Page 27

As Mo Zi spoke, she waved an arm and laughed. "Of course they pass."

All three judges voted unanimously. Sugar Juice Duo and Three Girls Group successfully advanced into the top ten. As the triumphant music started up, the five people onstage jumped down from the platform to the beat, their faces full of excitement.

When they returned backstage, Lin Zhaoran and Song Lijia, who were closest to them, were the first to come up and congratulate them. The other contestants followed behind with complicated expressions of envy, jealousy, and worry, crowding over as well.

With a wicked grin, Lin Zhaoran squeezed Tang Shi's arm, hooked an arm around his neck, and teased, "So, how was carrying our three gorgeous beauties? Look at that tiny little frame of yours... you're still shaking!"

Tang Shi shook his head with a pained expression and sighed. "Heavy. Simply the unbearable weight of life!"

"Get lost!" The three girls shoved Tang Shi with mixed laughter and exasperation. Chattering away, they said, "You two are getting more and more outrageous. Watch out, or we'll start putting on weight as soon as we get back and crush you to death in the next competition."

"Please spare me, Your Majesty." Tang Shi pressed his palms together and begged with a smile. Everyone laughed and chatted for quite a while, both to celebrate Sugar Juice Duo and Three Girls Group and to ease the tension in their own hearts.

The group with Lin Zhaoran and Song Lijia also included a male Robot Dance performer named Ming Xiang, who was twenty-five this year. Tang Shi remembered him from his previous life because he had won third place in Dance Miracle's national finals. Although he never got a major break after signing with Emperor, he still released an album every year and made cameo appearances as supporting male characters in a couple of idol dramas to keep his face familiar. Later, he dated a rising young actress in the industry for several years, and their relationship caused quite a stir. It was said they had even reached the point of discussing marriage.

Unfortunately, the actress met a wealthy investor through a film. Less than half a year later, she broke up with Ming Xiang, married into a rich family, became a wealthy wife, and retired from the entertainment industry. Ming Xiang, meanwhile, became the poster boy for cannon-fodder supporting male characters in China. After that, several television dramas and films invited him to play tragic supporting male roles. Whether because he drew on his own feelings or for some other reason, his performances were vivid and deeply affecting. In the end, one of those roles even earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at a Golden Phoenix Award ceremony.

Thinking of Ming Xiang's winding and bizarre career a few years from now, Tang Shi blinked, suppressed his amusement, and nodded at him.

Naturally, Ming Xiang had no idea what Tang Shi was thinking. However, Sugar Juice Duo was currently highly valued by the production team, and anyone with eyes could see how popular they had become. Ming Xiang was naturally willing to befriend them, so he replied with a smile, "I heard your song backstage. It was great."

"Thanks." Tang Shi accepted Ming Xiang's praise openly, then asked, "I heard your group drew Tango. How's that going?"

At that, Ming Xiang could not help shaking his head with a bitter smile. Lin Zhaoran also complained from the side, "I'm telling you, it's practically inhuman... Why do they have to make us dance something we're bad at? Isn't that just messing with us?"

"Maybe they're testing our adaptability," Lu Hengzhi said with a smile. Seeing a staff member come in to call numbers, he gave Lin Zhaoran a push. "Looks like it's your turn."

Lin Zhaoran turned around and glanced over. "It really is. Then we'll head out first."

As he spoke, he called Song Lijia and Ming Xiang over, bustling around as they prepared to go onstage. Without paying attention, he bumped into another contestant warming up nearby, Chen Jie. Before Lin Zhaoran could apologize, Chen Jie started grumbling loudly, "Watch where you're going! Are you blind?"

Lin Zhaoran froze. After looking at Chen Jie, he still apologized. "Sorry, I didn't notice you were behind me just now—"

"Obviously. You were too busy sucking up to your savior. If it weren't for them, what right would you have to stay here and compete with us for the top ten? Of course you have to wag your tail like a lapdog and flatter your benefactor."

