The number one playboy on the Peninsula!

Chapter 243 Teacher Gong: You must consider whether this is... (Seeking monthly votes)
"Tzuyu, how could I possibly lie to you?"

"It's true, there's a trainee who looks a lot like you..." On April 12th, at eight o'clock in the morning, Gong Cheng woke up in the hotel and quickly changed into casual clothes. The weather near Incheon was very sunny today, with blue skies and white clouds. Seeing Zhou Tzuyu's face on the other end of the video call, which looked incredulous after she had just washed up, he continued, "Really..."

"It's a trainee named Zhou. You can watch it after the show airs. He has droopy eyebrows just like you, so he looks a lot like you." Gong Cheng said, giving his analysis. Yesterday, at the recording, the trainee he was talking about made a deep impression on him. His droopy eyebrows and insecure expression made him look very dejected.

Also leaving a deep impression on him were Jang Won-young, who had attended his fan meeting, and Miyawaki Sakura, an ambitious but talented A-list actress from Japan. However, the one he remembered most vividly was Kang Hye-won, whose singing was notoriously unfortunate and prone to going off-key… truly a complicated story.

"Why are you drinking coffee, oppa?" Tzuyu's big, doe-like eyes shone brightly in the video. But a slight twitch appeared at the corner of her mouth, visible in the background. She didn't care about any trainees, let alone anyone who looked like her... She just wanted to chat with Gong Cheng; why keep talking about irrelevant trainees?

Gong Cheng sipped his coffee and explained, "I've been really busy lately, there's nothing I can do about it, otherwise I'll get sleepy." He then found a spot on the table to secure his phone, turned around, and started packing his suitcase on the bed. He'd put the suitcase in the trunk of his Maybach when he went to the film set, and after today's recording, he'd fly straight to Macau.

"By the way, oppa, what did you say to Dahyun yesterday? She seemed really upset." Tzuyu suddenly remembered this and asked in confusion. After buying coffee yesterday, she had been hearing her friend calling her a "bastard" all the time. She thought the only person who could annoy Dahyun was Gong Cheng on the other end of the phone. She couldn't think of anyone else.

Gong Cheng turned around alertly and glanced at the video call not far away. "I didn't contact her yesterday..." He had asked Lieutenant Jin to do something yesterday, but she hadn't done it! There was nothing he could do, and he hadn't been able to deliver the gift either. After all, Lieutenant Jin was the only one on his side now, and she was his only soldier.

She quit, leaving herself completely alone... She can only make up for the lack of gifts with Liu Zhimin when she has some free time in a few days.

In the video, Chou Tzu-yu said "Oh" and stopped talking. She frowned and stared at Gong Cheng's back as he pulled his suitcase. She felt strange. She seemed to have discovered a rule about this brother, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. It was as if she was just one step away from the truth being revealed, but the clues had gone cold again.

"Bang bang bang~"

Just as Gong Cheng finished packing his luggage, there was a knock on the suite door and Jin Dayu's reminder, "Cheng, have some breakfast, we should head out now."

"Okay, brother," Gong Cheng called out, then went to his phone and spoke to his little sister, whose short face was visible as she stared at him silently, "Going to work now, bye..."

He hung up the phone abruptly, but in the final frame of the video, it seemed Good Sister wanted to say something but couldn't. A couple of seconds later, Chou Tzu-yu sent a fragmented voice message…

"Oppa, how many times have I told you..."

"Don't hang up so quickly..."

"I haven't finished speaking yet..."

"Take care of yourself..."

“Yes, Zhou sir…” Gong Cheng replied, then smiled, picked up his coat and put it on, opened the suite door, where Che Qianhao and Jin Dayu stood fully armed.

……

The three of them had a simple breakfast at the hotel. Around 10 a.m., Gong Cheng arrived at the training camp area of ​​Yongkyu Resort in Gyeonggi Province. The production team of PRODUCE 48 had transformed an area inside the resort, which looked like a row of villas on the outside but had a large interior space, into a recording studio similar to a multi-functional building. The area they had booked included dormitories and practice rooms for the trainees, recording studios, interview rooms, recording studios, and other multi-functional spaces of various sizes.

