Mu Yue waited for Wen Xue and Xiang Xin to finish removing their makeup, and in the meantime, the three of them kept talking about this training program. Wen Xue had no intention of taking on any other students, and Xiang Xin was currently making preparations for it.
If the white moonlight no longer had any romantic feelings for Wei Xuan, then they would have to come up with a whole new set of plans.
"This world has always judged people based on appearance," Wen Xue said with a faint smile. "You could say this is my investment in Xiaoxin."
Even without playing the part of the white moonlight, Xiang Xin could still learn poise, develop an eye for aesthetics, master dressing skills, and learn how to conduct herself in social situations. To fully break away from the fate of being a village girl named Zhaodi, building up a proper personal image was absolutely necessary. A top graduate from a 985 university was a completely different figure from another equally prestigious 985 graduate who also had a standout appearance and a high emotional intelligence.
When someone was capable, articulate, able to stay calm no matter what situation they faced, and good-looking to boot, everyone would naturally hold them in higher regard.
"Or maybe we're just being insecure," Wen Xue said as she wiped her face without pausing her movements. "Because we had such humble backgrounds, once we stepped into society, everyone would use that against us to attack and suppress us. That's why we're so desperate to make ourselves look as impressive as possible on the surface."
"Hey, a young lady from a well-off family like you would never understand. I was actually worried you'd look down on us for this, since it's not exactly something glorious."
"Then why did you two dare let me in on all this?" Mu Yue asked back.
Wen Xue couldn't quite put her finger on the reason. "I don't know. I just had a feeling you wouldn't mind, Yueyue."
Mu Yue really didn't mind. They weren't stealing, robbing, or breaking up other people's relationships. It was a mutually consensual, fair transaction between adults, and there was no need to be overly naive about how the world worked. Of course, it wasn't something worth singing praises about, but for the two of them, this way of making money was probably the fastest one they could think of.
Mu Yue had heard Xiang Xin mention that she had been sold off by her family twice. The first time, she was tied up and sent directly to the bed of an old bachelor in the neighboring village. That man was almost forty years old, with a mouth full of yellow, stinking, disgusting teeth, and Xiang Xin was only fifteen back then. The second time was right before she was supposed to go to college. The paper admission notice from the university that had been sent to their village was used by her parents as a bargaining chip in a deal. They didn't know which rich businessman it was, but a couple showed up at the township looking for her, wanting her to be a surrogate. Not for one man, but for multiple men. She would get tens of thousands of yuan for every baby she delivered.
When Xiang Xin told the story, she didn't say the protagonist was herself, and her tone was so casual that Xiaoya and Jiajia both thought she was just making up a story. But Mu Yue could tell that the story was all about Xiang Xin herself.
Xiang Xin never talked about how she managed to escape, but anyone could imagine how hard that process must have been. The fact that she was able to make it to the university safely probably meant she had agreed to a whole series of unequal terms and conditions. That was why she was so short of money, so desperately in need of it.
Wen Xue's situation wasn't all that different. The only thing was that she was even more strikingly good-looking. Her family had never been willing to sell her off cheaply, which gave Wen Xue the chance to escape that cannibalizing place. After she broke into the entertainment industry and started appearing on TV all the time, her neighbors back in the village would talk about her with admiration, which meant her family was far less likely to come pester her for money. But there was no way they would ever let her go completely. She was such a lucrative cash cow, who would ever be willing to let go of that?
This was a very common trope in those romantic melodrama novels. The female lead was born into poverty, surrounded by nothing but hungry wolves waiting to devour her. She thought meeting the male lead would be her redemption, but it turned out the male lead only saw her as a placeholder, a substitute for his lost love. Heartbroken, she left. And by the time the male lead came to his senses and chased after her, the female lead would run into some trouble, which the male lead would resolve swiftly and decisively. That would then become the female lead's reason to forgive him, and the perfect opportunity for them to rekindle their broken relationship.
Luckily in real life, this white-moonlight substitute wasn't so foolish as to pin all her hopes on a single man.
