Chapter 102
Before seeing her, Lin Yuewei thought she should probably give in first and say something to Gu Yanqiu, so they wouldn’t keep freezing each other out like this.
She had never dated before, but she’d seen enough to know couples couldn’t keep things bottled up; the silent treatment was a big no-no. She understood all that logic, but the moment she actually saw Gu Yanqiu, she forgot every bit of it and could only wait for Gu Yanqiu to speak first.
She’d been out filming for so long; she was darker and thinner now. Couldn’t Gu Yanqiu tell?
Coincidentally, Gu Yanqiu was thinking the same thing.
Neither of them could bring themselves to make the first move, so they stayed locked in silence from the exit all the way to the parking lot.
Just as they were about to reach the car, Lin Yuewei quickened her pace by a couple of steps. She didn’t know why she did it; she just felt a stubborn knot in her chest. Before Gu Yanqiu could open the front passenger door for her, she slipped into the back seat instead.
Gu Yanqiu’s lips pressed into a hard, sharp line.
She put Lin Yuewei’s suitcase away, then got into the driver’s seat without a word. Her phone buzzed in her pocket; she took it out and checked it.
【Two Wood: Go to my place】
【West Gu: ok】
Lin Yuewei thought: We’ve gone this long without saying a word; are you really going to act like I don’t have a temper?
Gu Yanqiu thought: You’re really pushing your luck. Do you even know what you did wrong?
The two of them exchanged a few brief messages on their phones. Gu Yanqiu turned on voice navigation; the system voice said, “Preparing to depart…” Hearing that familiar voice, Lin Yuewei somehow grew irritated. Once she was annoyed with one thing, she was annoyed with everything connected to it; even Lin Zhiling’s voice couldn’t improve her mood at all.
Gu Yanqiu started the car. In the back seat, Lin Yuewei called Ran Qingqing.
“Mom.” Lin Yuewei sounded as intimate with Ran Qingqing as ever. “I’m on my way home now.”
Ran Qingqing said proudly, “Did I tell you to come back? You unfilial girl; once you leave, you’re gone for months. Now you know to come home?”
Lin Yuewei softened her voice. “I was wrong, okay? What good food did you make at home?”
Ran Qingqing said, “None.”
Lin Yuewei smiled. “You know you can’t fool me, and you still try. I can smell it, I’m telling you.”
Ran Qingqing: “Go ahead and make things up. I said I didn’t make anything, so I didn’t. Don’t come back. I’m out eating; there’s nobody at home.”
Lin Yuewei, seeing through everything: “Hahahahaha.”
Ran Qingqing: “Can you give your mom a little face?”
Lin Yuewei: “I’ll give it, I’ll give it. Then I’ll go home and wait for you first.”
Since the jig was already up, Ran Qingqing gave up. “Fine. I bought you some hairy crabs. Didn’t you like the roe? I tasted a few last night; they were all full of roe.”
Lin Yuewei asked, “Dad shelled them for you?”
She pricked up her ears.
Ran Qingqing said, “Yeah, or what, was I supposed to shell them myself?”
Lin Yuewei said, “Okay.”
Ran Qingqing said, “Okay what okay? Don’t be sarcastic. Did filming make you stupid?”
Lin Yuewei: “…” With how confidently she said it, Lin Yuewei was almost starting to wonder whether her suspicion from a while ago had actually been a mistake.
Without missing a beat, Ran Qingqing changed the subject. “Where’s your wife? Is she coming with you?”
Lin Yuewei looked up. Gu Yanqiu seemed to sense it, and their eyes met in the rearview mirror above. Two seconds later, Lin Yuewei looked away first and said softly, “Mm.”
Ran Qingqing said, “Is she coming or not? What’s with the mm? Are you shy?”
Lin Yuewei lowered her head. Her voice was still very quiet. “No.” She was afraid Gu Yanqiu would notice she was talking about her, but she also wanted her to know. No one in this world could be the worm in another person’s stomach; if nothing was said, the other person couldn’t know everything on their own.
Until Lin Yuewei hung up, Gu Yanqiu didn’t show any unusual reaction; or if she did notice, she didn’t say anything.
They hit a few red lights on the way. Gu Yanqiu kept her eyes on the road and never looked back at Lin Yuewei again.
The car pulled into the Lin residence.
Gu Yanqiu had been here many times before. She took the suitcase from the trunk and walked toward the house with practiced ease; Lin Yuewei followed three steps behind her. Ran Qingqing hadn’t heard the car from the kitchen, and only noticed them after they came inside. She wiped her hands on her apron and came out to greet them, beelining straight for Gu Yanqiu.
