Love? Let's Talk About It

Because of the location issue, the Seal the Heart crew was racing against the clock. To keep the shoot running as smoothly as possible, Li Xingqing had recently grown sick of revising the script. Every time she opened her eyes, it was dialogue; every time she closed them, it was still dialogue. Even in her dreams, she was still wondering whether a certain line should be shifted left or right.

Even Bai Mo was starting to struggle with it. After all, getting a new script the night before filming and then memorizing it on the spot was no pleasant experience. Even Zheng Yuyu, as experienced as he was, had begun to look worn out lately, with two dark circles under his eyes; the makeup artist had to spend an extra ten minutes on him every morning.

And then there was the National Day holiday. D City wasn’t a famous tourist destination, but a lot of other crews were filming nearby, and large numbers of college students and celebrity fans, finally free, came swarming in, camping around the outskirts of the set with long lenses and heavy cameras. Every so often, they would burst into shrieks, making things even harder to bear.

On top of that, this year’s weather was bizarrely abnormal. It had clearly poured heavily not long ago, but as soon as the holiday hit, the temperature didn’t drop at all; instead, it climbed to nearly thirty-seven or thirty-eight degrees Celsius, hot enough to make people uneasy. Sitting under the shade canopy for a while left you drenched in sweat, and even the wind blowing by felt scalding.

Seal the Heart was set in an entirely fictional period, so it had it a little better than the period dramas shooting nearby. But Bai Mo still often finished a scene with most of his clothes soaked through, as if he’d just been fished out of water.

Xi Zhen worried that he might not be able to hold up physically, so she kept salt water ready on set. Right now, he absolutely couldn’t afford to collapse. First, he was the core lead, and the entire script revolved around him; second, if he really got sick, the crew had no time to wait for him to recover.

During this period, Li Xingqing also got another call from Yin Yi. Her mental state seemed to have improved quite a bit; even her voice sounded more spirited.

But Li Xingqing felt deeply conflicted. On one hand, she was happy that her mother’s health was recovering; on the other, she worried about what kind of damage Yin Yi would suffer once everything that had happened recently was exposed.

One lie required ten thousand more lies to cover it up. Li Xingqing, who should have been quietly and obediently carrying out the push-forward process, was now dealing with her mother on one side while also handling difficult work on the other. Pulled in both directions, she felt like a string stretched to its limit.

The only comfort in life had unexpectedly come from the happiness brought by a sudden romance.

Xi Zhen and Li Xingqing didn’t deliberately hide their relationship. If anyone asked, they would admit it openly. It seemed very abnormal, and yet it was also perfectly normal.

Neither of them cared much about what others thought; one felt, This is my business, while the other felt, This is my person. There was no need to hide anything.

Ke Wei was the first to notice. She studied the two of them holding hands curiously, then gave Xi Zhen a knowing look, as if to say: You move fast.

Meeting Ke Wei’s gaze, Xi Zhen didn’t look the least bit guilty; instead, she tightened her grip on Li Xingqing’s hand. That only made Ke Wei sigh again and again. In the end, looking at the innocent-looking Li Xingqing, she silently patted her shoulder and wished her luck.

Li Xingqing had no idea that, in Ke Wei’s eyes, she looked like a naive little rabbit tricked away by Xi Zhen, that old fox. She was still wondering why Ke Wei had reacted like that.

She asked Xi Zhen about it curiously, and Xi Zhen rubbed the top of her head and said, “Don’t worry about it. Ke Wei’s been addicted to playing mom lately.”

Li Xingqing listened to Xi Zhen with a puzzled look, seeming even more confused. Xi Zhen didn’t let her keep dwelling on it. She took Li Xingqing’s hand, brought it to her lips, and kissed it lightly. “Ignore her. Be good.”

Those words made Li Xingqing’s head go pleasantly fuzzy; there was no room left in it for Ke Wei. Who cared what it meant? In any case, she and Xi Zhen were truly very happy.

