Chapter 11: Afraid I’d Do It With You Right Here?

Xue Erbai decided to join *Her Romantic Encounter* after just one night of deliberation.

That was the night after she personally drove Ji Wushan to work for the first time.

She had finished her work in the study first, then asked Qiao You to stay behind alone.

The two of them held a video meeting called *Getting Close to Ji Wushan While She Has Amnesia*.

The first step was to invest in the show.

As things stood, the variety show was only moderately popular.

Most of the buzz was centered on Yi Fan and Fu Lingnan.

Yi Fan had a hit drama and a hot CP pairing; the show hadn’t even aired yet, so it was hard to say whether she’d end up blacklisted or blow up, but there would definitely be public attention.

As for Fu Lingnan, a semi-retired movie queen and “straight woman” joining an all-female variety show was a gimmick in itself.

Plenty of people said she was short on money.

Xue Erbai thought that was perfectly understandable. After all, the whole point of being a person was to make money!

Just like she hid her impulsive devotion beneath a veneer of profit!

So from a market standpoint, investing in *Her Romantic Encounter* was absolutely guaranteed to turn a profit.

From an emotional standpoint, joining *Her Romantic Encounter* was absolutely worth it.

She had originally planned to take things slowly, but with both of their jobs as they were, and with Ji Wushan’s learning ability, if she didn’t strike while the iron was hot, she might really end up becoming the Xue Yanhe of the Big Ming Lake.

The marital status would remain unchanged, and so would the emotional status.

That was not what Xue Erbai wanted. She had attended meetings and drawn up plans from dawn to dusk precisely so she could stand shoulder to shoulder with Ji Wushan on the show!

This morning had been an accident. She’d taken an early flight to Yunzhi Island to carry out her plan, even getting a fresh perm and dye job so she could come pick Ji Wushan up.

She was bursting with energy. The moment she saw Ji Wushan, her brows practically shot into the sky; it was just that there were too many people.

Somehow, fans had gotten wind of the news, and glowing Yi-letter light boards were flashing everywhere.

Xue Erbai clutched the hem of her skirt and squeezed through the crowd until she finally reached Ji Wushan’s side.

There was a little more space around Ji Wushan, but the noise was still deafening.

Xue Erbai could see her clearly, and even catch the faint fragrance on her. She flashed her white teeth and greeted her in what she thought was a polite, proper way: “Teacher Ji, please take care of me~!”

Her hand waved; her smile was stiff.

But she didn’t get the reply she expected. Ji Wushan looked at her with those pale eyes, and only then did Xue Erbai belatedly realize that her voice had been too soft, too coy.

Ji Wushan couldn’t possibly not recognize her, could she?

She lowered her head and looked at her outfit again.

Very pretty, but also very unusual.

Especially the one-shoulder dress; it showed off her figure a little.

It would be very easy not to recognize her!

Xue Erbai usually wore business attire, which concealed her figure well. But in order to look prettier in front of Ji Wushan, she had carefully dressed up.

Not just her hair and clothes, even her makeup was a little heavy.

She already had a pair of peach-blossom eyes; on ordinary days she either went without makeup or deliberately toned them down, so they didn’t look like much at all.

But now it was different.

She even felt a little insecure.

After swallowing nervously, she lowered her voice and called, “Teacher Ji…?”

A few seconds passed. Ji Wushan’s eyes moved, subtle and almost gentle, and she nodded at Xue Erbai. “President Xue…? Hello.”

Xue Erbai: “……”

That was not the answer she wanted at all!

She wasn’t at the company, and she wasn’t at work.

She did not want to hear that kind of title!

But the moment she thought of how she herself was calling Ji Wushan “Teacher Ji,” Xue Erbai lost the fight.

After all, her identity wasn’t something everyone knew, but anyone who cared would find out sooner or later; besides, the oddly conspicuous person behind her was standing there very clearly.

“Heh, Teacher Ji, you’re too polite.” Xue Erbai gave a dry laugh.

