Chinese Entertainment King: Starting as a Fat Boy and Becoming a Singing King

Old Zhou played the chords on the piano again, signaling the two of them to try one more time.

Li Wenqi took a deep breath and spoke.

"Starry, starry night..."

Her voice spread out like ripples on water.

The last syllable of the word slowly dissipated into the air.

Xu Yao didn't rush to speak.

He waited a second.

"Paint your palette blue and gray..."

His voice was a beat slower than Li Wenqi's.

For the first time, their rhythms clicked.

Old Zhou, who was behind the piano, finally smiled and nodded repeatedly.

"That's it," he said, "that's the feeling."

Afterwards, the two of them familiarized themselves with the melody and lyrics.

Xu Yao listened to the original recording more than thirty times in his room with headphones on, memorizing every note and every breath.

He paid special attention to the narrative quality of Don McLean's original version; it wasn't singing, but telling a story.

Li Wenqi copied the lyrics three times, marking the emotional changes each time with a different colored pen.

The next day, the two of them went over it together, and the rhythm problem was solved, but a new problem arose.

The emotional level doesn't match.

When Li Wenqi sang the first verse, her voice was as clean as a blank sheet of paper, and her emotions were pure and innocent.

But when Xu Yao sang the second verse, his voice carried a sense of vicissitude and the weight of something he had experienced.

The two emotions are fine on their own, but when put together, they are like two paintings of different colors pieced together, with a very obvious seam in the middle.

"You sang too maturely," Li Wenqi said.

"You sang very purely," Xu Yao said.

The two looked at each other and then laughed.

"How about we try a different approach?" Xu Yao thought for a moment and said, "I'll tone down the vicissitudes a bit and make my voice more natural."

"Why should I remain unchanged while you accept?" Li Wenqi asked, tilting her head.

"Because your cleanliness is innate," Xu Yao said, "my world-weariness is sung. What you are born with is more precious and cannot be lost."

Li Wenqi was stunned for a moment, then lowered her head, feeling a surge of joy mixed with embarrassment: "Brother Yao, you...you shouldn't say that."

Xu Yao continued, "The core of this song is Van Gogh's loneliness. Your voice expresses the initial part, that Van Gogh was purely happy when he was painting. My voice represents the later part, that he continued to paint even after experiencing suffering and being misunderstood."

"We're not singing two songs, we're singing about two phases of one person."

Li Wenqi raised her head and looked at Xu Yao, her eyes filled with something indescribable.

"Brother Yao, you really understand this song," she said softly.

"I just enjoy studying song lyrics," Xu Yao said with a smile.

The two of them tried again.

This time, Xu Yao deliberately toned down the sense of vicissitude in his voice, singing each word in a more plain and simple way.

The gap between the two voices finally closed.

On the third day, the vocal coach started scrutinizing the details.

Pitch accuracy, transitions, breath control, emotion, and harmonic coordination—every word and every note has been meticulously refined.

Old Zhou provided Li Wenqi with particularly meticulous guidance.

"In the line 'Look out on a summer's day,' you pronounced the 'day' too heavily." Old Zhou tapped the piano. "Lighten it, like this, let the air flow out from between your teeth, don't explode it."

When it was Xu Yao's turn, the problem lay in his breathing.

After singing it three times in a row, his breath began to wane.

With a body weight of 125 kg and a body fat percentage of 35%, and although his cardiopulmonary function had been improved once by the system, he was still covered in sweat from continuous high-intensity singing.

"take a break."

When Lao Zhou saw that his face had turned pale, he quickly told him to stop and then sighed.

Xu Yao leaned against the wall, panting heavily, his forehead covered in sweat.

Li Wenqi handed over a bottle of water: "Brother Xu Yao, are you alright?"

"It's nothing." Xu Yao took the water and took a big gulp. "It's just that my stamina isn't keeping up. I'm sorry for delaying our rehearsal schedule."

The system boosted his stamina to 20 minutes of continuous singing, but during rehearsals, he had to sing a song five or six times in a row with very short breaks in between.

The 20-minute limit is still not enough in the face of the intensity of rehearsals.

He needs more idol value.

Faster improvement.

Day four: Stage and performance training.

Band rehearsals, vocal training, physical conditioning, typhoon training, movements, expressions, and camera work.

Typhoons have never been a problem for Xu Yao.

His voice itself is his best weapon; he only needs to stand there and sing.

But Li Wenqi was different; she was too quiet and had no stage performance experience.

With Xu Yao's patient guidance, Li Wenqi gradually relaxed and became familiar with the stage.

The fifth day, the final rehearsal.

The band performed a full rendition, accompanied by live music.

Xu Yao stood in front of the microphone, and Li Wenqi stood next to him.

The lights dimmed, leaving only a spotlight shining on the two people.

The acoustic guitar intro begins, gentle and warm, like starlight in the night.

Li Wenqi began, "Starry, starry night..."

Her voice was as clean as the first drop of dew in the morning, slowly, slowly spreading in the air.

Xu Yao's voice came in during the second verse, half a beat slower than her rhythm, like the earth responding to the sky.

"Paint your palette blue and gray..."

The two voices intertwined, one clear and the other steady and calm.

One floated upwards, while the other sank downwards.

When they sang the chorus, their voices blended completely together.

Xu Yao's voice rose from below, like the deep blue night sky.

Li Wenqi's voice floated above, like those spinning stars.

"Now I understand..."

"What you tried to say to me......"

When they sang the bridge part, the two of them took turns singing line after line, like a conversation, or like one person talking to themselves.

Xu Yao sings: "For they could not love you—"

Li Wenqi continued: "But still, your love was true—"

As he sang the last line, Xu Yao's voice slowly, gradually subsided, like the night falling, like starlight gradually brightening.

The last note fell.

The rehearsal room was silent for about five seconds.

No one spoke, no one applauded.

Everyone was still immersed in the song and hadn't come back to their senses.

Then, Lao Zhou took off his glasses and wiped the lenses with his sleeve.

"Alright, let's go to the recording studio."

In the recording studio, the two of them recorded for another whole afternoon.

The first time, Li Wenqi's microphone picked up too much sound, and the sound was too loud to be suppressed.

The second time, due to the high intensity of training, Xu Yao's breath became a little unstable during the chorus, so they had to start over.

On the third take, the two of them were a beat slow in their alternation of the bridge section, so they had to start over.

The fourth time, the fifth time, the sixth time...

Each time they tried again, they were a little better than the last.

It's not about improvement in skills, but about better teamwork.

Xu Yao was able to predict where Li Wenqi would draw out a long note.

After the seventh take, the sound engineer took off his headphones and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Alright," he said, "this version is usable."

Xu Yao came out of the recording studio and saw Li Wenqi sitting on the sofa outside drinking water.

"Are you tired?" he asked.

"You're probably more tired than I am," Li Wenqi said with a smile.

Xu Yao laughed and said, "Yeah, I'm exhausted. I feel like I'm going to suffocate. Right now, I really want to find a big sofa."

"Brother Yao, there's over there." Li Wenqi pointed, then followed Xu Yao to the sofa and continued, "Although it's tiring, it's a lot of fun. Thank you, Brother Yao, for guiding and leading me all this time."

Li Wenqi's words came from the bottom of her heart. She did not regard Xu Yao as an opponent, but as a friend who was both a mentor and a friend, or an older brother.

Even though the competition is being recorded tomorrow, the loser will leave the stage.