

Rapper group: The boy who won the national rap competition youth group championship Xue Mingzhu VS the online rapper Bi Xiao with over 1 million fans;

Visual group (face group): “Mixed-race god-like visuals” Quentin, whose “face alone can conquer the world” VS the popular web drama supporting male actor, Qi Yang, who made the top 10 in the 2024 “Most Memorable Character” poll, the “young general.”

The above four groups were the main highlights the director team envisioned for the PK segments.

However, the final voting results took a sharp turn!

The final vote counts for Quentin and Wen Xinyi in the vocal group were actually neck and neck, while Wu Qichang, whom the director team had high hopes for, only received a measly number of votes countable on two hands.

The staff member was greatly shocked.

What the hell???

Quentin only sang one niche French song just over two minutes long! And it was an original at that. A completely unfamiliar melody is one thing, but the key point is, you trainees can’t even understand the lyrics, okay!

Wasn’t Wu Qichang part of your childhood memories? Where did all those people who went wild cheering and showing support when he performed his nostalgic medley go? What happened to the promised “my youth is back”?

The number one vote-getter in the dancer group was indeed Yan Qiao, that’s correct, but Quentin’s votes were also quite high, actually beating Cheng Shaozhi by 5 votes.

It was really bizarre. The fans of Yan Qiao and Cheng Shaozhi were tearing each other apart online over the dance position title. If they found out a “mixed-race visual” suddenly rose up…it would be a complete reversal!

Fortunately, the rapper group still followed the script properly.

Hah, Quentin never even rapped in the program! These trainees who only care about looks. couldn’t go against their conscience and still vote for Quentin, right!

A special mention goes to Fang Xu here… that kid blindly chose Quentin for every question except the last one, and even for the rap position choice, he gave a seemingly reasonable justification.

“Quentin’s voice is pleasant, his vocal projection is strong, his enunciation is clear, and he can speak multiple languages. This shows his language ability is strong, very suitable for rapping.”

The boy, sporting a pair of tired dark circles under his eyes, said gloomily: “Moreover, Xue Mingzhu has been sticking to Quentin like glue and pestering him to death to team up… What would a rapper like him be doing that for? It can’t just be that Quentin is young and handsome and good at singing and dancing, right? It must be because Quentin has a unique, hidden talent for rap that just hasn’t been revealed yet.”

Staff member’s inner OS: It sounds quite reasonable… like hell!

This guy is just spouting nonsense with a serious face, right? A complete brainless fan who blindly praises!

As for the final visual group, aside from the excessively large vote difference between 1st and 2nd place, there weren’t any other issues.

Director Wang flipped through the vote count results handed to him by the staff, pondered for a while, then said: “During post-production editing, move the visual question to the second position. Once Quentin is selected as the leader for the visual group, he naturally can’t participate in the subsequent music group and dance group rankings. After that, we can continue according to the script.”

The staff member suddenly understood: “Director Wang, are you a genius?”

Director Wang: “…Alright, get back to work! Reorganize the process for the first performance team formation segment. Change all the parts that need changing quickly, don’t dawdle.”

Director Wang looked at the retreating back of Wang Yang, shook his head and sighed. Young people are indeed energetic.

To be honest, he himself wasn’t surprised by this voting result. Ever since Quentin displayed extraordinary strength at the initial stage, he had somewhat anticipated today’s situation.

What shocked him more than the voting results was that Quentin had the highest score in the theme song assessment!

After the initial feeling of disbelief slowly faded, it was replaced by joy and unease.

The joy was that such a person, possessing both outstanding looks and talent, had appeared in their “NS” program. No one doubted whether Quentin would become popular; they only wanted to know what kind of storm he would stir up in the entertainment industry.

And the reason he felt uneasy was because their director team and Galaxy Entertainment had prior internal agreements with multiple companies. The planned script had already divided the 101 trainees into multiple groups…well, roughly categories like the debut group, cannon fodder group, topic group, etc.

Perhaps in the audience’s eyes, the final list of trainees who successfully debut from a survival show is full of suspense.

But from the perspective of industry insiders like them, whether a trainee has the potential to debut and attract investment, whether they are suitable to be a boy group idol, whether their looks are up to par, whether their skills in all aspects meet the baseline, whether the fan market is willing to buy in… it’s really obvious at a glance.

Some trainees are destined to only run alongside as cannon fodder, while some trainees have both looks and talent, plus the backing of a big company, and will undoubtedly go higher and further in the program.

The gap between people can sometimes be bigger than that between people and dogs.

When it comes down to it, it’s all fate.

However, whether for the “NS” program team or for Galaxy Entertainment, Quentin was an accident in their plans.

This young man appeared too suddenly, and his resume was too thin. Even with his divine looks, initially no one took him seriously.

