Chapter 88: A Little Guilty

Xia Linxing returned to the filming base.

On the way back by Xie Tinglan, Xia Linxing didn't dare to look at Xie Tinglan's face. He just stared out the window all the way, as if there was some particularly attractive scenery outside.

It even caused Xie Tinglan to turn his head and look several times during the journey, as if he wanted to know what was outside that attracted Xia Linxing's attention so much that after getting in the car, Xia Linxing didn't even look at him.

As soon as the car arrived at the base and stopped, Xia Linxing couldn't wait to open the door and rushed out, leaving only a sentence "Thank you, teacher" to Xie Tinglan, and then disappeared quickly.

When Xie Tinglan looked up, he only saw the corner of the other person's clothes disappearing around the corner.

Good news: Xia Linxing seems to have recovered.

Bad news: Xia Linxing didn't know why...after returning from the hospital, she seemed to be avoiding him.

Xie Tinglan tapped the steering wheel lightly with his fingers.

What is he hiding from?

…

After leaving Xie Tinglan behind, Xia Linxing quickly ran back to his dormitory. He climbed back onto his bed quietly, calming his pounding heart and wrapping himself up in the quilt.

He must have been crazy before! How could he feel... How could he feel... Oh right, Xia Linxing suddenly remembered a statement he had read before (in his previous life): When people are sick, their emotions will be more fragile and more emotional.

Yes! That must be it!

Xia Linxing began to mutter in his heart: That's all an illusion caused by illness... It's an illusion caused by illness...

Anyway, he had already promised Shen Sibai that he would not get close to Xie Tinglan, so he just had to maintain the same social distance with him as other trainees; as for what he had promised Xie Tinglan in the hospital just now, that he would report to Xie Tinglan when eating outside food... Xia Linxing said: It would be fine if he just didn't eat it!

Xia Linxing comforted himself like this and slowly fell asleep. The next morning, Shen Sibai, who had woken up early, found that he had returned and woke him up softly.

"Stars? Stars?"

"Get up..."

"Today I have a pre-performance quiz (test by the instructor), so I have to get up early to prepare..."

Xia Linxing drowsily opened his eyes. Although he had been mostly asleep while receiving the IV drip in the hospital, he was still clearly sleep-deprived, with a hint of blue under his eyes. Furthermore, he was, to some extent, recovering from a serious illness, so Xia Linxing looked particularly haggard.

"How are you?" Shen Sibai stood at the head of his bed, looking at him with a worried look on his face. Xia Linxing's condition made him a little worried.

Sure enough, when he was in the hospital before, he should have insisted on staying... Shen Sibai frowned and thought: How can someone like Xie Tinglan take care of a patient? You see, after just one night, Xia Linxing now looks wrinkled, like a cabbage that has not been watered, and his eyes are wandering.

Xia Linxing didn't know why she felt guilty when she saw Shen Sibai, and her eyes didn't dare to fall on Shen Sibai's face which was full of sincere worry.

But when he heard Shen Sibai worriedly ask him, "Can you still take part in today's quiz in this state?", Xia Linxing, who was originally condemning himself in his heart, suddenly woke up.

His mind, which was originally groggy and full of random thoughts, suddenly became clear. Shen Sibai only used one sentence to cure his random thoughts in a second.

It’s over, it’s over…

Xia Linxing hurriedly climbed down from the upper bunk: He completely forgot that today was the day of the quiz...

He hurriedly got himself ready and rushed to the quiz classroom.

As soon as he entered the room, he saw Xie Tinglan sitting in the middle of the tutors, rubbing his brows with a tired look on his face.

Xie Tinglan must have changed his clothes after parting with him. He was no longer wearing the wrinkled shirt he wore in the hospital. His hair was re-cut and the stubble was shaved off. Apart from looking tired, his appearance was still good-looking.

Wait, wait, wait! Xia Linxing suddenly shuddered.

Why did he start criticizing Xie Tinglan again?!

Xie Tinglan seemed to have noticed the gazes that had been falling on him, and turned his head to look in the direction of the gazes.

