Chapter 66

After entering the cafeteria, the two found a nearby table and sat down. Luo Jiayu went to buy food, leaving Chu Yu to watch his back as he left, and then watched him come back carrying two large bags of breakfast.

Luo Jiayu put the bag on the table, and the sound it made startled a Capybara that was lost in thought.

"What's wrong?" Luo Jiayu was very surprised.

"Nothing." Chu Yu came back to his senses and belatedly lowered his head to glance inside the bag. "Why is there no coffee?"

"I didn't buy any," Luo Jiayu said. "I told my aunt I wanted a chocolate coffee with more sugar but no coffee, and she called me crazy."

"Is that so?" Chu Yu nodded absentmindedly, and then continued to think intently.

Another minute passed.

"Why is there no coffee?"

Luo Jiayu repeated his previous answer, and Chu Yu nodded: "Is that so."

Another minute passed.

“Why not…”

This time he didn't finish his words, because Luo Jiayu came over and tapped his forehead lightly:

"What's wrong? What are you thinking about?"

Chu Yu's originally blank eyes moved to his face. After looking at him for a while, she suddenly pointed at herself and asked, "What am I to you?"

"..." Luo Jiayu blinked and spoke faster than his brain could think, "What do you want to be to me?"

Chu Yu originally thought that the other party would readily answer "son" or "friend", but he didn't expect this answer and was stunned.

There was silence for a few seconds. Luo Jiayu lowered his head and opened the breakfast bags, one after another. When he finished opening them all and still didn't hear the other party's response, he added the next sentence smoothly: "What's wrong? Is it difficult to say that you want to be my father?"

Chu Yu hummed, and the embarrassing page was turned over. He climbed up the pole and whispered, "It's okay to be a grandfather."

"Don't even think about it." After saying this, Luo Jiayu raised his head and looked meaningfully at his childhood friend's eyes, which were red and swollen like a rabbit.

Chu Yu touched his eye sockets and probably understood what his childhood friend meant. How could a grandfather hug his grandson's shoulders and cry bitterly?

After crying like this in his arms, he has now lost the advantage and initiative in the father-son competition. It is sad to see him fall to such a state.

"I'll be gone for a while." Chu Yu stood up slowly, looking absent-minded.

Luo Jiayu had been waiting patiently for him to tell her where he was going, but he didn't say the second half of the sentence: "Where are you going?"

Chu Yu didn't even think about where to go; he just needed a place to be alone and quiet.

He walked slowly to the right: "I'll go get a drink."

Luo Jiayu: "The drinks are on the left."

"Okay." Chu Yu turned around obediently, changed direction and wanted to leave.

"That's not the left, that's the front." Luo Jiayu stood up, "I'll go with you."

“No need.” Chu Yu pushed him back. “I’ll be back soon. I won’t get lost.”

Luo Jiayu said nothing and continued to look at him.

Chu Yu: "Don't worry about me doing the job."

Luo Jiayu smiled and nodded: "Okay." Then he watched his back as he left.

As soon as Chu Yu reached the beverage machine, his shoulders slumped.

I can't do it, he said to himself.

Teacher Zhao in my mind: "Yeah?"

I can't do this. Chu Yu dejectedly took a disposable paper cup. It was too difficult to let this father-son relationship, which had lasted for many years, deteriorate under my own hands.

"Hmm..." Teacher Zhao racked his brains for some euphemisms, "But perhaps your original father-son relationship wasn't so pure after all?"

Chu Yu didn't say anything and just agreed with the system's statement.

But there is a difference between tacit agreement and personally guiding and promoting it.

"How about we try to find someone who's less stressful?" Teacher Zhao felt that with her patient and encouraging teaching style these days, she could apply directly for a kindergarten teacher position once she returned to reality. "People like Wei Ziyu, Fu Hansong... are all good options. There's no need to stick to just one person."

But I feel most relaxed only in front of him. Chu Yu absentmindedly took the drink from a disposable paper cup and replied as he did so.

It's great to be able to have a smooth conversation with other people, and the strategy of conquering others is different from simply improving their favorability. If he is asked to conquer others, he won't be able to take the first step of actively communicating.

"It's okay, then let's conquer him." Teacher Zhao was basically certain of the host's true intentions, but the host was unwilling to admit it at the moment. "Just treat it like a game. Just do whatever you need to do to increase NPC favorability. It's very simple, don't put any pressure on yourself."

"Baby, I believe you can do it, you are the best!"

Chu Yu was a little hesitant, but despite his hesitation, he still did not immediately choose the target of the task.

After all, there is still a long time before the final outcome is determined. Favorability cannot be gained in one day. Things that cannot be decided today can still be thought about tomorrow.

Brother Baizi activates his passive skill: Let’s talk about it later, no rush, it’s still early.

After he returned to his seat, the two of them ate brunch while starting to discuss their beautiful vision of the future with the theme of "With a bank card in hand, the world is mine."

Halfway through his fantasy, Luo Jiayu opened the plastic box containing croissants, took out a croissant and gave it to the person opposite him:

"When I snatched the keys from that staff member last night, I glanced at his badge on his chest. I wrote down his name and face. When we have time, we'll slowly check his background."

Chu Yu didn't expect him to bring this up so suddenly. She blinked and even stopped biting the croissant: "Okay."

