A full back piece like this couldn't possibly be finished in one session. However, this customer had a high pain tolerance, so Xu Zhinan was able to tattoo quite a large area in the first session.

By the afternoon, she had a photoshoot to get to, so she paused. The rest would have to be continued tomorrow.

It was three in the afternoon when she saw the customer off. Today, Xu Zhinan still had to make a trip to the organizer's office for the Tattoo Design Contest she had signed up for earlier to submit some of her design drafts.

Just as she finished packing her things and was about to leave, Gu Congwang arrived.

His car was parked at the shop's entrance. He honked twice and called out from inside, “Closing up so early today?”

“I have to go somewhere to submit some design drafts.” Xu Zhinan ran to the side of the car and bent down. “Why are you here?”

“I was free and came to see you.” Gu Congwang waved. “Get in, I’ll take you.”

Previously, Xu Zhinan had only signed up online and hadn't mentioned the matter to Gu Congwang. She only brought it up now.

Gu Congwang: “Is the competition tough?”

“I don't know, I'm just giving it a try. It's summer vacation anyway, and I don't have much going on.”

“Then if you actually win an award, does that mean you can raise your prices? After all, you’d be a well-known, kickass tattoo artist then, right?”

Xu Zhinan laughed. “It's not that easy to win an award. But if I can get a good result from participating, business might get a little better.”

The young woman was exceptionally beautiful when she smiled, with red lips and white teeth. She was soft and gentle, without a trace of aggression, and her voice was delicate, making one's heart flutter just from listening.

Gu Congwang caught sight of her in his peripheral vision, and his eyelid twitched. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and continued to focus on driving.

He cleared his throat lightly. “If business picks up, you'll be busier, and you still have school. Haven't you thought about hiring someone else?”

“I can manage for now. Everything is by appointment anyway, so it doesn't cause any conflicts.”

“A full sleeve or back piece must take several hours with your head down, right?”

“Mhm, the customer just now took five hours.”

“If you keep going like this, you'll have neck problems sooner or later.” As he spoke, he reached over with one hand and squeezed her shoulder. “You’ll end up with a stiff shoulder.”

Xu Zhinan suddenly recalled that Lin Qingye seemed to have squeezed her shoulder just like this before, after she had been tattooing for several hours straight.

She dodged slightly and raised her own hand to massage the spot. “It’s fine. I don't use computers or my phone much. I only lower my head for work. If I get tired, I'll just rest more.”

But right after that, Gu Congwang suddenly asked, “By the way, what’s going on between you and Lin Qingye?”

“Huh?” Xu Zhinan was a little stunned, and her heart began to beat faster. “How did you know?”

“Someone sent me that post from your school’s forum before.” Gu Congwang frowned. “How did you get involved with him?”

“It's not...” Xu Zhinan faltered, not knowing where to begin.

“Is he pursuing you?”

He asked as if it were a matter of course, seemingly not considering that someone like Lin Qingye had so many fans.

“No, people were just spouting nonsense in that post.”

Gu Congwang nodded. “I thought so. I just saw him not long ago. Our families should have some sort of connection.”

Xu Zhinan froze. “What kind of connection?”

“How would I know? I can’t be bothered with that kind of family gossip. It was just a few days ago, we met during a meal.”

Red light. Gu Congwang stopped the car before the crosswalk. “I think it was on the day you treated me to dinner. I had lunch with him.”

After a long pause, Xu Zhinan finally let out an “oh” and turned her head to watch the scenery flashing by outside the window.

She remembered the back-to-back phone calls from Lin Qingye and Gu Congwang that day.

And how that night, Lin Qingye had waited downstairs from her dorm all night.

Gu Congwang drove the car to the entrance of the organizer's office Xu Zhinan had mentioned.

There were quite a few people outside, both men and women, all sporting various kinds of tattoos.

The tattoo community was already a niche group, and it was rare to see so many tattooed people gathered in one place.

It was obvious at a glance that they were likely tattoo artists, just like Xu Zhinan, here to submit their design drafts.

As it happened, Gu Congwang’s car was a bright yellow sports car. The color was eye-catching, and several people at the entrance turned their heads to look.

Xu Zhinan got out of the car under their stares, clutching a stack of design drafts. She walked up to the nearest man, who had two full sleeves, and asked.

“Hello, excuse me, is this the organizer's office for the Tattoo Design Contest?”

“Yes.” The man squinted, looking her over. “Are you the person in charge here?”

“Ah, no, I’m also a contestant who signed up for the competition.”

The moment Xu Zhinan finished speaking, the man with the full sleeves burst out laughing without reservation. It wasn’t just him; the other tattoo artists around also started laughing.

“You're a tattoo artist too?!”

Xu Zhinan nodded. “Yes.”

Her serious tone made everyone laugh even harder. Someone asked, “Little sister, are you even an adult yet?”

“...”

