"...In Lili's heart, you are her own parents. Suddenly not being able to contact you, she panicked and kept asking me if she had done something wrong and made you angry."
Huang Dashan, the community worker whom the Lan couple knew, said with a smile.
Seeing his seemingly unchanged attitude, Lan's mother suddenly had a thought: This Huang Dashan, it seems, doesn't know that they already know the truth?
Huang Dashan indeed didn't know. After all, although the incident that day was trending online, firstly, he wasn't a young person and didn't like going online or following online news; secondly, he didn't know Xu Gui, so big data wouldn't push information to him.
All of this meant that Huang Dashan still didn't know that his affair with Bao Li had been exposed. Therefore, at this moment, he was still trying to tell the Lan couple about Bao Li.
"And also," Huang Dashan glanced quickly at Lan's parents, "didn't you two say you wanted to take Lili as your goddaughter? A couple of days ago, Lili even asked me if she needed to prepare anything for becoming godparents. She's really nervous about it…"
Hearing this, Lan's father spoke up. He gave Huang Dashan a cold look and said, "You don't need to mention taking Bao Li as your goddaughter anymore. Tell Bao Li not to bother anymore, because we've already given up on the idea."
"What?" Huang Dashan exclaimed in surprise, his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets. He excitedly questioned, "Why? Did someone whisper something in your ears?"
His mind raced, and he subconsciously asked, "Is it because of your daughter? Does she disagree?"
Lan's father looked at him with a half-smile and said, "Mr. Huang seems quite agitated. Anyone who didn't know better would think Bao Li is your daughter."
How come they hadn't noticed this before? Huang Dashan's concern for Bao Li clearly went beyond the typical concern of a community worker for a girl in need of assistance.
No, that's not entirely accurate. More precisely, Huang Dashan wasn't concerned with Bao Li herself, but rather with the relationship between Bao Li and the couple; he had been intentionally trying to bring Bao Li closer to them.
Hearing Lan's father's words, Huang Dashan was startled, suddenly realizing his reaction had been somewhat excessive.
"I... I'm not excited..." he said with a forced laugh, "I'm just too concerned about Lili. You know, Lili's background is so pitiful. Her parents died early, and she doesn't have any elders to rely on. It's such a blessing that she met you two."
Huang Dashan kept mentioning "poor child," saying, "You two don't know how excited Lili was when you said you wanted to take her as your goddaughter. She couldn't sleep for days, saying she was afraid it was all a dream."
Lan's mother understood Huang Dashan's meaning. He was implying how much Bao Li was looking forward to being taken in as her goddaughter, and that if they really gave up on it, it would be a huge blow to Bao Li.
It must be said that Huang Dashan truly understood the Lan couple. If it were before, hearing him say this would have definitely made them feel a pang of pity.
But now…
"I remember Mr. Huang said that Bao Li's family is actually from the same village as you?" Mrs. Lan looked at Huang Dashan thoughtfully, recalling this long-ago information. Her tone was inexplicable as she said, "No wonder Mr. Huang is so concerned about Bao Li." It
sounded somewhat mocking.
Something's not right!
Huang Dashan wasn't oblivious; if he hadn't noticed something was amiss by now, he'd be an idiot.
He recalled what the Lan couple had said today, feeling that every word they uttered was deeply meaningful, as if… they already knew something?
Huang Dashan's mind raced. He looked at the Lan couple and tentatively asked, "Mr. Lan, Mrs. Lan, you don't want to take Lili as your goddaughter. Did you hear something outside?"
Mrs. Lan was about to say something when her husband slowly said, "Guess."
"…" Huang Dashan's expression froze instantly.
Mrs. Lan almost burst out laughing. She felt her husband's words were truly cunning and mischievous. She imagined Huang Dashan racking his brains trying to figure out if he and his wife had overheard something.
The thought made Mrs. Lan want to laugh, and she felt a slight sense of satisfaction—it was good to see this man with ulterior motives worrying.
However, Huang Dashan's worries didn't last long, because the police arrived, and what followed was inevitable. Xu Gui's name entered his ears for the first time.
After learning the whole story and why the Lan couple's attitude towards Bao Li and him had changed, Huang Dashan felt a deep hatred for Xu Gui.
Everything was almost done! Without Xu Gui, the Lan couple accepting Bao Li was only a matter of time. But because of Xu Gui's appearance, because of her divination and schemes, all their previous efforts had been in vain.
"Slap!"
In a fit of rage, he suddenly slapped Bao Li hard across the face, yelling at her, "You useless thing! You can't even win over two people! If you had gotten Mr. Lan and his wife to take you in as their goddaughter earlier, this wouldn't have turned out like this!"
