First Love

A soft, warm breath brushed the back of her hand. Li Lan blinked, and her lashes skimmed lightly over Zhu Qing’s palm, ticklish and faint.

Zhu Qing kissed the back of her hand again, her movements very gentle.

Then cool ointment was spread over the reddened skin; the icy sensation flowed along her nerves and spread upward.

“I really don’t know what you’re thinking,” Zhu Qing said through gritted teeth, her voice lowered into the night, making Li Lan’s eardrums tingle.

Li Lan finally got her vision back. Zhu Qing had one knee on the bed and one foot planted on it, bending slightly as she took Li Lan’s hand and carefully applied the ointment.

Li Lan felt a little awkward and moved her arm, which earned her a sharp, “Don’t move.”

Pretty fierce.

Li Lan steadied her breathing and looked for two seconds before saying, “This is Yunnan, not Sichuan.”

Zhu Qing lifted her eyes to her. “I know.”

“Do you really know?”

“I got a text from the local cultural and tourism bureau the moment I got off the plane, telling me to go admire Yunnan’s beautiful scenery.”

Li Lan gave a soft “oh,” then quickly said, “So where exactly did you learn this face-changing act?”

She’d worked herself up for ages just to mock her once. Zhu Qing kept moving her hands and let out a low laugh; her tone had a slight edge. “I didn’t.”

“You were just looking all wronged a moment ago, saying I can’t ignore you,” Li Lan said, her gaze sliding over Zhu Qing’s posture before lingering meaningfully on her lips. “Now you’re pretty capable.”

Zhu Qing gave a cold snort, thinking that she knew all eighteen kinds of skills.

“Do you need money?” Li Lan suddenly asked.

Zhu Qing was baffled. “You bring up money at a time like this?!”

Was Li Lan trying to reward her for serving her?

Then Zhu Qing really couldn’t guarantee what she might do.

Enough was enough; if she couldn’t bear it, she wouldn’t bear it. She’d endured and endured, but at the end of the day, she simply didn’t want to endure.

Li Lan froze for a moment, then laughed. “No, I mean you did very well today. If you can keep this up, the variety show will be filmed smoothly from start to finish, air on schedule, and once the final payment’s settled, you’ll be a little rich woman.”

“I’m already a rich woman,” Zhu Qing said. “Half your marital assets belong to me.”

“That’s true too,” Li Lan said with a nod. “As long as you’re willing to spend it.”

Zhu Qing finished applying the ointment for her, rubbed the remaining bit from her fingertips onto her own hand, and looked down at Li Lan for a while.

“Let me massage your arm,” she said softly. “You worked a lot today.”

Li Lan lay on the bed and lazily said, “No.”

In truth, Zhu Qing had done more work than she had. Zhu Qing’s weight was there to see, and years of malnutrition had left her physical strength lagging behind that of an average person.

Back when she had worked continuously for several days, she had needed a long sleep to recover her energy. Now, though, she didn’t have large blocks of time to rest.

She just hadn’t expected that after Zhu Qing lost her memory, in such a short time together, she’d already noticed her issue.

“You’re really dragging your feet,” Zhu Qing complained, then directly pulled over Li Lan’s arm and gently kneaded it. “Don’t use force; relax the muscle.”

Li Lan cried out in pain. “Be gentler.”

Zhu Qing hadn’t used any force at all; it was just that Li Lan’s body was too weak. “This is an acupuncture point. Why are you so frail?”

Li Lan really wanted to argue that she wasn’t frail; she exercised regularly. She just... just didn’t eat much.

“I secretly weighed myself with the production team’s scale yesterday,” Zhu Qing said with complete confidence. “I gained two jin. What about you?”

Before going on the variety show, the two of them had discussed who needed to eat more; the result was that Zhu Qing had to put on more weight because she was thinner.

But now it seemed obvious that Li Lan had already become as thin as she could be, while Zhu Qing was starting to gain it back. Li Lan, however, still hadn’t changed at all.

