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He remembered this person well: Su Minghe, the national champion of Dance Miracle in his previous life.

Tang Shi had never really liked him.

There were many reasons for that. For one, Su Minghe was too aloof and arrogant, took himself far too seriously, always looked down on others, and even in his words and actions constantly revealed an air of superiority and disdain for non-professional contestants...

What made Tang Shi most uncomfortable was how, during the Auditions, Su Minghe repeatedly emphasized to every judge and audience member that he came from a certain national-level professional dance troupe, that he was its lead dancer, and that participating in Dance Miracle had placed immense pressure and burdens on him. Because he wanted to promote the system of classical dance, which was steadily declining as a whole. What he represented was not merely himself, but also the troupe behind him, and even more besides...

If that had been all, Tang Shi could have tolerated it. After all, everyone bore different pressures. Though he disliked Su Minghe's way of expressing himself, Su Minghe's actions had not interfered with him. Besides, during the early stages of the national competition, although Su Minghe had always shown inexplicable hostility toward Lu Hengzhi, his attitude toward Tang Shi had been fairly good. Either he would find ways to strike up conversations with Tang Shi, or he would occasionally bring him medicated wine, plasters, and the like. Everyone knew Tang Shi's stamina was poor; when he ran out of strength during rehearsal, he was especially prone to injury. Twisting an ankle and such were practically routine. Since Su Minghe was a professional dancer, he was better prepared in that regard.

As the saying went, you did not slap a smiling face. Under those circumstances, although Tang Shi did not like Su Minghe, he would not pull a long face at him. At most, he kept a respectful distance.

What truly put Tang Shi and Su Minghe at odds was Su Minghe's habit of using his professional status as an excuse to push every rehearsal mistake onto the other contestants. In Su Minghe's eyes, neither his dancing nor his choices could possibly be wrong. If something was wrong, it had to be someone else's fault.

Every dancer who had partnered with Su Minghe understood this deeply. But no one else had a temper as explosive as Tang Shi's. At most, they complained a few times after rehearsal and let it go. Tang Shi, however, for certain reasons he could not speak of—and because Su Minghe was always targeting Lu Hengzhi—directly clashed with Su Minghe during rehearsals. He had even gone to the production team and demanded a change of partner. If they refused, he would rather not dance at all than be grouped with Su Minghe.

No one had expected Tang Shi to react so fiercely. After all, between the two members of the Sugar Juice Duo, anyone with eyes could see that Lu Hengzhi was the one who truly could not get along with Su Minghe. The two were like needles against awns, each unable to stand the sight of the other. Everyone had also seen Su Minghe's obvious attempts to ingratiate himself with Tang Shi. Yet the one who ultimately fell out with him outright was Tang Shi.

This left Su Minghe in an extremely awkward position, unable to save face. In the end, under the production team's pressure and consideration for the bigger picture, he had no choice but to lower his head and apologize to Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi.

What was more, the Sugar Juice Duo had been far more popular than Su Minghe at the time. Tang Shi's fierce reaction led the duo's fans to target and even reject Su Minghe. For a while, Su Minghe's reputation was terrible, to the point that he was like a rat crossing the street, shouted at by everyone. That caused Su Minghe's attitude toward Tang Shi to abruptly change. Then came the Wire Rig Incident during rehearsals for the National Top Ten Qualifier Round. Tang Shi withdrew from the competition because of the accident, and Su Minghe somehow ended up winning the championship... Though it was not exactly inexplicable. It was more unexpected than unreasonable.

Judging purely by professional standards, Su Minghe was quite good. What he lacked was merely popularity and audience appeal. And everyone knew that so-called popularity and audience appeal were the most intangible, immeasurable things. Besides, Tang Shi had later heard someone vaguely mention that Su Minghe had supporters behind him as well...

Looking back always made people sigh for no reason. Yet all those long-winded reflections had actually flashed through Tang Shi's mind in an instant. When he came back to himself, he looked somewhat complicatedly at Su Minghe, who stood before him holding a tray and smiling a little awkwardly. Su Minghe introduced himself in a rather low-key manner. "Hello, I'm Su Minghe, a contestant from the Capital Division. I watched last night's live broadcast. Your dance battle was wonderful."

Huh? Huh? Huh?!

Tang Shi's eyes widened in disbelief as he looked Su Minghe up and down.

This was all wrong. Since when had Su Minghe become so humble and low-key? Shouldn't he be holding his head high with that look of disdain for everyone?

Su Minghe's clearly unusual state also drew a curious glance from Luo Jinfeng. He reached out and punched Su Minghe lightly, teasing, "Since when did you become so humble? Didn't you always say that, apart from you, every other contestant on Dance Miracle danced like trash?"

At that, Su Minghe pressed his lips together even more awkwardly and said softly, "Just... treat those words as ignorant arrogance. I never expected anyone to dance street dance like that before, much less do it so well..."

As he spoke, Su Minghe nodded sincerely at Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi. "I never imagined street dance could be combined with something like Peking Opera. I think you're truly incredible. At the very least, I saw many people go online and directly search for information about Peking Opera after watching your dance... If I could someday make people search for classical dance after watching mine, that would be wonderful."

Hearing that, Tang Shi suddenly thought of Su Minghe's constant talk about his dream of promoting classical dance, and he vaguely understood why Su Minghe's attitude had changed now.

Understanding was one thing, but Tang Shi still felt somewhat resistant toward Su Minghe. So he had little interest in responding.

