“Umm… Garbled-Username Guy, do you think what you’re saying even sounds reasonable?”
“??? If Shen Fu had really confessed to him, would the Young Master be over here tossing and turning, crying and wanting to jump off buildings? They’d probably already have two kids by now!”
“The person above, although it was dark, I could see clearly. The Young Master was not crying, thank you very much. Also, isn’t he only twenty-four? The legal marriage age for men is twenty-two. Unless they had children before marriage.”
“Uh, is that really the important part right now? The important thing is that this rumor from Garbled-Username Guy sounds even less believable than that melodramatic web-novel scenario from earlier.”
4525245 had only come to share the gossip his senior brother had told him.
To be honest, he himself thought there was an eighty-percent chance his senior brother had gotten the story wrong.
But the moment he posted it, everyone immediately started arguing against him.
And he was beginning to get annoyed too.
4525245: 【Believe it or not, suit yourselves. Go ask around yourselves then.】
The crowd, who had been full of anticipation, immediately left disappointed. They had thought that Big Brother Gibberish might be some hidden master sweeping the floors, someone who actually knew something.
But thinking about it, that made sense too. Unless you were someone close to Jiang Shu or Shen Fu, how could people from outside their circle possibly know about their old history?
If it were that easy to find out, would the Jiang family still be so mysterious?
【Sigh, this feeling of having expectations for days only for them to suddenly collapse is awful.】
【Everyone disperse.】
…
Meanwhile…
As soon as Shen Fu returned to her room, the system came online.
“The livestream wasn’t turned off just now.”
Shen Fu: “…”
For a moment, Shen Fu felt as though a storm had swept through her mind. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? What were you doing just now?”
The system was too embarrassed to admit it had also been watching the drama unfold. It chuckled awkwardly.
“Anyway, the one suffering social death is Jiang Shu, not you.”
Shen Fu thought about it and actually found the logic convincing. “True.”
She immediately calmed down, sat on the bed, opened the bread bag, and started eating.
System: “…”
“But what exactly happened? Someone on the forum said you confessed to Jiang Shu before and got rejected. Is that true?” The system had been curious about this for a long time.
Shen Fu paused briefly.
The system continued, “Even though everyone on the forum thinks it’s a rumor, I always felt something was off.”
Shen Fu continued eating her bread leisurely, ignoring it.
Seeing that she had no intention of speaking, the system protested:
“No way! Think about how many years I’ve been with you! You won’t even tell me? How heartless can you be? If I don’t find out now, I won’t be able to sleep tonight, and if I can’t sleep, tomorrow’s exam….”
“How am I supposed to explain it?” Shen Fu said irritably. “It’s exactly like what the forum said.”
“Huh?” The system blinked. “Which part of what the forum said?”
Shen Fu put down the bread. “It’s a long story.”
“Can’t you make a long story short?”
After spending three years in the Jiang household, Shen Fu had initially entered the family feeling awkward and restrained. Forced by Old Master Jiang to keep Jiang Shu in line, the two of them were constantly at odds, often causing complete chaos whenever they interacted.
But after living together for three full years, Jiang Shu had often been kind to her as well.
Aside from the incident on the memorial day, no matter what happened at school, Jiang Shu was always the one who handled it for her. Birthdays, hospital visits, times when she had no friends, it was Jiang Shu who stayed by her side.
Gradually, Jiang Shu’s friends became her friends.
Gradually, Jiang Shu’s world merged into hers.
“When I was feeling down, he’d either drag me into playing board games, or gather a few friends to dress up as ghosts and scare me. One time he suddenly took me onto one of the Jiang family’s ships. Anyway, he did all sorts of weird things. Of course, I knew his real purpose was to get me to do his homework and cover for him in front of the old master.”
“In those circumstances, it would’ve been difficult not to develop some affection for him.” Shen Fu couldn’t help defending herself. She lowered her voice and added, “Besides, that guy really is good-looking.”
Even after entering the entertainment industry and being surrounded by handsome men and beautiful women, she still had to admit that Jiang Shu surpassed all of them.
It wasn’t really a secret crush.
Back then, Shen Fu hadn’t met the system yet. Her entire focus was on the hospital.
Jiang Shu was merely a place where she could catch her breath, a patch of sunlight she could stand in.
Without Jiang Shu, the Shen Fu of that time really would have molded away.
But Jiang Shu hadn’t awakened to those feelings then.
Or perhaps he simply had never viewed her as a woman.
The system asked, “Then why did you leave the Jiang family afterward?”
Shen Fu said, “Before the college entrance exam, my deskmate discovered my secret.”
