Mo Xun: “…………”
Sensing the low pressure emanating from Mo Xun, Fang Yinnian’s heart tightened slightly as he hurriedly explained: “I, I only consider her a little sister.”
He paused, sneaking a glance at Mo Xun sitting on the nearby sofa, meeting Mo Xun’s gaze directly.
Mo Xun’s eyes were dark and bright, like deep pools.
Fang Yinnian’s heart raced as he quickly looked away: “Just collaborative singing. Teacher Ji Ying chose the outfits. Ouyang Xi and I haven’t even added each other on WeChat. Stop talking nonsense or I’ll get angry.”
Xiao Fei scratched his head: “We’re just joking, Brother Nian. You don’t need to explain so much, hehe.”
Fang Yinnian: “…”
Wasn’t he explaining for “someone” to hear?
That person already lived in his heart—he worried that person might mind, so he hurriedly explained…
Fang Yinnian’s ears burned as he lowered his head silently.
Mo Xun’s lips curved slightly as he said jokingly: “Yinnian has a CP—don’t randomly matchmake.”
Tan Junwen slapped his forehead: “Oh, almost forgot—isn’t Yinnian’s CP right in our team? The official wife has spoken.”
Fu Fei: “Got it, Brother Mo. No matchmaking—you two are the best match.”
Mo Xun lightly tapped the back of his head: “You’re the only one who can talk.”
Fu Fei laughed awkwardly, scratching his head.
Fang Yinnian: “…”
Though teammates were just joking, Fang Yinnian’s palms sweated as he hurriedly interrupted: “Ahem, let’s watch the show.”
TV continued showing three teams seriously preparing for competition. These daily footage clips made the program more authentic.
As a popular music variety show, “Sounds of Nature’s” signature was combining preparation, interviews, and competitions.
The production team interviewed FTM.
“Are you nervous participating in ‘Sounds of Nature’ for the first time?”
“Of course we’re nervous.” The five on TV sat in a row with Mo Xun representing them: “This stage is all gods fighting. We’re worried about poor performance dragging our team down.”
Voice-over continued: “Teacher Ji Ying arranged your collaboration with Ouyang Xi this time. What are your thoughts on the collaboration process?”
Fang Yinnian took the microphone: “Xiao Xi has a beautiful voice and excellent vocals. She debuted years before us, so we’re approaching this collaboration with a learning attitude.”
Voice-over: “What song are you bringing everyone?”
Fang Yinnian said earnestly: “It’s a classic duet love song. We’ve made novel harmony arrangements, hoping to bring everyone a different audiovisual experience.”
Soon came team battle segments.
First round Ji Ying team vs Luo Liang team—Ji Ying’s pair lost to opponents, with Luo Liang team winning a medal.
Second round Luo Liang team vs Yang Dahong team—Yang Dahong team won 51 to 50 votes, a one-vote difference!
Competition became increasingly tense and exciting.
Third round: Yang Dahong team vs Ji Ying team.
Ji Ying declared boldly: “This round we’re sending—FTM and Ouyang Xi, bringing collaborative piece ‘Poem of Love’!”
Lights blazed as this round’s competing singers took the stage.
Ouyang Xi and Fang Yinnian stood center stage with the other four surrounding them in formation. Surrounding LED screens showed fresh flowers and grasslands, perfectly matching the song’s mood.
After the gentle intro, Fang Yinnian picked up his microphone.
This was a classic male-female duet song. Teacher Ji Ying had made some new arrangements—the first half was Fang Yinnian and Ouyang Xi duetting, with FTM’s rich harmonies joining in from the chorus.
Fang Yinnian’s opening was beautifully sung.
His voice had a power that made people calm down, quickly transporting listeners to scenes of meeting someone who made their heart flutter in youth.
Ouyang Xi caught the rhythm perfectly for the second verse, her voice clear and bright with great texture.
Their vocal tones elevated the song’s sophistication.
Ouyang Xi wore a white dress today while Fang Yinnian wore a suit to match—visually pleasing as well.
After two main verses, they began full harmonies.
“You are the poem of my love”
“Poem of love~”
“Every line filled with longing”
“Filled with longing~”
“Through storms and changing years”
“I’ll always be by your side”
This harmony section was extremely beautiful.
The main vocals were Fang Yinnian and Ouyang Xi, but FTM’s four rich backing harmonies brought more variation and layers to the song, giving a simple love song the effect of choir reverb.
Many live stream viewers started sending flower emojis.
“Very gentle love song, beautiful!”
“Makes me want to fall in love~”
“Male-female duet, their voices match well”
“Singing warms the heart”
“Ahhh this is the most beautiful duet version I’ve heard!”
Having practiced many times during this period, their coordination was quite seamless as they smoothly completed the entire song.
