0713: You who shine in the parallel world

Two days before the second performance, they were notified at the last minute that they needed to prepare an extra stage for the showdown. Chen Chusheng, who had been focused on the performance stage, certainly couldn't bring up a completely new stage that he wasn't familiar with.

Therefore, in order to help Su Xiaoding get rid of the red card, Chen Chusheng unleashed his trump card: "Missing a Wasted Name," a song he had previously performed on the "Singer" stage.

Unlucky Xiao Ma initially prepared a slow song, but during rehearsal, he was completely overwhelmed by Chen Chusheng's "Little Longing" and had to go back to prepare a fast song.

While Ma Boqian and his teammates were brainstorming and racking their brains about how to create a lively atmosphere and how to rearrange the song, Chen Chusheng felt that this song only needed his guitar; anything more would just make it cluttered.

The night before the second performance, Yu Yu returned to her dormitory late from rehearsal and missed getting a chance to shower.

After queuing to take a shower, he changed into his loungewear and walked out while drying his hair.

Captain Zhang Yuan and Teacher Cai were still rehearsing in the studio and hadn't returned yet. He Zhancheng and Guan Zhibin were, unsurprisingly, in their respective tribe leaders' rooms. In the dormitory, Wang Yuexin was pulling Yu Haoming through the dance moves one last time, but their captain, Chen Chusheng, was nowhere to be seen.

"You two just finished showering and then you keep dancing? Doesn't that mean you've wasted your shower? And what about Sheng-ge? Did he go to the kitchen for a midnight snack?" Yu Yu asked.

"No, we have a performance tomorrow, and we agreed not to eat after 8 o'clock," Wang Yuexin said. "It's all Haoming's fault. He just said that there was a part where we didn't dance like that."

“I was just saying your movements weren’t very smooth.” Yu Haoming wouldn’t sit idly by while Wang Yuexin “distorted the truth.” He immediately explained before saying to Yu Yu, “I just finished showering. Brother Sheng said he wanted to go out for some fresh air and have some tea.”

"Oh, drinking tea so late at night?" Yu Yu raised an eyebrow. "I'll go check. How can you eat alone?"

Yu Yu hung the towel on the rack and went out wearing slippers.

Pi Ge's dormitory is located on a small island in the lake of Moon Lake Park. It is surrounded by the lake and has a nice and quiet environment. However, it is currently the height of summer. Living here in this season, even at night, surrounded by moisture, it is still a bit stuffy and hot outside. Fortunately, there are occasional night breezes that help to soothe the heat in one's heart.

Yu Yu found Chen Chusheng sitting on a deck chair in the courtyard by the lake. There was no GoPro set up here, and many of the brothers liked to come here to get some fresh air during breaks from recording.

As Yu Haoming said, he was indeed drinking tea, tea in the literal sense, not the alcoholic beverage that his friends were jokingly referring to.

"Brother Sheng, it's so late and you're still drinking tea? Don't you want to sleep?" Yu Yu walked over and sat down on the chair next to him. At this moment, they weren't wearing microphones, so they didn't have to worry about what they couldn't say.

"Hmm?" Chen Chusheng heard the voice, looked up and saw Yu Yu had arrived. He reached out and poured Yu Yu a cup with his own cup. "It's nothing. This is calming herbal tea with jujube seed, lily bulb and poria cocos."

Yu Yu took the cup and smelled it. It did indeed have the fragrance of floral tea, and the taste was quite light, with a slightly bittersweet flavor.

"Brother, are you starting to focus on health now?" he teased.

Chen Chusheng smiled and said, "Maybe I caught the habit of going to bed early for health from Teacher Cai's constant nagging."

"As a result, Teacher Cai and Captain Wang Zhang haven't returned yet."

"Yuan Yuan has really changed a lot in this second performance, or rather, the identity of the team leader has revitalized him. He even discussed the stage design with Teacher Kenn several times before." Chen Chusheng thought of when he went to find Chen Weilun and occasionally ran into Zhang Yuan having a small meeting with Chen Qiyuan, and he sighed.

