#67: The Battle of Wild Roses (2)

The photo was posted on Li Nian’s Weibo. Shi Yin had only mentioned Li Nian in passing, and coincidentally, she happened to see someone repost her tweet on her homepage, so she clicked in to take a look.

At first glance, she saw the photo.

There was also a line of text underneath, followed by a cute emoji: 【Having afternoon tea with my editor.】

Below it were countless comments from her fans: 【Ahhhh, so handsome!】

【Is this your editor? Do you have to be good-looking to be your editor?】

【A talented woman and a handsome man—this match makes me very happy.】

Shi Yin slapped her phone aside, no longer wanting to read further.

What nonsense.

In reality, there was nothing wrong with Li Nian’s tweet. She only mentioned “editor,” without specifying which company, so it was natural for people to assume it was her own editor.

She herself hadn’t added any suggestive hints in her Weibo post, and her fans jokingly pairing her with the man honestly had nothing to do with her.

But posting such a photo and saying these words—isn’t that itself a kind of hint?

I’m the official girlfriend here, and I haven’t even said anything yet—what are you showing off for?

Shi Yin was so angry she couldn’t even drink her milk tea anymore. Although she had full confidence in Gu Congli—they had known each other since high school, for six or seven years, and she had finally won him over after much effort.

Since their reunion, he had indeed been more proactive. Shi Yin still had no idea when Gu Congli had started liking her.

But deep down, she had an inexplicable, unwavering confidence: Gu Congli would never fall for someone like this little enchantress. He wasn’t the type to flirt around.

And as for looks—she didn’t think she was any less attractive than Li Nian either!

So, looking at it this way, Liang Qiushi’s analysis made sense. Yaoguang Publishing likely recognized Li Nian’s commercial value and was considering collaborating with her.

Unfortunately, Li Nian could never leave Yang Culture because, according to Liang Qiushi, even her work was provided by them.

If she couldn’t come to Crimson Moon , then she posed no real threat. Still, Shi Yin couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in her heart.

She decided to add Li Nian to the list of “Manga Artists Teacher Shi Yi Dislikes.” After drawing comics for four or five years and meeting countless manga artists, Li Nian was the first one to make the cut.

It’s fine if you mess with me, but you can’t mess with my man.

She didn’t ask Gu Congli about this matter right away. After some thought, she decided to observe for a while.

But thinking about it further, she found it too bothersome. Sitting cross-legged on the sofa for two minutes, she scrambled to grab her phone and sent Gu Congli a pitiful Akita dog emoji: 【I read a comic today.】

After five or six minutes, Gu Congli replied: 【What comic?】

【Shi Yin: A fantasy-type shoujo romance manga.】

Gu Congli didn’t respond.

Shi Yin continued: 【This author is from Yang Culture—the so-called “Number One Universe Genius Shoujo Manga Artist” with extremely high commercial value, so I got curious and checked it out.】

By now, Shi Yin felt she had hinted clearly enough. At this point, Gu Congli should’ve directly confessed everything to her.

She waited for two minutes before he replied: 【Was it good?】

Shi Yin: “….”

【Shi Yin: It was okay. Do you know who this author is?】

【Gu Congli: Who?】

【Shi Yin: It’s LI NIAN!!!】

She added three exclamation marks to express her strong discontent.

Hints turned into outright statements. After waiting a bit longer, Gu Congli replied: 【Oh.】

“…”

Shi Yin angrily threw her phone again.

Men were truly fickle creatures.

Just a week ago, he was clinging to her affectionately and wouldn’t let go no matter what. Two weeks ago, to cheer her up, he secretly made her breakfast every day. And now he was hiding his meetings with other women from her.

Gu Congli meeting Li Nian was entirely accidental.

When he had free time in the past, he would draw something. He’d never done anything with scripts or outlines—it was just casual doodling. Having suppressed himself for too long, he needed an outlet.

During the college entrance exam period, when Gu Lin told him to study finance, Gu Congli turned around and applied to an art academy instead.

His teenage rebellion should’ve ended long ago, but it seemed particularly prolonged whenever he faced Gu Lin.

Gu Congli inherited Bai Lu’s talent. While he didn’t particularly enjoy drawing, he was exceptionally skilled at it.

Thus, through his pen name Qi An , he poured out all the unstable parts of himself, his twisted childhood, his darkness and obsession, and his extreme, bleak emotions into story after story.

Unexpectedly, the response was very positive.

Later, Gu Congli used this as a way to relieve stress and vent his frustrations, continuing to draw until this spring, when he went to Yaoguang Publishing to discuss a new serialization with the editor and saw Shi Yin.

He no longer needed this method of release.

Gu Congli had almost forgotten about his pen name Qi An . Those stories carried heavy, extremely obsessive dark emotions—gloomy and numb. So when Shi Yin brought it up during the anniversary event of Zero Degrees Below , Gu Congli was reluctant to admit that he was Qi An .

He always tried to shield her from his darker side.

Later, when Xiyeno asked him if he wanted to go to karaoke, he realized that Shi Yin was with her.

