If she really liked Zhan Qingyuan, she wouldn’t break up with him just because of financial issues or Zhan Qingyue’s investment withdrawal.

Instead, she would feel touched that he was pressured by his family for her sake.

If she didn’t like him, any excuse could be used to break up.

Thinking this, Zhan Qingyue smirked and said, “You’re wrong. My loved ones aren’t so troublesome that I would lose my mind over them.”

His Qiuxiu is easygoing.

Occasionally, she acts a little spoiled, but it’s always because he teases her, sometimes she was very thick skinned but cute.

With this thought, Zhan Qingyue’s expression softened, and his tone became gentler.

He said, “Go ahead and take care of everything today. Otherwise…”

“…”

Song Qiao felt a chill down his neck, but then he heard Zhan Qingyue add, “Otherwise, I won’t be able to do much about it either.”

Song Qiao: “……”

I believe in your nonsense!

---

Zhang Qingyuan saw Ji Weiliang and her assistant getting out of a taxi while wearing masks.

He took off his coat, shivering in the cold winter, wearing only a wool sweater and a shirt.

He quickly ran a few steps and caught up just as Ji Weiliang was about to enter.

“Weiliang…” Zhang Qingyuan’s voice sounded as pitiful as a child in the cold wind.

Ji Weiliang paused when she saw him, then expressionlessly swiped the access card. “There’s nothing to talk about between us.”

“Just one last time,” Zhang Qingyuan’s eyes showed a hint of pleading. “Weiliang, just a few minutes, can you give me a chance to explain?”

“Zhang Qingyuan, it’s not a matter of explanation. I know you were framed, but this incident has exposed our fundamental issues,” Ji Weiliang said, looking down. “The social gap between us has always been a chasm. In the past, I was just a fool dreaming of something beyond my reach.”

“Now I’m just a poor guy!” Zhang Qingyuan laughed bitterly. “Look at me, completely broke, with only 600 yuan to my name. If you don’t support me, I’ll freeze to death on the streets.”

“……” Ji Weiliang had heard from Song Qiao that he had left Zhuosen to his brother and that his brother had frozen his bank accounts. “In that case, I won’t be with you. Knowing that you gave up all your efforts and hard work for me will make me feel uneasy for the rest of my life. You should have stayed on your pedestal and married someone born with a golden spoon, like Ning Qiuxiu or Jia Qing, not me.”

Zhang Qingyuan: “……”

“Don’t look for me anymore,” Ji Weiliang swiped the access card again. “Goodbye.”

Zhang Qingyuan raised his hand and watched helplessly as Ji Weiliang went inside without making any effort to stop her.

……

Zhang Qingyue spent the entire day at Zhuosen, meeting everyone he needed to see and taking care of all the necessary tasks before returning home.

After dinner, he dealt with Ning Qiuxiu’s issues, and it was already 10 PM.

He recalled Ning Qiuxiu’s dramatic departure earlier that morning and decided to send her a video message.

Fortunately, this time Ning Qiuxiu didn’t make him buy a house on WeChat, and the video call went through.

After a long while, the video call was answered, revealing a face that looked like a little ghost from a horror film, resting her chin on the table, staring at the screen with a mournful expression.

“Ahhhhhhh!” The little ghost wailed.

“……” Zhang Qingyue pulled the video back a bit. “Are you shooting a horror film?”

“No, woo woo woo, I’m preparing lessons.”

“Preparing lessons?” Zhang Qingyue was surprised. “Are you doing teaching support?”

That’s something only the national TV station would do.

“Not to scare you, but I’m teaching the senior class now.”

“……” That is quite shocking.

Zhan Qingyue fell silent for a moment. “Are you sure you’re not misleading them?”

“If I could mislead them, I’d mislead them all. These aren’t even real senior students; they’re actors hired from the National Television’s Drama Academy. Each one is a better performer than the next, making us look like fools. We don’t even know who’s misleading whom!”

Ning Qiuxiu said this with a frown, her face puffed up with frustration.

Clearly, she wasn’t having a good day.

When she saw the guest list for “Super Ordinary,” Ning Qiuxiu almost choked.

The male guests were: Shen Yin, one of the top hosts on National TV; Xiao He, a veteran actor; and An Chiyuan, known as the “girl killer” idol actor.

The female guests were: retired Olympic champion Pei Yue, Zheng Lingshan, a former female soldier and now singer, and Ning Qiuxiu, known for her strong female persona.

The female guests were indeed very impressive…

Ning Qiuxiu, staring at the guest list, felt overwhelmed and thought she might not have a good time this time!

With a heavy heart, she followed the production team’s car to the first recording location, which surprisingly turned out to be a school.

[Recording Theme: Those Flowers]

The task began because, on the eve of New Year’s Day, the senior students at Unusual High School were taking their last mock test before the New Year.

The class 1 students, who usually performed well, did terribly, causing their homeroom teacher a lot of stress. The principal and the grade supervisor put pressure on the teacher.

Class 2 students, on the other hand, improved and were praised.

The two class teachers needed to come up with strategies based on the class situations, with the help of the principal, grade supervisor, and class leaders, to address student issues and make progress.

Each student problem had a corresponding score; solving them would add to the final exam score, while unresolved issues would deduct from it.

The class with the highest total score in the final exam would win.

The production team invited six guests to play these roles.

Ning Qiuxiu was chosen to be the homeroom teacher for class 1.

