Chapter 8

But training core strength was exhausting and painful, especially for An Rong, who had no athletic foundation whatsoever. Still, uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. If she wanted to go farther, she had to put in more than everyone else.

Xu Xiaoye placed one hand against An Rong’s lower back and pushed forward slightly. Almost out of habit, An Rong reflexively tilted her pelvis and hips backward. Back then, she had practiced this basic movement countless times with Xu Xiaoye’s help.

She would never forget that feeling for the rest of her life.

Xu Xiaoye let go and nodded in praise. “That’s very standard. For someone with no foundation, being able to do it this well is already pretty impressive.”

An Rong exhaled, and all the flesh on her body relaxed again. Right now, she simply had the figure of an ordinary teenage girl. The flesh on her body was soft, with no visible muscle definition and no strength, so when she danced, the visual effect wasn’t nearly as good.

By now, quite a few people had returned to the dance studio. An Rong turned her head and looked at Xu Xiaoye in confusion. “So what are we doing this afternoon? Learning on our own?”

Xia Chunhua and Xiao Yu had arrived too. Xu Xiaoye happened to spot them, paused, and said, “Wait a second.”

Xiao Yu walked over with a smile. Once she got closer and saw the fine layer of sweat covering Xu Xiaoye’s face, she sighed in admiration. “You came really early.”

She had ranked first, with an almost overwhelming advantage over everyone else, yet she hadn’t relaxed in the slightest. If anything, she held herself to even stricter standards than the rest of them.

Xu Xiaoye shook her head and patted An Rong on the shoulder. “She was here first.”

An Rong’s clothes were already a little damp with sweat. Her hair hung messily behind her, and she wasn’t wearing any makeup. She was relying entirely on youth and naturally good looks to carry her. When Xu Xiaoye pushed her into the spotlight, she seemed a little uncomfortable, her awkwardness obvious.

An Rong pressed her lips together. “The slow bird has to start flying early. [read the original at bailiantales.com]I’m afraid of dragging my teammates down too.”

Xiao Yu looked at An Rong’s sweat-dampened clothes and hair, then at her clear, clean eyes, and sincerely gave her a thumbs-up. “Impressive. Hard work always pays off.”

An Rong wiped away her sweat and smiled a little shyly.

Xu Xiaoye laughed brightly, pressing a hand down on An Rong’s shoulder. “Relax. It’s nowhere near as serious as dragging the team down. You’re our most important lead vocalist. Have some confidence.”

This was the first time since An Rong’s rebirth that Xu Xiaoye had encouraged her so directly and seriously.

An Rong’s heart turned sweet as though she had eaten honey. She straightened her back, lifted her chin, and gave a solemn “Mm.”

Neither Xiao Yu nor Xu Xiaoye had any intention of prying into what song or choreography the other team had gotten, so after greeting each other, they went their separate ways. Xiao Yu’s teammates were all farther inside, quite a distance from them.

Xia Chunhua handed An Rong a bottle of water. An Rong took it, moved around a little to loosen up, then looked toward Xu Xiaoye.

Xu Xiaoye frowned slightly, seemingly thinking something over. After a moment, she looked at all of them and said, “We have two weeks to get this ready for the stage. The five of us all have different foundations, so let’s start with the dance. We don’t need to perform it as perfectly as the teachers in the video right away. For now, don’t worry about the fine details. Let’s get through all the movements first. Our goal for the first week is to be able to complete the entire dance smoothly. During the second week, we’ll polish the details. Okay?”

Of the five of them, Xu Xiaoye had the most experience with this kind of training. Naturally, no one objected to what she said.

Xia Chunhua and Kang Yu had some dance background, but they had only learned dance before. They still lacked experience with this kind of self-directed training.

Seeing that no one objected, Xu Xiaoye secretly breathed a sigh of relief and continued, “If there’s anything we can’t figure out on our own, we’ll ask the teachers for help. If you’re too nervous to ask, tell me and I’ll ask for you. But as for singing, there really isn’t much I can help you with. For now, let’s just memorize the lyrics, okay? Once the teachers arrive, we can see what the actual situation is.”

The other four nodded at the same time.

Although An Rong learned songs quickly, that was because she was naturally gifted.

Knowing how to do something yourself and knowing how to teach someone else were two completely different things.

Xu Xiaoye turned to look at An Rong. After hesitating, she tentatively asked, “Can you sing this song all the way through yet?”

An Rong licked her lips and answered cautiously, “Tomorrow. I should be able to by tomorrow.”

In truth, she would probably have it down by that evening.

But to be safe, and since they had plenty of time, An Rong pushed the deadline back a little in case anything unexpected happened.

Even so, saying she could do it by tomorrow still stunned everyone else.

Wasn’t that too fast?

