After Being Hopeless at Singing and Dancing, I Exploded in Popularity Due to My Appetite - Chapter 56

The sweet and sour pork with pineapple was indeed delicious. Crispy on the outside, tender and flavorful on the inside, it was sweet and sour with a refreshing pineapple aroma—truly tasty.

As Lin Qianman swallowed that mouthful, she thought it would indeed be good to bring Tao Nian here to eat.

Actually, even if it weren’t delicious, Tao Nian would probably still eat it.

She was just about to consider trying other dishes when she heard the screenwriter’s remark.

Lin Qianman pretended not to hear.

But the screenwriter continued: “I’ll go back and write it right away. After two years of refining a good script, by then her girl group will have disbanded, and she can come out and act solo. You can directly bring her to film. You know our standards; whatever we shoot will definitely be beautiful. And you’ll know her well, how great is that?”

Indeed, Lin Qianman said she was entrusted by someone—or rather, by two people. But those present had all worked with Lin Qianman and had genuinely good relationships with her. How could they not understand Lin Qianman?

Although Lin Qianman had a good temper, she was also an adult. Unless she genuinely liked the other person, there was no need to care so much. Signing someone to her studio and being a mentor on a show would be enough. What, did someone specifically entrust Lin Qianman to feed her?

Clearly, she liked her herself!

And looking at that child, the look in her eyes when she said Lin Qianman was beautiful—who among those present had bad acting skills? They could easily tell whether that look was acted or a genuine outpouring of emotion.

Lin Qianman looked up at the screenwriter.

Just then, the new generation director feigned an old-fashioned sigh: “You young people play such fancy games. Dual female leads…”

He immediately added: “It’s not impossible to film, you know me. I’m quite confident in filming these emotional dramas. As long as you train that child a bit…”

Under Lin Qianman’s increasingly cold gaze, he added: “I mean her acting, you train her acting.”

Lin Qianman felt a headache coming on. She explained: “She’s just… missing a screw in her head. She doesn’t understand.”

She watched the movie and kept asking what the two of them were doing. What did she understand?

She only knows how to eat and eat.

She knew her well enough; there was no need for all this self-strategizing!

Tao Nian, still in the car, sneezed.

She rubbed her nose and told Xiao Nan: “I’m hungry.”

Xiao Nan looked puzzled: “So, are you going to find Elder Lin now?”

Why would she find her? She’s with Qi Zheng.

Tao Nian remembered the person next to Lin Qianman when the video call first connected, and rubbed her nose again: “No.”

Xiao Nan instructed the driver to turn back.

Just as they turned, Fang Wen’s call came in.

Originally, with Tao Nian having an assistant, Tao Nian’s affairs were no longer Fang Wen’s responsibility. However, Xiao Nan was truly unreliable, so Fang Wen had to work as an assistant for two people while getting paid for one. Even after speaking with Xiao Nan, she was still worried and wanted to talk to him again.

As soon as Xiao Nan answered, Fang Wen barraged him: “Did you take Tao Nian to get vaccinated? The vaccination station closes at five, hurry up.”

It was almost four o’clock now.

Xiao Nan explained: “Elder Lin said Tao Nian doesn’t need to get vaccinated now.”

Fang Wen frowned: “What? She needs five shots, and today’s the last one.”

Xiao Nan was very troubled: “But Elder Lin said…”

Fang Wen didn’t understand why Xiao Nan still called Lin Qianman “Elder Lin” in the 21st century. Every time she heard that title, she couldn’t help but want to add, “Elder, the Qing Dynasty is over!”

Now, already anxious about Tao Nian’s vaccination, hearing that title made her even more annoyed. She tried to calmly listen to Xiao Nan continue.

Xiao Nan explained everything: “Elder Lin said Tao Nian doesn’t need it anymore, and that getting an extra shot would hurt.”

It would hurt?

Fang Wen couldn’t help but ask: “Then do you know that rabies has a 100% mortality rate?”

Xiao Nan honestly replied: “I don’t know.”

Fang Wen choked for a moment, then said: “Go get the vaccine. The incubation period for rabies is very long. What if something really goes wrong?”

Xiao Nan was troubled: “But…”

“No buts!”

Fang Wen gradually grew irritable, feeling that Lin Qianman had been swayed by some demon’s whispers and lost her rationality. She won’t get the shot because it hurts? Medicines are bitter, so she won’t take them? What kind of logic is that?

Fang Wen insisted: “Go get vaccinated! Give the phone to the driver.”

Xiao Nan complied.

Fang Wen very firmly told the driver: “Take Tao Nian to the vaccination station for the vaccine. No matter what Tao Nian says, it’s useless. If you’re bitten by a dog, can you really not get vaccinated?”

