Deliberate Possession [Entertainment Industry] - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Misunderstanding

Understanding Jiang Yumian’s meaning, Lin Xi’s eyes widened. She clenched Chu Qianyuan’s arm tightly, so excited she wanted to stomp her foot!

She blinked, looking at Jiang Yumian, then at Jing Xiaoyan, her heart racing anxiously. How could Jing Xiaoyan be so dense! Move a little! Move! Awooo!

“Awoo!”

The pain made Chu Qianyuan cry out. She slapped Lin Xi’s hand. “Lin Xi, just kill me already!”

Jing Xiaoyan stiffly looked back. After confirming the distance between herself and the office desk, she slowly extended her hand, retreated half a step, and leaned against the desk.

She was completely stunned, her heart pounding. She thought she hadn’t misunderstood Jiang Yumian’s meaning!

Seeing Jiang Yumian’s attention shift to Chu Qianyuan and the others, Jing Xiaoyan raised her hand and gently pinched the ear hidden in her hair. It was hot, very hot, and definitely very red.

Lin Xi looked at Chu Qianyuan. You, you, you. She tried for a long time but couldn’t squeeze out a single word. She could only silently eat this juicy, yet agonizing, piece of gossip by herself!

Chu Qianyuan rubbed her arm, looking exasperated. “My my my, my head. What’s wrong with you? So random. Don’t interrupt people!”

Lin Xi held back for a long time, then waved her hand. “I just wanted to say Mianmian is right!”

Su Mumu raised an eyebrow, not paying attention to their squabble. She looked at Jiang Yumian thoughtfully, feeling like something was off.

Jiang Yumian’s scrutinizing gaze lingered on Lin Xi’s face for two seconds, then she quietly withdrew her gaze. She decided to ask Jing Xiaoyan for a clear explanation after filming ended.

Xie Yunhuan scratched his head. “So what were you trying to say?”

Jiang Yumian cleared her throat, picked up the seating chart on the desk, and pointed at Jiang Xiaomian’s name. “From her diary, you can see that the sister initially wanted to be friends with her, but she didn’t dare, maybe because she was afraid of ill intentions, so she refused.”

Jing Xiaoyan’s expression hardened. She opened her mouth. “I…”

“You are not the sister. You have no right to speak now. Listen carefully.”

Jiang Yumian raised her hand to interrupt her. She knew what Jing Xiaoyan wanted to explain, but she didn’t think her confession was malicious, so she directly shut her up.

She continued, “But later, she found that the sister was very good to her, so she agreed to be friends with her, right? Am I right?”

Everyone nodded. Although they felt Jiang Yumian was stating the obvious, her analysis was correct.

Lin Xi stifled a laugh. After lecturing Jing Xiaoyan, Jiang Yumian had to backtrack. She wanted to see how she’d do it.

Jiang Yumian slapped the seating chart onto the desk. “So, the sister’s love was not unrequited. Maybe what the sister needed, Jiang Xiaomian had given it without us knowing. Maybe the sister just needed Jiang Xiaomian’s company, right?”

Lin Xi cleared her throat, trying hard to hold back her laughter and cooperate. “Mhm, mhm, right.”

Jing Xiaoyan tilted her head. Why does this sound more and more like a deliberate attempt to mislead?

Jiang Yumian cleared her throat, not bothering to make things up anymore. “Yesterday, when we went to that school, didn’t the NPCs all fail to see Jing Xiaoyan? So, the sister is truly dead! End of speech!”

Everyone: “…”

Jiang Yumian turned to look at the camera, saying earnestly, “Director Lu, please cut out the part where I doubted whether the sister was dead. Thank you.”

Everyone: “…”

Lu Zhi: “…”

Is Jiang Yumian crazy?

A few seconds later…

Luo Cheng grabbed a book from somewhere and slammed it directly onto Jiang Yumian’s head. “Do I need you to explain whether their love was mutual here?”

She slammed another book on her head. “How dare you slander my ship! I want to hit you!”

Jiang Yumian held the books on her head and quickly explained, “I saw you were all depressed, so I wanted to cheer you up. And what I said wasn’t entirely unreasonable!”

Su Mumu also grabbed a book and put it on Jiang Yumian’s head. “Don’t talk to me about reason. What’s wrong with me believing in love! If I can’t believe it in real life, can’t I believe it in a story!”

“Mumu, you’re wrong,” Chu Qianyuan said that Su Mumu was wrong, but her hand wasn’t idle. She slammed a book directly onto Jiang Yumian’s face, then continued to Su Mumu, “There is true love in real life too.”

The next few books were thrown onto Jiang Yumian’s face. The books on the office desk were almost all used up.

Jiang Yumian held her head, crying out that she was wrong.

Jing Xiaoyan silently looked away. She wasn’t going to help her this time.

Although she knew the intention was to remind her not to be a fool, she deserved it for talking nonsense. After all, she felt sorry for those two characters too.

Now, she was just eager to finish filming. After filming, she was going to ask Jiang Yumian clearly why she suddenly said those things.

Jiang Yumian held her head, her gaze falling on a pair of legs in front of her. Seeing Jing Xiaoyan standing motionless, she secretly extended her leg and kicked her.

Jing Xiaoyan raised an eyebrow and reached out to take the books off her head.

“Alright, let’s look for clues. We still don’t know where to go next.”

Jiang Yumian raised her head, shook it, smoothed her messy hair, and muttered softly, “Seriously…”

Luo Cheng squinted at her, her tone threatening. “Seriously what?”

Jiang Yumian blinked. “I said I was wrong!”

Jing Xiaoyan, who was watching her, couldn’t help but smile.

Jiang Yumian quietly looked away.

After the show’s recording today, she planned to go home first. She needed to have a good talk with Ms. Jiang and then repay the rich sister.

