NovelApp
Chapter 127
Just like that, a week of practice time flew by.
The Sunday performance arrived on schedule. First thing Sunday morning, the 80 progressing students
and 15 celebrity coach team members started getting their makeup done.
Due to the limited space in the makeup room, the makeup artists brought their kits and went to each
practice room to do the girls’ makeup.
Before the makeup artists arrived, Eileen asked her team members to rehearse once more. In the
middle of their practice, a staff member with a notebook came up to ask, “Ms. Lopez, is the cheering
guest definitely coming?
Eileen walked to the door and answered, “Yeah, he just messaged me. He’s at the airport, he’ll be here
within an hour at the latest.”
The staff member handed her the notebook and pen. “Could you help sign here, write his name in this
box, and his appearance fee at the back.”
Eileen wrote down Egbert’s name in the front box. But when it came to the appearance fee, she
paused and said, “I don’t know how much his appearance fee is.”
The staff member turned her head to look at the name she wrote.
Upon seeing the name, the staff member froze!
There was silence for a moment. Then, the staff member jokingly said in a helpless tone, “Ms. Lopez,
you can’t just write anything you want.”
Eileen was a bit confused. “What did I write wrong?”
The staff member said, “Seriously, who did you invite? I have an eraser here, correct it.
Eileen didn’t take the eraser, she felt confused. “I didn’t write it wrong.”
As she spoke, Eileen pulled out her phone from her pocket, dialed Egbert, and put it on speaker. The
call was picked up quickly.
“Hello.” A deep male voice came through.
Eileen asked, “How much is your appearance fee?”
The person on the other end seemed to pause before saying,
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtnot sure.”
Eileen clicked her tongue. “You don’t know your own appearance fee? Ask your agent and text me
later. They need it for their records here.”
After she finished, she didn’t wait for Egbert to say anything else and hung up. Then she put her phone
back in her pocket, looked up at the staff member, and said, “He’ll get back to me, can I come and
register later?”
The news that Egbert was coming to their show as a cheering guest quickly spread. Upon hearing the
news, the director almost tripped backstage.
“Egbert? Egbert, Mr. Reed? The Oscar winner? The real Egbert?”
The staff member who was registering the names passed the notebook with a stunned face to the
director.
Looking at the clearly written name “Egbert” on the notebook, the director nearly jumped with
excitement, “Egbert is coming to our show! Wow!”
The staff member came to his senses and reminded the director, “Look at the back.
The director was taken aback and then looked at the column for the appearance fee.
It read “$500,000”.
“Egbert is coming?” Aurora looked puzzled at her assistant in the dressing room.
Aurora asked her assistant incredulously, “Where did you hear this news?”
The assistant whispered, “The news is spreading outside. They said Eileen invited him.”
“That’s impossible,” Aurora said disbelievingly.
Aurora scoffed, “Just to get attention, she dares to say anything. Wait until Egbert doesn’t show up, and
she’ll make an excuse that she invited Egbert, but Egbert didn’t have time. I know better than her about
this kind of thing.”
Aurora thought nobody was better than her at using “Egbert” for hype
Due to the company’s CEO, Mr. Chad, secretly having a crush on her, he prohibited her from having
any contact with Egbert. However, over the years, even though Aurora hadn’t seen Egbert, she often
used his name to promote herself. The success of The Alley greatly benefited Aurora. Moreover,
Aurora was the only female artist that Egbert’s fans didn’t dislike. Over the years, Aurora had used his
name countless times to promote herself. She was well aware of Eileen’s current actions.
Confidently, Aurora said, “I understand Egbert’s personality. He knows how to separate work and
personal life. He will cooperate with you during work, but he won’t consider you a friend in private.
Furthermore, he always dislikes having too much contact with female artists. He won’t come.” Aurora
suddenly added, “In that case, during your live performance later, capture that situation when Egbert
didn’t made it and spread it out.”
The assistant understood Aurora’s meaning and nodded quickly, saying, “Alright, I know what to do.”
Aurora continued, “Last time, the hand-holding photo was explained by her company as for work
purposes, but this time it’s a live broadcast. I don’t believe she can come up with any excuses.
Regardless, Egbert’s fans will support him. Besides me, they won’t accept any female stars using
Egbert’s name to promote themselves.”
An hour later, the stage performance officially began.
After cheering on her five contestants, Eileen took the stage.
The host came on stage, made some opening remarks, and began introducing the guests. The first
guest to be introduced was Aurora’s celebrity friend Calvert. Calvert was a well-known actor who had
won important domestic awards and had worked with Aurora before.
The moment he appeared, the audience went wild. Although everyone knew Aurora was well-
connected and had a high-profile Facebook page, no one expected her to invite a star like Calvert to
such a small talent show. This was the influence of the number one actress in the entertainment
industry.
After a few words with the host, Calvert waved to Aurora and took his seat. He naturally sat in the
middle, used to being in the center on such occasions.
Next, the celebrity friends of the other three coaches took the stage one after another. There were B-list
celebrities, and there were idol stars.
When it was time to introduce the special guests invited by the celebrity coaches, Aurora’s assistant
quietly started a live broadcast from the audience. She was using an account known for its juicy gossip,
with a follower count well into the hundreds of thousands. The moment the live broadcast started,
hundreds of viewers trickled in, quickly becoming thousands.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmSoon, the host finished introducing the star friends of the other two celebrity coaches. Only the star
friend invited by Eileen was left.
At this point, the host took a deep breath.
Rather than announcing the guest’s name, he turned to Eileen and asked, “Ms. Lopez, I’m really
curious, why did you invite him to be your guest?”
Eileen took the microphone handed to her by a staff member, thought for a moment, and said, “I invited
him because… he insisted on coming.”
“Whoo!” The host gasped in surprise. “So you’re saying you didn’t initially plan to invite him, but he
asked to come?”
Eileen nodded, frankly saying, “I originally wanted to invite Bblythe.”
“Alright!” the host suddenly exclaimed. “Then let’s ask our guest if he really asked to come!”
“Let’s give a warm welcome to-Egbert Reed!”
The moment the name “Egbert” was spoken, there was a long, deep silence from the stage to the
audience.
That silence continued until the screen door opened. A man in a simple grey sweater, with a stern face
and tall figure, walked step by step out of the light.
The silence continued to spread.
A few seconds later, there was a sudden surge of screams.
Like a tidal wave, it was continuous! Screams and shouts of “Egbert” echoed from the audience, their
voices strained to the limit.
The coaches, celebrity coaches, and other star guests all froze. Especially Aurora, she was slack-
jawed, pale-faced, and couldn’t believe her own eyes.
Egbert was here. Why did he come? No, it couldn’t be… it couldn’t be…
The host’s face was flushed with excitement. He stood nervously beside Egbert, offering the
microphone, and cautiously asked, “Mr. Reed, did you hear what Ms. Lopez just said?”
The noble and stern man reached out with his long finger to take the microphone.
His dark eyes swept over a Eileen among the celebrity coaches. Bringing the microphone to his lips, he
simply said, “Mhm.”
The host asked again, “What would you say about that?”
Egbert’s gaze remained fixated on Eileen’s beautiful, delicate face. After a moment, he softly said, “I
have nothing to say.”
After a pause, he added, “Whatever she says goes. I never contradict her.”
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