The next day, everyone arrived at a farm early in the morning.
"Where's Mu Li?" Wang Xiang scanned around and asked when he noticed Mu Li wasn't there.
"He went out for a run early in the morning. Didn't any of you see him?" Chichi said, checking the message on his phone.
"Who wakes up that early for no reason?" Wang Xiang complained, "Young people just have so much energy."
Just as he finished complaining, an Arcanine ran from a distance and soon stopped in front of everyone.
Mu Li, with dark circles under his eyes, climbed off Arcanine's back: "Good morning, everyone!"
"A Li, what happened to you?" Chichi asked, pointing at Mu Li's dark circles, "Didn't you go to bed quite early yesterday?"
Mu Li couldn't help but show a bitter smile.
He had intended to go to bed early last night, but as soon as he returned, Sylveon and Jigglypuff gave him a tough time.
Both Pokémon were vying to sleep with Mu Li, but neither of them had the habit of going to bed early. Sylveon wanted to watch romance dramas, and Jigglypuff wanted Mu Li to play games with her. As a result, they kept at it until late into the night before the two finally fell asleep.
But before dawn, Arcanine jumped out of its Poké Ball and insisted on pulling Mu Li out for a morning run.
Helpless, Mu Li could only sleep on Arcanine's back until just now, when Arcanine finished its morning run.
With Mu Li, the last one, having arrived, today's recording began.
"Today, we want to let everyone experience the performing arts of the Frontier," Wang Xiang began to introduce the day's itinerary.
As soon as he finished speaking, several people carrying various musical instruments started playing in front, accompanied by others dressed in traditional ethnic costumes and Pokémon, singing and dancing as they walked towards Mu Li and the others.
Ethnic songs are always very infectious, especially when led by so many people. Deng Fei didn't wait for an invitation and immediately joined the dance.
Following that, Chichi, Gao Hanyu, Jie Ni, and others gradually joined the performance.
Mu Li was stunned watching from the side.
Sure enough, the mental state of the Wu Ha members was still too advanced.
But how could the others let Mu Li off? They directly pulled Mu Li into the team, forcibly initiating the singing and dancing mode.
Whether in his past life or this one, he had never danced. At this moment, Mu Li's limbs seemed to have just been tamed, waving stiffly in the air. Coupled with Mu Li's stiff expression, it created an unharmonious contrast in cuteness.
Many staff members found it amusing.
With great difficulty, Mu Li finally waited for the dance to end, but Wang Xiang was unwilling. He winked at the band, and the previous ceremony was repeated.
"No way? Again?" Mu Li was on the verge of going crazy.
So, everyone watched Mu Li, like a controlled puppet, follow the team through the ceremony again.
When this dance came for the third time, Mu Li completely gave up resistance and directly integrated into the team.
What image? What persona?
All were thrown aside.
At this moment, having fun was the most important thing!
"It's over, it's over, A Li is broken," seeing Mu Li completely let loose, Chichi was almost laughing hysterically on the side.
Chichi's words immediately caught the attention of the other members, and their gazes instantly turned to Mu Li.
They saw Mu Li, with his newly tamed limbs, twisting continuously in the team like an incredibly stiff arthropod. Anyone who didn't know would have thought zombies had appeared.
The Wu Ha cameramen had excellent eyesight. Without the director's instruction, several cameras directly aimed at Mu Li, almost 360-degree close-up filming Mu Li's dance moves without blind spots.
Only when the music ended did Mu Li recover from the frenzy.
Chichi, suppressing a smile, walked over to Mu Li and patted his shoulder: "A Li, is there no one in this world you care about anymore?"
Deng Fei also imitated Chichi, patting Mu Li's shoulder: "A Li, do you still want to find a girlfriend in the future?"
Fan Yizhi: "A Li, don't watch this episode."
...
Mu Li didn't know what was happening; he just saw everyone holding back their laughter. But no matter how Mu Li asked, the others just kept holding back their laughter without saying anything.
They definitely aren't laughing at me, right?
I didn't do anything strange just now, did I?
Jigglypuff and Sylveon, who witnessed the whole process from the side, couldn't help but cover their eyes.
Wang Xiang also didn't expect that Mu Li would cause such a big stir with just an opening.
It seems he'll have to arrange more dance segments in the future.
"This dance just now was an opening dance. It was just to get you familiarized. This afternoon, the Frontier has an event called Horse Racing and Sheep Herding, and you will be doing the opening performance."
As soon as Wang Xiang finished speaking, the members burst into laughter, except for Mu Li, of course.
Mu Li thought he had missed something and wasn't keeping up with the show's pace.
Seeing Mu Li's bewildered look, everyone laughed even harder.
It's just an opening dance, what's so funny about it?
Wang Xiang suppressed his smile and continued: "After their competition, you will also participate in a competition."
At this, everyone stopped laughing.
"Competition? With whom?" Deng Fei pressed.
"Of course, you'll compete among yourselves. Do you expect me to let you compete with professionals? Don't you know your own level?" Wang Xiang complained.
This level of complaining didn't hurt anyone at all; instead, the members cheered.
Although they didn't know what they would do in this event, from the name of the event, they could roughly tell that it involved horse racing.
In such a highly specialized sport, competing with professional athletes would be like asking them to risk their lives, wouldn't it?
Although the production team had done many similar unethical things before, at least this time, they didn't have to push themselves so hard.
"The losing team has a penalty," Wang Xiang continued, "The losing team won't have dinner tonight; they'll just watch the other team eat."
