THE FAKE DAUGHTER BECAME THE FAVORITE

———

~ Please support this site by disabling your ad-blocker ❤️ ~
______

Chapter 150: Wen Yan, Let's Be Friends

"Hahaha, the person above me, I'm not like you. I don't just love watching the Ladies; I love watching the guys too. I've got two tablets running streams at the same time. Alex and Shen Jinghe's group is hilarious as well. If you've got two devices, I seriously recommend splitting your screen, I promise you won't be disappointed. This is the kind of content you just can't find on any other variety show."

"Right, right , I genuinely think this is a hidden gem of a show. Every live stream, or rather, every group , has its own completely different energy. Ideally you'd have all four rooms open at once."

"Exactly! It wasn't until I cycled through all four live streams that I understood what it means to be genuinely surprised. Wen Yan's group in particular, honestly didn't see that coming. If you're curious, go take a look. The vote rankings have been shifting without anyone even noticing!"

"Really?! I'm going to check."

"Me too."

And indeed, one look was all it took to send shockwaves through the rankings.

The leaderboard had been completely reshuffled.

Jing Hao and Xu He's group, having lost their fire starter in a moment of crisis, had plummeted from first place all the way to dead last.

Meanwhile, Wen Yan and Jiang Wanwan, who had been sitting at the very bottom, had vaulted up to second place.

Shen Jingchuan and Shen Jinghe, hampered by their lack of teamwork, had slipped from second down to third.

And sitting at the top of the rankings now, of all people, was the quietly steady pairing of Qin Yan and Yin Haoyu, neither spectacular nor stumbling, simply consistent.

The comments flooded in:

"These rankings are moving so fast it's making my head spin!"

“Of course, everyone's not stupid; they can easily predict the outcome based on the guests' states and current situations.”

"Hilarious! One million yuan split that many ways? Each person would get what, a couple of cents?"

"No no no , a couple of cents is optimistic. We might not even get that. There are WAY too many people in these streams. And ever since they announced the cash prize pool, the viewer count has gone absolutely through the roof."

"Honestly, a million yuan sounds like a lot on its own, more than I'll ever earn in my lifetime, but split across tens of millions of viewers, it's almost laughable. Isn't the production team being a little stingy here?"

"Um… do you even hear yourself? The guests are surviving in a snowy mountain wilderness for thirty days, and each of them only gets one million if they make it. And that money goes to charity, not their pockets. Even if all eight of them clear the challenge, the production team would only be donating eight million total."

"If you think offering a million as a viewer prize pool is cheap, what exactly do you want, ten million? That's more than what's going to the charity. At that point the whole nature of the show changes. You really think the production team would dig their own grave like that?"

"Okay fine, you've got a point, but the current system still doesn't sit right with me. It's not fun."

"Agreed. It's not fun. Something needs to change, we should give the production team some feedback."

"Just this one stream room isn't enough though. We'd need to rally viewers from the other rooms too."

"Easy. I've got one account per device. I'll go."

"Count me in."

And so, while the four groups of guests were occupied with dinner and sleep, the viewers quietly began flooding every stream's comment section with the same demand: change the voting rules.

The truth was, the activity had been improvised on the spot by the director to begin with, and because it hadn't been properly planned from the start, it had always carried the seeds of these problems. He'd been mulling it over ever since parting ways with the guests.

Now, with this groundswell of viewer feedback pouring in all at once, a new idea began to take shape.

After an internal meeting to hash out the details, the director unveiled an updated set of voting rules.

The original single-round vote was now restructured into three rounds.

The three-round format had originally been suggested by a viewer, one particularly vocal commentor had argued that the current system was flawed, and proposed splitting the original one-million-yuan pool into three separate installments of three hundred thousand each.

The director liked the spirit of the idea, but took it further.

The final ruling: three rounds of voting, each spanning ten days, with a prize pool of one million yuan per round.

Round One would close at the end of Day 9.

Round Two at the end of Day 18.

Round Three at the end of Day 27.

Final payouts would be calculated by weighting the cumulative results across all three rounds, for a combined cash prize of three million yuan.

The moment the new rules went live, comments lit up across every stream:

"The production team really came through, respect!"

What had started as viewers inviting like-minded friends and colleagues to tune in now became something far more expansive. With the prize pool tripled, viewers began dragging in family members who had never touched a variety show in their lives, parents, grandparents, the whole household.

This older wave of viewers had never had much patience for the noisy games and manufactured drama of typical variety programming. But wilderness survival? Building your own shelter from scratch, cooking over an open fire? That was something else entirely. More than a few of them found themselves utterly absorbed before they even realized it.

The show's meteoric rise was a victory for the production team, but its eight guests were reaping the rewards just as quickly. Barely two or three days since the premiere, and without exaggeration, nearly every one of them had become a household name.

