Lin Yi should have known Xu Shuyan would use this trick.
Back when they were love rivals, Lin Yi had found herself praising Xu Shuyan’s figure on several occasions. Her skin was fair and soft, and she was curvy in all the right places. The way she flirted, fully aware of her own beauty, was even more fatal. She knew exactly how to get to people; just a slight glimpse of skin was enough to send one’s mind reeling.
Look at this figure, look at this casually beautiful face, and look at those lazy eyes, still hazy with sleep.
Stop!
Lin Yi squeezed her eyes shut.
No! I absolutely can’t fall into Xu Shuyan’s trap! I must firmly resist this seductive snare! I’m a respectable girl group member. Xu Shuyan and I may have slept in the same bed, but our relationship as teammates is still pure!
“Why are you closing your eyes?” Xu Shuyan asked.
Lin Yi scoffed internally. What else could it be? You’re the one who’s not properly dressed, and you have the nerve to ask me? She wanted to call Xu Shuyan out directly, but she was afraid Xu Shuyan would get angry out of embarrassment, making the situation awkward.
Her eyelashes fluttered as she casually lied, “I got something in my eye.”
She was truly soft-hearted.
And she was really trying to save Xu Shuyan some face.
“Something in your eye?” Xu Shuyan’s voice drew closer. With her vision temporarily gone, her sense of smell became sharper. She could smell Xu Shuyan’s scent—sweet and fragrant. It wasn’t perfume; it was Xu Shuyan’s natural scent, and it was getting closer and closer. “Let me see. It’s not a little bug, is it?”
It smelled so good.
Lin Yi’s composure wavered for a moment before she steadied herself. She quickly took two steps back and said sternly, “Don’t come any closer!”
“…” Xu Shuyan paused, stunned. “What?”
Lin Yi also felt she had overreacted. Avoiding Xu Shuyan like the plague was so hurtful to one’s pride. She quickly tried to patch things up: “I-I mean, I just need to close my eyes for a bit, and it’ll be fine. It’s not a bug.”
Xu Shuyan retracted her outstretched hand. “…Oh.”
Then there was silence.
Lin Yi lowered her head and pretended to rub her eyes. She saw that Xu Shuyan had already turned her back to her and opened the wardrobe. She was still wearing slippers, a silver anklet fastened around her slender, fair ankle, swaying gently as she moved.
The autumn rain had been continuous for the past two days, and the temperature had dropped sharply. The heating hadn’t been turned on yet. Wasn’t she cold, dressed so lightly?
“…Lin Yi?” Xu Shuyan’s slightly raised voice finally broke through. Lin Yi lifted her head in a daze and saw Xu Shuyan leaning against the wardrobe, looking at her. “What did you come to find me for, anyway?”
Lin Yi murmured, “You’re not wearing enough.”
Xu Shuyan: “Huh?”
Lin Yi ignored her surprise and nodded seriously. “You’re already sick, yet you’re wearing so little. Do you want to faint again? You need to wear more. Wait for me.”
Xu Shuyan: “Hey-”
She tried to call out to Lin Yi, but Lin Yi had already turned and run out. The sound of her footsteps clattered up the stairs, and less than two minutes later, she clattered back down, holding Xu Shuyan’s autumn pajamas.
A pink, fluffy, one-piece pajama set. The floppy bunny ears dangled in the air.
Xu Shuyan: “…”
This time, it was her turn to back away. “Lin Yi, you knock on my door first thing in the morning, don’t even say what you’re here for, and now you’re trying to make me die of heat with this? You can’t be serious, right?”
“Why not?” Lin Yi walked over, her fingertip hooking Xu Shuyan’s spaghetti strap for a second before she pulled back as if shocked, her face flushing. “Hurry up and change out of this nightgown. You need to stay warm this season, understand?”
Xu Shuyan: “…I don’t want to understand.”
Lin Yi glared. “Are you going to change or not?”
