CH 18

Chapter 18: Choose me, choose me (1)

Ruan Tao held her card and looked at it for a long time before the corners of her lips rose slightly. She looked a little shy and unsure but after a few pushes from her teammates, she said: “I thought of the sky, the forest, and the sea.”

The staff did not confirm nor deny her idea but the PD pointed the camera to her so they could record the scene when she said the correct answer. It was a pity it wasn’t a live broadcast; the team could imagine how the barrage would explode when they learned Ruan Tao was right. But because of it, the cameraman naturally gave her more shots but would still turn to the other players from time to time to avoid being noticed. Among them, Qiao Dai and Luan Zhen were still having breakfast.

“Are you going to guess?”

The staff kindly reminded them and saw Qiao Dai was holding a steaming meat bun in her hand, eating it very intensely, her face slightly flushed. It was so hot she could only bite it carefully after confirming she wouldn’t burn her tongue and it was a little frustrating.

Qiao Dai heard the question and looked at the three white, green, and blue cards the staff member held in her hand and blurted out: “Oysters! Kelp! Delicious!”

Especially when she saw the blue, her eyes brightened at once, she blew on the bun in her hand and took a bite with joy.

Blue, oh, it was the sea. There were so many delicious things in the ocean. Qiao Dai liked shells and lobsters the most. When she saw blue, she recalled the days she was looking for crab in the kelp forest and her eyes started sparkling.

Looking at Qiao Dai’s expression, the staff member suddenly felt happy. The first two were easy to understand but how could blue make her think of delicious? Blue food was rare, wasn’t it?

But in any case, her answer was also very interesting, especially combined with Qiao Dai’s bright eyes. 

The staff member wanted to keep asking questions but he watched Qiao Dai lower her head to eat her bun. A strand of her hair fell playfully in front of her eyes but because she did not want to be delayed to eat her food, she blew on the strands to get rid of them. After finishing her meal, she took a paper towel and wiped her hands, and put her hair back behind her ears.

The girl was really cute and the staff member’s eyes flashed with surprise, before gesturing to the cameraman to quickly capture such an innocent and funny face.

The staff had a lot of experience and they could quickly identify the state of players, and Qiao Dai was not a performance for the camera but 100% genuine. Those moments were very valuable, in many cases, real expressions moved hearts even more.

Unfortunately, even more extroverted people, as long as they knew cameras were around, would become somehow restrained; this was human nature. The audience wanted to see the true side of girls instead of having scripts deliberately arranged all the time, but most contestants did not understand. They insisted on concealing themselves and they all created similar and boring personas.

In Qiao Dai, however, the staff saw an extraordinarily pure temperament. Qiao Dai was like a little girl who knew nothing of the world. She had stepped into society from the depths of the ocean, full of curiosity for everything. She was ignorant, confused, and would sometimes make naive and ridiculous actions, but this imperfection and innocence made Qiao Dai more distinctive.

Whether it was Ruan Tao’s correct answer or Qiao Dai’s childish behavior, the cameraman was full of praise and decided to film them a lot for more viewers to see.

The staff kept interviewing the players and once everybody was done with breakfast, they all gathered in the hall with their three colored cards, waiting for the host to announce today’s assessment. 

“I believe everyone has received the three cards from the program group. The content of today’s filming is related to them.” The host said before pausing to let the contestants react. He then continued: “Today, we will take photos for the voting page of the official website for everyone and those three cards are your three themes. They are the sky, the forest, and the ocean.”

As soon as the host’s voice fell, the Class A players turned their heads and looked at Ruan Tao with admiration. They had not expected she would actually have casually guessed today’s shooting.

The host on the stage also smiled and looked at her. The staff had already told him that among the 101 girls, only Ruan Tao had guessed all three colors correctly.

Fans were not the only ones paying attention to the draft, but also major brands from the sidelines. They would insert suitable promotions through candidates for their own advertising and obviously, Ruan Tao’s publicity was very successful and bound to make her enter the eyes of other various labels.

For a moment, all eyes converged towards Ruan Tao and the girl smiled, neither proud nor humble. She was as graceful as a swan and it contrasted sharply with the expression of the other players, making her look even more angelic.

When Ruan Tao was done, her teammates praised her in low voices.

“Taotao, you’re so smart.”

“Yes, and the brand will definitely remember you!”

The girls were both envious and flattering but Ruan Tao did not feel particularly smug about it and kept smiling.

“It’s no big deal.”

Ruan Tao’s indifferent tone attracted even more admiration from the others. They knew her family was very good but they had never thought a young lady could be so humble. Was it the upbringing of the rich?

