Did Not Say Anything About My Feelings - Chapter 28. Seventeen

The day right before the public performance, the trainees spent almost 24 hours in the classroom. They even sent two trainees from each team to get takeaway from the canteen for their lunch and dinner, eating in the classroom.

Because they were worried that their stomach would have issues on the day of the public performance, they did not eat very oily food for dinner. When Wen Mian saw the vegetables in their takeaway boxes, he turned to look at the camera that was moving about in the corner of the classroom. He lowered his voice and pretended to look sad, “If the fans saw this, they would probably cry and say, ‘my son is so pitiful, he’s unable to even eat meat. What do you want to eat? Mom will take out her wallet and help you buy it’.”

Qi Huan added with great sincerity, “If you don’t work hard at voting today, your son won’t be able to eat meat tomorrow.”

­Lin Ye poured cold water on them from the side, “This scene might not even be broadcasted.”

When they heard this, the other team members that were close to the middle in ranking sighed.

During dinnertime, Jiang Lian was not there. The remaining four people in Team A made jokes from time to time, but Yan Changfei kept standing up to leave the classroom, and even when he sat down, he was distracted.

The public performance was coming up, and if anyone had any problems, it would affect the whole team no matter what. Qi Huan could not help but ask Wen Mian, who stayed in the same hostel as Yan Changfei, “What’s the matter with him?”

Wen Mian frowned and said, “One of his family members became seriously sick and was hospitalized. The production team gave him special permission and returned his phone to him, allowing him to keep in contact with his family members.”

The remaining three people that did not know about the matter were stunned, not knowing how to comfort Yan Changfei.

When Wen Mian saw this, he relaxed his brows and smiled, “With Yan Changfei’s personality, he’s not used to people comforting him, all you need to do is treat him as you normally do.”

Hence, the others did not bring it up again.

They ate and Jiang Lian returned to the classroom. The six of them entered the small classroom to rehearse and the trainees from other classrooms came over to check on the enemy. All of them gathered at the doorway and exclaimed, “This group’s dance is so neat. Fortunately, we aren’t in their opponent team.”

The contestants in Team B immediately retorted, “Our team’s dance is also very orderly, alright? We are equal in strength with their team.”

The trainees that were there to find out about the enemy thought that he was being insistent because he was feeling guilty and laughed at the Team B trainee, “Alright, alright, alright, your team’s the strongest. Okay?”

The members of Team B raised their eyebrows and put their arms around the other’s necks and waists, messing around with them.

Jiang Lian paused the music and went to close the door, turning to talk to his five teammates, “What he said was right. In terms of the overall strength of our team, Ming Rang’s team is indeed on par with us. We should not relax on the last night.”

Cheng Chi asked, “Are we going to stay up all night tonight?”

Jiang Lian did not answer immediately, looking at the five of them, “Are the five of you able to persevere and stay up all night?”

Lin Ye thought about it, “I should be fine.”

The remaining four also said, “I have no problem with that.”

Jiang Lian nodded, “Then let’s see how the situation is like later.”

By midnight, there was not a single classroom in the whole training building with their lights switched off. After two more hours, it was around two to three in the morning, and only then were there the sounds of footsteps from outside the classroom. The trainees were leaving one by one.

On the other hand, there was not a single trainee that returned to the hostel to sleep in Class A’s classroom.

The continuous hours of high-intensity practice made everyone extremely tired, and their body was soaked in sweat.

When they stopped to take a water break, Jiang Lian took down the video recorder from the stand, sitting down on the floor, “Let’s rest for ten minutes and watch the video.”

The team members that had separated to drink water and wipe their sweat off put down the things in their hands, crowding around Jiang Lian. Yan Changfei sat on the left of Jiang Lian and Qi Huan and Cheng Chi sat on the right of Jiang Lian.

Lin Ye had reached Jiang Lian too late and missed the chance to get the best seat to watch the video from. He could only go to the back and kneel on one knee behind Jiang Lian, lifting his head to look through the gap between Yan Changfei and Jiang Lian.

Wen Mian was the last to come over. Even though it was late in the night, he was still in high spirits. He threw down the towel he was using to wipe his sweat and ran over to jump onto Lin Ye’s back, a hand wrapping around Lin Ye’s neck as he rested most of his weight on Lin Ye’s back.

Caught off guard by Wen Mian jumping on him, Lin Ye leaned forward, his chest bumping into Jiang Lian’s back, his chin knocking on Jiang Lian’s shoulder. In his frenzy, he lifted his hands and hugged the other’s neck.

It was like he was hugging Jiang Lian from behind.

Jiang Lian turned his face to the side and glanced at him.

Lin Ye’s eyelids twitched from Jiang Lian’s look. He was about to open his mouth to explain when he realized that Jiang Lian did not say anything before turning his face back. He even used his fingertips to press on the screen, his tone was as normal as he started to discuss the matter with Yan Changfei.

