Online controversy about Tang Che confronting the teacher intensified.
At the live recording, nine regular guests finally finished their first round of performances. Eight guests had confirmed mentors, leaving only FTM in the pending area, while Teacher Ji Ying’s team was missing one member.
The host said: “According to rules, pending area guests will join understaffed mentor teams. Does Teacher Ji Ying have anything to say?”
Ji Ying below smiled, picked up her microphone and said: “Actually, I didn’t light up for you earlier not because I disliked your performance, but because I was worried I couldn’t arrange your harmonies well—harmony scores are quite troublesome to arrange.”
She paused, looking at the young men on stage: “However, I’m willing to try. Welcome to my team.”
The five immediately bowed: “Thank you, Teacher.”
Though no mentors lit up after their performance, leaving them awkwardly aside, everyone was satisfied with the final result.
Senior Ji Ying was very capable. Collaborating with her might create different sparks.
Host: “Please welcome FTM to join Teacher Ji Ying’s team!”
Enthusiastic applause erupted below. The five FTM members walked down from the stage and sat behind Teacher Ji Ying.
Ji Ying’s team’s other two regular singers were Ouyang Xi, a very popular intuitive singer from recent years, and Zhao Jing, a singer from a talent show two years ago. Everyone politely greeted each other.
Host: “Congratulations on the official formation of three teams! So Ji Ying’s team, Luo Liang’s team, and Yang Dahong’s team will engage in multiple rounds of team competitions over the next three months.”
“Competition rules are round-robin format: first round Ji Ying team vs Luo Liang team, second round Luo Liang team vs Yang Dahong team, third round Yang Dahong team vs Ji Ying team!”
“Weekly rankings based on team victories. The championship team receives generous rewards from the production team, while teams with zero wins face punishment with mentors performing extra numbers.”
“If all three teams tie with 1 point each, there are no rewards or punishments that week!”
“Each subsequent episode will have three flying guests choosing teams to join. Next Saturday at 8 PM, please continue watching Nanxing TV’s ‘Sounds of Nature.'”
“Dear viewers, see you next Saturday!”
After the first episode ended, massive online discussions emerged.
Due to Tang Che and Yang Dahong’s confrontation topic remaining high on trending searches, many netizens came to watch the drama, engaging in heated debates about whether “newcomers should confront seniors.”
The production team was overjoyed—such massive traffic couldn’t be bought with money. Tang Che’s confrontation was excellent!
Of course, though Yang Dahong was sharp-tongued, he wasn’t vindictive. This was just his personality—he liked asserting seniority.
However, this time Yang Dahong was severely criticized by netizens, directly getting #Yang Dahong# trending through criticism. To maintain the show’s surface harmony, Yang Dahong posted an apology on Weibo that evening.
“Questioning newcomers without understanding was indeed irrational. I sincerely apologize for the resulting controversy. I may have been prejudiced against newcomers. I hope FTM performs well on future stages and changes my perspective.”
This Weibo post received tens of thousands of critical comments about relying on seniority and mocking his album sales being inferior to newcomers.
Since the senior proactively apologized, FTM had to respond. Under Xu Baichuan’s arrangement, Tang Che also posted an apology, saying his personality was impulsive and he was very sorry for the controversy caused by questioning a senior to their face, promising to be more careful with words and actions.
His Weibo also received massive criticism calling him pretentious, arrogant, and disrespectful. Tang Che directly ignored it.
Both sides got fifty lashes each, and the matter was settled.
Buzz achieved, show exploded—win-win.
Netizens feasted on drama all evening. This season of “Sounds of Nature” had tremendous highlights, with major forums opening discussion threads.
“Sister Ying’s team will definitely crash.”
“Ouyang Xi and Zhao Jing are new generation, yet compared to FTM they’re actually seniors, hilarious”
“Ouyang Xi debuted 4 years ago, very intuitive girl”
“These two are new generation singers with impressive vocals”
“FTM is the real bottom-dweller. Flying guests probably won’t dare choose Sister Ying’s team—isn’t this guaranteed loss?”
