Because all the trainees had been reassigned to new groups, the dormitory arrangements had also changed accordingly.
Group A had the best living conditions—four people per room, with two private bathrooms.
In contrast, Group D had the worst setup—ten people squeezed into a single room with no private bathroom. They had to use communal showers.
This obvious disparity in living conditions was clearly designed to ignite the fighting spirit of the lower-ranked girls.
Beyond that, even the uniforms reflected their rankings. Each outfit had the group letter printed boldly on it: Group A's was a bright pink-and-white, while Group D's was a dull gray-brown.
With such deliberate design choices from the production team, everyone was fired up to fight for their place.
Group A wasn't fixed either—members could be reshuffled based on the results of future evaluations.
The dorm change meant Jiang Yuqi was no longer rooming with Zhang Kexin. Fortunately, she ended up with the adorable Fu Yueran, and it made the atmosphere feel much fresher for her.
Fu Yueran was overjoyed. She hugged Jiang Yuqi and happily said, "This is great! We get to live together this time—I'm so happy!"
Her excitement was completely unrestrained, and Jiang Yuqi was also in a great mood. The two of them chatted cheerfully.
The two new girls sharing the room quietly watched the heartwarming reunion, not wanting to interrupt.
Meanwhile, the production team had quickly edited the latest episode overnight and uploaded it to Gululu Video at the earliest possible moment.
As soon as viewers saw that the contestants had been blatantly divided into different ranks based on performance, the show's format became a hot topic of discussion.
From the moment it aired, the program attracted tens of millions of viewers, and the comments section was flooded with bullet messages.
"My Jiang Yuqi really delivered! She made it to Group A! Take that, haters who said she didn't have what it takes!"
"Yes! When my girl had to make a cute expression and looked all conflicted about it, my heart just melted. I saved that shot—it's my new phone wallpaper."
"Haha, same here! Screenshot squad, rise!"
"I think Li Yuan is the most talented. Her rank is well-deserved. I'm becoming a hardcore career fan!"
"This show is actually really interesting. So many girls with different styles competing—it's addictive to watch!"
"Is nobody talking about the adorable Fu Yueran? I'm claiming her for myself!"
Of course, not all the comments were positive. Among them were some nasty and malicious ones.
"I think one of the contestants made a good point—Jiang Yuqi staying overnight in the trainees' dorms isn't a good look. Feels like she's just trying to grab attention."
This commenter had just watched a clip where someone criticized Jiang Yuqi for spending nights in the practice room and claimed it was too much. In real life, he was just an average office worker who hated overworking.
"I agree with the comment above. Didn't a judge say Jiang Yuqi's fundamentals were weak during evaluations? I think her making it to Group A reeks of favoritism."
"Why is nobody noticing how amazing Zhang Kexin is? She only made it to Group B—that's unfair."
"Exactly! Zhang Kexin is the real standout. She should've been ranked first!"
Suddenly, the screen was flooded with praise for Zhang Kexin.
Some netizens weren't having it and voiced their suspicion.
"There's something fishy going on with all this sudden praise for Zhang Kexin. She's good, sure—but not that good."
Sadly, that one comment got drowned in a sea of posts from paid posters. And since most people tend to follow the numbers, the reminder from the bot army actually convinced some to believe Zhang Kexin had been wronged, and they started defending her.
At that very moment, Zhang Kexin was hiding in a bathroom stall, scrolling through the barrage of flattering comments generated by the bot army she had paid for. She was clearly enjoying the attention.
Suddenly, a staff member sneaked in and whispered, "Miss, hand over your phone. I just saw a contestant coming. Go back to training now—we'll find another time later."
According to the program's rules, all contestants were supposed to turn in their phones during recording except in special situations. Zhang Kexin had bribed a staffer with her resources and influence.
Even before entering the competition, she had asked her best friend to hire a bot army for her, to control the narrative and clean up her image so she could debut smoothly.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yuqi and the others were in Group A's private practice room rehearsing their group dance. With twenty people dancing together, achieving perfect synchronization was no easy feat.
Everyone had different heights, arm lengths, and movement styles, so practice lasted over ten hours a day.
The intensity left many girls completely drained, collapsing onto the floor after every session and having to support each other back to the dorms.
But Jiang Yuqi was different—after the official training, she would still put in extra hours of solo practice. She was basically a walking training machine.
Her relentless work ethic was a hard slap in the face to the haters who had doubted her. After all, keeping up that level of intensity wasn't something you could fake.
Inspired by her, Li Yuan, Fu Yueran, and a few others started putting in extra hours too. No one wanted to be a loser—everyone had come here for one goal: to secure a debut spot. They pushed themselves to the limit.
When the time came to record the theme song "Dancing Through Life," everyone was envious of the mini lift platform—reserved for the top-ranked trainee.
Li Yuan earned the solo 15-second ending clip, which might not sound impressive, but when you consider that most A-group members only got about one second of screen time, it made a huge difference.
Being the center at the start and having that much spotlight—it was practically the show's way of saying, "This one's our favorite."
Jiang Yuqi made sure to maintain her best condition during recording. When the camera panned to her, she seized the opportunity and showcased the wink she'd trained for.
She hadn't expected that just one second of that wink would turn her into the dark horse of the competition—second only to Li Yuan.
That one-second GIF was saved by countless fans and became the go-to "signature image" when recommending her to new fans.