Chapter 16

Yang Zhuo: "Will all trainees please arrange themselves in order of their theme song scores."

Thanks to his outstanding performance in the theme song evaluation video, Yun Zhi had received high scores from all five mentors and ranked first.

Fang Yixing came in right behind him, Zhao Jinzhao third, Tang He fifth, and Li Yuanyuan seventh.

Ouyang Yi's burning gaze was fixed intently on Fang Yixing as he asked Yang Zhuo, "Do we just go ahead and choose trainees now?"

"No rush, Ouyang-laoshi." Yang Zhuo, reading his eagerness to snap up Fang Yixing, smiled and announced the rules. "In the interest of fairness, all six mentors will roll dice to determine the selection order. Each mentor may choose one trainee per round, over five rounds total. The highest roll gets first pick and may choose two trainees in the first round."

The mentors wore expressions of quiet determination as they each rolled their dice.

Xue Ruye's die came up showing six. The camera zoomed in for a close-up.

Wen Xiaoxiao would choose second. Ouyang Yi, in tragic fashion, was drawn last — he stared with tear-filled eyes at Fang Yixing, who would surely be snatched by another mentor before he got his chance.

Yang Zhuo: "Congratulations, Ruye-laoshi — you have the priority pick. In the first round, you may select two trainees. In the final round, you will not need to select."

"Good." His gaze settled on the top few trainees in the line of thirty.

The trainees who had scored highest had both exceptional skill and exceptional looks — naturally the most sought after.

The Omegas currently being surveyed by his gaze felt as though they were beauties being inspected by an emperor, and at the sight of the film idol's strikingly sharp and handsome face, their thoughts erupted in a frenzy of pink bubbles.

In the end, Xue Ruye's eyes moved frequently between the top three, apparently undecided.

Yun Zhi's nails dug into his palm.

He wanted to yank Fang Yixing behind him — and then reason told him he couldn't hide his girl-friend anymore. Right now, Xue Ruye was already eyeing Fang Yixing like a predator.

"My first pick is — Zhao Jinzhao!" Xue Ruye announced with a smile. "Come on over. You're on my team."

Zhao Jinzhao met his eyes and couldn't help lowering his head to hide a small, shy smile, not wanting the cameras to capture it.

Being Xue Ruye's first pick, Zhao Jinzhao felt an indescribable joy. A while back, when Xue Ruye had stopped picking up his calls and replying to his messages, he had almost convinced himself that this barely-begun underground relationship was about to end. And then Xue Ruye's appearance here had been like an injection of fresh resolve. Ruye-ge really did like him very much — he'd even secretly arranged a surprise, showing up as the mystery mentor at the very competition he was taking part in. He absolutely loved this man to death.

He stepped out from the line and stood behind Xue Ruye, gazing at his profile with starry eyes.

Yang Zhuo gently prompted, "Ruye-laoshi, please select your team's second trainee."

Xue Ruye looked again toward Fang Yixing and Yun Zhi.

Feeling Fang Yixing being sized up, Yun Zhi swallowed repeatedly, beads of fine sweat breaking out on his forehead, lips moistened again and again.

"Yun Zhi?" Yang Zhuo noticed Yun Zhi's tension and teased, "Yun Zhi, why are you so nervous? You want to be on Ruye-laoshi's team that badly? Don't the five remaining mentors stand a chance?"

Called out suddenly by name, Yun Zhi's strained nerves took several seconds to process what Yang Zhuo had said.

He wanted to be on Xue Ruye's team?

Ptui ptui ptui!

Even if offered to him for free, he wouldn't take it!

Wait — a thought suddenly flashed through Yun Zhi's head!

"Actually, yes," Yun Zhi blinked his bright, dewy eyes, looking particularly innocent. He looked down and twisted his hem, then looked back up, his face flushed with what appeared to be a bashful pink. "Sorry, Yang-laoshi — Xue Ruye-laoshi is my idol. If I could be on his team, I'd be so incredibly happy!"

The moment those words were out, the envious and hostile gazes stabbing in from all sides made his scalp crawl.

Even Fang Yixing looked over at him with a puzzled tilt of the head.

Yun Zhi kept his face up and stared straight at Xue Ruye.

He'd already gone this far to publicly "declare his feelings" — Xue Ruye, who always packaged himself with a considerate, warm persona, wouldn't refuse him in front of everyone, would he?

As long as he was picked, Fang Yixing would be safe for now. His girl-friend was this sought-after — the five remaining mentors definitely wouldn't let him slip by to the second round for Xue Ruye to claim.

Yun Zhi despised Xue Ruye, but this was the only plan he'd come up with. And unlike the lonely, unsupported Fang Yixing, he had a very powerful brother. If Xue Ruye developed any intentions toward him, Yun Zhi would get his brother to protect him.

