Chapter 104
Shao Yasi was left speechless by that rapid-fire introduction.
Lin Yuewei kept hold of Gu Yanqiu’s hand and didn’t let go. With her other hand, she nudged the marriage certificate forward. “Want to take a closer look?”
Shao Yasi: “……”
When she finally came to herself, she snatched the certificate away. Lin Yuewei warned her, “Careful. Don’t tear it. I keep it in the safe.”
“Okay, okay,” Shao Yasi said quickly.
She held the certificate in both hands, glancing back and forth between the two people in front of her and the two people in the photo. Then she lowered it and stared at them in utter disbelief. “You really got married?”
“More real than real gold,” Lin Yuewei said. “Done looking? If you’re done, I’m putting it away.”
“Put it away. Don’t let anyone else see it.”
“So you believe me now?”
“I believe you, I believe you.”
Lin Yuewei tucked the marriage certificate back into her bag and patted it.
Throughout the whole thing, Gu Yanqiu had treated herself like a wooden statue that couldn’t speak or show her face.
With Gu Yanqiu there, Shao Yasi was too embarrassed to ask why she’d gotten married so early, so she shifted the topic back to Gu Yanqiu and launched into a frenzy of praise, practically building her up into a second coming.
When Shao Yasi got to the part about the first time she’d met Gu Yanqiu, Lin Yuewei cut in with a smile. “That wasn’t the first time you met her.”
Shao Yasi: “Huh?”
Lin Yuewei reminded her, “Right after the show ended, didn’t we go to S City? You saw her then.”
Shao Yasi remembered. “Oh, oh, oh, right.” Then she suddenly yelped, “Wait, I forgot to check the wedding date just now. Show me again.”
Gu Yanqiu, who hadn’t said a word, calmly recited a string of numbers. It was well before the show had even started filming.
Lin Yuewei glanced at Gu Yanqiu; Gu Yanqiu lowered her eyes calmly. Lin Yuewei brushed a finger across the back of her hand, but Gu Yanqiu still didn’t spare her a glance. Only the tips of her ears turned faintly pink.
Lin Yuewei silently went, oh-ho, then thought proudly, Gu Yanqiu’s embarrassed.
Shao Yasi was shocked. “My God.”
Lin Yuewei poured her a cup of tea to calm her down.
Because of that one sentence, Shao Yasi immediately remembered a whole chain of details; every time one surfaced, she let out another cry. By the time she’d pieced everything together, she pointed at Lin Yuewei and said with complete conviction, “You hid this so well.”
Lin Yuewei spread her hands and smiled. “Didn’t I tell you a long time ago? You just didn’t believe me.”
Shao Yasi complained, “You’d just graduated from college. Who would believe that? If I said I was married, would you believe me?”
“I would,” Lin Yuewei said.
Shao Yasi was at a loss for words. “You, you, you—and when you were at the factory, you said you had a crush on someone, and then as soon as you came out you said you were married. Who would believe that?”
Lin Yuewei was still smiling. “I would. I’m just that kind of wild, free-spirited woman. Scared yet?”
Shao Yasi slumped over the table. “Yeah. Terrified.”
They chatted about it a little longer, then Shao Yasi said, “I’m hungry. We’ve been talking forever; let’s order.”
Lin Yuewei handed the menu to Gu Yanqiu, who took it naturally. Lin Yuewei leaned against her shoulder, close enough that her breath brushed Gu Yanqiu’s profile.
The hand Gu Yanqiu had hidden under the table pinched Lin Yuewei’s waist, silently reminding her to behave. Lin Yuewei ignored her completely and pushed her luck, resting her chin in the hollow of Gu Yanqiu’s shoulder and tilting her head up to smile at her.
Shao Yasi wore the long-suffering expression of someone thinking, Who am I, and why am I here eating this dog food?
Most of the meal was Lin Yuewei and Shao Yasi talking. Gu Yanqiu only chimed in when the conversation touched on her, but the atmosphere was still fairly relaxed. At first they gossiped about all sorts of things; later, the talk turned to work.
Shao Yasi said she was about to join a new production again and mentioned the drama’s title. That show had been hyped by a lot of stars recently, and fans from several fandoms had already torn each other apart in several rounds. No one had expected Shao Yasi, this little-known actress, to land it. Shao Yasi’s familiar fangirl expression came back online as she said, “My agent is amazing.”
Lin Yuewei played along. “Amazing, amazing.”
Shao Yasi said, “Do you know? She really knows so many people. She can call out practically anyone’s name.”
