After Being Hopeless at Singing and Dancing, I Exploded in Popularity Due to My Appetite - Chapter 13

This livestream had too many highlights. Netizens were busy laughing, and no one remembered the small detail about the digestive tablets.

But Tao Nian was different.

Tao Nian remembered every single thing she could put in her mouth, crystal clear.

So, the moment the livestream ended and the director announced that everyone could go back and rest, Tao Nian stopped Lin Qianman: “Candy!”

Lin Qianman thought of the digestive tablets, was silent for a moment, then discussed with Tao Nian: “Come on, I’ll give you different candy.”

Tao Nian took a long breath and followed the fragrant Sister Lin towards her room.

Fang Wen followed behind, wanting to persuade Lin Qianman to at least put on an act. She was a mentor now; being so openly close to a contestant was not good for either of them.

But before she could figure out how to speak, Tao Nian pulled Lin Qianman into the room.

How to describe it.

It felt like putting a wolf outside the sheepfold.

Lin Qianman looked at the tightly closed door, thinking of all the snacks she had hoarded inside for so long, originally intended to last Tao Nian for a month.

Lin Qianman tried to struggle. She stood guard outside the door, telling Tao Nian very seriously: “You wait for me outside, you can’t go in!”

Tao Nian slightly opened her mouth, looking at Lin Qianman with a wronged expression, and nodded: “Okay.”

When Fang Wen followed her in, Lin Qianman was very carefully pushing the door open a crack, facing Tao Nian, not letting Tao Nian see anything inside, then quickly retreating into the room through that crack.

Tao Nian stood outside the door, obediently waiting for Lin Qianman to come out and give her candy.

She looked just like a child waiting for their parents to pick them up from kindergarten.

Fang Wen couldn’t help but pick up her phone, wanting to take a picture.

Just as she took out her phone, the door opened a crack. Lin Qianman handed out a box of fruit gummies through the gap.

They were colorful, fruit-shaped. Stored in a transparent glass box, they looked enticingly chewy and delicious.

Fang Wen swore that Tao Nian’s eyes instantly lit up.

Lin Qianman then handed Tao Nian several different kinds of candies, and finally came out with a small bag of chocolates.

When she came out, Tao Nian had already eaten half of the first box of fruit gummies. She was currently popping a strawberry-shaped candy into her mouth.

Lin Qianman felt a bit distressed. Thinking of Tao Nian’s food-guarding behavior during the livestream, not letting others eat her beef jerky, she lectured her like a mother: “When you have things, whether it’s food or anything else, you must learn to share with others.”

Tao Nian had almost finished a can of candy. Now she blinked: “Master never said that.”

Of course not. On Mount Qingnan, besides you, no one else ate. It wouldn’t matter even if you ate everything, so Feng Jun naturally wouldn’t teach you that.

“But it’s different now,” Lin Qianman explained. “Now that you’re down the mountain, you have to learn to share your things with others.”

Tao Nian’s entire face crumpled: “Don’t they have their own things?”

“They do.”

“If they have their own, why do they need mine?”

Lin Qianman didn’t know how to explain. It was indeed as Tao Nian said. But from many perspectives, when you share, you’re actually sharing more of your enthusiasm, your kindness towards others, and then you receive their gratitude and reciprocity. What’s important in sharing isn’t the item being shared, but the human connection and emotions flowing through the act of sharing.

But Tao Nian didn’t understand. The little taotie only had food in her eyes and heart.

Lin Qianman could only try to persuade her using her own logic: “But if you give to them, when they have food, they’ll give it to you too.”

Tao Nian pondered for a moment, not knowing what she thought of, then mumbled in a low voice: “But I have some too. Didn’t you give it to me?”

Lin Qianman didn’t know what to say, feeling that teaching a taotie to integrate into modern society was still a long and arduous task.

Tao Nian returned to her dorm with a pile of candies.

Their dorm had six people in total. Besides Zhang Jingyue, there was a small internet celebrity, and the other three were trainees sent by entertainment companies to compete.

Now, two trainees from the same company were still practicing for their next performance. In the dorm, there were only Zhang Jingyue, the small internet celebrity, and the remaining trainee.

Zhang Jingyue was making food, skillfully shaping rice balls.

The small internet celebrity, nicknamed Doubanjiang, twenty-five years old, was considered quite old here. She smiled: “Taotao has been eating all afternoon. All those fruit platters were eaten by her.”

Ding Yiyi, the trainee who had just cut fruit, held it out for a while. Seeing Tao Nian not take it, she placed it on the table: “The fruit platter from the production team isn’t good. The melon isn’t sweet at all.”

