When the sound of Fu Jinxiao’s elimination announcement resounded in the forest, all the guests outside the forest were shocked. Not only them, this sentiment was also shared across many audiences in the live broadcast room.
[Fu Jinxiao lost.]
–He actually lost.
No way, do the crew actually have a script for this reality show?
Aside from this, many people couldn’t think of a second possibility. They all looked at the poor and innocent director. Only for the director to shrug as he replied, “We have never interfered with the freedom of the guests.”
And this was why many big-named celebrities were willing to participate in the show.
“Bright Stars” had no script, so all the guests could freely choose their actions to have fun.
As for the audience in the live broadcast room, many of them wailed.
[He surrendered.]
[He actually surrendered just like that…?]
[Before we could comfort ourselves, the program crew did it on purpose. Why…]
[Isn’t Teacher Fu famous for his competitiveness? He actually took the initiative to bow his head for others.]
[Shocked my whole family.]
This was really the first time this occurrence ever happened. Everyone felt like they were struck by a thunderbolt. At the same time, this also began to get viral on Weibo.
#FuJinxiaoAdmitsDefeat#
This hot search reached the top in just ten minutes. An enthusiastic netizen edited that segment into a short video and posted it, which shocked the masses of melon eaters:
[This is so spoiling Shen Xingsui…]
[As the older brother figure, he really loves his younger brother openly and honestly.]
[Lol byeee, you can call this “brotherhood”?]
[Otherwise? I can’t accept that they are lovers.]
[What age is this? Why are there still bigots who can’t accept same-sex relationships? It has already been legalized two years ago.]
[Because this is against the norm.]
[Although these two kinda looked good together, I still think that he’s a bit unworthy of Teacher Fu…]
Everyone discussed their own opinion. The comments on the Internet were polarized. Some CP fans frantically waved their banner proud and high, while others insisted on opposing them. There’s also a neutral party who’s only interested in watching things go down.
But no matter what, everyone at least reached a consensus that Fu Jinxiao had a preference for Shen Xingsui.
Talk about breaking the sky.
—That is, openly admitting that he loves Shen Xingsui.
As for this point, Actor Fu never hid this fact since long time ago. He never covered it up either. Sometimes he was upright and frank, making his fans feel like he was slowly acclimatizing them to accept this fact.
On the other hand, Shen Xingsui himself actually had the same question.
When he came out of the cave, he kept looking at Fu Jinxiao, hesitant to speak.
Seeing his timid appearance, Fu Jinxiao curled his lips and showed mercy for once, “Is there anything you want to say?”
“Hmm…”
Shen Xingsui finally got brave enough to ask, “Why did you choose to do this? Obviously you can win.”
Fu Jinxiao raised his eyebrows noncommittally, he glanced sideways at Shen Xingsui, and said with a clear enunciation, “Good and evil are quite fickle. Maybe I want to be the villain who dominates the world in one second, but in the next, I changed my mind.”
“Huh?”
Shen Xingsui held the treasure box, looking absolutely dumbfounded. With a soft voice, he asked, “What made you change your mind?”
Fu Jinxiao stopped in his tracks.
Shen Xingsui also had to stop and raise his head to look at him. Fu Jinxiao’s eyes were dark and deep, and those eyes seemed to contain a lot of emotions that Shen Xingsui still couldn’t understand.
The sunset that fell through the forest’s dense foliage was pure and warm, enhancing Fu Jinxiao’s charming smile even further. Shen Xingsui was mesmerized as the actor opened his lips, and his low and magnetic voice spilled over.
“Simple. It’s because you hoped that I’m a good person.”
Shen Xingsui’s thoughts suddenly flashed into last night.
In that corridor, Fu Jinxiao did ask him what he thought about the actor’s role, and Shen Xingsui only perfunctorily answered. He didn’t expect this off-handed answer would actually determine today’s victory, as if Fu Jinxiao had decided the outcome of the game purely based on Shen Xingsui’s wish.
Shen Xingsui felt that his heart was beating uncontrollably. The sound felt deafening in his ears – all in hurry and unstoppable.
Not long after, the silence was broken by the voices of the guests coming from not far away.
“Are you out?”
Shen Xingsui looked up and saw his friends.
“Ah, Teacher Fu, you actually lost this time.”
“Unexpectedly, we actually won.”
“Suisui, you are really amazing!”
The guests gathered together to congratulate Shen Xingsui, who was feeling a little guilty and undeserving. He snuck a glance at Fu Jinxiao, and it seemed that the actor was very noncommittal about the whole thing – he didn’t look like he lost, and instead, looked like a generous person. It’s as if winning or losing didn’t matter to him.
The director said, “Everyone has worked hard. There are still two days left in our journey. First of all, congratulations to all the young heroes who successfully protected the treasure left by the goddess. More importantly, the next two days will be an important celebration for the Miao people. They had kindly invited us to participate in the annual Goddess Festival.”
Shen Xingchen said, “I seem to have heard of this festival.”
