rsvt_04

"How can it possibly be this hot." The moment Mu Qi stepped out of the car, she couldn't help but blurt it out.

Under the July sun in Haicheng, even the sunlight touching her skin felt like tiny pinpricks.

The "Zero Distance With You" production team had booked a vacation home for a month up in the mountains near the coast. The house was a two-story villa, with large gardens outside both the first and second floors. The second floor had an open-air courtyard garden, and looking out from it, you could see the distant sea.

She'd just pulled her suitcase out and closed the trunk when the driver sped off without a moment's delay. Mu Qi watched the car disappear into the distance, feeling a bit at a loss for a moment, but then a camera in the distance pulled her attention back. Filming had already begun.

A drone flew overhead as well.

The cameras for "Zero Distance With You" had all already been set up inside the villa. To create a natural, relaxed atmosphere, the production had installed two hundred cameras and microphones hidden throughout the villa's discreet corners, all operating unmanned.

Mu Qi wasn't particularly nervous about having her every word and action watched by others, she was planning to leave the industry entirely three months from now anyway. So no matter how she was received once the show aired, she didn't much care.

Mu Qi pushed open the front gate of the house and walked in. The lawn in the first-floor garden was spacious, with a barbecue grill set up on it, a net for ball games off to one side, and a covered area on the other side, where white sofas circled around a tea table in the middle, facing the wall of the villa, with a projector set up nearby. At night, this spot would transform into a romantic open-air movie theater.

The entertainment facilities had clearly been thought through carefully.

Mu Qi paused to take it all in, then followed the cobblestone path to the villa's front door. A gentle twist of the handle and it swung open. The interior was bright and spacious. Mu Qi set her suitcase aside, changed into indoor shoes, and walked further in. The living room was large, bright and minimalist, the whole space done in white tones, with high, vaulted ceilings and a striking, artfully designed pendant light hanging above. Floor-to-ceiling windows on the other side offered a clear view of the garden outside.

The whole house was completely silent, save for the sound of Mu Qi's own footsteps. The producer hadn't been joking, she really had been sent in first.

Mu Qi began familiarizing herself with the house. The first floor had two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. The kitchen was open-plan, connected to the dining area. Following the staircase up, the moment she reached the top, the open-air garden came into view—lush with plants, with a covered roof overhead and a long sofa lounging beneath it. The second floor also had two bedrooms, laid out the same way as the first floor.

Once she'd gotten a rough sense of the house's layout, Mu Qi went back down to the first floor and sat on the sofa to wait for the other guests to arrive.

Wu Feifei sent her a message, asking if she'd arrived yet.

Wu Feifei had already "come knocking" the day before, she'd just gotten back and hadn't had time to find her own place to rent yet. The apartment was small, but the two of them could make do together, so Mu Qi had let her move in. Besides, since Mu Qi would be filming the show for a month, that gave Wu Feifei more than enough time to find a place of her own.

With the filming schedule in mind, Mu Qi had paid extra for express shipping, and her tarot crash-course book had arrived quickly. The moment she'd gotten home, she'd wanted to drag Wu Feifei into another reading session.

But Wu Feifei, still not adjusted to the jet lag, had been dead asleep in her room, dead to the world.

So Mu Qi had gone through the crash-course book on her own, refreshing her memory on the shallow bits of knowledge she'd picked up in college. But without Wu Feifei there, her foresight ability was completely unusable.

For a moment, she felt an itch of longing. She really wanted to experience that sensation of warm water crashing through her mind again.

Mu Qi sent back a brief reply, and just then, she heard the sound of suitcase wheels. The sound grew closer and closer, then suddenly slammed hard against the floor, as if someone had lifted the suitcase up and then dropped it back down heavily.

"I'm exhausted." The front door swung open, accompanied by a soft grumble, and seaweed-like long hair came into view first in Mu Qi's line of sight.

"Hello." Seeing the person who'd arrived, Mu Qi stood up.

"Oh, hi." The girl pulled her suitcase in, startled at the sight of Mu Qi, her voice soft and sweet. She wore a pink dress paired with a white cardigan, giving off an overall gentle, adorable impression.

Su Zhizhi, an idol-drama princess. Her hit drama had only just finished airing a few days ago.

The sight of her gave Mu Qi a start too, she hadn't expected the caliber of the guests to actually be this high. She knew this face all too well; back when she'd been working, the little sweet romance dramas she'd paired with her lunch delivery had almost always starred this very actress.

"The slippers are over there." Mu Qi pointed to the left of the front door.

"Ah, thank you," Su Zhizhi said. She turned her suitcase around, looking a bit nervous, and nearly tripped over it.

There was a certain clumsy sort of charm to her.

Mu Qi thought to herself.

"You can just leave your suitcase there."

"Ah, okay." Su Zhizhi set her suitcase down next to Mu Qi's.

"Hi." Once her suitcase was set down, Su Zhizhi walked over and sat down next to Mu Qi. "I'm Su Zhizhi."

Mu Qi smiled politely. "I know who you are. Hi, I'm—"

Before she could even finish, Su Zhizhi cut her off. "Wait, wait, let me guess—don't tell me yet. I feel like I've seen you somewhere before. Uh..."

Watching Su Zhizhi rack her brain for a good thirty seconds without getting anywhere, Mu Qi said with a smile, "I'm Mu Qi. You've probably come across my videos before."

"Yes, that's it!" Su Zhizhi bounced excitedly on the sofa. "I used to follow you! I learned my whole eye makeup routine from you!" She pointed at the corner of her own eye. "I couldn't do eyeliner at all before, but after following you I got really good at it, look!"

"Oh, and that foot-soak packet you recommended is honestly amazing. I actually brought like twenty-something packets with me this time, wanted to have everyone try them out."

