Did Not Say Anything About My Feelings - Chapter 35. Whisper

After the interactive portion ended, they officially began the song choosing portion of the program.

The first people to choose were the six people from Lin Ye’s hostel that had special privileges. After Xia Dongchan, who was further in front finished choosing, a staff member called for him to leave through the public announcement system.

Lin Ye stood up and left the recording classroom. There were indeed ten song names printed on white paper on the doors of the classrooms on the opposite side of the hallway. He raised his gaze and glanced across the song names before he suddenly understood that Jiang Lian’s words were an obvious hint.

Because the song on the first classroom at the end of the corridor was called ‘Jungle Moonlight’.

He pushed that classroom door open without any hesitation.

Ten seconds later, he heard Jiang Lian’s name from the announcement system. He could hear the clear footsteps in the empty corridor outside.

Jiang Lian had come out.

The other’s footsteps seemed to come to a stop and turned to walk in the opposite direction from Lin Ye’s room. Lin Ye had a bit of confusion in his eyes and could not help but stand up, taking a step towards the doorway.

The next second, the footsteps outside the door seemed to have made a turn and moved closer to his position again.

Lin Ye relaxed a little and stood by the door to listen. However, he started to frown a little. Through the thin door, he seemed to have heard Jiang Lian stop outside the classroom next door.

He tried to recall the words on the paper of the classroom next door. The song was called ‘Targeted Snipe’. It had the same number of words, but was completely unrelated to ‘jungle’.

He waited quietly for a moment but did not hear the sound of the other’s footsteps again. Lin Ye was slightly unsure and thought about the title of the song for the next classroom over and over again, the hesitation in his eyes intensified.

It seemed that Jiang Lian had never clearly said anything else from the start. What he implied was the word ‘jungle’. On the other hand, although Lin Ye had never played CS before, he had heard that CS was a shooting game.

Since it was a shooting game, it must be closely related to the word ‘snipe’. He was very conflicted between the two songs. No matter what song he chose, they were both closely related to Jiang Lian’s hint and he could reason it out.

Lin Ye even started to suspect that he had chosen the wrong song from the start.

The balance in his heart started to tilt towards ‘Targeted Snipe’ with his steadily increasing hesitation. He raised his hand to hold the handle behind the door, turning his head around to glance at the camera installed in the corner. Then, he turned his head and looked down at the door handle, thinking for a moment.

Although they had not clearly stated that the trainees in the room could not open the door and walk out, it was obvious that opening the door and leaving the room was definitely against the rules.

Two seconds later, Lin Ye took a step forward and made a move to push the door.

However, he had yet to use any force to open the door when the door was opened from the outside by someone. Lin Ye bumped into the person standing outside face-first.

The other raised his arms and hugged him. A seemingly teasing voice sounded by his ear, “I’ve received the grand present of a hug as soon as I entered the door. Does everyone who opens the door get this or am I the only one?”

When Lin Ye heard that, he took a step back. When he raised his head and saw Jiang Lian’s face clearly, his racing heart finally calmed down.

Jiang Lian and Lin Ye did not manage to stay in the classroom alone for long when Ming Rang and Qiu Yi pushed the door open and entered one after another. The top three in ranking had all chosen the same song, and ‘Jungle Moonlight’ became the only team with three As in the ten teams. They also became the performance that everyone was anticipating.

The ten teams no longer needed to share a practice room with other teams and Jiang Lian still chose Class A’s classroom as their practice room. At the same time, the second episode of the show aired on time.

The eight members of ‘Jungle Moonlight’ went to the screening room to watch the show. In the second episode that was focused on the first public performance, Lin Ye only appeared in the scenes when Jiang Lian and Wen Mian gave him tutoring lessons in their hostel room. The performance was as he expected, his parts were all very zoomed out.

It was just that this time, Lin Ye was much calmer than last time. He could even spend some time calmly analyzing his expressions that were captured during the two minutes of screentime he had in the show.

In the afternoon, they had to choose the leader and the center as well as split the song into different parts. There were two more teammates in the second performance compared to the first one, and that meant that everyone would have even fewer parts than the last time.

What was gratifying was that in the choreography video that the eight of them had watched, besides the center position, the parts of the remaining seven people were such that each of them had a few seconds to act as the center.

When they were choosing the leader, Qiu Yi was the first to raise his hand and speak, “I’m definitely unable to get the center position, I’ll run for the leader position instead.”

Unexpectedly, besides for him, no one was running for the leader position and the position of leader successfully fell to Qiu Yi.

When they were choosing the center, only Jiang Lian and Ming Rang raised their hands. The new leader, Qiu Yi had them both dance the killing part in a dance and had the remaining six people vote. The final result was announced, the center was Jiang Lian.

