The Villainess A Marked the Seductive Movie Queen - Chapter 22

Chapter 22: First Kiss

Back at the hotel, Liu Yitong launched a surprise study session. Her phone was propped up on the desk, pen poised over a notebook. She sat upright, back straight, as if she had been transported back to her high school days preparing for college entrance exams. She even drank a cup of black coffee in advance to stay sharp.

Her phone screen played a compilation of kiss scenes titled “Kisses with Maximum Sexual Tension.” Accompanied by lingering saxophone background music, the two actors on screen were entwined.

Liu Yitong watched at 0.5x, even 0.25x speed, as rigorous as a scientist observing a specimen under a microscope. Her notes soon filled an entire page:

Physical contact that pulls and pushes, repeated tug-of-war eye contact, staggered and attractive breathing…

The soft touch of four lips, the sound of sighs and moisture during a sip-like suck, trembling eyelashes, and noses pressed against each other…

These were just basic techniques. At first, Liu Yitong could remain detached, absorbing the knowledge like a student. But then, a few stunning performances appeared with captivating charm—

Involuntary throat sounds at the height of a kiss.

Liu Yitong couldn’t help but swallow. Her disciplined thoughts suddenly drifted, bringing Ruan Minxue’s elegant, cold voice to her ear. What kind of sound would a voice like carved jade make when moved during a kiss?

Snapping back to reality, she found she had drawn meaningless symbols in her notes. As if mocking her distraction, she immediately crossed them out.

One party suddenly grabs the other’s collar; the other presses a palm against their lower back to pull them into an embrace.

A localized explosion of desire, expressed to the fullest. That woman, always so composed, would tremble uncontrollably and lean against my chest when she smelled my pheromones.

Liu Yitong let out a sigh. Finding more meaningless symbols on the page, she grew frustrated and simply tore that half of the paper off.

After the kiss, the actress’s eyes are blurred; her fingers stroke the other’s neck, and she subconsciously licks her lips, appearing unsatisfied, wanting more.

“Give it to me.”

If it were Ruan Minxue, she would likely add such a blunt command. After all, that was exactly what she said the afternoon she needed pheromone soothing.

Snap.

Liu Yitong flipped her phone face down on the desk, deciding that her studies for today were over. She shifted the blame: it was all Ruan Minxue’s fault. She wanted to study hard, but Ruan Minxue kept running into her head to provoke her.

She glanced over her notes one last time and went to bed.

The kiss scene was to be filmed the next day. Although the assistant director had emphasized it was just a “shy first kiss” and a very small part of the day’s work, it was a first kiss for Qiao Jing—and for Liu Yitong as well.

Calm on the surface, Liu Yitong was actually so nervous that the other scenes leading up to the kiss felt like they were on fast-forward. By the time the real take began, her mind felt clouded.

According to the script, Du Ran—who was caring for Qiao Jing at her bedside—is too tired and dozes off, propping her face in her hand. When Liu Yitong opened her eyes at the director’s cue and struggled to sit up, she saw Ruan Minxue with her eyes closed.

The woman’s long lashes cast long shadows on her eyelids, making the skin beneath look translucent. Her nostrils flared slightly with her breath; her moist lips were slightly parted, the moisture within gleaming faintly.

As if hexed, Liu Yitong leaned in slowly. The closer she got to Ruan’s face, the more her fear grew due to the reality of the moment. She paused an inch away, took a sharp breath, steeled her heart, and kissed her.

So soft.

That was her most direct sensation. Then, shifting to her rational mind and noticing Ruan Minxue didn’t move, she recalled the notes she wrote last night. She adjusted her breathing and gently sucked on Ruan’s lip.

Soon, Ruan’s breathing trembled, as alluring as broken feathers. Liu Yitong pressed her lips against her, causing the woman to shrink and gasp. Then, she reached out and hooked Ruan’s neck, her fingertips rubbing against that thin gland, successfully drawing out an irresistible throat sound from the other.

When their lips parted, both were panting. Liu Yitong’s gaze trapped the person before her like a cage, her eyes so hot they seemed to scorch Ruan’s cheeks.

“How are you… so good at this?” Ruan Minxue couldn’t even finish her sentence, sounding choked up.

Liu Yitong chuckled, satisfied with the reaction and the results of her late-night study.

And then.

Ring ring ring—!

The alarm went off. The phone’s default alarm felt like it was ripping her soul back to her body, making her heart skip a beat.

Liu Yitong woke up completely numb. She stared at the ceiling for a long time before awkwardly covering her face with her hand.

