Dating Show Side Character, Getting Rich by Roasting People

CHAPTER 41: Chu Ling, the Demolition Crew!

　　Chu Ling brought Wen Shu back to her room.

　　“All done.”

　　She deliberately didn’t bring up what just happened and instead said, “I was watching the comments just now. Everyone thinks you did pretty well. And this one-on-one chat? It basically crushed most of the CP shippers.”

　　The Qin-Wen fans had hated Chu Ling to the bone, convinced that she was the reason their couple kept getting ruined, so they still held on to a shred of hope.

　　But when they finally got their long-awaited 1v1 segment, Wen Shu still refused to give Qin Shuo the time of day.

　　Now they understood loud and clear.

　　This ship was going nowhere.

　　Failure to support the CP was already frustrating, but what made it worse was that Wen Shu herself was the one who refused him.

　　Just when it looked like the hate would turn on Wen Shu for being “ungrateful,” Chu Ling switched to several burner accounts and roasted Qin Shuo in the live chat first, successfully redirecting the firepower.

　　Qin Shuo must have set some blocked keywords with the production team.

　　Half of Chu Ling’s roasts got deleted the moment she posted them.

　　Still, her move to redirect the blame worked perfectly. Sure enough, hardly anyone came after Wen Shu, because all the hate was locked on her instead.

　　Chu Ling was very satisfied with her tactic of “diverting the flood.”

　　She earned money, Wen Shu took less heat, and the fans vented their anger. Win-win-win.

　　“…Did you… see that just now?”

　　Wen Shu couldn’t hold it in and tested the waters carefully.

　　Chu Ling had seen it, but she chose to play dumb. “See what?”

　　“..…”

　　Wen Shu hesitated for a long time, torn about whether to tell Chu Ling or not.

　　She had a feeling Chu Ling must have noticed, and keeping it from her would feel wrong.

　　Chu Ling was her closest friend here, and she trusted her.

　　If not for Chu Ling’s help so many times, she knew she would have already fallen back into Qin Shuo’s carefully spun web of illusions.

　　But Qin Shuo’s identity was complicated. If this got out, the consequences would be unthinkable.

　　“Forget it.”

　　Chu Ling smiled. “If you don’t want to say, I won’t ask. We’re all adults here. Who doesn’t have a secret or two?”

　　“…Chu Ling.”

　　Her words seemed to finally make Wen Shu decide, though her tone was still tense. “I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else yet.”

　　Chu Ling guessed what was coming. “Relax, I don’t need to make pocket change off reselling gossip.”

　　System: “…..”

　　Wen Shu hesitated, then lowered her voice. “I knew Qin Shuo before this.”

　　“Calling it knowing each other… isn’t exactly right.”

　　But if she said they had dated, she didn’t feel like that was a proper relationship either.

　　She kept it vague. “Let’s just say there was a bit of entanglement.”

　　When she finished speaking, she noticed Chu Ling didn’t look shocked at all. Instead, she seemed completely unbothered. “I see.”

　　Wen Shu: “?”

　　So calm?

　　Maybe she had blown this up too much in her own head.

　　Wen Shu added slowly, “Although it sounds kind of… narcissistic, I think the reason he joined this show might have something to do with me.”

　　On the first day when she ran into Qin Shuo, he had sneered at her, telling her not to overthink and that it was just a coincidence.

　　But sometimes, after being around him too long, she couldn’t tell which of his words were real and which were lies. She didn’t want to keep trying to figure it out either.

　　She quickly emphasized, “Anyway, I have no intention of going back, so that’s why I’ve been trying to avoid him.”

　　After spilling everything in one breath, she looked at Chu Ling, waiting for her reaction.

　　Chu Ling had already known, and faking surprise would only look forced. So she simply nodded. “So the ex you mentioned, or the so-called first love Qin Shuo hinted at, that person was actually him?”

　　Wen Shu hesitated, then nodded.

　　“That works out perfectly. Now if he takes on a stand-in role, all he has to do is slap himself in the face a few times.”

　　Wen Shu: “…..”

　　That’s your focus here?

　　She guessed, “You already knew, didn’t you?”

　　“I had a feeling. He kept circling back to your past relationships, and if he wasn’t your ex, then he must have some really strange quirks.”

　　Which was why, when Chu Ling used her alt accounts to flood the chat, even though she got attacked by fans, plenty of others agreed with her.

　　“Besides, before this, he even cheated just to make sure he got in the same group as you. It really looked like there was something between you two.”

　　Chu Ling smiled at Wen Shu. “But don’t worry. You told me, and that’s that. I won’t tell anyone else.”

　　“As long as you’re clear about what you want, that’s what matters.”

　　In the original story, Qin Shuo had used his relentless persistence and public opinion to drag Wen Shu back into his territory.

　　She had such a forgiving personality that when he asked for forgiveness, she gave it.

　　But now, with Chu Ling stepping in and breaking apart the CP fans, Qin Shuo’s tricks had been unraveled.

　　Instead of the path in the original story, Chu Ling had opened up a new road for Wen Shu.

　　Whether she chose to walk it or not was up to her, but at least, she now had that chance.

　　—

　　Downstairs, in Sheng Yi’s room.

