Where can I sign up for a senior citizen tour group?
Clatter.
The ballpoint pen in Chu Xingxing’s hand rolled noisily off the desk.
A grating male voice sounded in her ear: “Yes, Mr. Zhao, don’t worry! I’ll finish up the contract here and head straight to the set…”
A sharp pain throbbed in Chu Xingxing’s skull. She turned her head with difficulty towards the source of the voice.
Standing by the desk was a short, stocky man with slicked-back hair, whose appearance bore an uncanny resemblance to a stunted little winter melon.
“Little Winter Melon” tossed a thick stack of contracts towards her. The cover was emblazoned with large characters: Let’s Travel Together!
“Did I go to hell…?” Chu Xingxing’s head hurt so much she could barely speak.
Surely God and the angels wouldn’t look like winter melons, right?
She thought she might have made it to heaven. Turns out with all the killing she’d done, hell was her destination after all…
The stocky man seemed not to hear her question. Impatiently, he tapped the desk with a pudgy, pale index finger resembling a Wangzai Little Steamed Bun, pursed his lips to signal her to sign, then turned and walked to the window to continue his phone call.
Good grief, do you still get migraines after you kick the bucket?!
Instinctively, she bent down to pick up the pen under the desk, but the moment her fingers touched it, Chu Xingxing froze.
Wait, this sensation feels so real?
So…
She’s not dead?!
Immediately after, a flood of plot information surged into her mind like a dam bursting…
Fortunately, once the plot dump ended, the headache subsided. Chu Xingxing finally grasped her current situation.
Chu Xingxing, nearly twenty-one, was born in the apocalypse. To afford expensive protein nutrition formula for her twin brother, her parents sold nine-year-old Xingxing to black market traffickers.
Until she was fourteen, Chu Xingxing toiled at the lowest level of a base, doing menial physical labor in perpetual darkness. Later, she organized fellow captives to escape, and by sheer luck, joined the Alliance Youth Corps. By sixteen, she was part of the Zombie Special Forces.
As the youngest squad leader of the Special Forces, Chu Xingxing was covering her teammates’ retreat when a zombie horde forced her onto a cliff’s edge. She fell to her death.
Just as she was convinced her end had come, she crossed over.
She transmigrated into a heartless female side character from a cheesy, early-days Mary Sue variety show novel—a book she’d casually picked up once after a mission, which accompanied her through three boring hours back to base and earned her muttered comment of “What kind of idiot wrote this?”
Coincidentally, aside from sharing the same name, the person she transmigrated into was identical in age and appearance.
In the book, the original host was a universally disliked, scheming D-list actress with nothing but her looks, serving as the foil to the sweet and adorable female lead, Tian Mengtong.
While accompanying her roommate, the female lead, to an audition, the original host was also chosen by the director due to her striking looks. She joined the female lead in participating in a “besties” variety show.
Everything seemed normal during filming, but once the show aired, netizens dubbed this pair of best friends as TheGorgeous,SchemingDramaQueenandHerSweet,UnfortunateRoommate.
Yes, “scheming drama queen” referred to the original host; “drama queen” was also her.
Thanks to the editor’s “divine” touch, every move the original host made screamed “attention-seeking,” making Tian Mengtong’s calm, sweet, and indifferent demeanor shine even brighter.
Coupled with the original host’s naturally cool, stunning features, tall and curvaceous figure, and icy beauty aura when not smiling, compared to the petite and adorable Tian Mengtong, the original host naturally created a sense of distance.
However, that wasn’t the worst part.
Soon, the original host would be arranged by her company to join Tian Mengtong on a high-profile, drama-filled travel show packed with A-list celebrities—Let’s Travel Together.
On the new show, the original host became even more “dramatic.”
During the travels, not only was the original host isolated by all the guests except Tian Mengtong, but she also went out of her way every day to grab the attention of the male lead, Jiang Changan—a star child who would later become a triple-crown film emperor.
By comparison, the gentle and understanding Tian Mengtong gained a massive wave of new fans and won tremendous favor with the original novel’s male lead, laying a solid foundation for their future relationship.
As for the original host? She was cursed into oblivion even before leaving the show, driven to a mental breakdown that forced her to withdraw from filming early. Later, she suffered severe online bullying leading to major depression, ultimately walking step by step into the cold sea.
When the original host’s memories flashed through Chu Xingxing’s mind in first-person perspective, she frowned, keenly aware that things weren’t as simple as the original book’s plot made them seem.
However, she had more pressing matters to attend to now.
Floor-to-ceiling windows in the office building revealed a brilliant blue sky. Thanks to the humidifier, the air carried the scent of neroli essential oil. An assortment of delicate pastries, fruits, and peacock-blue glass bottles of water adorned the center of the round table.
Chu Xingxing took a deep breath and closed her eyes slightly.
