When Su Weisheng came back, he found everyone sitting silently in the monitoring room. The atmosphere was filled with an indescribable kind of silence.
Looking at the various expressions on everyone’s faces, he couldn’t help but feel confused. “What, Jiang Naitang didn’t come in handy?” By all logic, that shouldn’t be the case. That kitten was a real menace. Even in the underworld, it was the kind of fierce spirit that made ghosts steer clear. That’s exactly why he had casually brought it along to the filming crew.
The moment it heard someone questioning its usefulness, the Maine Coon immediately perked up its ears and slapped the ground in displeasure, letting out a disgruntled “meow-wu” at its poop-scooping human, demanding he vouch for it.
“How could this possibly be our Tangbao’s fault? It’s clearly the screenwriter’s fault! The director’s fault! The extras’ fault! And the actors’ fault, too!” Jiang Qiuxin instantly launched into a blame-shifting tirade, managing to throw shade at everyone, whether present or not, leaving the room in stunned silence.
Only the Maine Coon proudly lifted its chin, looking every bit the hero who had just accomplished a great feat.
Su Weisheng’s head was starting to throb from the chaos stirred up by this deranged cat slave. He rapped his knuckles on the table and said, “Cut the nonsense. Explain everything from start to finish—clearly.”
Jiang Qiuxin shut up instantly, and Jiang Naitang quickly ducked its head, burying itself into its poop-scooper’s arms, pretending nothing had happened.
As expected, it was Bai Songyin who was the most obedient. Although the matter was a bit embarrassing to talk about, he still braced himself and stepped forward to explain: “It’s like this, great-grandfather… With the cat’s power backing us up, we managed to subdue those evil ghost extras quite smoothly. But because the process caused such a huge commotion, the place where we were holding the actors became poorly guarded. Later, we got so absorbed in teaching the extras to recite the upcoming scenes that in the end it led to…”
“The extras spent the whole afternoon memorizing the lines of utter misery, and just when they had finally gotten everything down and were ready to follow the plot, we returned to the cruise ship and found that all the actors had disappeared.”
Su Weisheng raised an eyebrow. “And then?”
Bai Songyin: “Then… by the time we realized it, it was already too late. So when we finally tracked them down, Teacher Xie and Brother Ran had already led everyone into the peach forest to escape…”
Su Weisheng had already anticipated what was coming next. “The peach grove was set as the final stage in the script. They ran ahead of schedule and went there too early…”
“Exactly. Originally, Su Anyao and Gu Shuangshuang, who were hiding in the peach grove, were meant to be the final boss. But those guys went too early, and as soon as they arrived, they were directly captured and taken out.”
“The actors’ first-round storyline wrapped just like that.”
What a massive blunder. No wonder everyone’s expressions were so odd.
Su Weisheng rubbed his brow, speechless, though he remained relatively calm. After all, with such a bunch of blockheaded actors and staff, he’d long since prepared himself for any and all unexpected incidents.
“It’s fine. What we’re after is their most genuine reactions in the first place,” Su Weisheng said calmly, waving a hand. “Let’s stick to the plan. The actors will rest for two days, then begin the second round. Over the next few months, we’ll cycle through the different rounds and extract the valuable narrative elements from each.”
“Got it! We’ll make sure to complete the task!” Seeing that great-grandfather wasn’t angry, everyone immediately bounced back into a motivated state.
You Sui asked curiously, “Then why haven’t we seen the actors? Where are they?” As he spoke, he switched on the surveillance monitor.
*
Inside the small house in the peach grove, the actors were sitting together in a stalemate, wide-eyed and staring at one another.
Gu Shuangshuang and Su Anyao were leaning together, happily munching on peaches. Seeing the others remain motionless, she even took the initiative to call out, “Come on, eat some! These peaches are super sweet… Don’t tell me you’re still mad about me scaring you earlier? That was just acting, I had no choice.”
Qin Xiaohe and Tong Wei stared at her with wooden expressions.
If those evil ghosts had just been extras made up by the production team, then wasn’t this already-dead actress showing up again in front of them a little too terrifying?
The moment the two of them entered the peach grove and saw Gu Shuangshuang, they were so frightened they fainted on the spot. When they opened their eyes again, the first round was already over.
The most ridiculous part was that, except for those two, everyone else seemed unusually calm when facing Gu Shuangshuang.
Qin Xiaohe couldn’t hold back his curiosity any longer. After hesitating for a moment, he cautiously called out, “Gu Shuangshuang…? Are you Gu Shuangshuang?”
