By now, only Lin Xiao was left standing for Chengxing Entertainment. Holding three clues, he could revive at most two people. After some hesitation, he gave up on Bai Keke, who had the worst stamina. Though seething inside, Bai Keke could only force a smile, feign regret, and leave the duel zone.
No matter how they struggled after that, Lin Xiao’s team still lost. According to the rules, whichever team had the fewest clues within half an hour failed the guard mission. Jiang Ning had handed off a portion of her clues to the other two artists from Jiangtian Entertainment, making it four against three, and with another round of her maneuvering, Chengxing Entertainment was the natural loser.
The losing team had to do push-ups. Since Team One and Team Two had formed an alliance, their members were grouped together for two hundred push-ups, fifty per person. Even fifty push-ups alone was a tall order for most people, and hearing the news, their faces went pale as everyone groaned and sighed.
In a typical variety show script, to showcase unity and camaraderie, the winning team would usually step forward on their own, playing the part of good sisters and brothers who couldn’t bear to watch them suffer, then everyone would split the punishment evenly and wrap things up with a happy ending while some sappy music played over the awkward exit.
Lin Xiao and Bai Keke were counting on exactly that. But Jiang Ning completely ignored them, acting as if she knew nothing. Lin Yiren and the others naturally followed Jiang Ning’s lead, merely standing by her side and offering the losers encouraging looks. In an instant, the whole set fell dead silent. The host stood in the middle like a general watching two armies square off across a river, and even through the screen, the awkwardness was palpable.
Some fans began attacking Xiao Corporation online, complaining that the demand was going too far. They flooded Xiao Corporation’s Weibo with malicious comments, mixed in with the Internet Water Army the System had purchased, and the whole variety show event’s publicity took a serious hit.
When the feedback came in, Jiang Ning felt wonderful. On the surface, she and Lin Yiren looked utterly baffled, the picture of people who simply didn’t understand entertainment industry politics. Meanwhile, she silently had the System shift the blame for the hired trolls onto the Chen Family.
In the end, it was Xiao Yisheng who stepped in to smooth things over, reducing the punishment: the losers only had to take ugly photos as demanded by the winning team and post them on Weibo. With the paint still on Bai Keke’s head, she stood beside Lin Xiao looking thoroughly green, which gave Jiang Ning plenty of inspiration. But that segment came last. Right now was the long-awaited lucky draw.
Although the Female Lead was always fated to suffer hardships, her luck was consistently excellent. Jiang Ning figured there was a very good chance Lin Yiren would win. Watching how nervous she looked, Jiang Ning couldn’t help feeling a bit of anticipation herself. The numbers on the big wheel spun and changed, before finally stopping on 0218.
It was exactly the same number as the lucky Non-Celebrity from the first broadcast. In a heartbeat, all eyes turned to Lin Yiren and Jiang Ning, everyone wondering which of them was the lucky one.
Lin Yiren was thrilled inside, but with so many people watching, she couldn’t exactly drag Jiang Ning up on stage. Smiling, she went up alone, accepted the plaque from Xiao Yisheng’s hands, and took a photo together with him.
Even though the two of them hadn’t partnered up during the show, now that they were photographed together, some people were still spamming comments about what a perfect, handsome couple they made.
Jiang Ning had gotten her phone back by now. Seeing those scrolling comments, her gaze turned cool. She registered an alt account and commented that the two of them weren’t the least bit compatible, that there was nothing between them. Naturally, her comment was quickly drowned beneath everyone else’s.
What followed was meaningless business mingling, and the livestream had already ended, so anyone who wanted to leave was free to go. Lin Yiren immediately took Jiang Ning to collect the evening gown, and they headed home.
“Sister Jiang, hurry up and try it on!” The moment Lin Yiren got back to her room, she unwrapped the gown and handed it over to Jiang Ning as carefully as if she were presenting a treasure.
“For me?” Jiang Ning had assumed Lin Yiren simply liked it herself and had wanted to win it in the draw.
“Of course! I remember you’ve always loved Daphne’s designs.” Lin Yiren was so happy that the words slipped out, a careless reference to Jiang Ning’s past.
