"Sure!" Lu Xingzhi naturally had no objections, made room, and prepared to open the back door.
Seeing Liu Bailu sitting in the front passenger seat, the air around Luo Qingchen suddenly became heavy.
However, it quickly subsided as he opened the back door for Lu Xingzhi.
"Thank you!" Lu Xingzhi smiled politely at him.
After she sat in, Luo Qingchen gently closed the car door.
Throughout the journey, the three of them hardly spoke.
Luo Qingchen was aloof, Lu Xingzhi spoke little, and Liu Bailu was introverted.
Even though Liu Bailu felt an eerie silence in the car and wanted to say something, she didn’t know what to say.
Luckily, the trip was short enough.
When they reached the destination, the three people from the previous car saw Liu Bailu stepping down from the front passenger seat, and their expressions were somewhat subtle.
Seeing the restaurant name "Fish Banquet," Lu Xingzhi immediately knew it was a restaurant specializing in fish dishes.
However, Lu Xingzhi was looking at a huge poster in front of the opposite piano store.
"Little Zhi Liao, what are you looking at?" Ke Yanchu noticed Lu Xingzhi staring across and looked over too, not finding anything unusual.
"Looking at the poster."
"Is there a problem with the poster?" Xiong Yali also looked over.
Not just her, but the others glanced over as well.
"No problem, it’s very good. I just want to know if the competition champion truly gets three million in prize money." Lu Xingzhi saw it advertised a piano competition and was focused on the prize money.
She wanted to give Huo Jincheng a gift, but she was broke. If she could win the competition, maybe she could give him a nice gift.
"Little Zhi Liao, are you planning to enter the competition?" Xue Bei joked.
"I don’t want to enter the competition," Lu Xingzhi said honestly.
But then she added, "I just want the money."
"Even if you win the championship, after taxes and various expenses, and factoring in your initial investment, there’s not much left. At most, you’ll gain visibility."
Luo Qingchen looked at the opposite side and then at Lu Xingzhi, continuing, "Generally, in competitions, prize money is not the most important thing. They value the benefits that participating in the program can bring."
He rarely spoke so much, trying to help Lu Xingzhi understand and enlighten her.
"Like many programs nowadays, you see many contestants affiliated with companies and agents. Companies package them, create a persona—whether it’s positive or controversial—they end up in public view."
Lu Xingzhi nodded thoughtfully, "I understand, thank you."
"No need to be so polite," Luo Qingchen said calmly.
"Little Zhi Liao, I’m telling you, getting three million is really simple. Didn’t you know you went viral on Weibo once? People even created posts for you! It’s called ’Most Beautiful Scholar,’ but you happened to be at military training during that time."
Xue Bei recalled the previous news and specifically informed Lu Xingzhi, "If you want to debut, just adopt a persona of a school genius beauty or inspirational goddess, have your PR team buy some press releases, and you’ll be famous overnight."
"That would have been lucky," she said, relieved she went to military training, allowing the news to die down over those half months.
"Little Zhi Liao, but can you play the piano?"