Shang Lu's words were so direct that it could be described as harsh.
"Who taught you to speak like this in front of your elders?" Father Shang looked at her with a reprimanding tone.
He only said that Shang Lu should not have said such things in front of elders, but he did not say that her words were wrong.
Both Jiang Yi and his parents couldn't bear it, and their faces showed signs of discomfort.
But Father Jiang was a smart businessman and immediately reacted, smiling as he stood up and said, "Xiao Lu, we have heard some rumors about those things in the entertainment industry, but we didn't really care about them. Uncle here also wants to apologize to you. But Uncle also wants to tell you this today, that little celebrity, Uncle will handle it to your satisfaction."
"Dad!" Jiang Yi was now visibly angry, knowing that it was not the right time to speak, but still said, "Ning Lin didn't do anything wrong, she is innocent…"
*Slap!*
Father Jiang was furious and slapped Jiang Yi directly, saying coldly, "You have no right to speak here! Do you really think you're something special?"
"Uncle doesn't need to get angry." Shang Lu took over Jiang Yi's words and looked at Father Jiang, continuing, "On this point, I agree with Jiang Yi. This matter has nothing to do with her. It's unfair to use power to oppress others. I just hope to dissolve this engagement and let Jiang Yi be with the person he loves openly and honestly, which is beneficial to both of us."
Jiang Yi lowered his head, lost in thought. His father was already sweating on his forehead, and his mother looked at a loss.
At this moment, the decision-making power was obviously in Father Shang's hands, but he said, "Shang Lu, why don't you and Jiang Yi take a walk in the garden? Some refreshments have been prepared for you there."
Father Shang's attitude was also quite evident, it was time for the parents to talk.
Shang Lu pursed her lips, didn't say anything, and walked outside.
Jiang Yi followed her at a distance of five steps, not too close nor too far.
Shang Lu sat down at the round table, and Jiang Yi pulled out the chair opposite her.
Shang Lu lowered her head and poured herself a cup of coffee.
It was iced, not convenient for her to drink.
She hesitated for a few seconds, then handed the coffee to Jiang Yi, saying, "Use it for your face."
Jiang Yi took the coffee, looked at Shang Lu, and his eyes were filled with emotions that he himself didn't even realize.
He was contemplating and hesitating about something.
Shang Lu took a deep breath and decided to have a calm and peaceful conversation with Jiang Yi for the last time.
So, Shang Lu looked at Jiang Yi directly and said, "It doesn't make any sense for us to keep dragging this on. If you really like Ning Lin, you should take responsibility for her. You can't claim to love her while not even giving her a proper status, and at the same time, dislike me but still want to use me. Don't make me look down on you for real, can you?"
Facing Shang Lu's words, Jiang Yi didn't answer, he just looked at her.
Shang Lu felt uncomfortable under his gaze and asked, "What are you looking at?"
"Nothing." Jiang Yi suddenly smiled and said, "Shang Lu, I always thought you've changed, but now it seems like I was mistaken, you're still as childish as before."
Shang Lu didn't like his tone of thinking he understood her so well, and said directly, "Just get to the point if you have something to say."
"You think we can dissolve our engagement just by reaching a consensus with me, but it might not be that simple." Jiang Yi picked up his coffee and took a sip before continuing, "I've said before, our engagement was arranged by our parents, and the most critical person in this is your father."
Shang Lyu frowned, "So what?"
In fact, Shang Lu didn't really understand her father. After all, in her father's eyes, this daughter was the culprit who took away his wife's life, and their relationship was as distant as strangers.
Jiang Yi smirked and looked at Shang Lu. His emotions had obviously calmed down, and he had returned to his usual suave and noble demeanor in the eyes of others.
He lightly caressed the rim of the coffee cup with his fingertips and then asked, "How about we make a bet? I won't have to do anything, and no matter what you do, as long as your father is still around, this engagement will continue."
He appeared overly confident, as if everything was within his control.
However, Shang Lu sneered and said, "Jiang Yi, put away your boring bet. No one can decide my life, including him."
Shang Lu didn't understand her father, so she didn't know that Jiang Yi knew her father so well.
After the servants came to escort them back, everything returned to the harmonious atmosphere of the past.
Jiang's parents said they would properly discipline Jiang Yi when they got back, and they were preparing to hold the engagement ceremony for her and Jiang Yi on Jiang Yi's birthday in two months.
Everyone seemed to disregard what she had said, and it seemed like everything had turned a new page.
Shang Lu couldn't take it anymore and was about to say something to her father, but Father Shang said, "Some things don't need to be rushed."
The dinner felt nauseating to Shang Lu.
Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, except for her, whose emotions were clearly on the verge of collapsing, like a hysterical madman waiting for that moment of complete eruption.
Strangely, the angrier one gets, the calmer they would be on the surface.
