Amateur talent show? Top mentors are my students.

The debates during the evaluation process remained confined to the mentor's office.

From their first stage performance to the end of the theme song assessment, the trainees finally had their only day off.

At least they are free until the re-evaluation is announced tomorrow.

He Xu woke up at noon.

I didn't wake up naturally; I was woken up by Li Bufan's tablet playing music on speaker.

"Brother He Xu! Brother He Xu, are you awake? The cafeteria is about to close!"

A dirty orange head peered over the edge of the bed, its voice loud enough to wake a dead person.

He Xu pulled the blanket over his head and turned over.

The blanket was pulled away again.

"Brother He Xu—"

"You'd better have something very important to say." He Xu's voice came muffledly from under the pillow, still hoarse from singing practice the past two days. "Otherwise, I'll shave your head."

Li Bufan shrank back, but stubbornly remained rooted to the spot: "The cafeteria is really about to close..."

"I'm not hungry."

"You didn't eat dinner yesterday."

He Xu paused for a second, then lifted his face from under the pillow, his eyes filled with a scrutinizing look that seemed to ask, "How did you know I didn't eat dinner last night?"

"Lu Yiming said it," Li Bufan immediately betrayed his teammate, "He said that after you finished recording the theme song last night, you went straight back to the dormitory and went to sleep without even taking a shower."

He Xu stared at him expressionlessly for three seconds, then buried her face back into the pillow.

"What's it to you?"

"Brother He Xu, you can't do this—"

"roll."

Before Li Bufan could say anything more, a cold voice came from the upper bunk: "If you don't leave, he really will shave your head."

Wang Yijun sat cross-legged on the bed, holding an English novel she had pulled out from somewhere, without even looking up.

Li Bufan glanced at He Xu's head buried in the pillow, then at Wang Yijun's expressionless face, and finally gave in.

"Alright, alright, I'll go, I'll go—but Brother He Xu, if you starve to death, don't blame me for not calling you!"

The door closed.

The dormitory fell silent.

He Xu turned over and stared blankly at the upper bunk.

A familiar burning sensation was churning in my stomach; I'd been feeling unwell ever since I finished recording the theme song last night.

Changing the accompaniment, lowering the key, and rearranging the rhythm pattern—these tasks took nearly six hours in total.

He wasn't a professional producer; he used the rudimentary equipment provided by the production team, adjusting each note one by one, and then re-tuning it with the dance.

It was past 2 a.m. when we finished recording.

My throat hurts, my stomach hurts, and I feel like I've been run over by a truck.

He closed his eyes and decided to ignore everyone who came today.

But today seems destined to be anything but peaceful.

Ten minutes later, the door was pushed open a crack.

Lu Yiming's round face peeked in, the light from the corridor reflecting off his glasses.

"Brother He Xu... are you still asleep?"

"She's asleep," He Xu's voice muffled beneath the pillow.

Lu Yiming paused for a second, then, not daring to ask any more questions, shrank back and closed the door.

Five more minutes passed.

This time the door was pushed open so loudly it looked like someone was tearing the house down.

"Brother He Xu!!!"

Li Bufan is back, followed by two D-class contestants whose names He Xu doesn't recognize.

One person is holding a deck of cards, and the other is holding a Werewolf game box.

"They're having a board game party downstairs! Werewolf! We need more people! Want to come?"

"I'm not coming."

"You can come down and take a look! We'll get you a chair!"

"I won't look."

"Then you—you still need to eat! The cafeteria is really closing! Shall I bring you some?"

He Xu finally lifted his face from under the pillow, his upturned eyes carrying a cold "Are you deaf?" look.

"Li Bufan".

"Why!"

Do you think I'm afraid to shave your head?

Li Bufan swallowed hard, instinctively covering his dirty orange head, but stubbornly remained standing still.

"But—Yang Sheng said your stomach will hurt if you don't eat something..."

He Xu paused for a moment.

"Where is Yang Sheng?" he asked.

"Downstairs, he's the judge."

He Xu was silent for two seconds, then threw off the blanket and sat up.

His hair was a mess, his T-shirt was wrinkled and hanging on his body, and he looked like he had just been picked up from a garbage dump.

"Walk."

