ADTCP Ch16

The weekend flew by.

On Monday’s 8 a.m. class, most of the students still hadn’t shaken off their holiday daze. They sat slouched in the classroom, looking like a room full of zombies.

The teacher fiddled with the PPT at the podium and told everyone to play on their phones a bit to wake themselves up, which drew a round of laughter.

Tao Zhen slipped in through the back door, hunched over, and sat down in the seat Jia Jia had saved for him. Finally breathing a sigh of relief, he pushed the breakfast he had bought for her across the desk.

The girl, looking as if she had just been granted a pardon, wolfed down the food while pulling out her phone to transfer money. With her mouth full, she mumbled, “Thanks, Zhenbao!”

Tao Zhen squinted his eyes into a smile and firmly closed her transfer page with one hand. “What are you fussing with me for! By the way, did you go thieving last night? Look at your eyes, you’ve turned into a panda.”

“Ugh, don’t bring it up! I was already washed up and in bed when I suddenly remembered I hadn’t sent in my video for the music club audition. I had to scramble back up and get my roommate to help me record one. By the time I emailed it, it was already midnight. And then I had to take off my makeup, and of course, I ended up playing on my phone…”

Jia Jia rubbed her puffy cheeks hard, her eyes lifeless. “If I don’t pass this audition, I swear I’ll storm the music club and fight them!”

Tao Zhen couldn’t help laughing and said in solidarity, “I even went to KTV the day before to record mine. If I don’t pass, I’ll fight alongside you.”

The two of them burst out laughing. Just as they were about to continue chatting, the teacher finished setting up the PPT and cleared his throat, telling everyone to take out their textbooks.

The class instantly fell quiet. Soon, the dull drone of International Management lulled half the students into sleep.

Tao Zhen couldn’t stand listening either, but he felt it would be rude to put his head down on the desk, so he propped his chin on his hand, nodding off like a pecking chick.

Just as his forehead was about to thump against the desk, a stifled gasp suddenly sounded beside his ear.

He jerked awake, bleary-eyed. “What happened?!”

Jia Jia, her face flushed with excitement, pinched her thigh hard and thrust her phone at him, whispering in a hushed but trembling voice, “Zhenbao, I passed!”

The screen lit up with a text message:

【Dear Jia Jia! Hello, congratulations on passing the audition for the University Arts Troupe · Music Club. We love music, and we believe music can change the world! Please reply before Wednesday and join the QQ group: 9876…】

Tao Zhen held his breath as he carefully read the message. Then his face lit up with delight, his round black eyes sparkling like little stars. “That’s awesome, Jia Jia, congratulations!”

Her cheeks burned from such sincere praise. Laughing sheepishly, she said, “I just got lucky. You’ll definitely be fine too, Zhenbao.”

Tao Zhen waved his hand, still smiling. “I hope so!”

“When did you send your email?” Jia Jia asked. “The seniors even reviewed the one I sent at midnight yesterday, so you should’ve gotten your result already, right?”

Tao Zhen froze. “I sent mine Saturday night, but…”

His heart sped up. Clutching his shirt hem, he pulled out his phone, opened his messages,

Unlike Jia Jia, his inbox was completely empty.

She’d submitted later than him and already passed with flying colors, but he,

As the excitement faded from Tao Zhen’s face, Jia Jia immediately thought, Oh no. She tugged at his sleeve and said with forced casualness, “Ah! I get it! They must be reviewing in reverse order.”

“Who would’ve thought, procrastinators like us actually get a special perk!”

Tao Zhen’s expression eased slightly.

Right, after all, the seniors had said results would come within two working days. Why worry?
He quickly soothed himself and flashed Jia Jia a bright grin. “Yeah! I’m not worried!”

Relieved, Jia Jia went off to share her good news with other friends.

But she didn’t notice that for the rest of the class, Tao Zhen didn’t doze off again. Instead, he kept his head lowered, secretly refreshing his messages over and over.
It wasn’t until the bell rang and the students poured out that he finally closed the “Email Sent Successfully” screen and followed the crowd, looking calm on the outside.

It was the height of club recruitment season, and all the freshmen were buzzing about it, faces full of excitement as they shared their hobbies.

Tao Zhen walked quietly behind Jia Jia, smiling whenever she looked back at him, but the rest of the time he couldn’t help staring at his toes.

Suddenly, a slightly unfamiliar male voice called out: “Tao Zhen?”

He looked up instinctively. Approaching him were a young man in glasses and a woman in an elegant purple dress carrying a stack of papers.

Thinking a moment, he recognized the man. “Vice President Ba… Bai Yuxuan? What a coincidence, do you have class here too?”

Bai Yuxuan tilted his head toward the woman and muttered, “See? I told you so.” Then he smiled and said to Tao Zhen, “No, we came here specifically to find you.”

