The Fake Daughter is a Max-Level Green Tea [Transmigrated into a Book] - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: The Concert

“Lu Chaoqing’s pure and cute ‘Nation’s Daughter’ persona crashed right after debut? Sigh, I told you already, things in the entertainment industry are half-true, half-false; most of it is just a show for you. I warned you not to follow celebrities. Look, the one you just started following had a scandal, right?”

The smell of ink wafted from the black printer. In a high-rise office building, a woman clipped the newly printed documents and handed them to her colleague, who was still frowning and secretly scrolling through her phone. The woman shook the documents in front of her, clearly exasperated: “Hey, didn’t I tell you…”

“Wait!” the younger colleague suddenly exclaimed, “She went into her sister’s room! Lu Chaoqing has a sister? How did I not know about this?”

Netizens following the gossip had the same reaction the moment Lin Chumu released her statement.

Scandals involving celebrity personas were extremely common in the entertainment industry, with the most frequent being those who marketed themselves as pure but had chaotic private lives. However, Lu Chaoqing was the first case to be exposed right after debut.

Her popularity wasn’t that high initially, but it was clearly climbing steadily due to manipulation by people with ulterior motives, even surpassing the tabloid news of a regularly trending celebrity. MT Entertainment’s public relations capability was considered strong in the industry, yet they failed to remove the hot search several times.

The rival company was clearly behind the manipulation, but MT was helpless. They couldn’t even figure out how a paparazzi managed to get into a hotel with such good security. The luxury banquet had chosen that venue precisely for its security system, yet this incident still occurred, leaving the person in charge extremely anxious.

The moment Lin Chumu learned the news, she immediately issued a personal statement and released the surveillance footage of herself retrieving the room key and Lu Chaoqing entering her room.

Lu Chaoqing entering a woman’s room was an entirely different matter than going into a man’s room.

In a time when same-sex marriage was not legalized and public education on homosexuality had not yet begun, most people’s subconscious reaction was to assume nothing inappropriate would happen between two women, especially since Lu Chaoqing called Lin Chumu “Jiejie” (Big Sister).

Although her use of “Jiejie” wasn’t meant to imply a biological relationship but was simply a term for a slightly older female, it didn’t stop people from drawing their own conclusions and calming themselves down. After finding nothing to sensationalize, the eager netizens, based on their experience in previous online battles, realized that Lu Chaoqing was likely being targeted.

As for the real mastermind, theories abounded, sparking a new round of speculation. Simultaneously, Lin Chumu was revealed to be the mysterious woman in the Against the Wind MV, further solidifying the image of their “sister-like bond.”

As Lu Chaoqing walked out of the PR department’s office, she didn’t forget to send a “thank you” to Lin Chumu.

It was said that the entertainment industry was full of conflicts, both big and small, real and fabricated. Sometimes the evidence was solid, but sometimes people were wrongly accused and couldn’t speak out. If it weren’t for Lin Chumu today, she might have been completely victimized by this false accusation, especially since it wouldn’t have been convincing for the person involved to claim that the room occupant was a woman.

With just that detail, regardless of how strong her background was, she would have been at risk of being shelved. After all, no one would support an artist who collapsed their image right after debut. Or, the company might spare her from being shelved out of respect for Lin Chumu, but to mitigate the impact on the group, they would certainly drastically cut her resources and parts, forcefully suppressing her popularity.

The industry was this terrifying, and it genuinely caused Lu Chaoqing, who was just testing the waters, some physical discomfort.

However, what she couldn’t understand the most was that the security at yesterday’s banquet was excellent. It was absolutely impossible for paparazzi to sneak in during the chaos, so why was there a video of her entering Lin Chumu’s room? Moreover, the angle was clearly not from the surveillance camera, and the hotel wouldn’t do something that would damage its reputation and lead to accountability from the company.

Lu Chaoqing’s first reaction was actually Jiang Yang.

But when she played coy with Jiang Yang on the messaging app, she clearly noticed that Jiang Yang was even more evasive. He seemed afraid that she would question him about last night, subtly changing the subject several times with highly sophisticated rhetoric.

Undermining her wouldn’t benefit Jiang Yang, who wanted to climb the social ladder and saw Lu Chaoqing as a cash cow, so her suspicion vanished quickly. Seeing Jiang Yang’s attitude, she guessed he just had a new romantic encounter last night and was afraid she would notice.

