Chapter 141
Lin Yuewei had only come home yesterday, so she had no idea that while Gu Yanqiu had been helping Schrödinger lose weight, the two of them had quietly developed a little game of their own.
Schrödinger’s diet had been agonizing. It meowed pitifully all the time, and Gu Yanqiu wasn’t so heartless as to ignore it. With only this little treasured darling in the house, how could she possibly neglect it?
Every night, she would randomly hide a bit of snack food in a drawer in some guest room as a little surprise for Schrödinger. And every night, Schrödinger would rummage through the house, pawing open every drawer it could find in search of its treats.
The reason the drawers at home were so clean had nothing to do with the cleaning lady. Gu Yanqiu had wiped them down herself just to hide the snacks; of course they were spotless.
Lin Yuewei put the gift away, clapped her hands, and stood up. When she returned to the living room, she immediately saw the cat in her house. Schrödinger was meowing to itself with gusto, its body suspended in midair, when a pair of hands reached down from above and scooped it up.
Ragdoll cats are among the largest and heaviest cats in existence. Schrödinger wasn’t even a year and a half old yet; it hadn’t fully matured, but it was already larger than most cats, nearly forty centimeters long. Even though Gu Yanqiu had put it on a diet, it still weighed quite a bit in her arms.
She held Schrödinger like a child for a while. Nestled in her arms, Schrödinger swayed back and forth, so comfortable that it kept yawning.
Gu Yanqiu parked the car in the garage, came out through the side door, and hurried back to the front entrance. She opened the door with her fingerprint and password, her brows soft and her lips lifting. “I—”
The moment Lin Yuewei heard the door open, she turned her head and raised a finger to her lips. “Shh..."
Gu Yanqiu lowered her voice; the last three words were only mouthed.
...I’m back.
She changed into slippers and tiptoed inside, curious why Lin Yuewei was being so mysterious today. Then she saw Schrödinger curled up beside her, asleep under a custom-made little blanket, and understood immediately.
Cats and humans had different schedules. Most cats slept during the day and were awake at night; a few followed their owners’ routines, but even then they weren’t as strictly aligned with day and night as people were. Mostly, they would wake up, play for a while, then get tired and sleep again; they could flop down and doze off anywhere, anytime.
Gu Yanqiu glanced over and whispered, “It’s asleep.”
Lin Yuewei nodded, barely moving at all, as if afraid of waking Schrödinger.
If an outsider saw how careful and cautious the two of them were, they really might think they were raising a child.
Lin Yuewei stood up and waved Gu Yanqiu over. The two of them crept upstairs together and returned to the master bedroom, leaving Schrödinger downstairs in a quiet space of its own.
Only then did Gu Yanqiu return to her normal speaking voice. Remembering the gentle look Lin Yuewei had given Schrödinger just now, she couldn’t help asking, “Do you like children?”
“Not really.” Lin Yuewei suddenly caught on. Meeting her gaze, she said pointedly, “Are you planning to have a child for me?”
Gu Yanqiu: “..."
She put on a thoughtful expression and slowly said, “If you really want one, it’s not impossible. But we’d have to wait a couple of years, until my career is more stable.”
The moment Lin Yuewei heard that she had taken it seriously, she quickly said, “No, I don’t want to raise a child.”
“Then what about Schrödinger..."
“Schrödinger is a cat, not a person. What child are we talking about? We might as well raise a dog.”
“..."
“Stop thinking about it. You’re wasting brain cells.”
It wasn’t that Lin Yuewei mainly disliked children. It was that the moment she thought about pregnancy—morning sickness, aching back and waist, and all sorts of unknown side effects—plus labor pains, the physical damage childbirth could do to the body, and the care and effort required to raise a child, all thoughts of children vanished.
Maybe at her age she just didn’t have the urge to reproduce yet; maybe it was more about putting herself first, what people called selfishness. But selfishness wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It was also a kind of responsibility toward one’s own life. It was better than acting on impulse and having a child, only to live in regret every day afterward.
Gu Yanqiu asked her again, “Really don’t want one?”
Lin Yuewei glanced at her and raised an eyebrow. “Do you want one?”
Gu Yanqiu fell silent.
Lin Yuewei was surprised. “You really do?”
Gu Yanqiu pressed her lips together and said softly, “I want a girl who looks like you.”
