The single-episode filming duration for “Making Money Isn’t That Easy” was two days and one night. In the evening, the guests needed to rest in the town.
Last night, many people had gone to look for Lu Wanwan. Brother She did not participate—he had returned to his room early, but he wasn’t in a hurry to rest. He chatted and played games with people until the middle of the night, and this morning, the staff had to call him several times before he woke up.
After finishing his makeup, the other guests were already gathered around a table eating breakfast. Brother She picked an empty seat and sat down. Noticing that Lu Wanwan was missing, he raised an eyebrow and asked, “Where’s Lu Wanwan? Still not up yet? How can she be lazier than a grown man like me?”
The others exchanged glances, only then remembering that because of the conflict between the two, Brother She hadn’t gone to look for Lu Wanwan yesterday, and naturally, no one else would go out of their way to tell him about it.
Jiang Yuan, who was sitting next to Brother She, replied, “Lu Wanwan has already left. She was almost killed by a pervert last night, and now she’s gone to give her statement.”
Brother She nearly spat out the mouthful of porridge he was drinking. “What?” He looked up in disbelief. “What the hell happened? Who wanted to kill her? Why?”
Jiang Yuan: “I don’t know. She said she didn’t recognize the person.”
Brother She was skeptical. “Really? If she doesn’t know him, then why would someone kill her for no reason? Did she offend someone?”
Jiang Yuan shook his head. “Not sure. That’s what she said herself.”
Brother She curled the corner of his mouth, looking noncommittal.
“By the way, don’t let it slip during the livestream later. Director Fang instructed that this matter shouldn’t be mentioned,” Jiang Yuan reminded him.
Brother She pursed his lips. “I really wonder who she managed to offend. I just hope she doesn’t drag us into it.”
Sang Yueyi couldn’t listen any longer. She had always disliked Brother She—the man liked to make crude jokes, and before the first episode of filming, he had even made a joke at her expense. He was truly insufferable.
She stood up and carried her empty bowl to the table, making quite a bit of noise as she left. Brother She frowned, extremely displeased, and muttered curses under his breath. “What’s her problem!”
After breakfast, it was already past nine o’clock. The show began filming a new episode, and everyone went out to look for work. Some guests had already arranged things with their employers from yesterday and would go back to work today without needing to search again. Others weren’t so lucky—perhaps their work from yesterday hadn’t satisfied anyone, so they had to find new jobs today. Brother She was one of them.
The town the production team had chosen this time was small, with only one shopping street. Brother She asked for directions and came here to look for work.
As the largest supermarket in town, Brother She called over the owner and asked if there were any job openings.
The supermarket owner hesitated. “My supermarket could indeed hire one more person, but there was a young woman who worked here yesterday whom I thought was quite good. If she wants to come, I’d still prefer to give this job opportunity to her.”
Brother She’s hopes were dashed, and he quickly asked, “Who worked here yesterday?”
The owner replied, “Her name is Lu Wanwan.”
“Oh, it’s her!” Brother She grinned and laughed out loud, the gloom from before vanishing. “She can’t come anymore. Boss lady, just let me work for you!”
“Why? Did she go to work somewhere else?” the owner asked, puzzled.
“No, she…” Remembering Jiang Yuan’s instructions, Brother She paused for a moment, then quickly shifted his thoughts and feigned regret as he said, “The young lady must have offended someone. She almost got killed last night.”
“What?” The shopkeeper exclaimed in shock. “What happened? Is the young lady alright?”
“She’s fine. Luckily the police showed up in time and saved her.”
“Oh my! That’s good to hear!” The shopkeeper patted her chest. Such incidents rarely happened in this small town, and she had been startled. “That young lady seemed so well-behaved to me. What kind of trouble did she get into?”
“Who knows! It’s definitely not something trivial—it escalated to the point of murder.” Brother She trailed off as if hesitating, then said, “Forget it, I won’t say more. No matter what, people should get along peacefully. When you really push someone too far, who ends up suffering in the end is anyone’s guess.”
The shopkeeper nodded in agreement. “Exactly. It’s better to be kind-hearted in life.”
Brother She nodded repeatedly. “Right! So, shopkeeper, can I take on the work in your supermarket now?”
“Sure!” The shopkeeper laughed heartily. “I wasn’t familiar with you before, so I wanted to find someone I knew. But now, young man, I can see you’re kind-hearted too.”
Brother She laughed loudly. “Thank you for the compliment, shopkeeper.”
Brother She successfully landed the job and, in front of the camera, subtly undermined Lu Wanwan. He felt immensely satisfied, even imagining the explosive effect his leaked information would have on the trending search lists across major online platforms. It would be excellent publicity for both him and the production team. This failing show was losing viewers by the day—why couldn’t Director Fang see the value in using this incident to boost traffic?
The cameraman beside him was at a loss. Director Fang had repeatedly stressed that this matter must not be disclosed, yet Brother She, whether intentionally or not, had just blurted it out right in front of the camera. Now things were about to blow up!
