Rumors
Don’t know, she didn’t come back last night.
Lu Zhenqiu waited for Jin Shuilan to finish washing her face and come back before she hung up the video call. Afraid that Xiao Yu would worry since she had been gone for so long, she hurried back; Xiao Yu was already chatting with someone else.
“Qiuqiu.” Xiao Yu waved: “Over here.”
Lu Zhenqiu nodded, walked over, took off her bathrobe and handed the drink to her. Xiao Yu introduced: “Xiao Yuan1 from the food section.” She said to Xiao Yuan: “This is the entertainment section’s…”
“I know.” Xiao Yuan smiled: “Zhenqiu, of course. Everyone at Sanshui knows her.”
Lu Zhenqiu blushed from her words. Xiao Yuan said: “Your figure is really good.”
“Isn’t it though.” Xiao Yu touched Lu Zhenqiu’s waist and said: “It’s all real material2!”
Xiao Yuan curiously poked Lu Zhenqiu’s waist. Lu Zhenqiu became embarrassed from the two of them discussing her. She said to Xiao Yu: “Don’t fool around.”
“Okay, okay, okay.” Xiao Yu withdrew her hand and said: “I’ll stop fooling around. Later, let’s eat with Xiao Yuan, she’s making sushi by hand. When I first watched her videos, my mouth wouldn’t stop watering3.”
Lu Zhenqiu smiled: “Sure.”
Xiao Yuan lay down beside the two of them, her back to the pool and her hands propped on the pool’s edge. She said: “Qiuqiu, you start rehearsals tomorrow, right?”
“Mhm.” Lu Zhenqiu nodded: “I have to go to the company tomorrow. I don’t know if there are a lot of lines, I haven’t memorized them yet.”
After all, it was her first time on stage, so Lu Zhenqiu was already getting nervous in advance. Xiao Yuan said: “Don’t be nervous. Even if you just stand there, we’d be happy to watch. It doesn’t matter if you memorize the lines or not.”
Lu Zhenqiu shook her head: “That won’t do, I still have to memorize them.”
She was very rigorous in her work. Since she had accepted the task of being a host, she would definitely do it well. For the past half-month, she had already watched all of Sanshui’s annual meetings from the past few years. The procedures were more or less the same, it was just that the lines were not quite the same. Moreover, she also saw how other hosts handled unexpected situations, and she had mentally simulated it several times. The only thing she worried about was stage fright, but the half-month of rehearsals should be able to overcome this problem.
Xiao Yuan turned her head to glance at her. She had heard all the talk within the circle, saying that Lu Zhenqiu had a relationship with a certain person in charge at Sanshui, and even that she was possibly being kept//sponsored4 by the general manager. After all, before she joined Sanshui, she was neither lukewarm nor fiery5. After she arrived, she was suddenly being forcefully promoted, with money being thrown at voting campaigns and the best exposure resources provided. In all of Sanshui’s years, there had never been a streamer who could become a host in less than half a year after joining.
She, of course, was not someone who believed in rumors, and besides, this was all just grasping at shadows6 news, without a shred of evidence. It wasn’t worth it to suspect someone randomly because of this. It just so happened that she knew Xiao Yu, so she came over to get to know Lu Zhenqiu first.
Her brows and eyes were proper, her facial features righteous, and her attitude towards work was serious. Xiao Yuan already felt the rumors were absurd, and now after interacting with her, she was even more biased towards Lu Zhenqiu. During lunch, she took the opportunity to remind her: “This circle, to say it’s big it’s not big, to say it’s small it’s not small. There will always be times when people fight for a piece of bread, you have to be careful.”
Lu Zhenqiu nodded: “Thank you.”
The three of them posted a picture of them eating sushi online. Lu Zhenqiu’s first meet-up7 partner was Xiao Yuan from the food section. Xiao Yuan was also quite popular. Because she had a baby face, everyone liked to call her Yuan-mei8. Standing next to Lu Zhenqiu, she looked even more childish. Fans joked that she was bringing a child along. Lu Zhenqiu looked at the comments and laughed: “She really does look very young.”
“Young is young, but I have everything I’m supposed to have!” Xiao Yuan said, puffing out her chest. Xiao Yu poked her chest: “Can you flex it? Is it breathable?”
Xiao Yuan slapped Xiao Yu’s hand and said with a laugh: “Get lost!”
Just asking for it.
