WWSEG – Chapter 53

“Are you sure you were wrong?”

“I was really, truly wrong.”

“Mistakes require punishment.”

“…”

Qi Ke reluctantly let go of Song Yushi’s waist, tilted her head, and put on an innocent and harmless expression. “Captain, I’m so cute, and I was just joking with you. Do you have the heart to make me accept punishment?”

Song Yushi gave her a slight smile.

A chill ran down Qi Ke’s back. Others might not know, but she knew very well that the captain of Sweet Day never liked to play pranks, but when she did, she was inhuman.

Qi Ke glanced worriedly at the trainees behind her. The trainees immediately retracted their gossiping gazes, looking left and right and pretending to be busy, but their peripheral vision kept darting towards Qi Ke and Song Yushi as they screamed internally—Don’t stop, don’t stop!

Qi Ke knocked on the door. “You all warm up on your own first.”

Then she quickly closed the door.

Outside the door, only she and Song Yushi were left… uh, and Song Yushi’s follow PD.

Qi Ke glanced at the follow PD.

The follow PD’s hand, holding the camera, trembled, but he firmly stood up straight. The face hidden behind the camera was on the verge of tears—he wanted to leave too!

Qi Ke withdrew her gaze and met Song Yushi’s smiling eyes.

Qi Ke: “…”

She continued to feign innocence.

“Alright,” Song Yushi shot her a “disgusted” look. “My request isn’t much. On the day of the public performance, you have to find a chance to dance to 《Cherry》 on stage.”

“Why?” Qi Ke asked without shame.

Song Yushi fell silent.

She had a feeling that with Qi Ke’s offensive, the possibility of her not having to dance to 《Cherry》 on the 10th Anniversary Concert stage was quite low. To avoid being so embarrassed then, she needed Qi Ke to test the waters first.

Song Yushi patted Qi Ke’s shoulder, looking as if she wanted to say something but stopped. Just as Qi Ke thought she was about to speak, she just smiled again, pushed open the door, and entered the practice room.

Qi Ke shivered, goosebumps rising on her skin. She said to the follow PD, “I feel like I’ve been tricked, but I can’t quite put my finger on what’s wrong. What do you think?”

Follow PD: “…”

How should I know?

Qi Ke beckoned for the cameraman to follow. Now that Song Yushi had entered the practice room, this follow PD was temporarily commandeered by Qi Ke. As she walked, she said, “This request is too easy for me. Does she have another trick up her sleeve?”

Follow PD: “…”

Who are you asking?

Qi Ke: “Actually, it doesn’t matter if she has another trick. I’ll do anything the captain asks me to do anyway.” She added warily, “This part has to be cut, you hear me?”

Follow PD: “…”

Or what, you want the production team to out you for you?!!!

After this little scene, Song Yushi and Qi Ke added more comedic material to the show and also gave the CP fans more content to ship, so all in all, everyone was happy.

The morning training session flew by. Song Yushi had been waking up on and off the previous night and hadn’t slept well, so she wanted to find a place to catch up on sleep. Qi Ke, on the other hand, hadn’t slept at all. After a full morning of teaching, her energy was depleted, and she also needed to find a place to nap.

The break room was too shabby, and the sofa was impossible to sleep on.

While eating, Song Yushi and Qi Ke discussed whether they should get a room outside to catch up on sleep. But this place was in the middle of nowhere; finding a hotel was another matter entirely. There were fans everywhere outside. If they were photographed entering and leaving a hotel, it could probably be explained away as a friendly outing between besties. But… after all, they had a guilty conscience.

Song Yushi and Qi Ke looked at each other and said in unison, “Forget it.”

But just then, a timid voice came from behind them: “Teacher Song and Teacher Qi can sleep in our dormitory.”

Song Yushi turned around.

It was a few vibrant young trainees. The one in the lead was the most popular, strikingly beautiful, and a student in Song Yushi’s dance class. She suggested, “We all have extra training at noon, so you can go to our dorm to rest. Our room number is 205.”

Song Yushi glanced at Qi Ke. “That could work.”

Skipping the process of polite refusals, Song Yushi took the dorm key and also asked the trainees a couple of questions about their progress. Finally, she nodded. “Then you all practice well at noon. I’ll come check your results this afternoon.”

The trainees: “…?”

Teacher Song is so strict! Teacher Qi, aren’t you going to do something—

Their internal complaints came to an abrupt halt.

They saw that Teacher Qi, who they thought could manage Teacher Song, was looking at Teacher Song with a proud expression. “When the captain gets strict, she’s so cool it’s off the charts!”

The trainees: “…”

Basing her rainbow farts on someone else’s “suffering”?

Perhaps sensing the trainees’ “fervent” gazes, Qi Ke came back to her senses and also gave the trainees some instructions, reminding them that after the dance evaluation, there would be vocal coaching, so they should prepare for that as well.

As the trainees left the cafeteria, their figures looked lost, their steps staggered, and they looked up at the sky, filled with a thousand emotions.

Teacher Qi, Teacher Song, a match made in heaven.

The trainee dormitory building wasn’t far from the training building, only a five-minute walk. The four-person dorm had bunk beds placed against the wall, with four desks lined up on the opposite side.

The girls loved to be clean. Even though training was hard, the room was kept spotless.

Qi Ke had attended elite schools since she was young and had never slept in a bunk bed. Finding it novel, she lay down and looked up at the bed board of the top bunk, saying excitedly, “This feels very secure.”

