In the afternoon, bright sunlight filtered down through the forest canopy, casting a soft, high-key glow across Gu Li’s fair cheek. Because they were standing so close, Ye Lin could clearly see the tiny, soft fuzz along Gu Li’s jawline.
Swaying gently in the breeze, those adorable little hairs seemed to flicker and beckon to her, as if calling out: Come closer! Come closer!
A faint scent of agarwood pheromones drifted over with Gu Li’s body, while two subtle dimples flickered on her cheeks, threatening to steal Ye Lin’s soul once again.
Under her own palms, Ye Lin bit her lip tightly. The thumping frequency of her heartbeat soared in a straight vertical line, teetering on the edge of blowing a fuse. Her face burned like a roasted red apple, feeling as though steam would pour out from her ears if anyone so much as poked her.
How truly entertaining. Gu Li’s playful side took over. She reached out to flick a strand of hair from Ye Lin’s forehead, her voice dropping into a low, sultry tone laced with allure. “Why don’t you scoop the meat yourself? Why do you insist on me feeding you every time? Do you just really want me to feed you?”
“Mm.” Clamping her hands over her mouth, Ye Lin nodded forcefully. She wasn’t lying. Although she secretly looked forward to getting kissed by Gu Li, her intentions were still thoroughly wholesome. Taking advantage of the situation like this felt completely inappropriate. After all, calculating by her lifespan from her previous life, she was older than Gu Li—it was only right that she took care of her younger sister.
“Why?” Gu Li refused to let her off the hook. With a touch of mischievous malice, she leaned forward until her entire body was almost pressing against Ye Lin.
Ye Lin’s face flushed a deep crimson, her legs trembling slightly, and her wide, sparkling eyes shimmered with tears—looking for all the world like a helpless creature about to be bullied into weeping. How genuinely captivating.
“B-Because I don’t have good fortune. I can’t enjoy good things without suffering for it.” Ye Lin lowered her hands, feeling utterly embarrassed. Here she was, a dignified Grand Daoist Master, pinned against a tree and interrogated like this—yet her heart was pounding in eager anticipation! But what could she do? Gu Li was her little girl. Since their red threads were bound together, wasn’t it only natural to spoil her younger sister? Eek! Ye Lin wanted to hide her face in her hands; she felt like she was turning bad.
Hearing that answer, Gu Li’s expression shifted subtly. She possessed a natural “koi” constitution—she had inherently lived a better, smoother life than others, and having her wishes come true was practically a daily occurrence. That kind of life actually brought her plenty of troubles, but if she voiced them out loud, people would only view it as subtle humblebragging. Her luck was exceptionally strong, yet she had never imagined that someone could exist with zero good fortune whatsoever. How had a person like that even managed to survive?
It must have been extraordinarily tough. Yet, on second thought, something felt off. Ye Lin had been raised in a wealthy household. Even as a fake heiress, she was the family’s sole daughter before the real heiress returned, pampered and cared for while living an enviable, extravagant lifestyle every single day.
The experiences of the past two days had thoroughly shattered Gu Li’s worldview; just moments ago, they had crossed two departed spirits over to the afterlife together. So really, was anything truly impossible? Just because you couldn’t imagine it didn’t mean it didn’t exist.
Could it be that this Ye Lin isn’t the original Ye Lin? Gu Li was stunned by her own realization. If Ye Lin wasn’t the original Ye Lin, then who was she?
She suddenly increased the pace of her questions.
“Have you ever slept with anyone?”
Ye Lin shook her head.
“Have you ever kissed anyone?”
Ye Lin shook her head.
“Have you ever held hands with anyone?”
Ye Lin shook her head.
“Are you even from this world?”
Ye Lin shook her head.
Suddenly, Ye Lin froze. Her lips pressed together into a tight, thin line as the flush of bashfulness vanished from her face. She hadn’t expected to be tricked into telling the absolute truth. How was she supposed to explain this? Say that she was a transmigrator who possessed someone else’s body? Would Gu Li end up hating her?
“Reincarnated? No. Transmigrated! You transmigrated, didn’t you?” Gu Li stared unblinkingly straight into Ye Lin’s eyes, having arrived at a truth that was utterly mind-boggling.
That explained everything—why this Ye Lin was a complete night-and-day contrast to the rumors. Because the soul inside was a completely different person! She wasn’t even from this world, which was why she practiced metaphysics and lacked good fortune altogether, rather than simply having bad luck as fortune-tellers suggested. It was why she walked away from that wealthy family so easily, because it was never her home to begin with. So, was their meeting a pure accident, or a long-calculated scheme?
A transmigrator—a completely foreign concept. A term that only ever existed in fiction novels. Unbelievable! Astonishing! It sounded like an absolute fairy tale! Gu Li pinched her chin, carefully scrutinizing the person standing right in front of her.
