╔═══ Author's note ════╗
Edited by Psycho S.
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"Lili," Bing Shi touched her forehead in exasperation, only now realizing that she wasn't here on a vacation. She didn't want to clean up whatever mess she, or one of the girls would make, in this humongous place, "Do you see what I see? I'm afraid your clumsiness will drown us in debt."
"I'm sorry." Lili followed behind Bing Shi, careful with her steps, "Can I hold onto you?" She was so lucky to be paired up with Silika. She was a big fan. Their circumstances were a bit familiar. She destroyed a few expensive things in her part-time job as a hotel cleaner... She couldn't anger the owner of this house, no matter what.
"As my number three fan, you can hold onto my hoodie," said Bing Shi while they explored the architecture of the majestic villa. Feeling a bit nostalgic, she reminisced about Tianshies and Lyras as she walked to wherever with LiLi.
Those girls were the biggest accomplishment in her life. She really hoped that they were all living well. Oh, she also hoped her twin sister was living well too; it was her first time having a sister in all her lifetimes. The experience wasn't that different from having little brothers though.
The participants of the show won't be meeting the owners of the mansions right away. This was so the directors could keep the suspense and mystery of who the owners were. They wanted the contestants to be on their toes.
The three girls accommodated themselves within the new villa relatively fast. Aoi Hong and Bing Shi agreed upon giving LiLi the easier job. They were going with the 'teamwork' tactic, since they were not here to catch a rich man. Well, except for maybe Lili...
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Rack to Riches: First encounter.
Since it was the middle of the night, the girls in the show should be sound asleep. The script, which was given to the rich men, had said: let's see the girls' sleeping habits so that the audience could catch them at their most embarrassing moments.
Li Jie followed the script as he opened the door to his villa with the cameraman right behind him. He quietly made his way towards Aoi Hong's room and was met with her blanket thrown across the room. She slept like a log, with no care in the world: her stomach was happily greeting the outside world as she carelessly slept, slept away. She was in a hilariously bold position.
When Li Jie went to Lili's room, she was also sound asleep. Lili was curled up in a fetal position; she seemed a bit insecure and small because she was buried underneath her blanket. It was a cute and endearing sight to Li Jie and the cameraman.
As Li Jie headed towards Silika's room, he hesitatingly halted before her door. When he touched the door's handle, he felt some kind of pressure digging heavily onto his shoulders: it was like he was trespassing into Pandora's chamber. It was like... if he made one wrong move, he would be beheaded mercilessly.
It must have been quite a while with Li Jie standing outside of Silika's door because the cameraman was noticeably getting agitated. Just as the cameraman was about to open his mouth, the door suddenly swung open from the inside. There stood Silika Lin, who bowed slightly in greeting.
When she stood up, Li Jie noticed that she was holding a hanger with the maid costume. Li Jie's eyebrows twitched again (his eyebrows never got a rest when he was with this woman).
"Do I have to wear this?" She asked while rubbing her tired eyes.
When Li Jie didn't respond fast enough, Bing Shi tiredly added, "I really don't want to wear that."
Li Jie took a step back in surprise (and oh, there went his panicking eyebrow look). He shook his head automatically in reply to Bing Shi's first question. He didn't have to verbally say that she didn't have to wear the maid costume.
While Li Jie was shaking his head, the cameraman awkwardly stood off to the side. It seemed that Li Jie... was going against the script? As the cameraman rubbed at his chin with one hand, he wondered if this footage would be used to attract more clout from Li Jie and Silika's fans.
Bing Shi showed her gratitude with a satisfied grin. In an instant, it was like her drowsiness vanished, "So, how did it go with your parents?"
"I can't marry even if I wanted," Li Jie pressed his lips together. He tried to be as silent as possible so as not to wake her up. Her husband went overboard. He had no idea what Lu Kai did, but his grandparents almost died from a heart attack, and his parents didn't even dare to look him in the eyes. Not like they could have looked him in the eyes if they weren't on all fours begging for forgiveness. Much to Li Jie's offense, they asked him to stay alone forever.
"Isn't that amazing? We should normalize people being single," Bing Shi smiled awkwardly while shielding the identity of her hubby. It looked like a certain someone had gone overboard again. She pressed her pointer against her lips and tiptoed towards the kitchen to make Li Jie a cup of milk as an apology. "Do you want to throw a celebration party?"
"Do you realize that you're in a Cinderella reality show?" Li Jie accepted the milk with a bemused smile. "..." She acted as if there weren't any cameras around, and it made him want to do the same. Her carelessness was somehow infectious... He really had to watch out for himself.
"I do? I'm taking it very seriously. I even thought of searching for the lost glass shoe myself, you know?" Going along with his joke, Bing Shi walked around a wide marble counter, then sat at the bar chair, warming her hands with the cup. Having a 'not so crazy' man fall for her was a first. Li Jie didn't ooze out anything that pointed towards his unstable mentality, which she thought was suspicious.
Even hubby would wonder how such an 'amazing' man would pine after his wife (though this was information he would never admit to anyone, including himself). But in fact, the man himself, Li Jie, was not really interested in her at all. If they were all thrown back into the past, she doubted that a man like Li Jie would ever take notice of her: an ordinary girl hidden in the shadows.
Li Jie felt perplexed when Silika stared at him. It felt as if she was studying him. He should be considered her boss now, but he didn't feel like one at all. If anything, it felt like he was her underline, which he didn't know how to feel about.
"Do you want to sing a duet song with me?" he asked, going straight to the point. She helped him more than he could ask for. He owed her at least this much. He noticed that she didn't care about wealth; she was much more interested in wanting fame—lots and lots of fame, from the looks of it.
Supporting her chin with her palm, Bing Shi speculated that he wouldn't have any problems sharing a woman with other men. Was he into polyamory, by any chance? Why didn't he try to avoid her? Wasn't he afraid that he would fall deeper in love with her? Or was he doing this so he could repay the favor?
In the end, it didn't matter. Would others start to think that she was using him for her benefit? No, on the contrary, they would think she was stupid if she rejected such a big deal for the sake of her pride as an 'independent' woman.
Humans were confusing creatures like that. They disdain people who take advantage of another person's kindness but they also don't like it when people don't take advantage of an opportunity that's been presented to them. Humans and their double standards... It was a fascinating thing to think about later.
"That would be my pleasure." Bing Shi clinked her cup against his with a sweet smile, "Cheers to our future cooperation, senior Li."
"Cheers," Li Jie beamed his striking white teeth at her, using this marketing move to promote their new song and bring to life a new hype.
Crash!
Alarmed, both stood up to find out what happened.
Outside the kitchen, the eavesdropping Aoi Hong accidentally hit the flower vase beside the entrance with her back.