Precisely because the time was so rushed, like forcing a duck onto a tree, in the week from Quentin’s last-minute addition to the start of program recording, Galaxy Entertainment hadn’t even had time to sign a detailed debut contract with Quentin.

Of course, this thing would definitely have to be signed later before the program airs; otherwise, no one could accept the horror story of a newly promoted rookie growing legs and running into someone else’s bowl.

In short, from the current situation, this young man who appeared out of nowhere was destined to disrupt their subsequent script arrangements. Changes in the debut group lineup would involve games of power with various entertainment companies.

If Quentin squeezed his way up, it was destined that another trainee would fall down.

As for which company’s trainee that would be… it remained to be discussed.

Regardless, they were not willing to let Quentin go.

This was a young, handsome, potentially hugely popular hot commodity, and he wasn’t even signed to a company yet!

From what Director Wang knew, Galaxy Entertainment was already secretly trying to sign Quentin to their own company.

As the boss of Galaxy Entertainment said, they were filthy rich, with money burning holes in their pockets, and were just missing a star-studded artist to spend it on.

As luck would have it, hey, Quentin was quite awesome.

But Director Wang always felt that Galaxy Entertainment’s plan wouldn’t be so easy to realize.

That 17-year-old kid always managed to do things that were beyond everyone’s expectations. Would someone like that really casually sell themselves to a company that had nothing but money?

Director Wang rubbed his temples, pushed aside these messy thoughts, pointed at the voting results, and said to the assistant director beside him: “Xiao Wang, come take a look. Where did this He Quan pop out from? How did he get second place in the leader vote?”

Assistant Director Wang, busy with his work, took a moment to glance over and said knowingly: “It’s probably because Zhong Qu left. Those twenty-plus people in Class B are quite united. If Zhong Qu were still here, those guys would probably have voted for him. This He Quan is Zhong Qu’s roommate, um… you could understand him as the number two leader in their group?”

Actually, the ones who lose out the most in this kind of voting model are those semi-amateurs with balanced abilities but no outstanding single skill, and who aren’t well-known yet.

For example, Yan Wenbing and Fang Xu from Class A, and Cui Yan from Class B, are all potential stocks who can both sing and dance, yet they missed the top 2 spots in all voting categories.

Trainees who meet the above two conditions but additionally have good people skills, like He Quan, would receive high votes in the three more subjective questions, “Best Leader,” “Most Popular Teammate,” and “Most Anticipated Opponent”, thus taking an alternative route to obtain a leader position.

Besides He Quan, Lu Kui from Class F also stood out in the “Most Popular Teammate” category relying on his people skills.

It was said that Lu Kui spent a lot of time teaching other Class F trainees to dance, jumping back and forth between frustration and rage every day. A perfectly fine chatterbox was almost driven into social withdrawal by his clumsy-limbed classmates.

The Class F trainees were deeply ashamed. They were grateful for Lu Kui’s efforts and sincerely regarded this person, who remained patient in teaching no matter how frustrated, as a good brother, and were also willing to become Lu Kui’s teammates in the first performance.

If Lu Kui found out about all this… It’s unknown whether he’d laugh or cry.

After all, before coming to record the program, he only wanted to cling to someone’s thigh, and never imagined he would become someone else’s thigh.

Indeed, the world works in mysterious ways.

·

The next morning, the director team gathered the 100 trainees in the large classroom. The red, green, yellow, and blue tracksuit colors clearly demarcated the four classes.

The seven people from Class A sat on the floor in the front row, with Quentin surrounded in the center.

The four mentors stood on the platform, with Yang Xu speaking as the representative.

He first explained the rules for the first performance competition at an unhurried pace, then skipped over the grouping matter and directly pressed the remote, playing the seven songs prepared by the director team for the first performance on the large screen.

“The first song is ‘Goldfish in the Bowl.’ The dance choreographed by the teachers for this song is quite difficult, it’s the most demanding in terms of dance foundation among the seven songs.”

Yang Xu stood at the edge of the platform, looking at the trainees below who were staring at the large screen with amazed expressions, and said with a smile: “I personally suggest trainees confident in their dance abilities choose this song.”

“You can probably tell, the choreography for this song is mainly jazz-based, with a small segment of modern dance integrated in the middle. The requirements for body flexibility and expressiveness are very high, so even trainees who have learned dance should carefully consider whether this song suits them.”

After his introduction, someone below whispered: “This is a song for the dance position, right.”

“Emm… it looks completely like Cheng Shaozhi’s style.”

“Wow, that hip thrust and backbend are so smooth, that waist movement… what kind of torture test for lumbar flexibility is this?”

“Next song, next song! Let’s leave this song for Yan Qiao and Quentin!”

