Chapter 23.1
"How come you're here?" Xiang Qingwei was shocked.
"I did say I wanted to see the pandas too, didn't I?" Zhan Lun smiled as he walked over, the sweat on his nose glimmering under the sunlight, his eyes also shining brightly as he stared at Xiang Qingwei. "I've been looking for you everywhere, and I thought I wouldn't find you, so I'm surprised to actually run into you here. It's like I've been searching for you for a thousand years, and when I finally turn around, there you are, resting under a tree."
Xiang Qingwei looked at him, amused. "Why didn't you just call me if you knew I was here?"
Zhan Lun sat down beside her and grinned in response. "I just wanted to see if I could find you without calling."
Xiang Qingwei's heart skipped a beat.
She remembered what had happened yesterday afternoon.
It had indeed been a long time since she'd last dated someone.
Zhan Lun was a good person. He wasn't a celebrity, handsome, clean and bright... He even had abs.
He was younger than her by a year or two, but she didn't mind, and he certainly didn't seem to mind either.
A faint smile appeared on Xiang Qingwei's face.
Then an ice-cold voice suddenly rang out.
"Sorry, but you're sitting in my seat."
Ling Jiayi, holding two cups of milk tea, stood before them, emanating a cold aura. He looked down at Zhan Lun, his words courteous but tone not quite matching the sentiment.
Zhan Lun looked up at Ling Jiayi in surprise, then instinctively glanced at Xiang Qingwei.
Xiang Qingwei was momentarily taken aback. Then he stood up and introduced the two, "Zhan Lun, let me introduce you to Ling Jiayi, my artist. He's on a rare day off today and wanted to visit the panda base, so I'm here to accompany him. Jiayi, this is my friend, Zhan Lun, we just happened to bump into each other."
Zhan Lun stood up, glanced at the identical panda plushie in Ling Jiayi's hands, then smiled. "Nice to meet you."
Ling Jiayi's lips twitched slightly at this "friend" of Xiang Qingwei's, appearing almost contemptuous beneath his sunglasses, before he handed the milk tea to Xiang Qingwei. "There were so many people; I had to line up for a long time."
A hint of complaint laced his tone.
I even went to buy you a drink, and you're chatting with other men behind me?!
"Thank you, it seems you've worked hard today," Xiang Qingwei accepted the drink and turned to Zhan Lun. "We're about to head down the mountain for dinner, what about you? Are you still planning on taking a stroll?"
"I'm also hungry, so let's go grab a bite together! I'm very familiar with D City, so I'll take you to some good places," Zhan Lun said.
Just as Xiang Qingwei was about to agree, Ling Jiayi interrupted her. "My apologies, but I've already made a reservation at a restaurant for two." He lifted a corner of his lips. "You're familiar with this place, so you must have a lot of friends here. Why don't you go find them and eat with them instead?"
Zhan Lun didn't respond to Ling Jiayi's comment. Instead, he turned to Xiang Qingwei with an awkward and disappointed look on his face. "I snuck out here by myself without telling anyone..."
His expression, paired with his slightly curled brown hair, made him look like a big dog that had been abandoned by its owner.
Xiang Qingwei thought about how he had run all the way here because of her words yesterday, and her heart warmed. Of course she couldn't leave him to dine alone, so she said to Ling Jiayi, "Since we ran into each other by chance, let's dine together." She sat back down and leaned over to pick up her heels from underneath the bench.
Ling Jiayi's cold eyes behind his sunglasses fixed on Zhan Lun.
Yet Zhan Lun responded with a victorious smile.
Their eyes clashed, and when Xiang Qingwei finally looked up, they averted their gazes.
Ling Jiayi had no grounds to refuse Zhan Lun's request to join, but the joy on his face from earlier vanished, replaced by an icy coldness.
The three set off toward the tourist train station.
When they arrived, they found a long line of people waiting to ride.
Given the length of the line, it would take at least an hour to board the train. This was also the time when the sun was beating down most fiercely; Xiang Qingwei had prioritized lightness and convenience and hadn't brought an umbrella.
"Maybe we should just walk down?" Zhan Lun suggested. "The path is easy to navigate on the way down, and there are trees on both sides of the trail. We'll reach the bottom in twenty minutes."
Xiang Qingwei looked at the people in line, about to nod, when she heard Ling Jiayi scoff.
"Do you not see she's wearing heels?"
Zhan Lun glanced down, then said embarrassed, "Right, I'm sure your feet are tired after standing for so long." He pondered for a moment, and his eyes lit up. "I'll carry you down!" He crouched before Xiang Qingwei. "You know I work out every day, so I'm quite strong. I can easily carry you."
Ling Jiayi's face turned green.
He grabbed Xiang Qingwei's wrist and pulled her away from behind Zhan Lun, then said through gritted teeth, "Wait for me here, I'll be right back."
He stuffed the panda plushie in his hand into Xiang Qingwei's arms, just in case she decided to climb onto the other man's back while he was gone, and ran off in the direction they came from.
"Get up," Xiang Qingwei said to Zhan Lun. She wanted to develop something with him, but she was a little too old to actually do something so young and silly.
"You're sure you don't want me to carry you?" Zhan Lun asked regretfully. "I'm really strong; I could carry you all the way back to the bottom of the mountain." He glanced over at Ling Jiayi. "Where'd he go?"