At first Lin Yuewei was just blankly confused. Then the corners of her red lips slowly lifted. She walked toward Gu Yanqiu step by step, placed both hands on her shoulders, and smiled. “So President Gu likes children.”
Gu Yanqiu corrected her, “I like you.”
Lin Yuewei said knowingly, “I get it; love me, love my dog.”
If they really had a child, she’d want one who looked like Gu Yanqiu too; little President Gu and big President Gu. Just thinking about two cool-faced but secretly adorable cuties at home was way too cute.
She felt a little tempted.
Then Lin Yuewei remembered something, and worry appeared on her face. “Wouldn’t having two be too hard? Can you give birth to them all at once?”
Gu Yanqiu hesitated. “...Modern technology doesn’t seem to have reached that point yet.”
“Then one each?”
Before Gu Yanqiu could answer, Lin Yuewei frowned again. “But I heard giving birth hurts a lot. Ten-level pain.”
Gu Yanqiu said, “There’s painless delivery. If it won’t work in China, we can go abroad to give birth. I think underwater delivery is also pretty mature.”
Lin Yuewei said, “After giving birth, the uterus can sag; it can prolapse and even come out of the body. Just thinking about it is scary. There are stretch marks too, and they’re hard to get rid of. Postpartum recovery is awful as well. If it’s a C-section, that’s even worse; there’s a sutured scar like a centipede.”
Gu Yanqiu said, “I’d stay with you, or you could stay with me, and we’d take care of each other slowly.”
Lin Yuewei said, “There are also complications. Let me check what diseases you can get after having a baby.” She freed one hand to take out her phone. Just as she opened the browser, she looked up and met Gu Yanqiu’s eyes.
Gu Yanqiu sighed.
The two of them stared at each other.
Then Lin Yuewei suddenly laughed. “What did I just say?”
Gu Yanqiu also smiled. “You were talking about the drawbacks of having a baby.”
Lin Yuewei asked again, “Then what were you saying?”
Gu Yanqiu coughed. “That there are ways to minimize them as much as possible.”
Lin Yuewei clicked her tongue. “Look at that; it’s obviously you who wants to raise a child, but you’re dumping the blame on me.” She tossed her phone onto the bed nearby. “Let’s research it first. We’re not planning to have one for now; if we do, it’ll be after both of us are stable.”
Gu Yanqiu nodded. “Mm.”
Her ears were a little hot. How had they suddenly started talking about having children, and in such detail too? They were clearly still far from that.
Her eyes seemed not to know where to go as they flicked around before settling on the door. “What do you want to eat tonight? I’ll go make dinner now.”
“Eat you.” Lin Yuewei tilted her head and smiled.
“Choose another.”
“You.”
“..."
Gu Yanqiu folded her arms and looked at her, helplessness written all over her face.
Lin Yuewei pushed her luck and walked straight to the door, locking it behind them. “There. Schrödinger won’t come disturb us now.”
Gu Yanqiu really was afraid of her.
But the two of them hadn’t seen each other for more than half a month, and this was the first time they had truly tasted desire. Last night, because Lin Yuewei fell asleep, nothing came of it; they had only stirred the thought. Even so, emotions were already surging faintly in their hearts.
Lin Yuewei got the pre-meal snack she wanted; naturally, she also became someone else’s snack.
The two of them went to wash their hands together. Lin Yuewei leaned lazily against Gu Yanqiu’s shoulder and yawned over and over; once her energy had been drained dry, she had no spirit left.
Gu Yanqiu gently pushed her head. “You didn’t nap this afternoon? Why are you so sleepy?”
Lin Yuewei squinted. “No. I went to have lunch with Jiang Congbi at noon.”
“How are she and her girlfriend doing lately?”
“They’re doing pretty well.” Lin Yuewei finished answering with a soft hum, then asked curiously, “Why are you asking?”
“Nothing.” Gu Yanqiu took down a towel hanging nearby and dried Lin Yuewei’s hands first, then pressed her palm against it to soak up the moisture. “It just suddenly came to mind, so I asked.”
“President Gu has really become approachable lately. You’re even taking an interest in ordinary people.”
“...Stop messing around.” Gu Yanqiu thought: Lin Yuewei was really getting more and more glib.
On the way downstairs, Lin Yuewei told her everything she knew about Jiang Congbi and her girlfriend. Gu Yanqiu liking gossip was a good thing; she was getting more and more lively.
