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.
“I have heard one of you guessed today’s theme.” The host knew how to provoke the scene, and although he did not say any name, the players had already found out who it was.
“Is it Ruan Tao?”
“That’s amazing!”
The host paused for a few seconds and when the mood had increased enough, he confirmed: “Yes, it’s Ruan Tao. And for guessing correctly, the program prepared a small gift”
The so-called small gift was a set of cosmetics provided by a sponsor. Ruan Tao took the box from the staff and the card that came with it. With her sweet voice, she gently read its content; people could now say with confidence Ruan Tao would endorse this brand in the future.
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 (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.
“I have heard one of you guessed today’s theme.” The host knew how to provoke the scene, and although he did not say any name, the players had already found out who it was.
“Is it Ruan Tao?”
“That’s amazing!”
The host paused for a few seconds and when the mood had increased enough, he confirmed: “Yes, it’s Ruan Tao. And for guessing correctly, the program prepared a small gift”
The so-called small gift was a set of cosmetics provided by a sponsor. Ruan Tao took the box from the staff and the card that came with it. With her sweet voice, she gently read its content; people could now say with confidence Ruan Tao would endorse this brand in the future.
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.
