Entertainment Circle Ancient Female General

Chapter 7

TLN: This chapter contains sexual harrassment.

Since Tuoba Yan sat by the window, the breeze was blowing against her face as she looked out at the bustling cityscape, which was very refreshing and comfortable. 

But the short-haired woman next to her didn’t fare so well. She carried a stuffed oversized bag over one shoulder and wore stiletto heels. She had grabbed one of the hand rings with her left hand while she struggled to write a text with her right. Tuoba Yan felt tired just by looking at her.

After three stops in a row, not a single person got off the bus. Instead, more passengers got on, and the bus was more crowded than a can of sardines1TLN: More crowded than a can of sardines/ packed like sardines means very tightly or snugly packed/crowded together..

At some point, a man wearing a sleeveless sweatshirt and slippers with a jacket hanging on his arm boarded the bus and stood behind  the short-haired woman. He took advantage of the movements of the bus to touch the woman. From time to time, when he raised his hand to fix his hair or rearrange the coat hanging on his arm, his fingers would rub over her back ambiguously.

Perhaps not wanting to provoke more trouble, the woman tried her best to avoid the man, but he only became more aggressive. He was no longer satisfied with rubbing her through her clothing with his hand, so he directly rubbed his crotch onto the woman’s butt.

Now she couldn’t hold back anymore and angrily yelled, “What are you doing?!”

This caught the attention of a few of the nearby passengers. Tuoba Yan was only half a meter away from the two people so she naturally saw what had actually happened. But the man seemed to be a veteran at this since everyone’s oddly contemptuous gazes didn’t scare him at all, Instead, he embarrassedly smiled and said, “I’m sorry, beautiful. I stepped on your shoe.”

The woman’s small face flushed red, how could she say she was being harassed and molested by this pervert? She bit her lips and moved two steps towards Tuoba Yan to avoid the disgusting man. 

The man stopped for a moment and didn’t dare continue taking advantage, but he soon found a new approach.

Tuoba Yan had been paying attention to the man’s movements. When he quietly threw a mirror on the floor and took out his mobile phone, Tuoba Yan could see that the man was trying to take a photo from under the woman’s skirt. The anger that had been suppressed in her heart rose up. Faster than a person could snap their fingers, she grabbed the man’s wrist. She held his wrist out to the side as her fingertips jabbed into the numb tendons of the inner humerus of his arm. The man cried out in pain and she took the opportunity to snatch his phone and shouted, “Driver, this man is taking liberties with this woman!”

His upper arm was numb, but he knew that it wouldn’t be good news if he got caught, so he fiercely yelled at Tuoba Yan, “Little girl, what are you yelling for?!” He ignored the pain and tried to reach for his phone.

The short-haired woman was fully alert and screamed, “I’m calling the police!”

The man panicked when he heard her say that, and Tuoba Yan took the opportunity to throw his phone into the crowd. The man was afraid that the contents of the mobile phone would be exposed so he turned around and tried to grab the mobile phone, but was held down by several young men who had finally reacted. With his hand behind his back he was pushed against the ground.

The situation on the bus was getting worse, the passengers who were far away asked what had happened and who was acting like a hooligan as they stretched their necks to watch what was going on. The passengers in the vicinity heckled the man while some called the police with their phones and took the opportunity to relentlessly beat the drowning dog2TL: [relentlessly beat the dog in the water] means to be merciless to bad people when they are down..

The old lady who was hit by the phone didn’t complain. She picked the phone up and opened it to see snapshots. She angrily scolded, “This immoral man should have been shot dead in his early years!”

Soon after arriving at the next stop, the police who received the call took away the pervert and the phone for evidence and assured the excited passengers that the man would be punished severely according to the law. Tuoba Yan was afraid of stirring trouble so she quickly shouted, “Thank you, Uncle Police!” There were hollers of thanks and cheers from the crowd to the police.  

Tuoba Yan slipped from the crowd and she pulled the short-haired woman behind her and the two of them got onto the bus. There were a lot of empty seats now since most of the passengers were outside in the crowd. They sat down, and the short-haired woman said gratefully, “Little sister, thank you for earlier.”

The short-haired woman, who introduced herself as Nian Huixian, was also going to visit a patient in Yuchuan hospital. The two soon clicked and became good friends after their first meeting. They sat next to each other and chatted for the rest of the ride. After getting off at the station, the two reluctantly parted ways.

[TL: Weren’t they going to the same hospital? Maybe Nian girl had sth to do before going to the hospital. Different floors probably. TY had to go back to her room and the NH had to go somewhere else.]

It was already past 4:30 PM whenTuoba Yan returned to the floor of her ward. Before she could get to her room she was blocked by Nurse Qiao, “How can you go out and run amok again?!”

“I went to the nursing house to visit Grandpa Li and Grandpa Lin, I didn’t go too far.” Tuoba Yan knew she couldn’t tell her the truth, so she nimbly put the blame on Grandpa Li’s head.

