Li Yang’s face remained expressionless.
“The other two outfits are completely unusable.”
She carefully examined the long white cheongsam in her hands.
“The sleeves of this cheongsam have been cut off, and the zipper at the back has been torn apart.”
The logistics staff urged her.
“Captain Li, this is your jasmine prop for the performance. You only have three minutes left to prepare—you need to change immediately.”
Jiang Xue took the artificial flowers, pacing anxiously.
“Yangyang, what do we do?”
Li Yang thought for a moment, then spoke decisively.
“Sister Li, please get me a pair of scissors, and lend me your brooch.”
“Wang Xiaomei, quickly bring me some scissors.”
Then she turned to Jiang Xue.
“Luckily, the first performance was the water-sleeve dance! Xiaoxue, where’s the red dress I changed out of? They probably didn’t think to destroy something already used.”
Jiang Xue hurried to search the chair. Sure enough, the red dress was intact.
“Yangyang, here—it’s fine.”
By then, Li Yang had already cut off the sleeves of the cheongsam and changed into it.
“Sister Li, please use the brooch to secure the fabric at the back of my neck.”
“Th-this… will this work?”
Chen Lili’s hands trembled. She was terrified that Li Yang might accidentally expose herself in front of thousands of people…
“There’s no time—hurry.”
Chen Lili gritted her teeth and pinned the torn fabric near the zipper together, carefully checking it afterward.
“B-but Li Yang, your entire back is exposed. This kind of situation is absolutely not allowed in the military—it’s a serious issue of discipline.”
“It’s fine.”
Li Yang still had the composure to reassure her, showing just how steady she was.
She took the red dress from Jiang Xue and, without hesitation, cut off the two water sleeves.
“Yangyang, that dress was rented at a high price!”
Jiang Xue almost screamed.
Chen Lili took a deep breath. “It’s fine, the troupe will cover it.”
In a few swift moves, Li Yang used hair ties to shape the sleeves into small flower-like knots.
Then she shook out the fabric, adjusted it this way and that, instantly transforming the sleeves into a draped back covering.
The remaining white silk flowed through her arms and rested gracefully at her waist.
“Wow!”
“So beautiful! Yangyang, you’re amazing. Now you don’t have to worry about exposure.”
Chen Lili finally let out a small sigh of relief.
Thinking ahead, Li Yang instructed Jiang Xue:
“Take good care of this red dress. The next performance depends on it.”
Jiang Xue nodded seriously, almost ready to swear an oath.
When Li Yang stepped onto the stage, she realized just how irredeemably malicious some people could be.
After waiting for a while with no accompaniment starting, she saw Li Meng gesturing anxiously from below the stage.
Li Yang took a deep breath—she couldn’t wait any longer. She decided to sing a cappella.
But…
When she opened her mouth, the standing microphone produced no sound.
Lowering her head slightly, she quickly checked and found that the microphone’s power cable had been unplugged!
There was no way she could step off stage now to fix it. That would be a major performance accident.
The audience wouldn’t understand delays at such an important event—and this was exactly what those hiding in the shadows wanted: to see her make a fool of herself.
Li Yang had always had smooth sailing. This was the first time she faced such a disastrous situation.
Without thinking, she knew Li Yao was behind it.
For a moment, anger surged through her—her mind filled with thoughts of everything falling apart…
Then suddenly, she remembered something.
She still had her system!
She quickly forced herself to calm down and pulled up the points redemption interface in her mind.
A portable amplifier—commonly used by teachers, known as a “little bee.”
She hadn’t expected the system store to be so comprehensive, like an online marketplace—almost anything could be found there.
And indeed, there was an amplifier available.
But the system was expensive. She only had 7,000 points, and ten points equaled one yuan.
The best long-lasting, high-volume amplifier cost 5,000 points!
Li Yang glanced at the audience—some were already sensing something was wrong.
The venue was outdoors; without sufficient volume, it would be useless.
She stomped her foot slightly and made her decision.
Buy it!
Luckily, she was holding a bouquet of prop flowers. Otherwise, suddenly producing a strange electronic device would draw suspicion.
She had already learned how to use the amplifier from the system interface.
Using the bouquet as cover, she turned it on and discreetly clipped the tiny microphone to her chest.
Then she naturally waved to the audience, smiling as she stepped forward to the front of the stage.
The next moment, her melodious voice rang out—without any accompaniment.
“What a beautiful jasmine flower~”
The audience was instantly captivated by her singing. Gradually, people began humming along unconsciously.
Li Chengyun watched the radiant figure on stage, a faint smile appearing on his lips.
At that moment, Li Yang was the pure and beautiful jasmine flower in his heart.
Backstage, Jiang Xue and Chen Lili were nearly frightened to death by the series of unexpected incidents. During the final rehearsal that morning, both the audio and microphone had been fine.
Fortunately, the microphone eventually produced sound again. Otherwise, the art troupe’s first appearance would have ended in disaster.
They had just punished the troublemaking female soldiers, and if their own performance failed, it would have been embarrassing.
Luckily, Li Yang held the stage. The director’s choice had indeed been correct.
Meanwhile, Li Yao, Cheng Miaoxin, and the others backstage looked grim.
Li Mei had secretly checked earlier—Li Yang had cleverly altered the damaged cheongsam…
But as for the microphone—
Cheng Miaoxin whispered sharply, “Li Yao, what’s going on? Why does the microphone sound even louder now?”
Li Yao frowned, equally confused.
“I clearly took advantage of the crowd to adjust it. I unplugged the cable and threw it off the stage…”
“Enough. She still has two more performances. It’s too late to fix the costumes now. Let her show off a little longer.”
Cheng Miaoxin suppressed her frustration, waiting to see what would happen next.
After finishing the song, Li Yang stored the amplifier back into the system’s storage space, then swayed her slender waist as she returned backstage.
“Sister Li, please check carefully. The broken accompaniment wasn’t an accident. When I went on stage, someone had tampered with the microphone as well.”