I Rely on Gifting the Female Supporting Character to Get Cash Back (GL) - Chapter 3

At the age of 19, Qin Ran once again became Yu Shuman’s junior. Yu Shuman had maintained contact with her, and Qin Ran couldn’t figure out why Yu Shuman always found things to talk about with her. Qin Ran was a very introverted homebody and seemed very listless, so much so that Yu Shuman needed to use her own experiences to comfort her. Qin Ran’s connection with this world wasn’t deep, so she had very few friends.

As for relatives, she didn’t have a single one.

Qin Ran wasn’t a particularly enthusiastic responder, but she couldn’t stop Yu Shuman from constantly chatting with her. Yu Shuman would always share various things on the messaging app, talking so much that Qin Ran suspected she was being used as Yu Shuman’s diary. However, reading Yu Shuman’s messages, Qin Ran didn’t find it bothersome because Yu Shuman’s smile would always pop up in her mind.

By this point, Qin Ran had to admit that she had fallen for Yu Shuman at first sight. And the love was deeply rooted, the kind that couldn’t be pulled out.

Sometimes Qin Ran would wonder how she could have fallen for Yu Shuman. She didn’t think she was naturally attracted to girls. Although she hadn’t dated in her previous life and hadn’t felt much affection for anyone else, Qin Ran didn’t think she was a homosexual… Although as a homebody, she would watch Yuri anime, she definitely hadn’t felt that kind of attraction towards women.

Yet now, every time she received a message from Yu Shuman, she would think of her smile, causing her entire heart to soften. If this wasn’t love, Qin Ran didn’t know what was.

Looking back, perhaps it was the first day she saw her, that evening at sunset, when the warm yellow light fell on her, making her smile appear incredibly radiant—that’s when Qin Ran’s heart settled there.

Aware of her feelings, Qin Ran didn’t initiate a pursuit. She wasn’t someone who would actively pursue others. Besides, everyone lived a grounded life in the real world, and Yu Shuman had a seriously ill mother. Letting her rashly walk the path of lily romance would not be a good thing for Yu Shuman.

The saddest thing in the world is falling for someone, only to find that your love is a burden to them.

In this situation, Qin Ran could only bury her feelings in her heart, confining herself to the identity of Yu Shuman’s junior, enjoying the bitterness named unrequited love.

Even so, she followed in Yu Shuman’s footsteps to the same university, waiting for Yu Shuman to pick her up at the school gate. Yu Shuman had arranged this with her in advance, saying that as a senior, taking care of a junior was a necessity.

Qin Ran’s messy hair was draped over her head, she wore a pair of round-framed glasses, and her clothes were drab and unfashionable—the kind of existence that others would glance over and never look at again. She carried a suitcase and a laptop bag, the most inconspicuous person at the bustling school entrance.

But Yu Shuman was different; she was even more radiant and charming than three years ago. She was already good-looking, and after entering university, she became even more noticeable. She dressed simply: a white T-shirt, a basic denim cutoff short, and a pair of white sandals, making her look like she was radiating youthful energy. The strictly tied ponytail from high school had changed into a different style; she wore a bun, with a few strands of hair falling rebelliously, but this hairstyle fully showcased her superior facial features.

She also had a small mole beneath the corner of her mouth, which suddenly made her slightly youthful face appear more mature.

Just by standing there and raising her hand to wave at Qin Ran, she naturally drew the attention of others.

Yu Shuman was so bright and charming that Qin Ran’s heart couldn’t help but flutter, but her glasses masked all of Qin Ran’s emotions. Yu Shuman arrived in front of Qin Ran and smiled: “I can’t believe three years have passed, and you’re still my junior!”

Three years ago, Yu Shuman was in Grade 12, and Qin Ran was in Grade 10; three years later, Yu Shuman was in her third year of university, and Qin Ran was in her first.

She hadn’t spent much time with Yu Shuman; after all, Yu Shuman graduated just one year after she started school. Apart from chatting on their phones, they had no other interactions. But after two years apart, Yu Shuman was still the same, as enthusiastic as a ball of fire. Qin Ran should have been able to see Yu Shuman during winter and summer breaks, but Yu Shuman spent her breaks working part-time to pay for her tuition and living expenses, and to repay the help of the “social benevolent person.”

Yu Shuman knew Qin Ran had no family and decided to help her when she heard Qin Ran got into the same university. As a senior, Yu Shuman easily found Qin Ran’s dorm building, helped her make her bed, picked up the school-issued supplies, and then took her to the student center to top up her campus card.

She knew Qin Ran’s situation and quietly asked, “Do you have money on you?”

“I do.” It’s the cash back from gifting to you.

