Chapter 31

Pei Kuang bro.

Long time no see.

This form of address, this opening line, really makes one wonder.

The gossip vibe was strong, and the livestream chat exploded instantly.

【Holy crap! Why does this seem like two ex-lovers meeting again?】

【What's going on here? Could there be something between Pei Kuang and Xie Yin?】

【Tsk tsk, I'm getting a strong whiff of juicy gossip here】

【Ahhhhh, why is it Xie Yin again!!!】

【Xie Yin go away! So pretentious, just looking at you is annoying】

【Xie Yin again? She really latches on whenever there's a chance, tsk, clinging to fame when she's not even popular!】

【Just what exactly happened here? Judging from Pei Kuang fans' reactions there's definitely drama here】

【Ahhhhh what to do, I really wanna know the gossip, someone who knows please explain!】

【Pei Kuang fans, instead of just getting angry, come tell us what's going on here?】

【I can't take it, I'm too curious, I'm exiting the stream to go search online, I need to get to the bottom of this gossip】

【Sisters upstairs, we'll wait for you, once you get the gossip come back and share with everyone in stream】

【Waiting for the gossip+1】

【Waiting for the gossip+10086】

...

The livestream chat was blowing up with gossip talk, and the studio atmosphere was equally intense.

Song Anan's eyes were wide, her gaze shifting back and forth between Pei Kuang and Xie Yin.

The other guests were also deep in thought.

Especially Li Yu and Shi Qing, the two women exchanged a look, both detecting strong gossip vibes from each other.

As expected, everyone loves gossip.

All focus was centered on the two involved.

Pei Kuang glanced at Xie Yin, an ambiguous smile playing on his lips. "It has been a while."

Xie Yin's eyes lit up, looking at Pei Kuang as if she wanted to say something but held back.

Just as she was about to speak, she heard Pei Kuang's indifferent voice. "But it seems we haven't met more than a few times."

His words seemed to be muttering to himself, but when spoken had instantly set off a storm.

Xie Yin's expression froze as she stood stunned, clearly not expecting this response from Pei Kuang.

The atmosphere instantly turned rigid.

Yet Pei Kuang looked completely unfazed, the detached smile mixed with obvious aloofness still on his face.

【Dang, after following this show so long, the last time it was this awkward and someone got slapped in the face was Jiang Kai's 'sibling duo', this is dangerous】

【Wow Mama, this is intense, isn't this Pei Kuang openly slapping her face?】

【Yeah...how is it not?】

【Hahahaha, too satisfying, this is what happens when some people shamelessly latch on, serves them right!】

【Um...isn't Pei Kuang being a bit ungentlemanly here? No matter what, she's a female guest, even if she greeted him, he shouldn't make her lose face like this】

【I always thought Pei Kuang was really mild-mannered from watching him on shows, his public image is of someone with high EQ too. There must be a reason for him to act like this】

【Sigh, all the recent drama and gossip has been full of reversals, without knowing the full context I won't judge】

【Yeah yeah, with all the online gossip lately I really have ptsd, better not jump to conclusions】

Jiang Kai stepped forward to stand in front of Xie Yin, tone unfriendly. "Pei Kuang, aren't you going overboard!"

"Overboard?" Pei Kuang raised a brow, an expression of incomprehension. "Explaining something to avoid misunderstanding is going overboard? Should I have let them misunderstand instead, is that not overboard?"

Jiang Kai tried to argue. "It was just a normal greeting, what's there to misunderstand?"

Pei Kuang let out a meaningful "Oh", "And I simply told the truth, how is that overboard?"

【Pei Kuang has a point, if there's a misunderstanding and he doesn't explain it, does he have to let a scandal break out before explaining?】

【Pfft, Jiang Kai is deliberately feigning ignorance here. A normal greeting he says, does he himself believe that?】 【When dealing with Jiang Kai, Pei Kuang's approach is clearly the only way. You pretend to be oblivious, then I'll pretend to be oblivious, let's see who can keep it up】

Jiang Kai was rendered speechless, only able to glare angrily at Pei Kuang.

He had to admit, compared to the hot-tempered Song Linchuan, he had always been quite wary of Pei Kuang.

This guy's words were always velvet gloves, it was basically impossible to take advantage of him.

