The Film Queen Is Cold and Ruthless, Only Sends Money - Chapter 21.4

The director and Liu Yangran, who had been listening nearby: “…”

When they first heard Su Yun’s words, they had assumed she was deeply affected by online hate, a fragile, sensitive soul.

They had been on the verge of offering comforting words, worried she might stumble upon negative comments and disrupt the show’s filming.

But now, it was clear Su Yun’s remark was just that, a simple observation, devoid of the complexity they’d imagined.

Still, Su Yun wasn’t entirely convinced by Jiang Zhi’s affirmation. She turned to the others. “Do you all really think the audience likes me because I’m smart?”

The director whose plans had been derailed, nearly costing him his position, and who had been roped into an escape-room-style survival show nodded. “I think so.”

Liu Yangran and Ye Ying, who had exhausted themselves completing tasks only to lose to Su Yun time and again, finally catching their breath: “They’re not wrong.”

[I thought this was the rare moment Su Yun lacked confidence! I was about to thank Jiang Zhi for speaking up for us viewers! Turns out, no guest is more self-assured than Su Yun!]

[HAHAHAHAHA!! Jiang Zhi: Your thinking is unique. Su Yun: Got it, you’re calling me smart!]

[Director and the others: I didn’t want to admit Su Yun’s smart, but if I don’t, doesn’t that make me the dumb one?!]

Su Yun, who had successfully earned praise from all the guests, was even more troubled. Jiang Zhi noticed something was off with her.

Normally, Su Yun would be overjoyed when complimented. Even if she didn’t show it outwardly, she wouldn’t frown. But now, it seemed like she didn’t quite agree with their words.

So Jiang Zhi asked, “What’s wrong?”

Su Yun replied, “I thought you all liked me for my beautiful appearance, but it turns out you love me for my talent.”

Silence. Tonight no, this afternoon’s Cambridge Bridge.

Both statements were utterly unreasonable. Yet anyone with a normal sense of aesthetics couldn’t deny that Su Yun was beautiful.

There was no rebuttal.

Su Yun didn’t need anyone else to comfort her, she let it go herself.

No matter what they liked about her, as long as it wasn’t her bank account balance, she had nothing to worry about.

–

The Lin Yan and Su Xue teams, who returned at the same time, rubbed their eyes in disbelief when they saw the people under the shade.

They wondered if the sun had fried their brains into hallucinating.

“When did you get back?” Lin Yan asked as she approached.

“A little earlier than you,” Liu Yangran, who had rested enough, answered Lin Yan’s question and made room for them. “Su Yun and Actress Jiang’s team came back even earlier than us.”

So, without a doubt, according to the terms of their alliance agreement, Su Xue and Jing Chaochao were third, while Lin Yan and Xu Zhi’s team were fourth.

Jing Chaochao: “…”

After checking in at all three locations, Lin Yan had already started planning their victory celebration on the way back.

For example, not to gloat, to be gentle and considerate when the losing teams returned, and to remember to comfort the last-place team, things like that.

Now, holding the iced tea Su Yun had handed her, she realized their predictions weren’t wrong. It was considerate, gentle, and thoughtful, just that the roles had been reversed.

[Let’s put Lin Yan’s words on the big screen: We can win!]

[Who says last place isn’t first? This is still a kind of victory, doge.]

[The last two teams perfectly embody four words: utterly defeated.]

Lin Yan was only curious about one thing: “How did you finish so quickly?”

Even with their two teams cooperating, they still couldn’t beat the others.

Su Yun explained how they analyzed the map to find shortcuts, and Liu Yangran’s team did the same. “Having a clear target definitely saves more time than searching aimlessly.”

When Su Xue heard that there were hidden clues in this round, her jaw dropped in shock. “No wonder we lost.”

After saying that, she glanced at the watermelon on the table and reached for a slice, only to meet the same fate as Liu Yangran’s team: stopped by the director.

Director: “Now that all the guests have returned, we’ll move on to the next segment. The guests will earn their lunch and fruit through tasks.

“Since Su Yun and Jiang Zhi’s team won, they don’t need to participate. The other three teams will receive different lunches based on their rankings.”

After the director finished explaining the rules, all the other guests’ eyes turned to Su Yun.

Su Yun, let out a satisfied burp.

Comparison is the thief of joy but when you’re the one being compared, Su Yun felt exceptionally joyful.

She kindly encouraged them, “Do your best! The lunch prepared by the show is delicious!”

The production team had prepared three sets of lunch, which were now being served.

The first-place meal, though slightly inferior to what Su Yun and Jiang Zhi had eaten, still came with fruit freshly taken out from the fridge. The second-place meal, however, had no such luxury.

As for the third place, it was a plate of uniquely prepared greens, and their appearance and variety were quite different from ordinary vegetables likely a local wild vegetable specialty from Herong County.

Vibrantly green and looking exceptionally fresh, arranged on a pure white porcelain plate, it stood out dazzlingly among the array of dishes.

Jing Chaochao: “Director, we thought you were going to bring out your favorite pickles and steamed buns again.”

But this plate of greens didn’t seem much better than steamed buns and tofu.

Director: “Changing up the dishes daily is good for your health.”

Lin Yan fell silent for a few seconds before saying, “So stir-fried greens can be called a dish now.”

Then the first-place dish might as well be called a royal banquet.

[Doesn’t this look a bit like the wild greens Su Yun used for her steamed fish yesterday? Didn’t expect to see it again today!]

[So this is what they call a master at predicting the theme?! Should the production team hire Su Yun as a planner?]

[Everyone, come to Su Yun’s livestream! It’s the best view for their competition!]

No matter how unwilling they were, they still had to try for lunch.

This round’s challenge was to guess the complete paper-cutting design based on a fragment.

The production team would show a portion of the full paper-cutting whether large or small, a corner or the middle and the guests had to deduce the entire pattern from the incomplete information.

Five sets of patterns would be displayed on the screen, with all three groups of guests answering simultaneously by writing their guesses on answer boards. Rankings would be determined by the number of correct answers.

Su Yun, listening to the rules from the side, said to Jiang Zhi, “This seems simpler than yesterday’s ‘guess the idiom from the drawing.’ No need to draw anything yourself.”

In some ways, the intricacy and detail of paper-cutting surpass even some paintings.

Jiang Zhi nodded. “But if the production team gives very little information, they might have to rely heavily on their imagination.”

When mentioning imagination, Jiang Zhi glanced at Su Yun, thinking no one present could match her in that regard.

Recalling the bizarre objects they had guessed at earlier, Su Yun looked at the competing guests with a hint of sympathy. “Good luck to them.”

For a moment, she even wondered if their absurd guessing game that morning had inspired the production team to come up with this challenge.

–

The competition started quickly. The first image shown was of the four corners of a paper-cutting.

The decorative patterns in the corners were intricate and beautiful, but they offered no help in guessing the overall shape instead, they added visual clutter, constantly disrupting their judgment.

[It’s this hard? I thought they’d show the main part of the paper-cutting!]

[Four corners? All I see are a bunch of horns at the top? ‘Horns on the head, a tail behind’?]

[How is the comment above audible?! But it does kind of look like horns just way too many? A mutated dragon?]

[I often feel out of sync with everyone else. How are your guesses even wilder than the guests’? We’ve gone from traditional paper-cutting art to interstellar mutant beasts?!]

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