She Said She Has Feelings For Someone - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Labels

The “Gold-Gold” Sisterhood.

As the first light of dawn broke, the new L-City Gymnasium was a hive of busy activity.

“Are the six teachers ready with hair and makeup?” Outside the dressing room, Assistant Director Hua Tong stuck her head in, only to be met with a loud, synchronized response: “Ready!”

Infected by their enthusiasm and vitality, Hua Tong smiled and said, “Then the teachers can come over to go through the process.”

Unlike Velocity, although Silent Gold retained competitive elements, it added labels like “adventure,” “travel,” “healing,” and “relaxation.” The original intention of this variety show was to discover female creators who had once achieved greatness but had fallen into silence—sometimes by choice, sometimes by force—and help them return to the screen to create better works. It was about letting “silent gold” shine again.

When the proposal first came out, Song Yi was worried people would mock it as a “reemployment program for unemployed women.” However, Lu Shuyu felt that even if they got that label, it would be a good thing, as it didn’t contradict her original intent. She wanted to create a new living space for women and help them reclaim the resources and environment they deserved. Being unemployed shouldn’t be a source of shame; finding a new path was something to be happy and proud of.

“Have you all looked at the script these past two days?” Hua Tong asked.

“Don’t worry, Director Hua,” Jiang Fei patted her chest. “We met up yesterday afternoon and went through the process a few times. No problem at all!”

They had already reached the first segment of recording: the Entrance Noun Wall.

These words reached Lu Shuyu, who was standing nearby. Yesterday afternoon? So Xia Leshuang was probably busy with them, which is why…

“Great,” Hua Tong smiled. “Thank you for your hard work!”

“PD Lu,” Hua Tong greeted her. The six guests followed suit and greeted her together. Lu Shuyu nodded with a smile, noting out of the corner of her eye that Xia Leshuang didn’t look at her.

“Don’t worry about the timing of your entrance,” Hua Tong explained. “PD Lu will be stationed at this corner. The camera won’t see her, and she will give you your cues. After you enter, walk down this corridor to reach the Noun Wall. Each teacher has a fixed name tag and can choose two noun tags. Whether you follow the script or improvise is up to you. There are blank tags on the table if you want to write your own; we offer a high degree of freedom.”

Hua Tong pointed to the text on the wall:

In order for the audience to remember you as quickly as possible, do not stay silent. Take the initiative to put on the labels you want most and tear off the labels you want to get rid of.

“As long as it doesn’t violate the rules of the segment, it’s fine. After the Noun Wall, enter through here. Remember to keep your backs straight when you walk,” Hua Tong smiled. “There are cameras behind you to capture your silhouette.”

Hua Tong led the guests inside to continue the walkthrough. Whether intentionally or not, Xia Leshuang walked at the very end of the line.

Lu Shuyu watched her back, remembering a long time ago when Xia Leshuang would always walk at the front of a crowd, radiant and assertive, with many people surrounding and following her, willing to be the stars that held up the moon. Back then, Lu Shuyu always felt she was untouchable—a “favored daughter of heaven.” She never expected their paths to cross just because they were in the same class.

Even later, when they became close enough to joke and play around, that thought remained etched in her heart, never fading.

So, in these nine years… what on earth happened?

Once the walkthrough was finished, the guests touched up their makeup and adjusted their states. The official filming began.

“Alright, everyone in position!” Song Yi’s voice came through the earpiece. “Three, two, one—action!”

Lu Shuyu raised her hand, signaling the first guest to enter. Soon, a figure appeared on the monitor.

The first guest was tall, with a healthy complexion and sharp deep-gray coveralls that made her look both cool and dependable. She walked to the Noun Wall, letting the camera record the light makeup and the traces of time on her face, but also capturing her natural smile and the bright spark in her eyes.

“The younger sisters’ names are up there too.” She followed the process, taking her own name tag and giving a gentle smile to the camera. “Hello everyone, I am Luo Han. I am thirty-three years old. Long time no see.”

As the very first person to film for the show, she couldn’t entirely hide her nervousness; after speaking, she started to head for the entrance, forgetting the rest of the segment. Seeing this, Lu Shuyu quickly raised a whiteboard with a prompt. Luo Han immediately remembered, stepped back to her original spot, paused for two seconds, and resumed her state.

The transition was smooth; it would be easy to edit later. Lu Shuyu was impressed and couldn’t help but give a secret thumbs-up to cheer her on.

Behind the camera, Luo Han couldn’t interact with her, so she simply blinked and looked seriously at the labels on the wall. After a long time, Luo Han finally reached out and took a tag that said “Good Actress.” She showed it to the camera: “‘Good Actress’—the label I want most.”

She looked back at the wall for a long time before taking a deep breath and looking at the blank tags on the table. “I’ll write one that isn’t here,” she smiled, as if encouraging herself.

