Xie Shiyun looked at Su Yuqing’s serious expression and couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth.
Lu Minglan smiled gracefully. “Miss Su, you must be joking. Our rehearsal went quite well. After all, Teacher Xie, Teacher Cheng, and I all have stage experience.”
Was she implying something?
Su Yuqing’s smile deepened. “Is that so? From Teacher Xie’s expression earlier, I thought something had gone wrong. I’m glad it didn’t.”
“…” Could disappointment be this obvious?
“How could that be? Miss Su must have misread it.”
“Yes, I must have misread it.” Su Yuqing nodded.
Lu Minglan choked, feeling as if she had punched cotton—neither here nor there.
Before she could say anything more, Su Yuqing and the other two had already left.
“Arrogant,” Xie Shiyun muttered disdainfully.
Lu Minglan’s smile remained bright, but her eyes were unreadable.
In the practice room, Gu Zhan sat on the floor, looking at Su Yuqing with a complicated expression. “Su Yuqing, even though our rehearsal went okay, could you tone down the arrogance a bit?”
What if something went wrong during the actual performance?
Their practice room had an icy floor, making it difficult to arrange positions and limiting their dance moves.
Especially since Gu Zhan was injured, they had put in extra effort during the rehearsal, treating it as their first systematic practice.
The results were decent.
“But it really was good,” Su Yuqing said, lifting her eyelids slightly.
Blame the System.
Gu Zhan paused, speechless, and picked up the lyrics beside him to continue memorizing.
The song was mostly in English, making it hard to remember.
“Have some water.” He Suyan brought two bottles of water and handed one to Su Yuqing.
“I’ve already sent Fu Jin to Huatai to negotiate the contract. Welcome to Chengtian.”
Su Yuqing paused. The practice room footage would take two or three days to edit, and he had deliberately chosen this moment to mention it.
“Please take care of me from now on,” she replied with a radiant smile.
Chengtian was the entertainment company under the Chengtian Group, founded by He Suyan himself.
Beside them, Gu Zhan looked confused. “What are you two talking about?”
“Well, exactly what you’re thinking,” Su Yuqing tilted her head.
“He Shen…”
He Suyan glanced at him. “Your company is quite good.”
So don’t even think about Chengtian.
Gu Zhan immediately deflated, looking pitiful.
…
At six o’clock, the show’s styling team arrived in the lounge. The thirty-one artists were divided into seven teams.
Three teams of three, three teams of five, and one team of seven.
Seven lounges.
Outside the venue, audience members who had paid a high price for live-streaming tickets lined up to enter.
There were a thousand audience members in total, with voting divided into on-site voting and online voting.
On-site voting was for selecting the most beloved performer, while online voting was for the least beloved.
Truly, Director Lin was a master of chaos.
In Lounge No. 1, where Su Chengxi and Jiang Chenan’s team was located—since they had missed the grouping, they had directly joined an existing three-person team.
That was Xia Chuwei’s team.
“Miss,” Su Chengxi’s assistant entered and subtly nodded to her.
Su Chengxi, who was getting her makeup done, curled her lips into a smile.
“Teacher Su, your skin is so flawless,” Xia Chuwei, who was sitting nearby, looked at Su Chengxi with envy.
This comment made Su Chengxi secretly proud.
She had paid a high price for this smooth, delicate skin.
“Yours isn’t bad either,” she replied with a modest smile.
Xia Chuwei cupped her face. “It’s nowhere near as good as yours, Teacher Su. Honestly, even Su Yuqing can’t compare to you.”
Su Chengxi’s brows furrowed almost imperceptibly—why did those words sound so awkward?
She offered a perfunctory smile and didn’t answer further.
Seeing this, Xia Chuwei felt slightly annoyed. She really didn’t know how to talk.
“Teacher He, the performance outfits for the three of you have arrived.” In dressing room number five, the show’s styling team walked in.
Since their performance order was later, their styling was also done later.
Speaking of the performance order, Director Lin was quite casual about it—it was based on the dressing room numbers they chose.
Su Yuqing’s group happened to be number five.
“Mm, thank you for your hard work.” He Suyan nodded.
Four people entered in total—two men and two women, all well-known stylists in the industry.
Their group’s performance outfits were silver-toned, representing light. Su Yuqing’s set was a silver short dress with thin straps, a fitted waist design, and a thumb-width cutout around the waist.
This was a dress most people wouldn’t dare to try, as it would expose every flaw in one’s figure.
“Miss Su, I’ll do your styling.” One of the female stylists walked over to Su Yuqing and said with a smile.
Her attitude showed nothing unusual, but Su Yuqing had an intuition that something was off.
She nodded calmly, observing the person in front of her.
“System, is this person going to harm me?” she asked inwardly.
“Host, I don’t…”
“The Truth System can’t lie.” Su Yuqing casually remarked.
“…”
After a moment of stalemate, the mechanical voice grew even stiffer. “Yes.”
A flicker of amusement flashed in Su Yuqing’s eyes—she now had an idea.
A while later, she tilted her head to look at herself in the mirror, her lips twitching slightly. “Teacher, what’s the concept behind this styling?”
He Suyan and Gu Zhan hadn’t paid much attention before, but upon hearing her words, they turned to look and burst out laughing.
Gu Zhan couldn’t hold back a snort. “Cough, this teacher’s styling is… truly unique!”
Su Yuqing’s originally fair and rosy face had turned ghostly pale. Her eyebrows were styled into the trendy Korean-style flat brows from a couple of years ago, slanting sharply toward her temples like two knives. The eyeliner at the corners of her eyes was elongated, adding to the harshness.
If she were to add fiery red lipstick, she’d look exactly like a female ghost who had just eaten a child!
Under their scrutiny, the stylist’s expression stiffened slightly, but she quickly adjusted. “Miss Su has always maintained a pure and innocent image since her debut. Changing it up for this stage might give the audience a fresh impression.”
In the past, Su Yuqing had imitated Su Chengxi in both attire and behavior.
While Su Chengxi marketed herself as an ice-cold, pure “jade maiden,” Su Yuqing was also a fresh-faced starlet.
But her imitation fell flat, earning her ridicule from netizens as a poor copycat and turning her into Su Chengxi’s foil.
“Do you think this makeup matches the dress?” Su Yuqing casually raised an eyebrow, leaning back in her chair and tapping her forehead with a finger, exuding elegance.
The stylists were taken aback, surprised by Su Yuqing’s poise and grace.
“To create a visual impact, naturally…”
“I seriously doubt your professionalism.” Su Yuqing’s expression cooled slightly, unwilling to listen to further excuses. “How much did Su Chengxi pay you?”
“Miss Su must be joking.” The stylist’s expression shifted.
“Is that so?”
“We request a change of styling team.” He Suyan glanced at the stylist, frowned, and directly addressed the follow-up PD.
The other three stylists’ expressions changed simultaneously.
“If word gets out that they were replaced by He Shen, they might as well quit the industry.”
“Teacher He…”
The woman also panicked a little, “Teacher He, Miss Su is exaggerating. I haven’t finished the styling yet. Once it’s done, you’ll see the overall effect. She’s just too impatient…”