Ch20 - There’s Always a Ghost More Diligent Than the Human
At 5:30 in the morning, the large dance studio was dark and completely empty.
Han Tianyu fearfully asked his teammates if they had heard the sound of music just now, and he stood frozen at the doorway, not daring to enter.
Xu Haoming pursed his lips and nodded his head, his expression heavy. Han Tianyu was not the only one who had heard the music, and the situation in front of him reminded him of when the power and water supply got cut out, back when they first entered this apartment.
“What music? Maybe it’s just conditioning from practising too many times.” Song Zhe found an excuse that seemed to make sense and was trying to persuade the others as well as himself.
Even if it was a conditioned reaction, that didn’t explain group hallucinations.
Xu Haoming thought about this in his head, but didn’t say it out loud. He unconsciously looked towards Lu Xu. Because of what happened last time, it was as if this boy was his pill of reassurance, even if he was only 18 years old.
“Morning, Master Lu Xu!”
“Good morning, Master!”
The F4 who had been busy practising had quickly stopped their movements when they heard people approaching and greeted Lu Xu formally.
Lu Xu tilted his head and smiled, then squeezed through the door past Han Tianyu to turn on the lights, and also didn’t forget to turn on the music. “All right, there are still four hours left until the evaluation test. We should make full use of our time and practise again.”
Han Tianyu tossed his fear to the back of his mind, and rushed into the dance studio to warm up his body. “Aaaaa, put on the music, I want to go through it a couple more times.”
Xu Haoming said in understanding , “Don’t rush us, didn’t Xu ge already go to put it on?”
Song Zhe laughed and shook his head. They felt that compared to seeing ghosts, the re-evaluations were way scarier.
As A-rank members, if they were demoted in the second round of evaluations, it would be very embarrassing. The one who danced the best would have the chance to be in the center position for the theme song’s MV. Who wouldn’t want to be that lucky person chosen out of the hundred people?
There were many people who wanted to bring their A-game. Lu Xu and the others had only practised the dance twice before the sounds of movement and chatter came in from outside. It was clear that everyone placed a lot of importance on this re-evaluation, just that what level or standard they were at would only be determined at the end.
“Look at you kids, dancing yourselves into all sorts of states.” In the director’s office, Fan Zeng said to the four instructors as he sat in front of the monitors, watching the hundred trainees passionately practising in their dance studios.
Three days was not a long amount of time, but it was enough for a boy group member to prepare a dance.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Qin Kewei watched the screen without blinking. “Fan ge, don’t speak too soon. I saw some in C-rank and D-rank who dance pretty well. This battle of the ranks is fierce just by thinking about it.”
Shen Chengyu snickered. “You’ll get screen time with competition of course. Truth be told, I’m looking forward to the performances of these students.”
Gu Wenan had seen Ji Xiunian appear in the A-rank dance studio, and couldn’t help but say, “Let’s go let’s go. The students are all in the dance studios, shouldn’t we instructors go and cheer them on a bit?”
The A-rank trainees generally had a high level of finesse to their dance. Lu Xu was in the middle of the group, moving his body to the music. He lifted his head after finishing the dance, and saw the reflection of Ji Xiunian pushing open the door in the mirror.
Ji Xiunian was tall and handsome, and he also had a strong celebrity aura around him. When he came in, everyone naturally noticed it.
“Nian ge, good morning!”
“Good morning, everyone.” Greetings came one after another. Ji Xiunian smiled at them, and then found a corner to stand in so he wouldn’t be intrusive. “I just came in to have a look. Just keep doing your own dancing.”
It was clear that Ji Xiunian was popular among the trainees. Just one look at him hyped up a person’s mood, and it even brought more power to their dance.
Other than the seven people in A-rank, the F4 members were in the middle of the group and following the music.
He Xinghua had been very focused on his dancing, but since Ji Xiunian’s entrance, it felt like there was another pair of eyes on him.
He couldn’t help but turn his head back and look, his expression suspicious. “Brothers, why do Ifeel like Instructor Ji is watching us?”
Tao Yingbo looked backwards when he heard that, and saw that Ji Xiunian didn’t seem to be looking at him, and laughed at He Xinghua for fussing. “He’s obviously looking at Master Lu Xu, how did it turn into him looking at you? And think about it, he’s a human, how can he just see ghosts all casually like that?”
