Chapter 4

Although An Rong wasn’t very good at dancing, her singing was excellent, so she was safe from elimination for the time being. After the evaluation ended, the five eliminated trainees left. The remaining contestants were ranked according to the scores given by the three evaluators. Out of twenty people, Xu Xiaoye ranked first, while An Rong ranked nineteenth—second from last.

Xu Xiaoye stood in the front row, while An Rong was all the way in the back. With two rows of people between them, she could only catch a glimpse of Xu Xiaoye’s back through the gaps between the other trainees.

Everyone who had survived the elimination was visibly excited, unable to hide their happiness. It felt as though they were one step closer to becoming famous.

“Congratulations to all the trainees who’ve made it through. Next, your dorm assignments will be reorganized, and you’ll be issued standard uniforms. From this moment on, you are officially entering TS Entertainment’s training program. First of all, congratulations.”

The girls clapped excitedly, feeling as though success was already within reach.

After the applause died down, Qin Yun said, “Now, could the top four trainees please step forward?”

The top four glanced at one another. After a brief hesitation, they each stepped forward two paces. Xu Xiaoye stood first, Wang Yunshui second, Xiao Yu third, while fourth place went to a rather cool-looking girl who was extremely good at dancing, named Yang Pei.

Qin Yun looked at the four of them and said, “From now on, the four of you will serve as team captains. You’ll take turns choosing your own members for the next round of evaluations.”

Xu Xiaoye had the right to choose first.

An Rong’s heart pounded nervously.

Of course she desperately, intensely, overwhelmingly wanted to be on Xu Xiaoye’s team.

Xu Xiaoye turned slightly toward the group and said, “Xia Chunhua.”

Xia Chunhua was the cute little girl with naturally curly hair. The moment Xu Xiaoye called her name, she raised her hand and answered, “Here,” then happily ran over to stand behind Xu Xiaoye.

The corners of An Rong’s mouth drooped slightly.

Inwardly, she began praying that no one else would choose her.

Xiao Yu glanced sideways and, over Wang Yunshui, shot Xu Xiaoye a teasing smile.

Wang Yunshui immediately chose the trainee who had ranked fifth, another girl who was extremely good at dancing and fairly average-looking. She happened to dance well enough to be useful while also making Wang Yunshui stand out more beside her.

An Rong could certainly make a good vocalist, but the scene of her ambushing Xu Xiaoye that morning had left far too deep an impression. Yang Pei didn’t dare choose her either.

So after each captain chose one person, the turn came back around to Xu Xiaoye.

An Rong outwardly pretended to be calm. She clasped her hands in front of herself, her gaze seemingly casual as it drifted toward Xu Xiaoye.

Inside, however, she was chanting like crazy:

Pick me, pick me, pick me, pick me.

Xu Xiaoye hesitated for quite a while. Frowning, she swept her gaze over several faces before finally stopping on An Rong.

After another brief pause, she said, “An Rong.”

Qin Yun looked up at her.

She had actually chosen An Rong of her own accord.

Did that mean she was planning to let the whole kissing incident go?

Xiao Yu also turned to look at Xu Xiaoye. This time, she openly joked, “Being first is so annoying. You keep taking everyone I want. Why don’t I just go over to your team too?”

Standing behind Xu Xiaoye, Xia Chunhua poked her head out and smiled at Xiao Yu. The two of them interacted wildly around Wang Yunshui, who stood between them and impatiently curled her lip.

An Rong was ridiculously happy.

Even her steps became lighter as she briskly hurried over to stand behind Xu Xiaoye and greeted Xia Chunhua.

Xia Chunhua was tiny, fair-skinned, and petite. Her eyes were round, her lips pink, and she looked practically underage.

She was unbelievably adorable.

As soon as An Rong greeted her, Xia Chunhua asked, “How old are you? You look so young.”

An Rong said, “Seventeen. I shouldn’t be the youngest, right?”

Xia Chunhua brightened.

“Then I’m older than you! I’m nineteen. Hahaha, didn’t expect that, did you?”

She looked so young that people constantly mistook her for a minor.

And yet among everyone she knew, she really was usually the youngest, which left her with no way to complain.

Now that she had finally met someone younger than herself, of course she was delighted.

An Rong pretended not to know and said in surprise, “You really do look very… cute.”

Xia Chunhua tipped her head back and laughed.

Her voice was subdued and not very loud, but her expressions were especially lively.

For once, she got to experience the joy of being the older sister.

Up front, twenty-four-year-old Xu Xiaoye silently turned her head to look at the two of them, then turned back around with a resentful expression.

