Xie Xi possesses a heavenly voice, earning him the title "Celestial Melody," and he has climbed to the pinnacle of the music industry. However, one thing that has always drawn criticism is that he never graduated from middle school.

Recently, Ye Qiusuo skyrocketed to fame due to an intellectual quiz show. With her ultra-A charisma, she’s been crowned the "Number One Golden Melon" in the entertainment circle, paired with countless people—both men and women—in fan-made videos on a certain platform.

But then, in some behind-the-scenes photos from a show, fans noticed something shocking: their beloved Professor Ye was wearing a wedding ring on her ring finger!

How could this be? The Golden Melon belongs to everyone! Who had the audacity to claim Professor Ye for themselves?

Fans spread the news far and wide, each transforming into modern-day Sherlock Holmes, determined to uncover the person who had captured the heart of the top Golden Melon.

Before anyone could find the answer, the main subject of the gossip took to Weibo to flaunt their love publicly.

Singer Xie Xi: "They keep saying I’m uneducated @Ye Qiusuo."

Ye Qiusuo: "I’ll share some of mine with you."

Highlight: No writing advice accepted. If you don’t like it, feel free to click the exit button in the upper right corner.

Synopsis 2:

Ye Qiusuo was invited by a friend to participate in an intellectual competition show. But while recording, she dozed off and woke up to the realization that she was actually a side character in a novel—with the female star across from her being the protagonist, who was scheming to tarnish Ye’s reputation on the show to climb the ranks in the entertainment industry.

The real deal·Ye Qiusuo: "Trying to sabotage me on a knowledge show? Did the author’s logic get eaten by a dog?"

Naturally, a true powerhouse wouldn’t let things play out as intended. While countering the attack, she casually extended a helping hand to Xie Xi, the male side character who was being trampled underfoot by the novel’s male lead.

Xie Xi, who unexpectedly gained a partner and was promptly whisked away by her: "Suddenly, life is good."

A genuine tech-savvy, straight-laced powerhouse × A deceptively pitiful, gorgeous male singer.

Chapter 1

The surrounding noise and clamor continued to rise.

Ye Qiusuo opened her eyes, reached up to rub her temples, and looked at the few people sitting on the stage in the middle, laughing, chatting, and touching up their makeup. She then glanced towards the side of the stage below, where several camera lenses were trained on those individuals.

She suddenly froze.

She remembered. These people were recording a knowledge competition show, and she had been invited by a friend at the last minute to fill a spot as a guest participant.

Having spent several consecutive days holed up in the laboratory before being dragged here, it was now the mid-show break. She had been sitting in her seat with her eyes closed, resting, and had subsequently had a dream.

In the dream, she was actually a minor supporting character in a book, while the female celebrity sitting on the right side of the stage was the female lead. The female lead shone brilliantly on this show; with her decent educational background and good looks, once the program aired, she directly leapt from a second-tier star to a first-tier celebrity, receiving an endless stream of resources.

The female lead stepped over a bunch of ordinary participants to rise to fame, establishing a "top student" persona in the entertainment industry. Ye Qiusuo was the ordinary participant trampled most harshly in the first episode. Because her looks among the ordinary participants were no less than the female lead's, the author used her as the perfect stepping stone for this female lead's perfection, being utterly outmatched by the female lead in both answering questions and breadth of knowledge.

However, Ye Qiusuo basically didn't appear again in the later parts of the book, a complete extra.

In the dream, Ye Qiusuo was forced to read the entire book, which was all about the female lead using the fame from this show to harvest various male idols and business tycoons in the entertainment circle, with fan-shipped couples (CPs) being hyped like crazy.

Ye Qiusuo: "?"

Leaving aside whether this dream was real or fake, using her as a stepping stone in this kind of knowledge show? Had the author's logic been eaten by a dog?

While Ye Qiusuo was still pondering, the program recording resumed. The question-and-answer session between the guests on stage and the fifty ordinary participants had already begun, and every development was exactly the same as described in the dream.

