Chapter 48.2: Second Performance (3)
Meanwhile, Jiang Yanxi’s team performed Blank under a pure white moon backdrop.
The members had brightly colored hair — red, black, white, orange, blue, purple — and danced with youthful, playful energy.
Their clothes were loose-fitting, pants riddled with rips, and their faces adorned with all kinds of glittering sequins.
The entire vibe was cheerful, full of lively hip-hop flavor.
Blank was anything but “blank” — between the childish dance moves and the riot of colorful hair, they were easily the most eye-catching group of the night.
The two groups’ styles were clearly very different, and unsurprisingly, Song Chengwang’s seductive performance of Rainy Night was more in line with the audience’s tastes.
In the third group battle, Song Chengwang’s team won.
[Excellent, Song Chengwang took off his suit jacket — but who would’ve thought he still had a shirt underneath! Still, the shirt was soaked, clinging to his sharp muscles — damn, their team really knows what they’re doing!]
[I see it now — next time, even the shirt will be gone…]
[Jiang Yanxi’s group was hilarious — they looked like a flock of colorful little birds chirping away! Hahaha]
The fourth group battle began.
Shen Xiu turned his back to his teammates, staring intently at the screen as he carefully watched Ning Sinian’s team performing Reaching for the Moon Across Water.
Sheer, moonlight-like gauze hung gently from above.
The young boys clung to the gauze with supple bodies, their expressions vivid, their movements lively as they discovered the moon, called their friends to admire it, played around, and reached out for it — showcasing a pure and spirited youthful energy, carefree and unrestrained.
Their dancing flowed like water and clouds, full of artistry and beautiful meaning.
After watching, Shen Xiu rose from his chair and turned to his teammates, who were still facing the wall: “Start getting ready. Makeup and styling — you have ten minutes.”
Onstage, after Ning Sinian’s team finished their performance, they moved to the trainee seating area by the side, waiting to watch Shen Xiu’s team.
Following the program’s rule of “fully concealed styling” to maximize surprise for the audience, when host He Ting announced that Shen Xiu’s team would go onstage in fifteen minutes, just like with the previous teams, the live broadcast of their waiting room was immediately cut off.
Hearing Shen Xiu’s cold voice behind them, the teammates collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally — no more facing the wall! It felt so good!
Everyone seemed to come back to life in an instant.
Not daring to waste a single second and risk dragging the team down, they rushed to their own makeup mirrors and, following the steps they practiced before each rehearsal, hurriedly began applying their makeup.
Before, during their practice sessions, Shen Xiu had always set a time limit for makeup and styling.
Everyone was already used to this routine, and ten minutes later, all eight members were dressed, fully made up, and standing in front of Shen Xiu — unable to stop themselves from staring at the touch of deep red at the corners of his lips and on his face.
Even though they all wore the same makeup, somehow, it looked completely different on Shen Xiu.
It was strange — only before the performance did he seem different.
Yet every time Madness started, the emotions Shen Xiu conveyed through his expressions and eyes would perfectly synchronize with the rest of the team.
Five minutes later, they would have to go on stage.
Noticing all his teammates looking at him intently, Shen Xiu quickly realized:
They were waiting for a final boost before the stage.
As the team leader, he couldn’t shirk this responsibility.
To show his seriousness, Shen Xiu deliberately made his expression more stern, and his voice heavier and more forceful:
“Everyone’s done great. Give it your all!”
But Shen Xiu’s face was so cold, and his tone so much harsher than usual…
Was he praising them — or threatening them fiercely at the same time?
The teammates shivered.
Given how bad they still were, Shen Xiu must have really struggled internally to force himself to praise them, even against his principles.
Thinking carefully, during the whole training period for the second performance, Shen Xiu had already done so much for them.
For Shen Xiu’s sake, and for the sake of their own hard work — even if this was their last stage, even if they would be eliminated after this — they had no regrets!
After exchanging glances, they responded in unison:
“Got it!”
“Understood!”
“Alright!”
…
Hearing everyone’s firm, powerful replies and seeing the determination in their eyes, Shen Xiu finally felt reassured.
No wonder so many competitions liked to do pre-stage pep talks — it really worked!
