Chapter 194 Under the Spotlight
"A fateful encounter?"
"Me and her?"
The taciturn girl's abrupt remarks were like a stone that caused a thousand ripples, causing Lin Xiaolu and the blonde girl to exclaim in surprise, followed by an inexplicable stare at each other.
Looking at the familiar-looking blonde girl in front of her, Lin Xiaolu first subconsciously shook her head, denying this ridiculous statement in her heart. Just as she was about to say something, a burst of fierce applause and cheers suddenly came from the conference hall next to her.
The noisy noise interrupted the girls' conversation and also attracted their attention, causing them to shift their gazes and look towards the wide open door of the venue at the intersection of the aisles not far away.
Walking to the gate, Lin Xiaolu looked into the venue with some curiosity. She first looked at the crowded crowd, then looked at the stage under the spotlight. To her surprise, there was a familiar figure standing on the stage:
——It’s delphinium.
…
…
After receiving the head flower, Delphinium was called to the stage in the name of "inviting the lucky audience member to come on stage to speak."
If possible, she didn't want to receive this somewhat abrupt gift in public, and she didn't want to be in the spotlight for such a weird reason. Unfortunately, when she realized that this might be a premeditated act by Aso Yuanxiang, it was too late.
The moment she received the hair flower, she became the focus of the audience around her, and everyone wanted to confirm the true face of this "lucky girl".
When they found out that the person who received the head flower seemed to be a young girl, some people immediately started to try to deceive her. Some asked Cuique if they could see it, and others asked if she was willing to exchange the head flower for a bag of candy... The crowd of fans who were extremely fanatical because of the concert atmosphere swarmed in, even scaring Bai Jingxuan who was standing nearby.
Just as the situation was about to get out of control, Madoka Aso, who had just finished her last song, neither sang on nor left the stage to prepare for the next song. Instead, she looked towards the position where Delphinium was, and said with a bright smile: "Thank you all for coming to watch my performance today. This is also my first time to hold a concert in Fangting City, Donghua Province. I didn't expect Fangting to be such a welcoming city. To be honest, I feel a little flattered!"
"I just happened to see that the little fan who received the flower in her hair seemed very excited and wanted to say something. So let's welcome her to the stage!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the fans in the audience burst into cheers in response. Even the audience who had previously tried to trick the singer into giving them the hairpins had to give up after hearing the description of "little fans" and could only applaud helplessly.
Only the focus of the topic, the "little fan" who received the hair flower, opened and closed his lips in disbelief.
"Excited"? When have you ever shown a similar emotion?
She had no idea what Aso Yuuka was planning now, but as her teammate for many years, she knew very well how out of touch this "queen of singing" who looked so glamorous on the stage was.
If Cuiqiao really had to give each of the former members of the Fangting City team a personality label, then the label belonging to Aso Yuanxiang would definitely be "confidence" or "self-centeredness."
If something makes her feel happy or is beneficial to her, even if it may cause trouble to others, Aso Yuanxiang will choose to make herself happy without hesitation.
Unlike Su Shengzi, another member of the team who also behaves in a self-willed manner, if Su Shengzi is completely immersed in his own world and does not care about the opinions of the outside world; then Aso Yuanxiang is simply stubborn after weighing the pros and cons.
It is precisely because of this that Cuiqiao is now unsure of what the other party is up to.
But the arrow was on the string, and she had no room to escape being called out in such an occasion. In the end, she walked onto the stage under the slightly worried gazes of Bai Jingxuan and Xia Liang, and walked in front of Aso Yuanxiang with drooping eyelids.
Standing under the slightly glaring spotlight, Delphinium raised her hand slightly to block the light from above and looked at the woman in front of her: After more than a decade, she finally saw her old friend up close again.
However, Margaret was not looking at Delphinium at this time, but was still holding the microphone, smiling, and interacting with the audience under the stage.
Following his gaze, Cuiqiao looked at the dark crowd. The roaring sound like a tsunami constantly hit the stage. The crowd in the venue at night seemed to have become a black tide, washing over the isolated island of the stage. Just standing here would probably be enough to make some timid people's legs go weak.
The fans who were closest to the stage and whose faces Delphinium could see clearly were now looking at her eagerly, with envy and expectation in their eyes.
Am I being treated as a fan representative?
Delphinium couldn't help but sigh in her heart.
Obviously, these fans are expecting her to express their welcome, love and other warm emotions on behalf of the "Fangting City fans".
But unfortunately, although Delphinium is standing here, she is not actually a fan or a fan at all. If you want to quantify the degree of a fan's admiration for "Mary", Delphinium would probably have to stand in the last row.
Feeling the earnest affection from the audience, Kujue pursed her lips and looked at Aso Yuanxiang, and saw that she had also turned her head to look at her. She waved to the audience on the stage to signal "quiet listening", and handed the microphone to Kujue like a kind older sister. All her actions were very smooth, but her face was still wearing the business smile of a "singing star", as if she was wearing a mask, not showing her true face at all.
