Inside the brightly lit bathroom, Lu Qingli propped her hands on the edge of the mirror. She wet a wet wipe with cool water and gently rubbed her temples.
She let out a soft sigh and looked at herself in the mirror, her hair was still slightly disheveled.
Recalling everything that had happened on the rooftop moments ago, a flush of blush crept onto her earlobes once more.
She had actually been marked by such a young Alpha. Even if it was only a temporary marking, it was enough to make her feel vexed for a few seconds whenever she thought back to it at night.
“How improper of me…”
She sighed softly, pulled out her compact mirror to touch up her light makeup, and used powder to conceal the lingering flush on her face.
After tidying up, she turned around and left.
Up next was her press conference.
Inside the conference room, rows of cameras were pointed squarely at the front seats, with stage lights dimmed/focused to a dazzling intensity.
Reporters from various media outlets were fully prepared, holding microphones and eagerly awaiting Lu Qingli’s arrival, hoping either for an admission of guilt and an apology, or a dramatic plot twist, to add a hot angle to their exclusive coverage.
Under the gaze of the crowd, the blonde beauty who gathered all eyes upon herself finally walked slowly into the grand conference room.
Camera flashes flickered at near frame by frame speeds, accompanied by the endless clicking of shutters.
“Miss Lu, regarding the 90% overlap between your original song and Miss Ling’s, do you have any explanation?”
“Miss Lu, rumors say you and Miss Ling were under the same mentor in the past. Is that true?”
“Miss Lu…”
Before she could even take her seat, she was drowned in a wave of questions. Her ears felt as if they had been thrown into a pot of boiling water.
At the furthest end of the conference room, Gu Shuyun was watching anxiously, her eyes wide with concern.
Standing beside her was a tall girl dressed in a tracksuit, wearing a baseball cap and a face mask.
“Wuu wuu, my dear Li-bao…” Watching Lu Qingli being aggressively questioned by the media, Gu Shuyun murmured with a heart wrenching expression.
Seeing her former idol suddenly become the center of public attention, and under such a complicated situation, Gu Shuyun’s dusty “mother-fan” instinct flared back to life as she vowed to defend her former idol’s honor at all costs.
The tall girl beside her remained silent. Beneath the shadow of her hat’s brim, her bright, dark eyes quietly observed everything unfolding.
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Lu Qingli adjusted her microphone with her fair fingers, and the room instantly fell silent.
Her clear, cold voice instantly resonated across the entire conference room, allowing everyone present to hear her clearly.
“Regarding the recent rumors and the allegations that my original composition, Crying Before the Snowy Night, plagiarized another work, I have nothing to prove in my defense.”
Nothing to prove in her defense.
An uproar erupted across the floor.
“Then do you mean the song was indeed plagiarized?” a bold reporter shouted out.
Immediately following that, discussions, accusations, and verbal abuse filled the entire conference room at once.
Lu Qingli lowered her eyes, looking at the dense crowd below the stage.
Her gaze lingered for a moment on that low-key yet striking figure standing at the very back of the crowd.
Faintly, her intuition told her that the person was looking back at her too.
Lu Qingli’s smooth face looked bright and translucent under the flashing lights. Where the cameras couldn’t capture, she clenched her fists slightly, squeezing away the beads of cold sweat on her palms.
She held the microphone and continued.
“This reporter may have misunderstood my point. What I meant to say is… a 10-point exam paper cannot be copied into a full-score answer.”
“Snowy Night is indeed my original composition, and I have manuscript drafts from years ago to prove it. In my view, Tears is merely a song created by copying the popular melodies of that time, and there is no tragedy in it being ‘shelved’ as Ling Youyi claims.”
Another uproar broke out below the stage.
The bold reporter who had asked the question a moment ago was still basking in triumph one second, only to be left thoroughly stunned and burned to a crisp by this statement the next second.
She… she…!
