[“What does ‘we don’t live together anymore’ mean???”]
[Lin Yi, you better explain yourself! Why don’t you live together? What? Are you not members of The Notes anymore? Why aren’t you living together? Why aren’t you roommates anymore? I need an explanation!]
[A clap of thunder jolted me awake. I wondered what was going on, but it turns out it was just a reminder that Yan Zhi You Yi got divorced!]
[My Yan Zhi You Yi is really something else. Ten minutes ago, they were doing it on stage, making people ship them to death. The moment they step off stage, they’re just regular colleagues. Who wouldn’t applaud this level of professionalism? A role model for us all!]
[Yan Zhi You Yi was never real to begin with, right? Now that they’re opening their own studios, they’re just uncoupling. It’s no big deal.]
[Wait, but how do you explain Xu Shuyan zipping up Lin Yi’s jacket at the airport yesterday???]
[Lin Yi’s team wants to uncouple, but Xu Shuyan’s doesn’t. What other explanation is there? Weren’t the CP fans pushing the narrative that Lin Yi had a one-sided crush on Xu Shuyan before? The way I see it, it’s Xu Shuyan who has a one-sided crush on Lin Yi!]
[Don’t you dare! Who gave you permission to uncouple? What do you mean you’re uncoupling right when I was about to start shipping you!]
[I feel like a damn clown. One minute I was recommending Yan Zhi You Yi to my friend, telling her she wouldn’t regret shipping them, and she was just getting into it. The next, we refresh and see this interview. How am I supposed to show my face?]
[Cause for celebration! Yan Zhi You Yi is divorced! The leeching teammate who was clinging on can scram!]
The backstage group interview was being live-streamed. As if dropping that one bombshell wasn’t enough, Lin Yi continued, “And when we did live together, I never really observed her. You can ask her yourself.”
Her smile gradually faded. She glanced sideways at Xu Shuyan, then lowered her eyes.
An assistant promptly stepped forward, shielding Lin Yi as she walked away. “That’s all for Lin Yi’s interview today. If you have any other questions, you can contact her studio. Thank you for your cooperation!”
Seeing that Lin Yi would answer no more questions, the media turned their microphones to Xu Shuyan, firing off a rapid and intense series of questions.
“Are the members of The Notes not living together anymore? Or did you or Lin Yi move out of the dorm? Is it true that your personal studios will be opened in B City?”
“Does this mean The Notes is about to go solo without disbanding?”
“Have you and Lin Yi had a falling out?”
Xu Shuyan listened quietly. As her long, slender fingers tapped lightly on the microphone, they made a dull thudding sound. With one unhurried tap after another, she managed to quiet the noisy crowd.
She tilted her head, her earrings swaying gently, and her red lips parted slightly. “Are you done asking?”
The reporters fell silent.
“Then it’s my turn to answer.” Xu Shuyan’s eyes curved into a smile. “The Notes is still living together. I just moved into Yuanyuan’s old room. Both my and Lin Yi’s personal studios will be opened in S City. The Notes has no plans to go solo without disbanding for the time being. Thank you for your concern.”
“As for the last question.”
“That’s a stupid one. Don’t ask it again next time.”
Just as the reporters were about to speak, she cut them off again. “The interview is over.”
[Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! Xu Shuyan is such a badass! Sister! My sister! I’m seriously screaming, sister!]
[Is Xu Shuyan trying to save the day here? Could it be that she really likes Lin Yi, got rejected, and is still trying desperately to win her wife back?]
[I’m impressed, everyone. I feel like I’m reading a lesbian entertainment industry novel. What stage are we at now? Which chapter do the little lovers do it? Can I just skip to that chapter?]
Backstage.
Lin Yi took off her earrings and stared at the messages constantly popping up on her phone. They were from Sister Fang, praising her for cooperating so well with the reporters. The entire forum was now flooded with posts about Yan Zhi You Yi’s divorce.
Lin Yi looked at them for a moment before replying, “Didn’t Xu Shuyan turn the tide and save the day?”
