"Strange?" Lu Jinnian furrowed his brows, and reached his arm out. He rubbed Qiao Anhao's forehead to find that her temperature was normal, but he was still a little worried. "Do you want to go to the hospital to check it out?"

"Nah..." she said. She took a bite off the fried egg and realized that she didn't feel unwell like before. It seemed like she had completely recovered. "I'm fine right now."

"..." Lu Jinnian paused for a moment, then sat back down on the dining chair. When he picked up a slice of bread, he spoke again. "If you're not feeling well, don't force yourself and go to the hospital."

-

In the evening, when Qiao Anhao went to partic.i.p.ate in the compet.i.tion, the entrance was crowded with reporters.

Thankfully, the organizers had made preparations in advance to employ more security guards. Although the lights flashed incessantly, Qiao Anhao was able to enter straight into the studio without any trouble.

Qiao Anhao wasn't very confident in this compet.i.tion due to the scandal. She had originally held the top place on the online polls, but now had fallen below tenth place. Perhaps the show's production crew didn't disqualify her from the compet.i.tion to show how forgiving and generous they were. Perhaps they'll kick her out naturally through the selection process during the compet.i.tion between the top eight.

Well, no matter how it was going

going to be, Qiao Anhao tried her best to be calm and perform what she'd practiced at home.

She had prepared something original and truly stunning for the show.

Despite her skills being on display, because of the scandal, she didn't receive a big response, and in the end, the sound of the fifty invited members of the audience was clearly halfhearted and cold.

The judges were probably afraid to give Qiao Anhao a high score, since they would be affected by the backlash online, so they all gave quite conservative scores besides the eldest judge. Having starred as the female lead in fifty percent of the movies of her era, that particular judge was an influential and prestigious character in the entertainment industry. She was the only one who gave Qiao Anhao full marks without any qualms about it.

The evaluation she received at the time was, "I want to choose a female lead with outstanding acting, so I judge by only your skills. As for your performance just now, I give it full marks."

With the elderly actress' full marks, Qiao Anhao, who originally had no hopes of getting through to the finals, actually received the scores needed for eight place, barely making it to the finals.

The finals were scheduled for next weekend Because of tonight's compet.i.tion, the heated scandal from a few days ago was raised again by everyone. The flames of earth-shattering abuse were fanned once more.

Qiao Anhao, who had already been scolded once, was seemingly numbed to having to face another wave of scolding.

So much so that on the night, she celebrated reaching the finals with a candlelit dinner with Lu Jinnian.

After that she started to prepare. Under Lu Jinnian's suggestion and after some time of consideration, she eventually decided to perform Zhao Feiyan's drum dance.

To make sure the dance was phenomenal, Lu Jinnian especially asked a dancer he knew for many years to their home to help Qiao Anhao with the ch.o.r.eography.

Qiao Anhao had all the foundations. Although she hadn't practiced in the past few years, with the help of the dancer, she used just half a day's time to forcibly dance through the routine. As she wanted the dance to be stunning, she needed to practice hard for the next few days.