Starlet Taotie Chapter 37 (Part 1)
Chapter 37.1 One Step Closer
The livestream of the first day of 'New Star Olympics' began with the athletes from all four teams entering the arena one after another.
【WOWW! Team Red looks stronggggg!! They look like the favorites to win!】
【Sang Heng is so handsome!! AAAAAH, my bias and my other fave are on the same team!! Go Green Team!!】
【Team Yellow has the best-looking members! Anyone disagree?!】
【Team Blue...uh good luck Blue Team.】
The viewers already knew the team lineups before the competition, but seeing them in person really drove home just how weak Team Blue was.
The so-called ‘old, weak, sick, and disabled team’ everyone had been joking about wasn’t an exaggeration at all.
It was simply the truth.
While the athletes from all four teams warmed up and prepared for the events, the broadcast director shifted the camera toward the audience stands.
The stands were packed with cheering fans. Most were holding flags in their favorite team’s color, or carrying banners and light boards.
Passionate, energetic, and adorable.
But what the audience was really looking forward to was the Taoties, who had already stolen the spotlight with their unique style.
They were all wearing blue headbands, each with the word ‘ZEN’* written in the center. Little flags had been tucked into either side of their headbands like ears, and behind them hung a long banner:
Participation is Priority; Victory is Secondary.
(TLN: Like you know, when you are ‘at zen’, and feeling completely calm, relaxed, and at peace.)
To Jiang Tao’s internet parents, as long as their precious baby participated in the competition, that alone was a victory. Winning or losing? Who cared?
And they weren’t just saying it. They were putting it into practice.
Everyone opened the lunchboxes they had brought and happily started exchanging food with one another.
It looked less like they were at a sporting event and more like they were having a picnic on a giant lawn.
【PFFT HAHAHAHAHA, the Taoties have the best mentality in the whole arena.】
【I finally understand. What kind of celebrity you are determines what kind of fans you have LMAO.】
【omgggg everything looks so delicious!! are all the taoties secretly amazing cooks?!】
【Is this the proper way to support your bias?! I finally understand!!】
【the two fandoms sitting to their sides must be losing their minds by now. breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting*... brilliant, absolutely brilliant!】
(TLN: Sūnzǐ: The Art of War, Chapter 3 - Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting (是故百战百胜，非善之善也；不战而屈人之兵，善之善者也。).)
The commotion in the stands was faithfully broadcast to the guests seated in the VIP section.
The VIP section was filled with Pineapple Network executives, representatives from the various sponsors, and local government officials in charge of sports.
Ling Shuangwei was the planning department manager at HONOUR Sports, the main sponsor of this year’s 'New Star Olympics'.
She had come not only as the sponsor behind the event, but with another, more important purpose: to scout potential ambassadors for the brand’s next campaign.
When she saw the Taoties laughing and happily eating in the stands, the powerful businesswoman frowned slightly.
Their brand, HONOUR, stood for exactly that: honor.
To strive and fight with everything they had, and even if they ultimately lost, to lose with honor.
(TLN: In China, they learn/use British English, so the brand, which was written in English in the raws, spelt ‘honor’ with the 'u'. The 'honor' that followed after is just them explaining what the English word HONOUR means (that was in Chinese). Since I’ve been tling using American English, I left the ‘u’ in the brand name and the explanation without.)
But the competition hadn’t even started, and they had already given up on winning. That was completely at odds with the brand’s philosophy.
She turned to her assistant and asked, “Whose fans are they?”
The assistant checked and replied, “They’re Jiang Tao’s fans.”
Not someone they were considering for the role.
Ling Shuangwei nodded and thought nothing more of it.
…
The first day of competition soon came to an end.
Just as everyone had expected, Team Blue had the worst results out of all four teams.
Only Cheng Jie had safely secured a gold medal in swimming, while Fang Yiran took silver in archery. Everyone else had been completely shut out.
The various social media platforms were buzzing with discussion.
【Team Blue is so pitiful. Are they really going to end up with only these two medals?】
【Maybe. Isn’t Cheng Jie and Fang Yiran all they’ve got? These sports are their strong points, so they probably won’t have any more chances to medal later on.】
【Jiang Tao is actually pretty athletic, no? Wasn’t her jumping ability pretty good on ‘Over Here!’?】
【In ‘Our Village’, she even threw the cameraman and PD onto a tree. She must be pretty strong.】
【Wait, wasn’t Jiang Tao part of the food scene?!】
【sigh, what a shame there isn’t an eating competition. Jiang Tao would probably win that one easily.】
The same question was weighing on everyone on Team Blue.
Cheng Jie looked at Jiang Tao, who showed no signs of stopping her eating, and the joy of winning his gold medal had completely vanished.
Fang Yiran sighed. “I told you not to get so worked up...”
Cheng Jie stubbornly refused to back down. “I might not lose. It’s only the first day and we’re already nearly ten points behind first place. The real events are still coming over the next few days. The gap between us is only going to keep growing.
“Unless Jiang Tao can win three gold medals, but even then, the rest of the team would still need to take at least two or three gold medals, along with a decent number of silver and bronze medals, for us to even have a chance at the championship.”
Fang Yiran clicked his tongue in disbelief. At first, he had only thought winning the championship would be difficult. After hearing Cheng Jie lay it all out, he realized just how difficult it really was.
He sighed. “Looks like there’s no hope.”
“No hope for what?”
A voice came from behind them.
The two men jumped and turned around, only to find Jiang Tao standing there. She seemed to have just returned, carrying an assortment of snacks and lunchboxes.
Cheng Jie nearly broke down. “Where the hell did you get all that food this time?!”
“My fans gave it to me.” Jiang Tao proudly showed off her haul, then immediately pulled it back protectively. “My fans gave these to me, so none of it is for you two!”
The two men: “...”
Fang Yiran remembered the trending topic he had just seen about Jiang Tao’s fans and their laid-back support. Looking at the carefully prepared food containers, he couldn’t help feeling a little envious.
“Jie, your fans really put a lot of thought into this.”
Jiang Tao looked immensely proud. “They did. They’re my family.”
She remembered how her fans had told her that they had chosen the name Taoties for themselves. They would protect her and devour anything that was bad for her.
In that moment, it was as though something had struck her right in the heart.
That same warm, soothing feeling that made her want to lose herself in it.
She could smell the warm, sweet emotions coming from them, and for the first time, what she felt wasn’t hunger.
It was the urge to protect.
She wanted to protect her little Taoties.
“I promised them I’d win the championship this time.” Jiang Tao said it lightly. “They gave me something precious: their trust. I won’t let them down.”
Both Cheng Jie and Fang Yiran were deeply moved.
They recalled how, when they were leaving the stadium that day, fans had called out to them from a distance, telling them that no matter the result, they believed they were the strongest.
And then there were the countless private messages that kept pouring in, each one carrying the fans’ precious trust.
“Yes! I’ll definitely work hard!” Fang Yiran said, his eyes brimming with tears.
Cheng Jie also felt a long-lost sense of fighting spirit and passion stir within him.
After debuting, he had been forced to suppress his competitive nature in order to follow the group’s wishes. After doing so for so long, he had actually forgotten what his true self was like.
And now, Jiang Tao had awakened that part of him.
Cheng Jie was too proud to express it as openly as Fang Yiran, so he simply added another hour of training to his schedule in silence.
Jiang Tao nodded in satisfaction.
She was one step closer to getting a whole week of free meals.
