Fifth Day Without Divorce — The Number You’ve Dialed Is Incorrect
After a short while, Liang Yan’s follower list had more than 2,000 subscribers, instantly making up for the loss of followers when she posted her selfie.
Liang Yan felt she was dreaming when she looked at her new followers. This must be the first wave of business that… the “abandoned woman persona” she had just formulated acquired. And judging from the results, it was a success?
Others show love by giving their fans some sweetness; she shows affection through making a fool of herself. Others went through knives and broken glasses to make fans cry; she licked herself like sugar for Lu Lincheng’s fans, and after licking, they were polite. Others clicked the follow button in passing.
Liang Yan was so motivated after her rise in popularity that she printed out her empty schedule for the next few months, and taped it on the headboard in order to motivate herself. Then, she made a cheering gesture in the air.
Although she didn’t know what level she was in the past three years, Liang Yan was no longer the same as before. In order to improve her popularity and to have dramas to shoot, from now on—every day—she would do her best to reach her goal: first-tier actress.
Liang Yan made up her mind to do her best, but then she remembered the three plates of fatty beef she ate in the afternoon and the two cans of soda she had drunk in the evening.
She forced herself to close her eyes and go to sleep to forget what she ate in the afternoon, but every time she was about to fall asleep, she recalled the image of the fatty beef she had and the carbonated drinks she took. They would all turn into fat when she slept, and it would be stored in her body, transforming it into a big fat body; small belly and big legs…
“No!” Liang Yan violently sat up from the bed, squeezing the blanket and gasping for air. She broke out in cold sweat. Late in the night, Liang Yan cried as she stood up from the bed and danced the fat-burning weight-loss exercise she hadn’t done in years.
**
The next morning, Liang Yan got on the scale with fear and trepidation, then looked down, and saw 45.1kg on the scale and finally breathed a sigh of relief. Jiang Mu arrived early in the morning, sat on the sofa while he ate an apple, watching Liang Yan weigh herself.
“How is it?” He went over to check the number on the scale.
Liang Yan proudly got off the scale, puffed out her chest, and showed Jiang Mu her weight. Jiang Mu nodded, sat back on the sofa, and took out a small book from his body and opened it. He cleared his throat, and briefed Liang Yan on the main purpose of his visit.
“Tomorrow is the start of the recording of the first phase of the variety show, The Brave Man’s Challenge. I have already talked to the programme team in advance. The first phase would be ‘Workplace Storm’, all guests will first play a game, then they would choose their own occupation to experience. During this time, we could interfere with the progress of other tasks. If the task was completed within the time limit, it would be considered successful.”
Three years ago, the outdoor variety shows weren’t such a hit, so Liang Yan wasn’t familiar with the style of these outdoor variety shows, but the “The Brave Man’s Challenge” was the only job she had in the past three months.
Her whole body tensed as she nervously pinched Jiang Mu’s thigh and asked, “Is that all the programme told you? What about the other details? What kind of games will you play? What occupations will you experience? They didn’t tell you anything?”
Jiang Mu closed his notebook and stared at Liang Yan. She had lost her memory of the past three years, and she wasn’t familiar with the variety show market. He shook his head and said in a deeper tone, “Of course not. If they tell the guests everything beforehand, they will prepare, and then it would be meaningless to record the show. It would be boring.”
“So…” Liang Yan’s brow scrunched together; she was so nervous, her heart pounding like a drum. She recalled that several hot actresses had started promoting their personas on reality TV variety shows. They were foodie, femme fatale, naive female, and so on. The audience ate them up. Now that she decided on the abandoned persona, it would be possible to promote it during talk shows, but with this kind of reality TV show, it seemed she wouldn’t be able to promote it.
Liang Yan pondered for a while and said, “Why don’t I stop acting the abandoned woman persona and try a foodie persona first.”
The foodie persona seemed to be the one most popular with actresses. They liked to promote it, so maybe she could go with the flow.
A vein ticked on Jiang Mu’s temples when he heard the words “abandoned woman persona.” Then, when he heard that Liang Yan was going for the foodie persona, he immediately stopped her. “No, no, no!”
Liang Yan did not understand.”Why not?”
When Jiang Mu mentioned the foodie persona that various actresses went for, he rolled his eyes. As a straight man, he would always roll his eyes whenever he saw women who were thin and bony but said they were foodies in variety shows. The actress who would change the oil with water when she ate vegetables during filming would turn around and say she was a foodie during variety shows.
They would usually like to eat but never lose weight, thus lulling the girls in the audience into thinking that they could do it too. The actress on the camera could eat as much as she wanted without gaining weight. She would still be beautiful on camera while the weight of other girls were going up.
Jiang Mu placed a copy of his recording of Liang Yan. He had been recording in front of her. With an indifferent voice, “Is it really not shameful to say you’re a foodie at this weight?”
Liang Yan blushed and laughed dryly twice, “I’m like a clam.”
Jiang Mu reassured her. “Don’t be nervous. A few of the MC’s on this show are quite friendly in the circle. Don’t overthink, just do it like you normally do.”