The soft strands of hair brushed against the suppressor patch intermittently, and the girl’s supple waist grazed against her body, her burning temperature seeping through the layers of fabric.
Fu Yi forgot how to even move. “Xunshu, you, you should get up first.”
The girl raised her watery eyes, tears swirling within them, looking utterly aggrieved. “My leg hurts.”
Fu Yi wanted to punch herself. How could she have forgotten that?
“Then I, I will help you up.”
“Mm,” the other replied with a sweet hum.
Fu Yi’s mind raced as she considered how to lift her. A person this size, I shouldn’t just shove her to the side, right? After a pause, she awkwardly moved her hands, placing them on Ye Xunshu’s body by feel.
She touched a soft, slender waist.
Fu Yi kept her face neutral, but internally, she was a boiling cauldron.
Ye Xunshu saw Fu Yi’s reddening earlobes and smiled faintly. “Sister is so good to Xunshu.”
Fu Yi had been holding back for a long time, but this one tingly, soul-melting sentence broke her defenses. Her grip slackened, and Ye Xunshu fell right back down.
The two stared at each other once again.
Fu Yi: ” ”
Ye Xunshu: ” ”
“Uh,” Fu Yi hid her face in Ye Xunshu’s hair. “I am sorry.”
“It is alright,” Ye Xunshu laughed. Her tone was slow but not languid as she murmured with measured weight into Fu Yi’s ear. “If Sister likes it, we can just do it one more time.”
Fu Yi mentally repeated “I don’t like it” ten thousand times.
She gathered her emotions and reached out again, swearing in her heart that this time would be a success. It had to be a success.
Just as both hands settled on Ye Xunshu’s narrow waist, she felt something light and airy brush against her ear. It carried a faint hint of moisture.
Fu Yi’s brain overheated, and her fingers froze against Ye Xunshu’s body.
“Sister Fu Yi’s ears,” Ye Xunshu curled her lips into a smile and bit down gently on the earlobe. “The color is truly beautiful.”
Fu Yi immediately held her breath, her heart twisting in her chest.
This wasn’t right! Was the little rabbit in heat? But she couldn’t smell the scent of osmanthus!
Although Fu Yi was an Alpha, deep down, she hadn’t fully internalized that identity yet. Consequently, at a moment like this, she didn’t think for a second that she could flip the situation and pin Ye Xunshu down instead.
She could only close her eyes nervously, putting on an outward expression of “no, no,” which in Ye Xunshu’s eyes looked more like “do as you wish with me.”
Under their close contact, the very air seemed to grow scorching hot. Fu Yi felt as though she could no longer breathe.
She waited for a long, long time. The air grew stagnant.
Suddenly, the weight on Fu Yi disappeared. She opened her eyes, which were filled with confusion, and saw Ye Xunshu get off her on her own. She sat down beside her, looking weak, helpless, and pitiful.
Fu Yi let out a massive sigh of relief in her heart.
Actually, the little rabbit still wouldn’t dare do anything to her, right? A little rabbit is just a little rabbit; it couldn’t suddenly turn into a fox, could it?
Having finally removed the person from her body, Fu Yi remembered that Ye Xunshu’s leg was still hurting. She helped her sit properly in her seat and then sat down beside her, unable to utter a single word.
The temperature on her ear remained, growing hotter by the second.
Fu Yi recalled the sensation carefully. Ye Xunshu had licked it just now, right? Not only did she lick it, she bit it too! Rabbits are herbivores; how could they bite people?
Ye Xunshu rubbed her knee, tears still hanging in her eyes. Her pink lips pursed slightly as she cast a gloomy glance toward Fu Yi.
Fu Yi snapped back to reality and pushed all other thoughts aside. She knelt down and lifted the hem of the skirt to check. The skin on the knee was scraped, and a faint trace of blood was visible.
Fu Yi blew gently on the wound.
“When we get there, I will apply some medicine for you.”
Ye Xunshu nodded.
Fu Yi didn’t know what to say anymore. Her head was full of the bite from earlier. She didn’t even dare to look at the girl now, so she just kept blowing on the wound until she felt lightheaded herself.
Ye Xunshu couldn’t stand it anymore. She pulled her leg back and spoke softly. “Why won’t Sister look at Xunshu anymore?”
Fu Yi let out an “ah,” scratched her cheek, and forced herself to glance at Ye Xunshu. “I didn’t…”
Ye Xunshu suddenly burst into a giggle.
Fu Yi looked up. “?”
Ye Xunshu reached out and tapped her own cheek, laughing lightly. “Sister stole a secret kiss while Xunshu was asleep. Xunshu just took it back from Sister’s ear. Sister isn’t angry, is she?”
Fu Yi was choked for words. Now, whenever she looked at Ye Xunshu, she thought of their intimate movements. She only wanted to reach the filming location as quickly as possible.
She gave a tiny reply: “Of course not.”
She realized for the first time that this little rabbit was actually quite vengeful!
Considering the filming location was far from the central area of Yangzhou, Shen Yiyi decided that the first episode’s filming would begin in the afternoon.
The venue was already set up. Water mirrors were placed everywhere, ready for all-encompassing, multi-angle filming. There were even people holding water mirrors following the guests to capture details.
Fu Yi pulled back the curtain and looked at the setup, silently praising Shen Yiyi for being truly reliable.
Shen Yiyi had spotted the Fu family carriage long ago and waved at Fu Yi.
Fu Yi waved back and looked around. She noticed that although there were many people here, aside from the “cameramen” and Shen Yiyi the “director,” there were no other guests.
Were they the first to arrive?
