Everyone Spends Money to Make Me Debut as Center (GL) - Chapter 3
Chi Ling didn’t look at her, continuing to walk straight ahead. Her steps were so fast it looked like she was about to break into a run.
“Who was it who kept saying she wasn’t acting on impulse? If you’re so calm and rational, then think about this: without money or transportation, how long can you survive out here?” Bai Chang raised her right hand, showing the item in her grasp. “Besides, your phone is with me.”
“…”
“Get in,” Bai Chang repeated, opening the car door.
Fine, get in. I’m not afraid of you.
The ride was silent. It wasn’t until the car turned into a small road and slowed down that Chi Ling realized they were almost at their destination.
“Where are you taking me?”
Bai Chang expertly parked the car and turned to look at Chi Ling with an expression that said she was looking at a rare idiot. “You don’t recognize your own house?”
This reminder finally jogged Chi Ling’s memory. This must be their marital home. After their marriage, however, Chi Ling mostly lived here alone. Bai Chang would spend most of her time in hotels arranged by production crews or in a suite she rented in the city center.
Chi Ling had only read descriptions of the house in the book, so it was natural that she didn’t recognize the way.
“You have money, right?” Bai Chang led her upstairs and opened the door. “If you’re short, there’s a secondary card in the guest bedroom nightstand. The password is my birthday.”
Chi Ling had been staying at her parents’ house recently, and Bai Chang had moved out a year and a half ago. Aside from a cleaning lady who came by regularly, the house felt lifeless.
“I do,” Chi Ling nodded. She thought for a moment and said to Bai Chang, “Thank you for the ride.”
Bai Chang was in the middle of closing the blinds on the balcony. She turned around, looking at Chi Ling with that same strange, unreadable expression. “You don’t need to thank me. I don’t know what you’re up to, but from your parents’ perspective, I have to give you one last piece of advice. Go back and apologize to them soon. They are the only ones who genuinely care about you right now.”
Chi Ling nodded as she listened, then opened the glass door to the balcony and leaned against the railing. The warm afternoon sun cast a nearly transparent golden glow on her fine hair, and her fair face, bathed in light, had an almost unreal, porcelain quality.
Long ago, a film critic had said about Chi Ling, “If Chi Ling were given a chance to appear in a movie for just three seconds without speaking, that shot would become one of the most treasured and classic moments of the century.”
Bai Chang seemed to realize she had been staring for too long and that her gaze was a little too obvious. She coughed into her fist and spoke quickly, as if to hide something. “Think about it carefully.”
“No, I won’t think about it.” Chi Ling leaned against the railing in a somewhat lazy posture, but her tone was completely serious. “I don’t need anyone to support me. I don’t need anyone to stand on my side. I have myself, and that’s enough.”
Bai Chang looked up in a daze, seeing the sunlight shattered in Chi Ling’s eyes. For a moment, she thought she saw the faint, unfamiliar image of a stranger on the girl in front of her.
Although this person seemed like a stranger, there was an underlying sense of familiarity. Who was it? Where had she seen her before?
Chi Ling seized on Bai Chang’s momentary distraction and continued her counterattack. “Judging me with preconceived notions, concluding that I will fail before I’ve even started—is this the ‘nobility’ you’re always talking about?”
Chi Ling leaned forward slightly, half her face hidden in shadow, but her eyes still shone brightly. She lowered her voice, her curved eyes looking cunning. “Ms. Bai, don’t you think you’re being a little underhanded?”
Bai Chang met her gaze with a cold face. A long-dormant emotion was stirring inside her. Strangely, the feeling wasn’t anger, but a sense of exhilaration.
“Then, I’ll see you in a week. I look forward to your performance.” As she said this, Bai Chang smiled.
••••
A week was indeed enough time for Chi Ling to prepare thoroughly. The first thing she did was find a well-regarded hair salon nearby. She had her waist-length hair trimmed and dyed red. The color made her already fair skin look even more luminous.
Since her luggage was left at the Chi family’s house, Chi Ling went to a nearby mall and bought a few outfits. The bank card transaction confirmed that she now only had a little over five figures left—the original owner was a big spender, mostly using her family’s money, so the balance on her own payroll card was pitifully low.
Chi Ling consoled herself that there were plenty of ways to make money, and for now, she just needed to focus on the most pressing matters.
