How absurd!
Lin Yi stared, dumbfounded, at Xu Shuyan through the glass, as if watching a vividly colored silent film. Xu Shuyan was the sole protagonist, her every move captivating Lin Yi’s gaze.
Fair skin, curves, slenderness, flatness, pertness.
All sorts of adjectives flashed through Lin Yi’s mind. She was frozen in place as if under a spell, dazedly tracing Xu Shuyan’s silhouette with her eyes. Only belatedly did she realize that Xu Shuyan hadn’t noticed anyone watching her.
Was it a one-way mirror?
Even more absurd!
Lin Yi’s stiff expression cracked slightly. What kind of indecent hotel did the production team book? she thought. Yesterday it was a room of roses, and tonight it’s a titillating peep show?
Look away!
She ordered herself internally, but the command from her brain couldn’t reach her senses. She couldn’t stop herself from watching. She watched with a pounding heart, her ears and face burning.
Xu Shuyan’s figure is really good, she thought.
When Xu Shuyan’s back was to her, the water from the showerhead fell on her slender, beautiful spine, kissing her shoulder blades and tracing alluring lines as she bent over.
When she faced her, everything was completely exposed to her gaze. She tilted her head back to catch the stream of water. Below her long, slender neck, her perfect right-angled shoulders and long, delicate collarbones held a pool of water that dripped down along gently swaying curves to the floor.
But what contrasted with all this sensuality was Xu Shuyan’s face—indifferent, calm, devoid of any extra emotion.
Lin Yi uncontrollably recalled a film she had once seen. The protagonist was a cold-faced beauty, and while watching, Lin Yi had hoped the beauty would lose her composure, preferably to the point of tears, her reddened eyes glaring at her tormentor, yet still succumbing to desire, able to turn her curses into nothing but moans.
If it were Xu Shuyan-
“Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!” Her constantly vibrating phone pulled her back from her thoughts and broke the spell on her body. Lin Yi snapped back to her senses and frantically searched for her phone as if grabbing a lifeline, only to realize after a long moment that it was already in her hand.
It was a call from Fang Yi.
Her heart was pounding. She fumbled to answer the call and walked to the window. For the first thirty seconds, she didn’t hear a word Fang Yi said, until Fang Yi called her name impatiently, “Lin Yi? Lin Yi? Are you listening? Is the signal bad?”
Lin Yi blinked hard, opened her mouth, and said in a slightly hoarse voice, “…I’m listening.”
Fang Yi didn’t think much of it, assuming Lin Yi just had a bad signal. After confirming she could be heard, she said, “I heard you ran into Shen Yujia today?”
Lin Yi let out a sound of acknowledgment. “Yes.”
To her currently sluggish brain, meeting Shen Yujia felt like something that had happened in a past life. She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying her best to ignore the patter of water from the bathroom behind her as she gradually shifted her focus to Fang Yi. “What’s up?”
Fang Yi asked, “Are you close with her?”
Lin Yi pressed her forehead against the cool windowpane, thought for a moment, and said, “Yes and no. Is there something you need her for?”
“You know that singing competition the Almond Entertainment app is hosting? Our company wants to send someone to compete, but it clashes with your schedule. We don’t have any other standout vocalists,” Fang Yi said. “Since you know Shen Yujia, why don’t you ask her? If she went, she’d definitely be a favorite to win!”
Lin Yi sighed. “I’d love for her to go, but she’s not interested in the entertainment industry. She probably wouldn’t agree.”
Fang Yi didn’t give up. “Just try. Pitch it to her. What if?”
“Alright,” Lin Yi said.
She heard the sound of the water, which had been mixed with the TV’s audio, stop. Her heart skipped a beat. She pressed her lips together and asked, “Is there anything else? If not, I’m going to hang up.”
-If Xu Shuyan found out the bathroom had a one-way mirror, her days were probably numbered.
“Is Yanyan rushing you to bed?” Fang Yi teased. “I saw the video someone took of you two. Looks like you’re having a lot of fun. Don’t forget to memorize your lines!”
Lin Yi laughed. “I know.”