Ever since that day when everyone had an epiphany, it was as if they had all suddenly awakened. Their expressions, eye movements, and body language no longer appeared cringey or stiff. After several more days of training, their bodies and facial expressions had developed conditioned reflexes.
Seeing everyone’s current state, Shen Xiu seemed to have forgotten about Shang Yu Team’s Puppeteer performance and believed that they should have no problems.
With three minutes left, Shen Xiu opened the room door and led the team members toward a silent battle with an unknown outcome…
On the dark stage, a dim yellow light slanted down, casting a shadow over the figure trapped in a narrow, grim space. As Ke Zi’an slowly lifted his gaze, a choked, childlike singing voice accompanied his movement, instantly setting a suffocating tone:
“I lie awake in the snow,
crows dancing around me,
shedding rotting flesh that carries…”
“My blood begins to clot…”
“It turns me into a monster,
tempting me to swallow the beautiful mushrooms…”
They were in agony, lost and helpless, trapped inside an invisible glass cage. No matter how desperately they struggled, all they gained were more wounds—the solid prison remained unbroken. Their bodies were slowly being torn apart and corroded by invisible vermin, their clothes and faces stained with glaring blood and injuries. They cried out painful accusations and powerless, sorrowful laments.
The oppressive emotions conveyed through the song and dance piled up layer by layer, making it harder and harder for the audience to breathe.
At the peak of suffocating despair, Shen Xiu dragged his decaying body onto the black platform that had been erected, his expression shattered as he sang in a broken whisper:
“It says that light is a blade that flays flesh from bone,
only by falling into darkness can one exist forever…”
The moment the singing abruptly ceased, a crystalline tear slid from Shen Xiu’s eyelashes, and in that same instant, his body fell from the high platform…
As the audience was fully immersed in the terrifying, oppressive atmosphere built up by the singing and dancing, they watched Shen Xiu fall. In that moment, they truly believed he would, just like the song described, fall into hell and end a life steeped in suffocating despair. They stared in disbelief, instinctively rising from their seats.
Before the audience could fully rise from their seats, Shen Xiu, who had fallen from the platform, was instantly caught by countless hands.
Borrowing strength in an instant, Shen Xiu leapt up again. As he looked toward the audience, his eyes snapped open—gone was the shattered pain from before. What remained was only unyielding defiance:
“Tear it apart…”
From that moment on, the once lifeless figures became vivid and vibrant. The explosion after the suffocating oppression was wild and fierce.
On stage, vitality surged from their bodies. Whether it was through their singing or their dancing, it made the audience feel an exhilarating sense of liberation and release.
As the final notes of the last lyric faded, they pounded their fists, bulging with veins, against the invisible glass cage, their faces twisted with rage…
Clang—
The sound of shattering glass echoed throughout the venue. As the final chord ended, a white dove soared into the misty white light, wings spread wide, flying high into the sky. In that instant, all the accumulated pain and oppression vanished into nothingness.
The performance of Madness thus came to an end.
After pausing for five seconds, the members of Shen Xiu’s team rose and returned to their original formation, standing obediently behind him.
Once he stood up from the ground, Shen Xiu lowered his gaze to the floor, his eyes shimmering with unspoken wetness.
From the bottom of his heart, he hoped that everyone who heard this song could, like him, escape the darkness and head toward the light.
After the performance ended, the team members instinctively looked toward Shen Xiu, wanting to see if he was satisfied.
But Shen Xiu never looked at them. His slightly lowered eyes hid any trace of emotion, and his silent demeanor made them mistakenly believe he was displeased. No one dared to make a sound.
Besides… Shen Xiu was simply too amazing!
During the fall from the platform, the tear he shed hadn’t been mentioned at all during rehearsals—Shen Xiu had quietly kept that surprise move to himself. When they saw it on stage, they themselves were deeply shaken, let alone the audience.
That image of Shen Xiu shedding a tear in the midst of broken despair—it would definitely go viral!
After the performance ended, several seconds passed before the venue erupted in thunderous applause and cathartic screams. If one listened carefully, they could even hear faint sobs mixed in with the cries.
“That final scene was just too satisfying!!! Kill, kill, kill! Rip its damn mouth apart, drink its blood, skin it alive!!!”
“Ahhh I’m gonna smash everything!”
“I hereby declare this is the most emotional yet explosive song I’ve heard all year! Kill it!”
