Chapter 27.2

Laurel used the ingredients in the hall to make a few more dishes. Team One sat around the table, eating and chatting. The three new members quickly bonded with the original members of Team Ten.

The responsibility of being the team captain fell on the oldest of the new members, Lin Ran. Her personality was somewhat similar to Lin Weining’s, but she was even more introverted.

“Before the recording in two days, please choose a song that you think is suitable for performing on stage. We’ll discuss it then,” Lin Ran whispered, “Just to narrow down the options, please don’t feel pressured.”

After Lin Ran finished speaking, she suddenly realized that the circle of people sitting around the table, except for Sun Lingxi, who was nervous about dropping out, seemed increasingly casual. She suddenly felt a heavy burden.

“I feel like I should have said that everyone should feel a bit more pressure,” Lin Ran said with a helpless smile in a personal interview, “But the overall strength of Team One is very good, so we don’t have as much pressure as the other teams, which is an advantage for us.”

The staff asked, “So, who in the team are you most worried about?”

Lin Ran honestly replied, “Actually, I hadn’t expected to make it into any team, let alone become the captain. Being a captain means that there will be slightly more camera focus on you, but for Team One, it’s quite casual—well, decided by age.”

She chuckled lightly with the staff.

“In terms of personality, I should have been most worried about Xu Heran originally, but when you actually interact with her, you’ll find that she’s a very cheerful and adorable girl. Even those burdened with worries will gradually lower their guard when communicating with her. I don’t think anyone would want to reject the little sun that radiates light, especially when this little sun looks so good.”

“In the end, I realized that I’m the one I should actually be worried about.”

“I hope I won’t be a burden to the team.”

“Then, in Team One, who is the most ‘terrifying’ one in your opinion?” the staff deliberately asked.

“Terrifying?” Lin Ran said in surprise, “Where would there be someone terrifying? Everyone is very nice!”

The staff described, “Hmm, who do you feel you’d treat with caution?”

“Ah…” Lin Ran thought for a moment and said softly, “If that’s the case, I might choose Trainee Xin Nuo.”

“Trainee Xin Nuo is very good-looking herself, even among all the trainees, she still stands out with her looks. She’s five years younger than me, but I feel she’s the kind of girl who is strategic and psychologically mature.” Lin Ran reminisced about her interactions with Xin Nuo and explained, “She’s very composed. Although the show features a lot of scenes where she’s joking or hugging Heran, with close physical contact, in reality, we’re quite polite to each other most of the time. Nobody would say ‘hug, hug’ to Xin Nuo. Come to think of it, we hardly even shake hands.”

“I think she’s the real captain of the team, calm and composed, appearing aloof but very polite. From the start of the show until now, the one who truly entered Xin Nuo’s heart and whom she genuinely acknowledges as a friend is probably only Xu Heran.”

“Out of a hundred and forty people, only Xu Heran can be friends with Xin Nuo. This kind of fate is truly precious.”

“Hope that their friendship can last till the end, blessing them with a bright future.”

After the interview, Lin Ran walked out and headed towards the dormitory. As she reached the front of the dormitory, she saw three black cars parked at the gate. The cars looked pristine as if they had just rolled off the assembly line, bearing luxurious logos and waiting quietly. The middle car model was different from the other two, a customized nanny car.

Just as she stepped out from the back of the last car and onto the stairs, she heard a cheerful voice behind her.

“Captain!”

The car door of the nanny car facing the dormitory swung open, and Xu Heran was sitting there, chin resting on her hand, eagerly gazing at the dormitory door. She was wearing white sneakers, stepping on the raised part of the car door. With summer arriving, it was shorts season, and Xu Heran’s long legs were blindingly white in the sunlight.

A stylist rushed over from the side, spraying sunscreen mist on her legs, “Psh, psh.”

“Captain!” Amidst the mist, Xu Heran extended her arm and called out with effort, “Tell Nuo Nuo to hurry down when you see her!”