Luo Jiayu also took a bite of bread and continued with what he had just said:

"That bastard couldn't have locked you up for no reason. There must be someone behind the scenes, instructing him to do this. Most likely a trainee. There aren't many people in the camp who would be so hostile to you. And they must be very popular, otherwise they wouldn't be able to send staff to do such a shabby job for him."

"Even if he's quite popular, he probably can't send staff to do this." Chu Yu replied naturally, "Because I'm more popular than him. Maybe he has a strong background, or they're from the same company, so they help each other out."

The plot of the book mentioned that many of the staff in the performance venue were temporary workers for one night. This situation was very suitable for each company to take advantage of the situation and squeeze their own people in. Some of them did it to take care of their own players, while others were hard to say.

Chu Yu didn't think there was anything wrong with what he said, but the person opposite him put down the croissant, looked at him intently, and then narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, you're definitely more popular than him." Luo Jiayu took the opportunity to grab his childhood friend's furry head, "Capibara is amazing."

“…” Chu Yu shook her head a few times as he rubbed her head, feeling that the other party just wanted to take advantage of her.

"Logically speaking, locking the door wouldn't have any impact on your popularity or performances. It's probably just that the vicious supporting actor got his kicks and wanted to frame you to vent his personal frustrations." Luo Jiayu continued, his eyebrows knitted together halfway through.

"This is so despicable and brainless. It reminds me of an old friend."

"It also reminds me of an old friend." Chu Yu said.

The two looked at each other for a moment, convinced that they were thinking of the same old friend.

Chu Yu: "When you have time, go check the list of people in the company behind your ex-boyfriend."

"Okay." Luo Jiayu replied and then corrected, "It's Tea Bag Brother."

The topic came to an end here, because Luo Jiayu did not tell Chu Yu that his debut position had been bought by someone, so he did not mention his plans and intentions in this regard. His original intention was not to make his childhood friend worry, but the actual impact was much greater than he expected.

That evening, all the trainees were summoned to the studio to begin the announcement of the rankings for the second round of performances.

Ling Wei happened to have a cold today and did not come to the recording site, so the person who announced the ranking this time became Wei Shao among the remaining four mentors.

For some reason, the man holding the ranking card looked very bad. Even his father coughed loudly a few times, which couldn't hide his gloomy and ugly face.

The two sat in their usual seats, listening to the arrogant man in front of them, who was about their age, weakly reciting the clichés of his speech summary. Luo Jiayu turned his head and whispered in Chu Yu's ear:

"He looks just like me when I read the inspection report under the national flag."

"...I believe that every moment of your hard work and perseverance will not be wasted. All the seeds of dreams will blossom under your careful nurturing." Wei Shao quickly finished the last sentence and changed his cue card. "Now let's announce the overall rankings for the second performance."

Of the fifty-five contestants in this round, only thirty-five were shortlisted. Since the system had already informed the popularity rankings of the two during the settlement report, they were not worried.

But the more rankings were announced, the more Chu Yu felt something was wrong.

This time the rankings were a major reshuffle, and it was a reshuffle without any warning. The prince was still the unshakable number one, while several players who were originally stable in the upper and middle circles fell to the lower circle or even outside the eleventh place. The debut list kicked out several familiar faces and added several new faces who did not make much splash, including his cheap ex-boyfriend from childhood.

He didn't think any further because Wei Shao called out his name.

"Chu Yu." Wei Shao paused, then frowned barely audibly. "Fifth place."

Compared with the last time, the ranking has decreased instead of increased. At first glance, this seems to be a reasonable change, but only the two of them who know the real ranking understand how much tricks are involved.

"Tsk." Luo Jiayu didn't expect that his childhood friend's ranking could be suppressed. This time he was ranked fifth, probably because he had enough fans. It's hard to say what place the program team will arrange for him next time.

"Luo Jiayu." After announcing a few more places, Wei Shao changed his card and said, "Seventeenth place."

Initially, the pupils suddenly contracted.

This broken world where capital is in power is really disheartening.

If this trend continues, he won't be able to debut at a high position, and it's even a question whether his childhood friend can survive the third round.

Luo Jiayu had been warned by his previous company that they had called and threatened him to withdraw from the competition, so he accepted the result well. He was secretly thinking about when to register a company to buy back the debut spot. He was determined to wipe out those old guys before the finals.

The childhood friend beside him lowered his head and remained silent. After a while, a "ding dong" sound rang in his head.

[It has been detected that the host has confirmed the capture character. I wish you a successful mission.]

The real disappointment is not making a big fuss, but quietly accepting the side quest.

After accepting the mission, Chu Yu repeatedly confirmed with Teacher Zhao in his mind: "Is it okay to just attack secretly? If I don't alert the enemy, he shouldn't find out?"

Teacher Zhao gave an encouraging thumbs-up: "You can do it! Believe in yourself, you will succeed, baby!"

After being beaten, Chu Yu had a sluggish face and poked his childhood friend beside him.

Luo Jiayu turned around and saw the other person's face with a calm expression of death: "What's wrong..."

Chu Yu took his hand.

"?"

Chu Yu placed her hand on his palm.

“!”

Chu Yu inserted her fingers into his, and the two of them interlocked their fingers, staying like that for a while.

“!!”

"That..." Luo Jiayu's voice was a little hesitant. He had just cautiously and tentatively said two words when he saw the hand holding his hand suddenly press his hand down.

"Wrestle." Chu Yu released his hand and quickly retracted it, his face expressionless. "I win."

Luo Jiayu: “…”

He lowered his head to unbutton his cuffs and rolled up his sleeves: "Again."