Chapter 48
By the time everyone returned to the villa, it was already late at night.
Lin Zhiqiao and the others all had rooms on the second floor, and every room had its own private bathroom, so no matter how many people there were, there would never be a long line waiting to shower.
After washing up, Lin Zhiqiao lay on his bed and started thinking about what kind of method he should use to warn Pei Ning.
Directly telling her was obviously not going to work. She had to see it with her own eyes.
—For example, when Jiang Scumbag and his white moonlight reunited, maybe he could find a way to bring Pei Ning to the scene?
The only problem was that he did not know whether, when they met again this time, Jiang Scumbag would immediately start pursuing the white moonlight, or hesitate for a while before making a move.
Troubled, Lin Zhiqiao ruffled his little curls into a mess, rolled over on the bed, buried himself in the soft bedding, and screamed soundlessly—
Dogshit scumbag!
It’s all the scumbag’s fault!!!
Meanwhile, Pei Ning and Jiang Ling’s room was the master bedroom on the third floor.
After Jiang Ling finished showering, Pei Ning took her clothes and went into the bathroom too.
Water splashed steadily, and under the stream, Pei Ning’s chaotic thoughts seemed to gradually be washed clean, becoming clearer bit by bit.
By the time Pei Ning finished, Jiang Ling was sitting at the edge of the bed with a laptop on his knees, apparently handling some work.
Hearing her come out, Jiang Ling lifted his head from the screen. His eyes were as gentle and affectionate as ever.
“A-Ning, are you…” He chose his words carefully. “Are you not very happy? Did my proposal trouble you?”
“How could it?” Pei Ning displayed just the right amount of surprise, took two steps forward, and sat down beside Jiang Ling. “I was just too surprised.”
She said, “You told me before that there was no rush to get married, so I thought… maybe it would still be a few more years.”
Jiang Ling did not suspect anything and smiled. “That was before. You were at a key point in your career’s rise, and I didn’t want marriage to tie you down or affect your dreams and career. But now we’ve both settled down, and I feel that… it’s time to begin a new kind of relationship.”
He looked at Pei Ning, his tone full of affection and certainty. “A-Ning, there will be more surprises in the future. The proposal and the wedding won’t be the peak of our lives together. This is only the beginning of a new stage. Our future is still very long.”
Under that kind of gaze from Jiang Ling, Pei Ning could not help but waver for a moment.
That kind of deep affection and utterly unreserved love did not look fake in the slightest. It was almost enough to make her sink into it.
But Pei Ning quickly came back to herself. She smiled, leaned forward on her own, and kissed him. “I’m very happy.”
Jiang Ling set the laptop aside, wrapped an arm around Pei Ning, and let his hand slide over her waist in a way that was strongly suggestive.
Pei Ning’s heart stirred, and she suddenly remembered what Lin Zhiqiao had said about “running away while pregnant.”
So she gently pressed down on Jiang Ling’s hand and said, “Not tonight. My period hasn’t fully ended yet.”
Jiang Ling froze. “Wasn’t your period some time ago?”
“It was delayed,” Pei Ning said casually, making up an excuse. “Probably because my schedule’s been unstable lately.”
“You’ve been putting too much pressure on yourself, A-Ning.” Jiang Ling withdrew his hand helplessly and did not question whether Pei Ning was telling the truth or not. “Take a good rest during this period. I won’t bother you. Once you finish filming this episode, remember to save a few days for me, so I can arrange our engagement ceremony.”
Pei Ning nodded. “Okay.”
But inwardly, she let out a small breath of relief.
No matter what, being on guard first was never wrong.
*
The next day, Lin Zhiqiao had two faint dark circles hanging under his eyes.
He had spent more than half the night thinking about Pei Ning, and had also opened several blind boxes in a row, trying to get some useful information.
Unfortunately, perhaps because he was too far from Jiang Ling and Pei Ning, he had not opened a single useful clue.
Lin Zhiqiao sprawled on the sofa, his eyes unfocused and blank.
Not long after, Gong Tiantian came downstairs too.
She “drifted” to the sofa like a ghost and collapsed onto it, her whole body giving off a strange aura of resentment.
Lin Zhiqiao looked at her, and she looked at him. Each of them saw the dark circles under the other’s eyes.
“You didn’t sleep well either?” he asked.
[Could it be she got too stimulated by Jiang Scumbag’s proposal, had a burst of inspiration, and stayed up all night writing half a notebook of research notes?]
Lin Zhiqiao guessed, and could not help feeling sorry for her. [Do you even know the CP you ship collapsed again… forget it, mine collapsed too, QAQ.]
Gong Tiantian: “…”
With a trace of gritted-teeth bitterness, she said, “Yeah. I didn’t sleep well.”