Another benefit of dating was that, originally, Li Xingqing had to sit alone late at night, miserably typing away and revising the script; now, suddenly, there were two people doing it.

Xi Zhen couldn’t help with the script itself, but she could help Li Xingqing in plenty of other ways.

The two of them already lived next door to each other; after they made things clear, Xi Zhen simply started walking in openly and freely, even claiming in all seriousness that she was there to supervise the crew’s work.

Li Xingqing knew Xi Zhen was just being considerate because she felt sorry for her staying up every night, so she could only indulge her. Besides, this bed in her room had already been slept in by Xi Zhen before; sleeping in it a bit more didn’t matter. Honestly speaking, she felt she wasn’t the one at a disadvantage.

Xi Zhen had a beautiful face, a soft body, and a sweet voice; more importantly, perhaps because Xi Zhen was quite a bit older than her, she always indulged Li Xingqing in that sort of thing. Giving in to whatever was asked, giving whatever was wanted; Li Xingqing had never experienced such a top-tier level of service before, and could only say she had truly opened the door to a whole new world.

To be honest, Li Xingqing had never once thought she was a lesbian. Or rather, she had never believed she could have a normal romance at all.

The tragic love story between her parents had left her with such deep psychological scars that she had once thought she might never have the chance to enter an intimate relationship in her entire life.

Yet she had never expected that, in a completely unfamiliar city, she would meet someone she had never seen before. This absolute sense of the unknown had instead filled her with security. There was no need to strip herself bare, no need to scrutinize anyone else; she only had to pursue the truth and joy of the present.

This simple but overwhelming happiness made Li Xingqing sink into it. But at this still-young age, she did not yet understand that any sincere relationship could never remain forever on the surface.

The happiness she felt now was only borrowing from the future, while the pain would keep accumulating, becoming harder and harder to avoid.

By the time the moon had climbed the willow tips, there was a knock at Li Xingqing’s door. She didn’t open it; instead, she looked out through the window, and sure enough, it was someone familiar.

Xi Zhen had probably just finished showering. She still carried a trace of moisture about her, her hair blown half dry and hanging behind her head. She wore what looked like a well-made set of pajamas, loose and casual, yet somehow giving off a lazy, languid air.

Seeing Li Xingqing suddenly poke her head out from the window, she knocked on the door again and even sang a lyric: “Little rabbit, be good and open the door.” The children’s song had become the two of them teasing each other, and Li Xingqing’s face went red. She couldn’t understand why Xi Zhen always managed to say such improper things.

She had clearly seemed like such a serious, reliable person before. Yet once that mask was stripped away, the person beneath was unexpectedly adorable.

Yes, adorable. Li Xingqing thought Xi Zhen like this, teasing her just to make her happy, was especially adorable; and Xi Zhen felt the same about her.

With a snap, the door was opened from the inside. Li Xingqing stood before it, looking at Xi Zhen leaning against the frame.

As soon as the door opened, Xi Zhen’s mouth didn’t stop moving. She immediately said, “Now that the little rabbit’s opened the door, the big bad wolf won’t be polite.”

As she spoke, she spread her arms and made a show of pouncing toward Li Xingqing.

Li Xingqing opened her arms to catch her, but felt Xi Zhen’s hand on her shoulder, gently giving it a squeeze. Warmth welled up in her chest; she instantly understood why Xi Zhen had just made that joke.

She was probably seeing that Li Xingqing still hadn’t turned off the lights and knew she was going to be up late again tonight, so she had deliberately come over to offer some “comfort.” It was rare for her to be so considerate; of course Li Xingqing couldn’t turn her away. Naturally, she accepted it with pleasure.

She bent slightly, lifted Xi Zhen by the thighs into her arms, and used the tip of her foot to close the door.

The night was shut out outside, and the two of them inside the room held each other and kissed as the atmosphere gradually grew warmer.

Even though they had already been clinging to each other all morning on set and had only just parted not long ago, both of them still felt as if they had been separated for three autumns.

