Volume Ten: Those Few Years After She and I Broke Up
Do You Know How to Sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?
Changling Villa District, an inch of land is an inch of gold1.
For Lin Guan Entertainment to be able to use the Changling Villas as the contestants’ dormitory, one could see Lin Guan Entertainment’s extravagance, generosity, and krypton gold2 strength.
Wen Nuan looked at the five-story villa in front of her. The basement housed a parking lot and rehearsal rooms.
Upstairs, there were four rooms per floor. The kitchen was large and open-plan, and there was also a tea room and a walk-in closet. It had almost all the facilities one could wish for.
Wen Nuan arrived not early, not late, but right on the dot.
It was mainly because when she was handing over the apartment with the landlord this morning, checking the items inside wasted a bit of time.
Wen Nuan didn’t have much luggage, just a backpack containing her toiletries, ID card, and so on.
Back when she left this mission world, she never thought she would return. Besides, back then, she would spend as much money as she had, and if it wasn’t enough, the female lead would spend money on her. Her days were quite comfortable.
Now, she was down to four bare walls3, her purse shy4.
【This is called ‘if I had known it would come to this, I would not have started it in the first place5‘!】the System said sarcastically.
Wen Nuan: “…”
She gave the System a white eye6, pushed open the door, and stepped inside.
Wen Nuan’s appearance instantly drew the attention of the other 19 contestants and staff members in the first-floor hall.
The moment the nineteen contestants saw Wen Nuan, their gazes exchanged swiftly. Although the content within was complex and secretive, it was caught red-handed by Wen Nuan. It was nothing more than the commenting on the head and discussing the feet7 on Weibo8.
Wen Nuan shook her head and looked at the sofa to her right. It was clearly a two-seater sofa, but only one person was sitting on it.
Zhai Yi, first place in the talent show, super awesome at playing the bass.
She was good-looking, with a relatively high nose bridge, looked a bit mixed-race, and had shoulder-length curly hair. Her whole body exuded a cold indifference.
Wen Nuan scanned the room. All the seats were taken. She could only walk towards Zhai Yi and plop down next to her with one buttock9.
A series of sharp intakes of breath sounded in the hall.
Wen Nuan took off her hat, and there was another round of gasps.
Everyone looked at Wen Nuan’s face, marveling to themselves that some people really are that unphotogenic!?
Wen Nuan turned her head to look at the row of cameras and staff members in front of her.
The staff immediately zoomed in the camera.
The audience on the livestream continuously spammed the screen with words like “pretty,” “beautiful,” “fucking gorgeous,” “unreal.”
Wen Nuan crossed her legs, casually glanced at the other contestants, and smiled. “If you want to look, be open about it. No need to peek.”
The contestants’ expressions stiffened.
Cong Hui waved at Wen Nuan, smiling brightly. “Miss jiejie10, you’re so pretty! Have you had plastic surgery?”
The others tensed up, their fiery gazes all landing on Wen Nuan’s face.
Wen Nuan said lightly, “My childhood photos have all been dug up. If you’re interested, you can go back and get them appraised yourself.”
Cong Hui nodded as if it were a serious matter. “I’ve seen your black material11. I won’t say anything else, but that face of yours is really to my taste.”
“You flatter me,” Wen Nuan said modestly.
Cong Hui nudged the person with long, black, straight hair next to her and said excitedly, “Do you think she’s pretty?”
An Siya knitted her brows and said helplessly, “Can you behave yourself?”
Cong Hui pouted.
Wen Nuan’s gaze lingered on the two of them for a brief second.
Suddenly, a broadcast announcement sounded in the villa.
[Hello, all contestants. We are very happy that you have been selected for the second round of evaluation. This evaluation will be scored by five judges on a 100-point scale. The scores will be ranked from high to low, and the bottom ten will be eliminated immediately. But don’t be sad; eliminated contestants will receive 50,000 yuan12 in compensation. We hope everyone will do their best.]
[The evaluation will be at 8 AM on June 5th, located in the four practice rooms in the villa’s basement.]
[The practice rooms are open for eight hours daily. The dormitory is equipped with cleaning staff, chefs, skill instructors, a butler, and a doctor to take care of the contestants’ daily lives.]
[Without infringing on everyone’s privacy, the dormitory is equipped with over a hundred cameras, outside of private areas, to collect every little bit of everyone’s training process. There will also be staff conducting live interviews. We hope everyone will not resist.]
[That is all. We wish you all good luck. Goodbye.]
Everyone immediately became nervous. The small groups that had already formed began to discuss the upcoming training and evaluation.
Wen Nuan was still lazing on the sofa, with an air of ‘it’s none of my business, so I’ll hang it up high13‘.