He slapped her hard; he was a grown man, and Bao Li was a frail little girl who hadn't even reached adulthood yet. The slap knocked her to the ground.
Bao Li sat on the ground, covering her face. She didn't feel the pain where she had been slapped, but her ears were ringing. She couldn't hear what Huang Dashan was saying because all she heard was a buzzing sound.
Huang Dashan continued to yell at her, then spat and said disdainfully, "...Because of the Lan family's affair, you've even lost a leg. This kind of defective product won't fetch a good price even if you want to sell it later."
Thinking of this, he was furious and kicked the stool next to him, cursing as he left.
After he left, a soft body suddenly squeezed into Bao Li's lap, who was sitting on the ground. Bao Li blankly looked down and saw her younger sister's small face. Because she wasn't getting enough to eat, her face was very thin, making her eyes appear very large.
At that moment, tears were welling up in those large eyes.
Her sister, nestled in her arms, tilted her head back and reached out to touch her cheek where Huang Dashan had slapped her, crying, "Sister, it hurts..."
Strangely, suddenly, the places that Bao Li hadn't felt pain before began to burn intensely. The pain quickly spread from her slapped cheek to other areas.
Bao Li suddenly felt a lot of pain—her cheek hurt, her whole body hurt, even her right leg, which had been run over by the car, ached.
She hugged her younger sister and gently comforted her, "It doesn't hurt, sister doesn't hurt..."
But her younger sister pouted and said, "It hurts, sister hurts, Uncle is bad."
Uncle was Huang Dashan, but he was not the biological uncle of Bao Li and her sister. He was a very distant relative of the Bao family. He came to live with them not long after the Bao couple passed away.
At that moment, he looked at the two sisters, saying "poor children," but his eyes gleamed with a strange light.
Later, he became the guardian of Bao Li and her sister—no one in the Bao family wanted to take in these two burdens, and now that someone was willing to take them in, they threw the two sisters away like trash.
At first, Huang Dashan treated the two sisters fairly well, but soon his true colors were revealed. Bao Li was introduced to the Lan family by him, forced to ingratiate herself with them, and even forced to lose her right leg, which allowed her to walk normally.
"...Don't you want your sister to have a good life?"
"If you don't want to do it, your sister can do it! I think your sister is much more obedient than you, such a lovely child, more suitable than you."
"If you behave, I promise you and your sister will be fine in the future."
...
"Sister..." Just then, her younger sister in her arms suddenly called out to her. Bao Li came back to her senses and looked down at her.
"What's wrong?" she asked, feeling her trembling limbs gradually regain strength as she got up from the ground. But as soon as she stood up, she heard her younger sister say, "Uncle said he's going to find Huahua new parents who will treat her very well, but Huahua doesn't want new parents..."
Bao Li paused, looking at her sister and softly asking, "What did you say?"
Her sister said, "Uncle said he's going to find Huahua a new dad and a new mom. He also said that the new dad and new mom are very rich and will treat Huahua very, very well!"
The child said softly, "But Huahua doesn't want to leave her sister. Huahua wants to stay with her sister forever!"
Bao Li's expression finally changed. Her whole body trembled slightly with anger, but after several seconds, as if remembering something, her expression gradually returned to normal.
"No, sister won't let him take you away..." she comforted her parents, her calm face masking a deep-seated hatred in her eyes.
She thought expressionlessly: she would never let her sister follow in her footsteps and repeat her tragedy.
Huang Dashan…
she murmured the name to herself, her hatred deepening.
*
Xu Gui hadn't paid much attention to the Lan family's affairs since, but occasionally heard Fu Xia mention them—Fu Xia, of course, had heard it from Lan Xin.
Apparently, Lan Xin was in a good mood lately because her parents had completely decided not to take that girl named Bao Li as their goddaughter, and they wouldn't take any more goddaughters or godsons.
"They said they'll only ever have me as their child!" Lan Xin was very happy; the gloom that had clouded her heart because of the "goddaughter" had completely dissipated.
Compared to her, the atmosphere on Qiao Xinyue's side was slightly heavier. Qiao Xinyue had already visited her mother's grave.
Shi Yujia was right; she had buried Qiao Xinyue's mother in a place with mountains and water. Standing at the grave, one could see the river below. Qiao Xinyue felt that, given her mother's personality, she would be very happy to be buried there.
"...Don't let my mom's quiet demeanor fool you; she's actually quite lively. When she talked about my aunt, ah, Shi Yujia, I could hear the envy in her voice," Qiao Xinyue said with a smile.
Many people thought Shi Yuling was a quiet person, but only her daughter, Qiao Xinyue, knew that her mother was actually very sociable and loved freedom.
Unfortunately, in her short life, perhaps only the path to her death was truly free and unrestrained...