The celebrities who had turned down the director's invitation during Season One were by now sick with regret. Season Two was a ship that had already sailed; their only play now was to hope for Season Three.

As for the guests themselves, Wen Yan, for instance, was still deep in the mountains sawing logs, blissfully unaware that her assistant had fielded numerous calls from advertisers eager to have her as their brand ambassador.

She didn't know any of it, of course.

She was too busy humming to herself while she and Jiang Wanwan worked the two-person saw together.

After four or five days of hard labor, both of their hands had developed blisters, blisters that had since flattened and toughened into calluses. Yet neither of them had uttered a single word of complaint.

Jiang Wanwan, listening to Wen Yan's steady stream of song, felt her own mood lift despite herself.

By the time Wen Yan had moved through her fifteenth consecutive song without a single repeat, Jiang Wanwan finally couldn't hold back.

"How do you know so many songs? And every single one sounds so nice."

Hm?

Wen Yan blinked, genuinely taken aback. Her singing was passable at best, surely… yet Jiang Wanwan had just called it nice. As in, sincerely, earnestly nice.

Did the author forget to give this supposedly all-capable character of mine an actual singing voice?

"You don't listen to music much?" Wen Yan asked. "Most people who do, tend to pick up at least ten or twenty songs along the way."

Jiang Wanwan shook her head. "I've never really had the time. I can't sing either."

"I don't believe you," Wen Yan said. "You're just being modest."

"No, really." Jiang Wanwan was perfectly serious. "I genuinely cannot."

Wen Yan remained skeptical. "Then sing me something. Just one song."

Jiang Wanwan shook her head. "I truly can't. Not a single one. I'd be too embarrassed to even try."

Embarrassed?

Wen Yan had read enough of Jiang Wanwan's story in her past life to know, this was not a woman who showed embarrassment in front of anyone. Not once, not ever.

"Well then… what if I teach you a couple of lines right now?"

Jiang Wanwan hesitated.

Wen Yan pressed on, completely sincere: "Just two lines. The simplest ones I know. I really, genuinely want to hear your voice, just a little. Would that be okay?"

Looking into Wen Yan's bright, earnest eyes, Jiang Wanwan found it strangely impossible to say no.

"…Fine. Pick something easy."

"Deal!"

And then.

There was no then.

Not just Wen Yan, standing right there, but the hundreds of thousands of viewers watching from their screens, collectively could not take it.

The stream had by now attracted a sizeable contingent of self-appointed mom fans, and the comment section reflected it perfectly:

"My dear daughter who never smiles can do absolutely anything, except sing. Please, for the love of all that is holy, stop."

"Yes, please, let the smiley one do the singing. She can carry the whole cabin's musical needs on her own."

"LMAOOO, Wanwan the Unstoppable has finally met her match, and Little Sunshine Yanyan gets praised AGAIN. Why am I so obsessed with these two?? I want to lock them in forever."

"Honestly!! Who else gets it?? Most compatible, most in-sync pair in the entire show."

Back at camp, the moment Jiang Wanwan caught Wen Yan desperately trying to suppress her laughter, she wisely closed her mouth.

She wanted to laugh too, if she was honest: "I told you, didn't I? I really can't sing."

Wen Yan was fighting a losing battle with her composure. "That's okay, I'll teach you properly over time. We've still got over twenty days left. I refuse to believe I can't get at least two decent notes out of you."

"…" Jiang Wanwan responded by silently returning to the saw.

Wen Yan let it go, and the two of them threw themselves back into work without another word.

Once the cabin door was finally finished and hung in place, the two split up to handle different tasks.

Jiang Wanwan headed to the lake to set the fishing net; Wen Yan disappeared into the nearby woodland to gather berries and forage for wild greens.

By the time Wen Yan returned, Jiang Wanwan hadn't yet finished setting the net, she was still searching for the right spot, and doing it alone meant testing water depth and felling the anchor trees and securing the netting, all at once. It was no small feat.

But Wen Yan found her quickly, and from there it was seamless.

Both of them had an instinct for what needed doing. Working together, they didn't bicker; split, neither slacked. The net was secured in no time at all.

On the walk back to the cabin, Wen Yan suddenly turned and held out her arm to stop Jiang Wanwan in her tracks.

"Wait. Close your eyes first."

Jiang Wanwan frowned. "Why?"

"Ha," Wen Yan grinned. "A little something called joie de vivre. Close your eyes, let me open the door, and then we go in together."

Jiang Wanwan was not someone who went out of her way to create moments like this. But she wasn't immune to them either.

If she were honest with herself, she was a little bit looking forward to it.

So she closed her eyes.

Wen Yan, delighted by her cooperation, quickly pushed the door open, then took Jiang Wanwan's hand and led her inside the little cabin they had built with their own hands.