Lin Ran smiled and gave a thumbs-up, “Okay.”

After she went upstairs, not long after, she noticed that the door of the last dorm room was open. The intended recipient of her message, Xin Nuo, stood with Jiang Qiong. Jiang Qiong was handing a small object to Xin Nuo.

Lin Ran didn’t think too much and assumed it was candy.

“Hello?” She raised her hand and knocked on the door.

Both of them inside turned their heads at the same time, their expressions not overly enthusiastic.

“Captain.” Seeing her, Jiang Qiong smiled, “Still here?”

“I was called by the program team for an interview. Oh right, Xin Nuo, Heran is waiting for you downstairs. She asked me to remind you,” Lin Ran said.

Jiang Qiong chuckled, turning to Xin Nuo, “Let’s go, if we don’t head down, Little Pearl might come up to catch us.”

“Thank you,” Xin Nuo whispered, and the two exchanged a knowing glance.

She smiled, bent down to pick up her small suitcase by her feet, and paused at the door, “Goodbye, Captain. Take care on your way back home.”

Lin Ran gazed into her dark eyes and couldn’t help but smile, “Thank you, you too.”

As Xin Nuo turned to leave, Lin Ran couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. Indeed, Xin Nuo was watertight, not easy to approach.

Xin Nuo pulled her suitcase and walked out of the dormitory. Just as she stepped outside, the waiting bodyguards quickly bent down to take her luggage.

“Thank you,” Xin Nuo quickly expressed her gratitude, but as she looked up, she was enveloped in a pair of arms.

“Feeling hot?” Xin Nuo helplessly asked.

“No!” Xu Heran half hugged, half dragged her towards the car, “Hurry, I can’t wait to meet our mom!”

Xin Nuo calmly stated, “There’s no ‘our’.”

“I can’t hear you!” Xu Heran playfully shook her head, like a mischievous dragon snatching a princess, and when they reached the car, she scooped Xin Nuo up, covering her head as she stuffed her into the car.

Cui Qi, seated in the front, saw this scene through the rearview mirror, her mind forming a cross, “Xu Heran, let Xin Nuo get into the car by herself!”

“La la la!” Xu Heran slammed the car door shut, waved her hand dramatically, full of bravado.

“Drive!”

The car soon began to move quietly into the main road. Xu Heran turned her head, “Nuo Nuo, let me help you fasten your seatbelt.”

“No need.” Xin Nuo’s “click” interrupted Xu Heran’s eager attempts to help, “Sit properly and buckle up yourself.”

“Oh!” Xu Heran immediately sat properly.

Cui Qi unexpectedly glanced back in the rearview mirror and coincidentally met Xin Nuo’s dark gaze.

The beautiful girl smiled gently at her.

Cui Qi instinctively returned the smile, and in that moment, she unexpectedly thought… Xu Heran and Xin Nuo’s relationship seemed quite good, and that wasn’t a bad thing.

At least in situations like today, there was always someone who could rein in Xu Heran on the program!

Cui, the manager, thought, placing her hand on her chest.

To ensure an undisturbed recording, the production team had rented a building in the suburbs, and it would take some time to get to the city.

Xu Heran reclined her seat along with Xin Nuo’s, covering herself with a thin blanket and closing her eyes to rest.

The car’s air conditioning maintained a comfortable temperature, soft and soothing music played softly in the background. During a break, Cui Qi lifted her eyes and glanced at the rearview mirror. Among the seats, the two of them were wearing eye masks and unbelievably sleeping face to face.

She couldn’t help but smile, turned around, took out her phone, and snapped a photo.

The car had been driving for who knows how long when Xin Nuo suddenly opened her eyes. The darkness before her caused her heart to race, but it slowly calmed down as she realized she was in Xu Heran’s chauffeured car. Her trembling fingers gradually steadied.

She didn’t sit up immediately, instead, she raised her slender hand and pushed the eye mask up. To her surprise, Xu Heran, who had been sitting on her right, was nowhere to be seen. Only a messy blanket was piled on the seat. Inside the car, besides her, there was only the quiet driver.

