Chapter 11: All A
Unexpectedly, the song the COCO trainees had chosen was neither a sweet nor a classic girl group song but complextro1 electro music. This was a kind of music that had only emerged in recent years2; it was based on house music’s fierce drums and heavy modulations to form a complex and powerful sound. This style was not very popular in China but the musicians in the industry had started to get involved in this area. Jiang Fengchi also wanted to try this style for his next album and he had not expected players would perform it today. He could not help but be a little surprised.
An intrigued glint reached his eyes and he glanced down to the player profile in his hand, his gaze falling on Qiao Dai’s resume. He had never heard of the place she was born and the school she had attended was not related to music or dance. She even only had signed with her agency a few months ago; it could almost be said that Qiao Dai’s past was a blank sheet of paper. Why would such a girl perform this song so perfectly? Jiang Fengchi gently tapped the table with his fingers and began to think.
This song was about a future world. One day, a little robot developed self-awareness after witnessing the destruction of its companions; it felt that it was not a machine but a human and began to sing its desire to be recognized. But in the eyes of its owner, the little robot was just metal and the little robot knew it itself: its hollow eyes, its cold body, it was destined to warm no one. It was just a machine and would never be human.
At the end of the song, the little robot desperately broke its own chip with a gun and ended its life, while its owner was just surprised “it was broken”. Then the little robot’s mechanical voice sounded like it was malfunctioning:
“I want to die.”
She was not broken.
She was dead.
Qiao Dai stood up and pressed her fingers against her temple. At this moment, even though everybody knew there was no gun, they could not help but hold their breath.
“Bang.”
The gunshot sounded and the girl fell back on the chair, like a broken machine. Her movements were stiff and sluggish and at the very end, she seemed to see something in the void. Was it the robot God? Did robots have faith too? No one knew. Her outstretched hand stopped in the air and truly, completely, turned into a pile of warmless scraps of metal.
Where did the little robot go? What did she see in the end? Or was everything a bug caused by the wrong equation?
Until the lights on the stage came back on again, everyone seemed to be in a trance, lost in the aftermath of the performance. Their song had torn time and space and led all the people at the scene into a fantasy world, clearly feeling the little robot’s emotions: joy, anger, and sorrow. When Qiao Dai had raised her gun to commit suicide, they all had an impulse to take the weapon away and save the robot’s life. This was the charm of music and dance. Through their performance, everyone saw a novel and strange story and felt differently.
The contestants became agitated for a while; they started whispering and looked in Qiao Dai’s direction.
“Daidai, you can get up.”
Shi Qing walked to Qiao Dai’s side and reminded her it was over. After Qiao Dai sang the last line, it had looked as if she had really died. She fell down on the chair and had kept her eyes closed, barely daring to breathe, and had kept her ending pose with great determination until Shi Qing had talked.
Qiao Dai’s honest appearance was seen by everyone and slightly eased the depressive emotions brought by the song, making people immediately more comfortable.
[Just now, I wanted to burst into tears. But seeing Daidai’s reaction, I feel so much better hahaha]
[This little sister is so innocent, she hasn’t moved at all. Fortunately, someone told her it was over hahaha]
After the performance, Qiao Dai and the others stood together and bowed to the audience, before waiting for the mentors’ evaluations.
“This song has many emotions.” Zheng Taijing, the teacher in charge of stage performances, raised his head to look at the girls. His voice was a little excited. “The emotions of your performance were spot on, the pinch of emotion was just right, I didn’t think you could choreograph urban dance so wonderfully.”
Urban dance was a work of art. It needed to interpret the entire song as a dance drama; it was mandatory for the singer to understand the meaning behind the lyrics. If the emotions were biased, the performance would be a thousand miles away.
“Very impressive,” Zheng Taijing finally added.
The barrage went crazy at once.
[Teacher Zheng actually praised them so much. Sirius has never been praised like that!]
[Sirius will cry with envy after that.]
[Hahaha, I want to know how Lang Xing will react when he sees it.]
Sirius was a first-tier boy band under Galaxy and Zhen Taijing, who served as a mentor in <Pick Eleven>, was also in charge of Sirius’ stage performances. Teacher Zheng was known for his strictness; even the highly talented Sirius had been trained by him and despite having been working together for so many years, the group had never been praised so highly.
