On Purpose

This time, Yu Mao was no longer as indifferent as usual. She stepped back a few paces, putting more distance between herself and the mentors’ seats, and watched the chaos ahead with calm eyes.

The other mentors had already left their seats and were calling out to the contestants.

“Everyone can leave now. The dorms are on the fifth floor; your room numbers are posted on the doors, so just find your own room.”

“Move quickly, get yourselves settled and tidied up. Training starts this afternoon.”

The contestants filed out one after another, leaving only a few mentors behind.

Zhao Xuan had already sat back down. He was exhausted from cursing and had finally shut his mouth, panting hard while three staff members crowded around him to try to calm him down.

Yu Mao was also about to leave, but a staff member stopped her.

“Wait. This started because of you, so you need to handle it. You can’t affect the filming later on.”

Yu Mao stopped and turned to look at them, her tone cold and flat. “No, this didn’t start because of me.”

She glanced at the tiny Flying Fox camera, then lifted a hand and pointed to the mic near her mouth.

The three staff members turned and exchanged looks. A few seconds later, one of them said, “The audio’s off. What do you want to say?”

Yu Mao rubbed beneath her eyes and let out a tiny yawn. She tilted her head; a misty haze seemed to settle over her eyes, though they were still empty.

“Isn’t this exactly the result you were after? You’ve already gotten what you wanted from me. What else needs to be solved?”

“...”

There was no instruction coming through the earpiece. The three of them looked at one another in silence.

Yu Mao stared at them for a moment, then said, “I’ll give you a reaction that’s more in line with your expectations than Nan Changgeng would. Stop using that kind of tactic on her. She has fans; if you bully her, you’ll get criticized. If you bully me, you won’t. No one is going to like me.”

Zhao Xuan’s brows knitted so tightly they could have pinched a fly to death.

So he’d really worked himself up to the point of nearly spitting blood, and all the girl had done was cooperate with the production team to stir up a hot topic?

Wasn’t that his job?

Backstage, the director team thought it over for a moment before giving their response.

“Agree to it.”

Among all the contestants, Nan Changgeng was the easiest to turn into a topic. Not long ago, she had been dragged into a scandal involving her manager’s fraud; she’d even been tricked into acting as a loan guarantor by the other party and ended up owing a large sum of money. The heat around her still hadn’t fully died down, and public opinion about her was still sharply divided.

But based on the background checks the production team had done, Nan Changgeng’s personality was actually very different from her appearance. She wasn’t nearly as prone to conflict as she looked, and she wasn’t easy to manipulate.

With this unexpected windfall delivered right to their door, there was no need to keep digging in their heels and cling to Nan Changgeng until they offended her beyond repair.

After receiving the instruction, the staff member nodded at Yu Mao. “We agree.”

Yu Mao nodded too. The tension between her brows eased a fraction, and she turned to leave.

Several mentors had watched the entire exchange. Their thoughts differed, but all of them were stunned.

They really hadn’t seen it coming; this young girl had dared to clash with a mentor the moment she came onstage, and it turned out she’d had this kind of intention all along.

Zhang Ling couldn’t help muttering under her breath, “What is this, sacrificing herself for justice to protect her idol?”

Chen Shuyun immediately nudged her arm to stop her from talking nonsense; the audio was still on.

[This is no fun at all. What’s there that even I, a distinguished VIP member, can’t hear?]

[What exactly did Yu Mao say? Why do all of them look like that?]

[Meow-meow-meow, they’re guarding against us, aren’t they? Yu Mao’s little Flying Fox is even deliberately filming the back of her head; are they afraid we can read lips?]

[What did Zhang Ling say? Something about sacrificing herself for righteousness to protect her idol? Tell meeeee, I’m so curious it feels like a cat’s claws are scratching inside my heart]

[Looking at the production team’s attitude earlier, it was obvious they wanted to create buzz around Nan Changgeng. I’ll boldly guess: Yu Mao is telling them not to keep squeezing Nan Changgeng for all she’s worth, and to make her the substitute instead?]

