I'm Pretending to Cultivate in Kindergarten

Chapter 154: Chapter 136: Meeting

”Something happened to the studio?”

Jiang Jingshi replied with a guess, ”I figure it will happen after the New Star Chart ends. It’s a bit hard to explain over WeChat, so we should meet somewhere to talk about the details. See when you have time, Zhengran. I’m always available, anyway.”

On the other end, Lin Zhengran thought for a moment. ”How about Wednesday afternoon? I have two P.E. classes then, so I’ll find an excuse to ask for a leave of absence to rest and meet up with you, Jiang.”

”Alright. I’ll wait for your call on Wednesday afternoon.”

”Okay, Jiang. I won’t keep you if there’s nothing else. I’ve arrived at school.”

”Mhm.”

After briefly chatting with Lin Zhengran, Jiang Jingshi smiled at the chat log on her phone. She turned to ask the person outside the car, ”What is my schedule for Wednesday?”

The person outside reported, ”There’s a meeting for the live-stream competition on Wednesday, the one for the second half of the year.”

Jiang Jingshi didn’t hesitate at all. ”I recall that meeting isn’t urgent, right? Push any non-urgent meetings back a bit. I have something more important on Wednesday.”

”Understood, President Jiang. I’ll arrange it right away and postpone the meeting to next week.”

Jiang Jingshi nodded.

The man hurried off to make the arrangements, while Jiang Jingshi picked up her tablet in the car and continued browsing the New Star Chart. Every time she refreshed the page, Jiang Xueli’s vote count climbed higher.

”What fierce momentum,” she commented.

Over the following three days, the rise of Jiang Xueli’s original song, *You Are My Star*, seemed to exceed everyone’s expectations.

Charts like this were time-sensitive. Songs rarely maintained the same growth rate from start to finish; there were peak and off-peak listening periods. At least, that was the case for the other tracks. Jiang Xueli’s song, however, seemed to operate on an entirely different platform. It skyrocketed at a consistent, staggering pace around the clock.

In just two days, it claimed the second spot. By Wednesday morning, its votes were fiercely charging toward first place.

Wednesday morning, in the girls’ dormitory.

Jiang Xueli got up to wash and brush her teeth as usual. Wearing slippers, she walked to the washroom, squeezed toothpaste onto her toothbrush, dipped it in water, and popped it into her mouth. Just then, she accidentally overheard a few girls chatting happily nearby.

”Have you guys heard that song recently? The one called *You Are My Star*. It’s so good!”

”I have, I have! I heard it’s competing on some chart right now, isn’t it? It’s really popular!”

”It’s just that I haven’t heard of this singer before. Her stage name is Snow? Is she a rookie? But her voice is so lovely, it has a really playful vibe!”

”I think this is her only song. She must have just debuted. She’s incredibly talented!”

Jiang Xueli listened to their excited chatter while brushing her teeth. Her expression shifted from disbelief to absolute shock. At first, she suspected they might be talking about someone else’s song, but the song title and the stage name were exactly the same as hers. And they mentioned a chart competition. There was no way that was a coincidence...

Jiang Xueli stared at herself in the mirror, her eyes brimming with excitement. ”Am I going to be famous?” she wondered to herself.

Sometimes, when you aren’t paying attention, you don’t notice a thing. But once she realized it, Jiang Xueli found that these conversations seemed to spring up endlessly from all sorts of random places. From washing up, to eating breakfast, to walking to the classroom, she seemed to hear people discussing her song every so often along the way.

She was amazed. How did everyone seem to know about it overnight? The competition she entered wasn’t even that big of a deal.

Finding a quiet spot, she secretly pulled out her phone to check the chart and discovered that her song was now in second place. *You Are My Star* had 650,000 total plays and 230,000 votes. It was still far behind the first place’s 900,000 plays, but the vote count was closing in fast—the first place only had 270,000 votes.

Moreover, opening the comments section of the first-place song revealed something surprising. There were actually comments supporting Jiang Xueli’s song in there.

”The lyrics for this song are pretty good, but it still feels a bit lacking compared to the second-place star. Looks like it’s going to be overtaken.”

”If the first-place singer wasn’t an established veteran, they probably would have been surpassed by now, right? This second-place rookie is terrifying.”

”I’ve been scrolling past the second-place song in short videos lately. It’s really blowing up.”

”I’m calling it right now: this song is definitely dropping to second place in two days, and *You Are My Star* will take first. If I’m wrong, I’ll live-stream chopping my hand off!”

”The commenter above is ruthless! I’ll match that—chop it straight off! I’ll chop the above commenter’s hand off twice!”

The more Jiang Xueli read the supportive comments, the more thrilled she became. She could hardly believe it was real. During the class break, she hurried off to share the good news with Lin Zhengran.

However, Lin Zhengran had been keeping just as close an eye on the voting rate as she was. When Jiang Xueli called him out during the break to tell him about it, he smiled and replied, ”I saw it a while ago. Your song’s voting rate has been climbing steadily over the past two days. At this rate, first place is in the bag.”

Of course, one man’s joy is another man’s sorrow. While Lin Zhengran, Jiang Xueli, and their studio were celebrating, Jiang Jingshi’s music team looked entirely deflated. Ever since the chart was released, these professionally trained singers had been living in fear. They never expected to be utterly trounced by a contestant from a tiny, unknown music studio. Whenever they gathered for a meeting, none of them could utter a single word.

As the head of the team, Jiang Jingshi sat in her office, looking at the rankings. She let out a self-deprecating and helpless laugh.

”It looks like I really am going to lose again... Even my veteran singer, who has released several songs and was holding first place, can’t beat the Jiang Xueli that Zhengran cultivated? What am I going to do about the live-stream competition in the second half of the year?” She leaned back in her executive chair. ”For the first time, I feel like my investments in these teams are just money down the drain...”

