NOVEL NEXT Chapter 22 - Jiang Tang CP
“You’re here. Good morning.”
“Morning.”
After the greetings, Hou YuanZhan gathered everyone together.
“Now, all eight of you are my students. The knockout competition is quite brutal with its hexadecagonal system, and I don’t want to see any of you eliminated.”
“There’s not much time left. Yesterday, I noticed that some of you haven’t had formal dance training before, and the dances you chose are quite difficult. If you want to switch now, it’s still possible. Of course, the difficulty level of the dance will have an impact on your score. I won’t offer any advice.”
With those words, it was clear that he had noticed something during yesterday’s practice. However, the girls looked at each other in confusion, and no one suggested changing their dance.
Hou YuanZhan waited for a minute, but when no one spoke up, he nodded. “In that case, practice hard and aim to present your best performance.”
“For the next five days, everyone doesn’t have to come for practice at a set time every day. I hope those with weaker stamina can take some time to improve. Even though a dance may only last five minutes, it’s not easy.”
“Alright, let’s begin practising.”
“Wait, Mr. Hou,” one girl called out, and everyone’s attention shifted to her.
She had a striking figure and was wearing full makeup—an incredibly beautiful woman.
“Mr. Hou, can I have your contact? It’ll be easier to reach you If I have questions.”
【Wow, someone finally asked.】
【Mr. Hou green bubbles, I want it too! (Crawling in shadow)】
【Spending almost the entire day in the dance studio, what exactly needs to be discussed privately?】
【Isn’t asking for contact normal? If you are the one with a chance, wouldn’t you ask for it? If not, I’ll take it.】
Hou YuanZhan was easygoing. “Sure, let’s open a group chat. Everyone can join.”
This time, Jiang Zi pulled out her phone and joined the group chat with everyone.
Tang Yuan glanced at her screen, noticing that besides her chat being pinned at the top, the rest were all group chats.
Tang Yuan clicked her tongue in disbelief, “You… are you hiding another private account from me? This one is full of group chats. It must be your work account, right?”
Jiang Zi, to prove her innocence, handed her phone over. “There’s no other account. I just don’t like adding friends.”
Seeing that Tang Yuan didn’t take the phone, she scrolled through her contacts. There was only ‘Little Tang Yuan’ and another contact named ‘Chu Yu.’
Tang Yuan hmph softly. The male lead is everywhere, but only she is pinned at the top; this makes her rejoice.
Jiang Zi opened up the group chats. The smallest ones had two members, while the largest had hundreds. The two-member chats clearly could’ve just been direct friends, but still, a group chat was created instead.
If she wanted to get information or someone needed to reach her, it had to be through group chats. She does not accept any friend requests.
Tang Yuan glanced at the odd names of the group chats but stopped looking soon after, still left somewhat stunned.
In a hesitant tone, Tang Yuan muttered, “This is the first time I’ve seen someone do this… Isn’t it inconvenient?”
“What’s inconvenient about it?”
Tang Yuan scratched her head. “There are always some private things to say, right? It’s so inconvenient to say them in a group chat.”
Seeing that Tang Yuan had lost interest in her phone, Jiang Zi turned off the screen and pocketed it. With a serious expression, she replied, “I only have private things to say to you.”
Caught off guard by the sudden sweet talk, Tang Yuan froze, staring at her to see if she was doing it on purpose.
Tang Yuan rubbed her ears and looked down. “So, you don’t post anything on Moments? Or look at others’?”
“I don’t post, but I do look.”
It was clear whose Moments she looked at. Tang Yuan was the only one posting, and her feed was vibrant—full of shared moments, pretty pictures, and little stories.
“Alright, alright. Can’t believe someone uses green bubbles this… plainly.”
Plain? Jiang Zi didn’t think so. Every day, there were tons of messages in her group chats that needed her attention, keeping her quite busy.
Once the group chat was set up, everyone went their separate ways. Tang Yuan remembered Hou YuanZhan urging them to work on their stamina, and she quietly touched her waist, muttering, “He’s not talking about me, right?”
Jiang Zi watched Tang Yuan’s adorable demeanour, and a natural smile appeared in the corner of her eyes.
After yesterday’s practice, Jiang Zi had shown remarkable comprehension, and today, she picked up the choreography even faster. She had already mastered the fundamentals of the movements.
“Now, we just need to work on matching the beats.”
Tang Yuan guided Jiang Zi, repeatedly syncing their moves to the rhythm. By the end of the day, they had nailed down the entire song. While they hadn’t danced through the entire track fluidly yet, their rapid progress left the other three groups astonished.
Tang Yuan, ever generous with her praise, exclaimed, “Sister, you’re amazing! You learned so much so fast, you’re a natural at dancing!”
Jiang Zi wiped the sweat from her neck with her shirt, revealing her toned waist. “It’s because Teacher Tang Yuan is so good at teaching.”
Tang Yuan’s eyes widened in shock as she rushed forward to pull Jiang Zi’s shirt back down to cover her.
There are cameras!
How could she be so careless?
Jiang Zi caught the look of accusation in Tang Yuan’s eyes and tilted her head slightly, amusement dancing in her gaze.
Tang Yuan let go of Jiang Zi’s shirt and walked over to the bench, grabbing a fresh towel to hand to her. “Use this.”
Jiang Zi took it obediently, then, very naturally, raised her hand to wipe the sweat from Tang Yuan’s forehead. Ignoring Tang Yuan’s shocked expression, she wiped her own face next and finally draped the towel around her neck.
Tang Yuan awkwardly touched her face, “Uh, so… let’s call it a day then. Let’s go have dinner and rest. We don’t need to come back tonight, it’s good to balance work and rest.”
“Okay.”
【Did anyone else catch that? Ahhhhh!】
【This feels so staged! Are they just doing this for the attention and views?】
【I’ve been watching them all day—does anyone understand Jiang Zi?】
【They’re not compatible at all! I demand Tang Yuan be handed over to me instead!】
Without the training session tonight, Tang Yuan finally had some free time to browse online.
Her own account naturally displayed content related to her, and she quickly noticed a newly trending topic called “Jiang Tang CP.” It didn’t have many followers yet—just sixty thousand—but when she clicked on it, she found numerous reposted videos.
One video, in particular, caught her eye. It was a candid, angle-shot video of Tang Yuan and Jiang Zi dancing together under the lights from last night.
In the video, Jiang Zi’s movements were always a beat behind Tang Yuan’s. The music was synced to Tang Yuan’s movements, making their dance look out of sync.
But from this angle, how did they manage to capture Jiang Zi’s gaze so clearly? Her eyes, which were usually so affectionate even when looking at a dog, were locked on her with such intensity that her feelings seemed to leap out from the screen.
So, her slightly delayed movements became a matter of syncing with and following her.
It didn’t look awkward anymore.
[So, all sixty thousand followers are CP fans?!]
[Hahaha, who filmed this? It’s like divine intervention! I was worried about how to attract CP fans, but this doesn’t count as intentionally hyping up the CP, right? Hehe~]
[Hitting a hundred thousand followers should be easy now. I’ll just need to invest some money into this topic.]
Hearing Tang Yuan’s thoughts and seeing her staring at her phone with a silly grin, Jiang Zi leaned in and asked, “What are you looking at?”
Facing Jiang Zi, one of the people involved, Tang Yuan felt a bit embarrassed. She quickly put her phone away as Jiang Zi leaned in, trying to appear nonchalant. “It’s nothing. Shall we head back to our room?”
[This is so embarrassing. I’m hyping up the CP with a specific purpose, but sister is the one being affected. It could harm her reputation.]
[She might get upset. Should I tell her about it?]