"..."

At 10 o'clock, the mentors of PRODUCE 48 arrived and held a brief meeting in the conference room, while the trainees were already waiting in their respective practice rooms for the teachers to come and give lessons according to yesterday's ratings.

Pei Yunjing sat at the table and gave Gong Cheng, who seemed like a very easy-going gentleman, a word of advice: "Cheng, you have to be strict. Don't think that you might upset the trainees by speaking harshly..."

"Yes, I understand, Yoonjung noona." Gong Cheng took a sip of coffee and nodded. As he entered the recording venue, he saw many trainees who had gotten up and gathered going into their respective practice rooms for evaluation. It was clear that the atmosphere was still quite tense.

According to the production team's rules, the trainees were given three days to practice the dance and the song for the theme song "It's Mine." A new round of rankings would then be conducted to determine the number of trainees for future performances. This means that an A-ranked trainee might become an F-ranked trainee in three days, and vice versa. Trainees at all four levels (A, B, C, D) have the opportunity to perform, while F-ranked trainees cannot perform on stage. At best, they might be part of a fan club; at worst, they wouldn't even qualify as backup dancers.

"..."

After some discussion, it was decided that Gong Cheng would be in charge of vocal lessons for Class A, dance lessons for Class B, rap lessons for Class C, vocal lessons for Class D, and dance lessons for Class F. The program team aimed to provide equal opportunities for everyone. The other mentors' courses were also arranged in a similar way, but the mentors would teach each other in turn, and there was no fixed mentor in charge of a class.

Adding to Gong Cheng's personal schedule, he only had today to teach the trainees before the next evaluation. Therefore, the production team did not hesitate to push this "all-around mentor" they had invited to all the classes. After all, they had spent so much money to invite him, and they wanted to use Gong Cheng's screen time to attract viewers...

"I hope our instructor will be Teacher Tarot..."

“I watched Tarot’s teaching session on that Chinese variety show, and he taught really well…”

Have you seen it too?

"Yes, I've seen it. And later, in the episode that Tarot went on, a few trainees he casually pointed out seem to have debuted in China these past few days. In the interview on debut night, he said that in addition to thanking Lay and the other mentors, he was also very grateful to Tarot..."

"Aigoo..."

Gong Cheng and Pei Yunjing walked through the corridor of the practice room. Whispers came from the B class practice room next door. Gong Cheng pushed open the door of the B class practice room. The trainees inside were surprised and delighted the moment they saw him, covering their mouths in disbelief.

Standing in the corner, Zhang Yuanying excitedly asked An Youzhen, "Dream come true?"

A slightly hoarse female voice interrupted everyone's surprise, "Xiao Cheng, you've gone to the wrong place. You should go to Class A first." Pei Yunjing smiled and patted Gong Cheng on the back to remind him. Then, she looked expressionlessly at the trainees in yellow practice clothes in Class B, her wide eyes sweeping over the dumbfounded girls, and greeted them.

"Okay, I'll be going now." Gong Cheng said, then looked at the girls standing not far away with an amused expression. His previous surprised expression disappeared without a trace, and his smile froze instantly when he saw Pei Yunjing giving a lesson. He bowed awkwardly to greet her.

He had seen video clips from the first season of the PD series. The mentor, Bae Yoon-jung, who was walking towards the trainees, was called "Eagle Eye" by the trainees, meaning she was very strict, even frighteningly so...

However, the trainees' facial expression management is really quite poor... Compared to the stiff F-level trainee Jiang Huiyuan on stage yesterday, she seems to have some advantages besides her innocence; at least her facial expressions don't fluctuate much. In front of the camera, she only looked scared and confused...

In Class A's practice room.

The trainees, dressed in pink short-sleeved shirts, held photocopied lyrics sheets in their hands. The back of their shirts also had a glittering "A". In the corridor, Gong Cheng could hear the singing practice coming from inside. Pushing open the door, he found that the room was much smaller than the practice rooms of the other classes, but it was big enough to accommodate 15 A-level trainees.

