Meanwhile, the loyal members of the TianTian Group were feeling thoroughly abused after looking through those old photos.
How could anyone's life be so miserable?
The photos showed a little girl who had been forced to come out for the orphanage's photo day and had a shabby bouquet stuffed in her hands, but she still smiled with bright eyes. The imagery could really make a person cry.
"It's a good thing someone found these photos, otherwise I would never have known."
"If her parents had been more responsible, they would never have lost their daughter for over a decade. Just look at what kind of life she had to live back then."
"She's already like this, but people still want to smear her. Some people really don't have any heart or human emotions."
"May I insert a small digression? I have to say, the ID of the user who uploaded these photos is way too creepy. He seems like a full-on loser!"
Meanwhile, as one of Ruan Tian's proud "mindless fans", the fan who had uploaded the photos in the first place was just getting started. Not content to just help her clear her name, he had moved on to counter-attacking and was showcasing his full range of combat effectiveness online. His keyboard seemed to crackle with electricity as he fired out salvo after salvo of curses: 【All you smelly bitches online need to measure your own worth! Don't come out and shame yourselves by trying to defile my goddess! 】
【I, your father, have now finished my exams. That means I have time to find each and every one of you rumor-mongering bitches slandering my goddess to skin you alive! 】
【Do you people who have been slandering my goddess see this? ! Hurry up and go back now, burn some incense and get ready to send yourselves off on your final journey now, because before long it will be too late. 】
…in the end, the user called "WhenWillIBeAbleToLickRuanTian" was banned from Weibo for 15 days that night for cursing other users.
But even if he was banned, life continued to go on, and he knew his battle was not over.
Meanwhile, his roommates were dumbfounded as they watched this famous male god from their campus seemingly losing his mind for Ruan Tian.
Unsurprisingly, less than five minutes after his account was banned, he had already paid for another account and resumed his cursing.
RuanTian'sExclusiveLickingDog: 【Sorry, my other account seems to have been banned, but there are still some conversations I need to conclude. Let's continue… 】
"…"
"I'm dying here, how can this guy be so funny?"
"Just looking at his name, this male fan seems like a real loser, and his curses are way too vicious. Could he actually be someone trying to make Ruan Tian look even worse?"
"Heh, I can hardly imagine how wretched a person like this must be in real life."
Despite being scolded, the fan had no intentions to explain anything. Instead, relying on his computer skills, he began to snoop around online and even dig into the code of the websites that were smearing Ruan Tian. After investigating, he was able to discover that all of these smear campaigns seemed to be coming from the same marketing company.
He knew that for these kinds of companies, it was useless just to scold them. The only way to make them stop and not dare to carry out such actions again was to tangibly damage their bottom line.
Thus, the fan was too lazy to care about which way the wind was blowing among the netizens. Instead, he was fully absorbed in digging deeper and deeper and, in the end, he really managed to dig up some interesting things.
It seemed that this particular marketing company had created many false accounts and was stirring things from behind.
The hashtag #RuanTianPhotos# was going up and up.
As the matter got bigger and bigger, the heat continued to rise. But, in the end, the hot search stopped climbing and hovered around 20th place.
These photos easily stirred feelings of empathy and pity when people saw them, so more and more people continued to come forward to speak up for Ruan Tian.
But, at the same time, there was no shortage of cynical people who were sniping sarcastically from the sidelines.
"So is this how Ruan Tian plans to whitewash herself this time?"
"This is nothing. There are many people in this world much more miserable than her."
"I'm surprised, but it's not like her parents lost her on purpose, right? They worked hard and finally managed to bring her back, what more does she want? Besides, she clearly isn't really an orphan, so does that mean it's true that Ruan Tian has been psychologically abusing her parents?"
At first glance, these words all seemed reasonable and true, but if a person considered them carefully then they were revealed to be full of loopholes. These people speaking without understanding the pain of the other party at all were just slapping themselves in the face.
A certain passerby fan who had actually gone to the same school as Ruan Tian finally couldn't bear it anymore and stood out to clarify:【 Originally when I found out that Sister Ruan turned out to be one of my former classmates I was very happy, but now that I've seen all this I feel like I need to speak out. I remember back then, Sister Ruan didn't have any friends and, in fact, it was her own sister who took the lead to isolate her. At any rate, the result was that no one really interacted with her at school. I also remember one time she was punished by her teacher and had to call her parents to come fetch her, but in the end, her parents never came. Her parents were really obviously biased against her and favored her sister. P.S. As a fan, it's really miserable to learn that her sickly sister has been using Sister Ruan as a personal blood bank all these years. 】
【Also, while I was still in school, my friends and I often used to see Sister Ruan collecting bottles to sell and also working in the convenience store near the school to earn money. Truth be told, as far as I can tell, with the impact they made in her life Sister Ruan's parents weren't any different from being dead. 】
After this long speech, the little fan attached a photo of her diploma to prove that she was telling the truth about graduating from the same school.
For the netizens, if they had only been feeling a little sorry for Ruan Tian before, once all of this was revealed, they were dumbfounded. They couldn't help but ask, was there really such a blood-sucking family in this world? And even after all that, those bloodsuckers could still act so shameless? ! !
After this news broke, it wasn't long before, all of the anger and attacks the netizens had been launching toward Ruan Tian were redirected at her family instead. Moreover, they were also quite angry because it had become apparent that some marketing accounts had taken advantage of the situation and treated them all like fools and cannon fodder to use against Ruan Tian.
All of the insults that had been Ruan Tian were suddenly returned in full to the Zhou family. However, because the netizens couldn't easily find Zhou Mother or Zhou Father's Weibo, they ended up directing all of their scoldings toward Zhou Xiaoqiao.
"Look at this family of vampires."
"I had to come and take a good look at the true face of ugliness."
"Blegh blegh blegh! Scram away for me! ! !"
"It turns out that when I cursed at Ruan Tian with 'Your mother is dead' I was actually sending her blessings."
