Ruan Tian wasn't recognized while she was on the Capital University campus, but she happened to be photographed a few times when Huai Mo sent her off in her taxi.
The reporter deliberately picked the most misleading photo and directly put it on the front page of his website, with a huge red headline: 【Ruan Tian, seen meeting with a student. Is this the early exposure of a new romance? 】
This new photo caused the eyes of netizens to gleam.
"Then the question is, just how many men does she have? Roughly estimating, it shouldn't be any less than five, right? She's really a winner in life."
"Oooo is this a new CP again? The small triangle has expanded to a large quadrangle?"
"No, you guys haven't thought about it properly. Do you really think Ruan Tian could find a new relationship so quickly? Isn't it more likely she already knew this guy before she got divorced?"
"Watson, you've cracked the case."
"Nom nom I'm just eating melons on the side here, but cheating women won't die a natural death."
"Cheating is a moral issue that affects our whole society! We can't let this cheap woman off!"
After the incident spread, Ruan Tian received tens of thousands of insults, but she didn't care at all. She just slowly prepared the materials she would need to clarify things, and along the way she managed to learn a lot of new ways of cursing people from the comments.
This was all valuable knowledge that she would definitely remember!
Hehe, in the future she could use these words for those dog men.
But then, to Ruan Tian's surprise, the official Qin Pictures account suddenly issued a statement, saying that they had sent lawyer letters to the owner of the website and also to dozens of people who had been involved in the smearing.
Experiencing this kind of treatment all of a sudden gave Ruan Tian the illusion that maybe was actually the female lead.
…
Of course, in the past many celebrities had their lawyers send letters to these kinds of particularly egregious black fans, but generally, the legal process was very slow and often times things would have already been completely forgotten by the public by the time a verdict was reached.
Thus, many celebrities and the studios behind them would only have their lawyers send out a few threatening letters, but they wouldn't actually take anyone to court. After all, just sending the letter was usually enough to serve as a deterrent and stop the offenders from continuing to spread rumors, so if that goal was achieved the studio would consider the job done.
However, this kind of attitude had only made the black fans even more confident.
For instance, there was a certain superfan of Liu Yilee's who had secretly received some money to smear Ruan Tian online, and they were so unafraid that they even took a picture of the letter sent by the lawyers from Qin Pictures along with a mocking caption: 【Look at this, a certain treasure that costs a mere fifty yuan and lets you pretend to be someone else's father and order them around. 】
Since it was posted by a popular fan, naturally, there were many people willing to voice their support but who were sitting on the fence because of the deterrence of the legal threat.
But when those people saw that there was no reaction from Ruan Tian's side, they all began to join in on the mockery:
【What do you even want to sue me for? I wonder if you can put your hand on your heart and that what I said isn't true? 】
【I didn't realize how many lawyer letters had been sent out this time. Aren't they afraid they'll run out of paper? I'm laughing to death here. Who doesn't know that these kinds of lawyer letters are just a show the studio is putting on for their fans? Do you think anyone is afraid? Do you think anyone believes that you'll actually sue? 】
【hahaha they're welcome to really sue! If she doesn't sue me this time, then she needs to bow down and call me grandfather! 】
However, this was also the first time Qin Pictures had ever dispatched lawyer letters on behalf of one of its artists, so many people who were just watching the show were all secretly sighing in their hearts. It turned out that Ruan Tian was really the ****ing imperial concubine of Qin Pictures, right? Her treatment was even better than the studio's Movie Queen.
After all, back when one of the actresses that had won Movie Queen that year who was working for Qin Pictures at the time and had been being smeared wildly online, Qin Pictures had never made any statements or sent any lawyer letters on her behalf.
"Did Ruan Tian poison Qin Yu with a gu? This isn't even the treatment for an imperial concubine, this is directly the treatment for an Empress, right? Even Qian An, the real little prince of the Qin family, doesn't get treated as well as she does." (tl note: gu is a complicated thing from Chinese mythology, but you can basically think of it as a poisonous bug that can be put in someone else to control them)
"It's strange, when looking back it seems that Qin Pictures never paid Ruan Tian much attention, but this year they suddenly went crazy. They let her walk as the finale at their annual meeting's red carpet event, then they gave her a seat at the main table which is usually full of nothing but big bosses from the industry, and now they're even making official statements and sending out lawyer letters on her behalf? What kind of treatment is this?"
In fact, Qin Pictures had always given the impression of a very cold company, and it rarely posted anything related to any of its artists on its official Weibo. Ruan Tian was the first artist to have received this kind of treatment ever since the establishment of the company.
Despite the vocal and fearless minority, there was some effect after Qin Pictures fired off their volley of lawyer letters, and the rumors swirling around Ruan Tian's "tryst" with Huai Mo began to die down a bit.
But before long a new round of mockery began to circulate following the guidance of a few big fans with large followings.
This new round of ridicule was about how Qin Pictures would never dare to sue, and their posts were all full of complacency.
But then morning finally rolled around, and it seemed that the staffers at Qin Pictures had finally arrived at their offices because something new was quickly posted to the official Weibo. It was a screenshot of their court filings, along with the text: 【Regarding the ongoing litigation surrounding the slander of an artist under our company, Miss Ruan Tian, everything is moving along smoothly and we are following the proper legal procedures. When there is more specific progress, we will inform the public at that time. 】
The message seemed very plain.
But, by reading between the lines a bit you could make out the real intentions:
The suits are filed!
Just wait to see us in court!
Not only sue you are we going to sue you, we're also going to be providing regular updates on the progress of our lawsuits against you!
As soon as Qin Pictures released this statement, the Liu Yilee superfans who had been fanning the flames for so long suddenly went quiet, and soon after that, they began to silently start deleting their most inflammatory posts.
Unfortunately for them, they weren't up against just anyone this time, they were up against the powerful group of lawyers from Qin Pictures. It already wasn't something that could be settled by deleting a few posts from Weibo.
At the same time, Ruan Tian's fans were suddenly overflowing with confidence and momentum. They seemed to be laughing as they posted:
"I've never seen anyone who switches sides so quickly."
