Chapter 8

The trainees who had mocked Qiao Huan and the other three earlier stared at him in astonishment.

Pei Dahai looked puzzled. "You really want to dance?"

After so many years in the entertainment industry, how could Pei Dahai fail to see the little schemes among these trainees?

The other trainees had never gotten along with Qiao Huan and his roommates, so they must have changed the dance track behind their backs.

Zhuo Yang spoke up first. "I'll dance too!"

Ye Yiwei and Bai Jike nodded as well.

This was a chance to steal the spotlight and slap some faces, yet Qiao Huan had asked if they wanted to join him. He was way too nice!

"Tsk." Seeing the way the three brothers looked at Qiao Huan, Pei Dahai secretly shipped them for half a second.

The four of them were still so close. Had he been judging them by his own petty standards?

But dancing wasn't something loyalty alone could get them through.

The people who had danced earlier hadn't actually been bad. After all, they had only changed the track yesterday, so they must have picked dances they had already practiced when they were Trainees at Star Radiance.

The problem was that they thought they had already mastered those dances, so they hadn't put any more effort into polishing them to perfection.

Qiao Huan and the other three, on the other hand, hadn't practiced at all.

Pei Dahai was already looking forward to it.

"Dahai-ge, since this is the first dance assessment for the four from Dorm 404 since they joined Star Radiance, how about I dance with them?" Wei Teng glanced discreetly at his phone before speaking.

It was a rather deliberate psychological tactic. Pei Dahai looked at Qiao Huan, only to find that he merely shrugged, making no comment.

"All right, let's get started."

"Sure thing."

The track soon began, its stirring drumbeats pounding out a powerful rhythm.

Pei Dahai and all the trainees focused their attention on the four from Dorm 404.

Hands up, groove, dougie.

Not only did the four keep up with the music, but their timing and pauses were exceptionally perfect!

Though it was a fast dance, their movements were clean and precise. They also handled the transitions commonly found in boy-group styles such as locking and popping with practiced ease.

In the afternoon practice room, only a slanting beam of sunset streamed slowly through the skylight, tracing the four figures in a thin line of gold and bringing out their unadorned youthful energy!

The dynamic rhythm and their casual clothes suited the choreography far better than the other trainees' elaborate styling!

The trainees who had just been waiting to laugh at them now found their mouths falling open.

Usually, they just thought the four were all kind of weird, but once they started dancing—that power, that control, that form...

Weren't these four Alphas through and through?!

Besides, nothing exposed shortcomings like a comparison.

Wei Teng had been full of confidence at first, but in the second half, watching the four perform, he grew increasingly flustered.

He could still get through the moves by muscle memory, but his whole performance fell apart. By the time he finished, he was panting, with several times more sweat pouring off him than Zhuo Yang, who had just finished working out.

The four of them, meanwhile, were only breathing slightly harder, as though they had barely exerted themselves.

"Awesome!!"

Some of the trainees were only in their teens and still had a bit of admiration for strength in their own sex. Won over at once, they started clapping, their hands going clap-clap-clap.

Pei Dahai and Tao Zhenting exchanged a glance and both smiled.

"Did you just learn this dance?" Pei Dahai's tone was still stern, but his expression had softened.

The trainees might not have been able to see the finer points, but Pei Dahai could.

Their movements were nowhere near as precise and smooth as those of the earlier trainees. They had even skipped some moves altogether, linking the gaps with basic steps. They were clearly unfamiliar with the dance.

Qiao Huan didn't play coy after gaining an advantage and answered truthfully, "Yes."

"You've got some nerve, performing it straightaway without practicing beforehand," Pei Dahai said. "So you remembered most of the moves after watching it a few times?"

Qiao Huan glanced at Wei Teng, then returned to his lazy smile. "Well, we had a kindhearted person helping us out, didn't we?"

"You—" Wei Teng's eyes widened, but even after a long moment, he couldn't think of a comeback.

He couldn't understand how four people who looked like they didn't care about dancing at all could have learned so quickly!

Qiao Huan stretched, looking utterly unconcerned.

But only he knew how much hardship he had endured to reach this level.

