Trainee Ch.68

Chapter 68: The Third Performance (4)

Lai Yudong’s impression of Yin Zizhen had always been that of a polite, good-at-eating cool boy.

Although Yin Zizhen was young, his rap skills ranked at the top among all the trainees. And unlike many rappers who treated rudeness as a form of “personality,” his bows and honorifics made him stand out like a refreshing breeze.

This wasn’t meant to put down Li Xu. He had a fiery temper and blunt way of speaking, but his character was solid — a different kind of refreshing presence.

All in all, Yin Zizhen was a good kid, through and through.

Now Yin Zizhen had even stepped forward to help. His eagerness to lend a hand was unexpected to Lai Yudong, though it was also possible that Lai Yudong’s rapping was simply so unbearable that others couldn’t stand by and listen.

Either way, every passerby with a good heart had to be gathered into his pocket.

The more skills, the better — the more teachers, the braver.

“I need it.” Lai Yudong didn’t bother with fake modesty. Pretending to decline would only make him seem clueless and ungrateful for the opportunity.

“But… are you okay with your own part? Yours should come first. I can practice my next section later.”

Yin Zizhen tilted his face up and replied seriously, “No problem. I only have two rap verses, and I’ve pretty much practiced them to the point of perfection.”

Other than Yin Zizhen’s personal parts, the chorus of “Grotesque” only contained a few interjections, so the tricky melodies were more of a concern for the vocal positions. Rappers, in comparison, had it much easier.

Of course, not every song was arranged this way. Some center (C-position) parts only had two or three lines total, while other songs had choruses that made up a large portion of the performance.

The rap sections in “Grotesque” were already considered plentiful. In the neighboring group, one rap position had only two lines. At least both Yin Zizhen and Li Xu had been given two full verses each.

[Xiao Zhen’s learning speed is amazing]

[Once you give him the flow and lyrics, of course he can pick it up fast]

[He’s clearly the maknae, yet he’s worrying about his older teammates, hahaha]

[Zhen-baby is only sixteen]

[The rappers in this group are all so young. Even the redhead just became an adult.]

—Sixteen?

Lai Yudong was surprised. Yin Zizhen was actually a year younger than he had imagined. Standing a little over 1.7 meters, he wasn’t short at all, and he still had room to grow.

“Then I’ll trouble you.”

The two quickly reached an agreement, and with a mix of unfamiliarity and politeness, they found a corner to begin their “teaching mode.”

“Let’s start by correcting your pronunciation skills.” Yin Zizhen, like a little grown-up, held the lyric sheet carefully. “Brother Yuki, your English sounds too solid.”

“Is my enunciation too heavy?”

“No, it’s too standard.”

Lai Yudong: “…”

Standard—a “flaw” that had always stuck to him.

Not only was his Chinese too standard, now even his English was considered too standard?

Good thing no one asked why he didn’t have a Japanese accent.

Before long, Li Xu also came over. He plopped himself down on the other side, sandwiching Lai Yudong in the middle. His posture didn’t look like he was here to teach, but rather to supervise.

Lai Yudong tilted his head and asked, “You finished practicing too?”

“More or less.”

Li Xu propped one leg up, resting his hand on his knee, looking half-distant and aloof—yet never saying what exactly brought him over.

Lai Yudong watched him with amusement for a moment but didn’t press further. Anyway, when the time came, Li Xu would speak up on his own.

Sure enough, the supposedly lofty rapper opened his golden mouth not long after.

Yin Zizhen: “The stress in this sentence is on the verb.”

Li Xu: “Prepositions should be weakened in pronunciation.”

Yin Zizhen: “The ‘p’ in this word isn’t pronounced.”

Li Xu: “Change it to a ‘b.’”

Yin Zizhen: “Here the ‘a’ should be linked.”

Li Xu: “Together with the verb.”

Lai Yudong: “…”

Stereo teaching?

[Help, why is this so funny]

[Yuzu is working himself to death kkk]

[Are you two doing a comedy routine here?]

