Aggrieved

“Oh my God, the production team really doesn’t treat people like human beings.” Xu Yuzhi stared at the two of them blankly. “How are you supposed to answer that? Your first love.”

Yu Ling silently picked up the bird’s nest soup in front of her. She’d spent the past few days working herself to the bone, and Guangtong had helped her land a spokesperson deal for a bird’s nest brand. It had all been worth it. Now she could sit back, drink her soup, and watch the show.

Qi Yao nudged her with his elbow. “How are we supposed to answer?”

Yu Ling didn’t even look at him. “Just answer normally.”

“You have to cooperate with me,” Qi Yao said in a low voice. “Come a little closer.”

As soon as he said it, he leaned toward Yu Ling. His shoulder brushed her arm, and he turned his face toward her with a smile that made them look close.

Yu Ling smiled too, perfectly composed. “Okay, then.”

Everyone’s attention returned to Li Lan and Zhu Qing, all of them waiting for their answer.

Li Lan recovered first. She coughed lightly. “You go first.”

Zhu Qing’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. She looked at Li Lan in disbelief. You want me to go first??

For a question like this, she wanted her to go first!? Li Lan was way too much!

“My first love,” Zhu Qing said through gritted teeth, “I can’t remember. It might have been in elementary school.”

Li Lan’s brows twitched. She turned to look at her. “You can’t remember?”

“Maybe it was the girl who sat next to me,” Zhu Qing said honestly. “I liked playing with her. She wore two little braids, and when I was little I kept my hair short for convenience, so I always liked little girls who could wear braids.”

The expression on Zhu Qing’s face as she recalled it didn’t seem fake at all. She really did treat the friends she played with in elementary school as first-love material.

Love, right? If there’s affection, there’s love; if there’s love, there’s romance. Friendship counts as affection, friendship counts as love, friendship can also be romance… what the hell.

Li Lan studied her seriously for several seconds and said nothing.

Yu Ling couldn’t help saying, “Sister Zhu Qing, the question means a real first love, someone you actually fell in love with. Not a good friend, and not even a one-sided crush.”

Zhu Qing was shocked. “No way, even a crush doesn’t count? You look down on crushes?”

Li Lan said calmly, “Have you ever had one?”

“Probably. In middle school…”

Li Lan cut her off. “At the earliest, high school.”

Zhu Qing thought hard. “After high school, I didn’t. I’ve never dated. The first time I dated you, I ended up marrying you.”

The corners of Li Lan’s lips lifted slightly, then she pressed them together and didn’t ask anything else.

This was the first time the production team had run into someone this honest, and the director couldn’t help jumping in. “Besides dating, have you ever had a good impression of anyone?”

Li Lan smiled at the director. “That’s a second question.”

The director chuckled. “Fine, then let’s count it as one of the spare gold questions.”

Under everyone’s watchful gaze, Zhu Qing said carefully, “Yeah.”

Li Lan snapped her head around.

Zhu Qing did her best to be careful. “I’ve already answered.”

Hu Xu loved watching the fun unfold. “That won’t do. You can’t just say yes; you have to give details. Who it was, when, where.”

Li Lan pressed her lips together, then stepped in. “You can’t let them bully you like this. Weren’t they asking about contact with first love? I haven’t answered yet.”

Hu Xu waved a hand dismissively. “You don’t count. You don’t have a first love.”

Li Lan: …

Even though she very much wanted to hear Zhu Qing go on about who she had once liked, just as Hu Xu said; when it was, where it was, what the other person’s identity and traits were, why Zhu Qing had liked her, whether she had felt anything when she first saw Li Lan, what the difference was between her feelings for Li Lan and her feelings for that person, whether her feelings for herself were a little stronger or whether her feelings for that person were…

In short, Li Lan very much wanted to press the issue. But relying on the eight-year age gap and her years of experience, she controlled herself and behaved like a mature adult.

“I really don’t have the first love the question is talking about,” Li Lan said slowly. “Just like Zhu Qing, it was love at first sight for us. We were each other’s only one.”

“As for anyone I’ve had a good impression of,” Li Lan said softly, “there isn’t anyone.”

