Fu Jingfan turned around abruptly, but only took a second to compose himself before turning to look at the butler.
The butler couldn't discern any true emotion from Fu Jingfan's face, and had no idea what had just happened. He simply asked, "Mr. Fu, what would you like to eat tonight?"
"Either is fine," Fu Jingfan replied casually.
The butler did not disturb Fu Jingfan any further and left respectfully.
Fu Jingfan sat on the edge of the bed, legs apart, elbows resting on his knees, his hands seemingly clasped together unintentionally.
After the door closed, there was no light in the room. Fu Jingfan sat silently on the edge of the bed, casting a heavy shadow.
He didn't speak, yet his presence and aura were amplified infinitely in the dark room.
He was used to being in control of everything, and he wouldn't allow anything to go beyond his plans. What he wanted had to belong to him completely.
Su Huaiming wasn't originally in this category, but it wasn't until he secretly left this time that Fu Jingfan realized his long-dormant desire for control was stirring and almost slipped out of his grasp.
Fu Jingfan wanted to control everything, and the desire for control was naturally included in it. He wouldn't allow himself to lose his composure, nor would he allow himself to be controlled.
He sat quietly by the bed for more than ten minutes before slowly raising his head. His dark eyes were even more intense than the night sky outside, devoid of starlight and moonlight, like a dead sea.
His gaze slowly moved down and landed on a book. He couldn't help but picture Su Huaiming holding the book, curled up on the bed.
Long, slender fingers reached out, gently rubbing the book cover with their fingertips. The coldness in their eyes faded, replaced by a glimmer of light.
Fu Jingfan held the book in his hands and played with it, then let out a soft sigh of relief, finally feeling that he had calmed down a bit.
In the past, when faced with people and things he wanted, he would use the most efficient means to bring them into his camp.
Su Huaiming was lazy and carefree, like a wisp of wind, drifting wherever he pleased.
However, he also has weaknesses. He has nothing he wants, so he has no reason to rebel. He can stay in any container, but he prefers to stay in the gilded cage he created rather than anywhere else.
If he wanted Su Huaiming, he could certainly do that.
He could give Su Huaiming anything he wanted. He could put on a different face and wait for Su Huaiming's guard to drop before taking advantage of his languid mood. But when he painstakingly helped Su Huaiming devise a training plan, he couldn't control his wicked thoughts and ended up driving Su Huaiming away.
Fu Jingfan didn't want to admit his "loss of control" and "clumsiness," but it was indeed the truth.
When facing Su Huaiming, his proud self-control crumbled. He was powerless to stop it, and even after clearly realizing this, he enjoyed it immensely, as if watching himself fall off a cliff.
Fu Jingfan's fingers tightened around the book as he looked up at the dark ceiling, his brows furrowing deeply.
What's wrong with him?
******
After leaving the apartment, Su Huaiming took a car to the airport; the production team had already arranged everything for him.
After the plane lands, he will be taken to the training camp immediately, where he will spend four days. The schedule is very tight.
The production team did not announce Su Huaiming's appearance as a guest star. Not only was there no news about it online, but the contestants and mentors were also unaware of it. When Su Huaiming appears at a specific time arranged by the production team, it will definitely cause a huge uproar.
This is exactly the effect the production team wanted. As long as Su Huaiming participates in the recording, it will be a huge topic of discussion. Moreover, the mentors and contestants can create different sparks with Su Huaiming, generating even more buzz.
When Su Huaiming arrived at the training camp, the mentors and contestants were recording.
The group assignments and selections for the first performance were announced a week ago.
All the contestants came here hoping to debut, but there were only a limited number of spots. They put in their best effort, trained relentlessly, and tried to deliver a better performance so that the audience would remember them and they could get more votes and get closer to their dreams.
The lights in almost every training room were on until night. The contestants were already working incredibly hard, and it was also time for the mentors to check their progress. Almost everyone stayed up late last night, practicing until very late.
The morning recording started at nine o'clock, and the contestants had to get up two hours in advance to do their makeup. Although they were all meticulously made up from head to toe, they were very sleepy and dazed when they were recording.
The drowsiness seemed to spread; all the contestants were already exhausted just trying not to sleep, and had no energy left to interact. The mentors noticed this and sighed deeply.
"It seems our athletes have really trained hard and are quite tired," the female coach said with a smile.
Xiao Kaicheng nodded. As someone who came from a talent show, he naturally wanted to bring up his past experiences to attract more fans.
