Chapter 61: Preparation for the Third Performance (3)
When he was called out by name, Shen Xiu remained silent for a moment under everyone’s gaze. After organizing his thoughts internally, he finally spoke up and shared what he had in mind.
“Each of us will sing the entire song once and record it. Then we’ll all listen to everyone’s recordings. After hearing everyone’s performances, we’ll each write down which part we think each member should sing, based on our personal evaluation of their voices.”
“The final parts will be assigned based on a combination of all nine sets of data.”
“Before the data is compiled, it’s best if we don’t discuss it with each other.”
The implication was clear: if a certain member was most frequently chosen by others for a specific part of the song, that part would go to them.
The team members: “…”
One look at him and it was obvious—Shen Xiu was a data maniac.
But everyone had to admit, without a designated leader, Shen Xiu’s method was very fair.
Zhuang Yi raised his hand: “I agree with Shen Xiu’s idea.”
Lu Fei followed closely: “Me too.”
The others couldn’t think of a better method for now, and since this one was fair, they all raised their hands in agreement.
Since he was the one who proposed the idea, Shen Xiu volunteered to get the nine recording devices from the staff: “I’ll go get the equipment. Be right back.”
As soon as Shen Xiu left the practice room, everyone, who had held their tongues out of respect while he was there, immediately burst into conversation.
Song Chengwang sighed, “This method is both brilliant and fair. Totally in line with Shen Xiu’s meticulous style. Old Shang, could you have thought of this?”
Shang Yu shook his head without hesitation: “Nope.”
Shang Yu was the kind of person who clearly looked smart, which made Zhuang Yi curious.
“Shang Yu, then what kind of method did you come up with?”
Shang Yu smiled slightly. “It doesn’t matter what I was thinking before—there’s no need to bring it up now. What matters is that we’ve found a method everyone agrees on.”
Song Chengwang nearly rolled his eyes. “When it comes to dodging questions like a pro, you’re the best.”
Shang Yu merely chuckled without replying.
What had he been thinking? Knowing his own personality, he liked having absolute control and didn’t really care what others thought—only what he wanted.
But clearly, his approach wasn’t suitable for the current team.
That’s why he had asked others for their ideas.
Unlike Shen Xiu, who seemed to care about nothing, carrying a deep, bone-deep coldness and aloofness, yet still showed a strong person’s quiet care for the weak—Shang Yu couldn’t do that. That’s why he was destined not to come up with something as flawless and considerate as Shen Xiu’s method.
Zhuang Yi sighed. “Being the team leader before was exhausting, and it didn’t seem to work that well. I was really frustrated. When the song choice results came out this time, honestly, I was relieved. With you guys here, I’ll just sing whatever part I’m given. I just want to take a break.”
Song Chengwang snorted. “Don’t get too relaxed. Take one step back and you might end up eliminated during the ranking after the third performance. Don’t forget—our team’s full of strong players. The competition’s only going to get fiercer.”
Zhuang Yi covered his face. “It’s too hard being me!”
[Why did my Xiu-baby leave the room?]
[What are they talking about now that Xiu’s gone?]
[Anyone else notice the vibe got a lot more relaxed after Shen Xiu stepped out?]
[Can’t blame them—Xiu’s aura is intense. Who can chat easily in front of that cold, cool face and piercing gaze? But… has anyone noticed everyone seems to be speaking with flowery praise lately?]
Ten minutes later, Shen Xiu returned with nine recording devices, nine notebooks, and a folded sheet of paper.
Shen Xiu had asked the staff for sticky notes and labeled each recording device and notebook with everyone’s names, so there would be no confusion when it came time to pick up or play the recordings.
To avoid the awkwardness of accidentally touching someone’s hand while passing out the equipment, Shen Xiu set the items on the table as soon as he walked in. “Take yours yourselves.”
Before anyone could say anything, Shen Xiu spoke again, sharing the thought he’d had on his way back.
“On the way back, I checked the practice rooms on the other floors. They’re all empty—other groups are staying in their own rooms. To avoid disturbing each other, we should each use a different empty practice room to record our songs.”
Everyone picked up their labeled devices, silently amazed once again at how Shen Xiu, with his always-cold expression and indifferent tone, could say the most thoughtful things.
Honestly, the contrast was just a little bit extreme.
They all nodded in agreement.
“Okay.”
“Let’s set a time. How about we meet back here in ten minutes?”
“No problem. The whole song’s only three and a half minutes. Ten minutes is enough.”
“OK, I’m off! See you in ten~”
Not wanting to waste time and wanting the best recording conditions, everyone quickly left the “Heaven” group practice room.
Shen Xiu was about to leave too, but then he noticed everyone leaving in little groups, clustered together.
Off stage, where physical contact wasn’t part of the choreography or stage direction, people casually walked side by side, slinging arms around each other’s shoulders…
Just imagining it made Shen Xiu curl his toes in secondhand embarrassment.
If someone really did that to him, he’d probably turn red, wouldn’t he?
