Chapter 213

The competition for the round of thirty-two to sixteen in the first season of The Way of Shennong was exceptionally fierce. Those who could make it into the top thirty-two were either incredibly strong (like Li Erni and Fan Lingling) or exceptionally lucky (like Yan Xingxing). Furthermore, because so many people were following the show, these contestants had become rising stars under the spotlight, with their search volumes reaching staggering heights.

However, what surprised industry peers was that in previous talent shows or competitive variety programs, the contestants usually became more famous than the show itself as the competition progressed.

But with The Way of Shennong, this phenomenon was reversed. The influence of the show itself was even greater than that of the contestants who had exploded in popularity within it.

Middle-aged and elderly audiences loved watching The Way of Shennong because every episode offered free health and wellness lectures from experts.

Most importantly, these experts were not the fake kind who used the title of “expert” to sell health supplements. They were legitimate doctors practicing in major Chinese medicine hospitals, the kind of professionals you could only see by booking a specialist appointment.

Older people generally enjoy getting a good deal. Watching a show for over an hour and listening to several experts provide health education was equivalent to saving over a thousand yuan in consultation fees. Wasn’t that a huge win?

Young people loved watching The Way of Shennong because the show was both passionate and grounded. Crucially, there were no toxic personalities. A group of simple, pure young men and women used books as their battlefield and ink as their weapons, pouring out their passion and competing with their intellect. It made the audience’s blood boil with excitement.

This was the kind of competitive variety show that audiences actually wanted to see, wasn’t it?

They really didn’t want to see so much hypocritical “sisterly love,” nor did they want to watch a group of wealthy young masters crying in front of the camera about how tragic their childhoods were. No matter how tragic they claimed to be, could they be more tragic than the contestants on The Way of Shennong?

They just wanted to watch a competitive variety show without behind-the-scenes manipulation, without catfights, and without scripted fake friendships. Why was that so difficult to find?

Fortunately, The Way of Shennong appeared!

Guagua Video had not expected that by following Wei Sheng’s advice this time – not arranging contestant interactions or setting them up to backstab each other, but instead strictly following the scoring and advancement procedures in a serious manner – the resulting effect would be ten thousand times better than the conflict-driven drama they used to rack their brains to create.

Did the modern audience really have such a wholesome taste now?

“What else did you expect? CEO Yao, put yourself in their shoes. If you were a viewer and put yourself in a contestant’s perspective, would you prefer being on edge all day, either guarding against someone framing you or dealing with fake sincerity? Or would you prefer everyone following the rules and winning the competition based on true ability?”

Yao Chunming: “…”

Fine, I get it. Next time we plan a show, we’ll just do as the God of Wealth says, and it’ll be fine.

The funny thing was that although The Way of Shennong’s production team had completely abandoned the traditional routine of “variety shows must have melodrama,” “variety” and “melodrama” seemed to be inseparable twins that could never be escaped.

Just as the top thirty-two were advancing to the top sixteen, The Way of Shennong’s production team made the social news headlines once again.

Except this time, it wasn’t positive publicity for the show, but negative news regarding a certain contestant.

A middle-aged couple dressed in simple clothes told media reporters that The Way of Shennong’s production team was encouraging rural children to drop out of school to work. They claimed their second daughter had seen the show’s advertisement, stolen money from home to participate in the competition, and had even stopped attending school.

As soon as the news broke, it immediately caused an uproar.

Parents who hadn’t watched the show and didn’t know the truth were instantly enraged.

Children today were no longer as obsessed with the idea of changing their fate through education as their parents’ generation had been. Many children were even influenced by negative social trends, feeling that no matter how well they studied, it wasn’t as good as being a star or an internet celebrity, which paid more and was less exhausting.

Instead of studying miserably for over a decade only to end up unable to find a job paying ten thousand yuan a month, it seemed better to take a gamble while young. Even if they didn’t become superstars, as long as they could become an eighteenth-tier minor celebrity or an influencer with a million followers, the money they earned would definitely be far more than a regular job.

Under the influence of such social trends, many students currently in school had indeed become restless in recent years. They didn’t want to study and thought only about how “fame should come early,” wanting to become stars or influencers.

