Did Not Say Anything About My Feelings - Chapter 31. Yan Feichang

The public performance ended at ten, and the fans left the venue reluctantly. They watched all the trainees get on the bus and return to the base where they usually filmed at. Only after the fans saw them leave did they return to their hotels in groups.

The staff announced that they were having a day off the next day on the bus. The trainees cheered, excited, and completely awake. After they got off the bus, they went to the canteen together to eat supper, celebrating the successful end of their public performance.

The chef sitting at the counter for supper that was falling asleep was instantly alert. He hurried about to serve the food and handed out barbeque and alcohol.

The cameramen from the show followed them.

The hundred trainees filled up most of the canteen and Qiu Yi, a trainee that had a good alcohol tolerance had already removed his shoes and stepped onto the stool, holding up an alcohol bottle and yelling, “We won’t stop until we are drunk today. We’ll leave only after the sky turns bright.”

The trainees stood up one by one, the sounds of glasses clinking together sounded all around.

After the trainees at the same table clinked their glasses together when Qiu Yi, who had yelled out that they would not stop until they were drunk said, “Everyone must finish the alcohol in their cup, you can’t leave a single drop. If anyone doesn’t finish it, it means that you’re looking down on the remaining 99 brothers present.”

The trainees that were already sitting down started to make a fuss, “Drink yours first! We’ll drink after you’re done drinking yours. If you don’t finish this bottle, you’re looking down on the ninety-nine of us.”

Qiu Yi’s lips twitched and hurriedly changed the topic, “How can I be the first one to drink? No matter what, the first one to drink should be our prospective center.”

The trainees turned their heads and looked around in high spirits. They looked for Jiang Lian’s figure in the crowd, and agreed, “That’s right, big brother should be the first to drink!”

(T/N: Note that it’s similar logic to the term ‘gege’ and ‘didi’, but here, Jiang Lian is being referred to as the big brother, so like it’s kind of like the trainees are calling him casually, but showing respect as the ‘big brother’. It’s a little hard to explain, but don’t think too much about it, just remember that they aren’t actually related LOL)

Jiang Lian calmly got up and raised the glass in his hand to the crowd, before he finished the alcohol in his cup, tilting his head back.

The trainees applauded in support and praised him, “As expected of big brother!”

Jiang Lian smiled slightly, bending down and getting ready to sit back down.

Qiu Yi then said hurriedly, “It’s rare that everyone is in one place. How about we get a group photo together now.”

The trainees agreed in unison.

Qiu Yi turned around and shouted to the staff sitting in the corner, “Teacher, can you please help us take a group photo? Thank you!”

(T/N: Not sure if I mentioned this before, but it’s a respectful term. Not that he’s actually a teacher.)

The staff member took the camera and walked over.

The trainees stood up and gathered together. Ten people were sitting at each table, and everyone was crowded together. Some people were sitting on others’ legs, and some were only sitting on half the stool.

Jiang Lian stood in the middle of the empty space, raising the glass in his hand. The other ninety-nine trainees also held up their glasses and posed like they were toasting to him.

Everyone turned to look at the camera in the staff member’s hand.

The staff member focused the camera as she shouted at them, “Is the PD pretty?”

(T/N: Kind of like cheese! That kind of thing)

They felt like a sightseeing group suddenly. The trainees laughed as they leaned on their teammates, but they shouted at the same time, “Pretty!”

The picture was then fixed at that moment forever.

Someone said, “The ranking will be released tomorrow. This sort of group photo will never happen again in the future, right?”

Someone else answered, “This was the only and last time we’ll have a hundred-person gathering.”

There was another person that said, “After two days, we’ll never be able to get together like a hundred people group again.”

There was even someone who talked about the reality of things, “I’m twenty-nine next year. I know that I’m not good-looking, I’m not young, and I don’t have as many fans as the rest of you. But I came here anyway. This is the last chance I gave myself. But no matter what, I’m someone who has gone on stage with you guys. Even if I get eliminated the day after, I didn’t make a wasted trip. I didn’t leave any regrets.”

The celebration after the public performance instantly evolved into the parting gathering before the first elimination. Ten minutes ago, the joke about not leaving until they were drunk became more real.

Even Lin Ye, who did not have many friends amongst the trainees, was suddenly hugged by a lot of trainees he did not even know the names of and was persuaded to drink quite a few glasses of alcohol with the reason of ‘not knowing if they would have the opportunity to drink together again’.

The six people of Eye of the Typhoon’s Group A were sitting at the same table and Lin Ye swallowed the beer in his mouth, resting his head on his hand, listening absent-mindedly to Wen Mian and Cheng Chi’s conversation.

What came to mind was the scene from a few hours ago when he blocked Jiang Lian from leaving the bathroom.

