Chapter 45 p2
The on-site producer gave the signal to “start recording,” and the process began from off-camera.
After the self-introductions, they got down to business, starting with the items in their bags. They took turns, beginning with Xu Ling.
Xu Ling’s bag was a bit large. She first took out insect repellent and anti-itch cream. “When we were filming in a more remote location, these two were a huge help. We’re both quite prone to getting bitten. At the end of the day, we’d have so many bites. We relied entirely on these.”
Qin Cong’an also nodded, her tone soft. “Xu Ling is very nice. She prepared these in advance and would even help me apply the cream. She helped me with some of the hard-to-reach places.”
Xu Ling thought to herself, what kind of outrageous things is she saying now? What hard-to-reach places could a mosquito bite?
She would just assume she was talking about her back. After all, the tank tops she often wore for filming did expose a large part of her back. But in her memory, she had never applied cream to her back, only to her arms and ankles, places she could have reached herself.
“Don’t space out. What are you thinking about?” Qin Cong’an patted her arm, reminding her that they were still recording.
Xu Ling was really scared, but she also understood. Qin Cong’an was just being proactive with the fan service. On and off camera, she was like two different people. One second she was bluntly saying she didn’t like the scent on her, the next she was taking the initiative to get close. But even then, it wasn’t very close. It was just like last time, just a touch on her arm.
Qin Cong’an retracted her hand and took out a glass jar of pudding from her own bag.
Xu Ling had a look of confusion. “What did you bring that for?”
“I brought it for you.” Qin Cong’an opened the lid, took out a small spoon, and held it out to her. “Guess who made it?”
Xu Ling had a subtle premonition. “…It couldn’t be you, right?”
Qin Cong’an looked at her and nodded, a sweet smile on her face like a young girl in love.
Xu Ling shivered. Was she crazy? Why had she started making pudding? And she had brought it to a “what’s in my bag” show to give to her?
This should have been a very sweet thing, but looking at her expression, Xu Ling even suspected that she had poisoned it.
“You’re not going to eat it? Don’t you like sweets?” Qin Cong’an’s tone was disappointed.
“I’ll eat, I’ll eat.” Xu Ling felt that if she didn’t eat it, Qin Cong’an might pull out a hammer and hit her with it in the next second.
Just as Xu Ling scooped up a spoonful and put it in her mouth, before she had even taken the spoon out, she saw Qin Cong’an open her mouth and say, “Ah.”
Xu Ling almost couldn’t swallow. It was supposed to have a smooth and tender texture, but she felt like she was eating dry, choking yogurt.
“Ah—”
Steeling herself, Xu Ling used the same spoon to scoop up some pudding and held it to Qin Cong’an’s lips. She ate it in one bite.
Qin Cong’an licked her lips and asked her, “Is it good?”
“Mhm, mhm.” Xu Ling hadn’t tasted anything at all and didn’t dare to look at her, just wanting to quickly put the thing in her hand aside.
Qin Cong’an propped her elbow on the table, her hand supporting her face as she watched the flustered person. She watched her put the pudding on the corner of the table and take out the next item to introduce from her bag.
Under this deadly gaze, Xu Ling introduced her perfume. “This is a new one I bought. The top notes are citrus and grapefruit, the middle notes have jasmine, and the base notes are a bit earthy. I think it smells particularly good, very suitable for summer. Do you want to try it?”
“Okay.” Qin Cong’an held out her wrist.
Xu Ling gritted her teeth, first grabbing her hand before spraying it twice on her wrist, a completely unnecessary action. But it was fan service, nothing to be ashamed of.
Qin Cong’an hadn’t expected her to do that, but her expression didn’t change. She just held her hand back, even pulling it over to smell it under her nose, then let go of Xu Ling’s hand and smelled her own.
“It smells good. I like it too,” Qin Cong’an said after savoring it for a long while.
“Didn’t you just say you didn’t like it?” Xu Ling deliberately challenged her, trying to expose her.
“When did I say that?” Qin Cong’an’s expression didn’t change, just asking with some confusion. She even took Xu Ling’s hand again and took a deep sniff. “I like it. You either misheard or misunderstood.”
Xu Ling hastily pulled her hand back. She really couldn’t outplay her.
The next thing Qin Cong’an took out was a toast-shaped squishy toy. “Oh, this is for stress relief. I’ve been under a lot of pressure recently. It’s a bit squished. Sorry, it’s a little messy.”
“…” Xu Ling was silent. Why was she under pressure? And why was it in the shape of a bread? Why did she suddenly feel a little pain in her body?
“Your turn.”
Xu Ling rummaged through her bag and took out a powder compact. It was an ordinary but very useful compact. What could Qin Cong’an do with this?
After listening to her introduction, Qin Cong’an took it, opened it to look in the mirror, and didn’t do anything, but it seemed she just had to touch it.
Xu Ling clearly had more things. At this point, she gave up on the turn-based system and just took out all her makeup at once.
Qin Cong’an was like a child who had never seen these strange things before, picking them up one by one to look at.
Seeing her twist open her lip gloss, Xu Ling was really afraid she would apply it to her own lips in the next second. But fortunately, she just opened it to take a look, although she didn’t understand why at all.
Qin Cong’an didn’t have many things in her bag. Besides the pudding and the squishy toy, there were just the usual sunglasses from her endorsed brand, lipstick from her endorsed brand, tissues, and a black old-fashioned phone.
When Xu Ling saw the old-fashioned phone, she was so surprised she couldn’t believe it. “Where’s your phone?”
