Under Cheng Ying’s threatening gaze and body language, Xie Chengcheng finally remembered this was a live broadcast. She gave an affected cough and added insincerely, “Just kidding, just kidding. Don’t mind me, Miss Jiang.”
Jiang Hanguang: “…Alright.”
Seeing that the three had finally stopped, Li Wan hurried over to join the conversation. “Hello, Boss Cheng. Hello, Miss Jiang. I’m Li Wan. I’m…” She glanced lovingly at Xie Chengcheng. “Chengcheng’s girlfriend.”
“Hello,” Jiang Hanguang said, politely shaking her hand.
“Miss Li, long time no see.” Cheng Ying gave a perfunctory wave, her heart genuinely beginning to doubt Zhang Zeyun’s professionalism.
When shipping a couple on a non-romance variety show, the key was to maintain a “more than friends, less than lovers” dynamic. What the audience shipped was the ethereal possibility that it was real.
But these two before her… one was a blockhead, the other was affected to the extreme. They were a good match, in a way, but she had no idea what kind of viewer would have the stomach to ship them.
With Zhang Zeyun’s level of professionalism, there was no way she couldn’t see this, right?
Before Cheng Ying could think it over, the loudspeaker in the lounge suddenly crackled to life.
“Hello, everyone. I’m Zhang Zeyun, the director of Little Little Farm. On behalf of the production team, I’d like to welcome all our farm employees.” Zhang Zeyun’s voice was husky and her tone languid, reminiscent of a late-night radio host. “Next, please pack up your luggage within five minutes and hand it over to our staff for safekeeping. After filming is complete, we will return it to you untouched.”
“Huh?” Before anyone else could say anything, Xie Chengcheng shot up. “You can’t take my Dabai! I can’t sleep at night without him!”
The gazes of the other three fell in unison on the giant mesh bag attached to Xie Chengcheng’s enormous suitcase.
Inside was a charmingly clumsy large white bear, which looked to be the size of a seven or eight-year-old child.
And so, everyone simultaneously looked away, ignoring the request of this fragile, 25-year-old Alpha who still needed a stuffed animal to sleep.
“Wuwuwuwu, my Dabai…” Xie Chengcheng wasn’t the arrogant, domineering type of rich second generation. On someone else’s turf, she still followed orders. After hugging and crying with Dabai for five minutes, she finally let the staff take away her sleeping companion.
Then she collapsed onto Li Wan’s shoulder, acting like a delicate, heartbroken bird.
Li Wan: Awkward-but-polite-smile.jpg.
Cheng Ying: “…”
What a tragedy.
She could already imagine the high-decibel screams this delicate Alpha would let out when faced with that desolate city.
Deeply worried about the future, Boss Cheng glanced at her sister in suffering, only to find Jiang Hanguang smiling as she watched Xie Chengcheng, who was practically rolling around in Li Wan’s arms.
She seemed to be in a good mood.
Noticing her gaze, Jiang Hanguang’s expression became slightly more restrained. “Miss Xie is truly a… childlike person.”
You could just say childish.
Cheng Ying’s mood improved a little. She leaned in with a smile. “You like this type? Then next time, I’ll buy a Dabai and throw myself into your arms crying?”
The bizarre image instantly flashed through Jiang Hanguang’s mind. She shook her head slowly and solemnly. “It seems my fondness was superficial.”
Cheng Ying: “Pfft.”
At this moment, the live stream chat was also filled with laughter.
Comment 1: What on earth is Xie Chengcheng, a living treasure? I spat out my food three times before I could swallow.
Comment 2: Are she and Li Wan really a couple? Li Wan’s face is screaming ‘I’ve lost the will to live.’
Comment 3: Fake couple, real mother and daughter. LMAO, I’m dying.
Comment 4: You’re all laughing, but am I the only one who noticed the Guang-Ying CP on the side?
Comment 5: I noticed too! Cheng Ying’s smile is so rakish, but under Jiang Hanguang’s holy light, even that rakishness has started to look innocent.
Comment 6: Miss Jiang is always so poised and beautiful.
Comment 7: While Cheng Ying never seems to be serious.
