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With another companion to spur him on, he could hold out just a little longer.

That was the effect he wanted.

In the blink of an eye, it was two in the afternoon, and the theme song evaluation officially began.

All the trainees recorded their evaluation videos in their respective classes according to their grades. The videos would be submitted to the mentors for regrading, and the final results would be announced tomorrow.

Before entering the Class F practice room, Lai Yudong happened to spot Liang Zhisheng and Zhou Rui in the neighboring class's line. He quietly called their names, then smiled and made a gesture of encouragement.

"Good luck," he mouthed.

[The socially anxious boy bravely takes his first step]

[I'm crying, baby Yuzu has made new friends]

[An outgoing Youshu! Hooray!]

Lai Yudong: "..."

Hey, this was his real personality!

Inside the Class F practice room, all the trainees sat against the wall in three rows. An action camera surrounded by cameras stood in the very center, which meant they would soon record their evaluation videos one by one under everyone's gaze.

Lai Yudong felt an oppressive weight that was hard to ignore. Aside from his nerves about the evaluation, most of it came from the atmosphere around him.

A glance around showed solemn faces everywhere. Those doing a little better were reviewing the choreography with small hand movements. Others either sat rooted to the spot, still as wooden chickens, or fidgeted as they checked on everyone else one by one for reassurance. Some even quietly asked the people beside them which move went with a particular lyric.

It was hard not to suspect that some of them hadn't learned the theme song.

[There are so many people in Class F. This is going to take hours...]

[Class A finished in half an hour, 233]

[The sooner you record, the sooner you're free. The longer you wait, the more agonizing it gets]

Lai Yudong thought so too.

By a rough estimate, Class F would need about three hours to record. Waiting too long would not only leave him numb, but he would also be affected by the people who went before him. An excellent performance would put pressure on him, while a mistake would leave him worried he might make one too.

Once everything was ready, the production team asked, "Who wants to go first?"

"..."

Dead silence was the answer.

Lai Yudong silently lowered his head. Wanting to get the evaluation over with early wasn't the same as wanting to go first.

After a few seconds of stalemate, a hand went up in the crowd. "I'll go."

Pei Lan, who had started out as a model, stood up from the back row. He walked unhurriedly toward the camera in the center, his height, which looked to be about 1.9 meters, casting the people beside him into shadow like a towering tree.

Lai Yudong's first impression of him was complicated.

It wasn't because Pei Lan had done anything controversial. Rather, his fashionable air was somewhat reminiscent of the 3D trendy guy on a dance machine, so much so that a single glance filled Lai Yudong with awe.

Whenever Pei Lan danced, he wanted to follow along.

Subjective factors aside, Pei Lan was one of the few Class F trainees who were often praised in class. He was quick to grasp things, and he could usually correct problems the teacher pointed out on the spot and get them right in one try. He was a genuinely gifted contestant.

Even Lai Yudong couldn't get things right in one try. His talent lay in his memory, but his limbs wouldn't obey his brain. He had to practice a move several times, or even dozens of times, before he could barely absorb it. The upside was that he saved a lot of time on rote memorization.

Pei Lan pressed the camera's record button. Once the red light began flashing, he took his position in front of the lens.

A few seconds later, the music started, and countless pairs of eyes turned toward him in unison. Everyone wanted to know how skilled the first person was.

At first, Pei Lan performed as well as expected. He corrected the dance teacher's criticism that he was "holding back his arms and legs," extending every move and carrying it through as fully as he could. His dancing flowed smoothly, without a trace of sluggishness. His singing wasn't very steady, but he wasn't out of breath, and there was no telling he had only trained for three months.

But starting with the dance break, the power behind his moves dropped sharply, and his voice began to waver. By the final section, his panting was clearly audible.

Pei Lan wasn't the only one who struggled more as he danced. Many people after him were the same, but at least he danced all the way through. Toward the end, some people sang only a few lines here and there, while others simply danced without singing at all.

The reasons were simple: first, they had exhausted themselves by going too hard at the start; second, they lacked the stamina to last through a whole song.

[This is a little boring. There hasn't been anything worth watching in Class F so far]

[That was so explosive, and you still say there's nothing to see? My ears are about to bleed]

[That's probably not the kind of thing they wanted to see, hahahaha]

[Oh, oh, oh! Yuzu's up!]

[Now there's something truly worth watching]

[Something worth watching in the literal sense? www]

The enthusiastic bullet comments floated above the camera, pressing down on Lai Yudong like the Five-Finger Mountain bearing down harder and harder. He took a deep breath and called on the system to turn them off.

Sorry, his experience during the last in-class test was still fresh in his mind.

Until he was confident enough in his abilities not to be affected, please forgive him for eliminating as many distractions as possible.

Lai Yudong lowered his head and held his starting pose. The thumping of his heart drowned out the noise around him, and he blocked everything out like the bullet comments, as though he were the only person in the practice room.

The moment the music began, its beat fell exactly in time with his heartbeat. He suddenly lifted his gaze and raised his head, a faint smile curving his lips. Then came the shoulder shake he had practiced countless times, his hair dancing with the movement.

His timing was precise; he was like a different person from the one in the little test.

For the simplest of movements, just raising his head, Su Junzhe had corrected him no fewer than twenty times. He had shaken his shoulders until they were nearly dislocated, and even then he had only barely been let off because time was short.

After the sequence during the intro ended, Lai Yudong silently counted three beats and sang the first line: "In the darkness, I hear you calling..."

Even though he had practiced day and night for three whole days, he still wasn't confident about the reevaluation. It wasn't as if he hadn't watched the results in a mirror; he knew what his skills were like.

Completing the performance from start to finish without any obvious mistakes was his only requirement, and also his only advantage that offered hope of moving up a class.