Lin Yuewei thought: Isn’t that basic agent skill? Anyone who’s been around the industry long enough has to learn it. It’s not like everyone knows her or can call her by name, but in Shao Yasi’s eyes it was as if this were some astonishing, once-in-a-generation talent.
Used to her filter by now, Lin Yuewei didn’t call her out. She just smiled and said, “That impressive?”
“Yes, yes.” Shao Yasi’s eyes curved with a smile at her agreement. “I think I’m so lucky to have met an agent like Hanhan. Hanhan said…”
Neither Gu Yanqiu nor Lin Yuewei had expected that after hearing those words, the rest of their time would basically be swallowed by the phrase “Hanhan said.” Even when the conversation drifted, Shao Yasi would drag it right back.
***
“Bye-bye; see you next time.”
“See you next time.”
Lin Yuewei and Gu Yanqiu exchanged a glance and quickened their pace. Only after they got into the car did they both let out a breath, each seeing the same indescribable expression in the other’s eyes.
Gu Yanqiu said, “If you hadn’t told me Hanhan was her agent, I would’ve thought she was her mother.”
Lin Yuewei said, “The last time I saw her, she wasn’t this exaggerated.”
Gu Yanqiu leaned back against the passenger seat and shot her a look. “I have an idea.”
Lin Yuewei said, “What a coincidence; I have one too.”
Gu Yanqiu looked thoughtful. “I think your idea and my idea are probably the same.”
Lin Yuewei said, “Now do you feel better?”
Gu Yanqiu pretended not to understand. “Better about what?”
“Shao Yasi doesn’t like me at all. The person she likes should be her agent.” Lin Yuewei pressed her hand over the back of Gu Yanqiu’s hand where it rested on her lap and traced little circles over it with her finger.
The ticklish sensation made Gu Yanqiu’s fingers curl slightly. A smile even tugged at her lips as she said, in a rising tone, “Not necessarily. Maybe she’s just covering for herself; mentioning her agent in front of you on purpose to lower your guard.”
Lin Yuewei: “……”
Gu Yanqiu leaned in and kissed her. Lin Yuewei slipped an arm around her waist, preventing her from pulling away, and deepened the kiss in the dim yellow light of the underground garage.
The more they kissed, the hotter it became. Lin Yuewei’s fingers gently stroked the skin at the nape of Gu Yanqiu’s neck, pressing her whole body back against the driver’s seat. Gu Yanqiu felt strangely unsteady; the small patch of skin at the back of her neck seemed detached from the rest of her body, aching and sensitive.
In the corner of her eye, a car’s headlights flashed past the window. They both jolted back to awareness. Lin Yuewei stopped, and Gu Yanqiu took the chance to retreat to her seat. She parted her lips slightly and asked softly, “You…”
Lin Yuewei admitted openly, “Yes. I want to go a step further. What do you think?”
Gu Yanqiu froze, her brow creasing as she fell into thought. After a moment, she said naturally, “I’ll think about it.”
She hadn’t really thought about this progression before, but she was absolutely not someone who would avoid it like the plague. Last time she’d refused because she thought things were moving too fast, not because she disliked the act itself.
Now that they’d been together for around half a year, and even had a “daughter,” this matter really should be formally put on the agenda.
They exchanged a look.
Gu Yanqiu said, “I’ll go back and study up.”
Lin Yuewei said, “I’ve already studied up.”
Gu Yanqiu: “!!!”
The temperature inside the car was too high. Lin Yuewei rolled down the window and drove out of the underground garage, her eyes shifting between the three rearview mirrors as she cleared her throat. “It was… when we were filming the TV drama. After you left, I took some time to look into it.”
After a pause, Gu Yanqiu asked, “Was it difficult?”
Lin Yuewei nearly choked on the wind blowing in. After a beat, she said, “Not too bad.”
Gu Yanqiu asked, “You had materials?”
“A little.”
“Send them to me?”
Lin Yuewei hesitated. “They’re on my computer. My computer’s at that house.”
Gu Yanqiu said, “All right.”
After that, neither of them spoke. Gu Yanqiu lowered her head and fiddled with her phone. Lin Yuewei glanced sideways when they stopped at a red light and realized the phone screen was still on the home page and hadn’t moved at all.
Lin Yuewei’s own phone started ringing; it was a notification tone. Judging by the frequency, it probably wouldn’t last much longer.
