Huayu: Starting from retirement, sweeping across the domestic entertainment industry

Zhou Ye unconsciously tightened her grip on the iced coconut juice glass. She lowered her eyes, staring at the osmanthus petals floating in the glass, and felt that the sweet taste had become somewhat cloying.

Li Ran was clearly moved by Tian Xiwei's words, and recalling his past performances on the field, he was filled with emotion.

He looked intently at Tian Xiwei, his eyes filled with an ambiguous emotion.

"I didn't expect you to know me so well," he said gently, picking up his cup.

"Let's raise a toast to 'Burn,' a player from our past competition!"

"Great!" Tian Xiwei immediately chimed in, her tone both urgent and sincere. "Let's also raise a toast to the current actor, Li Ran."

She cheerfully raised her glass, and Zhou Ye quickly followed suit, raising his coconut juice as well. "Me too!"

Zhang Ruoyun took everything in, her mind clear as a mirror.

He picked up his beer glass and chimed in at the opportune moment, "Come on, let's wish our new drama a huge success too."

The four of them raised their glasses in celebration.

Although Li Ran was drinking beer now, his face was still slightly flushed, but he wasn't as drunk as he was last night after just one glass.

Tian Xiwei peeled a shrimp and handed it to him naturally, saying, "Eat something to calm your nerves."

She clearly looks like a legitimate girlfriend.

Zhou Ye suddenly felt a tightness in her throat and a wave of nausea surged up. She paused in drinking the coconut juice and took a big gulp.

"Cough, cough..." She choked because she drank too fast and covered her mouth to cough.

"Drink slowly." Li Ran's attention was drawn to her, and he reached out to pat her back.

Zhou Ye let him do as he pleased, and said in a hoarse voice, "It's nothing, I just drank too fast."

She didn't look at Li Ran, but instead stared at Tian Xiwei across from her, as if in a provocation.

Tian Xiwei was not to be outdone, staring at her with wide eyes.

Seeing the tension between the two women, Li Ran was both amused and exasperated. He hadn't expected Coconut to be such a jealous person.

Seeing that everyone had almost finished eating, he asked, "Are you all full? Order some more if you're not satisfied."

Zhang Ruoyun noticed the awkward atmosphere and said, "Alright, let's go home early! We have filming tomorrow!"

……

Back at the hotel, Zhou Ye splashed cold water on her face. The icy water droplets slid down her cheeks, making her feel a little more awake.

She looked at her expressionless face in the mirror, resembling the villainous Wei Lai. She tugged at the corners of her mouth, trying to put on a relaxed smile, but it looked worse than crying.

"Coconut, have some ambition."

She looked in the mirror and whispered to herself, "So what if she's a rival? You're Li Ran's girlfriend, don't you know that?"

Even so, she still felt a vague unease. Li Ran didn't seem to dislike Tian Xiwei, which made her feel like she was facing a formidable enemy. What if...?

But at least for now she was Li Ran's girlfriend. After thinking it through, she took a deep breath, pushed open the door, and walked out.

She went straight to Li Ran's room across the street, swiped her card and went in. She found that Li Ran was still taking a shower and lying on the bed without making a sound.

After taking a shower, Li Ran looked at Zhou Ye on the bed and asked, "So, are you sleeping here tonight?"

She nodded in agreement: "Yeah, it's been a long time since we slept together."

Li Ran, drying his hair with a towel, walked over to her and asked softly, "What's wrong? Are you jealous? You're all cold-faced, like Wei Lai."

"No!"

She immediately bristled and kicked him, saying, "You seemed to enjoy it when they touched you this afternoon, didn't you?"

"No way, you didn't see how nervous I was," Li Ran chuckled awkwardly.

Zhou Ye glared at him, pointing at him angrily, "However I look at it, you seemed to enjoy it when Tian Xiwei touched you."

"You two seemed to have a good chat tonight! And did you like the shrimp she peeled for you?"

Looking at her ambiguous smile, Li Ran felt a chill run down his spine. He quickly lay down next to her and pulled her into his arms.

"Oh! You said you weren't jealous, but even the happy little dog isn't happy now."

Zhou Ye reached out and pushed him away, "Who's your happy little dog? Get off me, I'm going to take a shower."

