Her complexion was rosy, as if she wasn’t the one who had been exposed as not being the Su family’s adopted daughter, angering both netizens and her company.

Even the scheming and calculating Guan Jing had to glance at Qin Shiyan a few more times. She originally thought she’d see Qin Shiyan looking disheveled and defeated, but instead Qin Shiyan’s mental endurance was terrifyingly strong—acting as if nothing had happened at all.

Guan Jing felt that people like this were the scariest.

Su Ci couldn’t help but admire Qin Shiyan’s thick skin. Her eyes half narrowed as she studied her. Difficult opponents weren’t the problem; the most frightening enemy was the one who smiled sweetly while hiding a knife, with meticulous thoughts behind it.

Recording had not yet begun. Qin Shiyan was still seated beside Su Ci. She earnestly apologized. “Cici, I’m sorry. It was my fans who hurt you before and made you unhappy.”

She looked at Su Ci sincerely. “The company has given all my resources to others, and my fans have unfollowed me. I’ve already been punished. Will you forgive me?”

After Su Ci sent that message calling her out for clinging to the Su family and saying she had nothing to do with them, both the company and fans became furious.

She had been a popular rising star with lots of resources allocated to her. After the incident exploded, the company feared offending the Su family, so they reassigned everything that originally belonged to her to other artists. Her fans collectively unfollowed her, cursed her as a fraud, and started cyberbullying her. Many even waited downstairs at her company building and threw things at her.

During this time, aside from the variety show and drama she had already started filming, she stayed alone in a hotel, not daring to go anywhere.

She endured all of it with clenched teeth.

The more others wanted to see her become a joke, the less she could allow herself to become one.

Qin Shiyan’s tone was sincere, even containing a hint of pleading. “Cici, can you forgive me and let me go?”

Everyone present perked up their ears, secretly eavesdropping.

Qin Shiyan had been so glorious before—backed by the Su family, shooting to fame immediately after debut, drowning in resources, easily squeezing out other artists. Everyone had hated and envied her in silence.

Who would’ve thought she would fall from grace?

The brand-new rookie guest turned out to be the real daughter, while the fake daughter failed to suppress her and instead got completely crushed.

Now watching the once-glorious Qin Shiyan lower her voice and beg the Su family’s true daughter for mercy, everyone couldn’t help but sigh.

Su Ci propped her chin on one hand and asked the seated director, “Director, haven’t we started recording yet?”

She didn’t spare Qin Shiyan a single glance.

The suddenly-called director tensed up and quickly replied, “Starting now—starting now!”

Who on earth had brought this little ancestor into the show back then? She used to just be a pretty rookie, and in the blink of an eye she’d become an untouchable mountain of gold.

Completely ignored, Qin Shiyan’s expression dimmed a little, but once recording began, she quickly adjusted her face again.

Recording started, and comments on the screen began flying rapidly.

“Finally, this show is live! I’m here for the Su family’s daughter.”

“Here to see Su Ci!”

“Su Ci is so pretty. Is she bare-faced today? I think the other female guests are wearing makeup, but her face is way too clean. She doesn’t even have eyeliner or eyeshadow.”

“It is bare face! My friend works on the production team. She told me Su Ci is many times more beautiful in person than on camera. Her skin is insanely good.”

“I used to think Su Ci bought her way into the show and that the camera added beauty filters for her. Turns out I was ignorant, she’s a fairy who’s been beautiful since childhood.”

“I remember Qin Shiyan’s braindead fans accused her of getting plastic surgery. Why aren’t they talking now?”

“I heard the whole Su family is gorgeous. Su Ci looking this pretty is purely good genes.”

“Why is Qin Shiyan still here? Isn’t it awkward for her sitting next to Su Ci? Her fans even said Su Ci copied her little tear mole. I want to know if their faces hurt now.”

“Qin Shiyan didn’t even have a tear mole before. It only appeared a few months ago. Clearly she copied Su Ci. I really don’t know where her fans got that superiority from.”

“I always thought Qin Shiyan’s tear mole looked out of place—didn’t match her face at all. Only her fans pretended it was pretty.”

“No wonder I found her tear mole mismatched. Turns out a little tear mole is supposed to appear on a face like Su Ci’s!”

“Wuwuwu I want to get a tear mole too. Su Ci’s tear mole is too pretty.”

“Stop, I’m here to worship Su Ci’s god-tier beauty.”

……

Most people who doubted Su Ci’s looks before were Qin Shiyan’s fans. After Su Ci posted her childhood photos and her true identity was proven, Qin Shiyan’s fans didn’t dare spray nonsense anymore.

Now that everyone knew Su Ci hadn’t done plastic surgery, hadn’t used beauty filters, and was even appearing on camera bare-faced, netizens were completely convinced by her face. Who could resist falling for someone this beautiful?

In front of each person sat a small eco-friendly grill, and the long table was lined with plates of skewered meats.

The director announced, “For this episode, we’ll be grilling our own food.”

Ever since Su Ci and Qin Shiyan joined, the show had gone from bland and unnoticed to suddenly attracting huge traffic.

The director didn’t care about the drama between Su Ci and Qin Shiyan. Drama meant popularity.

He had the staff prepare the grills for the guests. “Eat whatever you want, grill it yourselves.”

Su Ci was grateful it was just grilling and not actual cooking.

If she had to cook in front of so many viewers, she absolutely wouldn’t do it. She had zero cooking skills and didn’t want to flail around on camera and ruin her image as a face-card goddess.