Listening to Zheng Taijing’s words, the other mentors could not help but joke: “Teacher Zheng, if you continue to boast like this, when the show is broadcast, Lang Xing will definitely come to compete with some of the girls.”
Zheng Taijing laughed and turned his head back to Qiao Dai and her group: “Have you heard? Then you girls should practice well and teach that brat Liang Xing a lesson.”
The girls were a little nervous when they heard Zhen Taijing say that. After all, he was talking about Sirius’s Lang Xing who had debuted with dance…
“Okay, we will work hard!”
Before the others could finish thinking about it, Qiao Dai was nodding seriously at Zheng Taijing, just like a school girl listening to what the teacher said. Zheng Taijing laughed and said to her: “The ambition is not small, when the time comes, Lang Xing will definitely come over to dance.”
The rest of the players were shocked. They had not expected Qiao Dai to be so courageous, brave enough to say she wanted to compete against Lang Xing. It was Lang Xing they were talking about, the champion of the men’s team dance award last year. Even if it was to cooperate with Teacher Zheng, they doubted anyone would talk without real skill.
All of sudden, the contestants changed the way they looked at Qiao Dai. But as for Luan Zhen and Shi Qing, they knew that Qiao Dai had most likely no idea who Lang Xing was and had only taken Zheng Taijing’s words casually.
“For a song like this, you need to put all the focus on how to interpret its own emotions. You have a group grasp of the feelings of this song and your performance was very good.”
Song Anni evaluated the girls’ stage from a vocal perspective. She liked Luan Zhen’s and Lin Lang’s part very much and praised them in particular.
“Did you choreograph this dance yourself? Can I ask whether a teacher did it or you?” Lu Cong, the next tutor, asked. He was a well-known creative talent in the industry, both in music arrangement and choreography. He was very knowledgeable and if others could not see, he could recognize at a glance this was a brand new dance, with absolutely zero reference from others.
Shi Qing suddenly became nervous when she heard Lu Cong’s question. Her eyelashes trembled; she wanted to speak but her voice seemed to be stuck in her throat.
“Our dance was made by Shi Qing.”
During the two or three seconds Shig Qing was paralyzed, Qiao Dai quickly opened her mouth to help her answer, her face full of pride as if she was the one being complimented.
“Was it?”
Lu Cong looked at Shi Qing with a little surprise; she looked the most ordinary among the group and he had not expected the dance had come from her. His eyes moved slightly, pausing on Shi Qing’s body for two or three seconds; nobody could understand the emotions and the deeper meaning in his gaze.
After a while, his voice came over slowly: “Why did you choose to add a finger dance?”
Did he mean her dance was not good? Thinking of this, Qiao Dai suddenly felt a little guilty. Although she knew she had danced the little robot to meet the theme, she also knew that the difficulty of her part was far lower than that of the others. The finger dance had been added by Shi Qing in order to help her cover her shortcomings.
Shig Qing understood Qiao Dai’s thoughts and while she had originally been too timid to talk, she found the courage to explain to Lu Cong in a very methodical manner: “I wanted to highlight the feeling of being manipulated. The little robot is like a puppet in the hands of the master, every move is not its own, it still has the heart to break through all the shackles. So I choose to let Daidai finger dance to demonstrate it.”
Lu Cong nodded after hearing her statement and smiled: “It was a very good performance, you are very talented.”
The mentors could more or less say that Qiao Dai’s skills were likely the worst among the five COCO players. The reason they had added the finger dance was both as Shi Qing said and to cover their teammate’s weakness. It was a good approach and Lu Cong did not penalize them for doing so.
It was even quite admirable. Everyone could find a suitable position in this dance this way. They may not have been perfect but they felt and acted as a team should. For a girl group, team spirit was the most important.
In comparison, Lu Cong remembered Galaxy’s previous performance and frowned. Their stage had really been unsatisfactory and it had been easy to realize this song had only been chosen for Ruan Tao to shine. Everyone had become a foil for her and had not shown their own respective strengths at all.
Although the mentors did not know Ruan Tao yet, they had an understanding of her background. It could be said that Galaxy trainees’ failure had been predictable; Ruan Tao’s upbringing far exceeded the others and her teammate could only retreat to the second line and the C position to her.
