Chapter 33

Influenced by his girlfriend, Lin Zhi had been forced to read quite a bit of fanfiction with her.

His mind was in an uproar. He was just shy of mentally constructing an entire volume of Overbearing Female Star Falls in Love with Me. Why not an overbearing CEO? What a joke—Gu Yanqiu was just a small manager. She couldn’t possibly be domineering enough.

No matter what, someone had to be the overbearing one, or else it wouldn’t feel like a novel.

Gu Yanqiu’s expression was as still as water as she spoke calmly with Jiang Congbi. “Mainly because I had nothing to do this weekend, and my secretary suggested I come watch the finale to relax.”

Whether she was relaxed or not was hard to say; her legs, at least, were tense, and standing there had made her heels go numb.

Lin Zhi: “???”

How was this his fault again?

At Gu Yanqiu’s words, Jiang Congbi looked over at Lin Zhi. Lin Zhi gave a slight smile and neatly took the blame, playing along with the act. “That’s right. I’m Lin Yuewei’s die-hard fan.”

Jiang Congbi took one look and saw a handsome young man with sharp brows and bright eyes. She immediately lifted a hand to hook a finger under his chin. “Miss Gu, your secretary is pretty handsome.”

Gu Yanqiu said lightly, “He has a girlfriend.”

Jiang Congbi’s expression changed instantly. Her hand jerked back as if electrocuted before it could even touch Lin Zhi’s chin; she looked at him with obvious disgust.

Lin Zhi: “……”

What had he done wrong to go from a hot commodity to a pile of stinking refuse in an instant?

Jiang Congbi was very quick on the draw. Having failed to get her hands on Lin Zhi, she turned her wicked claws toward Gu Yanqiu instead. On the surface, she was still Gu Yanqiu’s pursuer; Gu Yanqiu was single and had nothing to do with Lin Yuewei for the time being—apart from that marriage certificate, of course. Being able to touch her a little while she was still unclaimed was good enough.

She was fast, but Gu Yanqiu was faster. If there hadn’t been someone behind her, she might have stepped back two or three meters in one breath.

Jiang Congbi missed completely.

“Miss Jiang.” Gu Yanqiu put some safe distance between them, her tone slightly lower.

Jiang Congbi withdrew her hand awkwardly and rubbed it against her bag, forcefully covering up, “You had something dirty on your chin.”

“You could have just told me directly.”

“I wasn’t just…” Jiang Congbi laughed. “You know, I was a little rushed. Yes, just a little rushed.”

“Don’t be so rushed next time. It’s easy to make people misunderstand.”

“Of course, of course.”

Gu Yanqiu gave a slight nod and looked away. Her profile line was soft, flowing down into the delicate curve of her pale neck.

A dark spark flashed in Jiang Congbi’s eyes, then vanished in an instant.

Honestly, if Lin Yuewei hadn’t developed feelings for Gu Yanqiu first, Jiang Congbi would have made her move already. A woman this poised and self-possessed, carrying that unmistakable air of abstinence; if you missed her, you might go through your whole life and never encounter a second one like her.

Jiang Congbi was annoyed at Lin Yuewei’s wooden head. She pulled out her phone in a huff and sent her a message, but after typing out a whole string of complaints, she deleted them one by one.

Lin Yuewei was probably backstage, nervously preparing for the finale. If Jiang Congbi sent off a bunch of nonsense and it affected her mood—though Jiang Congbi rarely affected Lin Yuewei’s mood at all, most of the time it was the other way around, with Lin Yuewei crushing her in the intelligence department—still, for that tiny sliver of possibility, Jiang Congbi swallowed everything back down.

Settling the score later would not be too late.

She unwrapped a candy and ate it, then casually offered one to Gu Yanqiu. Gu Yanqiu shook her head. “No, thank you.”

Jiang Congbi stared at her for two seconds, then looked away. She liked people who seemed cold and distant; such people usually had walls built too deep inside them, and only when they truly opened their hearts would you find treasure. Staring any longer would be dangerous.

