But when she saw Liang Xiaohui and Sheng s.h.i.+yun in the ward, she was ready to leave, since she didn"t want to be in the same room as the both of them.

Sheng s.h.i.+yun saw that Sheng Jiaoyang was about to leave and immediately hurried after her, and Liang Xiaohui followed along.

"Xu Jiaojiao!" Sheng s.h.i.+yun shouted.

Sheng Jiaoyang ignored Sheng s.h.i.+yun"s shouts and continued making her way towards the elevator.

Sheng s.h.i.+yun thought of the plan that they had formulated and dashed forward without another word, in the hopes of grabbing Sheng Jiaoyang. However, her outstretched arm was immediately locked behind her by the latter"s bodyguard.

"Ahh, it hurts! Let go!"

When the bodyguard finally let go of her hand, Sheng Jiaoyang was already gone.

"Mother, she doesn"t even want to have any direct confrontation with us." Sheng s.h.i.+yun was a little worried.

Liang Xiaohui furrowed her eyebrows, "I actually forgot that she has bodyguards by her side."

Sheng s.h.i.+yun felt a wave of helplessness crush her heart. It took us so long to come up with such a good plan, but we can"t even execute it.

"Don"t worry, I will think of another way," Liang Xiaohui consoled.

The more Sheng s.h.i.+yun paced around the room, the more jealous she got of Xu Jiaojiao. She had already studied the reasons and process of the rise of Xu Jiaojiao"s popularity since there were many prior discussions about it. She had also followed in the footsteps of Xu Jiaojiao, in the hopes that she could become as popular. Through the use of many connections, she managed to enter a huge-budget production, and she was even thinking of creating some scandal between herself and the male lead.

The male actor"s popularity in the drama industry wasn"t any less than Gu Zhou, and all the starlets who had scandals with him also became famous stars. However, just as Sheng s.h.i.+yun hired the Internet Water Army to generate more buzz about the scandal, the male actor went back on his stance and denied that there was anything going on between them in front of all the media, despite having bedded her.

When Sheng s.h.i.+yun realised that the path she was walking on wasn"t easy, she got even more envious of Xu Jiaojiao"s luck.

"Is Xu Jiaojiao going to appear on any variety show soon?" Liang Xiaohui asked Sheng s.h.i.+yun.

Sheng s.h.i.+yun was stunned for a moment before she replied, "I"m not too sure. I have to check her schedule."

"Mother, what are you suggesting?" Sheng s.h.i.+yun looked at Liang Xiaohui and asked cautiously.

"If she is going to appear on a broadcast, you should pull some strings and get on the same show too. Then, you can appear before her, and make use of the variety show to accomplish what you want," Liang Xiaohui said.

"Mother, only someone as smart as you can think of something like this," Sheng s.h.i.+yun linked her arm with Liang Xiaohui"s.

Liang Xiaohui patted her hand and replied, "You should use your brains too, instead of relying on me for everything."

"Mother, you"re the closest person to me. Who else can I rely on if I don"t rely on you?"

Sure enough, Sheng Jiaoyang was scheduled to appear on a variety show. She was originally scheduled to partic.i.p.ate in the show so that she could promote her new drama series.

Though it was confirmed that the new drama series wouldn"t be broadcasted this year, Sheng Jiaoyang hadn"t turned down her guest appearance on the variety show. After all, she had already agreed to show up, and she was planning to sell the broadcast rights of the drama series to the local television channels. Naturally, she wouldn"t be so foolish to offend them.

It had been a year since she had been in this industry, but that wasn"t considered long. Yet, in this year alone, she had partic.i.p.ated in various shows, and she had even been invited as a guest on several popular variety TV shows.

Sheng Jiaoyang was also familiar with the hosts.

This time, she was once again scheduled to guest on the variety show, "Extreme Joy". While waiting backstage, she was being teased by the two hosts.