When Lin Yuewei mentioned that the last time she called Jiang Congbi, Jiang Congbi had just finished doing that with her girlfriend in the office while holding her in her arms, Gu Yanqiu blinked in surprise.
Lin Yuewei didn’t notice the brief flash in her eyes.
She also said the little girlfriend was only nineteen now; when they first got together, she had only just become an adult on her ID card, and Jiang Congbi had eagerly gobbled her up, an old cow grazing tender grass.
Lin Yuewei’s tone was humorous, and Gu Yanqiu’s mouth never stopped curving upward as she listened. Other people’s love stories were really interesting. On a whim, she asked, “If someone were to tell our story, how would they say it?”
Lin Yuewei laughed. “They’d probably need to write a whole novel. Once we’re both more stable, I’ll hire a writer to custom-write one for us, adapted from our real experience.”
Gu Yanqiu smiled and agreed. “That works, that works.”
Schrödinger woke up right around dinner time. It squatted at the kitchen door and peered inside. Gu Yanqiu even made it some fish as a bonus treat. The dinner the two women and one cat shared was very pleasant.
Lichun had already passed; this winter seemed especially short, and these past two days had already shown signs of warming up. After dinner that night, Gu Yanqiu and Lin Yuewei went out for a walk. Schrödinger meowed miserably behind them.
At first Lin Yuewei didn’t know why, until Gu Yanqiu put a leash on Schrödinger and took it outside. Schrödinger planted both paws against the doorframe and refused to budge.
It was no easy feat to make the usually mild Schrödinger resist so fiercely.
Gu Yanqiu flashed her hand; there was a little snack in her palm.
Schrödinger immediately let go.
The two guardians took Schrödinger out for a stroll. Schrödinger held its head high and chest out, walking lightly, the bell around its neck jingling with each step as if some big shot were making an entrance.
Lin Yuewei was laughing so hard she was about to die.
Gu Yanqiu clearly didn’t just take Schrödinger out once or twice a week. On the way, they actually ran into a neighbor who knew her, and she greeted Gu Yanqiu, “Out walking the cat again? Schrödinger looks lively today.”
Gu Yanqiu smiled. “Thank you.”
The neighbor looked at Lin Yuewei beside her, bundled up tightly, and wasn’t surprised. There were plenty of celebrities in this neighborhood; some were covered up even more than she was. A hat and a mask already counted as simple.
Gu Yanqiu introduced her proactively. “My wife.”
Lin Yuewei froze for a second. “Hello.”
The neighbor also froze. “Hello.”
After the neighbor left, Lin Yuewei lightly bumped Gu Yanqiu with her shoulder. “Hey.”
“Mm?”
“Why did you suddenly say that? You startled me.”
“I was stating a fact.” Gu Yanqiu turned to look at her. “I just wanted to tell her.”
Lin Yuewei narrowed her eyes and studied her expression for a while. “Are you unhappy?”
Gu Yanqiu turned her face toward the front and muttered, “No.”
“Your voice sounds lower already, and you still say no?”
“..."
Gu Yanqiu had never thought much about hiding their relationship from others. Even last time, when she had gone out to the riding stable and was playing with people there, and Lin Yuewei suddenly appeared, she had only pulled her aside as if she were an outsider. She hadn’t felt anything wrong then. Love was between the two of them; to say it bigger, it was between two families. As long as they acknowledged each other and cared about each other, that was enough. But just now, the instant after she told the neighbor, the way Lin Yuewei had suddenly frozen made her feel a little uncomfortable.
“See, now you’re not speaking again. What are you thinking? Tell me.”
Gu Yanqiu pressed her lips together and walked forward, faster and faster; even Schrödinger was dragged into a run.
Lin Yuewei: “..."
Gu Yanqiu was getting cocky, she absolutely was.
Lin Yuewei chased after her. “Stop right there!”
“In a high-end residential complex, a lovers’ life-and-death chase has just broken out! The person in front is even carrying a cat; suspected cat smuggling attempt. The one behind is in hot pursuit—no one knows whether it’s for the cat or for the person. Please tune in to this episode of ‘Approaching the Dumbasses’: A Cat-Triggered Bloodbath! Ah, danger; the one in back is charging at me now!”
Lin Yuewei shouted at a young man standing by the path in the neighborhood who had been chattering nonstop at them, “Ever seen a couple arguing? What time is it? Go home already.”
The mischievous young man stuck out his tongue and ran off with his phone in hand.