After saying it, she felt it was a bit harsh. She stuffed the pajamas into Xu Shuyan’s arms. Just as she was about to leave, she heard Xu Shuyan sigh. “Fine, I’ll change, okay? …Don’t just do whatever you want to me just because I like you, Lin Yi.”
Lin Yi: “!!!”
Her eyes widened slightly, and her face instantly turned beet red. To make matters worse, Xu Shuyan was still looking at her with a smile, her gaze alluring. Lin Yi stared blankly for two seconds, then fled the room.
She screamed internally: Aaaaaah, Xu Shuyan is way too direct!!!
Lin Yi hadn’t yet recovered from Xu Shuyan’s direct hit when Xu Shuyan emerged from the bedroom wearing the fluffy pajamas.
Now, no matter how good her figure was, it was completely hidden. She was wrapped up tightly from head to toe. With the bunny-eared hood on, her small face was tucked inside, making her look very cute and soft. But she didn’t seem very satisfied with the outfit; her expression was a little sour.
A mix of cute and cool.
It was pushing all of Lin Yi’s buttons for what she found adorable.
Resisting the urge to rua Xu Shuyan, Lin Yi pretended to be calm and took out her phone to fiddle with it.
She had it all figured out. Xu Shuyan having the assistant buy breakfast was a clear gesture of goodwill, a tactic to pursue her. She didn’t like it right now… no, that wasn’t it. Right now, she wanted to be ordinary teammates with Xu Shuyan, so she had to learn to refuse.
So what if it was her favorite hard-to-buy crab roe shengjian?
She didn’t care for it!
Xu Shuyan had no idea how many thoughts had popped into Lin Yi’s little head just this morning. She only felt that these pajamas were incredibly stuffy; she was already sweating after just a few steps. She tugged at the hem of her clothes. Seeing the paper bag from XX Ji on the dining table, she raised an eyebrow slightly. “The shengjian is here?”
Asking the obvious! Lin Yi huffed internally, but her face didn’t show it. “Yeah, you can eat.”
Xu Shuyan asked, “You’re not having any?”
Lin Yi said stubbornly, “I’m not hungry.”
“Oh,” Xu Shuyan said, her slippers padding heavily on the floor. She walked to the dining table, opened the sealed paper bag—it was still steaming hot—and the aroma quickly filled the room. “It smells so good.”
Lin Yi: “…”
It really did smell good!
She swallowed hard. The food on the delivery app looked more and more unappetizing. Helplessly, she tossed her phone onto the sofa, pulled a packet of oatmeal from the cabinet, and as she passed the dining room, the aroma grew even stronger. Xu Shuyan even asked her, “You’re just having oatmeal?”
“Can’t I?” Lin Yi retorted. “I don’t want to eat anything too greasy first thing in the morning!”
“Greasy?” Xu Shuyan picked up a shengjian bun and placed it in a small bowl. She poked a small hole in it and slurped the fragrant soup. She clicked her tongue. “So delicious.”
Lin Yi: “…”
This was even harder to resist than seduction!
Lin Yi poured the oatmeal into a glass, added hot water, and the scent of oatmeal began to spread. But it was no match for the aroma of the shengjian, or the sound of Xu Shuyan deliberately eating with gusto. Finally, Xu Shuyan asked, “You’re really not having any?”
“I…” Lin Yi took a sip of her oatmeal, bit her lower lip, tasting nothing. She said defiantly, “I’ll pay you for it!”
Xu Shuyan’s eyes curved in a triumphant smile. “Okay.”
That’s right, Lin Yi thought. I can pay Xu Shuyan. I can even pay double. That way, I won’t be indebted to her. Having convinced herself, she put down her glass and stopped fighting her craving for the crab roe shengjian.
“This is so good!” Lin Yi finished slurping the soup, took a bite of the skin, and was so happy she could cry. She looked up and saw Xu Shuyan watching her quietly, her peach-blossom eyes overflowing with unconcealed affection. Lin Yi coughed abruptly twice, her gaze darting away. “D-don’t look at me! You eat!”
