Chapter 17: Theme Song Practice (5)
The gazes of the four—Shang Yu, Song Chengwang, Jiang Yanxi, and Zhuang Yi—fell silently on Xiang Yueting.
Xiang Yueting: “Wh-what’s wrong?”
Jiang Yanxi’s lips twitched slightly: “Sometimes, Brother Xiang, really, your gaze doesn’t have to be so sharp.”
Shang Yu smiled coldly: “Yanxi is right. It’s bad now. Before Shen Xiu comes back, the five of us will constantly be subjected to a moral interrogation.”
Xiang Yueting, realizing later, looked toward the drawer that had been slightly opened, curiosity gnawing at him.
[The five: Wuwuwu, I know it’s wrong to secretly peek at other people’s things, but I really want to look, but I can’t look. My conscience, my curiosity, they’re pulling me in two directions, oh family!]
[Boss Xiu, please come back soon. Don’t make me kneel down and beg you!]
“Ahem…”
Shang Yu said, “It seems like we can’t stay in this dorm anymore. How about we learn from Shen Xiu and start practicing tonight?”
Song Chengwang’s eyes were firm: “You’re right. Let’s study, bring ourselves back from the edge of crime!”
Jiang Yanxi: “…Crime? That’s a little bit…”
Song Chengwang: “Just say whether you’re going or not.”
Jiang Yanxi didn’t hesitate: “Going!”
In order to save their consciences, the five members of Class A happily and unanimously decided to head to the top floor’s A-Class practice room to rehearse “Wind and Waves.”
The top floor has six practice rooms, labeled A, B, C, D, E, and F. It wasn’t yet a busy time, just after dinner, so not many people came to practice, but there were still some.
Some people saw the Class A trainees and were so shocked they went back to notify their roommates.
They saw their roommates, lying on their beds after dinner, looking heartbroken: “Class A trainees are practicing hard, how can you guys just sleep like that!”
“What? Class A trainees start practicing right after eating? What kind of devilry is this!”
“So, they are in Class A, and we are in Class D.”
“Why are you still dawdling? Get up and practice, brothers! Do you really want to be eliminated?”
“I knew it! Shen Xiu starts practicing right after class, how could the rest of Class A not follow suit?”
“Report! I heard Boss Xiu is eating in the cafeteria right now. Shouldn’t we take advantage of this time to secretly practice and impress the mentors while Boss Xiu is eating?”
“That’s a good idea! As long as we don’t practice so hard we exhaust ourselves, let’s go all out! Go for it!”
The wave of hard practice from Class A quickly spread, and during Shen Xiu’s meal break in the cafeteria, it swept across all six classes in an instant.
The audience in the live stream commented:
[Hmm… is there a possibility—just saying—that the people from Class A went to the practice room just to avoid staying in the dorm and losing their conscience?]
[Other classes: Impossible, absolutely impossible! They’re definitely trying to outdo us! (Confident and full of conviction)]
[Class A: Don’t spread rumors, don’t believe them!]
[Boss Xiu: I heard you guys want to exhaust me, huh?]
Shen Xiu finished his meal in ten minutes, took three seconds to prepare himself mentally at the dorm entrance, and pushed open the door.
Looking at the empty dorm room.
Shen Xiu: …Where is everyone? All that mental preparation for nothing?!
But—wait, there’s no one here, that’s a good thing!
It’s not like mental preparation was wasted, Shen Xiu thought to himself.
On the way back, Shen Xiu had originally planned to sneak into the practice room and stay there until 10 p.m. if there were too many people in the dorm. But now, feeling quite pleased, he decided to practice in the dorm instead.
Although the dormitory didn’t have multimedia equipment for playing accompaniment music for dance or anything like that, Shen Xiu didn’t really need it. He had already memorized everything about “Wind and Waves” in his mind.
All he needed was to practice in front of the huge mirror in the bathroom, and he could immediately tell where his movements didn’t match what was in his mind.
At first, Shen Xiu focused on the dance for “Wind and Waves.” After practicing it a few times, he started integrating the singing into it.
The vanity was spacious enough to accommodate twenty people washing up at once, and it didn’t interfere with Shen Xiu’s enthusiastic singing and dancing.