She was driving and couldn’t check it, so she said to Gu Yanqiu, “It’s probably Shao Yasi. She always sounds like this. Take a look and see what she said.”
Gu Yanqiu picked up Lin Yuewei’s phone from beside the gearshift. Lin Yuewei said, “The password is 180315.”
Gu Yanqiu had just recited that string of digits during dinner not long ago.
Her lips softened into a smile so gentle it was almost unbelievable as she unlocked the screen.
[Shao Shao: AHHHHHHHHHH have you gotten home yet]
[Shao Shao: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH how exactly did you end up with your wife? Where did you find such a pretty wife? Can I be like you?]
[Shao Shao: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH you actually got married!!!]
[Shao Shao: I still can’t believe it!!!]
[Shao Shao: AHHHHHHHHHH get home and reply to me! I still want to gossip with you!]
Gu Yanqiu skipped over all the “ahhhh” and read the messages in a flat, unhurried tone. “Reply?” she asked.
Lin Yuewei shot back without thinking, “Reply. Just send ‘py transaction.’”
She was deliberately teasing Gu Yanqiu, who looked like she didn’t spend much time online looking at messy nonsense; sure enough, the old-fashioned Gu Yanqiu asked seriously, “What does py transaction mean? Friend transaction?”
Lin Yuewei said, “Yeah. It means friends who develop feelings after being together for a long time.”
Gu Yanqiu sent those characters. The moment it went through, Shao Yasi responded with a string of “hahahahahaha.”
Gu Yanqiu quickly realized this combination of letters probably wasn’t something good.
Thanks to the universal search engine, ten seconds later Gu Yanqiu knew exactly where the term came from. She sighed and asked Lin Yuewei, “Was that fun?”
It was fun. But how would Lin Yuewei dare say that? She put on a pained face and said, “Not fun. Wife, I was wrong.”
Gu Yanqiu hadn’t been angry to begin with, and Lin Yuewei’s reaction amused her. She shook her head and laughed softly.
The moment Lin Yuewei saw that smile, her heart went all itchy.
She felt like some little beast in heat now; no matter what expression or movement Gu Yanqiu made, she could instantly think of a certain angle. She hadn’t been like this before.
The car came to a stop in the garage. Lin Yuewei didn’t unlock the doors. Gu Yanqiu lifted a brow in surprise. “How—”
Lin Yuewei had already pounced.
They couldn’t do anything else; kissing was still fine.
By the time Gu Yanqiu got out of the car, her lips were swollen and red, her eyes clouded with lingering mist. She stood by the car door for a while before the weakness in her legs eased enough for Lin Yuewei to take her hand and lead her home.
But Lin Yuewei didn’t lead her properly; she kept swinging their joined hands back and forth, their arms rising and falling together. Gu Yanqiu was reminded of when she’d been in kindergarten and the teacher had told the children to hold hands and go on an outing. It was exactly like this.
Other people fell in love like elementary school students; Lin Yuewei fell in love like a kindergartener.
The kindergartener got home, turned on all the lights one by one, spun around in the entryway, and knocked the rug askew with her shoes. Gu Yanqiu: “……”
Lin Yuewei crouched down sheepishly and straightened the rug.
Gu Yanqiu couldn’t help laughing.
Before Lin Yuewei could look up at her, she quickly smoothed her expression again. Her eyes under her lashes were sparkling.
Lin Yuewei stood up. Gu Yanqiu subconsciously took a step back.
A smile tipped at the corner of Lin Yuewei’s mouth. “Why are you hiding?”
Gu Yanqiu said very seriously, “I’m changing shoes. It’s not good for two people to crowd in together.”
Lin Yuewei tilted her head. “All right.”
Of course, what had happened in the car hadn’t been as simple as just kissing; otherwise Gu Yanqiu wouldn’t have been the only one with weak legs while she was perfectly fine. Earlier, Lin Yuewei had worried about the two possibilities Jiang Congbi had mentioned, that she’d need to spend a lot of time trying to figure out Gu Yanqiu’s thoughts. But that wasn’t it at all; Gu Yanqiu didn’t reject her closeness.
Lin Yuewei’s confidence swelled to the extreme. Her eyes curved as she asked, “Darling, can I go play with Schrödinger?”
Gu Yanqiu was eager for her to stay far away from her right now. Feeling relieved inside, she said, “Go ahead.”
Lin Yuewei went to the kitchen and found Schrödinger, who was being stewed in iron-pot style. During the day, when Gu Yanqiu wasn’t home, Lin Yuewei had fed the cat. As Gu Yanqiu had said, this cat really would treat whoever fed it as its mother; and in this case, Lin Yuewei was already its mother.