At police academy, he had taken an elective in dance fundamentals. His teacher had been a special police officer who had won a world dance championship, so one could imagine the shape he had drilled them into.

Besides, his motor skills and coordination were better than the average person's to begin with, while memory and imitation were unquestionably the most important skills for an undercover agent. Naturally, getting through a one-minute dance was no trouble at all.

The only thing that surprised him a little was that his roommates actually... had some skills too.

He had only asked if they wanted to dance with him out of politeness, but it turned out the three of them had hidden their talents well.

Pei Dahai had already been pleasantly surprised that they could make it through the whole dance, but what satisfied a seasoned veteran like him, who had seen countless people, was that the four weren't merely copying the movements as though doing calisthenics. They had made subtle adjustments to suit their own physical strengths.

Though the adjustments were subconscious and slight, they gave the same movements subtle differences, bringing out the four men's strengths all the more.

That was dance intelligence! That was natural flair!

Qiao Huan hadn't noticed what Pei Dahai was focused on, and neither had the other three.

To them, it was as ordinary as eating a meal.

They had already been through countless rounds of physical training, and what allowed them to excel were these tiny adjustments that suited their individual physical strengths.

Whether dancing or fighting, their movements naturally adjusted to the most suitable position as soon as they began. They did it for ease and efficiency, but in Pei Dahai's eyes, it was rare "natural flair."

"All right, that's it for today. Dismissed, dismissed." Pei Dahai waved them off with a stern face, suppressing the joy in his heart. "You'll need to practice twice as hard from now on. Don't let the company's investment in you go to waste."

"Yes!"

As everyone dispersed, Qiao Huan saw Wei Teng and a few others hurry off. He didn't have to think to know they were going to report to Shi Xingzhou.

Shi Xingzhou probably can't sit still now, can he?

Qiao Huan felt much more at ease.

"Qiao Huan-ge."

Qiao Huan turned to see the frail trainee, Jin Xiaopeng.

"What is it?" Qiao Huan asked. "Didn't you leave with them?"

"No." Jin Xiaopeng paused for a while before saying quietly, "I wanted to apologize. They changed the track at the last minute yesterday, and I didn't know... they hadn't told you."

"Oh, it's fine. Besides, it's not your place to apologize." Qiao Huan had his hands in his pockets and looked unconcerned.

Most trainees came from well-off families, but Jin Xiaopeng's family was poor, and Wei Teng and the others had excluded him plenty because of it.

But looking at his expression, Qiao Huan still felt an instinctive distrust.

He didn't know whether his time undercover was to blame.

As he was thinking, a draft happened to blow through, and Jin Xiaopeng shivered.

There was already a chill in the evening breeze, but Jin Xiaopeng was dressed especially lightly today.

Qiao Huan sighed, took off his jacket, and held it out to him.

Jin Xiaopeng hesitated for a long moment before accepting it. "Thank you, Qiao Huan-ge."

"It's nothing." Qiao Huan waved and walked straight away.

Holding Qiao Huan's jacket, Jin Xiaopeng grew even more nervous.

"Xiaopeng, well done." Shi Xingzhou stepped out of the shadows.

"Starship, older brother." Jin Xiaopeng lowered his head. "I did as you said."

Smiling, Shi Xingzhou took Qiao Huan's jacket and nodded. "Well done."

"Then... can you delete the videos?"

Shi Xingzhou's smile grew brighter. "Of course not, Xiaopeng. Is this all the determination you have to debut?"

A few days ago, Shi Xingzhou had found him and said he would take him out to broaden his horizons, and he had gone along in a daze.

After all, Starship had always seemed so gentle to him, like the sun.

But he hadn't expected that bar to be the beginning of his nightmare.

He had only drunk one glass of alcohol. He couldn't clearly remember what happened afterward, only that when he woke up the next day, his whole body hurt.

The painful memories didn't last long. In the blink of an eye, the devil appeared before him again.

Shi Xingzhou returned with Qiao Huan's jacket and stuffed it into Jin Xiaopeng's hands.

"Take it back to him, thank him, and invite him out for a drink." Shi Xingzhou smiled brightly and gently as he spoke.

But in Jin Xiaopeng's heart, that smile had been utterly shattered.

