Chapter 11: Behind the Scenes

“Xiao Ya, you’re out safely, are you okay? Did the police officer let you out? Or did you run out… yourself?”

Zhou Yuyu’s eyes were filled with excitement, her eyes brimming with tears.

Jiang Xiaoya looked at the overly enthusiastic woman, and only then did she realize something. She raised her gaze to look at the Sky Eye headset the woman was wearing.

She hadn’t forgotten that the two of them were competitors on the show.

Could the other party be waiting here for her repeatedly just to show concern?

Excluding that possibility, there was only one left.

She was leeching off her popularity!

Jiang Xiaoya knew that while this show relied on strength to earn a ranking, contestants who had high popularity and broke out of the circle gained no fewer benefits than those who placed well. Many contestants who became popular on the show either debuted as actors or released albums, were flooded with offers for hit variety shows, or at the very least, became influencers and sold products, earning a fortune.

Leeching off her popularity was essentially stealing her rice bowl.

Listening to Zhou Yuyu’s words again, it was clear she wasn’t wishing her well at all.

A cold glint flashed in Jiang Xiaoya’s eyes. She put her money away and reached out to turn on the Sky Eye headset she had turned off when she got into the police car.

“Xiao Ya?”

Seeing her action, Zhou Yuyu knew she was turning on the Sky Eye headset. Her heart hammered like a drum, but she still wanted to curry favor, hoping to continue moving forward with her.

“Look at what you’re saying. If the police officer didn’t let me out, could I have broken out of prison? Would I do something illegal like that? Aren’t you slandering me?”

Jiang Xiaoya’s face darkened with displeasure, and she fired off a series of questions, seizing the initiative.

Zhou Yuyu’s expression changed instantly.

“Xiao Ya, what are you saying? How could I mean that… How could you think of me like that? Could I be that kind of person? I was just worried about you. I was wrong, I’m sorry. I was just too anxious and said the wrong thing. Please forgive me.”

Knowing she had just blurted out her inner thoughts, Zhou Yuyu apologized with a face full of regret.

“Oh, hmm, heh!”

Jiang Xiaoya nodded three times in a perfunctory manner. She didn’t bother entangling herself with her at all, acting as if she had run into a stranger on the street, and walked away without looking back.

Zhou Yuyu froze in place. Having grown up with a superior background and appearance, when had she ever been treated with such cold indifference? She hadn’t expected to be ignored like this, and for a moment, she was filled with both annoyance and hatred.

She lowered her eyes to hide the resentment in them and went to the restroom. She took off her Sky Eye headset, left it outside, and went inside to open her phone and check the status of her livestream.

She first checked her own livestream room. The original viewership of twenty or thirty thousand, which peaked at fifty or sixty thousand, was now dropping at a visible rate, falling to seven or eight thousand in just a few minutes.

Zhou Yuyu still had a fan base, and seeing Jiang Xiaoya’s attitude, they spoke up to defend her.

[Did Jiang Xiaoya eat gunpowder inside? Such a temper. Yuyu was just concerned about her; who is she putting on this face for?]

[She’s just jealous of Yuyu’s beauty. Our Yuyu is naturally beautiful. Haven’t you seen netizens calling her ‘Stupid Sister’? What kind of fan base gives someone such a nickname? Though, she really is a fool, a total idiot.]

[It makes me furious. I want to rush in and tear that fool’s face apart.]

Zhou Yuyu’s expression softened slightly. For some reason, seeing others hate Jiang Xiaoya just as much as she did made her exceptionally happy.

But she underestimated the backlash of traffic.

She was leeching off Jiang Xiaoya’s traffic, and these people had entered the livestream room because of Jiang Xiaoya. Subjectively, they were already biased toward the novel and intriguing Jiang Xiaoya. Besides, as long as they weren’t idiots, anyone could see Zhou Yuyu’s ill intentions, and they didn’t hold back when they saw her fans being so nasty.

[If you don’t know how to talk, just shut up. Look at what she said. Forget Jiang Xiaoya, if it were me, I’d flip out too.]

[If it were me, I wouldn’t just flip out. I’d make you eat gunpowder, damn it.]

[Uh, does your master’s beauty really need to be envied? Even if she sat on the street to solicit customers, I doubt many people would go for it.]

[Don’t be so mean, but if you can talk, say more.]

[Heh, facts prove that as long as men aren’t blind, they can tell a green tea bitch when they see one.]

[Leaving, leaving. If it weren’t for leeching off Jiang Xiaoya’s popularity, who the hell would want to watch this kind of trash? That bit of charm isn’t even as good as a streetwalker in an alley.]

Zhou Yuyu almost couldn’t catch her breath; she nearly coughed up blood.

Too much, this was too much. She was going to report every single one of them.

Zhou Yuyu was trembling with rage, but her fingertips had already involuntarily switched livestream rooms, entering Jiang Xiaoya’s room next door.

She saw that the livestream room, which had dropped to eighth on the list with only one or two thousand people, had surged in an instant, breaking seventy or eighty thousand within minutes and still rising.

Zhou Yuyu didn’t even have time to look at the comments before she slapped the screen off and buried her face deep in her palms.

When her mood had completely calmed down, she reopened the livestream to scan the rankings. Unsurprisingly, Jiang Xiaoya had climbed back up the list, effortlessly sitting in the number one spot, while she had not only been pushed down but had fallen back to fourth.

When Zhou Yuyu first joined the show, she wasn’t very famous and had climbed to third place through a little bit of effort. Now that she had fallen back to fourth, the result wasn’t actually that bad, but human nature is like this: once you’ve tasted the sweetness, you don’t want to let go of the achievements within your grasp.

She would definitely pull Jiang Xiaoya down and climb back to the number one spot.

.

After Jiang Xiaoya turned on her Sky Eye headset and shook off Zhou Yuyu, she found a place to continue counting her banknotes.

You really couldn’t deny it—ten thousand yuan was quite thick.

The smile on the corner of Jiang Xiaoya’s lips never faded.

The netizens in the livestream room saw the room light up with a sense of relief, only to open their eyes and see the woman squatting in a corner counting money.

[She really got out? I still can’t believe it.]

[She actually got out of this. In and out of the police station four times in one day—should I say she’s lucky or unlucky?]

[How much is it? You still can’t count it right?]

[I went to check the bounty; finding the murderer is worth ten thousand yuan.]

[Everyone said she wouldn’t get out, but not only did she get out, she even got the reward. I just want to ask those people: are you surprised? Are you pissed off?]

[Are you really not considering a career change? The criminal investigation team really needs talent like this.]

[Why change careers! If we lose Stupid Sister, who will give us joy?]

[Kick her out, kick her out immediately!]

[As long as Stupid Sister doesn’t quit the show, I will follow her to the death.]

[Those two moves Stupid Sister used to subdue the murderer last night are enough for me to learn for a year.]

[Hey, you can’t deny it—looking at someone so thin, beating people up is really cool.]

[Everyone calls her Stupid Sister, but where is she stupid? Her whole body radiates a mesmerizing aura, okay?]

Of course, there were also dissatisfied voices.

[She’s out just like that? There must be something shady going on.]

[I don’t understand, but I don’t respect it. Knowing the exact location of the body disposal and the murderer’s hideout—who would believe she has no direct connection to the murder case?]

[Jiang Xiaoya got out and even took the reward. From any angle, it just shows that the Licheng police are incompetent.]

(End of chapter)