Ch16 - I Know the Answer to This

Dance was something that truly tested the comprehensive abilities of a person.

Just memorizing moves did not mean one could dance well; the key was having a feel for the dance.

A-rank’s progress was the fastest compared to the other ranks. Five of the seven were almost at the skill of a professional boyband. Lu Xu and Chai Siyuan, who had relied on their singing to enter A-rank, were lagging behind.

After a few hours, the dance instructor finished teaching them the movements. The evaluation in three days would completely depend on how the trainees handled their performances.

“It’s too hard, I might as well give up.” Chai Siyuan sat on the floor of the dance practice room, so tired he was gasping for breath. Even though he usually worked out, dancing for this long had used up a lot of his physical strength.

Forget about him, even the BTT members who had been rehearsing dances for years were sweating all over and had to stop for a rest.

In the practice room, only Lu Xu continued to listen to the music and familiarise himself with the moves. Although he couldn’t dance as well as Song Zhe and the others, his rate of improvement was visible even to the naked eye.

Chai Siyuan opened a bottle of water and took a few gulps. He weakly asked Lu Xu, “You’ve already practiced for 7 or 8 hours, aren’t you tired?”

Lu Xu handsomely turned around in a circle and looked over to his side, his body gracefully light. He took off his headphones and smiled at Chai Siyuan, responding honestly, “I’m okay, I’m not tired.”

After he said this, the others stared at Lu Xu, their eyes full of doubt.

They had been dancing from morning until now with barely any rest. Even an extremely physically fit young adult would be exhausted by this amount of exercise.

“Even if you want to improve, you shouldn’t force yourself. It’ll be troublesome if you overexert yourself.”

“Right, it’s really not good to force yourself.”

The other two BTT members were not familiar with Lu Xu and only thought this person was pushing himself too hard for the sake of screentime.

Song Zhe thought for a moment, then also advised Lu Xu, “It’s better to take it step by step. If you’re tired you should rest.”

“Thanks.” Lu Xu raised the corners of his mouth slightly. After he thanked Song Zhe and the others for their goodwill, he continued practicing his movements.

Lu Xu danced all the way into the evening.

Everyone discovered at this time that his stamina was really very good.

Lu Xu was nearing ten hours of practice. He should have been exhausted a long time ago, but  after this strenuous practice, instead of becoming slower, his movements became more and more fluid.

He was already good-looking with excellent body proportions. Now that he had learned how to dance along with the music, he looked like a proper boy group candidate.

The people who had previously thought Lu Xu was just trying to show off had refreshed their worldviews and discovered the new limits of the human body.

“I can’t, I really can’t, I can’t move anymore.” Although Han Tianyu and the others had not admitted it out loud, they had secretly laughed and wanted to compete with Lu Xu to show him the capabilities of his seniors.

But after this day was over, they had discovered that Lu Xu was not at all a didi.

Chai Siyuan had hoped Lu Xu would accompany him in being a rookie, yet he realised now that he was the only newbie there.

“Lu ge, your physique is too strong, come come come, let’s go over it a few more times.”

Chai Siyuan of course knew Lu Xu was the youngest in their group, but he was so convinced by Lu Xu’s abilities that he could only call him ge. After seeing Lu Xu practice so diligently, he couldn’t give up on himself. Even if he was already prepared to be demoted in ranking, seeing that Lu Xu would not rest, he was motivated into keeping up with him.

Noticing that the hands of the clock on the wall was pointing towards 9 o’clock, Lu Xu finally concluded his practice. “Let’s not. I’m used to sleeping early so let’s stop here today.”

Chai Siyuan began to laugh. “Hahaha, I didn’t know you were a health-conscious boy.”

Lu Xu nodded and didn’t forget to ask the others, “Are you going to keep practicing or are you going to come with me back to the dorm?”

Xu Haoming wanted to go back with him but his other bandmates were still rehearsing. It wouldn’t be good if he left first by himself.

Song Zhe glanced at the time and said to Lu Xu, “We’ll probably dance until 11, you should go back and rest first.”

“Okay.”

Lu Xu waved at them and leisurely walked out.

He walked down the hallway and found that every practice room was filled with many trainees. No matter what level their dancing was at, they at least put in the effort.

Apparently the trainee who put in the most hours of practice would receive a mysterious reward. Lu Xu didn’t plan on joining in on the fun; he had clients to meet at night. Collecting souls was his main job.

Lu Xu first went back to the dorm to shower, then changed into blue-and-white sportswear and went downstairs.

When he managed to avoid others and push open the door of the storage room, he saw a completely different interior. It had obviously just been cleaned.

“Master Lu Xu, you came.” He Xinghua started calling out when he saw Lu Xu’s ghostly, glowing eyes.

“Shush!” Lu Xu put a finger to his lips, signaling that he should stop wailing to avoid attracting the attention of others.

He Xinghua stopped immediately, making a zipping motion across his mouth. He was afraid Lu Xu would have some objection towards him.

“Master Lu Xu, please sit.” Tao Yingbo pulled over a chair, his tone overly courteous.

The four ghosts stood stiffly in a line in front of Lu Xu, their moods uneasy.

They had crossed paths with those from the Grim Reaper Bureau before, but at that time they hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary, so all they had done was simply register their information.

Now that they had been caught in the act of scaring people, the worst part being that they had tried to scare an actual grim reaper, only the heavens knew if Lu Xu would do anything about it.

Lu Xu sat on the chair, checking each of the ghosts’ background information on his phone.

All four of them had reasons as to why they were restrained to the mortal world; they had stayed there for so long that they could be considered typical difficult clients. If he could send all of them to the underworld, he would definitely get a few extra points on his performance review.

