Chapter 160: The Spring Festival Gala Audition

Since Fang Xing had already advanced to the grand finale of "The Voice", he did not need to participate in the recording of the ninth episode. Therefore, he had quite a bit of free time over the next two weeks, and consequently, his appearances at the company became slightly more frequent.

Although Fang Xing did not need to take part in the recording of the ninth episode of "The Voice", Li Caiwei still had to participate. The competitive theme for the ninth episode was "Dreams".

Fang Xing directly sent her a song titled "Initial Dream" and told her to perform it on "The Voice" stage. This was a song with lyrics written by Yao Ruolong, composed by Miyuki Nakajima, and originally performed by Christine Fan. It was the absolute fitting choice to participate in the "Dreams" themed competition.

After sending the song to Li Caiwei, Fang Xing left the rehearsal matters entirely to the company to arrange.

Wednesday.

The studio held its regular weekly meeting. Fang Xing went in to listen to Qiao Yinghong's work summary.

"Currently, we are already in talks with two blue-blood luxury brands, and we are confident about signing one of them. It just depends on which brand is a better fit for us," Qiao Yinghong stated.

The studio employees were all very excited. Signing an endorsement deal with an international heavyweight brand would instantly elevate their professional prestige.

However, Fang Xing suddenly interjected, "Let's not rush into signing any endorsement deals just yet. The song I performed in the seventh episode of 'The Voice' is slightly sensitive. Actually, I'm not that obsessed with blue-blood or red-blood brands, and it's not an absolute must to sign one."

Qiao Yinghong nodded slowly and said, "That's true as well. My initial enthusiasm for discussing endorsements was partly because I lost my temper a bit over the Liu Hongsheng incident. Endorsements really do need to be approached with caution. Even if we sign, it would be for next year anyway, so there's really no need to rush."

Endorsements also affected a celebrity's personal image, which meant the choice of brand required careful deliberation. Of course, for the studio staff, the most important thing was still the endorsement fee. The more they earned, the higher their bonuses would be.

Just as the routine meeting was underway, Liang Yusong suddenly walked in.

The meeting room door was open. Liang Yusong gave a knock on the open door and walked straight in, saying, "Fang Xing, you might need to fly to Kyoto with me this afternoon. Sister Hong, you should come too."

Fang Xing casually asked about the reason for the trip to Kyoto, "Is it for work?"

"Yes, it's for work. We're going to meet the Spring Festival Gala director team. They are interested in a few of your songs, but it hasn't been decided yet whether you will perform them yourself or let other artists do it. The Spring Festival Gala director team wants to meet and chat in person," Liang Yusong explained.

There were still three months left before the Spring Festival Gala.

Although that seemed like a long time away, the preparations for the Gala actually began half a year in advance. In the beginning, it was merely early-stage preparation and team building, followed by a tight schedule of program auditions.

Three months ago, the Spring Festival Gala team had already started soliciting various types of programs for auditions. Preliminary auditions were basically conducted online. The types of programs solicited by the Spring Festival Gala production team mainly focused on dance, vocal performance, sketch comedy, instrumental performance, and magic. Units or individuals submitted their programs to the Gala production team in the form of video and audio files.

If a program caught the eye of the Gala production team, they would receive an interview notice to attend live auditions at the China Media Group headquarters in Beijing.

However, passing the audition did not mean securing a spot on the Spring Festival Gala stage.

The Spring Festival Gala was the most important annual television event for China Media Group, requiring half a year of preparation and five full dress rehearsals. Changes were made during every single rehearsal, and some programs could still be cut even after participating in several rehearsals.

A little over a month ago, Qiao Yinghong had mentioned that the Spring Festival Gala was soliciting programs. Since it was still four or five months away at the time and merely the preliminary collection phase, Fang Xing hadn't paid too much attention to it, simply instructing her to make sure the submission was handled properly. Consequently, Songshi Records had submitted a few songs with potential for the Spring Festival Gala stage to the production team.

Now, they had received a notification from the Spring Festival Gala production team to go to Beijing for an audition.

...

In the afternoon, Fang Xing, Liang Yusong, and Qiao Yinghong flew to Kyoto together, conveniently bringing along Guo Keda, the executive manager.

"Are we really going to be on the Spring Festival Gala? This is simply unbelievable."

At the airport, Guo Keda still felt like it was unreal. When he first participated in "Tomorrow's Star", he just wanted to coast through a show and had never even thought about successfully forming a group. Although he ultimately didn't form a group, in the blink of an eye, he had landed on "The Voice", albeit in the capacity of a manager.

During every episode of "The Voice", the managers were given camera time. Qiao Yinghong was busy with studio affairs, so Guo Keda always accompanied Fang Xing to "The Voice". Although Guo Keda wasn't singing on stage, he managed to secure plenty of screen time.

Now, before the recording of "The Voice" had even concluded, they were suddenly on their way to a Spring Festival Gala audition. This leap-like progress made Guo Keda feel like he was dreaming.

