Chapter 12

Under the expectant eyes of everyone present, Yun Zhi walked back up onto the stage.

Yun Zhi lowered his head slightly and extended his hand to Zhao Jinzhao. They shook hands.

Ouyang Yi, never one to miss an opportunity to stir things up, added with a cheerful smile just before the music started, "Looking forward to your stage."

The lights shifted. The two on stage exchanged a brief glance, and the moment the music began, they moved in unison.

At first their movements were perfectly synchronized. Then, at a certain point, Zhao Jinzhao broke into a different variation.

When the camera caught his facial expression at that moment, the corner of his mouth curved briefly upward. Screams erupted from the crowd below.

He wasn't freestyling — these moves had been choreographed in advance with a teacher.

Zhao Jinzhao scanned the mentors' reactions with satisfaction, already starting to congratulate himself internally on having outshone Yun Zhi.

But in the very next second, Yun Zhi snapped precisely to the beat, winked at the camera, and changed his moves too.

If the senior was going freestyle, there was no way he was falling behind. His stage had to be beautiful.

The movements that flowed from his beautiful lines of motion were natural and effortless — no flashy showing off, just the kind of precise alignment with the music that brought the audience pure joy.

It instantly eclipsed the choreography Zhao Jinzhao had planned in advance.

The camera zoomed in again. Yun Zhi simply gave the lens a light blink, his pale amber eyes liquid and full of laughter.

An even louder wave of screams filled the room.

The mentors were inwardly stunned. The production team had found themselves a treasure.

Yun Zhi kept pace with the music while tracking Zhao Jinzhao in his peripheral vision.

Ten or so seconds later, Yun Zhi noticed that the senior had jumped the beat — he wasn't hitting the counts cleanly either.

Nerves were making his movements slightly panicked. Yun Zhi gradually realized that he wasn't actually freestyling at all.

Without overthinking it, when their positions shifted to face each other, Yun Zhi looked Zhao Jinzhao directly in the eyes. Catching the direction of his movement in his peripheral vision, he matched him and stepped into the same move at almost the exact same moment.

Meeting Yun Zhi's open, sincere gaze, Zhao Jinzhao was briefly taken aback — and then fell into step with him.

Yun Zhi was quietly guiding him. Not forcing a change — instead flowing with his rhythm, adapting to him, and gently steering.

The audience below could rarely tell, but Zhao Jinzhao felt it clearly.

Zhao Jinzhao was suddenly afraid of Yun Zhi's ability.

But when he met those light amber eyes, innocent as a child's, the fear dissolved in an instant.

For the second half of the dance, they moved like two beautiful, perfectly attuned twins — unified in rhythm, yet with individual differences in certain moments that highlighted each of their distinct personalities.

The two of them shared a smiling glance and held their ending poses in a beautiful freeze.

"Excellent — absolutely brilliant joint performance!" Ouyang Yi jumped to his feet and applauded.

Thunderous applause broke out. Yun Zhi caught his breath in small sips and smiled at Zhao Jinzhao. "Thank you for your hard work, senior."

Zhao Jinzhao politely gave him a brief, loose embrace, his heart a complicated tangle. He smiled in return. "You too. Well done."

Finally, national producer Yang Zhuo announced, "With the unanimous approval of our five mentors, trainee Zhao Jinzhao — Grade A!"

Zhao Jinzhao was briefly startled, then quickly broke into a smile and bowed toward the mentors' table before walking off stage.

Someone in the crowd couldn't help whispering.

"What about Yun Zhi?"

"Yun Zhi danced so well this time — is he still a B?"

Zhao Jinzhao got an A, yet Yun Zhi — who had been no less impressive — was still a B. That hardly seemed fair. In the joint performance, Yun Zhi had been even more at ease.

Just as Yun Zhi was about to bow and step off, he heard Yang Zhuo call out to him. "Jin Yunzhi — you're still a B grade. Any objections?"

