After Being Hopeless at Singing and Dancing, I Exploded in Popularity Due to My Appetite - Chapter 19

Due to that group of fans who were as effective as ten haters, Fang Wen felt immense sympathy for Tao Nian.

And because she herself had spoken so harshly online, calling Tao Nian an idiot, she also felt a little guilty.

So, she became even more attentive towards Tao Nian.

Lin Qianman, watching the dwindling snack supply in her room, couldn’t help but grit her teeth: “If you’ve got the guts, buy snacks for her yourself!”

Fang Wen said nothing, continuing to “battle” online with her phone.

Originally, that first group of paid online commenters had aimed their attacks squarely at Tao Nian, but unexpectedly, a new group of fans suddenly emerged. Not only were they incredibly skilled at insulting others, but most importantly, they completely disregarded Tao Nian, having no weaknesses and fearing no collateral damage.

Bystanders, puzzled, looked at these comments and clicked on the users’ profiles.

Whoa, good heavens, they were loudly calling Tao Nian an idiot, making them think they were haters, but it turned out they were fans, residing in Tao Nian’s fan community (super topic).

Upon closer inspection, just half a month ago, these were all die-hard fans of Lin Qianman, passionately cursing Tao Nian and telling her to get out of the entertainment industry for hitting rock bottom.

Bystanders began to wonder, clicking into the super topic. The super topic was newly created, and most of the fans in it had previously cursed Tao Nian. All were fans of Lin Qianman.

The previous curses against Tao Nian were openly displayed, without even being deleted.

Hmm…

Were these people anti-fans disguised as fans? Or fans disguised as anti-fans? Or undercover agents from Lin Qianman’s camp?

Regardless, the matter was now in the past.

In the current “Sweet Peaches” group, only a few people were still chatting.

“Ah, I edited a video! Everyone go check it out! (link shared)”

Fang Wen clicked in to see. It was a Kichiku (a type of humorous, often fast-paced, remixed video) of Tao Nian.

…

It’s not that fans can’t make Kichiku videos of their idols, but other young girl group idols typically have excellent facial expression management. No matter what they do, a bright, healing smile hangs on their faces, looking so pleasing to the eye. It’s almost impossible to find material for Kichiku videos. Even if you painstakingly nitpick and find one or two animated GIFs, they would just have pretty pink filters added, repeating those funny-but-still-beautiful GIFs a dozen times.

They might be called Kichiku, but they could still be presented as promotional videos.

But Tao Nian’s was genuinely Kichiku.

It started with her peeking her head out from behind a door, eyes sparkling.

The next instant, she would lunge forward.

Her movements were so fast that they even created afterimages.

This afterimage was repeated, eventually lunging onto Lin Qianman.

Next was the video of Liu Xiaobai, where Tao Nian, dressed in rags, took a banknote from a beggar’s plastic bowl.

The action of taking the banknote was repeated, along with the old man’s surprised expression.

Then there were some shots from the livestream, and some shots from the bonus clips released by the production team.

Without exception, Tao Nian was always eating.

…

“This child doesn’t look like girl group material. If she has this talent, why doesn’t she become a mukbanger (food streamer)? (facepalm)”

Fang Wen strongly agreed.

Because they didn’t have their phones, the contestants were completely unaware of this uproar.

Zhang Jingyue, due to her low votes last time, was holding her breath this time, determined to prove herself. She relentlessly pushed Tao Nian in training, even more so than Su Yanxiao.

Tao Nian rarely had time alone with Lin Qianman. Sometimes, when she saw Lin Qianman in the practice room and went up to offer her a rice ball, Lin Qianman would tightly clench her fists and refuse to take it.

This was another day of hard practice. Because they needed to correct their stage positioning, there was no time for dinner in the evening. After dinner time, everyone was still practicing. If she, Tao Nian, wasn’t there, the formation would be uneven, so she also had no time to sneak out to eat.

Unexpectedly, they practiced until past eleven o’clock.

Twelve hours had passed since lunch.

In between, she had only eaten one rice ball.

It was the one she had wanted to share with Lin Qianman that afternoon, but Lin Qianman didn’t want it. So she ate it herself.

