The Green Tea Actress Has Too Much After-Show Drama - Chapter 38

The next morning, Ran Long woke up early. Her entire body ached, and her head felt heavy, as if she’d drunk counterfeit liquor and then been beaten senseless.

Rubbing her temples, she slowly regained her senses and recalled the previous day’s events. Unfortunately, her memory only remained clear up to the point when Song Song arrived at the bar. After that, it became fragmented, like a dream with no logical coherence.

For instance, she seemed to have dreamed about Qiu An.

How infuriating! That Yu Le not only tricked her into drinking but also gave her fake alcohol.

Ran Long glanced around, confirming she was in her own room. Just as she began to relax, she looked down and realized she was wearing a nightgown. Her heart leaped back into her throat.

Whenever she’d been drunk and brought home before, she’d always collapsed fully clothed onto the bed. When she woke up, at most her bra clasp would be undone—she’d always assumed Song Song had loosened it out of kindness, fearing it was too tight.

But this time, not only had her clothes been completely changed, but her chest was also completely bare.

She’d dreamed that Qiu An had come to pick her up… Could it have been real?!

Qiu An had indeed… taken advantage of her while she was asleep.

But what exactly had he done to her?!

“Mom!” Ran Long shouted, slapping the bed.

Ms. Hu pushed the door open. “What’s all the commotion? What’s with the yelling so early in the morning?”

“Who changed my clothes?!”

“I did, of course. Who else would bother?”

“Oh.” Ran Long instantly calmed down, having forgotten that Ms. Hu was a worrier. “No, Mom, I’m a grown woman now. Even you shouldn’t be stripping me like that.”

“If you wore those clothes outside, who knows where you’ve been rolling around? If you dirty the sheets and blankets, who do you think has to wash them?”

Ran Long muttered under her breath, “I’m not a puppy… I can wash the sheets myself…”

“Besides, I’ve seen every inch of your body since you were a baby. What’s the big deal? Changing your clothes was such a hassle. I should have just washed the sheets—that would have been less tiring.”

“Fine, fine. Just because you’re my mom, I’ll let it slide this time. But don’t do it again!”

“You’re such a drama queen.”

“By the way, Mom, how did I get home last night?”

“How much did you drink? You don’t even remember? I’ve told you countless times…”

Seeing Ms. Hu about to launch into another lecture, Ran Long quickly interrupted her. “Mom! Let’s talk about what’s important!”

“Alright, alright. An’an brought you home.”

“Qiu An? Really?”

“Who else? You were so drunk you couldn’t even walk straight. It must have been exhausting for An’an to get you back. You need to treat her better, you know. An’an has helped our family so much.”

“Is that so?” Ran Long raised an eyebrow. “Did she give you money to pay off our debts?”

“Well…”

Usually, a hesitant answer meant the truth she didn’t want to admit. Ran Long didn’t press Ms. Hu further, but she knew the answer in her heart.

“Don’t worry about me. She’s a grown woman, rich and famous. How could I possibly bully her?”

“True! Our An’an is amazing. Don’t let her small size fool you—she’s incredibly strong. If she says she’ll carry you to bed, she’ll carry you to bed…”

“Mom—!”

“…without even breaking a sweat.”

“Aaaah—stop talking!!!”

Ran Long plugged her phone in to charge and turned it on. The first thing she did was send Qiu An a WeChat message, asking if she had been the one who picked her up last night.

It wasn’t that Ran Long didn’t believe Ms. Hu’s story—after all, there were two messages and a call record in her chat history.

But she just really wanted to talk to Qiu An, and she wanted to do it right now.

However, a long time passed, and Qiu An didn’t reply.

Ran Long glanced at the time: 8:00 AM. It was early, but Qiu An had never been one to sleep in, even if she had stayed up late the night before.

Besides, Qiu An, the ultimate “simp,” always replied to her messages faster than anyone else.

So Ran Long sent a few more WeChat messages: Still sleeping in? You didn’t stay up too late yesterday, did you?

Another while passed, and still no reply from Qiu An.

Bored, Ran Long scrolled through her phone while waiting for a response. By some strange impulse, she clicked into Qiu An’s fan community and saw the first Weibo post: a fan-posted schedule for Qiu An’s airport arrival.

Arriving in Crossing City at dawn.

The comments section was buzzing: We waited at the airport last night and didn’t see her! Turns out she changed her flight to early this morning.

She’s flying in for today’s event on a red-eye flight. Our girl is working so hard, it breaks my heart.

Ran Long scratched her neck guiltily and returned to her WeChat chat with Qiu An. After hesitating for a long time, she finally sent: Uh, why do you have work today?

