Chapter 116: Changing the Song

After demonstrating a series of dance moves, Liao Yuan felt a burning gaze from behind. He turned around, smiling, and asked, “How was that?”

“The song is good, and the dance is pretty decent too,” Yan Nian suppressed her racing heart, striving to remain calm. She gave a slight smile and said, “But, Teacher Liao, compared to ‘Nobody,’ it still lacks a certain something.”

“What something?” Liao Yuan asked, puzzled.

Yan Nian thought for a moment and then demonstrated personally. Her steps swayed left and right—two beats stepping left, two beats stepping right—while shaking her right index finger. She ended with a standing clap, raising her left knee, forming finger-gun gestures with both hands, and softly humming, “I-ant-nobody-nobody but You…”

“What your song is missing,” Yan Nian smiled, “is a signature, catchy move like that.”

She continued, “The brilliance of ‘Nobody’ left a deep impression on me. In fact, it has swept across the nation, Asia, and even the world. The speed and intensity of its spread online exceed our imaginations. I believe that beyond the song itself, its choreography is a key spark. After all, people from all walks of life worldwide have been imitating its dance moves.”

Yan Nian is an expert in the dance industry and a top-tier street dancer in the country; her understanding of dance is far more profound than Liao Yuan’s.

“As a girl group song, ‘Heartbeat’ is adequate, but to lead trends—especially to directly defeat competitors in competitions—the impact of this song is clearly insufficient. To me, it doesn't have that stunning, maddening quality like ‘Nobody.’”

After a moment’s reflection, Yan Nian added, “Before coming here, I visited Zhang Henge and Han Yu’s rehearsal room. They were practicing their songs. Honestly, Teacher Liao, the quality of your works isn’t vastly different, so it’s difficult for me to make the most accurate choice. But as a viewer, when faced with works from idols like Zhang Henge and Han Yu, I would subjectively lean towards them because they are popular idols with strong fan appeal. This is something you absolutely cannot ignore.”

Liao Yuan fell into deep thought. Before coming, he hadn’t had any solid ideas. But after hearing the contestants’ requests, inspiration struck, and he thought of “Heartbeat,” a classic from his past life. Yet now, Yan Nian’s critique awakened him.

This is a competition.

If the audience can easily disregard the influence of the Empire Seven and Pike you directly, there is only one solution—

Produce an overwhelmingly powerful work!

A legendary piece like “Nobody”!

Liao Yuan took out his phone and wrote down the names of songs like “Gangnam Style,” “Burning My Calories,” “Little Apple,” “Gee,” “No-no-no,” and “Lovey-Dovey.”

Yan Nian was pleased with Liao Yuan’s willingness to adjust but was also curious, so she peeked at the characters.

Are these lyrics? Or song titles?

Gangnam Style? Little Apple?

Burning My Calories? Fitness dance?

Whoa, what is this Little Apple thing?

Gee? What does that mean? Gee, gee, gee?

Yan Nian was utterly confused.

“Songs similar to ‘Nobody’…”

Liao Yuan stared at these titles, deep in thought.

Among these songs are Korean and Chinese tracks. South Korea, after all, is a world-class birthplace of girl groups with a mature creative system unmatched by any other country in the previous world. Asian countries have been learning from their experiences, so their songs are naturally the best to reference.

But if placed in the Chinese context, the problem of Chinese adaptation must be considered.

Take “Gangnam Style,” for example. It was a global sensation in the previous world, but how to adapt it into Chinese?

That’s a challenge.

What about “Little Apple,” a nationally famous song?

Liao Yuan imagined the scene and sighed deeply.

This song, with a single hit and some promotion, can sweep the nation and drive middle-aged women crazy without issue.

But to perform it in a competition...

Damn, that’s a losing strategy!

Liao Yuan was troubled.

Yan Nian glanced at the time; one-sixth of the three-day preparation period had already passed.

In terms of song selection, other senior stars had come prepared with clear ideas, but Teacher Liao was stuck, lacking a team to support him behind the scenes.

However, Yan Nian’s guess was clearly wrong.

It wasn’t that Liao Yuan had no ideas; he had too many and was deeply conflicted.

If Yan Nian knew how wildly popular these songs had been in another world, she might be even more conflicted than Liao Yuan.