Fu Yi lowered the curtain and looked at Ye Xunshu inside the carriage.
“Can you walk?”
Ye Xunshu shook her head, lowering her eyes slightly.
Fu Yi saw her gripping her sleeve tightly and figured she must be in pain. She let out a sigh and walked toward her.
Shen Yiyi was stunned when she saw Fu Yi carry Ye Xunshu down.
But before Shen Yiyi could give any instructions, the “cameramen” holding the water mirrors all turned their devices toward the two of them.
The step Fu Yi was about to take froze in mid-air, and she slowly pulled it back to its original position. Seeing the mirrors surrounding her from all sides, she gave Shen Yiyi a wry smile. “What exactly are you doing?”
Shen Yiyi tapped the “script” in her hand and said matter-of-factly, “Filming, obviously.”
Since they were in front of the cameras, Fu Yi remembered that one of her primary goals for this romance show was to rehabilitate her rotten reputation. She knew the live broadcast had started the moment they arrived, so she had to learn to tolerate Shen Yiyi.
She gave a forced laugh. “Haha, Yiyi… with so many cameras, the guests might feel a bit uncomfortable.”
Especially since she was carrying Ye Xunshu! Did they really need to film this from every single angle?
It was also Ye Xunshu’s first time being filmed by so many water mirrors. She wrapped both arms around Fu Yi’s neck and tucked her head in, burying her face against Fu Yi’s chest. She looked exactly like a well-behaved little rabbit.
Shen Yiyi pressed the script against her chin as if in deep thought. “Is that so? But you’re the one who told me the whole point of a romance variety show is to watch people stick together, witness intense emotional tug-of-wars, and then ‘ship’ the couples.”
She pointed at Fu Yi and Ye Xunshu, speaking with righteous conviction. “Look at your posture right now. Isn’t this exactly what ‘sticking together’ looks like? When I trained these cameramen, I told them to capture these moments immediately. Am I wrong?”
The cameramen nodded in unison.
“…”
Fu Yi’s face turned completely dark. She didn’t want to lose her temper at Shen Yiyi in front of the cameras; otherwise, her already precarious reputation would be utterly destroyed.
Unaware of the danger she was in, Shen Yiyi continued, “You two head inside quickly. There are already people…”
Fu Yi acted as if she hadn’t heard a word and walked inside while carrying Ye Xunshu.
“…there,” Shen Yiyi finished her sentence and stood on the spot, clicking her tongue.
The reason she hadn’t told Fu Yi who the registered guests were—aside from maintaining the “fairness” of the show—was that as a childhood friend, she desperately wanted to see Fu Yi’s reaction when she met those people.
Fu Yi sneezed. Ye Xunshu looked up at her and whispered, “Does it tire Sister to carry me like this?”
Fu Yi shook her head. “Not at all.”
What was carrying a petite Omega to an Alpha? She could easily handle this short distance.
“Oh… then Sister is working hard.”
Suddenly, Ye Xunshu nuzzled against Fu Yi.
Fu Yi nearly lost her footing. “W-what are you doing all of a sudden?”
Ye Xunshu didn’t look at her. She kept her head down and nuzzled a few more times, murmuring, “Sister’s embrace is so warm and comfortable. Will this place… belong only to Xunshu?”
The lower world didn’t have the advanced spiritual power of the upper world, so the live experience provided by the water mirrors was naturally inferior. However, people who loved “gossip” were experts at finding joy in hardship. Even with crude equipment, their indomitable spirits were determined to find “sugar” in the most difficult environments.
Thus, on the first day of The Myriad Gravities of Infatuation, the majority of the viewers flocking to the “stream” were there for Fu Yi. Since the guests hadn’t been announced in advance, the sight of Fu Yi carrying Ye Xunshu off the carriage caused a flood of comments to drift across the water mirrors.
[Why is Miss Ye here too? Didn’t they say this romance show was about freedom of love?] [Hmph, how do you know Fu Yi isn’t henpecked? Ye Xunshu is clearly here to keep an eye on her.]
[An Omega keeping an eye on an Alpha’s nature? It’s already good if she isn’t the one being controlled, hahaha.]
[Fu Yi carrying Ye Xunshu off the carriage… are they really this affectionate? Is this the same Fu Yi I know?] [Isn’t it just for show?]
The water mirror at the entrance continued its broadcast. Some viewers moved to watch the interior scenes, while others waited for the rest of the guests to arrive.
[Someone else is here! Who is it?]
[They look a bit familiar.] [They’re getting down, they’re getting down!]
[Wait, why is it Zhou Zhou? With the eldest son of the Zhou family being an Omega, is he really afraid he can’t find an Alpha on his own?] [Hold on, the carriage step hasn’t been moved yet. Is there another person?]
[Someone sharing a carriage with the eldest Young Master Zhou could it be.] [???]
[Is it the second Miss Zhou? Why is a Beta joining in the fun? Then again, these days Alphas and Omegas find partners easily, leaving the Betas to sleep alone.]
[Zhou Ying is definitely going for the Fu family’s daughter.]
[Impossible. Fu Yi is already married. No matter how blind Zhou Ying is, she wouldn’t rush to be a concubine, right?]
[Hey, you guys don’t know? Just half a month ago, Fu Yi and Zhou Ying were entangled on the street.]
[Hahaha, Fu Yi is a famous playgirl. Do you think she only has eyes for Miss Ye? I’ll call it now: she started this romance show because the brothels got boring. She’s just finding a new way to hook up!] [Tsk tsk…]
[So, is Zhou Ying going to fight Ye Xunshu for her person?]
[That depends on how the eldest Miss Fu wants to play it.]