Lu Shuyu didn’t have a monitor at her station and couldn’t see what Luo Han wrote, but she heard Chi Shan gasp through the earpiece. Soon, Luo Han held up her handwritten tag to the camera. Lu Shuyu saw the content: “Sex Scandal.”

No wonder Chi Shan was shocked. This was content from an old script that had been rejected; the production team had decided to remove it to protect the guests. They hadn’t expected Luo Han to choose it herself.

On camera, Luo Han flashed a graceful smile and said, “In these ten years, I have lived my life very seriously and worked very hard. I’ve come to one conclusion—some difficulties can only be torn away if you face them bravely.”

After saying this, she put on the tag, took two steps back, and walked toward the entrance with her back straight and her pace steady. She walked with dignity.

Watching her silhouette, Lu Shuyu felt a stir of emotion, but also a hint of worry. The rest of the crew felt the same; there was a slight commotion in the earpiece until Song Yi’s voice came through, calm and steady: “Filming continues.”

Luo Han entered the main set. According to the script’s requirements, she naturally acted out a mix of surprise, joy, and curiosity. “I really want to take a closer look,” she smiled faintly at the camera, “but I think I’ll wait for the younger sisters to arrive so we can see it together.”

To make the show more engaging and to better showcase the guests, the screenwriting team had studied each guest’s life experiences and tailored “character scripts” based on their personalities. The basic persona for Luo Han was the emotionally stable, mature, and gentle “Big Sister.”

The entrance process wasn’t complicated. Before long, the second guest, Jiang Fei, ran in with light footsteps. “Sister Luo Han!” Jiang Fei accelerated, tags still in hand, and crashed right into Luo Han’s arms before looking up with a brilliant smile. “Didn’t I get here super fast?”

During her ten years away from the industry, Luo Han had worked as a construction worker on sites, so she was able to firmly catch this “little meteor” of a girl. “Yes,” Luo Han laughed, helping Jiang Fei stand steady. “Super fast! What did you pick?”

Jiang Fei handed her two tags and put on her name tag first: “Comedian” and “Nobody.”

Luo Han realized, “‘Nobody’ was your graduation project?”

“Yes!” Jiang Fei nodded, pinning the “Nobody” tag. “It’s also the only play I’ve ever starred in to this day.”

As the two chatted, the next two guests, Zhong Wen and He Wenyin, entered one after another. Jiang Fei was quick to notice that both of them were wearing the same label: “Divorced.”

This was also content that had been rejected from the script.

Zhong Wen and He Wenyin smiled at each other and stood on the other side of Luo Han. They leaned in to open a temporary “four-person chat window”: “Teacher Luo is right. Face the difficulties, defeat the difficulties!”

Jiang Fei couldn’t help but laugh. She patted her lapel mic and whispered like she was acting spoiled: “Teachers in post-production, please work hard to cut this part out~”

Chi Shan, Song Yi, and the others behind the monitors: “…”

“So only Teacher Tang and the Film Queen are left?” Jiang Fei immediately changed the subject.

“I hope Teacher Tang comes first,” Zhong Wen went into “drama queen” mode, clasping her hands as if praying. “We need Teacher Tang to control the scene.”

Once the former host Tang Jiahe joined the group as they hoped, Lu Shuyu finally saw Xia Leshuang.

As a variety show themed around female power and stories, the styling for Silent Gold was mostly comfortable and sharp. Xia Leshuang was no exception. Her medium-short hair was tied back, exposing her forehead and showcasing her heroic bone structure perfectly. A face like that was truly made for the big screen.

Xia Leshuang walked past Lu Shuyu without looking her way and stood before the Noun Wall. She wore a perfectly measured smile—similar to the one at the dinner party, and worlds apart from the past.

“Hello everyone, long time no see. Let’s get to know each other again. I am Xia Leshuang.”

Before Silent Gold, Xia Leshuang had participated in two obstacle-course challenge shows on local TV, which was how she met Chen Qian. Those shows were mostly watched by grandmothers; she had participated using the name Xia Leshuang and never mentioned her past, so no one recognized her.

Lu Shuyu had watched the clips from those two shows, so she noticed a subtle difference now. She suddenly wanted to ask whether this opening line was Xia Leshuang following a script or a deliberate choice of her own.

“The label I want most,” Xia Leshuang said, still in the recording process. “This one.” She took the label and showed it to the camera.

The words “Variety Rising Star” jumped into Lu Shuyu’s eyes. She was stunned—Xia Leshuang wasn’t following the script.

Immediately after, Xia Leshuang took down another label. “And the one I want to tear off most is this—”

Lu Shuyu’s eyes widened. At the same time, Chi Shan’s helpless exclamation came through the earpiece.

“As expected of the ‘Gold-Gold’ sisterhood… every one of them is bolder than the last.”