A week after the show ended, the atmosphere of sadness among fans had not dissipated. Random Entertainment's announcement to close the chat rooms for eliminated trainees was another heavy blow. Originally, screenshots were not allowed, and now all traces were about to disappear.
In the end, it was only after fans protested for three days that Random Entertainment revised their announcement, stating that the chat rooms would only be temporarily closed and chat records would not be deleted. This finally calmed the fans' anger.
As for the trainees, they were living a completely different life now.
When the show first ended, they were indeed very sad. At the dinner gathering that night, none of them could eat much. At night, they became anxious about the future and couldn't sleep. For the next two days, they found it difficult to move on from the state of the final performance. Every day, looking at the fan-written posts and photos online, they felt as if they were in another world, with their hearts aching as if being torn apart.
All these psychological and physical issues were instantly resolved when they saw the more than one million yuan about to be deposited into their accounts. As they walked out of that small door of the meeting room, their headaches disappeared, their eyes were no longer sore, and they even felt that the air in the office area had become fresher.
Who would still be hung up on whether they debuted or not!
After leaving that door, Chen Wu kept asking Sang Mo to confirm if what they had just heard was true. Sang Mo was also quite dazed. His family was just a middle-class household, with both parents working in public institutions. Their combined monthly salary was quite high, but it was just enough for the family's needs.
The sudden windfall of one million yuan truly excited these kids for a while, but they quickly realized that this money would be transferred to their parents' accounts.
"Wait, I need to call my mom to tell her about this. Otherwise, she'll be scared to death when a million yuan suddenly appears in her account," Sang Mo said, unable to contain the smile on his face, already eager to see his mother's expression.
Chen Wu nodded after hearing this and pointed to the practice room, "Then I'll go in first."
Hearing such a calm response from Chen Wu, Sang Mo suddenly realized something. He wanted to say sorry, but Chen Wu had already gone inside. His mouth opened and closed, but in the end, it was the ringing of his phone that drew his attention back.
"Hello, Mom—"
Chen Wu, who had entered the practice room, felt along the wall to turn on the lights. The warm yellow ambient lights circled the floor, and the spotlights overhead illuminated the practice room.
He pulled out his phone from his pocket, but a loose thread caught on it. Chen Wu tugged, and the thread inside unraveled, leaving a hole in his pocket. He felt it with his hand; it was just a small hole, so he didn't pay much attention to it and directly sat down on the long bench with his phone.
As soon as he sat down, Chen Wu received a text message about the money being deposited—
Strange cries also erupted from the corridor outside, with many trainees calling their families at the rest area. He glanced towards the door, then looked back at the text message on his phone.
There was a long string of numbers, unlike any amount that had ever appeared on his phone before, causing him to count it several times.
"The money's in!" Sang Mo suddenly burst through the door, breaking the quiet atmosphere and startling Chen Wu.
Chen Wu showed him his phone screen, "I saw it."
"Huh? Didn't you link your grandparents' card?" Sang Mo had just called home to talk about this, only to hear his mom say she had received money from someone else on her phone, and she asked if they should go to the bank to return it in this situation.
Chen Wu shook his head, "I filled in my own card at the time."
"Can minors open bank accounts?"
"My grandparents are old and it's inconvenient for them to go to the bank often, so they opened an account for me at the time. All our family's money is in my card."
Sang Mo walked over and sat down next to Chen Wu, glancing at his old phone, and asked, "Aren't you going to get a new phone?"
Chen Wu looked down at it. This phone was given away during a bank promotion – deposit two thousand yuan for a year and get a free phone. Chen Wu had been using it since middle school, and it was now worn beyond recognition.
Thinking about this, he looked at the phone and chuckled lightly, "Yes, I'll get a new phone."
"Bro———"
Pei Luming suddenly rushed in, swinging on the doorframe.
Gao Xiayu, who followed him in, grabbed him under the armpits and moved him away, then called out to the two inside, "Come on, let's treat you to a meal!"
"Then I want to eat at a buffet that costs 1,200 yuan per person!" Sang Mo was the first to stand up and say.
Pei Luming immediately chimed in, "Me too!"
The seven of them gathered together again, as if nothing had changed.
-
"Unlock successful!"
"..." Jiang Juyou looked at the successful unlock prompt, her temples throbbing slightly.
The blinds in the office were drawn, and the sunlight from outside could only lie on the floor after sneaking in. Because the lights were on, it didn't attract much attention. On the acrylic desk were documents she hadn't had time to read, a stack of books beside them, and her bag placed next to the silver arc-shaped desk legs. At this moment, the owner of this room was supporting her head with her hand, wearing a pained expression.
