【What a coincidence, my hobby is the same as my sister’s】
【So sister is also a looks-obsessed one】
【Sister just likes young, handsome boys—what’s wrong with that!】
【Sister, want a dog? College student, absolutely obedient (dog holding rose in mouth)】
【Scheming alphabet-soup crowd】
【Sister, don’t be so strict about gender!!】
【Honestly, waking up every day and looking in the mirror at her own face and Jiang Lingye’s, it’s only natural that ordinary pretty faces wouldn’t catch her eye】
【How bold—who are you hinting at??】
【Definitely not the little sister. The little sister plays so well with wifey, they even sleep together (dog head)】
Xu Mucheng hadn’t expected that the perfect move she’d set up would be so easily neutralized by Qin Chaoyue.
Fortunately, she still had a simp mouthpiece by her side.
Luo Zibai: “You’re twisting the concept!”
“Then what kind of ‘like’ is it, may I ask?”
Qin Chaoyue shot back.
“Is it that kind of brother-sister affection where the blood relation gets blurred, like yours toward her?”
“You—”
Luo Zibai was rendered speechless.
“Miss Xu.”
Qin Chaoyue glanced with half-lidded eyes at the person sniffling up front. “Today is only our first meeting. As two strangers, I don’t know how much delight I’m supposed to show toward Miss Xu.”
“Besides—”
“Miss Xu’s attitude toward me at the start wasn’t exactly friendly either, was it?”
“Right, right!”
Little Tang Yeli in the back nodded solemnly. The next second, that unrestrained mouth of hers was covered by Cen Xuyi.
Whether by design or coincidence, who could say.
Several times now, Cen Xuyi’s interruptions had only come to clamp down after Tang Yeli’s “innocent child’s words” leaning toward Qin Chaoyue had already been spoken.
Xu Mucheng merely leaned slightly toward Luo Zibai, and sure enough, a sucker stepped forward.
“Mumu didn’t mean it!”
“Whether she meant it or not is her business. As a stranger, I don’t care to sort through all that. To put it plainly, my first impression of Miss Xu wasn’t great, and I imagine Miss Xu feels the same about me. So there’s no need to put on an act.”
As she spoke, Qin Chaoyue cast a fleeting glance at the top of Xu Mucheng’s head, then smiled and said:
“Could it be that Miss Xu truly has some irresistible charm, that just a few soft-spoken words and someone will charge into battle for her, holding no grudges?”
【Hahaha, she can talk, say more】
【Mary Sue fiction made real】
【If anyone has that, it’s you, wifey!—Call me husband and I’ll give you my life!】
【Some real turn-off dream-boy literature】
【I’m a woman!!】
【Qin Chaoyue definitely hasn’t been fooled—but isn’t there a ready-made example of someone who has been right there?】
【108th time today laughing at the white moonlight—your ge is playing simp for the newcomer~ (grinning ear to ear)】
【I’ve been sick of Xu Mucheng’s fake-sweet act for ages. Her acting in that drama was always mediocre, yet somehow she stole all the heat from the other female characters. Even the official female lead couldn’t get a seat at the table!】
【That’s getting a bit scary】
“I’m willing!” Luo Zibai was the first to declare.
【109!】
Zhuo Jiahan hesitated, but still chimed in, “I also believe Mucheng didn’t do it on purpose.”
It would have been fine if he’d stayed quiet. The moment he spoke, everyone’s gaze converged on him again.
Qin Chaoyue’s especially.
“Oh” she drew out the ending note especially long. “Love me, love my dog, hm~”
The two of them wore identical constipated expressions, as if they’d just swallowed a fly.
【Luo-Ri-Cheng-Xi? What kind of garbage ship is that? The only ship I stan is the trash-ship!】
【Zhuo Jiahan, don’t be too lovable!!】
【Xu Mucheng, you keep defending your brother and sister-in-law like that, you just wait and see!!】
Luo Zibai and Zhuo Jiahan were certainly embarrassing, but with all that commotion, they’d drawn everyone’s attention over to themselves.
Which actually let Xu Mucheng breathe a sigh of relief.
Embarrassment was great!
After all, it wasn’t her who was embarrassing.
“Whatever~”
Qin Chaoyue respected other people’s fates. “But Miss Xu, Jiang Lingye is my one and only idiot little brother. Don’t get it wrong in the future.”
Jiang·Idiot Little Brother·Lingye: “.”
