CH 66

Xu Zhaixing rarely saw this kind of heartfelt smile on his face. She would never forget their first meeting after her rebirth — that indifferent and cold light under his eyes.

She was always worried that he was having a bad time.

Nothing was more important than his happiness.

As long as he’s happy, she’s happy.

She held out her hand.

“Brother, I have two big apples, here’s one for you!”

The apple still had small drops of water and its color was red and shiny, contrastint with her pale fingers. Cen Feng only looked at the round finger for a few seconds, then immediately withdrew his gaze and lowered his eyes.

Xu Zhaixing slightly tilted her head to look at him as she smiled stupidly and took a bite of the apple.

The crisp voice sounded cheerfully with the whiff of the apple juice and with a slurred voice she said with her little face bulging.

“Brother, eat more fruit, supplement vitamins.”

Cen Feng smiled and nodded as he also took a bite of the apple.

She curled her eyes happily and asked, as if unintentionally.

“Brother, we are going to record for the second time tomorrow, how are you getting ready?”

Cen Feng said, “Still good.”

He had always been like this; he had an easygoing temperament and seemed to want nothing no matter what situation he was in.

Xu Zhaixing has no position to ask too much. If she did, it would be crossing the line of a fan and would make her idol uncomfortable.

But she was more afraid of going against his true will.

She took two small bites of the apple and finally found the courage to ask.

“Brother, do you want to start a career?”

Cen Feng’s action paused, he lowered his gaze and met her nervous and expectant eyes.

He remembered a long time ago; she had said that when he debut, she would be his number one big fan.

The little girl was probably full of expectations.

He didn’t want to let her down, but he didn’t want to lie to her either.

After a long time, Xu Zhaixing heard him ask a rhetorical question.

“Does it matter if I debut or not?”

Xu Zhaixing’s eyelashes trembled slightly.

“The result is not important as long you enjoy the process.” Cen Feng smiled, reached out, and mussed her bangs.

Xu Zhaixing had an out-of-the-body experience from the conversation she had with Cen Feng. Going head-to-head was a momentary stupidity on her part.  

“Brother Feng, the dishes are getting cold. Where are you?” A few impatient voices came from the distance.

Zhou Mingyu’s voice pulled Xu Zhaixing back from her thoughts.

“I just saw that the staff took brother Feng away. Are they going to bully brother Feng?! Find them and hand them over!”

Xu Zhaixing shivered and came back to her senses, and when she looked up at Cen Feng, he looked helpless as if he had a headache and whispered to her.

“I have to go back.”

Xu Zhaixing giggled and waved her hand.

“Oh, oh, goodbye brother! Eat more food, more meat, more fruits, and vegetables.”

Cen Feng shook the big apple in his hand.

“I will eat it.”

Zhou Mingyu was outside. Xu Zhaixing didn’t dare to go out rashly, so she could only wave her hands and watch her idol turn and leave. When he was far away, only did she peek out to see.

Several teenagers surrounded him in the middle, jumping up and down around him. Zhou Mingyu wanted to touch his apple, but he hit the back of his hand with a slap, complaining about something, and retracted his hand.

Laughter filled the air. Cen Feng’s back no longer seemed so lonely.

It had been a long, long time since she had seen him get along so well with the world.

She had not seen him get along with the world so happily for a long time.

Was debuting important?

Does the answer matter?

No, as long as he’s having fun, nothing matters.

The second recording went as planned.

This time, the recording consisted of releasing the theme song of “Teen Idol” as the trainees officially entered the training stage. Early in the morning, the 100 trainees arrived at the filming hall wearing clothes that represented their respective ranks.

The director asked for different colors of clothes to sit together, and the F class was a mass of gray. It looked like there was no life at all, Shi Ran said despondently.

“Pink is a little difficult, so this round we need to try to get a yellow.”

Zhou Mingyu: “I don’t engage in pornography1. I’m a good socialist youth. You’d better not engage in pornography. Be careful that the audience will report you.”

(TN1– yellow also and has character for pornography)

Shi Ran burst out laughing and hit him , which made Zhou Mingyu hide behind Cen Feng.

After playing around for a while, the mentors came in.

Everyone stood up to greet each other, and Zhao Jinjin stood in the middle with a microphone and asked with a smile.