Ruan Tao talked a little bit more with her companions and when she turned her head, she noticed Qiao Dai and her friends who were standing further away from her and was a little startled.

Because she had guessed today’s topic, whether they were familiar with her or not, all the players complimented her. The advertisement added to that, she had been in the center of attention as she was used to. But when she saw Qiao Dai resting her head on Luan Zhen and dozing off, her heart suddenly tightened. Didn’t they care at all?

The girls were whispering and Ruan Tao was too far away to hear them. But she could guess the conversation was not about her and a strange feeling spread in her heart.

Ruan Tao had always thought she was not a complacent person, but seeing people who did not care about her, she felt a little uncomfortable.

If it was before yesterday, Ruan Tao would probably not have minded so much to Qiao Dai’s lack of reaction; she would have felt she simply didn’t need to care about her. But things were different now. Yesterday, Qiao Dai and her teammates had beaten Galaxy and Qiao Dai had also won against Lai You and demoted her to Class F. But more than that, during last night’s live broadcast… Ruan Tao felt really bad just thinking about it. This unpleasant feeling quickly flashed in her eyes before she remembered they were still recording and adjusted her mood. She forced herself to remove her gaze from Qiao Dai and Luan Zhen and turned back to look at the stage.

And at the same moment, Ruan Tao felt startled by the negative emotions she just had. Was she… afraid of Qiao Dai? She clenched her fists tightly. Her fingers were very cold, silently answering her question. No, this was ridiculous, how could she be afraid of an ordinary player?

It was true that Qiao Dai had performed very well yesterday. According to the current situation, she had the upper hand but Ruan Tao was confident hers and Galaxy’s strengths were more than that. 

Yesterday’s mediocre performance on stage was just to give a small demonstration of one’s impressive skills, but then? Ruan Tao didn’t believe the COCO trainees had also held back their strength. Therefore, it was too early to say who would go further in the future. Yes, thinking about it this way, she really had no need to worry.

Ruan Tao comforted herself but she still felt a little restless. Fortunately, the host started to announce the next part of today’s program, which temporarily distracted her from her thoughts.

“The shooting will be carried out on the North Island of the Cheng Group. You will all be divided into three groups to shoot your themes which are: Mirror of the Sky, Fantasy Forest, and Deep Blue Star Ocean. The shooting will be completed by professionals for everyone, so you can all take satisfactory photos.”

As soon as he stopped talking, he began to play the three scenic spots on the LED screen behind him; the dreamlike scenes made all the contestants admire it in silence. Cheng Group’s North Island project mainly promoted the fantasy forest, which looked straight out from a fairy tale, and it immediately caught the attention of the crowd.

This time, the players would be able to choose their theme in order, from Class A to Class F and each theme could have up to 33 contestants. The last theme to be filled would take everybody else and because Class A players were the first ones to choose their theme, they undoubtedly had the advantage.

“That forest shoot will absolutely be good!”

Luan Zhen knew that Qiao Dai had never participated in these kinds of similar shooting before and she wasn’t sure she knew about the Cheng Group North Island project either. She reminded her in a low voice and continued: “This is the main recommendation of North Island. There must be more to it than meets the eye.”

The North Island was the latest tourism project launched by the Cheng Group and had not yet been opened to the public. Only a few people had had the honor to experience it in advance, but these were still corporate secrets. The Cheng Group would definitely not let anyone know about the true face of the North Island before the official announcement. But even with little information, people could still speculate from the content of the several press conferences the Cheng Group had already held, and the Fantasy Forest was already the main attraction. Because of that, even if none of the players had seen the North Island, they knew the forest was the best out of the three themes.

The girls had no doubt they needed to choose the Fantasy Forest. After all, the Cheng Group itself was promoting it in particular and the players did not think their opinion would be better than theirs.

The host could guess the contestants’ thoughts and he smiled before speaking again: “I need to add one more point. Each theme will select the best photo at the end and the portraits of the winners will be used as promotional posters for the North Island. All tourists who come to visit will be able to see their faces.”

His voice was getting more and more excited and it aroused the emotions of the players. Everybody started whispering, trying to decide what to choose, and the scene was very lively, everyone’s eyes were full of ambition. 

Qiao Dai was no exception. However, unlike the other girls, she did not care about the publicity she could get but was very attracted to the image of the Deep Blue Star Sea she had seen on the screen. 

The ocean! Even if she was aware it wasn’t the real ocean, as a sea otter, she could not resist its temptation by nature. After seeing the azure blue, a raging flame had ignited in her eyes. Go, she was going to go!