Xiao Yu had good interpersonal skills and spent the afternoon taking Lu Zhenqiu around to get to know everyone. Except for a few streamers from other sections that she wasn’t very familiar with, she had met most of them. In one afternoon, she reposted nearly thirty Weibo posts, so busy she was spinning in circles. She only got to rest in the evening. She had dinner with Xiao Yu, and after eating, she was dragged by her to play games for a while. In the livestream room, all that could be heard was Xiao Yu yelling and shouting, while she was laughing so hard she was falling over. Their other roommate came in holding her dinner, and only by taking over for Xiao Yu did they barely manage to win.
After returning, Lu Zhenqiu truly felt exhausted. She lay on the bed, not moving an inch. Lu Yan had not returned yet, and Lu Zhenqiu didn’t pay her any mind. She rested on the bed for a moment before going into the bathroom to shower. When she came out, Jin Shuilan called.
Lu Zhenqiu’s voice was soft, with a hint of subtle coquettishness: “I’m so tired today.”
Jin Shuilan discovered that she was quite good at distinguishing the boundary between a friend and a girlfriend. When they were friends, no matter what Lu Zhenqiu encountered, she would never use such an attitude or tone to speak with her. Because of her one sentence, Jin Shuilan’s heart felt like it was soaking in warm water, and it warmed up. She asked: “Then do you still want to see Maomao?”
“I want to see it.” Lu Zhenqiu said as she sat up: “How about you take a video for me.”
Jin Shuilan laughed: “Okay.”
She deliberately dragged out the final sound, giving Lu Zhenqiu a feeling that no matter how unreasonable her request was, she would be able to satisfy it. Lu Zhenqiu’s face flushed red because of that single word. She buried her head in her pillow. Just a moment ago she was extremely tired, but now she had a bit of energy. Jin Shuilan went to the next room to film a video of Maomao. Maomao was being well taken care of; upon seeing Jin Shuilan, it jumped and hopped around. Jin Shuilan also sent a video from the afternoon of her taking Maomao downstairs for a walk. Seeing Maomao’s energetic appearance, Lu Zhenqiu felt relieved. She was clingy with Jin Shuilan for a couple more sentences, and Jin Shuilan said: “If you’re sleepy, then go to sleep.”
Lu Zhenqiu hummed in agreement and hung up the phone. Not long after, she received a Weibo push notification. Jin Shuilan’s new book was opened. For a time, her homepage was filled with news of her opening a new book. Lu Zhenqiu typed out many words, then deleted them, and finally, hugging her phone, she posted: 【Finger Heart】9//@Jin Shuilan: Started a new book.
A red heart.
Right after Lu Zhenqiu posted, a comment appeared: 【Finger Heart】【Finger Heart】.
It was Jin Shuilan.
The two of them seemed to have completed some kind of secret signal. Lu Zhenqiu clutched her phone and smiled under the covers, incomparably happy. Compared to her last love that could not see the light of day10, Jin Shuilan didn’t seem to worry at all about their relationship being discovered.
As long as she took a tiny bit of initiative, Jin Shuilan would immediately respond.
For the first time, Lu Zhenqiu felt that being in a relationship was such a reassuring thing.
When Lu Yan returned to the room, Lu Zhenqiu was already asleep. It was the first day, so she went out with a few friends to party for a bit and drank a little alcohol. Returning to the room and seeing Lu Zhenqiu asleep, she couldn’t help but walk to the bedside. She just stood there quietly and watched for several minutes before going to the bathroom to wash up.
Lu Zhenqiu slept until her alarm clock rang in the morning. Lu Yan rolled over in her bed. Lu Zhenqiu directly turned off the alarm and dawdled for a while before getting up. She didn’t speak to Lu Yan, just took her clothes and went to the bathroom. When she came out, Lu Yan was still sleeping. Lu Zhenqiu picked up her bag and left the room.
Xiao Yu had stayed up late playing games last night and wasn’t eating breakfast. When Lu Zhenqiu went to the restaurant, she ran into Xiao Yuan. Next to Xiao Yuan were two other streamers from the food section. She greeted Lu Zhenqiu, and Lu Zhenqiu smiled and walked over, saying: “Morning.”
Xiao Yuan yawned: “Came down to eat some breakfast and then go back to catch up on sleep. Are you getting ready to go to the company?”
Lu Zhenqiu nodded.
The girl beside Xiao Yuan looked at Lu Zhenqiu curiously. The four of them went to the restaurant to eat breakfast together. Breakfast was a buffet. Lu Zhenqiu got a glass of milk and some bread, and when she looked up, she saw Mo Bai11.
