Chapter 511: Wen Ming 1
"Let’s do a beginner-level task first. I plan to do one after every intermediate task to relax a bit. Otherwise, things get too tense."
Tan You had her own rhythm for completing tasks. She wanted to alternate between them; after all, she couldn’t live in constant danger, could she?
Perhaps because she had just survived a hell-mode intermediate task, Tan You didn’t spend any time preparing when she drew this beginner-level one. After a quick run-through of the client’s memories, she departed with the Beauty System.
"Ms. Wen, Mr. Qi said that if you’re unwilling to divorce, the terms are still negotiable..." Tan You had just opened her eyes when this conversation reached her ears.
Tan You raised an eyebrow. ’What’s this situation? Starting off with a divorce?’ A quick recollection, and Tan You knew she had arrived at the point in time when the original host, Wen Ming, had attempted suicide.
Thinking about the reason for the original host’s suicide, Tan You couldn’t help but palm her forehead. She had known since she was a child that trying to hurt yourself to make others sad was the most foolish thing you could do, because no one would care.
Take Wen Ming, for example. Wasn’t she lying in a hospital bed right now? And yet, hadn’t the divorce papers been delivered all the same?
Seeing Tan You’s silence, the lawyer spoke again. "Ms. Wen, what Mr. Qi is offering is already very generous..."
He was just one step short of outright telling her not to be too greedy.
Tan You cut him off. "Hand me the agreement. I’ll sign it now."
"As for all my things, I don’t want any of them. Let Qi Ying deal with them as he sees fit."
"Set a time, and we’ll go to the Civil Affairs Bureau."
"Finally, if there’s nothing else, you can leave."
After saying this, Tan You took the divorce agreement from the lawyer’s hand. She gripped the pen, her fingers sore and weak—an obvious aftereffect of her suicide attempt.
Mimicking the original host Wen Ming’s handwriting, Tan You signed the agreement. Only then did she say, "Please close the door on your way out. Thanks."
The lawyer hadn’t expected it to go so smoothly. He numbly took the agreement, dazedly closed the door to the hospital room, and only then made a call. "Mr. Qi..."
A gentle male voice came from the other end of the line. "Is she still unwilling to sign? The terms are already very..."
"No, that’s not it. Ms. Wen signed," Lawyer Huang said hurriedly. "Ms. Wen said that when you have time, you should go with her to get the divorce certificate. Also, she doesn’t want any of her things and said you can deal with them as you see fit..."
"..." There was silence on the other end of the phone. After a long while, Qi Ying finally said, "I understand. Come back and we’ll talk in person."
Once Lawyer Huang left, Tan You dragged her sore and weak body into the bathroom. In the mirror was the face of a woman who was clearly only twenty-seven but already looked as haggard as if she were forty.
The Beauty System flew over to Tan You’s side. "Host, her beauty value... is really not high enough."
The little system was already putting it mildly. "It’s even lower than your own initial value, Host."
A smile touched Tan You’s lips. "You can’t always judge a person by their looks, but with a face like this, she’s definitely at a disadvantage trying to make it in the entertainment industry."
She stared at the mirror for a good while before saying, "Let’s increase the beauty value to 80 for now. Wen Ming isn’t famous right now, and the internet isn’t that developed, so even if she gets prettier and prettier, we don’t have to worry about people digging up old photos of her."
"You got it! This system will add the beauty value for you right away!" The Beauty System was thrilled. ’Was its life easy?’ For the past few tasks, the host hadn’t used her beauty value at all, leaving the Beauty System with no way to show its usefulness.
Now that Tan You had finally used the beauty value, the Beauty System was so happy it could fly.
The power of the beauty value was truly immense. With nearly thirty points added, the woman in the mirror underwent an immediate and significant change. Her skin became fair and smooth, no longer coarse and dull as before.
Her eyes became inky black and lustrous, and her gaze was exceptionally serene, as if you could see a thousand stories within them. Her facial features looked as though they had been meticulously carved, their proportions now more harmonious.
Individually, Wen Ming’s features weren’t particularly striking, but because of these subtle adjustments, her entire face became gentle and elegant. Compared to before, it was a complete transformation.
"Not bad. As for whether to add more beauty value later, we’ll see after Wen Ming is back on her feet."
Lying down on the hospital bed, Tan You began to recall the client’s short and tragic life. The original host, Wen Ming, grew up with her maternal grandparents after her parents divorced when she was young. She was what would later be called a "left-behind child."
After graduating from high school, she wanted to escape her suffocating family, so she chose to venture out into the world. She went south to G Province, which at the time was the closest province to Hong Kong. Thanks to her naturally good voice, she did reasonably well for herself in G Province.
However, because of her looks, she was always just a step away from hitting it big.
Due to the absence of a father figure in her childhood, as an adult, Wen Ming inevitably sought fatherly affection from men. Her first marriage came quickly but lasted only a short year, ending because of her husband’s alcoholism and domestic abuse.
Before long, Wen Ming met her second husband, Qi Ying. He was a well-known lyricist and composer from another province. Admiring Wen Ming’s singing skills and stage presence, he did everything he could to pursue her.
Having been starved for love since childhood, how could Wen Ming possibly resist? Besides, she had her own ambitions. She wanted to become famous all over the country, but she was just a singer and didn’t know any famous lyricists or producers.
Qi Ying’s pursuit happened to align perfectly with Wen Ming’s own goals. What she didn’t expect, however, was that while Qi Ying admired her and wanted to be with her, that didn’t mean he was going to produce an album for her.
What he needed was a woman to manage the household and be a wife and mother. He needed a supportive homemaker. But Wen Ming had her own dreams. She longed for a vast stage, so how could she be content staying within the confines of a small home?
To live in obscurity for the rest of her life?
This was where their conflict began. Later, Qi Ying simply stopped coming home. In an attempt to save her marriage, Wen Ming went so far as to threaten suicide. But it was all useless. In the end, Wen Ming and Qi Ying still got divorced.
After the divorce, Wen Ming did not fare well; you could even say she was down and out. When she had moved to another province with Qi Ying, her career in G Province had just been taking off.
But now, there was no going back. The industry wasn’t short on people with good singing voices; or rather, it was never short on new talent. The turnover was incredibly fast. Some opportunities, once missed, are gone for a lifetime.
Qi Ying, on the other hand, thrived after his divorce from Wen Ming, eventually even becoming a top-tier producer.
The blows to her career, love life, marriage, and family were too much for Wen Ming to bear. At the age of forty, she chose to take her own life again. Only this time, she wasn’t as lucky as the last. She fell into an eternal sleep at the age of forty.