In the end, the two of them and one cat stopped at the pavilion in the neighborhood. Lin Yuewei took several deep breaths, quickly recovered, and stepped forward with her arms folded. “What were you running for? Explain yourself.”
Gu Yanqiu: “I’m fine now.”
Lin Yuewei: “Say that again.”
Gu Yanqiu emphasized, “I really am fine. I just ran around to ease my mood.”
“Then why were you upset?” Lin Yuewei was baffled. Had she said something wrong today?
“You were mean to me.” Gu Yanqiu lowered her head to pet the cat.
“I—” Lin Yuewei’s temper was flaring, but she pressed down the fire surging to her temples and forced out a pleasant expression. “When was I mean to you?”
“‘Stop right there!’” Gu Yanqiu puffed out her cheeks and repeated her tone.
Lin Yuewei: “...” Did she really sound that fierce? Absolutely not!
Gu Yanqiu looked at her. “Also, you were impatient with me from the very beginning.” Since she wanted to say it, she might as well say enough.
Lin Yuewei felt more wronged than Dou E. “When was I impatient with you?!”
Gu Yanqiu: “See, now you’re being mean to me again.”
Lin Yuewei lowered her voice. “When was I, impatient with you?” She even paused after every few words, her attitude unbelievably gentle.
Gu Yanqiu recalled it and repeated, “You kept saying, ‘See, now you’re not speaking again. What are you thinking? Tell me.’”
Lin Yuewei widened her eyes. “That counts as being impatient?”
Gu Yanqiu nodded. “You said ‘again.’”
Lin Yuewei clicked her tongue. “You were already ‘again’ to begin with. Not only ‘again,’ you also keep not speaking.”
Gu Yanqiu said, “Oh. ‘Keep.’” She hooked a finger under Schrödinger’s chin; after a two-second pause, she asked, “So that’s your evaluation of me now? Making me sound like I’m being unreasonable.”
Lin Yuewei irritably raked a hand through her hair. “That’s not what I meant!”
Gu Yanqiu said, “From the moment you started talking to me until now, you’ve been mean to me two more times.”
Lin Yuewei said, “I wasn’t mean to you. I just raised my voice a few times?!” Her voice was getting higher and higher.
Gu Yanqiu held up three fingers and said calmly, “Three times.”
Lin Yuewei paced back and forth in the pavilion a few times and gave up on arguing. “Fine, I won’t speak. Is that okay?”
Gu Yanqiu still wore that faint expression. “No. You have to talk to me.”
Lin Yuewei glared at her. “When I talk, you say I’m mean to you; when I don’t talk, you won’t allow that either. Then tell me what you want me to do?”
Gu Yanqiu pointed her chin at the seat. “Sit.”
Lin Yuewei was already so angry she could practically reach the sky. She refused, “No.”
Gu Yanqiu said evenly, “I’m going to get angry.”
Lin Yuewei: “...” How did she say that so righteously? Wasn’t she the one supposed to be angry? She wasn’t sitting. Whoever sat would be the puppy.
Gu Yanqiu looked up at her quietly.
Lin Yuewei barked a silent “woof” in her heart and sat down, turning her face away.
She was angry too now; Gu Yanqiu would have to coax her before she felt better.
Neither of them spoke. One stared at the water under the pavilion; the other teased the cat in her hands. Schrödinger sensed the strange atmosphere between them and let out a soft “meow,” then pulled its chin free from under Gu Yanqiu’s hand, padded over to Lin Yuewei, and rubbed its head against her palm.
Don’t fight.
Lin Yuewei stroked the top of Schrödinger’s head and turned around, only to meet Gu Yanqiu’s gaze.
Lin Yuewei said fiercely, “What are you looking at?”
Gu Yanqiu said, “I’m not looking at you. I’m looking at the cat.”
Lin Yuewei huffed and shoved the cat back into her arms. “The walk’s over. Let’s go home.”
Then she left Gu Yanqiu with a breezy back view.
She swaggered off for a bit, then realized Gu Yanqiu hadn’t followed. She sulked her way back, though she didn’t return all the way to the pavilion; instead, she stopped a few steps away. “What are you standing there for? Hurry up and come back.”
Gu Yanqiu slowly got up and shot her a resentful glance.
Only when she got within one step of her did Lin Yuewei turn around and continue walking home.