“I’m not!” Gu Shuangshuang answered calmly and sincerely. “I’m just an actress who looks a lot like Gu Shuangshuang, so the crew recruited me to partner with Su Anyao and play the late Gu Shuangshuang. That way, the effect would be perfect.”
As she spoke, she took a bite of the fruit. “See? I’m even eating peaches. I’m definitely alive.”
Zhi Yu nodded beside her, firmly backing her up. “Yeah, yeah, I was scared too when I first saw her, but then she explained it, and I realized it was just that they look alike. Haha, at first glance it really was frightening.”
Qin Xiaohe and Tong Wei still hesitated a little. “Really…?”
“Of course,” Gu Shuangshuang said, rolling her eyes and pointing to Su Ran. “If you don’t believe me, ask Brother Ran. He and I have worked together.”
Su Ran, still sunk in the sorrow of his entire persona falling apart, was momentarily stunned by her words. Slowly coming to his senses, he nodded. “Ah… yes, we have worked together.”
“So it’s just a resemblance,” Tong Wei and Qin Xiaohe both breathed a collective sigh of relief, then grew curious. “Brother Ran, what kind of work have you done together? Your next project?”
Mentioning their cooperation brought a subtle change to Su Ran’s expression, but with an impatient tone, he said, “Our cooperation is obviously something important. How could I just let you know? Go, go, go—aren’t you all starving? Hurry up and eat; don’t cause trouble here.”
“Alright then…”
Xie Wei and his wife had already gone to eat, and Qin Xiaohe, Tong Wei, and Zhi Yu were sent away as well. The three remaining exchanged glances, obviously ready to talk about this mysterious “cooperation”.
Su Ran slowly spoke up, taking the initiative to start the conversation: “During this period, you two have written a total of…”
Gu Shuangshuang: “Fifty fanfics about LuSu Street, all with you as the top and Lu Huanjin as the bottom. There are both long and short stories, totaling over one million words.”
Su Anyao replied in a heavy tone: “Just on April 4th alone, fifty stories were written. Plus, our friends and wives all wrote an average of twenty stories each to make a living. Together, it became a grand-scale operation, producing so much content that it seemed endless. In just a few months, it formed a phenomenon where casual readers would be shocked when they saw the tag, realizing that the top star as the dominant was actually an illusion created by your fan circle in America…”
Su Ran wore a serious expression and righteously corrected her, “That’s real heat I’ve spent real money to fuel. How could that be an illusion?”
The two of them: “…”
The top star browsed through the fanfic website’s tags, looking quite pleased at the popularity shown. Generously, he transferred a large sum to them, encouraging, “Keep it up, keep writing. One day, you’ll brainwash the casual readers into the correct way of thinking.”
At that moment, he slapped his own head, “Oh right, I’ve got a new mission for you!”
“What?” The two stared at him, barely processing what he said.
The top star glanced around mysteriously to make sure no one was paying attention, then quietly whispered to them: “I’m telling you, besides the LuSu Street fanfics, you can also contact those other fanfic writers and have them write some Red-Black CP fanfics—like my Great-grandfather as the top and You Sui as the bottom. Make You Sui the shameless bottom, the more shameless, miserable, and obsessively in love with my Great-grandfather and unable to get him, the better…”
Gu Shuangshuang stared at him in shock, incredulous: “You… you’re willing to invert your own CP, but now you want to invert my true love, my white moonlight CP?”
Su Anyao also reproached him bitterly: “Teacher Su, doesn’t your conscience hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t,” Su Ran said confidently. “All of us Su family members are tops. You guys have got your top-bottom dynamics all wrong. I’m just kindly helping everyone to correct their thinking!”
“…” Screw you!
Gu Shuangshuang slammed the table outright. “If you’ve got the guts, write it yourself! Even my true love CP, you want to invert? Fine, then I’m not eating this meal!”
Backstage, everyone in the monitoring room exchanged glances.
Su Weisheng sighed speechlessly. “Can someone please tell them the backstage cameras are still on?”
You Sui curved his fox-like eyes and smiled, adding cheerfully, “Why tell them? Then there’d be no fun to watch. Let the crazy kid keep talking, keep chatting. I want to hear how much more insight he has about Great-grandfather and Great-grandmother…”
Uh…
Everyone silently prayed in their hearts for Su Ran, hoping the top star wouldn’t meet too miserable an end.
