Chapter 29

At eight o’clock on Friday morning, they had to take a collective weight test.

Everyone was called on an empty stomach at 7:30 and met the teacher in advance.

Before entering Corona, five trainees except Mei Shengyao had regular blood sampling and physical examination every fifteen days, and relevant nutrition and fitness programs had long been put on the agenda.

Teacher Hao was as muscular as an ancient Greek sculpture. He stood in front of them and turned around slowly, shaking his head as he turned.

He couldn’t help sighing as he passed Huoren.

“Too thin, you have no curves at all.”

Passing Xie Lianyun, he glanced across his flat chest.

“Don’t you do strength training, you just stay at home when you’re free?”

Then, he passed Longjia.

“Eh…”

“Students, look, this is the direction you should look into in the future,” said Teacher Hao, holding Longjia’s shoulder in both hands and pushing him in front of five people like showing a large specimen: “His top and bottom are symmetrical, the inverted triangle is not too obvious, and the lines of chest muscles and lower legs must be bright!”

Longjia nodded: “I practice every day, I don’t dare to stop.”

Xie Lianyun pushed his glasses coldly: “I don’t want to eat protein powders.”

“You must, at least, get a B in body management at the end of the year. Uncle Jiang won’t let you debut if you fail.” Teacher Hao leaned over and showed them the muscles on his waist: “Mermaid and shark lines aren’t required for additional points. We should at least make the vest line clear and prominent this year, otherwise you won’t be able to look good when you receive fashionable clothes in the future.”

The teacher’s voice was so loud that the whole room shook.

A handbook was handed to the six trainees to revise the nutrition plan.

“Longjia – keep going. It’ll be just fine if you keep it up.”

“Bo Jue, Huoren – strengthening muscles. Starting today, we will start to use the muscle strengthening diet scheme C, and usually eat more high protein.” Teacher Hao waved his pen: “The protein powders are available in the company store on the lower floor. Swipe your card to get your favorite taste.”

Huoren looked back at Longjia and said, “What you drink every day is not milk powder?”

“It smells like vanilla ice cream,” said Longjia with a smile. “I’ll go back and share a can with you later.”

“As for Yaoyao,” Teacher Hao said, “the calcium supplement plan for teenagers is alright. I won’t ask much about it.”

Mei Shengyao, the only lucky person in the audience:?

At eight o’clock, uncle Jiang appeared on time, wearing a pure black windbreaker like a bearded god of death.

“Let’s see the weights.”

Xie Lianyun shrunk back with a bitter face.

He rushed several projects at the end of the year. On New Year’s Eve, he couldn’t resist the stew and kelp ribs soup cooked by his mother.

“On the scale.” Uncle Jiang repeated.

Huoren quickly weighed himself.

“Height, 179. Weight, 105.” The doctor wrote: “The strength training is not enough.”

“How much do I need to reach?”

The doctor has long simulated several sets of body shape schemes and thought: “At the age of 18, he needs to be at least 185 tall and weigh 120 to 130.”

There is no fat considered in this data.

Jiang Shu and teacher Hao nodded at the same time.

“Next.”

Chi Ji took a deep breath and stood on the scale.

“Chi Ji, height 178, weight 114.” The doctor showed disapproval: “The muscle mass is not enough and the weight has increased – do you eat the calcium supplement on time?”

“…Sometimes.”

“Next.”

Just as Longjia wanted to go over, uncle Jiang reached out and grabbed Xie Lianyun on the shoulder: “You go.”

Xie Lianyun took off his socks and trousers before he stood up. The golden sunflower on his boxers was a little dazzling.

“Height 185, weight 128.” The doctor repeated, “One hundred and twenty-eight jin, still when he doesn’t have any muscles.”

Xie Lianyun turned to look at Uncle Jiang: “You went home for dinner during the new year, but you didn’t tell me about it.” Uncle Jiang said fiercely, “You have to stand still for an hour!”

Both Longjia and Chi Ji were all good.

After all, the most dangerous ones were Huoren and Xie Lianyun.

“Huohuo’s malnutrition is much better than before, but his long-term damage on his gastrointestinal function will be better slowly.” When the doctor wrote these things, he drew a triangle beside Xie Lianyun’s name.

“Thank you, sugar control. If I don’t control my sugar intake, I’ll have to stand-by in the building all day.” Xie Lianyun replied with a bitter face.

