Mr. Xiao Qi

Any insider can tell that Qi Xingchen's flow isn't as advanced as Kevin's, but these lines rhyme very well and address Kevin's situation without being biased or making personal attacks.

Dare to think, dare to say, dare to do, dare to face off against rappers who are known for their raps and have even participated in the US underground rap competition, Qi Xingchen definitely does not lose Kevin in terms of momentum.

While Kevin's lyrics were definitely prepared in advance, Qi Xingchen's was an actual freestyle, and his ability to deal with the situation on the spot, as well as the professionalism with which he held back until the end of the tutor's critique so as not to affect the other trainees in the group, was enough to get the crowd moving and cheering.

"Pop, pop, pop ......"

The sparse applause started from the back row and gradually spread to the front row. Ten seconds later, the whole studio was exploded by Qi Xingchen!

The director's team and camera crew were dumbfounded, not realizing that the best stage effects in the first round of the competition were not contributed by the trainees, but by the Starlight Observers.

So Qi Xingchen, the little second generation ...... Is he here to experience life in the entertainment industry, or is he here to fucking kill monsters?

The director signaled the front camera to cut a close-up of his face, and Qi Xingchen's unperturbed face, and Kevin's grimace of embarrassment and gnashing of teeth, were all shown in the camera.

Shaken into his eyes by the little yellow lights on the camera, Kevin finally remembers to do his expression management. The expression on his face tightens, but his arms shake even more.

Couldn't even hold the mike.

I can't imagine that the trashy rich kid who's always pushed him down in rank has the guts to hit him back in public.

More than imaginable, the trashy rich kid counterattack's perfectly captured his pain both on a technical level and from a psychological point of view.

He just doesn't want to learn Chinese.

He's an American, even if he debuted in China, he'll go back to his own country sooner or later.

For him, it's a place to save popularity and money, and he's dedicated enough to say "I love you," "Mia da," and "You're beautiful" to his fans.

Why bother learning Chinese.

What makes the trashy rich kid bite him?

Angrier and angrier, he raised his mike to continue the battle with Qi Xingchen, but before he could say anything, he reacted sharply.

Only between rappers and rappers would solve problems by way of a battle. He had subconsciously taken Qi Xingchen to be a flagging rapper just now.

Obviously Trashy Richie Rich got his start in acting, and obviously they collided musically for the first time.

How can he put Qi Xingchen, on equal footing?

Battle is like this, it doesn't matter how dirty or hard the two people curse, but once the energy is removed and the nerves are loosened, it's over immediately.

Kevin's mind went blank and suddenly he couldn't catch a rhyme.

During the few seconds he was thinking, the director's voice came from Bai Ye's headset: "Persuade Xiao Qi, there are still a few more groups behind us, so if we keep pestering them, it will easily affect the progress of the competition."

Bai Ye ignored Yu Guang as he watched Qi Xingchen, and when he turned off the mike and wasn't going to continue, Bai Ye spoke faintly, "Kevin."

Kevin turns to Bai Ye.

Director: "......"

Fuckin' hell, these two are going to make a big deal out of this, aren't they?

The director's head was spinning and he begged Bai Ye not to say anything. However, Bai Ye didn't eat his words, and when Kevin came back to his senses, he asked in English, "There's an old Chinese saying, 'There's always a second time, but there's never a third time', have you ever heard of it?"

Kevin shakes his head in confusion, "No."

"The meaning of this saying," explains the Bai Ye, "is that there are some mistakes that happen once or twice, and I can forgive you out of ignorance. If it happens a third or fourth time, it means that you have no intention of changing your ways."

Bai Ye paused for a moment, "In the preliminaries, Mr. Qi had reminded you of your Chinese twice. And in order to preserve your reputation, the reminders were very subtle."

Hearing this, Qi Xingchen froze.

In the first round of grading and acceptance of the theme song, although he was not happy with Kevin's behavior of not learning Chinese, he never made it clear. Before the start of this round, he was still hoping that Kevin would figure it out and learn it well.

Like Qi Yunxiao said, he can't ruin the future of any of the trainees.

So Bai Ye saw it all.

Kevin's angry stomach immediately stopped hurting, and Qi Xingchen kept rubbing his hands happily.

Bai Ye didn't know how happy Qi Xingchen was, and his voice grew colder and colder: ''But your performance today made me very disappointed. You didn't understand Mr. Qi's painstaking efforts and wrote words against him, which made me realize that narrow-mindedness knows no boundaries. Even if you live in a country that honors freedom, you still don't know how to be grateful and appreciate the culture of other countries."

"I'm ashamed of the word 'free'-you're bound by your eyes, your soul is not free."

Qi Xingchen cares about the future of the trainees, while Bai Ye, as the controller of the entire selection process, cares about the fairness of the competition as a whole.

