Chapter 477

I always feel that Reba's tone when she calls herself Qiao Jingjing and addresses Bai Liang as Yu Tu is different from her usual way of speaking.

Then tell me, what does her usual way of speaking feel like?

These two have been sweet on screen for years—I suspect they're using the drama as an excuse to actually be in a real relationship.

To be honest, back when they did 'Microsmile,' they weren't like this in 'Glory.' Back then, Reba would even spin around~ I'm not sure anymore whether the sugar back then was industrial fake sweetness, or if it's the industrial fake sweetness now.

One just got together, the other has been together for years—how could they be the same? Are all the commenters just newbie virgins who've never dated? I can tell at a glance what's going on with these two.

Before this episode of 'Sisters Who Make Waves' aired, a bunch of online 'experts' analyzed every tiny teaser, but most weren't excited about the stage performance or Reba's appearance—they started digging for romance clues.

This is also an advantage in promotion.

Other dramas, when promoting their male-female leads' romance, often use phrases like 'suspected to have fallen in love during filming.'

Paired with pink interactions only possible during the drama's broadcast, that kind of industrial sugar is far heavier.

But the promotion of the couple in 'You Are My Glory' spans years, letting fans piece together a complete timeline and history.

What's the cleverest part?

That these two have never officially confirmed they're together.

Most shippers enjoy the thrill of chasing truth through ambiguous relationships and the adrenaline rush it brings.

But for confirmed relationships, they tend to scrutinize and magnify the flaws.

In a way, hunting for sweetness in uncertain couples and hunting for flaws in real relationships stem from the same psychological drive—both deliver intense engagement.

Even the 'science' behind shipping: 'When people ship couples, they're seeing an ideal intimate relationship.'

For viewers, the core logic of shipping is 'imagination space'—that is, the parts that may not be entirely real.

So here's the question: from a certain perspective, what should Bai Liang and Reba rely on to give viewers imagination space?

The answer is simple: rely on Na Zha.

Because of her existence, the uncertainty between Bai Liang and Reba has been amplified.

Of course, Na Zha won't be helping Bai Bai alone—later, Reba will have to play the same role for her.

It's rare in the film and TV industry to see real couples or real spouses playing on-screen couples, because the effect often isn't good.

If Na Zha and Reba didn't have each other as roles, their chances of collaborating with Bai Liang would drop further.

Unless Bai Liang insists on being a diva~

After all, if they act that way, no evidence is needed—everyone will already be convinced or tacitly accept it; pretending to be dead won't work.

Viewers eat up this uncertainty, not boredomingly wishing them a hundred years of happiness.

On the contrary, right now everyone is digging for clues about whether they're really together—but if they announce it, viewers will start digging for evidence they're 'incompatible and likely splitting up.'

Look at Lu Han and Guan Xiaotong—they officially confirmed their relationship. So, does anyone want to see them act as a couple in a drama?

If there were real profit in it, production companies would've moved long ago.

Promoting film and TV dramas is truly an art.

Bai Liang, lying in bed, thought so.

After he finished working through this entire logic, his rest was nearly over, and clearly, he no longer wanted to ponder these 'useless things.'

So he patted Reba's butt.

But unexpectedly, her response was to roll over.

'Huh?'

'Oh no, I was half-asleep—I thought you were that auntie from the Northeast bathhouse scrubbing my back~ My head was fuzzy just now, all your fault!'

Reba patted her own head and dumped the blame on Bai Liang.

Meaning he went too hard—he gave her a 'life flash.'

She had studied in the Northeast and once gotten scrubbed there—her memory was extremely vivid.

That was truly humiliating—her butt crack got scrubbed open.

Of course, from a certain angle, the things they just did and the things they're about to do again didn't just expose her butt crack.

But strangely, it didn't feel embarrassing at all~

Reba really wanted to have a proper discussion with Bai Liang about this, but Bai Liang, having exited 'meditation mode,' clearly didn't want to chat while still empty-handed.

So the weapons were put away.

But in that state, having a proper conversation was impossible—Reba couldn't even sort out a single sentence's logic in her head.

Fortunately, she's been working out and training in combat for the past few months.

She's built muscle, and her 'durability' has improved slightly.

In the past, after the second round, she'd immediately cling to Bai Liang and fall into baby-like sleep—but now she could still stay awake.

Of course, only slightly better than before—she was still limp, unable to get up for personal hygiene.

Just grab two tissues from the nightstand and pad it.

Then she pinched her arm and asked a ridiculous question with concern, 'If I build too much muscle, will I become ugly?'

