Chapter 24

Once the second-round evaluation task officially began, the atmosphere in the dance studio became much more serious.

As the difficulty increased, the intensity of training naturally had to increase as well. Those with experience were still fine, but those without experience had to put in even more time and sweat to make sure they could keep up and improve quickly.

Xu Xiaoye was one of the experienced ones. She always made everything look effortless, progressed faster than anyone else, and produced the best results. But aside from music class, she still spent nearly every waking moment in the dance studio. It was as though she never got tired, always energetic from beginning to end.

The teachers praised her, and everyone else envied her.

Only An Rong knew that Xu Xiaoye was tired too. She had simply gotten used to presenting the best version of herself in front of the cameras. Her idol image weighed ten thousand tons.

An Rong saw it all and couldn’t help worrying.

After an exhausting day, Xu Xiaoye lay facedown on the bed to rest. An Rong pulled over a chair and sat beside the bed, lowering her voice. “Let me massage you a little.”

Xu Xiaoye wasn’t asleep, but she didn’t open her eyes either. Dazedly shaking her head, she said, “No need. I have to go back to the dance studio in a bit. Their progress hasn’t caught up, so ​read the original at bailiantales.com​we need to stay late. I’m going to check on them.”

Her voice was soft and weak, carrying a slight nasal tone, husky and scratchy as though it were brushing across An Rong’s heart, making her ache for her.

Xu Xiaoye had her face buried in the pillow and didn’t see it.

An Rong frowned. “Did you catch a cold?”

Xu Xiaoye hesitated, then turned her head and looked at An Rong through half-open eyes, the tips of her brows faintly furrowed. “No.”

But her voice was unusually dry and hoarse. She looked listless, and there was hardly any color in her face. Anyone could tell she was sick.

An Rong regretted it a little. That morning, she had already thought Xu Xiaoye’s voice sounded strange, but after asking a couple of questions, Xu Xiaoye had brushed her off and fooled her.

An Rong frowned and put on a stern face. “If you don’t feel well, you need to say so. If you’re sick, you need medicine.”

Xu Xiaoye gave a short laugh, her voice carrying a lazy lilt as her soft gaze landed on An Rong’s face. “Why are you being so fierce?”

An Rong flexed her fingers, still frowning. With a serious expression, she stood up and started to leave.

Xu Xiaoye immediately grabbed her arm. Raising her voice and dropping the teasing tone, she sighed and asked, “Where are you going?”

Afraid Xu Xiaoye might strain her arm, An Rong stopped the instant her wrist was caught.

This woman always pretended nothing was wrong whenever she got sick, avoided taking medicine, and refused to see a doctor. An Rong had already decided she needed to be strict with Xu Xiaoye. At such an important time, how could she just stubbornly endure being sick?

But the moment An Rong turned around and saw Xu Xiaoye’s misty eyes, her heart instantly softened. Her tone softened too, and the stern look on her face disappeared.

She was sick.

She felt awful.

“I’m going to get you some medicine.” After a pause, she added, “Something sweet.”

“I’m not taking medicine!”

An Rong had barely finished speaking, the last syllable still hanging in the air, when Xu Xiaoye immediately cut in. Her refusal was firm. She gripped An Rong’s wrist tightly, as though afraid she might actually go and get medicine.

An Rong lowered her eyes slightly and looked at Xu Xiaoye’s fingers. They were the prettiest hands she had ever seen—long and smooth, with neatly trimmed nails lying close against the fingertips like tiny, full pieces of jade.

Xu Xiaoye didn’t notice what she was doing. Flattening her lips, she lowered her gaze and said, “It’s just a little cold. I don’t need medicine. And the doctors aren’t here anymore anyway, so forget it.”

She had come up with a reason she believed was perfectly logical. It was already so late that finding a doctor would be troublesome, and An Rong hated trouble more than anything.

An Rong’s wrist felt hot. Xu Xiaoye was gripping it too tightly, but An Rong didn’t want to pull away. She cleared her throat and said, “I’ll go check. If there’s no one there, then forget it.”

Only then did Xu Xiaoye come back to herself. A flash of panic and discomfort crossed her expression, but she hid it extremely well. Her lips merely flattened before she quickly recovered. She let go and stared at the ring of red marks around An Rong’s pale wrist. “You really don’t need to. I’ll be fine after sleeping.”

She pulled out a tissue from beside the bed and blew her nose.

An Rong’s arm was free again, but the sensation of being held around the wrist seemed to linger. She awkwardly rotated it once, then pressed her hand against her side and said seriously, “No. There are only five days left until the evaluation performance. What if your throat still isn’t better by then? And we’re in the middle of training right now.”

Xu Xiaoye threw the tissue into the trash and relaxed her brows again, following An Rong’s words as she said, “What? Doubting my ability?”

An Rong frowned. “That’s not what I mean.”

Xu Xiaoye deliberately teased her, her nasal voice muffled. “Then what do you mean?”

An Rong deflated. “I’m just worried about you.”

Xu Xiaoye’s hand paused while reaching for another tissue. She rolled over and looked up at An Rong, drawing out her voice. “Oh—you care about me?”

An Rong had a guilty conscience. The moment Xu Xiaoye asked her like that, her eyelid twitched. Remembering how Xu Xiaoye had said she didn’t want lesbians in the group, An Rong immediately made her position clear. “Friends should help one another, care for their classmates, look after their roommates, and stay united. It’s what I should do.”

What a righteous, positive successor of socialism.

Xu Xiaoye couldn’t help laughing. The vibration made her throat itch, and she immediately started coughing so hard she could barely catch her breath.

An Rong hurriedly patted her back to help her breathe. Once the coughing subsided, she brought over her water cup and placed it on the chair beside the bed.

