Transmigrated into the Villainous Scummy Alpha in a Talent Show Novel - Chapter 3

Feeling somewhat hurt, Lin Qi who had debuted as the center stage star and was adored by thousands had never experienced the bitterness of having her warm advances met with cold indifference before.

Placing the meal on the table where the trainees kept their belongings, Lin Qi looked at Jiang Ming, whose expression remained frosty, and finally softened her voice. “I was wrong before. I want to make amends now. Can I? It’s been hours, and you haven’t eaten yet. You’ve been practicing dance for so long, your body won’t hold up.”

Receiving no response, Lin Qi sighed and said earnestly, “If you think I poisoned it, I’ll take a bite first to show you, okay?”

Feeling like she had said everything she could, Lin Qi was met with Jiang Ming’s unchanged, expressionless face. The latter only studied her with probing eyes. After a long silence, just as Lin Qi was wondering if she should say more, Jiang Ming finally spoke, her voice cool and detached. “Your Japanese has gotten worse.”

Was that the point here?

But the real issue was that she, an impostor, had probably been exposed.

The original Lin Qi had spent three years in Japan with her mother before returning to China at eighteen to take the national college entrance exam. Having only been back for a few months, she would naturally be fluent in Japanese.

But Lin Qi herself had graduated five or six years ago.

“Japanese isn’t my native language, so of course I’d get a little rusty over time.”

That was the best excuse she could come up with. Seeing Jiang Ming still didn’t believe her, Lin Qi quickly changed the subject to divert her attention. “Why don’t you eat something first? How’s your dance practice going? There are only two and a half days left until the theme song evaluation. Want to show me? I can help you refine the details.”

“You talk too much. I’m not eating. Leave.”

Another cold rejection. Lin Qi shook her head helplessly but didn’t take it to heart. After all, the original Lin Qi had hurt Jiang Ming deeply, this was all part of her atonement now. She walked over and sat down by the mirror, asking, “If you’re not eating, are you going to practice? Let me watch and help.”

The spacious room fell into silence again. After what felt like an eternity, Jiang Ming finally lost her patience. She glared at the innocent-looking girl sitting on the floor, her tone even icier than her expression. “Lin Qi, are you bored?”

“I’m not bored. I just want to help.”

“I don’t need it. The best help you can give me is leaving.”

This was the third time her goodwill had been rejected. Lin Qi lowered her head, genuinely troubled. She was kind and upright by nature, rarely making enemies, let alone earning someone’s hatred through bullying. How was she supposed to fix things with Jiang Ming?

If this kept up, she’d end up in jail.

She really didn’t want to become a criminal!

Lin Qi stood up, pressed her lips together, and finally decided to throw shame to the wind. “I’m staying here. Either you go to the cafeteria to eat, or you let me watch you dance.”

“Pathetic.”

Enduring Jiang Ming’s disgusted glare, Lin Qi shamelessly stayed in the corner, waiting for her choice.

The music started playing, and the room seemed to hold only one person as Jiang Ming immersed herself in dance practice. Sweat trickled from her forehead past her arched brows and down the corners of her eyes. Her snow-white skin flushed slightly from exertion, lending the untouchable goddess a vivid, human warmth, no longer cold and detached.

Jiang Ming told herself she didn’t care about Lin Qi, but her stiff movements betrayed the turmoil in her heart.

In her past life, Lin Qi was hailed as an idol dance machine with professional dancer-level skills, and had even worked as a choreographer for her debut survival show group. She could immediately spot Jiang Ming’s problem.

The girl couldn’t stay on beat sometimes lagging, sometimes rushing.

It wasn’t because she couldn’t remember the moves. Jiang Ming was clearly sharp; in just half a day, she had memorized the entire three-and-a-half-minute routine and even developed muscle memory. Though her execution wasn’t polished or aesthetically pleasing, and lacked personal flair, she could still perform the dance from start to finish.

That was impressive for a complete beginner.

As Lin Qi’s gaze sharpened, Jiang Ming gradually stopped moving. She turned off the music, her delicate brows furrowing. “What do you want now? Is this some new way to humiliate me?”

Thankfully, privacy measures were strict here. Aside from class hours, the training room cameras only recorded visuals, no audio likely just to track diligence for future performance evaluations.

Otherwise, the original owner wouldn’t have dared act so brazenly.

Choosing her words carefully, Lin Qi hesitated before speaking. “I really just want to help. Haven’t you noticed you’re off-beat?”

It was the truth! She wasn’t trying to mock Jiang Ming!

The girl had long been aware of the issue but didn’t know how to fix it. Without knowing the lyrics, she relied solely on the melody, but once the counts were broken down into eight-beat segments, she completely lost the rhythm.

“So? Got any solutions?”

Finally, a direct response. Lin Qi’s eyes brightened, a smile breaking out. “You could memorize the lyrics. This song’s pretty fast, each move usually matches one or two syllables.”

Stating the obvious.

Jiang Ming grabbed her pink jacket hanging on the railing and tugged at her blue trainee top (marking her as a C-class member), a reflexive gesture from the heat. The motion briefly revealed her toned midsection with faint abs and the delicate hollow of her collarbone.

Lin Qi couldn’t help but admire the female lead’s flawless beauty, though she didn’t stare, since she had those assets herself.

But Jiang Ming noticed the glance. Like a startled bird, she immediately yanked her hem down, sealing away any further glimpses.

