Qiao Qiao felt that she should definitely use this method on the person right in front of her.
This person’s tone was so wildly arrogant.
She didn’t have a good impression of the person in front of her. That short-haired person had gotten back into the car and shouted, “We’re heading out, boss?”
Ji Qinglin glanced inside the car and saw Ni Zijing standing in front of a thickly wrapped-up girl wearing large sunglasses, who actually looked quite like a celebrity.
“Mm.” Ni Zijing gave a low acknowledgement, no longer looking at Qiao Qiao, and stepped back to walk toward the car door.
Seeing that everyone in the car looked completely horrified, Ji Qinglin smiled and said, “Sorry to have scared you all. The one named Ling Yang will have someone pick him up later. Driver, you can just leave as soon as we get out of the car.”
When Ni Zijing passed by her, Ji Qinglin followed her out of the car and asked, “Who is that girl? Why does she look like she’s desperately on guard against you?”
“A little hedgehog, pretty cute.” Ni Zijing answered the question with a non-answer.
Ji Qinglin wore a ghost-seen expression. “Since when do you raise hedgehogs?”
Ni Zijing just slightly raised an eyebrow without speaking, and sat in the driver’s seat. The supercar drove away just as swiftly as it had arrived, vanishing in an instant.
Her room had been booked by Sister Zou well in advance, and the front desk had already been notified. Qiao Qiao dragged her luggage into the room and collapsed onto the soft, large bed. Only then did she feel that tonight’s trip had been truly like a roller coaster, truly thrilling.
Qiao Qiao put on a sheet mask and took a bath, finally letting her tense nerves relax. Shaking off the two strange women from her mind, she put on soft loungewear and sat down with her script to read.
Tonight, that long-haired woman had stood so close to her, yet acted as if she didn’t know her at all.
No, she genuinely didn’t know her.
“Qiao Qiao, oh Qiao Qiao, your national recognition has really dropped to this level.” Qiao Qiao muttered to herself, her gaze shifting to the small can of anti-wolf spray placed on her bedside table.
Could it also be that underworld figures just don’t chase celebrities?
With a sharp snap, Qiao Qiao closed her script in frustration.
真是够了, said she would not think about it, yet it kept burrowing right back into her brain. What did it matter to her whether people chased stars or not?
Qiao Qiao left a small nightlight on and wrapped herself up in the duvet, ready to sleep. Right before drifting off, she thought that she hoped she would never run into that long-haired woman with off-the-charts combat power ever again. Instinctively, she felt that woman was not someone to be trifled with.
The next morning, Qiao Qiao ate breakfast in her room.
She put on a windproof anorak jacket and topped it with a fluffy hat featuring panda ears, the hanging flaps neatly covering her ears.
Qiao Qiao wore two layers of fleece-lined leggings; she was someone who was extremely sensitive to the cold. Unless she was filming or attending an event where she had to wear only a single pair of pants or go bare-legged for the sake of looking pretty, that simply did not exist for her.
Cold versus looking ugly? As someone who had already started taking care of her health, Qiao Qiao chose the latter.
Of course, sunglasses were an absolute must.
The ski equipment hall.
As a private ski resort that had been purchased and developed, Beihu Ski Resort covered a massive area, presenting a vast, snow-white expanse as far as the eye could see. It featured beginner, intermediate, and advanced slopes, along with chairlifts, and had quickly exploded in popularity within the skiing circle.
However, snow had fallen both sparsely and late across the northern region this year, and Beihu was no exception. Fortunately, they had enough snowmakers running continuously. The snowflakes sprayed out by the machine at the mountain peak drifted down lightly, actually creating a romantic atmosphere of snowfall.
The drama in which Qiao Qiao played the third female lead was a Republican-era revolutionary theme, and she演ed a songstress.
In the final scene, after learning vital intelligence, the songstress prepares to sacrifice herself, walking through the snow toward the enemy camp to resolutely meet her death.
Qiao Qiao pulled back her wandering thoughts. She had put on both her sunglasses and mask securely, ensuring no one could recognize her.
Once she put on her ski goggles and bundled up in her winter clothes later, even fewer people would pay attention to her. She looked at the oversized ski pants and clumsy boots and began to worry about how on earth she was supposed to wear these things.
Yes, although she had claimed she was coming to Beihu Ski Resort to vacation and relax with a bit of skiing, she actually had zero skiing experience and had never touched the equipment before.
She observed how others wore them for quite a while, then tried copying them by pulling the ski pants directly over her own pants. The construction of these ski pants was so bizarre; the area from the calves downward had a thin additional layer with elasticity designed to cuff around the legs. Qiao Qiao used all her might to squeeze her feet into the ski boots, and then clumsily stuffed the ski pants right into the boot shafts.
People in the locker room finished changing and walked out one by one, leaving Qiao Qiao all by herself.
She raised her head and saw someone leaning against the doorway of the locker room diagonally across from her, watching her intently with a faint smile curving the corners of their mouth and eyes upturned, looking as though they had been enjoying her spectacle for quite some time.
“It’s you!” Qiao Qiao was so startled that her hands instantly went rigid. She thought to herself that she was completely finished. Was this underworld figure here to silence her because she saw her beating people yesterday? Crap, she hadn’t brought her anti-wolf spray!
The person standing at the doorway watching Qiao Qiao was also dressed in an all-black anorak. The only white parts visible on her entire body were her hands and face, and her hair seemed to blend right into her clothes.
It was precisely the long-haired woman from last night.
Qiao Qiao let out a cry of alarm, “Don’t come any closer!”
Watching the person slowly walk toward her, she could only frantically recall what Sister Zou had told her yesterday. What was it again? If you run into any trouble at a ski resort, just say you’re an artist under President Ni, and it works like magic.