“Just leave the luggage in the living room; you can unpack later.”
“You must be tired, right?”
“Do you want water or a drink?”
Gu Yanqiu smiled gently. “Auntie, I can do it myself.”
Ran Qingqing said, “All right, all right, do it yourself. If you need anything, tell Mom.”
Standing nearby and repeatedly ignored, Lin Yuewei’s nose stung. “Mom, are you still going to care about me or not?” Gu Yanqiu was ignoring her, and even her own mother was ignoring her. What was left for her in this family?
“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I?” Ran Qingqing said. “Go pour yourself a glass of water and wait to eat.”
Lin Yuewei: “…”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the corner of Gu Yanqiu’s lips curl ever so slightly.
Lin Yuewei thought bitterly: Laughing? At a time like this, you’re still enjoying my suffering. Who exactly are you on the same side as?
Ran Qingqing’s gaze moved between them for a while, then she said in confusion, “What’s wrong with you two?”
Weren’t they supposed to be together? Why did they seem exactly like they had the last time they met; neither warm nor cold?
Lin Yuewei and Gu Yanqiu said at the same time, “Nothing.”
Since Ran Qingqing had never seen what the two of them were like when they were actually normal, she didn’t immediately realize they were fighting. She said, “You two just do your own thing. I’m going to cook; dinner’ll be in a little over an hour. Don’t go too far.”
Gu Yanqiu didn’t speak. Lin Yuewei said, “Okay.”
Ran Qingqing went back to the kitchen. The brief bustle she had stirred up vanished in an instant; all that remained was a dead, still pool of water.
Lin and Gu each took a sofa and lowered their heads to play on their phones.
Lin Yuewei opened WeChat and kept deleting and rewriting a message in the chat with Gu Yanqiu. Gu Yanqiu, meanwhile, opened her photo album, where she had saved every picture of Lin Yuewei she could get her hands on. Some were private treasures; others Lin Yuewei had sent her herself, from before they’d fought—pictures of her covered in dust and dirt on set but still impossibly handsome, selfies taken just after she’d gotten out of bed, still sleepy-eyed…
Gu Yanqiu’s finger, hovering over one of the photos, curled slightly. Her fingertip brushed lightly across Lin Yuewei’s face in the image.
Lin Yuewei stood up.
Gu Yanqiu looked over. Lin Yuewei was holding her phone and tapped something on the screen. A notification popped up on Gu Yanqiu’s phone; she opened it.
【Two Wood: Come with me】
Gu Yanqiu followed her out. They went to the family gym a dozen meters away from the main house. It was very large, fully equipped with everything you could want: sandbags, gloves, kicking targets, protective gear…
The two of them sat down in the open space in the middle. Lin Yuewei still didn’t say anything. She tapped the screen twice, then handed the phone over with a solemn expression.
Gu Yanqiu saw that it was an audio file and pressed play.
“Teacher Qu, please don’t blame me for being abrupt.”
It was Lin Yuewei’s voice. Gu Yanqiu raised a brow; Lin Yuewei lifted her chin.
“I won’t. Go on; staying here too long will make people think all sorts of things again.”
Gu Yanqiu’s disgust for Qu Xuesong had already reached the point where hearing her voice made her frown. She thought: What is Lin Yuewei trying to show me?
Disliked as she was, she still listened on patiently.
“Teacher Qu, do you like me?”
Gu Yanqiu’s face darkened.
“Yes, but not in the way your brain is thinking right now.”
They were getting to the point. Lin Yuewei’s expression grew even more smug; she glanced sidelong at Gu Yanqiu, as if asking what else she had to say.
Qu Xuesong’s voice in the recording said, “Like, yes; romantic like, no. There’s the kind of like an older sister has for a younger sister, and the kind of like a friend has for a friend. Satisfied?”
Gu Yanqiu listened to the entire recording with a face as dark as water.
Lin Yuewei opened her mouth, only to find her throat a little hoarse from having not spoken for too long. She cleared her throat, looked at Gu Yanqiu with her nostrils practically in the air, and said, “Now do you believe me?” Her whole face basically said: Hurry up and apologize to me.
If you asked Gu Yanqiu how she felt after listening to that recording, she felt nothing at all. She didn’t believe a single word Qu Xuesong said; from the very bottom of her heart, she already wore tinted glasses when looking at that woman. She admitted that. The only feeling she had was that Lin Yuewei had recorded this for her, which was a little cute, but even that little bit of cuteness had been ruined by Lin Yuewei’s tone.
After all this time, Gu Yanqiu still didn’t even know what exactly she was angry about. Frowning, she said, “I never said I didn’t believe you.”
“If you believed me, why did you blow up like that?”