In the apocalyptic wasteland, yellow sand filled the sky. She had never seen such a blue sky since birth. Her diet consisted of various “high-tech” rations and nutrition formula. Drinking roughly filtered muddy water in the wild was commonplace.
She picked up a bottle of mineral water, reverently unscrewed the cap, and took a small sip, her eyes widening in surprise.
Smooth, clear, with a faint sweetness.
After carefully examining the ingredient list, Chu Xingxing nodded in satisfaction.
This water was excellent. It met the criteria of being low in sodium, calcium, and mineral content (the “three lows”), and tasted great.
Controlling sodium intake helps maintain blood pressure and reduce heart load, easing the burden on the kidneys.
In the apocalypse, clean drinking water was as valuable as gold. Ordinary people drank roughly filtered water that tasted astringent and carried a metallic flavor.
Chu Xingxing had only tasted water reserved for Alliance higher-ups once during a Special Forces medal ceremony. She was amazed then, but that water’s quality was far inferior to this bottled mineral water in her hand.
Her gaze then fell upon the fruit platter, featuring treats she’d only seen in ancient biology books: jelly oranges, honey-core apples, dragon fruit, cherries…
Chu Xingxing picked up a deep purple cherry and gently bit into it.
The purely sweet juice practically burst in her mouth the moment it touched her teeth. The cherry skin was crisp and tender, the fine flesh dancing on her tongue.
Cherries are rich in polyphenol antioxidants like anthocyanins, lutein, and zeaxanthin. They’re also packed with vitamin C, have low sugar content, are low in calories, contain no sodium, and are a good source of dietary fiber.
In short, they’re antioxidant, help prevent chronic diseases, aren’t fattening, and aid in… smooth digestion.
In the apocalypse, many people never tasted fresh fruit in their lifetime. Even nutrition formula flavored purely with synthetic essences, containing no real fruit juice, cost ten times more than regular formula.
Glancing at the calendar on her phone, Chu Xingxing’s joy was evident.
In this era, the average human lifespan had reached 85 years, with women living even longer.
That meant she could live that long too!
And if she took good care of herself, lived healthily, couldn’t she live even longer?!
In the apocalypse, the average lifespan was only around fifty. For various reasons, women’s average lifespan was frighteningly low.
Just thinking about living comfortably into her eighties, nineties, even a hundred… Chu Xingxing almost teared up with excitement.
In her less-than-twenty-one years of life, she had hardly known a single day of peace.
Transmigrating to this peaceful, prosperous era free of zombies, Chu Xingxing decided to live a different life.
Her initial plan was to sign up for a tour group. She’d visit magnificent landscapes while savoring delicacies she never dared dream of before, properly familiarizing herself with this unfamiliar world.
Facing a large platter of fresh fruit, Chu Xingxing sampled just a little and wiped her hands with a napkin.
Fruit was delicious, but she shouldn’t overindulge. There were many days ahead, and eating too much wasn’t good for the stomach.
She opened the contract spread on the table, quickly skimming through it while organizing the original host’s memories in her mind.
The short, stocky “Little Winter Melon” on the phone was her agent, Chen Dong.
Early this morning, Agent Chen Dong had summoned her to the company to sign a contract for a travel variety show.
The original book glossed over this part, merely mentioning that the female lead, Tian Mengtong, had called the original host a week earlier, begging her to join the show together, considerately assuring her the pay was very generous.
The original host, fitting her “money-grubbing” persona, agreed without a second thought.
Having witnessed all sorts of ugly human nature from a young age, Chu Xingxing wouldn’t sign anything so casually, let alone a contract for this “deadly” variety show.
She initially flipped through it out of curiosity, but the more she read of the Let’s Travel Together contract, the deeper her frown became.
Seriously? This thing dares to call itself a travel show?
The script’s preset destinations were blatantly listed: Musk Mountain Swamp Island, Red Forest Uninhabited Zone, Tieshi Bay Primitive Village, Devil Valley Reserve…
Chu Xingxing rolled her eyes skyward.
Good grief! Climbing mountains, going to sea, and camping in the wild?
After suffering so much in the apocalypse, if anyone tried to make her do wilderness survival again, she’d have words for them!
Reading the final few pages, Chu Xingxing couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.
They explicitly required the signed artist to strictly adhere to the script and persona provided by the production team. Any form of breach would incur massive penalties and other overbearing clauses.
This is just too much bullying!
Chu Xingxing had already mentally cursed the contract drafter’s ancestors eighteen generations back.
The original host was just a soon-to-graduate young woman, not yet in society, weak-willed, even deeply insecure. She trusted her roommate, the female lead, completely and signed this unreasonable contract without any guard up.
“Why haven’t you signed yet? How long are you going to look?” Agent Chen Dong hung up the phone and waddled with effort back to the table.
Glancing at the fruit pits wrapped in a napkin, Chen Dong tsked several times, glaring at her with his beady eyes: “You’re actually eating! Take a page from Mengtong’s book. She’s already under 80 pounds and still dieting hard.”