Mo Bai also saw Lu Zhenqiu. He took the initiative to greet her: “Miss Lu.”
Lu Zhenqiu quickly lowered her head: “Hello, Manager Mo12.”
Mo Bai was Sanshui’s general manager. It was said that he had just been poached a few years ago. The old manager had resigned due to poor health, so now Mo Bai was in charge. Lu Zhenqiu had seen Mo Bai a few times; she saw him when she signed her contract, but they had only met a few times and hadn’t even exchanged more than a couple of sentences. So after greeting him, she was preparing to leave. Mo Bai took the initiative to speak: “Miss Lu is going to the company in a bit, right?”
Lu Zhenqiu nodded: “Mhm, yes.”
“Together.” Mo Bai said: “I have to make a trip to the company too. It’s drizzling outside, so it’s not convenient to get a taxi. Let me give you a ride.”
Lu Zhenqiu had no choice but to agree: “Then I’ll have to trouble Manager Mo.”
Mo Bai said: “No trouble.”
As he spoke, he looked at Lu Zhenqiu. If it weren’t for that IP incident, he really wouldn’t dare to believe that Lu Zhenqiu was the boss’s wife. How approachable she was, not putting on airs at all. Since coming to Sanshui, she had been diligently and conscientiously starting from being a small streamer, and in all this time, she had never asked him for even half a promotional resource.
Truly different.
As expected of the boss’s wife.
Mo Bai praised her in his heart. He sat down opposite Lu Zhenqiu. Xiao Yuan, after getting her breakfast, wanted to go find Lu Zhenqiu but was pulled back by someone: “Don’t go, did you see Manager Mo?”
“So bold.” Another girl said: “Not avoiding suspicion at all here. No wonder people say she has someone behind her. The person behind her is Manager Mo, right?”
Xiao Yuan furrowed her brows and glanced at the two people beside her. She still didn’t quite believe that Lu Zhenqiu was this kind of person.
Lu Zhenqiu looked up and saw Xiao Yuan standing there. She waved: “Here.”
Xiao Yuan ignored the two people beside her and walked over anyway. The other two girls didn’t go over, but instead sat down not far behind them. The two of them didn’t forget to take a picture and send it to a group chat. This was a private group, usually used for chatting about gossip. They sent this picture in, and someone in the group immediately sent: 【????】
【Holy shit, isn’t that Manager Mo? So blatant?】
【Awesome, looks like the person behind her really is Manager Mo, no doubt.】
【Actually, none of us know, let’s ask @Lu Yan.】
Lu Yan was woken up in the morning by her phone’s notification sounds. She squinted at her phone and saw the picture. Lu Zhenqiu and Mo Bai were sitting face to face eating breakfast, and Mo Bai was even smiling at Lu Zhenqiu. Lu Yan curled the corner of her lip and sneered. As expected, she had latched onto someone better, and that’s why she kicked Tang Yingxia to the curb. And she talked about being so noble, saying she wanted to break up because Tang Yingxia wouldn’t go public. So it turns out she had already found her next prospect13!
She looked at the photo on her phone, thought for a moment, and sent it to Tang Yingxia.
A moment later, Tang Yingxia sent a question mark over. Lu Yan sent: 【The one across from Lu Zhenqiu is our general manager, Manager Mo. Right now, everyone at our Sanshui knows about her and Manager Mo’s thing. You were right to break up with her.】
Manager Mo?
Tang Yingxia looked at the photo. The man sitting opposite Lu Zhenqiu was nearly bald and was not a match for Lu Zhenqiu at all. Lu Zhenqiu would actually fall for a person like this?
She would rather break up with me to be with a person like this?
Tang Yingxia gripped her phone tightly. Only after a long while did she send a message to Lu Yan.
Lu Yan held her phone. The messages in the group chat had already piled up into many layers. She read through them one by one, and only surfaced after eating enough of the melon14.
【What’s going on?】
【I really didn’t expect her not to hide it at all, way too bold.】
【Hey Lu Yan, don’t you live with Zhenqiu? You don’t know about her and Manager Mo’s thing?】
Lu Yan looked at these messages, glanced at Lu Zhenqiu’s bed, and sent in the group: 【I don’t know, she didn’t come back last night.】
The author has something to say:
Thirty red envelopes, memeda.
Lu Yan: Oh, so it turns out she has a relationship with Manager Mo.
Mo Bai: ?? Lu Yan, don’t you f*cking mess with me!
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