After dinner, she even followed Father Shang's arrangement and politely saw Jiang Yi and Jiang's parents off to their car.
Returning to the main hall again.
Shang Lu looked directly at her father and asked, "Do I have to marry Jiang Yi?"
Father Shang took off his glasses and rubbed his temples, then asked in return, "The engagement with the Jiang family was arranged when your mother was pregnant with you, as an unfinished wish of hers. Can't you even fulfill this small matter as an unworthy daughter?"
Absurd.
Shang Lu laughed.
So that's the reason. No wonder Jiang Yi was so confident, it was related to her mother.
Indeed, anything related to her mother would be enough to turn her already somewhat pathological father into a completely paranoid lunatic.
She looked at the man in front of her.
He was a devoted husband, but also a cold-hearted father.
Shang Lu suddenly felt he was very pitiful, and herself as well.
Because her birth caused her mother to leave, she had been labeled as an unworthy daughter by her father since birth.
Her father hated her, her brother resented her, and there was no one in this family who loved her.
In fact, Shang Lu had once fantasized that if her mother were still alive, she would have loving parents and maybe a doting brother, and it would be a family that everyone envied.
But there were no "ifs" in this world.
However, Shang Lu had never thought that just because of a casual remark her mother made, perhaps as a joke, her life would be confined to that framework.
It was so unfair.
Shang Lu couldn't help but close her eyes, and a sarcastic smile appeared on her lips. "If I refuse, what would you do? Will you tie me up and take me to the civil affairs bureau to register with him? Or wait until the wedding night and let him forcefully take me? Better yet, I could bear him a child as soon as possible, a child who shares both his and my blood, and carries all the hatred of their parents since birth!"
But then her voice softened, with a bewildered tone that she herself couldn't understand, murmuring, "Is this what you want? To live the latter half of my life hating my own child, just like you do?"
*Bang!*
The tea table was flipped over directly, and the tea set was scattered all over the floor.
Broken glass pieces were scattered all over, and hot water splashed on Shang Lu's legs.
She looked at her father, whose hand was raised high in the air, just a few centimeters away from her face.
The room was a mess, and the servants were hiding at the door, afraid to even breathe.
But in the end, the hand that was raised in the air turned into a clenched fist and fell. Father Shang looked at Shang Lu, his chest heaving with anger, and asked, "Are you resenting me?"
"Why not?" Shang Lu found the question ridiculous. Since they had come to this point, there was nothing she couldn't say anymore. She replied directly, "Should I love and respect a father like you?"
Father Shang's face darkened, and he quickly turned the wedding ring on his hand, as if only this way could he calm down his emotions the fastest.
He didn't respond to Shang Lu's words, but instead said, "If you refuse to marry Jiang Yi and fulfill your mother's wish, then you are not worthy to be a daughter of the Shang family. It's up to you to choose, either marry Jiang Yi or completely cut off ties with the Shang family, and you won't get a penny from the family from now on."
In other words, Father Shang's threat was that either she married Jiang Yi, or she would sever all ties with him and the Shang family, along with any financial support.
Sure enough, this kind of threat successfully stunned Shang Lu.
Seeing Shang Lu's obvious stunned expression, Father Shang felt that he had regained control and asked, "Are you scared now?"
"Not really scared, just a little pleasantly surprised." Shang Lu looked at her father seriously, and then sighed, "So I can choose not to marry Jiang Yi, and also cut off ties with you and the Shang family? Turns out there are such good things in the world? I get to enjoy all the benefits myself."
Under the incredulous gaze of her father, Shang Lu quickly lowered her head and rummaged through her bag, pulling out a bank card and handing it to him as if afraid that he would change his mind in a split second.
"All the living expenses that you had your assistant transfer to me over the years, I haven't used any of them. They are all here. Of course, if you think there's a problem, you can have the assistant contact me. Goodbye, Mr. Shang!"
Amidst her father's angry roar, Shang Lu left without looking back.
The next step was a familiar routine. Shang Lu quickly blocked all of her father's contact information, just like she did to Jiang Yi.
She stood in place, looking back at the Shang family mansion, and then at the window of her own bedroom.
Her heart felt inexplicably empty.
She suddenly remembered that there was a plush toy in her room that Jiang Yi had given her a long time ago.
But that was something to be discarded as well.
Perhaps this time, she could finally be free.
From the second episode, the variety shoy
And this time, the one who topped the poll by a large margin was—
Ning Lin.
Shang Lu learned about this news while on her way to shoot a cosmetics advertisement.
Meng Zhichuan, who was driving, exclaimed angrily, "Xiao Taoyan actually wants to invite Ning Lin? What dodo they want to do? Are they targeting us?"
He had also started calling the show by its nickname given by Shang Lu.
