I Swear I Don’t Want to Be Everyone’s Favorite - Chapter 8

While the red team’s audience was suffering the dual torment of the live broadcast and barrage comments, the blue team’s livestream saw Fu Yunqing, after mercilessly berating Zhao Mei, reluctantly translating the entire tongue twister.

Zhao Mei genuinely couldn’t do it her recitation was halting and riddled with obvious grammatical errors. Yet, the inheritor didn’t dare point out the mistakes, she was also afraid of being scolded by Fu Yunqing.

By the time the blue team finally completed their first task, over in the orange team, Ning Fuguang, after a moment of contemplation, suddenly began reciting in English.

Her speech was so rapid it instinctively reminded people of rap. The inheritor swayed her head, looking utterly baffled, but the barrage fell silent:

[Isn’t this just reciting the CET-4 and CET-6 vocabulary lists backward?]

[Little Sister is really at a disadvantage due to lack of education.]

[If you want deception, Ning Fuguang’s the one to turn to!]

Some even oozed superiority: [The blue team finished one task in half an hour. Challenging themselves to wrap up in two hours shouldn’t be a problem, right? Like I said, the tasks are a piece of cake!]

[LOL, the yellow team finished their first task within ten minutes. How can Fu Yunqing even compare?]

[Times have changed. The other teams just needed some time to adjust once they got the hang of it, their progress sped up. Ning Fuguang’s already finished the second task and is looking for the next inheritor.]

[But a friendly reminder: the yellow team is already working on their final task. Anyone interested in watching Jingtang and Luoyue battle for the championship, hurry over to the yellow team’s livestream! Limited time only]

Netizens who were still drafting all sorts of attacking comments: ???

They stared at the time in shock. Only an hour and a half had passed since the guests officially entered Ancient Music Street. While other teams had just finished two tasks, the yellow team was already nearing completion? How was that possible?

Yet, in the yellow team’s livestream, Yu Jingtang and Jiang Luoyue had already found the final inheritor.

To match the excitement of this moment, the director even played We Are the Champions in advance in the livestream.

At this point, whether it was anti-fans or fans of other artists, everyone grew anxious.

Their favorite teams could lose, but not this miserably, right?

Immediately, some began flooding the chat with foul language, trying to disrupt the artists’ morale. But fans who had been watching the whole time gleefully reminded them: [The yellow team’s barrage comments were turned off long ago. No matter how much you spam, the people involved won’t see it.]

That one breezy comment successfully shattered many people’s composure.

Amid the barrage chaos, Yu Jingtang noticed Jiang Luoyue wiping sweat from her forehead and promptly handed her a bottle of water.

To save time, the two had been hurrying nonstop.

Jiang Luoyue seemed to have a mental map, clearly marking every NPC’s location. She answered every task flawlessly, completing them with remarkable ease, which only deepened Yu Jingtang’s trust in her.

“Thank you,” Jiang Luoyue said, her fingers unconsciously twisting the bottle cap. Her gaze was fixed on the inheritor before her, this wasn’t the NPC she remembered, meaning the task would likely deviate as well.

But time was still plentiful. Even if they failed the first time, they had plenty of chances to try again.

With that thought, Jiang Luoyue finally relaxed. Just as she was about to accept the task, the water bottle in her hand was suddenly taken away.

Right before her eyes, Yu Jingtang’s fingers tightened around the cap and twisted it open.

“Alright.” Yu Jingtang’s response was brief, her face carrying a hint of apology, as if regretting not having unscrewed the bottle cap before handing it to Jiang Luoyue.

Jiang Luoyue: ”

She had merely been lost in thought, why would Yu Jingtang assume she was so fragile she couldn’t even open a bottle cap?

Struck speechless for a moment, Jiang Luoyue ultimately didn’t bother to explain. After drinking a few sips of water and swallowing down the inexplicable feeling in her chest, she finally stepped forward to speak with the inheritor.

The fifth trial had condensed the game segment into an exceptionally difficult special task:

[Write down three impressions you have of each other. Guessing two correctly counts as success.]

No one knew what the other would write it was purely a guessing game.

This was a task Ning Fuguang and Yu Jingtang had also attempted. The former had written “reticent,” “dull,” and “solitary,” while the latter had written “cold,” “arrogant,” and “strong survival instinct.” The result was obvious they had failed.