After saying that, she suddenly didn’t want to hang up. If she got off the phone, where would she look? she thought. Continue admiring her rival’s body or watch TV? Could she resist sneaking glances? So she kept Fang Yi on the line, chatting about this and that, until the bathroom door opened.
Wet slippers padded on the floor. Lin Yi’s heart leaped. Just then, Fang Yi said she was busy and hung up, leaving only the sound of the TV in the room.
Lin Yi was still feeling guilty and didn’t dare turn around. Instead, she pushed open the window and looked up at the sky.
The town wasn’t very lively; it was already pitch-black at just ten o’clock. Xu Shuyan, drying her hair, glanced outside curiously and asked, “It’s pitch-black out there. What are you looking at?”
I just finished looking you all over and now I’m chanting a calming mantra, Lin Yi thought. But what she said aloud was profound: “If there’s a moon outside, I’ll look at the moon. If there are stars, I’ll look at the stars.”
Xu Shuyan found this even stranger. “All I see is darkness.”
Lin Yi said in a deep voice, “Then I’ll look at the darkness.”
Xu Shuyan’s face darkened. “…You just don’t want to look at me, is that it?”
You’ve wronged me! Lin Yi thought. It’s not that I don’t want to look, it’s that I don’t dare! With my acting skills, I’d give myself away in two sentences!
Lin Yi drew circles on the fogged-up windowpane and suggested in a small voice, “Xu Shuyan, it’s pretty stuffy in this room. Why don’t you go out for a walk?”
Xu Shuyan froze for a second, then frowned. “How much do you hate me, Lin Yi? Are you trying to get me killed? It’s so dark out there. If I go for a walk, will I even make it back?”
“That’s not what I meant!” Lin Yi said anxiously. She waved her hands and turned around, her gaze flickering away as she met Xu Shuyan’s eyes. Her explanation came out in a stutter. “I mean, do you want to visit another room? Go see Shichen and Yuanyuan. The production team loves it when we visit each other’s rooms-”
Before she could finish, she was interrupted by the doorbell.
Xu Shuyan glanced over. “Who is it?” she said, walking to the door. Zhou Shichen’s voice came from outside. “Xiao Yi! Yanyan! It’s me and Yan Qi, open up!”
Xu Shuyan opened the door. Sure enough, Yan Qi and Zhou Shichen were standing outside without a camera crew, likely just visiting. She stepped aside to let them in and asked, “Where’s Yuanyuan?”
“She’s taking a shower,” Zhou Shichen complained. “The design of this hotel is just too ridiculous. So improper!”
Xu Shuyan was completely confused. “What’s improper?”
“What’s improper?” The moment Zhou Shichen and Yan Qi came in, alarm bells started ringing in Lin Yi’s head. Hearing Zhou Shichen’s words, she knew their room’s bathroom also had a one-way mirror. She interrupted her frantically, “The hotels around here are all like this! Like yesterday’s rose garden! So improper!”
Zhou Shichen was successfully distracted. “You slept in a rose garden yesterday? What kind of roses? Tell me everything!”
“It was just a king-sized bed covered in rose petals.” Xu Shuyan took some hair oil from her suitcase and applied it. “Anyone who knew would say it’s a hotel, but anyone who didn’t would think it was a wedding night.”
Zhou Shichen clutched her chest. “Wedding night… wedding night… wedding night…”
Lin Yi breathed a sigh of relief. This shipping machine is so easy to fool, she thought. Just feed her a little sugar and she loses all sense of direction. Thank heavens. Please don’t bring up-
“Still, that’s more normal than the bathroom having a one-way mirror,” Yan Qi said.
Lin Yi: “!!!”
Damn it! I forgot there was someone here who isn’t a shipping machine!
Xu Shuyan froze again. “What one-way mirror?”
Lin Yi closed her eyes in despair.
“The bathrooms in our hotel rooms.” Zhou Shichen gestured as she spoke. “Wow, the design of this hotel is so sneaky. The glass for the sink and toilet area is frosted, but the part of the shower facing the room is a one-way mirror. You can watch the person showering from the bed. Tsk, tsk, tsk, what do they take us for!”