“I was angry because…” Gu Yanqiu thought back. Where had her temper started? It had started when Lin Yuewei stood on Qu Xuesong’s side; when she said she was just causing trouble. Forget it, what was the point of saying any of that now? Lin Yuewei didn’t understand anyway.
If this had been before, Gu Yanqiu would definitely have said it plainly. But now, with her stubborn streak coming up, her mouth was like a bolt-stiff gourd; not a single word would come out.
Lin Yuewei took her silence as a guilty admission. “Nothing to say, huh?”
Gu Yanqiu looked up at her; she was clearly unconvinced.
Lin Yuewei had the expression of someone who had expected this all along. She got up, went to fetch two sets of protective gear, and tossed one set to Gu Yanqiu. “You should’ve trained before, right? Let’s fight. Whoever loses apologizes, and then we drop this matter here. Nobody’s allowed to bring up old scores afterward. Deal?”
Gu Yanqiu was stunned at first, then thought it over and answered coldly, “Deal.”
Since the two of them were talking past each other anyway, and neither was willing to back down first, this really did seem like a decent method.
They strapped on wrist and knee guards and warmed up separately. While filming with the crew, Lin Yuewei had studied for a while with a coach, learning fighting and grappling techniques; combined with her earlier foundation, she didn’t think she would lose to Gu Yanqiu. She didn’t know what Gu Yanqiu trained in, but the arms she’d felt when she’d grabbed her before had been very solid.
Lin Yuewei put on her headgear and cracked her knuckles. “You go first, or I do?”
Gu Yanqiu displayed perfect gentlemanly grace and wrapped the bandages on her hands two more times; she wasn’t used to wearing gloves. “You go first.”
Lin Yuewei charged.
All those scenes in novels where masters exchange blows were lies. When you wait until the other person has already closed in before reacting, not many modern people can dodge the attack. So when Lin Yuewei rushed at her, Gu Yanqiu immediately took a step back.
By the time she saw the person in front of her clearly, Lin Yuewei’s palm had already sliced down toward her, aimed at her collarbone. Gu Yanqiu lengthened the backward motion, her gaze sharpening as she lifted a hand to seize Lin Yuewei’s wrist.
The moment Gu Yanqiu’s fingertips brushed the cool warmth of Lin Yuewei’s wrist, that hand was already gone; Lin Yuewei’s shoulder slammed toward her instead, very fast.
Seeing there was no avoiding it, Gu Yanqiu met the collision head-on. Their shoulders crashed together; both of them lifted an arm, and their forearms struck in midair before they each retreated a step.
This time Gu Yanqiu didn’t let her go first. Before fully steadying herself, she pushed off with one foot and lunged straight back in.
Gu Yanqiu looked so cool while fighting. Lin Yuewei’s long-lost filter came back online; she zoned out for a split second.
That moment of distraction was enough for Gu Yanqiu to grab her arm. Her body lurched forward uncontrollably, then was suddenly lifted off the ground. Gu Yanqiu hoisted her up, shoulder driving upward, and looked ready to throw her with an over-the-shoulder slam, but stopped midway. The two hands locking Lin Yuewei’s arm released her, and Gu Yanqiu looked at her in silence.
Lin Yuewei said, “Don’t let me win.”
Expressionless, Gu Yanqiu said, “My hand just cramped.”
Lin Yuewei was furious. “Again.” She had just lost focus.
Gu Yanqiu hadn’t noticed her distraction earlier and had thought Lin Yuewei was all flash and no substance. It wasn’t until they really started fighting that she realized that wasn’t true. Gu Yanqiu raised an arm just barely in time to block Lin Yuewei’s side kick; if she’d been any slower, it would have landed squarely in her face.
Gu Yanqiu pushed Lin Yuewei’s leg down. Lin Yuewei followed immediately with a flying kick. Her whole body sprang two or three feet into the air as she came in; Gu Yanqiu took the hit hard and staggered backward several steps.
A tiny, provocative curve appeared at the corner of Lin Yuewei’s mouth beneath her protective gear.
Gu Yanqiu’s fighting spirit was stirred as well. She licked her lips and said, “Again?”
From Gu Yanqiu’s observation, Lin Yuewei seemed to rely mainly on taekwondo. She depended heavily on her legs; her kicks were beautiful and decisive, but mixed into that were grappling and combat techniques. Her lips curved with an almost imperceptible smile. Most of the time she defended more than attacked, and didn’t use her legs much, making it look as though her lower-body skills were weak and forcing her opponent into retreat after retreat.
