I Am A Prodigy

Ye Lingchen looked at the five of them and asked with a smile, “You guys know each other right?”

The three beauties were the bait, while Lu Xiaobu and Chen Chichi were the hook, waiting to fish a victim to buy them a meal.

“Lu Xiaobu, I told you this won’t work!” said the shorter girl. “How can such a shoddy scheme work on this handsome and wise young man? Handsome guy, we’ve not eaten a proper meal for the past few days. Can you treat us beauties to a meal? You can forget about those two.”

“Chen Meijia!”

Lu Xiaobu pointed his finger shakily at Chen Meijia, his expression changed immediately from one of anger to sadness. “Sob sob sob, Brother Ye, don’t leave me behind.”

“Let’s go, I’ll treat you guys to a meal.” Ye Lingchen shrugged his shoulders and laughed, then headed towards a restaurant nearby.

“Ahhh, you’re the best!” Chen Meijia jumped up immediately, speaking excitedly, “I’ve dreamed of having a meal here. Who knew it would really come true!”

“See? I told you this fella is a rich guy right? My eyes are sharp.” Lu Xiaobu was full of himself.

“What’s the use of having sharp eyes? Aren’t you still a poor bloke?” Chen Meijia rolled her eyes as she took a jab at him.”

Along the way, through their conversation, Ye Lingchen finally learned that the three girls were Chen Meijia, Lin Wanyu, and Hu Yifei. They, like Lu Xiaobu, were students from Capital City Arts Institute from the same class.

It was undeniable that arts institutions churned out beauties. The looks of these three were more than sufficient for them to become actresses.

For this interview, they spent most of their living expenses on clothes and makeup, barely passing each day with porridge. Furthermore, the food in the heart of Capital City was too expensive. Even when they were rich, they would not dare to spend their money here, much less so in their current condition. Due to that, they were constantly hungry.

Entering the restaurant, all six of them took a seat in the hall and the waiter immediately brought them a menu.

“This, this, this, and that…” Ye Lingchen pointed at several dishes that were of the lower price range. However, Lu Xiaobu and the gang did not care at all. They were already content that someone would pay for their meal here.

However, Ye Lingchen followed with, “I don’t want those. Give me a portion of everything else.”

“What?” The five of them were dumbstruck, gawking at Ye Lingchen.

“Brother Ye, there’s no need. We don’t need that much. This is too costly,” Lu Xiaobu immediately spoke up.

“We can’t eat that much. It’s too wasteful,” Chen Chichi added, getting ready to call out for the waiter.

“Just sit down and enjoy your meal at peace. I’m not ordering just for you guys. Some of the dishes I plan to take away,” Ye Lingchen explained with a smile.

Although the five of them took their seats, their eyes were still showing signs of shock. Lu Xiaobu silently mouthed at the rest, “RMB10,000!”

That meal would cost at least RMB10,000!

That was beyond their imagination. Even if the clothes they all bought through saving crazily was not worth RMB10,000.

“Wah! Tall, rich, and handsome!” Chen Meijia stared at Ye Lingchen, her pupils turning into the shape of a heart. Her body unconsciously steered nearer towards Ye Lingchen.

“Chen Meijia, behave yourself. Your saliva is almost dripping onto Brother Ye’s body,” Lu Xiaobu reminded her spitefully.

“Why should you care!? Lingchen didn’t even say anything!” Chen Meijia shot a dissatisfied look at Lu Xiaobu, then turned over to look at Ye Lingchen, saying, “Lingchen, do you have a girlfriend? If you already do, do you mind changing to another one? In fact, would you mind one more? I’m open-minded.”

“Ahhh, Chen Meijia, please control your sluttiness! Just kill me!” mocked Lu Xiaobu. “When you look for a husband in the future, you must find one that has a good temperament. Otherwise with a large green pasture[1] above his head filled with horses running free, who could withstand such a thing?”

“Lu Xiaobu!” Chen Meijia stared daggers at Lu Xiaobu.

“According to research, temperament plays an important role in longevity. The better the temperament, the longer the lifespan,” Chen Chichi interjected.

“Haha, I don’t know anything about temperaments, but according to a fortune teller, I will face a hurdle at 130 years old,” Lin Wanyu jested.

“What’s the problem? Your grave is demolished?” Ye Lingchen added out of nowhere. The entire table immediately burst into laughter.

“Brother Ye, I didn’t expect you to be a master of assisting. I’m humbled.”

In an instant, the entire table grew closer. The dishes were served and they started eating while happily chatting away.

Eventually, the meal came to an end.

“Hey pretty, what are you so happy about? Tell us so we can share your joy.”

Right then, a guy from the neighboring table spoke to them.

The dissonant voice put a frown on everyone’s brows.

“Are you talking to us?” Chen Chichi stared at that guy.

“To be precise, I was talking to the pretty lady.” That guy chuckled, ignoring Ye Lingchen and the other two guys. “We’re students from the sports academy nearby. Directors often come by our academy to scout for actors and filming locations. I’m acquainted with quite a few directors, and could perhaps help these three pretties get connected.”

“No thanks.”

“Don’t reject me so quickly. Let’s add each other on WeChat. The path of an actress is not easy, with lots of unspoken rules. Perhaps you might come to an understanding sometime down the road.”

“Oh? Pass me your phone then,” Hu Yifei said suddenly.

“Hehehe.” That guy laughed teasingly, feeling proud as he thought Hu Yifei had given in. He then passed his phone over.

However in the next instant—

Hu Yifei’s grip relaxed, and the phone fell to the ground with a thud. The screen cracked immediately, the cracks spreading out like a spider’s web.

“Oh no, I’m sorry. My hand slipped.”

Hu Yifei apologized with an innocent expression on her face. “Do you have another phone? I’ll add it again.”

That guy’s face twitched. Suppressing his heartache, he asked his friend for another phone and passed it to Hu Yifei.

Clang!

“I’m sorry, my hands slipped again…” Hu Yifei clapped her hands. “The three of you should have another one right?”

“Are you toying with me?” That guy’s face turned dark, finally coming to realization. His gaze locked onto Hu Yifei menacingly.

Hu Yifei was no doubt one that studied in performance. Her facial expression changed in an instant, unrecognizable from before. She placed her hand on her hips, putting on an intimidating aura. “What about it? I hate those that try to talk about those unspoken rules in front of me!”

“F*ck! I will show you what the unspoken rules are tonight!” The three guys slammed hard on the table and stood up.

“Sirs, please calm down. Let’s keep it peaceful and avoid getting physical.” The commotion immediately alerted the manager to come over to talk them down.

“Get out of the way!” One of them pushed the manager away. “Nobody dared to behave so insolently in our territory!”

“Let’s get them together!”

“Issen[2]!”

Crack!

…

[1] The large green pasture is a play on the word “green”. The commonly used phrase is (戴绿帽) “putting on a green hat”, which is a euphemism for being cuckolded. In this case, the “green hat” is so large that the author compared it to a green pasture.

[2] 弹一闪 (flick, one flash / Issen). Originally a gameplay mechanic in Onimusha which allows the player to make a counter-attack when timed properly to achieve instant kills. However, in this context, that move was referenced to in a Chinese TV series and it’s about how the character is so well trained in martial arts that her auto-response when approached would be to disarm/dislocate the opponent’s arm. So with the double reference and warped meaning from the original reference, we have decided to just stick with the name and have our reader check out the reference used in Chinese media instead (this is, after all, a Chinese novel) https://www.bilibili.com/video/av88797935/