That evening, after filming wrapped up.

Zhou Yining walked up to Ji Dongyang, holding her scrip,t and smiled at him. “I’m back.”

Ji Dongyang glanced at her and said indifferently, “Mm.”

Zhou Yining’s heart itched seeing his abstinent, cold appearance. She leaned closer and whispered flirtatiously, “I missed you.”

Ji Dongyang lowered his eyes to look at her. Zhou Yining’s lips curled up. “Did you miss me?”

Ji Dongyang wouldn’t answer this kind of question, and Zhou Yining knew it. What a pity, this wasn’t a good place to flirt.

Around 11 PM, the crew finished work. Zhou Yining stayed at the hotel again.

After midnight, she sneaked into Ji Dongyang’s room. As soon as she entered, she jumped onto him. Ji Dongyang frowned, reaching out to support her waist and hips. Zhou Yining wrapped her arms around his neck, her slender legs clamping around his waist, and lowered her head to kiss him.

Extremely naturally, he opened his lips, letting her in.

The two kissed passionately without a word. Ji Dongyang carried her to the bed and pressed her down.

A few minutes later, realizing her period was due, he checked with his hand. Sure enough, it had arrived.

Zhou Yining stared at him, sighing with regret. “Can’t do it tonight.”

Ji Dongyang lowered his head, kissed her lips once, and buried his face in the crook of her neck, breathing heavily. Zhou Yining could already feel his body reacting. She deliberately lifted her hips and rubbed against him, not too lightly, not too heavily.

Ji Dongyang’s body tensed. He propped himself up, looking down at her with eyes deep and dark, giving her a warning look. “Move again and you’re going back to your own room.”

Zhou Yining stopped moving and smiled at him, her slightly upturned eyes staring at him, moist and clear.

Ji Dongyang stared at her for a few seconds, rolled over to lie beside her, exhaled deeply, and covered his eyes with his arm. After a while, he pulled the quilt over both of them. “Sleep.”

Zhou Yining went over to hug him. “I saw Shen Qing the other day.”

Ji Dongyang looked at the ceiling without making a sound. Zhou Yining continued, “I was shooting an ad with her. She seemed to dislike me. Makes sense. If not for me, she would be the female lead of The Heart Knot, partnering with you.”

The next instant, she straddled him, flipping her hair lightly, looking down at him.

“Maybe you would have been hers too.”

Ji Dongyang frowned, staring at her. A few seconds later, he suddenly smiled. “I was already with you before The Heart Knot started filming.”

Zhou Yining raised an eyebrow, leaning down to lie on him like a koala. “Is she your ex-girlfriend?”

So that was what she wanted to ask. Ji Dongyang answered truthfully, “Yes.”

“How long did you date?”

“Three months.”

“Did you get together while filming?”

Ji Dongyang looked at her. “No.”

He had never gotten involved with any actress during filming. Developing feelings because of a role had never happened to him. He separated life and acting very clearly.

Except for Zhou Yining.

She was an exception.

In this lifetime, the only one.

“I knew her before. Filming just made us more familiar. We didn’t date then. During the promotion period, she suggested dating, so we got together. Later, when I went abroad, we broke up.”

Shen Qing’s career was skyrocketing at the time, while he was rapidly hitting rock bottom. Anyone close to him could be implicated, let alone a girlfriend. When Shen Qing proposed breaking up, Ji Dongyang was very calm and understood her. He even felt it was for the best.

Ultimately, the feelings weren’t deep enough, the love wasn’t enough, so separating was simple.

Ji Dongyang didn’t say much about the past, but Zhou Yining understood. She asked, “After Shen Qing, did you have any girlfriends?”

Lying on top of him, she was too tempting.

Ji Dongyang couldn’t stand it and pulled her down. Zhou Yining wanted to hear him talk, so she stayed put obediently. Looking at her, he said, “No.”

Five or six years, that was a long gap for a man. Zhou Yining suddenly thought of something, grabbing the fabric on his chest, asking expectantly, “In that time, was there anyone memorable? Like, when you were in England…”

Ji Dongyang paused, looking at her playfully. “You?”

Zhou Yining didn’t speak, staring at him. Ji Dongyang: “No.”

Just as she was about to get angry, he added, “But I remember you. At the birthday party.”

During that year abroad, he had been to many places and encountered many situations like that night. He would help if he could. The night he met Zhou Yining did leave a deep impression, but she was just a fierce, stubborn, somewhat strange little girl. After returning to China, many things awaited him, and those events were quickly thrown to the back of his mind.

Instead, the sexy, perverse bad older sister at Zhou JiaHui’s birthday party left a deeper impression on him.

That was enough. Zhou Yining smiled. “So you still remember me.”

Neither of them had forgotten the other.

Ji Dongyang looked at her helplessly, nodded, and pressed her head into his chest. “Alright, sleep. We have to get up early tomorrow.”

After being quiet for a while, Ji Dongyang felt her thigh rubbing against his inner thigh, intentionally or unintentionally. Just as he was about to press her down with his leg, she nimbly flipped over, sat on him, moved down to sit on his lap, reached into his pants, and stroked him all the way from the base to the tip. He reached out to hold her hand.

