If The Persona Is Wrong, Everything Else Is In Vain - Chapter 29

Lin Luo finally turned his gaze toward him. Noncommittal, he remained quiet for a moment before speaking. “A business marriage only brings you benefits.”

Zhou Wan wagged a finger in front of him. “You’re wrong. It benefits Zhou Dechuan, and it benefits the Zhou family.”

“It doesn’t benefit me.”

“As long as the Zhou family prospers eternally, you can live a carefree, leisurely life for the rest of your days. You are a community of shared interests bound together by blood, ‘when one prospers, all prosper; when one suffers, all suffer,'” Lin Luo said.

Zhou Wan let out a soft chuckle. “Do you honestly believe that living a carefree life means being a canary clad in beautiful clothes and fed with jade, yet living in captivity, forever unable to fly out of its cage?”

Lin Luo frowned. “The indulgent life you lead now is entirely provided by the Zhou family. Without the Zhou family to back you up…”

“There are many people in this world who can’t even get enough to eat. You are simply spoiled. A beneficiary of privilege has no right to enjoy the benefits while refusing to shoulder any of the ‘responsibilities.'”

Lin Luo felt conflicted. For a moment, he couldn’t even sort out what exactly he wanted to express, feeling as though his words would always fail to convey his true meaning.

He didn’t even realize that whenever he clashed with Zhou Wan, the words coming out of his mouth were sharp and thorny in most situations, stinging the other man, but stinging himself just as much.

“Do you want me to agree?” Zhou Wan bypassed his “persuasion” and went straight to the point.

Avoiding a direct answer, Lin Luo tightly squeezed the half-empty mineral water bottle in his hand. “I’m just analyzing the pros and cons from an outsider’s perspective.”

“An outsider?” Zhou Wan sneered. “What kind of outsider do you think you are?”

“You won’t understand,” his tone drawn out, as if spanning a vast stretch of time.

He pulled a bottle of water out of the mini-fridge, got up, and led his entourage back to his own rest area.

Lin Luo picked at the label of his water bottle with his fingertips, one stroke after another. The label looked incredibly irritating today no matter how he looked at it. The half-empty bottle buckled and crackled under the pressure of his grip, his irritable mood surging once again with Zhou Wan’s departure.

In their past lives, the two of them must have been mortal enemies, entangled so deeply that they couldn’t let go even in this life, doomed to be constantly at loggerheads, ending only when both sides were thoroughly ruined.

Every conversation, no matter the initial intent, would always be ruined by him.

“Xiao Luo,” the director called out to him.

He walked over right on the heels of Zhou Wan’s departure, as if he had timed it perfectly. He looked around mysteriously, and only after ensuring that the surrounding people were at a safe distance did he speak. “Can I trouble you with something?”

Lin Luo straightened up from his reclining chair. “Please, go ahead.”

“It’s about today’s activity. We need a host.”

“A host?” Lin Luo asked in confusion. “Don’t we have a dedicated host?”

After reaping the benefits of filming while simultaneously broadcasting, the directorial team had come up with a new gimmick to make the show feel more authentic, the daily tasks would be announced on the spot right as filming began.

Therefore, strictly speaking, this show currently had no script whatsoever, everything relied on the guests’ spontaneous reactions.

As a result, the brunt of the pressure fell onto the guests. It heavily tested the improvisation skills of Lin Luo and the others. They had to adhere to the overarching principle of documenting and promoting intangible cultural heritage, while also keeping the entertainment value high.

Even Ming Songqin, who was an investor, seemingly never received any advance notice regarding what specific schemes the production crew was cooking up.

Back when the various “leaders” held a meeting to discuss altering the show’s format, no one knew what method they had used to convince Gu Ning.

At first, several of them weren’t quite used to it, but once they began appearing on camera in their most genuine states, the entertainment value turned out unexpectedly well.

Even though they would frequently get thrown into a frantic mess by the various handicraft experiences due to being “unaccustomed to physical labor” producing objects that were utterly chaotic and completely incomparable to the works of the village artisans, to the point where it was difficult to tell they were supposed to be the same item unless placed side by side, these ugly creations managed to brand the show with a label of sincerity that was hard to come by nowadays, precisely because of their authenticity.

All sorts of bizarre, ugly-cute designs sparked widespread discussions online, which subsequently triggered a chain reaction of attention toward those rarely understood forms of intangible cultural heritage. Local cultural tourism departments seized this wave of traffic, using creative cultural merchandise to promote their own regional heritage.

It was practically killing multiple birds with one stone.

The director looked uneasy, as if he had some unspeakable difficulty. Rubbing his hands together, he gave a hesitant, stuttering laugh. “It’s just… a change of format. One of the guests will serve as the host.”

