Chapter 197: One Woman vs. the Two Male Leads: The Protagonist

The show ended, but only the live broadcast ended; the show's topic heat kept rising.

Chen Shu's "Longing"—its screen recordings have already flooded the entire internet.

Among them is a figure—Jiang Cheng; Jiang Cheng is undoubtedly the show's biggest hotspot.

The production crew was wrapping up; the director, excited beyond himself, gathered a group of people backstage for a meeting.

"Jiang Cheng gave me too many surprises!"

"I knew this episode would definitely blow up, after all there are so many big names joining, but I also prepared myself, the price to pay is Jiang Cheng—after all, before the show aired, Jiang Cheng was hyped up too high; a slight misstep and he'd be doomed!"

"But I never expected that in this situation he could actually hold steady—not only could he live up to everyone's praise, but even the netizens' hype before the broadcast now seems petty!"

"Jiang Cheng's true strength actually surpasses those self-media marketing accounts that exaggerate just for traffic!"

"What is this? It's you thinking you're boasting, but in fact your guts are still too small!"

The Music Director also said then: "I was still sweating for Jiang Cheng earlier, but who knew he was still holding back a big move—really scared the hell out of people."

The planning department head merely frowned and said: "Actually, this incident of Jiang Cheng going viral had some problems even before the broadcast; it seems someone behind the scenes is targeting our show, like Jiang Cheng and Han Xiaoxun"

He hadn't finished speaking when the director said: "Alright, these things aren't our concern; we just need to manage ourselves."

Everyone present, hearing the director say that, exchanged glances.

At this moment they also realized someone was playing tricks.

The director, seeing everyone's gaze, explained: "One point you got wrong—it's not aimed at our show, it's purely aimed at Jiang Cheng and Han Xiaoxun these two people; we produce variety shows, not their management company, we have no obligation or responsibility to handle their affairs."

The director thus laid things out clearly.

Someone on site sighed, feeling this circle is truly hard to get along in.

But it's okay, they are backstage staff, they don't need to get involved.

…

Jiang Cheng's side had already followed the Yujie home; today the Yujie, after getting out of the car, walked unusually fast in high heels, tap-tap-tap-tap-tap toward the elevator.

Jiang Cheng felt his own legs weren't short either, yet he could barely keep up with the Yujie.

As it turns out, the online claim that women break into a run when angry is true—not just netizen nonsense!

Back home, Su Manyao sat down on the sofa coldly.

Seen this way, she still differs from ordinary girls.

After all, the female students Jiang Cheng sees on short videos or TV, when angry, are usually puffed up with anger.

But Su Manyao remained ice-cold, not uttering a single word.

Jiang Cheng walked over and sat beside the Yujie; instantly a faint fresh fragrance wafted over.

Very pleasant.

Below the skirt's hem appeared snow-white knees; Jiang Cheng reached out and placed his hand on Su Manyao's hand.

"Don't touch me!"

Su Manyao pulled her hand away, glared at Jiang Cheng, then turned her head away.

Hey!

The Yujie actually didn't push him away!

Jiang Cheng felt there was a chance!

He then reached out and put his arm around Su Manyao's shoulders, saying, "Don't be angry, I'll make you noodles."

Su Manyao struggled to push Jiang Cheng away, saying, "I won't eat; if you want to eat, you eat yourself."

It actually seems to work—netizens weren't lying!

Jiang Cheng reached out again, this time applying a bit more force; Su Manyao only struggled slightly, then stayed still, letting Jiang Cheng hold her.

Jiang Cheng was delighted inside—listening to netizens, sure enough he could get a full meal!

Then, in his mind, he quickly recalled some information he'd looked up online.

According to online tutorials, at this point he must not apologize nor bring up past matters.

Thus Jiang Cheng asked: "What do you want to eat? I'll go make it for you now." Su Manyao said, "You just said downstairs, didn't you?"

Right oh, I forgot that!

Jiang Cheng stood up and walked toward the kitchen, saying: "Just sit here a moment, it'll be ready soon."

Then Jiang Cheng busied himself in the kitchen; after a while Su Manyao said: "I'm going to take a shower, then I'll go back to my room."

After finishing the noodles, Su Manyao sat on the sofa watching TV, legs crossed, wearing pajamas; the pajama dress wrapped her legs.

Jiang Cheng cleared the dishes, sat down beside her, and tentatively reached out to lightly put his arm around Su Manyao's waist.

It felt very soft; Su Manyao merely swayed left and right a bit, then stayed still.

Thus the two sat on the sofa watching TV; Su Manyao's attention was wholly on the show's plot, while Jiang Cheng's attention was wholly on the Yujie.

After a while, Jiang Cheng couldn't hold back any longer and said: "It's getting late, let's go to sleep."

He deliberately added the two words "we" before "sleep."

Su Manyao picked up the phone beside her, checked the time, then said: "Okay."

!

Then the two stood up; Jiang Cheng still had his arm around Su Manyao as they walked toward her room.

Holy shit!

Did it really happen?

Jiang Cheng recalled something—last time he missed out just because he didn't have a Xiao Yu umbrella!

He stopped his steps and said: "You go first, I'll get something."

He turned and slipped back to his room.

The Xiao Yu umbrella he bought last time was useless; he didn't throw it away, keeping it in his room all along.

After a moment, Jiang Cheng took out a small umbrella from the room, put it in his pocket, and came out.

But seeing that Yujie's door was closed, Jiang Cheng walked over, pushed the door, pressed the handle, and found that the door had been locked from inside.

He knocked on the door and Jiang Cheng shouted, "Yujie?"

From inside came Su Manyao's voice: "I'm sleepy, I'm going to sleep!"

I'm going!

This isn't a solution!

We can't just smash the door open, can we?

Jiang Cheng could only turn back to his own room.

In Su Manyao's room, she sat on the head of the bed; hearing no sound outside, she angrily grabbed the pillow beside her and smashed it onto the floor.

She muttered angrily, "Every crucial moment I mess up, it's infuriating!"

Then she took out her phone and sent a text message to Si Ling.

【How can a man be made a bit braver, learn to face difficulties head-on, and violently pioneer?】

…

The next day, Jiang Cheng went to school as usual.

Although the people at school had already become restrained, Jiang Cheng was still surrounded by a crowd.

It was mainly many female students who wanted to take a photo with Jiang Cheng.

It's unclear whether they truly like Jiang Cheng or just want to take a picture of him to post on social media or short video platforms.

Now Jiang Cheng represents traffic; as long as one group photo is posted on a short-video platform, the traffic will definitely not be low!

Jiang Cheng thought, "If this continues, I probably won't be able to attend school…"

But after getting used to it, he found it was also fine.

Actually, quite a few celebrities also study at school, so at first everyone was just curious; over time, no one really bothered to disturb each other's daily lives.

At lunchtime, Jiang Cheng and Su Peng and their group sat at one table; their table wasn't lively, while the neighboring table was very lively.

Su Peng lifted his chin and said to Jiang Cheng, "See? The man sitting in the middle, surrounded by people, is the Male Lead of the Han Xiaoxun incident on the show you participated in, and he is the one being kept by Han Xiaoxun." (End of chapter)