Amateur talent show? Top mentors are my students.

A swarm of players stood up, and Li Bufan immediately yelled, "What the hell is this?!"

"With such intense dance moves, how can you sing so steadily a cappella?!"

"These are trainees?? This is their debut stage?!"

On the mentor's seat, Zheng Zaiyuan sat up straight, his eyes shining.

"Your explosiveness and core strength are very strong. Your floor work and landings are free of unnecessary movements—something that many artists who have been in the industry for many years cannot do."

Xu Shutong's voice trembled slightly as she replied, "Your a cappella singing gave me goosebumps."

Zhou Wei pushed up his glasses: "Yes, the best vocal performance so far."

Jin Xian rarely spoke, but when she did, she only said one sentence, which carried immense weight: "A."

Shen Yiheng picked up the microphone and took a deep breath.

His gaze lingered on the faces of the three boys for a long time.

"...Well done, junior brothers."

Yang Sheng's eyes reddened.

The rating results popped up on the big screen—

Yang Sheng: A. Song Yingwen: A. Jiang Yang: A.

The three A's are neatly lined up together. So far in the initial stage, this is the first group with all members achieving A's.

The audience erupted in applause.

Jiang Yang cried the most, bowing repeatedly as he cried, his face covered in snot and tears.

The contestants' seats were buzzing with discussion, as everyone's attention was drawn to the three boys from Banxing Entertainment.

He Xu clapped his hands silently.

I didn't embarrass myself.

As the applause subsided, the stage lights refocused.

The next few groups of contestants took to the stage one after another, but the atmosphere was noticeably less lively than before.

It's not that they didn't work hard enough, but that the three teenagers from Banxing Entertainment set the bar too high all at once.

With such outstanding achievements ahead, no matter how much others try to impress, they all seem to be overshadowed.

A group of individual trainees sang a ballad, hitting two high notes that were off, and their eyes were red when they came off the stage.

Another group fared even worse; halfway through their dance, the sound system malfunctioned, and the music stopped for a few seconds.

Although they recovered quickly, the rhythm was completely messed up, and the four of them ended up dancing four different styles.

He Xu leaned back in his chair, almost falling asleep while watching.

Just then—

"Next contestant, Li Bufan."

His grizzled orange hair shone so brightly under the lights it hurt the eyes. When Li Bufan stood up from the contestant's seat, he even gave a peace sign to the camera.

He Xu thought to himself: It's over.

It would be strange if this person didn't cause trouble after taking office.

Sure enough, after performing half of an explosive dance, when it came to the rap part, Li Bufan opened his mouth—

I forgot my lines.

The entire room fell silent for a second.

Without a word, Li Bufan flipped himself up on the floor and shouted at the camera, "This is freestyle! Art!"

Then he started to improvise and twist like an octopus that had been electrocuted.

Xu Shutong laughed so hard she leaned on the table, while Zhou Wei took off his glasses to wipe his tears: "Your freestyle... is so spontaneous."

Rating: D.

Li Bufan bowed with a grin: "Thank you for the D, mentor! D means 'top,' right?"

The whole audience burst into laughter.

The owner of the grizzled orange hair didn't seem to care at all. As she left the stage, she even made a heart shape with her hands towards the audience and walked back to the contestants' seats with a grin.

He even turned to He Xu and said, "How was it? Wasn't my move memorable?"

He Xu glanced at him.

He said very seriously, "Very much."

"Right, right? Let me tell you, the most important thing in this kind of competition isn't skill, it's memorability! Skill can be developed gradually, but if the audience can't remember you, then you're finished—"

"Let me finish," He Xu interrupted him, his voice hoarse and low, his tone as flat as if he were saying that the weather was nice today, "It's so bad it's memorable."

Li Bufan's smile froze on his face.

"Forgot the lyrics? Fine, you can add a freestyle, but can you at least freestyle like a human being? Is that dance? That's just twitching."

Li Bufan: "..."

Lu Yiming, sitting next to me in seat number 88, huddled in his seat, desperately trying to suppress his laughter, his shoulders shaking like a leaf.

"You've got a really sharp tongue, bro..." Li Bufan clutched his chest, looking hurt.

Recording is still ongoing.

-

When it was number 87's turn, the recording was nearing its end.

After sitting for nearly four hours, Shen Yiheng felt like his back was about to break.