Meanwhile, Shang Lu took a sip of her lemonade through the straw, and the sourness made her facial features almost scrunch up, but she still comforted Meng Zhichuan, "It's normal. Doesn't it indirectly reflect that I'm the biggest topic of this show? It's a good thing."
But Meng Zhichuan was still angry, "But isn't it too obvious that they just want to capitalize on you? I hope Ning Lin won't accept this variety show, otherwise, it would be troublesome for us."
Shang Lu yawned, "Don't delude yourself. You know she will definitely come."
For celebrities, the most important thing is popularity. This variety show had attracted the attention of many companies and teams even before it started airing, and now, after the first episode was recorded, it gained high popularity and became a hot topic in the industry.
Moreover, in Shang Lu's memory of the original plot, Ning Lin had also left a good impression on Song Zeqian because of this variety show, and she had gained Song Zeqian's appreciation during the subsequent auditions for his drama. This should be an indispensable part of the plot.
"Then, what should we do…"
When facing a red light, Meng Zhichuan reached out and touched his not-so-abundant hair, then patted his head, saying, "How about we join a filming crew quickly? Or find a business opportunity abroad and skip this episode!"
"Are you suggesting that I run away?" Shang Lu furrowed her brows, clearly unhappy with Meng Zhichuan's suggestion.
"How can you call it running away? I'm just looking out for you," Meng Zhichuan immediately corrected Shang Lu's statement, speaking earnestly, "Do I need to give you examples of how much you've suffered at Ning Lin's hands over the years? You finally did well last episode and people started praising you. But if she sabotages you again, won't you be back to square one? Let's play it safe and avoid it."
Although these words were not pleasant to hear, they made Shang Lu roll her eyes at her own manager and say, "Unless you can get me an endorsement from a top-tier brand that would make everyone think it's worth giving up this variety show, otherwise running abroad at this time would just mean we're chickening out, right?"
"So what? If you don't go, you'll just be ridiculed for a week. But if there's any problem during the recording, it will be replayed and mocked repeatedly in various awkward moments of variety shows in the future," Meng Zhichuan said with a more pained expression, as if he could already see his artist being humiliated repeatedly in compilations of embarrassing scenes.
"Who do you think you're looking down on? Let her come if she wants to come, it has nothing to do with me," Shang Lu looked at Meng Zhichuan with an extremely serious expression, then placed a hand on her chest, saying solemnly, "For me, this is my variety show, it's my fans who have worked hard to vote for me, so no matter what, I absolutely won't back down this episode."
Meng Zhichuan : "…"
Enough, please stop talking.
He knew that his artist's way of thinking was always unique, but wasn't it going too far this time? Did she really need to repay her black fans' efforts so seriously? It wasn't necessary at all!!!
However, the argument quickly stopped because they had arrived at the location for the advertisement shoot.
Outside the building, fans were waiting on both the inside and outside the building. There were merchandises for support placed everywhere along the roadside, but of course, these had nothing to do with Shang Lu.
Because the celebrity shooting the advertisement with Shang Lu today was Ye Lu's teammate Xia Yuan, who was also the only top idol in the country.
It's worth mentioning that there aren't many opportunities for idols to showcase their talents in China, so the current top-tier celebrities are mostly actors with hit dramas. As an idol, Xia Yuan's ability to be included in this group already proves his high popularity.
This beauty advertisement shoot was for a first-tier brand in China, with Shang Lu being appointed as the brand ambassador, while Xia Yuan was the spokesperson for the Chinese region.
When Meng Zhichuan escorted Shang Lu inside, he shouted, "Make way, let's give way, everyone."
After all, these were Xia Yuan's fans, and they politely made way for Shang Lu to pass.
Just then, a female voice shouted, "Shang Lu! Can you help us deliver flowers to Xia Yuan?"
Hearing the voice, Shang Lu stopped and looked at the girl who shouted. She was holding a bouquet of sunflowers.
So, she naturally agreed, "Sure, give it to me."
The girl was originally half-joking, but she didn't expect Shang Lu to actually agree. She immediately handed over the flowers and said, "Thank you so much!"
It was just a matter of a small effort. With one hand holding the bouquet of flowers, Shang Lu walked upstairs directly to find Xia Yuan.
Inside the dressing room.
A man was sitting cross-legged on the sofa playing a game, while a makeup artist was kneeling on the floor, touching up his makeup.
Hearing the sound of the door being opened, Xia Yuan looked up and saw Shang Lu. He immediately turned off his phone and threw it aside.
Then he looked at the makeup artist at his feet and said with concern, "I told you it would be hard like this, get up quickly."
After speaking, Xia Yuan looked at Shang Lu again, with a faint smile on his face, and asked, "Is there something you need?"
He had handsome features, and his gentle smile made people instantly have a good impression of him.
Shang Lu handed over the bouquet of flowers from her arms and said, "Your fans asked me to pass this on."
