The Sickly Beauty Gives Up Struggling [Rebirth] Chapter 121

Leaving the bustling recording venue behind, Li Rong headed straight for the emergency exit.

Under normal circumstances, the program staff didn’t encourage audience members to go to the restroom during non-break periods, as it could interfere with the recording. Thus, Li Rong was briefly stopped at the emergency exit.

Li Rong flashed a staff ID badge, and after a moment’s hesitation, the staff let him through.

The hallway leading to the backstage area was wide and brightly lit. People were hurrying back and forth.

About ten meters ahead was a public restroom, primarily used by artists and backstage staff. Audience members generally didn’t have access to it.

Li Rong stretched his stiff shoulders and neck, taking a deep breath. The air in the hallway felt much fresher than in the venue.

He walked past the restroom and headed straight to the backstage area.

Whenever someone saw him, they would pause for a moment—not because he seemed unfamiliar, but because there were many temporary staff at such large-scale recordings, and no one knew everyone else.

Li Rong was simply too striking in appearance, making people briefly wonder if he might be a contestant.

After all, there were a hundred contestants, and even the staff hadn’t memorized all their faces yet.

Li Rong navigated the backstage smoothly. The area was filled with various rooms: lounges, makeup rooms, training rooms, interview rooms… Each door had a label, but they were all tightly shut. No one could see what was going on inside.

Only the backstage viewing room was open. It seemed to be filled with contestants waiting for their turn on stage. For recording purposes, cameras were constantly pointed at them, capturing their excited or nervous expressions for post-production edits.

Li Rong guessed that Lin Zhen was probably in the viewing room.

There were too many people coming and going near the viewing room. He didn’t plan to squeeze in, and since no one was stopping him, he wandered around backstage.

Several lounges were scattered throughout, and one of them finally had an open door. Someone walked out, a piece of bread in their mouth, putting on a coat as they went.

Li Rong recognized the person—it was a singer named Fu Huan, who had just finished performing. Fu Huan had gained some online fame for covering songs before joining the competition, and he had plenty of fans in the audience.

Fu Huan’s face was full of fatigue as he lowered his head, not wanting to talk. It was clear that his performance had drained him.

Li Rong recalled that this person had seemed nervous on stage earlier, even missing a beat in their performance.

As Fu Huan left the room, Li Rong quickly stepped forward and held the door to the lounge open. 

Hearing movement behind him, Fu Huan instinctively glanced back. He looked at Li Rong for a few seconds, likely mistaking him for a fellow contestant. 

According to social etiquette, Fu Huan should have greeted him, but he seemed too drained to bother. By the time he hesitated, Li Rong had already walked inside.

Fu Huan scratched at his stiff, powder-covered hair and sluggishly went to touch up his makeup.

The lounge was surprisingly spacious. It contained a row of massage chairs, with a table nearby stocked with snacks and even instant noodles. 

Two individuals were already lounging in the massage chairs—earlier performers who had finished their sets. 

One of them was Cheng Zerui, who didn’t sing particularly well but had youth and a cute face on his side.

Cheng Zerui belonged to a major company, which had even spent two minutes introducing him during his stage appearance. 

A judge had joked that Cheng was his “junior colleague” from the same company—a veiled endorsement aimed at the audience and media.

By comparison, Lin Zhen’s position seemed truly pitiable, lacking both resources and background.

Li Rong scanned the table for a snack and picked up a pineapple pie. 

Grabbing a second one for Cen Xiao, he hadn’t even unwrapped the pie before the door to the lounge resounded with loud banging.

“Cheng Zerui! Are you in there?”

The knocking was impatient, as though someone had been searching for him for ages and was on the verge of losing their temper.

Li Rong saw a thin young man lying on a massage chair, irritably tearing off the eye mask on his face, his expression full of annoyance.

His eyes were red, clearly just waking up. His face was puffy, and most of his eye makeup had smudged.

“Who is it?” The recently awoken often have a temper, especially when the first thing they hear is the annoying banging of a door and someone yelling at the top of their lungs.

For the sake of this competition, he hadn’t eaten or slept for a whole day. He had just come off stage and finally had a moment to rest, but barely half an hour later, someone was shouting to wake him up.

The next second, a staff member rudely pushed open the door to the lounge and stormed over to Cheng Zerui. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere, and here you are hiding! Good grief—your makeup’s ruined, your face is swollen—what are you even doing?”

Cheng Zerui forced himself to suppress his anger, his brows almost knotted together. “Didn’t I finish the interview? What else do you need?”

The staff member glanced warily at Li Rong and another contestant standing by with a bewildered expression. They hesitated before saying, “Fix your face and hurry. You need to come out and meet someone.”