“?”

Xin Nuo got up discreetly and looked through the tinted windows. She saw the car parked by the roadside. They had apparently reached the city. On the street, there was a large flower shop with various colorful flowers displayed in front. A tall figure stood by the flower buckets, one hand in their pocket. When they stood up, they held a white flower and spoke to the person next to them.

“Besides the get-well bouquet, do you need anything else?” the apron-clad flower shop owner exclaimed excitedly, occasionally lifting her head to steal glances at Xu Heran’s eyes.

Really… They actually have blue-purple eyes!

Such a petite face, even more attractive than on TV!

“Thank you. Could you pack some of these -” Xu Heran glanced at the label on the bucket, “- Snow Mountain Roses, please?”

“Sure! How many would you like?” the shop owner asked gently, “And who are you planning to give them to?”

She briefly explained the meaning of rose colors to Xu Heran.

“Five, please,” Xu Heran’s eyes curved into a smile, “For my good friend.”

The shop owner subconsciously asked, “Is it for Xin Nuo?”

Xu Heran’s expression showed surprise, “What? How did you know?”

The shop owner smiled and remained silent, but after the floral designer packaged the two bouquets, she also added two lilies for Xu Heran.

“Why lilies for me?” Xu Heran whispered to Cui Qi, deliberately squinting her eyes, “Is it to wish Xin Nuo and me a lifetime of happiness?”

Before Cui Qi could shoot her a glare, Xu Heran, carrying a huge bouquet on her shoulder and holding another one in her arms, beamed and rushed back to the car.

“Slow down, aren’t they heavy?” Cui Qi yelled.

Xu Heran handed the large bouquet to her assistant, opened the car door gently, and peeked inside.

The car was quiet, with only the low playing of the song 《500 Miles》In the lowered seat, Xin Nuo wore an eye mask and was covered with a gray blanket.

Perfect.

She tiptoed into the car, placed the rose wrapped in pink and white paper on Xin Nuo’s lap, and the soft chiffon fell, faintly shimmering with a silver glow.

Xu Heran admired with her hands cupping her face, couldn’t resist taking out her phone, and snapped a picture, posting it on social media.

Why is there a pearl here: Meeting you, filled with genuine joy.

She wrinkled her nose, stretched her long legs under the seat where Xin Nuo was, rested her elbow on her knee, played with her phone, and lightly swiped her thumb on the screen, refreshing.

“Ding dong.”

Her Weibo account, with nearly two million followers, immediately received replies, quite a number of them.

“?”

“If you don’t understand, just ask, is this the live announcement of a new couple?”

“I am the rose on Xin Nuo’s body, I testify, yes.”

Xu Heran: “??”

“Hello, everyone. Let me introduce myself. My last name is Xu, and my first name is Pearl. My specialty is being cheeky, and my favorite thing to do is tease without taking responsibility. Did you see this bouquet of roses? It’s for Xin Nuo, but that doesn’t mean anything. I know we have a completely innocent relationship.”

“Yes, because I’m just an immature little pearl. What does a little pearl sending roses signify, right?”

Xu Heran: “???”

Setting aside the fact that there were people with names like “Deep Sea Origin Pearl Shell” and “Pearl Shell This Shell” writing essays under this Weibo post, advising her to turn over a new leaf and become a good person again, not a pearl…

How did they know that the person lying on the seat was Xin Nuo? Covered with a blanket, she only took a picture of Xin Nuo’s legs, right?

Little Pearl was bewildered, typed three question marks in the comments, then refreshed. Her comments suddenly had a lot more replies.

“Arrest Little Pearl! Don’t steal her away, I want to raise her!”

“After seeing so many bad girls, didn’t your mom teach you to say hello? Is that how your mom raised you?”

“Hey, mom upstairs, the child is still young, and she’s a solid little pearl. We need to educate her patiently. Xu Heran, when are you bringing a girlfriend home? If you don’t bring one back for the New Year, don’t bother coming back!”

