Wen Liang’s bite had hurt Chen Die’s chin, and with both her hands pinned down, she could only kick him.

But Wen Liang seemed to anticipate this and trapped her legs at the same time.

Chen Die was now like a helpless little shrimp on a cutting board, at his mercy.

She didn’t know how things had developed to this point.

It was Wen Liang who had shamelessly come looking for her, yet now she was the one in a predicament, unable to move, with her mouth hurting from his bite.

He truly was like a dog.

Wen Liang sat on top of her, effortlessly gripping both her wrists with one hand, then asked: “Where’s your phone?”

Chen Die glared at him, refusing to speak.

Wen Liang wasn’t bothered. He looked around and finally pulled the phone out from under Chen Die’s head. He swiped it open, saw the password screen, and asked: “What’s the password?”

“Are you interrogating me now?” Chen Die moved her wrists in his grip, very displeased.

“No, I just want you to behave,” Wen Liang said with a casual smile. “With such a temper, I’ll have to tie you up before talking to you in the future, so you won’t slap me again.”

Chen Die was furious: “Get lost.”

Wen Liang clicked his tongue. It was a four-digit password, and he tried a few numbers.

He tried both his and Chen Die’s birthdays, but they were incorrect.

His expression tightened as he recalled the years and dates of their encounters, but still got an error message.

“One more try left, then it’ll be locked,” Wen Liang said, waving the phone.

Chen Die: “Why should I tell you? Did you tell me your phone password?”

“If you want to see my phone, I could just register your fingerprint,” he said very frankly.

“…” Chen Die sighed. “What do you want with my phone anyway?”

Wen Liang: “To remove me from your blacklist.”

Chen Die’s arm struggled a bit: “Let go first, and I’ll enter the password.”

Wen Liang looked down at her briefly, then released her hands. Chen Die finally broke free, took the phone, and entered the four-digit password.

Wen Liang watched from the side: “What does 9523 mean?”

“Not telling you.” Chen Die’s fingers paused as she removed Wen Liang’s phone number and WeChat from her blacklist. “There, now hurry up and leave. If someone sees us, we won’t be able to explain.”

“You never used to rush me away,” Wen Liang glanced at her.

Chen Die quickly replied: “You never used to need me to rush you away.”

They fell into silence. After a while, Wen Liang let out a breath and raised his hand to squeeze her neck, his voice both compromising and helpless: “Can you stop making me angry?”

Who was making whom angry?

Chen Die immediately entered battle mode, but then heard him continue: “I’ve never pursued anyone before and don’t know how to do it effectively. Don’t keep saying things that hurt me.”

Chen Die gave him a round of applause, very rebelliously: “You’re so amazing. So you’re pursuing me? If you hadn’t said so, I would have thought you were trying to strangle me just now.”

“…”

“You kiss me before you’ve even won me over?” Chen Die wiped her lips hard with the back of her hand. “At this rate, you’ll be hitting a home run in two days!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Chen Die quickly realized her mistake.

Not only had they already hit a home run, but initially it had happened through her brave initiative.

Sure enough, when she looked up, she met Wen Liang’s meaningful gaze.

“…”

A tactical error.

Fortunately, at that moment a phone call came in. Wen Liang answered it, and after hanging up, he said to her: “Tell me if you get cold. Sleep early. I have some business to attend to, so I’ll head out first.”

After saying this, he got up and lifted the tent flap to leave.

Chen Die went over to tighten the tent again before taking off her coat and lying down.

Outside, there was nothing but the sound of the wind, yet Chen Die’s heart couldn’t calm down for a long time.

She raised her hand to touch her lips, her heart pounding. Earlier she had been shocked and angry, but now her heart seemed ready to jump out of her throat.

She lay there, her mind wandering.

The phone beside her suddenly vibrated again. It was from Wen Liang, who had just become her contact again.

[Wen Liang: Teach me how to pursue someone I like.]

[Wen Liang: Shall we return to Yan City together after tomorrow night’s show recording?]

Someone I like…

How could this dog-man switch between being a dog and a human so quickly?

Chen Die unlocked the screen, and the password interface appeared again.

9523.

Chen Die had been using this password for a long time. Her first phone was bought by Wen Liang, and she didn’t have many secrets, so setting a password was purely for fun.

Her first password was Wen Liang’s birthday, but she only used it for half a day before feeling it was too easy to guess, so she changed it.

