The corner of Shen Xingshuo's mouth twitched wildly. He figured Qiao Luo had never even admitted that the two of them were together, so where had this heartbreak come from?
Chu Yao paid no attention. The eighteen-year-old boy cried like a complete idiot. "He won't travel with me. He must not like me anymore."
Shen Xingshuo resisted the urge to slap him and shook his arm in disgust. "Bro, do we know each other?"
"You already admitted I'm your bro, and now you're saying we don't know each other?" Chu Yao seemed even more shocked. He had never expected "people's hearts to be so wicked," and raised his voice to keep wailing.
Driven to roll his eyes, Shen Xingshuo even wondered whether Chu Yao had drunk counterfeit liquor.
He casually picked up the coffee to look. Oh, wow. It really did contain alcohol.
Unfortunately, Qiao Luo had already left. Though Shen Xingshuo didn't want to get involved, he couldn't very well abandon someone who was crying and calling him bro. He had no choice but to shoulder the miserable task of carrying Chu Yao back.
When Shen Yu saw his second brother return after having just brought him home, he tilted his head in confusion, then spotted the drunken Chu Yao.
"Fine, just let him lie on the couch." Shen Xingshuo dumped him in the living room, not forgetting to remind his silly little brother before leaving.
"At most, put a blanket over him. Don't go into someone else's room without permission." Chu Yao's background was complicated, after all, and there was no guarantee that his room was safe.
Shen Yu nodded, only half understanding. Following Shen Xingshuo's instructions, he covered Chu Yao with a blanket, then happily went to bed.
Shen Xingshuo returned to the dorm under cover of night. Some rooms already had their lights out, and Qiao Luo let out a particular sigh of relief upon seeing him.
"I thought you'd been abducted. I nearly called the police." Qiao Luo was clearly in a much better mood and could even joke with Shen Xingshuo.
"I couldn't sleep, so I went out for two cups of coffee." Remembering how he had been forced to take someone home, Shen Xingshuo gave Qiao Luo a meaningful look.
Qiao Luo's expression stiffened, as though he hadn't expected that answer. Couldn't sleep? So he drank coffee?
Sitting on his bed, Yang Yi watched the two getting along. He was displeased but dared not show it. Shen Yu accompanying Shen Xingshuo when he left had clearly become a thorn in Yang Yi's side.
Once the audience became familiar with the trainees, the production team worried that too many livestreams would split the viewers, so they removed the dorm cameras and used the classrooms as their fixed camera locations.
Even so, Yang Yi didn't dare speak carelessly. After all, he himself was good at seizing on little problems, and he feared leaving something that could be used against him through a moment's inattention.
People's hearts were inscrutable at night, and Shen Xingshuo hadn't slept a wink. When he arrived at the training room the next day, he yawned one after another, his eyes full of utter despair.
Shen Xingshuo felt deeply that he had sacrificed too much for his dream, forcing himself through enough late nights to go from a "little study slave" to a "grown-up corporate slave."
After all, Shen Xingshuo had never gotten up early since starting university. Now he had devoted all those early mornings to his career.
"Were you out stealing?" Seeing Shen Xingshuo practically fall asleep on his feet, Yang Yi asked in genuine confusion, "How can you be this sleepy?"
Thinking of the tangled saga of grudges and love that only got worse the more he reviewed it, Shen Xingshuo rolled his eyes irritably, his words carrying a sarcastic edge. "Maybe it was those two cups of coffee."
Qiao Luo: ...
Wanting to ask but holding it back, Qiao Luo vividly demonstrated what it meant to go for wool and come home shorn. His face flushed red with frustration.
The camera promptly captured this pair of bickering frenemies: the sarcastic Shen Xingshuo and the frustrated, gloomy Qiao Luo. Even the viewers couldn't help wondering what the joke about "coffee" was.
He Rui was a very conscientious instructor, giving each group of students professional guidance, but he ran into an obstacle with Shen Xingshuo's group.
