Chapter 73

Someone leaked a lot of dirt on Qin Wei to the entertainment reporters, including that the veil she wore today was not some elaborate design but rather because her looks had deteriorated.

They even attached a photo which did show some redness and swelling on Qin Wei's chin and lips, though since it was a candid shot, the details were not very clear.

On the commercial vehicle where she had watched Qin Wei's entire live performance, Liu Xin's expression went from shocked to gradually distorted. She actually dared to choose the same song to compete against! Naturally, Liu Xin would not let Qin Wei take the stage. No matter how well or poorly Qin Wei danced, it might overshadow her own performance due to the hype.

To get Qin Wei disqualified, they carefully schemed this plot and treated everyone to simple meals with a tiny bit of peanut butter mixed in, even pulling in the completely unaware Youyou.

After all, that child Youyou was still a student, and she treated people with sincerity. Most importantly, she looked so pure, innocent and harmless that if unaware, even a girl like her wouldn't be particularly vigilant...

Yet despite all their efforts, not only did they fail to stop Qin Wei from going on stage, they even paved the way for her unique performance!!

...

"Let's go, I'm exhausted from today..."

For Qin Wei, whether she advanced to the next round was not up to her, but at least the competition was over. Picking up her coat from the chair, she turned to Li Yao and said,

"Other than peanuts, what else am I allergic to?"

Li Yao didn't even need to think before shaking his head:

"Nothing else, but the doctor did say you should also eat less spicy and stimulating foods, as those aren't good for you either."

"Got it."

When Qin Wei got to the door,

"Why are you still standing there stunned? Drive me home!"

Li Yao let out an "Oh" and jogged to catch up with her. The two took the elevator down together.

As they neared the lobby, Li Yao slowed his pace. Based on the sounds coming from outside, it seemed quite a few people were gathered there.

He glanced at his watch again, it was already midnight.

"Whoa, those reporters couldn't be staking you out, could they? I didn't park in the underground garage. Go wait for me at the back door, kiddo, I'll drive around to pick you up."

Qin Wei gave him a baffled look:

"What's there to be scared of? It's not like I did anything wrong, what right do they have to avoid them?"

With that, she strode purposefully towards the front entrance.

Seeing he couldn't stop her, Li Yao hurriedly admonished:

"No cursing, no vulgar language, no clapping back, be polite, be humble. Qin Wei, did you hear what I said..."

Hearing the noise, the reporters outside swarmed over, cameras pointed at her with flashes going off nonstop, nearly blinding her.

Seeing her emerge, the reporters quickly began questioning:

"Ms. Qin, there are online rumors that your original performance was going to be a jazz dance to 'River', but you changed it at the last minute to avoid competing with Liu Xin. Is that because you were afraid you couldn't measure up to Liu Xin?"

Hell yeah it's because of that, Qin Wei thought. Remembering Li Yao's warning, she forcibly swallowed her snarky retort and raised her hand to her chest. Giving the reporter a meaningful thumbs up, she replied:

"My friend in the gray hat, what an excellent question! You guessed correctly!" Suddenly there was dead silence as the reporters were all a bit confused.

"Then why did you choose to perform on the erhu? How did you select that piece?"

"When did you learn to play the erhu? As far as I know, you can't read sheet music!"

What kind of bullshit questions were these? Did these even go through their brains before asking? Who allowed them to ask such low IQ questions? How did people like this even become reporters?

"You're so clever. I can't read sheet music and I don't know how to play the erhu. What you saw was an illusion."

Below, the crowd started buzzing noisily. Sensing the situation was going south, Li Yao hurriedly stepped forward to shield Qin Wei:

"Friends from the media, it's very late now. We can ask more questions later, later. For now, for now let's call it a night."

"Why are you still wearing that veil? Someone revealed that your looks have deteriorated. Is it true?"

Wow, straight for the jugular huh?

Li Yao immediately denied it:

"Of course not. The veil was just a prop for her performance that she hadn't had a chance to remove yet."

"Then take it off now, Ms. Qin! Netizens all say your makeup tonight looks amazing. We have professional equipment and photographers here. How about we do an impromptu late night street fashion shoot for you here in front of the TV station?"

The reporters eagerly cajoled Qin Wei to remove her veil.

Li Yao's first reaction was absolutely not!

Qin Wei had had an allergic reaction. Even if the medication had taken effect and prevented further swelling, there was still a red rash on her chin. For a female celebrity, that was barely better than "destroyed looks". If they did close-up shots with hi-def cameras and posted them online, it would spur another round of malicious comments.

