Just Blame Me For Being Blind in the Beginning - Chapter 1

1 Pei Ying

This girl seemed to be a bit peculiar.

Early spring, March.

The prosperous peach blossoms blew in the wind. The pink petals circled in the air and flew into the open window of a building, falling onto a white blanket along with the rays of the morning sun.

The cellphone sitting on the light colored blanket suddenly lit up. A melodious violin melody flowed out from the speaker.

Pei Ying pulled her hand out from her blankets and pat around her pillow twice. Eyes still closed, she answered the phone, “Hello…”

Her voice was heavy with sleep.

“What time is it that you’re still sleeping? Don’t forget you’re coming over in the afternoon for photos!”

Ren Shanshan’s slightly shrill voice woke Pei Ying up a bit. She indistinctly mumbled in response, “I know…”

After she ended the call, she took a look at the time on her phone. Not even 9 o’clock yet… With such a pressing morning call from Ren Shanshan, she thought she’d slept until 2 in the afternoon.

“Ay–” She stretched out. Pei Ying lazily got out of bed, her waist-length hair cascading down like a waterfall.

Stepping on her slippers, she walked over to her desk, in no rush to wash up. Instead, she turned on her computer and logged into her Weibo. (Note: Weibo is like a blog and Facebook hybrid)

Five new comments and three PMs. Good, added up together, today didn’t even hit double digits.

In a rather good mood, she opened up her comments.

“Ji Man’s despicable! Garbage!”

“I hate rich girls like Ji Man the most. They’re so arrogant and lacking in the three fundamental views (Note: values, personal outlook, world outlook). They just have a good dad, why do they think they’re so superior? (smile)”

“Just because she has a good figure, she can’t wait to take her clothes off in front of the male lead. #JiManHelpsStaffEconomizeOnCloth#”

“Really hate Ji Man’s character, and I don’t like you either. (bye)”

“You guys are seriously ridiculous. Characters are characters, and actors are actors. Just because you hate Ji Man, do you have to run over here to leave rude comments?  Long legs Pei Pei, I’m your fan. Love you!”

Pei Ying blinked her large eyes twice. Ji Man was the character she’d played in a web series last year. A rich, powerful, and vicious woman. Although it was a low cost production, the actors who played the male and female leads had both gotten big from it, catching the public’s eye. And Pei Ying, whose Weibo only had a hundred thousand fans over the past three years, also ushered in the highest number of comments and messages on her account ever– Though 99 percent of them were to yell or curse at her, just like those on the screen now.

But Pei Ying didn’t care about what they said. And after the conclusion of the web series, fewer and fewer people came to yell at her. There were only five comments today, and one of them was even speaking up for her.

The corners of her lips lifted up and she laughed a few times before running over to the bathroom to wash up.

Advertisement

This small house was barely 30 sqm, a one bedroom house and a rental. Although the area wasn’t large, it was still decorated nicely.

After she cleaned herself up, she picked up a piece of bread from the table and headed downstairs.

As she headed out the door, there came a spring breeze. Both Pei Ying’s red skirt and the peach blossoms above started flying around.

“Meow~” A few stray cats suddenly gathered around her heels and started walking around them. She’d seen these strays several times before, and she’d even fed them. Who knew that they would come out searching for her to be fed now?

Pei Ying couldn’t help smiling. She left the remainder of her bread for them.

When she got to the street, she hailed down a cab and headed directly to Ren Shanshan’s studio.

The taxi driver couldn’t stop from looking over her. When they were stopped at the traffic light, he finally asked, “Beautiful lady, are you a celebrity? You look a bit familiar.”

Pei Ying smiled and asked back, “Really?”

“Yeah,” the driver nodded, finding her prettier and prettier. Especially those legs, they just hooked a person in. He tried to inconspicuously retract his gaze from her legs, giving a slight cough as he looked ahead.

Ren Shanshan’s studio was near the river. There was a residential area nearby, and the streets were lined with some small shops. When the taxi stopped in front of the small, two story studio that had been renovated in a Mediterranean style, a few flower petals drifted to the ground.

Pei Ying got out from the car and headed into the Mediterranean styled building. Ren Shanshan was sitting down eating noodles. When she saw her come in, she abruptly choked on her noodles. “Why did you come right now?”

Pei Ying pulled out the chair next to her and sat down. “Then why did you call me so early?”

“I was afraid you’d oversleep, so I was just trying to avoid that.” She slurped up another mouthful of noodles, and finally remembered to ask Pei Ying, “Have you eaten breakfast yet?”

Pei Ying shook her head.

Ren Shanshan said, “The noodle shop next door is still open…” And then she paused. “Forget it. You have a photoshoot in the afternoon, it’s probably better not to eat.”

Pei Ying, “…”

Ren Shanshan handed her a glass of water and also pushed the laptop on the table over to her. “Take a look. The leads in that cliche melodrama you filmed already accepted new projects. Why are you the only one declining? You didn’t gain that many fans, but you’ve got an army of antifans behind you now.”

Pei Ying raised her eyebrows without much care. “They curse at me because I acted well.”

Ren Shanshan laughed, “You’re still happy, huh.”

But the truth is, in Pei Ying’s state, if she weren’t optimistic, she wouldn’t be able to live long.

