USF Chapter 2: Source Of Infection

The next day was the recording of the first evaluation.

When Lin Ye and his three teammates took their seats on the stair benches opposite the stage, someone stood up and waved at him, while smiling and calling out, “Barely-little brother, want to sit next to me?”

Lin Ye recalled that this was the person who had stood behind him, watching the scene unfold when he mistakenly entered the wrong room yesterday.

He also recalled the words “barely worth considering”.

He didn’t particularly want to sit there, but his teammates settled in faster than anyone else.

Left with no choice, Lin Ye sat down as well, only to be pulled closer by Xia Dongchan, who whispered in his ear, “How do you know Ming Rang?”

Lin Ye replied, “I went into the wrong dorm yesterday afternoon when I was looking for you to get my food.”

Xia Dongchan looked enlightened, then gestured with his eyes toward the person sitting on Ming Rang’s other side. “He seems to have come with Jiang Lian.”

Lin Ye followed his gaze and finally matched the face to a name.

The one standing behind him watching was Ming Rang.

The one who said he was “barely worth considering” was Jiang Lian.

That left one more person.

Lin Ye scanned the surroundings, his eyes landing on a pretty boy walking up the steps.

Xia Dongchan followed his gaze and asked, “What? You know him too?”

Lin Ye shook his head. “No.”

Xia Dongchan hesitated for a moment, then murmured to himself, “…That’s Li Yuan, right? His makeup is really heavy.”

Their group’s performance slot was near the end, and with so many good-looking people and so many skilled contestants, Lin Ye watched the entire evaluation without remembering any new faces, except for his five dormmates and the three he had encountered yesterday.

After Jiang Lian and Ming Rang exited the stage, Xia Dongchan excitedly yelled next to him, “Both A’s! Both of them are completely A’s!”

(TL/N: This is talking about the ranking tiers, with A being the highest one.)

Lin Ye freed his wrinkled sleeve from Xia Dongchan’s grip and lazily leaned back in his chair, saying nothing.

But his gaze quietly fell on Jiang Lian’s face several times.

When it was their company’s turn to warm up, Ming Rang, still lounging with his hands behind his head, grinned and called out, “Barely-little brother, good luck!”

Lin Ye forced a polite smile, and for once, Jiang Lian, sitting beside Ming Rang, spoke up. His voice was soft but pleasant “With your jinxed mouth, you better hope you’re not cursing him instead.”

Sure enough, with Ming Rang’s jinx stacked on Jiang Lian’s debuff, things didn’t go as hoped.

His three roommates all received a B, but when it was Lin Ye’s turn, he dropped two ranks to a D.

Ming Rang, still seated, grinned and asked, “Shen PD, did you read that wrong? B and D sound pretty similar after all. Back in school, whenever I asked my buddy to whisper me an answer during exams, I could never tell if it was a B or D.”

The crowd erupted into laughter, and even the mentors smiled.

Ming Rang waved his hand. “Never mind, never mind. Better not air that part, or I’ll be setting a bad example for the fans.”

Shen PD cleared his throat and got back on topic, directly addressing Lin Ye. “Where’s your passion? I didn’t see any passion in your dance.”

Lin Ye lowered his gaze and accepted the critique without argument.

Shen PD continued, “What is your dream? What are you working toward right now?”

Lin Ye thought for a moment and said that his dream was to be at his grandmother’s side.

“You’re the first contestant I’ve ever heard say their dream isn’t the stage.” Shen PD smiled gently. “In that case, you should work hard so that in the future, you can be by your grandma’s side and give her a better life.”

His three teammates, knowing the full story, all looked a little awkward.

Lin Ye bowed and said, “Thank you, PD.” but he didn’t say he would work hard.

After the initial evaluations ended, everyone returned to the dorms to change into their team uniforms.

The production team sent a message in the group chat, notifying them that their phones would be confiscated in thirty minutes. The six people in Lin Ye’s dorm sat around chatting, while the unread message count in the group chat climbed higher and higher yet was ignored by all.

Sitting on the edge of his bed, another trainee, Yang Xu, from a different company, turned to Lin Ye and asked, “Don’t tell me you were forced to come here too?”

Lin Ye asked, “You are?”

Instead of answering immediately, Yang Xu turned to glance at the corner of the room. “The cameras aren’t on yet, right?”

Lin Ye thought for a moment. “They usually notify us before turning them on.”

