Chapter 8: Internet Celebrity Group

Lin Ran still couldn’t accept the fact that there was a mouse in her room, even if it was an unusual one.

Da Hua indeed didn’t harm the mouse. Although it chased after it all the time, it seemed to be just playing. Several times, it caught up with the mouse, but it just held it in its mouth for a moment before letting it go.

Eventually, the mouse couldn’t be bothered to run anymore since it couldn’t outrun Da Hua anyway. Da Hua played with it for a while, probably got bored, and then ignored it.

Lin Ran pointed to the corner. “You… go over there and stay away from me.”

The mouse nodded reluctantly and curled up in the corner, not moving.

It could also understand human words, which didn’t surprise Lin Ran; after all, like Da Hua, it was also a creature from the heavens.

Da Hua looked at the bracelet on Lin Ran’s wrist, then suddenly pounced towards her wrist and disappeared in an instant.

Lin Ran was puzzled and followed Da Hua into the Qiankun bag, where she saw Da Hua rummaging through the trash can.

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

Tsolhla, ds xyvvla bso kv awxxytle, dsvbkdt nbydtle; vbl vaypb nyd fwpv pyv vblal pkzldvzu, yp kq kv olal yd saekdyau vaypb nyd.

“Ylso…” Py Twy alyzkgle kv nswzed’v ts cynj, ps kv zyu elprsdeldvzu clpkel vbl vaypb nyd.

Nkd Syd oyp ycswv vs nsxqsav Py Twy obld pbl dsvknle vbyv vbl xswpl bye yzps qszzsole kdvs vbl cyt. Fbl pbkhlale okvb tssplcwxrp, rskdvkdt yv vbl xswpl.

“Qs cynj!”

Mbl xswpl vwadle yaswde kd ekpyrrskdvxldv yde nayozle swv sq vbl cyt.

Gqvla Nkd Syd lmkvle vbl cyt, Py Twy qszzsole, piwyvvkdt yv bla qllv.

Bdzkjl Py Twy, vbl xswpl sclekldvzu ayd vs vbl nsadla yde pvsse vblal, dsv eyakdt vs xshl. Nkd Syd tyhl kv y cwd yp kvp ayvksd qsa vbl eyu, yde vbl zkvvzl xswpl rkvkqwzzu dkcczle sd kv kd vbl nsadla.

Py Twy pllxle hlau kdvlalpvle kd vbl cyt, nsdpvydvzu rsjkdt kd yde swv sq kv, zssjkdt hlau byrru.

In a good mood, Da Hua grabbed an apple, kicked it with its paw, and the apple rolled a few times before landing at the mouse’s feet.

The mouse hesitated, looking towards Lin Ran for permission before daring to nibble on the apple. It ate cleanly, not even leaving behind the core.

Lin Ran patted Da Hua’s head, praising, “Da Hua, you’re so kind. From now on, take care of that mouse. Let it be your follower, and call it… Xiao Hua. But don’t let it near me; I’m scared.”

She couldn’t overcome her physiological fear of mice for the time being, unlike cuddling with Da Hua.

Da Hua proudly took a disposable hotel slipper out and made it into a bed for Xiao Hua, generously sharing some food with it. Xiao Hua’s gaze towards Da Hua became less fearful, even following behind it like a little follower.

The next performance was scheduled in a week, and the group notified Lin Ran to go to the theater for rehearsals three days in advance. These days, she occasionally received calls from Zhang Yupeng, saying several media outlets wanted to interview her.

Lin Ran declined them all. Zhang Yupeng didn’t ask for the reasons, nor did he say much, leaving the decision to her.

During these days, Lin Ran was browsing rental information. The hotel was expensive, so renting a place would be more cost-effective.

For renting, shared accommodation was more economical than renting alone. Lin Ran had been looking at shared accommodation information but couldn’t find a suitable place among the many listings.

During these days, the relationship between Da Hua and Xiao Hua improved, to the point where Da Hua would even share some fish snacks with Xiao Hua.

After getting used to Xiao Hua’s presence, Lin Ran dared to reach out and touch it. Of course, the premise was that it cleaned itself and promised not to rummage through the trash heap.

As night fell and it started to drizzle, Lin Ran enjoyed falling asleep to the sound of rain. After finishing her nightly routine, she lay on the hotel’s large bed and suddenly heard a notification from her phone. She opened it and saw that a transfer notification had come through.

The amount was twenty-one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one, with neat zeros, and the note said “performance fee.”

Lin Ran was somewhat surprised; she thought she would only get eight thousand. Unexpectedly, she received over twenty thousand. According to the method of profit sharing mentioned by Zhang Yupeng earlier, this amount should be what the top popularity could get.

She had never paid attention to popularity voting before, probably knowing that it could only be done after purchasing tickets through the ticketing app. She opened the app and clicked into the purchasing interface of the Miracle Magic Troupe.

The interface showed that tickets for the next performance were sold out. On the right was the popularity voting interface for the previous performance, and below were audience comments.

A total of one thousand two hundred and twenty-one tickets were sold for the last performance, and Lin Ran received five hundred and fifty-three votes, clearly leading ahead of the second-place couple, Cao Xinyu and his wife team, who had three hundred and twenty-five votes, which surprised Lin Ran.

As she scrolled down, the comment section discussing Lin Ran was very active.

