A Pair of Evil Women's Love - Chapter 45

Chapter 45: [VIP]

Fu Haitang stepped into the lounge, glanced at Fu Yilan, and asked the medical staff, “How is she doing?”

Doctor: “She just had her first closed-off shot.”

“You can leave first, I’ll try to talk to her,” Fu Haitang said in a low voice. “Thank you for your hard work.”

“I insist on having two closed-off shots.” Fu Yilan’s voice rose. She stood up, tried to walk without her crutch, and felt pretty good. But if the pain intensified during the performance, the consequences would be severe. “Doctor, please respect my wishes.”

“Your wishes?” Fu Haitang was so angry she laughed. “Fu Yilan, you’re working at A Station. I don’t want the show to have a scandal where we’re accused of disregarding a trainee’s health for the sake of ratings!”

Fu Yilan frowned. “I won’t do that.”

The doctor looked at Fu Haitang.

Fu Haitang frowned, waved her hand, and motioned for the doctor to leave first. She was adamant about not giving Fu Yilan the first shot, and her tone became uncharacteristically stern. “Your wishes need to be measured by what’s important.”

In this moment, Fu Haitang seemed like a stranger. Her eyes were clouded, hiding a brewing storm of anger.

Fu Yilan was lifted into her arms. “Put me down!” Her voice was not calm either.

Fu Haitang scolded her, “Stop making a scene!”

Fu Yilan: “I can walk on my own!”

“I told you I’d secure your first-place position!” Fu Haitang suddenly exploded, scolding Fu Yilan. “Can you just be still!”

Fu Yilan: “Who do you think you are, that I have to believe what you say!”

Fu Haitang’s steps faltered. She turned her head and looked at Fu Yilan, saying word by word, “What are you saying?”

“No one is begging you to make a sacrifice.” Fu Yilan turned her face away. “Fu Haitang, unless you tell me clearly, is this a transaction or for some other reason?”

Fu Yilan gripped Fu Haitang’s collar. She looked at Fu Haitang, her jaw tense.

Admit it. Admit that you love me, that you like me!

Fu Haitang’s expression went from anger to a hint of sarcasm. “You don’t want to be the champion?”

Fu Yilan: “…”

“At least not by cheating.” Fu Yilan was stung by the mocking expression. She was like a hedgehog with all her quills raised. Resistance was her instinct. “You think you…”

You think what you’re doing is so glorious?

Fu Yilan swallowed the rest of her words. She gritted her teeth. The anger and Fu Haitang’s evasive, irrelevant answers made her lose her mind.

These words were not from her heart.

Her feet touched the floor. The waiting area was just behind the door, which was ajar. She could hear the voices and cheers of other trainees. In the bustling sound, Fu Yilan stood with her head down, not daring to look at Fu Haitang.

Fu Haitang was self-deprecating. Her anger subsided instead of growing, maybe because she was regaining her reason, or maybe it was out of a sense of helplessness at the truth. “This is the kind of person I am. Vile, shameless. For money and benefit, I can sacrifice anything and more, as long as it’s worth it.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Fu Yilan said in a low voice. She just felt that she should handle her own matters, and not let Fu Haitang sacrifice so much.

“I thought at least we had something in common,” like a shared obsession with money and a similar view of people like Gu Jingjing who are rich and naive. She never expected that in the protagonist’s eyes, her own actions would still be seen as forced.

That dark, subtle resentment of the rich and her obsession with money had once given Fu Haitang a unique feeling of a shared belief, a wrong set of values with Fu Yilan.

But she seemed to have forgotten that she had never actually heard if Fu Yilan truly accepted this idea.

Fu Haitang: “You’ll always have a smooth journey. Of course, you don’t have to be like me. Go ahead.”

A push on her shoulder. The door behind her opened. The crutch was placed in her hand, and she was pushed inside. Fu Haitang nodded slightly and turned to leave.

Fu Yilan clenched her fists, tightly gripping the crutch. “Fu Haitang!”

The sound of high heels on the floor gradually disappeared. She had gone far away.

