Chapter 46: Wishful Thinking

Even Jiang Sui’s mother, Lin Hui, was utterly stunned. Jiang Sui was only twenty-one—why were they all calling her “mom” already? And, to her shock, the live chat wasn’t filled with insults toward her anymore?

Previously, whenever she tried to watch a drama and Jiang Sui appeared, the comments would explode with curses. But now, the atmosphere in the livestream was nothing like she’d imagined. It didn’t just surprise Lin Hui; everyone in the Shen family was caught off guard. How could the comments be so harmonious? Even when a few trolls popped up, they were instantly drowned out by the rest.

At that moment, Jiang Sui had just finished cooking. A handful of simple dishes, yet their vibrant colors were so appetizing that even through the screen, one could almost taste their flavor. Though the ingredients were humble, the food looked delectable. Lu Xuanxuan’s notorious pickiness had also been cured; as long as it was Jiang Sui’s cooking, she loved every bite.

Shen Li felt as if he’d seen a miracle. “She can cook?”

And it even looked better than what their own chef usually made. Lin Hui was uncertain. “That… that can’t be right…”

Shen Qian replied coolly, “It’s just for the show—she’s tricking the audience. There’s no way she actually made that herself.”

Everyone else agreed; it seemed reasonable enough.

How could someone with Jiang Sui’s foul temper and lack of basic life skills possibly know how to cook? Live variety shows were nothing but lies—she was beyond hope.

Since Jiang Sui was streaming from home, she occasionally glanced at her phone to read the comments and would answer a few viewers’ questions live.

For instance, someone wrote:

“Jiang Sui, will you be my wife?!”

Jiang Sui read it aloud, then replied, “Keep dreaming.”

The chat erupted:

“Did you hear that? My mom says you’re dreaming!”

“Jiang Sui’s lazy, dismissive attitude is killing me—she’s so damn cool!”

Jiang Sui scanned the comments again and picked another to interact with.

“Is your feud with Bai Xixue just scripted? There’s no way Bai Xixue would do that. Are you just using her for clout?”

Jiang Sui said, “You’ve got quite the imagination, but not much else.”

The chat exploded:

“My sis Jiang, ruthless and laconic—she’s a legend.”

“I never noticed how tough Jiang Sui was before. Now she seems real, unlike all those cookie-cutter celebrities.”

“So this confirms the feud with Bai Xixue? No script at all—Bai Xixue’s fans can stop making excuses.”

“Hilarious. Am I really the only one who thinks this is all scripted and just a persona? She’s just trying to play the ‘straight-talking girl’—only you lot would buy it.”

The next comment was a sarcastic retort:

“To the person above: Yes, you’re the only one. You’re unique, the missing piece of history, the lost relic of civilization. You’re electricity, you’re light, you’re the lone idiot. Give you a match and you’d dig up your mother’s coffin just to argue with her. She’d climb out just to slap you and kick you off the family registry so you could be an orphan forever.”

The chat burst into laughter.

After responding to a couple of comments, Jiang Sui stopped paying attention to the live chat. Once the housekeeper finished clearing the dishes, she told Xuanxuan to go practice piano, then grabbed a book and lay down on the sofa to read.

With no special tasks from the production team, she and Xuanxuan simply broadcast their daily lives. The producers, of course, didn’t want to pile on extra assignments for her just to spice things up.

The books she liked to read were mostly about history or topics relevant to the present era. For instance, having landed in the modern world, she enjoyed books on military affairs, international relations, and technology, striving to keep up with the times. If she traveled to the past, she’d read about dynastic changes and folk tales.

At the moment, the book in her hands was about national defense technology.

The trolls who had been planted in advance quickly seized the opportunity.

“Wow, does anyone else think Jiang Sui is just pretending? Does she even understand what she’s reading?”

“Isn’t she afraid this fake persona is going to backfire? If you want to rehab your image, pick a less obvious way.”

“Compare her to Bai Xixue, who’s reading web novels next door and is so down-to-earth—Jiang Sui is just trying too hard.”

“She’s obviously faking it. Ask her anything and she’ll draw a blank. Stop trying to play this disgusting persona, will you?”