I Swear I Don’t Want to Be Everyone’s Favorite - Chapter 15

Yu Qing’s focus kept shifting, but in the end, he didn’t voice his question.

If Jiang Luoyue and Fu Yunqing had a good relationship, it would be convenient for the company to promote their CP. If their relationship was strained, it would align with the show’s title, Hate Me. From an optimistic perspective, it was a win-win situation either way.

Yu Qing closed his eyes peacefully, deciding to trust Jiang Luoyue’s ability to handle people and situations, and to refrain from prying into her private life.

This time, the production team didn’t provide a specific location. As soon as the two landed, they were greeted by a dedicated pick-up service.

Yu Qing had previously speculated that the guests might be returning to a rural setting. Sure enough, as the vehicle sped along, the urban buildings outside the window gradually disappeared, replaced by towering, perilous mountain gorges.

At the same time, Hate Me finally released the keywords for this episode on its official blog.

【#Passion# #Survival# #Humanity#!】

Immediately, viewers flocked to criticize.

【It’s been half a month, and you’re still hiding the guest stars? If you bring in another Zhao Mei, you can expect refund requests from minors!】

【With so few guests, you’re suddenly talking about humanity?】

However, many fans began speculating about the tasks for this episode, assuming they would involve the usual staples of rural programs: farming, animal husbandry, cooking, and the like.

Some lamented how boring it sounded, while others had wild ideas:

【I remember a foreign wilderness survival show that was filmed in Y Province. If the second episode involves guests grouping up for wilderness survival, it would not only be entertaining but also tie in with the show’s title. What a punchline!】

【No offense, just curious: How exactly do you see wilderness survival connecting to Hate Me?】

【If teams compete for resources and fight for survival, wouldn’t they grow to resent each other more and more?】

Many casual viewers were convinced and generously clicked the like button.

But everyone was just having fun, as it was common knowledge that wilderness survival shows place high demands on guests. environmental knowledge, survival skills. None of the Hate Me guests were proficient in these areas.

Until the live stream started on time.

【Open the door!】 The barrage of comments lasted less than two seconds before being replaced by a flood of question marks.

【Where is this?】

【What happened to farming? The village? The villagers? The wild mushrooms?】

The sky-reaching trees formed a dense canopy, their intertwined branches and leaves creating a natural green tapestry that unfolded before everyone’s eyes as the perspective shifted. Vines coiled around the tree trunks, and as the camera zoomed in, a chameleon could be seen crawling past before disappearing into the foliage.

Bird calls echoed incessantly through the forest, only to abruptly cease both cruel and beautiful revealing an entire tropical rainforest.

The first to arrive was Xiang Fan. Even before ascending the mountain, she had guessed the filming content. But unlike the audience, who only cared about the show’s format, her focus was uniquely peculiar: “How long did it take to set up all these cameras?”

Her tone was familiar, as if she weren’t there to film a variety show but to inspect the work as a supervisor.

The director replied, “First, seven days. Second, please return to your designated position as a guest.”

Satisfied with the answer, Xiang Fan went off to examine the camera models, seemingly considering similar setups for her next film.

Soon, Yu Jingtang arrived. She glanced at the complex surroundings and frowned.

Ning Fuguang followed closely behind, frequently looking back toward the foot of the mountain as he observed the sky.

Xiang Fan raised an eyebrow. “Speaking of which, why haven’t Jiang Luoyue and Fu Yunqing arrived yet? Weren’t they filming together?”

No one answered her, and they even turned their faces away, as if unwilling to hear her voice.

Xiang Fan narrowed her eyes, particularly satisfied with their resistance.

Just as she was about to change the subject, Fu Yunqing’s indignant voice reached her ears from a distance: “What kind of place did they pick? Are there bears here? I don’t want to be mauled to death by a bear.”

A helpless female voice reassured her: “There are no bears. Even if there were, they wouldn’t bite you.”

“You might as well have just said the first part!”

While Fu Yunqing bickered with herself, the two of them stepped into the camera frame.

Perhaps all five guests had guessed that this episode would involve a rural setting, as they were dressed in shirts and trousers, comfortable yet protective.

