Chapter 26: Counterattack
The recording of the MV actually took place over three days.
On the first day, everyone recorded together. The second day was for re-recording any unsatisfactory shots, and on the third day, they re-recorded the group dance.
At this time, the contestants were cut off from the outside world and did not know how well the first episode had been received or who ranked high in the votes. They only learned about the next round's competition after completing the MV recording.
When Su Jinli returned to the classroom, the contestants who were previously in the pending zone were no longer present.
They gathered in the center of the classroom, and Cang Ai arrived to announce the content of the next round: "The third round of the competition is about to start. Are you nervous?"
The contestants replied in unison, "Nervous!"
"Good! That's the right attitude!" Cang Ai laughed and then announced the content of the upcoming round, "In the next round of the competition, the contestants in the pending zone will not be eligible to participate."
An Zhihan couldn't help but ask, "But isn't it possible for five of them to come back?"
Cang Ai had anticipated that question, so she responded, "Because they were eliminated in the second round, they lose a chance. They can only sit in the audience and watch you all perform."
"That's a bit harsh..." The mere thought of it felt desolate.
"In the third round of the competition, everyone present will be divided into three groups," Cang Ai continued to explain.
"Is it still blind selection?"
"No, this time we will have three team leaders: Wu Yu, An Zhihan, and Wei Jiayu. They were the top three from the previous round. The rest of you contestants can choose the team leader you prefer."
After Cang Ai made the announcement, she asked the three of them to stand up and let all the contestants make their choice.
Su Jinli was in a dilemma... one was Wu Yu, and the other was An Zhihan. He couldn't make a decision at all.
When he looked towards Fan Qianting, he noticed Fan Qianting had chosen Wu Yu's team. Seeing that most people chose either Wu Yu or Wei Jiayu, he ended up going behind An Zhihan.
"You have good taste," An Zhihan turned around to comment.
"I was worried that no one would choose you, and that you would feel embarrassed."
Once Su Jinli chose An Zhihan's group, others started selecting him as well. It was unclear if they were drawn to Su Jinli or An Zhihan.
After all of them had chosen their teams, Cang Ai continued to announce the competition rules: "This time, you will be performing on stage with an audience of 1000 people watching your live performance."
As soon as she finished speaking, echoing exclamations were heard. The participants were surprised since this time they would have an audience.
"The live audience will vote for you. The top ten in the live voting will directly advance to the top thirty. The contestants who are not in the top ten will have to compete again with the next five selected contestants," explained Cang Ai.
"But moving to the top ten doesn't seem beneficial, we'll miss out on a lot of screen time," An Zhihan immediately objected.
"If we move to the safe zone, does that mean we're not doing anything?" Su Jinli followed up, wondering if they could rest.
Going into the top ten meant taking a break for a round. If the other competitors got screen time while they became merely background figures, wouldn't that be greatly disadvantageous?
"In this round, you will act as judges. You can even comment on every contestant's performance and score them. The scores from the top ten will be taken into account along with the judge's scores to calculate the average," Cang Ai further clarified.
After Cang Ai had made her announcement, the entire classroom was filled with excitement.
It was incredibly intriguing.
"However, your positions are not solid," she warned, "If another competitor challenges you on the spot and proposes a Battle, you will have to step up to fight. If you lose, they will knock you out of your position."
Surprised, Su Jinli's eyes widened into round orbs, his mouth forming an 'O'. He exclaimed, "Impressive."
"That sounds interesting," grinned An Zhihan, loving the thrill of the idea.
Wu Yu looked at An Zhihan, "I estimate there will be many who won't accept you easily. Even if you make it into the top ten, your position is anything but secure."
"Heh, looking for trouble, huh? You better hope I don't make it into the top ten," An Zhihan retorted, "or else I'll certainly challenge you to a battle!"
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After Cang Ai finished announcing the regulations for the third and fourth rounds, she led them to song selection.
The song choices this time were incredibly interesting. There were 9 songs prepared in total, and each song came with a dance video. They could listen to the song and preview a snippet of the dance, then make their choice.
After watching the videos for the 9 songs, they were free to pick their songs.
The method of song selection involved an intense dance battle between the teams interested in the same song. The best team would win the song.
An Zhihan was standing at the front, looking back at his team members. He noticed that, including himself, there were 3 good dancers. Having gained some confidence, he asked his team which song they preferred.
Su Jinli quietly said, "Let's not pick an English song."
"Why?" An Zhihan asked in surprise.
"I can't speak English."
An Zhihan nodded, glanced at the titles of the 9 songs displayed, and after discussing with his team, finally settled on one song.
When it was time to choose their selected song, An Zhihan saw Wu Yu also step forward.
The general reaction of the other teams upon seeing them both stepping up was to immediately give up. An Zhihan found the situation rather interesting. Sporting a wicked grin, he approached Wu Yu to provoke him, evidently eager to challenge Wu Yu.
Su Jinli was intimidated by their competitive spirit and decided to keep his distance.
Thus, the first intense battle round of the day kicked off at this moment.
The introductory music played for these two was a rather unusual choice: Rasta.
Wu Yu was the first to step forward. After listening for a bit, he began to perform a robotic dance. Since he had always found An Zhihan irritating, he incorporated deliberate provocations targeting An Zhihan into his dance, forcing him to retreat several steps.
When it was An Zhihan's turn, however, he brought out his breaking moves.
"Whoa! B-Boy!" someone exclaimed out loud.
