You Guys Wouldn’t Have Taken My Casual Acting Seriously, Right Chapter 50

The recorder was handed over to the production team.

Shen Fu didn’t sleep that night.

Not metaphorically, she genuinely stayed awake the entire night.

She didn’t ask Jiang Shu about it yet, because she still hadn’t gotten her phone back and didn’t know the full situation. If she asked rashly and the system had made a mistake, it would be unbearably embarrassing.

And she also had no way to explain how she knew about the payment during the phone-confiscation period.

That night, separated only by a low table, a cabinet, and a narrow aisle, Jiang Shu was sleeping on the other side.

Shen Fu tossed and turned.

Back during the magazine photoshoot, she had been able to calmly let him into her room and sleep beside him because she believed he had no feelings for her. That made everything straightforward.

But now, it felt as though a still lake inside her had been completely stirred up, ripples spreading everywhere.

It wasn’t exactly irritation.

It was more like stepping into a fog and feeling uneasy because she didn’t know the answer.

She pulled the blanket over her head until it completely covered her face, then quietly rolled over so she was facing Jiang Shu’s direction. After adjusting her position, she slowly lowered the blanket again until only her eyes were visible.

Then she saw moonlight spilling into the room, and Jiang Shu lying there coolly on his back… still wearing sunglasses.

Shen Fu: “…”

Afraid of waking Xu Tiaotiao beside her, Shen Fu even tried to make her breathing as quiet as possible.

But Jiang Shu suddenly asked softly, “What? Can’t sleep?”

“There aren’t even mosquitoes. Why are you suddenly having insomnia?”

“Did the other two breathing too loudly bother you?”

Without hesitation, Jiang Shu kicked Chu Wei beside him.

“Too noisy. Stop breathing.”

Chu Wei, jolted awake from his dream: “…”

Shen Fu asked, “Why are you still wearing sunglasses while sleeping?”

Jiang Shu turned over too, facing her, and said in a deep voice, “I’m afraid you’ll secretly stare at me at night.”

“…”

Shen Fu was speechless.

Why, exactly, had she fallen for this guy when she was younger?

Just awakened, Chu Wei listened to the conversation between the two of them: “…”

With the young master of the Jiang family acting like this, other than his face and family background, did he really have any other good qualities? It would be a miracle if Shen Fu actually liked him.

Shen Fu glared at Jiang Shu, then turned over and faced Xu Tiaotiao to sleep.

But after a bit of joking around, the turmoil in her heart was dispelled, and she quickly drifted into dreamland.

…

The next day, the production team’s activity was “A Day of Sightseeing by Bus.” They would take all the guests around to enjoy local food, making it a full day of relaxation. Although there were no game segments at all, as soon as the livestream started, viewers still poured in like crazy.

【D*mn, last night’s livestream ended so early. We didn’t even get to see what happened after the guests finished choosing their rooms! No idea what they recorded in those voice recordings either.】

【My blind guess for Shen Fu: “Thank you, production team, for giving me a chance to make money.”】

【The person above is killing me. Shen Fu herself, is that you?】

Because she was still preoccupied with what had happened yesterday, Shen Fu didn’t really pay attention to anything the production team said or whatever rules they announced.

The bus stopped outside the guesthouse.

The female guests boarded first, each choosing a window seat.

After the male guests got on, Jiang Shu had originally been among the later ones to board. But relying on his height and build, he forcibly squeezed past Chu Wei and Wen Zhenghan and proudly sat down beside Shen Fu.

Wearing sunglasses, he raised his dark brows, looking extremely pleased with himself.

【LMAO, the crown prince is afraid of his wife running away every second of every day.】

After sitting down, Jiang Shu started peeling the backing off a motion sickness patch for Shen Fu. Shen Fu couldn’t help glancing at him.

Jiang Shu: ?

Why had she been looking at him so much since last night? Had he suddenly become handsome enough to enter her heart?

Without saying a word, Shen Fu accepted the motion sickness patch and stuck it behind her neck.

Because of her speculation from the previous night, she felt somewhat awkward facing Jiang Shu now.

The system came online and said, “I looked up a few ways to determine whether someone likes you.”

Having learned from last night’s mistake, Shen Fu immediately kept her mouth shut and communicated with the system only in her mind.

Shen Fu: “Go on.”

“First, pretend to be asleep. If he likes you, he definitely won’t be able to resist moving your head onto his shoulder.”

“Where did you get that pure-hearted teenage-boy cliché from?” Shen Fu said dismissively. “Jiang Shu is missing a screw in his head. He wouldn’t think that much.”

