After Going Bankrupt, I Got Clung To By A Canary Omega - Chapter 2

Although she had expected it, Fu Qingli still felt she had underestimated Shen Chaomu’s thick skin.

Had the original body found herself a canary to keep as a plaything, or had she found herself an ancestor she had to make daily offerings to?

Fu Qingli originally did not want to pay her any attention, but when she heard a suspicious rumbling sound, the words she had been brewing for so long were still swallowed back down.

She had no strength to talk and no strength to order takeout herself, yet she somehow had strength to play games.

She really was a lazy, playful little canary.

As it happened, Fu Qingli had not been full from that tiny bit of food earlier either, so she got up and went to the luxurious semi-open kitchen.

After rummaging through the fridge, she had an idea.

In just a short while, she had fried up egg fried rice for two. Just as she was about to turn around to get the tableware, she turned and saw Shen Chaomu with a spoon in her mouth, holding a plate in both hands and eagerly offering it over.

Fu Qingli thought that sure enough, she was not born for wealth and luxury. Not only did she have no canary to serve her, she even had to cook for this one.

She took the plate. “Get another one.”

Smelling the aroma that rushed toward her nose, Shen Chaomu swallowed her saliva while quickly running off to get another plate.

At the dining table, Shen Chaomu suspiciously glanced at Fu Qingli, who was wearing an apron and serving the rice. Thinking of the practiced movements she had used while cooking, Shen Chaomu’s gaze deepened.

Her stomach gave a rumble. Shen Chaomu turned back around and smiled faintly as she shook her head.

Leaning down, she took a deep breath of the steaming fragrance of rice, then tentatively scooped up a tiny bite with her spoon.

The moment it touched her tongue, Shen Chaomu’s eyes lit up. She could not wait to scoop up a big, full spoonful and send it into her mouth.

The grains of rice were glossy and translucent, carrying the purest fragrance of rice, mixed with the browned aroma of egg, the sweetness of carrot, the soft stickiness of green peas, and the fresh, sweet springiness of shrimp. One bite was deeply satisfying.

Shen Chaomu scraped the fried rice on her plate clean with her spoon, then glanced at Fu Qingli, who was eating quietly across from her. Seeing that Fu Qingli did not even spare her a look, she slipped off her chair and rushed toward the kitchen again.

Only a few seconds later, she dragged her heavy footsteps back in disappointment.

Shen Chaomu sat back down in the dining chair and looked expectantly at Fu Qingli. Her tone carried a trace of coyness. “Let’s have egg fried rice again tonight.”

Fu Qingli finished eating and wiped her mouth. “Aunt Liu only left that much rice.”

Shen Chaomu looked a little disappointed and pouted. “Then what are we eating?”

Fu Qingli did not answer. She was going to drive this person away soon anyway. Whether the canary ate boxed lunches or Michelin meals would have nothing to do with her.

Shen Chaomu’s eyes spun, and she spoke up cheerfully. “How about I order a few boxes of cooked rice? You can check the fridge again and see what ingredients you need. I’ll buy them all together.”

“Go wash the dishes!”

Fu Qingli picked up her own tableware and went back to the kitchen. The knives and cutting board she had used for cooking earlier had already been washed as she cooked, so washing only the dishes and spatula would not take long.

Fu Qingli tidied up and dried her hands. When she went back out, all that was left on the dining table was an empty plate and spoon with a faint sheen of oil on them.

Shen Chaomu was nowhere to be seen.

Following the sound of the game, Fu Qingli knocked on the bedroom door.

Shen Chaomu opened the door, her eyes a little evasive. She did not like touching greasy bowls and had wanted to slack off and leave them for Aunt Liu.

Fu Qingli, meanwhile, only felt that the game sound effects were deafening.

Seeing Fu Qingli look toward the computer in her room, Shen Chaomu quickly kicked off her slippers, jumped barefoot onto the bed, and shut the laptop on the bed table. In any case, she had run into pig teammates this round, so she was most likely going to lose.

As she turned to get off the bed, something jabbed the sole of her foot. With a bang, Shen Chaomu looked down and saw that a bag of potato chips had somehow fallen from the bedside table and been unfortunate enough to get stepped on, scattering crushed crumbs all over the carpet.

Shen Chaomu mourned the chips that had failed to make it into her stomach. In that moment, she once again missed Aunt Liu incomparably.

Fu Qingli tightened her grip on the door handle and felt that she could not endure this for even another second. “Shen Chaomu, I have something to say to you.”

The living room sofa.

With her phone confiscated by Fu Qingli, Shen Chaomu could not play games and was a little bored.

It was not her heat yet. What was there to talk about?

She would rather Fu Qingli come by every few days to deliver flowers, bags, and food, say a bunch of useless things, then leave. Although it was very annoying to have someone nagging beside her while she played games, this serious, proper Fu Qingli left her feeling completely at a loss.

Especially when Fu Qingli kept her face tense. It made Shen Chaomu think of her middle school math teacher. Although the two of them did not look alike at all, the resemblance in spirit was one hundred percent.

Fu Qingli was not someone who dragged things out. She got straight to the point.