It was true that relying on Ruan Tao’s family, the other members could also get more exposure. But it also meant they only served as decor for Ruan Tao. Having a teammate with too much money was not always a good thing.
Thinking of that, Lu Cong added: “ You are all great, really.”
There was another gasp in the audience. Although Lu Cong was not as harsh as Zheng Taijing, he was very talented in the circle and it made him a little arrogant.
There were rumors that Lu Cong had not wanted to be a mentor on a women’s team audition show. Even just before the recording, he had smiles and said he was just here to take a look. The implication had been that if the level of the contestants were mediocre, he would have left at any time.
But now, who would have imagined that this aloof artist would show interest at the very beginning, and even spoke up to praise the dance choreographed by a teenage girl? Wasn’t this amazing?
But compared to when Zheng Taijing had commented on their performance, it seemed that everybody was used to it. After all, Lu Cong was already the third tutor praising them. They had gotten prepared.
“COCO is so strong this year.”
“Yes, I originally thought that only Luan Zhen and Lin Lang had chances, I did not expect the others to be so good too.”
The girls started whispering. Obviously, the ranking of the players had begun to change in their minds.
Between all the surprised and admirative gazes, Ruan Tao looked at the team on stage and felt very complicated. Her heart was beating wildly but the blood in her body seemed to freeze; her fingertips were cold and her palms clenched somewhat stiffly. How was Jiang Fengchi going to evaluate them? Would it be better than hers? When she thought about this, Ruan Tao started panicking inexplicably. She pinched her palm and stared at Jiang Fengchi for a long time. If he could remember them but not her…
Her heart was in chaos. She tried to remember her stage but the memories were torn apart by Qiao Dai’s performance. She only had Qiao Dai’s cold and hollow eyes in her mind and the desperate lyrics of the little robot.
It was Jiang Fengchi’s turn to comment. His eyes had been resting on Qiao Dai; he was hesitating which grade was the most suitable. The program team’s considerations, the company’s concerns, the outside world’s controversy… Perhaps it was not appropriate for him to do this, but at this moment, he knew what his true thoughts were. He slowly said: “I will give all of you an A.”
As soon as his words fell, there was a commotion in the audience. The first A team had appeared!
Chapter 11: All A
Unexpectedly, the song the COCO trainees had chosen was neither a sweet nor a classic girl group song but complextro1 electro music. This was a kind of music that had only emerged in recent years2; it was based on house music’s fierce drums and heavy modulations to form a complex and powerful sound. This style was not very popular in China but the musicians in the industry had started to get involved in this area. Jiang Fengchi also wanted to try this style for his next album and he had not expected players would perform it today. He could not help but be a little surprised.
An intrigued glint reached his eyes and he glanced down to the player profile in his hand, his gaze falling on Qiao Dai’s resume. He had never heard of the place she was born and the school she had attended was not related to music or dance. She even only had signed with her agency a few months ago; it could almost be said that Qiao Dai’s past was a blank sheet of paper. Why would such a girl perform this song so perfectly? Jiang Fengchi gently tapped the table with his fingers and began to think.
This song was about a future world. One day, a little robot developed self-awareness after witnessing the destruction of its companions; it felt that it was not a machine but a human and began to sing its desire to be recognized. But in the eyes of its owner, the little robot was just metal and the little robot knew it itself: its hollow eyes, its cold body, it was destined to warm no one. It was just a machine and would never be human.
At the end of the song, the little robot desperately broke its own chip with a gun and ended its life, while its owner was just surprised “it was broken”. Then the little robot’s mechanical voice sounded like it was malfunctioning:
“I want to die.”
She was not broken.
She was dead.
Qiao Dai stood up and pressed her fingers against her temple. At this moment, even though everybody knew there was no gun, they could not help but hold their breath.
“Bang.”
The gunshot sounded and the girl fell back on the chair, like a broken machine. Her movements were stiff and sluggish and at the very end, she seemed to see something in the void. Was it the robot God? Did robots have faith too? No one knew. Her outstretched hand stopped in the air and truly, completely, turned into a pile of warmless scraps of metal.
Where did the little robot go? What did she see in the end? Or was everything a bug caused by the wrong equation?