"Congratulations to everyone on the list. I wish you all a happy stay in your local detention center."
"Even when you're online you still have to be kind and not just kick out randomly, otherwise you can just wait to pay the price when you encounter the iron plate."
"So cool, so cool! Also, I tentatively agree to the TianBabyXQinYu CP!"
"What's a man next to Sister Tian's beauty? All you CP fans need to remember that a man is just a tool to stand beside Sister Tian and emphasize her beauty! Real fans only have Sister Tian in our hearts! We only follow our TianBaby!"
Meanwhile, Ruan Tian really couldn't understand what Qin Yu and Qin Pictures were playing at.
When Qin Yu treated her badly, that she could understand perfectly, but if Qin Yu suddenly began acting like he was acting today, seemingly suddenly caring about her life and death, she only felt uncomfortable all over.
Meanwhile, Jiang Lili was just as shocked as she was. She felt it was unbelievable that the company had suddenly decided to help Ruan Tian out this time.
"Did you sleep with Qin Yu?"
Ruan Tian: "Scram."
Jiang Lili just felt the whole situation was ****ing incomprehensible and no matter how she thought about it, she couldn't figure it out.
Back then, she had been there on the day that Ruan Tian had quarreled with Qin Yu in order to terminate her contract. Ruan Tian had gone to his office in a rage and, without controlling herself at all, had directly smashed up everything in sight. Even until today, the battle was still fresh in Jiang Lili's memory.
Qin Yu's face had been darker than the bottom of the pot, and before it was over he had gripped the pen in his hand so tightly that it had snapped in two.
Jiang Lili continued to guess, "Then… could Qin Yu have gone crazy?"
Ruan Tian felt that was probably the most likely scenario, so she nodded and said, "It seems very possible."
In her mind, Qin Yu had always been a mad dog after all.
Jiang Lili slumped down on the sofa, "TianBaby, I have to say, this feeling that the company is backing us up for once is really very refreshing."
For her part though, Ruan Tian honestly didn't feel much. Perhaps it was because she had developed an ability to dissociate herself from it all, no matter how badly people scolded her online.
In her mind, it was as if the person being scolded wasn't even her at all.
"Eh, it's alright."
As she was speaking, Ruan Tian's phone on the coffee table in front of them began to buzz and vibrate.
Mother Zhou's phone number flashed on the screen.
Ruan Tian was a bit surprised. Considering Mother Zhou's strong personality, Ruan Tian had been pretty sure that after she had shed all pretenses with the woman last time she would probably never contact her again in this life.
Ruan Tian indifferently watched as the screen darkened, lit up, and then darkened again a few times in a row.
In the end, Mother Zhou persistently made three calls but Ruan Tian didn't answer any of them.
When the phone finally stopped, Jiang Lili gave her a thumbs up, "I'll tell you now, I'd had just about enough of your mother from a long time ago. It's good that you've finally finished sorting your garbage and thrown the burnable-trash where it properly belongs."
Ruan Tian nodded in agreement, "En, I've had enough too."
Ruan Tian had no good memories from answering Mother Zhou's calls and this time too, she just assumed that the other woman wasn't looking for her for anything good.
Ruan Tian clearly remembered that in the latter part of the novel, Mother Zhou ruthlessly drove the evil supporting character out of the house without caring about her life or death at all in favor of the daughter she truly loved, so she had difficulty caring much about what the woman wanted with her.
Jiang Lili spoke happily: "Fortunately, you didn't ever change your surname. How suffocating that would have been."
In fact, the name 'Ruan Tian' was a name that she had given herself. 'Ruan' was the surname of the homeless old lady who had helped her back at the beginning, while 'Tian' was the character she had chosen for herself when she grew a little older and began to learn to read.
It was a name chosen because she loved to eat sweets, and because she had hoped that she could live every day sweetly.
It contained her hope that there would always be sweets to eat and someone to eat them with. (tl note: 'Tian' is '甜' which the dictionary lists as 'sweet; honeyed' or 'happy; pleasant')
"I never wanted the surname Zhou." Ruan Tian said with a frown.
Actually, in the beginning, Father and Mother Zhou had mentioned helping Ruan Tian to change her surname to Zhou as well, but she had never agreed. In the end, Mother Zhou had tried a few times but ultimately failed to convince her, and she eventually just gave up entirely.
Perhaps that was part of the reason why Mother Zhou had always disliked her for being a stubborn and disobedient girl.
Jiang Lili said: "The variety show that you signed up for will begin recording in a few days and apparently there will be another live broadcast-" She suddenly stuttered, having remembered that there was something important that she hadn't told Ruan Tian yet. "Also, it seems that Xu Jing was invited by the program crew as a guest star, so you need to be mentally prepared."
Ruan Tian: "Ehh?"
Then, in a puzzled voice, she continued, "I looked over the guestlist for the show before and Xu Jung's name wasn't on it then?"
Jiang Lili explained: "It seems one of the newcomers fell ill and couldn't come on the show. The program crew decided to send an invitation to Xu Jing without much hope that he would even respond and, who knows what the hell is going on in his mind, but Xu Jing actually agreed!"
This was actually quite odd because, before this, Xu Jing had never accepted any invitations from variety shows ever since his debut.
But Ruan Tian didn't care much. It wasn't like she would lose anything if he were there too. However, a thought suddenly occurred to her.
"Wait, Xu Jing wasn't swindled by the program crew, was he?"
"Don't worry, I already asked about this. Xu Jing knows that you will also be on the show but he didn't seem to mind."
"Eh, it's fine then. kkk." (tl note: there are actually three English letter 'k' there in the raw. More of the author's weird habit of including netslang in spoken dialogue)
Ruan Tian had to make sure of this point because she was a bit afraid that if Xu Jing only came to find out that she was also on the cast on the day that shooting began, that he might just flip out and threaten to leave. Since it was Xu Jing, it definitely wasn't impossible for him to do something like that!
And then what would she do if the program crew kicked her off the show for Xu Jing? How would she make any money!?
Ruan Tian only recognized money, okay? Everything else was bullshit!
