Chapter 351: The Girl

The troupe held the quota for recommendations from small towns to the Red Dust Main City. For these ordinary men and women who had lived in small towns since childhood, this might be an immense power, and they immediately used these quotas to satisfy their own desires. Regardless of gender, they would all leave behind leverage.

If these people didn't become stars later, that was fine; just consider it a one-time pleasure. If someone did become a star, then endless blackmail and extortion would follow...

And there was more than one such bloodsucker.

In Chen Ling's mind, the image of the girl who had just been dragged into the office next door surfaced again.

Supervisor Sun was just one of the judges. How many other judges were on this floor? How many people held the power to dominate the dreams of young men and women, using it to satisfy an abyss of desire that could never be filled?

Even if someone relied on their own talent to one day walk out of here and enter the Red Dust Main City... these few bloodsuckers alone would be enough to drain them dry, forcing them to struggle with all their might and sell out their bottom line more and more...

Although Chen Ling had never been to the Red Dust Main City, he could roughly guess what it was like inside.

Chen Ling continued to rummage through the metal cabinet and finally took out two thick books. One was Supervisor Sun's private collection record, and the other was the opera troupe's registration list.

Seeing the registration list, Chen Ling's eyes lit up slightly, and he immediately opened it.

To his surprise, besides recording the performance location, number of shows, and scale of each troupe, every line on this registration list had a sticky note attached, with a sum of money written on it—presumably the kickbacks these troupes gave to Supervisor Sun.

The larger the amount, the better the performance position of the troupe and the larger the scale. Some with zero amounts were even marked with an "X," meaning they couldn't hold any performances.

Chen Ling scanned all the information. He rarely saw any five-person opera troupes, and even if he did, they didn't match the mysterious master's troupe.

The master's troupe had six people in total. Excluding the Clown who stayed behind to guard the base, there should have been five people performing. During this time, Plum Blossom K had left, so even if there were performances, there should have been four people performing. But there was no troupe information on this list that met the criteria.

"Not registered, then..." Chen Ling sighed with disappointment.

Chen Ling was prepared for this result. After all, not to mention anything else, a master's troupe where everyone had the strength of "Plum Blossom K" and the Clown wouldn't pay someone like Supervisor Sun for performances. They were existences capable of touring across major domains; it shouldn't be difficult for them to sneak in a performance in the Red Dust Domain, right?

It's just that the scale and location of the performance were destined not to be very good, and they had to change locations frequently, otherwise, it would be easy to be reported.

Chen Ling closed the registration list helplessly. The plan to search for the master's troupe had completely failed; this trip was a waste of time.

No, wait...

Chen Ling looked at Supervisor Sun's corpse to the side, his eyes narrowing slightly.

The plan to search for the master's troupe had failed, and he had left behind a corpse. If he just left like this, it would be discovered before long... The three women who saw him enter the room were witnesses. As long as the police came knocking, it would be easy to trace it back to him... Should he kill them to silence them? No, there was also the staff member who gave him directions when he arrived. He must have walked far away by now. He had no skills, and it would be difficult to assassinate him in front of everyone...

Chen Ling's brain worked at high speed, judging everything calmly and rationally, weighing the gains and losses.

Supervisor Sun wouldn't be able to participate in the selection, and he would be discovered soon. Damn it... If only he could turn into his appearance right now. But since Supervisor Sun's death would be discovered sooner or later and he couldn't hide it completely, he had no choice but to be more aggressive.

Chen Ling glanced at the small characters slowly appearing in the pool of blood:

[Audience Expectation 49%]

As long as he raised the expectation to 70% as quickly as possible and then was reborn to get rid of the Clown skill, he could easily escape using [Faceless]. Even if he were tracked down, he would have the ability to contend and protect himself.

This option was more in line with Chen Ling's wishes than blindly retreating for stability, and besides...

This place seemed to be a pretty good "stage," didn't it?

"To complete a brilliant performance as much as possible without being able to use any skills, and to maximize the expectation value."

Chen Ling pondered while stepping over Supervisor Sun's corpse, sat down at his desk, and took out paper and pen to start writing and drawing, as if he had returned to the theater before the Great Cataclysm, seriously writing a brand-new play.

"This isn't easy... but..."

Chen Ling seemed to have thought of something, his gaze falling on Supervisor Sun's corpse to the side and the cabinet full of photos and letters.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"However, it's not like there's no room for improvisation."

……

A few minutes later, Chen Ling pushed open the office door.

He was still wearing that bright red opera robe, his face covered by a black veil. Just as he walked out the door, he saw a girl stumbling out of the room next door, her face looking a bit pale.

Chen Ling turned to look at her, and she looked at Chen Ling. The moment their gazes met, the girl lowered her head like a frightened rabbit, her lips pursed slightly.

Disheveled hair blocked her pale face, hazy like the fine rain of Jiangnan. One hand was tidying her messy clothes, while the other hand leaned against the wall, and she walked with difficulty toward the end of the corridor, step by step...

But before she could reach the stairs, the door of another office behind her opened, and a bloated figure walked out.

"Liu Qingyan, is your name Liu Qingyan?"

"I... yes."

"Damn it, I've been waiting for you for a long time. Why are you dawdling here with me? Do you know the preliminary audition starts in three minutes??"

As he spoke, the figure walked out of the room cursing, grabbed the girl's slender wrist, and dragged her toward his room like an object.

"No... I, I really have already... I beg you... why don't you wait until the audition is over..."

Under the fat man's scolding, the girl lowered her head silently, her eyes already red. She was dragged into the room, one hand subconsciously grabbing the door frame, as if grabbing the last straw...

"Wait for what? Three minutes is enough! Do you still want to pass the audition or not??"

Hearing this, the girl's body trembled slightly, pain and struggle flashing in her eyes. The fingers grabbing the door frame finally let go, and her thin body was dragged directly into the room by one hand.

Bang—!

As the door closed heavily, the corridor fell into dead silence.

Dim light shone in from the small window at the end of the corridor, but it couldn't illuminate the long hallway at all. The girl's stumbling footprints remained on the dark tiled floor, like her unwilling and desperate life.