A dozen pairs of eyes met as Gong Cheng pushed open the door and entered, their expressions filled with undisguised surprise.

"Sorry to keep you waiting..." Gong Cheng took off his black baseball cap and smiled kindly. His bangs were a little damp and messy... The pure black short T-shirt clung to his smooth shoulder line, perfectly outlining the faint outline of his muscles, and his olive green cargo pants propelled his straight legs to a seat in front of an electronic keyboard.

The production crew, who were squatting in the corner recording and filming, stared at the scene on the camera and were momentarily at a loss for words. These trainee girls were simply not on the same level as Gong Cheng. All the A-level trainees were relatively short, and most of the girls standing in a row in the scene did not even reach his shoulder.

"Annyeonghaseyo~" The trainees, clutching their lyric sheets, bowed to Gong Cheng and greeted him with beaming smiles.

"Hello..." Gong Cheng responded with a light laugh, placing the sheet music in his hand on the keys of the electronic keyboard. He glanced at it twice, then looked up at the trainees standing in a row against the wall. There were a few familiar figures: Kwon Eunbi, who looked a lot like Bae Joo-hyun; the ambitious Miyawaki Sakura; and Jo Yuri, who had found it hard to believe that Miyawaki Sakura had been rated A-level last night. "Let's begin. Who wants to go first?"

He looked up directly and asked, "A, B, C, D, F—five classes in total. The course load is quite heavy."

"..."

The fifteen trainees present looked at each other nervously, but none of them stepped forward to perform first. Miyako observed their expressions and asked, "So lacking in confidence?" Then, he pointed to Miyawaki Sakura standing in the crowd, with her medium-length brown-red hair and comma-shaped bangs framing her face. "Sakura, you go first!"

"Hi!" Miyawaki Sakura took two steps forward nervously and came to stand in front of Miyawaki Makoto. The boy in front of her looked up and said, "Korean or Japanese, either is fine. It's okay if you want to use Japanese, I can understand it."

"..."

Miyawaki Sakura remained silent, nervously clutching the lyrics sheet in her hand. Miyawaki Makoto looked at her strangely, seemingly guessing what she meant, and asked, "Do you want to use Korean?"

"Yes!" Miyawaki Sakura nodded.

The trainees around her looked at her with some surprise. Gong Cheng nodded, saying nothing more, and couldn't help but look at her with newfound respect. Putting everything else aside, although this program was supposed to launch international groups from Japan and the Korean Peninsula, its main focus was still on developing the Korean market. The so-called internationalization and globalization were just gimmicks; otherwise, why would these AKB48 members bother to debut here…

Miyawaki Sakura calmed her breathing, picked up the lyric sheet, a smile blooming on her face, and began to sing, "I've dreamt of this very moment~"

"My heart is about to explode, all because of you~"

Gong Cheng looked at the sheet music on the electronic keyboard, listened to her broken Korean, and his facial expression remained normal. "Start over, the notes are off."

"Today is mine~ mine~ mine~ mine~ mine~"

"Just say it~ Pick me up~"

"That night..."

"Okay..." Miyako called out to stop, his voice carrying a cherry blossom scent. He looked up at the group of trainees behind Miyawaki Sakura and called one of them forward, "Could you sing the chorus?"

The female trainee who was called upon was a little nervous. She quickly adjusted her breathing, held the lyrics sheet, looked at Gong Cheng, and tentatively sang, "I want you~"

The trainee's singing voice was quite good, but the pitch was a bit low, giving it a very bel canto feel. Gong Cheng looked at her seriously, smiled and nodded, and gestured for her to continue and raise the pitch a little higher.

"i want you~pick me up~~~"

"i want you pick me up~~~~~"

"Okay, great." Gong Cheng said to the trainee with a smile. Compared to Miyawaki Sakura, the trainee's performance of the chorus was at a passing level. "Keep it up."

The female trainee seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and patted her chest. Looking at Gong Cheng's smile, she instantly became confident.

