Chapter 2253: A Little Scared

When everyone saw that, they thought to themselves, “Why don’t you just say upfront that you want to exchange accommodations with Zhang Xiangyou?”

Unexpectedly, Ni Xue actually really asked, “Erm… can the two of us swap?”

Zhang Xiangyou felt really put in a spot.

Deep down, he certainly did not want to swap.

He did not want to be in a tent either!

And he won the room with his own capability, so why should the winner have to be the one giving in?

If it was about being gentlemanly, no matter which other person it was today, whether it was Lan Jiexin or Peng Zhen, he would be quite happy to do it.

But for Ni Xue, forget it.

Ni Xue even appeared like a weakling when she brought up such a request just now. Actually, she was just forcing him to give up his room.

If he did not, he would be ungentlemanly and would be criticized by her from a moral perspective.

The more Ni Xue was being like this, the more he did not want to give in, on the contrary.

Yet the cameras were still rolling, so it was really not appropriate for Zhang Xiangyou to say “no” outright.

Or else he would be bashed by keyboard warriors as being so ungentlemanly as to bully a girl.

A grown man like him, couldn’t he just swap with a girl?

He would be bashed to death by Ni Xue’s fans, affecting his popularity.

He was not stupid.

No one who’d made a name for themselves in the entertainment industry was a fool.

Ni Xue caught this point, and that was why she asked him in front of the camera.

How brilliant she was. She’d slacked off in the team compet.i.tions, and now that she was going to be punished, she acted pitiful, thinking she could just muddle her way through.

The others all could not stand it.

Han Zhuoling was about to say something, but amid the crowd of production team members opposite him, Lu Dongliu said very loudly, “You can’t swap rooms, or else the penalty segment would lose its meaning. If you lost, you will have to accept the penalty. If everyone did something like this, where whoever loses would want to plead for leniency and swap with someone else when they are about to receive the punishment, it would be unfair to the person who won. Why should the people who won based on their own merit be punished instead? I think the audience would not want to see this happening either.

“Our show aims to be fair and just, to reward the winners and punish the losers. If everyone broke the rules, could this show still go on?” Lu Dongliu did not mince his words at all when he said those words.

Also, he was indeed being firm.

The variety shows under his belt were all explosively popular. It could be said that every show he did became popular.

How many celebrities whose popularity had long died down and who’d long been forgotten by the audience became popular once again after being on his shows?

Lu Dongliu had now been called the top variety show director in the industry.

He was a popularity-churning machine.

The industry had already come to a silent consensus that whoever it was that wanted to make a popularity comeback, going to Lu Dongliu’s show was the foolproof way.

He had deep-rooted connections within the industry, which went way beyond normal celebrities but rather involved those A-listers who had their own companies and owned sizeable shares in various major media companies. Other celebrities really could not afford to easily offend Lu Dongliu.

Lu Dongliu’s own backer was Dong Hua Station to begin with.

If you offended Lu Dongliu, you would not be able to attend any of Dong Hua Station’s shows, which would make you lose out on one huge viewers.h.i.+p platform. This in itself was a very disadvantageous situation.

Much less Lu Dongliu himself.

Hence, when Lu Dongliu said that so bluntly without giving her any face at all, as someone who did not even have solid roots in the industry, even if Ni Xue felt angry, embarra.s.sed, aggrieved, and furious, she would not dare to say no to Lu Dongliu, much less throw a temper.

But Ni Xue lowered her head, and tears started streaming down her face as she sobbed softly and said, “I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to break the rules on purpose. I was just… just a little scared.”

Zhang Xiangyou’s face had even turned dark.

If she said that, wouldn’t he have to initiate the swap with her?

Lan Jiexin and Peng Zhen exchanged glances and nodded their heads slightly.