Chapter Twenty-Three: Help Me Investigate Someone

Five days have passed since the carnival party, and the production team hasn't given them a break, scheduling a full schedule of classes and training every day.

Now everyone is quite familiar with stage presence and photoshoots.

The final assessment is fast approaching.

This time it's much simpler: each person has five minutes to take a photo with the photographer. The photos will be uploaded to the official website and Weibo account, where the public will vote for the five best photos. These five will directly advance to the top 15. Professional judges will also critique and score each photo, and the final 10 will be selected based on the overall scores.

It's a cutoff of 2 out of 30 contestants, eliminating half.

This competition is brutal, but also relatively fair. Each training session and assessment is broadcast live, and the judges' scores are relatively impartial under the supervision of netizens, avoiding bias due to personal feelings. Therefore, the overall score best reflects a person's strength and skill. The best photo chosen by netizens also reflects the contestants' popularity.

The show, the show, always follows the audience's preferences, which is why popular contestants can go further in the competition.

The photo shoot was held in a studio. To ensure fairness, the contestants chose their own styling and backgrounds. They could freely choose the shooting background based on their own outfits, so even if the photos weren't good, the production team couldn't be blamed.

After a busy day, the two-week training camp came to an end.

The production team gave the contestants two days off. Two days later, the contestants would face the results. Whether they stayed or left was not something they could control.

When leaving the villa, many contestants cried because they knew that leaving might really mean leaving Supermodel House forever.

"Jiaojiao, where are you going? Do you want to come with us?" Luo Yi pulled Sheng Jiaoyang.

"No, I'm going home."

"Okay, anyway, we're friends, we can contact each other by phone if anything happens."

"Okay, goodbye!"

Those who were close said goodbye one by one, and everyone went their separate ways.

Sheng Jiaoyang returned to the house she had stayed in for less than two days and didn't see Xu Qing. She then remembered that Xu Qing had gone to work as a nanny.

Having gotten used to being surrounded by people for the past two weeks, being alone now feels strange, leaving her with a sense of emptiness.

She thought for a moment, then picked up her phone and called Xu Qing.

A while later, the call connected.

"Jiaojiao, you're done with your competition?" Xu Qing's surprised voice came through the phone.

"I can rest for a couple of days."

"Oh, I'll take two days off to come back and be with you!"

"Okay."

After hanging up, Sheng Jiaoyang was surprised to see a smile on her face in the full-length mirror.

She was stunned; hearing the other person say they'd come back to be with her made her so happy.

It turned out she had become so accustomed to her current identity.

Now she could calmly accept being Xu Jiaojiao. Since it was fate's arrangement, she would accept it with equanimity. No matter how bad the environment or how low her status, she could always change it with effort. Her

only worry was her grandfather's health. He would be seventy this year, and after suffering the consecutive losses of her grandmother and mother, his health had been deteriorating. Now that she was in trouble, how could he bear it?

She desperately wanted to fly abroad immediately, find her grandfather, and tell him in person that Sheng Jiaoyang was alive and well!

However, she had neither a passport nor a visa, and more importantly, she wasn't even eighteen yet and was under her guardian's supervision.

"What should I do?"

Sheng Jiaoyang flopped onto the sofa, aimlessly scrolling through the web on her phone.

Suddenly, an entertainment news item caught her eye.

Her gaze froze.

[International supermodel Lina and her wealthy boyfriend announce a peaceful breakup!]

What happened? How could Mei Niu and George break up? Before she returned to China, they were still inseparable.

Sheng Jiaoyang still remembered the scene when they saw her off at the airport.

Mei Niu hugged her, saying she didn't want her to leave, and George joked beside her, "Hurry up and go, come back when Lina and I have our wedding."

At that time, Mei Niu rolled her eyes but couldn't help laughing; it was clear she was really looking forward to marrying George.

Two people who clearly dreamed of marriage, and they just broke up like that?

She hadn't heard of any conflicts between them before her accident, so it must have happened recently.

She should have recognized Mei Niu the last time she saw her, regardless of the consequences.

Besides her grandfather, Mei Niu was the person who understood her best in the world. From elementary school to university, they had spent more time together than even family, and they shared many little secrets.

While Sheng Jiaoyang was preoccupied, Xu Qing also encountered trouble in a villa.

"You've only been here a few days and you're already asking for leave? Who's going to clean the house if you're on leave?" A woman dressed like a wealthy lady leaned back on the sofa, glancing sideways at Xu Qing.

"I... something happened at home," Xu Qing said, head down.

"Didn't you not remarry? Who else is in your family?"

Xu Qing remained silent; she didn't want the person in front of her to know about Jiao Jiao's existence.

"Xu Qing, are you tired? Or do you still have feelings for my husband?" The woman asked casually, glancing at her manicured nails.

"No!" Xu Qing quickly denied.

"That's good. You've seen how much my husband cares about our family these past few days. Every time he goes on a business trip, he brings back gifts for me and Wenwen, without fail for years. So, please don't have any improper thoughts. My husband chose to divorce you because he didn't love you anymore, nothing more. As his beloved wife, I feel sorry for you now, so I hired you to do some light chores. Don't repay kindness with enmity!" The woman said sternly, her words carrying a hidden meaning.

Xu Qing bit her lip, remaining silent.

The woman raised her chin in a triumphant gesture, waved her hand, and said, "Alright, if you want to take time off, go ahead. I'll have a cleaning lady come and clean the villa in the next couple of days."

"Thank you." Xu Qing turned and walked out.

“Wait,” the woman suddenly said, “You’re not just planning to leave like this, are you?”

“No.” Xu Qing took a deep breath and walked out of the villa.

The moment she stepped out of the villa gate, tears streamed down her face.

If she hadn’t genuinely needed the job for the money, she wouldn’t have taken it. She didn’t want to see these people who had hurt her.

But for her daughter, any hardship was worth it.

“Beep beep!”

As she walked, she heard two car horns beside her.

Xu Qing wiped away her tears and turned around to see the Pan family mistress’s car following her. Sitting in the driver’s seat was Xiao Song, the driver for the woman.

“Madam asked me to give you a ride. Don’t refuse her kindness, get in the car!” Xiao Song said.

Since she had already said that, Xu Qing couldn’t refuse and got in the car.

However, she only asked Xiao Song to drop her off at the entrance of her residential complex.

Xiao Song looked around the complex, turned the car around, and went back to report.

“Minghua Garden over on Xueyuan Road?” Hearing Xiao Song’s reply, the woman who was pruning the flowers narrowed her eyes.

Having lived here for so long, she knew which upscale residential areas were nearby.

Xu Qing, that woman, lived in an upscale area, yet dressed so poorly looking to look for work, and of course, she ran into her. To say she had no ulterior motive would be a lie! She

picked up her phone and dialed a number.

"Hey, Lao Zheng, I need you to investigate someone again."