Chapter 60
Lin Yuewei reacted with lightning speed, pausing the projector and backing up until her spine hit the edge of the sofa. “I’m acting.”
“Could tell.” Gu Yanqiu cleared her throat, bent down to change into slippers, and pretended she hadn’t just gone blind for a second.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?” Lin Yuewei kept her voice as calm as she could.
“It was a flight of more than ten hours; I was too tired and forgot.”
“You went abroad?” Lin Yuewei asked. The wording Gu Yanqiu had used with her before had always been just “going out”; she’d never said exactly where. So she really had gone overseas. Flying all the way abroad for a video; that was truly heartfelt.
“Mm, some private matters.” Gu Yanqiu hesitated inwardly for a moment over whether to tell Lin Yuewei about her friend’s death, but first, Lin Yuewei had no connection to that friend, so bringing it up felt abrupt; second, compared to the image she had on the phone a couple of days ago, she desperately wanted Lin Yuewei to forget it immediately and never think of it again.
Gu Yanqiu hadn’t expected that her casual brush-off would set up another barrier between them.
Lin Yuewei thought coldly to herself: Oh, so she admitted it. Accompanying a girlfriend really is a very important private matter.
“I bought some fruit, and cake too. Have you eaten dinner?” Gu Yanqiu said naturally as she came in, smiling gently. She put the cake box on the coffee table and set the fruit down in the corner, planning to wash it later.
Lin Yuewei buttoned her shirt one button at a time and said, “I’ve eaten.”
Gu Yanqiu’s expression showed the faintest trace of disappointment. “If you still have work tonight, you should eat a little more.”
“I’m dieting.”
She refused without the slightest hesitation. Gu Yanqiu paused, then said, “Then have some fruit. Fruit won’t make you fat.”
“It has sugar.”
“...”
Gu Yanqiu felt like Lin Yuewei was being a little hostile toward her; she didn’t know why. She’d only gone out for a while. Was Lin Yuewei angry? Could it be because she hadn’t kept her company for breakfast that morning?
Gu Yanqiu changed the subject. “What do you want for breakfast tomorrow morning? I’ll make it for you.”
Lin Yuewei stayed silent.
“Yuewei?”
“I don’t want anything in particular; anything’s fine.” Lin Yuewei turned her back and pressed play on the movie again, but the living room lights were still on, so the image was hard to make out.
Lin Yuewei: “...”
Gu Yanqiu: “...”
Lin Yuewei shut everything off and went upstairs barefoot.
Gu Yanqiu stood where she was, looking at her back and blinking in confusion.
What was going on?
****
A forum.
[Holy shit, Lin Yuewei landed Z Brand’s ambassador role??? Official announcement next month]
1L: ??? What’s going on???
2L: Where did this gossip come from???
3L: Isn’t Z Brand’s endorser Jian XX?
4L: The OP said ambassador
5L: Lin Yuewei signed with Guoshi Entertainment, right? Guoshi Entertainment and Z Brand have always had a good relationship, so giving her the ambassador role wouldn’t be strange [eating melon]
6L: With a big tree behind you, it’s easy to enjoy the shade. My little bias got eliminated, and I still don’t know where she’s going to end up loafing around now
7L: Kick Lin Yuewei out, I won’t believe it until the official announcement. Refuse to get led by the nose; Wecao, don’t bite the bait downstairs
8L: Does anyone know which agent Lin Yuewei signed with at Guoshi?
9L: Even if she’s Guoshi’s darling daughter, trash still can’t be plastered onto a wall. I’m putting this here, hehe
...
At the same time, similar rumors spread across various discussion platforms. Fans who had been surviving on the occasional airport picture after the show ended suddenly felt revived, lively as spring after a dead winter; they were already planning to spend money on this ambassador deal. A few even went to the brand’s official Weibo to thank them, only to be dragged back by their own people.
Some fans sent private messages to Guoshi Entertainment’s official account to verify the news, but the account gave no response.
With truth and falsehood flying everywhere, whatever the facts were, the once-dead Wecao fan circle had come alive again.
