Shang Lu's response had completely failed to follow the expected script, to the point that Lin Yanyan was left stunned.
The young lady didn't even know how to refute it, or rather, though she was angry, she hadn't yet figured out what was wrong.
But very soon, the last two guests arrived together, no longer giving Lin Yanyan any time to think.
One of them was the second male lead, director Song Zeqian; at the same time, he was also the third lapdog of the female protagonist in the original plot.
Dressed in a black suit, he looked like a proper gentleman. On the surface, he was an aloof, noble young master, but in reality, he was notorious in the industry for being sharp-tongued and difficult to work with.
However, Song Zeqian indeed had the capital for this. He had just reached thirty, yet had already become the most representative director of domestic realism films. He had directed and released three movies; every single one achieved both critical acclaim and box office success, with the entire crew winning so many awards at domestic film festivals that their hands went soft.
And yet, such a genius seemed to have hit a bottleneck as well. His fourth film suffered a crushing defeat after its release at the end of last year, even being rated the worst film of the year, leaving him stuck in a creative rut to this day.
Of course, in the original plot, he would soon meet the female protagonist Ning Lin, rediscover his inspiration through her, and fall in love with her.
Even at the end of the story, when Ning Lin successfully won the Film Queen trophy, the project she starred in was a script written by Song Zeqian.
Strictly speaking, Song Zeqian wasn't an entertainment industry star, but because he had publicly mocked too many traffic stars' acting skills, his "popularity" was simply too high. For the sake of话题度, the production team naturally bent the rules to include him in the lineup.
How exactly they convinced a director of Song Zeqian's caliber to participate in their variety show, however, was anyone's guess.
As for the third female guest, Film Queen Jiang Jing was notoriously a scene-stealer on set. Although her acting was indeed quite good, she had done no small amount of fighting with juniors for camera time and lines, and wasn't particularly well-liked either.
The six guests were finally assembled, and the episode could officially begin recording.
After exchanging introductions, the first segment was reading the hate comments left by anti-fans under their reposted official announcement Weibo posts. After all, this variety show was called *The Most Hated Her and Him*, so they definitely needed to select some statements that could represent the audience's true thoughts—using the show to air the reasons why they were hated.
First up was Jiang Jing. Since she was considered the senior among the six, the production team selected relatively mild comments for her—not even real criticisms, just very tactfully pointing out some issues.
But Jiang Jing had always enjoyed being flattered. Though she was clearly displeased, as a veteran who had been in the industry for many years, her surface attitude was naturally still decent, and she said she would work hard to fix this flaw.
The second person to read was Song Zeqian.
The man leaned against the sofa and read out the mockery from some traffic star's fans, saying that he had long since exhausted his talent and was relying on a few past works to self-righteously hype himself up for attention.
Song Zeqian gave a mocking smile and said unhurriedly, "Even if I've lost my touch, my works are still something that the traffic star you adore wouldn't have the opportunity to participate in even if they begged."
The livestream had both mockery and agreement.
[Song Zeqian doesn't have to be like this, does he? Sure, there's only one bad film, but his last good movie was already three or four years ago. He only had some creative spark in those years right after graduation.]
[Traffic star fans are cursing Song Zeqian while voting him to second place, yet they can't refute him.]
[True. Four films with three classics and one flop is already an impressive record. Not just anyone is qualified to work with Song Zeqian.]
Song Zeqian's words were truly too direct, so after he finished speaking, the others on set more or less showed expressions of surprise.
Then Song Zeqian looked at them and asked, "What are you looking at? You should treasure this opportunity too. Aside from this variety show, we probably won't meet again, because with your acting skills, there's virtually no chance of you ever appearing in one of my crews. I absolutely will not use流量 artists like you."
As she looked at the currently self-confident Song Zeqian, Shang Lu thought to herself: *Isn't this setting up a flag? His future goddess Ning Lin is currently a popular traffic flower.*
At that moment, a voice suddenly rang out, clearly puzzled: "Why would I want an opportunity from you?"
Even facing a renowned director like Song Zeqian, Ye Lu simply smiled and continued, "I'm an idol. I don't act."
Song Zeqian's expression stiffened.
The livestream netizens were amused.