The year that Pei Ying graduated, she was working as a receptionist for a small company. But not even one month later, the company went bankrupt due to poor management. A friend of hers introduced her to work at a hotel, also as a receptionist. And then, less than another month later, the hotel failed a random fire safety inspection and business was suspended until the safety measures were rectified. She was once again unemployed.

However, by chance, she met Chen Sheng when she was working at the hotel. He was the general manager and agent at Scenic Studios.

He asked Pei Ying, “Hey beautiful, are you interested in becoming a star?”

Pei Ying wondered if this would be the chance to improve her situation and happily stepped into the entertainment industry. Chen Sheng arranged for her to collaborate with a member of a girl group. Just as they released a single, the collaborator was poached by another big company and their collaboration group split up. From then on, Pei Ying expanded on her own. Chen Sheng got her a part in a TV series. Though she was the second lead, her character was still quite lovable. After filming a few episodes, the investors suddenly pulled out. Not only did the crew have to stop filming, but until now, she still hadn’t received her wages for the episodes she did film.

Chen Sheng finally realized that this girl seemed to be a bit peculiar.

Advertisement

Pei Ying wasn’t successful after that either. Her work didn’t go well, and she was only able to smoothly complete about half of her projects. To this day, she was still an unremarkable 18th tier celebrity.

Because she wasn’t getting many jobs or making much money, Pei Ying partnered up with Ren Shanshan to start an internet mall. They sold female clothing, with Ren Shanshan being the big boss and Pei Ying being the little boss and model.

“Hey, I often wonder if the reason our internet business never really got successful is because of you and your ‘curse.’” Ren Shanshan finished up her noodles and lifted her bowl to drink the soup. Pei Ying pursed her lips, not taking the bait.

Ren Shanshan put down her bowl and finished off her banter with a serious laugh. She said, “Thank god that you didn’t pass the flight attendant test, otherwise there might be a plane crash every day.”

Pei Ying, “…”

It was true that she’d applied to the flight academy in high school, and was then rejected for having poor English skills. Now that she thought about it… What Ren Shanshan said wasn’t completely without sense.

She quietly sighed. Ren Shanshan fussily said, “Babe, stop being so sexy. I can’t enjoy it.” She clicked a few times with the computer mouse, excitement showing through in her eyes. “Let me show you a handsome guy to get your spirits up.”

Pei Ying looked over at the screen and was immediately captured by the man in the picture.

“What do you think, handsome right? Song family’s third son, purebred ‘tall, rich, and handsome.’” It was rare for Ren Shanshan to be so smitten and caught in a trance by a photo of a man.

“Mm, he’s handsome alright…” Especially for someone who cared about appearances as much as Pei Ying. It was simply killing someone without spilling any blood. “The third Song son, Song Nanchuan. 20 billion shares of Universe Pictures, a major investor in film and television…”

She read the text that accompanied the photo on Weibo, and was a bit intimidated. “Not just handsome, but also rich…”

Ren Shanshan wasn’t caught by surprise though. “Entrepreneurs nowadays all like to dip a foot into the entertainment industry. It’s not like you don’t know. As soon as their foot goes in, there’ll be some female celebrity sticking next to them right away.”

She made a few more clicks with the mouse and said to Pei Ying, “Hey, you’ve worked together with Xie Han before, right? There were photos taken of her and the third Song prince together yesterday. They were even ‘caught acting intimately.’”

She repeated the phrase the reporters used. Then she raised her eyebrow at Pei Ying. “Why don’t you consider it? Look at yourself. Sticks out in the front, raised in the back, and add on a pair of long legs. You’re made of much better stuff than Xie Han. If she’s daring enough to stick onto him, don’t you think you’d win if you tried?”

Pei Ying turned to look at her for a few seconds. “Are you sure the reason our internet mall isn’t doing well isn’t because you’re too idle?

Ren Shanshan, “…”

After being called out for being too idle, Ren Shanshan went over the new spring inventory again. Soon enough, it was time for the afternoon photo shoot. Pei Ying sat in front of the mirror, and quietly let the makeup artist do her thing.

Her facial features were a bit more raised than the average Asian woman’s, and she would occasionally be mistaken as being mixed. With an oval face with neatly trimmed waist-length black hair, she also revealed some of the unique looks of an Eastern beauty.

Ren Shanshan supervised from the side during the photo shoot. With a sigh, they finished photographing fifteens sets of clothes. Pei Ying dropped onto the sofa exhausted, without any intention of moving.

Ren Shanshan looked over the results of the shoot and was pretty satisfied. She finally tossed some bread over to Pei Ying, “Put a little something into your stomach first. We’ll go out to eat later.”

“Mm…” Pei Ying munched on the bread as she sat on the sofa, scrolling through the texts and messages on her phone.

[Pei Ying] GM Chen, do you have any new work for me?

[Chen Sheng] Xiao Pei, didn’t you just finish a web drama?

[Pei Ying] That was last year…

[Chen Sheng] Really? Ah ah, my memory must be a big bad now that I’m getting old. (sticks out tongue) Wait and I’ll take a look.

Pei Ying held onto her phone and waited half a minute before Chen Sheng replied back, “There is something.”