For the rest of the time, Chi Ling immersed herself in practice as if she were in seclusion. She trained from seven in the morning until two in the morning, repeating a single move over a hundred times before she was barely satisfied.
On a weekend morning, Chi Ling was jolted awake by a phone call. Because her phone had been so quiet lately, as if it were on silent mode, she couldn’t guess who would be calling her at this hour.
More importantly, it was only 5 AM! 5 AM in the morning!
Squinting, she saw the contact name on the screen: Agent…
“Hello?”
“I’ll be at your place in half an hour to pick you up. There’s a brand commercial event today. Prepare five songs to perform.” With that, Zhou Ping hung up.
Chi Ling blinked her bewildered eyes. “Didn’t I retire?”
Then she remembered. Chi Ling’s retirement was too sudden, and many of her contracts likely hadn’t expired. Within the contract period, the advertisers didn’t care if she had retired or not. If they had paid, she had to do the job. The offline events still had to happen.
After the call, Chi Ling, with a still-sleepy and confused mind, tried to piece together information about this Zhou Ping.
The original owner and Bai Chang were both initially signed to the entertainment company MK. Later, when Bai Chang started her own studio, Chi Ling naturally signed with her as well. This Zhou Ping was the agent Bai Chang assigned to her.
As for this sudden phone call… it was Zhou Ping’s long-standing “habit.” Regardless of whether the schedule was important or not, she would only give a perfunctory notification just before the event was about to start. If Chi Ling threw a tantrum and refused to go, a scandal about “Princess Chi acting like a diva” would appear the next day. But if she did go, she would often be criticized for being unprofessional and disrespectful to the partner because of her hurried preparation.
It was a dead end no matter which way she turned. It was no wonder that Chi Ling’s popularity had been so quickly depleted under Zhou Ping’s management.
Chi Ling scrolled through their chat history on her phone. Luckily, the princess didn’t have a habit of deleting old conversations.
Just a few pages were enough to show Zhou Ping’s animosity toward her. This animosity even affected her job as an agent.
She indiscriminately accepted every job offer, from TV dramas and endorsements to variety shows. Some of the low-quality drama productions were so bad that even people outside the industry could tell they would fail, but she took them anyway. Not only that, Zhou Ping would sometimes accept gigs for Chi Ling at a discounted price, just so she could get a commission herself.
With all this turmoil, Chi Ling’s high-end image, which had been so carefully crafted at MK, was completely ruined. She became a “social media star” who only acted in fluff dramas and took on every commercial gig.
“So… there’s no schedule?” Chi Ling was certain she hadn’t seen any file related to a “schedule” in their chat history.
That meant she didn’t even know what brand’s commercial event she was going to today?
But there wasn’t much time for her to think. Half an hour later, Zhou Ping called on time, her tone still that annoying and authoritarian one.
“The car’s downstairs. Hurry up and come down.”
Waiting by the car, Zhou Ping saw a red head walking toward her from a distance. She pushed her glasses up, almost thinking she was seeing things.
The little princess dyed her hair? She had begged her so many times to change her style, but Chi Ling had refused, saying it would damage her hair. And now, the first time she dyed it, she chose such a flashy color.
“Sister Zhou.” Chi Ling pretended not to see Zhou Ping’s surprised expression.
“Whatever. Just get in the car.”
Chi Ling wasn’t a morning person, but she wasn’t going to be nice to someone who was cold to her. She instinctively sat in the back seat, put on her headphones, and started reviewing the songs the original owner had released.
Chi Ling, a person who was used to living in a practice room, couldn’t be idle. In the past month, she had picked a few of the higher-quality songs from the original owner’s twenty-plus songs to practice as a set. Although the number was large, fortunately, the original owner had no dance training, so the choreography was simple and not complicated. She didn’t have to remember many moves. She had been practicing from morning to night and had actually memorized ten of the main songs completely.
“First, we’ll go to the makeup room. We’ll arrive at the venue at 8:30 for rehearsal. The event starts at 11:00.” Zhou Ping read from her tablet, then turned to look at Chi Ling, who had headphones on. “I told you to prepare five songs. Did you?”
“What type?”
If it was for a beverage, a fresh and lively style would be suitable. For cosmetics, a more lyrical style. For clothes and shoes, she would perform a dance song.
