Chapter 8

Editor: Theatricalidiot

Translator: Confuzzled Kin

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When she has work, Ji Youyan would always wake up half an hour early since she needed to get her makeup done and make other necessary preparations. Remembering that there might be a chance to have breakfast with Jing Xiu if she wakes up early the next day, when Ji Youyan went to bed at night, she deliberately set the alarm clock half an hour earlier.

The alarm went off on time, and Ji Youyan was still in the state of half-asleep. Because she had a restless night and slept quite late, her entire mind was groggy when she was woken up. She mumbled to herself, her whole body refusing to get up. But with her eyes still closed, the name Jing Xiu suddenly flashed through her mind like a pebble falling into a calm lake noiselessly, making wave after wave of ripples.

Ji Youyan’s mind became clear as she sat up and got out of bed.

She casually put on a jacket and went into the bathroom to do her morning routine. After freshening up a bit, she eagerly opened the door and went out.

It was quiet outside. On the sofa, Lin Yue tiled her head backward as she closed her eyes to rest. Through the windows with the curtains open, one could see that it was still early from the morning sky, the light of the dawn was faint and the cool breeze was gentle.

Hearing some movements, Lin Yue looked towards the source of the sound and grinned in greeting, “Ji-jie, you’re up so early, didn’t you sleep well?”

Ji Youyan unconsciously frowned and stepped closer. Lowering her voice, she said, “Keep your voice down, don’t disturb Teacher Jing.”

Lin Yue put out her tongue out mischievously and replied with a smile, “I know, but Teacher Jing has already gone out.”

Ji Youyan’s body stiffened, she subconsciously looked towards the door to Jing Xiu’s room—— it was closed tightly with no possibility to see if there was anyone inside. The light in her eyes gradually dimmed, and she murmured, “So early……”

“Well, Teacher Jing happened to be out when I got here, it surprised me at the time. Teacher Jing told me that she still had jetlag so she went to the gym to run for a while as some morning exercise. She has been out for a while now,” Lin Yue said. Holding the clothes and other things beside her, she asked Ji Youyan, “Kai-jie matched these last night and sent it to me. Ji-jie, would you like to take a look?”

In the past, at Ding Feng, Ji Youyan had only one assistant by her side and the rest were shared with other artists. After signing the contract with Ran Wen, Tao Xingruo generously assigned her a team of her own and provided every set of clothes. In her previous life, she had worked with the team for three years, and they complemented each other well. Coincidentally, in this life, she signed a contract a year earlier, and Tao Xingruo had assigned the same team members to her. Kai-jie, the designer and hair stylist, was still unknown at this time, and she didn’t know where Tao Xingruo dug out this gold from.

Ji Youyan slightly retracted her thoughts and swept a glance, nodding in agreement. 

“Ji-jie, since you are awake, I will go down to pick some dishes, and then inform the hotel to send the food up.” Lin Yue put the clothes on Ji Youyan’s bed and seeing that the kettle was empty, she helped Ji Youyan pour water and boil it. She then spoke out, “Xiao Hua-jie should also be prepared too.” Xiao Hua was the makeup artist.

Ji Youyan gave a soft “en”, her eyes fell on the white mist rising from the kettle, getting a little distracted…

Why did she go out when there was already a gym in the suite? Was it… that she didn’t want to meet with her more after last night’s episode?

The water in the kettle started to heat up to the boiling point, it started to make ‘plop plop’ sounds.

Ji Youyan remembered Jing Xiu’s categorical refusal last night, and her heart sank and became colder to the freezing point amidst the plopping sound of water boiling. 

Should she have a bit of self-knowledge as her ex? A qualified ex should be as good as dead.

However, she would always remember that dreamlike past life of hers. She would remember that scene in the mourning hall, Jing Xiu’s mournful, nostalgic kiss that fell on her icy coffin which seemed to set her entire soul on fire…

No, she didn’t seem to be very happy when she died. Ji Youyan looked at herself in the mirror and bit her lower lip, barely managing to pull out a smile to cheer herself up.

It wasn’t until Ji Youyan finished eating her breakfast that Jing Xiu came back together with Yao Xiao.

Ji Youyan hurried out from the dining room when she heard the door open, but she only saw Jing Xiu’s back shutting the door and Yao Xiao’s slightly embarrassed smile.

She waited and waited, but couldn’t wait long enough for Jing Xiu to come out of the shower and go to the practice room together. Lin Yue soon reminded her that it was time to go to the dressing room to put on her make-up, and that she had to leave.