Amongst all dance styles, breakdancing is used to make a strong impression. It looks incredibly flashy and when used in a battle, it has an even more powerful aura. This made Wu Yu's robot dance appear weak by comparison.
Following Wu Yu was Fan Qianting, who also performed a segment of breakdancing.
Being both B-Boys, it now became a competition of who could execute higher difficulty moves.
When it was Su Jinli's turn after Fan Qianting, the music was suddenly changed by the program team.
What followed was a song by a female group from country H, titled "Up&Down."
Upon hearing the song, Su Jinli seemed somewhat startled. However, he soon started to dance along. He himself had no idea what type of dance she was actually doing.
He tried to match the music, imitating the sexy moves he had seen other contestants perform in the past few days. Particularly, there was a move involving spreading her legs, squatting down, then standing up and transitioning to other movements. This dance was incredibly sultry.
Su Jinli's usual style was nothing like this. Even when he danced before, his moves mostly gave a youthful vibe, with hardly any provocative movements.
This performance completely overturned Su Jinli's entire image.
The so-called retro-style handsome youth was definitely not present!
An Zhihan jeered loudly from the side, his voice so dominant that it even drowned out the music.
Wu Yu, who rarely laughed, found himself unable to hold back, his whole body trembling as he leaned on Fan Qianting's shoulder.
Fan Qianting shouted "Good job!" and then immediately asked the still-dancing Su Jinli, "Old Su, you're really going all out, huh?"
Indeed, he was going all out.
Forget the miserable image. In order to secure the song he desired, he was determined to give it his all.
As he was about to leave the stage, he even learned a new move: he bit his lower lip, lifted his chin towards Wu Yu and Fan Qianting, narrowed his eyes, and quickly rubbed his thigh.
Then, he turned around and left the stage gracefully.
Once things were smoothly completed, upon reaching the sidelines, Su Jinli was so embarrassed that he was on the verge of tears.
Struggling to keep his composure, he tried hard to hold her head up, widening his eyes to prevent the tears from falling. However, his attempts were in vain, as a pat on the back from An Zhihan made him stagger several steps forward.
"You're so hot, I give up," An Zhihan confessed to Su Jinli.
"Stop talking to me for a while, let me catch my breath," he pleaded.
An Zhihan couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably to the point of shedding tears himself, tears caused purely by amusement.
Despite the fact that they had claimed the song, it took Su Jinli a considerable amount of time to regain his composure. His fair complexion made him blush bright and apparent. The cameraman consistently took close-up shots of him, driving Su Jinli towards the brink of collapse.
"The next time we see my brother, let's tease him together," An Zhihan suggested.
"Don't remind me, the chaos you caused earlier was enough to make my head explode," he retorted.
"Do you have any idea how explosive your performance was? You're actually quite attractive, you know?"
Su Jinli no longer participated in their antics, instead choosing to continue watching the others compete. In the end, Wu Yu's group managed to acquire another song which was well-suited to their style.
Upon song selection completion, they each returned to the practice room, where all five gathered to divide parts.
They then watched the dance video together.
The choreography assigned to their group didn't pose the toughest challenge. It was a standard modern dance with uncomplicated formations and positions. What made it more enjoyable for them was their fondness for the melody of the song.
Once they got the hang of it, the five of them started to hum along, their liking for the song growing with each verse.
"For the third round, let's give it our all," Su Jinli said, setting down the tablet and patting his thigh.
Sitting cross-legged beside him, An Zhihan nodded after hearing him, "Let's strive to make it into the top ten together, and become an integral part of the show whom everyone wants to drive out but can't."
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An Zhiyan only received the news after he finished shooting and left the set.
The second episode of "National Idol" turned the tables around, with ratings surpassing two regular reality shows on the satellite channels. From being ordinary at first, the show climbed to the third spot in its time slot by the second episode.
This was an incredibly surprising achievement for a reality show that had not been seen in a favorable light.
As An Zhiyan settled into his car, he put on his earphones, opened the video app, and started watching the first episode of "National Idol."
While he was watching, there were already a vast number of comments scrolling across the screen. As he was curious about the audience's views, he left them open while watching.
In fact, many viewers post comments without any specific intent. They aren't aware that some performers open these video platforms to read these comments and gauge reactions, especially for the first few episodes.
This is at least the case for An Zhiyan.
When he opened the video, the first thing he saw was the preparations being made by the production team. The captions indicated that they were setting up one-way mirrors for the following shots.
Next, the introduction of the first contestant began.
Typically, the first contestant to perform isn't cut from many shots and leaves a strong imprint on the viewers' memory. Hence, being the first one to go is a significant advantage.
After some parts were trimmed down in the middle, An Zhiyan saw Su Jinli make his entrance.
In reality, he had seen parts of this in the video editing room. Watching the final version after post-production gave him a different kind of feeling.
As soon as Su Jinli stepped inside the door, the comments exploded. A swarm of differently colored comments flooded the screen, with quite a few people posting:
["Xiao brother!"] (Note: Again, this means, flute-playing brother, not little brother ~ although the latter also works hah)
["Finally, we have been waiting!"]
["He's so handsome indeed, even his walk is so refined."]
["He surprisingly chose a brush, such beautiful handwriting!"]
["I became a fan when he was writing."]
["Only someone skilled in calligraphy can truly appreciate how perfect his posture is."]
["He looks so good."]
Upon seeing these comments, An Zhiyan couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Indeed, he looked amazing.
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Author's notes:
It was a blunder... Just as the comments started, this chapter is already ending. We'll continue in the next chapter.
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