IDEI Ch20

After winning the battle in the court of public opinion, the director walked with a spring in his step that day.

Finally! He had finally turned the tide completely!

Before, in the comparisons between Your Star and Ou Jin, Your Star had never won, and was mocked by everyone for having nouveau riche taste. The production team of Ou Jin also secretly fanned the flames, trying to nail Your Star onto the pillar of shame.

Director Lin had endured a lot of frustration because of public opinion.

But now, Your Star had turned the tables, while Ou Jin was mired in negative news, causing Director Lin to be in a great mood all day.

However, his happiness didn’t last long.

The next day, Director Lin’s spirits suddenly plummeted.

He arrived at the makeup room early in the morning to find Qi Yan Ning.

“Xiao Qi!” Director Lin pulled Qi Yan Ning to a corner, looking a bit troubled, and asked quietly, “Can you handle a more traditional Chinese-style makeup look?”

Qi Yan Ning raised an eyebrow, looking at Director Lin with a questioning gaze.

Director Lin wiped his face, looking somewhat bitter. “Isn’t it time for the mentor collaboration stage before the third public performance? Three out of our five mentors don’t have time, so we need to find guest performers. And because of yesterday’s public opinion battle, we’ve offended Ark Entertainment, the company representing Luo Heng and the others, so they’re refusing to let their artists come on our show as guest performers…”

Due to the makeup accident at the beginning of Your Star, the show had been delayed for a while, causing the overall progress of the program to fall behind. However, the mentors’ schedules were fixed, which meant that the mentors originally scheduled for the collaboration stage happened to be unavailable when the time came for it.

As for finding guest performers… it was already very difficult for this show to find guest performers in the first place. After all, with an open live mic for singing and dancing, artists who aren’t confident in their skills wouldn’t dare to appear on the show.

And the suitable singing and dancing idols are mostly controlled by Ark Entertainment and a few other companies.

This resulted in Director Lin not being able to gather enough guest performers!

Director Lin was anxious all night, nearly pulling an all-nighter trying to come up with a solution. Finally, with dark circles almost drooping to his lips, Director Lin gritted his teeth and decided to go big.

Having just two mentors in the mentor collaboration stage would look bad, so he decided not to have any of them!

Since they couldn’t get suitable guest performers, they decided not to have any!

Director Lin’s wife is a professor at A City’s Drama Academy, and this time, he was determined to take full advantage of that connection by inviting people from the academy!

He would directly bring in all the professors from the Drama Academy and create a truly traditional Chinese-style stage.

“Xiao Qi, be honest with me, can you do it?” Director Lin’s expression was serious, and his eyes, bloodshot and full of sincerity, pleaded. “This is really important. If there’s a mistake, Your Star’s reputation will be ruined again!”

Qi Yan Ning looked him in the eyes, raised an eyebrow with a smile, and exuded calmness in his gaze. “Of course, as you wish.”

＊

The news that Your Star‘s production team couldn’t find suitable guest performers spread quickly.

The Red Bean Forum erupted instantly, with tall posts piling up. This was a famous anonymous forum in the country, filled with all sorts of people.

＃Li Tao, how would you rate a talent show that can’t find suitable guest performers?

[Nanping. Does the production team have a bad reputation in the industry?]

[I’m so worried. I just started stanning a trainee from this show, and now the production team is about to mess up big time?]

[It’s probably because not many popular idols dare to go on this show. Singing and dancing live on an open mic—ugh, those “top idols” who haven’t trained in years wouldn’t dare to go.]

[To be blunt, yeah, it’s Your Star’s production team.]

[Apparently, it’s because Your Star offended a few entertainment companies, so they’re not allowing their artists to go. And Your Star’s backer, Chenxing Entertainment, only started venturing into the idol industry in recent years, so they don’t have any mature singing and dancing idols… so now Your Star is totally screwed.]

[The mentors aren’t available, and they can’t find suitable guest performers… LOL, Your Star might become the first talent show in history without a mentor collaboration stage.]

[Hahaha, if that happens, Your Star will definitely go down in the history of talent shows! So embarrassing.]

[Please no! Regardless of the production team’s level, Your Star’s trainees’ performances are really amazing. Without the mentor collaboration stage, we’d miss out on so many good performances! As a stage fan, I’m in pain, sobbing.]

…

The discussions on Red Bean Forum were always filled with levity and malice, causing those who saw these discussions within Your Star’s production team to frown.

Meanwhile, Director Lin was furiously shouting, “Who keeps leaking the production team’s information?!”

“Did you all sign your confidentiality agreements for nothing?”

“Don’t let me find out who’s doing it!”

After half an hour of roaring, Director Lin’s anger finally subsided. At that moment, his phone rang, and after answering it, his expression softened a bit.

He stood up and quickly disappeared from the office, leaving the remaining staff to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“I’ve never seen Director Lin this mad before.”

“It’s the first time I’ve encountered a production team where internal information keeps getting leaked like this.”

“Yeah, it’s really strange…”

Meanwhile, Director Lin had already arrived at the entrance of the filming base, waiting to welcome the guest performers he had invited.

The door of the nanny van opened, and five extraordinary-looking men and women stepped out, greeting Director Lin.

“Xiao Lin, long time no see,” said the smiling elderly lady at the front.

“Aunt Lin, you came too?” Director Lin hurriedly greeted her. “This is entirely our problem. I’m sorry for disturbing your rest.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Aunt Lin said, her eyes filled with curiosity as she glanced around the surroundings. “To promote our traditional culture, I must take the lead.”

Director Lin’s expression showed a hint of embarrassment.

