Unlike most trainees who resisted and wanted to avoid the song “Black Umbrella,” Quentin was actually in a rather good mood while watching the song video.
Quentin was no stranger to adapting musical arias.
In his previous life, he had held a concert with a court musical style at the Sydney Opera House. Here, “style” only referred to the makeup, costumes, and stage design, and did not mean that he, a pop original singer, would perform musical numbers at his concert.
But he had indeed diligently studied and researched art songs and arias for this purpose, and had also purchased the rights to well-known musicals for sampling and secondary adaptation.
Quentin was undoubtedly capable of live singing, and his vocal range was not narrow, spanning three octaves.
What was even more rare was that his bel canto timbre was fuller and brighter compared to the common thick and high-pitched tenor.
If the penetrating power of the former’s voice was like a giant rock striking a bell, then Quentin’s high notes were like the dawn breaking through, singing in a way that elevated the soul and made the whole world fall into eternal daylight in an instant.
However, comparatively speaking, he really did not enjoy singing high notes very much.
Hmm… Successfully challenging high notes was enough. Wasn’t it better to stay comfortably within his comfort zone afterward and play the music he liked? He wasn’t a singer famous for his high notes anyway.
But after dying once and transmigrating, Quentin’s mindset had changed slightly.
He wanted to see what kind of future he could achieve by taking a different development path in this new world.
So when the music for “Black Umbrella” first started playing, Quentin felt a rare surge of excitement and desire to challenge himself.
But the next second, he suddenly remembered that this wasn’t something he would sing alone, but something a team would perform together. This desire to challenge himself died out.
It wasn’t that he looked down on others, but forming a team capable of singing bel canto live from the scene wasn’t difficult. Most of the other 99 trainees here were serious arts program candidates, and among them there were definitely many potential stocks.
But no matter what team formation rules the program team had planned, it was impossible to concentrate all the promising talents into the “Black Umbrella” team.
Calculating back and forth, he should be thankful if he ended up with three teammates who could sing bel canto.
Quentin was happy to accept musical challenges, but he wasn’t very interested in carrying the team.
Even if a world-class music teacher came, they couldn’t teach a student with zero foundation to sing bel canto on stage in 5 days. This was more than just a fantasy; it was beyond the realm of possibility.
It wasn’t until Chen Shiyu started explaining the rules that amidst the sighs and complaints of the trainees behind him, Quentin keenly captured the mentor’s words about “allowing the team that selects this song to perform secondary adaptations,” and the subsequent addition of “being able to use backing tracks below 50%” as a special exception.
He immediately understood the program team’s intentions.
Having adaptation rights meant that members with original creation ability could freely adjust the singing parts according to their teammates’ abilities. Whether it was bel canto or not didn’t matter. Once adaptation started, who cared about all that? It would be good enough if it wasn’t changed beyond recognition from the original song.
And “using backing tracks below 50%”… what a joke. Normally, using backing tracks above 50% was equivalent to lip-syncing.
The program team probably added this rule as a precaution, in case the team’s original creation ability was insufficient, there would be a plan B of lip-syncing to save the performance.
Anyway, Quentin would absolutely never use this plan B. He would never allow a stain like “lip-syncing” to appear in his career.
Immediately after Yang Xu announced the team formation results and Quentin saw that his opponent was Qi Yang, he realized….was the 50% backing track prepared for Qi Yang?
Qi Yang didn’t seem to have much negative emotion about being assigned as the team leader for “Black Umbrella.”
He was also a cool guy. Standing next to Quentin with his handsome, striking face, his unsmiling appearance looked quite imposing. At first glance, it was easy to mistake him for a hidden powerhouse not inferior to Quentin.
Actually… if it weren’t for his handsome face and the bonus of his professional acting training on his expression management, he would have been placed in Class F by the mentors during the initial stage.
Currently, in terms of singing and dancing alone, he could only rank near the bottom even in Class C.
With him as the team leader, the team members were really in for a blessing.
The trainees came on stage one by one according to their rankings. Fang Xu, who was after Cui Yan, also refused the invitations from other team leaders and went directly to Quentin in the corner.
He didn’t even ask a single question, directly standing in front of Quentin and making eye contact with the boy.
Quentin tilted his head: “Why are you looking at me? Come here.”
Cui Yan went and stood behind Quentin with a bright smile. His gaze passed over Quentin’s head to Fang Xu, his voice full of vigor: “Xiao Fang, come stand here. This time we can fight side by side in the same team again!”
Cui Yan was half a head taller than Quentin and had a larger build. When he stood behind Quentin, the contrast in their skin tones was particularly obvious.
