Looking at the woman, Ning Meng could feel the corner of her mouth twitching."Excuse me, but who are you?"
The woman was surprised to hear this. "It"s me. Zhen Shanmei[1]."
Ning Meng rolled her eyes, ""True Goodness"? In that case, I"m an emissary of Love and Peace!"
"??"
"??"
After a long stand-off, the other woman flung her hair back to reveal her face. "It"s me!! Zhen! Shan! Mei! Come on! Don"t tell me you don"t recognize me just because I"ve put on heavier make-up today?!"
"..."
Zhen Shanmei pouted. "What"s wrong with you? I know we"ve never been on good terms but still, we literally grew up together! Sure, I know it"s been a while since we"ve last met, but how could you not recognize me?!"
"..."
Ah!
Now she remembered!
In the novel, this "Zhen Shanmei" was similar to Ning Meng, a young woman who came from an extremely privileged n.o.ble family. They grew up together but would always bicker with one another whenever they met. They were like cats and dogs.
However, after "Ning Meng" suffered her grim fate in the later chapters of the novel, Zhen Shanmei was the only one who helped her. Instead of kicking her down, Zhen Shanmei had shown her that she was her true friend all along.
In short, Zhen Shanmei was a tsundere.[2]
Seeing Ning Meng staring down at her, Zhen Shanmei suddenly remembered the reason she came. In an instant, she crossed her arms across her chest and gave a warning. "Are you pretending to not know me so you can seduce Li Haojie? I"m warning you! If you want to seduce my fiance, I"m going to disfigure your face with my nails!"
After finis.h.i.+ng her words, Zhen Shanmei clawed up her fingers in front of Ning Meng.
Li Haojie was one of the celebrities who was partic.i.p.ating in "Throne of Songs". The guy was a talented young man, however, he was an obnoxious arrogant sn.o.b. Due to his arrogance, Li Haojie was often at odds with various music producers in the industry. Zhen Shanmei had fallen for him some time ago and had used a lot of resources from her family to help him to maintain his reputation in the music industry. In other words, Zhen Shanmei was the one who had helped him become the famous music singer he was today.
That was also why seducing Li Haojie was essentially testing her limits.
Finally understanding what was going on, Ning Meng burst into a smile.
This was all Su Tiantian"s scheme.
The "Original Ning Meng" had been infamous for being unfaithful to her husband. In the past, "Ning Meng" had indeed threatened to seduce Li Haojie when she had had a fight with Zhen Shanmei. Su Tiantian was now using this to stir up a fight between Ning Meng and Zhen Shanmei.
It was true that she and Su Tiantian were warring against one another, however, if Su Tiantian wanted to use Zhen Shanmei as her body-double to attack her... heh, did you think that she, Ning Meng, had no ways of dealing with this?
Smiling sweetly, Ning Meng grabbed Zhen Shanmei"s hands. "Oh my, look at them! Your nails are so pretty~ and look! Look at your hands! They are so fair and soft!"
Zhen Shanmei, who was ready for a war, was stunned.
"Uh... yeah, of course they"re pretty!"
Ning Meng continued to praise her. "Hey, is your bag the latest one in the trend? I"ve always thought of buying one of these but I"ve never gotten the chance! I heard you need to queue up to get them!"
"?"
Zhen Shanmei"s stiff expression started to soften and she smiled. "Why, yes! My dad bought this for me when he visited France recently. He"s still in France now, in fact. If you want one, I can ask him to get one for you too."
"..."
Ning Meng felt as though Zhen Shanmei"s parents must have been bad at giving names. They should have named her "Zhen Easy To Pacify". What a cute, naive girl she was!
Meanwhile, Su Tiantian, who was lurking nearby, was stunned by what she was seeing. No. No, no, no! Weren"t they supposed to be enemies? If so, why were they having a friendly chat like old pals?!
-
After seeing Zhen Shanmei off, Ning Meng finally entered Lin Qingbei"s room.
Instead of worrying about the song Lin Qingbei had picked for the show the next day, Ning Meng was thinking about something else. Something that had bugged her earlier.
...what was that "Nun of yer biz" message about last night?
"Wait, does that mean that Huo Beichen is also a person who, like me, got sent into the book from the real world??"
After pondering for some time, Ning Meng finally typed out a WeChat message and sent it to Huo Beichen: [Let"s go, Mantis Shrimp!]
"..."
"Let"s go, Mantis Shrimp!" was an internet slang that also did not exist in the novel"s world.
[1] In the RAW, her name is "Zhen Shanmei"(甄善美）. The name carry the meaning of "True Goodness" (in Chinese, it"s written 真善美).
[2] A j.a.panese term for a person who is initially cold (and sometimes even hostile) before gradually showing a warmer, friendlier side over time.