Deliberate Possession [Entertainment Industry] - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Where to Stay

Su Mumu looked at Chu Qianyuan with a cold smile. Everyone else was holding hands, and she was still nitpicking her own girlfriend.

Receiving her frosty gaze, Chu Qianyuan gritted her teeth, cursing Jing Xiaoyan again in her mind: Traitor!

Su Mumu scoffed, took the sugar-coated hawthorn from Chu Qianyuan’s hand, and gave it to Luo Cheng, who was enjoying the show on the side.

“Luo Cheng, you eat it. She doesn’t like sweets.”

Luo Cheng held up the sugar-coated hawthorn and shook it at the camera, proudly saying: “I’ve certainly gotten a lot of freebies today.”

Jing Xiaoyan hadn’t expected them to make peace so quickly, but she saw Jiang Yumian’s hand extended and couldn’t bear to leave her hanging.

Moreover, Jiang Yumian’s two little blinks and winks at her made her genuinely unable to hold back a smile.

She squeezed Jiang Yumian’s hand, her eyes slightly darkening, a flicker of hesitation passing through them. Finally, she switched hands to hold her, maintaining a natural expression while her heart was in turmoil.

She pursed her lips and said as if nothing had happened: “Let’s go inside first.”

Chu Qianyuan forced a smile: “Alright, alright, no more fooling around. Let’s go in first.”

She then quickly put her arm around Su Mumu, half-embracing her as they walked in, not forgetting to “tsk” at Jing Xiaoyan over her shoulder.

What a spineless person.

Jiang Yumian glanced secretly at the hand Jing Xiaoyan was holding as they walked, feeling a little awkward.

Why was she holding her hand for no reason?

Was it her mission?

She thought seriously. Even after sitting down on the sofa, she didn’t dare to question why Jing Xiaoyan was holding her hand.

If it was some kind of mission, then she would just accept it. Consider it paying her back.

Jing Xiaoyan’s lips curved into a faint smile. She sat on the sofa, still holding Jiang Yumian’s hand, not letting go. It wasn’t a mission. She was just doing it on purpose, guessing that Jiang Yumian wouldn’t expose her.

Everyone exchanged greetings and introduced themselves. It was only then that Jing Xiaoyan finally let go of Jiang Yumian, acting as if it were unintentional, but Jiang Yumian didn’t think so.

She frowned. If there was no mission, then the problem was serious. Jing Xiaoyan liked women.

Jiang Yumian twirled the sugar-coated hawthorn in her hand, temporarily setting the matter aside. She took out the remaining sugar-coated hawthorns from the bag on the table and distributed them to the others.

“There are only two baked sweet potatoes. That grandma said the rest weren’t cooked yet. I bought these two as an apology, so I won’t give them to you.”

Jiang Yumian finished speaking and handed one baked sweet potato to Jing Xiaoyan and the other to Chu Qianyuan.

Lin Xi also figured out the whole story. She sat next to Luo Cheng, holding back a laugh as she looked at Jiang Yumian and Su Mumu. She couldn’t help but say, “Mm-hmm, we won’t eat them. The director prepared a table of delicious food. Let them enjoy the baked sweet potatoes slowly.”

Jing Xiaoyan and Chu Qianyuan were good friends with her. Su Mumu and Chu Qianyuan were even brought together by her. Coupled with her recent collaboration with Luo Cheng, Lin Xi knew the most people here. Although she hadn’t interacted with Jiang Yumian, she knew quite a bit about her.

She smiled sweetly at the two people sitting together. When Jing Xiaoyan held her hand and sat down, it was hard for Lin Xi not to sense some other meaning.

Seeing Lin Xi look over, Jing Xiaoyan raised an eyebrow, subtly turning her head away, avoiding eye contact.

In Lin Xi’s view, this was a clear sign of guilt.

Jiang Yumian’s mind was completely focused on the “feast” Lin Xi mentioned and didn’t notice any of this.

Her heart was sinking. She wished she hadn’t eaten so much earlier.

Su Mumu rubbed her stomach: “What feast?”