Bai Liang:???

'Can you really build that much muscle so easily… Did you take drugs?'

'Drugs? What drugs?'

'The Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin—don't take that stuff! You'll lose your hair, grow a beard, and who knows, your chest might grow hair too~'

Hearing these descriptions, Reba felt a chill—beard? Chest hair?

She'd rather go mad than do any of that just to build a little muscle.

'I just train normally—besides the professional coach's plan, I've also been running every morning like you.'

'Have you been eating more?'

"Probably not~"

"Then don't worry so much—those little muscles of yours probably aren't enough to burn off."

Bai Liang reached out and pinched Re Ba's arm; he found it had indeed become slightly more defined than before, but strangely, her arm hadn't grown thicker at all. After months of training, her dimensions hadn't increased, yet muscle definition had appeared—what did that mean?

It meant she'd lost weight.

"Hee~"

Re Ba wriggled her body in protest as Bai Liang squeezed her arm.

The soft whimper only piqued Bai Liang's interest.

He cupped both her hands with one hand and pulled them above her head, then began tickling her~

"Oh no! Help!"

Re Ba's eyes welled with tears as her body twisted like a fish flopping on land.

Especially when Bai Liang lightly tickled her armpits, she truly couldn't take it—her waist suddenly exploded with force, her legs spiraled upward, and she locked his neck with a move: Black Dragon Twisting Pillar.

This move works!

Though Bai Liang easily dodged it, he acknowledged her progress over this period.

After all, if she could instinctively use such a technique, she must've practiced it many times—there was definitely some muscle memory in her body.

But dodging wasn't enough.

Because this was on a bed, not on a fighting stage.

Soon he could only comply, letting Re Ba lock him in—now upgraded, hands and feet both engaged.

"Mercy, Lady Heroine~"

"Hmph~ Now that I've got you like this, can you really not move at all?" Re Ba asked with interest.

Bai Liang glanced at her slender arms—he dared not stir, afraid that even a slight force might snap them.

And being locked like this was actually quite comfortable.

"Yes~ But you must never use this move on anyone else."

"Are you afraid I'll hurt someone?"

Bai Liang said nothing—only buried his head forward. The move instantly collapsed on its own.

Better than pulling out a lighter and setting it on fire.

Re Ba instantly understood: this move could only be used on girls!

Seeing the dangerous glint in her eyes, Bai Liang suddenly had a strange thought: Could she really be planning to use this against Na Zha?

It couldn't possibly escalate to an offline physical showdown—

As if deliberately provoking Re Ba, Na Zha, unable to hold back, attended an LPL event herself before the official drama promotion.

She made a surprise offline appearance.

But the effect was explosive—she'd done a cosplay, appearing in full Ao Li attire.

Her previous win in the Tiger Pounce Goddess Contest and her frequent ties to the esports scene clearly meant she intended to leverage her new title as "Esports Goddess" to stir things up.

Promoting "My Dear Love" at the event was just basic operation.

She quietly sprinkled sugar all on her own—her tactics were identical to Di Li Re Ba's.

But this move upset some of Na Zha's fans, who complained: "Where's Bai Bai Daxian? Why is he favoring one side over the other? Partnering with that 'double-dove' couple while leaving Na Zha to handle promotion alone?"

Na Zha replied beneath the post: "Because it's not promotion season yet."

Her fans were utterly confused: If it's not promotion season, why are you pulling stunts, sis?

Na Zha: I'm just free—might as well do something.

Fans:

But after seeing the top trending topic—Re Ba and "Sisters Who Make Waves"—everyone suddenly understood!

Okay okay, targeting the old rival, right?

The fans knew this game inside out!

Since Na Zha had already jumped into the ring waving the charge flag, they naturally had to help cheer her on~

If the target was Di Li Re Ba, they didn't even need to wind up—they launched straight into full assault.

Clearly, a fan war that was supposed to wait weeks had been prematurely ignited.

Upon hearing the news, Re Ba's previously excellent mood was instantly dampened.

Though she wasn't with Bai Liang right now, the two were chatting about their plans for the upcoming dating variety show.

Put plainly, they were discussing their dates.

Falling in love on a show, falling in love while filming a drama, and falling in love in real life—those were definitely different~

Re Ba was very excited about it, but there was still risk in the plan; they hadn't yet decided whether to go through with it.

Then Na Zha jumped out.

But Re Ba didn't find it strange at all—after all, if her hometown girl didn't stir up trouble, she wouldn't be Gu Li Na Zha.