Seeing that Qiao Dai, who was always either lazy or indifferent, suddenly came to life at this time, Luan Zhen was a little curious and jokingly said: “Daidai, I didn’t expect you would get so motivated today!”

Luan Zhen did not mean anything by that, who did not like to win? If they were not competitive, they would not have come to participate in a draft in the first place. The reason she was asking was because Qiao Dai seemed to be someone with zero ambition.

Hearing Luan Zhen, Qiao Dai was a little embarrassed. Her cheeks blushed and she glanced at her friend before whispering: “I also want to win!”

Yes! Qiao Dai also had her little sea otter pride! As an authentic marine animal, if she lost in a water-themed competition, she would only be able to pick up a small shell and hide in the sea away from sight. She wanted to win for the otter’s honor!

Luan Zhen immediately felt her heart was gently scratched by a kitten with claws. She took a deep breath, wondering who could stand such a cute Qiao Dai.

Chapter 18: Choose me, choose me (2)

The host was very satisfied with the high motivation of the players. He went straight back to topic and said: “Please, think carefully about the theme you want to choose, we will start grouping in a moment.”

The program team left to give the contestants a little time to discuss with each other after handing each of them a pen. The girls were supposed to write their names on the card they were interested in but no one started writing for a while. Everyone kept asking themselves carefully which subject would be the best.

“I want to choose the forest. Luan Zhen, Daidai, what about you?”

Because they had time to discuss, Shi Qing naturally went to talk with the other B players before asking her friends. Most girls already had their own ideas but Shi Qing was still hesitant.

Luan Zhen clapped her hands and smiled: “I also want to choose the forest. It feels wild and primitive, it’s exciting just to think about it.”

After listening to her answer, Qiao Dai’s eyes widened and she blurted out: “No, don’t choose the forest!”

According to the novel images that had poured into her mind a few days ago, in this assessment, Ruan Tao would also choose the forest and overwhelmingly win. Qiao Dai instinctively did not want her good friends to go head to head with Ruan Tao, but as soon as she said her thoughts, she regretted it. She should have been more careful and conscientious to try to convince Luan Zhen and Shig Qing, instead of just speaking rashly like she just had.

Not far away, Jiang Ruowei heard Qiao Dai’s voice and sneered before whispering to Lin Lang: “I told you she was scheming. Everybody is fooled by her innocent appearance but she wants the forest so she tells Luan Zhen and Shi Qing to choose something else.”

There was a hint of sarcasm in her tone. She admitted that she had a bad temper but she hated people like Qiao Dai the most; unlike her, Jiang Ruowei wasn’t scheming and would not hide her dislike. And now, Jiang Ruowei couldn’t help but gloat, thinking Qiao Dai had finally revealed her true face.

“Don’t say that, maybe she just doesn’t want to compete against teammates.”

Lin Lang looked over at Qiao Dai, neither confirming nor denying Jiang Ruowei’s words, and kept her thoughts to herself.

And Qiao Dai, as if to cover up her earlier slip of the tongue, added somewhat hastily: “I… I think this forest is different from the one you think. It should be a dreamy one.”

Qiao Dai was anxious and tried to explain while looking at Luan Zhen with worry, afraid of what she was thinking. It looked like she really had to read her language books again and learn the art of speaking better.

But while Qiao Dai was stressing out, Luan Zhen laughed after seeing Qiao Dai’s big black eyes filled with doubts. Who could bear it?

She said: “I understand, Daidai.” Luan Zhen was perfectly aware that Qiao Dai was only worried about her. Thinking back on the forest and of the fact it was the Fantasy Forest, she had to agree it was indeed not her style.

“Then I will choose the sky.”

Luan Zhen switched her theme and Qiao Dai felt relieved, trying to find a way to also convince Shi Qing. However, the girl’s voice was slowly heard: “There should be a lot of people who want to choose the forest. Ruan Tao should also be the most suitable for this theme, I don’t think anyone can do better than her.”

Shi Qing had guessed that Qiao Dai was afraid they would collide with Ruan Tao if they chose the forest. But she looked at her and continued: “But for me, there is no difference. It is impossible to get first place in any theme so I should just choose the one I like. But you two need to select a theme where you can win.” 

Shi Qing smiled shyly at her two teammates and added in a low voice: “I think you two will win.”

After saying this, she seemed to be a little embarrassed. It also happened that the discussion time was over and she ran back to Class B but not before cheering on her two friends.

