Chapter 23: Comparison

On the way to the company, Lin Xiyue sat in the car, scrolling through comments on RougeNet. Her emotions were all over the place.

She was too shy and socially anxious to look—yet too curious not to. She couldn’t resist peeking to see what people thought of her now that she had turned into a girl.

Fortunately, most of the comments were positive. The world was realistic like that: if you were pretty, people tended to like you more. At the very least, very few would go out of their way to show hostility toward a beautiful girl.

Of course, there were always a few extreme outliers—some criticized her for “marketing tactics,” while others insisted she was “ugly,” clearly talking nonsense.

But to her surprise, these so-called “hate comments” didn’t hurt her nearly as much as she expected. Compared to how terrifying things would become in a few years, netizens right now were still too innocent, their malice and aggression too soft.

“Ding—”

A message popped up. It was from Ran Zhu.

“That person I mentioned last time—I forgot to check after going home. Just remembered now.”

Xiyue smiled helplessly. That was typical of Zhu-ge: bold, messy, and unreliable in a strangely charming way.

The person she asked about was actually a girl from Guangnan No. 2 High School—named Bai Lulu.

Because Lin Xiyue had a niche hobby: shipping CPs.

Not real-life ones—never those—but fictional yuri couples from anime.

While she was deep into shipping them, she also occasionally produced fan songs using her family’s entertainment resources.

She actually had remarkable creative talent. Combined with the top-tier equipment at Lin Entertainment—and the company artists who happily lent their voices to please the heiress—her works had impressive quality within that small fandom circle.

That also allowed her to befriend other creators. Among them was a fan artist who went by “Lulu,” with whom she got along extremely well. They had been online friends for several years and had collaborated on plenty of “CP content,” forming a close bond.

A few days earlier, Lulu had attended a comic convention, cosplaying the younger, more aggressive half of their favorite yuri couple. She sent pictures to Xiyue.

Only then did Xiyue discover that the friend she had always thought of as a mature, older-sister type was actually a half-loli girl.

Lulu had joked that she still lacked a partner to cosplay the older, more submissive character, and asked if Xiyue wanted to join her.

To show sincerity, she even revealed her age, name, and school—turning out to be Bai Lulu from the neighboring Guangnan No. 2 High School, the same grade as Xiyue.

Naturally, that made Xiyue curious about what this little cutie was like in real life. So she asked Ran Zhu to investigate. And now the information had returned.

One look was enough to shock her.

Because according to what Ran Zhu found, Bai Lulu was no ordinary student—she was the heiress of Guangnan Bai Real Estate, the largest real estate conglomerate in the entire city.

Real estate families were powerful everywhere—let alone in a place like Guangnan. Compared to that, an A-level entertainment company didn’t seem impressive at all.

In other words, she was the real rich young lady in this story.

“What’s wrong, Yueyue?”

From the car’s rearview mirror, Xu Wei noticed her daughter’s changing expression and asked casually. Xiyue shook her head. She didn’t intend to tell her mother just yet.

When they arrived at the company, Secretary Li handed Xu Wei two receipt slips—the registration confirmations for the Piggy Music competition.

Why two? Because she had submitted both Lin Xiyue and Summer Jinnan.

“Xixi! Did you see the RougeNet ratings?!”

Summer Jinnan came running over excitedly, grabbing Xiyue’s hands.

For her, even though judging physical appearance was a shallow thing, being acknowledged by the public still made her genuinely happy. Her family environment had always made her a bit self-conscious.

“Mhm, I saw. I told you you’re a great beauty! You’re the one who never believes in yourself~”

“Oh, please, you’re way prettier. You’re S-tier! I’ve never heard of a non-celebrity being rated S.”

Summer pouted playfully. She was smart—she didn’t even ask why Xiyue got evaluated, nor why there were two registration slips.

She knew she was still technically an outsider. She’d heard rumors about Aunt Xu and Lin Ziyu, so she understood why trust couldn’t be unconditional.

Besides, if she and Xiyue debuted as a duo, she would be even happier.

Since they promised to be lifelong best friends, they should share historic moments like this too.

“Hehe, I think they rated me too high~”

Xiyue smiled softly. She hadn’t expected her score to be that high, let alone attract so much attention.

This sudden spotlight helped her and Summer gain momentum, but it also put heavy pressure on her.

Because with attention came gossip. Sooner or later, the public would dig up the Lin family’s past, including her connection with Lin Ziyu.

When that happened, people would inevitably compare them constantly. If Xiyue made a single mistake or failed to improve quickly enough, the pressure would be brutal.

Words like “pretty but useless,” “internet celebrity,” “untalented,” “just marketing,” “inferior to Lin Ziyu”—would all rain down on her.

“Alright, practice comes first. Let’s go?”

Summer pulled her straight into the recording studio, already discussing how to divide the lyrics. Xu Wei raised an eyebrow.

“That girl Jinnan is really considerate. If only Lin Ziyu had half her humility and gratitude, things wouldn’t have turned out like they did back then…”

“Miss Summer is indeed very kind and gentle,” Secretary Li softly agreed.

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Zhao Entertainment — Shangjiang City

The storm caused by Lin Xiyue had spread through the entire entertainment industry, and Zhao Entertainment was no exception.

In a lounge, a beautifully dressed, elegant young woman sat on a sofa sipping coffee, trying to wake herself up before filming her next schedule.

The other artists sat far away, deliberately leaving a wide gap around her. No one dared sit beside her.

Because she was Zhao Entertainment’s prized star—the rising supernova of the industry, a 22-year-old soon-to-be top-tier celebrity—

Lin Ziyu.

At this moment, the great Miss Lin was, for once, casually playing on her phone during work hours. She stared at the styling photo on the screen, her thoughts unreadable.

“Heh. Weren’t they unwilling to let their real daughter step into this filthy industry back then? Yet the one they picked up off the streets was fine to throw in?”

“What’s wrong? Fallen into such a pitiful state now?”