[Hahaha, this is an amateur beating a master with random punches.]
[Ye Lu: You may be strong, but we're not in the same line of work.]
On set, Song Zeqian's expression turned very unpleasant, but he knew clear as day that arguing with Ye Lu would only make him lose even more face. So he took out a pair of sunglasses and put them on to hide the look in his eyes, and said nothing more.
Recording continued.
The cards given to the remaining four young artists had much nastier comments on them.
Because of this, the production team very deliberately stirred up trouble by having them pair up to read each other's nasty comments.
Xu Ze and Lin Yanyan were in a pair.
Xu Ze was like an emotionless reading machine, reciting the contents of the card. Although he didn't like talking, this kind of thing where the lines were already set was something he could accept.
"Does Lin Yanyan think she's a real princess? Always looking down her nose at people—was that so we can carefully examine the scars from your alarplasty? Your arrogant attitude is truly laughable. The Qing Dynasty perished long ago, Your Royal Highness."
What was originally a scathing roast somehow gained a strange comedic effect after being read by Xu Ze in a completely flat tone.
Lin Yanyan's expression was not pretty. She vehemently denied the plastic surgery allegations, then stated that her personality had simply been spoiled by her family into being this way; if others couldn't accept it, they'd just have to endure it.
The livestream comments naturally had a poor reaction to this.
[Please, young lady. If you're that fragile, don't come on this variety show.]
[Hehe. I don't like it, and I won't endure it. I'm going to curse you out, and if you don't like hearing it, then you can just endure it.]
Of course, some people refuted this.
[Lin Yanyan doesn't need to rely on fans or popularity to get resources. She doesn't need to steal anyone else's roles either. If she wants to act in something, she just tells her dad and buys the entire production. If I were her, I'd be even more arrogant than she is.]
[The young lady's life is just that plain and boring.]
As for Xu Ze's comment card, it contained some old-fashioned roasts, such as his acting range being too narrow and his personality being too withdrawn and unpopular.
Xu Ze was silent for a few seconds and only replied with three words: "I understand."
Actually, Xu Ze's acting was already among the top tier of young traffic actors. His real problem was his personality.
But nowadays, most people could understand and respect that, so the livestream comments were basically all defending Xu Ze.
[His personality doesn't affect anyone else, so mind your own business. Bored much?]
[The more I watch, the more pitiful I find Xu Ze. A normal person, just because he's not popular with those media reporters, has to come on this kind of variety show. *sigh*]
Everything was proceeding smoothly according to plan. Sure enough, among these guests, Xu Ze was the most normal one.
Next, the last two remaining people, Shang Lu and Ye Lu, naturally formed a group.
She read the contents of her card: "Ye Lu, the parasite of the group. Your popularity is clearly far below Xia Yuan's, yet you get so many parts every time. The shame of SN's forced promotion, a modern-day vampire."
Contrary to everyone's expectations, Ye Lu—who was known in the industry as a short-tempered little tyrant—simply rolled his eyes, shrugged indifferently, and even said in a pitying tone, "Think whatever you want."
The livestream comments at this moment had both mockery and spectators reacting to Ye Lu's attitude.
[I thought he was going to say something. Sure enough, even the shame of forced promotion couldn't refute it against his conscience.]
[Actually, I find it pretty funny. Ye Lu's words are exactly like a scumbag's line: if you want to think that way, there's nothing I can do, hahaha.]
Next, it was Ye Lu's turn to read Shang Lu's anti-fan comments.
When he saw the card, he was first stunned, then glanced at Shang Lu.
Shang Lu simply said, "It's fine, just read it out."
"Does Shang Lu think she's very pretty? Always clinging to Jiang Yi's side. Could it be she's delusional enough to think she can marry into a wealthy family and change her fate? This kind of woman really is... disgusting." After Ye Lu finished speaking, he crumpled the card in his hand into a ball, his demeanor looking very unnatural.
As an idol, he had zero acting skills and no ability to handle emergencies.
Shang Lu instantly realized that the content on that comment card was very likely much more malicious than what Ye Lu had read out.
So Shang Lu directly reached out toward Ye Lu and said, "Give it to me."
Ye Lu was stunned for a moment, then used his terrible acting skills to play dumb: "What?"