"Ta-daaaaa! You can open your eyes!"

Between Jiang Wanwan's formidable range of skills, their little shelter was nothing short of impressive, complete with a window that actually opened.

Sunlight spilled through the pane and fell across their rough-hewn table, where a small bouquet of wildflowers sat in vivid, cheerful bloom.

Jiang Wanwan didn't know the names of any of them. But she thought they were beautiful, more beautiful, somehow, than any expensive, cultivated flower she had ever received.

A slow warmth crept into her cool, reserved eyes.

"Where did you find these?"

Wen Yan's smile deepened. "Picked them while I was foraging. What do you think? The place feels alive now, doesn't it? Even out here in the wilderness, especially out here, we deserve to live beautifully."

"AAAAAAH she's so ROMANTIC?? How is she this romantic?? I am genuinely envious of Jiang Wanwan, having someone like that by your side, someone who finds joy in everything, no matter how hard things get, it would all be worth it."

"Lock. Them. IN."

"I'm suffering. Is Yanyan just universally compatible with everyone?? Why does she look amazing with literally every pairing , they're both girls, am I losing my mind…"

"Stop shipping, this is called sisterhood."

"Wen Yan is so genuine and so sweet. And I'll say it plainly, our Wanwan has never, not once in public, smiled at anyone like this."

"I mean, speaking for myself and other long-time fans, we obviously don't know what she's like behind closed doors. But from these past few days on screen? The chemistry is undeniable. Thank you, Wen Yan, for giving us a side of Wanwan we've never seen before, and yes, for that 'singing performance' too, as unforgettable as it was for all the wrong reasons lol."

"And thank you Wanwan!! She's genuinely been carrying our Yanyan this whole time."

"Hahaha honestly out of all four streams, this comment section is BY FAR the most peaceful. Qin Yan and Yin Haoyu's room is practically a warzone right now."

"What happened? Some kind of drama?"

"Yin Haoyu has zero class, I'm sorry. No comparison to Wen Yan and Jiang Wanwan. The man got a few blisters on his hands and just… stopped working. Qin Yan had brought antiseptic and supplies, she gave them to him because he wouldn't stop complaining about the pain."

"And then he used everything. Left absolutely nothing for Qin Yan. Same blisters, no supplies, still had to keep going."

"He really seems to have lost his will entirely. And now Qin Yan's fans are blaming him for dragging her down, and both sides have been at each other's throats ever since."

"Ah. Got it. Was thinking about going to check, but honestly, I can't bring myself to leave this stream."

"IT'S SNOWING!!!"

Sure enough, flakes had begun to drift from the sky.

Jiang Wanwan glanced up at the clouds and said quietly, "Looks like it'll come down for a while. Lucky we finished the cabin before it started, at least we won't freeze."

Wen Yan looked at her with genuine gratitude. "All thanks to you. I crammed as much as I could on structural basics before coming out here, but the moment I actually had to do it? Complete blank."

"You pulled your weight," Jiang Wanwan said, and she meant it, she rarely gave compliments, but honest people deserved honest words. "If it had just been me, there's no way we'd have finished in time."

In the comment section, the mom fans chimed in collectively:

"Alright, that's enough mutual appreciation, you two. We can see how wonderful you both are. Now please make dinner, I'm going to go start mine and I'll be back to watch you eat."

It was, indeed, time to eat.

The two of them cooked up a pot of wild greens and foraged eggs, and settled in by the fire to eat and talk.

It was Jiang Wanwan who spoke first.

"Wen Yan." She paused, then continued with quiet directness. "My instincts tell me you're someone worth knowing. Being with you makes me happy. So let's be friends. I mean it."

Wen Yan blinked.

She's that direct?

Though, come to think of it — yes. That was exactly who Jiang Wanwan was. Decisive, unguarded when she chose to be.

Wen Yan smiled and made a show of furrowing her brow in exaggerated offense. "I thought we already were friends! We're literally living together. Eating out of the same pot!"

The corner of Jiang Wanwan's mouth curved. "So your answer is yes."

Wen Yan nodded, without hesitation.

"Obviously!!"

(End of Chapter)

Translator's Note: The two-person logging saw (拉大鋸, lā dàjù) is a traditional tool requiring two people to pull in alternating rhythm — a quiet but apt metaphor running through this chapter for the push-and-pull ease of Wen Yan and Jiang Wanwan's partnership. The phrase joie de vivre was chosen to render 生活的小情趣 — the original carries a sense of savoring small, self-made pleasures amid ordinary life, a sensibility the French phrase captures with the right register of warmth without over-romanticizing.

Read only on https://royaltywrites.com.ng/

Check out this other novel I am currently translating: THE IMPERIAL CONSORT'S RISE TO POWER it is very interesting. i picked it up and fell in love with it.