Love Rival Is Getting Prettier Everyday - Chap 58

Chapter 58: Is he the Heroine?
Shen Jintai felt overwhelmed with emotions after not hearing Xiao Ai’s voice for so long.

Shen Jintai: “You’re finally back!”

Xiao Ai: “Kiss~”

It was truly Xiao Ai. So much cuter than Xiao Mei, who was as cold as a corpse.

“I’m sorry. I promised to take a week off, but it took longer to come back,” Xiao Ai said. “When Xiao Ai was away, my dear, you received the hair and flushing reward. Congratulations!”

“I just got my hair not long ago, but when it comes to the flushing reward, I have been embarrassed to ask Xiao Mei.” Shen Jintai hurriedly asked, “What the hell is this flushing reward?”

Xiao Ai giggled and said, “The reward for flushing, as the name suggests, is that when you are emotional, your body will flush. This includes, but not limited to the ears, face, chest, toes, ect.”

I knew it!

Shen Jintai: “What in blazes is this kind of reward? I’m a gong! What use are these to me?!”

“Dear, I have to criticize your old-fashioned feudal thinking again,” Xiao Ai said. “Who stipulates that men can’t be lewd? Who stipulates that men can’t be sensitive? Regardless of whether men or women, gong or shou, as long as they can give each other a more intense response, wouldn’t this be a good thing?”

Shen Jintai: “Then what is my next reward? I remember it was a sexy reward.”

Xiao Ai: “Xiao Ai will take a look for you. It’s either sensitivity or killer ankles.”

Why is sensitivity there again?

“Ankles! Ankles! I chose ankles!”

“Alright. Xiao Ai has made note of it. But Dear, Xiao Ai disturbed you late at night because Xiao Ai has something important to tell you.”

“What’s the matter?”

“It has been detected that the love between the male protagonist and Bai Yueguang has reached a freezing point not long ago. My dear, your task is almost halfway completed! Congratulations.”

“Ah?” Shen Jintai’s face was full of question marks. “What did I do?”

He felt that he hadn’t done anything recently besides Bai Yueguang’s favorability for him explicably rising, which gave him multiple rewards. If it wasn’t for Xiao Mei’s cold and indifference attitude that didn’t show any favoritism towards him, he would’ve suspected the system had let him in through the backdoor.

He hadn’t taken any action recently, but suddenly the possibility of love between the male lead and Bai Yueguang had reached a freezing point. What did this mean?

Did it mean that Bai Qingquan had already developed feelings for him?

“In short, as long as it is determined that the male protagonist and his official match will never be together in this lifetime, you will receive your ultimate reward and live freely in this world. At that time, Xiao Ai will no longer appear in front of you, and you can live like a normal person.”

“Then I won’t be able to see you anymore?”

“Kiss~ there’s no such thing as an everlasting banquet.”

“Actually, I have a question,” Shen Jintai said. “My task is to steal away the protagonist’s official match, but Bai Yueguang is not the only superb beauty in this world. It’s impossible for an exquisite man like Yan Qiuchi to remain a virgin forever. He will eventually fall in love.”

Treating the symptoms didn’t cure the root cause*.

*Clarity: Shen Jintai is saying the original goal is to stop Yan Qiuchi from falling in love and going all sex-crazy with his white moonlight. Problem is, even if he succeeds, it won’t Yan Qiuchi fall in love with someone else and then become sex-crazy anyways.

“Dear, you may not understand our working mechanism. You see, the world you live in now is actually a different dimension of the real world. Besides the male protagonist, there are numerous other men similar to him. Yet why do we target his sex life and not others? It’s because they are not mentioned in this book. We are only responsible for changing the standards of the original novel. As for whether the outcome causes different plot points to pop up, or whether the current plot exceeds the standards, those are not within our scope of work*.”

*Clarity: He’s saying the system is only focused on changing Yan Qiuchi because he’s the protagonist in the novel . Whether this change makes him better, still sex crazed (for someone else), causes the plot to go in a totally different direction, that’s not within the system’s scope of work.
*A side note: The author has written several novels within this universe. What Xiao Ai is hinting at here is that there are other similar situations happening in this world to other leads, one being this novel: After Reverse Transmigration, I became the Four Arch-Enemies’ White Moonlight. It’s a different book, but I think it’s still in the same alternate dimension as the setting of this one. Funnily enough, Xiao Ai is also the system in that novel, which I think confirms that this world is basically a setting for all the novels the system wants to “fix”.

