Chapter 140
“Who did you go out with tonight?” Lin Yuewei asked.
Gu Yanqiu looked at her furrowed brow, a little puzzled, but still answered honestly. “Yin Lingxi.”
“The daughter of your mom’s ex-girlfriend?” Lin Yuewei said. Ever since Gu Yanqiu had mentioned running into her once the weekend before, Lin Yuewei hadn’t heard that name again.
“Yes.”
“You saw her again after that?”
“We did.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“I forgot.” Gu Yanqiu and Lin Yuewei didn’t video chat every night. Sometimes Lin Yuewei was filming night scenes, or Gu Yanqiu was at some social engagement; the two of them would just exchange a hurried good night and go to sleep separately. After two or three days, Gu Yanqiu had completely forgotten about it.
“Then tell me now.” Lin Yuewei clearly had no intention of letting it go.
“About a week and a bit ago? It was the night you had a night shoot; the next day you even told me the heroine couldn’t do wire work and wasted an entire night, only to end up doing a few moves on the ground.”
Lin Yuewei nodded. She remembered that day very clearly; Qu Xuesong had even agreed to have a meal with her, giving her a chance to apologize.
At the thought of Qu Xuesong, hesitation flickered in Lin Yuewei’s heart. Should she tell Gu Yanqiu about this? Gu Yanqiu’s condition didn’t seem stable either, and if she said she was going to have dinner alone with Qu Xuesong, what if Gu Yanqiu started sleepwalking that very night?
She drifted off for a moment. Gu Yanqiu didn’t notice and went on. “There was a cocktail party that day; I ran into her by chance at the banquet, and then I had Gu Feiquan step on the hem of her dress...”
Lin Yuewei thought there was something wrong with her ears. “What?”
Gu Yanqiu laughed. “Listen to me first. After he stepped on it, she almost fell, so I caught her, but then the wine ‘accidentally’ spilled on me.”
Lin Yuewei let out a soft “oh,” and teased, “A hero saving the beauty?”
“Cut it out.” Gu Yanqiu lightly swatted her on the shoulder, smiling as she said, “I just wanted to get her attention.” Seeing Lin Yuewei open her mouth, she knew she was about to say something that would leave her both amused and helpless, so she quickly blocked her off first. “Not the kind of attention you’re thinking of.”
Lin Yuewei immediately found another opening to tease her. “I haven’t even said anything yet. How do you know what I was thinking? Unless you were already thinking along those lines and now you’re trying to cover it up?”
“...”
Lin Yuewei didn’t make things difficult for her. “What other time was there?”
Gu Yanqiu answered, “None. After that, it was today.”
Lin Yuewei sniffed at the air right next to her. The scent of Black Opium was faint but unmistakable. “Then how did you end up with her perfume on you? It’s even on your neck.”
“Ah?” Gu Yanqiu lowered her head and smelled herself, but she couldn’t catch anything. Still, she didn’t deny the possibility, her expression turning thoughtful. “Maybe it rubbed off when she fell today.”
Lin Yuewei said with difficulty, “...You stepped on her dress hem again?”
Gu Yanqiu shook her head. “No, not this time. I’m not a pervert; why would I keep stepping on people’s dress hems? Besides, she wasn’t wearing a dress today. We met outside the restaurant and walked in together. Her heels were very high and narrow, and the road wasn’t very even; there was a raised stone. She took one wrong step and fell straight into my arms.”
One of Lin Yuewei’s brows shot up. Her tone rose with it. “That was a coincidence?”
As if anyone would believe that.
Gu Yanqiu rested her chin in her hand and mused, “I guess she was trying to get my attention too?”
Lin Yuewei said darkly, “I think she’s interested in you.”
A trace of annoyance flashed in Gu Yanqiu’s eyes. “Don’t talk nonsense.”
“How am I talking nonsense?” Lin Yuewei said. “You go out for a meal, come back smelling like someone else’s perfume, and when someone throws herself into your arms, you take it pretty happily.”
Gu Yanqiu frowned. “When did I say I was happy?”
