After Being Scummed – Chapter 80
by Little PandaIn the first half of the year, the three of them, Yin Bai, because of scandals and gossip, provided a pile of melons2 for netizens to eat. As a result, this wave of love, hate, passion, and enmity had not yet passed, and Zuo Jingyou and Xiao Nian were going to film a same-sex movie together?
The official announcement was for dual female leads, and the plot summary was also quite orange-y3, making it hard not to let one’s imagination run wild.
On top of that, these two people were quite needle’s point against an awl’s point4, and also had the “pseudo love rival” relationship of being Yin Bai’s ex and current. This classic struggle of the red and white rose5 allowed the movie to attract plenty of attention right as filming began.
Zuo Jingyou and Xiao Nian already had a group of CP fans. After Zuo Jingyou reposted Xiao Nian’s Weibo post, this group of CP fans grew even larger. Now, after the movie’s official announcement of its main characters, it was simply a crowd of demons dancing wildly6.
A group of melon-eating passersby7 and CPs were jumping for joy, leaving a very classic comment under the official announcement Weibo: “Zhao Min8 and Zhou Zhiruo9 have abandoned Zhang Wuji and eloped together!”
Under this Weibo post, it was all classic lines, such as: “What if my conscience is guilty10? I’ve fallen in love with Zhao Min, ah Wuji…”
“Zhang Wuji, you are very good, but Miss Zhou is also very good… I choose Miss Zhou…”
“Zhang Wuji, are you going to get married or come with me? Fine, you won’t come with me, then I’ll take Miss Zhou away!”
“The more beautiful a woman is, the more she will deceive people. Wuji-gege11, I’m going with the beautiful Teacher Zuo…”
The netizens were playing with the meme like crazy. The space under this comment was just like the bullet comments12 on a certain site during the scene where Zhao Min comes to crash the wedding, jubilant and festive.
When Yin Bai saw this Weibo post, she furrowed her brows tightly.
What did they mean? Although Xiao Nian had said “my conscience is guilty,” she wasn’t Zhang Wuji! She didn’t have a Xiao Zhao13, nor did she have a cousin Yin Li14, how could she be Zhang Wuji!
Besides, did Lu Qing resemble Song Qingshu15?
Yin Bai was very speechless. She sent a screenshot to the faraway Zuo Jingyou via WeChat and said indignantly, “Do I look like a person as indecisive as Zhang Wuji, wavering between two girls?”
The faraway Zuo Jingyou, sitting in the makeup room on the film set, was having her hair done by a stylist while holding her phone to reply to Yin Bai: “I feel you and Zhang Wuji are still quite similar.”
Yin Bai snorted angrily, looking at the keyboard and saying with puffed cheeks, “How so? Because my parents both died, and I grew up with elders, this point is very similar to him?”
Zuo Jingyou lowered her eyes and smiled lightly, typing a line in reply to her: “Of course not. It’s that you have a green plums and bamboo horse16 Zhou Zhiruo, a considerate Xiao Zhao who always follows you, and a little cousin who is especially fond of you, this point is very similar… Although I don’t think I am Zhao Min, the desire to have you is the same as Zhao Min’s desire to take Zhang Wuji away.”
Yin Bai was stunned!
What did she mean, a green plums and bamboo horse Zhou Zhiruo? Did Xiao Nian count as Zhou Zhiruo?
But speaking of it, the part about being deeply in love as youths, and finally meeting with drawn swords and mutually hurting each other, was quite similar.
But what about Xiao Zhao and the little cousin?
Yin Bai, puffing her cheeks, fiercely poked her phone: “Where do I have a Xiao Zhao and a little cousin!”
Zuo Jingyou’s eyes curved into a smile, and she deftly typed a line: “You don’t? Zhang Yu who arranges everything very well for you, and Jin Xiangyu who picks out gifts you like every year…”
Yin Bai furrowed her brows and thought for a moment. It really was kind of like that.
If she was Zhang Wuji, then what was Lu Qing? Song Qingshu?
A descendant of a prestigious family, famous at a young age, a graceful and elegant young master of a noble house… it really fit Lu Qing’s character setting.
Thinking of this, Yin Bai couldn’t help but shiver. No, she was not Zhang Wuji, she was Zuo Jingyou’s little prince! Yin Bai replied, puffing her cheeks: “I’m not! Don’t you mention it again in the future! You’re not allowed to say it, and you’re not allowed to think it!”
