No matter how much they couldn’t stand each other, they still had to live together during their comeback.
After the album press conference, all the members of the Gu Group clocked out and got into the car heading back to their dorm. The moment she was in, Zhou Shichen reclined her seat and hummed in comfort. “Honestly, I’ve really missed our beds.”
Although Sweet Melon Entertainment was constantly being cursed out by fans—wishing for the company to go bankrupt and the boss to drop dead and run—in all fairness, they treated the Gu Group quite well. Even before the group was profitable, the company had rented them a suite in S City’s most luxurious residential complex to serve as their dorm. It boasted a 270-degree river view and a fully integrated smart home system. You could bump into an award-winning actor or actress just by stepping out to pick up a delivery.
Later, when the Gu Group blew up and the members were allowed to pursue individual activities, they would travel all over the world for their schedules, but they always returned to the dorm as soon as they were finished.
Lin Yi glanced over at Chen Yuan, who had settled by the window and closed her eyes the moment she got in the car. Lin Yi’s heart began to pound, and she answered distractedly, “Me too.”
Someone beside her let out a cold laugh.
“…” Lin Yi shot a glare in that direction, but the culprit had already put on her Bluetooth earbuds, adopting a “do not disturb” expression and completely ignoring Lin Yi’s furious gaze.
Lin Yi knew what she was laughing about.
Their group produced a lot of content—even their meals and sleeping habits were filmed for the fans. Consequently, for the sake of CP fan service, Lin Yi and Xu Shuyan had been assigned to the same room through a “game” and became roommates.
As for the other three, Chen Yuan was given a single room due to her poor health, which left Yan Qi and Zhou Shichen to automatically share the remaining room.
That was why Lin Yi had mixed feelings about returning to the dorm. She loved being able to spend every day with the person she liked, but she hated having to see Xu Shuyan’s face the moment she opened her eyes.
Lin Yi couldn’t be bothered with Xu Shuyan. She leaned closer to Chen Yuan. “Yuanyuan, are you tired?”
Chen Yuan’s performance skills were the weakest in the group—she was terrible at both singing and dancing. Her saving grace was her beauty, her leading-lady aura, and her natural talent for acting. So, once individual activities were permitted, Chen Yuan went straight into filming. A sweet historical idol drama she starred in aired before the end of the year and became the hit of the season, causing her popularity to skyrocket.
But she had a weak constitution and was often sick or suffering from allergies. She could muster up some energy on stage, but she was always listless the moment she stepped off.
And Lin Yi had to admit, she loved that sense of fragility about her.
She had no idea what Xu Shuyan saw in Chen Yuan. Lin Yi glanced again at Xu Shuyan, who offered nothing but a cold profile, and thought to herself, As annoying as Xu Shuyan is, at least her taste is decent. Exactly the same as mine, in fact.
Chen Yuan’s eyelashes fluttered. She opened her eyes and smiled. “Yes, a little.”
“Our poor Yuanyuan.” Zhou Shichen couldn’t bear to see a beautiful girl looking so pitiful. She reached out and patted Chen Yuan’s cheek. “But we have a variety show the day after tomorrow, and we have to sing and dance the title track for the opening. You’re usually busy filming, so you’re still not that familiar with the song and choreography. You’ll need to practice again tomorrow.”
The captain, Yan Qi, also nodded. “Should I find someone to teach you?”
“I’ll do it,” Lin Yi and Xu Shuyan said in unison.
Their eyes met, and sparks flew.
Lin Yi said sarcastically, “Yuanyuan’s part doesn’t have any rap. What are you going to teach her?”
Xu Shuyan faltered for a second before firing back, “The dancing! The choreography for a sweet little song is simple. No need to trouble our great main dancer Zhou. I can handle it.”
Zhou Shichen: “…”
Yan Qi: “What do you think, Yuanyuan?”
Hearing that she had to practice singing and dancing again, Chen Yuan’s face fell. “…Alright.”
Xu Shuyan shot Lin Yi a triumphant look. Annoyed, Lin Yi threw a punch in her mind. Still not satisfied, she let her hand, which was resting below her seat, drift over to Xu Shuyan’s leg and gave it a stealthy pinch.
A curse almost escaped Xu Shuyan’s lips, but the thought of Chen Yuan sitting right there made her slam on the brakes.
A moment later, Lin Yi’s phone, which was in her bag, began to vibrate wildly.
