0713: You who shine in the parallel world

After two days of vocal training, the five members of "Under Investigation" officially began their dance training.

He Zhancheng helped simplify the choreography, but that doesn't mean the dance moves were directly turned into the "radio gymnastics" that Yu Yu is good at. He simply reduced some of the more complicated physical movements that are too complex for middle-aged people with no dance experience while ensuring the visual appeal and the match with the song. The difficulty level is similar to "Suspended" in the first performance, which was actually what Yu Yu requested.

In his view, it was unlikely that these middle-aged singers/actors, whose average age was thirty or forty, could complete a high-quality performance of an unfamiliar song and dance routine in two or three weeks, especially since Su Xiaoding was injured.

Like vocal music, dance requires a certain amount of talent and foundation. The more people involved in a group dance, the more it tests the teamwork and understanding between the members.

Instead of exhausting themselves with five-star difficulty dances, only to find that each of the five dancers—including their hands and feet—has their own ideas and struggles to even achieve basic synchronization, and may even neglect their vocal training because of the dance, resulting in a poor overall performance for the audience, it would be better to simplify the parts they are not good at and maximize their strengths.

Of the five of them, four had basic skills, and as for Su Xiaoding, his natural voice was also quite good; with proper training, he could have a magnificent voice.

Although He Zhancheng and Yu Yu only worked together on one performance, Yu Yu was one of his best friends since he started recording Pi Ge. In addition, they lived in the same dormitory and had the experience of working together on one stage. At this time, without Yu Yu saying much, he could understand what Yu Yu wanted.

“Considering Pin Guan and Xiao Ding’s situation, I’ve rearranged the dance. One of you three will be the main center dancer, or all three of you together, with two of you as backup dancers. The difficulty level will be a bit lower. This is just a matter of fact, and I hope you won’t mind.” He Zhancheng explained the general situation to the five people in the practice room of “Under Investigation”.

"No, of course not. I'd love to try singing and dancing, but I know my own limitations." Huang Pinguan shook his head. "Thank you for your thoughtful consideration, John. You were just here to help out."

“Yes, with my hand in a cast, it’s not convenient for me to do any difficult moves. Besides, you have your own stage to take care of,” Su Xiaoding said with gratitude.

The simultaneous translation device conveyed the meaning the two wanted to express. He Zhancheng smiled and waved his hand: "It's nothing. Our choreography was already finalized. The stage isn't too complicated, and Cyrus has been helping me a lot. I'm still privately talking to him about singing issues, so I'm just helping him to the end."

“No, John, we should still thank him,” Yu Yu said. He hadn’t expected that He Zhancheng would not only simplify the choreography for them, but also make targeted adjustments based on each person’s specific situation.

He Zhancheng had indeed privately consulted Yu Yu about the song for the second performance. In fact, it wasn't just him; Guan Zhibin had done the same. Considering that Yu Yu wasn't the team leader this time but was still responsible for a stage performance, Guan Zhibin initially thought Yu Yu was too busy and was hesitant to say so directly for fear of bothering him.

Yu Yu understood his hesitation and said frankly that the adaptation of "Under Investigation" was very simple and was completed on the same night as the group meeting with the production team. Their three-person team disbanded after the first performance, but their friendship would not fade. If they had any questions about music, they could come to him directly.

He Zhancheng was aware of this as well, because Yu Yu sent him the arrangement outline as soon as it was completed to facilitate his choreography. At that time, He Zhancheng said, half-jokingly and half-incredulously, "You mean, this is the arrangement you came up with that very night?"

Of course, he should never tell anyone, especially Chen Chusheng, that he finished the outline that night and seemed very busy, but actually just slacking off. After all, he has been playing the victim in the group chat, saying that he has been busy arranging music for the Pi Ge stage these past few days and that it has been too hard.

Unfortunately, his attempts to play the victim were seen through by his buddies long ago. Even the other three members of the re-employment group next door who hadn't joined Pi Ge wouldn't fall for Yu Yu's act.

However, Yu Yu thought He Zhancheng's so-called "returning a favor" was just a figure of speech, because he had very few lyrics in "Zhang San's Song," only one line, and the rest was all dance moves, like a backup dancer singing harmonies. Of course, He Zhancheng, who came to the event with the intention of happily getting to know the artists from China and making some money, only participated in the event with an entertainment mindset and did not care that the dancers from the top international dance troupe were just supporting roles.

If others really see him as a useless supporting character, that's another matter. Just because he seems optimistic and cheerful every day doesn't mean he doesn't have a temper.

Now, Yu Yu spends less time giving him private lessons than they spend chatting, clearly because He Zhancheng's choreography is much more complicated. They're not on the same team now, and to some extent, they're even competitors on the show. Yu Yu can't possibly dismiss the fact that he's gone to such lengths for them so easily.

How to express their gratitude is something for later; right now, their focus is on practicing their dance well and getting a high score for our captain.

Chen Chusheng also often leaves early and returns late. Occasionally, when he returns to the dormitory, he will have a small meeting with his uncle and Li Jiuzhe alone. It seems that he has really put a lot of effort into the "Walking Fish" stage.

