The system makes me so beautiful that I don't care about anyone else's life or death.

They could only offer a vague excuse, saying that outsiders were not allowed to participate.

Although Zhu Hong was disappointed, she expressed her understanding and told Su Ran to keep in touch.

Gu Cai locked himself in the music room for a whole day, his mind filled with the ghostly voice singing.

Without any accompaniment, only a cappella, it still topped the charts on major music apps, pushing him down to third place!

Third place! He was actually pushed down to third place by an a cappella performance! He'd never felt so frustrated before.

The ghostly voice sounded more and more familiar, and more and more like that little assistant.

He opened the door and called out, "Su Ran!"

……

No movement.

"Su Ran? Are you there?"

"Su Ran!"

But the voice that responded to him was someone else's.

"What are you calling for? The heroine is long gone. You must have offended her, otherwise, how could she have left so quickly?"

Zhu Hong walked over from next door, looking at Gu Cai with an expression that was utterly distasteful and disapproving.

"Heroine? You mean Su Ran? What happened to her? I only asked her a few questions this morning, and she left already?" Gu Cai was completely bewildered.

"Who knows what you did? That's all for today. I'm not going to find you a personal assistant next time. If Aunt Gu hadn't asked me to take care of you, I wouldn't have bothered with you at all." Zhu Hong glanced at him and left.

Gu Cai ignored him, lost in his own thoughts, his brows furrowed. "I was even planning to pay her some money to sing a demo for me, and she just left like that? Wasn't she short of money?"

Back in the music room, my phone rang.

"Hey, Brother Zhong."

"We recently signed a new artist, so I'm here to meet them."

"Why would I meet with a new artist you're signing? I'm not going."

Do you know what "ghostly sounds" are?

"Ghost sound!!!"

Gu Cai was so startled that he jumped up from his chair.

Yu Ran Entertainment Company, 10th floor.

When Su Ran arrived, Zhong Jue was still in a meeting. If it weren't for Zhong Jue's assistant's arrangement, Su Ran would have almost been unable to enter the company building.

After Zhong Jue finished his work, he finally remembered Su Ran, so he asked his assistant to bring her up.

Along the way, Su Ran followed behind Zhong Jue, listening to him introduce the company's structure and layout. Everyone they met on the road greeted Zhong Jue and showed his goodwill, so she felt that Zhong Jue must have a very high position in the company.

"This is the artist dance training room."

Zhong Jue pushed open the glass door. Inside, a dozen girls were practicing dancing. Hearing the door open, some of them turned around and looked back. When they saw Su Ran, who was dressed strangely, they looked at her with curiosity.

"Do I need to know all of these?" Su Ran asked.

"Although you are positioned as a singer, a singer can't just sing. For an artist, physical appearance is an essential part. I will talk to the teachers, and you can come and practice with them tomorrow."

"By the way, you haven't studied music, have you?" Zhong Jue asked, finally pointing out Su Ran's weakness.

Su Ran was able to write her own songs entirely based on feeling, but she didn't understand music theory.

"The two songs you sang online were both a cappella, so I guess you don't play instruments like guitar. You sing very well, but my expectations for you go beyond that."

Zhong Jue led Su Ran through another door. The space inside was smaller than the dance studio. A piano was placed in the middle, and on the shelves next to it hung guitars, violins, basses, and other instruments that Su Ran couldn't name.

Zhong Jue walked to the wall of guitars, his slender fingers brushing over each one, finally stopping in front of a completely black guitar.

He took it down and handed it to Su Ran.

"It suits you perfectly." Black, mysterious and elegant, matches her name and this outfit very well.

"I can't accept it, I'll buy it myself," Su Ran refused.

Zhong Jue seemed not to hear, his eyes behind his glasses curving slightly. "The guitar the company provided you is like a weapon issued to a soldier in the army. A singer shouldn't only have a microphone. This isn't a free gift. In a few days, I hope to hear you sing with a guitar. Here you go."

The girl in black reached out her right hand and took the guitar strap from his hand. Her hand wasn't particularly white, but it was long and slender, with nail beds of suitable width. He had heard somewhere that people with beautiful nail beds look good when they get manicures, but he thought her hands were already beautiful without any manicures.

"Zhong Jue?" she called him.

After listening to his words, Su Ran took the guitar he offered, slung it over her arm, and tested its weight; it wasn't heavy. Looking up, she saw her manager staring blankly for several seconds, seemingly lost in thought.

"Are you alright?" she asked again.

Zhong Jue snapped out of her daze, adjusted her glasses, and looked to the side. "Hmm, it's okay. I'll take you to the recording studio."

"Oh, good."

In the dance training room, a few girls who had just seen Zhong Jue and Su Ran were resting, sitting on the floor in a group and talking quietly.

"Is that Zhong Jue? He's so handsome! I really want to be one of his artists. He'd get top-notch resources and become Gu Cai's fellow apprentices."

"Did you see that girl dressed all in black? She's wearing a mask so you can't see her face, and we don't know what she does. She's acting all mysterious."

"I just saw that girl come out with a guitar. I've seen that guitar before; it's very expensive. The company wouldn't give it away so easily."

"Could she be Zhong Jue's newly signed artist? She's so lucky, Xiao Yan. Do you think she might be developing into a singer like you?"

A girl with a ponytail nudged a long-haired girl named Xiaoyan next to her with her shoulder.

Xiao Yan's face darkened for a moment, then she hugged her knees and said expressionlessly, "How would I know?"

"Didn't you say your friend was Zhong Jue's brother?"

The woman with the ponytail gave her a strange look, secretly amused. She had thought Xiao Yan had some connections at the company, but it turned out they weren't very effective. Zhong Jue hadn't even glanced at her when he came in earlier.

"Does it really matter if we're brothers? You should spend your time worrying about your dancing. Your teacher has criticized you several times already." Lu Xiaoyan rolled her eyes at her, then raised her hand and said, "Teacher, I need to go to the bathroom."

"Go."

After leaving the training room, Lu Xiaoyan did not go to the restroom as she had said. Instead, she went to the stairwell and made a phone call.

The moment the call connected, his expression turned sorrowful and dejected.

"Li Hao, didn't you promise to help me? How come Brother Zhong has signed with someone else now? You have no idea how embarrassed I was just now."

Li Hao's initially happy face fell, and he became a little impatient.

"What did I tell you at the beginning? I've already done my best to get you into Yu Ran as a trainee. As for whether you can sign with Brother Zhong, that depends on whether you can meet his standards."

“I don’t care, I just want to be an artist under Brother Zhong’s management, I don’t care about the others.”

"Oh my little darling, how can I possibly say anything to you?"

"You absolutely have to do it, otherwise..." Lu Xiaoyan's words carried a threat.

"Okay, okay, don't worry, I'll think of a way!"

After hanging up the phone, Lu Xiaoyan confidently walked out of the stairwell and saw Zhong Jue and Su Ran coming out of the recording studio, still talking about something.

She adjusted her facial expression, smiled sweetly, and waved, calling out, "Brother Zhong, we meet again!"