Five minutes earlier, Ye Lin had returned to the wooden house carrying the food pack, opening it with great anticipation.
This supply bag was 0genuinely bountiful: inside was half a small leg of lamb, a beef steak, two packages of low-fat buckwheat noodles, two tomatoes, two cucumbers, a packet of peanuts, a bundle of baby Chinese cabbage, and a bag of glass noodles. After mulling it over, Ye Lin settled on the dinner menu: Garlic Steamed Cabbage with Glass Noodles, Roasted Leg of Lamb, Pan-seared Steak, and Chilled Cucumber Salad mixed with Fried Peanuts, topped off with two bowls of sweet and sour cold buckwheat noodles.
She would use spring water for the cold noodle broth, tomatoes for flavor, and shredded cucumber as a garnish—sweet, sour, refreshing, and appetizing. It was perfect for this season.
Just thinking about Gu Li eating her cooking made Ye Lin feel so wonderful inside that she was practically ready to bust out a dance routine with background music.
Gu Li hadn’t distanced herself from her; didn’t that mean she liked her? She even held her hand on the way back, so she must definitely like her. Hehehe. Ye Lin clutched the supply bag, giggling silly to herself.
The cameraman felt a cloud of dark lines cross his forehead. Shouldn’t celebrities be having a full-blown PR crisis management meeting at a time like this? Why was the one in front of him laughing like a total fool? Could this be the legendary “giving up on treatment”?
After giggling for a moment, Ye Lin arranged the ingredients one by one on the cutting board. First, she handled the leg of lamb. Using the spine of her knife, she chopped the lamb leg down into a length that could fit into a stainless steel basin, scoring cross-hatches across the meat so the flavors could seep in better. Next, she chopped green onions into sections, smashed garlic and ginger into a fine mince, and threw them into the basin together. She then poured in a splash of soy sauce, Sichuan peppercorns, black pepper, and rice wine to remove any gamey odor, before adding bay leaves, cinnamon bark, and refined salt. She massaged the seasonings into the lamb for thirty seconds and set it aside to marinate.
She grabbed a soup bowl to soak the glass noodles in water, reserving them for later. Just as she was pouring the water, she spotted Ming Fanshuang walking toward her in a menacing, aggressive huff. Yes, menacing—with a height of 160 cm, she somehow walked with the aura of an intimidating 280 cm titan.
Rather than looking at Ming Fanshuang’s facial expression, Ye Lin fixed her eyes on the top of her head, unable to help raising an eyebrow. How come I didn’t notice this thing before? The situation seemed a bit tricky.
“What did you eat? Who gave it to you?” Ye Lin washed the leftover seasoning off her hands and reached her palm toward the top of the other woman’s head.
“Huh?” Ming Fanshuang dodged nimbly, instantly putting on a stern face. “Don’t you try to change the subject! I, I thought that since your cooking was good, you wouldn’t be too bad of a person either! I never expected you to be such a shameless rogue! You, you, you.” Suddenly, Ming Fanshuang couldn’t catch her breath; her body tilted backward, her eyes rolled up into her head, and she fainted dead away!
From a distance, Ye Lin’s earlier reaching gesture looked as though she were striking Ming Fanshuang on the head. When the latter collapsed as a result, the situation was distorted in that exact manner and reported straight to the director’s ears.
Before Ming Fanshuang hit the ground, Ye Lin caught her, laid her flat on the floor, and reached out to make a grabbing motion over her head. She pulled out a faint wispy streak of blue light, which was absorbed into Ye Lin’s body in an instant.
With all of that taken care of, she only needed to wait for Ming Fanshuang to wake up.
Having heard that Ye Lin beat someone up, the director rushed over frantically with his crew, leaving all cameras turned off. How could they broadcast something like this if it were true? Film Empress Gu really had terrible taste—how did a person like Ye Lin ever catch her eye? She must have been blinded by physical beauty! Ah, beauty truly leads people astray! He pitied Gu Li at least eight hundred times in his heart.
Gu Li was equally anxious. She didn’t believe Ye Lin would hit anyone; with Ye Lin’s level of metaphysical skill, if she truly wanted to harm someone, she wouldn’t resort to physical violence—especially not right in front of the cameras.
When the group rushed to the scene, they saw Ye Lin sitting casually in front of the stove washing vegetables, looking completely unbothered.