[Damn, that makes sense! So that’s why she spoke so rudely to Zhao Xuan just now too, huh? No wonder she was so bold.]

Among the viewers, there were naturally some with sharp instincts. Some things became clear with a little thought, but that didn’t really change anything; most of the audience was still here for the spectacle.

As the one who had fallen behind, Yu Mao found her room on the fifth floor. By then, everyone else was already inside.

Her dorm was the innermost room at the end of the hall.

The moment she opened the door, the three girls who had been chatting animatedly went silent at once.

The atmosphere turned awkward in an instant.

Yu Mao didn’t mind. She walked over to her bed and looked around the dorm.

It was a small room of about thirty square meters, with pale pink wallpaper. Two 1.2-meter beds stood on the left and right sides; beside each headboard was a small desk with a tiny lamp and alarm clock on it.

Near the window was a larger table with a kettle and cups. Behind the door was a full-length mirror, and a row of hooks hung above it.

The contestants’ suitcases had been brought up earlier by the staff and were placed beside each person’s bed.

Yu Mao’s bed was on the side near the window.

She picked up her suitcase and began organizing her things.

First, she took out a gray fleece-lined sports jacket and put it on. It was too cold, and she didn’t have any special interest in torturing herself.

At first glance, all the clothes in the suitcase were black or gray, so they wouldn’t get dirty easily and were easy to wash. The outfit she was wearing now had been specially bought; she’d searched the shopping platform using the keyword “cute,” and this was the top-rated one that came up.

She’d heard that Nan Changgeng liked cute, sweet girls.

But after coming here today, she hadn’t felt that the outfit had any effect at all. Everyone still seemed to reject her at first sight.

Her chest sank slightly, and she let out a small sigh.

Being cute: failed.

After putting away her clothes, Yu Mao reached into her backpack from the chair and took out a pair of cotton slippers. Then she took off her shoes, lay down on the bed, pulled the blanket over herself, and went straight to sleep with her head covered.

The other three stared at one another, none of them making a sound.

They all felt terribly unlucky to have been assigned to a dorm with such a weird troublemaker.

Watching her talk back to a mentor was satisfying, but actually having to live with her was not at all pleasant.

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before a mentor came upstairs to deliver the class uniforms, breaking the stagnant atmosphere.

The person who came to their dorm was Zhang Ling. Seeing how quiet the room was, she looked a little surprised.

“Why is everyone so quiet? Come on, take your uniforms.”

There were two C-class contestants in the room, one B-class, and one D-class; four long sports outfits in all. Two were bright yellow, one was B-class light blue, and the D-class one was pale green.

The remaining A-class uniforms were pink, while the E-class ones were gray-blue.

The three girls each took the clothes that belonged to them. One set remained, and Zhang Ling peered farther inside. “Why is one of you still asleep?”

She walked in and tossed the last bright yellow sports outfit onto Yu Mao’s blanket, then said to the others,

“Remember to remind her to change into it when she wakes up, okay?”

“Mm...”

They all looked pained.

“What’s wrong?” Zhang Ling couldn’t help laughing. “Are you scared of her?”

The three of them waved their hands repeatedly.

“No, no...”

“Not at all...”

Zhang Ling burst out laughing. “No way, come on. She’s so small; she looks like you could poke her over with one finger. What’s there to be afraid of?”

The lump under the blanket suddenly shifted a few times, and a head with tousled hair emerged.

Zhang Ling abruptly fell silent.

Yu Mao sat up slowly. Through the strands of hair falling across her face, she spotted Zhang Ling at the door and blinked sleepily. Her voice floated faintly, as if drifting in the air. “Is training starting?”

“...No. I came to deliver clothes.” Zhang Ling backed up two steps, already planning to leave. “Oh, right; class starts in an hour. Then you all just gather with your own classes on the fourth floor.”