The two of them stayed silent all the way. Halfway there, Lin Yuewei even found it strange; when they came out, everything had been fine, so how had the road back turned into this? She didn’t believe it for a second. Were they naturally incompatible or what?
Then Lin Yuewei suddenly came to a stop.
Gu Yanqiu wasn’t prepared; her nose collided with the back of Lin Yuewei’s head. She hissed and immediately lifted a hand to cover it, tears nearly coming down.
Lin Yuewei hurried to check her nose. “Does it hurt?”
Gu Yanqiu waved her hand and couldn’t speak. The lowered lashes were damp with tears, making her look pitiful and fragile.
Lin Yuewei couldn’t stand that expression of hers. Whether it was only physiological pain or not, she immediately said, “I was wrong.”
Gu Yanqiu: “Huh?”
Lin Yuewei: “I shouldn’t have been mean to you. I shouldn’t have been impatient with you. I should have asked nicely; I shouldn’t have started speaking louder and louder. I was wrong; I’m sorry.”
Gu Yanqiu: “..."
She shook off Lin Yuewei’s hand cupping her cheek and walked ahead quickly, as if even angrier now.
Lin Yuewei was helpless. “Why are you angry again? No, I mean, why are you angry? Not again.”
Gu Yanqiu didn’t look back.
All the way home—taking off their shoes, changing them, entering the house, wiping Schrödinger’s little paws with warm water—Gu Yanqiu continued upstairs. Lin Yuewei followed behind in silence. Since Gu Yanqiu wasn’t speaking, she wouldn’t speak either. Everything she said was wrong; better to respond to change with no change.
They went on like that for about five minutes before Gu Yanqiu finally stopped, turned around, and looked at her. “Have you had enough?”
Lin Yuewei said nothing, head lowered.
Right now she was perfectly calm. Her goal was to coax Gu Yanqiu into being happy again; she couldn’t get angry.
The two of them were deadlocked for a few seconds.
“The reason I ran away the first time was because when I told the neighbor, ‘She is my wife,’ you froze.”
Lin Yuewei had really never thought that was the reason. She froze, so what? She had just blanked out; wasn’t she allowed to react slowly?!
She swallowed back the word “unreasonable” at the tip of her tongue and patiently waited for Gu Yanqiu to continue.
“Why did you freeze like that?”
Lin Yuewei couldn’t answer. She had just frozen for a moment.
“Were you unfamiliar with saying it that way, or did you think saying that in front of a stranger was embarrassing?” Gu Yanqiu gave her two answers, and both sounded absurd.
Lin Yuewei wanted to sneer coldly, instinctively not wanting to explain. But then she thought of Gu Yanqiu’s condition; during the days she was filming, Gu Yanqiu saw a psychologist once a week. Lin Yuewei already felt guilty for not being able to accompany her; she didn’t want to make things worse for her. Something involving principle like this, something that might affect her mental state, couldn’t be handled with a temper.
Looking into Gu Yanqiu’s eyes, Lin Yuewei said solemnly, “No. You just said it all of a sudden, and I didn’t react in time.”
“Why didn’t you react in time?”
“Because all I was thinking about was you.” Lin Yuewei delivered a sudden straight shot.
This time it was Gu Yanqiu who froze.
Lin Yuewei pressed her advantage and started singing, “My head is all you, my heart is all you, little love in a big city so sweet; everything I think of is you, everything is you, little love in a big city, heart only for you~”
Gu Yanqiu snorted with laughter.
Lin Yuewei took the chance to wrap her arms around her, circling her waist and lowering her head. “Still angry?”
Gu Yanqiu buried her face in Lin Yuewei’s neck, hugged her back, and shook her head.
“Will you still run next time?”
“Yes.” Gu Yanqiu smiled.
“Your胆子 is really getting bigger now?”
“Because you’ll chase me.”
“So that’s what you call being spoiled rotten; do you know that?”
“I know.”
“Then stay spoiled.” Lin Yuewei stroked her back. “That way you won’t be easily swept away by some shady people.”
“What do you mean by shady people?”
“You know very well.” Lin Yuewei snorted softly. She was talking about the likes of Ke Bin, Shen Xue, and Yin Lingxi.
“I won’t.”
The two of them held each other quietly for a while. Then Gu Yanqiu nudged Lin Yuewei’s shoulder. “Go shower. After you shower, we’ll sleep.”
“Just sleep after showering?” Lin Yuewei let go of her and raised an ambiguous eyebrow.