He didn't bother to say much and concluded, "Time is going to pick China Ai Dou, if you can apologize to Mr. Qi on the spot and start learning Chinese from the next stage, we'll still be willing to have a cultural exchange with you with open arms. But if you're not willing, sorry."

"Your name was definitely not in the final six that debuted."

"Ho..."

The last word landed and the room erupted!

The audience watched the edited program, there was a secret agency operation in the early stage, the editing purposely weakened Kevin's faults, the audience has always thought that the main conflict between Kevin and Qi Xingchen is two B-levels.

That's why when he dissed Qi Xingchen, the audience watched with a sense of amusement.

It wasn't until Qi Xingchen and Bai Ye asked questions in Chinese that the audience got a hint of what was going on. But before they could figure it out, Bai Ye nailed Kevin.

Qi Xingchen is stiff, Bai Ye is more stiff than Qi Xingchen!

.

Given Kevin's bullying nature, how could he apologize to Qi Xingchen?

He dropped the mic on the spot and left his teammates to go back to the dormitory without saying a word. Two hours later, Bai Ye and Qi Xingchen, who had finished recording, received the news:

Kevin has withdrawn from the race.

It's Kevin's best bet to get out while the audience still has a few thoughts about him, rather than stay on stage and gradually reveal his true nature.

Just ...... Qi Xingchen called out to Bai Ye, who was about to get off the stage, "Wait!"

Bai Ye took a look at the retreating audience, "Go backstage and talk."

"Nothing more ...... I just wanted to thank you for speaking up for me. No need to help next time though, it's easy to give you a bad name."

The two of them definitely won't be spared a scolding for forcing the trainees to drop out of the competition.

"I'm not doing you a favor, as the initiator, I have more responsibility than you do. Besides ......" Bai Ye snorted, "This kind of little stinker, no need to take it to heart, it's fine."

Qi Xingchen of course knew that with Bai Ye's current connections, he didn't have to be afraid of Kevin, and could even send out a message that would keep Kevin out of trouble forever.

But he can't see Bai Ye being blackmailed and scolded, which is even worse than his own scolding.

"Okay, trust me, huh?" Seeing Qi Xingchen's guilty look, Bai Ye squeezed the back of his neck twice in a comforting manner.

"Ow ow ow ow ow--"

Seeing this scene, squeezed in the back did not have time to exit the scene of the two girls immediately transformed into a screaming chicken, "Ow ow ow night brother, Xingchen, can you help us sign an autograph?"

Bai Ye, who rarely turned down a fan's request for an autograph, nodded and took Qi Xingchen's hand on the back of his neck, pushing him that way.

After a few steps, however, Qi Xingchen realized something was wrong.

These two girls look familiar ...... This is not ......

Wasn't it the CP fans we saw last night during the mentor meet and greet session?

Qi Xingchen instantly panicked: "That ...... Let's not sign it."

"What?"

"The choreographer is in a hurry to get to us, business is business."

"Signing autographs for fans is business, it won't take more than a few minutes," Bai Ye didn't understand, "Let's go."

Finding no other reason, Qi Xingchen was gripped by Bai Ye and stopped at the very front of the stage. The two girls were already waiting below, their faces red with excitement.

"Sign where?" Bai Ye asked.

The girls looked at each other and took out their ticket stubs and pens in unison, "Sign here, thank you brother."

"Ticket stubs?" Bai Ye asked, "Where are your banners?"

Seeing the girl take out the ticket stub, Qi Xingchen originally relieved. However, Bai Ye had to bring it up, and began to feel uneasy again.

In addition to false business to increase popularity, the vast majority of artists are rejected to engage in CP. He wasn't sure if Bai Ye liked it or not, odds are he didn't.

In fact, the CP fans thought the same as Qi Xingchen, they were afraid that the two Ai Dou would be disgusted, so they purposely didn't take the handbill.

The girl nooed, "The hand span ...... Not so good."

"Isn't the handbill our picture, where it's not good," Bai Ye intoned, "Ticket stubs don't keep well, use the handbill."

Qi Xingchen: "!"

Did he hear right ...... Bai Ye know these two are CP fans ...... Knowing that the handbill is a CP handbill.

Then Bai Ye ...... You don't want to be in a group with him?

Qi Xingchen couldn't help but look at Bai Ye, who immediately answered his question with an action.

Bai Ye took the banner and signed his headshot without a hitch, then handed it to Qi Xingchen, "Your turn."

Qi Xingchen is clueless as to what's going on - of course CP fans are even more clueless than he is and no longer understand why the flowers are red like that.

After signing, they send off the fans. As Qi Xingchen expected, Lei Zi, the substitute writer-director, was waiting for them in the conference room for the meeting.

The two "culprits" who forced Kevin out are the ratings guarantor and the brother of the president's friend. The team didn't dare and couldn't hold them responsible, so they had to vomit blood to explain the next round of the program.

