What good did it do her?
But Gu Zhaoping wasn’t doing it for fun.
She was leaving the show after the next episode—this was just a warning to shake them up a little.
She wasn’t in the habit of swallowing mistreatment.
Since she was being framed, they might as well talk it through—maybe even get a written confession.
“As for that rumor about me hitting you last time,”
Gu Zhaoping added with a slight smile, “do I need to ask again how that one got out?”
Gu Zhaoye frowned.
He wanted to say,
“Didn’t you try to hit her that time?”
Though he hadn’t noticed whether Ruan Nian had actually gotten hurt, he remembered that Gu Zhaoping had definitely thrown a hit—only it landed on him.
However, when he saw Gu Zhaoping’s clenched fist, he slightly shrank back and, with a dark expression, swallowed the words he was about to say.
Ruan Nian had been hoping that Gu Zhaoye would speak up for her, but at this moment, Gu Zhaoye acted as if he were mute.
Her expression shifted several times, and in the end, she had to grit her teeth and say:
“Zhaoping-jie, I’m sorry! I didn’t know you still cared about this. I thought it was all in the past. Next time if anything stirs up public opinion online again, I’ll definitely help watch out for it, make sure they clarify things, and not let people misunderstand you again!”
Ruan Nian’s face was pale, and her long eyelashes trembled like little butterflies, making her look especially pitiful, as if Gu Zhaoping had forced her into a dead end, almost to the point of tears.
“You didn’t know I still cared about this?”
Gu Zhaoping nodded,
“So in your logic, the concept of managing one’s public image doesn’t exist at all. I was being cursed like that, and you think I wouldn’t care?”
Ruan Nian’s trembling eyelashes froze instantly.
All her expressions stiffened on her face — now she couldn’t even cry.
Gu Zhaoping thought this little “white moonlight” was quite funny sometimes — she’d say anything just to shirk responsibility.
The others also suddenly understood: right, what do you mean you didn’t know she would care?
We’re all human.
Wouldn’t you be angry or anxious if you were scolded like that?
You work so hard to maintain your own public image, but when someone else gets insulted by your fans like this, you think she wouldn’t mind?
To put it bluntly, who are you trying to fool?
With all the uproar online, how could you not know?
If you had just straightforwardly admitted you didn’t clarify things in time and should have managed your fans better, people might even have respected you for your honesty.
But now, even at the brink of disaster, you’re still putting on an act. It’s enough to make anyone furious.
“…”
“Stop acting pitiful with me,”
Gu Zhaoping interrupted coldly.
“I’m not obligated to put up with your guilty tantrums. What I need is a solution and an apology from you.”
“Of course,” she added, “the most important thing is the solution. An apology is just the cherry on top once the problem is resolved. If you only apologize without fixing anything, are you expecting me to magically get over it?”
Her tone was so calm, indifferent, and casual, yet her words were so harsh and aggressive.
The two people standing behind Gu Zhaoping almost burst out laughing.
Satisfying!
Liang Zhiwei wasn’t in a position to step forward, but Chu Yanze had no such concerns.
He immediately said: “Sorry, Ruan Nian, I also didn’t know you cared about being caught lying.”
“Alright,” he continued, “now that I’ve apologized, can I tell everyone what lies you told?”
Chu Yanze asked very seriously, not as if he were joking.
He even nodded and directly pulled out his phone, saying: “If you don’t deny it, I’ll take that as your agreement.”
“Wait! Wait!”
Ruan Nian screamed, nearly lunging at him to grab his phone!
Her expression looked worse than crying.
In a panic, she blurted: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Zhaoping-jie — no, no, no, not ‘I’m sorry,’ I mean — I’m truly sorry, Zhaoping-jie! But I will fix it! I will fix it! I absolutely won’t let anyone misunderstand you again! You never hit me!”
“I’ve already clarified that issue before,”
Gu Zhaoping said calmly.
“I found evidence and cleared it up last time. You don’t need to repeat pointless actions, understand?”
