A Vicious Female Rival Omega is Sweet and Soft - Chapter 6

As the leads immersed themselves into the filming, time ticked away minute by minute.

Ye Yixi felt intensely frustrated, as the emotions from this recent period remained bottled up inside her with no outlet; on top of that, she had to keep her eyes glued to Zhen Xiaobai today to prevent any accidents, and this pile of overlapping issues left her completely unsettled.

Still, this was a prime opportunity to rack up points and perhaps score a huge boost in favorability with the female lead; it would be even better if she could use the chance to explain the romance rumor to Zhen Xiaobai…

Thinking of this, Ye Yixi’s nerves tightened again, knowing that if she missed this chance, her progress bar for counterattacking into the official love interest would be dragged down indefinitely.

The female lead and Gu An were currently just getting acquainted, so she had to raise Zhen Xiaobai’s favorability toward her before the original official couple could spark any romance, otherwise things would get significantly more difficult later on…

Leaning back in her chair, Ye Yixi’s thoughts drifted, and she quickly grew bored again.

After eating a few slices of the freshly cut watermelon her assistant provided, she couldn’t help but critique it in her mind, concluding that it wasn’t nearly as sweet as the seedless watermelons she used to grow at her company in the real world!

She remembered those used to sell incredibly well, even attracting several agricultural trade investors and single-handedly driving a substantial supply chain.

When she first transmigrated into the book, Ye Yixi hadn’t thought the missions would be particularly difficult.

But looking at how things stood now, many events had veered off their normal tracks, creating quite a few hurdles for her—especially that Shen Qingran, who repeatedly disrupted her peace…

The moment that face suddenly flashed through her mind, Ye Yixi felt as if she’d received an electric shock, and her phone accidentally slipped right out of her hand onto the ground.

She slapped her own dazed face a couple of times, then picked up the phone.

Snapping back to reality, Ye Yixi finally noticed that the area she was staying in was almost entirely empty; it seemed everyone had gone to watch the filming.

Since she was idle anyway, and her main purpose for coming today was to protect the female lead, it was definitely better to keep Zhen Xiaobai within her line of sight!

Having made up her mind, Ye Yixi immediately stood up and walked toward the filming site.

After walking a large lap, she finally spotted the actors, surrounded by a massive crowd of crew members, with the lighting technicians and hair-and-makeup artists all working diligently in tandem, while the director sat right next to a close-up camera monitor, intensely focused on how to make the shot absolutely perfect.

Ye Yixi noted that the supporting actors and extras were bunched together in a massive, sprawling crowd.

Zhen Xiaobai wasn’t particularly tall, so at this moment, she was completely swallowed up by the throng of people.

Ye Yixi stood far on the outside, straining on her tiptoes, but couldn’t even see half of her head; instead, she only caught the top of Gu An’s head, meaning the female lead was completely surrounded right in the center.

This particular scene required wirework, and although it was an outdoor location, a green screen was hung up behind them to make it easier to add special effects during post-production.

The moment the wires lifted, Ye Yixi finally spotted Zhen Xiaobai.

Her face was deathly pale and she seemed to have a bit of a fear of heights, her small body flailing its limbs like a terrified little bird.

The plot currently being filmed featured Gu An, playing the master, leading her disciple to practice flying on a spiritual sword.

Zhen Xiaobai’s clumsy and uncoordinated appearance actually fit the character setting perfectly.

Stumbling, she frantically grabbed onto Gu An’s arm, while Gu An held her by the waist with a thoroughly gentle smile, signaling her not to be nervous—it was truly a picture-perfect, harmonious scene of tender affection.

Watching from below, Ye Yixi didn’t quite know what to feel in her heart; she could only say that they truly deserved to be the official couple, since they seemed on the verge of sparking a romantic fire despite having only just met…

Rubbing her chin, she suddenly felt that all the efforts she had put in were completely insignificant in the face of the original plot, failing to make any real impact at all.

But what made Ye Yixi feel even more uncomfortable than that was seeing that woman, Shen Qingran, standing barely fifty meters away from her!

She was tilting her head up, holding her phone with a radiant, beaming smile as she recorded short clips of Gu An’s acting!

For some unknown reason, Shen Qingran’s softly smiling, infatuated look was an absolute eyesore no matter how she viewed it!

Ye Yixi squinted at her with a look of utter disdain, letting out a quiet, clicking “tsk-tsk” from her mouth; the more she looked at her, the more annoying she became!

Perhaps because it was still early in the plot, Shen Qingran hadn’t shown any hostility toward Zhen Xiaobai yet.

Those things would only happen after she completely fell in love with Gu An; at present, Shen Qingran was likely only at the stage of holding a favorable impression of Gu An.

Shen Qingran was so focused on filming her video that she completely failed to notice a figure creeping up behind her.

