After Transmigrating Into An Idol Talent Show

The practice room had mirrors on both the front and back walls, and a wooden bar was placed near the inner wall for stretching and leg exercises. Liao Junchen had been resting by the curtain when Qin Lu arrived.

Though the facilities in Class A were no different from those in Class C, the smaller number of people made the room feel more spacious.

Initially, the six people in the room were practicing individually, not interfering with each other but also not communicating. However, seeing Qin Lu come to find Liao Junchen with food in hand, everyone found it hard to focus on their own practice for some reason.

In fact, they all wanted to make friends and practice together, but as strangers, nobody knew how to start a conversation. It was a “You’re cold to me so I’ll be cold to you, if you don’t speak I won’t speak either” loop, so they just kept practicing on their own.

It was high time to break this awkwardness. But what could they say to each other? It was an endless cycle of uncertainty.

Several people nonchalantly glanced at Qin Lu and Liao Junchen, watching as they sat cross-legged on the wooden floor, sharing the food. The aroma of the food quickly filled the room, and they started to feel a bit hungry.

Qin Lu placed two foam lunch boxes side by side and opened them. "There are only two options for the boxed lunch. I took one of each. You can pick one first; I don't mind."

It was just an ordinary cafeteria meal, but coincidentally, Liao Junchen didn't eat tomatoes, so he didn't refuse Qin Lu's offer and chose the pork rib boxed lunch.

The practice room had mirrors on both sides, and although Qin Lu didn't pay special attention to it, he noticed the occasional glances from some of the other trainees. Calmly observing for a while, he quickly understood the reason for the slightly awkward atmosphere between them.

Perhaps they weren't aware of it themselves, but it was quite apparent to Qin Lu. He couldn't help but slightly bend his eyes (1). Setting down his chopsticks, he took out a bottle of iced black tea from the bag. "I thought I might get thirsty during the afternoon practice, so I grabbed a few extra bottles. Do you guys want some?"

Five minutes later, the group sat together, happily sipping their Black tea, and silently berating themselves in their hearts: It turned out to be so simple to break the ice, so why were they all sizing each other up all morning?

Everyone seemed much more approachable than they appeared at first. Once they found a common point of conversation, they realized how ridiculous their previous suspicions had been.

Fan Xi, with his red-dyed hair and a row of diamond earrings, didn't seem as difficult to get along with as they had thought. In fact, his family owned a nationwide chain of hot pot restaurants, and he was a down-to-earth, honest second-generation rich boy who spoke with a Sichuanese accent.

Cool guy Jin Yooeun (2), who had an authentic Beijing accent, looked like he was in his mid-twenties, but in reality, he had just turned nineteen. The most outrageous thing was that he did not grow up in the old alleys of Beijing like everyone thought but was a pure Korean who completed his primary education in Beijing before returning to South Korea.

He had a typical South Korean appearance, with thin single eyelids that looked a bit fierce when he wasn't smiling but turned into cute puppy eyes when he did. On his left ear was a black earring with the letter "J," representing his own name.

As they chatted, Jin Yooeun felt a comforting aura from Qin Lu, reminding him of his younger brother back home who was around the same age as Qin Lu. He couldn't help but feel a little homesick.

The few people who originally didn’t know how to get along with each other gradually began to familiarize themselves with each other.

"Let's go eat first and come back quickly."

The awkwardness had vanished without them even realizing it, and they decided to go to the cafeteria together as they were starting to feel a little hungry.

Qin Lu shook the empty bottle in his hand and said with a smile, "Bring me some more water, please. You guys finished everything, and now the national treasury is empty."

"Sure, hahaha!" Fan Xi felt a little happy. He never minded being troubled by others; he just disliked it when people were overly polite and unwilling to trouble him.

This indicated that they were willing to treat him as a friend.

After everyone else left, there were only Qin Lu and Liao Junchen left in the practice room. They had chatted for a while, which had delayed their training time, so both of them now tacitly speeded up and started training immediately after tidying up.

In the morning, Liao Junchen and the others had already completed the dance and body training classes, so it complemented Qin Lu's training perfectly. Even without direct guidance from the mentor, Liao Junchen's skills were enough to help Qin Lu answer many questions.

Qin Lu had no major problems in singing; Mentor Lai Yuhan had already pointed out a few minor mistakes in his performance, Liao Junchen helped him simplify and refine them so that they were clearer and easier to understand.

Regarding rap, Qin Lu didn't need Liao Junchen's help either. Su Qinglan had already taught him a lot during the morning class. Qin Lu initially wanted to bring Su Qinglan to listen to Liao Junchen's lessons, but Su Qinglan mentioned that Liao Junchen hadn't agreed to teach him yet, and it would be better to learn from Qin Lu after he had finished his lessons.

So, not only did Qin Lu ask questions for himself, but he also inquired about how to improve or correct the areas where Su Qinglan was lacking.

Though he didn't explicitly state it, Liao Junchen could tell that some of the issues Qin Lu asked about didn't exist in his own performance. He didn't point it out but his cold brows and eyes softened a bit.

He slightly lowered his eyes to look at the focused Qin Lu. Liao Junchen realized that this person, four years his junior, was much more careful and gentle than he had imagined.

