Chapter 102.2: End of Practice and the Start of the School Term
When it was finally over, Mu Zhenchu, dazed and exhausted, wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel. “Thanks… I’ll head out now.”
It was so late that the company dorm would definitely not let him back in. Mu Zhenchu was already planning to find a cheap motel to stay in.
Hotels were too expensive. Most of his money had gone toward hospital bills, but he could still scrape by for a while. Motels were cheaper and more manageable.
While being sent all over the place by the company recently, Mu Zhenchu had often tried to find humor in his hardship—at least being busy meant some income, even if the profit share wasn’t much.
Shen Xiu didn’t need to check the time to know it was well past midnight by now. For the first time, he was inviting someone to stay over at his place, and he was a little nervous—his voice came out stiff:
“If you don’t mind… you can sleep in the guest room.”
Shen Xiu didn’t know much about Mu Zhenchu outside of practice, but based on his observations back in the training camp, he knew this: Mu Zhenchu on stage and off stage expressed emotions like two completely different people.
The moment practice ended, Mu Zhenchu had returned to that visibly worn-out state—as if all the passion and intensity he’d shown during rehearsal had been locked away the second they stopped.
If he went back now, he’d only exhaust himself further.
Mu Zhenchu stared blankly at Shen Xiu. “C-Can I?”
“Of course.”
Whew… Agreed.
Mission accomplished: successfully invited a teammate for a sleepover!
System: [……]
It was getting serious déjà vu from when Shen Xiu used to grind through system tasks.
But—making friends and spending time with them counts as a mission for Shen Xiu too?! The system couldn’t comprehend it.
Shen Xiu brought Mu Zhenchu to the guest room. After pointing out where everything was, he hesitated for a few seconds before deciding to speak:
“Don’t go into the study.”
The system hadn’t said anything, but Shen Xiu still felt it wouldn’t be good for anyone to see the system’s stuff.
The place was rented by him, but the secrets inside still belonged to the system. Shen Xiu felt responsible for protecting those secrets.
Back at Shen Xiu’s other house, Mu Zhenchu had already heard from Shang Yu that the study was off-limits. So Shen Xiu’s warning didn’t come as a surprise.
Mu Zhenchu nodded obediently. “Understood. I absolutely won’t go in.”
“Mm.”
Shen Xiu gave a small sound of acknowledgment, then noticed Mu Zhenchu still staring intently at him. Suddenly realizing why, he quickly added, “Good night.”
Mu Zhenchu: “Good night!”
Only then did Shen Xiu turn and leave the guest room.
Back in his own bedroom, Shen Xiu grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom to wash up.
Under the black showerhead, as the warm water poured over him, Shen Xiu started replaying the events of the day—his performance as group leader and their group practice.
He gave himself an 80 out of 100 for today’s practice session.
Thinking about how he got along with Mu Zhenchu, Shen Xiu muttered to himself, “Mu Zhenchu’s at a six out of ten on the familiarity scale now. Not bad.”
Today was another big breakthrough!
System: [?]
[Wait a minute—wasn’t everyone except Xiang Yueting at “barely acquainted” five out of ten? How did Mu Zhenchu suddenly jump to six? Explain. In detail.]
Why did it always fail to follow Shen Xiu’s logic?
If it couldn’t figure this out tonight, its entire database was going to crash from the stress!
“He was medium-well before, but now that I’ve successfully invited him to stay at my place, he’s medium-well-done plus. Isn’t that reasonable?”
He extended the invitation, and Mu Zhenchu accepted. That meant, in both their hearts, their friendship had progressed—this was perfectly logical!
System: […As long as you’re happy.]
Shen Xiu ran his wet fingers through his hair as he turned off the shower, and answered seriously, “I am happy today.”
Seeing his long-lost friends again wasn’t as awkward or distant as he’d imagined. He’d even successfully deepened his friendship with one of his teammates, and by helping correct his movements, he’d managed to review the group’s training content from earlier that day.
Three achievements in one day—who wouldn’t be happy about that?
…
The next day.
Mu Zhenchu had an early gig and got up at 6:30 a.m.
He thought he was already up ridiculously early, but after washing up and stepping out of the guest room, he saw Shen Xiu already sitting upright and energized on the sofa. Shen Xiu was hunched forward, elbows resting on the coffee table, scribbling something into a notebook.
At that sight, even Mu Zhenchu’s usual morning emo vibes got completely blown away.
Forget Hardworking King Shen—this is God of Grinding Shen!
