Luo You was at a loss for words. He couldn’t possibly say that he had already told Sheng Yan about her desire for revenge against the JY girl group and that Sheng Yan had told him to be at ease, handing everything over to him for handling, so he felt relaxed and not at all afraid anymore.
Since he couldn’t tell the whole truth, he decided to mix truth with fiction.
Luo You pondered for a moment, his voice slightly cold, "I’ve thought about it for a long time. It’s just participating in the same program after all. You can’t really cause any serious trouble. The way JY girl group treated you, if you perform well in the show and slap them in the face, so much the better."
"When you first rose to fame, JY girl group didn’t hold back from releasing notices related to you to ride on your popularity, causing fans to misunderstand. Meanwhile, I was in a competitive situation with Zhang Yingru in the company. Anyway, if you can shame JY, it would be good for both you and me."
The JY girl group unilaterally claimed that He Jinxia had a good relationship with them, yet she had never once responded to these claims. She was always busy with work and never crossed paths with JY girl group’s schedule, so there was hardly any opportunity for them to meet or for reporters to catch up and ask questions.
Because she had never responded, some JY fans criticized He Jinxia for being ungrateful, saying she had intentionally breached her contract with JY girl group for personal gain, lacked team spirit, and was simply not fit to be a girl group member, among other things.
Crucially, these types of comments were not few and far between. Whenever Jinxia had a new movie coming out, JY girl group would stir up issues involving her.
Participating in "Music Strongest Sound" was an opportunity to clear her name publicly, not only to address the rumors of ingratitude but also to distance herself from JY girl group. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ N()velFire.net
Now that Sheng Yan was involved in the matter, JY girl group might not have it easy in the future. It was better for Jinxia to withdraw from this situation sooner rather than later.
Luo You’s mind was racing, a sharp gleam in his eyes as he already considered how Jinxia would respond when recording "Music Strongest Sound."
Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind, recalling the events of the previous day. He hurriedly asked, "By the way, what happened yesterday between you and Ye Lunfei and Sheng Yan?"
He Jinxia was taken aback. The change in topic was a bit too sudden. How did it shift to her all of a sudden?
Fortunately, this was not something that couldn’t be spoken about. She recounted yesterday’s gathering with Dong Qiin and the others.
Hearing that other women were present, Luo You felt even more relieved. He exclaimed, "You have no idea how shocked I was yesterday when I received a call from Zhang Ming, the head of our agents. He periodically checks on our performance."
"I thought maybe I hadn’t pushed you hard enough in the first half of the year, and Zhang Ming was calling to criticize me, saying I had wasted such a great resource or something. But then, the first thing he said was about you and Sheng Yan being together."
Luo You couldn’t help but complain, "At that moment, I thought you were dating Sheng Yan! It scared the life out of me, and my first thought was that the paparazzi had caught you."
"Fortunately, Zhang Ming mentioned that Ye Lunfei was also there, which dispelled that notion. I quickly exchanged a few words with him and hung up. I touched my forehead, and it was all sweaty. My hands were sweating too as I looked for your phone number..."
Listening to Luo You ramble, He Jinxia suddenly felt a mischievous urge to tell the truth and scare Luo You once again.
The moment this thought surfaced, it surged uncontrollably. He Jinxia’s fingers twitched slightly as she used her willpower to suppress her own thoughts.
Now was not the time... she repeated to herself over and over.
Yet, alas, holding back the urge to boast to the entire world that the best man was her boyfriend was incredibly frustrating!
It was like having a treasure that she couldn’t show off for fear that others might steal it, only able to carefully polish it in secret and then hide it away.
He Jinxia sighed softly, uncertain when her anxiety would subside.
A thread, just a thread!
Perhaps once this barrier was passed, everything would fall into place.
September 17, the weather was clear.
He Jinxia got up just after five o’clock and headed to Imperial City Airport early in the morning. Before boarding the plane, she sent a cheerful emoticon to her beloved mother and Sheng Yan and then embarked on her journey for "Burn, Youth."
As soon as she got off the plane, she rushed to the filming location and smoothly arrived at the crew before nine o’clock.
After greeting the surrounding staff, He Jinxia quickly changed into specially made clothes and was arranged to enter a villa living room.
With little communication, the reality show began recording as soon as she entered the living room.
Pretending not to see the cameraman filming her in the living room, she began to look around the living room.
She picked up a yogurt provided by a sponsor to drink and found an identity plate saying "teacher" in a drawer, confirming that the theme she was participating in was "Detective."
Before coming, He Jinxia knew she would participate in two themed episodes, one being "Detective" and the other "Role-Playing War," involving three days of recording altogether.
For the role-playing component, she had already familiarized herself with the characters, and there was no "teacher" role, indicating that the "Detective" theme was being filmed first.
"Burn, Youth" primarily features sports competitions, with each episode having a theme, which could be visiting the land of fish and rice, enjoying the moonlight in Jiangnan, or something whimsical like helping chickens hatch eggs or building nests for birds.
Within these themes, a variety of competitive activities are interspersed, setting challenges for the celebrities to solve.
Due to the novelty of the thematic segments and the witty commentary from the three regular guests, the show had consistently high ratings.
Every few episodes, "Burn, Youth" would invite two new temporary guests to participate in the recording, but how long new guests could last was uncertain.
If a new guest lacked a sense of humor, even if there was enough material filmed for three episodes, the crew would ruthlessly edit it down to just one episode and then seek new guests.
The regular guests had the heavy task of syncing with the new guests in every episode, and sometimes, if new guests performed poorly, the director would reshoot some scenes with different people.
For the stars substituting in, those scenes were new, but for the regular guests, they were repetitive.
At this point, the regular guests needed to display excellent acting skills, showing how they could seem freshly engaged and pretend to know nothing before the camera, which was a profound art.
Thus, the industry often had this evaluation of reality shows: being a good player is not as good as being a good actor.
However, acting too hard can appear fake, and playing too nonchalantly can expose many flaws. Based on these factors, reality shows were still quite challenging for celebrities.
Celebrities familiar with the rules of reality shows could use them to quickly climb the ladder, while those unfamiliar or uncooperative might crash and break apart.
Luo You had reminded her when Jinxia took on "Original Inn": any scene shown to the audience is not by chance, but by necessity.
After shooting "Original Inn," He Jinxia deeply agreed with this.
The moment the audience gets serious, you’ve lost.