After Being Hopeless at Singing and Dancing, I Exploded in Popularity Due to My Appetite - Chapter 57

Meanwhile, Fang Wen was still bickering with Lin Qianman.

Fang Wen knew Lin Qianman wouldn’t actually fire her, and she was sensible enough to drop the topic.

Lin Qianman, however, continued: “Perhaps you’d be more suited to be a screenwriter.”

Fang Wen: “I can’t.”

She was very humble: “I lack imagination.”

Lin Qianman said very sincerely, “You lack self-awareness about your abilities.”

Fang Wen: “…”

She said: “I really can’t.”

Lin Qianman: “Then in the future, say less of these nonsensical things in front of Tao Nian. Look at how you’ve corrupted a perfectly good person.”

Fang Wen felt very wronged: “But I don’t often bring her up. Most of what I do is relay your instructions to her.”

That was indeed the truth.

But: “I asked you to relay them, not to elaborate on them.”

Fang Wen: “…”

Lin Qianman sighed: “Tao Nian is an artist now, an idol from a talent show. If she dates, her career will collapse. What about her fans? Don’t you think about her more?”

So, you’ve already considered dating her?

Fang Wen was silent for a moment, thinking about the fans in the group who made daily memes of Tao Nian, and then about the “QianNian” CP fans. She didn’t think they seemed unwilling for Tao Nian to date.

But idols dating was indeed a big taboo. Although the “Sweet Peaches” generally didn’t spend much money, Tao Nian’s debut was indeed voted for by everyone.

Fang Wen understood a bit more, and struggled: “Then you still didn’t want her to get vaccinated today. It doesn’t look like you’re thinking for her either.”

Did she think that in my heart, I’m still a scumbag who only wants to date Tao Nian and doesn’t care about her health or future?

Lin Qianman thought this while also wondering if Fang Wen was leading her astray and making her overthink.

But Fang Wen insisting that Tao Nian get vaccinated wasn’t wrong. This showed that Fang Wen cared a lot about Tao Nian, and she had to drop the topic, otherwise Fang Wen would keep poking her heart with it every day.

Lin Qianman thought for a moment, pretending to be calm: “But Tao Nian has already been vaccinated, hasn’t she?”

As Lin Qianman expected, Fang Wen was very good at overthinking and quickly came up with what she thought was “the truth.”

Lin Qianman knew she would urge Tao Nian to get vaccinated, but she still told Tao Nian that she didn’t need to. This way, Tao Nian would be very happy and think Lin Qianman was great. Then she would call again and insist that Tao Nian get vaccinated, playing the bad guy herself, making Lin Qianman seem innocent, kind, and truly caring for Tao Nian.

If it were a normal person, they would know that the person who makes them get injections and take medicine when they’re sick is the one who truly cares for them.

But was Tao Nian normal? Tao Nian was not.

Tao Nian even tried to manipulate her boss into firing Fang Wen.

Fang Wen: “…”

I’m the clown here.

Fang Wen stopped talking, and Lin Qianman continued: “Today I had dinner with Director Li and them. The script we took on before will start filming in two months. I’ll be joining the crew next month, so you should prepare too.”

The script was taken two years ago, but due to various reasons, it had never been filmed. Today, they said everything was resolved and filming would begin. They even asked if they should add a small role for Tao Nian, not too big or too small, to give her some exposure…

Lin Qianman was speechless.

Fang Wen was even more speechless.

Prepare what? Don’t I just take care of your three meals a day and various trivial matters?

Now that you’re not filming, all the trivial matters are about Tao Nian.

Fang Wen didn’t understand.

But she pretended to understand: “Okay.”

A promising student.

Fang Wen had indeed been very reliable before, only becoming like this after meeting Tao Nian. If she told her, she would immediately change, she was a good child too.

Lin Qianman had just breathed a sigh of relief and hadn’t yet figured out what Fang Wen needed to do for the next two months, when Fang Wen sincerely asked: “So, have you watched Tao Nian’s variety show?”

Lin Qianman: “…”

She replied, “Not yet.”

Fang Wen became even more sincere: “Then don’t watch it tonight, otherwise it will affect your sleep.”

After saying that, Lin Qianman hung up the phone.

That little bit of wine wasn’t enough to make her very drunk or uncomfortable. The main thing was that everyone around her kept talking about Tao Nian, which was giving her a headache. Isn’t it just saying that she’s good-looking? It must be because she told her about the scar on her forehead before, saying her scar was prettier than the one on Tao Nian’s arm, and she remembered it.

What’s there to talk about?

Tao Nian was just silly and believed everything.

Huang Li also sent her a message, teasing her.

Lin Qianman ignored Huang Li and messaged her distraught manager to comfort her.

Lin Qianman had never been on a variety show before, but for an artist of her status, after the show’s post-production, the edited version would be shown to the artist’s manager. If the artist’s side wasn’t satisfied, the show would make some revisions based on their feedback. Managers of her status were used to this treatment for all artists, so they assumed all artists received this treatment.

She forgot that Tao Nian had just debuted and her one-year contract was under Orange Entertainment. Even if it needed to be shown to a manager, it wouldn’t be in her hands.

Furthermore, what Tao Nian said indeed generated a lot of buzz, so it was normal for the production team to release these clips.

She understood, but she was still annoyed. She frantically messaged Lin Qianman, asking what Tao Nian, Orange Entertainment’s manager, and the production team were thinking.

