Chapter 85: The Center of the Fish Pond (20)
After reviewing the camera footage, Su Mingxiu realized that there was probably no point in holding those children accountable.
After all, her perfume was homemade. Making a big fuss about it would only teach their parents a lesson—
She left the poolside, intending to find Suhui and retrieve the necklace.
But she couldn’t find the fish.
Since Suhui had already finished filming, and it was free time now, no one was keeping an eye on her. It was still early before they had to return to the Produce 101 base, so Su Mingxiu could only wander around the venue.
She even checked the changing rooms. Although she didn’t see the foolish fish, she did spot a familiar shade of red in the trash can.
The black-haired woman reached out and retrieved the discarded red coral. It curled around her hand like a neglected child, forming a beautiful bracelet.
Su Mingxiu, however, found it dirty and took it to the bathroom to wash it thoroughly under cold water.
But perhaps because the coral came from the deep sea, the fresh water seemed to dilute its color. Although it was still beautiful, it wasn’t as vibrant as before.
She looked down at it for a while, turned off the faucet, and whispered: “Where’s your owner?”
But the red coral only climbed up her arm. After a while, as if sensing her displeasure, it extended its hard branches, like a stick insect, clinging to her clothes, and quickly returned to its original form, the necklace Suhui had given her. Then, it stopped moving.
Su Mingxiu wasn’t used to it being a living thing. It felt uncomfortable. She tugged at it lightly with her fingertips, but it wouldn’t budge. She sighed softly.
Her intuition told her that Suhui’s current “disappearance” was definitely related to her.
But why?
Su Mingxiu felt that she had been too patient before, letting the foolish fish overthink everything with her strange, non-human logic.
She thought, I should have stopped it earlier.
Just like in the deep-sea coral maze, trapping this fish in a confined space, forcing her to voice her thoughts, then correcting her little by little, that would have been perfect.
Half an hour later—
Su Mingxiu learned from the bus driver who had brought them here that Suhui didn’t want to stay and had taken a taxi back to the base.
She returned to the venue, said hello to Wang Zhi, asking her to inform Annie and Pao Tong, then took a taxi back to the seaside base instead of the program’s bus.
Thankfully, Suhui hadn’t been tricked into going to some remote mountain area. As Su Mingxiu got out of the taxi, she saw Suhui’s figure in the distance, standing by the golden beach, her back to the base, looking out at the sea. She looked incredibly lonely.
Perhaps because the sky by the sea was too vast, and the sound of waves crashing against the shore was too endless and ancient, easily evoking thoughts of the universe and everything in it. Even the king of the sea seemed insignificant against such a backdrop.
Su Mingxiu stood at the entrance of the base, watching Suhui’s back for a long time.
She wondered, Is this fish homesick?
She had superior physical abilities compared to humans, and her skills were far beyond those of the other contestants.
But this mermaid, after coming ashore, realized that human society didn’t solely value strength. Adapting to the rules here must be very difficult for her.
Su Mingxiu thought about Pao Tong’s 99 goodwill points, Annie’s still at 90, and Wang Zhi’s at 98.
Actually, Annie’s goodwill towards her had decreased slightly, probably because she had learned about Pao Tong’s feelings for Su Mingxiu and was now siding with her friend.
The setting sun stretched her shadow long against the cold wall.
Suhui vaguely felt someone’s gaze on her, but she was used to being stared at, so she ignored it. But among those gazes, one was particularly persistent.
Smelling the sea breeze, she discerned various information, even knowing that a pod of orcas ten kilometers away was celebrating the birth of a newborn, and she could vaguely hear a group of dolphins calling out to each other…
Her attention was drawn to these familiar stories, and the accumulated displeasure in her heart dissipated.
After a long while, Suhui slowly raised her hand and brushed her long hair aside, casually turning around to see who had been staring at her for so long.
But looking back, she only saw staff members hurrying past the entrance of the base. The gaze was gone.
At the same time.
Director’s office.
When Su Mingxiu knocked on the door, the director’s assistant saw her first, thinking she was here to ask about the computer. He rushed over, holding the laptop, and said excitedly: “It went up! It went up! Teacher Su! The stock you bought earlier hit the limit up!”
“Should I follow up on it for you today?”
Su Mingxiu glanced at the software on the screen. She remembered that when she was reading the news, she had bought some shares of a leading company affected by a black swan event in the industry.
But this wasn’t her main method of making money. Although stocks could also generate profits, she was more interested in faster, more lucrative markets.
Like futures trading with leverage.
So she just nodded and said to the assistant director: “You can check it out when the market opens tomorrow, but this stock’s valuation is already quite high. If you’re following the trend, you should carefully analyze the profit-taking point.
But if you’re a value investor, I don’t recommend entering the market now. Because when I bought in, big capital was also following suit. The market is too hot right now, they’re probably planning to pull out soon.”
After saying this, she switched to another software and checked her futures investments.
The director and the other staff members, pretending to be looking at the screen, were actually listening intently to Su Mingxiu’s analysis—
After all, this person had only started playing this game a few days ago and her assets had already increased a hundredfold.
The entire crew, who were responsible for managing Su Mingxiu’s computer, had witnessed how she turned her meager savings into enough money to buy an apartment in the city center.
But Su Mingxiu didn’t stop there, her investments growing even larger. Despite this, she was still able to focus on her filming schedule, calm and collected, not constantly checking the market fluctuations.
