The Aloof Film Queen Gets Entangled by a Sweet Little Omega - Chapter 1

Wondering What the Little Bunny Has Grown Into

On a scorching summer day, the flowers on the wall hung their heads listlessly before one o’clock had even struck. From the end of the alley came the long, lazy cry of a street vendor.

“Ice pops! Handmade old-fashioned ice pops!”

This path was a quiet part of the scenic district with few tourists. The elk Beta, who was peddling her wares, intentionally walked this way. Sure enough, before she could shout more than twice, a carved wooden window on the upper floor was pushed open from the inside, and two fluffy white rabbit ears popped straight up.

One of the ears quickly twitched and pointed to the right like a directional sign, while the other remained bolt upright.

“Ahem,” the little elk cleared her throat and shouted, “Closing up shop!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the rabbit ears upstairs vanished. A moment later, the thumping sound of someone running down wooden stairs echoed through the building.

The first floor was a milk tea shop. The Omega mother, Shi Zi, wearing an apron, was chatting with a guest. Seeing her daughter rush down, she asked, “Have you finished packing your things? You’re heading to school tomorrow.”

“All packed!” Shi Rui, wearing a white tank top and pink shorts, ran swiftly on her slender limbs. By the time her voice trailed off, she was already out the door.

“Is that your daughter?” the guest asked.

Mother Shi smiled happily and replied, “Yes, she’s quite a handful. I worry about her constantly at home, but thankfully, she leaves for school tomorrow.”

“Oh, girls that age are supposed to be lively. Just let them play; it’s not like you can’t afford to raise her.”

“That’s true. Mind you, she’s my only daughter, and I’ve spoiled her since she was a baby. I’m even going to escort her to school tomorrow.”

“Oh? Then you won’t be open tomorrow?” the guest asked in surprise.

Mother Shi nodded. “We’re closing for a week. After dropping her off at school, we plan to travel around the area a bit.”

Hearing this, the guest immediately pulled out a phone to snap a photo of the milk tea and the shop’s sign. While editing the post, they muttered, “I’d better post a travel tip quickly. Plenty of people want to try your milk tea.”

This was a wave of potential traffic.

Shi Rui scurried into the backyard, which was filled with lush green grass. In the center was a path made of small pebbles. She stepped onto it barefoot, pulled at the bamboo wall, and whispered toward the outside, “Qiu Qiu?”

The elk Beta appeared from around the corner of the wall. Her name was Qiu Qiu, and she was thirteen years old.

Qiu Qiu had short hair, healthy tan skin, and wore a white headband that partially covered a few freckles on her face. Seeing Shi Rui, she hurriedly pulled a sugar-water ice pop from the insulated box on her back and handed it over.

“Xiao Rui, are you going away to school tomorrow? Are your moms going to take you?” Qiu Qiu looked at her with envy—envy that Shi Rui always had her mother’s company, even for a school trip.

Shi Rui nodded. “What’s wrong?”

Qiu Qiu lowered her head and whispered, “No one has ever taken me to school.”

Her grandmother was old and had difficulty walking. Qiu Qiu didn’t feel right letting her grandmother walk her to school only to have to return home alone, so she always went by herself.

Shi Rui’s eyes darted around. She leaned close to Qiu Qiu’s ear and said gently, “I’ll take you in the future.”

Then, she pulled her phone from her pocket and scanned a code to send Qiu Qiu five yuan. Tearing open the ice pop wrapper, she held it out as usual and whispered, “Quick, take a bite.”

Qiu Qiu’s eyes lit up. She looked around to make sure no one was watching before taking a large bite.

Little bunnies couldn’t eat too much cold food, but Shi Rui craved the chill. To protect her stomach, she always had Qiu Qiu take a big bite whenever she bought an ice pop.

Qiu Qiu was a poor child. She lived with her sick grandmother, and the two of them survived by selling ice pops in the scenic area; she rarely got to eat snacks. The most delicious things she had ever tasted, besides her grandmother’s cooking, were the milk tea and these half-bites of ice pops from the “Little Bunny.”

Knowing that the Little Bunny was leaving for university and would only be back once every six months, Qiu Qiu was heartbroken. She had used ice pop sticks to build a miniature model of a house for her.

It was a model of the Shi family’s milk tea shop.

Shi Rui, still nibbling the ice pop, took the model. Her eyes sparkled as she praised, “Qiu Qiu, you’re amazing! You’re so handy. If you made more of these, you could make a lot of money selling them.”

Qiu Qiu scratched her head shyly. “I’m not very good yet. I’m slow. Once I get more practice, I’ll give it a try.”

Shi Rui nodded and, after finishing her treat, invited Qiu Qiu inside to play. Qiu Qiu hesitated, but thinking that she wouldn’t see the Little Bunny for a long time, she agreed. She wiped her shoes carefully at the back door before entering with her large insulated box.

“Mom, I’m taking Qiu Qiu upstairs to play,” Shi Rui called out from the bottom of the stairs, carrying Qiu Qiu’s large box on her shoulder.

Qiu Qiu stood by her side and gave Mother Shi a shy smile. “Hello, Auntie.”