"Actually, my mom told me that she admired and liked my sister who had the courage to resist my grandfather's oppression!" Qiao Xinyue said, "Because in her whole life, she never dared to defy my grandfather's arrangements."
So, being buried in the mountains was perhaps what she wanted.
...
After listening to Qiao Xinyue's phone call, Fu Xia couldn't help but feel a little melancholy, her feelings somewhat complicated.
Fortunately, this melancholy didn't last long; after all, traveling around with Xu Gui was so lively that she had no time for melancholy.
Today is Xu Gui's fifth day on the show. Since the first day of the show, she has already earned 28 million. There are still ten days left until the end of the show, and she's about 72 million away from her goal of 100 million.
Earning 72 million in ten days…
[That number is still too risky. Can Xu Gui really earn that much in ten days?]
[Although risky, given Xu Gui's speed as a "money-making machine," it's not impossible.] — "Money-making machine" is the title netizens just gave Xu Gui, after all, she's incredibly good at making money.
[Haha, aren't you guys a little too confident in Xu Gui? Over 70 million? Do you think it's ghost money? So easy to earn? I bet she definitely won't reach that goal!] [
Hilarious! I won't mention which hater broke down earlier, but they acted like the 20 million yuan our little turtle earned before was nothing.]
[After being in this live stream for so long, I've forgotten what money is. I see so much money every day when I open my eyes...]
[Although what that hater said wasn't nice, Xu Gui's goal of earning over 70 million yuan is indeed a bit risky. After all, while it's easy to make money from rich people, there aren't that many rich people in the world.]
[Is everyone's attitude towards Xu Gui's goal of earning 100 million yuan already "risky"? I remember at the beginning, everyone was criticizing her for being overly ambitious and overestimating herself.]
[So, as a fan, I'm very calm now. Even if our little turtle doesn't end up earning 100 million yuan, her achievement of earning over 20 million yuan in five days is already enough to make her stand out from the crowd. Looking at the entire entertainment industry, who earns money that well?]
[It's not that there aren't any, after all, the entertainment industry is full of 2.08 million people.] [
Pshaw, our little turtle earned her money through real talent and hard work!]
...
As the days went by, the news that Xu Gui "earned 100 million a month" spread online, and it spread wider and wider. Now, countless people online are paying attention to this, and the number of viewers in Xu Gui's live stream is skyrocketing.
Currently, her live stream has over 30 million viewers daily, and this number is still increasing every day. As for her Weibo followers, they are growing even faster, at a terrifying rate, which makes Xu Gui's Weibo comments lively every day.
Everyone can see that her followers are mostly active fans, which is the most rare thing.
Regarding this situation, netizens couldn't help but feel a little shocked, with some even commenting: [Xu Gui must be the one with the fastest follower growth in the entire entertainment industry, right?] The answer
is absolutely yes. Who would have thought that just over three months ago, Xu Gui was a complete newcomer, unknown to anyone in the industry? Even Xu Gui's own fans are still somewhat dazed.
Some longtime fans recalled the situation in Xu Gui's live stream when "360 Trades" first aired—it wasn't just deserted, it was filled with haters.
Speaking of this, we have to mention two people who were once familiar faces to netizens: Tang Xu and Qiu Nai… Of course, Tang Xu is now Lin Xu. After it was revealed that she wasn't the Tang family's biological daughter but rather an illegitimate child, she left the show, and we haven't heard much about her online since.
Qiu Nai, on the other hand, persisted in filming "360 Trades" despite being heavily criticized online, even advancing to the second season. His mentality is undeniably good.
Although he lost a large portion of his fans after this incident, some remained loyal and even more devoted.
Regarding Qiu Nai's sudden appearance in the spotlight, his remaining fans commented: "Those celebrities who evade taxes, cheat, act arrogantly, and have terrible character haven't retired from the industry. Our brother is at least a little bit better in character than them, right?"
Other netizens: ...That's a bit of a twisted logic, isn't it?
As for Qiu Nai himself: "..."
He comforted himself, at least being infamous is still fame. His current situation is at least better than Lin Xu, who has practically retired from the industry, right? Although he's constantly being mentioned because of Xu Gui, on the bright side, the more famous Xu Gui is, the more famous he becomes in the entertainment industry. Even if he's being criticized, it's still fame.
"I'm not afraid of being criticized, I'm afraid of being forgotten..." Qiu Nai comforted herself, successfully calming herself down.
This was Xu Gui's sixth day of filming.
When she came downstairs for breakfast, other guests were already in the restaurant. At this moment, the guests looked at Xu Gui with complicated and somewhat frustrated expressions—even if they didn't want to admit it, they had to admit that Xu Gui had completely crushed them.
