After Being Scummed – Chapter 74
by Little PandaOne glance, ten thousand years
Yin Bai paused for a moment, then continued speaking to Zuo Jingyou, “At that time, she almost encountered the same thing as Gu Liu. I saved her.”
Zuo Jingyou instantly gripped Yin Bai’s shoulder and asked in a low voice, “And then?”
“And then I……” Yin Bai’s voice was slightly hoarse as she said sadly, “I…… I’ve said it before, I wasn’t a good person back then.”
“I didn’t say anything about bestowing a favor without seeking repayment. On the contrary, I knew she urgently needed money to pay off her debts, so the next day, I had my assistant draft a contract for me…… I sponsored Xiao Nian……”
Yin Bai said this, looking down at Zuo Jingyou with deep eyes, “So I’m not the lovable person you think I am. I’m just a disgusting capitalist who takes advantage of others’ predicaments, an evil gold master1.”
“In the end, she left me, which was also me reaping what I had sown2.”
“At the time, I thought we were each taking what we needed. I even felt that I was extending a helping hand to her and helping her. But the result was just shattering her hopes, breaking her wings, crushing her self-respect, and pushing her into an abyss.”
“This is the kind of person I am. I’m not good. Luckily, she didn’t love me……”
Yin Bai turned, hugged Zuo Jingyou’s shoulders, and buried her face into them, her voice muffled as she said, “Teacher Zuo…… why do you think I was that kind of person in the past?”
Zuo Jingyou’s heart felt heavy. She raised her hand to hold Yin Bai’s head, comforting her softly, “When people are young, they always easily make the wrong choices and miss out on the things they cherish. Yin Bai, not everyone knows from the start how to cherish the person before them, cherish their beloved, or how to care for a heart.”
“Most people’s love stories may not have a beginning like yours, but they still end up hurting each other in love.”
“Some people, might spend their whole lives only learning how to torture each other in love, right up until their hair turns white3. But other people…… like you, will learn lessons from their past experiences and become a better person……”
Zuo Jingyou reached out, lifted Yin Bai’s face from her shoulder, and gazed into her eyes in the darkness, gently soothing her, “I don’t know how you and Xiao Nian got along, nor do I know all the details of your past. Why you two missed your chance, only the two of you involved would know those subtle details.”
“But Yin Bai, when I’m with you, what I feel isn’t your arrogance, neglect, or disrespect. On the contrary, you’ve given me plenty of cherish, favoritism, and everything I want.”
“To me, you are a very good partner.”
“People have to grow. You are already an extraordinarily charming and very reliable lover.”
Zuo Jingyou’s comfort slightly eased Yin Bai’s unease. Yin Bai, propped up over her, blinked and said, a little unconfidently, “Really?”
Zuo Jingyou nodded. “Really.”
Yin Bai pressed her lips together and smiled shyly. “Teacher Zuo, let’s make a promise. In the future, if I unintentionally do something you don’t like, you must tell me.”
Zuo Jingyou raised her hand, her fingertip drawing circles on Yin Bai’s chest, and said with a low laugh, “Haven’t I always been like that? Whenever I encounter something that makes me uncomfortable, I always tell you.”
She was not a person who would wrong herself. If she felt offended or unhappy about something, she would definitely state clearly what she minded.
Yin Bai nodded and said thoughtfully, “That’s true…… Teacher Zuo is a very honest person.”
Zuo Jingyou raised her hand and patted Yin Bai’s face. “You need to be like me, too, and be a more frank person. I hope that we won’t hide things from each other. If one day…… you want to separate from me, you must also clearly state the reason.”
When Yin Bai heard the word “separate,” her heart ached. She leaned down, pulled Zuo Jingyou into her arms, and hugged her tightly, speaking close to her ear, “We won’t separate…… In this lifetime, I will never separate from Teacher Zuo.”
“I want to travel through mountains and rivers with you, experience the four seasons…… I want to witness your every story, every performance…… I want half of your life to be completed with me.”
“I want to become your other half.”
Zuo Jingyou laughed, leaned in to kiss Yin Bai’s ear, and said with a smile, “Then let me live in your heart forever and become the source of your life. And please, let me be your other half, too.”
As long as you love me forever, we will not separate.
Zuo Jingyou gave a promise of forever. Yin Bai leaned down, captured her lips, and said, “Okay.”
In the blink of an eye, it was early April, and the production of 《Dawa》, Zuo Jingyou and Xu Ruofeng’s collaboration, officially wrapped. On the day of the wrap party, an overjoyed Xu Ruofeng and Zuo Jingyou stuffed the little cripple4 Yin Bai onto a tall white horse and took a solo picture of her.
Yin Bai gripped the reins tightly with both hands, looking at Zuo Jingyou from atop the horse with a panicked expression. “Teacher Zuo, help!”
Zuo Jingyou stood about one and a half meters away from her, dressed in Tibetan attire, looking like the most dashing5 woman on the plateau as she watched her with a smile. “Don’t be afraid, you won’t fall. I’m watching you.”
On the great grasslands with vast skies and lush water and grass, the two stood between the immense heaven and earth, their backs to a snow-capped mountain that had not yet melted, their eyes meeting.
