After Being Hopeless at Singing and Dancing, I Exploded in Popularity Due to My Appetite - Chapter 42

Lin Qianman looked at the large red patch on Tao Nian’s fingertip, feeling a little distressed. But seeing Tao Nian’s indignant expression, she also found it somewhat amusing. She cooperated with Tao Nian, reaching out to take her index finger and, looking at the red spot that was either a burn or just caused by Tao Nian squeezing it, exaggeratedly exclaimed “Wow!” and asked, “How did it get burned like this? How did you burn it?!”

Taotie was actually very unlucky. Before, running around on Qingnan Mountain, she would always trip over vines and grasses. But she never learned her lesson. Feng Jun, fearing something would happen to her, even had the mountain deity look after her. Even so, she would still fall.

Lin Qianman suspected that even simply boiling an egg under Zhang Jingyue’s supervision, she would get burned by the steam escaping from the pot.

Sure enough, Tao Nian looked very wronged: “Very hot steam came out of the pot! And it burned me!”

She looked like a kindergarten child who had been hit and was complaining to the teacher, wanting the teacher to find the bullying steam and burn it in return. Lin Qianman found it amusing, but considering Tao Nian’s level of bad luck, and fearing it would blister, she carefully touched her fingertip.

Fortunately, Taotie had recently been staying by the Qilin’s side and had a good relationship with her. Every day, smelling the fragrant fortune on the Qilin, she was no longer as unlucky as before. Now, there were no blisters on her hand, just a red patch.

Lin Qianman asked, “Did you put on medicine?”

Although there were no blisters on her hand, it was still a burn, and her finger remained warm. With Lin Qianman touching it like that, Tao Nian was still a little uncomfortable. Hearing Lin Qianman’s question, she nodded.

She suddenly remembered the tube of scar cream she had placed at Lin Qianman’s door the night before last.

Today, Lin Qianman had a full face of makeup. Her appearance was originally a contradiction—cool and aloof yet very sexy, very beautiful. When others applied makeup, they accentuated their strengths and hid their weaknesses, but Lin Qianman’s entire face had no flaws. The makeup artist could only create different makeup looks for her according to the occasion.

Today was Lin Qianman’s birthday, so the makeup emphasized the less aloof aspects of her entire face. Her eye makeup was very soft, and she wore colored contacts, making her light-colored pupils look very beautiful. Most importantly, the scar on her eyebrow was concealed.

Tao Nian smelled Lin Qianman’s fragrant scent and felt a little greedy again. But thinking about how much it hurt when she was bitten, she didn’t want to bite anyone anymore. She only carefully looked at the concealed scar on Lin Qianman’s temple, hesitantly asking in a low voice, “That medicine, did you put it on?”

Lin Qianman thought of the scar cream used with the medicine and found it amusing: “What medicine?”

Tao Nian pouted proudly: “Didn’t you say scars don’t look good?”

“It’s fine,”

Lin Qianman said: “It’s been a long time, and mine isn’t serious anymore. You usually can’t even see it.”

Although Taotie had taken a large bite in her original form, Lin Qianman was also in her original form at the time. When she transformed into a human, the scar wasn’t very big, just a small patch on her temple, slightly darker than her normal skin tone. It would only be noticeable if she was photographed close-up and magnified on screen. Normally, foundation could cover it, without even needing concealer.

“You said it doesn’t look good.”

Tao Nian always had an inexplicable stubbornness; whatever she heard, she took it as fact, preconceived.

Lin Qianman: “…”

She said, “I said yours doesn’t look good. I think mine still looks good.”

Tao Nian had no concept of this. Before, on Qingnan Mountain, as a Taotie, she was indeed not good-looking. Zhang Jingyue had also told her before that Lin Qianman was good-looking. Now, hearing Lin Qianman say this again, she felt nothing. She just looked at Lin Qianman’s face for a while, then after a long pause, said “Oh,” indicating she understood.

She had only come to complain, and now that Lin Qianman knew, she wanted to leave.

As she was leaving, she remembered that Lin Qianman hadn’t eaten the egg yet, and reminded her to eat it and remember to drink more water so she wouldn’t choke.

Lin Qianman: “…”

Only a clumsy and gluttonous Taotie would choke on an egg, right?

Tao Nian’s account had only been registered for one day, and her followers had already exceeded a million.

However, the studio wasn’t entirely sure how many of those million followers were just casual internet users who came to see the excitement and read the jokes.

