IDEI Ch20

Following Your Star‘s total triumph in the war of public opinion, the director walked with his head held high and chest puffed out all day.

Finally! He had completely turned the tables at last!

In previous comparisons between Your Star and Ou Jin, Your Star had never once won, relentlessly mocked by everyone for having nouveau-riche taste. The production team of Ou Jin had secretly fanned the flames behind the scenes, eager to nail Your Star to the pillar of shame once and for all.

Director Lin had been stifled with indignation for far too long.

Now, Your Star had fought a glorious turnaround battle, while Ou Jin was mired in negative press. This left Director Lin beaming with joy all day long.

Yet his happiness didn’t last long.

The next day, Director Lin’s spirits deflated abruptly.

First thing in the morning, he headed to the styling room to find Qi Yanning.

“Xiao Qi!” Pulling Qi Yanning into a corner with a troubled expression, Director Lin asked in a low voice, “Do you know how to do traditional, ancient Chinese-style hair and makeup?”

Qi Yanning arched an eyebrow, looking at Director Lin with an inquiring gaze.

Director Lin rubbed his face, feeling rather bitter. “Before the third performance, isn’t there the mentor collaboration stage? Out of our show’s five mentors, three don’t have the time, so we need to find guest performers. But yesterday’s online drama offended Fangzhou Entertainment and those other agencies Luo Heng belongs to, so they refuse to let their signed artists come onto our show as guest performers…”

Because of the initial styling fiasco, Your Star had paused production for a period, delaying the overall show schedule. The mentors’ schedules, however, were locked in stone. This led to a situation where the mentors who had originally cleared time for the collaboration stage happened to have zero availability when the time actually arrived.

As for booking guest performers… it was notoriously difficult for their show to book guests in the first place. After all, with fully live singing and open mics on broadcast, any artist lacking rock-solid confidence in their skills wouldn’t dare step foot on their stage.

And suitable idol performers who could sing and dance were almost entirely monopolized by Fangzhou Entertainment and its allied agencies.

Consequently, Director Lin couldn’t even scrape together enough guest performers!

Director Lin had agonized all night, staying up practically until dawn racking his brains for a solution. In the end, with dark circles drooping almost to the corners of his mouth, Director Lin gritted his teeth and decided to go big.

Having only two mentors participate in the collaboration stage would look pathetic—he wouldn’t use any of them!

Can’t invite suitable idol guests? He’d scrap that entirely too!

His wife was a professor at the City A Academy of Drama; this time, he was going to unashamedly lean on his wife and summon reinforcements from the drama academy!

He’d bring in drama academy professors across the board and stage an authentic, traditional Chinese heritage performance!

“Xiao Qi, tell me honestly, can you do it?” Director Lin asked gravely, his bloodshot eyes brimming with earnest pleading. “This is truly vital. If something goes wrong, Your Star‘s reputation will be ruined all over again!”

Meeting his gaze directly, Qi Yanning arched an eyebrow and smiled, his eyes completely calm. “Of course. As you wish.”

Word quickly leaked that the Your Star production team couldn’t find suitable guest performers.

Threads immediately shot up on Red Bean Forum. As the most famous anonymous forum in the country, it was populated by all sorts of eccentric characters.

[Li Tao / Rational Discussion] A certain survival show can’t find suitable guests, thoughts?

[Hard to evaluate. Is the production team’s industry reputation that bad?]

[So worried, I just started stanning a little idol from this show, and now the crew is about to drop a giant turd?]

[Mainly because very few trending idols dare appear on this show. Live singing with open mics while dancing? Eww, ‘top-tier’ idols who haven’t practiced in centuries wouldn’t dare go.]

[Just call them out directly; it’s the Your Star production team.]

[Supposedly Your Star offended several entertainment agencies, so they banned their artists from going. And Your Star’s backer, Morning Star Entertainment, only recently entered the idol industry and has no mature idol groups… so Your Star is completely helpless.]

[Mentors have no time, and they can’t find suitable guests… hilarious, could Your Star become the only survival show in history without a mentor collaboration stage?]

[Hhhhh if that happens, Your Star will definitely go down in domestic entertainment history! How pathetic.]

[Noooo! Regardless of the production team, Your Star’s trainees are genuinely amazing. Without a mentor collaboration stage, won’t we miss out on so many great stages? Crying in stage enthusiast pain wuwuwu]

……

Discussions on Red Bean Forum were always rife with flippancy and malice, causing everyone on the Your Star crew who saw them to frown deeply.

Meanwhile, Director Lin was roaring furiously: “Who on earth keeps leaking the production’s internal news?!”

“Did you all sign your NDAs for nothing?”

“Just wait till I catch who it is!”

Director Lin roared for half an hour before his fury gradually subsided. Just then, his phone rang. Answering the call, his expression finally softened slightly.

Standing up, he vanished briskly from the office, allowing the remaining staff to finally breathe.

“I’ve never seen Director Lin this angry.”

“Internal news leaking constantly like this, it’s my first time seeing something like this happen on a show too.”

“Yeah, it’s so bizarre…”

Meanwhile, the director had already arrived at the gate of the filming base to welcome the guest performers he had invited.

The van door slid open, and five men and women of extraordinary presence stepped down, greeting Director Lin.

“Xiao Lin, long time no see,” the elderly woman leading them said with a beaming smile.

“Aunt Lin, why did you come in person as well?” Director Lin hurried forward to greet her. “It’s all our fault, disturbing your rest.”

“It’s no trouble,” Aunt Lin said, looking around with a touch of curiosity. “To promote our traditional culture, of course I should lead the charge.”

Director Lin felt a wave of slight awkwardness.

When convincing his wife, he had grandly put on airs and blown things out of proportion, claiming it was to champion traditional culture and revitalize classical arts for the modern era.

