CH 22

Chapter 22: Fugitive mermaid (1)

By the time all the contestants had finished shooting, it was already 7 pm. Because the progress of each group had been different, all had finished at different times and by the time Qiao Dai took off her makeup and returned to the dormitory of Class A, both the forest and the sky groups were already back.

“Daidai, why did your group come back so late?” The forest team had been the first to finish and Shi Qing had gone to Class A’s dormitory to wait for Luan Zhen and Qiao Dai. She had prepared them dinner, guessing they would not have had the time to eat.

Qiao Dai was so tired she was almost falling asleep standing up. But as soon as she walked in, a delicious smell came to her nose. She closed her eyes and as if she was sleepwalking, she followed the scent.

Taking a closer look, she saw that Shi Qing had bought fish balls and some other snacks. Luan Zhen and several other players were already sitting at the table and eating, and noticing Qiao Dai was back, they all greeted her and invited her over.

Qiao Dai quickly washed her hands and returned. There was a bowl of fragrant curry in front of her; the taste was fresh and the fish balls were firm and went perfectly with the rice. Qiao Dai felt extremely satisfied right after the first bite.

“Shi Qing, you are so good!”

Qiao Dai thanked Shi Qing, her mouth full, and answered the previous question: “We had a lot of people in our group.”

The ocean group indeed had more players than the others, but the majority of them were also from classes D and F and would take more time to shoot1.

“How was it? I heard it was quite difficult on your side.” Shi Qing asked with concern, The shooting of their forest group had gone very smoothly and the players had returned to the dormitory early. They could only learn from the other two groups from the staff, which was how she had known the Ocean team had to work overtime.

Qiao Dai nodded and recalled today’s situation. Except for the accident with the water sprinkler, it had gone well the rest of the time. Especially once she was done, many sisters suddenly seemed to find inspiration and entered their states very quickly.

“I have to tell you, guys, Daidai was huge today. When the official website launches our portraits, you will definitely be surprised.”

While Qiao Dai and the others had been chatting, Lu Ying had also walked in. She was here to find her teammates and hearing they were talking about today’s shooting, she couldn’t help to step forward to show off to the forest and sky players their ocean champion.

“A surprise, oh?”

“Ah, I hate you! Lu Ying, you dare to show off, quickly tell me more!”

Lu Ying had a very good relationship with many players, especially since she was still a member of Galaxy. So when she came in, the other Class A players started to talk and asked her a lot of questions with curiosity. But Lu Ying only smiled mysteriously and blinked with innocence at the girls: “The official picture will be uploaded soon, you’ll see. But our ocean group was the first to enjoy our treasure Daidai’s beauty!” 

Another player from the ocean team nodded in agreement before joking: “This is the exclusive privilege of our ocean group!”

Although it was only the first time they were in the same group, the girls couldn’t help but feel closer to Qiao Dai after today. After today’s event, they had asked for Qiao Dai’s contact information and really wanted to become friends. After seeing her performance, they hadn’t felt jealous but instead a little happy: only their group was able to see her photos in advance!

Seeing that this group was acting this way, the rest of the players felt somewhat curious and looked with a little expectation at Qiao Dai; they could only guess what the result would be, but it should be brilliant, shouldn’t it? Looking at Lu Ying’s and the others’ proud looks, it felt that they were the ones with the incredible pictures instead. How amazing could Qiao Dai’s photos be to make competitors parade? With that in mind, the girls were eager to refresh the webpage and see if the program had uploaded everything.

But before the portraits were put online, the official page shared small highlights of today’s shooting. Fans had long been eagerly waiting in front of their screen and when they saw the updates, they quickly entered the comment area.

[Ahahah, I can see Daidai!]

In the few tidbits posted, Qiao Dai had been walking and had suddenly been drenched by the watering device. That Weibo instantly got the most views and went viral in all <Pick Eleven> related groups.

On the screen, Qiao Dai was walking briskly, seemingly ready to shoot, when the lawn sprinkler turned on out of nowhere and doused her in water. Watching it, the comments were full of laughter for a while but the viewers also felt it was a bit unlucky and could not help but get worried about Daidai.

[Is Daidai okay?]

[What is the staff doing? Why aren’t they checking the equipment?]

Qiao Dai’s fans were both distressed and angry; they even wondered whether the program group deliberately wanted to suppress Qiao Dai and show her ugly moments. Everyone knew suddenly being soaked was an embarrassing and messy moment; Qiao Dai had painted on such beautiful makeup and it could only be ruined after that. 