Well, honestly, he thought Brother She did it on purpose. Everyone knew about his conflict with Lu Wanwan! But to smear someone else at the expense of the production team’s interests—that was going too far!
When Lu Wanwan walked out of the criminal investigation unit, she took out her phone from her bag and found over fifty missed calls and a flood of WeChat messages. Her first thought was that something must have happened, especially when she saw the calls were all from family and friends—she panicked.
She had put her phone on silent while giving her statement at the police station. What could have happened in just over an hour?
She quickly called her mother, Dai Yin. The call was picked up before the first ring even finished. Before she could ask anything, her mother anxiously said, “Wanwan, how are you? What happened? Are you hurt? Why didn’t you tell us sooner about something this big?”
Lu Wanwan could clearly hear the tears in her mother’s voice—she already knew. She quickly reassured her, “Mom, I’m perfectly fine, not a single hair out of place. I just ran into some creep, but it’s okay—the police have already caught him. Don’t worry.”
Dai Yin on the other end finally breathed a sigh of relief. “You poor thing, how unlucky can you get! As long as you’re safe. Your father and I saw the news online and were scared out of our wits.”
“Mom, don’t worry. When I get back, I’ll explain everything to you slowly. A lot of people have been calling me—they must have heard about it too. I need to let them know I’m okay.”
“Alright! Stay put in Heshan Town. Your father and I are already on our way. Don’t go anywhere—we’ll come pick you up.”
“What?” Lu Wanwan quickly stopped her. “Mom, don’t come over. I’m already back—I just finished giving my statement at the city criminal investigation unit and I’m heading home now. You two should come back too.”
“Oh, what a mix-up!” Dai Yin sighed. “Wanwan, wait at the entrance of the criminal investigation unit then. Your father and I will head over right now and pick you up. Don’t take a cab by yourself—what if you run into some creep again? What would your father and I do then?”
Lu Wanwan was about to say it wasn’t necessary, but she held back. Her parents would only worry more if she refused, so she agreed.
Less than a hundred meters from the criminal investigation unit was a coffee shop. Lu Wanwan decided to go in for a cup of coffee while waiting for her parents to arrive.
On a weekday morning, the coffee shop wasn’t crowded. Lu Wanwan took a seat by the window facing the street, where she could clearly see the criminal investigation unit diagonally across from her through the glass.
One by one, she replied to the messages from people who cared about her. By the time she finished responding to everyone, half an hour had passed. Only then did she realize just how well-liked she actually was.
After wrapping all that up, Lu Wanwan opened Weibo and saw her name at the top of the trending searches.
#Internet Celebrity Lu Wanwan Nearly Killed#
That headline was blunt enough.
Lu Wanwan tapped on it. The first post was from a marketing account.
【#Internet Celebrity Lu Wanwan Nearly Killed# According to internet celebrity Brother She’s revelation during today’s recording of the variety show “Making Money Isn’t That Easy,” on the evening of July 9th, internet celebrity Lu Wanwan was nearly killed while recording the same show. Fortunately, the police apprehended the attacker in time, and Lu Wanwan narrowly escaped with her life.】
The post had already amassed over a hundred thousand comments and shares.
Lu Wanwan clicked on the video attached to the post and watched the full two-minute clip from start to finish.
Director Fang had instructed yesterday that this matter shouldn’t be made public. She never expected Brother She to risk offending the production team just to smear her. How deep was his grudge against her?
Anyone with half a brain could see what he was implying—not so subtly, actually, quite blatantly—that the reason she was targeted was her own fault. That she must have done something heinous, forcing the other party to resort to murder out of desperation.
What a shameless, despicable man.
Lu Wanwan opened the comments section and nearly choked on her own blood. Plenty of people had indeed been misled by his narrative.
Top comment: 【What kind of deep-seated grudge could drive someone to murder? So curious!】
Second comment: 【Feels like a crime of passion to me.】
Third comment: 【Isn’t it inappropriate to speculate so casually before the investigation is complete?】
Fourth comment: 【Can someone tell me who these two people are?】
Fifth comment: 【The influencer circle is a mess. Everyone knows influencers are basically escorts. Who knows if she cheated on her boyfriend and got killed for it?】
Lu Wanwan couldn’t bear to watch any longer. A casual glance at the comments below showed all sorts of speculation—fine, then! In just two short hours, she, the victim, had already been branded a “scumbag.”
Trembling with rage, Lu Wanwan downed half a cup of coffee to calm herself before opening Weibo and typing out a post.
【Lu Wanwan: At 2 PM this afternoon, I will address this matter in full on my livestream. Please don’t be misled by what Ge Hongye @National Server’s Top Archer, known as Brother She, has said, and don’t jump to conclusions or pin all sorts of labels on me. Sorry, but I refuse to wear any of them!】
Since it had come to this, Lu Wanwan saw no point in beating around the bush—let the battle begin directly!
Still, she couldn’t help but start to wonder if she was the murderer, and the one she’d killed was, of course, Brother She.
Too bad—if it weren’t for the Bullet Chat, she’d have been dead long ago.