Zhou Shichen’s condemnation was filled with righteous indignation, and she completely failed to notice the gradual change in Xu Shuyan’s expression.
Finally, she let out a sound of surprise. “Yanyan, you’ve already showered?” As if realizing something, she looked at Xu Shuyan, then at Lin Yi. She suddenly grabbed Yan Qi’s hand, which Yan Qi calmly pulled away. Only then did she cover her mouth. “You two! You didn’t even… avoid each other?!”
Lin Yi explained, “No, we didn’t know!”
“You didn’t know?” Yan Qi seized on the key point. “So you showered?”
Lin Yi was shocked by her assumption and retorted, “How is that possible! What I mean is,” she looked at Xu Shuyan, whose expression had long since soured but who couldn’t do anything with others present, and quickly explained, “I was on the phone with Sister Fang the whole time Yanyan was showering. She only came out after I hung up. I didn’t see anything!”
Xu Shuyan’s expression finally softened a little, but she was still suspicious. “You really didn’t see anything?”
Zhou Shichen, standing with her, also questioned her, “You really didn’t see anything?”
Lin Yi: “…”
Sis, there’s a hint of disappointment in your tone!
“I really didn’t see anything!” Lin Yi’s gaze was firm. She mentally recited something about an actor’s conviction, radiating an aura of righteousness. Then she played the victim. “You’re suspecting me without any evidence. I feel so wronged!”
Seeing this, Zhou Shichen tried to coax her. “Aiya, it’s not a big deal even if you did see something, right, Yanyan? People in the north bathe together in public bathhouses! We should all bathe together sometime!”
Lin Yi hugged Zhou Shichen and agreed. “Okay, okay.”
She snuck a glance at Xu Shuyan, only to see her tying her long hair up with a hair tie and wordlessly going to put on a face mask. Lin Yi leaned on Zhou Shichen’s shoulder, her heart still pounding.
…Her lying skills were truly terrible. She could fool Zhou Shichen, but not Xu Shuyan, who knew her too well.
I’m so screwed. Will I live to see tomorrow’s sun?
As the saying goes, death isn’t scary; waiting for death is. The three in the next room took turns showering, which took nearly two hours. During this time, Xu Shuyan would occasionally narrow her eyes and stare at Lin Yi for three or four minutes at a time, making Lin Yi break out in a cold sweat, wishing she could just jump out the window on the spot.
It got to the point where even Zhou Shichen couldn’t take it anymore. “Yanyan, even if you like Xiao Yi, you don’t have to stare at her like that. It’s not like I’m going to run off with her!”
Xu Shuyan: Smile.jpg
Lin Yi: Haha!
After finally seeing the three from the next room off, Lin Yi closed the door and felt a sense of relief, as if she were finally about to die. She turned around and, before Xu Shuyan could speak, confessed, “That’s right, I saw.”
Xu Shuyan: “?”
She was so taken aback by Lin Yi’s brazenness that she laughed. “You saw?”
Lin Yi squeezed her eyes shut, clenched her teeth, and actually managed to sound tough. “Big deal, I’ll just let you look back at me! What’s the big deal!”
Xu Shuyan picked up the remote and turned off the TV, scoffing, “Who wants to look at you?”
The room fell silent. Lin Yi cautiously shuffled into the room, her footsteps soft. She hesitated for a moment, then added, “Actually, I only glanced. I didn’t look closely at all!”
As if Xu Shuyan would believe her. “You swear?”
Lin Yi held up three fingers. “I swear! If I looked, then I’ll-” Her eyes darted around. “Then I’ll never get a seasoning packet in my instant noodles again!”
This is my chance to quit instant noodles! she thought.
“What kind of harmlessly severe oath is that?” Xu Shuyan couldn’t be bothered with her. She flopped onto the bed, crossed her legs, and gestured with her chin. “Go take a shower. I’ll watch you to get even.”
Lin Yi: “!!!”
She pouted, knelt on the bed in front of Xu Shuyan, and said pitifully, “Do you have to be so vengeful? You looking at me, me looking at you… what a bad influence that would be!”
