Chapter 6
Although Meng Xuehuan secretly harbored thoughts of shedding his “virgin queen” status, he’d never told anyone outside his clan.
He took Lu Xiao’s jacket purely to let him better display his injuries. Underneath, Lu Xiao was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, with even more scratches on his arms.
One button at the top of the shirt was undone; without the jacket’s restraint, it fell open lazily to either side.
[Short sleeves—Bro, you really are hot.]
[Lu Xiao once said he hated business suits and would never wear them. I thought he’d only put on something this stiff on his wedding day.]
[A student from the country where Tsinghua University is located hereby certifies this as true love.]
Meng Xuehuan’s sharp eyes caught a coin-sized red swelling near the collarbone—yesterday it hadn’t been so obvious.
Noticing his gaze, Lu Xiao tugged his shirt open with a finger and glanced down.
“Bee sting.”
A bee had actually beaten him to it?
Meng Xuehuan, already getting teased just for holding a jacket, didn’t dare get too close. He stayed where he was, leaning forward slightly to see what kind of bee had stung Lu Xiao and whether it was serious.
Hmm—not a venomous bee. A single puncture mark in the center; the stinger had already been removed. The swelling would probably go down in two days.
Anyone who touched the queen bee paid with their life.
Meng Xuehuan felt a bit of sympathy.
If he helped lick it, the swelling would go down faster.
The barrage surged again.
[@WeAreInLove: Thanks, President Meng. President Meng is generous—when you’ve got a husband, you really let people see.]
[Is it just me, or does it feel like Meng Xuehuan wants to lean in and kiss him?]
[Alright alright, didn’t get enough kissing at home, huh?]
Meng Xuehuan shot a glance over and handed the jacket back to Lu Xiao.
“It’s pretty cold. Put it on.”
Lu Xiao put it on without a word, then explained, “I really did go sweeping graves. In my family, we do it a day early.”
[Old fan here—Xuehuan can be a bit petty sometimes.]
[Lu Xiao is really obedient.]
[When are you two going to look at your overgrown livestream accounts? You’ve never gone live since opening them.]
[Not even mutuals on Weibo, but showing affection here?]
Lu Xiao finally got the comment he’d been waiting for. He read it out loud, then lowered his eyes to look at Meng Xuehuan. From certain angles, he looked oddly… aggrieved.
Lu Xiao had been acting in films lately—his acting skills had improved fast. Meng Xuehuan was surprised, worried he’d be outshone in the Mountain God movie, and decided he’d better cram a bit when he got home.
Lu Xiao said, “How about… you follow me?”
Meng Xuehuan pulled out his phone and explained, “I didn’t unfollow you on purpose. My hand slipped.”
On the day the group announced its disbandment, Meng Xuehuan was attending an event when he was surrounded so tightly he could barely move. Group fans and CP fans boxed him in, asking why they had broken up, whether it was because he didn’t get along with Lu Xiao, and whether there was really no chance of saving things.
At the time, Meng Xuehuan was staring at Lu Xiao’s Weibo. Lu Xiao had posted only one line:
[Wishing you a bright future @Meng Xuehuan]
Meng Xuehuan was thinking about how to reply with a dignified blessing of his own.
Then some overexcited fans suddenly broke through the security line, rushing up to him and loudly questioning why he seemed to have not even the slightest reluctance.
The younger fans were highly emotional, and security urgently escorted Meng Xuehuan away.
Meng Xuehuan immediately put his phone away, clutched it in his hand, and with difficulty squeezed out of the venue under the guards’ protection.
When he finally made it back backstage in a sorry state, he discovered that amid the chaos he had accidentally unfollowed Lu Xiao.
And it had already made the trending topics.
[Meng Xuehuan suspected of angrily unfollowing Lu Xiao after being blamed as the culprit behind the group’s disbandment]
“……”
Since they were untying things anyway, he might as well do it thoroughly. Fans from both sides tore into each other in a storm of blood and fury; group fans gradually wavered in the fighting, turning into solo fans and beginning to attack CP fans as well. Meng Xuehuan simply never followed him back.
He now explained the whole “slipped hand” incident from beginning to end. “That’s what happened. I’m really very sorry to Teacher Lu.”