Only then did Yang Xu nod, his face filled with misery. “I was. I didn’t want to come here at all, but my company forced me. They said they had no other candidates left. All I want now is to leave early and go eat hotpot and barbecue.”

Xia Dongchan suddenly chimed in, “But during evaluations, the PDs praised you as the most serious and hardworking in your group.”

Yang Xu fell silent, lowered his head to look at his phone, pretending not to hear anything.

Lin Ye leaned against Xia Dongchan’s bunk and casually said, “I want to get eliminated early and go home too.”

Just then, the dorm door was abruptly pushed open, and Jiang Lian took a step inside. His voice was cold. “You don’t have to wait to be eliminated. If you want to go home early, you can just quit.”

Remembering the money he still owed his company, Lin Ye said nothing.

Jiang Lian walked straight toward him and held out his palm. “Hand it over.”

Lin Ye sat up from the bed, confused. “Hand what over?”

Meanwhile, Ming Rang was already standing in front of the others. “Sorry, guys, the production team sent us to collect phones. Please cooperate.”

Seeing Lin Ye still sitting crossed legged and not moving, Xia Dongchan quickly handed his phone over to Jiang Lian.

Jiang Lian took the phone, passed it to a staff member, then looked back down at Lin Ye on the bed.

Still annoyed by Jiang Lian’s earlier comment, Lin Ye wasn’t in the mood to cooperate. He stretched his legs out and lazily patted himself down, then looked up with a smirk. “Can’t seem to remember where I put it.”

Jiang Lian glanced at the obvious bulge in Lin Ye’s jeans pocket and let out a soft laugh.

Lin Ye was caught off guard by that laugh.

Before he could react, Jiang Lian had already stepped forward, lifting one knee onto the bed between Lin Ye’s legs and reaching into his pocket.

The warmth of his fingers seeped through the fabric, sending a shiver across Lin Ye’s skin.

Jiang Lian’s broad palm moved around his thigh, and Lin Ye felt like there was a restless rabbit burrowing in his pocket.

A second later, the rabbit slipped right into his chest.

A sudden memory from the previous day flashed through Lin Ye’s mind, and he quickly averted his gaze. By the time he looked up again, Jiang Lian had already pulled away, his fingertips pinching Lin Ye’s phone.

The rabbit in his chest deflated like a popped balloon.

Lin Ye looked away without a word.

The staff was struggling to keep up with collecting phones, so Jiang Lian grabbed an empty envelope from the desk, placed Lin Ye’s phone inside, and leaned over to write his name on it.

Surprised that Jiang Lian knew his name, Lin Ye glanced over casually.

His handwriting was strong and sharp, pressed deep into the paper, making it impossible to look away.

Ming Rang peered over and commented, “You wrote his name wrong.”

Lin Ye then realized Jiang Lian had written the wrong Ye. The brief surprise vanished, and he got up to correct it. “That’s not the right Ye.”

(TL/N: Chinese has characters that could have the same pronunciation. So in this case, Lin Ye’s name is written as “椰“ but Jiang Lian mistakenly wrote it as “耶”)

Jiang Lian handed him the pen. “You write it yourself.”

Lin Ye took the pen, still warm from Jiang Lian’s touch, but hesitated when faced with the elegant handwriting on the envelope. The only reason being that his handwriting doesn’t look good.

The defiance he’d shown earlier was now completely gone. Standing beside Jiang Lian, he suddenly felt reluctant to scrawl his messy characters next to his.

He held the pen and looked up, turning his gaze to Jiang Lian. “You write it.”

Jiang Lian stepped closer, grasped the pen along with Lin Ye’s hand, and spoke near his ear. “How do you write it?”

Lin Ye instinctively turned his head, gently rubbed the tip of his ear and muttered, “With a wood radical.”

(TL/N: The wood radical here is referring to the “木“ component that he has to add in front of the “耶“ to correct it to ”椰“)

Jiang Lian nodded. “Let go.”

Lin Ye, momentarily distracted, turned his head. “What?”

“The pen.” Jiang Lian chuckled, glancing at Lin Ye’s hand. “If you don’t let go, do you want me to hold your hand while I write?”

Lin Ye paused, his gaze briefly skimming Jiang Lian’s lips before he released the pen and took a step back.

But in his haste, the back of his hand brushed against Jiang Lian’s wrist.

Lin Ye immediately turned away, patting his hand as if he had just touched something contagious.