Her shoulder was suddenly slapped hard, causing her to almost lose her grip on her phone.

When she spun around, she was met with Ye Yixi pulling a monumentally sour face.

…………Shen Qingran’s expression control suffered a massive breakdown; she rolled half a white eye before forcing herself to hold it back.

Why did this creature keep following right at her heels?

Shen Qingran didn’t want to engage with her at all; the mere thought of that romance rumor sent her temper flaring upward.

So, she pulled the corners of her mouth into a skin-deep, fake smile, and then turned back to keep snapping photos of Gu An.

Shen Qingran’s fleeting expression was caught entirely by Ye Yixi.

Seeing this woman’s night-and-day difference in attitude toward her versus Gu An, Ye Yixi felt her nostrils flare a whole size wider from pure anger, with even her exhaled breath turning piping hot!

She thick-skinnedly edged closer to Shen Qingran, narrowing her eyes to intentionally whisper with venomous sarcasm right in her ear:

“Oh my, Miss Shen, just who are you filming so intently? You’re so focused; anyone who didn’t know better would think you’re taking photos of your lover~~”

Ye Yixi squeezed her throat to deliver the line in an incredibly affected, artificial tone.

This time, Shen Qingran couldn’t hold back at all; she executed a massive roll of her eyes, turning her head to glare at her with pure annoyance.

Having not seen her for a month, why had this person become even more begging for a beating?

Resentfully, she tucked her phone back into her purse, but she still reined in her fury, keeping her voice as low as possible as she squeezed a few sentences through her grit teeth:

“Miss Ye, do you or do you not know that we are still in the middle of a romance rumor? We need to avoid suspicion right now, do you understand?”

Naturally, these words were intentionally spoken to shut Ye Yixi up.

Neither of them belonged to the entertainment industry, so there was no real basis for “avoiding suspicion,” but Shen Qingran truly wanted absolutely nothing to do with Ye Yixi.

That incident last time was a pure accident; how could she have known that she would run into this bastard right after stepping out from a gathering at her friend’s place?

Not to mention that the collision had left her chest aching, just explaining the situation to various people had consumed several days of her time.

Those paparazzi were truly omnipresent, even leaking the photos of her exiting Ye Yixi’s house that morning.

Those few snapshots of her wearing a makeshift headscarf were so hideous that Shen Qingran wanted to die; it was a catastrophic blow to her image!

The more Shen Qingran thought about it, the angrier she got, so she shot Ye Yixi another fierce glare.

Whatever Shen Qingran said about avoiding suspicion sounded entirely different to Ye Yixi’s ears.

Could it be that she was terrified of Gu An misunderstanding?

Thinking of this, Ye Yixi’s face instantly turned cold, stripped entirely of her playful, irritating demeanor from a moment ago.

Shen Qingran arched an eyebrow, noticing the sudden shift in her expression.

Could she be angry?

If Ye Yixi was angry, then she was happy; a smile instantly broke across her face, her eyes curving with a delight that mirrored a fox that had successfully stolen a piece of meat.

This Ye Yixi person really only possessed a good exterior skin; in every other department, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say her scores were entirely in the negative!

To the bystanders watching, however, the interaction was far from simple.

They only felt that these two were constantly making eyes at each other, looking exactly like they were flirting.

Quite a few people even began to suspect in their hearts: Could that romance rumor actually be true?

While the two were still trading petty barbs here, an unexpected accident seemed to occur on Zhen Xiaobai’s side.

During the flying segment, the screw securing the wire she was suspended from suddenly loosened.

A crowd of crew members immediately swarmed over in a panic, and the surrounding noise instantly amplified several times over.

Ye Yixi’s attention was drawn immediately.

Looking up, she spotted Zhen Xiaobai hanging in mid-air, her small face completely drained of color from fear.

Could this be the danger the female lead was destined to encounter today?

Worry bloomed in her heart, and she quickly sprinted toward the center of the crowd.

To prevent the actors from getting hurt, Gu An was lowered to the ground first.

Meanwhile, Zhen Xiaobai’s wire looked loose and frayed, seemingly on the verge of snapping entirely.

Therefore, they began lowering Zhen Xiaobai toward the ground at an extremely slow pace.

Ye Yixi watched from below, unsure of what she could do, while Gu An stood off to the side looking equally fraught with worry.

They dispatched personnel to search for a new cable, but time was pressing, and it couldn’t be found at a moment’s notice.

Ye Yixi didn’t dare lower her guard, keeping her eyes locked onto Zhen Xiaobai.

When she was roughly three meters from the ground, the cable snapped anyway.

Functioning almost entirely on pure reflex, she launched herself outward, striving to act as the female lead’s human mattress before Zhen Xiaobai could crash down.

