Gu Tang dragged Yin Fan back with her. Her imposing manner was like a hunter father returning from the forest carrying a plump, juicy wild boar, standing with his hands on his hips and accepting the praise of his large family waiting hungrily for their meal.
Jiujiu demonstrated the high note she was so proud of, sounding like a marmot whose tail had just been stepped on.
“Ahhh! Ah! Yin Fan! The real, live Yin Fan!! Ahhh!”
Everyone instinctively covered their ears.
Even Yin Fan, who was usually composed, was slightly startled by Jiujiu’s overwhelming enthusiasm. Nevertheless, he walked toward her in a very gentle and polite manner and extended his hand.
“Hello, I’m Yin Fan.”
Jiujiu hugged Xu Piaopiao tightly and hid behind her. Her pitch rose even higher as she sang in a bel canto style.
“Hellooo! What have I done to deserve breathing the same air as you?! What have I done to deserve speaking to you?!”
Xu Piaopiao completely failed to understand a young girl’s heart, or a fan’s feelings.
“It would be great if you put that much effort into projecting your voice when you sing.”
Chen Xing had been grinning and enjoying the spectacle from beginning to end. Once the commotion died down, his smile became even brighter.
“Let’s give a round of applause to welcome Yin Fan to our group.”
A round of enthusiastic applause followed.
“Yin Fan will be learning the dance and song with us during this period. Yin Fan, you must really become part of our big family,” Teacher Chen Xing said, his words clearly carrying another meaning.
Yin Fan’s smile remained unchanged, but he could feel the already intense gazes directed at him becoming even more fervent.
Of course, he knew what everyone was looking forward to. Among the crowd, Gu Tang’s eyes were especially bright, practically like two high-wattage light bulbs.
“I’ve already seen the choreography from the director’s team. My main role is to support everyone’s performance. I don’t have much dance choreography, but I’ll still do my best,” Yin Fan said, looking at Chen Xing. “My goal in coming here is still to work together with everyone and present a wonderful performance. I hope everyone will focus their energy on learning.”
Although Yin Fan said these words with a smile, they somehow created an inexplicable sense of pressure.
Gu Tang swallowed and felt that this atmosphere was all too familiar.
Back when she had shown Yin Fan her acting skills, he had used this same gentle yet pressuring tone to ask her:
“Do you normally attend class on time? Is this how the teacher taught you? Did you review and reinforce what you learned afterward? Did you finish your homework on time? Then why is your performance still like this? Or do you think you’re doing well enough already?”
Yin Fan really was a good teacher.
To prevent this situation from continuing, Gu Tang immediately took action.
“Of course we’re all working hard. It’s just that we’re so happy because a special guest came today. Teacher Chen Xing, let’s continue training. The twenty-minute break is over.”
“Huh?” Chen Xing, who was still grinning and fooling around, failed to understand what Gu Tang was getting at. He was still in a playful mood. “Don’t we usually say we’re taking a twenty-minute break, but actually end up taking forty?”
Gu Tang slowly turned her face away, not daring to meet Yin Fan’s eyes.
Just as Yin Fan had said, as special guests, their actual role was simply to add to the atmosphere. The girls themselves still had to do the training.
Ever since Yin Fan arrived, Jiujiu had become the most hardworking one of the bunch. She constantly demonstrated how serious and diligent she was, completely different from her attitude a few days ago when she had basically been thinking, “We can just muddle through this. What, are they going to kick me out if I quit?”
“This is the power of an idol,” Gu Tang teased her.
Jiujiu puffed out her cheeks, clearly unconvinced.
“You guys are only laughing at me now. Just wait until you see your own idols. You’ll definitely be even more ridiculous than I am.”
Gu Tang casually brushed back a strand of her hair and struck a rather suave pose.
“I am my own idol.”
“That pose is way too affected,” Xu Piaopiao criticized.
The three of them finally attracted the teacher’s displeasure.
Chen Xing walked over to the trio and pushed each of them farther down while they were doing their leg stretches. One crisp crack of a joint followed another.
Looking at the three faces twisted in pain, Teacher Chen Xing clapped his hands.
“No whispering during class.”
The three of them immediately became extremely well-behaved.
After the afternoon lesson ended, one by one, they collapsed onto the floor and pretended to be dead.
Chen Xing walked over to them.
“Is this a silent protest?”
“Yes,” Xu Piaopiao replied. “Unless, Teacher Chen Xing, you let me stretch your legs too. I guarantee I’ll bend you into a ballet dancer.”
Chen Xing tilted his head and looked at them.
“As compensation, I’ll tell you about tonight’s activity.”
“There’s still an activity tonight?” Gu Tang wailed. “Can’t we just go to bed early?”
“Tonight, I’m planning to bring over a dance mat and work on your flexibility,” Teacher Chen Xing said with a benevolent smile.
“Forget it,” Xu Piaopiao shook her head repeatedly. “I have no energy left. Am I supposed to dance on the dance mat, or is the dance mat supposed to dance on me?”
“Teacher, our foundation is weak. Just learning this dance is already difficult enough. Adding an activity like that would be too much, wouldn’t it?” Jiujiu also felt that this was not a very good idea.