Jiang Lian did not give him any definite answer, and Lin Ye did not expect the cleaner to come to the bathroom to clean at that moment. The two of them heard some sounds and backed away from the door, seeing the cleaner holding a cleaning bucket as the door was pushed open. The cleaner asked in a confused voice, “Why is it so dark? Is the light broken?”

Lin Ye stayed silent.

Two minutes later, Jiang Lian and Lin Ye returned to the waiting room one after another. They saw Qi Huan raise his head and ask, “Is there a lot of people in the toilet?”

Lin Ye shook his head and said, “There are two bathrooms, you can walk forward a little. There is no one there.”

Qi Huan thanked him and pulled Cheng Chi up as they walked quickly out of the hall.

From that time till now, Lin Ye had been unable to find a chance to talk to Jiang Lian alone.

He instinctively turned his face to the side and glanced at Jiang Lian, who was sitting next to him.

The latter seemed to feel Lin Ye looking at him and swept his gaze past Lin Ye’s face, landing on Ming Rang, who was sitting at the table next to Lin Ye.

Lin Ye lowered his eyelids, no longer looking at Jiang Lian.

Jiang Lian called Ming Rang’s name, and Ming Rang turned his head on hearing his name, lazily asking, “What’s the matter?”

Jiang Lian said, “Do you have spare chopsticks at your table?”

Ming Rang casually picked up a pair of disposable chopsticks that had yet to be opened, waving it at Jiang Lian, “Do you want it?”

Jiang Lian said, “I want it.”

Ming Rang leaned over to pass it to him, but Lin Ye was sitting in between them. Wen Mian, who saw the whole thing joked and said, “Lin Ye, do you suddenly feel like you’re a little redundant sitting there?”

Lin Ye raised his gaze and smiled, agreeing, “Yes.”

Wen Mian moved to the side and patted the space that he had just vacated, winking at Lin Ye, “Come on, sit with me.”

Lin Ye said, “Alright.”

After he said that, he wanted to stand up.

Jiang Lian seemed to ignore the whole conversation between Lin Ye and Wen Mian. Right before Lin Ye stood up, Jiang Lian naturally raised his hand and placed it on Lin Ye’s shoulder, using his shoulder as a support and reaching the other hand past Lin Ye, accurately grasping on the chopsticks that Ming Rang was passing to him.

Lin Ye turned his head to look at Jiang Lian, but stopped moving, letting Jiang Lian rest his left hand on Lin Ye’s shoulder.

The other took the chopsticks from Ming Rang’s hand, pressing on Lin Ye’s shoulder as he slowly sat down. The moment their faces were close to each other, Lin Ye heard Jiang Lian say in a low voice, “Come to the hostel to find me tomorrow night.”

At around three to four a.m., there were finally some trainees at the supper table who could not stand it anymore and slowly started to leave and return to their room.

Lin Ye stood up to look for Xia Dongchan, “When are you going back?”

Xia Dongchan leaned on Lin Ye for support as he stood up, telling him, “Let’s go now.”

Lin Ye reached out to support him, frowning, “How much did you drink?”

Xia Dongchan leaned on his shoulder and smiled slightly, “I’m quite happy that I won against the opponent team.”

Lin Ye nodded his head in understanding, letting go of Xia Dongchan, who had finally steadied himself. His gaze swept past his roommates from the same company that was sitting diagonally behind them, “Do you want to ask them to come as well?”

Normally, Xia Dongchan would have gone to them to start a conversation with them. However, today, he only took a glance at them and slowly answered, “Up to you.”

Lin Ye’s expression stiffened, but he still raised his feet and walked over to his two roommates. When he walked closer to them, he realized that the trainees the two of them were sitting with included Zhao Yishang and Yang Xu. Lin Ye remembered clearly that during the group competition, his two roommates were not in the same group as Zhao Yishang and Yang Xu. Lin Ye did not know when they became close.

He ignored the surprise in his heart and called the name of his roommate from the same company, “Xia Dongchan and I are returning to the hostel, do you guys want to go back together?”

The person who was called turned his head around, and when he saw Lin Ye, he waved at him perfunctorily, “You guys can head back first, we’ll head back together with Zhao Yisheng and the rest.”

His attitude was completely different from when they were sitting at the same table and eating a few days ago. It was obvious that he wanted to distance himself from Lin Ye and Xia Dongchan. Lin Ye came to a realization but did not react. He nodded at the other and turned around to leave.

Among the three people that were in the competition from the same company as him, Lin Ye and Xia Dongchan knew each other the longest and Lin Ye was the closest to Xia Dongchan. As for the other two people, Lin Ye’s relationship with them was like normal colleagues, they would nod their heads at each other when they met in the company.

Although he did not know why their attitudes suddenly changed, he did not intend on wasting time to find out about the reason behind it. However, he did not expect that the two of them would argue with Xia Dongchan in the room.

The reason was that the two of them had made a lot of noise when they returned to the hostel later. Lin Ye had only slept two to three hours after he returned to the room and showered when he was woken up by the two of them switching on the ceiling light and talking. He turned his body around to face the ceiling and covered his head with his blanket.