It took Ruan Nian a while to remember — yes, Gu Zhaoping had already cleared her name about the so-called “beating” incident.
So what did Gu Zhaoping want her to do now?
The car-smashing incident had also been clarified.
And her supposed grudge against Gu Zhaoye’s girlfriend had been addressed too, since she helped Liang Zhiwei slap Gu Zhaoye.
So now, the only thing left for Ruan Nian to clear up was the conflict between her and Gu Zhaoping — that Gu Zhaoping had never targeted her.
But if there was no conflict, then Gu Zhaoping wasn’t some malicious, meddling older sister — and Ruan Nian wasn’t the pitiful Cinderella she had painted herself as.
Ruan Nian felt that if she cleared Gu Zhaoping’s name, she herself would be the biggest loser.
Her popularity online had already dropped.
People were no longer blindly believing everything she said.
If anyone started theorizing or analyzing the rumors over the years about her and Gu Zhaoping, it wouldn’t be hard to trace the problems back to her.
Ruan Nian’s heart was filled with despair.
She deeply regretted swapping in this “villainess” to be her stepping stone in the first place!
This villainess didn’t have any cheat codes.
No system.
No supernatural backers.
So how — how — had she managed to turn the public opinion around like this?
When Ruan Nian checked the discussions online today, it seemed that public sentiment toward Gu Zhaoping had improved dramatically.
The crowd that stubbornly hated her no matter what had greatly diminished.
Many people were even saying Gu Zhaoping looked “so cool” when she stood up for Liang Zhiwei.
Why?
Ruan Nian kept asking herself this, unwilling to accept it.
Online popularity is a zero-sum game.
When someone is “redeemed,” the people who once opposed her will be dragged out and trampled in comparison.
The situation was urgent.
She had to publicly deny that the so-called “villains” she used to build her image were actually bad people.
How could she possibly be willing?
But with so many people watching, Gu Zhaoping wouldn’t let her off.
Even if she didn’t want to agree, she had no choice.
Biting her lip, she could only grit her teeth and say:
“Zhaoping-jie, I will.”
“You still don’t know how to do things properly,”
Gu Zhaoping said.
“You should tell me exactly what you’ll do, by what deadline, on which platform, and through what method you’ll clarify the entire story. Before posting anything, you need to send the draft to me for review. Only after my approval can it be published. And it must be coordinated with me so we can clarify at the same time. Understand?”
Gu Zhaoping remained calm, but if this continued, even she would start to lose her patience.
Her reputation symbolized the Gu family’s image, and she was about to attend the industry leadership summit.
If she didn’t clear her tarnished image at this critical juncture, it would be very troublesome to handle later on.
Moreover, this was the peak of her online popularity.
If she used the momentum from clarifying things now, it would last just long enough until her return from the summit.
That would be the best time to make another public appearance.
Why did Gu Zhaoping have so many demands?
And she was giving them like detailed orders—as if she were someone’s boss!
Ruan Nian was truly aggrieved!
But she didn’t even dare to bargain.
She bit her lip and, after holding back for a while, forced herself to speak through a choked voice:
“Sister Zhaoping, I’ll definitely do it. I’ll make it clear you’ve never targeted me…”
It wasn’t until things got to this point that Gu Zhaoye finally furrowed his brows.
He thought to himself that Gu Zhaoping was really being too disrespectful to his woman.
But just as he moved slightly, it was as if Gu Zhaoping saw right through him.
She turned and looked at him with a calm expression and said,
“Gu Zhaoye, are you planning to be the next one lying in the hospital bed in the rumors?”
That line was harsh and vicious, but Gu Zhaoye instantly froze.
His expression shifted dramatically.
He had no doubt that if Ruan Nian really spread such a story next time, Gu Zhaoping wouldn’t hesitate to make it come true and actually put him in the hospital.
In the end, his expression shifted several times.
He gripped Ruan Nian’s hand tightly and said darkly,
“Let’s go.”
As for why Ruan Nian dragged Grandpa Gu into the story, Gu Zhaoye would probably question her about it once they got back.