She thought for a while about what password to use.

Of course, there were many options—her birthday or something else that wouldn’t be easily discovered. But at that time, she was adamant that the password should have some connection to Wen Liang.

Later, Chen Die realized that both she and Wen Liang used the 26-key pinyin input method. To avoid being discovered, she chose a password based on the 9-key pinyin.

“Wen Liang” was 95;

“Chen Die” was 23.

And so the password 9523 had been used for all this time.

It had been so long that she now unlocked her phone with her fingerprint and hadn’t entered these four digits in ages. Only when Wen Liang asked did the memory come rushing back.

Chen Die didn’t know what unique charm Wen Liang held for her.

But she couldn’t forget him. When he was around, she couldn’t see anyone else.

Since that was the case, they might as well give each other another chance.

Chen Die held her phone, staring at his two messages for a long time, then replied.

[Chen Die: Okay.]

The next morning, having not slept well in the tent, Chen Die woke up at six and unzipped the tent to go out.

After washing up, the other three also got up one after another.

Ran Liming stretched as he came down the stairs: “Did you sleep well last night?”

“How could anyone sleep well in a tent?” Chen Die shrugged.

Ran Liming smiled: “True if your luck is this bad next time, I’ll switch rooms with you.”

Chen Die waved her hand, casually saying: “You might as well join forces with me to make Lin Qingye sleep in the tent.” Mentioning this made Chen Die angry again. “Can you compose on the spot for this game? I don’t believe he plans to put those lyrics in his new album.”

Li Zong laughed from the side.

He was also a singer and had a good relationship with Lin Qingye from before. They were from the same company, so he knew about the preparations for the new album.

He said: “He doesn’t plan to. The songs for his new album have all been finalized and will be released soon.”

“…”

Just as I thought.

Chen Die walked to the counter to grind herself a cup of coffee. She had to admit that filming this kind of slow-life variety show was quite leisurely and comfortable, except for sleeping in the tent last night.

“Do you all want coffee?” Chen Die asked.

Li Zong raised his hand: “Yes.”

Chen Die poured him a cup and brought it to the table. Li Zong thanked her.

She lazily held her cup of coffee and sat down in the hanging chair by the floor-to-ceiling window, scanning the room: “Where’s Lin Qingye?”

Li Zong nodded toward the back garden, teasing in a low voice: “Secretly calling his girlfriend.”

Chen Die looked toward the back garden in the direction he indicated.

The back garden was beautifully arranged in a Nordic style, with various green plants and flowers around stone benches, and scattered fallen leaves on the benches.

Lin Qingye was very casual, just sitting on a stone bench covered with fallen leaves. The winter sunlight shone down on him, making him look languid, and his smile had a touch of arrogance.

Chen Die turned her head back and took a sip of coffee.

Being in love must be nice.

But she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be in a relationship with Wen Liang.

He was hard as steel inside and out, not at all the type who seemed suited for romance.

After everyone had lunch in the morning, they received a new task from the production team—they needed to go to the local market to buy groceries.

So Chen Die went with Li Zong, while the other two stayed to prepare the fire outside.

Many of the ingredients the production team required were rare or had unfamiliar scientific names. Chen Die and Li Zong searched for quite a while before finally gathering everything, creating many funny moments along the way.

When they returned by car, Ran Liming and Lin Qingye had already set up the grill.

Besides that, a man was sitting next to the directors around the filming cameras outside.

Wen Liang.

Chen Die glanced at him without saying much and followed Li Zong over.

“Come on, let’s put the meat right on the grill,” Ran Liming was very experienced with barbecuing and took charge of nearly everything—flipping the meat and brushing on the sauce. He handed the first cooked chicken wing skewer to Chen Die. “Ladies first.”

“Thank you.”

Ran Liming watched her expectantly: “How does it taste?”

Chen Die took a bite and gave him a thumbs up: “Amazing.”

Everyone chatted while preparing the ingredients, and the conversation turned to the recent hit film “Hairpin Flower.”

Li Zong: “What was the final box office? Almost 2 billion, right?”

Chen Die smiled: “Not quite 2 billion, 1.9 billion.”

Ran Liming joked self-deprecatingly from the side: “I’ve starred in several movies, and their combined box office doesn’t match your single film.”

Everyone prepared the lunch ingredients together, chatting while eating.

