WS - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

From the moment Wang Mancang walked in until Yu Nianbing left, it was a matter of minutes. During that time Song Shiyue barely managed to get a word in edgewise; at most, she followed Wang Mancang's lead and expressed her gratitude to Yu Nianbing once more. As the very person who had brought them all together at this time and place, Song Shiyue's awkwardness flooded the hospital room and did not diminish in the slightest with Yu Nianbing's departure.

Now that only two people remained in the room again, Wang Mancang did not, as Song Shiyue had imagined, immediately start fussing. Instead, he fell silent, wordlessly pulled heap after heap of things out of the burlap sack, and soon covered most of the coffee table.

Song Shiyue glanced at the few silver serving trays already pushed to the edges of the coffee table by that clutter and finally couldn't help but call out, "Uncle Wang..."

Before she could finish, Wang Mancang merely looked up at her, shook the dried grass in his hands, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and then continued digging into the sack.

Song Shiyue hesitated but did not speak again. She simply walked over to the table, lifted the silver-white serving trays holding the food, and temporarily set them on a cabinet off to the side.

Pressing a hand against one of the silver tray lids, Song Shiyue didn't even need to open it to imagine the food inside losing its heat and its deliciousness rapidly declining.

She really wanted to eat...

Unlike ability users who replenished their powers with crystal cores and could conjure elements like water, fire, thunder, and lightning from thin air, ability users like Song Shiyue—who had merely gained increased physical strength or enhanced senses such as hearing, smell, or eyesight—depended much more on food to replenish themselves after using their abilities.

This meant that ability users needed more food than ordinary people.

The rice porridge was fragrant, but it barely moistened her throat.

The steamed buns had meat, but they barely filled the gaps between her teeth.

Such a wonderful world; she practically wanted to swallow an entire planet whole!

But watching Wang Mancang lift the burlap sack and begin shaking out the bottom of it onto the coffee table, Song Shiyue rationally knew that now was not the time to thoughtlessly start eating...

Especially since the Wang Mancang before her now—brows furrowed, lips pressed tight, head down as he worked—was so drastically different from the one in her original host's memory, that chubby man who always smiled simple-heartedly and was as kindly as a true elder. It made Song Shiyue even more reluctant to act recklessly on a whim.

Song Shiyue had only viewed the original host's memories in a fleeting, lantern-like scroll while she was unconscious. Clearly, the original host's many skills had not been given the chance to be practiced proficiently, much less could she imitate the original host's manner of dealing with people in a short period of time.

With Yu Nianbing earlier, it had been fine; it was only their second meeting, and even if Song Shiyue had behaved somewhat differently than the original host, Yu Nianbing likely wouldn't have noticed.

But Wang Mancang was different.

Ever since the original host had debuted two years ago, he had been her agent.

The original host had been a somewhat delicate and shy young girl. From the very start, Song Shiyue had no intention of living as an imitation of the original host; she had even come up with a reason for the personality change. Someone who had passed through a life-or-death ordeal and skirted the edge of death would naturally change somewhat, wouldn't they?

It was just that while the idea was simple, the execution was rather difficult.

And all of those difficulties, without a doubt, fell squarely on the chubby man wiping sweat from his brow in front of her.

The Wanshan Entertainment that the original host had signed with was considerably larger in scale than the Senxin Entertainment where Yu Nianbing belonged. One could even say that on Beichen Planet, it ranked among the top three. Large scale meant many people, and with many people came uneven quality: both among the artists and the staff.

Compared to the professionally trained agents at the company, Wang Mancang was nearly forty and had entered the industry barely a year earlier than the original host... The company was once rife with rumors that he had originally farmed on Agricultural Planet No. 7 attached to Beichen and had only gotten in through the back door because he was distantly related to Wanshan's boss.

Perhaps because Wang Mancang was inherently simple and honest and didn't know how to aggressively seek advancement, even after three years at the company the resources he could secure were average, and he had only a few minor artists under his wing. Among them, the original host—who had been with the company for two years and had spent over a year playing a supporting role in a sitcom—could actually be considered one of the better ones in his hands.

