First Kiss Diary - Chapter 52

[So how many times did you actually film that kissing scene?]

Ji Ning had just finished filming and returned to the hotel when he received a message from Song Yu.

Song Yu had gone back to school these past few days, but Ji Ning’s schedule was completely under the control of this gossip queen, who was committed to excavating all of the subject’s psychological activities.

She hadn’t told Song Yu about the kissing scene yet; whether it was Nono or someone else who leaked it, in any case the moment Song Yu heard the news, she launched a bombardment of messages at her on WeChat.

As if displeased that she hadn’t replied for a while, Song Yu quickly typed a few exclamation marks into the chat box—

[It wasn’t just once, right?]

How many times, exactly!

Is that so hard to answer?!

Finally he sent a message deadpan: “Important information, read quickly.”

I guess he wanted her to open it sooner while she was checking messages.

“……”

Ji Ning sent a string of ellipses.

Song Yu: [What do your ellipses mean? I don’t like them, retract.]

[Please, in exhaustive detail, describe the kissing scene for me — time, place, temperature, setting, number of kisses, textures, and taste — like how Hong Kong belongs to China, nothing can be omitted.]

The recent heated territorial dispute had stirred the fighting spirit of many fangirls, Song Yu among them. She’d spent several days moderating comments and countering hate on Instagram, often screenshotting her sharp replies to share in her Moments with the caption, “Raise fish for a thousand days to use for an hour — Song Yu [cool][beer].”

Ji Ning pressed his brow, and Gu changed the subject: “Did you finish the things about going back to school?”

Song Yu replied: “Finished. I went to our homeroom teacher’s office, rummaged through her drawer and pulled out an address book. The moment I opened it there was a flash of gold, and eleven large characters appeared: How many kissing scenes has Ji Ning filmed in total?”

……

Ji Ning leaned back, eyelids closing, and naturally thought of that morning’s scene.

That scene nearly took the whole morning to shoot. Her hair faintly carried the scent of his fingertips, a cool yet inexplicably lingering undertone, swirling at her side.

The man’s fingertip kept tracing the area behind her ear as if almost not touching, dominating the whole time. She could do nothing but close her eyes and hold her breath; she only thought his breath smelled so good, and when he leaned in it carried a thrilling pull.

She couldn’t help but lift a hand to pinch her own earlobe, imitating a motion he might make at some moment, and the next second a wave of intense shame and déjà vu swept over her.

She turned over, burying her face in the blanket, letting out an indescribable whimper from her throat.

I can’t think about this anymore.

Her phone was still persistently notifying her of new messages. Ji Ning spaced out for a moment before finally reaching for her phone.

[Hello, is this Ji Ning? I’m Song Yu, a fan girl. I’ve climbed the wall and am currently roasting the rioters on Instagram while fighting them off on all fronts, but I’m also scared they might do something bad to me. If there’s one thing I can’t let go of before I go, please let me ask you, how many takes did the first scene of “Phantom Healing” require? If you don’t want to reply, that’s fine. I’ll be okay. Just let me carry this pain and live incognito in this happy kingdom forever.]

…?

Ji Ning replied helplessly: [5.]

[It took five takes to pass.]

Song Yu: [Hahahahahahahahaha good good good good I’m laughing so hard I could use a loudspeaker to deafen those useless ears of the rioters.]

Ji Ning: [Can people like you, hiding your identities in a happy country, really laugh this loudly?]

Song Yu seemed to be stumped by the question, and it took him a while to tactfully change the topic.

[So… what did it feel like to kiss Ji Shiyan?]

[You were drunk last time, so that’s excusable, but this time you were sober and even went for five rounds. There’s no way you could have forgotten, right?]

The words “five rounds” seemed to carry an intimate warmth, and Ji Ning looked away after just a glance, saying: [You should go show off your skills on Instagram instead. Don’t worry about these things.]

Speaking of Instagram, the irritable Song Yu spoke up online: [Fine, but I hope you understand that wasn’t me cursing someone out. Cursing out innocent bystanders is what you call cursing. For them, it’s a natural expression of care for trash, letting them know there’s true love and genuine affection in this world. Although their brains have given up on them, stupidity hasn’t. I’d strike them with a knife-hand blow that leaves their skull completely defenseless, sending them soaring to the sky like a rocket. Their father would definitely be planting a loquat tree in the yard tonight.]

After speaking, Song Yu started sending her pictures, showing his posts on Instagram, speaking passionately and with great pride: [Didn’t I say it perfectly? I think it could be directly included in textbooks, it’s simply a hall-of-fame level speech masterpiece.]

Ji Ning looked at the results of Song Yu’s battle, and after a long while said: [Then take care of yourself, don’t get too angry.]

[Yes, I think the country really needs high-quality talents like me! Song Yu is the absolute best!!]