Perhaps because he had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had always been heaven’s favored child, the Jiang Shu Shen Fu had known since her youth was someone who looked down on everyone else, arrogant, overbearing, and straightforward about taking whatever he wanted. In short, he was domineering and forceful, not the sort to be so roundabout and cautious like a boy nursing secret feelings.

“Just try it,” the system said. “It’s not like you’ll lose a piece of flesh.”

Shen Fu fell silent for a moment, then agreed.

Like the system said, rather than agonizing over it, she might as well test him.

As the bus moved forward, she rested her head against the window, closed her eyes, and pretended to doze.

Shen Fu was an excellent actress. There was absolutely no difference between her fake sleep and real sleep. Even when the bus jolted and her head lightly bumped against the glass, she didn’t open her eyes.

Just as Shen Fu was beginning to think the system’s advice was completely unreliable, 

She felt a long, cool hand gently move her head.

Shen Fu: “…”

Jiang Shu was carefully shifting his shoulder closer so she could lean on it. And to make her more comfortable, he even deliberately raised a hand to gently pull down the curtain over the window.

Unable to resist, Shen Fu secretly opened one eye and glanced at the person beside her.

Jiang Shu wore his sunglasses and maintained a cool, expressionless façade, but his handsome face was red all the way down to the base of his neck.

The system: “Ahhhh, I’m shipping them so hard!”

Shen Fu: “…Enough already. Why are you stirring things up?”

Even Shen Fu herself was slightly stunned.

He would actually do something like this?

The gazes of the other men on the bus were practically piercing straight through the two of them.

But the film crew was still at the back of the bus. There was no way they could unbuckle their seatbelts, stand up from a moving vehicle, and drag Shen Fu away right in front of the audience.

Ignoring safety regulations would probably get them scolded into trending on social media.

The men all waited for Shen Fu to wake up and shove Jiang Shu away.

Yet until they got off the bus, Shen Fu never “woke up.”

“…”

Needless to say, the barrage of comments exploded with screams.

【Holy cr*p, holy cr*p! I feel like Shen Fu wasn’t asleep at all. She opened her eyes just now, but the crown prince didn’t see it!】

【What’s going on? Are these two secretly-in-love idiots testing each other?】

Shen Fu no longer had the energy to care what the viewers thought.

Right now, she only wanted to figure out what exactly was going on inside Jiang Shu’s head.

Could it really be that he had simply been oblivious when they were younger, and only gradually developed feelings for her after joining the show?

Although she would indeed feel disappointed if, back then, she had been the only one experiencing those strange emotions, as though it had all been a story belonging solely to herself, it wasn’t too late if he had finally realized his feelings now.

The bus drove for a full half hour. By the time they got off, Shen Fu’s neck had gone stiff.

Feeling guilty like a thief, Jiang Shu shoved both hands into his pockets and looked elsewhere. When he noticed Shen Fu still staring at him, he became embarrassed and angry. “You just had to lean on this young master’s shoulder. Look, there’s even drool on it!”

Shen Fu: “…”

The comments exploded:

【Crown Prince, the fact that you still have a wife is truly heaven’s blessing!】

The system spoke again.

“When someone likes another person, they’ll unconsciously learn that person’s preferences. Why don’t you try testing him at the ice cream stand?”

While Shen Fu thought the system was absolutely the type to enjoy watching chaos unfold, she still followed its suggestion despite her verbal resistance.

As they passed an ice cream stand, she unconsciously glanced in that direction.

Then, when they arrived at the next sightseeing spot, Jiang Shu actually came back with several ice creams and handed them out to the production staff and to her.

Shen Fu: “…”

The comments:【AHHHHHH I’m shipping them so hard! He loves her so much! She loves him so much!】

The system: “AHHHHH!”

Shen Fu: “Shut up. Have you finished your homework? You’re so noisy.”

When the livestream comments screamed, that was one thing. Shen Fu would only glance at them after the show ended, so she never really felt much.

But now the system was screaming directly inside her head. It screamed so much that even someone as calm as Shen Fu started unconsciously feeling her face heat up.

Her heartbeat also gradually sped up.

What was wrong with Jiang Shu? Was his intermittent insanity acting up again?

The system said, “Try one last trick. Praise someone else and see if he gets jealous.”

Shen Fu didn’t want to keep testing him.

She looked at the ice cream in her hand. It was, astonishingly, exactly her favorite mango flavor. Then she looked up at Jiang Shu.

He wore gold-framed sunglasses. Sunlight fell across his high nose bridge, seeming to dance there.