But!

Looking at Fu Yunqing, wrapped in a white coat like a polar bear descending upon the world, Xiang Fan’s lips twitched, and she couldn’t hold back her remark: “Did you just get back from the Arctic?”

Fu Yunqing: “I don’t argue with fools.”

She didn’t even have the energy to retort, only wanting to curse the production team a hundred times over.

Before coming, Fu Yunqing had specifically checked the weather in Y Province. Discovering that it had been raining for days with extremely low temperatures, she carefully selected the warmest and best-fitting outfit from her wardrobe.

Who would have thought that the damned production team would go back to basics to such an extent, causing her clothes to get splattered with mud along the way.

Fu Yunqing’s attention finally shifted, allowing Jiang Luoyue to breathe a sigh of relief.

She casually rubbed her ears, marveling that if Fu Yunqing ever decided to quit acting, she could directly transition to becoming a singer, her voice was pleasant, her pitch high, and her vocal range clearly broad.

She seemed so hard to approach, yet once she started talking, she chattered like a little bird.

While Jiang Luoyue was puzzling over this, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Yu Jingtang approaching her.

“Jingtang.”

With the comparison, Jiang Luoyue suddenly understood the appeal of being less talkative. She smiled and greeted her. Yu Jingtang nodded and asked, “You two are close.”

It wasn’t a question but a statement.

Jiang Luoyue glanced at Fu Yunqing: “We just acted in a drama together.”

“Oh.” Yu Jingtang nodded, but her gaze didn’t shift away, quietly lingering on Jiang Luoyue’s face as if lost in thought.

Jiang Luoyue hesitantly touched her right cheek: “Is there something dirty on my face?”

“Not on your face, but beside you,” Ning Fuguang interjected, repeating, “Long time no see.”

“President Ning.” Seeing Ning Fuguang, Jiang Luoyue recalled her own unfounded suspicions earlier and guiltily leaned slightly closer to Yu Jingtang.

This scene caught Ning Fuguang’s eye, and she narrowed her gaze, displeased, as she looked at Yu Jingtang.

Yu Jingtang suddenly said, “She’s right.”

“Not on your face, but beside you.”

Jiang Luoyue, with Ning Fuguang on her left and Yu Jingtang on her right:

Forgive her, but this was her first time witnessing such a scene.

Were they insulting each other? Over her?

Jiang Luoyue didn’t quite understand the reason, but to ease the tension, she awkwardly changed the subject: “Are there no guest stars for this episode?”

“None!” the director declared firmly. “Due to the loopholes in the first episode’s rules, which gave all our guests a poor experience, the entire team has reflected and decided to make the second episode a surprise gift for everyone.”

The guests, looking up at the rainforest and feeling doomed for the next few days: “…”

Fu Yunqing laughed in frustration: “A surprise? More like a shock.”

Ignoring her, the director announced the rules for this round.

Just as the netizens had guessed, in the second episode, all the guests were dropped into this tropical rainforest, where they would need to survive for three days and two nights. During this time, they were strictly prohibited from carrying any water or food.

Each guest would be equipped with the most basic survival kit and rewarded with one opportunity to independently choose a survival tool. Additionally, every six hours, the program team would release time-limited tasks, allowing the guests to obtain more practical tools or clothing.

Each of them had the right to unconditionally abandon the mission.

When the time was up, or if a guest found the resource pack hidden by the program team, the game would automatically end. At that point, the netizens would vote to select the winner based on everyone’s performance.

Fu Yunqing asked distrustfully, “Does ‘unconditionally abandon’ mean I can give up right now without any consequences?”

“Repeating the abandonment request will be considered as you forfeiting the game.”

Fu Yunqing reluctantly nodded.

Being able to give up made the difficulty much lower. If she couldn’t handle it, she could simply withdraw.

With this safety net in place, the expressions of the group improved noticeably.

Jiang Luoyue, however, thought of another matter: “How will the five of us form teams?”

This was also a question on the viewers’ minds.

[It was unfair to Ning Fuguang last time. Are they really going to leave someone alone in a wilderness survival scenario? Aren’t they worried something might happen?]

