After Shen Mian posted her comment, she immediately exited Jiang Ruo’s livestream. However, she repeated the same sentence three times in the comment, making it very conspicuous. As a result, after Shen Mian left, Jiang Ruo’s viewers began to discuss fervently, curious about the meaning behind her words.
Jiang Ruo also noticed the comment and knew it was from Shen Mian, as Shen Mian’s nickname on QQ was ‘Foodie Mianmian.’
Because of the comment Shen Mian posted, the attention of the viewers in Jiang Ruo’s livestream was instantly diverted, and no one was listening to what she was saying anymore.
Jiang Ruo felt very uncomfortable. She had been trying her best to ignore any news about Jiang Li, but whenever Jiang Li appeared, it cast a shadow over her. The Jiang family’s business was deteriorating day after day, and her father had no spare energy to care for her, leaving her struggling alone in the entertainment industry. With no backing, and with the two short dramas she filmed during the summer failing to make a splash, she couldn’t secure any good resources.
Finally, when she was approached by an educational quiz show, Jiang Ruo believed it was her chance to make a comeback. She participated with full confidence and answered many questions correctly, hoping to turn her fortunes around. However, she soon discovered that one participant had a backstage connection and received all the answers in advance, making the rest of the participants, including herself, merely tools to prop him up.
Jiang Ruo accepted her fate, thinking she could slowly climb up like other stars without backgrounds, doing her best with her own effort. However, her agent couldn’t stand the disparity and gradually changed attitude, even hinting Jiang Ruo to entertain investors to secure resources. He eagerly persuaded her, saying many bigwigs liked her innocent, student-like image, and it wasn’t necessary to do much—just drinking and chatting would suffice, and as long as she managed to make the investors happy, any resource would easily fall on her laps.
Jiang Ruo knew that many in the entertainment industry, including those in her brokerage company, took such shortcuts, but she refused to follow that path. When the persuasion backfired, the agent tried to make her gain attention by associating with top stars, and later, even exploiting Jiang Li and Qin Zheng’s popularity, which they gained from their academic achievements. According to the agent, any publicity, even negative, was preferable to no publicity; if Jiang Ruo lost traffic and ended up forgotten by the public, she would be completely finished.
After the fallout with her agent, Jiang Ruo, on Jiang Zhou’s advice, blocked his contacts. She wasn’t worried about the company causing trouble — when she first signed the agency contract, she was still the prized daughter of the Jiang family, and the dramas she worked on were all hits. The company naturally wanted to stay in her good graces, so they made the contract favorable for her.
Moreover, being a high school student, she could find excuses to not follow the company’s arrangements without much consequence.
Afterward, Jiang Ruo focused on her studies, distancing herself from the entertainment industry. After her contract expired, she didn’t renew and announced on Weibo her temporary withdrawal from the industry to live as a normal high school student.
Life became peaceful, but Jiang Ruo struggled to adapt because of her previously luxurious lifestyle. With Jiang Huai overwhelmed by the company’s troubles, the secondary credit card he had given her was repeatedly reduced in limits, and the small allowance from her mother was simply not enough for her expenses. So, when Jiang Ruo later saw her roommates excitedly chatting about the livestream shopping hosted by their favorite influencers, she became interested. She might have lost a substantial amount of fans, but her remaining followers were still there, which gave her an enormous advantage over small-time influencers.
Jiang Ruo discussed this idea with Jiang Zhou, who was initially against it. In his eyes, Ruoruo, a carefree little princess, didn’t need to engage in such activities. She could ask him for money if she needed it, and he would find ways to earn it for her if he didn’t have enough.
“I know you want the best for me, brother, but I don’t want to live off others all my life,” Jiang Ruo insisted. For over fifteen years, her parents had raised her, allowing her to grow up in a honey pot without any worries, but everything changed after Jiang Li returned. She had had enough of feeling insecure all the time. At least, she wanted to be self-sufficient, so that she could be free from worry.
Unable to persuade her, Jiang Zhou had no choice but to agree. However, while the world of influencers was different from the traditional entertainment industry, there were still associated risks, especially since Ruoruo already had a lot of haters. After deliberation, Jiang Zhou suggested avoiding high-profit beauty products and instead partnering with book and stationery sellers for a more positive image, lowering the risk of failure.
Jiang Ruo was excited by the idea, her eyes instantly lit up, “You are right, brother. I have won a lot of trophies and achievements over the years. Although not particularly prestigious, those awards must be enough to attract buyers in the school products category.”
After Jiang Ruo made up his mind, Jiang Zhou worked hard to secure partnerships with stationery vendors. It was not easy, but after a lot of effort, he managed to secure the partnerships. Jiang Ruo then chose a platform and started posting short videos, mainly related to educational content. Thanks to her existing fame and active presence on Weibo, she quickly amassed a following. Haters also followed her to the new platform, but Jiang Ruo’s focus on posting only study-related content made it difficult for them to cause trouble, so all they could do was spread rumors about the real and fake daughter scandal.
Initially, Jiang Ruo was hurt by the hateful comments, but she eventually grew immune to them and stopped caring. Some new followers, who had no idea of her past scandal, would get curious and question her, but even these diminished over time. As Jiang Ruo’s followers grew, they became her support base and would chase away the haters, easing her burden and allowing her to focus on her new venture.
At Minjiang International School, weekends were regular days off, allowing Jiang Ruo ample time to film short videos, with Jiang Zhou acting as her cameraman. Their collaboration was seamless. After filming, Jiang Ruo would save the videos to release one each day during the week, gradually attracting more viewers.
After a period of time, Jiang Ruo amassed many new followers, primarily mother-type fans who praised her for her good looks and academic performance, treating her like a model student. The awards and trophies displayed in the background also gave these fans a sense of pride.
Since Jiang Ruo had temporarily left the entertainment industry, the fans of her former rivals stopped chasing her with malice. As for her previous fans turned haters, although they continued to stir up issues of Jiang Ruo’s parentage in her channel, they were no match for her supportive mother fans.
Gradually, feeling the time was right, Jiang Ruo began to livestream on weekends, still sharing study tips. She would address comments one by one, generously sharing her knowledge with those seeking study advice, sometimes even providing additional suggestions.
Eventually, Jiang Ruo introduced live shopping into her schedule and started promoting products. At first, some of her new fans felt betrayed and left sarcastic comments in the chat, but her earnest attitude and substantive content won over many fans who saw her differently from other educational streamers who were more style over substance.
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She’s a high schooler. So isn’t it like illegal for her ex-manager to be recommending her to go out drinking and meeting up with possible investors???
Honestly? I’m happy for Jiang Ruo. While she’s incredibly naive and easy to dislike, I appreciate the route the story has gone down with having her try to become independent and not engage with Jiang Li as opposed to other novels which they would be constantly butting heads. It feels very realistic and refreshing. She knows the family situation is fucked and isn’t braindead going off to make it worse.