Chapter 45.1: Preparation for the Second Performance (8)
After seeing the trending searches and having their eyes “burned,” a flood of netizens rushed into the livestream room. Encouraged by the enthusiastic “recommendations” from others, the curious audience who hadn’t known what was going on went to check the trending topics.
When they came back after seeing the trending posts, the livestream screen was filled with cheerful and teasing comments flying across the screen.
[Each and every one of them is wicked! I watched the whole video with the expression of an old man watching something strange on the subway. Truly ‘absolutely stunning,’ huh.]
[Looks like the production team isn’t just out to roast us viewers, but also the trainees themselves. 6666, their main goal is to “creatively destroy” all of us equally. A surprise double kill! Only the production team is living their best life.]
[LOL. Before, it was a chaotic dance of demons. Now it’s “the cringey beings of the mortal world.” Did they choreograph that dance with their feet? But seriously, Captain Xiu’s sense of conviction is no joke. How did he manage to still exude that icy, refreshing vibe while surrounded by all that cringe? Totally out of sync with the rest, hahaha.]
[An’an and Tongtong weren’t bad either, though they did seem a little stage-shy.]
[LMAO. Being a bit shy is way better than thinking you’re explosively handsome. And the production team didn’t even release the music, only the choreography. Are they trying to collectively push all the trainees into the meme-editing community? Hahaha.]
[Letting the trainees write their own lyrics, compose, and choreograph — of course this would lead to a bunch of hilarious results. Ning Sinian’s team’s “classical dance” had me laughing so hard my stomach hurt. Anyone who didn’t know better would think a bunch of big guys were practicing splits and shoulder stretches. Anyway, now I’m even more curious about the second performance stage. Once again, the production team has us tightly in their grip today!]
Clearly, despite the early spoilers from the production team leaving their eyes “burned,” the audience had no intention of abandoning the show. Instead, their curiosity was even more thoroughly piqued, and they flooded the comments with excitement, eagerly awaiting the second performance.
——
Meanwhile, the trainees, kept completely in the dark by the production team’s secrecy, knew nothing of this.
Inside Shen Xiu’s team’s practice room, after a short break, training resumed.
Having gone through the experience once, the team members took their practice seriously — and, most importantly, no one scolded themselves.
Clearly, rather than criticizing and bossing each other around, everyone preferred to improve by correcting their mistakes through practice.
Shen Xiu gradually grew bolder. Over the course of the entire day, he became even more direct, bluntly pointing out every issue his teammates had.
From the rise and fall of their singing to the shifts in pronunciation, from whether the dance moves were full and precise to the coordination of strength, facial expressions, and eye contact — he didn’t let a single detail slip by.
Worried that they might forget, Shen Xiu even borrowed a camera from the production team and started recording everything during the corrections.
Of course, whenever Shen Xiu felt that he might have been too harsh and worried the others would get upset, he would sheepishly call for a break and go to the water dispenser to gulp down cold water and calm his nerves.
At 7 p.m., Shen Xiu wrapped up the day’s training. While transferring the footage from the camera to the multimedia system, he lowered his head and reminded his teammates:
“The recordings are saved on the desktop. Later, I’ll tag each of your names on the clips, so you can review them anytime.”
This way, it would be easy for everyone to check and review at their convenience — and more importantly, they could clearly see their improvements after each training session, which would definitely be encouraging.
Hearing this, the team members, who were just relaxing and stretching, froze mid-movement. They looked at each other in disbelief.
Whenever Shen Xiu did something, it was never without deep purpose.
Recording every single practice session and making the footage easily accessible… was this meant to constantly “whip” them into shape, keeping them on their toes and preventing them from slacking off?
Yes, that must be it!
“Captain Xiu, we got it!”
Even if rewatching themselves would make their toes curl with embarrassment, for their own sake — and for the team’s — they were determined not to let Shen Xiu’s painstaking efforts go to waste.
Hearing his teammates’ energetic responses, Shen Xiu thought back to the day’s practice and finally let out a small breath of relief.
Not only were his teammates hardworking and diligent, but they also had good tempers. He believed that in the coming days, their training would only get better.
After these thoughts passed, Shen Xiu looked up and noticed that everyone was still standing there. Realizing he hadn’t yet dismissed them, he said, “Alright, we’re done for today. Tomorrow, we’ll meet again at 9 a.m. sharp.”
“See you, Captain Xiu!”
“See you,” Shen Xiu replied.
After exchanging goodbyes, the practice room quickly emptied out, leaving Shen Xiu alone.
From his observations yesterday, the cafeteria was least crowded around eight or nine at night.
So, for now, he figured it was best to just stay and practice quietly in the room.
After finishing tagging the names on the videos, he could also practice his own parts a bit — he’d spent the whole day correcting others and hadn’t had time to focus on himself.
There were quite a few recordings from the afternoon. As the “instructor,” Shen Xiu was very familiar with who appeared at what times, so he quickly labeled the video segments with everyone’s names.
——
In the hallway—
Walking out of the practice room, everyone instinctively relaxed their bodies.
“Captain Xiu was so strict today, even harsher than yesterday.”
“Yesterday he was probably giving us time to adjust. Thinking about it that way, Captain Xiu’s actually pretty considerate.”
“Every time we leave, he stays in the practice room really late. Do you think he’s practicing?”
“Don’t forget, Captain Xiu spent the whole day helping us train today. He didn’t get to practice himself. Knowing him, there’s no way he’ll leave it at that — he’s definitely making up for it.”
Ding—
The elevator arrival chime interrupted their conversation.
