The Movie Queen And Her Rival Just Went Public! - Chapter 50

Chapter 50

The horizon was piled with burning clouds, and the sunset glow filled the sky. A line of homing birds flew across the heavens, drawing a black stroke that scattered into tiny dark dots.

The scenery was so beautiful it felt unreal. Su Cancan felt as if she had stepped into a painting, becoming so immersed for a few moments that she forgot to breathe.

Shen Luoyan, on the other hand, felt that it was Su Cancan who added the finishing touch to the beauty. Her deep, dark eyes surged with emotion, and her throat felt dry.

With no camera crew following them, and Shen Luoyan having turned off the GoPro on the way, the entire mountain forest belonged only to the two of them. This memory would be theirs alone.

“Can you take a photo for me?” Breaking away from her trance, Su Cancan realized she had taken several landscape shots but wanted a couple of herself in this light. She handed her phone to Shen Luoyan.

Shen Luoyan didn’t decline. She took the phone seriously, searching for the perfect angle before clicking the shutter.

If Shen Luoyan was a “chosen” actress by fate, then Su Cancan was born for the lens. In the frame, she was effortless; every movement and expression was perfectly uninhibited.

Crouching by the riverbank toying with fallen leaves, she was a playful young girl; hiding half her face behind a branch, she transformed into a mystery.

“That’s enough.” Su Cancan couldn’t think of any more poetic poses, so she patted the dust off her clothes.

Shen Luoyan didn’t hand the phone back immediately.

Seeing that Su Cancan wasn’t paying attention to her, her fingers moved rapidly across the interface, completing a command in the shortest time possible. She stepped forward: “There were two that didn’t turn out well, so I deleted them.”

Taking the phone back, Su Cancan immediately checked the results. She had to admit that Shen Luoyan’s aesthetic was as high-end as her persona. Some unique angles she had never tried before looked dazzling under Shen Luoyan’s control. Su Cancan couldn’t help but zoom in and out to admire them.

After filtering out a few blurry shots, Su Cancan noticed Shen Luoyan was also fiddling with her own phone. She asked, “Do you need me to take some for you?”

Shen Luoyan was lost in thought. Startled by the question, she hurriedly clicked her phone screen off and waved her hand. Her expression was intensely nervous, like a child caught doing something wrong by a parent, standing stiffly as if awaiting judgment.

After a few days of cooling off, Su Cancan had reflected that her demands on Shen Luoyan had exceeded the professional scope of colleagues. She shouldn’t pry into Shen Luoyan’s private affairs, nor should she impose her own moral values on her. So, learning that Shen Luoyan didn’t need photos, she simply nodded and didn’t press further.

The air suddenly went quiet.

Damp moisture drifted from the lake toward the shore—moist and cloying.

“There aren’t many branches or firewood this season. The campsite definitely has charcoal. Let’s head back early to help them,” Shen Luoyan suggested when Su Cancan didn’t know how to break the silence.

Su Cancan breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly found the small path to return the way they came.

They hadn’t spent much time in the woods. By the time they walked back to the camping base, Zhouzhou and Youyou had only just finished pitching one tent, and Xia Yue and Cheng Lewei hadn’t even finished prepping the ingredients.

“Sorry, we went on a wild goose chase. Couldn’t find any wood.” Without having actually searched, Su Cancan felt guilty and apologetic repeating Shen Luoyan’s words. “Just tell us wherever you need help!”

“It’s fine! Zhouzhou and I just figured out how to pitch these. Now that we’ve got the hang of it, the rest will be fast. Sister Cancan, why don’t you go rest over there?” Youyou pointed to a wooden bench in the rest area.

Not far away, Cheng Lewei raised her voice: “Yes, we’re almost done here too.”

Knowing the others were wary of their status as actresses and didn’t want to make them do heavy labor, Su Cancan and Shen Luoyan shared a rare moment of unspoken agreement—one went to help with the tents, and the other went to help with the cooking.

Naturally, Shen Luoyan was the one cooking. Certain people’s skills simply didn’t allow for it.

Camping and BBQ are the perfect pair. While Xia Yue and Cheng Lewei handled the food, Shen Luoyan moved the charcoal to the grill alone. The crew had provided charcoal in large woven bags. She found iron tongs and selected pieces of similar length to build a multi-layered pyramid in the stove. Then, she lit the wax and tucked it into the gaps, waiting for the charcoal to catch.

The early summer evening was cool. Flames occasionally peeked through the gaps, but the energy was too low to ignite the charcoal. After waiting a while, Shen Luoyan realized that if this continued, dinner would become a midnight snack. She asked the crew for a blowtorch. After twisting the switch, a pale blue flame roared toward the charcoal.

Heat waves rolled outward. The slightly pungent smoke made it hard to keep one’s eyes open. Shen Luoyan stood tall before the grill; no matter how cheap the food she was about to cook, it seemed to gain extra value just by passing through her hands.

The cameraman was filming Shen Luoyan’s “highlight moment” from downwind. The thick smoke stung his eyes. Squinting through the blur at the monitor, he saw a figure enter the frame. Before he could identify them, Shen Luoyan spoke up.

“The smoke is heavy. Stand further back.”

Su Cancan froze in her tracks, but she was already close. The moving molecules drifted into her nose, teasing her sensitive sense of smell. She let out three earth-shattering sneezes in a row.

The fire finally caught. Shen Luoyan quickly put away the torch, grabbed a box of tissues, pulled a few out, and walked toward Su Cancan.