Of course... part of that might also be because the original host had taken matters into her own hands and ridden a wave of publicity from that confession.

Clearly, however, Wang Mancang was not the most capable agent at Wanshan Entertainment; after three years, he had at best just managed to stumble from complete layman to the barest passable level.

But in the eyes of the original host, Wang Mancang was the best agent.

Even Song Shiyue, who had merely observed the original host's memories, had to agree that this agent—blunt yet meticulous, utterly devoted, as if treating his artist like his own daughter—truly moved a person deeply.

It was only a pity that the original host could never let go of that familial bond with her debt-ridden father and had ultimately chosen the path of self-destruction.

If Song Shiyue had not crossed over, how callous that debt-ridden father would be went without saying; but Wang Mancang would probably have been the one most heartbroken.

And precisely because of that, as she now watched Wang Mancang working away by the coffee table, entirely unlike his usual self, a trace of hesitation over how she ought to present herself in dealing with him lingered in Song Shiyue's heart.

Wang Mancang moved quickly. While Song Shiyue hesitated, the sack was emptied, and the entire coffee table was piled high.

"Come." Wang Mancang dusted off his hands and beckoned to Song Shiyue.

Do what... you didn't die from burning charcoal once, so are you going to burn it a second time...

Song Shiyue looked at the wood, branches, and dried grass covering the coffee table, her heart thumping, but she still shuffled over step by step.

Wang Mancang seemed not to notice Song Shiyue's utterly hesitant expression. Once she was close, he pulled a large iron pan from the pile of branches and tossed it on the floor. Then he pushed some branches and dried grass from the coffee table onto it and nudged the iron pan with the toe of his shoe. "Come on, give it a try and burn it."

Song Shiyue stopped a step away from the coffee table, her whole body frozen. She suddenly felt she couldn't quite keep up with Wang Mancang's train of thought.

Well, to be fair, she had already failed to keep up earlier when Wang Mancang had forcibly shoved a whole sack of live chickens into Yu Nianbing's hands as a thank-you gift.

But she truly never expected that the contents of this sack would be even more absurd than that sack of live chickens.

"What's wrong? Don't you like playing with fire? Why aren't you doing it?" Wang Mancang's voice was somewhat hoarse. Though the words were clearly meant to be a lecture, there was not a trace of harshness in them; it was just that he still seemed to be making an effort to keep a stern face.

Song Shiyue glanced at the coffee table, already buried under the stray branches and grass, silently stepped back a few paces, drew a cup of water from the water dispenser, handed it to Wang Mancang, and lowered her head to shoulder the original host's blame. "Uncle Wang... I know I was wrong... There won't be a next time..."

Unable to be as daintily on the verge of tears as the original host, Song Shiyue could only do her best to display a sincerely apologetic attitude.

But very clearly, even after rolling around in the entertainment industry for three years, Wang Mancang hadn't even learned the basics of putting on airs. He took the cup as soon as it was offered and downed it in two gulps.

"You, ah..." Wang Mancang's iron-plated face was softened that easily by a single cup of water. When he spoke again, his tone had softened considerably, losing the forced severity from before and leaving behind only a sense of exasperated disappointment.

"I was just momentarily possessed by greed. To be honest, I regretted it long ago. Absolutely nothing like that will ever happen again. I promise!" Song Shiyue hadn't expected Wang Mancang to be so easy to pacify. She hurried to strike while the iron was hot, hoping to smooth over this business about the original host once and for all.

Wang Mancang went over to the water dispenser, refilled his cup, drained it in one gulp, and then shook his head, rebutting, "That wasn't you being possessed by greed. That was you letting that birth father of yours eat your brains. At the beginning when he first came and you gave him a little money casually, I didn't lecture you—I just thought of it as well-meant charity. But later? When you started giving more and more, I told you to be careful and not let your hand be so loose. Do you remember how you answered me then? You said it was just one last time and you wouldn't be in contact anymore. Not in contact anymore—and yet you gave away all your savings and even ended up owing StarNet Credit Points? Not in contact anymore—and you can still land yourself in today's mess? You... you... you really are..."