In the end, on the girls’ side of the dorms, Qin Chaoyue roomed with Tang Yeli, while Xu Mucheng was placed with the manager she looked down on most—the one with no buzz and no following, Cen Xuyi.
The moment the young girl heard she’d be leaving her cousin to room with someone else, she’d bucked like an unbridled little donkey, and right now Cen Xuyi was tending to her.
Xu Mucheng still had to salvage her image in front of the cameras. “Cen-jiejie, just now—”
Cen Xuyi was cut off and turned her head.
She knew that for Xu Mucheng to have risen so fast, and for the company to agree to let Luo Zibai—a popular idol with real star power—personally bring her onto this show, someone behind the scenes must be protecting her.
Having been around the industry, Cen Xuyi didn’t dare speak as offensively as Qin Chaoyue did.
“Just call me Xuyi.”
“…Huh?”
……
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Qin Chaoyue had found Jiang Lingye again, and the top star’s head got smacked once more.
The young man glared over.
Beneath his tousled hair, the light flickering in his pitch-black eyes was a little fierce.
But compared to how he’d been when facing off against others just now, this bit of fierceness was like a pet’s indignant show of defiance after being teased by its owner.
Woof woof woof~
Nothing but an all-bark, adorable puppy.
“Do you not have enough dirt on yourself already?”
Qin Chaoyue gave him no face whatsoever, lecturing her little brother right there under the cameras.
“I could have handled that kind of thing myself. I didn’t need you straining against your leash, itching to rush out and bite someone.”
The young man’s face turned sour. “And is your way of solving things any better?”
“At least it got solved.”
Jiang Lingye rolled his eyes. “You’re my sister. Right now, you and I are one and the same. You’re not even in the industry, so all that dirt is going to land on me in the end anyway.”
“Huh, fair point.”
Qin Chaoyue said, as if only just realizing, “Well, it’s already done. What do you want to do about it?”
Jiang Lingye’s eye-roll grew even more dramatic.
Right now he wasn’t playing cool, wasn’t courting scandal—he was just standing there, genuine and real, and somehow the whole picture made him seem inexplicably… cute?
He really was just a boy not yet eighteen, after all.
“Forget it,” Jiang Lingye said. “There’s already so much of it anyway. A few more debts won’t crush me.”
“Good little brother.” Qin Chaoyue gave her approval.
“I’m rooming with that guy. You’re really not worried… if it really comes to it afterward…”
Then he got smacked by Qin Chaoyue again.
This time Jiang Lingye didn’t cooperate, and Qin Chaoyue was feeling a bit lazy too, so the smack only landed on his shoulder.
“I told you not to make things harder for me, so don’t make things harder for me either.”
Jiang Lingye pressed his lips together. “Got it.”
So it really was just talk.
“You don’t need to put up with him. Just get along with him the way you normally would with anyone.”
Whoosh—
Light surged in the young man’s eyes once more, bright and burning as it settled on the woman before him.
“I’ll handle it.”
Which earned him the boy’s mock-scornful laugh. “Big talk. Yeah, right.”
Though he had no idea who this “older sister” of his really was, or why she had come to help him…
But in this single day alone, he had indeed received a great deal of kindness from her.
Kindness, yes.
He would remember it all, and repay it all.
Qin Chaoyue’s personality was even bolder than his own.
If she ever did something wrong in the future and got criticized or attacked for it, he would step forward and shield her personally.
But before that, he hoped the scandals and trouble he caused would be a little less.
It was just a matter of one word: “endure.”
He could do it.
These were all things he had long grown used to in the past…
Jiang Lingye lowered his head and dropped his gaze, concealing the emotions within, while quietly clenching his fist, making a decision.
The weight resting on top of his head wasn’t exactly warm, yet in an instant it brought him boundless courage.
“Don’t think that acting pitiful means you can boss me around.”
It was Qin Chaoyue.
Her voice still carried a hint of cool indifference, sounding nothing like deep sibling affection.
“Little brothers are only ever supposed to listen to their older sisters. But since you’re my, Qin Chaoyue’s, little brother, the ‘do whatever you want’ rule can be extended quite a bit further.”
“I didn’t say that earlier because I was afraid you’d get cocky—”
The rubbing on top of his head gradually shifted from somewhat forceful and haphazard to gentle, soothing the boy’s emotions.
“You did well just now.”
Qin Chaoyue paused, then said with approval.
“You’re starting to look like a little brat who’s finally growing up.”