This was the most famous impoverished county in the country.
Naturally, there were no hotels, inns, or guesthouses.
The houses the guests and crew stayed in had all been rented from the villagers.
The conditions weren't very good, either. They were earthen houses.
They slept on communal beds, with heated brick platforms underneath.
Even taking a bath meant heating water themselves and carrying it into the bathroom.
How could these pampered young masters and ladies stand living like this?
The moment An Zhizhi sat on the heated platform, its unyielding hardness dug into her unbearably.
She was the first to go make a fuss with the director.
The director said just one thing.
"My dear young lady, your dad personally asked me to keep an eye on you. I can't let you run off."
An Zhizhi's father, the richest man in City A, knew how spoiled and domineering she was, and how little hardship she could take. He wanted to use this show as a chance to toughen her up.
When her father heard they would be filming in Caoli County, he immediately struck a backroom deal with the director, telling him to make absolutely sure An Zhizhi couldn't leave.
The director said, "You'll only be here a few days anyway. Bear with it. Your dad said that if you stick it out, he'll buy you that castle you've been wanting right away."
She had begged her father for that castle in Country G for ages without getting it.
And now her father was actually using it to tempt her!
Worse still, it worked on her.
An Zhizhi could only pout and give a "Hmph."
But she still obediently returned to her lodgings.
Soon afterward, Ji Nanxian came too, pulling Jiang Yunli along.
They had come about the accommodations as well.
Ji Nanxian frowned as he told the director, "These conditions are terrible. Scratch the yellow mud on the walls and it falls right onto the bed. Yunli's always been in poor health. Give her another room."
Jiang Yunli also put on a troubled expression and tugged at Ji Nanxian's sleeve. "It's all right. I can stick it out too."
Ji Nanxian spoke up for Jiang Yunli. "How can you stick it out in conditions like these?"
Unexpectedly, one sentence from the director left both Ji Nanxian and Jiang Yunli speechless:
"But Teacher An managed to put up with it."
An Zhizhi was notoriously delicate.
Jiang Yunli had originally thought An Zhizhi would be the first to make trouble with the director.
An Zhizhi couldn't endure hardship. Earlier, she had even insisted on having food delivered.
If An Zhizhi took the lead, she could then bring Ji Nanxian over to ask for another room.
It would be hard for the director to refuse.
After all, she really couldn't live in a house like this. She simply couldn't imagine how anyone could spend their entire life somewhere like this.
Every day, coming home would give her that wretched feeling that her life was over.
But who would have thought?
An Zhizhi had actually put up with it?
Jiang Yunli already had a poor reputation with the general public.
If she pulled something like this now, she would never salvage her image.
Ji Nanxian hadn't thought that far ahead and was still arguing with the director. "Walking into that kind of earthen house makes me feel like I'm suffocating. How can anyone live there?"
The director held back again and again.
In the end, he couldn't hold it in. "...Maybe that's because you're wearing your sweater backward."
Ji Nanxian felt his collar.
His embarrassment turned to anger.
Fuck!
It really was!
Ji Nanxian: "..."
Jiang Yunli: "..."
The live comments read: [Hahahahaha, this is nuts!]
Jiang Yunli forced a smile and shifted all the blame onto Ji Nanxian. "Forget it, Nan Xian. I said from the start that we didn't need another room. Let's leave it at that. It's not unlivable."
Some of Jiang Yunli's die-hard fans began showering her with sympathy again.
[Waaah, Yunli's so considerate even though she's in poor health.]
[Yunli always sacrifices herself for the bigger picture.]
[She's such a good person, yet people keep smearing her with baseless rumors.]
As they went on,
these people also liked bringing up Shen Yunzhi as a contrast.
[Shen Yunzhi looks down on the village so much. She definitely won't last.]
[Shen Yunzhi acts like such a big shot on the show, but can that hide the fact that she hasn't come back to the village in five years?]
[Exactly. Raising someone counts for more than giving birth to them. Even if her adoptive parents' parenting had problems, it was for her own good. How would rural people know how city people raise their kids?]
[Doesn't the fact that they raised Shen Yunzhi to adulthood prove there was nothing wrong with her adoptive parents' corporal punishment?]
[She's afraid to contact her adoptive parents because she doesn't want to come back and suffer, right?]
Once Jiang Yunli left the director,
she was initially very upset.
Then she received a message from her manager.
Her manager said her fans were fighting with Shen Fans again and asked whether they should intervene, worried that fighting with another fandom would damage her reputation with the public again.
Jiang Yunli reconsidered and replied to her manager.
[Leave that alone. Help me do something.]
Before long,
some old dirt on Shen Yunzhi was dug up.
For example, a few years ago, her adoptive parents had come looking for Shen Yunzhi, only for her to chase them out with a broom. Someone had even photographed it.
For example, the Jiang Family couple hadn't originally wanted Jiang Yunli to return to the village with her adoptive parents.
It was Shen Yunzhi who disliked Jiang Yunli and insisted that the Jiang Family send her away, causing Jiang Yunli to suffer in the village and even develop depression.
