Chapter 21

Wang Yunshui stormed out without saying a word and slammed the door behind her, leaving an entire room of people staring blankly. Was she really that bold? She just… left?

The three evaluator teachers didn’t look pleased either, especially Zhou Rui. Three vertical lines had formed between his brows as he looked toward the director and impatiently tapped his fingers against the table.

There was no need for him to say anything. Naturally, staff would go after her. Everyone was waiting here, and she thought she could just throw a tantrum whenever she pleased?

The nineteen people onstage didn’t say a word. Their attitude was pretty obvious anyway. The decision wasn’t in their hands, so whatever. They could just watch the drama.

The team selection was suspended. Nearly five minutes passed, and Wang Yunshui still hadn’t returned. Even the director started urging people, “What’s going on? Are we filming or not? She’s so young, yet she has a bigger attitude than our senior teachers?”

Zhou Rui stood up and left.

Shen Ri’an and Qin Yun were both singers signed under TS. No matter how angry they were, it wasn’t convenient for them to leave like that, so they could only have their assistants and staff go hurry things along.

A few seconds later, Qin Yun stood up and left too. She had gone to find Zhou Rui, but to the people onstage, it looked like the situation had become rather serious. Two teachers had stormed off in anger. Was Wang Yunshui finished?

Not long afterward, someone came in from outside and called the girl who had ranked third from the bottom. “Hu Yaoyao, come out for a moment.”

Hu Yaoyao froze slightly. What did this have to do with her? Why were they calling her?

“There’s something we need to discuss with you. Come on.”

Hu Yaoyao looked completely at a loss, but she also had a bad feeling in her heart. Nervously twisting the hem of her clothes between her fingers, she gritted her teeth and went out.

The remaining people didn’t dare move around casually. They all stayed standing onstage, unsure whether they were supposed to leave or keep waiting. Shen Ri’an was still sitting below the stage. The smile had disappeared from his face, and he was frowning at his phone.

The stage wasn’t large to begin with, so twenty people standing on it had already been crowded together, everyone quite close to one another. After waiting for a while with no idea what was happening, they somehow gradually began whispering among themselves.

Song Ran tilted her head and quietly asked An Rong, “What’s going on?”

An Rong shook her head without saying anything, meaning that she didn’t know either.

But in truth, everyone had their own guesses. If the company had called Hu Yaoyao out, it definitely wasn’t anything good. Otherwise, if Wang Yunshui wanted to leave, then let her leave. Why call someone else out?

Nothing like this had happened in An Rong’s previous life, but even without experience, she could guess what the company was planning. They were definitely going to make Hu Yaoyao choose again, and this time, she would have to choose Wang Yunshui.

That way, Wang Yunshui would be given a way to save face. Once the show aired, they could even connect it back to Song Ran choosing Xu Xiaoye earlier and hype up some story about how close they had become after spending half a month together. Everyone won—except Hu Yaoyao.

An Rong lowered her head slightly.

Xiao Yu stood behind her and poked An Rong’s shoulder with one finger. Smiling, she lowered her voice and asked, “Why did you choose me?”

An Rong said, “The teacher said we should choose different people and learn to work together.”

Very official.

And very reasonable.

Her logic was airtight and her reactions quick. It didn’t really seem like the kind of response a seventeen-year-old girl should have.

Xiao Yu poked her again. “Tell me the truth.”

An Rong pressed her lips together. “Also, I’m really looking forward to working with you. I’ll definitely be able to learn a lot.”

Neutral and flattering.

Offending no one.

Xu Xiaoye let out a quiet laugh [Read on BaiLianTales]and said to Xiao Yu, “See? Didn’t get what you wanted, did you?”

Xiao Yu wrinkled her nose. She hadn’t believed Xu Xiaoye before, but now she did. An Rong really was extremely, extremely suited to this industry. No matter what angle you looked at her from, she was a rare kind of talent.

The corner of An Rong’s mouth secretly lifted. “I’m telling the truth. Mainly because Sister Xiao Yu is very impressive and very professional.”

That line was clearly meant for both Xu Xiaoye and Xiao Yu, deliberately teasing them.

Xu Xiaoye took the bait effortlessly. “So what you’re saying is that I’m not impressive enough or professional enough?”

An Rong tilted her head toward Song Ran, signaling for Xu Xiaoye to look.

It wasn’t that I didn’t choose you.

Someone else chose you first.

What was I supposed to do?

Xiao Yu seemed to have discovered the same point Xu Xiaoye found entertaining and joined in with a smile. “So you mean that if you could choose Xu Xiaoye, you wouldn’t choose me?”

These two…

An Rong truly had no idea where their strange chemistry came from.

It had been the same in her previous life. They were two completely different kinds of people, yet somehow always ended up perfectly in sync in the strangest places.

But An Rong had lived with them for four years and knew them extremely well. The moment Xiao Yu asked, she deliberately pretended to hesitate and continued using an official answer. “That’s not what I mean. Besides, the situation you’re describing doesn’t exist.”

She looked extremely serious and stubborn about it.

After pausing for two seconds, she added, “Of course, your guess does have some logic to it.”

That long pause followed by a sudden turn left Xiao Yu momentarily stunned, but she also found it extremely amusing.

Xu Xiaoye looked smug, though no one knew what exactly she was so proud of.

The people onstage continued standing around and whispering to each other. After a long time, Hu Yaoyao finally came back in. Her eyes were red, and it looked like she had touched up her makeup.

An Rong immediately knew her suspicion was probably about to be confirmed.

Sure enough, not long after Hu Yaoyao returned to her place, Wang Yunshui came bailiantales.com back too, her face sour. She walked onto the stage and casually stood off to one side, her attitude extremely poor.