As long as he didn’t mess with her or get involved with the female lead, Lu Chaoqing didn’t care about Jiang Yang’s private life; it was outside her scope of concern.

However, eliminating one possibility only made the matter seem more suspicious.

“Xiao Qing?”

Lu Chaoqing, who was walking down the hall, was suddenly called out by a slightly familiar voice from behind. She turned around and saw the woman’s delicate face. Fang Qiuqi strode over in high heels and gently patted her shoulder: “Your music show performance was great.”

“That’s thanks to Teacher Fang’s choreography.” Lu Chaoqing wasn’t particularly close to Fang Qiuqi. Although she knew the other person was easygoing, she still maintained a basic respectful address. Moreover, she felt even more guilty seeing the actual person, remembering the inexplicable moment of madness when she had criticized Fang Qiuqi a bit for Lin Chumu. “Teacher Fang’s segment was truly the highlight.”

“You had to be able to execute it though.” Fang Qiuqi was generous with her praise for the junior. “I’ve tried similar segments with others before, but they always felt a bit awkward. You have that perfect balance of power and lightness. I really like your style. We can try collaborating again for the next choreography.”

Lu Chaoqing smiled sweetly: “Thank you, Teacher Fang!”

“Don’t call me Teacher. Just call me Sister Qiuqi.” Fang Qiuqi gave a few gentle instructions, then took a call and went off to attend to her own business.

Lu Chaoqing could feel that Fang Qiuqi genuinely liked her, not because of anyone else’s influence. Her mood lifted slightly, and she stopped by the company’s small convenience store to buy some things to take back to the dorm.

To help the artists maintain their figures, the small convenience store near the dorm mainly stocked low-sugar and low-fat products. It was hard to find high-calorie items. Lu Chaoqing spent a long time searching through a pile of bland snacks before finding some preserved tofu. After paying and walking to the bottom of the dorm building, she saw her roommate post in the group chat that they wanted other things, so she immediately turned back to buy them.

Another artist from the same company hurried past and was startled to see Lu Chaoqing carrying large bags, watching the slender girl carry two large bags of snacks upstairs.

Since they were all girls, most people wore casual clothes in the dorm. The moment Lu Chaoqing opened the door, she saw Jiang Qishuang and Chen Li sitting on the sofa, watching the replay of that day’s music show performance and chatting happily.

Seeing that she had bought the snacks they wanted, Chen Li and Jiang Qishuang quickly came to greet her. Chen Li even took several photos of the bags of snacks and uploaded them to Weibo—specifically stating that Lu Chaoqing had personally carried them up.

Anyone who had followed an MT girl group would know that the dorm building was quite a distance from the convenience store. It took over ten minutes to walk there, and carrying two large bags would definitely be tiring. Let alone Lu Chaoqing, even Chen Li, who was the most athletic, would find it hard to return to buy things after reaching the building entrance, but Lu Chaoqing didn’t hesitate when she heard her roommates’ request and carried the two bags back.

Everyone actually knew about Lu Chaoqing’s background since they were trainees.

No one liked “royalty,” but if they had skill and character, and didn’t put on airs, being “royalty” didn’t actually infringe on anyone’s interests. Lu Chaoqing was the ACE of the group, capable in singing, dancing, and rapping, and had some songwriting ability. Her visuals and demeanor were also excellent. She would have debuted in the center position even without any background.

Moreover, Lu Chaoqing always proactively suggested fair competition. She never denied her background but also didn’t accept unfair help for her teammates. Compared to other people with backgrounds, Lu Chaoqing was already considered very down-to-earth.

Since getting familiar with Lu Chaoqing, Chen Li had always had a good impression of her. This time, when Lu Chaoqing was targeted by groundless rumors on the hot search, Chen Li tried every means to help clarify. Although the online comments were not as harsh now, many people were still questioning whether Lu Chaoqing’s center position was bought.

Three people in their group were implicitly stronger: Lu Chaoqing, Chen Li, and Jiang Qishuang. Yao Xichen and Ji You were also strong, but slightly less so. Among them, Jiang Qishuang, as the official visual, was no less attractive than Lu Chaoqing, and her stage presence was also good. There was still a debate about whether she or Lu Chaoqing was better.

