After Being Hopeless at Singing and Dancing, I Exploded in Popularity Due to My Appetite - Chapter 15

“Yes, my name is Lin Qianman.”

Lin Qianman’s voice was deep.

“Ah!”

Tao Nian, inhaling her scent, said, “I just found out!”

Lin Qianman suddenly felt a little curious: “So, in your mind, what should I be called?”

That fragrant Qilin that she could devour in one bite?

“Sister Lin!” Tao Nian explained, “Yueyue told me you’re called Sister Lin!”

Lin Qianman: “…”

She looked at Tao Nian, realizing she genuinely believed this, and hesitated to speak. In the end, she merely sighed, covering her forehead.

Tao Nian didn’t know why she was like this, and happily told her, “My teammate said to vote for me this time!”

This was an objective fact.

Then she voiced her confusion: “Why does factory work still require voting?”

Lin Qianman explained: “If you don’t get enough votes, you can’t continue working here.”

Tao Nian nodded, indicating she understood.

Lin Qianman thought for a moment and told her, “So you must work hard, not just for yourself, but for your teammates too. You can’t drag your teammates down by not trying hard enough, that’s like…”

Her sentence trailed off here.

Lin Qianman always treated Tao Nian like a child who didn’t understand words—though Tao Nian was, in essence, a child who didn’t understand words. So every time she spoke to Tao Nian, she tried to find a way for Tao Nian to understand.

This time too, she racked her brains: “It’s like when you’re hunting on Qingnan Mountain. If Xiaonan drags you down and the prey escapes, wouldn’t you be very angry?”

Tao Nian, apparently thinking of something, said with disdain: “Xiaonan always drags me down. He always lets go of the prey I catch by myself.”

Lin Qianman was at a loss for words.

Back when she was on Qingnan Mountain, Tao Nian was still a little taotie. Although she could bite her to death in one go, she was still an underage taotie. Sometimes, when running too fast on the mountain, she would trip over vines. She didn’t feel pain herself and would keep running even when injured, sometimes coming back covered in blood after a day out. Xiaonan was the mountain god of Qingnan Mountain, and Feng Jun had entrusted Xiaonan with looking after Tao Nian.

Back then, while she was recovering in the cave, she would hear Xiaonan chasing the taotie, and the taotie chasing prey, both running all over Qingnan Mountain.

Lin Qianman had always thought Xiaonan was helping Tao Nian. She never expected Xiaonan to be the prey’s mole?!

This was an unexpected turn of events.

So she was silent for a moment, pretending Tao Nian hadn’t said anything. Lin Qianman continued: “Anyway, you just can’t drag others down. Just remember that. If you’re not good at something, you need to work harder. Otherwise, even if I help you debut with my vote, your future path won’t be easy. If you cause mistakes that affect your teammates, other contestants will look down on you and won’t help you in the future.”

Tao Nian still nodded, her eyes unconsciously starting to look at the spot above Lin Qianman’s eyebrow.

Lin Qianman was still thinking about how to tell her that she couldn’t show favoritism, and her vote had to go to the team with the best completion.

She felt like she was helping Feng Jun raise a child. Tao Nian understood nothing right now, and she had to teach her. She couldn’t let Tao Nian think that others’ dreams weren’t worth respecting.

But she also couldn’t make it too complicated, because Tao Nian wouldn’t understand.

As it was late, the warm yellow lights were on in the room, and a fragrant scent lingered around her, faint and lingering.

Tao Nian couldn’t help but sit closer to Lin Qianman.

She was really tired today…

She felt that this wasn’t good, so she poked Lin Qianman.

Lin Qianman, startled by the poke, came back to her senses and found Tao Nian sitting pressed against her, staring intently.

And swallowing.

The hairs on Lin Qianman’s back stood up. She became rigid, backing away.

Lin Qianman had said before that pouncing and biting without permission was wrong. So… if she asked for permission and then bit, would that be okay? So she pressed on, asking in a soft voice: “Where are the little balls…?”

Lin Qianman’s voice was hoarse.

The last time Tao Nian had just met her, when she pounced, she also asked this question. But Lin Qianman was too scared then and didn’t react in her dazed state. By the time she realized what Tao Nian had asked, Tao Nian had already been pushed away.

Now, fully awake, hearing Tao Nian ask this, she felt an inexplicable tingling and itching sensation in her horns.

She instinctively covered that spot, recalling her time on Qingnan Mountain.

Although a Qilin’s horns are very hard and sturdy, she was still young then, and her horns hadn’t fully grown. Plus, she was injured and had no strength to resist.