Chen Jie's words were so unpleasant that not only Lin Zhaoran, but even the people watching from the side could not stand listening to them. Song Lijia, who was usually calm and steady, raised a brow and took a step forward, only to be grabbed by Lin Zhaoran. With a livid face, Lin Zhaoran looked at Chen Jie, took a deep breath, and said to Song Lijia and Ming Xiang, "Forget it. Don't lower yourselves to this kind of person. The competition comes first."

He had fought so hard to keep this opportunity. He did not want a trivial matter to delay the competition again.

Song Lijia glanced back at Lin Zhaoran, then turned to look at Chen Jie, who had his neck stiffly raised in provocation. In the end, he swallowed his anger and hurried onto the stage after Lin Zhaoran.

Chen Jie spat at the backs of the three as they left. Before he could turn around, a powerful shove slammed him into the wall. Grimacing in pain, Chen Jie looked up to see Tang Shi strolling over with his arms folded. Tang Shi leaned forward, moved close, and said in a low voice, "What, looking for a fight?"

The matter with Sugar Juice Duo had been making a huge commotion these past few days. Chen Jie naturally knew that the production team valued them not only because of their dance style and immense popularity, but also because Sugar Juice Duo knew the higher-ups in the production team.

Otherwise, how could they change the competition process with a single phone call? How could they help Lin Zhaoran create a nationwide fundraising event just to manufacture a gimmick?

Chen Jie did not believe it was all merely a coincidence, as Lin Zhaoran claimed. How could there be so many coincidences in the world? Sugar Juice Duo, Lin Zhaoran, and the production team must have planned it all long ago, only keeping it hidden from everyone else. His poor good brother had merely voiced some doubts in private, yet the production team had forced him to withdraw from the competition.

It was all their fault!

Chen Jie glared indignantly at Tang Shi. With bloodshot eyes, he sneered, "Don't think that just because you have people from the production team backing you, you can bully ordinary trainees like us however you want. Heaven is watching. Sooner or later, you'll get what's coming to you."

Tang Shi was nearly angered into laughter by Chen Jie's reversal of right and wrong. "Do you have some kind of persecution complex? When did I ever bully you? You were clearly the one bullying Lin Zhaoran, even dragging his sick mother into it—"

Chen Jie cut in disdainfully, "When did I bully him? He deliberately ran into me. I could just as well say he deliberately wanted to bully me. Besides, even if I did bully Lin Zhaoran, what does it have to do with you? Why are you getting so worked up? Standing up for him like this—do you really think the production team belongs to your family?"

After a pause, Chen Jie added with a face full of contempt, "You only dare strut around in front of us because someone in the production team supports you. If we're talking real ability... you might not even be better than us."

Tang Shi was thoroughly angered by Chen Jie's unreasonable nonsense. Seeing him constantly go on about connections and backdoor dealings, Tang Shi finally lost his temper too. "Oh? Then what real ability do you have? The ability to nearly fall during a dance? Or the ability to almost get kicked out for badmouthing people behind their backs?"

That single sentence left Chen Jie's face flushed red. During the Qualifier Round from fifty to thirty, Chen Jie had nearly failed to make the top thirty because of a mistake. If he had not improvised an emotional sob story onstage and won the sympathy of the audience and judges, he would never have entered the Revival Camp and stood on the Dance Miracle stage again. As for Tang Shi's accusation that Chen Jie had gossiped behind people's backs, that was even more widely known among the contestants. His luck had simply been a little better than his brother's, and he was smarter too, so he had not carelessly said anything in front of the media. Otherwise...

Tang Shi sneered at Chen Jie. "I really admire people like you. You pick up your bowl to eat, then throw down your chopsticks and curse the one who fed you. Other people might have the right to say that, but you? If the production team really had shady dealings, then they never should have let you advance during the top-thirty round. I really don't understand it. So many dancers with stronger foundations than you, who didn't even make mistakes, failed to advance. Yet someone like you, an ungrateful wolf with a white-eyed heart, got through."

