Chapter 42: Making a Trainee Cry! Part 1

The members of the mentor team were all quite polite. They had no choice but to be.

For one, Mengmeng’s contribution to the neighboring show, Sing My Heart Tonight, was so powerful that even the First Sister was willing to coax and dote on him. He was practically a walking golden finger. For such a young man, already on the fast track to stardom, to willingly squeeze his schedule to appear as a Flying Guest simply because an early-signed performance contract would have been too unprincipled to breach—

Well, that just proved Mengmeng was a genuinely good and righteous person!

But more importantly, Mengmeng, this guy, had a solid foundation. A solid foundation. A solid foundation.

Important things must be said three times.

Who knew when they themselves might fall right into the Hundred Blossoms’ hands…

Compared to the real deal, the pampered little young masters cooped up in the training camp were somewhat lacking. Just look at Mengmeng—what did true charisma and grace look like?

Taking advantage of the part-selection process, the mentor team quickly ran through their impressions of Mengmeng.

Quite unlike the focus of Liu Lusi’s earlier comments, the mentors put on an earnest, impromptu critique session right in front of the cameras. It served as a pre-finale summary, but also, through a particular linguistic art only fellow professionals could truly understand, successfully conveyed a deeper layer of information to him.

The trainees in the upper-rank circle were basically guaranteed to debut.

Still, the early “3-Pick Alliance Vote-Soliciting Siege Incident” had left its shadows.

On one hand, these hot-headed kids had developed a dependency on the path, still preferring to trade interests for interests—which wasn’t wrong in itself. On the other hand, everyone was wary of each other, terrified that someone would leap out first and backstab the alliance, sabotaging the overall formation for the sake of their own final stage performance…

So, whenever a trainee stepped up to choose a part, the others watched with predatory stares.

The sight left Li Tingzhou completely dumbfounded!

A bunch of male trainees averaging under twenty years old, and they were staging a full-on political drama right here?

But the reality was, the production team hadn’t deliberately covered it up or prettified it at all.

Because the audience loved it.

Show fans actually ate up this “Boy Group Dynamics” stuff. If they wanted sweet, conflict-free happy family endings, they could just watch the Spring Festival Gala every year and watch symbolic “dumpling-making” reunions. What drew them to survival shows was that raw, intense energy! Whether it was the fighting spirit on stage, or the fierce rivalry where no one wanted to admit defeat behind the scenes—in short, as long as there was energy, it meant youth, a willingness to strive, and that vivid freshness could be maintained for quite some time.

Back to the main topic, “See You Tomorrow” and “BAD” had completely different styles.

The former was a quintessential ballad, a very fitting graduation-season track. The latter was a structurally clean dance track where just hearing the rhythm immediately made it click. After listening to the demo track (which was practically the finished product) and watching a demonstration by the choreography team, the eighteen trainees made their choices one by one.

After the standout vocalists had been eliminated, the remaining ones were mostly on par, making the two teams relatively balanced.

An Jue was assigned to the “See You Tomorrow” group, which needed more vocal coaching. Li Tingzhou, naturally, went to guide the “BAD” group. The mentor team quickly divided up the schedule for check-ins and went their separate ways.

The cameraman followed behind Li Tingzhou. When they reached the door, both of them stopped.

The PD said, “Sounds like they’re arguing inside.”

To Li Tingzhou’s ears, this sounded like an NPC issuing a quest: Brave hero Li Tingzhou, a dispute is unfolding inside the practice room. There is a risk of it escalating further. Do you wish to intervene?

He stood quietly for two minutes, matching the faces to the voices, then knocked, pushed open the door, and entered in one smooth motion.

“Do you have that much time on your hands? Or are you already regretting the parts you just chose?”

The boys, who had been arguing until their faces were red and their ears were flushed just a second ago, instantly transformed into dumbstruck geese!

To boys who had barely reached adulthood, a young man just slightly older, but not by too much, often represented a special kind of image:

Will I also become such a composed, effortlessly capable, and quietly refined adult one day?

Unlike the trainees, whose light-pink hoodie uniforms were washed daily until slightly faded, Mengmeng wore a meticulously tailored, water-grey collarless shirt of exquisite fabric. The top button was fastened right at his suprasternal notch, where a receiver mic, decorated to look like a little white fluffy ball, was clipped.

A slender neck, broad but lean shoulders. The fabric gathered sharply at his waist. The sharp crease down the front of his dress pants further accentuated his already long, straight legs.

The only accessory on Mengmeng’s entire body was a wristwatch on his left hand.

Absolute minimalism, yet an incredibly effective display of image.

