Chapter 215: So You Want to Take On the

"Will you two end up together? In the end, who winds up with whom?"

Miss Jing Tian seemed especially curious about *Princess Agents*, firing off questions one after another~

But this rate of talking, on the contrary, seemed to be covering something up.

The genuine-leather sofa, over four meters long, was actually quite spacious, yet the two of them had squeezed themselves into a space of barely one meter.

In the evening, Miss Jing Tian had changed into a white pleated skirt paired with a white T-shirt.

Even the socks on her feet were pure-cotton little white socks.

The whole person had the look of a delicate little white flower.

Curling her legs and kneeling sideways on the sofa, the skin she revealed somehow looked crystalline and translucent against the all-white outfit~

At the same time, even though they could easily sit together without touching, they had somehow contrived to create physical contact.

Of course, it was only knee contact.

But this signified a breakthrough from zero to one.

Previously, Miss Jing Tian wouldn't even have physical contact with Bai Liang; if she stayed within one meter of him for more than a certain amount of time, her retreat-step reflex would immediately kick in.

But now... she seemed completely unaware, or perhaps had carelessly lost her sense of touch?

In a certain sense, this kind of small-area skin contact is actually very sensitive.

Anyone with experience spending time with girls knows that the moment most likely to make one's heart tremble and itch is that tiny bit of physical contact.

Maybe a brush of fingers, maybe feet touching together—just a light rub seems enough to send ripples through the heart.

Like ripples on water stirred by the wind~

As for Miss Jing Tian's questions, Bai Liang answered them one by one.

"The male second lead I played, Yan Xun, turned dark and became a generation of overlords. He didn't end up with anyone."

"The male lead Yuwen Yue was hit by several arrows and sank beneath the frozen lake—life or death unknown."

"The male third lead Xiao Ce was killed by his mother, Empress Dowager Yao, amid the chaos."

"The male fourth lead Yuwen Huai died at the hands of the female lead Chu Qiao."

"The male fifth lead Yuan Song lost an arm."

"The female second lead Yuan Chun was humiliated by the troops of the Yan Xun she liked, then turned dark..."

"..."

Miss Jing Tian was completely stunned. What the heck—why isn't this drama called *And Then There Were None*?

Felt like nobody got a good ending.

Bai Liang: Nah, mate, the Yan Xun I played was actually pretty satisfying. Sure, he lost love, but he became the King of Yanbei!

In a TV drama aimed primarily at a female audience, at first glance it does seem pretty tragic.

But Bai Liang himself didn't really feel that way~

If this guy were in real life, wouldn't it be a proper Prince's Revenge Story? Classic power-fantasy fare.

Honestly, if you dropped this plot into a male-oriented novel, Yan Xun would be the real male lead—the one defiling Yuan Chun might well be Yan Xun himself.

And in the end you'd have to give Yuan Chun Stockholm Syndrome, only then would it match the satisfying revenge vibe.

Mm... suddenly thought of *Joy of Life*, where the female lead Lin Wan'er—didn't her own brother get killed by the male lead's side?

Just a hint of that flavor.

Revenge against the enemy, take the enemy's women.

But this isn't really suitable to bring up and discuss with a girl—after all, in their eyes, losing love is a really serious thing!

There was once a very popular drama *A Curtain Dream Again* with a line like this: "What you lost was only a leg, but what Ziling lost was her love."

Of course, that viewpoint is absolutely unhinged—ordinary female viewers probably couldn't stomach it either.

But a lot of older TV dramas, when you watched them back then, you somehow felt there was nothing wrong with it. Quite bizarre.

Including Li Xunhuan's "You've come at just the right moment"—so classic!

Thinking of this, Bai Liang suddenly remembered that he seemed to have sent Li Xin his room number.

Why hasn't she come yet?

But, glancing at Miss Jing Tian, the other girl showed absolutely no sign of shifting her butt, so it made perfect sense that Li Xin hadn't shown up.

After one episode of *Princess Agents* finished, Miss Jing Tian suddenly said: "I don't really want to watch what happens next."

"Is it because I spoiled it?"

"... I don't like this kind of tragic ending."

