The Movie Queen And Her Rival Just Went Public! - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Su Cancan adjusted the flipped shoulder strap and shook the long-sleeved pajamas in her hand.

Only then did Shen Luoyan notice that a large, dark stain, with speckles of white, had bloomed on the chest area of the light-colored pajamas.

“I’ll take it to the washing machine.” She spread her palm out to Su Cancan.

Su Cancan shook her head repeatedly, running her finger over the damp spot: “No need. A quick rub will be fine.”

Shen Luoyan didn’t press the issue: “Alright, then I’ll go make breakfast. Come out to eat when you’re done.”

With the sound of two doors closing, only Su Cancan remained in the bathroom. Even though only one person was gone, the small space suddenly felt spacious. She turned on the faucet to fill a glass for rinsing her mouth, then cleaned the sink, filled it with water, and soaked the pajamas.

As the water slowly filled, wetting the entire garment, Su Cancan unintentionally glanced at herself in the mirror. She casually tucked the stray hairs that had slipped down her forehead behind her ear, her gaze instinctively dropping to her collarbone.

Good, she thought, I kept a trick up my sleeve. She had specifically brought inner-wear that covered more area than a tank top, preventing Shen Luoyan from seeing anything she shouldn’t have.

After finishing everything, Su Cancan headed to the small yard to hang the clothes. Passing through the living room, she saw Shen Luoyan setting breakfast on the dining table. When she returned, a glass of milk had just been placed down. Shen Luoyan had prepared several dishes for the two of them, making it a rich spread.

They finished the meal quietly. Su Cancan once again offered to wash the dishes, and the answer was the same—she was again assigned the light, finishing task of wiping the table.

Considering environmental protection and audience discussion after the broadcast, Shen Luoyan found her a pink square cloth to use as a rag. Just as it was handed to Su Cancan, the clamorous sound of the doorbell mixed with knocking arrived simultaneously.

“It should be the neighbors.” Shen Luoyan took the small square cloth back. Fearing water droplets from the rubber gloves would fall onto the floor, her hands hovered above the sink as she gently asked, “Could you open the door, please?”

Shen Luoyan’s speech was slow and gentle, her tone not like she was speaking to a colleague, but more like a very patient elder addressing a beloved junior, with a hint of worry, a bit of encouragement, and a touch of pride.

Su Cancan’s hand felt empty as the rag was taken, leaving a small trace of coolness. She straightened her back: “Easy-peasy.” With that, she walked toward the door, enthusiastically calling out to the people outside.

Shen Luoyan stared at her back for a while. The moment the door opened and a bright, light-colored figure appeared, she decisively retracted her gaze and instantly composed her expression to revert to her cold Film Empress persona.

When the door opened, the professional smile on Su Cancan’s face froze for a few seconds. A sharp gleam lit up her bright, cat-like eyes. The other party also seemed surprised, their smile receding as they tightly held the arm of the person next to them.

“Good morning, Teacher Su! I’m Viky, I just graduated and have become your colleague. This is my girlfriend, Miky, she’s a blogger.” The girl with long curly hair introduced herself with a smile.

Su Cancan curved her eyes into a smile in return. The moment she saw her, she matched her with the fleeting back view from before dinner yesterday. Sure enough, the seductive charm some people exuded was intense, whether seen from the front or the back.

She widened the door, leaving enough space for the two of them to enter: “Come inside and chat.”

“No need! We just came over to say hello to you and Teacher Shen after breakfast. As neighbors in the future, we need to help each other out!” Viky didn’t hide her peering gaze inward, then pulled Miky’s sleeve like a spoiled child, “Quickly, hand the gift we prepared to Teacher Su.”

Hearing this, Su Cancan diverted her attention to the silent Miky.

The two members of this couple had vastly different styles. The petite Viky’s clothing and demeanor were bright and bold, just as she presented herself to the outside world. Underneath her light-colored curly hair was a fair, small face. Her full lips were painted wine-red, often holding a half-genuine, half-feigned smile.

In contrast, Miky was more than half a head taller than Viky. Her wheat-colored skin was bursting with vitality. Her short hair was styled in a three-seven split, her eyes narrow and long, with bright black pupils, radiating sharpness and the couple’s shared, unconcealed longing—a longing for sex and for love.

Did the show do background checks before recruiting people? Su Cancan thought. Where did these bizarre people come from? They’re all like thirsty wild animals, exuding mating signals from head to toe. One is coveting her CP, and the other is targeting her.

She didn’t take the gift bag immediately, so Miky took a small step closer, pressuring her.

“Thank you for the gift.” Su Cancan forced herself to take it. The moment the ribbon landed in her palm, something else slid across it. “Why don’t you come in and sit for a while? We also prepared gifts. Now that you’ve come, we won’t have to go deliver them to you.”

It was a fingernail, a round, blunt fingernail, that scraped across her palm.

What does that mean?

Su Cancan subtly moved a step backward. Although such a sensitive spot was touched, she didn’t feel the instinctive tingling sensation, only the revulsion of being tainted with dirt. With the cameras watching, she couldn’t show her disgust and invited them to stay with a stiff smile.

“Thank you, Teacher Su!” Viky was overjoyed.

Su Cancan avoided the blatant stare, pulled out two new pairs of slippers from the shoe cabinet. She didn’t know if the production team or someone else had prepared them. Unlike the ones she and Shen Luoyan wore, they were the most ordinary style.

She placed the slippers down: “We’re colleagues, and you’re younger than me, so just call me Sister Cancan.”