Facing all of this scolding, Zhou Xiaoqiao hid at home and didn't dare to go out. She picked up the phone and tearfully called Shi'an, "AnAn, I obviously didn't do anything this time, how could things turn out like this?"
Shi'an quickly reassured her, "Don't be afraid, what happened?"
Zhou Xiaoqiao lowered her eyes and said in a hoarse voice, "My sister… she hit me today."
When Shi'an heard this news she felt that it was actually a good opportunity. This news was could be used to smear Ruan Tian's reputation even further, so she asked her people to spread the news online immediately.
In the end, there was an effect, but it was the opposite of what Shi'an had imagined it would be.
"Well played!"
"Sister Ruan, amazing! Don't be gentle with that person!"
"Give her another dozen slaps for us! Let her feel the iron fist of socialism!"
When Shi'an saw all this, she felt like her heart was on fire and even threw something at the servant at home in a moment of rage.
She really didn't believe it. Could it be that she didn't even have the ability to crush a small little ant that had no backing at all?!
—
After Qin An returned from Mother Zhou's birthday party, he told his brother vividly about everything that had happened, including the way Ruan Tian had threatened her own mother. Finally, he concluded, "Brother, Ruan Tian has changed."
Qin Yu raised an eyebrow and asked in a cold voice, "How exactly has she changed?"
Qin An scratched his head confusedly but, after thinking about it, he realized he really couldn't articulate what had changed very well.
In the past, he could sense that while Ruan Tian probably didn't like the Zhou family very much, she at least cared for them somewhat. However, when she had been at the birthday party today, it was like the words "These people don't matter to me at all" had been written all over her face.
"Well, I don't know. She's just different now." Qin An thought about all the scenes he had seen earlier that night and said: "She's definitely a very determined person, and also seems very fierce."
As he thought about it, Qin An somewhat began to understand why his brother liked Ruan Tian. She was always stubbornly true to herself and never admitted defeat.
However, after thinking about it that far, Qin An unexpectedly decided to risk death by speaking the truth: "Brother, I feel that Ruan Tian is a person who clearly distinguishes friends and enemies. You two have had a lot of conflicts in the past and probably she hates you."
Qin An was well aware of what kind of virtues his brother had. He was sharp-tongued and acerbic, extremely self-disciplined, but also extremely strict with other people, and he had always treated Ruan Tian with disdain.
And Ruan Tian probably disdained his brother equally as much.
"I feel that she won't like a person who bullies her no matter what. Brother, whatever your intentions may be, I don't think it matters to her. The way you treat her only causes her distress and unhappiness."
In fact, Qin An somehow felt that Ruan Tian wasn't interested in loving anyone anymore. These days it was only when she was acting that her eyes would light up with that same glow that they often used to shine with.
Qin Yu pursed his lips with a faint expression and said, "I know."
Qin An's heart was currently full of a certain unspoken melancholy. He continued, "Brother, maybe you actually don't really like Ruan Tian."
"Just like me. Tonight, I realized that I don't seem to really like Zhou Xiaoqiao. For this sort of thing, it all depends on feelings, right?"
When he heard this, Qin Yu's mood immediately turned bad and he spat coldly: "Scram."
Qin An obediently left and went upstairs to sleep. However, before he could go to sleep, he happened to notice Ruan Tian's name on the Weibo Hot Search and clicked to see what was going on. Soon, he saw those old pictures of Ruan Tian when she was a child. After seeing those pictures, somehow he couldn't fall asleep anymore…
Late that night, Qin An gently knocked on Qin Yu's door and then immediately grabbed the doorknob and tried to sneak in before his brother gave any response.
However, as soon as the door opened more than a crack a pillow flew out and slammed into his face. Then a cold voice said, "Scram."
Qin An: "All right."
Meanwhile, inside the room, there was a thick and hazy cloud of cigarette smoke and Qin Yu's phone kept jumping and buzzing with notification sounds.
Qin Yu glanced down. All of the notifications were caused by Qin An, who was sending him many messages, including the pictures that were currently trending on the hot search.
Looking at these photos, Qin Yu's head pounded painfully, and the smoke caused his eyes to sting.
In the photos, the little girl's usually bright black eyes stared at the camera blankly without any emotion.
Qin Yu couldn't help but recall those days back then. When they had still been in high school, whenever he would do something malicious to deliberately make things difficult for Ruan Tian, she would always look at him with these same eyes.
Eyes that were blank. Completely devoid of emotion or feeling.
Eyes that were numb. Eyes that said that she was already accustomed to this.
Qin Yu got up and stood by the window. His usually cold face looked slightly ferocious, and a violent emotion surged up from the bottom of his heart. Before he could think, he had already picked up a nearby lamp and smashed it against the wall.
Then, maybe for the first time in his life, crude vulgarities slipped from his lips.
When Ruan Tian Mother Zhou finally arrived at the Public Security Bureau to go through the formalities, there was some conflict.
Mother Zhou was completely out of breath and her face was pale like a corpse after the policeman took their documents and asked them to sit and wait.
Mother Zhou drank a few mouthfuls of the lukewarm water provided by the staff before she reluctantly managed to suppress the waves in her heart. She had really never thought that her birthday would turn out like this.
She suddenly raised her finger to point at Ruan Tian and snarled, "I wish I had never given birth to you."
Ruan Tian responded, "I also wish you weren't my mother."
Mother Zhou leaned back against the wall behind her and patted her chest a few times to calm herself down. Then she gritted her teeth and said, "I should never have brought you back. I should have let you stay out there and grow up to be an ignorant village woman. I was wrong about you, you white-eyed wolf."
The more she talked, the angrier she became. Tonight, her most treasured person, her beautiful eldest daughter, had been beaten black and blue! At the same time, she herself had lost so much face in front of her relatives and friends that she was lucky she hadn't been anger to death on the spot.
Thinking of all this, the trembling Mother Zhou forced herself to stand up and then raised her hand to give Ruan Tian a slap.
Ruan Tian caught her arm and fiercely flung it aside, causing Mother Zhou to take a tumble. Then she turned to the policeman and said, "Do you see? She's hitting people."