Whoever harmed her would have to face justice, but maintaining public opinion was also crucial right now. Li Yao didn't want the media portraying this incident badly at all.

Shielding the cameras with his body, Li Yao signaled Qin Wei to leave quickly.

No one knew whether Qin Wei didn't understand her manager's hints, or she simply wasn't afraid. She stood in place and said "Okay", then removed the veil.

"Go ahead and shoot."

Qin Wei even helpfully struck a pose.

Li Yao was scared speechless on the spot, but taking a closer look, Qin Wei's face below the veil was fair and flawless. The rash from earlier had already faded away.

"Ms. Qin, turn your body sideways a bit, yes, tuck your chin in, let's get another shot."

"Ms. Qin look this way, I'll take one for the cover..."

"Teacher Qin, my equipment is hi-res, let's take a few as fanservice."

...

Unexpectedly, late at night, in the wee hours, a bunch of reporters turned impromptu photographers, snapping away at Qin Wei in front of the TV station entrance.

"How...how did you make this happen?"

Li Yao was rather curious.

Qin Wei told him:

"It just shows that exercising to boost your immune system really works. By the time we got in the elevator, I was fine already."

...

Then Qin Wei dominated the hot search topics, with many fresh additions beyond the competition hashtags:

#QinWeiAgelessBeauty#

#QinWeiMakeupTutorial#

#QinWeiCantReadSheetMusic# #QinWeiCantPlayErhu#

#QinWeiNewResidentOfYinYangInn#

...

The hot takes about her also never stopped the past two days:

【I didn't get Qin's beauty before, but this makeup look made me understand her charm】

【The makeup bloggers sure work fast! The competition was just last night, and today they already have tutorials up. Were they studying it overnight?】

【A blogger I follow says the makeup isn't hard, the hard part is having a face as naturally beautiful as hers hahaha】

【Ouch, I'm a bit offended. I tried to follow the tutorial but didn't unlock "ageless beauty" grr】

【#QinWeiCantReadSheetMusic# This report is nonsense. As everyone knows, traditional music uses numbered musical notation, the media might not know but they should at least Google it before reporting!】

【As someone who plays the zheng, I also find it ridiculous. They say Qin doesn't have cultural refinement, yet the reporters are the ignorant ones for not knowing our folk music uses numbered notation. And she played the erhu! How dare they still ask if she can play it, no wonder Qin clapped back. Tsk tsk, and they didn't even realize she was mocking them!】

【I heard it too, Qin was shading him the whole time hahaha】

【I'm dying, last night's interview was a riot, a personal talent show from Qin in every sense of the word】

【Hahahaha the hot search tags are killing me. @YinYangInnGame hurry up and sign Qin as your spokesperson!】

【This woman still has so many surprises I don't know about? xdm Don't forget to vote for Ms. Qin! I want to see what other hidden talents she has!】

【Fans or antis, let's try our best to vote for Qin Wei. Only if Qin makes it into the next round can fans keep fanning and antis keep hating! 】

【What a unique perspective, brilliant!】

【xdm, I'm an anti, check my page if you don't believe me. But I plan to vote for Sister Ran, she can catch thieves and fight, plus play string instruments. Personal grudges aside, I want to see what else she can do!】

【I second this】

[+1]

...

Shen Kai saw the hot search topics and comments and felt he understood this circle less and less. He recognized all the words but still didn't know what they meant.

Left with no choice, he took the opportunity to ask Xiao Jing when his manager wasn't around.

"Xiao Jing, do you know what Yin Yang Inn is?"

Xiao Jing nodded:

"Is Brother Kai thinking of playing games too?"

Games? What game?

Shen Kai was totally lost.

"The current spokesperson for this game is Qin Wei?"

"Spokesperson? No, this game has had promotional ambassadors before, but no spokesperson yet."

Xiao Jin said, suddenly understanding what Shen Kai wanted to ask,

"Oh oh oh, Brother Kai wanted to talk about Qin Wei's Yin Yang Inn trending topic right?

That's because people thought there was an ominous tone when they heard her talking to the reporter, so they joked that she was a Yin Yang master. There's a game called Yin Yang Inn, so they said she had checked in too. It's just young people messing around..."

Xiao Jin paused and unconsciously covered her mouth,

"Brother Kai, I didn't mean to imply you're not young..."