Lin Yuewei seemed to have a natural affinity with animals. Schrödinger warmed to her much faster than it had to Gu Yanqiu. After all, Lin Yuewei didn’t put it on a diet or subject it to hellish training, and when she picked it up it didn’t scratch her either. It even nudged its proud little head into her palm.
Holding the cat in the kitchen, Lin Yuewei whispered, “Schrödinger baby, your dad seems embarrassed.”
Schrödinger, newly renamed on the second day after its biological mother returned, moved its head and looked toward the living room, where Gu Yanqiu sat on the sofa lost in thought. It gave an indifferent “meow.”
Lin Yuewei asked again, “Schrödinger baby, when do you think your mom can bring your dad home?”
Schrödinger lifted its blue eyes and gave her a faint look. It didn’t even meow this time.
Lin Yuewei couldn’t help rubbing its head a few times. “Don’t believe in your mom’s abilities?” she said in dissatisfaction.
Schrödinger pulled its head free from her palm, licked its paw with a pink tongue, then leaped lightly to the floor and padded toward the living room. The line of its back was arched beautifully.
Lin Yuewei followed after it, calling softly from behind, “Schrödinger baby?”
Gu Yanqiu looked down. Schrödinger’s white fluffy head rubbed against her trouser leg as if asking to be picked up. Gu Yanqiu said, “Jump up yourself.”
Schrödinger: “……”
How had it ended up with such a cold father!
Lin Yuewei darted in like lightning and sat down in Gu Yanqiu’s lap. At a time like this, in order to get Gu Yanqiu used to intimacy as quickly as possible, she could put comfort aside.
Gu Yanqiu looked at the human-shaped object in her lap, which was half a head taller than her: “……”
They stared at each other.
Lin Yuewei said, “I…”
She seemed to have deeply realized her own shamelessness and was about to get off Gu Yanqiu’s lap. Gu Yanqiu had finally waited for this chance and quickly held her back.
Lin Yuewei looked down at Schrödinger, who had already folded both hind legs and sat on the floor, its deep blue eyes cool as it looked down from below at this pair of “dog mothers.”
Lin Yuewei suddenly had the feeling of being watched by her own child, and her face heated up. “We…”
Her voice abruptly snagged in her throat, and she stiffly shifted her gaze to the wall at the end of the room.
Gu Yanqiu she…
More than ten seconds later, Gu Yanqiu finished adjusting her clothes.
Clearly nothing worth mentioning had happened, yet her face was so red it was almost impossible to look at. Lin Yuewei was hardly any better.
After a while, Gu Yanqiu finally forced out a sentence. “Was what we just did a problem?”
Lin Yuewei: “No, no.”
Schrödinger opened its mouth in a huge yawn and flopped onto the floor.
Lin Yuewei lowered her head and kissed Gu Yanqiu, returning what Gu Yanqiu had just done to her. This time it lasted a few seconds longer.
By the time they stopped, Schrödinger had already fallen asleep. Maybe it had gotten bored from not seeing what it wanted to see.
Lin Yuewei got off Gu Yanqiu’s lap and said, “I’ll carry Schrödinger back to sleep.”
Gu Yanqiu laughed.
Lin Yuewei didn’t know what she was thinking; right now she only wanted to cool down her own face. She carried Schrödinger upstairs and put it into its own little bed. The blanket was soft, and there was even a pillow.
After she tucked Schrödinger in, the downstairs no longer had any trace of Gu Yanqiu, and the lights were off. She found Gu Yanqiu only in the bedroom.
Gu Yanqiu was standing in front of the wardrobe getting her pajamas. There was another set on the bed, Lin Yuewei’s. She looked back when she heard the sound and froze. She herself didn’t understand why she’d frozen; anyway, she just went blank for a moment before saying, “Should I shower first, or you?”
Lin Yuewei said, “I…”
Gu Yanqiu interrupted, “I’ll go first.”
Lin Yuewei opened her mouth. “Okay. After you’re done, I’ll dry your hair.”
Gu Yanqiu took her pajamas into the bathroom. Lin Yuewei looked around and fished a notebook out of a drawer to fan herself with.
It was over. She’d thought she’d be the kind of person who could tease Gu Yanqiu with a straight face, but now the one standing outside fanning herself to cool down was her. How could that be?
In the bathroom, water from the showerhead rained down from head to toe. Gu Yanqiu felt as if her face were still hotter than the water.
