Chapter 28 Part 1

Clicking to open it revealed an ultra-wide, extremely long image. In the middle was a timeline precise to the hour, flanked by high-definition original on-site photos and concise text explanations. You needed to rotate your phone to landscape mode to view it.

Although it was of the rough, eye-searing quality Cui Xiaoxue had judged, its style remained her usual: concise and clear.

The long image began with a blunt opener: “Sorry, I just happened to be on-site collecting material. I can give everyone a little peek at the guest groups outside the camera’s view.”

“Sunday, 8 AM — The live stream camera followed Ji Nuo away. I captured the scene where the cub was left behind to watch the stall. Let’s see how the cub managed the accounts and sold goods without any cameras!”

The first photo was a long shot. The left half showed the big Golden Retriever watching the stall, and the right half was the cub, huffing with fury. A subsequent photo showed someone asking a price, the cub’s face puffed up in an expression of outright refusal to communicate.

But the moment the buyer pulled out their wallet, clearly intending to purchase, the cub, though looking utterly humiliated, still held out four fingers to indicate the price. Then came swift change-making, followed by an immediate return to his sulky pufferfish squat.

For the convenience of the onlookers grasping everything from a single long image, only photos could be inserted into the picture. This made the effect far less impressive than her filmed videos.

But even just the photos still vividly captured about seventy to eighty percent of the cub’s reluctant, huffy demeanor and his clever agility in quickly weighing goods and calculating accounts. Many people were already crying out “adorable” by this point.

Cui Xiaoxue was precisely struck right in the heart by this scene. Even a toxic solo stan for Han Cheng like her could transform into a mom fan. Who else could possibly resist Lu Ao’ao, this tsundere little darling?

Cui Xiaoxue’s video to convert people into Ao’ao fans was already halfway edited, and this part was naturally included. She just had to release some photos early to combat the slander, which also served as a trailer for her upcoming conversion video.

Of course, she had also prepared a conversion video for Ji Nuo, a Cheng-Nuo CP video, a father-son bonding Nuo-Ao video, a love-hate big-and-small Han Cheng father-son video, and a video of their family of three with both familial and romantic love running parallel. Cui Xiaoxue was already prepared to work herself to the bone.

The subsequent footage of the older and younger one strolling and buying local specialties was recorded throughout by the production team. Although she had also shot a lot of material, it wouldn’t be good to release it before the highlight reel version of the show went online. A similar situation applied to the orchard picking footage she’d captured on Sunday using her connections to infiltrate the production team.

But she hadn’t fallen for the cub in a single second back then either. Her spirit had been enormously shaken. She felt she’d been bewitched by the little brat. Did this child perhaps have Miao bloodline? Or had she simply reached that mysterious age where one becomes immobilized at the sight of a child?

So, after groggily shooting quite a bit of useless footage in the orchard, she wanted to find a place to clear her head, and incidentally, test the waters with a different child.

Ruirui, who was working with Ji Nuo’s group, was also very cute, but didn’t quite strike a chord with her. Cui Xiaoxue felt her preference might lean towards Ao’ao’s type—tsundere, bristly, yet exceptionally milky-cute and pretty.

As it happened, the show had five cubs in total, four of whom were followed 24/7 by live cameras. She simply hailed a cab to the county town to find that rich young master, Xu Xiaolin.

Cui Xiaoxue had heard this child was a similar type to Ao’ao. Of course, his looks were far inferior, but he could barely serve as a control group to help her verify her own moe points.

Her original purpose had truly been simple. She had never expected to capture the Xu father and son, supposedly there for a heart condition check-up, lounging in the county’s most luxurious hotel all day, and even getting into minor disputes with the hotel staff over their personal chef team.

Xu Chengyi, leading the child, made a brief appearance, swaggering imperiously like an emperor. The “Little Crown Prince” at his side was no less overbearing, pointing at the hotel manager and yelling: “What kind of thing are you?! Do you know who my grandfather is?!”

These were also video screenshots, just as “vividly” capturing the arrogant “Little Crown Prince,” which Cui Xiaoxue inserted into her timeline.

Han Cheng had come online Sunday night. For her true love, Best Actor Han, Cui Xiaoxue staked out the little run-down house all night. Whenever the cub left the live stream camera, she had her “cannon” lens aimed from afar for remote observation. After dozing off in her tent for a bit, she caught the scene early Monday morning: Ji Nuo, avoiding the cameras, washing his face with icy well water, inhaling deeply, and performing a set of Military Boxing into the empty air, trying to calm himself down.

As the saying goes, hearsay is not as reliable as seeing with your own eyes. In the entertainment industry, which harbors countless demons and monsters, half-insider Cui Xiaoxue had seen too much two-faced trash. But this was the first time she’d encountered someone like Ji Nuo, who was even purer and more adorable away from the lens.

After being temporarily recruited by Han Cheng Studio, Xu Li then negotiated a shooting assistant role for her with the production team. Right until the start of the Mountain Wilderness Competition on the final day, Cui Xiaoxue captured comprehensive footage of every family outside the official live stream.

Following the logic of the slanderous post, a four-year-old child must have had adult guidance away from the cameras to accurately target bamboo worms and set snares and traps. But Cui Xiaoxue had filled the timeline precise to the quarter-hour, and there was no so-called scripted teaching session. Moreover, though Cui Xiaoxue inserted screenshots, she had audio-video archives for every stage.

