Trainee Ch.90

Chapter 90: Finals (1)

After the third ranking, the finals announcement quickly followed.

The large practice room on the third floor was quiet and empty. A 3×6 formation was enough to contain all the trainees, with the initiator standing at the front.

Lai Yudong stood on the left side of the first row. Under the strict supervision of the fierce Xiao Hong, nearly a week of rest had allowed his body to fully recover. Now, even another ten days of flipped day-and-night schedules would be no problem.

And as it happened, the preparation time was exactly ten days.

The finals were announced on Friday, with the live broadcast set for the following Sunday.

“From the theme song evaluation, to the group evaluation, to the position evaluation, and then to the theme evaluation—you have all witnessed each other’s progress and growth along the way. Now the time has come for the final assessment.” Initiator Fu Hanyu announced the rules: “This time, you will face the ultimate test: the debut evaluation.”

“The debut evaluation consists of a group stage and an individual stage. The group stage has two songs, with each team limited to nine members, and the center position decided by yourselves. For the individual stage, trainees can choose among three categories: vocal, dance, or rap.”

“There will be no separate live audience votes or bonus votes in the finals. The top seven trainees in the real-time ranking will debut as a group.”

[Ten days to prepare for two stages?]

[Not just that, they still have to learn the debut group dance afterward.]

[They also have to perform the theme song at the opening. It’s been so long since they last practiced—some of them might have even forgotten it.]

[Although, at this point, does the final stage even matter? Even if it’s a train wreck live, fans will blindly keep voting for their pick anyway.]

[It’s basically just a talent show performance. The final songs won’t be too difficult.]

Lai Yudong took a deep breath, suddenly feeling the weight of enormous pressure.

No matter how difficult it was, he had to complete the stages well. If what the barrage comments said was true, then it meant four songs in ten days. Even if one of them was the already-learned theme song, the schedule was still extremely tight.

What gave him the biggest headache was the individual stage. Putting aside the fact that it forced him to recall the embarrassment of his very first stage, the real problem was—which group should he join?

Fortunately, the individual stage didn’t require an immediate choice. This gathering was only for selecting the group stage.

The finals songs were chosen in order according to the third ranking results. After leaving the practice room, trainees would head directly to the room assigned to their chosen song. During this process, no communication was allowed, which meant it was a blind selection with no way of knowing one’s teammates in advance.

The first song was Vendela, named after the Vendela rose, a creamy-white rose whose flower language meant “devoted only to you.” The lyrics echoed this meaning, with the entire piece showcasing a romantic and beautiful style, staging a tender love story.

The second song was Polar Aurora—translated as “Aurora.” This was also a romantic love song. While the first emphasized purity and flawlessness, this one emphasized brilliance and vivid colors.

The two songs were similar in difficulty, so the choice came down purely to personal aesthetics.

[Flowers and radiance, huh.]

[For some reason this feels like a value statement.]

[I think it’s the difference between the tangible and the intangible.]

[The first is more delicate, the second more grand?]

“The finals tracks have been played. I trust you’ve already made your choices. When your name is called, please head directly to the corresponding room,” Fu Hanyu announced, reading off the third ranking results. “First place, Mo Li, please make your choice.”

Mo Li stepped out of the formation and pushed the door open to leave.

The practice room’s soundproofing was excellent—no footsteps could be heard, and there was no way to cheat by guessing which room he entered.

Not long after, a directive from the production team came through the earpiece, and Fu Hanyu continued: “Second place, Su Junzhe.”

“Third place…”

The waiting process wasn’t long, but with fewer people now, the atmosphere was far quieter than the second evaluation’s blind teammate selection. Not a single whisper could be heard—every slightly heavier breath stood out as jarringly loud.

Amid this torment, the entire first row was finally called.

“Sixth place, Miura Yuki.”

Lai Yudong stepped forward and headed toward the door. At this moment, the practice room’s entrance seemed like a gate of destiny, with signboards indicating the different options coming into view.

On the left: Vendela. On the right: Polar Aurora.

The barrage was completely blocked by the anti-spoiler mode, leaving not a single useful clue behind.

Fortunately, at this final stage, most of the remaining contestants were fairly normal. There wasn’t anyone in particular he desperately wanted to avoid.

Even that pair of “bromance-selling” brothers was tolerable; the practice short films were unlikely to keep revolving around their love-hate drama anymore. Besides, at this stage, screen time wasn’t that crucial. Unless there was some epic-level malicious editing, it was hard to shake the final outcome.

If he had to say, the only one he really wanted to avoid was Qin Xu. Just seeing that little foreigner triggered painful memories.

After thinking it over for a moment, Lai Yudong walked to the left.