Meanwhile, Jiang Lili was worried that Ruan Tian was holding a grudge, "TianBaby, let's just bear with him while you're recording. Don't conflict with Xu Jing anymore, I'm afraid you're the only one who will suffer wuwuwu."
But Ruan Tian wasn't too worried. She had always felt that Xu Jing was an arrogant man who didn't talk much and didn't care much, but his temper wasn't impossible. At the very least, they should be able to work together peacefully.
She gave a smile that wasn't quite a smile, winked, and said: "You don't need to be afraid that I will suffer. Rather, you should be afraid that Xu Jing might get along with me too well. What if he suddenly falls in love with me?"
Ruan Tian added shamelessly, "After all, aren't I already his lifesaver? In ancient times, we would already be promised to each other!"
Jiang Lili was speechless.
—
A few days later, 'Gege and Jiejie's Journey' officially began recording, and for the first time ever it kicked off with a semi-live broadcast.
In early March, the program group began to announce the guests one after another until there was a total of five. Ruan Tian was the first official announcement while Xu Jing was given the best "C" position.
The program crew had spent a lot of effort in order to invite him onto their show, so they naturally gave him the best treatment.
Xu Jing's fans had actually seen the news beforehand, but they had all dismissed it as fake at first. None of them believed that their idol would agree to another job that would have him working with Ruan Tian.
So when the official guest list was released, his fans couldn't accept it and their mentality collapsed. "Why would Brother Jing go on the same show with Ruan Tian again!?"
"Uuuuuu, Brother Jing is going to be ruined again."
"It must be Ruan Tian who found out that Brother Jing had agreed to go on the show in advance, so she did all sorts of tricks to get on the show with him."
"In order to chase our Brother Jing's back, Ruan Tian really put in a lot of effort."
"If I had her perseverance I would have already caught Brother Jing long ago."
"Let's pray they don't meet each other wuwuwu"
But, of course, there was no CP in this world that the shippers wouldn't ship.
Soft or hard, they shipped them all.
Thus there was abruptly a wave of CP fans amidst all the complaints.
"Unexpectedly, I was able to see the TianXJing CP again in my lifetime."
"Spring is coming for the CP fans, haters tremble!"
"They look good in the same frame like that."
Thus the variety show's promotional broadcast seemed to catch fire, and the number of people watching on the FruitVideo app that day broke 500,000, while experts estimated that they would easily reach a million viewers when the real live broadcast began.
Many passersby jumped in to watch the fun as well, but they all felt that the program crew had deliberately invited these two people with 'history' onto their variety show in order to drum up some heat.
But despite the 'obvious setup' the people on the sidelines didn't mind at all. They just really couldn't wait to see these two people fight!
They were all looking forward to seeing a big battle scene, and they only felt that it would be best if it were a real battle to the death with the two of them going for the throat the whole three days and three nights that the show was shooting.
However, the direction of events became distorted before filming even began and things became much different from what they were all expecting.
That was because, the night before the variety show began shooting, Xu Jing unexpectedly followed Ruan Tian's Weibo with his official account.
Jing Fans:? Ruan Tian, if you dare to seduce our Brother Jing, you will die.
TianTian Group: Xu Jing scram away for us now! Don't get too close to our soft and sweet TianBaby!
Meanwhile, Ruan Tian happened to see herself show up in Xu Jing's "Followed" category and began to feel a bit worried.
What if Xu Jing really wanted to exchange promises with her?!
What was she supposed to do?
It seemed that being too loveable could also be a terrible thing!
After Xu Jing's Weibo fans had all expressed their anger on his Weibo, they collectively decided to move on to 'Gege and Jiejie's Journeys' official Weibo to continue their commenting.
"If any of you dare to maliciously edit things to try to group those two together, you will die."
"Protect Brother Jing! Brother Jing is perfect on his own, and all the leeches need to scram away."
"**** your mother Ruan Tian! Now you've caught up to Lord Jing and want to suck blood from him again? You were a vampire in your previous life, right? It really makes people speechless."
"I'm going on a spree this time, every day will be nothing but cyber violence against Ruan Tian!"
"I'm not afraid. Today I will kill this chicken as a warning, and in the future, everyone will look up to me as a professional chicken killer huehuehue."
But even after venting their emotions under the official Weibo, the fans were still upset and they turned their attention to Xu Jing's agent. They began throwing out all sorts of insinuations questioning his professionalism. After all, if he was professional enough, he should have pressured the program group to kick Ruan Tian out, right?
"You worthless fatty! You eat and eat! All you know how to every day is eat, why don't you just eat yourself to death! It's only because Brother Jing is kind that he hasn't already fired you!" (tl note: So Xu Jing's agent was named in a previous chapter, and his name is 刘胖 / Liu Pang / Xiao Pang (nickname). The 'Pang' (胖) character can mean 'fat', hence the fat jokes from the netizens)
" XiaoPang, you need to ****ing apologize to us fans."
" XiaoPang, you really are worthless. What kind of broken resources are you finding if Brother Jing is in a show like this?"
" XiaoPang, I will absolutely **** you up! You really let that woman come cling to our superstar for hype again? Useless!"
Meanwhile, Ruan Tian was feeling helpless. She really had no intentions to create CP hype, ah. In fact, she even signed her contract with the show before Xu Jing did!
Did those netizens really think that she wanted to see Xu Jing's cold facial paralysis face every day?
Thinking about it, she felt that if she really had to look at that face of his all day then she would probably have to apply for a work injury with the program group before long!
…
The night before the show began recording, Ruan Tian received a package via courier. After opening it, she found that the package was from Shen Shu and contained the ring and necklace that he had his secretary buy for her all those years ago.
Ruan Tian looked down at the contents of the package silently.
Did that Shen Shu really not understand human language? Didn't she tell him to just throw it away? Why would he send this stuff to her? It wasn't like she could wear them!
The moronic bastard.
In fact, this ring and necklace could probably be sold for a lot of money and, had he handed them over a little sooner, she would have definitely sold them without hesitation.
However, now, she didn't want to do that anymore. Perhaps it was her pride.
So that night, when Ruan Tian headed out, she threw the ring and necklace both into the trash can downstairs without a second thought.
Just like Shen Shu, she didn't want them anymore.