Until the lights on the stage came back on again, everyone seemed to be in a trance, lost in the aftermath of the performance. Their song had torn time and space and led all the people at the scene into a fantasy world, clearly feeling the little robot’s emotions: joy, anger, and sorrow. When Qiao Dai had raised her gun to commit suicide, they all had an impulse to take the weapon away and save the robot’s life. This was the charm of music and dance. Through their performance, everyone saw a novel and strange story and felt differently.
The contestants became agitated for a while; they started whispering and looked in Qiao Dai’s direction.
“Daidai, you can get up.”
Shi Qing walked to Qiao Dai’s side and reminded her it was over. After Qiao Dai sang the last line, it had looked as if she had really died. She fell down on the chair and had kept her eyes closed, barely daring to breathe, and had kept her ending pose with great determination until Shi Qing had talked.
Qiao Dai’s honest appearance was seen by everyone and slightly eased the depressive emotions brought by the song, making people immediately more comfortable.
[Just now, I wanted to burst into tears. But seeing Daidai’s reaction, I feel so much better hahaha]
[This little sister is so innocent, she hasn’t moved at all. Fortunately, someone told her it was over hahaha]
After the performance, Qiao Dai and the others stood together and bowed to the audience, before waiting for the mentors’ evaluations.
“This song has many emotions.” Zheng Taijing, the teacher in charge of stage performances, raised his head to look at the girls. His voice was a little excited. “The emotions of your performance were spot on, the pinch of emotion was just right, I didn’t think you could choreograph urban dance so wonderfully.”
Urban dance was a work of art. It needed to interpret the entire song as a dance drama; it was mandatory for the singer to understand the meaning behind the lyrics. If the emotions were biased, the performance would be a thousand miles away.
“Very impressive,” Zheng Taijing finally added.
The barrage went crazy at once.
[Teacher Zheng actually praised them so much. Sirius has never been praised like that!]
[Sirius will cry with envy after that.]
[Hahaha, I want to know how Lang Xing will react when he sees it.]
Sirius was a first-tier boy band under Galaxy and Zhen Taijing, who served as a mentor in <Pick Eleven>, was also in charge of Sirius’ stage performances. Teacher Zheng was known for his strictness; even the highly talented Sirius had been trained by him and despite having been working together for so many years, the group had never been praised so highly.
Listening to Zheng Taijing’s words, the other mentors could not help but joke: “Teacher Zheng, if you continue to boast like this, when the show is broadcast, Lang Xing will definitely come to compete with some of the girls.”
Zheng Taijing laughed and turned his head back to Qiao Dai and her group: “Have you heard? Then you girls should practice well and teach that brat Liang Xing a lesson.”
The girls were a little nervous when they heard Zhen Taijing say that. After all, he was talking about Sirius’s Lang Xing who had debuted with dance…
“Okay, we will work hard!”
Before the others could finish thinking about it, Qiao Dai was nodding seriously at Zheng Taijing, just like a school girl listening to what the teacher said. Zheng Taijing laughed and said to her: “The ambition is not small, when the time comes, Lang Xing will definitely come over to dance.”
The rest of the players were shocked. They had not expected Qiao Dai to be so courageous, brave enough to say she wanted to compete against Lang Xing. It was Lang Xing they were talking about, the champion of the men’s team dance award last year. Even if it was to cooperate with Teacher Zheng, they doubted anyone would talk without real skill.
All of sudden, the contestants changed the way they looked at Qiao Dai. But as for Luan Zhen and Shi Qing, they knew that Qiao Dai had most likely no idea who Lang Xing was and had only taken Zheng Taijing’s words casually.
“For a song like this, you need to put all the focus on how to interpret its own emotions. You have a group grasp of the feelings of this song and your performance was very good.”
Song Anni evaluated the girls’ stage from a vocal perspective. She liked Luan Zhen’s and Lin Lang’s part very much and praised them in particular.
“Did you choreograph this dance yourself? Can I ask whether a teacher did it or you?” Lu Cong, the next tutor, asked. He was a well-known creative talent in the industry, both in music arrangement and choreography. He was very knowledgeable and if others could not see, he could recognize at a glance this was a brand new dance, with absolutely zero reference from others.
Shi Qing suddenly became nervous when she heard Lu Cong’s question. Her eyelashes trembled; she wanted to speak but her voice seemed to be stuck in her throat.
“Our dance was made by Shi Qing.”