Jiang Ning took the gown and studied it. Pure white and understated, with clean, flowing lines. One glance told her the design would flatter a person’s figure to perfection. The truth was, though, she had always preferred red; because of her current persona, she’d been dressing in lighter colors all this time.
Which meant the person Lin Yiren wanted to gift it to was only the Original Host.
Jiang Ning lowered her eyes. Running her fingers over the soft fabric without a word, she just smiled and went into the bathroom to change.
She had to admit, the gown suited her beautifully. White wasn’t something just anyone could pull off, but luckily Jiang Ning had fair skin and the graceful posture of years of dance training. Wearing it, her aura became all the more striking, a faint smile at the corner of her lips, elegant and cool as moonlight.
Admiration shone in Lin Yiren’s eyes, but as she kept looking, something odd stirred in her heart.
She kept feeling that red would actually suit Jiang Ning better. Yet for as long as she could remember, Jiang Ning had loved white and looked good in it. She immediately tossed the strange thought aside and told Jiang Ning to change back.
But once the thought had taken root, Lin Yiren kept recalling the first time she’d met Jiang Ning after returning to the country. Back then, Jiang Ning’s attitude hadn’t been great at all, laced with a mocking, toying edge, yet Lin Yiren always felt that version of her had felt more real. The Jiang Ning of now treated her so well, caring for her and staying by her side, and yet it felt as if a thin veil hung over her, impossible to read through, keeping everyone at arm’s length.
Lost in these thoughts, Lin Yiren was absent-minded even at dinner. Father Lin and Mother Lin noticed but assumed she was just tired and asked nothing.
After all, the next day Lin Yiren was heading to the film set. The early filming would take place somewhere remote, and she probably wouldn’t see Jiang Ning for a long time. The thought only deepened her gloom.
When Jiang Ning came out of the shower and saw the strange look on Lin Yiren’s face, she reached out and felt her forehead. “Are you feeling unwell?” she asked with concern.
Her voice was soft. The light fell across Jiang Ning’s profile, making her seem almost coldly distant, yet her tone was tender and full of affection. That strange feeling surfaced in Lin Yiren again.
After going back and forth, Lin Yiren finally voiced what was on her mind. “Sister Jiang, I don’t think that gown really suits you.”
“Next time I’ll give you a red one!”
With that, Lin Yiren snatched up her pajamas and fled into the bathroom. The more she thought about what she’d just said, the more it sounded like a flimsy excuse for wanting her gift back. Her face burned at the thought, and her hurried footsteps carried more than a hint of running for her life.
The System was the first to sense the shift in Jiang Ning’s mood, feeling her spirits lift all at once. She was even in the mood to browse Weibo and scroll through today’s updates, the corner of her lips curling up in a way that made her features look all the more exquisite.
【Host 0368, have you fallen in love with the Female Lead?】 Watching her, beautiful as a painting, the System asked tentatively.
“If you think I’ve fallen in love, then I suppose I have.” Jiang Ning’s fingers paused for a beat, then she went back to scrolling Weibo.
The System listened in silence. Somehow, its Host seemed like a heartless playboy.
“If it’s the Original Host, then yes, she fell in love. Right now I am the Original Host, but I’m not the Original Host.”
Jiang Ning’s answer left the System completely dumbfounded. After failing to work it out, it simply sent her a string of numbers, the money earned from today’s livestream.
Jiang Ning shifted her position as she looked at her phone, crossing her legs and riding her nightgown up. For one split second, all the System could see was a mosaic. It responded gleefully to her praise, then secretly tried to test Jiang Ning’s Favorability toward Lin Yiren, only to be met with a wall of fog. Giving up, it poured the money into the stock market to compound, building up more capital for Jiang Ning.
As it happened, the show’s punishment results had also been posted. In the end, the four artists of Chengxing Entertainment had taken their group photo wearing orange, yellow, green, and brown paint, and since the brown came out a little off, it looked rather like… something unprintable. The whole image was hard to watch.
No matter how pretty a face was, hair like that dragged it down, and they’d had to play up the ugliness on top of it. Some Visual Fans, being nothing if not fickle, felt genuinely physically uncomfortable and unfollowed on the spot.