“Don’t worry, everyone will take turns. You go first this time, and the others will cycle through later.”

Lin Luo glanced over in Ming Songqin’s direction and roughly guessed that today’s activity was likely related to embroidery. When it came to this field, he was entirely clueless and hadn’t been given any advance materials to prepare.

He said hesitantly, “But I’ve never hosted before… It would be bad if I messed it up. How about letting someone else take it this time? I can do it next time?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” the director let out a sigh of relief, waving his hands repeatedly to comfort him. “Don’t worry, you absolutely have experience in this.”

Lin Luo’s face was filled with incomprehension.

The director continued, “I’ve watched the footage of you and Zhou Wan hosting a wedding before. I thought it was great. You can definitely do it.”

Lin Luo let out a couple of dry laughs. Talk about bringing up the exact thing he wanted to avoid.

Only later did he find out that the wedding back then had been an arranged marriage. The groom and the bride had actually started fighting right on the spot. Lin Luo had practically rubbed his lips raw before he successfully mediated the fight. In the end, it concluded with the groom getting slapped twice and being publicly ridden like a horse.

Yet, because of that, the Beta groom fell completely in love with the Alpha bride.

Although the two of them ended up happily ever after, Lin Luo hadn’t dared to take on any more wedding gigs for a very long time after that. If he wasn’t careful with a single word, it could easily turn into a bloody disaster.

Recalling the director’s words, he asked, “A wedding? Could today’s activity be related to a wedding?”

The director hunched his shoulders again, peered around, and lowered his voice. “I’m only telling you this, okay? Don’t spread it around.”

Lin Luo was still hesitating. If it was a village wedding, it would be inevitable to run into some people from his past…

After that incident, he and his mother had moved out of the village. Many years had passed since then. Luo Wenying felt it was too shameful; on one hand, she didn’t dare to come back, and on the other, she hated Lin Luo for indirectly causing her to become homeless.

Every single time, Lin Luo had to come back alone to handle Lin Shen’s funerary affairs. During those countable few times he returned, he had never stepped foot inside the village itself.

The villagers probably wouldn’t recognize him anymore, but the harm inflicted upon his family back then was still vivid in his mind. He instinctively felt some resistance.

Before he could make a decision, the director’s hosting cue cards were already stuffed into Lin Luo’s hands.

Although the production crew prioritized authenticity, it wasn’t a live broadcast after all, so there should still be some room for adjustment.

If it really didn’t work out, they could always swap him out.

Meeting the director’s pleading gaze, Lin Luo finally accepted the cue cards. He flipped through a few pages and agreed to it.

It wasn’t until the embroidery portion was finished, marking the completion of roughly half of today’s content that the guests finally learned from the director that they would be attending a traditional village wedding for the second half of the day.

As well as whose wedding it actually was.

Even the ugly items they had embroidered earlier turned out to be congratulatory gifts prepared for the newlyweds.

Of course, the directorial team wasn’t thick-skinned to that extent, the proper wedding gifts had been prepared long ago. It was only for the sake of the show’s entertainment value that they outwardly presented these “deeply meaningful” pieces handmade by the guests.

Lin Luo stood on the temporarily erected wooden steps, feeling filled with trepidation. He gripped the microphone tightly in his hand, keeping his head lowered as he scanned his surroundings. He kept taking deep breaths to regulate his nervous emotions, but it didn’t help in the slightest.

Seated at the table closest to him were the other three guests, along with several village elders.

The elderly villagers had cloudy eyes. Their gazes were gathered on him as the host, showing nothing unusual. They likely hadn’t recognized Lin Luo.

Yet Lin Luo was like a timid rabbit. At the slightest sign of movement from others, his mind would automatically construct it as a silent “crusade” aimed directly at him.

Ming Songqin was secretly cheering him on from below. Lin Luo cast a glance at him, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He closed his eyes, opened them again after a moment, and looked toward the bride at the far end of the red carpet straight ahead.

It was called a traditional wedding, but given the current era where multiple cultures intertwined, it was about half traditional and half modern.

The bride’s makeup was exquisite, and her face was illuminated by a joyous smile. The standard, template like smile looked as though it had been painted on, and the old-fashioned, blood-red wedding dress wrapped her figure, making her look strikingly gorgeous.

Her skin was very fair, and her vibrant red lips made her pale complexion stand out even more. Her pitch-black long hair was pinned up meticulously without a single strand out of place.

She was very slender, yet very tall. The heroic aura between her brows was an Alpha trait that even the delicate, heavy makeup could not entirely conceal.

“Now, let us welcome the bride’s father to lead the bride onto the stage,” Lin Luo said.

