Don't be a Kept Man

Chapter 67: A Specially Invited Guest

The road Li Su Li was taking was to be on the negative side of the press, using her notoriety to become a hot topic. But since her debut seven or eight years ago, all the tricks in her book had pretty much been used up, and the general public were starting to have visual fatigue. Although they would still pile on hate comments and scream at her when they see her, her popularity was not as high as it used to be, only moving up the charts every now and then, becoming very rarely mentioned.

When they were headed back into the village house they stayed at, Li Su Li discovered her manager standing by the tent the director and the filming crew set up temporarily. She immediately scowled in disdain as she saw her looking back at her, as if a murky dark ocean was lying behind her. She quickened her steps and slammed the door with a bang behind her.

Zhao Ke Yi was following closely behind, and she reacted just in time to avoid the door hitting her right on the nose. Her eyes turned red, as if tearing up from the anger rising in her, but she couldn't expel it out. She hid from the cameras, heading into the washroom to wipe her tears away.

Fu Xiu Nian was just putting rice in the pot when the filming crew suddenly notified them that each person must individually do a small interview that would not be included in the main program. Instead it will be as packaged as a hidden extra in the full exclusive package for members of the streaming platform, and because the girls weren't quite ready for their emotional outbursts, the guys would start first. The order was decided to be Ah Qi, Fu Xiu Nian and then Chen Yi.

The interview spot was chosen to be in the temporarily set up tent by the production team. The first two went fairly straightforwardly, being asked only about what they felt throughout the entire filming, after their hard work and all that, but when it was time for Chen Yi's turn, the crew were asking very sharp questions, full of traps every step and turn of the way.

Film crew: "When the program announced your participation, it actually caused quite a stir online. Have you known about it or understood what the fuss was about?"

A good phrase was "caused a stir", but in reality, it was a one-sided negativity fest.

Chen Yi raised his eyebrows and answered with a very dismissive response,

"No. I don't make myself search for unhappiness."

The crew member choked on his words but quickly came back to his senses and changed to a different question. He smiled and continued,

"We can see that you have quite the blunt personality. During the filming of this program, everyone has been sleeping together, eating together, so you must have some understanding towards each other through your interactions. And in those, there have been multiple times where there was rough understanding between some of the other guests, especially with you. Have you ever thought about why?"

This question, no matter how one answers, was just one big trap. Since its inception, this variety show << I Came From Far Away >> has been on the rise, looking to be quite the contender for the year. Yet there had been much hidden puppetry going on behind the scenes, even privately exposing its scripted personas of each celebrity. One day or another, it will soon shoot itself in the foot with its schemes.

This was in the script that Zhou Ming gave to Chen Yi, and Zhou Ming had even prepared an answer for this exact question to make sure he netted even more hate:

I think Su Li is not really a team member. She's a bit more of an uptight, high maintenance kind of person, more of a city girl. And she's not very good at interacting with other girls. Perhaps it was because there was always someone helping her before, so the road she had been walking on was very clear and flat, and didn't make her taste any hardships. Put into this environment all of a sudden, she hasn't accepted it very well, nor has she adapted quite well.