Led by Li Zong, they all added each other on WeChat at the table. The other three were veterans who had met to varying degrees on different occasions and already had each other’s WeChat, but Chen Die didn’t have many friends from the entertainment circle in her WeChat.

She added all three and set up their contact names.

They continued chatting about “Hairpin Flower,” and somehow the topic shifted to Qi Cheng.

This is also a hot topic nowadays. Li Zong naturally directed the conversation toward Chen Die for the show’s effect, and Chen Die had been handling related interviews about Qi Cheng quite smoothly during this period.

“Speaking of Qi Cheng, there’s a funny story. His debut drama was with me as his co-star, where I played his brother,” Ran Liming said, taking a sip of beer. “When the production team edited the footage, they made a mistake and showed his phone number during a phone close-up. Because of this, he was harassed for quite a while.”

Li Zong: “Then what happened?”

“He changed his number, what else could he do? But coincidentally, the last four digits of his new number were the same as before, and his crazy fans somehow figured it out again. Who knows how many attempts it took.”

“9523?” Li Zong looked at his contacts and asked.

Ran Liming gave him a sideways glance, asking sincerely: “Are you a bit dense?”

Li Zong also realized his mistake and immediately put his hands together in a clap above his head: “Bleep that out! This can’t be revealed.”

Each trip on “Three Meals a Day” only lasted two days and one night, so by that evening, the filming of the first episode was complete.

Everyone said goodbye and left.

Since this trip was abroad, Fang Ruan hadn’t accompanied her.

Chen Die organized her luggage and walked out with her head down, unexpectedly bumping into someone.

Wen Liang stood in front of the filming set, raised his hand to tap her forehead, and then took the suitcase from her hand, automatically helping her carry it to the car.

The other staff members from the production team pretended not to see, mindful of the online rumors.

Chen Die followed Wen Liang to the car.

“Is Zhu Qicong not here?”

“He needed to go back to the company to handle some things first.” Wen Liang put the suitcase in the trunk and sat in the driver’s seat.

Chen Die opened the passenger door and got in as well.

The car drove steadily toward the airport. During the journey, Fang Ruan called to ask when she would be back. Chen Die explained and hung up.

Wen Liang, who had been quiet all along, suddenly spoke.

“Is your phone password about Qi Cheng?” he asked.

Chen Die was startled: “Huh?”

Wen Liang: “9523.”

During the recording, Wen Liang had been sitting behind the main camera and had heard their conversations clearly. When he heard the four digits “9523,” his heart had skipped a beat.

He had never before considered Qi Cheng and Chen Die together.

Even when Chen Die told him they were breaking up, he hadn’t imagined Chen Die being with someone else.

Chen Die instantly understood what he was thinking.

Who could have imagined that by coincidence, the password she had painstakingly thought up would be the same as the last four digits of Qi Cheng’s phone number!

Besides, who would use a phone number as a password anyway!

But she didn’t want to tell Wen Liang the true meaning of that string of numbers.

So she turned to look out the window with slight exasperation: “…Not telling you.”

Wen Liang turned his head to look at her but said nothing, remaining silent until they reached the airport. He took the luggage again and walked ahead without waiting for Chen Die.

Chen Die inexplicably felt that his bad mood was because of that string of numbers.

Could he be jealous…?

But who the hell was pursuing whom here!?

He was giving her the cold shoulder because of his own baseless jealousy!!

She was supposed to be the one being pursued, right?!

Chen Die got angry too and didn’t chase after him, just standing still in place.

Fortunately, Wen Liang stopped after a few steps. He turned back to look at Chen Die.

The young woman, taking advantage of the fact that no one at the foreign airport recognized her, just stood there with an indignant expression, looking like she was about to turn and leave at any moment.

Wen Liang had been completely worn down to the point where he had no temper left.

He returned to her with the suitcase, looked down, and suppressed his irritation: “Are you coming or not?”

“Mr. Wen has such a big temper. Who am I to walk with you?” Chen Die took back her own suitcase from his hand. “You can go back by yourself.”

Wen Liang sighed, looked at her for a while, and finally lowered his stance: “I’m not angry with you.”

“You don’t say a word, get out of the car, and walk so far on your own—if that’s not being angry with me, what would it look like if you really were angry?” Chen Die said calmly. “Mr. Wen’s method of pursuing someone is truly unique.”

“…”

Chen Die’s mouth was truly infuriating beyond belief.