The driver was new, a middle-aged man in his forties. He only knew Tao Nian was an artist, knew nothing about Tao Nian’s situation, and didn’t know she was going to the vaccination station for a rabies vaccine. Now that he knew, he immediately agreed with Fang Wen: “You have to! If you’re bitten by a dog, you definitely need to get vaccinated, otherwise, if you get sick, it’ll be terrible!”

Tao Nian: “…”

Tao Nian was still dragged to the vaccination station and got a shot.

As usual, there were many children crying loudly at the vaccination station. This was Tao Nian’s fifth time there, and unlike the first time, she wasn’t attracted (or scared) by the loudly crying children with wide-open mouths. She skillfully took Xiao Nan to register, pay, get the medicine, and then take the medicine to the injection room.

Xiao Nan followed Tao Nian closely, watching the children getting injections in the room.

A child less than a year old, as long as a mother’s arm, was in its mother’s embrace, exposing an arm like a lotus root joint. Then a masked doctor, holding a needle, jabbed the baby’s arm.

The baby first paused, then opened its mouth wide, inhaling, inhaling, beginning to whimper, and only after the doctor pulled out the needle did it let out a wail.

Xiao Nan: “…”

The compassionate mountain god couldn’t help but close his eyes. Is this what vaccination is? Too cruel.

The baby cried and shrunk into its mother’s arms.

The new mother held the child and gently patted to soothe it. Before she had fully comforted the child, she turned the child around, revealing the other arm.

Another shot.

This time, the child’s cries truly shook the heavens.

Xiao Nan looked at the child with a pained, unimaginable expression.

The mother came out holding the child, and Tao Nian walked in with a tragic, “the wind whistles, the Yi River is cold” demeanor.

Then she came out, clutching her arm pitifully.

Xiao Nan tentatively reached out: “Do you need a tissue?”

In this environment, which was completely unfamiliar to Xiao Nan but where she had been several times, Tao Nian was very independent. Now, hearing Xiao Nan’s question, she mimicked what Lin Qianman had said to her before, shaking her head wisely and calmly: “No need. I’ve grown up, and I need to be a role model for children!”

Then she added: “If you want to cry, you can cry somewhere where no children can see you, otherwise, children will cry if they see me cry.”

Xiao Nan: “…”

He said very sincerely: “Is this hell on earth?”

Getting a shot, Tao Nian was really in pain, but she barely managed to keep a straight face to prevent tears from falling. Now, hearing Xiao Nan’s question, she reached out and pinched the corner of her eye: “I’ll go back and ask Lin Qianman.”

So, when she got back, Tao Nian immediately called Lin Qianman.

Xiao Nan called Fang Wen in the car to report that the vaccine had been given, and now he was ordering food for Tao Nian according to the knowledge Fang Wen had taught him.

He typed very slowly, clumsily.

Unintentionally, he heard Tao Nian grumbling and complaining to Lin Qianman: “It hurts so much…”

It was a completely different tone from when she told him she didn’t need a tissue.

Lin Qianman had had a little fruit wine. She had just gotten home when she received the call, her head buzzing with all the teasing words from her friends at the dinner table. It was inexplicable.

Now, hearing Tao Nian complain, she perked up a little: “What’s wrong?”

Tao Nian: “Got a shot.”

Speaking these words, Tao Nian felt her arm ache. She wiped away non-existent tears from the corner of her eye.

This gesture was something she learned from Fang Wen.

But Tao Nian forgot she was still wearing everyday makeup, so she smudged the eyeshadow and eyeliner at the corner of her eye.

Regardless of the makeup, purely on her imitation, it was still as vivid and lifelike as ever, even more so than Fang Wen. For some reason, it also carried a hint of Fang Wen’s inexplicable nature and radiant enlightenment.

Does she even need to be trained anymore?

No, does she even need to be trained in acting anymore?

…It must be Fang Wen’s fault for making everyone so weird.

Lin Qianman asked: “Didn’t you say you didn’t need to get a shot? Why did you still go?”

Tao Nian: “Fang Wen said I absolutely had to go!”

It’s Fang Wen again!

Fang Wen only thought of Tao Nian as a normal person, so insisting that Tao Nian get vaccinated was not an issue. Lin Qianman knew the truth, but perhaps her head was muddled from the little wine she’d had today. Thinking about how Fang Wen had turned Tao Nian into this strange person, and how it had even affected herself, Lin Qianman rubbed her temples: “I’ll talk to her another day.”

“That’s right,”

Tao Nian had been out and about a lot these past few days, meeting many people and learning all sorts of things. Now she stuck out her belly slightly, mimicking a pot-bellied person: “You ask her if she still wants this job!”

Lin Qianman: “…”

After saying that, she couldn’t help but ask Tao Nian: “Who talked to you like that?”

“Nobody talked to me like that.”

That person didn’t say those words to Tao Nian. Tao Nian was just repeating it. Then she complained: “It hurt so much! But I didn’t cry today.”

“That’s great.”