Not only did she refuse to explain, but she even called the other party’s work trash!
“But the song has a 90% overlap rate! How do you explain that?!” the reporter shouted, red-faced and flustered.
“Regarding that matter, please direct your questions to the person who brought the allegations,” Lu Qingli answered composedly, before adding:
“The reason everyone cares so much about whether Snowy Night was plagiarized is because you believe it represents the pinnacle of my career. However, following this, I will create a piece even better than Snowy Night.”
Hearing those words, the silent figure in the distance shook her head helplessly. But when she raised her head to look again, she found that the person on stage happened to be looking over at her from afar.
Across a room filled with hundreds of people, their gazes briefly met.
“Are you really that confident?” other reporters below the stage shouted out, unable to hold back upon hearing such arrogant words.
Everyone knew that Crying Before the Snowy Night was performed by the Pop Queen Ning Ru. Now that Ning Ru had retired, no matter how exceptional a new composition was, who could possibly sing it better than her?
Lu Qingli gripped the microphone tightly. Her deep eyes seemed to hold a vast world of their own as she spoke with unwavering determination. “I am extremely confident, because my next collaborator is…”
Pausing at this point, she stopped briefly. Everyone below the stage held their breath in tension, waiting for her to reveal the answer.
“…Luo Xuan.”
The crowd below erupted, and countless viewers watching the live stream opened their mouths in sheer shock.
What kind of dream collaboration was this? That young idol was going to work with Lu Qingli?
Noisy chatter broke out again below the stage.
“Luo Xuan’s singing ability isn’t even half of Ning Ru’s, right?”
“It’s about popularity boosting the song, Luo Xuan is far more famous than Ning Ru right now.”
“What even counts as ‘better’… the quality or the stream count?”
“Woah, really?!” Gu Shuyun turned to look at the person beside her, excitedly tugging on her sleeve.
“Shh!”
At the person’s sharp glance, Gu Shuyun sheepishly released her grip. “Oh, sorry.”
“Is it really true though?”
Luo Xuan pressed a hand to her forehead in exasperation, this girl really couldn’t keep a secret.
Before the media could spot her, she slipped out through the back door of the conference room.
What she didn’t know was that when Lu Qingli looked toward the corner and realized a certain someone had already left, the light in her eyes dimmed slightly.
*
“You really dare to say that… Better than Senior Ning Ru’s performance of Snowy Night?”
Luo Xuan had already changed out of her tracksuit back into her khaki miniskirt. Crossing her slender legs, she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, looking at Lu Qingli.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you say you believed in me?” Lu Qingli sat by the table, nonchalantly picking up a teacup to take a sip.
“I did say that, but I didn’t mean it like this.”
Luo Xuan knitted her willow-leaf eyebrows slightly, standing up straight as she said, “You raised their expectations way too high. That only makes it harder to clear yourself of the plagiarism accusation.”
Lu Qingli’s hand paused as she set down her teacup. So that was what she meant.
She had assumed Luo Xuan would blame her for boasting about something she couldn’t achieve, making herself a laughingstock in the end.
Thinking of this, Lu Qingli felt a strange sensation flicker in her heart. This young Alpha was surprisingly thoughtful of others.
Her lips curved into a faint smile, her tone unusually gentle: “It was a false accusation to begin with, so why worry about whether it can be cleared? Besides…”
Luo Xuan walked over and sat down beside her, tucking a strand of stray hair behind her ear. Her dark eyes sparkled with an extraordinary charm as she looked at her intently. “Besides what?”
“Besides, I really am that confident,” Lu Qingli said with self-assurance, an indisputable pride dwelling in the depths of her cool eyes.
No matter how much others slandered her, she was still a genuine gold-medal composer. The title of piano genius wasn’t just for show.
Lu Qingli watched Luo Xuan sitting in front of her, twirling her long hair. The khaki skirt accentuated her superior body curves.