Qin Ran immediately topped up 1,000 yuan. After this, Yu Shuman told Qin Ran where the convenience store was and which cafeteria had cheap and good food. At noon, as a senior, she resolutely took Qin Ran to the third floor of the school’s No. 1 cafeteria and treated her to stir-fries. There were only two of them, yet they ordered two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, and one soup. Qin Ran pulled Yu Shuman, saying it was too much and too extravagant, but Yu Shuman told Qin Ran not to worry; it was a rare treat, and besides, she could pack up the leftovers and eat them later that evening.

After that day, Yu Shuman would come to find Qin Ran every weekend, taking her along to work part-time. Yu Shuman was in her third year and had fewer classes. Besides working on weekends, she would also go to the city’s commercial districts on class-free mornings and afternoons to hand out flyers or dress up as a mascot to earn a little extra money.

Qin Ran was always worried that something would happen to Yu Shuman. After all, she was too beautiful, beautiful like a fairy who had accidentally fallen into the mortal world. Even when she was sweating profusely inside a mascot costume, when she took off the head and smiled, she would still make others stare. Even her sweat, contrasted against the sunlight, seemed to be shining.

She also came back late after her part-time jobs. Although public safety was good now, there was no guarantee there weren’t people with bad intentions. As a woman, living in this world was already difficult, and if she encountered someone with ill intent, no amount of regret would help. Faced with Qin Ran’s advice, Yu Shuman only said, “Junior, you worked the evening shift at the little supermarket in middle and high school. Don’t worry about me.”

Yu Shuman indeed did not encounter any trouble, and instead stumbled upon something good: she was scouted by a talent agent. Because of her outstanding looks, she was spotted by an entertainment company’s agent just by handing out flyers on the street. This made Yu Shuman very conflicted, and she immediately went to discuss it with Qin Ran for a long time. Qin Ran could already tell that Yu Shuman was conflicted because she was tempted.

Qin Ran only offered: Follow your heart.

Two days later, Yu Shuman told Qin Ran on her phone that she still wanted to go for it.

The entertainment company treated Yu Shuman reasonably well, but they had very few resources. The biggest resource they could find was a survival show, and they had to move mountains to squeeze Yu Shuman into it. But when Qin Ran heard the name of the show, it sounded familiar. The name of the variety show was a little chuunibyou (cringey): Debut, Girls! The more Qin Ran heard it, the more worried she felt. Finally, she found someone and purchased a copy of the internal information.

The System had a loophole regarding the rule of “gifting”: as long as it was under the banner of “I’m doing this for Yu Shuman,” she could spend money directly. After all, the System’s purpose was to make the Host a tycoon; it was originally a power-fantasy system, so it couldn’t possibly do something that unnecessarily restricted the Host.

Under this loophole, Qin Ran could get as much money as she wanted from the System.

It was just that Qin Ran had always been reluctant to use the System until she finished reading the internal information in her hand.

Qin Ran frowned deeply, confusion visible on her face in the school dorm. She couldn’t tell anyone about this because she discovered that the world she was in was actually a novel world. She wasn’t just reborn and transmigrated to another world; she was a transmigrator who came into the world of a novel, a very popular genre before her transmigration.

She had the distinct honor of becoming a background character that the novel didn’t even mention, one without a single line.

Yu Shuman, however, was less fortunate. She was a female supporting character, and a vicious one at that, serving as the foil to the female protagonist. However, she didn’t have many appearances, only taking up some screentime at the very beginning of the story. Later, she would only appear a few times in the dialogue of various characters. Of course, those few appearances were all about how miserable the female supporting character was.

As for the beginning of the story, it was this survival show, Debut, Girls! This was the starting point for the female protagonist’s conquest of the entertainment industry. She shone brightly in it, and Yu Shuman, as the foil, was naturally crushed into the dust.

With her memory of her past life rushing back, Qin Ran couldn’t understand why she had transmigrated into a novel she had read; she hadn’t even stayed up late to read it.

Now, she could only rely on her memory to recall the novel’s plot. This was a story about a female protagonist bravely conquering the entertainment industry. The female protagonist was a major figure with multiple secret identities, such as a top designer in the fashion world, a major singer in the traditional Chinese music scene, and she even had considerable research in traditional Chinese medicine, being the disciple of a certain master.

Not only that, but this was also a group favorite novel. She had three older brothers and a CEO childhood friend. She entered the entertainment industry just to play around, and naturally became famous across the country. Guided by her CEO childhood friend the entire way, she successfully became the top star in the industry and eventually lived happily ever after with him.

And Yu Shuman was merely the vicious female supporting character who served as a stepping stone for the female protagonist at the very beginning of the story.

Qin Ran actually didn’t have a very deep impression of this poorly detailed vicious female supporting character. In the end, all she remembered was, “She willingly degraded herself, even going to those drinking parties to accompany guests.”

Qin Ran clenched her fists: Are you kidding me? Who dares to make my upperclassman accompany guests at a drinking party?!