Chapter Nineteen: Choice
Meng Fanxi shook his head, quite disagreeing with Wei Ye's words, "That's not how it works, Brother Ye. They are friends I made when I first came to Will. I know there is competition between us, but I can't take someone else's place."
Wei was even more puzzled: "Du Rong only plans to put them in a group, it's not 100% certain. Besides, it's perfectly normal for members to change during the planning and debut process. How can you be so sure that the two of them will definitely debut in Du Rong's group?"
Meng Fanxi remained silent, picking at the last bit of rice in his bowl. He had a poor appetite, but like someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder, he mechanically chewed each bite.
He knew he couldn't be the bad guy, even if he had to do it all over again.
Wei also felt like he had punched cotton. "Even if they could debut, I don't think this group would go very far. It's just not suitable."
He said earnestly, "I have also looked into Qi Xiaohan and Xu Weiguang. They are not a good match for Xu You and the others at all. They have an inferiority complex in front of Xu You and Ren Yuchen. This feeling will be amplified after their debut. I am not optimistic about their future as a group."
Meng Fanxi's eyes flickered. In a sense, Wei Ye's idea was confirmed in his previous life.
Wei also rambled on and on, like a tap that had been turned on, his words never stopping, "Du Rong has a problem, he loves to add people. After he succeeded once before, he couldn't stop. Now he can add you to the Miracle Youth, and who knows, he might add people to the group he's planning now. What good can come of that? What I'm doing now is to stop Du Rong from harming your friends."
He emphasized, "Meng Fanxi, you can only help me."
Meng Fanxi's fingertips, which were fiddling with the chopsticks, trembled slightly, but her expression remained completely expressionless.
Wei Ye suddenly remembered something. "Oh right, there's something." He hurriedly picked up his phone and kept swiping and clicking, searching for recently received information.
After confirming the information, he looked at Meng Fanxi with a serious expression. "The fourth planning group's proposal also intends to include Qi and Xu. They should have talked to them as well. That group's plan is much more reasonable. Meng Fanxi, you should be worried about yourself."
Yes, Qi Xiaohan said they were called in for talks twice, apparently because there were two planning teams.
"If Du Rong uses some tricks during this time, he can probably fool Qi Xiaohan and Xu Weiguang. Is this the result you want to see?" The more Wei Ye analyzed, the more he felt that Du Rong's plan should be stopped from any angle.
Meng Fanxi was overwhelmed by this amount of information and couldn't give any answers. Wei didn't say anything more, only telling Meng Fanxi to go back and think about it carefully.
Back in the dorm, Gu Huailang wasn't there. Meng Fanxi lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling a terrible headache. He didn't usually stay up late and always went to bed on time, but last night he had been in a daze and didn't know what time it was before he finally fell asleep.
The combined emotional and physical torment made him extremely uncomfortable; his eyes were dry, his body felt lightheaded, and he felt unwell all over.
Meng Fanxi ultimately chose to call his homeroom teacher to ask for leave. Old Bai asked him a few questions with concern and reminded him to drink more hot water. He didn't even know what he replied. After hanging up the phone, he casually put it aside and easily fell asleep.
I woke up a few times during the night, but my subconscious made me fall back asleep. I woke up again when the door opened.
Gu Huailang only realized Meng Fanxi had taken leave after school when he was in the car. He sent him a message asking if he had eaten, but he didn't reply. Just in case, he packed a boxed lunch to bring back.
Holding a boxed lunch in one hand and a thermos of water he had filled in the water room in the other, the thermos accidentally bumped against the door when he opened it, making a piercing noise. After Gu Huailang quickly adjusted the thermos, the noise stopped abruptly.
Gu Huailang turned the doorknob and carefully moved inside.
The room was dark and silent, with only a small patch of moonlight shining through the window.
"Fanxi?" Gu Huailang asked softly.
