I’m Keeping the Overbearing CEO After He Went Bankrupt [Rebirth] 44

Chapter 44: Qingbao’s Charm Emission

“It’s you who let me in. Don’t you dare kick me out again,” Huo Li said, watching Chu Qing puff as he moved his blanket back into the house, his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. “Tonight, I’m going to fulfill my duties and sleep while holding you.”

“…?” Chu Qing’s eyes widened.

What did you say about holding?

Huo Li sat on the sofa, pitifully hugging his arms and rubbing them. “I was freezing outside. I’m so cold, I need to be held to fall asleep.”

“…”

A hint of guilt flashed in Chu Qing’s eyes, and then he seemed to remember something.

Wait a minute.

“I, I didn’t kick you out,” Chu Qing said. “I asked you to move out. You should have gone back to your own home or to a hotel!”

“My home was mortgaged to pay off debts, and I don’t have any extra money to stay in a hotel,” Huo Li sighed. “You, my Sponsor Daddy who knows nothing of the hardships of the world, what am I supposed to do after you kick me out?”

“…”

“You and Mr. Pan are brothers,” Chu Qing said. “He can help you. You can go stay with him.”

“Mr. Pan…”

Huo Li rubbed his chin. “You don’t know, do you? Old Pan is old, but he still knows how to have fun. He brings beauties and handsome men home every day. A hot one today, a pure one tomorrow.”

This isn’t a lie, Huo Li thought. Old Pan is really like that. After all, he’s not married.

Chu Qing was stunned.

Huh?

“It’s okay for me to stay with him… it’s just that if I see those scenes every day, what if I also turn bad? What if I can’t control myself and also…”

Before he could finish, Chu Qing covered his mouth.

“Are there no other people?” he said, his ears red.

Huo Li sighed. “The world is in decline, and people are heartless… I’m all alone and helpless.”

“…”

“Of course, if the boss insists on kicking me out, then I’ll have to go to Old Pan’s place.”

Chu Qing asked tentatively, “Those beauties…”

“I can’t guarantee anything about that. After all, we’re men. You know, we can’t control our lower halves,” Huo Li said, spreading his hands, a complete scumbag.

“…”

“Alright, it seems the boss has made up his mind. I’ll move to Old Pan’s place then.”

“Don’t…!”

Just as Huo Li was about to get up, Chu Qing immediately went over and grabbed his hand.

“Hmm?” Huo Li raised an eyebrow.

“You can’t… you can’t go. Mr. Huo can’t learn to be bad,” Chu Qing said seriously. “It’s better for Mr. Huo to be here.”

“Alright,” Huo Li said, very obedient.

“Then…” he paused, then said with a smile, “I’m so cold. The wind in the hallway is so strong.”

“…”

“Don’t you believe me? How about you give me a hug?”

Chu Qing frowned, paused, and then obediently went over and hugged Huo Li, his arms wrapped around his waist.

“You’re lying,” he said, nuzzling him. “You’re warm.”

Huo Li’s heart was beating a little fast. He looked down at Chu Qing and said nothing.

As if he had realized something, he quickly got up.

“I’m really cold. If you don’t believe me, you can touch,” Huo Li said, lifting the hem of his shirt to reveal a sliver of his abs and pointing to his stomach with a smile. “My skin is cold.”

“…”

Chu Qing was not falling for it anymore and quickly looked away.

“Good night… Mr. Huo.”

“Good night. Remember to take your medicine.”

“Mmm.”

…

A few days later, the recording of All-Around Teen Idol began.

The first two episodes were for the contestants’ ranking. The mentors sat in a row and watched the contestants perform, letting them and the audience understand the contestants’ skills and what they were good at, and then they were divided into classes from A to F.

When Chu Qing arrived at the recording site, he saw that Luo Yucheng and the other assistants had already arrived early. It seemed that the juniors didn’t dare to put on airs, and their schedules were not as tight.

“Teacher Chu!”

Luo Yucheng, who was sitting next to him, greeted him with a smile.

Chu Qing just gave a perfunctory reply.

