Chapter 6

"The trials of wind and rain have never made me retreat..."

"No matter how many challenges come, I never admit defeat..."

"...Reject pornography, reject gambling, reject pornography, gambling, and drugs!"

"...Reject pornography, reject gambling, reject pornography, gambling, and drugs!"①

"Bravely Say No," also known as "Reject Pornography, Gambling, and Drugs," was a catchy, uplifting song that went straight to the heart, released by the Public Security Administration Corps of the City B Public Security Bureau.

Qiao Huan's voice was already deep and soothing, and his enunciation was rather lazy. It softened the overly serious tone of the original lyrics, making it sound almost like a ballad.

Ye Yiwei, meanwhile, had excellent pitch and rhythm. Like a backbone, he kept the entire performance steady, and his brighter voice complemented Qiao Huan's, each making up for what the other lacked.

In short, the performance was incredible.

The bullet comments in Shi Xingzhou's livestream went blank for a brief moment.

Then, in an instant, they reached their peak for the night—

"!!!"

"Hahahahaha hick goose goose goose goose"

"I'm dying laughing. I was wondering why it was the opposite of 'Luxe Life.'"

"Zhou: I want cash and drugs. Huan & Ye: No, you don't. Listen to Reject Pornography, Gambling, and Drugs and calm down."

"It's funny, but these two guys' voices sound amazing! They worked together that well without rehearsing?!"

"I came from B Network. Is this the gorgeous CP?"

"CP fans, please drag the progress bar back and listen to 'reject pornography' to calm down."

"So Qiao Huan is the big shot who sang at the bar, right? Right, right?"

"I wasn't sure before, but their voices are identical. It's him!!!"

"A former big shot singing Reject Pornography, Gambling, and Drugs—what kind of prodigal-son-turns-over-a-new-leaf script is this? Incredible."

"Trust the big shot to sing even an uplifting song with such heartfelt emotion!"

Only when the bullet comments were flooding the screen did Shi Xingzhou hurriedly force out an awkward smile.

"All right, babies, let's go see some other trainees."

He'd been so absorbed in listening that he'd forgotten he was still livestreaming!

"Lol, I'm a passerby who just clicked in. Your fave is embarrassed, isn't he?"

"He's been marketed for three years and still hasn't released a song. Those who know, know who bought trending searches to debut back then."

"Taking Zhouzhou away, no dragging him down to prop someone else up!"

"Zhou is the kindest. He was clearly giving the newcomers some exposure, okay? Haters, stop pretending to be passersby, all right?"

Shi Xingzhou ignored the comments and hurried out.

Instructor Tao Zhenting, however, gave Ye Yiwei a rather approving look before leaving.

Ye Yiwei returned it with a dazzling vocal slide.

In fact, Ye Yiwei had chosen "Reject Pornography, Gambling, and Drugs" partly to see how Tao Zhenting would react.

He hadn't expected the man to look approving rather than hear alarm bells ringing.

Either he was upright and had nothing to fear from a crooked shadow, or he was deeply calculating...

Still, it didn't matter. With this foundation laid, it would be easier to approach him later.

When the song ended, Jiang Renbao began clapping away.

Jiang Ji, unusually, smiled too.

"I knew Qiao Huan had a good foundation," Jiang Ji said, writing a score on the evaluation sheet. "I didn't expect Ye Yiwei to have such good natural ability. You've studied singing, haven't you?"

Ye Yiwei nodded.

To tell the truth, there was another important reason he'd been chosen to go undercover at Star Radiance, besides his good looks and his strong desire to take revenge on Bro Buffing: he had studied voice for many years.

Ye Yiwei's parents were both opera singers and had wanted to raise him as an artist, but he'd been so determined to serve his country that he'd "rebelled" and joined the armed police.

But his good performance just now couldn't all be credited to him.

Ye Yiwei could clearly tell that Qiao Huan had been yielding some of the spotlight to him, adjusting his own performance to match Ye Yiwei's piano and voice.

That was all too rare in the trainee world, where everyone wanted to stand out.

Ye Yiwei thought to himself that he had to find an opportunity to let Qiao Huan shine next time.

After finishing the scores, Jiang Ji looked up. "Since you've studied, don't waste your talent."

"Mm." Ye Yiwei was still looking at Qiao Huan, a thousand thoughts and feelings on his mind.

"But that doesn't mean you two don't have problems," Jiang Ji said, his expression turning serious. "In the training to come, I'll focus on getting you to keep your voices steady while dancing. And both of you still have room to improve your vocal technique, so make sure you work hard. When you have free time, you can practice together more often. You're not opponents, understand?"

Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei nodded together and exchanged a look.

Of course they weren't opponents.

Brother, with me here, you're sure to take first place in the class!

Afterward, Zhuo Yang and Bai Jike also sang "Reject Pornography, Gambling, and Drugs." Neither had any real problem with pitch, and both had pleasant voices, but Jiang Ji still sent them off to the dance and rap groups, respectively.

"Zhuo Yang, it'd be such a waste not to make you the dance specialist with those looks. Bai Jike, the mechanical quality of your voice makes you a natural for rap. Go learn it!" Jiang Ji was less polite this time. "Two vocalists are enough for a group anyway. You two won't catch up to them no matter how much you practice."

The two nodded after a painful reckoning, though they were secretly overjoyed. "Okay..."

The vocal class is too cutthroat. One slip and you're in last place. Run!

"Brother Jiang," Jiang Renbao said, timidly raising a hand, "will I be eliminated?"

Jiang Ji frowned. "Eliminated? Don't you know what's going on with the company?"

Jiang Renbao shook his head like a rattle drum.

"All right, just go to whichever group teaches what you want to practice," Jiang Ji said. The cleaner had already knocked and come in. He checked the time. "That's it for today. From now on, vocal lessons are every morning, dance in the afternoon, and etiquette and cultural studies in the evening. The detailed schedule is already in your dorm. Dismissed."

After leaving the practice room, a thought suddenly occurred to Jiang Ji.

Everyone believed that ability and looks were the most important things in a boy group, but only a veteran member like him, who had weathered ten years of storms and countless partings and reunions, knew that when talent and effort were much the same, the most important thing in a team was actually its aura.

Or, rather, its so-called group soul.

And those four, though all a little strange, had an indescribable...

Harmony when they were together.

The moment Shi Xingzhou ended his livestream, his face darkened.

Qiao. Huan.

He chewed over the two syllables.

He had thought Qiao Huan was just a trainee coasting through life, who had barely managed to manufacture a little buzz by taking his clothes off on City Escape and using the sleazy trick of promoting a CP.

He could sing too?

The person singing at the bar that day really had been him.

Fuck.

What had he just done?

Thanks to tonight's livestream, that compilation of the Shura field had already shot into B Network's top ten.

And yet.

Shi Xingzhou suddenly smiled, a twisted thrill rising in his heart.

Those bottom-rung prey from before had all been dull. This was more fun.

The higher you climbed, the harder you fell. Besides, he knew Qiao Huan's biggest piece of dirt.

His family.

Shi Xingzhou could still remember what Qiao Huan had looked like when they first met: worn-out sneakers, a faded jacket, tall and thin. Many classmates had cast mocking looks at him as they passed, but he had simply leaned against the windowsill with that indifferent expression, half his face in sunlight and half in shadow.

Later, no matter how often Shi Xingzhou got people to bully him and steal his money, even paying off a poor person to pretend to be Qiao Huan's friend and then badmouth him to the teacher, Qiao Huan always looked the same: "Oh." "Sure." "Okay."

Just like that, he reduced all of Shi Xingzhou's schemes to nothing.

Shi Xingzhou had thought his skills were inferior, but only yesterday, through his father's connections, he had learned that Qiao Huan's old attitude had all been an act.

It wasn't that he didn't care. He didn't dare care.

There was no one left in this world to stand up for him.

Qiao Huan's parents had both once been branch leaders in a gang, but after the gang fell, they had fled to some unknown country. Word on the street was that they had both met violent ends, leaving only a son behind in their hometown.

Overnight, Qiao Huan had gone from a rich gangster's son to a pitiful middle schooler. What could he still care about? What did he dare care about?

Shi Xingzhou opened the compilation and watched the clip of Qiao Huan singing at the bar over and over.

Qiao Huan had actually been involved in the underworld too?

Apparently the son had followed in his parents' footsteps. A dog could never stop eating shit.

At that thought, Shi Xingzhou immediately contacted several paid-troll bosses who claimed they could bring down half the entertainment industry and quietly fed them some dirt about "a certain trainee's criminal background."

At two in the morning, Qiao Huan woke up, his head covered in sweat.

His dreams were always thick and drawn-out, and he'd nearly overslept.

The young men in the dorm snored one after another; they were truly asleep.

Qiao Huan stepped over Jiang Renbao, went out, and climbed onto the roof.

