A Vicious Female Rival Omega is Sweet and Soft - Chapter 14

The hot broth boiled and hissed, the fragrant smell of oil filling the air. Steaming mist rose from the center of the table. The four people sitting across from each other did not dare lean too close, afraid of being splashed by the hot oil in the hotpot.

Ye Yixi took a sip of the barley tea given by the restaurant and unexpectedly felt a long-lost sense of familiarity.

After a whole day of work, it was already night. She had indeed eaten many good things since coming to this world and had tasted plenty of high-end ingredients she had never eaten or could not afford before. But after eating too much of that, one would inevitably get tired of it.

In the real world, Ye Yixi quite liked spicy food. It was not that she was especially good at eating spice, but she enjoyed the numbing feeling on the tip of her tongue.

Back when she discussed business, many of the people who came to her for supply sources were farmers by birth, honest and simple people. Or when remote regions invited their company over for greening projects, Ye Yixi personally handled every proposal. When negotiations went well, it was common for the other party to directly invite her to a small shop for skewers or hotpot.

At first, the others had wanted to go to some high-end French restaurant for dinner. Ye Yixi completely did not want to eat those strange foreign dishes anymore. But in this Mary Sue novel world, the only food they could probably think of besides Western fine dining was nothing else.

After thinking left and right, Ye Yixi decided to bring some different color into their lives. An idea flashed through her mind, and she said she would take them to eat something else. Seeing how strong Ye Yixi’s intention was, Shen Qingran muddle-headedly agreed to go along with her.

But she had not expected that they would actually come to eat hotpot.

At this moment, Shen Qingran and Gu An were sitting in one row. Sitting opposite them were Ye Yixi and Zhen Xiaobai.

It was very obvious that Shen Qingran and Gu An’s expressions were more restrained. In contrast, Ye Yixi and Zhen Xiaobai looked as if they had returned home. They chattered over the electronic menu, almost wanting to order every dish on it.

Although the four of them were only separated by one table, it was as if there was a dividing line between categories. One side was silent and speechless, while the other side was discussing enthusiastically.

Considering everyone’s personal tastes, Ye Yixi ordered a divided hotpot base: half spicy red broth and half tomato broth. This way, everyone could be taken care of.

When the servers brought the dishes over one by one, the small square table was soon filled.

Shen Qingran curiously leaned a little closer and carefully observed the dishes. She looked exactly like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden, as if she had never seen the world before.

“Miss Shen… don’t tell me you’ve never eaten hotpot before?”

“That’s not it. My family has made wagyu hotpot before, but I really rarely… I should say I’ve almost never come to this kind of small restaurant to eat.”

For rich people like them, this was indeed a small restaurant. Ye Yixi had chosen a small, affordable hotpot place with a good public reputation. Although the environment here could not compare with those high-end restaurants, it was still very clean. There were no private rooms, so the noise was louder. People came and went around them, walking to the sauce station. Shen Qingran was clearly not very used to it.

“I can guess that. You definitely don’t come to this kind of place often.”

Ye Yixi watched the soup base bubble and quickly used the shared chopsticks to place a handful of water spinach into the tomato broth. Leafy vegetables absorbed broth too much. If they were placed in the red oil side, the four of them probably would not be able to bear it. As for the meat dishes, she basically put them all into the red oil side.

Gu An was not idle either. She picked up the plate of meatballs in front of her and placed them into the pot one after another.

Shen Qingran seemed to quite like cooking hotpot herself. Maybe because she had eaten it too rarely, it counted as something fresh and novel in her eyes. She put all the thousand-layer tofu into the red oil side and quietly waited for it to cook while watching it bubble.

“This beef aorta is so crunchy!” Zhen Xiaobai picked up a bite of an ingredient she loved and put it into her mouth, repeatedly sighing over how delicious it was.

“Xiaobai, how long has it been since you’ve eaten meat?”

