I Was Taken by the Female Lead After Transmigrating into a Book - Chapter 30

[Huo Wu: (Smiling)]

There’s no reply from the other side. Huo Wu lets out a cold laugh from her nose and closes the door.

Bai Xue lowers her voice after entering the room. She places the things she’s holding on a nearby cabinet and finds a chair to sit on. “When I came here, a friend called me and told me everything.” Bai Xue gives her a grateful smile. “Thank you so much for giving us a front page cover at a time like this.”

“Don’t thank me,” Huo Wu says, not accepting the gratitude. “The editor-in-chief happened to see her photo. WM has wanted to transform for a long time, but the image of first- and second-tier female artists is generally hard to change. They’re also worried that fans and the audience won’t buy it. Most makeup artists are not skilled enough, and newcomers can’t take on the responsibility. Feifei…”

The words swirl around in Huo Wu’s mouth for a few moments, and she finally says, “Her expressiveness is strong, her face and body are perfect, there’s no reason for them to not want her.”

Bai Xue can’t help but look at Bai Feifei’s sleeping face. She sighs with emotion. “Some people look like an angel when they’re sleeping.”

Huo Wu raises an eyebrow.

Bai Xue smiles right after she says it and adds, “When she wakes up, she looks like a little goblin. She’s also cute.”

Bai Feifei opens her eyes at that moment. She hasn’t experienced the feeling of waking up naturally in a long time. She feels a clarity she’s never felt before, but she also wants to stay in bed for a while.

She stares out the window in a daze for a moment. Then she turns her head to look for someone. Her voice is soft and sweet from just waking up. “A-Wu.”

Huo Wu responds with, “Mm.”

Bai Feifei’s eyes curve into a smile when she gets a response.

Bai Feifei sits up in bed, her face full of the laziness of someone who just woke up. “I had such a long dream…” It’s a shame she can’t tell Huo Wu about it.

Bai Feifei doesn’t make a useless attempt to say it. She swallows the second half of her sentence and finally notices Bai Xue’s presence. She greets her, “Auntie Xue.”

“Be a good girl. Eat something. I brought you some soup,” Bai Xue says, ladling some out for Bai Feifei to eat after she washes up.

Bai Feifei moves quickly. It’s been a long time since she had a proper meal, and she’s starving. She holds the soup bowl and takes small sips, not caring that it’s hot. Bai Xue puts some shredded chicken in her bowl and watches her eat for a bit before saying, “I have two pieces of good news. Which one do you want to hear first?”

Bai Feifei is surprised and subconsciously says, “The good one!” She immediately realizes what she said and wrinkles her nose. With her mouth full of shredded chicken, she mumbles indistinctly, “Auntie Xue, you’ve become a bad person too.”

Bai Xue stops teasing her and puts on a serious expression. “This incident has been completely resolved. Surprisingly, you gained over 3 million followers on Weibo because of this. The incident has become a discussion about women’s safety in the workplace, and the discussion is at an all-time high. Your most recent Weibo post has 1.74 million likes. This is a very impressive number for your follower count.”

Bai Feifei nods. She had an estimate of these numbers in her mind, but such high numbers are still a little surprising, since she didn’t buy followers. Some people have hundreds of millions of followers, but they’re all fake. Even if something happens, their numbers don’t go up. She knows her own follower count. Aside from the zombie followers, the rest are all real.

“What’s the other one?” Bai Feifei isn’t carried away by the joy, nor is she giddy from the massive increase of 3 million followers overnight.

Bai Xue didn’t expect Bai Feifei to react this way. She’s surprised. “I thought you would be very happy.”

“Happy about what?” Bai Feifei shrugs, not caring much. “Followers are something you have to keep with your own strength. If I act excited and happy, the next thing you’ll say is to not take followers too seriously. Many people will gradually unfollow after this incident. Even if more people follow than unfollow, it’s still enough to make people sad. I understand all of it, Auntie Xue. You don’t have to lecture me on this. I get it.”

Huo Wu stares at Bai Feifei for a long time and says, “It’s very good that you have this kind of awareness at your age.”

Bai Feifei licks her lips and smiles foolishly at Huo Wu. After the last sip of chicken soup, her whole body feels warm and lazy. She wants to lie back down and take a nap. Her brain is a little sluggish from being too full. Bai Feifei mumbles, “I learned all of this from you. These are the words you said when you first did the ‘Heart to Heart’ interview. I remember all of them. A lot of people said you were very clear-headed at that time.”

That was when Huo Wu won the double crown, taking home both Best Actress in Film and Best Actress in Television. She also used her fame well, and all the feedback was positive. As an artist promoted by the national television station, her follower growth rate has been unmatched in the last ten years. No one has even been able to keep up with her. However, in that situation, when the host asked, “Will anything be different after you become famous?” and “Are you worried about losing followers?” she said, “Nothing will be different. I’ll still be me.” and “I’m not worried. People will always leave, and people will always come.”

“I just added a few things and summarized the main idea!” Bai Feifei says with certainty.

Huo Wu suddenly smiles.

The hospital room is quiet. You can barely feel the passage of time. Bai Feifei is lying in bed, drowsy, and humming, unwilling to get up. She doesn’t know why she’s suddenly so tired. Her mind is fine, but her limbs are weak. Maybe the burden in her heart has been completely lifted, causing her body to collapse along with it, or maybe it’s something else.