“Waiting for you to pay me,” Xu Shuyan said, retracting her gaze. Her chopsticks poked a shengjian bun, and the juice spilled out. Her eyes flickered for a moment. “Want me to give you a discount?”
Lin Yi said, “No need.”
Xu Shuyan had expected that. She showed Lin Yi the transfer page where she’d paid the assistant. “Just give me half.”
Lin Yi clicked her tongue. “Do you have too much money and nowhere to spend it?”
“Of course not,” Xu Shuyan put her phone aside. “I’m so broke lately. Just yesterday, I was bugging Sister Fang about when we’ll get the final payments for the concert and the group variety show.”
Lin Yi finished transferring the money to her. “No way. Did you buy so many bags you went bankrupt?”
Xu Shuyan just smiled and didn’t say anything.
Seeing that she didn’t want to talk about it, Lin Yi didn’t press further. She happily and guiltlessly enjoyed the crab roe shengjian, critiquing it as she ate and calculating how many calories she’d need to burn afterward to not gain weight. Xu Shuyan listened quietly to her chatter, but then Lin Yi suddenly fell silent.
Xu Shuyan looked up. “Why’d you stop talking?”
Lin Yi: “…Nothing.”
She just felt that the atmosphere was inexplicably strange. Two single women eating breakfast together early in the morning, their relationship more tangled than a ball of yarn. There was a hint of strangeness mixed in with the warmth.
Just as the two were feeling awkward, the assistant returned with some people.
They bustled about, clearing out the media room to serve as a temporary practice studio. A full wall of mirrors blocked the projection screen. When the curtains were opened, they revealed the drizzly, overcast city. The room’s lights reflected in the windowpane like lights on a river’s surface, scattering faint glimmers of light.
“These dance pants are yours, and these are Yanyan’s.” The assistant placed the black, cuffed dance pants on a nearby table. “I also brought your usual shoes. See if you need anything else, and I’ll have someone prepare it right away.”
“That’s all,” Lin Yi said, picking up the pants. “Go contact the agent for the office building I looked at yesterday. Have them pick me up at three this afternoon to see the space.”
The assistant noted it down. “Okay.”
After much consideration, Lin Yi still decided to open her studio in S City. It wasn’t to be close to the company; she truly considered S City her home and didn’t want to be too far away. Besides, if she really set it up in B City, she and Xu Shuyan would have to move to B City, leaving only Zhou Shichen and Yan Qi here.
That would mean The Notes was drifting apart.
She didn’t want to send that kind of signal to the fans, making them have to explain over and over again to others that the group hadn’t disbanded, just that they were “scattered like stars in the sky.” They hadn’t scattered. At least, not yet.
Xu Shuyan thought so too.
“Thanks for going to see the property in person,” Xu Shuyan said. “I’ve transferred you the service fee.”
Lin Yi paused. “What service fee?”
Her phone chimed with a notification. She opened it and saw that the amount Xu Shuyan had transferred was exactly one yuan less than what she had just sent her. Her face darkened. “Are you making change for me?”
Xu Shuyan answered with a different question: “Can I change out of these pajamas now?”
Her tone was so serious, as if she would wear them right out the door if Lin Yi didn’t let her change.
Lin Yi stammered, “Y-you can change! Why are you asking me? I was just concerned about you, the concern of an ordinary teammate! I’d be just as concerned if Shichen or the Captain were sick!”
Xu Shuyan watched her quietly.
Lin Yi grew flustered under her gaze. “What are you looking at!”
Xu Shuyan asked, “Are you done making excuses?”
Lin Yi nodded. “Done making… what do you mean, making excuses?! I’m telling the truth, okay?”
“Okay.” Xu Shuyan took off the hood. Her long hair was messy, but it only made her small face look fairer and prettier. She smiled and said, “You are telling the truth.”