“Luo Liang and Yang Dahong’s team regulars are very capable. Ji Ying team’s kids just wait to be massacred~”
That evening, Ji Ying created a “Sounds of Nature Ji Ying Group” chat, adding them all. Besides singers, the group had many unfamiliar names.
Fang Yinnian’s eyes lit up—Teacher Ji Ying brought her entire team, including industry-famous composition and arrangement teachers.
Ji Ying said in the group: “Next week’s flying guests aren’t confirmed yet, but I’ve already chosen collaboration songs for regular guests. Xiao Xi and FTM will collaborate, then flying guests will work with Jingjing.”
“We’re singing the classic love song ‘Poem of Love.’ Xiao Xi and Yinnian will be main vocals, others provide harmonies. The arrangement teacher isn’t very familiar with you FTM, so let’s get acquainted first, okay?”
Everyone replied: “Yes, Teacher.”
Teacher Ji Ying was very responsible, selecting songs so quickly.
“Sounds of Nature” stage had 6 singer groups competing weekly—one regular collaboration group, one flying+regular collaboration group, meaning each mentor held two cards.
The format was pair battles. How mentors played their cards involved strategic deployment.
After FTM flew back to Jiangzhou, they immediately began intensive song practice. They had to perfect their parts before going to Nancheng next week to duet with Ouyang Xi.
This song was quite difficult to sing. With tight timing, they also faced great pressure.
Recently, the five spent time daily at the company recording studio practicing songs while maintaining dance practice, working until very late before returning to dorms.
On Thursday evening, everyone flew to Nancheng overnight to practice songs with Ouyang Xi.
Ouyang Xi was among the top young female singers in domestic entertainment for both vocal ability and tone quality, with very high online popularity. The industry called her “Little Diva” and viewed her as Xie Shiqi’s successor.
She debuted two years before FTM, was half a year younger than Fang Yinnian, and had just turned 20 this year. So after meeting Fang Yinnian, she affectionately called out: “Brother Nian.”
Mo Xun frowned with displeasure, but with teammates present, he couldn’t say much.
Fang Yinnian politely greeted her: “Xiao Xi, we’ve already practiced the song. How are things on your end?”
Ouyang Xi smiled with curved eyes: “I’ve practiced too.”
Everyone was brought by Teacher Ji Ying to the recording studio to sing together with sheet music, with Ji Ying correcting small issues on the spot.
They practiced together for two days, finally mastering the song thoroughly.
Teacher Ji Ying reminded them: “You’ve all been singing separately like strangers. Stage presence is also very important for singers—collaborative performances need some interaction. Come on, practice from the beginning again.”
This time, everyone rehearsed as if it were an official performance.
During duet sections, Fang Yinnian would smile and make eye contact with Ouyang Xi.
Mo Xun stood in the back row, his displeasure skyrocketing. He knew he shouldn’t be jealous randomly, but…
Ouyang Xi was very beautiful and talented, always looking at Fang Yinnian with starry-eyed admiration like a little fangirl.
Could this girl like Yinnian?!
Speaking of which, FTM and Ouyang Xi had quite a connection—they’d encountered each other twice before during “Music Billboard” new song promotions. Could she have had feelings for Fang Yinnian since then?
Mo Xun felt a bit sour. During their travels, Fang Yinnian avoided sharing rooms with him to prevent suspicion, and he couldn’t seek out Yinnian privately, so he could only endure.
Photographers followed the entire regular guest training process, later editing interesting footage for the official program.
Meanwhile, this episode’s flying guests also arrived.
The flying guest mentor selection was mutual choice.
Mutual agreement meant direct team formation; disagreement required deciding which team to join. FTM went to record with mentors on site, but none of the three guests chose Teacher Ji Ying’s team.
Probably because they thought the team was too young and unreliable?
After the other two mentors finished selecting, the remaining guest Zhou Song… was assigned to Teacher Ji Ying’s team again.