Fortunately, Tang Shi had always acted casual and headstrong, so no one found it strange. Only Lu Hengzhi, who knew Tang Shi very well, gave him a somewhat puzzled look. When he faced Su Minghe again, his warm attitude also carried a touch more reserve.

Guys naturally ate quickly. Even though they chatted while eating, they finished in only twenty minutes. At noon, they returned to their dorms to rest for a while. With a little over ten minutes left before one in the afternoon, everyone got up and headed to Studio 1. By then, most of the director team's staff and the National Top Thirty contestants had arrived. After waiting patiently for less than half an hour, the three judges hurried in as well.

Today's discussion concerned the opening dance for the National Top Thirty-to-Twenty Qualifiers. The three judges aired their views onstage while the contestants below whispered among themselves, all talking at once...

Having gone through it once before, Tang Shi leaned against Lu Hengzhi and stared blankly into space. According to his memories from his previous life, after two long hours of discussion, the three judges would eventually reach an agreement and organize all thirty dancers into a formation for a synchronized street dance as the opening performance.

The decision was ordinary and unoriginal, but it suited Dance Miracle's theme and took into account the stamina and energy of the thirty contestants participating in the recording. Moreover, although synchronized dancing was simple, it created a grand and lively spectacle. If they danced in unison, it could easily give people the illusion of something classy and high-end.

Tang Shi recalled that opening dance from his previous life and realized his memories were so clear that every group move was imprinted in his mind. Thinking of it now was like watching yellowed old film reels flicker before his eyes, every past event vivid as yesterday...

While Tang Shi was lost in memories, he suddenly heard Qiao Lin mention his name. When he came back to himself, he heard her say onstage, "I think we can broaden our thinking instead of always limiting ourselves to street dance. For example, the Sugar Juice Duo's dance style is very good. Though it is mainly street dance, they incorporate different styles, which makes it more memorable than pure street dance and has also won everyone's favor... Since that is the case, our opening dance can try something along those lines. We can incorporate classical styles and explore a street dance style unique to our Huaxia..."

Qiao Lin's suggestion received unanimous approval from the other two judges. Then Tang Shi stared in stunned disbelief as the three judges beckoned in his direction and even asked warmly, "Do you have any ideas?"

On the other side, Mo Zi also joined the discussion. "I think we can continue the cheerful atmosphere from the previous competition and use a Heavenly Immortal theme. We can combine street dance with Huaxia's classical elements, then suspend the contestants in the air with wire rigs and slowly lower them down. They can strike all kinds of poses in midair, as though they're in outer space..."

Listening to Mo Zi, Tang Shi felt his head buzz. Before his mind could react, the words had already burst from his mouth. "No! I absolutely won't use a wire rig—"

The heart-wrenching shout rang out abruptly, and the three judges, staff members, and other contestants in the studio all looked over in surprise.

Tang Shi stood there with a deathly pale face, swaying unsteadily, terror written across his features as though he might faint at any moment.

Fear and trembling, like an endless ocean, swallowed Tang Shi whole before he even had time to think.

Chapter 32

Back in high school, political textbooks taught them that everything had two sides. In other words, everyone's view of a matter always contained two aspects. Where there was a good side, there would be a bad side; where there was a positive side, there would naturally be a negative one as well.

Take the Sugar Juice Duo, for instance. From the Auditions recording to successfully advancing into the National Top Thirty, their journey had been nothing short of stormy and spectacular. Early in the Auditions, scandals had broken out over their unruly tempers and conflicts with other contestants. Later, they had somehow won five million in the lottery and gone straight to the Headline of social and public-interest news reports. Then they had been accused of using connections and having inside dealings. They had even single-handedly planned and brought about the Lin Zhaoran Fundraising Campaign. And finally, there was yesterday's dance battle in the Top Ten Qualifier Round...

It could be said that, up to this point, not a single Qualifier Round the Sugar Juice Duo participated in had proceeded properly and quietly according to the usual process. Whether people said they were seeking hype or genuinely had personality, behind the duo's high-profile habits, aside from the audience's extremely strong recognition of them, there was naturally also the impression everyone had gradually formed of the two boys—

Talented, gifted, individualistic, and kind-hearted, but too willful and difficult to handle, immature, lacking a sense of the bigger picture, and restless.

Faced with such youthful and reckless members of the Sugar Juice Duo, everyone's attitudes had unconsciously become more diverse. Some adored them as though they were their own children, feeling that they were still only minors and that it had not been easy for them to come this far. So they wanted to be as tolerant and protective as possible. Others found them especially irritating, believing the two were simply making trouble for no reason. Some even had darker thoughts, believing Tang Shi was acting like a diva.

That was right. There was no denying that Dance Miracle's ratings had improved because of the Sugar Juice Duo. But without the Dance Miracle platform, who would have known who the Sugar Juice Duo were?

Now that you had only just gained a little popularity, you were already picking apart the production team's arrangements—this was no good, that was unacceptable. Weren't you taking yourselves a bit too seriously?

With that kind of mindset, certain people's attitudes toward the Sugar Juice Duo immediately became much more complicated.

Watching the staff and contestants on and off the stage huddle together and whisper, Tang Shi frowned sensitively. He knew some people would take issue with him over the wire rig matter, but he had never considered compromising. After all, he knew his own situation best. Given a second life, he did not want to repeat the same mistakes.