Lu Zhi clapped his hands and didn’t keep them guessing: “Since everyone is here, let’s go eat first.”

It was indeed a table full of delicacies…

Jiang Yumian kept pursing her lips, looking at the crayfish, paper-wrapped fish, steak, and barbecue on the table…

She suddenly felt profoundly tricked by the director.

Especially when those small hot pots were brought out, this sense of powerlessness peaked.

She was mentally going crazy.

Ah!

Jing Xiaoyan sat down next to her, suppressing the smile at the corner of her mouth, and tugged at Jiang Yumian’s hand: “Mianmian, why aren’t you sitting down? Hurry and eat.”

Meanwhile, in the live stream.

“Jing Xiaoyan: Eat, why aren’t you eating? There’s your favorite hot pot too.”

“I’m dying of laughter. I thought the sisters had really forgiven them so quickly. Turns out they were waiting for this.”

“Hahahaha, you can clearly see the regret on the faces of the two female celebrities.”

“Why isn’t Mumu eating? Is it not to her liking? Hahahaha.”

“Seriously, they’re eating so well! I’m getting so hungry I could cry.”

Once everyone was seated, Lu Zhi distributed the rewards. The four people who received the reward each got 200 yuan in funds.

After getting their rewards, Xie Yunhuan and Luo Cheng were cooperative and split half with Jing Xiaoyan and Chu Qianyuan.

Jiang Yumian was completely numb. She swore she had to watch the replay when she got back!

She had been thoroughly tricked several times today. She felt a little defeated.

And the audience watching the live stream was also being tricked.

Lu Zhi held the microphone and cleared his throat: “Hello everyone, I’m Director Lu Zhi. Today’s test run live stream ends here. Didn’t expect it, did you?”

“We’ll see you tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. Bye-bye.”

The audience who were watching with keen interest: “…”

Seeing the cameras move away, Chu Qianyuan silently gave Lu Zhi a thumbs-up. Clever. Their show would definitely be trending today.

Everyone silently removed their microphones and started eating. Jiang Yumian, however, was staring intently at the staff member who had collected her phone today.

After preparing herself for a while, she couldn’t resist leaving her seat and going over to the staff member who was packing up the equipment. She whispered: “Xiao Gu, my phone.”

She hadn’t been in contact all afternoon. She wondered if her older sister (friend/partner) had tried to reach her.

Jing Xiaoyan, who had been watching her, lowered her gaze. She picked up and put down her chopsticks until she saw Jiang Yumian return with her phone, a smile quickly blooming on her face.

The phones of the others were also gradually returned.

Jing Xiaoyan wasn’t in a hurry to open her phone. She was waiting for Jiang Yumian to finish texting.

Since she sat down, her hand hadn’t stopped moving.

Perhaps the gaze beside her was too intense. Jiang Yumian’s fingers typing gradually became stiff. She licked her lips, silently put down her phone, and turned to look at Jing Xiaoyan. Seeing that Jing Xiaoyan was indeed looking at her, she felt inexplicably nervous.

“What’s wrong?”

Jing Xiaoyan glanced down, then intentionally leaned close to her ear and teased softly: “Texting your significant other?”

Jiang Yumian shrank back, enduring the ticklish feeling in her ear, and nodded a little shyly.

So it was just gossip…

Seeing that there were no other emotions on her face, only a happy, curved-eye smile, Jiang Yumian was a little confused again.

So, Jing Xiaoyan probably didn’t have any other intentions toward her, right?

Jing Xiaoyan coughed softly, as if reminding her, and whispered: “Eat first. Chat later. Everyone is looking at you.”

Jiang Yumian blinked, then realized that everyone around her was chatting casually, and it really wasn’t polite for her to be playing with her phone.

Seeing her obediently put down her phone, the smile on Jing Xiaoyan’s face deepened.

She reminded Jiang Yumian only because she had been grinning foolishly, and people around them were indeed looking at her.

She didn’t like that.

Jiang Yumian ate quite a bit of the food. Although she had already eaten, she still tasted a little bit of everything.

