Chapter 7

From boss to becoming an artist’s assistant, Qin Ran’s position had plunged straight through the heavens in an instant. But Qin Ran didn’t care. Her eyes curved behind her glasses as she said, “Then I’ll be relying on Senior to promote me when the time comes.”

Yu Shuman’s laughter was bright and hearty. She had just been about to say something else when there came a knock on the door. With one sentence—“Oh no, I’ve been caught”—she hung up the call.

The phone screen remained on the interface showing that she and Yu Shuman had talked for three minutes. Qin Ran smiled, then put her phone away.

The phone call with Yu Shuman gave her strength, enough for her to do certain things—such as telling her boss that she was quitting.

The boss still asked Qin Ran whether she had run into some kind of difficulty, but Qin Ran shook her head. “The job is affecting my studies. I still want to focus mainly on studying. The money I’ve earned so far is enough for several months of living expenses. When I’m short on money later, I’ll come back and work part-time again.”

The boss had no choice but to agree. She also told Qin Ran that if she ever ran into trouble, she could still come to her.

Qin Ran agreed, but the moment she turned and walked out the door, she forgot all about it. The only thing she remembered was that the free dinner the boss had told her to take away was quite tasty.

But in order to avoid awkward encounters in the future, Qin Ran decided that she would never come to this cafeteria again. As a socially anxious person, this was the best way for her to avoid trouble.

Qin Ran carried the lunch box back to the dormitory. Her roommates asked her [stolen content]how watching Senior Yu Shuman’s performance had gone today, and Qin Ran said it had been pretty good. Her roommate then told her to look at the school forum.

The other party looked all mysterious about it, and Qin Ran had no idea what she meant. She sat down in front of her desk, opened her computer, and began eating her boxed meal.

After the computer started up, she clicked into the school forum and immediately saw the thread highlighted in red.

Yu Shuman, charge forward! Once you become famous, the autograph I collected from you will be worth money!

In the post, the original poster praised Yu Shuman’s stage performance extravagantly, saying it was amazing, and even attached quite a few photos they had taken today. Downstairs, many juniors admired her reverently: Senior really was beautiful.

There were also other seniors giving them a popular science lesson, explaining how Yu Shuman had relied on one face alone to kill her way in and out of A University’s campus belle selection.

In short, as people of A University, they had to support A University’s campus belle as she bravely charged into the entertainment industry.

Of course, it was not as though no one raised objections.

For example: since she had already gotten into A University, wasn’t running off to the entertainment industry to become an idol putting the cart before the horse a little? Wasn’t it somewhat wasteful?

A senior immediately charged out to kill that argument.

I hope you remember that you got into university so you could have more choices, not so you could trap all your choices inside your major.

As Qin Ran ate her boxed meal, she liked every single comment that praised Yu Shuman. She also left a comment at the very bottom of the thread:

Senior, good luck!

Yu Shuman was indeed working hard.

After the preliminary round selected fifty people, they needed to form teams and prepare for the first stage performance. Under the company’s arrangements, the four teammates paired with Yu Shuman were all contestants with very strong professional abilities and a certain amount of fame.

Yu Shuman’s professional ability could be considered the weakest in the team. Her only advantage was that her face was beautiful.

She was quite happy about it, but her teammates did not necessarily feel the same.

Where there were many people, friction was inevitable. Yu Shuman naturally sensed the hostility others had toward her. While she was making a phone call in the restroom, someone even knocked on the door. The other party was rather rude.

Yu Shuman came out of the restroom with a smile still on her face, not wanting unauthorized copy to get into a conflict with anyone.

But the other party refused to let it go. She narrowed her eyes and looked Yu Shuman up and down before finally saying, “It sure is nice to enjoy the shade beneath a big tree. Look, even if your professional ability isn’t up to standard, you can still be stuffed into a decent team. Advancing is basically set in stone for you, isn’t it?”

At first, Yu Shuman thought the other party had discovered that she was secretly making a phone call. Unexpectedly, the moment the other person opened her mouth, she was talking about Yu Shuman’s company.

Yu Shuman smiled and watched her for a while. Only after she finished speaking did Yu Shuman say, “Don’t you have a company behind you?”

The other party choked on her words and was about to say something, but Yu Shuman interrupted her.

“I remember you’re also an artist recommended by a company, right? If your company hadn’t recommended you, would you have gotten through the preliminary selection by signing up on your own?”

The contestants who had signed up individually were all people who already had a little fame before this. Successfully signing up had also required them to pass through layer upon layer of obstacles. As for the person in front of her, Yu Shuman remembered that she also had a company behind her. Just like Yu Shuman’s previous small company, they had thought of all kinds of methods before finally managing to squeeze her in.

“You came to me now and deliberately said all this for no other reason than because you think my company is stronger than yours, so you’re jealous. There are plenty of artists like me in this episode. You don’t go looking for them because I’m a newcomer with no fame at all. If the company behind me were also a small company, maybe you would think I was far inferior to you.”

Yu Shuman had always been the type to speak directly. After that string of words, the person who had come to trouble her flushed red and could hardly say anything back.

This person was good at making sarcastic, passive-aggressive remarks, but [bailiantales.com]once everything was laid bare, she was not actually so eloquent anymore. To put it simply, she still cared about saving face.

Yu Shuman, however, did not care. She would even dissect everything and explain it clearly to her.

