Chapter 64

Lin Yuewei wrote the final line in her notebook, but the moment her pen touched the page, it became "Gu Yanqiu." She crossed the name out, then looked up at Gu Yanqiu, who had dressed with unusual care, and patted the empty space beside her.

"Finished?"

"Mm." Gu Yanqiu saw her put the notebook away in the drawer and asked, "You were working?"

"Not really. Just taking some notes."

"Has work been going smoothly lately?" Gu Yanqiu climbed onto the bed barefoot and sat down, keeping the same distance from Lin Yuewei as always. She was in Lin Yuewei's fan group, so she knew about the recent events; for someone on the rise, things probably weren't going too smoothly.

"Pretty much." Lin Yuewei had always kept things from her, and this time was no exception. Still, she suspected Gu Yanqiu already knew something.

Gu Yanqiu turned her face toward her. Her long hair fell forward with the movement, creating a sharp contrast against the pale skin below her neck. She looked at Lin Yuewei and said, "I told you, if you ever need help, you can come to me. That promise never expires."

Lin Yuewei met her gaze. Gu Yanqiu's eyes were darker than most people's; beautiful, but cool and detached. That had been Lin Yuewei's first impression of her on their wedding day. But now, that impression had changed quite a bit. The eyes were still the same, but there was more life in them now; that expression could only be called expectation.

Something stirred in Lin Yuewei's chest. On impulse, she said, "Okay."

This time it was completely different from her perfunctory answer before, as if something had quietly changed in the span of a moment.

"Pinky promise." Gu Yanqiu held out her hand, little finger raised.

Lin Yuewei gave her a disgusted look.

Gu Yanqiu refused to take her hand back, stubbornly silent; and yet Lin Yuewei was exactly the sort of person who fell for this. It felt as if the Gu Yanqiu from that closest night had returned. Lin Yuewei couldn't help laughing as she hooked her little finger with hers. "Pinky promise. We'll be together forever, never change."

Thumbs pressed down to seal it; the vow was made, no, the agreement was made.

"So what trouble are you in now?" Gu Yanqiu braced both hands on the mattress and leaned back slightly, looking like she was prepared for a long, all-night conversation; the faintly triumphant smile on her lips made it clear she had been planning this all along.

"So that's what you were waiting for," Lin Yuewei said with a smile.

"I've always been waiting for you." Gu Yanqiu's words carried two meanings.

Lin Yuewei froze for a moment, then suppressed the impulse that had begun to rise in her. She told Gu Yanqiu about the predicament she was in. When she got to the part about gathering information from Chen Xuan and General Manager Liu's people, Gu Yanqiu's brow lifted slightly, as if she were thinking of breaking through from that direction.

Lin Yuewei quickly answered the question in her eyes. "I heard from Wang Yuanyuan that the two of them are in fierce competition; the artists under them are always fighting over resources. The hottest people in their hands already have schedules booked out into next year, and the resources they can get aren't things I can reach anyway. That leaves only those few..."

Lin Yuewei explained her plan.

Gu Yanqiu nodded. "It's workable."

Lin Yuewei smiled a little sheepishly. "I might have to trouble you."

Gu Yanqiu's brows rose; she was very happy to be useful. "What do you need me to do?"

"Nothing much. I'm just short on money." Lin Yuewei was strapped for cash. The money she'd earned from endorsements was only enough to hire one wave of paid promotion; to keep it going afterward, she'd need to keep burning money. It wasn't good to keep asking Jiang Congbi for money either, and as for other friends, there was no need to mention them. Gu Yanqiu... She had originally wanted to draw a clear boundary with Gu Yanqiu, but now she only wanted to tie things together more tightly. What could be more inseparable than a financial connection?

"Think of it as a loan from you. Once I recoup it, I'll pay you back."

"How much do you need?" Gu Yanqiu asked readily; she would be thrilled if Lin Yuewei never paid her back.

"A million or two." Lin Yuewei gave a relatively generous estimate. With her savings added in, it should be fine.

Gu Yanqiu threw back the blanket and got out of bed, heading toward the door.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm getting your card."

"You don't have to rush."

"I'm afraid I'll forget tomorrow."

How could she not rush? Lin Yuewei had finally softened her attitude; if tomorrow morning she woke up and changed her mind again, what then? Gu Yanqiu quickly came back with a bank card and stuffed it into her hand with visible impatience. "There's three million in here. One and a half million is in wealth management and matures next month. Will that be in time whenever you need to use it? If not, I can go to the bank tomorrow and transfer it to you."

"It'll be in time." Lin Yuewei answered, then quickly realized what she'd said. "No, I don't need this much."