Mother Shi responded warmly. Seeing the foam box, she asked, “Qiu Qiu, have you sold all your ice pops?”

“Not yet, there are still a dozen or so left.”

“Then Auntie will buy the rest from you. We’re closing for a while starting tomorrow, so I’ll give an ice pop to each of our guests.”

As Mother Shi spoke, Shi Rui immediately set down the box, opened it, grabbed seven or eight pops, and began handing them out to the customers.

“It’s too hot today. My mom is treating everyone to ice pops!”

Shi Rui finished distributing them quickly. She even took photos with a few guests and, seeing them upload the pictures to a social app, said with a giggle, “Thanks for the free advertising for our shop!”

“Your shop’s traffic is so good, I’m the one piggybacking off your fame,” a guest replied, tagging the Shi family’s account.

The reputation of the Shi family milk tea shop was indeed excellent. Their official account had nearly 200,000 followers, though Mother Shi had always managed it alone. Shi Rui had never appeared on camera, so Mother Shi was a bit worried about the impact of her daughter’s photo being posted.

“Our Xiao Rui is still young; we haven’t planned for her to be in the public eye yet.”

“It’s fine, Mom, I’m an adult now.” Shi Rui walked over, hugged her mother’s arm, and rubbed against her affectionately. “It’s just a photo, don’t worry.”

She actually had a private account of her own. Most of her posts were sketches from her drawing practice, and she hadn’t shown her face yet, but she was planning to. She wanted to test the waters first.

Mother Shi wasn’t afraid of much, except for her daughter being bullied online. But she couldn’t resist her daughter’s acting cute and could only pat her head helplessly.

At that moment, a rabbit behind the counter suddenly spoke up. “Auntie, don’t worry. If anyone dares to bully our Xiao Rui, I’ll poke ’em to death.”

The speaking rabbit was Shi Rui’s younger cousin from the same clan, three years her junior. She hadn’t manifested any special abilities, so she worked at the milk tea shop. Currently, she was putting all her strength into smashing fresh oranges. Thump, thump, thump—the biceps on her right arm were impressively developed.

As she spoke, another massive Alpha rabbit emerged from the warehouse carrying a crate of lemons. “Who? Who’s bullying our Xiao Rui?”

Without even putting the lemons down, the Alpha rabbit was ready to call for backup. Mother Shi quickly stopped her. “Enough, enough. You don’t even know what’s going on. Go back to work.”

“How do I not know? Xiao Rui, come here and let Mom give you a hug.”

The big rabbit, Chu Ye, transformed into human form and waved to Shi Rui. Meanwhile, the second little rabbit was still behind the bar, head down, furiously pounding oranges.

“No way!” Shi Rui made a face at her mother, coaxed her for a bit longer, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and then pulled Qiu Qiu upstairs.

Her room was the largest in the house and always smelled lovely. Qiu Qiu loved the room but was always afraid of making it dirty. She would always go to the bathroom to wash her feet and dry them thoroughly before entering. Even then, she wouldn’t sit on the chairs, preferring to sit cross-legged on the floor.

Fortunately, Mother Shi cleaned the room every day and the floor was spotless. Shi Rui didn’t force the issue and instead lay on the floor with her to play on a tablet.

“Qiu Qiu, what do you like to watch?” Shi Rui turned to the little Beta beside her, showing a row of white teeth, and whispered, “Want to watch a horror movie?”

Qiu Qiu shook her head vigorously. Her dark finger hovered over a specific spot on the screen. “I want to watch this.”

The Ancient Town. It was an old film. The cover featured an ancient bridge under a sunset. It wasn’t clear what it was about, but the rating was exceptionally high.

A closer look at the lead actress: Luo Xiao.

Well, that explained it. The Movie Queen was a guarantee of high viewership. Even a high school student like Shi Rui, who couldn’t go online often, knew her. “Household name” was an understatement.

“Then we’ll watch this one.” Shi Rui tapped the screen a few times, placed pillows under herself and Qiu Qiu, and they began to watch the movie together.

The afternoon breeze carried a wave of heat, causing the green gauze curtains by the window to flutter gently.

Fruit and snacks sat on the floor, brought in earlier by Mother Shi, but the two little heads lying on the ground remained motionless. They didn’t react to the food at all, their eyes glued to the screen.

Even the grainy, low-definition quality couldn’t hide Luo Xiao’s breathtaking beauty. Her cold, elegant temperament made one feel that even a single glance from her was a blessing of three lifetimes. Shi Rui was utterly entranced.

She was young, busy with her drawing studies, and naturally playful, so she had never actually seen a Luo Xiao movie before. Furthermore, her mother was quite strict: before middle school, she was only allowed to watch cartoons; in middle school, she moved on to national news; and in high school, it was all academic lectures from master teachers. Consequently, she had no idea that Luo Xiao was not only beautiful but also possessed such incredible acting skills.

No wonder she’s a Movie Queen. No wonder everyone knows her, Shi Rui thought silently. Her heart began to race in her chest, and she suddenly wanted to watch every single one of Luo Xiao’s films right then and there.

