First Kiss Diary - Chapter 18

The next day at eight o’clock was the filming of “First Kiss Diary.” This time, the filming location was in China, and the project was playing an escape room game. Ji Ning woke up at half past five, and ten minutes later, she went downstairs for styling.

Ji Shiyan came down a bit late today, and Jiang Sheng kept asking him from behind, “Did you go steal something? How could I not wake you up with two phone calls? Tell me honestly, did you sleep last night or not!”

“I did,” the man replied impatiently, “just a bit late.”

“A bit late?” Jiang Sheng’s curiosity was strong, “You didn’t even delay locking your screen for a soccer match. What did you see that made you forget to sleep? Is it worth disturbing your sleep?”

“Blocking his sleep doesn’t necessarily mean death, but bothering him too much might get you killed,” the director laughed as he approached, “Let’s make good use of time, everyone. We’re planning to record tomorrow’s show today.”

Ji Ning was still busy with makeup and couldn’t turn around conveniently. She stared at the mirror in surprise and said, “So soon?”

“Yes. If the first episode is well received, we’ll consider airing subsequent episodes earlier. If we can finish recording the day’s episode before ten o’clock, we’ll aim to broadcast it the next day. It’s convenient for everyone to keep up with the latest trends and avoid situations where the audience sees you with a different partner the next day after watching the show with someone else the day before.”

Ji Ning thought to herself that Ji Shiyan was involved in this; the show couldn’t possibly have a poor reception. Jiang Sheng snapped his fingers and exclaimed, “This is great! Riding on the wave of summer vacation traffic, with minimal delay in airing time, surely more people will watch. And airing it like this has its charm. Let’s be the first to do it.”

“The top traffic is already here. Do we really need to ride on the summer vacation traffic?” the makeup artist asked with a smile. Usually, everyone followed the top traffic’s cue, and Ji Shiyan had never mentioned it before, so he didn’t continue the topic. He sat next to Ji Ning and asked, “What time did you sleep last night?”

Ji? Fretting? Something? I’m worried!

He raised his eyebrows slightly, seemingly surprised, “Pretty early.”

“And you, what were you doing last night?” She knew Ji Shiyan had been on a health regimen in recent years, usually turning off his phone and going to bed around ten o’clock. There were few things that could keep him up late, the last time being a friend’s wedding. Of course, it could also be because he had been in the entertainment industry for too long and had become immune to various entertainment activities. She was curious about what could keep him up late.

Ji Shiyan replied, “Just watching something.”

Jiang Sheng leaned in playfully and asked, “Was it that?”

“Could you please calm down?” Ji Shiyan couldn’t bear it anymore and kicked Jiang Sheng’s chair aside. “You’ve changed,” Jiang Sheng said, feeling aggrieved, “I used to be able to interrupt when you were talking to someone else.” Ji Shiyan couldn’t be bothered to deal with him and leaned back in his chair to let the hairstylist do his hair. The makeup room mirrors were connected, so he could see Ji Ning’s expression through the mirror in front of him.

Seeing her naturally made him think of the Weibo post he saw last night, and the unparalleled rainbow fart performance in it. The satisfaction and contentment that came later emerged gradually. He had thought that the love CP wasn’t interested in him at all, and he was quite frustrated by it. But he found out that she seemed to have liked him… for a long time. It was as if winning the Best Actor award back then wasn’t as surprising as this. He raised his eyebrows, toyed with the ring in his hand, and smiled casually.

Ji Ning was originally reading the lines on her phone with her back to the mirror. As she read, she felt something was off. When she looked up in the mirror, Ji Shiyan was looking at her. Those eyes, without a hint of a smile, were already captivating. At this moment, they seemed to be smiling ambiguously and meaningfully, almost like a thousand-year-old wizard casting a spell on the spot. She felt her ears tingle from being stared at. Ji Ning touched her cheek in confusion, “Is there something on my face?” The man shook his head lightly, “No.” Then he hesitated for a moment, “You…” Just as Ji Shiyan was about to speak, Jiang Sheng came over from behind, “Of course there is.” The current lines triggered Jiang’s switch to cheesy romantic phrases. He pointed at Ji Ning and said proudly, “She looks kind of pretty.” Ji Shiyan: “…”

Ten seconds later, Jiang Sheng was pounding on the door from outside, “Hey—hey—what’s the big deal? Why did you shut the door on me, Ji Shiyan, Ji Shiyan!” Ji Shiyan licked his upper palate and locked the door from the inside, “You’re fired. Don’t come to work tomorrow.”