Lin Qianman didn’t plan to scold Fang Wen about the vaccine, but she still coaxed Tao Nian, promising to have Fang Wen visit her tomorrow and bring her delicious food.

Xiao Nan had already ordered food and was listening to Tao Nian and Lin Qianman talk on his phone.

Just like the children he saw at the vaccination station, who burrowed into their mothers’ arms because the shot hurt.

Xiao Nan looked thoughtful.

After finishing her complaints, Tao Nian thought for a moment, then immediately asked Lin Qianman excitedly: “Have you thought about how to tell me?!”

Lin Qianman had indeed thought about it.

She had been thinking about it all the way home, considering whether text, comics, or videos would be feasible. Then she started agonizing over the appropriate level of explicitness.

Tao Nian was still a child after all. Lin Qianman always felt like she was corrupting a child by doing this. But the child was very curious, and if she didn’t tell her, she didn’t know what Tao Nian might do.

Lin Qianman hadn’t made up her mind.

But Tao Nian’s eyes were still sparkling, urging her on, clearly eager to know.

Lin Qianman swallowed, feigning calmness: “I’ve thought of it. I’ll send you a link, and you can watch the video to understand.”

Tao Nian nodded: “Okay!”

She was rarely so curious about something, and now that she was finally going to get the answer, she was very excited.

Lin Qianman continued to feign calmness, searched for a long time, and then sent Tao Nian the link. Her expression was very serious, like a physiology teacher explaining a truth to students.

This is science, no need to be shy, no need to be embarrassed.

Children always grow up, and Tao Nian will eventually know these things.

Feng Jun didn’t tell her, so she had to.

Lin Qianman convinced herself, maintained her seriousness, and hung up the phone.

Then she called Fang Wen.

Fang Wen had just finished watching Tao Nian’s variety show, seen the hot search, and was currently in Tao Nian’s fan group watching the “Sweet Peaches” frantically spamming “hahaha” and discussing how to edit videos to recommend Tao Nian to others (to make others come and enjoy the fun too).

It was already past ten o’clock at night. Lin Qianman had no work, and Tao Nian’s vaccine had been administered. So Fang Wen had tidied up early and was lying in bed playing on her phone. She was a little excited when she received the call.

Before, when there was no work, Lin Qianman wouldn’t call her at night. The only time was late at night when she messaged her to plant walnut trees.

It was because of Tao Nian.

So this time, it must also be because of Tao Nian!

Before meeting Tao Nian, Fang Wen and Lin Qianman had a good relationship, but after all, Lin Qianman was an artist and her boss, so Fang Wen was still very careful to maintain her boundaries. But after meeting Tao Nian, Fang Wen now felt like she knew Lin Qianman’s weakness, and she couldn’t help but be a little arrogant.

So she answered the phone, and before Lin Qianman could speak, she began in a tone that made Lin Qianman want to deduct her bonus: “Boss, did you watch Nian Nian’s variety show today?”

Lin Qianman, on one hand, was having a headache from that tone, thinking that Tao Nian must have been corrupted this way! On the other hand, she calmly rubbed her temples: “Tao Nian just complained to me, asking me to ask you if you still want this job?”

Fang Wen: “…”

?!

I’m pouring my heart out for Tao Nian, and she actually complains to the boss, trying to get me fired behind my back?!

Fang Wen was incredulous: “What did I do to her?!”

Lin Qianman: “The shot hurt.”

At this, Fang Wen flared up: “If it hurts, you don’t get the shot?! And you told her not to get it, is this really loving her?!”

Lin Qianman finally realized where Fang Wen’s strangeness over the past two months came from: “How am I loving her?!”

“You don’t love her! You don’t even consider her long-term benefits! For a moment of no pain, you’ll let her be trapped in long-term risk!”

Lin Qianman coldly said: “You really don’t want this job anymore.”

While Fang Wen was heartbroken, Tao Nian clicked on the link Lin Qianman sent.

Accompanied by a very righteous narration, on a vast grassland, two lions were chasing each other, then one pounced on the other, and the two lions began to engage in a certain activity.

Tao Nian always felt something was off, but she couldn’t pinpoint what.

She frowned, watching seriously.

Xiao Nan heard the sound and leaned over to look.

There were no lions on Qingnan Mountain, so he saw a lion for the first time and exclaimed “Wow.”

Then he looked at the video title and read out each word: “An-i-mal World?”

He was very confused and asked Tao Nian: “What is this?”

Tao Nian: “…”

Didn’t Lin Qianman say she would tell me what they were doing?

Why is she showing me this?

Are they both just licking each other’s fur?

—There were no lions on Qingnan Mountain, but there were other small animals. Every spring, in various places, some small animals would stack together, doing this kind of activity.

When the still-young little Taotie asked her master what they were doing.

Feng Jun glanced at them and told her they were licking each other’s fur.

So that’s what it was…

Tao Nian very calmly closed the video.