As he spoke, Wang Mancang couldn't help getting angrier and angrier, and downed two more cups of water.

"Uncle Wang, so you already know everything... I was stupid. It truly won't happen again." Song Shiyue continued to take the blame, all the while keeping a cautious eye on Wang Mancang's round belly, genuinely afraid he'd burst from drinking so much.

"How could I not know?" Wang Mancang shot Song Shiyue a glare, opened the StarNet on his wrist, and with his chubby palm slapped the empty air in front of him. An electronic photo immediately zoomed over and was nearly smacked straight into Song Shiyue's face.

Oh... the suicide note...

Looking at the long table beneath the suicide note in the hovering electronic photo and the broken walls and rubble along the edges, Song Shiyue pointed at the sender labeled with a string of numeric codes. "This... was it Yu Nianbing who sent it to you?"

"What? More than half the content was addressed to me. She can't let me see it? You had better not be ungrateful. She knew you wouldn't be able to resolve this matter and was afraid you would... forget it. Anyway, it was absolutely right that she sent it to me. If I hadn't seen this, I wouldn't have known that you... that you..." Wang Mancang got angrier the more he thought about it and was about to go get more water, nearly gasping with rage.

How could Song Shiyue dare let him drink without restraint? She hastily snatched the cup, only poured him two small mouthfuls, and again took on the blame as she picked up the thread. "Right, I was stupid. You didn't know how stupid I was. Ai... I didn't know either... I was stupid."

Wang Mancang finished the two mouthfuls and glared at her.

Song Shiyue nodded hurriedly again. "I know now. Turns out I'm this stupid."

"Ai..." Wang Mancang didn't know whether he should believe Song Shiyue's self-reflection at this moment, but looking at her, she did indeed seem somewhat as if she had come to her senses. So he temporarily set aside the earlier matter, merely sighed, and asked, "How many StarNet Credit Points do you owe?"

"The amount from that StarNet cash-out... it seems manageable." Song Shiyue thought back for a moment, but when she spoke again, she faltered somewhat. "Only... from that private source, I also took out two loans..."

"You took out private loans? At high interest?" If Wang Mancang hadn't drunk so many cups of water earlier, his breath would have nearly failed him right then. "How much?"

The figure Song Shiyue reported after calculating made Wang Mancang heave a deep sigh.

"Every person has a set limit for borrowing on StarNet Credit. I originally thought that by helping you land a variety show opportunity, you'd be able to repay it and still have a little to spare. I never imagined... you also borrowed from private lenders. This girl's got guts as big as the sky. Even if you can pay it back someday, did you ever stop to think—as an artist—what it would mean when it gets out that you took private loans..." Wang Mancang suddenly recalled that Song Shiyue had attempted suicide precisely because she felt she had no way out. He quickly stopped himself, changed the subject, and said, "But for the StarNet part, we can apply for an extension. The upfront payment from this variety show will be enough to pay off about half of the private loans. I'll also go pull some strings and see if I can get us to pay off the private portion first, so we don't get trapped by the interest."

The sum the original host had borrowed from private lenders was not a small figure. One could say that the original host's nearly two years of filming that sitcom didn't even amount to a tenth of that loan.

What kind of variety show... could earn enough on the first go to cover what the original host would need ten years to earn...

Song Shiyue's astonishment was entirely undisguised, and Wang Mancang had no interest in stringing her along. He spoke directly. "A few years ago, didn't Suiguang Planet sell Suiguang Agricultural Planet No. 9 to a conglomerate? Later it was redeveloped into a planetary amusement park, and it was even renamed Amusement Planet. Before Amusement Planet opened, they custom-produced a variety show to its exact specifications. That was the one broadcast two years ago—what was it called, Amusement Journey. Do you remember it?"