Sighing, Lin Qi averted her gaze, only to catch Jiang Ming’s reflection in the mirror as the girl slipped on her jacket and bolted from the room. Despite being half a head shorter, she moved startlingly fast, vanishing in an instant.

Guess I annoyed her.

Dejected, Lin Qi sank to the floor. She’d always been kind-hearted, known in the industry as an easygoing people-pleaser. Years of smooth relationships left her clueless about handling this tension with Jiang Ming.

Spotting the nearly cold meal on the table, she packed it up waste not, want not and reheated it in her dorm microwave.

On her way back, she spotted Jiang Ming leaving the cafeteria. The girl noticed her too, and Lin Qi’s sharp eyes caught the instant freeze in her expression like a cat caught sneaking treats before she spun on her heel and marched off.

Adorable.

A smile tugged at Lin Qi’s lips. So that’s why she left, to grab food.

After finishing her meal and setting her worries about the female lead aside, Lin Qi noticed a pile of books on the table various Chinese learning materials and a dictionary. Seeing this, she finally understood why Jiang Ming hadn’t responded earlier.

How could she expect a tragic novel’s female lead, who had lived in Japan for fourteen years, spent only four years in China entirely in isolation at a mental institution with no human interaction to remember the Chinese lyrics of the theme song?

Sighing, Lin Qi grabbed some paper and a pen before heading out. She returned to the training building and went to the Class A classroom, where several trainees were still practicing. There were quite a few who were both talented and hardworking.

Wei Xuanyue was among them.

She was practicing her dance, seemingly trying to develop her own style. She repeated the movements over and over, contemplating how to make her motions more visually appealing. When a familiar figure appeared in the mirror, the girl immediately brightened up. “Xiao Qi!”

Nodding, Lin Qi found an open space. Unable to sit comfortably no matter how she adjusted, she eventually just sprawled on the floor. Turning her head toward Wei Xuanyue, she asked, “Hey, could you pass me the remote for the speakers?”

Bouncing over with the remote, Wei Xuanyue plopped down beside Lin Qi, her sparkling eyes full of curiosity. “Xiao Qi, what are you up to?”

“Jiang Ming doesn’t understand Chinese and can’t memorize the lyrics. I’m worried it’ll take her forever to look everything up in the dictionary, so I thought I’d copy down the lyrics for her and add pinyin.”

Wei Xuanyue nodded, her expression almost reverent, clearly moved by Lin Qi’s kindness and generosity. Little did she know, this was all just Lin Qi’s way of atoning for her guilt.

Playing the theme song line by line, Lin Qi painstakingly deciphered the lyrics. With Wei Xuanyue’s help, it still took a long time before she filled an entire sheet of paper with neatly written standard script.

In her past life, to avoid being labeled as an “uneducated idol,” Lin Qi, a graduate of a prestigious university had specifically practiced standard script handwriting. Who knew it would come in handy here?

After copying the lyrics and meticulously adding pinyin to each character, Lin Qi finally stood up, her lower back aching from being hunched over for so long.

Once done, Lin Qi who had already mastered the theme song’s choreography bid Wei Xuanyue farewell and left, eager to deliver the note to Jiang Ming.

Arriving at the Class C classroom, it seemed the trainees here were the most ambitious. The slightly smaller training room was packed with over twenty people, all laughing and practicing together. Most were full of energy, though a few were exhausted, sprawled on the floor resting.

Jiang Ming wasn’t there.

Frowning, Lin Qi was puzzled. The wall clock showed it was only 7:30 PM, prime training time, especially since classes started at 8. If not now, when?

But as she scanned the room, all eyes familiar and unfamiliar turned toward her curiously. Even those lying down sat up, probably thinking Lin Qi was filming a vlog or training diary.

Approaching a trainee who looked friendly, Lin Qi asked, “Excuse me, have you seen Jiang Ming?”

“Jiang Ming?”

The trainee seemed to hesitate at the name before tentatively asking in return, “You mean,  the Japanese girl?”

Rubbing his temples, Lin Qi felt a headache coming on. Wasn’t Jiang Ming supposed to be the female lead? Why was she fading into the background like some invisible extra in this show?

“No, she just grew up in Japan. She’s Chinese.”

“Oh, then that must be her. I just saw her heading to the restroom, but I don’t know where she is now.”

“Thank you.”

With no other options, Lin Qi sighed and headed toward the restroom. It was nearly time for class, what kind of trainee serious about debuting would hide in the bathroom at this hour?

Yet Lin Qi had a feeling Jiang Ming was exactly the type to do such a thing.

The novel’s female protagonist suffered from latent autism. When she was repatriated to China at fourteen, her condition had been severe. After four years of “treatment” at a psychiatric hospital, the girl had learned to wear a mask of “normalcy,” though she still feared social interaction. Her greatest comfort was humming softly to herself in the solitude of an empty bathroom.

Given the atmosphere in that Class C training room earlier, no wonder Jiang Ming couldn’t stay.

Feeling a pang of sympathy, Lin Qi pushed the restroom door open as quietly as possible. Sure enough, there stood the young woman in profile, her face alight with an expression he’d never seen before. Without accompaniment, Jiang Ming was humming softly, her usually cool voice revealing a sweet, vulnerable quality that only emerged in solitude. Though her movements were slightly awkward, the confidence she exuded was breathtaking far more beautiful than any meticulously crafted doll.

Startled by Lin Qi’s sudden appearance, the frightened kitten of a girl froze mid-motion, using a frown to mask her unease. In the confined space, her ragged breathing laid everything bare.

Jiang Ming was terrified.