Chapter 38 Cannon Fodder Assistant 3 Video Call
"What are you doing?!"
Before Chu Yu could recall where he had seen this hand before, a gloomy questioning voice came to his ears.
The fingertips that landed in the young man's palm involuntarily contracted, and her body, startled, instinctively shrank back into the warm embrace beside her.
The young man casually wrapped his other free hand around the young man's waist, his eyes slightly lowered, their gazes meeting. To outsiders, it was a beautiful, ambiguous scene of mutual affection.
Qin Yanyun's hands, clenched in his pockets, were almost bleeding, and the veins on his neck twitched slightly as he clenched his teeth.
“You are here.”
He struggled to control his tongue, swallowing several times the bloody saliva before managing to repeat his question.
"What are you doing?! And still..."
Unable to say anything more, Qin Yanyun could only stretch out his hands and gesture with a frown over the two people.
It was at this moment that Chu Yu realized that after getting up from the ground, he had been staying in Li Qingran's arms the whole time.
"No, I'm sorry!" He quickly took a step back.
The black lantern-wick coat brushed against Li Qingran's palm, leaving large patches of white residue, before moving away from her embrace.
Li Qingran blinked, her gaze falling on her hands, which were almost completely clean. She silently gave herself a thumbs up in her heart.
He was simply admiring his own victory, but this scene was perceived by Qin Yanyun as him looking down at his empty palm, a trace of lingering affection flashing in his eyes, where Chu Yu's warmth still remained...
Besides him, Chu Yu also noticed Li Qingran's little action.
Unlike Qin Yanyun, who was busy analyzing Li Qingran's current psychological state, Chu Yu's focus was more on Li Qingran's hands.
His hands were fair and slender, with well-defined knuckles. Even his neatly trimmed nails were the way he liked them. His palms gleamed with a faint light, and under the surrounding fill lights, his hands became sparkling, as if he were holding a galaxy in his hands and placing it in front of him...
It's really beautiful.
It's just as beautiful as the private message photo he received on Weibo before.
Unfortunately, in his fright, Xiao Zhang's hand trembled, and he clicked back before he could save the photo. When he went back to look for it later, the photo was already buried in a sea of private messages and could no longer be found.
If he had known, he would have kept that photo in his album even at the risk of Xiao Zhang discovering his little quirk.
Thinking of this, a hint of regret unconsciously appeared on Chu Yu's face, and his gaze was also unconsciously fixed on Li Qingran's hands. If eyes could take pictures, Chu Yu's brain would probably already have hundreds of pictures of Li Qingran's hands.
Moreover, the more closely he looked, the more he felt that Li Qingran's hands were very similar to the hand photograph he had glimpsed in that fleeting moment.
Could it be...?
Chu Yu's Adam's apple bobbed, and he couldn't help but lean closer to Li Qingran, wanting to get a better look.
However, at that moment, an uninvited guest suddenly appeared between him and Li Qingran.
"..."
Chu Yu pursed his lips, his previously hazy vision instantly clearing, while a clear hint of impatience flashed in his eyes.
He looked up at Qin Yanyun, rolled his eyes, and said, "What are you doing?!"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Qin Yanyun's voice was calm, but dark clouds swirled in his eyes, his expression gloomy.
"What are you and my assistant doing here?!"
What can we do?
Chu Yu was almost amused by Qin Yanyun's wary, thief-like demeanor.
"I accidentally fell, and this friend kindly helped me up. Why are you so worried?"
Moreover, according to Qin Yanyun, the other party is just his assistant, not his lover. Who is he trying to impress by acting like he's catching his partner cheating?
Chu Yu snorted coldly and rolled his eyes at Qin Yanyun.
Although he was unhappy with Qin Yanyun's indignant look as if she had caught him cheating on a boy, he still chose to tell the truth when faced with her questions. He did not exaggerate or fabricate an ambiguous atmosphere between him and the boy just to anger her.
Of course, he did this not because of Qin Yanyun, but simply because he wanted to establish a gentle and beautiful image in front of Li Qingran.
