Chapter 272: A Good Deletion

Chapter 272: Chapter 272: A Good Deletion

After breakfast, the group prepared to head to town.

Getting from Cuishui Village to town was a roundabout, troublesome affair. You first had to take a car from the village to the main road, then catch another vehicle to go down the mountain.

But the sun was especially bright today, a gentle mountain breeze was blowing, and on top of that, they had heard good news first thing in the morning...

So, no one felt impatient. Instead, they were in such good spirits it felt like they were going on a picnic, their steps light and cheerful.

The children were practically bouncing with energy. Even the usually composed and reserved Nan Yi was grinning with abandon, her smile stretching from ear to ear. You couldn’t imagine how happy she was.

However, a small incident occurred on the way.

While passing through the village, they saw a group of people standing together with grave expressions, whispering about something.

Curious, Fu Chao went over to see what the commotion was about, only to discover that the people with the grim faces were their colleagues—the production crew.

His heart skipped a beat.

"What happened?"

The rest of them, including Nan Zhi, quickly wiped the smiles from their faces.

Then, they heard a crew member say:

"Chang Mu is missing. It seems she was gone when everyone got up this morning."

Fu Chao heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

"Jeez, and here I thought it was something serious!"

The crew member glanced at the camera behind them. ’This is bad,’ he thought, his heart leaping into his throat.

But then he remembered that Director Xu had anticipated this and had specifically chosen not to livestream at this time. His heart settled back down.

He explained with a wry smile:

"...She’s one of our guests, after all. If something happens to her, the production team is responsible."

"She’s an adult. If she runs off on her own two feet, who can you blame? It’s not like you can restrain her and take away her freedom, right?"

Though Fu Chao said that, he understood that the production team was afraid that if something happened to Chang Mu, her family would take it out on them.

’Sigh, that woman is such a huge pain.’

’She hasn’t had a single quiet day since she joined the show!’

Just then, Nan Zhi spoke up and asked:

"Could she have gone home?"

Qi Pei’er nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, after what happened yesterday was so embarrassing, it’s normal that she wouldn’t want to stick around and would want to sneak off home."

The crew member shook his head.

"Probably not. Her suitcase is still here!"

"That doesn’t mean anything! A spoiled princess like her is so willful, you think she cares about a few pieces of clothing?"

Qi Pei’er analyzed without a second thought.

She wasn’t trying to be contrary.

While she couldn’t stand Chang Mu, she wasn’t vicious enough to wish her dead.

Qi Pei’er had simply come to understand Chang Mu’s character over the past few days.

She was a selfish, self-absorbed princess who wouldn’t even blink if someone collapsed in front of her; she’d just frown and complain that they’d gotten her shoes dirty.

A person like that would never do something like commit suicide.

So Chang Mu’s disappearance was either because she felt humiliated and ran off, or she was deliberately trying to stir up trouble.

It had to be admitted, Qi Pei’er’s analysis was very reasonable.

The crew member nodded along.

"Let’s hope so."

They then learned that the group of guests was preparing to go to the food factory in town.

"As it happens, Director Xu and the others are heading to the police station in town. Why don’t you catch a ride with them?"

"Okay, okay!"

Qi Pei’er eagerly agreed.

She then turned to Nan Zhi with a wide grin, telling her they had a ride.

Nan Zhi gave a resigned smile.

Nan Zhi and the others got an update on the Chang Mu situation while they were at the food factory.

Apparently, Xu Lin’s group went straight to the police station and asked for help searching the mountain for her.

In the end, they found Chang Mu hiding in a villager’s house, drinking their millet porridge while looking disgusted.

When Xu Lin rushed into the yard with a group of police officers, Chang Mu was so startled she dropped her porridge bowl!

Later, under harsh questioning from the police, they learned the truth—

Chang Mu had deliberately tried to scare the production team.

Seeing that the production team was determined to kick her off the show and unable to think of another way out, she decided to cause a scene. She wanted to put Xu Lin and the others in the hot seat, painting herself as the victim to gain public sympathy and wash away the negative feelings from the audio recording incident...

It had to be said, Chang Mu had a bit of a devious mind.

Unfortunately for her, she hadn’t counted on Xu Lin being so ruthless. He didn’t try to cover up the matter; instead, he went all out and called the police.

As a result, the one in the hot seat now was Chang Mu herself.

If she didn’t want this farcical waste of police resources to blow up, her only choice was to listen to Xu Lin, pack her bags, and leave quietly.

"AHAHAHAHA!"

Qi Pei’er clutched her stomach, laughing. She wished she could give Chang Mu a thumbs-up to her face and sarcastically praise her for being so clever.

Fu Chao was also laughing uncontrollably.

"That’s what you call being hoist by your own petard!"

Xie Yu was laughing too.

But when he turned his head and noticed Nan Zhi’s slightly dazed expression, his smile froze.

He asked in a low voice:

"What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?"

Nan Zhi shook her head.

"It’s just that something feels off."

"About Chang Mu?"

"Yeah."

As for what felt off, Nan Zhi couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

She just set the thought aside for now.

However, none of them expected that Xu Lin’s most ruthless move was yet to come—

After the whole incident with calling the police, Xu Lin was completely fed up with Chang Mu.

He had the marketing team delete all promotional content related to Chang Mu, replacing the posters with a "Chang Mu-free" version... In short, everything related to her on the official social media account and in the official behind-the-scenes clips was completely erased!

He couldn’t control the livestream recordings floating around online, but he could certainly control the edited version of his own show, couldn’t he?

As it happened, the first episode of the third season of *Cub Observation Diary*—the very episode where Chang Mu was supposed to officially appear—was scheduled to air the next day.

Xu Lin made a call to the editing room and told them to cut all of Chang Mu’s scenes!

To be honest, for the team that was already working overtime to re-edit, this news was like a blessing from heaven!

Their original task was to downplay Chang Mu’s segments, which meant creating a whole new storyline for her. The workload was tedious, and everything they had previously finalized would have to be scrapped.

But now it was different. Simply deleting her scenes would save them most of the work!

Besides, Chang Mu rarely shared the screen with other guests anyway. Even in scenes where they were together, they could use wide shots or switch to a view of her back to obscure her presence.

This was so much easier!

And so, with a flurry of activity, the editing team got to work.

When the show aired the next day, netizens discovered—

Chang Mu had completely vanished from the show!

Ninety-nine percent of netizens weren’t crying foul for Chang Mu; on the contrary, they were cheering:

[So this means they’ve had a complete falling out, right? The production team has brains. *claps*]

[Why do I get the feeling the production team wasn’t this firm at the start? They must have been tormented by the little princess, right?]

[I saw a leak on some forum that said the little princess threw a tantrum and faked her disappearance. The police had to search the mountain for her, and she ended up getting chewed out and sent away in disgrace!]

[I’m speechless. The little princess really is one of those Heavenly Dragon People. She has no idea how hard the police at the bottom work. Doesn’t she know this is a waste of police resources?]

[Yes, yes, yes! So glad they cut her!]

...