Bringing the Nation's Husband Home

After all, Qiao Anhao right now didn’t represent just herself. She was also Mrs. Lu, and she couldn’t embarrass Lu Jinnian.

The Hollywood casting selection was no different from most of China’s variety show competitions. There were three stages; the selection process, the top eight, and the finals.

There were many people participating, and so there was very little time for each contestant. You had to make the judges see your brightest talent in the shortest amount of time to keep you.

There wasn’t a dress rehearsal for the selection, it was all live. Contestants were lined up in an alphabetical order according to their surnames. Qiao Anhao’s surname began with a ’Q’, which was neither close to the start or end of the twenty six letters of the alphabet. Among over a hundred contestants, Qiao Anhao’s name was forty-ninth.

The female celebrities shortlisted for selection did have some acting skills and they weren’t bad looking. The competition looked extremely fierce. As the thirtieth person went up on stage, Qiao Anhao started to feel a little nervous.

When contestant number thirty-eight was called, Qiao Anhao started to prepare. As the number kept coming closer to hers, she wasn’t nervous, on the contrary, she gradually started to calm down.

As she was taking deep breaths in front of a mirror to calm herself, she couldn’t help but turn her head when the presenter called contestant number forty’s name. There she saw a well-dressed Lin Shiyi step onto the stage in her high heels.

Although Qiao Anhao was backstage, she could still see the broadcast of Lin Shiyi on the televisions backstage. Lin Shiyi sang an English song. Although she came from an acting background, she had a good set of pipes. The moment she hit a high note, the audience and the judges started to clap their hands.

Four out of five judges put Lin Shiyi through to the next round, the top eight.

Lin Shiyi returned from the stage with far more confidence on her face than when she got on. So much so, she glanced over at Qiao Anhao with an extremely provoking expression in her eyes.

Qiao Anhao pretended as though she didn’t see it and turned her head with a calm expression. She ran through the lyrics she’d memorized in her mind again, straightened her waist and back, and raised her chin high up.

She remembered well the words that Lu Jinnian had told her. The more Lin Shiyi wanted to compete with her, the more she had to pretend as if nothing had happened. Because it’s just as Edison Chen said, ”Pretending as if nothing happened is the cruelest revenge.”

When number forty-seven finished performing, Qiao Anhao received Lu Jinnian’s text. It was just two simple words ”Good luck!”, but they filled her with boundless confidence.

When the presenter said ”Welcome number forty-eight Qiao Anhao on to the stage”, She handed her phone to Zhao Meng and stepped onto the stage.

Qiao Anhao had chosen to sing a song. But what was different from other actors was that she didn’t dance, play the piano, the guitar, and couldn’t hit a high note. She just stood at the center of the stage and calmly and clearly sang every word of the song she had chosen, ”So What”.

This was a song she had accidentally stumbled upon in the car last year.

At the time, she didn’t know where Lu Jinnian was and had searched for him for a long time. When she heard the song, she just felt like the lyrics mirrored the thoughts in her heart, so she listened to it repeatedly and learned it by heart.