After Being Hopeless at Singing and Dancing, I Exploded in Popularity Due to My Appetite - Chapter 38

Tao Nian, already not particularly skilled at singing and dancing, was now even more hampered after being bitten. Her wound hurt constantly every day, and she had dietary restrictions for her vaccinations, making her food increasingly bland and tasteless. Tao Nian was listless every day, eating a bit less, and surprisingly lost a lot of weight in a week.

Her teammates looked at Tao Nian’s weight, biting their handkerchiefs in envy. This person eats so much and doesn’t get fat, but now, just by eating a little less than before, she’s actually lost weight?!

Anyway, one way or another, the time quickly arrived for the fourth public performance. Only twenty-five contestants remained, and ten would be eliminated in this round.

Tao Nian’s group was performing a song personally rearranged by Huang Li, and the choreography was done by Huang Li’s usual team. Originally, Huang Li didn’t dare to chirp and boss Tao Nian around, thinking it would be better to do more work and talk less, just being an emotionless and completely safe guest performer. Unexpectedly, Maomao bit Tao Nian the very next day. Tao Nian was listless every day, clutching her wound with a pained expression, unable to eat or sleep well, with dark circles under her eyes. She still had to practice dancing during the day, looking like she was about to collapse. Because of this unexpected incident, the other four contestants in her team were also unsettled, fearing that Tao Nian’s situation would jeopardize the competition.

Huang Li initially thought that since her dog bit Tao Nian, Tao Nian would surely retaliate by biting her, if not Maomao.

But Tao Nian didn’t. After being bitten, Tao Nian just clutched her bitten arm and cried. After getting her shot, she returned and vaguely told Lin Qianman that she wouldn’t bite her anymore. And she truly didn’t bite Huang Li, nor did she say anything harsh to her.

—It was only on the third day, after her vaccination, that she insisted on seeing Maomao. Huang Li had no choice but to say many good things about Maomao, repeatedly telling Tao Nian that she had been saying bad things about her in front of Maomao, and Maomao was just protecting her, taking all the blame onto herself before daring to let Tao Nian see Maomao.

Maomao bit someone and was scolded by Huang Li, but Huang Li also knew Maomao was protecting her, so she didn’t scold him too harshly; she just reasoned with him. Whether Maomao knew he was wrong or not, when he saw Tao Nian again, Huang Li put a muzzle on him and kept a tight grip on his leash, maintaining a distance from Tao Nian.

Then Huang Li watched helplessly as Tao Nian reasoned with Maomao.

She spoke earnestly and with heartfelt sincerity, her appearance and voice distinctly different from Lin Qianman’s, yet in this moment, remarkably similar: “You have to be empathetic. Do you want others to bite you? If you don’t want others to bite you, then don’t bite people. Do you know how much it hurts when you bite someone? If I bit you now, you would definitely be in so much pain, and then you would know how much I hurt, and you would regret it!”

Maomao, wearing his muzzle, lay on the ground, whimpering softly, as if admitting his mistake.

Tao Nian empathized. Being bitten herself, she now knew how much those she had bitten before had hurt. And she knew regret.

Lin Qianman said that once she learned empathy, she could further expand this concept.

Tao Nian pondered for a moment and felt that she could expand it.

She already knew not to bite people after learning empathy, and she had begun to regret her past biting. So, she should also teach Maomao this principle, and make Maomao learn to empathize and not bite people indiscriminately!

Now, hearing Maomao’s soft whimper, she assumed Maomao had learned and, greatly relieved, virtually patted Maomao, mimicking Lin Qianman: “Good, good! You’re a good child for learning!”

Empathizing, Huang Li suddenly understood what Lin Qianman had been going through these past few days.

So pitiful.

So young, yet like an old mother.

But she also vaguely felt that Tao Nian in this state was actually quite cute. When she bit Huang Li back then, she was just a tiny cub, like Maomao, not knowing anything. Now that she knew, Huang Li didn’t need to be so afraid of her, right?

One thing at a time, Huang Li quickly shed her fear and prejudice towards Tao Nian, and conscientiously took on her responsibility as a guest performer, doing her best to help Tao Nian and her teammates.

The public performance officially began.

There were a total of five teams, and Tao Nian’s group was the third to perform.

This time, because of the guest performers, there were many fans of the guest performers in the audience.

