Chapter 7

Which talent show was he on before? Idol Producer, Youth With You, or Produce Camp?]

[Doesn't seem like any of them. Could he be a nobody?!]

[A nobody?! No wonder that pretty boy signed with such a nugu company!]

[Listen to me. If he switches to a big company now and they market him as a god-tier visual, he might blow up right away! I think Triumph Entertainment is a good choice.]

[SOS! Is the person above trying to ruin him?! Stay away from Triumph and run! Who still doesn't know Triumph Entertainment has gone bankrupt?!]

Backstage, Gu Zhijing, the nobody touching up his makeup, had no idea that netizens had already dug up everything about him.

The bullet comments had also veered from asking which company the handsome young man belonged to and what kind of nugu company and group this was, all the way to debating which idol company in the Chinese entertainment industry was still reasonably reliable and hadn't been cursed into bankruptcy by its fans.

He only wondered why he kept getting kicked out when he tried to enter the livestream.

After repeatedly checking that his phone's internet connection was fine and that he could enter other livestreams, Gu Zhijing paused, then suddenly smiled.

He switched out again to take a look.

The viewer count displayed outside the livestream was steadily climbing.

Gu Zhijing had been a little worried that Qi Wang might not give up.

But with so many people watching now, he probably wouldn't, and wouldn't dare, pull any more tricks.

Outside, Fei Yue began calling all the trainees back to the stage.

Gu Zhijing put away his phone and returned to the stage.

Announcing the rankings in public was always a nerve-racking and exciting affair.

Another wave of viewers flooded into the livestream.

"First of all, congratulations to all the trainees on completing the July evaluation."

Fei Yue said, "Compared to last time, most of you have made great progress."

"Of course, what surprised me even more was that Sheng Chi, who was participating in an evaluation for the first time, gave such an outstanding performance."

Qi Wang's expression stiffened further.

The rankings were announced from lowest to highest.

Gu Zhijing quietly calculated in his head.

The song he had drawn this time wasn't suitable. He could fool the audience, but he certainly wouldn't pass muster with the professional instructors. With Sheng Chi added to the mix, he figured a conservative estimate would put him around sixth or seventh.

To his surprise, sixth and seventh place were announced without his name coming up.

Gu Zhijing focused slightly, listening as Fei Yue continued, "Fifth place."

"Gu Zhijing."

Gu Zhijing froze for a moment. With his half-baked training, this was a very good ranking.

He had heard there were five spots in the debut group.

This time, he had just barely made the cutoff.

The camera moved in and focused on Gu Zhijing.

He looked up, a moment of bewilderment in his peach blossom eyes before they quickly curved.

The spotlights fell on him, as though tiny fragments of starlight were hidden in his eyes.

The livestream immediately suffered another major lag.

Completely unaware that his beauty had slain countless viewers, Gu Zhijing bowed politely and said, "Thank you, instructors. Thank you, Brother Fei."

Fei Yue smiled. "Keep it up."

Fourth and third place went to Xu Linyuan and Jiang Yu, respectively.

Xu Linyuan's performance was consistently solid, and he knew how to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses, so he had always stayed around third or fourth place.

Jiang Yu, meanwhile, had taken third place for the first time.

He was a little disappointed, but quickly pulled himself together and gave his thanks.

"Next comes the contest for first and second place."

Fei Yue glanced down at the livestream's popularity and decided to stretch things out. "Qi Wang, Sheng Chi, do you have anything to say?"

For the first time, Qi Wang was nervous. "...No."

Sheng Chi lowered his eyes for a moment, then said, "I trust the instructors' choice."

Fei Yue smiled faintly. "All right."

In that instant, time seemed to stretch on.

But the result had to come eventually.

"Second place, Qi Wang."

"Congratulations to Sheng Chi on taking first place in the July evaluation."

After the results were announced, the trainees returned to their dorms to rest.

Once off the stage, Qi Wang vanished without a trace, apparently with no intention of showing up to honor the bet.

Sheng Chi didn't seem to have remembered it either.