Standing beside her, Miyawaki Sakura's dark eyes kept glancing at Makoto sitting in front of her. She pursed her pink lips, her expression not exactly aggrieved, but rather somewhat sad, like a child being punished by the teacher to stand in the corner. She was a poor student, while the good student next to her was able to hand in a test paper that was answered more perfectly than hers. In the end, the teacher smiled and encouraged the good student, while the poor student remained in place, looking flustered and uneasy in front of the camera...

However, just as Miyawaki Sakura was looking down in front of the camera, complaining in her heart that she hadn't sung well, Miyako chuckled, picked up the pen in his hand, tapped the edge of the keyboard, making a crisp "thump thump thump" sound, and said, "Raise your head."

A soft, warm laugh made Miyawaki Sakura look up at Makoto Miyamoto, who was sitting at the keyboard, smiling warmly yet sternly. He earnestly said, "Singing requires hitting the right note; if you don't, you'll be off-key..."

“It’s not a light, floaty ‘I want you pick me up’—it’s a straight line on a track…” Miyako explained the problems with Miyawaki Sakura’s vocals. Her singing was too soft and lacked power; she couldn’t get the pitch of the sheet music; and she couldn’t reach the high notes at all. While teaching her, he demonstrated, “I! want you pick! me! up!”

“Raise the pitch and then continue singing, understand? Sakura.”

Seeing Miyawaki Sakura nod seriously, her previously tense and unnatural expression relaxed a little. Miyawaki Makoto glanced at her, still unsure whether she understood or not. He looked at the trainees standing behind him, whose expressions were all ambiguous, nodding half-heartedly as if they were listening intently but were also quite confused.

After thinking about it, he realized that he had just taught Miyawaki Sakura in Japanese, and among the 15 trainees present, only she and Takeuchi Miyu, who had just sung the chorus well, were Japanese. So he repeated what he had just said in Korean, and many of the trainees' eyes immediately brightened up.

"..." Miyawaki Sakura finally realized that he had been teaching her in Japanese, not Korean. In that instant, the phrase that had been nagging at her since last night, "You're doing well among Japanese trainees, but not good enough..." seemed to crumble considerably... The stern instruction, like his smile, began to warm...

Miyako took a sip of his coffee and looked at Miyawaki Sakura, who was now smiling slightly. "Can we do it again?"

"Hi!" Miyawaki Sakura nodded, her face regaining the smile she wore on stage. "I!"

Gong Cheng nodded, raising his outstretched hand slightly to signal her to continue raising the key...

"i! want you pick! me! up!!!"

"I want you to pick me! Up!" Miyawaki Sakura looked at Miyako with a smile, raised her head, and followed his hand gestures to raise the key, singing it twice in a row. The trainees standing behind her looked at her with surprise and disbelief, "Oh~~~", and then clapped...

"Nice." Gong Cheng smiled and gave a thumbs-up. He found it quite rewarding to teach someone. "Isn't this possible? It's all possible, so why not do it?"

The production crew quickly searched for camera angles, hoping to capture the moment when the superstar was instructing the trainees from more perspectives. Even those of them who didn't know much about singing could hear the changes in Miyawaki Sakura's voice. First, the pitch was different, and second, her original cherry blossom flavor was much less...

Hearing Miyawaki's approval, Sakura Miyawaki smiled shyly, her cheeks flushing slightly. "Because at first I thought I could never make that sound, I was a little scared... Thanks to you, teacher, I was able to make that sound..."

"If you want to thank someone, thank yourself. Let's move on to the next one." Miyako smiled nonchalantly, without taking credit for anything. It was clear that although Miyawaki Sakura's vocal skills weren't great, she had some talent and was quick to learn. Her attitude was also good, and it was obvious that she was working hard. After all, her ambitious eyes couldn't be faked.

Currently, among the 96 trainees, she is the most ambitious, and the least ambitious... is that F-ranked one...

