After this line, even Liu Xie, who had been reading with his head down the entire time, raised his head, let alone the others.
“Third, are you sure about this?” Little Bird began to directly question Ye Qingchang.
“It’s just a little wind and frost.”
Ye Qingchang raised her phone again.
“Just shoot another take, isn’t that fine?”
“How about I do it?”
Xiao Yi’an spoke up from behind, drawing Ye Qingchang’s attention.
“You’re not part of our group. You’re not even in our class.”
Ye Qingchang wasn’t that ready to accept Xiao Yi’an so directly.
“I’m your friend. That should count now, right?”
Xiao Yi’an retorted to Ye Qingchang.
Ye Qingchang paused.
“It does.”
“Then what’s wrong with me helping you?”
He reached out and took Ye Qingchang’s phone directly.
“Then your heart is too kind, isn’t it?”
Ye Qingchang didn’t mind much.
“It’s just that your hand is shaking. The video you’ll shoot will be all shaky. Who knows how many retakes we’ll need.”
Ye Qingchang’s body was indeed frail enough. Just now, she had only held her phone level for less than five minutes before her arm started to ache, and even her entire hand began to tremble.
“So you think we’ve been occupying your club activity room for too long?”
Ye Qingchang shook her slightly tired hand.
“Yes.”
Xiao Yi’an admitted quite bluntly.
“I want this place for the two of us alone. I haven’t given you today’s flower yet.”
“Wow, you really are something.”
Ye Qingchang stepped back two paces, giving the spot to Xiao Yi’an.
Xiao Yi’an would always remind her at times like this that the relationship between them now was pursuer and pursued.
“Also, I don’t want you to tire yourself out.”
Xiao Yi’an added.
“You always overexert yourself in these things. Like before, when you stayed up chatting with me until late, and by the time you were typing, you were already delirious, even saying things that didn’t make sense, but you still insisted on chatting with me.”
“When I’m around, you can just leave these things to me. I’m not that incompetent.”
Xiao Yi’an left that final remark and directed the actors to do another take.
This time went a bit smoother than the last, except that Zhu Niao still couldn’t remember the next line of poetry to recite even after watching twice.
“Alright, so what else do you need to film?”
Xiao Yi’an pressed the stop button.
Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he spoke up.
“No flames. No smoking either.”
“Huh?”
“Last time, when I burned those letters in the club activity room, I opened the window to let the black smoke out, but someone reported me. Now the smoke detectors here are the latest model—if anyone smokes, they’ll start spraying water.”
Xiao Yi’an explained.
“I didn’t expect there to be such a story behind that.”
Ye Qingchang took back her phone.
“We’re done filming. Next, we’ll just shoot some random stuff and pad the runtime with post-dubbing.”
“Alright.”
The others also stood up from their seats.
The first to rush out were Yang Shuli and Xu Nian. It seemed because it was mealtime.
Then Zhu Niao and Gou Yu, who had to go to work.
Finally, Liu Xie, who looked at his book with lingering interest, but eventually closed it and left.
Oh, right, that book was Liu Xie’s own. The Literature Society’s club activity room couldn’t possibly have something that would turn into garbled text if you just put any random excerpt into it.
Then all eyes returned to Ye Qingchang.
“Aren’t you leaving?” Liu Xie, who had reached the door, looked back.
“I have club activities.” Ye Qingchang replied casually.
Liu Xie glanced at Xiao Yi’an, who was putting away all the books he had taken out earlier, then left first to go back to the dormitory.
Ye Qingchang had just watched Liu Xie leave when she turned around and, as usual, a single flower was offered to her.
“You know I have rhinitis.”
Ye Qingchang stepped back two paces, then took the flower and placed it in the vase in the corner of the Literature Society.
Worth mentioning, next to the vase was that bottle of red wine. They didn’t finish it when drinking, and it wasn’t drawn out as a prize. Whether it was fate’s design or human intention was unclear.
“That’s why I only buy one each time.” Seeming to see Ye Qingchang accept the flower, the corners of Xiao Yi’an’s mouth rose noticeably.
Once, Ye Qingchang had asked Xiao Yi’an why he insisted on waiting for her to accept the flower, even though it would end up in the Literature Society’s vase anyway.
Xiao Yi’an said the meaning was different—one was taking the initiative without consent, the other was mutual willingness.
She felt Xiao Yi’an was a bit stubborn.
“I returned the books you finished to the library. There’s a new batch in.”
Xiao Yi’an pulled out a chair and sat down, putting on one earbud and continuing to watch a horror movie.
“Are you talking about those Japanese light novels and shonen manga on the side?”
Ye Qingchang pointed at the colorful books on the shelf behind Xiao Yi’an.
“No, those are the ones I want to read.”
Xiao Yi’an replied.
“I read them when I get tired of playing on my phone, as a way to rest.”
Ye Qingchang looked over and saw almost all of them were romance.
“My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected. I didn’t expect you to like this kind of romance.”
Ye Qingchang, who was wearing glasses, could see the title clearly.
“I guess they’re basically all romance.”
Xiao Yi’an said.
“These are okay for killing time. At first, I planned to use them as reference books, since they’re all love stories set in clubs and on campus.”
“And then? Why did you give up?”
Ye Qingchang wasn’t in a hurry to read.
Chatting with Xiao Yi’an like this was quite comfortable.
“My emotional intelligence isn’t that high. I can manage the embarrassing parts, but the glorious parts? Not so much.”
Xiao Yi’an seemed to have a rather clear self-assessment.
“Alright then, what insights did you gain from them?”
Ye Qingchang propped her chin on her hand and asked.
Xiao Yi’an looked up and paused the horror movie.
“You kind of remind me of my old Chinese teacher. She always had to have some takeaway from everything she read.”
Ye Qingchang’s expression stiffened.
“But there are insights, I suppose. I still like the mature women like the teacher in those stories.”
Xiao Yi’an sighed.
“You like older women? Or do you like married women?”
“Just mature in personality.”
Xiao Yi’an pointed at the literary girl in front of him.
“Just now, you asked me what insights I gained—that’s pretty mature. Plus, you have the cuteness of a young girl when necessary.”
“Then your taste is pretty good.”
Ye Qingchang smiled slightly.
“Speaking of which, your birthday is coming up, right?”
“Mm, Christmas. You should know.”
Of course Xiao Yi’an remembered clearly.
“Considering I helped you shoot this video, let me celebrate your birthday with you, how about it?”
This feeling of both parties being aware of the pursuit was strange.
It was like two dogs barking wildly at each other through a door suddenly having the partition removed, and for a moment, they were at peace.
And they even got along nicely like good friends.
“Just one meal.”
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