Cheng Zerui, after all, was a seed contestant carefully nurtured by a major company. He had confidence—and a temper to match. “Just tell me. Who am I meeting?”

The staff member, exasperated, snapped, “Would you even know if I told you? It’s President Zheng!”

As soon as the staff member finished speaking, the murmur of the busy corridor filtered through the crack in the door. Glancing nervously toward the entrance, they grabbed Cheng Zerui’s arm without further explanation. “Forget it, no time to fix anything. Just come with me now!”

Cheng Zerui, still weak and reluctant, was dragged out by the staff member.

There was no way Li Rong would miss out on such a scene.

He tossed his pineapple pie aside and got up to follow.

One of the remaining contestants timidly asked, “Why are you going out there? They’re calling Cheng Zerui.”

Li Rong found it amusing. “Aren’t you curious to see what someone else has that you don’t?”

Contestant: “…”

By the time Li Rong walked out, the corridor was already crowded with people circling around someone in the center.

Li Rong craned his neck to see into the crowd.

At the center was a middle-aged man with a round face. The distance between his temples and his eyes was wide, making his eyes appear unusually close together. His hair was cropped short, gradually lengthening from his temples to the top of his head, seemingly to counterbalance his overly round face—but it was clearly a failed attempt. The hairstyle made him look like a watermelon with spikes.

His eyebrows were faint, and only in the creases of his wrinkles could one discern a bit of color. His eyelids drooped heavily, his pupils were slightly upward, leaving a large portion of the whites of his eyes exposed.

His skin was naturally dark, and a bright gold bracelet gleamed on his wrist. Though he had a short and stocky build, he was squeezed into a tight, high-collared golf outfit, resembling a pumpkin wrapped in a balloon.

Li Rong recognized him. This was Zheng Zhupan, the head of Suhe Biotech.

Zheng Zhupan was surrounded by admirers and staff as he gestured theatrically. “That one…Bring a couple of young men with me for dinner later.” 

Li Rong noticed that Fu Huan was already standing next to Zheng Zhupan.

Fu Huan was one of the most well-known contestants, so Zheng Zhupan had probably heard of him and specifically requested his presence.

However, Fu Huan didn’t look pleased—not everyone could immediately adapt to the idea of dining and drinking with sponsors.

Li Rong casually pulled aside a staff member who was watching the scene and quietly asked, “Who is this President Zheng?”

The staff member blinked at him, not recognizing Li Rong but instinctively answering his question. “President Zheng is one of our show’s investors. He’s involved in awarding the bonus.”

Li Rong appeared thoughtful.

No wonder Suhe Biotech hadn’t been mentioned in the host’s sponsor introductions—Zheng Zhupan’s role was behind the scenes as a profit-sharer.

“President Zheng! President Zheng! Cheng Zerui is here! We’ve found him!”

The staff member finally dragged a thoroughly irritated Cheng Zerui into the circle, grinning broadly and cautiously introducing him to Zheng Zhupan.

Zheng Zhupan frowned as he scrutinized Cheng Zerui, much like a customer inspecting pork at the market.

Clicking his tongue, he puffed out his stomach and began to criticize: “Director Zhai likes refined, polished idols. And you… What’s this? Swollen up like that? This won’t do at all.”

Cheng Zerui was stunned with anger.

He still had no idea what he was supposed to do, nor had he agreed to anything. Yet, he had just arrived and was immediately dismissed based on his appearance.

The other contestants watching didn’t dare speak but were clearly entertained by the situation.

They all knew deep down who had connections, who had backing, and who was destined to get more screen time and debut opportunities.

Cheng Zerui was one of those people—a contestant from a major company who had been groomed for years. He was actually quite fair and cute, but his just-woken-up look was doing him no favors.

Still, seeing one of the “privileged” contestants get ridiculed didn’t inspire much sympathy. Instead, they found Zheng Zhupan’s pickiness oddly satisfying.

Li Rong, however, caught onto another name from Zheng Zhupan’s words.

Director Zhai. Who was that? Someone important enough for Zheng Zhupan to personally cater to their preferences?

Unimpressed with Cheng Zerui’s smudged makeup and swollen face, Zheng Zhupan turned his gaze to the contestants in the waiting area. The staff didn’t dare stop him and silently stepped aside to make way.

Zheng Zhupan, clearly pressed for time, strode in without hesitation.

The backstage cameramen, puzzled by the sudden scene, immediately stopped recording to avoid capturing anything sensitive.

Several contestants stood up in confusion as Zheng Zhupan entered, including Lin Zhen.