So Xie Lianyun and Chi Ji were taken downstairs to stand at the door.

Although block F was the administrative building and block G was the trainee building, a large number of formal lecturers and teaching assistants would come to the regular meetings at 9:00 every Friday. This kind of punishment was actually disguised to make it a public sentence.

When the two of them came downstairs, four interns in another group of ten were just brought out to stand as punishment. Six people stood on both sides of the door like a welcome brigade.

The teachers and staff went in and out with document bags, looking at them with curiosity.

“The time of modeling class is from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Monday and Friday. At other times, you can swim and jog according to the plan I wrote, or entrust other teaching assistants to supervise the making of equipment.” Teacher Hao said goodbye to them: “Remember to take more protein powder.”

“Goodbye, teacher-“

When Teacher Hao went away through the fire exit direction, Huoren looked at the others and said, “Let’s go downstairs to accompany them”

Lonhjiad said, agreeing, while he had a dumbbell in his hands, “Let’s go.”

The four of them came out of the building, Chi Ji and Xie Lianyun were still standing still while welcoming them.

They also greeted the teaching assistant that rejoiced in their mates’ misfortune: “Oh, are you guys getting some sunlight?”

There were four girls across the street who almost wanted to hide their faces as they were ashamed.

“Why are you here?” Xie Lianyun stepped back: “Don’t take a picture of me.”

“It’s not that, we wanted to keep you company.” Huoren naturally stood beside him and said half jokingly, “We were afraid you’d be lonely.”

Xie Lianyun took a deep breath: “I’m lonely enough to cry.”

Now, the six of them were standing side by side, being funny how they couldn’t keep a straight line.

Mige and Wei Jie came over to them and said, laughing, “If you get fat, won’t you get a penalty?”

Bo Jue silently put his head back: “I won’t get fat.”

He had a heavy sense of shame and attached importance to his self-image. Standing there actually was a psychological pressure.

Everyone stood for a minute, facing each other with the four young ladies across the street, and were embarrassed again.

“There are fifty minutes left,” Chi Ji whispered, “why don’t you go up first?”

“How about we practice the vocals together,” Huoren said suddenly. “We just happened to have three different types of ranges1.”

“What kind of vocal do you want to practice? Let’s sing acapella,” said Longjia with a smile. “Xiao Chi and Yaoyao will be the lead singers, I’ll give the beatbox.”

“Which song?” Mei Shengyao was a little excited: “How about an old song, the chordettes’ 《Lolipop》?”

Chi Ji cleared his throat and began to get in tune. His voice was sweet and light: “Lollipop-“

Huoren clapped his hands and quickly added the rhythm: “Oh lolli lolli~ ~”

Mei Shengyao and Bo Jue looked at each other and cut in at the same time. One high and one low voice sang along the baritone: “Lollipop lollipop. Oh, lolli lolli lolli~ ~”

Just as several more teachers passed through the door, Xie Lianyun sang with them. His face was so thin that he got very hot, as if he had a fever.

Huoren’s clapping became more and more lively. The rhythm faltered and echoed along the quartet. Longjia also followed the sound of lollipop and paused: “Pop!”

The voices of the teenagers and children were intertwined and overlapped, and they were happy and unrestrained in the spring morning.

Chi Ji and Bo Jue looked at each other, and their high and low pitched voices sang in unison.

“Call my baby lollipop，Tell you why.”

The four girls stared at them in amazement. They didn’t expect them to sing like this during their penalty time.

Xie Lianyun and Huoren responded quickly as if they were singing to each other, with a light smile on their faces.

One sounded calm, mature and magnetic, the other clear and cold as ice.

“His kiss is sweeter than an apple pie

And when he does his shaky rockin‘ dance “

Longjia joined as the bass smoothly, and the ending sound was full of joy and laughter.

He randomly added some exclamations, and his sounds had a gorgeous effect.

“Man, I haven‘t got a chance~”

Several teachers rushed into the gate of block G with briefcases in their arms. The six teenagers waved in a welcoming manner. Xie Lianyun also remembered to fill in the pause——

“Pop!”

When singing for the first time, they played according to their range parts, and began to scramble for words and change tones with each other.

Chi Ji took the lead in taking the high tune, and was pressed down again by changing it with Longjia.

The repeated and unchanging cheerful melody was up and down like a roller coaster, and had a banging bass.

