Li Wanbai looked utterly bewildered. Who is this person? Do I even know you? Coming in and launching into a tirade right off the bat.
If this were a private setting, she would have boldly spoken her mind.
However… Li Wanbai lifted her gaze, discreetly scanning the surrounding cameras, and silently swallowed the string of questions in her mouth.
In front of the audience, she still had to put on an act.
She understood—as actors, they always had to be professional in their work.
She fell silent, but Quan Hao still seemed deeply unsatisfied. He opened his mouth, then laughed in exasperation: “What’s that expression on your face now? Pretending you don’t know me, is that it?”
It’s not that I’m pretending not to know you, buddy—I genuinely don’t know you.
Li Wanbai pressed her lips together, glanced at him discreetly, and frantically searched her memory for any information about him.
The more she searched, the more startled she became—she really didn’t seem to know this handsome guy in front of her.
After careful consideration, she chose to remain silent, feeling that if she laid her cards on the table, this guy would probably explode.
Quan Hao waited for a long time but received no further response from Li Wanbai. Fuming, he rolled his eyes and took a seat as far away from her as possible.
Yu Baichuan frowned thoughtfully, glanced at Li Wanbai, but also said nothing.
The small Western-style house was gradually filling with more people, yet an awkward silence persisted.
Li Wanbai, who was normally a chatterbox unable to stay idle—chatting with Xiao Tian in the car and attempting to engage the cameraman upon arriving at the house—now showed no intention of initiating conversation. Her eyes were filled with confusion.
[Someone save Li Wanbai! Why do I suddenly feel like she’s sitting there like a little kitten?]
[When immortals fight, mere mortals suffer. What does this clash between two big shots have to do with Li Wanbai? Haha, this is so entertaining.]
[I just find it strange. With Quan Hao and Yu Baichuan here, why did the show even invite Li Wanbai? What qualifies her to be in the same space as these two?]
[What qualifies her? Yu Baichuan is her husband, and Quan Hao definitely knows her too. All three of them know each other and have a good relationship. The comments are getting all worked up, fighting injustice for their favorites.]
[I don’t get it—how can anyone say they have a good relationship? Can’t you see the look in our Quan Quan’s eyes? He looks like he wants to devour both of them! What a despicable pair!]
[Hey, hey! Insult Li Wanbai all you want—she’s no saint anyway—but what does this have to do with Yu Baichuan?]
[What does it have to do with him? Quan Hao despises Yu Baichuan the most. What makes Li Wanbai worthy of knowing Quan Hao? If their relationship is bad, it’s definitely because of Yu Baichuan!]
[Argue all you want. I just want to see how the show will proceed from here. It’s completely dead air now.]
[Don’t worry, everyone! The true little angel who can break the ice is about to arrive!]
Not long after this comment appeared, the door of the small Western-style house opened once again.
Ye Xiruo walked in with an expressionless face, only to be met with three pairs of eyes. Stunned for a moment, her stiff expression immediately brightened into a radiant smile: “Teacher Yu!”
After taking a step or two forward, she noticed Quan Hao with his back to the door and quickly greeted him as well: “Teacher Quan, you’re here too.”
“Your tone makes it sound like you’re surprised to see me here? What? Can Yu Baichuan record this show but I can’t?” Quan Hao let out a cold laugh.
Li Wanbai, standing nearby, shrank her neck slightly, feeling immensely relieved.
Thank goodness she hadn’t provoked this person earlier – truly a firecracker that explodes at the slightest spark.
Ye Xiruo was also startled by his overwhelming words, quickly waving her hands in denial after regaining her composure: “No, Teacher Quan, you’ve misunderstood, how would I dare to speak like that?”
Quan Hao continued his cold laughter, too lazy to pay her any attention.
The live chat was going wild.
[This is the so-called little angel you chat folks mentioned? Just making this awkward atmosphere even more awkward! Please keep this kind of little angel away from our Quan Hao and Yu Baichuan, okay?]
[Don’t you find it strange? Although QH has a bold personality, being somewhat arrogant and willful, he’s not actually domineering. If he really had character issues, he wouldn’t persistently do charity work every year. Why is he targeting YXR like this? Could it be that YXR offended him?]
Ye Xiruo felt somewhat awkward, her gaze finally landing on the last person present. She smiled and nodded: “Xiaobai.”
“Hello there,” Li Wanbai returned the smile.
Su Chengzi didn’t have a good impression of Ye Xiruo, feeling that Ye Xiruo had stolen Li Wanbai’s resources. She believed the two were destined for conflict eventually.
However, Li Wanbai had never been particularly interested in entertainment industry matters anyway, and resource competition meant little to her. Ye Xiruo was the first contemporary she’d met after traveling ten years into the future. Though Ye Xiruo sometimes spoke harshly, regardless, she was someone Li Wanbai had personally chosen as a friend. More importantly, she seemed to know Mu Sang and understand what had happened between Li Wanbai and Mu Sang.
This was something even Su Chengzi couldn’t tell her. As long as the other party didn’t drop the act first, Li Wanbai didn’t mind maintaining superficial relations with her.
Li Wanbai was the only one who responded to Ye Xiruo’s greeting, being her senior from the same company. To outsiders, their relationship appeared quite good.
More importantly, before joining this program, company executives had specifically spoken with her, instructing her to seize any opportunity to gain exposure.
Having calculated all this, Ye Xiruo put on a bright smile and proactively walked toward Li Wanbai, seating herself on the long sofa not far from her. “Xiaobai, when did you arrive?” she asked.
Without waiting for Li Wanbai’s response, she turned to face the camera and said: “Everyone might not know this, but Xiaobai and I are actually really close! We were supposed to debut around the same time originally, but I wasn’t feeling well back then, so I could only let Xiaobai test the waters for me first~”
After speaking, she playfully made a funny face.
She was probably the only one present who treated the camera as an actual camera, and the first guest to actively interact with the audience.
The live chat felt flattered by the attention and became even more active.
Ye Xiruo’s fans instantly flooded in, dominating the entire screen.
[My dear sweetheart, but baby how did you get involved with Li Wanbai?]
[The only decent thing LWB ever did was probably serving as a stepping stone for our little leaf!]
Ye Xiruo had relatively good public appeal overall. As long as her fans didn’t get too carried away, hardly anyone would deliberately contradict them.
This time, however, they were clearly getting too carried away.
[“Ye Xiruo’s fans, don’t go too far. Listen to what you’re saying—is that even human language? How disgusting! Li Wanbai isn’t a good person, but does that make her some kind of saint? Why should she be your stepping stone?”]
Ye Xiruo glanced expressionlessly at the screen, her face stiffening briefly before she quickly regained her composure. She pretended not to see it. Let the fans tear into each other—the more fiercely they fought, the more it would boost her own publicity.
As for the potential harm to those who liked her… what did that have to do with her?
What she hadn’t expected, however, was for Quan Hao to suddenly speak up.