Did Not Say Anything About My Feelings - Chapter 33. I’ll Owe You A Favor

Yan Changfei was definitely getting eliminated.

Jiang Lian did not explain the reason he chose Lin Ye, but Yan Changfei turned around to bow to his teammates sitting on the golden pyramid, “Although you guys might not have notices, but I wanted to tell everyone. During the public performance that day, I made a mistake in positioning because I was distracted,” He paused for a moment, “Even I myself cannot forgive myself for this sort of low-level mistake…”

He was unable to finish saying what he wanted to say before Wen Mian jumped up from the stairs and hugged him.

Wen Mian’s action seemed to have set a precedent and the other trainees all ran down from the steps, hugging their roommates or teammates. The whole place became quite a bit of a mess instantly. Shen-PD did not tell them to stop and instead, took a step back quietly.

The camera swept past the trainees’ slightly red eyes, their trembling Adam’s apples and their lips that seemed to have endless things to say. The camera captures all of their emotions. In the corner that the camera was not filming, Lin Ye looked at Jiang Lian, there as still a stunned expression on his face, “I thought that when you said that, you were intending on eliminating me.”

“This choice was a reward for the first public performance, and the performance on stage accounts for a vast majority of this choice,” Jiang Lian’s gaze flitted across Lin Ye’s face, his tone very business-like, “If it were not for the fact that Yan Changfei made a mistake, the one being eliminated now would be you.”

Lin Ye did not respond, but his gaze landed on the cameras that were still filming. Two seconds later, he raised his gaze and looked towards Jiang Lian, who was standing in front of him, his lips moving slightly, as if he wanted to say something.

But at that moment, Ming Rang walked over from behind Jiang Lian, raising his eyebrow and telling Lin Ye, “Congratulations.”

Lin Ye swallowed the words that he had been about to say and smiled at the other, “Thank you.”

Ming Rang turned his head again and chatted with Jiang Lian before leaving. He turned around and entered the crowd again, looking for his teammates that had been eliminated. Jiang Lian turned away from Ming Rang’s figure, “What did you want to say?”

Lin Ye paused, before shaking his head and saying, “Nothing much.”

The boat tickets for the fourteen people that were eliminated were for the next morning. Lin Ye and the rest woke up early to send their teammates off. During the winter, daylight was short while the night was long. When they went out at 5.30 a.m., it was pitch dark outside the window. There were only the shining street lights that lined the pathway below their hostel.

Lin Ye walked out of the hostel building and realized that more than ten people were standing on the empty space in front of the door. Everyone was bleary-eyes and yawning continuously. They were stamping their feet and rubbing their hands together in the cold wind of the night, but they had insisted on climbing out of their bed to send their teammates off.

Lin Ye greeted the other trainees and walked towards his own teammates. The fourteen trainees slowly drug their luggage down. The group of them walked forward in the dark night, the sound of footsteps overlapping each other. The sounds of chatter between the trainees and their teammates was swept away by the evening wind. The cameraman at the back of the group held their cameras and followed closely behind.

Lin Ye stopped abruptly and turned his head back to take a look. The night behind him was as dark as ink, the starlight was light and scattered. The small light emitted by the streetlamps was practically swallowed up by the darkness. However, there was a lot of laughter and noise ahead. It seemed like there was an invisible dividing line that separated the two parts of the world. The trainees that were laughing loudly and fooling around seemed to walk out from the darkness behind them, stepping towards a brighter tomorrow.

The trainees could not leave the recording venue without permission. Thus, they could only send the fourteen people off to the entrance of the venue. Outside the venue, there were some fans hanging around. The staff went to push open the metal door, and the security went out to hold back the fans. The fourteen people that were eliminated dragged their luggage and slowly walked out of the door.

The trainees that were sending the eliminated contestants off waved their hands in goodbye, shouting their names loudly, making plans to meet as soon as they left the island. The fourteen people turned their heads back, making an OK sign at the trainees on the island that were hidden in the dark night.

Someone waved their arms energetically and yelled, “Teacher! The photo that we took together in the canteen, you must remember to send it to me! Mr. Cameraman, did you hear me—”

(T/N: Teacher here is a term of respect rather than actually calling someone a teacher.)

The cameraman standing in the corner did not know whether to laugh or to cry as he yelled back, “I heard you—”

That person yelled again, “Teacher, do you know who I am—Can you find my WeChat account in the group—Do you need to scan my WeChat QR code to add me—”

(T/N: You can add people using QR codes in WeChat.)

The cameraman yelled helplessly, “I’ll send it in the main group—”

Only then did that person put down his hands, satisfied. He dragged his luggage and took two steps forward before he seemed to remember something. He turned his head around and placed his hands around his mouth as he yelled, “I’ll never forget this island—I won’t forget the canteen on this island—I won’t forget the barbeque and beer that everyone had in celebration that late night in the canteen—”

The remaining thirteen people agreed, “I’ll never forget—”

Someone added, “Whoever forgets is a dog—”

There was also someone yelling, “Whoever forgets has to treat us to hotpot—”

There was another person who added, “I don’t want to eat hotpot—I want to eat Haidilao—”

(T/N: Haidilao is… a hotpot shop??? But like more ‘high class’ I guess than the normal hotpot??)