Sun Qi was dying of curiosity. “So you’ve only ever had a good impression of Zhu Qing? You didn’t like anyone when you were younger? You’ve been this loyal from start to finish?”

Li Lan nodded. “Yes.”

His tone was so curious that Xu Yuzhi had initially gone along with it, but by the end she looked at him faintly. “Why are you being so suspicious? You can’t understand loyalty? No empathy, huh?”

This time Sun Qi didn’t explain right away. Instead, he looked at Xu Yuzhi with complete confidence and said with a grin, “Of course I can empathize. I only ever dated you. I chased you for ages and waited until you dumped five men before I finally got you.”

Only then did Xu Yuzhi remember her own romantic history. She brushed it off casually. “The virtuous have many suitors. It’s not my fault.”

Li Lan and Zhu Qing got through that round without incident.

The question “Have you ever had a good impression of anyone besides your partner?” had originally been added on the fly by the director, who’d wanted to pry something out of Zhu Qing’s mouth. But unexpectedly, when the next group drew questions, they actually drew that one.

Yu Ling raised her hand. “We’ve already answered this one. Can we request a different question?”

The director loved drama. “You can repeat your answer.”

A conflicted look appeared on Yu Ling’s small, delicate face. Her beautiful eyes lifted and swept across the cameras one by one; in the end, she glanced at Li Lan and quickly looked away.

She lowered her head and smiled, then after a moment of shyness, said gracefully, “Yes.”

Qi Yao, meanwhile, fixed an ambiguous gaze on Yu Ling’s face and said softly, “Me too.”

Xu Yuzhi teased them, “Lingling’s blushing. Look at this little couple; young people really are thin-skinned.”

Yu Ling looked up, her pupils trembling, a fragile beauty in her gaze that made people want to protect her. And yet there was also a faint note of disapproval there.

Qi Yao looked at Yu Ling with an awkward expression that was obviously deliberate. His looks were actually decent: a fresh-faced pretty-boy type, with one breakout historical role that had won him a wave of fans. His momentum still wasn’t huge, and the company wanted him to solidify some CP fans to strengthen his base, so he was also trying hard to work the angle. It just wasn’t very effective yet.

“Qi Yao, what kind of girls do you like?” Sun Qi asked casually while eating fruit.

Qi Yao looked a little embarrassed. “Hard to say.”

Sun Qi laughed. “What kind of boys do you like, Lingling?”

Yu Ling paused and stared at the food on her plate. “Pretty ones.”

“Is Qi Yao pretty enough?” Xu Yuzhi laughed. “Boys should go for younger ones; younger faces are softer, prettier.”

Yu Ling smiled sweetly. “Everyone’s pretty good-looking.”

She was dodging the question and not really playing along with Qi Yao. Qi Yao grew a little anxious and asked directly, “Then what do you think of me?”

Everyone looked over. Yu Ling subconsciously glanced at Li Lan again.

Her repeated glances had already caught Zhu Qing’s attention.

Zhu Qing looked at her, then at Li Lan, finding it a little strange. Why did Yu Ling keep looking at her wife when answering questions? Li Lan wasn’t even sitting across from her.

Yu Ling said, “You’re pretty good.”

“Then someone like me—would you have a good impression of me?” Qi Yao pressed.

Yu Ling paused for several seconds. Her expression didn’t change, and she said softly, “Maybe. But the person I said I had a good impression of isn’t you.”

Qi Yao’s expression changed at once; his face turned ugly.

Since debuting, he’d always been the one being fawned over. He wasn’t used to taking the initiative to stick his face out and get cold shoulders more than once. His temper flared, and his expression was about to crack.

At that moment, Li Lan suddenly raised her cup and cut in. “We’ve been talking the whole time. Have you noticed anything different about the yogurt we’re eating today?”

Zhu Qing blinked, then answered immediately. “There are pieces of bird’s nest in it.”

Yu Ling followed up with the ad copy, and the segment was successfully diverted. Only Qi Yao’s expression remained sour.

After the first segment ended, everyone went back to their rooms to rest. There would be another physical game in the afternoon.

Before returning to the room, Yu Ling suddenly called out to Li Lan.