Zhou Ping frowned, looking at Chi Ling with a strange expression. “It’s just Alfredo’s mid-to-low-end line. Just sing whatever you want. Just don’t make any mistakes.”
Alfredo?
Chi Ling quickly searched online. It was an Australian brand with a wide range of products: cosmetics, shoes, clothes, and bags. The most well-known product was the brand’s high-end women’s shoes from the S series, and the current spokesperson was none other than Ruan Yuequan, whose job Bai Chang had just “stolen.”
Chi Ling scrolled down and clicked on an ad. Ruan Yuequan’s elegant demeanor and vintage makeup didn’t look out of place at all. Her long, straight legs really made the shoes look well-designed.
But Zhou Ping said mid-to-low-end?
Alfredo had at least a dozen mid-to-low-end lines. Chi Ling searched for her own name and the brand together and finally found a marketing press release from over half a year ago. She was the spokesperson for a line of sneakers with a more youthful style.
Chi Ling looked through the brand introduction and then opened the photo album on her phone.
She had a habit of recording her practice videos. Now she just had to choose five suitable songs with singing and dancing.
Zhou Ping saw Chi Ling with her headphones on and her hands moving, following the choreography, in the rearview mirror. She pursed her lips in annoyance.
She had no idea what was wrong with this little princess, who had suddenly decided to join “Nation’s Girls.” It annoyed her to think that Bai Chang had called her yesterday to arrange more publicity work for Chi Ling, which meant more work for her.
It was so easy to be a rich kid. The jobs others fought for were just like playing make-believe to her.
The makeup artist gave Chi Ling light makeup with peach-colored blush and curled her hair, which instantly brought her tired, about-to-die-from-staying-up-too-late face back to life.
Chi Ling smiled in satisfaction at her reflection and said thank you to the makeup artist.
“Oh… you’re welcome.” The makeup artist lowered her head, looking a little flattered, but after Chi Ling left, her eyes were glued to her, unable to look away.
“Hey, what are you looking at?” a colleague nudged her.
The girl clasped her hands to her chest and smiled sweetly. “Who was that? She seemed so nice and well-mannered. I was so close to her and I couldn’t even see her pores. She’s so perfect.”
The colleague looked at her as if she were a ghost and pointed toward Chi Ling’s car. “Are you sure you’re talking about her?”
“Yes, yes!”
“That’s Chi Ling,” the colleague said, patting her on the shoulder. “Two possibilities: either you saw the wrong person, or there’s a second Chi Ling in the world.”
The girl was new to the industry but had heard the gossip. “Really? She looks so different in person than she does in videos. She has so much more presence. And she was watching dance practice videos. I glanced over, and she was pretty good…”
“Then you must have seen the wrong person. That Chi Ling missed steps and went off-key eight out of ten times she performed. It’s impossible for it to be the same person.”
“Is that so…”
••••
At 8:30, Chi Ling arrived at the venue on time. It was a mall. A banner with her name on it was hanging at the entrance. Staff members stood nearby, handing out flyers and posters, but there was a pitifully small crowd.
“I’ll go in and do the handover. You can follow Xiao Li.” Zhou Ping said and then disappeared.
Chi Ling put on a baseball cap, pulled the brim low to cover half her face, and followed Xiao Li toward the entrance.
At the same time, a girl writing on the glass in front of Chi Ling caught her attention. The girl quickly turned her head, revealing the numbers “156833” on top of her head, confirming that Chi Ling hadn’t been hallucinating.
At the same time, her mind went “beep,” and a slightly robotic, childlike voice sounded.
[The Perfect Idol “Pay-to-Win” System has been activated. A-rank target is 10 meters ahead. Attention, attention!]
As soon as the confusing words were spoken, a large amount of text appeared in front of Chi Ling.
Name: You Xiaotao
Fan Type: True Fan
Occupation: Freelance Illustrator, Head of Chi Ling’s Official Fan Club (will soon leave fandom)
Hobbies: Writing fanfiction
Skills: Eating, jump rope, gossiping…
Measurements:…
Stop!
[Received host’s pause command. Target information transfer paused.]
Chi Ling: Who are you?
System: The cheat code. Innocent blink.jpg
Author’s Note:
Ms. Bai is about to get a taste of her own medicine.