In one of the handwritten letters he’d received from fans, a Yuzu-fan had mentioned that the primrose’s flower language was “There is no other love except your love,” which sounded somewhat similar to the Vendela rose’s meaning.

Since he felt both songs were fine, with no strong inner preference, he decided to go with the one that seemed most fated for him.

Therefore, his choice was Vendela.

[Guessed right! He’s in the white rose group!]

[Yuzu really suits this song.]

[Baby is mommy’s little rose ^3^]

[This group is so popular—all my favorite boys are here.]

Lai Yudong pushed open the door to the Vendela group. The room inside was silent and completely empty at first glance, as if no one had chosen this song.

If not for the barrage having already revealed it, he might have suspected he was the first one to arrive.

He stepped forward a few paces, crossing the doorway’s threshold.

All of a sudden, several figures burst out from behind the door, jumping right up to his face like haunted-house NPCs and letting out a synchronized scream:

“Ahhh!!!”

It was the most primitive kind of prank.

Lai Yudong: “…”

He knew it.

Standing perfectly composed where he was, Lai Yudong—already mentally prepared—looked at the childish trio whose combined age didn’t even seem to reach ten. His calm, adult-like presence stood out all the more in contrast.

With the prank a failure, the atmosphere sank into awkward silence.

After two seconds of quiet, Lai Yudong suddenly lunged forward with a shout: “Ah!”

“Waaahhhh—!!”

Qu Xincheng, who failed to scare anyone, was instead scared out of his wits. Face full of panic, he staggered backward in retreat, bumping into Bai Xuanhe—who, startled by the sudden jolt, screamed as if electrocuted, frightening Qu Xincheng even further.

“What the hell!?”

“Ahhhh—!!”

In the end, the two of them collapsed in a heap on the floor, their expressions saying they wanted to die from embarrassment.

The sole survivor, Su Junzhe, doubled over clutching his stomach, laughing so hard he nearly cried: “What is wrong with you guys—hahaha! No, I can’t, I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts—hahahahaha!!”

[Yuzu with the godlike counterattack hahaha]

[Oh my god, I was actually scared too—this little Yuzu is so wicked!]

[Brother Bai and Xiao Qu’s courage together isn’t even half of Yuzu’s alone.]

[Good thing Xiao Su is only afraid of bugs. Otherwise, if all three of them got scared, that would’ve been way too embarrassing hhhh]

[Yuzu: That’s it?]

[Rename Yuzu to “Courage.”]

“…” Lai Yudong’s mouth opened slightly.

He hadn’t expected their reactions to be so over the top, but then again, considering one of them was Qu Xincheng—the same person who once got so scared during a mystery box challenge that he accidentally busted out a popping move—it all suddenly made sense.

Helplessly, he crouched down and extended a hand of friendship: “You guys okay?”

“N-no problem…” Qu Xincheng said weakly. “It’s just… kinda heavy… I can’t really breathe…”

Because Bai Xuanhe, caught up in the disaster, was lying squarely on top of him.

“My bad, brother, I’ll get up right away.” Bai Xuanhe grabbed Lai Yudong’s hand and shakily pulled himself off the floor. “That was terrifying. Getting scared by Yuki was one thing, but being scared by Qu Xincheng nearly cost me half my life.”

“It’s fine, Qu Xincheng’s just down to his last breath,” Su Junzhe quipped as he hauled the human cushion up with such ease it looked like Qu hadn’t even tried to resist.

Qu Xincheng’s face flushed bright red, looking like he was about to cry: “Sorry, I just have a startle reflex… sometimes I can’t control it and…”

Bai Xuanhe patted the dust off his clothes. “Got it. Next time, we’re taking you to a haunted house.”

Qu Xincheng: “!?”

“Excuse me—”

Lai Yudong raised his hand like a well-behaved student, his innocent appearance completely at odds with the fact that he had singlehandedly scared two people to the ground. “Are we going to scare the next person too? They should be arriving soon.”

Bai Xuanhe hurriedly waved his hands. “Forget it, forget it, I value my life. I’m afraid the half I’ve got left will be scared away too.”

A few seconds later, the Vendela group’s door was pushed open again.

Xu An walked in, looking nervous. But upon spotting some familiar faces in the room, he quietly let out a sigh of relief.

[An Mu!!!]

[This works out well, one main vocal per group makes things balanced hahaha]

[Will Li Xu come to this group? I want to see 707 on the same stage.]

[Sorry, I want to see that too, but I just can’t associate Li Hong with a white rose.]

[Our Li Hong is a red rose with thorns! /doge]

“Our group’s pretty popular,” Su Junzhe said, sitting on the barre in front of the mirror. “Next door only has Mo Li and Zhao Yifeng.”