"Uncle policeman, she wants to kill me, don't you care?"
The male policeman looked up at Ruan Tian, then over at the middle-aged woman who had fallen to the ground, and an impatient expression appeared on his face. He tapped the pen in his hand against the desk and said in a stern voice, "This is the Public Security Bureau, if you hit people you are going to be detained, so think twice!"
Ruan Tian looked down at her mother and had no intention of helping her up. Instead, she whispered, "Ms. Zhou, did you hear the police officer?"
Another wave of anger surged in Mother Zhou's heart, causing her eyes to directly roll up in her skull and her to faint.
A moment later, the policeman came back to pass over the new residence registration booklet to Ruan Tian. When he saw the scene in front of him, he let out a soft gasp of surprise and said, "Why did this person faint? Quick, send her to the hospital as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, when Ruan Tian saw that she was finally registered as the head of the household in her permanent residence booklet, she was overjoyed. She carefully accepted the booklet and gently put it into her bag like it was her own baby, politely thanked the policeman, and then turned to leave.
The policeman stopped her and said, "Aren't you going to take your mother to the hospital?"
Ruan Tian replied: "It's fine, she's in good health."
She was just a little too angry, but she wouldn't die or anything.
After a pause, Ruan Tian continued, "If I take her to the hospital, when she wakes up she will definitely see me and will probably faint again straightaway."
Thinking this far, Ruan Tian suddenly felt that she was actually a really nice person.
—-
On Monday, the stock market opened and the Zhou family companies that were usually green all the way suddenly had their share prices plummet almost immediately. The companies all shed a layer of blood and skin before the freefall was controlled.
In order to stop the share prices from hitting the bottom the Zhou family had no choice but to take out a large sum of money and buy up the sold-off shares.
Ruan Tian didn't really dabble in the stock market and had no understanding of how it worked, but Jiang Lili was different! Thus, Jiang Lili found her and happily told her, "Today, a few tens of billions yuan worth of the Zhou family assets evaporated into thin air."
"Great! When will they go bankrupt! ?" Ruan Tian couldn't wait, "Woo-hoo, I really can't wait to see them out there picking up garbage! At that time, I'll definitely go over to give them a few good kicks while they're down! ! !"
And then happily embark on the road of a winner in life!
Jiang Lili coughed awkwardly and said a few words to let her friend wake up a little bit. After all, the Zhou family was a huge family with deep foundations, it wouldn't go bankrupt so easily.
Of course, Ruan Tian understood this. She sighed and changed the topic, "I still don't know by when I will be able to earn that 80 million."
She took a bite of an apple and continued, "Did you know, Shen Shu actually found me and told me that he would lend me the money? He even said there was no need for me to sign with his company."
"There was such a good thing? What did you tell him?"
"I told him to scram."
"Why?"
Ruan Tian sneered and growled, "Because if he's giving money to me, why should I have to return it!"
Shen Shu, that dog, actually dared to use the word "lend"? Shouldn't it just be regarded as what he owed her from their divorce?
Sure enough, he was still a ****ing capitalist to his bones.
After Ruan Tian's outburst, Jiang Lili gave some words of comfort to calm her down and then said, "It doesn't matter, you'll have money again after you finish this next variety show."
"Oh right, I still haven't asked you, what kind of variety show is it this time?"
"'Star Acceleration', it's a hide-and-seek style variety show. Formerly one of Fruit Station's highest revenue competition-type shows, it's very fun. Also, they bring on about a dozen stars for each episode."
Ruan Tian vaguely recalled seeing this show at some point in the past, so she nodded, "So I just have to run, hide, and, when necessary, kick out my unpleasant teammates, right?"
Jiang Lili nodded, "That's right."
She hesitated for a brief moment and then added, "It's just that… erm, Wang Baiyuan will also be participating this time. That child is already very miserable so please don't beat him up again. Oh, Qin An, Zhao Meng'er, and few other good friends you've made along the way will also be on the show this time."
Ruan Tian rolled her eyes. Suddenly she felt that this show could be renamed to 'Ruan Tian And Her Sworn Enemies'.
Ruan Tian fell silent for a long while before slowly saying, "Well, that's great. Qin An can be the first one I kick off the show."
She would definitely make sure to kick out Qin An until he was doubting life!
…
Back when 'Star Acceleration' first aired it had come out of the blue and immediately became a big hit. The show was interesting and exciting for the viewers, so the ratings were high and its popularity climbed. Nowadays, stars would feel overjoyed to receive an invitation to go on this popular show.
However, only certain stars were eligible to be invited, the type that the general public wanted to lick but could not lick.
The only downside was that the show's audience was historically very demanding toward the guests. If a star couldn't personally excel or create any interesting drama, the audience would definitely petition the crew to kick that star out. Of course, once a star was kicked off the show there would then be a wave of negative publicity as all the fans of the show would show up to scold them as a waste who had washed out of the show.
Ruan Tian spent about a week to watch the entire first season of the show. To sum everything up, she discovered that this was a show that had high requirements for physical strength. If a participant could run fast enough and hide well enough, then they would ultimately be able to have the last laugh.
But when Ruan Tian thought of how her competitors would be a bunch of wastes – young masters who had never done a day of labor in their lives and who could barely lift their skinny arms – she was suddenly overflowing with confidence.
She felt that she alone was more than enough to abuse a group of such wastes.
One thing puzzled her though: Why were these people, Zhao Meng'er and Wang Baiyuan, still so courageous as to participate in such a show that depended purely on physical strength?
In particular, that Wang Baiyuan was as fragile and delicate as a flower. Truly the embodiment of a young master who couldn't suffer the slightest bumps or hardships.
On her side, Ruan Tian had just finished packing up her luggage and was ready to leave to begin recording when she suddenly received an urgent report from Jiang Lili: "Director Cheng has finally picked out the male lead for his upcoming film!"
Ruan Tian replied, "Isn't that a good thing?"
In her mind, now that the all-important male and female leads were set, it was just a matter of picking out the supporting cast, waiting until the designated time, and then smoothly starting filming.
