"It's so late, and she's in critical condition. Don't say anything else, just take her to the hospital."
A tall, slender woman with a standard oval face cradled Qingluo's head on her lap, her own face pale and her clenched hands slick with sweat.
"But, Qingluo is our lead dancer. Without her..."
"Enough! Is a person's life more important, or is her future more important? If this performance is canceled, we'll have another one. But Qingluo is irreplaceable!"
While the young women were in a panic, Qingluo's phone rang.
"It's, it's the agent..."
"What should we do? If he finds out Qingluo is sick, our 'Han Zhi Yun' will be finished." The slightly plump young woman's breathing seemed to become ragged, her chest heaving unevenly.
As they were fretting and pacing, the slightly plump girl suddenly said, "Guan Ying, your voice sounds the most like Qingluo. You're the only one who can fool him. Hurry and answer it."
Guan Ying glanced at everyone, caressed Qingluo's hair on her lap, her expression slightly solemn. After calming herself a little, she shakily answered the phone.
"Hello, is this Qingluo?"
"Y-yes~" Guan Ying tried to lower her voice, and it did sound a bit like Qingluo, though it was too quiet.
"Why do you sound so weak? Isn't tonight's performance ready?"
"It's ready." Guan Ying lacked confidence, her voice getting quieter and quieter.
"Hello, are you really alright? Why do you sound so unconvincing?"
Guan Ying trembled slightly. This performance was crucial for their careers, and she had to project enough confidence. So, she replied, "We're ready, agent, please don't worry!"
"That's more like it. Let me warn you, you know the importance of this performance, right?"
There was a pause on the other end of the line, followed by the sound of pages being turned.
"Your group 'Han Zhi Yun' has dropped to last place in terms of attendance. If there's no turnaround tonight, I'm sorry, but 'Erciyuan Zhi Jia' can no longer keep you."
The agent hung up the phone cleanly.
Guan Ying dejectedly put down the phone. Since it was on speakerphone, everyone had heard it all clearly.
The so-called Erciyuan Zhi Jia was a venue in Ai Shen City for about a dozen anime enthusiasts to watch performances and gather. There were seven groups performing at their Erciyuan Zhi Jia. If a group ranked first in attendance and consumption rate, they could use the venue three times a week. Second place got twice, and third place once.
These top three groups had already used up six days out of seven. The remaining day was shared by the other four groups. This meant that if they couldn't break into the top three, the remaining four groups would have at most one performance opportunity per month.
With only one performance a month, the salary they received was pitifully small, and with Erciyuan Zhi Jia taking a significant cut, what they actually earned was even less. That was why they were crammed into such a narrow, unsafe, and desolate place.
Now, their performance, which they had prepared for a month, was about to debut tonight, and to make matters worse, Qingluo, their most popular lead dancer, had fallen ill.
"It's almost 11 now, and we have to be there by 5 PM to prepare. We don't have much time left. Pang Wei, call an ambulance."
As the second-in-command of the group, Guan Ying had to shoulder all the responsibilities at this critical juncture.
...
About half an hour later, a light knocking sound was heard.
Ren Yuanhao stood before the dilapidated, desolate small house. The rotten wooden door was covered in mold, and the white plaster on the walls had started to peel due to water seepage. Cobwebs filled the corners, and a rotten moth hung from the end of a web, swaying its half-eaten body in the wind.
The door creaked open, as if opening the door to a gloomy old house from the last century. An eerie gust of wind blew towards him. However, when Ren Yuanhao looked at the seven or eight young women, the contrast was so stark that he froze on the spot.
"Excuse me, are you a doctor?"
"No," Ren Yuanhao was a bit dazed, his voice carrying a hint of gloominess.
The one who opened the door was the slightly plump woman nicknamed Pang Wei. Seeing Ren Yuanhao's well-dressed appearance and extraordinary demeanor, her face flushed slightly, and she momentarily forgot what she wanted to ask.
"Uh, excuse me, does Miss Qingluo live here?"
It was no wonder Ren Yuanhao was skeptical. After all, these young women were all quite attractive. In this day and age, any woman with some looks wouldn't be struggling too badly, but they...
"Qingluo, Qingluo is sick. Are you...?"
This was the first time Ren Yuanhao had received an order not from the person themselves, and he felt a bit awkward.
"Me? You could say I'm her boyfriend. What happened to her?"
"Boyfriend?" Pang Wei looked puzzled, thinking she had never heard of Qingluo having a boyfriend before. Moreover, she hadn't seen any outsiders for the past month. Could a boyfriend tolerate not seeing her for a month?
"Here, no need to doubt it. Let me in to see her. If you don't believe me, I can recite her information right now."
Ren Yuanhao, confident thanks to the information provided by the system, was full of confidence. He didn't realize that Qingluo's information had long been transparent in the world of anime enthusiasts.
"Her fans know her information, but you don't look like a bad person. Come in."
Under Pang Wei's 'guidance,' Ren Yuanhao passed through a passage filled with props and finally squeezed into their rehearsal space.
It was a small room of about ten square meters. The surroundings were makeshift beds laid out by the group, and only the central area served as the rehearsal space. An old, paint-peeling dining table had been moved to a corner. Further inside, there was a partitioned small room, presumably a bathroom. There were cooking utensils by the window, and the pots were covered in black soot, looking like they had endured many hardships.
In fact, when Ren Yuanhao entered this area, he thought the system had made a mistake and almost drove back.
Now, he had the illusion of entering the Spider Cave, where seven little fairies might at any moment spin webs to entangle him.
Ren Yuanhao suddenly felt that his staring at the room was impolite and quickly averted his gaze, finally settling on the woman named Qingluo.
Qingluo was still resting her head on Guan Ying's lap. Ren Yuanhao took just one glance to form an impression of the girl.
Her skin was fair, with a hint of sickly pallor beneath, her face was small and thin, and her pelvis was sunken. If not for the light makeup, her complexion would have given the impression of a lifeless object. However, even so, it didn't detract from the exquisiteness of her features.