Jiang Yiniing sat at home with her cellphone in hand, waiting. With Gao Shengyan’s help in mediating, she wasn’t as worried anymore, thinking that even if Tang Li didn’t acknowledge their close friendship from their school days, she wouldn’t kick her while she was down.
At 3 p.m., Tang Li posted a Weibo update.
[Tang Li V]:"I posted two photos at noon and it caused such a controversy, so now I’d like to clarify: 1. Jiang Yiniing and I were classmates in university and shared a dormitory for a year; 2. Given my reclusive nature, I have never had a ’bestie’; 3. Maybe I will have a ’bestie’ in the future."
To most netizens, Tang Li had given Jiang Yiniing some face by acknowledging that they were roommates and smoothly explaining away the situation, yet she had neatly denied the claim that they were best friends.
Sister Meng saw the Weibo post and quickly made a call: "You said Tang Li would help clear this up for you, but the implication of her latest Weibo post is that she doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore."
Jiang Yiniing felt anxious. Hearing Sister Meng say this, she began to regret riding on Tang Li’s popularity. Now she was in too deep, and Tang Li’s statement hadn’t really helped her out of her predicament. Her Weibo followers were dropping rapidly.
Later, Jiang Yiniing reposted Tang Li’s Weibo, making sure to add her own comment: "Because of me, Tang Li has been inconvenienced. We’ll talk about the rest privately. [Laugh cry emoji]"
Apart from her own fans, most netizens weren’t buying this repost.
"You’re trying to save face, and Tang Li doesn’t even want to bother with you. [Candle emoji]"
"You still have the nerve to say such things after stealing so many of Tang Li’s fans. Now you play the innocent, as if we’ve all lost our intelligence!"
"Just focus on your acting. Don’t mooch off others’ popularity. If you overdo it, you’ll just end up embarrassed like you are now."
Jiang Yiniing’s face flushed red as she read these comments.
Yu Sui noticed Jiang Yiniing manually deleting comments and chuckled while sprawling on the couch: "She’s gone from over 7,000 comments down to 3,000. Just how many people are scolding her, and from now on, no one will believe her innocent act... Oh my, she just turned off the commenting feature!"
Tang Li used a highlighter to mark her lines in the script: "Her temperament is unstable; reading too many comments will only make her more impetuous."
"Being agitated is a good thing. That way, she’ll bother you less."
Tang Li looked up, "She dares to come to me now?"
"..." Yu Sui fell silent.
Due to the ridicule from netizens, Jiang Yiniing didn’t tag Tang Li again.
On the sixth day of filming at Lishan, Tang Li received a parcel from Wu Xuehan: "It’s from London, the doorman uncle said it arrived yesterday. I haven’t opened it, I’m sending it straight to you."
Tang Li opened the parcel to find an envelope.
As she tore the envelope open, several photos slid out, with one falling to the ground.
She bent down to pick it up, noticing a line of writing on the back.
[Better appreciated from afar.]
Tang Li flipped the photo over—it was the interior view of the Parliament Building, which she hadn’t been able to enter that night.
Though pictures of it were available online, holding this photo made her feel it was extremely precious.
Tang Li recognized Song Baiyan’s handwriting.
Looking through the remaining photos, each had writing on the back, some with more words than others.
On the back of a photo of the National Gallery in the United Kingdom, the warm sunlight falling onto the paper invoked a sense of nostalgia. For original chapters go to novel·fire.net
[The meaning of life lies in the ceaseless pursuit of discovery. After seeing Van Gogh’s "Sunflowers," I was suddenly inspired. As one enters their thirties, there are times when you want to grasp the time that slips through the fingers. Youth is the capital that is most easily gained and lost, and your mindset often influences the final profit and loss.]