Previously, Yu Yu mentioned that the main theme of the X-Part would be discussed together after He Zhancheng finished choreographing. He Zhancheng has his own stage to practice, and Yu Yu cannot take up too much of his time. So when he handed the choreography video to the dance teacher so that the dance teacher could lead everyone to learn, he pulled He Zhancheng to sit on the sofa at the back of the practice room.

He Zhancheng held a video of his X-Part segment, while Yu Yu held a notebook. The video played three times, He Zhancheng danced it live in a corner, and Yu Yu wrote out a rough outline of the main melody.

He Zhancheng, the first person to hear the full version of X-Part, was amazed for a long time but couldn't find the words to describe it. Finally, he said, "Man, I knew you understood my dance."

"But will you sing this part?"

"Sure, but unnecessary." Yu Yu shook her head, a knowing, enigmatic smile on her face. "Why should I do the work myself when someone else can do it?"

“Hmm… in a way, you’re right.” He Zhancheng revealed a gloating smile. “Then I wish that capable friend good luck, whoever he is. I’ll leave this place to you, Cyrus. I have another stage waiting for me to help out on my end.”

He Zhancheng greeted Yu Yu and the others. After they saw him off, Yu Yu closed the door, turned around, and waved to Wang Yuexin, who was about to continue studying. She said in a kind and gentle tone, "Yuexin, Yuexin, come here, let me show you a big treasure."

Looking at Yu Yu's warm and radiant smile, Wang Yuexin felt a chill run down her spine: "Why do I feel that Brother Haoming should take a look at this precious treasure more than I should?"

"It's okay, I'll show you first. After you see it, Haoming and the others will see it too."

"...Don't laugh, your laughter is making me scared."

Wang Yuexin said this, but his actions spoke louder than words. Under the curious gazes of others, he went to Yu Yu's side, took his computer, and put on his headphones.

And then, that was it. After listening, Wang Yuexin was overjoyed and excited, and also excited and enthusiastic. He felt both admiration and hesitation. He jumped up and exclaimed a couple of times, but then suddenly realized his rudeness and shrank back onto the sofa with an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. You guys continue, you guys continue." He waved to the other three, then looked at Yu Yu and asked uncertainly, "Should I do it?"

“You come.” Yu Yu nodded firmly.

"You really want me to do it?"

"I really let you come."

“But this is the X-Part, this part is too important, and I’ve been working on it for a long time…”

"Yuexin." Yu Yu's gentle hand rested lightly on Wang Yuexin's shoulder. Although she didn't apply much force, her hand carried an undeniable strength. The warmth from her palm flowed through his clothes and into his body. "You can do it."

Wang Yuexin was slightly taken aback.

"Oh!" A moment later he suddenly shouted and stood up, pounding his chest, "I'll do it, I can do it, I'll sing bel canto!"

The three people who had been eavesdropping on what the two were doing finally gave up and stopped pretending. They turned around incredulously and asked, "What? What bel canto? Another bel canto? Are we going to sing opera? Didn't we say before that we didn't have the copyright to 'The Phantom of the Opera'?"

Yu Yu looked puzzled: "What does not having copyright have to do with us singing opera? We may not sing 'The Phantom of the Opera,' but we can sing other things."

“We don’t have copyrights for other things either, do we?” Su Xiaoding said.

“I think what Yu Yu meant was that we would sing the operas we wrote ourselves,” Yu Haoming corrected Su Xiaoding.

“Bingo.” Yu Yu snapped her fingers. “After all, they’ve brought out the pipe organ, and the arrangement is already going in that direction. It’s just a matter of us writing a piece that’s easy for us. Of course, to be precise, what we’re doing isn’t opera. Traditional opera singing has a limited audience. What we’re doing is more like a musical, but the singing style will be a bit more like traditional opera.”

"Also, we only composed the original music, but we didn't write the lyrics ourselves. The lyrics are from the song 'Under Investigation' because we don't have the right to adapt the lyrics."

Huang Pin-Kuan, the eldest member of the team, remained silent for a moment after listening, then suddenly said, "Although we haven't finished practicing the dance part yet, I don't know why, but I have a feeling that this stage performance should be a sure thing."

What seemed like overly confident words at first glance, however, made the parties involved laugh out loud, saying that Victor Wong was being too cautious and should be bolder, removing the "should".

Of course, Yu Yu couldn't just hand over the X-Part vocal part to Wang Yuexin and then ignore everything else. During this time, in addition to practicing dance and continuing to supervise others and go through vocal training a few times in his spare time, he also accompanied Wang Yuexin to practice opera and musical theater vocals.

However, in Wang Yuexin's eyes, Yu Yu's actions were not just "sparring" with him, but rather genuinely "training" him.

In this X-Part, he doesn't just need to sing dolphin-like high notes; he also has lyrics.

The training went smoothly until the afternoon of August 4th, when the production team suddenly announced the rules for the red card mini-test in the lobby.