“Fine.” Lin Yuewei said, “I’ll ask you this: when did the two of you start eating?”
“About six-thirty.”
“What time is it now?”
Gu Yanqiu glanced at the clock on the wall. “Nine.”
Lin Yuewei smiled. “Subtract the drive home; at most you had half an hour left. The two of you talked for two hours. What exactly did you talk about?”
Gu Yanqiu thought about the answer she was about to give and sensed danger, but she didn’t know how to lie, so she steeled herself and said, “Just... hobbies.”
Lin Yuewei sprang up. “You talked about hobbies for two hours, and she still isn’t interested in you?!”
Gu Yanqiu grabbed her hand and sat her back down. “Don’t let your imagination run wild.”
Lin Yuewei stared at Gu Yanqiu from head to toe and left to right. Gu Yanqiu’s scalp went numb under her gaze and she asked, “What?”
“I still think she’s interested in you.” Lin Yuewei considered it for a moment and said.
“Really not interested. If she were interested or not interested, wouldn’t I be able to tell?”
“Then when I was interested in you before, how come you couldn’t tell?”
“...” Gu Yanqiu lost all right to argue in one second.
Although Lin Yuewei’s alarm bells were ringing, she wasn’t unreasonable. She knew Yin Lingxi had something Gu Yanqiu wanted... wait, that sounded weird. Let’s put it another way: Yin Lingxi had information Gu Yanqiu wanted to know; at this stage, it was impossible for her to cut off contact with everyone and never speak to another soul again.
“What exactly did you two talk about?” Lin Yuewei decided to step back and analyze the situation.
“What I usually do after work, what I do on weekends, what books I like reading, what authors I like, my thoughts on Company X being acquired before, that sort of thing.”
“That’s quite a range. What did you say?”
“I said after work I stay home and tease the cat, read; on weekends, if I’m not socializing, I’ll go out riding or shooting arrows. The books and authors you already know.”
“And how did she respond?”
Gu Yanqiu looked hesitant.
“Speak.”
“She said she liked cats too, and asked if she could come to my place to pet the cat.”
Lin Yuewei narrowed her eyes.
Gu Yanqiu hurriedly added, “But I refused. I’m not that familiar with her yet.”
Lin Yuewei gave a sharp laugh. “Then how familiar did you want to be?”
“I didn’t want to be very familiar with her. Stop smiling like that; it’s creepy.”
Lin Yuewei smiled even more creepily, the corners of her lips lifting. “Nope.”
Gu Yanqiu rubbed her nose and said, “That was basically it. After that, you called me, and I chatted with her casually before leaving.”
“Chatted casually for half an hour?”
“We happened to be in the middle of a topic; it couldn’t be wrapped up right away.”
“Hmph.”
Lin Yuewei stood and headed upstairs, stomping hard on the stairs so they thudded and clattered under her feet.
Gu Yanqiu hurriedly slipped on her house slippers and chased after her. “What are you so mad about? You told me yourself that you trust me. I’m not going to like anyone else either.”
“Do I look like I’m worried that you’ll like someone else?” Lin Yuewei whipped her head back and glared at her. “I’m worried that someone is using the pretense of having secrets in hand to get close to you, when really they just have designs on your looks.”
The moment she said it, it was pure venting; but after saying it, she actually found a trace of sense in it. What if Yin Lingxi didn’t have anything at all, and was just using it as a cover to get close to Gu Yanqiu and set her up...
Lin Yuewei told Gu Yanqiu this thought, and Gu Yanqiu looked at her with a very complicated expression.
Lin Yuewei asked, “What I said doesn’t make sense?”
Gu Yanqiu said, “It does make sense, but if she’s lying to me, I should be able to tell at least a little.”
Lin Yuewei said, “And what about the eighty or ninety percent you can’t tell?”
“...”
She put her arm around Lin Yuewei’s shoulders and guided her into the bedroom, then soothed her calmly. “I was just being modest. Ninety percent of it I can tell. If she makes any excessively intimate move, I’ll definitely draw a clear line with her.”