She clicked her tongue inwardly.

Gu Yanqiu’s nape prickled with a faint layer of gooseflesh; it took quite a while before it settled again.

To keep her own wandering thoughts from surfacing any further, Jiang Congbi simply returned to the crowd of fans and kept a not-too-near, not-too-far distance from Gu Yanqiu. Every so often she’d glance over there, helping Lin Yuewei keep an eye on her future wife. No, her current-not-yet-together wife.

…That was annoyingly awkward.

Gu Yanqiu finally got a moment of peace. She took the hand banner that had been handed to Lin Zhi and looked at it. Printed on it was a styling from one of Lin Yuewei’s past appearances, along with two lines of text: Wildfire cannot be burned out; spring wind blows, and it grows again. It had been the cheering slogan chosen by her fans back when she was at the peak of her most severe online hate.

The live ranking for the finale was still changing in real time. Before handing in her phone, Gu Yanqiu had seen Lin Yuewei in third place; she had stayed there firmly for several days, and debuting was basically a sure thing.

Reason was reason, but when Gu Yanqiu followed the crowd into the live broadcast hall and saw a sea of people holding all kinds of light signs and hand banners, every one of them fervent, cheering for their idols with wave after wave of sound when the cameras swept over them, she still felt her breathing catch.

“Lin Yuewei! Lin Yuewei!”

“Shao Yasi! Shao Yasi!”

There were a little over twenty trainees in total, but Gu Yanqiu could basically only hear the voices of these two. Only then did she realize that she had ended up standing right between the two fan groups.

Even someone like her, who never followed fandom circles, knew that the two sides were currently at each other’s throats. If you had me, I’d have no you; if I had you, you’d have no me. Neither side would spare the other. So how had they ended up together like this?

Jiang Congbi thought fan circles fighting and cursing at each other was all a bit unhinged. They weren’t even that popular yet, and they were already acting like persecuted-mindset lunatics, convinced that every “enemy” wanted to frame them. But as a big-name fan in Lin Yuewei’s fandom, she couldn’t openly step in to lecture anyone; she could only watch silently from the sidelines.

Standing beside Gu Yanqiu, Jiang Congbi quietly explained, “Originally the two sides were supposed to be as far apart as possible, but the male fans were on one side and the female fans on the other. With the space they had, everyone either ended up next to each other or separated by just a couple of seats, staring at one another through the crowd. The wild part is that once they got in, the program staff arranged the fans very clearly; each fandom’s position was decided long ago. The official side probably doesn’t want to give up the heat from the Lin-Shao ship, so they deliberately put them together.”

Jiang Congbi noticed the flicker of displeasure in Gu Yanqiu’s eyes when she mentioned Lin-Shao, and the corner of her mouth curled faintly as she added fuel to the fire. “There’s another group too; the Lin-Shao ship fans.”

Gu Yanqiu looked around.

Jiang Congbi said, “But ship fans have no human rights. At a time like this, they wouldn’t dare bring dual-character banners out in the open; they’re all hidden among the solo fans. If you watch carefully, the ones calling out Lin Yuewei one moment and Shao Yasi the next are probably ship fans. There should be just a small cluster of them huddled together.”

She narrowed her eyes, looked back toward the right side, and pointed. “Those should be them.”

Gu Yanqiu followed her gesture and looked over. They were quite far away.

Thanks to Jiang Congbi’s status as a big fan, she brought Gu Yanqiu and Lin Zhi up to the front row. The three of them sat side by side. Gu Yanqiu’s expression was taut; she was almost visibly uneasy. Wasn’t this position a little too eye-catching?

“Miss Gu, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Is the air-conditioning too low in here? Are you cold?”

“A little. It’ll be fine after a while.” Gu Yanqiu casually found an excuse to brush it off.

“Hey, little handsome guy, aren’t you going to give your boss your jacket?” Jiang Congbi nudged her chin toward Lin Zhi.