Wen Liang sighed, raised his hand to pinch her chin, but was quickly swatted away by Chen Die.

“It’s my fault.” He paused, but couldn’t help adding, “But I’m just pissed off. Why do so many people want to pair you with Qi Cheng?”

“There are also many people pairing me with you,” Chen Die said fairly.

But Wen Liang was clearly not satisfied with this answer and gave a cold laugh.

“…”

“What’s the real story with your phone password?”

Chen Die: “I just randomly set it years ago. It has nothing to do with Qi Cheng.”

Wen Liang’s anger subsided somewhat.

The two temporarily restored their friendly relationship. When Wen Liang went to get the tickets, Chen Die went to the restroom. When she came out, Wen Liang walked over to lead her to the boarding gate.

“Is it time already?”

“Mm.”

The tickets Wen Liang had gotten placed them in adjacent seats. There weren’t many people in business class, and their seats were in the first row.

Chen Die hadn’t slept well in the tent the night before, and she had been busy following the show’s schedule all day. As soon as she sat down, she started feeling drowsy.

“Sleepy?” Wen Liang turned to look at her, asking softly.

Chen Die rubbed her eyes hard and yawned: “Mm.”

“Then sleep for a while.” Wen Liang asked a flight attendant for a blanket and covered Chen Die with it.

Chen Die fell asleep quickly. In her half-asleep state, she vaguely felt someone tucking the blanket around her, cool fingertips gently brushing her neck.

A very gentle touch.

When she woke up again, Chen Die opened her eyes to find the airplane window half-drawn and darkness outside.

As soon as she moved, she realized that at some point her head had come to rest on Wen Liang’s shoulder, and Wen Liang’s arm was around her shoulders, making them look very intimate, as if embracing each other.

I hope I didn’t drool…

This was Chen Die’s first reaction. She immediately wiped the corner of her mouth—thankfully, it was dry.

Wen Liang noticed her movement and woke up as well. He raised his hand to look at his watch, then patted her shoulder gently twice: “Still three hours until we arrive. Go back to sleep.”

Chen Die quickly fell asleep again.

When they landed at Yan City Airport, it was ten o’clock at night. Chen Die was awakened by the announcement, still dazed. Too lazy to think about following signs, she simply followed Wen Liang.

Wen Liang went to luggage claim to find that suitcase, then came over and ruffled her hair, smoothing down a tuft that had been mussed up during sleep.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Chen Die followed him out.

Wen Liang looked down at her again and couldn’t help reaching out to pinch her face: “Why are you so tired?”

Chen Die turned her head to avoid him, her voice groggy with fatigue: “I haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

The two walked side by side along the corridor.

They hadn’t taken more than a few steps when suddenly there was an explosion of noise in their ears. Chen Die, sluggish with fatigue, looked up in a daze and then became even more stunned, her feet frozen in place.

…She was being greeted at the airport.

She now actually had fans who came to greet her at the airport.

And there were many of them, orderly holding banners and forming an angle outside, screaming her name.

Well, that wasn’t the main issue.

The main issue was that she now had a “rumored boyfriend” standing beside her.

Chen Die looked up and met Wen Liang’s eyes.

Wen Liang, however, reacted normally, very calm, nodding toward the fans: “Go and say hello to them. I’ll wait for you in the car.”

After saying this, he pushed Chen Die’s suitcase ahead.

Chen Die watched his back for a moment before walking over to the fans.

Chen Die chatted with the fans for a while and answered a few questions. Then she waved goodbye: “It’s getting late. Everyone should get some rest soon. Be careful on your way home.”

Wen Liang’s car was parked at the airport entrance. Chen Die went out and saw it, quickly getting in.

Zhu Qicong sat in the driver’s seat and tactfully asked: “Miss Chen, shall I take you back to the West Suburb Villa?”

Chen Die: “?”

This assistant had clearly been corrupted by spending too much time with Wen Liang.

Beside her, Wen Liang turned his head, his gaze calm and gentle: “Coming back?”

“No, go to Li Fan New Garden,” Chen Die said.

Wen Liang didn’t say anything more and instructed Zhu Qicong to drive to Li Fan New Garden.

At this hour, there weren’t many cars on the elevated highway from the airport. The streetlights quickly passed by their line of sight, the orange lights extending into the distance in a straight line.

About half an hour later, the car stopped at the entrance of Li Fan New Garden.