She casually picked up a few skewers of beef and placed them on the grill, quietly waiting for them to cook.

Xie Yumin, Guan Jing, and Nan Yi all began grilling.

Grilling skewers wasn’t hard for them. Who hadn’t tried barbecue at gatherings before?

Especially Nan Yi—his motions flipping the skewers were smooth and practiced. The meat sizzled loudly as the oil dripped down.

“Whose is burnt?” The director was running around nonstop, and he caught a whiff of something scorched.

Su Ci felt a little embarrassed. “Mine.”

All the beef on her grill was completely black.

“Cici, you’ve never grilled before. Let me help you. Here, these are done—I made them. You can eat these first.” Beside her, Qin Shiyan placed perfectly cooked skewers onto a porcelain-white plate and handed them to Su Ci.

Her grilling was excellent. The skewers were brushed with honey glaze, golden and glossy, slightly charred outside and tender inside—irresistibly delicious.

“Wow, I want to eat that. To be fair, Qin Shiyan’s grilling skills are really good.”

“Su Ci is a pampered young lady. How would she know how to grill? She probably has servants do everything for her.”

“Now I finally understand the difference between a real heiress and a fake adopted heiress. The divide is literally one barbecue grill.”

“So what if Qin Shiyan grills well? Her character is rotten, lies without blinking.”

“Why do I feel like Qin Shiyan looks so pitiful… it’s like she’s trying to please Su Ci.”

“To the commenter above—be braver, remove the like. She is trying to please Su Ci.”

“What’s wrong with pleasing Su Ci? I also want to cling to the Su family’s daughter.”

“I don’t want to cling, I’ll be Su Ci’s leg hair if she lets me. Little Cici, look at me, I can grill for you every day.”

“Who wants to eat Qin Shiyan’s food? Su Ci, don’t eat it. I can cook for you instead!”

……

Then, netizens watched as Su Ci directly refused Qin Shiyan’s skewers.

“You can have mine.”

Xie Yumin handed over a skewer of grilled mutton. “It doesn’t look very good, but it should taste okay.”

“Alright, thank you.” Su Ci accepted the skewer.

Su Ci rejected Qin Shiyan but accepted Xie Yumin’s, her stance toward Qin Shiyan couldn’t be clearer.

Rejected, Qin Shiyan’s expression dimmed. She quietly continued grilling.

Just then, staff pushed in a small cart.

The director smiled. “I even specially prepared sweet soup for everyone.”

The staff began serving bowls of sweet soup to each guest.

When the staff member handed the bowl to Su Ci, his foot slipped, and the entire bowl of sweet soup spilled onto the floor.

Frightened, he immediately apologized. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” He had heard this was the Su family’s daughter, someone he must not offend.

Su Ci wasn’t injured. She looked at the terrified staff member, feeling amused. Was she really that scary? “I’m fine. Don’t be nervous.”

The director had the staff bring her another bowl.

“There are clean bowls and utensils here.”

Qin Shiyan smiled as she pointed them out to the staff.

“Thank you.” The staff quickly took a bowl and refilled a serving of sweet soup for Su Ci.

Su Ci couldn’t grill at all, so she simply stopped trying and just ate the sweet soup provided by the program.

The recording room was filled with the aroma of barbecue. As the recording neared its end, almost all the food on the long table had been eaten by the guests.

Beside them, Su Ci scratched her neck again. It felt unbearably itchy.

She frowned. What was going on?

Soon, an itch spread across her face too. She couldn’t resist wanting to scratch it.

Suddenly, the top of her head also felt itchy. Su Ci froze.

Her rabbit ears were about to come out?

Inside the studio, Su Ci abruptly stood up. “I’m not feeling well.”

Leaving only those words behind, she quickly walked out, leaving the guests and netizens staring in shock.

Su Ci ran back to the lounge room and locked the door.

Her face itched terribly, and so did the top of her head.

What was going on?

After a moment, Su Ci felt the rabbit ears on her head. She opened the front camera on her phone and saw—on the screen—two rabbit ears on top of her head, and red rashes breaking out across her face.

Her eyes widened in alarm. What was happening?

The first thing she did was call Lu Zhe, asking him to come pick her up. Then she called her eldest brother, Su Zhiyuan, asking him to control the situation on set.

The other guests came out of the studio and discovered that Su Ci had locked herself inside the lounge.

No matter who knocked, she wouldn’t open the door.

No one knew how much time passed before a tall, handsome boy arrived. Everyone was wondering which rising young actor he was—someone this outstanding-looking had to be famous.

He knocked twice on the door and said something quietly.

The next second, the door opened, and the handsome boy was pulled inside.

The door shut again.

“What is Miss Su playing at?” Guan Jing sneered.

“She’s doing something you have no right to question. I advise you to watch your mouth.” Xie Yumin said coldly before leaving.

Guan Jing choked in anger. “You—!”

Inside the room, Su Ci wore a hat and a mask, only revealing a pair of dark eyes. “Lu Zhe.”

Her voice trembled with a hint of crying.

Lu Zhe had rushed over anxiously, his breathing uneven. “What happened?”

Su Ci pulled off her hat, revealing a pair of snow-white, fluffy rabbit ears. Then she removed her mask—her fair little face was covered in red rashes.

Su Ci couldn’t help coughing several times. “My face is so itchy.”

Wuwu—she had turned into an ugly little rabbit spirit!