Transmigrated into the Villainous Scummy Alpha in a Talent Show Novel - Chapter 44

The night passed, and the eastern sky began to lighten with the pale hues of dawn. A faint glow gradually seeped through the gaps in the curtains.

Jiang Ming slowly opened her eyes, finding herself enveloped in a warm embrace. Her face flushed crimson as she struggled to sit up, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t free herself from Lin Qi’s arms wrapped tightly around her waist.

Gradually, Lin Qi also woke up. The moment she opened her eyes, she was greeted by the sight of a disheveled beauty snowy skin, dark hair, and the delicate curve of her collarbone peeking out. Their eyes met: one pair still dazed from sleep, the other quickly averting in embarrassment.

“Y-you, let me go.”

Her voice was as soft and weak as a kitten’s, enough to rouse even the sleep-loving Lin Qi.

Reluctantly, Lin Qi withdrew the arm that had held Jiang Ming all night. The memory of the softness at her waist seemed etched into her mind. Under the covers, Lin Qi subtly clenched her hand, a faint smile tugging at her lips.

Once freed, Jiang Ming hurriedly got out of bed. She went to the nurses’ station to fetch two disposable hygiene kits and headed to the bathroom first to wash up.

Bored, Lin Qi also got up and pulled open the curtains. To her surprise, she spotted media crews with cameras downstairs. What the hell?

Were they here to “work” on Labor Day?

It was just a hospital visit why the fuss?

After taking turns freshening up, the show’s crew sent a car to pick Jiang Ming up and return her to the training camp. Though reluctant, the young girl was eventually led out through the back door.

Another staff member brought Lin Qi a bowl of plain noodle soup. As she leisurely ate her breakfast, she heard him hesitantly say, “Lin Qi, we need you to issue a statement.”

“Huh?”

“News of your hospital visit last night spread quickly. Your name is still trending.”

With that, the staff member handed her his phone. Sure enough, despite cooling off overnight, the hashtag #LinQiHealth remained in the top three trending topics. Scrolling through, most of the posts were from her fans condemning the show’s production team for neglecting contestants’ well-being, which supposedly led to her late-night hospital trip.

Then there was a smaller but notable portion, photos of her and Jiang Ming taken secretly in the hospital lobby. The shots were uncomfortably close, their intimacy practically oozing from the screen, with accusations that they’d violated the show’s no-dating rule.

Seriously? She’d just accidentally swallowed half a sip of untreated water, ended up with acute gastritis, and landed in the hospital. How had it blown up like this?

After scanning the posts, Lin Qi looked up and asked, “What kind of statement? That the show didn’t mistreat me, and that Jiang Ming and I are just friends?”

The staff member rubbed his hands together. “Just the first part will do. Your pairing with Jiang Ming is gaining a lot of traction, we can’t just dismantle it outright.”

Nodding this aligned with her own thoughts Lin Qi said, “You have access to my public Weibo account, right? Pull it up for me. I’ll post it myself.”

After a brief discussion with the production team, the staff member logged into Lin Qi’s official Weibo and handed the phone back to her.

She snapped a casual selfie: herself in pajamas, a bowl of plain noodle soup on the table, her pale face grinning with a peace sign, looking utterly carefree.

“Everyone, no need to worry! Last night, I accidentally choked while brushing my teeth, swallowed a bit of untreated water, and ended up with acute gastritis. The show’s team has been great, they even brought me this noodle soup. Happy Labor Day”

“Good enough?”

The staff member bowed gratefully to Lin Qi and took back the phone, saying, “Thank you.”

“No need, just stating the facts.”

After issuing the statement, the staff left, and the spacious hospital room was left with only Lin Qi herself. Bored out of her mind, she turned on the TV to continue watching the talent show she hadn’t finished the night before.

Before long, the doctor arrived, carrying three large bottles of medicine. Lin Qi’s expression stiffened, and she deeply felt that being alone wasn’t so bad after all.

Halfway through the first bottle, the clock on the wall struck eight, and her hospital room door was knocked. Assuming it was the doctor, Lin Qi responded weakly, “Come in.”

But as soon as the door opened, there was a sharp “click” as it closed again. A nimble figure darted to her side, anxiously checking her left and right as if afraid she might be hurt somewhere.

“Mom? What are you doing here?”

“You still remember I’m your mom? You ended up in the hospital and didn’t even tell me! Last night, I saw photos of you being hospitalized while scrolling online, I was so worried I almost died! I didn’t dare come in the middle of the night and had to wait until seven. Look at these dark circles under my eyes!”

Hearing this, Lin Qi glanced at her mother’s still flawless and fair complexion and couldn’t help but chuckle. “Why were you up so late anyway?”

“None of your business what your mom does at night.”

“Tsk, seems like I’ll have to have a word with Dad about this.”

“You little brat! At least I came to see you, your dad’s still at the office!”

“Hey, Mom, lend me your phone for a sec.”

“What for?”

Despite asking, she handed the phone over.

Lin Qi opened her mom’s Weibo and wow, she was a hardcore fan in her own fan community. Torn between amusement and emotion, Lin Qi searched for today’s trending hashtag and clicked in. By now, rational fans had begun calming everyone down. Though some conspiracy theories suggested the show had forced her to issue the statement, most had already apologized to the production team.

