CH 51

Ch 51: Starting to Record the Program

Because Yin Chang and Shao Junling had never practiced singing before, the staff took them to the vocal room first and had a professional teacher help them get the lyrics in order.

Yin Chang thought that reciting the lyrics at home was embarrassing enough, but it turned out that the recording studio was the real battlefield!

The vocal teacher was a man in his thirties, with a chubby face and a rough demeanor. He noticed that the two brothers were nervous, so he made a grand gesture to reassure them: "Don't be afraid! Just sing out loud! If you can't sing well, we have a sound engineer who can fix it no matter how off-pitch you are!"

However, while a sound engineer can salvage mistakes in tempo or pitch, the emotions conveyed during singing cannot be fixed.

This theme song was clearly a lively and upbeat song, requiring the singer to perform with a joyful mood. It would be even better if they could add natural laughter and joy like Xue Ziwen and Wang Chen had.

But Yin Chang had always followed the "melancholic prince" route since his debut, and he rarely had had to convey joyous emotions. Shao Junling had a complete poker face, because of an emotional expression disorder caused from his childhood trauma. Therefore he only had noticeable changes in facial expression when he was particularly excited or angry.

At first, the vocal teacher was quite passionate: "Come on, little guy, let's try to sing the first sentence as cute as possible! ... No, no, no, you can't sing so coldly, you need to show the eagerness of being held by your brother! ... Uh, raising your voice doesn't mean you're in a good mood ... Smile a little, be happy ... You, wait a minute ... That last smile was too forced ..."

He turned his head and quietly asked Yin Chang, "What's with this kid's fake smiles? Is he unhappy?"

Yin Chang replied, "No, he just doesn't have very obvious expressions ... He's like that at home too ..."

The vocal teacher continued to force a smile. "Little guy, think back to when you've been really happy! Like when you see your mom and dad and want them to hug you like that!"

Yin Chang said, "Sorry, teacher... he doesn't have parents..."

The vocal teacher: "..."

The vocal teacher forced an even bigger smile, trying to create a better atmosphere. "No worries. Let's practice the next line. As long as you two can say it, we can add it to the background music later. And, you need to be more excited, like you're taking your little brother out to do something naughty without your parents knowing," the teacher instructed, "And you, Shao Junling, you need to feel rushed because you're still putting on your pants."

Yin Chang was confused. "Teacher, I don't quite understand how 'digging a bird's nest' and 'putting on pants' are related."

The vocal teacher let out a deep sigh. "Uh, sorry, I need to step out for a smoke,"

A minute later, Yin Chang heard the teacher ranting outside with the producer, "What's wrong with those two brothers! Where did you find these fake siblings! I feel embarrassed just listening to them sing!!!"

Yin Chang and Shao Junling remained silent.

Originally, the show team wanted to arrange for them to record with Wang Chen and Xue Ziwen. But there was no way they could record with the two of them in this state. After Wang Chen and Xue Ziwen finished recording, they found Yin Chang and Shao Junling were still locked in the small room, practicing their lines over and over again.

The uncle and nephew came over to say hello before leaving, as if they were just there to watch the show. Especially Wang Chen, whose glee was practically dripping off his face.

After much practice, the two barely passed. The vocal teacher was worn out and had long lost the enthusiasm he had had at first. This made Yin Chang worry about the final outcome of the song.

Luckily, the theme song's music video was animated, so they didn't have to "happily hug and raise their arms." They only needed to take some photos, and later, it could be merged with the animation.

In early June, the official Weibo account for "Superstar Life" was quietly opened, and the program started promoting itself by releasing some behind-the-scenes footage of the guests gradually. Their faces were pixelated or obscured intentionally to arouse the curiosity of netizens.

By the end of June, there were only ten days left until the first recording. The program team created a "Superstar Life" guest group and invited the "parent representative" of the five family pairs. However, since they were all strangers, the group fell into an awkward silence after some initial small talk.

During this time, Shao Junling took his first grade end-of-term exams.

A few days later, while out of town on a film shoot, Yin Chang received a WeChat message from Teacher Lin: "Hello Yin Chang. Although the school has a rule not to disclose students' specific rankings to any parents, I couldn't help but share the good news - Shao Junling ranked first in the whole grade for the final exams this semester!"

Yin Chang was a bit shocked and asked, "What about English?"

Teacher Lin replied, "He got an A+ in his English exam this semester. His progress is so fast that it's really unbelievable. He told me that you hired a tutor for him, and it seems that the tutor is very skilled. Of course, your little brother is also excellent."

Yin Chang said, "..."

Teacher Lin continued, "According to the current situation, the school will make special course arrangements for him next semester to prepare him to skip a grade. Perhaps by this time next year, we will allow him to take the final exam for third grade directly. The teachers in the teaching and research group all feel that with his ability, catching up with his new classmates will only be a matter of time. This semester, he applied for information technology innovation class and robot design class, and his performance was very good. The teacher from the math Olympiad class also took him to participate in the Central China Cup Elementary School Math Olympiad earlier, where he won first place..."

Yin Chang wondered, "He won an award? When was that?"

In April. He took the trophy home and also received prize money of a thousand yuan from the school. He didn't tell you?" Teacher Lin chuckled.

Yin Chang said, "No, he didn't."

At that time, Yin Chang had been busy with his single and hadn't had a chance to talk with Shao Junling for half a year.