Who wants to see their own girlfriend and their own ex being shipped as a CP? It was making her die of jealousy!
Zuo Jingyou couldn’t help but laugh, and replied with one word: “Okay.”
In a little while, Zuo Jingyou’s styling was done, and she said to Yin Bai: “I’m going to work now. You be good and stay at home today, don’t look at that messy stuff anymore.”
After instructing Yin Bai, Zuo Jingyou handed her phone to her assistant and got up to walk out.
Today was the first day of shooting, and also her and Xiao Nian’s first scene together. When Zuo Jingyou walked to the doorway, she happened to run into Xiao Nian, who had also finished her makeup.
Xiao Nian’s styling today was a very good fit for the tired young white-collar worker in the movie. Upon seeing the pair of glasses on the other’s nose bridge, for a moment Zuo Jingyou thought she was seeing Jin Xiangyu.
Also a tired young person, also someone unable to find a loved one in the bustling metropolis, this styling was quite fitting.
Zuo Jingyou smiled with great interest and extended her hand towards Xiao Nian: “Teacher Xiao Nian, happy cooperation.”
Xiao Nian extended her hand, her face full of smiles: “Happy cooperation, Teacher Zuo.”
Zuo Jingyou, wearing this makeup that made her look like a university student, hooked the corner of her lips into a smile: “I am very much looking forward to Teacher Xiao Nian’s performance.”
Xiao Nian gripped Zuo Jingyou’s hand firmly and said very seriously: “Me too.”
The two briefly crossed swords, and for a long period of time after, both focused their energy on the play.
Xu Shishi was also a ruthless person. Worried that the two female leads wouldn’t be able to get into character, the very first scene was a kiss scene with a big emotional explosion.
《Give Me a Hug》 tells a story like this: the career-busy woman Du Minyan17, and He Wan18 who is a lover to someone else, live in apartments on the same floor. Every time after a social engagement, Du Minyan, who has almost drunk to the point of vomiting, returns to her apartment and occasionally sees He Wan helping the same man back to his apartment to spend the night. At first, Du Minyan only thought the man was He Wan’s husband, but later she discovered things were not as she thought…
One day, Du Minyan discovers her boyfriend is cheating, is cursed by someone close to her as a heartless robot, and returns to her apartment after getting drunk, only to discover the next-door He Wan being dragged out of her room by a woman, clothes in disarray and thrown at the doorway, leaning against the doorframe like a broken rag doll, lowering her eyes without a word.
Du Minyan looked at the numb expression on He Wan’s face, then glanced at the woman at the side who was pointing at He Wan and cursing loudly, calling her a “fox spirit19,” a “shameless little three20,” and saying things like “my husband supported your education, yet you come and seduce my husband.” She rubbed her own throbbing temples.
Just from the woman’s words, Du Minyan could piece together a rough story.
Get involved, or not get involved?
Why must women make things difficult for women?
Du Minyan sighed, and with the courage from the alcohol, entered her room, took a kitchen knife from the kitchen and charged out menacingly, saying fiercely: “What’s all the shouting! If you want to hit someone, why don’t you hit your husband!”
“Your husband can’t control his own waistband, harming a young girl! You are the young girl’s providers of food and clothing, your husband is holding her weakness and wants to □□ her, what can she say?”
Du Minyan reached out, pulled He Wan over, fiercely chopped the door with the knife, and said like a demon: “Your husband is keeping someone, first of all it’s your husband who is wrong, okay! Ha, what kind of good thing do you think your man is? Others just beckon and he goes, is he a dog?”
In short, after Du Minyan showed off her might, she chased away the fierce woman and brought He Wan back to her own home.
Looking at He Wan’s wounds from being scratched all over, Du Minyan endured the pain of her drunkenness and took out a first-aid kit to apply medicine for the other person. While applying medicine, Du Minyan chattered on: “You tell me, you’re a good girl, with hands and feet, you don’t go to work, why do you have to be someone’s mistress?”
“Even if you go work part-time at KFC, it would be better than you are now!”
He Wan endured the pain of the medicine being applied, listened to her chatter on for a good while, and then said taciturnly: “I need money. He can give me twenty thousand21 a month.”
Twenty thousand? That’s quite a lot?
Du Minyan frowned and said: “Even if it’s twenty thousand, you can just sell your own youth?”