Shen Xiu got so absorbed in his performance that he had long forgotten that this was just a vanity; he imagined it as a stage, as if he were facing tens of thousands of viewers. With each practice, he strived to do his best, not wanting to leave any flaws.
Because… he didn’t want to experience the silent embarrassment of a performance again. Once was enough—he couldn’t go through that kind of stage death in front of tens of thousands of people a second time!
[Why is it that when some people sing a cappella, it’s a disaster, but when Boss Xiu does it, it’s like he’s got his own BGM?!]
[Not just a cappella with BGM, but his dance even has its own accompaniment! After watching so many performances with the accompaniment, lights, and editing, the pure dance without it would make you so embarrassed you’d want to dig a Barbie castle with your toes. But now, we realize that even without accompaniment and lighting, dance can still captivate and leave people in awe.]
[Just saying, does anyone else remember that this is just a bathroom…?!]
At 10 p.m., Shen Xiu stopped right on time, took his clothes, and went into the bathroom to shower.
Ten minutes later, Shen Xiu came out of the bathroom, wearing a light gray buttoned pajama set with matching pants. His black hair, freshly dried but not styled, had a few strands hanging messily in front of his forehead, and his cheeks were slightly flushed from the steam.
[His face is slightly flushed, but why does his expression still look so cold? His eyes are so cold, like the chilling, eerie atmosphere in a forest after rain!]
[Other people come out of the shower a little warmer, but Boss Xiu, the more he showers, the colder his vibe becomes! He’s washing with hot water, but somehow he looks like he’s been frozen by ice water. That slightly flushed face, with a cold expression—so cool!]
[At this moment, I scream from my decaying coffin: “This is it! This is how true cool guys are!” After shouting, I peacefully lie down and close my eyes.]
As soon as Shen Xiu came out of the bathroom, the door to the dormitory suddenly opened, and Xiang Yueting and the others rushed in.
Seeing Shen Xiu, who had just finished showering, Song Chengwang asked, confused, “Why didn’t you come find us?”
Shen Xiu: …Did he not want to? No, he didn’t dare!
Shang Yu looked at Shen Xiu’s cold face and guessed that Shen Xiu must be the type to have an aloof and indifferent personality. Since Song Chengwang insisted on asking, it wasn’t a good look for either side, so he changed the topic: “Is that really the point?”
Jiang Yanxi grinned and said, “Exactly! Isn’t the real point what kind of inspiration Shen Xiu had to write something?”
Xiang Yueting looked at Shen Xiu and hesitated, then asked, “Shen Xiu, can we see what you wrote? Really, we’re dying of curiosity! To avoid peeking, we even went to practice and didn’t come back until now.”
At this point, Xiang Yueting couldn’t help but sigh.
“Though, the other classes are really intense. When we came down, they were still practicing, all of them, total practice kings.”
Zhuang Yi: “…”
Great, now that Xiang Yueting spoke, he exposed all of them.
Shen Xiu stood frozen in surprise. He hadn’t expected everyone to be interested in the things he had written and doodled on the paper.
Shen Xiu didn’t speak. He stood there with a cold expression, unmoving. Shang Yu said, “Sorry, that’s your secret, and we really shouldn’t have asked…”
Shen Xiu: “Alright.”
Song Chengwang: “Really!”
“Mm.”
Shen Xiu still wasn’t used to other people’s enthusiasm. He simply hummed in response and stiffly walked to the desk, opened the drawer, took out a piece of paper, and handed it to Xiang Yueting, the person he was most familiar with.
Xiang Yueting took the paper, and when he saw what was on it, he was stunned.
“So this is it!”
“What? What is it?”
The others rushed over and surrounded Xiang Yueting.
When they saw what was on the paper, their expressions were full of surprise.
They had thought of many possibilities, but none of them expected this. It surprised them, but after thinking about it, it wasn’t far-fetched at all. In fact, it only made them admire Shen Xiu even more.
The five of them exchanged glances, and in each other’s eyes, they saw the same message: “Big shot’s heart, a needle in the sea!”