After the kiss ended, Li Xingqing finally remembered she still had business to attend to. She set Xi Zhen down on the bed, turned back, sat at the desk, and continued typing on the computer.

If she didn’t send the revised material to Bai Mo before tonight was over, that guy would probably be cursing at the crew again tomorrow morning, complaining that he simply couldn’t memorize those twisted, tangled lines.

By now, Li Xingqing and Xi Zhen’s relationship was no longer a secret; practically everyone in the crew knew about it. That idiot Bai Mo, when he first saw the two of them holding hands, had even asked in confusion, “Sister Zhen, Teacher Xingqing, are you two arm-wrestling? Count me in.”

Xi Zhen really had no way to deal with this half-witted cousin of hers and could only silently press a hand to her forehead. Li Xingqing also couldn’t really explain it. Things like this were usually only meant to be understood, not spoken aloud; who would have thought she’d run into someone like Bai Mo, who blurted out nonsense at the slightest provocation.

In the end, it was Zheng Yuyu, standing nearby, who couldn’t bear it anymore. He wordlessly dragged Bai Mo away and quietly explained to him, “They’re dating.”

“Who’s dating?” Bai Mo’s clear-eyed stupidity did not seem fake. Zheng Yuyu had no choice but to point out the two of them.

“You’re saying Sister Zhen and Teacher Xingqing are dating now?” Bai Mo bobbed his head and swayed as if he had finally figured it out. Just as Zheng Yuyu was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he heard the person beside him suddenly erupt into laughter like someone had hit his laugh point.

“Hahahahaha, your imagination is really something else! You can make up something like this too? Director Ke keeps saying I’m outrageous; I really should drag her over here and let her hear your version.”

Zheng Yuyu: “......” Forget it. Beyond saving. At Bai Mo’s level of emotional blindness, it felt like even if someone pinned another person to a wall and kissed them, Bai Mo would probably just think they were provoking him.

Bai Mo laughed to himself for a while, only to realize that no one around him was laughing with him. At last he noticed something was off.

He looked at Xi Zhen and Li Xingqing again, then at Zheng Yuyu’s speechless expression, and finally turned his pleading gaze toward Ke Wei in the distance. After receiving the other woman’s tacit confirmation, he finally... couldn’t laugh anymore.

“You’re dating and you didn’t even tell me!!!” he said in fury, with the aggrieved sense of having been played for a fool.

Xi Zhen didn’t give him any face at all and went straight for the throat. “We weren’t hiding it from you. We just didn’t expect you to be so... stupid.”

A precise hit; a perfect strike.

After being dealt repeated critical damage, Bai Mo put his hands on his hips and stormed off angrily. Before leaving, he didn’t forget to drag Zheng Yuyu away as his ally, leaving only Li Xingqing and Xi Zhen behind.

Watching him go, Li Xingqing still asked worriedly, “Teacher Bai Mo, this... is it okay?”

“What’s wrong? He’s not really angry, just shocked,” Xi Zhen explained from the side.

“I mean, is his brain... okay?” Li Xingqing said. So she could be pretty savage too; proximity really did make people rub off on each other.

Hearing that, Xi Zhen was even more amused. “You’re not being good, little one. Hahaha.”

From that point on, Bai Mo consciously categorized Li Xingqing as being in Xi Zhen’s camp on set, while he and Zheng Yuyu were on the same side. Director Ke Wei was neutral, though she often existed in a state of poking fun at both sides.

So, in order not to give Bai Mo a reason to complain about her tomorrow, Li Xingqing sped up even more. In just a few quick moves, she finished the last revision, packaged it up, and sent it out; then she turned her head to look at Xi Zhen on the bed.

Author’s Note:

What will happen next?

A. Hugging

B. Kissing

C. Doing things that can’t be said

D. All of the above are correct

I spent only 0 seconds in the new round of answering questions to guess the right answer. Try it too.