Chapter 22: I Can Partner with the Team Captain

Chapter 22 I Can Be the Team Captain's Partner

Su Zhiyu really stopped moving, but his face was still burning red, staring at Qin Yan with a mix of anger and annoyance, as if his eyes were about to shoot fire.

Qin Yan: ...

Time seemed to pass unbearably slowly. Qin Yan's scorching breath brushed against Su Zhiyu's ear, raising his body temperature, making him freeze completely.

The sounds faded, and the guy hummed a tune as he walked out.

The bathroom went quiet again.

"Move."

Su Zhiyu shoved Qin Yan aside, frantically opened the door and rushed out, so rattled he even forgot his phone.

"Hey, you..."

Qin Yan wanted to say, "Your phone's still with me," but before he could finish his sentence, the rabbit had already bolted.

Alright, then.

Qin Yan wanted to say, he really wasn't a pervert, he seriously had to pee—it was pure biology.

Su Zhiyu ran out of the restroom, his ears and the tips of his brows were bright red.

How could Qin Yan...

How could this guy be so shameless!

"Zhi Yu, there you are." Someone walked over to get his attention. "I'm all set. You heading over to get ready?"

Su Zhiyu pulled himself together and nodded. "Okay, thanks."

"You're welcome. By the way, why is your face so red? Are you feeling unwell?"

"No, no, I'm just overheated. I'll go get ready first."

With that, Su Zhiyu hightailed it out of there, leaving the other guy confused. Hot? The weather was perfect—not too hot, not too cold.

At ten a.m.

The livestream officially kicked off. With Cheng Xiang suddenly pulling out, only 19 people were there, so they had to be split into 5 groups.

The picking order was based on their scores from the first recordings.

Su Zhiyu was the undisputed first.

He headed straight for the dance-performance group. Dance and acting—he was obviously the main dancer, he just needed three more teammates who could dance or act.

The sign for the dance-performance group lit up.

At that moment, a flood of viewers and random people poured into the livestream, a lot of them pulled in by Cheng Xiang's apology post, ready for some drama.

This whole thing had been blowing up for the past two days. At first, everyone was piling on Qin Yan, but the guy involved stepped up to defend him. Then, right before the first livestream, some other contestant who'd been lying low suddenly came out of nowhere and confessed.

This...

When the drama-hungry crowd took a closer look, they realized Cheng Xiang really wasn't among the contestants there.

Just then, it was Qin Yan's turn to pick, and he was ranked 6th.

The chat went crazy again.

—'He got 6th in the preliminaries? Isn't he some random guy? How'd he score higher than the actual pros?'

—'Maybe your fave just isn't that good?'

—'Why'd Cheng Xiang suddenly come out and apologize? Does Su Zhiyu have some kind of pull?'

—'I think this random guy's got connections. He got on the show, so he's probably got someone behind him.'

—'Our Yu Yu is still so adorable. Jiang Yizhou's got good taste, picking our Yu Yu right away. Their group's definitely going all the way.'

—'Yu Bao's so pitiful, getting bullied by trash and still forcing himself to do the show. I'm so pissed, so pissed. If that piece of trash hadn't confessed, we'd never have found out.'

—'The actual victim here is Qin Yan. He didn't do anything wrong—hell, he even helped—and he still got so much hate. No good deed goes unpunished, people.'

—'Yu Yu baby defended my Yan Yan. I don't care, he's in love with Yan Yan. Alpha hero saves Omega, love at first sight, then love at second glance. Okay, I'm shipping it, ladies.'

—'Look, Yan Bao's heading straight for Yu Yu!'

Qin Yan stood up and walked straight toward Su Zhiyu without a second thought, finally climbing the steps and sitting down to his right.

Su Zhiyu's pupils dilated, his body going stiff for a second, too scared to turn his head.

What the hell was Qin Yan doing here?

"Hey there, captain." Qin Yan smiled at Su Zhiyu. "Looking forward to working with you."

"..." Su Zhiyu forced a perfect smile and calmly gave one back. "Let's all do our best."

"Sure."

Jiang Yizhou, sitting to Su Zhiyu's right, poked his head out to look at Qin Yan, eyes wide with surprise. "What a coincidence, we're on the same team now."

Qin Yan looked at him.

He seemed kind of familiar.

"Yeah."

The picking went on. Since it was live, Jiang Yizhou kept quiet, sitting up all elegant while watching the others.

—'Why do I feel like Yu Yu baby's a little off? He doesn't seem to like that Qin Yan guy much.'

—'You're trippin'. That's obviously shyness. Sitting up all straight, so cute, lol.'

—'Oh my god, is that Qin Yan into Su Zhiyu? That look he just gave wasn't innocent. He didn't give off that clingy vibe when he looked at Jiang Yizhou.'

—'Nah, that Qin Yan's just trying to ride Yu Yu's coattails. This group was already stacked, but with one pretty face, their power just got cut in half.'

The viewers were going off in the comments, and the dance-performance group got its last member, a young stage actor named Liu Mian, who was also super talented.

All four in this group had real skills—at least basic singing and dancing were no problem. Jiang Yizhou was a bit weaker, but he still had formal music training.

Compared to those three, the random guy Qin Yan did seem a bit out of place.

After more than half an hour of picking, each group got their performance assignments, and then they headed off to their own practice rooms.

The production team will keep live streaming until 12:30 AM, with split screens showing each group's assignments and practice sessions.

The performance will air at 8 PM the next evening.

During this period, the guests have to stay on-site with the production team, and other practice times and clips will be broadcast via recorded footage.

The extremely short practice time put immense pressure on everyone. He couldn't speak for the other groups, but Su Zhiyu felt the pressure weighing down on him.

He held the tablet provided by the production team, which was playing the dance performance they needed to pull off.

A dance routine oozing sexual tension.

The four of them sat in a circle.

Jiang Yizhou looked at Su Zhiyu and volunteered, "Captain, I've done some acting. How about I do the acting? Liu Mian's a theater actor, so I can partner with him."

Liu Mian chimed in, "I'm good with either. I can dance or act."

Su Zhiyu felt a headache coming on. That could work, but Qin Yan... can he even dance?

This was a combination of dance and acting, requiring pairs to dance together and perform silently. Even if Qin Yan could dance, Su Zhiyu didn't want to be his partner...

"That works for me."

Qin Yan spoke up lazily, completely unbothered. He also looked at Su Zhiyu, a faint smirk playing at the corner of his lips. "I'll partner with the captain for the dance. What do you say, Captain?"

"..."

Su Zhiyu's hand holding the tablet froze. Could he say no?

The room went quiet for a moment.

Jiang Yizhou looked at Qin Yan and spoke again, "Or how about this—Qin... Brother Qin, I'll partner with you? Do you prefer dancing or acting? I think our vibes match well."

Everyone else: ?

The live chat: ?