Her words drifted through the early morning guest room air, and Shen Wenyi suddenly lifted her eyes, staring at her in disbelief.
“You… say that again?”
She complied readily. “I said, record a short selfie video and send it to me. If you dare block me, I’ll expose it immediately. Do you dare?”
Shen Wenyi’s amber eyes reflected the lamplight. Even the starlight shimmering in their depths couldn’t stop her lashes from trembling with shock.
A few seconds later, something seemed to occur to Shen Wenyi. She suddenly let out a breath, and even laughed at herself.
“What do you want me to record?”
“I, Shen Wenyi, if I ever block Jiang Shiyang again, I’m a pig!”
The self-deprecating smile on Shen Wenyi’s face deepened. She murmured quietly, “I knew it,” and then suddenly looked up at her with hatred. But it vanished in an instant, replaced by her usual unruffled calm.
Shen Wenyi said, “You already are a pig.”
She replied, “Hm?”
Shen Wenyi said, “Didn’t you just say it yourself? You’re a pig.”
She was speechless. “How old are we, still playing such lame jokes?”
Shen Wenyi said, “Exactly. How old are we, and you’re making me film a childish video like this?”
“Otherwise? What kind of video do you think I should make you film that wouldn’t be childish?”
Shen Wenyi looked away and didn’t answer.
She pursed her red lips, shifted her stance, and pressed one arm against the wall behind Shen Wenyi.
She added, “No matter how childish I am, I’m not worse than you. Dare you say you didn’t try it last night?”
Shen Wenyi said, “Try what?”
She leaned forward slightly, bringing her gaze level with Shen Wenyi’s. Suddenly she flashed a grin and tapped a finger downwards.
Shen Wenyi understood instantly. Her face showed no sign of panic—her composure was decent—but she subconsciously clenched her hands again.
This was a habit Shen Wenyi had since childhood. She had noticed it long ago: whenever Shen Wenyi got nervous, she clenched her fists.
Shen Wenyi smiled at her. The more carefree the smile, the tighter the fists.
“Yes, I threw the cup away, but it wasn’t because—”
She cut in immediately. “It wasn’t because you tried it and threw it. It was because I touched that cup, and you thought it was dirty, so you threw it away.”
Shen Wenyi nodded with a smile. “Correct. Congratulations for getting it right.”
“But what to do? That cup already bears the mark of you holding it between your legs, and for over a minute, too.”
Shen Wenyi scoffed. “Nonsense.”
She suddenly leaned right into Shen Wenyi’s face, so close her breath sprayed clearly onto Shen Wenyi’s skin. A flicker of panic unmistakably crossed Shen Wenyi’s eyes. Though it was gone in a flash, she still caught it.
She finally understood why some people loved to bully others. This feeling… ah… how to describe it? Beyond description. A numbing, tingling softness that reached the very nerve endings.
Why hadn’t she noticed before how fun Shen Wenyi was to mess with?
When I was an object, you bullied me. Now I’m taking my revenge, paying back every grudge.
She felt completely justified.
She said, “Not only do I know, I also know you held it for 59 seconds. One second short of a minute.”
Naturally, Shen Wenyi didn’t believe her. Although Shen Wenyi really had held it for 59 seconds, the one keeping time was her; Shen Wenyi hadn’t timed it.
Shen Wenyi pushed her aside, walked to the bed, and started packing her things. As she packed, she said, “If you’re sick, get treatment quickly. Don’t delay the crew’s shoot. If it’s really too much, just drop out. If you don’t have the ability, don’t take up the spot.”
She held up her phone, absolutely tickled, and said in a heartbroken voice, “How can Teacher Shen say that? I just didn’t sleep well last night and have a bit of a headache. I was just asking if you had medicine to help. If you don’t want to lend it, fine, but why be so hurtful? I thought when Teacher Shen helped scratch my back on set yesterday, you were extending an olive branch. Turns out I was overthinking. I’m sorry. In elementary school, I really shouldn’t have stolen your sanitary pads and showed them around everywhere, but I honestly didn’t know what that thing was back then…”
Shen Wenyi turned back to look at her in utter disbelief, finally defeated by her shamelessness. She just knew it: before, she didn’t want to be shameless, which was why she always lost to Shen Wenyi. The moment she unleashed her full combat power, Shen Wenyi wasn’t enough to survive one of her moves.
Shen Wenyi was clearly numb. She sat powerlessly on the edge of the bed and looked up at her.
“You’re scheming so hard to keep me from blocking you. What exactly is it for?”
She made up a story on the spot. “The entertainment industry is a big vat of dye, isn’t that what you said? Friends in the business are all fake as hell. Where can I dare speak the truth? Although you’re fake too, at least in private we can still speak our minds. Adding you is entirely an affirmation of your character.”
Shen Wenyi said angrily, “I don’t care for your affirmation!”
She then added, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll screenshot your contact request and expose it?”
She replied, “Not afraid. Whether that kind of screenshot gets out, those who believe me will still firmly see me as a little angel who forgives and forgets grudges, and those who don’t will keep on hating. What’s the difference?”
