Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
The most painful thing to do during winter was to wake up early in the morning. One would love to simply bundle oneself under the blanket forever. However, it was summer, and it was getting hotter with each passing day.
Qin Ze finished chewing his bread, bacon, and fried eggs in silence. Finally, after ten minutes, his sister decided to show up with her eyes barely open. She was dressed in baggy pajamas with little bear prints, and when she walked out of her bedroom, her slippers made loud flapping sounds.
“Why do you look as though you’ve overindulged yourself in debauchery? I almost died last night after all the drinking with your girl friends.” Qin Ze was puzzled by her behavior.
“Look who’s talking!” His sister cast him a side glance listlessly. Like a sloth, she sat on the chair and smacked her lips together. “The girls were almost done by the time you went down. Fortunately, I was there to pick up the pieces. Those who are attached, I called their boyfriends to come and collect their ‘corpses’; and those who are single, I arranged for their transport and brought them down one by one. It was no easy job. Just so you know, I only went to bed at 3:30 AM. Hunger woke me up.”
“Damn.” Qin Ze drank a mouthful of milk. “Go and wash up.” He slapped her hand away as she reached out for bacon.
“Oh,” his sister replied obediently. She stood up weakly, but she grabbed a slice of bacon in a flash and stuffed it into her mouth. Her slippers made the same loud flapping sound again as she ran into the bathroom. Before closing the door, she stuck her tongue out and made a face at Qin Ze.
When he pretended to go after her, she retreated quickly and closed the bathroom door. As the older sibling, she wasn’t supposed to be acting like this. However, Qin Ze was used to it because he wasn’t acting like a younger brother as well.
Perhaps, it was due to the way they had been brought up. The reason their father gave was boys should be raised like the poor whereas girls should be raised like the rich. Their parents had been particularly hard on Qin Ze since he was a young boy because they were worried he would pick up bad habits as he grew. For his sister, it was an entirely different story: they doted on her, showered her with love and attention, and gave in to her every request. The treatment for the two siblings was poles apart. If his older sister was truly their biological child, Qin Ze would be the spare who had been given to the Qin family.
No matter how tough his parents’ love had been or how high their expectations was for him, it appeared that Qin Ze was a hopeless case. Throughout his twenty-two years, his life had been uneventful. On the other hand, his sister who had everything and had been the top student since she was a child. It remained the same as she grew up, and she was even accepted by Fudan University with her exceptional intelligence and usual happy-go-lucky manner.
“I would be smiling even while asleep if only you were half as intelligent as Baobao.”
This was what his father had been telling Qin Ze.
Yup. Baobao was his twenty-five-year-old sister. Her full name was Qin Baobao.
Qin Baobao was instantly a changed woman when she came out of the bathroom after cleaning herself up. She had a fair complexion with exquisite features. It was rumored that the girls often called her ‘Slutface’ behind her back when she was still in university.
“You took ten minutes to wash up. The time now is 8:25 AM. Even if you finished your breakfast within five minutes, change your clothing, put on makeup, and take the subway—scrap that. Drive instead of taking the subway. By my estimation, you will definitely be late for work today. Your full-attendance bonus is forfeited even when you’re late for one day. That’s a loss of 300 dollars, one week’s food expenses.” Qin Ze was calculating the financial loss for his sister which was the result of her refusal to wake up on time.
“I never have to apply makeup.” Qin Baobao wrinkled her nose like a naughty little girl.
“Shouldn’t you be more worried about being late for work?” Qin Ze was going crazy.
“Nope. I quit.” Qin Baobao swallowed the fried egg and drank a mouthful of milk.
Qin Ze was astounded. “When did you quit?”
“Yesterday. Didn’t I tell you?”
“Not that I can recall.”
“Oh… I must have forgotten to tell you with so many things happening.”
“You were doing fine. Why did you quit? Were you harassed by your boss?”
Qin Baobao’s phoenix eyes suddenly glowed with happiness. “What a brilliant idea! That’s exactly what you will tell Dad when he asks.”
“Ridiculous! You seriously think I will keep this secret for you? You had a good job. During your probation, your salary was five thousand dollars; and you earned more than ten thousand dollars once you were confirmed as full-time staff. Moreover, there was a considerable amount of year-end bonus. How could you just quit such a well-paid job without a plan? What can you possibly do now?”
Qin Baobao blinked her eyes, trying to act cute. She replied, “I will have to depend on you from now on.”
“Go to h*ll! I haven’t graduated,” Qin Ze was fuming as he said, “Although Dad tried to act like it was not a big deal, he actually looked so proud when he was flaunting to the relatives last year ‘Oh, it was just an average position in one of the world’s top 500 companies…’.
Qin Baobao lowered her head and spread peanut butter on her toast very carefully as she muttered incoherently, “Um… it was my birthday yesterday. Time is really a heartless blade. I’ll be thirty soon without realizing it. I told myself that I can’t continue to live like this and waste my youth working for some company. I don’t care if it’s one of the top 500 companies in the world. I want to break free from the restraints and traditions. I want to be the brave dream-chasing girl.”
“More like a dream-chasing woman.” She got roasted by Qin Ze.
“Are you tired of living?” Qin Baobao glared at him.
