190: Chapter 190 How about a hug?

The last word fell, and the outro faded away.

Although the song had ended, the lights on the stage did not light up immediately.

There was still only a single spotlight shrouding her, as if reluctant to break the quietness of this moment.

The audience was quiet for about two seconds.

Then, applause surged in like a tide.

The bullet comments in the livestream completely exploded at this moment, moving so fast that it was impossible to see any complete content clearly.

Shen Qingxue bowed slightly, and when she straightened up, her gaze instinctively glanced toward the direction of the side wings.

Afterwards, not knowing what she thought of, she instinctively smiled slightly. Aside from a certain someone, it was probably not noticed by anyone else.

Soon, the host walked quickly up from the side wings, with a distinct trot in his steps, and the smile on his face could not be suppressed no matter what.

"Thank you! Thank you so much Teacher Shen for bringing this song come on! Also thank you to all the viewers who saw this scene, thank you for your support!"

He took a deep breath and turned to look at the judges' seating area.

"Next, we invite all the judge teachers to reveal their scores."

The five judges pressed the scoring devices in front of them almost simultaneously.

On the big screen, the five numbers lit up in sequence.

A clean sweep of nines.

After dropping one highest score and one lowest score, the final average score settled at 9.9 points.

The whole audience was in an uproar once again.

The bullet comments in the livestream exploded in another wave.

Shen Qingxue bowed slightly, her face still showing no major emotional fluctuations.

The host smiled and pressed on: "Teacher Shen, getting 9.9 points again tonight, is there anything you want to say to everyone?"

Shen Qingxue took the microphone, thought for a moment, and then spoke.

"The old rule, thank Lu Li. I have always believed that he is the core figure of this song."

There was another burst of applause from the audience.

Meanwhile, a chorus of wails rang out in the livestream.

[This is really bad now, even the goddess has been reeled in into a grinning crooked mouth]

[No! No! My aloof goddess is gone forever, wuwuwu!]

[Lu Li, I'm begging you, you must treat her well. She likes to move in her sleep, remember to cover her with a blanket. She also likes to drink milk tea, remember to let her drink less. And also, her period is... remember not to let her touch anything icy... wuwuwu]

[Hiss... Isn't the bro upstairs using Lu Li's pretext to speak out his true thoughts after being cuckolded?]

[Warm men rank behind dogs]

On stage.

After Shen Qingxue finished speaking, she bowed slightly again, and then very decisively turned around and exited the stage.

The spotlight followed her all the way until her figure disappeared behind the side wings, and then slowly went out.

...

Backstage.

Shen Qingxue detoured out from the side wings and came to the corridor.

And she had barely taken two steps when she saw Lu Li leaning against the wall, arms crossed, looking at her with a grinning face.

"come on, give me a hug to celebrate."

Seeing her walking over, Lu Li opened his arms, making a motion to give her a big hug.

Shen Qingxue gave him an exasperated roll of her eyes without speaking, but her gaze instinctively swept around both sides of the corridor.

Confirming that there was no one around, she quickly stepped forward by half a step and gently wrapped her arms around his waist.

Very light, very fast, like a gust of wind sweeping past.

Before Lu Li could react, she had already stepped back, standing straight again, her expression returning to that cool and composed appearance.

"Your rap part was not bad, a compliment for you."

Lu Li was stunned for a moment, looked down at his own chest, then looked up at her with an incredulous face.

"You just... hugged me?"

Originally, he didn't expect Shen Qingxue to actually hug him, but as a result...

"No."

Shen Qingxue denied it without changing her expression, lifting her foot to continue walking forward.

"You must have felt wrong, that must have just been the wind."

Lu Li hurried forward two steps to catch up, turned his head to look at her, and lowered his voice.

"Hey hey hey, where would there be wind in this corridor? Stop quibbling."

"The wind from the central air conditioning!"

Shen Qingxue glared at him exasperatedly.

This person is really something, taking advantage yet still acting innocent.

"..."

Lu Li opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but looking at her slightly flushed earlobes, he swallowed his words back down.

Fine, if you say it is, then it is.

The two walked side by side toward the rest area, with a half-step distance between them.

"The judges gave a high score again, I thought you would be at least a little happier." Lu Li said casually.

Shen Qingxue turned her head to glance at him, the corners of her mouth curving slightly.

"I am happy, it's just not written on my face."

Lu Li turned his head to look at her and suddenly chuckled in a low voice.

"Alright, then next time I'll write happiness on my face, and smile that share for you too."

Shen Qingxue's footsteps paused imperceptibly, and quickly returned to normal.

Not long after, the two walked back to the rest area.

The other contestants hadn't returned yet, and it was empty, with only a few staff members packing up equipment in the distance.

Lu Li sat down casually, crossed his legs, and turned his head to look at her.

"What's next? Waiting for the competition results to come out?"

Shen Qingxue also sat down, took out her phone, and glanced at the time.

"Yeah, waiting for all contestants to finish singing, announcing the promotion list, and then announcing the topic for the next round."

Lu Li nodded.

"Alright, then we wait."

The rest area was quiet for a good while.

Lu Li leaned against the back of the chair, crossing his legs, and glanced sideways out the window.

The night had completely darkened, and the city's lights cast fine, fragmented spots of light on the glass window.

Lu Li looked at the myriad lights of the city outside the window like this, while his mind was still savoring that brief hug just now.

Although it was very light, very fast, like a gust of wind, the temperature and tactile sensation of that instant were still exceptionally clear.

He instinctively revealed a smile.

"What are you smiling at?"

Shen Qingxue's voice came from the side, her tone bland, but with a trace of alertness.

Lu Li came back to his senses, quickly flattened the corners of his mouth, and switched his expression extremely naturally.

"Nothing, just thought of a funny thing."

"What thing?"

"Just not telling you."

Shen Qingxue cast a suspicious glance at him, obviously not quite believing his rhetoric, but she didn't press further.

She lowered her head to continue looking at her phone, where a video was displaying on the screen, which was precisely a clip of tonight's livestream.

In just these few minutes, someone had already posted the clip of Shen Qingxue singing come on online.

Lu Li glanced at it, feeling somewhat curious.

"How is it? Are there people saying bad things about us? We can't just look at good reviews."

Shen Qingxue's gaze lingered on the screen for a moment, then she raised her head, her expression somewhat subtle.

"It's not that they said bad things, but..."

"But what?"

Shen Qingxue tilted her phone towards him, letting him look for himself.

Lu Li leaned over to take a look, and a popular comment was prominently listed.

[That glance Shen Qingxue gave towards the side wings after singing the song was too sweet, there is definitely something wrong here! I bet a pack of spicy strips, quietly waiting for the official announcement]

Hundreds of replies followed below, all uniformly raising the stakes by a pack of spicy strips.

After reading it, Lu Li's mouth twitched.

"These people... how are they more awesome than the last? They can even sense that something is wrong???"

"What do you expect, they live off this line of work."

Shen Qingxue withdrew her phone, her tone bland, but the hard-to-detect faint red on her earlobes still betrayed her.

Lu Li scratched his head and did not continue this topic further.