She felt this girl’s three views22 were not proper, and decided to open her mouth and try to persuade her: “At your age, you should study hard. When you have achieved something in your studies, like me, keeping a few of you wouldn’t be a problem.”
He Wan tilted her head up, revealing her slender neck, and said like a homeless stray cat: “Then do you want to keep me?”
Keep? Her? No no no…
Du Minyan was stunned for a moment. He Wan pressed forward, looked straight at Du Minyan and said: “Are you going to keep me?”
When a person’s head is not clear, they often do some unexpected things. Du Minyan, as if guided by ghosts and gods23, nodded and mumbled: “Keeping you, is also okay…”
He Wan then moved out from next door and into Du Minyan’s home.
The two got along harmoniously. Du Minyan had no demands, only wanting to get a hug from He Wan after coming home, like huffing a cat24. He Wan also didn’t really take money from her, but instead paid back the cost of her temporary stay by doing housework.
The two lived their days without waves or surprises, drawing warmth from each other, bidding farewell to the past, and continuing with a new life.
But just as their lives were getting better, He Wan’s previous man came looking for her again, threatening her in various ways to come back.
Du Minyan saw He Wan at the doorway being pestered by the man but not resisting. After helping her chase him away, she angrily dragged He Wan inside, speaking without choosing her words: “Why are you so stupid, can’t you resist?”
“You are a person, not a piece of merchandise! Are you that docile and obedient? If he threatens you, then call the police! Who cares how many of your □□ he has, anyway he is threatening you!”
The two had a dispute, and in the end, it was unknown who took the initiative to pounce, and the incessant scolding became a fierce kiss.
In order to make Xiao Nian and Zuo Jingyou break the ice, the first scene Xu Shishi filmed was this confrontation scene at the indoor doorway.
Zuo Jingyou, playing He Wan, in Xiao Nian’s fierce words, seemed to see a trace of the former Yin Bai’s shadow. She looked at that anxious person, her eyes brewing with emotions as fierce as a storm.
He Wan opened her mouth, her voice calm: “I am… I am just this kind of useless person!”
Du Minyan saw an earth-shattering energy brewing in her eyes, and was stunned for a moment. The two looked at each other, and their intertwined emotions suddenly burst forth like lightning in a storm.
He Wan took a step forward, as if to prove what an unbearable person she was, held Du Minyan’s face, and fiercely kissed her.
This was a very fierce kiss. By the end of the kiss, both actresses’ lips were broken, only then did Xu Shishi say “Cut” with satisfaction.
After work ended, Zuo Jingyou raised her hand to touch her own lip, which had been bitten to the point of bleeding by Xiao Nian, and looked at Xiao Nian helplessly, saying: “Teacher Xiao is too dedicated.”
Xiao Nian pressed her lips together, licked away the trace of blood on her lip with the tip of her tongue, and lowered her eyes, saying: “Teacher Zuo is also very dedicated.”
Also especially fierce, as if wanting to snatch back the kisses given to her by a certain person from her lips.
LP: Re-translated on August 21, 2025
Footnotes
- 张无忌 | Zhāng Wújì | The protagonist of Jin Yong’s (金庸) wuxia novel ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber’ (《倚天屠龙记》). He is famously indecisive and entangled in complex romantic relationships with several women, making his name a popular meme or archetype for a man caught in a love triangle (or polygon).
- 瓜 | guā | Literally “melon.” In internet slang, “eating melon” (吃瓜 | chī guā) means to watch drama unfold as an uninvolved bystander, consuming gossip like one would snack on melon seeds.
- 橘里橘气 | jú lǐ jú qì | Literally “orange-in-orange-air.” A popular internet slang term for describing something as having lesbian or sapphic undertones. The character for orange (橘, jú) is a near-homophone for “gay” (基, jī), leading to its use as a coded term for wlw (women-loving-women) content.
- 针锋相对 | zhēnfēngxiāngduì | An idiom literally meaning “a needle’s point against an awl’s point.” It describes a situation where two parties are in sharp opposition or direct confrontation, being evenly matched.
- 紅白玫瑰之争 | hóng bái méiguī zhī zhēng | Literally “the struggle of the red and white rose.” A reference to the famous 1944 novella ‘Red Rose, White Rose’ (《红玫瑰与白玫瑰》) by Eileen Chang (张爱玲). It describes a man’s relationships with two archetypal women: the passionate mistress (the red rose) and the virtuous wife (the white rose). The phrase is now a common trope for a love triangle involving two contrasting female characters.
