010 You’re both beautiful, but she has a fairer complexion.

Page (1/3) — Hengdian, a Small Grove

Qin Lan had arrived here early in the morning, script in hand, but she was nowhere near as focused as usual. Every so often, she glanced around, searching.

As the sun climbed higher, a hint of disappointment appeared in her eyes.

Come to think of it, Hengdian was neither particularly small nor particularly large. If two people happened to meet at the same spot while memorizing their lines, that only meant their usual ranges of activity were similar. Running into each other once or twice elsewhere was hardly unusual.

Just because the man was good-looking and had treated her to breakfast, there was no need to drag the matter into talk of fate and destiny. That would be far too much of a stretch.

Even so, Qin Lan, whose spirits had fallen, remained a while longer. Only when the sunlight began to grow uncomfortably hot did she prepare to gather her things and leave.

Yet just as Qin Lan removed her headphones, someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around, and her beautiful eyes immediately lit up.

Yan Li, dressed in an ancient-style costume, was looking at her with a broad smile.

“You don’t have a scene today?”

“Mm~”

Qin Lan answered softly. The person she had been waiting for had suddenly appeared, and a rush of emotion stirred within her.

“You… You have a scene today, so why did you come here?”

“Ah, don’t ask.” Yan Li waved a hand and sighed. “I lost my keys. I spent half the day looking for them somewhere else yesterday. I only have a few scenes today, so I came over here to take another look.”

“I’ll help you find them,” Qin Lan offered at once.

“Sure.”

Yan Li did not refuse. The two of them searched together for a while, but found nothing. Yan Li shook his head.

“Forget it. I’ll tell the inn when I get back. I can have another key made after the production wraps.”

Qin Lan had been bent over the whole time, searching for the keys. At his words, she straightened and wiped the fragrant sweat from her brow before taking charge of the matter.

“You still have scenes to film, while I’m free today. How about this? You go take care of your work. I’ll keep looking here, and if I find them, I’ll bring them to you.”

Yan Li: “…”

The girl was so honest that he felt a little embarrassed.

Losing his keys was merely an excuse. In truth, he had come to the grove because of the word “fate” in today’s fifth piece of information.

He had no other intentions. He simply did not want to disappoint the girl.

Yes, that was all.

Yan Li had actually wanted to come over that morning, but he had a scene to film, and getting his makeup done made it inconvenient to ask for leave.

Once he had managed to free up some time, showing up at the grove in the middle of the filming schedule would have seemed rather abrupt. He therefore needed a reason that made logical sense. He had not expected Qin Lan not only to believe him, but also to be so eager to help. It left him with the slightest twinge of guilt.

While Yan Li was suffering a mild moral quandary, Qin Lan, who knew nothing of the truth, was turning the matter over in her own mind.

If Yan Li had been without a scene today and had come here to memorize his lines, then their meeting would have suggested that they shared some kind of fate—but only a small one, since they had already run into each other several times.

But Yan Li happened to have a scene today. By all rights, he should not have been here. Yet some unexpected circumstance had brought him to the grove, and he had arrived at precisely the same time as she had.

Could this be destiny?

For a girl barely in her twenties, the slightest hint of “fate” between a man and a woman could send the heart’s defenses soaring straight upward.

Of course, Yan Li’s handsome, heroic features and well-built, stylish figure had a great deal to do with it.

If he had been merely average-looking, running into him every day would have meant nothing. If he had been ugly, seeing him too often might even have inspired a few curses about bad luck.

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By the same token, if Qin Lan had not been beautiful, she could have waited until nightfall and still never seen Yan Li.

Regardless of whether one was a man or a woman, the favorable impression that could accumulate after only a few brief meetings was inseparable from what people called “being attracted at first sight”…

————

After much persuasion, Yan Li finally convinced Qin Lan to abandon the idea of searching for the keys by herself. Since it was nearly noon, and he did not want to return to the production crew and gamble on the boxed lunch sending him running to the bathroom, he simply invited Qin Lan to lunch as thanks for helping him search.

“If anyone should be treating, it should be me. I still owe you breakfast from before.”

Qin Lan immediately began arguing over who had the right to pay. Yan Li did not stand on ceremony. Give and take—that was the proper way to get along.

Whoever paid got to choose the place. Qin Lan picked a restaurant and swiftly ordered several dishes, prompting Yan Li to hurry and stop her.

For one thing, they would never finish so much food. For another, he had only treated her to breakfast—at most, it had cost him a few yuan. Everything Qin Lan had ordered, however, was a substantial specialty dish, and with the drinks, the bill was already heading toward three figures.

Yan Li sighed. “I’m taking far too much advantage of you.”

Qin Lan was rinsing the tableware with tea. She smiled and said, “If it bothers you, you can treat me next time.”

“Deal. I know a pretty good barbecue place. I’ll take you there sometime.”

Qin Lan had a gentle, refined appearance, but she was open and easygoing in company, with a bright, hearty spirit. After asking her a few questions, Yan Li learned that she was from the Northeast.

Yan Li was fairly familiar with girls from the Northeast. His “ex-girlfriend,” Dong Xuan, was from there as well.

Dong Xuan looked fair, clean, and innocent. Her slightly baby-fat cheeks gave her an added sweetness, while her manner seemed quiet and well-behaved. She was also as gentle as water when dealing with others.

