The Fake Daughter is a Max-Level Green Tea [Transmigrated into a Book] - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: The Opponent

Lu Chaoqing was slightly stunned by the question: “It’s my… sister’s.”

She didn’t know why, but changing “Jie Jie” (Older Sister) to “Jie” (Sister) felt a little awkward, yet “Jie Jie” carried a strange sense of ambiguity.

However, her teammate Jiang Qishuang didn’t dwell on the subtle difference in phrasing. She nodded and immediately returned to fooling around with the leader. Seeing Lu Chaoqing climb directly into bed without showering, Jiang Qishuang’s eyes lingered on her noticeably washed hair for a moment, then she smiled without commenting.

The next day, they had a new schedule to attend.

The entertainment industry model in this fictional world was somewhat similar to K-pop, where girl groups have performance stages after their debut. This time, they were going to participate in a music show. While the girls were laughing and chatting in the commercial van, Lu Chaoqing didn’t forget to send a few messages to Lin Chumu.

 Going to the Listening Stage performance today! [Image] — Sister, you must remember to watch my fancam.

She was wearing an outfit similar to the one in the MV shoot, with the same elements but modifications in certain areas, such as skirt length, to facilitate dancing. Small temporary tattoos were affixed to her slender arms, outlining the curves of her shoulders beneath the white gauze, already showing a slight, faint muscle definition.

This was the result of short-term training. Although it hadn’t reached the look Lu Chaoqing wanted, at least she no longer looked as frail as before.

Lu Chaoqing had never liked overly thin figures. While she didn’t want to look muscular, a slight coverage of thin muscle on the arms and legs was the most appealing shape. For instance, she admired and liked Lin Chumu’s physique.

The other person seemed busy; there was no response even after they arrived at the waiting room. Before entering the venue, Lu Chaoqing saw many fans gathering. Lightsticks were not allowed on the music stage, and the distance from the idols was relatively far, but Lu Chaoqing had made an arrangement with her Weibo fans on how to recognize each other. After making a specific gesture, they were met with a wave of cheers in response.

Lu Chaoqing stood on her toes, flashed a sweet smile, and gave a wink to the people responding to her, interacting with them until she walked inside.

Their performance order was fourth. Since each performance lasted for a significant time, they had to wait a while. As a matter of courtesy, unless they were the first group, they needed to greet the others. After drinking water and touching up their makeup in the waiting room, the girls immediately went out and knocked on the doors of each waiting room in turn.

The first two were the girl group “TVE,” which debuted a year ago, and “PG,” which debuted a few months ago. The former was known as an all-Jie Jie group, with members who were either cool and fierce or followed the Hong Kong style. The youngest was 23, but they were surprisingly easy to talk to and completely unpretentious.

The girls from PG kept urging the noticeably shy Ji You not to be nervous, hugging her arm and signaling her to relax. The atmosphere in the first two rooms was clearly good. However, when they pushed open the third door, the people inside, who had been laughing loudly, unanimously stopped.

Meeting their slightly awkward and surprised gazes, the leader Chen Li seemed to have realized something and smiled first: “Good morning. We came to pay a visit. Hope we’re not unwelcome?”

“We wouldn’t say unwelcome…” The leader with dyed blonde hair fiddled with her ear stud, her smile somewhat forced. “Your album’s initial sales are quite good, better than I expected. Even WU back then didn’t exceed 250,000.”

A tall girl sitting next to the leader immediately scoffed the moment she finished speaking: “I wonder if those numbers are inflated?”

At these words, everyone’s expressions changed simultaneously.

Typically, people would only express jealousy privately or in a passive-aggressive manner. Chen Li hadn’t expected someone to be so direct, immediately accusing them of an unwarranted crime. The short-tempered Yao Xichen immediately flared up. Ignoring Jiang Qishuang’s gentle tugging on her sleeve, she rushed forward: “What do you mean by that? Are you so jealous because your initial sales can’t compare? Even the reincarnation of the Lemon Queen would bow down to you. Should we let our fans see how you behave?”

The initial release sales of Against the Wind reached 270,000 on the first day, a number that was unprecedented in recent years. It immediately trended on the hot search the next day, a glorious achievement for a girl group. The reason everyone was so happy yesterday was precisely because of the sales, but they had also anticipated that this result would make them targets of jealousy. They just didn’t expect it to happen so directly.