What was President Ni’s name again? What was it?
Ni Zijing!
Seeing Qiao Qiao suddenly tense up right in front of her, Ni Zijing couldn’t help but want to tease her. How could this little hedgehog be so terrified of her?
Looking at Qiao Qiao’s state just now, she had put on her ski suit completely wrong and hadn’t managed her boots either. Ni Zijing genuinely couldn’t bear to watch any longer and had come over to help.
“What are you doing, what are you doing? Can your underworld crowd just go around beating people randomly?” Seeing that this person had already walked right up to her, Qiao Qiao quickly lowered her voice and said, “I advise you not to mess around. There’s someone backing me up right above me!”
Oh? She really had backing. Ni Zijing raised an eyebrow. Through her lenses, she could see Qiao Qiao’s nervous gaze. Also, when on earth had she become part of the underworld?
Ni Zijing leaned her body slightly forward, and Qiao Qiao blurted out, “I’m telling you, I am backed by Ni Zijing! You know Ni Zijing, right? She’s the incredibly good-looking and fiercely capable new president of Guangyu Media! If you dare lay a finger on me, I’ll have her upend you, you hear me? Do you hear me?”
Qiao Qiao thought to herself that President Ni, oh President Ni, please lend her your name. Saving a life creates more merit than building a seven-story pagoda. She would definitely act well in the future and work like an ox and a horse for you.
Hearing her own name come out of Qiao Qiao’s mouth, accompanied by such a fancy, flowery rainbow-fart of praise, left Ni Zijing with truly complicated feelings. She managed to suppress her urge to tell this little hedgehog the truth and dragged out her tone, “You said who?”
How does one even pull off the operation of upending oneself?
Seeing that the other person hadn’t moved, Qiao Qiao assumed she had been bluffed. As expected, this beloved daughter of heaven’s name was powerful; even underworld figures had to show some respect.
“Ni! Zi! Jing!” Qiao Qiao hummed twice and repeated it. “Well, scared yet?”
“Mm.” Ni Zijing lowered her head to stifle a chuckle, then looked back up at Qiao Qiao. “Ah, I’m so scared. You must definitely not tell her.”
Qiao Qiao’s confidence grew a bit, and she lifted her chin. Before long, she let out another gasp of alarm, “Hey, what are you doing?”
She saw this person actually squatting down right in front of her.
Ni Zijing squatted down, pulled Qiao Qiao’s ski pants back out from inside her boots, and said in a low voice, “Looks like this is your first time skiing, right? Why are you wearing so many layers of pants? You’ll get very hot once you start moving. These pants are worn wrong; this lower layer needs to go over the outside of the boots to keep the snow from getting in.”
That pair of finger-jointed hands deftly straightened out the ski pants and helped her secure her ski boots, then looked up and asked, “Do you want to go change your pants?”
Caught off guard, Qiao Qiao bumped right into those dark, deep pupils, completely forgetting whatever was in her head, and let out an “Ah.”
Turns out she wasn’t here to give her trouble, but to help her sort things out?
“I asked if you want to change your pants. Don’t you feel squeezed wearing all these layers?” Ni Zijing smiled. “First time skiing?”
Looking down from Qiao Qiao’s overhead angle, she could even see that the person’s long eyelashes were as dense as little fans. She hadn’t expected an underworld figure to have such a gentle temper, feeling completely different from the way she looked beating people up yesterday.
Moreover, she noticed that the bandage on this person’s hand from yesterday had been removed; her hands were slender, long, and nice-looking.
“Oh, I’m just thin.” Qiao Qiao finally remembered to answer her question, just as her other shoe and pant leg were neatly straightened out.
She paused in a daze, then suddenly asked, “Do you underworld people not chase celebrities at all?”
“We don’t. No time.” Ni Zijing gave a low acknowledgement. That probably counted as not chasing them; managing a company was already exhausting enough.
Qiao Qiao raised a hand to take off her sunglasses, saying, “That’s good, that’s good.” True, a life of fighting and killing was exhausting too, so when would they ever have time to pay attention to other things?
Since she didn’t follow the entertainment industry, she definitely wouldn’t recognize her.
Ni Zijing looked up and saw that Qiao Qiao’s fair face was fully exposed. The girl had put away her little spikes and was squinting at her with a smile. Her long lashes and translucent tea-colored eyes caught fragments of light.
She really did look quite nice.
Before Ni Zijing could speak, she heard Qiao Qiao cheerfully ask her, “What’s your name?”
“Ni…” Ni Zijing was about to blurt out her own name, but quickly swallowed it back and asked in return, “And you, what’s your name?”
Qiao Qiao deliberated that even though this person didn’t recognize her, she still couldn’t reveal her true identity. Otherwise, what if she offended her in some way later? Wouldn’t she be unable to escape then?
“My name is…” Qiao Qiao gave a light cough, searching her brain for vocabulary. What would be a good name?
“My name is Naonao.” Qiao Qiao finalized the name with a firm tone. “Just call me by this nickname; my real name and all that aren’t important. Now hurry up and tell me yours.”
“You really know how to pick a name.” Ni Zijing was amused. She paused for a moment and continued, “Then I’ll be Cancan.”
Qiao Qiao was dumbfounded, “…”
Cancan, Cancan? Is that a name a human would pick? Was this person treating her like a brain-damaged idiot?
Though Naonao didn’t sound like a name a normal human would pick either. Hadn’t she just lifted a rock only to drop it on her own feet?
Looking at Ni Zijing’s half-smiling expression, Qiao Qiao swallowed back whatever words were on the tip of her tongue, and could only say, “Can, Sister Can, hello.”