Lin Ye was slightly stunned and turned his head, seeing that Wen Mian had joined in the discussion, whose expression was one of focus. He slowly breathed out and relaxed, allowing himself to lean on Jiang Lian’s shoulder.

Yan Changfei took the tablet from Jiang Lian’s hand and paused the video, “This part is a little messy still, we can continue practicing.”

They could clearly see from the video that the issue was with Qi Huan. Jiang Lian asked the two vocals sitting on his right, “When you danced this move, did you realize that you were too slow?”

Qi Huan’s expression was awkward, “I thought that I was just on beat.”

Cheng Chi helped him, “Perhaps it’s an issue with the filming angle.”

“It isn’t,” Yan Changfei shook his head, “A neat dance would be neat from any angle.”

They discussed the matter, but Jiang Lian did not hear Lin Ye speak at all. Jiang Lian frowned and turned his head, wanting to call Lin Ye’s name. He had yet to open his mouth when he heard a light and slow breathing sound by his ear.

Jiang Lian raised his eyebrows slightly but did not wake the person lying on his shoulder and sleeping. He turned his face back to the front, his expression as normal. His tone was firm, “Let’s practice this part again.”

However, he did not say when they would practice it again.

The other four people naturally thought that they would be practicing after they took a break. The three people that were sitting on the floor lay down to recover their strength. Wen Mian got down from Lin Ye’s back, picking up the cup from the window sill before he turned around to ask the rest, “Does anyone want to get more water?”

The three people that were lying down a moment ago climbed up from the floor again, picking up their cup and following Wen Mian, walking out of the classroom.

Jiang Lian turned around and patted the person lying on his shoulder to wake him up. Jiang Lian asked mildly, “Are you sleepy?”

Lin Ye struggled to open his eyes, he was so sleepy that his thoughts were a little muddled. He instinctively responded, “I’m sleepy.”

Jiang Lian asked again, “Do you want to go back and sleep?”

Lin Ye said, “Yes.”

Jiang Lian seemed to want to smile, “Who was the one who said that he could stay up all night?”

Lin Ye instantly woke up and climbed up from Jiang Lian’s shoulder, rubbing his eyes and muttering to himself, “I don’t know why I fell asleep just now.”

Jiang Lian pulled on his wrist, bringing him back. He held Lin Ye’s jaw and moved his face to the side to take a look at Lin Ye. Then, he let go of Lin Ye’s jaw and said, “That’s enough, go back to your hostel and sleep.”

Lin Ye was slightly stunned.

At that moment, the voices of the four people that had gone to get water could be heard coming closer, Lin Ye and Jiang Lian could even hear what they were chatting about.

Jiang Lian got up from the floor and looked towards the four people that had entered the room and said, “If you’re lacking energy, it’ll affect your performance on stage. Let’s practice till here today, we can practice the rest in the morning.”

The four energetic people were stunned. Wen Mian was even more confused, looking at the people by his side before thinking about himself, who was the one who was lacking energy?

But no matter what, everyone agreed with the decision to go back and sleep. The six of them agreed to gather at six in the morning in the classroom, then proceeded to return to their hostel one after another.

None of his roommates had returned, and the door was still locked. Lin Ye squinted his eyes as he yawned, pushing the door and entering the room. After that, he closed the door behind him and switched on the lights on the wall. He removed his clothes and entered the bathroom to shower before he switched off the lights and got on the bed to sleep.

He spent less than five minutes doing all of that.

The moment after he closed his eyes and was about to fall asleep, he recalled that he seemed to have forgotten to do something. His remaining bit of consciousness did not allow him to recall what exactly he forgot to do in time.

His sleepiness quickly caused him to lose consciousness.

His sleep had lasted for only a few hours, but Lin Ye was dreaming the whole time.

In his dream, he had returned to the summer he was seventeen. The hot weather, the noisy cicadas, the sweat and oil stains on his clothes, along with the smell of roasted squid lingering at the tip of his nose for a long time.

Lin Ye finally remembered what he had deliberately forgotten.

At that time, being a trainee was not his only choice. Not long after the recruiter had talked to him, his grandma had asked someone to find him a sales job.

That person had guaranteed that that sort of job did not depend on one’s qualifications, all that mattered were the performance and the commission earned. There were many people in the company that had dropped out of school in junior high but were able to buy a house within a year of working there.

Although Lin Ye was no longer able to continue studying, he was able to easily tell that between the two choices, rather than being a trainee, getting famous, and earning money, what was more reliable was the job that would allow him to be down-to-earth and make money.

However, he chose to be a trainee.

Was his initial purpose of entering the company truly only for money? Lin Ye asked himself in his dream. Or was it that his passion for dance had slowly dissipated in the two years, so much so that even he had forgotten everything about his original purpose of becoming a trainee?