Gu Ran had a dream.
She dreamed she was back in her old school, in an empty classroom with only her and Ji Shiyu.
They weren't even in the same class, let alone the same grade, yet Ji Shiyu was sitting beside her, teaching her English. His pronunciation was flawless, and the dull English language became charming coming from his lips.
She recited along with Ji Shiyu for a while, and he said she read very well, deserving a reward.
The reward was Ji Shiyu lifting her chin and kissing her.
She responded awkwardly to his kiss, then heard a rustling sound.
She opened her eyes and saw Qin Wenyi, surrounded by a group of her girlfriends at the classroom door, staring frozen at the scene inside.
But Ji Shiyu seemed not to hear the commotion at the door and continued to kiss her.
So, while responding to his kiss, she glanced from the corner of her eye at Qin Wenyi, who was surrounded in the middle of her friends.
With a triumphant, victorious look she had never felt before.
Qin Wenyi's face turned ashen.
Then Gu Ran woke up.
She rubbed her eyes. Sunlight was already streaming through the gap in the curtains, brightening the bedroom.
The images and feelings from the dream lingered in her mind.
It had to be said, it was a wonderful dream.
Because the lingering sense of satisfaction from making Qin Wenyi witness her kissing Ji Shiyu still remained in her chest.
Gu Ran lay in bed with her eyes open, too lazy to process anything else, waiting until that gratifying feeling from the dream dissipated bit by bit before gradually coming back to her senses.
She sat up in bed and realized she had slept in her clothes from last night, only having taken off her coat.
She rubbed her throbbing head; her memories were all fragments—drinking, crying, and a kiss.
Her phone chimed with a WeChat notification.
Gu Ran followed the sound to find her phone and saw a message from Ding Ze asking if she was awake.
She had gotten drunk last night, and he and Ji Shiyu had taken her home together.
Facing Ding Ze's message on her phone, Gu Ran's memory finally became a little more complete.
She smelled the lingering scent of last night's alcohol on herself and immediately got out of bed to shower. As the warm water streamed over her, she wiped her face and gradually recalled what had happened and the words that were said.
The things she said to Ji Shiyu, and the things Ji Shiyu said to her.
And that kiss.
Gu Ran wiped her lips, her expression suddenly turning somewhat annoyed.
No wonder she had such a dream.
After showering, drying off, and changing clothes, the discomfort from the hangover finally began to fade.
Having done all that, Gu Ran poured herself a glass of milk, ate something, and then sat alone on the living room sofa, lost in thought.
Her mind was a bit chaotic, whether because of last night or because of everything before.
She didn't know why she had cried either. When the alcohol numbed her nerves, seeing Ji Shiyu again, it seemed like nothing could be held back.
After thinking for a while, Gu Ran decided to stop thinking. She shook her head, hugged a cushion against the sofa, picked up her phone, and prepared to play a game.
"Divine Realm Jianghu 2" had already given her the beta version, so now she could start collecting new little hoarders.
But before starting the game, Gu Ran checked Weibo again. She had posted a "Back to work~" update yesterday, and by now the reposts, likes, and comments had already surpassed ten thousand.
The fan comments below were mostly "Looking forward to Ran Ran~", but there were also a few unfamiliar ones, telling her not to act innocent after gaining advantages here, and for the "Cat Paw Princess" to stop being a green tea btch.
Clicking into these commenters' profiles revealed they were all fans of a certain young actress.
Gu Ran scoffed.
Who's the real green tea here?
She leaned on the sofa and played games for a while until Ding Ze finally called.
"Feeling okay today? Can you stream tonight?"
Gu Ran yawned: "I'm fine, of course I'm streaming."
"Oh." Ding Ze nodded on the other end of the line, then hesitantly asked: "You and President Ji..."
"Are you back together?"
Although he hadn't heard what they said, he remembered how Gu Ran had cried on Ji Shiyu's shoulder last night, and also the scene of Ji Shiyu kissing Gu Ran, from her forehead slowly down to her lips, so intimate.
So they must have said good things. Ding Ze thought.
Gu Ran: "?"
"Who told you we're back together?"
Ding Ze: "Then you two..."
Gu Ran sat up straight on the sofa: "What a person says and does when drunk is beyond their control and basically doesn't express their true intentions, okay?"
Some drunk people even hug lampposts and call them 'daddy.' Does that mean they consciously think the lamppost is their father?
"By the way," Gu Ran puffed her cheeks indignantly, "who told you to call Ji Shiyu last night? I know you have weak willpower and defected long ago, but could you not be so obvious about it? Not even pretending in front of me anymore?"
Ding Ze: "..."
If it weren't for her drunkenly rambling to him non-stop about secrets with her ex-boyfriend, thinking and talking only about things with her ex, not listening to anyone else, he wouldn't have gone through countless internal transfers, wearing out his lips trying to finally reach the president's office to contact Ji Shiyu, going through all that trouble to get him to come for her, only to be labeled a traitor today.