The others forced down their laughter and answered, “Got it.”

Zhang Ling waved and left in a hurry.

But the viewers didn’t have to hold back. They laughed openly and wildly:

[Hahahahaha, instant face-slapping]

[Holy shit, Xiao Zhang, didn’t you say one finger would be enough to knock her over? Why are you running?]

[I have to say, even through the screen I’m kind of scared. Why does this kid feel like some kind of female ghost?]

[You hit the nail on the head. I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but she has this inhuman quality. As for us normal people with feelings, as long as we’re not completely expressionless, our facial muscles will change a little whenever our emotions shift, no matter how little. But she really is... when she isn’t speaking, aside from her eyes, her facial muscles almost never move at all. That’s way too strange.]

[Could it be... she had plastic surgery and her face got stiff?]

[Doesn’t seem like it. When she speaks, the movement of her facial muscles looks pretty normal.]

The discussion gradually drifted off course.

After sitting dazed for a while, Yu Mao lay back down and set a fifty-five-minute alarm for herself.

The night before coming to the show, she’d been too excited and hadn’t slept well.

The dorm fell quiet again.

The roommates exchanged glances. After waiting a while and thinking she must be asleep, Yuan Li from B-class lowered her voice and asked, “Has she been wearing those earphones the whole time without taking them off?”

“She has,” Liu Yuanxi from C-class nodded. “I saw her just now.”

“My god, she doesn’t even take them off when she sleeps. Won’t her ears go deaf?”

Qi Qi from D-class frowned, looking incredulous.

“Can she die if she doesn’t listen to music for a bit? How much does she like Nan Changgeng? Is she a crazy fan?”

Yuan Li smiled. “Why don’t you ask her when she wakes up?”

“Eek!” Qi Qi shuddered and shook her head violently. “No, no, from her alone I already feel a little uncanny-valley effect. Too scary.”

The four of them faced each other and fell silent again.

Mostly, they didn’t dare speak at normal volume in the dorm. It felt unnerving and awkward.

Liu Yuanxi’s eyes shifted as she suggested, “How about we go wander around the other dorms? I’m kind of curious about Nan Changgeng now.”

“Sure! Let’s change clothes and go.”

They put on their class uniforms and rushed out of the dorm like they’d been freed. Each of them had a little Flying Fox following behind.

Only the last one remained, lonely, hovering by the bed.

A long while later, the lump on the bed moved. The girl turned over, her breathing steady.

...

Three rooms away, Nan Changgeng’s dorm was a scene that was initially similar, yet ended up different.

Her three roommates were also uncomfortable with Nan Changgeng’s presence. They spoke softly among themselves and didn’t dare strike up a conversation with her on purpose.

Unlike Yu Mao’s “horror,” Nan Changgeng seemed more distant. Her face and temperament were both cool, like a professional model who belonged in a fashion magazine; at first glance, she gave off four glaring words: Keep strangers away.

After a simple unpacking, Zhao Shengxiao from C-class was the first to bring up a topic.

“Come to think of it, on the bus this morning, Yu Mao talked to me.”

Lin Baiyu from A-class, who had also been assigned to this dorm, raised an eyebrow. “Huh? Really?”

Based on their impression of Yu Mao, the others were a little surprised. Nan Changgeng also lifted her head to look over.

Chen Xia from B-class immediately asked, “She actually initiates conversations with people? What did you talk about?”

“Not all of it was initiated by her...” Zhao Shengxiao recalled. “Back when I saw she was wearing very little, I went over to ask if she was cold. She had earphones in both ears at the time, and only after a while did she react. She took one earbud out and asked me if I was talking to her.”

“Then I asked her again, and she said it was pretty cold. I was kind of speechless.”

“After that, she asked me if I thought the outfit she was wearing was cute, but for some reason she scared me and I ran off without answering.”