0713: You who shine in the parallel world

Despite the laughter, Zhang Yuan still delivered Wang Yuexin's newly added height-increasing insoles early the next morning, and of course, he still laughed loudly when he handed them to Wang Yuexin.

There were no recording plans this morning, so the brothers had half a day of free time. They could sleep in and do nothing in their dorms, or they could use the time to think about the stage for the third performance. The reality show recording would begin in the afternoon.

In fact, besides the performance stage, there are also many reality show segments in the backstage dormitory. For example, they once recorded a team dance performance, and the two directors judged which team would win. The winning team would get a chance to do a team dance to garner votes during the second performance.

Yu Yu, who wasn't interested in this, coasted through the whole thing. He was already on the edge of the group, so it was easy for him to get away with it, but he probably wouldn't be able to do it in this afternoon's reality show, because the afternoon's event was a "sports meet".

Yesterday was filled with performances and recordings for group song selections. Most of the brothers chose to rest in their dorms this morning. Only a very few, like Yu Yu who has boundless energy, got up early as usual and ran a few laps around the lakeside park. Then they went to a nearby breakfast stall, bought some steamed buns, soy milk, and fried dough sticks, and also picked up two bowls of Hunan rice noodles.

Yu Yu gets up early, so much so that the production crew couldn't find a cameraman to follow him. Of course, he was just out for a morning exercise, so there was no need to bother the cameraman to follow him, as that would only make him, who already had some fame, even more conspicuous.

However, since Yu Yu was going to buy breakfast alone, he was destined not to be able to pack it up and bring it back for everyone in the dormitory. So he could only leave it to fate and see who got up after he returned so that they could eat YuYu Flash Delivery. The early bird catches the worm, after all.

When Yu Yu returned to the dormitory, she bumped into Zhang Yuan, who was on his way to deliver height-increasing insoles.

Wang Yuexin, whose eyes were still swollen from sleep, took the insole. Looking at Zhang Yuan's teasing expression and hearing his restrained but not excessive laughter, Wang Yuexin's anger also woke her up.

"Oh, what a coincidence, want to have breakfast?" Yu Yu looked at the two people standing at the door and gestured to them with the Xingcheng specialty carbohydrate breakfast in her hand.

"Hello, I'll have a bite." Zhang Yuan, who hadn't eaten anything since getting up, took out a steamed bun and started munching on it. Then he saw that Yu Yu had also bought corn, so he reached out and grabbed a sticky corn. "Hello, I'll have another bite."

Yu Yu looked at him, who had a steamed bun in one hand and corn in the other, and asked with a slightly serious "concern": "Brother Yuan, did you wash your hands after you picked up the insoles?"

Zhang Yuan, who was eating a steamed bun, was stunned.

Wang Yuexin was fully awake, and the evil dragon roared, "That's brand new!"

Then he realized that there were still people resting, so he immediately lowered his voice and emphasized, "I haven't even worn them!"

"It's alright, it doesn't matter if we've been through it. Anyway, Brother Yuan has already eaten. Since things have come to this, how about a bowl of rice noodles?" Yu Yu gestured to the rice noodles in his hand. He had specifically asked the noodle shop owner to pack the noodles and soup separately.

Wang Yuexin replied instantly: "Okay, wait for me to wash up."

Then, the three of them casually dragged a few chairs to the corridor outside their dormitory room and ate breakfast while enjoying the lake view in front of them.

For Zhang Yuan, having a meat bun for breakfast was already quite a treat. Now, as he munched on corn while watching Yu Yu and Wang Yuexin slurping fried dough sticks and rice noodles in spicy soup, he felt completely unsatisfied.

Yu Yu could tell he was craving rice noodles just by watching him smack his lips, so she casually tossed him a chopstickful. He hesitated for less than two seconds before slurping it down in one big gulp.

Thanks to Zhang Yuan's loud laugh, Chen Chusheng and Yu Haoming woke up in the room. Hearing the noise outside, they peeked out while rubbing the face wash foam off their faces. Seeing that there was a dinner party outside, they immediately ran back to wash off the foam and came out in their pajamas.

"Maybe I was too tired yesterday, but I think the bowl of noodles Xiaoyu brought back is absolutely amazing," Wang Yuexin said, handing the bowl to Yu Haoming.

Chen Chusheng also slurped a few mouthfuls of noodles from Yu Yu's hand; for him, the noodles were still a bit spicy.

But with two bowls of noodles and five people slurping them down, each person would only take a few pieces before it was gone. I guess only a group of brothers with a strong sense of family could do this without any pressure.

When Cai Guoqin and He Zhancheng came out, the five of them had already finished eating everything. But it didn't matter. Wang Yuexin said he could cook a bowl of noodles for Teacher Cai, and if He Zhancheng liked Western breakfast, Yu Yu could also make some sandwiches.

The six of them moved to the restaurant, and Wang Yuexin cooked noodles for the remaining two roommates who hadn't had breakfast yet, adding poached eggs.

Midway through, Ma Xiaolong came over and took Zhang Yuan away, saying that their captain Wang Yaoqing wanted to have a meeting to discuss stage ideas. Soon after, Yu Haoming and Cai Guoqin also left one after another. It seems that on the first day after the second performance, most teams decided to immediately adjust their state and start preparing for the next performance without stopping.

"Wow, he's really working hard. It's so good to be young." This lazy bum, whose physical age is not even thirty-four, sighed in such an old-fashioned manner, with one hand on the back of the chair behind He Zhancheng and his legs crossed. Because he was good-looking, he looked very relaxed. If it were someone else, it would probably look like an old man sitting on a park bench sunbathing.

The four people remaining at the table looked at each other, unsure whether they should continue to slack off or also give it a try.