“Sleep for a while.” An Rong tucked the blanket higher around her and added, “Training can wait.”

Just then, Song Ran came over holding a tablet. “Captain…”

Xu Xiaoye was just about to speak when she met An Rong’s eyes, dark and steady as they looked at her.

An Rong stood up and asked Song Ran, “She doesn’t feel well. What is it?”

Xu Xiaoye lay facedown on the bed, her mind filled with the look An Rong had just given her. It felt as though a feather had brushed across her heart, and she fell silent.

Song Ran froze.

An Rong turned her head and quietly said to Xu Xiaoye, “Sleep. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Song Ran suddenly remembered why she had come. Looking at Xu Xiaoye on the bed, she said to An Rong, “There are a few moves I can’t learn. What’s wrong with Captain? Is she sick?”

An Rong didn’t answer the second question. She led Song Ran outside, closed the door behind them, and lowered her voice. “I know some of the choreography for your group too. Go to the dance studio and wait for me. I’ll be there in a little while.”

Song Ran blinked. “No need. Tomorrow is fine too.”

An Rong’s gaze shifted toward her. “Tomorrow isn’t fine either. She’s sick. Go wait for me for a while.”

Song Ran was completely cowed by her. She stood there blankly for a few seconds before slowly nodding without even realizing it herself.

An Rong hurried toward the infirmary.

This place had only been set aside by TS specifically for this selection program. The doctors in the infirmary didn’t live there and simply came and went according Read on BaiLianTalesto their work hours. It was already nine at night.

An Rong prayed there might still be a doctor on duty, but when she rushed to the infirmary like a gust of wind, she found the door already locked and the lights inside turned off. Her own anxious, flustered face reflected in the glass door.

Without pausing for even a second, An Rong rushed to the elevator, hoping she might get lucky and find someone downstairs.

The elevator chimed. She was just about to step in when someone inside was coming out, and the two nearly collided.

“Sorry, sorry.” An Rong held the elevator door and twisted awkwardly backward to make room.

“It’s late. Where are you rushing off to?”

An Rong looked up at the person speaking, and her eyes instantly lit up.

She stepped back twice and spoke rapidly but clearly. “Teacher Chen, the infirmary is locked. Do you know the number of the doctor on duty?”

Chen Xin frowned. “The doctor just went downstairs…”

An Rong immediately slapped a hand against the elevator doors as they were about to close and slipped inside. She said to the startled Chen Xin, “Thank you. Please call and ask her to come back. Xu Xiaoye is sick.”

Chen Xin responded and was about to ask more, but the elevator doors had already closed.

An Rong was afraid the doctor might not answer the call, or that her phone battery might be dead, or even that her service might have been cut off for lack of balance. Even if the possibility was tiny, An Rong didn’t want to risk it. There were only five days left until the evaluation performance. This was important.

An Rong stared fixedly at the floor numbers. The moment the display reached 1, the elevator doors had barely opened a crack before she squeezed through and shot out like the wind. She ran so fast that, still dressed in her training uniform, she made the security guard think something had happened to one of the students upstairs.

Was she trying to escape?!

Had closed training driven someone insane?

An Rong ran in front.

The security guard chased after her from behind.

Just as she rushed out through the main doors, someone who had just ended a phone call walked inside.

An Rong remembered her. On the first day after being reborn, when she had gone to the infirmary to fill out forms, this woman had been sitting inside.

“Doctor.” An Rong slammed on the brakes beside her. “I’m the one who asked Teacher Chen to call you.”

The doctor looked her up and down as they walked. “You look perfectly healthy.”

An Rong followed beside her. “It’s not me. It’s my… roommate. She has a cold—stuffy nose, runny nose, drowsiness, and I think her throat is a little inflamed too. It’s probably been going on for about a day.”

The security guard who had chased after her: ???

This was a little different from what he had imagined.

The doctor turned to look at stolen contenther. “Why didn’t she come to the infirmary earlier to get medicine?”

An Rong pressed her lips together and lowered her head guiltily. With a serious and determined expression, she said, “It won’t happen again.”

She had been careless. She had clearly noticed something seemed wrong that morning too, but Xu Xiaoye had brushed it aside with a few words and fooled her.

The doctor looked at the girl beside her in confusion. She had only asked out of professional habit, not because she was questioning or blaming her. Why did this girl look as though she were the one who was sick?

Weren’t they just roommates?

A new socialist-style roommate relationship?

So close they shared each other’s pain?

Once they entered the elevator, An Rong thought and thought, hesitating for a long time. Seeing that they were almost there, she cleared her throat and quietly asked, “Can I ask you for one thing?”

The doctor raised a brow, slightly curious. “Go ahead.”

An Rong licked her lips. “Um… when you prescribe the medicine later, could you try to avoid anything too bitter?”

The doctor laughed helplessly. Sure enough, she was still a kid. Afraid of bitter medicine.

“Good medicine tastes bitter.”

An Rong nodded obediently. “Yes, yes, exactly. But if there’s anything a little sweeter, that would be even better. Like granules or something. The patient’s mood can affect how well medicine works too, right?”

The doctor turned to look at An Rong in surprise.

How strange.

She said they were roommates, but fundamentally speaking, she and the patient should also be competitors. After all, there were twenty contestants and only five debut spots in the end. Calling a doctor for her was already more than harmonious and friendly enough. Why was she even worrying over tiny details like taste?

Were these new socialist-style roommates really this enlightened?

The doctor neither agreed nor disagreed. “You two seem pretty close.”

An Rong caught the unspoken meaning behind her words but pretended not to understand. She simply nodded.

“She takes very good care of me.”

So now that she was sick, An Rong should take care of her.

It was that simple.