He mused that this girl really had no sense of urgency. On camera, you look at least ten pounds heavier. Tall girls already tended to look sturdy, and she was still eating fruit?
Whatever. Chu Xingxing had no variety show sense anyway, wasn’t professionally trained, and her acting was terrible. The company initially signed her for her delicate, porcelain-doll-like beauty.
Later, they kept this “wooden beauty” around solely to be the green leaf set off their new star with exploding public appeal, Tian Mengtong.
A bit fatter was fine. It would make their Mengtong seem even more petite, adorable, and in need of protection. Later, he could just add a BottomlessPit,LazyandGluttonous trait to Chu Xingxing’s show persona. The entertainment value would be off the charts.
“This contract…” Chu Xingxing closed the contract, her fair, slender fingers interlaced. She continued calmly, “…is unacceptable.”
Chen Dong froze for a second, completely unprepared for her refusal, especially such a calm one.
A seasoned agent, Chen Dong immediately slapped the table, raising his voice: “What, not satisfied with the pay? You should seriously consider your own status. It’s only because you’re Tian Mengtong’s good friend that the company is giving you such a great opportunity. Don’t be ungrateful!”
Good friend? Great opportunity?
The original host treated Tian Mengtong as a good friend, but as for what Tian Mengtong truly thought… that was hard to say.
And this “great opportunity” of a trashy show? Whoever went on it was a (big) sweet (dummy)ie.
Chu Xingxing tilted her head slightly, raised a hand to tuck stray hairs behind her ear, revealing her elegantly defined jawline.
She stood up, pressed the pen cap on with her lips, braced one hand on the desk, and with the other pushed the contract far, far away from herself: “Agent Chen, I have no interest in playing a drama queen persona on a variety show, nor am I interested in those travel destinations. Therefore, I won’t sign this contract. Oh, and we’re in a society governed by law, right? Forcing someone to sign an unequal contract is illegal.”
Chu Xingxing was naturally taller than Chen Dong, and coincidentally, the original host wore high heels today, allowing her to easily look down at the “Little Winter Melon” before her.
A shadow fell over his forehead. Chen Dong took a step back, momentarily speechless: “You! You…”
He suddenly realized Chu Xingxing seemed like a different person.
Before, although beautiful, Chu Xingxing lacked presence. She walked with a slight hunch, her pretty almond eyes like a startled fawn’s, always looking at corners when speaking to others, complying with whatever the company said, easily intimidated by anyone raising their voice slightly.
Now, Chu Xingxing’s eyes weren’t wide open and timid as before. Instead, she looked at him with a relaxed gaze, a slight smile even playing on her lips, but her pupils were unfathomably deep.
Just looking at her demeanor, one might think she was completely at ease.
But meeting her gaze made it perfectly clear: there was absolutely no room for negotiation on anything with her.
Stunned by the sudden imposing aura for a few seconds, Chen Dong snapped back to reality, immediately jumping and shouting to recover: “Chu Xingxing, have you lost your mind?! I’m your agent; would I harm you? Taking you on Let’s Travel Together is for your own good. Don’t you need money? Last time you said your family needed to buy your brother an apartment…”
Pfft…
Chen Dong’s grating voice was cut off by a burst of clear, hearty laughter.
Chu Xingxing slowly turned, full of confusion.
Only then did she notice there was actually a lanky teenager lounging in the corner sofa of the conference room???
The youth had a cool, pale complexion, dressed in all-black sweats and pants, with strikingly bright, nearly platinum blond hair.
A pair of phoenix eyes were smiling with a misty gleam. The two small dimples at the corners of his lips made him look even younger.
Chu Xingxing even detected a hint of naivety, the kind born from being sheltered and inexperienced with the world, in the “little golden retriever’s” eyes.
Clearly a privileged young master who’d never faced hardship.
The teenager hastily removed his earphones, slung them around his neck, and cast his phone screen onto the conference room’s large display, laughing uncontrollably as if he’d inhaled laughing gas: “Quick, look at this! It’s hilarious!”
CBM Entertainment’s conference rooms were all equipped with high-end surround sound systems and 4K HD screens.
At that moment, the entire room filled with a bizarrely infectious laugh track and a popular funny background music from a certain short-video platform.
Large characters bounced onto the 4K HD screen:
[Young guy feeling down, signs up for a senior citizen tour group, and then…]
Chu Xingxing: “Senior citizen tour group?”
The more she watched, the brighter the starlight in Chu Xingxing’s eyes grew.
Wellness travel!
Slow-paced!!
Relaxing!!!
And crucially, very affordable!!!!
It perfectly met all her needs.
Chu Xingxing rested her chin in her hand, beckoning to the youth.
Trying to make her smile as approachable as possible, she asked politely and sincerely: “Little brother, may I ask, where can one sign up for this tour group?”