Every single wrinkle on the village chief’s face carried a sense of gratification. He smiled so widely his mouth could barely close, he had anticipated this day for a very long time.

Watching the two of them take step after step up the stairs, drawing closer to the main stage, Lin Luo turned slightly toward Wei An when they were about halfway up. “We invite… the groom to step forward and welcome the bride.”

Wei An nodded slightly toward him, a smile hooking the corner of his lips as he walked straight toward the bride.

He had removed his chaotic assortment of various piercings, leaving only his brow piercing and lip piercing. His hair was combed neatly, and he wore a proper, well-fitted formal suit. Stripped of his messy makeup, his entire being looked significantly cleaner and sharper.

Perennial lack of sleep left dark circles under his eyes, which the light makeup failed to entirely conceal. Although he looked slightly exhausted, he was completely different from the person in Lin Luo’s prior impressions.

Lin Luo realized that this was actually the first time he had clearly seen Wei An’s true appearance. Fortunately, a trace of a youth’s aura still lingered upon him.

Lin Luo subconsciously looked toward a black baseball cap in the corner.

Xiao Yang’s expression was complex. His face remained dark from beginning to end, forming a stark contrast with the jubilant, smiling faces of the people around him.

He pulled the brim of his hat extremely low, but when Wei An walked in that direction, he still couldn’t resist raising his head to look at him. Consequently, a sort of suppressed forbearance and fury ultimately leaked out quietly.

Wei An took the bride’s hand from the village chief, patted the back of her hand reassuringly, and led her onto the main stage.

Aside from the smile, there was nothing else on the bride’s face. Her blank, dazed appearance resembled that of a marionette.

Lin Luo faintly sensed that something was amiss.

Just as they were exchanging rings, the band suddenly seemed as though it had been sealed by a spell, refusing to slip onto the bride’s finger no matter what.

Wei An’s hand slipped, and the ring fell to the ground, rolling all the way down the stage. Simultaneously, the bride collapsed, falling to the ground with a thud.

By the time she woke up again, all signs of joy had completely vanished.

Her expression was panicked, and her mouth continuously muttered things like “I won’t marry,” “I can’t marry,” and “The person I like is an Alpha.”

For a moment, the scene fell into chaos as everyone busied themselves with different tasks. The bride’s family rushed forward in a crowd to check on her condition, while those waiting to attend the banquet craned their necks to peer onto the stage, the melon seeds in their mouths never stopping.

Amid the confusion, someone was the first to start gossiping, and subsequently, various “secrets” that were usually kept quiet or deemed untalkable exploded through the crowd.

“No wonder his daughter was willing to get married. Turns out she was cursed by someone,” someone remarked.

Another person immediately chimed in, “Exactly! I heard that not long ago, Lin Er-mao was personally sent away by the village chief. Before that, wasn’t his daughter almost taken away by the ABO Association? Eight out of ten chances, Lin Er-mao chanted some kind of spell to ‘save’ her and bring her back.”

He brushed the melon seed debris off his hands. “Otherwise, why would she turn out like this the moment that person was put away?”

Once the director snapped back to his senses, he hurriedly ordered the staff to turn off the cameras while he rushed forward himself to scout out the situation.

Gu Ning sat below the stage watching in utter bewilderment. After listening to a round of gossip, he was practically flabbergasted and couldn’t help but complain, “Even this can be blamed on a curse?”

Ming Songqin poured him a cup of tea and handed him a wet wipe.

Gu Ning glanced at the wet wipe but only took the cup of tea to take a sip.

Ming Songqin firmly took his hand, which had been blackened by roasted melon seeds and wiped it clean, saying, “It’s normal.”

“Normal?”

Ming Songqin glanced at him and added, “Here, it’s normal.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Thank goodness I wasn’t born in this place.” Gu Ning curled his lips. “Terrifying.”

Taking advantage of the chaos, Xiao Yang darted up onto the stage from below, grabbed Wei An’s hand, and prepared to leave.

But after taking a few steps forward, he realized Wei An wasn’t moving. He turned his head back in a daze, only to see that Lin Luo had grabbed Wei An’s other hand.

“What exactly are you planning?” Lin Luo demanded.

Leisurely shaking off Xiao Yang’s hand, Wei An then glanced down at Lin Luo’s hand gripping his own, signaling him to let go.

Loosening his wrist, he didn’t rush to answer. Instead, he first directed his gaze toward Zhou Wan, who was sitting below the stage.

His smile was eerie. “It’s nothing. It has nothing to do with you.” He deliberately emphasized the final sentence with a vague weight.

Lin Luo froze.

Exactly as Wei An had anticipated, Lin Luo walked straight into the trap he had laid out, instantly beginning to overanalyze the subtle clues hidden within that heavily emphasized final remark.