Even after Qin Yanyun took a step back and removed the barrier between him and Li Qingran, Chu Yu's impatient expression instantly turned into a polite and slightly shy smile.
He smiled at Li Qingran with his eyebrows curved, and said in a gentle voice, "Thank you so much for earlier."
Li Qingran smiled and replied, "You're welcome."
If you could get him to take a picture of the ice cream on his jacket, then you wouldn't hesitate to ask.
Thinking this, Li Qingran's eyes unconsciously drifted toward Chu Yu's coat.
The two of them were exchanging glances, and this scene, when seen by Qin Yanyun, intensified the already burning flame in his mind.
Fortunately, just before he could escalate his outburst, Li Qingran, who had been ignoring him since he approached, finally noticed him, moved closer to him, and whispered an explanation:
“We didn’t do anything. I was eating ice cream here while waiting for you and Xiaowen when Mr. Chu tripped behind me. I helped him up, and I was just about to let go when you came over.”
Qin Yanyun kept a straight face and didn't say anything.
What's he angry about? According to the plot, he hasn't even fallen for the main character yet, so why is he throwing a tantrum now?
888, who watched the whole thing from the sidelines, was completely baffled.
[Could it be that it started when I discovered you had saved photos of the main character's bottom? Has my possessiveness begun to subtly surface? Am I starting to fall in love without even realizing it?]
Having witnessed countless melodramatic storylines, 888 couldn't help but let his thoughts wander.
Before starting this mission, the main system had told him that the rules of this mission world were stronger and the attraction between the main characters was greater. So when he saw Qin Yanyun get angry, 888 didn't even think that he was jealous of Li Qingran.
Li Qingran naturally had no intention of telling him.
With a slight twitch of her fingertips, Li Qingran looked at Qin Yanyun, who was silent with his eyes down. She pursed her lips and pondered for a moment, preparing to reach out and pull him to see the ice cream she had dropped on the ground, in order to prove her innocence with Chu Yu.
After all, the plot still has a lot of control over him, and he can't afford to be dismissed from his assistant position by Qin Yanyun right here.
Most importantly, he cannot allow the world's rules to determine that his dismissal was due to his own mistake, thus ruining the plot.
Li Qingran lightly bit her tongue and reached out her hand to Qin Yanyun. However, before she could even touch him, Chu Yu, who had been standing by watching Qin Yanyun throw another tantrum, couldn't hold back any longer and spoke first:
"Qin Yanyun, are you mute? If you're cold, go stay in the refrigerator. What are you doing standing here cosplaying as an air conditioner? Do you think you're so cool?"
Li Qingran: "..."
888: [...]
Qin Yanyun's eyes were icy: "What's it to you?!"
"How can this not be my business?" Chu Yu tilted his head back and said to Qin Yanyun with a righteous indignation:
"this……"
He looked at Li Qingran, who immediately understood and said, "Li Qingran."
"Oh, Mr. Li is only here to keep an eye on you because he's trying to help me. Of course, I can't just ignore him and let you bully him!"
"I bullied him?" Qin Yanyun laughed in anger.
He looked up at Li Qingran and asked, "Li Qingran, did I bully you?"
Li Qingran moved his lips, but before he could give a negative answer, Chu Yu's voice rang in his ears again.
"With such a frightening tone, who would dare to tell the truth to your face!"
Who would dare tell the truth to your face?
Nobody tells the truth to your face...
So, what the boy said in the dressing room that day wasn't the truth?
Qin Yanyun's breath hitched, and his body swayed involuntarily as the anger surged into his brain. He was about to explode on the spot where the live broadcast was about to begin when a warm sensation suddenly covered his clenched right fist.
Qin Yanyun was stunned.
Li Qingran then leaned closer, her fingertips gently stroking Qin Yanyun's hand twice. The warm touch sent waves of tingling sensation through her, miraculously calming the anger in Qin Yanyun's heart. Li Qingran, pretending to be a stylist, used her other free hand to tidy Qin Yanyun's hair and smooth out the wrinkles on his coat. Finally, she smiled and spoke to Qin Yanyun, whose emotions had subsided:
"Brother, your eye makeup is a little smudged. Let's go back to the dressing room and touch it up."