But Gong Tiantian knew that the collapse was not Lin Zhiqiao’s fault. He had only “told” her about it. The true culprit behind the collapse was Jiang the human scum.
Thinking of that, Gong Tiantian could not help worrying about Pei Ning again.
No matter how angry or miserable she felt, she was still only an outsider. Pei Ning was the one truly standing at the center of the impact.
Gong Tiantian almost did not dare imagine what kind of state Pei Ning must be in after learning all this.
If it were her, she might already have exploded on the spot, slapped that dog scumbag ten thousand times, and then kicked him in the crotch hard enough to cripple him forever.
But Pei Ning’s reaction had been so calm that it was almost unbelievable.
Gong Tiantian thought that perhaps it was the extreme low point she had gone through in the past that had forged this strong and stable core in Pei Ning.
But she still felt so awful, wuwuwu!!!
The moment she thought of the several thick notebooks where she had painstakingly recorded the Jiang-Pei CP over all those years, she felt sick. Back when she was writing them down, every bit of sweetness had felt exciting and delicious. Now, every bite of sugar she remembered felt like it had been wrapped around years-old shit.
Gong Tiantian’s face turned greenish, and she went limp on the sofa.
Lin Zhiqiao looked at her, his eyes full of concern.
[Sis, you don’t look like you just didn’t sleep well. You look like a starving ghost sucked all the life out of you.]
Gong Tiantian: “…”
Unable to refute.jpg
Before long, Pei Ning and Jiang Ling also came downstairs.
The two of them were smiling and chatting pleasantly. Whenever they looked at each other, their gazes seemed to spin out threads of sweetness and intimacy.
From the inside out, they radiated enough happiness to overflow the screen.
Lin Zhiqiao’s heart was full of worry.
[What do I do? Sister Pei looks so in love with Jiang Scumbag. Once she finds out what Jiang Scumbag is really like, she won’t get so depressed and miserable that she’ll want to—]
[Pah pah pah! My Sister Pei is such a rational and strong person, she definitely won’t… wuwuwu, but what if she really does? This is just too cruel for her. Who could possibly accept something like this easily, QAQ.]
Lin Zhiqiao’s mind was a chaotic mess.
But no matter how tangled up he felt, he knew very well that however unbearable the truth might be, it was still better for Pei Ning to know it than to remain forever in the dark, be treated like that by a scumbag, and still end up gratefully getting a happy ending with him.
Just as he was thinking this, a warm touch suddenly pressed against his cheek.
Lin Zhiqiao jolted and looked carefully, only to find that Pei Ning was standing beside him, holding a hot Americano, looking down at him with a trace of concern in her eyes.
There was even a heat sleeve thoughtfully wrapped around the ceramic cup.
“Already troubled by something so early in the morning?” Pei Ning asked. She held two cups of hot Americano—one for Lin Zhiqiao and one handed to Gong Tiantian.
Lin Zhiqiao answered in a muffled voice, “…Didn’t sleep well.”
Pei Ning smiled and said, “Tonight I’ll take you all out for dinner.”
After saying that, she turned and walked into the kitchen, where she began preparing breakfast together with Jiang Ling.
Lin Zhiqiao looked at the two of them busy in the kitchen and then took a huge gulp of the hot Americano.
Lin Zhiqiao: “…”
So hot and so bitter!!!
Lin Zhiqiao’s heart hurt even more.
At the same time, in the kitchen, Jiang Ling and Pei Ning happened to be talking about him too.
“You seem to have a pretty good relationship with him,” Jiang Ling said. His tone was light, as if he were only bringing it up casually.
Pei Ning did not react immediately to who he meant and asked, “Who?”
Jiang Ling answered, “Lin Zhiqiao.”
“Oh, Xiao Qiao.” Pei Ning’s gaze shifted slightly. Her eyes lingered on Jiang Ling’s face for a moment before she casually looked away again. “Well, we’re filming a program together. Everyone gets along pretty well.”
Jiang Ling gave a small hum, assuming that Pei Ning and Lin Zhiqiao were only in an ordinary “coworker” relationship.
But he still reminded her, “Lin Chen told me Lin Zhiqiao is his relative.” He paused, then added, “The most annoying kind.”
In other words, Lin Zhiqiao was not a good person. Pei Ning could pretend for the sake of the show, but she should not get too close to him.
Pei Ning froze for a moment before remembering that Lin Chen was Jiang Ling’s friend, and also Ji Ran and Cheng Xia’s former boss.
Given what had happened with Ji Ran and Cheng Xia, Pei Ning’s impression of Lin Chen was not very good to begin with.
Now that she heard Jiang Ling say this, her opinion of Lin Chen plunged even lower.
“Mm, I understand,” Pei Ning said.
Jiang Ling did not continue.
At that moment, his phone suddenly rang. Jiang Ling looked at the caller and answered, “What is it?”
