Two days later was the official start date for filming of “Walking With You.”
The production team had suddenly notified everyone yesterday that promotional photos for the show would be taken today. In other words, the guest lineup that the production team had been so mysteriously keeping under wraps was finally about to be revealed.
The other newcomer that Yang Yi managed had apparently gotten into some trouble recently, and Yang Yi had been busy cleaning up her mess, leaving no time to attend to Jiang Li’s affairs. She only had Xiao Qing accompany her instead.
On the way to the promotional photo shoot, Xiao Qing had been chattering away excitedly without pause.
“The production team has been building up hype for so long—I wonder who the guests will actually be…”
Jiang Li, however, was listless, leaning back in her seat with her eyes closed, resting. In her mind, she was still mulling over what Shang Chi had meant by that “soon” in his reply to netizens the other day.
She glanced at Xiao Qing, who was thoroughly entertained chatting with herself, her face glowing with excitement, and asked casually, as if it were nothing, “Xiao Qing, do you know if anyone’s currently preparing for a concert?”
Xiao Qing’s close friend was a die-hard fan of celebrities. From what Xiao Qing had said, this friend was also a fan of Shang Chi’s looks and one of the members of his fan club. If there were any latest developments, she would definitely know.
Xiao Qing thought for a moment upon hearing this, then shook her head. “It seems like a lot of singers like to hold concerts in the second half of the year. As for recently, I haven’t heard of anything.”
She shot Jiang Li a curious look. “Sis, are you thinking of going to a concert?”
Jiang Li coughed lightly and made up something on the spot. “No, it’s just that a younger cousin on my relative’s side is coming back from abroad. She wants to go to a concert to soak up the atmosphere, but she doesn’t usually follow celebrities much, so she asked me about it.”
Hearing this, Xiao Qing’s eyes instantly lit up. “If you’re going to a concert, it’s got to be Shang Chi! Don’t get me wrong, his stage presence is absolutely explosive. It’s just that I haven’t heard anything about him planning a concert recently—”
Suddenly remembering something, Xiao Qing nearly bit her own tongue. She turned and cautiously glanced at Jiang Li, and only let out a quiet sigh of relief when she saw nothing unusual about her expression.
She quickly changed the subject.
Jiang Li got her answer, but it only made her more puzzled.
If he wasn’t holding a concert, then what did Shang Chi mean by that “soon” he specifically replied to his fans with?
She had no time to dwell on it, as the van soon pulled into the parking lot of the filming location.
A member of the production team was already waiting by the elevator entrance. Seeing Jiang Li get out of the car with her assistant, they quickly came forward to greet her.
“Miss Jiang, this way, please.”
Jiang Li followed the staff member through one corridor after another until they finally arrived outside the studio door.
The staff member seemed to hesitate for a moment before raising a hand to knock.
Soon, the door opened in response.
Her field of vision grew clearer as the door swung open.
Standing at the entrance, Jiang Li unexpectedly locked eyes with a familiar pair of eyes inside.
Silence fell over everything.
So quiet you could hear a pin drop.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Jiang Li calmly raised her hand and grabbed the door handle. “Sorry, wrong room. You all go ahead.”
With a bang, the door closed shut again.
Leaving only the photographer and guests inside the studio exchanging bewildered looks.
The photographer asked in confusion, “Isn’t ours the only shoot going on in this building today?”
The production team staff member stammered out a response.
After a long pause—
“Was that… Jiang Li standing at the door just now?”
The question came from one of the guests, his gaze stunned, clearly not yet recovered from what had just happened.
He sneaked another glance at the man leaning against the wall with lowered eyes and an expressionless face.
He swallowed quietly.
No way!
Shang Chi and… Jiang Li?!
Wow, the production team was definitely holding back a nasty surprise, planning to stir up trouble!
Outside the door.
Jiang Li let out a soft sigh.
She really hadn’t expected to run into that guy here—good thing she’d closed the door fast enough!