“I haven’t seen you for a few days, you all seem to be well-rested and have a lot of energy.”

After a few words, Ning Sile announced his task this time.

Theme song recording.

Several mentors and Zhao Jinjin both walked to the side of the stage to reveal the big screen behind them, Zhao Jinjin then said.

“First, let’s look at the theme song of our ‘Teen Idol’, ‘Sun And Young’.”

Everyone cheered for a while first, then the video recorded by the choreography team began to play on the big screen.

A song full of enthusiasm and energy, with a very nice melody and nice dance moves. But it’s also really hard, with high notes and rap in the lyrics, and lots of dancing.

Class A lived up to their names of top trainees. They learned some of the moves just by watching. Class B and C didn’t grasp the moves as well, but they were all observing and learning their actions very carefully. The worst was class F.

It was okay if they didn’t get any single action, but they also don’t remember even a single word of the song.

When the video was broadcasted, it was like Zhang Wuji learning martial arts with Zhang Sanfeng. They all forget.

Zhao Jinjin walked back to the middle of the stage.

“How was it? Does it sound good? Is it good?” She asked, smiling.

“It sounds good! It looks good! It’s just too difficult!” Everyone answered.

Zhao Jinjin raised her eyebrow.

“It should not be difficult for you to sing this song. This work was composed by teacher Zhong Ya, and arranged by our temporary mentor Guo Zhen.”

Trainees: “—WOW!

After the wow, the gloominess continued.

Zhao Jinjin clapped her hands.

“Oh, be confident. I’ll give you three days, and you’ll be all right!”

Trainees: “???”

What did you say? Three days?

This time even the trainees of Class A were frozen.

A new song, a new dance.  Nevermind the singing and dancing, but how could this song that should at least take a week to learn, only be given three days? Were they joking when they said three days?

Zhao Jinjin was not, in fact, joking with them. She continued to announce the rules following the card in her hand.

“Three days later, the four mentors will re-rate the performance according to your theme song. At that time, the selection level will directly affect the choice of performing songs in the next recording. In the next three days, please go all out and create miracles.”

The scene was one of mourning.

After each saying a few more words of encouragement, the mentors left together. The theme song video started playing again on the big screen, in an attempt to familiarize the trainees with the melody.

Originally, the atmosphere of class F was already low, but now the atmosphere was even more depressing. After watching the video twice, Shi Ran found that there was a dejected look around him. He took advantage of the gap between the prelude to cheer everyone up.

“What you all looked you were already eliminated even before it started?”

The trainee next to him simply looked ashen.

“What’s the difference between this and elimination? Three days? I’m sure I can’t learn anything. It’s too hard, it’s really too hard woo woo.”

Shi Ran slapped him heavily.

“How do you know you can’t do it before you try? And even if we don’t know how to do it, don’t we still have big brother in class A?”

After saying this, he called Ying Xuzhe who was already practicing one of the moves they learned on the video.

“A’Ze, you are willing to teach us!”

Ying Xuze turned around and threw a wink at him.

“Willing, wait for brother ah!”

Shi Ran raised his eyebrows in satisfaction.

“See? With the big brother around, we’re not afraid.”

That being said, the worry was still there. So what if one of the trainees from class A was there to help? No matter how good a teacher was, they never saw students getting a 100% score on the test.

After broadcasting the theme song five times, the crew had the trainees change venues and move to their respective classrooms.

Each level from ABCDF had a different room, and when the trainees arrived, each classroom already has a mentor waiting inside.

Zhao Jinjin was in class A.

“You’re not surprised to see me, are you?” She said as soon as everyone came in.

“Not surprised! Already guessed it!” Everyone replied in unison.

She couldn’t sing or dance, so unlike other mentors she couldn’t give any help, and since class A was strong and do not desperately in need of guidance like the other classes, she was given this class.

When the other mentors finished teaching the other four classes and came to Class A, all thirteen of them could really sing and dance along.

Shi Lin was in charge of teaching vocals, Ning Sile and Yao Sheng were in charge of dancing, Chu Xinyang was in charge of teaching rap, and of course, there were teachers from the theme song choreography team. Basically, each section was taught separately.

The trainees practiced the whole song from morning to evening, spending the entire day learning it.