Wen Liang got out and took out her suitcase.

“Let me carry it up for you.”

“No need.” Chen Die took the suitcase handle. “There’s an elevator, and it’s not heavy.”

The community was very quiet. The streetlights stood dutifully, illuminating the bare tree trunks, which still had small red lanterns hung on them from the Spring Festival.

“Lingling.”

Chen Die looked up, blinking: “Mm?”

“Now that more people know and like you, you should move to a more secure and private place.”

Chen Die didn’t fall for his trap: “I do plan to do that. When I have time in a while, I’ll move to a new home.”

Wen Liang lowered his eyes, his lips curving into a somewhat helpless and compromising smile: “Consider coming back to live with me. If you don’t want to live with me, I can go live somewhere else.”

Photos of Chen Die and Wen Liang leaving the airport together were quickly posted in the “Wen Die” CP super topic by the couple’s fans.

In the photos, Chen Die wasn’t fully awake, looking sleepy with most of her makeup worn off, almost barefaced, with Wen Liang pushing the suitcase beside her.

Die Mei looks so sweet!!

Ahhhhh our tortured romance CP is actually giving us sugar now!!

Wuwuwuwu these two look so good together, they actually met! I love it!

Go for it, Mr. Wen!

Who wouldn’t love our Die Mei!

Wen Liang is so handsome… I admire our Die Mei’s self-control!

Soon, this Weibo post, originally in the super topic, was discovered by others, picked up by marketing accounts, and quickly pushed to the trending topics.

Besides that photo, someone also discovered the car Chen Die got into later.

Previously, when fans were digging into the past, they had found several posts about Chen Die from her university days on the school forum. One post was titled “Does anyone know if that Chen campus beauty from our school has a boyfriend? My roommate is planning to confess.”

Below were several replies:

Confessed and got rejected.

Rejected, plus one.

Rejected, plus two.

On behalf of my buddy, rejected, plus three.

She already has a boyfriend. When my ex-boyfriend confessed, that’s what she used to reject him. 🙂

Soon, someone posted a photo in the thread of Chen Die getting into a car after school.

Now this photo was dug up again, and after comparing the license plate, it was confirmed that Wen Liang was indeed Chen Die’s boyfriend from university.

Damn!!!! There’s even such a background!! If my Wen Die CP doesn’t get together, who will!!

After coming back from my archaeological dig and reading that thread, I really feel that Die Mei is too sweet. With so many people confessing to her, she just quietly rejected them one by one, saying she already had a boyfriend!! Want to pat her head!!

The Die Mei in that post and the Die Mei in the previous video don’t seem like the same person. Sisters who are shipping based on looks, first figure out what happened between them. What if he really did something that crossed the line? It’s not good to morally pressure their relationship, is it?

There’s no moral pressure. Fans are mostly keeping to themselves; it’s just that marketing accounts posted it. Besides, whether they’re together or not, we all like Die Mei.

Actually, looking at the pictures, I feel Die Mei still relies on and trusts Mr. Wen quite a bit. There’s a high possibility that the tortured romance CP will reconcile.

To be honest, I want to see them participate in a couples’ reality show.

At this point, the comment section was still peaceful.

Even Chen Die’s career fans and solo fans just reminded people “don’t focus on the actor’s private life, focus on the work.”

But gradually, some comments began to spiral out of control.

Various voices criticizing Chen Die for hyping herself up became overwhelming.

There were even people pretending to be fans claiming they saw that Chen Die and Wen Liang didn’t arrive together, but later Chen Die actively went to flirt with Wen Liang, which led to what fans witnessed afterward.

Wen Liang was completely manipulated by Chen Die.

This was followed by a barrage of rhetoric about “the entertainment circle is scary,” “calculating,” and “using hype to promote oneself.”

Chen Die was too prominent now, and countless people in the shadows wanted to bring her down.

At twelve o’clock that night.

The official Wen Yuan Group Weibo account suddenly liked that Weibo post “confirming that Chen Die and Wen Liang were indeed Chen Die’s mysterious boyfriend from university.”

Just as everyone thought it was an accidental like, the official account posted a Weibo two minutes later.

@Wen Yuan Group Official: On behalf of our company’s chairman: This matter has nothing to do with Ms. Chen Die. It’s simply that the chairman is pursuing Ms. Chen Die.

Gossip followers: …Does this kind of approach still exist?