"The card."
Ye Lu made an impatient expression and asked, "What's so good about looking at this..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the crumpled card in his hand was instantly snatched away by Shang Lu.
The livestream netizens were all confused, not understanding what had just happened.
[What is Shang Lu doing? I know she's rude, but snatching things right out of someone's hand?]
[Ye Lu is right. What's so good about looking at this? She's so weird.]
[Shang Lu has always been a crazy, unlikable person. Sure enough, she can't pretend to be normal for long, haha.]
At that moment, Shang Lu lowered her head and unfurled the crumpled card.
The moment she clearly saw the black characters on it, she looked toward the director team and asked casually, "I dare to read the contents on this, but does your production team really dare to broadcast it?"
It contained extremely humiliating words. This was no longer at the level of nasty comments; it was personal attack, the most disgusting kind of sexual slander and mudslinging.
Netizens could leave whatever comments they wanted online, but not every comment could be specially selected to be placed in a game segment for her to see.
The production team didn't know how to respond for a moment; the livestream could only be temporarily interrupted.
The entire screen was full of question marks. No one in the audience knew what had happened.
The director team immediately apologized to Shang Lu and expressed with difficulty that it was an oversight in their review process. However, between the lines, they were clearly implying that this was also an arrangement from above. They were only following orders and had no choice, hoping Shang Lu would be magnanimous and not haggle with them over it.
And for *The Most Hated Her and Him*, the media company under Jiang Yi was also one of the investors.
Not many people on set actually knew the specific reason, so the atmosphere at that moment was quiet to the point of eeriness.
Lin Yanyan looked at Shang Lu suspiciously, then asked indignantly, "Why can she turn off the livestream just because she doesn't want to hear nasty comments? Did she pay them off? Well, my dad has money too!"
She could also buy privileges with money!
Ye Lu, as one of the rare people who knew the situation, looked at Lin Yanyan with some impatience and said, "Please shut up."
Lin Yanyan: "?"
The young lady who had always been given stars and the moon—when had she ever been spoken to like this? She was so angry that she immediately wanted to argue with Ye Lu.
And although Jiang Jing didn't know what the specific problem was, she could tell that the livestream interruption was no small matter. As a senior, she naturally couldn't watch them argue, so she hurriedly pulled Lin Yanyan aside to comfort her.
Ye Lu originally hadn't liked Shang Lu very much.
She had exposed his embarrassment of buttoning his shirt wrong the moment they met. She always had an indifferent expression, like an outsider. Clearly she was the celebrity most hated by netizens, yet that expression of watching the show made it seem like she didn't care about participating in this variety show—this program that existed to embarrass them, let netizens watch them as jokes, and even used humiliating them as its selling point.
But after seeing the contents of that card, he felt somewhat at a loss.
Let alone Shang Lu—even he felt uncomfortable looking at those extremely insulting words. It was obvious the production team was deliberately targeting her.
Shang Lu didn't want to haggle with these people either. As the director team said, they were only following orders.
So she directly said, "Give me five minutes. I want to make a phone call."
Shang Lu went up to the second floor alone, entering a separate room with no cameras and no other people.
This call was naturally to Jiang Yi.
Only after three rings was the call answered. The man's voice rang out, carrying fatigue, asking, "What's the matter?"
Shang Lu didn't waste any words and asked very directly, "The director team people are from your company, so was this also arranged by you?"
But Jiang Yi didn't answer this question. Instead, he said, "You should apologize to Ning Lin."
This was already the answer.
Because Jiang Yi felt that Shang Lu had bullied his beloved woman, so he wanted to use this method to force her to apologize.
"I'll apologize to your grandfather! Are you addicted to playing the domineering CEO script to protect your beloved woman?" For the first time in years, Shang Lu cursed at Jiang Yi. She then directly hung up the phone and, without hesitation, blacklisted all of his contact methods.
It was laughable to say, but Jiang Yi had taken over his family's media company for love, so that he could provide better resources for Ning Lin and pave the way for his beloved in the entertainment industry.
And she had once liked Jiang Yi. In order to see him more often, she had voluntarily acted in who knew how many terrible films that even the minor starlets under his company looked down upon.