"Don't get too excited too early. It's just that the Spring Festival Gala team is interested in our songs. Whether we can actually make it onto the Gala depends entirely on the audition results," Liang Yusong reminded him with a smile, shaking his head.

"Brother Fang's ability—I can guarantee it, we're definitely making it," Guo Keda patted his chest, gave a thumbs-up, and wore a look of absolute confidence, even though that confidence didn't stem from himself.

Upon arriving in Kyoto, the group took a car directly to the Spring Festival Gala production team at China Media Group.

After stating their names, they were led by a staff member to the chief director's office rather than a regular meeting room.

In fact, this wasn't Liang Yusong's first time coming to audition for the Spring Festival Gala. Yao Liying had performed on the Gala three years ago, and Liang Yusong had personally accompanied her then as well. Previously, when auditioning singers, they had always used the conference rooms. This time was somewhat unusual; they were actually taken straight to the chief director's office.

Before coming, Qiao Yinghong had already researched the situation of this year's Spring Festival Gala production team. The chief director for this year's Gala was Shen Jilin, who had just finished directing a China Media Group television series earlier that year. In the middle of the year, he received an invitation from the Spring Festival Gala production team to serve as the chief director.

The group arrived at the chief director's office and met Shen Jilin.

Shen Jilin was in his fifties, neither fat nor thin, carrying a very steady and composed demeanor. When Fang Xing and the others walked in, he was on the phone, seemingly discussing matters related to the television series.

Seeing the guests enter, Shen Jilin quickly wrapped up the call, invited the four of them to take a seat in the reception area, and had the staff serve tea.

"Director Shen, long time no see," Liang Yusong stepped forward to shake his hand.

"It has been many years, almost ten, hasn't it?" Shen Jilin tried hard to recall the timeline.

"It has indeed," Liang Yusong couldn't actually remember how long it had been either, but the two of them had indeed collaborated before, having met when working on television soundtrack scoring.

After the polite pleasantries, Shen Jilin steered the conversation toward the main topic, "Bringing you here this time is primarily for the audition of the Spring Festival Gala's musical programs. However, I have another matter on my end where I might need a bit of help from you all."

Liang Yusong nodded and said, "You're too polite, Director Shen. Please go ahead if you have anything in mind."

Shen Jilin gathered his thoughts and said, "Earlier this year, I finished directing a historical drama. The post-production has already been going on for seven or eight months, and it's scheduled to broadcast as the opening flagship drama for China Media Group next year, so the station attaches great importance to it.

"I closely supervised the post-production of this drama for three months, and the editing is basically done. The remaining post-production work has been handed over to the production crew to handle. Since I took on the Spring Festival Gala job, I've been a bit stretched for time.

"The post-production progress of this historical drama is actually quite good; I've checked in on it a few times and was very satisfied, except that the musical scoring is still slightly lacking.

"This time, after listening to the songs you submitted, I felt they were quite good. Especially 'Ode to the Young China' and 'A Man Should Strengthen Himself', both of which are exceptional. Later, I heard that you've also produced theme songs for films, so I wanted to ask if there's any possibility of collaborating on the theme songs or insert tracks for this historical drama."

Liang Yusong nodded in agreement, "If there's a chance to collaborate, of course, that would be wonderful. I just don't know if our songs can meet Director Shen's requirements. The movie theme song we produced previously was 'Liao Zhai', which has a vastly different style from a historical drama."

Shen Jilin nodded and said, "That is true. I'm just asking to test the waters first—who knows, maybe we'll find something suitable? Of course, today is about the Spring Festival Gala auditions; the historical drama music is just to see if we can find a suitable fit, and it won't affect the Gala audition."

"Of course, of course," Liang Yusong quickly nodded.

At this point, Fang Xing interjected with a question, "What kind of historical drama is it?"

Shen Jilin had seen Fang Xing's performances, so he answered the young man's question seriously, "The Three Kingdoms, a formal historical drama. Do the young people have any thoughts on this?"

Upon hearing that it was a Three Kingdoms drama, Fang Xing had a rough idea in his mind. However, he didn't make any sweeping promises and instead said, "We can give it a try. It would be best if we could see more video materials."

Hearing this response, the smile on Shen Jilin's face grew even brighter, "Naturally. I'll have a set of video materials prepared for you to take back later. If you come up with any suitable songs, you can contact me or the production crew directly."

"Alright, let's hope we have the chance to collaborate," Liang Yusong agreed.

"Alright, the personal business regarding the television series is settled. Let's head to the conference room now. First, let's meet the Spring Festival Gala production team and have a chat," Shen Jilin said, leading the four of them toward the meeting room to prepare for the Spring Festival Gala auditions.

Since Fang Xing was a singer and the songs he intended to present had already been recorded into videos and sent to the production team, his first live audition didn't require him to perform on the spot. Instead, it was more about inquiring into some basic details.

