Inside the restaurant, after Gu Xiaozhi finished crying, the stagehand picked up a loudspeaker and made an announcement.
“After a full day of hard work from our four groups, here are the financial results for each team.”
“The group of Yu Jiaojiao and Wen Qiang sold 3,600 yuan worth of goods, returned 1,100 yuan worth of goods, with a net profit of 700 yuan. They currently hold first place.”
“The group of Wei Luting, Gu Mi, and Wang Jiajia sold 2,000 yuan worth of goods, returned 1,400 yuan worth, with a net profit of 400 yuan. They currently hold second place.”
“The group of Fei Xiang and Peng Xiyuan sold 1,700 yuan worth of goods, returned 600 yuan worth, with a net profit of 300 yuan. They currently hold third place.”
“The group of Gu Xiaozhi sold no goods, returned 500 yuan worth, with a net profit of 0 yuan. They currently hold last place.”
Apart from Gu Xiaozhi, the other guests were all well aware of their standing. After the fun they’d had while setting up their stalls, the bond between them had deepened.
Wang Jiajia cheerfully congratulated Yu Jiaojiao and Wen Qiang on taking first place again, and the others followed suit with their own congratulations.
Gu Xiaozhi, on the other hand, stood off to the side, her expression twisted with displeasure. If not for the stagehand’s warning that any further outbursts would result in a breach-of-contract penalty, she probably wouldn’t have lasted another second.
The moment the stagehand announced the end of the episode’s filming, Gu Xiaozhi stormed off.
At the sight of this, the other guests and the production team all frowned in unison.
If the production budget hadn’t already been spent and filming couldn’t be paused, the director would have liked to “invite” her off the show right then and there.
Gu Xiaozhi’s original team of over a dozen people surrounded her as she stormed off, comforting her as they went. Without saying a word to anyone, the entire group left.
“Tsk.” Wang Jiajia let out a disdainful sound.
The others smiled awkwardly, forcing themselves to swallow their complaints.
They weren’t Wang Jiajia. Wang Jiajia was part of the same company as the production team, sharing a common interest. The crew wouldn’t leak her behavior to the public. The same couldn’t be said for the rest of them. For the sake of creating buzz, a single negative comment about Gu Xiaozhi could end up on the trending list the very next second.
Apart from Yu Jiaojiao and Gu Xiaozhi, none of the others knew about the change in investors.
Perhaps to lighten the mood, the director announced, “The production team has a new investor, with the funding doubled. To celebrate, let’s all have a group dinner tonight.”
“Wow!!” A flicker of surprise crossed Wang Jiajia’s eyes, but she enthusiastically applauded, playing along. She was one of the few who knew that Gu Xiaozhi had gotten onto the show through her investor connections. She hadn’t expected the investor to be replaced—no wonder the director and his team were acting so tough.
The other guests wore different expressions, but all of them appeared pleased and joined in the applause.
Once back in their respective dressing rooms, they immediately started making calls and asking around to find out what had happened.
But Sister Wang had intentionally asked the production team to keep Yu Jiaojiao’s identity as the new investor under wraps. As a result, only Wang Jiajia—an “insider”—knew the truth about this connection.
When she learned that it was actually Yu Jiaojiao herself who had made the investment, Wang Jiajia couldn’t hide the astonishment on her face. She turned to her assistant. “You mean it wasn’t some backer behind her?”
Her assistant sighed in admiration. “What backer? She is the backer!”
“Sister Jia, do you know? The moment Yu Jiaojiao’s agent said the word, an elite team showed up at the production site and doubled the investment without a second thought. Tens of millions, just like that!”
“I sensed something was off today, so I asked around. Turns out, before filming the first episode, Yu Jiaojiao was allergic to a C-brand necklace worth over half a million. She had someone throw it away and banned anything from that brand from ever appearing in front of her again. Her agent, not wanting to waste it, donated the necklace to the production team.”
“And that bicycle she brought herself? It’s worth two million yuan!!”
“Then later, when she drew the fishing task, the fishing rod the production team gave her was rigged—it broke the moment she cast it. They wanted to make the task harder for her. But then her agent made one phone call, and someone showed up with a truckload of fishing gear. You probably thought, ‘It’s just some fishing gear, how expensive could it be, right?'”
“Well, let me tell you—two of those rods were worth millions of yuan each. Every single one of the others was worth no less than ten thousand yuan. And she gave one to every single person on the production team.”
“People outside say she’s a drama queen. A drama queen? She’s a noble lady coming down to experience the life of commoners.”
Wang Jiajia covered her slightly agape mouth with her hand.
Her assistant concluded, “The good thing is, Sister Jia, you never offended Yu Jiaojiao. From now on, we’d better stay on good terms with her.”
“Of course.” Wang Jiajia let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, she was always tactful and had maintained a good relationship with Yu Jiaojiao.
Remembering that the production team had instructed them not to reveal Yu Jiaojiao’s identity as the investor, Wang Jiajia couldn’t help but guess at the reason. She had a clearer sense now of how to interact with Yu Jiaojiao.
Back in the dressing room, Yu Jiaojiao changed into a different dress.
All her clothes were either from brand deliveries or private custom orders. On Sister Wang’s advice, she wore only private custom pieces whenever she appeared in public.
But it didn’t really matter—she had more clothes than she could ever wear anyway.
The system reported from the side, “Host, congratulations on successfully completing the mission again. The fifth chapter of the manhua is now unlocked!”
With that, the shared manhua popped up in her mind.
Yu Jiaojiao, neither particularly interested nor opposed, continued reading the manhua.
【In the last chapter, it was mentioned that industry insiders had received clear signals from the wealthy family. The C-actor was facing massive breach-of-contract penalties and had been forced to leave the marriage with nothing. However, he still had considerable pre-marital assets, which he used to pay off his debts.
At the same time, he held a grudge against his unrelenting ex-wife and was determined to teach her a harsh lesson. So, right after the divorce, he immediately got involved with Assistant Yang, the personal assistant by his ex-wife’s side. Using his male charm, he made Assistant Yang completely infatuated with him, promising that if she followed his instructions and succeeded, they would officially be together.
Just as the two were secretly plotting how to obtain his ex-wife’s business secrets, they had no idea that the heiress had received a call from a branch manager of the family business’s subordinate company, informing her that her assistant was having an affair with the C-actor...】
The gossip-loving netizens flooded into the livestream just in time to see this episode.
【Just as we expected! So this is really what Chen Yizun was plotting!】
【Xu Jiayi is pretty smart. She probably won’t let us down.】
【Hahaha, my dad’s on the livestream!! Dad, you did great!! I love you!!】
【Good people have good fortune, Brother’s dad!】
【I want to see the next chapter where Xu Jiayi sends those two to prison!!】
【Hahaha, I’ll play “Tears Behind Bars” for Chen Yizun in advance~】