There was no helping it. The team hadn't discussed anything at all, and no one had spoken in the group chat they had set up. Now they could only stare at their mentor.
As the mentor's "favored" student, Yang Yi's face burned with embarrassment. Catching Shen Xingshuo's indifferent expression out of the corner of his eye, he gritted his teeth and suggested, "A softer, slower song would be easier to pick up."
After all, that was his comfort zone. Though Qiao Luo was also very capable, there were always other ways to outshine him.
Unexpectedly, Mo Zeyao was the first to object, the young man's usually cold face full of rejection. "Every round affects the rankings and advancement. If the performance doesn't stand out, it'll be hard to attract votes."
After all, each viewer only had one vote. Only an outstanding performance could make a difference; blending into the crowd would probably make it hard to build a lead in votes.
Qiao Luo nodded in agreement. Though he was also good at sweet songs, he understood even better how important an outstanding performance was to the score.
His suggestion had been rejected, and by the very person he most wanted to win over. Yang Yi could only suppress his anger for now and wait for everyone to discuss it.
Under the camera, none of the team looked particularly happy. Shen Xingshuo leaned fearlessly against the wall, then suddenly spotted a familiar little tuft of hair sticking up beyond the window.
Apparently not tall enough, the little fellow was trying hard to jump up, but only his bowl cut showed.
The next second, the bowl cut revealed its true identity. Held up in someone's arms, Shen Yu gripped the windowsill with both hands, and his big, furtive eyes met Shen Xingshuo's dangerous gaze.
Shen Xingshuo's face darkened. He wanted nothing more than to go outside and smack the disobedient little fellow's bottom.
To leave space for the leg-stretching equipment, the practice room's windows had been built very high. Shen Yu was clearly only able to poke his head into view because someone was holding him.
Obviously, this was extremely dangerous. One careless move, and both of them could fall headfirst to the ground.
Seeing his second brother's anger, Shen Yu swiftly patted the head beside him, then dropped back down with a whoosh.
"Did you see anything?" The camera wasn't pointed at Shen Xingshuo at every moment. Unable to sit still, Shen Yu had brought Chu Yao along, and the two had eagerly come to the venue despite the blazing sun.
"No." With his feet back on the ground, Shen Yu planted his hands on his hips in a huff, his voice aggrieved. "I have to avoid the cameras, find the right person, and hear what they're saying, too."
"Do I have eyes that see a thousand miles, or ears that hear on the wind?"
Chu Yao shut his mouth and leaned against the wall unhappily. The two dejected figures looked as though they were reflecting on their mistakes with their backs to the wall.
"Speaking of which, who was the guy who brought me back yesterday?" Chu Yao asked casually. "He looked so familiar in the surveillance footage."
"You even checked the surveillance footage?" Shen Yu was incredulous, his big eyes full of suspicion. "Don't drunk people forget everything?"
"Me? Drunk?" Chu Yao was just about to argue, but as he remembered clinging to someone and sobbing, his forceful voice grew quieter and quieter. "I won't hold that against you."
"You have a really good memory." Shen Yu wagged his head, but there was a sneaky smile on his face.
If Chu Yao found out that the bro he had clung to while crying his heart out was Shen Xingshuo, whom he had still been looking down on the day before yesterday, there was no telling how entertaining that scene would be.
Growing more engrossed in their conversation, the two sat cross-legged on the floor. An assistant, afraid of not taking good enough care of them, even brought over a blanket and snacks.
Inside the classroom, the group discussing the performance parted on bad terms. He Rui also worried that things might get out of control on camera, so he told them to discuss it among themselves.
The eight filed out. Shen Xingshuo, at the front, had only just reached the doorway when he saw the two having a picnic in the corridor, and his head immediately throbbed with pain.
"What are you two doing?"
"Second... Xingshuo!" Shen Yu had just been about to call out to him when he saw the others following behind. Puffing out his little cheeks, he changed what he was saying.
"Ah... huh?" Seeing the cold-faced Shen Xingshuo, Chu Yao's voice veered in excitement.
"Bro, I finally found you!"