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Guan Han was about to make the call.
Qin Yinong said suddenly: "Wait."
Guan Han paused her fingers and raised an eyebrow.
Qin Yinong did not look up, and continued to flip through pages of the script. She said indifferently: "Wear headphones."
Guan Han: "???"
Qin Yinong still looked flippant, pinched the corner of the A4 paper with her fingers, and paused for a second: "Give me one."
Guan Han thought about it for a moment, then turned around and whispered: "Okay."
She took out the bluetooth headset from her bag, connected it, and gave one to Qin Yinong.
Qin Yinong put it in her ear.
Guan Han dialed Tang Ruoyao's number.
It rang twice before Tang Ruoyao picked up: "Guan Han-jie, what's the matter?" Her tone was slightly cautious.
Guan Han pretended not to see Qin Yinong's frowning brows for a moment, maintained her usual iceberg demeanor, and said: "You sent me a message and withdrew it."
It's not so much that she didn't know what she saw, it's better to say that she didn't see it at all. Answering Tang Ruoyao in this way, she had more room to improvise.
Tang Ruoyao was shocked. Guan Han generally did not take the initiative to call her. When she needed to call, she kept to explaining important things, but sometimes Qin Yinong would talk to her directly.
Tang Ruoyao got a glimmer of hope, her heart stirring, she immediately threw Guan Han's question behind her head, and after a long while said, "Did… she ask you to call?"
Guan Han denied: "No."
Tang Ruoyao asked again: "Then is she next to you now?"
Qin Yinong, who was beside Guan Han, had a complicated look in her eyes, took off the earphone and returned it to Guan Han.
Guan Han put both earphones on her ears, and replied indifferently: "No." She added some warning to her tone, and said solemnly, "Miss Tang, I'm very busy. Please tell me what the matter is."
Qin Yinong's full lips pursed slightly, looking at Guan Han, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she didn't say anything and cast her eyes down.
Your heart gets used to getting hurt, little by little.
Tang Ruoyao heard this answer and found that she was quite calm and composed. She changed her hand to press the ice bag on her face, and her voice returned to her calm and cold tone: "It's nothing important, my finger slipped."
Guan Han glanced at Qin Yinong, who was "closing her eyes and meditating," and said solemnly to the phone, "Then is there anything unimportant?"
Tang Ruoyao: "……"
Why does it sound weird?
Guan Han calmly added: "I am her assistant, so as soon as I see something unusual, I must ask."
Guan Han was very good at handling things and thoughtful, otherwise she would not become Qin Yinong's trusted confidant. One time when Tang Ruoyao and Qin Yinong were doing it, Guan Han even came to give finger covers and lubricant. Remembering this, Tang Ruoyao couldn't help but feel a bit flushed. She calmly said, "I'm going back to school to prepare for graduation."
"When is it exactly?"
"In two days, May 22nd. My thesis defense is on the 27th, so I will live in the dormitory for a period of time and catch up with my classmates."
"When is the graduation ceremony?" Guan Han asked.
Qin Yinong's ears moved sensitively, her eyelashes trembling slightly.
She’s about to graduate, time flies so fast.
Guan Han said a few more words, put her phone away, and reported to Qin Yinong: "In a week, Ms. Yao will have her thesis defense. The graduation ceremony is on June 20th."
"I see." Qin Yinong didn't open her eyes, and spoke with neither indifference nor irritation.
Guan Han noticed her frowning, thinking she would say something about it. After a while, Qin Yinong raised her eyelids, quietly looked out the window, and changed the topic casually: "How long will it take to get home?"
Holding the tablet and checking whether Qin Yinong had anything arranged for the day of the graduation ceremony, Guan Han secretly wrote down some notes and memorized the details. She called up the map, looked at the route displayed, and said, "Twenty-eight minutes."
"I'll nap for a while." Qin Yinong said.
Guan Han hummed, handed a pillow over, and stopped talking.
Qin Yinong couldn't sleep at night. Although the soundproofing was good in the car, the noise from outside could still pass in. Now was the season of sweltering heat, and the heat and depression of its own are unbearable.
She was just finding an excuse to close her eyes and tell herself not to think about Tang Ruoyao.
***
Tang Ruoyao felt that her face was almost numb from the ice pack, so she checked in the mirror and breathed a sigh of relief. Except for a little redness, it was not a big problem. It would probably disappear tonight and would not delay the magazine shooting tomorrow.
Fortunately, she did not have any public appearances today, otherwise she would face the camera with this face and trend on every website.
Thinking of trends, Tang Ruoyao simply opened Weibo.
She has the habit of blogging on Weibo. Although Qin Yinong doesn't post much on Weibo, there is often a lot of news about her on the internet, both true and false. Even if she can't tell the truth from the fake, it's better than not knowing anything, not to mention the pictures of Qin Yinong taken by passers-by or fans. Tang Ruoyao could lose herself reading about Qin Yinong all day, but she usually only likes from a side account. If she saved every picture, her phone memory would be full.
Chaohua was basically the site of internet stars, and the most well-known stars would always dominate the top ranking list (T/N: 超话 is the “super topic” section of Weibo). The lower ranked actors of the acting school are basically unnamed. Tang Ruoyao was regarded as a well-known, refreshing actress in the movie circle. She was young, well past her debut, and very upbeat. She looked cool and aloof. She had attracted a lot of career fans, girlfriend fans, and mother fans. These fans were all just caught up in the fandom, and would shower her with compliments over and over until she was on the front of the Chaohua page.
It stands to reason that Qin Yinong had been this way for a long time, and other actresses with less outstanding merits were 100 years behind her. She was an exception. Fans and a huge number of passers-by were talking about her face every day, constantly stirring up the waters. Of course it will make the top of the list.
