At odds with the production crew

People bustled through the dim recording hall, except for one corner, where two people sat gathering dust.

Chen Mu hugged the guitar he had scrimped and saved to buy in college. He stared at the singers onstage in formalwear and exquisite makeup, then looked down at the suit he had bought especially for this competition.

He felt like an insurance salesman, completely out of place amid the glamour onstage. But when his gaze fell on Lin Fengmian, wearing a T-shirt beneath a suit jacket supplied by the production crew, he squeezed his eyes shut.

"Do you ever feel like we're just here to make up the numbers?"

Lin Fengmian hadn't been sleeping soundly. The moment Chen Mu spoke, he opened his eyes. "I thought you already knew that and had accepted it."

Chen Mu: "..." Having someone hit the nail on the head felt fucking brutal. It woke him right up.

He didn't even dare daydream anymore.

"How much do you get if you're knocked out in the first round?" Lin Fengmian had been more concerned with earnings lately.

"The company gets eighty thousand. I get twenty thousand."

"That's enough. Better than the fifteen hundred a month you get as a trainee."

"You're right. This twenty thousand is basically free money."

With his mindset adjusted, Chen Mu stopped minding. Because of his contract with his agency, he couldn't take other work. He had been drawing the company's guaranteed monthly salary of fifteen hundred for two whole years.

The two watched the famous singers onstage record take after take, one after another. They sat in their corner, and even when boxed meals were handed out, their turn still hadn't come.

They had arrived first, only to go on last.

That was how nobodies were treated.

Chen Mu was already used to it. Lin Fengmian, meanwhile, seemed possessed by the god of sleep and kept sleeping, though never soundly. After his boxed meal, he went back to sleep. When he opened his eyes again, it was already dark outside, and people were still singing and dancing onstage.

"...They told us to arrive at nine, but wouldn't let us record first. They just had to wait for the latecomers and let them go first? What, does recording first win you first place?"

"That's how this industry works. Star power equals status." Chen Mu had been a trainee for two years, and he had heard plenty of gossip about the industry's rigid hierarchy.

He also told Lin Fengmian plenty of industry gossip to pass the time.

Having gotten up early and dozed all day without any proper sleep, Lin Fengmian looked increasingly sour.

Only when the singer onstage finally stepped down to the director's praise did the crew remember them.

"Chen Mu! Who's Chen Mu? Where is he? Where the hell did he die?"

"At your house." With a sour expression, Lin Fengmian put an arm around Chen Mu, who only came up to his chin, and walked over to the crew member.

The crew member choked on his words. Everyone had been recording all day, and exhaustion had soured their attitudes. Faced with two newcomers who wouldn't keep their heads down and even spoke so aggressively, he naturally looked no friendlier. "Your turn. Sing if you can. If you can't, get lost."

Lin Fengmian took out his phone and shoved it toward his mouth. "Say that again. I'll record the evidence, so once we leave, you can't accuse us of breaching the contract and demand compensation."

The crew member froze for two seconds, then flushed with anger. Just as he opened his mouth to shout, an ID bearing the national emblem was thrust in front of his face.

The pretty young man smiled. "Sorry, I never imagined I'd use this qualification here when I took the exam for it. I do know a tiny little bit about the law. In a public place, a legally obtained recording can be used as evidence, provided it doesn't infringe on anyone's legitimate rights or violate public order and accepted moral standards."

"So, is this crew member from The Emperor's Border Singer telling us to get lost and terminating our collaboration? Can you represent the production team and bear the consequences of breaching the contract?"

The crew member swallowed. Director Ma and Producer Yu soon noticed the standoff.

"What's going on?" Producer Yu walked over.

His eyes lit up when he saw Lin Fengmian. "And you are?"

Lin Fengmian patted Chen Mu's shoulder. "I'm Chen Mu's guest vocalist."

Producer Yu silently cursed. Yi Qiang had been far too dishonest with him, keeping such a gem hidden away at his company. If this guest vocalist had signed the contract from the start, he would definitely have packaged him properly and made him a selling point for the show.