But now, just because the white moonlight in his heart had been injured, even though she had said it wasn't her doing, he still wanted to punish her with humiliation without distinguishing right from wrong?
Truly disgusting. He hadn't left her any face at all.
Even if she had once been influenced by the plot, just thinking that she had really cared about this kind of person for over a decade still made her feel nauseous to the point of wanting to vomit.
In an instant, Shang Lu understood two things—
1. Hopeless romantics meet terrible ends.
2. Men with big eyes are nothing good.
After discovering that she was merely a tool-like female supporting character, Shang Lu had also realized that her feelings for Jiang Yi were not romantic love.
But after all, they had been childhood sweethearts for so many years; Jiang Yi was still somewhat different from others in her heart.
During those years when her mother died giving birth to her, her father—who deeply loved his wife—was unwilling to see her, her older brother—who couldn't accept their mother's departure—also loathed her, and even the household servants treated her as a calamity star... only Jiang Yi had once reached out to her.
He had given her a piece of candy, given her cute dolls, written letters comforting her not to be sad. He had truly been kind to her.
So even after Ning Lin appeared and Jiang Yi treated her poorly in various ways, Shang Lu had made excuses for him, such as maybe he was also controlled by the plot, so he could be forgiven.
Not being lovers, not being friends, yet not wanting to hate him either.
Her eyes were dry and painful.
Yet she was unexpectedly calm.
Shang Lu was stronger than she had imagined. Very soon, she went downstairs as if nothing had happened, indicating that the program could continue recording.
The production team explained the livestream interruption as an equipment malfunction, and recording continued.
Shang Lu responded to the first half that Ye Lu had read out. She replied, "Seeing comments like this, I realize everyone seems to have some misunderstandings about me. I earn a bit more than everyone imagines, so I'm not at the point of selling myself. As for Jiang Yi, he's not my type. When he publicly announces his girlfriend, I'll sincerely wish him well."
After speaking, Shang Lu deliberately held the card in her hand toward the camera for two seconds.
And the key point in Shang Lu's response was *publicly announcing his girlfriend*.
With this show's popularity and the audience's curiosity and penchant for gossip, there were some things she didn't need to say much herself. As long as the netizens were curious enough, naturally there would be people who took the initiative to investigate.
Only now did the bullet comments recover from the livestream interruption.
[Right... Jiang Yi has never publicly announced a girlfriend, right? Why is everyone treating Shang Lu like she's the third party? Have some CP fans shipped themselves into a fantasy?]
[Agree with above. I've always thought this too, but the Linjiang CP fanbase is just too massive...]
[Jiang Yi and Ning Lin really can't be more real! Not announcing it is just for Linlin's career! Shang Lu, as an industry insider, definitely knows everything clearly. What's she pretending for?]
[I was thinking Shang Lu's nasty comment wasn't even as bad as Lin Yanyan's just now. It really wasn't that bad, right?]
[The livestream was interrupted for ten minutes. Did she throw a tantrum before reluctantly coming back to answer? Who has the princess syndrome, Lin Yanyan or Shang Lu?]
[So can anyone tell me why the livestream suddenly cut off? Equipment problems is too much of a cop-out.]
Not many people believed the reason given by the production team. They all felt it was because Shang Lu couldn't face the nasty comments that the livestream was interrupted, mocking her for being so fragile yet still daring to come on this variety show.
Some people also noticed something off.
[Why do I feel like the word count on Shang Lu's card doesn't quite match what Ye Lu read out?]
[Couldn't see too clearly on the livestream. I'll wait for the recording to come out and check again.]
Recording was still continuing at this moment. The next segment was dividing into groups to complete missions.
But as a program that used stirring up trouble as its selling point, this segment was also designed to fuel the fire.
For example, the current grouping was done in a very immoral way.
Everyone had to write on paper the guest they currently hated the most. As for how they would be grouped afterwards, that wasn't stated.
Shang Lu didn't have strong feelings against anyone present, so she held a pen and began lightly tapping on her leg, corresponding to the others' seats, while silently chanting in her heart—
Little rooster, point as you go, whoever you land on is who I'll choose.
It landed on Xu Ze. Congratulations to this lucky unlucky bastard.