“I’m in the process of cutting out some useless information,” Qin Cong’an said, her expression desireless, her voice even a little ethereal.
“When did you start?”
“I don’t remember. I don’t remember unimportant things.”
“…” Strange. Xu Ling really couldn’t understand. She silently took out her own phone. Her phone case had the Sanrio family on it, black, yellow, pink, and blue. Placed next to the old-fashioned phone, they looked like they were from two different generations.
At this point, the producer asked, “Can we see your phone wallpapers?”
Qin Cong’an’s phone wallpaper was just the system default. Xu Ling lit up her phone. It was a picture of various shades of green, with a small stream in the middle.
This was the last scene in the movie, where Jian Yu and Wen Xi climb a high place together. Although there were no characters in the photo used for the wallpaper, it was impossible for Qin Cong’an not to recognize it.
Xu Ling thought Qin Cong’an would say something, but at this moment, she was silent, leaving Xu Ling to explain the origin of the wallpaper alone.
Finally, the two of them each took out some merchandise from the crew from their bags, a thermos and an umbrella, both printed with some details from the movie, such as the wildflowers they had picked and brought home, or the sunset they had watched together. With this, they finished promoting the movie and ended the recording.
After the shoot, they had to take a set of photos, both individual and group.
Qin Cong’an requested to go first. After finishing, she left at the speed of light. Xu Ling couldn’t catch her at all. But it was fine. Anyway, on Thursday, she would be coming to her house.
After finishing work for the day, Xu Ling sat in a chair backstage, swaying back and forth, holding the pudding Qin Cong’an had given her. She was skeptical about whether she had really made it herself. Did she have that much free time? She didn’t eat it herself, but just made it for her?
Even Li Yan, who had made desserts for her because she liked her, also loved to eat them herself. But Qin Cong’an rarely touched such sweets.
So what did Qin Cong’an mean? Did she like her?
Xu Ling wasn’t sure. She was more inclined to believe this was one of the three great illusions of life.
When she got to the bottom, Xu Ling finally tasted it. It turned out it wasn’t that her sense of taste had been lost from being scared by Qin Cong’an, but because this thing… really didn’t have much taste.
Xu Ling was now convinced that Qin Cong’an had made it herself. Qin Cong’an probably thought it was already very sweet, but to her, it was very bland… So, no, huh? Did Qin Cong’an really make pudding for her?
Oh, right. Qin Cong’an had switched her phone to an old-fashioned one. If she wasn’t on her phone, then a person would indeed have a lot of free time. So that’s why she had the time to study making desserts, and even learn to dance!
Xu Ling had packed half of her things and moved into the new home the company had arranged for her. Her parents were very reluctant to see her go.
The new home was in a high-end residential complex in the central district, but at the same time, it wasn’t too far from the airport. It was indeed much more convenient.
Yi Huai had been very thoughtful and had had it decorated very well. It was in a style that Xu Ling liked, bright and transparent, and the furniture was mostly in warm colors, looking very warm. The size was also suitable, very spacious and comfortable for one person to live in.
On the day of the gathering, Thursday, Xu Ling was lying on the sofa, watching the “what’s in my bag” video that had just been released at 12 noon.
Watching Qin Cong’an from the camera’s perspective was even more terrifying. She had actually been facing her almost the entire time, her gaze sometimes on her eyes, sometimes on her lips, and sometimes even on her collarbones.
Honestly, Xu Ling felt that Qin Cong’an’s fan service was too obvious, to the point of looking fake. The CP fans would definitely not buy it.
But after watching the video, Xu Ling clicked on the comment section. The top comments were all CP fans screaming, “I’m shipping this to death, I’m shipping this to death.” Okay, the CP fans would definitely buy it. They probably wished they would just make out in front of the camera.
[Your An’s proactiveness has gone up another level. Let me analyze this carefully. Could it be that Xuxu this blockhead didn’t understand An’s meaning the past few times, so An became more proactive?]
[She even made pudding for her, kswl. Old fans all know that An doesn’t eat sweets, let alone make them. Unheard of.]
[And she even wanted her wife to feed her, using the same spoon, aahhh, what a love-crazed person.]
A question mark appeared above Xu Ling’s head. She was a blockhead? Shipping a CP was one thing, but why insult people! And what was with “Xuxu”? When did that nickname come about!
There were still some sober people:
[It’s too obvious. I can’t ship it. And looking at Xu, she didn’t even know when Qin had changed her phone. You can tell they have no contact in private.]
[Exactly. I feel like the only time An An was herself in the whole video was when she said she was cutting out useless information. She looks so tired. My heart aches for her.]
Xu Ling thought these two people were right. One was a fact, and the other said Qin Cong’an was very tired. When she watched it again, she also found that Qin Cong’an did seem very tired.
What was the useless information she was talking about? How did it get to the point where she needed to cut it out?
Xu Ling suddenly felt tired too. She continued to refresh the comments and saw a highly-liked one.
[An fans all know that she doesn’t get bitten by mosquitoes easily. Many actors who have worked with her before have said they envy her for this. So why did Ling say, “we both get bitten easily”? There’s only one truth—An got bitten because she was sticking close to Ling! This is absolute proof!]
Xu Ling really didn’t know that Qin Cong’an didn’t get bitten by mosquitoes easily. She had seen a lot of Qin Cong’an’s materials, but she hadn’t seen interviews with her other co-stars and hadn’t heard this.
So when she saw this analysis, and it had even reached the correct conclusion, Xu Ling was so scared that her hand slipped and she liked the comment.