The frustrating part was that some parents who couldn’t control their own children wanted the social phenomena “tempting” their children to disappear. How could that be possible? Let alone a few parents, when the tide of the times rolled in, even the strength of an entire nation might not be enough to resist it.

The accusations from this middle-aged couple allowed these parents who couldn’t control their children to feel a deep sense of empathy.

A show actually encouraged underage middle and high school students to skip school to join a competition? Why hadn’t this show been taken down yet?

For a time, Guagua Video received countless complaints from parents. Some even complained to relevant government departments, strongly demanding that The Way of Shennong be taken down immediately!

Guagua Video: “…”

Since you’ve taken the initiative to give us free publicity, we won’t be polite.

You say your child skipped school and stole money from home to join the competition?

That’s hilarious. Why don’t you listen to what your child has to say?

Ever since joining the competition, Li Erni had been worried every day that her parents would see her online and come looking for her.

She hadn’t made it into the top eight yet, hadn’t secured the job and study opportunities promised by the sponsor Yuanxi Biotech, and hadn’t rescued her third sister yet… She couldn’t be caught and taken back!

What she feared most finally happened. Even though the competition for the round of sixteen to eight was only a week away, her father and mother actually showed up at this critical moment.

At the thought of what she would face if she were caught and taken back by her parents, Li Erni couldn’t help but tremble all over.

There was a girl in their village before who had also run away and been caught by her family. Li Erni was still young then. One day, she suddenly heard that the daughter of a certain family in the village had jumped into a well. That family was a notoriously destitute household in their village, so poor they couldn’t even afford a single bed. They just spread a few bundles of straw in the corner, and the whole family usually slept on the straw.

Li Erni was young at the time and didn’t know exactly what was happening. She had only vaguely heard that the family had a relative who had struck it rich in the city and wanted to take their two daughters along to share in the fortune.

Supposedly, that relative had given the family twenty thousand yuan! Back then, twenty thousand yuan was incredibly valuable, enough for them to build two new houses in the village.

However, the eldest daughter refused to go no matter what. Her parents tried to tie her up and shove her directly into the car, but the girl had a fierce spirit. She broke free and jumped straight into the large well at the entrance of the village.

Later, the village covered the well with two concrete slabs. Every time Li Erni passed by that spot, she felt as if a pair of eyes were watching her from inside the well.

As a child, Li Erni didn’t understand what it meant for a girl to “go to the city to make big money,” but now, she knew.

She didn’t know if her parents had come this time to drag her back to be married off, or if they also wanted her to follow a relative to “go to the city to make big money.” If it was the latter, she would rather give up the competition and run away right now!

She wouldn’t be like that girl next door, jumping into a well when driven to a dead end. If someone wouldn’t let her live a good life, she wouldn’t let their whole family live one either!

You want me to sell my body so you can build new houses and marry off your sons? In your dreams! At worst, we’ll all go down together!

Holding onto this desperate mindset, Li Erni waited in panicked uncertainty for the program team’s “judgment.”

She heard that because of her situation, many people online were currently attacking Guagua Video and demanding the competition be canceled. Li Erni knew she wasn’t anyone important. Even if Guagua Video chose to give up on her to save the show and let her go home with her parents, she wouldn’t blame them.

It was just her bad luck.

“Who says you have bad luck? Li Erni, remember this, your blessings are yet to come!” Fan Lingling couldn’t stand seeing her resigned to fate like this and rushed out with red eyes.

Yan Xingxing followed her out.

Li Erni was left alone in the room. She looked around at the notebook on the desk that was more than half-filled and the “reference books” the program team had given them. She covered her face with her hands, her thin shoulders shaking as she wept silently.

At this moment, Li Erni had no idea that in order to keep her as a “competitor,” every single one of the top thirty-two contestants of The Way of Shennong had, without exception, solemnly signed their names to a “petition” under the persuasion of Fan Lingling and Yan Xingxing.

The entire top thirty-two of the first season of The Way of Shennong hoped the program team would keep Li Erni!