Yun Zhi paused, turned back, and gave a small smile. "None. I trust the mentors' judgment."

Yang Zhuo nodded in satisfaction. "You only get one chance. In your individual evaluation you showed us a B-grade performance — even if you shine more brilliantly in later stages, it can't make up for what was shown here. I'm glad you understand. Keep working hard."

"Thank you, mentor."

Yun Zhi returned to his seat and let out a long breath.

His cheeks were round and puffed out, like a plump little snow mochi. Li Yuanyuan was transfixed and quietly stretched out a finger trying to poke it.

Smack — Fang Yixing leaned forward and slapped away Li Yuanyuan's hand that was about to defile his fated little sweet Omega.

Li Yuanyuan instantly recoiled, pursing his lips, not daring to say a word about it.

Yun Zhi turned to look at Fang Yixing with sparkling eyes, practically broadcasting the words "compliment me now" across his forehead.

Fang Yixing pressed his fist lightly to his lips, gave a quiet laugh, and reached up to ruffle Yun Zhi's sweat-dampened golden hair. "Very good."

"You'll be great too!" Still floating from his girl-friend's praise, Yun Zhi returned the compliment generously.

The microphone rang out clearly. "Trainee Fang Yixing, please take the stage!"

The moment Fang Yixing stood up, everyone's eyes were drawn to him involuntarily.

His physique was far superior to the other Omegas — the loose, draping cut of his shirt made him look even more upright and commanding, and his long legs added a touch of imposing pressure.

His expression was distant and cool, his skin cold-white with no trace of warmth — like an aloof, imperious vampire aristocrat.

"Is he really an Omega?"

"He's unreal!"

The latecoming trainees who were only now registering his looks couldn't help doubting his secondary gender.

Tall Omegas in the industry existed, but they were generally very slender, giving off a soft, gentle impression — rarely intimidating. This particular combination of looks and physique would be extraordinary even among Alphas.

Hearing all the envious sighs around her, Yun Zhi felt deeply smug inside.

Complimenting his girl-friend was, if you rounded up slightly, the same as complimenting his own taste.

Fang Yixing glanced down at Yun Zhi with a small smile, then stepped unhurriedly down from his seat.

The camera captured that faint smile, and another round of screams rang out.

Beautiful people always made friends with other beautiful people. In this moment, the other trainees didn't know whether to envy Fang Yixing for having a sweet, soft girl-friend, or to envy Yun Zhi for having a cool, incredibly striking best friend.

Fang Yixing's demeanor was exactly what his appearance suggested — reserved and sparse with his words, apparently too unbothered to say more than necessary.

When the mentors learned he had brought an original composition, their expectations for him were high.

The piano was in place. His cold, low voice began to flow with the accompaniment, and the distinctive slight roughness of his unique timbre instantly transported everyone into the world of the song.

That cool voice carried an inherent undercurrent of desire — the more mature Omegas in the audience were barely holding themselves back from the pheromone reaction he stirred in them.

As Li Yuanyuan would later put it: Fang Yixing had the face of someone who wanted nothing from anyone, unapproachable, yet a voice that made every Omega feel like going into heat.

When the song ended, Fang Yixing stepped back to center stage to wait for the verdict to be announced. His long, deep-set eyes were half-lidded — standing perfectly straight, and yet somehow giving off an impression of languid ease.

Vocal mentor Ouyang Yi, who was especially taken with his voice, quietly switched off his microphone, face going red as he argued with the other mentors with his back to the stage.

Wen Xiaoxiao felt that, while his looks, aura, and vocal ability were all exceptional, he couldn't dance — and therefore couldn't receive an A.

Ouyang Yi and the other mentors who had all but been flattened by Fang Yixing's face were heartbroken.

In the end, Yang Zhuo announced, "Fang Yixing's initial evaluation grade is — B! Congratulations!"