But only after pursuing her and becoming familiar with her did Yan Li realize he had been deceived by her appearance.

Gentleness and quietness were merely one side of Dong Xuan. In truth, she was somewhat domineering in relationships, jealous, fond of keeping tabs on Yan Li, and rather clingy.

Unfortunately, Yan Li himself preferred to occupy the stronger, more proactive position in a relationship. After one thing led to another, along with several other factors, the two of them eventually fell apart.

At the thought of this, the little notions he had been entertaining faded away.

Romance was pointless. Women were too troublesome. Building his career was more important.

With that attitude, Yan Li behaved naturally around Qin Lan. He was neither overly attentive nor distant, treating her simply as a friend.

Ironically, the more naturally he behaved, the more comfortable Qin Lan felt in his company.

In fact, there was a suitor for her on the set of My Fair Princess III.

He was good-looking enough, and his character was not bad. He was merely burdened by a touch of inexplicable self-confidence, which lowered her opinion of him somewhat.

That alone was not a serious flaw. The main issue was that people were constantly coming and going on the set of My Fair Princess III. The man was far too enthusiastic, and as a newcomer, Qin Lan did not want to provoke gossip or affect her work.

After she explained this to him, he somehow misunderstood her and actually assumed that she was merely shy. He redoubled his efforts, making Qin Lan feel increasingly harassed.

That was why she had been coming to the grove to memorize her lines whenever she had free time these past few days—partly to avoid him.

Thus, compared with that suitor, Yan Li’s harmonious and peaceful way of spending time with her as a friend happened to ease Qin Lan’s troubles and relax her mood.

Of course, it was also possible that, because of that word “fate” earlier, she simply found Yan Li especially pleasing to the eye now.

As everyone knew, when you liked the look of someone, everything he did seemed right. When you disliked someone, everything he did seemed wrong.

Yan Li was calm and even-tempered, so Qin Lan found being with him comfortable and effortless.

Had Yan Li lavished her with attention, Qin Lan might instead have thought him passionate, straightforward, and uninhibited.

…

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“Wait, you only just graduated from college?”

During the meal, as they chatted about this and that and learned more about each other, Qin Lan stared at Yan Li in surprise.

From the moment she had first met him to their two most recent encounters, Yan Li had always struck her as hard-edged and masculine in appearance and bearing. His speech and manner were also mature and steady. She had therefore assumed that he was already twenty-five or twenty-six.

“Why would I lie to you? I came straight to the set after taking my graduation photo. I was born in November 1980, so I won’t turn twenty-two for another few months. What? Don’t I look it?”

Yan Li had attended the Beijing Film Academy’s vocational program, which lasted two years. However, he had lost two years while studying at a martial arts school, so he was not a standard fresh graduate. His age was roughly the same as that of an ordinary graduate from a four-year university.

“Not quite.”

Qin Lan smiled, then her eyes suddenly brightened.

“If you were born in 1980, doesn’t that mean you have to call me Sister?”

She had been born in July 1979 and had graduated from college the previous year. By age, she was a little more than a year older than Yan Li.

“Why do women always want to be someone’s older sister?”

Yan Li could not help grumbling. Qin Lan’s beautiful eyes flickered as she pressed him.

“Always? Who else wanted to be your older sister?”

“My ex-girlfriend. She was also born in 1979, a few months younger than you. When we first met, she kept trying to make me call her Sister.”

Yan Li admitted it openly. Even if he had been interested in Qin Lan, there would have been no reason to hide the fact, let alone now, when he had no such intentions.

They were broken up, after all.

For some reason, Qin Lan felt a tiny bit uncomfortable. She also grew increasingly curious about the ex-girlfriend Yan Li had mentioned.

“Was she your classmate? Was she pretty? Is she famous?”

Yan Li, however, did not want to continue discussing her. He had once been in a relationship with her, after all. Whatever the future might hold, he could not go around blabbering about her affairs to everyone.

Even what he had just said had been a slip of the tongue. Fortunately, Qin Lan did not know Dong Xuan and could not connect the two.

Yet the less Yan Li said, the more Qin Lan wanted to know. Seeing that his attitude was firm and that she could not ask him directly, she began taking a roundabout approach.

“You can’t tell me her specific information, but surely you can at least say whether she was pretty?”

Yan Li thought it over. That answer would not affect Dong Xuan in any way. He nodded.

“She was quite pretty. At our school, she was one of the recognized beauties.”

Those words awakened Qin Lan’s competitive spirit.

She had not come from an acting school, yet she had still managed to break into the entertainment industry and been chosen by Qiong Yao to act in My Fair Princess III. Her greatest asset was this lovely face of hers.

Thus, Qin Lan asked the fatal question.

“Was she prettier, or am I prettier?”

Yan Li was not an idiot. He knew better than to answer a question that so obviously concealed a trap. But Qin Lan kept pestering him, repeatedly promising that she would not get angry, and in the end he answered hesitantly.

“You’re both beautiful…”

Before Qin Lan could accuse him of being perfunctory, Yan Li glanced at her again and added, “Your bearing is better, and you’re slimmer. Her skin is a little fairer…”

He had originally intended to add a comparison regarding their figures, but when he saw Qin Lan’s suddenly strained smile, Yan Li promptly shut his mouth.

Women never kept their promises. She had just said she would not get angry!

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