Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 471 Preparing to Depart: Alliances Between Women
That night, in the chilly spring city of Beijing, the wind still howled like a whirlwind.

The glass separates the room from the outside. If you blow a breath upwards, the water vapor will quickly condense into tiny water droplets upon encountering the cold air. If you continue to do this, the water droplets will slowly grow larger.

A series of large, meandering water droplets obscured the reflection of the person on the glass.

Chen Xiu stood by the window, tilted her head back, and closed her eyes.

Meng Ziyi turned around from the front, leaned into his arms, a smile on her lips, her eyes slightly narrowed, her body delicate and weak.

"Brother Xiu, you're leaving tomorrow..."

“You’re going to record ‘Peach Blossom Village’ tomorrow too, so we might be back around the same time.”

Chen Xiu reached out and put her arm around Meng Ziyi's slender waist, both to comfort and to support her.

However, when Meng Ziyi lay on his chest, tilting his head back and pursing his lips to look at him, there was still an unconcealable worry in his eyes.

"I've been looking up a lot of things online lately, and they're talking about things from last year..."

"Don't believe these conspiracy theories; the situation is different."

Chen Xiu patted Meng Ziyi's beautiful back, squatted down slightly, reached over her knees, and lifted her up in his arms, carrying her to the sofa and sitting down next to her.

Looking at the silly beauty with her hands clenched into fists and placed in front of her chest, Chen Xiu leaned over and kissed her forehead, saying:

“I know you’re worried. Before I left, I had already prepared everything I needed to. This trip is just to have a simple business discussion and confirm the cooperation.”

"You're not bringing back another new person, are you?"

Meng Ziyi squinted and glanced at him with a suspicious look.

In this respect, Chen Xiu's credit score is probably so low that she can't even rent a shared bicycle.

She deliberately squints her big eyes to make them smaller, pouts her bright red lips, and then, despite clearly being cunning, she makes it obvious to everyone that her thoughts are written all over her face...

Meng Ziyi's demeanor didn't seem pretentious at all; on the contrary, Chen Xiu found it quite adorable.

He reached out and touched her soft, smooth, wavy long hair, and said, "How can you say 'again'? Have I done something similar before?"

"Yeah! Last time, when I went on a business trip to the US with you and came back early, Xiaotian ran off to look for you again!"

How did you know this?

"She told me this in private."

Meng Ziyi shut his mouth, pretending to be indifferent as he stared at Chen Xiu, raising his slender white index finger and waving it in front of him.

"You have a criminal record, how am I supposed to know if there won't be a new one this time?"

"You've already called everyone away, I can't get a chance to meet up with anyone!"

To counter this, Chen Xiu didn't want to discuss the topic further and changed the subject directly: "Won't arranging them together cause any trouble?"

"Eh……"

Meng Ziyi's feigned seriousness crumbled abruptly when faced with Chen Xiu's question.

She blinked uncertainly, and with each movement, the corners of her lips turned up, and her eyes became even clearer.

"I hope nothing bad will happen."

"You've prepared a performance?"

"Hey hey hey."

"Specifically targeting Dilraba, Nezha, and Xiaotian?"

Chen Xiu looked at Meng Ziyi with increasing suspicion, and her heart was filled with doubt.

That can't be! This little idiot is good at playing simple tricks, but it's impossible for her to have any bad intentions.

Seeing the change in Chen Xiu's eyes, Meng Ziyi responded instinctively:

"How could I possibly target them specifically! Truth or Dare is a welcome game for everyone, it's not aimed at any one person."

The Northeast Tiger Girl's voice was a bit loud, and her brows furrowed deeply because Chen Xiu had misunderstood her.

After she finished shouting, tears seemed to well up in her eyes, and her lower lip was pursed so high that the lines on her lips almost touched her nose...

"Hahaha!"

"Eh??"

Meng Ziyi's aggrieved expression lasted less than two seconds before Chen Xiu burst into laughter, leaving him dumbfounded.

She thought that as long as she made this expression, Chen Xiu would hug her and coax her gently as usual, but this is what happened?

Chen Xiu laughed so hard he almost fell over, but he quickly switched gears. Before Meng Ziyi could react and feel even more aggrieved, he had already raised his hand to explain.

"I originally thought you were going to do something funny, at least get Dilraba and Nezha to dance on stage together, or have Xiaotian show off his muscles and perform sawing wood."

"In the end, all they did was make them play Truth or Dare... Hahaha! Sister Meng, you really don't have the talent to be a bad guy, your ideas are still so cute."

He said I was cute, hehehe!
Meng's already little resentment vanished without a trace in Chen Xiu's last words.

When she felt relaxed, her mind started to work, and she was able to pick up on the key information she had just received.

"Let Reba and Nezha dance together on stage, let Xiaotian saw wood and show off his muscles, Xiu-ge, do you have any other prank tricks? I'll write them down."

"Cough cough."

Chen Xiu covered her mouth, her laughter abruptly stopping. She turned away, realizing with a start that she was the villain.

"No more, really no more."

"I don't believe it. You must still have other ideas."

Meng Ziyi pounced on Chen Xiu, pinning him down, determined to force him to continue offering his ideas.

Chen Xiu was helpless, but she didn't come up with any more bad ideas. Instead, she turned to give Meng Ziyi some instructions.

