Chapter 158
Chapter 158
With absolutely no suspense, Ning Xi and Xie Lanchen’s skit received the highest number of votes in the entire venue.
The online views for the skit clip left everyone else in the dust as well.
Plenty of Ning Xi’s little expressions were even turned into viral reaction memes:
A picture of Ning Xi slacking off at her workstation with her legs crossed: I really am asking for it. Please beat me to death.jpg
A picture of Ning Xi raising her hand: I object.jpg
A picture of Ning Xi thinking her boss suspected her of pushing Qu Yuan into the river: Oh my sweet lord.jpg
And so on.
Honestly? They were all pretty useful.
As the other lead actor, Xie Lanchen also had no shortage of memes.
But since Boss Xie spent most of the time looking speechless and silent, the captions were basically all:
I got nothing.jpg
Miss, I didn’t do anything to you, did I.jpg
I really don’t have time to mess around with you.jpg
Is it fun to bully someone with no strength or means to fight back.jpg
As for Jiang Sheshe, though she only had a handful of lines in total, she got memes too:
The clarity and stupidity of someone missing a brainstem.jpg
All that could be said was: no one came for nothing.
…
“Congratulations to Ning Xi’s group for receiving tonight’s highest vote count: 138! You have won a reward fund of 13,800 yuan!”
Ning Xi: “!!!”
She looked at Xie Lanchen excitedly. “We’re rich, we’re rich!”
She had already figured out how to split the money: one hundred for Xie Lanchen, one hundred for her; one hundred for Jiang Sheshe, one hundred for her; one hundred for Xie Lanchen, one hundred for her; one hundred for Jiang Sheshe, one hundred for her…
Xie Lanchen listened as Ning Xi explained her method of splitting the money, a smile tucked into the corners of his eyes. His posture was lazy, his expression so gentle it was almost unreasonable.
Only after Ning Xi joyfully calculated that she would get 6,900 yuan, while Xie Lanchen and Jiang Sheshe would each get 3,450 yuan, did he finally say in a leisurely tone, “No need to give me any. My money is all yours.”
Ning Xi, little money-grubber that she was, immediately started refusing while shoving the money into her own pocket. “Huh? That doesn’t seem very appropriate…”
“There’s nothing inappropriate about it. After all, I have an ulterior motive too.” Xie Lanchen lowered his voice, his expression turning somewhat serious.
Ning Xi: “Huh?” What ulterior motive?
Xie Lanchen said solemnly, “There’s a saying: ‘Those who get rich first should help those who get rich later.’ Now that Teacher Ning is rich first, could you give me a hand in the future?”
At the end, he looked at Ning Xi with those eyes that seemed steeped in a pool of tender spring water, innocent and clear.
It made one’s heart soften without even realizing it.
As someone who was the classic type to respond to softness instead of force, Ning Xi was already grinning from ear to ear. “No problem, no problem.”
Xiao Xie gave her money and spoke so sweetly. How could she possibly refuse~
“No! This vote count is wrong!”
While fixing Ning Xi and Xie Lanchen with a death glare, Fu Zhi gave feedback to the director. “There were 200 total votes. Shen Yibai got 20 votes, Jiang Sheshe got 25, Wei Xuan got 9, Qin Se got 30, I got 33, and Ning Mingyue got 5. Added together, that’s already 122 votes. How could Ning Xi and Xie Lanchen possibly have 138 votes?!”
The director dismissed his objection with a single sentence. “Because some of the audience members switched their votes from earlier. For each of the guests, the final vote count is what matters.”
Fu Zhi looked at his original 3,300 yuan shrink to 2,500 yuan and fell silent.
Ten 250s. Was this mocking him?
But when he saw Ning Mingyue next to him fall to only 100 yuan, his mentality instantly balanced out.
Jiang Sheshe’s reward fund dropped to 1,000 yuan.
But if you added the 3,450 yuan Ning Xi was going to split with her, it was still a very decent amount.
However, the young lady had backbone. She didn’t want the money.
“I only had three lines. You don’t need to split it with me!”
“Oh.”
Ning Xi calmly took the money back.
“Oh?! Just one ‘oh’?!” Seeing Ning Xi so calm, Jiang Sheshe got anxious instead. “You didn’t say that little when you were talking to Xie Lanchen just now! You said eight words to him! But I only get one ‘oh’?!”
Ning Xi: “…My brilliant self understands now. Thank you, beautiful young lady! I go crazy for the young lady, I go wild for the young lady, I’ll smash straight through a wall for the young lady!”
“That’s more like it.” Jiang Sheshe huffed, the corner of her mouth curling up like the Dragon King.
Ning Xi held back a laugh.
[??? Something’s off. Twelve out of ten levels of off. That expression on Ning Xi’s face clearly means she said “oh” on purpose just to tease Jiang Sheshe!]
