Ch50 - Almost Another Order

“Change it according to how cool he was?” Ji Xiunian couldn’t help but repeat what Lu Xu said. He was suddenly interested in this song.

It had to be said that Lu Xu really was a very special person. Ever since he had stood on the stage, he had already shown how different from everyone else he was. The other trainees sang about youth and love, only Lu Xu would stand on that stage and sing about death.

When one thought about it, someone who could sing ‘The Ballad of Death’ was a cool guy from the start.

Never mind that Ji Xiunian was interested, even the other team members couldn’t resist clapping and cheering. “As expected of Xu ge, after hearing you say it like that I also have a new interest towards this song.”

Even the F4 who had been squatting by the side and listening to them talk were farting out rainbows. “Aaaa, we also want to listen to the new version!”

The general direction was decided just like that. Then the problem again was who would rearrange it, and how to rearrange it?

“I’ll go and find an arrangement teacher right now.” As the team’s head and instructor, Ji Xiunian would of course be in charge of contacts, for example finding a vocal coach and music arranger to come and guide them. The production team had invited quite a few vocal coaches, and they could definitely be asked to come and help rearrange the song.

Just when Ji Xiunian was planning to discuss it with the coordination team, a weak voice sounded from behind him, “Instructor Ji, can I try?”

Tao Yingbo had been squatting in the practice studio with the F4, listening to them discuss the song, and the more he listened, the more moved he became. Writing and singing songs were his favourite things to do, however, it had already been ten years since he had the opportunity to do something that he liked.

As an outside trainee of ‘Birth of an Idol’, Tao Yingbo wasn’t used to dancing, but vocals and music were his strong suit, and he wanted to give it a try.

Before he made his proposal, Tao Yingbo had still been very nervous and didn’t know if he was overstepping by doing this. But when he actually said his wish out loud, he couldn’t help but continue fighting for this chance. “Instructor Ji, if you give me one chance, I only need two hours to rearrange it. If you guys don’t like it, then you can find someone else, okay?”

The only people in the entire practice studio who could see Tao Yingbo were Ji Xiunian and Lu Xu.

Once they heard Tao Yingbao’s request, Ji Xiunian immediately looked at Lu Xu. The other party’s lips carried a smile, but his expression didn’t really change, obviously not really paying attention to this.

Remembering Tao Yingbo’s singing from the previous assessment, Ji Xiunian finally said, “I have a friend who says he wants to try, I’ll contact him first. You all can discuss the performance formation and costumes. In two hours, he’ll send the rearranged song over.”

“Wow! Can’t wait!”

Based on Ji Xiunian’s reputation in the industry, the friend he invited must be really amazing. As for this mysterious “Film Emperor’s Friend”, everyone was very expectant.

“Aaa, Nian ge gave you a chance!” He Xinghua was even more excited than Tao Yingbo when he heard Ji Xiunian’s decision and hurriedly urged him to start rearranging.

“Thank you Nian ge, thank you Master Lu Xu, I’ll start rearranging right now.” This unexpected and sudden invitation was a huge surprise to Tao Yingbo. He had already been dead for ten years, and this was the first time he had felt such indescribable happiness. In a trance, Tao Yingbo felt like he was alive again, and immediately started to edit and rearrange the song.

In order to make it convenient for Tao Yingbo’s rearrangement, Lu Xu got up and started playing ‘Monster’.

“They all say I’m a god, worshipping in the name of love…”

“I’m a monster from the dark, bloodthirsty and cute…”

“I’m hiding behind you, watching you become fascinated with me…”

“I want to take this mask off in front of you, and break your intoxication and obsession…”

“You’ll love me even more, after all, I’m an elegant monster…”

…

When the song was first released, many people had interpreted its meaning––

[It seems like the nonsensical lyrics are actually full of unease and anxiety. Zhang Jiamu used this song to express his own dissatisfaction. He hates the fans’ worship and hates some dark, hidden part of himself. He describes himself as a monster, demonstrating how deeply he had suppressed himself…]

Before hearing Lu Xu’s analysis, the Little Effort Team members had initially also thought this way.