Lin Yuewei was finally half-convinced. She trusted Gu Yanqiu completely; every time, she was just worrying about other people. Making trouble for trouble’s sake didn’t help.
Gu Yanqiu changed the subject softly. “Did you take a shower after you got back?”
“No.” Lin Yuewei had been sitting around waiting for her ever since she got home. She was dusty from the road and hadn’t gotten around to showering.
“Then a bath would feel better. I’ll go fill the tub.” Gu Yanqiu turned toward the bathroom door.
At that moment, Lin Yuewei’s stomach let out a loud growl.
Lin Yuewei: “...”
Gu Yanqiu frowned. “You didn’t eat?”
Lin Yuewei: “...I forgot.”
Gu Yanqiu: “...”
Fine; no bath either. Eat first.
Gu Yanqiu left the bedroom again and went downstairs to the kitchen to make a late-night snack. Lin Yuewei followed her down.
“Next time you come back, tell me in advance so I can clear other things. You’ve worked so hard to come back, and all you can eat is a bowl of noodles.” Gu Yanqiu took a carrot, a handful of greens, a small piece of meat, and several other vegetables from the fridge, looked them over, and said, “I can only make noodles.”
Lin Yuewei wrapped her arms around her neck from behind and followed her step for step into the kitchen. “I wanted to give you a surprise, didn’t I? Isn’t it a surprise to see me all of a sudden?”
“It is a surprise, but...”
“No buts. My goal was to surprise you; that’s enough if I achieved it.” Even if Gu Yanqiu going out to eat with Yin Lingxi had made her just a tiny, tiny bit unhappy.
“Mm.” Gu Yanqiu gave up arguing and, with a big human-shaped pendant on her back, started making the noodle toppings for Lin Yuewei.
Twenty-odd minutes later, Lin Yuewei sat at the dining table eating a steaming bowl of no-name soup noodles, made from Gu Yanqiu’s own recipe.
She held a spoon in one hand and chopsticks in the other, picked up a springy, chewy strand of noodle, blew on it, and slurped it into her mouth. She had never made a sound when eating noodles before; for some reason, today was an exception.
But Gu Yanqiu found it especially satisfying to hear. She sat across from her with her chin propped on both hands, staring at her without blinking.
“Can you stop staring at me all the time?” Lin Yuewei said with her head lowered, smiling.
“No.” Gu Yanqiu answered.
Lin Yuewei pushed the bowl toward her. “Take a bite.”
Gu Yanqiu didn’t take it. “I’m full.”
Lin Yuewei ordered, “Eat a bite, now.”
Gu Yanqiu had no choice but to take a bite, then picked up the spoon and drank a mouthful of soup. That satisfied Lin Yuewei, who finished the noodles in a few quick bites. After helping Gu Yanqiu clear the dishes, she paced around the living room to digest.
Schrödinger emerged from somewhere and curled up on the sofa. Gu Yanqiu sat beside it, stroking the top of its head absentmindedly. After walking for a while, Lin Yuewei began to feel tired and sleepy. She sat down on the thick wool carpet in the living room and, with her head resting on Gu Yanqiu’s lap, fell asleep.
Gu Yanqiu had already been pushing at her head when she first started to get drowsy. “Go upstairs, shower, then sleep.”
Lin Yuewei made a couple of muffled sounds, pressed down on her hand so she couldn’t touch her, and insisted on sleeping in that position.
Under the light from the huge living-room chandelier, the two people and one cat in the room were especially quiet.
By the time Lin Yuewei’s mind returned to full clarity, it was already the next morning. Dawn had just broken; when she opened her eyes, she saw Gu Yanqiu’s sleeping profile right beside her. After thinking back for a moment, she remembered that she had fallen asleep downstairs yesterday. Later, half awake and half asleep, she had been coaxed and carried by Gu Yanqiu into the bathroom for a bath, during which she slipped into the tub several times and nearly choked on water. After that, she returned to bed and slept until morning.
