Chapter 41: Five and a Half Years of Practice

In the past, Gao Yun also brought his own meals to work, eating strictly calculated food. Depending on his training volume each day, the number of meals, total calorie count, and nutrient intake varied, but it generally ranged from four to five meals. Occasionally, when cravings struck, he would have extra snacks such as nuts, fruit, or yogurt.

Now that he had acquired the system, broken through his innate physical limitations, and possessed plenty of free time, Gao Yun intended to increase his training volume, raise his daily meal frequency and total intake, and switch to six meals a day. At the same time, he resolutely avoided all extra snacks outside the planned menu. Only in this way could he better break through his bodily attributes.

After the meal, Gao Yun returned to his bedroom and called Wang Xiaole. It took quite a while before the other end picked up.

"Hello? A-Yun?" Wang Xiaole's voice carried a heavy sense of drowsiness; it was obvious he was still asleep.

Indeed, yesterday, apart from Gao Yun, the other five guys had each consumed almost two whole crates of alcohol. They had a blast back then, but now, they were either sprawled across their beds sleeping like Wang Xiaole or had just woken up with pounding, dizzy heads.

Hearing the tone from the other side, Gao Yun knew what state he was in, so he kept it brief: "I'm going to continue learning guitar and vocals, until you have nothing left to teach me and I can study independently. When do you have time every day?"

With the remnants of drunkenness mixing with sleepiness, Wang Xiaole's brain was not entirely clear. He had no idea why Gao Yun suddenly wanted to learn these two things, but he still muttered vaguely, "Anytime. After nine in the morning and before five in the evening, during the music studio's opening hours—hell, I can teach you all day. Anything else?"

"Nothing. Go back to sleep. I'll come find you at the music studio at noon."

With that, Gao Yun hung up the phone, opened WeChat, and initiated a voice call with a contact named "LJ Dance Studio Boss Lili."

Lili's real name was Wang Lili, twenty-six years old, and a graduate student at a regular university in Hushi. Because of her long-term dancing, her figure was graceful and curvaceous. She had long, red, wavy hair, a sweet appearance, fair skin, and a confident, lively, and cheerful personality.

The LJ Dance Studio was founded by Wang Lili herself, focusing mainly on street dance and jazz. It wasn't very large, but the dance instructors had solid skills and taught with great dedication.

Many college students, middle and high school students in Hushi, as well as a small portion of office workers, practiced dancing at her studio.

Four years ago, when Gao Yun had just successfully lost weight and first started fitness training, he frequently went to LJ to learn dancing and even participated in a competition hosted by the studio. However, as time went on and work became increasingly busy, his visits grew fewer and fewer.

As for Wang Lili herself, she and Gao Yun shared a little backstory.

Back then, he had just successfully lost weight, had only been doing fitness for a few months, and his physique was still inferior to an ordinary person's. His hairstyle, clothing, and fashion sense were old-fashioned and outdated, his overall presence was thoroughly mediocre, and he had no idea how to pursue girls or date.

After entering the dance studio to learn street dance for two months, Gao Yun gradually developed a crush on Wang Lili, who possessed a striking appearance, a confident personality, and an aura full of charm.

Coincidentally on Valentine's Day that year, he bought a bouquet of flowers. When Wang Lili finished her dance class, he presented them, wished her a happy holiday, and confessed his feelings.

Wang Lili accepted them somewhat hesitatingly, but upon returning to school, she sent a lengthy WeChat message, the gist of which was: "I'm deeply moved, but I already have a boyfriend. Let's remain good friends."

In reality, Wang Lili was single. Even though Gao Yun was clueless about romantic relationships back then, he knew enough to scout the territory beforehand—the boyfriend was merely an excuse.

The core issue was simply that his personal value at the time was insufficient, and she looked down on him.

Secondly, when two people are still just ordinary friends, suddenly sending flowers or gifts to confess one's feelings is a very foolish approach.

Chasing girls and courting always requires open and covert strategies, making the false look true and the true look false.

Giving gifts not only signifies weakness and ingratiating behavior, but it also alerts the girl that you like her. She will instantly become guarded, unconsciously putting up layers of defense, which makes things extremely difficult for you.

As for a confession, it should only be carried out after two people have experienced a period of ambiguity, engaged in physical contact, and mutually confirmed each other's feelings.