Today’s Chaohua ranking was a bit coincidental. Tang Ruoyao was at the top and Qin Yinong was below: the two are next to each other. Tang Ruoyao's eyes softened, she cropped a picture, involuntarily curled her lips, and drew a red heart, carefully circling their two heads.
After exiting Chaohua, Tang Ruoyao remembered the trending searches. She scrolled up and down, but couldn't find her name.
Tang Ruoyao: "???"
She glanced at the time on her phone--a few minutes before noon. In the morning, she was the number one trending search, and the hot search index remained high. It didn't make sense that it suddenly disappeared during the peak traffic period at noon. She still knows her popularity well, especially when she just won the award.
Tang Ruoyao mused.
Did the company help withdraw the search? Or like before, was it Qin Yinong who asked to withdraw it instead?
She would prefer the latter.
Tang Ruoyao flipped her phone down, thought about it a bit more, and sighed with one hand covering her eyes.
Sometimes she really hopes that Qin Yinong would leave her alone, so she could at least let her get rid of this thought. Every time Qin Yinong does something like this, it pulls on her heartstrings. Tang Ruoyao went to wash her face with cold water, facing the mirror with water dripping off her face, and told herself to calm down and not think about things. Qin Yinong always had this attitude towards her, whether it came from a place of love or not. It didn't matter, it was her that kept having more and more strange thoughts.
Maybe it’s not from her? It's the company--it must be the company!
Once she got involved with Qin Yinong, Tang Ruoyao couldn't calm down at all. She took a few deep breaths again and again, put her hands on the edge of the sink, hung her head, and calmed herself.
The phone on the coffee table rang.
Tang Ruoyao pulled off the dry towel on the shelf and walked to the living room while wiping her face and hands.
It’s Ruan Qin.
"Tangtang." She opened her mouth and called intimately, then softly apologized to her, "I'm sorry, I was impulsive for a moment this morning, but… is your face alright? Do you need me to send you medicine?"
Tang Ruoyao raised her eyebrows in doubt, wondering what medicine she would have sent.
Then she heard Ruan Qin's cautious tone: "You didn't tell Qin Yinong that I accidentally hit you, did you?" She chose her words carefully.
Accidentally hit you? What, was it a mistake?
Tang Ruoyao thought amusedly, it was totally a coincidence that she hit her face with the palm of her hand forcefully. Her mind turned, immediately understood, and asked nonchalantly, "Is she withdrawing my hot search?"
She could turn Ruan Qin's attitude around one hundred and eighty degrees, and all it would take is Qin Yinong.
Ruan Qin hummed vaguely, and asked uneasily: "You...you didn't tell her, did you?"
Tang Ruoyao did not speak.
Ruan Qin was anxious, for fear that she would receive a call from that cold voice soon, and repeatedly explained: "I really didn't mean it. I will never dare to do it again next time, nor will I be disrespectful to you."
Tang Ruoyao listened to Ruan Qin defending herself in a panic, her lips twitched slightly, and her thin lips coldly spat out two clear words: "You guess."
Then she hung up the phone decisively.
She will not complain to Qin Yinong, but these words are enough to make Ruan Qin scared for a while.
And so the fox borrowed the tiger's gut. (T/N: this idiom 狐假虎威 means bullying someone by flaunting one's powerful connections.)
With that in mind, Tang Ruoyao couldn't help but close her eyes and cuddle the pillow in her arms. All she thought of was Qin Yinong, her "tiger," and how she lay down beside the tiger obediently as the "fox."
The pillow in her arms gradually turned into Qin Yinong's soft and warm arms, Tang Ruoyao slowly nestled her face on it and rubbed it gently.
Less than a day after they separated, she already started to miss her. This time Qin Yinong was away for four or five months, but only stayed with her for less than four hours after her return. She vaguely felt that Qin Yinong seemed to be alienating her, but Qin Yinong was indeed very involved in filming. She still took time out of her busy schedule to check her Canary’s progress. She even made two calls because she was delayed in attending the awards ceremony and also explained herself afterwards.
Tang Ruoyao secretly suppressed this speculation, so why did she go in such a hurry? In the end, she must have said something wrong last night, right? She tried to figure out what it could have been.
What to do? Would she disappear, and not see Tang Ruoyao in the future? She could put on any show and play any role, provided that she could see Qin Yinong.
Tang Ruoyao frowned, bit her lip, and retrieved the photo taken by the assistant from the album. At the time it was taken, she had just been hit; her skin was white and tender, her cheeks were swollen, and the blood was clotted. The bright red fingerprints were clearly printed on her cheek, and it was very shocking to look at.
When Tang Ruoyao took this photo, she didn't think that it would come in handy. It's just that since things came to this, she had to make a move.
Tang Ruoyao opened Moments, selected a photo. The privacy settings on the post were set to only Guan Han, after which she posted it. (T/N: On WeChat Moments, a similar platform to Instagram, you can choose specifically who can and cannot view each post. However, only the poster knows about these privacy settings, so in order for Guan Han to know if it were public, she would have to ask someone else about it).
She crossed her hands and laced her ten fingers together. Pressing her chin, pulling back her thin lips, she locked her eyes on the phone with the screen facing up on the coffee table.
It didn't take long for the phone screen to light up suddenly.
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The author has something to say:
A small theater from the future:
Tang Ruoyao: I have something to do with my sister, and I have nothing to do with my sister (*/ω＼*)
Thanks to the little angel who voted for me or irrigated the nutrient solution~
Thanks to the little angels who cast [Rocket Launcher]: 3 from now on;
Thanks to the little angel who cast [Grenade]: From now on, the letter N and the nickname Shenma are all Fuyun 1;
Thanks to the little angels who cast [land mines]: step through 6 Kazuki White in one step;[very long list of usernames]
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
Translated by drew
Edited by mooie