Chapter 32 Scammer Decides to Be a Good Person 7: Boss Shi’s Gourmet Business

As for Du Heng’s English, how should one put it… his pronunciation was too crisp, and his word choice too formal. It was the excellent standard produced by exam-oriented education. He could listen, read, and write, and communication wasn’t a problem either.

The problem was that it wasn’t natural enough, not conversational enough.

And it didn’t quite fit actual English language habits.

That wasn’t an issue right now, but the place he was going was the entertainment industry. What he wanted to be was an actor. What he was aiming for was an even bigger stage…

Maybe this slightly inelegant foreign accent would cost him a good role, or maybe after the information age arrived, this current accent would be dug up and mocked, becoming one of those juicy black marks netizens loved to harp on.

It looked like there was one more thing her boyfriend needed training in.

But exactly how to coach him would require more research and planning.

What needed more immediate attention was how to deal with that audition for The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.

The owner of the cigarette and liquor shop was so annoyed by Shi Lan asking him about it three times a day that the invitation-to-audition call finally came through.

Shi Lan had been home every day lately, helping Du Heng practice at night.

Probably because he’d made a decent sum from translation work, Du Heng had gained a bit more confidence about trying other professions. At first, he’d only agreed to this because Shi Lan had strongly insisted. But now, he seemed to have developed some genuine anticipation of his own.

Shi Lan herself definitely couldn’t act, but she had at least once been a veteran of surfing the internet at 5G speed. She listened every day to entertainment commentators roasting one person’s looks and another person’s acting, so she could at least talk theory on paper and sound like she knew what she was doing.

Hopefully she could help guide the future Film Emperor into the right state.

“You already know the original inside and out, so I won’t go over that. The next step is understanding him and portraying him. Audition time is too short. If you want the people watching to remember you among so many competitors, we’ll probably need to use a few little tricks.”

“Like what?”

Shi Lan said, “Put it this way. If you had to use the shortest possible description for Yang Xiao’s personality, how would you sum him up?”

After thinking for a moment, Du Heng said, “Neither wholly righteous nor wholly wicked, proud and unrestrained, deeply loving and quietly enduring.”

Shi Lan lit up. “Oh? Not bad, young man.”

As expected of a future Film Emperor in the making. She had originally thought she’d need to spend much more time explaining character setup.

“Good. Then remember those labels. Once you go in and get your audition prompt, focus on bringing out the charm of those traits. The appeal of being half-righteous, half-wicked is mystery. The appeal of being proud and untamed is the audience’s admiration for the strong. A character who loves deeply and endures in silence becomes the dream man of female viewers. His charm lies in making people ache for him.”

Du Heng asked, “Yours too?”

“What?”

“Dream man.”

Shi Lan: “…”

She glared at him.

Shi Lan said, “Quit messing around. We’re talking business.”

Du Heng fell into thought.

“I think… I know what you’re trying to say now.”

She snapped her fingers.

Shi Lan said, “Perfect. Then let’s give it a try?”

Holding the book, she rehearsed lines with Du Heng.

Facing her, Du Heng was a little restrained.

But in every gesture and movement, he was already carrying some of the character’s bearing.

So this was what people meant by being monstrously gifted?

Then again, considering he was the male lead, it suddenly didn’t seem all that surprising.

On the actual audition day, Shi Lan didn’t set up her stall and went with him instead. They were led into a large conference room to wait, and it was packed with people.

After taking a look around, Shi Lan tugged on Du Heng’s sleeve, signaling for him to lower his head.

He readily obliged and tilted his head down.

Standing on tiptoe, Shi Lan leaned close to his ear and whispered, “None of them are as handsome as you.”

Smiling, Du Heng pinched the back of her neck gently, as if helpless with her and yet unable not to respond.

The number Du Heng drew was 17, and there were still numbers after his. The competition was brutally intense.

Before coming, Shi Lan had already prepared herself for him not making it. Whether he succeeded or not didn’t really matter. But once they arrived, she was still nervous, even more nervous than Du Heng, the one actually auditioning.

Probably because she was afraid Du Heng would be disappointed. After all, he’d prepared for so long, and she was the one who had pushed him into coming.

Shi Lan’s nervousness even spread to the people beside her.

A girl about her age struck up a conversation. “Could you stop shaking? I wasn’t nervous before, but looking at you like this, I’m starting to panic.”

“Uh… sorry, sorry.” Shi Lan apologized, then asked, “What role are you auditioning for?”

The girl showed her number badge. It was Number 15, Zhao Min¹.

Shi Lan would bet anything that she wouldn’t get it.

Never mind acting, she already lost on looks alone. After all, not everyone was like Du Heng, spoon-fed by the heavens for this line of work.

Still, she said, “Wishing you success.”

If she couldn’t get the female lead, maybe she could at least land a maid role or something?

Despite the large number of people, the line moved very quickly. Soon it was Du Heng’s turn.

Shi Lan couldn’t enter the audition room and could only wait outside anxiously. Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait long. He came out in a little over ten minutes.

With it being that short, it probably hadn’t worked out.

She didn’t press him for details either. That would only make him feel worse.

“To celebrate us trying something new today, we should raise a glass to our courage. Come on, let’s go have a big meal.”

Since they were out for an audition, both of them were dressed relatively formally today. Shi Lan had done some homework in advance and found a pretty decent Western restaurant nearby. It was the perfect chance to try it out and, while they were at it, give classmate Du Heng a little crash course in Western dining etiquette.

By now, Shi Lan had realized something. Du Heng was a top-tier innocent fool.