Lin Yuewei seized the chance. Her right leg lifted high into a textbook downward chop, aimed at Gu Yanqiu’s shoulder. Gu Yanqiu suddenly shifted sideways, braced Lin Yuewei’s leg with her arm, and shoved it aside; then she chopped a knife-hand strike into the inside of Lin Yuewei’s calf before following with a front kick she had only just seen Lin Yuewei use moments ago, planting one right into her chest and sending her back three or four steps.
When Lin Yuewei pulled her leg back, her foot tapped the floor once; she shouted, “Why are you so sneaky?”
Gu Yanqiu smiled. “All’s fair in war.”
Lin Yuewei huffed through her nose.
The atmosphere between them was clearly improving. Gu Yanqiu unwrapped the bandages on her hands, then wound them again. “Again?”
Lin Yuewei looked at the sweat running down her forearm and thought: Let’s stop fighting; let’s make up.
Once the thought came, it rushed straight to the tip of her tongue like a gust of wind and was impossible not to say. Gu Yanqiu met her with warm, smiling eyes. Lin Yuewei muttered something under her breath and took a step toward her.
The phone on the chair rang. Lin Yuewei withdrew her foot and walked to the corner; Gu Yanqiu followed.
The caller ID said: Shao Yasi.
Lin Yuewei: “…”
Gu Yanqiu: “…”
Lin Yuewei looked at Gu Yanqiu’s frosty face; after hesitating between hanging up and answering, she chose to answer. Shao Yasi hadn’t done anything to her, after all. But for Gu Yanqiu’s sake, Lin Yuewei turned on speakerphone.
This way Gu Yanqiu wouldn’t suspect anything, right?
Lin Yuewei said, “Shao Yasi, what’s up?”
Shao Yasi asked in surprise, “Why are you suddenly calling me by my full name?”
Lin Yuewei said, “Just felt like it all of a sudden, so I used your full name.” She gave a dry laugh. “Hahaha.”
Weird; why did she feel guilty?
Shao Yasi laughed along too. “Did you wrap filming? I saw your Weibo this morning.”
Lin Yuewei replied, “Yeah.”
Shao Yasi said, “I’m free tomorrow; let me treat you to a meal? We haven’t seen each other in so long.”
Gu Yanqiu couldn’t stand listening anymore. She walked over to the side and sat down against a butterfly machine, thinking, We haven’t seen each other in so long my ass. She just visited set last time, and I haven’t seen Lin Yuewei for almost three months; why don’t I get such enthusiasm?
Lin Yuewei covered the mouthpiece and asked Gu Yanqiu, “Are you free tomorrow?”
Gu Yanqiu replied coldly, “What does that have to do with me?”
Lin Yuewei lowered her voice. “Did you eat explosives or something?”
Gu Yanqiu didn’t say anything.
She had done more than eat explosives; she had eaten a bomb.
Shao Yasi asked, “Are you talking to someone?”
Lin Yuewei said, “No, I’m talking to myself.”
Gu Yanqiu casually picked up one of the kicking targets used for taekwondo and tossed it at Lin Yuewei’s feet. Lin Yuewei jumped in fright and glared at her.
Shao Yasi asked again, “So are you free tomorrow or not?”
Lin Yuewei thought for a moment. “I’m free. Time and place?”
Shao Yasi said happily, “I’ll send it to you on WeChat.”
Lin Yuewei said, “Okay.”
She hurriedly ended the call.
Lin Yuewei picked up the kicking target and put it back where it belonged. “Why are you mad again? I already put it on speakerphone; what more do you want?”
Gu Yanqiu said angrily, “I’m not mad.”
Lin Yuewei was angry too. “If you have something to say, just say it directly. What’s the point of all this passive-aggressive nonsense? Do you want me to cut Shao Yasi and Qu Xuesong off completely? If you do, then say it.”
Gu Yanqiu said, “Don’t mention those two names to me!”
Lin Yuewei: “You—” Her temple twitched; she forced her voice down. “You’re insane.”
Make up, my ass. Who would want to make up with her when she was acting like this?
The Gu Yanqiu she used to know clearly wasn’t like this. What was going on?
Then Lin Yuewei thought of another possibility. She eased her temper a little and softened her tone. “Have you run into something really bothersome lately? Tell me.”
Gu Yanqiu just looked at her. After a long while, she asked in a hoarse voice, “Are we still fighting?”
Lin Yuewei: “Huh?”
Gu Yanqiu roared, “Are we still fighting?”
“Yes.” Lin Yuewei roared back. “Why are you talking so fiercely?”
Gu Yanqiu braced a hand on the floor and sprang up.
Lin Yuewei said, “This time I’ll let you…”
Before she could finish, Gu Yanqiu had already kicked at her.
