After the Agreement, the Aloof Movie Queen is Chasing Me All Over the Internet - Chapter 46

Shen Qing possessed a singular aura; amidst the cacophony of the roaring crowd, she remained the only point of silent, frozen snow.

Her tone was strictly professional, her expression maintaining its usual detachment. By simply returning the bouquet with such poise, she ensured she didn’t intrude upon Du Yaozhi’s moment in the spotlight.

Facing Yaozhi’s fans, Shen Qing offered a faint, fleeting smile before vanishing down the end of the tunnel under the protection of security. It was as if she had travelled a thousand miles just to be a spectator for a few short minutes of Du Yaozhi’s performance.

Below the stage was a frenzy of screams; on the stage remained only the lingering trace of a cool fragrance where they had brushed past one another.

How did Shen Qing get back in time? Did she really rush back just because of a single sentence?

Just because I said, “I hope she comes”?

Yaozhi tapped her fingers against the microphone stand a tiny gesture that betrayed her racing thoughts, though her face maintained a pitch-perfect smile. That sentence had been nothing more than a casual bit of nonsense.

Her mind whirled with amusement and intrigue, but her internal turmoil didn’t matter right now. This was her stage. If she handled this with even the slightest slip-up, the focus of the entire event would shift entirely to Shen Qing.

Yaozhi let out a soft laugh. Did she leave so quickly because she trusted me to handle the rest?

“My thanks to Teacher Shen for the ‘icing on the cake,'” Yaozhi said, cleverly using the idiom with a slight lilt in her voice that left the meaning tantalizingly open to interpretation.

“I expect you all liked that bouquet, didn’t you?”

“Yes!”

Yaozhi shifted gears instantly. Her gaze swept over the sea of expectant fans, her voice firm and clear. She smiled and said, “Actually, I’ve prepared a small bouquet exactly like that one for every single fan here today, complete with my signature. I hope that my affection and my gratitude can reach the hands of every person who supports me.”

The words had barely left her lips when the fans, who had been feeling dejected about missing out on the single bouquet, erupted into deafening cheers.

In the crowd, some clutched their faces in shock, while others waved their lightsticks frantically. The entire fan zone was set ablaze in a second.

“Oh my god, she actually thought of all of us!” a girl in the front row cried, grabbing her friend’s arm.

“She’s incredible… this is so thoughtful!” another voice called from the back.

The staff reacted swiftly, hauling crates of the souvenir bouquets onto the stage. Yaozhi walked to the edge, personally distributing them to the front-row fans with a warm, genuine smile.

“Thank you for your support,” she whispered to each person, her eyes focused and tender.

With her, no one would be disappointed. Everyone would be treated with care.

In one stroke, Yaozhi had diffused the potential awkwardness of the single bouquet and pulled the spotlight back onto herself, pushing the atmosphere of the fan meeting to a new crescendo.

“Zhizhi, I’ll support you forever!” a young girl sobbed as she took her flowers.

“You deserve all the love in the world!” another shouted from further back.

Yaozhi nodded slightly, a gentle smile crinkling the corners of her eyes. “It’s your love that makes me feel deserving.”

**

By that night, Du Yaozhi had become an overnight sensation.

To be precise, she had “conquered the world with a single flower.” Even before the broadcast of Jin Luo, her follower count was skyrocketing toward the ten-million mark. The internet’s reaction trailed slightly behind the live event, but when it hit, it was explosive.

Hashtags like #ShenQingCatchesTheBouquet and #DuYaozhiGodTierFanService swept the trending charts. After today, Yaozhi was no longer a name that needed controversy to be remembered. Through her mastery of the sword dance, her sharp wit, and her sincerity, she had made a breathtaking debut.

She was no longer just an obscure, struggling starlet.

Online, the comments were boiling over:

Bloody hell!! That crowd control from Du Yaozhi was legendary! ‘Icing on the cake’ gave Shen Qing a graceful way out, then she turned around and gifted flowers to everyone. That IQ, that class! She deserves to be a star!

I’m officially a stan! The sword dance was stunning, she handled the situation perfectly, and she’s so sweet to her fans. She’s the real deal!

Shen Qing: I travelled all this way to catch a bouquet. Du Yaozhi: Thanks, I’ll take that and here’s one for everyone else! (Don’t kill me!)

@ShenQingV, Qing-bao, your ‘wife’ gave everyone a bouquet except you. How do you feel about that?

I can’t cope! The netizens were right!! We actually got to see Shen Qing get rejected! Yaozhi gave the ‘love’ to the fans and confiscated Shen Qing’s bouquet, haha!

The savagery is real!

Some onlookers even started speculating about what would happen next.

I bet Yaozhi is actually really gentle and caring in private! She’ll probably feel bad and go thank Shen Qing tonight, maybe even treat her to a late-night snack.

Brilliant! And then Teacher Shen takes the chance to chase her. It’s too sweet!

Someone give the person above a pen! I can see it now: Zhizhi knocks softly on the door, acting all sweet and gentle, and then thud.

Thud.

Du Yaozhi shoved Shen Qing’s door open, her expression anything but gentle. She looked like she was there to demand a confession.

The door swung wide, the sound echoing through the quiet corridor. Shen Qing had just finished removing her makeup; she was slowly drying her clean fingertips with a towel. “Is something the matter?”

“Checking to see if you’ve grown wings,” Yaozhi said, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed. Her tone was airy, and she refused to look Shen Qing in the eye.

