Chapter 25: Gossip and Rumors
Hearing the four screams rang out in unison, the staff members who were busy working nearby were all taken aback.
Sometimes, when the incomprehensible outweighs the logically understandable, the resulting indignation inevitably transforms into a curiosity to broaden one's horizons—who exactly is this "macho man" who molested four people in one go?!
Only a tentacle monster could do that, right?
They heard and saw clearly that there was only one person entangled with five beauties dressed in gold!
Carrying a folding stool and other weapons, they charged over, only to find the somewhat mixed-race-looking young man looking like he was about to cry, desperately explaining in broken Cantonese mixed with English, "NO, I'm not..."
"This is outrageous! So many eyes here saw it with their own eyes, and you still want to deny it?!" Normally, when they're competing with each other, they don't want to associate with a hot favorite like Li Sishi, but when something like this happens, any girl would stand up to help.
Not only them, but the staff members next to them also came over carrying their equipment!
"I was just picking this up; it's what I brought to apply for the architecture scholarship..." Wu Wenzu waved the crumpled drawing in his hand, "She stepped on it, and I had my head down, so I didn't see anything..."
"Tsk, if it were me, I would also say that I didn't see anything!" One of the staff members immediately sneered.
"I really didn't!" Wu Wenzu exclaimed anxiously.
Seeing his expression, one of the older staff members spoke up: "Young man, let's put it this way—even if you really didn't see anything, what kind of behavior is it to touch someone's thigh?"
"If she kicked at me wearing shoes like those, how could I survive if I didn't defend?" Wu Wenzu said helplessly.
Upon hearing his words, everyone subconsciously looked at the pair of metallic pointed stilettos on Li Sishi's feet, which indeed had a chilling, deadly quality...
"But you really did take advantage of them!" Even so, one must protect one's own people.
Especially for a top-tier celebrity like Li Sishi, if something happens in their group, the higher-ups will inevitably take the opportunity to make a scene.
While the argument raged on, the other four people gathered around Li Sishi: "How are you? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I'm dressed like this..."
"Even if he looked up, he wouldn't be able to see anything while singing and dancing in a short skirt." Li Sishi shook her head to indicate that she was fine, and then thanked the four people profusely.
"So what do you plan to do?" the four asked again.
"Let it go, it's all a misunderstanding. It's not good to delay the filming for a while," Li Sishi said, expressing her opinion.
Once the person involved expressed their understanding, the staff put the unexpected incident aside and quickly picked up their tools to continue working.
Before leaving, however, they still shouted a few words at Wu Wenzu in a loud and aggressive tone: "You're lucky that the pretty girl didn't mind, why don't you go and apologize to her!"
With a bitter face, Wu Wenzu rolled up the crumpled blueprints and secretly weighed the difference in numbers between the two sides. He had no choice but to bite the bullet and go find Li Sishi.
With a little time left, Li Sishi generously accepted his apology: "Be more careful next time, don't just focus on the beginning and forget the end."
"How could there be a next time!" Seeing Li Sishi's graceful demeanor, Wu Wenzu felt much better and added, "Thank you for your understanding. I will definitely pay attention in the future."
As the two said their goodbyes, Wu Wenzu, looking at Li Sishi's glittering gold outfit that resembled a bronze statue, hesitated for a moment but finally couldn't help but speak up: "Your outfit..."
"We're dressed like this because we have performance work to do," Li Sishi explained. "Actually, we don't like this outfit either. Against this background, it really looks a bit like an art sculpture at first glance..."
“I was just saying, I originally thought someone was afraid the sculpture would get damaged by the sun, so they moved it here—no wonder I felt that this ‘sculpture’ actually had warmth…” Wu Wenzu said, laughing and crying at the same time.
Li Sishi couldn't help but laugh when she heard this, and finally just said with a smile, "There's no way around it, you have to accept the consequences of your work."
“That’s true.” Wu Wenzu nodded in agreement.
Compared to this young and beautiful girl in front of him, who had to endure the shame of dancing in a bright gold miniskirt in the streets, he, a student of architecture...
Even after drawing blueprints for famous historical sites, people still have to go to the construction site to help with the work, euphemistically called "practical learning".
Anyway, there are always many things in life that we can't do without.
It's unbelievable that someone as handsome as Wu Wenzu, who's practically a walking bricklayer, once worked on a construction site. At this moment, Li Sishi actually felt a little self-conscious about her singing and dancing in such an ugly outfit.
It doesn't feel so unbearable anymore...
Although the incident ended relatively peacefully, it was undoubtedly captured on camera by the reporters who followed.
However, because Zhuang Menghua's assistant had given instructions beforehand, one of the crew members took advantage of a moment when no one was looking and went to talk to the reporters who were planning to use their pens to their advantage. In the end, they changed the misinterpretation into a minor issue.
The reporters were initially quite disappointed, feeling they hadn't been able to capitalize on the opportunity to create a sensational story about a popular contestant being sexually assaulted during an outdoor shoot. However, after contacting the Hong Kong team, they discovered that the "accidental sexual assault" story they were following with the Italian group was completely unrecognizable to the Greek team.
Because in the Greek group, there was a rumor about Lu Shi'an, who was leading the group's singers, and contestant number 13, Huo Chuying!
All sorts of things that gossip has to offer: flirting, preferential treatment, using teaching as an excuse to put arms around each other's waists and necks, calling each other affectionate nicknames, etc.!
Lu Shian, a male singer who is now considered somewhat popular, has a girlfriend, Cheng Zouyun, who is also a singer and whom he has been officially dating for several years and is a potential diva!