Annoying Person: You just pinched me.
Annoying Person: You’re so dead.
Annoying Person: We’re dueling in bed tonight.
Lin Yi: Let’s be clear, whose bed?
Annoying Person: Yours.
Lin Yi: Why? Do you know how expensive my sheets are? Are you going to pay if you wrinkle them?
Annoying Person: Pay your ass. Aren’t your current sheets the ones I got from that buy-one-get-one-free deal on Taobao? What’s so expensive about them?
Lin Yi: …They’re expensive because the CP fans went crazy over them and broke the monthly sales record for that store.
Annoying Person: …
Lin Yi: So, your bed it is.
Annoying Person: Just you wait.
Lin Yi: 【Stickingtongueout.jpg】
Annoying Person: …
Although Xu Shuyan was a rapper who could spit bars at lightning speed, she could never win a war of words against Lin Yi. She always ended up bottling her frustration, planning to overpower Lin Yi with physical strength later that night.
Lin Yi delighted in seeing her get flustered and couldn’t help but start humming a tune.
Their new album had a girly concept, and the title track was about a campus romance—sweet yet bittersweet, like a blushing midsummer. The melody was light and cheerful. As the main vocal, Lin Yi had a sweet voice, and even her casual humming sounded divine.
For a moment, the car fell silent.
Outside the window was the deep, dark night. As they crossed the river, they could see a ferry gliding slowly across the water. The boat itself was brightly lit, its warm yellow lights receding into the distance on the river’s surface.
Lin Yi slowly drew her gaze back from the window and let it rest on Chen Yuan’s face. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught Xu Shuyan’s reflection in the glass. Bad luck, she thought, and sullenly averted her eyes.
Her WeChat was still open to her chat with Xu Shuyan. She scrolled up a bit.
She and Xu Shuyan chatted every day.
Not that they particularly wanted to, of course. It was mainly to make their fan service seem more natural. This way, they could “casually” mention things during solo interviews or vlogs to show they knew each other’s schedules inside and out, manufacturing sweet moments for the fans, like “they’re in contact every day,” “she’s so clingy,” or “the little couple must video call each other to sleep every night.”
Xu Shuyan was methodical, reporting every little detail down to how many dishes she’d eaten for dinner. Lin Yi, on the other hand, was as perfunctory as possible. She’d reply when she remembered and leave Xu Shuyan on read for days when she didn’t, right up until Xu Shuyan couldn’t stand the one-sided conversation anymore and would use the “pat” feature on her profile picture to get her attention.
System: “Annoying Person” patted you and said, “Lin Yi and Chen Yuan are a match made in heaven.”
Annoying Person: …
Annoying Person: Piss off.
After that, Xu Shuyan ignored her for several days. It wasn’t until Lin Yi painfully agreed to lend her a new pair of earrings for her airport fashion that Xu Shuyan resumed her fan-service duty of reporting her schedule.
She really knows how to pick, Lin Yi thought, grinding her teeth. Of all things, she had to pick her absolute favorite pair.
Xu Shuyan must have been sent by the heavens specifically to steal things from her!
“Alright, darlings,” the group’s manager said, leaning back from the passenger seat. She clapped her hands, snapping Lin Yi out of her thoughts. “Since we have a little time now, let’s have a quick meeting to discuss the new season of our group variety show.”
Zhou Shichen was instantly on alert. “Are you guys planning something again?”
“How could we?” the manager cried foul. “Can’t you have a little faith in the company?”
Xu Shuyan took off her earbuds, her expression flat. “You mean the kind of faith where you stranded the five of us on a deserted island to survive last season?”
Lin Yi added indignantly, “Or the faith where you challenged the five of us to live in S City for half a month on five hundred yuan?”
Yan Qi crossed her arms. “And the faith where you said you were taking us to a villa in the suburbs for a vacation, but actually locked the doors and made us play a murder mystery game combined with an escape room?”
Zhou Shichen sighed. “And what about tricking us with a ‘seven-day luxury cruise,’ only to bring in a bunch of professional teams to battle us, telling us we couldn’t get off the boat unless we won? That was you guys, right?”
The manager: “…”
She looked at Chen Yuan. “Do you have any more evidence?”
Chen Yuan coughed twice. “That time you didn’t even give us a script, just keywords, and made us improvise a scene… and you livestreamed it…”
The manager: “But your iconic scene from that went viral!”