However, the male lead that Director Cheng had found after a month or so of searching this time was a movie star who was much more accomplished professionally than Ruan Tian. He was a powerful and sensational actor who had won three leading film roles using his own skills from as early as the age of 17.
Jiang Lili sat down cross-legged on a cushion and, without any care for her image, happily ate some of the fruits Ruan Tian passed to her. At the same time, she started complaining: "Well, this big movie star doesn't seem to be all that happy to be working with you."
As soon as he had heard that Ruan Tian was the one who was selected to be the female lead, he had sent some members of his team over to communicate with Director Cheng, with the obvious intention of finding out whether she could be replaced or not.
This kind of movie star who had some achievements and awards within the film circle were often like this. They were arrogant and unwilling to act opposite of someone like Ruan Tian who had just risen to prominence and was still mostly only popular within the TV circle.
Or perhaps it was because Ruan Tian's name had been showing up on the hot search so often recently, causing him to not have a very good impression of her.
Although there was no doubt that Ruan Tian had won the audition through her own efforts, this movie star and his team still wanted to forcibly replace her with some more famous actress.
After all, it was better to combine two already popular stars than to help out some no-name.
Casually grabbing another of the small strawberries she had just finished washing and popping it into her mouth, Ruan Tian said between bites, "There are already so many people who don't like me, he doesn't even rank on the list."
As she bit down, strawberry juice stained her pretty lips.
She leaned back lazily on the sofa and continued, "If he really doesn't want to work with me, then he can just refuse the role."
Such a big cake like one of Director Cheng's movies, but he wanted to act reluctant to join because he was unsatisfied with the female lead?
He had already used up all his luck just to secure the role, but he still wanted to push for more? How could there be such a good thing in this world?
Jiang Lili's expression was a little sad and she sniffled a few times before saying, "Actually, this star was always my male god in my heart. I really never would have thought that he was actually someone who judges other people by appearances. His image was like a tower, but now the tower has collapsed in my heart."
Ruan Tian mused for a moment and then said, "In this industry, you will find that there are still a lot of such towers collapsing every day."
Ruan Tian also liked to chase stars, but she wasn't muddleheaded about it.
In fact, her favorite stars generally weren't very famous. Rather, they were all small internet idols and the like.
Back when Ruan Tian was still young and ignorant, she had once sent money to such an internet idol after the idol had posted a link on Weibo. Later on, she looked around to find that internet idol again only to discover that she, along with her agent, had been jailed for fraud.
Thus, that tower had collapsed into a crater overnight.
Jiang Lili smiled wryly and said, "I'm begging you, you shouldn't chase stars. In fact, you shouldn't chase anyone!"
Ruan Tian felt that her friend had a point. She nodded and replied, "You know me best. I really don't have a good eye for men."
—–
Winter was nearly over, but it still hadn't snowed much in the capital.
The warm light of the sun penetrated the thin city air fell on the people below. The juxtaposition of hot and cold was slightly harsh.
At the same time, early that morning, the 'Star Acceleration' crew some people to pick Ruan Tian up at her house. A staffer jumped out to help her carry her luggage downstairs, asking questions as they descended: "Ms. Ruan, have you brought everything you need? You haven't left anything behind, have you?"
Ruan Tian gently shook her head and replied, "No."
"Then let's go." He said as he ushered her into the car.
After that, the car drove out toward the site where the show would be recorded and, in less than an hour, Ruan Tian had been safely delivered to the hotel that the crew had booked for her in advance.
They told her to rest for tonight because they would officially start recording the next morning.
Ruan Tian also happened to come across Wang Baiyuan when she arrived. He was also checking in at the hotel lobby and, behind him, there was a small horde of assistants following, ready to wait on him should he need anything.
Wang Baiyuan also spotted Ruan Tian. He snorted and looked away to cover up his uneasiness.
Ruan Tian handed her ID card to the receptionist of the hotel and the receptionist told her it would take a moment to finish all the procedures. While Ruan Tian waited, Wang Baiyuan squirmed around at the side like some kind of unpleasant insect. Finally, he spoke up: "Ruan Tian, now that you're popular you're really so amazing. You don't even bother to greet your old friends anymore."
Ruan Tian raised her eyes and glanced at him before saying lightly, "Pardon, which small-time star were you again?"
First kill
(tl note: 'First kill' is written in English in the raws. I assume it's a video game reference, but I'm not sure what game. The meaning is fairly self-evident I hope.)
Wang Baiyuan was immediately enraged.
But, at the same time, he knew that he really could only be called a small-time star right now.
Unlike Ruan Tian, who had suddenly shot to popularity overnight to the point that even the nanny in his family who wasn't interested in the entertainment industry at all knew that Ruan Tian was the one who had played the junior martial sister from 'Destined Immortals', he was still only ordinary.
Ruan Tian clapped her hands and then said in an exaggerated tone: "Wow, this show is really just letting in all kinds of demons and ghosts, huh? Have they become so desperate?"
Wang Baiyuan's assistants quickly jumped forward to restrain him from doing anything stupid, but he still growled, "My company forcibly shoved me into the cast, what are you going to do about it?"
Ruan Tian grinned, and her two little exposed canines didn't seem cute at all but instead a little fierce. She said "Tomorrow, you must make sure to run quickly, or else you'll be caught by me and kicked off the show. I'll let you experience the feeling of becoming more and more irrelevant every day."
Wang Baiyuan trembled, but he still retorted, "Who's afraid of you?"
Finally, the receptionist was finished and handed over their room cards and ID cards. "Dear guests, you've all been checked in, so you can go up and have a rest now."
Wang Baiyuan immediately accepted his room card and ran away.
The night before recording began, 'Star Acceleration' finally announced the full roster of invited guests.
There were movie stars, top-notch actresses, and famous comedians.
When the list was released, the difficult-to-please audience were very unhappy with some of the guests. Specifically, Zhao Meng'er and Ruan Tian came under fire from many old fans of the show.