Fortunately, there was a layer of foam padding underneath, so the impact wasn’t too severe.

Even so, Ye Yixi was struck with a painful ache in her waist.

Contorting her face in pain, she lay flat on the mat like a sea turtle, while Zhen Xiaobai immediately rolled off her body, full of apologies as she helped Ye Yixi up.

“Kind person, you’ve helped me again… and this time I even caused you to get hurt…”

“It’s nothing serious. My name is Ye Yixi, so stop calling me ‘kind person’ every single time. I should be a bit older than you, so why don’t you just call me Sister Ye? How about that?”

Seeing Zhen Xiaobai’s guilt-ridden face, Ye Yixi immediately adopted a gentle tone to give her an easy out.

She discovered that only when facing the female lead could she be as docile as she wanted without triggering an OOC warning from the System.

Zhen Xiaobai readily accepted.

She originally wanted to buy some topical bruise ointment for Ye Yixi, but dropped the idea after Ye Yixi vehemently refused, resulting in them merely exchanging phone numbers and messaging accounts, with Zhen Xiaobai stating she would definitely pay a visit to thank her properly when she had the chance in the future.

Ye Yixi nodded with satisfaction.

She had finally taken the first real step and achieved some substantial progress; this mission was definitely worth accepting!

In reality, the height truly wasn’t that significant; even if Ye Yixi hadn’t run over to act as a human shield, a major disaster likely wouldn’t have occurred.

Still, it ended without further incident.

Shen Qingran, who had rushed over, witnessed everything that had just transpired, leaving her thoroughly bewildered.

For someone like Ye Yixi to disregard her own safety to rescue Zhen Xiaobai was completely illogical.

Connecting this to the string of incidents where Ye Yixi had shown extraordinary care toward Zhen Xiaobai recently…

Could she truly love her this much?

Ye Yixi, having completed the deed, felt a fair amount of relief.

Grinning and grimacing through the ache, she rubbed her waist and jogged off to the side, instructing her assistant to bring over a chair so she could sit and rest for a bit.

Now that she had finished the System’s mission, she simply wanted to head back.

Strangely, however, the System’s notification rewarding her with points kept failing to sound.

She felt a vague sense of unease, but didn’t dwell on it too heavily. Could it be system latency?

Ye Yixi figured she would wait a bit longer, so she leaned back in her chair to rest her eyes.

Perhaps because she was too exhausted, or perhaps because the seat was too comfortable, she closed her eyes and actually drifted straight off to sleep.

By the time she woke up, the sun had slipped below the horizon, and the crew’s filming for the day had concluded, with everyone packing up their gear to leave the set.

Meanwhile, her little assistant, who had likewise kept watch here the entire day, was currently carrying her belongings while leaning over to gently shake her arm, urging her, “Miss Ye, it’s time to head back.”

With sleepy eyes, Ye Yixi stretched her back, nodding while letting out a yawn.

Reaching the parking spaces required a bit of a walk.

Along the way, a sudden thought struck Ye Yixi, prompting her to open her profile interface, only to discover that her points column hadn’t increased by a single point.

This threw her completely off balance; she had clearly completed the mission to rescue the female lead, so why on earth was it like this?!

Ye Yixi found it utterly incomprehensible, her heart growing increasingly uneasy. Could some step in the process have gone wrong?

She halted her steps and began to survey her surroundings.

Currently, the spot she was standing on was right beside that small river.

Turning her head around, she actually spotted Zhen Xiaobai and Shen Qingran walking toward this location.

They were standing very close to the riverbank, seemingly in the middle of a conversation, while Gu An followed right behind the two of them.

This scene exuded an inexplicably eerie sensation… How had the three of them ended up mixing together?

The more it looked like this, the more Ye Yixi felt that an incident was about to occur.

Just as she was pondering, a soft cry of alarm rang out.

Lifting her gaze, she saw Zhen Xiaobai’s foot slip, stepping on a loose pebble and tumbling straight into the river.

Shen Qingran instinctively reached out to grab her hand, but was pulled off balance and dragged right into the water along with her.

In an instant, water splashed everywhere.

Ye Yixi’s brain went completely dead, leaving her absolutely no time to formulate a reaction.

With a sharp “splash,” Gu An, who was behind them, followed right after and dove into the water, swimming straight toward the shouting Zhen Xiaobai.

Meanwhile, Shen Qingran was wildly flailing her limbs in the water, clearly demonstrating zero knowledge of how to swim.

The incident had erupted so suddenly that Ye Yixi’s mind was an absolute mess, but at this critical juncture, she could no longer care about anything else.

Just as the water level was on the verge of submerging the top of Shen Qingran’s head, Ye Yixi leaped into the water, timely wrapping an arm around her slender waist and locking the woman securely within her embrace.