Xu Shuyan rarely had the chance to see Lin Yi in a vulnerable position and couldn’t resist teasing her. “How would it be bad?”
Lin Yi said, “Are we in the kind of relationship where we can look at each other’s bodies?!”
Xu Shuyan shook her head. “No.”
“Then that settles it, right?” Lin Yi straightened up and made a gesture of invitation. “Then I’ll have to trouble Miss Xu to step out for a little while when I shower. Please~~~”
Xu Shuyan hadn’t really intended to watch Lin Yi shower; she just didn’t want to let her off the hook so easily. But seeing her so humble and submissive, her heart softened. She got off the bed. “Alright, alright. I’ll go out, okay?”
Lin Yi was overjoyed. “Xu Shuyan! You’re such a good person!”
Xu Shuyan put on her Bluetooth earbuds and said coolly, “Then can you let me have Yuanyuan?”
Lin Yi: “Don’t even think about it!”
Xu Shuyan: “…”
She suddenly reached out and pinched Lin Yi’s cheek, patting it before Lin Yi could react. “Lin Yi, you should really be grateful I’m so nice. Anyone else definitely wouldn’t have let you get away with this.”
What nonsense, Lin Yi thought. Straight girls flirt with each other all the time with no concept of personal space. Not like me, who’s as bent as a mosquito coil. Just looking at my love rival’s body for an extra second feels like a sin… Crap, I’m thinking about it again!
The pad of Xu Shuyan’s finger was still pressed against her cheek, its coolness a stark contrast to the heat of her face. She heard Xu Shuyan ask, “Why is your face red?”
Lin Yi looked up. Her makeup was still on, and her delicate eyelashes fluttered like a butterfly’s wings. After blinking twice, she couldn’t resist the impulse and blurted out, “Your figure really is great.”
The moment the words were out, she realized her mistake. She squeezed her eyes shut, pushed her face forward a little more, and said in a trembling voice, “Be gentle…”
Xu Shuyan: “…”
She gave Lin Yi a push onto the bed. Her peripheral vision caught a fleeting glimpse of skin as her skirt flipped up, and she quickly looked away. “I’m going out. Call me when you’re done.”
The window at the end of the hallway was open, and the wind howled as it blew in. The fierce drumbeat in her earbuds vibrated against her eardrums, flowing with her blood back into a certain place in her chest. The vibration intensified in that moment, suppressed only to leap up again. Not behaving.
Xu Shuyan thought, but couldn’t be bothered to deal with it. She glanced at the room number next door, figuring they should all be asleep by now. Even if they weren’t, she didn’t want to see Chen Yuan like this. After a moment’s thought, she headed downstairs.
The stairwell echoed with the clatter of her footsteps, which occasionally triggered the voice-activated lights.
This was the best-equipped hotel in town, and even at this hour, there were people checking in at the lobby. Afraid of being recognized, Xu Shuyan pulled up the hood of her jacket and tilted her head up to read the notice for out-of-town guests on the wall.
She scanned ten lines at a glance but didn’t register a single word.
Just as she was wondering whether to send Lin Yi a WeChat message to ask how long she’d be, she pulled up the chat window and remembered she was still on Lin Yi’s blocklist. A wave of annoyance washed over her.
Blocked her, but added a stranger.
Lin Yi was truly a great business partner!
Xu Shuyan shoved her phone back into her pocket and looked down at her shoes, scuffing the tips against the marble floor. In that quiet moment, a tangle of complex emotions grew wild like weeds, threatening to burst through the soil at any moment.
…I can’t.
Xu Shuyan abruptly stood up straight and walked toward the entrance. But just then, the hotel door was suddenly pushed open from the outside. Both she and the newcomer were caught off guard and collided.
Xu Shuyan subconsciously took a step back. When she saw who it was, her voice rose slightly. “Yuanyuan?”
Chen Yuan was also wearing a down jacket. The long, black ones the production team had given them were too big for her small frame, making her look like she was wearing an adult’s clothes. Only one hand was visible, holding a phone with the screen lit up, still on a call.
“Yanyan?” Chen Yuan hurriedly ended the call, put her phone back in her pocket, and smiled at Xu Shuyan. “What are you doing here?”