Anyone in the industry would understand this was the most basic fan-retention tactic: dangling bait to keep people hooked. For a celebrity, especially one just starting out, if they weren’t currently hugely popular and favored by the company, there was no way their schedule would be packed wall to wall. So during long stretches without work, the team would use this basic baiting method to maintain a minimum level of fan activity.
It was the simplest and least risky move. Fans wouldn’t think the celebrity’s team had done it themselves; instead, they’d pin the blame on the brand, believing the other side was riding their idol’s traffic. There was only upside, no downside. If one had to name a drawback, it was that too much baiting could tire fans out. But as long as one of those baited promises eventually came true, fans would let bygones be bygones and happily resume collecting materials.
Since the agency wasn’t doing anything, this was something Lin Yuewei could only finance herself; she even tricked Jiang Congbi by saying their company simply didn’t play that kind of game.
Jiang Congbi screencapped two images and sent them to her as a report. In the fan group she belonged to, the fans were loudly insisting they wouldn’t believe anything until the official announcement, while enthusiastically discussing Z Brand; it was obvious they had already half-believed it.
[Two Woods: How much did you spend?]
Lin Yuewei typed into the input box.
[Three Drops of Water: What’s with you, little brother? Why so formal with me today?]
[Two Woods: No, I just want to be clear first]
Lin Yuewei was sprawled across her bed, looking completely drained.
Jiang Congbi called.
Lin Yuewei put on her earbuds and answered. “What?”
Jiang Congbi said, “What do you mean ‘what’? You sound completely dead.”
Lin Yuewei had been physically exhausted all day, and then at night she saw Gu Yanqiu, which made her emotionally exhausted as well. Now she was simply worn out inside and out; she didn’t even want to pretend. “I’m just tired, that’s all.”
“Did your company arrange work for you?” If that was the case, Jiang Congbi could understand. “Then hurry up and get some rest.”
“Mm.” Lin Yuewei gave a vague reply and let Jiang Congbi misunderstand.
“You’re going to sleep, so I won’t bother you?”
“Wait.”
“Hm?”
“Nothing.”
“If you’ve got something to say, just say it. What kind of relationship do we have? Why are you acting all hesitant with me?”
“If,” Lin Yuewei said, “I mean if, the person you like already has someone, what would you do?”
“............”
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Gu Yanqiu has someone?” Jiang Congbi said in surprise. “Can’t be. She doesn’t even look like someone who has a girlfriend.”
“Did I say it was Gu Yanqiu?” Lin Yuewei thought bitterly: I don’t exactly look like someone who’s married either.
Jiang Congbi looked down on her. “Other than Gu Yanqiu, have you liked anyone else? You might as well say I have a friend; I might even believe that a little. Ha, in my case, this really is a friend.”
“I’m not talking to you anymore.” Lin Yuewei was even more depressed after getting a full round of mockery.
“Don’t be like that, sexy life coach, online to solve your worries. Go on.”
Lin Yuewei didn’t speak before letting out a long sigh.
“...”
Jiang Congbi waited several minutes before Lin Yuewei finally said to her, “Forget it. I can handle it myself anyway, and even if you ask me like this, I don’t know what I’d say. Go to sleep. You still have work tomorrow.”
Jiang Congbi had just roasted Lin Yuewei mercilessly, but it really did work. After getting scolded, Lin Yuewei’s mood was actually much better. The first thing she thought of was: her slippers were downstairs.
Lin Yuewei looked down from the second-floor hallway. There was a faint light flickering in the living room. When she went downstairs, she saw that the equipment she’d switched off had been turned on again. Gu Yanqiu had restarted the film from the beginning; the fruit plate on the coffee table was full of fresh fruit, the cake had been opened, and Gu Yanqiu herself was using a small fork to eat bite by bite, calm and elegant.
It was a film from the 1990s, starring two very famous Hong Kong actresses of the time. The director was especially skilled at filming women.
Gu Yanqiu had watched it before because of its reputation, but seeing it again more than ten years later gave her a different feeling. She was so absorbed that she hadn’t even noticed Lin Yuewei standing behind her.
