CH 38.1

Han Songxue’s face hardened, and she immediately slapped Su Chengyang’s hand from her head.

“You guys always bully me!”

Su Chengyang asked, “How did we bully you? By talking about things you’ve done?”

The group laughed and didn’t notice that the cable car had already docked at the shore.

The assistant director cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention back to the person in the cable car.

Tian Rong still had a veil covering her face, revealing only her eyes and a forehead adorned with a flower hairpin.

“Let’s welcome today’s ambassador!”

Everyone applauded and didn’t intend to embarrass Tian Rong.

Tian Rong smiled and nodded to the crowd before speaking, “Welcome everyone to my hometown, I am Tian Rong.”

“Welcome, welcome.”

“Miss Tian is a local.”

“I thought I recognized you yesterday, it turns out to be you, Miss Tian.”

Everyone, whether they knew each other or not, exchanged greetings. After all, the program was still being recorded and they couldn’t really let her leave the stage.

Tian Rong smiled and echoed a few words, then stood with everyone in a row.

Su Chengyang and Han Songxue stood at the very edge. When they saw Tian Rong approaching, the others automatically moved aside, leaving the center spot for her.

Actually, in the previous episodes of the program, they didn’t pay much attention to their standing positions. It was all the same to them where they stood, so it was only polite to give up the center spot.

“Now that everyone is here, let’s play a game with everyone.”

“Is it a game where the winner gets to take the cable car and the loser has to climb up on foot?”

The assistant director nodded with a “children can be taught” expression.

“There are nine of you in total, and six of you can take the cable car up, while the remaining three guests need to climb the mountain on foot.”

Hearing this, Su Chengyang turned her head and looked at the endless staircase, feeling nothing.

Anyway, this trip was just for sightseeing, and climbing the mountain was meaningful.

“If only I had known, I wouldn’t have come down,” Tian Rong complained, glaring at the assistant director.

Everyone laughed in agreement and asked about the rules of the game.

The assistant director said, “The game rules are simple. It’s a poetry fill-in-the-blank. The program team will provide the first part of a poem, and you need to complete the second part. For example, ‘With a bamboo staff and straw sandals, one easily outpace a galloping horse,’ you would complete it with ‘Who’s afraid? With a rain cape, I wander carefree through a misty landscape.‘”

The group nodded in understanding.

“Since each cable car can accommodate two people, the three people who are first to answer correctly can choose a partner to ride with them.”

“Understood!”

“The first sentence is ‘At Yellow Crane Tower, is my old friend still there? Though the landscape is new, my feelings remain the same.‘ Let’s start with Xiaoyou.” The assistant director pointed to Qin You on the other side of the team.

Qin You nodded, “I would rather buy the osmanthus flowers and share a drink with you, but it’s not as good as when we were young. From <Tang Duoling> by Liu Guo.”

The assistant director laughed, “Perfect. Let’s have Xiaoyou tell us the source of each poem.”

“Next is ‘Small raindrops moisten the street, and the grass appears green from afar, but up close, it’s nothingness.‘”

Shen Fu thought for a moment, “It’s most pleasant in spring, where the imperial city is filled with willow trees and smoke.“

Qin You said, “From <Early Spring: Written for Water Officer Zhang, One of Eight> by Han Yu.”

“There is a beauty in the north, unparalleled and independent.“

“With one look, she conquers the entire city; with a second, she conquers the entire country.“

“<Song of Beautiful Women> by Li Yannian.”

“Qinghai’s long clouds obscure the snowy mountains, the lonely city gazes towards Yumen Pass.“

“The yellow sand battles wearing golden armor, if Loulan is not broken, it will never return.“

“<Departing for the Army> by Wang Changling.”

. . . . .

Su Chengyang stood at the end of the line, listening to the poems recited fluently in front of her. She couldn’t help feeling a little regretful, as she didn’t know many poems. Although she didn’t understand the meaning of most of them, she still felt they were beautiful.

Because the program team chose relatively common poems, no one had been eliminated until Su Chengyang.

“Red beans grow in the south, in spring they sprout a few branches.“

Su Chengyang was startled. It was quite a coincidence that this was one of the few poems she could recite.