Song Yushi: “…”

She had danced all morning and worked up a sweat, so she had just taken a shower before lying down on the trainee’s bed. It was someone else’s bed, after all, so it wasn’t very comfortable to sleep in. She had just managed to feel a little drowsy when Qi Ke interrupted her.

Qi Ke’s excitement passed. She turned to look at Song Yushi on the other bed and whispered, “Captain, sweet dreams.”

Song Yushi turned over and hummed softly. “Sweet dreams.”

The corners of her lips, hidden in the pillow, lifted slightly.

The air grew quiet. The coolness of spring was gone, but the heat of summer had not yet arrived; the temperature was perfectly comfortable.

Qi Ke closed her eyes and, in the silence, listened carefully to the sound of Song Yushi’s breathing until it became long and steady.

The phone by her pillow buzzed.

She unlocked it, and messages flooded in like a tide.

Sister Ming: I did as you said. But the situation is still not optimistic. There’s definitely someone advising Yushi’s adoptive parents from behind the scenes. Although what they’re saying might not be true, there’s no way to prove it’s false. Is Yushi okay?

Zhong Yi: I can’t reach Yushi. Are you two together?

Chengzhi: Are the Ruan family that shameless? When they couldn’t get money, they decided to ruin her? With my hot temper, should I □□?

Meng Ying: I can’t reach the Captain. Is she okay? Is there anything I can do to help?

Qi Ke closed her eyes.

She didn’t know who was behind the Ruan parents, but whoever it was had come fully prepared. With buckets of dirty water being thrown, no matter how many people tried to clarify the situation, many would still believe the lies.

Fortunately, after Ruan Xiangmeng had warned her, she had arranged for someone to keep an eye on things. She just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.

Last night, not long after Song Yushi had fallen asleep in bed, Qi Ke received a message from Sister Ming with a URL. A thread had been started on an anonymous forum titled 【Song Yushi is Ungrateful, Adoptive Parents Accuse Her in Tears】. As soon as the post was published, it garnered a thousand replies in just three minutes.

Qi Ke skimmed the main post. It was full of nonsense and lies, making her blood boil. She wished she could drag the poster out and beat them up to vent her anger.

But at that moment, her little captain was sleeping soundly, leaning peacefully on her shoulder like a beautiful, gentle dream that could soothe all irrationality.

The subsequent events unfolded logically.

Contacting a lawyer, preserving evidence, closely monitoring the subsequent comments, and… not letting Song Yushi find out so soon.

Sister Ming was exasperated. “Don’t you know what your captain is made of? She’s experienced more setbacks than you’ve had meals. Are you still afraid she can’t handle this?”

She’ll find out sooner or later, so let it be later.

Qi Ke thought that she could always bear some of the burden for Song Yushi, even if it was just a little. She had just recovered from the panic of Ruan Xiangmeng’s critical illness; how could she be thrown into another vortex so quickly?

Sister Ming relented.

Qi Ke quietly got out of bed, opened the dormitory door, and called Sister Ming, keeping her voice as low as possible. “How are things now?”

“We were afraid people would say we have a guilty conscience, so we didn’t delete the post. Freedom of speech, right? As long as these people aren’t afraid of being proven wrong.” Sister Ming, on the other end, had no such reservations, her voice growing louder. “I really can’t believe it. Song Yushi was treated like a princess after being adopted, but after the family went bankrupt, not only did she not help the family, she also cut off ties with her adoptive parents. And people actually believe this nonsense!”

“People who don’t know the truth will believe it,” Qi Ke said, much calmer. “Actually, this is easy to explain. A public notice and a statement would clear things up.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

“No.” Qi Ke slowly shook her head. “A clarification like that won’t hold up. People who believe in Yushi will believe her even without this statement. For those who don’t believe her, this statement is just a piece of paper with no weight. Even if we issue a statement this time, as long as the Ruan parents are still making a fuss, the same public opinion crisis will happen again. How many statements can you issue?”

“Damn, you should come work in the marketing department.” Hearing Qi Ke speak like this, Sister Ming knew she must have a plan. She relaxed, and after her joke, her tone grew serious as she returned to the topic. “You want to use this opportunity to shut the Ruan parents up for good?”

“And the person behind them. It’s probably one of a few rivals in the industry anyway. We’ll just drag them all out and be done with it.”

“…Won’t that offend a lot of people?”

Qi Ke didn’t speak.

Sister Ming understood. “To hell with offending people! They’ve come after us. Backing down now is a sign of weakness. People who don’t know better will think Mangosteen Entertainment has gone bankrupt!!!”

Qi Ke smiled. “Thank you for your hard work, Sister Ming.”

Sister Ming was stunned for a moment, then her voice choked up. “Me? What hard work have I done?” She sighed deeply, wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes. “The one who’s suffering is Yushi. She’s already done everything she possibly could, but you can never predict how greedy people’s hearts can be. And you—”

“She’s suffered so much. Your heart must be aching, right?”

Qi Ke’s eyes grew hot. She murmured, “It does ache.”

Her heart ached for her.

Qi Ke took a deep breath. A surge of grievance and heartache swelled up, lodging in her throat and causing a painful pressure. The tip of her nose tingled, but fearing that Song Yushi would notice something later, she forced it all back down.

“I have to go,” Qi Ke said as she turned around. “I’ll first—”

Her voice stopped abruptly.

At the dormitory doorway, Song Yushi was leaning against the frame, watching her quietly.

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