Another example was that Shen Yunzhi had attended the county's best high school.
How could Shen Yunzhi, a poor student who couldn't even get into university, have gotten into a high school like that?
Her adoptive parents must have spent a lot of money on her.
How could anyone say her adoptive parents didn't care about Shen Yunzhi?
So there was nothing wrong with her adoptive parents asking Shen Yunzhi for money now, was there?
After all, Shen Yunzhi had broken their hearts. The couple hadn't been well-off to begin with, so they might as well recover whatever they could.
Jiang Fans had just been fighting with Shen Fans.
Everyone assumed Jiang Fans had dug up these old grievances.
Shen Yunzhi's haters went wild, boosting these scandals over and over.
Leaving the other scandals aside,
everyone knew Shen Yunzhi hadn't attended university.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yunli had gotten into Jing University.
The comparison made it instantly clear who was superior.
Jiang Fans immediately began feeling superior.
[Her adoptive parents spent so much money getting her into the best high school, and she couldn't even get into a junior college.]
[She never went to university, so she has absolutely no learning. All she does is act crazy and play to the crowd.]
[She'll never amount to anything more.]
[One look at the people who like Shen Yunzhi tells you exactly what sort they are.]
In the livestream,
Shen Yunzhi knew nothing about any of this.
Word had spread that she had returned to the village, and a child who couldn't be held back came running to see Shen Yunzhi.
"Yunzhi!"
She was a high school girl, fair-skinned and thin.
The little girl who had often stuck close to Shen Yunzhi in the past came running over to spend time with her.
Back when Shen Yunzhi had first been recognized and brought back into the Jiang Family, she had only been a little elementary school kid named Yunya.
In the blink of an eye, she was already in high school.
With the system there, Shen Yunzhi knew the child's name.
She spoke familiarly. "Oh, it's Yunya. Didn't school just let out? Why aren't you doing your homework? Aren't you afraid of getting a beating for running out to play?"
Wearing the county high school's uniform, Yunya grinned as she took her homework out of her bag. "I told my mom I was coming to you for tutoring, Yunzhi."
The original owner of her body had been an excellent student.
Their homes had also been close together, and the original owner had often helped Yunya with her homework.
Back then, the original owner had been assigned a lot of chores, and whenever Yunya had time, she would help carry manure, pull weeds in the fields, and so on.
Bored and idle, Xiao Yao sat nearby, jiggling his leg as he watched Shen Yunzhi help Yunya with her homework.
An Zhizhi passed by, thought Yunya looked cute, and handed her a bag of candy.
Yunya politely greeted them as big brother and big sister.
The atmosphere around Shen Yunzhi was harmonious.
Left out on the sidelines, Jiang Yunli racked her brains for things to do.
Only then did she seem to fit in a little.
Whenever she truly had nothing to do, it became obvious that no one was paying attention to her.
She had also wanted to sit beside Yunya and strike up a conversation.
But An Zhizhi plopped down, squeezing Jiang Yunli aside, and peered at Yunya's workbook.
Even An Zhizhi clicked her tongue. "Are first-year high school questions this hard now?"
Yunya was very proud. "They're all right. It's just that our high school's really good, so we move quickly. This is actually second-year material."
Then she giggled and snuggled up to Shen Yunzhi. "Yunzhi, I'm attending your old high school now!"
Shen Yunzhi smiled as she answered, "Impressive, impressive."
Yunya said, "Still not as impressive as you, Yunzhi."
Shen Yunzhi's haters in the livestream scoffed.
[What a joke. She only got in because someone paid. What's so damn impressive?]
[This brat's just here to suck up to Shen Yunzhi for some perks, right? Why ask someone like Shen Yunzhi for homework help?]
[+1. I doubt Shen Yunzhi's even memorized her arithmetic tables.]
[Kids these days are really calculating.]
Jiang Yunli desperately wanted to join in, but she couldn't get a word in, leaving her looking rather awkward.
Seeing no one paying attention to Jiang Yunli, Ji Nanxian stuck his neck out for her again, saying contemptuously from the sidelines, "Shen Yunzhi never even went to university. What kind of tutoring could she possibly offer? You'd be better off asking Yunli. She's a top student from Jing University."
Jiang Fans were indignant in the livestream too.
[Shen Yunzhi and her crowd are disgusting. They're deliberately excluding Yunli.]
[They're only excluding Yunli because she's outstanding!]
[Could anyone who hangs around Shen Yunzhi be any good?]
[This girl knows Yunli's from Jing University and still clings to Shen Yunzhi. That proves it. She's just here to suck up to Shen Yunzhi.]
These Jiang Fans remained just as foul-mouthed.
But who would have thought that when Yunya heard Ji Nanxian say Jiang Yunli was a top student from Jing University,
instead of looking at Jiang Yunli with admiration, she rolled her eyes dramatically.
Yunya said, "Oh, please. Jiang Yunli tutored me before. She even got middle school math problems wrong."
Before you continue