She had hidden her feelings very carefully. Afraid Jiang Shu would notice, she never kept a diary, never talked about him with anyone, and even pretended not to know him at school.
But one day, her deskmate said in confusion: “That’s strange. I’ve noticed that every time Wang Xuanheng and his group walk past the classroom window, your pen stops moving.”
Shen Fu’s heart nearly leaped out of her chest.
Looking back now, she had already forgotten what that male deskmate looked like. But for the seventeen- or eighteen-year-old Shen Fu back then, it felt as though the sky had collapsed. Every time her deskmate teased her about it, she became anxious and angry, terrified that Jiang Shu and his friends would find out.
She even started worrying about what would happen if Old Master Jiang learned about it.
“Old Master Jiang was always very kind to me, but he had this imposing aura that commanded respect without needing to get angry. Even Jiang Shu was afraid of him, so you can imagine how I felt.”
The system was shocked. “So Old Master Jiang was the one who made you leave the Jiang family?”
“No.” Shen Fu shook her head. “When I decided to leave, Old Master Jiang actually tried to persuade me to stay.”
The trigger was her birthday after the college entrance exam.
That day, Jiang Shu brought a lot of people to celebrate with her.
“I only drank a tiny glass of alcohol,” Shen Fu said awkwardly. “I didn’t even know it contained alcohol.”
“Before my birthday, that deskmate jokingly made a bet with me. He said that if I worked up the courage to confess, he’d give me a hundred thousand yuan.”
The system didn’t believe Shen Fu would do something so risky just for one hundred thousand yuan. She had always been cautious. And although she loved money, she would never hurt the people closest to her for it.
“Of course I didn’t agree. I just thought it was stupid.”
“But the problem is that after I got drunk, I did something to Jiang Shu.”
The system asked, “You pushed him down?”
For the first time, Shen Fu’s usually expressionless face flushed with embarrassment.
She immediately burrowed under the blankets and covered her head. “Something like that.”
She had shoved Jiang Shu, pinned him onto the sofa, twisted his arms behind him, knelt on top of him, and kissed him by force in front of everyone.
Even now, Shen Fu didn’t know how she had managed to do something so outrageous.
Yet she had done it.
Maybe the alcohol had clouded her mind.
Maybe it was something she had always secretly wanted to do, and when her rationality disconnected, her body acted on its own.
Or perhaps it was the atmosphere of that day.
After her family’s accident, it had been the most perfect birthday she had ever had.
Before meeting Jiang Shu, she had thought nobody would ever celebrate her birthday like that again.
The system asked, “How did it feel?”
Although Shen Fu had been drunk, she could still see clearly. It was just that her field of vision seemed to have turned into a magnifying glass. All she could see was Jiang Shu’s expression right in front of her. All she could hear was his breathing falling against her face. All she could smell was the faint scent of the same brand of body wash she used lingering on him.
He was family.
Her only friend.
And the person she kept hidden in her heart.
Jiang Shu’s face had been very red. Extremely red.
She didn’t know whether it was from embarrassment and anger.
But with Shen Fu’s mind reduced to a blur of static, all her attention had been focused on her own feelings.
She only felt her lips touching the boy’s.
Cool and soft.
No, not actually that soft.
Anyway, it was an indescribable feeling, embarrassing, burning hot, intoxicating.
Dizzying.
Everyone else and the ceiling seemed to twist together and rapidly drift away until they all became part of the ceiling.
In her eyes, there was only him.
The system suddenly interrupted: “Alright, stop thinking. I’m still underage.”
Shen Fu: “…”
The system asked, “Then why didn’t he resist?”
Shen Fu abruptly snapped out of her memories and shuddered.
Right.
Why hadn’t Jiang Shu resisted?
She clearly remembered that he hadn’t drunk a single drop that night. He’d been perfectly sober. He was already well over 180 centimeters tall in high school. Was he really not strong enough to fight her off?
Shen Fu suddenly became angry. “Then he’s being a hypocrite! He enjoyed it and still acted unhappy afterward!”
System: “…”
The next day, after sobering up, Shen Fu couldn’t remember everything because she had blacked out from drinking, but she could vaguely recall what she’d done. The moment she remembered, she was terrified. Anxious and nervous, she hid in her room for most of the day, not daring to come out.
When she finally did, she met Jiang Shu’s cold gaze.
It wasn’t her imagination.
Because for an entire week afterward, Jiang Shu didn’t speak to her.
No matter how slow Shen Fu might be, she could understand what that meant.
A silent rejection.