Sakura Miyawaki clutched the hem of her pink T-shirt and retreated back into the line. Her dark eyes were fixed on Makoto Miyawaki, a strange feeling washing over her. Just a week ago, she had been in Tokyo, repeatedly watching online videos of this boy—the kind of person every entertainer dreams of becoming—teaching students on "Idol Producer." But now, she was the one being taught by him…

To speed things up, Gong Cheng started having the trainees perform one by one from the beginning. The trainees were noticeably different from when he first came in. They were hesitant and lacked confidence before, but now they were all eager to try and wanted Teacher Gong Cheng to help them find their mistakes and improve.

"If you trust me, can you hold my hand?"

"Hold on tight~ Don't let go..."

Gong Cheng listened patiently to the girl in front of him, Kwon Eunbi, who in some ways resembled Bae Joo-hyun. After she finished singing, he stopped twirling his pen and said, "The air leakage is very serious. Do you know this problem yourself?"

The problem of breath leakage when singing is quite serious in vocal music. Breath leakage when singing mainly refers to the fact that too much air leaks out during the singing process without being "blocked" by the vocal cords, which is often referred to as "the voice not being able to keep up with the breath". Kwon Eunbi's singing just now was due to breath leakage, which resulted in too much breathiness, poor vocal cord closure, and a weak and unfocused voice.

There were also pitch problems, he ran out of breath before finishing the lyrics, and towards the end he was just humming, half-dead...

“Yes, I know…” Quan Enbi looked at Gong Cheng sitting next to the electronic keyboard with some nervousness, smiled awkwardly, and then explained, “To correct it, I tried practicing by biting a ballpoint pen…” “Practicing with a ballpoint pen is useless, and besides, your singing is very perfunctory and not sincere enough.” Gong Cheng didn’t blame her too much, but he didn’t hold back when pointing out the problems. He pointed directly to Quan Enbi’s neck under her long hair, “You sing weakly, with a large amount of air exhaled, and your vocal cords don’t tighten enough, so you leak sound and air when you sing. When you practice, you can consciously tighten your lower vocal cords and find the feeling.”

"Most importantly, we haven't practiced enough; we need more practice..."

Gong Cheng concisely explained the correction method to Quan Enbi. He only made sure to teach his methods and experience to the trainees in front of him. Whether they listened or not, and how they would end up, was none of his business. Therefore, he still admired trainees like Miyawaki Sakura who had a strong attitude and knew what they wanted.

After a brief encounter...

Makoto Miyawaki believes that Sakura Miyawaki and Sana Minatozaki, the "Shiba Inu mom," share some similarities. The most important factor surrounding Sana Minatozaki's career since her debut has been her emotional intelligence. Miyawaki, who has been active for seven years, also possesses high emotional intelligence, but she differs from Sana Minatozaki.

The difference is that Sana-chan's high emotional intelligence is tactful, and she can take good care of the people around her, which is one of the reasons why she has been able to maintain her popularity in the top ranks since her debut. On the other hand, Miyawaki Sakura's high emotional intelligence is aggressive, and ambition is her primary driving force...

After instructing the last A-level trainee, Jo Yuri, Miyako stood up, stretched, and smiled. "That's enough for today. Those of you who want to stay in Class A, practice those points I just mentioned that were specific to you.

"Yes, sir." The trainees bowed in unison and said.

Just as Gong Cheng put on his baseball cap and was about to get up to go to Class B, the production team's director quickly called out to him, "Tarot, take a break." Director Li Huanzhi cheerfully told Gong Cheng to sit in Class A's practice room for a while longer and rest before going to teach the next class.

He witnessed the entire A-class course from beginning to end, and could only say that the money was well spent! In less than an hour and a half, Gong Cheng pointed out almost all the shortcomings of the 15 trainees. Apart from the serious problems that required long-term practice to correct, he was very insightful about minor issues such as pronunciation, and the results were immediately visible. He was a professional!

"It's twelve o'clock, shouldn't we give them lunch, Huanzhi?" Hearing the director's words, Gong Cheng stopped and sat back down in the chair next to the electronic keyboard, chatting with Li Huanzhi. He noticed that many of the trainees were starving.

