Chapter 71: Song Selection

Luo Mo rode in Xu Chujing's van, returning to the recording set of *Creating Idols*.

Xu Chujing's assistant, Liu Jingjing, had taken Luo Mo away in public, so the trainees all received the signal—the Heavenly Queen had sought him out to record a song.

To be able to sing a duet with the most top-tier figure in the music industry before even debuting—such treatment was simply enviable and jealousy-inducing.

By the time Luo Mo returned, it happened to be mealtime, and it was time to go to the cafeteria for dinner.

As soon as he walked into the cafeteria, dozens of trainees looked up at him.

In their eyes, Luo Mo, who had recorded a song with Xu Chujing, was equivalent to having already undergone a qualitative transformation.

He was still him, but he was no longer him.

From everyone's gazes, Luo Mo could roughly discern their complex emotions.

If they knew that Luo Mo's revenue split for the song with the Heavenly Queen was still fifty-fifty, I'm afraid their eyes would be bloodshot.

This was really propping him up!

The cafeteria auntie's technique for serving portions had always been mysterious and unpredictable. But because Luo Mo was likable, she generally wouldn't deliberately shake the spoon when serving him meat, and would even serve a little more.

Luo Mo held his tray and sat down at the table of his Anonymous Team.

"Brother Mo." Everyone looked up to greet him.

Once, Luo Mo had also been late for a meal. Before he sat down, everyone stood up and shouted "Brother Mo," and only after he sat down did everyone sit back down, leaving Luo Mo unable to laugh or cry, giving them a Warning not to do that again in the future.

Forming cliques in talent shows is normal, but no one asked you to actually form a gang.

"Huh, why is everyone's mood so low?" Luo Mo glanced at everyone and said.

Tong Shu looked at Luo Mo and said, "Brother Mo, when you weren't here this afternoon, a staff member came to notify everyone that tonight is Elimination day, and 30 people have to leave tonight."

Luo Mo suddenly realized; no wonder the atmosphere in the entire cafeteria was a bit depressed today.

"Don't worry, not a single one will leave." Luo Mo tapped his tray lightly with his chopsticks and said, "Eat, eat."

The return of their Backbone undoubtedly improved everyone's mood.

In the evening, all five celebrity mentors came to the recording set, and it was still Xu Chujing who announced the trainees' rankings.

As Luo Mo had expected, the entire Anonymous Team remained, and Tong Shu even charged directly into the upper tier, reaching 18th place.

He was at this rank because his fans were also leaning towards the 'Mo-born' crowd, where everyone only voted and didn't throw money.

Otherwise, his ranking could have been even higher.

As for Luo Mo's own ranking, he had already surged to fourth, aiming for the top three!

And everyone knew very well that if it weren't for the fact that the top three fans were so capable of spending money, Luo Mo might already be competing with Shen Mingliu.

Xu Chujing took the list and data sheet and said, "The production team asked me to announce an extra set of data for everyone."

"Judging from the growth rate of the 【Popularity Support Ranking】, in the last few days, the growth of Luo Mo's votes has been the fastest, with the daily increase in votes ranking first."

As soon as this news came out, the whole place was in an uproar.

The expressions of Shen Mingliu and Ji Kangdong were exceptionally ugly.

This meant that the reason they were still occupying the top three spots was only because of the advantage accumulated from early votes.

And the gap was constantly narrowing day by day!

In the upcoming public performance, if they couldn't suppress Luo Mo, then the final result of this talent show would essentially have no suspense.

The most fatal thing is, losing is one thing, but you're losing even while spending money!

Luo Mo is now equivalent to the only freak in the talent show world in the entire entertainment industry to date.

If he reaches the top throne relying on free votes, that would be a huge shock to the entire talent show world!

Talent show culture and future trends might all be changed by him single-handedly.

What is an idol bought with hard cash worth in front of a people-chosen idol like him!

Shen Mingliu, who had been in first place since the show started recording, only felt his body go a bit stiff.