And besides, she wasn’t actually slow.
Back then, she was so sensitive that if she peeled open a piece of candy and became afraid before even seeing what was inside, she’d immediately run away.
“I’d just turned eighteen and gotten back the savings my parents left me. A talent scout had been contacting me for over half a year. I thought I was capable of supporting myself now, and staying at the Jiang family as a parasite forever wasn’t a solution.”
“So I went to say goodbye to Old Master Jiang, packed my things, and left.”
She had left in an extremely awkward manner.
Even now, thinking back on it felt awkward.
Old Master Jiang had kindly taken her in, paid enormous medical expenses for her, and driven away relatives who wanted to steal her money.
And what had she done?
In a moment of impulse, she’d stolen his grandson’s first kiss.
What kind of repayment was that?
Old Master Jiang had asked why she wanted to leave.
How could she possibly tell him?
Jiang Shu hated her.
For years afterward, that was what Shen Fu believed.
When the system later told her that the fourth target she needed to pursue was Jiang Shu, only one thought crossed her mind:
Impossible.
Besides, she had no desire to repeat history.
Making a fool of herself once was bad enough.
Doing it a second time was absolutely out of the question.
If Shen Fu had never developed those feelings for Jiang Shu in her youth, then embarrassing herself in front of him wouldn’t have mattered. Just like with the other targets, no matter what she was asked to do, she could do it with a straight face.
But precisely because she had once cared about him in secret, she cared all the more about her dignity now.
She didn’t care what people online said.
She didn’t care how her fans viewed her.
She didn’t care what Chu Wei and the others thought.
But she absolutely did not want to lose to Jiang Shu a second time.
There was only one thing she couldn’t understand.
Back when she was eighteen, she’d gone so far as to forcibly kiss Jiang Shu.
So when they had been asked a few days ago to choose “who has feelings for you,” why hadn’t Jiang Shu thought she liked him?
Since reuniting, the two of them had tacitly avoided mentioning that awkward incident from years ago.
Shen Fu assumed Jiang Shu was pretending to have forgotten it so she wouldn’t feel embarrassed.
“Anyway, it’s so annoying.” Shen Fu buried herself under the blanket and ruffled her hair. “Can’t I switch to another target?”
The system replied, “There’s only a month and a half left. How could there possibly be time to switch?”
Shen Fu said, “Then all I can do is keep saving money.”
The system said, “But from what I’ve seen since your reunion, he seems to care about you a lot.”
Shen Fu wasn’t so oblivious that she couldn’t tell.
She also found Jiang Shu’s current attitude baffling.
At first, during the mutual selection on the Spring Date, she’d thought he chose her out of consideration for their past friendship, afraid she’d end up with no partner and lose face.
Later, on the night he brought her coffee, even though she still had no idea what Jiang Shu was really thinking, she couldn’t help explaining that she had only teamed up with Wen Zhenghan for the points.
Then she saw that photo on Kuang Yueyi’s phone, the one of Jiang Shu taking her to the hospital.
And then there was his bizarre behavior on the windowsill tonight.
“But what if I’m misunderstanding again?”
During those three years at the Jiang household, there had been several times when Shen Fu thought Jiang Shu liked her.
But later, the facts seemed to prove that he had only been kind to her out of sympathy for what had happened to her family.
Shen Fu would never allow herself to end up in such an embarrassing situation again.
If someone accidentally fell into a river the first time, it might just be bad luck.
But if they stepped into the same river a second time, that was stupidity.
…
Wang Xuanheng had also been dragged out of bed by a phone call from the Jiang family and rushed off to deal with the late-night disaster.
The entire world was sleepless tonight.
Only Jiang Shu slept soundly.
Having used a small trick to confirm that Shen Fu’s ideal type wasn’t someone like Xiang Lingyun, Jiang Shu felt rather pleased with himself.
He thought he was quite skilled.
He was practically smiling in his dreams.
The next morning, he greeted the director proactively, looking refreshed and full of energy.
The director and the entire production staff, all sporting dark circles under their eyes, watched as the young master calmly ate breakfast as though nothing had happened, even occupying enough space for two people by himself.
The livestream comments were howling:【What is going on? Last night I saw some content creators upload videos. Why are they gone now?】
Overnight, every content creator who had recorded videos had deleted them.
And when people asked why, none of them answered.
There was no longer any trace of the “Jiang Shu Jumping Off a Building Incident” anywhere on the internet.
For a while, the viewers who had watched it the previous night seriously began to wonder whether they had sleepwalked through the whole thing.