Chen Yuan looked at Lin Yi and Xu Shuyan. “Yanyan and Xiao Yi…”
Lin Yi: “…”
In that episode of their variety show, Lin Yi and Xu Shuyan had randomly drawn roles and ended up as a married couple. The wife was even pregnant and suffering from morning sickness. Lin Yi had casually stuffed a throw pillow under her shirt and insisted that Xu Shuyan carry her princess-style. The fans watching the livestream went absolutely wild, spreading the news: “Pass it on, Yan Zhi You Yi is having a baby.”
The rumor spread like wildfire, getting distorted with each retelling until it became, “Top Member of Popular Girl Group Pregnant Out of Wedlock—Child Has Two Moms!” It went so viral that the company was forced to issue an official statement to debunk it.
It was, without a doubt, a dark chapter in Lin Yi’s history that she never wanted to revisit.
Seeing that Xu Shuyan was also remembering this and trying to stifle a laugh, Lin Yi slapped her own thigh and quickly changed the subject. “So, how is the company planning to torture us this time?”
“Not at all!” the manager said. “Really, not this time! This time, you all get to do the planning!”
Yan Qi sat up straight. “We get to plan it?”
The manager nodded vigorously. “That’s right. Six episodes. In order of age, each of you will plan one episode, and you’ll plan the final one together. The budget is more than enough this time, so you can think big. It just needs to be interesting, fun, and entertaining!”
“Wow! The company’s being so generous this time?”
“Can I make Yanyan and Xiao Yi act all lovey-dovey in front of me?”
“Zhou Shichen!”
“I want to see Yuanyuan do an otaku dance!”
“Spare me, Xiao Yi.”
“Exactly! Lin Yi, if you want to do it, do it yourself. Why drag Yuanyuan into it?”
“Xu Shuyan, I think you just want to dance with me! When it’s my turn to plan, you can just wait to spend the whole episode doing otaku dances!”
“Lin Yi, don’t you forget who the youngest is!”
“…”
Since it was in order of age, Lin Yi, being the youngest, would be planning the fifth episode. Xu Shuyan’s turn was indeed before hers. Lin Yi issued a threat, “So you’d better be nice to me. Otherwise, when it’s my turn, I’ll pay you back double.”
The manager: “This is a variety show meant to showcase your close and loving bond…”
Zhou Shichen cheered, “So we have to show off our affection, hard!”
The rest of the Gu Group: “…”
As they spoke, the car pulled into their residential complex. The manager walked them to their door, repeatedly reminding them not to eat or drink anything and to be sure to do a face mask before bed, before finally leaving, still looking worried.
The dorm had two floors plus a small attic. Chen Yuan’s single room was on the first floor, while the others’ bedrooms were on the second.
The tension from the long day melted away the moment they were home. Chen Yuan said she had to call her family and went to her room. Zhou Shichen played rock-paper-scissors with Yan Qi to decide who would shower first. After losing, she collapsed onto the living room sofa to scroll through Weibo. She looked over at Xu Shuyan. “You lose a game of rock-paper-scissors too?”
Xu Shuyan paused for a moment, then said, “No, she always showers first.”
When she saw Zhou Shichen giving her a look that screamed, “You’re so in love with her,” she quickly added, “We settled it once and for all. We fought.”
Zhou Shichen asked, surprised, “And you lost?”
The mere mention of it made Xu Shuyan angry. “She cheated! She tickled me and pulled my pants down when I wasn’t looking! That’s the only reason I lost! …Zhou Shichen, stop looking at me like that.”
Like a wolf that hadn’t eaten in half a month spotting fresh meat!
Zhou Shichen’s eyes practically glowed green. “The pants-pulling part. Can you elaborate?”
Xu Shuyan: “…Bye.”
Xu Shuyan and Lin Yi’s room was quite large, with a walk-in closet attached to the bedroom and an en-suite bathroom. At the moment, a light mist clouded the glass shower door, and the sound of singing drifted out intermittently. Lin Yi was clearly having a blast in there.
A fashion magazine lay on the bay window seat. On the cover, the members of the Gu Group were each beautiful in their own way. Xu Shuyan flipped through it casually and, as luck would have it, landed on the interview page. The last question read: “If you were stranded on a deserted island, which member would you bring with you?”
The fact that she and Lin Yi had chosen each other had made the fans go crazy, sending their Super Topic ranking straight to number one. But if the real reason for their mutual choice ever got out, those same fans would probably hang themselves on the spot.