Fu Yilan pursed her lips and sighed, looking down. “Fu Yilan, what’s wrong with you? You were upset that she was interfering, so why… do you feel so lost now…”

“Yilan!” A hand suddenly landed on her shoulder. Lin Meixue said, “Where did you go? Should we go over our positions one last time?”

Fu Yilan returned to the team. “Okay.”

…

“You’re back,” Director Fang said. “You were gone for half an hour. If I had known that’s what you meant by ‘taking care of me,’ I would have had to reconsider.”

The atmosphere in the monitoring room was good. Director Fang’s words were mostly teasing. Fu Haitang laughed softly, first apologizing, then saying with a relaxed expression, “It seems the broadcast is doing well.”

Director Fang pointed at the data charts. The live stream data and comment volume were being captured in real-time. “Audience engagement is very high. The new grouping obviously adds a fresh feel, and there’s more discussion about the rules and the competition. Also…”

Fu Haitang’s smile faded as Director Fang turned away. The data was impressive, but whether they could finish the live broadcast smoothly was still uncertain. “Everyone stay focused. Don’t get complacent just because of this victory.”

“Look at you, showing off in front of an expert.”

Director Fang: “Hmph!”

The director had absolute authority. Fu Haitang was responsible for filling in the gaps, but she had an even more important mission that she could see and hear!

With Director Fang, Fu Haitang arrived at Studio 1. She moved around to different stations, tirelessly confirming and checking various tasks.

The cameraman found a moment to adjust the camera and let Fu Haitang observe. “Look, zooming in like this is a close-up… Be careful, don’t cut randomly.”

Fu Haitang had an epiphany. “This is incredible. You have to pay attention to so much just with one of the director’s commands?”

The cameraman laughed.

Fu Haitang smiled.

The live broadcast was halfway through, and Fu Yilan appeared on stage.

The cheers in the venue intensified. Fu Haitang looked up at the stage. Fu Yilan was not using the crutch the production team had prepared for her. She walked onto the stage with a calm demeanor, enjoying the stage and the applause.

She was radiant and beautiful, as if she were on a different plane than the people around her.

The protagonist’s aura. She was so far away from her, and she stood on such a high platform. If it weren’t for Fu Yilan herself, she wouldn’t even be qualified to stand in the champion’s seat in Studio 2!

Fu Haitang bit her lip. She clenched her fists. Fu Yilan’s doubts did not make her back down or give up. If she could be a little vile and focus on profit, she could earn an unimaginable amount of money!

Why would she say no?

She was different from Fu Yilan.

“We are different.” If you accept me, I don’t need to explain anything to you.

Fu Haitang gritted her teeth. She stood in a corner, holding two documents in her arms, and was drawn to a familiar cheer.

“…”

Ji Xiaotong: “Mom!”

“Ahhhhhhh!”

“Baby!”

“Lanylan!”

“I love you, baby—”

“Lanylan! Does your leg still hurt? Boo-hoo!”

Ji Xiaotong: “Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo—”

Fu Haitang took a deep breath and opened the live stream on her tablet.

Live stream comments:

• • (Isn’t she injured?)

• • (Huh? Was the leg injury fake? It got better so fast?)

• • (So beautiful, Fu Yilan, ahhhhhhh!)

• • (Lanylan baby, boo-hoo, what are you doing?)

• • (See, it’s just hype, hehe.)

• • (Can you be more respectful? Is it hype or do you have eyes? Some people have already analyzed last week’s performance frame by frame. It was such an obvious bruise. A little worse and it would have been a bone injury. And someone is still saying it’s hype! Do you have any heart!)

• • (Meixue is so beautiful!!! Grandma, your toxic couple is back together!!!)

• • (So beautiful ahhhhhhh.)

• • (Top beauty in the entertainment industry. This face is too magnificent!)

• • (Hey, hey, did anyone see that woman next to Fu Yilan on the first-episode poster? Who is she! I need to know this right now!)

• • (She’s Instructor Fu, the show’s planner! She occasionally hosts the show, but she appears very little and irregularly. Boo-hoo, so I’m not the only one who ships them!)