“Ah, I’m just guessing. I didn’t say you definitely inflated the numbers. Are you so eager to claim responsibility because you have a guilty conscience?” The tall girl jumped up from the sofa, looking down at Yao Xichen, who was nearly half a head shorter than her. “What, you got hit where it hurts and now you’re jumping mad?”

“Bingbing, take it easy. What if they are Miss Lin Chumu’s people? Miss Lin is not that easy to deal with. Aren’t they the new girl group launched in collaboration with MT by Miss Lin? It’s hard to say if they aren’t her people.”

The girl with flaxen, short curly hair chuckled. In this place where no cameras were installed, her gaze towards the girls was full of sharpness.

Lu Chaoqing, who had been standing at the back of the team and did not want to waste words with these people, suddenly heard Lin Chumu’s name and instinctively stepped forward: “What do you mean, Miss Lin’s people?”

“Still pretending? People at your MT wouldn’t be unaware of Miss Lin’s past in keeping ‘canaries,’ and a female one at that…” The curly-haired girl’s gaze fell on Lu Chaoqing, and the rest of what she was about to say suddenly stopped. She switched to a passive-aggressive tone, “Oh, the little sister is here. Do you still need to ask me?”

Lu Chaoqing looked steadily at her: “How are you certain that Lin Chumu kept a woman?”

“Does one need to see it to know?”

“So you can fabricate things out of thin air just by guessing? Since you know so much about keeping people, you must have done it yourself, right?” Lu Chaoqing’s tone was neither loud nor rushed. “Oh, and you casually mentioned inflating sales. You must have done that often too. Could this Jie Jie teach me how you managed to inflate so many sales through your own efforts yet keep the figures below 100,000 to avoid suspicion?”

The curly-haired girl was so angry she temporarily suffered a mental lapse and couldn’t speak.

“Alright, Xiao Qing, give them some face. After all, their initial sales are less than half of yours. They need some time to digest that, right?” Chen Li smiled and poked Lu Chaoqing’s waist, then whispered close to her, “Let’s talk about this back at the dorm.”

Lu Chaoqing wasn’t naturally confrontational or a trouble-maker. Even the previous sour remarks hadn’t bothered her, but the rumor about “keeping people” crossed her line.

Although she knew nothing about Lin Chumu’s past, she instinctively believed that the other party wasn’t that kind of person. At least, between this stranger and Lin Chumu, she would definitely side with Lin Chumu.

Therefore, as she turned to leave, Lu Chaoqing suddenly looked back and met the curly-haired girl’s furious gaze: “By the way, your performance is scheduled before ours, right? You should focus your malicious little thoughts on your stage and concentrate, lest you be surpassed and lose face in front of your fans.”

This was the first time she had genuinely confronted someone. Although her naturally soft voice couldn’t convey an overbearing presence, it was enough to leave the girls in the other group momentarily speechless.

Where the camera couldn’t see, Lu Chaoqing flipped a middle finger behind her back as she turned and walked away, striding quickly toward the next room.

When they finished the rounds and returned, Chen Li made sure no one was around before closing the door and letting out a long sigh. She recalled the jealous demeanor of the other group members and was still annoyed: “Accusing us of inflating sales. They should look at their own new release’s sales, which can’t even beat those who came out later… Right, Xiao Qing, don’t take what she said about your sister to heart. RV and EM (Lin Chumu’s company) management have always clashed. They are our competition, and smearing us is an old tactic for RV people.”

“Exactly,” Yao Xichen chimed in, half-flattering. “They’re just a bunch of jealous people who say the grapes are sour because they can’t reach them, insisting on putting titles on others. I heard their leader failed to pursue a woman before debut. Look at her face when that girl was talking just now; something was clearly off.”

Jiang Qishuang smiled mysteriously and remained silent. Ji You, who was usually extremely quiet off-stage, sat in the corner and didn’t participate in the discussion, her long eyelashes lowered, casting a shadow on her face.

Chen Li rested for two minutes before standing up and stretching her wrists: “Alright, time’s almost up. Let’s hurry and get ready.”

Lu Chaoqing nodded. As she set her phone to silent, she glanced at Lin Chumu’s chat window again. The other person still hadn’t replied, making her wonder what she was busy with. Absent-mindedly, she accidentally clicked on Lin Chumu’s moments (Friend Circle) and quickly scrolled down, only to find that it was set to private after a certain point in time.

“Xiao Qing, hurry up! Time to go on stage!”

“Oh, okay.”

Lu Chaoqing quickly silenced and put away her phone, but when she recalled the curly-haired girl’s firm and mocking expression, her heart somehow skipped a beat.