"Don't sing on your own initiative, and don't let Dilraba sing either. Her style of singing folk songs is even more abstract than your usual singing."

"Is my singing really that abstract?" "That's just a metaphor! When you make me sing, I really enjoy listening to it, don't I? (Sometimes, if you listen from a different perspective, it's actually quite good.)"

"That's true."

Meng Ziyi nodded, indicating that he believed Chen Xiu's words, but he changed his perspective on the previous instruction.

Are you deliberately saying the opposite of what you mean to test me?

"Huh? What?"

"You're telling me not to sing, and not to let Dilraba sing. Are you being sarcastic? What you really want to say is that I should sing with Dilraba, right?"

"...Why did you choose this way of understanding it?"

Chen Xiu's mouth was slightly open, vaguely feeling that she was creating a wildly popular variety show, the kind that gets the most comments on the screen.

After writing down all the "good ideas" he mentioned, Meng Ziyi shook her body and said coquettishly, "Give me a few more ideas. We need to record 10 episodes in total, and one idea per episode isn't enough!"

"That's all, that's all, I can't think of anything else."

Chen Xiu shook her head upon hearing this, not daring to embellish the famous scene any further.

Meng Ziyi's smile froze, her lips pursed, and she said with obvious jealousy, "You really do like Xiaotian the most!"

"Huh? What's this all about?"

"You've arranged for me and Reba, but not for Xiaotian. Isn't that favoritism?"

"...Then let her perform or recite her lines in her hometown dialect."

Chen Xiu never expected that she would need to be fair and impartial in this regard.

Meng Ziyi was still not satisfied: "What's so strange about speaking our hometown dialect? We Northeasterners speak our hometown dialect every day."

"Not quite the same..."

"What's different?"

"Anyway, it's different. I've already come up with all the ideas. I should go to sleep early! I have to catch a flight tomorrow."

Chen Xiu, who just wanted to end the topic as soon as possible, pulled Meng Ziyi over with one hand and turned off the light with the other, forcibly interrupting the discussion that was about to create a memorable scene for the variety show.

In the darkness, only Meng Ziyi's incessant whispers could be heard, repeating the same few ideas Chen Xiu had just mentioned, as if he were reinforcing his memory.

Just as Chen Xiu closed her eyes to prepare for sleep, she felt Meng Ziyi holding her arm in his arms.

“Brother Xiu, you must… never mind, we can’t make a promise! Let’s talk about something ironic.”

"Ok?"

"If you come back early, could you come to Peach Blossom Village as a guest? You don't need to appear on camera, just come and see us."

"sure."

Chen Xiu sensed Meng Ziyi pause for a moment through her arm, and the next moment, her voice was filled with surprise.

"Really! I originally wanted to invite you to be a guest star, but the producer from Tencent said you're too busy and it's impossible for you to come."

"They're not me, how would they know if I wouldn't come?"

Chen Xiu looked down at Meng Ziyi, only to find that Meng Ziyi was also looking up at her.

Those clear, bright eyes shone in the darkness, their joy seemingly overflowing, the corners of their eyes turning upwards as they slowly drew closer.

They looked into each other's eyes, smiled, embraced and laughed, and fell asleep in each other's arms.

Just as Chen Xiu and Meng Ziyi were saying goodbye for their respective upcoming journeys, two other places in the city were also beginning to hold ceremonies to conclude alliances.

"OK! It's settled then. Tomorrow at the show's location, we need to request to stay in the same room. No stepping on each other, no comparing ourselves, no..."

Reba stayed in her brightly lit living room, explaining the rules of the game in "Peach Blossom Village" to Nezha, who had come from afar.

She felt that since she and Nezha were both celebrities known for their exotic looks, appearing together on variety shows would inevitably lead to comparisons among netizens.

In this situation, instead of tearing each other down, it would be better to form a harmonious female couple and make each other the beneficiaries.

However, compared to her little schemes, Nezha seemed a bit out of sorts.

"Chen Xiu is leaving the country tomorrow. I've done a lot of research online and I feel like he's in some danger... Do you think it would be better if I skipped my show and went abroad with him?"

“If there is any danger, he will not go at all. Your focus on recording the program is the greatest help you can give him.”

Reba was actually a little worried, but she believed that Chen Xiu would handle it well.

She knew her worries wouldn't help, so instead of getting bogged down in internal strife, she should try her best to balance the situation for all parties involved in the program and not let such trivial matters bother Chen Xiu.

Looking at the imposing Reba, Nezha pouted and continued the discussion.

"There's nothing else you need to be careful about when you're on the show this time. Just don't argue or fight with Meng Ziyi."

Why should I argue or fight with her?

"How am I supposed to know what kind of sparks will fly when your two thought processes collide?"

I feel like she's insulting me.

Nezha pursed her lips, ultimately deciding not to argue with this sister with whom she had just formed an alliance.

Reba glanced at her and continued talking.

The purpose of their alliance is to help each other and work together to overcome the pressure brought by Meng Ziyi.

Meanwhile, in the large-floor dormitory provided by Datang Pictures for its artists, Tian Xinwei also formed an alliance with Zhou Ye.

However, their declaration was simpler.

Tian Xinwei: "Let's team up and crush them on the show!" (I want to take their place)

Zhou Ye: "Let's take them down!" (I want to get on the table)

(End of this chapter)