Chapter 7

Editor: Theatricalidiot

Translator: ConfuzzledKin

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From the hot tea and cake when they met, to the coordinating words on the drinking table, and now the stomach medicine, the interactions she had with Jing Xiu today went through Ji Youyan’s mind like a revolving lantern. Maybe she was overthinking this, maybe it was just Jing Xiu doing things out of kindness. But Ji Youyan still felt a warm current overflowing from her heart and trickling all over her limbs.

Her face bloomed with an uncontrollable smile as her eyes grew a little hot. The impulses and emotions swirling in her mind urged her to grab the box on the side and dash out the door with great strides.

When she actually stood at the door to Jing Xiu’s room and lifted her hand to knock, only then did Ji Youyan once again sobered up.

But this time, her desires were too exuberant for her to suppress with reasons any longer.

She gritted her teeth. No longer giving herself time to look back and forth, she raised her hand and knocked on the door twice carefully and gently.

Surprisingly, Jing Xiu responded much more quickly than she had expected. Almost immediately, the door was opened by its owner by a half-person wide gap, and Jing Xiu’s white complexion face appeared in the dim light.

“Is there something wrong?” Jing Xiu frowned and said lightly. Readonyuritranslations

Ji Youyan rarely saw Jing Xiu showing such impatience to her before. She was stung by her attitude several times today, and now she felt a bit lost for a while. In front of people, she could readily pretend to be a great eloquent orator, but standing in front of Jing Xiu, with just one look from her, she was knocked back to her original form——back to being that clumsy and dumb person.

She unconsciously shook her hand. Feeling the box grasped between her five fingers, she finally remembered the purpose of her trip.

“Our meeting just now was too rushed, so I didn’t have time to give you the meeting gift I had prepared.” Her lips were tucked up in a smile and she didn’t expose Jing Xiu’s kind intention of delivering the medicine.

She opened the box to reveal the chain bracelet inside and handed it to Jing Xiu. She softly said, “The little bit of red between its eyebrows was something I insisted on adding, Slyvia was very confused and argued with me for a long time, but I thought that you would like it.” Slyvia was the French designer that Jing Xiu liked, and had brought her to visit when they used to travel to France together. Their relationship was quite friendly.

The moment Jing Xiu saw the bracelet in the box, her fingers gripping the door knob tightened. Astonishment, confusion, and pain flashed through her eyes and it was too late to cover it up.

Ji Youyan clearly saw those emotions. Thinking that Jing Xiu didn’t like the gift, she helplessly felt her heart at the edge of her throat. 

The rigid air between them was only for a few seconds, but it felt  it lasted for centuries.

“I love it.” Jing Xiu eventually opened the door a little wider and reached out to take the box.

Not knowing whether it was an illusion or not, Ji Youyan felt that Jing Xiu’s eyes were tinged with warmth as she gazed down at the bracelet and then up at her.

“I don’t have a gift for you,” she calmly told her.

Ji Youyan immediately said gently, “It doesn’t matter. If you like this gift, it would be the best gift for me.” After a pause, she mocked herself, “Besides, I have to thank you tonight. By using your light, I am able to stand here wholly.¹“

T/N

1- [TLN: It should mean that by using JX’s power/help, JYY was saved from all those messy stuff.]

Due to her family education, the word “thank you” was nothing but a common word for Ji Youyan, she was accustomed to expressing it both to her own people and to others. But Ji Youyan didn’t know what came to Jing Xiu’s mind from this statement because in the next second, she saw Jing Xiu’s expression change and her eyes becoming colder than before.

“So, shouldn’t there be a gift of appreciation?” Jing Xiu clenched the box in her hand, lowered her white neck, and said coldly.

Ji Youyan was startled and she mumbled, “No…”

“Heh.” Her voice was barely audible, she dully sneered. Jing Xiu raised her head and moved the box towards Ji Youyan, but then suddenly stopped and retracted.

A long while ago, her gaze fell into the darkness behind Ji Youyan, and said without any emotions, “Thank you for the meeting gift, is there anything else?”

How could Ji Youyan not understand Jing Xiu’s blunt words²? Ji Youyan intuitively felt that she had stepped on a landmine, her heart panicked and she didn’t even know what she should say at this point.

T/N

2- [TLN: ‘…blunt words’ is supposed to be ‘zhu ke ling’ which is the words/behavior/order suggesting for the guests to leave.]

“Wait…” Seeing Jing Xiu stepping back and preparing to close the door, Ji Youyan subconsciously blocked her. 