Ji Wushan didn’t show much expression. She only studied her with a little curiosity.

She didn’t say anything else, just listened quietly and seriously as the production staff arranged things.

Unlike Xue Erbai, she didn’t have the freedom to do as she pleased.

What concerned her most was the lodging arrangement for the first night.

She wasn’t used to sharing a room with other people; it would make her very uncomfortable.

But work arrangements left no room for choice, so her whole body was taut and silent.

Seeing Xue Erbai only made her thoughts even more tangled.

She knew Xue Erbai had been busy these past few days, so busy they hadn’t seen each other in two days, not even over WeChat.

And now, without a word, she had appeared on the program.

The words *How could you be here?* were stuck in Ji Wushan’s throat. She finally made up her mind to ask, but a staff member came forward and handed her the room card.

Filming would officially start tomorrow. Tonight they would rest briefly at the hotel, then head to the main island of Yunzhi Island to film at the resort.

Ji Wushan had a packed schedule today; she had to familiarize herself in advance with the script and the filming flow.

Without Mao Ying, someone she was fairly familiar with at work, her mind felt a little restless. For a while she was so busy that she forgot to think about her conversation with Xue Erbai, but in her heart, it never really settled.

Until the crowd split them apart, and they met again at the door to their room.

Ji Wushan’s heart thudded hard; she frowned briefly.

It vanished in an instant, and Xue Erbai, looking down at her suitcase, didn’t catch it. When she raised her eyes again, she was wearing a bright smile.

The two of them were standing a little too close; close enough that Ji Wushan could clearly see Xue Erbai’s brown eyes, the irises shifting with tiny glints of light.

When Xue Erbai was being looked at, she looked right back at Ji Wushan without missing a beat.

She had never looked at Ji Wushan this carefully before, when she was working.

And she didn’t know if it was just her imagination, but Ji Wushan seemed to have lost a little weight.

Her collarbones were faintly hollowed, black hair pressed against pale skin, making her seem even cleaner and cooler.

Not like herself at all, dressed simply and neatly in a silk blouse with a V-neck tucked into her waist.

Xue Erbai found it hard to look away.

Or rather, she didn’t want to.

Her thoughts ran too far, but in truth it had only been a few seconds before she finally forced her gaze away, barely restraining the way her mind drifted.

“I got the room card yesterday; I didn’t expect to share with Teacher Ji.”

“Just the two of us.”

“You don’t need to call me that.”

Ji Wushan’s low, soft voice carried a hint of chill, like warm water touched by frost, brushing heavily past Xue Erbai’s ear.

Xue Erbai felt like she might have a masochistic streak. She liked her voice even lower, even softer, but now that same voice made her embarrassed, her face heating up.

“If I don’t call you Teacher Ji, wouldn’t that be a little impolite?”

“I saw a lot of people on the show call you that…”

“It’s fine.”

“Then… can I call you Sis Wushan?”

Xue Erbai looked directly at Ji Wushan, staring at her lips, as if the one who had just been captured by that voice wasn’t her, and the one hoping to hear it speak again in that same tone wasn’t her either.

But Ji Wushan didn’t.

Her tone was flat. “Anything is fine.”

Then she swiped the room card and went in.

Xue Erbai followed in slowly after her.

The standard room the program had booked had a fairly big bed. The moment Xue Erbai entered, she didn’t move, waiting for Ji Wushan to choose first. When she saw that Ji Wushan picked the one by the window, she set her suitcase down beside the bed.

Then, dragging her feet, dragging them and dragging them some more, she started pulling at her dress.

A standard room wasn’t really her favorite.

After all, she and Ji Wushan rarely slept in the same bed; the closest they’d come recently was at Xue Yanhe’s place, and there had only been one kiss—light, sweet, and fragrant.

Now that they were on the show, it seemed like even thinking about kissing was too much.

So she tugged at her dress very slowly, a little distracted as she asked, “Who should…”

“You go shower first.”

