Don’t Be a Kept Man

didn’t you learn dancing before? That counts.
Besides, special guests don’t need to do anything, you just have to sit on the sidelines.
You have a “redemption” vote so whoever you feel is bearable, you give it to them.
Simple as that.”

Chen Yi asked suspiciously, 

“Two months is considered learning?”

Ning Tong coughed in embarrassment, not really answering the question,

 “This program has run for two seasons already, so it has quite a loyal fanbase.
There are actually quite a lot of people who would fight to get on and the company did want Zhao Xi to go.
But he sustained an injury during filming and other artists who were around his level didn’t have the availability, and of those who are free but aren’t completely of a newbie status seems to be just you.”

Chen Yi didn’t say anything.

Ning Tong continued, 

“If you are going to be on a program, why not pick something a bit better? This at least gives you an appearance fee.
Better than having the higher ups throw you to the wolves, going on some program that makes you survive in the wild.
One meal a day would be lucky and there would be no place for you to cry.”

Chen Yi finally loosened at that, 

“Fine.”

<< Life Changes With a Dance >> had a panel of three judges and one special guest judge.
The three judges were set each season and the special guest was a random popular up-and-coming celebrity at the time, so the show could be said to grab with one hand the foundational knowledge and with the other, the trendiness, the talk of the town.

Chen Yi hadn’t accepted the offer for very long before the program team for << Life Changes With a Dance >> began promoting its special guest for the upcoming weeks.
When it was known to be Chen Yi, netizens began discussing what kind of luck did he stumble onto for him to first be able to get a role in the big drama film of Director Kong and then a spot on such a highly popular variety show.
What kind of real life cheat did he get?

<< Minister >> had not been released yet and so the general public viewed Chen Yi just as a celebrity that was all talk and no substance.
And seeing him with such good prospects, it did not deviate from the normal course of gathering jealousy and green eyed envy.
And in the middle of it all, Zhao Xi’s fans were tearing the field with the most red eyed rage.

>> Hoh.
I guess any random cat or dog from the streets can get on a show now.
If it was not for Zhao Xi injuring his leg and being admitted for a hospital stay, how could this fall onto Chen Yi’s lap?

Technically speaking, Chen Yi was saving the show.
And with an event like this that could sow dissent, Zhao Xi himself should be coming out to clear any misconceptions and round up his rowdy fans.
Yet these past few days, he had done nothing.
Chen Yi’s fans right now were just budding sprouts, without any rules and each one of them were not to be taken lightly.
So they immediately went down the battlefield, battling for the most poisonous tongue, and there seemed to be no limit.

What does Zhao Xi have? All he knows is to either sing a few phrases of rap, dance a few moves of street dance? His tongue can’t even say words properly when he talks, who cares about stealing his spot.
You should let Zhao Xi immediately jump up from his sick bed right now and aunties square dancing would be stronger than him.
What is he going to do on << Life Changes with a Dance>>? Hop on one leg on the stage to dance like a rabbit?

The anger in the fans of Zhao Yi immediately burst within them at these comments and they fought back hard.
Someone dug up the information that Chen Yi had only learned to dance for two months and they used this as a driving point in their arguments.

>> Zhao Xi went through the proper channels and graduated from a dance academy.
He’s gone through training by professionals and Chen Yi learned for two months in a training class on the streets and he dares to say he’s learned to dance? Trash Trash Trash!2 What an audacity to dare steal my Xi Xi’s spot! This angers me to death!

The fans of Chen Yi had the same attitude of Chen Yi when they saw these kinds of comments.
They wouldn’t tear back at them, but they wouldn’t wash themselves clean and only returned these words: Anger you to death, anger you to death.

This kind of taunting made the jaws of others hurt and the two groups of fans did not stop their battle even when the show started broadcasting.
The fans of Zhao Yi waited in front of their monitors for the show to drop, ready to stomp on any wrong thing Chen Yi did.
And Chen Yi’s fans did the same, preparing to fight back at any time.

And so the day for the recording came up unknowingly.
The rehearsal would start in the morning and then in the afternoon, it would officially start filming.
Chen Yi had arrived very early, where there were only two judges there so far, Tong Ao Yue and Ying Zi.

These two were the country’s top dancers and they had only retired when their age caught up to them.
Tong Lao-shi3 was wearing a pair of black glasses and she looked quite solemn and serious whereas Ying Zi Lao-shi was a bit more mellow, and his personality was the best.
Each time he saw Chen Yi, he would be smiling and had that everyone is equal in his eyes feeling, everyone is his family.

The third judge was called Zhang Duo, and he had a head full of dreadlocks, with a very recognizable and iconic small mustache.
He had quite the reputation within the street dancing community and he was only thirty years old or so.
Only when everyone else had arrived did he slowly saunter in and everyone seemed to be used to it, evidently not the first time this has happened.

The three judges’ seats were right in front of the center stage and the special guest judge was on the right-most side, which meant that Chen Yi sat right next to Zhang Duo.

Before he came onto the show, Chen Yi had heard that Zhang Duo could be considered Zhao Xi’s mentor.
He had wondered if the other would give him trouble, and the moment he thought that, Zhang Duo did exactly that.

The contestants on stage were rehearsing and the judges were already in discussion.
Chen Yi knew that he did not understand these things and so the entire time, he had not offered any insights.
Seeing this, Zhang Duo stopped his nonstop jibber-jabbering and shook the list of contestants in his hands.
He fakely smiled at Chen Yi and said, 

“I heard that you had learned dancing for two months.
What do you have to say about these contestants? You could say something and let us all talk about it.”

His words were full of mockery, eliciting a furrow of eyebrows from his nearby judge, Tong Ao Yue.

Chen Yi turned happy and said out directly, 

“I don’t understand so I have no thoughts.
If I knew, then what would you judges be here for?”

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Notes:

*1 last meal: Most accurately as his meal box/box of meal (and where I had always thought went back to the olden days where a person on his deathbed/death row would be given one last meal, but in reality as I search the origin of this internet slang …) this came from apparently Stephen Chow’s King of Comedy movie where the main character there (acted by Stephen Chow) was always given “a meal box” to send him away when he was not needed by the director(s) anymore as he always acted small roles (but kept wanting to act in bigger roles).
This also at the same time was accented by Japanese animations/games, if someone dies in a game or anime, the voice actor would leave the production (taking only “one meal box” before leaving).
So the netizens then took on this meaning as the person/character’s going to die/dead/being killed off if you take “a meal box”. 

*2 trash: They’re actually saying spicy chicken, which takes on the tone for trash as an internet slang.
It’s also sort of universal like fuck which can be used in multiple situations, (that video of usages of fuck come to mind), where it’s not only for straight on calling someone trash, stupid, so sometimes you might see it being joked around or like fuck really? kind of thing.

*3 Lao-shi: Usually means “teacher”, but can also be as like mentor, or someone really knowledgeable/high up in the area they specialize in (as in like this case) and being called this as a form of respect to their knowledge (kind of like Xian-Sheng, which can also mean teacher or Mister).