Comment 8: They’re actually a pretty good match? Didn’t Xie Chengcheng just call Jiang Hanguang her new sister-in-law? Does that mean the old sister-in-law was Xu Ning?
Comment 9: Uh, so Cheng-Xu was real, and Jiang Hanguang is the third party?
Comment 10: With a face like Jiang’s, it’s unlikely she’d be a third party. It’s more believable that Cheng Ying saw a pretty face, got ideas, and then callously abandoned her old love.
Comment 11: Everyone upstairs, rein in your imaginations. With the way Xie Chengcheng runs her mouth, are you really going to analyze her every word? The show hasn’t even been on for half an hour and you’ve already cooked up a whole melodrama?
Not long after their luggage was confiscated, the four were arranged onto a plane bound for Longmen City.
Li Wan, probably desperate to escape Xie Chengcheng’s tearful laments about her deep bond with Dabai, rushed to sit next to Jiang Hanguang. Cheng Ying had no choice but to sit with Xie Chengcheng. Fortunately, Xie Chengcheng seemed to have tired herself out. Not long after takeoff, she started to doze off, still affectionately calling out on the edge of sleep, “Dabai, how can I sleep without you…”
Cheng Ying, sitting beside her, grabbed a nearby pillow and stuffed it into her arms. The world fell silent.
Cheng Ying heard the soft whispers between Li Wan and Jiang Hanguang.
“You and Boss Cheng are dressed so practically. Unlike me, I don’t even have a single tracksuit in my wardrobe.” Li Wan’s tone was full of envy.
Isn’t it a bit hasty to start establishing a frail, delicate flower persona so soon? A cold smile touched the corner of Cheng Ying’s lips as she heard Jiang Hanguang reply earnestly, “Don’t worry, the production team will probably issue more clothes when we get there. Wearing a dress on a farm certainly wouldn’t be convenient.”
“Uh… that’s good, then,” Li Wan said after a pause.
Cheng Ying, in the back row, almost laughed out loud. Li Wan’s intention was simply to get a few words of comfort from Jiang Hanguang, preferably a compliment that she was pretty and should wear dresses.
Who knew Miss Jiang’s method of comfort would be so simple and effective?
She didn’t believe that someone as smart as Jiang Hanguang wouldn’t understand Li Wan’s meaning.
She understood but was unwilling to follow someone else’s script. Miss Jiang also had her less-than-magnanimous moments.
Cheng Ying’s smile deepened.
Afterward, Li Wan tried to start conversations several times, either sneakily trying to get Jiang Hanguang to praise her or attempting to dig up gossip about Jiang Hanguang and Cheng Ying.
But who was Jiang Hanguang? When she was charmingly navigating the banquets hosted by the Feng family, Li Wan was probably still digging in the dirt somewhere.
Cheng Ying silently listened as Jiang Hanguang skillfully deflected and changed the subject. Li Wan was probably so frustrated she was about to curse, yet she was completely helpless against her.
The more she listened, the more amusing she found it. These past few days, she had been so charmed by Miss Jiang’s cuteness that she had almost forgotten what Jiang Hanguang was like in front of outsiders.
The thought of this woman, so poised and articulate in front of Li Wan, turning red and speechless in front of her, inexplicably lifted Cheng Ying’s spirits.
Speaking of which, she could probably be considered Jiang Hanguang’s “insider.”
The kind of person who got to see her true side.
Located on the frontier, Longmen City was far from the bustling central metropolis of Yunjing City. The flight took over an hour to land.
Cheng Ying had listened to the two Omegas play tai chi the entire way, and not only was she not sleepy, she felt more awake than ever. The moment the cabin door opened, she slapped the sleeping Xie Chengcheng awake and was the first to jump out of the plane.
A fresh yet scorching air rushed to meet her. Although she had mentally prepared herself, seeing satellite images was nothing compared to experiencing it in person. Cheng Ying was still taken aback by the scene before her.
The plane had landed in a pre-cleared open space. The production team, likely intending to give the cast and audience a shocking first impression, had not touched the wasteland surrounding the clearing.