"Okay, there's still one hour left." Li Huanzhi smiled, then told the trainees in the practice room to take a break, and indicated that Gong Cheng should chat with the trainees so that there would be more and richer content in the later broadcast.

"Teacher, don't you dislike coffee?" Cho Yu-ri smoothed her sweat-dampened bangs, pointed to the coffee on the table, and mustered her courage to ask. Throughout the class, this "oppa" seemed a bit strict, but he was also adept at pointing out shortcomings, making students genuinely feel their progress.

The reason she asked this question was because she was also a big fan of this oppa, so she knew a fair bit about his personal habits, since they were all posted everywhere on fan forums.

"I've been quite busy lately, so I'm using this to stay alert," Gong Cheng said with a smile. He wasn't pretentious at all. Some of the trainees present were even a few months older than him, but most of them were girls born around 00.

"..."

After Jo Yuri started the conversation, the other trainees also struck up a conversation with Gong Cheng, asking all sorts of questions, "Teacher, what's it like to debut?" "Teacher, are you going to Macau to continue your tour tonight?" "Teacher, are you tired? It looks so tiring..."

"..."

Class B is a mix of trainees from China, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and the United States... It is also the largest class among the A, B, C, D, and F classes, with 25 students.

A group of girls stood in three rows, showing Gong Cheng how successful their practice had been. Meanwhile, some of the trainees in the back rows, who were further back, were just taking advantage of the situation, constantly looking around and mimicking the movements of the trainees in front.

"Relax your movements, be more shy, you're too unrestrained..." Gong Cheng called out the names of the trainees while looking at their name tags. He glanced at Zhang Yuanying, the youngest in the corner, whose dancing was quite good... and her innocent face had a sly look in her eyes, as if she was looking for the camera.

However, the surrounding cameras barely glanced in her direction, making her presence rather subtle.

……

"Stop for a moment..."

"What kind of dance is that? Hmm?"

At 5 p.m., Gong Cheng sat on the floor of the F class practice room, watching the trainees dance in front of him. He seemed to have no intention of debuting at all. He couldn't remember the very simple dance moves, let alone the singing and dancing that would be re-evaluated in three days.

The nineteen trainees, dressed in gray T-shirts, stopped their movements, nervously swallowing. Jiang Huiyuan's pupils contracted as he looked at the teacher sitting cross-legged on the ground not far away. He wore a black T-shirt with the collar slightly open, and his handsome profile, completely without makeup, was very serious under the brim of his hat. The smile that had spoken the most hurtful words with the warmest smile yesterday was now gone, replaced by a seriousness that was somewhat frightening.

After a whole day had passed, she had no idea that this senior wouldn't be in charge of their F class's courses, but unexpectedly, he still came...

Seeing the trainees silent with their heads down, Gong Cheng raised his eyelids and scanned them. "I'll only advise you once: when you practice or have class, concentrate and take it seriously. From what I see, several of you seem like you don't want to dance..."

Upon hearing this, the trainees looked at each other, some of them clasping their hands together on their stomachs and picking at their fingers.

"Do you intend to stay in F until the end of the show?" Gong Cheng felt he had been very tactful. He raised his head and leaned against the mirror in the practice room. In his line of three rows of trainees, he saw a Japanese girl who had even pulled up her collar and started crying. And this group of trainees was almost entirely from Japan. Their basic skills were very poor; some of them had already forgotten the dances they had just learned. It was obvious they weren't putting in the effort...

"Isn't it tiring to fly from Tokyo to Seoul? If you come here and can't get on stage, won't you regret it in the future? According to the rules, Class F is not good enough to get on stage, not even good enough to be a backup dancer."

Hearing these harsh words, the trainees' eyes reddened, and as two or three sobs broke out, Jiang Huiyuan also lowered her head, her eyes red, tears streaming down her nose and cheeks. She choked out, "Are the backup... backup... backup dancers not good enough...?"

Gong Cheng heard Jiang Huiyuan, who was standing relatively close to him, choking back tears. He nodded expressionlessly, then waved his hand, gesturing for them to sit down. "If you can do better after you've finished crying, please cry your hearts out."