He always felt that suddenly one day, Luo Mo would walk up to him, point at the Zhi Zunbao throne under his butt, and say: "Hand it over!"

Shen Mingliu knew very well that debuting in the C-Position and debuting in other rankings were two completely different concepts.

For Xingshi Entertainment, the revenue might be halved!

The ranking results were all reported, and 30 trainees left the set to return to their dorms to pack their luggage.

This scene was very cruel, but the subsequent competition rules would only be crueler.

A new round of public performances was about to begin, and the preparation time left for everyone was getting shorter and shorter.

Last time, because there were mentor collaboration stages, there was no thematic assessment.

But this time, there was a topic.

Since only 50 trainees remained, the number of teams was also decreasing.

This time it was free team formation, everyone could play as they pleased, however they wanted to form, but each group could not have fewer than 5 people.

Under everyone's expectant gazes, Luo Mo's Anonymous Team had no intention of recruiting new members, still maintaining the same lineup.

At first you ignored him as a captain, now naturally you can't afford to climb high.

After all the teams were formed, Xu Chujing began to announce the theme for this public performance.

"When this episode airs, it will be 【World Book Day】, so the assessment topic for this public performance is—【Book】!"

"Teams that want to do original work must create around the theme of 【Book】, and as for teams that don't do original work, they must also revolve around this theme when choosing songs."

"If the final result discussed by us mentors is that a team has completely gone off-topic, then we will deduct half of the final votes cast by the live audience."

When Xu Chujing finished saying this, there was a slight commotion on the set.

This exam question was not low in difficulty.

Especially for original work.

Shen Mingliu and the others looked at each other; their hearts, which had already been burned to ashes, showed signs of rekindling.

Luo Mo indeed had goods in his belly, and he might have quite a few works stored on his computer.

But that doesn't necessarily fit the theme!

Shen Mingliu spoke up: "Why don't we sing the song 'Black Forest'? We can add some Electronic Music elements to it."

The song 'Black Forest' is the signature work of a First-line Singer from Xingshi Entertainment. The inspiration came from a foreign fairy tale, only it is a dark fairy tale, telling the story of a dark forest's elf prince.

In reality, just like many fairy tales we see on Earth, they are all modified versions.

The original versions of some stories are not beautiful at all; they are quite dark!

This 'Black Forest' does fit the theme; after all, a fairy tale book is still a book.

Moreover, generally speaking, everyone has some knowledge of such globally famous fairy tales, so they won't be left completely confused.

For this kind of test question, you can't choose a song that is too Niche.

Otherwise, even if it fits the theme, the audience's sense of immersion will be reduced, and they won't understand what you are singing.

Therefore, Shen Mingliu's proposal was quickly passed unanimously.

If you, Luo Mo, can play around with ghost weddings, then we can certainly handle a dark fairy tale.

When the time comes, everyone will wear all black and put on heavier eyeliner; it will definitely be super cool!

Well, at least that's what they thought.

The five mentors had nothing better to do, so they wandered around the venue, eavesdropping on the discussions between the contestants of each team.

They walked and stopped, and soon arrived at the side of the Anonymous Team.

Wei Ran looked at Luo Mo and said: "Luo Mo, how is it? Has your team finished discussing?"

"Not yet, we haven't even started discussing. We were just busy congratulating each other earlier, since everyone wasn't subject to Elimination," Luo Mo said with a chuckle.

He's acting humble-braggy, he's really acting humble-braggy!

Seeing him like this, Li Ge laughed and said: "Damn it, he managed to show off!"

Luo Mo spread his hands, his mood clearly quite good.

Shen Yinuo, wearing black denim shorts, tilted her head to look at Luo Mo and said: "Then hurry up and discuss. Don't worry about us; we're just listening on the sidelines for fun, we won't be bossy."

Luo Mo gave her a skeptical look.

Based on their collaboration on 'Happiness', he already had a deep understanding of Shen Yinuo.

This girl's train of thought is a bit strange; she always has some wild ideas, proposes a bunch of unreliable suggestions, and then gets them all vetoed by Luo Mo.