Let's talk about this in the dressing room. If someone takes a picture of Qin Yanyun throwing a tantrum in public, he'll really be fired.
Expulsion means disrupting the plot, disrupting the plot means mission failure, and mission failure means he has failed to gain his freedom.
Li Qingran didn't want such a thing to happen to her.
Thinking this, Li Qingran tightened her grip on Qin Yanyun's fingers slightly.
"..."
Qin Yanyun looked up at him.
Li Qingran smiled at him, her beautiful eyes filled with a clear pleading, "Brother..."
Qin Yanyun's other hand, which was in her pocket, suddenly twitched. Her gaze involuntarily shifted to the other side, and she took her fingers out of her pocket, raising them to rub her slightly flushed cheeks.
"That……"
His tone suddenly became somewhat unsteady, and the hostility he had just displayed in front of Chu Yu completely dissipated under Li Qingran's gaze. He was like a large cat that had been gently stroked, completely losing his aggression, and even his voice became gentle.
"Then let's go back to the dressing room first."
Actually, he was only halfway through his makeup when he came out, since Li Qingran had said she was going out to buy ice cream, but she hadn't returned for more than half an hour.
Moreover, Qin Yanyun didn't want to question Li Qingran in front of Chu Yu. After all, he couldn't bring himself to do something so shameful as to ask his assistant whether she liked the other person in front of the person in question.
Especially when the person his assistant might like is his childhood nemesis, Qin Yanyun finds it even harder to say such a thing.
So, after being comforted by Li Qingran, Qin Yanyun stopped insisting on finding out what the two of them were doing while hugging and kissing. He turned around and prepared to leave with Li Qingran.
Just then, Chu Yu, who had been standing by and observing his interactions with Li Qingran, suddenly spoke up:
"Qin Yanyun, are you...?"
!!
Qin Yanyun stopped in his tracks and turned around abruptly, asking, "Is it something?"
"...It's nothing, it's nothing."
Whether it was Qin Yanyun's intimidating gaze or some other reason, Chu Yu hesitated for a moment before swallowing the words back down his throat.
His gaze lingered on Li Qingran's hands hanging by her sides for a moment, then returned to Qin Yanyun's face.
"nothing."
He repeated, "I just wanted to ask if you have a mental illness, nothing else."
Qin Yanyun: "..."
"Alright, you should go now. Seeing your half-done makeup is really ruining my mood."
Chu Yu took a deep breath, controlling himself from looking at Li Qingran's hand holding Qin Yanyun's. At the same time, he put on an impatient look and waved his hand at Qin Yanyun, saying:
"Hurry up, hurry up, it's really an eyesore."
"Chu Yu, do you want to—"
"Alright, bro, filming is about to start, let's go back and get our makeup done."
Before the big cat could get angry again, Li Qingran first stroked its fur.
The former was actually appeased by his words. She snorted at Chu Yu and turned to walk towards the dressing room, showing none of the crazy feeling that the two of them used to have to fight to the death when they met.
This was completely different from the Qin Yanyun that Chu Yu remembered.
But that's not the point.
The key point is...
Chu Yu's gaze unconsciously followed the tall, thin figure standing beside Qin Yanyun.
From the casually styled hair to the broad shoulders, then to the waist hidden by the loose short-sleeved shirt, and finally—
"Brother Yu!"
A shout suddenly rang out behind Chu Yu.
Chu Yu blinked twice as if he had just woken up, then looked away and turned around, his steps stiffening.
"What's wrong?" he asked, looking at Xiao Zhang who had suddenly appeared behind him.
"Brother Yu, shouldn't I be asking you that?"
Xiao Zhang frowned as he looked at Chu Yu, his curious gaze sweeping past Chu Yu and looking behind him.
