Running Over The Head Of My Ex [Rebirth]

Chapter 20

This time, the players chosen for He Qingqi’s team are mostly vocalists, such as Jin Zhiyang and Qiu Ming, or those who follow the charming route, like Zheng Xinnian and Wang Qiyu.

Only Su Chengcheng, who ranked twenty-fourth, had no other choice.

Both of them, like brothers in distress, sat cross-legged in the rehearsal room, propping their faces with their hands and sighing in unison.

“Why are we so unlucky?” they lamented.

Su Chengcheng had a strong voice, but singing was her weak point. As a trainee, the company had focused on cultivating her rap abilities, hoping she could replace singing with rapping.

Upon learning that she had to sing such a sweet song, Su Chengcheng was undoubtedly devastated.

She looked at He Qingqi and said, “Actually, you’re doing okay. This time, you got more votes than Tao Jinghan. Maybe you can win by simply wearing a skirt and acting cute. But me, as soon as I start singing, I bet all my fans will leave.”

So true!

“That’s not necessarily true!” He Qingqi retorted. “I’m mostly afraid I can’t handle this style, and the mentors will rate me a B again.”

“Forget it.” He Qingqi suddenly stood up. “Worrying won’t help. Chengcheng, let’s go practice.”

He Qingqi’s vocal quality was decent but not excellent, just slightly better than the standard girl group level.

Because of her personality, she usually preferred singing hip-hop with a hint of lyricism. This time, she faced a tough challenge.

Their parts were already assigned. The other four were practicing their parts in front of mirrors, looking adorable with sweet voices.

He Qingqi and Su Chengcheng felt like two awkward geese in the mix.

He Qingqi sighed, “This is tough.”

Her voice was clear and ethereal, but singing something sweet was a bit difficult for her.

After work, she kept thinking about this problem. The show only had two more performances left, and she couldn’t afford to mess up now.

After returning to the dorm, Zhuo Zhiwei noticed her frustration and pulled Tao Jinghan over to sit in front of her.

“Sing it once; let us hear it,” Zhuo Zhiwei suggested.

He Qingqi smiled awkwardly and said, “I don’t feel this song. I’m afraid I won’t sing it well.”

“It’s okay; if you could sing it well, why would we be sitting here?” Tao Jinghan spoke nonchalantly, wrapping his arm around Zhuo Zhiwei’s shoulder.

Zhuo Zhiwei shot him a sharp look, and Tao Jinghan quickly removed his arm, raising his hands in surrender. “Sorry, habit.”

“Okay, I’ll give it a try.”

Having lived together for two months, He Qingqi didn’t feel awkward with them anymore and started singing.

The song was about first love, with a touch of teenage innocence. He Qingqi tried to immerse herself in the feeling of first love. She was sixteen years old.

She involuntarily recalled Fang Xuanrao’s words, “I have never liked you since childhood.” Gradually, her throat tightened, and her voice carried a tinge of regret and bitterness.

The sorrowful emotion lingered in the air, but the singing abruptly stopped, and the accompaniment gradually faded. Zhuo Zhiwei and Tao Jinghan were momentarily speechless, and the room was eerily silent.

“How… how was it?” He Qingqi couldn’t help but break the awkward silence.

Zhuo Zhiwei paused for a moment. “It felt a bit weird. The sweet melody, when combined with the bitter lyrics, evoked two entirely different emotions that were highly contradictory. But it’s also somewhat harmonious.”

Tao Jinghan seemed lost in thought, as if He Qingqi’s voice had drawn her into the song’s atmosphere.

He Qingqi’s singing conveyed unrequited love, rejection, and regret. Tao Jinghan couldn’t help but think of that person.

She trembled all over as the tenderness of that person calling her name replayed in her mind, squeezing her heartache.

But she knew she deserved it. That person did nothing wrong; they just didn’t like her. She was the one who fell in love for real.

“Jinghan, Jinghan?”

“Huh?” Tao Jinghan snapped back to reality.

“How was it?”

Tao Jinghan thought for a moment, “Very… impactful. But I agree with Zhiwei; your singing is very different from the original.”

Hearing this, He Qingqi fell into deep thought, frowning and jotting something down on paper.

Suddenly, her eyes brightened, and she looked at her two friends and said, “I think maybe I can work on this part!”

Tao Jinghan and Zhuo Zhiwei exchanged glances, puzzled.

Early the next morning, He Qingqi excitedly gathered her teammates in a circle.

“Yesterday, Chengcheng and I thought about our problem.”

Five teammates listened intently, eager for a solution.

This performance was crucial.

Winning the individual competition wasn’t their aim.

Unlike a survival show, the majority of the top three fans were united, so whenever a group chose their center, the winner was already decided.

In the team competition, with three leading teams, even a slight improvement could change the outcome, giving them a better chance to win. They were more eager than He Qingqi for a solution.

“You all saw that I can’t sing this kind of first love feeling, and Chengcheng even less so. Singing such a sweet song without a soul is weird,” He Qingqi joked.

“But actually, the lyrics are quite diverse. Just looking at them, it can be seen as a confession of unrequited love, a self-analysis of someone giving love unconditionally.”

