Chapter 34 Part 1

The expression in Lu Yue's eyes briefly changed as if he had thought

of something. "Where's that damn shorty?" he asked as he approached

Lu Sicheng. He was in front of the makeup room and reaching for the

doorknob. The man who was squatting next to the door suddenly stood

up-- --His tall body was right between the door and Lu Yue.

"You go back first."

Lu Sicheng sounded quite calm, without any facial expression. Except

for the messy hair, there wasn't a sign of emotional turmoil-- --as if it

was Lu Yue's imagination running wild.

Lu Yue pulled his hand back. "Is she in there?"

Lu Sicheng: "Yeah."

Lu Yue: "Doing what?"

Lu Sicheng: "Don't know."

Lu Sicheng paused a bit, then said, "You go back first, she'll be

there soon."

Lu Yue fixed his eyes on Lu Sicheng's eyes. "Xiao Rui insists that the

two of us take a group picture. That's why I'm here to get her."

Lu Sicheng just answered with an "en," as if he wasn't interested in

keeping the conversation going…...Lu Yue knew he couldn't get any

more information from Lu Sicheng and gave up. He turned to go back

to the studio, "Then be quick, you two."

Only Lu Sicheng remained in the hallway again. After a short while, the

door behind him opened from the inside. A slightly blushing face carefully

appeared through the slightly opened door. "Who were you talking to just now?"

"Lu Yue."

Lu Sicheng turned to take a look behind him. She was wearing the uniform

now-- --He was silent for a while then used his usual, flat voice to say,

"Come out if you have the uniform on. What took you so long?"

The words "have the uniform on" almost made Tong Yao drag the doorknob

off. She tightly held onto the doorknob and opened the door a bit wider-- --

gliding out behind the door like a mud fish wearing ZGDX's summer uniform...

The blue and white uniform on her looked a bit different from the other

teammates. The white, slender arms showing under the short sleeves

seemed to make the white uniform even whiter-- --like the skin color of

someone who never goes outside…...Lu Sicheng didn't say anything but

just glanced over her and turned around to lead the way.

It was quite an awkward moment.

Tong Yao jogged behind to keep up with him and tried hard to find a way

to get both of them out of the embarrassing situation. "What did you see

just now?"

If Lu Sicheng took the hint, he should've replied that he hadn't seen

anything at all. She didn't expect that he would pause and honestly

respond, "I saw everything."

Tong Yao almost tripped and stepped on Lu Sicheng's heel. She steadied

herself and looked up, "I told you a thousand times to knock before you

open the door!"

"...Lu Yue was going to open the door without knocking just now."

Lu Sicheng changed the subject, "I stopped him."

"I'm talking about you, don't bring Lu Yue into this!"

"You've been inside the makeup room for an hour and 40 minutes.

The chance for me to go in and see you in that condition or go in to

find you dead is about 50/50."

"..."

They were near the entrance of the studio. She could hear Little Fatty

questioning Lu Yue where was the girl he was supposed to look for.

Tong Yao felt like she had found a way out of the awkwardness and was

about to yell that she was right here. The man in front her abruptly stopped

right then-- --Tong Yao, startled, looked up, but could only see the man's

wide shoulder. Before she could react, she heard the man quietly said,

"But, I'm sorry."

Tong Yao: "?"

Lu Sicheng: "I'll knock first next time."

Tong Yao: "......................."

Tong Yao's brain went blank.

Three seconds later, a bullet comment in block letters flew into her brain-- --

Mr. Captain was apologizing.

To Me.

The awkwardness and embarrassment she felt seconds before doubled.

She used her hands to cover her face which was so red that it could fry

an egg and suddenly squatted down. Her face almost buried between

her knees. "What, what's wrong with you! Why do you apologize so

seriously all of a sudden! ! !"

"?"

The man whose back faced Tong Yao turned around and saw her squatting

on the ground. His lips twitched and reached down to pull Tong Yao up.

Without paying attention to her red face, he simply said, "I thought you

needed a serious apology."

"Right, right, right. I do need one." Tong Yao gave him a stare. "In ancient

times, you would have to marry me."

Lu Sicheng: "..."

Tong Yao: "..."

Lu Sicheng: "........."

Tong Yao: "........."

Lu Sicheng: "The punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime."

Tong Yao: "..........................."

Lu Sicheng: "Don't push your luck."

Tong Yao was immediately frightened out of her wits. "Sorry!"