She recalled how this person, dressed in a grey tracksuit, had quietly snuck into her press conference earlier, and her lips curled upward uncontrollably.
“This outfit looks much better.”
She reached out and patted the back of Luo Xuan’s hand, their two soft, jade-like hands briefly overlapped.
“Tch, ”
The praised girl pulled back her hand, which still retained the warmth of the other woman’s touch, and rested her cheek on her palm, saying with a hint of pride: “I look good in whatever I wear.”
Seeing the person in front of her practically holding her tail high in the air, Lu Qingli couldn’t help but chuckle.
This morning, she had arrived at the company with a heavy heart, and after being given the cold shoulder by management, her heart had turned completely to ash. Yet now, staying beside Luo Xuan, she felt an unexpected sense of comfort.
Seeing the other woman looking at her with such a tender expression, the young idol suddenly felt her ears burn hot.
However, her usual trick was to mask embarrassment with playfulness. Thus, she intentionally leaned in close and said:
“What is it? Smitten by me?”
Their breaths intertwined. Separated only by the subtle distance of tilting a head up or down, the two leaned so close that Luo Xuan could even smell the faint rose scent on the other woman.
This was a game where whoever backed down first lost.
Looking at the flawless face suddenly magnified right in front of her, along with that calm and composed smile, Lu Qingli suddenly felt challenged by this Alpha younger than herself.
Determined to uphold her dignity as the older one, she ensured the back of her head wouldn’t retreat even a single millimeter.
Lu Qingli nodded slightly and replied, “A little bit, yeah.”
In the end, Luo Xuan was still younger. Even a perfect idol could reveal a bit of composure loss when out of the spotlight…
So her backing away right now was merely a strategic retreat, or so the young Alpha told herself.
“Hmph, I knew it.”
The loser retreated to the back of the chair, putting on a calm front to boast.
However, her bright red ears had already declared her defeat in this game.
Under the evening lights, dark golden hair shimmered with faint glints of silver-white. As the winner of this silent confrontation, Lu Qingli did not feel any gloating satisfaction about getting back at her for the awkwardness on the rooftop earlier.
She simply looked at Luo Xuan with a faint smile playing on her lips, a gentle warmth, one she hadn’t even noticed herself, rippling through her eyes.
A kid is a kid after all. If you suggest owing nothing to each other, she gets angry and holds onto you, but if you draw just a little closer, she lets down her guard with you.
Now… What if she were to tempt her just a little bit more?
*
Inside a dim room, musical instruments were packed closely along one side. Sheet music and records were strewn all over the floor, while a computer screen shone with a glaring white light.
“What is wrong with you? Didn’t you say the evidence was solid this time and that we could definitely ruin Lu Qingli?”
The voice coming from the other end of the phone was arrogant and cold.
The hand holding the phone trembled uncontrollably. With a shaking voice, the woman forced the words out of her throat with great difficulty: “I didn’t expect her to clear her name like this…”
“Why didn’t you expect it? You should have known she wouldn’t just admit to it!” The voice sounded as if it came from hell, bone-chillingly cold.
“But I don’t know why Luo Xuan suddenly agreed to collaborate with her… They had no connection before this at all…”
The woman spoke haltingly, accidentally knocking over a cup beside her hand and spilling water across the desk. “Now the media has shifted their attention to me. Think of a way to help me…”
“Hmph, you don’t need to meddle in this matter anymore.” The voice on the phone paused for a moment before continuing, “Pack your things and get lost abroad to lay low.”
“Then what about the expenses…?”
Hearing the woman’s question, the voice on the other end flared with clear anger: “You’ve already caused me enough trouble! Do you hear me, Ling Youyi?!”
“Yes, yes, I’m sorry.” Ling Youyi apologized frantically, bowing several times to the empty air.
“Now that this matter has started, it won’t end so easily.” The person let out a contemptuous laugh, then muttered sinisterly. “…Luo Xuan.”