For example, she wanted to beat a gong while Luo Mo was playing the suona...

Hearing the word "gong," the corner of Luo Mo's mouth twitched, and he wanted to beat a drum on her.

Although the current scene looked a bit like leaders observing their employees having a meeting, the internal discussion still had to go on, right?

Luo Mo spoke up: "If you have any ideas, feel free to say them."

He had too many songs in his head; he couldn't use them all.

After thinking for a while, Tong Shu said weakly: "Brother Mo, I think our theme should be set on those more popular books, so the audience's reception will be better."

This idea of his coincided with Shen Mingliu and the others; this line of thinking was actually correct.

Luo Mo nodded, and seeing his little brother rarely daring to express an opinion, he said: "Continue, be more specific, like what type of books, or which books."

After speaking, he also patted Tong Shu on the back, a "slap" to encourage him.

Tong Shu was patted so hard his back straightened up, and he said blankly: "For example, fairy tales, the Four Great Classical Novels, folk legends..."

He said a whole bunch.

Every time he mentioned one, a few songs would pop up in Luo Mo's mind.

The mythology system of this world is similar to Earth's, and the Four Great Classical Novels all exist, though the folk legends are a bit different.

Like at this very moment, "White Suzhen under Qingcheng Mountain" was already echoing in Luo Mo's mind, but the Legend of the White Snake does not exist in this world.

Fahai, who has always been teased by people, can be considered liberated.

The world also has one less "grass-python" hero.

When Tong Shu mentioned the Four Great Classical Novels, the first reaction that came to Luo Mo's mind was a bit funny: 'Good Fellow Song'.

He imagined everyone from the Anonymous Team standing on stage, all of them beckoning to the audience just like Teacher Liu Huan, and starting with "The great river flows to the east, the stars in the sky join the Big Dipper."

It's very energetic!

He had even thought it through: when singing "Hey hey hey hey join the Big Dipper," everyone could sway their heads and bodies left and right; it would definitely be very catchy.

Of course, he was just thinking about it. This song is not something their group can handle; at the very least, people like Tong Shu and the others simply couldn't pull it off.

'Water Margin' is clearly not suitable for this stage, even though there were once 100 trainees in this show, and even though this book has an English translation called 'The Story of 105 Men and 3 Women'.

Seeing Luo Mo a bit distracted, Tong Shu called him twice, wondering if he had said something wrong: "Brother Mo, Brother Mo."

Luo Mo came back to his senses and said: "Good idea, continue."

Tong Shu really couldn't come up with anything else, and finally just said: "I personally feel it would be better if there were some Romance elements."

He didn't state the specific reason, but everyone knew it in their hearts.

Because in the show 'Creating Idols', the proportion of female audience members is larger.

Many male audience members were watching the show to accompany their girlfriends, and they were already feeling nauseous until Luo Mo appeared, which made things better.

At the same time, love songs are always the mainstream theme and never go out of style.

Luo Mo nodded slightly, already having a track in mind, and more than one.

After much deliberation, he finally chose the one he was most interested in and wanted to challenge the most from among these songs.

"I already have an idea," he said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Wei Ran immediately got excited.

Oh my, my little appetite~

"Tell us about it," Wei Ran said immediately.

Luo Mo shook his head and said: "I haven't thought through the specifics yet."

For this song, just like with "Red Actor" and "Double Happiness," he also needed to make certain modifications for the sake of the stage effect.

After thinking for a moment, he spoke up: "I hope the production team can prepare a... hmm, prepare a wooden fish for me; I want to use it to find the right state for this song."

Everyone looked at each other in dismay: "A wooden fish? Knocking on a wooden fish?"

(PS: The third update. All three updates are 3000+ words each. Ten thousand words updated, asking for monthly votes!

At the same time, thanks to "Mu Ming You You" for the alliance leader donation. I will add more updates successively; the explosive updates these past few days will not be counted toward the additional updates.)

(End of this chapter)