Shen Hao shot a glare at the two guys currently putting their brotherly love on full display. “We’re praising Director Exaggeration here! Stop interrupting and ruining the formation!”
“Keep messing up the formation and I’ll have you two tossed out!”
After getting smacked down, the two brothers simultaneously made zipping motions across their mouths.
Satisfied, Shen Hao swept one hand through the air with the gravitas of someone about to ascend the throne. “Excellent! Next person, keep it going!”
Through sheer force of will, Shen Hao dragged the topic back to praising Director Exaggeration, and the little devils did not disappoint, showing off their extraordinary command of the language.
Wu Dacheng was the ultimate mindless follower, pulling an absurdly exaggerated expression. “Director Zhang, you’re amazing! When it comes to attracting hatred, if you claim first place, nobody else would dare claim second!”
“Indeed, the older the ginger, the spicier it is. You’re practically a role model for all of us to learn from! You’re simply incredible!”
Qin Shuchun saw no reason to sit out when a group attack was underway. She gave a thumbs-up and launched straight into her praise. “Director Zhang, you’re absolutely amazing. You single-handedly wrecked the mental states of every one of us! Even the Bull Demon King isn’t as bull as you!”
“One word: flawless!”
The ride-or-die brother duo nodded and gave a hum, clearly agreeing with every statement above.
Su Xiaoye and Xie Wanwan, the two little runts, opened their mouths, but ultimately chose to remain silent.
They were simply too exhausted to come up with anything else!
Their current condition was basically this: before climbing the mountain, they had thought, I’m invincible; after coming down, their legs were trembling as they wondered, Why am I not dead yet?!
Although this group seemed to be praising him, Director Zhang still couldn’t help frowning and instinctively took two steps backward.
He couldn’t quite tell whether the little devils were in a normal state of mind or not.
They certainly looked as if they had been driven mad with rage and were ready to take the whole world down with them.
“Why don’t you all calm down for a bit? Or maybe curse me a few times?”
“You suddenly showering me with all this inexplicable praise is kind of creepy!”
How was he supposed to describe this feeling?
Cold sweat had already broken out across his back. He was genuinely afraid that the little devils had been driven insane by his shameless antics!
These were all young heirs and heiresses from wealthy families. If he actually broke them, he couldn’t afford to pay for the consequences!
The little devils: “…”
What was wrong with Director Zhang?!
They had sincerely praised him a couple of times, and he still wasn’t happy!
Xie Tangning looked Director Zhang up and down, her expression difficult to describe. “Director Zhang, do you have some kind of… um…”
Qin Shuchun and her bestie wore the exact same expression. Instantly understanding what Xie Tangning had left unsaid, she considerately finished the sentence for her. “A special… proclivity!”
Liang Zhou’s mouth moved faster than his brain. “Like needing to be cursed at a couple of times a day or you don’t feel right!”
Shen Yunqiong remained responsible for nodding in agreement.
Director Zhang: “…”
I shouldn’t have worried about you people!
“Shut up, you bunch of mute children!”
Seeing the look of utter defeat on Director Zhang’s face, the little devils were satisfied. The adults were enjoying the show too.
Well, with a few exceptions.
The assistant director was having an especially good time watching the spectacle. “I told you not to provoke them! But no, you just had to insist on butting your head against that wall!”
“You love that wall like it’s your own father! I genuinely don’t understand what you’re trying to get out of it.”
“Don’t tell me you really do have some kind of special proclivity!”
Director Zhang glared at him through gritted teeth. “If you’re sick, go get treated! Don’t come here and lose your mind!”
The assistant director burst into another fit of laughter. Was there anything more satisfying than watching a rival make a fool of himself?!
Director Zhang was furious—well, he was furious for about a second. Then his eyes shifted, and he pretended to raise a hand and check the time before clearing his throat.
“Seeing that everyone still has so much energy, I’m relieved. I was just thinking that it’s getting rather late, so out of the kindness of my heart, I rushed to bring everyone out for dinner.”
“But it seems my excellent guests aren’t hungry after all~ What a pity that would make my carefully reserved feast completely unnecessary~”
“In that case, this director will just have to cancel it~”
Director Zhang added a little wave to every sentence. His guests’ moods rose and fell with those waves, their eyes lighting up one moment and dimming the next.
By the time he finished speaking, the group of ravenous beasts had already begun to lose their minds.
The worst offenders were the few children who seemed to have been reincarnated from starving pigs.
The director, having successfully snatched back the upper hand, watched with satisfaction as the guests began spewing sugary words at him again as though sweetness were free.
Just a bunch of little guests, successfully handled!
And so, the moon in the sky looked down at the corners of their mouths reaching it yet again and wanted to kick those smiles right back down.
It hated these presumptuous humans. Thanks to them, it spent every day either playing landlord or on its way to play landlord.
“Okay! We’re done for the day! Time to eat!”
At eight that evening, the exhausted guests and production staff finally sat down to dinner.
It was a little late, but not excessively so—the timing was just right.
…
The remaining two days flew by.
During those two days, Director Zhang’s conscience sprouted a little, much like a potato beginning to bud. He posted an online poll featuring all of Luo City’s hottest tourist attractions.
The audience would decide where each group of guests went, which was also a roundabout way of giving the fans a special treat.
The fans whose votes had successfully brought their idols right to their own doorsteps and allowed them to meet face-to-face declared themselves incredibly lucky—though, naturally, they considered their idols the lucky ones.
Fans: We’re so jealous of this generation of idols! They can actually hold fan meetings right outside their fans’ homes!
This must be the blessing their idols earned in their past lives! Otherwise, how could they possibly have fans as perfect as us?
As they say, fans take after their idols!
The guests also had a wonderful time on their publicly funded vacation, especially the younger ones, who went completely wild one after another.
People couldn’t help exclaiming that teenagers really did have energy to spare—more than dogs, even. Every last one of them was practically a beagle.
Director Zhang was tormented so badly that he finally developed a profound empathy for every preschool teacher who had ever tried to nurture a roomful of human toddlers.
But the audience loved this sort of relaxed, rowdy, slightly unhinged daily life, so the livestream’s popularity remained consistently high.
Throughout this period, the production team continued to be bombarded with smear campaigns, with paid internet trolls pouring into the fray one after another.
The strange part was that such a massive, organized wave of online harassment somehow failed to attract any official attention.
When Yisen saw those trending smear topics hanging around for several days without being dealt with, he was confused—and then panicked.
He even began to wonder whether Lu Huaiyu truly loved his two younger siblings as much as the outside world claimed.
If he really loved them, why had he completely ignored the barrage of insults and attacks raining down on them?
He even suspected that Lu Huaiyu was using this as bait to catch them in the act. But his head was already wet, and once the plan had begun, there was no room to stop.
Only by opening up the Huaguo market as quickly as possible could the Yisen family return to the height of its former glory—and only then could Yisen keep his seat secure for much longer.
On the drive back after filming the show, the three Xie siblings sat in the car and began reviewing everything that had happened over the past few days.
Xie Tangning was just about to say something when, out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly spotted in the rearview mirror several cars that had been following them at a steady distance.
“Big brother, are we being followed?”
Before Lu Huaiyu could answer, Xie Changyu let out a laugh. “One minute and seventeen seconds. That’s how long it took you to notice, Xie Xiaoning!”
“Your vigilance is slipping. Go back and put in some extra training!”