“...Do something else too.” Gu Yanqiu urged, “Go on, go on.”
Lin Yuewei laughed as she walked toward the bathroom, turning back once. “Aren’t you coming with me?”
Gu Yanqiu said, “You shower by yourself. How long would it take if the two of us went together?”
Lin Yuewei looked regretful and sighed as she went into the bathroom.
Gu Yanqiu watched her back with a smile, then took Schrödinger’s snacks and went out to hide them. She carried the snacks around downstairs for a lap, chose a guest room, and opened the two drawers beside the bed. But in a drawer that should have been empty, she found something.
“What is this?” Gu Yanqiu frowned slightly and took out the black gift bag.
The T.C logo was printed prominently on the bag, a very famous first-tier jewelry brand.
Gu Yanqiu opened the bag and felt out a velvet box. Judging by the size, it should have held a bracelet or a necklace. Sure enough, inside lay a silver bracelet with a simple, elegant design that would be easy to pair with everyday outfits.
She usually kept track of luxury goods and recognized it at a glance as this season’s new release.
Gu Yanqiu closed the box, put everything back as it was, and returned it to the drawer.
Why would such a box suddenly appear at home?
Gu Yanqiu couldn’t figure it out no matter how she thought about it.
It wasn’t something she had bought, so it must have been Lin Yuewei. Why would Lin Yuewei secretly buy a bracelet?
Gu Yanqiu hid Schrödinger’s snacks in the drawer of another room and returned to the bedroom, where she sat on the sofa and thought. Then, suddenly, disbelief flickered through her eyes: Could it be a birthday present Lin Yuewei had prepared for her?
Her birthday was on Arbor Day, only a few days from now.
Or maybe it was an anniversary gift for their first year of marriage? That would be three days after her birthday.
Gu Yanqiu couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from lifting.
If that was the case, she abandoned the idea of asking Lin Yuewei about the box downstairs once Lin Yuewei came out. She couldn’t ruin the surprise Lin Yuewei had carefully prepared. In fact, she even regretted opening the box just now; now she already knew in advance what the surprise was.
Thinking of this, she suddenly became unable to sit still. She rushed into the study, opened the safe in the bookshelf, and found the first-anniversary gift she had prepared inside. After checking it over, she felt that leaving it there might not be safe either. To be on the safe side, she changed the password; after their anniversary passed, she’d change it back, and then there would be no risk of Lin Yuewei accidentally opening it.
There were footsteps outside the study. Gu Yanqiu quickly straightened up and pretended to be looking for a book.
“Reading this late at night?” As expected, it was Lin Yuewei, who had come looking for her after coming out of the shower and not seeing her around.
“No, I was just bored and wandering around.”
“Done wandering? Go shower.”
“I’m going now.”
Gu Yanqiu walked out from inside, just about to return to the bedroom to shower, when Lin Yuewei suddenly said, “Stop.”
Gu Yanqiu stopped as told. “What is it?”
Lin Yuewei stared at her face for several seconds without blinking, suspicious. “Why do I feel like you’re really excited?” She reached out and touched Gu Yanqiu’s face. “So red and so hot; you’re not running a fever, are you?”
“No. Maybe the heating at home is too strong.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Gu Yanqiu said hurriedly, “I’m going to shower.”
She shot all the way into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her face really was very red.
Hadn’t she always been pretty composed? How had just seeing a gift in advance made her so excited she couldn’t control it? She had to stay calm; she had to endure until this week was over and then show it on her birthday.
Gu Yanqiu rubbed her face, forcing herself to calm down.
Her face calmed down, but her heart couldn’t.
Lin Yuewei felt that tonight’s Gu Yanqiu was terrifyingly enthusiastic, so much so that even the Big Dipper and the twelve constellations were stamped onto her. Before going to sleep, Lin Yuewei vaguely thought she heard a rooster crowing from far away. Had some household pet raised a giant rooster? Her consciousness quickly sank into the dark, and she no longer had the mind to think about it.
When she woke up, Gu Yanqiu had already gone to work. Two messages were left on her phone:
[Zhou: The porridge is being kept warm in the pot, and the dishes are on the table]
[Zhou: I’m at the company. Love you]
Lin Yuewei looked at the time; there was only an hour left until the appointment with the acting teacher. She rushed through washing up, took a few bites of porridge, grabbed her bag, and dashed out the door. After running a few steps, she rushed back to wrap a scarf around herself.