The moment Huanhuan saw Sheng Jiaoyang, she immediately pounced on her with a joyful face and said, "Hey, why didn"t you bring your boyfriend along? I was hoping that I could see the Peerless Couple on our stage."

Lele smiled and chirped in, "Next time, we must definitely invite the both of you together."

"Who knows when the next time will be? Perhaps the next time Jiaojiao comes, she will be announcing her marriage."

"It won"t be so soon," Sheng Jiaoyang gave a wry smile.

"Here"s the rundown of our schedule today. I will go and greet the guest next door first, since this is the first time he is on our show."

"Who are the guests today?" Sheng Jiaoyang looked at Huanhuan and asked.

"For female guests, there"s you, Mo Lan and two other newcomers. As for male guests, the main guest is Wen Xiu; he has a drama that will be premiering on our channel soon."

"I see," Sheng Jiaoyang nodded.

"Jiaojiao, do you want to go over and say hi to Wen Xiu as well?" Huanhuan extended an invitation to her.

"Sure. Let"s go." Sheng Jiaoyang stood up and followed Huanhuan out of the room. Wen Xiu was her senior after all. Now that she knew that he was around, she had to take a little more initiative.

When they reached the entrance of the waiting room next door, they could hear the lively laughter and chatter coming from within the room.

Seems like she isn"t the only one who knows to take some initiative.

When they pushed the door to enter, everyone in the room turned to look at them.

As soon as Sheng Jiaoyang stepped into the room, she scanned the room and the faces within, and she was surprised to see Sheng s.h.i.+yun.

Wen Xiu was a handsome man with eyes as beautiful as blossoming peaches. Those who received a wink from him would usually feel electrified. He had a slim and slender figure, and when he was dressed in a suit, he was an instant attention grabber.

Sitting beside Wen Xiu was someone whom Sheng Jiaoyang had met once — Mo Lan. The others were either leaning against the makeup table or standing upright.

Among them, Sheng s.h.i.+yun stood slightly further away and didn"t make any sound.

Everyone was talking and laughing, and they only paused momentarily when they saw Huanhuan and Sheng Jiaoyang enter the room.

"Yo, even Her Highness has graced us with her presence today," Wen Xiu commented teasingly.

Mo Lan looked at Sheng Jiaoyang briefly before she smiled and beckoned to her, "Jiaojiao, come sit beside me."

"How am I, a royal concubine, fit to be called Her Highness? I am just a pitiful hedgehog with arrows piercing all over me." Walking over, Sheng Jiaoyang played along with Wen Xiu by replying to her comments with her character"s fate in the drama series.

"Jiaojiao, you are so funny," Mo Lan covered her mouth and laughed.

"Since it"s fate that we had gathered today, why don"t we go enjoy ourselves after taping the show?" Wen Xiu suggested.

"Sure, sure," a few rookies chirped in.

A sly glint flickered across Sheng s.h.i.+yun"s eyes, and a thought couldn"t help but appear in her head. She planned to stir some trouble tonight when everyone was out having fun.

Everyone chatted for a few more moments, and only disbanded when it was time for the taping to start.

After slightly retouching her makeup, Sheng Jiaoyang followed the staff"s lead and went backstage. Wen Xiu was the first person to appear. He was to perform the opening dance with the dance crew.

Sheng Jiaoyang and Mo Lan were arranged to appear next. The two of them had to join in the opening dance. However, the difficulty of their dance moves had been lowered to the lowest, and they only had to make a few gestures. After that, the two hosts would appear on stage and close off the opening dance.

As for the rookies, they would appear later. After all, the runtime of a variety show was only that long. If the rookies were to appear right from the start, they would be s.n.a.t.c.hing away screentime from the list stars.

"Extreme Joy" had always revolved around games.

As soon as the hosts had finished introducing themselves and the guests, the games were brought out. Sheng Jiaoyang and Mo Lan were split into two teams. Wen Xiu and Jiaojiao were in one team while the host, Lele, was in Mo Lan"s team. As such, Sheng s.h.i.+yun and the other rookie formed a team. Huanhuan was in charge of hosting the game.