"I don't know, let's wait for him."
"You don't have to stand anymore, sit here, it's cooler!" Zhan Lun found a stone bench in the shade for her.
Xiang Qingwei's feet were quite sore, so she sat without hesitation.
Ling Jiayi returned quickly, holding a pair of panda slippers. He had run back, worried that something might happen between Xiang Qingwei and Zhan Lun while he was gone.
Thankfully, when he returned, one of them was standing while the other was sitting, and Xiang Qingwei had been looking in his direction the whole time.
He felt a little more at ease as he took a few breaths, then strode over.
Zhan Lun's gaze flickered slightly when he saw the slippers Ling Jiayi held in his hand.
Ling Jiayi didn't spare Zhan Lun a single glance as he walked over and knelt before Xiang Qingwei, then said, "Allow me."
Xiang Qingwei was about to bend down when Ling Jiayi grabbed her ankle. "Don't move."
His palm was warm and damp, the heat spreading from his hand onto Xiang Qingwei's skin, feeling almost like a burn; her face flushed in response.
Ling Jiayi held Xiang Qingwei's ankle with one hand and slipped off her heels with the other, then slid the slipper on. Just as he was about to put the other slipper on, Xiang Qingwei stopped him and quickly bent down to put it on herself.
Ling Jiayi casually grabbed the heels she had taken off, then reached into her hands to grab a random Panda doll. "Let's go."
Xiang Qingwei smiled, feeling much more comfortable now that she had slipped into slippers.
Ling Jiayi glanced proudly at Zhan Lun.
On their way down, Ling Jiayi began chatting with Xiang Qingwei incessantly.
"Those pandas are so dumb, why would they climb such thin branches when they're so fat?"
"Xiang Qingwei, do you think it's okay that it fell from such a tall tree? Although, given how much fat it has, I doubt its bones are broken."
"Look at that one rolling around in the pond, so stupid."
"The baby pandas are so cute, they look just like sesame tangyuan..."
"Hey, check out the pictures we took. Look at this one, our selfie together—your smile is so sweet—"
"Let's come again sometime?"
Ling Jiayi talked incessantly, forcing Xiang Qingwei to respond every now and then. For the twenty minutes they walked down the mountain, Zhan Lun didn't get a chance to talk to Xiang Qingwei at all and instead listened to an entire twenty minutes' worth of stories about how much fun Ling Jiayi and Xiang Qingwei had at the panda park.
Even Xiang Qingwei felt that Ling Jiayi was a little too overexcited today.
By the time they reached the foot of the mountain, Ling Jiayi was suddenly recognized amidst a large crowd of people leaving the park, causing quite a commotion. Thankfully, the staff of the scenic area came to help disperse the crowd, allowing them to successfully "escape."
Getting back into the car, Zhan Lun, who had almost been shoved around by the crowd, felt his heart thump wildly. "So this is what it feels like to be a celebrity."
Xiang Qingwei's hair had also become disheveled amidst the chaos, and she sat in the back seat trying to brush it out. Ling Jiayi, who sat beside her, had one leg over the other as he openly said to Zhan Lun, who was about to sit down, "There's no more room in the back."
Zhan Lun, face slightly darkened, had no choice but to take the passenger seat.
"I didn't realize Ling Jiayi was so popular," Zhan Lun remarked.
"What do you mean 'didn't realize'?" Ling Jiayi frowned, feeling that Zhan Lun was clearly being confrontational.
"Sorry, I don't usually follow celebrity news," Zhan Lun said with a smile.
"You're a celebrity?!" The taxi driver finally couldn't contain his surprise any longer. "No wonder you two are so handsome and beautiful!"
He inadvertently broke the tense atmosphere between the two men.
Xiang Qingwei had no time to participate in such interactions; she was too busy sending messages to her public relations team on her phone, informing them of the incident and telling them to monitor the online discussion.
She had a dedicated public relations team at her company. Normally, they worked solely for her and the artists under her management, handling minor incidents. For larger events, the entire public relations department would need to be involved.
Ling Jiayi signed for the cab driver upon exiting the vehicle, who praised the young celebrity for being so down-to-earth.
The three entered the private booth of the restaurant.
As soon as he sat down, Ling Jiayi removed his hat, sunglasses, and pushed his hair back, revealing a face so meticulously groomed that not even the slightest flaw could be found.
The waiter who came to take their orders was completely smitten by Ling Jiayi's beauty. After stuttering out an introduction, the waiter finally left, red-faced, with the menu in hand.
Even Zhan Lun couldn't help but shoot an extra glance at Ling Jiayi.
Ling Jiayi reminded him of Ning Yang, so he turned to Xiang Qingwei. "Oh right, WeiWei, how's Ning Yang doing with his recording? I've been trying to text him but haven't gotten a response."
Ling Jiayi immediately looked over.
Ning Yang? Who?
Xiang Qingwei explained, "The production company collects all the contestants' cell phones, so he can't respond to your messages. I went to watch his first recording; his performance went very smoothly."
"That's good," Zhan Lun said, relieved.
With Zhan Lun present, Ling Jiayi held back his curiosity about who Ning Yang was, though he felt rather displeased.
During dinner, Zhan Lun recounted some amusing anecdotes from his travels around the world. Xiang Qingwei listened intently, completely oblivious to how she had excluded Ling Jiayi from their conversation.
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