Ning Fuguang curled the corner of her lips slightly and remained silent, allowing Jiang Luoyue to ask the question on her behalf.

The director seemed to have been waiting for this question for a long time. As soon as the words were spoken, she eagerly brought out the box specifically for drawing tools: “In this game, the five guests will be divided into two teams: Hearts and Diamonds. The Diamond team will have two members, and the Heart team will have three. The allocation will be based on luck.”

“That’s unfair to the Diamond team ” Fu Yunqing, who was standing closest, casually reached in and drew a Heart card.

She paused mid-sentence and waved the card: “Did I get a Heart?”

After receiving confirmation from the director, Fu Yunqing said seriously, “Luck is part of one’s ability. It’s fair.”

While she was performing her quick change of attitude, Yu Jingtang also drew her card: a Diamond.

“On the far right,” Yu Jingtang whispered as Jiang Luoyue approached the drawing box, “Diamond.”

“Okay.”

Jiang Luoyue nodded to show she understood, but the director noticed the two whispering and immediately said, “This draw is entirely based on luck. No private team formations are allowed.” As she spoke, she shuffled the cards again.

Jiang Luoyue could only apologize to Yu Jingtang with her eyes before drawing a card.

It was also a Heart.

Fu Yunqing crossed her arms and glanced at her: “Having you as a teammate. isn’t entirely unacceptable.”

“What about me?”

Xiang Fan’s voice, laced with laughter, chimed in. Fu Yunqing immediately retorted, “Even if you begged me to act in your show, I wouldn’t choose you.”

Her words abruptly stopped as Xiang Fan mimicked her earlier gesture, waving a Heart card. Fu Yunqing immediately turned to Jiang Luoyue: “Jiang Luoyue, say something!”

Jiang Luoyue sighed: “What do you want me to say?”

“Say you don’t want to be on the same team as her. Let’s switch to the Diamond team!”

As soon as Fu Yunqing finished speaking, Ning Fuguang had already extended her card, her tone cold and urgent: “I agree. I’ll switch with you. Come over.”

Fu Yunqing snapped, “Who said I wanted to switch with you!” But then she glanced at Yu Jingtang, whom she didn’t seem to like much either.

Why was it that, aside from Jiang Luoyue, there wasn’t a single normal person on this stupid show?

Throughout it all, Yu Jingtang did only one thing she watched Jiang Luoyue with a gaze that was somewhat desolate, pitiful, and lonely.

Stared at for too long, Jiang Luoyue softened a bit: “President Ning?”

Maybe she should swap with Ning Fuguang.

But before Jiang Luoyue could finish her sentence, Fu Yunqing had already started screaming, glaring at her with resentment and anger: “Jiang Luoyue! What do you mean by that?”

“You’ve already teamed up with Yu Jingtang once, why are you choosing her again this time?”

Ning Fuguang curled the card in her hand and smiled faintly: “In the wild, teaming up with someone who has no survival experience is an unwise choice.”

As for Yu Jingtang, she only had one sentence.

“Are you going to choose her?”

“If Jiang Luoyue doesn’t choose me, who else would she choose?” Fu Yunqing fumed. “I have her contact info. What about you? Just a regular partner.”

Yu Jingtang tightened her grip on her bag, her knuckles turning white.

Jiang Luoyue tried to explain but realized that no matter how she resolved it, she couldn’t satisfy everyone. The chaos from the first round of team selection was perfectly replicated in the second.

Just as she found herself trapped in the dilemma of being torn between the women and feeling particularly conflicted, out of the corner of her eye, Jiang Luoyue noticed Xiang Fan laughing freely, occasionally adding fuel to the fire as if the more chaotic things got, the more advantageous it was for her.

Jiang Luoyue: “…” Why are you the only one so happy?

This jarring scene snapped Jiang Luoyue back to her senses.

For the sake of peace in Hate Me, Jiang Luoyue didn’t hesitate or hesitate, she instantly made the decision to throw Xiang Fan under the bus: “Our guide hasn’t expressed her opinion from the start. If you want to team up with me, why not ask if she’s willing?”

Xiang Fan, suddenly becoming the center of attention for the square team: ?