Lin Yuewei had put on her slippers and should have quietly gone back upstairs, but her feet seemed frozen in place.
Only when Gu Yanqiu sensed another person’s breathing behind her and turned around did she reflexively scoop up a small piece of cake and hold it out. “Want some?”
Right, Lin Yuewei had said she was dieting. Gu Yanqiu was just about to pull her hand back when Lin Yuewei had already lowered her head and taken the cake into her mouth. It melted as soon as it hit her tongue, not very sweet, exactly the kind of taste she usually liked.
Most girls liked sweets. Jiang Congbi especially loved them; the more sugar, the better, but she was the kind who never gained weight and could eat whatever she wanted. Sometimes she’d ambush Lin Yuewei and feed her a bite of something sweet, and Lin Yuewei would feel so sickly sweet she’d spit it right back out.
But Gu Yanqiu’s cake made her want a second bite after the first. Maybe it was psychological, Lin Yuewei thought.
When Gu Yanqiu offered her a second bite, Lin Yuewei shook her head and refused.
Since she’d finally come downstairs, Gu Yanqiu wanted to keep her there and asked, “Were you just watching this movie?”
“Mm.”
“Studying Zhang Manyu?”
“Mm.”
Gu Yanqiu praised her. “You acted pretty well.”
Lin Yuewei’s expression changed. “Didn’t you say you didn’t see anything?”
Gu Yanqiu smiled. “You wouldn’t believe me anyway. If you think that’s unfair, you can watch me back.”
“...”
Only then did Lin Yuewei realize Gu Yanqiu also had a shameless side. She reached toward Gu Yanqiu’s collar as if to undo her clothes; Gu Yanqiu didn’t even blink.
Lin Yuewei almost thought she saw a faint anticipation in her eyes.
Lin Yuewei: “???”
She felt like shaking Gu Yanqiu by the shoulders and demanding: Do you even realize you already have a girlfriend? What kind of expression is that supposed to be—who are you trying to seduce?! Invisible flirting was the deadliest.
Lin Yuewei drew her hand back.
Gu Yanqiu sighed inwardly. Another failure. Was her charm really that weak?
After withdrawing her hand, Lin Yuewei didn’t go back upstairs. Instead, she sat down beside Gu Yanqiu and watched the movie with her; that practically counted as a date.
Amateurs watched for excitement; experts watched for details. Lin Yuewei had already seen this movie many times; the more she watched it, the fresher it felt. As she focused intently on it, she didn’t even notice the occasional glances Gu Yanqiu kept slipping her way.
When the film reached the scene where Joey Wong’s character shed a tear, Gu Yanqiu asked, “Why is she crying? Are you in love with Green Snake or Xu Xian? Why do I feel like it’s Green Snake?”
Lin Yuewei frowned. “Huh? No, isn’t it just a sisterly bond?”
“Oh.”
After a while, Gu Yanqiu said again, “If there were no Xu Xian, would Green Snake and White Snake have been able to live together happily?”
Lin Yuewei answered, “Even without Xu Xian, there’d still be Wang Xian and Zhang Xian. If White Snake wants to become human, she has to go through this mortal trial. The same goes for Green Snake and Fahai.”
Gu Yanqiu curled her lip. “Oh.”
Lin Yuewei could tell she probably didn’t like that answer and asked, “Then what do you think?”
Gu Yanqiu said quietly, “I’ve always thought they were a pair.”
“They, them?”
“The ‘she’ with the female radical. Green and White.”
“Oh, oh, oh. If that’s how you want to see it, that’s not wrong either. The right to interpret a film belongs to the audience; you can view it however you want.” Lin Yuewei was perfectly fair on the surface, but inwardly she thought: so Gu Yanqiu had been into women since she was little.
In the middle of the movie there was a scene where Green Snake seduced Fahai. Gu Yanqiu didn’t understand it. Lin Yuewei, however, had already read plenty of reviews and analyses; her mind was full of filthy little thoughts, and she even secretly replaced the characters with her and Gu Yanqiu, which made her unbearably restless.