Some people really do prefer to pursue beauty and perfection—if they know from the start there might not be a good ending,

Miss Jing Tian: Then I'll have to perform my retreat-step.

At this point her knee was no longer touching Bai Liang's; at some unknown moment, she had gently shifted it away a little.

Not very far either—Bai Liang could reach her effortlessly with just a stretch of his hand—but her leg had genuinely lost contact with his.

Likewise, a person like him wouldn't take the initiative to reach out at a moment like this.

Just at that moment, a phone call suddenly came in.

The caller ID showed Li Xin.

Bai Liang answered it right in front of Miss Jing Tian.

Li Xin: "I'm downstairs at your hotel. I'm just asking one question—is there someone else with you?"

Bai Liang glanced at Miss Jing Tian and chose to tell the truth: "There's a pretty young lady."

"You bastard!"

*Click—*

The call ended.

Miss Jing Tian pursed her lips at this moment. She had just heard the phrase "pretty young lady," so she pointed at herself and asked, "You're talking about me?"

"Yep~"

"Who is it? Asked one question and hung up."

"Li Xin, the one who stood on stage with me today."

"Then am I interrupting?" Miss Jing Tian suddenly asked.

"Not really~" Bai Liang thought for a moment—did Li Xin mean she wasn't coming?

The result of that very thought was Miss Jing Tian immediately saying: "How about I just don't watch the next episode, I'll go back to sleep instead."

The familiar retreating step—Bai Liang wasn't surprised in the slightest.

But this time Miss Jing Tian's departure was rather dawdling; just putting on her slippers took her two whole minutes.

As if her feet and the slippers had suddenly become incompatible.

After she finished putting on her slippers, she even turned back to look at Bai Liang.

The meaning was honestly a bit too obvious: Aren't you going to say something to make me stay, you dummy!

Bai Liang blinked, and with a single sentence broke through the "total straight man" label Miss Jing Tian had given him during this period of filming.

"Guess what I was just thinking."

Miss Jing Tian was very cooperative; instead of hitting back with a "guess whether I'll guess," she earnestly asked: "What are you thinking about?"

"I was just thinking that watching TV with you right now might be more important~"

"Then I'll watch one more episode!"

As if she had just been waiting for that line, Miss Jing Tian immediately flung both slippers off.

Her face beamed with joy.

One of the slippers nearly flew into Bai Liang's face.

At this moment, Li Xin was still wandering around beneath the hotel.

Wandering and cursing at the same time.

Naturally, the target of her cursing was Bai Liang.

What do you mean there's a pretty young lady by your side?! You might as well just say Li Yitong directly.

Bastard, bastard!

Before, when Bai Liang treated her like a "spittoon," she had endured it.

But this one right now really is a bit too much.

Yet the one Li Xin hated most was actually herself.

She should have left immediately right now, then blocked all of Bai Liang's contact information—that would have been the right move.

But instead here she was, hesitating about whether to go up. She was simply out of her mind!

Li Xin hesitated for nearly forty-plus minutes, finally gave herself a light slap across the face, then put on her mask and sunglasses properly and walked into the elevator.

After arriving at Bai Liang's door, she took a deep breath and knocked.

The door opened very quickly, as if he had been standing right at the door the whole time.

However, upon seeing Li Xin, a hint of bewilderment clearly showed on Bai Liang's face.

Tilting his head in confusion, he said: "Why is it you?"

"Who else could it be?! I'm really so shameless—hurry up and let me in!"

She shoved Bai Liang aside to get through the door, then immediately shut the door and locked it~

After taking two deep breaths, Li Xin prepared to face Li Yitong—the two of them would be awkward together for a while.

But the moment she looked up, there wasn't even a shadow of a person in the room.

Only an opened bottle of champagne on the coffee table—this guy was quite well-prepared.

"Where did she hide?"

While asking this, Li Xin immediately started searching. Her inner thoughts right now were quite strange—she figured a clean cut was a clean cut either way, so she might as well find Li Yitong quickly so the two of them could face it together.

But unfortunately, after wandering around Bai Liang's suite for several laps, she even checked the wardrobe and under the bed, yet failed to find any trace of a third person.

Returning to the living room once more, Bai Liang even poured her a cup of hot water, mainly because she looked out of breath.