“Teacher Li, I have something to say to you. Could I ask you to come outside for a moment?” Yu Ling asked softly.

Li Lan frowned, glanced at her, then looked at Zhu Qing.

Zhu Qing already had one foot inside the door; she simply stepped in with the other and nodded at Li Lan considerately. “Go on. Come back early.”

After Li Lan left, Zhu Qing’s hand on the door paused. She quickly walked to the other side of the room.

That was one drawback of a wooden house: there were sometimes gaps between the walls. Zhu Qing had long since noticed those openings, and now she followed them, tracing Li Lan and Yu Ling’s backs all the way over.

Only when the two of them reached the end of the corridor, turned a corner, and went behind the wooden house did Zhu Qing sneak outside and head to the storage room in the nearest cabin.

Faint voices drifted over.

Yu Ling was the first to speak, her voice thick with suppressed grievance. “Teacher Li, I really don’t want to be on a team with Qi Yao. That guy is kind of super macho and has anger issues; he’s not normal.”

Li Lan’s tone was quite serious. “Have you talked to Director Yang about it?”

The eavesdropping Zhu Qing caught the key name, and confusion showed plainly on her face.

Director Yang? Why is it her again?

Was she another boss standing behind Yu Ling?

No, wait. Yu Ling had someone behind her too!?

And Li Lan knew Yu Ling from before. If Yu Ling didn’t want to be on a team with Qi Yao, why was she looking for Li Lan? Could Li Lan help her, or make decisions for her?

“I did,” Yu Ling said, sounding close to tears. “Director Yang said he wouldn’t dare make trouble unless he didn’t want his career anymore, and told me to endure it a little longer. But I really can’t. I’m afraid one day he’ll hit me. You don’t know how bad his self-control is.”

After a weak sniffle, Yu Ling added, “Look at how he even dares to put on a face on camera; you can tell how hard he is to deal with in private.”

Zhu Qing listened and felt a little sorry for her. She also hated Qi Yao; as for men with explosive tempers, she really could empathize with how Yu Ling felt right now.

But.

What did this have to do with her wife?

She should be going to the production team, or to someone who could actually manage Qi Yao!

Zhu Qing’s gaze drifted darkly to Li Lan. She thought she’d better hear what Li Lan had to say.

Li Lan said without much emotion, “I suggest you talk to Director Yang again. She isn’t someone who can’t be reasoned with.”

After that, Li Lan glanced at the time and prepared to leave. “Anything else?”

Hearing that, Yu Ling instantly looked a little broken. She grabbed Li Lan’s sleeve.

“Teacher Li, don’t go. I’m really scared,” Yu Ling said plaintively, her voice trembling. “Director Yang said if I had anything, I could come to you. Could you please not go and stay with me a little longer?”

Zhu Qing’s hair practically stood on end.

Yu Ling was crying so sadly. She was beautiful to begin with, and now with those pearly tears, she looked utterly pitiable. Zhu Qing was furious, but had to admit that some people were born with a way of making others feel fond of them.

If Yu Ling had grabbed Zhu Qing’s hand and cried like that, Zhu Qing might have softened too.

But!

Zhu Qing glared at Li Lan in exasperation. Her self-control might be lousy, but Li Lan had to have it!

Under Zhu Qing’s unspoken glare, Li Lan paused, then slowly but firmly pulled her sleeve out of Yu Ling’s hand.

“Teacher Li.” Yu Ling pleaded.

Li Lan smoothed her sleeve flat, rolled it up a little, and said evenly, without any emotional coloring, “I said this earlier. You should go to Director Yang about this. She’ll come up with a solution you’ll be satisfied with.”

Without waiting for Yu Ling’s answer, Li Lan seemed to remember something and lowered her voice. “Didn’t you just get that bird’s nest endorsement? Director Yang gave it to you as compensation. If you’re not satisfied, you can keep talking to her and ask for more compensation.”

Yu Ling’s face went white in an instant.

“You—you think I’m just pretending to be pitiful, even though I’ve already exchanged that for enough compensation, and now I’m acting spoiled after getting the better end of the deal!?”

Li Lan didn’t answer right away. From Zhu Qing’s angle, she could only see her upright back.