Su Cancan pinched the bridge of her nose. Her gaze shifted, and as if possessed, she looked at Shen Luoyan’s hand. Her hands were beautiful—long fingers, distinct joints. The skin over the bluish-purple veins was as white as congealed fat. The only flaw was that the fingertips holding the tissue were stained a shiny black.

Shen Luoyan followed Su Cancan’s gaze to the soot on her palm. Her other hand, which was about to hand over the tissue, instinctively pulled back.

Su Cancan’s brow furrowed. Ignoring her nose, she grabbed Shen Luoyan’s hand, shoved the tissue away, and exposed the wound on her palm.

The small band-aid’s adhesive was failing; both ends were curled up and caked with charcoal ash. The skin around it was various shades of gray, and looking inside from the side, the wound looked contaminated and messy.

“Can you really treat your body like this? Don’t you know how much it hurts if this spot gets infected?”

Discovering the situation was exactly as she feared, the “Cat Princess” bristled. She stared at Shen Luoyan with “fierce-cute” eyes, condemning her with her gaze. Her previous sense of boundaries and distance vanished along with her logic.

Shen Luoyan was about to use her other dirty hand to brush off the ash, but under the Princess’s gaze, she could only raise both hands in surrender and go to the sink to wash.

Having survived in society for over a decade, Cheng Lewei pulled Xia Yue aside to give them space. Soon, a continuous stream of nagging could be heard from the sink.

“Who do you expect to take care of your body if you don’t do it yourself?”

“I think you’re quite something. To be this careless and still grow up this big is truly a miracle.”

Shen Luoyan pressed the soap dispenser. The thick foam washed over the wound, making her hand go numb with stinging pain. She gritted her teeth and scrubbed. Su Cancan, seeing her looking pitiful, couldn’t bear to say more and turned to leave.

The nerve stimulation reached her brain, and Shen Luoyan’s eyelid flickered. She bit her lip and called out to Su Cancan: “There are iodine swabs in the bag. Can you help me disinfect them?”

“I thought you weren’t afraid of infection? Since you’re so tough, why don’t you do it yourself?” Su Cancan didn’t stop walking.

Youyou, who was resting with Zhouzhou after pitching the tents, suddenly poked Zhouzhou’s forearm and whispered excitedly, “Did you see that! My ‘mains’! My CP is serving ‘sugar’ right in front of me!”

Zhouzhou looked over. Su Cancan was striding toward the storage locker while Shen Luoyan leaned over washing her hands. She couldn’t see a hint of romance.

“Little block of wood.” Youyou’s soft lips pressed against Zhouzhou’s cheek, then moved to her ear. “Just now, the two of them did this, then that, then finally this. We’ve been together so long, how do you still not see it? Oh well, I’m going to talk to someone who understands. You keep reflecting~”

Zhouzhou couldn’t figure out “this and that” immediately, but she caught Youyou making eye contact with Xia Yue and preparing to go find her.

She didn’t call out as Youyou stood up. Only when Youyou took a step did she grab her hand from behind and give a skillful tug, pulling her back into her arms.

“I am a block of wood, but even wood can bloom. If there’s something I don’t know, please give me more ‘instruction’.”

Having just confirmed eye contact with Sister Xia Yue and being seen by her, Youyou’s face turned scarlet. She hit Zhouzhou’s shoulder with soft, weak fists. “I’ll teach you, I’ll teach you! Hurry up and download Weibo, register an account, and follow the ‘Deep Water and Raging Fire’ fan forum. But I told you to download it ages ago, and you said you weren’t interested… mmm.”

The “main character” of the CP didn’t catch her fan-girl fan; she didn’t even go through Shen Luoyan’s bag. After walking out of the frame, she found a staff member to ask for a first aid kit. Hearing that Shen Luoyan was injured, the staff nervously packed a huge bag of everything useful for Su Cancan.

Su Cancan gave a stiff smile, picked out a few items she needed, and returned.

Shen Luoyan shook the water droplets off her palms. Seeing Su Cancan arrive, she instantly switched to “weak and unable to care for herself” mode, holding out her hands pitifully. Su Cancan checked the wound sternly; the skin around the previously removed stitches was a bit pale.

Just as she feared, there was some inflammation.

“Hand.”

The hand, covered in red marks, was placed obediently under her eyes. Su Cancan pressed down on the fingers with annoyance.

She wasn’t soft-hearted when pouring the disinfectant. Half a bottle of hydrogen peroxide went down. Shen Luoyan felt the wound bubbling and popping, the pain throbbing in her temples, but she forced herself to remain silent.

Seeing her enduring it, Su Cancan sighed. She slowed down the disinfection, confirmed every small cut had been treated, capped the bottle, and applied anti-inflammatory ointment with a cotton swab. Then, she wrapped her hand in a thin layer of gauze.

The ointment brought a cooling sensation that sharply reduced the pain. Shen Luoyan whispered gratefully, “Thank you.”

“A good deed a day.” Su Cancan hadn’t forgiven her for trashing her own body. She packed up the medicine huffily and left with a cool remark.

As night fell, the lights of the campsite flickered on.

In front of the fire, Shen Luoyan, with a smile in her eyes, placed the skewers on the grill, evenly brushing on oil, seasoning, and flipping them. Su Cancan found a bottle of wine from somewhere. Lacking crystal glasses, she used disposable paper cups. After asking everyone’s opinion, she poured a drink for those who wanted one.

The dinner without Viky and Miky was completely different from before. They hadn’t known the show could be this relaxed and free. They talked about whatever they wanted and ate whatever they liked. The older sisters looked after the younger Zhouzhou and Youyou, who in turn said witty things to make everyone happy.

It was just that the night breeze was too gentle and the night too charming. There are always two little “wine ghosts” who end up drunk under the moonlight.