Drink some water and calm down.

"Where's Li Yitong?"

"I don't know~" "You said there was a pretty young lady by your side!"

"That was Miss Jing Tian. She came over earlier and we watched two episodes of 'Princess Agents' together. What a coincidence—she just left when you arrived."

More than just left—the gap between her departure and the knock on the door was less than thirty seconds.

Bai Liang had assumed it was Miss Jing Tian who had left something behind at his place, or perhaps didn't want to leave. But when he opened the door, it was Li Xin—hey! A real disappearing act.

Li Xin still wouldn't give up: "Then where's Li Yitong?"

"That I really don't know much about. How about I give her a call and you can ask her?"

Awkward. Just very awkward.

At this moment, an idea even popped into her head: damn it, it would've been better if Li Yitong were here.

Originally there could've been someone to be awkward together with her, but now great—she was the only clown.

One last attempt to save face.

"Miss Jing Tian, she—"

"She went back to sleep. Are you two close?"

No errors, no misses—one chapter, one post, one content—read it all here!

"Not close, not close."

"Hold on a moment—so you think Li Yitong is here with me, and yet you still came? Let me sort this out for a second."

Bai Liang wore a thoughtful look, feeling as though he had caught hold of some little tail of something!

Li Xin: "No sorting it out! No thinking!"

At this moment, her head was so flushed it was practically steaming.

Instinct told her she had to do something, and fast~

What should she do?

"I-I'm so hot! What's going on—what did you just give me to drink?" Li Xin said, while starting to tug at her own clothes.

Bai Liang blinked. "Hot water."

"Ah, hot water~"

She couldn't go on. She looked at Bai Liang with a touch of grievance, her lips pressed tightly together, on the verge of becoming a meme of wounded innocence.

As if the next second she would burst into tears right in front of him.

Unfortunately, not a single tear came out—a completely failed performance.

In the end, she abandoned all struggle and lay weakly on the sofa, humming.

"I'm done for. What kind of dignity can I possibly have in front of you from now on."

"Actually, it's not so bad. Today's little burst of strange ideas is about on par with the time you actively let me use the champagne. After all, human tastes are diverse—totally understandable."

"Say just a couple more words." At this moment Li Xin was like a little puppy abandoned by its owner, her fragility stat maxed out.

"Instead of saying a few more words, how about—" Bai Liang turned his gaze to the champagne on the table.

Li Xin was also a little tempted. Compared to words, action was better at letting her temporarily forget all this messy stuff.

After all, she'd experienced it before.

So she buried her face in a throw pillow: "Then you… can be a little more excessive today."

Bai Liang:???

Young Lady, perhaps you could spell it out a little more clearly.

How excessive, exactly?

After a bout of head-scratching, Bai Liang looked at the champagne bottle and suddenly realized that all this time he'd only been using the wine itself—the utilization rate really hadn't been maxed out.

He felt that the curve of this bottle was quite the graceful figure~

Especially that part around the bottle's mouth. —

Li Xin, who had originally only taken two days off from the *Battle Through the Heavens* crew, had her assistant extend the leave to five days.

There were certain little circumstances that required her to rest at least three days before she could resume filming.

Likewise, she had made things rather difficult for Bai Liang—armed with nothing but champagne as a prop, he still had to meet her demand to be "a little more excessive."

His super brain really burned through quite a few brain cells.

Fortunately, the result was pleasing—the Young Lady successfully "forgot" those embarrassing bits.

It's just that the champagne bottle couldn't be kept. Li Xin didn't even wait for the hotel housekeeping to come collect it; she took it away and threw it out herself.

In any case, she herself said she threw it out.

But for her, aside from this little embarrassing episode, the rest of her recent news was all rather pleasing.

The popularity of *Princess Agents*, besides further cementing Little Zhao's leading-lady status and Lin Genxin continuing to be "suppressed" by Bai Liang, the one who benefited most was probably Li Xin.

The role of Princess Yuanchun really suited her perfectly—from character to styling, an absolute match! Remarkably brilliant.

That air of utter fragility about her—she really did inspire pity, like a bellflower drifting and swaying in a world of chaos.