That day, they had been sitting together filling out their answers. She had asked Lin Yi, “A deserted island. Who are you picking?”
Lin Yi hadn’t hesitated. “You, of course. A deserted island would be miserable. You think I’d let you have a nice, easy life out there all by yourself?” She paused. “What about you? Who are you taking?”
“Duh, you, obviously.” Xu Shuyan wrote down Lin Yi’s name. “Me, suffering all alone on some island, while you and Yuanyuan get to live it up in your own little world? In your dreams!”
“…Piss off!”
Just as she was reminiscing, the sound of running water in the bathroom stopped. Alarm bells went off in Xu Shuyan’s head. She and Lin Yi had agreed to a “duel” in bed tonight. Knowing Lin Yi’s penchant for cheating and that she wasn’t as strong, she would absolutely try a sneak attack. Xu Shuyan had to be on her guard starting now.
The sound of a hairdryer started and then stopped. The bathroom door opened.
Xu Shuyan hesitated for a second before turning around.
Lin Yi’s hair wasn’t completely dry. She had twisted it into a bun at the nape of her neck, revealing a long, pale throat. She was wearing a dusty rose, V-neck lace nightgown with a plunging neckline. It was extremely economical with its fabric, barely covering the tops of her thighs. Noticing Xu Shuyan staring, she puffed out her chest. “Never seen a beautiful woman before?”
“You think I want to look?” Xu Shuyan tossed the magazine onto the bay window seat. “Why are you wearing that?”
This nightgown was Lin Yi’s “battle armor,” a piece in the “pure yet seductive” style that she had bought a year ago. She had supposedly spent a fortune on it in an attempt to seduce Chen Yuan. The night it arrived, she had gleefully changed into it and declared war on Xu Shuyan. “I’m definitely staying in Yuanyuan’s room tonight, so don’t wait up for me! No one could see this outfit and not have their heart skip a beat!”
Xu Shuyan had scoffed. “Get lost.”
Lin Yi, completely unfazed by her cold retort, had happily “gotten lost.” Xu Shuyan had started counting down from twenty in her head. She hadn’t even reached ten before Lin Yi came scurrying back.
Wearing an expression that said “I knew it,” she had deliberately asked Lin Yi, “Why are you back?”
Lin Yi clutched her chest and flopped onto the bed with a thud. The exposed skin of her back was flushed a faint pink with embarrassment. She pounded the mattress. “Aaaah! I’m wearing too little! It’s so embarrassing!”
Xu Shuyan asked, “Aren’t you going to seduce Yuanyuan anymore?”
Lin Yi’s voice was muffled by the blankets. “Definitely next time, definitely next time!”
…And so, to this day, Xu Shuyan was the only person who had ever seen Lin Yi in her “make anyone’s heart skip a beat” battle armor. Not that she particularly wanted to see it, anyway.
“I took all my other pajamas to the film set. This is the only one left,” Lin Yi said, walking around Xu Shuyan’s bed toward her.
Xu Shuyan narrowed her eyes.
Lin Yi scolded, “Don’t you look at me with those lecherous eyes!”
Xu Shuyan was speechless. “I’m on guard against you! Don’t think I don’t know what you’re planning to- Hey!” The moment Lin Yi tackled her, four words flashed through Xu Shuyan’s mind: I knew it!
She knew Lin Yi would launch a sneak attack, that she would tickle her, and that she would shamelessly try to make her beg for mercy first.
Xu Shuyan was ticklish. As she dodged Lin Yi’s hands, she tried to figure out the quickest way to pin them down. Just as she was strategizing, a sudden knock sounded at the door. A very familiar voice called out, “Yanyan, Xiao Yi, I’m coming in, okay?”
Very familiar?
Who was- Realizing who it was, Xu Shuyan’s eyes widened instantly. She quickly grabbed Lin Yi’s hands, which were still wreaking havoc on her, and yelled, “Wait!”
Too late. Chen Yuan had already pushed the door open.
Lin Yi froze as well.
Chen Yuan, however, seemed unfazed. She glanced from Lin Yi to Xu Shuyan and let out an “uh.” “Am I interrupting something? …I’ll come back later.”
With that, she politely closed the door.
Still on the bed in a very compromising one-on-top-of-the-other position, Xu Shuyan and Lin Yi were left speechless. “…”
It’s not what you think! Aaaah!