Jiang Sheng was utterly bewildered. He just said a cheesy line, was it really necessary to throw him out of the room? “Ji Shiyan, you’re crazy!”

Of course, here’s the text with spaces between the paragraphs:

—

After finishing their makeup and hair, the two quickly arrived at the escape room.

Here, there was no Jiang Sheng’s harassment, nor Nono’s interruptions, so Ji’s mood finally improved slightly.

Escape rooms also have themes; they chose the theme of evasion and pursuit. It’s probably about A stealing a confidential chip from B’s house, with B needing to pursue, while A needs to escape.

The two chose Team A, the escapees, while the pursuing Team B was just on the other side of the wall, brought in by the program team. It’s unclear if they are experienced escape room players.

Ji Ning was blindfolded and taken somewhere, seemingly separated from Ji Shiyan. Initially, she didn’t feel much, but the background effects made it tense. When the blindfold was removed, she found herself locked in a dungeon, with only faint red lights flashing on the walls.

Isn’t this supposed to be a teenage romance show? Why make it so scary?

There was only a cameraman beside her in the dungeon, with nothing but lights and a door, which had a keypad lock.

Ji Ning bit her lip and soon heard Ji Shiyan’s voice: “Ji Ning?”

“I’m down here,” Ji Ning raised her voice to bolster herself.

“Wait, I’ll figure out how to get you out.”

“Mm.”

Ji Ning sat cross-legged for a while, then suddenly noticed the indicator lights blinking regularly. After seven small flashes, there was a long pause, followed by four small flashes, then another pause, then eight small flashes and a long pause followed by six small flashes, and the pattern repeated.

She suddenly jumped up, accidentally hitting her head on the low ceiling with a loud thud.

Ji Shiyan was trying to find a pattern on the other side, but rushed to the door upon hearing the noise. “What’s wrong?!”

“Nothing,” Ji Ning rubbed her head, “just got too excited and bumped my head.”

She groaned, rubbing her head as she crawled to the door. Just as she was entering the code, she heard a voice from Ji Shiyan’s side.

“7486.”

They almost simultaneously unlocked it, and the dungeon door finally opened.

As she peeked out of the hole, the man grabbed her with one hand and lifted her to the ground.

Weightlifting really came in handy; he could lift her with one hand.

Ji Ning didn’t expect to experience the scenes she had seen in dramas herself, coughing lightly, “And then?”

“Find the next code and open this door.”

It was just a matter of opening one code-locked door after another until finding the exit before being caught.

Although the two had never played an escape room, they had appeared in many variety shows, so they had some experience. Just as they were about to succeed in opening another door, the alarm above suddenly sounded.

The main door swung open abruptly, and a group of people rushed in, grabbing the startled Ji Ning to leave. It was obviously arranged by the production team.

Ji Shiyan held onto Ji Ning’s wrist and extended his other hand, “Don’t take her, take me.”

Then the group of people took Ji Shiyan away.

Ji Ning looked puzzled, biting her lip as she looked at the director filming them, “If the male lead is gone, does that mean we’re ending ‘First Kiss Diary’?”

The director smiled mysteriously, “There’s a way to save him, but it requires your full cooperation. I’ll give you the real code next, and he can only guess the code based on the information in the room. Your communication can only be through Morse code, and he only has one chance to enter the code. Whether you can give him enough clues depends on you.”

She thought dazedly; she seemed to have learned Morse code when filming, but unfortunately, she couldn’t remember more than a few letters, just ‘abcdnmsz’… Luckily, Ji Shiyan was clever. After a few turns, he asked her, “Is it 5043?”

Holding the small radio transmitter, Ji Ning tried to say ‘yes’ but found herself unable to. After pondering for a while, she typed ‘nsdd’ and sent it over.

It’s the abbreviation for “you’re right” in fan lingo; he should know, right?

Not long after she sent it, Ji Shiyan successfully entered the code.

Ji Ning initially thought he understood the meaning, otherwise how could he be so sure, but just as they walked out the door, she heard him ask himself, “What’s ‘nsdd’? Are you randomly tapping Morse code?”

“You don’t know?” She slightly raised her voice with a girly tone, “If you don’t know, how dare you enter the code?”

“Because I won’t guess the wrong code.”

“…” Alright, her idol was highly intelligent; she should have been prepared for this.

Sure, here’s the text with spaces between paragraphs:

Jining’s eyes flickered as she threw the question back at him: “Can you guess?”

The man paused, “Is it really interesting?”

