Chapter 35
Only Cheng Shuyang and Xu Zhiyi knew the rules for the groups.
Once Jiang Lai understood that, she knew the latter would never tell her so easily; she could only place her hopes on Cheng Shuyang.
When the woman stepped out the door, Jiang Lai eagerly held the oiled-paper umbrella over her. “Aunt Cheng, it’s still raining outside. Please be careful.”
The woman looked at the bright, restless eyes in front of her and immediately understood. She reached out to take the umbrella handle, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “What do you want to know from me?”
The moment Jiang Lai heard that, her eyes lit up.
She hurried closer to the woman; most of her body was already outside the umbrella. “It’s about the group rules. Do you know them too?”
“Shouldn’t you be asking Director Zhang that?”
The woman’s pace slowed a little. Noticing that half of Jiang Lai’s shoulder had already been soaked by the rain, she subtly shifted the umbrella toward her side.
“Director Zhang definitely won’t tell me.”
Jiang Lai shook her arm coquettishly. “Aunt Cheng, just tell me, please….”
The woman pressed her arm, patiently explaining, “Alai, I don’t know the rules either. Director Zhang didn’t tell me.”
“Ah… all right then.”
She let go of the woman’s hand, looking a little dejected.
The woman patted the top of her hair and said gently, “Whoever you’re on a team with is fine. Everyone here is very nice; no one will bully you.”
“All right. But Aunt Cheng, if I’m assigned to the opposing team from you, I won’t go easy on you.”
At that, the woman smiled; even the fine lines at the corners of her eyes softened with warmth as she gave Jiang Lai a reproachful look. “Our Miss Jiang Designer seems very confident in herself.”
“Of course.”
“Jiang Lai.”
The woman’s tone suddenly grew much more serious. “Giving it your all is the greatest respect you can show your opponent. Do you understand?”
The girl nodded hard. “Mm!”
“Then I’ll be looking forward to it.”
As if fate itself had decided it, Jiang Lai still didn’t end up on the same team as the woman. Instead, silent as ever, Gu Xizhou was assigned to the same team as her.
“Alai, I’m really happy to be on the same team as you.”
Song Shiyuan walked up to her, looking very pleased.
“Senior, please take care of me.”
She mischievously winked at the girl, who first froze, then broke into laughter and lightly shook her hand. “Mm, please take care of me too.”
“Huai Cheng, go talk to the director. I don’t want to be on the same team as her. Can we switch?”
“Wanqiu, this isn’t the time for you to be willful.”
“But I just don’t want to be with her!”
The soft, coy voice drifting into her ears gave her goosebumps.
Jiang Lai originally didn’t want to pay her any mind and was pulling Song Shiyuan away, but some people were always so idle they had to come strutting right up to her.
“Jiang Lai, when we do the tasks later, don’t you dare drag our team down.”
Jiang Lai looked at her with a fake smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “You really have the nerve to say that? Look at yourself; you’re skin and bones. And you still dare say I’d hold you back? You’d better not drag me down!”
“You!”
“You what?”
Jiang Lai shot back, “You think the program team is run by your family or something? You want to do whatever you like and still act like a princess. As if anyone cares to deal with you.”
Lin Wanqiu’s face turned bright red. She pointed at Jiang Lai’s nose, choked for a long time, and still couldn’t get a word out. “You’d better not get too smug. If you run into trouble, don’t expect us to help you!”
The girl let out a soft laugh and stepped aside. “Who’s begging whom is still up in the air. Instead of coming here to nitpick me, you’d better think about how you’re going to do the tasks later. Oh, right…”
She looked Lin Wanqiu up and down, clicked her tongue a few times, and said, “With your IQ, you’re probably only fit to drag everyone down.”
Low laughter spread through the crowd.
“You just wait!”
Thoroughly humiliated, Lin Wanqiu stamped her foot and ran off.
“I’ll be waiting right here.”
Qin Huaicheng looked after her retreating back and left Jiang Lai with only one line: “Alai, she didn’t do it on purpose,” before hurrying after Lin Wanqiu.
From start to finish, Gu Xizhou and the woman had watched the whole thing from the sidelines; naturally, they had also seen Jiang Lai win overwhelmingly.
Gu Xizhou patted her chest in lingering fear. “Good thing I didn’t provoke Alai. That mouth of hers is way too sharp. I definitely wouldn’t be able to outtalk her.”
Standing to the side, the woman listened to Gu Xizhou’s animated lament with a helpless smile on her face as well.
“I’ve never seen her like this before.”
She looked at the girl not far away, who was talking to Song Shiyuan. “But this is good too; at least she won’t just let other people bully her.”
“Who’d dare bully her now?”
Gu Xizhou lowered her voice. “Only you would spoil her like this. Look at her just now; she was like she’d hit double speed, rattling off more than twenty words in one breath without even pausing, and she still kept Lin Wanqiu from getting a word in. With that combat power, whoever marries her later is going to have a hard time.”
The woman didn’t answer, only smiling as she looked at the girl, who was gesturing animatedly. “Whoever ends up with Alai later will have all the good fortune in the world.”
Hearing that, Gu Xizhou asked tentatively, “So you think very highly of Alai?”
“Mm. She’s worth it.”
Those three light, unhurried words reached her ears and stunned her so much that she couldn’t come to her senses for a long time.
So Jiang Lai still had a chance…
While the two were talking, Jiang Lai’s gaze suddenly turned toward them.
The woman couldn’t help but curve her lips and give a small nod.
Gu Xizhou caught every tiny movement between the two.
“Still saying it’s nothing; now you’re already protecting her. I’ve got it figured out now. From now on, I definitely can’t say a bad word about Jiang Lai in front of Aunt Cheng.”
After the groups were assigned, both teams changed into their uniforms.