Jing Xiu stopped as she’d hoped for.

With her body blocking the light, in the dim and vague light, Ji Youyan felt that Jing Xiu’s face was ambiguous, as if it was very cold, as if there was something indistinguishable.

Ji Youyan’s mind sobered up after taking a bath, but now once again, her mind was in a state of chaos like her drunken self. With difficulty, she remembered something, and with a firm and strict look in her eyes, she sternly said, “I had read the script; the director’s team had arranged for you to perform an action scene from “Overlord” during the opening segment of the mentor show. But how can your body handle that much action again? It’s too risky.” Readonyuritranslations

Two years ago, Jing Xiu had an accident during the filming of the movie “Disparity” due to a mistake made by the work team. She fell from a high height while dangling from ropes and was lucky enough to survive, except she broke her left arm and ribs, and the rest of her body suffered bone fractures and contusions. The doctor regrettably said that Jing Xiu, who was one of the few in the new generation in recent years with a stunning Wu Dan³ image, would never be able to act in an action movie ever again.

T/N

3- [TLN: Wu Dan means a female character type versed in shadowboxing, swordplay, etc. in Chinese operas.]

Strangely enough, this wasn’t the segment that Jing Xiu had performed in the mentor show in her last life. This made Ji Youyan very uneasy and worried if something had happened during the rehearsal process so that the script had changed.

 Ji Youyan’s caring and gentle voice warmed Jing Xun’s heart, but it also carried an overwhelming pain.

She closed her eyes, and those days of pain and fear seemed like it had just happened yesterday. She was hurt everywhere; her body was filled with pain and her heart too. The moment she fell, she thought she was going to die and wanted to see Ji Youyan; the moment she woke up after the disaster, she was scared and still in pain. She badly wanted to see Ji Youyan.

She so desperately needed Ji Youyan, but where was she?

It was too late for her concern now, like being handed a quilt during summer and a fan during winter——superfluous and ridiculous.

Jing Xiu crossed her hands across her chest, stepped aside, and leaned against the door. The light flowed out with her movements, and Ji Youyan could see Jing Xiu’s face clearly.

Her eyes looked like icy blades, and the eyebrows carrying a frosty chill.

“What does it have to do with you?” Jing Xiu’s lips curled up a little. 

It was just a short question without any emotional ups and downs, but like a sharp arrow, it ruthlessly pierced Ji Youyan’s heart.

Ji Youyan turned pale, she wanted to speak but couldn’t say anything. Her eyes were full of sadness, and she explained in embarrassment, “A’Xiu, I…I’m just worried about you. You try talking to Director Chen and he will understand. We don’t have to take risks, right?”

“We?” Jing Xiu repeated the word and lowered her head with a soft chuckle, the emotions under her eyes lightened, “In what identity are you saying this now? Colleagues? A friend?”

“Or… hah, a nice ex?”

The words came to an end said with faint astringency and light trembling, hidden under her aggressive demeanor. Ji Youyan did not notice it, she was silently screaming ‘no, neither…’ 

She didn’t want to be her just colleague or her friend or even her ex.

But when she opened her mouth, she couldn’t make a sound. The current her really meant nothing to her…

Jing Xiu didn’t want to be bothered with her anymore. She straightened up, obviously as if she was about to close the door.

In a panic, Ji Youyan subconsciously chose to say, “Friends, A’Xiu, can we still be friends?” She reassured herself that she still had time to ease their relationship. She first needed to have an identity of someone who could legitimately care about her while other things could be done step by step gradually. There was still time.

At present, she had no faith and no confidence in the words “I want to start over with you” that was coming from an ex who had failed Jing Xiu a lot and hadn’t contacted her for two years. Saying such words would not only annoy Jing Xiu but would also disgust her. 

However, it was clear that her answer wasn’t much better either.

Jing Xiu hooked up her thin lips, as if she had heard a very funny joke, and laughed so hard that her eyes became a little moist. After laughing, she sighed and lamented, “Teacher Ji really is consistently forgetful, you can really forget everything you have said before, or…” She paused, didn’t continue, and said instead, “No way.”

 “Don’t you dare insult me or yourself.” She made a solemn statement with a frown.

This time, after she finished speaking, she closed the door without hesitation, and left Ji Youyan alone in the silent darkness.

Insult? Ji Youyan looked at the ruthless door panel and was unable to react for a moment.

What did she say? Ji Youyan walked back to her room in a daze.