Lin Qianman’s studio claimed to be a studio for entertainment industry artists, but in reality, it was quite old-fashioned. Lin Qianman earned money from acting to support everyone. Lin Qianman herself was also a somewhat old-school person; she didn’t engage in many flashy things, and the studio had never done such things either. Now that they had signed an artist from an idol survival show, all departments in the studio quickly began to study girl groups.

However, what they learned contradicted some of the studio’s usual operating principles. The manager was tearing his hair out.

Finally, he signaled to his team to contact the president of Tao Nian’s fan club.

Previously, the president of Lin Qianman’s fan club was a rich and beautiful woman. Lin Qianman was a legitimate actress, and fans wouldn’t dictate her work, so the fan club’s main activities were usually contacting the studio to inquire about public schedules to take beautiful photos and holding daily lucky draws to give away money.

But the president of Tao Nian’s fan club… was Liu Xiaobai.

Because Tao Nian didn’t have her own account or an official fan group before, and even her management company was unknown, Liu Xiaobai knew that Tao Nian was just an ordinary person and might only be signing with the Idol 101 show’s company. Although she didn’t know why the company didn’t give Tao Nian an account or create a group for her, Liu Xiaobai still helped Tao Nian set up her fan club. Normally, this fan club would just rally fans to vote, write jokes, and draw fan art of Tao Nian.

It was a very wild and free fan club.

But Liu Xiaobai also had a job. She was also a beautiful, capable, and famous internet celebrity who even received emails from the Idol 101 production team inviting her to participate in the show. Normally, finding material, editing videos, shooting outdoors, taking on soft advertisements, and writing copy were already exhausting enough, but she also ran a side account as the president of Tao Nian’s fan club. Although this fan club was currently just a name without substance, Liu Xiaobai still felt she bore a heavy responsibility.

That day, when she received a private message from Lin Qianman’s MLL Studio, she was a little surprised, thinking she had won a prize in Lin Qianman’s fan club’s lottery and the studio wanted to give her Lin Qianman’s autograph. Her hands even started trembling with excitement as she shakily opened the message interface.

Only then did she realize that this was the account for the president of Tao Nian’s fan club, and she hadn’t used this account to repost the lottery.

Why would Lin Qianman’s studio send a message to the president of a wild Tao Nian fan club?

Liu Xiaobai looked closely.

The studio said: “Hello, we are staff from MLL Studio. Tao Nian is an artist under our studio. We noticed that you seem to really like Tao Nian and have a lot of experience in promoting her. Are you willing to become an official employee of the studio?”

Liu Xiaobai was incredulous. She blinked and looked again.

It was still Lin Qianman’s studio, saying Tao Nian was an artist under Lin Qianman’s studio, inviting her to become an official employee???

Liu Xiaobai’s first thought was actually, can official employees frequently get the boss’s autograph? Can they often see the boss?

But rationality kept her from voicing this thought. Liu Xiaobai suppressed her curiosity and politely refused: “No, I’m just an ordinary netizen who likes Tao Nian. This fan club was just set up by me because there was no official one, and actually, a lot of the content is thought up by everyone in the group. I’m not very good at this. You can rebuild a new fan club, and I’m sure you’ll find someone who likes Nian Nian more than I do.”

The studio sought out Liu Xiaobai not only because of the large number of fans in Liu Xiaobai’s fan club, but mainly because, as a wild fan club, it initially had no rules, and the fans were very free. This coincided with the development path the studio envisioned.

Now, seeing Liu Xiaobai refuse, the staff were a little disheartened and wanted to try again.

On this side, Liu Xiaobai really couldn’t resist the temptation.

It was an employee from Lin Qianman’s studio, after all!

You know, Liu Xiaobai was a very unlucky person.

There was an urban legend in the entertainment industry. Lin Qianman was like a koi fish; she never cultivated a lucky persona, but her fans were all extremely lucky. This luck wasn’t about their idol succeeding in their career, being beautiful, and pampering their fans; it was a subtle, ineffable, yet truly lucky kind of luck. Others would wish upon a koi or go to worship Buddha, but Eel fans would turn to Lin Qianman.

Whether it was cramming for exams at the last minute and praying not to fail, or accidentally stumbling while walking down the street, stopping to check an ankle, and looking down to find a large uncovered manhole just two steps ahead. Whether it was winning twenty yuan on a scratch card, or spontaneously buying insurance today, only to have a cat scratch their paw just as the insurance became effective (not really).

Anyway, Lin Qianman just had a very mysterious fortune; she was like a living Bodhisattva. Besides doing charity and helping her fans, she would also bless her fans and bring them good luck.

