Passion

The calm that followed fear could send adrenaline surging; such a violent swing in emotion could make anyone feel amorous.

Zhu Qing was kissed until the tip of her tongue went numb. Li Lan’s scent filled her nose, and their warm breaths tangled together, over and over. It felt wonderful.

Zhu Qing felt dizzy all over. She couldn’t breathe properly; Li Lan and the tent behind her spun before her eyes, leaving her dazed and only dimly aware of Li Lan.

Li Lan’s hair brushed her face, and her breath stirred Zhu Qing’s lashes. She gave a soft little hum, like a young animal purring in satisfaction.

In her twenty-two years of life, this was the first time Zhu Qing had ever experienced anything like this. Her reason was like a firework exploding; beyond the dazzling blaze it left behind, there was no logic left for her to think with.

Li Lan’s initiative far exceeded her expectations. Zhu Qing had always thought the other woman was shy, introverted, and reserved; she definitely wouldn’t be enthusiastic about this kind of thing.

But from what she was doing now, and how practiced her technique seemed, the other woman must have tried similar things many times with Zhu Qing… tsk. Or maybe not with her; maybe with someone else. After all, she was eight years older than Zhu Qing, and it made sense for her to have more experience.

…For some reason, that made her a little unhappy.

To still be able to feel a sudden stab of jealousy at a time like this, Zhu Qing even admired herself a little. But that jealousy had come too abruptly.

Zhu Qing’s hand slid down along the beautiful curve of Li Lan’s waist. Even after being kissed this thoroughly, she was still thinking about turning rogue and taking back the upper hand; she stroked and pinched as she went.

Kissing, sure, she could kiss other people. But what came next should only ever be with her, right?

Li Lan had originally intended to ignore her, until Zhu Qing’s unruly hand kept wandering lower, the degree, range, and frequency of her harassment all increasing. It was getting out of hand, so Li Lan bit the tip of Zhu Qing’s tongue.

Being kissed, sucked on, toyed with, and then bitten too, the tiny sting on her tongue snapped Zhu Qing awake all at once.

“Don’t fidget.”

Li Lan ignored her wide-eyed glare. Her gaze dropped; with one hand, she caught Zhu Qing’s wrist and pressed both of her hands together, then raised them above her head.

Zhu Qing had developed a taste for this and really did want to go further, but she hadn’t meant to go further in this position.

She read something else in Li Lan’s slightly warning gaze. That look churned with annoyance, but more than that, it held restrained, complicated desire.

Desire, and in such a complicated form too. Zhu Qing was startled by how much was going on in Li Lan’s mind.

“If I don’t move, how am I supposed to…” Zhu Qing’s face was a little flushed. “You know. Do that stuff.”

Li Lan frowned at her, breathing lightly.

“Don’t worry, I’m really good at this. I can teach you.” Zhu Qing spoke with brazen confidence. “It’s just that we could discuss changing the position a little. You lie down, and leave the rest to me.”

Li Lan was still frowning.

“It’s a closed space, the timing is perfect, and I’m already like this,” Zhu Qing paused for two seconds and smiled at her. “You’re like this too, so hurry up and continue. Don’t stop.”

Li Lan looked at her with heavy eyes, like a deep, cold lake no one could see through.

“That’s enough for today.” The cold lake rose in an instant.

Zhu Qing couldn’t believe it. “Li Lan, do you have some kind of…?”

She really wanted to ask: Do you have a problem? What normal person stops at a time like this? You were pinning me down and kissing me half to death just now; you looked like you were going to eat me alive. Then the moment I take the initiative, you won’t let me move.

If you don’t want to move, fine; we can talk about it properly. But after only a couple of sentences, you’re actually leaving.

Li Lan, with those thick brows and big eyes of yours, you’re not even cold or abstinent. Why are you leaving?

Li Lan turned back and looked at her. There wasn’t much emotion in that glance; she just looked at her steadily. The meaning could only be understood as: I heard you, I know, but I’m doing it anyway.

Zhu Qing: …

Still holding her wrists crossed above her head, Zhu Qing stared up at the tent canopy and said, “I know. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

Li Lan was sitting sideways beside her. Hearing this, she turned her head slightly.

Zhu Qing said, “Some people don’t like being touched on the head; some people are ticklish. You don’t like people touching your legs, and the second a hand moves lower, you get upset. I get it now.”

Li Lan said, “…Don’t do it so suddenly next time.”

“Suddenly?” Zhu Qing couldn’t help it. “Fine, even if I made the first move, you weren’t exactly passive either; didn’t you turn the tables later on?! And why can’t I touch you? I’m not touching you for free either; I can let you touch me too! You can touch wherever you want!”