"Us old fans need to be broad-minded and shouldn't just huddle together to exclude outsiders, but these two little girls with their thin arms and legs really aren't suitable for this kind of show."
"I am really disappointed with the crew this time. They invited guests that don't even have the strength to compete. At most they can only hide, but they can't run, so what are we even watching for?"
"Both of them are so skinny, they will definitely get caught within seconds. It's really pointless to watch."
"I hope that the crew can find some more athletic participants, thank you in advance."
Such disparaging remarks rained down one after another.
And, in fact, these comments more or less represented the opinion of most fans of the show.
That night, Ruan Tian slept well despite staying in an unfamiliar hotel. She managed to have a deep and dreamless sleep.
She woke up early the next morning refreshed and energized.
Shortly after that she and all the other guests of the show that were staying in the hotel were sent to the filming location in two cars prepared by the crew.
The big movie star that Director Cheng had chosen to be the male lead who would be acting opposite of Ruan Tian in his next movies was coincidentally among them. Ruan Tian snuck a few peeks in his direction and found that he was tall and thin with pale skin, but they were too far apart for her to clearly see his face.
Still, after seeing him she felt that he did have the capital to give his input on who the female lead in a movie he was starring in should be.
Standing next to him was Shi'an. Apparently, the two people were somehow related.
There were a lot of people stuffed onto the set today, so the scene was crowded and rowdy.
Perhaps she felt Ruan Tian's eyes on her, because Shi'an suddenly turned her face and gave Ruan Tian a strange smile.
Of course, Ruan Tian could tell at a glance that the other woman had no good intentions.
A large number of people from the crew, including the director, were standing in front of the gathered guest stars. The director, who had been sitting impassively in her his chair, suddenly picked up a huge loudspeaker and said, "Okay, we have a total of twelve guests here today and you will be divided into three teams, the red team, yellow team, and blue team respectively. People who draw the slip with the corresponding color will be on that team."
"The box here next to me has all of the slips inside, so you all can decide what order you want to draw your lots in."
Hearing this, Ruan Tian felt a bit excited. It would be best if all of these people that she didn't like could be put into one team together! Then she could punch them and kick them and teach them how to behave like proper human beings!
No one took the initiative to be the first person to go up and draw their lot. After nearly two minutes had gone by silently, Ruan Tian finally couldn't stand it anymore and took the lead by going forward, "I'll go first."
She put her little hand into the big box and pulled out a slip randomly. She looked over and discovered her slip was red.
The director smiled and announced, "Ruan Tian, red team! Who's next?"
Wang Baiyuan suddenly decided to go forward immediately. After all, the later he drew his lot the fewer options would be left.
As he walked forward, he prayed desperately in his heart: Please don't let it be red! He wanted to play as Ruan Tian's opponent so he could wash away the shame from last time!
Wang Baiyuan closed his eyes and gingerly stuck his hand in the box. He groped around until he found a slip to pull out but then, after pulling it out, he didn't dare to open his eyes and look.
The director's voice boomed from the loudspeaker: "Wang Baiyuan, red team! Next."
Wang Baiyuan felt speechless. He almost wanted to die on the spot.
Zhao Meng'er decided to go after Wang Baiyuan. Today she had reverted to her usual white lotus facade. As she went up she bit her lips delicately, looking pitiful and weak, before finally drawing her slip.
"Zhao Meng'er, red team! Next."
Ruan Tian: "…"
Why were all these toxic beings being shoved into her team one after another? There was no end to them!
Qin An also belonged to the category of person who did not want to be on a team with Ruan Tian. He was self-aware enough to have some fears that he might not be able to return alive if he really ended up on her team.
But, at that moment, it occurred to him that there were only four red slips, and three of them had already been ****ing drawn by other poor suckers. Therefore, there was no way it would be his turn to draw another one!
With these thoughts in mind, Qin An was filled with self-confidence and swaggered forward to draw his slip.
"Qin An, red team! Next."
Qin An: "…"
Ruan Tian: "?"
The four people assigned to the red team all looked at one another, their eyes filled with the speechlessness in their hearts.
Shao Chengyue and the aloof movie star were assigned to the blue team.
Shi'an went to the yellow team.
Ruan Tian asked the director seriously: "Can you eliminate your own teammates?"
The director was stupefied by this question, but he still responded, "In theory, it's possible."
After all, the rule was that so long as one member of a team could evade the clutches of the black-suited "seekers" for the specified duration the team would win and pass on to the next round.
In other words, it was enough so long as a team still had one person in the game.
Ruan Tian nodded. "All right, thank you, director."
In this new era of network development, basically all of the reality shows made by Fruit Station were broadcast live. This was done in the name of bringing the rawest and most realistic experience to the viewing audience.
Therefore, when the audience saw the four people who ended up on the red team, they were really fascinated.
Taking a glance, this team was like four dogs ready to bite at eachother.
However, when they took a closer look, they found that it was still like four dogs ready to bite at eachother.
【I declare that the red team will be the first ones to drop out~ Two delicate girls and two frail young men? This team should just wash up and go to sleep as soon as possible. 】
【I think they will drop out first too. This kind of group isn't interesting to watch at all. The director should quickly cut the camera away from them, let me see the handsome guy on the blue team instead. 】
【Hot news only known to industry insiders: Ruan Tian once beat Wang Baiyuan up. Also, Ruan Tian and Zhao Meng'er have been battling each other on Weibo for a long time. In short, this is really a "wonderful" group. 】
【Hahaha, interesting. I'll come to take a look. 】
【Place your bets folks, how many seconds? According to the usual speed of our brothers in the black suits, Ruan Tian's group will probably be done for within ten seconds, right? 】
【I think it should be more like a single second. When the big brothers in suits appear, it will be the end for them. 】
【Ruan Tian shouldn't have even come on the show. Who wants to watch this kind of dainty and delicate woman on an action show? 】
Before the game officially started, each team had a period of time to discuss their tactics.
When compared with the hustling and bustling strategy meetings happening over at the yellow and blue teams, the complete silence that had fallen over the red team was quite notable.
