Chen Xindi’s room had been assigned at the end of the hallway, right next door to Ji Liuyue and Liu Qingye’s room.
She had just finished putting away her luggage when she went over and knocked on her neighbors’ door.
Hearing the sound, Liu Qingye hurried to the entrance in her slippers and peeked through the peephole first.
When she saw who it was, she hesitated over whether to open the door.
But the nonstop “knock, knock, knock” was getting annoying, so Liu Qingye reluctantly pulled the door open.
Looking puzzled, she asked, “What are you doing here this late at night?”
Chen Xindi waved her phone.
She wore a sweet, friendly smile, with a faint dimple at the corner of her lips.
In a soft voice, she asked, “It’s time for the heart-flutter text segment later, but I don’t know how to send one, so I wanted to ask Liuyue for advice.”
“What are you asking her for?” Liu Qingye muttered. “If you want to send one, then just send one.”
Ji Liuyue, who was inside the room, had already heard their conversation. She poked her head out and asked, “Are you here to see me?”
“Yes, I’m Cindy!”
Chen Xindi happily waved at her, then pushed Liu Qingye aside and quickly squeezed into the room.
Liu Qingye gritted her teeth as she watched the uninvited guest barge in, irritation rising in her heart.
Liuyue had been washing up in the bathroom and had just removed her makeup.
Tiny, crystal-clear droplets of water still clung to her cheeks. She picked up a tissue and dabbed them away. Her skin was smooth and luminous, like a peeled egg, glowing with a moist radiance.
Without makeup, her eyebrows looked even lighter, but her nose was tall and straight, and her natural lip color was a pale pink.
She looked even more beautiful, like a porcelain doll.
Chen Xindi came to an abrupt stop, her eyes settling on Liuyue’s face. She broke into a wide smile and couldn’t help praising her.
“Liuyue, you’re so pretty!”
“You’re pretty too.” Ji Liuyue walked out of the bathroom. “You came to see me?”
“Mhm.”
Chen Xindi was extremely outgoing. She reached out as if to link arms with Liuyue, but Liu Qingye, who had followed close behind, grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
“What are you doing?” Chen Xindi asked, completely bewildered.
Liu Qingye’s gaze fell on her hand. “What are you doing?”
Chen Xindi blinked her long eyelashes. “I came to ask Liuyue something.”
“Ask her whatever you want, but why are you holding her hand?”
“In my country, my girlfriends and I always do that. What’s the problem?”
“Girlfriends?!” Liu Qingye exclaimed in shock.
Chen Xindi nodded. “Yes, I have several girlfriends…”
She paused when she saw Liu Qingye staring at her with her mouth hanging open. Only then did she realize what Liu Qingye had misunderstood.
She quickly added, “I call all my close female friends ‘girlfriends.’ Is that not the right way to say it in Chinese?”
Thank goodness.
Liu Qingye hurriedly patted her chest.
For a moment, she had thought Chen Xindi hadn’t joined the dating show for the male contestants at all, but for the female contestants.
In the end, the three of them sat down in the lounge area of the room.
Ji Liuyue and Liu Qingye sat together on the long sofa, while Chen Xindi was assigned the single armchair.
She tilted her head up and asked with an eager, studious expression, “Liuyue, I don’t understand how to send the heart-flutter text.”
“If you’re interested in one of the male contestants and like him, send it to him,” Liu Qingye said impatiently. “It’s anonymous anyway. All he can do is guess who it’s from.”
Chen Xindi asked again, “Can we only send one?”
Liu Qingye froze. “...Well...”
She didn’t actually know either.
The production team hadn’t seemed to set a clear limit, but everyone else had only sent one.
“I’ll ask the staff,” Ji Liuyue said.
They found a staff member, who soon replied, “There’s no limit.”
“Oh.”
Chen Xindi nodded like a chick pecking at grain, looking rather excited.
She glanced at Ji Liuyue, then at Liu Qingye.
Unable to hide her envy, she said, “You two are so close. It would be great if we could live together too!”
Liu Qingye was taken aback. Her expression immediately turned complicated, and she looked away.
“Who says we’re close?”
Ji Liuyue smiled brightly and played along. “That’s right. Our relationship is actually pretty tense. We were rivals in love at the beginning.”
“Oh, then I’m your rival in love too.”
Chen Xindi didn’t seem to understand—or perhaps she simply didn’t care. She tilted her head at Liuyue and continued, “I had a date with Xu Jinsi tonight, didn’t I?”
“Later, I heard from Tiantian and Yiyi that you two had the most interactions back at the house.”
“I had plenty of interactions with him too, okay?” Liu Qingye said, unwilling to be outdone.
“Huh? You did?” Chen Xindi fell silent for a moment, looking genuinely surprised that Liu Qingye and Xu Jinsi had ever had a storyline together.
Liu Qingye was unhappy. “What do you mean, ‘you did’?”
Chen Xindi quickly put on a polite smile.
“You’re great too, but when I was talking with Xu Jinsi, I never heard him mention your name.”
“I did hear him say ‘Liuyue’ several times, though. That’s why I was so curious about Liuyue when I came into the house just now.”
“Xu Jinsi has pretty good taste, though. Liuyue really is beautiful!”
She praised her again, staring openly at Ji Liuyue’s face as she spoke.
Liu Qingye let out a soft snort.
Chen Xindi added, “Yezi, you’re pretty too. You just need to smile more.”
Liu Qingye’s face turned stormy. “...”
Ji Liuyue nearly burst out laughing.
Back when the dating show had first started, Liu Qingye’s image had been that of a sweet, innocent, and adorable girl. She had smiled plenty in the beginning.
It was just that her carefully crafted persona had started to fall apart midway through the show.
After all, her “girl who loved strawberry milk” image had been accidentally exposed as fake.
It wasn’t until Chen Xindi had left that Liu Qingye finally let out a long breath and slammed the door shut.
“She’s finally gone!”
There was a distinct note of relief in her voice.
Sitting on the sofa, Ji Liuyue said with a smile, “Cindy’s actually a pretty nice person. She’s lively and enthusiastic. You don’t need to be so nervous.”
“What am I nervous about? What’s there to be nervous about? Xu Jinsi isn’t even part of my pairing.”
Liu Qingye couldn’t help blurting out the complaint.
The moment she finished speaking, she realized how it sounded and hurriedly added, “And I’m not saying I’m worried about you. It’s just that you and I are sharing a room now, so you’re my roommate. I’m worried someone might take advantage of you.”
“If you get taken advantage of, that’s your problem. Just don’t drag me into it.”
Ji Liuyue nodded.
“Mm, I know. You’re not concerned about me.”
“Of course not! We’re rivals in love. Why would I care about you for no reason?”
Liu Qingye let out another snort and sat down on the bed by herself.
The room fell silent for three seconds.
Then she couldn’t help leaning toward Ji Liuyue again.
“Can’t you really tell that Chen Xindi is such a fake sweetie?”
Ji Liuyue glanced at her and teased, “She’s not so bad. She’s still nowhere near as good as you.”
The corners of Liu Qingye’s lips lifted. She was completely confident.
“Of course! How could she compare to me?”
Only after saying it did she realize something was off.
She immediately flew into a rage.
“Wait—what?! Ji Liuyue, are you complimenting me or insulting me?”