“Let’s go,” she said to the staff member leading the way.
The staff member was so startled she stammered, “Go, go where?”
Could it be that Jiang Li was going to walk off set just because she’d seen Shang Chi?
Were their relations really as bad as the internet said… had it really deteriorated to this extent?
Ahhh, so why did the production team have to pull something like this?
Could they please not make things hard for a poor worker like her?
Jiang Li looked confused. “Aren’t we going to take the promotional photos? Shouldn’t we get going? We’re going to be late, right?”
Seeing that the staff member still looked apologetic, she nodded knowingly and patted the young woman’s shoulder, deliberately softening her voice: “It’s fine, this place is a maze of twists and turns. Getting lost is only natural—don’t take it to heart.”
The staff member kept her head down, cautiously glancing at Jiang Li.
It took her a long moment before she scrunched up her little face and mustered the courage to say, “Teacher Jiang, we didn’t get lost. This is the right place.”
She paused, then squeezed her eyes shut like a warrior facing certain death and added quickly: “Teacher Shang is also one of the guests invited by the production team. He arrived very early today.”
Jiang Li, who had just turned to leave, was frozen in place by those words.
A moment later, her neck stiff, she turned her head back with an extremely slow, mechanical motion, her face wooden as she forced a smile and said through gritted teeth, one word at a time: “What did you say?”
Xiao Qing: “…Oh no.”
The staff member: “…Oh no.”
With Jiang Li’s abrupt turn and door-slamming motion just now, the studio had fallen into an eerie silence.
The staff members exchanged glances with one another, not daring to even breathe too loudly.
Just as someone suggested sending a person out to check on the situation, the studio door opened again.
Jiang Li stood at the entrance, her expression perfectly composed, and gave everyone an apologetic smile: “Sorry about that, I thought I’d walked into the wrong place.”
Everyone exchanged knowing looks, while the staff members silently breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness—as long as she hadn’t stormed off in anger, everything could still be salvaged.
Shang Chi imperceptibly lifted his gaze toward that tall, slender figure. After a long moment, he calmly looked away.
He still wore that same careless expression, impossible to read what was going on in his mind.
Just now, outside the door, Jiang Li had struggled to accept the cruel reality that despite all her efforts to avoid encountering Shang Chi in public, she would end up on the same variety show as him, spending fifteen days and nights together.
It had taken her nearly twenty full minutes of mental preparation before she dared to open the door again.
Earlier, the staff member had told her that there were seven guests in total for this show. Including herself, five had arrived so far, and apparently two more would come later due to scheduling conflicts.
Jiang Li’s gaze followed the staff member’s introductions around the studio, nodding in acknowledgment to each person in turn.
Actors Zhou Ran and Ye Shu—both regulars on hit dramas, and both familiar faces to Jiang Li.
The youngest member, barely twenty years old, was Xiao Jiu from the girl group.
When the staff introduced Shang Chi, the entire room fell silent once more.
Sensing the man’s light, lingering gaze on her, Jiang Li’s thoughts drifted involuntarily back to that night—the entanglement between the two of them in the hotel room.
Whether from embarrassment or something else, Jiang Li simply couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes. She gave a perfunctory nod before turning away almost eagerly to speak with the staff.
To the others watching, however, this scene carried an entirely different meaning.
Just how bad could the relationship between these two be, that Jiang Li would slam the door shut the moment she opened it and saw Shang Chi?
After the staff had finally coaxed her back, she now couldn’t even be bothered to put on a pretense—not deigning to spare him even a single glance.
Shang Chi, for his part, remained utterly expressionless, as if he were entirely accustomed to this treatment.
Everyone in the studio kept their eyes lowered and their faces composed, outwardly calm as could be, yet inwardly a storm was already raging.
The two people famously known throughout the industry for their mutual animosity were actually appearing on the same variety show…
The journey ahead was looking grim!