Bai Xuanhe leaned against the barre. “Could it be that we’ll be the first group to fill up?”

“No idea. I still want to be in the same group as Teacher Jin, but it’s looking doubtful.”

Lai Yudong happily stepped forward, giving his introverted roommate a reassuring hug. “Great, this is the first time we’ll be working together.”

Xu An gave an awkward little smile. “I guessed you’d come to this group.”

Lai Yudong blinked. “You can guess that? Then can you guess whether Li Xu will come here too?”

“Probably not…?” Xu An hesitated. “The other song isn’t his style either, but this one is even less so.”

“It’d be a shame if he doesn’t. You two have never been in the same group.”

“It’s fine, we can still perform the theme song together in the finals.”

Lai Yudong: “…”

Should he praise him for being so optimistic?

After that, the five of them waited in the practice room for a long time. Not only did Li Xu never show up, but their group also lost the earlier “hot pick” vibe, with no new members joining for quite a while.

It wasn’t until Jiang Yangfan, ranked eleventh, pushed the door open that they finally got a new face.

Now six in number, they sat in a row on the barre, all staring at the doorway in unison, waiting for the next person to arrive.

Jiang Yangfan’s ranking was sandwiched right between two certain people. Whether those two would be split apart or move forward hand in hand depended on whether the next person was Qu Junwei.

The waiting segment was a little boring, so Bai Xuanhe casually tossed out a topic: “Do you think those two will still end up together?”

Jiang Yangfan grinned. “Maybe they’re both guessing which song the other will pick.”

“That doesn’t sound romantic at all,” Su Junzhe said lightly, swinging his legs. “The past few times were all about fate. This time it should still be fate—Cupid will secretly tie a red string for good friends.”

Qu Xincheng quietly corrected him: “It’s the Matchmaker God who ties the red string.”

Su Junzhe tilted his head. “But calling a good friend a Matchmaker God sounds weird, doesn’t it?”

“Is Cupid really more fitting…?”

Xu An looked blankly at the only familiar face nearby. “Who are they talking about?”

“Uh…” Lai Yudong froze at the question. His brain spun at high speed, scrambling to come up with a safe explanation for the increasingly wild topic. “Those good friends from the practice short film.”

Xu An murmured as if half-understanding: “Ah, you mean Qu Junwei and Cheng Jinghao?”

Lai Yudong stared vacantly up at the ceiling, pretending he didn’t hear anything.

[LOL I’m dying, everyone lowkey knows.]

[After the practice clips, who wouldn’t get it hhhh]

[Yuzu’s intro was kinda loaded.]

[This segment is perfect for one of those snarky subtitled edits.]

[Don’t overanalyze, they’re just joking around.]

[Too bad Zhao Yifeng and Li Xu aren’t here.]

Lai Yudong: …

That situation might have been uncontrollable.

Whether it was a pity or a relief, they never did wait for Qu Junwei. Which meant that those two good friends had once again landed in the same group, achieving the grand feat of staying together all the way from the very first stage to the finals.

Maybe it really was fate.

About two minutes later, the doorknob turned, and Song Yanxi, ranked fourteenth, poked his head out from behind the door.

He quickly swept his gaze across the teammates inside, eyes lighting up in delight:

“Qu Xinchen! What a perfect match of minds! Yuki is here too—good, good, good! I’m very satisfied!”

Su Junzhe drawled, “And what about us—”

Song Yanxi made an effort to play it fair:

“You’re all great. You’re all my babies.”

[Brother Xi’s happy lobby]

[Yan & Yuki on the same stage for the first time! Ecstatic!]

[Every time I see Song Yanxi, my brain automatically recalls the visual ranking votes]

[Visuals Top 10: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9 are here. The other group only has three, and one was already eliminated]

[This group has a very high handsome-guy content. I like it]

The last two to arrive were Qin Xu and Jin Xiheng. Since the other group was already full, the two of them automatically joined Vendela.

“Great!” Su Junzhe leapt off the barre and lunged into Jin Xiheng with a flying hug.

“Earlier I was worried our group might fill up first!”

Qin Xu went around greeting teammates he hadn’t worked with before, starting with the nearest—Lai Yudong:

“Hello, my Chinese isn’t very good. Please bear with me.”

For a moment, Lai Yudong hallucinated that he was seeing his past self.

He smiled politely, forcing himself to overcome the PTSD the system had beaten into him:

“If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask me. I can do both Chinese and English.”

Because he himself had once been caught in the rain, he wanted to hold up an umbrella for others.

The situations weren’t the same, but that was one way to put it.

At least now, he was no longer struggling just to survive.

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