"I was in the same boat. One of the performances had a really difficult song, and our team had some issues. We made too many adjustments and couldn't settle on a song. To deliver a better performance, I practically lived in the training room for a while. When I was tired, I would lie down and sleep for a bit, and when I woke up, I would continue practicing. To be honest, I was in worse shape than them. Luckily, the final result was pretty good, otherwise I would have really let down my fans who have always supported me."
Xiao Kaicheng put a lot of thought into his speech, which was definitely not just to fill time. The other mentors were also shrewd and chimed in, praising Xiao Kaicheng profusely.
Xiao Kaicheng seemed embarrassed by the praise, but he was secretly very pleased, knowing that his carefully planned words would definitely resonate with the audience.
As expected, Xiao Kaicheng's fans were ecstatic.
[Xiao Kaicheng is incredibly hardworking. I started liking him after watching a variety show. His dance moves are so cool, and his singing is amazing too. Xiao Kaicheng is awesome!]
[Kai Cheng is being modest again. Someone as handsome, talented, and hardworking as you deserves to debut!]
[Thinking back to that talent show from last season, I suddenly feel old. I have to say, the overall talent of the contestants in that season was very strong.]
[Not necessarily, this would require pointing out a certain rotten apple surnamed Su.]
[Yes, Xiao Kaicheng just said that the problem the team encountered was Su Huaiming. Su Huaiming is unwilling to work hard and has too many unrealistic expectations. All the members accommodate him and have changed the formation many times. Thinking about it now, I feel sorry for Xiao Kaicheng!]
[Hasn't everything been clarified already? Su Huaiming was tied to a shady management company; his participation in the talent show and his appalling behavior were all forced upon him!]
[He did sign with a shady company, but what evidence is there that the company forced him to do it? Maybe Su Huaiming is using the company to climb the corporate ladder.]
Even if we take a step back and assume that's the case, Su Huaiming has absolutely no singing or dancing skills, yet he still got a spot in the talent show. This is disrespectful to the other contestants and unfair to those who were eliminated!
Most of the contestants in the previous talent show were talented and had their own unique characteristics. The production team was also very good at creating topics and hype to attract viewers. The original owner was just such a cannon fodder character.
The original owner was the most compelling conflict created by the show's producers. He was a complete scoundrel back then. Even after Su Huaiming's reputation reversed through the reality show about raising children and the black-hearted behavior of his agency was exposed, netizens knew that the original owner was forced into this situation. However, some netizens who watched the talent show back then were still Su Huaiming's die-hard haters, relentlessly causing trouble for him and hating him to the core whenever he was mentioned.
This season's talent show has a new production team and takes a more conservative approach. The contestants are quite talented, but there are fewer talking points compared to the previous season. After much deliberation, the production team decided to take a different approach and invited Su Huaiming as a guest star. Meanwhile, Xiao Kaicheng, a contestant from the previous season who had a major conflict with the original contestant, will serve as a mentor. The two will inevitably meet.
After learning the news from within the organization, Xiao Kaicheng was furious that the production team had used him as a pawn. He also felt extremely bitter when he thought about his and Su Huaiming's current fame and status. His Mingming told him that Su Huaiming was someone he couldn't afford to offend, but he still couldn't help but do some small things to vent his resentment.
Xiao Kaicheng knew very well that Su Huaiming was about to appear, and he said these words in advance to create bad public opinion for Su Huaiming, making his opening speech very awkward.
After noticing this, the show's director kept wiping away sweat, fearing that Su Huaiming would take his anger out on him.
Now is not the best time for Su Huaiming to make his appearance, but the die is cast, and the director has no choice but to grit his teeth and continue according to the original plan.
The lights suddenly went out, and the drowsy players, seeing this, perked up a bit, looking around anxiously and whispering among themselves about what had happened.
Three seconds later, the lights in the arena suddenly came on, and Su Huaiming appeared in the center of the stage.
This unexpected turn of events surprised everyone present, and the contestants displayed a variety of reactions.
"It's actually Su Huaiming!"
"The director is amazing! He actually managed to get Su Huaiming to come!"
"Oh my god, this is the closest I've ever been to Teacher Su!"
Su Huaiming remained quite calm and approachable, smiling and waving to the loudest contestants before walking towards the instrument rack.
All the contestants present noticed this.
At first, they thought the instruments were prepared for them, that it was for an additional test, and they were quite nervous. Now they realize that these instruments signify Su Huaiming's arrival.
Under everyone's breathless gaze, Su Huaiming slowly walked to the instrument rack and carefully selected instruments.