Lin Yuewei had slept for nearly ten hours; her energy and strength were fully restored. She got up quietly, went downstairs to the home gym, worked up a sweat, and then lay on the wooden floor enjoying the drenched, sweaty feeling.
Movement came beside her ear. Lin Yuewei opened her eyes and found a beautiful face looking down at her from upside down. She hooked an arm around the back of Gu Yanqiu’s neck, and Gu Yanqiu, still in that upside-down angle, bent down and kissed her once.
“No wonder I couldn’t find you when I got up; you’d come here.”
Lin Yuewei bent her knees, pressed her feet to the floor, and used her lower back as a pivot to turn herself 180 degrees on the floor. Then she grabbed Gu Yanqiu’s hand and sat up.
After the dizziness faded, she lifted a finger and hooked Gu Yanqiu’s chin in a teasing gesture. “President Gu, you’re not up to it lately, are you? No morning workout anymore?”
Gu Yanqiu smiled. “I only work out in the morning when you’re not around.”
Lin Yuewei shot her a sidelong glance. “Then you won’t need to exercise for the next two months.”
Gu Yanqiu caught the implication and beamed. “You’re taking two months off?”
Lin Yuewei smiled. “Guess.”
Gu Yanqiu hugged her as if afraid she might catch another plane for a publicity shoot. “I’m not guessing. You are. If not, I’m going to make a scene.”
Lin Yuewei pretended to be shocked. “You’re shameless.”
Gu Yanqiu said, “I’m only shameless with you. I’m not shameless with anyone else.”
“You dare?” Lin Yuewei said, then added, “It’s not a full two-month break; there are still a few appearances. It’ll probably take up two or three days. The rest of the time I’ll be home. Oh, and I may have classes during the day. I found a teacher to coach me on acting. It’ll be about the same as your normal work schedule.”
Gu Yanqiu’s excitement was written all over her face as she held on to Lin Yuewei and refused to let go. In the end, they almost crossed the line in the gym; if Lin Yuewei’s sweat smell hadn’t become so unbearable to her own nose, Gu Yanqiu would have been late for work that morning.
“See you tonight.” Lin Yuewei stood at the front door and waved to Gu Yanqiu in the car.
Gu Yanqiu had one hand on the steering wheel and waved back through the lowered window.
Only after watching the car disappear from sight did Lin Yuewei go back inside and close the door. She set a laptop from beside the TV cabinet onto the coffee table, opened the browser, and searched for Yin Lingxi’s family company. Sure enough, she found Yin Lingxi’s photo on the company website: a formal portrait, just an avatar, but her bearing still came through as extraordinary.
This person was much more of a threat than someone like Ke Bin or Shen Xue; those two had never even registered in Gu Yanqiu’s eyes. Yin Lingxi, on the other hand, could sit with Gu Yanqiu and talk about stars, about the moon, about life philosophy.
Lin Yuewei stared at Yin Lingxi’s photo for a while, then closed the page and decided to keep an eye on things. She was home for this stretch anyway.
She also called Jiang Congbi.
Jiang Congbi was in her office with headphones on, skimming the file in her hand ten lines at a time. She signed her name with a flourish on the last page. “What is it?”
“I’m done filming and back home. When are we getting together?”
“Today at noon?” Jiang Congbi was as decisive as always when it came to making plans.
Even Lin Yuewei was stunned by how fast she moved. She paused, then said, “Sure. Where?”
“The private kitchen across from my company building; the one we’ve eaten at twice.”
“Fine. Did you bring the gift I asked you to pick out?”
“Actually, no. But there’s no rush. After we meet up, just come to my place and get it. I’ve got a ready-made one here; if you want to see the goods, just look at me.”
Lin Yuewei joked, “Hey, if there’s no gift, why would I meet you?”
Jiang Congbi gave a “hey” too and laughed. “Come if you want to; don’t if you don’t.”
“Come, come. I’ll be there at eleven-thirty, okay?”
“That’s too early. Noon. I still need some time after I get off work to get over there.”
“Then eleven forty-five. I’m just sitting around at home anyway.”
