Bai Lu got scammed, but I became a superstar through e-commerce.

Back at the hotel that evening, Bai Lu laid his notebook out on the table, turned to the first page filled with observation notes, then turned to the next blank page.

She sat there holding the pen for a long time, but didn't write a single word.

The phone rang.

Three words popped up on the screen: Boss Qing.

Bai Lu answered the phone, held it to her ear, and didn't say anything.

"Little deer, did you have a tough day of training?"

The moment Bai Lu heard Qing Xiao's voice, it felt like something was blocking his throat.

She remembered what Wu Jiayi had said in a low voice in the restroom, and the embarrassment she felt in the afternoon's physical education class when everyone else was paired up to correct each other's movements, while she was the only one facing the mirror and the teacher asked her, "Where's your partner?"

She opened her mouth, but swallowed all those words back, uttering only a single syllable.

"Um."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

Qingxiao noticed that Bailu was in a very abnormal state.

Bai Mengyan.

She didn't respond.

"Every time you say 'hmm,' you don't really mean it. What are you enduring? When the stall owner stood me up in Sijiqing, you said 'hmm.' The day you pushed me into the water during the filming of the short film, I told you, 'That's right,' and you replied with 'hmm.' What's wrong with you?"

Bai Lu switched the phone to his other ear.

"I'm fine."

Bai Mengyan.

He rarely called her by her full name like that, and when he called her by it for the second time, Bai Lu finally stopped responding.

"You know I won't die. Tell me." His voice was a little softer than before. "What happened?"

Bai Lu scratched the mark on the paper from the middle of the notebook all the way to the bottom right corner, leaving a thin dent on the paper with his fingernail.

"Wu Jiayi, Wu Jinyan, and Gao Yuer were always together. They ate together, practiced their lines together, rehearsed their scenes together, and after class, they would meet up to practice their physical movements together in the next room. They were very polite to me, more courteous than anyone else. They told me I could watch them practice and ask them anytime if I didn't understand something. But every time the teacher asked everyone to practice in groups, the three of them would automatically form a group. It wasn't that they didn't want me to join, but they were already tacitly turning the page. A group of actors consisted of three or two people, and when they brought back the people they had finished practicing with, they would see me and say, 'Bai Lu, are you done practicing? We just got back.'"

Bai Lu took a breath.

"This afternoon in yoga class, the teacher said, 'Everyone, find a partner to correct each other's movements.' When I stood up, Wu Jiayi had already pulled Gao Yuer to her yoga mat, and Wu Jinyan and her roommate next to her had also paired up. Song Weilong had paired up with a male actor from his group. Mi Re had also paired up with another male actor. Everyone squatted down in pairs and started stretching each other's legs, but I was the only one standing in front of the yoga mat, still tying my hair up. The teacher said, 'Where's your partner?' I said I'd wait a minute. I waited for a minute, and then I saw Wu Jiayi and Gao Yuer had already started stretching, and Wu Jinyan was stretching too. I stood there for a minute, and no one came over."

When she said the words "no one came," her vocal cords finally trembled uncontrollably.

It wasn't out of anger, but because after she spoke out, she realized that standing in the classroom for just one minute could feel incredibly long.

"Wu Jiayi was talking to them about the performance, about what kind of breath the scriptwriters liked to emphasize, and about which classroom had the best lighting. They never avoided me when they talked, and sometimes they would smile at me, meaning, 'We're not talking badly about you, but you probably don't understand what we're talking about.' I wanted to chime in, but I couldn't understand them. They never did anything wrong, every word they said was polite, and every smile they gave me was respectful. I was the only one left standing there."

She wanted to finish speaking, but suddenly her throat tightened, and she swallowed the breath back down. She stopped abruptly, and only a faint, almost inaudible breathing sound came through the phone.

"Bai Lu?" Qingxiao's voice was very soft, as if he was afraid of breaking something.

"What's wrong with you? Tell me."

Bai Lu closed her eyes, pressed her forehead against the paper in the notebook, and finally burst into tears.

It wasn't a loud, wailing cry, but the kind of sob that comes out little by little from the throat after holding it in all day, after holding it in for far too long.

She covered her mouth with the back of her hand and said, "I didn't have a chance to speak," then muttered to herself, "Now they talk badly about me behind my back too."

"Why, Qingxiao? The modeling world isn't like this. Back when you were modeling in Sijiqing, some models had high education levels, some had low. Everyone changed hundreds of outfits in an afternoon, crammed behind a curtain to change, and no one was inferior to anyone else. People only talked about which manufacturers were easy to talk to, which brands had high prices, who could shoot quickly and get advice, and who had a good attitude and was respected by everyone. No one ever looked down on hardworking colleagues. But in the entertainment industry, it's all about education, background, and interpersonal relationships. Just because I didn't study acting, does that mean I don't deserve to sit in that classroom?"

She kept her voice very low, as if afraid that someone on the other side of the wall would hear her.

"Teacher Yu said that practicing three times is passing, and ten times is excellent. I practiced more than ten times every day. Wu Jiayi and the others passed after three times, but I still had flaws even after ten times. I was scolded by the teacher while practicing, and I would stand in the corner and practice my lines in front of the mirror by myself. Several times, I would get up and practice before the teacher even arrived in the classroom, and I would still be in the practice room at 11 p.m. Every morning, I was the first to arrive at the classroom and the last to leave. But no matter how much I practiced, they could always find something I didn't understand. They wouldn't ask me when they were talking about the performance, and they wouldn't call me when they borrowed a classroom for extra practice. It was obvious that I was being isolated by them, just because I didn't have formal training and I didn't have any classmates to rely on."

"Bai Lu".

Qingxiao's voice was deeper than ever.

"For ordinary people like us, the grievances and injustices you are experiencing now are the soil."

Bai Lu's finger hovered over the paper in the notebook.

"What kind of suffering did we endure before? I carried woven bags from the first floor to the fifth floor of Sijiqing Market, my hands scraped and bleeding, I put on two band-aids and kept going to get goods. You wore a gauze skirt in the dead of winter to shoot down jackets, you put on eight heat packs and still got arthritis from the cold. That was physical suffering. Back then we had nothing, no money, no resources, no one respected us. But we made it through."

"Now that I have some financial means, you have the opportunity to debut. The hardship we have to endure now is not physical, but mental. It's the hardship of sitting in the corner of the classroom, painstakingly taking notes word by word when you don't understand acting terminology. It's the hardship of practicing alone in the practice room until closing time when you're isolated. It's the hardship of feeling wronged, but only being able to speak to the person on the other end of the phone."

Bai Lu wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, her voice muffled: "And what about you? What are you suffering from now?"

"I want to learn company management, further expand our business, and learn to be a qualified boss. I'll learn what I don't know, and I'll ask questions about what I don't understand. You also need to learn to withstand the backstabbing and deceit in the entertainment industry. You can't go along with it, and you can't fawn over others. But you must learn to protect yourself. Never give up, and always strive."

He paused for a moment.

"Once we get through this, we'll all be invincible. Bai Lu, keep going! This is the only way for us ordinary folks to climb up the social ladder."

"Um."

Bai Lu nodded heavily: "I'm a hardworking and strong little deer, I've never known what giving up means. Thank you, Boss Qing, thank you for always being by my side."