At 1:10 PM on Wednesday, Jiang Xueli’s play count on the New Star Chart completely overtook the original first-place track under Jiang Jingshi’s team. It successfully became the new number one! Moreover, the voting rate was clearly still on the rise, and with over a week left, there was plenty of time to utterly crush the competitors below.

The second class of the afternoon was Chinese language. Lin Zhengran sat by the window, staring blankly at the campus scenery outside.

The sunlight was beautiful today, illuminating the crisp veins of the leaves along the street. Even though the song’s growth over the past two days was excellent, Lin Zhengran recalled the message Jiang Jingshi had sent him on the first day of school. He figured that if something happened to the studio, his original plan would probably have to be moved forward.

The homeroom teacher called out his name, ”Class Monitor, please come up and answer this question.”

Lin Zhengran stood up, accustomed to this, and answered the question effortlessly without even glancing at the textbook.

The female homeroom teacher looked at him with a mix of surprise and expectation. ”Correct. You may sit.”

From the podium, she could see that Lin Zhengran had been zoning out. However, considering he scored full marks on every exam and could flawlessly answer anything she threw at him, if he wanted to zone out for a bit, let him. There was really nothing she could do about it.

His deskmate, Jiang Qian, who was sitting with elegant posture, watched him sit back down and return to staring out the window. Her aloof eyes looked at him in surprise. She seemed to marvel at the fact that he was so formidable he could subconsciously absorb the lecture even while zoning out. And this wasn’t the first time it had happened...

After class, Lin Zhengran walked out of the classroom to find the teacher. He told her that he was feeling unwell and couldn’t attend the next two P.E. classes, asking for a leave of absence to rest in his dorm. The homeroom teacher didn’t doubt his words at all, as his acting was quite convincing, and it was always easy for top students to ask for time off. She agreed without any hassle.

With permission granted, Lin Zhengran used the remainder of the break to head over to Jiang Xueli, He Qing, and Han Wenwen’s classroom to say hi to the three girls. As soon as he appeared at the classroom door, all three girls walked out at the same time, asking him what was going on.

Lin Zhengran explained, ”You three don’t need to wait for me for dinner at the cafeteria tonight. I need to head out for a bit this afternoon.”

Xiao Heqing asked, ”Where are you going?”

”I’m meeting a friend, so don’t wait up.”

Before the three could ask more, their teacher walked over and announced a class meeting, forcing them to return to the classroom.

But as they headed back, Jiang Xueli and He Qing exchanged curious glances. They were puzzled, but figured that since neither of them had snuck off, it probably wasn’t a big deal. After all, while Lin Zhengran had many girls around him, it wasn’t like he would meet up with just anyone alone.

Only Han Wenwen stared at Lin Zhengran’s departing figure, her fox-like eyes narrowing slightly. ”Meeting a friend?” she wondered. She subconsciously recalled the last time she had smelled another girl’s scent on him. At that time, Zhengran had also claimed the girl was a friend. ”Could he be meeting her?” she thought. ”Something fishy is going on.”

Not long after, the P.E. class began. Vice-monitor Jiang Qian, who doubled as the P.E. representative, was calling roll on the field when she realized Lin Zhengran was missing. It wasn’t until she asked the teacher that she learned he had asked for a leave due to feeling unwell.

Jiang Qian’s expression shifted. ”Feeling unwell? What’s wrong with him?”

The P.E. teacher replied, ”I wouldn’t know. Your homeroom teacher just said he was feeling unwell.”

Fang Meng was also curious about why Lin Zhengran hadn’t shown up. She walked over to Jiang Qian. ”Qianqian, Lin Zhengran isn’t here?”

Jiang Qian replied, ”The teacher said he took a leave because he’s feeling unwell.”

”Feeling unwell? That can’t be. Didn’t he look perfectly fine last period?”

”I didn’t notice anything different from usual either...” After speaking, Jiang Qian gazed worriedly toward the boys’ dormitory.

Lin Zhengran, who had effortlessly slipped out of the school, received a message the moment he stepped out the gate. Surprisingly, it was from Jiang Qian.

Jiang Qian: ”How are you doing?”

”What does she mean?” Lin Zhengran wondered.

Jiang Qian’s second message quickly followed: ”I didn’t see you when I was calling roll during P.E. class just now. The teacher said you felt unwell and went back to the dorm?”

Realizing what was going on, Lin Zhengran replied: ”It’s nothing serious, just a stomachache. I took some medicine and feel much better now.”

Jiang Qian: ”If you’re still feeling bad, I can have a doctor come check on you. Meng knows medicine too.”

Lin Zhengran: ”No need, no need. It’s just a minor issue. Thanks for checking in.”

Jiang Qian: ”Alright. Feel free to message me if you need anything. Consider it my way of thanking you for teaching me to play the piano last time.”

Lin Zhengran: ”Sure, thanks.”

After replying, Lin Zhengran spotted a Rolls-Royce in the distance outside the school. ”Fang Meng knows medicine too? That assistant is truly a jack-of-all-trades,” he thought.

The distant Rolls-Royce pulled over, and the driver stepped out to open the door for Lin Zhengran.

”Mr. Lin, please get in.”

Lin Zhengran felt the title was a bit much. He glanced at the backseat and saw Jiang Jingshi waving at him.

Jiang Jingshi had dressed up meticulously today, but she deliberately avoided anything overly extravagant, opting for a simple and approachable style instead. She waved her arm with a gentle expression. ”Zhengran, it’s been a few days.”

Lin Zhengran smiled. ”Jiang, it certainly has been.”

He got into the car, the door closed, and they drove off into the distance.