"You can keep the rest as pocket money."

"Huh?"

"No, I mean, if you ever need money again, you can keep using it. Just think of this as me lending you three million this time."

"...Fine."

Lin Yuewei gripped the card tightly, then set it down on the bedside table, far away from the water glass.

Gu Yanqiu could feel herself getting a little too open with her emotions, and she was afraid of falling into the trap of forcing flirtation again. Seeing that it was already late, she lay down first and asked, "Time to sleep?"

"Mm." Lin Yuewei said.

Gu Yanqiu turned off the lights.

Rustling sounded beside her; Lin Yuewei moved closer and took hold of her wrist. The warmth was familiar. During the cold war, Lin Yuewei and she had slept with a whole ocean between them; today, things had finally gone back to normal.

Gu Yanqiu had been unsettled by the back-and-forth of these past days. She turned onto her side and looked at Lin Yuewei in the dark, asking for confirmation. "So we've made up?"

"We never fought in the first place," Lin Yuewei said, returning the words Gu Yanqiu had used earlier; but unlike Gu Yanqiu's sharpness from before, there was more teasing in her tone.

"Will you ignore me tomorrow?" Gu Yanqiu changed the wording.

"...As long as you don't act like you did that morning." Even after confirming that she liked Gu Yanqiu, Lin Yuewei still couldn't fully accept how frivolous she had been. It was like going on a blind date and immediately being taken with the other person, secretly planning to pursue them, only for that person to start putting their arms around you and pawing at you in the theater on the very first movie date; it would make anyone sick to their stomach. Even a little liking could turn into no liking at all. Lin Yuewei felt that these things should develop step by step with the relationship, naturally and in order, not start off with intimacy and shameless remarks.

"Okay, got it." Gu Yanqiu learned her lesson.

"It's not that a hug is a problem. I hug my friends too," Lin Yuewei thought about it and added, because she wanted to hug Gu Yanqiu.

"Oh."

"What I mean is the way you speak, and that exaggerated smile. Do you understand?" Lin Yuewei also turned onto her side, her expression serious as she met Gu Yanqiu's gaze.

They couldn't really see each other's eyes, and yet the gaze between them became bold all at once, their outlines sinking deeply into each other's pupils.

"I understand, I understand."

Gu Yanqiu suddenly had a moment of enlightenment. She just had to think about the tone Cheng Guiyuan used when she was in love, and she'd understand. Cheng Guiyuan dated her girlfriend in a way that kept her distance whenever possible, and if she couldn't avoid it, she pretended she was temporarily blind and deaf; otherwise she'd be sickened to death by it. Not the kind of sickening from being force-fed dog food, but that style of interaction. Gu Yanqiu, who was still single, simply couldn't accept it.

"Anyway... I..."

"Mm?"

"Anyway, I won't do that again in the future. You can rest assured." Lin Yuewei squeezed her wrist.

Gu Yanqiu had the feeling that what she'd meant to say originally wasn't that.

The two of them looked at each other in the dark for a while. Lin Yuewei was the first to turn over and lie flat, closing her eyes. "I really am going to sleep. I still have things to do tomorrow."

"I'm sleeping too. By the way, what day is it tomorrow?"

"It's already past twelve. Today is Friday."

"Oh. I have to go on a long trip Saturday. I'm telling you in advance."

"Where to?" Lin Yuewei asked without thinking; before she could take it back, Gu Yanqiu answered, "To my mother's hometown." The call that night had been from the private investigator she'd hired. After wandering all over China for more than half a year and spending a huge amount of time and effort, he had finally found it.

Lin Yuewei didn't know so many things about the Gu family. She thought Gu Yanqiu was going to visit her maternal grandparents, and said "oh" before asking, "Are the old folks in good health?"

"I don't know."

"Then take the chance to be filial to them. Buy them some gifts. Is it far?"

"Far. In the south."

"How many days until you're back?"

"If nothing goes wrong, I'll be back Sunday."

"Be safe." Lin Yuewei shifted her neck awkwardly and turned her face away from Gu Yanqiu. Right now she looked far too much like a wife reminding her husband to be careful on a business trip.

Gu Yanqiu quietly curved her eyes. "I will."

After that, neither of them spoke again, as if they had both fallen asleep.

Lin Yuewei turned over lightly twice. Gu Yanqiu opened her half-closed eyes; the wrist in her palm moved slightly, and Lin Yuewei felt it. "Sorry. Did I wake you?"

"No. Can't sleep?"

"I'll fall asleep in a bit. I'm not moving anymore. Go to sleep."