Lin Yuewei saw it coming, but her muscles hadn’t reacted in time. Gu Yanqiu had used at least half her strength on that kick; the moment it landed on the protective gear, Lin Yuewei knew she was done for.
She was kicked backward again and again until her waist hit the rack beside her; she steadied herself with one hand only barely.
Damn it.
Lin Yuewei exploded. “You’re being serious?”
Gu Yanqiu lifted her eyelids, cold and flat. “What else?”
Right now, she just wanted Lin Yuewei to apologize properly; to lower her head and admit she was wrong!
Lin Yuewei slapped the protective gear over her chest. It still hurt inside. She laughed coldly. “Fine. Serious it is.”
She came at her faster than before. Another side kick flew toward Gu Yanqiu; Gu Yanqiu blocked it with her arm, but the force still made her body tilt to one side. Lin Yuewei didn’t give her time to steady herself. As soon as the kicking leg landed, she spun with the rebound and whipped a back kick straight into the side of Gu Yanqiu’s face, right where the protective gear covered it; she’d used half her strength too.
Gu Yanqiu was kicked down to the floor and slid a meter away.
Lin Yuewei shouted, “Shao Yasi? I mentioned her, so what?!”
“C—” Gu Yanqiu only got out a clipped syllable before swallowing it back. She slapped a hand to the floor and sprang up, bending forward to crash into Lin Yuewei. Even with Lin Yuewei on guard, Gu Yanqiu still got both arms around her waist, lifted her, and executed a back throw.
When Lin Yuewei slammed into the floor, it felt as if all her organs had been jolted out of place. She lay on the wooden boards coughing for a while before feeling like she was still alive; then fury surged straight up to her forehead.
She hooked both feet around Gu Yanqiu’s leg and yanked backward, and the next part of the scene completely spiraled out of control.
Locks, chokes, chops, tangles, twists; punches and kicks turned into wrestling.
No one knew when, but it finally went quiet.
The two of them let go of each other’s limbs and lay side by side on the floor. Lin Yuewei was hot all over and kept tugging at the headgear without being able to get it off. Gu Yanqiu sat up and helped her take it off.
Lin Yuewei said, “Thanks.”
Gu Yanqiu looked at her for a while, removed all her own gear, and lay back down.
Lin Yuewei asked, “Does it hurt?”
Gu Yanqiu asked back, “Does yours hurt?”
Lin Yuewei grinned through clenched teeth for a bit and elbowed her. “Of course it hurts. Do you know I’m your girlfriend? And you hit me that hard?”
Gu Yanqiu pressed her lips together. “Thirty percent.”
Lin Yuewei went, “Oh.” “I only used twenty percent.”
Gu Yanqiu used her arm as a pillow, turned her head to look at her, and smiled. “Bragging.”
She knew Lin Yuewei hadn’t gone all out. The two of them had been furious, but they weren’t enemies; they’d both held back. Still, even held back, it couldn’t have only been twenty percent. Could twenty percent have knocked her to the floor? She wasn’t that fragile.
Lin Yuewei snorted. “Don’t believe it, then.”
Gu Yanqiu said nothing.
Lin Yuewei turned her head too, but at that moment Gu Yanqiu turned away. Lin Yuewei forcibly grabbed her face and turned it back. Gu Yanqiu’s eyes widened as she looked at her.
Lin Yuewei closed her eyes and kissed her.
After a hard, sweat-soaked fight, Lin Yuewei’s body was still radiating heat from exercise; even her breathing was hotter than usual. When it brushed across her face, it almost felt burning.
Lin Yuewei easily slipped her tongue past Gu Yanqiu’s teeth and found the partner she had been waiting for.
Gu Yanqiu turned onto her side, one hand firmly cradling the back of Lin Yuewei’s head, the other threading through her hair to stroke it gently.
The noon sun streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, falling over the two of them locked in a fervent kiss. Three months of longing melted away in that exhausted, forceful kiss; nothing else needed to be said.
Our hearts beating against each other tell us we share the same feelings.
When they finally parted, their foreheads rested together. Their eyes shone, the tips of their noses brushing, warmth spreading from the bottom of their hearts to the corners of their mouths; the words slipped out naturally.
Lin Yuewei gave her a soft kiss, lips still against hers. “I really, really like you. Let’s stop fighting, okay?”
Author’s Note:
We still haven’t made up all the way; tomorrow we continue~
The problem hasn’t been solved yet; we’ll take it step by step, no need to rush.
Too bad neither of them won. What’s going to happen to the Rolls-Royce Phantom in the future? Of course they’ll be fighting inside the Rolls-Royce Phantom!
Go, Lin the top!