Stunned, Mu Zhenchu greeted him: “…Morning.”
Shen Xiu looked up at him. “Morning.”
“Uh… I’ll get going now. Bye.” Caught in Shen Xiu’s piercing gaze, Mu Zhenchu wasn’t sure what else to say. Since he had a train to catch anyway, he used that as an excuse to make a quick exit.
Shen Xiu also didn’t know what people normally talked about with friends after saying good morning, so he echoed smoothly, “Mm. Bye.”
After Mu Zhenchu left, Shen Xiu breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his head, and wrote down the last data point on the page. Still feeling a bit uneasy, he asked the system, “While I’m out, are you sure it’s okay to let a stranger in to install things?”
His mind was instantly filled with sensational headlines—Homeowner away, installer turns out to be a criminal.
System: [Relax. I’m a system. The system that once held the power of life and death over you!]
Shen Xiu thought about it… That did sound pretty reliable. And only then did he finally feel at ease.
—
At night, around ten o’clock, Shen Xiu waited for Mu Zhenchu at the entrance of the residential complex.
Mu Zhenchu got off the bus and, as he walked toward the gate of the Yulin Banxia complex, he spotted Shen Xiu from afar—standing under a large tree near the entrance, wearing a face mask.
The moment he saw Shen Xiu, Mu Zhenchu felt all his exhaustion vanish. He quickly ran over to Shen Xiu and said, “Sorry, sorry, have you been waiting long?”
“No,” Shen Xiu answered truthfully. “I just got here too.”
Shen Xiu wasn’t good at small talk, so he got straight to the point: “Let’s go. Time to practice.”
Mu Zhenchu nodded. “Okay!”
As they entered the familiar practice room, the first thing Mu Zhenchu noticed was the huge mirror covering almost an entire wall.
It hadn’t been there the night before, but now it was. The reason why was obvious.
Seeing Mu Zhenchu staring at the mirror silently, Shen Xiu thought he was curious and explained, “It’s more convenient this way.”
Watching yourself in the mirror while dancing makes it easier to spot any imperfect moves right away.
“Yeah!” Mu Zhenchu responded. He knew Shen Xiu was just making excuses to keep him from feeling pressured—everything was done for his sake.
After four consecutive days of practice, they had basically perfected the routine. As the team leader, Shen Xiu announced that they would stop practicing.
Despite practicing with Shen Xiu for several nights, Mu Zhenchu hadn’t missed any of the group training sessions for their first special performance. The nine members were only waiting for Shi Buwen’s notice to begin filming the first team special.
That very night after ending practice, Shen Xiu contacted a driving school he had carefully chosen—called Hongyun—after comparing several options.
Shen Xiu had originally planned to enroll earlier, but practice had delayed things for a few days. Now, he finally had the time to sign up.
The system looked at the name of the driving school Shen Xiu had chosen and raised a soul-piercing question: [Be honest—did you pick this driving school because it’s called “Hongyun” (Good Fortune)?]
“Fifty percent of the reason.”
Always plagued by bad luck, Shen Xiu was ruthlessly exposed by the system. Though embarrassed, he admitted it.
“Good Fortune Driving School”—just hearing the name sounded auspicious. He really did need a lucky name to change his fate.
Especially after Shen Xiu saw many netizens online saying that getting a driver’s license was a lifelong enemy, scarier than the college entrance exam. People failing Subject 2 and 3 over and over again until they ran out of retakes and had to start all over.
Given that Shen Xiu had never even touched a car before, coupled with all the online horror stories, he became even more determined to choose “Hongyun Driving School,” hoping to passively gain some good-luck buff.
[Hmm?]
Somewhat sheepishly, Shen Xiu tried to defend himself: “Of course, the other fifty percent of the reason is that it’s the closest one to my school and where I live.”
He only half-believed in superstition!
System: […Well, as long as you’re happy.]
The communication with Hongyun Driving School went very smoothly. Shen Xiu decided that when he went to the university the next day to handle enrollment, he would go a bit early and register at the driving school first.
As soon as Shen Xiu left after registering, a coach who had been standing at a distance earlier quickly came over.
“Isn’t that the celebrity from a really powerful family? He’s signing up for driving lessons? Don’t they usually have private instructors?”
Looking at the registration photo, the person in charge took a long drag of his cigarette and muttered, baffled, “You’re asking me? Who am I supposed to ask? I don’t get it. I really don’t get it!”
