As soon as the words fell, a faint click came from a certain corner backstage, as if something had been crushed.
Blue 242 precisely caught the sound. His gaze passed through the curtain not far from him and Xiao Xi, looking toward the position behind the curtain. The corners of his mouth curved up in a teasing arc.
Su Jianglou, hiding behind the curtain, wore an annoyed expression. He hadn’t expected that he would be noticed by Xibao just from getting a little agitated.
Looking at the black performance costume he had grabbed in a panic to cover his face, Su Jianglou tossed it aside in disgust. Then, through the curtain, he shot a warning glare at the other side.
Blue 242’s eyes darted upon receiving the warning glare. He nodded at the boy in front of him. “Xiao Xi, you’re right. That person’s behavior is indeed very suspicious. Probably just a pervert. I know where the associate director is. Come on, I’ll take you there.”
He emphasized the word “pervert,” which elicited another click from behind the distant curtain.
Fortunately, Second Brother had no real intention of exposing him. Su Jianglou breathed a sigh of relief.
A few minutes later, under the leadership of Blue 242 Leader, Su Ximu smoothly found the associate director, who was bustling around backstage.
The associate director took the situation Su Ximu reported very seriously and immediately dispatched security personnel to check all the hidden corners backstage.
Seeing this, Su Ximu felt relieved. The security personnel checked very thoroughly. If they still couldn’t find that person, it probably meant the other party had realized they were discovered and slipped away quietly.
Half an hour later, the security search turned up nothing except Wang Xingxing’s performance costume, which had been tossed in a corner.
Wang Xingxing, who had been anxious about losing his costume, immediately trotted over and took it from the security personnel. He held up the performance costume and shook it out.
After checking it thoroughly inside and out, top to bottom, Wang Xingxing hugged his performance costume and let out a huge sigh of relief. “Phew, you scared me to death. I thought I was done for this time.”
He had endured all the bumps in the early stages, and even the epic clashes of the past few days hadn’t taken him out. If he got eliminated now just because his costume was stolen, that would truly be dying with eyes wide open.
Wang Xingxing patted his performance costume fondly once more, then turned his head. His eyes sparkled, and his tone was full of emotion. “Supervisor Su… Counting this time, you’ve saved me three times.”
Su Ximu was stunned for a moment. He thought back carefully before smiling at Wang Xingxing.
Wang Xingxing was the type of trainee with very rich emotions. Su Ximu couldn’t even remember what he had done before to make Wang Xingxing use the word “saved.”
After standing there and thanking Supervisor Su for a good while longer, Wang Xingxing was finally called by the makeup artist to get ready.
Sitting in front of the makeup mirror, feeling the itchy sensation of the brush sweeping across his face, Wang Xingxing closed his eyes. He heard a voice in his mind. “Wang Xingxing, do you remember what I told you?”
Wang Xingxing replied in his mind without hesitation. “I remember. Vice Captain Rao, you said in the dungeon world, don’t trust any weirds. Unfamiliar players too.”
“But I think Supervisor Su is different! Vice Captain Rao, you haven’t truly spent time with Supervisor Su on the third floor. You don’t understand.”
Rao Fei, who was also getting makeup done: …
“Oh.”
This little interlude did not affect the subsequent grand performance process.
In the time that followed, trainees who had already been done with basic stage makeup by the makeup artists lined up in an orderly manner, waiting for No. 2, No. 42, No. 51, No. 55, and No. 71—these five trainees—to give them explosive makeovers.
These five trainees had been art students fresh into university, beauty bloggers, or even special effects makeup artists before becoming players. All of them had been carefully selected by Rao Fei from the 91 trainees, perfectly suited to the task.
Among them, the most efficient weren’t No. 71 the special effects makeup artist, but No. 42 and No. 51, the art students.
The two held color palettes in their left hands and gouache brushes in their right, treating the necks of the trainees sitting across from them like canvas. They painted with a lift of the hand.
Black base layer, flesh tones layered on—in less than ten minutes, a twisted towel neck that could rotate 360 degrees was perfectly formed in No. 51’s hands.
Su Ximu, who had finished his tasks and was sitting nearby on a small stool watching, sighed in admiration. “So fast.”
No. 51 Trainee’s dorm was on the third floor. From the time they came to the island until now, he had been lightly chased twice by the scythe-wielding Grim Reaper after ten at night.
So when responding to Supervisor, he spoke with a relaxed familiarity that other trainees lacked. “Of course. Back in my senior year of high school, I was the famous quick sketch Little Prince of our grade!”
“This neck? Five minutes each.”
No. 42 nearby stayed silent. He was timid.
But after hearing No. 51 bragging, he quietly sped up a bit more without a word.
In the front audience seats.
The chief director still hadn’t appeared, as if he were dead. The associate director had long since taken over that portion of the work on his own. He stood on the stage’s lift platform, holding a walkie-talkie and directing the entire venue like a king.
Just past six in the afternoon, with the associate director’s order, security began letting the audience enter in waves.