“Sister Ye, you don’t know. These past few days, I’ve been eating boxed meals on set every day, and it’s all radishes and vegetables. They said I have to control my weight and watch my diet! It’s been killing me!”

As Zhen Xiaobai spoke, she took another bite of a meatball, stuffing her little mouth full.

Gu An listened from across the table with a smile on her face. She dotingly picked up more meat for Zhen Xiaobai and echoed, “That’s true. These past few days, I’ve heard you complaining nonstop every day. But I think you’re already quite thin. Eating a little is fine.”

Ye Yixi looked at this ambiguous atmosphere with some disdain.

These two protagonists were filming together every day. Weren’t the sparks of love already about to crackle into stars?!

But when she remembered the scene that morning when she had snatched Gu An’s milk, Ye Yixi felt embarrassed again.

Thankfully, in other people’s eyes, she was already that kind of arrogant person, and Gu An had not held it against her. But Ye Yixi still felt that her brain must have short-circuited at the time. How had she done something so childish? How embarrassing!

But Shen Qingran must think she was not very normal…

Still, wasn’t the mission the system gave her to provoke Gu An? Then what happened in the morning could be considered advance practice.

Thinking of this, Ye Yixi also picked up some food for Zhen Xiaobai. She smiled and touched her head comfortingly.

“Since we’re already out, eat until you’re satisfied first.”

“Cough—cough, cough—”

The moment Ye Yixi finished speaking, Shen Qingran began coughing violently. Just now, she had picked up a slice of basa fish from the red broth and dipped it into the sauce. As a result, the spice choked her throat, making even her throat hurt from the heat.

Shen Qingran felt that she really could not handle spicy food.

“Qingran, are you alright?”

Gu An immediately poured a glass of water for Shen Qingran and reached out to gently pat her back, helping her breathe smoothly.

Qing—ran?

Ye Yixi, who had still been concerned, almost failed to control her expression when she heard those two words. A burst of anger began surging upward in her heart again, and even the speed at which she chewed increased.

What was going on with those two? Were they close enough to call each other so intimately? How did she not know about this at all?

But why was she unhappy?

Ye Yixi thought about it carefully. This seemed to be the Nth time she had felt uncomfortable because of Gu An and Shen Qingran’s relationship. Could it be that she was… jealous?

The moment this thought came out, Ye Yixi herself was shocked.

No, this was too wrong. This was not how things should be. Wasn’t she supposed to properly pursue the female lead? It must be because she had been too entangled with Shen Qingran during this period and had developed an illusion.

Mm. It had to be that.

Ye Yixi swallowed the meat in her mouth messily, but the hand she used to pour water was shaking like a sieve. Clearly, she had not convinced herself.

“I’m fine. I just can’t really eat spicy food…”

Shen Qingran was so affected by the spice that she stuck out a small bit of her tongue and kept breathing sharply. After drinking water, her whole face turned red.

Sitting opposite her, Ye Yixi kept feeling that her mouth was dry, so she kept drinking water.

After finally recovering, Shen Qingran felt that she could do it again and wanted to continue challenging the spicy food. But for a moment, she did not know what to pick up next.

Ye Yixi sighed and picked up the last piece of beef tripe in her bowl, handing it over. She had originally intended for Shen Qingran to receive it with her bowl, but who would have thought that Shen Qingran would slightly lower her head and directly open her mouth to bite it?

Ye Yixi froze.

She felt as if a flame had traveled along the chopsticks and burned all the way to her elbow, making her entire body heat up.

“Mm, this is tasty. Thank you.”

“Y-you’re welcome…”

What should she do?

She really seemed to be acting strange.

Ye Yixi buried her head so low that her face almost fell into her bowl.

“Gu An, film properly tomorrow first. We’ll decide what to do after seeing the follow-up situation. For now, there aren’t any major problems.”

“Mm, alright. Don’t worry, I won’t be affected.”

