TSMLS Chapter 1

TL: ClearSprings

Hello everyone!

I am a new translator, so I ask for some tolerance if I make rookie mistakes. 

In TSML’S, the first few chapters of this novel will feel a little slow because of the character introductions and whatnot.  It is a typical transmigration novel with a beautiful FL and a nearly perfect ML. If you are into this type of novel, then please add this to your reading list. 

“Do you want to anger me to death? Speak! Do you? Do you?!”

“When you previously pursued Bai Chen, you were scolded onto the hot search by Bai Chen’s fans, and lost a lot of camera time. Haven’t you learned your lesson? Now you have lost your mind, even provoking Yan Yan’s fans. Compared to Yan Yan’s identity and popularity, what are you?  And you said you want to be the next Yan Yan.  Don’t assume that being beautiful means you will have the same fate as Yan Yan.  The entertainment industry does not lack a face!  How many lifetimes of bad luck do I have that I signed such a brainless harmful spirit?! Still want me to pick you up? Get out of here! I don’t even want to look at you right now!”

Yan Yan just woke up when she heard the mobile phone vibrate. She subconsciously picked it up and was immediately showered by a rain of curses. She was momentarily dumbfounded. 

Since her debut to the present, she has been popular for over ten years. There has yet to be anyone so tired of living that they dared to scold her like that. 

Also, why do these words sound so familiar?

She brought the mobile phone over to see which bad-tempered brother was so courageous. As a result, a room full of pink as well as a mobile phone wrapped in a pink case entered her vision. After 3 seconds of silence, Yan Yan finally recalled why it sounded familiar.  

Isn’t this a passage from the plot of a fanfiction novel that her Assistant stubbornly forced on her yesterday?!

Yan Yan has not been sleeping particularly well recently and Assistant Ningmeng sent her a novel. With a glance, she saw it was a fanfiction about herself. Furthermore, it was a CP about her and a little fresh meat that she had no relationship with. Without even thinking, Yan Yan refused. 

However, Ningmeng swore that the text was well written, the plot was good, and the reality based characters are super good looking.  She has already read it 7 times, from beginning to end. Yan Yan really did not dare to trust Ningmeng’s taste, but she truly could not sleep due to insomnia. With nothing to do, Yan Yan still ended up opening the fanfiction. 

Just treat it as a sleep aid. That was what Yan Yan thought before she read the novel. 

As a result, she was completely unable to stop. 

It was truly a dog blooded story. But what was endlessly exciting was that the character of the fanfiction’s female lead, Yan Yan, was even more capable than the Yan Yan in reality. She can be said to have textbook perfect acting skills; proficiency in 12 different languages; an IQ of 150; and hundreds of millions in stocks. She can reach 88 stars in a game. In romance, her peach blossoms are in full bloom, and she thoroughly dominates all others in her career. 

Badass.

Among them, Yan Yan found the supporting female character named Tang Tang was the most interesting. 

Tang Tang is a fictitious character. Her appearance and figure were so perfect that they could not be any more perfect. It fully demonstrated what it means to have an angelic face and demonic figure. In addition, Tang Tang also had an extremely strong background. But, her contradiction with the protagonist, Yan Yan, stemmed from the male lead. Tang Tang ultimately fell in love with the novel’s male lead, in other words, the little fresh meat that Yan Yan is unfamiliar with.  

Unfortunately, the little fresh meat only liked Yan Yan.

As a result of being rejected, Tang Tang went crazy. She started to target Yan Yan out of jealousy, fight for resources, and swore to be even more popular than Yan Yan. However, as the female lead, Yan Yan relied on her superb acting skills and noble character to thoroughly overshadow Tang Tang, conquer the audience as well as the group of male leads, becoming a bona fide national goddess. 

Unable to surpass Yan Yan in popularity, Tang Tang became even more crazed. In order to overthrow Yan Yan, she became completely unscrupulous. In this manner, she finally pushed Yan Yan into a quagmire.  

At this time, the reversal came.

The reason why Tang Tang could be so unbridled was because she’s the eldest miss of the Ming Family. In the end, the Ming Family suddenly found out she was not the real eldest miss but a counterfeit!