Lu Xiao stood there in a daze, not responding.
The host prompted, “Teacher Lu?”
Lu Xiao’s expression was complicated. After a long pause, he finally found his voice. “I know you didn’t do it on purpose.”
He knew—my ass! He had thought Meng Xuehuan couldn’t wait to completely cut ties with him. For a year and a half, he hadn’t even dared to seek out a collaboration!
He’d had so, so many film and television opportunities that he could have offered to Meng Xuehuan.
[Brother Lu may be stubborn-mouthed, but his eyes look like they’ve shattered.]
[You look like you’re only finding this out now, bro.]
Lu Xiao finished the livestream in a daze.
At the very, very end, the CP fans even sent them one last massive wave—the screen was filled with “May you have a hundred years of happiness together” and “May you soon have precious children.”
Meng Xuehuan looked at Lu Xiao, but Lu Xiao no longer had the mood to read the barrage.
Meng Xuehuan’s throat tightened slightly. Why did he feel like the Snow Night CP fans were way more brazen than before? Before the group disbanded, plenty of people shipped them, but they wouldn’t shove it right in the idols’ faces.
Today they were acting as if there were no real people on the internet that they cared about at all.
At this very moment, on a certain meteorology forum—
Written as “meteorology forum,” read as “Snow Night Army hideout.” After the group disbanded, the CP fans had gone underground and hidden themselves here.
Back then, a big-name account in the fandom, [@MeteorologyShippingRep], had posted an article titled “Parting Tonight from Meng”, making countless people cry. With delicate prose depicting the emotions of farewell, it comforted wounded fans: “From now on, we’ll be in a situation where everyone wants to beat us up. We must keep a low profile.”
Snow Night really did keep a low profile, becoming silent within the entertainment circle.
Last night, however, an article titled “Blizzard Night” suddenly appeared out of nowhere. @MeteorologyShippingRep issued an urgent notice: circumstances had changed—unite all forces, walk a little more arrogantly from now on, and bully this world!
Keeping a low profile might be hard, but being arrogant? That they could do.
Once the livestream ended, the forum exploded with posts again.
[Main Post (Meteorology Noob): The entire livestream today was nonstop sugar—sweet enough to kill me. I cut together a video (link). Every single frame is sweet (I deleted the first interview question; glass-hearted sisters, watch with confidence).]
1F (Weather Observer): It’s really sweet. Except for the sour part where they didn’t match on the weather when they first met.
2F (Meteorology Master): When he sees the other person, all he remembers is them—who the hell remembers the weather?
3F (Is It Snowing According to the Forecast): Exactly. They both thought they themselves remembered wrong—how is that not sugar?
4F (Opening Mouth for Sugar): Wuwuwu thanks, kind soul. I can’t handle sour stuff. Saved the video.
244F (@MeteorologyShippingRep): I’m here. Had stuff today, just caught up. Don’t panic—this is actually a geography problem. For every 100 meters of elevation, the temperature drops 0.6°C. The light rain Meng Xuehuan saw on the ground would have turned into light snow outside the high-rise windows! Use this to deduce where they met.
246F: Holy shit.
288F: I checked the temperature chart for Nancheng in February two years ago. The only date that fits is February 1st—light rain, ground temperature around 2°C above zero; at around 400 meters, the temperature drops below zero.
399F: Nancheng has only three buildings over 400 meters, including the Haixing Building. They met in the Haixing Building! Sea Star Entertainment is on the 101st floor!
410F: Lu Xiao arrived first—he saw snow from the high floors. Meng Xuehuan came later and got rained on at ground level.
411F (Meteorology Noob): Thanks, class rep, for the extra lesson. Mom never has to worry about my geography again.
520F: Xuehuan majored in meteorology, so he later realized that what Lu Xiao saw might have been snow. Wuwuwu, neither of them remembered wrong.
1242F: Wuwuwu @MeteorologyShippingRep is so reliable. I want to be net friends with you again in my next life.
…
Someone screenshotted the “geography problem” and it briefly trended.
In the nanny van, Lu Xiao was staring blankly at the “mutual follow” status with his wife.
So… Meng Xuehuan didn’t actually hate him, right?
He was about to exit Weibo when he suddenly saw the “geography problem.”
