You're dumping me, huh? Fine, then I'll just pick up the school beauty and make her my wif

"Qinghe, how's it going? Have you found the problem?" Lin tide's voice came from the side.

Upon hearing this, Su Qinghe gradually regained her composure. "Found it. The zipper was broken. It's probably a quality issue."

She did not tell Lin Xi and the others about Ye Qingru.

Zhao Weilan had already found a few safety pins and a roll of transparent tape, and returned to the group, handing the items to Su Qinghe.

"Nuo Qinghe, how about we use this as a temporary reinforcement? There's only a little over an hour left before the competition starts, there probably won't be enough time to change into a new one, right?"

Su Qinghe shook her head. "It's too late. I need to do my makeup and styling right away. There won't be enough time to go back to the villa to get a spare dress."

She took the safety pin and tape, then smiled slightly at Lin tide and the others, reassuring them, "It's okay, just use this for now, it shouldn't be a big problem."

The three looked at each other, feeling that this approach was somewhat inappropriate, but they had no other choice.

After all, the makeup and styling require changing into the dress in advance, and even if someone is sent to pick it up now, there won't be enough time for the makeup and styling.

For now, we can only make do with this for the time being and pray that we won't mess up on stage later.

Su Qinghe sat back down at the vanity and began to reinforce the zipper with safety pins and transparent tape.

First, use safety pins to secure the two ends of the break from the inside, and then wrap transparent tape around the outside several times for secondary fixation.

Her movements were steady, and her expression was calm.

But the calmer things were, the more alarmed Lin tide felt.

Because she remembered Jiang Che saying, "Qinghe never yells when she's angry."

"The calmer she is, the angrier she is."

At this moment, Su Qinghe was frighteningly calm.

The three of them couldn't help but start to wonder if the zipper damage was really due to a quality issue.

Is it really not because someone tampered with it?

About twenty minutes later, the door to the dressing room was pushed open from the outside.

"Qinghe, the makeup artist has arrived."

Jiang Che's voice followed closely behind.

Lin tide rushed over to greet Jiang Che. Upon seeing him, she immediately lowered her voice anxiously and said, "Jiang Che, why are you so late? Something terrible has happened!"

Jiang Che's relaxed expression immediately became more serious after hearing those words.

He asked the makeup artist to wait a moment, then quickened his pace and walked over to Su Qinghe.

He immediately noticed Su Qinghe's dress and the zipper on the back of the dress, which was reinforced with safety pins and transparent tape.

"What happened?"

Su Qinghe looked up to meet his gaze, gesturing for him to take a closer look at the torn part of the dress.

Jiang Che bent down and carefully examined the two broken ends.

He recognized it immediately as having been vandalized.

Jiang Che looked at Su Qinghe again with an inquiring gaze.

"After I came out of my clothes, Xixi came over and hugged me, and then the zipper popped open."

Su Qinghe had been holding on for so long, but seeing her boyfriend at this moment, all the grievances she had suppressed for so long surged up at once.

She gently rested her head on Jiang Che's lower abdomen, "If I hadn't been in the dressing room but on stage, if I had been surrounded by audience members and judges..."

Although she didn't finish her sentence, the meaning behind it was already quite clear.

If Lin tide hadn't noticed something amiss when she changed her clothes beforehand, she would have walked onto the stage wearing this tampered dress.

While playing the piano, her arms would extend forward dramatically, and her body would lean forward, inevitably causing the zipper to burst.

At that time, she will expose herself in front of hundreds of people, in front of cameras, and in front of the judges.

Thinking of the consequences, Su Qinghe unconsciously dug her fingertips into her palm.

But she quickly relaxed again.

"Ah Che, I suspect Ye Qingru was behind it."

Su Qinghe shared her suspicions with Jiang Che: "In the entire school, she's the only person I've ever had a grudge against."

"Moreover, she was a contestant in the piano category and had legitimate reasons to enter and exit the backstage and dressing room."

Jiang Che did not refute this, because he thought so too.

Very good, Ye Qingru.

If Lin tide's unintentional hug hadn't triggered the break, the situation today would have been unimaginable.

Jiang Che simply couldn't understand how Ye Qingru, being a girl herself, could be so vicious as to ruin another girl's innocence and reputation.

He forcibly suppressed his anger, reached out and touched Su Qinghe's head, "It's okay, I'll handle this."

"Don't think about anything right now. Just focus on your makeup and styling, and go on stage to compete."

"Your boyfriend will handle everything else, okay?"

Su Qinghe looked up at him.

She read two emotions in Jiang Che's eyes.

One reason is that I feel sorry for her.

Another reason is the intent to kill Ye Qingru.

Su Qinghe gave a soft "Mmm" and nodded obediently.

After calming Su Qinghe down, Jiang Che turned around and gestured for the makeup artist nearby to come over and do her makeup.

Before leaving, he instructed Lin tide and the other two, "I'm going out to take care of some things. Please look after Qinghe for me. I'll treat you to a meal later."

"Don't worry." Lin tide and the others nodded in agreement.

Jiang Che said no more and turned to walk out of the dressing room.

……

After leaving the dressing room, Jiang Che walked briskly along the backstage corridor toward the event organizer's temporary office.

The office door was open, and inside sat a middle-aged man wearing glasses. The desk was covered with various documents and competition schedules.

He wore a name tag around his neck that read "Executive Director of the Organizing Committee of the Beijing University Arts Festival - Fang Haoyu".

Jiang Che symbolically knocked on the door, then went inside and stood in front of Fang Haoyu's desk.

Hearing the noise, Fang Haoyu frowned, looked up, and sized up the unfamiliar young man in front of him, only to find that he did not recognize him.

"What's wrong, classmate? Is there something you need?"

"I need to retrieve all the CCTV footage from the auditorium last night."

Upon hearing this, Fang Haoyu was taken aback. "What did you say? Check the surveillance footage?"

"right."

Are you a contestant?

"I am not a contestant, but some contestants' costumes were maliciously damaged."

Fang Haoyu's expression changed slightly, but he quickly returned to his businesslike demeanor.

"Excuse me, what evidence do you have for your claim?"

"Furthermore, monitoring involves the safety management of the competition and the personal privacy of the players, and cannot be accessed arbitrarily; this is a regulation."

"I only need to monitor the stage area and backstage area between 10 pm and midnight last night."

Jiang Che's tone left no room for negotiation: "The zipper of my girlfriend's dress was wrecked with a tool. If your organizing committee doesn't investigate, I'll call the police."

Fang Haoyu's expression immediately turned somewhat unpleasant.

The arts festival is a key cultural project of the Beijing education system, and it receives media coverage every year.

If a police report were to be filed on the day of the finals, it would affect more than just his job.