Zhai Yi saw Wen Nuan’s completely spiritless appearance and unintentionally glanced at her a few more times.
Cong Hui pulled An Siya over, looked at Wen Nuan and Zhai Yi, and said, “The few of us are the top four. As long as we don’t make demons14, we can definitely debut. How about we get to know each other first?”
The dimples at the corners of her mouth deepened. “My name is Cong Hui, keyboardist. This is my friend An Siya, a drummer who plays all kinds of drums.”
Zhai Yi said indifferently, “Zhai Yi, bassist.”
Cong Hui looked at Wen Nuan. “What about you? What instrument do you play?”
Wen Nuan puckered her lips, and a crisp sound came from her mouth. “Wen Nuan, whistler.”
The three of them: “…”
Is whistling considered an instrument?
And what the hell is a whistler!?
Cong Hui thought Wen Nuan hadn’t understood and explained, “What instrument do you play? Like guitar? Piano? Saxophone, that sort of thing?”
Wen Nuan shook her head. “Never learned. With my family’s financial situation, how could I have the money to learn these things?”
Cong Hui was choked by her words. She thought of Wen Nuan’s background: both parents dead, grandmother deceased, relied on school scholarships and money she got from hooking a rich guy15 to finish college.
“Then do you have any special talents?”
The contestants present were full of talent; at the very least, each person had a skill or two. Cong Hui didn’t believe Wen Nuan became third in this talent show just by her looks.
“This, huh?” Wen Nuan’s expression turned solemn.
The three of them looked at Wen Nuan together, wanting to know what skills she actually had to have been chosen.
She pondered for a moment, then said seriously, “Special talent… I’m specially pretty. Does that count?”
The three of them: “…”
Cong Hui’s heart was choked up by Wen Nuan’s words.
She pouted and didn’t want to talk anymore.
An Siya saw Cong Hui get choked up and burst out laughing. “Finally, someone can handle you, huh?”
She looked at Wen Nuan and extended her hand. “You’re amazing. Nice to meet you.”
Wen Nuan lightly squeezed her fingertips. “Me too.”
“This Cong Hui fellow, although she has no brain and doesn’t know how to talk, her heart isn’t bad. Don’t mind her too much.” An Siya dodged Cong Hui’s fist. “See, now she’s flying into a rage from shame16.”
Wen Nuan said, “Mm, it’s fine. Her words are much more pediatrics17 compared to what’s on the internet. I didn’t mind.”
Hearing her bring up the matters on the internet on her own initiative, she didn’t show a trace of pain or anger, appearing calm and composed, like someone to whom nothing had happened.
“You’re very different from what they say online?”
Wen Nuan looked at Zhai Yi. “You’re not quite the same either.”
“How am I different?”
Wen Nuan lightly tapped her temple with her fingertip and smiled. “You don’t seem like the type to stick your nose in other people’s business.”
Zhai Yi raised her eyes. “A person’s heart is separated by their belly skin18.”
“I’ll return the same words to you.”
Zhai Yi raised an eyebrow and extended her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Wen Nuan shook it in return. “Me too.”
“If I can debut with you, I’ll feel like this talent show has no black curtain19.”
“I can’t debut. I’m just here for the compensation money.”
Cong Hui said speechlessly, “Compensation money? Can’t you have some ambition? If you debut, you can earn much more.”
“I have too much black history20. How can I debut?”
“That’s different,” Cong Hui said. “Being black-red21 is still being red. It can also bring traffic and heat. When the time comes and many people are cursing you, our band can become famous.”
Wen Nuan: “…”
【This isn’t a bad idea, either.】 the System stroked its chin.
Zhai Yi nodded. “Makes a lot of sense.”
An Siya held back her laughter. “Indeed, you can be our band’s face and hot topic.”
Wen Nuan: “…”
Good grief, they’ve assigned her a role all neat and tidy.
The rooms were assigned according to the talent show rankings. She and the other three were assigned to the fifth floor, which had a good view and large rooms.
Wen Nuan took the elevator to the fifth floor, looked at the room with the number “3” on the doorplate, and pushed the door open to enter.
The room was very large and had an open-air balcony. Standing on the balcony, you could see the distant sea.
Wen Nuan faced the slightly cool autumn sea breeze, spread her arms, and let out a breath of relief.
With her hands resting on the railing, Wen Nuan lowered her head and saw the puppy22 hiding in the distant bushes, taking secret photos.
Wen Nuan took the phone the staff had given her and sent a text message to report them.
The program team was highly efficient. In less than five minutes, the squatting puppy were caught red-handed and driven out, cursing and swearing.