They had not let the person involved directly step forward. Instead, they had Gu An’s personal studio first post a clarification on Weibo. Trending searches had been arranged across various platforms, and well-known marketing accounts under the company’s control all acted together. Public opinion could be said to have undergone a rapid reversal. For the time being, the matter was developing in a positive direction.

“This matter is all thanks to Sister Gu An! It was too scary. If there’s anything you need me to do, I’ll definitely cooperate properly!” Zhen Xiaobai patted her chest and solemnly promised.

That afternoon, Ye Yixi had also heard the detailed account of what had happened.

The person who harassed Zhen Xiaobai was actually not a crew member, but a strange Alpha who had sneaked in. He had even taken an expensive pheromone-concealing injection, disguising himself as an ordinary Beta. He secretly drugged Zhen Xiaobai’s drink and intended to do something improper…

Fortunately, Gu An had long since noticed that this person was suspicious. After personally seeing him slip into Zhen Xiaobai’s room, she angrily dragged him straight out. That was why the paparazzi had captured those few pictures that looked like a fight.

Ye Yixi’s first reaction was to find it terrifying, and she was glad that Zhen Xiaobai had survived the scare without danger. But at the same time, she felt that this plot was truly absurd.

Such a large film crew had let a strange staff member sneak in without anyone noticing. In the end, they had to rely on the lead actress to discover him. This was too unscientific. And that scumbag had taken such a big risk just to get close to Zhen Xiaobai. Was there something wrong with his brain…?

Ye Yixi could not help complaining inwardly. The original author really only had these same old tricks for pushing the plot forward. There was absolutely nothing new.

Amid this casual chatter, the hotpot meal was finally nearly finished.

Zhen Xiaobai insisted on paying the bill, saying that this meal had to be her treat as a small first thank-you to everyone for their help.

It was actually not too late yet, only a little past eight. But Gu An and Zhen Xiaobai had to rush back to set early tomorrow morning to film, so they had no way to keep playing. After saying goodbye, each of them drove back to the hotel to rest.

Shen Qingran clearly still seemed a little unsatisfied. Going straight home after eating so much felt like the food had not digested yet. But at night, she did not know where else to go.

Ye Yixi raised her brows and asked her, “Miss Shen, how about going to an arcade with me?”

Arcade?

Shen Qingran’s eyes lit up, and she agreed almost instantly.

…

Sure enough, this kind of place was lively.

It was full of young people, including many students. Ye Yixi had not come to this kind of place to play in a long time, and she actually missed it a little.

Shen Qingran was even more exaggerated than when they had gone to the hotpot restaurant earlier. She found everything here novel and looked left and right. Those who knew her would know she was a rich young lady. Those who did not would think she was some caveman from the mountains.

“You’ve never played here before?”

“Mm… I’ve only seen it online, but I’ve never personally come to this kind of place.”

Alright. Presumably, Miss Shen’s usual leisure activities were things like golf.

Seeing Shen Qingran’s obviously excited expression, Ye Yixi unconsciously became happy too. So she went to the counter and loaded up two hundred game tokens, planning to take her around and have fun.

The moment Shen Qingran touched the toy gun, her eyes widened. She flailed around in a panic, shooting randomly at the screen. She did not kill many monsters, but she nearly broke the button from squeezing it. In the end, she amused herself so much that she laughed and collapsed crookedly onto the stool.

After resting for a while, she discovered something else.

She took Ye Yixi’s hand and went straight toward the claw machines.

“Can we catch this?”

Shen Qingran stood in front of the glass cabinet, her eyes curving with a smile. She gently shook Ye Yixi’s arm and asked her in a soft, sweet voice.

Ye Yixi looked at their still-joined hands.

That warm, soft, smooth feeling was held in her palm. She felt as if her heart was about to jump out.

“Okay.”

Shen Qingran’s obedient, spoiled appearance made Ye Yixi’s soul practically leave her body at that moment.

Little ancestor, forget catching dolls. Even if you wanted Godzilla from the Mariana Trench right now, I would immediately catch it for you and stew it into soup!