“I don’t know why you suddenly came to me today, but this approach is very stupid. You’ll offend me. You already know there’s a big company behind me, yet you still ran over to offend me. Isn’t that something only an idiot would do?”

Yu Shuman had originally been considering things for the other person’s sake, though there were also factors related to herself. She did not want her good experience on the show to be ruined by the other party, nor did she want the other party’s words to leak out and damage the show’s image, dragging her down with it.

As for whether her own words would be leaked…

Yu Shuman did not really care about that. After all, Sister Li had also said that as long as she was happy, that was enough.

She did not take that as polite small talk either, because after Sister Li took over her management, that was exactly how she acted.

She never forced Yu Shuman to do anything. Everything regarding Yu Shuman’s matters was discussed with her properly, and Sister Li also never made Yu Shuman establish any particular persona. It was enough for her to be herself.

Because of that, up until now, Yu Shuman had actually been quite happy on this talent survival show.

Contestants as straightforward and free-spirited as her were not common on this program. Their true personalities were suppressed, wrapped ​unauthorized copy​beneath layer after layer of heavy packaging.

Yu Shuman even suspected that this person had come to find her because she had been suppressed too much and needed to vent. Her venting would not hurt Yu Shuman. Yu Shuman had even kindly explained to her just how foolish the thing she was doing really was.

Yu Shuman was honestly rather kindhearted.

It was just that the other party might not necessarily get Yu Shuman’s kindness. She merely cast Yu Shuman a sideways glance, gave a cold snort, and left.

Watching her walk away, Yu Shuman did not react much. She simply returned to her bed and hid her phone properly.

Before long, a smile appeared on Yu Shuman’s face again. She thought once more of how her friends had come to watch her compete today. Sister Li was such a good person and had even taken them all to eat a lavish meal.

Yu Shuman was used to saving money and had never gone to such a luxurious hotel before. Qin Ran was probably the same.

Her situation was even more severe than Yu Shuman’s. She had been an orphan since childhood, had not been adopted from the orphanage, and had stubbornly lived on alone until now. It had not been easy at all. Qin Ran was even more admirable than her. Yu Shuman still relied on donations from kindhearted members of society, but Qin Ran relied entirely on herself.

She had heard that Qin Ran had paid for university herself, and her living expenses also depended completely on her own hard work. Thinking of this, Yu Shuman could not help feeling a little distressed for Qin Ran.

Fortunately, she had called Qin Ran along today too. At least Qin Ran had gotten to eat some delicious food.

Thinking of how Qin Ran had still looked a little reserved when Yu Shuman picked food for her at noon, the smile on Yu Shuman’s face widened a little. Yu Shuman patted her own cheeks, making herself even more energized.

Come on, Yu Shuman! Not only for yourself, not only to repay other people’s kindness, but also to work hard for Qin Ran! You already promised that when you became rich and noble, you wouldn’t forget her. Now is the time to become rich and noble first!

While Yu Shuman was planning to keep up the momentum on her side, Qin Ran, who had returned to the dormitory, could not help sneezing.

She had no idea Yu Shuman was thinking of her like this behind her back. If she knew, she might feel guilty, embarrassed, and even so mortified that her toes would dig into the floor.

Because in reality, the reason Qin Ran had never been adopted while growing up was because she did not want to be. Every time prospective adopters came to the orphanage, she hid at the very back.

Before high school, there had been nine years of compulsory education, so she had basically not suffered that much. The nearby leaders were all quite decent too. Knowing she was an orphan, they would even come to show concern for her during festivals.

Besides, after entering high school, she had bound herself to Yu Shuman. Although the cashback money at the beginning had not been much, and compared to now was practically just a drop in the bucket, it was still enough for Qin Ran, who did not have particularly strong material desires, to get by.

As for delicious and expensive food, Qin Ran had eaten so much of it in her previous life that she had gotten a little tired of it.

Qin Ran rubbed her nose, thinking that unauthorized copyshe couldn’t possibly have caught a cold in early autumn, right? The weather was still hot…

She refocused her attention on the papers in front of her and stopped thinking about other things.

First-year university students were required to attend evening self-study. Logically speaking, Qin Ran should have been in the classroom right now, but Qin Ran had skipped class.

She and Yu Shuman were in the same major, and the ones who came to check evening self-study happened to be third-year seniors. They had only just gone together to watch the competition today, so the seniors would simply turn a blind eye toward Qin Ran.

In fact, the senior in charge of checking attendance tonight had told Qin Ran early on that she was on duty today. If Qin Ran was tired, she did not have to go; the senior would definitely let her off.

Qin Ran immediately skipped it outright and stayed lazily in the classroom.

At seven or eight in the evening during early autumn, there was already a faint cool breeze. The night wind blew in through the window, lifting slightly the hair of Qin Ran, who was writing furiously at her desk. It also lifted one corner of the papers on Qin Ran’s desk.

Qin Ran reached out to hold the papers down. Her fingertips happened to land on the three words “female lead,” and following behind them was the female lead’s name—

Ling Miaohan.

Beneath the name was dense writing about her deeds, including ​unauthorized copy​but not limited to the hidden identities Qin Ran had recalled earlier.

Aside from that, the original plot summary had also appeared vividly on the paper.

The sky had gone dark. A desk lamp in front of the desk lit up, and the bright light fell on Qin Ran’s round-framed glasses, reflecting a cold glimmer.

Her fingertip tapped lightly against the three characters of Ling Miaohan’s name. Her finger pressed the paper against the tabletop, making a soft tap, tap sound.