Jiang Qishuang herself didn’t make any comments about this and still interacted with Lu Chaoqing as usual. The scenario Chen Li worried about—the two vying for dominance—didn’t happen, which relieved her a little.

The first conflict within the group erupted half a month later.

During this time, they had been practicing intensively. The APP thoughtfully didn’t assign Lu Chaoqing any strange missions, and she spent the entire half-month on a three-point line between the practice room, the cafeteria, and the dorm. Half a month later, they participated in an offline interview event, and fans, eager to see their idols, flocked to the venue entrance to show their support.

There was an unwritten rule in the industry: to prevent internal battles that could damage the members’ feelings, generally, neither concerts nor offline support events were allowed to have individual-colored light sticks. Only the company’s official group light stick could be used. But perhaps because this was the fans’ first time organizing offline and they didn’t pay attention to this, the turnout that day was messy, with all sorts of light sticks present.

Therefore, the first thing the girls saw when they left after the interview was not a large, uniformly tidy sea of purple, but a chaotic accumulation of various colors. The most numerous among them was Lu Chaoqing’s support color, a unique rose gold in the industry. The light color stood out even more against the purple.

The sheer quantity of her color surpassed everyone else’s. It was scattered across the entire area like loose sand, and it didn’t look particularly pleasing. Compared to the others’ support items, Lu Chaoqing’s looked like scattered fireworks that had suddenly exploded, making people feel uncomfortable.

Chen Li was the first to react. She had always been warm-hearted and generous, and wasn’t too bothered by this internal popularity battle. She quickly walked up to greet the fans, even reaching out to touch the hands of the fans in the front row, triggering waves of screams.

Just as Chen Li’s hand was about to touch the last person, the girl holding a rose-gold light board and wearing a mask stepped back, pushing her finger to avoid Chen Li’s hand, and then loudly shouted Lu Chaoqing’s name.

Chen Li was slightly startled. Then she saw the fans gathering toward her direction, desperately rushing forward, ignoring the security guards’ obstruction and the screams. The previously decent order instantly dissolved into chaos. In the surging crowd, Chen Li, who was walking alone in front, was pushed by an unknown hand reaching out from the confusion, stumbling and nearly falling, only to be held up by a fan.

The bodyguards immediately stepped forward, shielding the girl with their tall bodies, but the crowd still tried to break through their barrier to get close, desperate to touch their idol who was within reach.

Looking from a distance, the gathered crowd surged like a tidal wave. Lu Chaoqing had never seen such a passionate display and froze on the spot for a moment. It was Jiang Qishuang who reached out and pulled her, reminding her to quickly follow the path cleared by the bodyguards, but she still felt apologetic seeing the fans’ excited expressions—she nodded as she strode forward, bowing repeatedly when she was near the car. The shouts of “Lu Chaoqing” almost pierced the sky, only subsiding after continuous obstruction by security.

The commercial vehicle gradually drove away. Lu Chaoqing looked back in the rearview mirror, still seeing a scene of a massive crowd, which grew more spectacular as the distance increased.

None of them spoke, clearly startled by the fans’ sudden frenzy. None of them had experience debuting before. Even the most familiar fans on the internet, suddenly appearing in front of them and trying to break through barriers to get close, were hard to process.

A moment later, Chen Li was the first to sigh, unscrewing the bottle cap and gulping down several mouthfuls of water: “I don’t know who pushed me just now. A stampede almost happened. I was terrified.”

“Who else could it be? Xiao Qing’s fans, of course.”

Yao Xichen had been dissatisfied with Lu Chaoqing recently. That dissatisfaction rarely found an outlet, but this time she finally found a reason and an opportunity. The long-accumulated resentment was not an overnight thing. She clung to the window, looked at the crowd of fans, which was quickly becoming a small black dot, and suddenly turned her head to look at Lu Chaoqing, who was sitting next to Ji You.

Her voice was cold: “This was the first group event outside of the music show stage. Didn’t Lili say she would remind the fans first on Weibo? How come there was still so much rose gold? It almost overshadowed the group’s support color.”

She was in a good mood today. She was looking forward to seeing the fans when she came out after the interview, but what she saw was a disturbance clearly led by Lu Chaoqing’s fans.