She turned the temperature down a little.
When the bathroom door opened, Lin Yuewei stood up and, hugging her pajamas, rushed in with her head down. Gu Yanqiu raised one hand to block her forehead and guide her in the right direction.
Lin Yuewei’s reflexive response was, “Thanks.”
Gu Yanqiu said, “You how…”
Lin Yuewei came to herself. “Forgot. I won’t say it next time.”
Gu Yanqiu said, “Weren’t you going to dry my hair?”
Lin Yuewei: “……”
She put the pajamas aside first, then came back out and threaded her fingers through Gu Yanqiu’s hair, blowing the droplets from it. The rich scent of orange-scented body wash on Gu Yanqiu’s body kept pushing into her nose.
Lin Yuewei’s fingers curled slightly; her fingertips remembered the tender feel from just now.
Gu Yanqiu tilted her head a little and said softly, “Too hot.”
Lin Yuewei hurriedly moved the dryer somewhere else.
Once the hair was about half dry, Gu Yanqiu said, “That’s enough. We’re not sleeping right away anyway.”
Lin Yuewei couldn’t help thinking: Not sleeping? What does she want to do?
Gu Yanqiu gently pushed the distracted Lin Yuewei. “Hurry up and go shower.” If one listened closely, the end of her sentence trembled faintly; she was clearly very flustered.
Lin Yuewei’s throat bobbed once as she looked deeply at Gu Yanqiu, then walked into the bathroom with both feet moving on the same side.
It wasn’t until Lin Yuewei’s back had disappeared behind the door that Gu Yanqiu pressed both hands against her own scorching cheeks with the backs of her hands. She still couldn’t believe she’d just taken the initiative to do something like that. Even now, it felt surreal.
Gu Yanqiu let out a breath and tilted her head, seeing the prayer beads she’d taken off and left on the bedside table. After thinking for a moment, she tiptoed out of bed. The sound of the shower inside the bathroom could easily drown out ordinary footsteps.
She placed the prayer beads on the coffee table in the living room, silently recited a couple of Buddhist invocations, and was just about to go back upstairs when she turned around and took two ice packs from the refrigerator. The ice packs worked very well; with the ice pack and the night breeze on the downstairs balcony, Gu Yanqiu cooled her head down.
Well, if they’d done it, then they’d done it. It was going to happen sooner or later.
Gu Yanqiu bit her lip and looked up toward the second floor. Even across a vertical distance of dozens of meters, she still didn’t feel reassured, so she shut the balcony door and called Cheng Guiyuan.
It rang for quite a while before the call connected.
Cheng Guiyuan’s yawn came through. “Yanqiu, what’s up?”
Gu Yanqiu said in a low voice, “Were you asleep?”
Cheng Guiyuan found that odd. “Why do you sound like you’re sneaking around?” Then she said, “I’m a single dog; I don’t have any nighttime activities. It’s already past eleven. If I’m not sleeping, what else am I supposed to do?”
Gu Yanqiu suddenly lost her nerve and said, “Then go ahead and sleep.”
Researching it herself was one thing; asking someone else about something this private was another.
Cheng Guiyuan had at least lived with her for so many years, so when she heard that, she wasn’t about to hang up. She asked with interest, “What is it, then? Say it.” She wanted to see what could make this old friend so secretive.
“It’s nothing, just…” Gu Yanqiu spoke extremely quickly, skimming over the rest of the words in a blur.
Cheng Guiyuan: “What the hell?”
Gu Yanqiu: “Really nothing. I just wanted to tell you that Lin Yuewei and I made up; we’ve said everything clearly.”
“Congratulations,” Cheng Guiyuan said with a laugh. “But I already knew that this morning.”
Gu Yanqiu: “……”
Cheng Guiyuan encouraged her, “Don’t worry; whatever you say, I definitely won’t leak a single word. You know what kind of person I am.”
Gu Yanqiu knew exactly what kind of person she was, which was why she’d called her. But not because she knew what kind of person she was; because she knew how much experience she had.
“I…” She did all the mental preparation she could. Just as she got out one word, someone knocked on the glass door behind her.
On the other side of the transparent door, Lin Yuewei’s puzzled face appeared.
She had finished showering and hadn’t seen Gu Yanqiu, so she’d come looking for her downstairs.
Gu Yanqiu panicked. “I’m not saying it. I’m hanging up.”
Author’s Note:
Ah! Gonggong lost a round first.
Go, Gonggong!