I Swear I Don’t Want to Be Everyone’s Favorite - Chapter 42

Jiang Luoyue could tell that Ning Fuguang was lying.

Ning Fuguang’s eyes curved as if she didn’t care what Jiang Luoyue thought, but deep down, she was already convinced the other would reject her. Just as she was trying her best to appear calm and composed, Jiang Luoyue unwrapped the bandage.

Then, under the gaze of the camera and Jiang Luoyue’s eyes, their fingertips brushed.

She watched as the girl gently wrapped the bandage around the wound. The unhealed injury was suddenly bound, and the itchiness made Ning Fuguang want to pull her hand back. But Jiang Luoyue asked, “Didn’t you want me to care for you?”

Ning Fuguang: “…”

Ning Fuguang abruptly fell silent, which made Jiang Luoyue feel a bit uneasy. She sped up her movements, and as she withdrew her hand, she said lightly, “Done.”

The person in front of her didn’t respond. Puzzled, Jiang Luoyue looked up and found Ning Fuguang gazing at her intently, her eyes soft and filled with a sense of cherishment, as if Jiang Luoyue were some rare and precious treasure.

This thought made Jiang Luoyue uncomfortable. She forced a casual tone and said, “President Ning?”

Ning Fuguang finally shifted her gaze, smiling as she spoke, “Thank you.”

“No problem.” After replying, Jiang Luoyue observed her for a while. She noticed that Ning Fuguang seemed to look at the roadside greenery with the same expression and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It must have been a misunderstanding. Ning Fuguang simply had a naturally affectionate gaze she looked at everyone with deep emotion.

Just because Yu Jingtang’s friendship had soured didn’t mean she should suspect others. That would be too disrespectful.

Jiang Luoyue admonished herself inwardly and quickly adjusted her mindset. After a short break, the two took photos with a few more fans and finally, under guidance, found their first mission target of the day.

“Interested in learning about Xiang Fan’s latest work? You won’t regret it!”

Before they even got close, Jiang Luoyue could hear the distorted female voice blaring from a loudspeaker. She looked up and saw Xiao Yu, a fan of Xiang Fan, who had brought her own table and chairs and was now handing out promotional flyers for Xiang Fan as if distributing advertisements.

She picked one up and noticed that the content printed on it was strikingly similar to entertainment industry headlines, listing all the films Xiang Fan had starred in since her debut. High-grossing works emphasized box office success, while low-grossing ones highlighted awards, all neatly organized, creating a vibe that made one instinctively think, “So impressive,” even without fully understanding.

While Jiang Luoyue was still immersed in the flyer, Ning Fuguang beside her got straight to the point: “My mission is to sell Yu Jingtang’s album to you. Tell me what you want directly, and after the show ends, I’ll have someone contact you.”

Hearing this, Xiao Yu, who had been silent until now, finally looked up. Even Jiang Luoyue stared at Ning Fuguang in surprise.

It was only then that she realized the program team hadn’t set any rules for this mission. In other words, such private deals were entirely feasible.

The reason Jiang Luoyue hadn’t thought of this earlier was simply because past rules had been too complicated, leading her to make assumptions. Admiring the cleverness, her eyes sparkled.

This look made Ning Fuguang feel pleased both physically and mentally. Just as she was about to sweeten the deal to persuade Xiao Yu, the girl sneered coldly and retorted, “Contact? What’s so important about your contact?”

“I won’t cooperate with you,” she said, crossing her arms and not hiding her aversion to the two. “If there’s nothing else, you can leave now.”

It seemed that, like their idol, the fans were equally stubborn and unyielding like prickly hedgehogs.

Thinking of this analogy, Jiang Luoyue chuckled silently, while Ning Fuguang sighed softly and asked, “I understand why you dislike me, but why do you treat her with the same attitude?”

The fan of Yu Jingtang they had just encountered was simply pure dislike toward her.

Xiao Yu replied matter-of-factly, “One of you has no class, the other got in through connections, why should I treat either of you with any respect?”

Jiang Luoyue: “Wow.”

Xiao Yu frowned. “Wow what? Acting cute won’t work on me.”

Jiang Luoyue shook her head with a smile. “No, it’s just the first time I’ve been called a ‘connection hire.’ It feels so novel could you say it again?”

Xiao Yu immediately snapped, “What do you mean by that?”

She thought Jiang Luoyue was being sarcastic and angrily berated her again for being a connection hire. In her imagination, even if Jiang Luoyue didn’t break down, she would at least show some discomfort at having her weakness exposed.