Jiang Luoyue didn’t believe she and Yu Jingtang would have any tacit understanding either and was already prepared to lose. But when she picked up the pen, she still earnestly wrote down: “quiet,” “gentle,” and “skilled at drawing.”

She wrote quickly, and her answers immediately sent the live chat into a frenzy:

[Since when do stick figures count as ‘skilled at drawing’? Jiang Luoyue, you’re really forcing the praise here.]

[Jiang Luoyue looks so unapproachable, who knew she’d be the type to sweet-talk like this.]

[Supporting Luoyue x Jingtang meow! Supporting Jingtang x Luoyue, thank you meow! The cat is born]

Seeing Jiang Luoyue set down her pen, Yu Jingtang blinked. Her own pen hovered over the paper, hesitating for a long time before she finally wrote three words:

“Gentle,” “considerate,” “strong-willed.”

She’s a good person, Yu Jingtang thought quietly.

The two with the worst reputations had teamed up, yet within just a few hours, they had both formed the impression that the other was “gentle.”

The NPC was surprised this meant that as long as one of them guessed the word “gentle,” the task would be considered a success, drastically reducing the difficulty.

Jiang Luoyue was questioned first.

“What impression do you think Yu Jingtang has of you?”

Jiang Luoyue hesitated, uncertain. “Dull?”

This was her own assessment of herself, and one shared by many. In her past life, whether at Zhou Ruonian’s studio gatherings or wrap parties, whenever she tried to join a conversation, the atmosphere would inevitably turn cold and awkward, as if everyone had silently excluded her.

Once or twice, Jiang Luoyue might have suspected it was deliberate. But every single time, it was her who was ignored.

One day, Jiang Luoyue began to reflect, and the lifelong insecurity rooted in her heart resurfaced. She suddenly realized she had no one left but Zhou Ruonian. Without him, the world had no place for someone as dull and unremarkable as her.

Even after discovering Zhou Ruonian’s true nature, Jiang Luoyue’s impression of herself never changed.

To her surprise, the inheritor immediately rejected her answer. “Wrong.”

The expression carried a hint of exasperation, as if this were an incredibly simple question.

Jiang Luoyue faltered, bewildered. She rarely considered how others perceived her, always assuming the worst. “Dull” was already one of the milder terms she could think of.

But Yu Jingtang, visibly affected by her answer, began to doubt herself as well. Pressing her lips together, she gave the same response.

In the next two rounds of impressions, Yu Jingtang guessed “aloof” and “indifferent,” while Jiang Luoyue chose “stubborn” and “noisy.”

When the inheritor revealed the answers, both of them saw stunned expressions in each other’s eyes.

Even the barrage couldn’t believe it:

[Why would celebrities rush to belittle themselves like this?]

[They could’ve easily scored points, so why do this?]

[I was really annoyed at first, but seeing how happy they both were with the answers, it doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore… Well, it’s their first meeting they haven’t had time to adjust yet. Misunderstandings are normal!]

After failing the special task once, they had to wait for a fifteen-minute cooldown before attempting a new challenge.

While the audience anxiously urged them not to waste time, the two involved remained relaxed.

Jiang Luoyue glanced at Yu Jingtang, who seemed to have been struck by inspiration and was once again scribbling something in her notepad.

Surprised, Jiang Luoyue asked, “This wasn’t confiscated?”

“Xiao Ning snatched it back,” Yu Jingtang replied.

At the mention of “Xiao Ning,” Jiang Luoyue’s first thought was Ning Fuguang. But as if reading her mind, Yu Jingtang stiffly clarified, “My assistant.”

[Wait, isn’t Yu Jingtang’s assistant named Xiao Lin? And it’s always been the same person, why the name change?]

[After Ning Fuguang publicly dissed Yu Jingtang, she renamed her assistant Xiao Ning. The manager’s reasoning: It’s like stepping on a petty person the smaller you make them seem, the bigger and more unafraid you appear.]

[Can I just say? I don’t get the sense that Yu Jingtang is afraid of Ning Fuguang at all. If anything, her manager seems terrified.]

[LOL, actually, off-camera, Xiao Tang still calls her by her real name… Spoiling her own manager that’s our Xiao Tang. Do you have a Xiao Tang like this?]

Unaware of the barrage, Jiang Luoyue assumed it was just a coincidence and smiled. “What a funny coincidence.”

Yu Jingtang’s pen paused mid-sentence.

