Apart from the fixed four-person and eight-person performances, any additional performances by others won’t be in larger groups.
At most, a group of three people.
Because except for Li Yang and his team, the ability of the others isn’t enough to learn two or more dances and songs in half a day.
So when it came to the five-person group demo, everyone quickly glanced through it. The same went for the six and seven-person groups.
By the time the eight-person demo came out, the hotpot broth had stopped boiling, and no one was eating anymore. Everyone was focused on the big screen outside the small balcony.
The first song was very familiar.
The music was familiar, the dance had a familiar feel to it, and even the dancers’ facial expressions carried a familiar sense.
Mu Qiu didn’t look at the name in the bottom right corner; she focused on one of the female dancers’ enticing moves and enthralled expression, trying hard to recall, and finally pulled out a bit of impression from her memory.
"This song..."
Li Yang hesitantly said, "Wave, Wave Treading?"
Shi Yuhuai’s lazy eyebrows jumped in surprise: "It’s the DJ version, too."
Not afraid of new songs with dance tracks, just old songs turned into DJs.
She swallowed, saying, "This square dance pose... leading a square dance in such a high-end venue, isn’t that great?"
"What’s the big deal," Guan Yu finally seized a chance to retaliate, coolly said,
"We’ve danced the horse-riding dance; what’s a square dance? Maybe you all could lead the next square dance trend."
Li Yang resisted, "No no no, let’s not do this?"
He wanted to dance cool dances!
Shu Ran glanced at him, then looked around, and her gaze landed on Shi Yuhuai and Cheng Zhirang, her expression suddenly relaxed, looking like pure schadenfreude.
"I think this is quite good, maybe you can dance it differently. With our international models Brother Huai and Brother Cheng, how could it be just a simple square dance?"
Shi Yuhuai: "I refuse."
Wearing a pink shorts suit to dance a square dance, how could he continue on an international route afterward?
Moreover, this is purely their mischievous interest; he doesn’t want to satisfy it.
But one person disagreeing is useless.
He sat up straight, leaned over to warn the others, "Don’t choose this."
Mu Qiu raised her hand, "Don’t worry, I won’t choose this."
Li Yang: "I, I, I! Me neither!"
It seemed Cheng Zhirang and Bai Shu didn’t want to choose this either, so he was relieved and leaned back, "Next one."
The next was more rhythmic, but also quite familiar.
For now, anything familiar probably wasn’t a good thing.
As soon as the prelude started, Li Yang recognized it: "’My Heart Goes Boom,’ the rhythm is fast, see how quickly they move."
"My forehead is pounding just as fast," Mu Qiu pressed her temples, "Just watching it, my hands and feet are going to tangle. Can’t there just be a normal, simple, and good-looking dance?"
Guan Yu chuckled, "Then I have to recommend our horse-riding dance to you, simple moves, everyone knows the song, and it’s quite novel. How about it, want to join?"
"Then I think this one is still good." She said with an unchanged expression.
Guan Yu: "Tsk——"
The next one, Billie’s "Therefore I Am," a dark and melancholic hit with engaging choreography.
The one after that, the seductive "My Boo."
Another one after, "Toxic."
The last three were all quite tempting.
For the demos afterward, people mostly treated them as casual post-meal videos, with heads together discussing which performance to choose.
Mu Qiu leaned over, her head joining Bai Shu’s group to hear professional advice.
Worried about her hair swaying inconveniently while eating hotpot, she casually put it in a bun, but since she didn’t do it carefully, a lot of strands stuck out like a sunflower.
Cheng Zhirang’s gaze shifted from her hair to her side profile.
She listened intently to Bai Shu and the others talking, her clean, clear eyes stared right at them.
Not sure when it happened, she also liked making eye contact, unlike before when her gaze wandered in conversations.
Maybe that’s what love is like, they influence each other, becoming more like each other in many little details, he thought.
"Brother Cheng, what do you think?"
"Hmm?" He lifted his eyes to join the conversation, as if it wasn’t him daydreaming just now, "As long as it’s not the first two, it’s fine."
Shi Yuhuai breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing his relieved expression, Mu Qiu couldn’t resist teasing him: "But Brother Huai is in pink shorts, not suitable for the last few dances."
The others’ costumes were black and white; even Jiang Zhufeng’s cheongsam could forcibly match these last three songs.
Only Shi Yuhuai’s playful pink shorts were completely out of place in such cool performances.
Shi Yuhuai gave her a blank look, "I can make sacrifices for the team, victory belongs to the group, not me alone."
"That’s so touching, hearing such words from Brother Huai. Honestly, Brother Huai, did you secretly enroll in a class?"
Saying such words with a stiff face felt like awkwardly reciting a text in front of classmates.
Shi Yuhuai ignored her, resolute in not choosing the first two songs.
They discussed lively, the four beside them quickly finished their discussions, squeezing over to eavesdrop.
Seeing them almost deciding, but still a bit hesitant, Guan Yu leaned in and stirred the pot:
"Go with this one, don’t hesitate, just pick it. We don’t have much practice time left, friends."
Shi Yuhuai didn’t even blink, reached over, and pushed her head out with his hand.
"No eavesdropping allowed."
"... Tch, who cares. We’ll see when we rehearse tonight."
She retreated, grabbed a cucumber strip from the remaining roast duck platter, munching on it, and picked up the microphone calling the director.
"Director! We’ve decided! No need to watch the twelve-person demos, just start the second round!"
Director refuses, the big screen showed the last twelve-person demo.
"Listen, the bugle for a new journey sounds! The strong army target calls ahead! The country must be strong, we must assume responsibility! The battle flag writes iron blood glory..."
Without any defense, a song familiar to everyone, instinctively making them want to stand and salute, sang along, stunned the crowd.
"... really, director, while according to your plans, mostly a twelve-person performance won’t appear, but, but you didn’t have to be so perfunctory?"
Li Yang looked complexly toward the director, feeling like they just pulled a song from the director’s phone randomly.
Lin Lian, the youngest here, still hadn’t lost his innocence from long programs, and found something to compliment the director.
"Even this song has a MV for dancing, surely the show team put thought into it."
Guan Yu fake smiled, "Yeah, clearly a hastily shot MV with a couple of staff members."
Lin Lian: "..."