Her task was to figure out the reasons for the poor performance based on clues and students’ comments, with the help of the class leader, and solve various unexpected issues.

So, Ning Qiuxiu spent the whole day battling with the “senior students” from the Drama Academy, dealing with various distractions.

She discovered two cases of early relationships, one instance of campus bullying, one case of cheating, and one case of group smoking in the restroom.

She also had complaints from parents once and students twice, which made her day chaotic and nearly drove her to the brink.

Once the students were finally out of class, she had to prepare lesson plans, attendance records, and everything that was closely related to the final exam results.

After hearing her vent, Zhan Qingyue said, “National TV really knows how to play games.”

“Yeah, at first, I thought we’d be experiencing jobs at places like the Daqing Oil Field or Datong Coal Mine. I was actually pleased when I found out it was teaching, but it turns out they’re not just tormenting our bodies but also our spirits!”

“……” This description actually made Zhan Qingyue imagine the situation.

However, Ning Qiuxiu, despite being tough, bounced back quickly from her complaints.

She said, “Oh, I heard today that Jìn Weiliang’s studio lost its funding. Did you know?”

“I know,” Zhan Qingyue replied, looking at his wife with a curious expression. “I had someone do it.”

Ning Qiuxiu: “……”

Even though she knew it was probably related to him, she didn’t expect him to admit it so straightforwardly.

“That person, Zhan Qingyuan… he doesn’t mind.”

Zhang Qingyue raised an eyebrow. “You care about him?”

“???” Ning Qiuxiu mentally gave him the finger, though she dared not express her anger and had to explain with a wronged tone, “I don’t! I just think it’s a shame that you brothers have fallen out over something like this.”

It’s not worth breaking off your brotherly relationship over someone like Ji Weiliang.

Besides, can’t the male and female leads’ couple be torn apart?

What if Zhang Qingyue gets sidelined by the plot gods because of this!

Realizing this, Ning Qiuxiu hurriedly said, “Why don’t you just stay out of their business? Zhang Qingyuan is an adult and has his own thinking abilities. If he doesn’t want to continue, you can just take over Zhuosen. We can just give up on the entertainment company, okay?”

She’s even willing to give up on the entertainment company she’s been so eager for.

“It seems you still care about him, hmm?” Zhang Qingyue’s words were filled with a strong sense of jealousy, as if he wanted to write “I’m jealous” across his face.

Ning Qiuxiu felt like her eyes would be filled with “qaq” if they could change shape.

How should she explain this?

Damn it!

She just wanted to give Zhang Qingyuan a good beating.

Why can’t he just play his role as the domineering CEO in the plot and stop shifting the blame to others?

Do they look like two big pots?

“I just think that rather than starting from scratch, it’s better to take advantage of what’s already available. I didn’t want to make you blatantly snatch Zhuosen from him when he had it, but now that he’s handing it over himself, wouldn’t it be foolish not to take it!”

Zhang Qingyue: “……”

He felt like he was being scolded.

Zhang Qingyue said, “Although I really want to agree with you…”

“But…”

“But I’m afraid your father-in-law will get so angry he’ll come back from his grave to hit me.”

Ning Qiuxiu: “……”

Your father-in-law, your father-in-law… Why does it sound so damn pleasing?

No, it has nothing to do with her father-in-law!

Don’t shift the blame onto someone who can’t speak anymore, isn’t that inviting divine punishment?

Just as she was about to say something else, the school broadcast suddenly started, and it was the voice of their “principal” Shen Yin.

Since he was a host from the national TV station, it sounded like a news broadcast: “Attention, students, attention. The head teacher and class leader will conduct room checks shortly. Please be prepared.”

“……”

Room checks in the freezing winter?

And they’re announcing it in advance?

What kind of room checks are these?

When they were in school, teachers used to do surprise inspections!

Ning Qiuxiu was moved to tears by this obviously biased plot.

But since it was a plot task, Ning Qiuxiu, as the head teacher, had to say goodbye to Zhang Qingyue, get dressed, and head out.

“Qiuxiu.” Zhang Qingyue called her.

“Huh?” Ning Qiuxiu asked while getting dressed. “What’s up?”

“Miaomiao seems to miss its mom.”

People who raise cats and dogs often like to refer to their pets as their children.

Ning Qiuxiu also often refers to herself as Miaomiao’s mom and insists on calling the unwilling Zhang Qingyue its dad.

The term “dog dad” sounded increasingly strange, and Zhang Qingyue firmly rejected it.

Ning Qiuxiu laughed when she heard this. “So even that ungrateful thing has some conscience?”

“Yeah,” Zhang Qingyue chuckled lightly. “Its dad also seems to miss it a bit.”

“……” Miaomiao misses its mom, and its dad misses it too.

Zhang Qingyue’s roundabout way of saying he misses her.

Why… is he being so mushy all of a sudden?

Ning Qiuxiu’s face flushed slightly, admitting that she was touched by his words.

They had only been apart for a day.

No, no, something’s off.

Ning Qiuxiu alertly cleared the pink bubbles from her mind and said, “Mr. Zhang, I didn’t expect you to be so subtle. You actually miss a… female husky?!”

Zhang Qingyue: “？？？”

Why is there such an infuriating woman in this world?!

Zhang Qingyue felt that his soft approach wasn’t going to work with someone like Ning Qiuxiu.