Finally, Qin An couldn't stand the awkward silence any longer. He weakly raised his hand and said, "As soon as the director calls for us to begin, we should run immediately." He pointed to a large structure on the left-hand side. "How about we charge over to that structure first, and once we shake off the seekers we can then look for clues to complete the task?"
Zhao Meng'er made an agreeable sound.
Wang Baiyuan nodded along.
Then, three pairs of eyes all turned together to look at Ruan Tian.
Ruan Tian also swept these three people up and down with her eyes, and then responded, "Your thoughts are so beautiful, ah. All right, let's do it that way."
Hearing her reply, Qin An breathed an inexplicable sigh of relief. Suddenly, he felt that having Ruan Tian in his team wasn't actually a bad thing. After all, she couldn't be so ferocious toward her own teammates, right?
Ruan Tian seemed to see through what he was thinking at a glance because she tossed out a few cold words: "By the way, it's not like I've never team-killed before, hehehe…"
Qin An retorted: "I can still run away from you!"
Ruan Tian replied leisurely, purposefully drawing out her words: "Oh? Is that… so?"
But then the director's amplified voice once again roared out from his loudspeaker, "Alright everyone, just a little while longer and the game will begin. Please prepare yourselves, but do not rush out before I call to start! Doing so will be regarded as a violation!"
"Now, five, four, three, two, one!"
"Go!"
The second he said "Go" Ruan Tian immediately rushed out, like an arrow loosed from a bow. No one could see what happened clearly, they only felt as if a gust of wind had brushed past them once she started running.
Qin An released a deep sigh, then gritted his teeth and followed her, trying to rush toward the structure that they had agreed on in advance.
A few seconds later, all he could think was: Ruan Tian are you still a human? How can you run so ****ing fast? !
Zhao Meng'er tried to suck it up and do her best. She ran until she was panting and out of breath and barely managed to escape from the men in black suits chasing behind them.
Meanwhile, Wang Baiyuan had quickly fallen to the back of the group. The other's heard his frightened voice ring out: "Ahhhhhh! Help! Help!"
Wang Baiyuan had just started running when he realized that he really couldn't run anymore. He had barely taken a few steps but he was already a wreck and could only lean heavily against the stone wall and try to drag himself along. He turned back and happened to see the men in black closing in on him, almost scaring the soul out of his body and causing him to scream loudly in fear.
He tried to put on a burst of speed and run away, but after a few stumbling steps he immediately fell over and ate dirt.
Wang Baiyuan was sure that he was done for, but in an unexpected twist, Ruan Tian appeared and grabbed him by his arm before "kindly" dragging him over to the stone structure they had agreed on earlier.
However, there was no dignity to speak of in the process. He was basically treated like a log and dragged over.
Wang Baiyuan only felt that his bum was burning from being dragged across the ground!
【Haha, who would believe that Ruan Tian isn't using this opportunity to redress her personal grudges? I'm dying laughing here. 】
【The red team's "We don't like each other, but we're still a team" mentality is really too wonderful. 】
【When will they finally fall out? I can't wait. 】
Soon after that, with a quick tap of the director's finger, the task for this game was finally released to the participants.
The first task was finding a certain red lantern among all the red lanterns that were hanging up on the pillars. Only the real red lantern contained their goal, a crystal. Once a team had a crystal, they would be able to start on the second task and also receive a token that had the power to create a "timeout" which could delay the game for half an hour.
The red team actually had some good luck this time, because just opposite of the structure they had chosen to run to first there were many pillars covered with red lanterns.
Zhao Meng'er immediately hid at the back of the group. She didn't want to do something so crude like climbing a pillar. That would completely collapse her "noble fairy" image.
Wang Baiyuan gulped and said, "There's no way. My ass still hurts. I really can't."
Ruan Tian looked at Qin An. "You go up and grab the lanterns. I'll stand lookout for you here at the bottom."
Qin An was shocked and said, "Why should I be the one to climb?"
Ruan Tian didn't want to talk any nonsense and directly threatened, "It's your choice whether to go or not, but if not, then I will eliminate you myself!"
Qin An wasn't convinced, "Are you still even a woman? Is this how a reasonable person behaves?"
Ruan Tian replied, "Is this the first day you've learned that I am an unreasonable person?"
Qin An flinched back. "I'm not going! Whoever wants to go, can go, but I won't."
Ruan Tian nodded, "OK, then I'm going to kick you to death right now!"
Qin An was afraid of her. "Wait, isn't it just climbing? I can do it! But don't come near me. I'm scared."
Qin An looked around to make sure that there was no one else around and then sneakily began climbing up the pillar. As he searched for the crystal, he called down to Ruan Tian, "Make sure you keep an eye out for those men in black for me."
"OK."
Coincidentally, there was a crystal in the first lantern Qin An pulled down. He excitedly tossed the lantern down to Ruan Tian and yelled, "I found it!"
Ruan Tian caught the lantern and hugged it in her arms. She looked up at Qin An and her lips curled into a smile. She said, "It seems that the men in black are coming over…"
After two seconds of silence, she continued, "…so I'll leave first!"
Qin An: "?"
Ruan Tian dashed off like she was a rabbit and immediately disappeared.
A loud announcement from the speaker hanging over the venue suddenly rang out: 【Congratulations to the red team for getting the first crystal. The red team will be awarded with an Acceleration Token! 】
【Ten minutes have passed since the start of the game. An additional three "seekers" will be added to the venue now. Good luck. 】
Qin An desperately clutched the pillar, suddenly feeling that there was no such thing as love or feelings in this world.
He looked down below and saw a man in a black suit standing there like a sculpture at the bottom of the pillar. With tears in his heart, Qin An could only resign himself to staying on this pillar for a while.
Finally, he managed to react. He opened his mouth and roared up to the sky, "Ruan Tian, are you ****ing messing with me!"
Zhao Meng'er saw that Ruan Tian had come back with a lantern and quickly grabbed her clothes. She sobbed, "This is so terrible, why don't we just hide here for a while?"
She really didn't want to run anymore.