Before, as a contestant, being close to Lin Qianman could be explained as “dependence on the boss in an unfamiliar environment.” But now that she had debuted, even if she wanted to create CP buzz, she should be doing it with her teammates—the manager had even considered creating a CP between Tao Nian and Zhang Jingyue when she first learned that female idols could gain fans through CP hype. But why was Tao Nian still clinging to Lin Qianman?

These two people: one, a studio boss, the other, an artist signed to the studio.

One, a newly debuted idol, the other, an award-winning actress who had debuted over a decade ago.

Lin Qianman’s age was almost twice Tao Nian’s! There was absolutely no benefit for Tao Nian to be tied to Lin Qianman now!

Her anti-fans were almost praising Tao Nian for being so shameless.

The music industry was currently in a slump, and Tao Nian’s skills weren’t strong enough for her to pursue a powerful singing and dancing career. Most of the studio’s resources were concentrated in film and television. Anyone with eyes could see that Tao Nian would definitely become an actress in the future.

Before she formed a group and debuted, her rivals were other contestants from Idol 101. The popularity gap with Tao Nian was simply too large, so blacklisting Tao Nian wouldn’t make much of a splash.

But now that she had debuted, she was touching the cheese of those third-tier young actresses. These actresses already had a reputation, and their fan bases were starting to form. Seeing Tao Nian working so hard and having a stable public image, they were naturally envious.

Lin Qianman hadn’t thought of this point until her manager mentioned it, and then she went to look.

Tao Nian’s super-topic still looked peaceful, with everyone happily laughing at Tao Nian.

But if you scrolled through the public square, you could still find negative comments.

The next day, Tao Nian had another interview. After the interview, she would be packed off to Y City to record a group variety show.

Lin Qianman had discussed Tao Nian’s future development path with her manager late last night, including but not limited to unbinding from Lin Qianman’s name, developing independently without CP hype, her young age, trying to go to school after this year, filming while studying, honing her acting skills, and trying to get into a formal acting program…

She finally went to sleep after 1 AM.

She woke up at almost 9 AM, and after washing up and eating, it was 10 AM.

This timing was a bit awkward.

Lin Qianman printed out the revised script that Director Li had given her yesterday, wanting to prepare.

But after binding the ink-scented pages together, she tiredly put the script down again. Drinking and staying up late really made her uncomfortable.

Uncomfortable and not wanting to work.

Lin Qianman, not wanting to work, remembered that she still hadn’t watched Tao Nian’s variety show.

She pulled out her phone, found the variety show, and clicked it open.

Half an hour later, she slammed her phone down on the table.

She could never say ambiguous words in front of Tao Nian again! No matter how many modifiers or conditions, it wouldn’t work!

No one could!

A little while later, she picked up her phone, closed the variety show, and meticulously found an online junior high school physiology class, which she then shared with Tao Nian.

She had had a little wine yesterday, and although she considered herself to be thoughtful and rational when showing Tao Nian the animal world video.

After all, Tao Nian was essentially a small animal, so showing her the animal world was very simple, easy to understand, and completely free of pornography or vulgarity. It was very suitable for scientific popularization.

But waking up today, she thought about it again and felt it wasn’t quite right.

Tao Nian was a human now. Feng Jun letting her descend the mountain was to let her truly become a human.

That kind of thing between humans was different from animals. Animals acted on instinct, but humans could control their instincts. This kind of thing could only be done with someone you liked.

••••

Lin Qianman tilted her head in confusion.

So, a physiology class probably couldn’t explain it, could it?

A junior high school physiology class only talked about physical changes for teenagers and the scientific answer to “where do I come from.”

But, what Tao Nian was asking about, Ruyue and Qi Zheng, were two women…

Lin Qianman hesitated several times, then retracted the online course she had just shared. How exactly should she explain this to Tao Nian?!

Lin Qianman was so worried, she felt like she was losing hair.

After Tao Nian finished her work and got her phone, she saw that Lin Qianman had retracted a message.

She sent a question mark.

Lin Qianman still had her phone, and seeing the question mark, she asked: “Did you watch yesterday’s video?”

Tao Nian thought of the two lions licking each other and said: “Yes.”

Then she asked: “Are you two also licking each other’s fur?”

Lin Qianman: “…”

Licking fur?

In Lin Qianman’s imagination, Tao Nian should have used a more explicit term.

But Tao Nian’s eyes were still very innocent.

Seeing Lin Qianman confused, Tao Nian explained: “It’s licking fur. After licking fur, there’s a chance to have babies. Master said we shouldn’t disturb them when they’re licking fur, otherwise I won’t have anything to eat later.”

Hmm, if you don’t disturb animal reproduction, you can have sustainable development and always have plump little animals to eat.

Also.

Hmm, sure enough, even someone as mature as Feng Jun has to face the shyness and distress of teaching a child about physiology?

Lin Qianman was at a loss for words and told Tao Nian: “It’s like licking fur, I guess. But you’re human now, you can’t just lick anyone’s fur casually.”

She originally wanted to tell Tao Nian that she could only do this with someone she liked. But she was afraid Tao Nian would then ask what “liking” meant and why she couldn’t.

After two seconds of hesitation, Tao Nian hung up the phone: “Okay, okay, I won’t. I’m going to work now!”

Tao Nian, who believed she had found the answer to her question, was now happy even going to work.

Ah, of course, she wouldn’t just lick anyone’s fur casually! The small animals on Qingnan Mountain were all afraid of her! And they were all dirty, unlike Lin Qianman, who smelled nice!