Some viewers who had no idea what had happened were saying:
【LOL, are you guys messing with us? The Crown Prince is usually so arrogant. How could he possibly do the things you’re describing? No pictures, no proof.】
Most of Xiang Lingyun’s fans hadn’t seen what happened the night before either, and they all sneered:
【The Shen Fu–Jiang Shu shippers are getting ridiculous. Now they’re inventing rumors just to create shipping content.】
【And they’re saying our Ge got slapped in the face? What slap? Our Ge is probably the only person who doesn’t care about Shen Fu anymore. So what if Shen Fu said her ideal type isn’t someone like our Ge? What does that have to do with him? He doesn’t care at all, okay?】
The livestream comments were a complete mess.
Because all the videos from the previous night had disappeared, viewers couldn’t help paying even more attention today to the interactions between Shen Fu and Jiang Shu.
Shen Fu stayed in her room until 10:30 a.m., only coming out after the production team announced the start of the fourth date segment.
Other than Zuo Mei, who was taking longer with makeup, everyone else was already waiting in the living room.
Jiang Shu was sitting on the terrace where he had a clear view of the rooms. Wearing sunglasses, crossing his legs, and holding a magazine, he pretended to read.
The moment he noticed movement from the room area, he immediately went to the kitchen and poured a glass of milk.
Shen Fu walked through the hallway into the living room.
Jiang Shu suddenly appeared in front of her. “I poured an extra glass.”
The moment Shen Fu saw him, she immediately remembered what had happened the previous night.
Shen Fu: “.”
“So I’m a garbage can now? You poured too much, so I have to drink it?”
Shen Fu walked right past him.
The comments exploded:
【Holy cr*p holy cr*p holy cr*p holy cr*p.】
【The Crown Prince is on the offensive. He’s not even pretending anymore, is he?】
Meanwhile, Xiang Lingyun, sitting on the sofa, couldn’t help casting a cold glance in their direction.
If there hadn’t still been a full glass of red wine sitting beside his bed when he woke up, he would have thought the previous night had been a dream too.
A man being told to his face that he wasn’t someone’s ideal type…
How was that any different from deliberately humiliating him?
Jiang Shu had done it on purpose.
He must have known Xiang Lingyun was coming out to pour a drink and would pass by at exactly that moment, so he forced Shen Fu to admit it.
All at once, old and new grudges surged into Xiang Lingyun’s mind: his car being crushed, his public image being stolen, his inability to wear sunglasses anymore, and being mocked for having small eyes.
Before last night, Xiang Lingyun had merely been watching from the sidelines.
But after being humiliated by Jiang Shu like that, he could no longer stay out of this war.
His eyes really weren’t small.
Watching Shen Fu walk right past Jiang Shu without even sparing him a glance, Xiang Lingyun began comparing himself and Jiang Shu in Shen Fu’s heart.
Since joining the show, Shen Fu hadn’t shown any lingering feelings toward him from the past.
But she hadn’t shown any affection toward Jiang Shu either, had she?
So what gave Jiang Shu the confidence to think he was ahead?
If someone doesn’t like a person at first sight, they’re unlikely to develop feelings later.
If Shen Fu were going to fall for Jiang Shu, she would have started doing so on the very first day of the show.
It wouldn’t be the case that the program was already nearly halfway over and she still ignored him.
On the contrary, if someone had liked a person in the past, they were very likely to repeat the same mistake later.
Which meant that his chances of success were far higher than Jiang Shu’s.
In this segment, he absolutely had to find a way to get a date with Shen Fu.
Once all the guests had gathered, the production team announced:
“The Spring Limited Photoshoot segment officially begins.”
“Step one: groups will be determined through a blindfolded selection process.”
“The female guests will choose the male guests. Please have all female guests follow the staff into the room first.”
Shen Fu and the other three women followed the staff into a room.
Soon, someone came over and tied black cloth blindfolds over their eyes.
The comments went wild:
【Holy cr*p, this is exciting. Are they seriously going to feel up the men while blindfolded?】
【What if they accidentally touch somewhere they’re not supposed to?】
Xu Tiaotiao was wondering the same thing.
Her earlobes couldn’t help turning slightly red.
“What are all these dirty-minded comments thinking?” the director complained, then had the staff add another rule:
“We’ll guide the female guests. They may only touch hands or faces.”
【Tsk, the production team has no guts.】
The blindfolds were tied very securely.
Shen Fu felt the knot behind her head and realized that her vision was completely black.
Even darker than nighttime.
She couldn’t see a thing.
As she reached out a hand, a staff member quickly supported her.
The other three female guests were treated the same way.