Lu Xu became extremely happy thinking of the four orders he had just picked up for free. His gaze towards the ghosts carried a hint of enthusiasm. “Do I need to introduce myself?”

The F4 immediately waved their hands. “No need no need, we all know who you are.”

“That’s good. I see that you’ve remained in the mortal realm for quite some time. Have you considered going to the underworld road?”

Lu Xu had just washed his hair and his slightly curly bangs hung down. Along with his clean blue-and-white sportswear, he looked refreshingly handsome. At first glance, he looked as friendly as the didi next door.

Compared to the southwest division’s cold reapers clad in suits, Lu Xu looked much more likely to gain the trust of clients.

He Xinghua realized that Lu Xu didn’t mean any harm towards them and raised his hand, nodding. “Master Lu Xu, to be honest I want to reincarnate too, but I haven’t achieved my dream of standing on stage yet. We can’t leave.”

His groupmates nodded along with him. It seemed that they had no other choice.

Tao Yingbo’s expression was depressed and he sobbed to Lu Xu, “I also don’t want to be stuck here, but when I think about how my songs are under someone else’s name, I cannot die in peace.”

A good understanding of a client’s requests was the key to the successful completion of an order.

Lu Xu nodded as he listened, then first asked He Xinghua and his two bandmates, “You can leave after you perform on stage?”

The three ghosts looked at each other, then all nodded at Lu Xu at the same time. “We can leave after performing on stage.”

Lu Xu turned and asked Tao Yingbo, “You’ll go to the underworld road after you get your credit back?”

Tao Yingbo nodded. “Mn, I’ll go to the road after I get my credit.”

“OK, here’s the client registration form. Confirm the information. If there are no problems I’ll take the order.”

The grim reaper app was a very intelligent AI software. The grim reapers could use it to not only snatch new orders, but also find a historical record of their orders.

For those like the apartment building’s F4, although they were within the jurisdiction of the Southwest Grim Reaper Division, they were not registered and Lu Xu thus had the authority to take their cases.

“Master Lu Xu, will you actually help us?” Tao Yingbo’s tone was uncertain. He wasn’t sure if he could trust Lu Xu.

He Xinghua and the others followed Tao Yingbo’s example; their attitudes were a bit hesitant.

Lu Xu didn’t take any offense to it and explained, “Do you know who is first in performance quota at the Grim Reaper Bureau?”

He Xinghua raised his hand. “I know, it’s you, Master Lu Xu!”

“Then do you know who is first place in client ratings at the Grim Reaper Bureau?”

He Xinghua raised his hand again. “It’s still you, Master!”

Lu Xu was exceedingly popular in the ghost realm. For example, Xiao Bai jiejie and her group of ghost sisters were all Lu Xu’s fangirls. Every time the underworld government compiled its end-of-year reports, Xiao Bai jiejie would immediately ask her ghost social circle to promote news about Lu Xu and didn’t forget to have the group of ghosts who had not yet reincarnated give him 5 star ratings.

One could say Lu Xu was the ghost realm’s most capable and popular representative. Thinking of his outstanding resume, He Xinghua finally felt relieved. “Master Lu Xu, I believe you.”

After saying this, he signed the contract, the first to confirm his attitude.

The other three saw this and also signed their contracts. They reached a cooperative agreement.

Getting four orders at once meant that this week’s performance quota would be met, at least.

“Right, do any of you know where that female ghost went?”

“Master, you must be talking about the hanged ghost.” He Xinghua shook his head to indicate he wasn’t familiar with her. “That female ghost only arrived a few days ago. We’re not clear on her situation.”

Tao Yingbo agreed and added, “Right, she’s not a resident ghost. Maybe she was scared off yesterday after learning you were here.”

Lu Xu thought for a bit. It seemed that when he saw her last night, it really had been the last time.

Anyway, it wasn’t an urgent order. He didn’t need to mind it too much.

Lu Xu put it out of his mind for the moment and focused on making plans for his new clients. “Now that you’ve decided to leave, you must strive hard for your goals. No more wailing or screaming to scare strangers again.”

The world under the sun and the world beneath the moon were two different realms. Lu Xu hoped the dead would rest peacefully and the living would not be in fear.

“We won’t do it ever again.” The apartment F4 hurriedly raised their hands and swore. “Then, Master, can we move about freely like we did before?”

They had lived in the building for so long and naturally were not used to suddenly being confined.

Lu Xu didn’t force them. “As long as you don’t disturb people, do whatever you want.”

“That’s great!”

“So we can watch them rehearse, right? I haven’t danced in a long time, I’ve been wanting to exercise.”

When Lu Xu left the storage room, the apartment F4 followed behind him, wanting to move around in the dance practice room.

But when they turned around the corner, they ran into Ji Xiunian, who was walking out of the mentors’ quarters.

Lu Xu moved to the side, naturally and politely greeting, “Good evening, Nian ge.”

“Good evening.”

This was the first time Ji Xiunian had seen Lu Xu with his bangs down. He thought that it made him look very young.

The blue-and-white sportswear made him overflow with youthful, spring energy.

He wasn’t familiar with Lu Xu, so Ji Xiunian merely returned his greeting politely. His gaze went behind Lu Xu and landed on the F4—three of them seemed rather young, but they wore ill-fitting long sleeves and pants. The one wearing a printed shirt in the back looked older than the others; no matter how he looked at him, he didn’t seem like an idol trainee.

Ji Xiunian only felt that the four of them looked unfamiliar and couldn’t help but ask, “What rank are the four of you? Why don’t I remember any of you…”