“Done. I’m going back to work. Message me on WeChat if anything comes up; how did you pick up the habit of calling so suddenly?” Jiang Congbi clicked her tongue and hung up.
Lin Yuewei rested one hand behind her head and lay on the sofa at home, a thin blanket covering her. In her free time, she wondered if there was anything else she had forgotten.
Other than Qu Xuesong’s gift, there didn’t seem to be anything else. Lin Yuewei unlocked Weibo, first checked her main account to see whether there was anything she needed to reply to, and there really was. The costume drama she was currently filming had tagged her to congratulate her on wrapping; they had also specially released a behind-the-scenes clip—
It was the part where, after Lin Yuewei had wrapped filming, wiped away her tears, and sat up from the ground, the heroine, in a blur of speed, shoved her back down and rolled around on the floor without getting up.
Comments:
【Ahhhhhhhh the heroine is so cute】
【The cutest heroine name in the world, check out the heroine’s character name #actress character name#】
【I want to ride a slide down the heroine’s nose bridge】
【Looking forward to #actress character name#】
The comments were all in the same canned promotional style, clearly from paid posters and fan moderation. Lin Yuewei’s cringe nearly broke through the roof. The most outrageous part was that some people were even praising the heroine’s acting as phenomenal. What could you possibly tell from this wrap scene?
From what Lin Yuewei had seen on set, the heroine’s acting was no longer something that could be described as hard to put into words; it was apocalyptic.
There was one comment that looked like it came from an ordinary passerby.
【The girl lying on the ground has pretty makeup. Is that Lin Yuewei? She looked amazing in the character reveal photos before, and she actually moves pretty well】
Lin Yuewei found it after flipping through more than ten pages. It had two likes.
She ignored the awkward flattery, casually reposted and liked the official account’s post, then put the matter out of her mind.
Around eleven, she drove to meet Jiang Congbi. Traffic was pretty good; she arrived fifteen minutes early. She went into the private room they’d booked in advance to wait for Jiang Congbi, then finally turned on the phone she’d kept in her pocket and never looked at.
There were seven or eight unread messages.
From Wang Yuanyuan and Chen Xuan.
Wang Yuanyuan: 【You got dragged by the heroine’s fans】
Wang Yuanyuan: 【A truly innocent disaster】
Wang Yuanyuan: 【Don’t check the Weibo comments today】
Wang Yuanyuan: 【I see your fans are already fighting with them; your combat power is pretty strong. As expected of someone from a talent show [impressive]】
Chen Xuan: 【Someone is using you as a weapon. No need to say anything; it’ll quiet down in a couple of days】
Chen Xuan: 【Since they came to you on their own, I’ll push the heat a bit, whoever’s behind it be damned】
Chen Xuan: 【[smile]】
As soon as Lin Yuewei saw those messages, she opened Weibo hot searches. The heroine’s name was second on the list, with three words added after it: poor character; the costume drama’s official account deleting a post instantly was fifth, and Lin Yuewei’s name was listed with the heroine’s, one after the other, currently in the teens and slowly climbing.
Lin Yuewei clicked into the deleted-post entry first; her suspicion was confirmed. The post congratulating her on wrapping had indeed been deleted.
Then she looked at the poor-character entry. Eight hundred marketing accounts had posted at once, focusing on the moment when Lin Yuewei finally managed to sit up, only for the heroine to shove her down again and send her coccyx crashing to the floor. They even used arrows and zoomed in; they kept tracking the scene, enlarging the heroine’s “fierce” expression and Lin Yuewei’s “pain,” splashing mud on the heroine, saying her acting was bad and her character was questionable too.
It was obviously a black-hype hot search bought by the rival side, but the general public had long harbored grievances against the other party and took the chance to criticize her. Under the huge “passerby” camp, the fans were steadily losing ground.
The last one was the linked topic. Since everyone was paying attention to the poor-character issue, this person dragged out the other main player, Lin Yuewei. They said the two of them were equally bad in acting, neither better than the other, and implied that it was Lin Yuewei’s team blackening the heroine.
No one in their right mind would believe that.