The girl nodded eagerly, looking at him intently.

After pondering for a while, Jishiyi said, “Boys are awesome? Mud and sand matches?”

Then after a moment of contemplation, “Are you sleeping well?”

This was all a mess. Jining smiled to clear up the confusion, “You’re right.”

Jishiyi: …

Realizing he truly knew nothing about fan language, Jining couldn’t help but want to enlighten him – how could a fan not know fan language? She couldn’t let her idol be laughed at for being out of touch with internet culture for 500 years.

“You should know zqsg, right? It’s quite common.” She looked up.

“Football club song.”

“It’s real feelings.” Jining, the teacher, gave the third question, “xswl?”

Because the difficulty of the question was too high, someone who gave up felt inexplicably calm: “Slim-looking online relationship.”

Jining couldn’t help but furrow her delicate brows, “Be serious!” It couldn’t possibly mean that.

Seeing the girl looking a bit sulky made him find it even funnier. He raised an eyebrow, “I am serious.”

Jining breathed a sigh of relief and told him the answer, “It’s hilarious.”

“What’s funny?”

Jining was puzzled for a moment, “I said xswl is laughing my head off.”

The man nodded, with a teasing look in his eyes, “I know, I’m asking what you’re laughing at.”

Jining clenched her fists, deciding not to argue with this childish person for the time being.

“You probably don’t know pph, right?”

“Surging tiger.” He was completely clueless.

“Pretending to be a fan, it’s like wearing the skin of my fans and then commenting on controversial content everywhere, lowering the impression of me among bystanders. They seem like my fans, but they’re actually criticizing me.”

The man nodded, hitting the nail on the head, “Why use abbreviations? Why not just type it out?”

Jining made a sound of agreement, “At first, it was fan jargon. Sometimes the content on Weibo is easily found and criticized, so initials are used instead of the idol’s name. Later, some commonly used words also began to be abbreviated, and many people started using them like this.”

Jishiyi pondered for a moment, lowering his voice, obviously more interested in another topic, “What are you afraid of being found out?”

What else could it be, either wanting to sleep with you or cursing other artists who compete with you, but afraid of causing trouble by using their full names, so they abbreviate them.

“Nothing…” Jining tried to cover up, touching her nose, “Maybe it’s some content that’s not convenient for you to see.”

—

After another afternoon of shooting, the day’s filming was over.

Although the filming of the program was over, the two would meet again the day after tomorrow because the magazine “Lightweight” was hosting its third anniversary celebration. Jining was originally busy filming and wanted to postpone it, but because she was on the cover of the latest issue, someone from Lightweight contacted the director to make arrangements, so Jining went.

Jishiyi, as one of the people featured in the inaugural issue, naturally received an invitation.

Although it was a magazine celebration, everyone more or less came with the purpose of promoting themselves. Jining’s “Roses and the Wind of That Time” was about to air, so the crew discussed having her and the male lead sit together.

The male lead of Roses was played by Xiao Bo, also a somewhat famous young actor. After Jining sat down, she turned her head and saw many fans holding up his light boards.

She turned her head again and found that the chair next to her had Jishiyi’s name on it, and next to Jishiyi was Fuxuan.

Xiao Bo arrived quickly, and at the same time, Jishiyi also took his seat next to her.

For a moment, Jining didn’t know whom to look at first.

Feeling Jishiyi leaning toward her, Jining thought he might want to talk to her. Just as she turned her head a little, her arm was poked by Xiao Bo.

She turned back, “Hmm?”

Xiao Bo asked, “When are we going on the roadshow?”

“I haven’t received any notification yet, probably soon?” Jining said.

“Right, the drama is about to air, so there’ll definitely be a promotional period before that. Hey, have you been busy lately?”

Sure, here’s the text with spaces between paragraphs:

—

“Kind of, but the publicity will attend.”

“Alright, just don’t leave me to face the media frenzy alone.”

“I won’t.”

Xiao Bo pondered again, “Should we have a pre-celebration, like wearing sailor uniforms if the ratings break 2?”

“You in a sailor uniform?” Ji Ning was taken aback.

“Yeah, if we’re going for excitement, might as well go all the way.”

Ji Ning pursed her lips, finding it somewhat amusing. “Sure.”

Ji Shiyan tilted his head, able to hear Ji Ning chatting happily with someone, even laughing.

The movie star was instantly displeased, very displeased.

Chatting with other men, huh? Pretty happy about it?

After discussing work plans with Xiao Bo, Ji Ning didn’t forget her idol, turning to him and asking, “Did you want to tell me something just now?”

