Chapter 14: You Could Sell Her to Me

After that scene, tear tracks marked both their faces—especially Qin Ting's. Zou Songpu had just tried to wipe them for her and instead smeared the tears perfectly even; now he had gone off to watch the monitor by himself.

Qin Ting followed him over to the monitor to check the overall effect. The director gave her a thumbs-up: "Really good work today. Keep it up."

"Thank you, Director!" Qin Ting's voice rang out so loudly that even the crew packing props could hear it.

Since the opening ceremony, Zhou Dao had often used the money Qin Ting transferred her to buy drinks and desserts for the crew—sometimes even for the extras. So although Qin Ting sometimes botched a take and needed retakes, people who'd eaten her treats couldn't very well complain. Getting praised at last, Qin Ting was in an excellent mood and waved a hand. "Milk tea on me, everyone!"

"Thank you, Ms. Qin!"

The milk tea for the other actors on set she delivered personally, one by one—everyone except Zou Songpu.

After the table-read incident, she had no desire to relive that kind of awkward scene. She thought it over and had Zhou Dao first sound out his assistant; the answer came back: Brother Zou says don't bother with his share, the thought is appreciated.

That wouldn't do at all. Qin Ting tried to be as fair as possible in everything; if everyone else had something, one person couldn't be left out. So she asked Chen Yue which brand of mineral water Mr. Zou could drink.

His reply took ages, and by then nearly everyone had left set. She simply ordered a delivery runner to buy a case of the water he'd named and bring it straight to the hotel. She'd meant to have the robot deliver it to his room, then decided on second thought that was inappropriate, and ended up carrying the case herself to knock on Zou Songpu's door.

"Mr. Zou, it's Qin Ting."

The door opened, and Chen Yue's head appeared. Seeing the big case of water, he sounded surprised. "Ms. Qin, why did you haul up such a huge case of water?"

"I figured bottled water is something you drink every day—buying extra never hurts. Don't worry, none of it's been opened; it's all sealed."

Chen Yue was now effectively Zou Songpu's spokesman, speaking as if from a prepared script: "Ms. Qin, thank you so much. Really, it's we who should be thanking you—thanks to you this morning, Brother Zou got his medicine on time. Otherwise I don't know what I'd have done."

"It was nothing. I should be thanking Mr. Zou for arranging Teacher Han to give me extra coaching last time. By your logic, I owe you the bigger favor."

For a while the two of them stood in the doorway trading courtesies back and forth. Inside the room, Zou Songpu listened as Chen Yue gradually ran out of things to say, his rehearsed lines exhausted, recycled phrases popping out alternately like a chatbot's. Qin Ting, though, didn't mind at all and chatted on endlessly—until he could bear it no longer and got up to handle it himself.

"Ms. Qin, thank you for the water—I accept it. It's getting late; go back and get some rest."

At that clear dismissal, Qin Ting realized she had indeed been standing at his door too long, said her goodbyes in a hurry, and went back upstairs to her own room.

When she came in, Zhou Dao had everything tidied. Today was their agreed livestream day. The two first posted a short video to announce the start time, then sneaked downstairs.

The hotel had a garden—not large, but the lights along the path were enough for their stream.

"Good evening, fans. We're a bit late tonight, and I don't want to keep talking and disturb people's rest, so today is an immersive stream—just sit back and watch Tingting play. I'll answer questions by typing."

"Streamer, where are you right now?"

"This is a little garden at our hotel, so the lighting is a bit dim—please forgive us~"

"How long will today's stream be?"

"About an hour. Once Tingting's done playing we'll head back—otherwise she's got too much energy, and back in the room I'm afraid she'll wreck something."

Tingting, busily stomping on little twigs, meowed in protest.

Zou Songpu, watching the stream cradled in his hands, stared silently at the screen. Suddenly he rose, pulled open the curtains—and there below, unmistakably, stood one woman and one cat. He compared the image against the frame again and again to confirm the likeness, then got dressed and headed out without a second word.

Chen Yue had just finished checking tomorrow's schedule when he heard the door. He looked up in time to catch a flap of clothing sweeping out; the room held only himself.

"Brother Zou, where are you going this late at night?" He hurried after him.

Chen Yue missed the elevator and ran down the fire stairs to the lobby half dead, still saw no sign of Zou Songpu, and rushed to ask the front desk. The clerk, bleary-eyed, said a man had walked toward the garden—though he couldn't be sure who.

Qin Ting found the garden much nicer to roam at this hour. Besides Zhou Dao, no one else came. And though she was technically streaming, she never saw anyone's comments anyway—which amounted to being alone. Even if she complained about someone now, to any onlooker it was only a kitten being cute. No one thinks a kitten is noisy.

Picking her light-footed way around, she was about to do one more lap before heading back when she spotted, in the distance, two figures walking one after the other. She stepped forward, saw who it was—and darted behind cover in a flash.

Zhou Dao hadn't realized anything; only when viewers began asking where Tingting had gone did she discover Qin Ting had vanished somewhere. Before she could finish typing a reply, she heard footsteps drawing nearer behind her—and her hair stood on end, goosebumps sweeping over her.

"Hello."

"Ah!—" Zhou Dao shrieked, then remembered the livestream and clapped a hand over her mouth, forcibly smothering the rest of it.

The moment she saw who it was, she understood why Qin Ting had hidden. She had checked the call sheet carefully before leaving—Zou Songpu had a six a.m. call tomorrow. How was he here at this hour?

Zhou Dao pointed at her phone to indicate she was live. Zou Songpu nodded, sat down beside her without a word. Chen Yue, arriving behind, saw Assistant Zhou there, waved, and went off to the side to catch his breath.

The three of them kept to themselves, presenting a scene of eerie harmony. Seeing that Qin Ting showed no sign of reappearing, Zhou Dao figured she had to move these two along so that she and Qin Ting could go back up. When the time looked right, she ended the stream and spoke first.

"Mr. Zou, out for a stroll this late?"

"Mm."

"...Then please, carry on. I'll head up?"

Zhou Dao saw no reaction; just as she rose, Zou Songpu asked her, "You're not taking the cat?"

"It's fine, it's fine. She'll come back on her own."

The instant those words left her mouth, Zhou Dao noticed his expression change.

Zou Songpu rose indignantly. "You mean to say you'd let a cat ride the elevator alone, open the door herself, and go back to bed?"

"No, no, that's not what I meant. Once she's had her fun she'll come back—she's very clever."

"Are you her owner?"

Zhou Dao genuinely had no way to answer that. Speechless, she lowered her head and pretended not to hear.

The usually tight-lipped Zou Songpu seemed like a different person now. "And how clever is clever? If you're her owner, you should keep your eyes on her at all times—never let her out of your sight. If you're not her owner, then you're drawing the wage that comes with your job, and keeping that cat safe is part of your duty. Either way, you don't leave her outside to find her own way back. The animal protection law is about to take formal effect; what you're doing counts as willful abandonment, and it carries legal liability. Of course—if neither you nor your owner wants this cat, you could sell her to me."