After Being Scummed – Chapter 44

As long as you’re happy, that’s good!

The awards on the stage had gone through several rounds, and it finally reached the award for the Best Actress. Zuo Jingyou, who had won two major awards, and the highly experienced actress An Ruoru, were the presenters for this award.

When the two of them walked onto the stage, An Ruoru looked at Zuo Jingyou’s cane on the stage and made a few teasing remarks about why she got injured.

Zuo Jingyou had a faint smile on her face and casually replied that it was an accidental ankle sprain.

An Ruoru, while saying to be more careful in the future, glanced in the direction of Yin Bai and asked Zuo Jingyou, “Jingyou, this cane of yours is quite unique. I just saw you taking it from your friend’s hand. Can you tell me where you bought it? I’m planning to go mountain climbing in a while and would like to get one too. How about introducing it to me?”

Zuo Jingyou was not an inexperienced person who didn’t understand the world. As soon as the other party spoke, she knew that she wanted to use her to tease the events at the airport this morning.

Zuo Jingyou smiled and said while leaning on her cane, “Sure, I’ll get one for you later.”

Not finding any juicy gossip, An Ruoru sighed and redirected the conversation to the awards themselves. After presenting the award to the winner of the Best Actress for this edition, the two of them left the stage together.

As they descended from the stage, An Ruoru held Zuo Jingyou’s hand and quietly asked, “What’s going on between you and Director Yin? It’s been making such a big scene. Are you dating?” She found it strange because they had worked together before, and she hadn’t noticed Zuo Jingyou’s interest in women.

Zuo Jingyou narrowed her eyes, smiled lightly, and shook her head, saying, “No, it’s not like that, we’re just friends.”

“Good to hear…” An Ruoru breathed a sigh of relief, lowered her voice, and said to Zuo Jingyou, “I’ll tell you now, it’s not a big deal. Director Yin… she used to date Xiao Nian before. When I worked with Xiao Nian, I met her once… she’s a rather gloomy person and not easy to get along with.”

An Ruoru, despite her penchant for gossip, was a person who generally kept things in perspective. So when she made such a remark, it truly surprised Zuo Jingyou. Zuo Jingyou turned her head, gave her a curious look, and asked, “She has a bad temper? I don’t think so, her temper is quite good.”

Yin Bai, not only had a good temper, but was unbelievably adorable!

An Ruoru hadn’t expected Zuo Jingyou’s rebuttal, and she hesitated for a moment before explaining, “Well, it’s like this. Although it might seem a bit presumptuous, but… this person, when I used to work together with Xiao Nian, she once dragged Xiao Nian away quite forcefully. Xiao Nian had heavy bruising on her wrist the next day…”

“She might have a bit of…”

“It’s really hard not to suspect her of having a tendency toward violence.”

When Zuo Jingyou released An Ruoru’s hand and returned to her seat, her mind was filled with An Ruoru’s words.

Yin Bai has a tendency for violence? Had she been so rough with Xiao Nian in the past?

Zuo Jingyou raised her gaze, looking at the very beautiful face of Yin Bai beside her. She thought about her past adorable actions, finding it hard to imagine that she could have been so rough with Xiao Nian. What could have possibly happened to cause Yin Bai and Xiao Nian to part ways?

After all, someone as cute as Yin Bai, how could anyone not be smitten by her? And how could anyone bear to leave her?

Countless questions swirled in Zuo Jingyou’s mind, to the extent that when she returned to her seat, she stared at Yin Bai in a daze for quite some time.

Yin Bai sat beside her, turned her head, and found Zuo Jingyou gazing at her intently. After a while, she raised her cane and tapped Zuo Jingyou’s shoe, calling her, “Teacher Zuo…”

Zuo Jingyou snapped back to reality, her focus returning to Yin Bai’s face. She asked with some confusion, “Yes, what’s the matter?”

Yin Bai blinked innocently and said, “This is something I should be asking you, right? What’s going on with you? After coming down from the stage, you’ve been lost in thought about something.” She continued to stare at Zuo Jingyou intently, making her a bit embarrassed.

Zuo Jingyou curved her lips and gave a helpless smile, “I’m not thinking about anything…”

She was just pondering… why Yin Bai had become the person she was now, and what the previous Yin Bai had been like.

She was just thinking… She had begun to be curious about Yin Bai’s past, did this mean that Yin Bai’s future had also piqued her interest?

At 10 o’clock in the evening, the 53rd Thorny Flower Awards concluded successfully. After the closing ceremony, Yin Bai linked arms with Zuo Jingyou and walked out of the venue side by side. Neither of them had any plans to attend the evening banquet, so they went directly back to their hotel.

As a result, after the awards ceremony ended, Zuo Jingyou and Yin Bai made it to the trending topics once again. The reason was that they left together in the same car and were photographed by paparazzi as they got off at the hotel.

Photos of Yin Bai helping Zuo Jingyou get in and out of the car, with their back figures blurred, were uploaded to the internet, adding fuel to the already spectacular “Romance between the domineering boss and her wife” story.

Back at the hotel, Yin Bai sat on the couch, looking at the phone Zhang Yu handed to her and sighed, “Teacher Zuo, you usually stay away from any scandals, but now, just staying with me for three days, we’re making headlines every now and then.”

Zuo Jingyou changed into a pair of home slippers and, wearing a qipao, walked towards her room. She said, “That’s because in the past, I was married, and now I’m single, right?”

Zuo Jingyou reached out to the door frame, turned to give Yin Bai a playful wink, and said, “Isn’t this good? My movie will be released in the next half year, so I’ll have to use Director Yin to generate some publicity during this time.”

After saying this, Zuo Jingyou, holding onto the door frame, disappeared from Yin Bai’s view like a fish swimming into the night.

