Chapter 13

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Xing Shi immediately took off the cat ears.

The last time they had eaten together, he had already realized that Fu Xiuning liked his face, but he was still surprised that acting cute had actually raised his favorability by two points.

Who would have thought that Fu Xiuning was into this sort of thing?

But the next second, he heard another notification.

[Ding-ding]

[Current Favorability: -7]

Fu Xiuning had not expected the score to rise by two points either.

Again and again, he found himself influenced by that face.

He restrained his emotions so that the favorability score would not keep fluctuating. Xing Shi and the others might assume that he was struggling internally, but he still hoped such incidents would not happen too often.

Unfortunately, genuine likes and dislikes could not be controlled. The notification sounded again, but the score did not drop to the -8 or -10 he had expected. It only decreased by one point.

He looked at Xing Shi, refusing to admit that it might have something to do with those ears.

The teachers wore warm, kindly smiles.

They had just seen Fu Xiuning chatting with Xing Shi in the corridor, and their boss was even holding a small cake now.

Their boss had always kept people at arm's length and never readily accepted things from others. These two were clearly more than ordinary schoolmates who merely happened to know each other. They must have some personal connection.

One of them smiled and asked, “Why are you wearing those?”

Xing Shi improvised, “I happened to mention them to some classmates, and they insisted that I take a few photos.”

Then, remembering the usual rules of artist management, he added, “Don’t worry, Teacher. I’ll only take the photos—I won’t post them. I’ll just show them on my phone when I get back.”

The teacher laughed. “Where are you going to take them?”

“The lounge.”

The teacher clearly doted on him. “Go ahead, then. Come back quickly.”

Xing Shi picked up the cat ears and left the practice room.

The system was overjoyed. “How about that? Two points! Hahaha! Other hosts have to work themselves half to death for a single point, while we got two in one go!”

“Negative seven, thank you very much,” Xing Shi replied.

“Well, he’s still in denial deep down. I don’t think he’ll be able to run from it for much longer.”

Xing Shi ignored it. When he reached the lounge, he casually took a selfie, then lowered his head to look at it. He thought that Fu Xiuning could hardly be blamed—he really did look good.

He took two more photos before returning.

Several teachers were reporting the progress to Fu Xiuning.

The songs had been selected, and the choreography for each group had been finalized. Only the group dance remained undecided.

The trainees attended classes as usual during the day and took one or two lessons in the evening before spending the rest of the night rehearsing. There were still more than twenty days until the first rehearsal for the university anniversary celebration, so they had plenty of time.

Fu Xiuning nodded.

He had deliberately chosen to wait outside Xing Shi’s practice room, but unfortunately, he had not overheard anything about an alliance. He motioned for the teachers to begin class and gave up on waiting, turning to leave.

At a quarter past eight that evening, Xing Shi and the others finished their lessons and began rehearsing.

Each practice room accommodated two groups, with each group occupying half the space.

Xing Shi, his roommates Yu Yi and Feng Zifan, were in the same practice room. The difference was that Xing Shi belonged to one group, while Yu Yi and Feng Zifan belonged to the other.

During the class assignments, Feng Zifan had performed a song. His dancing was average. Yu Yi’s foundation was poor, but he had a good aptitude and had improved noticeably. His physical condition, however, was not as naturally gifted as Xing Shi’s, so he had been placed in the same group as Feng Zifan.

During their break, they came over and sat beside Xing Shi, sighing in unison.

“I’m exhausted,” Yu Yi said. “Every inch of me aches.”

Feng Zifan pounded his legs. “It’ll get better once the muscles loosen up.”

Xing Shi collapsed into a practiced, boneless sprawl. He reached over, dragged the bag toward him, and handed each of them a small cake.

Feng Zifan opened the box and took a bite, looking curious. “The boss seems to care quite a lot about this program.”

Everyone nearby turned to look.

Most of them had seen the boss sharing cake with Xing Shi in the corridor earlier.

To be honest, they were envious. But Xing Shi had earned his place at Z University and become the boss’s schoolmate through his own ability. All they could do was gaze up at them from afar.

