Chapter 174: Public Opinion Disadvantage

[Today's Quest: Complete a perfect performance

Quest Reward: 100 Talent EXP, 500 Skill EXP, 1 Random Reward]

“A perfect performance—”

Looking at the quest description on the Quest Panel, Janna's eyebrows gently furrowed.

“What exactly counts as perfect?”

Seeing that it was merely a white-level quest and judging it likely wouldn't be difficult, Janna didn't dwell on it further and directly closed the Quest Panel.

“Janna, you're up next. Let me touch up your makeup.”

Hearing Julie Anne's gentle reminder from the side, Janna smiled and nodded.

“Julie, you're so thoughtful.”

“Haha, it's just part of my job—”

As time spent with Janna increased, Julie Anne’s impression of her continued to improve.

No matter the time or place, every time she spoke with Janna, Julie Anne would feel a refreshing comfort like sipping watermelon juice on a hot summer day—an irresistible feeling.

“Janna, your skin is incredible. There’s no caking at all. It’s even smoother than a peeled egg—”

Watching Julie Anne's non-stop compliments, Janna couldn't help but curve her lips into a smile.

“That’s because you’re skilled.”

“I wouldn’t go that far—done! Take a look.”

Taking the makeup mirror Julie Anne handed over, a face vividly colored like an oil painting appeared in the reflection.

Due to the stage lighting requiring heavier makeup, Janna’s look now was significantly more dramatic than usual rehearsal makeup—especially around the eyes, where Julie Anne had added extra flair to the eye shadow design.

To emphasize the “mermaid” theme, Julie Anne had used mostly blue tones for the eye shadow, and decorated the hair accessories with plenty of shells and coral.

Even though she hadn’t changed into her costume yet, from afar, Janna’s features were even more alluring and enchanting under the makeup.

“Looks really nice—”

“Great! That’s the lighting I want—Freya, come down. Let Janna go up next.”

Before Janna could finish speaking, David Berg had already begun calling for her from the stage.

Hearing David Berg’s voice, Julie Anne quickly tidied Janna’s side hair and silently took the mirror from her hand before stepping aside.

“Thanks for your help.”

Whispering her thanks to Julie Anne, Janna brushed her hair back and followed David Berg’s instructions onto the stage, beginning her positioning.

“Your skills are solid... this makeup suits her.”

At that moment, Freya, who had just come off the stage, gazed at the face bathed in stage lights.

Even though she had seen it many times, that face—seemingly favored by the gods—still irresistibly drew Freya’s gaze.

“Thank you for the compliment, but I know the reason this makeup looks good isn’t because of my skill—it’s simply because she’s Miss Janna—”

Hearing Julie Anne’s unreserved praise beside her, Freya nodded in agreement.

Janna's charm extended beyond her stunning appearance.

It was her ability to seamlessly slip into character through subtle facial expressions, anywhere, anytime, that allowed her to shine so brightly on stage.

It was the charm of a true opera performer, and at the same time, the charm of a character brought to life with a soul born within an actor’s body.

“Tomorrow—it will definitely go well!”

The next day, 2:00 p.m.

Arriving a full hour early at the entrance of the Nightingale Opera Troupe, Vivian found herself swept up in a seemingly endless tide of people.

Though Vivian held a VIP ticket, a sizable line had still formed at the VIP entrance.

“Why isn’t anyone staying home for the New Year? What’s everyone wandering around for—”

On the first day of the New Year, all of Turin was filled with the lively bustle of voices.

After all, aside from casinos, circuses, and a few nighttime-only adult establishments, “opera performances” remained one of the most popular entertainment options in Turin City.

For that reason, after a year of exhaustion, Turin’s citizens were often willing to bear the slightly higher ticket prices and choose a performance they believed would be exciting and worth the money.

Thus, New Year’s Day was traditionally the moment when all opera troupes “competed in full bloom.”

For instance, Liji Silks’s former employer, the White Horse Opera Troupe, launched a new headline production today titled The Kingdom of Cats.

It told the story of a mortal yearning for extraordinary powers who stumbles into the “Kingdom of Cats” and begins an adventure, eventually gaining said powers.

Additionally, the Bauhinia Opera House (co-invested by Bauhinia Bank) and the Galaxy Opera Troupe had both poured significant resources into promoting their new shows two weeks prior, creating a fervent buzz.

Interestingly, all of their promotional slogans were curiously uniform. Between the lines, they conveyed the same message—that their operas were “brand new,” “original,” and “revolutionary.”

At the same time, they disparaged the Nightingale Opera Troupe’s headline piece as “old wine in a new bottle,” “unoriginal,” “insincere,” and “purely a cash grab”—an old production not even worth comparing.

Such blatantly direct “sarcasm” and “implication” indeed dealt a considerable blow to the Nightingale Opera Troupe's reputation in the early stages of publicity.

After all, as unpleasant as the opposition’s words were, they weren’t entirely wrong.

Song of the Ocean, which officially debuted three years ago, had already enjoyed considerable box office success early on.

Although the number of performances started to decline last year, to Turin’s opera enthusiasts, the play no longer felt fresh.

No matter how the script of Song of the Ocean was altered, in the minds of those who had seen it before, it could never escape being a cliché tale of “a mermaid and a human prince falling in love.”

No matter how many twists the plot took, these viewers could generally guess that the ending would be a grand finale where “the mermaid and the prince live happily ever after.”

And it was precisely this “romance” label that caused Song of the Ocean’s box office to always lag behind Bloodshadow Rose, which was themed around “war and revenge.”

These were exactly the angles commercial rivals used to criticize the Nightingale Opera Troupe as being “outdated.”

It could be said that in the early stages of opera publicity, the public opinion surrounding Song of the Ocean was already at an absolute disadvantage—

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