They had only gotten the video and audio at noon today, and there wasn’t even a teacher teaching them. Yet she could already sing the whole thing by tomorrow?

An Rong didn’t think it was anything special. There was sheet music on the tablet, so she could study it again that evening.

She turned around, took the tablet off the camera stand, and said to the stand, “Thank you.”

Xia Chunhua blinked in confusion and shock, read the original at bailiantales.com momentarily wondering whether An Rong was an autistic child.

Xu Xiaoye smiled with the corners of her lips lifted. She took the tablet from An Rong and watched her tie her hair back up before turning to the others.

“You guys watch it a few times first and get familiar with it.”

The group sat in a circle on the floor with the tablet in the middle.

An Rong watched it twice more with them.

During the intro, everyone’s movements were more or less the same, so they decided to learn that part first.

An Rong had already gone through it once with Xu Xiaoye earlier, so she looked reasonably competent and could follow along smoothly.

There was only one tablet, and everyone was learning at a different pace.

Once Xu Xiaoye and Xia Chunhua learned that section, they moved aside to practice on their own while the remaining three continued watching.

Before long, Kang Yu was able to join the two of them as well, leaving only An Rong and Song Ran still watching.

An Rong had already received some private tutoring earlier, so she mostly practiced by herself nearby, coming back to check the video whenever she forgot something.

Three or four hours later, everyone was exhausted.

Some people had already returned to the dorm to rest when Qin Yun arrived with five others.

These five were the dance instructors and TS trainees who had performed in the videos.

Qin Yun introduced them one by one, then said, “If there’s anything you don’t understand, don’t know, or can’t do, don’t be afraid to ask the teachers. They’ll teach you.”

Sitting off to the side, An Rong looked up.

The familiar scene immediately pulled her memories back.

Back then, she hadn’t understood why, if they had teachers, the teachers hadn’t simply come from the beginning and led everyone through the routine step by step.

Now she understood.

Part of the reason was for the show.

They wanted the audience to see what the trainees were like when there were no teachers around.

Another part of it was actually an evaluation of the team captains.

They wanted to see which of the captains performed best.

An Rong raised her head and looked at Xu Xiaoye.

In that respect, Xu Xiaoye absolutely deserved the role.

She was smart, emotionally intelligent, and knew how to talk to people. She had experience, people naturally trusted what she said, and most importantly, she was very good at taking care of everyone.

Once the teachers arrived, the atmosphere in the dance studio changed.

It was as though everyone suddenly had someone dependable to rely on.

But An Rong remembered that these teachers normally didn’t teach very much.

They weren’t like schoolteachers who carefully explained everything one step at a time. They would demonstrate it once, then leave the trainees to practice on their own. If they ran into something they couldn’t do or thought something was wrong, they could ask questions, and the teachers would also point out whatever problems they noticed.

This was also meant to test their ability to teach themselves and communicate with others.

An Rong had, after all, already gone through this evaluation once.

Looking back on it again, she could understand many things from a completely different perspective.

But understanding was one thing.

She still had no intention of changing anything.

After the teacher demonstrated it once, almost everyone in Xu Xiaoye’s group of five could keep up, except for Song Ran.

Xu Xiaoye could even dance nearly as well as the teacher.

In the end, Song Ran was the only one who still couldn’t do it.

Her physical coordination was even worse than An Rong’s. If she moved her hands, she forgot to move her feet. If she moved her feet, she had no idea where to put her hands.

She didn’t dare ask the teachers either, so she silently stayed off to the side, watching the video and trying to figure it out herself.

Another two hours passed.

Everyone was exhausted.

There were no fixed class times or breaks. Everything depended on self-discipline.

Once a few people saw that it was getting late, they left to eat.

The moment one person left, others immediately followed.

Within two minutes, half the dance studio had emptied out.

Xia Chunhua had been hungry for a while.

Seeing other people leave, she rubbed her stomach and said to Xu Xiaoye, “Captain, I’m hungry.”

Xu Xiaoye had already learned up to the verse.

Hearing Xia Chunhua say she was hungry, she replied, “It is about time to eat. It’s fine. Go whenever you want.”

Two dimples appeared in Xia Chunhua’s cheeks as she smiled.

She nodded and asked, “Captain, are you coming?”

Xu Xiaoye paused, then shook her head. “You go first. I’ll go later.”

A few minutes after Xia Chunhua left, Kang Yu left too.

The dance studio was almost empty by then, with only a handful of people remaining.

Xu Xiaoye turned and asked An Rong, “Aren’t you hungry?”

An Rong’s stomach was completely empty.

She was so hungry she was practically dizzy.

The tiny amount she’d eaten at noon was nowhere near enough to support this level of physical activity.

But the moment her goddess asked, An Rong immediately put on a grave expression and spoke as though she had infinite energy.

“I got past the hunger. I don’t really feel it anymore.”