Gu Yanqiu stopped watching the movie and turned to look at her. “What’s wrong?”
Lin Yuewei held back her breath. “Nothing.”
Gu Yanqiu kept looking at her, even blinking cutely. Lin Yuewei couldn’t stand it anymore; she clicked her tongue and pinched Gu Yanqiu’s chin, turning her face back toward the screen. “Watch the movie properly.”
With Lin Yuewei’s two fingers pressing against her chin, Gu Yanqiu felt a long-lost thrill rising in her chest; she almost wanted Lin Yuewei never to let go. In the dim light, her eyes seemed to burn with two sparks.
But Lin Yuewei didn’t give her another second to savor it and sat up straight again.
The two of them watched the entire movie in the living room like that. Lin Yuewei was especially quiet the whole time; she only answered when Gu Yanqiu asked her something, and if she wasn’t asked, she didn’t say a word, completely unlike herself on the night before Gu Yanqiu left home.
When the projector was turned off and the living room lights came back on, Lin Yuewei stood up and, just like the first time, said coolly, “I’m going upstairs.”
“Okay,” Gu Yanqiu said.
Lin Yuewei was angry that she hadn’t tried to keep her, and also relieved that she hadn’t tried to keep her. Since the other woman already had a girlfriend, she should take the initiative to keep her distance and avoid being accused of being a homewrecker.
“Good night,” Lin Yuewei said.
“Good night,” Gu Yanqiu replied.
Lin Yuewei’s feelings were a mess. She went back to her room, showered, and went straight to bed. She was truly exhausted today; the fatigue in her mind and the soreness in her limbs were beyond words. Her hair was only roughly blow-dried until it was half-wet before she climbed straight under the blanket.
The slap in the face came too fast, like a tornado.
There was a knock at her door. Lin Yuewei drifted over like a wandering soul to open it. Gu Yanqiu, in pajamas, stood at the doorway, hugging her pillow.
Lin Yuewei: “............”
She’d forgotten that she was sharing a bed with Gu Yanqiu now.
Gu Yanqiu set the pillow down. Lin Yuewei didn’t quite dare look her in the eye, so her gaze dropped from top to bottom and landed on her arm. There were three scratch marks there; they looked like they’d been made by claws.
They were glaringly obvious to Lin Yuewei. And when she looked at Gu Yanqiu’s neck, covered completely by her collar, she became even more certain there were more marks hidden underneath, marks left by someone else.
Gu Yanqiu followed her gaze to her own forearm, and her entire face lit up with happiness.
Showing off affection right in front of her!
Lin Yuewei was finally furious beyond reason and couldn’t help turning over and sleeping with her back to her.
Gu Yanqiu: “???”
She’d felt that Lin Yuewei had been strange all night, ignoring her answers to everything; now she was even angry with her, and that made her feel a little wronged. “What’s wrong with you?”
Lin Yuewei closed her eyes and said coldly, “I’m sleeping. I’m very tired today.”
Gu Yanqiu said, “I learned a little massage. Want me to knead your shoulders?”
“No need, thank you.”
Since she was like this, Gu Yanqiu wasn’t exactly a clay statue either. She asked directly, “What are you angry about?”
“I’m not angry.”
Gu Yanqiu reached out and grabbed one of her shoulders, forcibly pulling her around and making Lin Yuewei face her. “If you have something to say, you can tell me directly. You don’t need to keep it all bottled up.”
Their eyes met. Lin Yuewei saw a lot of emotion in her eyes; some of it she could understand, some of it she really only half-understood. Most of it, though, went toward the fact that Gu Yanqiu’s eyes were just too beautiful, beautiful and cute. How could there be such a good person in the world? And of all people, how had she fallen for someone who was already married? She was doomed, doomed.
“You...” Lin Yuewei’s lips moved.
“Mm?” Gu Yanqiu’s eyes were clear as water; her answer was almost gentle.
