I Became the Top Competitor in a Talent Show Novel - Chapter 44.2

This last rule was naturally directed at Song Jiaqi.

As soon as Meng Limin left, Song Jiaqi rummaged through cabinets and drawers, finally pulling out a bottle of red wine from the innermost cupboard in the kitchen.

Chi Meng: “…”

She really is the rebellious teenager.

She took a stemmed glass for herself, placed it on the table, and looked at Song Jiaqi with anticipation.

Friend, let’s drink together!

But Song Jiaqi merely glanced at her, confiscated Chi Meng’s stemmed glass, took a bottle of juice from the fridge, and handed it to her. “Minors are forbidden from drinking.”

Chi Meng: “I’m your Jie (older sister).”

Song Jiaqi smiled slightly. “Minors in physiological age are forbidden from drinking.”

Chi Meng was speechless. After thinking for a moment, she said, “I’m going out for a bit to buy a phone and a laptop. I’ll also check if there are any dance studios nearby.”

The ground floor of this building had various upscale clubs, with a gym, yoga, and Pilates facilities available. Given the housing prices here, Chi Meng decided to expand her search area a bit.

Song Jiaqi poured the red wine into a decanter and looked at Chi Meng in surprise. “You’re going to practice dancing even on your break?”

After asking, she realized: This is Chi Meng.

This is Chi Meng!

Chi Meng said calmly, “I need to catch up, learn some basic skills.”

In that case, Song Jiaqi was direct. “Go to Rensing and practice with the newly signed trainees.” Her residence was very close to the Rensing building; she could see the company’s location from the window.

Chi Meng didn’t stand on ceremony. With only a week’s time, it was better to accept Song Jiaqi’s help directly than to waste time looking for dance studios with uncertain teaching environments and quality.

“Then you have to come with me. I’ll be shy by myself,” Chi Meng said with a sweet smile. “Nervous, scared!”

Song Jiaqi suddenly looked up, as if she could see the sky through the roof. Why isn’t there any thunder, God?

Why is it such a sunny day today?

A sunny day was good; a sunny day meant they could ride the bike out. Chi Meng borrowed a vase from Song Jiaqi, arranged the flowers given by the fans, and placed them on the table. Song Jiaqi’s house wasn’t desolate; it was full of life, and with the fresh flowers, it didn’t look like the owner hadn’t been back for half a month.

“My parents are busy with work and rarely come home,” Song Jiaqi said. “Feel free to stay. You shouldn’t run into them.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll be very relieved,” Chi Meng said gently. She was about to leave when Song Jiaqi followed her and started changing her shoes too.

Chi Meng turned around, hiding the surprise in her eyes. She smiled, put on her white baseball cap, and said, “I thought about it, it’s so hot outside, let’s take a taxi instead.”

“Fine,” Song Jiaqi didn’t object.

The two were right in the middle of a business district with many shopping malls nearby. They took a taxi to the closest one. Chi Meng, at this age, wore the genius watch, worked multiple jobs, and her family… Song Jiaqi assumed she would buy an affordable, durable, and cost-effective mobile phone brand, and was already figuring out an excuse to pay the bill. To her surprise, after getting out of the car, Chi Meng went straight to a certain brand’s flagship store, walked in, and immediately selected the latest model with high-end specs for both a phone and a laptop.

“I need to use it for work and video editing, so I need to buy a good one,” Chi Meng explained to Song Jiaqi. And for a laptop, good specs certainly wouldn’t come cheap.

Song Jiaqi: ?

Work? Video editing?

Puzzled, she took out her phone, ready to pay. Chi Meng, catching the movement out of the corner of her eye, reached out and held Song Jiaqi’s wrist, smiling at the sales assistant. “Card, please.”

She took out her wallet and pulled out a card.

China Construction Bank Savings Card.

Song Jiaqi: “…”

The sales assistant had seen many people pay with credit cards, but rarely with a savings card, and somewhat curiously had Chi Meng swipe the card and enter her password.

Song Jiaqi frowned. She didn’t think Chi Meng was the type to spend extravagantly, but still felt the need to remind her, “You still have university ahead of you.”

Putting the debut aside, she definitely had to go to university, and tuition and living expenses cost money.

“Did you forget? I have a guaranteed spot,” Chi Meng said, smiling at Song Jiaqi. “The terms of my contract with J University, in addition to a full scholarship, also waive my tuition and other miscellaneous fees, and provide a fixed allowance for living expenses every semester.”

In other words, J University was paying her to study there.

Song Jiaqi was silent for a long time, watching the girl in the cap sit on a stool, happily taking the SIM card out of her watch and putting it into the new phone. The staff next to her were setting up the laptop. Chi Meng was in no hurry, using the store’s Wi-Fi to organize the software on her phone, thoroughly uninstalling all the unnecessary apps.

“Oh, right, I almost forgot,” Chi Meng muttered, pulling her mask down to below her lips. She opened the camera, turned her side toward Song Jiaqi, and smiled at the girl in the reflection. “Let’s take a photo together!”

The girl who had been silent until now looked over. Chi Meng leaned back a little, pressing close to Song Jiaqi. They both looked at the camera.

Song Jiaqi subconsciously curved the corners of her mouth.

Click.

In the photo, the two girls wearing black and white caps smiled brightly. Opposite them, the sales assistant setting up Chi Meng’s computer looked up. The face of the girl who had been covering her features since entering the store came into view. His eyes widened, showing astonishment. Before he could speak, the girl in the black cap looked over, put on her mask, and the smile in her eyes vanished.