The aggressive rose gold was scattered everywhere. Although Lu Chaoqing’s popularity was not completely overwhelming compared to the others, in the support activity just now, it seemed like Lu Chaoqing was sharing the spotlight equally with the entire group. Anyone who saw that wouldn’t feel comfortable.

Thinking about the random tug she felt a moment ago, Yao Xichen’s pent-up anger burst out like poured beans: “Xiao Qing, you also told them yesterday. How can they be so tactless, not understanding that this is a group offline event, not a solo one? How long has individual support been prohibited during group activities…”

“But Xiao Qing posted about it yesterday,” Ji You, who was usually quiet, suddenly spoke softly before the other teammates could say anything or Chen Li could organize her thoughts to mediate. “Maybe it’s because it was the fans’ first time attending and they lacked experience, or they were too excited and didn’t take it seriously?”

Yao Xichen gave Ji You a strange look. This time, her gaze lingered on Ji You’s face for a long time, showing a look of disgust and contempt, as if looking at something dirty—an expression that was appearing in front of everyone for the first time. Although everyone knew they didn’t get along, they at least used to pretend. This time, Yao Xichen didn’t even bother to pretend anymore. Chen Li, sitting in the front row, was about to scold her—”So that’s how you see Xiao Qing. I thought she was just temporarily confused and did the same thing as US.”

Yao Xichen said coldly. At this remark, everyone’s expression changed.

US was a solo artist under EM (Lin Chumu’s company) who was shelved after a scandal two years ago and had been silent ever since. Before her solo debut, she was part of a limited-time group and was rumored to have privately contacted fans then.

The entertainment and fan circles had many unwritten rules. One of them was that artists absolutely could not contact fans privately. Any interaction had to be done openly. They could reply to fans on Weibo but definitely not actively send private messages.

US was exposed for privately contacting fans during the early stages of the limited-time group’s formation. It was a girl group formed through a survival show, and the overall atmosphere was not good, with constant disputes from the artists to the fans. During one offline event, the company asked all artists to post some of the new internal entertainment regulations, one of which was about supporting event battles.

But while US posted it on Weibo, she privately contacted her fan club, hinting that she wanted to see a “sea that belonged to her.” That day, the fans brought many individual light sticks, following the fan club’s call, resulting in a similar effect to what Lilium saw today.

She had done this without anyone knowing, and no one would have checked her chat records. However, coincidentally, the head of her fan club became disillusioned during a scandal and directly exposed their chat history.

Not only that one message, but also records of US badmouthing her teammates and secretly dissing people who ranked higher than her during their debut were all made public. She was mocked across the entire internet, and for a while, “Don’t be a US” became a widely used phrase. Although exposing someone’s chat records was inappropriate, all the criticism at the time was focused on the artist. After all, her public persona was so good, no one expected the person they adored to be so despicable behind the scenes.

Yao Xichen’s blatant comparison was equivalent to publicly tearing off the pretense. But Lu Chaoqing, who hadn’t done anything wrong, was naturally not guilty and, for once, sat upright and confronted her.

Although she had a good temper, she wasn’t a meek pushover. Yao Xichen’s obvious mudslinging was an insult to both her and her fans.

Before the offline event, Lu Chaoqing had posted reminders on both Weibo and Instagram, strongly emphasizing the need to follow the security guards’ instructions. She didn’t believe her fans would be so disobedient, doing this when their idol had already stressed the rule.

When Lu Chaoqing walked past, almost no one reached out to touch her. If the fans were truly disobedient, the first person they would want to touch would be her, not her teammates.

Lu Chaoqing stared intently at Yao Xichen, trying to catch any signs of discomfort or deception on her face, but the other person’s psychological resilience was also strong, staring back at Lu Chaoqing without showing weakness. The already tense atmosphere in the car was now explosive. The manager was not in the same car with them this time, and the assistant, who had a softer personality, sighed, “Everyone, please don’t argue. Let’s talk things out properly…”

“I will give everyone an explanation for today’s incident,” Lu Chaoqing said, looking at Yao Xichen expressionlessly for the first time. Along with this, her suspicions about the previous incident grew. At this moment, the two incidents seemed directly connected. If things were as she suspected, she would absolutely not be lenient with Yao Xichen. “I don’t believe they would do such a thing.”