She had already done plenty of things that didn’t match the “Shi Lan” persona at all, yet this silly guy had never once suspected that his girlfriend had become a different person. He hadn’t even asked how she knew so many things.

So now she had completely let herself go. Before, she might have found some excuse to smooth things over and make them seem reasonable. Now, she couldn’t even be bothered to waste the brain cells.

She’d rather spend that effort keeping a close eye on Du Heng so this innocent fool wouldn’t get tricked away by anyone other than her.

So the reason the Film Emperor could portray so many different lives and experiences was because he himself was basically a blank sheet of paper?

That actually made some sense.

–

Shi Lan had recently hired another helper for odd jobs, freeing up her hands so she could set up another stall herself.

It was right at the school entrance, in the stall space next to someone selling roasted sweet potatoes. She was selling fried chicken.

Unlike boxed meals and popcorn, fried chicken had to be fried fresh and sold fresh. The smell was unbelievably good.

To make prep easier, her fried chicken stall only sold fried drumsticks. Five yuan each, and chicken was only two yuan per jin at the moment.

Same as before, huge profit margins.

Fried chicken wasn’t like boxed meals or popcorn, which had specific selling times.

Once she opened at noon, she could keep selling all day.

But keeping a stall going nonstop like this wasn’t a long-term solution. Shi Lan had already started looking for a storefront nearby. Buying one was out of the question right now, but renting one was still possible.

Qin Xiaohui, the greedy little foodie from the factory, had stopped eating boxed meals ever since Shi Lan started the fried chicken stall. Together with her girlfriends, each of them would buy two drumsticks and pair them with a box of plain rice, DIY-ing their own fried chicken combo meal. They’d eaten it like that for a whole week straight without getting sick of it.

Quite a talent, really. A perfect display of a foodie’s creativity.

Even Xiao Liu, the real estate agent, came by to buy drumsticks almost every other day. Maybe he was afraid people would laugh at him for being greedy, because every time he bought some, he’d make a point of explaining, in the most obvious cover-up ever, “I’m taking them home for my nephew.”

Shi Lan just smiled without saying anything. There was nothing shameful about being a foodie.

Handing the drumsticks to Xiao Liu, Shi Lan casually urged, “Don’t just focus on eating drumsticks every day. Hurry up and find me that storefront I asked for too.”

Liu Haifeng: “…”

He knew it. Every time he came to this stall, he’d somehow get assigned another task. No wonder he was a little scared of the stall owner. This stall owner was even more like his boss than his actual boss was.

These past few days, he’d already been pressured several times about finding a storefront. If it weren’t for the food, he definitely would have started avoiding the stall.

Liu Haifeng: “I’m already looking. If I find a suitable one, I’ll contact you right away.” After saying that, he added a form of address, “Boss Shi.”

Shi Lan: “Don’t call me boss. With my surname attached, it makes me sound like some burly middle-aged guy in the mining business.”

Liu Haifeng: “…”

Liu Haifeng: “All right, Miss Shi.”

At the same time he spoke, Shi Lan’s voice rang out as well.

“You can call me President Shi. You’ll have to call me that sooner or later anyway.” Shi Lan was extremely confident in her culinary business empire, even though she didn’t even have a single shop yet…

Liu Haifeng: “…” If he kept spending time with this stall owner, sooner or later he was going to come down with a disease called speechlessness.

Liu Haifeng: “All right, President Shi.”

Shi Lan: “Huh, you actually said it. I was joking.”

Liu Haifeng: “…”

That joke of yours was a little too deadpan.

“But since that’s the case, today’s chicken leg is on me. I won’t charge you.”

Liu Haifeng: “…”

And you call that a joke. You were clearly smiling so happily after hearing it.

Shi Lan watched his expression change again and again.

She asked suspiciously, “Are you roasting me in your head right now?”

Liu Haifeng: “!!!”

“Hahahahaha, working with you would definitely be fun. Your expressions are so lively. Anyone who spends a lot of time with you would never get bored.”

Liu Haifeng lost the ability to speak once more. Grabbing his fried chicken, he ran off. “I’m going back to look for a storefront.”

This stall owner is toxic. I can’t stay here any longer!

Qin Xiaohui was right behind Liu Haifeng in line, and now she stepped forward with a grin. “Hello, President Shi. President Shi, President Shi, what kind of shop are you opening? President Shi, can you give me a free order too?”

“No free orders. If I hand out too many perks, they won’t feel special anymore.” Shi Lan refused.

Qin Xiaohui had only been joking in the first place.

“Then I can only look forward to the new shop. What are you going to sell there?”

“Hmm, still fast food. If you like fried chicken, then look forward to the new items in the shop when the time comes.”

The shop hadn’t even been secured yet, and the owner was already painting a rosy picture.

“Crispy whole chicken, honey-glazed braised chicken, fried chicken legs, fried chicken wings, chicken nuggets, popcorn chicken, hamburgers, iced sour plum juice…”

Wait, did something strange just sneak in there?

Whatever.

“There’ll definitely be discounts when the new shop opens, so remember to come by when it does~”

Shi Lan’s culinary business empire flourished magnificently in the middle of her enthusiastic boasting.

As for Du Heng, she was still looking for a new opportunity for him.

Originally, she had already given up hope on the Heaven Sword and Dragon Slaying Sabre Crew, but unexpectedly, the owner of the tobacco and liquor shop brought over a notice one day saying he could join the production.

However, the role assigned to Du Heng was not Yang Xiao, the one he had auditioned for.

It was Yin Liting².

Translator’s Notes