As a result, she was truly full now. She leaned against her chair to rest, chatting with one person, then another, but not Jing Xiaoyan.

Because Jing Xiaoyan was looking at her phone, she wanted to talk to her and hear her voice, but since she wasn’t speaking, she didn’t want to disturb her.

Finally, she opened her phone again, wanting to see if her older sister (friend/partner) had replied, but there was still no message.

Jiang Yumian felt a little deflated. She hadn’t sent a message all afternoon. Had she forgotten the “online-raised” girlfriend?

Jing Xiaoyan put away her phone, the smile on her lips slightly receding. She intentionally didn’t reply. If she had replied as soon as she opened her phone, it would have been too obvious.

“Where are we staying tonight?”

Everyone was full and finally started caring about where they would sleep.

Lu Zhi arranged a nearby hotel for them. Since the filming hadn’t officially started, they were planning to start from the hotel anyway.

As the group arrived at the hotel, Lu Zhi secretly pulled Chu Qianyuan aside.

Lu Zhi whispered: “Wasn’t that considerate? I arranged a large bed room for you and your Mumu.”

Chu Qianyuan’s eyes lit up. She gave him a thumbs-up.

“What about the others?”

Lu Zhi shrugged: “Twin rooms. They were originally arranged to stay in pairs.”

Chu Qianyuan wanted to call him stingy, but then she thought of how thoughtful he had been, and quickly held back the words.

A smile hung on her face: “Good friend. It’s a blessing to have you.”

She glanced at the group walking ahead, pointed to Jing Xiaoyan for Lu Zhi, lowered her voice, and vaguely hinted: “Try to get her and Mianmian together if you can.”

Lu Zhi scratched his chin, trying to digest the meaning of Chu Qianyuan’s words. Could there be something going on between those two too?

But they didn’t look that close.

Lu Zhi took out the room cards, first giving one to Chu Qianyuan, then to the two guys. Finally, he hesitated for a moment and handed a room card to Jing Xiaoyan, saying naturally: “You and Mianmian will stay together.”

Then he looked at Luo Cheng and Lin Xi: “You two have worked together recently and are more familiar, so it won’t be awkward to share a room.”

Jing Xiaoyan looked at the room card. He had just assigned Jiang Yumian to her. That was quite a surprise.

Jiang Yumian didn’t find it strange. She just thought the director was stingy. The show hadn’t even started filming yet. She could clearly get her own room. She had money.

But since everything was already arranged, it would be difficult for her to say she wanted to live alone.

Jing Xiaoyan smiled. As the elevator moved up floor by floor, she looked at Jiang Yumian standing in the corner, watching her absentmindedly staring at her phone, seemingly still waiting for her reply.

She withdrew her gaze. When the elevator door opened, the others gradually left. Only Luo Cheng and Lin Xi remained besides them. She suddenly spoke up to remind Jiang Yumian: “There’s still one more floor.”

The four of them were on one floor.

Jiang Yumian looked up and responded with a casual ‘Mhm.’

Lin Xi looked thoughtfully at Jing Xiaoyan, then suddenly laughed out loud, drawing the attention of the others. At the same time, the elevator arrived.

Lin Xi held back her laughter and purposely put her arm around the confused Luo Cheng: “Ahem, darling, let’s go to bed.”

As she walked away, she didn’t forget to wink at Jing Xiaoyan, tightening her grip on Luo Cheng’s shoulder, telling her to learn from this.

Luo Cheng walked out, feeling like something was wrong but couldn’t quite place it.

Jiang Yumian’s eyes widened, and she covered her mouth, suddenly realizing something.

Sister Yunyun truly didn’t deceive her!

She just didn’t expect Luo Cheng and Lin Xi to be like that!

Sensing Jiang Yumian’s shock, Jing Xiaoyan looked at their retreating figures, pursing her lips in silence.

She was a little unsure whether she should explain things for the smug Lin Xi, but Lin Xi seemed to have just mocked her.

Jing Xiaoyan shook her head.

Forget it. Lin Xi deserved it.

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