But even the best acting couldn’t hide the trace of panic in her eyes.
Xu Shuyan frowned. She felt something was off but couldn’t put her finger on it. “Oh,” she said. “Xiao Yi is showering, so I came out for some air.”
“I thought you two were so close you wouldn’t care about things like that,” Chen Yuan teased.
Xu Shuyan said helplessly, “Yuanyuan!”
Chen Yuan’s eyes curved into a sweet and gentle smile, the kind that Xu Shuyan and Lin Yi loved most. She remembered a “god-tier” photo of Chen Yuan from a performance where she was smiling just like that. She and Lin Yi had saved dozens of pictures of it from different angles.
Lin Yi-
Xu Shuyan shook her head. This is so weird, she thought. Why am I thinking about Lin Yi now? She composed herself and suddenly remembered something. “By the way, in the car today, before we ran into Shen Yujia, you said you had something to tell us. What was it?”
Chen Yuan looked surprised for a moment, then smiled and said, “I forgot. It probably wasn’t anything important.”
Xu Shuyan gave her a deep look. “If there’s anything you need my… our help with, you can just say it. We’re a group, after all. We should advance and retreat together.”
Chen Yuan said softly, “I know.”
The journey continued.
However, because their itinerary had been exposed, more and more fans began to gather, follow their car, and point their cameras at them from near and far in places the production team couldn’t control. The rest of the trip inevitably lost some of its relaxed and free atmosphere.
What upset Lin Yi the most was having her driving privileges revoked. Zhou Shichen declared righteously, “You drove long enough yesterday. Look at our Yanyan, she hasn’t had a single turn yet. Have you considered her feelings?”
Xu Shuyan chimed in, “Exactly!”
Lin Yi was indignant. She struggled. “But I want to sit in the passenger seat!”
Zhou Shichen thought about it. Xu Shuyan driving, Lin Yi in the passenger seat. They’d be close enough to interact easily, which would make it more convenient for her to ship them from the back seat. So, with a grand wave of her hand, she said, “Approved!”
Lin Yi cheered and threw her arms around Xu Shuyan’s shoulders. “Take me for a ride in your passenger seat!”
With the cameras rolling, it was standard business hours. Xu Shuyan naturally didn’t push her away. Instead, she wrapped an arm around her waist and led her toward the car. “I drive very fast. You’d better be ready.”
As she spoke, she gave Lin Yi’s waist a squeeze.
Lin Yi was ticklish and flinched away, muttering under her breath, “Stop taking advantage of me, Xu Shuyan!”
Xu Shuyan glanced at the camera following them closely. Annoyed by Lin Yi’s accusation, she leaned in close to her ear. “Who was taking advantage of whom last night?”
Lin Yi: “…”
Got it. Xu Shuyan was going to be bringing this up until this time next year.
She stomped her foot resentfully and guided Xu Shuyan’s hand to her own waist. “Here, take advantage, take it all back, happy now?” Then, in a transparent attempt to cover it up, she tried to block the camera. “You’re not allowed to air this part.”
She said it with a laugh, as if signaling to the post-production team: You have to air this part, otherwise all this fan service will be for nothing.
Xu Shuyan was a very steady driver. She had been a slow learner, but she had learned thoroughly. She didn’t speed or pass recklessly, driving at a calm and steady pace even on such a wide, flat road.
They followed the highway to Dunhuang, where they visited the Mogao Caves and toured Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Lake before finally resting for the night.
The hotel that night was finally a bit more normal, but due to “insufficient funds,” they were only given one standard room. They pushed the two beds together, laid a spare comforter on the carpet, and played rock-paper-scissors to decide who would sleep on the floor.
“I want to sleep on the floor!” Lin Yi sat on the makeshift bed on the floor, hugging a comforter with her chin resting on the main bed, her puppy-dog eyes sparkling. “Yuanyuan, you’re a light sleeper and you have trouble with unfamiliar beds. You should sleep on the bed!”
