The Movie Queen And Her Rival Just Went Public! - Chapter 62

Chapter 62

Shen Luoyan had no idea how much Su Cancan longed for her to come down, nor did she know the reason behind it. Although the hotel arranged by the production team had security measures, she still took out a pure black baseball cap from her suitcase to cover half her face. She found a medicated patch to apply to her injured elbow, handling everything with cautious precision before leaving her room.

Despite her care, she didn’t expect to run into trouble right in the elevator lobby.

Anxious to get downstairs, she uncharacteristically broke her own moral code and pressed the call buttons for all four passenger elevators and the secluded freight elevator. Watching the numbers rise on the small displays, she stepped into the fastest one and stood poised in the corner.

Time pulsed in sync with her heart. Dozens of seconds later, the elevator came to a steady stop, and the metallic doors slid open. Just as Shen Luoyan was about to step out, her gaze beneath the brim of her cap swept across the interior. Realizing someone was inside, she instantly lowered her head to hide her features, intending to wait for the person to leave before entering.

“Sister Luoyan~”

A delicate female voice accompanied by a waft of distinct perfume reached her. Recognizing the familiar voice, Shen Luoyan looked up. Her emotionless eyes swept over the face of the person stepping out of the elevator, and she gave a slight nod in response.

She wasn’t sure about the room assignments for the other groups, assuming they simply lived on the same floor. Eager to find Su Cancan, she pursed her lips.

“I have something urgent right now. I’ll greet you formally at the recording tomorrow. I’m heading down first.”

“Wait…”

Viky wanted to detain her further, but the phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated. She bit her lip, her wonderful fantasies shattered. The small square box she held in her hand felt as if it had grown invisible blades, cutting into her palm with a sharp ache.

Her eyes were clouded as she forced a smile. “Then I won’t disturb you.”

Shen Luoyan gave her a rare, grateful smile, but it didn’t last more than a second. As the elevator doors began to close, she slipped inside without staying for a farewell.

The sensors were sensitive; after she entered, the metal doors bounced back open. No one else entered on this floor. After pressing the floor number, she kept her finger pressed on the ‘close door’ button.

While waiting for the doors to shut, a puzzle piece suddenly fell into her mind. The woman—who usually never restrained her desire for her whether on or off camera—had let her go so easily today. On a whim, Shen Luoyan glanced outside.

Viky was walking away with her head down, seemingly sending a message, her silhouette looking dejected. This state didn’t last long; she stuffed the phone and the item in her hand into her pocket and suddenly stood up straight.

Then the elevator doors closed, and Shen Luoyan’s curiosity ended there.

Ding-dong, ding-dong.

After triple-checking that the room number matched the one Su Cancan had sent, Shen Luoyan pressed the doorbell.

The hotel’s soundproofing was excellent; standing outside, she couldn’t hear a sound from within.

After two rings, Shen Luoyan waited. The door remained closed. Just as her finger hovered in the air, debating whether to ring again or send a message, the vermilion solid wood door suddenly opened a crack. In the next second, the gap widened, and she felt a sudden loss of balance as she was grabbed by the clothes and yanked into the room.

The process was so fast she had no time to think of resisting—or rather, she hadn’t been on guard at all, which was why she was pulled in so easily.

“You’re finally here!”

“Hello, Sister Luoyan.”

“Teacher Shen.”

Shen Luoyan managed to steady herself. Ignoring the chorus of greetings for a moment, her gaze fixed on the person closest to her: Su Cancan.

The AC in the room was set low. Since it wasn’t a formal event or a filming set, Su Cancan hadn’t bothered to “endure” the cold for fashion; she wore a thin knit cardigan. The palm that had pulled her in was still resting on Shen Luoyan’s upper arm, heat flowing steadily into her skin. Su Cancan’s delicate collarbones were partially hidden, but looking up, her perfect, sculptural features and moist, red lips were in full view.

Su Cancan looked serious. she poked her head out the door to look around warily before quickly ducking back in and latching the door.

She gave a mischievous smile, causing Shen Luoyan to break out in goosebumps as her throat moved unconsciously.

“Quick, quick, quick! We were just waiting for you!”

Before Shen Luoyan could understand, Su Cancan let go and took a small step back, leaving only a faint, lingering warmth on her arm.

“We’re playing games. Sister Cheng and the others are too good; I need your help.” Su Cancan blinked her large eyes. Not far away, several other gazes were glued to them.

“Oh, okay.”

Shen Luoyan didn’t even know what the game was, but because Su Cancan asked, she agreed mindlessly. It wasn’t until she was confusedly ushered to a mahjong table that she began to discern the expressions of the people around her.

Inside the suite’s mahjong room, chairs surrounded an electric mahjong machine. Opposite her was Cheng Lewei. To her left and right were Youyou and Zhouzhou. Su Cancan and Xia Yue sat diagonally next to her and Cheng Lewei.

Mahjong?

“Sister Luoyan, Sichuan Mahjong? Or Ningshi Mahjong?” Youyou spoke first, her slender fingers resting on the stacked tiles. “Sister Cheng and Sister Xia are from the Sichuan-Chongqing area, so they’re experts at Sichuan style. We haven’t won a single hand since we started. We just taught them Ningshi Mahjong; it seems like we might have a better chance with that.”

Youyou was intentionally guiding Shen Luoyan to choose Ningshi Mahjong. Shen Luoyan tapped the green felt of the machine and turned to look at Su Cancan, raising an eyebrow to ask for her opinion.

“Play…”

As Su Cancan began to shape her mouth for the second word, her expression turned into one of “don’t you dare.”

