2️⃣3️⃣
Janet nodded and tossed her bag aside while Emily rolled her eyes and taunted, "I must say, you're really bold!"
Three minutes later, Emily knocked on the door of the dressing room impatiently and asked, "Janet, are you done?"
As she could not hear anything coming from inside, she was just about to walk into the dressing room when the door swung open. She was greeted by a young girl wearing a green embroidered dress, carrying a lute in her arms as she was leaving the room. She had exquisite makeup on her face with two roses drawn beside her eyes, accentuating her radiant and flawless skin. Emily was awestruck by Janet's beauty.
"Is it my turn soon?" Janet curled her crimson lips slightly upward into a mysterious smile and it was the first time that Emily had seen her wear that expression.
When Gordon approached the girls, he was immediately blown away by Janet's dazzling beauty, his eyes glued to her. Exasperated to see how infatuated he was with Janet, Emily deliberately questioned, "Janet, I'm surprised you know how to play a lute. Do you really know how it works?"
"I'm curious too. Why did you decide to perform on the lute?" Gordon asked.
Janet flashed them both a helpless smile. "That's my only choice because I have no idea how to play the other instruments."
Emily consoled her right away and said, "It's fine. Gordon and I have just seized the first place for our class with our performance. So, you don't have to be nervous; you're free to perform anything you want."
"Really? The two of you are amazing!" Janet ignored Emily completely and gave Gordon a nudge instead, as if the two were the best of buddies.
Emily wasn't too bothered by it because she knew Janet would soon become the laughing stock of the whole school from tonight onward. That thought instantly cheered her up. Her performance was the last from Class A as well as the entire event, so she had a crucial role because everyone would be paying their full attention to her.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming to join us in celebrating Star High School's anniversary tonight. We guarantee that all performances tonight have not gone through any rehearsal and everything will be done in a fair and square manner so that we will be able to uncover the student who has the most potential in becoming a star in the future!"
The audience responded with a round of warm applause. The much-anticipated last performance of the night was about to begin.
"Now, let us welcome the last performance of tonight. Miss Janet Jackson, a newcomer from Class A of Twelfth Grade! Let's put our hands together to welcome her dance performance!"
At the same time, whispers broke out among the audience.
"A newcomer? I can't believe she has the guts to be the last performer at such a grand event. I guarantee she must be someone who loves to be in the limelight!"
"Janet Jackson? Isn't she the one who beat up the campus belle, Jennifer Lewis, so badly that she had to skip school for ten days?"
"Not only that, she even cheated in exams and she was so slick that not even the principal or the teachers could catch her red-handed!"
"Damn it, is she backed up by some big shot? Let's see how she's going to fare in the final exam!"
"I couldn't give a crap about that because she will forever be my enemy for hurting my idol, Jennifer Lewis."
"Hey, stop talking and watch her performance."
At this moment, Janet walked onto the stage. The dress she wore was embellished with green embroidery and it wrapped around her elegant body perfectly, as if it was made exclusively for her. The fair skin of her arms were also on display.
"Oh gosh!"
"She's so stunning! I think I'm falling in love with her!"
"Is she carrying a lute?"
"No way, does she know how to play it?"
"Isn't she going to dance?"
Gracefully, Janet sat down and started stroking the lute with her fingers. Curving her fair-skinned fingers into a hooked shape, she started strumming the strings and playing a song named 'Sorrow'. The song conveyed the bitterness of a woman who was longing for the return of her husband. Toward the end of the song, Janet slowed down the movement of her fingers and ended the song with a single note of longing.
The audience immediately broke into tremendous applause.
"Her performance was breathtaking!"
"She looks so beautiful when she's playing the lute in that green dress."
"She's definitely the best performer tonight!"
"Her performance is even better than Emily's piano performance."
"She has to be crowned as the winner tonight!"
Meanwhile backstage, Emily glared at Janet with her teeth gritted as she was surprised that Janet could really play the lute. How could this be? Did villages now come with so many good resources? Emily knew she was surely going to miss out on being the winner this time and she had only herself to blame for that.
On the other hand, Gordon was impressed by Janet's performance because it was better than many celebrities who performed inn talent shows on television.