Li Yu watched from the side, inwardly clucking in amazement.

She had collaborated with Pei Kuang a few times before and had always been quite interested in him.

There was a saying that was spot on, the gentler a person is, the stronger their boundaries.

That was the vibe Pei Kuang gave her, seeming gentle and modest, very easy to get along with, but actually quite hard to get close to.

Looking harmless, but actually the hardest to take advantage of.

Like right now, without getting red-faced or angry, he had fed Xie Yin and Jiang Kai two solid velvet gloves.

People like him are good to befriend, not good to make enemies of.

Pei Kuang ignored Jiang Kai and Xie Yin, and turned to look at Song Anan who was spacing out to the side.

He nudged Song Anan's arm and asked, "Having to catch the early flight this morning without breakfast, are you hungry?"

Snapped out of her thoughts, Song Anan blinked blankly. "Huh? What's up?"

【Hahaha, she must have been secretly eating gossip just now!】

【Song Anan really cracks me up, how can she zone out when everyone else is fighting】

【Little Sis Song: Suddenly got called out, feeling a bit panicked.jpg】

Seeing Song Anan's clueless reaction, Pei Kuang couldn't help but smile.

She could still space out at a time like this, impressive.

Meeting Pei Kuang's amused gaze, Song Anan awkwardly scratched her nose.

Actually it wasn't her fault for spacing out just now. She had just suddenly thought of something very important.

Ever since finding out this was a world inside a book, Song Anan had been focused solely on Song Linchuan's cannon fodder death. But she had overlooked something else the whole time.

And that was that Pei Kuang had also appeared in the book before.

But only once, which was at the wedding of the male and female leads, where he sat in the audience.

At first, Song Anan assumed Pei Kuang was attending as a friend of the male lead, which made sense.

After all, the entire book was written from the female lead's perspective, Pei Kuang had never appeared before, so that meant he likely had no connection to the female lead.

But there was one line in the original book that had left Song Anan very confused.

- As Pei Kuang looked at the bride and groom on stage and their families, a trace of melancholy and pain flashed through his eyes.

Back then, as she couldn't make sense of it, Song Anan had dismissed it as a bug in the original book.

But now, it seems Pei Kuang and Xie Yin did know each other before, so what other plot points might be hidden there?

"I said, are you hungry or not?" Pei Kuang repeated again.

She was about to say she was fine, but suddenly seemed to recall something and hit the brakes: "Yeah, I'm a bit hungry."

Hearing this, the director immediately took the cue and said lunch was ready, they could go eat at the restaurant next door.

Seafood was naturally indispensable at restaurants on an island resort, so for their first meal the show had prepared a seafood feast.

At the table, Li Yu and the others tried their best to liven up the atmosphere, and everyone ate with great enjoyment.

After the meal, the guests headed together towards the lodging arranged by the crew.

All guests would be staying together this time, in a large villa. The rooms were already arranged by the crew, no need for guests to choose.

Each pair of guests got a suite, Song Anan and Pei Kuang were assigned a suite on the west side of the 3rd floor. It was a two bedroom one living room layout, each bedroom had its own bathroom, very convenient.

Everyone returned to their rooms with their luggage.

According to the crew's arrangements, after the afternoon break guests could freely move around the island.

To first get familiar with the surroundings.

This was an island resort, and the crew had splurged to book the entire island for filming.

So it was quite convenient for the guests to move around without worrying about spectators interfering with filming or causing congestion.

Pei Kuang sent Song Anan to her room entrance. "Let me know if you need anything."

Song Anan nodded. "Got it, you go do your thing."

After Pei Kuang returned to his room, Song Anan also closed her door.

Cameras were installed in all the guest rooms this season, but could be switched off anytime.

Other times it was fine, but for naps even if just half an hour, Song Anan felt it necessary to switch them off. But she had just turned off the cameras when she received a WeChat message from Li Sirui, who was clearly camped out in the livestream room.

One look and Song Anan understood everything that had happened.

Li Sirui: "Wahhh Sis Anan, please please protect our Pei Pei, don't let Xie Yin get close to him!"

Song Anan was confused. "Why?"

It wasn't like Xie Yin was some ferocious beast, even if she was the original book's female lead, and Pei Kuang wasn't a cannon fodder side character like Song Linchuan, so there shouldn't be an issue right?