Thus, the Ming Family ruthlessly drove her out of the house. In an instant, all of Tang Tang’s foundation collapsed. An honorable young lady turned into a jumping clown. Those who used to be afraid of her had no more reservations, repaying their hatreds and grievances. Dejected and depressed, Tang Tang was filled with hatred when she saw the reborn Yan Yan, and ultimately embarked on the road of being a kept woman.

Yan Yan felt the face slapping was incomparably refreshing. Tang Tang was truly rotten to the core. Yan Yan, who stayed up all night reading the novel, finally felt invigorated after seeing that Tang Tang’s gold master abandoned her, she was spit on and cursed by tens of thousands of people when the news revealed she was a kept woman, and ultimately died tragically on the streets.  

As a result, when she woke up, Yan Yan, who was originally the female lead, became the disaster-courting Tang Tang. 

Yan Yan: “…”

How toxic!

She really has some difficulty digesting this fact. Before she could figure things out, the door was pushed open, and a delicate and pretty looking girl entered. Seeing that she was already up, she quickly donned a sad expression. In a particularly despondent voice, “Tang Tang, I will send you.”

She just finished reading the novel not long ago, so her impression of it was actually quite deep. It’s just that this part of the plot happened somewhat too early and it took quite a while to dig out the girl before her. 

“Su Can?”

Tang Tang usually calls her Cancan. Being abruptly called by her full name made them seem very unfamiliar. Su Can’s face was stiff, then, expression full of guilt, she chokingly sobbed, “Tang Tang, do you blame me for snatching your position…”  

Having identified the person in front of her, Tang Tang gave a heartfelt laugh. “I don’t, I don’t.”

“You don’t even call me Cancan anymore,” Su Can cried and said. “I also couldn’t believe it when the final results came out yesterday. I had always hoped that the last person who debuted would be you. I wished I was not in 10th place. That way, I would not feel this guilty.”

The more Su Can cried, the more heartbroken she became. Tang Tang felt it was both absurd and laughable. 

Presumably, in order to emphasize Tang Tang’s poor popularity, the plot of the novel was quite detailed. 

In a certain TV station’s new program, 100 girls were selected to compete in a competition where the 9 with the highest popularity would ultimately be chosen to form a girl group. This was the competition Tang Tang participated in. 

Tang Tang used to be a high school student and knew nothing about singing, dancing, etc. Nevertheless, relying on her flawlessly beautiful face as well as a perfect figure, her popularity exploded from the very beginning. This degree of unprecedented explosive power was terrifying. 

However, Tang Tang happened to fall for Bai Chen, who is a young mentor on the program and, in other words, the little fresh meat male lead mentioned in the novel. She did not hide anything during the program and, in fact, her actions went increasingly overboard. She not only angered the male fans that liked her, she also provoked the little fresh meat’s fan group. As a result, her popularity took a nosedive. 

Later on, when Tang Tang was pursuing Bai Chen, she accidentally found out that Bai Chen unexpectedly liked the recently popular Yan Yan. Jealous, Tang Tang bluntly declared that she would definitely become more popular than Yan Yan in the future. If it ended here, then it was still fine. Tang Tang added a sentence. 

“Yan Yan’s acting skills are actually not that great. The past Film Empress title, wasn’t that also because the other shortlisted people lacked competitive strength?”

This sentence effectively stabbed the hornet’s nest. Yan Yan’s fans flew into a rage. The fans of the other shortlisted actors were also angered. 

One of Tang Tang’s black marks, for which she has always been condemned, was that her strength did not match up with her position in the ranking. In the events that followed, from pursuing a mentor to currently mocking a senior in public, Tang Tang ultimately turned the entire network against her. Coincidentally, everything was broadcasted live because it happened to be the program’s last episode.

Although Tang Tang’s fans frantically voted, they were no match for the enraged netizens who voted for others. Even if they did not like the others, they must force Tang Tang out!

In the end, that was what happened. Tang Tang, whose popularity was always in the lead, was eventually squeezed out of the top ten during the last stage. And, Su Can, who was in 10th place, successfully entered the top 9.

Su Can was Tang Tang’s best friend on the show.

