Chapter 237: Chapter 237: Helpless

The production team had only received the news 10 minutes before Nan Zhi.

Xu Lin, the first to get the call, saw his expression immediately collapse, his brow tightly furrowed.

When the others asked what was going on,

he didn’t sugarcoat it and told them straight.

The faces of all the staff members changed—

"What gives them the right?!"

"Yeah, what gives them the right? Nan Zhi was the one who spearheaded the cooking class. What’s this about kicking her out now?"

"What about Chang Mu’s side? Can’t we try to negotiate with her?"

"Are you stupid? It’s already gone this far. You think that young missy doesn’t know?"

"This is just too much! No wonder I didn’t like that young missy from the moment I saw her..."

"..."

Xu Lin’s expression tightened.

"That’s enough! Some things are better left unsaid."

The crew looked at each other. Although they had to admit Xu Lin was right, they still felt deeply frustrated and wronged.

Someone muttered under their breath,

"If we’d known, we never should have agreed to let them shove her in here..."

No one responded.

But they were all thinking the same thing—

’If we’d known, we shouldn’t have agreed to let Chang Mu join and ruin the shoot.’

But what could they, a bunch of cogs in the entertainment machine, do?

The investors say one word, and they have to run themselves ragged.

And in the end, they’re the ones who always take the fall.

Just then, someone suddenly spoke up.

"Speaking of investors... Isn’t that Mr. Lu also one of our investors? I think he’s friends with the biggest boss, right? If he said something, wouldn’t this problem be easily solved?"

At first, it sounded like he had a point.

Unfortunately, Xu Lin looked up.

"This was negotiated by the foundation, going over the heads of the investors and the local departments. Never mind us, even the investors can’t do anything about it."

Unless Mr. Lu himself stepped in to make a call.

Xu Lin didn’t say this out loud.

For some reason, he just had a feeling—Nan Zhi wouldn’t agree to them going to Mr. Lu.

Hearing this, the other staff members grew disheartened.

At the same time, an even bigger problem lay before them:

"Will the other guests accept this?"

"Yeah, what will Nan Zhi think? Won’t she be upset?"

"Well, I’m heartbroken for her. She worked so hard planning things for the school, only to run into something this disgusting!"

"The school is innocent in this. I’m sure Teacher Zhang isn’t that kind of person."

"I heard someone saw Teacher Zhang heading toward Nan Zhi’s house. Could he be going to tell her about this?"

"It’s very possible. Should we stop him? If someone has to tell her, would it be better coming from us?"

"Yeah, if the livestream catches it, it’s definitely going to blow up."

"Then let it blow up!"

"A thought just occurred to me... Fu Chao and the others probably won’t agree to this either, right? How are we supposed to placate them?"

"..."

Their thoughts were a tangled mess.

The chaos before them came in wave after wave.

Finally, it was Xu Lin who called a halt to it.

He glanced at the monitor and said,

"Nan Zhi took Teacher Zhang outside, so the cameras probably didn’t catch anything. Perfect. I’ll go talk to Nan Zhi alone right now. Let’s hear her thoughts first before we do anything else."

Xu Lin immediately called for a car and headed to Nan Zhi’s house.

He called Nan Zhi before he left.

By the time he arrived, Teacher Zhang had already left. Only Nan Zhi came out to meet him.

Just from the look on Nan Zhi’s face, Xu Lin knew he had guessed correctly.

But he still chose to ask.

Not only was Nan Zhi not angry or offended, she crossed her arms, a hint of amusement in her eyes.

"Let’s wait and see. I want to know what that young missy is really trying to do."

Xu Lin was silent for a moment. After much deliberation, he finally spoke.

"Actually, I contacted that Miss Chang. She said the decision was made by the foundation behind her and that she herself wasn’t very clear on the details."

Of course, Chang Mu’s own words had been much prettier and more tactful.

Something about how she was just a communication bridge;

something about how she really couldn’t decide on such matters;

something about how she wanted to help Nan Zhi but was truly powerless to do so;

...

It sounded very sincere, but if you looked closer, you could tell it was all nonsense that didn’t hold water.

Xu Lin relayed this to Nan Zhi in a nutshell.

In truth, he shouldn’t have done that.

Based on his usual methods of self-preservation, staying out of this kind of conflict was the right move.

But his mouth seemed to have spoken before his rational mind could stop it.

He intended to warn Nan Zhi to be wary of Chang Mu.

This even surprised Nan Zhi a little.

She thought back to the Xu Lin from the first episode who had been dead set on throwing her to the wolves, and then looked at the guilty and uneasy Xu Lin before her...

’Are they really the same person?’

Glancing at Xu Lin’s expression, Nan Zhi, who hadn’t been feeling much emotional turmoil to begin with, actually laughed out loud.

"Director Xu, you don’t need to worry so much. It’s just one class."

Xu Lin frowned, looking at Nan Zhi with disapproval.

"Sometimes, being too mild and yielding is the wrong approach."

Nan Zhi: ?

’Are these really words coming from the Xu Lin who’s always smiling and smoothing things over with everyone?’

Nan Zhi thought for a moment, then reassured him,

"Don’t worry."

Far from being reassured, Xu Lin’s gaze only grew more sympathetic.

Nan Zhi felt like laughing again.

She never thought the words "mild and yielding" would ever be associated with her.

She thought about how people in the Otherworld had described her: "deeply calculating," "ruthless," "unfeeling"...

Sometimes she seemed good-tempered simply because she couldn’t be bothered to argue.

To her, people like Chang Mu were like clowns jumping up and down.

However, that didn’t mean she would tolerate a clown’s antics.

She was just used to striking a snake at its vital point.

If she didn’t act, she didn’t act. If she did, it would be a fatal blow.

Unfortunately, it seemed Xu Lin didn’t understand her.

Before he left, he repeatedly offered some heartfelt advice like, "Don’t assume the best of people."

「Monday morning arrived in the blink of an eye.」

It was just past 8:00 AM. The livestream had just started, and a huge number of viewers were already pouring in, the count starting to skyrocket.

These people had practically become regular viewers of the *Cub* livestream, shuttling back and forth between the major streams, too busy to look away.

The bullet comments soon filled the screen:

[Huh? How come Fu Chao and the others haven’t started their streams yet? Is there a problem?]

[You don’t think something happened to them in the mountains, do you?]

[What are you talking about? Nan Zhi’s stream is up and running just fine.]

[You’re overthinking it. They probably just overslept. Haha!]

[Ooh, Brother Fu started his stream? He doesn’t look too happy.]

[That just confirms he’s got a bad case of waking up on the wrong side of the bed!]

[Heading over to camp out in Nan Zhi’s stream! I’m here today just for the cooking class!]

[Here for the cooking class +1! The fried chicken from last time was a huge success. I tried to replicate the spring rolls, and they were pretty good too. Hope there are no slip-ups today!]

[Anyone’s skills can fail, but not our Zhi’s cooking! Take it from a loyal customer who’s been eating her food since the fried rice stand days all the way to Nan Family’s Small Restaurant!]

...

The bullet comments were a sea of peace and harmony, with viewers still joking back and forth.

But they had no idea that the real storm was yet to come.

The camera followed Nan Zhi to the familiar Cuishui Village Primary School.

And so, a beautiful day began.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.