[Forget Ning Xi. Are you telling me you wouldn’t want to tease Jiang Sheshe?]
[Quick to blow up but easy to coax. The little thing really is pretty fun.]
Online opinion of Jiang Sheshe was now split right down the middle. People who couldn’t stand stupidity found her annoying, while people who watched for the drama thought she was funny and adorable.
But either way, thanks to this variety show, Jiang Sheshe had finally made herself known to the general public in the domestic entertainment industry.
Of course, for her, the most valuable thing about this show was that it had allowed her to see Ning Mingyue and Wei Xuan for who they really were.
“Sheshe, the director said this prize money can be used to prepare a gift for a friend or someone you like. Is there anything you want…?”
Wei Xuan’s tone was gentle, his expression and voice the same ones Jiang Sheshe had never been able to resist in the past.
But this time, Jiang Sheshe didn’t even spare him a glance. She simply pretended she hadn’t heard him.
The curve of Wei Xuan’s smile nearly slipped.
He wanted to say more, but Director Qin had already started giving the closing remarks. The audience had received their gifts, and waves of cheers rose one after another, completely disrupting Wei Xuan’s rhythm.
Wei Xuan was frustrated, but when he thought about how there was still the final discussion segment tomorrow, he reassured himself. Even if that failed, once the show ended, he would still have plenty of time to explain to Sheshe why he had hidden the truth from her back then.
But even someone as calculating as Wei Xuan perhaps never expected that the moment the variety show ended, Jiang Sheshe would fly off to Europe for a vacation. Wei Xuan couldn’t find Jiang Sheshe at all.
Wei Xuan tried asking Jiang Sheshe’s parents for help, but Father Jiang and Mother Jiang had completely changed from their warm, pleasant attitude of the past. They shut him out more than once.
The decades-long friendship between the Jiang and Wei families seemed to be coming to an end as well.
Of course, that would come later.
…
Since tomorrow was the final segment where the netizens would decide whether the two were friends or lovers, after tonight’s performance gala ended, the Program Team ended the livestream early and gave the guests the rest of the day off.
“I’ll be waiting for you here (#^.^#)”
When Ning Xi saw the location Xie Lanchen sent over, she quickly packed up her things and prepared to head out.
However, an unwelcome guest was waiting at the door.
Ning Xi acted as if she hadn’t seen him.
“Ahem, ahem, ahem, ahem, ahem, ahem.” Fu Zhi coughed like he was about to hack up a lung. Seeing Ning Xi still marching straight ahead, he had no choice.
“Ning Xi!”
“Spit it out.” Ning Xi frowned.
Fu Zhi spoke in the same tone he had used countless times before when asking for a truce. “I came all the way to see you. Are you really not going to take the out I’m giving you? If you don’t want to have dinner with me tonight, then fine, we won’t. Just now, I had Lu Ming invest in that restaurant you like. From now on, you can go whenever you want and put it on my tab. There, the cold war is over. I’ll definitely watch my tone when I talk from now on…”
“I’m not taking it.” Ning Xi cut him off.
“?”
“That out of yours? I’m not taking it.” Ning Xi’s gaze was so firm it looked like she was about to join the Party.
But her heart gave a faint stab.
That was her favorite restaurant!!!
In the past, she had to make reservations two days in advance just to get a meal there, and today she had actually turned it down!!!
Ning Xi, oh Ning Xi, you really are the good girl Jiang Sheshe said you were. You don’t care about other people’s money at all!!!
Once the heartache passed, Ning Xi strode away.
Behind her, Fu Zhi gritted his teeth, as if he had made up his mind about something.
“Ning Xi! Do you like me or not?!”
Screw the engagement! Screw the Fu Family! Screw Shen Yibai!
As long as Ning Xi liked him even the tiniest bit, even if it meant falling out with Shen Yibai, even if it meant the Fu Family and the Shen Family turning against each other, even if everyone thought he was a homewrecker butting into someone else’s engagement, he didn’t care anymore!
So just a little. As long as she liked him even a little…
After Fu Zhi shouted those words, he looked at Ning Xi with eyes that were almost pleading.
Ning Xi stumbled when she suddenly heard Fu Zhi’s shout.
She turned around and smacked him hard on the head. “Is this some new kind of prank?!”
This time, she was genuinely grossed out.
Fu Zhi didn’t answer. He only stubbornly asked again, “So do you like me or not-”
“No.” Ning Xi answered first.
There was no hesitation on her face.
Fu Zhi clenched his fists hard, then loosened them. A few seconds later, he burst into loud laughter, trying to cover it up.
“Hahaha, you stupid girl, you didn’t actually think I was confessing, did you? I did that on purpose to mess with you. I don’t like Laozi either. I like Confucius.”
Ning Xi said, “Laozi, Confucius, and you-I don’t like any of you.”
Fu Zhi: “.”
Was she trying to chase him down and finish him off?