Finally, team leader Chen Chusheng took the lead and spoke up: "What are everyone's thoughts on our next performance?"

“I’m fine with anything. I’ll be wherever our team needs me.” Wang Yuexin raised her hand and volunteered to be a brick in the wall. “According to the case given by the program team yesterday, this is a proper rock stage. If we follow their ideas and just do the sound, light and electricity and directly create a band, I can take over the drum set. If X-Part wants to add dance, I can learn it on the spot.”

“We definitely need to incorporate dance; this is the biggest advantage of the exhibition, and we must showcase that.” Chen Chusheng nodded.

"Hey, Sheng-ge, ever since you decided to collaborate on this singing and dancing show, it's like a whole new world has opened up for you," Yu Yu teased.

In addition to the stages for the six tribes, the third public performance also includes two collaborative stages for the tribes, featuring the songs "Karaoke Forever OK" and "Moonlight," both of which are dance performances, though the former is slightly less difficult.

Chen Chusheng, Lao Jiu, and Ma Boqian's tribes were drawn to receive "Karaoke Forever OK", while "Moonlight" automatically went to Wang Yaoqing, Hu Yanbin, and Lin Zhiying's tribes.

Yu Yu jokingly referred to this as a clash between the show's pre-selected captain and the captain who defied fate.

Chen Chusheng made a decisive decision last night that he, as the team leader, would take the lead in the tribal collaboration show instead of He Zhancheng. He has already figured out the Pigo stage. If he wants to gain an advantage on stage, he must make unexpected changes. He decided to come to the Pigo show in the first place to make a breakthrough for himself.

Since many people, including his brothers, were looking forward to his singing and dancing, and Zhang Yuan had made a promise during the second performance that he would never sing and dance to provoke him, then he would give it a try. Fortunately, "Karaoke Forever OK" is not too difficult.

Those who are prepared to see a joke may not necessarily see one.

Yu Yu nodded with satisfaction: "Thank you, Yuanyuan. Our Brother Sheng is really good at being provoked; he always gets it right."

“I can dance to ‘Love You,’ so this song should be okay too, right?” Chen Chu said confidently.

Yu Yu and Wang Yuexin were slightly taken aback. Their eyes met unexpectedly in the air, and the next second they burst out laughing at the same time. He Zhancheng, who was unaware of the inside story, was a little confused when he saw them laughing so exaggeratedly.

"Love You? Is there anything special about this song?"

"Come on, John, let me give you a little background. 'Love You' is a sweet little song by the 'Sweetheart Queen,' and the dance is a sweet girl group dance, somewhat similar to Japanese otaku dances. But that's not the main point, the main point is—"

Yu Yu reached out her hand to Wang Yuexin, who, as if prepared, placed her phone, which had already searched for the video, into Yu Yu's hand.

"Please watch the video."

Chen Chusheng watched his two younger brothers teasing and joking around, feeling both amused and exasperated. However, he didn't stop them. After He Zhancheng finished reading, he jokingly asked, "You must have some talent, right? You have to have some."

Finally realizing what Yu Yu and Wang Yuexin were laughing about, He Zhancheng stared at the frozen image of the reversed heart gesture on the screen, suppressed his wildly upturned lips, and commented seriously, "That's cool, I've seen worse."

Then he couldn't suppress the smile on his face, and Chen Chusheng couldn't help but laugh like a wrinkled shark.

After the laughter subsides, let's get back to the main point. Since Chen Chusheng just suggested adding dance, it proves that he actually already had an idea for this song.

"During the second performance, because Yu incorporated musical theater elements into the song 'Investigation,' I had previously watched some musical theater clips with similar styles and themes, which gave me some inspiration for this song." Chen Chusheng always speaks clearly and methodically when explaining his stage ideas.

“Our song, ‘Interview with the Vampire,’ may have vampires on the surface, but it’s actually more about deconstructing life and exploring the meaning of living and the value of oneself. People will always reach different stages as time goes by. Familiar people around us may always walk with us, or they may drift apart as we walk.”

"People may be lonely because they are born as individuals, but it is precisely because there are millions of individuals around us, and because we come together, that we can feel the love of other individuals around us."

"So I think our X-Part can embody a process of gradually moving from being confused, lost, and like a walking corpse to moving forward with determination. For example, there is a zombie dance in the musical 'Dance of the Vampires' where a zombie crawls out of a coffin, or the zombie dance at the beginning of the musical 'The Addams Family.' I think it would be great to make it into a group of weird people dancing together, as well as MJ's stage performances."

As Chen Chusheng spoke, Yu Yu translated for He Zhancheng, so when he finished, He Zhancheng understood what he meant. His eyes lit up, clearly interested in Chen Chusheng's idea: "Oh, I know what kind of feeling you want. This requires backup dancers, at least twenty, to bring out that bizarre and dark feeling, and music too..."

"Don't worry about the arrangement." Yu Yu waved her hand casually. "Whatever Brother Sheng wants, I can make it into something like this. But dance alone isn't enough for X-Part; this is rock music that's going to rock the stage."

Chen Chusheng instantly understood the persuasive tone behind Yu Yu's words: "Then let's add electric guitar, Yu, the two of us, do an electric guitar routine with a zombie dance, Yuexin and Zhancheng will lead the main dance on either side of us, and then..."

"Brother, don't worry about that now. We have a master choreographer now, so you don't need to nitpick the details or how to move around in the dance anymore," Yu Yu reminded him with a smile.

Chen Chusheng, who was used to worrying about everything, including the backup dancers' costumes, chuckled and said, "Yes, we have Zhan Cheng, and of course I trust Zhan Cheng's aesthetic sense."