Chapter 25
Click.
Lin Zhi’s girlfriend captured the moment perfectly on her phone.
Lin Zhi’s girlfriend said, “Do you smell that?”
Lin Zhi said, “Smell what?”
His girlfriend took a deep sniff of the air and said, “The scent of spring. Everything’s waking up.”
Lin Zhi: “...”
All he smelled was gossip.
The fans from the other two groups had already gone down first; the two people onstage were still hugging so tightly they looked unwilling to part. Who didn’t like pretty girls? Quite a few people in the audience who had cameras had already turned to take pictures of Lin Yuewei and Gu Yanqiu.
Lin Yuewei hadn’t used much force. It had been a polite hug, proper without being rude. She had figured Gu Yanqiu was probably just as awkward as she was; if Lin Yuewei made the first move, then by this point Gu Yanqiu should cooperate, they’d both finish the “hug” properly, and she could go offstage while the other returned backstage.
Who would have thought plans could never keep up with changes? Gu Yanqiu seemed to have been struck by lightning the moment Lin Yuewei pulled her into that sudden embrace. Her body stiffened, and for a long while she didn’t come back to herself. Her hands didn’t even rise in time to give Lin Yuewei the standard gentle pat on the back.
Lin Yuewei: “???”
What happened now? Was she frozen in place by acupuncture?
Their hug lasted unnaturally long. Lin Yuewei kept a smile on her face as she looked down toward the audience and asked in a low voice by Gu Yanqiu’s ear, “Gu... what are you spacing out for?”
What if someone found out they knew each other?
“...Sorry.” Gu Yanqiu seemed to wake from a dream. Still dazed, she stepped back and hurried off the stage from the side.
Lin Yuewei was stunned: “...”
She was the one who had initiated the hug, yet Gu Yanqiu not only failed to hug her back, she even fled the stage as if facing a great enemy. Lin Yuewei had so many complaints she had nowhere to put them.
It was only a tiny grudge, wasn’t it? Hadn’t they already resolved it the last time they went back to the Gu family home? She had thought their relationship was at least a little better than strangers by now; what was this latest behavior supposed to mean? Not even cooperating with her? Holding a grudge this much? Fine, don’t call her Gu Yanqiu anymore; call her Little Petty Gu instead. A tiny scrape and she’d remember it for the rest of her life.
Lin Yuewei had sharp facial contours, with a slightly hooded-brow look; when her eyes turned cool, her gaze became especially deep.
The host saw her embarrassment and stepped in to smooth things over. “Hahaha, Miss Lin really is an outsider after all; she didn’t give our Yuewei any face at all.”
The audience and the stage followed along with laughter. Lin Yuewei laughed too. After Gu Yanqiu went down, she blended into the crowd, and before long Lin Yuewei couldn’t find her anymore.
Lin Zhi’s girlfriend narrowed her eyes at Lin Zhi and said, “Why do I feel like your boss is a little shy?”
Lin Zhi: “...Don’t talk nonsense. My boss is an immortal, super calm, super enlightened. How could she be shy?”
As soon as he said it, he thought, bad news.
His girlfriend stared at him. “Say that again; who’s an immortal?”
Lin Zhi let out an “Ow!” and got a beating. He pitifully thought: Fine, so that’s how it is. What’s allowed for the ruler is forbidden for the common people. You scream husband at those little brothers and sisters all you want, and I never said anything; I just called my boss an immortal once, and this is what I get.
Lin Zhi’s girlfriend: “What are you thinking about?”
Lin Zhi raised a hand and swore, “I was thinking you’re the immortal. You’re electricity, you’re light, you’re the one and only miracle.”
His girlfriend huffed. “I forgive you.”
“Thank you, little immortal.”
“Mm.” She answered him perfunctorily and lowered her head to look through the newly taken photos on her phone, planning to go back and Photoshop them before posting them to the CP fan super topic for Lin and Shao. She took a look at the straight-out-of-camera shots, and they were already so good-looking that editing them would only take away from their original flavor. Maybe she shouldn’t edit them after all. If someone was beautiful, they were beautiful; even a phone camera’s resolution could capture them that prettily.
Lin Yuewei came down from the stage with the first- and second-place winners, and under the fans’ escort walked toward the parking area. Her arms were full of hand banners given by fans, and someone had even given her a book. She held it against her chest, softly reminding the fans at the edge to watch their step from time to time.
Lin Yuewei didn’t see Gu Yanqiu again in the crowd; she didn’t know whether she had simply failed to find her or whether the other had already left. Lin Zhi was tall with long legs, and his girlfriend, battle-hardened from years of chasing idols, occupied the best sightline in Lin Yuewei’s view.
