Chapter 11

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?

Zhao Yu’s brain had completely short-circuited.

Her remaining rationality allowed her to slowly lower the hand still pointing in the air, but her body remained rigid, standing stiffly upright.

The last time Shen Junyi had seen Zhao Yu was the year she started high school.

The girl had changed so much that he hadn’t recognized her at first.

The scene was chaotic—crew members had swarmed over, and this wasn’t the time for catching up. After Shen Junyi said that, Zhao Yu didn’t react, but one of her roommates behind her cursed, “Damn! What a cheesy pickup line.”

All three of them were Huo Xi fans and had clashed with Yiren fans more than once, so they naturally had no good impression of the guy himself.

Now that Shen Junyi was standing right there and their roommate had been bullied, their solidarity only grew stronger. They yanked the still-dazed Zhao Yu back and said indignantly, “So what if you’re a film crew? You’re borrowing our campus to shoot, and you bully our students? We’re calling the police!”

Tingting was still crying. A production assistant hurried over to mediate.

After a flurry of back-and-forth, everyone finally understood what had happened.

The crew had been shooting in the library that day, in the small grove below the study room. The man who’d clashed with Tingting was part of the crew’s location management team.

While patrolling downstairs, he spotted a girl on the second floor standing by the window with her phone, apparently filming something. Assuming she was sneaking footage, he went upstairs and demanded she delete it.

But Tingting hadn’t been filming them at all—she was video-calling her mother. She’d even shown him her call history with her mom, but he didn’t believe her and demanded to check her phone gallery. Of course she refused, and that’s when things escalated.

By the time Zhao Yu and the others burst in, he was trying to grab Tingting’s phone.

It was clearly the crew’s fault. The production assistant scolded the man, who stubbornly defended himself: “She was standing there with her phone, and Teacher Shen was shooting right below—of course I thought she was filming him. If she’d just let me check, it’d be fine—the more she refused, the more suspicious it looked!”

Tingting sobbed angrily, “Who’d want to film him anyway!”

The other two roommates chimed in, “Yeah! Who cares!”

Zhao Yu: “…………”

By now, she’d finally snapped out of it. She glanced at Shen Junyi, who looked a bit awkward and was rubbing his nose, then pulled her furious roommates back and retorted coldly, “You assumed she was filming the crew, so you demanded to check her phone? What gives you the right? Are you a cop?”

The production assistant immediately turned to the man. “Shut up! Apologize to this student right now!”

The man’s face reddened as he muttered an apology. The crew members all came over to offer their sincere apologies and make amends.

Zhao Yu turned to Tingting. “Do you accept their apology?”

Tingting, her eyes still red, looked at the roommates who’d rushed to protect her, then at the man bowing his head as the staff scolded him, and finally said, “Forget it. I don’t want to waste time on them—I still need to study.”

Since the affected party said so, there was no point pushing further. The crew saw them off with smiles and gave each of them a box of the production’s sponsored drinks.

Just as the four of them were carrying the drinks downstairs, a voice called out from the empty stairwell behind them: “Hey, Xiao Yu…”

Zhao Yu stopped in her tracks, and all three roommates turned around.

Her roommate hissed in surprise, watching Shen Junyi walk over, and whispered in shock, “Wait—you two actually know each other?”

Zhao Yu pressed her lips together and said nothing, but her mind was already racing.

Mature! Poised! High and mighty! Goddess!

She could do this!!!

The footsteps drew closer. Zhao Yu steadied her breathing, finally turned around, and asked with a perfectly composed expression, “What is it?”

Shen Junyi stood on the bottom step, looking at the girl whose demeanor was so unfamiliar to him. He looked a little awkward. “Uh… long time no see. Didn’t expect to run into you here. So you got into this university.”

Zhao Yu’s heart was about to leap out of her throat, but her face remained indifferent. “Mm.”

Shen Junyi scratched his head and ventured, “I’ll be filming here for the next few days. If you have time, maybe we could—”

Zhao Yu cut him off instinctively: “No time. I have the CET-4 coming up and need to study.”

Shen Junyi: “…………”

Rejected so bluntly, he didn’t know what to say. They say girls change the most at eighteen—the innocent little girl from back then had grown up and changed a lot indeed.

He really should work on his overly familiar ways.

A crew member called out, “Teacher Shen!” He smiled warmly at the four of them, then waved to Zhao Yu. “Then I won’t bother you. Sorry about what happened today.”

Zhao Yu suddenly felt the drinks in her arms were incredibly heavy—she could barely hold them.

Light streamed through the stairwell windows, illuminating his back as he walked up. His white shirt and dark hair were caught in that haze of light—exactly the image burned deepest into her memory.

A voice in her head kept reminding her: Not now.

She couldn’t meet him privately and cause him trouble.

She couldn’t dream of approaching the sun as a mere mortal.

Don’t be the little sister. Don’t just become a close friend.

She wanted so much more than that.

Only after Shen Junyi’s figure disappeared from view did her three roommates, who’d been holding their breath, finally exhale in unison, utterly shocked. “Yu Yu, you actually know Shen Junyi?!”

Zhao Yu closed her eyes, tamping down the surging emotions one by one. “A neighbor from when I was little. Let’s go.”

She looked a bit deflated, so her roommates didn’t press further. Tingting, uninjured and no longer angry, was fine.

They gossiped and joked all the way back to the dorm, though they were a little bummed about the wasted roast duck.

Zhao Yu stayed at school for two days before returning to the company.

After that incident, she was even more eager for the upcoming evaluation.

Lin Zhinan often eyed her suspiciously. “Yu Yu, are you secretly a robot? Perpetual motion—runs 24/7, never gets tired?!”

Zhao Yu: “…You’ve got time to talk nonsense, might as well do some stretching?”

Lin Zhinan: “Heavens—never thought I, the grind queen Lin Zhinan, would live to see the day I get lectured!”

As the temperature rose, the May evaluation arrived on schedule.

This time, two-thirds of the Intermediate class had signed up, including Feng You and Lin Zhinan. The Intermediate-to-Advanced evaluation was more complex, with four categories: fundamentals, dance, vocals, and physical fitness.

For the dance portion, Zhao Yu once again chose a Shen Junyi song.

Feng You didn’t mock her this time—after training in the same class for so long, she’d seen Zhao Yu’s abilities and effort. In fact, as Zhao Yu was about to enter the exam room, Feng You drifted over and said coolly, “Using my gege’s song—don’t embarrass him.”

Zhao Yu: “…………”

When she entered the exam room, the evaluators recognized her.

One of them smiled and said, “You’re the trainee with the shortest training time in company history to attempt the Intermediate-to-Advanced evaluation. We wish you success.”

Zhao Yu nodded solemnly.

She’d never been this committed to anything before.

When the results came out, her score was even higher than her first evaluation. Apart from pure vocals still needing improvement, she’d performed nearly perfectly in the other three categories, earning the top score of this promotion round.

Second place went to Feng You.

Lin Zhinan also passed, ranking in the upper-middle tier. She hugged Zhao Yu, even more excited than if she’d gotten first herself: “Debut is just around the corner! Our Yu Yu is the best!”

Moving up to the Advanced class meant they were now debut-ready reserves.

Though there were still many talented trainees in Advanced who hadn’t debuted yet, it was the closest place to a dream.

Standing there, they could already glimpse the dawn.