She grew angry as she typed. “She should have her salary docked for not cooperating with the plan! There have been rumors about us uncoupling for a while now, and the fans were at least holding onto the fact that we lived together. My statement was supposed to be a devastating blow, but with just a few words, she’s got people shipping us again!”
Sister Fang replied, “Relax. She discussed all of this with me. Like I said before, you can’t just make a clean break all at once. There needs to be a storyline. Right now, the story is that she made you angry and tried to coax you, but failed. Then she got impatient, and eventually, you two drifted apart. BE aesthetics are YYDS!”
Lin Yi: “…Can you not speak in acronyms?”
Sister Fang: “BE aesthetics are forever the greatest!”
Lin Yi: “Fine.”
After placating her a bit, Sister Fang went to follow up with the operations team.
The gala was nearing its end. After the ceremony was a private banquet. The investors behind it were a bunch of rich playboys who knew how to party hard. They called it a private banquet, but who didn’t know about the debauchery that went on inside? So, their young boss had already declined on their behalf. A specially hired driver and security team were waiting in the underground parking garage to take them away as soon as the gala ended.
But some people were shameless enough to block Lin Yi at the door of her dressing room.
He was about sixteen or seventeen, likely brought by his family to see the world. He hadn’t received the young boss’s warning not to touch his artists, and who knows where he’d learned his pickup artist moves. He ran a hand through his hair, raised an eyebrow at Lin Yi, and said with a cringey slickness that burned the eyes, “You’re Lin Yi, right? I’ve taken a liking to you.”
Lin Yi: “…”
She remained polite. “Oh. Thank you for the compliment.”
As she tried to walk around him, there was a loud bang. The young playboy had slammed his hand against the doorframe. Startled, Lin Yi leaned back, moving out of the range of his “door-don.” “…”
Only then did she properly look at him. “Is there… something I can help you with?”
“What, you don’t understand what I’m saying?” The young master leaned in closer, channeling some overbearing CEO he’d learned about from somewhere. He tugged at his tie, an eyebrow slightly raised. “I said, I’ve taken a liking to you.”
Thank heavens. As Lin Yi fought the urge to vomit from the sheer cringe, she silently thanked her lucky stars that this young master, who had clearly read too many overbearing CEO novels, hadn’t said something like, “Woman, it’s your good fortune that I’ve taken a liking to you.”
Even so, goosebumps erupted all over her skin. Suppressing her nausea, she maintained her composure. “And I already said, thank you for the compliment.”
After a pause, she asked, “Can you please move? I need to leave.”
The rich kid got annoyed. “Don’t be ungrateful! I’m giving you face by even asking for your opinion! For a starlet like you in the entertainment industry, I don’t even have to say it outright. With a crook of my finger, people would be lining up to throw themselves into my bed!”
He reached out to tilt Lin Yi’s chin, but she dodged him. This angered him even more, and he tried to grab her shoulder. Lin Yi was getting fed up and was about to call security when a leg suddenly shot out from the side and kicked the rich kid squarely in the waist. With a yelp, he went flying.
Lin Yi: “!”
She quickly looked over and saw Xu Shuyan, still in the black dress from her stage performance. Her brown, curly hair was scattered over her shoulders, creating a stark contrast with her snow-white skin. A black bow was pinned to the back of her head, making her look as exquisite and docile as a BJD doll in a display case.
Lin Yi met her gaze. A faint smile slowly appeared in Xu Shuyan’s eyes, which then curved up like crescent moons hanging high on a branch, looking utterly adorable.
You would never guess she was the one who had delivered that kick.
If it weren’t for the pained groans coming from the floor not far away. The young master, who had been pampered his whole life, had never been kicked before. Once he realized what had happened, he started cursing loudly.
“Shut up!” Lin Yi turned and scolded him.
The young master was taken aback, his shocked pupils screaming, “Woman, how dare you order me around?!”
Lin Yi shuddered at her ability to read his inner monologue, but with Xu Shuyan there, she felt emboldened. She glared at him, then turned and walked over to Xu Shuyan. “You haven’t left yet?”
“I was waiting for you,” Xu Shuyan said.
She feigned surprise as she glanced at the rich kid still on the floor. “Why is this young master lying on the ground?”