Each of these songs had launched a group, creating hundreds of millions or even billions in value either directly or indirectly.

Of course, compared to these songs, “Heartbeat” did seem somewhat weak.

Finally, Liao Yuan’s gaze settled on “No-no-no.”

Though still somewhat weaker, it was a notch better than “Heartbeat” and shared many similarities with “Nobody.”

The biggest similarity: the core dance move of shaking the right index finger.

This easily reminded people of “Nobody,” and such a bonus point could not be ignored.

In fact, this song could be considered the turning point of a girl group’s rise to fame in the previous life.

Just this one song lifted the group from an unremarkable third-tier status to super A-list stardom, winning dozens of first-place trophies and instantly becoming a sensation across Asia.

This alone proved the song’s charm.

Most importantly, Liao Yuan remembered the Chinese cover version of this song.

So, with the plan set, to Yan Nian’s astonishment, Liao Yuan faced the mirror, shaking his finger while singing “No-no-no.”

...

In the rehearsal room, Liao Meiqi and the others had a quick bite of bread to fill their stomachs and then continued memorizing the lyrics of “Heartbeat.”

After over half an hour, the girls had nearly memorized the lyrics.

But the more they practiced, the less confident they felt.

Though the melody was pleasant, the lyrics were quite poor and lacked any memorable hook, unlike “Nobody,” which even elementary school kids could hum along to.

At this moment, Liao Yuan and Yan Nian returned together.

“Girls, put down your sheet music,” Yan Nian said seriously. “After discussing with Teacher Liao, for the sake of the competition, we’ve decided to change the song.”

She reassured them, “Don’t worry, the new song is even better. Of course, you won’t have wasted your effort on ‘Heartbeat.’ Later on, the six of you will perform it, and it will be included as behind-the-scenes content for fans to enjoy. Now, Teacher Liao and I will show you the song and dance moves of the new piece.”

Upon hearing this, the girls perked up immediately, showing no complaints. They sat upright, set their sheet music aside, and focused intently on Liao Yuan and Yan Nian.

Elsewhere, Liao Yuan gathered his thoughts and sat at the piano, placing his phone with the lyrics on the music stand, signaling Yan Nian to begin.

Under Liao Yuan’s playing, Yan Nian turned her back to everyone and faced the practice room mirror, starting to move gently with the rhythm and song.

“Never dared to expect, no, no, no
To expect your love, no, no, no
Smiling and waving goodbye, but my heart has already fallen to the bottom
A heart hanging on the edge, so many hopes to be with you
On this warm and romantic winter night—”

...

In the director’s control room, several assistant directors wiped their eyes and looked at the monitors.

Sixteen screens displayed different angles of six rehearsal rooms.

Two of the screens were showing the collaboration between Liao Yuan and Yan Nian.

The mentors soon received the news and hurried into the control room to watch Liao Yuan and Yan Nian’s cooperation.

After a minute, they all stared in disbelief.

Jiang Linsu slowly said, “Is this… a sister version of ‘Nobody’?”

Chen Xiuyuan, surprised, said, “When I watched earlier, it wasn’t this song. The previous one wasn’t bad either…”

“I watched the recording of ‘Heartbeat’ before,” Yu Lianzhou said as he carefully observed Yan Nian’s demonstration of the dance moves, nodding. “At first listen, that song wasn’t outstanding and conflicted with Han Yu’s style.”

“I originally thought Liao Yuan would stumble this time, but unexpectedly, he came up with a completely different song.”

“These dance moves, this rhythm… this song is going to be a hit again!”

Zheng Yongxu stared at the screen for a while, then sighed, “With a brother like this, why seek the old ways?”

Director Fu Yuntao arrived just in time, hearing the mentors’ remarks. He replayed the video once more.

Watching Yan Nian’s dance and listening to Liao Yuan’s playing and singing, he couldn’t help but laugh heartily.

“Excellent! That’s Liao Yuan! Truly amazing! Beat that Han Yu jerk to a pulp!”

The mentors were speechless.

----

Free note: This song was inspired by a fellow reader at Qidian. The song “NO-NO-NO” is a duet originally by APINK. The Chinese version I wrote is performed by Mr. Cen with lyrics by Yuxuan. There are resources on Bilibili; apparently, both male and female vocals are by the same person, giving it a very enchanting feel (ΩДΩ).