Jiang Lai was the first to come out and ran straight into Gu Xizhou.
“I’m not going to go easy on you today.”
Gu Xizhou rolled her wrists, full of confidence.
The girl curled her lips and couldn’t help teasing her. “Just take care of Aunt Cheng.”
“Don’t need you to tell me that. Teacher Cheng is on our team; of course I’ll take good care of her.”
“Fine.”
She stretched and yawned. “I didn’t sleep well last night. I need to catch some sleep once we get in the car.”
“How can you be sleepy every day?”
Leaning against the car door, the girl raised an eyebrow. “That only proves I’m healthy. I can eat and sleep well.”
“Wouldn’t that make you a pig?” Gu Xizhou muttered under her breath.
After getting into the car, Jiang Lai sat in the last row, and sleepiness gradually crept over her.
Someone suddenly sat down on her left. She assumed it was Gu Xizhou, so she didn’t open her eyes. She was already worried about how uncomfortable her neck felt against the seat cushion, so when that person came, she naturally leaned over.
She didn’t stand on ceremony with the newcomer. Tilting her head, she found a comfortable spot and rested against that person.
“Cheng…”
Gu Xizhou, who had followed right behind, was just about to speak when the woman stopped her with a look. Gu Xizhou sat down in the front row resentfully, but she couldn’t stop glancing back.
“Xizhou, what perfume are you wearing today? Why does it smell so nice?”
Still half-asleep, Jiang Lai sniffed absentmindedly and burrowed closer into the woman’s arms. “It even smells a little like Aunt Cheng…”
With a sharp thud, Gu Xizhou’s phone fell to the floor. She fumbled to pick it up, not knowing how to react. “Teacher Cheng, should we switch seats?”
The woman’s motion to push her away paused. A trace of barely noticeable amusement flashed in her eyes; then she raised a hand and smoothed Jiang Lai’s hair, her voice gentle. “No need. We’ll be at the scenic area soon.”
The girl’s exclusive, delicate fragrance kept drifting into the woman’s nose. She cleared her throat and forced her gaze out the window.
Very quickly, someone else sat down on Jiang Lai’s other side.
Cheng Shuyang turned to look at the newcomer.
Song Shiyuan showed no panic at all; instead, she greeted the woman generously. “Teacher Cheng.”
“Mm.”
The woman’s throat moved.
“Alai isn’t comfortable leaning against you. Let me let her lean against me.”
With that, she reached out to adjust the girl’s posture.
Unexpectedly, the woman stopped her.
“She sleeps lightly. You’ll wake her if you move her like that.”
The woman’s voice was soft, but the refusal in it was unmistakable.
The air went still for a few seconds. Song Shiyuan’s hand remained suspended in midair, just a few centimeters from the girl’s shoulder. After a long moment, she withdrew it as if nothing had happened.
“Sorry, I didn’t think it through.”
“It’s fine. You meant well.”
The girl looked at her smile and felt a little stifled.
The car soon arrived at the entrance to the scenic area. As soon as it stopped, Jiang Lai opened her eyes and stared blankly at where she was, clearly still not fully awake.
The woman pressed her slightly numb shoulder, her voice still calm. “Awake now? Get off the bus.”
Jiang Lai quickly agreed and hopped off the bus in a couple of steps.
The scenic area had already been cleared out. The roadside was lined with enthusiastic fans, and now that their idols were appearing right in front of them, each of them looked excited.
Jiang Lai stood in the middle and waved at them nonstop.
“I say, it’s not even your fans. Why are you so excited?” Gu Xizhou complained with her arms crossed.
“What’s it to you?”
Jiang Lai rolled her eyes at her, then seemed to think of something and smiled as she moved closer.
Gu Xizhou was stunned by her lightning-fast change in expression and instinctively stepped aside. “What are you doing? You flip your face faster than a page; that’s creepy.”
“Oh, I’m not going to argue with you anymore. Just now on the bus, thanks for letting me use your shoulder to sleep.”
“Jiang Lai, do you seriously not know whose shoulder you were sleeping on in the car?”
“Hm? Wasn’t it yours?”
Gu Xizhou laughed so hard she could barely stand up straight. “You really are something else. If someone sold you in a dream, you still wouldn’t know.”
Jiang Lai: “...If you’re going to talk, just talk. Don’t make it personal.”
“Look at what I’m wearing.”
Jiang Lai paused and lowered her head to look at Gu Xizhou’s clothes; it was clearly a casual flax-colored jacket.
But she distinctly remembered that the shoulder on the bus had been in a soft knitted sweater, and it had been very comfortable to lean on.
“Remember now?”
Gu Xizhou was smiling all over. “Though you’re also pretty amazing. Ever since you got on the bus, you kept leaning against someone and sleeping all the way until you got off.”
“Stop talking…”
Her cheeks burned, and her gaze unconsciously drifted toward the woman who was talking to someone not far away.
“All right, all right. I can see your Aunt Cheng seems pretty pleased.”
“Gu Xizhou, you’re at it again!”
Embarrassed and angry, she reached out with perfect accuracy toward the girl’s back.
Gu Xizhou dodged nimbly and raised both hands in a defensive posture in front of her chest. “You can’t hit me; the fans are all watching. Be careful or my fan babies will call you out later!”
“You rascal.”
“I’m a rascal, then; if you’ve got the guts, hit me!”
Gu Xizhou stuck out her tongue at her and ran off in the other direction.
Their laughter drew the woman’s attention.
“Teacher Cheng?”
“Mm?”
The woman withdrew her gaze, a little apologetic. “Sorry.”
“It’s nothing. What were you looking at?”
With a smile at the corners of her mouth, the woman’s eyes settled on the girl in the white shirt.
“She’s very cute, isn’t she?”
Author’s Note: