“Uh, I almost forgot, you’re someone who isn’t short of money.” After a burst of excitement, Xue’ers Cat, that is, Lin Xue, reacted and then muttered to herself.

Isn’t the main reason they do livestreams and become internet celebrities to gain traffic and get rich?

“If the platform contacts you, would you go?” Lin Xue asked with some curiosity.

“Sure.” Su Mei replied calmly, without a hint of hesitation.

Why wouldn’t she go?

Transitioning from the 21^st and 20^th line to the 2^nd and 1^st line has been Su Mei’s greatest ambition since she started her career.

Although this ambition had diminished somewhat after her overnight wealth, it was still something Su Mei had once longed for, so there remained a small bit of yearning in her heart.

And there was one more important thing.

Even though Su Mei was quite wealthy now, all this money came from the male protagonist’s scumbag father, which meant it all ultimately belonged to the Gu family.

If one day the male protagonist’s nerve was struck and he realized he wanted to reclaim all that money, including the Gu family’s shares, just like in the original story, what would Su Mei do then?

Wouldn’t she go cold and hungry?

Therefore, Su Mei felt that if she had the chance, she should earn more money for herself and save up a ‘cannon fodder survival fund’.

Upon hearing her words, Lin Xue was quite surprised.

“Ah? Are you really going?”

After thinking about it, Lin Xue felt that Su Mei didn’t need to participate in that variety show.

Their circle had all kinds of people. The production team was seeking a well-known streamer to participate in the recording, partly because the industry had indeed been quite popular in recent years, but also because there was considerable suspicion of them relying only on hype for publicity.

Moreover, the confirmed celebrity guest for this episode was a traffic star^[1]celebrities who drive high digital traffic with very high popularity recently. When a big celebrity and a small internet celebrity appeared on the same show, it was inevitable that they would be compared, with the internet celebrity being elevated and demeaned in contrast. It would essentially highlight the difference between the genuine and the counterfeit in the eyes of netizens.

Lin Xue carefully considered her tone and expressed her concerns to Su Mei.

There was one more thing she couldn’t quite put into words.

Su Mei’s reputation among the general public was really poor, and her past scandals were numerous…..

“You mean to say I’m disliked across the internet?” Su Mei summarized succinctly, as she listened to Lin Xue’s hesitant explanations.

“Mm, something like that……”

“Then it’s fine. Being disliked might just make me more famous.”

The more someone was disliked, the more popular they got.

These days, there are quite a few stars and internet celebrities who follow this path.

Once the current batch of netizens finishes high school, goes to university, graduates, finds jobs, has children, and a few more batches come along, whitewashing could naturally succeed.

Besides, this was the world of the novel. As long as she didn’t clash head-on with the male and female protagonists, or the important supporting characters bathed under the protagonists’ aura, Su Mei truly wasn’t afraid of being disliked across the internet.

Originally, Lin Xue thought Su Mei didn’t need to put up with that kind of humiliation, but after hearing Su Mei’s reasoning, she found it somewhat convincing.

After exchanging some commercial compliments with Su Mei, Lin Xue hung up the phone and continued to gather inside information.

———pr

A week later, the dust finally settled.

The production team posted the latest update on their official account.

【My Life v: Introducing the third guest on 《My Life 2》, popular streamer Foodie Susu @SamySuMei. Finger hearts, finger hearts. Want to know what the streamers’ lives are like off-camera? Join us next Friday at noon to uncover the secrets!】

Shortly after, the platform also posted an announcement on its homepage, 【Congratulations to Foodie Susu for joining 《My Life 2》!!!】

As soon as those two announcements were made, Su Mei’s livestream room exploded with activity.

Watching the popularity count in the lower right corner of the screen soar to over a hundred thousand, Su Mei felt a bit thrilled inside.

Of course, there was also the rapidly increasing number of comments that flooded in as soon as she started her broadcast.

Although Su Mei already had a stable popularity count of over 40,000, the actual number of active viewers wasn’t very high.

The last time she experienced such a frenzy of comments flooding her screen was when her identity was exposed.

This time, however, besides the onlookers from Weibo, most of the comments were from Chen Jia’ers fans.

This was evident without even checking the IDs. One only needed to look at the content of the comments.

【Is this kind of small streamer worthy of being called a popular streamer?】

【Our large team has arrived with 50,000 users, but now the popularity is only over 100,000. Sorry, I can’t feel this so-called popularity.】

【As a neutral viewer, I’m not particularly fond of Chen Jia’er either, but this woman with her twisted values really doesn’t deserve to be compared to Chen Jia’er.】

【It’s supposed to be a comparison of popularity, so how did this woman end up surpassing Chen Jia’er? I smell something fishy.】

【What could it be? I suspect this woman must have been involved with the show’s financial backer. Isn’t she the best at that sort of thing?】

【I think this woman probably invested money in the production team or had some sort of behind-the-scenes deal with the platform’s higher-ups.】

【Go back to your outer circle. The livestreaming world can’t accommodate you.】

……

Most of the comments were quite similar, and Su Mei skimmed through a few of them.

