Showbiz Scandal: The Official Announcement of My Ex and Myself-Chapter 176: Song Xi Calls

Mei was shocked when she heard it: "Didn’t you tell me to buy it to cheer him up?"

"Who uses octopus balls to cheer up a guy?!"

"So I thought you were pioneering a new path! I thought he liked octopus balls, so I took the opportunity to memorize all the shops selling them around here for your convenience next time you come to cheer him up!"

The two of them stared blankly at each other until Yu Xia helplessly hugged the whole family-sized bucket of octopus balls and shared one with each of the actors nearby.

When it came to the middle-aged actress who had spoken to Xie Qingci before, she jokingly pointed at Xie Qingci and said, "Is he so into the role that he got scared by your miscarriage? Go and comfort him a bit, poor kid’s probably spooked by the blood pack."

So she confidently walked up to Xie Qingci and handed him three balls.

"What’s wrong? Really scared? It’s just acting."

"I know." He looked down and ate an octopus ball with mayonnaise.

As he chewed silently, Yu Xia was thinking about how to fulfill Mei’s "guidance" to comfort him, when she suddenly heard him whisper:

"Let’s not have kids in the future, okay?"

"..." She looked him up and down, calmly poked at a second ball, "You’re thinking way ahead, we’re just in the first step of a long journey and you’re already thinking about retiring in a villa."

Xie Qingci was momentarily speechless.

Well, there’s no need for comfort then, he wasn’t affected by those baseless rumors; he was just thinking about all sorts of nonsense.

She left him two of the tastiest balls, patted her backside, and hugged the bucket as she left.

Returning, she told Mei, "Turns out you overthought it. He wasn’t affected at all, doesn’t need comforting."

"Then why does he look so listless and out of it?"

"Oh, the blood packet from the production was too realistic, it scared him." She casually replied.

Mei looked calm but her face showed a complex disbelief: "Is he... really that timid?"

Yu Xia could guess her unspoken thoughts—can I really stay in love with such a cowardly man? My perfect image of Xie Qingci is now shattered.

She sighed deliberately, "Ah, maybe that’s just how nobody’s perfect."

Not-so-smart Mei was adorably naive.

They joyfully finished shooting the scene, and she went back to the hotel with everyone else. Due to the incident with the perverted guy last time, Xie Qingci insisted that she must always leave the set with others to avoid similar situations.

She understood that this was not to be taken lightly, so she always left for the hotel together with everyone.

Xie Qingci was walking right behind her, their rooms still next to each other, and when she was opening her door, she glanced to the left, meeting Xie Qingci’s gaze.

He mouthed: Call me.

He really was a bit clingy; they saw each other every day but he still had to call and message her from just a wall away, seemingly refusing to rest until he’d exhausted every bit of her time. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

But she didn’t mind, at most she’d call him a clingy bug. Perhaps this was a little romance quirk of a couple in love?

She tidied up her room, counting to herself but hadn’t even reached ten before her phone rang.

Smiling, she leisurely walked over, but she suddenly paused when she swept her eyes over the screen.

It wasn’t Xie Qingci, but an unfamiliar number, showing as local to Hai City.

Was it a director she hadn’t worked with before?

"Hello?"

From the other end came a familiar though distorted voice, magnetic and clear.

"Yu Xia."

There wasn’t a self-introduction that you would expect from an unfamiliar number, as if he was waiting for her to recognize him.

Yu Xia frowned, "Song Xi?"

Song Xi chuckled: "Glad to hear Yu Xia still remembers my voice."

She felt a bit baffled, had yesterday’s words not been serious enough or harsh enough? How could this person call without any qualms?

And how did he get her contact information? Were her numbers becoming too easily available lately?

"What do you want?" she asked.

Song Xi didn’t waste time, going straight to the point: "I intercepted a scoop, it’s a video of us talking last night, unlike today’s photos, the video definitely makes it seem like we had an argument."

Just stating the facts without the motive, was he trying to manipulate her? Interesting.

"When did you intercept it?"

Song Xi: "Noon."

"Oh, noon," she playfully exclaimed, "Intercepted at noon, but contacting me only now, not reaching out to my agency but coming to me personally, what, did you spend the afternoon thinking of how to use this material to spark a conversation and contact me?"

The voice on the other end hesitated momentarily, then forcefully replied, "You overthink, I was busy this afternoon."

"Fine, I’m narcissistic, so what’s your plan in contacting me? Isn’t suppressing this what you’re supposed to do? The video coming out affects you more than me."

"...Aren’t you worried fans will accuse you of bullying a newcomer? Aren’t you afraid I’ll spill the beans about you and Xie Qingci?"

Song Xi was easily provoked, her blatant nonchalance seemed to unravel his most shameful thoughts, negating all his intense deliberations from the afternoon and all the seemingly perfect reasons he had found.

He could almost picture her sneering at her phone.

Yu Xia clicked her tongue.

"What’s the deal with me and Xie Qingci? Don’t make baseless connections."

Calls have recording features, she wasn’t born yesterday; unless he spelled out his ulterior motives, there’s no proof any tampering was done on this call.

Song Xi took a deep breath, regaining composure: "I just need to tell people you held hands on a show, nothing else, fans will concoct deeper stories on their own. Aren’t you worried? He just debuted, you and Yu Xia should be well aware of the consequences of dating a popular celebrity; aren’t you concerned about your own career?"

She stayed calmly focused, piercingly asking: "And you? You keep running into me to say irrelevant things, what does that mean? Do you like me? Want me to use my influence on you? Aren’t you afraid of this getting out and impacting your career? Haven’t you worked hard for years to debut? Are you willing to gamble?"

This was undeniably a threat, Song Xi tightened his grip on his phone, unable to speak for a long time.

The career he valued most was wielded by the person he liked as a weapon against him; you see, those who debase themselves never earn a shred of respect.

He struggled lamely, his voice strained to a breaking point.

"Do you really think no one knows about your inappropriate relationship? Wei Yaoyao knows too."

Inappropriate relationship? What was inappropriate about her and Xie Qingci?

Yu Xia remained calm: "Oh, well, he’s a lot smarter than you."

At least he understood that silence served his interests best.

Snap, Song Xi seemed to hear a string break in his mind. Breathing heavily, he didn’t know what else to say, didn’t even know why he’d approached her in the first place, making himself look like a joke.

He hastily hung up the phone.

Yu Xia looked at the now locked screen and raised an eyebrow, smiling.