Women simply can't stand body shaming, especially not Mi Lu, who'd been directly targeted—there was no way she would hold her tongue and swallow her pride.
"Isn't that just Yao Shanshan? I've met her a few times, after all. We're in the same group, but with her flat chest, she'd better stick to cosplaying male characters and quit competing for this role. She simply doesn't measure up in the bust department!" As Mi Lu said this, she flaunted her upper body.
But in Li Jiniang's eyes, Mi Lu's figure was hardly worth mentioning.
"You're not much better yourself, hehehehehe…" Li Jiniang deliberately thrust out her chest, a part of her body where she had never been outdone.
"They'll sag sooner or later, so let's not pick on each other!" Mi Lu glared at Li Jiniang, visibly annoyed.
"Alright, alright, let's all ease up a bit... She's just my distant cousin... She came to Beijing to stay for a while and incidentally join our group's performance..." He Tong became more and more uneasy as he spoke, glancing at Mi Lu from time to time, "I'll explain today's incident to Shanshan."
"He Tong, you bastard! You spoke so nicely earlier, saying you'd break up with Shanshan tonight! Now how come I suddenly became your distant cousin? Humph..." Mi Lu felt like slapping He Tong right at that moment.
She was supposed to be on a cheerful date with the sugar daddy she had snagged, expecting things to go smoothly, when out of nowhere, not one but two Cheng Yaojins appeared!
And that coward didn't even dare admit their relationship. Wouldn't anyone be furious in her place? Unless they didn't really care...
No! Not caring wasn't the issue! She was mad this man had no sense of responsibility, he was only good for a casual fling.
Thinking this way, Mi Lu's anger dissipated by half instantly.
"I had a lot of fun today, thanks to my cousin for being my tour guide! I'm going home now, bye~" With that, Mi Lu left without looking back, stepping onto the elevator.
"Er…" He Tong stood there, frozen, unsure whether to chase after her or not.
"Stop dithering, you've got two choices now: go after Mi Lu or break up with Shanshan right now. It's your call!" Zhou Xueyin looked down on He Tong, "I really don't understand what Shanshan sees in you."
"Is there no third option?" He Tong asked timidly.
"No!" Zhou Xueyin and Li Jiniang chorused.
"Even if you make up with Shanshan this time, what if there's another one next time, some other deer? Are you going to keep being fickle?" Zhou Xueyin poked He Tong's chest forcefully, "We won't let you hurt Shanshan again!"
"Hmph, even if I don't hurt her, someone else eventually will!" He Tong swatted Zhou Xueyin's hand aside, "You can't protect her forever! But if she marries me, I can!"
"As if! Dream on! Once I get home, I'll tell Shanshan that I saw you on a date with Mi Lu today! I'll break you two apart!" Zhou Xueyin, infuriated by He Tong's cavalier attitude, stood her ground against him.
"Yinyin, let's go, stop wasting words on this scum! Don't stoop to the level of such people; it's beneath our standards!" Li Jiniang couldn't stand it anymore and dragged Zhou Xueyin away, "We could keep silent, but it depends on how you behave. If we see you and Mi Lu acting inappropriately again, there will be nothing left to discuss!"
Zhou Xueyin was led out of the Huawei Building by Li Jiniang as evening approached.
"Seriously, we're just going to let him off like that? Isn't that too easy on him?" Zhou Xueyin was still somewhat angry.
"What else can you do? A dog can't change its habit of eating shit. If you spill everything to Shanshan now, not only will she not thank you, but she'll also think you're meddling. However, when Shanshan discovers all this herself, then she will know who truly cares about her!" Li Jiniang explained patiently to Zhou Xueyin.
In the realm of interpersonal relationships, I truly have to admire Li Jiniang. She's just stepped out of school and already so adept at dealing with people — she's definitely cut out for a career in marketing! It's just that Zhou Xueyin hasn't realized this yet.
"Ah! Ahh! No way!" Zhou Xueyin startled Li Jiniang with her sudden outburst.
"Ah! No way!" Li Jiniang realized it too, they seemed to have forgotten today's task.
"Street canvassing!" Both shouted in unison.
"It's over, it's all over... Spent the whole afternoon eyeing that couple of dogs, completely missing out on spreeing the streets!" Zhou Xueyin started pacing back and forth like an ant on a hot pan.
"Hmm? Daming Glasses Store, summer vacation glasses promotion!" Just then, Li Jiniang looked up to see a pull-up banner placed at the entrance of a glasses store not far from the bus stop.
"Should we take this back as evidence... Will KK beat us up?" Zhou Xueyin, feeling guilty, looked at Li Jiniang.
"It's certainly better than nothing... We can't exactly say we were tailing Shanshan..." Li Jiniang took a few photos of the pull-up banner with her camera, then dragged Zhou Xueyin into the store to grab some flyers before they finally settled on the bus home.
Of course, once home, they faced a lecture from Kang Siyin.
"You're not young anymore, how can you not focus on what you do? You people with O blood type, always so spontaneous and lacking plans! What's more important? Tailgating or street canvassing? Do you even know?"
"Shh, shh... keep it down, KK. We don't want Shanshan to catch wind of this..." Zhou Xueyin nervously gestured for Kang Siyin to lower her voice.
"If you didn't want her to know, why did you take pictures? Why not delete them?" Kang Siyin nagged while transferring the photos from the camera to the computer.
"Hmm? Delete pictures? What pictures? Let me see?" Coincidentally, Yao Shanshan came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of stir-fried dish.
"It's nothing, just some blurred photos... Xidan was too crowded today, lots of the pictures came out blurry, unusable. We didn't get to delete them in time... and KK's been on about wasting space," Zhou Xueyin quickly blocked Yao Shanshan's view with her body, trying to reassure her.
"Oh... okay then. I'll get back to cooking. One more dish, and then we can eat," Yao Shanshan seemed to believe Zhou Xueyin and handed her the dish before returning to the kitchen.
"Shanshan, just a friendly reminder, don't forget the rice!" Zhou Xueyin yelled toward the kitchen.
"I've done it already!" Yao Shanshan replied loudly.
"Phew... luckily our Shanbao still has a lot of trust in us." Zhou Xueyin heaved a long sigh of relief.
While they indeed didn't want Yao Shanshan to be kept in the dark, as long as they helped her successfully participate in the competition, it didn't matter if their efforts went to waste.
"I'll keep the photos as evidence and save them as hidden files for now. Let's wait until after Shanshan's competition to tell her..." Kang Siyin quickly set to work, and the nauseating photos were promptly hidden away.
"By the way, Yinyin, while I was looking up how to take care of Little Walnut today, I also swapped some friendly links with pet forums. Quite a few people actually registered!" Kang Siyin said excitedly, "But I don't know if it's a network problem, every time I try to back up the forum data, it fails."
"Why don't we try again after 11:30? If that doesn't work, I'll ask Xiaojing if his senior has any insights?" Zhou Xueyin suggested, "Ah... no, that won't do, I'm so hungry. If I don't eat something after running around all day, I'm going to pass out..."
The kitchen was wafting with tantalizing aromas, and it wasn't just Zhou Xueyin and the others; even Little Walnut was meowing hungrily.