“Mhm!”
“You’re concerned about me.”
“…? No!”
“Mhm, you’re not.”
“…” Don’t think I can’t hear the perfunctory tone in your voice!
Afraid that Xu Shuyan would say something even more shocking, Lin Yi shoved the dance pants into her arms and pushed her toward the door. “Go change first, then come back and warm up.”
Xu Shuyan’s cold was mostly better. When she returned, she was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt. Her long hair was tied in a high ponytail with a bow-shaped hair tie. The ends, which had been dyed pinkish-brown before, still had a hint of color and swished through the air.
Lin Yi had also tied her hair in a bun. She was stretching with her long leg propped on the windowsill. A fine rain drifted in, slightly moistening the dry, stuffy room. When she bent over, the hem of her short-sleeved shirt rode up, revealing a small sliver of her beautiful waistline, an innocent and unknowing temptation.
Xu Shuyan stared for a moment, then averted her gaze.
Lin Yi had thought it would take Xu Shuyan at least a couple of hours to learn the dance before they could start rehearsing properly. She never expected that Xu Shuyan, like her, couldn’t sleep in the early hours of the morning and had already finished learning the choreography.
Lin Yi stopped herself from wondering why Xu Shuyan had insomnia and just said, “Oh. That saves a lot of time then.”
But Xu Shuyan asked her, “Why did you have insomnia?”
Lin Yi was caught off guard. She didn’t have time to come up with a more logical lie and just blurted out, “I just… couldn’t sleep.”
After saying that, she rested her head on her leg and closed her eyes.
…That was a masterclass in stating the obvious.
“It’s mainly because I’m worried about opening the studio,” Lin Yi added, patching up her lie. “There’s so much to do. I posted the job listing online, but I have to screen applicants’ fan affiliations, so there aren’t many who can actually come for an interview.”
As she spoke, she genuinely started to feel worried.
“Office buildings in good locations are ridiculously expensive. The annual expenses alone are several hundred thousand. Plus, it’s a small team, so I have to worry about everything from top to bottom.” She sighed. “Just thinking about it gives me a headache.”
Xu Shuyan deeply agreed.
But this was the first step for them to establish themselves individually in the entertainment industry; they had to take it themselves. She had wanted to comfort Lin Yi a little, but Lin Yi had already managed to recover on her own. She lowered her leg, full of energy. “Come on, let’s dance!”
Xu Shuyan: “…”
She had truly never seen someone’s mood change so quickly.
The song “Out of Control” had an ambiguous style, and the lyrics repeatedly tested the boundaries of desire. It was highly evocative, so the choreographer had added as much interaction as possible to the dance moves, fully displaying a certain kind of suggestiveness.
It was fine when learning the parts individually, but when they danced it together, it was a bit too much.
For example, the initial design had Xu Shuyan kneeling on the ground, blindfolded and with her hands tied. Lin Yi would enter from the other side of the stage with the BGM, walk gracefully to her, and, in time with the music, lift her chin. When the lyrics “untie all worries” played, she would lightly pull off Xu Shuyan’s restraints.
Afterward, Xu Shuyan would stand up and place her hands on Lin Yi’s waist, while Lin Yi would put her hands on Xu Shuyan’s shoulders. They would be as close as they could possibly be, doing a wave while pressed against each other. As their figures intertwined, the sexual tension was palpable.
If it weren’t for a few small incidents.
“It tickles, it tickles!” Lin Yi slapped away Xu Shuyan’s hand from her waist and retreated with sensitivity and caution. “C-can you stop touching my waist all the time! It’s really ticklish!”
Xu Shuyan looked innocent. “This is the move the teacher designed.”
Lin Yi gritted her teeth. “The choreographer told you to hold my waist, not pinch it, did they?”