During the two or three seconds Shig Qing was paralyzed, Qiao Dai quickly opened her mouth to help her answer, her face full of pride as if she was the one being complimented.
“Was it?”
Lu Cong looked at Shi Qing with a little surprise; she looked the most ordinary among the group and he had not expected the dance had come from her. His eyes moved slightly, pausing on Shi Qing’s body for two or three seconds; nobody could understand the emotions and the deeper meaning in his gaze.
After a while, his voice came over slowly: “Why did you choose to add a finger dance?”
Did he mean her dance was not good? Thinking of this, Qiao Dai suddenly felt a little guilty. Although she knew she had danced the little robot to meet the theme, she also knew that the difficulty of her part was far lower than that of the others. The finger dance had been added by Shi Qing in order to help her cover her shortcomings.
Shig Qing understood Qiao Dai’s thoughts and while she had originally been too timid to talk, she found the courage to explain to Lu Cong in a very methodical manner: “I wanted to highlight the feeling of being manipulated. The little robot is like a puppet in the hands of the master, every move is not its own, it still has the heart to break through all the shackles. So I choose to let Daidai finger dance to demonstrate it.”
Lu Cong nodded after hearing her statement and smiled: “It was a very good performance, you are very talented.”
The mentors could more or less say that Qiao Dai’s skills were likely the worst among the five COCO players. The reason they had added the finger dance was both as Shi Qing said and to cover their teammate’s weakness. It was a good approach and Lu Cong did not penalize them for doing so.
It was even quite admirable. Everyone could find a suitable position in this dance this way. They may not have been perfect but they felt and acted as a team should. For a girl group, team spirit was the most important.
In comparison, Lu Cong remembered Galaxy’s previous performance and frowned. Their stage had really been unsatisfactory and it had been easy to realize this song had only been chosen for Ruan Tao to shine. Everyone had become a foil for her and had not shown their own respective strengths at all.
Although the mentors did not know Ruan Tao yet, they had an understanding of her background. It could be said that Galaxy trainees’ failure had been predictable; Ruan Tao’s upbringing far exceeded the others and her teammate could only retreat to the second line and the C position to her.
It was true that relying on Ruan Tao’s family, the other members could also get more exposure. But it also meant they only served as decor for Ruan Tao. Having a teammate with too much money was not always a good thing.
Thinking of that, Lu Cong added: “ You are all great, really.”
There was another gasp in the audience. Although Lu Cong was not as harsh as Zheng Taijing, he was very talented in the circle and it made him a little arrogant.
There were rumors that Lu Cong had not wanted to be a mentor on a women’s team audition show. Even just before the recording, he had smiles and said he was just here to take a look. The implication had been that if the level of the contestants were mediocre, he would have left at any time.
But now, who would have imagined that this aloof artist would show interest at the very beginning, and even spoke up to praise the dance choreographed by a teenage girl? Wasn’t this amazing?
But compared to when Zheng Taijing had commented on their performance, it seemed that everybody was used to it. After all, Lu Cong was already the third tutor praising them. They had gotten prepared.
“COCO is so strong this year.”
“Yes, I originally thought that only Luan Zhen and Lin Lang had chances, I did not expect the others to be so good too.”
The girls started whispering. Obviously, the ranking of the players had begun to change in their minds.
Between all the surprised and admirative gazes, Ruan Tao looked at the team on stage and felt very complicated. Her heart was beating wildly but the blood in her body seemed to freeze; her fingertips were cold and her palms clenched somewhat stiffly. How was Jiang Fengchi going to evaluate them? Would it be better than hers? When she thought about this, Ruan Tao started panicking inexplicably. She pinched her palm and stared at Jiang Fengchi for a long time. If he could remember them but not her…
Her heart was in chaos. She tried to remember her stage but the memories were torn apart by Qiao Dai’s performance. She only had Qiao Dai’s cold and hollow eyes in her mind and the desperate lyrics of the little robot.
It was Jiang Fengchi’s turn to comment. His eyes had been resting on Qiao Dai; he was hesitating which grade was the most suitable. The program team’s considerations, the company’s concerns, the outside world’s controversy… Perhaps it was not appropriate for him to do this, but at this moment, he knew what his true thoughts were. He slowly said: “I will give all of you an A.”
As soon as his words fell, there was a commotion in the audience. The first A team had appeared!
