Chapter 93: A Public Apology to the Entire Internet?

For the inevitable storm of criticism she was going to face, Miss Qiao herself had no idea at all. Even as she cried her eyes out, she kept on hurling curses.

Every so often, she would throw in, “I’m not filming anymore. I want to go home.”

“Cut!” Bai Lu called, and Qiao Qianyi immediately swallowed back her tears.

Bai Lu asked, very calmly, “You’ve cried, you’ve cursed, and you’ve vented to your heart’s content. Do you still think you’ve been wronged?”

Qiao Qianyi stared blankly, tears still clinging to her long lashes.

The little look on her face was rather pitiful.

She seemed like a completely different person from the furious Miss Qiao on the speedboat just moments before.

Qiao Qianyi shot a frightened glance at her mother, Zu Xinen, and asked timidly, “Bai Lu, what do you mean... I was already trying so hard—”

“This has nothing to do with whether you were trying hard enough. The issue is that you’re using your own standards to force other people. Do you understand?” Bai Lu was a little impatient now, looking at Qiao Qianyi as though she were staring at a giant baby.

To be honest, Bai Lu had never liked this sort of person.

Put kindly, they were spoiled little princes and princesses from wealthy families.

Put bluntly, weren’t they just giant babies who did nothing but make trouble for everyone else?

If the Qiao family wanted to spoil their daughter, that was their own business.

But to raise a giant baby and then make everyone else pay for it? What kind of logic was that?

They were all adults now. You couldn’t just sweep it away with a casual “she’s not a bad person, just a child spoiled by her family.”

Who among them wasn’t the precious darling of their own home?

Qiao Qianyi looked at her in disbelief. “Bai Lu? What did I do wrong that makes you so harsh with me?”

Just as Shen Xinluo had been unable to understand why Qiao Qianyi had flown into such a rage, Qiao Qianyi also could not understand why Bai Lu was angry.

Bai Lu showed her no indulgence at all. “Stop playing the victim. You know very well what I’m like when I’m harsh with you. I’m asking whether you’ve calmed down yet. If you have, then use that brand-new brain of yours.”

Qiao Qianyi had thought Bai Lu would definitely stand with her and condemn Liu Nana for lacking team spirit. She had thought Bai Lu would even pat her head, praise her for doing well, for becoming more sensible, for making progress.

But Qiao Qianyi had never imagined that Bai Lu’s first words would be: “Qiao Qianyi, let me be blunt. This time, you were in the wrong.”

In that instant, Qiao Qianyi felt utterly betrayed.

It felt like...

Like if your parents had always told you to return lost money to its owner, and then they themselves picked up a banknote and, right in front of you, slipped it into their own wallet. More or less like that.

Qiao Qianyi roared in indignation, “Bai Lu! You were the one who told me to have team spirit, not to be selfish and only think of myself, to consider everyone else! I was only doing what you taught me. What gives you the right to say I’m wrong?”

Bai Lu’s voice remained even. “Because no matter what it is, you can’t force other people, and you certainly can’t use your own standards to judge them. Put simply, you need to learn how to respect others first.”

That was beyond Miss Qiao’s scope of understanding. She had no time to stay angry anymore; she could only ask, “I wasn’t respecting Liu Nana?”

Everyone gathered around her nodded in unison.

Lin Ye, still hiding behind Zu Xinen, said, “Sister Nana is your senior. Talking to her like you’re scolding a dog is really disrespectful.”

Qiao Qianyi protested, hurt. “But she was just fooling around! You didn’t see it—Liu Nana even had the leisure to greet her fans in front of the camera. She wasn’t taking the task seriously at all!”

Bai Lu asked coldly, “So what? Does that mean you can point at her nose and scream at her?”

Qiao Qianyi said, “But in the first episode, when I was making a scene and wanted to leave, you—”

Bai Lu: “Did I curse at you?”

“No, I didn’t.” Qiao Qianyi said stubbornly, “You didn’t curse at me, but you thought I was holding everyone back. You treated me like air! You didn’t say it outright, but what you meant was that anyone dragging the team down should get lost as soon as possible!”

“Exactly.” Bai Lu smiled sweetly. “Then why didn’t you treat Liu Nana that way?”

“Huh?” Miss Qiao froze.

“Xiaolu!”

“Bai Lu!”

“Sister Xiaolu!”

Aside from Li Huan, who had disappeared at some point, Zu Xinen, Di Jiaer, and Lin Ye all sharply rebuked Bai Lu.

Bai Lu remained utterly unfazed. She shrugged and said in a perfectly casual tone, “Your behavior displeased me, but we’re all adults here. So I respect you, and I won’t accuse you of anything. If we can’t get along, then we just do our own thing. Treat it like meeting a coworker you have to cooperate with once in a while at work. I taught Qiao Qianyi that way. What’s wrong with that?”

Zu Xinen felt her scalp tingle. She had always thought Xiaolu was sensible and mature, and had never imagined that Xiaolu was also a problem child.

In a sense, this problem child Xiaolu was even more serious than that problem child Qiaoqiao.

Out of camera range, Di Jiaer bared his teeth at Bai Lu. “Are you really trying to get yourself torn apart?”

Lin Ye was already clutching his head.

He did not dare imagine it. He really did not dare imagine it.

What kind of verbal storm was Sister Xiaolu going to face?

Especially from Sister Nana’s fans, who were extremely fierce.

Yet this time, Qiao Qianyi understood very quickly. “Bai Lu, I think I get what you mean. But why do you always have to lecture me?”

Bai Lu said, “Because you’re willing to let me lecture you, and when I speak, you’re willing to listen.”

A phrase flashed through Qiao Qianyi’s mind: one willing to hit, one willing to take it.

Why was she so infuriating?

Bai Lu smiled as she reached out and gave Qiao Qianyi the long-awaited head pat. “I’m very happy that you’re willing to work hard for us. I think not just me, but Brother En, Brother Huan, Brother Jiaer, and even Xiaoye are all very happy and touched. Our Miss Qiao actually knows how to care about others now. But you can’t expect everyone to be just like you.”

Qiao Qianyi snorted. “Bai Lu, can’t you be a little more straightforward? Wouldn’t it have been fine if you’d just said that earlier?”

She had been miserable for so long just now!

Bai Lu patted her head again. “Xiaoye said Liu Nana is a senior, so you can’t scold her. I thought that was wrong. Even if Liu Nana is younger than you, you still can’t insult her. Who isn’t the apple of their parents’ eye? Who isn’t the little darling in their fans’ hearts?”

A trace of guilt rose in Qiao Qianyi’s heart.

Bai Lu went on smiling. “When you made a scene in the first episode and wanted to leave, I didn’t even curse at you. I just ignored you, and you already felt awful, didn’t you? If I had done to you then what you did to Liu Nana today, if I had not given you the slightest bit of face and publicly scolded you harshly, what do you think you would have felt?”

Qiao Qianyi secretly glanced at Liu Nana standing in the distance, and her expression had already become one of obvious remorse.

But ask her to go apologize to Liu Nana?

Too humiliating.

She had never apologized to anyone before.

Not once.

And now she was supposed to apologize in front of the camera, in front of the entire internet?