Lin Zhi responded sluggishly with an “oh.” “Actually, I was feeling a little hot.” He took off the translucent sun-protective jacket he was wearing. His girlfriend thought his skin wasn’t white enough and had made him pay attention to getting less sun in summer; she even ordered him to wear a sun-protective coat, and she was more particular than many girls.

Perfect timing. Lin Zhi handed the jacket to Gu Yanqiu and then focused on the stage before him.

Gu Yanqiu swallowed back the words “No need.” The air-conditioning in the recording hall really was set low, but she disliked wearing other people’s clothes. She only took it in her hands and draped it over her legs.

All the lights in the recording hall dimmed, leaving only the stage lit. Under the shifting glow and shadow, the four mentors made their sparkling entrance to the sound of the audience’s screams.

***

There were twenty contestants in total, male and female together, divided into four groups; some groups had more people, some fewer, and each group completed one of four scenes. Lin Yuewei and Shao Yasi happened to be in the same group, appearing at the very end.

The first group received the notification, encouraged one another, and then hurried onto the stage through the back corridor, tense but full of energy. This was their final battle; after this, everyone’s fate would head in different directions.

“Nervous?” Lin Yuewei sat on a stool in the corner with the script in her hand, her eyes sweeping over lines she had long since memorized as she asked.

“Not nervous,” Shao Yasi said.

“Don’t lie to me,” Lin Yuewei looked at her and smiled. “There’s only the two of us left in this corner.”

“Really not nervous. Just treat it like an ordinary scene; you’re here too.”

Lin Yuewei rubbed the goosebumps on her arms and said, “Keep talking like that and I’ll think you’re in love with me.”

“What if I am?” Shao Yasi asked curiously.

Lin Yuewei gave her a profound look and said with great weariness, “Don’t love me; it won’t end well.”

Shao Yasi laughed out loud.

By this point, there wasn’t much left to rehearse. The two of them laughed in the corner while the other actors sat in twos and threes, watching the live broadcast on the TV screen with their fists clenched tight in nervousness.

It was the final episode; the program team’s advertising was outrageously excessive. After half an hour of meaningless chatter, Gu Yanqiu finally saw the first group take the stage. She heard the names the host announced, and when she didn’t hear Lin Yuewei’s, she relaxed and continued spacing out.

Lin Zhi had already fallen asleep; he was practically drooling.

Jiang Congbi was sitting on Gu Yanqiu’s left. Seeing Gu Yanqiu clearly had no interest yet still mechanically applauded after each performance, she was nearly dying of laughter. She had plainly come for Lin Yuewei.

If this couple didn’t work out, Jiang Congbi would write her own name backward.

When the second group performed, Gu Yanqiu did a full set of eye exercises for herself.

The third group she watched more seriously; she just wanted to know when they’d finish.

The host said, “Next, let us welcome the final group, bringing us ‘Can’t Think of a Name’: Lin Yuewei, Shao Yasi, XXX, and others.”

Jiang Congbi made a megaphone shape with both hands around her mouth and screamed, startling Gu Yanqiu so badly she jolted.

Seeing the shocked expression she hadn’t yet managed to hide, Jiang Congbi smiled and said, “Fans have to do the whole set if we’re going to do it properly. Want to try it too?”

Gu Yanqiu hurriedly shook her head.

Jiang Congbi pinched her sleeve. “Come on, come on.”

“Miss Jiang, please act with some restraint.”

“It’s being restrained to touch a sleeve too,” Jiang Congbi muttered. “Give me a chance, and I’ll shove Lin Yuewei into your arms. Let’s see whether you’re still so restrained then.”

Her voice was too low for Gu Yanqiu to hear clearly, and Gu Yanqiu had no energy left to bicker with her anyway, because Lin Yuewei had already stepped onto the stage.

Gu Yanqiu’s expression darkened.

Lin Yuewei’s group had three men and two women; the women were her and Shao Yasi, and the two of them walked on hand in hand. The small cluster of ship fans behind them exploded with tremendous force.

