Ch9 - Like Hell I’ll Believe You

After the trainees finished the self-evaluation of their ranks, the mentors would then re-evaluate them based on their performances.

The performance order was according to the numbers they drew earlier. Lu Xu was just ahead of the ‘Age of Innocence’ group.

“Student Lu Xu, what kind of performance have you prepared?” It was clear that Xu Lele really quite liked Lu Xu, always unable to help himself from talking to him whenever they met.

Things like this in the  show weren’t a secret or anything, so Lu Xu had nothing to hide. “Singing.”

“Wah, I really want to hear you sing!” Xu Lele’s face was made for smiling, with two shallow dimples on his cheeks that were very cute. He still wanted to ask Lu Xu what song he was going to sing, but he was pulled away by his groupmate saying they had to do a quick run through before they went on stage.

“He already said he hasn’t trained for very long and you still ask, are you a fool?” In the groupmate’s eyes, Lu Xu’s so-called ‘short training period’ was just a way to get himself ahead. It was easy to have expectations when one looked at his face, but the higher those expectations were, the greater the disappointment would be. Rather than waiting to fall from his altar after the performance, was it not better to besmirch his own reputation to mentally prepare the audience?

Even if his performance was bad, he could be in F-rank. If he was lucky, he might get into D or C-rank. Then that would really be a pleasant surprise.

Lu Xu paid no heed to what the trainees behind him were saying. He just kept his eyes fixed on the screen, watching.

Very quickly, the first group finished their performance.

According to the rule of ‘ladies first’, Qin Ruowei was the first mentor to give feedback.

“Your self-evaluation was B-rank, is that right?” Her voice was calm. There didn’t seem to be much emotion on the surface. No one knew whether this was a good or bad thing.

A few of the trainees looked at one another, then nodded their heads after a moment of hesitation.

Qin Ruowei raised her eyebrows, and had a quiet discussion with the other three mentors to confirm the results before continuing. “I saw your profiles and it says you’ve already trained for three years, but I don’t see any trace of that training in your bodies.”

These words were quite heavy. The trainees on stage all flushed red. The atmosphere suddenly became a lot more serious.

According to the results of the mentors’ final discussion, the four of them were all demoted. Other than the leader who was put in C-rank, the other three members were all put into D-rank.

The starting evaluation was already so strict. The trainees that were to follow suddenly became nervous—

“Oh my god! It’s this exciting from the get go?”

“I suddenly feel panicked. I feel like I’m going to sit with Lu Xu in F-rank.”

“You’re thinking too much. You never know, Lu Xu might get promoted!”

…

The next two groups had demotions and promotions.

The standards of the mentors were quite high. They could tell what the strengths and weaknesses of each member were with just one performance.

Those with potential were promoted from C to B-rank, and those without would drop to D or even F-rank.

The rankings changed rapidly. No one knew what their fate would be.

Before Lu Xu went on stage, Xu Lele even helped to cheer him on. But Lu Xu really was not nervous at all.

He was used to matters regarding life and death. Something like going on stage to perform was but a trivial task.

“Next, we have a trainee from Yao Guai Entertainment…”

Upon hearing Liang Da call out his name, Lu Xu stepped into the spotlight and walked to the centre of the stage without hesitation.

The light shone right on him, making him seem even brighter.

Even the judges watching from below the stage couldn’t remain calm. Shen Chengyu was the first to speak. “Lu Xu, you’re only 18 this year?”

Lu Xu, who was already 200 years old, pursed his lips, and nodded vaguely in agreement.

Shen Chengyu gave Qin Ruowei a look and joked, “He’s a di di.”

Qin Ruowei quite liked Lu Xu’s appearance, but declared, “Even if you’re handsome, I won’t go easy on you.”

There was nothing Lu Xu needed to say in such a situation. He just glanced at Ji Xiunian and raised a brow slightly—

On the surface, his expression was normal, but there was no telling what he was thinking about.

Gu Wenan saw that they had more or less finished chatting, and raised his hand as he said to Lu Xu, “You may begin.”

At that moment, one of the staff members went onto the stage, crouching as they brought a microphone stand up for Lu Xu.

