Qiao Ruohuan knew that Xing Wanshuang had misunderstood, but she didn't have the chance to explain at the moment.
She didn't particularly pay attention to the "caterpillar fungus" she had given her yesterday, so she didn't know it was fake.
Qiao Ruohuan had become slightly anxious, wanting Xing Yichen to intervene. As she was preoccupied with her newfound anxiety, a handful of young people approached her.
One of them was interested in the pair of high-quality walnuts, asking for the price.
"Is five thousand enough?"
Given her current worries, Qiao Ruohuan mindlessly replied, "How about six thousand?
"Fine." The young man reached straight for his phone to transfer the money.
The interaction attracted the gazes of many. In the live broadcast room, all Qiao Ruohuan's fans had left to do was celebrate.
Seeing that Qiao Ruohuan's walnut had been sold once again, hatred subtly crept its way onto Xing Wanshuang's face. All this time, everyone had seen how she treated Qiao Ruohuan. But how was she repaid?
She took the pebble out from her bag, not even a sliver of hope left in her heart anymore. But she looked at Qiao Moyuーwhose business wasn't doing as wellーand felt a bit better.
Xing Wanshuang didn't know why, but she didn't find Qiao Moyu as irritating as before.
As the afternoon slowly approached, the winners were about to be announced.
Just before the announcement, a young man hurriedly ran over with a young lady in hand.
"Boss, I bought her over," the young man excitedly declared to Qiao Moyu, "I wore the garland flower you gave me, and Xiao Ling actually confessed to me! And all this time I was worrying that she didn't like me! This flower is truly magical."
The young man's loud voice quickly attracted the nearby crowd's curiosity. A select few even recognized himーthis man was a popular topic of gossip in the area.
"Hey, isn't that A-Gui from Chen Village? Why is he holding hands with a lady?"
"It is," another person confirmed.
"Look how beautiful that woman is. Seems like she's interested in A-Gui."
"Didn't you hear? A-Gui said it was because he wore the garland flower that girl sells."
"It's that magical?"
People were in disbelief.
"A garland flower can get a lady like that to like him?"
"The boss is talking about it right nowーlet's have a closer listen"
As the crowd surged closer in interest, Qiao Moyu continued to talk about her product, even convincing a girl from the crowd to buy a flower.
Everyone knew the girl, especially since she was quite large. In the past, her family had hoped a matchmaker would give her a chance for a suitor, but to no avail.
After she wore the garland flower, the girl secretly took out a mirror to take a peek at herself. She felt beautiful, glaring at the audience with their unimpressed glances and jeering faces. They thought she was a joke.
Just as she was about to leave, someone ran over to announce, "Chun Niu! Return home! Quickly! Someone stopped by your house to let you know that a young fella mentioned that he likes you. Your father is waiting for you by the entrance of the village."
The girl's eyes suddenly brightened upon hearing the good news. She turned to thank Qiao Moyu before urgently running back home.
The scene had left the surrounding crowd shocked. "I want to buy a garland flower!" shouted a young lad.
"Me too!" Another person yelled.
Though the buyers weren't sure whether it was a coincidence or not, when the flower was worn, a confession always followed. News of this miraculous garland flower spread from one to ten to a hundred. A vast crowd had already formed in front of Qiao Moyu's stand.
Sharply eyeing an opportunity, Qiao Moyu decided to raise her prices, especially after taking into account the number of floral hoops and garland flowers she had.
After selling ten of her last twelve floral hoops from $300 each, she looked at the last two and announced, "There's a pair left, but since everyone wants it, the person with the highest price will get it."
The people at the front of the crowd had already gone rabid for the flowers, screaming, "500! I want a garland flower!"
"I'll give $600!"
"$800!"
"$1000!"
At the edge of the crowd, Xing Wanshuang felt her small moment of relief shrivel up and die after seeing Qiao Moyu's success unfold so quickly.
She found it was difficult to bear and was unsure of whether she held more hatred or jealousy for Qiao Moyu.
In the end, she heard that the garland flower was sold for $2900 while the floral hoop finally settled at $2660.
At noon, the clock rang, indicating that the first episode of"I Am Not Just an Actor"was almost done recording.
The program group calculated each group's earnings and announced, "Our third group's total donations acquired is $10,562. Congratulations Moyu and Qianqian!"
The program group continued, "The second group received a total donation of $7,800, which is also outstanding!"
"The winning group will now choose the assisting guest to attend the next episode's recording."
Qin Qianqian let Qiao Moyu choose, who was looking straight at Ye Peicheng.
"Film Emperor Ye, I want to invite you to join our third group!"
"You won't suffer with us.", she added.
Everyone couldn't help but laugh. Everyone knew what she was really saying: sister, follow me and you won't regret a thing.
Ye Peicheng helplessly looked at Qiao Moyu, weakly saying okay in reply.
"Moyu, according to the rules, you can invite two male guests." The host reminded.
Qiao Moyu's gaze slowly stopped at Xing Yichen's face. He looked at her as well, but there wasn't anything special in his eyes.
She smiled at him out of courtesy, "Though I'm not a man, I am half nobleman. I won't seize what others wantーwe'll only be inviting Film Emperor Ye for this group."
Xing Yichen's face stiffened ever so slightly as she said this.
Qiao Ruohuan's voice rang, "Thank you, Moyu! Our group will be inviting brother Yichen, then. Is that alright, brother Yichen?"
"Okay," Xing Yichen answered and turned to look at Xing Wanshuang. As expected, his sister was clearly displeased.