Tao Nian’s fans seemed a bit fewer. They still sat together as before, holding pink banners.

It was still the same banner from last time, reused. Bought in bulk from Taobao, two and a half yuan each. Because of their poor quality, and not being cared for, they were crumpled up and tossed aside after the last use. This time, when many people took them out again, the edges of the banners were already fraying.

Now the “Sweet Peaches” sat together, talking and plucking off the stray threads from the banner edges, rolling them into small balls. They sighed, looking a bit troubled: “We’re fans, after all. Isn’t it inappropriate to come to a performance and not ask for an autograph?”

“…It is inappropriate.”

“But…”

The group looked at each other, and finally sighed together again: “Her handwriting is indeed not very good-looking.”

A Sweet Peach suddenly interrupted the sighing, her tone very serious: “You guys have low emotional intelligence! It’s not ‘not good-looking,’ it’s returning to simplicity, unadorned and natural!”

Sweet Peach: “…”

“Okay, okay, it’s not not good-looking, it’s returning to simplicity, unadorned and natural!”

“Writing exists to convey information! Tao Nian abandons unimportant superficialities and imbues the script with its most original meaning! This is the third level! Her handwriting isn’t bad-looking! She just has a far-reaching vision and an artistic flair!”

After this Sweet Peach finished speaking, her fellow fans were looking at her with strange expressions.

Sweet Peach shivered: “What’s wrong?”

Her fellow fans looked like they wanted to speak but hesitated: “…It’s… a bit much, a bit over the top.”

“It’s… just handwriting. No need to be so dishonest.”

The song chosen by Tao Nian’s group this time originally required a lot of emotional depth, but Tao Nian had too little life experience to convey it. The dance wasn’t very difficult, and she could have performed it well, but due to her injury, she lost a lot of practice time, so the dance wasn’t very good either. She was a bit of a drag on the whole team.

However, many of the audience members were Huang Li’s fans.

Initially, when Huang Li’s fans learned that Maomao had bitten Tao Nian, they were actually a little worried.

Everyone knew that Huang Li originally intended to be a mentor on this show, but then at the last minute, she didn’t go. Instead, Lin Qianman, a film empress who in normal people’s eyes had nothing to do with singing and dancing, became a mentor. This matter was discussed countless times on forums. The Idol 101 show became popular because of Lin Qianman, and a contestant named Tao Nian became famous. Then Huang Li became a guest performer, and her team was Tao Nian’s, and the next day her dog even bit Tao Nian.

When this incident spread, many people mocked Huang Li, saying she originally disdained the show for being obscure, but now that it was popular, she was trying to suck up to it, specifically latching onto the most popular contestant, and so on.

Huang Li’s fans certainly wouldn’t be happy. The more vicious ones might even suspect that Tao Nian was trying to use this as a marketing tactic to undermine Huang Li. Because of Huang Li, they had initially paid some attention to the show and naturally knew why Tao Nian first gained popularity. Wasn’t it because she latched onto Lin Qianman’s popularity that she became famous? Now that she saw Huang Li, perhaps she would try to create a tied-in marketing campaign.

But Huang Li’s fans waited and waited, and didn’t see any marketing account saying anything bad about Huang Li. They secretly went into Tao Nian’s fan group in disguise and found that Tao Nian’s fans were all fake fans, with no team guidance, and no influential big fans. Everyone was very laid-back and indifferent, saying it must have hurt a lot, pat, hug, kiss. At most, they would share some science popularization articles, such as what to do after being bitten by a dog, how rabies vaccines prevent rabies, and so on.

What about Tao Nian’s fans’ opinion on this matter?

They all brought up Tao Nian biting Lin Qianman to criticize Tao Nian, urging Tao Nian to turn over a new leaf and accumulate good karma…

If Tao Nian’s fans had been fiercely cursing Huang Li, and marketing accounts were then tying them together and mocking Huang Li, with full-scale opinion control, Huang Li’s fans definitely wouldn’t have stood for it and would have made sure Tao Nian’s fans knew the consequences of offending a senior.

But now, Tao Nian’s fans were all so fake, like undercover agents sent by Tao Nian’s rivals, that Huang Li’s fans actually felt a little sympathy for Tao Nian. They even couldn’t help but teach them how other contestants’ fans support their idols, control comments, and accumulate points.

