That question was pretty amusing—Li Mengjiao debuted from a singing competition. She might not know how to act or find the camera, but she definitely knew how to sing.
Everyone could tell the team leader was very impressed with Li Mengjiao at first glance. Asking her to sing was like asking a top student to take a test—piece of cake. Just grab the test and do it!
“I can sing!”
Li Mengjiao nodded confidently. As she turned, Wen Ying quickly stepped forward to take the half-drunk milk carton from her hand.
That milk carton was the sneakiest prop, and now that its purpose was served, it was time for it to make a graceful exit.
The stage belonged to Li Mengjiao.
Hearing her say she could sing, the team leader told his assistant to get the sheet music.
The assistant, unable to rein in his overzealous boss, reluctantly went to take the music from Xu Mei’s hands—if he wasn’t embarrassed, someone else would be.
The assistant went all in.
They were the ones throwing money at Hunan TV, the so-called sugar daddy, the client!
Elsewhere, it’s the client making demands of the vendor, but this time at Hunan TV, things were dragging on unsatisfactorily.
Sure, they wanted to promote their own artist, which was understandable. For cooperation, both sides needed terms they could agree on.
In fact, after Hunan TV submitted their promotion plan, the advertising team leader had hastily watched last year’s competition footage and felt that, among the top three, Li Mengjiao best fit the brand image.
Her face was fresh and delicate, clearly a pampered young girl.
It’s not that Xu Mei was bad, but the leader’s personal taste leaned elsewhere. He always felt Xu Mei had a slightly bitter look… maybe it was the company’s packaging, calling her “refined and intellectual,” which didn’t sound like a description for a young girl. He’d assumed Xu Mei was at least 25!
And all the client wanted was to take a look at Li Mengjiao before deciding—hardly an unreasonable request, right?
They hadn’t insisted on signing Li Mengjiao!
But no.
They kept making excuses, pushing Xu Mei instead.
The assistant knew their leader was already unhappy.
A big shot with influence at group headquarters, out here spending money to promote the brand, only to be force-fed by the vendor. How could he be happy?
It’s like going to a restaurant and saying, “Your dumplings are great, bring me a plate.”
The restaurant checks the kitchen, finds they’re out of dumplings and too lazy to make more, so they serve you a plate of steamed buns instead, insisting the buns are delicious, that your preference for dumplings is wrong, and going on about how great buns are.
You came for dumplings, and when you meet this kind of idiotic restaurant, not flipping the table is already polite. And then they expect you to pay for buns you didn’t touch? No way!
Nobody likes being force-fed something.
The more they block you from dumplings, the more you crave them.
What might’ve been a six-out-of-ten expectation gets pushed to an eight by the restaurant’s nonsense.
Same thing here.
No wonder the leader got excited seeing Li Mengjiao.
With her entrance today, even if she sang terribly, it wouldn’t matter.
It’s an ad—post-production can fix the sound!
The assistant walked up to Xu Mei and extended his hand, “Miss Xu, sorry.”
Xu Mei gripped the sheet music tightly, biting her lip, feeling utterly humiliated.
The assistant was already holding the music; if she didn’t let go, she’d be the one embarrassed.
Usually quick to protect Young Master Cao, Xu Mei was at a loss now, looking around blankly for support.
Liang Dan’s expression was grim, and Xu Mei’s heart sank. Her grip loosened, and the assistant pulled the sheet music away.
She knew that letting go meant letting go of this endorsement opportunity.
Such a great opportunity!
What was a million-yuan album compared to this?
This ad had a 30-million-yuan promotion budget from the dairy giant!
…
The sheet music was handed to Li Mengjiao.
She looked it over carefully and couldn’t help but laugh.
She’d thought they might actually make her do the splits. It was just singing.
The worst would’ve been singing while doing the splits.
The moves weren’t hard, but her skirt today was too short—doing the splits would’ve been a wardrobe malfunction!
Singing was no big deal, and the melody was simple. Li Mengjiao hummed a few bars, cleared her throat, and started singing.
“Little speakers in my ears~ Hiding under the covers reading comics~ Still in my ivory tower~ How I wish to grow up overnight…”
As she sang with her head down, her twin pigtails swayed gently, making the team leader want to tap the beat for her.
When she hit the chorus climax, even Wen Ying could barely resist singing along.
Xu Mei’s boyfriend, Young Master Cao, stayed silent, listening intently to Li Mengjiao’s singing.
“I like sour and sweet~ That’s the real me~”
“Every day feels so fresh to me~ My picky taste~ Has the most unique flair~~”
The more she sang, the smoother it got.
By the time she finished, Li Mengjiao wanted to laugh.
This song had zero difficulty.
The team leader, who’d been force-fed the “buns are great” line, finally got his dumplings. Despite his assistant’s frantic eye signals and twitching expressions, he ignored them.
He was the paying sponsor—why should he compromise to save someone else’s face?
The team leader let loose, tapping the beat to accompany Li Mengjiao.
Yuan Fenghui’s eyes and brows were smiling, Wen Ying was smiling too, but Liang Dan couldn’t muster one.
All Liang Dan could think was, “The game is over!”
The atmosphere was perfect until Li Mengjiao suddenly stopped singing.
“Why’d you stop?”
“You got the beat wrong, I lost the tune…”
Li Mengjiao sounded a bit aggrieved.
This leader-looking guy seemed to like her, but she really couldn’t help it!
The off-beat tapping threw her off—how could she keep singing?
The team leader was instantly embarrassed.
Liang Dan never expected such a twist, shooting Yuan Fenghui a provocative look: This is the idiot newbie you brought?
Spoiled too much, huh? So spoiled she can’t read the room!
Yuan Fenghui wasn’t worried at all.
What kind of ordeal was this?
At least Wen Ying picked a short skirt for Li Mengjiao today, so this silly girl didn’t actually try the splits.
Yuan Fenghui’s nerves had been toughened by Li Mengjiao’s antics!
Wen Ying wasn’t worried either.
The dairy giant’s sponsor seemed to really like Li Mengjiao—this little hiccup might not even count as an offense to them.
The same action depends on who’s doing it. Li Mengjiao’s childlike charm made it hard for normal people to hold a grudge.
Sure enough, the team leader burst into hearty laughter to ease the awkwardness, “Right, right, my bad for not paying attention. I messed you up, didn’t I? No worries, you sang great!”
God, isn’t this a bit much?
A rhythm-challenged outsider—can you even tell if she sang well?
This wasn’t just giving a top student a test; it was handing her the answer key in front of everyone to copy!
Xu Mei looked down at the dress she’d snatched, a self-mocking smile on her lips: Turns out, I’m the clown.