Ye Lin was strikingly beautiful, featuring a jawline praised as hall-of-fame quality. Her eyes were deep and dark, framed by thick lashes, her neat nose set perfectly among features that harmonized flawlessly. When she kept silent, she gave off the crisp, distant aura of a deity descending to the mortal realm. Her long hair flowed like a waterfall, and her figure was equally stunning. She stood slightly above average height for an Alpha—curvy where she needed to be, toned where it mattered, with a pair of long legs and fingers that looked slender yet capable. Taken all together, she was the definition of flawless.
“What did you look like before?” “Where are you from?” “When did you get here?” Gu Li was dying of curiosity. How did a person manage to transmigrate? Did they have to pass through a black hole in spacetime? Did they inherit the other person’s memory and information during the process?
Ye Lin quietly observed Gu Li’s reactions. She had expected fear or revulsion, but instead, Gu Li looked as if she had discovered an uncharted continent—full of gossipy intrigue, circling her like an eager toddler firing off question after question.
“I looked exactly the same as I do now, and my name was also Ye Lin.”
“It happened just a little while ago, I used to be a Daoist Master.”
“There wasn’t any black hole; I just transmigrated in the blink of an eye.”
“In my original world, there were only two genders: male and female.”
Gu Li asked, and Ye Lin answered, hiding absolutely nothing. Every single answer left Gu Li deeply astonished. Ah, so there really are worlds with only two genders?
“Then, will you leave?” Gu Li locked her gaze onto Ye Lin’s eyes and asked, “Meaning, will you ever transmigrate back to your own world?”
Ye Lin wanted to say it was highly unlikely—their fates were bound together now unless that bond severed. But seeing the hopeful yet anxious look in Gu Li’s eyes, her heart softened. She answered firmly, “No.”
The corners of her red lips curved upward. Gu Li turned and began walking down the mountain, her steps light and her mood thoroughly lifted. She won’t leave. As for the original Ye Lin, Gu Li didn’t care about her in the slightest; she only cared about the Ye Lin standing right before her.
After taking a few steps, she paused, turned around, and teased, “You told me so much—aren’t you afraid I’ll sell you out? I might just sell you to a research institute to be used as a lab rat.”
“No, you won’t harm me.” Ye Lin spoke with such solemn conviction that Gu Li’s heart fluttered slightly.
Ye Lin stood on the upper slope, her hands resting obediently at her sides. She looked so remarkably well-behaved, her puppy-like gaze enough to melt anyone’s heart the second their eyes met. Soft, fragmented sunlight dappled across her body, swaying gently with the breeze and adding an air of unreality—as if she might vanish from this world at any given second.
Gu Li rarely experienced this kind of melancholic emotion; her life had been smooth sailing from the start. Over the past two days, every single one of her emotions had tumbled up and down around Ye Lin. Perhaps Ye Lin was simply a hurdle sent by Heaven for her. She extended a hand toward Ye Lin, and the latter obediently took her hand, stepping up to walk right beside her.
She even blinked! This girl’s looks broke all the rules, her speech broke all the rules—damn it, so this was the trendy, obedient, milk-puppy Alpha everyone was talking about? She was undeniably captivating, sending waves of tingling warmth straight through Gu Li’s chest. No way. Ye Lin was so silly and foolish, trusting others way too easily. She had to keep this girl right by her side—she wouldn’t feel at ease letting her wander off.
“Well, you are a guest from afar after all. You came from such a distant spacetime, and as an investor of this show, I have an obligation to take care of our guest.” Gu Li’s explanation was a blatant cover-up, yet Ye Lin nodded earnestly, taking every word to heart.
As the two neared the foot of the mountain, they ran headfirst into the cameraman assigned to their group. Carrying his heavy camera, he was frantically scanning the area for his missing targets. The moment he turned around, he spotted Film Empress Gu walking down the mountain with a bright, pleasant smile, holding hands with Ye Lin, whose face carried a hint of bashful shyness.
Wiping a handful of sweat from his brow, the cameraman instantly aimed his lens right at the pair. With practiced professionalism, he zoomed in for a close-up of their joined hands, enlarged their facial expressions, and then pulled back for a wide shot. This series of smooth camera maneuvers left Gu Li somewhat bewildered. What’s going on? Why take so many close-ups? We aren’t even the show’s featured buzz-generating guests.
Meanwhile, the live chat room—which had just regained its lost protagonists—exploded once again.