“Yilan, how are you prepared this time?” On stage, the host was conducting a pre-competition interview.

As the team leader of this vocal group, Fu Yilan naturally took the microphone and said with a smile, “We are very well prepared.”

At the mentors’ table, Fu Rongdie suddenly adjusted her microphone and asked with a smile, “I heard your injury was quite serious. How is your recovery?”

The camera zoomed in on Fu Yilan’s right foot. Her two feet were clearly not the same size. The injured one had no time to rest and couldn’t recover completely. It was still swollen.

Fu Yilan’s silence was subtle.

Fu Haitang clenched her fists. According to the show’s script, this would be the best time to show a little bit of grievance to get sympathy.

But Fu Yilan just smiled faintly, looking as if nothing was wrong. “I’m fine, I can handle the competition.”

Lin Meixue snatched the microphone. “Nonsense! She just had two closed-off shots! Hey, hey, little Omega, don’t be so strong, okay? Otherwise, your fans will cry when they find out!”

“Meixue!” Fu Yilan chided her. “You sold me out!”

“Hahaha.” Laughter erupted both on and offline.

But after the laughter, everyone felt the helplessness behind it.

A stinging pain spread belatedly. Fu Yilan held her phone tightly, her expression serene. She lowered her eyes. “I just… made a mistake.”

Fu Haitang’s heart skipped a beat.

“I think I let down a very good friend,” Fu Yilan said. “She once told me, ‘I don’t like it when you get attention by selling your own suffering,’ so please, everyone, believe in me.”

“I hope the votes you cast for me are given willingly and are well-deserved.” Fu Yilan’s lips curved, revealing a dimple. “This is also what I want to say to my friend.”

The cover of the documents was embossed with the gold letters “Group Show 07.” Fu Haitang’s fingertips brushed over it. The words “Main Planner Fu Haitang” were deeply etched in her eyes.

Well-deserved?

If she really had to take it one step at a time, she might not even reach the position of vice-manager in three years at the TV station, let alone have the chance to be the main planner of an entire show!

“Tsk,” Fu Haitang scoffed, mocking Fu Yilan’s naivety.

Fu Rongdie chuckled. “Does this have anything to do with tonight’s performance? Yilan, why are you adding so much to the drama?”

Lu Jing interjected, “It’s not like these few seconds are going to ruin the show.”

“Teacher Lu is just being a sweetheart,” Fu Rongdie snorted, then moved the microphone away, leaned back in her chair, and exchanged a subtle look with Jiang Hai.

The comments immediately filled with people shipping Lu Jing and Fu Yilan.

Lu Jing had always been Fu Yilan’s class mentor. They were both young and good-looking, so it was hard not to feel something.

Because of this, most of Fu Yilan’s anti-fans came from Lu Jing.

With just one sentence from Lu Jing, the live stream was already in an uproar.

Fu Haitang frowned. A scandal between a mentor and a trainee was not a good thing. Such news would only devalue the show. Fu Haitang pressed the walkie-talkie. “Tell the backstage staff to add more filtered words.”

Fu Haitang’s performance began.

After the performance, the online voting channel would open at the same time as the live voting, and it would last for three minutes.

Fu Haitang turned off her walkie-talkie. She walked to a corner and, amidst Fu Yilan’s graceful dance and singing, contacted the trolls and fans. “The performance will end in three minutes. The host will announce the start of voting. Everyone get ready in advance. Don’t let your remaining votes time out.”

“There might be a network delay when a large number of votes come in. The system might also get congested, so try to avoid the first 30 seconds and the last 30 seconds.”

“Are you all familiar with the voting process?”

Fu Haitang took a deep breath and checked the vote counts of the other groups.

There were five performance teams in total: three dance groups and two vocal groups.

The vote counts for the first three groups were clearly abnormal. The online vote counts had a lot of hidden manipulation!

Fu Yilan’s team was the fourth. Fu Haitang could temporarily buy more troll votes based on the vote counts of the first three groups!

Fu Yilan, the justice you seek is no match for capital.

But it doesn’t matter.

Fu Haitang hung up the phone.

You can maintain your innocence. I’ll handle these things.