This show was broadcast weekly. Although there were editing problems, the platform would occasionally go live on site, which was a kind of raw preview. After that, the production team would also upload the full, unedited version of the recording. Therefore, his team was not too worried. It was better than a show that relied entirely on the editor’s scissors.

At this moment, the recording had not yet begun. The mentors and assistants were arriving one after another, and the contestants were also making their final preparations backstage.

“Teacher Chu’s clothes are very beautiful today,” Luo Yucheng praised him. “You’re getting more and more beautiful and radiant.”

“Yo yo yo, can a dog’s mouth really spit out ivory?”

Before he could answer, Yu Weixi came in like a whirlwind.

After he sat down, he looked at Luo Yucheng with a sidelong glance. “So you can really talk besides barking. If I didn’t know, I would have thought you were really a person.”

Chu Qing tried hard to suppress his laughter.

Luo Yucheng’s face turned a little pale.

Yu Weixi added, “The above statement is not directed at anyone.”

With that, he glanced at the performance group’s mentor—Best Actor Feng Yan—who was sitting quietly on the side, reading an e-book, and raised an eyebrow. “Best Actor Feng, don’t feel bad.”

Yu Weixi had always been like this, willful and doing as he pleased, saying whatever he wanted, even in front of the camera.

Feng Yan frowned slightly, put down his phone, and looked up at him, saying indifferently, “Who am I feeling bad for? You?”

The tall man was in a neat suit, full of nobility, his features strong and yet delicate. At this moment, he was also speaking in a steady and polite manner.

“…!” Yu Weixi’s ears turned slightly red, and he huffed and turned his head.

On the side, Luo Yucheng frowned slightly.

Chu Qing: “…”

Here we go again, the Shura field.

He lowered his head and shrank into his chair, pretending he didn’t know anything.

A moment later, everyone was there. The producer, Lu Jiayan, clapped his hands with a smile. “Let’s begin. Let’s welcome the first group of contestants.”

The first group to perform was a boy band. Their overall skill was neither good nor bad.

Then, the contestants appeared one by one.

Lu Jiayan was kind and not strict. He just tallied the teachers’ rankings and then announced them, and would comfort those whose results were not so good.

Yu Weixi was sharp and hard to get along with, but he was lenient with his scores. Basically, everyone got a B, and those who danced well got an A.

But Chu Qing was different. He had almost never given an A, and not even many B’s.

“Teacher Chu is so strict,” Lu Jiayan said with a smile. “These students are new, after all. They naturally can’t reach the level of a singer.”

He paused and nodded.

He had his own principles. He just felt that he had to be honest with his scores and not deceive them. Good was good, and bad was bad. Otherwise, it would be a sacrilege to music.

And music was not something that just anyone who wanted to sing could get a good score on. At the very least, they had to be sincere. But so far, he hadn’t seen anyone who was not very skilled but was sincere. He couldn’t even give out sympathy points.

“Hello, mentors. My name is Wang Zhenglan, from XX Entertainment.”

Next on stage was a flamboyantly dressed young man. He was so bling-bling that Chu Qing was startled.

He was good-looking, but an ordinary contestant would not dress so ostentatiously.

“Contestant Wang Zhenglan… you’re a former member of Flying Boys?” Lu Jiayan said with a smile. “It seems you’re a contestant with a built-in fan base.”

“Thank you, teacher! I’m the main vocalist of Flying Boys,” he said, his face full of pride and confidence.

He had a built-in fan base and was one of the most popular contestants, with a considerable number of fans, so he was inevitably a little arrogant.

Although that popularity was just a drop in the ocean compared to the mentors present.

Lu Jiayan just smiled and said nothing.

“Let’s begin.”

He performed a song, a sad love song.

His voice was low and sensual. He sang with more and more emotion, and at the climax, he even bent over and squatted on the stage, and even squeezed out tears from the corners of his eyes.

He actually sang quite well. Mainly, he was handsome, and doing these actions made him look very affectionate.

Chu Qing raised an eyebrow slightly.

This…

He was already popular, so naturally many contestants wanted to curry favor with him. At this moment, seeing him hit a high note, the other contestants were all cheering.

After he finished singing, Chu Qing paused and gave him a C.