But how those two lovebirds would clash afterward wasn’t of much interest to the others.
What mattered was that Ruan Nian hadn’t told the truth from the beginning.
Everyone now knew that Gu Zhaoye had never planned to show up at all.
Thinking back to the previous conflict between Gu Zhaoye and Liang Zhiwei, people couldn’t help but speculate.
The Gu-Nian couple now seemed completely fake.
It wasn’t about undying love or bravely standing together against family and society.
No, these two were practically staging their own play.
All that family opposition?
Please.
Did anyone really look like they were interested in stopping them?
If they hadn’t stirred up trouble right in front of everyone, would things even have gotten to this point?
It was likely that Gu Zhaoping hadn’t done anything to Ruan Nian at all, and yet things still spiraled this way!
The essence of this “couple” seemed more like an ultra-dominant CEO flaunting his possessiveness.
All the supposed sweetness felt more like a grand fantasy cooked up by Ruan Nian alone.
Once the two of them left, Gu Zhaoping turned to look at Li Xunxi and her brother, who had been watching the drama unfold.
She asked,
“You two still planning to bet next episode?”
Li Xunxi laughed in disbelief at the question.
“If you’re skipping next time, what are we betting on—thin air?”
“That’s not necessarily true. Who says you have to be on-site to bet?”
They were amusing, really.
Gu Zhaoping looked at them with a faint smile, her eyes calm.
“You two don’t seem to like me much. So, what do you want to bet on?”
Sometimes playing these little games with the younger generation was a decent way to pass the time.
Li Xunwen, who usually stayed quiet and followed his sister’s lead, finally took a step forward.
“Next episode’s about extreme sports. Since you won’t be there, let’s bet on whether us siblings or your two group members end up winning.”
Li Xunwen rarely spoke, but his words were firm.
He even felt like he was outright bullying them.
The siblings had grown up with this kind of stuff.
As for the other two—there was no way they had any experience in extreme sports.
As for Gu Zhaoping?
Sure, she might be hiding her skills, but she wouldn’t even be there next time!
They’d lost quite a bit of favor this episode—maybe they could claw it back.
Gu Zhaoping glanced back at her two group members.
Chu Yanze immediately looked at Liang Zhiwei, then nodded to Gu Zhaoping.
He was good at all the kinds of activities the show could possibly throw at them.
His only concern was whether Liang Zhiwei could keep up.
But to help Sister Zhaoping win, he was ready to go all out and perform at his absolute best.
Gu Zhaoping calmly replied,
“Alright. What’s the wager?”
“No regular stakes, that’s boring.”
Li Xunwen smiled at her.
“After next episode, let’s play a round of chess. The losing group will play the next match as Black and be down a piece. How about it?”
The rule Li Xunwen proposed was unconventional.
Usually, the winner takes the first move.
But here, the loser had to go first and be down a piece.
It sounded odd at first, but the subtle insult became clear upon closer thought.
He was confident Gu Zhaoping’s group would lose.
And he was confident that even giving her the first move and a handicap, he could still win gracefully.
He wanted to win so thoroughly, so confidently, that even being generous would be part of his victory.
Shen Yifeng had always been their idol.
They grew up circling around him. International chess was also one of Shen Yifeng’s interests.
After all, he needed to see that this Gu Zhaoping…well, even if she wasn’t completely useless and maybe knew some jiu-jitsu or whatever, she still wasn’t a soulmate worthy of Shen Yifeng.
Gu Zhaoping raised an eyebrow, as if puzzled why someone would choose to provoke her in such a suicidal way.
“So what’s the reward for winning the chess match?”
Li Xunwen twitched slightly at the question.
“Didn’t you want to clear up those rumors? If you win, I’ll write an essay every day praising how amazing and innocent you are!”
That was the most disgusting punishment he could think of.
“Same goes for you—if I win, you have to do it too…”
“If that’s what you’re willing to do, all the better,” she said thoughtfully.
After a moment, as if worried he might back out, she kindly added: “Should we seal it with a handprint?”