This knowledge show mainly followed a pattern of answering questions + discussion. The answering questions part involved both the resident guests on stage and the ordinary participants answering together, followed by an expanded discussion. With fifty ordinary participants answering, after one recording session, the top thirty scorers could stay and continue to the next episode's recording. This continued, with a corresponding number of ordinary guest participants being eliminated each round, until finally five ordinary participants remained to compete against the five guests on stage.

The five resident guests on stage included a host from the cultural and entertainment industry, a crosstalk performer, actor celebrities, and so on.

Essentially, they were all insiders in the industry. The female lead, Wan Yurou, was the only young female celebrity among the five guests. There was also a male actor around her age, while the other three were middle-aged men.

In the dream, what happened next was that Wan Yurou answered all questions correctly, while Ye Qiusuo, as the lowest scorer in the entire venue, had the camera shoved in her face. Two equally young and good-looking women made for a very striking contrast. Having not rested well for several days, dragged in by a friend at the last minute to make up numbers, and with the program crew not providing makeup or styling for the fifty ordinary participants, her complexion naturally wasn't as good as the meticulously made-up female lead sitting on stage.

The stark contrast in scores, coupled with Wan Yurou's eloquent and articulate speech versus Ye Qiusuo's taciturnity, created an 'exciting' comparison that was immediately highlighted by the post-production team in their editing.

Once the show aired, Wan Yurou unsurprisingly became wildly popular, while Ye Qiusuo, used as the stepping stone, naturally faced scorn from netizens, with comments like "brainless star" and so on.

And in reality, events were also developing towards the plot in the dream, specifically manifested in Ye Qiusuo's answer button device being broken, with only the A option registering when pressed.

In the dream, Ye Qiusuo was just there to make up the numbers and couldn't be bothered to find a staff member to replace the broken device. She closed her eyes to rest in the guest seat, only to end up being stepped on by the female lead on her way up.

If she hadn't had this dream, given Ye Qiusuo's character of preferring to avoid trouble, she might have really let the button device stay broken and get the recording over with sooner.

But now...

Ye Qiusuo wanted to see what would happen if she didn't follow the so-called plot development from the book.

She directly stood up and walked down from the guest seating area.

The cameras were still following. Staff below saw an ordinary guest participant coming down and immediately someone rushed over: "We're still recording. Guests cannot come down now."

Ye Qiusuo opened her palm, revealing the button device: "This only registers the A button. It's broken."

The staff member was taken aback for a moment, then said, "Please wait a moment." He immediately took the button device from her hand to test and discuss with others.

After a group discussion, the staff member from before returned with a new button device: "Sorry about that. We've replaced it with a new one; this one works. However, we can't re-record the previous answers, so..."

Ye Qiusuo nodded, took the device from his hand, turned around, and walked back up to the tiered seating.

Sitting down with the working button device, Ye Qiusuo leaned back loosely in her seat, listening carefully to the questions. These questions seemed varied, covering astronomy, geography, humanities, history, etc., but they were actually just superficial questions from various fields, meant to impress non-professionals.

And moreover... the book mentioned in passing that Wan Yurou had access to the question bank and had seen it beforehand; she was simply memorizing the questions.

Ye Qiusuo listened to the questions being presented on stage and pressed the selection button along with everyone else present. Although she had no score for the first half, after the obstacle of the broken device was removed in the second half, she got a perfect score.

Yet this score was completely inconspicuous among the fifty ordinary participants.

"How many points does Yurou have now?" One of the celebrity guests on stage turned to ask the young woman beside him.

"Four hundred and seventy points," Wan Yurou replied with a light smile, seeming somewhat embarrassed. "I got two wrong."

"Only two wrong? I think I got about twenty wrong," another guest, the crosstalk performer, calculated his own score and said.

"Twenty? Hahaha, Lao Jiang, your knowledge is a bit lacking," one guest joked.

The crosstalk performer nodded earnestly: "Indeed, I need to learn more from Yurou."

The entire competition had fifty questions in total, with ten points for each correct answer. Only the final question remained.

The final question appeared on the large screen. It was a technology question, with four options as usual, asking about the common method for battery-free electronic skin systems. Ye Qiusuo glanced over it and pressed her button. After everyone had made their selections, the guests on stage were still debating, each with their own guesses and opinions.