The lights in the studio suddenly dimmed, leaving the single stage spotlight shining on Lu Xu.

The music started to play. Lu Xu held the mic with both hands, and began to sing in a low voice with a smile, “You’re the ray of light in the darkness, guiding me gladly towards my death…”

His voice was clear as it slowly sang a poem that described himself.

“Look at how beautiful death is, with a splendor that cuts through the sky…”

His soulful voice filled the ears of the audience, as though someone was singing straight into their hearts.

The man on stage lifted the corners of his lips in a smile, his beautiful eyes glinting with a faint glow as he used his voice to captivate the audience. “I’m willing to go with you, to fall into the endlessness of death, wandering…”

“God of love, listen to my song. God of death, dance with me…”

Lu Xu sang languidly, like raindrops pattering onto the grassy earth, like the wind blowing through the wind chimes…

He sang about death, yet it gave everyone beautiful memories of life.

It was a long while after the music ended before everyone finally regained their senses.

Upon seeing the innocent, smiling Lu Xu on stage, never mind the surprise the mentors felt, even the trainees were all going crazy.

“He sang so well, he’s probably going straight to A-rank.”

“Wuuuh, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have said I was going to sit next to Lu Xu in F-rank. I’ll just get on my knees and send him to his debut.”

“That’s what I said. The artists from Yao Guai Entertainment are so good they’re not even human.”

…

Gu Wenan was a music addict. Once he regained his composure, he quickly asked Liu Yan, “I’ve never heard this song before. Is it an original?”

Lu Xu only signed on yesterday, when would he have the time to prepare for a show? He thought that since he was entering the competition, he would sing the song of the Grim Reaper Bureau, ‘The Ballad of Death’.

This was a song that the Head of the Bureau commissioned someone to write, for the purpose of celebrating the great people in the Grim Reaper Bureau, to let everyone have a pleasant and calm attitude when facing death.

Lu Xu couldn’t say who wrote it, so he said vaguely, “It’s self-composed, but it was written by my friend.”

Gu Wenan’s eyes immediately lit up. “Can I ask who this friend of yours is? Is he still composing songs?”

If he could sign on someone who was so good at writing songs, then he could definitely shine brightly in the Chinese music industry.

“He’s no longer in this world…” Lu Xu said simply, and didn’t elaborate, giving everyone ample room for imagination.

So he had already passed on?

No one would have thought that Lu Xu would bring up this sad memory. Gun Wenan immediately apologised, saying, “My condolences.”

It seemed that everyone always treated the word ‘death’ as something taboo.

It was as if death meant pain, withering away, forgetting; negative emotions like that.

Lu Xu didn’t want to go on a spiel on-stage, so he just calmly quoted from a writer, “Death isn’t necessarily the opposite of life, but a part of it. If we can figure this out, wouldn’t life be a lot more relaxed?”

There were few people who could talk so calmly about life and death.

He gave others the impression of being recklessly natural. The atmosphere in the studio suddenly became less tense.

While Lu Xu spoke, Ju Xiunian had been looking at him more closely. Before he came to the studio, he still felt that his back was hurting a lot, as though there was something weighing down on it. But now he felt that his body was lighter, and his mood was a lot better. He suspected that this change had something to do with Lu Xu, but he also thought that he was overthinking it, and moved his gaze away.

As for Lu Xu’s re-evaluation, the mentors reached a conclusion after a very quick discussion.

Before they announced the result, Qin Ruowei didn’t forget to ask, “Just now, you showcased your vocal talent. We’re very curious what your dancing is like.”

Lu Xu spread his hands open. “I didn’t have time to prepare.”

His face was too persuasive, so the mentors decided not to make things hard for him.

In the end, Ji Xiunian was the one to announce the result. He lifted his gaze towards Lu Xu, then said, “Lu Xu, you gave yourself an F-rank, right?”

Lu Xu nodded, “Yes.”

Ji Xiunian didn’t ask why; he simply congratulated Lu Xu. “After our evaluation, we’ve decided to give you an A-rank.”

“My god, from F-rank straight to A-rank. This speed is like riding on a rocket!”

“He has good looks and sings so well, it’s guaranteed for him to be in A-rank.”