—-
The first episode of 'Gege and Jiejie's Journeys' was being recorded on a certain small tourist island. The program group bought tickets for all guests in advance and even sent cars to pick them up.
Because the place Ruan Tian was staying was too remote, she ended up being the last to arrive at the airport.
There were five guests on the show this time. Three men and two women.
As it happened, Ruan Tian knew one of the other female guests, she had been the heroine in 'The Replacement Princess', the drama that Ruan Tian had recently worked on. Of course, in the end, most of the limelight in that show had been hogged up by Xu Jing, and what little was left ended up focusing on Ruan Tian.
Meanwhile, Zhao Meng'er, who was the ostensible heroine, had ended up having no sense of existence on the show, as if she were transparent and invisible.
It should be known that Zhao Meng'er had only managed to find a gold master willing to stuff her in as the heroine of 'The Replacement Princess' after much suffering, and that man was an old man who was more than twenty years her senior. When she had seen how popular the show was getting back then she had thought it was finally her big break, but in the end, Ruan Tian managed to steal all of the heat for herself. Because of that, Zhao Meng'er hated Ruan Tian so much that she wanted to kill her even in her dreams. (tl note: A better translation of 'gold master' would probably be 'sugar daddy' or something but eh)
Thus, their meeting this time wasn't actually a coincidence. Zhao Meng'er had also managed to find out in advance that Ruan Tian was going to be on this show, so she had gone to her gold master and acted obedient and docile for a while until she could coax him into squeezing her into the show as well.
Zhao Meng'er had come this time with a burning mission in her heart, and she swore to herself that when she was done Ruan Tian would never be able to make a comeback again!
Once the guests all arrived at the airport, the program group began the live broadcast.
First, they went around and introduced the guests one by one.
Zhao Meng'er smiled gently at Ruan Tian and stretched out her hand, "Elder Sister TianTian, to think we're meeting again like this. I've missed you."
To be honest, Ruan Tian was a little scared when this woman suddenly started acting like this.
She was feeling dumbfounded inside, because this was definitely not how Zhao Meng'er had acted when they were both on the crew of 'The Replacement Princess'! Back then, she was the heroine who had been personally handed her role by some higher up, and she had always acted like it. She had never cared about anyone else on set except for Xu Jing.
One time, Zhao Meng'er had even gotten furious at Ruan Tian because she accidentally touched her water bottle.
So it was a little strange for her to suddenly be acting so sweet now, right?
Ruan Tian cleared her throat and said, "I am twenty-two."
Then, she continued slowly: "You are twenty-seven."
Twenty! Seven!
Zhao Meng'er was definitely not the right age to be calling her 'elder sister'!
When Ruan Tian's words fell, the smile playing about the corner of Zhao Meng'er's lips froze, and her whole body stiffened almost imperceptibly. She could feel her breath getting blocked up in her chest, and she just about died from anger.
But on the outside, Zhao Meng'er adjusted her expression to look tender and weak, and tears began to well in her eyes as if Ruan Tian were bullying her. She looked fragile and delicate.
But once they all boarded the plane the live broadcast was temporarily suspended, Zhao Meng'er immediately returned to her usual form.
With no cameras around, she couldn't be bothered to keep up the act. She quickly spent a bit of money and got herself transferred straight to the first class, and was too lazy to care about Ruan Tian anymore.
Ruan Tian stayed in economy class though.
Of course, she also wanted to go to first class too but…
Who told her to be so poor!
Ruan Tian and Xu Jing happened to be sitting on the same row, and Ruan Tian assumed that he would also upgrade and leave without hesitation, but unexpectedly he stayed put.
Xiao Pang carefully went forward and asked Xu Jing if he wanted to change seats.
But Xu Jing didn't even open his eyes, he just muttered in a low voice, "No."
Seeing this, Xiao Pang really wanted to cry.
If the scene of these two riding together on the plane got out, he was definitely going to be scolded by Xu Jing's fans again!
After the plane took off, Ruan Tian didn't feel tired enough to sleep, but her phone had no signal on a plane, so she was bored. Of course, she wouldn't ever take the initiative to try to chat with Xu Jing, so she just leaned back against her seat and tried to empty her mind. In the end, that was just too boring, so she took out her phone and began to play one of the games installed on it.
However, the flight to the island was scheduled to take seven hours.
And after Ruan Tian played on her phone for less than half an hour she could already feel a headache coming on.
She turned to a staff member who was sitting in the staff seating behind her and asked, "Miss, do you have any extra blindfolds?"
"Sorry, we don't provide those on this flight."
Ruan Tian mumbled an acknowledgment.
But then Xu Jing, who had been silent until now, suddenly said, "I have extra."
He looked over at Xiao Pang, and Xiao Pang immediately found a new unopened blindfold and handed it to Ruan Tian.
Ruan Tian accepted it casually, put it over her eyes, and fell asleep.
Xu Jing glanced over at her but then swiftly moved his eyes away.
In the past few months, it was more difficult not to have seen the news about Ruan Tian since all the news outlets covered her divorce so extensively.
Xu Jing hadn't expected for Ruan Tian to divorce Shen Shu so soon. After all, everyone in his circle of friends had seen her relentless and crazy pursuit of him back in high school.
In their entire school, there had been no one else like Ruan Tian, who pursued someone else so openly and so without hesitation.
Without any consideration, she had been like a moth drawn to a flame, always rushing forward fearlessly.
Back then, Xu Jing had never liked her much because he had always felt her behavior was inappropriate and her mind wasn't pure. Because of that, although perhaps not as overtly as Qin Yu, he had made trouble for her from time to time.
However, these past months Xu Jing had begun to feel that, despite knowing Ruan Tian for so many years, he had actually never known her at all.
While Ruan Tian was sleeping on the plane and Xu Jing was feeling muddled in his heart, the conversation between Ruan Tian and Zhao Meng'er was being enthusiastically interpreted by the netizens watching the live broadcast.
The netizens could definitely smell the gunpowder between the two actresses through their screens.
PinkGirl: " RuanTian: You dare to call me sister? 【 】."