—
Enrolling in university was very straightforward. Shen Xiu only needed to make sure the tuition money was transferred into the school-issued bank card by the end of the term. The school would automatically deduct it. His scholarship was also deposited into that same school account, so Shen Xiu never had to transfer the tuition himself.
Before and after the semester started was completely different—the campus was now full of returning college students everywhere.
The moment Shen Xiu walked through the school gate wearing a mask and a baseball cap, he felt like he was under a blazing spotlight from everyone around him.
Because of this, Shen Xiu could only walk while enduring the burning gazes from fellow students, silently repeating to himself in denial and self-brainwashing: They can’t see me, they can’t see me, they can’t see me…
As he quickened his pace, Shen Xiu was also constantly alert, carefully controlling his limbs to avoid embarrassing himself in front of his classmates.
After all—
He was only a sophomore now. One slip-up, and he’d be socially dead for two years. How could he face anyone on campus for the next two years?
Even when he graduated and looked for a job, if he ran into people from his school, the first thing they’d remember about him would be that classic public moment of him messing up his limbs.
Just imagining it made his scalp tingle. He walked faster, even more cautious.
“Ahhh, Xiu-baby!”
“Help! I can’t believe I actually found you!”
“Even with the mask and baseball cap covering every inch of that cool face, no one knows Xiu-baby better than us Xiuologists!”
Along the way, such deliberately hushed excited voices never stopped.
Before Shen Xiu even joined the boy group talent show Youth Unstoppable, he was already a campus celebrity. Everyone knew that the Scholarship King Xiu, wasn’t just tall, handsome, and well-built, but also diligent, hardworking, and ambitious—the pride and joy of all the professors in the Chinese department.
The only problem was that he was too cold and distant, constantly radiating a “keep out” vibe that made people afraid to approach him. On the school’s confession wall, he was known as the “Arctic Ice God of Grinding,” a fierce and untouchable academic overlord.
But this summer, after Shen Xiu participated in the boy group talent show, everyone who quietly followed the program discovered that the “Grinding God” Shen really was cold and aloof, truly cool and distant—but his heart was soft!
Because of that, the fellow students from the Xiuology class at school evolved from sneaking glances from afar to pretending to casually pass by while stealing looks, whispering with their friends.
“Xiu-Baby’s legs are so long! How does he manage to walk with such presence on the campus tree-lined path? He’s totally on a different level from everyone else!”
“Isn’t that obvious? Xiu-Baby’s a tall guy—like 1.89 meters. But honestly, that scene really matches those campus novels where the crowd parts and you can spot someone with a unique aura and beauty at a glance.”
“Ahem, Xiu-Baby’s face isn’t even visible.”
“That doesn’t matter, his silhouette is beautiful too~”
“Why am I not in the Chinese department? If I were, we’d definitely bump into each other in required classes.”
“That’s nothing. We can make a move in the electives.”
“That’s way too unreliable—who even knows which electives Xiu-Baby is taking?”
…
At 10 AM, after walking nervously all the way, Shen Xiu finally arrived at the classroom his class usually used.
He timed it perfectly, stepping into the classroom exactly one second before the homeroom teacher’s 10 o’clock deadline.
After the second-year classes were split into smaller groups, the number of students taking Film and Culture was quite small. Shen Xiu’s entire small class only had fifteen people.
Not only could you tell at a glance who was there and who wasn’t, but if anyone walked in, it was impossible to avoid being noticed.
As Shen Xiu stepped inside, fourteen pairs of eyes in the room immediately fixed on him, causing his steps to stiffen.
Ling Yuanzhen wanted to mock Shen Xiu as soon as he saw him, but remembering that Shen Xiu was called the Grinding God by everyone, he held back and didn’t say a word.
Shen Xiu froze for a second, then regained composure and habitually walked to sit down behind everyone.
Looking at the backs of their heads, his nervousness eased a bit. Wearing a mask and a baseball cap inside the classroom wasn’t very appropriate, so Shen Xiu quickly took them off.
Before entering the classroom, he had already heard the voices of everyone talking inside, but once he came in, they all fell silent.
Shen Xiu sighed apologetically in his heart—Ling Yuanzhen was right. Wherever he was, no one felt at ease. His presence made everyone uncomfortable again.
The teacher hadn’t arrived yet, and no one spoke in the room. The silence was almost eerie.
Just as Shen Xiu was considering whether to open the back door and step outside for a while, waiting until the teacher arrived before coming back in, Jiang Wan, who was sitting in front of him, suddenly turned around.
