Seeing him come in, Xu Qingqiu's lips curled into a smile. She looked at him with sparkling eyes and said, "Guess who I saw today?"

Holy shit! Chu Tian's heart skipped a beat. That look, that expression, that tone... could it be that she saw me? Impossible! I've been in the control room the whole time. The glass there is one-way, it's so far away, and I was wearing a mask. It can't be, right?

"Ah... Ah? Who did you see?"

Xu Qingqiu was still immersed in her own thoughts, not noticing Chu Tian's odd reaction, and said excitedly, "Qin Xiao! I ran into Qin Xiao today!"

"Qin Xiao? How did you know? No! How... um, how did you meet her? Didn't the show say everyone would be masked? Have you all met each other already?"

Chu Tian's heart skipped a beat again when he heard the name Qin Xiao, and he almost let something slip in his excitement. He also felt a bit panicked. Even though Xu Qingqiu wasn't referring to me, I'm just as startled. What the hell is going on? Did I arrange the procedures correctly? The two sides haven't met at all. Even their singing performances were separate. They haven't even seen each other's faces. How could she know? Could there have been a slip-up somewhere?

Xu Qingqiu, unaware of the slip in Chu Tian's words, knew he was aware of the program details. His confusion is normal. This just shows how clever I am!

"I guessed!"

She looked up at Chu Tian with a proud expression, then turned her head to look at Sister Hua. "Sister Hua, I'm sure of it. That person is definitely her! Even though she's well-disguised, it has to be her!"

Li Chunhua herself didn't care much. Qin Xiao is just Qin Xiao, after all, not a good person. But she seemed to sense there was more to Xu Qingqiu's words.

"Qingqiu, what are you trying to say?"

Xu Qingqiu was about to respond, but Chu Tian immediately interrupted her. "No, hold on. How do you know it's her? Did you see her face?"

"No, it's just a feeling, a very strong one. I'm eighty percent sure it's her! You could call it a woman's sixth sense. Anyway, it's definitely her!"

Xu Qingqiu spoke with conviction, but Chu Tian was somewhat panicked inside. Holy shit, that's terrifying, isn't it? I initially thought there were loopholes in the rules I set, or a flaw in the process, but it turned out she just guessed. But isn't that even scarier? Is she a fortune teller? How could she guess that? Others might not know, but don't I? The person is indeed Qin Xiao. But I don't know which masked singer Xu Qingqiu guessed. Did she guess correctly?

"Which person do you feel is Qin Xiao?"

"[Jasmine Flower]! It's her. Only Qin Xiao would be so shameless!" Xu Qingqiu blurted out without a second thought.

Chu Tian couldn't help but inhale sharply, feeling a chill at the back of his neck. This is a bit fantastical, isn't it? How did she guess?

He wanted to ask more, but Li Chunhua had already continued the conversation.

"[Jasmine Flower]? That's Qin Xiao? What does she want? Why do I feel this name carries some ill intent?"

Hearing Li Chunhua's words, Xu Qingqiu snapped her fingers proudly. "Sister Hua, you truly are Sister Hua! I thought the same. Do you know what song she sang today?"

"What song?"

"It was 'Morning bound for midnight' from my album. How about that? Didn't expect that, did you?"

"This... is she trying to ride on your coattails?" Sister Hua's eyes widened in disbelief. Beside her, Yiyi frowned.

"Sister Qiu, that's really shameless, isn't it? How could she be so brazen?"

Seeing the angry expressions on their faces, Xu Qingqiu shook her head. "It is indeed so, but there's more to it than that."

She pointed to a cup on the table and a pen holder next to it, saying, "You see, the first point is that she wants to leverage my fame to quickly gain an advantage. After all, my popularity has been very high recently. If others mistakenly think it's me, they will definitely vote for her, and she'll benefit."