“I wish you would gather more of these, as this is the most heartwarming thing.“

Qin You said, “<Longing> by Wang Wei.”

“Correct! It seems that the poems we prepared for the first round were too simple. We need to increase the difficulty in the second round.”

“Come on! Who’s afraid of who!”

Su Chengyang breathed a sigh of relief in her heart. If she had been eliminated in the first round, it would have been a bit awkward.

As soon as Su Chengyang lifted her head, she saw a conspicuous figure in the crowd.

She looked up and unexpectedly met the gaze of that person. Under the four-eyed confrontation, Su Chengyang was the first to look away.

She almost forgot that Xiao Lu had said before that Manager Lin would come directly to today’s recording location.

Lin Yu stood in the crowd, and his gaze fell on Su Chengyang for a few seconds. Seeing her hurriedly avoiding his eyes, he frowned involuntarily.

In the second round, Qin You still led the way.

“On this day last year, east of Dongmen, Fresh makeup glows and peach blossoms are red.“

Qin You was stunned because this poem was derived from <Title of the Southern Mansion in the Capital>, which was not as well-known as the former.

“Peach blossoms are red. Blown away by the east wind. <Recalling Qin E> by He Zhu.”

“I haven’t heard of this poem before. Qin You, you’re amazing!”

Qin You was a little embarrassed and said, “I used to like reading poetry.”

Then they started the next one.

“Think of yourself and not of your desires, act according to your knowledge of what is right.“

Shen Fu paused and looked confused, “What?”

“What? I’ve never heard of this.”

“Yeah, how do we continue from here?”

Qin You said, “The second half of the sentence is very simple.”

“What is it?”

Shen Fu couldn’t answer and was eliminated. The assistant director asked Qin You to take over.

Qin You said, “The second half is ‘When we part, let’s not forget each other, and cherish each step we take.‘”

Everyone was silent.

In the second round, Shen Fu was the first to be eliminated.

The program’s prepared poems became increasingly difficult, and by the time it reached Su Chengyang, three people had already been eliminated.

“Flowers drift in the wind, water flows on its own, one kind of longing, two different sorrows.“

“Protest!”

As soon as the assistant director finished speaking, the eliminated Han Songxue shouted in protest.

“They’re all so difficult for us, but Chengyang’s is too simple!”

Shen Fu nodded in agreement.

Assistant Director: “Protest invalid, Chengyang please answer.”

Coincidentally, Su Chengyang happened to know this poem.

Although Lin Yu’s sudden appearance made her panic for a moment, she had a calm attitude and quickly regained her composure.

At this moment, she treated Lin Yu as if he didn’t exist, without any psychological burden.

“This feeling cannot be eliminated by any means, it sinks from the brows to the heart.“

Lin Yu found a seat behind the staff and, coming to his senses from Su Chengyang’s avoided gaze, relaxed his furrowed brows and heard her unhurried voice.

The meaning of these words is not difficult to understand.

This feeling cannot be eliminated by any means, it sinks from the brows to the heart.

Lin Yu was stunned for a moment, then laughed again. He blamed himself for thinking more and more.

Although Su Chengyang relied on luck to make it through the second round, she ultimately lost in the third round. The final winners were Qin You, Jiang Shanqi, and Song Mingan.

Qin You and Song Mingan winning against Su Chengyang was not unexpected, but they did not expect that Jiang Shanqi also liked reading.

“Please write down the names of the guests you want to invite to ride the cable car with you on the paper in front of you and hand it to the staff.”

“Got it.”

The three wrote down the names and handed the papers to the staff.

Tian Rong stood calmly in place, not so much that she didn’t care who they would write down, as she was confident that someone would write down her name.

She had participated in many variety shows before, and the old hands in variety shows would take care of newcomers to varying degrees.

Even if they didn’t like her because of Su Chengyang, they couldn’t openly show it, and besides, the clothes she was wearing were not suitable for climbing.

“By the way, I forgot to remind everyone that if the three guests invited have duplicate names, they cannot choose again. The guest who was chosen will decide who to ride with, and the empty cable car position will be filled by the guest with the duplicate name.”