Plus Li Sirui didn't even know Xie Yin was the original female lead.

Li Sirui's reply this time came slowly. At first Song Anan found it odd, but upon seeing the essay-length message understood immediately.

Typing so much would of course take some time.

But from this essay, Song Anan learned the whole story.

So Pei Kuang and Xie Yin had been involved in a scandal before!

Two years ago, Xie Yin had been participating in an idol talent competition. Back then her singing and dancing were average, with just her looks considered passable enough for her to make the top 10.

But relying solely on looks, she was completely lacking in skills and unable to make the cut. She could only stop at top 10.

But right when Xie Yin was about to face elimination, a scandal suddenly broke out about her and Pei Kuang. The two had been photographed by paparazzi appearing at the same private kitchen restaurant.

From the photos exposed by the paparazzi, Pei Kuang had left the restaurant first, and Xie Yin rushed out after him. The two seemed to be pulling at each other quite intimately.

To take advantage of the hype and headlines, the show miraculously kept Xie Yin until the final 5.

Then, in subsequent interviews, Xie Yin openly admitted to the camera that she knew Pei Kuang, and claimed that there were some connections between the two. But she refused to elaborate on what kind of connection it was.

This ambiguous response instantly sparked a wave of high interest online.

Plus, both Xie Yin and Pei Kuang were from T City, so all kinds of versions of love affairs filled the internet, such as childhood sweethearts, reuniting after initially breaking up, and so on.

Although Pei Kuang's team quickly denied the relationship and clearly stated that there was not and would never be anything between them, past or future, they did not explain what the connection was either.

Although Xie Yin never mentioned this again after that, and didn't even bring up Pei Kuang in public, the exposure she gained from this was tremendous.

So naturally, Pei Kuang's fans deeply resented Xie Yin, feeling that she had deliberately ridden on Pei Kuang's popularity to gain attention.

Shameless!

After reading Li Sirui's message, Song Anan was instantly confused.

How come this was never mentioned in the original book? How strange.

But she soon felt at ease again.

There were also many inconsistencies regarding Song Linchuan's character in the original book, so it was nothing major for Pei Kuang's story arc to have this plot hole.

Just as Song Anan was about to put down her phone and take a nap, Li Sirui sent another message.

"Also, friendly reminder, even though you guys are both my nephews, I don't expect you to be biased towards my Pei Kuang, but you have to be fair."

Song Anan: "???"

What does she mean?

Li Sirui immediately replied: "Go check the hot search, you'll understand after reading it."

So Song Anan exited WeChat with a confused look, and clicked into Weibo.

The hashtag "#Little aunt gains a new nephew, Song Linchuan's status threatened#" was prominently displayed in the hot search.

The first Weibo she saw after clicking in was Song Linchuan's.

@SongLinchuan: Hmph, my status feels threatened? How contemptible. [photo]

The first reply in his comments was unexpectedly from Pei Kuang.

- @PeiKuang: Raring to go. [photo]

Then, Song Linchuan replied to him in the comments.

- @SongLinchuan: Whetting my knife. [photo]

Then, the two of them started bickering with each other using reaction memes.

Looking at their exchanges, Song Anan was somewhat exasperated.

It was one thing for Song Linchuan to be childish, but for Pei Kuang to play along with him too...

And did they think she didn't know that despite acknowledging their aunt-nephew relationship, Pei Kuang didn't actually see her as an elder at all, clearly still treating her like a kid.

Hmph!

The more she thought about it, the more upset she felt, so Song Anan decided to find an opportunity to get back at them.

This Weibo account was created earlier by Jiang Han, who said fans were urging her to make one. Song Anan didn't see the point but agreed anyway.

When verifying the account, the name 'Song Anan' was already taken by someone else, so they ended up going with 'Little Auntie Song Anan'.

However, she really had no habit of posting on Weibo, and didn't even read it regularly, so the account had gone unused.

She went straight to Song Linchuan's Weibo post and found a fan comment: @FirstRowMelonEatingGirl: Stop arguing, let me ask the little aunt first - what's your standard for favorite nephew? You guys work hard.

@LittleAuntieSongAnan: I like the filial ones!