Switched Life:I Went Viral on a Family Variety Show-Chapter 371: A Group of People Making Fools of Themselves
Lian Qi’s hands slowly slid down from his head: "Now, let me show you what a true ’Mantis Cocoon Hottie’ looks like."
The trainees watching from below hadn’t yet realized what was about to happen. They were still staring at Lian Qi like they were watching a joke, curious about what bizarre stunt he’d pull out of his hat.
Then, the dance studio was suddenly filled with a beast-like roar. Glancing toward the source of the sound, it was unmistakably coming from Lian Qi himself.
Well, damn. Who would’ve thought? Lian Qi’s been hiding this oddly niche talent all this time.
The sound sent shivers down the trainees’ arms, goosebumps popping up involuntarily. Honestly though, the mimicry was quite convincing.
Next, Lian Qi suddenly dove forward, sprawled out on the floor, and began crawling rapidly on all fours, his body contorted into a grotesque shape at the same time.
"Oww~ Oww~"
The eerie howling came from Lian Qi’s mouth, perfectly matching his twisted crawling form, scaring the trainees into scattering in all directions.
"What the hell?! Lian Qi, are you out of your mind?!"
"No morals at all, huh? Now you’re turning this into some twisted publicity stunt?"
The four girls from the female team were utterly speechless, actively doing their best to avoid Lian Qi’s crawling tactics.
Pulling a stunt like this—it’s hard not to remember him now. But he can kiss his hopes of building any ’genius persona’ goodbye in the eyes of the audience.
From now on, whenever people bring him up, they’ll probably all say the same thing: "Oh, you mean that idiot who does the mantis cocoon thing?"
Even the cameraman was stunned by Lian Qi’s spur-of-the-moment performance. They’d gone over the rough shooting script with the trainees beforehand, and nobody had told him Lian Qi would be pulling a stunt like this!
Still, professional instincts took over. Sanity returned bit by bit, and the cameraman dutifully followed Lian Qi with his lens, capturing his bizarre, contorted crawling performance.
Lian Qi fully demonstrated what it means to embrace the philosophy: "If you’re not embarrassed, the embarrassment belongs to everyone else."
At this point, it wasn’t just a matter of embarrassment anymore—it was enough to leave every other trainee in the room socially obliterated.
Finally satisfied, Lian Qi abruptly stopped his antics, stood up, and resumed the appearance of a normal human being.
Credit where it’s due—Lian Qi had incredible camera sense. Even after spending so much time as a crawling mantis, the moment he stood up, he immediately zeroed in on the camera’s location.
"Just a little skill, sorry for putting on such a show. I hope you all remember me—your ray of sunshine, your personal little clown."
With that, Lian Qi splayed his hands out like a blooming flower under his chin, flashing the camera a syrupy sweet smile.
Alright, alright, everyone’s playing the same game now, huh?
Lian Qi’s unapologetic decision to rewrite the script on the fly seemed to have opened up a whole new world for the rest of the trainees.
After all, there are so many good-looking people here. Especially the ones selected for the training camp—they’ve all been hand-picked.
At this point, looks alone weren’t enough to stand out. The competition now was about who could be the most deranged, the least mentally stable.
Lian Qi was like the spark that lit this powder keg, setting off a wave of insanity among the male trainees.
From trainee number three onward, everyone seemed to have lost their grip on reality.
There were those mimicking Indian snakes, complete with self-supplied snake-charming music.
Others stretched out their bodies into pretzel-like shapes to showcase their flexibility.
In short, chaos unfolded in a way that couldn’t be contained. The cameraman’s face turned darker and darker by the second.
If he had committed a crime, he thought, let the law punish him—not this revolving door of lunatics torturing him one after another.
By the time he’d finished recording the last male trainee’s video, the cameraman was utterly spent. At last, it was the girls’ turn.
At this point, he’d completely given up holding onto any optimism, the light in his eyes all but extinguished.
If the boys could go crazy like this, he could hardly expect the girls to perform any better.
After all, he was familiar with the group of four girls—a bunch of oddballs in their own right. Even Sang Ning, who seemed normal on the surface, sometimes had her moments of outlandish logic.
With these thoughts in mind, when the girls stepped in front of the camera, the cameraman was already so desensitized, he barely reacted.
Whatever tricks they might pull—bring it on.
But the moment Huang Chengzi smiled at the camera, the cameraman still felt like his heart had been struck.
So cheerful, so adorable, so infectiously energetic! 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
She even held up a heavy shot put in her hand while smiling. Her expression was so relaxed that it made the shot put feel weightless, like a bouncy rubber ball. She even lightly tossed it, making it seem effortlessly light.
Beyond Huang Chengzi, the others’ performances were equally striking—especially Wei Lejun.
The cameraman knew about Wei Lejun’s dispute with Sang Ning. Apparently Wei Lejun hadn’t been happy with the choreography Sang Ning designed for her and refused to cooperate.
Yet now, they’d clearly sorted things out behind the scenes, and Wei Lejun delivered an impressive performance.
At the final pose, Huang Chengzi squatted to the side holding a leaf blower, crafting a dramatic wind effect for Wei Lejun’s appearance.
Wei Lejun was dressed in a flawlessly tailored modern Chinese outfit, her ponytail tied high. Boosted by the leaf blower, her hair flew wildly, her expression sharp and commanding, with her slightly curved lips and unbridled confidence capturing the essence of a fierce, unstoppable heroine in front of the camera.
When Sang Ning finished her sword dance to close out the act, her aura shifted to that of a reclusive master, dialing back the bold energy of Wei Lejun’s presence.
The cameraman was thoroughly satisfied. After the boys’ earlier freak show, he felt his very soul had been cleansed by the girls’ performance.
As he packed up his camera, he couldn’t help but deliver a pointed critique to the trainees: "The girls’ team absolutely slayed it. You boys, on the other hand, were just a bunch of laughingstocks."
Forget the cameraman’s critique—after watching the girls’ performance, even the male trainees themselves felt deeply humiliated. Reality hit them hard, and they suddenly realized just what kind of circus antics they’d resorted to for attention earlier.
Everyone started blaming Lian Qi for leading the entire group astray.
"Lian Qi, this is all your fault! Couldn’t you have just done the image shoot like a normal person? Now we’ve all short-circuited thanks to you."
"You’ve made us boys lose face entirely. I feel ashamed to even share the same dorm as you."
Lian Qi was speechless. He hadn’t anticipated that his performance would spawn so many shameless imitators. He tried to refute them all single-handedly:
"Come on, is there no justice anymore? When I was doing flips, you all insisted on copying me; now I go crazy, and you copy that too. What’s next—if I start eating shit tomorrow, are you guys going to copy me and eat shit too?!"
The trainees were collectively disgusted, silenced by the imagery.
They’d been completely deluded, actually thinking the path of madness would make them stand out.
A tidal wave of regret swept over them. The attention-seeking male trainees began pleading with the cameraman, asking if they could reshoot their parts.
All they got in return was a standardized response: wait until the director says so.
