When Jingxue murmured the nickname, PD Xu Cui turned toward him and raised both eyebrows.
"How do you know her nickname?" The confusion was plain on his face and voice.
The question pulled Jingxue out of his distant memories. He turned, eyes still wide with residual shock, and stepped closer. The intensity of his gaze made PD Xu Cui take an instinctive half-step backward. There was nothing aggressive in the movement—only a raw, unguarded urgency.
"Is... Is that her nickname?" Jingxue asked. There was a fervent, almost desperate edge to the words, as though the answer mattered more than anything else in the world. His voice had lost the earlier polished coldness. What remained was thinner, tighter, and far more human.
"Ye-yeah," PD Xu Cui managed, unsettled by the sudden intensity. He had dealt with difficult guests, furious executives, and entire production crises, yet the way Jingxue waited for confirmation made the air feel narrower.