In reality, she had gotten past the hunger, only for it to come roaring back again.

Xu Xiaoye frowned slightly.

“If you’re hungry, go find something to eat. Don’t force yourself through it. You’ll ruin your stomach.”

An Rong gave a quiet “Mm.”

“It’s fine. I’ll practice a little longer.”

Since she insisted, Xu Xiaoye didn’t say anything more.

Song Ran was crouched by the wall, lowering her head and poking the floor over and over with one finger.

She had no talent for dancing.

Her singing was decent compared to an ordinary person’s, but she was pretty.

The only reason she had made it this far was basically to fill out the numbers. Only five people had been eliminated in the previous round, so she had been lucky enough to stay.

She hadn’t even signed up of her own accord.

Xu Xiaoye walked over and crouched beside her.

“What’s wrong?”

Song Ran said nothing.

Xu Xiaoye asked again, “Too tired?”

Song Ran shook her head. Her voice trembled slightly, kept deliberately low to hide it.

“No.”

Xu Xiaoye asked, “Too much pressure because you can’t learn it?”

After a moment of silence, Song Ran let out a long breath.

She looked up at Xu Xiaoye and said, “I really can’t do this.”

Even her eyebrows drooped downward.

Her face was pale and bloodless, and she looked utterly defeated.

“I really can’t. I’ve never learned this before. I don’t know how to dance. You guys dance so well, and I don’t even know where to put my hands. I feel like an idiot.”

The despair came straight from her soul.

Xu Xiaoye felt a little helpless too.

Whenever TS recruited trainees each year, situations like this always happened.

For an ordinary person trying to enter this industry, there were always countless hurdles to overcome.

Xu Xiaoye braced a hand against the floor and sat down beside her, clearly settling in for a conversation.

“Then why did you sign up?”

An Rong kept sneaking glances at Xu Xiaoye from time to time.

Seeing that Xu Xiaoye didn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon, she had no choice but to start soothing the nerves in her body that were constantly screaming at her about hunger.

Song Ran said helplessly, “I didn’t sign myself up. My mom did. She thought I might as well give it a try. Even if I don’t make it, two hundred yuan a day means it’s not a loss.”

Very realistic.

Exactly the same as what An Rong herself had originally thought.

Back when An Rong’s sister signed her up, she had asked An Rong’s opinion first.

An Rong had thought it over and figured that at two hundred yuan a day, even if she didn’t win, staying for just ten days read the original at bailiantales.com would still earn her two thousand yuan.

That would cover two months of living expenses at university.

Why wouldn’t she come?

So she came.

Song Ran said miserably, “How was I supposed to know I’d have to keep dancing nonstop after I got here? I don’t even know how.”

Her foundation was about the same as An Rong’s had once been.

For other people, dancing all day might only exhaust them physically.

For her, her mind gave out first.

Constantly comparing herself to everyone else made her repeatedly deny herself, while the intense training constantly made her question whether she was capable at all.

An Rong remembered.

Back then, this had been the first time Xu Xiaoye had ever truly spoken to her at length.

At the time, she had said:

“If you only came here for the two hundred yuan a day, then what are you so nervous about? The next elimination isn’t until the end of the month. Think about it from another angle. Right now, you’re getting [Read on BaiLianTales]paid every day while learning how to dance and sing for free. How many ordinary people ever get an opportunity like that?”

Song Ran stared at her, dumbfounded.

The corners of An Rong’s lips curved slightly as she lowered her head and smiled to herself.

Song Ran blinked.

“But I really can’t do it. I can’t keep up with your pace at all.”

No matter how nicely Xu Xiaoye put it, that reality wouldn’t change.

Xu Xiaoye raised a brow.

“You don’t have to keep up with our pace. Everyone has their own rhythm. Look at An Rong. She doesn’t have any foundation either. Sometimes she even moves the same arm and leg together. But look how carefree she is. She doesn’t care at all. Your mindset is what matters most. If you don’t want to debut, then there’s no need to put so much pressure on yourself. Whatever you don’t know, I can teach you. The teachers can teach you too.”

Nearby, An Rong’s smile gradually vanished as she danced.

She slowly turned her head to look at Xu Xiaoye, her expression extremely innocent.

Who exactly are you dragging into this?

Moving the same arm and leg was an accident!

Who’s carefree?

Who doesn’t care?

Who doesn’t want to debut?

Does being a goddess mean you don’t have to take responsibility for what you say?!

Xu Xiaoye spent a while comforting Song Ran, then personally guided her through the movements she couldn’t do.

When she finally turned around, she discovered that An Rong was somehow still there.

So she casually asked, “Want to go eat?”

An Rong immediately stopped moving and nodded.

“Yes.”

I’ve been waiting for you forever.

Author’s Note:

An Rong: The ultimate form of hidden thirst.