Li Bufan's eyes lit up instantly: "You agreed to go?!"

"Let's go eat." He Xu slowly put on his shoes. "I'll be back after we eat."

"Okay, okay! We can play a couple of rounds of Werewolf after dinner!"

"I'm not going."

"Shall we go and take a look?"

"I'm not going."

"That--"

He Xu looked up at him.

Li Bufan swallowed back what he was about to say.

The corridor was empty; most of the contestants were either catching up on sleep or spending their precious rest day in the lobby downstairs.

As He Xu passed the stairwell, he heard bursts of laughter coming from downstairs, interspersed with the sounds of several people arguing loudly.

"He's definitely a werewolf! His statements are so obvious, how can you not see it?"

"You're the wolf! Your whole family are wolves! I'm a civilian! A civilian!"

"I bet ten packs of spicy strips, it's his turn!"

"I'll bet! Fine, I'll bet!"

He Xu paused for a moment.

He leaned against the stair railing and glanced down—there were three or four tables in the hall, and a dozen or so people were playing Werewolf.

Yang Sheng stood in the center, with a handwritten "Judge" sticker on his chest, his expression serious.

Jiang Yang squatted on a chair, his face flushed and neck red as he argued back with someone. Song Yingwen sat beside him, watching the show with a blank expression.

On the table next to them were several bags of spicy strips and several bottles of carbonated drinks, which were obviously the chips.

He Xu watched for a while, then lazily spoke.

"Yang Sheng".

The voice wasn't loud, it was hoarse and deep, but it was surprisingly penetrating in the noisy hall.

Everyone looked up at the same time.

Yang Sheng was startled.

"Brother He Xu..." He swallowed the word "teacher" back down.

He Xu didn't go downstairs; he just leaned against the stair railing, hands in his pockets, looking relaxed.

"I'm telling you minors, don't go learning bad things from others."

Yang Sheng was taken aback by those words, and a hint of guilt appeared on his face.

Jiang Yang jumped off the chair, looked up at He Xu on the stairs, still chewing half a spicy snack: "Teacher, we're just playing a few rounds, no gambling—"

"Betting spicy strips is not allowed either." He Xu's voice was neither loud nor soft, but the "I'm done" tone made Jiang Yang immediately shut up.

Song Yingwen remained calm, stood up, brushed the potato chip crumbs off his pants, and nodded to He Xu: "Brother He Xu, want to come down and join us?"

He Xu glanced at him but did not answer.

It was the other contestants who reacted first, starting to chatter and make a ruckus—

"Hey He Xu, come down and have some fun!"

"We're short-handed! We can't get a full twelve-player game!"

"You'd be amazing as a werewolf; you couldn't tell from your expression at all!"

He Xu glanced around expressionlessly.

"I'm going to eat," he said, then turned and walked downstairs.

There were indeed not many people in the cafeteria.

He Xu took his tray and sat down in a corner by the window. He had congee, steamed buns, and a dish of pickled vegetables.

It was the exact same breakfast he ate when he was with the stars—even though it was almost 1 p.m. now.

He had just taken a bite of his steamed bun when he heard footsteps at the entrance of the cafeteria.

He Xu raised his head.

Shen Yiheng walked at the front, followed by Xu Shutong, Zhou Wei, Zheng Zaiyuan, and Jin Xian.

All five mentors are now in place.

They were clearly there to eat too—Xu Shutong was still holding the rating sheet she hadn't had time to put down, and Zheng Zaiyuan was talking to Zhou Wei with a serious expression.

Jin Xian walked at the very back, her head down, typing on her phone, her expression indifferent.

It's not unusual for mentors to come to the cafeteria. The production team had previously stated that the mentors and contestants share the same dining area and there was no special treatment.

But the fact that they came to the cafeteria means that the re-evaluation process is over.

Shen Yiheng was the first to see He Xu.

He paused for a moment, and almost instantly completed the entire process of "seeing—confirming—deciding not to see," before continuing to walk forward as if nothing had happened.

But Xu Shutong lacked his composure.

She followed Shen Yiheng's gaze for a moment and looked in He Xu's direction several times.

Jung Jae-won noticed her unusual behavior, followed her gaze, and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? That He Xu from Class A?"