“Lin Yuewei!”

“Shao Yasi!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”

Gu Yanqiu: “……”

Jiang Congbi: “……”

Jiang Congbi pressed a hand to her temple and said with a headache, “Ignore them; Lin-Shao is fake.”

Gu Yanqiu kept her face steady and, for once, stood on the same side as her. “I know.”

Lin Yuewei held Shao Yasi’s hand as the two of them bowed to the audience in front of the stage. Their costumes for today’s scene were both red, so at first glance they looked like a joyous wedding celebration.

The ship fans went crazy; even some people who weren’t ship fans and were just there for the fun went crazy too. Who wouldn’t enjoy seeing two beautiful ladies standing together in a way that was pleasing to the eye?

The whole venue erupted in screaming and jeering.

Lin Yuewei’s heart inevitably sped up, both for the hardships of the past four months and for the brilliant future that lay beyond today. The host handed her a microphone and asked them to briefly talk about how they felt after getting this far.

The boys went first. Then the microphone was passed to Lin Yuewei.

She paused, then said only one sentence: “Thank you to my fans, the reeds. My present is something you gave me; my past, present, and future—I will always be your Lin Yuewei.”

Gu Yanqiu didn’t hear anything special in that sentence, but the fans around her had already gone into a frenzy. The sound they made rose several levels higher than before, almost shouting themselves hoarse.

Jiang Congbi gave a symbolic “ah” and then turned to whisper to Gu Yanqiu, “Fans are like that. One casual sentence from their idol and they’ll treat it like an imperial decree.”

“Imperial decree?”

“That might not be the most accurate way to put it. It’s more like falling into madness.”

Gu Yanqiu nodded. That did sound pretty insane.

Actually, she also wanted to go crazy a little. Gu Yanqiu’s eyes curved faintly, the corners of her lips lifting just slightly.

Of course, Gu Yanqiu would not actually go crazy. Her heart might be in turmoil, but on the surface she would remain still as a mountain; no one could ever see through her.

When everyone’s cheering finally stopped, Jiang Congbi suddenly shouted “Lin Yuewei!” Her voice was not especially noticeable among the crowd, but now that she had called out, Lin Yuewei immediately turned her head in this direction.

She and Jiang Congbi had what could only be called a childhood friendship; they had grown up running around with their pants off together. She had heard earlier that Jiang Congbi would be coming and had even looked for her in the crowd, but there were too many people, the lights were too dim, and the hand banners and light signs were all blending together. She couldn’t keep her eyes on any one spot for long and hadn’t found her.

Lin Yuewei looked toward Jiang Congbi’s direction, only to meet the quiet eyes of someone she had not expected at all.

Lin Yuewei: “……”

Gu Yanqiu gave her a slight nod, Buddhist prayer beads in hand; Lin Yuewei automatically filled in the “Amitabha.”

Lin Yuewei nearly put her hands together and returned the greeting.

At this point the program was already about to begin. Shao Yasi tugged lightly on Lin Yuewei’s sleeve, pulling her soul back, and asked in a low voice, “What are you spacing out for?”

“Nothing. I just saw someone I know.”

The story their group was performing was a tragedy: a pair of sisters were forced into a wealthy household as concubines, only to discover that the men inside—from the old to the young, from one generation to the next—were all abnormal. In the end, they died unjustly and tragically.

Gu Yanqiu had originally just planned to watch it casually as Lin Yuewei-related content, but the effect turned out to exceed her expectations. This group got the best reaction of the whole venue. Maybe it was thanks to the script, or maybe the actors simply performed exceptionally well; in any case, all four mentors praised them highly, and the atmosphere on site became fully harmonious.

After the performance, everyone went offstage to change clothes while the host continued spouting nonsense up there, occasionally reporting the vote situation to everyone. Without mentioning names, only talking about rank rising or falling, the live vote counter at the front had already been turned off. Fans watching the livestream were still voting frantically; those already in debut positions wanted to protect their ranks, those outside debut positions wanted to make one final push, and if they could get in, why wouldn’t they try? No one dared stop.