Yan Qiao stared intently at the screen, his shoulders and waist unconsciously swaying slightly along with the dancer demonstrating in the video.

Only after the chorus part finished playing did he make up his mind. He turned to look at Quentin, curled his lips, and said: “So, do you like this song?”

Quentin had one hand resting on his knee, the other supporting him on the floor, his fingers unconsciously repeating a snapping motion, as if keeping time.

He nodded: “It’s okay… I’m not particularly moved.”

Yan Qiao narrowed his eyes, coaxing patiently: “Didn’t you perform a water-style choreography for your initial stage? This set of moves is somewhat similar, with that balance of softness and strength, which is very suitable for you, right?”

Quentin raised an eyebrow and glanced at him: “Let’s keep looking. It’s only the first song, no hurry.”

“But…”

Yan Qiao wanted to persuade further when his eyelid suddenly twitched, feeling the scorching gaze stabbing at him from across.

The boy sitting to Quentin’s right was squinting his eyes, grinning with his back to the camera as he lowered his voice to sneer: “What are you doing here? Abducting a minor in broad daylight? Do you understand first come, first served, bro.”

Yan Qiao clicked his tongue lightly, ignored the glaring Xue Mingzhu, and continued looking down at Quentin’s impassive profile.

After thinking for two seconds, he shrugged in compromise: “Alright, fine, we’ll keep looking.”

As luck would have it, the next song was for the rapper group, a pop electronic song containing two rap verses. The mentor responsible for introducing this song was Vinki.

After listening to all the rap sections seriously, Xue Mingzhu immediately turned to stare at Quentin with shining eyes: “This tune is pretty good! Come on, let’s team up for a double-rap stage explosion!”

“…”

Quentin crossed his legs, listening very intently. As he listened, his brows slightly furrowed: “I don’t really like these rap lyrics. Can we rewrite our own?”

“Of course we can!”

Xue Mingzhu reached out and pressed down on one of his knees, leaning closer: “Rap definitely means singing your own lyrics! Later we can just apply with the program team. Come on, let’s do it together, come on, brother!”

Quentin was noncommittal, still saying the same thing: “It’s only the second song, no hurry. Let’s wait some more.”

Xue Mingzhu pulled his head back, pouting: “Fine then.”

Third song, fourth song, fifth song, sixth song…

The four mentors took turns explaining the stages in the videos. Each song could trigger heated discussions among the trainees.

Until the last song played, and it very first line stunned everyone.

The originally lively discussion also grew weaker as the song played.

“Uh… are you sure you didn’t play the wrong one?”

“A full English song?? Help… memorizing lyrics is hard enough, and it’s all in English? Could you consider the feelings of us poor students…”

“Outrageous… Is this a song we boy group trainees can sing?”

“The dance moves aren’t difficult, but the singing style is wrong, isn’t it…”

Chen Shiyu held the microphone and said with a smile amidst the grand, soaring background music: “This song is the singing section from the climax of the final act of the musical ‘Circus Phantom Night.’ The song title is ‘Black Umbrella.'”

“Our arrangers have already adapted the original song by lowering the key. They also allow the team that selects this song to make secondary adaptations. We don’t require everyone to sing using bel canto high notes, but the singing style is indeed somewhat different from the pop music everyone usually comes into contact with.”

“I know the challenge of suddenly tackling a new singing style is very great, so our program team will make an exception for the team performing this song…on the official stage, you can use up to 50% backing track for semi-live singing.”

She added: “For the other songs, performing teams can use up to 30% backing track. And the fourth song just played, ‘Palace Bell Jade,’ only has a short dance segment at the end; the team performing that song must sing fully live.”

Even after Chen Shiyu finished speaking, the trainees below still had complicated expressions.

This isn’t just a problem of live singing vs. having the backing track!

Among the 100 trainees present, aside from those specializing in vocal music as art students, the majority had never been exposed to musical theater arias before. Few had even been to a musical theater, let alone performed one on stage.

And pure English from start to finish? What kind of hell is that!

This one condition alone could eliminate over half the people present. After all, singing English songs doesn’t just test English proficiency.

For non-native English speakers, pronunciation and enunciation are big problems. Moreover, English songs require linking words. Does that mean they have to write Chinese phonetic annotations for every word and sentence to sing it?

Why bother? Instead of choosing other familiar songs, they’d go to a completely unfamiliar field to suffer? One must remember they only have 5 days of preparation time!

Five days later, on October 2nd, National Day holiday, is the first performance stage of “Next Stage,” and the first official appearance for these 100 trainees in front of a broad audience.

No one wants to enter the audience’s view with an unfinished half-product. Everyone wants to give their all and present the most outstanding stage.

At this moment, the hearts of countless trainees beat in silent unity.

Please!

This “Black Umbrella”…please, please don’t fall on me!