Lin Yuewei’s gaze paused on Lin Zhi for a moment. The handsome young man seemed vaguely familiar, but only vaguely. Even if she had remembered him, she still wouldn’t have known he was Gu Yanqiu’s secretary.
Lin Yuewei left the stage first and then went to shoot an advertisement; it was only at night that she returned to the training dorm. She dumped everything in her hands onto the floor. Shao Yasi, who had been practicing expressions in front of the mirror in the bathroom, came wandering out at the sound.
“Tired?”
Lin Yuewei nodded.
Shao Yasi clapped her hands and loosened her wrists, then pressed Lin Yuewei’s shoulders and made her sit on the bed. She kneaded Lin Yuewei’s shoulders. Lin Yuewei closed her eyes in enjoyment. “Harder. A little harder.”
Shao Yasi felt she was already using a lot of strength, but unexpectedly it still wasn’t enough. She pressed harder, and Lin Yuewei let out a muffled groan, half pain and half pleasure, through clenched teeth. “That’s the right pressure. Keep going. My bones are about to fall apart.”
Shao Yasi said, “How was the event today?”
Lin Yuewei hadn’t wanted to bring it up, but the moment it was mentioned, her anger surged again. “Don’t mention it.”
“What happened?”
“I...”
“You what?”
“Nothing.” Lin Yuewei shook her head. Her relationship with Gu Yanqiu was tangled beyond untangling, and it was even less suitable to talk about under a camera.
Even if Shao Yasi was silly, after staying in the training base for so long she knew to avoid the cameras. She pulled Lin Yuewei into the bathroom, out of the filming blind spot. Once the door was shut, nothing could be filmed anymore.
“What exactly happened?” Shao Yasi asked.
Lin Yuewei lowered her eyelids. “I saw that crush of mine today.” She had been using those four words to refer to Gu Yanqiu before, so she carried on with them now. Yet the moment she said them, a burst of resentment rose up naturally in her heart.
Shao Yasi: “Wow, how romantic. She actually came to your event? That’s not a crush; that’s basically mutual love.”
Lin Yuewei remembered what Gu Yanqiu had said onstage and nearly rolled her eyes so far they’d gone to the back of her head. “Come off it. She was just passing by. She wasn’t anyone’s fan.”
Shao Yasi asked, “What a coincidence?”
Lin Yuewei said, “That’s how coincidental it was.” The kind of bad luck that only came once every eight lifetimes, ending up running into her.
Shao Yasi touched her small chin and thought seriously for a moment. “Are you sure she didn’t come on purpose to run into you?”
Lin Yuewei tapped her on the forehead and laughed. “Have you read too many novels?”
Shao Yasi said softly, “I think it’s pretty possible.”
Lin Yuewei said, “What did you say?”
Shao Yasi shook her head. “Nothing.” She could tell Lin Yuewei was already unhappy because of this crush, and if she kept speaking up for the other woman, it would just be pouring oil on the fire.
Lin Yuewei let out a breath. “Starting today, I’ve decided not to like her anymore.”
Shao Yasi: “Huh?”
Was her liking so changeable?
Lin Yuewei tried to pray the image of Gu Yanqiu out of her head completely. But after trying twice, the harder she tried not to think about her, the more she remembered. In the end, she gave up and let things take their course. She pinched Shao Yasi’s tender white cheek with both hands and studied her for a moment before saying, “I think liking you is pretty great.” She was approachable, had no scheming, and was gentle in personality; she was better than that pretentious show-off Gu Yanqiu in who knew how many ways.
When she had favorable feelings toward someone, that person was beautiful like a string of Buddhist beads she kept rubbing between her fingers; there was no pretense at all. When she had bad feelings toward someone, that person was a pretentious nuisance who looked wrong in every way. Lin Yuewei had always been wildly inconsistent.
Shao Yasi blinked, then deliberately smiled with deep meaning. “If you say it like that, I’m going to take it seriously.”
Lin Yuewei still remembered that Shao Yasi had once shown signs of liking her, and hurriedly clarified, “I’m just joking.”
Shao Yasi laughed. “I’m joking too.”
Lin Yuewei pulled open the bathroom door and said, “Fine, let’s go out. Otherwise the editing guy will think we’re doing something in there.”
Shao Yasi said, “Lean over there. I’ll massage you a bit more.”
“Thanks.”
Lin Yuewei returned to the bed. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of white. She stopped and looked up to the left. It was that little rabbit; more precisely, it was the rabbit that had already been proven not to be a gift from Gu Yanqiu.