The ranking of each group of teachers was public. When he saw the C, his whole face changed, and the other contestants were all silent.

“Teacher Chu, isn’t this score a bit harsh?” Luo Yucheng said with a pitiful look. “I think… I think, maybe Wang Zhenglan deserves a better score. They’re all new. They need encouragement and help.”

Yu Weixi rolled his eyes on the side. “How does this show choose people? Can they just rate them randomly? I know what’s going on.”

The rap mentor, Lu Jiayan, and Yu Weixi were not surprised by his score.

He sang well, but… it was too greasy. His emotional control was completely off, and his control of his technique was not good either. It was as if he were desperately trying to show off his high notes and transitions, putting on a lot of techniques that he was not actually good at and did not sing well.

But Chu Qing was indeed harsh. But he was like this with everyone, so it was fair.

And after Yu Weixi said that, his eyes immediately lit up.

He thought he was talking about Chu Qing. With him starting it, and being so angry, he immediately looked at Chu Qing and said in a snide tone, “Right. The teachers invited by the production team should be like Teacher Yu and Teacher Luo, with good character and integrity, and not give scores randomly.”

He thought, Anyway, Chu Qing is full of dark spots. Everyone will agree with what I say.

Yu Weixi: “…”

Yu Weixi: “???”

Just as he was about to start dissing, Chu Qing shook his head at him.

He turned to look at Wang Zhenglan and said calmly, “This contestant, you said I give scores randomly. May I ask why you say that?”

He stiffened. He hadn’t expected him to confront him so directly.

“That, um…”

Chu Qing said with a gentle smile, “It’s okay. Just say what you want. Music needs discussion and stimulation.”

His hands were gently folded on the table, and his expression showed no trace of dissatisfaction or anger, which stunned him.

He paused. “I just think I should have a better score! Not a C.”

“Why?” he said. “Can you give an example of your strengths? The reason you think you’re not a C.”

“I… I have good emotional control, and my singing technique is good. I’ve studied it. I’m the main vocalist of my team,” he said. “My fans say that when I sing, my emotions are rich and touch people’s hearts.”

He shook his head with a smile. “But my fans also say I have good character, but you don’t think so. Fans say that because they like you. They like you no matter what you do.”

He didn’t dare to take that, but he was still frowning, clearly unwilling.

He had come to the competition with a high popularity, but he had been directly thrown into the C class, which had no screen time. And if Chu Qing was a mentor, he might never be able to compete for a good position in the singing group. What was the point of competing then?

“I just think I have emotion and technique. I’m not that bad!”

Lu Jiayan just watched quietly and did not interrupt.

Luo Yucheng, on the side, was a little restless and said with a worried expression, “Don’t fight… it will hurt your harmony. Teacher Chu, don’t be angry, okay? I think the contestants are all new. We need to encourage and guide them with our hearts. And you’re already a super amazing musician. Your standards are too high for an idol. The contestants can’t reach the standards of a great musician. This is too difficult for them.”

“Besides, Teacher Chu’s creations are all said to be music from the heavenly palace. That’s how amazing it is. It’s otherworldly. And the idols are singing these pop songs. You can’t understand each other either. I think you’re all very good,” he said, his whole body exuding light and love.

But every sentence was a stab to the heart. He was praising him and slandering him at the same time, creating a persona of a harsh and eccentric mentor who used his own ability to suppress and oppress the contestants.

Lu Jiayan frowned slightly, thinking of how to smooth things over. The next moment…

Chu Qing looked at him inexplicably. “We’re not fighting?”

Luo Yucheng: “…”

He asked again sincerely, “Why did you say I was angry?”

The scene was a little awkward.

Yu Weixi couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Luo Yucheng gave a dry laugh and turned his head.

“I just think…”

He interrupted him and looked directly at Wang Zhenglan. “I’ll explain it to you slowly.”

“The emotion you mentioned… look, this song is a love song, but your emotions just now could even be used to sing about Yue Fei. I can’t hear the bitterness of a sad love song. Emotion is certainly necessary, but not just any emotion can be injected into it. To put it bluntly, you didn’t understand this song, you didn’t understand this music. You can’t sing for the sake of singing, and you can’t ignore the original meaning of this song for the sake of technique, a pipeline production.”