Su Chengyang didn’t care about this. She covered her eyes with her hand, avoiding the bright sunlight, and glanced halfway up the mountain, wondering if she would encounter any small animals on the way.

The staff handed the note to the assistant director, who couldn’t help but pull the corner of his mouth when he saw the three names on the paper.

Everyone looked at him curiously.

The three winning guests looked at each other, suddenly feeling a sense of foreboding.

“First, let’s announce Jiang Shanqi’s chosen guest to ride the cable car with her 一 Su Chengyang!”

Su Chengyang was suddenly called out and looked over with a surprised expression. Jiang Shanqi felt a bit embarrassed when their eyes met.

“You drove me here earlier, so I’m repaying the favor.”

“Ah, I see,” Su Chengyang nodded, finding it quite reasonable.

She walked over to Jiang Shanqi on her own and passed by Tian Rong, she noticed that her face looked a bit ugly.

Of the three winning guests, Jiang Shanqi was in the same management company as her and was the most likely to choose her, but Jiang Shanqi had chosen Su Chengyang instead?

Tian Rong clenched her fists under her wide sleeves. She had even imagined that if she were chosen again, she would choose Su Chengyang as a substitute to convey a message that there was no animosity between them and to prepare for future events. Even so, she tried to keep a calm expression on her face.

She didn’t believe that the other two guests were foolish enough not to choose her, especially since she was there as an ambassador!

“Next, we’ll reveal the guest Qin You chose to ride the cable car with her 一 surprisingly, it’s Su Chengyang again!”

As soon as these words were spoken, including Su Chengyang, other guests were stunned.

Only Song Mingan, who was standing next to him, had a complicated expression and sighed imperceptibly.

“…ah?”

Su Chengyang was a bit confused and looked towards Qin You who was standing beside her.

Qin You was also a bit embarrassed and whispered, “I was originally worried about duplication, but I thought Sister Shanqi would choose…”

As she spoke, she glanced in the direction of Tian Rong.

They all knew that Tian Rong was Jiang Shanqi’s senior sister.

Tian Rong could no longer maintain her smile on her face, fortunately there was a veil blocking her face, so her expression couldn’t be seen.

It’s okay, there’s still one last person. She didn’t believe that anyone on this program could be so foolish as to not choose her as the ambassador!

However, if… none of the three chose her, she would lose face in front of the audience!

Tian Rong clenched her teeth and glanced in the direction of the assistant director. Generally, during the recording process of a program, to avoid accidents, the program team would remind the guests of certain things beforehand and would not embarrass them in public.

Su Chengyang looked at Jiang Shanqi, then at Qin You, hesitating, “This…”

At this moment, the assistant director interrupted: “Don’t rush to make a choice, there’s still a guest whose name hasn’t been revealed.”

Upon hearing this, Su Chengyang had a sense of foreboding and subconsciously looked in the direction of Song Mingan, who gave her an apologetic smile.

Su Chengyang: “…”

As expected, the assistant director’s next words confirmed her suspicions.

“Mingan’s chosen guest to ride the cable car with him is 一 Su Chengyang!”

“Hahaha…”

“Did you two make a deal?”

Qi Fu and Han Songxue burst into laughter, and others had teasing expressions on their faces.

Except for Tian Rong.

She never expected that in less than thirty minutes of the program’s recording, they would make it difficult for her to continue.

Tian Rong had three purposes for participating in this trip.

First, of course, was the publicity that came with the controversy after colliding with Su Chengyang.

Second, it is to show goodwill to Su Chengyang. After all, in Yang Xiuyi’s incident, she was almost invisible. As long as Su Chengyang is willing to accept her goodwill, she can not only clear her name but also gain popularity.

Thirdly, if Su Chengyang is unwilling to accept her goodwill and isolates her with others, as long as she acts pitiful and gains the sympathy of the audience, she can also take the opportunity to clear her name.

However, the agency prefers the second option because it is a win-win situation for her and Su Chengyang, without offending anyone.