　　Sheng Yi was on a video call with his bandmates.

　　Today’s live broadcast had shaken up the CP dynamics quite a bit. The Qin-Wen pairing was clearly heading toward a bad ending. Everyone thought that meant Sheng-Wen would rise instead, but surprisingly, it didn’t happen. Instead, the new pairing “Overbearing CP” started showing some signs of momentum.

　　The keyboardist muttered, “Man, what are you doing? Why did you pick Chu Ling again today? According to the flow, shouldn’t it have been Wen Shu? What, she ignored you so you just gave up?”

　　The drummer calmly replied, “Actually, picking Chu Ling might not have been a mistake. I saw people starting to ship you and her. They’re calling it ‘Overbearing CP.’”

　　Sheng Yi’s ears twitched, as if he had just caught something important.

　　The bassist sneered. “Come on, how would you even dare try a CP with Chu Ling?”

　　“What’s wrong with that?”

　　Sheng Yi answered without thinking, “As long as it brings attention, CP is CP, no matter who it’s with.”

　　Faced with the sharp gazes of the three on the other side of the camera, he quickly corrected himself. “I’m not telling you guys to ship us. It’s just a show, nothing real.”

　　Nothing real.

　　He and Chu Ling might not have any future beyond this.

　　The little interactions they had now could very well disappear once the show ended.

　　Not wanting anyone to notice his real feelings, Sheng Yi brushed it off with the excuse of chasing popularity. But after hanging up the call, he secretly went to search for the so-called “Overbearing CP”.

　　To his surprise, it really existed.

　　But since his original setup had been a disaster from the start, the Overbearing CP fans were only a tiny minority. They even got mocked, with people saying that shipping the Overbearing CP was like having freakish taste.

　　Sheng Yi: “..…”

　　Truly depressing.

　　Thinking that Chu Ling might see it the same way made him feel even sadder.

　　So that night, in the middle of the night, when Chu Ling was checking her incoming payments, she suddenly received a wave of negative emotions from Sheng Yi.

　　Chu Ling: “?”

　　What are you doing, man? Turning into a sad netizen already?

　　—

　　The one-on-one rooftop talk hadn’t gone well, leaving a lot of dating show viewers dissatisfied.

　　To salvage the slump, the production team quickly announced a new dating task.

　　This time, the drawing method was a little different.

　　【The girls will provide an item as a clue. The guys will choose from them, trying to guess the person behind it. Will you be able to find your destined other half through this?】

　　Chu Ling looked around for something.

　　She originally wanted to use her shark figurine. It was perfect and fitting.

　　But the staff shut her down. “It can’t be something that’s already been shown publicly on the show.”

　　Fair enough.

　　Technically, reusing anything already featured in the program would be like leaking the test answers.

　　Chu Ling thought to herself, but isn’t that exactly what you did when you slipped the test answers to Qin Shuo? Only the leading man is allowed to cheat, and the rest of us aren’t?

　　Anything that had been shown or even appeared on the show was off limits.

　　After searching for ages and not finding anything suitable, Chu Ling finally handed in a pair of butterfly earrings she had brought but never worn during filming. She left it to fate.

　　On the day of the date.

　　The male guests had to take the chosen item and find the female guest it belonged to. After that, they would decide together where to go on their date.

　　Chu Ling sat bored on a bench, waiting.

　　It was hot, but she still wore bright makeup and a colorful dress that made her stand out at first glance.

　　When the camera panned over, the barrage of comments exploded again with love-hate reactions.

　　【Chu Ling’s face really delivers. Can she just use her looks properly?】

　　【She could make a living off her face, but no, she has to keep running her mouth. Sigh.】

　　【Don’t you dare call Chu Jie’s mouth trashy. Without her, where would I get my daily dose of joy?】

　　Chu Ling thought to herself, see, that’s where you’re wrong.

　　Looks can feed you.

　　A sharp tongue can feed you even better.

　　Not long after, a car pulled up in front of her. The person stepped out, holding a box, and walked toward her.

　　When Chu Ling saw who it was, she raised a brow, clearly surprised. “Jiang Yicheng?”

　　Jiang Yicheng looked just as surprised to see her, though he quickly masked it. “So it’s you.”

　　“…How did you end up picking this?”

　　Chu Ling stood, straightforward as ever. “The person you wanted to pick wasn’t me, right?”

　　Jiang Yicheng and Gao Yan had been one of the more stable pairs since the start of the show. They were almost always grouped together, and everyone pretty much assumed they were a default couple by now.

　　Logically, people in that kind of steady arrangement should have some kind of secret signal between them.

　　Even if the rules banned using certain items, they could still find ways to hint to each other and turn a blind pick into a clear one.

　　“…Butterfly.”

　　Jiang Yicheng explained, “She has butterfly bones and likes butterfly motifs, so I thought it had to be hers.”

　　Chu Ling hadn’t expected the clash either. “…Sorry, wasn’t intentional.”

　　The comments section immediately broke into wails.

　　【Nooo! Chu Ling, stop tearing apart my CP again!】

　　【Is she running a demolition crew or what!!】

　　【Jiang Yicheng, now that you’ve run into Chu Ling, you better pray for yourself!!】

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