Liu Xiaobai was actually quite lucky. As a blogger who posted videos, sometimes she didn’t even think much of a topic when she chose it, but it would inexplicably become popular. Like when she filmed a vlog of herself eating breakfast on the street, she even filmed Tao Nian. She introduced Tao Nian to participate in the show, and as a result, Tao Nian became famous, and Liu Xiaobai herself gained popularity. Moreover, because she filmed Tao Nian when Tao Nian was still an ordinary person, the “Sweet Peaches” also had a good impression of her, feeling that she wasn’t just latching on to Tao Nian’s fame after she became popular.

Her unluckiness mainly stemmed from the fact that she participated in every lottery in Lin Qianman’s fan club and never won. When Lin Qianman finally endorsed a big brand, offering signed photos and posters within a limited purchase period, Liu Xiaobai finished her work early, planning to snatch one up, but everything was ready, and then the power went out in her residential area.

She was so unlucky that even today, when Liu Xiaobai thought she had won a prize, her hands started trembling.

But it turned out she was still just as unlucky.

Seeing that she might never be able to get Lin Qianman’s merchandise on her own, Liu Xiaobai shamelessly gave in to the temptation when facing the staff from Lin Qianman’s studio.

“I have my own job, so I won’t become a full-time employee, but if there’s anything you need my help with, I can find time to assist. As long as Nian Nian can have better development in the future, that’s enough.”

The staff was very touched and promised: “Yes, thank you for your cooperation. In the future, if you need anything, like Nian Nian’s beach photoshoot autographs or anything, you can tell me. If there’s anything you want to know, you can also ask.”

“Really?”

Liu Xiaobai had been waiting for this exact sentence. She was extremely excited: “Then can I have a signed poster of Sister Lin?!”

Staff: “…”

After a long while, the staff finally spoke to the now-satisfied Liu Xiaobai about Tao Nian: “Nian Nian is currently participating in Idol 101, and the finals are coming up soon.”

Liu Xiaobai’s typing speed was exceptional: “Nian Nian’s popularity is quite high now, and she has a lot of casual fans. If I appeal, everyone is still very willing to help vote.”

“Hmm, voting is fine, but the studio’s intention is not to force it too much. For now, just giving Nian Nian the three votes provided by watching the show is enough. No need to spend money to buy votes, and no need to crowdfund in the future. The boss is not too keen on fans spending money on votes, and Nian Nian also thinks it’s better for everyone to buy themselves some food if they have money.”

Tao Nian’s original words were exactly like that. Two days ago, Fang Wen conveyed the studio’s question to her, asking if she wanted a huge number of votes to debut. Tao Nian blinked and said, “It’s just a job, why do I need so many votes?”

When Fang Wen mentioned that votes could be bought with money, Tao Nian frowned and said, “Why waste money if you have it? What if there’s not enough money for food later?”

Liu Xiaobai thought of Tao Nian and felt that she indeed sounded like someone who would say such things.

However, she still sighed sympathetically and rationally told the staff on the other end: “You’re probably overthinking it. Everyone is unwilling to spend money. They feel like watching Tao Nian eat every day is like watching a live-stream shopping show, and they’ve eaten a lot following Tao Nian, spending money on food and then having to spend money on gym memberships to lose weight. Everyone feels that they’ve already spent money on Tao Nian, and they’re simply unwilling to spend more.”

Staff: “…”

Liu Xiaobai became even more sympathetic: “Now, many fans aren’t even willing to pay for video streaming memberships. Those fans who have memberships and can watch behind-the-scenes footage are already the biggest spenders in our group.”

The staff clearly hadn’t anticipated the situation to be so dire.

After all, Lin Qianman had repeatedly stated that she didn’t need fan support, crowdfunding, or reserved movie showings, and that everyone should just live their own lives. However, fans would still watch Lin Qianman’s movies over and over again, and when Lin Qianman’s movies became available online, some would even specifically download the software to watch them.

But unexpectedly, Tao Nian, a prospective girl group member from an idol talent show, in a community where fans constantly compete and spend money online. Her fans achieved what Lin Qianman wanted: they didn’t spend a single cent.

Author’s Note:

Sweet Peach (hands on hips): “I said we were fake fans! You’re still worried I’ll spend money? Not asking Tao Nian to reimburse us for gym memberships is already true love!”

But actually, the biggest spender is the group leader of that large fan group. She spent two thousand yuan of her own money on Taobao to order banners to give to the Sweet Peaches who went to the public performance. That’s enough for Tao Nian to eat two hundred and fifty jianbing guozi.