After all, the other trainees were congratulating him, and he was busy dealing with people he knew and didn't know. He really couldn't get away.

After most of the trainees had packed up and left, Gu Zhijing was the last to come over. He smiled and said, "Congratulations, Brother Chi."

"Mm," Sheng Chi replied. "Let's go back to the dorm."

After they had walked for a while and no one was around, Sheng Chi finally said, "The evaluation just now..."

He paused. "Was the draw rigged?"

Gu Zhijing raised an eyebrow.

He neither admitted nor denied it, only smiling. "Why do you think that?"

Sheng Chi was silent for a moment. "The instructor called me over alone before and asked about my background."

"When he asked what dance style I was good at, I said breaking."

Breaking was the most difficult style of modern street dance.

Perhaps the song originally meant to make things difficult for him involved breaking, and they had switched it to this one after learning he was good at it. Gu Zhijing fell into thought.

"Burning" mainly featured popping. Although it wasn't the hardest style, it still took several years of practice to perform onstage, and even someone who had learned it might not necessarily perform it well.

That was why most of the trainees had been unable to master it at the time.

Yet they had chosen to toss this hot potato to Sheng Chi.

Sheng Chi said calmly, "Luckily, there really isn't a dance style I'm bad at."

Qi Wang's attempt to make things difficult for him had instead helped him, becoming solid proof of his ability.

"Good that you know."

Gu Zhijing gave a faint smile. "Otherwise, Jiang Yu wouldn't resent him so much."

Sheng Chi understood, then seemed to remember something. "Then your ranking last time..."

"That wasn't it."

Guessing what Sheng Chi wanted to ask, Gu Zhijing spoke first. "Last time, it was because of... some problems of my own."

He lowered his eyes for a moment, then quickly glossed over it without going into detail. "Qi Wang and I didn't have any problems before, and my ranking posed no threat to him at all, so he had no need to pay attention to me."

He seemed to be in an excellent frame of mind, the corners of his eyes still curved with a hint of amusement as he half-joked, "Besides, at my level, there's nothing unreasonable about coming last once. It makes perfect sense."

Sheng Chi was silent for a while, then asked, "Don't you want to debut?"

Gu Zhijing only shook his head and said casually, "It's not up to me whether I debut or not. I'll just let nature take its course."

Sheng Chi: "...?"

When he had been training in South Korea, he had practically fought his way up.

Chinese trainees were already in a difficult position in South Korea. If they slacked off even a little, they could very well be eliminated outright.

So he found it hard to understand Gu Zhijing's thinking.

Gu Zhijing's current ranking was right on the edge, at a height where he could reach the moon if he jumped.

If it were anyone else, they would have been putting in a hundred and twenty percent and fighting for a chance.

But his attitude seemed to be: I'm not jumping. Whoever wants to can jump. If I debut, I'm lucky; if I don't, that's my fate.

Sheng Chi figured he was another young master from a wealthy family who didn't care whether he debuted or not.

Perhaps it was precisely because he had a fallback that he had shown no hostility or rejection toward Sheng Chi, the newcomer dropped in from above.

Seeing him fall silent again and not knowing why he had asked, Gu Zhijing smiled. "What's wrong?"

Sheng Chi shouldn't have meddled.

But he suddenly remembered what Fei Yue had said on the day he signed his contract.

Fei Yue had told him he could lead the trainees in their training and then form a group in a style he liked. If he were the leader...

What kind of members would he want?

Sheng Chi looked at Gu Zhijing.

The young man before him was bright and dazzling onstage, sincere and gentle offstage.

He was a little clever and also had a few thoughts of his own hidden away.

He wasn't an idol on the conventional path. He wasn't deeply attached to his dream, and his attitude was carefree and lax. He was like a little stray cat that had wandered into someone else's territory by mistake, yet had no intention of leaving. Instead, he wagged his tail, built himself a comfortable, soft nest, and simply settled in.

It was very strange.

If he were to form a group...

Of course he wanted members who were skilled and capable.

But most importantly, they had to have the talent and potential to be idols, and be worthy of the name.