“Unrequited love is both sweet and bitter. You might be happy for a whole day just because she glanced at you, but you might also feel disheartened because her heart remains cold. Unrequited love gets no response. You can persist for one or two years, but what about ten or twenty years? Can you maintain your love unchanged?”

He Qingqi remarked, “Patience, like love, can wear down.”

She was a glaring example.

The members became more and more moved, consistently nodding. He Qingqi’s eyes shone with confidence, boosting their morale.

“So, we can split the lyrics into two parts. Sing the first part as the original, then during the interlude, add a drama-like segment, and in the second part, adapt it to express the unrequited lover’s struggle, unable to give up but reluctant to let go.”

“I think it’s doable!” Qiu Ming, always a fan of He Qingqi, agreed first. She had climbed to sixth place from C class to her debut position, thanks entirely to He Qingqi.

Wang Qiyu also added, “But I think the sequence of the two parts can be switched. Comedy appeals more to the audience.”

He Qingqi pondered for a moment and said, “That works.”

Just as they were getting excited, as if they had already won, Jin Zhiyang, the voice of reason, poured cold water on them with her concerns.

“The problem now is that if we adopt it, the composition and choreography are on us. The mentors might help, but it’s mostly up to us. Can we manage in two weeks?”

“And if we adapt, all our parts need to be reassigned. Yesterday’s work would be wasted.”

“No, we don’t need to reassign everything. Just adjust the second part slightly; let everyone take one or two lines.”

He Qingqi grinned mischievously, “As for the choreography, isn’t there a group member coming to help? They can handle the first part with me.”

“As for Chengcheng,” paused He Qingqi, giving her a playful yet disdainful look. “You can be a prop in the middle part.”

Su Chengcheng: “Too real.

Thus, He Qingqi’s team happily finalized their stage plan. However, when the group member entered the rehearsal room, He Qingqi’s right eyelid twitched, and her plan was instantly shattered upon hearing the sound of her heartbreaking and reassembling.

This didn’t happen in my past life!

Left eye for wealth, right eye for disaster.

He Qingqi approached Chai Xu, glaring at him, and punched him. “Why you?”

Chai Xu, a tall man with a pitiful expression, rubbed his chest with a wronged look, giving the impression that He Qingqi had abandoned him. “He Xiaoxi, I came to find you out of goodwill.”

“Call me, Daddy!”

“Daddy!” Chai Xu obediently followed.

He Qingqi was despairing. “You’re the… renowned group member the mentors mentioned?”

Chai Xu stood up and proudly adjusted his collar. “Why, don’t I look like it?”

“Not really.”

Seeing her old friend, He Qingqi, was undoubtedly happy, but recalling his uselessness, her mood soured, and she glared at Chai Xu again.

Chai Xu was puzzled. “Xi Xi, what now?”

He Qingqi, rolling her eyes, said, “You tell me. You’re good for nothing; come here to mess things up.”

“I’m not good for nothing!”

“Then what can you do?”

“I can dance!”

“Yeah, I taught you that. You were the worst dancer in our group.”

“I can sing!”

“Karaoke level?”

“I can rap!”

“Fix that pronunciation first; it’s a-rap, not ra-up.”

“I… I…” Chai Xu mumbled for a while, then confidently said, “I can sell my looks! I’m the face of our group; my fans say just looking at me makes them want to vote!”

“Sell your looks? Zhuo Zhiwei looks better than you! Not to

mention her, I look better!”

“Whoa, ‘even I’… Xi Xi, you think someone is better looking than you!”

“No swearing on camera.”

Chai Xu waved it off, saying, “No problem; you can have them edit it out.”

He Qingqi rolled her eyes again.

Chai Xu, accustomed to it, continued babbling as he followed He Qingqi.

“But you know, Zhuo Zhiwei is good-looking, huh? I peeked into their rehearsal room earlier; she looks way better in person than on camera! Do you know what people outside say about her?”

“Oh, you don’t know, you can’t go out… People say she has a divine face, like from a manga, something even current cosmetic surgery can’t achieve; even if it could, no one would dare to.”

He Qingqi sighed, remembering their teenage years together. How did Chai Xu stay in such a chatterbox?

It had been ten years, and he hadn’t changed a bit.

He Qingqi’s expression softened. Following the event in her previous life, Chai Xu sent numerous consoling messages and red envelopes, even standing up for her online and facing criticism for it. However, out of stubbornness, she never responded.

Apart from Chai Xu, others had shown her what true friendship meant, but she felt too ashamed to contact them. She felt a bit guilty, promising herself to reconnect after all this.

Back to business.

“Hey, Xu Xu, besides you, who are the other renowned group members?”

“There’s… our group’s C-rank Qiu Xinyu, as well as members from a Korean group.”

“That famous one… called something…”

“Yeah, that famous one!”

“Which one?” He Qingqi was exasperated.

“That one!” Chai Xu smacked his thigh and exclaimed, “Your top 1 Tao Jinghan’s group, W.S.’s Pei Shuyi, and Bian Suitong!”