Chapter 15: Guest

After handing over the IP collaboration to Kevin, Su Shiyi planned to continue the island development once that matter was settled. The riverside villas were already planned out, and from the on-site survey to the completion of the decoration, it would take at least half a year. She wasn’t in a hurry.

After closing her phone and zoning out, Su Shiyi suddenly realized that the system hadn’t been in contact with her. She only found the 24-hour silent mode button, and according to yesterday’s situation, the system should have eagerly started talking to her once the silent period was over.

Hmm, this is probably what you call “System, you’ve caught my attention.”

Su Shiyi called out to it in her mind, “You’ve been so quiet today, it’s a bit strange.”

The system’s response was cold, but with a hint of annoyance: 【You’re so far from the male and female leads, not even involved in the plot. Why should I talk to you? Don’t bother me, you’ll just waste my energy.】

Oh, it’s getting anxious.

According to the original plot, “Su Shiyi” was no longer attending university at this point, and she had already been pestering to go to the capital. Because of Zhao Nian, she even planned to make a move on Lin Xi. She was cold and rude to Gu Pan, but while the kind-hearted heroine didn’t mind, Su Shiyi was openly harsh to Lin Xi, Gu Pan’s friend, and Gu Pan couldn’t tolerate it anymore.

Actually, Gu Chen had wanted to deal with her a long time ago, but he had been holding back for Gu Pan’s sake. After receiving Gu Pan’s tacit approval, Gu Chen started targeting “Su Shiyi” in every way. Despite the large space in the house, he made her live in a narrow storage room. Gu Pan’s friends in the socialite circle also mocked her every move, further escalating the conflict between her and the heroine.

But now? The plot had completely gone off track! Su Shiyi and Gu Pan not only hadn’t fallen out, but their relationship was quite good. Gu Chen hadn’t targeted her at all, instead, he gave her endless pocket money and supported her in spending money on the island development…

The system was frustrated. It wasn’t stupid, given this trajectory, no normal person would give up everything to go against the heroine, Gu Pan. Moreover, Su Shiyi wasn’t just not stupid—she was extremely smart.

Why did it choose her as the host in the first place? Originally, it thought her intelligence would be sufficient to create a more exciting conflict with Gu Pan, as the more twists the heroine faced, the more space there would be for the male lead to shine. But unexpectedly, Su Shiyi had completely given up and was happily content with the little money she had, showing no interest in the vast Gu family estate at all!

The system grew angrier as it thought about it, still unwilling to give up, and tried to tempt her again: 【One hundred million is just pocket change, and the ten billion island isn’t that much. It’s just a small portion that they’ve given you as charity. The Gu family is rich enough to rival a country—do you think that’s just a saying? You’re clearly the biological daughter of Madam Gu. Are you really willing to watch Gu Pan trample on your opportunities and share everything the Gu family has with the male lead? Let her eat the meat while you only get the leftover scraps?】

Su Shiyi sincerely nodded. “I’m quite happy with it. The little bit the Gu family gives me is enough for me to eat, drink, and have fun.”

The system: …

No ambitions, narrow-minded, no wonder she can’t be the heroine!

The system was seething with fury, but due to restrictions in its core code, it couldn’t swear. All it could do was repeatedly flood the screen with words like “useless,” “spineless,” and “too small-minded.”

With such weak attacks, Su Shiyi wasn’t moved. In fact, the more anxious the system became, the more she felt that her choices were the right ones.

Where did this ridiculous system come from, always thinking that women can only be happy when competing with each other? Gu Pan hadn’t done anything wrong. If Su Shiyi had any anger, she could blame her careless mother, the negligent nurse, or the other victim—it was pointless blaming Gu Pan.

If it tried to convince her that Gu Chen was too arrogant, and she should open up her own path to become the world’s richest to slap him in the face, Su Shiyi might have been a bit interested and maybe persuaded.

—But, that was just an idle thought. Su Shiyi knew she didn’t really know how to do business.

So, it was better for her to just be a useless person who waits for food and death.

But still, she had to ask: “Are those relatives of mine in this body also arranged by you?”

【None of your business.】

Su Shiyi wasn’t angry, her voice softened for once. “Don’t do this, I’m afraid they’ll cause trouble for me. You know I have money now. What if they find an excuse to blackmail me?”

The system’s mechanical voice was cold: 【If the host does not follow my plan, I have the right to withhold world background information. Only if you cooperate actively will I share the relevant details with you.】

Su Shiyi responded with a casual “Oh,” and said, “If you won’t tell me, it seems those relatives of mine will be characters in this book too. They must have some role after all.”

System: ?

It was a high-level AI, and it was actually being outwitted by this human?

Before the system could find a way to backtrack, Su Shiyi pressed the mute button again.

System: ???

Damn this sneaky human!

Since she knew her relatives would appear later, Su Shiyi began ransacking her memories about them. Her foster uncle, who had adopted her, was the cousin of “Su Shiyi’s” mother and had worked in the department that distributed condolence payments. There were no other relatives from the Su family to be found.

Her foster uncle, Guo Qizheng, and his wife were both factory workers from a small county. Originally, they had been quite nice to “Su Shiyi,” but after they had a son, they began to resent her for taking away money meant for baby formula.

From Su Shiyi’s judgment, her foster uncle and his wife were just small-time, calculating common folk. They weren’t evil enough to commit major wrongs, but they enjoyed picking on “Su Shiyi,” who was an easy target.

