Chapter 26.1

Huoren squinted his eyes and thought for a while.

He knew he was only sixteen now and didn’t have enough judgment on such things.

But if there was a better way, he wouldn’t face such a choice today.

In this case, it made no sense whether he was cautious or not.

The boy raised his head, looked at Pei Ruye and said slowly.

“You seem to be in a bad mood.”

“I am.” Pei Ruye frowned at him: “I know what you will face in the next few years, so I’ve thought about it several times. Maybe I shouldn’t have picked you up in the parking lot that day.”

He didn’t expect the boy to be tough and strong to this extent.

—And that they would meet here one day.

“Sacrifice.” Huoren repeated the word again: “Practically everything.”

“I’m not allowed to give you any advice.” Pei Ruye said calmly, “but I will be rooting for you in the future.”

The young man raised his eyes and smiled.

“That’s good enough.”

He smiled as if the spring river had melted, and his eyebrows and pupils were full of heroism, gentleness and shine.

“Teacher Pei, thank you for being concerned about me.”

This was the condition of the game. He accepted everything that would happen to himself ten years later.

Pei Ruye was also silent for a moment and told everything that needed to be explained according to the process.

When Huoren got up, he thanked Ruye again and suddenly remembered something.

“Those five people, will they have the same conversation?”

“They will.” Pei Ruye held his forehead with one hand and didn’t keep saying anything for a long time.

The knuckles on the back of the hand were pale and white enough to see the light cyan blood vessels.

“…I got used to it.”

The Chinese New Year was coming on January 20. On the 13th, the teachers gathered the 19 trainees together and they made dumplings together.

On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, it was sticky malt sugar candy.

Some cooks boiled maltose and cut it into short pieces. Each trainee had two or three pieces.

It was a luxury in the old society. After all, at that time, ordinary people were poor and it was difficult to eat meat and sugar.

Now, in the hands of young people, it was also a luxury.

Chi Ji and Xie Lianyun had to control the amount of sugar they ate, so their faces were really bright when they got to eat it.

Longjia smashed Chi Ji and Huoren’s faces with flour. The dumplings made by southerners and northerners were different in folds. The trainees were very loud and happy.

The dumplings were filled with egg yolk, shrimp, pork and cabbage. The teacher assistants and several teachers also stayed with them for the New Year. They advised them to relax once a week and eat more. What they wanted for New Year was happiness.

Huoren’s limb movements were efficient, finishing a whole basin in half an hour.

The chef happily took away the dumplings and boiled them, while others chatted around the table.

“There are two days until the final examination,” said Migee, taking a sip of vinegar and turning to look at the rising fog in the soup pot. “How do you feel?”

Bo Jue sat next to him with his laptop and was busy replying to her email: “I’m alright.”

Xie Lianyun was catching up with the manuscript with sugar in his mouth: “You’re not modest at all.”

Huoren thought and said curiously, “will it be like this before the college entrance examination?”

Mige smiled and was almost poked in the face by kuaizo: “why did you suddenly mention the college entrance examination?”

“But if you really want to make such an analogy, that will become true when you make your debut.” He said seriously, “that will be the most special day of your life, more special than getting married and having children.”

Xie Lianyun looked sideways at Huoren and guessed what he was worried about.

“When you and Xiao Chi reach the age of 18, you should take the exam.”

Huoren was stunned: “I didn’t say that…”

“It’s fine to take the exam first, hang there temporarily after getting the student status, and then keep it slowly after your career fades out.” Longjia reached out and rubbed his head and Chi Ji’s head, as if comforting his two younger brothers: “Xiao Chi must go to Berkeley, and Huohuo…”

Huoren’s eyes lit up with a wave of longing in his heart.

“If I don’t have financial pressure,” the boy said quickly, “I want to go to Harvard.”

Idols had age limits. They could regain their freedom as long as they retire, can’t they.

Maybe these will not be missed, waiting at the end?

Chi Ji let ou a long sigh and soon cheered up: “Then, I’ll fly to the United States to play with you!”

“I’m thinking about studying abroad after retirement,” Mige said with a long face. “It’s nice to be young.”

“Here comes the dumplings-” the teacher assistant shouted, “come and eat!”

Everyone took a break in the winter night, and somehow sang songs in the latter half of the meal.

It was January 15 in the blink of an eye.

The individual evaluation started at noon. Most people got up at 6 am to change their clothes, do their hair and make-up, and check again their tracks with the sound engineer.

Huoren changed into the British style group clothes for the performance, raised his head and let the makeup artist work with his eyelashes.

“You look very pale in this.” The makeup artist stepped back two steps and suddenly said, “Little handsome boy, do you want a tear mole?”

“Tear mole?”

“Your facial features have a sharp feeling and an aggressive beauty.” The makeup artist explained with a smile: “If it’s too much, sometimes it will pull the sense of distance too far.”

She used the eyeliner to light the tail of his left eye to show the teenager in the mirror.

“With the mole, it’s neutralized.”

Huoren stared at himself in the mirror for several seconds.

A tear mole with charm, but also a camouflage protection.

He relaxed for some reason.

“Thank you.”

The nineteen trainees sat down one after another. The three examiners appeared in order, and all other teacher assistants and teachers attended, quietly accompanying them to the end.

“From July to now, this journey has certainly not been easy.” Aya was still the host. Looking at the empty assessment hall, she sighed with emotion: “You are the best ones, selected from tens of thousands of people. No matter what the final result is today, I hope you will try your best and don’t leave any regrets for yourself.”

The group performance was a synchronized dance.

Although there were two or three trainees who were nervous to sing out of tune, overall, it went well, and the grouping effect was very good.

The teachers wrote page by page without expression, and their eyes scanned everyone like rays.

Then, the individual ones were next.

The report started backwards from the 19th place.

The 19th chose to sing and dance, the 18th began to perform magic after solo singing and the 17th started reading a draft about his reflections.

When it was Huoren’s turn to take the stage, everyone obviously raised their spirits and looked at him silently.

In the past five months, rumors about this child had spread widely.

Every month could be called an adverse ranking speed, but he was always climbing upwards.

The sound of piano practice at 2 a.m. and the steady jumping rope practice.

At this point, no one was dumb, they knew what the teenager was able to do in order to win, and they also knew that their expectations were out of reach.