If they have to resort to the third option, it will definitely have an impact on Su Chengyang and the other guests on <Travel>. At this critical moment, the company does not want her to offend anyone else.

Therefore, before coming, she had prepared for both actively showing goodwill to Su Chengyang and being isolated by Su Chengyang and the <Travel> program team. But she never expected that less than half an hour into the show’s recording, they would humiliate her like this.

Although not choosing to take the cable car with her does not necessarily mean isolating her, taking care of newcomers is an unwritten rule in the industry. Moreover, she is the ambassador here, wearing clothes that are not convenient for climbing. Their behavior will undoubtedly make Tian Rong a laughingstock.

Tian Rong’s face can already be described as expressionless.

Xiao Lu stood at the edge of the crowd and looked in. Seeing that Tian Rong’s face didn’t look good, she turned to Lin Yu and said, “Tian Rong must have thought that at least one of them understands human relationships and would write her name down. But she miscalculated. If these three understood a little about human relationships, they wouldn’t be so clueless in the circle, right?”

Lin Yu glanced at her and reminded her in a low voice, “The woman on your left is Miss Jiang’s manager.”

Xiao Lu’s face stiffened, and she slowly turned her head to look. The woman was looking at her with a smile that was not quite a smile.

Xiao Lu: “…”

Su Chengyang was really clueless. She was not joking at all. She never expected someone would choose her.

She felt that the only person who might choose Tian Rong among the three was Jiang Shanqi. Even if in the program, she had a better relationship with her, but in this episode, Tian Rong came, and she thought that anyone with a little emotional intelligence would choose their senior sister from the same company. She never expected that she would choose herself and leave her senior sister aside.

As for Qin You and Song Mingan, she never thought they would choose her.

Song Mingan awkwardly explained, “I thought Shanqi would choose Miss Tian, and Xiao You would be with Sister He Xu, so…”

Tian Rong: “…”

Can we not talk about this anymore?

Tian Rong gritted her teeth and couldn’t help but look at Jiang Shanqi. If only Shanqi had chosen her, things wouldn’t have been so complicated. Why did she…

Although Tian Rong complained in her heart, she dared not show it. Jiang Shanqi’s family background was not something she could afford to offend. She could only get a spokesperson opportunity before because of her.

Han Songxue has poor insight. When she heard Song Ming’an’s words, she laughed and pointed at them.

“Are you guys stupid? Now, our Ambassador Miss Tian has to climb up by herself! So pitiful.”

Han Songxue has always had a talent for being sharp-tongued, and this time is no exception.

As soon as she finished speaking, several familiar people beside her gave her a disapproving look.

Qi Fu even touched her quietly and whispered, “Don’t exaggerate.”

Han Songxue didn’t understand, but she restrained herself a bit and murmured, “I didn’t exaggerate, I just spoke the truth.”

The assistant director spoke up after everyone had enough laughter, “So Chengyang, you can choose who to ride the cable car with first.”

Su Chengyang looked around and Qin You and Song Mingan signaled her not to worry. Su Chengyang smiled at them and said, “I’ll go with Shanqi.”

The assistant director nodded and continued, “Then you need to choose someone to ride the cable car with the other two guests.”

Upon hearing this, Han Songxue widened her eyes and when Su Chengyang looked over, she flattered her by winking at her, suggesting that she choose her.

However, upon hearing the assistant director’s words, Tian Rong breathed a sigh of relief in her heart.

In this situation, if Su Chengyang had any brains, she would definitely choose her. Otherwise, the audience would definitely see that she was isolating herself and taking the lead. Tian Rong thought that Su Chengyang was not that stupid and would know how to avoid suspicion.

Su Chengyang hesitated and looked around the crowd.

She was very clear about the choice she faced. If she didn’t choose Tian Rong, the audience would think she was deliberately isolating her. If she chose Tian Rong… to be honest, Su Chengyang didn’t want to choose Tian Rong at all.

She remembered what Lin Yu had told her last night, that no matter what she chose, he would support her wishes.

Was that true?

It should be, Lin Yu is never a person who likes to boast.

So, if she doesn’t choose Tian Rong, it shouldn’t matter, right?