Keep My First Kiss Safe For Me - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The second day of training started to get interesting. The morning session focused on volunteer etiquette, taught by an elegant female instructor. A former flight attendant, she had a perfect eight-tooth smile and a voice that was gentle and pleasant.

She crinkled her slender, beautiful eyes and said to the group, “A smile is the best way to showcase the hospitality of the people of Rongcheng. Let me see your youthful, smiling faces.”

Everyone tried to flash an eight-tooth smile, but it wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Fan Yue pulled out a small mirror, took one look, and realized her dad wasn’t wrong when he said she looked “goofy” when she smiled.

The teacher then asked desk-mates to critique each other. Fan Yue and Xie Yanyan were forced to face one another and smile.

Fan Yue’s assessment: “So fake.” Xie Yanyan’s rebuttal: “So stupid.” Fan Yue responded with a grimace.

The emergency first aid class in the afternoon was even more fun. Instead of sitting still and listening, they worked in pairs for practical drills. Fan Yue was paired with Xie Yanyan again.

The instructor presented various scenarios for them to handle. For example: “What do you do if someone faints?”

“Check their nose to see if they’re breathing!” “CPR!” “Artificial respiration!” The crowd chimed in with various answers.

“But do you know how to do it?” the teacher asked. Everyone fell silent and shook their heads. The teacher demonstrated on a mannequin and asked, “Did you follow that?”

Some nodded; others shook their heads.

After a second demonstration, the teacher arranged them: “Now, practice with each other.”

When it was time for the volunteers to practice, there weren’t enough mannequins, so they had to use real people. The scene immediately became chaotic as people laughed and played around. Fan Yue was about to try and slack off when the teacher hauled her up to the podium: “You two, come up and demonstrate.”

“You,” the teacher pointed at Fan Yue, “lie on the floor.”

Fan Yue shook her head and waved her hands frantically. “Teacher, I’m very healthy! Look at me, I’m full of life, there’s no way I’d suddenly collapse.” She grabbed Xie Yanyan and said, “She’s so thin and fragile, let her play the person who fainted.”

But the teacher was firm, pointing at Fan Yue: “It’s you. Hurry up.”

Unable to escape, Fan Yue was pressed onto the floor, her eyes wide with anxiety.

“You’re a person who fainted. Why are your eyes so wide?” the teacher barked. Fan Yue had no choice but to close her eyes. Then, she felt a pair of hands press down on her chest.

Ugh, salty pig trotters! Xie Yanyan’s salty pig trotters!

After the chest compressions finally ended, the teacher praised them: “Perfectly executed. Everyone should learn from this student.”

A round of applause broke out below.

Being watched by so many people made Fan Yue feel incredibly embarrassed, but the teacher’s next sentence made her feel even worse.

“Good. Next is artificial respiration.”

This… we just have to fake it, right?

Fan Yue kept her eyes tightly shut and her lips pursed. She felt her chin being tilted up slightly as Xie Yanyan’s breath approached. Fan Yue couldn’t help but peek; Xie Yanyan’s perfect face was right in front of hers, and those rosy lips were about to press down.

Holy crap, she’s doing it for real!

Fan Yue bolted upright. Their lips, which hadn’t touched yet, grazed lightly against each other because of her panicked movement.

“Report, Teacher! I’ve come back to life!” Fan Yue raised her hand and announced. The onlookers burst into laughter. The teacher said helplessly, “Congratulations, you’ve got a strong will to live.”

Fan Yue retreated quickly from the stage, her face burning. Her eyes involuntarily flickered toward the curve of Xie Yanyan’s lips, and her heartbeat lost its rhythm…

…

Fan Yue was in a daze for the rest of the day. That evening, feeling bored, a friend from next door dragged her to watch the etiquette team practice.

The girls who would be holding the placards had just received their opening ceremony outfits—modified qipaos that accentuated their tall figures while remaining elegant. Those selected as guides were naturally all well-built and graceful, but Xie Yanyan was still the most outstanding among them.

During the session, the team leader walked in, clapped for attention, and announced: “After deliberation, it has been decided that Xie Yanyan will serve as the lead guide for Rongcheng!”

The announcement was immediately met with a chorus of envious gasps.

Representing the host city at a major sports event held in one’s own backyard was a great honor. It guaranteed national television coverage and close-up shots.

Xie Yanyan herself remained composed, but Fan Yue felt the glory as if it were her own. She immediately called Fan Shicheng to share the news, and the family back home hugged each other in excitement.

After the group session ended, Xie Yanyan was kept back for extra training. By the time she returned to the room, Fan Yue was already asleep. She showered quietly and noticed a lollipop on her bedside table—her favorite orange flavor.

When they were kids, Fan Yue used to bring her orange lollipops while Fan Yue herself loved peach. There was a time they ate so much candy they both got cavities.

Since then, she hadn’t eaten them again.

Picking up the lollipop, Xie Yanyan’s lips curled into a smile. she peeled back the wrapper and popped it into her mouth. After an initial burst of tartness, her mouth—and her heart—were filled with sweetness.

…

The next morning, Fan Yue walked into the large meeting room with Xie Yanyan, but she immediately felt something was off. The usual noisy chatter dropped to a low, deliberate hum. People’s expressions were strange, and their speculative, suspicious gazes were all fixed on Xie Yanyan.

What’s going on? She looked at Xie Yanyan, who ignored them completely.

