Dressed As a Cannon Fodder For the Rich and Powerful

The missing chapter 6  : )

Compared with Qi Xiaoyu, Yu Zhou, who ranked first, was much more polite. He chose the rap position that everyone didn’t pick, like a king who didn’t fight or grab, so he was in sharp contrast with Qi Xiaoyu.

Qi Xiaoyu raised his eyebrows; he didn’t want to do such nonsense.

After selecting songs, everyone was divided into two different practice rooms for training according to the songs they chose.

Dong Fan, Yu Zhou, and Ren Fei all went to “love, again”.

Qi Xiaoyu, Gu Lei, and eight others went to “Along with You”.

As soon as they entered, the vocal instructor was already sitting in front of the piano, waiting for them.

The vocal instructor is Yuan Yaling. He is a middle-aged man in his fifties. He has thick eyebrows and big eyes. His overly thick hair is neatly combed behind his ears. He is wearing an ironed white shirt and a black suit with a mottled collar. Just by looking at his attire, you can tell that he is a rigorous academic.

He had a few hit records twenty years ago and a few songs that were widely sung and can now be heard at major parties.

But with the change of times, he himself has become a bit outdated.

Yuan Yaling watched the group of contestants walk in, greeted Gu Lei as he entered, and then visibly frowned when he saw Qi Xiaoyu.

He doesn’t like Qi Xiaoyu very much.

From his point of view, disliking Qi Xiaoyu hardly needs more reasons. After all, besides those little fan girls who only look at appearance, who would like such a person with little to no talent?

Those who are weak in strength don’t seek to make progress. They only know how to fish in troubled waters every day, occupying the debut position and hindering others.

On the stage where he is present, he is basically nurtured by all the staff.

Such a contestant should have been eliminated according to his strength, but because of his popularity, he has been kept until now, and he has gotten much more screen time than those who worked hard but have low popularity.

Yuan Yaling hates this kind of competition system that only focuses on traffic and not strength, and even more, he hates himself for coming to participate in this show for such little popularity and remuneration.

All the disgust was added together, and it was doubled on Qi Xiaoyu.

Qi Xiaoyu is a product of this absurd era and a testament to his own failure.

Next, after Yuan Yaling finished asking everyone about the part allocation, he was even more surprised.

How dare Qi Xiaoyu choose the lead singer part at his level?

Although this song is made for the contestants and the overall difficulty isn’t high, the lead singer part is the emotional explosion point of the whole song, the most eye-catching and ear-catching part, with several difficult transitions that are not easy to control. It requires the singer to have excellent skills and a delicate grip on the sound.

Qi Xiaoyu obviously didn’t.

Yuan Yaling looked at Gu Lei sympathetically and then said to Qi Xiaoyu, “Come out, read the score, and sing for me.”

All eyes were on Qi Xiaoyu at once.

Qi Xiaoyu held two pieces of paper and took a step forward.

He chose the lead singer part, but he doesn’t know how to sing it now.

In fact, as early as the beginning of song selection and when he first received the notation, Qi Xiaoyu was stunned for a while.

He couldn’t read simplified notation.

When Qi Xiaoyu was learning opera in the opera troupe, Western staff notation1 had just been introduced, and numbered musical notation2 had just been invented. The old masters in the troupe looked down on these notation methods, and they only used traditional Chinese musical notation (Gongche notation)3.

As one of the traditional notation methods, Gongche notation uses characters such as gong and che to indicate the strength of rhythm and the pitch of sound, which is very different from staff and numbered notation.

In traditional operas and musical instruments, the subtle tones and transitions recorded in Gongche notation cannot be reflected in staff notation or numbered notation at all.

Therefore, Gongche notation is much more difficult, and few people know it.

Later, when staff notation and numbered notation became popular in China, Qi Xiaoyu learned almost all the classic arias.

His master, Mr. Cheng, who has sung operas all his life, said, “The rhythm and essence of Peking Opera depend on one’s own understanding, and it is only those dull and rigid Western songs that require a score. We don’t need it.”

But right now, it’s a bit embarrassing not being able to read the numbered notation.

And in the demo played just now, there were only one or two lines of the part Qi Xiaoyu was going to sing.

Qi Xiaoyu stood still in front of the piano, pinched the edge of the paper with his fingers and rubbed it a few times, and said in a humble tone, “Teacher Yuan, can you sing a verse first so I can learn along?”

Yuan Yaling showed a standard eight-teeth smile and said, “It’s okay, don’t be nervous, you sing a few lines according to the score first; I just want to see your foundation.”

After speaking, he pointed to the others and said, “Qi Xiaoyu will sing first. Then you guys can come one by one according to the portion and prepare.”

This is basically driving a duck on a perch4forcing people to do things beyond their ability, forcing Qi Xiaoyu to speak up.

The original owner’s singing level is very bad. Just now, he expressed his desire to learn before singing, but Yuan Yaling insisted that he sing immediately. Isn’t it clear that he wanted to make him look like a fool in public?

Qi Xiaoyu quickly recalled the plot in his mind. He didn’t remember any grievances between himself and his mentor, Yuan. Of course, it’s possible that the original book didn’t explain it.

Qi Xiaoyu took another look at the notation in his hand. He studied the numbered notation in his hand while other people were choosing songs. In fact, he could guess what sound each number corresponds to and what meaning different notes represent.

It’s just that the time was too short. He only got to ask Ren Fei one question, and no one else answered him, so it was inevitable that there would be mistakes and uncertainties.

In addition, he found out when he practiced his throat this morning that the original owner’s body was too weak, his lung capacity was poor, his breathing was insufficient, and his singing skills were almost nonexistent. He needed sufficient time to slowly train all these flaws.

The innate talent is already poor, plus he can’t read the score…

It would be too humiliating to just sing like that.