The person on the other end asked, “Is it convenient for you to talk right now?”
Jiang Ling instinctively glanced at Pei Ning. She was lowering her head to fry eggs and did not seem to have noticed him.
“A-Ning, I’m going upstairs to take this call,” he said.
Pei Ning answered, “Okay.”
Jiang Ling took the phone upstairs.
Once he disappeared at the stairway landing, Pei Ning glanced in that direction.
Jiang Ling rarely took calls behind her back. Even when it was work-related, he usually handled it right in front of her.
Something he had to say away from her…
Could it have something to do with that mysterious white moonlight?
In the living room, Lin Zhiqiao knew nothing of this. He was busy rubbing his hands together and getting ready to start another round of blind boxes.
The others gradually woke up and came downstairs too, sitting on the sofa waiting to be fed by Pei Ning.
[Jiang Scumbag’s white moonlight told him when they were little that her favorite flower was jasmine, so Jiang Scumbag often gave Sister Pei things related to jasmine and kept saying he thought jasmine suited Sister Pei’s temperament, subtly nudging Sister Pei into liking jasmine too…]
[What did jasmine ever do wrong to deserve being treated like this by a scumbag?!]
Lin Zhiqiao gritted his teeth.
[The clothes he gave Sister Pei were also often the kind he thought would suit the white moonlight, without considering at all whether Sister Pei herself liked them…]
[If he loves dress-up games this much, why doesn’t he just turn himself into a Barbie doll and play a real-life Miracle Nikki on his own body!!]
In the kitchen, Pei Ning thought of all the clothes Jiang Ling had given her hanging in her wardrobe.
They were beautiful, yes, but too flashy and not really her style. Still, Jiang Ling had always said he felt Pei Ning’s usual dressing style was too fixed, and that she ought to try other looks once in a while.
How disgusting.
Pei Ning thought to herself that it was lucky she had never really liked those clothes, and so had hardly worn them.
[Isn’t this just invisible discipline? A different kind of control carried out quietly and subtly. Jiang Scumbag really does understand how to PUA someone without making a sound… thank god my Sister Pei’s core personality is steady, so the scumbag didn’t manage to pull her off track.]
After another furious barrage in which his inner little person beat the straw effigy representing Jiang Scumbag into a pulp, Lin Zhiqiao finally continued.
[Jiang Scumbag kept a diary in high school that recorded the entire process of his secret—no, open—love and pursuit of the white moonlight.]
[What breakfast he brought her every morning, what gifts he gave her on holidays, even what she ate each day, how she styled her hair, and what clothes she wore…]
[Pah, what pursuit? It was clearly just secret peeping and shameless pestering! Calling yourself devoted is one thing, but if someone doesn’t accept your confession, you call them heartless and say they wasted your good intentions—]
[My dear heavens, it was already incredibly well-mannered of her not to beat you until even your mother couldn’t recognize you! And you still dared accuse her of being cold and unfeeling? What kind of brainless garbage are you!!!]
Lin Zhiqiao spat in his heart, then sighed:
[Looking at it this way, the white moonlight must have been very clear-headed too. She saw that Jiang Scumbag was bad news, which is why she never agreed in the first place.]
After hearing all this, Pei Ning commented inwardly—
This style of pursuit was, if not exactly identical, then practically indistinguishable from the way Jiang Ling had pursued her back then.
[Whoa! There are even secretly taken photos of the white moonlight tucked inside the diary!]
[Taking secret photos is illegal, dog scumbag! If your white moonlight ever found out you secretly photographed her and then tucked those photos into the same diary where you recorded your pathetic simp history for all these years, she’d probably fly back carrying an airplane just to tear the diary and photos into shreds!]
Lin Zhiqiao could not help complaining.
[If Sister Pei saw that diary, would she realize the scumbag’s true face?]
Then he thought about it and rejected the idea himself. [Nope, no good. Jiang the scumbag would definitely say that everyone has a childish youth phase, that everyone has done stupid things in adolescence, and that everyone has liked someone before.]
Pei Ning thought so too.
That diary with the white moonlight’s photo tucked inside could easily be explained away as immature first love. It did not really count as “evidence.”
So Lin Zhiqiao continued opening blind boxes.
[Even after he got together with Pei Ning, Jiang the scumbag kept secretly following the white moonlight’s life.]
[The white moonlight is not in the entertainment industry. She has spent all these years studying abroad, from university all the way through her doctorate, and her major has always been mechanical automation. Over the years she has taken part in a lot of professional competitions overseas, won many awards, and built a small name for herself in the field.]
[Wow, so the white moonlight is actually a highly educated intellectual! She was so focused on studying that she perfectly avoided the scumbag’s invasion…]
[Then again, that’s not the full story. The white moonlight comes from a very good family. If Jiang the scumbag hadn’t been wary of her family background and afraid to make a move, then maybe the exact same tricks he’s using on Sister Pei now would already have been used on the white moonlight back then.]