Indeed different from last night's tearful, drunken self.
He listened to Gu Ran's rant and sighed: "Alright then."
That night, during her livestream, Gu Ran specifically mentioned her current single status.
Fans chattered in the bullet comments, and then the conversation turned to what kind of man would be worthy of someone as cute as Ran Ran in the future.
The first conclusion was:
[Anyway, I'm not worthy.]
[I wouldn't dare marry Ran Ran even if she dared to marry me]
[What am I, to think I could be with our great beauty Gu Ran]
Then:
[Looks don't need to be too great, someone like Lu Lincheng would do]
[Wealth doesn't need to be too much, someone like Gu Mingjing is barely acceptable]
[For personality, temper, and level of doting on his wife, someone like Chi Chenyan would just about suffice]
Looking at the standards her fans set for her, Gu Ran's expression twitched slightly.
Her fans indeed had grand, open-minded standards.
To be honest, she actually knew Gu Mingjing among those people, though they hadn't spoken much, but he was, after all, Ji Shiyu's childhood friend.
Gu Ran ended her livestream after seeing the outrageously high standards her fans had arranged for her.
Then Ji Shiyu called her, saying He Ji had new dishes and asking if she wanted to try them.
Gu Ran paused for a moment when she heard the name "He Ji."
A private kitchen restaurant, a dining place that operated like a wealthy club, membership and reservation only. Even Yuan Mengxuan had to use her father's name to book a table one or two months in advance, and going once would flood her social media. But the Chinese cuisine was truly excellent, surpassing the chefs at Nan Chen Mansion.
Ji Shiyu, of course, didn't need a reservation to go.
Gu Ran hesitated for a moment after hearing this, then finally curled her lips: "Not going."
There was a silence on the other end of the line before Ji Shiyu finally asked: "Do you remember this time?"
Gu Ran remembered what Ji Shiyu had said to her when he kissed her: "Remember this time."
Gu Ran stubbornly said: "I don't remember."
She hung up the phone, her mind stuck on what Ji Shiyu had said to her: "Remember this time."
When he said "this time," could it mean there was a previous time as well?
But she couldn't remember.
...
The post-production for the promotional trailer of "Holy Spirit Jianghu 2," while grand in scale, progressed relatively quickly. This was because the total runtime wasn't long, and the VFX company had already prepared the CG scenes, leaving only the green screen footage to be shot and composited.
With half a month left until the game's official launch and the trailer's release, the game company had already begun the pre-launch hype, first releasing a ten-second teaser.
This ten-second teaser revealed Gu Ran's character design for "Holy Spirit Jianghu 2." Departing from an anime-style cosplay, it fully captured the essence of ancient fantasy xianxia, a look that left viewers exclaiming in awe.
Gu Ran reposted the teaser weibo from the game company's official account. Seeing the endorsement fee the company had transferred to her card filled her with immense satisfaction.
Ding Ze mentioned that "Holy Spirit Jianghu 2" would also be airing TV commercials, and during the prime-time slot at 8 PM every night.
The thought of soon seeing her own commercial on television stirred excitement within her again.
Although the variety show "Celebrity Charge Forward" she had been on previously was popular, it was a web series. The feeling of seeing her face on television, a truly mass-market screen, was simply incomparable.
After all, nowadays many celebrities film dramas that never make it to broadcast TV, having to settle for online streaming instead.
Gu Ran distinctly noticed that recently, more and more people on the street were recognizing her. Occasionally, she even needed to wear a hat when going out.
This state of calm anticipation continued until the day before the official launch and promotional release of "Holy Spirit Jianghu 2," when public excitement was at its peak. At that moment, a piece of news concerning the game's spokesperson—Cat's Paw's top female streamer, Gu Ran—exploded onto the scene.
Gu Ran was in the middle of frantically practicing how to defeat the Little Hoarding Mice in preparation for the game's launch when Ding Ze called, saying something had happened.
Gu Ran exited the game and, following Ding Ze's instructions, opened the entertainment section. There, she saw a weibo post that all the major entertainment marketing accounts had just uniformly published:
"Fake Single Persona? Top Female Streamer Gu Ran Gets Cozy with Man on Street After Drinking."
Below the post were animated GIFs plastered with paparazzi logos. In them, on a nighttime street, she was seen stumbling out, supported by someone whose head was labeled with an arrow pointing to "Manager." She then fell into the arms of another person labeled "Civilian Man." In the GIF, she was crying, and the man held the back of her head, comforting her. Finally, it captured her looking up. From the camera angle, it was unclear exactly what was happening, but the posture seemed suggestive of a kiss.
After viewing the entire set of photos and listening to Ding Ze's anxious voice on the phone, amidst her bewilderment, one thought completely filled her mind:
Even a female streamer like me has paparazzi following me now?