【****! hahahahaha, Ruan Tian is a real tigress. 】
【Sister Tian is really the first person in the entertainment industry with the cure for bitches. Just look at Zhao Meng'er's face! It's so dark that I can hardly bear to look, but she still has to try to play the innocent white lotus. It's hilarious! 】
【Cure a bitch with a bitch, that's amazing. It's wonderful. 】
【What kind of show is this? I want to go too! ! ! 】
【I think Zhao Meng'er just wants revenge this time. After all, she looked like an idiot in her role in 'The Replacement Princess' when compared to Ruan Tian. As a heroine, she was simply a disgrace. 】
【She wants revenge on Ruan Tian for cutting off her path to fame. This grievance can't go unaddressed! Fight! Fight! 】
Ruan Tian's direct way of speaking had won over a lot of fans, and they were eager to share with the newcomers how awesome their star was. Summing it up, they said that Ruan Tian was too cool, she dared to say what no one else dared to, and she had nothing but disdain for those 'great' people.
【I'm going to squat in for this live broadcast of 'Gege and Jiejie's Journeys'. After all, two of the other four guests can be regarded as Ruan Tian's enemies, right? I think that the program group is deliberately setting things up and wants to see blood this time hahaha. 】
【I just want to watch the face-slapping drama. 】
【Cold and ruthless low-key boss x unrestrained divorced woman. This CP is too good to pass up, let me see it tomorrow! 】
【Just wait for the JingxTian CP. 】
The followers on 'Gege and Jiejie's Journeys' quickly increased by over a hundred thousand, and the number of people queueing up to squat in the live broadcast chatroom was also steadily going up.
Seven hours later, the plane finally landed at the island airport.
Ruan Tian, who slept like a pig the whole way, only slowly woke up when she heard the incessant Ding Ding Ding of the aircraft announcing the landing. Feeling an unpleasant pain in her back and shoulders from the uncomfortable seats, she creakily got to her feet, picked up her luggage, and got off the plane.
Of the five guests, only Ruan Tian didn't have an agent or assistant with her.
However, it didn't matter much because the rule from the program group was: As soon as the plane landed the assistants weren't allowed to do anything for their artists anymore. The artists would have to pick up their own luggage and find their own way to the accommodations.
The program group gave all five of them one thousand yuan and told them to travel the island for the next five days.
Ruan Tian felt that this show was actually very humane. Not only did they pay for the plane tickets to and from the island, now they were even giving her money.
And while she felt that one thousand yuan was more than enough, the other guests all seemed slightly dissatisfied.
Zhao Meng'er put on a pitiful expression, went over to the director, and asked, "Director, can you give me a bit more money?"
But the director only responded with one cold word: "No."
For this first episode, the program group had considerately booked lodgings for all of them in advance.
So while Zhao Meng'er was busy crying and acting pitiful, Ruan Tian had already pulled out her phone and was looking for a taxi. After some checking, she found that the airport was around a dozen miles away from the lodgings booked by the crew, and getting there would take about half an hour by taxi. Looking at her phone, Ruan Tian found that the fare would be 200 yuan, or only 40 yuan per person if they all rode together.
Therefore, after Ruan Tian finished dragging her luggage over, she kindly suggested, "Shall we all take a taxi together?"
Zhao Meng'er quickly jumped out to disagree. Partly just to go against Ruan Tian, and partly because she was determined to set herself as having a sensible and gentle personality in front of the viewers this time.
So she bit her lip and said in a trembling tone: "Wouldn't it be better to take the subway? I don't think it's so good to luxuriously decide to take a taxi on the first day of the trip, is it?"
All other guests began to have a better impression of Zhao Meng'er, thinking that this little girl was quite diligent and thrifty and not at all like a spoiled star.
Xu Jing didn't say a word.
After thinking about it for a while, Ruan Tian said, "But right now the subways will be hot and crowded, and we aren't familiar with the routes. Plus, everyone still has all of their luggage, so I think it's better to take a taxi than the subway. If we all ride together it won't be very expensive."
But Zhao Meng'er insisted on going against her no matter what, and she seemed to be addicted to her acting. "Ah, even if it isn't very expensive, we should think about how to use our money carefully because every penny counts. Compared to taking a taxi for 200, the subway will only cost thirty."
"Well, why don't we just listen to Zhao Meng'er for now and save some time?" Another guest cut it. The speaker was a slightly declined singer surnamed Qi who had many popular songs some years back and who had appeared on the Spring Festival Gala many times.
After a moment of silence, Ruan Tian said, "Alright. I'll find someone to carpool with and you all can take the subway."
Zhao Meng'er couldn't wait to get this woman out of the group, so she smiled sweetly and agreed, "Okay."
As the stars' discussion about transportation concluded, the live chat was very interesting.
"And Sister Zhao wins the first match. Tsk tsk, it seems that she really does hate Ruan Tian for cutting off her path."
"I never knew Zhao Meng'er was so sweet and innocent. I shouldn't have believed all those people smearing her before. Isn't she much better when compared to Ruan Tian? These kinds of 'my way or the highway' people like Ruan Tian aren't any good, right?"
"Sister Zhao Meng'er is a role model for the youth. Meanwhile, that Ruan Tian is too hardheaded! She deserved to be isolated from the group!"
"If you ask me, I think Zhao Meng'er is just too good. She might be the last bastion of purity in the entertainment circle."
Before she left, Ruan Tian asked, "Does anyone want to carpool with me?"
But no one answered her.
For his part, Xu Jing didn't think it was a good idea to carpool and he felt that Zhao Meng'er was much more sensible than Ruan Tian.
Okay then!
This group of people who had never taken the subway during rush hour, they really didn't understand the true meaning of pain!
Ruan Tian didn't bother saying anything more, she just directly dragged her two suitcases behind her and headed to the parking lot outside the airport terminal.
Sure enough, there were many taxis outside soliciting customers.
Meanwhile, the program group divided into two teams and followed both parties.
There were many people waiting to see Ruan Tian make a fool of herself in the chat. After all, they felt that carpooling in a foreign country wasn't something so easy.
The first problem was the language barrier, and the second was that foreign tourists were prime targets for scams.