Lin Zhen’s turn was coming up in just two more performances—less than an hour away. He was nervously sipping water, psyching himself up.

When Zheng Zhupan walked in, Lin Zhen had just set his water bottle down. His lips were still wet, and his wide eyes were filled with confusion as he looked at the older man.

Lin Zhen wasn’t wearing heavy makeup. He had a naturally good complexion, and since his song was more lyrical, it didn’t require a dramatic stage effect. A light touch of makeup matched the tone of the performance.

Zheng Zhupan’s gaze landed on Lin Zhen’s face. After observing him for a moment, he raised his hand and pointed. “You, come here.”

Lin Zhen looked bewildered and instinctively glanced at the staff nearby.

The staff member gave an awkward smile and softly tried to explain to Zheng Zhupan, “President Zheng, this contestant is about to go on stage. The recording schedule doesn’t allow for interruptions. Perhaps you could choose someone who has already performed?”

Zheng Zhupan waved off the suggestion impatiently. “Just replace him with someone else. He can record his part in the next session.”

The staff member hesitated, wanting to explain that this was the second recording of the debut stage and the final round. If Lin Zhen missed this opportunity, there wouldn’t be another.

But she didn’t dare provoke Zheng Zhupan. “How about we let Lin Zhen perform first, and then he can go with you?”

Zheng Zhupan, unused to waiting for anyone, immediately frowned. “Can’t you just patch it in during post-production? Where’s the director? The producer? Can’t anyone handle this simple coordination?”

The staff member looked distressed.

Post-production wasn’t so simple. Would they call back the judges and audience for one contestant? That was impossible. 

At most, they could splice footage of the judges’ commentary on other performances and pretend it was for Lin Zhen. But even that required discussions with the editing team, the director, and the writers—not something she could decide on her own.

Lin Zhen had a rough idea of what Zheng Zhupan wanted.

Clutching his bottle tightly, he responded with polite restraint, “Thank you for your interest, but I’d like to focus on completing the competition.”

To show his sincerity, Lin Zhen even bowed slightly.

Zheng Zhupan stared at him, his voice icy. “What do you mean by that? You don’t want to go? Do you realize how easily I can destroy a small-time artist like you? Do you not plan to have a career in this industry?”

At this, even the staff member didn’t dare intervene. She lowered her gaze, avoiding Lin Zhen’s eyes.

She wasn’t about to challenge Zheng Zhupan over a single contestant. As long as she wasn’t held accountable, it was fine.

The other contestants in the room, sensing the tense atmosphere, silently took a few steps back, distancing themselves from Lin Zhen.

They weren’t sure if Zheng Zhupan was really powerful enough to ruin someone’s career, but they weren’t willing to risk their futures to find out.

Sympathy could stay in their hearts, but this industry required preparedness for anything.

As the space around him widened, the cold blast of air from the air conditioner hit Lin Zhen directly, making him shiver.

He pressed his lips together tightly, neither agreeing nor refusing.

It was his first time encountering such a situation, and facing someone so domineering and unrestrained, he was momentarily overwhelmed.

Zheng Zhupan was outrageously arrogant, brazen enough to make such statements in front of everyone.

Lin Zhen had no doubt that the show would sacrifice him if necessary.

Just then, a familiar, melodious voice rang out—

“If he won’t go, I’ll go.”

Li Rong pushed through the crowd, stepping into the viewing room and subtly shielding Lin Zhen behind him. With a faint smile, he looked at the overbearing Zheng Zhupan.

His eyes curved with a gentle charm, a hint of mischief in his peach-blossom gaze. Though he wore no makeup, he was more striking than any contestant present.

Especially with that casual, slightly teasing smile, he stood out even more among the timid, self-preserving contestants.

Zheng Zhupan paused, studying Li Rong.

He had to admit, this person was even closer to Director Zhai Ning’s taste than the one he’d chosen before.

Fair-skinned, refined, needing no heavy makeup to enhance his features, and not at all petty-looking.

Zheng Zhupan felt a faint sense of familiarity, but he had seen too many internet celebrities and artists to dwell on it. He dismissed Lin Zhen entirely from his mind.

“Fine, you it is.” Zheng Zhupan had little interest in male stars, his main focus being to satisfy Zhai Ning’s preferences. But even he had to admit this young man looked promising—if he played his cards right, he might have a future.

Lin Zhen’s fingers were cold as he clutched Li Rong’s clothes tightly. His voice was choked with emotion. “Class Monitor….”

Li Rong reached behind himself, gently patting Lin Zhen’s hand and freeing his clothing. In a low voice, he reassured him, “It’s okay. Focus on your competition. He can’t do anything to me.”