The assistant director of the Spring Festival Gala production team began the questioning: "The Spring Festival Gala is broadcast live; everyone should be aware of this. However, I still need to explain it clearly. For this year's Spring Festival Gala, a total of five dress rehearsals must be conducted. No leave is allowed, no tardiness is allowed, and right up until the exact moment of the live broadcast, any program can potentially be cut."

Fang Xing nodded and replied, "Understood."

The assistant director continued, "The production team currently considers the songs 'Ode to the Young China' and 'A Man Should Strengthen Himself' that you submitted to be suitable. In addition, we saw that you performed a song titled 'The Brightest Star in the Night Sky' a couple of days ago, which is also fitting. Which of these three songs to use, who should sing them, and whether they should be solo or duet performances will depend on how the director arranges them. Do you have any objections in this regard?"

Qiao Yinghong took over the conversation and said, "Basically, we have no objections. However, we still hope that these songs can be performed by Fang Xing, or perhaps a duet would be fine as well."

The assistant director nodded and said, "Of course, we will prioritize letting the original singer perform them. We just want to make it clear in advance that if the rehearsal results are not ideal, some adjustments might have to be made."

The first audition could not directly determine who would make it onto the Spring Festival Gala. What made them happy was that the conversation had gone very pleasantly. Three of their songs had caught the eye of the Spring Festival Gala production team, making the probability of all three failing to be selected slightly on the lower side.

...

After returning from Kyoto, Friday arrived in a flash.

The seventh episode of "The Voice" was scheduled to air tonight. Fang Xing invited Lu Xiang'er over to watch the show together.

Lu Xiang'er brought up two large bags of fruit and immediately began washing them meticulously. After thoroughly cleaning the grapes, honey peaches, and guavas, she arranged them into three plates and placed them on the coffee table.

Fang Xing glanced at them and asked with a puzzled look, "Wait a minute, this doesn't look like your style at all. Shouldn't it be piled high with potato chips, spicy strips, and nuts?"

"Nonsense! That's Ning Xiaoyun's style. I don't like eating puffed snack food at all," Lu Xiang'er picked up a giant Kufeng grape, popped it into her mouth, chewed twice, and quickly licked away the juice that spilled onto her lips. "This is so sweet."

Lu Xiang'er was extremely satisfied with the grapes she had chosen this time.

"As sweet as you?" Fang Xing was washing cups at the counter, turned his head, and delivered a cheesy pickup line with a deadpan expression. Even though the words carried a distinct flirtatious undertone, delivering them without a trace of grease made it feel more like playful banter between a young couple.

"Who knows? Why don't you taste one?" Lu Xiang'er held back the smile at the corners of her mouth, picked up a grape, walked over, and fed it straight into Fang Xing's mouth.

After Fang Xing finished tasting it, she asked with a beaming smile, "Which one is sweeter?"

"I only tasted one, how can I compare?" Fang Xing said, stretching out one arm as if to embrace her.

Lu Xiang'er nimbly took a step back and hummed, "You're getting more and more mischievous with your words lately."

"No way?" Fang Xing feigned innocence.

"Then tell me, who is sweeter?" Lu Xiang'er deliberately put on a stern face to press the question.

"You're sweeter, you're sweeter." Fang Xing swiftly reached out and pulled her tightly into his arms.

Lu Xiang'er struggled in earnest, "That's way too perfunctory!"

"Don't move, don't move. I'm holding cups in my hand; if you move anymore, I'll drop them." Fang Xing held two cups in one hand while wrapping his other arm around her.

Only then did Lu Xiang'er quiet down, receiving a solid kiss before running back to sit on the sofa with a feigned pout, though a sweet smile was hidden at the corners of her mouth.

...

At eight o'clock in the evening, the seventh episode of "The Voice" aired right on schedule.

Lu Xiang'er opened the live-streaming platform on her phone, tapped into Ni Hongdan's streaming room, held it up in front of Fang Xing, and said, "This music critic has always supported you, starting right from your previous show."

Fang Xing glanced at the stream and said, "I have some impression of this music critic; it seems she even came on the show as a professional judge."

Lu Xiang'er nodded and said, "Right, it was during 'Tomorrow's Star'. I watched that episode and saw her on camera. Later on, I followed her and realized she had been supporting you from very early on. Back then, all the fans on the internet were cursing you out."

Fang Xing's expression remained completely calm as he replied, "Let them curse. I don't care about those things."

Lu Xiang'er asked with curiosity, "Do you really not care? It's a bit better now, but when 'Tomorrow's Star' first started, so many fans were online tearing into you. An ordinary person wouldn't be able to handle that, right?"

Fang Xing grinned and said, "That's why I'm in Class Two."

Lu Xiang'er sighed and said, "If it were me, being hounded and blasted by so many people, I'd probably have a nervous breakdown. Therefore, the fact that we're together must never be made public. I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to withstand the siege from your fans."

Fang Xing tapped her forehead with his finger and laughed, "Are you overthinking this? Where on earth do I have fans? They're all just internet trolls looking for a laugh, aren't they?"