The door of the dressing room is suddenly pushed open, high-heeled shoes enter, and a tablet is placed on the dressing table with an audible slap.

Liu Qin says with a dark face, “I knew that after the red carpet pictures came out, you two would be compared again. You were overwhelmed by Yang Tong yet again!!” The tablet page is opened on a hot search on Weibo.

Two pictures are placed side by side, and there is an extra word in the middle that says VS in bold black on a white background.

It comes with the words: ‘Yang Tong’s face was really kissed by an angel. It is so beautiful. She is covered in bright yellow, which makes her fair and beautiful. That’s right. Her collarbone, her neck, oh my god. Hey, I’m a man and I want to kiss, but I don’t understand how Meng Ying has the guts to wear a bright yellow dress. Isn’t it embarrassing to be caught in an ugly dress?’ 

In the two pictures, Meng Ying is wearing a slim dress with a long slit to the top of her thighs; Yang Tong is wearing a mermaid dress¹, with her shoulders, collarbone, and neck gracefully exposed.

Different styles, but the color is the same. It would have been fine, except that after the two got out of their respective cars and they lined up for their walk down the red carpet, Meng Ying, who actually arrived first, was arranged behind Yang Tong. As soon as Yang Tong appeared, she grabbed a wave of attention and media focus, amidst deafening screams of fans.

By the time Meng Ying appeared on the carpet, the screams were much less, and the attention of the media was also smaller. Some fans then said that Meng Ying was trying to grab the hot search again.

Liu Qin points at the screen and says, “I’ve obviously gone to find out what Yang Tong was going to wear, and the information I got was clearly a black, halter-neck, long gown—how could it change yet again into a yellow mermaid dress! This is just…” 

“Huaying’s top celebrity is really different!” Liu Qin ends the tirade in a mocking tone.

“Did you and this Yang Tong have a grudge in a previous life? Or did you offend her in private? Can’t she get along with you?” Liu Qin leans on the dressing table and looks at Meng Ying who is brushing her eyebrows with light strokes. Meng Ying pauses the small brush for a moment: her slender eyebrows are beautifully drawn. She glances at the tablet on the table, and says softly, “You don’t know if I have offended her?”

Liu Qin sighs but says nothing more.

She knows Meng Ying’s background very well. She’s a girl from a poor family, graduated at the age of 24. When Liu Qin went to school to visit her younger brother, she saw Meng Ying’s face and signed her right up.

In the past few years, Meng Ying has become popular in the circle with this face, boosted by her ‘comparison’ with Yang Tong. When she first debuted, some people said that Meng Ying was a bit similar to Yang Tong, but soon, such voices disappeared, and then Meng Ying was crushed by Yang Tong several times.

Yang Tong is a top goddess, and being crushed by her can bring Meng Yi a lot of heat², but in the past year or two, Liu Qin has been hoping that Meng Ying can soon get out of the predicament of being overwhelmed by Yang Tong.

Under constant suppression, Meng Ying seems inferior to Yang Tong in everything—as if there is a roadblock in front of her that she will never be able to overcome. The situation is really frustrating.

Meng Ying withdraws her gaze from Yang Tong’s face in the photo and resumes drawing her eyebrows.

She is fair-skinned, twenty-seven years old, and one can still see fine hairs³ on her clear skin. Her eyes are very beautiful, and they always look like limpid pools, which make people want to kiss her.

“Tell me, the president of Huaying, why does he only look at Yang Tong?” Liu Qin still doesn’t understand, can’t figure it out, and is definitely not convinced, and so goes and rehashes the same unresolved question.

Meng Ying’s hand pauses.

She looks at herself in the mirror and thinks, she wants to know the reason, too.

Why does he only look at her?

She smiles, “Then you have to ask the president of Huaying.”

“Where can I ask? Can I see such an exalted person? I’m just randomly asking…” Liu Qin curls her lips, picks up the comb, and runs it through Meng Ying’s hair. While combing, she asks, “Is the president of Huaying really the young master of the Xu family in Li city?⁴”

Meng Ying puts down her eyebrow pencil and flips her hand to close the front of the tablet. “I don’t know about that.”

“If the president of Huaying is really the young master of the Xu family, then I can understand why he is so focused on Yang Tong. It is said that Yang Tong is the daughter of Yang’s enterprise in Jin city.”⁵ Liu Qin helps Meng Ying comb her hair, and in a few strokes, her long, jet-black hair drapes over her shoulders. There is still a magazine photoshoot to be done later.

Meng Ying doesn’t respond, her slender fingers play with the make-up brush.

The brush flits over her face, making her skin even fairer.

Yang Tong is the daughter of Yang’s enterprise.

That’s why she is able to win such admiration. It’s really not wrong to understand it this way.

She smiles, takes out the mobile phone from her bag, and opens the WeChat page.

Meng Ying: [Are you in Li city today?]

In the chat box, she has sent messages unilaterally, and the other person rarely replies. Only twice did that person tell her that he was at home, and once was a New Year’s greeting.

She looks in the mirror.

She touches her chin with her fingertips, moves her fingers to her cheeks, and then her eyebrows and eyes. She purses her lower lip and blinks her eyes. The woman in the mirror blinks as well. That person loves to bite her ear.

Liu Qin pats her on the shoulder. “Let’s go, shoot.”

“Yeah.” Meng Ying gets up, glances at the phone. WeChat is silent: he didn’t reply. Meng Ying stops looking, grabs the shawl, and walks out.

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FOOTNOTES:

¹ The original text says ‘shoulder-length mermaid dress’, and I’m not sure how a dress can be shoulder-length so I just took it out 😀

²By ‘heat’, they mean publicity. Being talked about—even if only in a negative comparison to another established artist— is a good thing for a newbie actress.

³ I think the author is referring to vellus hair, which is common to young kids and some adult women. It’s like barely visible, super soft, peach fuzz. Usually, when people hit puberty, this fine hair is replaced with thicker ones so I guess it’s a good thing to have as it makes you seem younger—it’s not the kind you need to shave or wax off.

⁴ This chapter calls it Li Dou (or Li City) but later on would say ‘Licheng’ and this is actually the name of the series ‘Licheng Kneeling Gang’ featuring Xu Dian and the rest of his idiot friends who mess up their own love lives and then have to grovel to get their women back.

⁵ermm, I don’t know if the author changed her mind mid-way through the story or what—but the Yang and Xu family are close and their children grew up together, so I’m not sure why they’re saying the Xu’s are from Li city while the Yang’s are from Jin city. They should all be based in Licheng anyway, since it’s the series title….

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