Because Zhang Jingyue was busy practicing, she had no time to make rice balls. Recently, Tao Nian had been making her own rice balls. She bought rice from the cafeteria, added sauce, and shaped it into a ball.

Her taste buds weren’t very refined, so she wasn’t sensitive to subtle flavor changes. Thus, she often added a lot of sauce, making the taste odd.

Because she was just starting to learn, she couldn’t shape a perfectly round and pretty rice ball either. That fist-sized rice ball looked ugly.

Anyway, it was so ugly that Lin Qianman refused to take it. Others also didn’t want such a large rice ball, thinking they couldn’t finish it.

So Tao Nian ate it herself, and of course, she wasn’t full.

When the training ended, she was tired, sleepy, and hungry. Drowsily dragging her almost-broken legs, she took her meal card, intending to go to the cafeteria to eat.

Then, involuntarily, following a scent, she slowly walked to the dorm building.

Because Lin Qianman knew nothing about singing and dancing, she wouldn’t randomly give pointers to the contestants. What she did most often was care about their daily lives and psychological states.

As a Qilin, she was naturally gentle and would bring good fortune to those around her.

With such a buff, she handled this task with ease.

Then, as she was writing a letter to a contestant who had a poor ranking, made multiple mistakes in training today, and consequently had a sudden breakdown, the door opened.

At first, she thought it was Fang Wen, so she didn’t turn around.

But this person didn’t speak and just kept walking towards her.

Lin Qianman turned around, confused.

She saw a taotie whose eyelids were drooping, walking steadily towards her. Because of her listlessness, her face was set, and coupled with the dim light, she looked a little fierce.

In the dead of night, Lin Qianman, suddenly seeing this scene, was so scared that she almost lost her wits. She uncontrollably jumped up, accidentally knocking over her chair.

Then, when she landed, she stepped on the chair and fell.

With such a loud noise, Tao Nian finally sobered up. She looked at Lin Qianman and asked blankly: “Why are you sitting on the floor?”

Lin Qianman: “…”

She stood up, enduring the pain, helped the chair upright, sat down, and said, “It’s nothing.”

Tao Nian’s stomach growled. She couldn’t help but keep looking at Lin Qianman.

From top to bottom, from bottom to top, back and forth.

It made Lin Qianman’s skin crawl.

Tao Nian suddenly noticed something. She squatted down and grabbed Lin Qianman’s ankle: “It’s red!”

Lin Qianman looked down and saw it was swollen.

She felt a little choked up, even feeling as if Tao Nian was gripping not her ankle, but her throat.

She remembered, Huang Li had been so scared of Tao Nian that she fell, which was why Lin Qianman came to be a mentor here in the first place. And now, she herself had seen Tao Nian, fallen in fright, right under Tao Nian’s nose.

Now Tao Nian was so hungry. What if she suddenly lunged and bit her?

As Lin Qianman was thinking, Tao Nian reached out and rubbed her ankle.

The taotie had never been down the mountain before, so she didn’t know anything. But she had a strong learning ability.

A few days ago, Ding Yiyi from their dorm also fell due to improper dance moves, and her ankle swelled up just like this.

It seemed very painful; Ding Yiyi even cried.

In the end, it was Doubanjiang who found oil and rubbed it for Ding Yiyi for a while before Ding Yiyi stopped crying.

Tao Nian thought this, and imitating Doubanjiang’s movements, she rubbed it again.

Lin Qianman sat on the high wooden stool, looking down from above.

Tao Nian was squatting by her feet, holding her ankle in one hand, gently rubbing with the other.

The light was near Tao Nian’s face. The warm yellow light shone down, and Tao Nian’s shadow fell on her leg.

It must be said that Tao Nian’s face was indeed very beautiful. Not just in this now-unpopular show, but even in the entertainment industry filled with beauties, she was stunning.

Because of her baby fat, she looked young, tender, and very innocent. Her long eyelashes, lowered and occasionally trembling, made it seem like her eyes were only on you, which was truly heartwarming.

That is, if Tao Nian hadn’t suddenly swallowed and her stomach hadn’t rumbled while rubbing.