Dreams come true - Idol Producer Fan Chengcheng FF (RESQ SAGA PART 1)

3. Lin's evaluation

(A/N: Cursive means it is in English.)

"Hello, I am Zhu Lin. Nice to meet you," I said bowing politely.

"Hey! Linlin!" Jackson exclaimed.

"Hello," I said again, although not able to hide my smile that time.

Jackson looked at Zhang PD, then at me and back at PD before yelling "Screw it!" as he stood up and hugged me tightly.

"Be professional, Jackson! Now everyone will think you are biased!" I said although I hugged him back just as tightly.

"Are you telling me that I'm not allowed to hug you after not seeing you in almost seven years?" he said and turned to the rest of the trainees. "I haven't seen her in seven years, can I or can I not? Also, I promise I do not know how she sings or dances or anything. I last saw her when she was about nine."

"Oh!" Said Zhou Jieqiong and Cheng Xiao at the same time, shocked by that.

"Anyway, let's see your performance." Said Zhang PD and Jackson sat down.

I waited and then the staff pulled out a piano. I thanked them and sat down.

["When they pulled out that piano, the first thing I thought was 'This is going to be A-level material'," Bu fan said.]

I started playing Universe by EXO (the Mandarin version) and I heard some gasps here and there along with "It's PD's group's song!". I ignored them and focused on the music, nonetheless. I did not want to look at PD's face as it was literally his group's song, so I imagined myself rehearsing at home just like I always did to calm down my nerves and started singing. When the high notes came, I was actually quite nervous, but I managed to get them right, which made me feel relieved.

Once the song ended, they all applauded, and I stood up to stand in front of PD and the mentors.

"Can I see which ranking you chose?" Li Ronghao asked as my jacket covered it.

["She chose F?" said Chengcheng. "I now feel horrible."]

"Why did you choose F rank?" he asked me.

"No one has ever told me whether I do good or not. They only ask me to sing, dance or rap without any feedback. That is one of the reasons I am an individual trainee. This is the first time I have gotten the chance to show my skills to someone and getting some advice or feedback of any type," I explained.

"Can you rap a little, please?" MC Jin asked.

"And dance too!" Cheng Xiao quickly added.

I nodded my head and got ready. I rapped Agust D while I freestyle danced and, although fun, it was exhausting, and I had to push through the performance while trying to not appear tired.

Once I finished, MC Jin and Jackson stood up and applauded as I quickly bowed and tried to recover my breath. I was sweating like a pig by that point, so Zhang PD took out a box of tissues and offered it to me. I thanked him and dried the sweat off my face.

"Do you know Korean?" Asked Jieqiong.

"Yes; I know Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and English," I answered.

"I honestly think you are a really complete trainee. It is sometimes obvious that you have not gotten training but, overall, your performances were really good. Did you create this dance?" he asked me.

"I just freestyled. I honestly hadn't prepared anything for dancing," I said, scratching the back of my head.

"Oh, okay. We will now discuss your ranking, so wait a minute," he said and they started talking.

It took around five minutes for them to decide my ranking and I honestly was becoming impatient.

"In A rank...Zhu Lin," PD said, after several torturous seconds.

"Thank you!" I said and went to the waiting room again change my sticker after thanking them a hundred times.

["I don't get why she chose F rank. She's a really complete trainee and I think we can expect great things from her." Said Li Ronghao.

"I honestly didn't know what to expect at first as I had never seen her dancing nor heard her rapping or singing, so I was really pleased to see that she has been doing well all these years and that she is so talented." Said Jackson.]

Once I went inside the room, I saw Chengcheng and Zhenting there.

"That was amazing!" Said Zhenting. "I am honestly shocked. That is not just A material, that is debut material!"

"Thank you! Oh, are you feeling better?" I asked Chengcheng.

"Yes, thank you for helping me earlier," he said almost in a whisper.

"Oh, come here! Friends?" I asked him while we hugged, and he nodded. "And you, Zhengting? Friends?"

"Of course!" He said and gave me a friendly side hug. "This is almost like kindergarten."

After chuckling, I then realized Qin Fen had not performed yet and hurried back inside. Thankfully, I was just in time.

Jackson got excited when he saw him as the two also knew each other and were almost like best friends. Just when the song began, however, I got a bad feeling. "Why did you choose that song?!" I silently scolded him. The song was too common and bland so they would not probably get high ranks.

When it was Jackson's turn to speak, I could see he was really struggling to do it as they were friends, but he had to keep his priorities straight and evaluate him objectively.

"I hope that the rapper in a boy group can, within 6 or 7 seconds get the audience to remember him. It is just that I sort of could not hear anything outstanding. This is just my own opinion," he said.

"Not just in boy groups, but in girl groups too. Being the rapper sometimes means only getting a few lines, so it really is important to capture the audience and make them remember you. You need to almost say 'Hey, look at me!'." Said MC Jin.

They then began deliberating and Qin Fen looked at me worried.

"Jiayou!" I mouthed to him.

When they announced no one was in A I heard some gasps. Qin Fen was thankfully in B, but I knew he could have done much better than that.

["Actually, I haven't paid special attention whether anyone was my friend or not. I think for a competition you really must not project personal feelings into it. Right is right, wrong is wrong. It is not a joke. It is true that Zhu Lin got A rank, but it was solely because of her talents. I don't want knowing them to be a disadvantage for the rest of the trainees, because I wouldn't want that for myself either." Explained Jackson.]