“Sichuan Mahjong,” Shen Luoyan cut her off quickly. Amidst Su Cancan’s shocked and “why-won’t-you-listen” expression, Shen Luoyan pushed her tiles forward at an angle.

Cheng Lewei and Xia Yue exchanged a look of amusement, their hands never stopping.

Sichuan Mahjong only uses three suits: Bamboo (Sticks), Dots (Circles), and Characters (Wan). The number of tiles is reduced by a quarter, leaving only 108. The process is similar to other regional rules—roll the dice to determine the dealer, draw tiles, and discard.

The unique parts are the “Missing Suit” and “Battle to the End” (Xue Liu Dao Di). Players must declare which of the three suits they will “void” before the game starts. When they win, their hand cannot contain any tiles of that declared suit. One person winning doesn’t end the round; they must play until the last tile, or until multiple players win, or until all four players fail to win, resulting in a draw.

Since the “Battle to the End” scoring is difficult, they agreed to stop as soon as one player won.

Shen Luoyan had played once by chance and remembered most of the rules. Cheng Lewei, sitting in the East position, rolled a seven. Once she was confirmed as the dealer, she rolled again, drew her tiles, and sorted her hand.

“I’m missing Bamboo.”

“Dots.”

“I’m missing Bamboo too.”

Youyou and Zhouzhou spoke one after the other. Hearing this, they looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly. There are only three suits; if two people are missing the same one, it means their remaining tiles are likely in the same suits, leading to fierce competition for the same tiles.

Shen Luoyan methodically arranged her fourteen tiles and spoke calmly: “Then I’ll be missing Characters (Wan).”

Having said that, she reached past her tiles. With a flick of her finger, an 8-Wan landed in the center of the table.

“Why void Characters? Don’t you have a few Dots as well? Forget it, do what you want.”

Su Cancan could see Shen Luoyan’s hand. That 8-Wan was right next to a 7-Wan, making it an easy sequence to build. On the other hand, those few Dot tiles were isolated. She was baffled by the choice and whispered in Shen Luoyan’s ear, but stopped herself from asking further to avoid revealing the hand’s information.

“1-Dot.” It was Cheng Lewei’s turn to draw and discard. She pushed one out decisively and looked at Shen Luoyan. “Little Shen has ideas.”

Being singled out, Shen Luoyan smiled and took a 2-Bamboo discarded by Youyou to form a set. “Sister Cheng is joking. I haven’t played much; I’m just throwing things out randomly.”

The drawing, discarding, and banter went on simultaneously. Only Su Cancan took Shen Luoyan’s “playing randomly” comment seriously.

As the remaining face-down tiles on the table grew fewer, Su Cancan’s heart beat faster.

“5-Wan.” Shen Luoyan drew a tile. Without even flipping it over to look, she felt it with her thumb and discarded it instantly.

“I win.”

Su Cancan leaned her head over to see if the tile was indeed what Shen Luoyan had felt. Before she could marvel at her superb skill, she was deflated by Zhouzhou’s exclamation: “I win!” (Hu!)

In Sichuan rules, whoever discards the winning tile pays the winner (unless it’s a self-draw, where everyone pays). They were playing for fun with chips but no set monetary value, so only Shen Luoyan had to give Zhouzhou the corresponding chips.

Zhouzhou revealed her hand, took the 5-Wan Shen Luoyan had discarded, and tucked it in to show everyone.

She had indeed won, but it was the smallest possible hand (Ping Hu), worth only one “fan” (double).

Shen Luoyan said nothing. She took some chips from the small box in front of her and handed them to Zhouzhou. The next dealer pressed the button, the central disc of the machine rose, and they pushed the tiles in to shuffle for a new round.

“Be steady. If you can’t do it, let me take over in a bit,” Su Cancan whispered to Shen Luoyan as the machine roared while shuffling. Everyone else was focused on their own small squares.

Shen Luoyan’s hand paused as she arranged her tiles. The corner of her mouth quirked. Then, while her right hand reached out to draw a tile, her left hand moved quietly under the table and gave Su Cancan’s leg a light pat.

A silent answer.

Was it a “reassurance, trust me”? Or a “weakness, I’m counting on you”?

Su Cancan tried to guess Shen Luoyan’s intention, pondering it deeply, only to hear Shen Luoyan once again declare a “missing suit” that seemed to ignore all logic of winning probabilities.

Her voice was steady. Extremely steady.

No one ever said a “Straight-A student” had to be an all-around expert. Not knowing how to play mahjong wasn’t something to be mocked. At this moment, Su Cancan just wanted to shake Shen Luoyan’s shoulders to wake her up.

Unfortunately, those images could only play out in her mind. Su Cancan felt a bit discouraged. She prepared to find a good moment to take over—one that wouldn’t embarrass Shen Luoyan but would allow her to step in naturally. In her agitation, she missed quite a few exciting back-and-forth plays. Suddenly, Shen Luoyan only had four tiles left.

“I win.”

Shen Luoyan’s expression didn’t change as she pushed her tiles over. Su Cancan snapped out of it and rushed to check the hand.

“Little Shen is so good! A self-drawn ‘Pair-Pair’ hand (Dui Dui Hu), that’s several doubles!” Xia Yue said, covering her mouth. Cheng Lewei nodded in agreement.

“Wow, that was close! Sister Luoyan only had this one left; the rest were all in my hand,” Youyou pouted, her tone full of regret.

In the face of the praise and the regret, Shen Luoyan was stone-faced to the others. She turned around to face Su Cancan, her face practically begging for a compliment.