The final scene of the movie had been filmed right here in this scenic district. Luo Xiao was sitting in a quaint shop, looking through the window at her on-screen lover standing outside.

Luo Xiao smiled.

As the film ended, Qiu Qiu suddenly spoke up: “Xiao Rui, that shop in the last scene looks exactly like your family’s milk tea shop.”

Shi Rui’s eyes widened. She instinctively claimed it was impossible, but the shop had been renovated, and she didn’t actually know what it looked like years ago. Despite her words, her hands were honest—she was already searching online for information about the movie.

Though it was the internet age, finding details on a film from over a decade ago was difficult. The production had lacked funding and hadn’t been heavily promoted, and Luo Xiao hadn’t been a superstar back then. Information was scarce.

After searching for a long time—long enough for Qiu Qiu to finish all the snacks—the little bunny let out a gasp of surprise.

“Qiu Qiu, look!”

Shi Rui pointed to a very blurry photo, yet she could still distinguish the backyard of the milk tea shop. When they renovated, they mostly changed the exterior and the interior decor; the backyard was the family’s private space, so it hadn’t changed much. As the owner, Shi Rui recognized it instantly.

Qiu Qiu’s eyes went wide as she quickly connected the dots. “Xiao Rui, your shop can use this for promotion! This is a massive wave of traffic!”

But Shi Rui didn’t seem to hear her. She was staring fixedly at a woman in the photo who stood tall with her arms crossed. Next to her on the grass, a tiny “milk ball” of a child was mimicking a little rhino, head-butting the woman’s leg.

Heavens… that little ball… couldn’t be me, right?

Shi Rui suddenly remembered the photo the guest had taken earlier. Personally, she didn’t mind, but if netizens dug up this past connection, it might lead to trouble. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be associated with the Movie Queen; she just didn’t want people to accuse them of “clout-chasing.” After all, her family’s shop had built its reputation bit by bit over many years on its own merit.

Thinking of this, Shi Rui handed the tablet to Qiu Qiu, telling her to watch whatever she liked, and hurried downstairs to ask the guest to delete the photo they had just taken.

On the other side of the city, Luo Xiao had just finished filming and was preparing to head back when she saw her Beta assistant, Qi Ran, staring at her phone with a silly grin.

“What are you looking at?”

“Looking at a pretty girl,” Qi Ran laughed, waving her phone. “The little owner of the Shi family milk tea shop appeared on camera today.”

Luo Xiao certainly remembered that shop. It was the filming location of her very first movie. There had been a pink, tender little “milk bunny” there who tottered when she walked and would trip and go paji onto the ground if you weren’t looking. Luo Xiao had laughed every time she saw her.

Most of the few smiles in her life had been reserved for that short-legged little bunny.

“Let me see.”

Calculating the time, eighteen years had passed. She was very curious to see what the little milk bunny had grown into.

Qi Ran enlarged the screen and handed it over. “There, the one in white. She’s gorgeous—big eyes, pink lips. I heard she’s a rabbit Omega.”

The photo flashed before Luo Xiao’s eyes. The image of the lovely girl making a peace sign at the camera was instantly seared into her mind.

Boom. Her mind went blank. The surrounding noise faded away, and only that photo—now gone—became clearer and clearer in her head.

She looks almost exactly as I imagined.

The assistant chattered for a while, and seeing no reaction from Luo Xiao, she flipped the screen back to look. To her shock, the post was gone. She only saw her own reflection and a system notification:

This post has been set to private and is no longer available for viewing.

“How can this be?” The assistant’s heart broke. She frantically began searching for mirror links. “I didn’t even get a screenshot!”

At 9:30 PM, Shi Rui finished washing up and dried her hair until it was damp. She uploaded the video she had edited that day and then crawled into bed, eager to binge-watch more of Luo Xiao’s movies.

At 10:30 PM, a knock sounded right on schedule. Without looking back, Shi Rui called out, “Come in!”

Mother Shi, wearing pajamas, gently pushed the door open. “Sleep early, baby. You have to wake up early for school tomorrow.”

“I know, Mommy.”

Shi Rui tucked herself under the covers with her phone, intending to check her video before sleeping. It already had several hundred comments. She picked a few questions to answer seriously and then posted that she was going to rest because she had to report to S University tomorrow.

A fan commented, telling her there was a “dried hay” specialty snack shop outside the South Gate of S University that tasted amazing and that she must try it.

A hay shop? Shi Rui swallowed hard, squinting as she typed: Okay!

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in the capital…

Luo Xiao had just finished drying her hair. When she returned to her bed, her phone was still on the page of the “Little Bunny Painter”‘s latest video.

She had stumbled across this blogger by chance before, but after seeing the photo of the “little bunny” today, she realized their hands were identical. She had searched for the account the moment she got home.

Luo Xiao’s expression was tender and lingering. She slowly lowered her gaze, her thick, curled lashes half-veiling her green eyes. She picked up the phone to save the latest video, but accidentally clicked into the comment section.

The timestamp showed that the Little Bunny Painter had been interacting with fans just ten minutes ago.

The hay shop…

Luo Xiao murmured the name to herself, then opened a ticket-booking app.

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