“What do you intend to do?” A sense of foreboding began to well up inside Qin Ze.
“My goal is to go on-screen… be a big star and the nation’s goddess. Mwahaha!” Qin Baobao assumed the posture of a serf who turned into the master.
Of course!
Qin Ze covered his face in silence.
Qin Baobao had one big stain as well as one big regret in her life.
Her name was the stain. When she was in junior high, she stole her family’s household register in an attempt to change her name because she could no longer put up with her friends’ mocking. However, due to insufficient reasons (not having a nice name was not good enough) and the absence of a parental agreement letter, the staff from the police department had to call her home to inquire about her request.
Without saying another word, their father had stormed into the police station, pulled her by the ear, and brought her back home. Their parents had beaten her so badly with a rod. To Qin Ze’s recollection, that was also the first time when their parents had worked in unity to punish her.
The second time happened when she was in senior high. Qin Baobao had been approached by a scout because of her beauty and extraordinary temperament. No one knew what vision he had painted for her or how grand it was that she made it her lifelong dream to become a big star.
However, being a conservative man, their father didn’t want his daughter to earn her living in the entertainment industry. Their mother, on the other hand, was worried the scout could be a fraud who was trying to lure and sell her to a brothel. Both parents punished her by beating her with a rod. Again. To Qin Baobao, this was the greatest regret in her life.
Actually, their parents were unaware that Qin Baobao had wanted to fill in Shanghai Theatre Academy as her first choice after high school graduation. If Qin Ze hadn’t stopped her in time, she would have met the beating rod for the third time of her life.
He didn’t realize her evil intentions had remained unchanged after so many years.
“I’ve had enough of you. What’s so great about being a star? On the surface, you look glamorous; but behind the scene, there’s only bitterness. This society is very dark. You can’t just dive head into this domain without knowing anything. Within two years, you’ll be a black fungus; and there’s a chance you may not even be able to make a name for yourself,” Qin Ze said righteously.
“I don’t care… I don’t care.” Qin Baobao twisted her body as though she was throwing a fit.
“Cut it out. It’s no use throwing tantrums at me. This is getting out of hand. I have to inform Dad.” Qin Ze began to take his cell phone out of his pocket.
Qin Baobao threw herself at him and held his hand down. She said pathetically, “Please don’t. Dad will kill me if he finds out.”
“Can you stop your nonsense? I don’t know whether he’ll kill you or not. However, I guarantee he’ll beat me to death if he knows that I failed to report the facts to him.” Qin Ze pressed her head down and tried to push her away while he took out his phone at the same time.
At this moment, a mechanical voice materialized in his head: “Main mission: assist Qin Baobao to sign the contract with Star Talent Entertainment Co., Ltd. 300 points once you succeed. Failure will result in the deduction of 100 points.”
What the h*ll was that?
Qin Ze froze, and Qin Baobao took the opportunity to snatch the phone with lightning speed. She hid it behind her protecting it like a calf.
Did I imagine that? Am I still drunk?
“Give it back.”
Qin Ze was furious. He was facing something more urgent, and he must find a way to make this woman give up the unrealistic notion which seemed an impossible task. Nevertheless, he was more afraid of being beaten up. In the past when they were still staying with their parents, Qin Baobao dared not do anything with both of them as gatekeepers.
Now that she was staying on her own, Qin Baobao was behaving as though she had broken free of her parents’ restraints. The main reason their father had wanted Qin Ze to stay with his sister was to keep a lookout for her so that she wouldn’t do anything stupid like quitting her job to try to work her way into the entertainment industry.
It was his duty to report to the headquarters when something like this happened. Otherwise, he would have failed his duty. This was something Qin Ze couldn’t afford.
Qin Baobao stuffed the cell phone into her 36D bosom. She stuck her chest out and touted him, “I dare you to try and take it back from me. If you even lay a finger on me, I’ll tell Dad you touch my breast and molested me.”
“You’ve gone too far!”
Qin Ze’s mind was swirling.
“My dear sister, why don’t we sit down and talk this over peacefully?” Qin Ze changed his tactic to a softer approach. “As your younger brother, I’m not trying to stop you from pursuing your dream. It’s too late for you to be doing this. The thing is you didn’t choose the best way during your prime years. At twenty-five-years-old, you can’t assume the image of a young and innocent girl. Without good acting skills, how are you going to break into the industry?
“Everyone is trying to get into the entertainment circle to make money and become famous. I’m sure you know how fierce the competition is. Come on, you graduated from Fudan University, not some theater academy. How can you beat the current graduating batch of candidates? Do you even know how to act? Do you have a strong foundation in acting? You’re already twenty-five-years-old. Stop acting like a kid.”
“I have the looks.” Qin Baobao lifted her head and showed him her charming face.
“You have sh*t. Did you drink too much poisoned chicken soup? How can you survive in entertainment with just your looks? Do you know there are many more handsome men and gorgeous women on the planet?” Qin Ze said.
“Master, you are wrong. I went to another parallel universe, and the actors there have absolutely no acting skills. They simply survive in the entertainment industry with just a pretty face,” the strange voice in his head said.
“Who’s that?” Qin Ze jumped as though he was sitting on hot lava. He looked around in terror like a scared kitten.