After another twenty minutes of the host’s nonsense, the fans once again welcomed their idols. They were dressed in their own clothes, some gorgeous and some simple, standing in two rows on the elevated steps at the left side of the stage.

The contestants let their hands hang at their sides, holding their breath; the fans were also quieter than ever.

They waited for the final announcement.

In order to keep everyone in suspense, the program team separated the male and female contestants and began from fourth place, then third, then fifth, and finally the battle for first and second. Those who debuted cried tears of joy; those who did not slumped down in despair, tears streaming down their faces.

Gu Yanqiu couldn’t quite understand it. How could a program create such an effect, as if one side were hell and the other heaven? Just as she didn’t understand why Lin Yuewei had carried such enormous pressure and such a tidal wave of blacking out attacks to come this far without hesitation, it didn’t stop her from immersing herself in the atmosphere.

Shao Yasi was fifth, debuting by a narrow margin.

Because of Lin Yuewei, Gu Yanqiu didn’t like her much, but since she was able to debut, Gu Yanqiu truly congratulated her. In that earlier performance, Shao Yasi had been the most outstanding one; with the same makeup as Lin Yuewei, her aura had far surpassed Lin Yuewei’s when they were trading lines.

Gu Yanqiu’s blessing lasted only two seconds.

Because after hearing that she had debuted, Shao Yasi was the first to turn and fling herself into Lin Yuewei’s arms, even throwing aside her acceptance speech. Under everyone’s gaze, Lin Yuewei tenderly wiped the tears from her face, took her hand, and led her up to the microphone.

Gu Yanqiu: “……”

They had been inseparable during training all along. She had originally thought that one debuting and the other not debuting would make them diverge completely and reduce contact, but with this outcome… would they not be even more “as sticky as glue” from now on?

Just thinking about it made Gu Yanqiu’s vision go dark.

“Third place is…” the invited guest said excitedly, looking at the card in his hand. “It is…”

Below, people were shouting Lin Yuewei’s name.

The guest said, “Tong Zhiyao!”

Gu Yanqiu and Jiang Congbi looked at each other. Jiang Congbi hissed softly. “Could it be second place?”

Gu Yanqiu frowned.

When the result was announced, Lin Yuewei really was second place.

At the very same moment, Lin Yuewei’s second-place finish shot onto Weibo’s trending list at lightning speed, climbing visibly from fortieth place to first, marked with a purple “explosive” tag. The first-place result in Actor Trainees was at third; the program itself and the other contestants occupied more than twenty spots on the trending list under different topics.

If marketing accounts wanted to smear someone, they could always find a reason. They could simply cut side-by-side comparison clips of Shao Yasi in fifth and Lin Yuewei in second, then, with voting numbers changing from third to second that very night, dozens of marketing accounts simultaneously pushed out prepared posts, triggering collective ridicule across the internet.

Lin Yuewei knew there would probably be another wave online, but she didn’t care. She had already debuted; from now on, what mattered was not the patch of land right in front of her fans. Black fans and real fans alike were child’s play.

Lin Yuewei gave her acceptance speech with generous composure, then walked briskly to the throne that belonged to her and sat down. Shao Yasi sat a little in front of her; the two exchanged a glance and smiled.

Lin Yuewei waved toward Jiang Congbi’s direction. Jiang Congbi was standing among the fans, and naturally everyone around her assumed Lin Yuewei was waving at them, all of them raising their hands at once.

Lin Yuewei’s gaze, however, uncontrollably settled once more on Gu Yanqiu, who was sitting beside Jiang Congbi. Compared with the other fervent fans, Gu Yanqiu was quiet as a pale orchid, standing out all the more because she didn’t belong.

Gu Yanqiu handed the sun-protective jacket covering her legs back to Lin Zhi.

“Thanks.”