“Pop——” Su Mei opened a can of cola.

“Actually,” Su Mei cleared her throat and then spoke slowly, “it’s completely normal for the show to choose me instead of Chen Jia’er.”

As soon as Su Mei’s words fell, a new wave of comments erupted in her livestream room.

【Damn! Does this woman have no shame?】

【Is she really addressing it head-on?】

【Is she brain-dead or what?】

【You’re so proud of ‘winning’ against Chen Jia’er? Bah! Just look at how you got to your position!】

【B*tches really like causing a lot of trouble.】

……

It was fortunate that these people in the livestream room could only comment. Otherwise, if it were in real life, with each person hurling insults one after another, Su Mei would likely be overwhelmed before even getting a chance to speak.

However, Su Mei remained very calm.

“Hmm, this salted plum-flavored cola isn’t bad at all. I recommend everyone give it a try.” Taking a sip from the can, Su Mei blinked and said.

If not for this unexpected situation, this would have been the main content of her livestream today.

After taking another sip, Su Mei continued, “Let’s go back to the topic we were discussing earlier. Why did the show choose me over Chen Jia’er? First of all, Chen Jia’er is about to make a grand leap from being a popular streamer to a traffic star, which everyone online is saying, right?”

Pausing for a moment, Su Mei continued, “Whether or not Chen Jia’er can make that leap is her own destiny. However, the platform has worked hard to make her popular and is relying on her massive daily traffic to bring in views and revenue. Do you think the platform would give her such an opportunity to fly away from their own bowl? Furthermore, if the production team were only interested in that bit of traffic, they could easily invite two traffic stars instead. Why would they need to look for a streamer?”

“To put it plainly, what they want is the conflict and hype brought by the term ‘internet celebrity’. In this regard, whether it’s the level of discussion or the amount of scandalous history that can be hyped up, I seem to have more of it compared to Chen Jia’er, don’t I?”

With Su Mei’s remarks, the tone of the comments in the chat suddenly shifted.

【Holy sh*t! This woman really dares to say it!】

【Is she self-deprecating?】

【Is this also part of the production team’s pre-show hype? This is way too f’ing real!】

【Seems like there’s some truth to it?】

……

At that moment, Lin Xue, worried about whether Su Mei might be in trouble, immediately ended her own livestream and rushed to Su Mei’s livestream room. Hearing Su Mei’s words, she stared wide-eyed with a look of sheer disbelief.

She didn’t think this was just hype.

Su Mei’s blunt remarks did indeed drive away Chen Jia’ers fans, and possibly even Chen Jia’er herself. However, after such a candid analysis, didn’t she worry about offending the production team and the platform?

Or was it because she wears AJ’s and wasn’t afraid of the barefooted people^[2]the opposite of the idiom ‘the barefooted people are not afraid of those who wear shoes’, meaning ‘the poor, who have nothing to lose, do not fear those in power’?

———pr

On the other side, at Gu Group.

“CEO.” Wang Qin knocked and entered Gu Yancheng’s office.

“Is there something?”

“I’ve just received some information regarding Ms. Su.”

Su Mei was now the second-largest shareholder of the company, and after all, the reputation of the shareholders was closely linked to the company’s reputation.

Moreover, from the outside perspective, Su Mei and the CEO were somehow linked.

So, after handling several online malicious attacks against Su Mei, Wang Qin instructed his team to pay extra attention to this major shareholder who was so engrossed in livestreaming.

In fact, Wang Qin first learned about the online news regarding Su Mei not through his subordinates, but through Su Mei’s livestream room.

Since the last time Mr. Ji had ‘promoted’ a certain livestreaming platform, Wang Qin had found that Su Mei’s livestreams were…… somewhat interesting.

However, Wang Qin certainly couldn’t say that.

Seeing the CEO seemed to be listening, Wang Qin briefly explained the matter.

Afterward, Gu Yancheng nodded and casually said, “I understand.” He then glanced at his watch and asked, “What time is the afternoon meeting?”

“It’s at 3:30.” Wang Qin replied, adding, “The driver is already waiting downstairs.”

“En.” Hearing that, Gu Yancheng stood up, preparing to leave. But as he reached the office door, he paused and asked, “What show?”

“Hmm? The one Ms. Su is going to participate in? It’s called 《My Life 2》”

Wang Qin wanted to explain what the program was about, but he saw that Gu Yancheng had already nodded and left.

Wang Qin: “……”

He originally came to ask the CEO whether those things on the Internet should be dealt with and to what extent, but he forgot about it after being interrupted by the CEO.

Otherwise, should she contact Ms. Su and ask her directly what she thinks?