Yang Zhuo said to Xue Ruye with exaggerated envy, "Ruye-laoshi, how enviable — you've already won yourself an adoring little fan on the show. You have thirty seconds to deliberate. Please make your choice soon."

"I've decided." Xue Ruye looked at Yun Zhi with a mild smile. "My choice is——"

Everyone had already turned their envious, resentful stares toward Yun Zhi — only to hear Xue Ruye announce his pick as——

"Fang Yixing!"

What?! How could he?!

Yun Zhi's pupils trembled. Did he not care at all about embarrassing someone publicly?!

"Sorry about that, Yun Zhi. I'm deeply honored that you consider me your idol — truly. But your style doesn't quite match the public performance number I've already planned for the team, so regrettably I wasn't able to choose you this round. Don't be sad — I'm sure we'll have the chance to work together again in the future."

His words were perfectly calibrated, officially phrased, impossible to fault — and they left Yun Zhi with a breath lodged in his throat that had nowhere to go.

Yun Zhi, seething, forced out a dazzling false smile and deliberately dangled his cute dimples in front of Xue Ruye's face. He said, "Of course! I won't be sad at all! I really, truly admire Ruye-laoshi's work so much — I've been a fan since I was little!"

The spring-breeze smile on Xue Ruye's face stiffened for a moment. "I can tell, hahaha."

The curve of his lips turned teasing. "I like you a lot too."

Like me a lot, my foot.

Yun Zhi quietly rolled his eyes and grabbed Fang Yixing before he could walk away, stretching up on his tiptoes to get close enough to whisper in a voice only the two of them could hear, urgently. "Don't get close to Xue Ruye. Do you hear me?"

What he received in return was Fang Yixing's gaze, complex and hard to read.

As Fang Yixing walked toward Xue Ruye's team, his doubts multiplied. Hadn't Yun Zhi been asking him about that flirtatious Xie Sibo just the other day? How was he suddenly declaring his love for Xue Ruye now?

And then turning around and warning him not to get close to Xue Ruye — in case he stole Xue Ruye from him?!

Did his presence count for nothing?

Omega hearts were truly impossible to fathom. He gave up trying.

Xue Ruye completed his first round of selection. The turn passed to Wen Xiaoxiao, who called out Yun Zhi's name first without hesitation and swept him onto her team.

A short while later, the thirty trainees had been evenly divided among the six mentors' teams.

The mentors led their respective trainees to separate practice rooms and played them the songs they'd selected for their newly formed teams.

A team had just been put together — naturally there needed to be some sort of icebreaker to get to know each other and build rapport.

On Wen Xiaoxiao's team were Yun Zhi, Li Yuanyuan, and Zhang Yu who ranked 18th in the theme song evaluation, Zhou Ziqing at 23rd, and Lu Yao at 27th.

Thanks to Li Yuanyuan and his social enthusiasm, Yun Zhi had already been dragged out to eat spicy hot pot with this group before — they were more or less friends by now — but for the sake of giving the production team material to edit, they played the icebreaker games anyway.

Yun Zhi was somewhat distracted.

His thoughts were entirely with the practice room far down the hall from them. Xue Ruye had taken Fang Yixing and his teammates to the very last practice room down the corridor — even pretending to go to the bathroom, you couldn't pass by it.

With cameras recording in the practice room the whole time, Xue Ruye probably wouldn't do anything outrageous. But that didn't stop Yun Zhi from worrying that Xue Ruye might sneak Fang Yixing out somewhere and then force himself on him.

How could Fang Yixing, as an Omega, resist the dominance of an Alpha?!

Without Fang Little Beautiful O within his sight, Yun Zhi was genuinely suffering.

Also, after all their time together, Yun Zhi had noticed that Fang Yixing had a bit of a hermit tendency. He didn't like talking to people — what if he got isolated over there? What if people picked on him?

Wen Xiaoxiao finished demonstrating a movement, then peered at Yun Zhi, who was holding his guessing card and staring blankly into space. "Baby...Yun Zhi, are you tired?"

Surely just holding up a card wasn't that physically taxing? This was in fact a job she had subtly assigned to Yun Zhi as a special favor. Everyone else — including herself — had been tasked with using their bodies to act out the clues, frantically contorting like performing monkeys for teammates who couldn't guess the words.

There was no way Wen Xiaoxiao was letting her sweet little baby participate in anything as undignified as that.

Yun Zhi was genuinely worried about how things were going on Fang Yixing's end and couldn't relax without at least one look. He put down his card and politely asked, "Wen-laoshi, may I go to the bathroom?"

Wen Xiaoxiao waved her hand magnanimously. "Go, go."

Yun Zhi slipped out of the practice room. The corridor was completely quiet at this hour, nobody around. Yun Zhi tiptoed past the bathroom without even glancing at it and kept walking until his feet stopped at the door of the very last practice room down the hall.