Getting flustered just from a hand on the shoulder—he’d die of embarrassment if someone saw that!
Shen Xiu also recalled how, earlier at lunch, everyone had walked together while he trailed silently behind, unable to join the conversation. That memory alone made his scalp tingle from awkwardness, so he decided not to squeeze into the crowd leaving the room together.
Once everyone had left, Shen Xiu stood alone in the now-empty practice room. Only then did it finally hit him—wasn’t this already an empty practice room? He didn’t need to go looking for another one at all!
Had the others not mentioned staying behind because they realized he wasn’t good at socializing, and so deliberately left the room for him?
Yes, that must be it. What other reason would there be for no one else staying?
Not long after leaving the practice room, Song Chengwang suddenly stopped in the hallway. “Wait a sec—‘Heaven’s’ practice room counts as an unused room too, doesn’t it?”
Zhuang Yi froze. “Ah! I totally forgot. So… Shen Xiu didn’t come out with us because he had already thought of that?”
Shang Yu nodded. “Probably.”
Feeling seen and understood by his teammates, Shen Xiu was secretly overjoyed. He closed the door to the practice room, walked over to the media console, put on his headphones, and started playing Heaven to study the song.
As he listened carefully, silently singing along in his head with the vocalist, Shen Xiu was relieved that he had already gone through the song once that morning in the 10th-floor practice room. Now he could focus on grasping the emotion in the performance. Otherwise, ten minutes really wouldn’t have been enough.
[Confirmed: Boss Shen picked up labeled gear from staff, personally checked every practice room on the way back, and is now alone in the ‘Heaven’ room while everyone else went elsewhere. What exactly is the Heaven group up to??]
[Did they… have a fight?]
[So first Boss Shen said something and left the room. Then he stormed back in, said something else, and the rest got so mad they walked out?!]
[LOL I’m dying—this cursed show! To avoid needing a lip-reading translator, they’ve now added flower stickers over everyone’s mouths when they talk. It’s equal parts cursed and hilarious. Who’s the genius who came up with this bizarre censorship method? Even the cat-face filters weren’t enough chaos for this show crew??]
[Anyway, we still have no idea what the Heaven group is actually doing. All we know is, whoever has flowers over their mouth is the one talking.]
——
Ten minutes later, the members of the Heaven group returned one by one to the practice room assigned by the production team.
When they walked in, they saw several yoga mats laid out on the floor.
Shen Xiu had already finished his recording and placed his device on the media console. Seeing this, the others instinctively did the same with theirs.
Thinking about how everyone was about to listen closely to his singing—maybe even multiple times—made Shen Xiu feel incredibly embarrassed. Trying to escape the thought, he grabbed the notebook labeled with his name and went to sit on the very last yoga mat in the back.
As long as he sat in the last row, no one would be able to see his face when they were listening to his recording. In his mind, that basically meant he wasn’t losing face.
When they saw Shen Xiu sit down, everyone quickly caught on and followed suit, picking up their own notebooks and settling onto the mats.
As for Shen Xiu sitting in the very back—well, they were used to it by now.
He was the boss, after all. Bosses liked that feeling of quietly overseeing things from the rear. They totally got it.
Shang Yu was the last to come up and sit down at the front. “I’ll handle playback.”
Nine recordings were lined up neatly on the table, each labeled with a group member’s name. Shang Yu began from left to right.
“Four minutes to listen, five minutes to think and assign parts. Everyone ready? The first recording is Zhuang Yi’s.”
…
By 6:30 PM, every member of the Heaven group had had their recording played three times.
During those three rounds, each person had taken notes in their notebooks, writing down which parts of the song they thought each group member suited best.
Once everyone tore out their pages and stacked them together, Shen Xiu unfolded the piece of paper he had brought back earlier.
The sheet of paper was quite large, and there was plenty of space between the lines of lyrics, which made it convenient for marking things.
When Zhuang Yi saw the Heaven lyrics and sheet music printed on the paper, he let out a sound of realization. “So that’s what it was!”
Earlier, when he had taken one of the notebooks Shen Xiu prepared, he had thought that folded sheet of paper set aside was just something Shen Xiu had grabbed on a whim—nothing important.
But clearly, anything that had passed through Shen Xiu’s hands never came without purpose. Everything had a reason.
After all the group members had written down their suggestions, they did need a printed copy of Heaven’s lyrics to mark each member’s most suitable parts based on everyone’s feedback.
Shen Xiu unfolded the paper, which took up an entire side of the table, and grabbed a pen, ready to tally and mark votes at any time.
To keep things confidential, all the feedback pages were turned face down. No one could see what was written until they were read aloud.
Song Chengwang picked up the pages everyone had written and began reading:
“This one’s from Song Chengwang—that’s me. First two lines of the verse: Shen Xiu, 1 vote; verse lines two to three: Lu Fei, 1 vote… first two lines of the chorus: Shen Xiu, 1 vote… final three lines before the outro: Shen Xiu, 1 vote.”