Even after they finished filming on location and flew back to Hong Kong with their respective filming crews, the reporters who weren't in the Greek group were still slapping their thighs in frustration: Why were they so blind and didn't choose the Greek group in the first place!
What an excellent result! How come someone else got it?
With the mindset that even if they couldn't win the grand prize, they should at least try to win the runner-up prize, the other three groups of reporters rushed to join another group of reporters who were staking out the airport after the plane landed at Kidd Airport. They then formed an impenetrable assault team that was also striving to be at the forefront both externally and internally, and together they rushed to surround the Greek team.
"Miss Huo, would you like to say a few words? It won't take up much of your time!"
"Any newsworthy or interesting stories? Like something fun or exciting?"
"We'd love to hear a couple of tidbits or behind-the-scenes stories!"
This big news alarmed the TV station's executives, who sent many people to escort the beauties back to their villas.
Amidst a cacophony of "no comment"s and the incessant clicking of camera shutters, many harbored a growing dislike for the instigator of this scandal: Huo Chuying (number 13) and Li Sishi (number 2) were already among the most popular girls in their year, and this scandal, while damaging their reputations, would undoubtedly boost their popularity even further, especially considering her "billionaire heiress" persona.
With that title, the TV station will definitely protect her to boost viewership and ratings!
You can tell from the large number of people sent to escort them that if they had decided to give up, they wouldn't have needed to go to such lengths.
Truly worthy of being born number 13—Zheng Yi is like a thirteen o'clock bell ringing out!
As for Lu Shi'an, who already has a girlfriend but still tries to seduce others, he should be humanely destroyed!
Having been reprimanded by the staff for speaking carelessly, Wan Jiamei, who had been holding back her words all the way, finally let out a long sigh of relief after carefully locking the door in her room. Then, she looked at Li Sishi with a complex, inexplicable yet unusually bright gaze.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" It was hard not to notice such a gaze, so Li Sishi had no choice but to stop packing her luggage.
Wan Jiamei lowered her voice and howled a few times before recounting her experience in the Greek group: "It's good that you reminded me. That Lu Shi'an is really like a mouse, always trying to find a chance. I don't know how he got in touch with Huo Chuying. I even heard Huo Chuying call him 'Anzai' in a very sweet voice once! Yue!"
Perhaps it's because the title of "billion-dollar heiress" is too resounding. Although this scandal also involves a third party and a scumbag man's attempt to cheat, most people feel that Lu Shi'an, with his notorious womanizing reputation, is more at fault: these days, people laugh at poverty but not prostitution. Not only do most female celebrities want to marry into wealthy families, but there are also quite a few male celebrities who want to live off their wives...
Who knows if Lu Shi'an is thinking of abandoning his "old wife" to climb the social ladder?
"You'd better not say these things to others outside," Li Sishi said with a shake of her head and a sigh.
"Of course I know I can't tell outsiders these things, but how can you and I be outsiders? We're best friends!" Wan Jiamei said confidently, and even tried to come up and take Li Sishi's hand affectionately.
If Li Sishi didn't know that the person in front of her would fall even more miserably than Huo Chuying in the future, she would have thought that her behavior wasn't genuinely naive and innocent, but rather that she was playing dumb to deceive others.
Unfortunately, perhaps due to family reasons and her young age, she is really naive and innocent—but too naive. Unlike Luo Xuan, who still has a chance to be redeemed, she could cause a major problem to surface at any time during this high-profile beauty pageant.
“We’re best friends, so what secrets can’t we tell you? I know you’re not so loose-lipped that you’d tell everyone, right?” Wan Jiamei sighed.
Since they are good sisters
"So, you really will tell me your secrets?" Li Sishi asked rhetorically, then added meaningfully, "Sometimes, being honest gets you lenient treatment, while resisting gets you harsher."
"Uh...everyone has a few secrets they need to keep." Wan Jiamei seemed to remember something, paused for a moment, and then chuckled dryly to change the subject. "By the way, you were nominated by Chang Baoning. Did she tell you anything about the inside story of the competition? For example, will Huo Chuying be secretly asked to leave by the organizers this time?"
"It's unlikely. After all, Huo Chuying's popularity is undeniable. The tournament will at least guarantee her a spot in the finals. If she performs well, she might even make it into the top five." Li Sishi carefully considered her words before speaking.
"Ah... she's only in the top five. A lot of people thought she could at least make it into the top three." Wan Jiamei said with some regret, but she quickly became confident again. "This way, my chances will also increase a little bit!"
Look at her so confident!
Li Sishi really wanted to grab her and yell at her—
What are you so happy about? Huo Chuying may have been plagued by scandals, which caused her to fall from the top three and stop at the top five; but you were genuinely replaced at the last minute when the top five were announced because of your dark history!
The follow-up handling was a complete mess!
Did all the nutrients during puberty go to the "career line" and leave little for brain development, thus leaving such a big hidden danger?
Sigh, I wonder if it's true what they said later, "This year's beauty pageant ruined the feng shui," because so many hidden talents and promising young geniuses appeared in this year's pageant—although I was quite promising in my past life, at least I didn't manage to do what these two did: the first generation of "An X cheating," a solo version of the "Y photo scandal"...
She was blinded by greed, neglected her career, and became involved with a wealthy family after the beauty pageant ended. Moreover, it was the rich young man who actively set a trap for her and put in a lot of effort to pursue her!
Unaware of the turmoil in Li Sishi's heart, Wan Jiamei lay contentedly on the bed, applying a face mask and resting, secretly hoping that her ex-boyfriend had disposed of all the "artistic photos" he took of her when they broke up, so she shouldn't have to worry about that... right?
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