The door wasn't fully shut — a finger's-width gap let light through.

Yun Zhi quietly edged closer and peered through.

He hadn't even seen anything yet when the door was suddenly yanked open from inside. Yun Zhi looked up instinctively and found himself face to face with Zhao Jinzhao, looking thoroughly displeased.

"What are you doing?" Zhao Jinzhao asked coldly.

Zhao Jinzhao's expression, as though about to devour someone, sent Yun Zhi's heart racing.

"I... I..." Yun Zhi fumbled for a while, finally landing on a feeble excuse. "I wanted to ask when you all are having dinner — maybe have dinner together?"

As he said it, his eyes kept darting past Zhao Jinzhao into the room. He caught a glimpse of everyone sitting in a circle, with Fang Yixing and Xue Ruye separated by two people between them.

Phew. Yun Zhi exhaled and felt slightly better.

But the next second, Zhao Jinzhao shifted to block his line of sight, his tone curt. "We have our own plans. Doesn't your mentor have plans for you?"

Yun Zhi had a fairly good idea why Zhao Jinzhao had suddenly taken against him. He had publicly "declared his feelings" for Xue Ruye — that was entirely his own fault, and he had to own it.

Yun Zhi touched his nose and smiled. "Ah, I see — then goodbye, senior."

"Bye!" Zhao Jinzhao slammed the door behind him. The sound reverberated loudly through the empty corridor. He was furious, but he couldn't show it too obviously in front of the cameras.

After all, when he and Ruye-ge had made things official, he'd promised not to make their relationship public and not to affect his career.

"Who was just here?" Xue Ruye asked.

Since Zhao Jinzhao had been blocking the door the whole time, no one inside had seen who it was.

Zhao Jinzhao dropped cross-legged beside Xue Ruye, irritably reporting the name: "Yun Zhi."

Fang Yixing looked up sharply toward the door.

"Oh, so it was Yun Zhi." Xue Ruye curved a small smile, nodded twice, then asked, "Why did he leave so fast?"

Zhao Jinzhao said with barely suppressed annoyance, "Who knows."

* * *

With the last bit of afternoon left, Wen Xiaoxiao had each of her six trainees share their thoughts on the song's performance format. When that was done, she took the six trainees to the dining hall for dinner.

Today and the dress rehearsal day the following Wednesday were the only days Wen Xiaoxiao had available to come to the training camp, so she stayed through the evening in the practice room helping them refine their choreography, positioning, and facial expressions.

At ten o'clock, Wen Xiaoxiao's assistant came to collect her. She blew everyone a flying kiss. "Mua~ I'll see all of you again next week! Babies, keep working hard — you're all the best! You've already completed today's goals ahead of schedule, so get some rest! Good night!"

All six of them bid farewell to their sweet and lovely mentor in unison. "Goodbye, laoshi!"

The moment Wen Xiaoxiao's footsteps faded, Li Yuanyuan plopped himself down on the floor and fell backward like a limp noodle, emitting a weary groan. "Ughhh, I'm exhausted — Wen-laoshi said to rest early, can we just... rest right now?"

The others caught his lazy energy and nodded vigorously. The five of them then simultaneously turned to look at Yun Zhi — the most talented and hardest-working member of the group.

Yun Zhi, who desperately wanted to go check on Fang Yixing, stroked his chin, blinked, and said, "Then... shall we call it a day?"

"Yes!"

The others made straight for their dorm beds. Only Yun Zhi parted from them at the elevator, sprinting down the corridor to the very last practice room.

The door was wide open. The room was empty.

Yun Zhi knocked on the adjacent practice room in puzzlement, and someone told him that Xue Ruye had apparently taken the team out for a late-night snack in the dining hall.

Yun Zhi thanked them and ran to the dining hall without stopping.

Halfway there, he ran into Zhao Jinzhao and the others coming back from the dining hall. Under the bright path lights, the group walked in a row, chatting and laughing.

One glance and Yun Zhi clocked it — Fang Yixing wasn't there. There were only five of them. And Xue Ruye wasn't there either.

The two of them had slipped away from the others and disappeared together.

Xue Ruye really had spirited away his Fang Little Beautiful O!

The thought made Yun Zhi feel suddenly breathless.

He grabbed Tang He's arm in a panic. "Isn't Fang Yixing with you? Do you know where he went?"

Tang He shook his head. "No idea — he said he had something to take care of and left halfway through the meal. Did your group finish early? Already?"

Yun Zhi dropped his head and muttered a vague "mm," then stepped in front of Zhao Jinzhao and looked up at him with slightly reddening eyes. "Senior, where's Xue Ruye? Where did he go?"

Zhao Jinzhao was starting to resent Yun Zhi for entangling himself with his boyfriend. He answered through controlled annoyance. "He left early. Why are you looking for him at this hour?"