"Amusement Journey was huge back then. Even now, tickets to Amusement Planet are still in crazy demand, aren't they?" Song Shiyue retrieved that variety show from two years ago from the original host's memory and couldn't help but ask curiously, "StarNet says Amusement Planet's third-phase expansion is almost done; could it be they're preparing a second season for Amusement Journey?"

Back then, Amusement Journey had been jointly developed by the conglomerate that bought Suiguang Agricultural Planet No. 9, the Suiguang Planet government, and multiple entertainment companies, mainly to debut the new planet with a reality variety show before Amusement Planet officially launched. Never mind the massive interstellar development interests involved; the sheer scale of investment in Amusement Journey remains unrivaled in the interstellar entertainment industry to this day.

If it were a second season of Amusement Journey, then it wouldn't be surprising that they could offer such a high payout.

But... if it really were Amusement Journey, there was no way they would seek out an artist as low-profile as the original host...

And sure enough, as soon as Song Shiyue asked, Wang Mancang shook his head.

"Amusement Planet has already been open for two years. Even once the third phase is complete, they don't need to shut the planet and film a variety show to promote it the way they did back then. But what I've gotten you is something with similarities to Amusement Journey: The Wilderness Journey. Earlier, I was with Ren Qiu on Mingtan Planet for a shoot. When I heard about your situation, I checked with the company while I was on the spaceship to see if there were any high-paying gigs, and just like that, I managed to snag this variety show opportunity for you." As Wang Mancang spoke, he shook his head again and sighed. "Ai, this variety show sounds awfully grueling just hearing about it, but I figured it pays a lot and the terms are straightforward. A dozen-odd days of hard work, just enough to solve your problem—that would have been fine. I never expected it still wouldn't be enough... Still, The Wilderness Journey is also paving the way for a newly redeveloped planet. Once it airs and the show and the planet opening cross-promote each other, if you perform well, your market value will definitely change. Paying off the rest won't be as hard as it is now."

Before the apocalypse, Song Shiyue had been a computer programmer. It was very clear that in this technologically even more advanced world, the skills she'd cast aside for seven years—and didn't know if she could even pick up again—wouldn't be of much use in the short term. If she wanted to survive using the original host's identity, the first thing she needed to do was repay those debts. And the fastest path to repaying them was, of course, to continue the original host's career as an artist.

For Song Shiyue, without the time to study systematically or fully master those skills, variety shows were clearly a bit less difficult than acting.

Yet regarding this variety show Wang Mancang described, Song Shiyue still hesitated somewhat. "A variety show promoting a newly redeveloped planet... do I even qualify?"

"I'm still waiting for the company to send over the specifics of the show. But your body of work is definitely on the thin side, so you'll need to pick up more skills." As he spoke, Wang Mancang pointed at the dried branches and grass on the coffee table. "I scraped this stuff together from the roadside when the spaceship made a brief stop at an affiliated planet. I originally had a few laying hens, too—well, those are gone now. But this stuff is much more useful than hens. Just from hearing the show's name, you've got an idea of it, right? The days won't be easy, but the pay is good."

"A lighter..." Song Shiyue had barely started when she saw Wang Mancang shake his head. She then settled for the next best thing. "Flint?"

"It's not that simple. Hearing the name, don't you get it? Would a survival-type show let you bring those things? As everyone knows, rubbing sticks together to make fire is the most essential and also the simplest skill." Wang Mancang nudged the iron pan with his foot, and for the first time, a friendly smile appeared. "Besides, it's about time you personally experienced just how hard our ancestors had to fight to stay alive."

After all that talk, only that last sentence was the real point, wasn't it... So he's still ranting about the suicide, isn't he... Song Shiyue couldn't help but press a hand to her forehead.

"Hold on, I need to check—I think the information from the company has arrived." Wang Mancang tapped the flashing StarNet client on his wrist, and then, looking at the webpage in the empty air, his expression suddenly turned grave.

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