Xia Linxing subconsciously turned his gaze away, avoiding Xie Tinglan's sight, looking up at the sky and down, but not looking in Xie Tinglan's direction.

Xie Tinglan stared at Xia Linxing for a few seconds, then looked away as if nothing had happened before the other mentors and trainees looked over.

Xia Linxing stood on tiptoe, found his team members in the room, ran over quickly, and hid himself in the crowd.

The quiz officially begins.

Xia Linxing tilted his head back to watch the other trainees' performances while listening to System 999 telling him about his next task.

"Baby, your next task is relatively simple..." System 999 flipped through the plot and confirmed: "You only need to break Shen Sibai's in-ear monitor between the rehearsal and the official performance..."

Broken earphones...

Xia Linxing nodded in understanding. Although he knew that Xia Linxing's attempts to cause trouble for Shen Sibai in the original novel had rarely been successful, he still checked with System 999: "Did Shen Sibai discover (the problem with the in-ear monitor) in the original novel?"

"Let me see..." System 999 flipped through the book, "Emmmm...it seems...there isn't one..."

Xia Linxing: “!!!”

System 999's voice was a little guilty: "In the original novel, Shen Sibai's in-ear monitoring didn't have any problems at the beginning of the performance. It was halfway through the performance that he suddenly couldn't hear anything..."

Xia Linxing still: "!!!"

"But don't worry, sweetie!"

System 999 quickly comforted Xia Linxing, "Chen Sibai's ability to adapt to situations is very strong. After he realized the problem, he immediately took off his ear monitor. Plus, he's very proficient in practice, so he just followed the rhythm based on his teammates' dance moves (to determine which part they were at). It's completely invisible that he didn't have his ear monitor."

"Later, when the show aired, someone even cut out this clip of Shen Sibai's performance and used it as an example of his ability to adapt to changing circumstances on stage. It even became a trending topic..."

"So this is a blessing in disguise, a blessing in disguise..."

"My dear, don't feel too burdened..."

Xia Linxing breathed a visibly relieved sigh and focused on "how to complete the task": "So, 999, how do I operate this in-ear monitor..."

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by a sudden noise.

Xia Linxing subconsciously looked in the direction where the sound came from, and saw that in the middle of the open space, where the trainees were performing, there was a trainee kneeling on the ground.

...What happened?

Xia Linxing raised his head and saw Shen Sibai's figure around the kneeling trainee.

"Huh?" Xia Linxing's head spun.

This is actually Shen Sibai's group? !

At this moment, the trainee who was surrounded by Chen Sibai and the others and was concerned about his heart had his head lowered, so that no one could see his expression.

From Xia Linxing's account, all that could be seen was his hunched back, slightly trembling shoulders, and fingers that had turned white from the force that was applied to the floor.

"What's wrong with him?" Xia Linxing patted the trainee sitting next to him and asked curiously.

The trainee looked at Xia Linxing strangely, not quite understanding why he would ask such an obvious question: "I had an emotional breakdown..."

Emotional breakdown?

"Why?" Xia Linxing continued to ask.

"Maybe the pressure is too great..." The trainee shrugged, looking like he had seen a lot and was not surprised at all.

Talent shows are always fast-paced. Trainees have to learn a new song and a new dance within a week, and also cooperate with their teammates. There may also be other filming tasks in between. In fact, the task is very heavy.

Add to that the risk of elimination hanging over their heads... you can imagine the pressure the trainees are under.

In fact, trainees often suffer emotional breakdowns because they cannot bear the tremendous pressure and excessive training volume. And this trainee also broke down because he lost control of his emotions when the instructor pointed out his shortcomings and suggested that he practice more to catch up with his teammates.

"Alas, he's under too much pressure..." Another trainee interrupted and joined Xia Linxing and the others in their conversation, "He and I are in the same dormitory, and his ranking last time was quite low (last)..."

As a result, the program team used it to decide the order of selection when grouping last time.

"He didn't originally want to choose this group..." But because of the ranking, when it was his turn, he no longer had the right to choose.