“Where is Ming Fanshuang?” The director demanded in a harsh, stern tone.
“Inside.” Ye Lin pointed toward Gu Li’s room. Unable to bear the sight earlier, the cameraman had picked up Ming Fanshuang from the floor and carried her into Gu Li’s room. After all, she was a minor celebrity and an Omega; Ye Lin truly showed zero chivalry or tenderness toward the fair sex.
In reality, Ming Fanshuang would wake up very soon. In Ye Lin’s view, moving her was entirely unnecessary—besides, absorbing a little ground energy wouldn’t do her any harm.
“Hurry up and check on her,” the director urged the onset doctor, before turning back to unleash a barrage of scolding right at Ye Lin. “Ye Lin, if you can’t record this show, then get the hell out! Even primary schoolers know that hitting people is against the law! You’re a grown adult, yet you lay hands on a fellow cast member—just wait to go to prison!”
“Did you hit her?” Gu Li asked Ye Lin.
Ye Lin shook her head. “I didn’t hit anyone. If you’re referring to Ming Fanshuang, she fainted on her own.”
Good. If you say you didn’t, then you didn’t.
Gu Li turned around and confronted Director Li: “Director Li, did you see Ye Lin hit her with your own eyes?”
Ye Lin didn’t pay much mind to the misunderstandings of others; as soon as Ming Fanshuang woke up, her innocence would be proven. But Gu Li had darkened her expression first, aggressively going head-to-head with the director as if she were the wronged party. This open and upfront protection left Ye Lin deeply flattered. Sitting on her little stool, she raised her face and stared unblinkingly at Gu Li. The way she stands up for me is so cool!
“Didn’t they all see it?” Director Li pointed at the staff member who had run over to deliver the message. Because of Ye Lin’s past bad reputation and terrible temper, Director Li had also let his preconceptions lead him to believe that Ye Lin would resort to violence. If a fight broke out on a dating show, they could kiss approval through censorship goodbye, and the past two days of recording would be completely wasted. How could he not be furious?
However, none of these were valid excuses. As a director of a show, he should at least investigate the truth of the matter before passing judgment. Gu Li could not and would not accept such indiscriminate accusations.
“You saw it?” Gu Li’s gaze turned icy cold, shooting sharp icicles toward the staff member.
“I, I didn’t see it clearly, but it had to be her! Otherwise, why would Ming Fanshuang suddenly faint?” The staff member shrank his neck. He indeed hadn’t seen it clearly; he had been standing far away, and only looked over after Film King Luo pointed in Ye Lin’s direction saying she had hit someone, arriving just in time to see Ming Fanshuang collapse.
He was a die-hard fan of Film King Luo. Since Ye Lin had harassed Luo Quan in the past, he disliked Ye Lin as well. Since his idol said she hit her, then she hit her! Even if she didn’t physically hit her, she must have frightened her into fainting! Ye Lin was the culprit! For the sake of his beloved idol, he kept brainwashing himself.
“You dare to talk nonsense when you didn’t even see it clearly?” Gu Li’s tone was icy, and combined with her natural authoritative aura, it struck fear into his heart.
“I’m not talking nonsense!” The staff member still stiffened his neck, refusing to back down.
“Fine. Where are the cameramen? Where are Ye Lin’s and Ming Fanshuang’s dedicated camera operators?” Gu Li shouted.
Oh right! Director Li slapped his thigh. Weren’t there cameramen? The situation at the time must have been recorded.
The camera operator rewound the footage. It showed the scene very clearly: Ye Lin hadn’t hit anyone, but had merely reached her hand toward the top of Ming Fanshuang’s head to grab something. Ming Fanshuang had even dodged it, leaving a distance of a person between them. A dozen seconds later, Ming Fanshuang suddenly fainted, and Ye Lin was actually the one who caught her. The matter was clarified just that simply.
His face flushed red, the staff member was still shouting, “She intimidated Ming Fanshuang, that’s why she fainted!”
Director Li’s expression was quite unsightly as well. “Enough! Which team are you from? Who is your manager? Take him away.”
Gu Li wouldn’t keep this kind of person on set and fired him on the spot. Feeling treated unfairly, the staff member turned around and leaked the incident to gossip reporters, and soon #YeLinBeatsUpCastMember hit the trending headlines. Of course, he also received a lawyer’s letter from the Gu Corporation, but that was a story for later.
