After Being Hopeless at Singing and Dancing, I Exploded in Popularity Due to My Appetite - Chapter 16

Recently, a very strange person appeared in the entertainment industry.

Talent shows had been getting colder and colder over several seasons, but everyone who paid attention to the entertainment world had, to some extent, encountered a name: Tao Nian.

What’s strange is that people’s evaluations of her were also a bit comical.

Most people cursed her, calling her a “green tea” (a person who acts sweet but is manipulative), insensitive, putting on a childish persona, chasing popularity, and being disrespectful to seniors. But at the same time, they didn’t seem to genuinely dislike Tao Nian. They found her annoying, yet felt she wasn’t intentionally annoying, just genuinely simple-minded.

A small group of people, not quite fans but who found her face pretty, didn’t dare to openly praise her. They could only subtly repost her less negative news with “hahahaha.”

As for the even smaller group of CP fans, they had even less say, crushed by the popular CP pairings of Lin Qianman. Even if they self-indulged in their own super topic (online community), they would be mocked by other CP fans, who claimed that anyone who could ship this CP was probably a “water army” (paid online commenters) hired by Tao Nian.

The CP fans wanted to retort, but lacking enough “shipping moments”, they couldn’t compete and could only sulk.

Regardless, it was clear to anyone with eyes that in this lukewarm show, Lin Qianman brought her own traffic, and besides her, the only one with any buzz was Tao Nian.

So, when the online voting channel opened, Tao Nian’s votes surprisingly ranked within the top ten. Ahead of her were internet celebrities with existing fanbases or those who had debuted before.

A marketing account started a poll, asking who everyone’s favorite contestant was. The highest-voted comment was: “Forget the contestants, let’s crowdfund for the mentors to debut!”

Below it, there was a sea of “Lin Qianman.”

When a show can only become popular because of its mentors, it generally means that the contestants are visibly subpar, or at least not immediately likable.

So, the singular contestant with a bit of buzz, Tao Nian, seemed even more precious and rare.

There was a time lag between the recording and airing of the show. While viewers watched Lin Qianman in the show, looking at their extra votes, and randomly casting them for a contestant they found appealing, Tao Nian had already finished her second public performance.

Because Tao Nian refused to let Lin Qianman pull strings for her, Su Yanxiao became even more anxious. Fearing that Tao Nian would drag them down, she constantly watched over her, making her practice.

Tao Nian originally joined the show to earn money. She felt she should be professional and do what she was supposed to do. Plus, Lin Qianman had told her so much last time; although she didn’t fully understand, she got the gist that Lin Qianman wanted her to work hard. So she never complained about being tired. Every day was practice, spending the entire day, except for meal times, practicing dance in the practice room.

During this performance, she didn’t mess up. She performed exceptionally well, dancing the entire routine flawlessly, and her singing wasn’t off-key.

Because of her high completion rate and high on-site votes, the entire team survived.

Everyone adjusted their groups and selected teams for the next round.

This time, Tao Nian and Zhang Jingyue were in a group.

Zhang Jingyue’s votes weren’t high this time.

She was actually a lukewarm kind of person. Her family didn’t want her to be in the public eye and wanted her to go back to school. She had previously studied dance, but it was Latin dance, which wasn’t suitable. Her personality was indeed very appealing, but since the show had just started, her screen time was minimal, and no one was willing to analyze what kind of person she was in the show’s fleeting few seconds. This time, she was almost eliminated.

Zhang Jingyue was actually a little sad.

But the young girl was proud and didn’t want others to see her unhappiness. That evening, she found a corner by herself and asked a staff member for her phone.

The staff member initially thought she wanted to make a long call home. Only after giving her the phone did they realize she was watching videos.

The production team was afraid that if she looked at negative comments online, it would affect her mood, and also that she might accidentally reveal un-aired content. They wanted to take the phone back.

Zhang Jingyue made many promises and bargained for an hour of phone time.

So, while she was alone in the dorm, watching funny videos and laughing, Tao Nian, who was no longer supervised by Su Yanxiao and inevitably a little lax, returned to the dorm with a pile of food and discovered Zhang Jingyue playing on her phone in the corner.

