Dorm Assignments

There was just one exception.

"Tch, who's losing their mind in the middle of the night?" The one who snapped back was a red-haired boy whose voice alone made him sound hot-tempered. He was a little louder than the person who had spoken before. "Can't you keep your mouth shut when there are no cameras around?"

"..."

An eerie silence fell over everyone.

Lai Yudong was stunned. He couldn't help casting the boy an admiring look.

A real badass had appeared.

Chapter 11: Dorm Assignments

The badass who had snapped back was named Li Xu, a Class B trainee and designated rapper. He was one of the few trainees whose names Lai Yudong could currently match to their faces.

There was no particular reason Li Xu had left such a deep impression on him. It was just that his hair was dyed a flashy red, making him stand out in a crowd. Now, after those mocking remarks about Max, it was hard for Lai Yudong not to notice him.

Unfortunately, the cameras hadn't caught the exchange. Otherwise, it surely would have won this hot-tempered young man some popularity.

The awkward atmosphere lingered in silence for a few seconds.

Soon, everyone went back to chatting and laughing as though nothing had happened, as if that snide remark had been a collective hallucination.

Lai Yudong followed a staff member to the bus outside the recording venue. Before boarding, he noticed Zhao Yifeng in front of another bus, waving to the fans in the distance. He immediately caught on and likewise smiled and waved goodbye in that direction.

That was close, that was close. He'd almost overlooked them because he was so sleepy.

He couldn't forget basic courtesy.

Lai Yudong was among the last to board, and the bus was nearly full. He found an empty seat at random near the back, and the person sitting beside it happened to be Li Xu.

Lai Yudong was hesitating over how to politely and simply ask if he could sit there when the red-haired boy looked up at him and said, in a tone that was neither warm nor cold, "Sit down. What are you standing there for?"

Lai Yudong hurriedly sat down and turned his head, intending to give a friendly introduction, but the other boy looked as though he wanted no one bothering him. He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes to rest.

Lai Yudong smiled helplessly, withdrew his gaze, and looked straight ahead.

The clock on the bus read 4:40 a.m.

No wonder he was so sleepy. It would be dawn before long.

On the way back to the dorms, most of them were so tired they could barely muster any energy. The few who were still wide awake took that into consideration and thoughtfully kept quiet, leaving the bus so silent that all they could hear was the sound of it moving.

Lai Yudong shed his impeccable posture and slumped bonelessly in his seat. The heater was set just right, and his frozen body gradually warmed up.

He stared blankly at the seat back in front of him. The scene before his eyes was like a painting with ink bleeding across the paper, as though a blur filter had been laid over it, urging him to close his eyes.

The swaying bus made Lai Yudong dizzy. He wanted to nap for a little while, only to be forcibly yanked out of his drowsiness by a turn or a bump. He didn't know how long the ordeal lasted before someone gave him a few careless pushes, and he finally opened his eyes, still half asleep.

"Hey, wake up."

A head of vivid red hair came into view. Lai Yudong rubbed his eyes, but before he spent a few seconds bringing the blurry double image into focus as a clear face, he had already recognized the other boy by that unmistakable feature. "Thank you, Li Xu."

"Huh? You actually remember my name?" Li Xu raised an eyebrow. He quickly glanced down at his clothes and showed a look of understanding. "I almost forgot, there's a name tag on my clothes."

"I..."

Li Xu waved a hand dismissively. "All right, all right, quit dawdling. Are you planning to spend the night on the bus? Get up and let me out."

He really was impatient.

Lai Yudong remarked to himself as he obediently followed the people in front of him off the bus.

The production team had sent the luggage ahead and left it outside the dormitory building for everyone to claim. Lai Yudong mingled anxiously with the crowd and actually found a suitcase labeled "Miura Yuki."

He let out a long breath. Thank goodness the system hadn't screwed him over. Otherwise, how would he have been any different from the one fool on a school outing who brought only a backpack and no snacks?

Lai Yudong lifted the suitcase slightly to gauge its weight. Its lightness made him pause for a moment. He set it down as though nothing were wrong, his clumsy acting reaching its peak at that moment.

...Hopefully it isn't empty.

Given how thick-skinned that unscrupulous system was, it might actually have done something like that.

After claiming their luggage, everyone entered the first-floor lobby of the trainee dormitory. The people who had been listless on the bus moments ago grew noisy despite themselves. Their living environment was a very important matter, and curiosity mingled with anticipation, spurring them to go and see for themselves.

Of course, assigning dorm rooms wasn't enough to wake them up like rubbing medicated oil on their temples. The most important reason was that the cameras were on.

[First]

[The livestream notification gave me a fright]

[If my phone isn't malfunctioning, it should be 4:52 a.m. right now]

[I can't keep watching. I'll wait for the recording...]

[? I went to sleep and woke up. How are they still filming?]

Lai Yudong started at the sudden reappearance of the bullet comments.

"Quiet, quiet, everyone listen up." A staff member stood in the middle of the first-floor lobby, holding a megaphone to maintain order. "Gather here at eleven this morning. The content and rules of the Theme Song Assessment will be announced then."

As soon as the bombshell dropped, a chorus of groans rose from the trainees—

"We don't get a day off? We're starting today?"

"They're pushing us this hard on the first day? Won't they be the death of me later on?"

"How are we supposed to get up!"

"Eleven? In the morning??" Liu Qichu had somehow appeared beside Lai Yudong. He held up his watch, his expression instantly turning mournful. "It's only a few minutes till five!"

In stark contrast was Su Junzhe, standing beside them. The two had happened to sit next to each other on the bus. The curly-haired boy in a beret yawned lazily. "It's all right. We can get six hours of sleep when we go back."

"What six hours? We still have to get our dorm assignments, take off our makeup, and shower. It'll probably be six by the time we get into bed! It'll already be light out!"