Never mind. If she misunderstood, so be it. It wasn’t a big deal anyway.

With that thought, her gaze flickered toward the street corner opposite them, where an ice cream shop stood. Its pink decor and walls plastered with posters of new flavors were eye-catching, with scoops of various colors piled high in cones irresistibly tempting.

Yu Jingtang only glanced briefly before looking away, but Jiang Luoyue noticed the fleeting distraction. Just as Yu Jingtang turned to a new page, Jiang Luoyue suddenly said, “I kind of want to eat that.”

[That place is amazing! Last time I went, I got five scoops and almost passed out.]

[Matcha chocolate ice cream sprinkled with pecan crumbs!]

[But don’t they have no money? How are they going to buy it?]

The answer was simple: exchange points with the production team.

Since all personal belongings had been confiscated during filming, and in a world where money was essential, the show had thoughtfully (or ruthlessly) introduced a 10-points-for-100-yuan exchange rate.

Bear in mind, the Yellow Team had only earned twenty points after completing four challenges.

Using precious points to buy ice cream instead of saving them for mission-critical items? That was just irresponsible, wasn’t it?

Some viewers immediately criticized Jiang Luoyue for lacking foresight, how could they complete tasks if they wasted points like this?

Yu Jingtang had considered these concerns too, but in the end, she didn’t stop her.

Jiang Luoyue walked into the shop and soon returned with two packaged ice creams. One of them was the new flavor Yu Jingtang had lingered on the longest.

Handing that one to Yu Jingtang and the other to the pleasantly surprised cameraperson, Jiang Luoyue sat down on a bench.

She tilted her head back, and a canopy of green filled her vision. The sunlight couldn’t fully penetrate the protective web of leaves, leaving only scattered fragments of light dancing on her face serene and beautiful.

Staring at this scene, Jiang Luoyue suddenly asked, “Yu Jingtang, do you think winning is important?”

Yu Jingtang looked at her empty hands and, after a long pause, replied softly, “My agent says it is.”

At that moment, even if she were the slowest to realize, Yu Jingtang understood, Jiang Luoyue’s abrupt decision to exchange points was simply because she had noticed Yu Jingtang’s “desire.”

Yu Jingtang had only glanced at that poster once, revealing that fleeting emotion for just an instant. Even she hadn’t thought such a longing was worth acknowledging. Yet, Jiang Luoyue had acted without hesitation to obtain it for her.

“On my way here, I thought the same as her, that winning was important.”

Yu Jingtang looked at her in confusion. “And now it isn’t?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s unimportant.” Like how Yu Jingtang had unscrewed the bottle cap for her earlier, Jiang Luoyue carefully unwrapped the packaging, even placing the spoon properly before tentatively offering it to her. “It’s just that I’ve found something more important.”

In the past, Jiang Luoyue had always believed that revealing oneself meant exposing vulnerabilities, a dangerous act. She rarely did such things, seldom expressing her emotions openly.

But after seeing the words Yu Jingtang had used to describe her, Jiang Luoyue suddenly felt that being a little more open might not be so bad. Doing things she had once avoided was, in itself, a form of change.

Yet she had clearly underestimated the difficulty of it.

Under Yu Jingtang’s increasingly attentive gaze, she suddenly grew nervous. After a long pause, she finally spoke, slightly flustered, “It’s the first time someone’s described me with those words… Thank you.”

Yu Jingtang found it even harder to describe her own feelings at that moment.

When she took the ice cream, it was the first time Yu Jingtang had touched Jiang Luoyue’s fingertips cold, yet burning, just like Jiang Luoyue herself.

She didn’t respond to the thanks. In fact, Yu Jingtang felt that she was the one who should be saying it.

Staring at the ice cream until it began to melt and collapse under the heat, she suddenly spoke. “Jingtang.”

Was she asking to drop the surname and just call her by her given name?

Jiang Luoyue hesitated but, following her lead, tentatively said, “Jingtang?”

Yu Jingtang glanced at her. She looked very docile while eating, gently biting the spoon, a sign of relaxation.

“What’s more important than winning?”

Before resuming their task, Yu Jingtang finally asked the question that had been puzzling her.

Jiang Luoyue’s eyes curved slightly. “Jingtang.”

“Huh?” Yu Jingtang instinctively responded before suddenly realizing.

Jingtang was Jiang Luoyue’s answer.