“…Hmm.” Meng Fanxi’s voice still lingered with the grogginess of just waking up. He picked up his phone, which had been lying to the side. He had actually slept all afternoon. There were still many messages of concern from his classmates on his phone. He sat up while replying to them.
Seeing Meng Fanxi's reaction, Gu Huailang asked with certainty, "You haven't eaten, have you? Here, I brought this especially for you."
After a good night's sleep, Meng Fanxi finally felt much better. He didn't hesitate, thanked the staff, and went to the table to eat, unaware of Gu Huailang's hesitant expression behind him.
"Knock, knock, knock." The orderly knocking sounded, and Gu Huailang hurriedly went to open the door. Ren Yuchen was standing alone outside the back door.
Xu You felt unwell this morning and went straight home. He hasn't come back all day. Ren Yuchen, who is close to Xu You, knows his situation well and explained to everyone that it was nothing serious.
At this moment, Ren Yuchen stood in front of their dormitory, carrying porridge in his hand. When he saw that it was Gu Huailang who opened the door, he asked, "How is Fanxi doing?" He looked at Gu Huailang intently and did not try to look inside. If it were Xu You, he might have done so.
Before Gu Huailang could answer, Meng Fanxi had already gotten up and walked to the door, smiling gently, "I'm much better now."
"That's good. I think the porridge I brought you tastes good and is suitable for people who are not feeling well." With that, she handed over the porridge.
Meng Fanxi accepted it, saying, "Thank you."
Sitting at the table, Meng Fanxi stared blankly at the porridge in front of him.
Everyone says Xu You has a strange temper, but only after getting to know him better can you realize that Ren Yuchen is the truly 'strange' one. He seems easy to get along with, but in reality, he's unpredictable and possesses an aura that sets his own boundaries.
"Fanxi, can we talk?" Gu Huailang interrupted Meng Fanxi's thoughts, and the latter turned around somewhat awkwardly.
In fact, Meng Fanxi didn't know how to face Gu Huailang, so she remained silent after waking up.
The fact that Gu Huailang wanted to form a group with him, which he learned from Wei Ye, was beyond his imagination.
Faced with a choice, the discomfort of being gripped by fate returned, and Meng Fanxi hesitated, his fingertips rubbing nervously.
Gu Huailang also hesitated, unsure how to begin. After organizing his thoughts, he said, "Fanxi, I won't interfere with any of your decisions." His smile was bitter. "I want to thank you. Without you, I don't know how I would have overcome the difficulties I faced before. Thanks to you, everyone helped me later, and I'm much more relaxed now than before. I can focus more on my practice and understand what I want to pursue."
Meng Fanxi's lips moved slightly. Anyone would be moved by such sincere gratitude, but he was not arrogant. He said seriously, "Even without me, with your independence, intelligence, and strength, you can overcome any difficulty." Then he would step by step climb to the top, after all, that's how it was in his previous life.
“No, I know myself.” Gu Huailang shook his head firmly, his deep voice as rich as if it had been sweetened with chocolate, “Without your help, I might have gotten through this incident, but I wouldn’t have integrated into everyone like this, I wouldn’t have been able to break free from the memories of the past, and I wouldn’t be looking forward to practicing with everyone every day.”
They certainly don't have a strong desire to debut as part of the same group with their partners.
These were the words he stopped himself from saying. Considering he didn't want to influence Meng Fanxi's decision, Gu Huailang still didn't say it.
Meng Fanxi's mind went blank. He felt a stinging sensation in the corner of his eye. He slowly lowered his head, a sense of temporal dislocation pulling at him. He seemed to have rarely felt needed and affirmed like this.
What's more, they were "rivals" from a past life. Fate seems to be subtly changing things.
The phone rang, and Meng Fanxi quickly reached for her phone, casually wiping the corner of her eye as she answered, "Hello?"