Lin Yi blinked. “I have no idea.”
The rich kid’s eyes widened.
Lin Yi felt a sense of satisfaction and hatched a little plan. She suddenly wrapped an arm around Xu Shuyan’s waist, her body melting against hers as if she had no bones. She felt Xu Shuyan’s body stiffen. The ends of her hair brushed against Xu Shuyan’s neck as she whispered coquettishly, “You should have come sooner. I’ve been waiting for you for so long.”
The rich kid’s eyes grew even wider.
“Never seen a lesbian before?” Lin Yi’s hand tightened slightly around Xu Shuyan’s waist. She lifted her chin at the rich kid. “Well, you have now, haven’t you?”
The young playboy wasn’t even an adult yet and was clearly inexperienced with the world. Seeing Lin Yi and Xu Shuyan hugging in front of him like lovers, his mental defenses completely crumbled. He let out a shriek and scrambled away.
Watching his retreating back, Lin Yi mused, “You don’t think he’ll be psychologically scarred, do you?”
Xu Shuyan frowned. “You still care about-“
“If he is, that would be great!” Lin Yi clapped her hands, feeling pleased. “People like him just need a harsh lesson from society. He really thinks he’s all that just because he has a little bit of dirty money. As if no one else does!”
Xu Shuyan said, “…I don’t.”
“Huh?” Lin Yi turned her head, a little worried now. “That kick you gave him just now… it won’t cause any problems, will it? He’s not going to try and extort us, is he?”
“He wouldn’t dare,” Xu Shuyan said. “He snuck here behind his parents’ backs. How would he dare cause trouble?”
Lin Yi said angrily, “Then how did he dare to harass me!”
Xu Shuyan reached out and tucked a strand of Lin Yi’s hair behind her ear, looking thoughtful. “Maybe you just look easy to bully.”
“I look easy to bully?” Lin Yi raised her voice. “How do I look easy to bully? If you hadn’t shown up, I was really going to call security and report him for sexual harassment to give him a taste of social death!”
Xu Shuyan smiled. “If you ever run into something like this again, don’t worry about all that. Just beat him up!”
Lin Yi looked troubled. “What if I can’t win the fight?”
Xu Shuyan gently pinched her cheek. “That’s why I said you need a girlfriend.”
“…” Lin Yi’s face flushed as she pushed her hand away. She glanced around. Thankfully, the staff were all inside the venue doing cleanup, and the other artists had either gone to the banquet or gone home. The backstage area was empty, so no one had seen them. She said in a low voice, “We’re supposed to be uncoupling and avoiding suspicion. Stop flirting with me!”
Xu Shuyan threw up her hands. “Alright, alright.”
She asked, “Are you heading back?”
Lin Yi looked conflicted. “We can’t take the same car back.”
Xu Shuyan let out an “oh.” She remembered. Sister Fang had arranged two separate cars for them this time to make netizens think their relationship was so bad they had to take different cars even when returning to the same hotel.
“What should we do?” Xu Shuyan said. “I want to ride in the same car as you.”
“What do you mean, you want to ride in the same car as me?” Lin Yi looked like she’d seen a ghost and gave Xu Shuyan a little push. “Stop talking to me in that tone!”
Xu Shuyan asked, “Why?”
Lin Yi said, “What?”
“Why can’t I talk to you in this tone?” Xu Shuyan’s eyes were fixed on her, the small black rose drawn at the corner of her eye looking bewitching and beautiful. Her voice was soft, yet insistent. “Why?”
Lin Yi: “!”
What ‘why’! Of course it was because she had no resistance! When she heard that soft, wheedling tone, even knowing Xu Shuyan was doing it on purpose, her heart would still soften! Ahh!
“Th-there’s no reason why!” Lin Yi stood her ground, rejecting her with great integrity. “Anyway, Sister Fang said we can’t ride in the same car. Aren’t you short on money lately? Do you want to get your pay docked again?”
Xu Shuyan pouted. “I don’t.”
“Then that settles it.” Lin Yi breathed a sigh of relief. “Be good. You take your car, and I’ll take mine.”
Xu Shuyan thought for a moment, then said reluctantly, “Alright then.”