Fang Yixing bowed toward them. "Thank you," he said, in a perfectly flat tone.

Yang Zhuo laughed and couldn't resist asking out of curiosity, "Hey, trainee — is your expression always like this?"

Fang Yixing: "What expression?"

Yang Zhuo: "No expression."

The entire room burst out laughing.

Yun Zhi sat upright in his seat, watching everyone laugh at Fang Yixing, and felt his pretty brow furrow. He knew nobody meant any harm by it — they were only teasing — but the little voice inside him still felt indignant on behalf of a potentially wounded Fang Yixing.

His girl-friend was sensitive on the inside. She needed to be protected!

Yang Zhuo finished laughing and explained to Fang Yixing, "Throughout your entire performance, there was no emotional expression on your face — same when you were facing us. I hope that the next time we see your performance, you'll have made some progress there."

In the director's booth, the director, who seemed to have seen through something, muttered internally: No no no — he's actually very warm toward Yun Zhi. He even smiles.

The stage evaluations for all 101 Omega trainees took a very long time. By the time everyone had been sorted into their grade levels, it was already eight o'clock the following morning.

To keep pace with the production schedule, they had stayed up through the night.

At eight the next morning, after the final trainee's grade was announced, the four mentors were escorted back by their assistants to rest.

The 101 trainees leaned against each other in their cramped seats with their eyes closed, too drained to speak.

Yun Zhi had hit his limit too. The moment the mentors left, he finally closed his eyes, and started dozing off — his upper body swaying gently, his little head drooping and bouncing like a pecking chick.

Fang Yixing reached out and cupped his chin in one large, steady palm.

Yun Zhi's head tilted sideways and came to rest, sleeping against Fang Yixing's hand.

"Beep beep beep——!"

Piercing alarm sounds blared from speakers in every direction. Several Omegas who had just fallen asleep were startled and slid right off their seats.

"What's happening, what's happening — can't they let people rest?!" Li Yuanyuan blinked open his eyes in a daze and complained quietly.

Yun Zhi was also jolted awake by the sustained alarm. He glanced at Li Yuanyuan, who had drool at the corner of his mouth, then fished a wet tissue out of his pocket and handed it over. "Wipe."

"Oh, thanks." Li Yuanyuan wiped his mouth.

Still half-asleep, Yun Zhi turned and asked Fang Yixing, "What's going on?"

Fang Yixing had gone the entire night without sleeping, yet showed not a trace of fatigue. He said, "Probably the production team has another activity."

Sure enough, the next moment a display appeared on the large screen.

What came up was a layout diagram of dormitory rooms — a series of slides playing at a rate of one every five seconds.

Yang Zhuo, still steadfastly at his post, picked up the handheld microphone and addressed the tiered seating area. "As you can see, these are the dormitories the production team has prepared for our 101 trainees. There are five single rooms, four double rooms, eight six-person rooms, and the rest are eight-person rooms."

Dormitory life had an enormous impact on quality of living, and the exhausted trainees perked up immediately.

"I want a single room."

"+1"

"+1"

"I feel like the production team is about to do something."

Li Yuanyuan nudged Yun Zhi. "Yun Zhi, come stay in the eight-person room with us — my group is six people, add you and Yixing and it works out perfectly."

Before Yun Zhi could respond, Fang Yixing shot Li Yuanyuan a cold look. "Too crowded. No."

Yun Zhi tried to read his girl-friend's mind and probed carefully. "Then shall we do a double room? Or do you want a single? I think a double would actually be better — we could look out for each other."

Fang Yixing pressed his lips into a straight line and didn't look at Yun Zhi. He turned his head aside and dropped two words quickly in Yun Zhi's direction. "Double room."

Yang Zhuo smiled. "There are probably quite a few trainees who want a single or double room — but as you can see, there are only so many. For a fair competition, the production team has set up a game. Only the top few groups who win the game will earn the right to move into their dream room. So — let's begin!"