Zhou Yining didn’t speak. Staring at the man who had put on his eye mask, she pulled down his waistband and buried her head.

Ji Dongyang suddenly ripped off the eye mask, his whole body tensing. He let out a muffled groan, half-propping himself up to look at her, panting heavily. “Zhou Yining…”

He held her shoulders, wanting to pull her up.

Zhou Yining looked up at him. The night was silent; his eyes were like soaked ink.

Zhou Yining pointed to the part standing straight up. “You want it.”

After speaking, she buried her head again.

There was no technique to speak of, relying entirely on feeling.

Her long, soft black hair spread out, taboo and seductive. Ji Dongyang frowned deeply, sweat beading on his forehead, lips pressed tight, his whole body burning as if on fire. Slowly, his hand stroked her long hair, and he let out a muffled groan.

When it ended, Ji Dongyang’s face was very dark.

He carried her to the bathroom to clean up.

When they returned, he didn’t say a word, just holding her, his hand covering her eyes. Zhou Yining knew he wanted her to sleep peacefully.

She turned to face him, hugged his waist, and rubbed her head against him. “Ji Dongyang, no one has ever done this before, right?”

His hand tightened.

Zhou Yining pursed her lips in a smile, hugging him tighter. “I’m very happy tonight. A reward for you.”

In the darkness, Ji Dongyang called her name. “Zhou Yining.”

“Mm?”

“Sleep.”

“…Oh, okay.”

…

Taiping Dynasty finished airing, concluding perfectly.

Zhou Yining’s final explosive performance won over the audience. Consort Ning was a hateful yet pitiful woman. Ultimately, it was the tragedy of a woman in the deep palace. When Consort Ning died, was it satisfying? No, but it wasn’t regrettable either.

In short, her ending was as it should be.

Ji Dongyang, Zhou Wei, Jing Xin, Zhou Yining, Yu Yuanhang, and other main actors all enjoyed a surge in popularity. Ji Dongyang and Zhou Wei were already famous, but in recent years they had focused on films. Ji Dongyang did at most two movies a year, sometimes only one.

This time, fans got to watch dozens of episodes of a TV drama, satisfying their craving.

Zhou Yining seemed more and more like a celebrity. People would recognize her when she went out, calling her name, though more often calling her “Consort Ning.”

Even A Ming couldn’t help reminding her, “Miss Zhou, have some self-awareness as an artist, okay?”

Saying this, he tossed a stack of masks to her, the same kind as Ji Dongyang’s, just a size smaller.

A Ming added, “Wear a mask and hat when you go out. Cover up. Otherwise, if you get photographed with Dong-ge later, you’ll be recognized immediately. You don’t want to be exposed like that, right?”

Zhou Yining was speechless. “I have masks.”

Sometimes she really wasn’t that self-aware, and masks were uncomfortable.

She accepted the masks. “I know. I’ll be more careful next time.”

On March 1st, the scene Zhou Yining feared most finally arrived.

This scene was filmed in a bar, the same bar where Lu Yanzhou first met Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan hadn’t seen her psychiatrist for a while and had even changed her phone number, evaporating from the world, disappearing from Lu Yanzhou’s life and work.

Lu Yanzhou came to the bar, leaning in the furthest corner, looking at the dance floor.

This was the fifteenth night he had waited here. Waiting until midnight, he finally saw that familiar petite figure on the dance floor, her soft waist pressed against a man as she danced. After a while, the man wrapped his arm around her waist and led her to the bar.

They ordered a few drinks. Pei Yuan watched the man drink. The man’s alcohol tolerance was surprisingly good. Pei Yuan raised an eyebrow and downed her drink in one go.

The man had a good tolerance, but Pei Yuan wasn’t bad either. Both were nearly drunk.

Pei Yuan prepared to retreat, grabbing her bag and heading for the restroom.

The man followed closely behind.

Lu Yanzhou took a phone call. The bar was too crowded, and when he returned, he couldn’t see anyone. He hurriedly asked the bartender, who pointed toward the restroom. “Went over there.”

In a place like a bar, men and women hooking up in the restroom wasn’t uncommon.

Pei Yuan was dragged into the men’s restroom by the man covering her mouth. A struggle ensued, chaotic and messy.

Her bag fell to the floor, revealing a fruit knife.

Pei Yuan struggled, red-eyed, her long hair messy, looking like a madwoman. She suddenly plunged the knife into the man’s abdomen.

The prepared fake blood plasma coated Zhou Yining’s hands. She stared at the blood on the man, then at her own hands. Chaotic memories flooded her mind: Eighteen years old. She pressed the gun against the man’s abdomen and pulled the trigger. The man bled a lot. She went crazy too.

Zhou Yining stared at her blood-covered hands, having already forgotten she was acting. She screamed, “Ah…”

She threw the knife away violently.

Just like she threw the gun away back then.

She grabbed her hair, squatting on the ground, her face and hands stained with blood, looking terrifying.

However, up to this point, her state and expression matched Pei Yuan’s character perfectly. No one noticed her abnormality. Everyone was awed by her sudden, explosive acting. This was a long-take scene, and Zhou Yining’s performance was perfect.

Wei Zhong didn’t call cut, clenching his hands in excitement, staring tightly at Zhou Yining.

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