“Hmm?” Shen Qing replied. She had only been away for a work trip; why would she have grown wings?

Yaozhi’s arrogant voice carried a hint of awkwardness she hadn’t noticed in herself. “Didn’t you say you couldn’t get back? It was such a tight schedule, how did you ‘fly’ back? Did the brand just let you go?”

Yaozhi had asked Gong Lin and learned that the brand was notoriously difficult to work with. Had Shen Qing really ditched them just to see her?

“Let me go?”

Shen Qing stopped drying her hands. Those habitually calm eyes turned toward her. “Miss Du, you’re always introducing me to such… novel concepts.”

“Don’t you like them?” Yaozhi raised an eyebrow nonchalantly.

“What I mean is… they can’t control me. But you can.”

Yaozhi: I really can’t talk sense into this woman!

“I just don’t want to owe you anything,” Yaozhi sighed, deciding to drop the indirectness. “I don’t want someone’s public image to collapse because of a joke. I don’t want the nation’s professional Film Queen to be accused of skipping work to visit a rumoured girlfriend. Do you understand?”

So, she was worried about my reputation. A tiny smile tugged at the corner of Shen Qing’s mouth.

“I didn’t leave early,” she explained calmly. “The schedule was compressed by half an hour. I did my hair and makeup in the car. It was a bit of a rush, but I caught the earliest high-speed train and then a flight back.”

Yaozhi listened, lowering her head. Shen Qing had skipped over the hours of jolting car rides and the exhaustion of a schedule pushed to the limit, summarising it all with a casual “it was a bit of a rush.”

It must have been exhausting. Yaozhi took a breath, her fingers fidgeting.

“Come in,” Shen Qing said, stepping aside. “Isn’t it cold out there?”

“No need. I’m leaving in a moment.” Yaozhi’s gaze flickered around the room, trying to soothe the complicated emotions inside her. Usually, Shen Qing would be reading a script while washing up. Today was different. “Why aren’t you reading your script today?”

The moment the words left her mouth, the light in the room cast a shadow across Shen Qing’s profile. She didn’t answer immediately. The air felt stagnant for a few seconds, filled only by the sound of their soft breathing.

The silence didn’t feel like hesitation; it felt like a restrained stillness. Yaozhi didn’t understand what she’d said wrong, but her back stiffened against the doorframe.

“Du Yaozhi, do you know the implications of asking me that?”

Shen Qing put down the towel and turned fully to face her, her gaze deep and searching. Having just removed her makeup, her skin was a clean, cold white. Her features lacked the intensity of the stage, but her earrings, which she hadn’t yet removed, glinted with a sharp, cold light. Standing tall, she looked exceptionally aloof and unapproachable.

Yaozhi found it bizarre. Does a simple bit of concern need an ‘implication’? I come all this way to check on you, and you stare at me like this…

She felt miserable, like she’d had a bucket of cold water thrown in her face. She shifted into a more languid slouch against the door. “Didn’t you say I could come to you for line readings whenever I liked? Is a bit of small talk now subject to an interrogation of its meaning?”

Shen Qing didn’t answer. She simply watched her, her tone softening. “Du Yaozhi… why don’t you check tomorrow’s call sheet before deciding whether you want to use that as your opening line?”

“And what if I have?” Yaozhi felt wronged and certainly wasn’t going to back down.

“Very well.”

The words landed, but Shen Qing didn’t move immediately. Her dark, pool-like eyes locked onto Yaozhi’s face for two long seconds.

Why are you so disobedient?

Then, she took a step forward.

She moved closer with a cold, deliberate approach. The “safe distance” between them vanished in an instant, and that cool fragrance invaded Yaozhi’s senses. Yaozhi instinctively tried to back away, but her heels hit the doorframe. There was nowhere to go.

Shen Qing suddenly seized her wrist. With an irresistible force, she pinned Yaozhi’s back against the cool wall, her arm braced beside Yaozhi’s head, trapping her.

The scent of snow enveloped her.

“What are you doing?”

“Practising,” Shen Qing whispered, her gaze dropping to Yaozhi’s lips. “Practising how to French kiss. Or perhaps Miss Du is naturally gifted enough to learn without a teacher.”

French kiss?! Tomorrow’s schedule… was that?

Yaozhi’s head thrummed. Her cheeks burned instantly. “Shen Qing! Stop lying to me! Don’t you have a ‘no-kissing’ clause in your contract? You refuse anything more than a peck!”

Shen Qing’s breath brushed against her lips. “My memory is quite poor. I must have forgotten.”

As if!! Yaozhi wanted to stomp on her foot. She took a sharp breath, trying to arm herself with one last shred of composure. “Shen Qing, I’m warning you one last time. Don’t provoke me.”

Do you have any idea what I see in my dreams? If you keep this up, I’m going to stop holding back.

“Fine. Then you can control me.”

Shen Qing leaned in closer, their warm breaths intertwining. Yaozhi could count every single one of her lowered lashes. Her own heartbeat was a chaotic mess in the silent room, thudding so loudly against her eardrums it almost hurt.

She was at her breaking point.

Just then, the door gave a sudden creak.

Both of them turned their heads. Gu Rong’er was standing outside the door, watching them in total silence.

“Um… Sister,” Rong’er said politely, addressing the pinned Du Yaozhi inside the room. “I need to talk to you about something. Is now a convenient time?”

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