Lin Ye was extremely sleepy and in a daze, he heard Xia Dongchan open his mouth and say, “If you don’t want to sleep, there are other people that want to sleep in the hostel. Can you two be quieter?”

Lin Ye did not know what the other two people said.

It caused Xia Dongchan, who had a principle of ‘trying his best to present himself well, not falling out with anyone unless he had no other choice’, to curse in a low voice.

One of the two people below instantly raised their voices, “Look at how he’s acting. He’s using the fact that he managed to get to know Jiang Lian and was able to make an appearance in Jiang Lian’s interview, and climbed into bed with one of the company’s executives so that he has the support of the whole company. He probably wishes that he can debut in the center position tomorrow.”

The other person agreed, “He’s the crown prince of the company. We are just the people accompanying the crown prince to study.”

Xia Dongchan sneered, “Accompanying me? Is that what Zhao Yisheng brainwashed you to think?”

One of the two said, “You have so much screentime, do you dare to say that this isn’t because the company spent money to buy screentime for you?”

Xia Dongchan nodded his head, “What you said was right. The company wants to push me up, so they bought screentime for me. Jiang Lian willingly allowed me to make use of his popularity. You guys don’t have screentime or Jiang Lian’s help, and you’re even being made use of by Zhao Yisheng, running to me and acting jealous.”

The expressions of the two darkened and they reached out to pull Xia Dongchan down from where he was sitting on the bed.

Lin Ye pushed aside his quilt and sat up, his expression impatient, “Do you want to be forced to leave the competition because of fighting in the dormitory?”

After the two men stepped back, they raised their heads to look at Lin Ye, who was sitting on the upper bunk, there was still anger in their expression, “The company wants to promote Xia Dongchan, and you’re the same as us. You’ll only end up being eliminated after accompanying Xia Dongchan in this competition.”

Lin Ye leaned against the bedside railing and gave an uncaring smile, “Isn’t that exactly what I want?”

The two of them were made speechless. Their expression was full of anger but they had no way of venting the anger. Finally, they grabbed their down jackets and left the room one after another, slamming the door on their way out.

Xia Dongchan stood up by his bed, staring at Lin Ye, “Do you really want to be eliminated?”

“I was lying,” Lin Ye stopped smiling and met Xia Dongchan’s eyes, “I was tricking them.”

Xia Dongchan laughed, “The contract the company had me sign is indeed different from the ones you three signed. However, relying on Jiang Lian, that was fake.”

“I know,” Lin Ye answered simply. He added in his heart, but it was true that Lin Ye was intending on relying on Jiang Lian.

Xia Dongchan asked him, “Did you look for Jiang Lian yet?”

Lin Ye had not expected the other to remember that matter. When the ranking was announced, he had thought that Xia Dongchan was simply mentioning it casually. Lin Ye froze momentarily, “I haven’t.”

Xia Dongchan’s expression was one of regret, “If you don’t find him, Jiang Lian probably won’t give you the slot to save you.”

“If he doesn’t give it to me, who would he give it to?” Lin Ye leaned against the railing and thought about it, “I remember that on the day the ranking was announced, my teammates in the group were mostly in the top half.”

Xia Dongchan looked up at him, “You don’t know?”

Lin Ye said, “What should I know?”

“Yan Changfei’s ranking,” He paused, “Didn’t you see it?”

Lin Ye was stunned and instinctively straightened up, “I didn’t.”

“He is quite good, but his looks and personality make it hard for him to gain fans. Furthermore, he has almost zero screentime, and his ranking is even lower than yours. If you intend on making it a fair fight between you and Yan Changfei for the slot that Jiang Lian has, I don’t think that you have a high chance of winning,” Xia Dongchan narrowed his eyes and thought about it, “If you had me choose between you and Yan Changfei, I would also choose to keep Yan Changfei.”

Lin Ye stayed silent.

What he was thinking about was not the fact that he could get eliminated. Instead, he was thinking about Yan Changfei’s ranking.

He had not expected Yan Changfei’s ranking to be even lower than his. Among all the trainees, no one was more hardworking than Yan Changfei. He was nowhere near Yan Changfei’s level.

Lin Ye looked at the words pasted on the wall by the production team.

So it was not true that the more hardworking you were, the more outstanding you would be.

He did not know if he should look for Jiang Lian or not. Xia Dongchan’s words were very direct, but he hit the nail on the head. What the other said was correct. If it was between him and Xia Dongchan, he had no chance of winning. But he had witnessed Yan Changfei’s skill and the amount of hard work he put in. Thus, Lin Ye was unwilling to make an agreement with Jiang Lian and eliminate Yan Changfei.

Whenever he felt that the choices he had were enough to make him feel troubled, he would always be unprepared, not expecting two choices that were even more difficult would appear shortly.

Lin Ye felt that he was in a dilemma.