Once the mentor left Class F, everyone immediately forgot everything that was taught.

Zhou Mingyu had never been trained with such intensity, and the whole person fell to the ground as if his arms and legs had been picked off.

The rap part of Shi Ran’s song was very good. He was praised by Chu Xinyang just now, but he couldn’t hit the high note and keep up with the dance moves. He Sinian’s strength should also have been integrated, but the whole was also in a collapsed state.

After dinner, everyone continued to practice but the result was not even up to standard. They knew they were wrong but didn’t know how to fix it.

Originally, they wanted to go to class A for help, but Shi Ran went around and came back alone. Ying Xuze was also practicing fiercely, although he was quite skilled, the time given to them was short and everyone needed to work hard. They couldn’t waste other people’s practice time.

Shi Ran was full of confidence before but now he also looks downcast.

“Why didn’t I go to a big Fortune 500 company for an internship and come here to be a trainee?” Zhou Mingyu lay on the floor in a 大 figure, looking at the ceiling and muttering.

“You’re regretting now? It’s too late.” Shi Ran said breathlessly.

He Sinian finished the drinks sent by the captain and stood up to encourage everyone.

“It’s only the first day, there’s still enough time, keep practicing, you can always learn, get up and cheer up!”

Neither Zhou Mingyu nor Shi Yan moved.

He looked aggressively at Cen Feng who was sitting in the corner.

Cen Feng: “….”

Had no other choice but to dance with these children.

He didn’t really open his mouth or move much when he was learning today, paddling in the last row. And since F class was crowded the mentor didn’t notice him.

Once they both moved, Shi Ran also came to life, dragging the dead dog-like Zhou Mingyu up and yelling,

“All in class F, what qualifications are there for not working hard!”

Invigorated by his words, the trainees all struggled to stand up and continue training.

They practiced until the early hours of the morning. Everyone went back to their bedrooms one by one, though a few slept directly on the floor of the practice room.

The four people from room 302 went back to the dormitory to rest. After all, they needed to rest well to continue to work. The next morning, when it was still early in the morning, He Sian got up and shouted again and again with his small voice.

“Wake up, wake up, it’s time to go to practice, time is precious.”

“If you don’t shut up, I’ll cover you up!” Shi Ran threw a pillow over.

He Sinian: “All in class F, what qualification is there not to work hard?”

Shi Ran: “….”

He got up in grief and anger, followed by shaking both Zhou Mingyu and Cen Feng up.

A few people casually wash up, usually as long as they face the camera, they would always put on foundation however Shi Ran this time showed his bare face to the audience. Four people went downstairs to the kiosk to buy bread for breakfast and once again stepped into the practice with the moonlight that has yet dispersed.

It was another full day of exhausting training.

Today, the teacher came to teach again. Ying Xuze also came and corrected some of their unnecessary actions, but only while the teacher was present.

“Eh how did that move go again?”

“How many beats does fly sound?”

“Left foot or right foot first? Left foot, right hand or right hand, left foot?”

“Ahhhhhhhhhh I’m going crazy!”

Having been practicing until the evening, Zhou Mingyu was in a 大 shape on the ground wailing.

“Let me go, let me go, I want to go, I want to go back to school, I’m still a young male college student, what wrong did I do?”

He Sinian could now basically stumble through a few moves, but he could either only dance, or only sing, and not both. Shi Ran’s soprano was barely able to improve, but not his dance did not. Even now, he still hadn’t  memorized the entire routine.

Tomorrow was the last day, and the day after tomorrow they would face the examination.

And they haven’t even learned the moves yet.

The whole class F was gloomy.

Shi Ran started dancing again, but because he was in a hurry, he tripped over and fell to the floor with a bang. He Sinian hurriedly pulled him up.

Shi Ran grimaced and did not get up for a while. Momentarily grief-stricken, he punched the floor, almost crying.

As he was pounding, his wrist was squeezed in a not-so-gentle manner.

When he looked up, Cen Feng was half crouched in front of him.

He still had the same unperturbed look and said in a light tone.

“Get up, I’ll teach you.”

Shi Ran was stunned: “You’ll teach me?”

Cen Feng nodded and pulled him up from the ground.

“En, I’ll teach.”