There were five days until the evaluation day. Every day, people were fighting all night in the practice rooms, and various musical instruments could be heard in the villa every day.
The atmosphere of battle was everywhere.
Others practiced conscientiously for four days, while Wen Nuan ate well and was lazy for four days.
The audience in the livestream room was rendered speechless by Wen Nuan’s casual attitude.
She was clearly the one most likely to debut; after all, with the face, the country is there23.
But she was always so lazy and listless, never taking the initiative to practice. Every day, she was either eating or sleeping, or deliberately picking fights and bickering with people.
Of the nineteen contestants, Wen Nuan had dissed almost all of them, so the public gave her the nickname “Little Duidui24.”
She also attracted a large wave of fans because of this lazy appearance and her stubborn nature of ‘if you’re not convinced, let’s fight25‘.
People gradually started to offer another version of her previous black history.
They said she worked in a bar as part of a work-study program to subsidize her family and tuition. They said her hooking a rich guy and loving vanity was because she was too beautiful, and men are all people who forget righteousness when they see beauty26. When they see a pretty girl, they want to spend money on her. This is heaven’s scripture and earth’s righteousness27, so why should all the blame be pushed onto a little girl?
When Wen Nuan saw this explanation, she herself laughed. She never expected someone could make excuses for her past rotten affairs.
Moreover, her university classmates and teachers also came out to help explain for her.
In that instant, Wen Nuan actually experienced the feeling that there is true sentiment in the human world, that there is true love in the human world.
【There are still more good people in the world.】the System sighed.
Perhaps because tomorrow was the evaluation day, Wen Nuan was infected a little by the diligence and drive in the villa.
She walked into the practice room. It was already past ten o’clock, and the only person practicing was Zhai Yi.
She was playing a particularly sexy bass line. Her hair seemed to have been cut a bit shorter, making her look capable and handsome.
“A rare guest,” Zhai Yi stopped playing the strings, looking at the cigarette held between Wen Nuan’s fingers. “Are you really not planning to stay?”
A girl openly smoking in a room full of cameras for the public to see, should one say she is fearless?
Or is she doing it on purpose?
“The audience knows better than I do what kind of person I am. What’s the point of me putting on an act? I’m not Number 15, acting like a white lotus flower28 every day,” Wen Nuan looked up at the camera and grinned, baring her teeth. “Right? Friends in the audience in front of your TVs.”
This statement was very persuasive, causing the audience watching the livestream to nod one after another.
They were indeed clear about everything concerning Wen Nuan, and they also knew that Number 15 contestant was indeed quite good at putting on an act.
Zhai Yi chuckled lightly. “Then what did you come over here for?”
Wen Nuan stubbed out the cigarette and walked to the standing microphone in front of the mirror. “Seeing you all practicing, I feel like if I don’t practice a little, I’d be letting down the benefits and treatment Lin Guan Entertainment has provided these past few days.”
Zhai Yi watched her actions. “You’re going to sing?”
Wen Nuan nodded. “This is all I know how to do.”
“What are you singing? I’ll accompany you.” Zhai Yi got ready.
Tapping her fingers on the microphone a few times, Wen Nuan asked, “Zhai Yi, have you heard ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’?”
“…” Zhai Yi’s fingertips trembled. “What did you say?”
What the hell?!
Wen Nuan made a flower shape with her hands and swayed. “You know, the one that goes ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star…’ Do you know it?”
Zhai Yi was startled by her voice.
When singing, Wen Nuan’s voice was a bit low, hoarse, deep, and magnetic. The line she just hummed, whether in tone or diction, was very high-class, and carried a trace of romance and laziness.
It wasn’t just Zhai Yi; even the audience in front of the livestream thought Wen Nuan sang beautifully.
“I’ll look for the sheet music,” Zhai Yi had rarely played nursery rhymes, but she really wanted to hear Wen Nuan sing. “Give me thirty seconds.”
Wen Nuan raised her hand. “As you wish.”
While Zhai Yi was looking at the sheet music, she asked, “Why sing a nursery rhyme?”
Wen Nuan gave the camera a meaningful look. “I had a friend before who really liked this nursery rhyme. On her birthday, she didn’t like singing the birthday song, she just wanted to listen to ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’.”
Zhai Yi looked at the smile on her face and asked curiously, “Judging by your expression, a boyfriend?”
Wen Nuan shook her head. “Ex-girlfriend.”
Zhai Yi: “…”
Audience: “…”
In front of the screen, Yi Jing clenched her fists, a dark glint flashing in the depths of her eyes.
The light from the computer was too faint to illuminate the black of Yi Jing’s pupils.
【Blackening value is rising. The female lead’s current blackening value is 8.2!】
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