Chapter 205

Chapter 205

She lay on the sofa. Thinking of the slightly disappointed look on Xie Shiqing’s face just now, her lips pressed together gently.

Opening her phone, Zhong Ning logged into her account. The number of followers had already exceeded twenty thousand—the growth rate was truly astonishing.

That was enough to apply for verification, so she entered the backend and submitted the required documents to customer service. The results would take a while to come out.

Zhong Ning returned to the homepage. After a moment of thought, she bought a promotion for herself.

It wouldn’t cost much anyway.

If she only had her own money, she would still hesitate a little. But now, owning shares in the Xie Corporation meant that she could literally lie around doing nothing and have money fall from the sky—a sum so vast she wouldn’t be able to spend it all in several lifetimes.

Zhong Ning chose the biggest promotion package available.

Another game she often played seemed to have updated, so she exited the short video app and tapped the game icon. Her fingers moved quickly in one smooth motion.

How could anyone not love playing games?

Hugging her phone, she quickly became immersed in the storyline, leaving all worries about Xie Shiqing behind.

When her biological clock woke her up, the first thing Zhong Ning did was check her phone. She saw that Bowen had sent her a bunch of messages.

The number "15" was displayed on the message icon, and the time showed it was 2 a.m.

Zhong Ning clicked her tongue softly. Sure enough, the messages were about the video being edited.

It looked like Bowen had worked overtime.

Bowen had sent over all the edited photos. There were six solo shots of her, and another six group photos.

She also sent the finished video, asking if it was okay and if there was anything that needed revision.

Zhong Ning took out her earphones, put them on, and tapped to play the video.

Bowen and Zai Zai first appeared in the frame, both smiling brightly as they said, "Today we’ve come to Lancheng’s History Museum—our country’s largest museum. We visited two sections and didn’t even scratch the surface. We can’t go on, we really need a break."

"Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait—look what I found! Such a cool jiejie!"

The camera panned, weaving through the crowd. Zhong Ning saw herself on screen. Her face showed no expression, but her eyes were subtly watching someone beside her. Only when Bowen walked over and greeted her did her gaze shift away.

She hadn’t even noticed it herself… So she had been secretly watching Xie Shiqing all along?

Xie Shiqing’s face had been heavily pixelated, with layers of frosted blur obscuring her entire upper body—it looked like several thick sheets of frosted glass had been overlaid. Even a deity wouldn’t be able to tell who she was.

Then came Bowen’s questioning, followed by her agreeing, then makeup, removing her ear studs, changing into dangling earrings, putting on the dragon horns, and then the filming began.

"That’s a wrap! Honestly, I could do this for a month straight." Bowen said while holding the camera. She wasn’t just saying that to be polite—she truly meant it.

Zhong Ning’s bone structure and skin quality were exceptionally outstanding. She looked good from any angle, and no expression ever looked awkward. When the camera zoomed in, even the patterns in her irises were clear, and her skin appeared smooth and delicate—a face made for the camera.

Who wouldn’t love to shoot someone like that?

"Next up, let’s take a look at the final cut!"

Zhong Ning was given three solo shots, while all six group photos were selected for upload. The final highlight photo was the only one where they were holding hands.

Holding hands, sharing an umbrella—the canopy tilted, obscuring half of Zhong Ning’s body and face, cutting diagonally from the nose down, revealing a pair of deep, focused eyes staring at the girl beneath the umbrella fiddling with a sachet.

Their hands were linked by a ribbon. Zai Zai merely held it with one hand, while Zhong Ning had it wrapped several times around her palm.

That sense of attachment and the long strands of hair seemed to be just like the ribbon, tightly wound and grasped in her hand.

Originally, it was a simple hand-holding pose. They shot a few frames, but Bowen kept feeling it lacked the right vibe. On a sudden whim, she switched to using a ribbon instead—and the subtle emotional undertone immediately came through.

A cold, reserved yet deeply affectionate dragon deity x a lively, sunny girl oblivious to everything.

Maybe there was even some kind of reincarnation or resurrection storyline—whatever it was, once the video was posted, the comments were filled with fans squealing and creating elaborate headcanons.

Bowen pinned a comment in the section, tagging Zhong Ning. Zhong Ning also gave it a like and replied underneath.

And immediately under her reply, a long string of comments appeared: "Jiejie please take care of me, I don’t want to work hard anymore."

Zhong Ning: "..."

Some people were howling that it was a "divine crossover", and Bowen responded below: [I didn’t even recognize her! The little lamb speaks so gently, and her personality is so nice!]

The video of the two quickly shot up to the number one spot on the trending list.

Riding this wave of popularity, Zhong Ning gained over a hundred thousand new followers. The backend stats were still steadily climbing, but Zhong Ning didn’t bother to check again.

She hadn’t even blurred herself in the video. If any of her gaming fans saw it, they might recognize her livestream account.

Same hands, same frequently-seen wristwatch, same voice—for those paying close attention, it wouldn’t be hard to connect the dots.

Back when Zhong Ning registered a new account on international platforms, she had done so to say goodbye to the past, to cut all ties.

But upon reflection, she knew that was impossible. One could only reconcile with the past. It was the experiences and memories of the past that shaped who she was now. Cutting off the past was also cutting off relationships, cutting off connections to people.

Unless one had their memories erased through hypnosis—complete amnesia—there was no way to truly escape the influence of the past.

Zhong Ning had come to terms with this and accepted it, so naturally she didn’t care anymore. She didn’t mind if others found out that several of those accounts belonged to her.

But Xie Shiqing couldn’t be as composed.

She had her own short video account, and the Xie Corporation even had an official account that posted videos of its artists and celebrities.

Her personal account didn’t have her name—it was just a private alt. After filming with Bowen, she had secretly followed Zhong Ning.

The moment she saw the new video, her eyes turned red with jealousy.

The photo was staged—the physical contact between them was less than that of regular friends. But Bowen’s photography skills were so good, her sense of atmosphere so precise, that anyone seeing it for the first time would believe there was something between the two of them.

Xie Shiqing’s jealousy nearly drove her mad, because she suddenly realized—she and Zhong Ning had never taken a single photo together.