So Shang Lu wrote his name on the paper board without hesitation.
And very soon, everyone announced the names on their whiteboards one by one.
Jiang Jing and Song Zeqian knew each other and proactively suggested writing each other's names. As the only Film Queen present, Song Zeqian more or less approved of her acting, so he gave her face.
Ye Lu's whiteboard also had Xu Ze written on it. He very honestly stated, "If I don't choose him, who else can I choose?"
Besides Xu Ze, there were two seniors and two girls. He had no choice at all.
After all, it was their first meeting, and no one had come here for the purpose of fighting. Ye Lu couldn't bully seniors, nor was it convenient to bully girls.
And the only somewhat surprising thing was that both Lin Yanyan's and Xu Ze's whiteboards had her name written on them.
The bullet comments immediately started mocking Shang Lu.
[Sure enough, it's only been recording for so long and she's already the most hated one.]
[The two seniors choosing each other is giving face to the juniors. Actually, among those who truly made a choice, there were only three people, and two of them voted for Shang Lu. The people have spoken!]
Lin Yanyan looked at Shang Lu in annoyance and asked, "You deliberately didn't come downstairs to help me with my luggage before, right?"
Shang Lu: "...?"
She was silent for a few seconds and asked, "You only just realized?"
This sentence not only insulted Lin Yanyan's intelligence but also insulted her reaction speed.
Some people in the bullet comments were amused.
[Why is the scene of Shang Lu facing off against Lin Yanyan so funny?]
[Shang · Righteous and Confident · Lu]
[Hahaha, I discovered an advantage of Shang Lu's. She seems pretty honest. (thumbs up)]
Of course, there were also people who didn't like Shang Lu immediately coming out to argue.
[Honest? The person above probably has some misunderstanding about Shang Lu, right?]
After understanding the reason Lin Yanyan hated her, Shang Lu actually felt it was quite reasonable.
The PD then prompted Xu Ze, asking, "Do Teacher Shang and Teacher Xu have some grudge we don't know about? How come you both wrote each other's names?"
Shang Lu answered, "We're not familiar. I just wrote randomly."
And Xu Ze lowered his eyelashes and only said, "Same for me."
Although Xu Ze said this, Shang Lu's gaze still lingered on Xu Ze for a few seconds.
Actually, Shang Lu had always found it a bit strange, because from the moment they met, she felt that Xu Ze seemed to... have secretly glanced at her several times.
Did Xu Ze hate her? They didn't even know each other.
Shang Lu couldn't figure it out, but also felt it didn't matter.
The production staff were somewhat disappointed. There was no gossip they wanted, so this segment could only end here.
Because Jiang Jing and Song Zeqian, as well as Shang Lu and Xu Ze, had filled in each other's names in the hated guest section, satisfying the condition of "two-way mutual hatred," they successfully formed two pairs.
As for Lin Yanyan and Ye Lu, it was a case of "one-sided unwillingness"—their one-sided hatred hadn't received a response. The two leftover people didn't find each other particularly agreeable either, but in the end, they still achieved the accomplishment of mutual two-way hatred.
Just like that, three groups were temporarily formed.
And this program, as always, carried its lack of morality to the end, because next their mission was—
To separately go to their own anti-fans to sell products, and they must successfully make a sale to count as mission complete.
And their mission completion would directly affect tonight's room selection.
This was actually an individual mission, but by binding them in pairs, the goal was to make them drag each other down.
And even if you painstakingly achieved victory, you had to share the results with someone you hated.
The livestream bullet comments were all "hahaha" at this moment.
[Hahaha, I want to ask: did these six guests all buy insurance? This mission doesn't sound very safe!]
[More than unsafe, this is clearly asking for a beating.]
[No wonder there are so many people in black outside. So they assigned bodyguards this time.]
[Is this something I can watch without paying?]
[Is this the legendary act of actively delivering yourself to be scolded?]
And next, the products they needed to sell would be determined by drawing lots.
Lin Yanyan immediately raised her hand, indicating that her luck had always been pretty good, so she wanted to draw this lot.
Then, from the bamboo tube provided by the production team, she drew—
Pig feed, priced at eighty-eight yuan per bag.