The rules for the first game was: the production team would play a short clip from a drama series and everyone would have to answer some questions. How do they fight for the chance to answer? Teammate A would have to piggyback Teammate B and go one round around the first wooden block. Acupressure mats were laid out around the wooden block in a circle, and the partic.i.p.ants could only walk on the mats. Otherwise, it would be considered a forfeit. After going one round around the wooden block, they have to fight to be the first team that sits on the second wooden block. Both team members" b.u.t.ts had to be on the second wooden block before they would have earned a chance to answer the question.

Since it was a compet.i.tion, there were naturally prizes and punishments. The winner would be able to enjoy sumptuous food, while the loser would have to immediately upload an ugly photo onto Weibo.

Wen Xiu chose Sheng Jiaoyang as his partner. He jokingly teased that Jiaojiao was too heavy, and that it was better to go easy on the young actor in their team.

But, acupressure mats were inhumane objects. For the people who had to piggyback another person while stepping on an acupressure mat, it would certainly be as good as torture. As soon as Huanhuan announced the start of the match, the pained cries echoed endlessly throughout the broadcast studio, while the audience enjoyed themselves as they watched them suffer.

However, everyone had one thing in common. As long as they saw others suffering from greater misfortune then themselves, they would feel pleasure.

Every pair pushed against each other while roaring in pain on the acupressure mats.

Sheng Jiaoyang leaned on Wen Xiu"s back. She could feel someone tugging hard at her s.h.i.+rt, but luckily the material of the s.h.i.+rt she was wearing today was a little firmer. She turned around, only to see that it was Sheng s.h.i.+yun who was tugging hard at her s.h.i.+rt. But now, they were under everyone"s scrutiny, and they were also in the middle of the game. It wasn"t a good time for her to retaliate and clearly, Sheng s.h.i.+yun knew this. Hence, she deliberately found trouble with her.

The rookies were extremely tactful. they could clearly be way ahead in the race, but intentionally followed behind Wen Xiu, as though the pain from the acupressure mat was too hard to bear.

Meanwhile, Lele and Mo Lan dashed forward as though they were flying, and in the end, they nabbed the chance to answer the question.

This time, the production team played an excerpt from the drama series, "Empress". And the question was: In the clip, what was the colour of the accessory on the main protagonist"s head?

"Hahahahaha…" The moment they heard the question, Lele and Mo Lan were stunned, while the others laughed at their misfortune.

The duo randomly guessed a colour, but they got it wrong.

Hence, everyone had to return to the starting point.

Finally, on the third run, the duo answered it correctly. Of course, three of the seven colours in the rainbow had been guessed, and the odds of getting it right became much higher as time went by.

Nowadays, there would usually be great turmoil during the taping of a variety show. Some segments like the one with the acupressure mats were meant to give the guests a hard time. On top of that, the guests would intentionally exaggerate their reactions, inciting incessant laughter and entertainment throughout the taping.

After three rounds of compet.i.tion, Sheng Jiaoyang"s team lost in the end.

Hence, everyone started to make a ruckus by calling for the few of them to quickly take ugly selfies and post them online.

Truthfully, this was the first time Sheng Jiaoyang had partic.i.p.ated in such games. Moreover, in the eyes of the public, she was beautiful, fas.h.i.+onable, cla.s.sy all along, and there was never an ugly photo of her.

Hence, she became the focus of everyone"s incessant urging.

"How do I take an ugly photo?"

Lele pointed at the others who were having fun and making all kinds of weird facial expressions.

Sheng Jiaoyang rubbed her face. She then took a selfie of herself with a filter of a pig nose, big mouth, and narrow eyes, and she uploaded it onto Weibo with the caption: This is definitely not me, please believe me!

Soon, the comments section exploded, as Jiao fans appeared online, one after another.Previous ChapterNext Chapter