"Personally, I think it's option B, Near-Field Communication. If I remember correctly, the smart medical watch from Tianqiu Technology uses this method." Wan Yurou, wearing a white long dress, sat in the guest seat, speaking at a gentle pace, appearing extremely elegant and refined among the group of middle-aged guests arguing heatedly with red faces.

"Yurou, you even know about this?" The crosstalk performer next to her was very surprised.

Wan Yurou brushed aside the stray hair by her ear and smiled lightly: "I just learned a little about it before."

"Speaking of which, Tianqiu Technology is really impressive. Several projects they've developed in recent years have had a big impact on our lives."

"Why would Yurou go and learn about Tianqiu Technology's projects?"

The five guests on stage began to chat casually, but clearly everyone was very interested in the information Wan Yurou had just revealed.

Facing a barrage of cameras, Wan Yurou showed no timidity. With a light smile, she said, "During university, I once visited Tianqiu Tech with a professor. The guide there mentioned it once."

Everyone present couldn't help but let out a collective sigh of admiration.

As everyone knew, Tianqiu Tech had consecutively developed several electronic tech products in recent years that significantly impacted daily life, yet the company was famously mysterious and low-key.

It was said their employee salaries were exceptionally high, making their staff highly sought-after in the dating market in recent years.

Ordinary people rarely got the chance to visit such a company. Looking at Wan Yurou again, everyone's gaze instantly changed—truly worthy of a top graduate from Caltech, having even been to Tianqiu Tech.

"Host, hurry up and reveal the answer, let's see who got it right," the crosstalk actor Jiang Fei called out to the host.

"Alright, let's reveal the final question and see who scores," the host raised a hand, and the correct answer immediately appeared on the large screen.

As expected, the correct answer was B. Wan Yurou's score reached a staggering 480, the highest in the room.

"Now, let's see which of our civilian guests chose the correct answer. There are... thirty-five people!" The host stood facing the fifty guests. "Good, then we'll randomly select one civilian guest to explain why they chose this answer."

When Ye Qiusuo heard this, she was looking down at her own score: a total of five hundred points. She had scored two hundred and fifty, having chosen all A's in the first half and gotten zero points.

A spotlight roamed among the fifty civilian guests' seats, finally settling on Ye Qiusuo's position.

The light dazzled Ye Qiusuo's eyes. She slowly raised a hand to shield her brow: "..." Was this forcing her to confront the female lead?

"Guest number 43, could you tell us why you chose B?" the host asked with a smile.

The white circular spotlight shone on Ye Qiusuo. She could even guess that several cameras were now trained on her.

"Near-field communication is abbreviated as NFC."

As soon as Ye Qiusuo uttered this first sentence, everyone in the room immediately nodded as if suddenly enlightened. NFC was far more familiar than the term 'near-field communication'; it had been heavily promoted for mobile phones in recent years, though the general public wasn't entirely clear on the specifics, only knowing it was commonly used for access control or transit cards.

Ye Qiusuo's second sentence was to correct what Wan Yurou had said earlier: "Tianqiu's smart medical watch does not use near-field communication methods. The algorithms involved are complex and cannot be summarized by a single method."

On stage, Wan Yurou probably hadn't expected a civilian guest to correct her. After a momentary daze, she regained her composure, offering a somewhat apologetic tone: "It should be one of the methods. That's all I remember."

The implication was that she still believed she was correct.

"It has never used near-field communication," Ye Qiusuo denied once again, quite displeased with this female lead's habit of speaking offhandedly.

—Knowledge requires rigor.

The atmosphere grew slightly awkward because Ye Qiusuo said this without a trace of a smile, coupled with her cool gaze, which to the uninformed eye seemed somewhat aggressive.

Crosstalk actor Jiang Fei, wanting to ease Wan Yurou's embarrassment, said to Ye Qiusuo, "Since guest number 43 says the algorithms are complex, perhaps that near-field... NFC is one of them."

Ye Qiusuo's seat was relatively high. When she glanced down at the guests below, there was an intangible sense of aloof superiority in her demeanor; under the camera's lens, her expression appeared icy.