The nine boys were still processing this, but Li Tingzhou had already swiftly locked onto the “ringleader” within the crowd:

To peers his own age, this person could decently conceal his little schemes, using rhetoric to push others into charging ahead, even stirring the pot without showing any emotion. But this very guilt and hesitation, when seen through the eyes of an adult, was practically as obvious as watching someone’s eyeballs shift in slow motion.

“Before we start practicing, if anyone has objections, come out here and demonstrate right now.”

As he spoke, he took two steps aside, clearing the most central space.

The nine trainees looked at each other, trying to exchange information with their eyes.

They didn’t expect Li Tingzhou to call out a name directly: “Zhao Zhining, you go first.”

The one whose name was called froze on the spot. Ah? Me?

“Don’t make me say it twice. Whose part do you want to swap with? Then sing their part. You should be able to sing it after hearing the demo so many times. Otherwise, I can’t understand how you advanced to the finals.”

The others froze for two seconds, then tacitly made way.

See? As long as it was someone else’s embarrassment, everyone would selectively ignore one fact: The “BAD” group had brought forward an adjustment that was originally scheduled for the mid-point check, right to the very beginning.

Zhao Zhining looked full of regret, regretting he’d so easily stuck his neck out.

He stepped out and stared at Mengmeng with puppy-dog eyes for a few seconds. Any other mentor would have softened and backed down a step by now, but unfortunately, Mengmeng’s heart was as hard as iron, as if he hadn’t received this signal at all.

Sunlight poured in, making his not-so-dark pupils appear even lighter and more translucent.

It was an effect no colored contacts could replicate, causing even the cameraman’s hand to tremble.

“Since Zhao Zhining isn’t willing to go further, does anyone want to challenge him?”

The ringleader, Jian Ming, stepped forward. “I want to try.”

He had been mentally prepared the moment Mengmeng’s gaze swept past him. Even if he didn’t initiate, Mengmeng would call his name next. Better to take the initiative than passively endure.

Anyway, it was the final public performance now. Victory or defeat would be decided in this one move!

Thus, these two brothers, under the shocked gazes of the other seven, began competing for the vocalist 2 position.

The good news was, this segment definitely wouldn’t be edited out. Their screen time was secured.

The bad news was, both of them sang rather… let’s just say it was a far cry from Mengmeng’s standard of “you should be able to sing it after hearing the demo a few times.”

The others cautiously stole glances at Mengmeng’s expression. He looked very disappointed.

Facing other mentors, they might dare to act cute or whine. But facing Mengmeng, who was only a few years older, they felt utterly ashamed. It would be better if he just outright scolded Zhao Zhining and Jian Ming. After all, those two had thick skin. But saying nothing made everyone even more anxious, constantly guessing his thoughts.

Li Tingzhou was indeed disappointed.

An Jue had been far too conservative in his assessment!

It was understandable that the trainees’ training time was limited and they lacked professionalism. But they should at least be at a KTV sing-along level! A single lyrical phrase only had a dozen or so words. He had already tried his best to avoid words used for artistic flair, converting them into more colloquial expressions.

Even after going that far, some people were still struggling to digest it.

A trainee with a lower ranking seized the chaos to raise his hand: “I also want to challenge for vocalist 2!”

And just like that, the “BAD” group had completely descended into chaos…

Meanwhile, in the Master Control Room.

The associate director looked at Jie Yifu: “Can this really work?”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

Jie Yifu was, on the contrary, grateful to Mengmeng: “Originally, the trainees at the back had already lost the will to fight. If we really waited until the mid-point check to adjust positions, who could we even move? If they fight for it now, they might just secure a vote-soliciting position.”

Anyway, the right to interpret all competition rules rested with the production team.

As long as Mengmeng didn’t cross the bottom line, the editing team would handle the rest.

And these boys, who seemed so clever and shrewd, were lured by just a few bits of bait casually tossed out by Mengmeng, scrambling over each other to bite the hook.

The upper-rank circle regained their sense of crisis. They would keep their nerves taut all the way to finale night. The middle-rank circle realized that the people behind them hadn’t given up completely, raising their vigilance again to fiercely defend their vote-soliciting spots. As for the lower-rank circle, if even one person successfully climbed up, the others wouldn’t give up on making one final desperate push!

~

No matter how much Li Tingzhou internally complained about these male trainees, there was one good thing:

They at least maxed out their practice hours. As long as they didn’t drop dead from training, they kept going.

At 9 p.m., after the mentor team’s supervision order had cycled through once, Li Tingzhou still had to do one last patrol before clocking out. He suddenly realized that these nine people were already practicing quite decently, with a real sense of form.