"Brother, what were you looking at just now? I called you several times and you didn't answer me, and—"
Before Chu Yu could block Zhang's gaze from reaching out to him, Zhang grabbed his coat and pulled it towards him, revealing large patches of solidified white fabric in Chu Yu's eyes.
He was stunned. "This is..."
"Yeah, what's this? I saw it from far away. Bro, did you get hurt somewhere? Or did you bump into someone? You're so dirty. You can't wear this jacket anymore. Luckily, Sister Lan brought several outfits. Let's go back and change..."
Xiao Zhang's voice rang in Chu Yu's ears, sometimes near, sometimes far, but Chu Yu couldn't recall exactly what he said.
In that instant, all that remained in his mind was a vast expanse of white, and Li Qingran's hesitant gaze that kept falling on him, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.
So, what he wanted to see wasn't him as a person!
Chu Yu lowered his eyelashes, and for some reason, he suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Qin Yanyun turned around in confusion, looking at the figure that had suddenly stopped to his right rear.
"What's wrong?"
"nothing."
Li Qingran turned around, casually stuffed her phone, which she had just turned off, back into her pocket, and then gave Qin Yanyun an apologetic smile.
"I'm just worried about the ice cream that fell on the ground..."
"Don't worry about that, there will be professional cleaning staff to handle it."
Upon hearing this, Qin Yanyun relaxed and even patiently offered Li Qingran a few words of comfort.
"These filming locations undergo a second inspection before filming begins, so you don't need to worry about dirtying the floor right after they've cleaned it. Staff will clean it up as soon as they see it."
"That's good." Li Qingran breathed a sigh of relief as Qin Yanyun spoke, and her expression relaxed, as if she had really been worried about this matter.
Qin Yanyun did believe this, but that didn't mean that the scene of Li Qingran and Chu Yu hugging had truly left his mind.
The moment the dressing room door closed, before Li Qingran could react, Qin Yanyun, who had suddenly turned around, pinned him between himself and the door.
The man lowered his long, narrow black eyes and stared at him, his voice tinged with tension at the impending question.
"You really just wanted to help him up from the ground?"
Li Qingran blinked, and under Qin Yanyun's tense gaze, spoke softly:
"certainly……"
Upon hearing those two words, Qin Yanyun felt not a sense of relief or joy, but rather an even deeper bitterness.
The boy would only say those two words to him.
When he wants the other person to make a choice, he will only ever hear the vague answer "of course".
Of course.
Or of course not.
Li Qingran had never given him such a precise answer, nor did he seem to question the young man or demand that he have the right to give him a precise answer.
After all, Qin Yanyun couldn't even be sure whether the boy still disliked him or was still his hater, so how could he expect to hear a definite "I like you" from the other person?
Qin Yanyun's dark eyes darkened.
However, just as he was trying to convince himself that the other person's answer was the exact "of course" he was thinking of, and forcing himself to stop dwelling on Li Qingran's answer and stop thinking about what he really felt for Chu Yu, he suddenly heard a sentence...
"no."
Qin Yanyun was stunned.
He looked up in disbelief, staring blankly at Li Qingran for several seconds before finally finding his voice and saying:
"What, what did you say?"
“I said that at first I did help him out of a simple desire to do so, but later, it wasn’t because I was worried that he would get hurt that I kept looking at him.”
As Li Qingran spoke, she curled her lips at Qin Yanyun, her dark eyes looking clean and clear, easily reflecting the astonished expression on the man's face.
He paused for a moment, then added, "I think this is the same issue you're struggling with, Brother Qin."
"Huh? Hmm..." Qin Yanyun suddenly felt a little lost for some reason. He withdrew his hand from Li Qingran's face, touched his nose, and scratched the back of his neck. His eyes darted around, and his throat suddenly started to itch.
"Ahem, well," Qin Yanyun stammered, "it's mainly because you're my assistant, so I—"
"I know."
Before Qin Yanyun could finish speaking, Li Qingran interrupted him with a smile:
"That's why I need to explain to you, Brother Qin. I don't want you to misunderstand me."
