Chapter 16: Sixteen Fires

In the early hours of the next morning, Yan Duo, who had been subconsciously warning herself not to sleep through everything, vaguely heard an alarm and woke up. She fought the drowsiness and half-opened her eyes, waving at Ji Ran as he was getting up, “Have a safe trip.”

Ji Ran turned his head to look at Yan Duo, who had closed her eyes again. He made a soft “hmm,” tucked the blanket in, and quietly went to the wardrobe. After changing his clothes, he waited until he returned to the bedroom. A faint snore sounded in the room. Ji Ran’s mouth twitched slightly as he picked up his suitcase and left the room.

When Yan Duo woke up again, it was already eight in the morning. After going downstairs to eat the breakfast her aunt had made, she went out. She would be at school in the morning and at company training in the afternoon — her schedule was packed.

After taking a taxi to campus, Yan Duo went straight to find Professor Li, who was supervising her thesis, but there were people in his office. She didn’t hurry in either; she sat on the waiting bench outside.

After five or six school-looking boys came out from inside, Yan Duo finally knocked on the door and walked in.

Teacher Li couldn’t help smiling when he saw Yan Duo. “What brings you here today? Got some time to spare?”

Yan Duo answered with a smile, “Isn’t it because I’m about to graduate? There aren’t many jobs left.”

Teacher Li nodded, “Fanse Entertainment isn’t bad — at least it doesn’t have all those messy things. Stay put and don’t worry; one day you’ll get your break.”

Speaking of which, Yan Duo signing with the Fan agency was actually arranged by Teacher Li. Although Teacher Li was originally acting on someone’s request, she also approved of the Fan agency.

Yan Duo smiled and nodded, saying nothing more.

The teacher and student chatted for a while before starting to discuss Yan Duo’s paper; Teacher Li offered a few revision suggestions.

People in the office were discussing a paper, while in the corridor, Yan Duo had become the subject of conversation among the few boys who had just walked out.

“Hey, was that girl who just went in a classmate from our class?”

She’s in our class, I promise I won’t skip a single lesson!

“Then who is she?”

“Her name is Yan Duo, she’s a year above us and graduates this year.”

The boy who had asked the question silently repeated the newly heard name, then asked, “Does she have a boyfriend?”

“Hah, Sizé, you wouldn’t be trying to chase after her, would you? I advise you not to even think about it.”

“Could it be that she already has someone?”

“No, she never dated anyone in college.”

“Then why can’t I even think about it?”

“You just transferred here, so you might not know. Since freshman year, the line of suitors for Senior Yan could stretch from the dorm building to the school gate, but over these four years she stubbornly refused everyone. Two cohorts ago a senior chased her for three years; I heard last year he tried every trick to sign her to his family’s entertainment company—thinking proximity would give him the advantage. Hah, he still hasn’t succeeded!”

“That’s because his technique was rubbish. Watch me, I’ll have her within a month!”

His companion wanted to say he was daydreaming, but then thought: not only is this guy from a wealthy family, his flirtation skills are impressive too. Since he transferred in, he’d gone through two or three girlfriends in two months—one was the department beauty, the others were newly debuted young actresses in the industry. Maybe Senior Yan really could be won over by him. lehukids.com

“Alright then, once you win her over, I want a photo with her, haha.”

“No problem!”

……

After Yan Duo discussed the thesis issues with Teacher Li and set a time for their next meeting, she finally left the teaching building. Just as she stepped down the stairs, she heard someone calling her.

“Hi, Senior Yan.”

Yan Duo turned her head and saw a boy leaning against the wall, smiling at her lazily. She recognized him — it was the same boy who had just been reprimanded in Teacher Li’s office for skipping class.

“Something you need?”

“Nothing much,” the boy said, hands behind his back as he walked over from the wall. “I just saw a flower in the garden that suited you so well I rushed over to give it to you.”

Having spoken, a single red rose appeared in front of Yan Duo.

Yan Duo didn’t take it; she smiled and looked at the boy opposite her. “You’re new here, aren’t you?”

The boy wasn’t disappointed when she refused the flower. He withdrew his hand and asked with some interest, “You’re very clever, senior. How did you figure it out?”

Yan Duo said nothing. She pointed back toward the teaching building and then turned and walked away.

The boy was a little puzzled and wanted to follow and keep flirting, but the sound coming from the teaching building stopped him.

“Ji Size, how dare you steal my flower—hand in a ten-thousand-character self-criticism tomorrow!”

Only then did Ji Size understand what Yan Duo meant. He quickly tossed the flower to the ground and bolted, his voice heard from afar, “Teacher, I didn’t steal this flower, I picked it up—I’m returning it now!”

Over here, Yan Duo left the school and took a taxi, not giving Ji Size’s affair another thought. Besides, she was already married now, and even if she were single, she didn’t like that playboy type of guy.

She went to the company to have lunch with Qi Sixian, and after teaching two more classes at the company in the afternoon, Yan Duo finally returned to Ji Ran’s house.

That evening, after fixing the parts of her paper that needed revision on the computer, Yan Duo lay in bed and felt the bed was too big, a little empty; thinking of how she had almost been shoved off it last night, she sighed.

Go to bed at ten, toss and turn, finally fall asleep after twelve—Yanduo mumbles drowsily that she’d better go home to sleep tomorrow; it’s too cold to sleep here.

