Episode Summary
Episode 7 set list and order of performance is as follow:
| Name | Team | Song |
| All 10 X-Fire competitors | Red & White Team | “Be A Man” *** X-Fire’s theme song |
| Peng ChuYue, Xiao Zhan, Bai Shu, Xia ZhiGuang & Chen ZeXi | Red | “Why Nobody Fights” + “Checkmate” |
| Wu JiaCheng, Gu JiaCheng, Han MuBo, Guo ZiFan, Zhao Lei | White | “Savage Growth“《野蛮生长》 |
| Xiao Zhan, Peng ChuYue | Red | “Wild Child”《野子》 |
| Zhao Lei | White | “Years Are Frivolous”《岁月轻狂》 |
| Peng ChuYue, Xiao Zhan, Bai Shu, Xia ZhiGuang & Chen ZeXi | Red | “Beach《沙滩》 + “Find Myself”《找自己》 |
| Wu JiaCheng, Gu JiaCheng, Han MuBo, Guo ZiFan, Zhao Lei | White | “Our Story”《我们的故事》 |
*** Recorded Dec 17, 2015 ; aired Jan 2, 2016
In week 7, it’s the first showdown! There are no duos nor trios anymore. From this episode onwards, it’s Red Team vs. White Team going head to head. Shu Qi’s Red Team comprises of Xiao Zhan, Peng ChuYue, Bai Shu, Chen ZeXi, and Xia ZhiGuang; Li YuChun’s White Team is made up of Wu JiaCheng, GuJiaCheng, Han MuBo, Zhao Lei, and Guo ZiFan.
The show opened with a clip of the 10 guys attending Shu Qi’s movie premiere red carpet. It’s their first time walking a red carpet and leaving their signatures on the wall! It’s cute how these newbies in C-Ent appear to be dressed in their own street clothes to the event. It’s also cute how they all stood in a row taking their selfies in front of the signature wall. Speaking of movies, on the day of the show recording, Shu Qi brought a mysterious guest to help cheer her team on. If you’re into watching Chinese movies, you might recognize Hong Kong actor, Shawn Yue Man-Lok (notable works: Triad Underworld, Infernal Affairs, Initial D, etc). Zhan Zhan’s mouth was hanging open and his eyes were as wide as flying saucers when he saw Shawn. hahaha
Back to the competition. The battle is on! Five members — a complete boyband. This time, the theme is: Team Soul. Which team has the strongest team aura? The most impactful performance? How well are the guys’ adjustments in their new roles?
This time, besides the usual BOSS group, there will also be a panel of 5 judges, representing the 1990s generation, to cast their votes. Like always, each individual vote casted by the BOSS group equates to one point each, and the 90s generation group represents one point in total. So if 3 out of 5 people is in favour of the Red Team, then the Red Team will gain one point.
In this episode, each team will take the stage in three performances. They’ve been working on multiple songs with their vocal coach and they only had 12 hours to learn all the choreographies. In total, they only had three days to put it all together with their mentors. This means learning three different songs, learning the choreographies, knowing your placements at dress rehearsal, etc. Three days to throw together a complete, perfect performance. Crazy…
Each of the three performances have their own theme. The first round is their boyband charisma battle; the second round is their vocalist battle, and the third round is their collaboration with a mysterious guest mentor battle.
“I’m extremely excited. I know how to sing many of his songs. When I saw him, I kept on asking can I get your autograph and take a selfie together?”
Xiao Zhan (regarding the mysterious guest)
If anyone is wondering who the guest mentor is, his name is David Tao and you can find many of his MVs on youtube. He is a very well-known singer in the Mandopop world.
Some things that stood out for me about this episode was seeing Xiao Zhan comfort Peng ChuYue and helping his team get their focus back during the rehearsal for their first round battle stage.
And his “Wild Child” really hits the feel! The texture of his voice is a lot deeper and raw compared to his 2021 rendition, which has a smoother, polished texture and rich with a variety of emotions. It’s there for all eyes to behold how much work he has put into perfecting his singing. Like a Chinese saying goes, “On stage is 10mins, off stage is 10 years of hard work.”