Long, slender, elegant, with an exceptional presence; she looked good from every angle. Of course, it would be even better if the person standing in front of her weren’t the tearful and pitiable Yu Ling.

Li Lan said coolly, “Then what do you want me to do? Comfort you? Stand up for you? Take your side?”

Yu Ling knew she was in the wrong and said in a low voice, “Director Yang said I could come to you.”

“If you want care and comfort from me, I can tell you very clearly: you’ve come to the wrong person.”

Li Lan wasn’t deliberately being cold; she didn’t even inject any personal emotion into it, only stated the facts plainly. “I’m not very sympathetic. The older I get, the less human I become. I’ll give you whatever help I can in front of the cameras, but that’s all. You’ve already debuted, so you need to learn to face these things yourself. Crying won’t help.”

Yu Ling stood there trembling. Zhu Qing felt as if a gust of wind could blow her over.

She bit her lip so hard it went nearly white. “I’m just scared. I’m really panicking. On the show, I’m the youngest one, I don’t know anyone, and my partner is this kind of person. I can’t sleep at night…”

“If Teacher Li doesn’t want to hear it, then I won’t say any more. But I really wasn’t like this at first. I came to the show happily, hoping to make friends, hoping to do tasks together, hoping to talk to the idol I like; I never expected all of that to fall through. I’m not happy at all now.”

Li Lan looked at the time again, unable to understand it; in fact, she found it almost unbelievable. “You only came the day after. Counting travel time, there are at most ten days of filming.”

Just ten days, for an endorsement worth seven figures, for a top-tier variety show resource; and she was upset because she couldn’t make friends.

Li Lan didn’t want to say anything more and turned to leave.

Yu Ling stayed rooted in place, staring after her back for a long time. Her gaze still held a scattering of tearful sorrow, but if one looked closely, there was also a barely perceptible trace of scrutiny hidden deep in her eyes. That soft look seemed to condense into a thin, sharp needle; almost imperceptibly, it pricked toward the other person.

When Li Lan returned to the room, Zhu Qing was sitting under the window, dazed.

“Why didn’t you close the window? There are mosquitoes.” Li Lan walked over and quietly closed it for her. Seeing that Zhu Qing was distracted, she even took out bug spray and sprayed it around Zhu Qing’s area.

Zhu Qing felt a little uncomfortable. Yu Ling seemed weird to her, especially that final look; she simply couldn’t make sense of it.

“What did Yu Ling want with you?” Zhu Qing was still a bit out of it.

Li Lan took out her phone and replied to messages. Without looking up, she said, “Nothing.”

Zhu Qing went, “Oh,” then turned her head. “If it was nothing, why talk that long?”

Li Lan couldn’t help laughing. “Really, nothing. She just had some negative feelings and wanted to vent to someone. I didn’t keep her company for long, honestly.”

Just some negative feelings; didn’t keep her company for long.

“She had negative feelings and came to vent to you. Does that make sense?”

“It doesn’t make sense, it wasn’t appropriate, it shouldn’t have happened; that’s why I came back right away.” In essence, Yu Ling was complaining about Qi Yao and trying to gain support. Li Lan didn’t want Zhu Qing to keep paying attention to Qi Yao; Zhu Qing already didn’t like him, and with her straightforward sense of justice, she was likely to jump out and take the hit herself, so Li Lan could only gloss over it in the simplest terms. “Next time I’ll definitely take you with me.”

Next time, definitely; this time, don’t worry about it.

Zhu Qing really didn’t want to look like a jealous mess, but Li Lan was pretty good at brushing things aside. She’d talked around the facts and glossed over the key point, brushing Zhu Qing off.

Seeing that Zhu Qing didn’t say anything, Li Lan wanted to explain a little more. But then she noticed a stray lock of hair sticking up on top of Zhu Qing’s head, and she instinctively reached out to press it down.

Smack—

A crisp sound.

Zhu Qing slapped her hand away.

Li Lan was a little stunned. Looking down, she saw Zhu Qing glaring at her sleeve with a resentful, furious expression.

————————

Zhu Qing: You’re so annoying!!!!!!!

Li Lan: I’m innocent… [melting]