But after listening to it again, there wasn’t a single word in Zhang Jiamu’s song where he was deprecating himself. He enjoyed the feeling of being loved and was confident that he deserved to be loved.

Such a confident and mesmerising king of singers, who wouldn’t love him?

The more Xu Lele listened, the giddier he was, and he couldn’t help but lament, “Aaa, this Zhang Jiamu really lived so chicly, if I hadn’t been born late, I would definitely have been his fanboy.”

The teammates nodded. “Right, right, pity that we were still young at that time, we didn’t even get the chance to meet him. I really want to listen to his concerts, a shame that there’s no chance…”

When Lu Xu heard this, he raised a brow. “Nothing’s impossible.”

If in another few decades, Zhang Jiamu still didn’t get a reincarnation number, they might be able to go down and listen to the underworld version of his concert.

It was just that the teammates spoke too fast, and didn’t understand the deeper meaning behind Lu Xu’s words.

“I’m done rearranging!” Although it had been ten years since he had done so, music was Tao Yingbo’s life. After no more than an hour, he had already completely rearranged the song.

It was just that he didn’t have a physical body, so he could only pass on his song with the assistance of Ji Xiunian.

Ji Xiunian took the pen and paper over. Tao Yingbo said a quaver beat, and Ji Xiunian wrote down a quaver beat. Very quickly, he took the new version over to show to the trainees.

Xu Lele and the others had seen Ji Xiunian making changes on the paper, and immediately thought that it was Ji Xiunian who was rearranging the score.

Although he had emphasised that it was a “friend’s” work, they felt that the Film Emperor was making it up.

When they saw the rearranged version, everyone’s attention was instantly sucked towards it.

Tao Yingbo had raised the pitch of the entire song and changed its tempo. The song that had originally sounded a bit gloomy had instantly undergone a makeover. The mixing of sounds had added a sense of mystery and joy.

“Godly rearrangement!”

After looking at this arrangement, the members couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.

They had initially thought that it was a bit risky for Lu Xu to have chosen this song, but now they only had to close their eyes to imagine the amazing stage and became excited.

After the arrangement, came the choreography. When thinking upon the upcoming performance, the team members were all very motivated, and really wanted to stand on the stage to show everyone the completely new version of ‘Monster’.

Just the arrangement and decision of the team formation had taken up the entire afternoon. In the evening, the task of coming up with the choreography was also very difficult. After they had ended the day’s practice and returned to their dorms, they realised that the second episode of the show had just ended.

“Aaaa, I’ve been so troubled by those high heels that my head has gone awry. I forgot today was the airing of the second episode.” Xu Haoming turned his phone on the moment he entered the room. He wanted to read the comments about him online, but he ended up seeing Lu Xu’s name on the hot searches once again. “Xu ge, you’re first in online votes!”

They actually weren’t very surprised about this result.

Lu Xu was very handsome and he had the abilities. The key point was that he was pleasant to the audience. Getting first place wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

Along with the incident with Lai Chengshan, many people felt that Lu Xu had been unjustly implicated and his number of votes had increased substantially.

They had originally come with the intention of just passing by to vote; who would’ve thought they would be cheering him on every day—

[@Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: To be honest, I didn’t really pay attention to the competition at first. I only wanted to come over to vote for xiao gege. But after watching him dance, I fell into this pit. He’s good-looking, can sing well, and dances amazingly. What immortal idol is this! I really acknowledge!]

There were many netizens who had this idea.

Even many of the fans of his rivals couldn’t resist climbing up his wall. They went from casually stanning to becoming Lu Xu’s hardcore fans—

[@Song Zhe’s Little Wife: I originally came to watch our family’s son in this competition. In the first episode, I only felt that Xu son was merely good-looking and sang well. When I saw him get A-rank I felt it wasn’t fair. It was mostly because I felt like a trainee who hadn’t trained for very long and made it to A-rank only because of his singing wasn’t fair to the other trainees. At that time, I had a preconceived prejudice that Xu son wasn’t much to talk about; he couldn’t dance so the program didn’t let him dance. After watching the second episode, I really fell in love with him. How can this person be so charismatic; I especially love that last wink. The me with an empty HP bar has decided to climb up another wall. Of course, I love Zhe ge the most, I won’t change that in this life!]