【I declare that Lin Ran is my new goddess! I’ll come to every one of her performances in the future… if I can get tickets.】

【The new host is so beautiful, I even forgot to pay attention to the magic performance, hahaha.】

【Ah, I didn’t even get tickets for the next performance! Damn, I’ve never experienced this before; those scalpers are too much!】

【Hey, don’t you think it’s a bit crazy to spend over three hundred just to see the host? The host hasn’t even appeared for long… I suggest putting her on stage to perform; then it would be worth the ticket price!】

…

Lin Ran touched her own face.

In this world where appearances mattered, her extremely beautiful face was obviously very attractive.

In a sense, her face could be considered a divine creation, just like her Qiankun bag.

Rehearsals were scheduled for the morning two days later. When Lin Ran left, she glanced at the WeChat group and saw a message from Zhang Yupeng tagging everyone.

Zhang Yupeng: “After arriving, don’t use the main entrance; come in through the back door. There are self-media people blocking outside.”

Lin Ran arrived not far from the theater’s entrance and indeed saw Zhang Yupeng surrounded by a group of people holding phones, trying to persuade them to leave.

Li Xingyue quickly pulled Lin Ran behind a car and whispered, “These self-media internet celebrities somehow found out about our rehearsal time and insist on coming in to watch. The leader is trying to get them to leave. Come with me; we’ll enter through the back door.”

Following Li Xingyue, Lin Ran took a big detour around the theater from the outside and finally arrived at the backstage entrance, entering the dressing room.

Before long, Cao Xinyu also arrived. He complained with a displeased expression, “These internet celebrities won’t leave. How can we rehearse? If they film our rehearsal content, how can we perform? Especially those magic mechanisms; if they get filmed, we’ll become a joke.”

It took Zhang Yupeng quite some time to return to the backstage area. By then, all the magicians had gathered, but those few self-media internet celebrities had squeezed into the theater, sitting in the front row, making rehearsal impossible.

Zhang Yupeng wiped his sweat, looking somewhat helpless. “I don’t know where they got the information from. Clearly, there was no one here at the theater in the morning… There’s no choice; we can only suspend today’s rehearsal. Let’s try again tonight.”

Cao Xinyu frowned. “Tonight? Can we ensure they won’t come then? Leader, if you weren’t so stubbornly competing with the Dream Magic Troupe’s old Yu, insisting on getting a beautiful host, we wouldn’t be unable to rehearse.”

Hearing him directly point the finger at Lin Ran, Li Xingyue couldn’t help but speak up for her. “Some internet celebrities came for the interview, saying our magic troupe has high popularity. Why don’t you mention that tickets for the next show are sold out? Before, you wanted them to come for interviews; did they come?”

Cao Xinyu angrily retorted, “Then what about rehearsal? If we can’t rehearse, how can we perform? Tickets are sold out; can you refund the money if we can’t perform?”

Zhang Yupeng glanced displeasedly at Cao Xinyu and coldly said, “What’s the use of arguing? Isn’t this just a solution we’re trying to figure out?”

Qi Ruige whispered to Lin Ran, “He’s jealous of you being the most popular. He doesn’t like seeing you succeed! He used to be the most popular.”

Liu Zhe frowned. “Popularity comes from one’s own abilities. What’s the use of being jealous? Besides, this time the tickets are sold out, so everyone can earn more money. I’m quite satisfied.”

Qi Ruige’s expression turned sour. “If you have the ability, join the Dream Magic Troupe! What’s the use of internal conflicts!”

Lin Ran remained silent, furrowing her brows for a moment before getting up and walking out of the backstage area.

The internet celebrities sitting in the audience saw Lin Ran coming out and standing up one after another, holding their phones towards her. The internet celebrities who were live streaming screamed, “She’s here! Everyone, Lin Ran is here! After waiting for so long, it’s finally not in vain!”

Lin Ran quietly walked towards the first row of internet celebrities holding their phones. She didn’t directly speak to them; instead, she greeted the camera with a sigh. “But your anchor disturbed our rehearsal; what should we do? If we can’t rehearse, we can’t perform. People like this without boundaries are really headache-inducing. Personally, I think your anchor needs to improve their manners.”

The internet celebrities looked at each other in astonishment.

Although they knew Lin Ran could clap back at people, they didn’t expect her to be so direct in her speech. What’s the difference between this and directly scolding someone to their face?

This is in front of tens of live audiences, with millions of combined followers! She really dares to speak out!

A internet celebrity named Tao Ge chuckled and said, “Beauty, don’t say that. We’re also increasing the popularity of your magic troupe. This is a win-win situation. Is it wrong for us to help promote you? Beauty, aren’t you a bit ungrateful?”

Zhang Yupeng also came out, feeling a headache. He didn’t dare to offend these self-media internet celebrities at all, so he had to let them into the theater. He didn’t expect Lin Ran to come up and criticize their quality. Did these people want to smear her to death?

He wanted to say something to remedy the situation but couldn’t find the right words for a while. After a long time, he managed to say, “She… she didn’t mean it like that.”

Lin Ran: “I mean exactly that.”

Zhang Yupeng: “…”

Lin Ran squinted, scanning the faces of the internet celebrities, and leisurely said, “Everyone here is a cultured netizen. How about we put “Anchor, pay attention to your manners and go home’ in the public chat to remind the anchor, okay?”