The director frowned, his expression even uglier than Wang Yunshui’s, and shouted from below the stage, “You! Go back to where you were standing before. Do you know how much work you delayed? And you’re still throwing a tantrum here?”

Someone nearby smiled apologetically and quietly said something to the director, though no one knew exactly what.

Wang Yunshui reluctantly walked back from the front, shoved Hu Yaoyao aside, and stood behind her.

Hu Yaoyao stumbled from the push. She paused, then bit her lip and stood properly again.

Zhou Rui and Qin Yun returned together, chatting as though nothing had happened. After sitting down, their expressions were still not particularly pleasant, but they had at least brought them under control.

The director turned to the three of them. “Are the three teachers ready? Then we’ll—”

Qin Yun nodded at him. “Let’s begin.”

The director turned around and shouted toward the stage, “We’ll restart from the first person who chose before. Again. Come on, get ready—start!”

Song Ran didn’t seem to understand at first. She froze, then hesitantly said, “…Xu Xiaoye.”

An Rong followed with, “Xiao Yu.”

Hu Yaoyao pressed her lips together. “…Wang Yunshui.”

An Rong lowered her head slightly, but from the corner of her eye, she saw Hu Yaoyao’s hand. Her tightly clenched fist seemed to be trembling. She had suppressed all her anger and resistance, but her acting skills were still too immature.

Then again, perhaps she had no intention of hiding all that anger completely.

The director didn’t care.

When the time came, they could quickly cut to a close-up, add some background music, and there would be their dramatic moment.

Someone from the publicity department was watching the entire thing from below the stage. Xu Xiaoye, who had been chosen by the first group, was also signed under their company, and compared with everyone else, she had at least a few fans already. Using her to elevate Wang Yunshui a little would work just fine.

It was almost completely out in the open, even if no one said it directly.

Still, the people onstage were mostly complete newcomers, so they probably wouldn’t think that deeply about it.

Xiao Yu, however, seemed to notice something. She turned to look at Xu Xiaoye.

But Xu Xiaoye showed no reaction at all.

No one knew whether she had already expected this to happen.

In any case, being forced to redo the team selection and film extra takes put everyone in a poor mood. Some people didn’t know exactly what had happened behind the scenes, but their instincts told them it wasn’t anything good, and they lost all interest in chatting or joking around.

The moment the retake ended, Zhou Rui stood up and left.

Everyone in the industry knew that Zhou Rui’s personality matched his appearance: he was extremely serious, especially when it came to work.

But this was an internal TS selection. He was only here as a teacher, judge, and evaluator. It didn’t really have much to do with him.

Besides, things like this were far from rare in the industry.

So even if he felt uncomfortable about it, he had no intention of objecting. After all, he also worked with TS.

But being unhappy was being unhappy.

He had no intention of forcing himself to stay and pretend otherwise.

After finishing the retake with an expressionless face, he simply refused to remain there any longer.

Shen Ri’an and Qin Yun were actually furious too, but the matter concerning Wang Yunshui had already been explained to them by their managers.

She was connected to the vice president.

They were to take special care of her and make sure she debuted in the end.

In other words, one of the available debut spots was definitely and unquestionably hers.

But even knowing that, when they weren’t facing the cameras, both of them looked extremely displeased.

Qin Yun’s face was cold, her brows tightly furrowed, her expression distant as she said, “During filming just now, we told you that the next performance would be in one week. However, the company is concerned that one week won’t be enough preparation time, so you’ll be given an additional four days. The performance will be on the thirtieth, at the end of the month.”

Someone onstage cheered happily.

Qin Yun glanced over without saying anything, then stood and left together with Shen Ri’an.

Once everyone was dismissed, Hu Yaoyao crouched down on the spot and couldn’t hold back her tears anymore.

An Rong looked back at her once.

She knew that any words of comfort at a time like this would be meaningless.

If something hadn’t happened to you personally, you would never know how suffocating and hateful it felt to swallow this kind of humiliation.

Hu Yaoyao was still young and simply didn’t know how to deal with something like this.

Crying here would only make Wang Yunshui even angrier.

Even though Hu Yaoyao was technically the captain of their group now, the person who would truly have the final say was definitely still Wang Yunshui.

And given how narrow-minded Wang Yunshui was, probably even narrower than the tip of a needle, Hu Yaoyao was likely to be completely under her thumb for the next ten days.

An Rong only looked once before following the crowd out.

Her own head was spinning now too.

What happened today had finally made her truly understand what it meant when people said, “No one can step into the same river twice.”

Something that had never happened in her previous life had happened now.

If that was the case, did it mean that in this life, Wang Yunshui might not debut in the same group as them?

Did An Rong have a chance to stop it?

But that decision wasn’t in her hands at all.

And judging from things right now, the company seemed determined to heavily promote Wang Yunshui.

An Rong had barely stepped back into the dorm when Xu Xiaoye pressed down on her shoulders and pushed her right back out.

“Bathroom.”

An Rong raised a brow.

Was the bond between girls really built from going to the bathroom together?

She hesitated for a moment, but Xu Xiaoye didn’t give her a chance to refuse and simply pushed her forward.

The restroom was packed.

For the evening performance, quite a few people had been too nervous to use the bathroom earlier, and then Wang Yunshui had delayed everyone for ages on top of that, leaving them even more desperate.

The moment they returned to the dorm, everyone had rushed straight to the restroom first.

There were temporarily no empty stalls.

The people who hadn’t managed to get one had already gone back out, while the people inside were still talking to one another over the stall walls.

Xu Xiaoye grabbed An Rong’s hand without saying a word and pulled her back out.

She turned right, entered the shower room, pressed An Rong against the door, then reached behind herself and locked it.

Click.

Locked securely.

Author’s Note:

An Rong: ?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!