Xie Lianyun and Longjia did the beatboxing. After playing Hi, turned this song into more hiphop. Bass drums and metal gongs continue to be added to their dazzling skills, making it like a bad boy being a DJ.

Jiang Shu came out with a pack of cigarettes to smoke. When lighting a cigarette, he heard them singing and the door almost caught fire by the lighter.

Uncle stayed in place and looked at them inexplicably. Longjia had even danced. He was facing a battle with Mei Sheng, and the others were moving left and right with a smile.

Uncle Jiang:?!

-2-

When returning to the dormitory, Xie Lianyun gave all the snacks he had secretly hidden to the building management.

“Eat whatever you want, eat it all.” Xie Lianyun tried to wipe two tears when he withdrew his snack bag, but he hadn’t cried even a little, so there was nothing to wipe off.

The younger man that belonged to the management was pleasantly surprised: “Are you giving it all to me?”

“Oh, and this.” Xie Lianyun rushed back, grabbed all the milk tea powder and juice powder, and gave him all the big cans: “I can’t bear it. I can’t drink any more. This grapefruit tea tastes really good. Remember to put it in the fridge to conserve it. Don’t put it in the public fridge. I’ll definitely come out and steal it in the middle of the night.”

Huoren leaned against the wall and said, “I was wondering why I always heard footsteps in the middle of the night.”

“Shh-“

Xie Lianyun smuggled a pile of snacks. This time, all of his snacks were consciously turned over to the inspection, but it took 15 minutes to find the snacks from the back of a bookcase under a sofa.

Chi Ji and Bo Jue went downstairs and brought out several boxes of eggs. When they saw them at the elevator door, they waved from a distance.

“Brother Jue said he didn’t want to go home at the weekend and wanted to practice dancing.” Chi Ji asked, “Huohuo, are you coming?”

Huoren subconsciously straightened his toes when he heard dancing.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Huoren’s dance class this week hurt so much that he couldn’t hold back his voice. When it came to singing while dancing, he couldn’t stand it.

Although he remembered most of the steps clearly, he would see Pei Ruye next Monday. He didn’t want to be smacked at all.

SPF allowed trainees to rest from Friday night to Sunday night, and the schedule was actually similar to that of high school.

Chi Ji and Mei Sheng catched on really quick and had good basics. They finished the whole dance in class on Monday and remembered it clearly. In fact, they were practicing it repeatedly in class on Wednesday and Friday.

The team was like this, sharing their own light and bearing each other’s fatigue.

Uncle Jiang didn’t teach them that, but everyone seemed to understand him.

It may also be because of each other’s existence.

On Saturday, Teacher Wei helped them open the door on the 16th floor, and the six returned to the mirror wall in their training clothes.

Mei Shengyao and Chi Ji stood on both sides to help them correct their movements, slow down and count the beat.

Xie Lianyun and Bo Jue could barely keep up with the changes of their limbs and wrists, sweating and trying to remember the steps.

“Five, two, three, four — Huohuo, lower your waist!”

Huoren subconsciously lowered his waist and Chi Ji shook his head: “You’re doing it wrong. You’ve overdone it too much.”

The young man wanted to ask him how to do it correctly. He stopped abruptly before the words came out. At this moment, he reacted.

That can’t be taught through language.

Dancing was as precise as a clock. 45 degrees, 60 degrees and 70 degrees were different. The strength of the dance step couldn’t be clearly indicated by words.

“Seven, two, three, four — raise your crotch!” Chi Ji said again, “you all just go up and down, your legs doesn’t move!”

Huoren suddenly left the team, went to find a magazine, rolled it into a roll and handed it to Chi Ji.

“Use this.”

Xie Lianyun hissed, “Do it, but be gentle.”

Although Chi Ji was embarrassed, he nodded obediently in consideration of the progress.

“One, two, three, four — Smack!”

“Two, two, three, four — Smack!”

Bo Jue clenched his teeth and danced: “I’ve really wanted to trouble myself on a weekend.”

Longjia sat beside them and waved a fluorescent stick to cheer the three of them: “Come on, come on~ ~”

When the class started again on Monday, Pei Ruye looked at the six of them and asked with a smile.

“Well, did you practice at the weekend?”

The three zebras nodded neatly.

In order to gain weight and develop the habit of abstaining from salt, carbohydrates and water, the company only allowed them to eat their favorite food three times a year.