“Besides…” She shook her phone and said with a beaming smile, “I can also use this as an explanation. Just say I added you because you scratched my back, and I wanted to mend our relationship.”
Both of them knew all too well that the back-scratching reference would hit the trending searches sooner or later.
Jiang Shiyang’s act, though obviously transparent to a clear-eyed observer, wouldn’t be seen that way by fans. Fan filters were eight feet thick. As long as she could keep the fans steady, that was enough.
Shen Wenyi sneered. “Your fans are so pitiful.”
Completely unfazed, she kept on beaming. “As Ji Gong once said, ‘Wine and meat pass through the gut, but the Buddha remains in the heart.’ My fans remain in my heart.”
Shen Wenyi closed her eyes, too tired to look at her, and pointed at the door. “Still not leaving? You really want someone to see you?”
She turned around, picked the cup out of the trash can, and went into the bathroom to wash it thoroughly. Shen Wenyi followed and watched, utterly unable to comprehend such an idiotic act.
“Are you picking that up because you think I’ll still use it?”
She rolled her eyes at Shen Wenyi and made up another story. “No good deed goes unpunished. You think my sudden casting announcement only needs one promo photo? We need all three of us to each shoot a few more. Such a great promotional opportunity. How can we just waste it?”
Shen Wenyi didn’t quite believe it. “Then why didn’t you say so last night?”
She said, “It came up last minute last night. How could I have thought it through so specifically?”
She shook the water off the cup, pulled out a tissue to wipe the droplets, and handed it to Shen Wenyi.
“Here, hold this. I’ll take the photo for you now.”
Shen Wenyi paused. “No need. I’ll have Little He take it.”
Knowing Shen Wenyi disliked her, she didn’t touch Shen Wenyi. She grabbed the cup that Shen Wenyi was holding and pushed Shen Wenyi to sit on the edge of the bed.
“Here. Hold it properly.”
She pushed the cup and tucked it between Shen Wenyi’s legs, still clad in her soft cotton lounging pants from home that she hadn’t had time to change out of. She crouched in front of Shen Wenyi and looked up with a slight smile.
She knew what her smile looked like. Fans all said her curved lashes were sweet enough to kill, completely different from her dashing, cool look when she wasn’t smiling. They said she was a true Best Actress who could be salty or sweet.
She herself didn’t think so at all, and she figured Shen Wenyi didn’t either.
Shen Wenyi looked down at her, her crystalline eyes reflecting her figure, throbbing strangely, as if for a moment they lost focus.
She figured she must have seen wrong.
Shen Wenyi said, “You look just as silly as you did in high school.”
She: “……”
Tch.
Calling me names?
Right to my face, no less. Do you mind checking who has the upper hand here?
She kept smiling, the curved corners of her eyes as sweetly soft as the first strand of malt sugar poured from a craftsman’s furnace.
The next second, she suddenly pressed down on the sides of Shen Wenyi’s legs and pushed in hard, with the cup still properly held in place!
Shen Wenyi was caught off guard. The cup pressed into her legs, making her frown slightly, but that wasn’t the point. This little bit of pain meant nothing. The point was, Shen Wenyi really disliked her. Now that she had touched these pants, Shen Wenyi definitely wouldn’t want them anymore!
You cursed at me, so I’ll make you ruin a pair of pants. Childish? Who cares? As long as it’s satisfying, that’s all that matters.
But the satisfaction didn’t even last a second before the room door suddenly beeped!
Both of them instinctively turned to look. They were met with the sight of Little He, one foot already through the door, eyes fixed straight on them. She looked at her, then at Shen Wenyi, her face a mask of utter horror.
“LET GO OF TEACHER SHEN!!!”
Little He practically flew over, reaching her on a gust of wind. She grabbed her and yanked her aside. Luckily, her reflexes were fast and her body flexible; she dodged and slipped away. Otherwise, Little He would have pulled her straight to the ground.
She avoided the pull, pointed at Shen Wenyi’s cup, and said, “See, your legs really do have issues. You have to hold it longer to tell. Film yourself tonight. This time, take the shot from above. You don’t need anyone else’s help. Hurry up, there’s no time, we’re going to be late. Remember to send it to me when you’re done tonight, or send it to post-production.”
Having said everything she needed to say, her goal achieved, she evacuated the room at top speed, not giving Shen Wenyi any chance to retort.
For the sake of work, she bet Shen Wenyi wouldn’t throw the cup away again. Besides, she had deliberately steered off-topic from the moment she entered. Shen Wenyi likely wouldn’t even notice that her true purpose was the cup.
As for post-production, she’d go say hello. She’d say it was a new idea she had: the official site would post the trio photo, and each of their personal Weibo accounts would post a private shot, still from top-down, since this was her personal angle. She’d casually tie some reason to the drama’s promotion. She believed the publicity team would do her this favor. After all, everyone had seen Director Chen’s attitude last night.
She only had 12.5 hours. She’d regained her human form at 6 PM, and at the latest she needed to be back at the hotel by 6:30 PM. Otherwise, she’d have to perform a live transformation show. Whether she could pull this off depended entirely on this chance.