"Of course. Although Yuan Yuan sometimes seems a bit unreliable for the sake of the show, he's quite capable once someone puts him in a position to handle things."

Yu Yu nodded. Zhang Yuan always said that he was prone to internal conflict, but it was precisely because of his overthinking and caring nature that when others chose him to be the captain because of their trust, he would do everything well, regardless of whether it was a TV show or not, for the sake of his teammates and to live up to their trust and expectations.

Thinking of this, Yu Yu changed the subject and looked at Chen Chusheng: "Don't talk about things from afar, Brother Sheng, you yourself have changed quite a bit over the years."

Chen Chusheng did not respond.

“Look, during the first public performance, the four of you plus Teacher Cai, your team was more like a big family that made decisions together through voting than a captain plus four members. At that time, you didn’t put yourself in the position of captain.”

At that time, Yu Yu even felt that she was more like a team leader than him.

Although he told Kenny Kwan and Ho Chin-ching that there was no distinction between the three of them as captains, and he often talked about slacking off, it was impossible for someone who was used to being "tough" in music and had received elite education since childhood to be put in a leadership position as always.

Yu Yu also knew that this was because Chen Chusheng and the other brothers, even though they had heard rumors beforehand, subconsciously still regarded the Phi Phi stage as a regular music variety show and did not realize that in Phi Phi, simply performing well on stage was not enough.

Here, music is never simple; it's not the only element of the show.

So, when did Chen Chusheng begin to change?

Perhaps it was when the intensity of the second public performance stage increased, perhaps it was when the production team secretly set a trap for "Under Investigation" but was outmaneuvered by Yu Yu, or perhaps it was when they were subtly influenced by Yu Yu's "internal technical superiority and external (production team) strong pressure" during rehearsals.

Or perhaps, during the twenty minutes he faced alone with the program's hints of behind-the-scenes manipulation after the red card assessment results were announced, he finally realized that he couldn't be a musician who only focused on the stage in this program.

Clearly, he hasn't been in a good mood these past two days. The production team's requirement for him to sit idly by and watch Su Xiaoding be "optimized" completely crossed his bottom line. Then he discovered that even after he replaced Su Xiaoding in the competition, the production team could still get the popularity they wanted, and even more, which left him feeling somewhat helpless.

Yu Yu could tell, but he wouldn't say it directly. At their age, they were no longer the young people who needed counselors to talk to them all the time. Sometimes, unspoken companionship was more useful than direct analysis.

"Now I'm getting into the swing of things." So, Chen Chusheng simply said, "I've been thinking about one thing."

"What's wrong? Do you need my help?" Yu Yu finished the tea Chen Chusheng had poured for her and poured him another cup.

"I want to quit smoking, quit completely." Chen Chusheng took the teacup that Yu Yu handed him.

Yu Yu raised an eyebrow: "I thought you had quit a long time ago. I haven't seen you light any since I came back."

"It's just a rare occurrence, occasionally in private, so I haven't completely given it up."

"So you don't understand the purpose of quitting smoking? Is it just one more puff that brings you into the cycle of life, aging, sickness, and death?"

The slightly serious atmosphere was lifted by Yu Yu's words, and Chen Chusheng immediately laughed: "I really didn't understand the lyrics I wrote when I was young."

"You're not that old yet."

"But in order to maintain my condition, not only for the high-intensity stage of Pike, but also for more stages in the future, sometimes I really do have to eat this."

Yu Yu glanced at Chen Chusheng, then looked away, rested her head on her arms, and lay back on the recliner. Gazing at the bright moon and sparse stars of Xia Yexing City, she suddenly said:

"Chusheng, I'm going to tell you a secret, but don't tell anyone else."

"Hmm?"

“I had a nightmare before, and it was so terrible that I still remember it very clearly.”

"So there's something you're afraid of, fish? You're the kind of person who can run rampant in a locked room." Chen Chusheng thought Yu Yu was making up a story to tease him.

“Of course, no matter how reckless I am, I’m still human, of course I have fears.” Yu Yu shrugged, her tone so calm it was as if she were telling a story. “In that nightmare, I dreamt that I had a terminal illness.”