He had a headache. Attending a program would make a fight inevitable between his sister and his girlfriend. Unfortunately for him, because the video camera was still recording, he was unable to find an opportunity to mediate between the two of them.
"Then I declare that the recording for this episode of"I Am Not Just an Actor"to be over. See you next episode!" With the host's closing remarks, the camera swept over each guest and everyone waved goodbye.
The recording was successful, so Qiao Moyu and her group ate breakfast in the county. They headed towards the city's airport afterward.
While they were waiting for their flight, Qiao Moyu casually took out her phone and scrolled through her Weibo. She then discovered that Lu Beige was a trending search.
[The spiritual composer, Lu Beige, has been silent for five years. Now, he returns with"Nirvana"]
REPORT THIS ADHad his studio become popular?
The corners of her lips up curled upwards as she noticed that within Weibo, the majority of her feed was Lu Beige. Many celebrities had forwarded Lu Beige's "Nirvana".
The world was like that. No one ever praised something that was already perfect, and very few helped someone in need.
Thinking of this, Qiao Moyu couldn't help but look at Ye Peicheng.
He noticed her gaze and looked over to meet it.
"Lu Beige's song is popular," Qiao Moyu whispered to him.
He already knew. Qiao Moyu couldn't use her phone during the program, but Ye Peicheng already received Lu Beige's call.
Seeing no change in expression, she knew that he had already found out. She raised her eyebrows at Ye Peicheng, and said, "So I'm not bragging and swindling."
Ye Peicheng thought of when Qiao Moyu brought Luo Luo to the eye-opening ceremony, where he easily had a catch with the fishhook she gave him. And to top it all off, he remembered the floral hoops from the morning. He examined her.
"Where did you learn this?"
Although he didn't believe in Buddhism, he couldn't help but be suspicious of the numerous coincidences he witnessed.
"Didn't I tell you? I'm the 31st head of the Ling Xu Sect, Qing Yin priest…" When Qiao Moyu said this, her voice went lower and softer. She was practically whispering.
Ye Peicheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this and asked, "Then where is your temple?"
"On the northern suburbs mountains." Qiao Moyu answered.
"Then I'll pay you a visit one day."
Ye Peicheng stood up straight.
Qiao Moyu didn't know whether or not he believed her. She had only been expressing her thoughts, and there was nothing wrong with having superstitious beliefs.
It was already dark by the time she came out of the airport.
She flagged a taxi and almost left the highway when Director Wang called her.
"Master, I know you're busy so I went to the temple again these days. I saw a few requests to invite you out to the mountainーlet me read you some…"
As she listened to Director Wang finish off the last of his readings, an idea sprung into Qiao Moyu's mind. It looked like she needed to bring Luo Luo with her.
When she arrived home, Luo Luo was already sleeping.
Qiao Moyu quietly walked over to Luo Luo's bed, her heart quickly calming down as she saw the sleeping little body.
She watched Luo Luo for a while before walking out softly and bathed before sleeping.
At the same timeーin a certain villaーXing Yichen was shocked by two emails he received, sent over by his assistant.
The first one had to do with Qiao Moyu when she was thirteen. There was a picture inside, but Qiao Moyu wasn't in the center. She accidentally got in the shot.
The image was outside a certain medical agency overseas. Qiao Moyu probably hadn't started her treatment yet. There were burn marks sprawled on her face, and even worse on her arms. It was obvious how severely she was injured.
She was held by mother Qiao and was walking inside. The camera just happened to catch the scene.
Behind, there were a few of Qiao Moyu's medical reports. It showed that she suffered terrible burns and although the wound healed, she was disfigured. A large area of her body had to be restored by biotechnology.
The assistant explained, "President Xingーa resident physician who was supposed to leave the hospital at that timeーfound the papers in his attic, and I bought them from him. He said that at the time, Miss Qiao Moyu was in critical condition. The worst was her back. After she was sent over, it took eight months for her to completely recover."
Xing Yichen stared at Qiao Moyu through the screen, stunned. It suddenly became clear to him.
Back then, even though he couldn't see, he felt it clearly.
The girl by his side firmly held onto his hands. He could hear her pained groans just as they were about to leave. Right after, he heard something falling down behind them.
He could feel the girl tighten her grip on his hand, feel the cold sweat forming on her palms.
But she said she was fine. She said that she wasn't hurt…
His heart was beating out of his chest like it had turned into a wild beast wanting to break free. He didn't dare think of the looming possibility of what actually happened. It was as though his heart would literally break free fro
m his body at any moment!
Xing Yichen took a couple of deep breaths, before reluctantly calming down and looking at the other email he was sent.
The email had to do with an investigation on Qiao Ruohuan.
Everything about Qiao Ruohuan before she was fourteen was wiped. Even if Xing Yichen's assistant tried to buy the information, he was only able to obtain it from word of mouth.
For example, Qiao Ruohuan grew up in an orphanage but it was unclear which one.
When Qiao Ruohuan was in high school, a classmate had seen that she was talking with another guy outside of school, sitting on his motorcycle. Qiao Ruohuan never mentioned who he was, so the classmates and teachers didn't know anything else.
There was nothing else.
Qiao Ruohuan was just a normal girl who grew up in an orphanage. Who decided to erase her past?
What was their motive? What did they want to hide?
A cold, unsettling sensation rose from the bottom of Xing Yichen's feet and worked its way up to his body.
A voice rang from the bathroom, and Qiao Ruohuan came out. She wore delicate pajamas and chose not to wear anything underneath. She walked over to him and asked, "Brother Yichen, are you still not done with your work?"