Chapter 45 Almost Fainted from Anger
Brenda and her three friends put on a show in the bustling town square. A big crowd gathered, but only a few folks tossed money their way. They ended up with just over fifty bucks, mostly thanks to Eugene, the star of the group.
Brenda looked at the money in the box, counted it, and felt a wave of disappointment. She had hoped for a lot more, but fifty bucks? She wouldn't even bother picking that up off the ground.
She gave a half-hearted smile to the others and said, "We didn't make much. Guess dinner's gonna be pretty basic tonight."
Eugene noticed Brenda's forced cheerfulness and knew she was feeling down. He tried to lift her spirits, saying, "Hey, fifty bucks isn't bad. Brenda, your guitar playing was awesome. Everyone loved it. It's just that this is a small, out-of-the-way town. People here aren't used to tipping for performances."
He grinned and added, "Next time, we'll do better."
Hearing this, Brenda felt a lot better. She thought, ‘He's right; today was about showing off our talent, not making money.’ She put on a determined smile and made a fist-pump gesture. "Eugene's right. We'll keep at it, and things will definitely get better."
If it weren't for Elizabeth's earlier performance, the crowd might've thought they did pretty well. But now, their act seemed just average, which explained why they only made a little over fifty bucks. That was still out of respect for Elizabeth.
Brenda then suggested they hit the market for groceries. While shopping, she handed Eugene the money, making him the main buyer, and excused herself to go to the restroom.
After coming out, she didn't head straight back. Instead, she gave a knowing look to a show staff member. The person slowed down, and they walked together, putting some distance between themselves and the others.
In a low voice, Brenda asked, "How did our performance go over in the live stream this afternoon?"
She expected the viewers to praise her talent and hard work. The staff member replied tactfully, "It was just okay."
In reality, the response was lukewarm. Brenda was taken aback. "Just okay?"
The staff member nodded. "Yeah." Then they tried to comfort her. "It's mainly because the other live stream was so outstanding, and the audience was drawn to them. Otherwise, your performance was really good."
Brenda felt a sharp pang in her heart. "The other live stream was too outstanding?"
Feigning curiosity, she asked, "How so?"
The staff member didn't hold back and started by mentioning that Elizabeth could play several instruments.
"Elizabeth was accused of having a scripted performance arranged by the show. So, she challenged those who doubted her to name tunes for her to play. They did, and she actually played them on different instruments. She didn't just play them half-heartedly; she played with skill and emotion. Her performance was so outstanding that it not only cleared the doubts but also gained her a lot of attention. She even played the same guitar piece as you. Because of her earlier impressive performances on several instruments, everyone said she played the guitar better than you."
In reality, Elizabeth's excellent performance made Brenda's guitar playing seem unremarkable. However, the staff member wisely didn't say this outright.
Brenda felt dizzy and nearly fainted from anger. Her smiling face froze completely. Elizabeth, Elizabeth, why was it always Elizabeth? Why was Elizabeth everywhere? Since when could Elizabeth play so many instruments?
She thought that Elizabeth had deliberately hidden her talents. If she had known Elizabeth could do all this, she wouldn't have suggested coming all this way to play the guitar. Instead of standing out, she had become a mere foil to Elizabeth. Elizabeth must have done this on purpose; she was too cunning.
She was furious, her chest tight with anger. She also felt a bit regretful; she should have stayed in the village. She shouldn't have asked the staff member either; knowing the result made her feel even worse.
The staff member noticed Brenda's pale face and felt some sympathy. It was just her bad luck to encounter Elizabeth. "Blame those online netizens. Arthur said they were probably hired to smear Elizabeth. Who knew that instead of successfully smearing her, they ended up helping her."
The staff member continued to comfort her, "Your performance was actually very good; it was just bad luck to run into this situation."
Brenda, hearing this, could guess who had hired the netizens. It must have been Richard. But this time, instead of feeling grateful to Richard, she couldn't help but feel resentful. She thought Richard should have investigated better before hiring netizens to smear Elizabeth. Now, not only had they helped Elizabeth, but they had also dragged her down.
If Richard hadn't always favored her over Elizabeth, she might have suspected he did it on purpose. Brenda really didn't feel like dealing with the staff member anymore. She nodded perfunctorily. "Yes, I'm fine."
In reality, she wished she could run back to the village and slap Elizabeth a few times.
Kevin, who was ahead, noticed Brenda lagging behind, looking dejected. He waved to her. "Brenda, come on over."
