On the other side, as soon as Li Jinyuan had hung up the phone, he looked up and saw his three old roommates from during the training period looking squarely at him.
“Phone call with your girlfriend?” One of them asked.
Li Jinyuan busted out laughing. “Of course not.”
The one who asked nodded slightly and said in a low voice, “Good then. Keep in mind that we’ve all signed contracts when we joined the show. We are not allowed to date during the period when the contract is in effect.”
Another one chimed in as well, “Never mind about the contracted period. We can’t date even after the show is over. Once we started dating, our career would be over before it even got started.”
Someone teased, “No worries. Li Jinyuan is still so young. He won’t be dating for a while.”
Li Jinyuan nodded.
Exactly.
He wouldn’t be dating for a while.
He didn’t know how Huo Chengming felt about this, but at least he himself had never considered that possibility.
Picturing Zhong Yuhuan’s look in his head, Li Jinyuan tightened his lips a bit and said, “I was talking to my sister on the phone.”
“What? Li Jinyuan has a sister?”
“She must be very pretty!”
“How old is your sister now? Does she have a boyfriend?”
Li Jinyuan’s face dropped all of a sudden. “Didn’t you just say that we are not allowed to date?”
The others chuckled and said, “We are not the same as you. Even if you don’t get first place, you are still someone that the show wants to come back. There will be companies lining up to sign with you after the show is over. Of course you won’t be able to date. We are just here for the head count. Once it’s over, we are going to go back to become interns… when we can’t even do that anymore, we will just go home.”
“That’s right. I am going to go home and become a piano instructor.”
“I will go open up a bookstore…”
“And that’s why we can date all we want!” said all three of them at them at the same time.
Li Jinyuan: “……”
“My sister is the same age as me. She can’t get married legally yet,” said Li Jinyuan with his brows raised.
One of them patted him on his shoulder and said, “So what? We could be dating for 2-3 years. Then it’d be perfect…”
Li Jinyuan’s face turned dark. “No, you can’t. You are not my sister’s type.”
“Are we not good looking enough?” The three of them looked at each other as they talked.
Of course, they were just kidding. None of them were truly interested.
But Li Jinyuan sulked and stopped talking after giving them a polite smile.
Were they as good looking as him? No, they were not as good looking as him.
***
The group had a short break after another two hours of filming.
Sitting to one side, Li Jinyuan slowly replayed the dancing and singing techniques that were taught to them by the instructors, as well as how to insert one’s emotion into them… that was Li Jinyuan’s weakness.
While he was in his own little world, he heard his three roommates, along with a few other candidates talking about the latest discussions on WeChat.
“That’s so wealthy….”
“So nice to be a Second Generation Rich.”
“This one is pretty!”
“She is very pretty. When she stands in front of the picture, you can’t even tell who’s the art here…”
“I am saving this picture.”
“I am following her as well…”
Li Jinyuan was still quietly going through the lessons in his head, unaffected by what was going on around him.
He didn’t care who was rich or who was pretty. That had nothing to do with him.
Shortly after, the filming of the show resumed. Li Jinyuan quickly put down his cellphone and had no more time to look at the WeChat that Zhong Yuhuan was sending over.