After Encountering My Deceased Wife, I Became the Male Lead's Love Rival - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Strychnos

When Ling Qiu woke up to make breakfast the next morning, she realized she had overslept. She asked the program staff and learned that Fang Ziyue had already headed into the mountains for a mission at the crack of dawn.

Ling Qiu stepped outside to look at the mountains surrounding the village. They were far away and shrouded in mist. Most importantly, there was no signal in the mountains, so Ling Qiu had no way to contact Fang Ziyue. However, considering that the program crew was filming her, there shouldn’t be any danger.

“Today’s task is to build your own exclusive small house. The task will last for one week, and the finished product will be scored and selected by the audience.”

As soon as the program team’s task was announced, Ling Qiu felt a bit of a headache. Building an exclusive small house required tables and chairs at the very least, but their house only had one chair and one pot. Furnishing the place was going to be difficult.

While Ling Qiu was troubled, Lin Mengyan’s side was much happier. Fortunately, they had chosen a well-furnished courtyard with a nice environment. Lin Mengyan thought gloatingly: I wonder if that bitch Ling Qiu will get into a fight with Fang Ziyue for choosing such a broken house.

It would be best if they beat each other bloody then I’ll be kind enough to send them to the front page so everyone can see how “crazy” those two are.

Unaware of this, Fang Ziyue had gathered some bracken and mushrooms in the mountains and even caught a hen. She noticed many chicken coops and pig pens on the mountain, likely placed there by the program team. The way to obtain these domestic animals was to exchange mountain goods of equal weight plants or animals were both acceptable.

Fang Ziyue had visited her grandmother’s house as a child; it was backed by mountains with a river in front. As the saying goes, “those near the mountain live off the mountain.” Fang Ziyue had learned a lot about mountain goods from her grandmother. In this season, bracken was the easiest to pick and the heaviest on the scale. Fang Ziyue soon headed down the mountain with her spoils.

But she had bad luck, running right into Lin Mingcheng, who had also received the mission to enter the mountains. Lin Mingcheng was wearing a white shirt, never forgetting to maintain his “clean and aloof” persona. When he saw Fang Ziyue, he furrowed his brows and looked away in disgust, his face looking as if he had stepped on a bug.

Fang Ziyue clicked her tongue, feeling displeased.

Unlike the comments exploding in the live stream saying she had a guilty conscience or that her change in expression was definitely because she was crushed by Lin Mingcheng’s disgust Fang Ziyue was thinking: Why are the cameras rolling? If there were no staff and cameras following, in this middle-of-nowhere spot, she would have definitely given this scumbag a sound beating.

How dare he try to have his cake and eat it too, cheating on his wife while playing her? Wait, how dare he even think about marrying her wife?

Pah! In your dreams!

Fang Ziyue gave him a cold glance and, with a crack, snapped a branch as thick as four fingers in her hand.

Lin Mingcheng’s heart shuddered. He took an unprecedented step back, a chill running down his spine. Why did he feel that what Fang Ziyue really wanted to snap was his head?

The staff following them trembled, tentatively moving back and forth, trying to find a way to save Best Actor Lin should Fang Ziyue suddenly turn violent. After all, Fang Ziyue was a woman of monstrous strength! They hadn’t forgotten how she had carried a stack of long wooden planks by herself!

“Quick, quick! Someone go rescue them!” Learning of the confrontation, Director Chang rubbed his receding hairline and hurriedly dispatched someone via the earpiece.

Following the director’s order, an old man who had been “lying in ambush” in the woods for a long time emerged with a hunched back and faltering steps. He carried a back basket filled with fresh flowers and herbs covered in morning dew.

“Young lady, young man, do you want to buy some flowers? These were just dug up this morning. They’ll live if you plant them in soil.” The old man put down the basket and tried his best to sell his flowers.

Lin Mingcheng looked at the old man: tattered clothes, shoes caked in mud, and rough, cracked skin. A very poor old man. Seeing this, Lin Mingcheng took out the money he had earned from selling furniture to the program team yesterday two hundred left and gave it all to the old man.

“Old uncle, I’ll take all these flowers. Is this enough money?”

Lin Mingcheng had always maintained the image of a handsome and kind-hearted “Best Actor.” This move immediately caused the live stream to flood with comments like “Good people live a safe life” and “Lin-ge is so great.”

In contrast to the praise in his stream, Fang Ziyue’s live stream was a mess. Because Lin Mingcheng had beat her to the punch in gaining goodwill, Fang Ziyue could only stand aside. This gave many anti-fans the chance to bash her for having no conscience or sense of justice.

Seeing this, Lin Mingcheng’s mood improved. He took the flowers, greeted the staff, and prepared to head down. The mission was to bring back something useful from the mountain, and he had completed it. He held the flowers, keeping the muddy parts far away from himself. He then shot Fang Ziyue a contemptuous glance and left her with a proud, disdainful back. He didn’t even bother to say a word to her—which the audience took as a reason to both pity her and gloat over her.

A barking dog doesn’t bite, but a person who acts like this is worse than a dog.

Fang Ziyue ignored him and the anti-fans. She walked up to the old man, looked at the remaining large bunch of white Strychnos (Arisaema/Tiannanxing) in his basket, and asked slowly, “Old uncle, how can I trade for these?”

When Lin Mingcheng was buying with money, the old man had specifically emphasized that the Strychnos weren’t for sale, only for trade. Lin Mingcheng thought the money he offered was more than enough and felt the old man was being greedy over some “broken white flowers.” Displeased, he hadn’t bothered further and left with the other flowers.