Until the end, someone yelled, “Let’s meet again at the finals!”

The trainees that were still inside were stunned. After that, they were all fired up and said, full of conviction as they said, “Let’s meet at the finals!”

When the door slowly closed in front of them, the figures of the trainees that had walked far away blended into the darkness slowly and only then did those who came to send them off slowly walk back. When they came to send the other trainees off, they took the main road. But on the way back, there were no cameramen following them, so everyone decided to take the side path through the forest.

Yan Changfei had already left. The team members of Team A of ‘Eye of the Typhoon’ slowly separated. With only Wen Mian and his remaining teammates walking with them, Cheng Chi and Qi Huan naturally stuck together. The two that were left, Lin Ye and Jiang Lian walked next to each other. There was a distance between them and they did not talk the whole way back.

The matter of Lin Ye missing their appointed meeting was something that still hung over them. Besides for the ranking announcements yesterday, Lin Ye had yet to find a time to talk to Jiang Lian personally. He did not know whether the agreement they had originally made would be over because of his failure to turn up, or if the other was just unhappy because Lin Ye went back on his word.

Lin Ye almost asked him that question on the stage yesterday. Thankfully, Ming Rang’s appearance interrupted him in time and he managed to clear his thoughts. It allowed him to realize that it was not a good decision discussing this matter on stage with many people and cameras.

At that moment, the group of them walked through the peach tree forest. Lin Ye quietly stopped walking and reached out to pull on Jiang Lian.

Jiang Lian turned his head to the side and asked him, “What’s the matter?”

When the other said that, the trainees that were walking by also turned to look. Lin Ye glanced at his shoes as he bent down to reach for his shoe laces, raising his voice and telling Jiang Lian, “My shoe laces came loose, wait for me for a moment.”

The trainees turned away, their expressions normal as they continued walking forward.

Jiang Lian stood at the original spot, unmoving. He looked at Lin Ye as Lin Ye slowly retied his shoe laces. When Lin Ye raised his head again, most of the group had already walked far away, leaving the two of them behind.

“Everyone’s left already,” Jiang Lian stuck his two hands in the pockets of his down feather jacket, no longer looking at Lin Ye, “If you have something to say, say it.”

Lin Ye stood up again and took a step closer to Jiang Lian. He made use of the little slivers of moonlight through the trees to observe Jiang Lian’s expression, “The meeting we agreed on two days ago, I didn’t miss it on purpose.”

Jiang Lian did not react, “You held me back to explain this matter to me?”

Lin Ye said, “No.”

Jiang Lian asked, “Do you have anything else to talk to me about?”

Lin Ye hesitated for a second, turning away and asking, “The matter that we agreed on, is it not going to happen anymore given that I failed to appear at the agreed time?”

Jiang Lian’s tone was cold, “Since you didn’t come, I thought that you were going back on your word.”

“I did regret it a little,” Lin Ye frowned slightly, “I didn’t want that position that you had the power to choose be included in our exchange.”

Jiang Lian was still expressionless, “As for my choice, I talked to him the day before the ranking announcements.”

Lin Ye’s expression was surprised. He remembered that after the public performance ended, Yan Changfei’s expression was bad. The rest of them, including Wen Mian thought that he was worried about his family member’s illness, but it turned out that it was because Yan Changfei had made a mistake on stage.

Lin Ye had truly not expected that whether he had gone to look for Jiang Lian or not, that slot that Jiang Lian had would land in his hands no matter what.

And besides that, the ranking announcement had already ended. At that moment, he only wanted to hear a proper answer from Jiang Lian’s mouth, “So, about the matter we discussed before, do you want to stop it now, or continue?”

Jiang Lian glanced at him, but did not answer.

Lin Ye’s gaze landed on the other’s face, having a sudden guess in his mind. He could not help but guess, perhaps Jiang Lian did not answer because he wanted to give Lin Ye the decision-making power. Whether they were to continue the exchange or not would depend on what Lin Ye wanted.

He instinctively took a look around.

The trainees that had been with them just now had already walked far away, and were hidden by the dark night. When he looked around, there was only darkness.

From the way the agreement was set up, Jiang Lian did indeed have the advantage while Lin Ye was the passive one. Without this agreement, Jiang Lian would not lose anything, but Lin Ye would not be able to last past the next ranking announcements. With this agreement, Jiang Lian did have something else to entertain him during this boring filming and practice time, and he became the biggest winner among the two of them.

Lin Ye knew very well.

He looked at Jiang Lian seriously before he pulled out his hands from his pockets. He slowly unzipped Jiang Lian’s down feather jacket, squeezing his hand into the space between the other’s sweater and down jacket, hugging Jiang Lian’s waist.

