Extra 07

About Fang Ying and Big Cucumber—their so-called "plastic sisterhood"—the biggest lie Fang Ying ever told her was claiming his name was Fang Huai.


Fang Ying would never willingly reveal his real identity, so he always felt a pang of guilt toward Big Cucumber for the deception. But unbeknownst to him, Big Cucumber also had a secret—one that wasn’t a huge deal, but still something she kept from him.

Long ago, Fang Ying once timidly asked her, “I still don’t get it—why did you suddenly jump ships?”

Big Cucumber casually replied, “A fangirl jumping ships doesn’t need a reason, does she?”

True, fangirls don’t really need reasons to switch waters, but when that switch lands you squarely in enemy territory—that’s when things get confusing.

Fang Ying didn’t press further, and Big Cucumber never told him: that very first photo she received from him—the famous LuoZong fan photo—had a hidden note on the back.

Xu Qiuluo never gave Fang Ying a photo like that. That picture was dug up by Fang himself from his own stash. It was years old—taken back when he was just an extra on a show headlined by Xu Zong. He had the nerve to ask the crew to snap it.

After developing it, he had treasured it all these years, and only after many years did he gift it to Big Cucumber.

When he gave it, he never looked at the back. After so long, he’d completely forgotten the childish words he’d written there as a teenager.

But Big Cucumber saw them immediately. In delicate handwriting almost like a girl’s, it read:

“Today I finally saw Luo Ge in person. It’s my first time seeing him after fangirling for three years! He came to visit Zong Ge’s set—he's really tall! Surrounded by so many fans, I could see him without even standing on tiptoes, haha! Xiao Nuo (a friend) wanted me to say something to him, but I was too shy. Fang Ying is still a timid fan, so I’ll wait two more years. In these two years, I’ll work hard so that one day the crew calls me ‘Fang Ying’ not just ‘Constable No.1.’ When that happens, I’ll tell Luo Ge: Hello, I’m Fang Ying, and I’ve liked you for five years.”

No date, just a small, immature autograph.

Now, that very signature can be found on countless posters and photo books.

The words were childish, like a grade-schooler’s diary entry, but Big Cucumber stared silently for a long while after reading them. She was surprised by the signature—Fang Ying—but once she ignored those two characters, her surprise melted into a strange understanding.

She had zero doubt about the diary’s authenticity because she remembered how she felt the first time she met Xu Qiuluo.

Coming out of the airport, surrounded by fans, she was too small to push through, so she stood on tiptoes waiting. She had waited three hours for that moment, and only got a fleeting glimpse of Xu Qiuluo’s face as he passed guardedly nearby.

But just that one glimpse—it thrilled her beyond words.

Back home, she wrote a long, rambling, almost pointless journal entry—far less meaningful than what Fang had scribbled on the photo’s back. Her closing sentence was pure elementary-school diary:

“Saw Luo Luo today. A really happy day!”

No one knew she truly was over the moon.

Just as no one really knew back then how truly happy the young Fang Ying was, too.

Many say fangirling is a grand secret crush. But Big Cucumber saw it differently. Whether it was crushing on their senior—the famous Xu Qiuluo—or any idol, to her it was just an ordinary fondness. When she put it down in her diary, it was trivial, mundane, and never grandiose.

Big Cucumber slipped that precious photo into one of Xu Qiuluo’s photo books and carefully stored it deep in her bookshelf.

Then she pulled out her phone, opened a video site, and typed “Fang Ying” into the search box.

She had decided to get to know this public figure all over again.

Not for anything else—

But because she believed that anyone who could write such an adorably sincere diary entry must be a very adorable person in real life.




(End of Extras)