Her waist and her legs were aching like crazy, and being chased around was too stressful.
She almost wanted to cry.
Wang Baiyuan wanted to raise his hands and feet in agreement. He quickly added on, "I second that idea."
Ruan Tian's brows furrowed. "Why don't you all just go and form your own team? I'm already tired of carrying these three wastes."
Wang Baiyuan blew his top immediately. He glared at Ruan Tian and snarled, "How dare you call me a waste?"
Zhao Meng'er: It's finally my time to shine!
She leaned against Wang Baiyuan and added, "Ruan Tian, you're such a vicious woman."
Wang Baiyuan nodded and agreed, "En, Ruan Tian is probably the most poisonous woman I've ever met."
A crafty smile appeared on Ruan Tian's face and she said, "I don't mind being a little more vicious. As I recall, the director said that eliminating our own teammates is still in line with the rules."
This was a clear threat! However, after hearing it, Wang Baiyuan didn't dare spout even one more word of superfluous nonsense.
As time passed by, more and more men in black suits were added to the seeking side, and the guests on the hiding side were all struggling.
Before long, Ruan Tian's team's hiding place was about to be discovered by the men in black and they couldn't continue their Voldermort cosplay even if they wanted to.
(tl note: Voldermort, as in, the villain from Harry Potter who spends 6 of the seven books hiding from the world.)
Wang Baiyuan, who had still been scolding Ruan Tian for her viciousness a second ago, suddenly noticed the black-suited man getting closer and closer to their hiding spot. He immediately pounced toward Ruan Tian, grabbed the leg of her pants, and started blubbering, "Sister Ruan, Sister Ruan!"
Ruan Tian immediately understood this guy's intentions.
He must feel too tired to run anymore, so he could only beg her to go out and draw the black-suited man away.
Zhao Meng'er also decided to cast aside her face when the situation turned desperate. She went over and grabbed Ruan Tian's sleeves and cried softly: "Sister Ruan… wuwuwu…"
Ruan Tian was a bit shocked. To think she would ever hear the words "Sister Ruan" from Zhao Meng'er's mouth.
It seemed that she wasn't the only person in this world who could bend and stretch to accommodate the situation.
At the same time, this "epic moment" was quickly recorded and clipped by the people watching the livestream.
FanClubGirl:【 Today's amusement was given to me by the red team. One second, Wang Baiyuan and Zhao Meng'er were scolding Ruan Tian and calling her a vicious woman, and the next second they started crying and begging her for help. Looking at her face, somehow I think Sister Ruan isn't convinced, hahahaha 】
All of a sudden, the usually harsh veteran audience of 'Star Acceleration' felt that these people on the red team weren't as bad as they had first thought.
At the very least, the actress surnamed Ruan seemed to be able to fight!
By this point, Wang Baiyuan and Zhao Meng'er both just want to huddle together in the corner and quietly for the end of the game.
At the same time, they realized for the first time that Ruan Tian's legs could run so fast! Back when they had all started running together, they hadn't even been able to catch a glimpse of her ****ing shadow. Her speed was completely unattainable for people like them.
Anyway, since Ruan Tian's speed was so good, they felt it would be best to let her run around out there and play the heroine that dared to go head-to-head with those guys in black suits.
Ruan Tian looked down at these two people who were clutching at her clothing while crying bitterly and pretending to be pitiful. She rolled her eyes and slowly pulled her clothes out of their hands, then said, "There's nothing I can do. After all, vicious women like me don't have the hobby of helping others."
Wang Baiyuan crawled forward and said, "Sister Ruan! Sister Ruan! Wait, you don't have to be so anxious to leave…"
Zhao Meng'er plastered on a timid expression and took a step back. She sniffled and then said in a tearful voice, "Aren't we both sisters?"
Ruan Tian was a little impatient. "Then are you two going to run?"
Hearing that question, the way they both immediately shook their heads left and right was oddly identical, as if they had rehearsed together.
Meanwhile, Ruan Tian could see one of the men in black suits getting closer and closer and slowly approaching their hiding spot. Noticing that, she decisively kicked Wang Baiyuan out into the open.
For a long moment, Wang Baiyuan was stupefied by this twist. His small eyes met the eyes of the man in black in front of him. A few seconds ticked by. Then he let out an earth-shaking scream, "****! Ruan Tian, **** your mother!"
Right now, his ass felt really painful after being dragged and now kicked.
Wang Baiyuan desperately started running away. In the end, using the tricky terrain he barely managed to escape from the black-suited man's sight and lost him, almost losing half his life in the process.
He panted and collapsed in his new hiding spot, not even having the strength to curse.
He had known from the start that he should never have teamed up with that Ruan Tian!
Back at the initial hiding spot, Zhao Meng'er was looking at Ruan Tian with a frightened expression. The way she had just kicked Wang Baiyuan out into the open like that was too scary.
With one final sob, she said, "I'll go out by myself…"
But just then, a new announcement arrived:
【The next task has been released: Real and Fake Princess! There are two princesses within the city, please find the real princess and get the princess's crown from her within the time limit of 20 minutes to move on to the next stage of the task. The person that completes the entire task will receive an Elimination Token, however, if no one succeeds then three more "seekers" will be added to the game. 】
【There are no restrictions regarding the use of an Elimination Token, it can be used on either an opponent or a teammate. 】
【Everyone please strive for the reward, we wish you all the best of luck. 】
There were already five of the black-suited "seekers" running around the game venue now. If three more were added, Wang Baiyuan decided it would be better to directly rush up the central tower and commit suicide.
What was the point of living a life being humiliated by Ruan Tian!
At the same time, he had no plans at all to try to complete the task. After all, what was the difference between attempting to complete the task and seeking death?
Zhao Meng'er looked at Ruan Tian, wanting to cry but having no tears, "Sister Ruan… Sister Ruan, are you going to try to complete the task?"
Ruan Tian nodded, "I want to go."
When she got the Elimination Token, Qin An would be the first person she would kick off the show!
Zhao Meng'er flinched, "Then I won't go and try."