Jiang Lian did not reach out his hands to hug Lin Ye immediately. He opened his mouth and said calmly, “So we’ll just ignore the fact that you left me waiting?”

Lin Ye’s expression was one of confusion, “Although I did not look for you that day, but I didn’t ask you to save me either, shouldn’t that cancel out?”

The other narrowed his eyes slightly, “It doesn’t.”

Lin Ye decided to take a step back, “So what do you want me to do?”

Jiang Lian did not answer

Lin Ye was stunned, “You want me to do it with you right here?”

Jiang Lian asked, “You can’t?”

Lin Ye’s expression was one of hesitance. Although he did have an ex-boyfriend before, he had never had the experience of doing such things with his boyfriend. He found it hard to accept that his first time would be in the open. After all, everything should be done in proper sequence. He was new to this, and there was no reason for him to go straight for a vigorous battlefield.

He thought through everything, and when Lin Ye thought that he would reject Jiang Lian, his spoke without thinking, “It’s not impossible—”

Jiang Lian moved his hand to interrupt Lin Ye. The other let go of him and helped him zip up his jacket, before pushing Lin Ye’s hands, that were on Jiang Lian’s waist, away. Then, Jiang Lian lowered his gaze and zipped up his jacket, raising his brows slightly as he said, “Even if you want to, we can’t now. The sky is almost completely bright.”

Lin Ye came to his senses and the ends of his lips twitched. He quickly caught up with Jiang Lian, who was walking forward, “You haven’t told me yet, what should I use to repay you?”

Jiang Lian stopped walking before he slowly raised the corner of his lips, “You can owe me for now.”

Two hours later, all the trainees were woken up by the theme song in the public announcement system. The hostel manager used the system to inform all the trainees that they were to gather in the first-floor hall of the hostel in an hour.

Lin Ye got out of bed, queuing up to brush his teeth and wash his face. He rushed to the hall on the first floor at exactly eight with Xia Dongchan.

The trainees were sitting cross-legged in the hall. The hostel manager held a microphone and informed everyone, “Because out of the hundred trainees, fourteen have left, we need to do a room adjustment now.”

As soon as the manager said that, the trainees had all sorts of expressions.

Some people did not want to separate from their current roommates, but some had bad relationships with their roommates and had been waiting all this while to switch rooms. Currently, in their room, Lin Ye and Xia Dongchan barely interacted with the other four people in their room. The two of them were just waiting to change their hostel room.

The manager raised a hand to indicate for everyone to quieten down, “We have eighty-six people right now, thus, there will be fourteen rooms with six people, and a room with two people. Class A members can choose any room based on their ranking, and the remaining people must wait to be randomly assigned.”

These words caused the trainees to react, some people were happy while others were worried.

Two minutes later, everyone went their separate ways and the seven people in Class A went to choose their hostel rooms, while the remaining trainees went back to pack up their luggage.

After everyone finished packing up and returned to the hall, the manager came out with the namelist of the new rooming arrangmenets. Jiang Lian and Ming Rang were still in their original two-person room, while the remaining five people in Class A picked the hostel and bed they wanted. Lin Ye and Xia Dongchan were still in the same room, and the remaining four roommates were Cheng Chi, Qi Huan and two other trainees Lin Ye had not talked to much.

The six of them were all very satisfied with their five new roommates and when they met up, the atmosphere was friendly. When they were choosing their bed, Lin Ye was still sleeping on Xia Dongchan’s upper bunk, while Qi Huan was sleeping on the upper bunk of Cheng Chi’s bed. The remaining two trainees took up the last bunk bed.

After they were done doing their bedsheets, they sorted out their closet. After that, they sat down, but before they had the chance to talk, they heard the hostel manager inform everyone through the system again, saying that the production team was going to hold a competition for hostel decoration, and they would arrange for big buses that would bring the trainees to the mall on the island to buy items to decorate their hostel room with, and that the costs would be paid for by the production team.

Every room had limited funds, and all the trainees had to carefully watch their spending. The hostel room that got the most votes and won would get a mystery prize.

After the announcement ended, everyone in the hostel room celebrated. They were finally going to leave the filming venue and wander around. After that, they excitedly discussed what sort of hostel decoration would be more popular.

Lin Ye stood up, disinterested. He grabbed the trash bag that was left against the wall and walked out to throw the rubbish. Just as he opened the door, the door to the hostel room opposite also opened. Lin Ye raised his head and met Ming Rang’s smiling face, “What a coincidence, we’re staying opposite each other.”

Lin Ye smiled, “It’s very coincidental.”

Ming Rang turned around and locked the door before walking two steps forward. Then, he seemed to remember something and turned his head around to whistle at Lin Ye. His smile did not waver, “It looks like I have to make friends with your roommates. Afterall—” His tone was meaningful, “I’ll have to visit your hostel room often in the future.”