“Aren’t you cold anymore?” Lin Zhi asked.

“Should be ending soon. You put it on.” Gu Yanqiu said.

“Okay.”

Only then did Lin Yuewei notice that there was actually a man beside her, and that she was speaking to him in a strangely familiar way. The man had been turned half sideways toward Lin Yuewei at first, but then he turned around.

Broad shoulders, narrow waist, bright eyes and handsome brows; the young man’s smile was sunny and brilliant.

Lin Yuewei: “!!!”

She had seen this person before! More than once, too!

First at the event stage, then at the broadcasting center; right, Lin Yuewei remembered that Gu Yanqiu had also gone to the broadcasting center that day.

What was their relationship?

Lin Yuewei had never known her memory was this good. In an instant, all the details of her interactions with Gu Yanqiu came flooding back. That night at the Gu residence, Gu Yanqiu had also been wearing this same expression while speaking to someone on the other end of the phone.

Could it have been him?

Was this her boyfriend?

Her taste was a little poor. Lin Yuewei assessed inwardly with sharp criticism. At best, he could only be called not ugly; his proportions were average, his build was nothing special, and he couldn’t even finish a sentence when he saw her. How could Gu Yanqiu possibly like this person?

Poor Jiang Congbi; she hadn’t even made a move, and the other person had already been snatched away by someone else. Lin Yuewei thought sourly on behalf of her good friend Jiang Congbi.

***

After all the debut results were announced, those eliminated and those debuting all embraced one another in a cluster, thanking the mentors, with fireworks and confetti filling the air. Meanwhile, the fans left the venue in an orderly fashion according to the staff’s arrangement.

Jiang Congbi kept escorting Gu Yanqiu all the way to the car, said goodbye to her, and then slowly got into her own car, flattened the seat, and closed her eyes to sleep.

More than two hours passed before someone knocked on her car window. Jiang Congbi rubbed her sleepy eyes, turned on the light in the car, and looked outside. She smiled, quickly unlocked the door, and Lin Yuewei climbed in, collapsing like a pile of mud, weak as if she had more air leaving her than going in. “Finally over. I’m exhausted. Hurry up and drive; I’m going home to sleep. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in months.”

Jiang Congbi teased her, “From what I saw, you were getting along pretty nicely with that little girl in the factory.”

Lin Yuewei kept her eyes closed. “What little girl?”

Jiang Congbi went, “Heh.” “Still pretending with me? Tonight on stage you were touching faces and holding hands, and now you’ve already forgotten that little girl?”

“Don’t you know better? What I have with Shao Yasi is just friendship.”

“Socialist sisterhood, is it? Tsk, some people really do want to eat from the bowl while still looking at the pot.” Jiang Congbi sighed. “Gu Yanqiu almost had the prayer beads crushed in her hand tonight.”

“How do you talk like that? So sarcastic.” Lin Yuewei opened one eye and gave her a sidelong look. “Don’t dump your own romantic bad luck on me just because things aren’t going well for you. Taking your frustration out on others isn’t a good trait; you really shouldn’t do it.”

Jiang Congbi stared at her. “No, how am I the one whose love life isn’t going well?”

The inexplicable irritation that had built up over the past two hours made Lin Yuewei too lazy to argue. She closed her eyes again and said lightly, “You know yourself.”

Author’s note:

Sister Jiang: You’re the one whose love life isn’t going well!

Miss Lin: ……

She really wasn’t doing well in love, hahahaha

Shao Yasi debuted. Didn’t see that coming, did you?

Lin Zhi: Didn’t I say last time that I came with my boss?

Lin Yuewei: Oh, I can’t remember what you say, and I don’t even know who your boss is. I can only remember what my wife says [blank stare]

Is the melon not tasty enough? Or did procrastination win? Why make a flag at all—once this drama I’m following finishes, I’ll go back to updating on time, mwah mwah mwah

After this, it should mostly be emotional scenes, and then some flirty bed wrestling, right