Chapter 127 Invited Because He Insisted
A week of practice soon ended.
The public performance on Sunday came as scheduled.
Early in the morning, 80 candidates and 15 nominees started to put on makeup.
Because the dressing room was not large enough to accommodate so many people, the make-up artist came to each practice room with a cosmetics case and put on makeup for them one by one.
Before the make-up artist arrived, Ebony asked the team to rehearse it again.
Halfway through the rehearsal, a staff member asked outside with a notebook in his hand, "Miss Gibson, has your cheering guest confirmed his participation?"
Ebony walked to the door and replied, "Yeah, I just texted him, and he has arrived at the airport. He'll be here in one hour at the latest."
The staff member handed her the notebook and pen. "Please sign this on behalf of him. Write down his name in this column and his quotation at the back."
Ebony wrote down Lloyd's name in the front column.
She paused at the back column. "I don't know how much he charges."
The staff member was stunned!
After quite a while.
He said in a half-joking and helpless tone, "Miss Gibson, you can't write down a random amount."
Ebony froze. "What did I write down?"
The staff member said, "No joking, who did you invite exactly? Here is the correction fluid. Please correct it."
Instead of taking the correction fluid, Ebony said in confusion, "It's not wrong."
She then fished her phone out of her pocket.
She called Lloyd and turned on the speaker.
The phone was soon answered.
"Hello." The man's low voice came over.
Ebony got straight to the point. "How much do you charge for going on shows?"
After a moment of silence, the person on the other end of the phone replied, "I'm not sure."
Ebony clicked her tongue. "You don't know? Ask your agent and text me the answer. The registry requires it."
She then hung up the phone without waiting for Lloyd's response.
She put the phone back into her pocket, looked up at the staff member, and said, "He'll text me. Can I register later?"
The staff member was speechless.
The news of Lloyd going on the show as a cheering guest spread fast.
The chief director almost sprained his ankle when he received the news.
"Lloyd? Lloyd Vasquez? That movie king? For real?"
The staff member responsible for making the list dully handed the notebook over.
The chief director looked at Lloyd's name and trod on air. "Lloyd is coming to our show! Holy sh*t!"
The staff member came to his senses and reminded the chief director, "Sir, take a look at the back,"
The chief director froze before looking at the quotation column.
There were three words. "Five million dollars".
The Chief Director was stupefied.
"What? Lloyd is coming?" In Belinda's dressing room.
Belinda looked at her assistant incredulously and asked in a cold voice, "Where did you get the news?"
The assistant whispered, "Rumor has it that Ebony invited him."
"Impossible."
Belinda snickered and said, "To be in the limelight, she is full of big talk. Wait and see. Once Lloyd doesn't show up later, she would say that he is busy. I'm familiar with such tricks better than her."
Belinda topped the list of people creating hypes with Lloyd.
Mr. Mcgrath, the owner of the company where she was working, carried a torch for her and forbade her to have any contact with Lloyd.
Although Belinda hadn't been able to meet Lloyd over the years, she had asked people to release PR articles about Lloyd and her.
The benefits of Ancient Alley were just too great.
Among those female artists bound with Lloyd, Belinda was the only one Lloyd's fans weren't hostile to.
Over the years, Belinda had created hypes with Lloyd many times.
She was more than familiar with Ebony's approach.
Belinda said confidently, "I know Lloyd's personality well. He is scrupulous in separating public from private interests. He works with you, but it doesn't mean he sees you as his friend. Besides, he is not a fan of interacting with female artists. In short, he won't come."
Belinda's eyes swiveled.
She came up with a plan. "Well, have a live broadcast off stage later and use Lloyd as a hype to blow Ebony's horn. Once Lloyd doesn't appear, film and mail it."
The assistant nodded in understanding. "Consider it done. I know what to do, Belinda."
Belinda grunted and said, "Last time, the hand-holding photo of Dione was depicted as 'necessary for work' by her PR agents. It's live streaming this time, and I don't think she can whitewash it. At the end of the day, Lloyd's fans are overprotective of him. Except for me, they allow no female artists to create hypes with Lloyd."
The public performance kicked off an hour later.
Ebony gave a pep talk to the five members of her team and then went on stage.
500 spectators were seated below.
The host came on stage, delivered the opening speech, and started to introduce the cheering guests.
The first guest being introduced was a celebrity invited by Belinda.
The screen door opened, and from behind came a tall, handsome young man.
It was a male actor named Josue Upshaw. He used to work with Belinda and won the award of double-gold move king.
The moment he showed up, there was an uproar in the audience.
They knew that Belinda was well-connected and had an illustrious circle of friends. They just hadn't expected her to invite an A-lister like Josue to a small talent show.
She was worthy of being called the No. 1 Goddess of showbiz.
Josue came on stage, exchanged pleasantries with the host, waved at Belinda, and went to the guest's seat.
He took a seat in the center. It was a habit he picked up from attending various events.
Following him, another three friends of the instructors made their appearances.
They were a second-rate actress and the idols in a group.
Then it was time for the referees' cheering guests to make their appearances.
Below the stage, Belinda's assistant secretly turned on Twitter live streaming.
The account she used was a major one that had over 100,000 followers.
As soon as the live streaming started, hundreds of people entered the channel. Then thousands of netizens joined in.
Not long after, the host finished introducing two referrers' celebrity friends.
Only Ebony's celebrity friend was yet to be introduced.
The host suddenly took a deep breath.
Instead of directly announcing the name, he held up the microphone and asked Ebony, "Miss Gibson, I'm dying to know why you invited him to be your cheering guest?"
Ebony took the microphone from a staff member's hand, thought about it, and replied, "I invited him because he insisted on coming."
The host gasped in shock.
"You mean, you didn't plan to invite him. He volunteered to come?"
Ebony nodded, matter-of-factly. "I planned to invite Teri."
"Good!" The host suddenly said aloud. "Then let's ask the cheering guest if he really volunteered to come!"
"Let's give a round of applause to... Lloyd! The movie king!"
When Lloyd appeared on the screen, people on or off the stage fell silent.
Then the screen door opened.
In the dazzling light, a tall, stone-faced man in a simple grey sweater slowly came out.
The silence continued.
A few seconds later...
A torrent of screams suddenly rang out.
It was tumultuous and unintermittent!
"Ahhh..."
Those men and women screamed incessantly at the top of their lungs.
The instructors, referrers, and the other cheering guests were all dumbfounded.
Belinda, in particular, was petrified and livid. She couldn't believe her eyes.
Lloyd was here. Why?
No, it couldn't be... impossible...
The host blushed with excitement.
He nervously stood next to Lloyd, handed the latter the microphone, and asked gingerly, "Mr. Vasquez, did you hear what Miss Gibson had just said?"
The elegant man reached out his slender fingers and took the microphone.
His dark eyes glanced at a certain girl among the referrers.
He put the microphone to his lips and hummed.
The host asked again, "Do you have any comment on it?"
Lloyd's eyes had been fixed on Ebony's delicate white face.
After a while, he said softly, "No."
He thought for a moment and added, "Whatever she says, I never deny."