The person before him was too dazzling, too striking.
Jiang Lingye froze for a moment before slowly coming back to his senses, his voice still a little strained when he spoke:
“You’re the… ‘older sister’ the company arranged for me on the show?”
This was completely different from what he had just imagined.
Jiang Lingye could feel the other person looking at him. From the moment he walked in, those dark, ink-black eyes had been fixed on him.
Not looking away for even a moment.
As if appraising an object.
It made him uncomfortable, and also made him… restless and nervous.
With youthful pride, he refused to be outdone and stared right back—
Even in the entertainment industry, where beauties were as plentiful as clouds, that face of hers could be called a devastating weapon, enough to outshine all the rest.
Black hair, snow-white skin, red lips. When those eyes glanced over at someone, they were languid yet sharp, carrying an air of composure as if nothing in the world ever mattered to her, and yet everything was well within her grasp.
And now she was looking at him again…
Qin Chaoyue’s voice carried a trace of weariness: “Don’t call me that. Nothing’s been confirmed yet.”
Jiang Lingye: ??
“Aren’t you in my group? Sorry, I must have mistaken you for someone else…”
He knew it. How could the company have paired him with a non-celebrity guest with such outstanding looks for the show? It really had been a mistake.
As Jiang Lingye secretly breathed a sigh of relief, he had completely forgotten that he was the one who had been stopped—and “misled”—by Qin Chaoyue in the first place.
“Come here.”
Just as Jiang Lingye was about to leave, Qin Chaoyue beckoned to him again.
?
Utterly baffled yet extremely obedient, Jiang Lingye took a step forward.
“Lower your head.”
The next second.
A soft hand landed on his head, and Jiang Lingye was completely dumbfounded.
He didn’t know why he was following her every instruction, as if there were some suppressive force in his bloodline—before this person, he couldn’t lift his head at all.
Immediately after, a sharp pain came from the top of his head.
“What are you doing!”
Jiang Lingye quickly backed away, only to see the other person holding two or three strands of his hair in her hand.
The kind with the follicles still attached.
Accused by this young man who was suspected to be her younger brother, Qin Chaoyue merely lifted her eyelids slightly:
“How else would I verify it?”
Although from the very first moment she saw him, Qin Chaoyue was seventy percent… no, eighty percent certain that this person really was her long-lost younger brother.
Everything had to go through the proper procedure for peace of mind. So, a DNA kinship test first!
Qin Chaoyue was sealing the freshly plucked hair into a plastic bag, and without even raising her head, she said:
“Tomorrow, you and I are going on the show together.”
“What?” Jiang Lingye clutched his head, his anger instantly forgotten.
“Are you my fan?”
So the company had sold his slot on the variety show to someone else. He had once been a top-tier star, after all.
That was the only possibility Jiang Lingye could think of.
Qin Chaoyue looked up and glanced at him: “You mean a hater?”
Jiang Lingye: “…”
Jiang Lingye fell silent again.
“Qin Chaoyue. That’s my name. See you tomorrow.”
Jiang Lingye pressed his lips together, deeply and heavily.
Tomorrow was the day the variety show would begin its live broadcast.
But somehow…
This “older sister” who had plucked a handful of his hair the moment they met, and who inexplicably made him feel a sense of dread—deep down, he had a premonition that she might just be the biggest wildcard on the show.
After coming out, he shared a nanny van back with Zhuo Xi.
Agent Yan Fangfang’s mind was entirely elsewhere now, and she only asked Jiang Lingye a couple of perfunctory questions.
The boy’s Adam’s apple bobbed, his gaze darkening slightly.
For some reason, he didn’t tell anyone about having seen Qin Chaoyue.
The next morning.
Jiang Lingye figured it out!
If Qin Chaoyue was someone planted by the company, then aside from her being a fan who had spent a fortune buying a spot, the other possibility was that she was a scheme of the company in another form.
During his time on the survival show, and later with that whole spectacle he’d staged with his family that the entire internet had witnessed, fans and passersby alike now knew that his original family’s circumstances were quite ordinary.
And now a “big sister” who was extraordinary in every way had suddenly appeared. The two things contradicted each other—wasn’t he just fabricating a persona?
This was very likely another trick the company was using to destroy him!
At this thought, Jiang Lingye’s eyes were full of wariness when he looked at Qin Chaoyue again.
Today, this big sister was as radiant as ever, glowing brilliantly, with an air of domineering strength about her.
She glanced at Jiang Lingye. “Didn’t sleep well last night?”
Jiang Lingye stayed silent, on guard. He’d tossed and turned all night thinking about the woman in front of him—how could he possibly have slept well!
Qin Chaoyue, however, was in a good mood.
She had pulled some strings to expedite the kinship test—as they say, the first time is awkward, the second time familiar.
Overnight, the test results had arrived on her phone, and the first thing she saw when she woke up this morning was—
Jiang Lingye really was her biological younger brother!
As for the mix-ups and twists in between, whether someone with ill intentions had exploited them… no rush. She would investigate it all, down to the last detail.
Now, facing her own hapless, pitiful little brother, even someone as cold and hard as Qin Chaoyue couldn’t help feeling a touch of “sibling affection” toward the boy.
“Young people shouldn’t indulge too much.”
Jiang Lingye, slowly: ?
Qin Chaoyue offered her heartfelt advice:
“You’re young now, full of energy, and in good physical condition. But even so, you should practice moderation in these matters—don’t find yourself unable to perform when it really counts.”
“What on earth are you talking about!!”
The boy’s face flushed crimson in an instant.
He had already looked slightly off from staying up late and overthinking, his handsome, refined face a little pale—but now it had all turned red, even the tips of his ears tinged with a soft, rosy hue.
He actually looked five or six parts genuinely like the dazzling Qin Chaoyue standing before him.
Jiang Lingye ground his teeth. “No! How could I… that’s impossible! Stop whatever you’re imagining in your head… Just—don’t think about it!”
Qin Chaoyue shot him a glance.
Compared to that fake brother who’d been playing around with women before he was even sixteen, this pitiful little brother of hers was unexpectedly innocent.
He couldn’t even say those two words out loud.
If Jiang Lingye were bound to an affection-points system, right now he’d surely hear Qin Chaoyue’s affection for him going +1, +1, nonstop.
The boy was so much fun that President Qin couldn’t resist teasing him:
“So what if you didn’t? Why get so worked up?” She looked him up and down. “You do seem to be protesting a bit too much.”
“…………”
Jiang Lingye clenched his fists.
Jiang Lingye was furious!
Jiang Lingye decided—
To turn around and ignore her!!
Hmph!
╭(╯^╰)╮
Where was even a trace of the boy’s usual swagger and defiance that he showed his fans and on stage?
With his back turned and puffing with anger, he looked just like a little hamster.
Qin Chaoyue admired it a while longer when suddenly, in the waiting room, a little assistant from the production crew came over.
The moment she arrived, she bowed and apologized.
“I’m so terribly sorry, so terribly sorry—Teacher Zhuo Xi isn’t quite satisfied with the finished makeup and styling, so it’ll take a while longer. So for you two teachers…”
Jiang Lingye’s face looked even worse than when he’d been teased earlier, his pitch-black eyes seeming tinged with fire, yet also slightly dimmed.
Nowadays his reputation was full of scandals…
“Fine, I understand…”
Qin Chaoyue suddenly spoke up, cutting off whatever Jiang Lingye was about to say:
“If it takes that long just to do makeup, how unsatisfactory must Zhuo Xi’s face be? With looks like that, he shouldn’t be a celebrity at all—the cosmetics counter could use another counter boy…”
“He’d fit right in over there.”