“I’m bankrupt.”

Shen Chaomu did not react for a long while. “So?”

Fu Qingli somewhat doubted the intelligence of the canary in front of her. With this foolish, dazed look, how had Shen Chaomu managed to fight back and forth with the original novel’s female lead later in the plot, even badly damaging Chenxing Entertainment?

Fu Qingli helplessly continued explaining.

“I can’t afford to keep you. You should make your own plans.”

Shen Chaomu had originally been sitting cross-legged and leaning sideways on the sofa. Hearing this, her upper body sprang up. In disbelief, she said, “You want to drive me away?”

Looking at the other party’s suddenly straightened back, Fu Qingli inexplicably thought that Shen Chaomu should be quite talented at dancing. Her body was so flexible.

Meeting those wide, round almond eyes, Fu Qingli remained unmoved. “It’s not driving you away. Even couples break up. Our relationship will also have a day when it ends.”

“Relationship ends?”

Shen Chaomu chewed over Fu Qingli’s words. Was that not the same thing? She just wanted Shen Chaomu to leave.

Maybe Fu Qingli felt that after so long, Shen Chaomu still refused to be intimate with her, so she was playing schemes and trying to push things further.

But not having to film, playing games every day, reading, sunbathing, and having Aunt Liu make all kinds of delicious food for her—without even having to go outside—what kind of immortal life was this?

Besides, although Fu Qingli was a little lustful and scheming today, her cooking was truly delicious. Several times better than Aunt Liu’s, even.

Not to mention her heat. Thinking of that pain like flesh being scraped from between her bones, Shen Chaomu’s body trembled, and she decisively shook her head.

Fu Qingli saw Shen Chaomu’s gaze lingering on the lounge chair by the floor-to-ceiling window, the television screen, the kitchen…

This greedy canary had already set her sights on this villa.

Seeing that she did indeed shake her head and refuse, Fu Qingli relaxed back against the sofa. Her fingertip tapped the armrest, and she took out the same shameless attitude her former company had once used when it refused to pay her the twenty thousand yuan in acting fees it owed her.

“Actually, this is for your own good too. I don’t have money to buy you Michelin ti—takeout anymore, and I can’t buy you flowers, bags, clothes, or jewelry anymore.”

Shen Chaomu finally breathed a sigh of relief. Her tone even carried a trace of excitement. “Then don’t buy them. You cooking is fine too.”

Fu Qingli immediately set down the glass of water she had just lifted to her lips. She was silent for a long time, her gaze shifting from hesitation to gravity.

“If we separate, I can give you an apartment.”

In her heart, Fu Qingli rapidly calculated. She did not know whether housing prices in this world were like those in the real world, or whether she could find a discounted one-bedroom unit beyond the Fifth Ring Road.

A one-bedroom with the guest room and living room combined would be fine. The smaller the better. It did not need a kitchen. It was not as if Shen Chaomu knew how to cook anyway.

An old, shabby place outside a school district should be cheaper. She would look for somewhere with poor supporting facilities.

A top-floor walk-up should be easier to negotiate.

A fourth- or fifth-tier city should be even cheaper, right?

She wondered whether Shen Chaomu could accept a rural small-property-rights bungalow. It even came with a courtyard. If she found one beside a grassy drainage ditch and knocked down the courtyard wall, the view would be pretty much the same as this villa’s.

…

Shen Chaomu was a little conflicted. This villa was probably worth at least eight figures.

As for the matter of her heat, she could discuss it with Fu Qingli.

But what if Fu Qingli took a liking to someone else and refused to cooperate? Shen Chaomu did not want to be suspected of being a mistress either.

If they separated and did not live together, what if her heat came early and she could not get over in time?

Besides, a villa could not be used as money. If she did not want to sit around eating up her savings, she would have to go to work. If she did not want to sit on someone’s lap, she would have no scenes to film. With no scenes to film, she would make no money. She did not know how to do anything else, so she could only go wash dishes or sweep the streets…

Shen Chaomu firmly shook her head again.

Fu Qingli took a deep breath, her tone strained. “I’ll give you another hundred thousand.”

In the real world, the low-budget arthouse film where she had finally become the lead and won Best Actress had taken almost half a year to film, and her pay had only been two hundred thousand. Her company had even taken half of that.

She would treat it as acting for free, purely for the award!

Shen Chaomu continued shaking her head. Although she had no feelings for Fu Qingli, only giving her a hundred thousand a month clearly meant Fu Qingli could not bear to let her go.

She was so upset she had to close her eyes and inhale. She was absolutely saying the opposite of what she meant.

Fu Qingli instantly strengthened a belief: even if she became rich in this lifetime, she absolutely could not learn from the original body and keep a canary.

Breaking up was like cutting flesh, and the knife being used was blunt.

“One hundred and ten thousand!”

Sure enough, Fu Qingli was testing her feelings!

Shen Chaomu secretly rejoiced at her own cleverness.

She calculated the balance on her bank card, as well as the money needed by the research institute. She felt that if Fu Qingli insisted on advancing by retreating, then the possibility that Fu Qingli had found someone else and truly wanted to date could probably be ruled out. If they negotiated the arrangements for her heat and then let Fu Qingli live next door, it would be a little troublesome, but it was not completely unacceptable.