At first, to persuade his wife, he had exaggerated, claiming it was all for the promotion of traditional culture and the revival of classical arts.

But he hadn’t expected that this excuse would actually bring out this elderly lady.

Aunt Lin, whose full name is Lin Zhiping, is the sixth-generation successor of the Yue Opera Dan role. In middle age, she had injured her vocal cords and could no longer perform for long periods, but she never gave up on theater. While nurturing the next generation of opera actresses, she also devoted herself to promoting traditional culture.

This time, the people who accompanied Aunt Lin were also big names in their respective fields.

For instance, Uncle Wang, a master of the suona. Or Aunt Li, who was the lead in classical dance when she was young and is now also a teacher at the Drama Academy.

With such a group of heavyweights, Director Lin broke out in a cold sweat. Initially, he had only wanted to invite a few ordinary teachers from the Drama Academy to get through the mentor collaboration stage, but now, with so many big names present, he had no choice but to take it seriously!

Otherwise, if it went wrong, not only would he embarrass himself, but his wife would lose face as well.

And if he made his wife lose face…

At this thought, his posture seemed to slump even more.

“Aunt Lin, would you like to rest first, or…?”

“No rush, I’d like to see the kids first.” Aunt Lin smiled warmly, her voice clear and pleasant, making everyone feel at ease. “You call them trainees on your show, right?”

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

He signaled to the assistant directors and staff, who surrounded the group of distinguished guests and led them to the practice rooms.

At this point, the second public performance of Your Star had already ended, and the second round of eliminations was complete. There were only thirty-five trainees left on the entire set, making the previously spacious practice rooms even more empty.

At that moment, the trainees were diligently practicing. Since the mentor collaboration stage had been postponed, they could only practice their basic skills on their own.

The group quietly passed by one practice room after another without drawing attention. Inside, some trainees were drenched in sweat while dancing, while others were learning vocal techniques from the big vocalist.

When they passed by a practice room with only three people inside, Lin Zhiping’s eyes lit up.

The sound insulation of the practice room door wasn’t great, and a clear singing voice could faintly be heard from inside.

“Here, you need to focus on finding that upward force…” a gentle male voice was explaining. Seeing that the other two still looked confused, he simply demonstrated.

He easily pulled off a high note, his voice bright and transparent.

“Like this,” the young man said after singing the high note and continued explaining, but the two trainees in front of him were already looking past him.

He turned around in confusion and saw Director Lin and the others.

“Director Lin.” The three quickly stood up from the floor, bowed, and greeted them.

“Keep practicing, we’re just here to check on your progress,” Director Lin waved his hand dismissively.

The three trainees exchanged glances, unsure if they should continue practicing.

Just then, Lin Zhiping smiled and stepped forward, speaking to the trainee who had been teaching vocals. “Lou Yuxing, right? You… learned opera singing, as a Dan role?”

This trainee’s singing style was already fully in line with popular music, and most people wouldn’t be able to tell, but Lin Zhiping could clearly hear from his voice that he had trained in opera for quite some time and had built his foundation during that period.

Lou Yuxing stiffened.

He lowered his head slightly, his long bangs covering most of his face, making it hard to see his expression.

“…Yes. I learned for a while when I was young.”

Lou Yuxing’s voice was low.

Seeing this, Lin Zhiping glanced at him but didn’t probe further. Instead, she gently said, “I heard you singing just now in the hallway. It was very beautiful.”

Only then did Lou Yuxing raise his head slightly, meeting Lin Zhiping’s gentle and understanding gaze.

He hesitated for a moment and then nodded, “Thank you…?”

Lin Zhiping smiled. She sensed that this boy was probably a bit shy, so she didn’t say much more. She simply nodded to the others and stepped back out.

Once they left, the two remaining trainees grabbed Lou Yuxing’s arms, one on each side.

“Xiao Xing, you actually learned opera singing?”

“Yeah, you never told us!”

The two trainees asked excitedly.

“I learned for a while when I was young,” Lou Yuxing replied softly. “But I haven’t practiced since I turned twelve.”

At the thought of what happened when he was twelve, his eyelashes trembled slightly.

However, before he could get lost in his thoughts, the two trainees interrupted with even more excited chatter.

“That’s so impressive! Can you sing that ‘The Peach Leaves Are So Fine~’?”

“And that one, ‘I Left My Home for Li Lang, Only to Find Him the Top Scholar~’?”

The two trainees eagerly asked, but the way they sang the opera lines…

Lou Yuxing quietly covered his ears.

“Hey! Xiao Xing, is it that bad?” The two trainees said, laughing helplessly.

＊

That day, two pieces of news spread quickly: one was that Lou Yuxing had learned opera singing, and the other was that the mentor collaboration stage’s partners were confirmed to be big names from the Drama Academy.

The second piece of news caused widespread groaning. While it was clear their skills wouldn’t lose out to those of popular idols, sharing the stage with such national-level experts…

The trainees immediately started working even harder.

The earlier news had turned Lou Yuxing into a rare “giant panda” among the trainees.

Whenever the other trainees saw him, they treated him like some kind of deity, especially after he couldn’t resist their pleas and sang a short piece of opera.

“Xiao Yu—no, Lou-ge, why didn’t you show off this skill earlier?” one of the trainees, An Zai, who was on good terms with him, asked curiously during dinner. “If you had let the fans know you could sing opera earlier, you wouldn’t be teetering on the edge of elimination right now.”

Lou Yuxing had ranked 34th during the last ranking announcement, right on the brink of elimination.

Lou Yuxing’s gaze flickered. He bit down on his chopsticks and stayed silent for a long time.