“…………”

Xu Heran replied honestly, “Hello, Pearl Shells, how’s it going? Have you eaten?”

“No girlfriend, thanks.”

“Can someone teach me their X-ray vision? I want to learn!”

Xu Heran chatted casually with her fans for a bit, returned to the homepage, and scrolled to refresh.

A new Weibo post appeared at the top of her feed.

Rising Stargirl Xin Nuo: Silly little fool. Image.jpg

Posted five minutes ago.

Xu Heran: o.o

Xu Heran: O.O

She immediately looked up, gazing to her left where a girl lay quietly on the seat, her shallow breaths the only sign of life. Xin Nuo wore an eye mask, and a gray thin blanket covered her up to the bridge of her nose, its folds stacking like flowing water ripples.

Xin Nuo’s face was petite. The black eye mask, originally of standard size, looked a bit oversized on her face. The bottom of the eye mask rested above the bridge of her nose, and her graceful nose appeared like a straight peak.

Amidst the black and gray, the young girl’s fair skin showed a hint of rosy moisture.

Xu Heran, who had been sneakily observing, waited for a minute. The person lying on the seat really seemed to be sleeping, as if the recent Weibo post hadn’t been taken by that same person.

In the photo, the girl carrying the huge bouquet of flowers wore a black mask. She held her head high and walked briskly, the central and sole clear focus of the image. Everything around her appeared blurry and hazy, distant power lines, tall buildings, and the blue sky with white clouds seemed like a canvas carelessly painted by an inexperienced artist.

The soft layers of colors in the flower shop seemed like patches of color, scattered at the edges of her billowing coat. They tried to keep her back, but the girl didn’t even spare a glance back.

On closer inspection, Xin Nuo had applied a touch of blue-tone filter. As a result, someone’s blue eyes became even more striking. The pale, silky purple resembled a meteor shower falling into the pupils, as if, in the direction of the camera’s gaze, she was looking up at the sky, where a grand meteor shower was descending upon the world.

But in this moment, there was no meteor shower in the world, only Xu Heran.

Only a little fool.

In the silence, the little fool narrowed her eyes, her tongue licking her teeth near her left canine, giving it a gentle bite.

A faint sensation of pain reached her tongue. Xu Heran turned her body around, her left hand resting on her knee, supporting her chin. Her right hand played with her phone, her gaze fixed directly on Xin Nuo. She watched for a while and, seeing that Xin Nuo had no intention of getting up, she reached out and pulled the blanket covering Xin Nuo’s mouth upward, draping it directly over the eye mask.

“It’s getting chilly. Don’t catch a cold, our dear Nuo Nuo,” she emphasized, intentionally emphasizing the word “dear.”

Then, she raised her hand, opened Weibo, and pretended as if nothing had happened. She deleted the reply where she asked fans how they knew about Xin Nuo, which brought mocking laughter from her fans.

Xu Heran turned off her phone, her expression unchanged. Smile, just smile. After all, I can’t see.

Hmph!!

She tossed her phone aside, lowered her knee, and squatted in the gap between the two seats. She lowered her head and observed the person whose face was covered by a blanket, pretending to sleep.

The gentle breaths brushed against the thin blanket, gently rising and falling.

Xu Heran was drawn by the traces of movement under the blanket. Her head lowered more and more, a hint of a smile forming in her eyes. One finger landed on Xin Nuo’s forehead, gently sliding downward, tapping at the tip of her nose. With a voice that only the two of them could hear, she softly said, “Is this the mouth?”

Xin Nuo’s lips twitched as she watched, wondering what she was up to.

“We little fools, we don’t even know where our mouths are. I think this should be the mouth,” Xu Heran said, and her finger poked Xin Nuo’s nose.

Xin Nuo instinctively raised her hand, intending to swat her hand away. But as soon as she moved, her slender wrist was caught by the person who was waiting for her.

Xin Nuo understood her strength. Since she couldn’t resist, she wouldn’t resist.

