Chapter 164
Chapter 164
The last day of the variety livestream You Are My Blessing.
The guests returned to Youai Villa ahead of schedule.
At eleven in the morning, the livestream began on time.
Netizens rushed in excitedly, only to discover that the livestream had been split into four.
Each female guest had her own separate room and camera angle.
A line of large text swept across the screen at just the right moment:
Now, each pair of friend guests will have one final private conversation.
Whether the contents of the conversation are made public will BE up to them.
After the conversation ends, netizens may vote on whether the relationship between the guests is “friendship or love.”
“Public, public, public!” Jiang Sheshe declared without the slightest hesitation.
Her brain had never been all that useful to begin with. Who knew if Wei Xuan would talk circles around her and somehow convince her before she even realized what had happened?
So the conversation between the two of them had to be public.
That way, even if she stepped into a pit, the netizens could curse her awake afterward!
When Wei Xuan learned of Jiang Sheshe’s choice, his smile stiffened, but he quickly returned to his usual warm and gentle expression.
“Making the conversation public is fine too. There are some things that, besides Sheshe, I’d also like the netizens who have witnessed our relationship along the way to hear.”
With that resolve, Wei Xuan entered the conversation room with Jiang Sheshe.
In all fairness, Wei Xuan had the highest EQ and the best way with words out of all the variety show guests.
With just a few brief sentences, he drew the viewers into the beautiful memories of the days when he and Jiang Sheshe had grown up together as childhood sweethearts-their Innocent Childhood.
A handful of more sentimental netizens had already begun to waver.
[Jiang Sheshe has lived twenty-two years, and Wei Xuan took up sixteen of them.]
But most netizens weren’t buying it.
[666, so this batch of netizens changed faces without inviting me?]
[Jiang Sheshe’s lovesick brain has been cured, but some people’s lovesick brains are beyond saving.]
[Back when Jiang Sheshe was that lovesick, Wei Xuan still wasn’t moved. Now he’s suddenly changed his attitude? I’m scared on Jiang Sheshe’s behalf. With that brain of hers, can she outplay Wei Xuan?]
[Before loving someone else, learn to love yourself first. Wei Xuan isn’t a bad person, but if Jiang Sheshe gets together with him, she’ll only lose herself. I don’t ship this CP.]
In the end, 90% of the voters chose “friendship” for the relationship between the two of them, while the remaining 10% believed they might develop into “love” in the future.
The second pair of guests to choose a public conversation was Ning Xi and Fu Zhi.
This pair of friends had attracted consistently high attention from the very first day the variety show aired.
[These two are obviously friendship, guaranteed. There’s zero spark between Ning Xi and Fu Zhi.]
[It’s clearly mother-son affection.]
[Who said there are no sparks? When Ning Xi beats up Fu Zhi, it’s sparks and lightning all the way…]
The public vote showed that 98% of netizens judged Ning Xi and Fu Zhi’s relationship as friendship, while the remaining 2% believed the two might develop into love.
Of course, among that 2% were people who were simply voting randomly for fun, as well as stubborn Ning Xi–Fu Zhi CP fans.
[No, but seriously, there are actually people shipping Ning Xi and Fu Zhi?]
[These heretical CP fans really are hard to kill.]
However, no matter how the netizens commented and provoked them, the Ning Xi–Fu Zhi CP fans did not come out to explain. They simply voted in silence.
That’s right. This was their final stubborn stand.
As long as Ning Xi didn’t officially announce a relationship with someone else, they would lurk quietly in the darkness like cockroaches and secretly ship them.
Then they would secretly recommend the ship, secretly multiply beneath the surface, and secretly give birth to generations upon generations of cockroach disciples.
Hold on and survive!
Inside the conversation room.
Ning Xi sat down with her legs spread and her posture bold as brass, waiting for Fu Zhi to begin his performance.
“Ning Xi, I like you.”
That was the first thing Fu Zhi said after he came in.
“Pfft-” Ning Xi was so shocked that she spat out a mouthful of water. “My blood type is B, and your blood type is B too. How can you like me? If we got together, we’d be 2B!”
Fu Zhi: “…”
Fu Zhi closed his eyes and tried to gather his emotions again.
He failed.
“What does blood type have to do with whether we can be together?!”
For him to publicly confess to Ning Xi on the variety show meant he had already completely disregarded his relationship with Shen Yibai, as well as the reputation of both the Fu Family and the Shen family.
He could even…
He could pretend he didn’t know about Shen Yibai being sick.
Last night, Shen Yibai had asked him if he hadn’t already learned the reason Shen Yibai let go of Ning Xi. Fu Zhi hadn’t answered. Instead, he had fled in panic.
Because Fu Zhi knew that as long as Shen Yibai publicly revealed the matter, he would never be able to be with Ning Xi again.
He could steal everything from a healthy Shen Yibai, including the person he liked.
But he couldn’t do that to a sick Shen Yibai.
That would make Shen Yibai too pitiful.
So today’s confession was the final chance Fu Zhi was giving himself.
“Ning Xi.” Fu Zhi suddenly called her name again, his tone serious.