Zhu Qing wasn’t unaware that cameras made people look heavier, and Li Lan, coming from a modeling background, naturally had to control her diet, presenting the kind of condition that was thin but still beautiful on camera.

The premise of that condition was being thin first, then beautiful.

“Have you ever tried gaining a little weight?” Zhu Qing asked softly. “Maybe you’d gain flesh, not face.”

Li Lan had never once been able to put on weight in all her life; she had kept this figure ever since she started appearing on camera. She hesitated. “I don’t know. I could try.”

Zhu Qing got the answer she wanted; a smile curved her lips. “And I still don’t know what you earn so much money for. We already have a house and a car; you don’t need to work so hard.”

“Hard?” Li Lan shook her head lightly. For people of their background, there were too many who longed for the chance to trade their health for the ability to make big money.

What she earned was more than equal to what she gave.

“I’m worried about your body,” Zhu Qing said. “If your body falls apart, you’ll have nothing left. You need to put your health first.”

Li Lan had no choice but to agree.

“I don’t know what you’re minding, and I don’t know what I did,” Zhu Qing said as she gently massaged Li Lan’s temples, her technique remarkably practiced. “But no matter what, your body is the most important thing. I want you to be healthy.”

Li Lan didn’t think there was anything wrong with her body. She was only thirty; it was the age to really get out there and make a name for yourself, not seventy or eighty. But Zhu Qing was speaking so seriously that she didn’t dare pour cold water on her. Today’s Zhu Qing was especially bold, which made her unwilling to say anything carelessly.

“Mm, I’ll take care of my health,” Li Lan said.

Zhu Qing narrowed her eyes, mentally calculating Li Lan’s schedule these days. This variety show didn’t sound troublesome, but it couldn’t really be called a vacation either. Once Li Lan accepted her again in the future, they had better take a proper holiday trip somewhere.

“Don’t make me wait too long,” Zhu Qing said.

Li Lan: .

-

The second episode of the variety show ran a full two hours, with even richer content than the first.

Each group was given thirty minutes. Hu Xu and Liu Yini first went into the villagers’ midst to chat. Because the local dialects didn’t match, they made plenty of jokes, but with the three hundred points the production team gave them, they exchanged them for a pile of things rarely seen in the mountain village. Liu Yini asked around for the village’s older residents and brought them some expensive medicinal herbs and supplements she had brought from home. Later, they even rode out to the market and filmed all sorts of strange little trinkets, showing off the customs of the southwestern mountains.

The film queen and film emperor pair had plenty of highlights too. Inside the wooden hut, most of the tools were for farming and fieldwork; for fishing, there was only a net whose mesh could let a fist through. Sun Qi found a stick on the spot and jabbed at fish, putting on quite the show but repeatedly missing. In the end, it was Xu Yuzhi who used a stone to steady the basket and block two fish. The two of them also told a lot of childhood stories, giving gossip-loving fans of married-couple content a feast.

Qi Yao and Yu Ling, however, took the pity route. Qi Yao hadn’t managed to do a single thing right; he nearly knocked himself out while fumigating for insects, dragging Yu Ling into being unable to breathe. He got the fertilizer ratio wrong and almost burned the seedlings to death. This kind of material was either miserable or stupid, and the production team still didn’t want to offend the company behind Qi Yao, so they could only let them go with the pitiful angle. Luckily, Yu Ling really was pitiful: a delicate little girl being ordered around to carry night soil, then vomiting from the toxic fumes Qi Yao had mixed up. She instantly gained a lot of fans and even climbed two hot searches.

Li Lan and Zhu Qing, on the other hand, were steady and methodical. Li Lan’s popularity was still sky-high. She was already devastatingly beautiful, and in a reality show like this, once the camera’s disguise was stripped away, whoever was short suffered, whoever had bad proportions suffered, and whoever was at a disadvantage took the hit. Li Lan just stood there, fresh and bright, towering above everyone else. Zhu Qing also earned a down-to-earth good impression from spending the whole day cooking.

Except that some other faction was gradually becoming the trend.

[Everyone, you have to remember this is a dating show. If you’re not shipping the couple, do you have something on your mind?]