It was Qi Xiaohan. "Hey, Fanxi, how are you? I didn't go to your dorm because I didn't want to bother you. I saw your reply on your message board saying you're much better, but I'm still a little worried, so I called to check on you."
"It's nothing, just from staying up late," Meng Fanxi replied patiently with a smile.
Qi Xiaohan seemed very excited, her desire to express herself growing stronger. "That's good, that's good... Fanxi, it seems like Xu Weiguang and I are going to join the debut group. Teacher Zhuo Ren specifically asked us to come over today to talk about his plan. Although Teacher Du Rong also contacted us, we both felt that Teacher Zhuo's plan was more suitable for us. What about you? Didn't a planning team also contact you? Are you one of these two? They don't want to disclose the personnel information, so I came to ask you."
He paused for a moment, his voice tinged with shyness and longing: "I really want to be in a group with you too."
Meng Fanxi's eyes welled up with tears, and he suppressed his emotions as he replied, "It's not these two groups. It's just the initial discussion, so we don't know yet."
He quickly adjusted his mood and playfully said, "You two should form a group quickly and then pass on your good luck to me, senior." He emphasized the word "senior".
The other party was very pleased and was so happy that he was completely lost. Gu Huailang, who was listening from the side, was also amused.
...
"So fast?" A familiar, slightly nonchalant voice came from the phone. "Have you thought it through?"
"Okay." Meng Fanxi remained sitting in her dorm room and called Wei Ye.
Gu Huailang flipped through the homework in front of him, his ears already perked up in a certain direction. He was restless, unsure whether he should look away.
“I think…” Meng Fanxi carefully chose his words.
With his back to Gu Huailang, he dared not flip through the homework, for fear of missing a single word.
"I'm willing to believe your plan."
Even though the road was full of thorns and twists and turns, he had no way out and no fear.
Time flies, and a month has passed quickly.
Unlike Wei Ye's rugged and unruly appearance, he was very experienced in doing things. Du Rong never contacted Meng Fanxi again, and his daily life remained unchanged.
There has been no news about the group that Du Rongxin planned, and Xu You, Ren Yuchen, and Gu Huailang have not shown any signs of joining any debut group.
Qi Xiaohan and Xu Weiguang successfully joined the debut group planned by the fourth planning team and began group training.
Like Bai He, Will's debut group will form a group of selected trainees to start training together, which is practically a done deal. The debut group that Qi Xiaohan and the others joined was an ink group, which Will had previously been a five-member group. Now, Qi and Xu were added during the planning stage, making it a seven-member debut group.
Meng Fanxi was happy for the two of them. The group later became quite popular, and the members had a good relationship, which was the complete opposite of VIER's fate.
Thanks to Wei Ye's meddling, the VIER group from the previous life seems to have ceased to exist. He, Gu Huailang, and the unsuspecting Xu You and Ren Yuchen are now all pinning their hopes on Wei Ye.
Not long after, the second monthly exam arrived. Meng Fanxi thought that he and Gu Huailang had performed well. Although their rankings had improved, they were still only ranked first and second in Group B, respectively.
Meng Fanxi didn't think too much about the intricacies of the rating and grading process. Looking at Gu Huailang, whose expression was somewhat strange, he didn't know how to comfort him. He wondered if his appearance had changed Gu Huailang's rating, otherwise, he would have been stuck at the B level instead of the S or A level he used to be.
Can he still debut like this?
Gu Huailang's expression was off. It wasn't that he was upset about his grades, but rather that he was starting to doubt his life. Wei Ye had previously said that he would lower their grades and then formally explain the group formation to everyone, but there was still no response after the second monthly exam. It seemed that Wei Ye hadn't told Meng Fanxi about lowering their grades yet.
He felt sorry for Meng Fanxi, whose performance this time was outstanding, and he received continuous applause from the audience. Upon learning of the result, Xu You said he would appeal, and he also wanted to question Wei Ye about what he was thinking.
Before the group could put their ideas into practice, Wei sent a message.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
