Chapter 61: Was the Stupidity an Act?

"Hiss... It is freezing."

In the remote suburbs of the small county town, inside the Chuanda Driving School's Class II training ground, Mengmeng rubbed her hands together, clutching a pink thermos cup, standing in place and exhaling white puffs of breath.

Winter had arrived, and Mengmeng felt like she was getting younger and younger. Don't ask why—just that she was frozen to the bone.

That damned Gu Yin, brainwashing her star all day long with his ridiculous nonsense about never letting himself lose out. The things Xia Qianyi had done over the past week—let alone Mengmeng, anyone who saw them would have their jaws drop in utter astonishment.

Wasn't it completely normal for her to snap at him a couple of times when they met today?

And yet, how did he treat her? He wouldn't even let her get in the car...

The temperature in Quancheng had dropped over the past few days. Standing outdoors for so long genuinely made her hands and feet ice cold. The driving school did have a water heater where they could get some hot water to warm up, but if you drank too much water, wouldn't you need to go relieve yourself?

This driving school had been around for a long time, and the restroom was actually an old-fashioned pit latrine. Having run back and forth to the restroom after drinking extra water to fight off the bitter cold, Mengmeng felt so nauseous she thought she would throw up the meal she had eaten the night before...

At this moment, she wished she could risk her life fighting Gu Yin.

Filled with burning resentment, Xia Qianyi, who had been practicing for over an hour, also pushed open the car door and stepped out...

The morning sunlight was bright and fierce, casting a silk-like sheen onto the young woman's pitch-black hair from the side. Unfortunately, on that exquisite, divine face, the expression carried a hint of shame...

Practicing for an hour and getting yelled at for an hour—who could possibly feel good about that?

"Have some water, Qianyi." Mengmeng hurriedly unscrewed the pink thermos cup and poured a capful of hot water for Xia Qianyi. "Careful, it's hot."

In the temperature of five or six degrees Celsius above freezing, the scalding hot water billowed with white steam. Xia Qianyi panted heavily while blowing on it gently, sipping it in tiny little mouthfuls with her pink lips.

Who could ever imagine that a female celebrity who looked so adorable even just drinking water was actually a bit of a ditz?

"Qianyi, there's really no need for us to learn how to drive from this guy," Mengmeng finally couldn't hold it in any longer and said, "With your traffic and exposure, even if you just found a dog streaming on the roadside, it would instantly attract countless viewers. Why bother dealing with him?"

"..."

Xia Qianyi didn't speak; she just silently continued drinking her water.

"I know you get more exposure and web traffic from him, and admittedly we don't have any better sources of exposure right now..." Mengmeng continued to complain, muttering under her breath, "But intentionally acting this clumsy isn't going to do you any good!"

Although she hadn't been in the car just then, she had been paying close attention to Xia Qianyi's driving practice. Besides, Coach Gu had been yelling so loudly that it would have been a miracle if she hadn't heard him.

As soon as these words left her mouth...

"Pfft... Cough, cough, cough..."

The young woman, right in the middle of taking a sip, sprayed out a mouthful of water. It went down the wrong pipe, sending her into a fit of coughing.

Along with the coughing surge, a wave of intense humiliation washed over Xia Qianyi. The corners of her pretty mouth twitched violently. While coughing, she glared at Mengmeng with a hostile gaze, clenching her pearly white teeth tightly for a long time without managing to squeeze out a single word.

"You think I was *acting* clumsy on purpose?" Once she finally caught her breath, Xia Qianyi felt deeply insulted.

"Wasn't you?" Mengmeng asked, striking straight to the core of the matter.

Mengmeng was actually well aware of why Xia Qianyi had come to Gu Yin for driving lessons...

Over the past week, Xia Qianyi had stirred up so much trouble that she had pretty much alienated all her professional connections. There were even powerful financial backers behind the scenes plotting to completely blacklist her.

