Reborn as a Substitute

Ji Sheng finally met the drummer he was working with half an hour before he went on stage.

The drummer’s name was Bai Fei, and he had recently won a contest on a music show. He signed a contract with a large company at the end of the show and went to the Double Twelve Light Festival in the third month of his debut, which could be said to be quite smooth.

The common problem of artists with smooth  careers was craziness, and Bai Fei was no exception.

Backed by a big company, with strong financial support, but also strong in his own right, he belonged to the best group of musicians of the new generation.

He had the power to be crazy.

This was why Bai Fei had a black face after seeing the list of collaborating musicians.

“One trash, two wankers and one little toy boy.” Bai Fei’s expression was extremely unsightly.

On such a big stage, the lead singer couldn’t sing, the guitar and bass couldn’t make a squeak, the drummer pretended to beat the drums, and all of them rushed to perform a pantomime.

That was a fucking monkey show.

Bai Fei’s expression was grim and angry, and he didn’t even bother to answer when someone came forward to greet him. Until the “little toy boy”, a few centimetres shorter than him, stood in front of him, tilted up his girlish face to look at him and said, “Excuse me, could I perhaps discuss something with you?”

Only then did he begrudgingly give him a few glances.

Ji Sheng pointed to the staff who brought him over, smiled and said, “I am the drummer who is about to work with you. I would like to discuss with you whether I can turn on the microphone for the performance. The staff says I can if you agree.”

The boy took the initiative to ask for the mic.

Bai Fei was a little surprised.

He frowned and re-examined the little drummer with smiling eyes in front of him.

He looked pretty; his forearms were too thin and his temperament was not like a drummer’s, but like a dancer or an artist student.

“Can you play drums?”

“I can.” Ji Sheng said sincerely, “I don’t dare to guarantee anything else, but I have practised for a long time for this show, and I definitely won’t drop the ball.”

Bai Fei still didn’t trust Ji Sheng. He glanced at the staff member with a perfunctory expression behind him. She apparently didn’t trust Ji Sheng either and was afraid that giving him the mic would affect the performance, so she came to him, hoping he would veto Ji Sheng’s request.

Is it really possible not to offend anyone?

Bai Fei sneered in his heart and said, “Yes, just don’t affect the overall effect.”

Ji Sheng’s eyes lit up, and his smile became even more sincere: “Thank you.”

About to go on stage, the remaining three musicians also slowly came out of the lounge to greet Ji Sheng and Bai Fei. The three of them belonged to a band. The lead singer was the son of the owner of an entertainment company, and the remaining two were also relatives or friends with backgrounds. Unlike Ji Sheng’s rare and odd background, the strength behind these three was a bit more hardcore, which was why it was possible to bring a prince and two prince chaperones to the public’s attention despite them not being good looking, not being good at playing or singing and basically not being good at anything.

The lead singer’s name was Wang Pengpeng; he had a large face that couldn’t be saved even by heavy makeup, dark circles under his eyes that were as thick as if he was poisoned, and severe puffiness, a standard sign of kidney deficiency.

And every case of kidney deficiency in the world has cause and effect.

As soon as Wang Pengpeng, a kidney-deficient man, saw Ji Sheng, his eyes lit up, and when he introduced himself, he gazed fixedly on Ji Sheng, in the words of Bai Fei, a bystander, like a rodent in lust.

“Yo.” Wang Pengpeng stared straight at Ji Sheng, “You look like that… that…”

“Senior Ji Sheng.” Ji Sheng completed with a good temper, “Senior, the old man has passed away, so don’t mention him.” 

“Hey, look at this nasty mouth of mine.” Wang Pengpeng smiled and slapped his mouth, but his eyes were like snakes wrapped around Ji Sheng, slithery and dirty, “Little Ji, have you joined any bands? Do you want to come to our company and follow me?”

Bai Fei didn’t like him harassing newcomers and said coldly: “Before you go on stage, don’t bark around like a mutt in heat.”

Wang Pengpeng turned his gaze and became furious: “Who do you call a mutt?”

“Whoever casually excretes is.” Without looking at him, Bai Fei took two steps forward, separating Wang Pengpeng and Ji Sheng.

With Bai Fei standing between the two, Wang Pengpeng was very annoyed. “Bai Fei, what do you mean? ”

Bai Fei ignored him with disdain. Wang Pengpeng’s background might be able to force some people to bow to him, but Bai Fei, who was also hardcore enough, did not belong to the type who needed to lower his head.

But considering that the staff had already given a signal that they were ready to play, Bai Fei said for the sake of the performance: “He belongs to Xie Xuanming.”

“Xie—” Wang Pengpeng’s voice stopped abruptly. Bai Fei’s words were like a bucket of cold water poured over his head, freezing him in his tracks.

There was a consensus in the industry on how crazy Xie Xuanming was. Whoever provoked him, whether it was a newcomer, an old-timer or someone with a backer, his artistic career would basically be over.

No one wanted to be targeted by a lunatic, especially a lunatic who had power and the right to speak.

“Do you understand?” Bai Fei said coldly, “Dare if you understand.”

Just as the host finished the curtain call, Bai Fei took the lead on the stage, followed by Ji Sheng.

“Brother Wang…” The guitar and the bass reminded in low voices.

Wang Pengpeng gritted his teeth and strode onto the stage.

Bai Fei felt that this was the most indescribable performance he had ever participated in.

Even though there was a pre-recording, the scene on the stage was still too bad.