Tang He felt Zhao Jinzhao's tone toward Yun Zhi was unnecessarily harsh and added gently, "They both left one after another. Is something urgent?"

Yun Zhi looked helplessly at Tang He, his soft voice verging on tears. "Can you help me look for Yixing? I'm scared something happened to him."

His amber eyes had filled with a shimmering layer of moisture, catching the warm white lamplight in a way that made them extraordinarily bright. Tang He was a bit startled by his state and nodded blankly. "Okay, okay — I'll help you look."

A single tear dropped. Yun Zhi wiped it away and thanked them quickly before running off in another direction.

Tang He turned to his teammate with puzzled eyes. "What's with Yun Zhi? What could possibly happen to Fang Yixing? Isn't he the one among all of us with the strongest boyfriend energy?"

Zhao Jinzhao rolled his eyes. "What could happen — is he worried Ruye-laoshi is going to eat Fang Yixing?!"

......

Yun Zhi went to the security office, but they said he didn't have the clearance to access the surveillance footage. No amount of pleading would get the security staff to risk their jobs and violate professional conduct.

He could only try calling the director, hoping to get him to help — but the director kept not picking up.

Watching time tick later and later, Yun Zhi turned and plunged into the darkness of the night.

By rights, trainees in the training camp were not permitted to leave unescorted, so Yun Zhi reasoned Xue Ruye wouldn't take Fang Yixing outside the grounds. He knew in his heart that even Xue Ruye, as depraved as he was, wouldn't dare stir up a scandal inside the training camp — but that knowledge didn't stop the worry from growing.

Since the day he'd arrived at the training camp, Yun Zhi had led a strictly three-point life of dorm, dining hall, and practice room. It was only now that he realized how large the training camp actually was.

He ran around like a headless fly, asking anyone he bumped into whether they'd seen Fang Yixing.

There were no stars, no moon that night. Where there were no path lights, the darkness was total — you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

Yun Zhi pressed on into the darkness.

* * *

In the dormitory bathroom, Fang Yixing had just ended a transatlantic video call with his mother.

When his mother proposed coming back to Huaguo to cheer on him and his future daughter-in-law, Fang Yixing declined flatly.

His frank, enthusiastic mother coming back would be a guaranteed obstacle to his entire courtship plan.

Until Yun Zhi differentiated, Fang Yixing could only treat him with the tenderness one showed a child. And Yun Zhi still had the heart of a child right now — pursuing him could wait until he came of age properly.

He turned and stepped out, intending to go to the training building to walk Yun Zhi back to the dorm.

"Oh? You're in the dorm?" An Omega from the next room, carrying a laundry basket, saw him and asked in surprise.

"Mm." He looked steadily at that Omega.

The dormitory building was covered in cameras as well — no Omega would be in a state of undress in the hallways. Still, he rarely hung around the dorm.

"Have you seen Yun Zhi? He was out looking everywhere for you just now. Seemed pretty urgent — he was even crying," the Omega said.

"When was this?" Hearing this, Fang Yixing visibly lost his composure, his voice going colder from the urgency.

"About an hour ago, maybe."

"Thank you."

Fang Yixing turned back into the dorm, hid in the bathroom to call Yun Zhi's phone — only to discover Yun Zhi had left it tucked under his pillow, where it couldn't possibly be answered.

Fang Yixing ran out of the dormitory building at a fast walk.

Along the way he ran into a few trainees who had been looking for him — all asking why he'd gone off the grid so suddenly, whether he was alright. Fang Yixing had no time to answer. He only asked whether any of them had seen Yun Zhi.

The trainees pointed him in a direction, then watched him break into long, rapid strides toward it.

They stared after the spot where he'd disappeared, utterly baffled. Since when were those two playing hide-and-seek with each other?

A few minutes later, Fang Yixing found Yun Zhi in the small garden behind the training building — hiccupping with sobs and looking wildly in every direction.

"Yun Zhi!" He walked over in long strides.

Yun Zhi spun around, staring at his completely intact girl-friend in disbelief, his face tracked all over with tear stains.

"Yixing waaaaahh!" Yun Zhi immediately ran toward Fang Yixing, and at a distance of two steps still left, launched himself off the ground — legs wrapping around Fang Yixing's waist, arms locking around him. Still bawling, he raged at him through his sobs. "Where did you go?! Why, why didn't you tell me?!"

Fang Yixing's arms caught the person on reflex, his brain taking several seconds to reboot from the crash. He asked, slightly at cross purposes, "Why are you hugging me like this?"

Yun Zhi also blinked in momentary confusion. It was just his stress-response kicking in when he was worked up!

Unable to think of a justification, he decided to redirect the blame entirely onto Fang Yixing. His lips inches from his face, he pointed at him with indignant reason. "You made me worry for so long — can't you at least hold me for a second?!"