On top of that, her CP line was with Yan Xun, played by Bai Liang. Under the wash of massive traffic, Yuanchun actually produced the most viral "iconic shot" of *Princess Agents* so far.

At first it was mainly Bai Liang's fans going wild over there.

Just like with Donghua Dijun in *Eternal Love* before, although the fans knew he was only the second male lead, that didn't stop them from talking about it.

Screenshots flew everywhere in the super topic threads, until the most striking one was chosen and they did a "full army recitation."

Fandom has fandom's way of doing things, and Bai Liang really does have the "constitution" for producing iconic shots easily.

Almost every drama has one.

The previous Donghua Dijun, with that noble silver-haired look, had forcibly magnified the handsome features of Bai Liang's face to the extreme.

So much so that hardly anyone discussed the plot at all—they were all there just to worship the screen.

But compared to the pure charm exuded in *Eternal Love*, *Princess Agents* had more of a story feel, and the twists and turns of the plot were far greater.

So the discussion it sparked was even louder.

After all, that episode at the Nine Profound Platform left plenty of fans feeling emo, full of heartache.

They felt that the post-darkening Bai Liang on horseback, looking down from above with cold, complex eyes, had a very compelling look~

And Li Xin was the brightest color against that gloomy gray backdrop.

Hmm? Li Xin?

"Holy crap, Li Xin is actually this gorgeous in this drama?! I never really got her before."

"That beautiful-strong-tragic character type—I absolutely love it, the Young Lady really suits this kind of role~"

"Compared to the male and female leads, I actually like Yan Xun and Yuanchun's love-hate thing more… uh, seems like Yan Xun never liked Yuanchun, I don't care!"

"I love this kind of beauty—fragile when helpless, but with a very resolute gaze when she goes dark."

"Even if the beauty is as venomous as a snake and scorpion, she once smiled gently in light makeup—Yuanchun after her dark turn!"

"."

Clearly, under this trend, the CP fans of Li Xin and Bai Liang began to emerge on a large scale.

Two collaborations, two iconic shots. Although it wasn't the traffic-maxed level of Dilireba, Li Xin had achieved a certain degree of outdoing her.

At least during the period while *Princess Agents*' influence hadn't faded, she could really fight!

Counterattack!

Li Xin, who had previously been completely crushed by Reba, finally seemed to be showing signs of getting back up.

The massive influx of TV drama CP fans really did manage to reverse her earlier slump for a while.

Pop the champagne!

Reba's side of the CP fans:???

Wait, weren't you already wiped out before? And you're back jumping around again?!

Take her down!

If we're talking about traffic and CP fan numbers, there's no way Li Xin could ever beat Reba.

That classmate of hers who's more famous than her, Na Zha, had already given a concrete example of this long ago.

Her only advantage is that her CP is hot right now!

But even so, she could really only just barely put up a fight against Reba's CP fans.

At least she could finally make some noise and stir things up, no longer taking a completely passive beating.

However, just as the two sides were going at it, the hit drama *Princess Agents* brought up a new question.

Between *Eternal Love* and *Princess Agents*, both aired in the first half of this year, which one was actually more popular? Which had more influence?

The appearance of this flame-baiting topic successfully escalated the "war" by more than one level.

It was no longer just a battlefield between Li Xin and Reba—it directly dragged in two top-tier eighty-five flowers.

Yang Mi and Zhao Liying.

Compared to those two post-90s Misses, those two eighty-five flowers were the real heavyweights!

Top-tier young actresses?

Their full title is: top-tier A-list actresses!

Their traffic and status had almost reached the peak of their current ecological niche—they were true queens of buzz.

These two had even, as if by unspoken agreement, both begun considering a career transition, precisely because they had almost reached the ceiling on the traffic path.

Plus, old rivals!

So without a moment's hesitation, once the showdown between the two TV dramas began, Yang Mi's and Zhao Liying's fans collided almost instantly.

Every piece of dirt on the opposing side was pulled out with the greatest of ease—the two sides were practically developing a rhythm together.

I know what you're going to trash-talk, you know what I'm going to trash-talk, but we're still going to trash-talk!

Watching the two sides inexplicably go at it, Bai Liang's fans caught in the middle: Makka Pakka?

(End of chapter)