The next day, when Yan Duo came to see Teacher Li, she unexpectedly saw the boy who had given her flowers yesterday leaning over the coffee table, drawing a turtle on a sheet of white paper that had the words “检讨书” (self-criticism) scribbled crookedly across it; when he saw her, he even reached out his hand to greet her.

“Write your self-criticism. If you don’t finish ten thousand characters today, you are not allowed to go home!” Teacher Li’s voice was laced with anger, clearly not yet spent.

Ji Size said with a pained face, “Teacher, I really didn’t steal your flowers, I truly picked them up!”

Teacher Li didn’t even bother to pay him any attention and complained he was noisy, “Go shout outside, don’t disturb your senior. Oh, and while you’re at it, shut the doors.”

Ji Sizé glanced at Yan Duo; seeing that she didn’t even spare him a glance, he raised an eyebrow, took the blank paper, and walked out.

After Teacher Li watched him leave, he shook his head and murmured to himself, “We share the same surname, even kin—how can the difference be so great?”

Yan Duo’s eyes flashed. If she remembered correctly, yesterday she seemed to hear Teacher Li call her “Ji Size”—was that a coincidence? Yan Duo feigned casualness and asked, “Is she a relative of Ji Ran, from Teacher Ji’s family?”

Teacher Li: “Exactly, Ji Ran looks like a gentleman, his nephew is clearly a punk.”

Yan Duo’s mouth twitched. So after marrying Ji Ran, she still had such a big nephew? For the sake of family ties, Yan Duo decided to give Ji Sizhe a small bit of help.

“Hey, by the way, are you still in touch with Ji Ran? He came to the school last year — you were the one who received him, right?”

Yan Duo blinked and answered ambiguously, “It’s okay, I guess.”

Teacher Li didn’t detect any perfunctory tone in those words and said, “Ji Ran seems pretty cold—it’s not surprising he doesn’t keep in touch.”

After Teacher Li read through all of her papers and found no other issues, he let her go back.

Yan Duo packed her things and said somewhat embarrassedly, “Teacher Li, I think there’s something I should tell you. When I went out yesterday, the student outside was holding a rose and said he had found a flower, asking me if I had dropped it.”

“Ah, is that so? It wasn’t him picking flowers from the garden to give to you?” Teacher Li asked, puzzled.

Although Ji Sizé had only transferred schools two months earlier, his reputation had already spread far and wide—he changed girlfriends every few days, and his girlfriends were all fairly well-known. So whether in school or in the entertainment circle, Ji Sizé had made people remember his name by other means. Seeing such a repeat offender standing beside Yan Duo, Teacher Li’s first thought was—Ji Sizé was at it again, stirring things up .

Yan Duo lied without batting an eye, smiling, “How could that be? We don’t even know each other.”

Teacher Li thought for a moment. Ji Sizeze had little credibility, but Yan Duo was different—she had always been a good student, never lied, and she truly hadn’t seen Ji Sizeze stealing flowers. He figured he must have misunderstood and, after Yan Duo left, called Ji Sizeze in.

Yan Duo didn’t pay any more attention to what followed. She took her things and left the office, and just as she reached the elevator, Ji Sizeze hurried over.

“Teacher Li said I don’t have to write a self-criticism anymore. Did you put in a good word for me?”

The good deed was done by Yan Duo, but she didn’t want to admit it; after all, explaining was too much trouble, so it was easier to deny it outright.

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

Ji Size didn’t believe her words, smiling as he said, “Even if you don’t admit it, I know—actually you have feelings for me too.”

Yan Duo looked at Ji Size speechlessly, her gaze like she was looking at an idiot.

Ji Sizhe didn’t mind at all; with a self-satisfied air he said, “Yan Duo, just wait and see, I’m definitely going to chase you.”

Yan Duo couldn’t be bothered with him. As soon as the elevator doors opened, she walked in.

In the following days, Yan Duo didn’t go back to school. She spent two days filming the parts of one of the supporting roles; the rest of the time during the day she stayed home reading scripts and watching films, and in the afternoons she holed up at the company to study.

That day, the TV drama “Power Plays” co-starring Ji Ran premiered. Yan Duo didn’t tell her family; she hid alone in her room to watch.

“Intrigue” is about the Ninth Prince played by Ji Ran, who endures hardships to become a wise ruler, and Yan Duo plays a palace maid, specifically the prince’s consort and his first intimate woman.

In episode one, Ji Ran’s screen time is limited, and Yan Duo doesn’t appear at all. In episode two, the Ninth Prince’s birth mother begins looking for household maids for her grown son. Among the ten maids standing before the prince, he spots Biyu at a glance. In the end, Biyu, one of the four household maids, becomes the Ninth Prince’s first woman. Episode two ends.

After watching the two episodes, Yan Duo felt her blood boil. While she was acting on set surrounded by people, she hadn’t felt embarrassed, but now, seeing her face full of shame on screen, she wanted to crawl into a hole. Her hands and feet were stiff, her lines stumbled, her acting was poor, and standing next to Ji Ran, she was utterly outclassed.

While Yan Duo was berating herself for not performing well, Qi Sixian’s call came in.

“Yoho, little concubine, congratulations, it seems you’ve gone viral.”

Yan Duo found the remark strange. With one hand holding her phone and the other opening her laptop to search, she felt nervous—would her poor acting be dragged out and torn apart? Or had she been flamed out of the loop by Ji Ran’s fans?

Author’s note: Another male supporting character has appeared, haha~