The man adjusted his sleeves, expressionless. “No.”

“Oh.”

Seeing his less-than-pleasant expression, Ji Ning nodded and didn’t say anything further.

Later, when water from the air conditioner splashed onto Ji Ning’s hand, the man calmly handed her a tissue without saying a word.

Ji Ning furrowed her brow, wondering if something had bothered him today to put him in a bad mood?

Afterwards, they didn’t speak much. As they walked the red carpet, everyone was heading to the celebration banquet. In the car, Ji Ning noticed the official announcement for the first episode of “First Kiss Diary” airing next week.

It inevitably quickly became a hot topic again, with Ji Shiyan’s fans dominating most of the plaza (trending homepage), while Ji Ning’s fans also quickly secured a place. Both sides were promoting their idol’s show, treating it as normal work promotion.

That’s what they said, but with the announcement trending so quickly, it meant a lot of people were actually paying attention to the show.

In Ji Shiyan’s car, Jiang Sheng was scrolling through his phone and suddenly exclaimed, “Hey, a preemptive strike notice is here!”

Literally, a preemptive strike was to prevent their CP (couple pairing) from becoming too popular, using some means to push brainwashing notices that “the Ji couple is fake”, suppressing their popularity.

Ji Shiyan still had no expression, glancing at the pushed notice. The notice simply took a few pictures from their celebration and exaggerated the titles—

【Ji Shiyan and Ji Ning sat together throughout the ceremony without any communication? It seems that celebrity CPs are all fake!】

【After seeing Ji Shiyan’s gaze towards Ji Ning, can you still hit ‘like’ for the couple?】

【Ji Shiyan teaches you how to avoid riding the wave of popularity. Couples on stage, strangers off stage, if you’re a top star, come and avoid suspicion together!】

Who knows which team was mobilized, fearing that their CP’s popularity would affect their own resources.

The hotel was only half an hour away. Ji Ning and Ji Shiyan arrived almost at the same time and were seated at the same table.

The celebration banquet served seafood, with each person having several dips to mix themselves.

Just as Ji Shiyan picked up his spoon, he heard Xiao Bo starting to chat with Ji Ning again.

“Did you see our promotional posters? One version was so funny, I almost died laughing.”

Ji Ning took out her phone and flipped through it. “The sketch one?”

“Yeah, said it was drawn by Lin Zhan.”

Ji Shiyan couldn’t help but retort, “Lin Zhan stopped drawing a long time ago.”

They had indeed sought Lin Zhan for their promotional posters before.

Ji Ning and Xiao Bo both looked at him. The latter, holding a spoon, showed no emotion in his eyes, only seeing Ji Shiyan calmly mixing the sauce, seemingly just casually participating in the conversation without caring about them. The focus was still on the seafood on his plate.

Xiao Bo suddenly realized, “Oh, my bad. It was drawn by Lin Sheng.”

Ji Shiyan still didn’t respond, continuing to mix the sauce emotionlessly. Suddenly, he heard Jiang Sheng leaning in and asking, “Is the vinegar tasty?”

The man paused, furrowing his brow.

Jiang Sheng pointed at his bowl, holding a piece of watermelon and earnestly gnawing on it, “I said, don’t put too much vinegar, it ruins the taste.”

Ji Shiyan lowered his head, only then realizing that he had automatically scooped almost half a bowl of vinegar.

Without blinking, he pretended nothing happened and picked up a new bowl to remix.

Later, as the celebration banquet dispersed, the organizer said the media was waiting for them for a group photo.

During the photo, Ji Ning saw it was all seniors, so she quietly stood on the side, afraid of blocking the seniors’ spotlight.

Ji Shiyan gave the center position to a lady and took a slightly off-center position.

Looking up and seeing the media in place, he glanced at her and then smiled at Ji Ning, who was far away, his eyes seemingly saying, “With this distance, tomorrow’s headlines are secured.”

How would she be criticized again? How many attacks would she endure for free?

Even if she had called them seniors so many times, they were very likely still her fans. Despite feeling upset because of Xiao Bo’s antics, at this moment… he couldn’t just… not protect her.

The man stepped forward.

As Ji Ning was still changing positions with someone, she suddenly heard Ji Shiyan call her name, loudly enough for everyone in the venue to hear, with confidence.

Everyone looked towards Ji Shiyan.

Ji Ning stuck her head out, looking at him through the crowd, “Huh?”

“Come here.”

He raised his hand slightly, “Come over to my side.”