Lin Yuewei was an almost-nothing nobody with no reason at all to blacken the heroine. Could she steal the other party’s scenes, or her resources? Utter nonsense. Then the topic gradually veered off-course. Even if both of them were bad at acting, Lin Yuewei at least had expressions; she didn’t just glare and pout, did she? Last year’s whole-network blackening had been a storm of fury, but time dulled a normal person’s malice. Once people calmed down and looked back, they found she wasn’t actually that bad.
Her earlier photo shoots had done very well and brought in a number of fans. Among the later batch, some were people who had once blackened her; some didn’t know her at all and had watched her performance clips during the show in a crash course, discovering how terrifying deliberately edited footage could be. In short, her public reputation was slowly improving.
Then there were those who said Lin Yuewei’s acting was bad, so that was why she played supporting roles that died quickly, and anyway she had only just debuted. How old was the heroine? Almost thirty, and still poisoning everyone’s eyes.
Lin Yuewei had only attracted hatred for one year; the heroine had been attracting hatred for several years already, even winning the online-vote title of “Most Disliked National Actress.” Lin Yuewei’s passerby goodwill was still much better than the heroine’s.
The heroine’s fans split into three groups: one group went after the costume drama’s official account, one went after the heroine’s management company, and the third group believed it was all Lin Yuewei’s fault; if it weren’t for her, their idol wouldn’t have been dragged into the discourse and blackened. So they stormed out in rage, arms armored, slaughtering the supertopic, the main square, and Lin Yuewei’s comment section. But talent-show fans were probably the most combative type of fans there was, and Lin Yuewei was practically living like an immortal these days. Aside from the occasional friction with Shao Yasi’s fans, she hadn’t fought in a long time; all that pent-up frustration came pouring out. For a time, there was actually no one-sided situation. That third part was the fan war Wang Yuanyuan had mentioned.
Lin Yuewei clicked through Weibo, clicking her tongue again and again, then ran to a gossip group and looked through a few pages of posts. She was more curious about who was trying to blacken the heroine from behind. If the official account had truly made a mistake and posted the clip, then deleted it immediately after seeing the public reaction wasn’t good, that made things even stranger. The heroine was still filming in the crew, and yet something like this happened so brazenly; could it be someone in the production team? Or was it just the official account’s anonymous operator who disliked the heroine and deliberately posted a potentially controversial clip for others to exploit?
The entertainment industry was way too murky.
She rather wanted to ask Chen Xuan whether she knew any inside story.
What Jiang Congbi saw when she came in was exactly that very interested expression. She set down her bag, handed her coat to the server who stood one step behind her, and the server hung it up.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Congbi asked.
“Thinking about life.”
“What do you want to eat?”
“You order. My eyes are tired from looking at my phone.” Lin Yuewei put the phone on the table.
“It’s your first day off and you’re already abusing yourself like this.” Jiang Congbi came here often and didn’t even need to look at the menu; she rattled off a few dishes from memory. After the server wrote them down, the person quietly backed out and thoughtfully closed the door.
Jiang Congbi held out her right hand and thrust it forward, showing her the bracelet on her wrist. “How is it? Pretty, right?”
The silver bracelet had a very simple design, but the details were handled with delicacy and care. It really did look good on fair skin.
Jiang Congbi was very confident in her taste. “And it wasn’t expensive either; just over forty thousand, under fifty. Perfect for giving to someone. I’m telling you, I had my eye on one that cost two hundred thousand; I bought it for my girlfriend.”
“Not bad.” Lin Yuewei pushed her hand back. “You could have left out the last sentence.”
Jiang Congbi said, “I’m going to say it.”
Lin Yuewei poured herself a cup of tea and shrugged carelessly. “Fine. Go on, then. It’d be best if you described every detail; next time I can go tattle to your girlfriend.”
“...” After a pause, Jiang Congbi said, “Didn’t think you’d learn that trick too.”
Lin Yuewei sipped her tea, eyes smiling. “Learned it from my cat.”
Jiang Congbi bared her teeth. “What’s so great about having a cat?”
