Chapter 81: Chapter 81

Chapter 81 – Lan Xin’s Conspiracy (3)

Before Lan Jinyao had time to plan further, she suddenly discovered something; something which changed her, Shen Wei’an’s, and Lan Xin’s future.

When Lan Jinyao arrived at the practice room, it was still very early, around 8 AM. In the practice room, only Lan Xin was there practising the dance steps from the day before. Lan Xin was spinning and jumping; her movements and demeanour appearing extremely serious. Lan Jinyao was watching from the side, seemingly looking at her former self in those mirrors.

How could there be someone so similar to her in this world? No wonder Fu Bainian had mistaken Lan Xin as her at that time.

While Lan Jinyao was deep in thought, Lan Xin paused and interrupted her thoughts. “What are you thinking about so seriously? Do you want to practice together?”

“I was thinking…” Lan Jinyao stared at Lan Xin’s face and suddenly asked, “Did you have plastic surgery?”

Lan Xin was startled by the sudden question as Lan Jinyao’s tone didn’t contain even the slightest trace of jesting.

A moment later, Lan Xin finally smiled and said, “Yes! This face is gorgeous, don’t you agree? Lan Jinyao also looked like this, and she gained quite a lot of fans; perhaps I can, with this same face, become the second Lan Jinyao.”

All the disorderly thoughts in Lan Jinyao’s mind were interrupted by Lan Xin’s casual words.

The thought of Lan Xin trying to make herself look like her former self and then becoming famous overnight was just ridiculous, but… Lan Jinyao thought again: how many of her fans really liked her because of her face?

“You went through plastic surgery just to become famous. You must’ve suffered a lot!”

Lan Xin was dazed for a second before she snapped out of it and said, “That’s right! However, the moment I stepped into the operating room, my heart was actually happy.”

Lan Jinyao noticed a trace of nostalgia flash through Lan Xin’s eyes.

Gradually, more trainees entered the room, and so the conversation between the two ended.

Lan Jinyao had initially thought that Lan Xin and herself would be no better off than before, but a newcomer had, unexpectedly, taken the initiative to talk to them. Or, to be exact, talk to her.

The girl was called Xiaomin; she’d just turned 19 years old and was a student at an art school. She had yet to graduate but had already been scouted by Blue Hall Entertainment, and directly signed under the company.

She had a beautiful, youthful face, and crystal clear eyes; her entire being exuded a pleasant feeling.

“Big Sis Meimei, can you give me an autograph? I’ve seen the drama that you starred in as the female lead when it aired. It was really great! My parents kept praising you and even remarked: ‘How great would it be if I was as talented as you’!”

Xiaomin handed Lan Jinyao a pen, and then extended her fair arm, looking at her with a pleading face as she asked, “Pretty please?”

Lan Jinyao faintly smiled and said, “Of course!”

Following that, she signed Chen Meimei’s name on Xiaomin’s arm with a not-so-pretty looking signature.

Xiaomin was a very lively girl, and she explained to Lan Jinyao that because the rest of the girls hadn’t previously talked to them, she’d thought that they were very fierce people. Thus, she hadn’t dared approach them, but now it seemed that they were really nice. They didn’t put on any airs, and it didn't seem like they’d come in through the back door at all.

When Lan Jinyao listened to these words, she silently sighed in her heart. Sure enough, she was still young and spoke so bluntly, seemingly not afraid of offending people.

Afterwards, when Lan Xin had gone to the bathroom, she insisted on dragging Lan Jinyao along. And, as soon as they got there, the favourable impression that Lan Jinyao had in her heart instantly vanished into thin air.

“Big Sis Meimei, since you’ve autographed my arm, I can now have it tattooed!”

The girl's sweet words had now become a very ironic joke.

In the mirror in front of the sink, that girl, who was brightly smiling a moment ago, was currently frowning and continuously scrubbing at the autograph on her arm with hand soap. The delicate skin on her arm was now red from all her scrubbing. While she was rubbing, she was softly murmuring, “What kind of ink was this? Why is it so difficult to scrub off? If I’d known earlier, I would’ve used an easier to clean gel ink pen.”

Lan Jinyao stared at Lan Xin with a complicated look on her face and softly asked, “You brought me here just to see this?”

Lan Xin lightly grunted before saying, “I can see that your character isn’t bad, so you’re a friend worth making. I wanted to remind you that in the entertainment industry, people’s hearts are sinister, so you shouldn’t let others step on you like that. That girl is so young yet so shrewd; I'm sure that she’s not a simple person. I bet that she must’ve wanted to use you as a stepping stone.”

When Lan Jinyao heard these words, the look in her eyes was conflicted. If she’d known Lan Xin from the beginning, then she wouldn’t have become like this now. It was only after she’d died that she finally managed to see certain people’s true colours.

But, things were different now; she wasn’t the same gullible person from before.

After hearing Lan Xin say those words, Lan Jinyao smiled and said, “It’s all right! If she wants to use me as a stepping stone, then so be it! As long as she has the ability to do so!”

Lan Xin seemed angered by her words. After stammering ‘y-you’ several times, no other words were uttered as she angrily turned around and left.

Lan Jinyao glanced at Xiaomin, who was vigorously scrubbing her arm, and a glimmer of light flashed through her eyes. Her lips then curled up in a smirk as she turned around and left.

When Lan Jinyao clocked off work, she saw a huge stack of papers and documents in Lan Xin’s backpack. She had wanted to immediately leave at first, but just as she was about to turn around, the three words ‘Shen Wei’an’ printed on a piece of paper sticking out of the bag caught her eye.

How long did it take for information to travel from the nerves of the eyeball to the brain?

It only took a second. Lan Jinyao instantly stopped moving and then she slowly walked towards Lan Xin’s backpack.

By this time, most of the girls in the group had already gone home. Lan Xin had gone to the bathroom, so only Lan Jinyao was left in the practice room. Lan Jinyao didn't stop and kept on walking until she arrived in front of Lan Xin’s bag one minute later.

She extended her hand and slowly picked up the stack of papers and documents, looking through them one by one. Some of them were old newspapers, some were pages cut out from magazines, but all of them were about Shen Wei’an.

Not long after, she saw a news clipping. The news clipping was a report on Shen Wei’an’s fall from the elevated platform. In the attached picture, Shen Wei’an’s head was marked by a red pen and was ruthlessly crossed out in the middle; it seemed that the tip of the pen had penetrated through the paper, leaving a hole in Shen Wei’an’s face.

Lan Jinyao’s hand that was holding onto the newspaper slightly tightened and complex emotions flashed through her narrowed eyes.

Lan Jinyao suddenly remembered the scene where Shen Wei’an had fallen from the elevated platform. At that time, Xu Hao had said that the wire had been tampered with by someone. In addition, on the video that Xu Hao had distributed, it was clear that there was another person present that day. Who on earth was that person?

When Lan Jinyao saw the news clipping, she finally understood something.

Soon after that, she quickly put the stack of documents back in their original place and left the practice room as if nothing had happened.