“Okay, let’s start grouping now. Everyone should have had the time to write their names on the card of their choice and you will stick it on one of the three walls as we call you. Let’s ask the first player to come up.” As the host’s voice fell, the staff opened the curtain behind him and three walls of different colors appeared. Each contestant had to walk to the color they had chosen and paste their card on it. What should have been an ordinary grouping session suddenly became full of ritual.

A soft red carpet spread all the way to the wall and the contestants were selected according to their initial rating, starting from Class A. Immediately, almost all of them posted their cards on the green and white background walls.

Although the forest theme was the most attractive for the vast majority, many powerful players wanted it and, especially after Ruan Tao had put her name on it, some of them decided to stay away from it and select the sky as a second option. After all, when it came to dreamlike fairy style, nobody believed they could compete against Ruan Tao. In other words, it could have been said that this theme had been tailor-made for her and the other forest players were just running with it.

But even so, the Fantasy Forest could still shoot wonderful photos, and the trainees who knew they would never be able to win first place; as long as their photos on the official website were beautiful, they had also somehow won in their hearts.

It was soon Qiao Dai’s turn to make a choice and everybody was sure she would choose the forest too. Jiang Ruowei couldn’t help but sneer and waited to see a show between Luan Zhen and Qiao Dai.

Qiao Dai was petite with a pure temperament. Even Jiang Ruowei had to admit it, Qiao Dai looked like a small animal and others could only love her. Along with Ruan Tao, she was the most suited for the forest theme. Not only Jiang Ruowei thought so, but so did the other players. Moreover, if Qiao Dai wanted to choose the sky to begin with, she would not have needed to persuade Luan Zhen. As for the ocean…

The contestants suddenly felt anxious. They knew that the requirements for underwater photos were notoriously high for models. Behind those fantastic photos were the results of rigorous training; if you wanted to take successful underwater photos, the workload far exceeded other types of shooting. Not to mention contestants like them who had received no training at all; they were afraid they would not even be able to open their eyes in the water. Expression management was already impossible, let alone beautiful modeling. 

This was the reason no Class A trainee had selected the ocean theme so far. It was, with no doubt, the most difficult of the three.

But when everyone was thinking Qiao Dai would be like the other players, they looked at her walking towards the empty blue wall and punch her card on it.

Great, she was the first one! Before anyone could figure what was happening, Qiao Dai had slapped the card in her hand against the wall. On the huge blue wall, only one card with Qiao Dai’s name on it was hanging in the center, which was very eye-catching. And on that card, Qiao Dai had added two small round ears on her name; it looked particularly cute and attracted everyone’s attention.

After a while, people finally reacted. Wait a minute, had Qiao Dai just selected the ocean? The most difficult theme, the one that no players wanted? No way, was she that confident in her own strength? Even if you could get the first place, the photo taken would be shared on the official voting page at the end. Who did not want to take beautiful pictures? A not-so-good-looking portrait would not attract passersby no matter how they thought about it.

Looking at Qiao Dai’s very relaxed yet somewhat excited face, the other girls took a deep breath. Qiao Dai was indeed an unexpected player. No one ever knew what she would do next, but perhaps it was precisely this elusive behavior that had already seduced so many people; people were all wondering what her next action would be.

There was a whisper among the players, it was evident that Qiao Dai’s action had shaken them. The grouping was still in full swing and many players were standing in front of the green and the white walls, only Qiao Dai was still alone on her side. She was not embarrassed at all and would look at every new player coming forward with bright eyes, as if she was telling them to join her.

Most players did not want other strong contestants to choose the same theme as them. Every time one would, their expressions would become a little more subtle; only Qiao Dai could not wait to have all the beautiful ladies join her. She would watch each girl pass in front of her and keep on obediently waiting for the one that would finally choose her.

Seeing Qiao Dai’s eager eyes, some players could not help covering their chests. In their minds, Qiao Dai had already turned into a little cupid with a small bow, hitting all of their hearts with an arrow and coquettishly shouting: “Choose me, choose me!”

And finally, someone lost the battle. The girl quickly changed her mind, took out a pen, and wrote her name on the blue card before rushing towards Qiao Dai. Qiao Dai’s eyes widened in surprise and happiness: finally, the ocean team had a second member!

Qiao Dai hugged her with excitement and the girl smiled at her before placing her card on the wall and stood beside Qiao Dai to wait for the next player.

After everyone saw who the girl was, someone suddenly exclaimed: “Wait a second, isn’t Lu Ying from Galaxy?”

How come she had joined Qiao Dai?