As for after the competition started, although the cub never left the live stream cameras, to prevent haters from retaliating by claiming there were cue cards or the like in the blind spots, Cui Xiaoxue also inserted screenshots from her “off-camera” videos. It was a 360-degree, dead-angle-free proof that the claim of the cub being a scripted tool was false. Four-year-old Lu Ao’ao was simply this superior to the other cubs!

In contrast, the Xu Xiaolin and Xu Chengyi father-son pair, who had been heavily praised and pitied in the slanderous post, were thoroughly exposed by the truth caught outside the cameras.

The evidence was clarified, the counterattack was perfect, and the timeline ended right at the finish line of the Mountain Wilderness Competition.

At the very end of the long image, “Downy Heavy Snow” also showed off her meticulously organized folders with thumbnail-sized icons. They contained not only the complete videos behind every screenshot but also the full footage of her following them to the hotel and all the way to boarding at the airport.

This served both as a warning that this line of attack was a dead end, and as an announcement to fellow fans: Your prolific fan-content ancestor has returned!

At the very, very end, Cui Xiaoxue wrote: “Alright, that’s all for today. I’ve still got a mountain of material to edit. Finally, here’s a short solo edited clip of my cub~”

Scanning the QR code at the end of the long image instantly brought up a six-second video. It was precisely Lu Ao’ao’s brilliant performance while running the stall. A pretty little dumpling with a milky-cute face and a sassy, arrogant expression—a fierce little thing, simply too adorable!

[Ahhhh my cub! (Writhing crawl) Aaaaahhh! (Rolling scream) Wuwuwu my baby is too cute! (Hoarse cry) Downy Heavy Snow, you are my god! (Fierce kowtowing)]

[OMG, you actually captured this part! I offer you my head! When I watched the live stream, I really regretted that the production team only set up one camera angle for this part. The thought of the cub and the big Golden Retriever running the stall together is just cuteness overload! Ahhh, I can die without regrets!]

[Ao Ao Ao Ao Ao my baby! (Wild tongue flailing) Suddenly even Han Cheng doesn’t seem as appealing. Sure enough, the young of all creatures are the best! (Does Ms. Downy’s 6-second video secretly imply our Ao’ao is 666, haha, awesome!)]

Compared to their biological mom fans, whose hearts trembled from cuteness and whose nerves were out of control, the various onlookers who’d rushed to the scene kept their focus:

[Looked through it carefully. I gotta say, this timeline is really clearly and comfortably done. It perfectly counterattacks: Lu Ao’ao is just genuinely awesome. Everyone shouldn’t look down on kids nowadays. My boss’s six-year-old kid can hold daily conversations in four languages. This useless adult is crying…]

[Whoa, is Ms. Downy’s image meant to clarify things or is it a guide to making us fall for him?! My bias list can’t handle any more people!]

[Finished reading it all. Not only do I love baby Lu Ao’ao even more, but Ji Nuo also seems more pleasing to the eye. Consistent inside and out, on and off camera, much better than that awful Xu Chengyi father-son pair!]

[+1 I was baffled by all the comments praising the Xu father and son in the slander post. Felt like I’d watched a fake live stream. Xu Xiaolin was already a little terror on the show, but he’s even more unbearable in private. But I must say, children are mirrors of their parents. This father-son duo is just perfect, in the worst way.]

[I truly didn’t misjudge them, Ao’ao and Nuonuo are the absolute best!]

[Damn, I actually believed Friend God’s bullshit. Never thought he’d start making dirty money too???]

[What kind of god is he? Just some trash bouncing around the edges of the entertainment industry, making his fortune selling celebrities’ private info. Before this, with KQW, PLL, FTY, and a few others I can’t remember, it was obvious he was making a big fuss waiting for hush money. His shamelessness was really something.]

[Everyone used to believe his exposés without question. But looking back now, if no one had followed Ji Nuo to capture the off-camera parts in the ‘scripted Ji Nuo’ incident, how could Ji Nuo and Ao’ao explain something they didn’t do that didn’t exist? Do the previous exposé posts from ‘I Have a Friend’ also contain such ‘wrongful convictions’? The more I think about it, the more terrifying it is…]

Those who rushed to the front lines were all seasoned gossip sleuths. As people flocked in from the trending topic square, Cui Xiaoxue’s clarifying long image quickly shot up the hot search rankings.

How resounding was the name “Downy Heavy Snow”? Anyone who has chased stars or followed gossip long-term knew. Over the years, she’d amassed over a million fans, more famous than some minor idols. She was known for being outspoken, and her character and skills were equally solid, giving her extremely high credibility in niche circles.

But as the news spread widely, the paid trolls hired by Xu Chengyi also stormed in to steer the narrative. Many people unfamiliar with her began to suspect that Downy Heavy Snow was also bought off by the production team and Han Cheng, part of a pre-planned PR strategy, a packaged measure accompanying a “scripted” controversy.

Some even mindlessly attacked: [LOL, you still remember to Photoshop and apply beauty filters to that plastic surgery freak off-camera, and you dare boast about solid character? Hyping up Han Cheng’s god-like looks wasn’t enough, now you’re doing the same for Han Cheng’s little boyfriend? You really are a loyal lapdog of the Han Family.]

Cui Xiaoxue hadn’t feared anything in her years navigating these circles, and immediately shot back: [Looking at your profile pic, your idol must be the ‘Earthly Elf’ You Leqing, right? Your brother’s agency also invited me to shoot for him. After shooting, I thought he was too ugly and rather pay the breach of contract fee to cancel the job. The way you talk, stinking of shit, you really look like a shit-filled pot. Here, pack of base photos for you~]