…

Later, Song Yu was too busy to chat and went to match wits with the delinquents again. Ji Ning gave up since she couldn’t scale the wall, just as Nuono sent over her schedule for verification.

That day, to prevent her好不容易 calm emotions from being stirred again, she didn’t browse Ji Shiyan’s super topic, just posted a Weibo on her alternate account and went to sleep.

Of course, Ji Shiyan wouldn’t miss any of her alternate account’s updates.

After reviewing the materials in his hand, the man rubbed his temples under the desk lamp. Remembering something, he took out his phone to look.

The “secret wife” posted again as expected, this time an original Weibo post.

She shared an image with the tag #An Actor’s Self-Cultivation#, showing a conversation between herself and Song Yu.

At the bottom was Song Yu’s thought-provoking question—what did it feel like to kiss Ji Shiyan?

Unfortunately, the image cut off there. Below that, all that could be seen was a sliver of green from her dialogue box, with the content unclear.

The man suddenly became a little curious.

Kissing him… what exactly was her feeling?

///

Ji Ning, who was quite satisfied, had a rare full night’s sleep. After getting up and washing up, she rushed to the film set.

It was now four in the morning, the chill was at its peak. The wind was not wind but like knives scraping against people’s bodies, a cold that penetrated straight to the bone marrow.

“You know Song Yu was trending on social media last night?” Nuonuo asked her in the car.

Ji Ning had just peeled a purple sweet potato, turned her head, and asked in disbelief: “Who…?”

Song Yu… trending?

“That friend of yours who freeloads off you,” Nuonuo’s description of Song Yu was quite accurate, “Although it wasn’t a personal trending topic, she was quite prominent in it, the center of attention.”

Ji Ning thought for a moment: “She’s a beauty blogger, right? What kind of makeup did she have on?”

“It wasn’t trending on the beauty hot search, it’s… I can’t quite describe it, you should take a look.”

She glanced at the trending topic title through Nuonuo’s hand—Fan Girls vs. Rioters.

Song Yu’s self-recognition wasn’t just self-indulgence with rose-tinted glasses, and she had gained quite a few female fans.

She battled the rioters for 300 rounds on Instagram and ultimately achieved a complete victory. Without using any extreme language, every retort left the rioters speechless, and this historic moment was captured by entertainment accounts.

Fan girls, who have long been active on Weibo, Ba Group, and Tu Zone, possess highly skilled techniques in real-time searches and rapid comment control. Additionally, the constant infighting in the mainland entertainment industry has honed their abilities.

That innate sense of superiority, the steadfastness forged through long-standing battles with rivals, the audacity to fight for billing, resources, and against their own company, and the courage to remain composed and fearless even when storms gather—these qualities enable them to handle the delinquents with remarkable ease.

Including Song Yu, there were twelve spokespersons who went viral, and Song Yu was the most outstanding one.

After the Weibo post exceeded 20,000 reposts, Song Yu’s makeup blogger account was discovered, and then someone also found that she simultaneously managed Ji Ning’s “rumor clarifier” account. Following Ms. Song Yu herself, the “rumor clarifier” account also went viral.

Surprisingly, there were also many fan girls in the popular comments:

【Can you imagine? As a Ji Ning fan, I was still battling fiercely with Ji Shiyan’s fans on the public square yesterday. Today, we joined the same Instagram patriotic comment control group, and when we discovered each other, the atmosphere was a bit awkward.】

I, a mouse sister struggling to survive in the cracks, probably only stood on the same front as sea salt and lemon these past two days when we were cleaning up the comment sections where our country’s artists spoke out on Instagram.

These comments unexpectedly improved quite a few passersby’s impressions:

I can actually see some team spirit here? I bet you’ll all become one big family soon enough.

LMAO, this is the first time I think Ji Ning’s fans are really great! I’m not good with words and don’t know what to say, luckily I have you all.

“You are my enemy, but also the only one who can stand by my side when I’m surrounded.” Love this! Any recommendations for stories like this?

And so Ji Ning’s clarification account gained followers. Many people found her fan community interesting and decided to follow her as well.

She also discovered for the first time that there were actually fans who could help an artist gain followers beyond their usual circle.

Nuonuo’s summary of this strange incident was as follows: “So what is this? They say gold will always shine, but who could have predicted this reason for gaining followers? You’re destined to be famous, really.”

After a week of filming, the final episode of the finely edited version of “First Kiss” with behind-the-scenes footage was also broadcast.

Besides the extra behind-the-scenes footage and unaired details, the segment with Ji Ning and Ji Shiyan’s necklaces was finally released by the production team.

Fandoms are full of girls with microscopes, and the brand that Ji Ning could discover naturally could also be found by the CP fans, so the CP fans were celebrating again.