This wasn't Xu Qingqiu boasting; it was a fact. Her popularity during this period was indeed unmatched, even able to compete with top-tier celebrities. Previously, her Weibo followers numbered only a mere twenty million—loyal fans remaining after her count dropped from an original forty million. But since the release of her new album, her fan count had skyrocketed by more than forty million in just over a month, reaching nearly seventy million. It continued to grow slowly and had already surpassed eighty-five million, with her sights set on one hundred million. Surpassing one hundred million would mean touching the threshold of top-tier celebrity status.

However, Xu Qingqiu was a legitimate singer, a powerhouse artist who hadn't specifically cultivated her fan base. The quality of these fans was exceptionally high, not comparable to top-tier celebrities who spent money to inflate their numbers, often claiming figures like two hundred million fans.

Not only that, but while a top celebrity's TV show recently launched with significant marketing and hype, Xu Qingqiu, buoyed by the popularity of her new album, still couldn't be beaten in terms of online buzz and search rankings; the show barely managed a tie with her. With this kind of traffic, wasn't Xu Qingqiu popular enough?

"But..." At this point, Xu Qingqiu paused for effect, then pointed to the pen holder and said, "There's a second point. The show operates on the principle of confidentiality. The guests' primary responsibility is to conceal their identity. However, her blatantly using my name could lead to misunderstandings.

"When the first episode airs, it will definitely cause a huge controversy for me. If I come forward to clarify that I'm not participating in the show, she'll have the perfect chance to probe whether I'm actually in it or not.

"However, we can't refute it because I *did* participate. If we say I didn't, that would be lying. If we say I did, that would be a breach of confidentiality.

"Then again, if we say nothing, it's as if we're confirming it..."

After listening, Yiyi gasped. "HISS~ She's too malicious, isn't she? So cunning! What will you do, Sister Qiu? Won't we be at a disadvantage?"

"No, wait. The first round of competition is over, right? Sister, didn't you win King of Songs? Then isn't she..."

The news of Xu Qingqiu winning King of Songs had, of course, been immediately shared with everyone—though only with the few people in the office, so they all knew.

Seeing Yiyi's confused and anxious expression, Xu Qingqiu couldn't help but pat her head and laugh. "Haha, thanks for your concern, Yiyi. You underestimate your Sister Qiu's capabilities."

After speaking, she playfully lifted her chin and quirked an eyebrow at Chu Tian, nearly making him chuckle.

He had just recovered from the shock of Xu Qingqiu's formidable sixth sense. Now, calmly listening to her analysis, he actually found it quite enthralling and couldn't help but give her a thumbs-up.

Xu Qingqiu became even happier after receiving Chu Tian's thumbs-up and continued, "However, she underestimated others too much and overlooked one point: all these conspiracies and schemes need to be built on a foundation of actual strength."

"As for strength, your Sister Qiu naturally crushes her! Hmph~ Little Qin Xiao, how laughable!"

Watching her looking as pleased as Punch, everyone in the room couldn't help but laugh, feeling like a family, genuinely happy for her.

After the laughter subsided and everyone's emotions calmed, the smile on Xu Qingqiu's face also faded, and she became serious.

"Sister Hua, this time it was their mistake. According to the original schedule announced by the production team, they planned to record twice a week and start airing after a month.

"If it had gone as planned, by the time it aired, it would have roughly coincided with the final competition. I reckon their plan was to stir up controversy right when the show premiered to attack us.

"This way, they would inevitably ride on our popularity to promote her album and also probe whether I participated in the show.

"Once the show started airing and they played this card, we would have been in a difficult position, but...

"They didn't anticipate that the production team just sent out a notice changing the schedule. Now it's three recordings a week, with everything completed before airing. This has foiled half their plan.

"And the other half... Qin Xiao failed in the first round. She also underestimated the other contestants' abilities. I reckon it will be hard for her to make it to the end, so she's bound to gain nothing from this.

"However, we can't just let this go. Thinking she can step on me to climb higher isn't going to be that easy!"

Seeing her intense and serious expression, Li Chunhua also grew serious. "What do you want to do?"

"Sister Hua, the album has been out for a while. I think we can put the concert on the schedule soon. But let's not announce it yet. Let's prepare in advance. I want to give her a surprise..."

Li Chunhua thought for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Okay!"

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