Xia Chunhua noticed and curiously asked, “Captain, how old are you?”

Xu Xiaoye said, “It’s my zodiac year.”

Xia Chunhua was so shocked that she leaned forward to look at her.

“Twenty-four? No way. I thought you were only twenty.”

Xu Xiaoye instantly perked up again and joked, “Natural beauty, plus diligent skincare.”

After another round of names had been chosen, it was Xu Xiaoye’s turn again.

The smile on her face gradually stiffened as her gaze slowly moved across the remaining crowd.

Standing behind her, An Rong whispered very quietly into her ear, “The second one from the right is Kang Yu.”

Xu Xiaoye visibly relaxed and called Kang Yu’s name.

Then she quickly asked An Rong, “What’s the name of the one in the pink top?”

An Rong looked over.

She had absolutely no impression of her.

The only reason she remembered Kang Yu was because although Kang Yu hadn’t made the final group in her previous life, she had still signed with TS afterward and become a trainee.

Xia Chunhua leaned over, took a look, and said, “Song Ran.”

Xu Xiaoye said awkwardly, “Thanks. This is so embarrassing. I’m terrible at remembering names. I didn’t know there’d be a segment like unauthorized copy this. I almost threw the whole thing away.”

Xia Chunhua suddenly understood.

An Rong instantly realized something.

Her own position as a middling choice had probably only come about because Xu Xiaoye couldn’t remember the other people’s names.

How tragic…

It hadn’t been like this in her previous life.

Back then, Xu Xiaoye had chosen her first without hesitation.

She had been one of the premium picks.

Looks like that kiss really had done a lot of damage.

Her status had plummeted dramatically.

An Rong felt just a tiny bit regretful.

All she could do was savor the memory of that first kiss, even though it hadn’t really tasted like much.

Before long, all four captains had finished choosing their teams.

Everyone introduced themselves to one another, since they would soon be training and living together and needed to avoid the awkwardness of not even knowing each other’s names.

Once the teams had been formed, Qin Yun said, “Now that the four captains have chosen their team members, the next evaluation task will begin. Everyone, please prepare yourselves. Captains, come forward and collect your team’s assignment.”

Four iPads were placed on the table, all white and arranged in a neat row.

Xu Xiaoye walked over and looked at them.

None of the screens were lit, and they all looked identical from the outside.

She hesitated for a second and looked at Qin Yun questioningly.

Qin Yun pressed her lips together and nodded.

“Each iPad contains four songs. The four songs are the same for every team, but each has been rearranged differently. You don’t need to worry about fairness. I guarantee that none of you have heard these versions before. The choreography for all four songs is completely different as well, though the difficulty levels are roughly the same.”

The moment she said that, An Rong remembered.

This evaluation had been insanely difficult…

Sure enough, the moment Qin Yun finished speaking, the cheerful atmosphere vanished and everyone was immediately swallowed up by tension.

Practically all of them stared anxiously at Qin Yun.

Qin Yun continued at an unhurried pace, “You can probably guess what comes next. Starting today, you’ll have two weeks to prepare. Two weeks from today, there will be an official performance competition. Your scores from the evaluators and our ten choreography and music instructors will be used as reference for the end-of-month evaluation. In other words, twenty-five days from now, another five of you will be eliminated.”

Five people.

That was one quarter of them.

A very large proportion.

Everyone immediately became uneasy again.

They started wondering whether their current teammates were suitable, whether someone might be too weak and drag down the team’s score, or whether someone might be too strong and make them look inferior by comparison.

Xu Xiaoye picked up the first iPad.

She turned around and immediately opened it so the others could watch together.

They hadn’t even finished viewing the first one when Qin Yun said, “There’s no need to rush. Your new dormitories are ready. You can go take a look, collect your uniforms, choose your beds, and officially begin your training at TS.”

An Rong’s gaze quietly drifted toward Xu Xiaoye’s face before sliding away as though she hadn’t meant anything by it.

No one noticed.

In her previous life, she and Xu Xiaoye had shared a bunk bed.

She didn’t know whether that would still happen this time…

The group cheered and rushed toward the dance studio door.

They had already spent an entire day and night here, exhausted and starving.

The moment someone mentioned the dorms, all they could think about was rest.

One by one, they became as excited as wild horses breaking free of their reins.

An Rong had barely stepped out of the dance studio when someone came looking for her.

It was the person temporarily assigned to oversee them.

They had met when An Rong first arrived.

Her name was Chen Xin.

She never appeared on camera, and none of this would be included in the show.

An Rong paused slightly in surprise.

Chen Xin said, “There’s something we need you to come take care of.”