【They’re finally back! What did these two go off and do? Cameraman, zoom in more, I need to solve this case!】
【Her lipstick isn’t smudged, so nothing happened.】
【They definitely touched up their makeup! They must have brought lipstick with them. After kissing so passionately earlier, how could their lipstick not be smudged at all?】
【Little Koi, girls need to protect themselves! Whatever you do, don’t get tricked by a scum Alpha!】
【Sister Ye, take the lead! Be the top!】
Completely oblivious to the outside world, the two had no idea about the storm brewing in the chat room. They strolled leisurely toward the village. Just as they reached the entrance, Gu Li’s assistant came running toward them in a frantic rush, waving a phone wildly in her hand.
The assistant rarely lost her composure like this, so it had to be an urgent matter.
“I need to take this call first,” Gu Li said.
Ye Lin nodded. “I’ll head back and wait for you while processing the ingredients.” With that, the two parted ways.
It was a perfectly mundane exchange, yet within five minutes, it was completely ruined by playful netizens.
Normal Version:
【Gu Li: Go home and wait for me.】
【Ye Lin (shy young bride looking deeply affectionate.jpg): Come back early.】
Silly Version:
【Gu Li: Do you love me?】
【Ye Lin (cool girl flipping her hair.jpg): I don’t wanna be your stepmom, bye~】
Realistic Version:
【Gu Li: I have no car and no house.】
【Ye Lin (NO!.jpg): I’d rather cry in a BMW, let’s break up! (gold-digger sprinting away.jpg)】
At the same time, three dark lines—just like the ones in the netizens’ meme videos—virtually appeared on Gu Li’s forehead. Listening to her manager rattle on and on over the phone, she hurried straight toward the director’s area.
“Film Empress Gu, why didn’t you mention beforehand—” The director stood up to inquire, but was cut off before he could finish.
Gu Li spoke first. “Pull up the footage from earlier and show it to me.”
Seeing Gu Li’s grim expression, the director thought to himself: Oh no, did Ye Lin force herself on her? But that didn’t seem right either—the camera had captured it very clearly back then. Ye Lin had simply reached out for a hug, and Gu
Li smoothly leaned into her arms; it was completely mutual. Though bewildered, the director obediently replayed the footage of the two paper stand-ins kissing.
On screen, the two stand-ins interacted with utmost seriousness. First, they spun around each other like fools, and after being interrupted by Luo Quan’s team, the style suddenly took a wild turn and they started kissing! Right in front of all those people! On a live broadcast!
Gah, a mouthful of old blood stuck right in her throat. Gu Li had been fierce and competitive her entire life—how had she let her own paper stand-in beat her to the punch for something like this?
Ye Lin had merely commanded the stand-ins to fetch the food pack right in front of her face without issuing any other instructions. It was impossible for her to have secretly ordered them to do something like that behind her back—besides, she didn’t even have the time for it. Even if Ye Lin had done it, someone with her IQ wouldn’t have been able to hide it anyway.
“I’ve already drafted a press release on my end. Let’s just shift the blame onto her; after all, Ye Lin’s public persona is already—” Her manager detailed her strategy.
“Already what?” Gu Li furrowed her brows.
“Huh?” The manager caught the edge of anger in Gu Li’s tone, though she didn’t feel she had said anything wrong.
“What’s wrong with Ye Lin’s persona?” Gu Li suppressed her irritation. The Ye Lin she knew and the Ye Lin in other people’s eyes were two completely different people. Although she disliked her manager’s words, she knew the woman had her best interests at heart. Softening her tone, she suggested, “How about we just push a CP ship? Nobody will believe it if we try to throw blame anyway, and it’ll just become more negative material down the line. We might as well turn a mistake into an opportunity and ship us as a couple.”
“Absolutely not! What caliber are you, and what is she? If you two push a CP ship, it brings Ye Lin a hundred benefits and you a hundred harms! Gu Li, if you’re being held hostage, just cough once!” The manager nearly jumped out of her skin. Unless their brain was broken, no one in the entertainment industry would ever willingly push a CP ship with someone like Ye Lin.
Gu Li laughed out of sheer exasperation. “If I were held hostage, do you think I’d still be calling you? I would’ve called the police ages ago! ‘Cough once’—stop watching so many short videos. Ye Lin is a genuinely good person, and she’s beautiful too; pushing a CP ship with her isn’t a loss. That’s final. Contact her manager to touch base first, and I’ll call you back later to confirm the posting time.” With that, she hung up.
Standing nearby, the director’s mouth was stretched wide into an “O” shape. The thousands-year-old withered tree is actually blooming. If Gu Li and Ye Lin officially pushed a CP ship, this variety show would be a guaranteed blockbuster hit! He could even invite guest stars for the next episode and really turn up the heat! With gleaming eyes, he prepared to present his vision for the next episode to Film Empress Gu.
Before he could utter a word, a panicked shout echoed from the distance: “Director! Something terrible happened—Ye Lin knocked Ming Fanshuang unconscious!”