In the video, the gray practice uniforms mirrored the trainees' dejected moods. They sat on the floor, arms wrapped around their knees, burying their faces in their knees and sobbing, "..."

"Woooooo~"

Gong Cheng leaned back in front of the mirror in the practice room, tilting his head back under his hat as he gazed at the sobbing trainees before him. He said earnestly, "Actually, in this life, it's okay to be last..."

"But kids, you need to think carefully about why you've come here. Is it to debut?"

"The opportunity to debut is right in front of you. You have to consider whether this might be your only chance in this lifetime."

"96 trainees, 12 spots. Even if you try your best and still come in last place, it's okay. No one will blame you, because failure is a constant in life..."

"We can sweat and shed tears in this crowded practice room, but we must not leave any regrets." Gong Cheng spoke slowly, his gentle voice soft yet resounding through the sobs to every trainee in Class F.

The production director, listening to these words in shock, hurriedly whispered to the staff next to him, "Were those words recorded?"

"The director was included."

"These are all golden quotes..."

The trainees' sobs subsided a little. Jiang Huiyuan hugged her knees, her baby fat on her cheeks and her long hair loose. She blinked her tear-streaked eyelashes and looked at Gong Cheng, who was tilting his head not far away. But when she saw him looking at her, she was so frightened that she quickly lowered her head. But then she heard him laugh and call out, "Um, First Class Innocent, do you want to go on stage to perform?"

"Pfft..."

Gong Cheng's way of addressing Jiang Huiyuan made many trainees who were quietly crying laugh through their tears.

Jiang Huiyuan's eyes were red and her face was embarrassed. She didn't know whether to cry or laugh. She sniffed and nodded heavily.

Gong Cheng looked around at the other trainees who had raised their heads, "Do you want to go on stage?"

"think!!!"

"Yes!" came the unanimous reply, along with a dozen or so faces that held their heads high.

Gong Cheng smiled with satisfaction, then took off his baseball cap. "Did you feel that what I just said hurt your pride?"

The trainees remained silent, tears still dripping from the corners of their eyes.

Meanwhile, the production team, huddled in a corner of the practice room, were visibly excited. Today's recording was packed with highlights, capturing both Gong Cheng's strict guidance and encouragement as a mentor. This would allow the audience to gain a comprehensive understanding of another side of this rising star.

"Shall we let the kids upstairs come down and we go up?" Gong Cheng took off his baseball cap, his hair slightly disheveled, but his expression was serious. He looked at the dozen or so F-class trainees in front of him, his eyes full of encouragement. "OK?"

"OK..." After crying, the dozen or so trainees released some of their emotions and nodded seriously in response.

Gong Cheng stood up, straightened his body, and looked at the slender trainees with his tall figure. "The video ratings in three days, whether it's A, B, C, or D, you have to move up a step."

"I'll be back in four days. By then, the new trainee rankings will be released, and I hope to see everyone in another class, okay?"

"it is good!!!"

Hearing the shouts of the crowd, even the dazed Jiang Huiyuan tried her best to answer loudly. Gong Cheng couldn't help but smile, wondering if he had been spending too much time with Park Jin-young and listening to his motivational speeches, making him like that too...

"Then let's continue..."

Gong Cheng clapped his hands, then took a tablet from the production team, and called out to Jiang Huiyuan, "First-class innocence, step forward."

"Go stand in that spot and record the dance moves I'm going to break down and teach later..." he instructed, handing the tablet to Jiang Huiyuan. During the show's recording, all the trainees' phones were handed in...

Each class is given a tablet with dance videos for the trainees to watch and practice. Classes A, B, C, and D all have these... However, most of the trainees in Class F have very poor basic skills. Even Jiang Huiyuan dances better than many of the trainees from Japan. He thought he would ask Jiang Huiyuan to record a video breaking down the dance so that they could learn and watch it more clearly and intuitively...