Lin Yi’s waist was her most sensitive spot; a simple poke could make her legs go weak. She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but she felt that Xu Shuyan’s hands on her waist were being careless with their pressure. It wasn’t that she was repulsed by it, but she felt that if this continued, the tips of her ears would get hotter and hotter, her heart would beat faster and faster, and something was about to break through the surface.
So she finally couldn’t help but protest, threatening Xu Shuyan with a fierce exterior but a timid heart, “If you pinch me again, we’re not practicing!”
Xu Shuyan puffed out her cheeks and slowly nodded. Seeing that Lin Yi’s face was still indignant, she tilted her head and suggested, “How about you pinch me back?”
Lin Yi narrowed her eyes, her gaze shifting to Xu Shuyan’s waist.
The hem of her short-sleeved shirt was tied in a knot, revealing glimpses of her fair waistline. It looked slender enough to encircle with one hand, so soft it seemed you could squeeze water out of it. Lin Yi’s hand itched. Unable to resist the temptation, she said, “You asked for this. I’m just getting revenge, I don’t have any…” Before she could finish, she quickly pinched Xu Shuyan’s waist.
Feeling a bit guilty after all, she made it quick. When she pulled her hand back, the warmth that had clung to her fingertips quickly dissipated.
She clicked her tongue internally, feeling it wasn’t quite enough.
It really did feel nice.
“I think you bruised me,” Xu Shuyan said suddenly.
A pot of blame flew over and interrupted Lin Yi’s wild thoughts. Her chaotic mind was instantly dumbfounded. She looked incredulous. “What do you mean, bruised? Are you trying to frame me?!”
Xu Shuyan lifted the hem of her shirt slightly. “Why don’t you see for yourself?”
Lin Yi took a closer look.
Whoa! There really was a bruise, and it was right where she had pinched!
Lin Yi: “…”
Ah, this!
“It’s fine.” Xu Shuyan calmly put her shirt down, reassuring Lin Yi. “I just have that kind of constitution. The slightest touch leaves a mark. So that night…”
At this point, she seemed to suddenly realize what she was saying and changed her tune. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I’m okay.”
Lin Yi: “…”
The more she says, the guiltier I feel, ahhh!
She asked tentatively, “Are you really okay?”
Xu Shuyan smiled. “What? Are you going to compensate me?”
Lin Yi: “…That’s not what I meant.”
Unexpectedly, Xu Shuyan actually started thinking about it seriously. “How about you buy me bubble tea! As compensation.”
Lin Yi didn’t know why, but she felt like she’d been tricked. She dazedly ordered the bubble tea. It was only when she saw the unconcealable, sly smile in Xu Shuyan’s eyes that she suddenly realized and gave Xu Shuyan a push. “Aha, you! You did that on purpose, didn’t you? Xu Shuyan, since when did you get so good at being shameless?!”
Xu Shuyan blinked and asked her, “Did I?”
“Did you not?!” Lin Yi said angrily. “Why didn’t you use your thousand-layer schemes when you liked Yuanyuan?!”
Xu Shuyan’s smile froze abruptly.
Lin Yi regretted it as soon as she said it. She opened her mouth, wanting to fix it, but didn’t know what to say. She avoided Xu Shuyan’s gaze, but then felt she had nothing to be guilty about and looked straight at her.
Xu Shuyan was also looking at her, quietly and seriously. After a long moment, she said, “I don’t know either.”
Lin Yi could hear her own heartbeat.
Thump, thump.
She wanted to stop the confession that might be coming from Xu Shuyan, but she couldn’t control her desire to keep listening. As she hesitated, Xu Shuyan continued, “Just like how I don’t know why, back when I couldn’t stand the sight of you, I always wanted to lay a hand on you. Now, I just want to get my hands on you.”
The direct hit was straightforward and passionate, striking her heart with precision. It skipped a beat, and blood rushed through her veins. Her cheeks grew warm, and she looked at Xu Shuyan, at a complete loss.
The inescapable, unavoidable affection made her panic.