“Mm,” Yan Qi said. “Yuanyuan will sleep on the bed. Shichen hasn’t been feeling well these past two days, so she’ll sleep on the bed too. That leaves me, Xiao Yi, and Yanyan to sleep on the floor.”
Lin Yi tugged on the hem of Xu Shuyan’s skirt. “Hurry up and get down here. What are you still doing on the bed?”
Xu Shuyan, who had been hoping to use this as an opportunity to sleep on the bed with Chen Yuan: “…”
She shot Lin Yi a glare, pulled the hem of her skirt from Lin Yi’s grasp, and a cunning smile flashed in her eyes. Lin Yi saw it and felt a shiver of fear, backing away. “What are you doing- ahhh-”
Before she could finish, Xu Shuyan tackled her onto the floor bed. They rolled over once, ending up in an embrace.
The other three members of the Gu Group: Ewww~~~
Yan Qi threw the comforter over them. “Could you please be mindful of your image?”
Zhou Shichen leaned down to look. “More of this, please. I love to see it.”
Chen Yuan patted her pillow and gently reminded them, “I’m a light sleeper, so keep it down tonight, okay?”
Covered by the comforter and pressed close together, Xu Shuyan and Lin Yi looked at each other, then simultaneously let go, turned their backs to one another, and said in unison, “Going to sleep. Good night!”
Zhou Shichen: “Such chemistry! I’m dying from shipping this!”
They went to bed early to see the sunrise. Although the sun rose late here, it still took time to find a good viewing spot. They rushed to the location the production team had scouted for them and sat down, each in their own chair.
The mountain range had not yet awakened, hidden in the dim light. Occasionally, a few birds flew past, disappearing into the deeper parts of the forest.
After a moment, a faint light appeared between the mountains, growing larger bit by bit. Amid gasps of amazement, as if waking a slumbering world, the bright red sun rose from the horizon. The morning light was brilliant, a pure red that wasn’t harsh on the eyes.
“It’s so beautiful.” Lin Yi wrapped her down jacket tighter around herself. She suddenly shouted, “Since we’re watching the sunrise, why don’t we make a wish!”
“Okay!” Zhou Shichen stood up and shouted toward the endless mountains and the rising sun, “I wish that we, The Notes, can be together forever!”
“I wish-” Yan Qi also shouted, “that we can hold many, many concerts, sing the songs we love, and dance the dances we love!”
“What about you?” Lin Yi asked Chen Yuan, who was on her right. “Yuanyuan, what’s your wish?”
Chen Yuan rested her chin in her hand and thought for a moment, then cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone. “I wish! That everyone in The Notes, and all of our fans, can be happy every day!”
“Then I also wish that everyone can be happy every day!”
“Me too!” Xu Shuyan, on her left, shouted along. “Happy every day!”
Lin Yi looked over and retorted, “Are you copying?”
Xu Shuyan didn’t look at her, humming softly, “Even if I am, I’m copying Yuanyuan. It’s not your place to claim copyright infringement.”
Lin Yi huffed and ignored her.
Xu Shuyan smiled as she watched the still-rising sun. The sun that carried their wishes, no matter what happened, had risen, set, and risen again as usual every day for the past four and a half billion years.
Suddenly, a soft singing voice arose beside her-clear and pleasant, a voice kissed by the heavens, singing the gentlest of songs.
“Dear traveler
No road is without wind and waves
There will be loneliness, there will be sorrow
And there will also be endless hope…”
Xu Shuyan listened for a while, then turned to look at Lin Yi.
Lin Yi was looking at Chen Yuan, her gaze as gentle as a pool of water. Chen Yuan was taking pictures of the sunrise with her phone. In the gradually brightening sunlight, everything became clear.
The singing grew softer, ethereal and filled with a sorrowful hope.
As the song neared its end, Lin Yi turned her head.
As if trying to hide something obvious, Xu Shuyan hastily averted her gaze. Her slow heartbeat now resonated in time with the wind. After a long moment, she pulled her down jacket tighter and looked toward the rising sun.
She suddenly remembered a poem she had once read in a newspaper.
You come to this world for a visit, you have to see the sun.
And with your beloved, walk together on the street.
Understand her.
And also understand the sun.
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