Shen Chaomu counted on her fingers, again and again, and finally lifted her head. “One million per…”

“Forget it. Keep living here!”

One million!

And in US dollars!

Did the original body know that in the canary’s eyes, she was just a gullible sucker with too much money and a walking wallet?

The veins at Fu Qingli’s temple faintly bulged. She directly interrupted Shen Chaomu’s outrageous demand, stood up, and hurried upstairs.

Fu Qingli could not even be bothered to haggle anymore.

Seven million for singlehood. Fu Qingli felt she could not afford that price. She was not worthy.

Upstairs.

After twists and turns, she found the original body’s room. Fu Qingli had no time to carefully examine it and went straight to the bathroom.

She carefully removed her makeup and washed her face.

Before the huge, spotless mirror, Fu Qingli studied this unfamiliar face.

Her former plain, ordinary face had always been her regret. Without even auditioning, she had been rejected again and again.

Her agency could not bear to give up her acting skills and her famous university credentials, so they had repeatedly suggested she take out loans for plastic surgery. Seeing that she refused, they simply stopped investing any thought into her. They were only willing to take a cut from her bit-part pay, treating it as a hanging fee, and even after the contract had long since expired, they had never renewed it.

Fu Qingli slowly touched this face bit by bit.

It was a slim, elegant face with clean contours. The jawline was neat and taut, revealing just the right amount of bone structure. Taken separately, the features could not be called perfect, but together, they were excellent: peach-blossom eyes, a straight and refined nose, lips thinner on top and fuller below. When those lips curved, they carried a lazy charm.

It was clearly not a face that stunned at first glance, yet Fu Qingli was extremely satisfied with it, especially the eyes.

The peach-blossom eyes were not very large, but the double eyelids were clear. The corners of the eyes tilted up slightly, and the pupils carried a trace of brown. They were extraordinarily vivid. When carrying emotion, the brows and eyes came alive. They could be tender and full of feeling, or cold to the bone. With different emotions, they could appear transparent, or compassionate.

Fu Qingli stepped back a few paces, then still turned and went to the walk-in closet next door.

Standing before the full-length mirror, Fu Qingli naturally twisted her body and examined herself from different angles.

This body was probably a little over 170 centimeters tall, about the same as her original one. Overall, it was somewhat thin and slight, but the proportions were excellent.

Although the canary was trouble, with the original body’s looks and figure, Fu Qingli felt that if she did not play this heavenly starting hand well, she would be letting down all the frustration she had suffered in her previous life.

After washing away the smell of smoke and dust from her body and changing out of the off-shoulder slip dress, Fu Qingli searched the walk-in closet for a long while and found a silk shirt and loose trousers. Once she had tidied herself up, she went straight to the study.

Fu Qingli created an encrypted document and listed out in detail all the plot points involving the original body.

Although she knew Breaking the Cocoon so well she could recite it backward, the problem was that Fu Qingli was cannon fodder who died right at the start. Her plot amounted to only a little over a hundred dull, unremarkable words.

“Founded an entertainment company.” “Bad at acting but addicted to it.” “Shen Chaomu’s sugar mommy.” “Ate through the family fortune until it collapsed”…

All of these had only been mentioned when the female lead’s spare tire helped the female lead dig deep into Shen Chaomu’s dark history.

The moment the original body died, the company fell into chaos. The original novel’s female lead, Shu Man’er, seized the opportunity and participated in a variety show invested in by the original body’s company.

The appearance of something new was always met with skepticism, and Love’s Number Tag, the first domestic romance variety show, was no exception.

However, it was precisely this variety show, which could not even attract sponsors, that became thoroughly popular as soon as it aired.

Shu Man’er also gained popularity through her rare “down-to-earth, true-to-self” image. The script offers that followed gave her acting skills a chance to be seen, and her career rose with the wind.

Fu Qingli gave a mocking laugh and drew a circle around the variety show’s name.

She was not some rotten good person who would hand opportunities over to others.

Fu Qingli leaned back in her chair and pondered for a long time. Then she found her assistant Tang Lin’s number on her phone and called her directly, telling her to ask around and see whether any variety-show proposals had recently come looking for investment.

If they produced it exclusively, filmed while livestreaming, and recruited sponsors along the way, the money earned should be enough for her to pay back most of Fu Mother’s investment.

Thinking of Fu Mother, Fu Qingli was somewhat uncertain. Fu Qiqin was a strong woman who had built her business from scratch and nearly turned it into a listed company. For the time being, Fu Qingli had not figured out how to get along with her, and she especially did not want the other party to notice anything strange.

But considering how Fu Qiqin had granted the original body’s every request and spoiled her to this extent, she probably would not be able to accept the original body growing distant. It would be better to prepare early.

A knock at the door interrupted Fu Qingli’s thoughts.

Without even thinking, there was no third person in this villa.

Fu Qingli did not get up. Before she thought of some other way to break up, she had no intention of wasting more breath on Shen Chaomu.