I don't want to marry the Emperor!

7

Once Yu Jiang was pulled upright again, he turned towards the person who saved him and quickly said, "Thank you." Then swiftly turned his attention back to Yu Bai on the lifted stage.

As Yu Jiang worriedly stared up at Yu Bai and tried his best to think of a way to help her, he heard a cynical male voice laughed out loud, "Why are you in such a rush? That poor little lamb will not be going anywhere. Hah! She's practically frozen on stage. Poor thing. ...someone should just hurry up and end her misery, don't you agree?"

Feeling that the man's words were towards him, Yu Jiang turned back towards the direction of the voice and realized that it came from the cloaked male next to the other cloaked person who saved him a second ago.

Coldly narrowing his eyes, without bothering to reply to the cloaked male's remarks, Yu Jiang just shot the male a, 'my bad for thinking that you were good people. hmph' look. Upon seeing Yu Jiang's cold, condescending expression, the cloaked male snorted and appeared to want to say something, but Yu Jiang zoned out his voice and moved his full attention back to Yu Bai.

...

Some time had already passed, but Yu Bai had yet to make a sound. She also appeared to still be shuddering a bit. As Yu Jiang and the rest of the rowdy crowd watch the announcer narrowed his eyes at her and announced, "Leave the stage if you have no talent to show. We do not have time to waste."

Yu Jiang's frown deepened, and he wanted to go up on the stage and beat the announcer into a bloody pulp. But since the stage was lifted and the access back stage was only for contestants, Yu Jiang could only stare at Yu Bai and clench his fists.

Thankfully, a few seconds after the announcer had made his comment, as Yu Bai frantically looked down in fear, she spotted Yu Jiang and remember what Yu Jiang had told her before.

'Deep breath in. Deep breath out' Yu Bai chanted to herself as she closed her eyes.

Once, she felt that the majority of her nerves were gone, she slowly opened her mouth to sing, just as the announcer was about to tell the guards to drag her off the stage.

Yu Bai's delivery of the modern song was just slightly above bad, but thanks to the meaning of the lyrics of the song and how pitiful and sad she looked. It was a good, not great, but good performance in Yu Jiang's standards.

Once Yu Bai was done with her performance, without even being told so by the announcer, Yu Bai glance one last time at Yu Jiang then hurriedly left the stage.

Seeing Yu Bai leave, Yu Jiang also had no need to stay in the pushy crowd anymore and hastily made his way out of the audience too.

---

As Yu Jiang moved against the crowd to leave, he again ran into the two cloaked men. Thinking back the comment that one of them made towards Yu Bai, Yu Jiang again frowned and quickly shot a cold glared towards them before pushing his way through the crowd. As Yu Jiang disappeared into the wave of people, the cloaked man who saved Yu Jiang tugged a corner of his lips up into a mischievous smirk.

''Let that girl through the first round.", The smirking man quietly told the other cloaked man beside him as his eyes closely followed Yu Jiang's trail.

---

Once Yu Jiang was finally able to make his way out of the pushy crowd, he felt almost all of his strength drain from his body and had to hunched over to catch his breath.

'Damn, this body needs to be toughened', Yu Jiang told himself as he breathed in a mouth full of air.

When Yu Jiang was able to make his way to where the contestants' entrance/exit, he spotted Yu Bai seated in a far away corner all by herself.

Walking up to Yu Bai, Yu Jiang crouched down to Bai's sitting level and cautiously called out to her, "Bai...".

Upon seeing that the person calling her was Yu Jiang, Yu Bai exclaimed, "Gege!" and raised her hands to cover the tears that began to pour out of her eyes.

Since the mafia was never too big on comforting people, Yu Jiang had no idea how to comfort Yu Bai and just awkwardly patted her head a few times.

"Gege, sniff..Bai is not a ..hic. kid anymore." Yu Bai mumbled out as she tried to wipe away her tears and move her head away from Yu Jiang's hand.

Yu Jiang nodded to reaffirm Bai's statement and then reluctantly asked, "Bai... ...can you tell me what happened?"

As Yu Jiang saw Yu Bai's brows furrowed and tears welled up in her big brown eyes again, he was about to quickly tell her never mind, but before he did, Yu Bai casted her face down and softly said to Yu Jiang, "Gege... you... Yu Ning did not give you permission to use her things, right?"

Surprised by what Yu Bai said, Yu Jiang's pupil constricted slightly but he said nothing in reply.

After a few long seconds of silence, Yu Bai finally lifted her head nervously and timidly asked again, "is.. is that the truth?"

Instead of answering Yu Bai's question, Yu Jiang stared at Yu Bai's messy appearance and missing items and then carefully asked, "Did Yu Ning do this to you?"

As Yu Jiang watched Yu Bai timidly nodded her head before going back to staring at the ground, two thoughts came into his mind: 1. shit, isn't this Cinderella and her evil sister, and 2. how to get revenge for Yu Bai.

"Jiang Gege?" Yu Bai gently tugged on Yu Jiang's sleeve, shaking him from his thoughts back into reality.

"Mn", Yu Jiang quickly pressed down the coldness in his eyes.

"Do you think... um.. will Bai be selected?" Yu Bai dispiritedly asked

Based on her performance, if Yu Jiang were to be unbiased, he'll have to admit that Yu Bai's chances of being selected is very, very, very slim, but...

How was he supposed to tell that to the fragile young girl in front of him without harming her feelings even more?

"Sigh. Bai will not be selected, right. hic", Yu Bai sadly stated to herself before crying again.

Since Yu Jiang was never into promising false things to the people he cared about, instead of telling her, she may still have a chance, he chose to not say anything and just gently patted her head and walked her back to the Yu Manor with a heavy heart.