Gu Qingshuang couldn’t help feeling nervous.
“Are we really not going to trip and fall like this?”
“Don’t worry, Teacher Gu. Just follow us.”
According to the drawing order, Xu Tiaotiao was called out first.
The staff guided her to feel each male guest one by one.
When she reached Jiang Shu, he calmly used a sofa blanket to wrap around the hand she extended toward him and redirected it onto Xiang Lingyun instead.
The comments were dying of laughter:
【HAHAHAHAHAHA】
【D: Ptooey! Don’t you dare ruin my purity!】
Unable to see anything, Xu Tiaotiao assumed she had accidentally touched a sofa or something.
So she naturally continued feeling what was actually Xiang Lingyun’s hand.
“I’ll choose this one.”
Honestly, she couldn’t really tell the difference.
Weren’t all men’s hands just ten fingers anyway?
The comments exploded:
【AHHHH, I’m shipping this! Xu Tiaotiao remembered Xiang Lingyun’s hand!】
The production team asked: “Are you sure?”
Although Xu Tiaotiao was still a little hesitant, she worried that taking too long might make viewers impatient, so she casually replied: “I’m sure.”
【She’s so decisive!】
After making her choice, Xu Tiaotiao was led away.
Xiang Lingyun remained in the living room, standing in a line with the other male guests and waiting for the next female guest to make her selection.
The production team explained: “During this round of dates, it’s possible that multiple female guests may choose the same male guest. If that happens, that male guest will need to participate in photoshoots with multiple female guests.”
In other words, it was also possible for someone to end up without a partner?
Even Chu Wei, who hadn’t been nervous before, suddenly became nervous.
He finally took off the hood he had been wearing.
The swelling on his face had already gone down.
【D*mn, my Ge’s new hairstyle!】
The comments quickly noticed he had changed his hairstyle.
【Why does his new hairstyle look a bit like D’s? Coincidence?】
【Chu Wei is pretty brave. Isn’t he afraid of being an inferior imitation and getting completely overshadowed? In fact, he’s already been crushed.】
Chu Wei’s fans immediately started cursing people out:
【The Best Actor’s fans are being obnoxious again, huh?】
The second person called out was Shen Fu.
A staff member slowly guided her over.
Normally, the female guests would feel from left to right.
【D isn’t at an advantage. He’s fourth.】
Chu Wei thought the same thing.
He was standing first from the left.
All he needed to do was stand on his tiptoes slightly, making Shen Fu think he was Jiang Shu, and she could successfully choose him instead.
As Shen Fu drew closer and closer…
This was the closest she had been to him.
Maybe if he carefully prepared a date, he could make her change her mind?
Chu Wei’s heart was practically in his throat.
Then suddenly, he felt a strange force dragging him backward.
Jiang Shu had taken his place.
Chu Wei: “…”
Jiang, you son of a, did you hear me?!
He couldn’t say anything aloud, and it was already too late to squeeze back into position.
Chu Wei could only watch helplessly as Jiang Shu stood in his spot, ready to receive Shen Fu’s hand.
But Shen Fu stopped.
After thinking for a moment, she said to the staff: “I’d like to start from the far right.”
Then she changed direction, passed by Wen Zhenghan in the middle, and headed toward the far right.
Jiang Shu, who had already moved to the far left: “…”
When Shen Fu entered the room earlier, she had secretly peeked.
Based on the male guests’ positions, Jiang Shu should have been standing on the far right.
A magazine photoshoot would definitely involve physical closeness.
Compared to the other three men, awkward as it might be, she’d still rather choose Jiang Shu.
Before Jiang Shu could pull another stunt and switch positions again, the person currently standing on the far right, Xiang Lingyun, had already stepped forward and grabbed Shen Fu’s hand.
The comments couldn’t help mocking him:【When Xu Tiaotiao came over earlier, he wasn’t nearly this enthusiastic.】
Shen Fu felt the person’s hand.
Jiang Shu?
Why didn’t it seem like him?
Using his peripheral vision, Xiang Lingyun glanced at Jiang Shu’s ugly expression and couldn’t help curling his lips into a smile.
This was what it meant to lift a rock only to drop it on your own foot.
Young Master Jiang was the perfect example.
But before Shen Fu could officially choose him,
Jiang Shu charged over and yanked Shen Fu’s hand away from his.
With a heartbroken expression, Jiang Shu exclaimed:
“Shen Fu, you’ve got the wrong person! This is the cleaning lady!”
Xiang Lingyun: “…”
Shen Fu: “…”
Comments:【……】