It seemed that Aso Yuanxiang had no intention of revealing any extra information on stage, and even tried to pretend that she didn't know him at all, which made Kusanagi feel a little relieved. So she sorted out her emotions, put herself in the shoes of a "fan", and thought about what she was going to say next, and said with all her strength:
"M...Mary, welcome to Fangting City. Everyone likes you very much. I hope you like Fangting City, too."
This sentence made Aso Yuanxiang take two steps back in an exaggerated manner, and she covered her mouth as if she was very happy: "Really? You like me very much?"
Delphinium said "hmm" with a wooden face.
Aso Yuanxiang turned the microphone to the audience again, and covered her ears with her hands like a lively girl: "Is what she said true?"
"real!"
The fans shouted in unison.
"Thank you! I'm so happy!"
With a brilliant smile on her face, Madoka Aso skillfully winked at the audience: "Thank you! I like you the most too! So I'll give you this song as a gift, your favorite "Sophia's Love Letter"!"
As she finished her words, the band on the stage immediately started playing the prelude of the song, and the spotlight, which was originally a bit dazzling, also changed color, from dazzling white to soft pink.
Then, while the prelude was still playing, Aso Yuanxiang took Delphinium by the hand and walked it to the side of the stage, and said with an extremely fake business smile: "Of course, I like you too."
"ha……"
Delphinium, who had no idea what was going on, grinned and gave a dry laugh, as a response to the other party's words.
However, before she could make any further move, she felt Aso Yuanxiang's face suddenly move closer, and then she felt a soft touch on her forehead.
The feeling only lasted for a moment, but Delphinium understood what it was, and her whole body tensed up at that moment.
This is a kiss.
A kiss on the forehead looked like an intimate act between an older sister and a younger sister, so much so that the audience in the audience didn't think much of the kiss when they saw it.
Of course, this did not stop the envious audience from shouting wantonly, nor did it stop the fans who felt they had seen the gentle side of their idol from shouting crazily. With just this one move, the cheers from the audience almost overturned the entire venue.
The shouts also reached outside the venue, bringing Lin Xiaolu, who was still chatting with the mysterious trio, back to her senses.
Then, the scene turned into what Lin Xiaolu saw.
…
…
The concert finally came to an end. After several hours of revelry and even three encores, singer Aso Yuanxiang's concert tour in Fangting City finally came to an end.
Even after the performance was over, many fans in the audience were still immersed in the enthusiastic emotion and chatting with each other excitedly.
Of course, this is also because this is the last concert of Aso Yuanxiang's current tour. Fangting City is the last stop on her tour route. After this stop, the concert will come to an end. For a long time to come, the fans present will probably not be able to enjoy such a hearty performance.
Due to multiple factors, fans were reluctant to leave even after three encores and still gathered in the venue to feel the final warmth.
Delphiniums are naturally not included.
In fact, she was eager to rush backstage, pull out Aso Yuanxiang, and ask this guy what he was doing, or what was in his mind.
A simple kiss on the forehead is certainly a trivial matter... maybe a trivial matter, but doing such a thing in public is of a completely different nature. What is the purpose of this, simply out of bad taste?
Holding Bai Jingxuan and Xia Liang, Cuiqiao walked out of the venue with a solemn look on his face. He quickly found Lin Xiaolu in the crowd. After Lin Xiaolu and Jiang Yuan parted, he quickly pulled Lin Xiaolu along and walked towards the depths of the venue aggressively.
Xia Liang, who had watched the whole thing from the beginning, had already guessed what was going on, so he just followed Cui Que with interest. But Lin Xiaolu obviously hadn't figured out the situation yet. Seeing Cui Que's abnormal behavior, she couldn't help but ask:
"Where are we going?"
"Go find someone." Delphinium said without turning back.
"Who?" Lin Xiaolu blinked blankly.
"The one who was singing on the stage just now." Delphinium's voice was flat.
"That singer? Why?"
Lin Xiaolu followed behind Cuique closely. After hearing this answer, she couldn't help but quicken her pace and ran to her side: "Did you find anything wrong on the stage?"
"……well."
Delphinium sighed, not knowing why. "It's not that there's anything wrong, but I know her. Or rather, I came to the concert today just to confirm her identity."
"Huh? Ah! So that's how it is?" Lin Xiaolu asked in surprise.
"That is to say, the protagonist of today's concert, the singer named Aso Madoka, is actually our senior."
After getting the affirmation from Cuiqiao, Xia Liang at the side finally spoke up and explained to Lin Xiaolu: "She was also a magical girl in Fangting City and a teammate of the young senior."
"So it's Cuiqiao's teammate... No, how did you know?" Lin Xiaolu looked at her with some confusion.
"We can guess it, and your father even showed us photos of the Fangting City team before."
Xia Liang was not at all flustered when asked the core of the question, and explained casually: "Didn't you find that the singer looks a lot like one of the people in the photo?"
"You even remember this kind of thing?"
"Hehe, you need to have a pair of eyes that are good at discovering things around you."
The two chatted about meaningless topics and followed Delphinium all the way to the inner circle of the venue, the backstage of the concert, which was also where the staff were resting.