At those words, Li Lan’s eyelashes trembled violently, as if she had thought of some scene. She quickly lowered her gaze and tried hard to stay calm.

“I’m heartbroken. Am I really that unattractive?”

Li Lan said softly, “It’s not… time for that right now.”

By then, Zhu Qing had calmed down a little. The dissatisfaction and irritation from being abruptly cut off had mysteriously faded somewhat. “Fine, keep rejecting me every day. Just wait; sooner or later…”

She didn’t say the rest, but the two of them understood each other perfectly.

There was nothing else Zhu Qing could do. If the other woman wasn’t willing and she forced her way through it, the experience would definitely be bad.

She still preferred interaction, preferred feedback. Even though she had said out loud that Li Lan could lie down and do nothing, she still wanted a perfect first experience.

If that was the case, then Li Lan wasn’t wrong either; this really wasn’t the right place.

Zhu Qing was quiet for a long time. Li Lan endured silently for a while too, then couldn’t help getting up. “I’ll go buy you a bottle of water.”

“What water? We barely even worked up a sweat from that little bit of exercise.” Zhu Qing said coolly.

Li Lan was silent for a moment. “Are you hot? I can fan you.”

Zhu Qing spread her arms to both sides and lay flat. “A calm mind naturally stays cool; a cold heart feels even colder.”

Li Lan was speechless. “Y-you really want to, then maybe…”

Zhu Qing opened one eye to look at her.

“Then I’ll go make you some cooling tea? It’ll clear heat and ease that fire.”

Zhu Qing smiled without smiling. “No need for you. I’ll go find someone else.”

Li Lan asked, “Who?”

“Whoever’s willing.”

Li Lan frowned. “Why make trouble for other people? I have time right now.”

“Sorry, but you’re too late. I don’t want you anymore.”

After she said that, the two of them fell silent at the same time.

No matter how you heard it, that conversation was a little bizarre.

Zhu Qing said lazily, “All right, that’s enough. We’ll stop here for today; we’ll try harder next time. The camera’s over by the entrance. Go get it and see how many traces there are. If it’s not enough, go out and find more.”

It wasn’t as if Zhu Qing absolutely had to do something right here and now; she had just gotten caught up in the atmosphere and wanted to try.

Li Lan’s attitude toward her had been softening all along, like ice melting under a sun that refused to leave. The final result was definitely going to be her being eaten clean, and Zhu Qing wasn’t in any hurry.

The two of them finally cooled off from that hot, restless surge and turned their attention back to work.

Animal traces were everywhere on this land, but it was very hard to match them all to specific creatures.

Some large droppings were easier; snap a photo and look them up, and you could usually tell what they were.

As for the more microscopic photos Zhu Qing had taken, they were traces left by smaller creatures. The two of them searched, checked, and wrote as they went, and in the end found eleven places.

“Hey, Xiao Li Lan, are you two done being sweet yet?” Hu Xu called to ask about their progress.

After Li Lan reported it, she said, “I think we found a decent amount. Do we need to keep looking?”

Hu Xu and Liu Yini had found six spots in total. Adding their eleven made seventeen altogether. It definitely wasn’t a small number, but it wasn’t so much that it was a total knockout either.

The real issue was still how many the competing side had found.

Liu Yini took the phone and said, “Yu Ling, don’t worry about her. She’s the one most afraid of those bugs. The last Yulan Awards film was originally going to have her in it, but once she saw it meant going into the forest to eat bugs, she refused no matter what. Sun Qi will definitely have to look after her too, and won’t take her too far inside. Don’t expect them to find much; they’ll probably be about the same as us.”

Zhu Qing felt a little more confident. “What about Yu Ling and Qi Yao?”

If Yu Ling was also afraid of bugs, or of some other ugly creature, maybe that would slow them down?

But on second thought, that might not be the case. Unlike the film queen group, they were a temporary CP; they probably wouldn’t care much about each other, especially since their cooperation had always been, frankly, a complete mess.

“Don’t know yet. Earlier I saw a lot of crew suddenly heading inside, like they were looking for someone,” Hu Xu said. “I’ll ask the production team in a bit.”

Zhu Qing hurriedly said okay.

For someone like her and Li Lan, with not much seniority, the relationship with the production team could only be described as polite and distant. Hu Xu, on the other hand, had much more seniority; she could ask around a bit and people would more or less tell her.

Very soon, Hu Xu, who had asked around, came over with the air of a seasoned veteran and announced a bombshell with complete composure.

“Qi Yao’s missing.”