A man dressed all in black stood at the edge of the roof, looking down at the bustling city's nightscape.

"Captain." Qiao Huan walked over to him. "What is it?"

The man turned around. It was the cleaner who had just appeared in the practice room.

Seeing Qiao Huan, the man smiled and patted his shoulder. "I haven't seen you for a few days, and you've grown taller again."

"You're kidding," Qiao Huan said, sidestepping slightly to avoid his hand. "How old do you think I am?"

"I still always picture you as you were in middle school." The captain's smile faded. "Enough small talk. How's the investigation going?"

Qiao Huan immediately saluted. "Yes, sir! Reporting to the captain: I've made contact with Jiang Renbao, the son of a manager in Qiancheng Capital's industrial division. The manager also attended that drinking party, but Jiang Renbao doesn't seem to know anything about it."

"What's the plan going forward?" The captain thought for a moment. "Start with that Shi Xingzhou? Your middle school classmate?"

"Uh..."

The captain shook his head. "Don't keep me in suspense. Don't I know you have a plan? Otherwise, you wouldn't have put on that whole show today. Were you provoking him?"

"Oh." Qiao Huan scratched his head. "I can't hide anything from you. Actually, when we were investigating, we found that whenever Star Radiance and Qiancheng had a similar gathering, Shi Xingzhou had a record of checking into a hotel far from the gathering place on the same day."

The captain immediately understood. "An alibi?"

"A very deliberate one." Qiao Huan nodded. "But we don't know what role Shi Xingzhou played in it."

"So you're going to draw him out." The captain's expression turned serious. "You think he'll make a move against you?"

"My background... is simple too, and they've sent male trainees to drinking parties before. I think it's possible."

The captain was silent for a long moment, looking at Qiao Huan with what seemed like countless emotions in his eyes. "You..."

Qiao Huan stuck both hands in his pockets and said indifferently, "It's the quickest way. What's the point of going undercover if the bad guys don't set their sights on me?"

The night wind rustled.

The older man and the younger one stood side by side, watching the city lights gradually dim, revealing the loneliness behind the bustle.

"I promised I'd take good care of you," the captain finally said, "but you really are a lot like your father."

For a moment, Qiao Huan had nothing to say.

"Did you dream about your father's teachings again?" The captain pointed to Qiao Huan's sweat, his eyes full of pity. "Do your father's words often appear in your dreams? Is it because of him that you're so outstanding?"

Whose family wasn't an undercover agent's weak spot?

Let alone the young man before him, who was not only their most outstanding undercover agent but also came from a family with bones of iron!

Qiao Huan looked at the captain's expression, a jumble of feelings in his heart.

The captain continued, "Also, I caught wind a few days ago that Shi Xingzhou was investigating the background of your father—the most outstanding undercover agent before you!"

"I guess he intends to use it to slander you. What does that tell us? It tells us he's getting desperate! So..."

Qiao Huan had a bad feeling. "So what?"

The captain took out his phone. "So! I set up a Weibo Anti-Hate Station for you! I'm the station head now, and all the brothers on the police force who know you're undercover are standing by. Don't worry! With us here, Shi Xingzhou won't hurt a single hair on your head!"

Qiao Huan: "..."

Qiao Huan: "I'm seriously going to thank you, Captain Qiao... no, Dad!"

"And! Please talk about work during working hours. From now on, stop praising yourself in the name of praising me, okay???"

That night.

Shi Xingzhou was awakened by a voice announcing, "Alipay refund: xxx yuan."

He looked at the message from the paid-troll boss, and his eyes went wide—

"Sorry, boss. We really didn't expect the Anti-Hate Station of an artist who hasn't even debuted to have such powerful backing. They threatened us, saying that if we posted any more dirt, they'd find our location and come pay us a visit. We don't dare do it anymore QAQ."

Author's note:

Paid-troll boss: Waaaah, Qiao Huan's Anti-Hate Station threatened us. They're really the mafia, aren't they? So scary!

Qiao Tang & night-shift police: You're right. [World-weary lighting-a-cigarette.jpg]

A spoiler for the debut lineup: Qiao Huan—leader; Ye Yiwei—vocal; Zhuo Yang—dance; Xiao Bai—rap.

① From the song "Reject Pornography, Gambling, and Drugs." Yes, this song really exists. The following is from Baidu Baike: "'Reject Pornography, Gambling, and Drugs' is a public-service opening song designated by the Ministry of Public Security for KTV venues, intended to publicize the warning to reject pornography, gambling, and drugs. When faced with **, bravely say no."