She then asked, “What are they saying online now?”
“What else could they be saying?” Lin Yi walked into the dressing room, picked up her down jacket, and started putting it on. “They’re all saying we had a bad ending. That you confessed to me, I didn’t accept, and we had a falling out.”
Xu Shuyan hummed. “Well, they’re not wrong, are they?”
Lin Yi blushed. “What do you mean, not wrong? Did we have a falling out? No, we didn’t. We have a pure, regular colleague relationship right now!”
Xu Shuyan nodded. “Yes, a pure, regular colleague relationship.”
She enunciated the word “pure” clearly, as if to emphasize it.
Lin Yi’s heart skipped a beat.
After confessing to her, it was as if Xu Shuyan had unlocked some strange switch. From then on, she had charged down the path of being direct, determined to break down the door to her heart.
Fortunately, her assistant called just then, saying she had gotten the coffee and was on her way back. Lin Yi said, “Just go straight to the parking lot. I’m ready to leave.”
“Okay!” the assistant asked from the other end. “Is Teacher Xu with you?”
Lin Yi glanced at Xu Shuyan. “She is.”
The assistant said, “Alright, I’m with Xiao Zhou. We’ll wait for you at the elevator.”
Lin Yi: “Okay.”
After hanging up, she said to Xu Shuyan, “Let’s go.”
But Xu Shuyan stood rooted to the spot. “Can we walk together? What if we get photographed? That would be bad. Should I act out a scene where I’m pestering you?”
“…Good point. I’ll go first,” Lin Yi said, turning the tables on her.
With that, she started walking towards the stairwell, counting down from three in her head. Sure enough, Xu Shuyan caught up to her. “Can’t you just play along? There’s no one here, how would we get photographed?”
Lin Yi gave her a teasing look. “You seem to know that perfectly well.”
Xu Shuyan nodded. “But I just wanted to hear you say it.”
Though it was just playful banter, there was a clear undercurrent of seriousness. Lin Yi’s heart skipped another beat.
She pushed open the door to the stairwell. A cross-breeze gusted through, scattering the warm air from the hallway and cooling the lingering heat on her face.
B City was truly cold. The biting wind whipped up old, packed snow. The moon hung in the dark blue night sky, and after the floating clouds dispersed, it reflected off the snow, illuminating the red bricks and green tiles, creating a scene of profound beauty.
Cars sped by on the wet roads.
Lin Yi pressed her face against the car window, watching the night scenery. The warm breath she exhaled fogged up the glass, quickly blurring her vision. She touched a finger to it and wrote “The Notes.” Through the strokes of the letters, the B City nightscape became even hazier. Suddenly, she said, “I don’t want to go back to the hotel.”
Her assistant, who was ordering her a late-night snack, let out a surprised “ah.” “Then where are you going?”
“Let’s just wander around. Is there anything fun nearby?” Lin Yi asked. “The last time we were here, we only went to Universal Studios. Are there any unique places?”
The assistant was efficient. “Shichahai is nearby.”
Lin Yi said, “Let’s go there then!”
She told the driver, “Sir, to Shichahai.”
The car had been specially assigned to them by their young boss and would be at their disposal until they were dropped off at the airport. So, upon hearing Lin Yi’s request, the driver immediately turned the car around and headed for Shichahai.
Lin Yi just wanted some fresh air and didn’t want anyone following her, so she told her assistant to wait in the car. The assistant was worried. “I should probably go with you. What if someone recognizes you…”
“It’d be a miracle if anyone recognized me looking like this!” Lin Yi wrapped her scarf tighter and checked her reflection in the car’s light. “Mask, hat, scarf… I’m bundled up like a bear.”
The assistant burst out laughing. “Don’t put your phone on silent. Report back to me in half an hour- no, every fifteen minutes.”
“You’re such a nag~!”
Lin Yi put on a red fluffy hat with a small pom-pom that dangled in the air. She hopped out of the car and looked around. Thanks to B City’s cold weather, there were plenty of people bundled up even more than she was, so she didn’t stand out.