An Rong immediately understood.

She turned her head slightly and glanced at Xu Xiaoye from the corner of her eye, then gave her an apologetic and extremely awkward nod.

Xu Xiaoye clearly understood what it was about too, but she didn’t say anything.

An Rong followed Chen Xin away from the dance studio.

Chen Xin remained silent the entire way, putting enormous psychological pressure on An Rong.

She was terrified that she was about to be informed she’d been expelled.

It wasn’t until they reached the door of the medical room that Chen Xin finally said, “Don’t be nervous. Everyone inside is a highly qualified professional. They just need to perform some basic assessments.”

An Rong hesitated.

“But I already submitted my physical examination report…”

Among the basic materials TS required from trainees was a full physical examination.

And after officially joining the company, they would organize regular health checks every so often.

Her memory of it wasn’t especially vivid, but An Rong was pretty sure read the original at bailiantales.comher original examination had been very thorough.

Chen Xin opened the door and turned to glance at her.

“Not that kind of assessment.”

An Rong: …???

It wasn’t until she went inside that An Rong understood what “not that kind” meant.

Apparently, everyone already knew about her kissing Xu Xiaoye.

So what they mainly wanted to check was whether there was something wrong with her mentally.

As soon as she entered, they handed her a form to fill out while someone beside her repeatedly asked questions.

“Why did you kiss Xu Xiaoye?”

Of course An Rong couldn’t tell the truth.

She said, “I didn’t know it was her. I was dreaming at the time.”

“Do you sleepwalk?”

An Rong said, “…Probably not.”

“What do you mean, probably not?”

Holding the pen, An Rong answered calmly, “I wouldn’t know myself, and no one’s ever told me I do.”

“What were you dreaming about at the time?”

An Rong calmly said, “I forgot.”

“You can’t remember any of it?”

An Rong hesitated for a moment.

Saying she remembered absolutely nothing sounded too fake.

So she made something up.

“I remembered it at first, but forgot as soon as I woke up. I just remember it seemed really bizarre. I think I was in a dance studio too. Maybe I was under too much pressure because I didn’t rest well yesterday.”

“Are you dating anyone?”

An Rong decisively shook her head.

Were they wondering if she’d dreamed about her partner and mistaken Xu Xiaoye for them?

“Is there no one you secretly like?”

This time, An Rong hesitated.

If she said there was absolutely no one, it might not match her behavior very well.

After weighing her options, she settled on a compromise.

“…There was someone when I was younger. This is private, isn’t it?”

The people questioning her seemed to have finally found something that made a little sense.

They nodded and put on kindly expressions, smiling as they said, “It is private. We’re only asking casually. But if you join the company, we do have rules. Artists are not allowed to date. And you’re still young, so it’s easy to get deceived. Your parents would worry too.”

An Rong gave a quiet acknowledgment.

Frowning, she deliberately put on a slightly dejected expression, turned her eyes aside, and said, “I know. That’s all in the past.”

She acted exactly like a young girl who had made a mistake.

The moment people questioned her, she became nervous and gave herself away, answering whatever they asked.

Obedient.

Easy to handle.

An Rong put down the pen, handed over the paper, and said, “I’m done.”

She was given a box of ointment for reducing swelling.

The moment she was finally released and opened the door, she saw Xu Xiaoye standing there.

Xu Xiaoye stood outside the door, narrowing her eyes at An Rong with a smile.

“Not bad. You’re so young and you already have someone you like.”

An Rong instantly froze and immediately shook her head in panic.

“No!”

Xu Xiaoye wore an expression that clearly said she understood everything.

She nodded and said, “No need to hide it from me. I’m not going to interfere with that. But from now on, while you’re here, no matter who asks, you have to say no. Got it?”

An Rong: …Would you believe me if I told you there really isn’t anyone?

This was heartfelt advice from the experienced Xu Xiaoye.

She genuinely meant it for An Rong’s own good.

And An Rong couldn’t exactly refuse to acknowledge it.

Perhaps because Xu Xiaoye now knew this little “secret” of hers, it suddenly felt as though the distance between them had narrowed.

As the two of them walked toward the dorm together, Xu Xiaoye said, “Someone from the company asked me just now how I wanted to handle what happened this morning.”

An Rong’s heart leaped into her throat.

Xu Xiaoye blinked and said in her slow, mild manner, “Forget it. Being kissed once by a little girl doesn’t seem like that big a deal.”

Then she asked, “You’re not a lesbian, are you?”

An Rong: …A fatal question!

Author’s Note:

An Rong: After being reborn, this is nothing like what I imagined.