"It's too much trouble for you to do this kind of thing. I will thank them." Xia Yuan said with some apology in his eyes.
"It's no big deal." Shang Lu replied, and without staying for long, she turned around and walked towards her own dressing room.
Today's shoot was also simple. Besides Shang Lu and Xia Yuan, there were two other brand ambassadors who also came. Everyone just held the products and posed according to the photographer's instructions, and it didn't take too much time.
However, after the shoot, Xia Yuan took the initiative to look for Shang Lu.
He handed her some desserts and fruits, and said a little shyly, "Thank you for helping me with the flowers from my fans earlier."
After speaking, Xia Yuan sat on the sofa next to Shang Lu, took out his phone and continued, "Teacher Shang, I am Ye Lu's teammate and also his good friend. I also received an invitation from the production team of the program
As he said this, a hint of nervousness appeared on his face, as if he felt a little abrupt and added with some embarrassment, "It's okay if it's not convenient."
It wasn't inconvenient, so Shang Lu added him on WeChat.
Throughout the process, Meng Zhichuan stood at the door with his arms crossed, staring at Xia Yuan with a complex expression.
Until he and Shang Lu started on their way back.
Meng Zhichuan couldn't help but gossip and ask, "What's the deal between you two? That kid definitely has some feelings for you with the way he looks at you."
"I think so too, maybe he has a crush on me." Shang Lu replied casually.
Meng Zhichuan was just talking casually, but when he heard that, he saw that it struck a chord with Shang Lu. He then solemnly cautioned her, "You must not get involved with Xia Yuan. Although he's indeed popular, good-tempered, good-looking, and according to the standards of young girls like you, he's a perfect boyfriend, but he's an idol, an idol you understand? If you date him, his girlfriend fans1 will drown you in their saliva with just one spit."
"I know," Shang Lu pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, and continued, "I feel that there's something off about him."
Meng Zhichuan asked in confusion, "What's off? He's quite polite, and he seemed to take care of you during the shoot."
"I don't know," Shang Lu shook her head, unable to give a clear answer for now. She looked out the window, her eyebrows still furrowed, and said slowly, "It's probably just my intuition."
On the other side.
In the dressing room.
Xia Yuan had just uploaded a photo on Weibo of him holding flowers, expressing his gratitude for the fans' kindness. He regretted not being able to see them again today due to work reasons, and the staff had already sent milk tea to the fans outside, hoping everyone would go home early and stay safe on the way.
In just a few minutes, the comments on his Weibo exceeded tens of thousands, with fans screaming with excitement.
[Who is the lucky sister who sent this bouquet of flowers and got recognized? Xia Yuan and Yuanzi2 will always be running towards each other]
[I got the milk tea, the staff are also super gentle, today is another happy day, just a little pity that I can't see Xia Yuan again]
[It can't be helped since it's due to work reasons, we all understand, we all miss you a lot, take care of yourself!]
However, in reality, the bouquet of flowers carefully chosen by the fans had already been thrown into the trash like garbage.
It was just worthless stuff.
A knock on the door sounded, and the manager walked in.
"The back door has no fans, it's more convenient to go that way," the manager said, looking at Xia Yuan strangely and asking, "What are you looking at?"
Xia Yuan smiled and turned his phone around, facing his own manager. The enlarged screen on the phone showed a selfie of Shang Lu.
The manager was stunned for a moment, finding it hard to believe. "Is this Shang Lu?"
Xia Yuan nodded.
The manager looked uneasy, hesitated for a few seconds, and advised, "Isn't this not convenient? After all, Shang Lu is a female celebrity. If something really happens, it won't look good for us."
"What could possibly happen? You're too timid, it's not the first time," Xia Yuan said, taking back his phone and swiping on the screen, continuing to look at Shang Lu's photos.
Then he commented, "I have to say, Shang Lu is really beautiful. She has a big chest and a slim waist, just my type. Put away that deadpan face of yours, what's there to worry about? With this third-tier female celebrity, if I have the chance to get her into my bed, she would be so eager to please me. I'm really looking forward to it."
Although he had a good appearance, and he looked like the gentle and clean type that young girls liked, just like the pure and gentle white moonlight that is easy to have a crush on during school days, but the words he spoke at this moment would make anyone who heard them nauseous.
That night, on the eve of the recording of the second episode of
@The_Most_Hated_Her_And_Him (V) : Welcome the new guest of this episode (heart emoji) @Ning_Lin (V).
The comments were filled with shock.
[What the fck! What the fck! What the f*ck!]
[Did I read it right? Did the show really invite Ning Lin? Now there's something interesting to watch!]
[Shang Lu and Ning Lin in the same frame? This unethical and fun dream has come true! So exciting!!!]
[They're going all out in just the second episode? I love it! Dreaming of having Young Master Jiang in the third episode, since we're pursuing excitement, let's go all the way!]
…
The next morning.