It had to be said that a person’s aesthetic preferences didn’t change easily. Back when she was young, Shen Fu had fallen for a sharp-edged, domineering boy. Now, facing the man before her, who, aside from being taller, had barely changed at all, her heart still couldn’t help but ripple.

Actually, summoning the courage to clarify some questions wasn’t that difficult.

Being hurt at eighteen was something that belonged to when she was eighteen.

If she got hurt again this time, Shen Fu believed she would be able to face it calmly and with a smile.

She was no longer the fragile girl she had been in her youth.

“Let’s test him directly,” Shen Fu said decisively.

Testing Jiang Shu’s feelings for the sake of completing a mission was one thing. Clarifying his feelings because she wanted to know was another. Since the mission had already been completed, checking his affection value now wasn’t underhanded.

The system asked, “You’ve decided?”

Shen Fu: “Yes.”

Whether she lived or died, she had to get an answer.

Shen Fu was already very familiar with how to check someone’s affection level.

The group from the show had reached a park area. Up ahead, the filming crew was recording Xiang Lingyun and Xu Tiaotiao competing in a shooting game.

While the production team and the other guests weren’t paying attention, Shen Fu deliberately slowed her pace. Jiang Shu, walking beside her, unconsciously slowed down as well.

The two of them instantly fell behind the rest.

Because they were outdoors, the production team could only use follow cameras and couldn’t set up fixed camera positions like in the villa.

The viewers searched around for the pair before realizing they had fallen some distance behind the others.

【D*mn, what’s going on? How did those two end up alone together?】

“Are you thirsty? Do you want something to dri…” Jiang Shu hadn’t even finished speaking.

Shen Fu suddenly stepped closer to him.

Jiang Shu: “…” W-Why did she suddenly come so close? And why was she staring at him?

Then Shen Fu expressionlessly grabbed his hand.

There was still a cameraman behind them, but Shen Fu couldn’t be bothered to care anymore.

【AHHHHHHHH DID I SEE THAT RIGHT?! That’s not some camera-angle illusion, right?! Why are they suddenly holding hands behind the other guests’ backs??? And it looks like Shen Fu took the initiative?!】

【Did something happen last night that we don’t know about?】

Not only were the viewers screaming, even Jiang Shu was stunned.

Flattered and overwhelmed, he immediately lowered his eyes to look at Shen Fu.

Even his sunglasses couldn’t hide his shyness. “What’s wrong?”

But Shen Fu didn’t answer.

She froze.

…She discovered that, on her side, the Love Affection Meter showed absolutely no reaction at all.

Previously, whenever she measured someone whose affection for her had reached its peak, a red fluctuating value would immediately appear before her eyes and rise in various patterns until it reached 100.

Wen Zhenghan’s had risen steadily.

Xiang Lingyun’s had shot straight to the top the moment she acted vulnerable.

As for Chu Wei, it had probably been love at first sight; his value had been high from the beginning.

Even people who weren’t mission targets but might develop romantic feelings for Shen Fu would still show single-digit values or scores in the teens or twenties.

In other words, even if she tested the director right now, as long as he didn’t dislike her, the value might still be five or six.

Yet at this moment, Jiang Shu’s romantic affection line didn’t even appear.

Not only was Shen Fu stunned, even the system was dumbfounded. “What’s going on?”

Shen Fu stiffly asked, “Could your machine be broken?”

“How is that possible?” the system said. “The machine can’t be broken.”

“Then why?” Shen Fu asked with some difficulty.

Yes. The machine couldn’t be broken. So where was the problem?

Even if Jiang Shu didn’t like her that much, there should at least be a value in the teens or twenties, right?

The system said, “…Under normal circumstances, the explanation for this is… familial affection. Because this machine specifically measures romantic love. It can’t detect other kinds of feelings. Don’t panic. I’ll go back to headquarters and ask my teacher first.”

Shen Fu: “…”

Shen Fu calmly released Jiang Shu’s hand and looked up at him.

Remaining calm was impossible.

Peacefully accepting it was also impossible.

“You little b*stard,” Shen Fu snapped angrily.

Jiang Shu: ?

He had just been holding her hand and hadn’t even had time to feel shy before she suddenly cursed at him.

What was going on?

The viewers hadn’t even finished screaming before they collectively froze.

【?】

Had they somehow skipped straight to a breakup fight before even starting a relationship?

Author’s Note:

Drinking next chapter. See you tomorrow.

Jiang Shu: She’s allowed to force herself on me, but I’m not allowed to force myself back? I want to take the initiative too!

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