After a while, Huo Wu looks at her phone. Then, she suddenly reaches out and grabs Bai Feifei’s hand. In Bai Feifei’s wide-eyed surprise, she says, “It’s time. You can look at Weibo now.”

Bai Feifei’s sleepiness immediately disappears. She stares with her bright, watery eyes for a long time. When her eyes start to feel sore, she finally sits up, still with a warmth in her eyes from not blinking. She says in a low voice, “Then I’m going to look?”

“Go ahead,” Bai Xue says, her eyes lingering on Huo Wu for a moment before she nods. “She won’t lie to you.”

Bai Feifei really does click on the trending topics. Then she’s shocked. The trending topics are clear, from her family background to all the donation receipts from the past 19 years… They even have detailed records of how many times she donated each week and how much she donated, with some amounts in the hundreds and some in the single digits.

Li Dehong, the director of the Yuemiao Orphanage: Every donation to the orphanage is recorded. Feifei isn’t the person who has been doing this the longest, but she is the youngest. She came here with her parents when she was three years old. In the past 19 years, she has grown up, but her donations have never stopped.

The trending topic #Bai Feifei’s donations have never stopped# has already climbed to the top.

[What does ‘never stopped’ mean?]

[It means even when Bai Feifei’s family declared bankruptcy, her father committed suicide, and her mother was hospitalized for depression, she never stopped donating to the orphanage.]

[For your information, bankruptcy legally doesn’t affect children.]

[These transfers look so heartbreaking. She used to transfer 20,000 to 30,000 yuan regularly every month, but for a while, she could only transfer a few hundred in small, random amounts…]

[She was also a little princess held in the palm of someone’s hand.]

Bai Feifei’s nose suddenly feels sore. She didn’t expect that the director of the orphanage, Grandpa Li, who jokingly said he would give her a receipt to keep, would actually keep them for so many years. This old man has dedicated his life to charity. He really did what he said he would. Every donation is recorded.

In the past, there were only paper files. When the 78-year-old man got a computer in the orphanage, he was worried about losing the data. He taught himself how to use pinyin input, type on the computer, use spreadsheets, and do statistics. The hardship of it all is hard to imagine, but now, it has become her strongest backing, a solid wall that blocks all the slander.

No one can say anything negative with these thousands of donation receipts from the past 19 years. No one can say anything insulting while looking at the photos of Bai Feifei with the children. No one can say, ‘This is all fake’ to Bai Feifei’s and the children’s smiling faces.

[If this is fake, we hope it’s real. If this is real, please give Bai Feifei justice.]

Bai Feifei takes a deep breath for a long time before she can suppress the soreness and tears in her eyes. Her nose is stuffed. After a long moment, she looks up and says, “What’s with this drama so early in the morning…”

“Do you think this is a drama?” Huo Wu says. “This is the truth.”

Bai Feifei stares at her blankly, knowing that something is quietly changing.

Huo Wu is the first to look away. “Director Li just messaged me. You’ve been confirmed for the role of Fusang. You’ll join the crew next month. Get yourself in a good state this month. This opportunity is very important to you.”

“OK!” Bai Feifei’s eyes light up.

The topic change is not very subtle, but it’s at least effective.

Bai Xue suddenly says, “Do you have Li Ke’s WeChat? Send it to me. I lost my work card a long time ago and haven’t had time to replace it. I’ve been adding my contacts back since I returned. It’s a good thing people in this industry don’t change their phones easily… So why did that jerk Li Ke change his?”

Huo Wu has already sent it. Then she looks at the contact card and her lips twitch a few times.

“Congxin?” Bai Xue raises an eyebrow. “What kind of name is that?”

Huo Wu is silent for a long time. She says against her will, with great difficulty, “It’s a literal translation.” Congxin means to follow one’s heart, to come from the heart.

Bai Xue stares at the two words for a while. She thinks about it and says, “This name suits him. That jerk is indeed someone who dares to think and do. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gotten bitten by a dog in high school, gotten angry, and bitten the dog back, only to be chased by the dog for three blocks.”

Huo Wu and Bai Feifei: “….???”

“Is that true?” Bai Feifei is so shocked that the matcha mochi in her mouth falls out. “Was Director Li so wild and rebellious when he was young? He’s a complete moron, just like… a certain someone!”

The certain someone is obvious.

Bai Xue’s face is a complicated mess. She looks at Li Ke’s enlarged profile picture, as if she has a toothache. Before, the profile picture was small and looked compact and delicate. She thought it was some master’s abstract sketch. Just as she was about to appreciate it, she saw the red stamp on the bottom right.

—Congxin Seal.

And the picture is of a flamboyant “slacker” with flying hair. The slacker also has a bright red neckerchief around his neck. Other people might not recognize it, but Bai Xue can tell at a glance that this is what Zhang Nanchuan looked like in middle and high school—an annoying brat who deserved to be beaten.

Huo Wu happens to see the picture and suddenly says, “He sometimes still dresses like that.”

Bai Xue: “?”

Huo Wu says, “Sometimes on set, he carries a suitcase with a lot of red neckerchiefs and a lot of wigs. When he’s stressed, when he’s really happy, or when he’s working on a script all night, he’ll put on that outfit. He says it’s a very ceremonial thing. It has the memories of his youth, which helps him get inspired.”

Bai Xue: “…”

Huo Wu finally stares at Bai Feifei’s pleasing black hair. She adds, not knowing why, “The wigs are colorful, and there’s a lot of green ones. He likes green.”

Bai Feifei and Bai Xue: “…”