On the large A4 paper, at the top was the sheet music for “Wind and Waves.” Below the music were the lyrics for the song. The most surprising part was that underneath the lyrics and sheet music were stick figures.
Yes, stick figures—round-headed little stick figures doing various dance moves.
Each stick figure’s movements were not only lifelike and easy to follow, but they also corresponded precisely to every line of lyrics and the sheet music. Even the time gaps between one line of lyrics and the next were clearly written out.
Jiang Yanxi: “6!”
Shang Yu twitched his eye: “This is the first time I’ve seen such a method for breaking down a dance and song.”
Song Chengwang: “Who would’ve thought!”
Xiang Yueting: “Today, I’ve truly opened my eyes.”
Zhuang Yi: “With this level of song and dance breakdown, it’d be hard not to learn it. Shen Xiu is amazing! How did he think of this?”
Upon hearing everyone’s voices, Shen Xiu instantly realized something was off. Before they could look at him, he quickly dashed into the bathroom, closing the door behind him in one smooth motion.
He had just written down what was in his head. This was how he had always memorized things.
Was that strange?
Shen Xiu felt embarrassed. His face heated up, and he lowered his head, splashing cold water on his face, hoping to cool down.
Blushing in front of everyone was way more embarrassing!
The five of them were about to ask something, but seeing Shen Xiu washing his face at the sink, they hesitated and didn’t want to disturb him.
Standing in front of the sink, Shen Xiu looked up at the mirror, wanting to check if his face and ears were red.
[There are water droplets on his face, and his hair ends are damp. When he looks up, his gaze unintentionally meets his reflection in the mirror. His expression is cold yet gloomy. Wow, amazing!]
[So… what’s on the paper? Ahhh, the camera’s too far away, I can’t see!!! I protest!]
After confirming that his face and ears weren’t red, Shen Xiu felt relieved and walked back to the dorm area.
While the other five were still eagerly looking at the paper, Shen Xiu quietly and carefully climbed into bed, put on the earplugs the production team had given him, pulled the blanket over, and lay down with his hands crossed on his stomach, peacefully closing his eyes.
Perfect!
Ten minutes later, the five finally realized what had happened. They instinctively searched for Shen Xiu but found that, at some point, he had “teleported” from the bathroom to the bed and was already asleep!
The five of them: “…”
Jiang Yanxi: “Shen Xiu, he’s 6 in every sense of the word.”
The other four wholeheartedly agreed: “Mm!”
Live stream comments: [Mm!!!]
—
The next day.
Shen Xiu’s A4 paper was widely circulated among the trainees, with many of them copying it to memorize and practice along.
Xia Wenhao, in an attempt to beat Shen Xiu, practiced until 4 AM the previous night and didn’t wake up in time in the morning. When he went to the F-class practice room in the afternoon, he was shocked. “Who’s this living Buddha master who broke down the dance like this? Amazing, every move is drawn so clearly. Can I see it too?”
Gu Chang: “The living Buddha is the Shen Xiu you didn’t like before. You… still want to look at it?”
Xia Wenhao: “…I do!” After all, Shen Xiu wouldn’t know.
[Hahaha, Gu Chang, you really understand the art of speaking.]
[Xia Wenhao: Gu Chang, do you know how hard you’re making it for me? Some things don’t need to be said so clearly, okay?]
[Xia Wenhao: Wuwuwu, the homework for my target of provocation smells so good!]
After reading it, Xia Wenhao pointed to one of the symbols he couldn’t understand even after several attempts and asked Gu Chang, “What does this mean?”
Gu Chang scratched his head, “I don’t know. I copied it from Shen Xiu’s original version. He wrote it, so he must know. Otherwise… you could ask Shen Xiu yourself?”
“He thinks he’s so great, huh!” Xia Wenhao scowled and stormed out of the practice room.
Thinking of Xia Wenhao’s fiery temper and Shen Xiu’s cool, unapproachable attitude, the two of them together were like a volcano colliding with an iceberg.
Gu Chang shivered, “Xia Wenhao’s bad temper, and he stormed out like that—oh no, are they going to end up fighting over this?”
**TN
6 – internet slang for awesome or smooth