But this mood only lasted for a few seconds because, the next moment, everyone was stunned by Qiao Dai’s appearance. People who had just been laughing or complaining looked at the image on the screen; the girl looked naive, her eyes full of confusion, and between the drops of water and the bright sunlight, she looked so dazzling it made people feel dizzy. The barrage went blank for a minute and everyone was amazed by the scene before them, deeply attracted by the girl on the screen.

It wasn’t until the end of the video that all viewers came back to their senses and clicked the play button again. Finally, everyone rushed to comment once more.

[Omg, that was amazing!]

[I declare that Daidai is the fugitive princess of our Ocean Kingdom. Nobody can disagree!]

[Oh my God, the beautiful young lady became a mermaid once drenched in water.]

The audience was frantically sharing their excitement in the barrage, and in an instant, this video was shared all over the Internet. Not only in the relevant communities, it went wild among passersby and after a while, a topic called #Fugitive mermaid# rushed into the hot search.

[Listen up! Daidai’s true identity had been discovered: she is a mermaid from the sea! We have pictures to prove it!]

Qiao Dai’s fans had cut the footage where she was drenched in water and as soon as it was shared, it quickly attracted people that were not following the draft. Like the previous netizens, they first thought it was a funny and unlucky video but after looking at all the shared screenshots, their interests all picked up and they started to inquire about Qiao Dai.

[Why hasn’t this show aired yet? We want to see the lady!]

[Is this real? I feel like I just saw the Little Mermaid.]

[Am I the only one focusing on her makeup? Can someone send a link? The waterproof effect is too good!]

What had started as a simple share, with the influx of passersby, the topic’s popularity kept increasing. In addition to Qiao Dai’s stunning appearance, many people turned their attention to the cosmetics she was using and inquired about it.

This was utterly beyond the program team’s expectations but when anyone thought about it, it was not complicated to understand why it went viral; Qiao Dai’s naivety in this shot was simply too impactful.

The staff soon realized that many comments were about the makeup and reported to the direction. The director was on the phone, a large smile on his face, and was nodding repeatedly. He signaled them to wait and chatted for about ten more minutes before hanging up.

“What is it?”

The director picked up his kettle; he had just spoken too much and his mouth was dry. When he heard about Qiao Dai, he slightly frowned and said: “Do you still need to ask me? Push it! Hurry up, the investors are already calling and you are dilly-dallying.”

On the phone just now had been one of the sponsors, the beauty company SPICE. They had called to inform them they had chosen Qiao Dai to be the next product’s line spokesperson.

The SPICE company originally had a wait-and-see attitude but after the #Fugitive mermaid# topic, they had keenly smelled the commercial value to such popularity and had decided to select Qiao Dai as their spokesperson for the upcoming series. It could be said that the short minute of the video where Qiao Dai had been soaked had changed SPICE’s mind, and it seemed that this decision had not been wrong: after SPICE reposted the video, #Fugitive Mermaid# quickly rose to the top of the hot search.

[The little sister’s face is so beautiful, SPICE really found a treasure!]

[If there is a blogger that is thinking of redoing Daidai’s makeup, I’ll be the first one to praise you!]

Some netizens quickly found the links of the makeup and the SPICE online website quickly ran out of the eye shadow, mascara, and lip gloss used by Qiao Dai. The customer service was soon overwhelmed by mermaid makeup demands and went to look at the hot search to understand what was happening.

[Doesn’t that mean SPICE will send a box to Qiao Dai? @SPICE]

A fan posted screenshots of the sales and the customer service’s reply. What had started as a joke was soon forwarded and commented on until the official SPICE reposted it with a message: “It is arranged.”

After that, people kept interacting and many people remembered Qiao Dai’s name; the show had yet to officially air, Qiao Dai’s popularity had already risen in unexpected and colossal ways.

Chapter 22: Fugitive mermaid (2)

With the heat, there were naturally discordant voices. It did not take long for trolls and black fans to flood the topic and rant.

[They bought the hot search, didn’t they? Way to spend money!]

In addition to Qiao Dai’s buzz, there was also a video of Song Yiqi walking in the air. In the video, Song Yiqi looked different from her usual bright and beautiful appearance and had shown a more androgynous style. She was wearing a magician robe and a high hat and was walking suspended in the air. Nobody could see any transparent glass yet she looked so natural.

Netizens exclaimed: Is Song Yiqi an aerial magician?

To that, the girl had quickly responded on her Weibo. She had posted a video of her failing and added: “No, no, no, I am a trainee magician *covers face*”

This playful comment, which did not match Song Yiqi’s usual attitude, gained herself a new wave of fans and sent her to the hot search too. And seeing someone mentioning her on Qiao Dai’s post, her fans were upset.

[Don’t cue our Sister Song, we are not hiring.]

[Please don’t use our Song Song!]

[Leave our Sister Song alone, we do not seek discord.]