The guitarist’s motions were not right; he touched the wrong strings again and again. The bassist simply played the air; the camera occasionally pointed at him and his floating fingers appeared on the big screen, making Bai Fei embarrassed for him. Not to mention the lead singer; Bai Fei couldn’t think of any kind of waste that could not sing well in the recording studio. As the pre-recorded track of the electronic music was played in 3D surround sound, Bai Fei frowned and dreamed of calling Pikachu to crash the party.

The only one who made do with it was actually the drummer that Xie Xuanming stuffed in. The intensity of his beat was extremely accurate, no different from the drum beat in the pre-recording. If Bai Fei hadn’t caught a glimpse of the drum set in front of him trembling slightly with the beat, he would almost suspect that this guy’s drum beating action was just acting like it.

But two serious drummers could not rescue the three drowning musicians.

Overall, the stage set up by this makeshift team was very strained.

Forget it.

Bai Fei thought violently to himself.

The end-of-year reunion-style group faked the scene, perfunctorily copying the pre-recording.

His thoughts settled down: he raised the drumsticks and brought them down according to the rhythm.

Boom!

Bai Fei was suddenly startled and his hair stood upright for a moment.

What’s wrong?

Did he strike so hard by himself?

Why for a moment did it seem that only the drums were left in the whole stage?

Without time to think, the drumsticks fell again.

His muscles tightened several times as the drumsticks rose and fell.

It did not seem.

Bai Fei finally figured out the situation in front of him and his forehead broke in a cold sweat.

The pre-recording stopped.

The throbbing music came to an abrupt halt and Wang Pengpeng’s opening and closing mouth froze awkwardly, comically like a pantomime.

In silence, only Bai Fei’s drums were left.

Bai Fei’s heart clenched in apprehension. He knew the skills of Wang Pengpeng and the two backstage musicians. Instead of expecting them to play on the spot, it was better to hope that the unlucky pre-recording would miraculously come back.

Fortunately, the moment the pre-recording stopped, it happened to be Bai Fei’s solo part.

The drums were solid and the microphone was normal. The audience couldn’t hear anything strange for a while. They just thought it might be an alternative performance plan.

But after all, Bai Fei couldn’t carry the load from beginning to end. That was too weird. It was simply telling the world—hey, on this stage, except for me, Bai Fei, everyone else is rubbish.

It was not that Bai Fei was unwilling to expose the true faces of those cowards, but this occasion was really wrong. This was the first time that Bai Fei attended such a large-scale party. If the performance was ruined, let alone the fact that the large-scale stage resources would be difficult to obtain in the future, even the online ridicule after the end of the show would be enough to make him have a hard time.

If no one came forward to pick up the slack after his part, the crash would be a foregone conclusion. Bai Fei’s reputation would plummet and he would be associated with the stigma of “fake drumming” for life.

The solo part was about to end, and the next part was the responsibility of the little drummer that Xie Xuanming arranged to come in. Bai Fei was sitting on pins and needles, in cold sweat, like a death row prisoner waiting for the guillotine to fall.

The last drum beat fell; Bai Fei had never known that half a second was such a long unit of time.

From the moment he stopped beating till Ji Sheng hit the first note, for Bai Fei every second really felt like a year.

Ji Sheng hit the first drum beat; Ji Sheng matched the second note…

Ji Sheng successfully took over Bai Fei’s baton and ruled the stage firmly with the drumsticks flying up and down in his hands.

Bai Fei breathed a sigh of relief, but after a few seconds his heart dropped again.

The drummer’s part was connected to the lead vocal part, but Wang Pengpeng…

Bai Fei glanced at Wang Pengpeng, whose costume was soaked in cold sweat, and couldn’t bear to look away.

It was still going to be over.

The two drummers couldn’t hold up a big band performance.

At least one tune had to stand up.

Bai Fei was right.

The two drummers really couldn’t do it.

But a drummer, a drummer and a lead singer could.

Bai Fei was shocked to see Ji Sheng, not far from him, lean to the microphone and sing the lead vocal part clearly while maintaining the stable rhythm of the drums.

Ji Hui had a good voice. He usually spoke softly and gently, with some natural coquettish lilting sound. Now when he sang, his soft tone became a hook in the bait, making the audience feel itchy, eager to stretch their necks to see what beauty hiding her face was singing quietly.

Bai Fei was stunned, the audience was shocked, and Wang Pengpeng couldn’t help but look back in amazement.

A lead singer and a drummer.

This novel configuration made people raise their eyebrows in surprise, and Ji Sheng’s complete and stable display perfectly responded to their doubts.

Bai Fei was going to raise his hands three or four times, guarding against Ji Sheng’s slip in case he was unable to drum and sing.

But he didn’t have to.

There was no need to back him, either in singing or in drumming. Ji Sheng had a good balance and accomplished it flawlessly.

He took it in stride, as if he was not saving the show, but completing a concert of his own.

In the front row of the audience, the preschool teacher station sister pressed down the shutter with her hands shaking. The face of the young man captured in the frame was known to her for a long time.

A few years ago, there had already been such a thin figure, with the drumsticks flying in his hands and his voice singing loudly.

His voice had been lower than that of the young man in front of her, his facial features had been more heroic and his drums had been more violent and free from restraint.

They were so different.

The young man in the past had been a wounded wolf in the quagmire, and the young man now was a well-behaved delicate bird in a golden silk cage.

But they were so similar too.

At the corner of their eyes, there was the dark dot that was the kiss of God’s love but was also evil and seductive like the curse of the devil.

Their eyes were like fiery hardness of a volcanic rock, with the passion and freedom never to be extinguished under the intricate texture.