【Wait, Ruan Tian wants to go complete a task? 】
【Heh, this newcomer is a real tiger. However, I've already watched two seasons of this show and so far no contestant has ever managed to get an Elimination Token. This 'Real and Fake Princess' task is actually just a task where the contestants get to test whether they can run faster than those men in black. 】
【There are many guests who have managed to get the crown, but none of them have been able to win the race against the men in black that comes afterward. 】
【Who will be the first person to be eliminated? My bet is on one of those four biting dogs on the red team. 】
Ruan Tian ran directly to the place marked "Princess's Castle" on her map.
There were also a few other contestants who seemed to be planning to complete the task as well, and Ruan Tian ran into Shi'an halfway.
It was unclear when, but Shi'an had managed to hook up with that aloof young movie star and was moving together with him. When she spotted Ruan Tian, she smiled at her and said, "Ms. Ruan, are you going to the Princess' Castle too?"
Ruan Tian looked at the man next to her and pondered for a moment. Should she try to show off her friendly and magnanimous side in front of this future co-worker?
(tl note: This is the guy Director Cheng selected to be the male lead in his upcoming film, making him Ruan Tian's future co-worker. The author has decided to not tell us his name just yet.)
Eventually, she shook her head. Just forget it, she would be herself.
Ruan Tian didn't feel like facing these boogeymen and monsters and playing nice.
Anyway, a man who could mix in with Zhou Xiaoqiao's group of followers was definitely not a good person.
So Ruan Tian responded in a frosty tone, "That's right."
She threw in another barb: "And when I get that Elimination Token, you will be the first person I eliminate."
Internally, she sighed. The honor of being her first target for elimination, which had originally belonged to Qin An, could only reluctantly be passed on to Shi'an.
In truth, Shi'an really hated Ruan Tian deep in her bones. After all, this woman was the person who had swooped in just when she was at her peak and shattered her dreams at the last possible moment. Shi'an smiled and replied faintly, "It's still not certain who will complete the task first."
Ruan Tian put a hand behind her head and said, "I don't mean to humiliate you but, honestly, an opponent like you can't even enter my eyes."
To put it simply, this person wasn't worthy of her paying any attention to.
Shi'an wasn't already a popular artist like Ruan Tian was, so she didn't dare to unscrupulously say whatever she wanted the way Ruan Tian did. This variety show was actually Shi'an's first public appearance, so she had to play the part of a "good person" no matter what.
And Shi'an was a person with a meticulous mind. Since she had decided to do something, her actions would be watertight, so her next words were still graceful and full of tact despite the anger in her heart.
She even kept a smile on her face as she said, "Well, we'll just have to wait and see."
Finally, the young movie star didn't seem to be able to stand it anymore. His face looked unpleasant as he said, "Learning to respect others is more important than victory. If a person doesn't have even the least amount of respect for their fellow actors on set then I estimate that no one would ever want to act opposite of that person."
Ruan Tian: ****, it was another one of these guys!
She put on a cold face and retorted, "Wait until you've lasted until the end to flap your lips in front of me, okay?"
The face of the young movie star immediately turned dark. Seeing him like this, Ruan Tian suddenly had a premonition that this young movie star hadn't tried to get Director Cheng to kick her out of the movie last time because of her bad reputation, rather, it should have something to do with this Shi'an beside him.
The circle of aristocratic families was only so big, so it actually wasn't too surprising if these two already knew each other from the beginning.
The young movie star put his hands in his trouser pockets and said low voice, "Even with the cameras on you like this you are so rampant, it seems that you must be even more excessive when no one is watching."
Ruan Tian could feel this person's malice toward her, but she just smiled unconcernedly and replied, "Thank you for noticing, after all, I'm already known as a big villain online."
The movie star's face turned even colder. His anger was obvious, but this time he decided to remain silent.
Outside the gates of the Princess's Castle, one of the men in black suits was patrolling around.
Ruan Tian waited for him to patrol in the other direction and took advantage of the opportunity to slip inside before he could spot her.
Unexpectedly, there was someone one step ahead of her already inside.
It was Qin An! Who knew when he managed to escape from that pillar, but he had somehow become the first person to enter the Princess's Castle.
Thus, there were two people from the red team, one from the blue team, and one from the yellow team who had made it inside.
Ruan Tian was curious and asked, "You've already been here for a while, so why haven't you got the crown yet?"
Qin An snorted and looked away. He didn't want to talk to Ruan Tian at all. After spending more than ten minutes clinging to that pillar his arms were in so much pain that he could barely even lift them anymore.
Suddenly, another announcement rang out:
【Now that four contestants have entered, the gates of Princess's Castle have been closed. The four lucky guests who made it inside are Qin An, Ruan Tian, Ji Wangjiang, and Shi'an. Congratulations to all of the listed people, you will receive a Hold Token. However, you still need to find the real princess within the time limit. 】
【If no one manages to find the real princess, then a Puppet Token be issued. 】
【The person who receives a Puppet Token will have to escape from five "seekers" for a certain amount of time, and if they fail to do so they will be removed from their team. 】
【However, you can abstain from the task by using a Hold Token. If you use your Hold Token to abstain, you won't be removed from your team. 】
Qin An's legs immediately went weak. A single man in black alone was already enough for him, if it were to be changed to five at once he might as well directly check himself in to the hospital.
Shi'an was the first one to break the silence. She murmured: "After thinking carefully, I feel that this game is too risky. There is only a 50% chance of guessing the right answer, but if the wrong person receives the punishment and ends up eliminated by the seekers, then it will drag down their whole team."
Qin An touched his chin thoughtfully. He felt that what she said was reasonable, so he spoke up, "I agree. Plus, we all already have Hold Tokens, so we won't make any losses."
This situation was why no one had been able to get an Elimination Token during the past two seasons of 'Star Acceration'. The difficulty was so high it was almost impossible and the contestants were also provided with an easy out in the form of the Hold Tokens.
Almost all the viewers in the audience agreed with Shi'an's words. They all felt that she had made a thorough analysis and settled on the best option.