He had never anticipated that this excuse would actually draw this grand dame out of retirement.

Aunt Lin, named Lin Zhiping, was the sixth-generation successor of the Yue school’s dan role. She had injured her vocal cords in middle age, after which she could no longer perform opera for extended periods. Yet she never abandoned the stage, dedicating herself to cultivating the next generation of huadan performers while tirelessly promoting traditional heritage.

And those who accompanied Aunt Lin this time were heavyweights in their respective fields as well.

For instance, Uncle Wang was a renowned master of the suona. Aunt Li had been a principal classical dancer in her youth, and now taught at the Academy of Drama.

Faced with a lineup like this, cold sweat broke out across Director Lin’s forehead. He had originally only intended to invite ordinary faculty members from the drama academy to muddle through the mentor collaboration stage. But with so many legendary figures present, he couldn’t afford to take this lightly!

If they botched it, not only would he humiliate himself, but his wife’s face would be dragged through the mud.

And if he made his wife lose face…

At the thought, his spine seemed to stoop even lower.

“Aunt Lin, should we rest first, or…?”

“No hurry. I’d like to see the children first,” Aunt Lin said with a warm smile. Her diction was round and melodious, her voice light, clear, and refreshing to the ears. “On your show, they are called… trainees, correct?”

Director Lin nodded profusely. “Yes, yes. Aunt Lin, please follow me.”

He shot a look at the assistant directors and crew, who gathered around the distinguished masters, escorting them toward the practice rooms.

By now, Your Star‘s second public performance and the second elimination were both concluded, leaving only thirty-five trainees in the entire base. This made the already spacious practice rooms feel even emptier.

At this moment, the trainees were drilling diligently. Because the mentor collaboration stage had been stalled, they could only practice their fundamentals individually.

Without making a fuss, the group quietly walked past room after room. Inside, trainees were either sweating profusely through choreography or working on vocal fundamentals behind the main vocalists.

Passing a practice room with only three people inside, Lin Zhiping’s eyes lit up.

The practice room doors offered poor soundproofing, and a clear, resonant singing voice drifted faintly from within.

“Here, you need to find the sensation of pushing the sound upward…” a gentle male voice was explaining. Seeing the other two still looking bewildered, he simply demonstrated.

He pulled off a soaring high note with effortless ease, the timbre bright and crystal-clear.

“Just like that.” Finishing the high note, the youth resumed explaining, but the two trainees opposite him were staring behind him.

Turning around in confusion, he spotted Director Lin and his entourage.

“Director Lin,” the three hurriedly scrambled up from the floor, bowing in greeting.

“Carry on practicing, we’re just checking in on your progress,” Director Lin waved his hand.

The three exchanged glances, unsure whether they should actually resume.

Right then, Lin Zhiping stepped forward with a smile, addressing the main vocal trainee who had been teaching: “Lou Yuxing, is it? Have you… studied traditional opera before? Specifically dan roles?”

This trainee’s vocal technique was entirely modern pop, undetectable to ordinary ears. Yet Lin Zhiping could discern clearly from his resonance that he had trained in traditional opera for years, his foundational vocal technique laid down during that time.

Lou Yuxing froze.

His head hung slightly, his long bangs obscuring most of his face, hiding his expression.

“…Yes. I studied for a period during childhood.”

Lou Yuxing’s voice was very soft.

Taking in his reaction, Lin Zhiping refrained from prying further, saying gently instead, “I heard you singing from the corridor just now. It sounded wonderful.”

Only then did Lou Yuxing lift his head slightly, his gaze meeting Lin Zhiping’s gentle, embracing eyes.

Hesitating, he gave a nod. “Thank you…?”

Lin Zhiping smiled. Recognizing that the boy was rather shy, she spoke no further, simply nodding to the trio before stepping out.

Once the visitors stepped outside, the two trainees seized Lou Yuxing’s arms from both sides.

“Xiao Xing, you actually studied opera?”

“Yeah, you never mentioned it before!”

The two trainees asked with brimming curiosity.

“I studied for a bit when I was little,” Lou Yuxing answered softly. “But after age twelve, I never practiced again.”

Remembering what happened when he was twelve, his eyelashes trembled faintly.

Before he could sink into his memories, however, the trainees’ mounting excitement broke in.

“That badass? Then do you know how to sing that ‘Willow leaves budding sharp and green~’?”

“Or that ‘To save husband Li I fled my home, who would have thought I’d top the imperial exam~’?”

The two trainees scrambled to ask. However, their attempts at singing traditional opera were truly…

Lou Yuxing quietly covered his ears.

“Hey! Xiao Xing, is it really that awful?” The two trainees were caught between tears and laughter.

That day, two pieces of news spread like wildfire. One was that Lou Yuxing had studied traditional opera, and the other was that the guest partners for the mentor collaboration stage had been confirmed: legendary masters from the Academy of Drama.

The latter news sparked a chorus of groans. Sharing the stage with trending idols, their skills certainly wouldn’t pale in comparison, but sharing a stage with masters of national caliber…

Instantly, the trainees pushed themselves even harder.

As for the former piece of news, it turned Lou Yuxing into a rare giant panda among the trainees during this period.

Every trainee looked at him as if staring at a divine being, especially after he caved under everyone’s pleading and sang a short snippet.

“Xiao Yu—no, Lou-ge, why didn’t you show off this skill earlier? If fans had known you could sing opera, you definitely wouldn’t be hovering on the brink of elimination right now,” An Zai, who was close with him, asked curiously over dinner.

During the last ranking announcement, Lou Yuxing had sat at thirty-fourth place, teetering on the edge of elimination.

Lou Yuxing’s gaze flickered. Biting down on his chopsticks, he made no sound for a long time.