The program team prepared a wide variety of musical instruments, including Western instruments such as pianos and violins, as well as traditional Chinese instruments such as guzheng and erhu, and even many instruments that the contestants did not recognize. Everyone present and the contestants were very curious about which one Su Huaiming would choose.
Su Huaiming walked around the instrument rack, then suddenly stopped and stretched out his hand.
Just when everyone thought he was going to get the guzheng, Su Huaiming suddenly turned his hand to the left and picked up the instrument next to him: the suona.
Wait, a suona?!
For a moment, everyone present was filled with question marks, and their expressions revealed their true feelings.
"The suona can actually be performed on stage?!"
"Using a tone-based thug is cheating, isn't it!"
"A suona! It's a suona! Can this thing produce new sounds?!"
Everyone assumed Su Huaiming was trying to do something new with the suona, and whether they were suspicious or expectant, they all stared intently at Su Huaiming.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Su Huaiming slowly picked up the suona, his expression calm and revealing no emotion. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began to play.
He didn't come up with anything new, not even a new song. He simply played the most classic piece for celebratory occasions, using the sound of the suona to transport everyone to a specific scene – a truly masterful skill.
This was truly a "deafening and enlightening revelation," leaving the contestants stunned and speechless as they stared at Su Huaiming, their minds completely dominated by his rogue voice, unable to process anything else.
After finishing the song, Su Huaiming bowed to the contestants with an elegant gesture, a stark contrast to his earlier rascal-like tone.
"Hello everyone, I'm Su Huaiming. I'm happy to be your guest performer today." Su Huaiming glanced at the stunned faces below the stage and smiled with satisfaction. "I noticed you were all a bit sleepy, so I played a suona tune. Now, everyone, perk up and make sure you do your best in the upcoming quiz!"
After hearing what Su Huaiming said, the contestants realized that their minds were incredibly clear, their drowsiness had vanished, and their overall mental state had changed.
"Oh, I see. Thank you, Teacher Su!"
"The suona music was so beautiful! Play one more song!"
"Teacher Su, you're my only brother. I'll say it again, you're my only brother!!"
"..."
The contestants were all quite young, at the age when they were full of enthusiasm and excitement. When such a group of big boys got together, the atmosphere easily became heated. They shouted at the top of their lungs, their energetic demeanor completely opposite to what they had just shown.
Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Su Huaiming smiled faintly, concealing his merit and fame, and stepped aside, leaving the stage to the contestants.
Xiao Kaicheng was furious when he saw this.
He made some suggestive remarks beforehand, intending to give Su Huaiming a hard time and make him suffer a setback. Unexpectedly, Su Huaiming easily created a lively atmosphere and won the favor of the contestants.
It's been so long since we last met, how did Su Huaiming become so cunning!
Xiao Kaicheng recalled the foolish and cowardly figure in his memory, his gaze towards Su Huaiming filled with resentment, and he unconsciously clenched his fist.
But as the camera was about to focus on Xiao Kaicheng immediately adjusted his expression and revealed a warm smile, which perfectly matched his sunny persona.
Next came the contestants' tests. Su Huaiming watched attentively as they presented their work from the past few days, listening to the mentors' professional comments, and found it all very interesting.
After each performance group finished their presentations, the mentors gathered together and discussed the contestants' levels and scores with serious expressions.
The ranking is an evaluation of the efforts and contributions of each group of contestants at this stage. Groups with high rankings can hold their heads high, while groups with low rankings will be unable to control their tension because they have significant problems that they must improve in the limited time remaining, which is very difficult.
The contestants were very nervous, staring intently at the director, holding their breath as they awaited the next score.
Xiao Kaicheng loved to show off and took it upon himself to shoulder the important task of announcing the rankings.
There were four presentation groups present, representing four levels: A, B, C, and D. The final announced levels were roughly as Su Huaiming had anticipated. One group, in particular, had some outstanding issues and received a D level.
After announcing the rankings, the host, who had been relatively quiet until now, stepped forward and said, "For this performance, each group will have one guest performer. The selection will be made by the three mentors on stage and one guest performer. Please have the mentors make their choices first, and then each group should discuss and write their decisions on the whiteboard in front of them. We will announce the results later. Performance groups and guest performers whose goals don't match can still participate in the performance if they reach a consensus after discussion."
The contestants were unaware of this and all showed surprised expressions. The three mentors and Su Huaiming simply nodded slightly, as they had already heard about it from the director.
The four of them quickly wrote down the groups they wanted to team up with, while the other contestants huddled together whispering amongst themselves, all taking the matter very seriously.