She didn’t believe that her fans, who often interacted with her online, streamed for her, spent time photoshopping and editing videos for her, and promoted her in various ways, would be so irrational as to even try to hurt her teammates.

They had managed to follow the rules and use only hand gestures for support without secretly bringing in individual light sticks or other items during the chaotic scene at the last music show stage. There was no reason for them to suddenly become a mess at this offline event.

Lu Chaoqing hadn’t done it, and she believed her fans wouldn’t do such a thing either.

After opening Weibo, the public sentiment had indeed shifted. Many people in the super topic were asking about the offline situation, and the group’s super topic had many posts criticizing her fans, leading to inexplicable internal conflict among the fans themselves. Some people said the order was indeed bad today, others claimed they hadn’t rushed forward or brought any individually made light sticks.

Seeing a posted image showing the scattered individual support colors in the sea of purple, Lu Chaoqing’s heart tightened. She hesitated for a moment but decided not to click on the comments, which were rapidly increasing in number. Especially the post that also included an animated GIF of Chen Li being nearly pushed down. When slowed down, it clearly showed the hand of the pusher holding Lu Chaoqing’s light stick.

Chen Li, sitting in the front, was clearly also looking worriedly at her phone, but she immediately turned to look at Lu Chaoqing, quietly comforting her that it was fine.

The atmosphere gradually solidified. Ji You and Jiang Qishuang were also trying to mediate and console.

Not every group debut led to everyone getting along harmoniously. Over the years, many boy and girl groups disbanded due to conflicts between members, leading to various solo fan wars. Lu Chaoqing knew this was just the beginning, but she didn’t expect the second wave of trouble to come so quickly.

During the practice downtime, she had been investigating who those so-called fans really were. Initially, Lu Chaoqing had indeed thought they were overly enthusiastic fans, but before getting into the car, she had quietly made a gesture, and most of those people didn’t even notice her.

Would a fan who loved their idol enough to attend an offline event for a few minutes of viewing be indifferent when the idol interacted? The answer was absolutely not. In contrast, some of the girls without her light sticks were jumping up and down trying to catch a glimpse of Lu Chaoqing’s face, making it obvious who were real fans and who were antis.

Lu Chaoqing naturally didn’t respond to the incident that day until she had evidence. Chen Li only briefly mentioned that she wasn’t hurt, and their relationship wasn’t affected. However, from then on, Yao Xichen didn’t even bother to hide her feelings and mostly kept to herself within the group.

Lu Chaoqing’s parents, who had been on a business trip in another city, returned these past two days. After one of her schedules, Lu Chaoqing went home for dinner, and when she returned, she noticed the atmosphere in the dorm was slightly off.

The Lilium members rarely wore perfume, unless required for a show or brand endorsement. Aside from Jiang Qishuang occasionally using an air freshener, the others rarely touched such things. But the moment Lu Chaoqing came back today, she smelled a strong fragrance, like a popular brand’s top seller.

Even when Jiang Qishuang used perfume, it was usually a fresh fruit or floral air freshener, and she would only spray a tiny bit. The strong scent was truly difficult for someone unaccustomed to perfume to handle.

Lu Chaoqing coughed several times, then saw Jiang Qishuang walk out of the room with a cold expression, holding a small bottle of water and spraying it. As the cool mist passed, the overly strong scent finally dissipated a little, but it was still uncomfortable.

“Did someone visit?”

Lu Chaoqing immediately noticed the anomaly on the sofa. All of them were very mindful of cleanliness and would tidy up the sofa cushions after sitting, rarely requiring much work from the cleaning staff. But today, there were still some snack crumbs on the sofa cushion that hadn’t been cleaned, which was annoying to see.

“It’s Xichen again. She’s getting more and more out of line lately.”

Even Jiang Qishuang, who generally had a good temper, couldn’t help but complain, her delicate eyebrows slightly furrowed: “She brought someone from another group to our dorm, and they were sitting here eating snacks. Since they were from the same company, I couldn’t exactly kick them out. She even took them to look at the rooms. Ji You said something, and then…”

Lu Chaoqing keenly picked up the word “Ji You” and immediately frowned, feeling a sense of foreboding: “Then what?”