“Then why did he even choose F-rank at the start? He should have just gone straight to A-rank.”

As the first trainee to be evaluated as an A-rank by the mentors, Lu Xu naturally became the talking point of the audience.

Fan Zeng watched as Lu Xu walked to the A-rank section, and felt that he had picked up a treasure for himself. His mouth was already stretching from ear to ear in a smile.

Liu Haichao stood at the side, watching. He couldn’t smile at all.

He thought that Bai Ze had pushed out a flower vase this time. In the end, he seemed to have a couple of tricks up his sleeve.

He could sing so well, why did he choose F-rank to mislead other people?

The more Liu Haichao thought about it, the more he felt that Lu Xu did this under Bai Ze’s instruction, to set it up as a surprise in order to impress.

He saw that Bai Ze didn’t seem to be surprised at all, as if he knew what the result would have been all along. Liu Haichao couldn’t help but curse internally, “Treacherous!”

Of course, Lu Xu didn’t know someone was busy labelling him as such.

He sat down in the A-rank section, but he was thinking about what he had just seen—

From the moment Ji Xiunan had walked in, he could see the dark energy lingering around him.

Once someone’s life energy weakened, it was natural for unclean things to come looking for them.

Judging by Ji Xiunian’s condition, he had probably been entangled for a very long time, but that something had sensed Lu Xu’s presence, so it hadn’t dared to follow him in.

If Ji Xiunian really was borrowing life, then he shouldn’t be facing this kind of problem.

But nothing was absolute; it could very well be a trick to fool them.

Xie An also said something similar, that there were three people who had been sent to investigate, yet they were all turned into fans at the end. Lu Xu could not be careless.

In the studio, the evaluations continued.

It was as if Lu Xu’s performance had motivated the other trainees. If someone was able to go from F-rank to A-rank, then they had better work hard so they didn’t embarrass themselves.

As such, after Lu Xu’s performance, there was a clear divide. The standards of the first three groups seemed to be pretty average now.

The overall abilities of the trainees that came after seemed to be getting better and better, especially Song Zhe’s group. The strength of their dance already had the quality for debut. Even for a layman like Lu Xu, it was clear that their cooperation in dancing and their skill in singing stood out clearly from the other trainees.

The mentors seemed to be struggling, and only made a decision after a lengthy discussion.

“All of us think that the five of you are good overall, so we’ve decided to give all five of you A-ranks.”

“Aaaa….”

“That’s amazing!!”

“A-Zhe, we’re all A-rank!”

The members on stage were beside themselves with joy, yet there was a feeling of doubt—

There were only a total of seven seats in A-rank, and including Lu Xu, three of them were already taken.

Which also meant that there were a total of eight people who had achieved A-rank. It was clear that it exceeded the limit.

There was one guess that appeared in everyone’s mind.

As expected, Shen Chengyu very quickly opened his mouth to announce the solution, “One of you must participate in a tiebreaker. Please go to the A-rank section and choose someone to Battle with. The one who wins will have the qualification to sit in A-rank.”

There was an uproar off the stage—

“There’s already a Battle segment in the first round?”

“My gosh, my gosh, everyone is so strong, isn’t this like a fight between gods in real life?”

“The four mentors are so evil, but I really like it, hehe.”

…

Other than the three people in A-rank who were waiting to be chosen for the challenge, the other trainees were watching in excitement.

The challenger Song Zhe slowly walked towards the A-rank section. A trainee by the name of Zhou Yu, who was sitting beside Lu Xu, was scratching his head and sighing. “It’s over, it’s over. He’ll definitely choose me. Ooooh…”

On the other hand, the other trainee called Wang Lin was calm. He waved directly at Song Zhe. “Pick me, pick me, I’m already prepared to make way for you.”

Song Zhe looked at the two of them, but he was wondering what reaction Lu Xu was having.

As a formidable contestant in this show, everyone knew who Song Zhe was. Even Song Zhe was very confident in himself, and always thought he was born to be on this stage.

He more or less knew what the strength of the members in the other groups were like, so he was mentally prepared.

But what he hadn’t considered was that someone like Lu Xu would suddenly appear in the middle of everything.