The long and narrow corridor extends all the way to the back of the stage. There are several rest rooms with name tags on them, and their doors are closed. Also, several staff members in security uniforms can be seen standing in the corridor with serious expressions, on duty.
"Hello, I'm going to look for someone."
Walking forward, Delphinium said something shocking.
Seeing several young girls running to the backstage, and saying things like "go in and find someone" like crazy fans, one of the security guards was puzzled at first, and then tried to drive them away. But before he could say anything to stop them, another security guard beside him seemed to realize something, pulled him back, and whispered something to him.
After he finished speaking, the security guard, although still puzzled, said nothing more. After hesitating for a while, he just nodded at Delphinium and let her in.
With Delphinium's hearing ability, she could naturally hear what was whispered, which was: "Miss Mary's instructions, if there are any little girls who come to see her in strange clothes, just let them in directly."
Without arguing with the security personnel, Cuique continued to lead the three girls straight into the room, and soon found the lounge marked with the name "Aso Yuanxiang".
What is even more eye-catching than this name are the other three girls standing against the wall in the corridor outside the door.
The three girls looked about the same age as Lin Xiaolu and the others. More importantly, Cuiqiao could recognize all of their faces—they were all magical girls from Baian City.
Previously, when she went to Baian City to look for clues to investigate the disappearance of the team, she had briefly cooperated with these magical girls there.
Delphinium saw these people, and these people naturally saw Delphinium as well, especially the blonde girl. After seeing Delphinium, she subconsciously covered her forehead, as if she had recalled some very bad memories.
Of course, it wasn't just Kuei-chi who recognized these people, Lin Xiaolu also had the same reaction, because she immediately realized that these people were the familiar-looking trio she had met in the corridor earlier.
"What are you doing here?" the question came out of her mouth.
"We? We are the staff here? What are you doing here?"
The blonde girl standing in the middle immediately retorted, but after seeing Delphinium beside her, her arrogance suddenly weakened a bit, and her tone of questioning became less confident: "No, why are you following..."
Her words got stuck here, and it was unclear whether she had forgotten Delphinium's name or she simply didn't dare to say more.
Seeing that she fell silent in the middle of her words, another girl wearing glasses could only sigh helplessly, stepped out, patted her on the shoulder, and said to Delphinium: "Hello, Inspector, long time no see, I am Bai Ji from Bai'an City. Are you here to look for a mentor today?"
"Who is your mentor?" asked Delphinium.
"The instructor's code name is 'Margaret'." Bai Ji paused and said, "She said you should be familiar with this code name, so she has already told us that if we see you, please tell us to wait outside the door."
"Is she also a magical girl from Baian City?" Delphinium asked again.
"Teacher?... Her words are not entirely true."
Bai Ji said calmly, "But this is not something that we students can talk about casually. Please ask her for details."
"What's there to hide... It's just a name registered in Bai'an." The blonde girl finally had time to utter a word, but as soon as she finished speaking, Bai Ji glared at her and she immediately shut up in annoyance.
This incoherent and even abrupt conversation left Lin Xiaolu confused, because she had no idea how Delphinium had suddenly become so familiar with these "strangers" in her memory, and from her conversation, it seemed that she knew a lot about magical girls.
She first looked at the trio in front of her, then looked at Xia Liang for help. After finding that Xia Liang was also a little dazed, she could only look at Cuique again and reached out to pull Cuique's sleeve.
Delphinium looked at her with a somewhat helpless look.
"Then let's put other topics aside for now and introduce each other first."
Knowing what Lin Xiaolu wanted to express, Cuiqiao had to turn sideways and spread out her hands to signal Lin Xiaolu and the other two: "These are the current members of our Fangting City Magical Girls Team."
Then he turned to Lin Xiaolu and the others, and stretched out his hand to several magical girls in Bai'an City: "These three are the magical girl teams from Bai'an City, a city near Fangting. I got to know them when I was on a business trip to Bai'an before."
After her introduction, several girls who were still somewhat confused finally understood what was going on. Not only Lin Xiaolu, but even Bai Jingxuan and the taciturn girl from Bai'anshi looked as if they had suddenly understood something.
——"Ah, so that's how it is. Hello."
"Hello!"
After understanding the situation, they naturally couldn't avoid exchanging pleasantries. Led by Xia Liang and Bai Ji, several magical girls greeted each other in a strange but polite manner.
Bai Ji is rigorous, the blonde girl is casual, the taciturn girl speaks in a low voice, Xia Liang is kind, and Bai Jingxuan is serious.
Everyone had different ways of greeting each other, but among them, there was one that was the most special.
That’s Lin Xiaolu.
After learning that these somewhat mysterious girls in front of her were actually magical girls from the neighboring city, combined with the inexplicable sense of familiarity she had before, she finally figured out why she felt that the blonde girl looked familiar.
After figuring out the other person's identity and recognizing who the other person was, she couldn't help but raise her hand and point at the blonde girl. Without even saying hello, she subconsciously shouted: "Ah, you are the one who took a bath with the residual beast's slime!"
(End of this chapter)
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