"Don't worry. Mr. Yue likes you a lot. You won't be short of opportunities afterward." Seeing that Jin Xiaopeng hadn't moved for some time, Shi Xingzhou gave him a gentle pat on the back. "Everyone gets through it this way. Otherwise, with thousands of trainees every year who can sing and dance well, what makes you think you can stand out?"

The etiquette and culture teacher happened to have taken the day off, so after dinner, the trainees had free time.

Qiao Huan saw Ye Yiwei go into Tao Zhenting's room, though he didn't know what questions he had gone to ask. Zhuo Yang, unusually, hadn't given himself extra weighted training either, instead helping the living arrangements coordinator tally the trainees' consumption of supplies.

The dorm room was unusually quiet too. Jiang Renbao had gone to visit another dorm, leaving only Bai Jike playing on his computer one bed away.

Ever since Bai Jike had pulled up the group photo on his phone to confront Shi Xingzhou, the company had confiscated all their phones and, naturally, cut off internet access too.

So Qiao Huan couldn't quite figure out what Bai Jike could do even if he had smuggled a computer in.

Play Minesweeper?

What a mysterious Gen Z kid.

As he was thinking, the door suddenly opened, and Jin Xiaopeng walked in.

"Qiao Huan-ge, here's your jacket."

"You didn't have to be so polite." Qiao Huan took the jacket. "You could have given it back tomorrow."

"Um..." Jin Xiaopeng waited a long time before speaking. "How about I buy you a drink, Qiao Huan-ge? Today, at a bar nearby. What do you think?"

Qiao Huan perked up instantly. "You can get out?"

Normally, trainees like them had a curfew and couldn't get out at all.

Jin Xiaopeng nodded. "I have an access card. We just have to be back before evening roll call."

"Great! Let's go, let's go!" Qiao Huan sprang up with a Carp Flop.

He had been wanting to get out and find a chance to exchange information, to see how the investigation was going.

"Okay..." Jin Xiaopeng hadn't expected Qiao Huan to agree so quickly.

Though he breathed a sigh of relief, he also felt a fresh pang of guilt.

Unexpectedly, just as the two opened the door, they found Zhuo Yang, Ye Yiwei, and Jiang Renbao standing outside.

"Ah." Zhuo Yang cleared his throat. "Are you going out drinking?"

"Why aren't you taking us? Are you forming a little clique?" Jiang Renbao put on a stern expression.

Then, without waiting for an answer, Jiang Renbao pushed them outside, not forgetting to whistle toward the room. "Xiao Bai, are you coming? I'll drive you all in the van."

The socially anxious Xiao Bai immediately shook his head. "No, no, no..."

In the car on the way to the bar.

Bai Jike looked utterly bewildered.

How did I get in the car?

Is this... the forced growth my senior talked about?

One seat away from him, sweat had already soaked the back of Jin Xiaopeng's shirt.

Shi Xingzhou had only told him to bring Qiao Huan, but he had brought everyone from Dorm 404 along. What was he going to do?

If he messed this up, those videos of him would be made public...

Jin Xiaopeng closed his eyes, feeling as though his death was near.

But deep down, he also felt a little envious. Those five were really close.

He looked back at the four in the rear seats. Sure enough, they were all smiling.

This is what trainees should be like, isn't it? Getting along and helping each other, improving together, and doing little "bad things" that break the rules together, just like real brothers...

However, in reality—

Trainee Qiao, who wore a polite smile, was gnashing his teeth inside. The goodwill he had built up toward his roommates while dancing with them had shattered at the slightest touch:

Damn it, I finally get a chance to go out and make contact, so why have these guys tagged along again?!

Author's note:

Ye Yiwei and Zhuo Yang's thoughts: Qiao Huan is a real treasure. He was worried about standing out by dancing alone earlier, so he brought us along. And now, just when we were fretting about not being able to get out and make contact, he knows someone who can get out! I'll definitely buy him a few drinks!

Bai Jike's inner monologue: Sob. I was coding, eating chips, and hacking the network, and then my teammates suddenly kidnapped me.

Jiang Renbao's inner monologue: Emm, it's my first time driving a van. The brake is on the right, isn't it?