Teacher Chen Xing knew exactly how to turn the situation around.
“Yin Fan will be joining us tonight…”
The moment she heard the words “Yin Fan,” Jiujiu, who had been completely drained of energy and lying on the floor, immediately scrambled to her feet. With a radiant smile, she grabbed Chen Xing’s hand and refused to let go.
“Teacher, I think this activity is fantastic! I’m willing! I can do it! I love it! I hope we can have more activities like this!”
Gu Tang twitched the corner of her mouth.
“Traitor!”
Their group’s enthusiasm for training really was not very impressive. After Chen Xing left, the other two girls in the group also ran off at lightning speed, leaving the classroom.
“They’ve been really enthusiastic about leaving class lately, huh?” Gu Tang looked at the closed door.
“After all, Song Mo’s group is right next door,” Xu Piaopiao sat up from the floor. “Their group has been surrounded by fangirls lately. Just look at Lu Yijing’s smug expression. Song Mo’s popularity isn’t hers.”
“But their group’s popularity really has increased,” Gu Tang rested her chin in her hand. “Lin Yueyue, who’s in first place, has left you, who’s in second, far behind.”
Xu Piaopiao lowered her voice and looked at the other two.
“I really find it strange. Why is Lin Yueyue so popular? Isn’t she a little too popular? It feels kind of fake.”
Gu Tang could not answer that question either, so she looked at Jiujiu.
Whenever Gu Tang and Xu Piaopiao privately complained about Lin Yueyue, Jiujiu never joined in.
Now the two of them were staring straight at her.
Jiujiu swallowed.
“How should I put it… When I first saw Lin Yueyue, I immediately felt that she should be in first place.”
Gu Tang became interested and wanted her to explain more specifically.
“Why did you think she would be first? For example, because she’s pretty? Because she’s good at singing and dancing? Or something else?”
Jiujiu shook her head.
“Lin Yueyue isn’t as pretty as you, she can’t sing as well as Xu Piaopiao, and she can’t dance as well as Lu Yijing. But I just instinctively felt that she should be in first place.”
Xu Piaopiao rubbed her chin.
“She’s not as good as other people at anything, yet she can still come in first. That logic is pretty interesting.”
Gu Tang rubbed her chin too.
“Maybe that’s why people are so lenient toward her. Everyone feels that what she does is only natural, and that making way for her is only natural too.”
Xu Piaopiao gave a disdainful “pfft,” practically sour enough to turn into a lemon.
“Why should they?!”
“People haven’t exactly been that lenient toward Lin Yueyue, have they?” Jiujiu asked, confused.
Gu Tang glanced at her.
“Imagine that I fell down during a competition, and the entire audience shouted encouragement together, while the cameras captured my stunningly beautiful face and the determined tears at the corners of my eyes.”
Jiujiu immediately got goosebumps all over.
“Eww!”
She had originally only been giving an example, but the other girl’s disgust was so obvious that Gu Tang’s tone became threatening.
“I really want to strangle you.”
Jiujiu immediately jumped to her feet and fled through the door at lightning speed.
Xu Piaopiao stood up.
“Want to go eat?”
Gu Tang shook her head.
“To be honest, after folding myself in half, I don’t really have much of an appetite.”
Xu Piaopiao went by herself.
Gu Tang got up sluggishly and walked slowly down the corridor.
The weather had been terrible all day, with the rain continuing without pause. When she opened the window, she could feel the cold wind and the earthy smell of wet soil.
She took a sniff of the scent and caught sight of someone below from the corner of her eye.
She was standing on the second floor, and the window faced the back garden.
Gu Tang saw Yin Fan standing on the stone path, wearing a transparent raincoat.
He was not doing anything. It seemed like he was… spacing out?
Gu Tang called his name.
Yin Fan was indeed the kind of person Su Zhan had once described as being easily distracted by things around him. His body reacted faster than his brain, and he immediately looked in her direction.
His chin was slightly raised, revealing his porcelain-white face. His nose was tall and straight, and his lips were on the paler side. He probably had not fully registered what was happening yet, because his pupils were unfocused for a moment. A deep, misty darkness rippled through his eyes.
Gu Tang’s breathing stopped for a second as she suddenly understood why Yin Fan’s fans always said he looked like a heavenly immortal.
There was a coolness to this man that carried no trace of sensuality.
His gaze deepened, a glimmer of moisture appearing in his eyes and reflecting Gu Tang’s figure. Yin Fan curved his eyes into a smile and waved at Gu Tang.
This person was far too good-looking.
Gu Tang decisively closed the window.
Author’s Note:
Little Theater:
For Yin Fan, it went like this:
Spacing out → getting interrupted → noticing Gu Tang → waving at Gu Tang → Gu Tang closing the window.
“…She’s deliberately provoking me.”
The dignity of Teacher Yin Fan speaking.
Teacher Yin Fan’s One Hundred Thoughts:
Why can’t you do this? What are you doing while everyone else is studying? Did you listen properly when the teacher was explaining? Do you read during breaks? Did you review the syllabus from beginning to end before the exam?…