The atmosphere in the room was extremely heavy at this moment.
"This rebellious daughter, I'm going to beat her to death one day!" Father Ji sat angrily on the sofa.
Mother Ji wiped her tears. "Beat her to death? She'll probably beat us to death first."
"How can she be so selfish? She won't even help her only younger brother. Think of how many times she's bullied him since they were little."
Father Ji felt annoyed just looking at Mother Ji's weeping appearance.
"Stop crying all day long. Think of a solution! What's the use of crying?"
Mother Ji said angrily, "If you have a solution, then say it! You won't even let me cry."
Ji Zhaoxi's family background was very ordinary; both her parents worked at construction sites.
Her parents favored her younger brother. Whenever there was something good to eat, they would hide it from Ji Zhaoxi and give it to her brother. But Ji Zhaoxi would discover it every time and snatch the food away.
When her parents gave meat to her brother, she snatched it. When her parents hid snacks in their room to give her brother a little bit each day, she found out, waited until they were gone, and dug it all out. When her parents gave her brother more New Year's money, she snatched that too.
Therefore, even in this kind of family, Ji Zhaoxi never let herself go hungry. She treated herself very well.
Father Ji also cared deeply about saving face. Even though the family had no money, he wouldn't allow her to apply for financial aid, but she insisted on applying anyway.
While still an elementary school student, Ji Zhaoxi dragged her teacher by the hand to her home—a very dilapidated house—and casually mentioned that her parents only gave meat to her brother, not to her.
The teacher was moved to tears, and from then on, Ji Zhaoxi's financial aid applications were never denied.
When Father Ji found out that Ji Zhaoxi had given a speech at school about how poor their family was, he almost beat her to death, cursing her for going out and embarrassing them.
Later, when she went to college, her parents were extremely reluctant to give her living expenses. After she started her senior year internship, they stopped giving her money altogether.
At that time, she dragged her suitcase alone to a strange city, barely able to afford even a youth hostel.
Later, when Ji Zhaoxi became a celebrity, her parents reconnected with her.
But Ji Zhaoxi began to suspect that they were not her biological parents because she didn't look like them at all.
They were not good-looking, whereas she was beautiful.
Because of this, Ji Zhaoxi even dragged them to do a paternity test. Mother Ji cried for a whole month over the incident.
But to Ji Zhaoxi's disappointment, she really was their biological daughter.
It wasn't that Father Ji hadn't thought about exposing her online.
It was just that he knew his daughter was a bit abnormal.
If he really exposed her online, she might actually get even more excited.
On the penultimate day before the filming of "When the Cooking Smoke Rises" was about to begin, the production team finally announced the last guest.
Upon seeing the name of the last guest, the fans of the other guests almost fainted from anger.
In the video, Ji Zhaoxi wore exquisite makeup and smiled as she waved at the camera.
"Hello everyone! I know you've all been guessing who the last guest is. Now I'm finally meeting you all. Sorry to keep you waiting!"
"I've had brief interactions with the other guest teachers on the show, and I believe we will get along very well. Please don't worry."
"I hope everyone looks forward to 'When the Cooking Smoke Rises' and pays more attention to me. Bye-bye~"
[...]
[Wait, what?]
[Ji Zhaoxi, you're haunting us like a ghost, aren't you?]
[Now I have to watch it.]
[Who gets it? I seriously have PTSD from Ji Zhaoxi now.]
[What can Ji Zhaoxi even do there? Go to the fields to steal screen time?]
[I'm really getting tired. Why can't we escape this Ji Zhaoxi no matter where we go?]
[Damn, she won't eat my baby, will she?]
[The person above shouldn't worry, your baby is so ugly.]
[??? Is the person above sick in the head? Let me see what you look like.]
The show's comment section instantly blew up, and the backend was filled with insults.
The staff member in charge of the account couldn't help but twitch the corners of their mouth when they saw the direct messages in the backend.
The messages were coming in so fast they were a blur. This Ji Zhaoxi really had something to her.
The director was very satisfied seeing this level of buzz.
Ji Zhaoxi was his trump card. As long as she was there, the show would definitely have trending topics.
The other guests also immediately panicked.
"Is that guy surnamed Zhou out of his mind? He did this on purpose. I was wondering why he hadn't announced the last guest."
"It's over, it's over. Ji Zhaoxi won't set her sights on me, will she? I don't want to be shipped with her."
In the past, whenever a guest was announced, the other guests would welcome them in the comments below. But under this Weibo post's comments, not a single guest dared to come and welcome her.
Ji Zhaoxi's name once again dominated the trending search lists.
Over the past few days, every guest was asked the same question.
"How did you feel after finding out that the last guest was Ji Zhaoxi?"
Jiang Yanchen said impatiently, "I don't feel anything."
Shen Huaiqiu smiled gently. "My feelings towards all the guests are the same."
Xie Siheng remained silent.
Sang Ranbai's eyes curved into a smile. "Of course I'm very happy. The show has one more girl."
Li Qiuchi said lightly, "I treat others the way they treat me."
...
These interviews were all edited together, and the video was titled "The Ji Zhaoxi Victims Alliance."
The video was very popular. In just a few short hours, over a dozen videos with millions of likes had blown up.
Sitting in the car scrolling through those videos, Ji Zhaoxi lowered her eyes. "Ding Li, look at these."
Her manager quickly leaned over.
"Some fans are inserting their idols into the videos. I haven't even heard of these people's names. They're piggybacking off my popularity, which does nothing for me. Have the company report these videos."
Ji Zhaoxi paused the video and showed the manager photos of several unfamiliar male stars in the video.
"Besides, their videos aren't very popular anyway, so reporting them will get them taken down quickly."
Ji Zhaoxi then scrolled to the videos with the most likes. "You don't need to report these. Everyone in them is a guest on the show."
The manager suddenly understood.
Ji Zhaoxi was actually quite annoyed. She liked piggybacking off other people's popularity, but she hated it when others piggybacked off hers.
Every bit of her popularity was hard-earned; at the very least, she had been scolded for it.
But those who piggybacked off her popularity not only avoided getting scolded, they were even rewarded. Ji Zhaoxi hated this kind of person the most, and at times like this, she would start telling the company to collect dirt on them.
After boarding the plane, Ji Zhaoxi discovered that her seatmate was actually Jiang Yanchen.
Jiang Yanchen's manager was also beside him. The moment he saw Ji Zhaoxi, his eyes immediately became guarded.
Wearing sunglasses, Ji Zhaoxi smiled at Jiang Yanchen's manager and sat down in her seat.
The manager whispered something to Jiang Yanchen, who was playing a game next to him. He frowned and said impatiently, "Stop nagging."
The manager couldn't stop sighing.
Telling him to stop nagging—when the time came, his spotlight would be stolen by Ji Zhaoxi again.
Such a difficult artist to manage really gave him a headache.