Tao Zhen blinked. “…Me?”

Jia Jia, ever the know-it-all, recognized them both. “Vice President Bai, President Liu.”

One headed the Arts Troupe, the other managed the Music Club. Busy, important people. Why would they come looking for someone like him, a nobody?

“Yes,” President Liu’s cool, mature voice said. “Could we trouble you to come somewhere quiet with us for a moment?”

Jia Jia tugged worriedly at Tao Zhen’s sleeve, afraid they had come to deliver bad news.
He had the same suspicion, his voice dry but steady. “Alright. There’s an empty classroom right there.”

President Liu nodded. Together with Bai Yuxuan, she opened the classroom door.

Patting Jia Jia’s shoulder reassuringly, Tao Zhen followed them inside.

The door closed, muting the noisy chatter of the hallway.

The overhead lights flared bright.

Tao Zhen took a deep breath. “May I ask, what is it you need from me?”

President Liu studied his face for a few seconds before sighing with a faint smile.

“Honestly… before meeting you, I had a lot of doubts. For example, whether the video you sent to the music club was really yours. Even though Old Bai vouched for you, I still wasn’t at ease. But seeing you now, I realize I worried too much.”

“You look exactly like in the video, actually, even better in person.”

Tao Zhen tilted his head in confusion.

Wait… does the music club even judge by looks now? If someone over-Photoshops, do they just get disqualified?

“Sorry, I still don’t quite understand…”

“My interview process was the same as everyone else’s. Why single me out?” he finally blurted, cutting straight to the point. “Was there a problem with my audition video? Am I… allowed into the music club or not?”

His words left both of them momentarily stunned.

After a few seconds, Bai Yuxuan cautiously asked, “Your video… you don’t know?”

Tao Zhen blinked blankly. “Know what?”

“Your video has blown up online these past two days, with over a million likes. Every one of our reviewers has seen it.” President Liu’s voice rose slightly. “They thought you had stolen some internet clip to use for your audition, so I came to confirm whether it was really you.”

“Your audition video has no issues at all. You sang so well, how could you possibly not get into our little music club?”

“…”

With a buzzing sound in his ears, Tao Zhen felt a rush of dizziness. Fireworks bloomed wildly in his mind, burning away the heaviness in his chest and tinting his world with color.

“So… I… passed…?”

President Liu nodded, amused. She whispered a few words to Bai Yuxuan, handed him the membership roster, and then gracefully took her leave.

Bai Yuxuan wrote Tao Zhen’s name on the form, then smiled as he passed it over. “Of course you passed. Welcome to the music club. We have an event on Wednesday night, make sure to come.”

With that, he too left, catching up with President Liu.

Tao Zhen was still stunned, his body moving on instinct. Only after a long moment did he snap back to reality and hurriedly pull out his phone.

He hadn’t logged in since he sent his video on Saturday night. Now, as soon as he opened the dashboard, a flood of notifications crashed in, even freezing his top-of-the-line phone for several seconds.

1.034 million likes.

416,000 saves.

202,000 comments.

His inbox overflowed, fans asking for his WeChat, ads from sponsors, even messages from fake sneaker sellers.

Tao Zhen stared at the staggering numbers for a few seconds, licked his lips, his head still buzzing blank.

The heat of his video was no less than those in his idolized collection.

It felt like a dream.

But it was real.

Delayed joy surged up, and Tao Zhen couldn’t help but grin.

Eyes curved in delight, he hugged his phone and stared at it for a long time, like a hamster who’d stumbled into a granary and had to stuff its cheeks full of grain.

After admiring it by himself, he quickly shared the link around, earning 200,000 yuan from Mr. Tao Dajun, a storm of “holy shit” and “don’t forget us when you’re rich” from the Fenghua Juedai group chat, and Jia Jia’s ear-piercing shrieks…

Tao Zhen giggled foolishly as he scrolled, then stopped at Lin Manyao’s chat window.
He had sent it to many familiar people, but when it came to Lin Manyao, he hesitated. Unable to resist, he opened the video again, watching carefully.

…And suddenly realized, compared to Lin Manyao, his technique was still far too raw, his breath control insufficient.

Maybe… better not send it?

Tao Zhen wavered, about to overthink himself into silence, when his phone rang, breaking the spiral.

He quickly picked up. “Hello? Zhu Wensheng?”

“It’s me.”

Tao Zhen’s eyes lit up. “Did you see it? The video you filmed for me, it’s gone viral!”

“Mm. You sang very well.”

Zhu Wensheng’s voice was usually cool and detached, but this time he paused, his tone carrying an unfamiliar gentleness. “Now, there are many people in the world praising you.”

Tao Zhen froze for two seconds, then suddenly laughed. “Yes, lots of people are praising me.”

“But you’re different from them. You’re my number one.”