Shao Yasi looked at the rabbit Lin Yuewei had just stuffed into her hands and frowned. “This is?”
Lin Yuewei said, “I’m giving it to you. Don’t you like things like this?”
Shao Yasi said, “This was given to you by your fans.”
Lin Yuewei said, “They all know we get along well. We’ve exchanged gifts plenty of times before. They all said my hat looked good on your head.”
“Then okay.” Happily, Shao Yasi hung the little rabbit plush on her backpack. She’d liked it from the first glance.
Lin Yuewei stared at the bunny’s silly grin and still felt a weight pressing at her chest, so she simply turned her head away and stopped looking.
After Shao Yasi massaged her shoulders and back, she coached her in acting. Lin Yuewei learned very seriously. In the middle of it, she glanced at the camera on the wall and knew this, if it aired, would win Shao Yasi another wave of fans.
Shao Yasi also had a kind of lovable contrast. In public she was gentle, delicate, modest, and quiet; in private, she was an excellent teacher, and when she got serious while lecturing, her charm was even more irresistible. In terms of CP shipping, both of them benefited. Lin Yuewei aside for now; Shao Yasi wasn’t good at self-expression, and her image was entirely built through interactions. She was Buddhist in public, but in private she could go crazy with Lin Yuewei and show her most authentic self, which would let fans discover her shining points.
Lin Yuewei looked forward in secret to the next time the rankings were announced and how much Shao Yasi’s placement would improve.
***
On Lin Yuewei’s side, she went back to the training base with a bellyful of anger. On Gu Yanqiu’s side, she sat in the living room at home. A glass of water sat on the coffee table in front of her; it had gone from warm to cold, and she still hadn’t taken a single sip. She had already spaced out for more than ten minutes, surpassing her previous personal limit for dazing off.
How could Lin Yuewei suddenly just hug her like that, and smile so brightly too? She hadn’t prepared at all; she had nearly suffered cardiac arrest.
After Lin Yuewei hugged her, the warm, soft scent instantly seeped into her eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Gu Yanqiu’s whole body stiffened. The scene before her became silent film, leaving only Lin Yuewei’s warmth right in front of her.
She heard the commotion from below the stage, and her first reaction was that her distraction had caused trouble for Lin Yuewei. After a hurried apology, she got off the stage. After that, she had looked toward Lin Yuewei several times from within the crowd, but the other never saw her.
Besides, young people nowadays were increasingly bold. She was just a pure outsider, and someone had wanted to take a photo with her; it was improper. Gu Yanqiu naturally refused all of it and kept her distance. As for squeezing in with everyone else to send the three of them to the car, getting her hair all puffed up and losing any trace of her image, Gu Yanqiu absolutely would not do that either.
And then, it had become the scene she was in now, sitting at home.
Gu Yanqiu’s phone on the coffee table dinged, pulling her back to her senses.
She took a sip of the cold boiled water, unlocked the screen, and saw a message from Lin Zhi: [Photo]
Gu Yanqiu nearly spat out the water in her mouth.
It was clearly a photo of her back while she’d been watching from below the display stage today.
Gu Yanqiu: “...”
Lin Zhi: [Little Gu, I saw you over here, but you ran too fast. You disappeared the moment you got down the stage. Where are you? Want to come eat with us?]
Gu Yanqiu: [No]
Lin Zhi replied: [Okay]
Lin Zhi looked at his phone and hissed, then turned to his girlfriend sitting across from him. “My boss is as cold as ever. She said she’s not coming.”
His girlfriend was busy scrolling through Weibo and answered without looking up, “Then don’t come. Order first; I want bullfrog, and then a bowl of rice. Everything else is fine.”
Lin Zhi: “All right.”
His girlfriend lowered her head and typed for a while. Lin Zhi called the server over and ordered the dishes. She hadn’t even changed posture the whole time. Curious, Lin Zhi asked, “What are you doing?”
His girlfriend smiled and showed him the phone screen.
After he saw it clearly: “...”
Lin Zhi’s girlfriend had posted the interaction between Lin Yuewei and Gu Yanqiu from this morning’s stage to the CP super topic. Of course, she wasn’t going to say she was shipping them; she just said the pretty girl in today’s interaction looked really good, and she was posting it as Lin Yuewei material. The comments below were wonderfully lively.
[Forest-Side Shao Beauty: Wow, this girl; I want to marry her]
[Lin-Shao is real: AHHHHHH what kind of sniper is this heart strike? Within one minute, I need all this girl’s information]
[Babara La La Dada: I suddenly want to jump ship to Yuewei and this girl for one second; am I a demon?]