They were also afraid of being eliminated and stopping at the top thirty-two, but they more so didn’t want to become despicable winners by sacrificing Li Erni’s entire life in this manner.

Li Erni had to stay. She had to participate in the top sixteen promotion round, or else the show would lose its original intention of being “fair, just, and open.”

The only one who could defeat Li Erni was herself!

Not some bullshit destiny!

The collective signing of a petition by all students of the program team, demanding that Guagua Video keep their competitor, was something CEO Yao and the others had not expected.

However, with this interlude, Guagua Video’s counterattack would inevitably be even more powerful.

What a joke! Did they really think Guagua Video, which had been smeared all the way here, would be afraid of the petty tricks of Li Erni’s parents? You bastards should at least make your lies sound somewhat plausible. Aren’t you afraid of getting slapped in the face for telling lies that can be seen through with a single poke?

Since it wasn’t their own faces being slapped anyway, over the next two days, Guagua Video raised its hand and delivered several fierce slaps to the other party.

You say we instigated your daughter to skip school to join the competition?

Sorry, but based on clues provided by Li Erni, Guagua Video found her middle school homeroom teacher. The teacher explicitly stated that Li Erni dropped out right after finishing her first year of middle school. Furthermore, the teacher had even conducted a home visit at the time, hoping to get Li Erni to return to school.

But no matter how much the teacher talked, Li Erni’s parents first claimed the family had no money and couldn’t afford her schooling. When the teacher said they could help apply for subsidies for students from impoverished families, the two changed their tune, saying it wasn’t a matter of money, but that there was no one to watch the younger siblings at home while they worked in the fields. Thus, they made Li Erni drop out to stay home and help raise the children.

Therefore, these two were full of lies from the start. It wasn’t the program team encouraging Li Erni to drop out for the competition at all.

Rather, long before the competition, Li Erni had been forced out of school by her parents to help with housework and childcare.

The onlookers were in an uproar.

Immediately following this, Guagua Video released a five-minute interview video.

In the video, villagers from Li Erni’s village stated that her parents favored boys over girls to an extreme degree. They often told people that there was no use in girls studying since they would be married off sooner or later anyway. If they studied too much and became unwilling to marry, wouldn’t they as parents lose out big time?

So among the three sisters in their family, the eldest dropped out after finishing elementary school. The reason Li Erni was able to attend the first year of middle school was because her scores on the elementary graduation exam were exceptionally good. They had heard that if she registered at the township middle school, she could get an eight hundred yuan scholarship, so her parents let her enroll.

As for her younger sister, Li Sanni, after the second sister ran away, Li Sanni was beaten by her parents and dragged back from school as well. She was currently at home taking care of their two younger brothers.

The onlookers were in an uproar once again.

What truly crushed these scumbag parents into dust was an official report from the local Women’s Federation^[1].

For someone who looked for trouble with them, Guagua Video’s usual “means of retaliation” was naturally to find even more and bigger trouble for the opponent.

Didn’t you use “nine years of compulsory education^[2]” to attack us? Perfect. While visiting the village, we “accidentally” discovered that your family actually had another child out of school. Since you care so much about your second daughter’s education, you can’t ignore the third daughter, right?

Guagua Video very kindly sent the out-of-school child, Li Sanni, to the local Women’s Federation and conveniently forwarded the federation’s official report. They very enthusiastically stated: Guagua Video has always cared about the education of young people. To save out-of-school children, the company decided to sponsor both Li Erni and her sister. As long as they were willing to study, let alone university, the company would continue to sponsor them through master’s and doctoral programs until the sisters started working and could support themselves.

Even if the two sisters stayed in school until they earned their doctorates, how much could it possibly cost?

By spending such a small amount of money, they had secured an incredibly high-profile advertisement for Guagua Video. It was an absolute steal.

Guagua Video was extremely satisfied with CEO Yao’s decision. The chairman even paid a warm visit to Li Erni and her sister to offer his sympathies, encouraging them to study hard and telling them not to worry about tuition, as Guagua Video would cover everything.

Now, the ones being roasted over the coals were Li Erni’s parents.

(End of Chapter)