Producer Yu glanced at the crew member who had come to fetch them. "Take them to get spruced up. A change of clothes and some makeup."

The crew member was reluctant. Lin Fengmian felt he had neither slept nor eaten properly all day, and had done nothing but waste time here keeping these jerks company. "No need. This will do. Let's record already. We have somewhere else to be afterward."

Chen Mu: "?!" Where else do we have to be?

Seeing how discourteously Lin Fengmian treated him, Producer Yu's friendly expression gradually faded. "Take them up for rehearsal."

Lin Fengmian and Chen Mu were led to the passageway. Right in front of the crew member, Lin Fengmian said, "Save your voice in a bit."

Chen Mu: "?!"

"Just do as I say."

When Chen Mu heard the introduction, he went up with his guitar, adjusted the tuning, and began singing.

Standing in the darkness, Lin Fengmian harmonized precisely. His clear voice paired with Chen Mu's baritone had an unexpected richness.

They hadn't been idle while waiting. After all, they hadn't practiced together. Time had been too tight, and they had had no chance to work together at all. They could only discuss it face-to-face offstage, then put it into practice onstage.

Unexpectedly, it worked well. At least Chen Mu was very satisfied.

The director kept gesturing for Lin Fengmian to step out of the darkness. Lin Fengmian ignored him completely.

Furious, the director picked up his megaphone. "You in there, come out! What the fuck are you standing there for? Can't you see me signaling?"

"Oh," Lin Fengmian said, slowly walking out.

They started over, and Lin Fengmian began causing all sorts of little problems again.

The director walked up and tilted his head to look at him. "What's wrong with you, guest vocalist? All these people are working hard to record this with you, and you're fooling around. My time is valuable. Sing if you can. If you can't, then..." He swallowed the last word.

The director stared at the latest-model Apple phone thrust toward his mouth.

Lin Fengmian said, "Go on. My time is pretty valuable too, and trash has wasted another whole day of it."

The director: "..."

The crew member beside them hadn't expected this guy to be so confrontational that he would even take digs at the director. He suddenly understood why Lin Fengmian had told Chen Mu to save his voice.

He was getting back at the production crew for making them wait all day.

Lin Fengmian looked at the director. "Why did you stop? Surely you're not going back on your word? A big-shot director like you?"

It was the director's first time encountering such a brazen amateur. "Do you have any idea that I..."

Lin Fengmian waved his phone. "A smart person would let us keep recording instead of making threats. We're all adults. Don't be so childish. Defying the law comes at a price."

"Everyone's time is valuable."

After that round of barbed remarks, the director returned to his seat with a dark expression, and recording resumed.

You want to mess with me? Fine. Then we'll fight this out.

The people onstage and offstage kept locking horns. The director deliberately made things difficult for the newcomers onstage, while the newcomers deliberately went one way when told to go another.

All the crew members below the stage looked at them as though they were idiots. Risking their futures to fight the director just for a moment's satisfaction-what were they if not idiots? They really thought they had won, when in reality, they could forget about making a living in the industry afterward.

Once they offended the director, they had no choice but to leave the industry.

The night grew later and later.

"Louder! Haven't you eaten?"

Chen Mu flinched in fright and raised his voice. The result was even worse. He hadn't even managed half his usual standard.

The song ended.

The director picked up his megaphone and called it a wrap.

Chen Mu let out a breath and hung his head. Lin Fengmian came over. "Why the long face?"

"Did I mess up the song?"

"He isn't afraid of damaging the show's reputation, so why are you worrying for him? Relax. We fulfilled the contract. The result just wasn't satisfactory, that's all. They can't give you trouble over it."

"Did that feel good?"

Chen Mu had social anxiety, not no temper. Of course he was furious after being left hanging all day. He had brought his best to this collaboration, yet these people had looked down their noses at him.

They had been the ones to mistreat them first, and they kept threatening them.

Yet they expected them to swallow it all in silence. Chen Mu couldn't do that.

All Chen Mu's rosy illusions about the show shattered. "It did."

"As long as it felt good." The phone in Lin Fengmian's pocket rang. "I need to take this."