Lin Yue went out ahead to press the elevator button while Ji Youyan walked behind her.

Before leaving, Ji Youyan turned around, took a business card from her bag and handed it to Yao Xiao. She softly said with a hint of helplessness, “Teacher Jing has an old injury, I am a little worried for her. In case something goes wrong during the rehearsal, can you tell me, if it is convenient?”

Yao Xiao did not expect Ji Youyan to come to her, and she looked at her in surprise. When she saw the concern and tenderness in Ji Youyan’s eyes, Yao Xiao adjusted her glasses and sighed in her heart before accepting the card.

No matter how much Ji Youyan had changed over the years, Yao Xiao still believed that she was different from others—— her concern and tender sentiments for Jing Xiu were not fake at all. It’s just that there were too many mistakes born from unexpected turns of events in life that made one helpless against it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll pay attention.” Yao Xiao replied cautiously. She didn’t say she would notify Ji Youyan nor did she say that she won’t.

Ji Youyan understood Yao Xiao’s dilemma and accepted the little kindness Yao Xiao gave to her. She responded with a smile, “I know, actually…” Her smile was tinged with some loneliness, but the words that came out from her mouth was generous and sincere, “Actually, in taking care of her, you’ve always been better than me. it’s just that一 if I didn’t say it, I wouldn’t be at ease.”

“Was this rather superfluous?” She mocked herself.

Ji Youyan spoke in a natural and unrestrained manner. Yao Xiao fondled the business card between her fingers, for a moment, not knowing how to give an appropriate answer. She caught a glimpse of the gloominess hidden underneath Ji Youyan’s smile. She licked her lips and couldn’t help but reply, “Ji-jie, you slept late yesterday, didn’t you? Jing-jie purposely left to work out because she didn’t want to wake you up.”

Ji Youyan’s action of turning around suddenly paused. 

“Oh, so it was like this…” After two seconds of silence, she spoke so softly like she was whispering.

Though her tone sounded calm, Yao Xiao saw that the corners of Ji Youyan’s mouth were already turned up in a smile.

Anyone could perceive which one of her smiles, the one before and the one right now, was truly filled with happiness. 

“Ji-jie, I couldn’t keep holding back the elevator, it went down again…” Lin Yue waited for Ji Youyan to appear for a long time but since she didn’t come, she went back. Seeing a seldom and brilliant smile on Ji Youyan’s face, Lin Yue stammered.

“What’s the matter? Ji-jie… why are you so happy?”  Thi s was tran slated by Yu ri trans lati ons

Ji Yuoyue kept on twisting her curls in a loop as she lowered her head to hide her smile, drawing out a bit of coquettishness. Soon, she turned back to look at Yao Xiao and said briskly, “Yueyue, you need to learn more from your Yao-jiejie in the future.”

“Huh?” Lin Yue didn’t understand the meaning behind Ji Youyan’s words.

Ji Yuyan nodded at Yao Xiao. “Xiaoxiao, thank you. I’ll be leaving first then.” 

Yao Xiao touched her nose embarrassedly and nodded.

Ji Youyan turned around, put one hand in her pocket and patted Lin Yue’s shoulder with the other. As they walked out, she teased Lin Yue, “Learn from your Yao-jie on how to considerately look at problems from different angles.”

Lin Yue looked at Ji Youyan and while closing the door, she glanced at Yao Xiao, her small face filled with great confusion. “???” What’s with the riddle?

Yao Xiao looked at their backs and sighed, not knowing if she had been too talkative.

The practice rooms for the four mentors were separated and each mentor got their own room. They were arranged in sequence along the elevator entrance. The entire floor was partitioned into multiple rooms, each of which wasn’t very spacious but convenient for trainees to use as training rooms and for extra practice when they return to their dormitories.

When Ji Youyan arrived, there were already a mentor and several staff members waiting in the practice room, as well as an actress who once acted in a film along with her——the traffic little flower¹, Yang An’ran, who had only entered the entertainment circle for two or three years.

T/N

number of note

[TLN: Traffic flower is a Chinese internet slang used for female celebs who has large numbers for fans on social media, hence, increasing the flow of traffic for the site.]

The role she was playing in the opening mentor show scene the director has arranged, was from the filming she had first acted in many years ago when she entered the circle. The background was the entertainment industry. The scene was, at the beginning of her career, as a poor but beautiful and talented actress, the female lead would turn a blind eye to the deliberate difficulties posed by the hypocritical second female lead while rebuking and defending her dream in such a Su Shuang plot_².