Gu Congli figured it was fine to let things take their natural course. It was just a pen name, after all—no big deal if she found out.

Moreover, it seemed that she really liked Qi An’s manga.

When he saw Lin Youhe confessing to her in the hallway earlier, his emotions had completely spiraled out of control.

Fear—or perhaps something else—had overridden his rationality. Gu Congli was terrified.

He had tried so hard to restrain himself, afraid she would run away, and yet he still nearly scared her off.

The matter of Qi An had been put to rest—it wasn’t important. As long as Shi Yin was around, he probably wouldn’t need that name ever again.

However, this Li Nian turned out to have some small amount of cunning. Somehow, she had discovered that he was Qi An . She sent him an email, thinking she had uncovered some earth-shattering secret, and wrote a lengthy essay. Gu Congli grew impatient reading it.

At first, he intended to ignore it—he didn’t care who knew he was Qi An . But then he remembered the incident at the book-signing event in the capital and the video that had been trending on Weibo for days.

He normally wouldn’t bother with such petty tactics that were like scratching an itch, but now that it targeted Shi Yin, Gu Congli decided to intervene.

That little girl always complained about not wanting him to interfere, but when he actually left her to handle things on her own, she ended up sulking and crying unhappily.

She was so spoiled.

As for Li Nian posting photos on Weibo, Gu Congli hadn’t known about it at all. He had already clarified things with the other side under the name of Crimson Moon’s editor-in-chief, dealt with the video, and issued a warning. Naturally, he hadn’t paid any attention to Li Nian’s Weibo or what she posted daily.

But after Shi Yin’s two sentences today, Gu Congli immediately realized who she was talking about. After glancing at Li Nian’s Weibo, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

A young intern from Crimson Moon passing by his desk was startled by his deep, amused chuckle and timidly asked, “Editor-in-Chief, did something happen?”

Gu Congli tapped his fingertips on the desk, lips curling into a smile. “Nothing. The cat at home is hungry and might throw a tantrum soon.”

The intern was surprised. “You have a cat?”

Gu Congli gave a faint, amused “Mm” in response.

Spoiled little kitten.

Gu Congli teased the cat a bit more. Whatever she wanted to hear, he deliberately avoided saying. After a short while, the other end fell silent.

He could vividly imagine the little girl over there, eyes wide open, glaring at her phone and pouting unhappily.

Gu Congli wasn’t good at explaining things, so while pondering how to address this with her, he opened his email.

There were a few new emails. The earlier ones were submissions, and the last one was a personal message.

【Li Nian: Teacher Qi An, why did you stop drawing and become an editor? I truly love your work, and I won’t tell anyone that you’re Qi An. Let’s keep this our little secret. When are you free? I’d like to treat you to a meal.】

________________________________________

Shi Yin was angry, sure, but she didn’t plan to go out of her way to cause trouble for Li Nian.

Yet, Li Nian unexpectedly reached out to her first.

Shi Yin regularly checked her private messages about once a week. After seeing Li Nian’s message, it took her a moment to process it.

The content was simple: 【Hello, Teacher Shi Yi. I’m Li Nian. I’m a huge fan of your work. Would it be possible to exchange contact information?】

Shi Yin thought for two seconds before typing rapidly: 【No.】

【Li Nian: …】

Shi Yin sat cross-legged, shaking her leg back and forth, smirking like a mischievous thug. She thought her reply was incredibly cool and silently basked in her own imagined applause.

After half a minute of silence, Li Nian showed no signs of giving up and continued: 【No problem, let’s just talk here then.】

【Li Nian: That video online has caused me a lot of trouble too. I honestly had no idea about it, but recently, many people on Weibo have been comparing me to Teacher Shi Yi. I had no intention of being involved in any of this. I’ve already had my company handle all the videos, and I hope that irrational fan behavior doesn’t affect my personal relationship with Teacher Shi Yi.】

This Li Nian shouldn’t be drawing comics—she should work in public relations. Her prospects in that field would likely be much better than they were now.

With a few well-chosen words, she had absolved herself of all blame and positioned herself as an innocent victim. After all, Shi Yin had no evidence to refute her.

Shi Yin was confused. She had no idea what this person hoped to achieve by contacting her with such sanctimonious white lotus behavior.

After organizing her thoughts, she typed: 【So, what do you want?】

【Li Nian: I mainly wanted to apologize. My fans have caused you trouble, and I admit I didn’t explain things clearly or rein them in promptly. I feel a bit sorry about it.】

【Li Nian: Also, I wanted to ask Teacher Shi Yi something. An editor from Yaoguang Publishing contacted me earlier—I didn’t quite understand his intentions—but we had a great conversation. I think it was the editor-in-chief of Crimson Moon and also your responsible editor. So, I wanted to ask what hobbies Editor Gu has, what he likes to eat, and whether I could treat him to a meal.】

【Li Nian: Oh, and… what kind of girls does he like? [Blushing]】

Shi Yin: “….”

What the hell, blushing?

Shi Yin paused for two minutes, her expression blank. Slowly, using her index fingers, she typed one word at a time: 【He likes someone like me.】