Yin Bai, riding the horse, was as beautiful as a princess from a foreign land. And Zuo Jingyou, in her ethnic dress, was the Tibetan woman captivated by the princess’s beauty.
That moment of admiration was accurately captured by Xu Ruofeng, frozen in the camera.
That evening, after promoting the wrap-up of 《Dawa》, Zuo Jingyou posted this photo of them looking at each other, adding the caption: “Clearer than the sky over the snowy plateau is the look in your eyes as you gaze at me.”
That night, the couple’s CP fans went wild. They discovered that the look in the eyes of the woman who said this, as she gazed at the other, was far more moving than the words themselves.
The affection in Zuo Jingyou’s eyes as she stood below the horse looking up at Yin Bai was as if she had fallen in love with her again and again over a thousand gazes. It was as if stories spanning several lifetimes had already passed between them.
The so-called one glance, ten thousand years6, was nothing more than this.
This photo also became the most viral7 photo in the CP community for the first half of the year. Regardless of whether they knew Yin Bai, anyone who saw this photo, looking at Zuo Jingyou’s gaze towards Yin Bai, shipped8 them to the point of madness.
The CP fans shipped them to their hearts’ content, just waiting for an official announcement9.
Thanks to this photo, Yin Bai was in an excellent mood for all of early April. After the filming ended, Yin Bai and Zuo Jingyou returned to Haicheng, where she accompanied Zuo Jingyou during the editing of Dawa.
To make it more convenient to accompany her, Yin Bai even managed to stay over at Zuo Jingyou’s high-end apartment.
Compared to the idle Yin Bai, Zuo Jingyou was extremely busy with work. After briefly handling some emails from Jin Xiangyu during the day and signing a few documents, Yin Bai curled up on the sofa in Zuo Jingyou’s living room, boredly scrolling through Weibo.
As she scrolled, she came across a recent piece of news. It was about a member of a minor, obscure boy band under some entertainment company whose father was a debt defaulter10, owing a hundred million and not paying it back, and had been put on the credit blacklist.
The key was that this artist’s public persona was that of a rich second-generation heir, living in a mansion and wearing watches worth millions…… yet he owed money and wasn’t paying it back, claiming his family was in difficulty but that he would overcome the hardship with his mother……
Yin Bai was dumbfounded. She took a screenshot and sent it to Zuo Jingyou, effortfully11 typing out a line: “Is the bar for the entertainment industry this low nowadays? He’s not even good-looking, his parents are debt defaulters, and after being exposed, he gives a neither painful nor itchy12 and insincere apology, without mentioning a single word about paying back the money, and that’s supposed to be the end of it?”
“This is too shameless! Make him pay it back! Pay it back!”
The face of a hateful capitalist, it’s truly disgusting! Feeding on the fat and cream of the people13, doesn’t their conscience hurt?
Zuo Jingyou didn’t reply, so Yin Bai effortfully typed another line: “Just think, ten years ago, Xiao Nian’s family went bankrupt, her father absconded with the money, and her mother jumped off a building. She was left with over two hundred million in debt, and she bravely entered the entertainment industry to pay it all off!”
Although it was Yin Bai who first signed a contract with her and helped pay off the debt, after which Xiao Nian began earning money to repay Yin Bai, it cannot be denied that Xiao Nian was incredibly brave to shoulder that debt all by herself at the time.
The more Yin Bai spoke, the angrier she became. “How are young people today getting worse with each generation? They have no sense of responsibility or accountability at all.”
Okay, this angry young person had started firing her map cannon14.
After Zuo Jingyou finished her work and saw this, she replied, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, “Alright, there are plenty of people with no sense of accountability. Not everyone is as brave as Teacher Xiao Nian. At most, we just won’t work with that person in the future.”
Yin Bai thought so too, so she sent the Weibo screenshot to Jin Xiangyu with a special instruction: “Investigate this person’s relatives, his circle of friends, and any projects related to him. We will not cooperate with him on anything in the future.”
Worried she hadn’t been clear enough, Yin Bai added, “Also, if he is on any of our project teams, kick him out, no matter the excuse.”
“Unless he pays back the money. If he doesn’t, don’t let him dirty my projects.”
Faced with this willful demand, Jin Xiangyu agreed to it as always.
Yin Bai casually performed her act of good citizenship and then paid no more attention to the matter. That was until a few days later, when a very famous entertainment industry marketing account commented on the artist regarding this issue.
The title was: “Using XXX as an example, let’s dish the gossip15 on artists who entered the entertainment industry to pay off their parents’ debts.”
After briefly mentioning other artists, the blog post focused on Xiao Nian, writing in a very sensationalist tone: “Many people think that Xiao Nian has had it with favorable wind and favorable water16 since entering the entertainment industry, with resources so good they’re absurd. In the beginning, everyone speculated whether she had a gold master……”
“Later, no one dared to report on it, so now most people think Xiao Nian is the eldest daughter of a wealthy family……”
“Little do they know that back then, Xiao Nian also entered the entertainment industry to pay off her parents’ debts……”
“Originally a student at a music conservatory, in her junior year of university, her family went bankrupt and her parents had their incident…… Xiao Nian sold herself to a gold master and entered the entertainment industry……”
“Behind the seemingly glamorous facade was a very cruel transaction of power and money.”