Following that incident, Gao Yun happened to get busy with work, rarely visited the dance studio, and as the frequency of their meetings decreased, their relationship faded, and interactions on social media dropped virtually to zero.

It wasn't until the last two years, when Gao Yun underwent a dramatic image transformation through fitness, that interactions on their social feeds began to increase. The way she addressed him progressed from Gao Yun to A-Yun, then to Handsome Yun, and finally to the current...

"Hello, male god?"

The voice call connected, and Wang Lili's crisp and cheerful voice sounded: "What is it?"

"Can't I chat with you if there's nothing special?"

This teasing remark slipped out of Gao Yun's mouth almost subconsciously. The moment he finished speaking, he instantly felt a tinge of regret; this really wasn't something a person who had just made their relationship public should say.

It was purely a habit from being single for so long. Now that he had returned to a relationship, he hadn't yet had time to change his old speaking habits.

Saying that to other girls might be fine, but the key was that Wang Lili and he had that past episode, which could easily invite misunderstandings.

"...Haha." The other end of the line fell silent for two seconds before Wang Lili laughed. "Cut it out. Spit it out, I'm in the middle of washing my hair."

"Cough, I plan to continue learning street dance. What time are the classes now?"

Wang Lili's tone turned enthusiastic: "Great, you're welcome! The street dance class is from six to seven-thirty in the afternoon, and I'll be the instructor."

Gao Yun, however, replied, "I have to work out during that time slot, so my schedule doesn't align. Can it be moved earlier?"

Fitness training must be systematic and scientific; one cannot simply mess around blindly.

Previously, his training volume was once a day, with each session lasting under an hour and a half. Now, wanting to increase his training volume and improve himself more rapidly was not as simple as increasing the training time to two or three hours or raising the weight.

Simply prolonging training time and increasing weight would not result in proportional gains in strength and muscle; excessively long training durations and overly intense workouts would instead cause physical decline.

The most scientific and rapid training method for Gao Yun to achieve his fitness goals now was training twice a day, one hour per session, with a gap of at least nine hours between the two sessions to give the muscles adequate rest.

At the same time, the end time of the final workout of the day needed to be at least four hours away from bedtime; otherwise, going to sleep too soon after exercising, while the body's blood flow and other organs had not yet calmed down, would cause severe insomnia.

Thus, in this entire day's schedule, only the fitness time was unmovable and could not be altered by even a minute.

Wang Lili found it difficult: "The six o'clock time slot for street dance is when everyone has finished work and eaten dinner. If I move it earlier, they won't be able to make it."

"Why don't you push your fitness time a bit earlier? Train at four, and come right over after you're done."

Gao Yun ignored that suggestion. After pondering for a moment, he said, "From two to four every afternoon, you teach me privately until you have nothing left to teach and I can study on my own. I'll count those two hours as one session, priced at four hundred yuan per session. How does that sound?"

Wang Lili had already graduated with her master's degree and was now devoting all her energy to running the dance studio, with no conflicts in her schedule. Faced with the generous remuneration, she thought for two seconds and agreed, "Alright, which day are you starting?"

"Starting today."

Afterward, Gao Yun hung up the voice call and used his phone's notes app to draft a daily schedule for himself.

7:30—8:30: Wake up, wash up, eat the first meal.
9:00—10:00: Work out, eat the second meal.
10:30—13:00: Study guitar and singing, eat the third meal.
13:00—14:00: One-hour midday nap.
14:30—16:30: Learn street dance.
16:30—17:00: Rest, eat the fourth meal.
18:00—19:00: Work out, eat the fifth meal.
19:00—23:00: Protein powder supplement meal, guitar playing and singing for leisure, or video editing study.

Looking over this full day's itinerary, Gao Yun nodded in satisfaction.

With goals and plans.
Study, exercise.
Forge ahead! Let's go!

Upon closer inspection, Gao Yun realized that what he was learning—singing, street dance, guitar, and various skills related to artistic and musical performance—gave him a subtle, sudden realization. A familiar line was recited by him with great dramatic flair: "Hello everyone, I am Gao Yun, an independent trainee with a practice duration of five and a half years, and I love singing, dancing, rapping, and fitness."

"Yi giao wo li giao~ giao~, I'm making my debut tomorrow! Be your own idol! Never worship anyone! giao~ yo-ho!"

Asking for votes! Deep thanks to everyone for your support!!
(End of this chapter)