Mu Qi: "......"

Su Zhizhi looked practically starstruck, visibly excited, leaving Mu Qi a bit overwhelmed.

Shouldn't it be the other way around here?

The two of them chatted for a while, and Mu Qi offered to give her a tour of the whole house.

"So pretty." The moment they reached the second floor, Su Zhizhi headed straight for the terrace garden.

Mu Qi stood beside her. Su Zhizhi pointed toward the distant sea. "I heard there's a set of stairs built into the mountainside that leads straight down to the beach. We should go for a walk by the sea together sometime."

"Sure," Mu Qi said.

Su Zhizhi pulled out her phone and started taking photos, while Mu Qi was already starting to buckle under the harsh sunlight outside.

"It's so sunny out here, it's actually starting to hurt my skin. I'm heading back inside first."

Mu Qi's words caught Su Zhizhi's attention. "Hurt?"

"Isn't it hot?" Once the two of them were back inside, Mu Qi asked her.

"Not really. Oh, right, honestly..." Su Zhizhi looked Mu Qi up and down. "You're really fair-skinned."

Mu Qi's skin was quite pale. She herself usually thought it looked pretty normal, but the moment a camera flash went off, her whole body turned an exaggerated shade of white, like she'd been coated in wall paint. Wu Feifei always said she was pale to an absurd degree, and refused to stand next to her in photos.

"I'm so jealous. I put on whitening body lotion every single day and I still can't get as pale as you."

"Why would you even want to be that pale? Isn't it kind of creepy?" Mu Qi said, torn between laughing and crying. "Your kind of fair is the good kind. Mine's just unnaturally pale."

"You scared me half to death."

Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice drifted up from downstairs.

The two of them turned to look down together.

A short-haired girl stood by the staircase, one hand resting on the railing.

"I actually thought there was a zombie up there for a second."

Mu Qi: "......"

The short-haired girl: "Oh, turns out it was just the light hitting you. My mistake, my mistake."

.

Beijing Airport VIP Lounge.

Di Jing leaned back in the massage chair with his eyes closed, resting. He'd gotten up early this morning to catch his flight, only for it to end up delayed. There was still an hour left before boarding, and with a nearly four-hour flight ahead, he probably wouldn't reach Haicheng until the afternoon.

"Brother Di Jing?" A sweet voice came from beside him.

Di Jing frowned and opened his eyes, finding a face hovering close to his. He shifted his body slightly to the side.

"Brother Di Jing, are you heading to Haicheng too?" the girl asked.

"Mm."

"What a coincidence, me too! We might even be on the same flight." Yu Ran'er said with a smile. "By the way, what are you going to Haicheng for?"

"Filming a show."

"What a coincidence, so am I!" Yu Ran'er sat down in the massage chair next to Di Jing. "What show are you filming?"

Di Jing pulled an eye mask out of his bag and put it on.

Seeing Di Jing ignore her, Yu Ran'er didn't seem bothered. "Brother Di Jing, we're both from the same company, don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

" 'Traveling Together With You'," Di Jing said, worried that Yu Ran'er would otherwise keep chattering on.

"How come I've never heard of it?"

"Yu Xiaochong said this show has really tight confidentiality."

"That explains it." Yu Ran'er didn't question it further. "It sounds a lot like the name of the show I'm filming, actually—'Zero Distance With You'."

Di Jing said, "That's a dating show, isn't it?"

Seeing Di Jing show some interest, Yu Ran'er continued, "Yeah, but there's no way I'd actually date anyone for real, I'm just treating it like a travel show for fun. My manager asked if I wanted to do it, so I took it, works out well since I just released my new album last month, gives me a chance to promote it too."

"Mm."

"Oh right, Brother Di Jing, have you listened to my new album?"

"Yeah, it's good."

"Brother Di Jing, could you not be so half-hearted about it?"

"Can I just get some rest, please?"

"Brother Di Jing, let's talk. I haven't seen you in ages, and you can just sleep once we're on the plane anyway," Yu Ran'er said in a coaxing tone.

Di Jing tugged at his eye mask, a flicker of impatience crossing his face.

He really couldn't figure Yu Ran'er out.

Yu Ran'er had won first place on the music competition show "Vocal Vanguard" last year and had been signed by KG Music. In terms of musical skill, there was no doubt Yu Ran'er was talented. Di Jing had initially thought highly of her too, and while watching the show, when Yu Ran'er had introduced herself, she'd said she was someone who'd been through a lot of emotional hurt.

That had stirred a bit of sympathy in Di Jing.

Fresh out of college, and already carrying so much emotional damage. Life must have been genuinely difficult for her.

But once she'd actually joined KG, it turned out she was quite the chatterbox, and she kept latching onto him to talk at every opportunity. Di Jing simply wasn't fond of conversing with people he wasn't close to. Work-related talk was fine, as her senior at the company, he was happy to help out a junior colleague. But when it came to personal, everyday matters, that felt entirely unnecessary.

Yu Ran'er paid him far too much attention.

She kept crossing his boundaries.

Di Jing figured she was still a young girl and probably thin-skinned, so he hadn't brought it up directly. Instead, he'd let the coldness in his tone and the distance in his body language hint at what he meant. But Yu Ran'er simply didn't seem to catch on.

He let out a sigh. Once he got back this time, he'd need to have another talk with Yu Xiaochong about it.

Di Jing stood up and moved to sit somewhere else.

Yu Ran'er didn't follow him over.

Just as he was about to board, Di Jing received a message from Yu Xiaochong.

【Yu Xiaochong: Brother Di, no matter what happens, just remember, I love you!】

Di Jing read it and let out a scoffing laugh.

"So cheesy."

Previous | TOC | Next