Jiang Juyou had never been lucky since she was a child, which led to her habit of thinking everything would go terribly wrong. But all of this changed when the system appeared; she didn't walk to the end of the road, and her life even slowly improved. She felt hopeful about everything.
At the pre-evaluation meeting, many staff members talked about the trainees' progress, and specifically pointed out several trainees who had made great progress. This made Jiang Juyou expectant as well. She even felt that God had blessed her before walking through the door, just a little late.
But after watching the pre-performance, Jiang Juyou's expression was unprecedentedly bad.
"..."
Other staff members and teachers sitting on the sofa would give one or two comments and encouragement to the trainees after their performance. For trainees with outstanding performances, they would even look at Jiang Juyou, hoping she could say something too. But Jiang Juyou always had a blank expression on her face, waving her hand and saying she would talk later.
Now the performances of the ten trainees had ended, and everyone in the room focused their eyes on Jiang Juyou. Not only did the trainees have to receive feedback, even the teachers and staff had to face Jiang Juyou's feedback.
She had a cold face. Anyone could see she was dissatisfied. The trainees who were lined up squeezed together, looking at each other, not knowing what exactly she was dissatisfied with. They thought everyone performed much better than during practice.
With everyone waiting in anticipation, Jiang Juyou sighed, "Before coming here, we also had a meeting where the teachers briefed me on your situations, and talked about what you were like when you first started taking classes."
"To be honest, the teachers' evaluations were quite good. I was really looking forward to it, so I was in a good mood before the performances began..."
"Now the performances are over. What do you think?"
She threw the question back at them and examined their expressions again. The trainees' expressions were no longer as complacent as they were right after the performance.
"I won't talk about how your solos went today. Just the gap between you all. The earliest batch had been practicing for over a month, while the latest batch for a week only. But I couldn't see any gap at all. It felt like you were all suddenly notified yesterday and then hastily prepared for the stage — all very bad."
"Some of you may feel that you came with a foundation and should be much better than others. But to me, you are just the difference between zero to one and one to one point a few, still far from one hundred percent graduation."
"Yao Shuo has the best vocal skills, but I couldn't see any gap between you and others in your stage. Chi Qiao, your dance performance was like self-entertainment. You were the only one excited, and just now when you were jumping, you noticed our lack of expression and your moves became flustered for a moment. Is this the stage you should be presenting at your level?"
"Just now at the meeting, a staff member told me Gao Xiayu has the best overall skills. Do you know what's terrifying about that?" She looked into Gao Xiayu's eyes. Gao Xiayu no longer had the fearlessness when he first entered the company. He put his hands behind his back and unconsciously lowered his eyes when he met the producer's gaze. Then he shook his head and said, "...Don't know."
Jiang Juyou looked at him and slowly said, "What's terrifying is that your vocals are not as good as Yao Shuo's, your dance is not as good as Chi Qiao's. You have no highlights and can be replaced at any time."
"..."
The practice room was so quiet that even the sound of breathing could be heard. The rows of little ones didn't even dare to take a deep breath, for fear of being stared at the next second.
"The debut album has started production. Several songs have been selected. The final number of debut members has not been decided yet, but will not exceed seven. Some of you will definitely be eliminated."
"And what you have to do is not just to have skills, but also to be irreplaceable."
She looked firm and said in a deep voice: "Become the one whose absence makes the group unable to turn. Only then will you have a chance to debut."
Jiang Juyou sighed at last and said to the staff around her, "Let's go, to the conference room."
As soon as she said this, everyone's heart skipped a beat.
It was over, now it was their turn to be scolded.
-
When Jiang Juyou sent a message to her sister, it was after she had finished meeting with the company's staff. Compared to what she said to the trainees, her words to the staff were much more gentle.
"I know you treat them like children. But you can't be too loving either. Your indulgence will prevent them from growing. Look at Gao Xiayu, he's been here over a month, any growth?"
"Also the vocal classes, I hope you can teach according to their vocal characteristics... And add a rap class this month, have the kids all go, and keep a few suitable ones in the end."
"For dance, just practice to death until dance sense comes out. The biggest problem is Chi Qiao. He prepared a pure dance solo. How will he fill up such a big stage by himself?"
"As for the stage, the kids performed too rigidly, like they were forced to perform. Letting them learn to enjoy the stage is the point."
Just as Jiang Juyou said, their level was still hovering between zero, one and two, not even crossing over three, let alone one hundred. So facing her sister's questions, Jiang Juyou didn't even know where to start.
After leaving the conference room, she went upstairs to her office to stay. Passing by the large office, she found that people who were supposed to be taking a nap were all holding their phones. No need to think, they must be discussing what she had just said downstairs.