But he still had a polite smile on his face, sat upright, and showed no signs of fatigue.

This is a professional quality that has been ingrained in me over the past three years since my debut—the camera can sweep over me at any time, and any moment of relaxation could be captured and turned into a meme, trending on social media for three days and three nights.

"Next up, number 87, He Xu."

Shen Yiheng looked down and flipped through the documents in his hand.

An individual trainee, an amateur, 24 years old.

No company, no practice hours, no prior experience.

There aren't even any photos.

Compared to the carefully crafted trainees from those big companies, this resume is almost excessively clean.

"That name sounds familiar..." Xu Shutong whispered to him, "When I was a trainee, I took a private group class with another company, and one of the dance teachers was named He Xu..."

"I know this He Xu you're talking about too," Shen Yiheng smiled. "Just the same name, right?"

How could that person possibly participate in a talent show?

He casually looked up, preparing to offer a perfunctory encouraging smile.

Then, he froze.

Or it could be described as pupillary seismicity.

The man dressed in all black, walking onto the stage with one hand in his pocket, the man with short, neat hair and a jawline sharper than a knife, the man who, even under the spotlight, exuded an aura of "I'm the best in the world" that was simply irresistible...

He was all too familiar.

It's so familiar that it even wakes me up in my dreams.

"...Holy shit." Shen Yiheng's voice was so soft that only he could hear it.

The smile on his face fell at a strange angle—his expression was somewhere between "seeing a relative" and "seeing a ghost."

Xu Shutong, who was drinking water next to her, choked and coughed incessantly. Jin Xian patted her on the back and joked, "What's wrong? Is this trainee too handsome?"

"He really is handsome," Jung Jae-won said with interest.

A series of rustling sounds rose and fell from the audience seats.

"Who is this?"

"So handsome..."

"Which company is it? I've never seen it before."

"Could it be an actor making a cameo appearance?"

Lu Yiming clasped his hands together in the contestants' seat, muttering, "Go, go, go, He Xu, go!"

Li Bufan leaned closer and whispered, "This guy's got such a sharp tongue, his dancing must be pretty sharp too, right?"

Shen Yiheng couldn't hear these comments.

He rubbed his eyes violently.

When I opened my eyes again, I was still on the stage.

It's not a hallucination.

Shen Yiheng felt as if he had been put on pause, and a series of thoughts exploded in his mind:

Holy crap?

Holy crap?!

He Xu?

My teacher? ??

What's he doing here?

Doesn't he hate being on TV the most?

Isn't his voice damaged and he can't sing?

Didn't he say he'd rather starve to death or jump off this cliff than become an idol?

Shen Yiheng felt like his CPU had burned out.

He subconsciously turned to look at Xu Shutong and found that Xu Shutong was also staring at He Xu on the stage with a look of utter disbelief.

Their eyes met in mid-air, and they both saw three large characters in each other's eyes:

That's it, all over.

He Xu stood still on the stage, without bowing. He simply glanced lazily at the mentors' seats, his gaze lingering on Shen Yiheng's face for 0.5 seconds before he raised an eyebrow very slightly.

That look seemed to say: Oh, you're still alive.

Shen Yiheng broke out in a cold sweat and immediately looked away.

"Hello, mentors. I am an individual trainee, He Xu." His voice was unusually deep.

"Wow, your voice... it's a bit unique, is it natural?" Jung Jae-won asked.

"It happened the day after tomorrow; I was injured when I was young."

Jung Jae-won was clearly taken aback for a moment, glancing at He Xu's throat as if he wanted to say something, but then felt it was inappropriate to press him on stage.

Zhou Wei, however, didn't care about these social niceties at all: "So what about your vocal part? Are you going to perform it today?"

"I won't perform," He Xu said decisively. "My voice isn't good enough to sing."

The entire room fell silent for half a second, and then a barrage of questions poured in.

"Not singing? Not singing on talent shows?"

"That's too brave..."

"Does he not know what kind of show he's on?"

Even Jin Xian frowned slightly.

Shen Yiheng mentally ranted and raved—

What do you know?! He's here to dance! He danced the whole twelve-person dance all by himself back then and even memorized all twelve people's movements!

But he couldn't say it.

He's a producer; he demands fairness, professionalism, and—

He can't do it!!!

"Then let's show you the dance." Shen Yiheng said this in a voice so calm that even he admired it. "Please begin your performance."