After hearing so much from Teacher Lin, Yin Chang realized that he hadn't been paying much attention to Shao Junling's situation.

Thinking back to the argument between the two brothers in early May, Yin Chang felt guilty.

The child had made such great progress in his studies, but he hadn't even had a chance to tell him...no wonder he was so angry.

Yin Chang thought for a moment and anonymously called the taekwondo gym where Shao Junling trained.

He didn't give his name, only said that he was Shao Junling's parent and wanted to inquire about his training over the past six months.

After verifying some private information that Lu Lingjuan had registered for Shao Junling, the taekwondo gym allowed his coach to answer the call.

"Oh! You're Shao Junling's parent! Your child is doing very well!"

"Thank you. I saw that he had already gotten a green belt a few days ago."

"That was the exam in early May. He just registered for the promotion test next week, so he should be able to switch to a blue-green belt soon."

"So fast?"

"I thought it was a bit too fast too. Actually, our gym mainly focuses on cultivating interest and improving physical fitness for children under 15 years old. Although the gym offers an assessment once every two months, I personally don't recommend children to be so eager to take the promotion exam...I originally thought it was because his parents were pressuring him."

"...I didn't push him at all..."

"Oh okay, then it's probably just his own strong personality, right?"

"Can his body handle it?" Yin Chang worried.

"Don't worry about that. Before the exam, we always evaluate the student's state. If it's too much of a strain, we won't let him participate. His promotion exam next week should be fine, and if he passes, he'll be matched with peers at a similar level. I'll put adjust the pressure on him appropriately during the later promotions."

"Um...does he get along well with his peers?"

"Hahaha..." The coach chuckled, "How should I put it..."

"Just tell me."

"Uh, your child is a bit fierce. To be honest, all the children who came in at the same time as him are afraid of him."

"..."

"But our gym leader really likes him and said that when he reaches the red belt, he will personally train him..."

"..."

After hanging up the phone, Yin Chang's mood was a bit complicated."

He knew that Shao Junling had a tendency for violence. When he first came to De International, he beat up Xue Ziwen. Last semester, he even dared to collect protection fees at school. But after disciplining him, he thought Shao Junling had improved a lot - at least he was quite docile in front of him.

For example, last time, he thought Shao Junling was going to fight him. But in the end, the little guy just cried.

But now, after hearing what the coach said, Yin Chang couldn't help but start to worry.

He remembered that there would be two fourteen-year-old twins in the parent-child program they were about to participate in. These twins were from an athlete's family, and their parents had won many championships.

Yin Chang had read the information given to him by the screenwriter in his spare time, which said that these two kids were also very competitive, especially the older brother...

Yin Chang suddenly felt a lot of pressure. When they went to record the show later, he had to focus all his attention on monitoring Shao Junling.

A few days later, Shao Junling officially started his summer vacation and went home.

Yin Chang learned from Teacher Lin about his grades and had already prepared a gift for him as a reward.

But after waiting for two days, Yin Chang didn't see Shao Junling let him know the good news. He could only awkwardly put the gift in the study and wait for the little guy to discover it himself.

Moreover, Shao Junling seemed to be preparing for his belt promotion exam as soon as he started his vacation. He would run to the Taekwondo gym every day and wouldn't come back until he was exhausted.

Yin Chang calculated the date and wanted to praise him after the exam. However, when Shao Junling came back that day, he'd already taken a shower and changed his clothes at the gym, and Yin Chang didn't know if he'd passed the exam or not...

He would only see him during bedtime when Shao Junling crawled onto his bed. Since the dispute in early May, Shao Junling had slept with him every two or three days, without asking for his opinion. Yin Chang tolerated and eventually got used to it... Sleeping with this little guy was quite comfortable, and he could even use him as a human pillow in the middle of the night.

"Brother." Shao Junling finally took the initiative to say something to him.

"Hmm?" They were going to start recording the program the day after tomorrow. While eating, Yin Chang mentioned to Shao Junling that he was looking at the itinerary sent by the program team on his iPad.

Shao Junling lay next to him, and had been staring at him seriously for a while. Before Yin Chang could ask what he was going to say, he suddenly spoke up, "Don't be afraid."

Yin Chang was puzzled, afraid of what?

Shao Junling blushed, "I will...protect you."

Yin Chang was stunned for a moment and almost burst out laughing. What was this guy thinking? Did he need protection? Yin Chang would be grateful if this guy didn't cause him trouble.

But upon hearing Shao Junling's bold words, Yin Chang couldn't bear to discourage him. After all, it was a child's heartfelt intention.

Yin Chang rubbed his head and smiled, "Okay, silly, go to sleep."

On July 7th, "Super Star Life" officially started filming.

Since the show was going to be filmed in a documentary style, the production team would come to their homes before they left and film some footage of their daily lives.

Yin had already read the script and knew that the production team would come around 9 or 10 in the morning. He had told Fiona to tidy up the house beforehand.

But he never expected the production team to play dirty on the first day.

Before 6:30 in the morning, the camera crew arrived at their house to film. Yin Chang and Shao Junling were still asleep in their bedroom.

Shao Junling: "Brother looks so nervous lately. Is he afraid of going on the show? He must be. He was even targeted when we went to record a song together. He's definitely more nervous than I am...hmm, I need to try my best to do well on the English exam before we go on the show so I can protect him well. o(￣ヘ￣o)"

Yin Chang: "?????"