The elevator doors opened, and standing outside were Xia Wenhao and the others — and right inside the elevator, they immediately spotted the assistant director.
Ever since joining the talent show, it was mostly the assistant director who showed up — almost none of the trainees had ever met the chief director. As a result, they were all very familiar with Assistant Director Gu.
As they filed into the elevator one after another, they greeted him warmly.
The assistant director, responding to their enthusiasm, smiled and nodded repeatedly. “Good, good, you’re all doing great.”
After the greetings, the elevator fell into a brief silence.
Now, whenever the assistant director saw the trainees, he couldn’t help but feel guilty — especially thinking about the video that had been released.
It was, after all, a high-definition collection of their “dark history.”
Putting himself in the trainees’ shoes, the assistant director shivered involuntarily.
Too terrifying!
He looked at the trainees with even more sympathy.
Sigh, he thought, a bunch of poor kids, smiling so happily, unaware that their blackmail-worthy moments were now trending online, being judged by countless netizens.
Inside the elevator — which was part of the ongoing livestream — everything was captured clearly, and the viewers exploded with laughter.
[I can feel the assistant director’s pity for them even through the screen, hahaha!]
[Just based on that look, I declare Assistant Director innocent in this matter!]
Feeling deeply guilty, the assistant director didn’t dare stay longer than necessary. As soon as the elevator arrived at his floor, he hurriedly escaped.
Meanwhile, the trainees stepped out and headed toward the cafeteria, still puzzled.
“What’s up with the assistant director?” someone asked.
“No idea, but I noticed it too — back in the elevator, the way he was looking at us was weird.”
“Come on, what are you talking about? Our faces were clean, our clothes weren’t on backward — you must have imagined it.”
Song Junying firmly argued, “No way! I saw it clearly. His look was definitely strange.”
“Huh?” Gao Yongshi scratched his head. “Maybe the assistant director just had a muscle spasm in his eye.”
Ke Zi’an nodded vigorously like a little chick pecking at rice. “Mm, makes sense!”
[I can’t stop laughing, guys — a bunch of little dummies, hahaha.]
[Look at how convinced they are — I can already imagine them crying when they find out the truth after they leave the show. Truly tragic. Their black history is all in HD.]
[It’s not the assistant director’s eye that’s twitching — it’s the entire production team that’s gone nuts!]
Although it wasn’t a written rule, by now, each group had naturally formed the habit of eating meals together.
There were quite a few teams grabbing dinner around seven.
Seeing that the members of Shen Xiu’s team were here — but without Shen Xiu himself — trainees from other groups couldn’t resist. They gathered around Xia Wenhao and the others, and started chatting with Zhou Tong and Ke Zi’an, who seemed the easiest to get information from.
“Zi’an, how’s your team’s training going? With Captain Xiu there, I bet everything’s super smooth, right?”
Thinking back to the reality of their training, Ke Zi’an’s face stiffened with embarrassment.
Smooth? What smooth? It was a total disaster!
They’d nearly driven Captain Xiu to the brink of exploding. If it weren’t for his good temper — if he hadn’t kept cooling off by gulping down cold water every time his face darkened in anger — they would’ve been scolded to death by now.
But… these kinds of details definitely couldn’t be leaked to outsiders!
Otherwise, not only would they be laughed at, but people might also think their whole team was hopeless.
Determined not to embarrass Shen Xiu, Ke Zi’an braced himself and said, “It’s… it’s going okay, I guess.”
Xia Wenhao quickly pushed aside the people trying to get a scoop from Ke Zi’an. “Move it, what are you doing? Interrogating a prisoner?”
No way were they going to ruin Captain Xiu’s reputation!
Since Xia Wenhao was known for his bad temper and wasn’t easy to deal with, the would-be interrogators immediately switched targets and looked at Zhou Tong.
“Zhou Tong, what kind of things has Captain Xiu been teaching you? We’re super curious! It’s gotta be some really powerful, profound stuff, right?”
“Yeah, exactly! It’s Shen Xiu we’re talking about — whatever he says must be incredibly eye-opening! Can you share some of it with us, so we can learn a thing or two too?”
Share what, exactly?
Zhou Tong shivered as he recalled the terror of being under the rule of the Sharp-Tongued Demon King Shen. “N-nothing much,” he stammered.
It had all been blunt and brutally honest critiques. If they told the other teams about it, they’d only end up embarrassing themselves.
Now that they were tied together with Captain Xiu, losing face personally would mean dragging Captain Xiu down with them — and that was absolutely unacceptable!
“Ye Cheng…” someone called.
Ye Cheng: “It’s going great.”
“Old Gao…”
Gao Yongshi: “Mm, not bad.”
No matter who the other trainees turned to — even before they could finish calling a name — the members of Shen Xiu’s team would immediately brush it off with vague, half-hearted responses.
The other trainees: “…”
One after another — their mouths were sealed shut. Absolutely impenetrable!
Clearly, Shen Xiu’s team had some kind of secret weapon, and that’s why they were all keeping so quiet.
Xia Wenhao immediately seized the chance to throw the question back at them. “What about you guys?”
The person being questioned froze for a second.
Thinking about the disastrous state of their own team’s training, they were way too embarrassed to talk about it — especially in front of Shen Xiu’s team, who were probably training perfectly, and might even have some major hidden aces up their sleeve.
In the end, the trainee forced a laugh and said, “Haha… We’re doing pretty well too.”
Xia Wenhao: “…”
Damn. Looks like our team’s the worst after all, huh?
