C4 Part2

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Jiang Lian raised his head slightly, not answering the question and instead, asking the director a question, “Is that how you use the phrase childhood sweethearts? Which of us is the girl in this situation?”

(T/N: He’s not exactly asking who’s the girl, but because the phrase here is ‘green plum and bamboo horse’, and as explained above, so someone has to be the green plum and someone has to be the bamboo. He’s asking who’s the ‘green plum’.)

The director did not expect Jiang Lian to be so direct and was speechless. At that moment, the person standing by her side lightly pulled on her sleeve, whispering in the director’s ear, “Don’t ask about Ming Rang anymore. When we signed the contract, we agreed that it would be best not to have him involved in any CPs.”

(T/N: CP is a couple, so it’s basically like a pairing that fans will ship)

The director’s expression was unhappy, “Who did they discuss this with? The small company he’s signed to?”

“It’s not his company,” That person shook his head, “It’s the main investor of the show, the investor’s surname is also Jiang.”

The director was silent for a moment and in the end, she gave up on her idea of promoting him and Ming Rang as an official pairing and chose a more regular question to ask, “Besides for Ming Rang, among the remaining 98 trainees, who is the one that you have the greatest impression of?”

Jiang Lian lowered his gaze and thought, a person’s face slowly appearing in his mind. He curled his fingers around his chin and slowly raised his eyebrows.

The director’s thoughts of promoting a CP appeared again and she calmly continued to ask, “Looks like you have someone in mind, so who is it?”

He paused, his expression returning to normal, “Xia Dongchan,” Jiang Lian added, “He’s very diligent.”

****

“Which one is Xia Dongchan?” After the recording for the phone call segment ended, Ming Rang walked out of the classroom with Jiang Lian.

When they walked past the photo wall of all the trainees, Jiang Lian stopped walking and swept his gaze across the wall. Finally, he curled up his fingers to knock on one of the photos, “Xia Dongchan.”

Ming Rang looked at the photo, then, his fingers slid past Xia Dongchan’s photo, landing on Lin Ye’s photo, “I don’t recognize Xia Dongchan, but I do know this one, the one who is ‘barely up to your standards’.”

Jiang Lian’s eyes lingered on Lin Ye’s face for a second, “I don’t know if Xia Dongchan is hardworking or not, but it’s easy to see if Lin Ye is diligent or not. If I didn’t say Xia Dongchan’s name,” He narrowed his eyes, “Could I say in front of the camera that besides for you, the person who left the greatest impression on me is Lin Ye, because he is the least ambitious?”

(T/N: I used ambitious here because it was the least lengthy way of describing it. However, it’s a little ruder than saying that he’s lacking ambition. He’s also implying that he doesn’t want to improve and isn’t hardworking. In other words, he’s implying that he cannot be bothered and doesn’t want to stay in the competition)

When Ming Rang heard those words, he lowered his head and laughed.

After two or three groups of trainees came in and out of the classroom next door, Xia Dongchan walked out of the classroom. When he came out, the recording progress of the other trainee in the classroom was half done.

Lin Ye stood outside the classroom. The moment the door was opened by Xia Dongchan, the content of the call that was on speaker mode flowed into his ears like water.

The trainee was talking to his grandparents. His grandparents were both old, and so their hearing was not very good. The trainee had to yell in the classroom, and amidst his yells, there was the kind and comforting laughter of the two elderly people.

Lin Ye was a little dazed listening to the call. He could not help thinking that if his grandmother was still alive at this moment, there would probably be a harmonious scene that was similar to the current one when he called his grandmother.

Xia Dongchan, who had already taken a few steps to walk off turned his head back and said, confused, “Lin Ye, why are you still standing there?”

Only then did Lin Ye snap out of his daze. He breathed out slowly, and casually closed the half-open door of the classroom, turning around to walk towards the Xia Dongchan.

Xia Dongchan asked him to go to Class B to practice the dance. Lin Ye rejected his offer because he could not keep up with the progress. When he returned to Class D’s classroom, there was already a small portion of people that were following the recording and practicing their dance moves.

Lin Ye joined the group of them at the back. After Lin Ye had roughly learned the whole theme’s song dance movements, he raised his head to look at the electronic clock in front of the mirror. It was already 10.30 pm.

***