Chapter 17: Chapter 17

how does one play without money

though it was said that the room would be rather large, the place ended up being rather congested with three beds squeezed in it.

ma yunyun was the first to enter and immediately went straight for the bed by the window. liao ping was the biggest yet least arrogant, and chose the middle bed, leaving gu ran with the bed closest to the restroom.

“gu ran, do you want to exchange beds with me?” liao ping thought that it wasn’t right to just leave gu ran by the restroom, and placed the suggestion on her own accord.

“liao ping, why’d you care about her! we’ve already agreed that whoever arrived first got to pick, didn’t we? was this not gu ran’s own philosophy anyway?” ma yunyun still remembered with a vengeance what happened before, when gu ran refused to switch seats with her.

gu ran had no qualms about the arrangement either, and just placed the luggage down on her bed. she retrieved four-piece set from it, and set about replacing the hotel’s bedsheets immediately.

ma yunyun and liao ping stared at her in bafflement. they didn’t think that she could even do that.

just as she finished, someone knocked on their door.

ma yunyun bounced her way over to unlock the door. the people who’d knocked were none other than feng cheng and yan hao.

“since this is our first day on the program, i want to treat everyone here to a meal in the hotel’s restaurant! what do you guys think?”

ma yunyun had no objection, and turned to look at liao ping, who also nodded. “since we aren’t familiar with one another, and since we would be working together on this live-stream for the next month or two, we should get to know one another properly.”

“gu ran, come with us!” liao ping offered.

gu ran shrugged. it was her only indication that she had agreed to their request.

“will the movie king be there?” liao ping asked again.

feng cheng rubbed his nose in embarrassment. “i didn’t dare to ask. i thought that if everyone were to go, we could go ask him together.”

yan hao and liao ping nodded. after all, the movie king was way out of everyone’s league. it was reasonable that feng cheng would not want go alone.

“gu ran, why don’t you ask him?” liao ping asked all of a sudden.

gu ran frowned. “why me?”

“i see that the movie king seemed to be rather concerned about you. didn’t he buy you medicine today?” liao ping smiled. “why, i even thought that the two of you were rather close!”

gu ran felt her face drain of color. she’d thought she’d been surreptitious when she drank that liquid on the bus! who knew that liao ping had managed to witness it anyway.

“what medication? are you mistaken? the movie king only wanted me to help him throw away his trash.” gu ran feigned ignorance. she was going to fake it until the very end.

liao ping had no intention of fighting with her, and only replied, “then let us go together! with everyone present, who knows, maybe the sincerity from everyone would be enough to move him and he would agree to our request.”

the entourage made their way to mo yancheng’s room. liao ping reached out to knock, and the door was quickly opened.

“movie king, we’ve decided to have a meal together and you’re welcome to join us! want to come?”

mo yancheng;s gaze roamed across the group, and settled on gu ran for just a split second longer, before nodding. “sure.”

even though this hotel was situated rather close to the airport, its price range was not significantly lower than those in the city center. feng cheng and company were pampered celebrities who’d never had to worry about the issue of money before, so even though they’d told themselves to spend carefully, that thought slipped from their minds the moment they started ordering.

the total cost of the meal was 50 pounds, after everybody was done ordering.

everybody was stupefied by the bill, but the payment still had to be settled either way.

“what are we going to do?! we’ve only 70 pounds left, this isn;t even enough to afford tomorrow’s room fee!” ma yunyun was close to tears with anxiety. it would be her first time losing her composure like this in front of a camera.

“why did we have to had such an expensive meal just now? couldn’t we have just shared a few bread rolls and be done with it?!”

feng cheng, the person who had suggested the meal in the first place, only cringed in awkward embarrassment.