Enthusiastic applause erupted from below.
Host: “Next, please welcome Yang Dahong’s team to perform.”
Yang Dahong’s team chose an extremely difficult song with two guests alternating high notes, shouting until scalps tingled.
“Thank you all guests for the wonderful performances. Round three competition ends—please have the judging panel vote. Those supporting Ji Ying’s team raise blue signs, those supporting Yang Dahong’s team raise red signs.”
Host: “Now, please have the first row judges vote.”
The first row had 10 judges who raised 7 red and 3 blue signs. Viewers could tell the situation wasn’t good.
“Looks like FTM will lose”
“Will Ji Ying’s team be completely defeated this episode?”
“Teacher Ji Ying is so unlucky”
“Actually sang pretty well, but song choice was a bit simple”
“Sang okay, but the opponents’ shouting style had more passion”
“I personally prefer Ji Ying’s group—this song was beautiful”
“Doesn’t anyone think Yang Dahong group’s show-off singing was greasy?”
Yang Dahong’s team sang themselves hoarse, which appeared more vocally impressive to the judging panel than their warm love song.
Sure enough, the second row raised even more red signs.
As row after row of signs lit up, the vote gap between Ji Ying’s team and Yang Dahong’s team on the big screen grew larger.
Final tally: 33:68.
Host: “Congratulations to Yang Dahong’s team for winning this round! Ji Ying’s team unfortunately lost both rounds today and will face punishment next episode—the mentor must perform an additional song.”
Losing and having to accept punishment with their teacher performing made everyone look guilty.
Teacher Ji Ying smiled: “It’s fine, just one song. Next episode we’ll continue working hard to win back victory!”
Competitive music variety shows had winners and losers. After losing last week’s recording, Fang Yinnian felt down for a while but had long since adjusted—they still had to record the next episode.
The show finished at 10 PM. Xiao Fei said: “Alright everyone, back to your rooms to sleep. We have song practice tomorrow morning.”
Everyone left separately.
At the neighboring room door, Mo Xun swiped his card and quietly called to Fang Yinnian: “Yinnian, come with me for a moment.”
Tang Che stopped and looked back at them.
Fang Yinnian’s heart tightened as he quickly said: “Tang Che, go back first. Mo Xun and I need to discuss something.”
Tang Che nodded: “Oh.”
With their manager absent, Mo Xun brought Fang Yinnian inside and closed the door before turning to look at him: “You and Ouyang Xi…”
Fang Yinnian hurriedly said: “I haven’t even added her as a friend!”
Seeing his anxious explanation, Mo Xun’s heart softened slightly as he reached out to ruffle his hair: “I know you two have nothing going on. I can see Ouyang Xi is genuinely focused on her music career and wouldn’t rely on CP marketing to bind herself to you. You can interact with her normally—there are many more episodes ahead, and adding her as a friend is fine.”
Fang Yinnian’s cheeks burned.
What position are you speaking from?
Seeing him silent with his head down, Mo Xun touched his nose: “Am I being too controlling?”
Fang Yinnian said: “You’re the captain—managing things is fine. I’m heading back now, sleep early.”
With that, he turned and left the room.
Mo Xun helplessly scratched his hair. He needed to fix this jealous tendency quickly, or Yinnian might get annoyed with his meddling.
Fang Yinnian took a deep breath to steady his heartbeat. After returning to his room, he opened his phone to browse #Sounds of Nature# hashtags.
Sure enough, losing guests were being criticized by netizens.
FTM received the most criticism, with many accounts disguised as “passersby” saying their vocals were inadequate, they couldn’t handle major stages, and their harmonies were messy.
Fang Yinnian: “…”
Netizens were truly vicious, but it didn’t matter. What was important in such competitions wasn’t winning or losing, but experience.
What FTM lacked was music industry experience. “Sounds of Nature’s” adaptation of classic songs required immediate learning and application, testing singers’ comprehensive vocal cultivation, pitch accuracy, and collaborative ability.
This episode, Fang Yinnian learned much from Teacher Ji Ying, and Ouyang Xi’s vocal runs gave him great inspiration.
Their first attempt at duetting with a female singer yielded substantial gains—the trip wasn’t wasted.
As time progressed, “Sounds of Nature” team battles entered white-hot stages. Each episode’s different flying guests created unlimited collaborative possibilities.
Episode 3: Ji Ying’s team had FTM and Zhao Jing duet a film and TV golden song—a martial arts drama classic familiar to older generations, beautifully sung in harmony arrangement.
However, they unluckily faced Luo Liang’s team’s explosive rock performance, ultimately losing 49:52 by two votes.
Episode 4: FTM again duetted a classic old song with Zhao Jing, but lost to opposing dual female duet combination.