Ning Ze said, “This is a very important festival. For the Miao people, it is as grand as the Spring Festival. Every year on the Goddess Festival, they worship their ancestors and gods, prepare bonfire performances at night, and there will be a wedding celebration when the moon rises.”
Tuya was a foreigner, she didn’t know Chinese traditions very well. To her, this sounded very novel. “Wedding celebration?”
Instructor Li explained to her, “During the Goddess Festival, unmarried men and women will dress up to attend the event. Generally, they will put a long table full of red ropes. When the table is covered with it, everyone will choose one end and pick it up when the moon sacrifice is over to send the Goddess back to heaven. If two people choose the same ropes and like each other, one of the parties will usually choose to weave the rope into jewelry and give it to the other party.”
Shen Xingchen, the professional mood-breaker, did what he does best, “Then what if they don’t like each other?”
Li Xu’an gave him the answer, “Then cut the red rope to break the fate.”
‘It sounded cruel.’ Shen Xingchen thought.
The director smiled and said, “Actually, many people would choose not to cut the red rope, because the Goddesses’ blessings are still very effective. Since we are here just in time for this festival, I hope you will actively participate in it.”
The guests asked, “How will we participate?”
None of them had experience in this area.
The director has already considered it. “The bonfire party needs a performance, and everyone must cooperate with our local residents to produce a show. At the same time, we will open a reward channel for the live broadcast platform. We will donate all the income to the construction of ethnic minority mountainous areas, and the guest with the highest amount will win our ultimate prize.”
Every guest present is a celebrity. This kind of event was beneficial for both parties – they got even more popular, and could get a good image by promoting an ethnic minority, and vice versa.
The guests readily agreed.
The song and dance show that Shen Xingsui finally chose was “Goddess Watching the Moon”, not because he liked this show so much, but because it was decided by lottery – he basically had no choice.
The person in charge of arranging the program “Goddess Watching the Moon” was a young lady called A-Can.
A-Chan said to him as she showed him a song recording, “Our singing and dancing are different from popular songs outside. Many people can’t understand the language, so it’s not easy to be appreciated.”
After listening to it, Shen Xingsui said, “Actually, the main theme is very nice. Popular songs don’t mean they must be easy to understand to be popular. It’s just that it’s good enough, worthy of being sung and praised, and has a great timing of release. If a song meets the public’s preferences of the time, it can become popular.”
Shen Xingsui wasn’t a breathtaking beauty. But when he started to talk about music, his whole bearing was different. When he was holding a music score, he seemed to exude a confident and calm aura from the inside out, as if he’s the absolute king in this field.
A-Can also got infected by his aura and said, “But still, this is written in a foreign language compared to the standard Mandarin. How can it become popular?”
“Then what do you think, let’s translate this song into standard Mandarin?” Shen Xingsui suggested, “Hm… it can work, and it might help to empathize with the audiences, who mainly consisted of Han people. Maybe we can use this opportunity to show it, and strengthen the bond between the two ethnicities?”
A-Can was surprised by this idea. She asked, “Is it possible?”
Shen Xingsui nodded confidently, “Of course, it may be difficult to fully translate into standard Mandarin, so we can also only translate the chorus part. It can become a mixed-language song, to show that the two traditions can coexist in harmony. It’s okay, we can just sing a few lines in the chorus, for example here…”
No matter how difficult a song is, in the hands of Shen Xingsui, the adaptation and composition seem as simple as fish in water.
The whole night, Shen Xingsui wrote the music. In order not to delay the bonfire performance of the whole team, he finalized it in the early morning of the next day, and then participated in the rehearsal.
“This is too amazing!” A-Can listened to the adapted song once, and the innocent young lady immediately had starry eyes for Shen Xingsui. “How did you do it? It seems that the essence of this song hasn’t changed, but the overall feel has changed! It doesn’t really sound like the pop music I often heard, but still retains the original feel of our folk songs!”
Shen Xingsui stood beside her, a gentle and refined smile appeared on the shy young man. “The original song itself is very good, I can’t take credit for how good the song is.”
She patted him and said, “Don’t be too modest.”
Shen Xingsui smiled embarrassedly.
After listening to it, the audience in the live broadcast room also agreed to the girl’s sentiment.
[He is the most inspirational original singer I have seen in the music world lately.]
[The future is really bright.]
[If he debuted a few years earlier, he would not be worse than Jian Zhi in terms of popularity.]
[Actually, I think he’ll surpass Jian Zhi sooner or later.]
Now that the song was decided, it’s time to practice the dance part.
After the adaptation, Shen Xingsui has established a friendly relationship with these performers.
A-Can took the initiative to say, “Suisui, everyone has already arranged roles before for this performance. We also discussed it yesterday and felt that it would be too late for you to learn the song and dance from the start. So, we can give you a character that requires almost no dance during the whole performance.”
Shen Xingsui didn’t expect such a good thing to happen. He was a bit suspicious.
“What character?”
A-Can showed a mysterious smile, and Shen Xingsui’s spine chilled.
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