I don't want you to misunderstand me...
Qin Yanyun blinked and suddenly felt her ears burning hot, as if they were about to catch fire.
Li Qingran continued speaking, just as he had said a few seconds earlier, with a serious and earnest expression, telling Qin Yanyun every detail of his recent contact with Chu Yu, as if he was really afraid that Qin Yanyun would misunderstand.
"...I was looking at him just now because when he bumped into me, the ice cream I was holding accidentally rubbed onto him."
A complicated expression crossed Li Qingran's face. He raised his hand, which had been hanging by his side, to Qin Yanyun, showing him the specks of cream remaining on it.
"I'm worried that if he finds out later, he'll make me pay..."
"What compensation?!"
Qin Yanyun, who had been completely drawn in by Li Qingran, immediately frowned upon hearing this and said:
"He bumped into you, and you kindly helped him up, and now he's trying to turn around and bite you?!"
Li Qingran pursed her lips, "The main problem is that I did get that ice cream on myself, and if he makes me pay for it..."
"Then I'll help you pay!" Qin Yanyun declared decisively.
As he spoke, his gaze toward Li Qingran held a hint of disapproval. "I just told you to come back right after you bought your ice cream, but you wouldn't listen. Now look what happened! Not only did you get hit by someone, but you're also at risk of being scammed by bad guys."
Li Qingran smiled sheepishly, "This is my first time on a variety show set. I was a little curious, so I stood there and looked around a bit. I won't do it again."
"Alright, I'll forgive you for slacking off during work this time."
As Qin Yanyun spoke, she pulled out a wet wipe from the box next to her, took Li Qingran's hand, and wiped off the ice cream stuck to his skin one by one.
The sticky residue on my fingertips gradually disappeared, leaving behind a warm, damp sensation.
Li Qingran lowered her eyelashes, watching as Qin Yanyun's ears grew redder and redder.
The faint voice of 888 echoed in my ears.
Is this correct?
Li Qingran remained expressionless: 【What's wrong?】
[Why is the protagonist wiping your hands?]
And why is the atmosphere around us getting more and more ambiguous?
888 can't figure it out.
Li Qingran, however, felt the matter was easily explained: "Because he misunderstood me, naturally he should apologize. Didn't you say the protagonist is a stubborn tsundere who only tries to make amends through actions when he does something wrong, and never apologizes verbally?"
888 looked enlightened: 【So that's how it is?!】
That makes sense. Besides, the protagonist was questioning its host for the sake of the protagonist, and his expression and tone were indeed impolite. It's normal for him to reflect on it and want to make amends to its host.
"It would have been better if he had changed this compensation into a bonus," 888 said regretfully.
After all, the assets of the mission takers in the small world will eventually be converted into points. Even if only a pitiful amount is left in 888's hands, it is still not as strong as it seems.
Even a tiny mosquito is still meat!
Li Qingran smiled but didn't say anything.
His reasoning was very reasonable, and naturally, the main system and the world rules did not find anything unusual.
The plan seems to be progressing smoothly. Li Qingran thought to herself in a good mood.
However, his good mood completely disappeared after logging onto Weibo and entering the private message interface.
Because he saw a symbol that he couldn't believe even after rubbing his eyes several times: "Read!"—below the photo that 888 had guaranteed would never be read.
Read?!
Li Qingran's body stiffened, and she suddenly didn't know where to place her fingers on the screen while holding the phone.
How could it be marked as read?!
Li Qingran's fingertips trembled as he landed on the screen. He wanted to restart Weibo, hoping that the icon was just a minor bug.
When he climbs back up, the sign will turn back into a small green checkmark that looks incredibly pleasing to him.
However, whether it was due to his panic or some other reason, his phone suddenly buzzed twice.
Immediately afterwards, the white screen switched to the ceiling above his head.
A video call.
The person making the call—Chu Yu?!
-----------------------
Author's Note: Pear (shocked and panicked): No way, are all celebrities this fierce now?! [Cracks open]
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