The bustle went on in the studio.
Shen Xi had no interest in watching the circus. Now that practice was over, it was dinner time.
Not one trainee was at the cafeteria as they were huddled up in one studio. Despite what was really going through their minds, the trainees gazed at Su Ruowan with eyes of admiration and envy.
He Lu was kicking herself since somehow, she ended up helping Su Ruowan. The mentors put a lot of value in Su Ruowan and seemed to want to coach her one-on-one. The sight was an eyesore to He Lu.
Tilting her head, Su Ruowan smiled tenderly at He Lu and the other girls. Oh, the awful look on their faces as though they ate a fly absolutely lifted Su Ruowan’s spirits.
These b*tches thought they could make a fool out of her? Well, not a chance.
The mentors could not see anything special about Su Ruowan. It was an ordinary song written by a rookie, but it must have its merits since Mr. Xixi said it was good.
Still, Gu Yang, Xia Mi, and Fang Yao were unable to discern the redeeming qualities. Nevertheless, these mentors were singers, rather than singer-songwriters.
Among the five mentors, only He Sumo and Su Muyan were singer-songwriters.
“Muyan, what do you think?” Gu Yang asked Su Muyan for his opinion. Su Muyan was musically gifted, and regardless of any half-truths playing a part in the public image, the fact remained that he wrote his own songs.
Su Muyan’s songwriting may not be the most amazing thing in the world, but rarely were there any songs of quality such as his in the music scene nowadays.
Gu Yang had tried writing his own songs and released a single. He understood the act of writing was much harder than singing. Anyone could sing, but not everyone could compose.
Fang Yao curiously looked at Su Muyan. She was a singer herself and even if the songwriting was not her forte, years of experience in showbiz honed a keen eye to recognize a good song.
Su Ruowan’s song was indeed mediocre, from the tune to the lyrics.
Thrown for the loop by the question, Su Muyan was not going to speak ill of Su Ruowan. Instead, he gave a vague comment about issues a rookie would face when writing their first song. He also added at the end. “There’s nothing wrong about Su Ruowan’s song. She’ll only get better with time.”
The others exchanged a glance. What kind of answer was this? They wanted a professional, precise, and personal opinion. Whether Su Ruowan had a knack at songwriting was second to them, because most importantly, Mr. Xixi said the song was good, but what was good about it?
Fang Yao was holding her breath amidst the group. She went to bat for Su Ruowan after hearing from Song Wenye that Mr. Xixi commended Su Ruowan’s song and that the latter wanted to perform her own work. Fang Yao started to doubt Mr. Xixi’s taste and regretted her impulsive act.
Now that word had gotten out, it was all on her if her coaching left Su Ruowan’s performance much to be desired and caused Su Ruowan to fall in ranking.
Since it was not polite to explore the question further with Su Muyan, Fang Yao turned to the other singer-songwriter, He Sumo.
He Sumo was not going to embarrass Su Muyan in front of others. They were all mentors and colleagues here after all. He Sumo would be stepping on toes to express his opinion aloud when it was clear that Su Muyan did not want to pick holes. Hence, he merely smiled at Fang Yao.
Fang Yao could pull her hair out. What the hell. She wanted them to talk!
Gu Yang was no longer dying to find out. He looked at the anxious Fang Yao and said with a smile, “You can do it, Ms. Fang Yao. You too, Su Ruowan.”
Truth be told, the production team had prepared special training for the trainees to compose their song and dance, but it was nothing on the large scale. No one counted on the trainees to immediately pick up and be capable enough to perform their song on stage in such a short period.
Of course, the decision was not absolute. The mentors were not going to let any gifted songwriting contestants slip.
“Thank you, Mr. Gu Yang.” Su Ruowan accepted the encouragement with grace. With Mr. Xixi giving her the gold star, the other mentors would not let the cat out of the bag despite what they thought. There was nothing to be embarrassed about as long as she played it cool.
Since it was dinner time, the trainees excused themselves and went to the cafeteria in groups.
Su Ruowan thanked the mentors again before taking off with He Lu and the other girls. As “girlfriends”, they were, of course, inseparable.
The mentors arrived at the cafeteria, unable to locate Mr. Xixi. They looked around and at one another wondering where he could be.
After dinner, Gu Yang got up to make a phone call. He went to the director to ask for Mr. Xixi’s number to ask where he was, but to his disappointment, the director did not have his number.
Xia Mi waited until everyone else was gone before drawing close to Gu Yang. “Why do you think Mr. Xixi said the song Su Ruowan wrote was good? It seemed mediocre to me.”
“Maybe we’re not good enough at telling.” Gu Yang was curious about this question. There was nothing special about this ordinary song.
The only highlight was perhaps as mentioned by Su Muyan, that it was a pretty good effort for a rookie’s first hand at songwriting.
“Don’t you think Mr. Xixi seems to have a bone to pick with Su Ruowan?” Xia Mi thought about it long and hard before deciding to speak her mind.
“I don’t think so.” Gu Yang chuckled. “Why would Mr. Xixi have an issue with a trainee? The comments she brought to the table were both reasonable and professional.”
Without refuting, Xia Mi gave him the side glance and uttered, “Don’t you know about a certain sense called a woman’s intuition?”
Gu Yang had no comments. What more could he say?
“Should we head to Mr. Xixi’s dorms together to look for him?” Xia Mi consulted him.
Gu Yang nodded. “Sure.”
While making their way to the dormitory, the pair could not stop talking about Mr. Xixi.
Nevertheless, they had no idea that someone had arrived at Mr. Xixi’s accommodation ahead of them. The person carrying a beautiful gift basket in hand outside the door was none other than Su Muyan.
Su Muyan came to show his concern before anyone else. Standing at the door, he cleared his throat, straightened out his clothes, practiced his smile, making sure everything was in place before knocking on the door.
Soon, the door opened.