Especially since Qi Yang was also standing beside them. Three of the “Next Stage’s” top five visual kings were gathered together. The effect of these three faces in the same frame was simply too pleasing to the eye.
Not only the cameras, but all eyes in the venue were now focused here, even the people after Fang Xu in line were paying attention.
Fang Xu: “…Don’t call me Xiao Fang.”
Cui Yan didn’t care at all. He raised his hand and patted Fang Xu’s shoulder: “You’ve become thinner. The muscles you built up going to the gym before have all disappeared.”
Fang Xu moved two steps closer to Quentin, avoided his hand, and said perfunctorily: “Yeah, yeah.”
With the training intensity and diet pairing in the “NS” program, it was hard not to lose weight. Those like Cui Yan who maintained a strong physique were the extreme minority.
Cui Yan: “There’s a gym upstairs from our practice room, but the place is quite remote. You probably didn’t know, right? I usually do half an hour of anaerobic exercise after class. Do you want to go together in the future?”
“…”
The thing Fang Xu could never understand the most in his life were people like Cui Yan.
Why could this guy always maintain such an enthusiastic attitude toward anyone or anything, always sunny and cheerful, and always positive and optimistic? Couldn’t he read the atmosphere, couldn’t he see others’ cold faces?
The boy kept a sullen face. Just as he was about to refuse, he heard Quentin’s voice from the front.
“Gym? In our dorm building?”
The black-haired, green-eyed boy turned his head. His eyes were fully open, the irises showing an extremely high saturated green under the light.
Fang Xu was familiar with this expression. Whenever Quentin encountered something he was interested in, those usually calm and composed eyes would suddenly light up.
Matched with his deep-set eyes, a wild and bright emotion spilled out from his gaze, itching to try, radiant and spirited.
The first time Fang Xu saw Quentin like this was when he took the initiative to offer to help with a massage.
To be honest, he was a bit dazed at that moment because this kind of Quentin was so different from his usual self…roughly the difference between a capybara sleeping peacefully with an apple and an agile and swift big cat.
But thinking about it carefully, the usual Quentin was either lost in his thoughts in a corner or collapsed limply on the floor exhausted from dance practice, which was also quite different from the confident, composed, and dazzling Quentin on the initial stage.
It was just that having been Quentin’s roommate for over a week, Fang Xu had gradually gotten used to the boy’s calm and composed demeanor, which was why he was startled by this stark contrast.
But Cui Yan was not familiar with Quentin.
Facing such a direct gaze, he instead laughed even more heartily, raised his hand and patted Fang Xu’s shoulder heavily again: “Yeah! I said you guys didn’t know. So Quentin, do you also have a habit of working out? Then the three of us can partner up, be gym buddies and go lift weights together!”
“I have no problem. I mainly want to improve my physical fitness. Going to the gym should be more efficient than staying in the practice room.”
Quentin nodded in agreement, then looked at Fang Xu: “How about you, do you want to join us?”
Fang Xu: “….”
Fang Xu kept a straight face and nodded: “Yes.”
The 100 trainees were quickly assigned to the 14 small teams.
During this process, the teams of Yan Qiao, Wen Xinyi, and Zhou Zilin all experienced situations of being over capacity and having to choose whom to reject. Quentin’s team was popular at first, but fewer and fewer dared to choose it later on.
Qi Yang’s team was even more so. Besides Yan Wenbing who was from Class A and Qi Yang himself from Class C, the remaining five members were all from Class F.
The smile on Yan Wenbing’s face almost couldn’t hold up at one point.
But he knew in his heart that this was helpless. Even if someone really dared to challenge “Black Umbrella,” they would definitely prefer to choose Quentin’s team.
In terms of comprehensive strength, Quentin’s team was the strongest among the 14 groups, with a full three A-rated trainees. The remaining four were basically from Class B, and the only Class F trainee was Liao Fei, an original singer who had been eliminated from the initial Class A selection.
Looking at the final team formation results, Yan Wenbing couldn’t help but doubt his own choice.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have joined Qi Yang’s team just for the center position. No matter how you looked at it, for this public performance PK, Qi Yang’s team was destined to lose.
But then he thought again, losing… actually didn’t affect much, it was just missing out on the so-called “elimination exemption quota” only, which he didn’t need anyway.
Losing one match didn’t matter; what was important was winning more camera time and attracting more viewers!
Only by joining Qi Yang’s team could he make up for his regret of missing out on being a “team leader.”