“Missing!?” Zhu Qing was shocked. “How can he be missing? Aren’t we all followed by a bunch of staff?”

Li Lan was also a little surprised. Suspicion flashed in her eyes as she pressed, “When?”

The footage only showed the guests, of course, but for their safety, many people followed behind them.

Just now, Zhu Qing and Li Lan had had a pickup, an off-road vehicle, and maybe even a tricycle following them; there was a whole crowd on it—emergency doctors, guides, local staff, protected-area staff, and people from the production team.

They hadn’t gone far ahead, but they knew there were definitely people opening the way for them up front too, assessing danger in advance and avoiding injuries.

Under such tight and comprehensive protection, it would be understandable if someone accidentally twisted an ankle or scraped some skin; unavoidable accidents like that made sense. But missing? Vanishing before everyone’s eyes? How exactly did that happen?

Hu Xu said without changing expression, “Just happened. He said he wasn’t feeling great and wanted to stay put for a while, so Yu Ling kept going forward. Most of the people followed Yu Ling, and after they didn’t see him catch up for quite a while, they asked around and found out no one could locate him.”

Zhu Qing listened, looking tense. “Then hurry up and find him. Could there be man-eating animals around here? If someone disappears in a place like this, that’s too dangerous.”

Hu Xu sighed. “Yeah. The director’s blowing up right now, asking why the production team didn’t leave even one person by his side.”

“Because he asked to stay by himself, and even said he wanted to go back and rest,” Li Lan suddenly said, her tone calm and sharp. “Everyone thought he was trying to slack off, so no one followed him. Is that it?”

Hu Xu was impressed. “Huh? How did you know that?”

Li Lan only smiled and said nothing.

Hu Xu looked at Li Lan for a while, then suddenly understood. “Oh, so that’s what’s going on.”

Liu Yini, unable to get any gossip, grew anxious. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

Zhu Qing also didn’t fully understand, but she could faintly smell a scheme.

“I feel like the macaque jumping around in the melon patch,” Zhu Qing said, voicing Liu Yini’s inner thoughts for her. She poked Li Lan’s waist and urged without ceremony, “Stop being mysterious. Say it already.”

Li Lan caught her finger, gave it a light squeeze, and looked at her with a gaze that held no threat at all before glancing toward the camera.

Their mics weren’t on right now, but there was no guarantee some camera wasn’t picking up audio.

This wasn’t really the kind of thing suitable for discussing in a group.

Hu Xu got to her feet. “Don’t stand around looking clueless here. Come over and I’ll tell you.”

Liu Yini said with disdain, “The phrase ‘sweet but clueless’ is already outdated and tacky.”

“Then you’re old and sweet,” Hu Xu said. “If you want gossip, come over.”

Liu Yini had just been about to launch a negative attack on the term “old and sweet,” and administer physical punishment to the person who dared say such blasphemy, but the moment she heard there was gossip to be had, she immediately restrained herself and became gentle and calm. She stood up at once. “Let’s go.”

After the two of them walked away, Zhu Qing hurriedly asked, “What exactly is going on? Was this all self-directed and self-performed? What is he trying to do?”

Li Lan laid out her guess and said with cold certainty, “We don’t need to go back inside and keep looking. The scores or whatever aren’t important; tomorrow’s public opinion… is probably going to change completely.”

Zhu Qing took a long time to process that.

“This is… MeiYu Media’s doing?” Zhu Qing asked.

Li Lan looked toward the crew’s camp tent. Inside, only three or five people were left keeping watch; everyone else had already gone out to look for Qi Yao.

Li Lan mused, “Definitely. Or more specifically, that kind of move sounds a lot like President Qi.”

This was the first time Zhu Qing had heard that name.

Li Lan explained, “You can think of it like this: President Qi of MeiYu Media is equivalent to Director Yang over at Hexie Tongchen.”

Zhu Qing understood instantly. “Oh, oh, the big boss in charge… If they’re making a move now, do you need to tell Director Yang?”

Whether it was the collaboration or the competition between Yu Ling and Qi Yao, it all represented the cooperation and struggle between the two companies behind them.

Now that tomorrow’s situation could already be predicted, should they give Director Yang a heads-up first?

Li Lan didn’t really want to contact the other party on her own. Hearing the suggestion, her whole face wrinkled up.

But very soon, Li Lan’s need to give anyone a heads-up became completely unnecessary.

The top trending topic suddenly shot to number one, turning red and marked as “explosive” in an instant.

[#QiYaoMissingInAfricaKenya]

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Zhu Qing: You’ve got a problem [eye roll]

Li Lan: [pitiful][pitiful]