In the dark bedroom, the flashing blue alert light of her phone on the bedside was particularly obvious. Ji Youyan rubbed her temples, suppressing the thousand thoughts in her mind and quickly walked to the bedside.

It was the prompt of a WeChat message——Ruan Ningwei had added her.

Ji Youyan passed through it casually, then lifted up the thin blanket and laid down onto the bed, closing her eyes to rest.

The phone in her hand vibrated suddenly. Ji Youyan raised her hand to click on it. Ruan Ningwei greeted her with an emoji and explained, “Good evening, Ji-jie, I’m sorry to disturb you. Chief Tao told me to add you.”

Why did she add her? It goes without saying.

The script she got today was now in the hands of each of the trainees as well, and they were starting to prepare.

In the first phase of the program, 99 trainees will perform solo performances for 1-3 minutes. The instructors will give them the first rating based on their performances. The later stage ratings would be determined based on the popularity of the off-site fans’ votes. All post-competitions were co-performance, and participants would be able to pick their co-performer in the descending order of rating and popularity. Evidently, the higher the popularity, the higher the independence and stronger the alliance would be easier to make. The popular contestants would naturally be more willing to co-perform with other popular ones to spark hype. It was obvious that those with lower ranks would have a difficult time turning the tables.

A good start meant winning half the battle. The importance of the grading set for the first time was obvious.

This show was going to rely on the resources at hand to gain an advantage, and Ruan Ningwei was obviously not the first, much less the only one. There aren’t many that were selected into this programme without bribery or through connections. It was just a matter of how much they had bribed, or how close the connection was.

There were always favors and potential rules for everything.

The good thing was that Ji Youyan didn’t hate Ruan Ningwei. Even after Ruan Ningwei’s suicide in her last life, she still admired and pitied this “vacuous older sister”. This made her feel less annoyed by the fact that she had to give preferential treatments and advice to Ruan Ningwei.

Moreover, in the later stage, instructors would be required to each pick the students they want to bring along for guidance, and Ruan Ningwei would naturally be led by her, so she could just treat it as early guidance. Ji Youyan deceived and comforted herself.

She can’t do what some of her peers do to help people by lying about the key comments with their eyes wide open, so Ruan Ningwei mainly had to rely on herself. After a few moments of deliberation, Ji Youyan helped Ruan Ningwei choose and slightly modify a cute and manageable script.

To not aim to achieve the best possible result, but rather try to avoid making mistakes.

Ruan Ningwei was a little surprised when she heard the choice, but she still accepted it without objection.

The conversation was about to end. Ji Youyan’s gaze swept over the panda pillow next to her own, and suddenly decided to trouble Ruan Ningwei, saying, “Ningwei, can you take a detour to my room and bring me something when you come tomorrow?”

Ruan Ningwei responded good naturedly.

After their talk, it was already very late in the night. Ji Youyan turned off the lights and prepared to rest. Obviously, after a whole day of running around, she was tired half to death, but her thoughts were like an energetic wild horse, galloping around so much that she couldn’t sleep.

Tossing and turning restlessly in a daze and on the verge of falling asleep, Ji Youyan sat up abruptly and fished out a precious reed straw out of the endlessly river⁴.

T/N

4– [TLN: Kinda has the same meaning as finding a needle in a haystack.]

She finally got what Jing Xiu had said.

Back then, when they were talking about their feelings, they themselves said, “People who have dated and broken up can’t be friends. Unless, there was no real love between them.” At that time, Jing Xiu deeply believed it.

Ji Youyan slumped against the backboard of the bed, reflecting on herself as she had been the one to misspeak. 

 But who would want to be friends if they could be lovers? Readonyuritranslations

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The author has something to say:

Inside Teacher Jing’s heart: I’m so angry! I’ll give you back the bracelet!

She readily extends her hand with confidence [while inside her head] No, I’m a bit reluctant o(╥﹏╥)o

Ji-jie: Quack, quack, quack! So adorable! (*?▽?*)

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This is a fan translation presented by Yuri Translations. This novel does not belong to us. Support the author by donating to the site linked on the synopsis page. You can also donate to the translator if you appreciate their hard work.

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TL: I haven’t been able to go to school normally for the past 3 weeks. It first started off with my stomach pain and blurred vision to discovering I had shingles [that I mistook for ringworms somehow] and then to my ingrown toenail becoming worse [so I got a small surgery]. KEK. I missed a lot of classes and I have a Math retest on Monday and I’m dying kek.

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