Yin Bai stared blankly at her disappearing figure for a while, then turned to look at Zhang Yu, asking with a puzzled expression, “What does Teacher Zuo mean? Is she not planning to clarify the rumors?”

Zhang Yu stood by and said hesitantly, “Well… I don’t know.”

She thought to herself, with just the two of them looking somewhat ambiguously involved, was there really a need to clarify? Clarifying would only validate the rumors, so it might be better to do nothing and let netizens guess as they pleased!

However, considering her understanding of Yin Bai, Zuo Jingyou didn’t just let netizens speculate. After taking a shower, drying her hair, and putting on a purple silk robe, she called Yin Bai to the living room to discuss the matter of clarifying the rumors.

In the end, they decided to post a photo on Weibo, showing Yin Bai without revealing her face, to clarify her relationship with Zuo Jingyou.

Yin Bai had just finished her shower and was wrapped in a robe, sitting on the couch next to Zuo Jingyou, looking at their phones together. After scrolling through their photos, they finally found a suitable one.

It was a photo taken before they left, with Yin Bai sitting on the couch, leaning on her cane, and Zuo Jingyou sitting on the armrest, her hand on Yin Bai’s shoulder, capturing the moment with a photo.

It has to be said that Zhang Yu had a particularly good sense of capturing moments. In this photo, Yin Bai looked like the wealthy businesswoman who had come from a foreign land, standing beside Zuo Jingyou, another elegant beauty, creating a striking contrast.

Yin Bai looked left and right, feeling very satisfied with the photo. She had Zuo Jingyou put a mosaic on her face and then post the picture. However, after adding the mosaic, Yin Bai felt that something was off.

How should she put it? Seeing her own beautiful face covered by something strange, the more she looked at it, the more it felt a bit ridiculous and uncomfortable in every way.

Zuo Jingyou looked at her displeased expression and blinked, tentatively asking, “How about not using the mosaic? How about showing your face directly? After all, it’s such a beautiful face, and tonight, let’s give my fans a super special treat.”

Yin Bai thought for a moment, pursed her lips, and remained silent.

Zuo Jingyou tilted her head and thought for a moment, sighed, and gently said to Yin Bai, “Look, in the past, you didn’t want to show your face, right? Was it because you didn’t want Xiao Nian to be affected by you and get caught up in rumors? But now, we’re friends, and you don’t have to worry about that. So, how about considering showing your face?”

Yin Bai wasn’t actually very resistant to the idea. After all, the photo didn’t capture her walking stance, so she was okay with it. However, once she revealed her face, everyone would inevitably compare the image of the limping figure she had presented at the airport earlier today with her beautiful face, which might spark a lot of discussions.

But… as long as she didn’t pay attention to those discussions, would it really matter?

Just as Zuo Jingyou said, some people might genuinely care about her disability, but more people appreciated her beauty. Moreover, she was so beautiful that it should be known to everyone.

One day, when there were rumors about her and Xiao Nian’s past, people would also know that she wasn’t any less than Lu Qing, right?

She was wealthy and generous, and she was also beautiful. It would be so pitiful if she was dumped just because of her disability.

At this moment, a drama with 10,000 episodes played out in Yin Bai’s mind. After thinking for a while, she finally mustered up the courage and crossed the boundary in her heart named “inferiority.” She looked at Zuo Jingyou seriously and asked, “What if others say something bad about me?”

Zuo Jingyou looked at her with a knowing smile and asked in return, “Who would say something bad about someone who looks this good? Unless that person is blind, both in the eyes and the heart.”

Alright, she decided to give it a try…

Speaking of it, Yin Bai was actually looking forward to how others would react to her appearance. After all, for someone who carried such a heavy idol baggage, she still had a slight desire to receive compliments from others.

Yin Bai nodded, holding back her nervousness and feeling a mix of excitement and anticipation as she looked at Zuo Jingyou. She said, “Go ahead then.”

Zuo Jingyou smiled and immediately posted a Weibo update: “Thanks to my dear friend for the support with her cane today~【Image】”

In less than a minute after posting the Weibo, Zuo Jingyou’s comment section was flooded with a group of admirers. Soon, various marketing accounts started frantically reposting Zuo Jingyou’s photo, and other forums also shared the picture of Yin Bai and Zuo Jingyou.

This photo, with its rich storytelling element, spread across various forums, solidifying the position of “The Domineering Boss and Her Wife” as the top ship in all of Zuo Jingyou’s pairings.

There was no other reason; it was all because Yin Bai was too good-looking, and the two of them were simply the perfect match.

Soon, a comment that read, “Teacher Zuo, are you planning to get married again?” was bumped to the top of the hot comments. Zuo Jingyou looked at the excited fans and somewhat awkwardly handed her phone to Yin Bai, saying, “It seems like… it’s getting even hotter…”

What to do, it seemed like their ship’s fans were really growing. But it felt like this wasn’t such a bad thing.

Yin Bai took her phone, scrolled through the comments section, and saw a sea of compliments, all saying they were a great match and praising her beauty. Her eyes curved with happiness.

“It’s nice,” Yin Bai said, passing the phone back to Zuo Jingyou, smiling as she said, “Actually, this is also good. Shipping is the freedom of the fans, as long as we know it’s not a big deal.”

Yin Bai paused and said to Zuo Jingyou, “Teacher Zuo, thank you.” Today, seeing so many people not caring that she was a cripple made her feel really good.

Perhaps many people didn’t mind that she was a cripple? Maybe she was the only one who had been caring about it all along.

Zuo Jingyou raised her eyebrows, gently smiled, and replied, “You’re welcome.” Making Yin Bai happy was something she found to be wonderful.