T/N

number of note

TLN: Okay, so I’m not sure on this but from what i had researched, su shuang [苏爽] [su [苏] for either ‘revive’ or the su [苏] from ‘Mary Sue’ and shuang for ‘enjoyment’] is a novel tag that should have the typical Mary Sue plot.

Even though it had been several years since then, when Ji Youyan saw the script yesterday, she couldn’t help but get the chills and goosebumps all over her body when she remembered her own performance that time.

That year, the main characters of the drama were all newcomers from Ding Feng, with high visual traits. With her playing in a ridiculous Su Shuang plot film and with the three views* being fairly positive, after the broadcast, she unexpectedly became popular, which also made her officially go to the traffic route. Many years later, one day, in an interview, the host reviewed her journey with her, and showed a clip from her first drama. Ji Youyan looked at herself crying on the screen with a flushed face, feeling as if she was sitting on pins and needles.

She didn’t know whether she should thank the director for giving her a chance to prove that she was now different than she was in the past. With her current acting skills, it would be a no-brainer for her to perform this clip again.

So for the rehearsal, Ji Youyan handled her things like handling a butcher’s cleaver with ease³. Besides polishing her own performance, she also thoughtfully kept her caliber away and gave a pointer or two to Yang An’ran, who didn’t have much acting experience.

T/N

number of note

[TLN: To handle something skillfully and with ease.]

Compared with the lightness of her scene, Jing Xiu’s part was much more difficult.

What she would be performing was an action scene from “Overlord”, in which she first had to fight the other actors with a long spear, and then disdainfully looked down at the defeated General as she says her classic phrase, “Who said that only men can compete in this world? Since no one has any objections, engrave this in your mind: what men do, women can do it too!”

Although live performances focus more on the overall performance, the requirements for martial arts moves were not too strict. But still compared to others, the difficulty was obvious. 

What’s more, Jing Xiu had old injuries on her back and hands…

During the few minutes of rest, Ji Youyan’s thoughts were centered around Jing Xiu, her being deeply worried sick in her heart.

She was worried that Jing Xiu would be too stubborn that even if she felt any discomfort during the rehearsal, she would just clench her teeth and hold on firmly despite extreme adversity. She was even more worried that if she did the difficult actions forcefully, the martial arts instructor and Yao Xiao would not be able to find it out and stop her in time.

While groundlessly worrying, a loud sound of chairs overturning from outside resounded.

Ji Youyan’s heart suddenly beat loudly. Thi s was tran slated by Yu ri trans lati ons

The next second, the voice she was most afraid of hearing sounded. “Jing-jie!” Other voices of crying out in alarm or surprise chimed in one after another.

Yang An’ran also heard the noises. She put down the mineral water and wanted to ask if Ji Youyan wanted to go over to see what was happening, but when she turned around to find her—— where had the Ji Youyan beside her gone???

“Ji… jie?” Her voice was drowned out by Ji Youyan’s messy footsteps and abruptly opened the door. 

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The author has sth to say:

 Ji Youyan: Did A’xiu go out because she didn’t want to see me? Wuwuwuwu*.

[TLN: onomatopoeia for whimpering/sobbing.]

Yao Xiao: Ji-jie, are you stupid? You both aren’t even aware that you love each other so dearly. 

Jing Xiu, who became angry from embarrassment: Xiaoxiao, you are not allowed to speak!

Still the author: Yesterday little cutie @crystal_nqy commented and I thought it was wonderfully written so I just had to share it with you all:

Two people who once cared deeply for each other would eventually go their separate ways. The root cause might have been due to the fact that, every time they quarreled and reconciled from their cold wars, the knots and resentments were never discussed (in the open). In the long run, the grievances would start to pile up one on top of the other. Even if they had made up, they would only live harmoniously for a short duration before fighting would break out again.  Subsequently, the cold war would repeat because of the same issues, the cycle would relentlessly repeat itself.

How could one expect to maintain the feelings that had been lost and regained to be forever?

I really feel the same way too.

Merry Christmas Eve, little darlings (*^▽^*)!

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TLN: Kin here. My one week hiatus extended to a month long… I was surprised too… I’m so sorry, my school workload increased and a lot of tests came up and still are. My first ever trial is in a month while my finals are after 2 months. I’ll get on with those extra chapters I owe soon. Thanks for understanding.

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