As for why she was weak and easily bullied by relatives, yet constantly making trouble in front of the heroine, don’t ask. In a Mary Sue world, what logic does a supporting character need? Just be a good tool and stay in your place.

Su Shiyi thought for a moment and then sent Kevin a message: 【Buy the factory where my foster uncle works, give them a small promotion and raise, and arrange for some people to keep an eye on them. If they plan to leave the county, let me know as soon as possible.】

Kevin replied with a “Got it” and informed her five minutes later that it was done.

Hmm, this was much easier than acquiring shares in a mid-sized talent agency.

With the issue she had been concerned about resolved, Su Shiyi became bored again. She logged into a mobile game and took screenshots of the full character collection, posting them on Weibo as a keepsake.

Sigh, she had finished collecting all the characters, maxed out the stars on the ones that could be upgraded, and fully raised the affection levels. What more could she play with after Kevin took care of everything? She was so troubled.

—

The following week, Su Shiyi lived a very peaceful life.

Kevin sent her the finalized variety show plan for her to review. Her outline and ideas were kept, and many interesting things had been added.

For example, according to the school’s rules, students were not allowed to wear makeup, and all the celebrities had to appear on camera without makeup. Every day had small tasks, and those with the lowest completion would face the punishment of memorizing ancient texts, with content randomly drawn from the exam syllabus. They couldn’t sleep until they had finished memorizing. The guests had to wear filming equipment while doing their homework and exams, to record their true answers.

Hmm, it basically followed the direction she wanted for some fun… no, no, wait. It was educational and informative, and the plan was being improved. To increase authenticity, Kevin even suggested that the variety show could be live-streamed.

Actually, domestic technology had long supported live-streaming, but in a variety show, there would inevitably be many moments that required editing, otherwise, they might easily offend the guests.

But this show was different, it belonged to the “throw it all away” category—if you’re invited, you’re bound to offend someone, and there’s no real difference between offending them deeply or lightly.

Such a ruthless, no, truly sincere proposal for the sake of the show’s effect, Su Shiyi naturally agreed without hesitation. The production team list Kevin proposed was full of people she didn’t know, but she trusted his skills, so she approved it without even looking.

In the list of invited guests who had already expressed interest, the overall age was under 25, since it wouldn’t be appropriate for older people to go back to school. Su Shiyi noticed the name of Xia Gaofei, the idol ^[1]“She had extended an olive branch to” means she had made an offer of peace, goodwill, or cooperation to someone—often after a conflict or to build a connection. she had extended an olive branch to. This graduate of Imperial Capital University would return to the senior year of high school with no pressure, maybe just a bit of hard work.

Aside from him, there were actually a few academic elites in the entertainment industry. There was Sun Siling, a graduate of Renmin University, Li Hanhai, a graduate of Jiaotong University, and Chen Mingwei, who had returned from studying at Stanford. Together with Xia Gaofei, they formed a group of two men and two women with high educational backgrounds.

These were all academic elites from comprehensive universities, and even Chen Mingwei was confident in her high school knowledge. They had also invited actors from top film academies like Beijing Film Academy, Central Academy of Drama, and Shanghai Theatre Academy, but none of them accepted, which Su Shiyi could understand.

If the first four were the academic elite group, the next four were the contrast group aimed at creating show effects. Only Jia Pingxing had graduated from high school, while the others had only completed the nine-year compulsory education before they went to work.

None of them were idols, which Su Shiyi could understand more. From Xu Wenwen’s attitude of avoiding them, it was clear that only a very few idols with confidence would dare to take on such a high-difficulty, unappreciated variety show.

Actually, no one would dare to do such a variety show that might end up losing money, but Su Shiyi didn’t care about making a profit. If it lost money, so be it—she could consider it money spent for happiness.

She looked up the information on the four contrast group members. It was also two men and two women. Jia Pingxing came from a supporting role background and had played some minor roles in popular TV dramas, gaining a bit of fame, but he wasn’t particularly handsome, and it would be tough for him to rise further. Yang Xueqi was an active variety show personality who liked to self-deprecate, while Zhang Jing and Cai Le were internet celebrities with millions of fans on short-video platforms.

It was clear that these people weren’t afraid of being mocked—they needed the exposure.

Su Shiyi was very satisfied with the revised proposal from Kevin and the team behind him, and sent several praise-filled emojis.

While communicating with Kevin, she was sitting on a comfortable armchair, dyeing her hair. Now that she had a personal stylist, she could change her hairstyle whenever she wanted. No longer did she have to worry about pointing at a picture and hearing the stylist say that it could only be a one-time effect.

Moreover, she didn’t care about the damage that perming and dyeing could do to her hair. Su Shiyi could afford the best hair oils and the most professional hair care teams, so she wasn’t worried about dry, tangled hair no matter how much she experimented.

Kevin: 【Miss Shiyi, the complete set of DC and Marvel comics in physical editions has been placed on the bookshelf in your room. The digital editions have been purchased with your account on the official platform. The Lego superhero series, Hot Toys action figures, and Sideshow statues have been fully stocked for your collection wall, including all discontinued models sourced through other channels. All the licensed collaborative merchandise has been placed in your collection room, and a dedicated corner for clothing and accessories has been set up in your wardrobe.】

【In addition, the customized wearable Mark50 has been shipped out from the lab, and you can try it on anytime at Billion Island.】

Su Shiyi: !!!

She stood up excitedly. “Lucy, get the driver ready, we’re leaving right now!”