Utterly lacking in substance and emotional intelligence.

Ran Long finished typing her message, but it took her a while to realize something was off.

Qiu An had texted her before 10 PM last night, yet she hadn’t called Qiu An until much later.

The call hadn’t gone through, but Qiu An had still managed to find her.

How did Qiu An know she was at Song Song’s bar?

And why, in her drunken stupor, had she called Qiu An?

Ran Long considered asking Song Song, but before opening the chat window, she suddenly remembered something and switched to the voice recorder app on her phone.

Her decision to meet Yu Le yesterday wasn’t impulsive. There were crucial matters she needed to clarify with him.

Thankfully, the three-hour recording hadn’t been lost.

Realizing Yu Le was plying her with alcohol, Ran Long had reacted swiftly, immediately starting the recording to prevent blacking out and forgetting their conversation.

“Ran Long, long time no see,” Song Song greeted her in the recording’s first line.

The second segment captured Yu Le claiming Ran Cheng still owed Chiye Entertainment money.

When Ran Long received Ms. Hu’s 200,000 yuan transfer, she had only suspected foul play. But this conversation had essentially confirmed that Qiu An had repaid her debts.

So Yu Le had lied to her.

The third part of the recording captured Yu Le inviting her to a room in the bar.

Ran Long felt a sudden chill wash over her, her hands and feet instantly turning icy and numb. She pulled the blanket up to her chest and tucked her exposed toes under the covers, but the discomfort persisted.

The waveform bars in the next segment of the audio suddenly widened and lengthened. Ran Long lowered the volume, but unwilling to miss any details, she pressed her ear closer to the speaker.

A series of violent crashing sounds erupted—whether from a fight or something else, she couldn’t tell. Ran Long jumped in fright. She cautiously examined her exposed arm and found only a small, faint bruise. Qiu An must have arrived just in time.

The voices returned. In the recording, Yu Le’s voice resumed its affected, seductive tone. Ran Long frowned, forcing herself to listen patiently.

“You should have stopped me back then.”

“Yes, it’s all my fault.”

Ran Long’s suspicions had been confirmed.

Years ago, her plan to slap Qiu An had been prematurely revealed due to a drunken slip of the tongue. Yu Le knew about it, and Song Song likely did too.

But Ran Long had forgotten about her drunken confession. After the secretly recorded video went viral, she cautiously questioned both women, but they vehemently denied having any prior knowledge of the incident.

Her thoughts raced as the recording continued to play.

The rustling of fabric, deep breaths…

Ran Long refused to imagine what Yu Le had done to her. She preferred to believe she had simply misheard.

Suddenly, faint footsteps approached, and the person spoke two words, but Ran Long couldn’t make them out. Immediately afterward, Yu Le’s clear voice said, “It’s this person again.”

The “this person” should have referred to Qiu An, but what did the “again” mean?

What followed was a long stretch of static, until the waveform resumed its continuous fluctuations. Ran Long then heard her own panicked voice: “Qiu An, get me out of here, please.”

Ran Long couldn’t bear it any longer. She paused the recording, found Song Song in her contacts, and called her.

The call was immediately disconnected. Song Song sent a message: “What’s up?”

Ran Long, furious, typed: “What did Yu Le do to me yesterday?”

“Qiu An arrived in time. She didn’t do anything to you.”

“But what if Qiu An hadn’t arrived in time?”

Song Song stopped replying, not even showing the “typing” indicator. Ran Long called her again, but the call was disconnected once more.

“Bastard,” Ran Long muttered, slamming her fist into the mattress.

A moment later, Song Song sent another message: “She won’t do anything to you. Don’t be angry.”

Ran Long didn’t believe Song Song’s words, but seeing how fiercely she was defending Yu Le, she knew continuing the conversation would be pointless.

Composing herself, Ran Long remembered her earlier question and changed the subject. “How do you know Qiu An?”

“The first time you got drunk at the bar near school, I asked if you knew anyone who could come pick you up.”

“You called Qiu An.”

“After that, you kept getting drunk often, so Qiu An had me add her on WeChat. Every time you were drunk, I’d call her.”

So that’s how it was.

The person who had so carefully unhooked her bra every time was Qiu An.

“So you asked her to come this time too?”

Song Song fell silent again.

Song Song had become less talkative. Though she had never been particularly chatty before, she used to chatter endlessly like Sister Hou whenever something worth complaining about came up.

But now, it seemed nothing was worth complaining about, nothing could spark her desire to express herself.

“If you don’t say anything, I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Alright, thanks, Boss Song. I’ll treat you to dinner sometime—the non-alcoholic kind.”

