“Ignore her,” Chi Yan said. “Since we drew the last performance slot, let’s find a place to go over the script again. We can’t waste the entire morning.”
Xue Yi said, “I asked the staff earlier. There are a few empty offices in the building—we can use one to practice.”
“We should hurry, then. Other groups are probably thinking the same thing. If we wait too long, all the rooms might be taken.”
Sure enough, other teams that were performing later had the same idea. Fortunately, Chi Yan’s group arrived quickly, and there were still three empty offices left when they got there.
They chose the one furthest inside because it was quieter, making it a better place to rehearse.
They were practicing smoothly when someone suddenly knocked on the door.
Chi Yan had to pause the rehearsal and went to open it.
“You are…?”
Before Chi Yan could finish speaking, the people outside tried to push their way in. Sensing something was off, she immediately braced herself against the doorframe, blocking them.
“What do you want?!”
The group outside was the largest team in the competition, consisting of ten people.
Seeing that forcing their way in wasn’t working, the leader of the group said, “We need this office the most. Please leave now and give us the space to rehearse.”
Chi Yan nearly laughed out loud. How could they make such an unreasonable demand with a straight face?
“In your dreams.” With that, she immediately retreated back into the room, slammed the door shut, and locked it.
The people outside hadn’t expected her to react this way. They started banging on the door frantically, shouting and yelling.
Xue Yi and Xu Yi stared at the door, dumbfounded.
Xu Yi said, “How can someone be so shameless? Why don’t they just ask the production team to hand them the championship? Unbelievable.”
“Chi Yan-jie, what should we do now?” Xue Yi asked.
“Ignore them. Let’s keep practicing. This is a good chance to get used to rehearsing in a noisy environment,” Chi Yan said calmly.
“Was it my line just now? Should I continue?”
Seeing Chi Yan nod, Xu Yi resumed her lines.
The three of them gradually became fully immersed in their practice, completely tuning out the noise outside.
Then, just as they finished a full run-through of the script, a faint metallic clinking sound came from the door. It was subtle—barely noticeable unless one listened carefully.
Chi Yan found the sound oddly familiar, but she couldn’t immediately recall what it was.
Xu Yi frowned. “What’s that sound? It’s not very loud, but it’s really annoying once you notice it.”
“Sounds like… some kind of small component?” Xue Yi guessed uncertainly.
Then, in a flash, Chi Yan realized what it was!
Thanks to a previous role where she played a special agent, she instantly recognized the noise—it was the exact same sound as someone picking a lock.
“They’re picking the lock,” she said with certainty.
“No way,” Xue Yi said in disbelief. “In broad daylight? Inside a TV station…?”
Xu Yi said, “Should we open the door and check? This is getting creepy.”
Chi Yan and Xue Yi agreed.
They positioned themselves by the door—Xue Yi in the middle, ready to turn the handle, while Chi Yan and Xu Yi stood on either side, ready to observe.
“I’m opening it,” Xue Yi warned before suddenly twisting the handle and yanking the door open.
The abrupt motion caught the people outside off guard. Several of them, who had been leaning against the door, stumbled into the room.
“Ah! That hurts!”
The one holding a small screwdriver had been completely absorbed in picking the lock. Just as he was about to succeed, the door was suddenly flung open, and he ended up face-first on the floor.
Another competitor, who had been closely observing the lock, lost his balance when the door opened and had to take several unsteady steps forward to avoid falling.
Their comical predicament was almost too funny to watch.
Xue Yi barely managed to hold back his laughter. Clearing his throat, he asked, “What exactly do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to get disqualified? You don’t need to go so far as to destroy TV station property to achieve that.”
The male contestant on the floor turned beet red. “W-We… We were just…”
He stammered, struggling to come up with an excuse.
Chi Yan found the whole situation strange. There were so many rooms—why were they so insistent on using this one?
“Why do you want this room so badly?” she asked.
At this, the previously tongue-tied contestant suddenly became articulate. “You guys already gave up anyway. Since you don’t need the space, you should let us have it.”
His self-righteous tone almost made Chi Yan doubt herself for a second.
“We gave up?” She enunciated each word clearly. “Let me tell you, even if every other contestant quits this competition, I, Chi Yan, along with my teammates, will never give up!”
“B-But… That’s what Qi Kerong said! Didn’t she share a room with you and Xu Yi? She wouldn’t lie to us, would she?”
Xu Yi snapped, “Which ear of yours heard us say that?! Just because she said it, it’s automatically true? Let me be clear—she has absolutely nothing to do with us!”
After saying this, Xu Yi added, “Wait, no, actually, there is a connection. You guys must know about Yang Yueyi’s bet with Chi Yan, right? And you still believe what she says in this situation? You guys—”
Xu Yi was about to continue when Xue Yi tugged on her sleeve, making her swallow back the rest of the words, which were probably not very polite.
The contestants from the other team seemed to suddenly realize something, and their expressions turned into ones of enlightenment.
The contestant who had been picking the lock—also their team captain—immediately apologized, “Sorry, we only remembered that Qi Kerong was your roommate and overlooked her position in all of this. We sincerely apologize for disturbing you.”