Lu Sicheng released her arm and turned towards the studio. Tong Yao

dejectly followed behind. She could only commend her tendency to talk

nonsense when she got nervous…...When they walked in the studio, Little

Fatty was the first one to see Tong Yao. He was about to tell the others that

they'd finally arrived when he noticed Tong Yao was walking behind Lu Sicheng

with her head down. "Tong Yao, what happened to your face?"

His shouting attracted everyone's attention.

Lu Sicheng turned to glance at Tong Yao. She quickly raised her head,

pretending to be calm, pulled her hair to the back of her ears, and cleared

her throat, "What about my face?"

"Red." Lu Yue, who was sitting at the side, said with a stone face. "What

did you two do just now?"

Now everyone had their eyes on Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng. If glances

had a sound effect, they were making the sound of flying machetes and

swords from Kung Fu movies-- --

"We ran over here." Lu Sicheng coolly said, "Aren't we in a rush?"

Lu Yue: "Why don't you look like you've run?"

Lu Sicheng: "I've got long legs."

Lu Yue couldn't say anything more.

Under the urging of the photographer, Tong Yao walked in front of the

camera for her solo photo shoot.

Tong Yao was the last to have her individual photos taken. The photographer,

in consideration that later on it might be necessary to Photoshop all the

individual shots into a group picture, was asking Tong Yao to pose in certain

positions. He instructed her to cross her arms in front of her chest, raise her

chin a bit to look at the camera, and cast down her eyes a little bit-- --

People who were familiar with promotional pictures would know that it was

the pose usually reserved for the person who would be put in the middle of

the group picture. It would be such an honor and show how the team valued

her-- --A team that had a player like Lu Sicheng, who would make the

newcomer stand in the center-- --If it was someone else, the person would be

elated, yet Tong Yao was like a chatterbox: "...This way? Like this? Raise the

chin this high? Are you sure? Would it make my face bigger? Lower my eyes,

would it make my eyes disappear? My eyes aren't big to start with..."

The photographer: "Yes, it would."

Tong Yao: "? ? ? ? ?"

The photographer: "But it would make you look domineering. Just imagine

yourself as the queen."

Tong Yao was confused: "The queen?"

Xiao Rui, looking on from the sidelines, wanting to go up and hit her with a

stick…...Lu Sicheng, sitting with legs crossed by the side, suddenly spoke as

he was focused on his cell phone: "You're asking Thumbelina to pretend to be

a queen. You have to consider whether the person has the ability or not."

Finally, the photographer went up to Tong Yao and forced her head into the

position he desired, then quickly took the shot. The end results were passable,

later on he would have to do more work on Photoshop...

After the solo shots, Xiao Rui strongly demanded that Tong Yao and Lu Yue

take pictures together.

"I want the feeling that the two of you are destined to confront each other.

Full of confrontation, aggression, and the silent battle between the player and

its substitute. You have to create the sense of contradiction because of your

competitive relationship!"

Xiao Rui tried his best to create the emotional condition for Tong Yao and

Lu Yue. Lu Yue listened with no facial expression at all, there was no way to

tell whether he was actually listening. Tong Yao kept nodding with a confused

face, there was no way to tell whether she actually understood what he was

saying. Lu Sicheng stretched his long legs: "Weren't you two already doing that?

Use that same childishness when you fought over the chair. Xiao Rui is just

asking you two to act as your usual selves."

Tong Yao rolled her eyes in the distance.

...

That night, they got back to the base exhausted. Tong Yao collapsed in her

chair and ordered take out for everyone on her phone. When she was asking

one by one what they would like for dinner, Little Fatty suddenly screamed in

front of his computer. Startled, Tong Yao almost dropped her phone. She got

up from the chair with some difficulty: "What's wrong?"

"The Weibo official site just released some of the pictures we took this afternoon!"

Little Fatty pointed to the screen. "This one is really good!"

Tong Yao thought about the poses she was forced to do in the afternoon and

got nervous about the end result. She hurried onto Weibo and saw on the front

page a picture that had been reposted from the official site-- --

Tong Yao's eyelids twitched.

The picture was her and Lu Yue.

The post-production had made the background dark, with a beam shining from

the left side of Tong Yao, lighting up half her face and leaving the other half in

shadow. Behind her was the much taller Lu Yue who stood back to back with her,

like a huge hill behind Tong Yao. He slanted his head slightly towards the source

of the beam. The light outlined his tall nose bridge and indifferent lips. He had

his eyes slightly lowered, the long eyelashes cast tiny shadows under his eyes...

One could sense the vigorous energy between his eyebrows.