- 群魔乱舞 | qún mó luàn wǔ | An idiom literally meaning “a host of demons dancing wildly.” It is used to describe a scene of chaos and pandemonium, or a situation where many malicious people are active at once.
- 吃瓜路人 | chī guā lùrén | A compound internet slang term. “吃瓜” (chī guā) means “eating melon,” referring to the act of being a spectator of drama or gossip. “路人” (lùrén) means “passerby,” a member of the general public who isn’t a dedicated fan. Together, it means casual onlookers who are enjoying the drama.
- 赵敏 | Zhào Mǐn | A main female character in Jin Yong’s ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber’. She is an intelligent, resourceful, and daring Mongolian princess who falls in love with the protagonist, Zhang Wuji.
- 周芷若 | Zhōu Zhǐruò | The other main female character in ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber’. She is Zhang Wuji’s childhood friend, known for her initial gentleness that later gives way to ruthlessness due to a vow she was forced to make.
- 问心有愧 | wènxīnyǒukuì | An idiom meaning “to feel guilty upon self-examination.” This is a famous line spoken by Zhou Zhiruo to Zhang Wuji in the novel, expressing her inner conflict and guilt over her actions.
- 无忌哥哥 | Wújì gēgē | “Wuji-gege.” “Gege” (哥哥) means “older brother” and is used as an affectionate term of address. This is a famous line of advice given to a young Zhang Wuji by his mother before she dies.
- 弹幕 | dànmù | From the Japanese “danmaku” (弾幕), meaning “barrage.” It refers to a feature on video-sharing websites where user comments are overlaid directly onto the video and scroll across the screen, creating a “bullet curtain” effect.
- 小昭 | Xiǎo Zhāo | Another major female character in ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber’. She is a beautiful and loyal servant girl who is secretly a Persian princess and is deeply devoted to Zhang Wuji.
- 殷离 | Yīn Lí | Also known as Zhu’er (Zhū’ér). A female character in ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber’ who is Zhang Wuji’s maternal cousin. She has a fierce personality and practices a martial art that disfigures her face, and she harbors a deep love for the memory of Zhang Wuji from their childhood.
- 宋青书 | Sòng Qīngshū | A character in ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber’. He is a handsome and talented disciple from the Wudang Sect, initially seen as a heroic figure. He is infatuated with Zhou Zhiruo and becomes a villain out of jealousy for Zhang Wuji.
- 青梅竹马 | qīngméizhúmǎ | An idiom that literally translates to “green plums and a bamboo horse.” It originates from a poem by Li Bai and is used to describe a man and a woman who grew up together as childhood friends, often implying an innocent, long-standing bond or first love.
- 杜敏言 | Dù Mǐnyán
- 何婉 | Hé Wǎn
- 狐狸精 | húli jīng | Literally “fox spirit” or “fox demon.” In Chinese folklore, these are mythical foxes that can shapeshift into beautiful women to seduce and bewitch men. The term is a common and derogatory insult for a seductive woman, especially one perceived as a homewrecker.
- 小三 | xiǎo sān | Literally “little three.” A popular and derogatory slang term for the third person in a romantic relationship, i.e., a mistress or the “other woman/man.”
- 两万 | liǎng wàn | Twenty thousand. “Wàn” (万) is a unit representing 10,000.
- 三观 | sānguān | Literally “three views” or “three outlooks.” A very common term referring to one’s worldview (世界观), values (价值观), and outlook on life (人生观). “三观不正” (sānguān bùzhèng), meaning one’s three views are “not proper” or “crooked,” is a common criticism of someone’s fundamental morals or perspective.
- 鬼使神差 | guǐshǐshénchāi | An idiom that literally translates to “sent by ghosts and driven by gods.” It describes doing something inexplicably or unintentionally, as if compelled by a supernatural force; to act on a whim or out of character for no apparent reason.
- 吸猫 | xī māo | Literally “to inhale/suck a cat.” A popular internet slang term for the act of showing extreme affection to a cat, typically by burying one’s face in its fur and sniffing deeply. It conveys an almost addictive level of adoration.
I’m very confused about Xiao Nian, is she still in love with Yin Bai or what??
I’m very confused about Xiao Nian, is she still in love with Yin Bai or what??
I think she is just guilty