The members didn't listen to Wang Xiang at all, discussing among themselves whether they had any experience riding horses.
Wang Xiang was too lazy to manage them and continued to announce: "To make up the numbers for you, we have also invited three guests."
The music started again, and two men and one woman walked from the crowd to the center of the venue, dancing.
Mu Li recognized these three at a glance. The girl was an actress under Chichi's company, a local from the Frontier. She had distinct Frontier features and was a beautiful woman with strong facial features, named Hani.
One of the men was Zhang Shiqi, an idol singer who often appeared on variety shows and was formerly a member of a male idol group.
When he saw the last member, his jaw almost dropped because he knew this person. By "knew," he meant he knew him privately, and they had a very good relationship.
Wang Xin, an active member of the Pokémon Battle National Team, an veteran Heavenly King Level player.
The reason Mu Li knew Wang Xin was because they were among the same group of players who represented the National Team in competitions.
What Mu Li didn't know was that Wang Xin's surprise was far greater than his.
Wang Xin had already seen Mu Li while waiting backstage. Since Mu Li retired, he had never seen Mu Li again.
Five years apart, and with Mu Li still in his growth spurt, his appearance was vastly different from five years ago.
At first glance, Wang Xin only felt that the person was somewhat familiar, but when he heard the members call out the name "A Li," he finally connected the person in front of him with the A Li in his memory.
But even so, he wasn't entirely sure of his guess.
After Wang Xin finished the opening dance, his eyes were fixed on Mu Li, and Mu Li was the same, though his eyes held more surprise.
The two looked at each other and almost simultaneously spoke: "Why are you here?"
"I'm here to record a show. What about you?"
"Me too!"
Such an interesting scene naturally attracted the attention of the other members.
Deng Fei was the first to ask: "You two know each other?"
Wang Xin was considered an old friend of Wu Ha, having appeared several times before, so Deng Fei and the others were quite familiar with him.
Mu Li nodded and said: "We're old friends, known each other for about six or seven years."
Wang Xin paused, seemingly recalling, then nodded: "Roughly, almost 7 years."
"Seven years? Back then, A Li, you were still..." Deng Fei said, somewhat surprised.
"Back then, I was still a high school student," Mu Li said with a slightly embarrassed smile, "But we haven't seen each other in five years, have we?"
Wang Xin's eyes were a bit hazy: "Yeah, five years. Time really flies. You've grown so tall. How come I remember you being short and chubby before?"
Mu Li couldn't help but roll his eyes: "Please, I was already this tall back then, okay? The short and chubby one was Liu Junyi, okay?"
"Oh, oh, I remembered wrong," Wang Xin laughed, "But Liu Junyi is tall and handsome now."
Liu Junyi was another Heavenly King Level player on the National Team.
While the two exchanged pleasantries, the members on the side also heard some information.
Mu Li seems very familiar with these National Team members, huh?
"A Li, how do you know them?" Deng Fei couldn't suppress his curiosity and asked.
"Hey, we just met during training before," Mu Li didn't hide it.
However, these words surprised the other members, especially Fan Yizhi. As a former national football player, he naturally understood the significance of training with National Team members.
Only then did he realize why Mu Li could own Togekiss and such a powerful Jigglypuff.
"Being able to train with National Team members, A Li, you're amazing," Fan Yizhi said with emotion.
Seeing that his identity was about to be exposed, Mu Li quickly said: "Hey, that was seven years ago, we were all still young back then."
With that, he winked at Wang Xin, who then remembered Mu Li's identity and quickly helped cover up: "Seven years ago, Liu Junyi and I hadn't even joined the National Team yet."
"Is that so?" Fan Yizhi showed a look of sudden understanding and didn't press further.
When the opening performance ended and they were transitioning, Wang Xin found Mu Li.
"Why did you decide to participate in a variety show, kid? Aren't you afraid those people will come looking for trouble again?" Wang Xin asked.
Mu Li shrugged and replied nonchalantly: "Am I afraid of them? I'm just participating in a variety show, not preparing to compete. What can they do to me?"
Wang Xin paused, then replied: "That's true. By the way, are you planning to be a celebrity from now on? Haven't you considered coming back? The situation is different now; if the higher-ups push a bit, maybe you could even compete again?"
Mu Li waved his hand and directly refused: "Forget it. What's the point of me participating in competitions now?"
Wang Xin was stunned again. Only then did he remember that Mu Li was different from him. This guy was already a Champion five years ago, and even among Champions, he had no opponents.
As a former teammate, Wang Xin knew the situation back then better than anyone else.
The main reason Mu Li retired was, of course, due to the world situation at the time, but a small part of the reason was also because of himself.
He couldn't find an opponent.
Five years ago, the strongest Pokémon trainer in the world would lose eight or nine out of ten matches against Mu Li, let alone other trainers.
Mu Li sighed: "Anyway, China's strength is already the best in the world. One more or one less of me makes no difference."
Hearing Mu Li's words, Wang Xin laughed: "You don't have to praise me that much."
Mu Li was startled: "Who was praising you?"
Wang Xin couldn't help but roll his eyes: "Didn't I win the gold medal? Didn't I earn the honor?"
Mu Li couldn't help but roll his eyes: "Fine, you're amazing."
However, Wang Xin didn't continue to gloat; instead, he said with some emotion: "This is still thanks to you. Back then, other countries, to limit your existence, directly banned Heavenly King Level Pokémon from participating in competitions, which gave us room to perform."