Li Ran stood up and stepped aside, walking straight into the bathroom.

Watching Zhou Ye's retreating figure, Li Ran gently shook her head. If Tian Xiwei was making her act like this, she would explode if she knew that her best friend Xiao Baihu had directly raided her base.

Although Zhou Ye was jealous and angry, Li Ran still got her wish that night and drank some delicious coconut juice.

The minor conflict between Zhou Ye and Tian Xiwei did not affect the normal filming of the production crew.

In front of the camera, they acted exactly as they were supposed to, and in their private interactions, there was no indication that they had any disagreements.

But Li Ran suffered, as he seemed to have become the "battlefield" for the two of them.

This morning, Zhou Ye brought over a bag of exquisitely packaged low-sugar cookies and casually placed it next to his chair. "Try them, they were sent from home, they're not too sweet."

In the afternoon, Tian Xiwei would "coincidentally" have an extra box of imported handmade chocolates, which she would hand over with a sweet smile: "Li Ran, have some energy, you must have worked hard filming today."

At first, Li Ran thought it was just "colleague's" care and happily accepted it all.

But he soon became unhappy because the two of them always handed him food at slightly different times, and he was always made to finish it.

When Li Ran didn't want to eat, under their eager gazes, she could only force herself to finish the food and then give comments like "not bad" or "pretty good".

After a few days, he felt like Peppa Pig being constantly fed, his stomach never empty.

What really blew him away was that one night while taking a shower, he was horrified to discover that his once well-defined six-pack abs were starting to turn into a belly.

But when he refused them, their pitiful eyes and disappointed expressions made Li Ran feel like a perverted uncle bullying little girls.

Eating is just about gaining weight! It's not like Huang Lei's "poisonous green beans," so eat as much as you want.

One afternoon, Zhou Ye gave him a small bag of durian candy, even though Li Ran had a deep-seated hatred for durian.

He was holding the bag of candy, looking troubled, when he caught sight of Zhang Ruoyun humming a tune as she passed by. A thought struck him, and he quickly waved, "Brother Ruoyun! Come on, have some candy."

Zhang Ruoyun, unsuspecting, took the package, unwrapped it, and popped one into her mouth. The next second, her face scrunched up like a bun: "Wow! This tastes just right!"

He smacked his lips, seemingly enjoying his meal.

Li Ran breathed a sigh of relief, feeling like he had escaped a disaster.

However, he underestimated how serious Zhou Ye was about this matter.

She smelled a familiar durian scent when she was acting with Zhang Ruoyun, but Li Ran didn't have it.

She picked up Li Ran's coat, which was lying next to her, and smelled it. It did not smell of durian. She looked up at Li Ran, who was discussing lines with the director not far away, but did not say anything.

When she returned to the hotel that evening, she didn't go to find Li Ran, but soon Li Ran opened the door and came in.

He approached her as usual, but Zhou Ye avoided him, curled up on the other side of the bed with her tablet, leaving him with only a cold profile.

"Coconut?" Li Ran called out to her tentatively.

Zhou Ye stared at the tablet, calmly looking at the script lines. After several seconds, he spoke without much emotion: "Durian candy, does Zhang Ruoyun like it?"

Li Ran's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this. How did Zhou Ye know?

He quickly explained, "I had just finished eating the bag of preserved plum candy that Xiaotian gave me, and it was a bit too sweet, so I was thinking of eating yours after a while, and then Brother Ruoyun came over..."

"Plum candy".

Zhou Ye interrupted him, slowly repeating those three words, and finally turned to look at him, but his eyes were cold. "You ate the plum candy she gave you. You gave away the durian candy I gave you."

"No, listen to my excuses, not explanations..."

Li Ran was completely bewildered, trying to make sense of the situation. "He came over, so I gave him one. I thought I'd wait a bit for the others..."

"Wait a minute?"

Zhou Ye tugged at the corners of his mouth, his smile somewhat stiff. "Will you forget about it later, or will there be some other delicious food that you need to eat?"

She put down the tablet, straddled Li Ran, and said in a low but clear voice, "Li Ran, I don't expect you to eat every single thing I give you."

"But I'm your girlfriend, okay? What's the deal with Tian Xiwei? And why don't you reject her?"