"If I remember correctly, Ruan Tian only has a high school diploma? And then wasn't she thrown out of her university because of poor performance? Suddenly, I'm extremely looking forward to hearing her English skills."
"Lolol, she probably at least recognizes 'abcd', right?"
"As they say, 'sharpening the blade will not delay the work of chopping the wood'. Please tell me that Ruan Tian at least received her college education before coming out to work." (tl note: the idiom is 磨刀不误砍柴工. Basically means honing/preparing yourself is worthwhile.)
"She's going to lose face for all contemporary female high school students."
But then, as soon as Ruan Tian entered the parking lot, two men came up to her and started speaking to her in their local language, not speaking even one word of the more common international language English.
The audience were all dumbfounded. What were these guys saying?
But what was even more unbelievable was that Ruan Tian seemed to actually ****ing understand!
Not only could she understand what they were saying, she could even reply!
The men spoke in Arabic to her, and she spoke Arabic right back.
Back in school, her science grades had been a mess, and her English had been just average.
But then in the first year of high school, Ruan Tian was called on by the English teacher to read out loud. Her pronunciation had been terrible, and Qin Yu had taken the lead to laugh at her. In the end, the whole class, including Shen Shu, all laughed at her.
They all took her terrible rustic accent as a joke.
Qin Yu even used it to mock her during the school's New Years performance.
Ever since that happened, Ruan Tian had worked hard and pledged to learn English perfectly until she could stand in front of Qin Yu and curse at him in English with: Your mother is dead!
As for Arabic, she had spent many days and nights learning it for Shen Shu.
Back then, she had wanted to be a better and more capable person for him so that she could stand by his side as an equal.
Back in the present, Ruan Tian went back and forth with the men for a while before managing to secure a ride to her lodgings for 30 yuan.
In the end, she was the first guest to arrive at the lodging. And although the viewers couldn't understand what she said to the driver, they could tell that she somehow managed to save ten yuan from her predicted cost and only pay 30.
"WTF? Was Ruan Tian's academic background faked? Did she really not graduate from college?"
"Idk, but this college student here suddenly feels very inadequate. I'm studying Arabic at my school but I can't speak it half as well as her."
"Sister Tian is really amazing."
"I can't laugh at her anymore, I feel like Sister Tian is slapping my face every day."
"Ah, our TianBaby is really great. She's really mother's good daughter."
"Don't try to smear our TianBaby! The only ones who will be hurt and spitting blood in the end will be you! Meanwhile, our TianBaby will only get more and more famous!"
…
On the other side, the four people who had decided to take the subway had only just managed to get on the subway as Ruan Tian was arriving at the lodgings.
They were all people who had always rode in private cars all of their lives, and they had no idea about the real sufferings of the world. When the group first saw the huge mass of people standing at the subway station, they almost wanted to turn around right there and find a taxi instead, but in order to save face, they knew they couldn't do that.
Zhao Meng'er also felt regret. She suddenly realized that taking the subway just to 'beat' Ruan Tian wasn't worth it at all.
She felt like she was about to cry.
Zhao Meng'er's mind was blank. How could there even be so many people? And the worst part was that they all had a lot of luggage, so they couldn't even squeeze into the train cars.
They took a long time to finally understand the subway lines and pick their route, only to find that it was impossible for them to get on the train because of the luggage.
They were all sweating profusely and exhausted, and even the singer who had spoken up for Zhao Meng'er first was beginning to feel a little dissatisfied.
After waiting four or five times, they finally managed to squeeze their way into a slightly less full train car and ride it to the next station, but when Zhao Meng'er looked at the route map and saw that they had to ride five routes and transfer four times, she felt her vision going black and she almost fainted.
Looking at the map, Zhao Meng'er's face was sweaty, her hair was wet and clumping to the sides of her cheeks, and her makeup was starting to run. All in all, she looked very haggard.
Midway through the journey, Xu Jing suddenly disembarked while only leaving behind the words: "I'll take a taxi."
Zhao Meng'er wanted to say something to stop him, but when she saw his icy expression she didn't dare to speak. She could only silently tear up and start to cry.
Seeing her like this, the other two men were too embarrassed to leave.
After being tossed about like this for several hours, Zhao Meng'er and the two men finally managed to arrive at the final station.
However, when she checked the map again, it turned out that the final station was actually still two kilometers away from their destination.
Zhao Meng'er really felt like she couldn't walk another step, so she finally gave in and reached out to flag down a taxi, got in the car and, at last, arrived at the lodging.
But what Zhao Meng'er didn't know was that the taxis in the cities of this island tourist country cost ten times more than the domestic taxis she was familiar with. When all was said and done, she managed to spend 80% of her allotted funds renting the taxi for those few minutes.
When they saw this, the faces of the actor and the singer who had followed her sank.
The atmosphere in the room they had stopped in to rest was very stiff.
"Zhao Meng'er is so miserable."
"She deserves it. She chose her own way, right? But it looks like that singer and actor really don't want to care about her anymore. It's making me laugh to death hahaha"
"If I was ever traveling and someone like Zhao Meng'er ended up on my team, I think I would just commit suicide."
However, Zhao Meng'er's fans weren't a bunch of vegetarians, and when they saw this they all teamed up to flood the chat.
"Why do you say that our Meng Meng deserves this? She is just too kind for her own good, and can't help but think for the sake of everyone. Didn't you see her crying?"
"You may just be the snowflakes, but you aren't innocent when the avalanche falls!"
The live broadcast of the first day continued and more and more people continued to join the chat. The show really seemed to be on fire.
After the guests had recovered a bit, they gathered together to divide up the rooms. There were a total of four rooms with four single beds in the lodgings provided by the program group, which meant that at least one person would have to sleep on the sofa in the living room.
Zhao Meng'er didn't want to let herself suffer by sleeping on the sofa, but the cameras were rolling so she couldn't express that feeling directly.
So she tried to be a bit indirect and said: "TianTian, I'm not in good health."
Ruan Tian immediately took out her phone, "Then do you need me to call you an ambulance? Since you can speak, it probably still isn't too late for rescue."
Zhao Meng'er: "…"
Ruan Tian, why don't you just explode?