Lin Yuewei spread her hands. “Sorry, but having a cat is great.”
Jiang Congbi fake-cried twice, then laughed too.
The two of them had met up two or three times during this period already. There wasn’t anything important to talk about today; mainly they were just here to eat. Each of them played on their phone while waiting for the dishes. Lin Yuewei slid her finger to the phone’s background apps and, in a burst of obsessive-compulsive tidiness, closed one unnecessary app after another, then suddenly remembered something and asked, “Do you know someone named Yin Lingxi?”
Jiang Congbi looked up. “Another rival in love?”
Lin Yuewei lazily made a sound through her nose.
Jiang Congbi sighed first. “Why do you have so many rivals?” Then she said, “I really don’t know this one. I’ve never even heard the name.”
Lin Yuewei hummed. “She’s from out of town. It’s normal you haven’t heard of her.”
Jiang Congbi couldn’t help widening her mouth. “Your wife’s even been targeted by someone from out of town?”
Lin Yuewei frowned. “What do you mean targeted? She’s just got that much charm. It’s not like she asked for it.”
Jiang Congbi drank some cooled boiled water and didn’t argue with her. “Sure, sure; charm. As long as you’re not jealous.”
The moment she said it, Lin Yuewei let out a long, slow, ghostly sigh. “How could I not be jealous?”
Jiang Congbi snorted with laughter.
Of course she knew Lin Yuewei would be jealous; she just hadn’t expected her to say it in that sort of bitter, resentful-wife tone. It was too funny.
Lin Yuewei herself felt embarrassed. She coughed and said, “Just pretend you didn’t hear that.”
Jiang Congbi had to hear it; she immediately copied her tone and repeated the exact same line.
Lin Yuewei rolled up her sleeves; Jiang Congbi fell silent and made a zipping motion across her mouth.
The server knocked and entered, carrying a large tray with one hand, bringing in a plate of spicy boiled fish. Jiang Congbi drawled in a long, teasing voice, “Just~ put~ it~ he~re~”
Her words were addressed to the server, but her face was clearly turned toward Lin Yuewei, full of amusement.
The server was so startled she shivered.
Lin Yuewei said, “Hey, I’m getting worked up.”
Jiang Congbi said, “Eat your fish. Eat your fish before it gets cold.”
After a noisy meal, Lin Yuewei went to Jiang Congbi’s place, followed her instructions to her room, and took the gift. The bracelet itself was small, but the gift box was rather large. Lin Yuewei put the gift bag on the passenger seat and drove home.
Once home, she ran into a problem. There was no way she could let Gu Yanqiu see it. While Gu Yanqiu was still off work, she searched all over the house, but she still couldn’t find a place that was absolutely foolproof for hiding it.
The study was somewhere Gu Yanqiu often went; by the same logic, the bedroom and all the other places they frequented couldn’t be used either. Lin Yuewei stood at the stairway on the first floor, looking down in thought.
How about putting it in the guest room?
Aside from the cleaning lady who came twice a week to do a rough cleaning, the guest room was basically never entered by anyone. There seemed to be a drawer beside the bed where she could barely fit it?
In the end, Lin Yuewei hid the bracelet in one of the guest room drawers. When she put it in, she noticed something suspicious: the drawer was much cleaner than she had expected.
Lin Yuewei hesitated in front of the drawer for a moment, but thinking that the drawer stayed closed most of the time and didn’t gather much dust, maybe the cleaning lady’s weekly cleaning just made it look especially spotless.
Reassured, she put the gift away.
On the bay window, the white cat Schrödinger tilted its head and groomed its fur under the warm sunlight, its sapphire-like eyes narrowed as it gave a lazy meow.
Who knew which drawer Daddy would hide its little snack in today?
Author’s note:
A quick interview with the person involved, Lin Gong, on how she feels about what comes next.
Lin Gong: Right now I just feel regret; a lot of regret. Confess and you’ll be treated leniently; resist and you’ll be treated strictly. I hope everyone won’t follow my example QAQ