The claim that the original owner had squeezed out a trainee's spot to join the audition show was completely baseless.
The final rehearsal before the competition was about to begin. Li Changjian had been busy all morning, but the moment he heard Ye Zexi's name, he immediately dropped what he was doing and came over.
"What is it, Zexi?" Li Changjian asked as he approached. "Are you still not familiar with yesterday's song? Should I get the vocal teacher to go over it with you again?"
Ye Zexi smiled. "No need, Uncle Li. Today, I'm here to..."
"How could there be no need?" Li Changjian cut him off, his brow deeply furrowed. "Your father asked me to look after you. Tomorrow may only be your first public performance before debut, but it's still your debut stage. You have to leave a good impression on the audience if you want to gain fans."
Ye Zexi smiled. "That's exactly why I came. Uncle Li, I want to withdraw."
"What?" Li Changjian paused, but he did not look surprised, as though he had expected it all along. "You want to withdraw?"
Ye Zexi's expression was resolute. "Yes. Uncle Li, I've already made up my mind. You don't need to persuade me."
Li Changjian asked, "You're not chasing Tang Jing anymore?"
Ye Zexi nodded. "No."
Li Changjian asked, "You don't want to debut anymore?"
Ye Zexi said, "Nope."
Li Changjian asked, "You want to go home?"
Ye Zexi said, "Yep, yep, yep."
Li Changjian spread his hands. "That won't work."
Ye Zexi said, "Y... yeah?"
Chapter 2
Looking at his utterly clueless nephew, Li Changjian sighed. His tone carried a trace of affection he himself had not noticed as he explained, "Your father called me last night. He said he was very angry this time and froze your cards for a year."
Ye Zexi went blank for a moment and instinctively asked, "M-my dad froze my cards for a year? Why?"
Li Changjian glanced around, pulled Ye Zexi aside, and lowered his voice. "Why didn't you answer your father's call last night?"
Ye Zexi instinctively took out his phone and checked the call log. "There aren't any missed calls on my phone!"
After saying that, he raised his head and met Li Changjian's gaze innocently. Two seconds later, Ye Zexi opened his blocked contacts list with trembling hands. The string of numbers labeled Father Ye lay quietly inside.
Ye Zexi said, "..."
Damn it, getting transmigrated into a book on the first day was already screwing me over!
Li Changjian gave Ye Zexi a sympathetic look. "It's fine. Your father will only be angry for a couple of days. He also said that if you can place in this audition show, he might consider restoring your credit card early."
Ye Zexi asked unwillingly, "Uncle, do you know how much money I have on me?"
Li Changjian's gaze grew even gentler. "Zexi, on the first day of the selection, you argued with your father, and he froze twenty of your cards. Yesterday, he froze your last one."
Ye Zexi said, "..."
Li Changjian continued consoling him. "It's fine. This audition show pays you too. The longer you last, the more you'll earn. And you don't need to worry about expenses during these two months with the production team. Work a little harder—forget a debut spot, if you can just make the top ten, maybe your father will be happy enough to unfreeze your credit card early!"
Before his cushy life as a rich second-generation slacker had even begun, it was about to end. Ye Zexi could not smile.
But right now, Ye Zexi had no choice but to keep competing. He was genuinely penniless now. The original owner only had five thousand yuan total in his Alipay and WeChat wallets, and Ye Zexi had checked them last night.
Did these rich second-generation kids not know that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket?!
The smile at the corner of Ye Zexi's lips was extremely stiff. Fine, fine. He would treat this as training for his future wonderful life.
Besides, Ye Zexi himself had debuted through a boy group audition show. He had then struggled his way through the entertainment industry before finally climbing to the position of Best Actor.
This was just like returning to the beginner village to level up. Could his old profession really stump him?
More importantly, this was a boy group audition show!
A boy group audition show, full of handsome guys!
Ye Zexi was gay. He had merely been too busy trying to make a name for himself in the industry before. More importantly, his original world had not been so accepting of same-sex relationships, so such thoughts had only flashed through his mind before vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Things were different now. If Ye Zexi remembered correctly, this was a boys' love novel. To make the romance between the leads progress more naturally, the setting allowed same-sex marriage.
Which meant Ye Zexi could date now!
Ahem—
At that thought, the smile on Ye Zexi's lips finally became more genuine. He spoke up, cutting off Li Changjian, who was still rambling beside him. "Uncle, how much does our show pay?"
Hearing that, Li Changjian assumed his persuasion had worked. His face lit up as he said with a smile, "Since you're all trainees who haven't debuted, every trainee participating in the audition show gets a base salary of twenty thousand. After that, it depends on each trainee's results, with a maximum of two hundred thousand."
In other words, if Ye Zexi was eliminated in the first round, tomorrow night he would have to make twenty-five thousand yuan last for an entire year.
That was utterly miserable!
"What about the top ten?" Ye Zexi asked.
Li Changjian said, "One hundred thousand."
Ye Zexi gritted his teeth. "Fine, then top ten it is!"
A flicker of delight crossed Li Changjian's eyes. He was very happy that Ye Zexi had such ambition, though he did not hold much hope for his nephew's goal of reaching the top ten. Smiling, he said, "That's more like it! Have more confidence in yourself. Your singing and dancing may both be bad, but this audition show doesn't only judge singing and dancing. With that face of yours, are you really afraid no fans will vote for you?"
At worst, he could give Ye Zexi more flattering screen time. The viewers would definitely eat it up.
Of course, Li Changjian did not say that aloud. He would go have a good talk with the post-production team later!
After chatting with Li Changjian for a little longer, Li Changjian had to get back to work. The rehearsal was about to begin, and Ye Zexi headed toward the lounge as well.