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Under everyone’s gaze, Xing Shi answered, “I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”

The others could not tell whether he was being truthful, but they all wanted to get closer to him. They gathered around and chatted about everything from recently released films to celebrity gossip, eventually moving on to embarrassing incidents from the day of the class assignments.

“My mother went to get my fortune told. I stayed on the phone the whole time, repeating every line after her.”

“Little Qiao wore the clothes underneath backward and only realized it after the second-round audition.”

“Looks like everyone was nervous. I remember one guy had such a bad case of diarrhea that he ran to the bathroom several times.”

“Yu Yi has a story too. He tripped on absolutely flat ground because he wasn’t watching where he was going and stayed dazed for several minutes.”

Yu Yi sighed helplessly. “It was only for a little while.”

“By the way,” one of them said, “did any of you see that person suddenly sprinting during lunch? I almost thought he was going to run straight into a wall. I’m not exaggerating—he was practically about to splatter himself against it. Luckily, he turned at the last second. I only saw his back, so I have no idea who it was.”

“Me,” Xing Shi said.

The other person fell silent.

Everyone else went quiet for a second before bursting into laughter.

The person awkwardly raked a hand through his hair. “What happened to you?”

Xing Shi brought out the excuse he had improvised that day.

He lay there in serene surrender, nibbling his cake. While listening to the others chat, he contacted Lin Kecheng through the system.

Lin Kecheng had just been coaxed into a better mood by the system.

After learning that all transmigrated hosts were in a state of amnesia, he felt confident again, though he still could not understand one thing. “If he’s lost his memory, how is he still so skilled at fighting?”

“Some people retain certain instincts,” the system replied.

Lin Kecheng recalled Xing Shi’s reaction that day. “What kind of world did he live in before transmigrating?”

“That’s personal information. Only the Main System knows.”

Lin Kecheng had no further questions. He was about to get into bed and play on his phone when he received a message from his ally.

Xing Shi: [Senior, I have good news~ I saw Fu Xiuning at the company and told him that you want to become an entertainer~]

Lin Kecheng was instantly alarmed. [What exactly did you say?]

Xing Shi: [I just told him outright.]

Lin Kecheng felt his vision go black. [You told him outright? You didn’t ask me first?]

Xing Shi: [Huh? Didn’t you say you wanted to become an entertainer? Of course the sooner the better, so I told him.]

Lin Kecheng’s blood pressure rose. He began to suspect that this really was an idiot.

His favorability score was low, and now he was dragging him down too. But the deed was done, so he cautiously asked: [How did he react?]

Xing Shi: [He hummed once. I think he’s considering it.]

Lin Kecheng did not believe him. [What makes you think that?]

Xing Shi: [I gave him the little cakes and said they were bought by you. He took one. Once someone has eaten your food, it’s hard for them to refuse you.]

Lin Kecheng and the system: “!!!”

In all the time they had known each other, Fu Xiuning had never accepted anything from him.

Even when Lin Kecheng bought enough for everyone, Fu Xiuning had never taken any.

Earlier, Xing Shi had chosen so many flavors at the dessert shop that Lin Kecheng had winced when paying for them. Now, he felt the money had been well spent.

He was surprised. “Fu Xiuning likes sweets? It wasn’t mentioned in the information.”

“His preferences over the past few years have been difficult to discern. The records won’t help much. Still, when you bought milk tea for everyone before, he didn’t take any. Could it be because Xing Shi was the one who handed it to him?”

“I’m at negative five, and he’s at negative eight. What do you think?”

The system thought that Fu Xiuning probably simply did not drink milk tea, but it steered the conversation back. “Just pretend you don’t know that Xing Shi mentioned this to him. Next time you see him, bring it up yourself and observe his reaction.”

Lin Kecheng acknowledged this, then instructed Xing Shi to consult him before doing anything in the future and closed the chat window.

Xing Shi continued rehearsing. As usual, he spent Saturday and Sunday at the company.

Another week passed in the blink of an eye, and the trainees faced their first comprehensive class-assignment assessment. After this examination, they would be tested once every quarter.