Kevin's withdrawal does not affect the next round of the competition. After the first comprehensive ranking was released today, the bottom 21 plus Kevin, totaling 22, have been eliminated. The remaining 66 trainees will move on to the next round of the competition - the Free Combination Round.

In the second round of competition, the top ten trainees in the first overall ranking will act as captains and choose their performance pieces from top to bottom according to their rankings. The remaining trainees will choose the team they want to enter from top to bottom according to their rankings.

The higher the ranking, the more likely you will be able to pick your favorite tracks and players. The lower the ranking the higher the risk.

The winners and losers will be eliminated, and after the second round of competition, the program will release a second overall ranking, where the 45th-66th will be eliminated from the competition just as they were in the first round.

One round is more brutal than the other.

Qi Xingchen couldn't help but sweat for Class F after listening to the tournament program. This round, Class F unexpectedly performed well, leaving seven trainees behind, much better than the predicted survival of two.

It can be seen that efforts may not necessarily lead to success, but if you don't make an effort, you definitely won't succeed.

.

After the meeting, Qi Xingchen packed up his things and ran out of the conference room in a hurry. The program group had a requirement that the eliminated trainees were not allowed to stay and had to leave as soon as possible. He was ready to go to the trainees' dormitory and take a last look at the trainees who didn't stay in Class F.

Just as he left the house, he found Bai Ye also heading towards the trainees' dormitory, and he wondered, "...... Are you still recording?"

"No, my next recording is tomorrow like yours," Bai Ye said, "I'm going to check on Kevin's teammates."

Kevin teammates promoted to the next level are all promoted, met this kind of thing, now the mood must be very bad.

"It just so happens that I'm going to see Class F," Qi Xingchen said, "Let's go together."

They chatted as they entered the dormitory building, Class F was on the second floor, Qi Xingchen along with Bai Ye climbed up.

Turning the corner and seeing the scene in front of him, Qi Xingchen was stunned in place.

--In the short corridor, there are more than thirty suitcases piled up against the wall. Next to the suitcases, the eliminated F class trainees were arranged in three rows.

Wu Qian stands at the front, holding a large cake. The cake was simple and fancy, with eight big words written on it in red jam:

[Miss Xiao Qi, we love you]

Qi Xingchen eyes abruptly red.

The crew had a car to take them to the plane, so they couldn't eat and get together. He had planned to help the trainees pack up their things, and we all made a mess and went to the parking lot together to save ourselves the trouble.

Turns out these little brats ......

In the corridor, two cameras were recording the trainees leaving the group one after the other. Qi Xingchen took a deep breath and feigned anger, "Why are you making a cake, I'm not celebrating my birthday!"

Wu Qian changed her usual playful look and sniffled, "We didn't know what you liked, so we made you a cake together. Teacher Xiao Qi."

His voice choked, "In the future, F class is not here, we are not here, I hope you can take care of your health, continue to be handsome ...... I also hope you can remember the flavor of the cake and remember us."

"......"

Qi Xingchen's heart was clogged up and she didn't know how to respond, and it took a long time for her to suppress her acidity: "How could I forget you guys. Before I went on stage today, I said that I am your mentor in the program, and I am your friend when I leave the program, so we will have plenty of time to get in touch."

Friends?

Wu Qian shook his head.

"Teacher Xiao Qi, you were right about that time in the practice room, before we came here, we all came with dreams of being famous. When we saw how strong the competition was, frankly, we wimped out."

"I don't know if you've ever experienced that feeling of not seeing the end. We actually try hard, but maybe we're not qualified, maybe we joined the industry too late, maybe we're just stupid ...... Anyway, no matter how we practiced, we were not as capable as someone else's trainee who might have just trained for a year."

"The Times taught us what it means to be outside of the crowd. We were about to be eliminated anyway, so we broke down and started not practicing properly."

"Until I met you, you told us the stage was big and bright; told us it was not too late to stand up if we worked hard from now on; and told us you would practice with us ......"

"We've been convinced by you, and we're starting to want to ...... give it a try."

Wu Qian looks up and blinks hard, blinking back tears, "The trial seems to have turned out well now. Seven stayed in the end, which is the best that can be expected."

"It wasn't hard for those of us who were eliminated, we enjoyed being on stage today and enjoying our time with you."

"Teacher Xiao Qi," Wu Qian looked back at the lads trying to hold back their tears, "can we ...... hug you?"

Can we hug you?

Qi Xingchen didn't say anything and simply opened his arms.

He leapt forward and flung himself into the F class pile. The group of lads hugged each other and burst into tears!

The sobs transformed from whimpers to uncontrollable bawls for those dark years of practice, for those confused tomorrows that didn't know which way to go.

And even more so, the self that has persevered, and will continue to persevere, from the past to the future.

"Teacher Xiao Qi," Qi Xingchen heard someone say in a trance, "you are not a friend."

"You will always be our mentor."