As a student living under someone else’s roof, Lai Yudong didn’t dare make a sound. He combined the knowledge points from both sides and quietly buried his head in taking notes.

He hypnotized himself: his teacher’s name was Yin Xu.

In the end, it was Yin Zizhen who couldn’t sit still. He leaned forward, head poking out, earnestly suggested: “Brother, why don’t you do it instead?”

“Why? Isn’t this working fine?” Li Xu’s confusion didn’t sound fake. “You’re the one teaching. I’m not very good at teaching people, I’m just helping you patch things up.”

Yin Zizhen hesitated: “But…”

“—How about this.”

Lai Yudong had no choice but to give up pretending to be invisible.

There was no helping it. One was too obedient, the other too domineering. From the outside, it might look like Li Xu was bullying the kid.

But if he went along with Yin Zizhen, Li Xu might take it the wrong way; if he didn’t, Yin Zizhen would feel troubled. Worse, it could look like they were ganging up. The earlier exchange between Jiang Yangfan and Zhao Yifeng had already felt a bit delicate to him.

Anyway, it was just another one of those no-win situations he was already used to.

“Li Xu, wait until the younger brother finishes analyzing a line. Otherwise, with two teaching methods mixed together, it sounds a little confusing to me.”

Lai Yudong first switched the way he addressed Yin Zizhen to “younger brother,” then shifted the problem onto himself. In the end, it was a compromise: he wanted both teachers.

“…Oh, fine then.”

Li Xu propped his chin up with one hand, sitting off to the side like an accompanying study buddy, and his interjections became much less frequent.

[Sorry, but Brother Xu really looks like a guard dog husky]

[The Battle of the Husky and the Bichon Over Yuzu]

[@Song Yanxi]

[Stop expanding the battlefield already!]

Fortunately, the rap lesson after that went smoothly.

With his teammates’ help, Lai Yudong corrected those English lines into rap-friendly pronunciation. His lyric sheet was now filled edge to edge with notes, complete with underlines and slashes. After this, all he had to do was practice according to his notes.

He felt like a brand-new person at this moment.

Full of confidence, Lai Yudong asked, “So I can sing it now?”

Yin Zizhen mercilessly struck him back down: “Pronunciation is only the very basics.”

Sorry—turns out he hadn’t even reached the starting line yet.

“Divide the rhythm, remember the flow, then bring the lyrics into the beat. First practice slowly until you’re familiar, then sing at full speed. If that’s hard, you can replace the lyrics with ‘da-da-da.’ Once the rhythm is smooth, adding the words will be easier. Your rap part isn’t long, so you don’t need to learn too systematically for efficiency’s sake.”

Lai Yudong nodded. “Got it.”

Now that it was explained, the logic of practicing rap wasn’t that different from singing and dancing. Concepts like rhythm and beat were things he’d already learned in dance and vocal classes, and the slow-to-full-speed method was exactly the same as how he practiced choreography.

It felt like his meridians had been cleared.

“I’m going to get some water.” Yin Zizhen stood up, his mouth dry from nonstop pronunciation corrections. “I’ll leave the singing practice to Brother Li Xu. Just a short break for me.”

Lai Yudong said sincerely, “Thank you. You’ve worked hard.”

“It’s fine. As long as Brother Yuki doesn’t dislike rap, I’m happy.”

“I don’t dislike it.”

“That’s great.” Yin Zizhen broke into a smile—the first one he’d shown since offering to help. “If this makes you develop an interest in rap, I’ll feel a real sense of accomplishment.”

It was only then that Lai Yudong understood the reason behind his help. It was purer than kindness or pursuit of stage success—he simply wanted more people to get used to his passion.

For that, he was willing to be a guide.

Lai Yudong’s brows relaxed as he smiled. “I’m starting to feel the charm of rap.”

Yin Zizhen’s smile grew even brighter. “Mm!”

[Yuzu’s answer—legendary.]

[Huh? What’s so legendary about it?]

[He didn’t directly say whether he’s interested or not, but the answer sounded nice. Look, Yin Zizhen is literally bouncing as he walks—this kid must be over the moon.]