Mentioning Gu Yanqiu's mother made Lin Yuewei think of her own mother, who had been acting strangely lately. Was there some connection between her and Gu Yanqiu's mother, one that caused her behavior to be so abnormal? Only someone from the Gu family would know the answer. But this involved the older generation, and Gu Yanqiu's mother was already deceased. The dead should be respected; no matter what the truth was, she shouldn't ask it out loud.

Lin Yuewei kept her eyes closed. She didn't know how long had passed before her consciousness began to blur, just about to sink into sleep.

But that wrist quietly slipped free from her now-loosened grip and wrapped around her waist. The half-asleep Lin Yuewei fell into a fragrant embrace, woke for a brief instant, then was overwhelmed by drowsiness all over again and sank even deeper, losing consciousness completely.

Gu Yanqiu listened for a while longer, and only after confirming that she was truly asleep did she carefully press a kiss onto her warm lips.

Her fingers slowly came to rest between her brows, finding a small dip there. She smoothed out Lin Yuewei's furrowed brow and let out a soft, distant sigh.

Lin Yuewei woke the next day in Gu Yanqiu's arms. Almost every day, she woke up before Gu Yanqiu by a little bit. Pale morning light seeped in from outside the window; the woman before her had red lips slightly parted, eyelashes long and lifted, her sleeping face completely harmless. Lin Yuewei stared at her lashes, then curled her index finger slightly and scratched once along the bridge of Gu Yanqiu's high nose.

Gu Yanqiu's skin was too good; she didn't look twenty-five at all. Saying she was eighteen would still be too much. Lin Yuewei lingered there, her fingertip sliding from the bridge of her nose to her cheek, then to her earlobe.

Gu Yanqiu's lashes trembled faintly under her touch, showing signs of waking.

Lin Yuewei hurriedly pretended to be asleep.

As an actress, Lin Yuewei's fake-sleep skills were enough to fool ordinary people; her lashes didn't move at all.

She was surprised, because when Gu Yanqiu woke up, she did the same thing to her.

Gu Yanqiu took advantage of getting up early to claim a little benefit, but she didn't dare sneak a kiss. Bravery was different in the daytime and at night. Gu Yanqiu got out of bed quietly and went to the room next door to wash up. Lin Yuewei heard her pass by the door, then the sound of her footsteps going downstairs. Only then did she open her eyes, and a deep, shadowed light flashed within them.

"Morning." Lin Yuewei leaned against the kitchen doorway, her smile lazy and carefree.

The tail end of summer had arrived. It had cooled down over the past two days, and there was a wide temperature difference between day and night in Yanning. Gu Yanqiu was wearing a wine-red shirt; the cuffs had been folded up and rolled to her wrists, revealing clean, slender arms. She held two stalks of greens under the faucet and washed them.

Lin Yuewei had seen her in shirts quite a few times, mostly black and white; this was the first time she'd seen her in such a vivid color. It made her skin seem even whiter, like jade, while the light from outside sharpened the beauty of her features.

"Morning." Gu Yanqiu looked up and nodded at her openly, showing no trace of the woman who had secretly kissed her last night. She asked, "Did I sleepwalk?"

"Probably not."

"When you're not around, I always end up sleeping on the sofa." Gu Yanqiu said it with apparent calm, but her lashes were lowered; her expression held a faint thread of grievance.

Lin Yuewei couldn't help thinking: does she mean what I think she means?

But out loud, she said rationally, "I'll come back to sleep whenever I have time. But I'll definitely get busy in the future, and it won't be a good idea for you to keep doing this. Last time you even hit your calf."

Thinking of yesterday's post, worry rose on her face. In her eyes, Gu Yanqiu had become a baby who needed to be cared for; she couldn't do without her.

Gu Yanqiu looked away, turned off the tap, and shook the water from the greens. Her eyes were lowered, making her expression impossible to see. "I know. It should be resolved soon."

Soon resolved?

Lin Yuewei caught the key point in her words.

Gu Yanqiu had no intention of saying more. Holding the two stalks of greens in her hands, she changed the subject and asked with a slight smile, "Is noodles for breakfast okay?"

"Sure. I'm not picky."

Gu Yanqiu poured water into a pot and turned on the gas. A blue flame leapt up. She turned around and was about to take a step when she saw Lin Yuewei standing idly at the doorway, and naturally instructed her, "The noodles are in the cabinet two steps ahead of you, on the left. Help me get them."

"Oh."

Lin Yuewei did as she was told. The dry noodles hadn't been opened yet. After tearing at the package twice without success, she asked Gu Yanqiu for scissors. Gu Yanqiu found them and handed them over with the handles first.