"Of course, what's terrifying isn't death itself, but that the terminal illness is strange. It's not any kind of cancer or tumor in this world, and the cure rate is low. There's only one special drug that can help sustain life. And the side effect of that drug is that it will permanently damage the vocal cords. You can barely speak, but you'll never be able to sing again."

"...Then what about you?" Chen Chusheng already knew the answer.

"Either give up singing or die?" Yu Yu curled the corners of her mouth. "In my nightmare, I didn't think twice and chose to sing my heart out before the last second of the countdown."

"Of course, it's all just a dream. It's all so imaginative. Heaven knows how I could dream about a strange disease that doesn't exist in this world at all. I don't even know if I have a brain in my dream. And in my dream, I don't seem to know any of you. I have no relatives or brothers. But I do have a few friends who can sing a song of my dying breath to the guests at my grave."

Yu Yu shrugged: "Of course, that's not the point. The point is that singing is a very important thing to me, so I can do anything for it. If it's just as important to you, you can do it too. It's not just about quitting smoking, or enduring or tearing up the script of the show. Just stick to what you want to do, Chusheng. We will support you."

Chen Chusheng silently raised his teacup, but unfortunately they only had one cup, so Yu Yu couldn't toast with him.

Finally, Chen Chusheng suddenly asked, "So what about now? If it were you now, what would you choose?"

Yu Yu knew what he was asking.

A dangerous thought made him hesitate for a moment, and after a few slow steps, he replied in a seemingly casual tone: "Of course it's a cure. If I can't sing, I can still write. I'll let you sing it for me, and I can also morally blackmail you by telling you that this is the last song I want to sing but can never sing in my life."

"Those songs you want to sing are probably not simple."

"So hurry up and take action, or you'll really have one more bite to eat."

“...I’m thinking that for the next performance, I need to bring you onto the same stage as me.”

"Seriously, bro? The second performance hasn't even started and you're already thinking about how to exploit me in the third performance?"

……

A full moon, a few stars, two deck chairs, a teacup, two brothers sitting together, chatting until late at night.

When Zhang Yuan returned after rehearsal, he saw Chen Chusheng and Yu Yu lying in the courtyard talking about something. His previously exhausted body suddenly felt stronger, and he walked towards them with a smile.

"You two, you seafood, aren't you going out to feed the mosquitoes in the middle of the night?"

"Isn't it all because I was waiting for you?" Yu Yu said.

"Go away, who would believe you? You're just spouting lies." Zhang Yuan said with obvious disgust, waving his hand to make Yu Yu move aside. "Move over a bit, let me lie down, I'm exhausted."

"How dare you, covered in sweat and stench, squeeze next to me, who smells fresh after a shower?" Yu Yu said with obvious disgust, but he still shifted his position to make room for Zhang Yuan.

"I knew you two hadn't gone back yet; you must be waiting for me outside." Wang Yuexin's voice came from behind.

After he and Yu Haoming finished their last dance before bed, they noticed that Chen Chusheng and Yu Yu hadn't returned yet. They went outside and, sure enough, the three of them were crammed onto two deck chairs.

"We should suggest to the production team tomorrow that at least five deck chairs be placed here." Wang Yuexin squeezed closer to Chen Chusheng, who obligingly moved to make room for her.

Yu Haoming stood still: "Then where should I sit?"

Wang Yuexin slapped her thigh: "Here, this is your reward."

"Then I really thank you." He said, and then plopped down next to Yu Yu.

"Help! Neither of you have showered!" Yu Yu, squeezed in the middle, resignedly became the filling of a sandwich.

"With the three of them sticking together like this, even if we wash it, we'll have to wash it again," Chen Chusheng said, both amused and exasperated.

“Teacher Cai just got back, and there’s still one shower stall left,” Yu Haoming suddenly said.

The air was silent for a moment.

"I go first!"

"No, I should go first!"

"Whoever grabs it first gets to go!"

The five of them rushed back to the dormitory, just like the childish boys in the castle who used to fight over who would take a shower first.