Ji Wushan was standing by the window, and she used that same voice from the doorway to speak to Xue Erbai again. Xue Erbai pressed her lips together, her face warming up again, then crouched down rather unceremoniously to rummage for her nightgown.

She thought, anyway, Ji Wushan would only treat her with a blank expression.

Why was she tensing up like this?

So she moved quickly into the bathroom; even the sound of the shower was a little loud, and she didn’t care whether people outside could hear it.

It only took one Ji Wushan to go from being confident in your figure to giving up entirely.

After changing into her nightgown,

the faint scent of lemon-lime shower gel lingered on her. The hem of the dress barely covered her hips, and her long, slender legs stepped out.

Xue Erbai didn’t mind at all as she went to the bed and bent down to find her body lotion, applying it carefully and seriously while humming to herself without realizing it.

Ji Wushan was still by the window, arms folded, saying nothing.

Xue Erbai, having finished her arms, looked up at her. “Aren’t you showering?”

Based on her observations over this period of time, Xue Erbai dared to conclude that Ji Wushan had a bit of a cleanliness obsession; as for how severe it was, that was hard to say.

But at the very least, if the situation at home allowed it, she would take three showers a day; as for how many times she washed her hands, it was impossible to count.

Her fingers were already slender and fair. After all that washing and the repeated rubbing of hand cream, they looked even softer and whiter.

While she was thinking this, Xue Erbai never stopped moving her hands, but her gaze followed Ji Wushan’s every move.

She watched her walk away from the window, pick up her nightgown, and look over coldly…

Xue Erbai tilted her head slightly, a little confused.

But Ji Wushan said nothing. She picked up her change of clothes and went into the bathroom.

It was very much like that time at Xue Yanhe’s house.

Her mood was also very much the same.

She got a little perfunctory with the rest of the body lotion.

It wasn’t until Ji Wushan came out of the bathroom that she regained her energy. Grabbing the lotion, she got up and wanted to go to Ji Wushan.

“Goodness, Wushan…”

She was calling out while waving the body lotion in her hand, but before she could even say the next line about helping Ji Wushan apply it, she slipped and fell straight onto Ji Wushan.

A person of her size crashing down meant that even Ji Wushan, who had been standing, was knocked over and fell back onto the bed beneath her.

“Ahn…” A muffled sound slipped from Ji Wushan’s throat. When she lowered her head slightly to look at the shape pressing against her, the tips of her ears turned hot.

The softness; the shape—Ji Wushan could feel them all very clearly.

Now she understood a little better why she had still kept her distance from Xue Erbai after marriage.

Because she had never, ever made any preparations to be this intimate with another person.

Xue Erbai was the exception.

And that exception made her deeply uncomfortable.

Even though the obvious pressure told her this was an accident, she still couldn’t help thinking of other things. In the end she turned her head aside and, in a voice so small it was almost a whisper, said against Xue Erbai’s ear, “I… my hand still hasn’t fully healed.”

“And besides, it’s on the show, so we can’t… do that.” The last word was almost breathed out. After Ji Wushan finished speaking, she bit her lip and looked at Xue Erbai’s face. Seeing her raise her brows, she lifted her gaze and said, “I was afraid I’d hurt you, so I protected you when I fell just now.”

“Look!”

Ji Wushan looked over.

Only to see the injured hand Xue Erbai had raised high over her head.

At that moment, she finally found the reason she had been hit so hard.

Xue Erbai was missing one hand, so the impact had all gone into their bodies.

So just now…

She had thought too much.

Ji Wushan closed her eyes and truly no longer dared face Xue Erbai.

“Then can you get up?”

“Don’t keep pressing down on me.”

“I’m suffocating.”

Ji Wushan said those sentences a little quickly, and Xue Erbai reacted just as fast; she braced herself with one hand and got up.

Only after standing did her nightgown fall a little disheveled. She didn’t want to fix it, and even lifted herself slightly, looking at Ji Wushan with innocent confusion. “What was Sis Wushan saying just now?”

“Was it that you’re afraid I want to do it with you here?”

Author’s Note:

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