After returning to her office, Jiang Juyou finally replied to Jiang Liuxing's message.
"Jiang Juyou's Grocery Store: They just started practicing, don't expect too much."
"Liuxing is Sirius: Got it."
Jiang Liuxing, who had been bowing her head, raised her head and said to her friends, "They just started practicing for a month, don't expect too much."
"Got it, got it!"
"Cultivation genre! I like it!"
"Ye Xing's face already guarantees his debut spot."
"My friend circle also said they wanted to go. Her family is from Beijing."
Jiang Liuxing waved her hand grandly on behalf of her sister, "Come on, everyone come, however many people is fine!"
The few of them sat there pouring out on their phones, attracting more people than Jiang Juyou did promoting on Weibo for weeks. They were really excited and didn't consider how many people could actually enter at all.
It was only when Jiang Liuxing counted the number of people at last that her mind sobered up a bit.
"Wait, I forgot to ask how many people can enter. "
-
Two weeks later, the month-end evaluation day.
The temperature had been climbing up in the past period, breaking the decades-old high temperature record on two consecutive days. But this week it seemed to suddenly revert back to spring, raining all week.
Today was a rare cloudy day. The blue sky was covered by the clouds that came out to tour, and the sun was also hiding behind them, rising and falling uncertainly.
But such weather was what everyone liked.
After going out, Jiang Liuxing confirmed with her sister again.
"Liuxing is Sirius: Our over 40 people can definitely enter, right?"
Maybe she was busy over there. The message was sent out ten minutes ago but no one replied yet. So she scrolled up to the messages from a few weeks ago.
"Liuxing is Sirius: Forgot to ask, how many people can enter? Don't arrive and find no seats in the end."
"Jiang Juyou's Grocery Store: However many come in is how many enter."
"Liuxing is Sirius: You sure?"
"Jiang Juyou's Grocery Store: You'll know when you come."
The performance evaluation at the end of the month was scheduled for the afternoon, but Jiang Liuxing got up early in the morning, thinking of going over to help out.
She had just gotten on the subway when there was a stir in the family group chat.
"Jiang Tang will definitely become popular next year: What a pity, I wanted to go too."
"Jiang Tang will definitely become popular next year: Haven't had a schedule in eight hundred years, suddenly there's one, and it happens to fall at this time, how annoying!"
"Jiang Tang will definitely become popular next year: Free performance! Free!"
After seeing this, Jiang Liuxing silently turned off her phone.
The three sisters in her family were as frugal as their age order - her eldest sister would even collect used mineral water bottles to sell. Jiang Tang was pathologically pained to miss any free item that had nothing to do with her.
Her second sister Jiang Juyou wasn't as exaggerated, but she also never consumed useless items, from head to toe, inside and outside the house, it was extremely simple.
In the whole family, only Jiang Liuxing was a spendthrift.
She didn't respond to her sister, mainly afraid that she would pester her later.
After getting off the subway, Jiang Liuxing slowly walked in the direction of the destination according to the navigation, and sent a message to Jiang Juyou in the meantime, saying that she would arrive soon and could help.
When Jiang Liuxing heard that the destination was still two hundred meters away, she raised her brows, "...It's quite close to the subway station."
She had just wanted to praise the company for its financial strength, when she made eye contact with two buildings surrounded by green nets.
At the same time, the earphones also prompted her that the destination had arrived.
"..."
Jiang Juyou, who had just received a message from her younger sister, also happened to come out. She waved her hand and said, "Here!"
Jiang Juyou stood inside the gate and shouted to Jiang Liuxing, who was still at the side of the road, "Come in from here!"
Only then did Jiang Liuxing shift her gaze to her sister, "Sis, you guys are holding a performance here?"
At first glance, those two buildings were clearly still under construction, and the conditions were too poor. The exterior hadn't been cleaned up yet, giving a very bad impression.
Following her gaze, Jiang Juyou was also speechless for a moment. She explained, "...Those two buildings are also our company's. They have been completed. The nets are mainly to prevent anyone from sneaking in."
"That's fine then..." After Jiang Liuxing spoke, she lamented, "Your company is quite rich."
"Ha ha..." Jiang Juyou didn't even dare to respond.
When her younger sister approached, Jiang Juyou also came out from the gate. Jiang Liuxing was about to raise her hand to hug her sister, but was stopped by Jiang Juyou, "Wait - download an app first!"
Jiang Liuxing's vision was blocked, her attention all on her sister's phone, and she hadn't noticed what the inside of the square looked like yet.
"What app?"
"Our venue's app, you need to scan a code to enter."
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