[“Younger Rapper Collector”]

Watching the black-haired boy’s back as he left the practice room, Li Xu propped his face on one hand and remarked in a subtly thoughtful tone, “He really does love it.”

Lai Yudong shifted his attention away from the scrolling comments. “Aren’t you the same?”

Li Xu gave a short laugh. “With my level of awareness, I’m not that kind. Whether other people like rap or not—what’s it got to do with me?”

“So you weren’t teaching me out of passion,” Lai Yudong teased.

“Passion my ass.” Li Xu twitched the corner of his mouth. “It’s just that you didn’t know the first thing about rap. If Yin Zizhen got too optimistic about you and it turned out you couldn’t actually pull it off, I’d at least be around as a backup plan.”

Lai Yudong thought, judging by how often you chimed in, you really don’t look like just a backup.

But it was better to keep that to himself.

“Well, the backup’s become the main plan now.” Lai Yudong picked up the lyric sheet and got back into study mode. “Sorry to trouble you with the guided singing, Brother Xu.”

Li Xu shot him a sideways look. “Aren’t you older than me?”

“Little Brother Xu.”

“…? Do it yourself.”

Lai Yudong nodded in understanding. “Then I’ll wait until Yin Zizhen finishes resting.”

Li Xu: “…”

Li Xu: “You’re so damn annoying. How did I not notice before that you talk this much?”

Lai Yudong tilted his head. “Maybe… I’d been poisoned mute?”

“…”

[That made me laugh out loud]

[Baby, so you do know you barely talked at the start!!!]

[If Yuzu weren’t so beautiful, I don’t know how I’d have lasted until he finally opened up]

[I once seriously suspected my bias was just a display specimen]

Lai Yudong guiltily pretended not to see.

Not only did he know—he’d even seen comments betting on how many words he’d say.

Wasn’t it obvious by now? The audience didn’t really care much about his Chinese skills!

On this point, he guessed the system might have given him the “fluent Chinese” setting to patch up a loophole.

Just like with the “Crazy Thursday” thing or running into a scam group—he had never actually eaten KFC, nor met the production team, but the script the system handed him said so, even urging him to admit it to Li Xu.

—Being logically self-consistent might be Lai Yudong’s greatest blessing.

Unsurprisingly, Li Xu’s strike ended in failure.

He muttered something under his breath, then resignedly raised the lyric sheet and, expressionless, sang the first line.

As the last word fell, a pure voice chimed in beside him:

“Amazing.”

The sudden praise caught Li Xu completely off guard. He shot a glare at the clapping, admiring blond boy and barked fiercely, “Quit the nonsense and sing already.”

Lai Yudong: “?”

Had he said something explosive again?

It couldn’t just be because of a compliment, right?

After a moment’s thought, Lai Yudong summoned the spirit of a bold fisherman trying his luck: “Really amazing.”

“…Just hurry up and sing!” Li Xu almost wanted to sing in his place.

Alright, confirmed.

[Brother Xu, you… (words left unsaid)]

[He’s been completely handled]

[The tsundere vs. straight-shooter combo is comedy gold 233]

[This is more like explosive tsundere, isn’t it?]

Lai Yudong didn’t intend to tease further. He cleared his throat and mimicked Li Xu’s singing style once through.

When he finished, he set down the lyric sheet and waited for feedback.

He was already mentally prepared to be ripped to shreds.

But contrary to what he expected, Li Xu only frowned. “You’re singing timidly, like An Mu in front of the camera… or like Xu An. Your voice isn’t even fully coming out. How am I supposed to help you like this? Don’t hold back when you sing—I’m not going to laugh at you.”

Lai Yudong chose to selectively ignore the slip of a fan nickname.

Feeling embarrassed, he scratched his cheek and honestly admitted his mindset: “I sound so weird. The moment I open my mouth, it feels wrong, so the more I sing, the more self-conscious I get.”

Li Xu shot him a glance and said coolly, “That’s normal. Everyone starts out as a beginner.”

“Don’t overthink it—just sing boldly.”

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