Jiang Juyou looked at the renovation suggestions displayed on her phone and the amounts noted beside them, trying hard to swallow all the swear words she knew.
Unlocking the building cost money, and so did the interior decoration. The decoration could be the same for each floor, or she could redesign the layout. She felt that the system was certain she wouldn't use the factory structure, so it gave her so many options.
"Are we still good friends?" Jiang Juyou raised her head and looked forward, and the control panel appeared in her vision.
Cong Lixia's demeanor was somewhat weak, "Of course I'm on your side, but... I can't change this. If I did, they would know I have self-awareness."
As he spoke, the light ring of the dialogue box dimmed, like a puppy caught after making a mess, sheepish yet trying to please.
"..."
Jiang Juyou leaned back, letting out a long sigh, "Fine, I'll just spend the money."
She rubbed her temples and opened her eyes again, saying, "I'm not blaming you, I was just a bit impatient." After saying this, she instinctively wanted to raise her hand to pat his shoulder in comfort, but suddenly remembered that Cong Lixia had no physical form.
"What's wrong?" Cong Lixia saw her suddenly raise her hand and asked.
Jiang Juyou shook her head, "...Nothing."
After shaking her head, Jiang Juyou said to Cong Lixia, "I'm going to start working now."
"Alright," Cong Lixia said, and the control panel in front of Jiang Juyou disappeared.
She lowered her head, opened her iPad, and began to study how to arrange this dormitory.
The dormitory building had a total of sixteen floors, with two floors to be used as public areas. According to her previous plan, she set the first and third floors as public areas. The first floor would be a small supermarket to meet everyone's daily shopping needs, while the third floor would be set up as previously planned, used for public laundry rooms, a library reading room, and leisure areas.
Jiang Juyou used her pen to plan the space on the iPad, selected decoration configurations in the system mall, and only after clicking confirm did she start setting up the living areas for the trainees.
With sixteen floors and so many rooms, it was certain that not only trainees would be living here, so Jiang Juyou designated the area from the tenth floor up as artists' dormitories, with the lower floors for trainees.
She dragged the walls, changing the layout of the houses. The artists' dormitories were to be slightly larger than the trainees' living spaces, with a one-bedroom apartment including a small bathroom. Jiang Juyou even left space that could fit a washer-dryer combo.
With larger rooms, the corridors had to become narrower. The space for the upstairs artists' dormitories was all squeezed from the corridors. After squeezing, she found that not only had the rooms become larger, but there was even an extra room. There were six suites on each floor, and this was just the male dormitory area. Adding the female dormitory area, there were a total of twelve suites across the sixteen floors.
At this point, Jiang Juyou was like someone engrossed in a game. She used her pen to drag the walls while exclaiming, "If I turned this into a guesthouse, I'd make a killing."
The rooms for the trainees on the lower floors were made slightly smaller by her, with several rooms added to each floor. She even managed to squeeze in a small bathroom and changed the originally planned 1.5-meter wide beds to 1.2-meter ones. Apart from the desk and wardrobe, any other items that needed to be added would have to be done by the trainees themselves.
Jiang Juyou imagined herself living there while modifying the house structure. After setting the house structure and decoration, she clicked on the occupancy information in the upper right corner—
"Currently available rooms: 162 rooms"
Suddenly transported back to her childhood, Jiang Juyou looked at the number with satisfaction, shaking her head and sighing, "I loved these kinds of games when I was little. While my dad was playing mahjong at the mahjong parlor, I would build a little house with the tiles on the side and play house inside it."
As she spoke about her childhood, Cong Lixia suddenly appeared. Before he could feel happy about it, Jiang Juyou asked, "Hey! Do you have any kind of system like a hotel operations manual?"
"..."
Just as she finished asking, the panel in front of her eyes disappeared, so quickly that Jiang Juyou almost doubted whether she had actually seen it or if her eyes were playing tricks on her.
Jiang Juyou blinked and scratched her head.
The dormitory was unlocked and newly renovated and furnished. After Jiang Juyou submitted it, the system displayed the settlement amount.
"7,087,521.2 yuan"
This included structural changes, hard decorations, soft furnishings, appliances, network, as well as money for the supermarket and goods.
"Over seven million..." Jiang Juyou looked at this amount and started to get a headache again.
Once this money was paid, and the next two buildings were unlocked, there wouldn't be much left.