“Xichen got angry and started arguing with Youyou. They were walking towards your room at the time, and Xichen said some unpleasant things.” Jiang Qishuang looked at her apologetically. Of course, Lu Chaoqing didn’t need to guess that Yao Xichen must have defamed her in front of others, otherwise, how could Ji You, the peace-loving person, get angry? “I won’t tell you the specifics, but Youyou argued with her, and no one could stop them.”

“And Youyou?”

Jiang Qishuang sighed: “Both of them, and Sister Li, were called away by Sister Fang.”

They hadn’t even been a group for long, and conflicts kept erupting one after another. The manager must be having a massive headache right now, and the girls would certainly be facing a stern lecture. Lu Chaoqing felt a little hollow. Jiang Qishuang saw her looking unwell and gently comforted her, putting down her eyeliner.

Among these few people, Yao Xichen disliked Ji You and Lu Chaoqing, Chen Li was usually the mediator, and Jiang Qishuang didn’t participate in these battles, always remaining outside the fray and not taking sides.

She often seemed the quietest, but her popularity within the group was second only to Lu Chaoqing. She also took good care of her beautiful face. Every time Lu Chaoqing returned from an outing, outside of practice hours, she would see Jiang Qishuang applying a mask or doing skincare.

“It’s okay,” Jiang Qishuang smiled, seeing Lu Chaoqing’s gloomy look. “Youyou was unusually bold this time.”

After the manager’s mediation and warnings regarding the argument, Yao Xichen, who brought outsiders into the dorm, had half a month’s base salary deducted and was penalized with several laps of running on the track. Ji You, who argued with her, and Chen Li, who failed to manage the team properly, were also penalized by having to copy company regulations. The dorm settled down for a while.

The boring, day-to-day practice soon brought a ray of light. On the day of the concert rehearsal, the girls went on stage several times, checking the equipment and reviewing their positions with the professional staff. Only after confirming that there were no flaws did they return to the dorm.

Lu Chaoqing hadn’t had a chance to go home since that one dinner. After the group debuted, Lin Chumu, as someone from EM Entertainment, couldn’t keep lingering around MT and returned to her own company to handle other business. The two hadn’t seen each other for over half a month. That evening, Lu Chaoqing sent Lin Chumu two concert tickets: one was an electronic online ticket, and the other was for the offline VIP section.

She was smug: Online viewing is unlimited. I already told the manager to reserve the offline VIP section for you. If Big Sister doesn’t come, I won’t reserve one for you again.

Don’t worry, Big Sister. My performance this time definitely won’t disappoint you. It will absolutely be worth your time! 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM, two and a half hours in total. Half an hour is for interaction; the rest is almost entirely singing and dancing.

They had practiced many songs during this time. Following MT’s custom, Lu Chaoqing and Jiang Qishuang, as the most popular members, would also have individual solos, all choreographed and arranged by the members themselves. This would be a big test of their physical endurance, but MT and EM already had high physical requirements for their artists at the entry level and rarely forced them to maintain an overly skinny physique through excessive dieting.

Lin Chumu had been dealing with a new IP negotiation project recently. When she opened her phone and saw the message, it was already 2 a.m., and she had just finished washing up.

Lying on the soft bed, her freshly dried long hair carried the fresh scent of lemon and mint, which inexplicably reminded her of the little “green tea” who had sneaked into her bed. Even the pillow, which had recently been replaced, seemed to retain the lingering scent of someone lying there. That night, Lu Chaoqing squirmed and wrestled inside her duvet, and Lin Chumu had to expend enormous patience.

After a certain incident, she became very resistant to physical contact. Previously, it was only with men, due to her sexual orientation. But now she was cautious even with women.

Lu Chaoqing, who was carefully trying to please Lin Chumu that night, actually never realized that the moment she showed even a hint of uncomfortable intention, Lin Chumu would permanently mark her as someone not to be touched.

However, she was not as wary of Lu Chaoqing now. They could perhaps be friends, but only friends. She couldn’t treat someone without a blood relationship as her own sister, no matter how harmless and cute the other party seemed.

After thinking for a while, Lin Chumu replied with a simple “Going” before going to sleep.

The next evening at 6:58 PM, the stadium was packed with people. A deep purple formed a vibrant ocean, flowing like waves as the girls waved their light sticks.

Lin Chumu, wearing only a knitted cardigan and a camisole, took her ticket, followed the crowd to the VIP section, and took a photo of the stage before sitting down.