Gu Congwang, who had been waiting in the car, saw what was happening and got out. He quickly walked over, hooking an arm around Xu Zhinan's shoulders from behind, and said with a laugh, “Hey, don’t look down on her. This here is a seeded contestant aiming for first place.”

“Yo! My apologies! This humble one has poor judgment!”

“You’ll have to go easy on a noob like me during the competition, don’t let me lose too badly.”

“Yes, yes, yes, I could tell just by looking at her figure, she must be top-tier!”

...

Xu Zhinan: “...”

Most tattoo artists had straightforward personalities. Hearing Gu Congwang's words, they all went along with the exaggerated praise. There was no real malice; it was just that Xu Zhinan looked too young standing among them, with the face of a good girl, and they couldn't resist teasing her.

Beside her, Gu Congwang was also siding with them, laughing so hard he bent over.

Xu Zhinan sighed softly. Not holding it against them, she asked good-naturedly, “Why aren’t you guys going in?”

“Don't even mention it. The person in charge has no sense of time. We’ve been here for twenty minutes, and they still haven't shown up.”

So, she could only stand outside and wait with everyone else.

Gu Congwang had a cheerful personality and quickly struck up a lively conversation with a few of the surrounding tattoo artists.

The sun was blazing overhead. Xu Zhinan asked Gu Congwang for the car keys and went back to get a sun umbrella.

The man with the full sleeves asked, “Brother, is that young lady your girlfriend? She’s really pretty.”

Gu Congwang paused. He neither denied nor confirmed it, simply smiling.

“You’re a lucky man,” the man with full sleeves said again. “You really dote on her, letting a kid like that participate in this kind of competition.”

Gu Congwang rubbed his nose. “She really is a tattoo artist, and a very good one at that.”

The man with full sleeves just assumed he was trying to save face for his little girlfriend, so he smiled and let the topic drop.

Xu Zhinan returned with the umbrella and shared it with Gu Congwang. They stood under the sun for another quarter of an hour before the person in charge of the competition finally arrived.

Everyone lined up to submit their respective tattoo design drafts.

Xu Zhinan looked completely out of place standing in that group of tattoo artists. Even the person in charge gave her a second look when it was her turn.

After submitting her drafts, Xu Zhinan squeezed through the crowd and went outside, where Gu Congwang was waiting for her.

She was holding a competition schedule sheet.

The Tattoo Design Contest was divided into two stages.

The first stage was divided by four main tattoo styles: School, Eastern Traditional Style, Realism Style, and Totem. Xu Zhinan chose Realism Style, in which she was most competitive.

All the tattoo artists needed to submit a work in their chosen category within half a month for online voting, which would select the top ten from each category.

The second stage would have the forty selected tattoo artists compete live. They would be scored by a panel of professional judges to select the winner of each group, as well as the final grand champion.

Gu Congwang read the schedule sheet from start to finish and asked, “Do the organizers provide the models for this?”

“Of course we have to find them ourselves. So many tattoo artists signed up.”

“Then who are you going to find?”

Xu Zhinan shook her head. She wasn’t part of those tattoo circles and was rather independent. “I'll see when the time comes.”

“If you can’t find anyone, I'll be your model,” Gu Congwang said.

Xu Zhinan laughed. “No way. For display purposes, the design will definitely have to be on the larger side. How could I just tattoo you recklessly for a competition?”

After all, when it came to tattoos, those who liked them wanted to cover their entire bodies, but a large number of people couldn’t accept them.

“Then can you find someone?” Gu Congwang shrugged. “I’m okay with it.”

“I’ll look around first.”

Following the broadcast of the first episode of "Here for the Song", the recording for the second episode began.

The show began with the announcement of the vote count for the first episode’s performances.

Amidst the applause from the crowd, it was announced that Lin Qingye was the winner of the first episode.

The three singers with the lowest scores were directly eliminated. Zhou Ji, whom he had met at the kick-off banquet, was still sitting next to him; his score was in the lower-middle range, but he had managed to make it to the second round.

Aside from Lin Qingye, the top few spots were all taken by singers who had already debuted.

The second round of performances began, and Lin Qingye went on stage.

There were far more fans in the audience holding light-up signs for him than last time. The moment the host announced his name, deafening shouts and screams erupted.

The other waiting contestants watched from a monitor backstage.

“Once our show aired, I heard the bar where Lin Qingye used to be a resident singer has been packed every single day. Business is booming.”

“I heard that too. The bar owner was originally very reluctant to see his band break up. Who would’ve thought that letting Lin Qingye go to pursue his career would turn out to be a blessing in disguise?”

During the song's intro, everyone backstage chatted idly.

One of them, a popular singer named Shen Linlin, said, “Right after he won the Golden Melody Award, I even had someone reach out to him to request a song.”

Shen Linlin had also debuted in a band before and had been a solo artist for several years now. She was considered one of the representative singers of the new generation in the music scene and had placed second in the previous episode.