[Who said I’m not shipping? Don’t you think Zhu Qing and Li Lan are really flirtatious with each other?]

[Married-love-after-marriage is just like this]

[My little girlfriend who just lost her memory is a newborn calf unafraid of tigers; she has zero camera sense]

[When Zhu Qing remembers there’s a camera: glares at the camera and covers it with a tomato; when Zhu Qing ignores the camera: leaves half her back to it]

[But Li Lan is always spoiling her. She never said no to Zhu Qing once. I also want an older sister to revolve around me, her gaze always on me]

[Zhu Qing looking at Li Lan: big sister, big sister; Li Lan looking at Zhu Qing: wife]

When Zhu Qing saw these bullet comments, she suspected Li Lan had hired paid posters.

“Qian Chu said she only hires paid trolls on Weibo to suppress bad comments; she doesn’t manage the bullet comments,” Li Lan said frankly. “Besides, if you don’t want the audience to ship someone, who else are they supposed to ship? The older and middle-aged pairs are already model examples of loving couples, and the younger group has Qi Yao. Only the two of us are freshest.”

That was indeed an unexpected gain. This variety show had aired for so many seasons; most of the popular CPs were either the kind who had married quietly and never shown their faces before everyone, or the youthful young-couple group.

Take those two away, and only Li Lan and Zhu Qing were left as the most shippable.

Qian Chu’s call came at just the right time. “You two can be a little more intentionally close. CP fans are still fans; I think the effect from these two episodes is pretty good.”

Zhu Qing immediately confessed and exposed Li Lan. “I’ve already been very proactive. The main thing is Teacher Li being rather reserved and always covering my mouth.”

“Shouldn’t I cover your mouth?” Li Lan smiled faintly. “You keep seeing Qi Yao as an eyesore; he puts food on the turntable and you turn it, he starts talking and you look down. If I don’t watch you for even a moment, your facial management is going to collapse.”

“Miss Zhu,” Qian Chu’s tone instantly turned serious, “we agreed that you would be quiet and not talk much.”

Zhu Qing: ...

“I am quiet,” Zhu Qing argued reasonably. “Look at these two episodes; I haven’t said much, have I? As for Qi Yao, that’s even less my fault. He doesn’t like Teacher Li, so of course I won’t be nice to him.”

Li Lan said in surprise, “How do you know he doesn’t like me?”

“Obviously because when you put food on the turntable he turns it, and when you speak he looks down!”

As it turned out, Zhu Qing was simply getting revenge.

“He...” Qian Chu was momentarily speechless. After a one-second hesitation, she shifted the target to Li Lan. “Manager Lan, does Qi Yao still resent you over the last shoot?”

Li Lan shook her head lightly. “I don’t know.”

“Even Zhu Qing could tell Qi Yao’s attitude was off... no, I need to rewatch the variety show. After the last shoot, Qi Yao posted a weirdly insinuating Weibo about you. Though he didn’t name names, fans might dig it up,” Qian Chu said, as if facing a great enemy. “You two just handle it yourselves. Remember to be loving! Loving! Lasting forever!”

After hanging up, Zhu Qing asked suspiciously, “The last shoot? When was that? Did you two know each other before the variety show? Why was he shading you? Does he have a problem?”

Li Lan didn’t know which question to answer first, so she simply explained everything from beginning to end honestly. “It was the last business trip, after you lost your memory. When we were filming, he was not only late but also unfamiliar with the script, which delayed the shoot. I demonstrated once for him how to act; maybe I hit a sore spot, so he made a fuss and refused to film.”

The company behind Qi Yao was MeiYu Media, one of the two biggest powerhouses in the industry, and its top push at the moment was a male artist. They had poured a lot of resources into Qi Yao, hoping to turn him into the next first-tier male star.

Li Lan picked and chose a few things to tell Zhu Qing. “So just keep your distance from him. Don’t clash head-on.”

Zhu Qing’s whole face scrunched up. “Then the person behind you... oh, right, Chairman Yang, is he more powerful than MeiYu Media? His backing is that strong; are we supposed to keep our tails between our legs?”