"I already said," Ye Qiusuo was not appeased. Having had several sleepless nights, being dragged into the show, and then discovering she was inexplicably serving as a stepping stone for the female lead in a book, her mood was far from good. Yet, she still explained calmly, "Battery-free electronic skin systems commonly use near-field communication, but Tianqiu Tech's medical watch has never employed near-field communication."

Before Wan Yurou and the host could respond, another young male guest retorted, "How can you be so sure?"

Under the lights and cameras, Ye Qiusuo enunciated each word clearly: "Because the R&D for that project at Tianqiu Tech is under my purview."

Everyone present: "..."

Had they just kicked an iron plate?

The host quickly stepped in to salvage the situation: "Haha, so guest number 43 is the project lead at Tianqiu Tech? Alright, now let's see who the top thirty finalists are." The topic shifted extremely swiftly, without even expanding on the identity of 'Tianqiu Tech project lead.'

The spotlight and camera on Ye Qiusuo were swiftly moved away. She didn't mind, sitting quietly in her seat, recalling the book she had seen in her dream.

After the scoring, Ye Qiusuo happened to rank twenty-ninth, qualifying her for the recording of the second episode.

...

"Where's the file for contestant number 43? Find it," the director asked his assistant backstage after the recording.

All civilian guests had to fill out a information form before entering, basically containing name, contact details, and occupation.

"I'll go look... Here it is."

The director sat in a chair, holding the information form for guest number 43—Ye Qiusuo. His gaze fell on the occupation column, which clearly stated: Teacher.

The term 'teacher' encompassed too broad a range.

"Look up who the project lead is for that Tianqiu Tech medical watch," the director said, looking up.

The assistant searched on the computer for a while and said, "Director, it only shows a surname. This seems to be a confidential project."

"What's the surname?"

"Ye."

The director nodded: "So the lead is guest number 43."

Another staff member nearby chimed in: "A project lead at Tianqiu Tech wouldn't be that young, would they? And have time to record our show? I heard everyone at that company brings a folding bed to work, pulling all-nighters regularly."

The director thought for a moment and asked the assistant, "What else did you find?"

"Not much. It only says the project's collaborating university is Huajing University."

"Huajing University?" The staff member perked up. "Director, then guest number 43 definitely isn't the project lead. I have a relative whose child studies there. There is indeed a very accomplished Professor Ye in that field, but she's not that young."

Before the director could speak, the assistant beside him quickly looked up this Professor Ye at Huajing University.

—Ye Qiusu, a leading figure in the tech field, renowned as the solitary beauty professor.

But however much of a beauty, she was already forty this year.

The director looked at the photo on the online encyclopedia; it was completely different from guest number 43's appearance.

"Even using a similar-sounding name. Could guest number 43 be someone planted by some small company trying to pull a stunt?" a staff member voiced a guess.

The director's face immediately turned cold. Such impersonations were common in the industry—all sorts of fake heirs were everywhere—but he hadn't expected someone to dare impersonate an academic heir now.

"Get me the post-production editing team on the line," the director said, standing up with a dark expression.

...

Chapter 2

Ye Qiusuo returned to her residence after recording the program and slept for a full day and night. When she woke up, it was five in the morning. She didn't go back to sleep. Instead, she got up, washed up, drank a glass of cold water, and sat down at her desk to turn on her computer.

Various messages kept popping up, along with research topics sent by the several graduate students she was supervising. Ye Qiusuo spent an hour and a half dealing with these matters, then sent a text message to one of the students.

Ye: [Bring your project and come find me this afternoon. There are a few points I want to discuss with you.]

After sending this message, Ye Qiusuo began writing her own paper.

She had completed her Ph.D. at the university last year and stayed on as a faculty member after graduation. Not only did she have to write papers and mentor students, but she also had several projects in hand. Taking a full day and night off like this was an immense luxury for Ye Qiusuo.

Outside, the sun gradually rose. A beam of light shone through the unevenly drawn living room curtains, moving from the floor all the way onto the grid of the wine cabinet.

It wasn't until one in the afternoon that Ye Qiusuo closed the document, marking the end of her morning's work. She rummaged through the fridge and found the bread she had bought the day before yesterday. Checking that it wasn't expired yet, she used it as her lunch.

