Chapter 25: The Color of Lipstick

The afternoon exam ended quickly. Jiang Ning walked around the intersection outside the theater, but didn’t encounter anyone who looked like the lead actress. She returned to the theater to wait for Shuangtao.

The young girls who took the exam were randomly assigned numbers to go on stage. This arrangement was to prevent favoritism and nepotism.

Jiang Ning sat in the designated waiting room for family members. She remembered that when she was waiting for the theater doors to open, Shuangtao quietly pointed out Tang Jianhong and Li Qin to her.

Zhou Mansha was probably busy with the art troupe at this time. She didn’t directly bring Tang Jianhong and the others in, indicating that she needed to keep a low profile about her private tutoring.

Jiang Ning immediately noticed the color of the lipstick on Tang Jianhong’s lips.

It wasn’t the popular bright red lipstick, but a vibrant red, quite distinctive, but it looked a bit too mature and old for a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl.

Logically, Zhou Mansha was clearly a fashionable person, she shouldn’t have chosen this color for the kids.

However, including Li Qin, and another girl who took Zhou Mansha’s private tutoring class, were all wearing the same lipstick.

Jiang Ning quickly figured it out. While not 100% certain, she could definitely try.

That’s why she took out her own lipstick and let the girls use it.

Tang Jianhong later wiped off the color of her original lipstick and couldn’t help but secretly borrow that lipstick to reapply.

She felt that the few who danced well were all wearing it. What if the teachers thought they had better stage presence because of that?

Jiang Ning and Shuangtao both kept their faces straight, pretending not to see.

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Art troupe office.

Zhou Mansha learned that the exam was finally over and the scores had been tallied. As she walked back, the physical education teacher, Zhang, nodded at her with a subtle smile.

She breathed a sigh of relief, reached out to adjust her newly permed wavy hair, and beamed with joy, “Teacher Zhang, you’ve worked so hard.”

The exam score accounted for 70% of the final evaluation. Teacher Zhang had helped her a lot this time, and it was estimated that the few students under her were all safe.

The most important one was Tang Jianhong. Her father worked in the Industrial and Commercial Bureau and had some influence. He had given Zhou Mansha many good things, so she naturally had to take good care of his daughter.

In a good mood, she used the excuse of needing to see the director and went to the front to look at the score sheet.

Just as she reached the side door of the theater stage, before she could enter, two girls ran out, crying and sobbing, their makeup smudged.

“Jianhong…?” Zhou Mansha was stunned and quickly grabbed her.

“Jianhong, what’s wrong?” Zhou Mansha thought she had fallen or twisted something during the exam.

Tang Jianhong, a fifteen-year-old girl, was tall. When she saw Teacher Zhou, she bit her lip, raised her head, and glared at her with both grievance and resentment. Her eyes were red, which startled Zhou Mansha.

Liu Qing beside her looked dejected and pale, and she said softly, “Teacher Zhou, we… Jianhong and I both failed.”

After she finished speaking, Tang Jianhong took a deep breath, looking like she was about to cry again. She lowered her head and pulled Liu Qing away, running outside.

She wanted to confront Teacher Zhou directly, “Didn’t you guarantee it to my parents?!”

Not only did she not get into the art troupe, but her overall score was the lowest!

Now all her classmates were laughing at her!

After all, the final list of admitted students wouldn’t be announced until the end of the day, but those with very low overall scores were definitely out of the question! No matter how much they tried to make up for it later, it wouldn’t work!

Zhou Mansha’s heart sank heavily, completely unaware of what had happened.

Teacher Zhang had even nodded at her, how could anything go wrong?

She immediately hurried into the backstage of the theater. As she walked halfway, she suddenly remembered that Tang Jianhong’s lips didn’t seem to be wearing the lipstick she had applied at noon.

She then passed two or three more students, some sad and some happy. She unconsciously glanced at them and immediately had a strange expression.

Why were all these students wearing the same lipstick today?

The girl’s lips reflected a bit of sparkle under the overhead lights, and the shimmering bean paste red exuded a delicate beauty on their youthful faces.

Zhou Mansha felt her heart constantly sinking.

Could it be that her arrangements had been exposed? But… it was impossible!

She finally found the only student among a group of girls who was still wearing her bright red lipstick. She urgently asked, “Did anything happen this afternoon? Did any other teachers or leaders in the art troupe talk to you and Jianhong alone?”

Li Qin shook her head and honestly told her what had happened at the entrance of the theater.

“You said, it was Cheng Shuangtao’s sister?”

Zhou Mansha was completely in a panic, what was going on!

But thankfully, it wasn’t that her arrangements had been exposed. She was both relieved and anxious as she went to find Cheng Shuangtao in the rest room.

This girl, she even brought her sister along, she must have held a grudge and deliberately sabotaged things!