Chapter 14

Xu Xiaoye ground her teeth for a long while, one arm draped over the back of the chair. After smacking her lips for ages, she said dejectedly, “There’s absolutely no flavor in my mouth.”

Since she was going on a show, she had to maintain a good image. Her figure, skin, and every other aspect of her appearance had to be kept in the best possible condition. Xu Xiaoye hadn’t eaten anything heavily seasoned in a long time, and she had cut out sweets as well. Now her mind was filled entirely with fried chicken and barbecue, and her rationality was teetering back and forth along the edge of collapse.

An Rong suddenly remembered that she still had two jars of pickles in her suitcase—one jar of pickled cucumber and one jar of small chili peppers, sour, spicy, and refreshing.

Xu Xiaoye sat there listlessly, utterly devoid of life, even her eyes half-closed. Suddenly, two clinks sounded on the table as two glass jars were placed in front of her. Even through the sealed lids, she could smell them.

An Rong patted one of the palm-sized lids. “I went through all that trouble carrying these here and then got so busy I forgot about them. My mom made these pickles herself. They’re just a little spicy. Can you handle spicy food?”

Xu Xiaoye nearly started drooling. She immediately stretched out both arms and hugged both jars to her chest, tilting her head up to look pitifully at An Rong. “You’re letting me eat them?”

The corner of An Rong’s mouth lifted. Pinching her voice into a soft, childish tone, she nodded. “Of course!”

Xu Xiaoye’s eyes lit up, and she giggled.

Oh, how cute.

That little baby voice.

An Rong twisted the lid open for her, and the smell of the pickles immediately rushed out. Xu Xiaoye rubbed her hands together eagerly, grabbed her chopsticks, and fished out a small chili pepper. She cautiously took a tiny bite first.

Crunchy, refreshing, and only mildly spicy.

So she impatiently ate the whole thing.

“Hey!”

Xu Xiaoye’s cheeks puffed out like a little hamster’s as she chewed furiously, then swallowed and asked in confusion, “What?”

An Rong looked conflicted.

“It’s a little spicy.”

Three words.

As those three words left her mouth, a faint trace of heat gradually began to emerge in Xu Xiaoye’s mouth.

Then, little by little, it was as though someone had lit a fire.

Xu Xiaoye’s lips visibly reddened, and a mist slowly gathered in her eyes.

An Rong hurriedly poured her some water.

Xu Xiaoye opened her mouth wide and kept exhaling to ease the heat. She drank an entire glass in one go, but her face was still flushed bright red.

An Rong was incredibly nervous and hurriedly poured another glass, turning back and putting it into Xu Xiaoye’s hand.

Xu Xiaoye slapped the table with one hand.

Smack!

Then she threw her head back and let out a breath.

“So satisfying!”

An Rong picked up a piece of pickled cucumber and held it to her lips.

“This will help with the spice.”

Xu Xiaoye didn’t move at all.

She merely opened her mouth like a little bird waiting to be fed.

An Rong placed the cucumber into her mouth.

There were still tears at the corners of Xu Xiaoye’s eyes. The spice had turned the tip of her nose slightly red, and dampness lingered around the corners of her eyes, making her look as though she had just been bullied.

An Rong shifted her gaze away, her throat moving slightly.

Xu Xiaoye ate while drawing in little breaths. She tilted her head slightly and looked at An Rong with a grin.

“That heat really sneaks up on you.”

An Rong’s expression remained natural, though her gaze wandered slightly. Only a few seconds later, she turned back and said, “It’s actually meant to be eaten with rice. If you take small bites, it isn’t that spicy.”

Xu Xiaoye rested the back of her neck against the chair and looked at An Rong, who was leaning forward slightly as she waited for her to speak.

She grinned.

“It’s pretty good.”

An Rong pressed her lips together and smiled.

“What’s good?” Xia Chunhua came trotting in and curiously looked at the two jars on the table. “What’s this?”

An Rong had just opened her mouth when Xu Xiaoye quietly caught her hand and gave it a squeeze, neither too hard nor too soft.

Xu Xiaoye picked up a small chili pepper with her chopsticks. It had been pickled to a pale green with a slight yellow tint and looked especially crisp and appetizing.

Xia Chunhua swallowed.

Xu Xiaoye asked, “Can you handle spicy food?”

An Rong immediately guessed what she was planning.

The innocent Xia Chunhua looked eager and nodded two or three times in a row.

“Of course.”

A sly expression appeared on Xu Xiaoye’s face. She raised the chopsticks to Xia Chunhua’s mouth.

“Ah—”

Xia Chunhua obediently opened her mouth, then chewed while nodding in admiration. After swallowing, she kept sucking in little breaths and pointed excitedly at the jar.

