Chapter 104: The Subtle Maneuvers of Chao Yin Culture

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Eight trainees stood in the training room. Fang Xing stood before them, his voice stern: “This camp battle is the final showdown. My demand is simple: we win.
“As captain, my rules are simple, too: in vocal matters, listen to me.
“I said this three months ago, and it remains exactly the same.”

Three months ago, Fang Xing had said the same thing when he first became captain, declaring it in front of everyone. Back then, some people mocked him as a tyrant. But after three months, no one dared to question his authority anymore. That is the power of real strength.

From the first public performance onward, Fang Xing’s team had crushed every opponent. Whether they faced overseas-returned music prodigies or the program’s biggest popularity icons, each was driven to the ground.

Now, with the final camp championship at hand, these trainees had no appetite for dissent.

“The theme is ‘The Passionate War Song,’” he said. “I have already prepared the track. I’ll play a demo for everyone, then we start practicing the vocals.”

After setting the rules, Fang Xing told Guo Keda to play the song sample and began the rehearsal.

...

Time passed in urgent practice. Three days remained before the camp finale.

That night, Fang Xing suddenly received a WeChat message from Wang Huajuan:

“Captain, yesterday I accidentally saw your trainee Chen Zhiyou meeting Liu Rongxuan at the café beneath Chao-Yin Culture’s office building. I don’t know what they talked about, but I thought I should remind you.”

Fang Xing’s brow tightened the moment he saw it.

Wang Huajuan had signed a limited group contract with Chao-Yin Culture and joined Glacier Youth Group as its dance lead. At the time, Fang Xing had jokingly said he should go in as a plant. It was just a joke; they had never intended anything serious. They had agreed to keep business and friendship separate: now teammates, still friends.

Fang Xing did not expect Wang to send him a warning.

Of course, the message proved nothing. Even if Chen Zhiyou really had met Liu Rongxuan privately, that did not automatically mean there was trouble.

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Still, Chen Zhiyou’s agency is not Chao-Yin Culture. In theory, he and Liu Rongxuan had no reason to meet in private.

There is, of course, another possibility: the message could have been sent to sow discord. Chao-Yin Culture is strict with its artists—at times an artist’s phone can even be taken away by their manager. It is possible Wang Huajuan was asked by Chao-Yin to send this.

But when Fang Xing thought it through, that seemed unlikely. A move like this has to bring profit. Chao-Yin is busy climbing charts and has no interest in fruitless schemes. What gain would there be from sowing discord? To kick Chen Zhiyou off the team?

Chen Zhiyou can dance well, but he is not irreplaceable. Remove him, and the song stays the same; it would just mean rearranging positions. There is no real gain in that.

So there had to be another reason for the private meeting.

Fang Xing decided he did not need to handle this himself. He took a screenshot of the chat and sent it to Liang Yusong, adding: keep this under wraps for Wang Huajuan.

A few minutes later, Liang Yusong replied: “I’ll have someone look into it. You focus on rehearsal.”

...

The next day, while nine trainees were rehearsing dance, Chen Zhiyou’s agent suddenly arrived and took him away.

Soon after, Fang Xing received a notice from the show director: “Chen Zhiyou can’t join the final camp showdown due to a scheduling conflict. Do you want to add another member, or go with eight?”

“Eight is fine,” Fang Xing answered.

In the afternoon, Liang Yusong came to speak with him privately. “You already know Chen Zhiyou has withdrawn from the final, right?”

“Mm. The production team already told me, saying it was a schedule conflict.” Fang Xing gave a faint smile and shook his head. Chen Zhiyou’s popularity in the show is only average; there is no way he would skip the final ultimate match for other work.

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So the schedule excuse was clearly fake.

Fang Xing had already guessed what was really happening: “Did Chen Zhiyou strike some kind of deal with Chao-Yin Culture?”

Liang Yusong sighed.

“Chen Zhiyou is represented by Fanfan Entertainment, a small company. His management contract was about to expire, and Liu Rongxuan, the artist director at Chao-Yin, has been approaching him.
“The terms were apparently extremely high—far above what his current rank would earn him.
“It seems Chao-Yin watched your rehearsal, saw the quality of the song you prepared, and, fearing they would lose the finale, they started a subtle maneuver by contacting Chen Zhiyou.
“I spoke with the boss of Fanfan Entertainment. Fanfan told the agent to push Chen to renew.
“Chen refused, and then the matter surfaced.
“Liu presented a huge contract to have Chen deliberately make mistakes in the final so that we would lose.”

“That’s the whole story. This was my oversight.”
“I’ll have the company speak with the agencies of other team members and prevent this from happening again.”

After hearing the account, Fang Xing gave a cold little smile. “Chao-Yin’s methods are not exactly upright.”

Liang Yusong agreed. “Between entertainment companies, digging up dirt and hiring paid online commenters—those are common enough. But bribing a rival artist to sabotage the opposing team—that crosses the line. Still, Chao-Yin won’t leave evidence, so there’s no way to hold them accountable.”

“Then I think our song choice for the finale still isn’t savage enough,” Fang Xing said, his expression darkening. “Let’s raise the stakes one more time and go with a harder song.”

“Only three days left. Is that still possible?” Liang Yusong asked, worried.

“It’s enough. For the second song, it’s just me and Shao Yu.”

Fang Xing had prepared three songs from the start, choosing two. Now that Chao-Yin had made a move, they would switch to the harsher one.

After deciding to change songs, Fang Xing and Shao Yu resumed rehearsal. Shao Yu had already signed with an agency while still in school and had been in showbiz longer. The moment he noticed Chen Zhiyou being taken away, he felt something was off and asked, “Was Chen Zhiyou’s withdrawal from the finale for something else? Not really a scheduling issue, right? And is our sudden song change because of this?”

Fang Xing didn’t bother to hide it. “Chen reached a deal with Chao-Yin to deliberately fail in the finale so we lose,” he said.
“As for switching songs, the reason is simple. The previous one wasn’t harsh enough. Time for one that is.”

When Lu Ming heard this, he widened his eyes. “Chao-Yin bought Chen to sabotage us? That’s a step too far. Didn’t Chen worry that making a mistake in the finale would hurt his popularity?”

Shao Yu shrugged. “He doesn’t need a huge blunder. A few cracked notes at the key moment would be enough to tilt the result. And then he can always say it was an accident. No one can guarantee they’ll never crack a note.”