Shang Yu glanced over, his expression difficult to describe, shifting his gaze from Song Chengwang to Shen Xiu.
The rest of the group also started exchanging looks between Song Chengwang and Shen Xiu, clearly holding something back.
As one of the people being stared at, Shen Xiu: “…”
Great. He had no idea why everyone was looking at him again. Did he mess something up?
He lowered his gaze and carefully examined the printed lyrics on the sheet, flipping back and forth, checking them three times over, mentally replaying what Song Chengwang had just read.
There was nothing wrong. So… why was everyone looking at him?
If Shen Xiu were to look up at that moment, he would have noticed that the way his teammates were looking at him was tinged with obvious guilt.
Everyone watched him calmly and coolly recording the vote counts, wanting to say something, but not daring to.
Each of them couldn’t help thinking the same thing—surely… surely it’s not what we think it is, right?
There were nine people in the group!
It couldn’t be that every single one of them… was as straightforward as Song Chengwang and themselves.
Song Chengwang shrugged. “Why are you all staring at me and Shen Xiu? Didn’t we agree to assign parts based on each person’s singing voice? What did I do wrong?”
“Ha… nothing wrong.”
“Just keep going.”
“Yeah, go on.”
Looking at the awkward expressions on everyone’s faces, Song Chengwang couldn’t help but think—why did they all look so guilty?
He clicked his tongue, gave up on thinking too hard, and picked up the second piece of paper.
“This one’s from Lu Fei. First three lines of the verse… Shen Xiu—1 vote?”
As Song Chengwang’s eyes scanned through the rest of the content, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he gave Lu Fei a long, meaningful look. Lu Fei scratched his nose and guiltily averted his gaze.
“Ahem…” Song Chengwang cleared his throat and continued reading.
After finishing Lu Fei’s suggestions, the members of the Heaven group once again fell into a strange silence.
Shen Xiu, who had just finished writing down the vote tallies, started doubting reality again. He checked over the numbers he’d written—still accurate.
Shen Xiu: “…”
Forget it. There was no point trying to understand how everyone’s mind worked. He’d never figure them out anyway!
Song Chengwang muttered, “Third time’s the charm? I refuse to believe it’ll happen again.”
The members whose suggestions hadn’t been read yet quietly thought to themselves… Maybe… it really will happen again.
Song Chengwang picked up the third slip. “This one’s from Shang Yu…”
Before even finishing the reading, Song Chengwang caught sight of the rest of the content and silently looked over at Shang Yu.
Shang Yu could only smile—he really didn’t know what to say. Three people in a row sharing the exact same train of thought… Would Shen Xiu be angry?
Shang Yu’s suggestions, aside from a few differences in the other members’ parts, were virtually identical to the previous ones when it came to Shen Xiu’s. Not just similar—so identical that you couldn’t spot a single discrepancy even if you tried.
Undeterred, Song Chengwang grabbed the fourth slip of paper: “I’m telling you—wait, what the hell?!”
For the first time ever, their group was this united… and they were all united around Shen Xiu!
By the time he got to the eighth slip, Song Chengwang had gone numb.
After finishing the eighth set of suggestions, the tally for the parts assigned to Shen Xiu on the Heaven lyrics sheet was overwhelmingly higher than for anyone else.
With eight out of nine votes read, it was now obvious—no one could even lie to themselves anymore.
The group members who had all somehow shared the same thought process looked nervously at Shen Xiu, who was still recording votes with a calm, expressionless face.
Just simple numbers, but the sharp, precise strokes of Shen Xiu’s pen felt—perhaps out of guilt—like blades pressed against their throats.
And Shen Xiu? He was the cold, merciless executioner.
But… they really didn’t do it on purpose!
If they wanted Heaven to stand out, they had to take a different approach. Since the show’s rules didn’t allow any modifications, their only option was to focus on vocal interpretation, drawing out emotion to make the performance shine.
But the original version of Heaven had a flat, flavorless first verse—like plain water. Both lyrics and melody lacked impact.
If that part wasn’t sung well, the audience would lose interest during the intro, making it impossible to deliver an emotionally resonant performance later.
So, what they needed was a distinctive voice—something that could take those plain, unremarkable lyrics and make them anything but dull.
To put it bluntly, they needed Shen Xiu’s voice to hook the audience from the start.
That flat, uneventful opening verse was the hardest part of the entire song—and in silent agreement, they had all handed that challenge to Shen Xiu.
Because after listening to everyone’s recordings multiple times, only Shen Xiu’s voice gave them that immediate, heart-skipping feeling right from the first note.
After marking down the eighth set of votes, Shen Xiu waited a few seconds. Hearing no response from Song Chengwang, he looked up in confusion. “Not continuing?”
His cold voice was calm and even, betraying no emotion. Song Chengwang had no clue whether Shen Xiu was mad or not, so he just replied, “Alright, I’ll keep going.”
There was only one vote left—the final suggestion, from Shen Xiu himself.
Song Chengwang picked up the last sheet from the table, flipped it over, and when he read it, his eyes widened in disbelief.