Unlike her usual habit of eating while continuing to work, Ye Qiusuo sat on the sofa, bread in hand, unusually distracted.

She was still thinking about the dream she had at the recording site that day.

Casually turning on the TV, Ye Qiusuo didn't tune into the news channel she watched daily. Instead, she wanted to switch to an entertainment channel.

However, having not watched other channels for years, she wasn't very familiar with them. After flipping past a few channels playing advertisements, she finally stopped on Gaoxing Channel Two.

She had recorded a program at Gaoxing TV last time.

Moreover, this Gaoxing TV station appeared numerous times in the book from her dream.

Ten minutes later.

Frowning, Ye Qiusuo stared at the brightly colored cartoon characters on the TV screen for a long time, watching them bounce around joyfully, and began to suspect that she had simply been too exhausted that day and had a false dream.

Before she could ponder further, the doorbell suddenly rang. Ye Qiusuo got up to answer it; it was the student she had asked to come over.

"Hello, Professor." The student standing outside was actually the same age as Ye Qiusuo, but he addressed her as 'Professor' sincerely, even with a hint of admiring respect.

"Come in first." Ye Qiusuo stepped aside to let him in, closed the door after he entered, took the stack of documents from his hand, flipped through them, and got straight to the point without any preamble. "There's a problem with the data on line six of page 12. Go to the lab and complete the final test yourself, then revise it."

The student seemed already accustomed to her direct, no-nonsense style. He turned and replied, "Professor, that line of data is cited from a Tier 1 journal paper. It shouldn't have any issues."

Ye Qiusuo shot a glance at the student. "Shouldn't?"

The student was taken aback. The first author of the paper he cited was a well-known scholar in the field, whose published papers always had extremely high impact factors. This paper had just been published recently; its data and other aspects were relatively new and very suitable for his project.

"The data is problematic. There's no need to extend from it further. Find another set." Ye Qiusuo stated bluntly.

The student hesitated for a moment. "But..." He found it hard to believe. After all, the paper was already published in a Tier 1 journal, and its citation rate had skyrocketed in less than a week. How could there be a problem?

Just then, the student's phone rang. It was someone from the same research group. He sneakily glanced at his professor, noticed she wasn't paying attention to him but was instead staring at the TV, so he answered the call and asked quietly, "What's up?"

"There's a problem! The author of the paper we cited on page 12 has voluntarily retracted the article!" The voice on the other end was anxious. "You haven't shown it to the professor yet, have you?"

The student: "...When?!"

"Just five minutes ago. They said there were some issues with the data, and the author requested a retraction." The person on the other end had just discovered this when logging onto the journal website to look for materials.

"......"

"Finished talking?" Ye Qiusuo shifted her gaze back, calmly watching the student hang up the phone. "The paper you cited will probably be retracted in a few days. Remember to find other data."

The student lowered his head in shame. "It's already been retracted." Professor Ye is still Professor Ye, after all.

The speed surprised Ye Qiusuo. It seemed the author must have discovered their mistake early. There were many capable people in academia; with that set of data published, someone would have eventually found the error—it was only a matter of time.

Ye Qiusuo walked to her computer desk, picked up a USB drive, and handed it to the student. "There are some materials inside that you can use for reference."

"Thank you, Professor!" Relieved that he wasn't scolded, the student let out a sigh. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the cartoons on the TV screen. His mouth running ahead of his brain, he remarked casually, "Professor, you watch Gaoxing Channel Two too? My niece loves it."

Ye Qiusuo looked at the student impassively.

The student: "......"

In an attempt to salvage the awkward situation, the student desperately tried to recover. "Both Gaoxing Channel One and Two are great, hahaha."

"What's on Channel One?" Ye Qiusuo suddenly asked.

Since Professor Ye was initiating conversation, the student immediately became an open book. "It's the entertainment channel. My younger sister loves watching it; many of the celebrities she likes have been on Channel One."

Ye Qiusuo seemed thoughtful. She picked up the remote, searched for a while, and finally found a channel called Gaoxing Channel One. It was indeed an entertainment channel; even the advertisements featured various young celebrities.