If she hadn’t read the novel, seeing Su Can’s crying to this extent, Tang Tang would have believed Su Can was genuinely heart broken. 

Tang Tang has the looks but lacks the strength so Su Can had always been unresigned. On the surface, she appeared to be following Tang Tang to rub off her heat and brush up their CP. But, behind her back, there was no lack of ridicule. Now that Tang Tang has been eliminated, she could not describe how happy she felt inside. 

Tang Tang did not feel there was anything wrong with the current Su Can. After all, every man for himself, it’s the law of the jungle. Not to mention, Tang Tang’s level of professional abilities were really not presentable. So Tang Tang sincerely praised Su Can.

“Girl, your acting is not bad. In the future, you can consider developing in the film industry.”

For a split second, Su Can’s sob was stuck in her throat. Her cheeks momentarily flushed red as she anxiously tried to think of an explanation. However, Tang Tang still did not have a full grasp of the situation and was not in the mood to argue with a little girl over some trivial matters. Placing the mobile phone into her bag, she pulled her already tidied suitcase and opened the room door. 

The moment the door was open, Tang Tang was startled by how many people there were outside. [Please read this on clearspringstl(.)com]

There were several girls outside waiting to watch a show. They originally wanted to see if Tang Tang was crying. As a result, they did not expect Tang Tang to suddenly appear. Faced with Tang Tang’s gaze, they did not even have time to put away their expression of schadenfreude. 

They suddenly felt a little awkward. 

In the past, Tang Tang had the highest popularity and the most screen time. Everyone liked to get close to her to get more time in front of the camera. Therefore, even if they found her displeasing to the eyes, they feared the consequences, and pretended to be good sisters with her. 

But now, Tang Tang has offended Bai Chen and several seniors, and in particular, has offended Yan Yan, who was at the pinnacle of her career!

Yan Yan was 19 when she won the Golden Horse Film Empress title. Now, she only just turned 23 and charged forth, out of the country, to win the Movie Queen title at the Tokyo Film Festival. Yesterday, her fluent English acceptance speech gave her fellow countrymen a lot of face. Tang Tang was too stupid for provoking Yan Yan at this crucial point in time. 

So what if you become even more beautiful. In this industry, it is more appalling to have no brain than to have no beauty.  They heard that Tang Tang’s company was already preparing to terminate her contract. 

They learned previously from gossip about Tang Tang’s background. She was raised by her adoptive parents. After her adoptive father died, her adoptive mother treated her extremely harshly. It was just a middle class family. 

Her reputation was already ruined. She did not have a significant background. So what’s there to be afraid of?  For such a person, who lacked any capability, to debut with them was simply an insult to them. Therefore, all the grievances that they have been holding in for so long all poured out. 

“It’s really a pity. I thought we could debut together.” [Please read this on ClearSprings(.)com]

“I heard your agent was busy and could not come. Do you want me to have my agent send you back first?”

“It’s not certain we will see each other again. Let’s see Tang Tang off!”

Several of them responded, “Sure, sure,” at the same time. They all appeared excited, as if they were really being considerate to Tang Tang, but in fact, they wanted to witness Tang Tang’s embarrassment. 

She was the most popular one in the past. Now, she was so down and out that there wasn’t anyone to even pick her up. She can only stand pathetically in the rain to take a tattered taxi and leave with her tail between her legs. 

Just thinking about it made one feel especially pleased. 

Tang Tang finally recalled this part of the plot.

This was probably Tang Tang’s most dismal period of time. 

At this time, Tang Tang was still an orphan who did not have anyone who loved or cared about her. The Ming Family still had not yet found her. Therefore, without anyone to rely on, she was subjected to bullying. 

She remembered the contents of the book, so Tang Tang certainly understood what this so-called sending her meant and, therefore, repeatedly refused. But it was no use. Everyone was waiting to make a joke out of her. How arrogant she was in the past was how humiliated she is now, pitifully dragging a suitcase alone to hail a taxi. 

She did not know where Tang Tang currently went. She has become Tang Tang. She was thinking of a way to refuse when something suddenly came to mind. She smiled, “Okay, then thank you. I just so happen to be unable to carry the suitcase.”