After a long pause, Ran Long finally received Song Song’s one-word reply: “Okay.”

Relieved that Yu Le hadn’t been able to do anything to her, Ran Long continued playing the recording.

As expected, Qiu An gently soothed Song Song’s emotions and led her out of the bar.

But shortly after they got into Xi Xi’s car, the waveform graph took a bizarre turn. Qiu An had suddenly unleashed a torrent of furious, rapid-fire insults at Song Song. Even through the screen, Ran Long felt like she was being sprayed with Qiu An’s spittle.

Ran Long couldn’t recall Qiu An ever scolding her with such vehemence. In the past, Qiu An had always directed her anger at Yuan Chengyin. Even during their argument at the hotel, Qiu An had mostly suppressed her anger.

Ran Long had never imagined Qiu An could be this fierce when she wasn’t acting.

So this is what she’s like when she’s truly angry.

So scary. But… it seems like she’s just worried about me.

Then I’ll forgive her.

Ran Long returned home with the recording. At some point, her phone had slipped out of her pocket and been left in a corner. Far from the sound source, the rest of the recording was silent.

Good. Ran Long didn’t want to hear herself say or do anything embarrassing again. Without a recording, it could all be forgotten—a matter without evidence.

Even though she really didn’t want to listen, when she saw a few faint spikes in the waveform later on, she couldn’t resist dragging the progress bar forward.

Ms. Hu placed the phone back on Ran Long’s bedside table and sighed, “Poor child.”

She must have been too groggy from sleep, mistaking Ms. Hu for Qiu An.

Ran Long heard herself say to Ms. Hu, “Qiu An, don’t leave. Stay with me, please?”

Her hand trembled, and the phone slipped into the blanket.

She desperately wanted to throw the phone out the window, but that wouldn’t solve anything.

She needed to dive into Ms. Hu’s mind and erase this memory.

The recording continued playing, leaving Ran Long no time to dwell on her embarrassment. Ms. Hu continued, “You like An’an that much? So much you can’t even recognize your own mother?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Mm-hmm? Mm-hmm? Mm-hmm you big-headed idiot!

When Ran Long got angry, even the fact that she was the one who had acted foolishly didn’t spare her from her own wrath.

If it were physically possible, she would have dragged her drunken self into a room and grilled her mercilessly.

She would have demanded: Are you out of your mind? Your mother said you like Qiu An, and you just “mm-hmm”?

She would have screamed: Are you insane? You hate Qiu An, you despise Qiu An, yet you call her every day, begging her to come pick you up?

I was busy filming back then, you know?

No, that’s not right. She was busy filming—how could that be the main point?

After the event concluded, Xi Xi returned Qiu An’s phone, which she had been holding for her.

Having barely rested since the previous night, even Qiu An’s meticulous makeup couldn’t completely conceal her exhaustion.

She took the phone and immediately opened WeChat. After a moment, she asked Xi Xi, “Does Sister Hou know I have work today?”

“Sister Hou?” Xi Xi looked puzzled. “How would she know?”

“Oh, good. As long as she doesn’t know.”

When Qiu An turned her attention back to her phone, a sweet smile bloomed on her face.

In the distance, a sharp-eyed fan waiting to greet her after work spotted this scene, her jaw nearly dropping. She steadied her dislocated jaw with a hand and nudged her fellow fan with her elbow. “Oh my god, oh my god, did you just see my sister’s smile?”

Receiving no response, the fan glanced over to find her companion equally stunned.

She pinched her fellow fan hard, finally snapping her out of her daze. The companion turned her head slowly and said, “She’s smiling at her phone… Could our sister be in a sweet romance?”

Qiu An’s smile was captured by a fan account manager and went viral in the supertopic, nearly trending.

If Xi Xi hadn’t noticed it in time and suppressed it, some shameless celebrity team might have seized the opportunity to spread rumors about Qiu An.

Xi Xi was exasperated. “What did Ran Long send you that made you smile like that?” she asked Qiu An.

“She asked me, ‘Why are you working today?'” Qiu An replied.

Xi Xi: “……Maybe you should explain? Us straight girls really don’t get what’s so exciting about lesbian flirting.”

“Think about it,” Qiu An said, adopting a smug expression as if waiting for Xi Xi to figure it out herself. “Our work today is just recording, not broadcasting. The entertainment media won’t even report on it.”

“……So?”

“So, if Sister Hou didn’t know about it, then Xiao Ran must have found out by checking my supertopic.”

Xi Xi finally understood. The key point was that Ran Long had been checking Qiu An’s supertopic.

Now a new question arose:

Which department should one report mental harassment by an employer to?

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security?