[How can you blame me for being so emotionally invested? Which showmance couple has ever gone this far? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so what reason do I have not to believe this is love? This damn well is love! Today is another day of shedding ugly tears over this beautiful love story.]

[Everyone who says the truth about Double Ji is fake will be secretly killed by me.]

[This is the first winter that doesn’t feel so unbearable. Rather than them thanking us for our support, it’s we who should thank them for all the sweetness they brought, making me feel that life has something to look forward to again. I always believe this is not a seasonal drama but a continuous series. Double click to cheer me on!]

The ship fans for the two of them were indeed incredibly dedicated. A week after the show ended, while the ship communities for the other two pairs were declining in popularity, the Shuang-Ji community not only maintained its position but remained as lively as ever, attracting many new fans.

She was beginning to lose track of whether this was due to Ji Shiyan’s popularity or if there really were so many people who genuinely and firmly believed in the authenticity of their relationship.

///

After spending some more time on set, Ji Ning couldn’t help but feel that filming with Ji Shiyan was indeed much more relaxed than before.

His handling of certain scenes was masterful; he wouldn’t place heavy emotional burdens on her. Even for the most difficult emotional scenes, they would become simpler after being guided by him or discussed together.

Everything feels just right.

Besides filming, the two also received an invitation from a charity program, asking if they would be willing to shoot a short film for free and launch certain charity actions, using their influence to let more people understand complex medical conditions.

Ji Ning, of course, would not refuse.

That Wednesday afternoon, she had no scenes to film, so she went to a nearby photography studio to shoot a public service short film.

This short film would be broadcast on CCTV, and last night she had even specially applied one of her most expensive facial masks.

This place was a large film and television shooting location, where you could see many production crews along the way. There were also several photography studios, which were quite far apart from each other.

Ji Ning only got out of the car to learn that Zhuo Gong was also invited and would be filming with her today.

She and Zhuo Gong had both finished their makeup and hair, and were wearing white tops as required. After quickly rehearsing their lines a couple of times, they were ready to start filming.

The studio door was open. After passing by, Emperor Ji felt something was off after a few seconds, turned back, and stood at the doorway.

“Why is Ji Ning here?”

“Not sure,” Jiang Sheng replied, “I thought only the two of you were invited, I didn’t expect Zhuo Gong to be here too.”

Seeing Ji Shiyan about to enter, Jiang Sheng reached out to stop him: “Where are you going? You’re not in this studio, you’re filming way up front, still need to walk five minutes.”

The man frowned: “I’m filming alone?”

Jiang Sheng smiled: “Otherwise what? Should I go accompany you for the shoot?”

“The two of them together—” Ji Shiyan lifted his eyelids, the corners of his eyes filled with cold and detached displeasure, “And me alone?”

“I know what you want to say.”

Jiang Sheng patted his shoulder and began to imitate: “Why can Zhuo Gong be with Ji Ning together, but I, Ji Shiyan, cannot?!”

The man just stood there without moving, looking as if he didn’t want to leave.

“I seriously suspect that many of your previous gigs were just for Ji Ning,” Jiang Sheng connected the dots. “No wonder you suddenly started doing things you’d never do before, like performing at a branch venue? Who are you, Ji Shiyan, singing at a branch venue? I mean, you wouldn’t even perform at the main venue with an immersive stage, top-notch choreography, and a band, so what the hell were you doing at a branch venue?!”

“Is this really the time for me to listen to your nonsense?” the man frowned.

Jiang Sheng said, “So what do you want to do then? Replace Zhuo Gong and go chase your wife yourself?”

Ji Shiyan pondered for a moment: “…That’s not entirely out of the question.”

Inside, Ji Ning was preparing to start filming when a glance from the corner of her eye revealed Ji Shiyan had entered, carrying an indescribable calm and composure.

This composure left her a bit confused: “Are we… filming together?”

He nodded: “Yes.”

“But isn’t this supposed to be two people?” Ji Ning pointed at Zhuo Gong, “Him and me, that makes two, right?”

Ji Shiyan nodded solemnly: “It is two people, so I’ll be the one shooting with you.”

Just then, Zhuo Gong was called aside by the director, who had apparently just received the notice: “Um… well… we made a mistake earlier. You’re supposed to be in Studio 5. Studio 5 is great, the heating is excellent, the chairs are big and soft, there’s a sofa, and most importantly, there’s a cat, an orange one that’s super cute. Come on, shall I take you there?”

Meanwhile, a certain Ji coughed twice and said in a low voice: “There’s a cat over there. I’m allergic to cat hair.”

Ji Ning pointed at Zhuo Gong, who had been called away: “Then he…”

“He likes cats.”

Author has something to say:　　Salt: For my wife, what is there that I can’t be allergic to?