Once this marketing account’s post was published, it uncovered nearly all of Xiao Nian’s painful past. The wounds that Yin Bai had always hidden so well for her were instantly ripped open and exposed to the light of day.
Whether it was paying off her father’s debts or selling herself to a gold master, these were all things about Xiao Nian that were not publicly known. But from this moment on, they became the subject of everyone’s gossip.
The public unscrupulously discussed Xiao Nian’s tragic past. While sighing over it, they were also curious: Who exactly was Xiao Nian’s gold master?
LP: Re-translated on August 12, 2025
Footnotes
- 金主 | jīn zhǔ | Literally “gold master.” A colloquial term for a wealthy financial backer or patron, often with the connotation of a “sugar daddy” or “sugar mommy” who supports a younger person (often an artist or celebrity) in exchange for favors, which can be personal or romantic. The term highlights a power imbalance based on wealth and implies a transactional relationship.
- 自作自受 | zì zuò zì shòu | Literally “self make, self receive.” A four-character idiom (chengyu) that means to suffer the consequences of one’s own actions; to reap what one sows or to have only oneself to blame.
- 白头 | báitóu | Literally “white head.” A common poetic and literary expression in Chinese for old age. The phrase “直到白头” (zhídào báitóu) means “until our hair turns white,” a vow of lifelong companionship similar to the English “till death do us part.”
- 小瘸子 | xiǎo quézi | Literally “little cripple.” While “瘸子” (quézi) is a derogatory term for a person with a limp or leg disability, the prefix “小” (xiǎo), meaning “little,” can soften it into a familiar or even teasingly affectionate nickname in certain contexts, depending on the relationship between the speakers.
- 飒爽 | sàshuǎng | An adjective describing a person’s bearing, meaning valiant, heroic, dashing, and spirited. It combines 飒 (sà), suggesting the sound of the wind and a heroic posture, with 爽 (shuǎng), meaning bright, crisp, and straightforward. It often describes a woman with a confident and heroic demeanor.
- 一眼万年 | yī yǎn wàn nián | Literally “one glance, ten thousand years.” A poetic Chinese phrase describing a moment that feels like an eternity. It’s often used to express the profound impact of love at first sight, where a single look creates a deep, timeless connection, as if one has known the other for millennia.
- 出圈 | chū quān | Literally “out of the circle.” A popular internet slang term in China that means something has broken out of its original niche community or fandom and gained mainstream popularity and recognition.
- 磕 | kē | Literally “to knock,” “to crack (nuts),” or “to gnaw.” In modern internet slang, it is used to describe the act of enthusiastically “shipping” a couple (CP). The metaphor suggests deriving intense pleasure and satisfaction from the couple’s interactions, much like cracking open a tasty nut or gnawing on a bone. The English fandom term “to ship” is the closest functional equivalent.
- 官宣 | guān xuān | A popular internet slang term, short for 官方宣布 (guānfāng xuānbù), which means “official announcement.” It is used when celebrities, companies, or individuals make a formal public declaration, especially regarding relationships, projects, or endorsements.
- 老赖 | lǎolài | A colloquial Chinese term for a person who persistently refuses to pay their debts despite having the ability to do so. It literally means “old rascal” or “old deadbeat” and refers to individuals who are officially blacklisted for defaulting on court-ordered payments.
- 吭哧吭哧 | kēngchī kēngchī | An onomatopoeia describing the sound of panting, puffing, or wheezing from strenuous effort. It is used to vividly describe someone working hard at a physical task or, as in this case, typing with great difficulty or concentration.
- 不痛不痒 | bù tòng bù yǎng | A four-character idiom (chengyu) that literally means “neither painful nor itchy.” It is used to describe actions, remarks, or criticisms that are superficial, half-hearted, and lack any real substance or impact.
- 民脂民膏 | mín zhī mín gāo | A four-character idiom (chengyu) that literally translates to “the people’s fat and the people’s cream.” It is used to describe wealth that has been unscrupulously extorted from the common people by corrupt officials or exploitative rulers. It carries a strong negative connotation of greed and exploitation of the populace.
- 地图炮 | dìtú pào | Literally “map cannon.” A popular internet slang term for making broad, sweeping, and often negative generalizations about all people from a specific geographical region or belonging to a particular group. It’s equivalent to stereotyping on a large scale.
- 八一八 | bā yī bā | A slang term popular on the Chinese internet that means “to gossip about” or “to dish the dirt on” someone or something. The pronunciation “bā” sounds similar to the character 扒 (bā), which means “to dig up” or “to uncover,” hence the association with digging up gossip.
- 顺风顺水 | shùn fēng shùn shuǐ | A four-character idiom (chengyu) that literally means “favorable wind and favorable water.” It is used to describe a situation or journey that proceeds smoothly without any obstacles, equivalent to the English idiom “smooth sailing.”
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