Zhao Meng'er barely managed to force down her temper and continued, "TianTian, I don't want to sleep on the sofa."
Ruan Tian nodded, "What a coincidence, I also don't want to sleep on the sofa."
Why should she volunteer to sleep on the soda? Does she look easy to bully or something? Scram!
Ruan Tian put forward a very fair idea, "Let's draw straws, and whoever draws the short straw sleeps on the sofa."
This proposal was unanimously agreed upon by everyone.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Zhao Meng'er's luck wasn't very good, because she was the first to draw and she immediately drew the short straw. Her eyes began to tear up and she said: "TianTian, can you…"
"No."
—–
After running around all day and finally getting assigned rooms, everyone just wanted to go back to their rooms and rest.
Ruan Tian removed her makeup and took a bath. After drying her hair, she came out of the bathroom, sprawled herself out on the bed, and began to play with her phone. Remembering the request for the program group, she made a promotional post on Weibo: 【Enjoying life on the island~ So happy to be here~】
Meanwhile, even though she and Xu Jing had barely been in the same frame for twenty minutes today and hadn't said a single word to each other, the CP fans were still going wild.
Some unknown person even broke the 'news' that the two of them had chatted on the plane for seven hours straight.
When CP fans saw this, they all immediately felt that it must be real!
Because of this, Xu Jing's fans all rushed over to scold Ruan Tian again. And within Xu Jing's fan group, Ruan Tian had officially been promoted to their most hated star.
They quickly left messages one after another.
"It's the first time I've seen an actress that's actually so ugly."
"You might as well have not bothered with that divorce!"
" ShenShu, please come and get back with your ex-wife quickly."
" QinYu, control your favorite little lover a bit, ok?"
" QinPictures, don't you care if the royal concubine is climbing the wall? You're all so open-minded?"
And for once, Ruan Tian felt angered by the netizens.
So she lashed out a bit.
She found the users that made those comments, deleted, and blocked them.
Then she immediately fired off a volley of replies:
Remarriage is impossible within the next eight lifetimes! 【 】 【 】 【 】
And I don't know anyone called Qin Yu! 【 】 【 】 【 】
With Ruan Tian's posts, she drew very clear lines between herself and the two men.
Of course, Shen Shu rarely went online and his Weibo hadn't been active for years, so he didn't see the posts until Xu Jing decided to screenshot and send them to him via WeChat.
When Shen Shu finally did see the things that Ruan Tian had posted, that vague stuffy feeling in his chest came back stronger than ever before, until he felt that he could hardly breathe. In the end, he stared at those dozen or so words for more than half an hour.
Every word was like a heavy weight pressing down on him.
The post was very concise, and the meaning was obvious: A remarriage between them was absolutely impossible.
Shen Shu felt muddled. He knew that it was him who had initiated their divorce, and he had always felt that Ruan Tian wasn't an important person to him at all. He had always been sure that she didn't occupy even the tiniest corner of his heart.
She had occupied the position of his wife for two years, but that was all.
So the divorce should have been a happy event for both of them.
In the first place, they had rushed to marry for an absurd reason, and then their divorce had been equally ridiculous.
They didn't even have any wedding photos between them, or even a wedding.
In fact, the only photo that existed that contained both of them was probably their high school graduation photo.
In that photo, Ruan Tian had been squeezed out and forced to stand at the very edge of the group, the very picture of a small and marginal character. She had been wearing her school uniform with a bright smile on her face and making a gesture of triumph, excited about her graduation.
Meanwhile, he had stood in the middle of the group with his eyes fixed forward and a blank expression on his face, with more than a dozen people separating him from her.
The more Shen Shu thought about it, the more suffocated he felt in his chest.
He really didn't want to think about Ruan Tian, this woman didn't fit his aesthetics from the top of her head to the tips of her shoes.
But he couldn't help it.
Shen Shu fell silent for a long time, but the stuffy feeling in his heart continued to linger. Eventually, he found Ruan Tian's WeChat, pondered for a moment, and then typed out a question: 【Did you receive the ring and necklace? 】
However, Ruan Tian did not reply.
An hour later, Shen Shu couldn't help himself, and he decided to call her, even though he wasn't sure what he even wanted say.
But in the end, the phone only rang three times before, unsurprisingly, Ruan Tian hung up the call.
—–
At 8 a.m. the next morning, the show's guests got up one after another.
After Ruan Tian finished changing her clothes and putting on her makeup, she headed downstairs where she found Zhao Meng'er, who had already dressed herself up for the day. Zhao Meng'er was wearing cute clothes that made her look like a young college student.
Zhao Meng'er went forward and grabbed her arm in a familiar manner while saying, "Tiantian did you sleep well last night?"
Ruan Tian immediately slipped her arm free, "En, I slept well, I even had a good dream."
At the same time, Ruan Tian started to feel a little hungry.
So she said: "I'm going to make breakfast."
However, Zhao Meng'er didn't plan to give her a chance to enter the kitchen. Having looked into Ruan Tian a bit, she knew that the woman's cooking skills seemed to be very good, so if she let her go into the kitchen wasn't that just giving her a chance to show off? Rather than let Ruan Tian take the spotlight, wouldn't it be better to take it for herself!?
Thus, she clung to Ruan Tian's arm to prevent her from walking forward and said, "I'll go and cook, you just sit and rest."
Ruan Tian: Is this person a fool?!
Fighting with me to do work?
Ruan Tian didn't have any comment on this strange twist, so she simply said, "Alright, then you can cook."
Of course, the heavens knew that Zhao Meng'er couldn't cook at all. At most she could make something simple like egg fried rice, but since the cameras were rolling she bit the bullet and headed into the kitchen. In the end, the film crew had to help her even turn on the gas for the oven.
In the living room, Ruan Tian and Xu Jing both sat at the opposite ends of the sofa with indifferent expressions that seemed to scream: We don't know each other.
In the morning live chat, there weren't too many people chatting, but there were some.
"Oh my god, these two are finally in the same frame together! They're too pretty, it's dazzling."
"This is simply the big divorce scene for all the TianXJing CP fans."