If she remembered correctly, the program she recorded last time should air on this channel this Saturday. According to the book, Wan Yurou would use this program to directly trend on social media, subsequently solidifying her 'beauty scholar' persona firmly.

Gaoxing Channel One was playing something, but Ye Qiusuo didn't see it clearly. She was too busy recalling the plot from the book.

Now that the plot had changed, she wondered if the trending topics would still involve her.

"Professor, if there's nothing else, I'll head back first..." the student said softly.

Ye Qiusuo snapped back to attention and waved her hand. "Remember to change the data set. Return the USB drive to me next week."

The student scurried out. Just as he left, his phone rang again. It was someone from his group asking about the situation.

"The professor had already discovered the data was problematic earlier. I didn't believe it at first," the student said after explaining for a bit, sighing in admiration. "Professor Ye is too impressive."

They were the first group of students Ye Qiusuo was mentoring—five in total. Initially, upon learning they had been assigned to a young professor, none of them were pleased.

After all, in these science and engineering fields, a supervisor with shallow experience meant they likely wouldn't get good projects and would have little influence.

Of the five, two had been selected by Ye Qiusuo herself. There was also a high-scoring student who had made a mistake. He originally intended to choose Professor Ye Qiusu, but didn't expect there to be two Professor Ye's at the university this year, and their names sounded somewhat similar.

This mistaken student had long heard of Professor Ye's reputation but had never met her. In a momentary lapse of judgment, he directly chose Ye Qiusuo, feeling that this name sounded more formidable.

This person was naturally the student called over by Ye Qiusuo today, Lin Lu.

The remaining two students were essentially the ones leftover after other professors had made their picks, then tossed to Ye Qiusuo.

In short, not a single one had come voluntarily.

However, after starting school, these students realized something was off—their teacher was actually quite impressive. This was evident in her effortless command of various materials and data, her exceptional strength, and the high regard the school had for her.

"But the teacher seems to like watching cartoons," the students whispered in gossip. "When I first arrived, her living room was playing 'Three Little Sheep'."

Who would have thought that a distinguished professor would be watching "Three Little Sheep" at home? To cover it up, she had even quickly changed the channel. Remembering this, the students felt Professor Ye wasn't so intimidating after all.

Professor Ye, who enjoys cartoons, was now staring intently at the TV.

On screen was a recently launched singing competition show, arguably the highest-rated program this year, with Xie Xi serving as a mentor.

—Xie Xi is the only male supporting character in the entire story who does not fall for the female lead.

Ye Qiusuo watched Xie Xi on TV. If she remembered correctly, this was where his star began to plummet, eventually becoming a stepping stone for the male lead in the book.

Standing in front of the sofa, Ye Qiusuo quietly observed the young, handsome man on the screen, deep in thought.

...

On Saturday, "Knowledge Q&A" officially premiered on Gaoxing Channel One.

Wan Yurou performed remarkably well on the show. Especially as a celebrity, her score was actually higher than top performers from various other industries, naturally attracting everyone's attention.

The show's first trending topic was about Wan Yurou. After all, celebrities often carry certain stereotypes in the audience's mind. Her performance, significantly above the typical celebrity standard, won the favor of many viewers.

#WanYurouHighScore#

The comments under this trending topic were all praising Wan Yurou. Many netizens said they were seeing her in a new light, never expecting her to be so knowledgeable.

But as the program continued, another trending topic soon emerged: #Celestial Sphere Tech Guest#

This topic kept rising, even beginning to surpass Wan Yurou's.

If nothing else, the mere words 'Celestial Sphere Tech' were enough to capture the public's attention.

The company was usually very low-profile, but its capabilities were anything but. Their products in recent years had permeated every aspect of daily life. Their latest smart medical watch hadn't even been released yet but had already attracted significant attention.

It was said to be at the forefront globally.

The trending topic featured a short clipped video. After the host finished speaking, the spotlight fell on one of the fifty guests. Bullet comments immediately flooded the video:

[Huh, Contestant 43 looks kind of good.]

[Is Contestant 43 a celebrity too?]

[What does this have to do with the Celestial Sphere Tech guest?]

Several people on the show mentioned that Near-Field Communication was one of the methods used in that Celestial Sphere Tech project. Only Contestant 43 disagreed. Her somewhat cold remarks made the guests on stage appear awkward for a moment.