Xing Shi performed normally and made it into Class Two. His roommate Yu Yi had been working himself to the bone lately and scraped into Class Two as well. Feng Zifan had already been in Class Two during the first assessment and remained there this time. As for Da Zhuang, who had entered alongside him, he had originally been at the bottom of Class Two. Several people had since surpassed him, and he had fallen to Class Three.

Knowing that they were exhausted, the teachers gave them a day off.

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Xing Shi returned to the university to find Lin Kecheng and renewed their alliance, once again signing for only one week.

After spending time with him, Lin Kecheng had concluded that the kid was probably an idiot and would be easy to manipulate. He said, “Why not sign for longer?”

“No. Just one week.”

Lin Kecheng grew suspicious. “What’s your favorability score right now?”

“Negative eight. After we form the alliance, I can let you see it.”

On the third day after it had risen to negative seven, Xing Shi had encountered Fu Xiuning at the company, and the score had dropped back to its normal negative eight. It could be viewed freely now.

Lin Kecheng’s suspicions eased considerably. “Why insist on signing for only one week?”

Xing Shi answered bluntly, “I said I wanted to see whether we work well together. You haven’t helped me at all this week.”

Lin Kecheng: “?”

How could someone at negative eight still have the nerve to complain about him?

Suppressing his irritation, he explained, “That’s because I haven’t found the opportunity.”

Xing Shi said they could sign for another week and see how things went. He shook Lin Kecheng’s hand, absorbing another small stream of energy, then left in satisfaction.

The dull training continued afterward. Before they knew it, the first rehearsal for the university anniversary celebration had arrived.

The company sent a car to take them to the entrance of the auditorium. People nearby saw a group of handsome young men with wildly different styles emerge from the vehicle and nearly screamed.

The news that “a group of trainees has arrived at the auditorium” quickly spread, and everyone hurried to call in favors, hoping to watch the rehearsal.

Lin Kecheng invited Fu Xiuning.

With the system’s help, he had plenty of chances to engineer chance encounters with Fu Xiuning, but bringing up the subject of becoming an entertainer always felt too abrupt.

So he had chosen today. Watching the trainees onstage would give him a natural opening to raise the topic.

To improve Fu Xiuning’s opinion of him, he had even bought some desserts—more than twice as expensive as the previous ones.

He placed them on the table. “I had something to take care of this morning. On my way back, I passed a dessert shop and bought a few things. I heard this place is excellent. Have some, Senior.”

Fu Xiuning had encountered Xing Shi several times recently, yet he still could not understand the purpose behind the boy’s alliance. He had agreed to come today because both of them would be present, making it a good opportunity.

“No need,” he said.

Lin Kecheng’s smile stiffened slightly. He asked the system, “Does he dislike this brand?”

“Try taking everything out and arranging it first,” the system suggested.

Lin Kecheng took out the desserts one by one. “Then take whatever you like whenever you feel like eating.”

He waited for a while, but Fu Xiuning remained unmoved. Wondering if he had used the wrong approach, he took out his phone to contact Xing Shi. Their alliance had expired again, and they had agreed to renew it today.

He complained, “I invited Fu Xiuning here. Doesn’t that count as helping? And he still only signed for one week. Could he really have some ulterior motive?”

The system thought for a moment, then suddenly exclaimed, “I know!”

Lin Kecheng’s heart tightened. “What?”

“He’s keeping his options open!”

Lin Kecheng was silent for a moment. “Use a different phrase.”

The system amended, “…He wants to be able to jump ship at any time and form an alliance with someone else.”

Lin Kecheng thought that Fu Xiuning would regret it someday. He sent Xing Shi a message.

Xing Shi arrived soon after. When he saw Fu Xiuning, he smiled and greeted him. “Boss.”

Fu Xiuning nodded. Not wanting Xing Shi to leave too quickly, he pushed the small cakes on the table toward him.

Xing Shi’s eyes lit up. “Are those for me?”

“Yes.”

Xing Shi happily sat down. “Thank you, Boss!”

Fu Xiuning said once more, “Yes.”

Lin Kecheng and the system: “???”

Something seemed very wrong here.