It did make sense when it was put that way.
He Xinghua nodded suspiciously and said to Lu Xu, “Even Instructor Ji is watching you, looks like your debut is more or less guaranteed.”
Lu Xu heard their words and only laughed in response. He didn’t care who Ji Xiunian was looking at.
It didn’t matter what the reason for Ji Xiunian’s interest in him was, just as long as he could cleanse this stowaway.
On the other side, Ji Xiunian’s gaze was indeed on Lu Xu, though not only on him.
In all fairness, Lu Xu’s dancing really was quite good, it was just that the four things by his side were far too conspicuous.
The three who had the same clothes seemed to be quite good at dancing, they didn’t look lacklustre at all even amidst the A-rank trainees. Even the older one in the printed shirt, who was dancing a bit reluctantly, was obviously not on the same level.
The trainees had a break in the middle, only the four ghosts didn’t slack off and kept dancing to the music.
Ji Xiunian had initially seen them as trouble, but now his feelings were a bit complicated––
He never thought that those ghosts wouldn’t have done anything to Lu Xu, instead they only practised their dancing passionately.
Not only did they dance, they also danced very seriously. It could be said that they were sincerely and honestly dancing.
Only when it was breakfast time did the A-rank trainees stop.
“We really gave it our absolute best, there probably isn’t anyone else more diligent than us.” The singer Chai Siyuan had never thought that he would ever work overtime to dance, so he couldn’t help but say this.
The others couldn’t help but agree. “That’s right that’s right. There are 24 hours in a day, and we dance for more than 10 hours. How can anyone be more diligent than us?”
Ji Xiunian was quiet, his gaze unconsciously falling on those four ghosts––
If it came to diligence, those four were truly diligent.
To work so hard even as a ghost, it couldn’t have been easy.
At 10 A.M., ‘Birth of an Idol’ finally welcomed the filming for its second round of evaluations.
The trainees finished drawing their appearance orders, and split up into four groups in the recording studio, all of them dressed in their respective rank’s colours.
“Xu ge, I’m number 51, which number are you?” Xu Lele had been looking everywhere, and waved when he saw Lu Xu before going towards him.
Lu Xu smiled a bit and waved the number in his hand, his beautiful peach blossom eyes calm. “Four.”
“Eh? Number four again.” Xu Lele couldn’t help but scratch his head. It looked like Xu ge had been number four ever since the first day of filming.
Other people would have thought that the homonym of the number was inauspicious, but Lu Xu had said that the number four was his lucky number?
Xu Lele had always been superstitious, but he immediately thought on the bright side, and said a bit excitedly, “You got your lucky number, maybe you might get center position today!”
“Pft…”
Someone beside them let out a laugh, thinking that Xu Lele was bold for saying that.
There were a hundred people standing here, all of them having trained longer than Lu Xu had.
Perhaps singing ability could depend on natural talent, but dancing is completely different okay?
“It’s good to have confidence, but you shouldn’t have blind faith.”
“Exactly, you need to have the capability to become center position.” The person who spoke was called Chu Zhengqing. He had begun learning how to dance when he was four years old, and up until this day, had been dancing for 18 years. Although he had been sent to B-rank, he was confident that he could flip the tables with his dancing.
He had always thought that it was unfair for a newbie like Lu Xu to have entered A-rank based on singing alone, and hearing Xu Lele’s admiration for Lu Xu made him feel arrogant. When his friend spoke up, he couldn’t help but add in a word of his own. With the two of them each saying something, it was like they were mocking Lu Xu for not knowing his limitations.
“Hey, what do you mean by that? You dare to question our Master’s abilities!” He Xinghua was angry when he heard those words, and rolled up his sleeves before charging forward.
The other three were unwilling to be outdone, and each of them ran towards the two who had spoken ill of Lu Xu, and blew strongly on their backs.
“So cold!”
Originally, the resentful Chu Zhengqing and his friend thought that the air conditioning had broken, but seeing that no one else had reacted, it really was quite strange.
As the subject of their ire, Lu Xu just curled his lips up in a smile. He didn’t care what others thought of him. He just stood there quietly in his position, waiting for the evaluations to start.
Fan Zeng looked at those youthful faces on the screen, and picked up his walkie-talkie. “The recording is about to begin. All teams, standby… Three, two, one, action!”