Chapter 7

After analyzing things and going back over her memories, An Rong finally discovered the root of the problem.

In her previous life, Xu Xiaoye had always kept An Rong with her and paid extra attention to her. Although part of that was because An Rong was simply outstanding and adorable, another reason was probably that Xu Xiaoye had thought a seventeen-year-old girl venturing out into the world knew nothing, so she naturally took a little extra care of her.

But now, she was no longer the person she had been four years ago. That feeling could never be recovered. In Xu Xiaoye’s eyes, the current An Rong didn’t seem like someone who particularly needed looking after anymore, while conveniently standing nearby was Xia Chunhua, who looked even younger, cuter, and more helpless.

So the person Xu Xiaoye paid attention to had changed from the one she remembered.

An Rong thought it over and decided she couldn’t just let things continue like this. She had to act. She needed to bring out the best acting skills she had and, in front of Xu Xiaoye, play the role of someone who needed looking after and caring for while still being extremely dependable.

So after they finished eating, An Rong casually pretended to frown and followed beside Xu Xiaoye, saying, “Are we supposed to learn that dance by ourselves? Will there be a teacher? I don’t think I can really learn it properly on my own.”

Xu Xiaoye was completely unaware of An Rong’s little scheme. She even nodded and said, “There should be one, but they’ll probably just be there to help. Don’t be nervous. Go back and watch it a few more times first so you can familiarize yourself with it.”

An Rong understood.

Taking the opening she’d been given, she said, “Mm, okay.”

Obedient and well-behaved.

Perfect.

The group wandered around a little longer before heading back to the dorm. Once the initial excitement wore off, exhaustion set in, and everyone wanted to go back and rest for a while.

There were a lot of people in the dorm, but fortunately, no one was talking loudly. Quite a few people were resting, so it was relatively quiet. Xia Chunhua’s bed was near the entrance. She lowered her voice and whispered, “I’m going to sleep for a while.”

An Rong smiled and waved at her.

By the time they reached the innermost section, only An Rong and Xu Xiaoye were left. While they had been out eating, someone from the company had placed a camera on their table. An Rong noticed it the moment she walked in. She was just about to head over when she remembered that the current version of herself had supposedly never seen anything like this before, so she shifted slightly to the side and said to Xu Xiaoye, “Sister Xiaoxiao, there’s a camera!”

Xu Xiaoye was already lying on the bed. Hearing that, she raised her head to look. After seeing the new object on the table, she lay back down again.

“Mm, they probably just installed it. Ignore it. Do you want to watch the dance first?”

She fished the iPad out from beside her pillow and handed it to An Rong.

An Rong took it and saw that the video had already been played well into the later sections. She had no idea when Xu Xiaoye had watched it. A pair of earphones was also attached.

An Rong asked, “Thank you, Sister Xiaoxiao. Can I use your earphones?”

Xu Xiaoye narrowed her eyes sleepily.

“Go ahead.”

An Rong happily put the earphones on.

The dancers in the video were all TS trainees and dance instructors, so their technique was very professional, and the footage had been filmed clearly.

An Rong watched for a while. Once she saw that Xu Xiaoye had fallen asleep, she took the iPad and went out to the dance studio in the middle of the floor.

Even if she had been reborn, she didn’t have an extra nose or two extra eyes compared to everyone else. Four years had passed, and anything that could have been forgotten had long since faded from memory. Now she could only start learning all over again. Fortunately, she did have some dance fundamentals and experience now, even if her current physical condition couldn’t keep up with them yet.

And her natural physical coordination had never been especially [unauthorized copy]good to begin with. She learned dances more slowly than other people, so she needed to start early.

The dance studio was empty, with only the cameras in the corners keeping her company.

An Rong first sang along, counted the rhythm and beats, studied the movements piece by piece, then tried dancing along. But she was holding the tablet in her hands, and she needed to watch the movements while learning them. After dancing for a while, she realized how inconvenient that was.