Zhang Jingyue looked up at Tao Nian, said nothing, and continued looking at her phone.

But the laughter added in post-production was a bit loud, so Tao Nian still heard a little. When she had finished eating and could finally satisfy her curiosity, Tao Nian leaned over and asked Zhang Jingyue: “What are you watching?”

Zhang Jingyue placed the phone between them: “A video.”

Just as that funny video ended, Zhang Jingyue tapped the next one. It was a movie review.

The opening screen flashed a still of Lin Qianman.

Zhang Jingyue was about to tell Tao Nian that the movie was Lin Qianman’s, when Tao Nian pointed at the phone screen: “That was Lin Qianman just now!”

Zhang Jingyue: “…”

Hearing that surprised tone, she suddenly didn’t want to tell her anymore.

So she calmly nodded: “Mhm.”

Tao Nian was like a curious baby: “Why is Lin Qianman here?”

Zhang Jingyue said: “This is a movie she acted in.”

“Movie?” Tao Nian was puzzled: “Lin Qianman acts in movies?”

Zhang Jingyue was even more confused by Tao Nian’s surprise now.

She had initially thought Tao Nian and Lin Qianman were very familiar, but it turned out Tao Nian didn’t even know Lin Qianman’s name, and now she didn’t even know Lin Qianman was an actress.

This didn’t make sense.

She looked at Tao Nian incredulously: “Did you travel through time? Why don’t you know anything?”

Tao Nian blinked: “What’s ‘travel through time’?”

“What era did you live in before?”

This question was completely beyond Tao Nian’s comprehension. She looked bewildered: “What do you mean?”

Zhang Jingyue paused the video and asked Tao Nian: “You didn’t know Lin Qianman before?”

“I know her!” Tao Nian nodded: “I’ve met her before!”

Could it be that Lin Qianman also traveled through time? That’s why she’s so good to Tao Nian, but Tao Nian doesn’t even know her name?

Zhang Jingyue’s imagination ran wild. She couldn’t help but sit a little farther from Tao Nian and asked her: “When? Where?”

“When I was very young!” Tao Nian thought about it and felt happy: “On the mountain where my Master lives! She wasn’t that big back then! She lived at my place for a long time!”

Zhang Jingyue understood a little: “Oh, when you knew her, her name wasn’t Lin Qianman, right?”

Tao Nian nodded: “Yeah!”

Zhang Jingyue looked at Tao Nian, suddenly even more curious about her background.

She knew Lin Qianman when she was very young, and Lin Qianman lived at her place. This could explain why Lin Qianman is so good to her, why she doesn’t know Lin Qianman’s name, and why Lin Qianman understands her so well.

But she lived in the mountains, with her Master. Where are her parents?

Zhang Jingyue was still debating whether to continue asking when Tao Nian leaned over and scrolled her phone: “Where’s Lin Qianman? Let me see.”

Zhang Jingyue had no choice but to click play, letting Tao Nian watch the review from the beginning.

The film was actually a post-apocalyptic disaster movie, and Lin Qianman played a female military officer who was courageous and resourceful, with many action scenes.

The review was well-narrated, but forcefully condensing a two-hour movie into a ten-minute video was like a scarecrow made of dry grass – it looked the part, but it was fundamentally two different things.

Zhang Jingyue saw Tao Nian watching intently, completely engrossed, and couldn’t help but tell her: “You can watch the movie directly, it’s really good. It’s only two hours, I’ve watched it twice.”

Tao Nian looked at Zhang Jingyue, not immediately realizing what she had said: “Huh?”

Zhang Jingyue, seeing her innocent look, couldn’t help but recommend it to her: “Lin Qianman’s movies are really good. You can watch this one, then watch the ones she filmed with Director Su Wei, it’s just… ah, her movies are really excellent! You don’t know how charming she is in movies, that’s not something editing can capture, you absolutely have to go watch the movie!”

Tao Nian saw her so excited and nodded repeatedly: “Okay.”

No sooner said than done, Zhang Jingyue immediately switched to a different video app, wanting to find Lin Qianman’s movies for Tao Nian to watch.

But the production team suddenly appeared: “Time’s up for the hour, please hand over your phones.”