So it turns out to be like this.

“Alright, it’s getting late. Xiao Ai will go offline first.”

“Can you accompany me to the end of the mission?” Shen Jintai said. “Your colleague Xiao Mei is too cold.”

Xiao Ai said, “His personality is like that. Knowing that you’re not satisfied with his service, he’s very depressed. I had to comfort him for a long time. Dear, victory is in sight! Xiao Ai also hopes that you can live freely and brightly in this new world. Good luck! Beep.”

Xiao Ai went offline.

Shen Jintai let out a long sigh. He lay down again, turned off the light, and looked at the hazy snow that was falling outside his window. While lying down, a thought suddenly came to his mind.

The relationship between Xiao Ai and Xiao Mei may not be so simple. There’s a clear distinction between the gong and shou.

What a crazy world he lived in.

—

It snowed heavily overnight, and the city looked like a world of glass wrapped in silver. The first speck of sunlight caused the snow to glisten in people’s eyes. Shen Jintai had just arrived at the film and television city. As he got out of the RV with sunglasses on, he saw Bai Qingquan had already arrived and his RV was next to his.

Shen Jintai went over to say hello.

Bai Qingquan had a scene earlier than him today. He had already finished filming it and was currently hiding in the RV to keep warm. He was sitting down reciting his lines with a script in his hand.

Shen Jintai: “Morning.”

“Morning.” Bai Qingquan opened the RV door to let him in.

While taking off his sunglasses, Shen Jintai said, “It’s warm in your car.”

Bai Qingquan: “Did you receive today’s flying page?”

“No, I just arrived. What was added today?” Bai Qingquan handed him a piece of paper. He took a look at a short line and said, “Editor Meng is improving.”

It was a confrontation scene between him and Bai Qingquan. Bai Qingquan was very excited when he received this flying page because it was a rivalry scene between him and Shen Jintai. He liked acting together with Shen Jintai.

Shen Jintai smiled and looked at Bai Qingquan, who was dressed in an ancient costume. The light cast a faint yellow on him that made him look very fairy-like, as if he was covered with a misty aura.

After acting for a long time, this aura would combine with the characters, especially for those who have been filming the same series for a long time. As they continued to shoot, the more similar the actor’s temperament became to the character they were playing. Bai Qingquan was originally a fairy, but now he looked more like a prince in all his glory.

The filming of the drama had made tremendous progress with an experienced crew and increased motivation from the actors. Despite only 20 episodes having been broadcast so far, the content they had filmed was already up to 28 episodes.

After defeating the final prince, Zhou Jing was able to force his way to ascension. He was going to be the new emperor with Li Xu by his side, who became the chief eunuch.

“Your relationship with President Yan is very good now.” Bai Qingquan asked as he looked up.

Shen Jintai was caught by surprise. He then smiled and said, “There is no righteousness in buying and selling*, right?”

*(买卖不成仁义在) Means that buyers and sellers play a game on the transaction price. Although the transaction has not been completed, the relationship between each other still exists, so it will not affect the peace of this matter. From “Three Heroes and Five Righteousness”. || In this context, he’s basically saying they retain a cordial relationship (despite the past).

Bai Qingquan smiled, pinched the script with his slender fingers, and said, “I saw the news yesterday, and I thought you two got back together.”

“We’ve never been together, so you can’t really say we were getting back together.”

Shen Jintai recalled his conversation with Xiao Ai yesterday. He carefully observed Bai Qingquan, but he didn’t see any hints of Bai Qingquan liking him. This was the disadvantage of being such a fairy. Bai Qingquan always gave him smiles and spoke gently to everyone, so that he couldn’t tell who Bai Qingquan hated and who he liked.

Hearing his response, Bai Qingquan simply smiled. He then lowered his head and started to rub the corners of his script.

When Shen Jintai finished putting on his makeup and arrived on the set, Director Guo said, “You’re soaring again today.”

“I know.” Shen Jintai sat on a chair, smiled, and gave the director a thumbs up. “I just want to say, awesome.”

The surrounding staff laughed along. The crew’s atmosphere had become harmonious. Shen Jintai’s popularity had reached its peak; almost everyone on the crew loved him. He had a good temper, cracked jokes, and had a serious attitude towards his work. How could anyone dislike such an actor?

