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!]
[+1, I would like the link too! I want to use the same makeup as our little sister and become a mermaid!]
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 (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!]
[+1, I would like the link too! I want to use the same makeup as our little sister and become a mermaid!]
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.