Although it pained her, Jiang Juyou still paid the money. As soon as it was settled, the display showed the words [Under Renovation], estimated to be completed by 7 AM tomorrow.
After seeing this, Jiang Juyou directly flipped her iPad face down, intending to forget about spending this sum of money.
-
"Timetrain Notification Group [No Replies]"
"Starting this week, all trainees will be relocated to [Random Community] for residence. Download the [Random Community] APP, register and log in to send a check-in request to obtain your room number."
"[Random Community] is divided into male and female dormitories, which are not connected and have different entrances and exits. Trainees are requested to abide by the trainee guidelines and not exchange contact information with trainees of the opposite sex. If discovered, it will result in dismissal."
"The check-in date is from 12 PM to 4 PM tomorrow. Please bring your luggage to the New Talent Management Department office area on the second basement floor of the Random Entertainment building."
"The dormitory is equipped with basic furniture. If you need other items, please arrange them yourself."
"12 PM to 4 PM is the check-in time for other trainees. You all arrive at 10 AM tomorrow, finish packing early so you can practice early. The apartment is a one-bedroom with a living room and bathroom. Try to bring everything you need at once, as the next time you'll be able to go home will be New Year's Eve."
The same announcement was also posted in the trainee group chat.
At this moment, the trainees holding their phones were all confused, not understanding what this meant.
"Pei Luming: Did our company buy an entire neighborhood?"
"Gao Xiayu: It means student dormitories."
"Ye Xing: I've downloaded it, I'm in 1601."
"Yao Shuo: I'm in 1602."
"Pei Luming: Ah? Single rooms again..."
"Pei Luming: I liked the hotel arrangement we had before, with two people per room. That way, if you couldn't sleep at night, you'd have someone to chat with."
"Chi Qiao: @Gao Xiayu, bro, you've worked hard."
"Gao Xiayu: ...[smile]"
These trainees, who had just come off the show, didn't have much of a practice schedule recently and were mostly staying at home. Sang Mo had even taken leave and returned directly to Tianjin. He hadn't been home for almost a year, and after returning, he was forced to participate in family dinners, showing off what he had learned at the company to all his relatives.
It made Sang Mo regret coming home.
This notification was like a lifeline. Upon seeing it, he immediately jumped out of bed and rushed out, "Mom, mom, mom -- the company said to pack up and come back!"
"Oh my, what's all the fuss about?" Sang Mo's parents struggled to get up from bed, being pulled along to help him pack his luggage.
Early the next day, Gao Xiayu and the other four gathered at the company, with their parents following behind. Pei Luming's parents were too busy to come, so he was alone.
Pei Luming had been living in school dorms since he was young, so he was used to packing his own luggage. He was pulling three suitcases with two large bags on top, making Ye Xing laugh, "Are you moving your entire house here?"
"Pretty much," Pei Luming scanned his luggage, confirming the count, "Yep, it's all here."
Some staff from the new talent department were also helping with the luggage, leading the way while explaining the dormitory situation.
"The main reason for having the kids live in dormitories is to protect their safety and privacy. The dorm building has teachers and security, and entry and exit require face and card scanning. There are also comprehensive surveillance systems, so you don't have to worry about the children's safety. If their schedules aren't too busy, they can also go home from time to time."
"The dormitory has an underground passage that leads directly to the company's practice rooms. This way --"
After arriving at the dormitory building, they went up to the floors in batches. Just moving the luggage took quite a while, and then they had to make the beds and put away clothes. Pei Luming was alone in his room, listening to the sounds outside while checking the time.
Seeing it was about time, he called his sister, "...Are you up? I'm almost done packing here. You should head to the company now, I'll come pick you up in a bit."
"...Male and female trainees are not allowed to exchange contact information."
Pei Luming was speechless for a moment, "Then why don't you go get a blood transfusion and a bone marrow transplant?"
"Don't need to help me, I don't have much stuff," Pei Zhiping said, yawning. The others in her dorm were also awake. She got down from the bunk bed to get her things for washing up, "I'm going to wash my face and brush my teeth now, bye."
Pei Luming didn't even have time to say goodbye before she hung up, "..."
Someone called him from outside.
"Pei Luming -- are you done packing?"
He put away his phone and shouted back, "Done!"
As soon as he went out, he heard Gao Xiayu say, "Pack what you need for a week, we're flying to Seoul tonight, recording starts tomorrow." He showed them his phone screen --
"Jiang will be involved throughout the process."
Pei Luming: The good days are over.
-