At ordinary times, although the cafeteria provided rich and colorful meals, all of them stayed in the fitness self-help area.

Eating sole, steak and chicken breast could be tiring after three months, as can lettuce leaves, broccoli and green beans.

It happened that on February 14 ,Longjia Mei Shengyao celebrated their birthdays. Everyone had a small meeting the night before and decided to have a feast on everyone’s birthday with the three times a year pass they had to eat whatever they wanted.

Once on February 14 at the beginning of the year, once on July 22 in the middle of the year, and once on November 6 on Xiao Chi’s birthday at the end of the year.

“Huohuo and I’s meals will be next year, and we will spend the ones this year with theirs.” Bo Jue was reasonable and said, “it’s just right. The time difference is just right. We’ll feel less guilty when we eat.”

“Great…” Mei Shengyao breathed a sigh of relief: “I thought I was going to blow candles with a chicken breast today.”

“Don’t mention those two words.” Xie Lianyun took a deep breath: “I’m suffocating.”

February 14 was Valentine’s day. Looking out from the 17th floor, they could see many heart hydrogen balloons floating in the sky, and even the streets were decorated.

However, it was impossible for SPF artists to celebrate Valentine’s day. They should practice and be smacked as usual.

At five o’clock in the afternoon, Huoren and uncle Jiang finished the report and led the team out to a tea restaurant with the internal affairs.

Everyone knew that they had to weigh themselves next week, and they were very restrained when ordering.

“Three… Pineapple Bun With Cold Butter?” Chi Ji hesitated.

“Make it two.” Xie Lianyun finally lost weight, took strict precautions and said, “I’ll just take one bite, just one bite.”

“Salted Cream Custard Lava Bun… Two?”

“One.” Mei Shengyao shook his hand: “I’ve reached the danger line. You divide it with someone else, I can’t eat this.”

“What about Hong Kong-style milk tea and orange lemon juice?”

Xie Lianyun laid on the table and muttered, “I want to be strong, I’m able to, I will be very strong.”

Huoren checked the calories: “I’ll accompany you to practice rope skipping at night. Have a drink.”

Xie Lianyun collapsed beside the table and looked at him: “How much do you usually jump?”

“Four thousand.”

“Drink!” Bo Jue patted the table: “I want Hong Kong-style milk tea, even if I have to be jumping at night!”

“It’s just three times a year. Are you even a human if you don’t drink?”

The two birthday stars hesitated and said, “The cake…”

The assistant, who just took out the tiramisu filled with blueberry cake, was surprised and said, “Ah? Don’t you want to eat cake for your birthday?”

Mei Shengyao whispered, “Why don’t you jump 8000 times?”

Huoren nodded without changing his face: “I’ll accompany you.”

“Eat! Eat whatever you want today!”

So they chose to walk four kilometers back to the company after eating. Then, jump rope 8000 times and stretch for half an hour.

When the boys came back to the bathroom, they were all tired and panting, and their backs were soaked with sweat, as if they had spent a summer together.

“I feel like, when I’m breathing, I smell oranges,” Xie Lianyun said reluctantly as he smelled his hand. “I’ll brush my teeth later. I can’t bear it.”

“Wash quickly,” Bo Jue kicked his ass: “I wasn’t planning on eating the cake. Why did you have to do that!”

“You said it was delicious, didn’t you?”

Bo Jue turned to look at Longjia: “Jiajia, help me kick him!”

Everyone laughed and went back to bed. Huoren practiced guitar in the sound insulated room as usual and then learned music theory. Mei Shengyao accompanied him to do the exercises of level 8 music theory, which was a little distracting.

At the beginning of Huoren’s guitar practice, it also hurted. Fortunately, the callus on his fingertip werte cured rapidly, and now he could spend more than half an hour on the steel wire string.

After playing for a while, he couldn’t help but stop and rub his fingertips. As soon as he looked up, he saw Mei Shengyao staring at the blank draft paper in a daze.

Huoren was stunned for a few seconds and could probably guess what he was waiting for.

Today was Longjia’s 18th birthday and Mei Shengyao’s 13th birthday.

Longjia’s family and friends could circle the earth. Today, his phone has been ringing all day, getting many messages. He also needed to have the computer while dinning to say hello to his parents on the other side of the ocean and sing birthday songs together. He had a very good relationship with his family.