Everyone could see that the entire show's popularity was now almost entirely focused on Xu Gui. After the show ended, Xu Gui's status in the entertainment industry would definitely rise another notch.
"A rise again, and she'll be a top star..." people couldn't help but mutter. But judging from Xu Gui's current number of fans and popularity, her fame was already top-tier.
A top star without any works...
everyone found the thought strange.
And early this morning, Xu Gui's agent, Kuang Ming, came over to discuss work with Xu Gui.
"...At noon, *Fashion* magazine will officially announce their autumn fashion show and promote their autumn issue! They'll tag you then, so don't forget to retweet it," Kuang Ming reminded her. "I'll also have Yuan Lu remind you."
Xu Gui nodded, "I understand." She was quite obedient when it came to work, rarely contradicting Kuang Ming's decisions.
After discussing work with Kuang Ming, she scrolled through online news and saw He Yuan trending.
The show *Acting Competition*, which He Yuan participated in, had already started airing; last night was the third episode. In the previous episode, He Yuan drew an extremely difficult role to play. When she drew this role, netizens weren't optimistic about her performance because the role was very challenging. The original actress who played it had won the Best Actress award that year for the same role.
Now, she was a veteran in the industry, her status undiminished.
He Yuan, coincidentally, drew such a role. For He Yuan, it was both a challenge and an opportunity. After the third episode aired last night, the results were in.
He Yuan successfully completed the challenge, perfectly portraying the character she envisioned.
Overnight, the name "He Yuan," previously unknown in the entertainment industry, suddenly became widely known. Under topics related to "Acting Competition," she was frequently mentioned by netizens.
Netizens found it unbelievable; when did such a hidden gem emerge in the entertainment world? She's good-looking and has good acting skills… how come they hadn't noticed her before?
Looking at these discussions, Xu Gui suddenly realized: He Yuan had become famous.
Her rise to fame was even faster than Xu Gui had predicted, and the reason for this was her participation in the program "360 Trades"... Xu Gui silently looked at Kuang Ming.
Kuang Ming: "...What's wrong?" His expression was somewhat puzzled.
Xu Gui snorted and said, "He Yuan's famous now, you must be ecstatic, right?" She noticed the other woman was radiant and full of energy, her spirits impossible to conceal.
Kuang Ming thought for a moment and nodded, "Not bad!"
Actually, He Yuan had already caught the attention of many netizens in the first two episodes. Her acting was truly superb, especially among a group of mediocre actors, making her stand out like a crane among chickens—Kuang Ming didn't know why there were so many "hidden gems" in this episode.
He Yuan's acting was already a perfect 100, but compared to them, it practically earned her 200.
"He Yuan will be joining the production tomorrow," Kuang Ming said again, looking at Xu Gui. "Does your prediction from last time still hold true? Will she really get the lead role?"
Xu Gui raised her eyes to look at him: "Are you doubting my fortune-telling abilities?"
Kuang Ming dared not admit to this accusation and explained, "I just feel that things in this world are constantly changing. Now that He Yuan is about to become famous, will it affect the whole situation?"
To this, Xu Gui confidently stated, "Don't worry, the lead role will definitely be He Yuan."
After all, only He Yuan's fame has changed, but her acting skills haven't changed; they're still as good as ever.
Hearing her say this, Kuang Ming immediately felt relieved. Thinking of the phone calls he received this morning, he couldn't help but feel a sense of exhilaration.
Currently, he only has two artists under his management: Xu Gui and He Yuan. The former is already very famous, and the latter… Kuang Ming is confident that He Yuan will also become very famous, but her path is different from Xu Gui's.
In the entertainment industry, where beauties abound, He Yuan, while not exceptionally beautiful, possesses well-proportioned and dignified features. More importantly, she has excellent acting skills, making her perfectly capable of pursuing a leading lady (or "
mature woman") career. Currently, actresses who can achieve this are few and far between, and He Yuan definitely has the potential. He could see this, as could other agents. He had even received a call that morning from He Yuan's former agent.
The former agent's tone was incredibly sour—He Yuan had been an unknown extra under his management for seven or eight years, but under Kuang Ming, she had become a rising star, poised for meteoric success.
The former agent lamented, "I regret it so much!"
Kuang Ming generously forgave her sour face; after all, he had essentially stolen her away. However, there was no apology. He had investigated He Yuan beforehand; this former agent had long since given up on her, and He Yuan's previous jobs were all earned through her own efforts.
Kuang Ming: Sigh, I'm just a kind-hearted person; I can't stand seeing talented actors get overlooked.
Thinking this, Kuang Ming was actually a little moved by his own actions. Xu Gui,
sitting opposite him: ...His manager is acting crazy again.