Not just anyone could observe and memorize others' issues in such a short period of time, then earnestly help them find ways to improve, all in a short period.

It was like when Qin Lu helped him call the doctor and even went the extra mile to find chocolate for him. Helping others was never an obligation, no matter how difficult or easy the task. During his years at Tianmeng Entertainment, Liao Junchen had come to understand this principle very well.

That was why Liao Junchen wanted to help Qin Lu improve his skills as much as possible, not just because he didn't want to owe him a favor.

"Your singing isn't a problem; you can practice it on your own when you go back tonight. Class C will have dance lessons tomorrow. You don't have any previous foundation in dance. You should mainly learn this this afternoon." Liao Junchen said concisely. He didn't waste any time, immediately playing the theme song's music through a Bluetooth speaker and directly dancing the routine in its entirety as a demonstration.

For Liao Junchen, this dance routine was very basic, and one morning was enough for him to perform it perfectly.

Qin Lu carefully recorded every movement. His memory seemed to be even better than in his previous life, probably influenced by the original host's body. However, memorizing the movements and actually performing them were two completely different concepts.

He had a general outline, but the execution, finesse, and accuracy were lacking.

Strength and fluidity were both insufficient. These aspects could only be improved through practice.

Liao Junchen asked Qin Lu to try performing the dance for him, and with an expressionless face, he shook his head and critiqued mercilessly, "It's terrible. The movements lack strength, your body is stiff, the turns aren't crisp enough, and at the moment, I don't see any possibility of you making it onto the stage."

These words were harsh. Liao Junchen observed Qin Lu’s expression but found that he was just slightly surprised and wasn’t angry. He was even more focused than before.

In fact, Liao Junchen thought that Qin Lu was doing much better than he had anticipated. He was already prepared to teach him the movements one by one, and thought it would have taken Qin Lu the whole afternoon to memorize them all. However, to his surprise, this most difficult step was directly skipped.

Although there were some stumbling and fumbling, Qin Lu had only watched the complete demonstration twice—including the demo video this morning— and was able to roughly dance it through. He was definitely talented.

This was already a massive surprise, but Liao Junchen didn't intend to say anything about it.

Qin Lu had gone beyond Liao Junchen’s expectations so many times it seemed that it wasn’t worth being surprised anymore. He was not depressed at nor, nor did he retreat due to Liao Junchen's critique. Instead, he nodded earnestly, and his amber eyes remained clean and peaceful, with a hint of slowly burning fighting spirit and strong confidence in refusing to admit defeat.

"Speak, and I’ll change," Qin Lu said.

Looking at Qin Lu's eyes, Liao Junchen was a little stunned.

He pursed his lips, revealing a barely noticeable smile, before returning to his usual expressionless face. "Repeat the movements from the beginning of the prelude."

Five hours later.

Fan Xi ran his fingers through his slightly long hair, borrowed a hair tie from a staff member, and tied his sweat-soaked hair into a neat topknot. He didn't care about his image anymore; he was tired and hot and wasn’t in the mood to worry about the cameras pointed at him.

He looked at the mirror and saw Qin Lu still going strong, tirelessly preparing for another round of dancing. In his heart rose an unknown flavour of surprise. He crouched down and lightly bumped his elbow against the resting Jin Yooeun beside him, who was panting and drinking water to rest, and couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. "Did you count? Since we came back, how many times do you think Qin Lu has danced the routine?"

Jin Yooeun shook his head, gulping down half a bottle of water before responding, "I don't know, but you can calculate it. He hasn't basically taken a break for nearly five hours. The song is about three and a half minutes long, and it’s sixty minutes per hour. Um... It must be more than eighty times at least?"

Fan Xi couldn't help but be speechless. He kept his gaze firmly on Qin Lu, who was now wearing a completely soaked light green training outfit. His once fluffy black hair was dampened by sweat and no longer swayed with his movements, sticking to his forehead instead.

Qin Lu and Liao Junchen were two tireless machines. It was understandable that Liao Junchen, who had been practicing dance for years, could persist. But Qin Lu's ability to persevere for such a long time and put in maximum effort in each repetition, not wasting a single moment in laziness. Fan Xi was convinced by that terrible concentration and perseverance.

Initially, Fan Xi thought he was working hard enough, but now it seemed that he was still far from being enough.

When they first returned to the practice room, Fan Zi had looked at Qin Lu’s movements and comforting him by telling him not to rush and to take his time.

However, after five hours, Qin Lu's movements could already keep up with the rhythm, and he (Fan Xi) could even find a couple of outstanding points in his performance. This meant that Qin Lu not only had talent but was also willing to put in the sweat and effort required.

If Qin Lu had started with a dance foundation, he would definitely have been a member of Class A now. Even though he was slightly behind at the starting line, it was hard to predict the outcome in three months given his current momentum.

On the other side, Qin Yihan received the tickets sent to her and was getting ready to leave for Huayan City ahead of time.

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Translation notes

(1) In amusement. When you laugh and squint, your eyes might bend upwards too

(2) I thought his lastname might have been kim, but his earring really says j so it’s probably jin