Brenda forced herself to muster some energy, putting on a strained smile as she walked up. Normally, while buying groceries, she would offer plenty of suggestions to assert her presence. But now, she was listless and indifferent about everything.
The viewers of the live stream assumed Brenda's bad mood was due to earning only fifty dollars. Except for her fans and Kevin's fans, others thought she was being narrow-minded. After all, they were just doing a variety show for fun. It was such a small matter, yet she took it to heart and got serious about it. As a result, many viewers' impressions of Brenda worsened.
The cost of living and prices in the small town were not high, so fifty dollars bought them a piece of meat and some vegetables. After buying the groceries, they took the car provided by Arthur's team back to the village. In the car, Brenda felt very sad and pretended to sleep.
Since Brenda wasn't talking, Eugene and Kevin didn't feel like talking either, so they also closed their eyes to rest.
Lisa, seeing this, was speechless. Was the live stream going to show the audience them sleeping the whole way? This variety show experience was really terrible. She increasingly regretted choosing this group. Although she didn't think much of Elizabeth's status, she couldn't deny that Elizabeth had great variety show skills and some real talents. If she had chosen the other group, she wouldn't have to worry about food every day and would get plenty of screen time. She suspected that in this episode of the variety show, her performance and screen time would be at the bottom. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got.
With the other three resting with their eyes closed and not talking, Lisa had no way to perform either. In the end, she could only close her eyes as well.
The live stream viewers were silent. What were they doing? Were they here to watch them sleep? Kevin's fans and Eugene's fans initially enjoyed watching their idols' sleeping faces. But as time went on, it got boring! So, a large number of viewers left this live stream and went to the other one.
Elizabeth and her group had already returned to the courtyard. They gathered the children who came to learn and continued rehearsing for the day after tomorrow's program. They had already choreographed the program in the past two days and had the children rehearse. During the rehearsals, many funny moments occurred, and the viewers were having a great time watching.
For dinner, the village chief and Curtis invited Elizabeth and her group to a feast, mainly to discuss live-streaming sales. Elizabeth and her group didn't refuse. So, when the other group finally returned to the village, tired and just sitting down to rest, they heard their phones ping. Opening the group chat, they saw that Raymond had posted several pictures of a sumptuous dinner.
The four, exhausted and hungry, were silent. Kevin couldn't help but complain, "Raymond isn’t a good person."
Even Eugene couldn't help but say, "He's too mean; he must be doing this on purpose."
Raymond was a jerk. Brenda, seeing the photos, suddenly felt like crying out of grievance. Why, after Elizabeth had stolen all the limelight, did she not only have to cook dinner but also get to eat so well at a villager's house? Thinking about how she still had to cook dinner for the other three, Brenda felt dizzy again and wished she could really faint. She also began to regret it; she shouldn't have set herself up as the hardworking and diligent one. If she hadn't insisted on cooking, it wouldn't always fall on her at mealtime.
If it weren't for the live stream, Brenda would have cried and quit. Lisa, adding salt to the wound, said, "Brenda, I'm so hungry. When are we having dinner?"
Today's groceries were just basic ingredients. Brenda's cooking was barely edible. After a tiring day, she was really hungry, so she had to make do. Brenda wanted to slap Lisa and tell her to cook if she was hungry. But to maintain her image in the live stream, she could only smile considerately. "I'll go cook now."
She had to follow through on her words, no matter what. Brenda got up to make dinner. Since she had always taken care of everything before, the other three were used to it and didn't go to the kitchen to help.
This left Brenda to cook dinner reluctantly, wiping away tears behind the camera. Ever since she became a foster daughter of the Clark family, she had never suffered such hardship and grievance. It was all Elizabeth's fault. If Elizabeth had listened to Betty and her brothers and given up the spot to her, none of this would have happened. Without Elizabeth causing trouble, she had a feeling her image as a kind, strong, and hardworking person would have been very successful. The others would be waiting for her to feed them.
The more she thought about it, the more Brenda's resentment and hatred for Elizabeth grew. She decided that after the variety show ended, she would subtly complain to her family, letting them know how Elizabeth had bullied and harmed her. Then, she would wait for her family to confront Elizabeth. If Elizabeth made her suffer, she would make sure to hurt Elizabeth in return. Thinking this way, Brenda felt less aggrieved and sad. She knew that being hurt by loved ones was the most painful. She couldn't help but look forward to seeing Elizabeth's pain when her loved ones hurt her.
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