If you practice hard, getting an A grade in three days is a joke. Except for a few with good talent and foundation, it would be considered an improvement if the rest could get into class D or C.

"Yes." Jiang Huiyuan seemed to have accepted the title of "first-class purity." Holding her tablet, she turned on the camera, squatted in the center of the practice room floor, and filmed Gong Cheng's exquisite dance moves. She also patiently broke down the moves to ensure that the other trainees would not be confused because the moves were too fast.

“A truly benevolent teacher…” Director Li Huanzhi smacked his lips as he watched this scene.

His teaching ability is undeniable. Moreover, in his opinion, Gong Cheng is not strict at all; he is quite gentle, offering comfort and encouragement. The scene of him breaking down the dance moves is almost like feeding the trainees of Class F one by one.

"..."

After a lesson, Kim Daewoo, who was outside the practice room, knocked on the door with Gong Cheng's coat. They had communicated with the production team that Gong Cheng's recording would end at seven o'clock today, and he had to catch a flight. It was already almost seven-thirty.

"Everyone practice on your own. Yabuki Nako, you lead the dance." Gong Cheng took the black jacket handed to him by Jin Dayu, put his baseball cap back on, and designated a petite girl in Class F who looked to be less than his chest, probably not even 1.5 meters tall?

Yabuki Nako's dancing skills are quite good. In his opinion, the dance for this song alone is at an A level. He estimates that the video rating will rise smoothly in three days, so he asked Yabuki Nako to be in charge of the lead dancer practice.

After saying that, Gong Cheng didn't say anything more encouraging. He had said what he needed to say. In his view, what he had said before wasn't comforting, but merely advice. What happened next was up to them. "Let's go, Huanzhi-ge..."

Director Li Huanzhi quickly got up from his work to see him off. Immediately afterward, Gong Cheng smiled, put on his jacket, and left the F-class practice room without looking back.

"Wow, that's the aura of a top-tier celebrity!"

"Getting up close makes it even more obvious how tall and handsome he is..."

"Let's practice hard and not let Teacher Tarot down!"

"Hye-won unnie, come practice... What the teacher just said was so true, such a golden quote!"

……

On the way to the airport, Gong Cheng took a sip of water and glanced at the announcement posted on Cube Entertainment's official website. Three days ago, they began releasing the looks and individual photos of each member of the new girl group (G)I-DLE…

PRODUCE 48 also had trainees sent by Cube to participate in the audition, but he didn't remember exactly who they were, it's not important.

“Hyuna…I really saw a girl who looked a lot like you while I was recording the show.” Gong Cheng stared at the Kakao message from the woman from Daegu. The two had been chatting online more frequently this year, and Bae Joo-hyun was curiously asking him how the recording was going.

Yesterday, leaked photos circulated online by fans have gone viral in Asian entertainment sections... Many fans who had booked tickets for the Bombardment Meteor tour in Macau even questioned on the official website, "Is Tarot going to be absent from the group's tour...?" JYP issued a denial overnight.

"Moragu?" Bae Joo-hyun replied with a small (horrified) emoji, "Really?"

Gong Cheng replied with a long string of words, then obediently deleted it. "Really..." He originally wanted to say, "Not as pretty as you, but younger," but then he thought better of it. Age is a sensitive topic for women in Daegu...

Thinking of this, he remembered Kwon Eun-bi's information; she was born in 95, a year older than him...

……

At ten o'clock at night, Gong Cheng sat in first class, yawned, and watched the night view of Seoul outside the cabin slowly shrink, the bright yellow neon lights...

"Xiao Cheng, BLACKPINK sent over the recorded audio. They hope you can listen to it when you have time." Kim Daewoo reported this while lying on the other side of the chair, looking quite comfortable in his first-class position.

Originally, agents were not entitled to fly first class. Many artists from agencies traveled in economy class. However, with Gong Cheng's rise to prominence and Kim Dae-woo being a key figure in the company, his authority level was naturally raised.

Gong Cheng nodded, took a sip of water, then shifted his body to a more comfortable position. "Let's talk about it tomorrow..."

(End of this chapter)