Li Lan had nothing to say and could only express her condemnation with her eyes.

“Oh, fine. So I guess we don’t have to,” Zhu Qing said. “But I feel like he’s a land mine; who knows when he’ll blow. I’d better be careful, especially since he already doesn’t like you. Sooner or later I’m going to dislike him even more.”

Li Lan was helpless. Her little girlfriend, who had graduated from university but hadn’t yet entered society—or rather, who had entered society for a year but already forgotten everything—always had that kind of innocent, fearless straightforwardness.

“Alright. Before you do anything, remember to call me,” Li Lan could only remind her like this.

Zhu Qing obediently nodded. “Okay.”

Li Lan sighed: so troublesome.

-

This was Li Lan and Zhu Qing’s fourth day here. Including today, there were only two more days of filming in the wooden hut before it ended; on the sixth day, they would fly to Africa and begin the next stop on their journey.

In order to add more highlights to the show, and also to give the guests a day to rest, the production team arranged today’s filming indoors.

[First comes our first segment: Heartbeat Q&A Blind Box. Each group will draw two questions, “red question” and “gold question,” and answer separately. After the answers are revealed, the other three groups will ask follow-up questions. First, please welcome Teacher Hu and Teacher Liu to choose their question.]

The red question was placed in a box painted with flames, looking rather tricky; the gold question was in a glittering wooden box, clearly designed to be appealing.

After the two drew their questions, they read the prompt aloud.

Red question: After marriage, have you ever had feelings for someone else? To what extent?

The moment this question was read out, the whole room erupted in “ohhh”s, every expression exaggerated and shocked.

Zhu Qing grabbed Li Lan’s sleeve and whispered, “That’s a bit intense.”

Sun Qi, meanwhile, was sweating profusely. “This question is pure trouble!”

Hu Xu and Liu Yini, however, smiled generously and each wrote down their answer.

“No.”

Hu Xu said with a smile, “Same-sex marriage only became a thing in the last few years. We haven’t even been married for many years. We’ve spent most of our lives together; the only time my heart ever raced in this life was for her.”

Liu Yini smiled sweetly and said slowly, “The two of us together are already over a hundred. When we were young, who didn’t have a little stirring of the heart? Who doesn’t like good-looking people, who doesn’t like new things? But once you choose each other, loyalty matters most.”

A question so tricky had unexpectedly been handed to the very people who had spent most of their lives proving the answer with their own relationship. The others were both relieved and worried that the next question might be even sharper.

Everyone’s follow-up questions were gentle and didn’t try to needle them. Then it was time for the gold question.

[On your first date, what was your partner wearing?]

Hu Xu recalled, “She had her hair in a long braid and wore a white dress with blue floral patterns, puff sleeves cinched at the waist, and a milky-white little leather shoe on her foot. Back then, bright clothes weren’t allowed. I was afraid other people would notice her, so I took off my jacket, wrapped her up in it, and ran home with her all the way.”

Liu Yini couldn’t help laughing. “You wore a blue suit; it was the kind with broad padded shoulders, and beneath it was a long suit skirt. It wasn’t pretty anyway. Once you took off the jacket, there was only your shirt underneath, and you were so nervous that sweat soaked through it; a huge patch of salt stains showed on your back.”

Hu Xu was a little embarrassed and annoyed. “Why bring that up? I’m asking what you wore.”

Everyone burst out laughing; the atmosphere was harmonious and warm, and Zhu Qing watched with a feeling of quiet warmth.

But as she watched, she stopped feeling happy, because the production team didn’t cue the film-empress pair next. Instead, they turned directly to Li Lan.

[The next same-sex couple, please come forward to draw your question.]

Good heavens, they weren’t even going by age order!

Li Lan brought the question back over. The two of them looked down at it and fell silent together.

“If the other person’s first love suddenly contacted her, how do you think she would respond?”

————————

Zhu Qing: So jealous, so jealous, so jealous, so jealous, so jealous, so jealous.

Li Lan: ??? My first love is you; who exactly are you jealous of?