Mu Yue gave her two cents. "I don't judge you for any of this, but this line of work of yours has some huge drawbacks."
"First, there's no guarantee of clients, which means your initial investment can't be converted into cash in time. Second, apart from polishing your appearance and broadening your horizons, you should add more professional courses to your program. For example, Xiang Xin, you're majoring in fashion design, right? You can build the program around that. That way, even if you don't get any clients, your hands-on skills will keep improving with every practice. New media is developing really fast these days, so you can even record and edit videos while you're designing clothes. Who knows, you might get popular."
"And there's a third point."
Wen Xue and Xiang Xin's eyes lit up the moment they heard the second point. It was such a highly actionable idea. They waited eagerly for Mu Yue to say the third point, but she just smiled without saying a word, refusing to go on.
Xiang Xin was confused. "Sis Mu, what's the third point?"
Mu Yue didn't answer. She just smiled at Wen Xue, and the two of them had such a strong tacit understanding that Wen Xue got the message right away.
The third point was the risk of taking shortcuts. Xiang Xin wasn't as experienced in this as Wen Xue. Even though she didn't seem the type to lose her head over a man, what if something unexpected happened? And even if she didn't fall into the trap of romantic obsession, she could still get hooked on the easy money that came with shortcuts. Once you've walked down that path that requires no hard work, it would be extremely hard to turn back and take the down-to-earth, steady route again.
A University was a top-tier school. They had fought tooth and nail to escape from that suffocating place and get into this university. If after graduation, all Xiang Xin did was drift from one man to another, sure, she might never be short of money, but what about her spiritual fulfillment and her sense of self-worth?
Wen Xue was sponsoring and helping Xiang Xin not just because they were two girls from the same neighborhood who had gone through hardships together. She saw Xiang Xin as another version of herself—the version that had managed to get into a good university. Seeing Xiang Xin finish her studies was like making up for the dream that Wen Xue had never been able to achieve.
Wen Xue nodded seriously. "I get it now."
Xiang Xin was totally lost. "What? Sister Xue, how did you get it? What secret code are you two talking in?"
Wen Xue didn't let herself get stuck in regret. She patted Xiang Xin on the shoulder, full of drive. "I get what the new direction for our training program is! And you, you have to study really hard, got it?"
"Got it." Xiang Xin tugged at her strappy dress. She was so not used to this outfit. It was pretty, but she kept feeling a chill on her skin. She didn't think too much about everything else, and couldn't wait to ask, "We're dressed up like this, what fancy feast are we having tonight?"
"All you ever think about is food!" Wen Xue glared at her, half-amused and half-exasperated.
Mu Yue watched the two of them messing around, smiling to herself. The idea of letting Xiang Xin practice her fashion design skills wasn't something Mu Yue had come up with on the spot. It was all laid out in the original novel, the story of Xiang Xin's future. The original novel never mentioned that Wen Xue and Xiang Xin had ever started this substitute training business, nor did it have any plotlines that followed Xiang Xin and the male lead. Mu Yue couldn't tell if the original story simply left all this unwritten, or if the two of them had given up on their initial plan later on.
After Xiang Xin graduated, her poor financial situation and difficult upbringing left her with very little confidence. She didn't have the money to rent a storefront to run her own business, and every job application she sent out got rejected. She only managed to get a job as an assistant in the entertainment industry because Wen Xue pulled some strings for her. It was only later, when she started working right by Wen Xue's side, that her talent finally shone through. On multiple occasions at banquets and red carpet events, she saved Wen Xue from wardrobe disasters, and eventually became a core member of Wen Xue's styling team.
Is this what Xiang Xin has been learning? She's professional and talented. If she gets properly nurtured, the two of them might just bring out the best in each other. In the entertainment industry, there are plenty of artists whose styling goes viral, and the stylists behind them rise to fame right along with the stars. If Xiang Xin can become that kind of top stylist, that line of work will definitely be far more stable than working as a stunt double.
But for now, Mu Yue had no intention of saying too much. After all, the choice was ultimately someone else's to make.
By the time the two of them finished getting their new makeup looks done, it was almost time to head out. Wen Xue's new look was that of a cool, aloof queen, sharp and unapologetically stylish, giving off a clear "don't come near me" vibe. She was practically a total opposite of her usual on-camera self, even the way she walked had completely changed. Her makeup skills were so impressive that her facial features looked almost entirely different from before.
Wen Xue spoke confidently, "Even that idiot Wei Xuan standing right in front of me wouldn't be able to recognize me!"
Mu Yue nodded in agreement. The two looks were so drastically different that even if there was a faint resemblance in their features, most people would just assume this was someone who looked a little like Wen Xue, not Wen Xue herself.
Once they were all ready, the three of them set off. That night, they were heading to a private restaurant. The place had a rather over-the-top decor, complete with pavilions, terraces, a lake, and a sprawling garden. The dining tables were set up among the pavilions and the garden, so diners could sit along the lakeshore, watch performers put on shows on the lake, and savor their food at the same time.
Mu Yue had been to restaurants with this kind of setup before. Some were outdoor, others were indoor, decked out to look like imperial banquets. They were big on ritual and visual appeal, but the food was usually a letdown. Most of the dishes were nothing special, the whole selling point was that they looked good.
But to Mu Yue's surprise, the food at this restaurant Wen Xue brought them to was actually really tasty. Most of the guests here were also fully covered up, and cameras were set up at every table. Several tables even had ring fill lights set up, so they were probably internet celebrity food streamers.
After finishing their dinner, the night was far from over.
Wen Xue then led the other two straight to a private club. She wasn't going there for herself, she just wanted to bring Xiang Xin along to show her a new side of the world. As for Mu Yue, Wen Xue knew full well that as the young lady from a well-off family, there was nothing she hadn't experienced before. Even the male hosts at clubs wouldn't be good enough for her, the regular ones would never catch her eye.
But what they didn't expect was that in the time Mu Yue spent just parking the car, Wen Xue and Xiang Xin had already run into trouble.
To be precise, they ran into a couple of total creeps.
Wen Xue hadn't dressed low-key that night, but her car was very unassuming, just an ordinary one that cost around a hundred thousand yuan. There was one last parking spot left on the street nearby, so Mu Yue told Wen Xue to park there, while she went to park her own car in the basement of a nearby mall.
But the moment Mu Yue came back, she saw a flashy yellow sports car parked right in front of Wen Xue and Xiang Xin. The man in the passenger seat had just made a move that looked exactly like he was adjusting a hidden camera.
Mu Yue was sharp enough to catch that little detail, so she told her systems to run a check and confirm if the man was carrying a hidden camera, to see if those two creeps were secretly filming the girls.
The systems got to work right away, and Mu Yue started walking over towards Wen Xue and Xiang Xin. As she got closer, the conversation drifting over to her ears became clear.
"Hey girls, want to go for a little joyride? We won't do anything weird, we'll just drive around the block and come right back."
"Hey beautiful, my buddy here is a regular at this spot, he really will just take you around the block and bring you back, we can all vouch for him."
"Hey ladies, you just turned down that other car, you won't turn this one down, right? This is a six million yuan supercar!"
"Man, I envy you gals so much. You don't have to do a single thing, and guys are lining up to shower you with attention."
Wen Xue was so amused she laughed out of anger, and shot right back, "Oh wow, you're that envious? Go buy a plane ticket to Thailand, get the surgery, and become our sister! Then you won't have to envy other women anymore, you can have men fawning all over you too."
Xiang Xin chimed in right away, "That's right!"
Wen Xue huffed impatiently, "We already said we're not interested. Six million yuan car, big deal? My girl here has one too, why would we need a ride from yours? And who even do you think you are?"
Mu Yue thought for a second, pulled her car key out of her pearl-studded purse, and walked over with a bright smile on her face.