“It’s all set up, please have a look,” the sales assistant cleared his throat, his attitude even more enthusiastic than before. He took out his phone and said, “You can add me on WeChat. If you have any questions when you get back, you can ask me directly.”

“No need,” Song Jiaqi said. Her voice was as cold as her gaze. She jumped off the stool and said, “Isn’t it set up? Let’s go. I’m hungry.”

“Mm, thank you for coming with me, Qiqi. How about I treat you to a meal? What do you want to eat?” Chi Meng put her purchases into bags and kept pace with Song Jiaqi.

“Barbecue?”

“Haha, do you want to eat Wang Family Barbecue? They don’t set up their stall at this hour. Let’s go to the supermarket and buy pre-marinated ingredients and I’ll grill them for you when we get back. Speaking of which, barbecue with red wine, that sounds fun…”

The two talked as they disappeared out the door.

On social media, Star’s Journey fans immediately discovered that the trainees who had just finished their first public performance were back to work! They posted promotional photos, videos, and other content on the platform to solicit votes.

It was the day after the performance. On the entertainment hot search, hashtags like #Star’sJourneyFirstPerformance#, #Star’sJourneyXueWeiran#, and #Star’sJourneyShenZhu# were still floating near the top. But above them were the even hotter #Star’sJourneyGuaranteedSpot#, #Star’sJourneyChiMengJUniversity#, and #ChiStudentWhoTestedPrettyWell#. Since the performance started last night until now, the heat has not subsided, only intensified. Clicking on them showed various content interspersed with #IGotAGuaranteedSpot#, #GuaranteedSpotToJUniversity#, #TestedPrettyWell#, and #ChiMengHighNote#.

Coinciding with the release of college entrance exam scores and the confirmed top scorer status by the No. 1 High School, combined with her excellent performance on stage, this was a sudden burst of genuine, unadulterated popularity. Some companies even tried to bring Chi Meng’s popularity down, but the hashtags, though fluctuating, remained firmly on the hot search, making many people envious.

Fans who were drawn to the show and invested in Chi Meng’s stock sat in the main square, listening to No. 1 High School students recount stories of Sister Meng’s past. Her glorious achievements as a competition gold medalist, science genius, and “King of Math and Physics” were quickly overshadowed by the truly glorious deeds of Chi Meng wielding a spatula, Chi Meng’s little barbecue stall, and more!

A night later, who didn’t know that the barbecue stall Chi Meng used to run had officially been renamed Top Scorer Barbecue!

There were also stories about Sister Meng trying to skip class and wandering around the school, leading her teachers to mistakenly believe she was under too much psychological pressure. Four principals of No. 1 High School personally intervened, chatting with Sister Meng and accompanying her for a walk to relax. In the end, the five of them sat by the artificial lake, fishing and discussing ancient and modern history. The result was that after school, Sister Meng calmly went back to selling grilled skewers, while the four old principals, having different favorite dynasties’ rulers, passionately debated by the artificial lake until evening self-study, finally heading home with legs covered in mosquito bites when they couldn’t take the insect bites anymore.

And that Chi Meng was not the child of a wealthy family or the daughter of a large company boss, as rumored online. Sister Meng’s parents passed away when she was very young.

The student who revealed this spoke casually, but the fans who saw the message were stunned for a long time, silently using other content to push it down.

Everyone’s spirits lifted when the news that Chi Meng had opened a Weibo account arrived, and they collectively shifted the battlefield.

The profile picture for the Weibo account named “Star’s Journey Chi Meng” was the blank default photo. The bio read: Love yourself first, study hard. The first post was the default template when the account opened. The second was Chi Meng’s own content.

Star’s Journey Chi Meng: Hello everyone, I’m Star’s Journey trainee Chi Meng. It’s a pleasure to meet you all! Thank you for the support! I will continue to work hard to be a qualified trainee. Please vote for me! Photo photo.

In the first photo, on a clean tabletop, the sunflowers and pink roses in the vase were blooming beautifully. Beneath the petals, colorful sticky notes were fanned out like a small rainbow, with the text filled with love and support for Chi Meng.

In the second photo, under the bright light, the girl wearing a white baseball cap smiled sweetly at the camera and made a V-sign. Behind her, the girl wearing a black baseball cap had a bright face that showed a gentle smile never seen in the show.

Chi Meng and Song Jiaqi?

Before everyone could recover, breaking news came from the frontline reporters!

ALERT— The trailer for the second episode of Star’s Journey is live! Rumor has it that Chi Meng and Song Jiaqi got into a fight on the show! It was brutal! Everyone go watch!

Outside the screen, the fans holding their phones and watching the trailer fell silent. In the video, the two girls, who were clearly at odds, were rolling on the ground. Their expressions were unclear, but the atmosphere was clearly very bad!

Then, they looked at the photo Chi Meng had just posted.

Sweet smiles, super sweet smiles.

Everyone: ??

Cen Hongjie: Are you trying to undermine my show?!

Seeing that some darlings are discussing it, I’ll explain Chi Meng’s transmigration character background here: The system reconstructed her body based on her physical data from her previous life after transmigration. Others’ memories of her are also of her previous life’s experiences; it’s not a case of transmigrating into someone else’s body. It’s equivalent to moving everything from Chi Meng’s past life up to the point of transmigration, but starting a different life path after the transmigration point.

019 clenches its fists: 019 is very useful!

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