Chapter 148: Don't spy your fellow trainee spying you

Xi Zirui makes an effort to. Namely, he leaves the dorm room the next day.

The other trainees all give him a wide berth, as if seeing an endangered creature venture out of its enclosure for the first time.

Han Yu hovers around him like an anxious helicopter. Always an arm's length away like he's afraid Xi Zirui will forget about him if he moves outside his line of sight.

They all have breakfast together in the living room, some trainees eating around the kitchen island and on the counters, others spread out across sofas and rugs.

Xi Zirui eats some savory congee Han Yu makes for the two of them, while on the receiving end of Shen Yun's stinkeye.

"Some people really enjoy dragging their teammates down," Shen Yun says, swirling a spoon into his already soggy cereal. "If we don't perform well on Sunday's exhibition, people from our team will be kicked out of the show."

Xi Zirui would be heartbroken and inconsolable if Shen Yun was included in that group.

Across from Xi Zirui, the floppy haired boy nods. "You're already a weak dancer, you need to make an effort during practice with Liao laoshi."

He managed to escape practice all of yesterday with Bai Mi and Su Xueyi, but since this week's presentation's focus is on the dance numbers, they're having more lessons with Liao Min than any of the other mentors.

Xi Zirui can't imagine she'll be all that thrilled to see him again.

---

He's right.

Liao Min's eagle eyes zero in on him as soon as he steps through the studio doors.

"You," she yells, motioning him forward. "And you," she calls towards Jin Ranyu.

The two of them make their way towards her, who gives them both a long look of appraisal.

"You're our best dancer," she tells Jin Ranyu with a curt nod of approval, and then turns to Xi Zirui, "You're our worst."

Jin Ranyu seems as uncomfortable with the praise as he is with Xi Zirui being criticized right next to him.

"I want you to dance the 'lovelorn lovers duet' on Sunday," Liao Min says, a smirk pulling at the corner of her lips.

Xi Zirui is confused for a moment until he gets it.

They're from different teams, it won't give their respective teams either an unfair advantage (in Jin Ranyu's case) or an unfair disadvantage (in Xi Zirui's case) during the group performances if they dance with each other, instead of with the rest of their teammates.

Liao Min is basically evening out the playing field without showing favoritism to either team.

It's a really decent thing to do -- not that Xi Zirui expected something different from her -- but it puts him on the receiving end of several pairs of disapproving eyes.

Jin Ranyu is handsome and speaks very little until something gets on his nerves -- there are several boys who wish they could dance with him.

Cao Fei looks on the verge of bursting into a sad song.

Shen Yun looks like he ate something sour.

And when Xi Zirui looks around for Han Yu, he can't find him anywhere.

"You're going to practice in the smaller room," Liao Min says tilting her head to the side, indicating a mirrored door to their right. "I'll check on you from time to time. You both know the choreography, get to it."

---

Xi Zirui is beat after a day of practicing. Jin Ranyu was surprisingly patient with him, and since there isn't the faintest sliver of attraction between the two of them, Xi Zirui was able to relax and let himself go with the music without fearing he was about to pop a boner in front of the cameras.

As a result he danced much more fluidly and was less stiff each time Liao Min came in to check on them and make corrections and adjustments.

He's still by no means good, but Jin Ranyu is perhaps good enough to mask most of his incompetence during Sunday's performance.

Han Yu is oddly quiet when they meet back at the house. 

The production organizes a Mario Kart tournament for them as an evening activity, and while Xi Zirui manages to work up some excitement at the prospect of playing a game he loves, but hasn't played in what feels like years -- Han Yu is too glum to even chose a character when they team up against Shen Yun and one of his cronies.

They manage to eke out a win even with Han Yu's lackluster effort, but Xi Zirui is still bothered by his unusually frosty demeanor.

He might still be hurt after what he saw in the interview, but that doesn't mean he doesn't worry about Han Yu. 

That would be impossible.

He bumps his shoulder against Han Yu's once he passes his controller to someone else. "What's going on?"

They're both sitting on the floor at the foot of the sofa. Han Yu draws his shoulders up in an awkward shrug. "Nothing, how was practice with Ranyu?"

"It was fine, I think I'm dancing better" Xi Zirui says, not seeing the connection between his question and Han Yu's follow up.

He has his suspicions though.

Excusing himself, he leaves the living room and makes his way to the bathroom, entering a stall in order to check the day's footage.

NNI makes a compilation of all their daily activities into a daily episode, ahead of the Sunday episode when trainees are voted out.

Xi Zirui doesn't have the patience to tab through an entire episode looking for Han Yu but thankfully the show has a list of highlight clips on their website.

One of them immediately catches his eye: "Jealous Han Yu." From the thumbnail he can tell the footage was taken when they were in Liao Min's dance studio.

He clicks play.

As soon as the video stars the screen is immediately overwhelmed by barrage comments(1), some of them displaying their support for several trainees (Xi Zirui is dismayed to see Shen Yun's name pop up often) but many commenting on the Yurui CP. With some disparaging it as clearly manufacture on Han Yu's part, while others insist it's genuine.

[DDDD: This clip is so good I can't stop watching T-T My CP is more real than me]

[11111: Your CP is a marketing ploy!]

[Egg Yolk: No, Yurui is real love!!!]

[Overwhelmed: All these geges are so handsome a shy girl like me doesn't even know where to look *-*]

[89t3: Look somewhere else, most of them are gay]

Xi Zirui is so distracted by the many conflicting comments flying over the screen that he forgets to pay attention to what's happening.

He replays the video and watches as Han Yu breaks away from the Jade team training Group to sneak into the side room where Xi Zirui and Jin Ranyu are practicing -- a cameraman following after him at a distance.

Xi Zirui has no recollection of Han Yu entering the room, he was probably to focused on not stepping on Jin Ranyu's feet to pay attention to anything else, but the video shows the moment Han Yu sees him being lifted in the air by Jin Ranyu's strong arms, and then trailing a hand down his arm all the way to his neck before being gently lowered to the floor again.

The camera films Han Yu's reflection on the mirror, so it's possible to see his face fall completely the second Xi Zirui touches Jin Ranyu.

[DDDD: Look at his little face ahhhh what a sad vinegar jar ~~so cute~~]

[sdnw: Bro, you have known this guy for three days...maybe chill with the jealousy, wtf?]

[1111: Ok he's a good actor I'll give him that, but it's obvious he knows he's being filmed! He's just putting on a show for the cameras]

Xi Zirui smiles a little to himself. Han Yu's sad face is rather cute.

He watches Xi Zirui and Jin Ranyu practice their dance for a while longer before leaving with his head lowered.

[try it: I dunno, I'm feeling a lot of chemistry between Ruirui and Ranran *-* Ranrui is the real deal]

[faded: some of you will ship any two people who look at each other for more than five seconds istg]

[owl: some of us are single, have some respect]

There's not much else to the video after that, just Han Yu returning to the other room, looking dejected and sallow.

Seeing that look on his face is all the proof Xi Zirui needs. You can't fake that kind of despair -- Han Yu looks like someone who just watched the last train to a new life leave the station, never to return.

He said he'd give Han Yu a week to prove his words, but in the end he only needed a day.

Xi Zirui turns off the holo screen and smirks to himself -- not that Han Yu needs to know right away.

Maybe a little vinegar will jog his memory.

---

(1) barrage comments are popular in China. It's basically a wall of horizontally scrolling comments superimposed over the video as it plays. Just go to bilibili and click on any random video and you'll see it