So that bite from the taotie almost tore off her entire horn.

Although she was saved by Feng Jun, she still sustained injuries and bled.

Perhaps her blood was also fragrant. So, during the days she lay recovering in the cave on Qingnan Mountain, the little taotie would run around with Xiaonan all day on Qingnan to. After eating, it would lie beside her, like an after-dinner treat, licking her horn with its tongue, licking away the blood that oozed from the wound.

Then, gently, like grinding teeth, it would gnaw a little.

For the first two days, the wound was painful.

But at the time, her whole body hurt, so she didn’t find the horn bite any more unbearable.

Then, when she had recovered a bit, and the taotie cub licked her again, it was an itchy sensation.

If she hadn’t clearly known in her heart that it was licking her because it wanted to eat her, Lin Qianman would have certainly found the feeling very comfortable.

But Lin Qianman was now trembling with fear. She suddenly stood up, asking Tao Nian: “Are you hungry?”

She quickly walked to her snack hoard room, pulled out a pile of snacks, and a bag of lollipops: “Eat!”

Perhaps because it was late, Tao Nian’s self-control wasn’t strong. She looked at the snacks, completely unsatisfied. So she stood up, looked at Lin Qianman, and gestured to her: “The little balls on your head!”

Lin Qianman retreated repeatedly, then thought of something, took two steps forward, quickly tore open a lollipop wrapper, shoved the candy into Tao Nian’s mouth, then frantically pushed Tao Nian: “It’s late, hurry back to sleep.”

Tao Nian held the lollipop in her mouth, licking it, grinding it with her teeth…

The lollipop snapped with a crunch.

Lin Qianman felt a faint ache in her own horns.

She pushed Tao Nian even more frantically.

Tao Nian was unwilling to leave, but her body was pushed out the door by Lin Qianman.

Lin Qianman closed the door with a thud.

She thought for a moment, then immediately pushed it open a crack: “I can’t give you my vote. Your teammates want to win, you should tell them to practice together and do their best.”

Tao Nian hadn’t quite understood the meaning of that sentence when the door was immediately closed again.

Tao Nian stood at the door, pondering for a moment, then turned to go back to her dorm, clutching her snacks.

The door opened again.

Lin Qianman was so nervous her voice almost cracked: “That jade pendant Feng Jun gave you, go back and find it and wear it!”

Why did I wait until now to make her wear it, when I should have made her wear it from the very beginning?!

Tao Nian returned to the dorm feeling very dejected.

Zhang Jingyue was still wondering what exactly Tao Nian and Lin Qianman’s relationship was.

If you said their relationship was good, Tao Nian didn’t even know Lin Qianman’s name.

If you said their relationship was bad, they looked quite ambiguous.

Later, before going to bed, she saw Tao Nian rummaging through things and went over to take a look.

Then she saw Tao Nian pull out a piece of jade. It was lustrous and pure white, exquisitely crafted, and looked very expensive.

Lin Qianman had told her to wear it, so Tao Nian casually hung it around her neck.

Zhang Jingyue thought this jade piece was quite nice and couldn’t help but look at it a few more times.

The more she looked, the more beautiful the jade seemed, and it must have cost a lot to buy.

But Tao Nian was very poor!

She had known Tao Nian for over two months. At first, Tao Nian said she came because she was poor, and Tao Nian didn’t even have a decent outfit back then, having borrowed money from her to buy one. Now that she’d received her salary, she had paid back the two thousand yuan she borrowed, and she lived frugally every day.

If this jade piece was really expensive, Tao Nian wouldn’t be living in such poverty, would she?

But no matter if the jade was expensive or not, being such a piece, it was definitely heavy.

Zhang Jingyue kindly asked: “Do you want to wear my clavicle chain? It’s light, and you can wear it while dancing.”

Tao Nian tied a dead knot in the red string, and hearing this, shook her head: “No need, Lin Qianman told me to wear this one.”

See? How can their relationship be bad?

Whatever Lin Qianman said, she did. She even immediately put on such a heavy jade pendant.

Zhang Jingyue thought, seeing that everyone else was resting, she turned off the main light and went to bed.

As she lay in bed, something suddenly occurred to her.

She had lived with Tao Nian for so long and didn’t even know she had such a jade piece, so how did Lin Qianman know?

Lin Qianman knew and even told her to wear it, which at least confirmed that this jade piece was real.

Then Tao Nian should be very rich.

Why did she still look so poor?

She’s truly a very contradictory person.