***
“Good morning.” A cool but cheerful greeting landed overhead.
“Good morning, Little President Gu.” Lin Zhi, seated at his desk, looked up and smiled.
Gu Yanqiu glanced at him and her eyes curved. “You look handsome today.”
Lin Zhi: “...” He wore a suit to work every day; he looked the same every day, and even his hairstyle hadn’t changed. Why was he only handsome today? Could it be a quantitative change leading to a qualitative one?
Lin Zhi switched his phone to the front camera and looked at himself—
Sure enough, he wasn’t handsome at all.
After a little reasoning, Lin Zhi realized Gu Yanqiu was in a winning mood in love.
The sour smell of romance; even Lin Zhi, who was already engaged, couldn’t help but sigh.
Gu Yanqiu turned on the speaker on her desk and started playing Wang Lihong’s “Big City, Little Love,” humming along: “The black ends of your hair are coiled into a circle, entangling all my longing for you... my head is all you, my heart is all you, little love in a big city so sweet..."
“Little President Gu, your coffee—” Lin Zhi pushed the door open and heard the background music. “...Sorry to interrupt.”
Gu Yanqiu muted the music and asked with a straight face, “Why didn’t you knock?”
Lin Zhi said, “I did knock.” Gu Yanqiu had been singing too intently to hear him.
Gu Yanqiu was a little embarrassed and cleared her throat. “Put it there.”
Lin Zhi said, “Got it.”
With ten minutes left before work officially started, Gu Yanqiu looped “Big City, Little Love” three times and worked all day with the song as background music in her head, feeling refreshed and cheerful. Before the end of the workday, she was already impatient to go home and see Lin Yuewei, but a phone call disrupted her plan.
Gu Yanqiu looked at the caller ID and answered, “Miss Yin, what is it?”
***
Gu Yanqiu hung up and sent Lin Yuewei a WeChat message.
【Xi Gu: I have something to do tonight and can’t come home for dinner. Eat something yourself; if you don’t feel like cooking, have some snacks or fruit first. I’ll make you a late-night snack when I get back, or you can go out for dinner with friends】
At that time, Lin Yuewei was driving home. Ten minutes later, she called back. “Who are you having dinner with?”
“Yin Lingxi.”
Lin Yuewei barely held back the urge to hang up. “Why is it her again?”
Gu Yanqiu didn’t know either. “She said she has something to tell me.”
Lin Yuewei raised her voice. “Can’t she say it over the phone? You had dinner yesterday, and dinner again today? Why is she so free? Isn’t she from out of town? What is an out-of-towner doing here in Yanning every day? Does her family company have nothing going on? What a frivolous waste.”
Her rapid-fire barrage of questions left Gu Yanqiu unable to answer a single one, since she wasn’t Yin Lingxi. “I don’t know; we’ll know when I go.”
Lin Yuewei said sourly, “She definitely has designs on you!”
Gu Yanqiu sighed helplessly. “Didn’t I promise you? I definitely won’t let her do anything to me. You know my skills; someone like her, I could take on ten.”
Lin Yuewei’s jealousy was overflowing. “Wow, beating up ten women makes you feel really accomplished, huh? One like me would be hard enough to fight; are you tired of me now?”
Gu Yanqiu scolded, “What nonsense are you spouting?!”
Lin Yuewei heard the anger in her voice and knew enough to stop while she was ahead. “Come back early. Bye!”
The last two words were spoken through gritted teeth. Gu Yanqiu sighed at the phone after the call ended.
She’d only be able to coax her when she got home.
Lin Yuewei lay on the sofa fuming in silence, hauled the white cat Schrödinger over, and rubbed it furiously for a while. Schrödinger trembled in her arms and stuck out its pink tongue to lick her palm.
After a while, Lin Yuewei let out a long breath. “What the hell.”
Schrödinger meowed in agreement; everything Mom said was right.
“Good daughter’s still the best.” Lin Yuewei hugged Schrödinger tighter, rubbing her cheek against its soft white fur as she ground her teeth and said, “Women are unreliable; even a sow can climb a tree.”
Author’s note:
Lin Gong is eating herself into madness over jealousy ﹁_﹁
You definitely won’t know what happens tomorrow, hahaha
TL Note:
Pretty sure I've said this before, but "an old cow grazing tender grass" = older person dating younger