But no, nothing of the sort happened.

Jiang Luoyue’s expression remained unchanged. Despite being mocked, she looked pleasantly surprised and genuinely happy, making Xiao Yu even feel as if insulting Jiang Luoyue was actually rewarding her.

After repeating “connection hire” countless times, Xiao Yu took a deep breath. In just those few seconds, Jiang Luoyue seized the moment to ask, “Tired? Want some water?”

Ning Fuguang handed over a bottle of mineral water. Even though she tried to hide it, Xiao Yu still caught the smile at the corner of her lips.

Instantly, Xiao Yu felt as if she had punched cotton utterly powerless.

These two were definitely trying to disgust her on purpose!

Xiao Yu plopped down angrily and stopped talking to them. Jiang Luoyue sighed and said to herself, “Seems like she’s tired.”

Ning Fuguang glanced at her watch. “Repeating ‘connection hire’ over two hundred times in five minutes it’s only natural to be tired.”

Jiang Luoyue asked earnestly again, “That sounds exhausting. Are you sure you don’t want some water?”

Xiao Yu: “…”

Stubbornly, Xiao Yu didn’t respond and instead flipped through the History of Modern Film in her hands.

This was a book Xiang Fan often recommended in interviews, and almost all her fans owned a copy. Influenced by her, Xiao Yu had also enrolled in the directing program in college. A music video she shot in her sophomore year gained some popularity, making her quite well-known in Xiang Fan’s fandom.

When she was invited by the program team, Xiao Yu was overjoyed. She admired Xiang Fan and had a favorable impression of Jiang Luoyue. After all, among all the guests, Jiang Luoyue was the only one who always treated Xiang Fan with kindness. She was filled with excitement, never expecting that Xiang Fan would publicly invite Jiang Luoyue to collaborate.

Instantly, she felt betrayed, stubbornly convinced that everything Jiang Luoyue did was just an act, a deliberate attempt to please Xiang Fan and secure a collaboration.

Thinking of this, Xiao Yu grew increasingly restless. To make matters worse, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jiang Luoyue and Ning Fuguang hadn’t left. Instead, they sat on the chairs she had prepared and leisurely opened the Hate Me livestream.

From Jiang Luoyue’s phone speaker came Fu Yunqing’s voice: “Why do you like Ning Fuguang? Is it because she’s rich? Or because she’s pretty?”

“I have those qualities too!” she declared confidently. “Why not abandon the darkness and come to the light? Like me instead! For just three hundred yuan, you can watch my short drama collection and even get a signed autograph ”

While Fu Yunqing rambled on, Ning Fuguang’s phone emitted the same voice, though the audio quality was noticeably muffled. Puzzled, Jiang Luoyue looked over and realized Ning Fuguang was watching her own livestream: “Aren’t I right here beside you?”

Why was Ning Fuguang still watching her through the phone?

Ning Fuguang, however, countered with a question: “Didn’t you just bid farewell to Fu Yunqing an hour ago? Why are you staring at her through the screen again now?”

Jiang Luoyue was stunned. “Are these even the same thing?”

Seeing that her sophistry had been exposed, Ning Fuguang smoothly changed her tune: “Then just take it as me caring about you a mutual exchange of courtesy.”

Where was the courtesy in that?

Jiang Luoyue held back from asking that question, but the background noise of the duet was still too jarring for her to adapt to. Before Jiang Luoyue exited the livestream, the fan who had been repeatedly questioned by Fu Yunqing finally weakly interrupted, “I like Ning Fuguang, but not for the reasons you mentioned.”

“I like her simply because she’s quiet.”

Fu Yunqing, who had been talking until her mouth was dry:

Jiang Luoyue quickly exited the livestream, afraid that if she watched for even one more second, she wouldn’t be able to resist joining the barrage of comments mocking Fu Yunqing.

“Not watching anymore?” Ning Fuguang asked.

Jiang Luoyue nodded, a faint sense of being controlled creeping into her heart. She pressed her lips together, unable to understand why Ning Fuguang would care so much just because she had watched a few minutes of a livestream.

Just as she was suppressing the strange feeling inside, Ning Fuguang opened the milk packaging, inserted the straw, and handed it to her.

Jiang Luoyue stared blankly at Ning Fuguang, who smiled and said, “Drink up. What do you want to eat?”

She had bought quite a few snacks, and Jiang Luoyue had assumed they were meant to be shared with fans. Hesitantly, she pointed to the potato chips.

“Just a little is fine,” Jiang Luoyue said.