Xu Heran smirked, satisfied with Xin Nuo’s reaction. She deliberately exerted force, using both hands to control Xin Nuo’s arms, pressing against her face on both sides. The thin blanket that was resting on Xin Nuo’s face was pulled taut, making the contours of her facial features more prominent.

Xu Heran hummed, leaning down, her breath spraying onto the thin blanket. In the unseen air, her breath collided with Xin Nuo’s.

A deep smile emerged in the eyes of a certain pearl. She slowly grinded her teeth, moving her upper and lower jaws, making her teeth clash, deliberately producing a sound for Xin Nuo to hear.

“Is this the mouth? Take a bite and see how it feels.”

“…”

Xin Nuo froze for a moment. She realized almost instantly when Xu Heran’s words fell that this was something Xu Heran could do.

“Xu Her—”

“Shh…”

Xu Heran released her right hand and immediately covered Xin Nuo’s mouth, murmuring softly.

“Human, learn to speak with your mouth.”

Her fingers were mischievous again, tapping Xin Nuo’s nose, as if to say, “This is your mouth.”

Xin Nuo: “…”

Without hesitation, her hand regained its freedom and slapped Xu Heran’s head in the darkness.

The movement was practiced, swift without any hesitation.

Then her wrist was once again controlled. The good news was that her mouth was free again.

Still wearing the eye mask, her face covered by the blanket, Xin Nuo, whose breath had become somewhat rapid, suddenly realized that she might have made a mistake. She should have “woken up” when Xu Heran approached.

Now, surprisingly, she was the one at a disadvantage.

“Stop fooling around, Xu Heran,” Xin Nuo whispered.

“Huh, Sister Nuo Nuo giving in?” Xu Heran bent down, and at this moment, the distance between her and Xin Nuo was no more than a fist’s length.

Giving in?

The words “giving in” had never existed in Xin Nuo’s dictionary.

She snorted lightly, her arm starting to exert force.

The two of them played around in the narrow space, their movements subtle. Cui Qi, who was working in the front passenger seat, glanced over briefly and then lowered her head, paying no attention.

The smoothly running car entered a road with speed bumps leading to the hospital. The car began to slow down. At this moment, a dirty-looking vagrant suddenly rushed out from the roadside green belt. The lead escort car braked immediately, and the two cars behind had to slam on the brakes as well.

The driver cursed under his breath, furrowing his brows.

Cui Qi immediately turned her head. She remembered that Xu Heran and Xin Nuo were fooling around. They better not fall and hurt themselves.

However, when she turned around, she saw Xu Heran kneeling on the blanket, her upper body lying over Xin Nuo’s, arms wrapped around Xin Nuo, while Xin Nuo’s arms were also wrapped around Xu Heran’s upper body. Xin Nuo’s snow-white palms were buried in Xu Heran’s soft hair, fingers gripping tightly, the edges of her knuckles turning slightly white.

It seemed that due to the sudden braking just now, the two of them had instinctively embraced each other.

It just looked a bit ambiguous, as if… there was something going on between the two.

Cui Qi was momentarily stunned, pushing her thoughts aside and quickly asking, “Ran Ran, Xin Nuo, are you two okay?”

Okay…?

Xu Heran’s frozen brain rebooted, her eyelashes fluttered, and she gulped down her saliva.

She had just playfully teased Xin Nuo’s nose, claiming it was her mouth, but she hadn’t expected that within a few minutes, she would actually feel the touch of Xin Nuo’s lips.

Soft and warm.

Even through the thin blanket.

Xu Heran silently mused in her mind.

Even so.

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The author has something to say:

And then Little Pearl’s mind went completely blank.

The inspiration for this chapter comes from the comments section! Indeed, the comments section is full of talents! Much better than I thought! Thank you!

This chapter is for the sake of the plot. Remember to fasten your seat belts when riding a car, sending my love ❤️.

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Translator: Glariosa
Editor: Sinensis

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