"They really do look like a divorced couple from wealthy families who are in the midst of a dispute over uneven property division."
"I will only say: This is killing me!"
Xu Jing's secretly looked at Ruan Tian out of the corner of his eyes. The early morning sun was shining on her cheeks and she seemed to be unconsciously pouting her lips a bit in a way that was very charming.
Xu Jing gulped and clenched his hands to steady himself. He said, "I heard that you're acting in Director Cheng's movie?"
Ruan Tian only responded with a vague hum.
Xu Jing tried to continue: "Has Director Cheng been scolding you?"
After all, Xu Jing knew that Director Cheng had a big temper. As long as any actor on his set wasn't up to his standards, he would directly point at their face and scold them without and regard to how big or famous they were, so he figured Ruan Tian might be having a tough time.
But Ruan Tian only made another vague grunt before finally shaking her head and saying, "No."
Director Cheng always had a stern face, but in truth, he really didn't scold her on set.
Maybe she…
…had just been born…
Too! Damned! Loveable!
Though she was feeling a bit narcissistic, Ruan Tian could see from Xu Jing's expression that he clearly didn't believe her. She reached up and touched her face, scattering the rays cast by the early morning sun, and said: "It's true, Director Cheng doesn't really scold me. However, he often calls Qin An, who's also on the cast, a 'naive young master' and scolds him to the point that he's nearly crying."
In a moment of carelessness, her mouth ran out way ahead of her brain and she completely forgot the conversation was being broadcast live.
For some reason, Xu Jing wanted to help her, and he almost couldn't hold back from trying to cover her mouth.
His fingers clenched tightly as he restrained himself from reaching out.
"Wow, Ruan Tian is bragging this time."
"Ruan Tian is really a master of stepping on people's heads, this time she's even stepping on Qin An. She said that Director Cheng called Young Master Qin naive? I'm laughing to death!"
"Although, since it's Qin An, he might really be a bit naive. He's a delicate young master after all."
"Wow, she dares to scold Qin An? I think Ruan Tian is tired of living."
Ruan Tian finally noticed the flashing red light of the camera and remembered that they were live streaming. She snorted, "Oh, right, there was the stream."
She quickly turned her whole body away and said: "Don't talk to me anymore!"
Who wanted to put up with the daily cyberviolence from this guy's fans that would inevitably follow from talking to him!
When the avalanche was happening, this guy's fans weren't just snowflakes in the storm, they were actively dragging over big mountains of snow in order to try to kill her! (tl note: there is a quote attributed to various people that goes like "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." and it gets referenced a few times in this story, like in this line)
Xu Jing, who suddenly felt deeply unhappy: "…"
—-
After many unsettling crashes and bangs, Zhao Meng'er finally managed to make breakfast.
The end result was a few sorry-looking plates of egg fried rice.
Zhao Meng'er's hands were burnt and blistered, and there were tears welling in the corners of her eyes, but she insisted on putting up a 'strong front' and smiled while calling the other four guests over to eat.
Ruan Tian still had an empty stomach and felt like she was about to die of hunger.
The singer surnamed Qi was the first to take a bite, but as soon as the food entered his mouth his expression changed drastically.
Zhao Meng'er seemed apprehensive and asked softly: "Mr. Qi, is it good?"
The Singer Qi was too embarrassed to tell her his real thoughts and froze.
Meanwhile, Ruan Tian also dug out a large spoonful, but as soon as she put it into her mouth she immediately felt like she wanted to vomit. After struggling to swallow down that one terrible bite, she directly said: "This isn't even edible."
"I think I'm going to vomit."
She trotted over to a nearby trashcan and leaned over it and: "Blegh."
Singer Qi: "…"
Xu Jing: "…"
Show crew: "…"
When Ruan Tian was hungry, she became the most irritable person in the world, and she had no mood to play along with this sort of farce.
Tears began to flow down Zhao Meng'er's face, but secretly her heart was full of joy. This was the perfect chance for her to play the little white lotus that was bullied by Ruan Tian! She felt that if she played her cards right, there would definitely be many fans who would start to love her and also hate Ruan Tian.
So Zhao Meng'er tearily said, "If it's no good, then I will just take this away and wash the dishes! You all should just order take out to eat."
After rinsing out her mouth, Ruan Tian replied: "Alright, then you can go and wash the dishes and I will cook after you're done."
Zhao Meng'er's lower lip was about to start bleeding from how hard she was biting it as she said: "No, you should order take out, I'm afraid that other guests will feel hungry if we delay for so long."
"Don't you know we need money for takeout? Just the delivery fee alone is around a hundred yuan."
And with that, Zhao Meng'er reluctantly went to wash the dishes with a heart full of hatred. This time, her tears were sincere.
After all, her hands had never touched such filthy dishwashing water even when she was a child!
And then while she was washing the dishes, Zhao Meng'er somehow even managed to break three of them. It really seemed that all she knew how to do was her pitiful crying act.
Xu Jing and Singer Qi wanted to stand by her side at first, but gradually they became bored.
"Watching the live broadcast, it seems Zhao Meng'er is really being bullied. She worked so hard to cook but was just coldly rejected."
"Ruan Tian has convinced me! When she went and vomited in front of Zhao Meng'er I almost laughed to death!"
"It's sad that Zhao Meng'er was bullied to tears, but Sister Ruan is still awesome."
"It's hard to believe that there is such a vicious woman like Ruan Tian in this world."
In the end, it took Ruan Tian another half an hour to prepare a large table of breakfast foods. She made lean meat and egg porridge, fried shrimp cakes, a tray of steamed shumai, and also red bean soy milk.
This delicious breakfast was broadcast out across the network cables and instantly hooked the gluttonous bellies of the watching netizens.
"Suddenly I'm very hungry. I can't control my saliva at all."
"Indeed, it's true when they say with no comparison there's no harm. But when you see Zhao Meng'er, this kind of person who can only cry, put up against Ruan Tian who has actual skills, it's clear which is better."
"Ruan Tian, come to be my wife."
"You scram away quickly, TianBaby belongs to us!"
"The world is a weird place, even Ruan Tian can seem so cute and lovable?"