I had a dream. A vivid, “colored” one.

She sat in a daze for a long time before getting up. While getting ready, she was still in shock. Not because she had such a dream at her age, but because it was about Ruan Minxue.

She had arrogantly thought she could perfectly control her soul, keeping her crush on Ruan “pure and clean” by abstracting her into an unreal deity. But her body’s reaction told her: Liu Yitong, you’re just a mortal. You have desires for Ruan Minxue.

Perhaps because of the dream, Liu Yitong’s mind was blank during her breaks the next day. Next was the heavy-hitting kiss scene. To simulate the fever of Qiao Jing’s first differentiation, the makeup team had applied a large amount of blush to her pale face.

Xiao Zhizi took one look and burst out laughing. “Shibuya Gal style!”

Liu Yitong: “…”

“No, it’s too funny.” Xiao Zhizi pulled out her phone for a selfie. “Come on, ‘辣妹’ (hot girl), I need to keep this for the archives!”

Liu Yitong cooperated, raising a finger in a “V” sign with a deadpan expression.

With a few minutes left before filming, Xiao Zhizi sat beside her and whispered mysteriously, “Are you nervous?”

Liu Yitong feigned ignorance. “Nervous about what?”

“The kiss scene!” Xiao Zhizi shouted in a whisper.

“Oh.” Liu Yitong acted profound. “We’re actors. It’s inevitable.”

“Wow! As expected of you!” Xiao Zhizi was fooled, clutching her heart. “If it were me kissing Sister Ruan, I’d be dead from nerves!”

Liu Yitong glanced at her. Xiao Zhizi realized something and quickly added, “Oh! Then again, if I were to kiss you, I’d be just as nervous!”

“Heh.” Liu Yitong was amused. Thanks to Xiao Zhizi, she really wasn’t nervous anymore.

Zhang Lishen called for the actors to take their marks. The blush, which looked exaggerated under the white lights, gained an atmospheric glow under the orange tungsten lights of the set.

When Ruan Minxue walked over, the makeup artist was still finishing Liu Yitong’s “sweaty fever” look. Her thin T-shirt was dampened with water, the fabric clinging to her chest and narrow waist. Her hair was also misted, pulled back to reveal her small, full forehead.

The girl lowered her lashes, quietly listening to the director. Ruan Minxue thought: A damp puppy. The kid looked like a puppy drenched in the rain. Endearing.

Zhang Lishen explained the scene: “Qiao Jing sits up, observes, thinks, leans in, and kisses. Note: this is a first kiss. Qiao Jing doesn’t know how, so Yitong, don’t move your lips. Act out that awkwardness.”

Liu Yitong nodded, looking stoic and rational. She had no idea that her obedient posture, combined with the flush on her face, projected a different kind of charm to those watching.

“Ruan Minxue?” Zhang Lishen called out. “I’m explaining the scene. Where are you looking?”

Ruan Minxue looked up and snapped back at him, “I don’t need my eyes to listen.”

Take 1. The slate clapped. Outside the window, a storm raged—artificial rain and lightning creating a sharp contrast with the yellow indoor light.

Liu Yitong sat up. Ruan Minxue was dozing by the bed. She leaned in. The woman’s faint fragrance entered her breath—a scent that wasn’t in the dream. This was real.

Liu Yitong pressed her lips against Ruan’s.

Soft. And stiff.

The softness belonged to a relaxed Ruan Minxue; the stiffness belonged to herself. A first-timer’s lips seemed to lose all sensation. Ruan Minxue opened her eyes, and Liu Yitong froze. Ruan pushed her away, looking shocked, before wiping her lips with the back of her hand.

“Cut.”

“Amazing!” Yue Yi exclaimed. “Yitong, you’re too good! The hesitation, the awkwardness, the self-mockery after the kiss… you’re really only 19?”

Zhang Lishen checked the monitor. “Passed. But let’s get another angle.”

Take 2. Still nervous, Liu Yitong felt her hands and feet go cold.

Take 3. Zhang Lishen said, “Let’s try a different style. This time, Qiao Jing, try to follow your instincts and suck a few times. Du Ran, you subconsciously reciprocate in your daze, then realize something is wrong and wake up.”

The moment their lips touched this time, Liu Yitong’s desire was unchained. She sucked on Ruan Minxue’s lips, so hard that the other woman flinched for a second. Sensing a moment of retreat, Liu Yitong grew dissatisfied. She slid her fingers into the hair at the back of Ruan’s head, pulling her back, while her thumb rubbed against the woman’s delicate, fleshy earlobe.