Ning Fuguang nodded, seemingly taking her words to heart, opened the potato chips, casually started a conversation, and began chatting idly with Jiang Luoyue. When a potato chip was brought to her lips, Jiang Luoyue instinctively took a bite. Only when she saw Ning Fuguang’s fingers beneath the chip did she abruptly turn away to look for a wet wipe. “I can manage on my own.”

Ning Fuguang, watching her flustered expression, smiled happily. “No rush.”

Xiao Yu, who had perfectly witnessed the entire scene: “…”

She was still here, why were these two chatting so casually as if no one else was around? Did they think she was just a decoration?!

“When are you two leaving?” she finally couldn’t hold back and asked again.

The two, who had been immersed in a flirtatious atmosphere just a second ago, abruptly snapped out of it. Ning Fuguang replied unhurriedly, “We’re just taking a break here. You don’t mind, do you?”

“I do mind,” Xiao Yu said.

Jiang Luoyue nodded. “Thank you for your tolerance and understanding.”

Xiao Yu: ???

[Caught you replying without reading again!]

[She seems about to explode from anger. Xiao Yu’s self-cultivation as a fan isn’t quite there yet feels a bit like Fu Yunqing.]

[Fu Yunqing: ?]

Xiao Yu finally realized that the two in front of her had come prepared and wouldn’t leave until they achieved their goal. Unfortunately, she was stubborn by nature and couldn’t compromise even a little. As the two scrolled through their phones, she angrily opened her social media platform.

But the moment she opened it, her phone lagged for a few seconds due to the flood of pop-up notifications.

Opening the comments section, she saw that in just twenty minutes, netizens from all over had gathered there, urging her not to be stubborn and to let the two complete their mission they were eager to watch Jiang Luoyue convince the “Luoyun Yueqing” CP.

If it were only the netizens being this indifferent, Xiao Yu might have endured it, but the comments section had also attracted Xiang Fan herself.

[Thank you for your support, but Jiang Luoyue is not a connection hire. Making such casual judgments about others is very unrefined just like Ning Fuguang.]

Being replied to by her favorite idol like this, Xiao Yu’s eyes instantly reddened.

Jiang Luoyue, who had been keeping an eye on her: “What’s wrong?”

She was utterly bewildered. They had only intended to sell an album, they never meant to make anyone cry.

Isn’t it true that fans resemble their idols? Xiang Fan wasn’t this fragile either.

Just as she was at a loss, Xiao Yu wiped her tears and abruptly changed her attitude: “I can cooperate with you.”

“On what condition?” Ning Fuguang raised an eyebrow.

Mindful of the camera, Xiao Yu typed a few words and discreetly showed them to Ning Fuguang. After reading the message, Ning Fuguang readily agreed. The process went so smoothly that it wasn’t until Yu Jingtang’s album started playing on-site that Jiang Luoyue finally snapped back to reality.

“What was the condition?” she whispered, not wanting to disturb Xiao Yu, who was listening to the music while still upset.

On camera, the two stood very close, their proximity almost intimate, as if whispering secrets. Ning Fuguang replied softly, “To make Xiang Fan sing one of Yu Jingtang’s songs, even if it’s just a snippet.”

Jiang Luoyue recalled the reason for the feud between Xiang Fan and Yu Jingtang, it was because the former had once commented that Yu Jingtang’s songs were like lullabies. She murmured in disbelief, “Wouldn’t Xiang Fan fall asleep midway through singing?”

How could Ning Fuguang agree to this? Where did she get such confidence?

Jiang Luoyue was deeply puzzled, worried that the other party wouldn’t be able to fulfill the promise. But Ning Fuguang said, “The deadline is before the variety show wraps up. There’s no rush.”

Though she didn’t understand why Ning Fuguang was so confident, the timeline was indeed flexible, so Jiang Luoyue stopped worrying. When Xiao Yu started tearing up again, she handed her a tissue and comforted her, “It’s just a misunderstanding. Xiang Fan didn’t mean it that way either.”

Tears welling in her eyes, Xiao Yu never expected that Jiang Luoyue, whom she had just mocked moments ago would wipe her tears and comfort her. Sniffling, she immediately checked the Jiang Luoyue fan community she had unfollowed just hours earlier: “Director Xiang is right, I misunderstood you. There’s no difference between me and Ning Fuguang.”

“Starting today, I’m your fan!”

Jiang Luoyue glanced at her already Level 7 fan community status: “Huh? Huh?”

Ning Fuguang, who had been calmly waiting for Jiang Luoyue: ?

Why was she involved again?