She said she wanted some fresh air, but she really just wanted to walk around aimlessly. She entered through Yandai Xiejie. The shops lining both sides of the street were like those in any other city’s tourist spots, mostly local specialty stores. Lin Yi bought a skewer of tanghulu and ate it as she walked.
Tanghulu was a local specialty, but Lin Yi couldn’t taste any difference from the ones in S City. The hawthorn was just as sour, though the sugar coating seemed a little sweeter than S City’s. But unlike Xu Shuyan, she didn’t have a sweet tooth. After eating two, she lost her appetite. If only Xu Shuyan were here, she thought.
Xu Shuyan loved sweets. She even added sugar to her congee, and as for coffee, she not only ordered it with full sugar but also asked the coffee shop for extra sugar packets to add herself. She had even tried to convert Lin Yi, saying, “My coffee is so much better than that bitter stuff you drink!”
Lin Yi had taken a sip and retorted, “…Please don’t insult coffee.”
If Xu Shuyan were here, she wouldn’t have to debate whether to throw the tanghulu away. Tossing it would be a waste, but holding it when she wasn’t going to eat any more was also a bit silly. She hesitated like this all the way to the edge of Houhai. After crossing a bridge, she saw a street full of neon lights and realized she had arrived at the legendary bar street.
Throw it away.
She had to throw it away.
Otherwise, clutching a skewer of tanghulu here would make her look like a primary school student who had wandered into a nightclub, which would attract way too much attention.
Lin Yi made up her mind and walked over to a trash can. As she was trying to figure out which category of waste it belonged to, she suddenly caught a familiar voice amidst the deafening music and colorful lights of the various establishments.
…Shen Yujia?
Lin Yi looked up, following the sound. The shops on this street were packed one after another. Outside were food stalls, and behind closed doors were dimly lit bars. The voices of the live singers all blended together, making them hard to distinguish.
Lin Yi stood still and listened for a while longer.
Shen Yujia’s voice was very distinctive, a neutral tone that, due to her many life experiences, was filled with a sense of world-weariness and story. Her musical interpretation was miles ahead of other lead singers.
A flicker of joy ignited in her heart. What a small world. She didn’t know when Shen Yujia had returned from the northwest, but now she was drifting in Beijing, working as a live singer.
She no longer felt rushed to throw away the tanghulu. Following the sound of the singing, she was about to enter a bar when a waiter at the entrance greeted her with a wide smile. Just as she was about to respond, her wrist was suddenly grabbed.
What the hell?
Lin Yi froze. Had she run into another “overbearing CEO”?
She turned her head and- whoa, it was someone even more bundled up than she was. A closer look, and her expression darkened. “Xu Shuyan?”
Although only her eyes were visible, Lin Yi knew Xu Shuyan too well. Not to mention the eye-catching little black rose at the corner of her eye. After being recognized, her eyes blinked lightly, and the little rose moved with them, looking very innocent. “It’s me.”
“Are you following me?” Lin Yi shook her hand off, but worried about attracting attention, she pulled her back to the edge of Houhai.
“I was just passing by,” Xu Shuyan lied without batting an eye. “I felt stuffy and wanted to get some fresh air, so I was just walking and walking, and then I saw you, about to go into a bar!”
Lin Yi scoffed. “Keep making things up.”
Xu Shuyan insisted, “I’m not.”
Lin Yi was so exasperated she almost laughed. She nodded. “Fine, you’re not making it up. We’ll just say it was a chance encounter.” Her brow furrowed. “But what business is it of yours if I go into a bar? Are bars off-limits?”
Xu Shuyan said righteously, “You’re an idol. How can you go into a bar? If someone takes a picture, it’ll be on the trending topics immediately: ‘Lin Yi goes clubbing late at night.'”
Lin Yi: “…”
She actually had a point.
“And on the very night you uncoupled with me, no less. It would be hard for people not to imagine you’re suffering from some kind of heartbreak,” Xu Shuyan added.
“Nonsense!” Lin Yi retorted. She raised her hand and saw the uneaten tanghulu, then irritably thrust it in front of Xu Shuyan. “Here, you eat it.”
Xu Shuyan’s eyes lit up. “You bought this for me?”