Song Yiqi’s fan group was very special. They never wandered into muddy waters and never let anyone use them as guns. As for the people who were deliberately trying to create discord between Qiao Dai’s and Song Yiqi’s fans, no one paid attention to them.

Some instant later, someone from the North Island staff sent another post saying:

[Many beautiful sisters were on site today but one of them was drenched in water just before modeling. Fortunately, it did not delay her shooting, otherwise my supervisor would have scolded us to death. It was really bad luck, the watering device was obviously not broken, why did it suddenly go off? Let’s share this post to ward off the bad luck of ourselves and the little sister.]

This was obviously a private account that had mostly work content. The owner had posted several screenshots of conversations with her coworkers, discussing why the lawn sprinkler had gone off all of sudden. The maintenance staff was saying there had been no problem with it and that it was possible someone may have accidentally touched the switch.

While it had started as a simple complaint, the amount of information shared contained too much to not be noticed by netizens. Qiao Dai’s fans, who had originally thought the device had been broken, suddenly started to wonder: Could someone have deliberately targeted Qiao Dai?

When they looked at the video again and at Qiao Dai’s startled expression, although she did not look panicked, she likely had been frightened. The fans felt distressed the more they thought about it; she was so young and she had been suddenly drenched in water just before shooting something so important, how lost must have she felt at that time? Hadn’t she looked so good, would she have broken down in this kind of situation? The fans became angry and started to investigate.

[If it was an accident, it’s ok. But if someone is trying to target Daidai, wait and see, we will catch you!]

***

There was a lot of noise on the Internet and someone was anxious.

“Lai You, was it you?”

After getting back to the dormitory, Lai You had opened Weibo to browse today’s content. It had not taken her a long time to notice Qiao Dai’s video and her mood instantly became a bit delicate; not only Qiao Dai had entered the hot search but the more netizens talked, the more Lai You felt someone would discover she had kicked off the device. And when she saw the message posted by the staff member, she started panicking. What would she do if someone found out? No, there were so many people on the scene and the camera had not captured anything. No one would find out.

Although Lai You tried her best to comfort herself, panic still spread in her heart. When she heard the question of her roommates, she acted like a cat who just had its tail stepped on: “What are you talking about? It has nothing to do with me!”

Lai You looked at the other girls in annoyance and discovered they were all looking at her with surprise. The girl in front raised a hand holding milk tea embarrassed and sneered: “I just wanted to know if you were the one that had ordered the tea. Seems like it wasn’t, sorry.”

Lai You realized she had overreacted and felt somewhat regretful. The atmosphere in the room became heavy and she went straight outside without saying anything else to her roommates. As she left, the girls inside breathed a sigh of relief and, at the same time, couldn’t help but wonder if Lai You’s outburst was related to the lawn sprinkler accident.

Every player was paying attention to the hot searches and they naturally knew about today’s event. They hadn’t thought much about it, that it was only an accident, but after Lai You’s abnormal reaction, they had some doubts.

“If Lai You really did it…”

“Shh, don’t say more, she will say you’re slandering her.”

The trainees stopped talking about it but made a note in their hearts. They were only Class F players and did not believe they would make their debut, but knowing that Lai You was sharing a room with them and was the kind of person to play dirty, they decided to increase their vigilances.

The change of attitude of Lai You’s roommates towards her was quickly noticed by the other players. Especially when conspiracy theories were raging among the trainees, this little change was particularly conspicuous, and suspicion spread rather fast. While they had no proof, as the saying went, better safe than sorry and they all decided to keep their distance from her from then on.

Lai You of course also noticed this change too. She first thought it was her illusion and only realized the seriousness of the matter when her agent called.

“Lai You, what the hell are you doing? Are you out of your mind?”

As soon as the call was connected, before Lai You could say anything, her agent reprimanded her. The manager sounded very anxious and Lai You became pale but did not dare to talk. She waited until her agent’s anger receded and tried to defend herself: “I know my stage rating wasn’t good but the watering device really has nothing to do! They are all slandering me!”

Her agent was already out of breath but when she heard Lai You’s reply, she felt angry once more but also disappointed; she had not expected she would still not tell the truth. As an agent, she didn’t really care what happened to her artists, her only requirement was that they were not allowed to lie to the agency.

But right now, Lai You was actually trying to hide things from her, how could she be confident when sending opportunities to her? If she went too far, nobody knew how many people would be affected!

“Forget it, I am wasting my time. Go online and look for yourself, so you know why you are being scolded everywhere.” The agent sneered and added nonchalantly: “If you keep acting this way, Galaxy’s reputation will sooner or later be tarnished by you.”

Her voice was cold and she paused slightly and said in a very calm and sharp tone: “I believe this is how far you’ll go.”