Panting, An Rong began wandering around the studio looking for somewhere to put the iPad.

There were a few chairs in the corner, but they were too low. She wouldn’t be able to see the screen clearly.

After circling around for a while, An Rong finally found an excellent spot.

A camera stand by the wall.

She hesitated for a moment, then looked seriously into the camera and said, “I honestly can’t find anywhere else to put it. This is the only good spot. Do me a favor. I’m going to tie the tablet onto your stand, okay? If you don’t say anything, I’ll take that as consent.”

She even put on a show of waiting several seconds.

Then she took the hair tie from her head, ​unauthorized copy​adjusted the tablet to the right height, and secured it to the camera stand.

With complete seriousness, she said, “The footage in a minute might be a little surreal. I strongly recommend that you don’t air this part. It may hurt people’s eyes. The flowers of the motherland need to save face. Thank you, bro.”

An Rong’s heartfelt plea seemed to move the camera in front of her.

After staring at each other for a moment, the camera tilted up and down.

An Rong happily gave it a thumbs-up.

“Thank you, bro, sis, dear friend.”

An Rong solemnly stepped backward.

Then she started dancing.

Although she had experience and could learn movements from watching the video, this body couldn’t keep up. It lacked strength, and both its balance and coordination were poor.

So although her movements had the unauthorized copy general shape of the choreography, she really did look like a clumsy little duck.

Xu Xiaoye leaned against the doorway and snickered.

An Rong collapsed onto the floor and said to the camera, “Sorry you had to see that.”

Xu Xiaoye walked inside as she said, “It’s passable. More or less.”

Sitting on the floor, An Rong kneaded her leg and looked at her, panting.

“Thank you.”

Xu Xiaoye walked over to inspect the tablet fastened to the pole, then turned and gave the sweaty, disheveled An Rong a thumbs-up.

“Impressive. Amazing. You’ve claimed all the solo dance footage for yourself.”

An Rong exhaled.

“It promised me this part wouldn’t be aired.”

Of course, whether it would actually be broadcast depended entirely on the post-production editing and whether the footage had anything interesting in it. Originally, there probably wouldn’t have been much appeal in watching her practice here alone.

But now that Xu Xiaoye had arrived, if this episode aired, probably half the attention would end up focused on the two of them.

Xu Xiaoye held out a hand to her and asked with a smile, “And how exactly did the director tell you that?”

An Rong lay on the floor, looking at Xu Xiaoye as she stood there with smiling eyes and reached a hand toward her, almost as though she were glowing.

Xu Xiaoye wiggled her hand.

“Are you getting up or not?”

An Rong came back to herself and took Xu Xiaoye’s hand.

“Thanks.”

Xu Xiaoye gave a firm pull, and An Rong used the momentum to get to her [stolen content]feet. She swept the hair that had fallen forward back behind her neck, stretched her arms and the sides of her waist, then pointed at the camera.

“I asked if it could leave me out of the broadcast. It nodded.”

Xu Xiaoye looked at An Rong and laughed for a long while before asking, “Have you ever studied dance before?”

Since the question was being asked in front of a camera, An Rong had to answer carefully.

She thought back, considered her words, and hesitantly said, “During the opening ceremony for my middle school sports meet, I learned square dancing from the music teacher. Does that count?”

Xu Xiaoye burst out laughing and waved a hand.

“You’re way too cute.”

But An Rong seriously thought back on it.

That had happened when she was in eighth grade. At the time, the music teacher had simply picked students from the class at random. As long as their heights and builds were roughly similar, that was good enough.

Thinking about it, An Rong frowned.

“I was already 155 centimeters tall in eighth grade.”

Now she was 158 centimeters.

On average, she hadn’t even grown one centimeter per year.

Heartbreaking.

Xu Xiaoye was just about to laugh at her when An Rong said, “It’s fine. I’m only seventeen. Like the old saying goes, you can still shoot up at twenty-three. I’ve still got a chance.”