He hesitated for a moment before deciding to explain why they had been so forceful earlier.
“Qi Kerong told us that you didn’t want people to know you were voluntarily withdrawing, so she asked us to come up with a way to make it seem like we forced you out. I thought that if we acted tough, you could later explain that you had no choice, and the blame would fall on us instead.”
Chi Yan was stunned. She really hadn’t expected this to be the reason.
She pursed her lips in silence. Her principle was always don’t provoke me, and I won’t provoke you. But since their intention wasn’t malicious…
Chi Yan made a quick decision and said, “Wait here for a moment.”
The ten-person team exchanged confused glances while Chi Yan pulled Xu Yi and Xue Yi aside.
“I want to let them practice here with us. Do you guys agree?”
“I’m fine with it,” Xue Yi said.
“Me too,” Xu Yi agreed.
“You guys can practice with us. We’ll split the office in half—your group on one side, ours on the other. We’ll mind our own business and practice separately. How about that?”
Chi Yan’s gaze swept across the ten faces in front of her, some familiar, some not.
“Alright! We promise we won’t step over the line!”
“What’s your name?” Chi Yan asked, looking at the captain of the ten-person team—the one who had been picking the lock.
“I’m Han Xi. I’ll be your friend from now on. If you need anything, just come to me!”
Chi Yan silently repeated his name in her head. Coincidentally, the chairman of Bole had the surname Han too. But as far as she knew, Chairman Han only had a daughter.
The thought quickly passed through her mind. She said, “Let’s not waste any more time. It’s already nine o’clock. If we don’t practice now, we’ll be on stage soon.”
Once they actually started practicing, Chi Yan’s group was fine, but the ten-person team was a complete mess.
One person kept changing lines, another forgot their part entirely, and worst of all, Han Xi couldn’t control them. He kept going along with whoever sounded the most reasonable at the moment.
“I suddenly feel like we have a really good shot at making it through this round,” Xu Yi whispered.
Xue Yi nodded in agreement.
Chi Yan frowned and said, “Performing on stage is different from practicing off-stage. We can’t get careless.”
The ten-person team was scheduled to perform twentieth. Around eleven o’clock, estimating that their turn was coming up, they said their goodbyes to Chi Yan’s team and headed backstage.
“We’ll run through it one last time, then head over too,” Chi Yan said.
When it was finally Chi Yan’s team’s turn to rehearse, Yang Yueyi’s group had just finished their performance and were exiting the stage. The two groups crossed paths, both clearly displeased with each other.
Yang Yueyi sneered at Chi Yan, “Better cherish this performance while you can. Who knows how many more you’ll have left?”
“No need to worry about me. Take care of yourself,” Chi Yan shot back.
Standing on stage felt completely different from rehearsing. Several times, Xu Yi and Xue Yi got so nervous they almost forgot their lines. Fortunately, Chi Yan was calm and composed. Seeing her confidence reassured them, and they gradually settled into the performance.
Overall, Chi Yan was satisfied with their rehearsal. While it wasn’t as smooth as their practice sessions, their performance was still well-executed. For newcomers like Xu Yi and Xue Yi, this was already impressive.
After stepping off the stage, she told them, “Keep up this mindset for the afternoon. You both did great. We’ll go through it three more times, and then we can relax a bit.”
“Finally, we get to rest,” Xu Yi sighed. “We’ve been running non-stop this whole week. I haven’t had a single good night’s sleep. Tomorrow morning, I’m totally sleeping in!”
“Xu Yi-jie, if we pass, we can only sleep until eight at most,” Xue Yi reminded her. “The production team said we have to be there by nine for the mentor-led script selection.”
Xu Yi froze. “Oh, right. Now I don’t know whether to hope we pass or get eliminated…”
“You’re seriously thinking about getting eliminated?” Chi Yan said. “Give it your all this afternoon. There’s no way we’re getting cut.”
Xu Yi shrank back and didn’t say another word.
In the afternoon, after finishing their final rehearsals, Chi Yan’s group happened to catch Ye Jiawen’s performance.
He performed three different roles all by himself. The main one was a treacherous minister, requiring long monologues, but whenever he switched to the other two roles, he seamlessly adjusted his emotions and expressions. His line delivery was impeccable—clearly, he had put in a lot of hard work.
After watching him, Chi Yan sighed in admiration, “That was brilliant!”
No wonder his performance in The Road to Actor had gone viral in her past life.
Xu Yi clicked her tongue. “He’s playing three roles by himself. How does he not get his lines and emotions mixed up? That was seriously next-level!”
The audience clearly felt the same way—Ye Jiawen was easily the biggest surprise of all the contestants.
But his success was bad news for the two groups performing after him.
Both had chosen the same script as him, and with his flawless performance setting the bar so high, their chances of advancing were slim.
Chi Yan overheard one of the contestants from the seventh group say, “This is a death trap. I feel like giving up already. Why did we have to go right after him? If we had been scheduled a little later, at least…”
Xu Yi and Xue Yi heard it too, and their nerves spiked.
Ye Jiawen and the two teams after him seemed like a warning for Chi Yan’s group—their fate would be determined by how well they handled the pressure of going after an outstanding performance.