Anyone, please, she thought. Anyone, please come and break this strange atmosphere. Just let me be an ostrich and hide for a while. I really can’t handle Xu Shuyan’s gaze.
It was like an abandoned puppy—the destructive power was too great. She was completely unable to make a rational decision.
Perhaps Lin Yi’s wish was so strong that it piously moved the heavens. The silence in the media room was broken by a suddenly ringing phone. She snapped back to her senses. “It should… it should be my delivery.”
…She didn’t know why she felt the need to explain.
She was secretly annoyed with herself as she fumbled for her phone, swiping several times before successfully answering. “Hello? Yes, the delivery is here? Okay, you can just put it in the cabinet downstairs. Thanks.”
She walked out as she spoke.
The heavy door closed behind her. She hung up the phone and let out a quiet sigh of relief in her heart.
When she returned with the bubble tea, Xu Shuyan was sitting by the window, resting. She took the drink from her hand, said thank you, and maintained a polite distance so as not to intimidate Lin Yi.
Lin Yi stuck the straw in and took a sip. The warm mango coconut with mini taro balls rolled between her lips and teeth, warming her stomach as it went down her throat.
The rain was still falling outside the window.
The autumn rain was dreary and cold. With each downpour, the weather grew a few degrees colder, burying the summer’s heat in the withered yellow leaves and dragging the entire city into a boundless chill until winter arrived.
The gala was being held in B City. It had just snowed two days ago, officially marking the start of winter.
The coordinating staff member told the assistant to remember to bring warm clothes, and that they could provide some if it wasn’t convenient. They also casually asked if Xu Shuyan and Lin Yi wanted to share a room.
The assistant, unaware of the lingering connection between the two, only thought about executing the “decoupling” plan and decisively chose separate rooms for them.
Good thing they weren’t staying together.
Lin Yi thought as she drank her bubble tea. Otherwise, once they got there, it would be awkward whether they slept together or had to get another room.
Just like now. Lin Yi had a headache. Even with things like this, the free time they had was precious, and she couldn’t just not continue rehearsing with Xu Shuyan. She placed her bubble tea on the windowsill and asked Xu Shuyan, “Shall we continue?”
Xu Shuyan straightened up. “Let’s continue.”
They were idols, after all, with extremely high professionalism. No matter how awkward or flustered they felt inside, they were incredibly dedicated when it was time to be serious. The rest of the rehearsal went very smoothly. She and Xu Shuyan were old partners, so their chemistry was a given. Coordinating with each other was a habit ingrained in their bones.
The BGM flowed from the speakers mounted on the screen. A low voice sang the bewitching lyrics, like a sugar-coated poison, luring people into its trap.
When the lyrics “out of control after going upstairs…” played, Lin Yi pushed Xu Shuyan, who fell to the floor on cue. Lin Yi’s hands controlled her from a distance—rising, falling, twisting, curling up. The floorwork was sensual and full of desire. Coupled with Xu Shuyan’s excellent facial expressions—a cool gaze laced with seduction as she looked at her—it made Lin Yi lose focus for a moment.
In that moment of distraction, her hand movements were half a beat slow. She was late in getting up and unexpectedly bumped into Xu Shuyan, who was also rising. Her foot slipped, and she fell straight toward Xu Shuyan.
Holy shit!
The curse was stuck in her throat. Before she could say it, she had already tackled Xu Shuyan to the ground. She heard Xu Shuyan cry out and quickly tried to get up. “Are you okay?”
“…I really owe you one.” Xu Shuyan sighed. She didn’t hurry to get up. Staring at the ceiling, she beckoned to Lin Yi. “Come closer.”
Lin Yi, kneeling on the floor, approached uncertainly. “What-”
Before she could finish, she was suddenly pulled into Xu Shuyan’s arms. She froze for a second and struggled to get up, but Xu Shuyan gently patted her head, turned to her side, and gathered her into her embrace. “Let me hold you for a bit.”
“It’ll be better after a hug.”
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