Lin Yi said, “You’ve been following me this whole time. Don’t you know perfectly well whether I bought it for you or not?”
Xu Shuyan: “…Oh.”
Her voice was low, almost inaudible, but Lin Yi heard it, and she heard the disappointment in it. Her heart sank slightly. Forcing down a wave of guilt, she said, “The live singer at that bar seems to be Shen Yujia. I wanted to go see her.”
“Shen Yujia?” Xu Shuyan’s grip on the tanghulu tightened. She looked up. “The street performer we met in the northwest when we were filming our group variety show.”
After receiving confirmation, Xu Shuyan’s eyes dimmed slightly. “So you came all the way out here in the middle of the night to see her?”
Lin Yi was stunned. “What?”
“I said, after a long day of work, you didn’t go back to rest properly. You came here to see her?” Xu Shuyan looked at her, the little rose at the corner of her eye trembling slightly. She squinted against the cold wind, her eyes glistening. “Is she that important to you?”
Lin Yi finally understood what Xu Shuyan was implying. She was suspecting that she and Shen Yujia had something going on, that she had gone to all this trouble for a secret rendezvous.
The explanation she was about to give was swallowed back, and sharp words tumbled out instead. “What business is it of yours whether she’s important to me or not? And what business is it of yours that I came to find her? Who are you to me? What right do you have to be jealous over nothing?”
As expected, she saw the light in Xu Shuyan’s eyes fade, bit by bit.
She should feel triumphant.
Lin Yi thought to herself that since they formed the group, she and Xu Shuyan had loved to bicker. She could always win their verbal spars, and if she couldn’t, she could just act shamelessly. Seeing Xu Shuyan get frustrated was her greatest joy.
Now the tables had turned. She was the person Xu Shuyan liked, and her every word could manipulate Xu Shuyan’s emotions. But she hadn’t done that. She had liked someone before; she knew what it felt like. She had thought that was the only reason she was unwilling to do it.
Until now. Watching the starlight die in Xu Shuyan’s eyes, her heart suddenly clenched. Only then did she realize.
That wasn’t it.
It wasn’t because she could empathize that she was unwilling to do this. It was because, from the bottom of her heart, she didn’t want to hurt Xu Shuyan. Hurting Xu Shuyan didn’t bring her any satisfaction; in fact, it made her chest feel tight.
She opened her mouth, wanting to explain, but then she saw Xu Shuyan suddenly smile. “I understand.”
What did she understand?
But Xu Shuyan just looked at her and smiled, saying, “Then go find her. I won’t disturb you. Thanks for the tanghulu.”
Lin Yi: “I…”
She sighed internally. Forget it. The conversation had already reached this point; she couldn’t possibly say anything soft now. Thinking this, she lifted her leg to leave, but her sleeve was gently tugged.
Lin Yi: “?”
She turned back. Xu Shuyan had pulled down her mask, revealing the lower half of her exquisite, beautiful face. She licked the tanghulu, and seeing Lin Yi look over, she tilted her head. “What’s wrong?”
Lin Yi: “…Let go of me.”
Xu Shuyan didn’t move. “You can go find her.”
Lin Yi felt a throbbing in her temples. “If you don’t let go of me, how am I supposed to go find her?”
But Xu Shuyan started acting shamelessly. “I don’t know. Anyway, if you want to go find her, then go.”
Lin Yi: “Then let go of me first!”
Xu Shuyan took a bite of the tanghulu and answered irrelevantly, “It’s so sweet.”
Lin Yi: “…”
She gritted her teeth, enunciating each word. “Xu! Shu! Yan!”
Xu Shuyan replied meekly, “Hm?”
After a moment, as if she could no longer withstand Lin Yi’s anger, her eyes shifted, and her long lashes drooped. “You can go find her, but… can you take me with you?”
Like a puppy soaked in the rain, tugging at its owner’s sleeve, pitifully begging not to be abandoned.
Lin Yi’s heart leaped violently.
She turned away in a fluster, feeling Xu Shuyan stumble slightly from the pull of her movement. Where Xu Shuyan couldn’t see, she gently patted her chest.
That was close.
She had almost fallen for it.
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