Shrine - Chapter 49
Chapter 49
Shi Ran moved closer, looking at the screen with Ruan Ruan. A fine drizzle began to fall in Ruan Ruan's heart, pattering away as if against a transparent eardrum, where she could see each raindrop bounce clearly.
She held her breath and tapped into the topic. A marketing account, while digging into her debut history, had compiled a list of the new blood that talent show had sent into the entertainment industry. The most famous among them was Zhang Nuoran. Back then, Ruan Ruan and Zhang Nuoran had been very close, and the trending topic included several photos of her holding Zhang Nuoran's arm.
The top comment below read: "Daiyu and Xiangling, meeting when they were nobodies, now seeing each other from afar. I totally ship this. doge.jpg."
So that was the angle. Ruan Ruan let out a soft sigh of relief. Mixed in were some discussions about whether she and Zhang Nuoran had gotten plastic surgery, but the volume wasn't high. The strange thing was, this topic was climbing the main chart, rising right behind the "Shi Ran Ruan Ruan" hot search.
Ruan Ruan stared blankly at the chart.
Does the ladder to the clouds in the entertainment industry have a shape? Yes. This was one of them. Climbing rung by rung, the soaring numbers were the clouds, the peak was like the heavily guarded Southern Heavenly Gate, and below was a ten-thousand-zhang cliff teeming with clamoring voices.
For many artists, getting on the hot search list wasn't difficult; the hard part was emerging unscathed. Going through a round of public opinion was no different from being rolled through a wok of boiling oil. Every blister on your body took on an uncontrollable shape.
Take this moment, for example. Dissonant voices gradually began to appear in the public sentiment that had, just a moment ago, been well-controlled.
Four related hot searches in a row were so conspicuous they became an eyesore, greatly testing the audience's patience. And so they asked: "Who is Ruan Ruan?"
"Anyone can get on the hot search list now."
"Could you buy it any more obviously?"
"This kind of viral marketing is the most annoying."
"First time seeing someone try to flood the top fifty."
Others said meaningfully: "Dianxing sure has money." "The power of capital."
Obviously, if Shi Ran had brought Ruan Ruan onto the hot search, it would have been understandable. But Zhang Nuoran's appearance blatantly revealed it as a promotion, as if this newcomer wanted to ride the coattails of all available traffic at once. It was a bad look.
The attacks grew more and more intense. Even as silent text, they still made Ruan Ruan feel embarrassed. The backs of her ears flushed red. She pressed her lips together, her thumb hovering over the screen, sliding down a couple of times in time with her wavering heart.
It was November, but her back suddenly felt hot. Her scalp tightened again and again, as if her skull was about to be pried open.
She instinctively wanted to ask Shi Ran for help, but she held back. Her eyes slightly red, she took a long, deep breath and tried to adjust her mindset.
She didn't know who was behind this, nor could she remember if those old photos had ever been made public. In them, she wore her hair in a pure-looking low ponytail, an outdated vest over her T-shirt, her smile both shy and raw.
"You were quite pretty back then."
She heard Shi Ran's soft voice right by her ear. Turning her head, she saw Shi Ran's delicate nose and earnest eyes.
She was carefully studying the green, inexperienced little Ruan Ruan, as if greeting the her of several years ago through the screen.
"Save it," Shi Ran gestured with her eyes at Ruan Ruan's smiling face in the photo. "Crop the person next to you out."
Ruan Ruan bit the inside of her lip as she looked at her. The tingling in her scalp instantly eased. She shifted her gaze to stare at her younger self. In truth, if it weren't for this incident, she never would have found such a memorable photo.
The aloof and cool Shi Ran could always make her feel secure, even if she always wore an expression that said, "too lazy to descend to the mortal realm."
Ruan Ruan did as she was told and saved the photo. Shi Ran sat back down beside her and picked up her chopsticks to eat her salad.
She… had nothing else to say?
Ruan Ruan glanced over, then buried her head in her phone and refreshed. She was surprised to find that the previous two topics, "Shi Ran Ruan Ruan" and "Ruan Ruan," were both dropping. The latter had been pulled from the main chart entirely, while the one with Shi Ran's name fell step by step behind "Zhang Nuoran Ruan Ruan," dropping back to the 30s, then the 40s…
Gone.
At the same time, the "Zhang Nuoran Ruan Ruan" topic was still being pushed forward, its popularity remaining high.
Ruan Ruan's heart pounded as if she were witnessing an inscrutable game. She quickly tapped into the topic. More than ten minutes later, the tide had turned again.
Evidently, the first two topics had been taken down, indicating that both Shi Ran and Ruan Ruan wanted to lower the hype. But the continued climb of the last one showed that someone else was pushing the topic with Zhang Nuoran.
Furthermore, the "Shi Ran Ruan Ruan" topic had far more discussions and views than "Zhang Nuoran Ruan Ruan," yet the latter had left the former in the dust. Anyone could see something was off.
One blogger said sarcastically, "To think Zhang Nuoran's traffic is even higher than Shi Ran's, hahaha."
In the online discourse, the person with the "bad look" gradually became someone else. The situation had reversed with subtle and clean precision.
A major cosmetic surgery influencer seized on the hype, comparing two photos of Zhang Nuoran's face and analyzing what she'd "done." Meanwhile, Ruan Ruan's station sisters came to their senses and called on everyone to take advantage of the chaos to post beautiful pictures of Ruan Ruan and win over some passersby.
Ruan Ruan guessed that Zhang Nuoran's team must be frantically trying to get the hot search taken down, but removing a topic usually costs more than getting one on the list, not to mention this one was still being pushed up.
Many people yearn for that line from Dream of the Red Chamber: "With the help of a good wind, send me up to the blue clouds."
However, sometimes the wind is a favorable easterly gale, and other times it is a sweeping westerly one. Sometimes "high" means jade palaces and crystalline towers, and other times it means the higher you climb, the harder you fall.
"Snap."
Ruan Ruan put down her phone and returned to the mortal world.
The hot pot was still bubbling with steam, the ingredients mostly fished out. Shi Ran took out the alcohol lamps and picked up the plastic lids beside them—four in total. Her wrist descended, covering one, and a flicker of flame was extinguished.
With a press of her fingertips, she snuffed out another.
Ruan Ruan watched her movements. They were a little slow, yet precise, as beautiful as if she were playing a game of chess.
Belatedly, she felt a flicker of alarm, but it wasn't unpleasant. On the contrary, she found it comfortable and stimulating, as if countless fine acupuncture needles were reviving her long-suffering heart.
It had been a night of lightning-fast changes, and she didn't even know who was the chopping block and who was the fish meat in the court of public opinion.
Ruan Ruan's features were still gentle and delicate, but her body reacted with excitement. The moment Shi Ran extinguished the last flicker of the alcohol lamp's flame, she leaned in and kissed her.
Afterward, she kissed Shi Ran onto the bed.
She enveloped her with delicate breaths, licking gently from the center of her collarbone up to the middle of her throat.
She watched as Shi Ran craned her neck, her eyelids fluttering shut as if in a sigh. Her throat contracted in another swallow, a motion that seemed to pour right into Ruan Ruan's mouth.
Goosebumps rose endlessly on Ruan Ruan's skin. The little cat officer was being molded into all sorts of shapes by public opinion; perhaps she would be molded into a little leopard. This version of her, speculated about by millions, was thrillingly unfamiliar. She couldn't vent the surging tide crashing about in her chest, so she could only devour the Shi Ran who was as distant as the horizon, yet within arm's reach.
Obediently, docilely, she would devour Shi Ran.
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