Lush green grass, as high as a person’s waist, neatly surrounded a small, sunken clearing. The roads on the ground had long been completely covered and were no longer visible.
A few towering trees blocked the harsh sunlight but also cast daunting shadows. In the distance, Cheng Ying saw several small, green saplings sprouting from the cracks of a building whose facade had already corroded.
This was Longmen City, a world abandoned by humans and reclaimed by flora and fauna. The traces of nature and civilization formed a fascinating, even eerily beautiful, contrast.
Before Cheng Ying could even sigh in admiration, she heard Xie Chengcheng exclaim behind her, “This is a farm? I’ve never seen grass this deep even at a wildlife park!”
Talk about an atmosphere killer. Before Cheng Ying could turn around to tease her, the roar of an engine sounded from nearby. A convertible off-road vehicle with an unusually high chassis practically leaped out of the tall grass and landed heavily in front of them.
All four were startled. Xie Chengcheng fell right on her butt.
There were two people in the vehicle, a man and a woman, one fat and one thin, both dressed in khaki off-road gear. If she didn’t know this was a variety show set, Cheng Ying would have thought they’d run into mercenaries staging a roadside robbery.
She sized up the vehicle, estimating it had driven at least twenty kilometers. Its army-green exterior was scuffed to a dirt-yellow color.
The thin woman jumped down from the vehicle, pulled off her goggles to reveal a pair of round, smiling eyes, and scanned the astonished group.
“Hello, everyone. I’m Zhang Zeyun. I’m here to take you to the filming location.”
It might have been Cheng Ying’s imagination, but she felt the way this woman looked at her was a bit strange.
But she wasn’t afraid and was the first to respond. She pointed at the dusty vehicle. “We’re riding in that?”
Zhang Zeyun smiled like a fox in the henhouse. “Yes, this is the only ground transportation available here. Everyone will have to make do. It’ll be fine once we get to the farm.”
The convertible wasn’t very spacious. With Zhang Zeyun and the driver in the front, the four of them had to squeeze into the back. Fortunately, they were all slim, so it wasn’t too crowded.
The driver started the engine. Cheng Ying felt an unsettling vibration from the beast beneath her. In front, Zhang Zeyun turned around, revealing a smile even more wicked than before. “Everyone, remember to hold on tight to the handrails and fasten your seatbelts. Be careful not to get thrown out.”
The words had barely left her mouth when the vehicle shot forward, bucking like a rabbit chased by a mad dog.
Cheng Ying swallowed a curse. Her entire body was pressed firmly against the seat. She was now one hundred percent certain that Zhang Zeyun was up to no good where she was concerned.
“Ahhhhh!” Accompanied by Xie Chengcheng’s frantic screams, the other three, forced to keep their lips tightly sealed against the wind, hurtled toward the filming location.
“Ah, my dress!” As the vehicle sped along, Li Wan failed to hold down the hem of her dress. The flimsy layer of gauze was blown up by the wind and caught on a screw on the front of the off-road vehicle. Seeing it was about to tear, Li Wan frantically reached for it but couldn’t get it. She subconsciously moved to unbuckle her seatbelt.
“Stop!” Cheng Ying and Zhang Zeyun shouted at the same time, but it was too late.
With a sharp click, Jiang Hanguang, who had been strapped to her seat, felt her waist go loose. A powerful jolt sent her flying out.
Li Wan had pressed the wrong seatbelt release.
Jiang Hanguang didn’t even have time to scream before she saw the sturdy iron railing of the off-road vehicle right in front of her.
She instinctively covered her face with her hands and closed her eyes.
Suddenly, a powerful force wrapped around her waist, turning her forward momentum into a backward one. Jiang Hanguang felt a wave of dizziness as she fell into a firm, warm embrace.
She opened her eyes and saw only Cheng Ying’s tense profile.
The wind howled in her ears, and her heart pounded erratically. The Alpha held her tightly in her arms, her grip firm and unyielding, seemingly even sturdier than a seatbelt.
“Stop the car!” Zhang Zeyun’s voice rang out.
Cheng Ying’s arm, wrapped around the woman’s pliant waist, was trembling slightly. Her expression was grim.
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