Curious, he clicked in—and came out grinning.
So that’s how it was! He knew there was no way Meng Xuehuan would forget such an important first meeting!
Savoring it again—
Lu Xiao didn’t just look at the screenshots being reposted on Weibo. He followed the trail straight to the original thread.
You had to register to view it. Lu Xiao finished registering, clicked into the post—
—and was instantly kicked out.
Traffic had spiked too hard. The forum crashed.
What a trash place!
Staring at all the pinned, “extracting-sugar” posts he couldn’t read, Lu Xiao felt like a beggar who couldn’t get a bite to eat. Furious, he snapped, “Little Li, find this forum and upgrade their server.”
…
Before joining the production, Meng Xuehuan crammed his acting skills in an emergency three-day sprint. Whether it helped or not was anyone’s guess; all he knew was that each day felt like a year.
Finally, the day to enter the crew arrived. The script was split into urban scenes and mountain scenes, and they started by filming the latter.
Outdoor location shoots are seasonal. Since they were filming winter scenes, they had to finish all the relevant parts before the mountains turned lush green.
He flipped through the schedule and discovered that the Snow Night kissing scene was scheduled surprisingly early. The crew would have to use artificial snow to film it.
When he and his assistant arrived on set pushing two suitcases, they happened to see a truck delivering snow machines.
The assistant asked for directions and said, “The dorms are over this way.”
The production team had rented several private houses and villas as dormitories. Meng Xuehuan followed his assistant that way when his phone vibrated in his pocket.
“Hello?”
Lin Mu said, “With Lu Xiao there, I’m very relieved, so I won’t follow you over. If anything comes up, it’s more useful to look for him than for me. Things are a bit busy on the company side. About that new apartment I mentioned last time—I’ve sent you the address and real photos. What do you think?”
“About that… wait a second, I haven’t had time to look yet.”
“That’s fine. You’ll be filming over there anyway, so you don’t need to move in right away.”
“Thanks. I’ll take a look now.”
Meng Xuehuan didn’t procrastinate. Yesterday, after Lin Mu sent him the details, he forwarded them to several clan members who worked in Nancheng.
When the queen bee moves to a new hive, it’s a major event. Scout bees are sent out first to search for a new nest, considering sunlight, waterproofing, safety, and space one by one. Only when over 80% of the scout bees approve does the move happen.
So far, three scout bees had expressed approval; two others were busy and hadn’t replied yet.
The assistant went to inspect the room. Meng Xuehuan sat down on the living-room sofa and immediately received messages from the remaining two.
“I went to see the new apartment. Agree to move.”
“I did an on-site inspection of the new place. It’s livable.”
Meng Xuehuan replied “Okay” to each. Suddenly sensing someone behind him, his heart jumped. He quickly turned around.
Lu Xiao was looking at him, his eyes brewing emotions Meng Xuehuan couldn’t decipher. “Who do you need approval from to move?”
Meng Xuehuan said, “A few friends.”
Lu Xiao felt darkly jealous. After three days of brainwashing himself on CP posts, he’d almost fallen into the illusion of mutual affection and sweet harmony. Reality promptly dumped a bucket of cold water over his head.
A few friends? What kind of friends need to scout locations in advance? And be labeled as Number One and Number Two?
Meng Xuehuan added, “I don’t have time, so I asked friends to help check out the environment.”
Lu Xiao said, “You don’t trust Lin Mu’s ability? Then should I change your manager?”
Meng Xuehuan froze, then improvised. “I’m actually quite satisfied. They’re mahjong buddies from my circle—I needed to see if it’s convenient for them to come over.”
Lu Xiao half-believed him. Mahjong Buddy No. 1? No. 2? Since when did Meng Xuehuan like playing mahjong? He played too—why didn’t he ask him?
He’d already “accidentally” seen the messages, so he couldn’t push it too hard.
No matter. The new apartment was right across from his place anyway.
“The crew said the houses here are pretty big and suggested we share one building. You don’t mind, right?”
Meng Xuehuan replied calmly, “No.”
Lu Xiao continued, “The director says the weather conditions are good tonight. We’ll shoot Scene 13 first.”
Scene 013—the kissing scene.