Under these circumstances, practically no show, performance, or public engagement would dare to invite her.

As a celebrity—whether you were a heavenly king, a diva, or a wildly popular idol—in this age of massive internet traffic, as long as you lost your exposure, you couldn't escape becoming "yesterday's news," not even someone like Xia Qianyi...

Right now, what Xia Qianyi desperately needed was high exposure.

Because of the unique live-streaming format of *Reconciling with Life*, her appearances wouldn't be restricted, and live streaming her driving lessons with Gu Yin had become her best option for exposure.

Her previous live streams with Gu Yin had generated some fantastic variety show effects, driving her popularity exceptionally high...

That was why Mengmeng had briefly assumed Xia Qianyi was deliberately acting so clumsy today just to create good content for the show.

Xia Qianyi: "..."

Having finally grasped her assistant's train of thought, Xia Qianyi's exquisite face flickered uncertainly between shade and light for a long time...

"Mengmeng, the clothes shipped back from Shanghai should have arrived by now, right?" she asked.

After saying goodbye to her agency in Shanghai, Xia Qianyi had checked out of her apartment there, and all her belongings had been packed up and shipped back.

"Mm-hmm, they're arriving this afternoon. I already got the delivery call," Mengmeng nodded.

"Do you remember the full-diamond strapless dress I wore to the overseas fashion show last year?" Xia Qianyi asked again.

"Of course I remember! That was haute couture, it cost a fortune!" Mengmeng sighed nostalgically at the memory. The dress Xia Qianyi was referring to was an evening gown encrusted entirely with diamonds, designed by a famous foreign designer.

At this point, Mengmeng still had no idea the gravity of the situation...

"Then do you remember how many diamonds were on that dress?" Xia Qianyi asked.

"Um... I forgot the exact number, but there must have been at least a couple of thousand?" Mengmeng scratched her head in thought for a moment and said, "The records are there, we can check them. Don't worry."

She was still a bit puzzled as to why Xia Qianyi was asking this, so she inquired, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," Xia Qianyi chuckled, saying offhandedly, "That dress is quite precious, and the diamonds on it are very easily damaged during shipping. Once it arrives, make sure you count them carefully."

"C-Count them?!"

Mengmeng was dumbfounded on the spot.

A dress embedded with thousands of tiny diamonds, and you want me to count them?!

Good grief, you're trying to put me in an early grave!

...

Amidst the banter, a day of driving practice quietly slipped away.

As the setting sun dipped below the horizon, marking another twilight, Gu Yin sent away the various characters at the training ground and walked over to greet Xia Qianyi.

"Shall I drive you home?" he asked.

After all, he had taken her money.

"Yeah." The female celebrity nodded lightly, hesitating for a moment before asking, "Do you have anything to do tonight?"

"After dropping you home, I'll probably head downtown to drive for the ride-sharing service for a while," Gu Yin replied casually. Because his own car had broken down, he had been driving the training vehicle all week, leaving him unable to take ride-sharing orders for seven days.

Previously, he used to drive for three or four hours every evening after getting off work past six o'clock. Sometimes he earned more, sometimes less, but averaging one to two thousand yuan a month was never a problem.

Recently, his mother needed money to buy medicine. Though a prescription of herbal medicine from the provincial hospital wasn't exorbitantly expensive, his mother had to drink it continuously for a month or two. On top of that, Gu Guanyue needed to enroll in cram school soon. All these expenses fell on Gu Yin's shoulders, and even the smallest mosquito is still meat.

"You really are busy..." Xia Qianyi couldn't help muttering.

"Can't help it. Money is hard to make, and life is hard to swallow," Gu Yin sighed helplessly.

"Do you really need money *that* badly..." the female celebrity whispered under her breath, thinking to herself that the gifts viewers sent in the live-streaming room of *Reconciling with Life* amounted to more than a thousand or two a day, right?

"Hey."

Pondering for a moment, she said:

"Wanna grab dinner together?"