Within a single day, Ye Lin hit the trending searches twice. She herself hadn’t expected that her luckless fate would turn out to be so insanely popular in the entertainment industry.
Director Li sheepishly hurried into the wooden house to check on Ming Fanshuang’s condition.
Gu Li didn’t follow him inside; the small wooden house couldn’t hold so many people. Besides, she wanted to hear what Ye Lin had to say, so she found a stool and sat down beside her. “Why did Ming Fanshuang faint?”
“She ate something she shouldn’t have, that’s all. But she’s fine now, don’t worry.” Ye Lin scratched her head and continued, “By the way, she said I was a shameless rogue! But I haven’t done anything rogue-like at all.”
Gu Li understood now: Ming Fanshuang must have seen the two paper stand-ins kissing in the live stream, thought Gu Li was being taken advantage of, and came to fight for justice on her behalf—only for an accident to occur, leading to this misunderstanding. It would have been fine if Ye Lin hadn’t brought it up, but now that she did, Gu Li remembered she hadn’t told Ye Lin about their plan to push a CP ship yet. She shouldn’t be unwilling, right?
Who could have guessed that Film Empress Gu would also have a day where she second-guessed herself?
“Look at you, acting so meek and useless. When they framed you just now, why didn’t you defend yourself?” Gu Li gave Ye Lin an annoyed side-eye.
Wasn’t it because your mouth was too fast? Ye Lin had handled plenty of incidents before; usually in situations like this, waiting a moment would bring the truth to light, so she couldn’t even be bothered to explain. But just because she didn’t care didn’t mean others didn’t. This protective care was genuinely heartwarming.
“Because I have you,” Ye Lin smiled bashfully.
“Oh? You actually know how to say things like that?” Gu Li feigned surprise.
Ye Lin rubbed her hands together sheepishly, but still uttered a soft, “Thank you!” Under such one-sided accusations, based solely on her single word “No,” Gu Li had stood by her side without a second thought. It genuinely touched Ye Lin’s heart.
“The entertainment industry is just like this—a tiny issue will get blown out of proportion, affecting an artist’s future or even their entire life. So if you run into something like this again in the future, you must stand your ground and fight back.” Gu Li patted Ye Lin on the shoulder, adopting the tone of a big sister offering advice. “You’re so silly, how are you going to survive in the entertainment industry? How about the two of us push a CP ship together?” She even raised an eyebrow after finishing her sentence.
Sister is offering you a golden path to stardom, come on now.
“Oh. What is ‘pushing a CP ship’?” Ye Lin asked with a look of pure innocence.
Gu Li scratched the tip of her brow and cleared her throat. An Omega saying something like this was still a bit embarrassing after all, but what choice did she have? The Alpha opposite her was even easier to embarrass than an Omega. For the sake of her younger age, Gu Li decided to educate her a little—yes, educate. “Pushing a CP ship means pretending to be a couple. Pretending that the two of us are a pair.”
The red thread around her ankle spun round and round, winding tight. Ye Lin couldn’t help scratching at it. “I’m super unpopular and irrelevant though.”
“It’s precisely because you’re irrelevant that you need to ship with me! I’m a big name, I can carry you to the top!” Gu Li raised her eyebrows with supreme confidence.
“I’ll hold you back,” Ye Lin said, pulling her knees to her chest with a complete lack of confidence.
“Doesn’t matter, my legs are thick enough to carry us both!” How many people desperately wished for a chance to cling to her thigh, yet why wasn’t this fool taking the bait? Gu Li was dying of impatience.
“But why?” Ye Lin kept beating around the bush, wiggling out of it over and over.
“Forget it.” Gu Li reached into her pocket for her phone.
Ah? Just like that? Ye Lin lowered her knees, just about to advocate for herself, when Gu Li handed her the phone, showing a video playing on the screen.
Ye Lin: “?” So awkward! How did this happen?
“You saw it yourself. There’s no other way—we can only push a CP ship,” Gu Li said helplessly. Since the other party wasn’t taking the bait, she had no choice but to pull out her trump card.