“I truly like you. After all these years, you’re the only one I’ve ever liked.”
The arrogant, untouchable Young Master of the Fu Family finally lowered the head he had always held so high.
Ning Xi scratched her head.
If she’d known Fu Zhi was going to say all that, she would have chosen “keep it private.”
Just thinking about how the Ning Family, the Fu Family, and the Shen Family were probably all going to be thrown into chaos after this made her…
Still, some things had to be said out loud.
“Is that so? Then your affection really is pretty cheap.”
Ning Xi shrugged. Her tone was calm, but her words struck Fu Zhi like a thunderclap, leaving him stunned for a long time.
“You say you like me, but you’re also the one who belittled me and targeted me. Even if I don’t care, even if I can hit back, that doesn’t mean my feelings don’t matter. And it doesn’t mean your actions didn’t cause any harm.”
“It’s cheap.”
“I don’t need that kind of cheap ‘affection.'”
Fu Zhi stood frozen in place, as if he had no idea what to say.
In the end, he only murmured helplessly, “I… I didn’t know… I’m sorry.”
A thousand emotions surged in his chest, yet in the end, all that came out was a powerless apology.
All of his teasing and all the ways he had put Ning Xi down had only been because he wanted her gaze to linger on him a little longer.
To look at him. Only him.
But he had never considered that, even if Ning Xi didn’t want to care, those actions would still hurt her.
After this conversation, the netizens’ vote for friendship instantly shot up to 100%. Even the cockroach CP fans who had been planning to hide in the corner and quietly multiply all defected.
Shipping a couple was fun, but that fun couldn’t be built on one of the parties’ pain.
If they kept shipping them now, it would just be rude.
The conversation ended.
Ning Xi had already moved on as if nothing had happened. All she could feel was the joy of wrapping filming and clocking out.
Her bed! Her games! Her dramas! Her precious little phone!
Tonight, she was going to pamper them all properly!
And so, naturally, Ning Xi didn’t see Fu Zhi’s eyes silently redden after she left.
Ning Mingyue and Shen Yibai’s private conversation had been kept off the air.
No one knew what the two of them had talked about. All they knew was that when they came out of the interview room, one looked cold and distant, while the other looked dazed and lost.
When these two had first joined the variety show, they had been so sweet together, and the white moonlight CP had been the dominant ship.
Now, only 3% of netizens voted that the two might develop into “romance” later on. The other 97% all chose “friendship.”
[Wait, are romance and friendship the only two options? I feel like Shen Yibai and Ning Mingyue’s current state is clearly closer to never speaking again.]
[It really is sad. I used to ship white moonlight too. After they went BE, I rewatched their old variety livestreams and realized they were really just industrial saccharin. Neither of them actually liked the other.]
[Really? I feel the opposite. Ning Mingyue seems to like Shen Yibai quite a lot. Otherwise, if it was just industrial saccharin, there would’ve been no need for her to throw tantrums at Shen Yibai.]
[Did you guys notice the way Ning Mingyue looked at Shen Yibai after they came out of the interview room? Ning Mingyue definitely likes Shen Yibai. She couldn’t act out such a complicated look, like she both loves and hates him.]
Love?
Hate?
Perhaps even Ning Mingyue herself didn’t understand her own feelings.
She had thought she had gone to such painstaking lengths to marry Shen Yibai only because Shen Yibai was the future richest man in Xiangcheng, and because of the boundless love and favor he showed Ning Xi.
But now, after Shen Yibai had truly exposed all her shameful thoughts, a hysterical voice in the depths of her heart was actually screaming in protest-
No! No! She-
“Ning Mingyue, if you hadn’t pretended to be sick and gone abroad back then, there never would have been an engagement between Ning Xi and me. In fact, I should be thanking you.”
A faint smile curved Shen Yibai’s lips.
For no reason, Ning Mingyue saw a trace of mockery and malice in it.
…So Shen Yibai had known all along about every lie she had told.
“You deceived me and the Shen Family. Now that I’ve used you once, we can call it even. From now on, unless absolutely necessary, we won’t be seeing each other again.”
If not for Ning Xi, the Ning Family would have long since been unworthy of associating with the Shen Family.
Ning Mingyue hadn’t understood that. Father Ning hadn’t understood it either.
They had both underestimated Shen Yibai’s feelings for Ning Xi, and overestimated the importance of the marriage agreement between the Shen and Ning families.
From beginning to end, Shen Yibai had only agreed to this engagement because Ning Xi was part of it.
Ning Mingyue could no longer hear what Shen Yibai was saying.
They wouldn’t see each other again…
She thought of her previous life again.
In truth, at the very beginning, she hadn’t wanted to marry Shen Yibai all that badly.
So what if he was the richest man? Men with money all turned bad. She was the eldest daughter of the Ning Family, born with more money than she could spend in several lifetimes…
Until she secretly returned to the country and saw Shen Yibai change Ning Xi out of her high heels at a banquet, then proudly introduce her to everyone present as “my wife”…
That scene had later become Ning Mingyue’s inner demon.