Since the full video of this concert would be released online later, all phones would be prohibited from taking photos once the concert officially began. Therefore, Mr. and Mrs. Lu’s dream of seeing Lu Chaoqing immediately was dashed. Both of them had unmissable engagements that evening, so the task of watching the concert fell to Lin Chumu.

Lin Chumu never followed celebrities. Attending a girl group concert was a first for her. Even before the songs started, the edited clips of the girls projected onto the big screen had already triggered a tidal wave of cheers, each wave higher than the last. She held the Lu Chaoqing support banner in her hand. Realizing she seemed somewhat out of place among the crowd, she followed the example of others and raised it high—then quickly lowered it.

Her face felt a little flushed.

The people attending the concert looked to be mostly in their teens and twenties, though there were also some dressed-up office workers. Lin Chumu was 24 before coming to this world, so her age was certainly not old among them.

But the act of holding up the banner and waving it gave her an inexplicably subtle sense of embarrassment, a feeling she had never experienced in her two decades of life.

She knew, but was not interested in, the other members of the group. If classified according to the standards of a fan, she would be considered a solo stan. But asking Lin Chumu to wave the banner and shout “Wifey” for Lu Chaoqing would be more painful than working overtime all night at her company.

Lin Chumu absolutely couldn’t do it. Instead, she felt incredibly awkward listening to the shouts of “Baby Wifey” for Lu Chaoqing around her.

The two minutes before the opening were the hardest. Just when Lin Chumu regretted not arriving just in time, a beam of light suddenly gathered in the darkness of the entire venue, causing everyone to instinctively narrow their eyes. When their vision refocused on the stage, the now softer light illuminated the silhouettes of the several girls.

It was the first time she had seen Lu Chaoqing wearing a small black suit.

Lu Chaoqing’s height and proportions were actually considered excellent among girls, but her small frame and slender body made her overall look delicate and frail. She still had silver-grey long hair, but it was tied into a neat, high ponytail. The two strands of hair hanging down framed her delicate cheeks. The design of the buttoned jacket slightly emphasized her shoulders, and the most eye-catching part was her long legs and combat boots, which elevated her already respectable height even further.

Standing in the center position today was the leader, Chen Li, a tall, energetic, and fit girl. Next to Lu Chaoqing was the official visual, Jiang Qishuang, who also had excellent body proportions. One had a mature, authoritative style, and the other was gentle, but neither managed to suppress Lu Chaoqing’s presence. Instead, it highlighted her unique charm that was both sweet and cool.

As expected, the moment Chen Li finished her thank you speech and Lu Chaoqing took the microphone, the entire venue erupted in an extremely enthusiastic burst of cheers and applause. Even Lin Chumu found herself unconsciously clapping, infected by the atmosphere.

Lu Chaoqing’s eye shadow today was a smoky purple she hadn’t used before, changing her previously round eye shape. The deep purple eyeliner was drawn in a slightly upward slant, and fine glitter on the blended smoky purple shadow looked like slightly tipsy wine. The VIP section was right next to the stage. After Lu Chaoqing’s gaze swept around, she saw something and suddenly handed the microphone to Jiang Qishuang next to her: “You go first. I’ll follow up.”

Jiang Qishuang was startled, but her quick thinking was also strong. She calmly took the microphone from Lu Chaoqing and recited her pre-planned lines. When the microphone was finally passed back to Lu Chaoqing, under the dazzling spotlight, Lin Chumu saw a determined smile curl up from the corner of her lips.

“Let’s play a warm-up game for two minutes,” she said, looking at Chen Li. Only after getting the leader’s permission did she continue: “Next, I will randomly select one lucky audience member to come up on stage and interact with me.”

A bunch of bright red, freshly watered roses were placed in the corner. The girl in combat boots strode over, plucked a rose whose thorns had been trimmed, and held it horizontally in her mouth. Lu Chaoqing slowly backed away, using her steps to measure the stage distance she had already counted.

One step, two steps, three steps…

Amidst the cheers of the crowd, she suddenly spun around, twisted her waist, and quickly pulled the rose out of her mouth, throwing it forward. The parabola it traced in the air, under the expectant gaze of the audience, landed squarely in the arms of Lin Chumu, who was wearing a mask.