[So he’s one of those bullies the weak and fears the strong types. If my Sister Pei had come from the same kind of prominent background as the white moonlight, Jiang Scumbag probably wouldn’t have dared treat her like this.]
[Can’t scumbags just stink all by themselves in isolation? Why are they always trying to lay hands on other people!!!]
The people around him nodded.
Ji Ran, who had likewise once been “laid hands on” by a scumbag, felt this all too deeply. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to tear Jiang Ling apart with his own hands for Pei Ning.
[So that he could get one step closer to the white moonlight he loves so dearly, Jiang the scumbag also started paying attention to developments in mechanical automation. He bought a lot of popular science books on the subject, and also purchased a lot of smart robots of all kinds.]
Pei Ning thought of the room in Jiang Ling’s house dedicated entirely to robots—tiny ones no bigger than a fingernail and huge ones as tall as two people.
She had always assumed it was simply Jiang Ling’s hobby. But now…
[Jiang the scumbag often flies abroad, and it’s not always for work. Sometimes he goes specifically to competition venues just to secretly watch the white moonlight compete.]
[He’s hardly ever missed any of her public competitions. He’s attended every single one, trying to catch her attention. Unfortunately the white moonlight only has eyes for the competition itself, and often didn’t even notice he’d shown up.]
[Tsk, what a pity. If only the white moonlight had noticed.] Lin Zhiqiao sighed. [Then she could have had someone cripple Jiang the scumbag. What a perfect opportunity… such a waste.]
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Exactly, exactly—what a pity!
Pei Ning actually did know that Jiang Ling often went abroad to watch competitions.
But just like with the robots Jiang Ling bought, she had always thought he was simply a fanatic for this sort of thing and had never linked it to anything else.
In fact, there had even been two competitions where Pei Ning had gone with Jiang Ling to the venue.
Thinking of that, Pei Ning’s heart suddenly stirred.
She plated the fried eggs from the pan and turned off the stove. Then she took out her phone and began searching online for information about those competitions.
Pei Ning remembered the dates, locations, and names of several competitions Jiang Ling had attended.
With that information, it was not difficult to search up the full details.
She quickly pulled up the participant lists for those events.
After filtering and comparing them, Pei Ning’s gaze landed on one young female contestant in particular—
QIU NING.
Ning Qiu.
There was no denying that Pei Ning felt curious about Jiang Ling’s white moonlight.
She was very curious what kind of girl this white moonlight was—the one Jiang Ling had liked for so long and been unable to forget for all these years.
But that curiosity was only curiosity. It did not contain any other feelings, and she certainly would not take out her resentment on this woman simply because Jiang Ling had treated Pei Ning as her substitute.
The white moonlight was innocent. In fact, she had very nearly become a “victim” just like Pei Ning.
Pei Ning quickly found several photos of Ning Qiu among the competition event pictures.
Very beautiful.
Extremely, incredibly beautiful.
The first moment Pei Ning saw her, she was immediately struck by how stunning she was.
Confident, dazzling, radiant like the blazing sun… a style completely different from Pei Ning’s, even the exact opposite.
Pei Ning was rational, calm, and restrained—but sometimes so calm that she could come across as cold.
Many fans and even casual onlookers called her an “icy beauty,” not only because of her cool appearance, but also because of her composed, unshakable, almost aloof personality.
But Ning Qiu was completely different.
Even from just a few photographs—many of them group shots with lots of people in them—Pei Ning could still tell from Ning Qiu’s expression and bearing how fiery her personality was.
This was not a white moonlight.
If she absolutely had to use a similar term, then perhaps “vermilion mole” would suit Ning Qiu better.
Pei Ning had indeed gone to watch some competitions in person before, but the audience seats had been too far from the competition floor, and the big screens always focused on the actual competition projects rather than the contestants themselves. So she had never clearly seen what the contestants looked like.
Once her curiosity was satisfied, Pei Ning prepared to put away her phone.
But as if possessed by some strange impulse, before closing the webpage, her finger held on one of the photos and tapped save.
Pei Ning: “…”
Everyone loves beauty. With a photo that attractive, no one could resist.
That was what she told herself.
Lin Zhiqiao had opened several useless blind boxes in a row. Without any hope, he clicked open another one—and then his eyes shot wide open.
[Holy shit, holy shit! The white moonlight is actually returning to the country today?!]
[Jiang the scumbag already got the news! He’s getting ready to go to the airport to pick her up! Good lord, doesn’t he seriously think that just because she’s back in the country, he has another chance now? Has he not looked in the mirror to see what kind of trash he is?!]
[Dog scumbag, crawl the hell away from here!!!]