While the two were changing shoes, Su Cancan placed the gift bag on the coffee table in the living room. Shen Luoyan had just put the dishes into the drying rack and was about to use the little pink rag to wipe the table when she ran into Su Cancan’s displeased expression. She was about to ask but was interrupted.

“Sister Luoyan, you’re cleaning up! So diligent.”

Su Cancan’s steps toward the study were disrupted by the address “Sister Luoyan.” Her brow furrowed, and various conjectures popped into her mind.

“Call me Luoyan or Sister Luoyan. I’m not used to anything else.” With their backs turned, Su Cancan couldn’t see Shen Luoyan’s expression, only hearing her cold voice say, “Please have a seat first. I’ll pour you water.”

It had been so long since Su Cancan heard Shen Luoyan speak in that ice-cold, aloof tone that pushed people thousands of miles away, so long that Su Cancan had forgotten she was such a cold and indifferent person. However, Shen Luoyan’s attitude toward Viky inexplicably made her secretly pleased.

Viky sounded wronged: “Got it, Sister Luoyan.”

Su Cancan took out the welcome gifts she had prepared from the storage drawer. As she closed the drawer, she suddenly remembered that she forgot to ask where Shen Luoyan’s was placed, and took out her phone to send her a message. Before she could finish typing, a pair of dog-shaped slippers squeezed next to her feet.

The owner of the slippers squatted down silently and pulled open the adjacent drawer.

She pinched the microphone and whispered, “Not happy?”

The gift box placed in the other drawer was exactly the same as hers. For a moment, Su Cancan wondered if she had seen incorrectly.

She put her phone back in her pocket and also pinched her mic: “It’s not that I’m unhappy; I just feel a mismatch in energy with this couple. There’s something strange about them that I can’t quite describe.”

Su Cancan didn’t state it outright. After all, the eye contact was her subjective interpretation, and even the highest-definition camera would have difficulty capturing the small gesture. If she said it out loud, who would believe her? Most people would just think she was trying to stir up hype for attention.

Shen Luoyan replied, “Okay.”

It was a typical non-answer. Su Cancan took it as Shen Luoyan brushing her off and put her hands on her legs to stand up.

Then she heard her say: “Then I don’t like them either.”

Su Cancan was momentarily stunned, her hand still supporting her knee. She remembered who was the last person to loudly proclaim to be on her side, ready to fight the common enemy. Even though that person had betrayed her, even though the harm Shen Luoyan caused her was vivid, hearing Shen Luoyan say this still warmed her heart at that moment.

She was pathologically in need of support. After regaining her composure, Su Cancan tapped her fingers.

The staff in the monitoring room repeatedly switched views. Finding that the two were deliberately covering their mics was frustrating. Remembering that the two being in the frame together was a guaranteed topic, all six cameras in the study were remotely aimed at them.

The monitors were filled with them. In the small block in the upper left corner, the sight of the two figures, one large and one small, leaning close together was incredibly heartwarming. Even the staff couldn’t resist taking out their phones to save the image.

“Let’s go. We shouldn’t leave guests hanging.”

The skin on the inside of her thumb was peeled off, exposing pink flesh. The pain hit her, and Su Cancan stood up without any hesitation.

Shen Luoyan lowered her gaze: “I…”

Su Cancan: “I heard you. Let’s go.”

The image froze for two seconds. The two walked out of the study side-by-side, leaving the staff in the monitoring room roaring in frustration.

What did Shen Luoyan say? What did Su Cancan hear? Why was her reaction like that? Are there any attentive viewers present who can relay whether this ‘yin-and-yang’ CP is shippable or not?

Desperate to understand the relationship between Shen Luoyan and Su Cancan, he calmed down and quickly switched the feed to the living room of the house. In the few seconds of his outburst, the gift boxes had already been handed to Viky and Miky.

“Sister Luoyan, Sister Cancan, can I open them?”

Viky held two leather square boxes. The center of the boxes bore the same gold-stamped logo and brand name. This brand mainly focused on diamond jewelry, with the cheapest items costing over five figures. As a newly graduated, virtually unknown celebrity, she had seen the brand but couldn’t afford to buy it. Receiving it from the two seniors filled her with both jealousy and joy.

The light emanating from her eyes could flatten nearby buildings. Su Cancan tapped her finger joints: “Of course. We hope you like them.”

Viky tore open the packaging. Square diamonds broke free from their constraints, refracting dazzling light that made her dizzy. She carefully pulled out a chain and tried it on her wrist, her movements as gentle as if handling a newborn baby. The other gift still lay quietly on her exposed thigh. She glanced at it, suppressing her excitement, and started opening it—a necklace from the same series, also dangling with sparkling diamonds.

“Sisters, you shouldn’t have spent so much!” She held the two chains, her attention focused on the slightly swaying gems.

Shen Luoyan put down her water glass: “As long as you like them.”

With their objective achieved, Viky pulled Miky away after only a brief chat. Su Cancan watched them walk out of the yard. After closing the door, she saw Shen Luoyan wiping the dining table. She avoided the spot where the couple had sat and collapsed onto the sofa.

She had initially thought that filming a dating reality show would be freer and more relaxed than shooting on a set, but once it started, she realized that navigating interpersonal relationships was harder than reading lines for a character. Thinking about the remaining filming, she only prayed for more solo segments with Shen Luoyan. Dealing with one person was much simpler than dealing with a group.

“Ding-dong.”

Just when she thought things might calm down, the doorbell rang again. She struggled to get off the sofa.

Shen Luoyan quietly walked to the door: “I’ll get it.”

Su Cancan shook her head and walked toward her.