[Contestant 43 is a bit clueless, isn't she? Everyone said it might be one of the methods, and she just has to argue.]

[Probably trying to show off her knowledge?]

[Everyone was clearly trying to smooth things over, but she just had to keep talking, completely oblivious.]

In the next moment, actor Xia Zhoubing stepped in to ask Contestant 43 why she was so sure, voicing everyone's thoughts. When Contestant 43 on stage stated expressionlessly that the project was under her charge, the camera deliberately panned across the audience, capturing their unmistakable looks of astonishment.

Even the bullet comments paused for a second, followed by a frenzy of comments.

[Damn, she's in charge of that project?!]

[Her name? Why doesn't Contestant 43 have a name tag? Everyone else does.]

But the program's editing at this point cast doubt on whether Contestant 43 was truly the project lead at Celestial Sphere Tech, immediately steering the audience in another direction.

[Contestant 43 looks like she's barely in her early 20s. She could be in charge of a project at Celestial Sphere Tech? I don't buy it.]

[Building a persona shouldn't be done like this. Isn't she afraid of overreaching?]

[This amateur has some big ambitions. Not afraid of being exposed while pretending to be something she's not.]

Guided by the show's editing, camera angles, and captions, the audience's reaction shifted from initial surprise to disbelief, and they began criticizing Contestant 43 for using any means necessary to get famous.

Netizens started digging into the Celestial Sphere Tech project, but like the director's assistant before, they couldn't find much useful information. The project was currently in a confidential phase; the person in charge was only listed by surname, followed by the title 'Professor'.

Netizens went to the official website looking for a Professor Ye, only finding a Ye Qiusu.

As they dug deeper, the netizens reached the same conclusion as the staff.

—This Contestant 43 was impersonating Professor Ye Qiusu from Huajing University.

In comparison, Wan Yurou was clearly more likable to the audience.

Wan Yurou's management team also hadn't expected a contrast with such an unscrupulous amateur guest impersonating a professor, which further elevated Wan Yurou's image. Her trending topic began to climb, eventually reaching number one.

"Saved us the cost of buying a hot search," the agent said to Wan Yurou in the dressing room.

...

Professor Ye was still busy with her thesis. She didn't even know the show had aired on Saturday. She had to guide her students with experiments, and on top of that, Celestial Sphere Tech had built a new wind tunnel lab that she needed to inspect for any issues.

She was so busy every day that her feet barely touched the ground, with no time to even think about being a minor character in a book.

"Yezi, we're recording the second episode on Sunday. Can you make it?" a friend from the program team called to ask.

Second episode?

Ye Qiusuo finally remembered. She took the phone from her shoulder with her left hand, straightened up, and held it to her left ear. She gestured for the lab staff around her to continue, then walked out.

"Has the show aired already?" Ye Qiusuo stood by the glass railing, looking down at the company employees coming and going below.

"...It has."

Hearing her friend's tone, Ye Qiusuo asked directly, "Are Wan Yurou and I on the trending topics?" According to the plot, both she and Wan Yurou should be. She had made some changes, but it seemed they hadn't made a difference.

"Yeah. The netizens are saying your claim of being the project lead is fake."

Ye Qiusuo thought for a moment and asked, "Are they also calling Wan Yurou an academic genius?"

Since the netizens were still singling her out, the female lead should have successfully established that persona.

Her friend on the other end wasn't surprised, assuming Ye Qiusuo had seen the trending topics on Weibo, and comforted her, "Don't pay attention to those comments. Those netizens don't know anything."

Truthfully, her friend wasn't entirely sure what Ye Qiusuo did either. They were high school classmates. Ye Qiusuo had skipped a grade, they were only in the same class for half a year before Ye Qiusuo skipped ahead again, but they had been close back then.

Running into Ye Qiusuo on the street that day was a coincidence; she had been desperate and asked for a favor.

Ye Qiusuo continued, "What time tomorrow?" In the book, she was eliminated in the first episode. Participating in the second was the result of her changes.

"9 PM. It'll probably record for about three hours. Are you coming?"

"I'll be there."