Song Zhe stopped at the A-rank section. Everyone’s eyes were on him, curious about the choice he would make.

Lu Xu saw that he was being examined, and raised his brows as he smiled at Song Zhe, ready to accept the coming challenge.

Just when everyone predicted that Song Zhe would choose Lu Xu, Song Zhe suddenly moved his feet and finally stopped in front of Zhou Yu. “Hello, I want to Battle with you.”

Zhou Yu let out a cry, his expression one of resignation. He was decent, but it was clear that Song Zhe was much better.

Unsurprisingly, Song Zhe won.

He took the seat beside Lu Xu, and looked at him condescendingly. There was a storm in his eyes, as though he was looking at his rival.

Lu Xu didn’t care about that at all. He simply shifted his body over to make space for Song Zhe to sit.

Song Zhe was dumbfounded for a second, and could only take Lu Xu’s offer and sat down.

Once he regained his composure, he felt a bit frustrated. Why did he feel like his imposing manner had been completely suppressed by Lu Xu?

There were other trainees afterwards who also gained A-rank, and just like Song Zhe, they had to pick someone to Battle with.

Strangely, all the other A-rank trainees had been changed many times, but no one had come over to challenge Lu Xu.

From the moment he had sat down in the center seat in A-rank, he never left it again…

After a day of tiring recording, the first episode of ‘Birth of an Idol’ had finished filming.

The mentors left the area first. The trainees then busied themselves with packing their luggage to prepare to move into the training dormitories.

For the convenience of filming, the production team had renovated an old apartment building that was located right next to the TV station. It would be used as the trainees’ living and practice area.

Bai Ze had asked people to help pack luggage for Lu Xu.

Because they would be doing closed-doors training, Bai Ze, as his manager, couldn’t follow him inside.

“Don’t feel too pressured. Just be yourself.” Bai Ze, after watching Lu Xu’s first filming, was quite surprised.

At the end, Bai Ze couldn’t help but say one last thing, “You’re quite different from the impression I had of grim reapers…”

Lu Xu, hearing that, tilted his head and smiled. “What did you think grim reapers were like?”

Serious, cool, taciturn…

Bai Ze thought of those few key words, but felt that this was quite a biased generalisation.

Lu Xu knew what he was thinking though, and shrugged. “In this world, you can’t ever judge a book by its cover. Whatever the appearance, as long as we do our job, everything is OK.”

“That’s true.” Bai Ze took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He noticed that Lu Xu was looking at him curiously.

It was rare for Lu Xu to show such a face, so Bai Ze asked, “What’s the matter?”

Lu Xu lowered his gaze, nodding his chin at the glasses in Bai Ze’s hand. “Actually, I’ve always been curious. Do you demons have short-sightedness too?”

“…”

Bai Ze shook his head. “No, at least I don’t.” As he spoke, he put his glasses back on, and explained seriously. “I just thought that this suited the image of a director, that’s all.”

“Interesting.” Lu Xu nodded in understanding, then pulled open the car door and got off. Coincidentally, he met Xu Lele, who had just arrived.

“Xu ge!”

Seeing Lu Xu from afar, Xu Lele dragged his luggage and came flying over to Lu Xu. “We were all leaving in a hurry, so I didn’t get to tell you, your singing is really too good!”

Since the start, Xu Lele thought that Lu Xu was very capable. He just didn’t expect Lu Xu to wow the entire audience when he opened his mouth.

This wasn’t a di di, this was obviously a ge!

Xu Lele’s admiration was written all over his face. Lu Xu didn’t really know whether to laugh or cry, so just said, “It’s just like that, it’s not really about being good or bad.”

“Not at all!” Xu Lele could be considered as Lu Xu’s fanboy now. Taking the opportunity when no one was looking, he took out a protective talisman from his pocket and stuffed it into Lu Xu’s hand.

“This is…?”

Lu Xu looked at the yellow talisman in his hand, unsure what to make of it.

“A protective talisman, for safety.” Lu Xu was a bit confused, so Xu Lele pointed at the old apartment building not too far away from them and explained quietly, “Xu ge, let me tell you, this building is haunted…”