Fang Ziyue noticed that while the flowers Lin Mingcheng took were colorful and made for a large bouquet, they looked petty compared to these Strychnos.

“These? These must be traded for Atractylodes (Cangzhu),” the old man tapped his leg and sighed. “Atractylodes grows at the top of the mountain. My legs aren’t what they used to be; I can’t climb up there anymore.”

Atractylodes was a medicinal herb used to dispel cold and strengthen the spleen; Fang Ziyue knew this. She nodded and asked the old man to tell her exactly which peak had them. She wasn’t worried about a wasted trip even if it was for the sake of the show, since the old man mentioned it, Director Chang must have prepared it in advance.

The path up the mountain was long. The dew soaked Fang Ziyue’s pants, making them cling to her uncomfortably.

It was much like how Ling Qiu felt right now. Lin Mengyan, holding a large bouquet of flowers, had specifically run to her courtyard to show off. She was like a clinging burr—uncomfortable to have around.

“Honestly, Cheng-ge is just too much. Even though the mountain trip was so exhausting, he still insisted on bringing back so many flowers for me,” Lin Mengyan pouted with feigned distress. “But there’s simply no extra room at home to keep them.”

Having said that, she held the flowers out with a look of “parting with a treasure”: “Ling-ling, I’ll give these flowers to you. You must take good care of them.”

“It took Cheng-ge a lot of effort to get these for me”

Lin Mengyan’s affected, shameless boasting caused a stir among the fans in Ling Qiu’s live stream, and the two fanbases inevitably clashed. Ling Qiu’s fans called Lin Mengyan a “performer” who was intentionally being disgusting. Lin Mengyan actually rebutted the comments, saying she only saw that Ling Qiu’s house was too empty without any plants, unlike her own house which had a large flower bed.

” I came to give Ling-ling flowers out of the goodness of my heart, how can you speak of me like that?” Lin Mengyan clutched the flowers piteously, acting out the role of a victim. “I can’t bear to part with the flowers Cheng-ge gave me, either; I only came because I saw Ling-ling had nothing.”

This “White Lotus” act disgusted Ling Qiu. She felt Fang Ziyue was right the other day why call her “Best Singer”? She should be called “Best Actress.” It was a great loss to the film industry that she didn’t have a place in it.

“I have no place to put them either. Best Singer Lin, take them back yourself,” Ling Qiu said flatly. “And don’t call me ‘Ling-ling’.” Upon hearing that name, Ling Qiu rubbed her numbing arms, her red lips pressed thin in distaste. “I’m nearly thirty; hearing you call me that gives me the creeps.”

They weren’t nearly close enough for such endearments.

“Eh? You don’t like being called that?” Lin Mengyan acted as if she couldn’t understand human speech, automatically ignoring Ling Qiu’s displeasure and leaning in closer, finding new ways to disgust her. “Then I’ll call you Xiao Ling. After all, I am a bit older than you; it’s quite appropriate.”

“Best Actress Lin, that name is just like me calling you ‘Old Meng’.” Fang Ziyue entered the courtyard holding a large bouquet of white Strychnos. She thrust the flowers into Ling Qiu’s arms and stepped in front of her. She looked down at Lin Mengyan, whose smile had frozen, and suddenly gave a sincere smile: “Actually, it’s quite appropriate.”

Appropriate my ass! YOU’RE the old one!

Lin Mengyan was so angry she snapped the flower stems in her arms, juice staining her sleeve. Fang Ziyue glanced at it and gestured with her eyes: “Best Actress Lin, you should head back quickly. Flower juice stains are hard to wash out of clothes.”

She stepped aside, revealing Ling Qiu holding the white Strychnos.

The Strychnos swayed against the beauty’s makeup; a peerless elegance for the ages. Ling Qiu, holding the flowers, was so beautiful one couldn’t look away. Looking back at Lin Mengyan clutching a mess of miscellaneous flowers, the gap in temperament and grace was immediately apparent.

Lin Mengyan could least stand being outshone by Ling Qiu, so she left in a huff with a grim face.

Left behind, Ling Qiu held the Strychnos in her arms, her heart feeling complicated. Her furrowed brows paused for a moment as she asked the seemingly happy Fang Ziyue: “Do you know the floral language of the Strychnos?”

Floral language?

Fang Ziyue blinked. She only knew that the tuber of this thing could be used as medicine. As for the rest… she really hadn’t paid attention. She just saw that it bloomed with a grand, elegant look that suited Ling Qiu perfectly, so she traded for it to give to her.

The live stream comments were also very complicated. Amidst large patches of ellipses, some people were struggling to speak up for Fang Ziyue.

After all, she did help Ling-ling out of a jam, right? And it took her a lot of effort to trade for those Strychnos, right? Furthermore, the flowers she gave really did allow Ling-jie to suppress that ‘Green Tea’ bitch, right? And… damn… I can’t keep this up! Fang Ziyue, oh Fang Ziyue! Why did you have to give Strychnos! The sister in the front row has finally lost it… Relieved.jpg.

Glancing at the comments, Fang Ziyue felt a bad premonition. She cleared her throat and asked back a bit nervously, “I don’t know. Why?”

Ling Qiu:

Enduring it again and again, Ling Qiu finally couldn’t help but use the large bouquet of Strychnos to cover her beet-red cheeks. She ground her teeth and whispered fiercely:

“Strychnos means ‘many children and many grandchildren, may you soon give birth to a son’! Understand?!”

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