Honestly, the people most eager to lecture others about reason are often the least reasonable. A few extreme fans, faced with the negative fallout of the punishment, immediately lashed out. Stirred up by certain ill-intentioned instigators, they were used as weapons, hammering away at Xiao Corporation’s products, spamming negative scores and scathing reviews, and in the process ruined some of the neutral goodwill Lin Xiao and the others had built.
Although Jiang Ning and her team hadn’t followed the script at the end, some people kept posting that President Jiang was just a President who didn’t understand the game, that even if she didn’t help, you couldn’t morally blackmail her. All things considered, Jiangtian Entertainment’s artists had performed quite well throughout the show, and they gained fans one way or another. What’s more, Jiang Ning and Lin Yiren showed remarkable chemistry, whether answering questions or interacting, and a CP group called “Across the Water” sprang up overnight.
Slime’s Joy: emmmm can I ask what “Across the Water” means?
Cannot Beat a Pair of Threes: “The one I love is across the water.” President Jiang’s surname even has “river” in it. Across the Water means Yiren belongs to President Jiang!
My Auxiliary Function: Exactly! Want to join the Super Topic?? The two of them are SO sweet together!
No Distance Between Us: I ship it! A dynamic like an all-capable President and a little star, I could write at least a hundred thousand words about it!
Ten Years of Jianghu Nights and Rain: Handing the great author a pen! Word is Jiangtian Entertainment was nearly bankrupt before this. Wasn’t Yiren signing with them at a time like this just her way of funneling money to President Jiang? And didn’t you see how President Jiang protected Yiren at every turn on the show? The other two are her company’s artists too, so why didn’t they get that kind of care? Clearly favoritism!
Come to think of it, the netizens’ digging actually held up. Though the whole “President keeps a canary in an angsty romance” narrative was completely nonexistent. Who could have guessed that the one being kept was actually the President? Jiang Ning noticed Wang Chenyu hadn’t sent over any messages, which meant the company was developing smoothly, so she focused on scrolling Weibo, reading everything through her alt account with great relish.
When Lin Yiren came out, she keenly noticed that Jiang Ning seemed to be in a good mood and quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Lifting the covers, she sat down at her left side.
Fresh from the shower, Lin Yiren carried a faint warmth and the scent of body wash with her. Jiang Ning found it pleasant, and leaning over naturally, she pressed against Lin Yiren’s side, continuing to browse the netizens’ wild imaginations.
Lin Yiren had genuinely meant to study her script. Twin Flowers seemed straightforward at first glance but was surprisingly difficult to perform, packed with psychological nuance and fine detail. A crime psychology drama like this was still a real challenge for her.
But with Jiang Ning sitting so close, Lin Yiren couldn’t focus at all, her eyes darting toward her again and again. Noticing that the person beside her had lost all ability to concentrate, Jiang Ning simply set the script aside and launched into an explanation of just how funny today’s trending topics had been. The two of them huddled together scrolling through the “Across the Water” Super Topic, and whenever Jiang Ning found something amusing, she even liked it with her alt account. Lin Yiren silently memorized those posts, planning to add them to her own collection later.
Jiang Ning glanced at the time and realized it was getting late. Decisively, she closed Weibo and switched on airplane mode. Seeing that Lin Yiren still looked a little unwilling to stop, she tilted the girl’s chin up and pressed a kiss to her lips.
“What’s there to be reluctant about? Dirty stories are nowhere near as fun as hands-on practice.” There was laughter in Jiang Ning’s voice, her tone rising at the end like a hook that reeled Lin Yiren in and held her fast.
Kissed breathless, Lin Yiren’s face burned scarlet. Looking at the glisten at the corner of Jiang Ning’s lips, desire crept into her eyes, and then she remembered she was leaving for the set tomorrow. She knew Jiang Ning was teasing her on purpose again. Annoyed with herself, she huffed and turned her back, refusing to acknowledge the person behind her.
Seeing Lin Yiren throwing her little tantrum, Jiang Ning rested her right hand on her waist and murmured by her ear with a smile, “That was your reward.”
With that, she switched off the light to sleep. Lin Yiren lay there sulking alone, turning over for ages why on earth there would be a reward, and getting nowhere, rolled back over and jabbed Jiang Ning’s cheek hard.
Never finishing what you start, Jiang Ning, you big jerk!