The other had always been impulsive, mentally unhinged.

Then let it come!

"Sis, if you do this now, when we start promotion…"

"Oh no! I forgot! If she does bad stuff like me, that's really bad~"

Watching Na Zha's anxious, hypocritical behavior, the assistant didn't know what to say.

Fine, she's Na Zha~

Hypocritical? Let her be.

At least she's openly hypocritical.

After first expressing her double standards, Nazha then began looking for excuses: "She was the one who played dirty first. In the publicity for 'Glory,' there was never any mention of 'Sisters Who Make Waves' — she just decided on the spur of the moment."

"Sis, how do you know about this?" the little assistant suddenly asked curiously.

"…Paid for it." Nazha hesitated for a moment, but still said it openly and brazenly.

This left the little assistant staring in stunned disbelief — had these two really reached such an outrageous level?

Paying to buy off someone on the other side's team?

"Then there wouldn't be a 'traitor' on our side too, would there?"

"I don't know." Nazha said very honestly.

After all, theirs was an artist's team, not some spy team — under normal circumstances it wouldn't be that over the top.

It's just that the two of them had been at each other's throats for years, so planting a few nails in each other's camp and learning some information that wasn't exactly trade secrets wasn't really anything excessive.

"Oh no, I have to go apologize to Dou Xiao Bao later," Nazha suddenly stuck out her tongue and acted cute.

"Dou Xiao Bao? Dou Xiao Bao is sleeping~" the little assistant looked completely lost, unable to understand what she was talking about.

And that's exactly how it should be — you shouldn't understand!

Because Dou Xiao Bao is both the name of the little kitty, and Nazha's pet name for Bai Liang, and even simultaneously Bai Liang's pet name for Nazha.

One nickname, used by all three members of the "family."

Honestly, a nickname like this is actually quite easy to get mixed up, especially when all three "Xiaobaos" are present.

Sometimes you can't even figure out who the subject actually is.

But it's precisely this effect that Nazha especially loves: Dou Xiao Bao goes on a date with Dou Xiao Bao, while also not forgetting to take good care of Dou Xiao Bao.

Love-brained children are full of joy.

As for the "Dou Xiao Bao" in the sentence she just said, that refers to Bai Liang.

Because she did something outside the plan, and although it was to give Dilireba a hard time, she still worried about what Bai Liang would think.

Bai Liang: Huh? What thoughts could I possibly have. It's been years, haven't we always been like this?

If Nazha didn't stir up some trouble, he might actually find it strange.

In fact, her unplanned move had long been incorporated into Sister Yanzi's plan.

Sister Yanzi was the "boss" for both of these dramas — she was going to make money from both — so when considering all kinds of publicity, she naturally had to take everyone's conditions into account.

Regarding this rather complicated back-to-back publicity for the two dramas, quite a few people inside the company actually had a real headache over it.

It really wasn't easy to get the balance right.

To give the simplest example: these two are rivals — can they control their respective fans and stop them from going to mass-downrate the other side's drama?

You have to understand, the daily operation in fandom circles is controlling reviews for your own side and downrating the rival.

Given the completely incompatible stance of Nazha's and Reba's fans, such a situation was very likely to occur.

When that happened, the interests of both dramas could suffer.

But controlling fan behavior has never been easy — the mess Xiao Zhan's fans stirred up is still fresh in everyone's mind.

That guy who only rose to top-tier last year has completely disappeared from public view recently.

Of course, it's still unclear whether his team failed to keep things under control, or whether they deliberately fanned the flames and accidentally crashed.

In any case, his incident reminded many in the industry once again of the double-edged sword nature of fandom.

Fortunately, Sister Yanzi was very experienced.

When something is beyond your control, just mentally pray to your own Little White Brother, then leave it to the heavens.

Even if it's a double-edged sword, your own Little White Brother can make both edges point outward, right?

This is the entertainment circle~ you can't believe in science, you have to believe in mysticism.

Sister Yanzi: Praise the Great Immortal~

As the broadcast of "You Are My Glory" drew closer and closer, the intensity of Reba and Nazha's rivalry and their fans' battles also kept escalating.

Hmm… it's almost got nothing to do with Bai Liang anymore.

When those two Misses tore into each other, they generally didn't bring him along to play, and even his fans rarely got involved.

To put it in one sentence:

As if in an instant, they both lifted their heads from love and began polishing their weapons!

All because this time, there was a real chance to determine who was better! —

Got badly stuck on writing yesterday, so there are still two more updates today to make up for it.

(End of chapter)