Chapter 48: Changing Key

Following the broadcast of the first and second parts of the premiere of Idol Producer, the trainees were left with only a single day to prepare for their first round of public performances.

Gu Jingyi had been exceptionally busy lately. The trainees had been given merely a week of practice time for the first performance.

Beyond leading his team members to thoroughly master the choreography and song sections, he also had to record dormitory spin-off segments, pre-interviews, post-interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, sponsor advertisements, and all sorts of trivial daily routines capable of generating heat and momentum.

Today, the floor manager informed Gu Jingyi that the online voting results for Round Zero had also been released. He ranked first in popularity, sitting proudly at the top.

As a special perk, there was a short video he needed to record. It would later be broadcast as an Easter egg after the conclusion of the next episode.

Gu Jingyi returned to the practice room just as he finished recording the short clip.

"What's wrong with you guys?"

Observing the somewhat dejected atmosphere among the trainees, Gu Jingyi could not fathom what was bothering them.

"Brother Jingyi, I'm hungry."

Justin rubbed his stomach with a hint of embarrassment, and Fan Chengcheng also chimed in awkwardly, saying he was hungry.

"Is that even a big deal? I'll go down to the tuck shop and buy some food right now."

It was currently a little past five in the morning, and the cafeteria wouldn't open until seven or eight. Furthermore, the trainees' training intensity was extremely high, and the meager oily sustenance from the cafeteria meals simply could not keep the trainees going for long.

They digested their food rapidly, and it wasn't long before their stomachs began to rumble.

Aside from the tuck shop, there genuinely wasn't anywhere else to get food.

Mobile phones had to be surrendered during the recording of Idol Producer, and very few trainees managed to bring cash with them. To make matters worse, the tuck shop only accepted cash and refused to run a tab.

As for the kids in his group, the small amounts of cash they had brought had long since been spent on food.

Gu Jingyi, however, had made relatively thorough preparations; he had brought a thick stack of cash with him.

Stepping out of the practice room, the biting, howling wind made him instinctively pull his collar tight. The winter cold made one shiver uncontrollably, and even the air seemed frozen into microscopic ice crystals.

Because of this, when Gu Jingyi caught sight of the trainees who, despite shivering violently in such bitter weather, still forced themselves to brave the barrage of heavy artillery-like cameras wielded by the fansite masters, he instantly understood their intentions.

Under circumstances where contact with the outside world was extremely limited, the information unwittingly leaked by the fansites was intricately linked to their fates.

"Gu Jingyi!"

"Jingyi, look over here!"

The moment Gu Jingyi appeared at the entrance of the tuck shop, he heard the fansite masters calling out his name.

He walked a few steps closer and asked, "Did everyone remember to bring heat patches today?"

"We brought them!"

"Yeah, we're fully prepared. Hurry up and buy your things, Jingyi, don't worry about us!"

Noticing a floor manager heading in his direction, Gu Jingyi exchanged a brief greeting with the fansites and prepared to leave.

That was when he saw Tian Xiwei, whose face was frozen red with cold, looking straight at him as she said, "Gu Jingyi, do not check Weibo recently. Just focus on your competition, and leave the rest to me!"

Prompted by her words, the rest of the fansite masters also began shouting:

"Jingyi, stay away from the trending searches lately!"

"Xiao Yi, whatever the floor manager tells you, don't listen and don't believe it! This time, absolutely no one is going to make you suffer any grievances!"

Gu Jingyi's lips moved slightly. He saw genuine sincerity and fierce protectiveness reflected in those adorable faces.

The floor manager had already approached, gesturing for him not to linger.

Gu Jingyi simply waved goodbye to the fans and walked away.

Upon returning to the practice room, he distributed the food he had bought, just as Li Ronghao walked over.

Li Ronghao watched the group's performance once and paced back and forth among the trainees for a moment. Finally, a thought seemed to strike him, and he spoke up, "Your performance is indeed good, but it still feels like it's missing that special something. How about we raise the key for the end of the song and sing it that way? It'll add a bit more layers to the track."

All eyes turned to Gu Jingyi. "Sure, I have no problem with that."

The group members also let out long sighs of relief. "Then we'll have to trouble Brother Jingyi."

The director behind the camera position was left dumbfounded. The original version of "Can't Stop" was a band track, and the pitch was already high enough. Was Gu Jingyi planning to raise the key even further?

The song was actually immensely difficult, and Team B had already cracked their voices several times during practice. The production team had been wondering how to provide backing vocals for the neighboring team during the public performance, yet Team A was over here figuring out how to raise the key?

The gap between them was simply too vast.

Li Ronghao smiled warmly. "I have faith in Xiao Yi's ability. Run through it again with the adjustments so I can see."

Half an hour later, Li Ronghao nodded in satisfaction after listening to the higher-key version of the song. "Not bad. Gu Jingyi, when that high note came out, it gave me goosebumps. But aren't you still holding something back? I feel like you could push that final section up by yet another key."

Gu Jingyi nodded. "I definitely can, but I was afraid it might disrupt the aesthetic feel, so I reined it in slightly."

"Can't Stop Love is a mixed rock style rooted in British rock, and I was worried that showing off too much vocal acrobatics would make the final product sound overly flamboyant."

Li Ronghao burst into laughter. He patted Gu Jingyi on the shoulder and said, "There's no need to hold back! Let me tell you, during public performances, lyrical songs generally don't match the stage impact of dance tracks. For lyrical songs, most people just listen for the sheer sound of it. Audiences love the thrill of soaring high notes; it makes them feel like it's extremely impressive."

Gu Jingyi thought that made a lot of sense. After all, most audience members weren't vocal majors. They generally couldn't quite discern the transitions in the middle registers or the underlying foundation of the low notes. But high notes were something one could experience directly—the moment they were sung, their impact was instantly apparent.

Seeing that Gu Jingyi was starting to waver, Li Ronghao continued, "Are you worried you don't know how to weave it into the arrangement? We still have a full day left, so let's figure out how to arrange it together. What do the rest of you think?"

"I think it's doable," You Zhangjing was the first to nod. As a trainee whose primary focus was vocals, he wished the entire song could be made as difficult as possible.

The better the stage presentation, the more he could ride Gu Jingyi's coattails and be remembered by the audience.

Justin and Fan Chengcheng also nodded. "Brother Jingyi doesn't need to restrain his own brilliance just to accommodate us. The better the overall stage presentation, the more all of us will benefit from it."

This was the sentiment shared by most trainees in the group. Once you were in Gu Jingyi's team, nobody ever dreamed of overshadowing him on stage.

Their goal was simply to execute their own vocal parts properly and ride along for the bonus votes of the "Best Group."

Since everyone was in agreement, Li Ronghao was delighted.

He immediately began discussing the arrangement with Gu Jingyi. "In that case, we can raise the key layer by layer right from the very beginning of 'Can't Stop,' stunning the audience the second the vocals drop."

"Jingyi, I think you could add a slightly raspy texture right here..."

Time ticked away second by second. Watching the overall performance of Team A—led by Gu Jingyi—improve steadily, a deep sense of accomplishment welled up in Li Ronghao's heart. He offered words of encouragement once more:

"Team A has done a fantastic job. If you can maintain this level of strength during tomorrow's public performance, you're guaranteed to succeed."

"Thank you, Teacher Ronghao, you've worked hard."

After politely thanking Li Ronghao, Gu Jingyi led the trainees through one final rehearsal before dismissing them for the day.