Su Ximu also slipped out from backstage. Following the seat number on his staff ticket, he found the positions for himself, Blue 242 Leader, and “Big Brother” and “Third Brother.”
“Big Brother” and “Third Brother” were in row two, seats 20 and 21. He and Blue 242 Leader were in row three, seats 20 and 21.
After sitting in his seat and waiting a short while, Su Ximu spotted “Big Brother” approaching slowly with his sharp eyes. He immediately stood up and waved.
“Big Brother, over here.”
Su Xuanxiao nodded at the waving boy and quickened his pace a bit.
Once “Big Brother” was close, Su Ximu glanced behind him and asked puzzledly, “Big Brother, where’s Third Brother?”
Su Xuanxiao was succinct. “Plans changed. He’s busy. Can’t make it today.”
At first, when Yuzi said he was worried about his and Jianglou’s emotional control issues, he had followed Yuzi’s suggestion out of caution and avoided frequent contact with Xiao Xi. But in truth, he had been a bit dissatisfied.
But after seeing Jianglou’s performance, he felt Yuzi’s words weren’t without reason.
He had thought three full days of cooling off would be enough for Jianglou, but unexpectedly…
When Su Xuanxiao said “plans changed,” there was a hint of disappointment in his uncompetitive little brother.
Su Ximu accepted it well and nodded understandingly. “Yeah, Third Brother’s own matters are more important.”
Su Xuanxiao reached out to ruffle his youngest brother’s head and handed over the gift he had prepared early that morning. “Here, play with this.”
A palm-sized small wooden box full of mystery. The boy took it without overthinking.
After “Big Brother” sat down in his seat, Su Ximu also settled back into his own, opening the small wooden box in his hand with a bit of curiosity.
?
The small wooden box was empty?
Suspecting he had opened it wrong, the boy, full of doubt in his eyes, closed the small wooden box again and reopened it.
Still empty?
He looked up at Big Brother’s back of the head, feeling like he understood.
“Big Brother, the small wooden box itself is the gift, right?”
Su Xuanxiao, who had been quietly listening to the opening and closing sounds from behind, had a hint of pleasure in his eyes. “Right.”
Though he didn’t quite understand why “Big Brother” would give an empty wooden box as a gift, Su Ximu carefully pocketed it after hearing Big Brother’s affirmative answer.
If “Big Brother” gave an empty wooden box as a gift, there must be a reason for it from “Big Brother.”
As they spoke, he felt people sit down on both sides of him.
To his right was Blue 242 Leader, who had also finished his tasks. To his left was a strange audience member.
That audience member greeted Su Ximu proactively after sitting down. “Hello.”
Su Ximu, who at first didn’t realize this gentleman was greeting him, instinctively turned his head. Upon discovering the stranger was indeed looking at him, he politely extended his hand. “Hello.”
The audience member looked at the hand extended before him, his expression a bit agitated, and quickly gripped it.
Since the stranger next to him was so polite, Su Ximu racked his brains after the handshake for a topic. “Are you here to watch the performance too?”
Only after saying it did he feel the question was a bit off.
“Yes, yes.” The man in seat 19 responded enthusiastically and smoothly started chatting with Su Ximu. “I really like the show Tonight’s Big Star. Some of the trainees in it are very interesting too. Like No. 26, No. 28… I voted for them online.”
He casually named a few trainees, then seemingly naturally asked Su Ximu, “What about you? Which trainees do you like?”
“No need to use formal ‘you.’ Casual is fine.” Su Ximu looked at the man quite a bit older than him. After a moment’s thought, he replied, “I like them all.”
Liked them all?
“Then which trainees did you vote for?” The man smoothly switched to casual address.
At this, Su Ximu felt he got it.
No wonder the other was so enthusiastic. He had run into an audience member canvassing votes for his favorite trainee.
He had heard his old dormmate Wu Yang mention before that once when Wu Yang went to a grand performance for an idol selection show, he overheard fans in the back row pulling votes for a certain trainee.
They accidentally pulled the rival fans into it.
The two sides even got into a group fight after the grand performance and were all hauled off to the station together.
But no worries.
Su Ximu thought this and answered confidently. “I voted for all the trainees.”
“Voted for all of them?!”
“Yeah.” Su Ximu thought the man felt he was brushing him off, so he pulled out his phone to demonstrate. “The production team rules say each registered fan gets ten votes per day. The voting channel has been open for five days now. I have fifty votes myself, and my good friend doesn’t vote, so he lets me vote his. That’s a hundred votes. Plenty.”
Information Department 01 nodded with the bearing of a great general, accepting the answer.
Then, after the conversation ended, he immediately pulled out his phone and opened the work group:
【Information Department Head: @everyone, Little Young Master spreads the rain and dew evenly. Likes all trainees.】
So, the time had come to test your skills.
It was time to let the innocent Tonight’s Big Star production team see the dirty tricks of capital.
Today, not a single one of these 91 trainees in the venue would be eliminated!
As declared by him, the head of the Su Consortium’s Information Department!