“It’s good, it’s good! Give me another one.”

Xu Xiaoye raised a brow.

Seeing that she really could handle spicy food, she fed her another.

Then Xia Chunhua couldn’t seem to stop.

She kept eating while drawing in breaths and nodded as she said, “I ate these when I was little. I never had them again after that. The ones you can buy don’t taste like this either.”

She ate quite a few while drinking cold water alongside them.

In the end, she ran out crying, with tears and snot streaming down her face.

Xu Xiaoye collapsed over the table laughing.

An Rong was just about to chase after her and check when Xu Xiaoye reached out and rested a hand on An Rong’s wrist.

“She’s fine. It’s just too spicy. She’ll drink some cold water and find something to eat. It’ll pass in three to five minutes.”

Xia Chunhua was cute and generous, and in only two days, she had already become familiar with practically everyone. Finding something to eat would be easy for her.

An Rong, on the other hand, spent all day training without saying much to anyone.

That couldn’t continue forever.

Xu Xiaoye began thinking that from now on, perhaps she should take An Rong along wherever she went so the girl could at least make a few friends.

The fingers resting around An Rong’s wrist were long and soft, the skin delicate. They rested there lightly without applying any force, and Xu Xiaoye’s thumb was even unconsciously rubbing over the bone of An Rong’s wrist.

Being touched like that made An Rong feel a little…

Her back was turned to Xu Xiaoye.

There wasn’t a camera in front of her, nor was anyone standing at the doorway.

So An Rong slowly and quietly let out a breath, her teeth lightly worrying her lower lip.

Xu Xiaoye noticed nothing.

She casually let go and asked, “Can you sing this song yet?”

An Rong nodded. Her left hand moved slightly, shifting in front of her body and curling once into a fist. The blue veins on the back of her hand stood out faintly.

“I can.”

Learning a song was much easier than learning choreography.

But Xu Xiaoye sighed and collapsed onto the table in frustration.

“I can’t remember the lyrics. I keep mixing them up.”

Dance became muscle memory. The more she practiced, the more familiar it became, and once ​stolen content​she was familiar with it, she could start refining the details.

Singing was different.

She could remember the beat, rhythm, and melody.

She simply couldn’t remember the lyrics.

She had been born that way. There was nothing she could do about it.

An Rong knew that Xu Xiaoye had mild dyslexia.

When memorizing lyrics, she would either add or miss words, or sing lines in the wrong order. Remembering lyrics was much harder for her than it was for most people, but she didn’t want anyone else to know about this problem.

An Rong pulled paper and a pen out of her suitcase.

She had originally prepared them for university.

She hadn’t expected to use them this early.

Xu Xiaoye frowned as she watched An Rong spread everything out on the table.

“What are you doing?”

An Rong wrote out the lyrics from memory. She circled certain parts and added notes, filling an entire page with detailed annotations before pushing it over to Xu Xiaoye.

The moment Xu Xiaoye looked at it, her brows practically shot into the sky.

“What is this? Am I an elementary school student? What’s with all these notes?”

An Rong pretended not to understand and smiled foolishly.

“It’s a habit. This is how I usually memorize lyrics. I just wrote it that way automatically.”

Xu Xiaoye pressed the corner of her mouth together.

Her gaze drifted toward the paper. She looked at the long lines An Rong had drawn outward to label different sections, then ran her fingers over the pen on the table.

Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at An Rong’s hand.

After a brief pause, she said, “So this is what top students are like. I misjudged you.”

“It’s fine,” An Rong said. “I studied humanities, so there was a lot to memorize. I got used to writing things out like this. But you can try it too. Read while you look at it and write it down at the same time. You’ll remember it faster.”

The ballpoint pen spun twice between Xu Xiaoye’s fingers.

The corner of her mouth lifted.

“Okay. Thanks.”

An Rong didn’t disturb her.

She climbed onto the bed to rest, listening to Xu Xiaoye quietly reciting the lyrics below.

Xu Xiaoye had mild dyslexia. An Rong had known about it in her previous life.

Normally, it mostly came across as poor memory, but when she had to memorize lyrics, she was slower than other people. Her eyes would skip lines while reading, and when reciting from memory, she would mix up the words.

The annotations would help hold her attention somewhat and were at least a little useful.

But they were filming a variety show now, and this was also a competitive selection process.

An Rong didn’t want anyone else to discover it.

That was why she wrote everything on paper and pushed it over to Xu Xiaoye.

The cameras couldn’t see it.

No one else would know.

Author’s Note:

Xu Xiaoye: There’s no need for a kid to know about all that backstage manipulation and capital maneuvering.

An Rong: I’m only showing the tiniest bit of concern. Ideally, no one will notice.