Gu Zhijing's talent shouldn't be wasted like this.

Sheng Chi suddenly said, "The final debut evaluation is at the end of September."

"You have two more chances."

Gu Zhijing didn't catch on. "Hm?"

Sheng Chi looked at him and asked again, phrasing it differently. "Do you want to debut?"

Gu Zhijing was stunned for a moment.

His heart beat a little faster. He frowned slightly and grew serious too. "...What do you mean?"

Sheng Chi held still for a long time before speaking as though he had made up his mind.

"If you want to debut..."

"I can help you."

Chapter 8

Gu Zhijing really had been indifferent about debuting.

After all, he genuinely hadn't thought he could debut in the first place.

Yet somehow, by a twist of fate, he had ended up on the edge of a debut position, and now a big shot had outright offered to take him under his wing.

Good things kept falling into his lap.

He'd be a fool not to take advantage of them.

He just didn't know what Sheng Chi's intentions were.

Gu Zhijing thought about it and decided it was probably so there would be one fewer person he disliked in the eventual debut group.

He paused, then asked again, "You're not joking?"

Sheng Chi nodded.

Gu Zhijing's eyes curved as he smiled. "Sure. With Brother Chi guiding me, what do I have to worry about?"

Sheng Chi's tense shoulders immediately relaxed a little.

The corners of his mouth curved upward slightly without his noticing, then flattened again. "Okay, it's a deal."

The first step in training Gu Zhijing was, of course, to get his body clock back on track.

At eight thirty the next morning, Sheng Chi woke Gu Zhijing up.

"...??!!"

Roused from sleep, Gu Zhijing blearily glanced at his phone. Once he saw the time, he burrowed under the covers. "Come on, Brother, look how early it is."

"Mornings are the best time, and the practice room is emptiest then."

Sheng Chi's expression didn't change. "Get up and train."

Under the covers, Gu Zhijing mumbled nonsense. "I know, I know, but can we respect objective reality when we do things? For example, what's the point of life if you don't sleep until the afternoon-"

Sheng Chi: "..."

Gu Zhijing's twisted logic didn't soften his heart, but it did wake Jiang Yu and Xu Linyuan.

Jiang Yu was already bad-tempered when woken up. He grumbled irritably, "What are you two doing so early in the morning?! If you're going to argue, go outside. If you're going to fight, do it in bed."

Gu Zhijing: "?"

Determined that if he went down, everyone would go down with him, he steeled himself and decided to drag the whole dorm into it. "Brother Chi, look, you can't just guide me alone!! We're all friends!! You should help the others too, shouldn't you?"

Sheng Chi glanced at him and cut that idea short with one sentence. "I only said I'd help you."

"The others aren't within my scope for now."

Gu Zhijing: "???"

Jiang Yu: "..."

Xu Linyuan: "..."

Fine, the two of them would just keep pretending to sleep.

After blaming everyone and everything, Gu Zhijing could only blame himself for agreeing in a moment of impulse yesterday. No amount of wailing did him any good, and he was forcibly dragged to the practice room.

So when Xu Linyuan and Jiang Yu went to the practice room for class that afternoon, they found an utterly exhausted Gu Zhijing.

As soon as he saw them, he clutched his chest and coughed several times, the corners of his peach blossom eyes slightly red, as though he had only one breath left.

Xu Linyuan: "..."

He studied him for a second, then said mercilessly, "Save it. Stop pretending."

Jiang Yu said, "Oh, right, where's Brother Sheng Chi?"

"No fun."

Gu Zhijing tugged at his collar and returned to normal in a second. He deliberately sighed. "We've been roommates for so long, and you didn't even ask how I was when you came in. All you wanted to know was where Brother Chi went."

"He just went out to get some water. He'll definitely be back before class starts."

Xu Linyuan glanced at his watch. "Ten minutes left."

Jiang Yu glanced around the practice room. "Why does it look like not everyone's here?"

The moment he finished speaking, the door creaked open.

Qi Wang walked in.

As soon as he entered, everyone turned to look at him in unison.