As she spoke, she continued walking towards the balcony. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tao Nian sitting on the chair, continuously looking at her cut fruit. She chuckled to herself, thinking Tao Nian looked like a naive daughter from a rich family. So, playing at being older, she said: “Sister Tao, if you want to eat, just fork some yourself. This is melon I picked myself, it’s especially sweet!”

On the balcony, Doubanjiang and Zhang Jingyue both said: “Don’t eat any more!”

Tao Nian didn’t respond, just kept looking at the plate of fruit. After a long moment, she picked up a fork and speared a piece of the sweet melon Ding Yiyi had praised.

She had just eaten a lot of candy, so when she ate the melon now, its sweetness wasn’t as intense. Instead, it was the unique subtle sweetness of melon.

However, Tao Nian’s mouth was full of candy flavors, so she wasn’t very interested in the melon and didn’t continue eating it.

She merely thought of what Lin Qianman had told her, hesitated, then took out a handful of candies from the bag she was carrying and placed them on the table.

Tao Nian looked at the handful of candies on the table, thought for a moment, then grabbed another handful and put it on the table, piling the two handfuls of candies into a small mountain. Then she called out to the people on the balcony: “Sister Lin gave me candies and said for you all to eat too.”

This was to explain the reason.

Then she stated her feeling: “Very sweet!”

Who else dared to eat candy like that besides her?

Zhang Jingyue helplessly: “Eat less.”

Having finished wrapping the rice balls and making some sushi, she brought them out and invited everyone to eat together.

On a not-so-large, pure white table, there was a pile of candies in the center, surrounded by fruit salads, sushi rice balls, and drinks.

Doubanjiang watched, sighed again, and told the cameraman: “Take a picture and send it to me later. I want to save it to post on vb (Weibo).”

Zhang Jingyue raised her hand: “Me too!”

Ding Yiyi also raised her hand: “Me too!”

Tao Nian looked at one, then the other, then confusedly raised her hand, imitating Zhang Jingyue’s tone: “Me!”

Everyone burst into laughter.

Doubanjiang slapped the table: “Today’s joy is also brought by Tao Nian.”

Tao Nian, not understanding, lowered her head to eat a rice ball, her cheeks puffed out, not at all embarrassed.

But in her heart, she was calculating some things.

Master taught her to be grateful and repay kindness; if others helped her, she should also help others.

Sister Lin also said she should learn to share.

Ding Yiyi gave her fruit, and she gave Ding Yiyi candy.

But the candy was given by Sister Lin, so shouldn’t she give Sister Lin something too?

What to give??

Give a rice ball? She gave Zhang Jingyue candy, and Zhang Jingyue gave her a rice ball.

So she could also give the rice ball Zhang Jingyue gave her to Sister Lin, right?

No sooner said than done.

So, when Lin Qianman came with the other mentors to inquire about the practice situation that evening.

Tao Nian darted to Lin Qianman’s side.

Lin Qianman instinctively covered her eyebrows and took a step back.

I was careless. Because Tao Nian had been full lately and hadn’t tried to bite her, she actually dared to draw her eyebrows for makeup harmony today? If Tao Nian suddenly bit her now, her makeup would definitely be ruined!

But Tao Nian didn’t bite.

Tao Nian just darted over, took a deep breath, then stealthily extended her hand, insisting on stuffing something into Lin Qianman’s hand: “You eat.”

Under the camera, Lin Qianman couldn’t say much. Although she didn’t know why Tao Nian was being so secretive, she quickly took it. And to prevent the other three mentors, who hadn’t received Tao Nian’s insistent offering, from noticing, she cautiously kept her hand behind her back the entire time.

Then she realized the item was soft, and upon closer inspection, it was individual grains of rice.

Lin Qianman couldn’t help but squeeze it.

After finally bidding farewell to the three mentors, she found a corner and stood still, looking closely at the item in her hand.

It was a shapeless, loosely packed rice ball.

Its surface still had seaweed clinging to it. Lin Qianman looked at the shape of the seaweed, guessing it was seaweed arranged to form a smiley face on the outside of the rice ball.

But now, the eyes and mouth were miserably stuck to the rice, and because the rice was uneven, the expression was inevitably a bit fragmented. Most importantly, her hand, which she had used to cover her eyebrows when Tao Nian darted over, had gotten a bit of eyebrow powder on it. Now it was all smudged onto the rice ball, making it a dusty, pitiful mess.

The camera zoomed in, first capturing the ball of rice, then Lin Qianman, who had lost her composure, her smile as fragmented as the rice ball’s expression.