After he announced the center, he squatted down and patted Lin Ye’s shoulder and asked, “Why didn’t you give it a try?”

Lin Ye turned his head and asked back, “Do you think I have any chance of winning?”

Qiu Yi grinned, “Why wouldn’t you have a chance? Perhaps Jiang Lian would directly give you the center position?”

As soon as the other said that, there were strange gazes from the other seven people. Lin Ye stared at him strangely, “What do you mean by he would directly give me the center position?”

Qiu Yi paused, seemingly unaware that his words had a dangerous connotation. His expression was hesitant as he looked back at Lin Ye, “Since you are the trainee that Jiang Lian wants to perform with the most, why won’t there be a possibility of Jiang Lian directly giving you the center position?”

Lin Ye was speechless.

He was very sure at that moment that Qiu Yi was a completely straight guy. He would never realize what kind of shocking connotations his words had.

(T/N: Straight guy here is the stereotype that straight guys tend to be very… straight-laced? Not sure if there’s a proper way to describe this connotation, but it’s just someone who’s more direct in thoughts)

Ming Rang failed to get the center position and practically everyone thought that he would try to compete for the main dancer position. However, the other seemed very relaxed, as if he was not interested in the position of the main dancer.

Qiu Yi told the three candidates, “Each of you can perform a solo, and we’ll cast a vote.”

Jiang Lian calmly spoke, “Wait.”

Qiu Yi was stunned, “Is there a problem?”

Jiang Lian slowly stood up, “Add someone to the candidates.”

Qiu Yi looked surprised, “The center can’t be the same person as the main dancer.”

“When did I say that you were adding me?” Jiang Lian smiled slightly and turned to stretch out his hand, pulling Jiang Lian up from the ground. He rested a hand on Lin Ye’s shoulder, his expression unchanging, “Add him.”

The number of competitors increased from three to four and the judges decreased to four from the original five. Lin Ye had suddenly been added to the competition for the main dancer, but he did not show any fear when he danced next to the other three.

The other teammates in the group that had never taken much notice of Lin Ye could not help but show surprise. They had not expected that Lin Ye had good dancing skills.

When it came the time for the judges to vote, Jiang Lian and Ming Rang’s votes went to Lin Ye without any hesitation. Qiu Yi also voted for Lin Ye and there was no longer any meaning for the last person to vote.

Lin Ye had been added to the competition last minute but managed to snatch the main dancer position from the other three.

The staff sent the leader and center position badges over. Ming Rang, who was the closest to the staff member took the badges. Then, he found the center position badge and threw it to Lin Ye. After that, he called Qiu Yi over and helped him pin the badge in front of Qiu Yi’s chest.

Lin Ye took the badge and turned around to pass it to Jiang Lian, “It’s yours.”

Jiang Lian said, “Help me pin it on.”

When Lin Ye heard that, he glanced at Ming Rang, who was helping Qiu Yi pin his badge. Then, his expression was as normal as he knelt in front of Jiang Lian and bent over to grasp at the fabric of Jiang Lian’s uniform right in front of his chest, his other hand carefully threading the pin of the badge through the material in his hand.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Lian bent forward as well, his lips brushing past the side of Lin Ye’s face, stopping right by his earlobe, his voice deep and soft, “I helped you get the main dancer position, how are you going to thank me?”

Lin Ye’s movement froze, but he maintained his current position, his head slightly lowered. He did not turn his head even a little, calmly rebutting, “Didn’t I manage to get the position through my own ability?”

“Ming Rang has never been the kind of person to vote based on skill,” Jiang Lian gently smiled, “Neither am I.”

Lin Ye’s expression stiffened as if he had a faint hunch. His heart rate increased uncontrollably, but his voice was quite calm, “How do you want me to thank you?”

Jiang Lian’s eyes darkened as he opened his mouth calmly, “It’s time to cash our deal.”

Lin Ye pursed his lips. He was unsure if he was shocked by Jiang Lian’s straightforwardness or if he was distracted by Jiang Lian’s gentle breathing as he talked close to his ear, but he was feeling very distracted for a moment, not responding in time.

Jiang Lian frowned with displeasure.

The next moment, Lin Ye returned to his senses because of the strange feeling from his right ear.

Jiang Lian had bitten his right ear lobe.

Jiang Lian and he were sitting opposite each other and to his left were his teammates that made a lot of noise with the occasional sound of laughter, while on the right was a thick wall.

No one noticed their actions and from the camera angle, they would only assume that the two of them were whispering to each other.

Even so, Lin Ye’s heart still skipped a beat.