The host said helplessly: “Teacher Ji Ying, are you willing to accept Zhou Song joining your team?”
Mentor Ji Ying was quite optimistic, saying with a broad smile: “Come on! This is a shelter giving all wandering singers a home.”
Laughter erupted at the recording scene—the post-production would definitely add various applause effects.
Zhou Song walked over smiling to high-five Teacher Ji Ying, then high-fived remaining teammates, complaining: “Our team has so many people—eight high-fives needed.”
Everyone laughed again.
Their team indeed had the most people, seemingly large in lineup but all young generation singers.
Teacher Ji Ying said: “Xiao Zhou, regular collaborations are already set with FTM and Xiao Xi. You’ll collaborate with Jingjing. I’ll quickly select and arrange songs for you to practice intensively.”
Zhou Song smiled: “No problem, Sister Ying.”
…
Next, flying+regular combinations began arranging cover songs and practicing together. After all guests finished practicing, the production team finally began recording the most exciting and intense team battle PK segments.
“Sounds of Nature’s” judging panel had 101 people, including music producers from various companies, album planners, music website heads, music bloggers, etc. They sat in judging seats below stage.
Each held three signs: blue for Ji Ying’s team, green for Luo Liang’s team, red for Yang Dahong’s team.
After contestant performances, the judging panel would choose round winners, raising corresponding signs for whichever team performed better.
1V1, live scoring—super exciting.
Teacher Ji Ying’s strategy this week was “overcoming strength with gentleness”—both guest groups chose male-female duet ballads.
First round: Ji Ying team vs Luo Liang team.
Ji Ying’s group sent Zhou Song and Zhao Jing, while opponents sent two male singers. Both sides performed sequentially.
In the voting segment after performances, blue signs representing Ji Ying’s team only got 40%, while Luo Liang’s green signs took 60%.
They lost the first round. The five sat below watching this brutal competitive stage, all feeling nervous.
1V1 live PK was life or death—singing slightly poorly would lose points from the judging panel. This was much more intense than music promotion stages!
…
After this week’s variety show recording, the five returned to Jiangzhou anxiously awaiting official broadcast.
Post-production editing and effects needed several days. The production team rushed to have it ready for Saturday 8 PM.
The five were currently in Nancheng preparing next episode content.
After song practice that evening, Xiao Fei suggested: “Episode 2 is about to air. Should we watch together?”
Not knowing how post-production turned out, everyone followed Xiao Fei to his hotel room, finding seats to watch TV.
“Welcome viewers to ‘Sounds of Nature’ Season 5 Episode 2. After a week, all three teams are prepared. Let’s secretly observe how contestants are getting along.”
The show featured footage of FTM and Ouyang Xi collaborating.
Fang Yinnian and Ouyang Xi huddled together studying sheet music, seriously discussing how to sing certain notes, their heads nearly touching.
Teacher Ji Ying helped strategize nearby.
Xiao Fei couldn’t help saying: “Wow, Brother Nian and Xiao Xi look quite compatible—handsome man, beautiful woman, same age. They have that golden boy-girl feeling of music scene newcomers.”
Fang Yinnian quickly interrupted: “Don’t talk nonsense.”
Xiao Fei chuckled: “Just joking. She keeps calling you ‘Brother Nian’—she doesn’t call us ‘brother.'”
Tang Che agreed: “True. Ouyang Xi only communicated with Yinnian throughout, since she only needed to duet with him.”
Tan Junwen delivered the finishing blow: “For this duet, Yinnian and she are protagonists—we four are just supporting roles.”
Mo Xun’s face darkened.
Tang Che: “When Yinnian gets married and we four serve as groomsmen, we’ll dress like in the show.”
Tan Junwen: “Holy crap, now that you mention it—Yinnian and Ouyang Xi in suits and gowns with us four standing around really does look like groomsmen.”
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
![After losing all his wealth, the ancestor rose from his coffin [BL]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Your-paragraph-text-1.png "After losing all his wealth, the ancestor rose from his coffin [BL]")