Now, her investments changed by tens of thousands of yuan every minute.
If Su Mingxiu stayed on the show a little longer, managing millions, even tens of millions in assets, the director would even want to entrust his own assets to her.
But Su Mingxiu, after checking her investments, asked the assistant director about the price of the computer. After the assistant director answered hesitantly, she walked behind the director and politely stated her purpose.
“Uh…!” The surrounding staff members were shocked. Someone operating a flying camera even trembled, almost crashing the expensive equipment into the wall.
The director was stunned. He turned around in his chair, looked at Su Mingxiu in disbelief, and said: “What’s going on with you two? You went out to film an MV and came back wanting to quit the show?”
“Teacher Su, do you know how hard your fans are voting for you? If you debut, do you know how much commercial value you’ll have?”
Su Mingxiu was silent for two seconds, then caught the keyword: “You two?”
She immediately thought of the fish who had returned earlier than her.
Then, she suddenly realized that she had made a huge mistake—
She had been misled by the system, her thinking trapped in a fixed mindset.
From the moment she entered this world, the system’s ultimate mission, “Befriend four future superstars,” had planted the first suggestion in her mind, telling her that Suhui was destined for stardom, to stand at the top of the entertainment industry.
Then came the intense filming schedule of Produce 101. These four superstars had all demonstrated exceptional talent in singing and dancing, constantly reinforcing the impression that Suhui would eventually debut through this show.
So, when thinking about Suhui’s feelings, Su Mingxiu always tended to be more cautious.
Even though she favored the fish, she often avoided expressing her feelings directly, considering the cameras and Suhui’s future.
In reality, there was no necessary connection between Suhui becoming a superstar and Suhui debuting as a member of a girl group through Produce 101.
It was precisely because Su Mingxiu had been so concerned about avoiding scandals for the girl group members that there were always misunderstandings between her and Suhui, which couldn’t be resolved immediately.
Just then, the system, which had been silent for a long time, finally spoke up: “Host, please reconsider your decision to quit the show. You haven’t reached 100 goodwill points with all the targets yet. Quitting now is detrimental to the completion of your ultimate mission.”
[You shut up.]
Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.
Su Mingxiu now wanted to pull the system out and beat it up every time she heard its voice. But she also knew that the system’s methods were subtle and left no trace. Even if she confronted it, it could easily shift the blame, saying that it was her own fault for not thinking things through.
The black-haired woman pinched the bridge of her nose. As the most striking presence in this office, her eyes flickered for a moment. Then, she asked the director: “Is the other person who wants to quit… Suhui?”
Actually, the director had also heard about the fans shipping her and Suhui. But this was a serious talent show, and they hadn’t done anything explicitly intimate in front of the cameras. So he only gave her advice from a practical perspective:
“Yes.”
“I don’t know the details of your situation, but with your current popularity, you can definitely debut. By then, not only will you be able to reopen your restaurant, but even buying out your competitor’s restaurant wouldn’t be a problem—”
The director had clearly done his research on her situation, especially how Su Mingxiu got along well with the other contestants. Whether or not she debuted, she was good for the show’s ratings.
“And Suhui, she’s so talented, with the backing of Neptune Entertainment, why don’t you two discuss it and stay on the show together?”
The competing contestants might be happy if two popular trainees withdrew, but the director had to consider the viewership and buzz. He felt that the subtle romantic tension between Su Mingxiu and Suhui was quite interesting.
And the “Shura field” in the eyes of the CP fans.
“I don’t know if she’ll stay—”
Su Mingxiu said with a faint smile, her eyes downcast. “But firstly, my ultimate goal is just to go home and inherit my family’s restaurant, to be an ordinary chef; secondly, this might sound arrogant, but I think debuting on Produce 101 would be detrimental to my future, so I want to withdraw.”
“How so?”
The director instinctively stood up from his chair, asking the producer and assistant director to keep an eye on things, and walked with Su Mingxiu to a secluded corner, trying to persuade her further.
Su Mingxiu looked directly into his eyes. “Can a girl group member publicly announce a same-sex relationship?”
“Uh…” The director of Produce 101 was stunned.
Actually, most people in the entertainment industry were bisexual, and the industry was quite open-minded, with many same-sex relationships.
But these were all unspoken truths, kept private. As long as their careers were stable, nothing else mattered. No one wanted to touch the taboo subject of homosexuality, something that couldn’t be brought into the light.
The director didn’t know whether to praise Su Mingxiu for her courageous love or to call her naive for not understanding the power of money.
But then he thought—
Oh.
If Su Mingxiu truly was an investment genius, perhaps she didn’t need to rely on this industry for resources and money. She could live openly and honestly under the sun.
So he asked, as if possessed, “You want to come out publicly, but what about Suhui?”
Perhaps because he had been in this industry for too long, the hidden emotions and desires beneath the surface couldn’t escape his keen eyes. True or false, this director could see through them.
Even he knew that the only person Su Mingxiu might possibly like was Suhui.
Everyone knew this, but that foolish fish didn’t seem to believe it.
Being asked this, Su Mingxiu rubbed the bridge of her nose. “As for her…”
“I was just about to ask.”
She wanted to ask Suhui about quitting the show, and she also wanted to tell that foolish fish clearly: I like you, and only you.
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