Yan Wenbing had this confidence: when the team discussed and elected the center position, Qi Yang couldn’t compete with him, nor did he have the strength to compete.
He was determined to be the C!
*
The two teams performing “Black Umbrella” followed the assistant director into a meeting room and took their seats on either side of a long table.
Notebooks and ballpoint pens were placed on the table. Assistant Director Wang had an open laptop in front of her, and the default desktop background was projected onto a gray screen.
“Let’s have a brief meeting first. Because we’re not sure if the students here are familiar with the plot of ‘Circus Phantom Night,’ the program team has prepared a short video of about ten minutes to help everyone quickly understand the plot of ‘Circus Phantom Night’ and the original performance clip of ‘Black Umbrella.'”
Assistant Director Wang held the mouse and clicked the play button. The projector flashed various gorgeous and complex images on the screen.
She explained the plot in combination with the video content: “The plot of ‘Circus Phantom Night’ mainly revolves around a circus originating from the slums…this poor and down-and-out circus that was led by a newly joined genius clown became famous within just five years, leaped social classes, successfully entered the upper-class circles that countless people flock to, and became a pastime for wealthy ladies to chat about leisurely.”
“Dazzled by the luxurious life, the circus members should have been living in a drunken dream, waiting for the day when their talent dried up and they could no longer gain the cheers and applause of the rich, then they would leave dejectedly like countless touring dance troupes that provided entertainment for wealthy ladies in the past.”
“However, a series of serial murders occurring in a wealthy villa area interrupted this process.”
“Detective Decolier, who was invited to investigate, unraveled layer by layer through the confusing clues and soon locked onto a certain circus that had arrived not long ago. Thus, a tense and thrilling suspenseful manhunt began.”
“The ‘Black Umbrella’ segment is the final small climax near the end of the musical, specifically describing the chase and confrontation between the circus clown and the detective after the truth is revealed.”
She summarized: “The real perpetrator of the serial murders and the creator of multiple horror rumors is the circus’s most popular clown, Jack. Jack has seven personalities, so in the final act of the musical, seven actors play the clown together.”
“In this final climax of the plot, the seven clowns appear on stage together for the first time. The detective opposing them is initially outmatched, but fortunately, with the assistance of a friend who is a national special agent, they finally shoot the clown on a stormy night filled with thunder and lightning.”
“A pool of blood and a black long-handled umbrella are left at the scene. The roses in the flower bed, soaked and rotting from the rain, present an ominous blood red, seemingly symbolizing the malice that grows and regenerates endlessly in the soil for the clown.”
The short video soon ended. Assistant Director Wang moved the mouse and projected the program proposal PPT onto the wall.
The large image on the PPT split down the middle. On the left were seven clown costumes of similar styles, and on the right was one set of British retro detective clothing and six sets of suit-and-gun agent outfits.
“Our director team plans for your two teams to perform the ‘Black Umbrella’ from the clown’s perspective and the detective’s perspective respectively. As for which team plays the clown and which plays the detective, you can discuss and decide internally.”
She smiled and looked at the boys on both sides of the meeting table: “Alright, that’s all I have to say. If you have questions, you can speak up. The sooner you finish discussing, the sooner you can go back to learn the songs and dances and rehearse. You only have 5 days of preparation time. I’m getting anxious for you.”
The teams on both sides of the long table looked at each other.
Yan Wenbing spoke first, his eyes fixed intently on the boy sitting opposite him who looked calm and composed: “Quentin, what do you think? The stage from the clown’s perspective should be more intense and have more visual impact. The detective’s perspective is more retro. Which one are you more inclined toward?”
Quentin could see the hidden nervousness in his eyes, so he said casually: “I don’t care. You choose first.”
Yan Wenbing was taken aback. He looked at the other members of Quentin’s team and asked tentatively: “You… don’t you need to ask your teammates’ opinions?”
Quentin raised an eyebrow slightly and turned his head as requested: “Well, what do you all think?”
Fang Xu: “It’s up to you. You decide.”
Cui Yan: “I’m fine with either. We’ll listen to the team leader.”
Liao Fei: “I’m also okay…”
The other teammates just kept nodding: “Yeah, yeah, it’s fine with us. Team leader, you choose!”
Yan Wenbing’s hand holding the ballpoint pen tightened. He was momentarily speechless: “Alright then… In that case, give us some time. Can we discuss it within our team?”
Quentin smiled: “Sure, but please be quick. Do you need us to step aside?”
Yan Wenbing shook his head and took the initiative to stand up: “It’s fine. We’ll go out to talk. Please wait for five minutes.”