She kissed with force. As they moved, a faint wet sound escaped from Ruan’s lips, accompanied by a blurred, emotional sigh. Ruan was forced to tilt her head back until she couldn’t breathe and had to push her away.

“Cut.”

Both actors were panting. This time, when the staff handed her a tissue, Liu Yitong actually used it. Their lips were glistening. She guiltily glanced over and saw Ruan’s lips were slightly swollen.

Zhang Lishen let out an ambiguous chuckle. “The performance was great, but… with the current relationship between the characters, this take is too much. We can’t use it.”

As they waited on set, Ruan Minxue looked at her and gave a frank smile—unlike Liu Yitong, who was full of post-kiss awkwardness. Ruan leaned in and whispered so only she could hear:

“Has anyone ever told you that your kissing technique… isn’t very good?”

The girl’s ears rang. Provoked by the smile, Liu Yitong saw Ruan’s swollen lips and her frustration vanished. She replied, “No one has said that.” She didn’t clarify it was her first kiss. She was being stubborn.

“Alright, that’s enough for the kiss scene,” Zhang Lishen called out. A staff member came by to ask if they could film some “Behind the Scenes” (BTS) footage.

Ruan Minxue glanced at Liu Yitong’s face. The girl looked… not ‘bad,’ but ‘unsuitable’ for BTS right now. Some actors get too caught up in the emotion of an intimate scene and haven’t regained their composure.

“Let’s protect the actors,” Ruan Minxue declined with a smile. “Next time.”

As the staff left, the rookie Liu Yitong was still dazed. Ruan Minxue smiled at her warmly, but then the “wicked woman” added:

“By the way, remember to ask someone to teach you properly.”

“Kissing technique.”

Later that night, Liu Yitong lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. Everything felt surreal. She wanted to write in her diary, but she had locked it away after discovering her sleepwalking habit. She didn’t want the “person involved” to find such obvious clues.

Thinking of that “person,” her eyes sharpened. She sat up, grabbed her phone, and opened the kiss compilation again. She began to study the techniques frame by frame—sucking, breathing.

In a fit of pique, she tried to practice on the back of her hand (the “tiger’s mouth” area), as some voice actors do to create kissing sounds. After a few tries, the sensitive skin began to sting. A red mark appeared and turned blue, refusing to fade.

She curled back into bed. Ruan Minxue said her technique was bad. It probably was. Even if it was true, being told so by the person she liked made her childish side emerge.

You have the nerve to tell me? She thought of the scene where Ruan was mostly passive. She hugged her pillow, pressing her face into it until she was nearly breathless. When she finally let go, a frank, undeniable desire flooded her.

In a rare moment of childishness, Liu Yitong spoke to the empty room:

“If you’re so capable, you come and teach me.”

After the crew dispersed, Ruan Minxue attended a meeting for a TVC endorsement. On the way back to the hotel, she received a call from Zhang Lishen.

“The actress for the third female lead has a scandal,” he said bluntly. Her studio had been making excuses, and now it came out that she was in a tax evasion scandal. The role was suddenly empty.

Ruan Minxue didn’t panic. She just said she’d find someone to save the day and hung up.

As she got out of the car at the Ti Amo Hotel, a sudden rain began to fall. The rain from the script had moved into reality. She stood under the hotel’s entrance porch, listening to the rain.

Suddenly, her gaze froze. Under a nearby flower gallery, a figure sat on a stone bench. The copper wall lamps illuminated a thin silhouette. A familiar body, a familiar place, a familiar time.

It reminded her of a ridiculous night when she picked up a ridiculous patient.

“I’ll go over alone. Once I speak to her, you can go off duty,” Ruan told her bodyguard.

She walked toward the gallery. The figure became clear: Liu Yitong. She was wearing the white and green windbreaker from earlier, looking up at Ruan. The youthful, slightly clumsy outfit made her look very obedient.

“Why are you here again?” Ruan Minxue asked.

The girl’s gaze was direct, like a predator locking onto its prey—a hint of fierceness hidden beneath the obedience.

“I was waiting for you.”

Her pronunciation was clear and brief today. No clumsy “heavy tongue.” But her eyes were still a bit dull—both fierce and honest.

“Waiting for me to do what?” Ruan chuckled.

Liu Yitong replied: “Waiting for you to teach me.”

The rain intensified, the sound of water hitting the roof echoing like a heavy heartbeat.

Ruan Minxue feigned ignorance. “Teach you what?”

Liu Yitong said, word by word: “Teach me how to kiss.”

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