…

There were many fans like this who had come from the fan circles of other trainees and had questioned Lu Xu at first. However, after watching the second episode, they were all enthralled into becoming fans by Lu Xu’s wink. They took the gif of Lu Xu and started using it everywhere.

Some people were worried that Lu Xu would be made into an outcast by the other trainees at the training camp. Others even said he didn’t get along with the BTT members.

But the moment this theory popped up, BTT’s dedicated fans cast light on a screenshot—

[@Becoming A Better Self: @Birth of An Idol Trainee Xu Haoming V Son, please have some heart. Us fans are busy voting for you but you yourself are secretly voting for your Xu ge? [laughing crying] [picture]]

It had to be known that Xu Haoming and Lu Xu had a competitive relationship, but in order to vote for Lu Xu, he had actually crawled up in the middle of the night to go on Weibo. It could be seen how good their friendship was.

Xu Haoming was also a BTT member; to say that their relationship with Lu Xu wasn’t good was a false rumour.

Very quickly, many netizens went to other trainees’ Weibos and realised that many of them had actually voted for Lu Xu too.

[@An Entertainment Sister V: Lu Xu is such a mysterious existence. If this was someone else, he would’ve sucked many of his fans dry. But not only to mention his fans, even the actual contestants are also fans of Lu Xu.  This is too funny. Even if Lu Xu took over the other 100 members’ fans, I bet they wouldn’t even be angry and would actually try to put themselves into the picture too. Hahaha Lu Xu is such a favourite, ai!]

After this Weibo status was posted, many people changed their nickname notes for Lu Xu to “Master of Greenery”. Since he was someone who had relied on his wink to stand out, he was a man who had attracted other male artists’ fans over to his own side.

When Xu Haoming saw this Weibo, he couldn’t help but nod and express his agreement. He smilingly thought that “Master of Greenery” was a very interesting nickname.

Just as he was considering whether or not to give Lu Xu a few more votes, he suddenly saw another familiar name on the hot search. “No way, Did Lan Gaojie buy his way to the hot search?”

When he clicked on the #Lan Gaojie Counterattack# topic, he saw many people with his tag promoting him.

[@Lan Gaojie Little Cutie: #Lan Gaojie Counterattack# Can you click on the little cutie and finish watching gege’s dance before nitpicking? He’s very hardworking and deserves all the glory]

[@A Sweet Candy: @Birth of an Idol Trainee Lan Gaojie V Aaaaaa what immortal xiao gege is this! I didn’t notice him at all during the first episode, but his performance in the second episode really caught my attention. His stage presence is amazing, love it love it!]

…

As the only trainee whose rating after the second evaluation had jumped from F to A, it had to be said that this kind of Lan Gaojie had many points for discussion.

Xu Haoming had thought that he was buying the hot search, but after he opened up the video of his dance, he had to admit that Lan Gaojie’s dancing skills in the theme song were very strong.

He was evidently an exceedingly average boy, but the moment he stood on stage, he suddenly glowed with light. His dance was perhaps not the best, but his stage presence was extremely strong. Even if Xu Haoming didn’t have any good feelings towards him, he felt shocked after watching his performance.

The Lan Gaojie in his impressions had limited talents. Even if he put in a lot of effort, he wouldn’t really stand out. Seeing the charismatic Lan Gaojie on stage, Xu Haoming couldn’t help but mutter, “How weird. He didn’t stand out at all during the first episode. Is he purposely making himself exceed expectations to become popular?”

Lu Xu glanced at the life-burning Lan Gaojie on the screen. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of expectation—

He was about to get another order. Excellent.

nao: happy 1/4 done with this novel! thanks for all your support so far and buy the raws on jjwxc if you can to support the author!