[ShaoLin Under a Clear Sky: Same as above, you’re not alone. What an absolutely gorgeous scene...]
Lin Zhi’s girlfriend raised her eyebrows at Lin Zhi. “Looks are justice.”
Lin Zhi said nervously, “Did you tell them my boss’s real information?”
His girlfriend answered, “How could I? I’m not that dumb.”
Lin Zhi let out a breath. “Good, good. Absolutely don’t expose her. My boss doesn’t mix in the circle; she doesn’t even know how to use Weibo.”
His girlfriend gave an “Oh-ho?” and said, “Isn’t that perfect then? She doesn’t use it, so she doesn’t know she’s become famous in the CP fans’ super topic.”
Lin Zhi shot her a look; this was a matter of principle. His girlfriend put away her teasing tone and said, “I know. I’m not that lacking in morals. Everyone can be happy for a bit and then it’ll pass.”
Lin Zhi said, “I still think posting my boss’s photos online is not very good. Don’t you always say that civilians should be censored?”
“It’s not just me posting. A lot of people went today and took photos. There are probably posts on other forums too; maybe even videos.”
“Other people are other people; you are you. You can’t post it.”
His girlfriend: “...”
“Delete it,” Lin Zhi said, looking at her.
Lin Zhi opened the latest Weibo post he had made and deleted it, then said, “Satisfied?”
Lin Zhi reached out and rubbed the back of her hand, coaxing her. “Later, we’ll go eat ice cream.”
His girlfriend huffed.
Lin Zhi said, “Then send me the photos you took today.”
His girlfriend asked, “Why?”
Lin Zhi said, “Did you forget? My boss is a girlfriend fan. With such an important interaction onstage today, she’ll definitely want to keep it as a memento and look at it every day. I’m sending it to her.”
His girlfriend said sourly, “Boss, boss; you only have your boss in your heart. I’m about to disappear, aren’t I?”
Lin Zhi felt more wronged than snow. “If I make my boss happy, she’ll promote me and raise my salary, and then I’ll have more money to hand over to you. Who do you think I’m doing this for?”
His girlfriend still pouted, but there was already a smile in her eyes.
Gu Yanqiu moved from the living room to the study. She turned on her computer and was about to work overtime when her phone rang again. It was still Lin Zhi; this time he sent over a photo of her and Lin Yuewei together.
The corner of Gu Yanqiu’s lips lifted slightly, and she long-pressed to save it.
After thinking for a moment, she sent Lin Zhi a message: [The place you mentioned last time, where you can see a lot of Lin Yuewei photos; where is it?]
Lin Zhi: [A fan account?]
Gu Yanqiu: [No]
Lin Zhi: [I’ll ask my girlfriend]
After a while, Lin Zhi replied and said it was the super topic, along with an explanation: a super topic was a celebrity’s super discussion topic on Weibo, one of the gathering places for fans. If you searched the celebrity’s name in the search bar, you could find the entrance to the super topic. He even thoughtfully attached a screenshot. The way he worded the reply sounded like it had come from his girlfriend.
Gu Yanqiu couldn’t help feeling a little envious.
She downloaded Weibo again, followed the tutorial into Lin Yuewei’s super topic, and sure enough saw a lot of photos, all sorts of kinds. Gu Yanqiu set a ten-minute countdown for herself; when the time was up, she firmly forced herself to leave the super topic and continue working.
Just the day after that event ended, Gu Yanqiu discovered something from the front-line photos posted by a Weibo fan account: the little rabbit plush she had given Lin Yuewei was hanging on Shao Yasi’s backpack, swaying back and forth with her movements.
Gu Yanqiu: “...”
“Little Gu?” Lin Zhi looked at the bent tip of the fountain pen under Gu Yanqiu’s hand in shock. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” Gu Yanqiu calmly capped the pen, pulled out another one from the drawer, and said, “You can go out. Bring me a cup of coffee; no milk, no sugar.”
“Okay.”
Not long after, Lin Zhi knocked and came in with the coffee.
“Your coffee.”
“Put it there.”
Gu Yanqiu was distracted. She reached out at random and caught nothing; instead, the back of her finger brushed the scalding cup wall. The heat made her jerk her hand, and the coffee cup fell to the floor, soaking into the dark carpet. She reacted quickly, so luckily it didn’t splash onto her clothes.
Lin Zhi, who hadn’t yet managed to get out: “...”
Gu Yanqiu met his gaze, and Lin Zhi keenly sensed a murderous aura. He tucked his tail and fled.