“You have to understand what you’re singing. And…”

He sat in his original seat and began to speak eloquently, his tone unhurried, but every sentence was full of substance. He analyzed everything from emotion to technique, pointing out his shortcomings one by one.

And when he spoke, his tone was not at all disdainful, contemptuous, or self-satisfied, but just gently stating something to a person.

The other mentors and contestants were all stunned.

His appearance at this moment… was very attractive.

“Maybe what I said is not clear enough,” he suddenly stood up and turned to the sound engineer. “Teacher, can you play the music for this song for me? I’ll sing it for him once.”

Now everyone was stunned.

“Good…! Good!! Go, Teacher Chu!!”
“Teacher Chu!!”

Cheers and applause came one after another.

The music began, and it was still that gentle and bitter love song.

“In this quiet night…”
“The sound of your footsteps is still in my mind…”
“Your figure is still…”

He closed his eyes and sang the intro in a light tone.

Wang Zhenglan’s eyes widened, and he felt goosebumps all over his body.

“Your figure in this dark night, with a strong… sadness of parting.”
“Why don’t you come back…”

When he sang this line, his emotions became more and more intense, and his voice became higher and higher, but it was not piercing, nor was it the kind of painful roar that Wang Zhenglan had. It was a just-right, questioning with despair and sadness.

No one in the venue could not feel the pain of the singer’s parting.

At the end of the first verse, he directly opened his throat like Wang Zhenglan had, and there was still a bit of unwilling questioning, sadness, and fear in it.

And he had also made many changes to this song. The transitions, high notes, rhythm, singing style, and technique were completely different from Wang Zhenglan’s.

There was both restraint and release.

“It’s about like this.”

He only sang the first half, then said seriously, “Understand music, respect music, don’t be arrogant or excessive, only then can you have good music.”

He was completely stunned.

“Ah… mmm.”

He thought, The Chu Qing in front of me… is completely different from the arrogant, gloomy, and scheming image in the rumors?

“Because I think you have a good voice and technique, that’s why I gave you a C. Giving you an A would be perfunctory. I hope you can improve and be better. I hope there will be more and more talented people in the music industry who write and sing together, so that music will always be there. I’m not deliberately giving random scores. I wouldn’t desecrate music like that.”

He smiled. “Keep going…”

He stared blankly at him.

The Chu Qing in front of him had pure eyes, and his tone was like the sun in early spring, the wind on a pond.

“Good, good…”

He took a deep breath. “I’ll go back… and practice again! I’ll get into the A class next time! I’ll work hard!”

Lu Jiayan noticed that he had originally been full of hostility towards him, but now he was a little shy looking at him.

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“I’ve learned a lot, I’ve learned a lot,” he said, turning his head to praise, “Teacher Chu is really serious.”

Actually, it wasn’t just serious, it was already verging on being particular.

Huo Li stood among the staff, also a little surprised.

Chu Qing… has really changed a lot.

More confident, more rational, and he would no longer be trampled on and bullied by others. He was becoming more and more his own person.

But he was still that sincere and pure young man.

…

After he returned to his personal dressing room, he was stunned.

On the table was a cup of Starbucks coffee, still steaming.

He thought, Did Huo Li give it to me…?

He went over and saw a note under the coffee cup.

To Teacher Chu
I’m sorry for what I said about your character just now. I didn’t mean it. Thank you for your guidance.
😉
Wang Zhenglan

…

He stared blankly at the small note and suddenly smiled.

So good…

He can handle situations well now, and he can also handle interpersonal relationships well.

He took the coffee with some satisfaction and drank it in small sips.

This was from a student!

A moment later, Huo Li pushed the door open and noticed the coffee in his hand with a smile. “Teacher Chu did very well today. You killed it, and you even gained a little fan.”

He thought, When this is broadcast, the response will definitely be very good. Let’s see who else will say that Chu Qing is arrogant because of his talent.

“Mmm…” he said, his head bowed, his face red.

Huo Li went over and raised an eyebrow. “Qingbao did so well. Shouldn’t there be a little reward?”

He paused and turned his head curiously. “A reward…?”