She had kept wondering: if she hadn’t run away from the marriage back then, would she have been the heroine at that banquet, the woman Shen Yibai personally helped change out of her high heels?
Would Shen Yibai have let her hold his arm too, introducing her to everyone as “my wife”?
Later, she had racked her brains for a chance to see Shen Yibai again. Even if it meant throwing away the pride of a young lady from a wealthy family and becoming nothing more than Shen Yibai’s fleeting lover, she would have been willing…
After all, what could be more satisfying than having the fiancée who had once abandoned him now willingly bow her head and submit?
But she had been wrong.
She had exhausted every scheme, even using her status as Ning Xi’s relative to get a meeting with Shen Yibai, only to be politely shown out by him after merely dropping a few hints.
The look in Shen Yibai’s eyes back then was exactly the same as it was now.
Calm. Indifferent. Yet faintly tinged with mockery.
Later, she heard that the assistant who had let her into Shen Group had been fired by Shen Yibai.
If she could not have him, she would destroy him.
After that, Ning Mingyue spent every day hoping problems would arise in Shen Yibai and Ning Xi’s marriage. She became obsessed with digging through every report for gossip about Shen Yibai’s love life.
She refused to believe that Shen Yibai, now so powerful and influential, would keep loving Ning Xi forever.
And yet, right up until the year she died of illness, Shen Yibai still loved Ning Xi.
He had actually stayed faithful for an entire lifetime.
Only on her deathbed did Ning Mingyue realize what kind of man she had missed.
After being reborn, she had bent over backward to cater to Shen Yibai in every way.
She had thought she was doing it only because Shen Yibai would become the richest man in the future.
But she had forgotten that the reason she wanted Shen Yibai back in the first place was because of his love for Ning Xi.
She loved Shen Yibai.
Ning Mingyue herself was actually the last person to realize it.
“No! Yibai, listen to me!” Ning Mingyue, who had been in a daze all this time, seemed to jolt awake all at once and chased after Shen Yibai’s departing figure.
But the recording had already reached its end.
In the end, Shen Yibai only took one long, deep look at Ning Xi. Even though he was reluctant in every possible way, he still got into the car and left.
Dr. Musk had already arrived in Xiangcheng.
He still wanted to find a chance to prolong his life.
If there was even the slightest possibility that he could stay by her side, he was willing to gamble with his life.
…
All three groups of friend guests had been completely wiped out, let alone Qin Se and Xie Lanchen, who had not known each other at all before this.
In order to scrape together footage and runtime, Director Qin also arranged a private conversation for those two.
Unsurprisingly, the two of them chose to have a public conversation, but-
[Conversation? Come on, you two, at least open your mouths and talk.]
[That’s weird. I didn’t mute my phone.]
[Two mutes. Case closed.]
When Director Qin said the other three groups had all finished their conversations, Xie Lanchen and Qin Se left the interview room without even blinking.
They did not exchange one extra second of pleasantries.
And with that, You Are My Blessing entered its wrap-up stage.
[Watching the guests leave one by one makes me so reluctant to say goodbye. During this period, it really felt like I was part of their lives.]
[There probably won’t ever be another variety show like this again.]
[Ohhh, you mean Ning Xi’s bloodline-ending kick, Xiao Xie and Fu Zhi eating salad with their bare hands, and Jiang Sheshe braving a haunted house for love? Yeah, there really won’t be another variety show this unhinged.]
[Am I the only one still obsessed with that detail back when Xiao Xie took the initiative to clink glasses with Ning Xi? The second I saw that scene, I was sure those two would end up together.]
[So did Ning Xi and Xiao Xie actually get together or not? Program Team, just put me out of my misery!]
[(⊙o⊙)… Don’t tell me you guys actually thought Ning Xi and Xie Lanchen were real? This variety show was a new-format friendship reality dating show to begin with. A lot of Ning Xi’s actions might have just been for the show effect. How many CPs have you seen that actually keep developing after a variety show ends?]
Netizens were arguing from every angle, all endlessly curious about the final relationship status of the Xi-Lan Flower CP.
After the variety show ended, it dominated the trending searches for several days.
Director Qin looked at the heaven-sent traffic with eyes so red they could practically drip blood.
He did not dare ask his financial backer, Xie Lanchen, so he could only contact Ning Xi, with whom he had a slightly better relationship.
“Teacher Ning, are you planning to make your relationship status public? A lot of fans of our Program Team are very concerned right now~~~”
On Ning Xi’s end, she only replied with an “ok” emoji.
Director Qin stared at that emoji and felt a throb of pain in his forehead.
As if he did not know that when Ning Xi sent that emoji, it did not mean “okay,” but “flicking your forehead.”
After the pain passed, he was puzzled again. So were Ning Xi and Xie Lanchen together or not? And if they were together, did they plan to go public?
One minute later, Director Qin got his answer.
Ning Xi’s latest Weibo set the entire internet ablaze:
[Xie Lanchen is a bro worth keeping. He started dating and still asked me to be his girlfriend. Now that’s loyalty /.]