A little while later, the cleaning staff came in and replaced the carpet. Gu Yanqiu came out carrying the now-empty coffee cup, washed it clean, made herself another cup, and calmly returned to the office.
Lin Zhi peeked in from outside. The blinds were drawn tightly shut. He raised his ears to listen for any strange sounds from inside.
Suddenly, the landline on the desk rang. Gu Yanqiu’s voice came through from the other end: “Work hard.”
Lin Zhi settled down and didn’t notice anything else unusual from Gu Yanqiu that day.
That weekend’s event, Gu Yanqiu’s onstage interaction with Lin Yuewei, was like a flower blooming for an instant. Aside from causing a little ripple in a few program forums that day, it quickly sank into silence.
It was just a tiny episode; most people thought so. But no one expected that this tiny episode would buy its way onto the hot search three days later. Lin Yuewei’s traffic magnet physique made it easy for the topic to shoot up the trending list. The trending headline read: Lin Yuewei’s Most Awkward Moment of the Year.
Clicking into it revealed a video, only a dozen-odd seconds long. It cut to that day onstage: after the game ended and everyone went offstage, the other two groups hugged and left smoothly, while only Lin Yuewei’s group was still there. Lin Yuewei took the initiative to step forward and hug Gu Yanqiu, but Gu Yanqiu didn’t hug her back for a long time. In the end, she withdrew and hurried off, her back captured as she left. The two of them also had their expressions zoomed in on, with added voice-over commentary.
Lin Yuewei and Gu Yanqiu stood facing each other. Lin Yuewei——Why isn’t she coming over yet?
Lin Yuewei smiled awkwardly yet politely——Forget it, I’ll do it myself.
Gu Yanqiu’s stunned expression from that moment, when her heart had raced and she’d frozen up, was interpreted by the voice-over as disgust.
Using this video, the blogger combined it with recent black material about Lin Yuewei and offered their own interpretation of Gu Yanqiu’s reaction: if Lin Yuewei’s character truly wasn’t trash beyond repair, why would even fans not be willing to interact with her? Was this an actor hired by the event organizers? If they were going to hire a fake fan, they should at least hire one professionally.
Then came another post with a melon-eating emoji: [There wasn’t even a single interactive fan among the game participants the whole event. Who even voted for her?]
The comments underneath were, quite literally, a carnival.
[Fairy-in-the-Clouds: The show bought votes, what else could it be? Thinking about it this way, I’m actually pretty happy; at least the people voting for such trash weren’t real humans, they were machines [melon-eating]] (8,792 likes)
[One Hundred Thousand Watts: Doesn’t matter who you are, as long as you diss Lin Yuewei, we’re friends [handshake]] (7,623 likes)
[Chen Shen Beneath Skirts: The so-called high looks the fans brag about every day got beaten by a passerby. I nearly laughed myself to death today. Let’s see how the brainless fans keep bragging this time [melon-eating][melon-eating]] (3,624 likes)
[Meigfa: Drop out, trash. I don’t know how you still have the face to stand on stage. Looking at you makes me sick [smile]] (2,913 likes)
[Ten Directions Coming and Going: I just want to ask, doesn’t she feel awkward herself? A hype master, hot enough to hit trending every day like a celebrity; did sleeping with the show’s director feel good? Why didn’t the director just arrange first place for her directly [heh-heh]] (1,421 likes)
Even Gu Yanqiu was dragged out as a tool to attack Lin Yuewei. Some of the insults directed at Lin Yuewei herself were even more unbearable to read, making people wonder if she had dug up someone’s ancestral grave to make them hate her this much.
Gu Yanqiu’s rationality told her not to bother with these things that couldn’t speak like human beings, but she couldn’t swallow it. Her chest rose and fell sharply several times. Her phone screen went dark and lit up, lit up and darkened again. She caught sight of one especially filthy comment at a glance, tapped reply, covered the top half of the black-hat commenter’s statement, and started typing in the input box. She deleted and retyped several times before finally confirming it with a stiff, serious expression:
[Lin Yuewei’s Fan: You’re a big pig head]
Send. Reply successful. She tapped into that person’s homepage and blocked them in one smooth motion, finally easing some of her anger.
If even she was this angry after seeing it, let alone the person involved, Lin Yuewei. Gu Yanqiu called Lin Zhi in from outside the office with one phone call.
Author’s note:
That black-bashing video of Miss Lin will be dug up again after their relationship is made public and reinterpreted a second time.
What will it look like then? ヽ_ヽ
Let’s all learn how to insult people like an immortal: You’re a big pig head [very fierce.jpg]