At lunch, Fan Yue couldn’t help but ask her friend in the next room. The girl hesitated before saying, “I… I’m not entirely sure, but people are saying Xie Yanyan is… ‘not that kind of girl’ in private. Someone saw her on the street tangling with some thugs and even ending up at the police station…”

“Who said that?” Fan Yue’s voice was suppressed with rage.

“I really don’t know, everyone was talking about it in the meeting room this morning.”

Fan Yue’s mood was foul for the rest of the afternoon. Who was spreading these rumors? To describe it so vividly meant they had been there—so why did they leave out the context and intentionally twist the truth?

She soon found her answer.

That evening, Fan Yue didn’t go back to her room but wandered around the hotel with her ears pricked. Sure enough, she caught people gossiping.

A few girls were strolling in the garden. A tall girl lowered her voice and said, “Right there on the street, with two thugs—one with dyed yellow hair and one with a big gold chain. She was clinging to them, demanding money. I was terrified at the time. A girl caught up with men like that talking about money… what do you think Xie Yanyan really is?”

The implication was clear. The girl next to her gasped, “No way!”

“You really can’t judge a book by its cover!”

The fire suppressed in Fan Yue’s heart suddenly exploded. She rushed forward and kicked the lying girl squarely. The girl was caught completely off guard and sent sprawling to the ground. The girl beside her was too shocked to react.

Fan Yue didn’t give them time to react. Having been a “big sister” type in the past, she had plenty of experience in a scrap. She followed up with several more kicks, leaving the girl unable to get up for a while.

Catching a glimpse of the girl’s face, Fan Yue suddenly remembered the familiar-looking person lurking behind the crowd that day. It was her!

She was fuming: “You were there that day! Why didn’t you mention I was there too? You knew perfectly well they were scammers and bad people, yet you still spread rumors!”

The other girl tried to pull her away. Fan Yue struggled and yelled, “Keep spreading rumors, will you? I’ll rip your mouth apart!”

The girl on the ground wasn’t a pushover either. Once helped up, she charged at Fan Yue: “You dare hit me!”

The two of them devolved into a tangled brawl.

“Stop it!”

Someone ran to get Xie Yanyan, who rushed to the scene immediately. She grabbed Fan Yue from behind, trying to pull her out of the fray, but the two girls were in the heat of it and wouldn’t stop.

Fan Yue was a head shorter than her opponent, but she wasn’t intimidated at all. She grabbed the girl’s waist and focused on her legs, while the taller girl used her height advantage to twist Fan Yue’s arms and hammer at her back.

“Yue’er!”

Xie Yanyan shouted. It had been so long since Fan Yue had heard her call her that; she froze for a second and was immediately pulled behind Xie Yanyan, her wrist held in a tight grip.

Now free from the scuffle, the other girl didn’t stop talking: “Hmph, it’s not like you’re biological sisters. Stop pretending to be so close!”

“Chen Ru,” Xie Yanyan said coldly, “don’t think I don’t know you’re the one who started these rumors.”

“Who started them?” A flicker of panic crossed the girl’s eyes, but she stuck her neck out defiantly. “Do you have proof? On what grounds are you accusing me?”

Xie Yanyan gave a disdainful smile. “Is it really worth competing with me like this every day? If you want to be the lead guide that badly, you can have it.”

So that was it—all for the lead guide position.

Having her motive exposed, the girl’s voice lost its conviction: “Who… who said I wanted it?”

“So you were just jealous of my sister,” Fan Yue finally understood. She hated backstabbers most of all and intentionally provoked her: “Save it. You just can’t compare to Xie Yanyan—not even to a single strand of her hair! You won’t get that lead guide spot in a million years!”

The long-accumulated resentment and jealousy, now laid bare, turned into humiliation. The girl lost her temper and lunged forward, slapping Fan Yue across the face with a loud crack.

Before Fan Yue could react, the normally calm and peacemaking Xie Yanyan raised her hand and delivered two sharp slaps back, followed by a kick.

Fan Yue wasn’t about to take a hit for nothing. She grabbed the girl’s hair, forcing her head down. With Xie Yanyan joining in, the scene became even more chaotic until a teacher arrived to pull the three of them apart.

“What are you doing? You’re all girls! Look at the state of you!” The team leader was livid, shouting at the three girls with their disheveled hair and messy clothes.

Fan Yue pointed at the girl. “She spread rumors!”

“What rumors?”

“She slandered Xie Yanyan to steal the lead guide spot.” Fan Yue threw the clump of hair she’d pulled out onto the ground.

“And that justifies a fight?” The team leader’s blood pressure was through the roof. “If this is what happens over a guide position, then none of you will have it! Go treat your scratches immediately. We’ll decide the consequences tomorrow!”

Though a fight between girls can be fierce, the physical damage was limited. None of them were seriously hurt, though Fan Yue’s face was red and Chen Ru had a sore face and a few missing tufts of hair.

With a grim expression, the team leader sent them back to their rooms to reflect, leaving the final disciplinary decision to the higher-ups.

By the time they got back to the room, it was dark. Fan Yue’s clothes were covered in Chen Ru’s footprints. Ignoring the fact that Xie Yanyan was right there, she stripped off her outer layers as soon as she entered, leaving only a small camisole. She was still muttering angrily about Chen Ru: “Obnoxious girl… jealous… big mouth…”

Suddenly, her hand was seized from behind. Fan Yue turned around and found herself face-to-face with Xie Yanyan. There was dust on Xie Yanyan’s face and her hair was a mess, but a strange light flickered in her usually cold eyes.

Unsure of what this meant, Fan Yue subconsciously swallowed hard. “Wh… what is it?”