But that wasn’t why she’d borrowed the phone.

After scrolling a bit longer, she finally found the photo blurry, but clear enough to show Jiang Ming standing extremely close to her, his worry evident even in the dim light. She lay there with her eyes closed, peaceful as if time had stopped.

A faint smile tugged at her lips as Lin Qi saved the photo, then sent it to the contact labeled “Little Brat.”

“So that’s all you wanted it for?”

“What else?”

Still idly browsing the trending topics, Lin Qi replied, “This is a photo of Jiang Ming and me together.”

“You should’ve said so earlier! I’ve got tons of photos of you two even R18 fanfics. Want some?”

“W-what R18?!”

Eyes widening in shock, Lin Qi watched as her mom opened the “JiangLin” CP fan community. All sorts of tags flooded her vision: “Gentle, kind superstar X insecure, tsundere kitten, R18, slow burn,” “No specific roles, just two alphas going at it, pure smut,” “Mint-leaf alpha X bitter-coffee omega, R18, sugar daddy AU,” and so on,

Wh-what the hell?!

“Your CP fan community is seriously like this every day. Who knows what your shippers even want to see the two of you trying out all 36 positions in bed?”

With an awkward laugh, Lin Qi quickly exited the “JiangLin” CP supertopic, her face flushing slightly as she realized the shippers’ fantasies were even wilder than her own.

“Why are you blushing? If you two end up together, you’ll eventually have to, you know, harmonize life.”

“Mom! I just turned eighteen!”

“Don’t act all innocent, you’re eighteen and nine months old now.”

Speechless, Lin Qi nodded. “You win.”

Before her mom could drop another bombshell, Lin Qi cut in, “Wait a second!”

Her brows furrowed as she caught sight of a suddenly trending hashtag, right below her own that read: An Zizi Stands Up for Xia Lian.

Xia Lian? That Xia Lian?

The glamorous supporting character from the novel who had always harbored feelings for An Zizi!

Bored and curious, Lin Qi clicked in. It turned out that Xia Lian’s girl group had been set to win a major award for their latest song, only for another survival-show-formed group to buy it out instead. The difference in quality and popularity between the two songs was night and day.

Yet, Xia Lian’s hard-earned award had been blatantly stolen the platform’s rigging was shamelessly obvious.

An Zizi, known for her strong sense of justice, clearly couldn’t stand it. She publicly called out the platform, demanding an explanation for their judging criteria.

Having spent two years in the entertainment industry in her past life, Lin Qi had debuted as a top-tier star. Though she’d never personally had an award stolen, she was well aware of such injustices. Back then, she had done what she could to support juniors whose dreams had been snatched away.

But now,

“Mom, can you do me a favor?”

“Oh? Only calling me ‘Mom’ when you need something, huh?”

“Of course not, my dearest, most beautiful, most radiant mother.”

“Alright, alright, just spit it out.”

“Here.”

Lin Qi handed her phone over, the screen still on An Zizi’s post. “An Zizi is my mentor, and Xia Lian is her friend, which makes her my friend too. I don’t want her group to lose this award before they disband.”

From what she knew, Xia Lian’s group was set to disband in mid-May. This award was proof of their two years of hard work. Having been in a girl group herself, Lin Qi understood just how important—how honorable this was for them. Whether for principle or personal reasons, she couldn’t stand to see such unfairness.

“Why is the Song family involved again? That girl Song En shouldn’t be this stupid.”

“The Song family?”

What did Song En have to do with this?

“This small company is secretly backed by the Song family. Right now, Song En is the one calling the shots. One of these girl groups is under the Song conglomerate’s proper label, while the other is just a small company’s experiment. Why would they sabotage their own?”

From what she remembered in the novel, Song En, though somewhat sensitive due to her vision impairment appeared gentle on the surface and had solid morals. She was a shrewd businesswoman who wouldn’t make such a blatant mistake.

“Whatever. Doesn’t matter why. Since it’s for your friend, I’ll help you get that award back!”

Inside a villa…

The bewitchingly beautiful woman lay on the bed, clad only in a skimpy spaghetti-strap dress. Her slender fingers swiped across the screen a couple of times before she suddenly sat up. “Sister An, which media outlet is this? Why would they suddenly speak up for me?”

The more composed woman walked over from her computer to the bedside, took the phone, and glanced at it. Her expression turned slightly odd. “This is… from the Lin family.”

“Lin Qi? Why would she help me?”

A heavy silence filled the spacious room. An Zizi frowned, puzzled. Could it be that Lin Qi had shifted her focus to Xia Lian now?

“I don’t know.”

Xia Lian bit her lip and then, bonelessly, rested her head on An Zizi’s lap, smiling with hidden meaning. “Sister An, she wouldn’t be trying to win your favor again, would she?”

“Would you… fall for her tricks again?”

Even from this unflattering angle, Xia Lian’s delicate features remained stunningly beautiful. Her soft, fluffy hair spilled across An Zizi’s thighs as she guided one of An Zizi’s hands to her pointed chin, teasing it like one would a cat, eliciting a coquettish laugh from the beauty.

An Zizi’s throat moved slightly, her voice hoarse. “I wouldn’t.”