Showbiz Scandal: The Official Announcement of My Ex and Myself

If she really had to resort to blind dates, the first batch to eliminate would be people like Liu Yicheng and Liu Ji.

One can badmouth his girlfriend after a relationship goes sour, placing himself on a pedestal as a sympathy figure, which already says a lot about his character.

The other likes to act as a listener, like a literary central air conditioner. People who consider themselves literati are often too romantic; everywhere he looks, he finds someone to admire. You can predict how he would crumble if they were actually together.

Of course, maybe she just met someone particularly to her liking, like Xie Qingci, which raised her threshold for evaluating others.

Not ruling out the possibility that her assessment is wrong, and they are both good men, but no matter how nice, they are not worthy of her.

As the game ended, the dynamic among the six groups of guests changed again.

Xie Qingci walked over from the next room, took her hand, and leaned close to her ear to ask something.

As soon as he spoke, Yu Xia knew what he was going to ask, and their voices collided as she answered his question.

"What did you talk about with Liu Ji?"

"It was all normal conversation, no extra questions, and the smiles were directed at you."

Lan Hui, standing nearby, couldn’t help but chuckle, and quickly covered her mouth when Xie Qingci glanced at her.

Yu Xia nudged him lightly.

Xie Qingci turned back and said, "Then what does your smile at me mean?"

"Do I need a reason to smile at you? I can’t smile at others, can’t smile at you, so I won’t smile anymore. I’ll just stay cold and get a new role as a poker-faced actor in the next drama."

Xie Qingci paused: "I was just asking for a reason, like maybe you mentioned me?"

She rolled her eyes, "Isn’t it normal to mention you? I told them you get jealous easily, now everyone knows."

People online always say she’s controlling, but surely he’s the one who’s strict, asking all sorts of questions and wanting to remove every male ’weed’ around her.

He didn’t mind being labeled as jealous, and having received the answer he wanted, smoothly switched the topic.

"How about we buy some groceries later..."

They talked in low voices, their atmosphere arguably the best of the bunch. Meanwhile, Liu Yicheng was talking with other guys and had nothing to say to Zhou Yu.

The director clapped hands at this point, announcing that everyone would have lunch together, provided by the production team.

The six of them in the large house didn’t need to struggle with eating gruel anymore, and Yu Xia didn’t have to brave the sun to buy groceries, making everyone happy as they followed the vehicle to a restaurant in the village.

The restaurant had two floors, and they opted for a super large round table on the second floor, sitting down according to couples.

By the door was free kelp soup. While waiting for the dishes, Xie Qingci went to get two bowls of soup.

"Do you want to wipe off the lipstick first? Drink some soup; you haven’t had water since breakfast."

Yu Xia took out a small mirror from her bag, wiped off the slightly tarnished lipstick, and drank half a bowl of soup.

Seeing this, gradually, Liu Ji and the other guys stood up to get soup, bringing it back to the girls they paired with.

Zheng Jinjin, paired with Liu Ji, shyly said "thank you," startling Liu Yicheng, who was chatting with Mo Yunchu next to her.

He turned to see that every other girl had a bowl of soup in front of them, except for Zhou Yu.

Lin Shuangyin then gave the bowl meant for Mo Yunchu to Zhou Yu, saying, "Zhou Yu, have some soup. I see your lips are chapped."

The two guys were left a bit sheepish.

There’s no harm in comparison. Like Liu Ji and Qian Ling, who’ve already earned a chance to chat with the girls through a thoughtful bowl of soup. Especially Qian Ling and Ling Yan, who don’t seem to be giving each other the cold shoulder like they did yesterday.

As for Wang Xuchun, this guy was a bit blunt, telling Lan Hui that winter melon shrimp soup would be coming soon, and it would taste better. He stubbornly served only one bowl and only then, seeing that others had already given the soup to the girls, handed his bowl to Lan Hui.

Yu Xia drank her soup slowly, observing.

When the dishes were served, a platter of poached prawns was placed in front of her.

This is a famous love-showing dish. Just look at Qian Ling, ready to peel 999 shrimp for Ling Yan.

He needed to be able to chat politics and financial topics with other men while naturally peeling shrimp at the same time to earn the most "respect" in the love-showing world.

Xie Qingci asked her, "Do you want to eat shrimp?"

Casually sipping her soup, she said no.

That platter of shrimp was better left for others to showcase their skills.

The poached prawns were passed around to the opposite side, and a similar conversation occurred between Zhou Yu and Liu Yicheng.

While Liu Yicheng was still taking food, after seeing Mo Yunchu and the others peeling shrimp, he turned around and casually asked Zhou Yu, "Do you want to eat shrimp?"

Zhou Yu shook her head, and he didn’t bother further, continuing his conversation with Mo Yunchu.

Having finished her soup, Yu Xia understood these breakup tricks all too well and turned to ask Xie Qingci.

"Do you want to eat shrimp?"

Xie Qingci’s chopsticks, poised mid-air for food, retracted.

"You want to peel for me?"

"All you need to do is answer if you want it or not."

He pondered, as if considering a life-threatening question, and finally shook his head, "Forget it, there’s no glove, it’ll just get your hands all oily."

She nodded, made an "oh" sound, and neither her posture nor expression changed, as if she had just asked casually.

But Xie Qingci put down his chopsticks and stared at her for a while.

Yu Xia glanced sideways, "What are you looking at me for?"

"You were just saying it offhand, weren’t you? You weren’t honestly asking if I wanted it, nor had you considered peeling shrimp for me."

Looks like normal people do have brains, eyes are not just for show.

She scooped two meatballs into his bowl and calmly replied, "Don’t defame me."

"Then I want to eat shrimp."

"The shrimp are cold, and it’s a hassle to wash oily hands later."

Xie Qingci was directly amused by this.

Yu Xia picked a few bean sprouts to eat, found them tasty, and picked up her bowl to get some rice.

Then the bowl was taken over, and, bearing no grudge, Xie Qingci served her a bowl of rice.

She smiled lightly, her left hand reaching under the table, and he, knowingly, placed his hand on his leg to let her hold it.

"I want to eat Sichuan boiled beef slices," she blinked and said.

Xie Qingci looked at her intently, and two seconds later, with his left hand, he used chopsticks to put two pieces of beef on her plate.

The person was thus appeased.

Midway through the meal, as the sweet two-person world continued, Mo Yunchu called out Xie Qingci’s name, pulling him into their "men’s chat group."

"Xie Qingci, we have nothing to do this afternoon. Want to join us for some basketball?"

They had set up a basketball hoop last night, and it was easy to borrow the court to play around.

Xie Qingci was about to refuse, but Yu Xia nudged him.

At that moment, she was like a worried mom wanting her child to play more with other kids.

"Alright, I’ll go get changed after lunch then," Xie Qingci changed his response.

Mo Yunchu was quite pleased and kept chatting with him from across the table.

Across several seats, Zheng Jinjin accurately passed the platter of poached prawns to Yu Xia, with the shrimp heads facing her. It seemed someone had moved it, as the long whiskers brushed her bowl’s edge.

Yu Xia paused, looked up. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Zheng Jinjin smiled and said, "There are only two shrimp left. I see that only you and Xie haven’t eaten, why don’t you guys have them."

Yu Xia politely smiled, "No need, you have them, I haven’t been eating much river or seafood recently."

Ling Yan suddenly chimed in, "Are you worried about peeling them? You could have Xie Qingci peel them for you."