Lin Yuewei awkwardly looked away and stared at the ceiling. “Tomorrow at work, wear a long-sleeved shirt and cover your arm.”
“What’s wrong with my arm?” Gu Yanqiu lifted it to look. The only thing different from usual were those three scratches. “No need to cover it. It’ll fade in a few days, and long sleeves are too hot in this weather.”
“People will misunderstand,” Lin Yuewei said tactfully. The matter of her having sucked Gu Yanqiu’s lips raw last time was still vivid in her mind.
“Misunderstand what? Don’t other people keep cats?”
“Cats?” Lin Yuewei froze. She felt a little suffocated; she seemed to have misunderstood.
At this, Gu Yanqiu gritted her teeth. “Yeah. You have no idea how bad my friend is. She deliberately made me give Schrodinger a bath. Schrodinger is the name of the ragdoll I’m raising; it screamed like its heart was being ripped out the whole time, a complete scene straight out of Havoc in Heaven. These marks are from it scratching me.”
Lin Yuewei didn’t keep pets, but in the age of people “cloud-raising” cats online, she roughly knew how terrifying it was to bathe one.
In order not to make herself look stupid for the way she’d just reacted, she hurriedly asked, “Did you treat the wounds?”
“I did.”
“Will it scar?”
“Probably not. I’ve been scratched before; I’m used to it.”
“Before?”
“When I was in China. It was called Pikachu; it already passed away.”
Lin Yuewei thought of the nickname she’d given her and couldn’t help it. “Pfft.”
Gu Yanqiu: “???!"
Lin Yuewei held back her smile and said solemnly, “My condolences.”
Gu Yanqiu shook her head. “It’s fine. Pikachu died of old age; I saw it through to the end.”
Every time Lin Yuewei heard that name she wanted to laugh, but she couldn’t sprinkle salt on someone else’s wound. She endured it with difficulty until the laughter in her eyes was finally swallowed back down, her expression calm again.
Lin Yuewei moved a little closer to Gu Yanqiu, no longer as bristling as before. With her attitude improved, Gu Yanqiu let out a quiet breath of relief, and her brows took on a little happiness. “Yuewei, do you like cats?”
“Not bad. I’m afraid of trouble, so I’ve never raised one.”
“I have a cat. I might bring it back to China in a while.”
“Schrodinger?”
“Yes.” Gu Yanqiu picked up her phone from the nightstand and showed her a few photos. “It looks like this. Not too ugly.”
“That’s humble of you.” By Lin Yuewei’s standards, it wasn’t merely not ugly; its looks were practically heaven-defying, a true Joey Wong among cats. “If you want to bring it back, then bring it back. I probably won’t have time to take care of it, though.”
“It’s fine. I’ll handle it myself. If really necessary, I can hire a nanny. I mainly wanted to ask whether you dislike cats; some people really hate them.”
“I don’t hate them.”
“Thank you.”
“No need to thank me.” Lin Yuewei suddenly remembered how, before, she’d thought Gu Yanqiu was too busy with work and wanted her to hire a housekeeper, but Gu Yanqiu had said she wasn’t used to it and didn’t want to. Yet now, for the sake of keeping a cat, she could hire a housekeeper to take care of it. Truly, in this world, people really did rank below cats. So in the future, wouldn’t her own place in this household be dead last? Wait—what was she thinking? Gu Yanqiu and her cat were one family; she was from another. She shouldn’t be so full of herself.
“Then your friend, does she agree to send the cat over?” Lin Yuewei was still hung up on this so-called friend who was really a girlfriend. She’d wanted to ask something else, but her thoughts were in knots, so this harmless question was all she could manage.
Gu Yanqiu said in confusion, “Why wouldn’t she agree? The cat was being fostered at her place to begin with.” Besides, Cheng Guiyuan still had to date; Gu Yanqiu didn’t like bringing people home, but with Schrodinger in the house, she also couldn’t stay out overnight. Knowing Cheng Guiyuan’s personality, if it weren’t for Schrodinger, she would have been single for only half a year; it was time to give her some freedom.