The dance of this group was too difficult for that trainee, and he had trouble keeping up during daily training, so he was under a lot of pressure.

Then, during the quiz just now, the mentors praised the other trainees and pointed out his shortcomings in particular, which caused the trainee, who was already under tremendous pressure, to have an emotional breakdown.

So that's how it is...

Xia Linxing looked at the trainee who was being comforted by everyone in the middle of the room, and felt quite sad.

He couldn't help but sigh again that Shen Sibai was a good person and gave him the order of choice. Otherwise, with his ranking at the time, when it was his turn to choose, there would probably be no suitable songs left for him.

And considering the state of his foot injury at the time, he would probably collapse because he couldn't keep up with the progress and couldn't learn the dance...

Shen Sibai, what a good person!

…

After the quiz, the trainees returned to the dormitory.

Xia Linxing also returned to the dormitory and listened to Lu Zimo and Shen Sibai talking about what happened during the quiz.

"That trainee in your group...is he okay?" Lu Zimo leaned lazily against the table and asked Shen Sibai who was folding the clothes.

Shen Sibai's hands kept moving: "It should be fine..."

"He's under too much pressure. After being pointed out by the instructor today, he lost control of his emotions. He'll be fine once he lets them out..."

"Really?" Lu Zimo clearly had some different opinions: "It would be great if that were the case..."

Huh? As soon as these words came out, Shen Sibai and Xia Linxing, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation, turned their heads and looked over.

"What do you mean?" Shen Sibai asked humbly.

"Xiaobai, this is your first time participating in this kind of talent show, so you might not understand..."

"Some people, when they themselves can't get what they want, will try to drag everyone else down with them..."

"Huh?!" Xia Linxing's eyes widened. Even Shen Sibai stopped what he was doing.

Lu Zimo rubbed his short hair and explained irritably, "Don't disbelieve me... a lot of things like this have happened before..."

Some trainees, after finding out that they have no hope of advancing, will develop some distorted mentalities, such as "Why am I the only one in the same group facing elimination?", "Why can you still stay on the stage if I am eliminated?", ... and so on. Driven by this dark mentality, they will do some irrational things.

The first to bear the brunt are often the teammates who have been with him day and night during this period.

——Because it is the closest, it is also the easiest to strike.

Although Lu Zimo himself had never encountered this (given his physique, even a mentally distorted trainee still retained the basic ability to judge "who to offend and who not to offend"), many trainees in their company had encountered this when participating in other programs.

It would be fine if it was discovered in advance, but what is worrying is that it is discovered on the day of the performance, or even during the performance... Even if the trainees involved are held accountable afterwards, the trainees who were affected are still affected.

The most the production team can do is to persuade the troublemaker to quit; but as for the affected trainees, the production team has no way to deal with their lost popularity, lost stages, and lost votes.

"So, you'd better be careful these days..."

After giving Shen Sibai a few examples, Lu Zimo earnestly advised him to be more careful in the next two days: "(There is only a little time left until the second performance) and generally those who are unwilling to do anything and want to cause trouble will start to make small moves in the next two days..."

"You must not take it lightly..." These are the bitter experiences of other trainees!

"That shouldn't be the case..." As soon as Shen Sibai said this, he received Lu Zimo's disapproving look. He quickly changed his words: "Okay, okay, I know, I know..."

"I will definitely pay attention in the next two days..."

Chen Sibai looked at the clock on the wall and interrupted Lu Zimo before he could say anything, changing the subject: "It's almost time to go eat. Do you want to go together?"

"Go..." Lu Zimo straightened up, Shen Sibai breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and called Xia Linxing who was lying on the bed.

"Are you going to Xingxing?"

"……Star?"

"Xia Linxing?"

"Ah?" Xia Linxing came back to his senses after being reminded by System 999 and looked over with a confused look on his face.

"What are you thinking about? You look so absent-minded..." Lu Zimo walked over unsteadily and glanced at Xia Linxing's bed.

“No, nothing…”

Xia Linxing smiled dryly and slowly tightened the thing in his hand.