#FTM Sounds of Nature Three Consecutive Defeats#
Fang Yinnian had long expected people to mock and step on them. Various troublemakers kept surfacing under this hashtag.
“FTM can only sing their own songs—they’re exposed when switching songs”
“Products of exam-oriented education—of course they’re familiar doing the same papers daily. Switch papers and they can only score zero!”
“This season’s ‘Sounds of Nature’ has 10 episodes. Will they keep losing? That would be too embarrassing”
“Poor Teacher Ji Ying carrying FTM as dead weight”
“Betting on how many consecutive losses FTM will have?”
“Like my five-game losing streak in ranked matches?”
Many drama-loving netizens bet on 5 consecutive losses, even 10.
Seeing this post, Fang Yinnian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Though they’d lost three weeks of competitions, viewers who seriously watched should know their song completion was high and singing wasn’t bad.
Bilibili had UP creators collecting all their “Sounds of Nature” stages into compilations with high view counts and many positive comments, so Fang Yinnian wasn’t saddened by netizen criticism of FTM.
They would improve.
***
Time flew to April. At the recording of “Sounds of Nature” Season 5 Episode 5, Fang Yinnian saw a very familiar face.
He excitedly ran over: “Brother Mian, why are you here?”
Chen Mian extended his arms for a hug, smiling: “I’m here as a flying guest. Long time no see.”
Fang Yinnian was surprised: “You’re a flying guest this episode?”
Chen Mian nodded: “That’s right. I changed managers these past two years—resources improved slightly. I don’t avoid TV shows anymore and came as a flying guest to show my face.”
Fang Yinnian said excitedly: “Want to choose Teacher Ji Ying’s team? We could try collaborating!”
Chen Mian smiled and patted his shoulder: “My thoughts exactly.”
This episode’s flying guest competition stage was super exciting. After Chen Mian finished first, all three mentors lit green lights—meaning all three wanted him!
Chen Mian was after all a singer who emerged from “Soul Singer.” Though subsequent works hadn’t kept up these years and he’d gradually faded, his abilities remained strong with rich competition experience.
He sang without any nervousness, completing it well and earning all mentors’ favor.
The host said in surprise: “Wow, three green lights! All mentors really like Chen Mian. So the choice goes to flying guest Chen Mian—which team would you prefer?”
Chen Mian didn’t hesitate: “I want to join Ji Ying’s team.”
Teacher Ji Ying immediately smiled.
Host: “May I ask why you chose Teacher Ji Ying?”
Chen Mian said: “First, I really like Teacher Ji Ying. Second, I want to try collaborating with Ji Ying team’s FTM. I’ve never sung harmonies and want to try something fresh.”
Ji Ying stood up with open arms: “Welcome to our team.”
Chen Mian quickly ran down to hug the mentor and high-five other team singers. When high-fiving Fang Yinnian, he smiled slightly and sat beside him.
Chen Mian quietly told Fang Yinnian: “Never imagined we’d collaborate in this format someday.”
Fang Yinnian smiled: “I never imagined either.”
Chen Mian was a singer he’d really liked in middle school and one of his few friends in the entertainment industry.
He was very happy to meet Chen Mian on this stage and collaborate on a song together, creating a precious video record.
That evening, Ji Ying’s team held a small meeting.
This episode’s regular collaboration went to the two female singers Zhao Jing and Ouyang Xi, while the other collaboration paired FTM with Chen Mian.
Ji Ying began struggling over song selection.
“Sounds of Nature’s” stage didn’t allow singing your own songs—you had to cover others’, testing singers’ vocal abilities and song mastery.
What song could six male singers perform?
Just as she was deeply conflicted, Fang Yinnian suddenly said: “Teacher, how about we try adapting ‘Thorn Bird’?”
Ji Ying was stunned, turning to look at him: “This song is extremely difficult with a very high range. If we change it to male key, can you guys reach those notes?”
Fang Yinnian said: “I can reach them.”
To dispel his teacher’s doubts, Fang Yinnian cleared his throat to moisten his voice and began singing a cappella on the spot.
“I am that bird flying toward the sky”
“Spreading free wings to break through clouds”
He opened with an ultra-high note that left Ji Ying and other teammates stunned.
He could actually sing female key?!
My god, Ji Ying looked at Fang Yinnian in disbelief.
This terrifying high vocal range could rank among the top in Chinese music. Male singers who could sing high enough for female keys were extremely rare!
She had truly found treasure!
Ji Ying looked at Fang Yinnian with appreciation: “I don’t know you guys well enough. When selecting songs before, I kept choosing simple pieces for you, never imagining you could sing such high notes!”
Fang Yinnian smiled: “Teacher, feel free to give us difficult songs—we can handle it.”
Ji Ying nodded excitedly: “Good, starting this episode we’ll officially increase difficulty and win back victory!”
**
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