“Wuwuwu so cool, everyone was seriously so cool, Baby Xiu’s tears weren’t tears—they were the blood of my heart, wuwuwu…”
As the camera swept across the crowd, it caught countless faces streaked with obvious tear marks, cheering wildly on their feet.
Just from the title, one might assume “Madness” was a frenzied, high-energy song. Yet the opening verse and stage scene were steeped in a suffocating, oppressive gloom.
And just when you thought Madness was a melancholic and somber piece, one minute in, the visuals and the chorus suddenly dragged you headlong into a world of explosive, unrestrained intensity.
The transitions were seamless and fluid.
This song, from the lyrical content to the emotional delivery, was not only complete but built up layer by layer—from a dying struggle to a triumphant surge to the surface. The emotional progression was raw and unrestrained.
The final image of the white dove soaring upward through the mist marked not only the end of Madness, but also the beginning of something new.
The concluding silence was perfectly timed, leaving endless aftertastes lingering in the heart.
From lyrics to choreography to overall atmosphere, the entire performance profoundly embodied the spirit of “rebirth through death,” letting the audience vividly experience the deranged desperation of clawing out of the abyss, bloodied but unbroken.
Not only were the live spectators crying and screaming in excitement, but so were the viewers in the livestream chat.
[Got goosebumps all over after watching. Why is my nose so sore? I feel like crying so badly.]
[The blood stains on their faces never changed position, but by the end, somehow, they felt completely different to me.]
[I get it, it’s like the feeling of ‘the blood of being b*llied’ turning into ‘a badge of honor’!]
[So well put! Exactly like that! Wuwuwu, patting my battle-worn Baby Xiu.]
[Demon King Xiu: (deep in thought) Baby Xiu?]
[Wuwuwu, I just wanted to say, was that movement after dodging the attack chocolate-powered? That smash-the-mirror move was amazing! It should definitely be included in the textbook for no-contact performance!]
The teams that had performed earlier did not leave the stage, instead sitting in the practice area on the side stage, waiting for each subsequent group’s performance to finish.
As the last team to perform, Shen Xiu’s group had the other seven teams watching them closely in person, rather than through a screen. Being there live, the impact was far more overwhelming than watching it from behind a screen.
After watching Shen Xiu’s team’s performance, Ning Sinian knew that his own team had no chance of winning—whether it was the concept of the song, the emotional delivery, or the stage presence, his team had already lost.
Ning Sinian, while admiring them deeply, had to accept his defeat with respect, and couldn’t help but sigh again—Shen Xiu, the eternal god.
Fortunately, he was also a trainee, or else he’d have to pay to see a stage performance of this level!
…
The cheers from the audience pulled Shen Xiu back into reality. When he heard the host announce that Ning Sinian’s team was next, he lowered his head and blinked furiously, trying to dry the tears in his eyes as quickly as possible.
If there were still tears in his eyes when he looked up… Shen Xiu couldn’t bear to imagine the strange looks everyone would give him.
Besides… he had already lost control of his tears once on stage. Social death x1. He certainly didn’t want to experience double social death after the performance ended.
The members of Ning Sinian’s team quickly took the stage, positioning themselves on either side of Shen Xiu’s team, waiting for the two rounds of audience voting.
Ning Sinian glanced at Shen Xiu, whose gaze was lowered with an indifferent expression on his face. It was a stark contrast to the fragile, broken, and vulnerable appearance he had on stage, which then morphed into a bloodthirsty madness.
Once again, Ning Sinian marveled inwardly—Shen Xiu’s emotional control was just too fast.
How long had it been since the performance ended, and yet Shen Xiu had already returned to his cold, indifferent demeanor as though he cared for nothing at all.
The members of Ning Sinian’s team looked at the members of Shen Xiu’s team, feeling the same kind of admiration their captain had.
They had been right—Shen Xiu’s team was definitely going to win. They were hiding a powerful weapon. In just one performance, they had created two iconic moments: the fragile tears after falling from the high platform, and the no-contact smash that shattered the invisible cage. Ugh, so jealous!
At that moment, He Ting’s voice rang out: “Shen Xiu, everyone is very curious—under what circumstances did your team write ‘Madness’? Can you share that with us?”