He, Qi Xiaoyu, has sung operas for so many years, and he has never been so embarrassed in front of others…

Qi Xiaoyu thought and took a silent breath. Out of the corner of his eye, he found that everyone was looking at him with the expressions of eating melons and watching a play.

Perhaps the original owner and these people have no grudge, but because he ranks high and his strength is poor, it attracts people’s envy. He can understand the malice of this crowd.

Yuan Yaling pressed a few notes on the piano and urged in a gentle voice, “Are you ready?”

Qi Xiaoyu took another look at the cameraman and the ubiquitous cameras surrounding them in the room and immediately made a decision. Since others want to add scenes to him, he should just add more scenes to himself.

Qi Xiaoyu shook the paper, flattened it in front of him, and then frowned with a puzzled expression. He sang unskillfully without trying to control the messy breath of the original owner.

“Your love,”

“Your flowers,”

“Your applause,”

“The honor you gave me”

“Thank you for walking with me.”

“I will always treasure it in my heart.”

The words are pronounced intermittently, and the pitch is always a little bit off from the exact tune, like an old accordion making a creaking and ugly sound.

“Pfft—” After he finished the last sentence with the trembling ending of the word “heart”, some of the contestants laughed out loud.

Gu Lei, who had been silent all this time, curled his lips in disdain.

Yuan Yaling put his hands down from the piano, folded them on his lap, looked at him with a very serious and tangled expression, and asked, “Qi Xiaoyu, do you know that you take the lead vocal part, the most important part of the whole song?”

Qi Xiaoyu lowered his head and said “um” in a low voice.

Yuan Yaling’s eyebrows twisted, and he continued in a regretful voice, “But you are like this now; your breathing is unstable, and your singing…is not in tune; the high notes can’t go up and the low notes can’t turn around; I think… you may not be suitable for such an important part.”

All the cameramen turned their cameras toward Qi Xiaoyu.

Qi Xiaoyu lowered his head and did not speak, but his lips and fingers were trembling slightly. He looked helpless and at a loss, like a poor student who had been reprimanded and given up by the teacher.

Yuan Yaling followed up with another question: “You chose this song, and I’ll be responsible for teaching you well. But this part may be too difficult for you, so take a look. Do you want to exchange parts with other students?”

Qi Xiaoyu lowered his head and said in a voice that was about to burst into tears, “Well, I know my level is not good. But I want to try my best. Before the finals, I will practice hard.”

After Qi Xiaoyu finished speaking, he raised his hand to wipe his eyes, then turned his head to look at the director team aside and asked in a low voice, “Director, if I change the part now, do you have any problems?”

The director was also stunned for a moment. He didn’t expect Qi Xiaoyu to throw the question at them all at once.

Yuan Yaling did not expect that Qi Xiaoyu, who usually gave up when encountering difficulties, would be so stubborn today.

“No, you can’t change parts now.”

The director was only stunned for a while before he came to his senses. They had made so many arrangements before to let them choose parts according to their rankings. If the parts are allowed to change, the audience and fans will scold them to death.

The director team had already spoken, and Yuan Yaling couldn’t say anything more, so he could only smooth things over for himself. “In this case, Qi Xiaoyu, you have to hurry up and practice hard. Next, it’s Gu Lei’s turn.”

*****

Subsequent recordings were carried out according to the established procedures. The instructor sang, the students sang along, and then guided the training one by one. Finally, nothing happened.

After listening to Yuan Yaling’s singing, Qi Xiaoyu immediately made a general judgment.

He estimated in his heart that there are still more than ten days before the finals. With just seven or eight lines of lyrics, if he practiced, his performance on that day would definitely not be a problem. He could even be better than this instructor, Yuan.

For now, though, he has to take his time and act like he’s taking it step by step, relying on his constant efforts to get the singing right.

Only in this way can he change his impression in everyone’s mind, let the director’s team give him more shots, and maximize the effect of the script.

He glanced at the camera in the training classroom and decided to pull an all-nighter.

The clock on the wall ticked, and the hands went from twelve o’clock to three o’clock.

The night outside the window is getting darker and darker.

The others left one after another, and even the cameraman got off work.

Qi Xiaoyu was the only one left in the training room.

Qi Xiaoyu was leaning against the wall with one leg on the ground and the other bent in front of his chest, holding the wrinkled paper in his hand, and humming the lyrics. Upon closer inspection, except for the strong fatigue in his voice, his pitch was no longer a problem.

But Qi Xiaoyu didn’t feel particularly tired.

When he was in the opera troupe, no matter how cold or hot it was, he had to do the horse stance, split his legs, sing, and meditate every day… No matter what, it was much harder than this.

He still remembered that one winter when their master asked everyone to put a basin of ice water on top of their heads while doing horse stance. He had a high fever and felt that there was a thousand pounds of pressure on his head, making him unable to stand firm. Everyone was frozen and shivering from the cold.

Just like that, the master didn’t let him dry off the ice water on his body and beat him severely with a broom.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but the corridor outside became lively again.

It was a cloudy day outside the window in late autumn and early winter. He couldn’t tell what time it was, but it was probably getting late, so Qi Xiaoyu got up and planned to go back to the dormitory to sleep for a while.

After sitting on the ground for several hours, his legs became stiff. He stood up and stretched his stiff legs while taking out his phone to check the time.

Because he had to record the show, he put his phone on silent last night.

When he opened it, he realized that there was a missed call and two or three messages.

It was Uncle Cheng’s phone number that was saved just yesterday.

Qi Xiaoyu was thinking about why Uncle Cheng was looking for him when he opened the messages. It can’t be that Xun Qian is looking for him, right?

It turned out that Xun Qian was really looking for him: “Third master is looking for you; come back right away.”

1234forcing people to do things beyond their ability