The club atmosphere ignited the venue with thousands dancing, and just the opening show alone pushed today’s stage straight into the top three trending topics.
As the music gradually stopped, Li Yang, who was in control of the entire scene, lowered his hand, and the audience below tacitly lowered their voices, slightly calming down from the previous excitement.
The lights dimmed again, and the others returned backstage from one side of the stage, leaving only Li Yang standing there.
With a breathy voice, he spoke into the microphone, "Up next, I’m bringing you a classic song that has appeared many times in the show, ’As Long as You Love Me’. This time it’s a serious performance."
A burst of laughter erupted from below.
Offstage, Guan Yu rolled her eyes and hummed twice, placing her hand on Mu Qiu’s waist and giving it a squeeze, "I feel like Li Yang singing this song is just an insult to me."
"An insult is an insult, why are you groping my waist?"
Mu Qiu expressionlessly moved her hand away, only for her to cling on again.
"This waist is so slender, this waist-to-hip ratio is so... so curvaceous, can this idiom be used like this?" she grinned, giving another squeeze.
"... You used it even if you can’t. Don’t you have a waist yourself?"
"Who doesn’t have a waist? The main point is not having a waist like yours, wearing a tight dress and pulling off this look, I’ve only seen you achieve it."
Guan Yu squinted her eyes, getting closer with a mischievous look, "Can you reveal the secret to maintaining such a good figure?"
"Trade secret."
"Got it, it’s Brother Cheng, that really is a trade secret."
Mu Qiu: "......"
On the stage, Li Yang’s clean voice had already started, completely different from the previous comical version of ’la la la love me’, singing tenderly and affectionately.
"Li Yang finally pulled himself together," Guan Yu picked up the lyrics book for the next song, put on her headphones and continued studying, "Next up, it’s on me."
Shu Ran sat aside with her arms crossed, "Where did you get your confidence? Everyone’s discussing that you’ll turn the next song into a scary nursery rhyme too."
"... Slander!"
The others chuckled merrily, slightly breaking free from the tense atmosphere.
After laughing, those who needed to prepare for the upcoming performance went to prepare, and those who needed to be on standby went to standby.
Mu Qiu was pressed to sit on a high stool by Cheng Zhirang, looking up at him.
He averted his gaze to avoid directly seeing her cleavage, then tugged at his suit pant leg, half squatting in front of her, meeting her eyes.
"Rest for a bit, take a deep breath."
Mu Qiu reached out to grab his hand, closed her eyes, and took two deep breaths, the black tight-fitting gauze dress rhythmically rising and falling at her chest.
"There are too many people," she was still a bit nervous, "a pitch-black mass, when they scream, I almost can’t hear the music."
Cheng Zhirang held her hand back, watching her gently with his beautiful eyes:
"It’s okay, when it’s our turn on stage, we’ll wear earpieces, so we can hear the music. I remember you said you’ve been to an amusement park to play on high swings before?"
She nodded, quickly understanding what he meant, "There were indeed a lot of people, and it was noisy. When several people swung together, the screams of those who were more timid could deafen my ears. Very similar, but when I was swinging, I could scream too."
"You can’t scream here, but you can do something else to release nervousness."
...
Assistant Xiao Yuan was stationed at the entrance of the backstage dressing room, while Assistant Wen was on standby at the backstage watching the performance schedule.
Inside the dressing room, two people in their stage outfits were kissing with abandon.
His warm hand was firmly pressed on her side, the black ribbon tied around his neck somehow moved to her chest, stuck motionless between her two fair mounds, the silk material rubbing against her skin, bringing a tingling sensation.
In the heated atmosphere, Mu Qiu only felt her heart racing, ready to leap out of her chest, her mind went blank, her breath becoming more rapid and lacking air, until she felt like she was about to suffocate.
Cheng Zhirang finally released her.
She greedily breathed in like a fish stranded ashore, limp in his arms.
Cheng Zhirang panted lightly, kissing the corner of her eye, holding back as he asked, "Feeling a bit better?"
Mu Qiu lacked the energy to answer him, her body weak, lifted a hand to clear the long hair sticking to her neck, then wrapped both arms around his neck.
"Is stress relief just through kissing? I thought you were going to take me down to blend in with the fans and scream together."
"That’s not safe. Are high heels tiring?"
She shook her head, "It’s okay, do you like this dress? Actually, I have a similar one, a simpler version."
Cheng Zhirang swallowed, closed his eyes for a moment, choosing to follow his heart, softly saying, "I like it. You look great in such dresses."
So good that Guan Yu and the others were staring at her intently, with a teasing expression.
Mu Qiu laughed, "Just now, Sister Guan Yu even asked me if there’s a secret recipe to maintaining such a figure."
Her fingers traced his chin, Adam’s apple, collarbone, continuing with a deeper meaning, "I said yes, and she instantly guessed."
"What?"
"You~"
The temperature in the room rose again, innocent lip pecks also brought extreme pleasure.
Xiao Yuan stood at the door playing with his phone, maintaining real-time communication with Assistant Wen.
[What act is it at?]
[Assistant Wen: Li Yang and Guan Yu’s Wave Treading just ended, next up is the guest performer, then there’s a rehearsal room highlight coming up.]
[Assistant Wen: The schedule hasn’t changed much, still have plenty of time. But still, advise Brother Cheng not to do... you know, if discovered, the impact would be huge.]
[... They’re not that reckless. I can already hear music inside, probably rehearsing dance already.]
[Assistant Wen: That’s good then, I was on edge about it.]
[Brother Wen, have you watched too many dramas or something? Do you really think they’re such brainless people?]
[Assistant Wen: I’m just worried about the chance of what if. Anyway, no more chatting, Sister Chen is coming over, be tactful.]
[Got it]
Xiao Yuan put away his phone and made eye contact with Chen Song as she rounded the corner.
Chen Song squinted her eyes, "Xiao Yuan, why are you standing at the dressing room door?"
"Brother Cheng and Sister Mu Qiu are rehearsing inside," she replied matter-of-factly.
"Rehearsing?"
What kind of rehearsal hides in the dressing room at this time and needs someone guarding the door?
She frowned tightly, a notion crossing her mind that she found unlikely.
She approached the door and knocked.
"Cheng Zhirang?"
Three seconds later, Cheng Zhirang opened the door.
"What’s up? Is it our turn?"
She looked inside, Mu Qiu was bending over pausing the music on her phone on the dressing table, the music immediately stopped.
Didn’t look like they did anything inappropriate.
Chen Song felt a heavy weight lift from her heart, thinking thankfully Cheng Zhirang hadn’t turned into a hormone-driven prince, still the gentlemanly, well-mannered aristocrat.
"It’s almost time to show the highlight, you need to be on standby backstage, so many people waiting, you can’t just disappear."
Firstly, it might make people think he’s being arrogant, secondly, with their disappearance, others might think something else is going on.
Cheng Zhirang nodded, turned his head to call Mu Qiu.
"Qiuqiu, let’s go to standby."