“Schrodinger doesn’t recognize you, does it?” Lin Yuewei herself didn’t even know what she was saying. Her mind felt empty.
“It’ll recognize me after I’ve kept it for a while. Not a big problem.”
“Then what about your friend?”
“She can come see it. She’ll be back in China in a while, and she’ll bring the cat back to me on her way.”
“!!!”
Lin Yuewei’s mind roared.
Gu Yanqiu’s girlfriend was coming back to the country. The two of them were going to end long-distance and be together for real. So how many people would be living in this house after that? Would Gu Yanqiu move out, or would she? If someone had to move out, then why had Gu Yanqiu asked whether she disliked cats in the first place? That meant the two of them would still be living together in the future; Gu Yanqiu was hiding a beauty in her golden house, and now and then that “beauty” would come back and feed her dog food right in front of her.
A sea of misery; misery in a sea.
Lin Yuewei felt like her brain was about to explode. She couldn’t think about this anymore. She quickly turned off the bedroom light and said, “Sleep.”
“Huh?”
“You have work tomorrow. It’s already past midnight.”
“Alright. Good night.” Gu Yanqiu sounded a little unsatisfied.
“Good night.” Lin Yuewei kept her eyes tightly closed.
As Lin Yuewei’s sleep grew deeper, she heard someone calling her name by her ear; the voice was very familiar and very soft, right beside her ear. “Yuewei... Yuewei...”
It was Gu Yanqiu’s voice.
Lin Yuewei slowly opened her eyes. A sheet of white light was blinding; she raised a hand to block it and waited for her eyes to adjust. What came into view was the familiar layout of the bedroom, and the bedside clock showed 9:00 a.m.
Nine o’clock; her sluggish brain processed it for a moment. Why was it so late? Didn’t the alarm go off?
The person beside her was already gone. Lin Yuewei reached out over the cold bed, and a trace of doubt rose in her heart. Then who had just called her name?
Lin Yuewei put on her slippers and went downstairs, head heavy and feet light, moving one step deep and one shallow.
At the end of the stairs crouched a cat as white as snow, its head tilted, languid yet elegant. Lin Yuewei had seen this cat on Gu Yanqiu’s phone before; it was Schrodinger.
She crouched down and, as though she’d held it a thousand times before, smoothly picked up Schrodinger. In her arms, Schrodinger obediently let out a “meow” and lightly licked her finger with its barbed tongue.
Lin Yuewei smiled brightly and looked up, her gaze sweeping the living room until it found a familiar graceful figure.
Gu Yanqiu walked forward at an unhurried pace, kissed her lips lightly, and then they parted. Lin Yuewei hooked an arm around the back of her neck, not letting her leave, and kissed her again, forcefully this time. Schrodinger, wedged between the two people who were kissing and struggling to separate, meowed excitedly.
Suddenly, Schrodinger’s fur stood on end, and it leapt down from their arms.
Lin Yuewei woke with a start and saw that an arm had suddenly appeared on Gu Yanqiu’s shoulder. Another woman’s arm wrapped around Gu Yanqiu from behind; Lin Yuewei looked closely, but the face was blurry and she couldn’t make out the features.
Schrodinger crouched at the feet of this faceless person, its two front paws wrapped around the other person’s ankle.
The person held Gu Yanqiu with one arm, hooked a foot around Schrodinger, and declared possession with a smug expression. “The person is mine, and the cat is mine too.”
Lin Yuewei’s chest heaved violently; tears surged up and nearly made her cry from fury.
In the dream, Lin Yuewei clenched one fist and punched hard at the bed, then opened her eyes and touched the dampness at the corner of her eye. “...”
She had actually cried from anger.
Author’s note:
Miss Lin: Cried from anger!
The second half will probably be their everyday life after they’re together~
Cheng Guiyuan: I’m thinking, my name is Guiyuan, not Extremely Wronged, okay? Should I change my name? I’ll change it to Cheng Extremely Wronged. I haven’t even met my CP yet, and I’m already getting saddled with such a huge pot. I feel so wronged o(╥﹏╥)o