When Huang Li’s vlog was released, the two fan bases became even more harmonious. Huang Li’s fans increasingly liked Tao Nian, finding her a very interesting contestant, and felt that Huang Li must be very happy working with such an interesting person.

All in all, everyone was getting along harmoniously.

Now, at the venue, Huang Li’s fans looked at Tao Nian’s fans’ tattered banners and couldn’t help but offer them contact information for a factory. They also showed them their own colorful, glowing light sticks, saying: “Yours don’t light up, and they won’t be seen on stage. Use mine for now.”

The “Sweet Peaches” were bewildered, and Huang Li’s fans handed them a bunch of light sticks with Huang Li’s name written on them. Then, bewildered, they followed the others and raised Huang Li’s light sticks.

Huang Li’s fans didn’t expect the “Sweet Peaches” to be so naive. Fearing that their overly laid-back approach would hinder Tao Nian’s debut, they immediately messaged all their friends, telling them to watch the show and vote for Tao Nian.

So, for this public performance, even though Tao Nian’s performance wasn’t very good, her votes were still overwhelmingly high.

The public performance ended, and Huang Li and the other guest performers were about to leave. But there was one very important matter.

Lin Qianman’s birthday was in three days!

Before leaving, Huang Li gave Lin Qianman a beautifully wrapped box, saying it was a gift.

Another contestant, who was good at handicrafts and had lent Tao Nian glue before, made Lin Qianman an exquisite pair of earrings.

Zhang Jingyue bought ingredients and said she would make Lin Qianman a cake, showing Tao Nian pictures of beautiful cakes.

…

Tao Nian had never celebrated a birthday before. Now, seeing everyone preparing for this, and she herself being empty-handed, she felt a little anachronistic panic. She had no one to ask, and finally, she asked Lin Qianman.

Actually, Lin Qianman’s birthday wasn’t her real birthday; as a Qilin, she didn’t care about it. It was only later when she came to the mortal realm and needed an ID card that she had to get a birth date. Later, when she entered the entertainment industry and became famous, her fans always cared about her, sending gifts and blessings every year for her birthday.

Now, seeing Tao Nian blinking her eyes and asking, Lin Qianman didn’t know what to say. She could only take Tao Nian’s ID card and tell her: “Here, this string of numbers is your birthday. You’re eighteen this year, and your birthday is… January 1st.”

“Do I have to have a gift for a birthday?”

Tao Nian was very troubled: “I don’t have anything.”

She thought for a moment and took out the jade pendant from her neck, which was shattered and glued back together, and then shattered again after Maomao bit her. She stood up and held the jade in both hands, offering it to Lin Qianman: “No, I only have this. The walnuts and food are all yours, do you want them?”

Lin Qianman looked at the tattered jade, not daring to touch it at all, and refused very directly: “I don’t want it. Feng Jun gave it to you, so you keep it.”

“But everyone else is giving you gifts! Can I not give one?!”

Lin Qianman looked at Tao Nian like this, somewhat wanting to tell her that her not biting her and not causing her trouble was the greatest gift.

But thinking about it, saying that would be really strange.

So she just sighed: “I don’t want your things, you keep them yourself.”

“Then…”

Tao Nian mimicked the little girl at the vaccination clinic, wiggling shyly: “Will you give me a gift for my birthday?”

A two or three-year-old short, small girl in a pink and blue dress wiggling is a very cute thing, but Tao Nian, an eighteen-year-old with a fully mature body in a fitted, soft training uniform, making this movement, her narrow waist and smooth curves wiggling, added a few hints of allure.

Lin Qianman found this movement somehow uncomfortably awkward. She thought about it and attributed it to Tao Nian’s clothes being wrong. The clothes provided by the production team were all designed to accentuate the figure. If Tao Nian were wearing a little girl’s princess dress now, this movement would probably also be cute.

Seeing Lin Qianman remain silent, Tao Nian wiggled again, mimicking the little girl, and tried to put her hand on Lin Qianman’s knee. But she was already quite tall, and Lin Qianman was standing, so she could only conveniently place her hand on Lin Qianman’s shoulder instead, reminding her: “Gift.”

Lin Qianman suddenly came back to her senses: “…”

You’ve been waiting for me here the whole time?!