Tang Shi's words were vicious, and Chen Jie's expression changed on the spot. Many of the contestants watching could not help recalling the top-thirty Qualifier Round. The image of Chen Jie, tears streaming down his face as he begged the judges for another chance to fulfill his dream, was still vivid in their minds. Compared with his current insistence that the competition was rigged... the way everyone looked at Chen Jie changed slightly. At that moment, the commotion in the selection hall caught the staff's attention. Brother Chen pushed through the watching contestants and squeezed inside. Taking in the situation, he frowned and asked, "What's going on?"

Chen Jie's expression changed again. He glanced warily at Brother Chen and stammered, "Nothing."

Brother Chen gave Chen Jie a somewhat disgusted look. Although they both had the surname Chen, and perhaps had been family five hundred years ago, Brother Chen had not the slightest favorable impression of Chen Jie. After all, walls had ears, and the entertainment industry was a place where news traveled fast. Chen Jie's little tricks of acting one way to people's faces and another behind their backs had long become common knowledge. As a staff member of the production team, Brother Chen naturally did not like seeing a contestant smear the show.

Like Tang Shi's earlier remark about picking up a bowl to eat and then cursing the one who fed him—it was crude and extreme, but it suited Brother Chen's feelings perfectly.

With that in mind, Brother Chen looked at Tang Shi questioningly. He had no desire to hear Chen Jie's side, but if Tang Shi explained the cause of this dispute, then for the sake of maintaining the production team's image and discipline, he would have no choice but to warn a certain someone.

Brother Chen's behavior made the other contestants feel conflicted. Although they believed Chen Jie had provoked the matter and brought it upon himself, they could not help feeling a chill in their hearts, as if a rabbit had died and the fox mourned.

All the contestants in Dance Miracle had accepted the fact that Sugar Juice Duo knew the higher-ups in the production team. And because of Sugar Juice Duo's relationship with Li Mei, the staff treated Tang Shi's group with more care and warmth than the other contestants. There was a sense of familiarity and closeness, as though they were all insiders.

These subtle details were not very obvious, but anyone paying attention could notice them. For that very reason, although Sugar Juice Duo usually performed outstandingly and treated others kindly, most contestants still viewed them through tinted glasses. It was like how classmates would instinctively avoid doing bad things with a class monitor who was too close to the teacher. That barrier and exclusion were subconscious rather than deliberate, but they truly existed.

Because of this, quite a few contestants secretly criticized Sugar Juice Duo's abilities in private. They believed the group's success came from taking an unconventional path, pandering to the crowd, and receiving deliberate promotion and packaging from the production team. All those factors combined had created Sugar Juice Duo's current fame. If all the glamour were stripped away and they seriously competed based on dance fundamentals, Sugar Juice Duo might not necessarily stand out.

Of course, these thoughts were things everyone had secretly considered and even discussed in private. No one was foolish enough to point at Sugar Juice Duo's faces and say them outright. Chen Jie was simply too clueless. He was clearly trying to stir up trouble, like an egg striking a stone. It was his own misfortune that Tang Shi had caught him by the tail and scolded him so thoroughly. He could not blame anyone else. But if the production team got involved too...

In truth, Chen Jie and his brother were not the only ones who had spoken badly of Sugar Juice Duo that day. After all, who had never been talked about behind their back, and who had never talked about someone else behind theirs? It was like two children getting into a fight over an argument, only for one side to call in their parents.

Lu Hengzhi quietly swept his gaze over the contestants' complicated expressions and found it amusing. He said to Brother Chen, "It's really nothing. Everyone was just gathered here chatting."

Seeing this, Brother Chen seemed to realize something as well. He smiled at the two of them and said, "As long as it's nothing. If there's nothing going on, then disperse. Why are you all standing around together?"