“But I still have something else I did not pack. You guys wait for me.”

After speaking, she went into the room again, rummaged through a cabinet and conveniently picked up the mobile phone to check the time. 

It was 9:48, twelve more minutes to go.

The girls at the door watched Tang Tang rummaging here and there and coldly snorted. Looking for what? She was obviously procrastinating. 

But what’s the use of procrastinating? What they had was plenty of time and energy. After all, it was not easy for them to have an opportunity to laugh at Tang Tang’s embarrassment. 

At 9:52, Tang Tang came out. “Okay, let’s go.”

Seven or eight girls exchanged glances and noisily walked ahead. Su Can, who felt awfully guilty just a moment ago, also came. Acting as if nothing happened, she said to Tang Tang, “Tangtang1, earlier you said you did not have enough money on hand so I already called a car for you.”

[1 Tang Tang’s name is two different characters, 唐棠. Here, Su Can is repeating only Tang Tang’s first name 棠 to show familiarity or closeness.]

The group gave an unclear laugh when they heard the implication behind those words. The girl in the lead casually mentioned, “My dad just changed to a Cayenne a few days ago and still has not tried it yet.”

The other girls were envious.

“That car costs several million, right?”

“Yulin’s family is quite wealthy!”

On one hand, they were complimenting the lead girl while on the other hand, their gazes deliberately landed on Tang Tang from time to time.

This kind of behavior, where one flatters those above and steps on those below, continued the entire way. Unfortunately, Tang Tang wasn’t really listening. It wasn’t easy to obtain a little time, so she must hurry to recall this part of the plot.

It was not until they reached the entrance that Su Can took out her mobile phone to call for a car. She saw that there was a reminder notification at the top that the car was still 12 minutes away. The corner of her lips hooked up as she said to Yan Yan2, “Sorry, Tang Tang. I called quite a while ago, but there’s a little traffic congestion at the moment.” [Please read this on clearspringstl.com]

[2 idk why the author switched back to referring to MC as Yan Yan when she was using Tang Tang for a while.]

Someone purposely pretended to be puzzled and asked Tang Tang, “Your agent usually spoils you so much, why didn’t he come pick you up today? Your parents are from this area, but they also aren’t picking you up?”

Everyone started to laugh again. The lead girl got a glance at Tang Tang, “Tang Tang, you should have told me earlier you had no one to pick you up. I can have my family’s chauffeur make a trip here…”

Speaking to this point, the lead girl abruptly stopped. At a glance, the girl in the lead noticed a black limo slowly approaching the same place. The beautiful car model temporarily captured everyone’s attention.

The girls did not recognize the vehicle, but the lead girl recognized it and immediately cried out in surprise “OMG! A Mercedes Benz-Maybach S680 Pullman!”

Noticing the others’ completely unknowledgeable appearances, the lead girl felt an even greater sense of superiority.

“This is an ultra luxurious presidential car that has just been recently put in the domestic market. The lowest price is 12 million. One might not be able to purchase this luxury car even if you had money…”

With such an explanation, even if they did not know, it did not prevent everyone’s eyes from glowing when they looked at the car. 

Such a grand vehicle, is it just passing through or did it specifically come here?

If it specifically came here…

Everyone became excited for a moment. [Please read this on clearspringstl.com]

Among them, some have signed with a company and some still have not. Towards the latter part of the program, some big shots would occasionally make an appearance. Although they just recently stepped into this industry, they still understood what it means to have a strong backer. 

The vehicle slowly came to a stop before their eyes. The girls got even more excited. OMG! OMG!  It really did come here specifically. 

In the end, who is this prestigious person? What did this person come here for? Who is this person looking for? Could it possibly be me? [Please read this on clearspringstl.com]

The car door opened, and under everyone’s heated gazes, a forty something year old man dressed in a western suit came out of the car. His eyes skimmed over the crowd of girls squeezed together in front, passed over them, and finally landed on the faintly smiling Tang Tang standing at the end. 

Under everyone’s incomparably shocked gazes, the man gave a slight, very gentlemanly bow. “Miss Tang, please get in the car.”

“Mr. Ming has waited a long time for you.”