Nurse Qiao was still angry and warned her, “Didn’t go too far? You might go even further next time! I’m telling you, don’t ever sneak out like that or I’ll tell your mother and have her pick you up.”

Tuoba Yan nodded her head like a chicken pecking rice and was finally sent away by Nurse Qiao.

After returning to her ward and changing her clothes, she received a call from Qiao Chunyi shortly afterwards. Tuoba Yan thought Nurse Qiao had gone back on her word and complained to her mother, but she soon found that the call was actually to inform her that Qiao Chunyi had to work overtime at the supermarket. She instructed her daughter to get the meal card from the medicine box in the bedside cabinet drawer and go get her own meal.

After running outside the whole afternoon, Tuoba Yan was very hungry. She ordered a large bowl of millet porridge in the hospital cafeteria, a portion of sour and spicy shredded potatoes and two packed lunches for takeaway. 

Sneaking down to the bottom of the building with her things, Tuoba Yan immediately saw the puffy-eyed and haggard Nian Huixian sitting at the edge of the flower bed.

“Sister Nian?”

When Nian Huixian looked up, she saw the tall girl from before who stood up to protect her in the bus, staring at her. She could barely give out a smile. “It’s Xiao Yan, what a coincidence.”

“Are you alright? You don’t look too good.” Tuoba Yan asked her, “Is something wrong?”

Nian Huixian shook her head. “It’s nothing, I’m just on my period today so I’m not feeling well right now.”

Qiao Chunyi was away, and Tuoba Yan was a bit worried so she decided to invite Nian Huixian over. “Does Older sister Nian have anything else to do right now? If not, do you want to come over to my ward? I can make some brown sugar tea for you.”

Nian Huixian was exhausted, and with  nowhere else to go, she went upstairs with Tuoba Yan.

After entering her ward, Tuoba Yan put down the food in her hands and arranged the empty hospital bed for Nian Huixian to sit on. She took out a bag of brown sugar and carefully poured it into the disposable paper cup followed by hot water before handing it to Nian Huixian. “Nian jiejie, I didn’t prepare the ginger so I can only wrong you by making you drink the brown sugar water.”

“Where have I been wronged?” Nian Huixian held the paper cup and her heart warmed up, “Thank you, Xiao Yan.”

Tuoba Yan asked, “Has Nian jiejie eaten yet? If not, I have bought two lunchboxes today so why don’t we eat together?”

Nian Huixian was embarrassed at first, but Tuoba Yan said that she would not be able to finish all the food and drinks. Unsure of exactly how it happened Nian Huixian was already sitting face-to-face with Tuoba Yan, both of them holding a bowl of half-cold rice with a big bowl of shredded potatoes in front of them to fill their tummy.

Turns out, Nian Huixian was a young agent who had recently become a full-time worker. The artist under her was involved in a sex scandal and had been hospitalized. Nian Huixian had gone to visit her but was met with heavy derision. This coupled with the fact that she was on her period and her whole body was aching, was why she had sat dazedly on the edge of the flower bed.

Nian Huixian drank the brown sugar water and gratefully said, “Thanks for today, this Older sister really owes you. I will treat you to dinner some other day.”

“You don’t need to be so polite,” Tuoba Yan waved her hand and smiled, “By the way, I still don’t have Older sister Nian’s phone number.”

The two then exchanged numbers. Nian Huixian said that the number she gave was her personal number and not her work number printed on her business card. She told her to contact her via her personal number, and then gave Tuoba Yan her business card.

Tuoba Yan sent off the now spirited Nian Huixian and held the business card for a long time.

HuaShuo Entertainment’s broker, Nian Huixian.

She turned on her mobile phone and searched up the company’s name on Baidu. It was true that the company was not small. Huashuo had a branch in Yuchuan city. Nian Huixian should be the agent under the Yuchuan branch, but since she hasn’t brought up any big stars, Tuoba Yan couldn’t find her information.

She had unintentionally planted willow trees and formed shades3TLN: “‘Unintentionally inserting willows and forming shades’ is the result of nature. So she had unintentionally gotten herself in a favourable situation. 无心插柳柳成荫Here , maybe, this connection would come in handy in the future.

But now wasn’t the time to consider this. Tuoba Yan put her phone in her pocket. No matter what her identity was, the scar on her wrist would be a big hindrance if she were to enter the entertainment industry. So she had to be sure to remove it before then.

However, Tuoba Yan had no money right now. Although she knew the needed ingredients and where to get them from, even a clever woman cannot cook a meal without rice4TLN: “Even smart and capable women cannot cook without rice. The metaphor for doing things lacks the necessary conditions and is difficult to accomplish.”- Baidu..

Tuoba Yan lay on her bed, her mind rapidly pondering over this matter

The author has something to say: 

Nian Huixian: There was something wrong with the sugar family’s network, and I almost missed this baby’s appearance.

Li Yanrao: Hahaha

TL:  The author wrote “…rub his hand against the woman’s body” but I changed it to “…touch the woman.” I thought he was rubbing his sweaty hands on her clothes at first…