When they first started filming, they were shooting winter scenes in the summer. Now that it was winter, they were doing the complete opposite, shooting summer scenes. Before the filming started, Shen Jintai and Bai Qingquan took off their thick down jackets. Bai Qingquan shivered as he said, “It’s so cold.”

Shen Jintai smiled and handed the hand warmer to the assistant next to him.

In the big summer drama, they all wore luo yi. Because of his role, his clothes were thinner than Bai Qingquan’s, so he didn’t suffer as badly. Bai Qingquan needed people to fan him while in costume. Shen Jintai wanted to take a picture at that time but couldn’t get one.

When Bai Qingquan spoke, white puffs of air came out. It was too obvious for the recording, so they both had to drink iced water before reciting their lines. After the filming, they were both shivering from the cold. Shen Jintai also ate some ice cubes, which made his tongue completely numb.

After the filming, Bai Qingquan smiled and patted his shoulder, saying, “When work is over, I will treat you to hot pot.”

The two of them sat behind Director Guo to see the effect of the shot and watched from beginning to end.

“Very good, very good.” Shen Jintai said.

—

The relationship between Li Xu and Zhou Jing became more developed.

On the eve of preparing for his ascension, Zhou Jing came to Li Xu. The two talked about their preparations for tomorrow. After the discussion, Li Xu sent Zhou Jing out. When he returned, he saw a piece of the jade pendant on the futon where Zhou Jing had been sitting.

It was the double mandarin duck jade pendant that Zhou Ying left him. Though it had broken in half, he still kept it. Later, Zhou Jing confiscated it from him. When he took the pendant away, Zhou Jing told him, “You have to think clearly about why I keep you by my side. It’s not so you can reminisce about the person who you were with that this broken jade symbolizes.”

The pendant was now returned to him, but it was a complete piece. It had been repaired with gold inlays. Li Xu picked it up, put it in his hand, and caressed it. The pendant rotated and shook. A glimpse of gentleness appeared in Li Xu’s gloomy eyes. It quickly disappeared.

Li Xu’s and Zhou Jing’s relationship was complicated. There were feelings of childhood friends as well as master and slave. Li Xu relied on Zhou Jing to climb up, while Zhou Jing kept him close to comfort in his own heart, so he wouldn’t be alone when he reached the highest point. Li Xu was the only person he could trust.

But between them was Zhou Ying, who caused an irreparable rift. It was like this jade pendant. Broken in half, Zhou Jing had mended it with gold inlays. Though the cracks may be invisible, they all knew it was still there.

—

The pendant represented the intricate relationship between the three of them. Shen Jintai felt that this addition was very innovative.

The recent filming wasn’t too sadistic for Shen Jintai. His character would never cry again. As of the 28 episodes filmed so far, after the prince’s death, he didn’t get a single crying scene. He had many scenes of him abusing others before he eventually turned against the heroine and was abused by her.

The death of the crown prince that was broadcast last week stunned many people and caused many others to shed tears. Eventually, their grift turned to anger. Everyone was expecting Li Xu to kill the entire palace.

After Li Xu returned from the snow, he fell ill. On the verge of death, he was rescued by a doctor and recovered. In a thin robe, his face haggard, his eyes red, Li Xu started to write the names of his enemies on pieces of paper, one by one. This started his signature move of burning these pieces of paper* for Zhou Ying as each of his enemies died.

*In Chinese and some Asian cultures, you would burn fake money and other things to ensure that the spirit of the deceased has sufficient needs in the afterlife. In this case, Li Xu is burning the names of those he killed as a tribute to Zhou Ying.

The villain had now started to emerge. The scene had now switched from its love lenses to palace fighting mode, indicating was gradually reaching its climax.

“My tears, let others shed them for me.” This was the classic, famous line from Li Xu.

“All these murderers who killed the crown prince. Torture them to death. Torture them to death.”

“Xiao Li Xu will keep attacking for you.”

“Is he really the villain?” Yang Lizhi asked her assistant. It felt like the whole country was on his side.

Yang Lizhi had been frightened recently. Because, according to the plot development, in the later stage, she, the heroine, would fight against the villain, and she would make Li Xu miserable and drive him crazy.

Oh god. She’s not going to be scolded to death by the audience, right?

It seemed as if Li Xu was the real heroine of this drama.