Instead of retreating to the backstage right away, Janet put the lute down. Removing the pair of high heels she was wearing, her ankle and calf were revealed as the slit on her dress parted while she walked around the stage. All the guys offstage were smitten by the temptation.
"That's not the end?"
"Is she going to dance?"
*
Once again, the audience went into an uproar when they saw Janet remain onstage. The music played and she started moving gracefully, her dress accentuating her slender waist and swaying along with her movements.
She successfully made every single movement of hers look perfect and elegant while she glided on the stage nimbly. At the same time, she would move her eyes gracefully, looking mischievous at one moment and elegant the next, perfectly complementing her dance moves.
Everyone was transfixed by her performance, their eyes brimming with admiration. The judges and the audience were stuck in a trance even after her performance ended. By the time everyone recovered, Janet had already retreated backstage.
"Please play 'Sorrow' again with the lute!"
"Please dance again!"
"My idol, please come out to the stage now!"
The audience were crazy about her but the young girl who had successfully charmed them within five minutes never reappeared on stage despite their keen requests.
Meanwhile, Mason was watching Janet's breathtaking performance on his computer at the Lowry Residence. As it turned out, Janet had left hurriedly just now because she needed to attend her school anniversary celebration. At that exact moment, someone knocked on the door of the study.
"Come in."
Sean cautiously walked in and placed a file on Mason's desk. He inadvertently glanced at Mason's computer and was immediately enamored by Janet's performance. Taking a closer look at Janet's face, Sean asked in astonishment, "Isn't she that superb doctor?"
Mason took a sip of wine, his movements exuding a noble and distinguished aura as he responded, "Yes."
"Young Master Mason, did you hack into the CCTV cameras installed at her school?"
Mason stared at the screen with his long and slanted eyes, much like a predator staring at its prey. Sean was first shocked to see the woman who appeared on the screen and then was flabbergasted to see how smitten Young Master Mason was with her. Since when did he make so much effort for a woman? For her sake, the young man was even willing to go to the extent of hacking the CCTV cameras installed at her school…
"Sean, help me check what happened along her journey to the hospital earlier today," Mason instructed.
"Yes, sir."
He almost forgot about the tiny abrasion at the corner of her eye when she reached the hospital. It seemed like she got it not too long ago and it didn't seem to be caused by a fall. In that case, what had she experienced that could have left the injury on her face? He had to get to the bottom of it—he would never allow anybody to touch her!
With such a scintillating performance, it didn't come as a surprise that Janet was crowned as the winner of tonight. Regretfully, she left right after her performance and didn't stay for the award ceremony.
The runner-up was Emily and Gordon. Gordon accepted his defeat very readily because Janet's performance was absolutely better than his. As for Emily, she congratulated Janet for her win but deep down inside, she felt overwhelming resentment. If she had known that Janet would steal the limelight of the event from her, she wouldn't have registered Janet for the contest.
That night, some boys from the school immediately posted the performance video and photos of Janet to a campus belle forum on Reddit. The rest of the boys frantically added their comments in the forum to show their support for Janet. One of them even posted a video comparing Emily to Janet. It was said that Emily had done well that night and managed to impress the audience but as soon as Janet appeared, her performance was immediately forgotten.
When Emily logged into her Reddit account and saw most of the comments were about Janet, she freaked out and nearly smashed her laptop to pieces. Janet's performance rose swiftly to fame and even the campus belle, Jennifer Lewis, almost paled in her presence. Noticing that her performance had become a hit, Gordon quickly called Janet to inform her. "You're a celebrity now, Janet! Your performance video is all over Reddit and Twitter!"
Janet quickly hung up on him to check out her Twitter account. Goodness gracious!
Never had she thought that her performance would go viral on the Internet. By hook or by crook, she had to do something to quell the public enthusiasm on her performance. Shortly later, she called Lee and told him, "Hey, I accidentally went viral on the internet. Can you help me tone down the discussion? I want everything related to my performance to vanish."
"Janet, why don't you just delete your Twitter account?" Lee provided her with an even better solution without having to spend a single cent.