She was a very clear-headed person, and quite selfish.

Jiang Yumian sighed silently in her heart. She really wasn’t a good person. Between the sister and Jing Xiaoyan, she chose Jing Xiaoyan. She didn’t know what the rich sister would think of her.

Jing Xiaoyan squeezed the book in her hand. Although she didn’t know why Jiang Yumian had changed, she was clear now: Jiang Yumian had absolutely no feelings for her online self.

Two people who were destined not to meet—Jiang Yumian probably wouldn’t fall for her, which was equivalent to a death sentence.

But she was different. She was standing right in front of her, alive.

Seeing Jing Xiaoyan staring at her intently, Jiang Yumian initially wanted to smile, but a flash of realization hit her. She had let something slip!

The expression on her face quickly froze. She was panicking.

She knew clearly that her relationship with the sister was just a kind of virtual companionship. To put it nicely, she was her first love girlfriend; to put it badly, she was paying to chat and make a friend.

But in Jing Xiaoyan’s eyes, she had a girlfriend. Saying those things just now—how was that any different from wanting to cheat!

Damn it!

Jiang Yumian swallowed, her heart almost jumping out of her chest from fear. She must have been too scared today and forgotten about this.

She stared intently at Jing Xiaoyan, desperately wanting to salvage her image, her confidence sorely lacking. “M-M-Misunderstanding, I was just joking. You, don’t take it seriously.”

Jing Xiaoyan’s eyes paused. Her heart sank further. She threw the book in her hand onto the desk.

“Not funny.”

She dryly left those three words, then turned around as if to look for other clues.

Su Mumu picked up the books on the floor, not understanding the meaning behind their words. She sighed. “It’s really not funny, but Mianmian’s statement wasn’t exactly wrong either.”

“If that were the case, at least the sister wouldn’t be dead.”

Everyone fell silent again.

Luo Cheng put the book in her hand away, feeling a little sad.

“Let’s just look for clues first. We still don’t know what the raincoats are for.”

Lin Xi glanced at Jing Xiaoyan and sighed silently. Seriously, why bother falling in love? Love is really harmful to health.

Chu Qianyuan squatted on the floor with Su Mumu, tidying up the books. Her eyes lit up. “This book actually has Student Xie’s student file hidden inside.”

She didn’t expect that throwing a book at Jiang Yumian would reveal the clue they were looking for. They had searched for a long time without finding it, and it turned out to be hidden inside the book cover, only falling out now.

“What does it say?” Jiang Yumian walked over, pretending everything was normal, not daring to look at Jing Xiaoyan.

“This Student Xie… he got into some trouble before the first-year final exam and was held back a grade.” Chu Qianyuan frowned, then continued, “Someone reported him for fighting and bullying classmates, almost causing a death. The school originally planned to expel him, but in the end, they didn’t, and held him back a grade instead.”

Jing Xiaoyan said lightly, “Mhm. We said before that Jiang Xiaomian wasn’t the only student he bullied.”

Lin Xi frowned and spat forcefully. Truly wicked.

This clue felt too simple. The group searched the room again, but found nothing, not even an exit. They even knocked on the floor but couldn’t find another way out.

They had been stuck here for over an hour. There was really nothing left to find.

Seeing Jing Xiaoyan standing alone by the door from earlier, Jiang Yumian pursed her lips. After thinking for a long time, she slowly shuffled over to her, tugging at her sleeve, and whispered, “I’m telling you, you might have really misunderstood.”

Jing Xiaoyan turned to look at her, slowly pushing away the hand gripping her sleeve. Her voice was flat. “No misunderstanding. I know.”

“But why do I feel like the misunderstanding is deeper?” Jiang Yumian stared blankly at her own hand.

Jing Xiaoyan frowned. “What do you want?”

Hearing her words, Jiang Yumian felt uneasy. “Do you hate me?”

Jing Xiaoyan found her inexplicable. “No, but stop messing with me.”

Teasing her like this really wasn’t funny at all.

Lu Zhi took off her headphones. Why did she happen to put on Jiang Yumian’s audio equipment? These two really did have some kind of ambiguous relationship, but fortunately, what they said was also vague. Uninformed people would just think they were having some kind of conflict and wouldn’t suspect anything else.

Seeing her take off her headphones, looking tired, the assistant asked, “It’s already afternoon. Should we let them eat first before continuing?”

They were originally supposed to end the first day of filming here, but they said they wanted to finish in one day…

Lu Zhi waved her hand. “No need. Don’t bother them. Let them finish filming directly. Remind the post-production editor later not to include that part with Jiang Yumian. She was just playing around.”

Jiang Yumian still wanted to explain, but Jing Xiaoyan no longer wanted to talk to her.

Jing Xiaoyan was afraid she would die of exasperation.

She looked outside the door and suggested, “There’s probably nothing else to find here, and no other exit. Should we go back the way we came?”

Chu Qianyuan was startled. “Go back the way we came?”

Su Mumu nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.”

She pulled Chu Qianyuan toward the door. “We don’t have any other options.”

Jiang Yumian glumly trailed behind Jing Xiaoyan. Her mouth was cursed. Now she not only had to find a way to appease the rich sister, but also Jing Xiaoyan.

Oh… and she also had to go home and appease her mother.

“I should just stay single forever,” Jiang Yumian mumbled softly behind.

Seriously, she was a mess.

No. Should I abandon morality and principles and keep both sisters?

Hmm, it’s not impossible. Two good sisters. Might as well be delighted.

Tsk.

Lost in her daydreams, she didn’t notice the person in front stop. Jiang Yumian walked right into Jing Xiaoyan’s back.

“Ah!” Jiang Yumian cried out with a guilty conscience.

Jing Xiaoyan: “…”

No need to be so dramatic…

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