Twenty-four-year-old Xu Xiaoye’s mouth immediately drooped.

She reached out and flicked An Rong on the forehead.

With a stern expression, she said, “Go stretch.”

An Rong gave an “Oh,” then started doing school calisthenics right where she stood—stretching her arms, stretching her [bailiantales.com]legs, bending over to reach toward her feet.

Her posture was extremely reminiscent of an elderly man exercising in the public square.

Xu Xiaoye grabbed her arm and stopped her before she could continue.

This time, she didn’t even bother asking.

“Your stretching isn’t thorough enough. Follow me.”

An Rong paused, then copied her stance.

It wasn’t that she was deliberately using some idiotic method to bait Xu Xiaoye into helping her.

The problem was that a seventeen-year-old fresh high school graduate who had never participated in any athletic activity before—not fitness training, not long-distance running—and who came from a remote rural area and was visiting a big city like this for the first time would naturally be somewhat awkward and inexperienced.

There were some things the current version of her simply should not know.

This was the information age.

Once the show aired, people would start paying attention.

If anything happened later and people began digging into her information, they might even turn her entire past upside down.

She needed to avoid unnecessary trouble as much as possible.

After stretching, Xu Xiaoye and An Rong stood side by side watching the video.

Xu Xiaoye already had an excellent foundation, and she regularly kept in contact with the choreography instructors, so there were certain movements she could understand just by looking at them.

After watching the video only five times, she could already dance along with it.

An Rong stood behind her in amazement.

For quite a while, her gaze never left Xu Xiaoye, and she even clapped happily like a little fangirl.

“You’re seriously, seriously amazing!”

Xu Xiaoye turned around.

She was only breathing a little harder as she said, “Our positions can’t be exactly the same as theirs. You’re the lead vocalist, but the choreography in the center positions is all difficult. If we force you into the middle, it’ll look awkward too. Xia Chunhua and Kang Yu are both decent dancers, which only leaves you and Song Ran. We’ll have to think of something and see if we can simplify your movements.”

She was considering the overall effect of their eventual performance.

And Xu Xiaoye already had a very clear idea of An Rong’s role.

Her vocals alone were enough to make her stand out.

Dancing was only an added bonus.

Xu Xiaoye followed the tutorial in the video while turning back to teach An Rong.

“A hip thrust isn’t the same as twisting your waist.”

Xu Xiaoye stood in front of An Rong and placed one hand on the right side of An Rong’s hip.

“Don’t move your upper body. Push your pelvis forward. Use the muscles in your thighs and waist and thrust toward me.”

The movement wasn’t difficult, and An Rong knew perfectly well how to do it.

But the current her had never learned it before.

So she could only pretend she didn’t know.

Besides, the moment Xu Xiaoye’s hand closed around her hip, An Rong decided there was really no need to rush things now that she had been given another chance.

Xu Xiaoye held her by the hips and waist, guiding her through the movement three times before letting go.

Then she poked the soft flesh on An Rong’s stomach.

“You can’t do it. You have no core strength. This movement will fall apart and have no power, and it’ll tire you out too quickly. A lot of the later movements depend on strength from your waist.”

An Rong’s ears were filled with only one sentence.

“You can’t do it.”

She followed Xu Xiaoye’s gaze downward and regretfully discovered the soft flesh on her stomach and thighs.

She really couldn’t.

How was someone who had never exercised supposed to have any core strength?

But no matter what else happened, there was one thing she absolutely could not allow.

The person she loved was not allowed to say she couldn’t do it.

An Rong immediately said with complete seriousness, “I can. I can train.”

If she couldn’t do it today, she would do it tomorrow.

And if she still couldn’t do it tomorrow, then one day, eventually, she would!

Author’s Note:

An Rong: Sorry, I was wrong. I’ll lie to you again next time.