Regarding the trouble caused by the two paper stand-ins, Ye Lin speculated that the red thread tightening suddenly had messed with the surrounding magnetic field. So it wasn’t that Gu Li actually wanted to push a CP ship, but was just doing it to cover up the embarrassment. She sheepishly returned the phone and nodded in agreement.
“Alright. Inform your manager in a moment, and we’ll set a time to post on Weibo together.” Gu Li scrolled through her contacts searching for Jiang Yue’s number, instructing as she browsed: “Once you push a CP ship with me, you aren’t allowed to have ambiguous interactions with anyone else. Whether in front of the camera or behind it, your only CP partner can be me, got it? Otherwise, you’ll be flamed to death by comments. You should know my fans are all over the globe.” Gu Li wasn’t trying to scare her; it was a matter of fact.
Inside the wooden house, after an examination, the doctor stated that Ming Fanshuang had no external injuries, though he wondered if the fainting was caused by internal trauma. Just as they were discussing whether to transfer her to a major hospital for a full-body checkup, Ming Fanshuang sat up from the bed.
She looked curiously at the crowd inside the room. Why was even the director here? Ye Lin, did you cause big trouble again? Only after a long while did she realize that Ye Lin hadn’t caused trouble—it was she who had caused trouble! She had suddenly fainted, which led to the misunderstanding that Ye Lin had knocked her out.
Ming Fanshuang quickly explained that no physical conflict had occurred between them and that she herself felt no physical discomfort at all, so she could continue recording the show. But to be safe, the director still sent staff to accompany Ming Fanshuang and her assistant to the county town for a comprehensive checkup. After all, a person couldn’t faint for no reason at all; getting checked out would put everyone’s mind at ease.
When Ming Fanshuang stepped out of the room, Ye Lin walked over and asked her what she had eaten and who had given her the food.
“A little kid gave me a peach. Oh right, that kid’s family lives right behind the primary school,” Ming Fanshuang recalled carefully. “Could my fainting be related to the peach?”
“It couldn’t be food poisoning, could it?” Director Li asked anxiously. He didn’t want any unexpected incidents occurring on his show.
“It’s both related and unrelated. You should go get your body checked first.” Even though they wouldn’t be able to find anything wrong, the show crew was doing it for peace of mind, so Ye Lin didn’t stop them.
Director Li glanced at Ye Lin. He felt those words sounded quite cryptic—what on earth did “both related and unrelated” mean? He wanted to ask but felt too embarrassed, given that he had falsely accused Ye Lin without checking the facts first. Main reason being that Ye Lin had participated in a variety show last year, where she cursed out the director until he was hospitalized just because he accidentally stepped on her foot; ever since then, she had been blacklisted from every variety show. Offending a Ye Lin like that—how could he afford the consequences?
This was also why Director Li had been bewildered when Gu Li insisted on inviting her. Over the past two days of interaction, he had realized that Ye Lin was actually quite easy to get along with. He had acted on impulse earlier, and knowing he was in the wrong, he tried to slip away quietly, only to have his name called out.
“Director Li, where are you going? Ye Lin is still waiting for you.” Gu Li stood beside Ye Lin with her arms crossed. Trying to run off after yelling at someone? Not a chance. Shouldn’t he hurry over and apologize? Did he not want her investment anymore?
Director Li bit the bullet and walked over, putting on a polite smile. “Ah, oh dear! I, I was too impatient earlier and spoke out of turn. Miss Ye, I’m truly sorry. I apologize to you.” His attitude was sincere enough—after all, he didn’t want to get cursed into a hospital bed.
“Then I hope Director Li will be a noble person in the future. A noble person speaks with measured care.” Ye Lin gave a light smile.
Director Li covered his face and nodded, taking his crew with him as they scattered in a hurry.
Ye Lin got on a call with Jiang Yue, who supported the idea of pushing a CP ship with both hands up; Jiang Yue felt slightly guilty, as if Film Empress Gu were engaging in charitable poverty alleviation. Ye Lin, on the other hand, wasn’t in high spirits. She grunted a few responses to Jiang Yue’s instructions and hung up the phone.
The live broadcast resumed.
Driven by curiosity, Gu Li secretly asked Ye Lin, “What did you mean when you said ‘both related and unrelated’ earlier?”
“You’ll know the answer in less than fifteen minutes,” Ye Lin said, leaving her hanging in suspense.