The God Mei also remembered this matter. He called Mei Shengyao for a long time at 8 a.m. and borrowed Longjia’s Skype to chat with his dad during dinner at night. He was friendly and didn’t have any shelf. He also told Mei Shengyao to keep warm and not catch cold in spring.

But there wasn’t any news from his distant mother.

Huoren turned on the computer and searched her name after returning to the room to put the guitar aside.

Wen Feng, who acted in three golden films, won two rounds of Grand Slams and was nominated for the Golden Palm Award in Cannes, France.

The woman in the photo had a cold look, a tall body and a narrow waist.

She was called a “drama maniac” by the media and won numerous awards in China.

Huoren was silent for a moment and closed the web page. Just then the door was knocked twice.

“Ren-ge,” Mei Sheng said in a faint voice across the door, “Are you… still awake, reading. I’m afraid of being alone. Would you accompany me?”

Mei Shengyao had always been very sticky.

When Huoren was in the dormitory, he followed Huoren closely. When they were alone, he always wanted to lean against him or hold him.

When the leader was away, he would stick like to Longjia and Xie Lianyun, and he also had no sense of security.

Huoren studies late into the night every day in order to take into account a number of homework.

Playing the piano, practicing guitar, learning rap and watching music theory were basically fixed to make him sleep at 12:30 a.m. and get up at 6:30 a.m. – the nutritionist warned him to sleep at least six hours a day and take a nap.

Mei Shengyao quietly appeared in the workshop in the morning and evening. Sometimes, when he was sleepy, he laid on the sofa next to him to sleep.

After this lasted for a week, Huoren privately told uncle Jiang about it.

Uncle Jiang made a special trip to Mei’s house and picked up his great white shark pillow from his father.

Then, the child’s sleep finally improved a lot, and gradually he could be alone in his room.

“Come right away. I’m looking for reference books.”

“Then… May I come in?”

“Of course.”

Mei Sheng opened the door and came in. He sat down with his eyes down and his mobile phone in his hands.

Huoren really needed to take another book, so he signaled Mei to wait.

“It’s almost twelve o’clock.” The boy whispered.

His birthday would be over in ten minutes.

Huoren stopped and turned to look at him: “Are you waiting for a phone call?”

“Mn…”

“Why don’t you call her?” He asked.

“Would that be fine?” Mei Sheng looked up at him and said, “but she rarely calls me.”

“How can you know if you don’t try.”

Mei Shengyao quickly closed the door and locked it. Sitting next to Huoren, Mei Shengyao dialed his mother’s number.

When the mechanical sound started, he was so nervous that he unconsciously clenched Huoren’s wrist, and his body was trembling slightly.

The bell rang one after another, and the time was still passing.

At the moment when the phone was about to hang up automatically, the call was suddenly connected.

A woman’s low voice began to be heard.

“Yaoyao? Why have you called me so late?”

Mei Shengyao’s eyes turned red when he heard her voice. He clenched Huoren’s wrist and took a deep breath, trying not to let the nervousness in his voice show.

“Mom…” he whispered, “It’s my birthday today.”

She was in a very noisy environment. They could hear the voice of the director and crew.

“So that was it.” The woman’s voice didn’t fluctuate much, it was a little like a business voice: “Yaoyao, your mother is still filming. I was busy and forgot. I’m sorry. Happy Birthday to you.”

When Mei Shengyao heard these words, tears fell down for a moment, and his voice was still trying to restrain his emotion: “I see, mom, pay attention to your body, too.”

“Get some rest, I’m about to start here.” The woman said faintly.

“Thank you, mom. Good night.” Mei Shengyao was afraid that she would be upset about it, “I will be obedient in the company. Don’t worry about me.”

“Mn, Yaoyao is a goodboy.” After those words, she hung up the phone.

Mei Shengyao stared blankly at the phone screen, and tears rolled down his eyes.

He even suspected that he was too greedy to be paid more attention by his mother for a few seconds.

Huoren accompanied the boy and suddenly understood all the details related to distance.

He now understood why Mei Shengyao cried alone in the bathroom on New Year’s Eve.

Huoren reached out to hold Mei Shengyao in his arms, allowing him to bury his face in Huoren’s neck and shiver.

Huoren recalled something again.

“…The other five, will they also have this kind of conversation?”

“They?” Pei Ruye held his forehead with one hand and didn’t answer him for a long time. “…They’re already used to it.”

Footnotes

Not sure, I think it means something like this.