Lin Yuewei had only ever helped her father and mother in the kitchen; this was the first time she'd helped cook for anyone else, and the feeling was completely different.

The kitchen atmosphere was quiet and warm.

Gu Yanqiu took two handfuls of dry noodles and dropped them into the boiling water. At some point, Lin Yuewei had moved to stand two steps away from her, stretching her neck to look into the pot; it was more exotic than a mirage.

Seeing her exaggerated expression, Gu Yanqiu couldn't help laughing. "It's just boiling noodles. Why are you making that face?"

"What face am I making?" Lin Yuewei puffed out her cheeks and made a face back at her. "Like this?"

Gu Yanqiu: "..."

Lin Yuewei usually didn't make faces; it damaged her image. This was entirely an impulsive move. A little embarrassed, she defended herself, "I was just hungry."

Then she couldn't help thinking sadly: did she still have any image left in front of Gu Yanqiu?

Gu Yanqiu had simply not reacted at first; now that she had, her eyes widened at once, like she was trying very hard not to laugh.

Lin Yuewei said, flustered and annoyed, "I told you I was hungry."

The more she explained, the funnier Gu Yanqiu found it, and she burst out laughing with a "pff."

"Gu Yanqiu!"

"The noodles are ready." Gu Yanqiu, unwilling to provoke a bomb, quickly turned down the heat and used chopsticks to lift the noodles out. The white steam rising from them kept Lin Yuewei's anger at bay. Once the noodles were plated, Gu Yanqiu topped them with the gravy she'd already simmered; the aroma was rich and appetizing.

Lin Yuewei hadn't eaten anything last night. The moment she smelled it, she forgot all about her image.

Gu Yanqiu cleaned up the kitchen while Lin Yuewei carried the two bowls of noodles with gravy out. They worked together in perfect division of labor.

At the dining table:

Lin Yuewei held a spoon in one hand and chopsticks in the other, lifting a few strands of noodles into the spoon to cool them, then adding diced meat and diced shiitake mushrooms before putting everything into her mouth.

She was used to her own cooking; once you've eaten the same thing enough times, even good food loses some of its shine. Gu Yanqiu rested both hands under her chin and asked the person across from her with expectation, "How is it?"

Lin Yuewei put on a solemn face and looked at her meaningfully. "Mm..."

Gu Yanqiu stared, so nervous she didn't dare blink.

Then Lin Yuewei suddenly smiled. "Even better than the place's chef."

Gu Yanqiu's ears turned warm, and she lowered her head to eat her noodles.

Lin Yuewei refused to let her off, lavishing praise in every possible way; at one moment she said it was such a waste that Gu Yanqiu went into business, and if she'd devoted herself to cooking, she'd at least be a Michelin-level chef; at another, she said a person like her not becoming a chef was a blessing to all chefs in the world. Her praise grew more and more over the top.

Gu Yanqiu coughed several times as Lin Yuewei teased her over a bowl of noodles, and in the end she set down her chopsticks helplessly. "Are you going to let me eat or not?"

"Eat, eat."

Because she'd "harassed" Gu Yanqiu verbally at the table, Lin Yuewei finished before she did. She put the bowl and chopsticks into the dishwasher and called out to Gu Yanqiu before heading upstairs to change.

By the time she came back down, Gu Yanqiu had already finished getting ready to leave. Lin Yuewei glanced at her, then said in mild surprise, "You're going out in that?"

"What's wrong with it?" Gu Yanqiu looked down at what she was wearing.

If you thought Gu Yanqiu was the type who wore black, white, and gray business suits every day, some classic, sexless novel heroine, you'd be wrong. On the contrary, when she was abroad, she rather enjoyed buying new clothes and dressing up; not to show anyone else, but simply because it made her feel good. That was different from Cheng Guiyuan, that peacock. Cheng Guiyuan also liked buying clothes, but most of what she bought was rather indecent. Compared to that, Gu Yanqiu considered herself a very proper person.

"I thought you wouldn't wear anything this bright..." Lin Yuewei said. The shirt's color was rich and the cut was trendy; the back hem was made into a triangular shape that hung down behind her, swaying as she walked. It looked good, but it seriously didn't match Gu Yanqiu's usual style.

"Bright?" Gu Yanqiu smiled. "It's okay. I have even brighter ones, but they're not convenient to wear to work. This one's more conservative."

Lin Yuewei thought it over carefully. Back when they were in S City, she had indeed seen Gu Yanqiu wearing a set of very fashionable designer clothes. She looked at Gu Yanqiu deeply. The longer she knew her, the more she felt there were still countless sides of her waiting to be discovered; she was forever fresh and new, and that made Lin Yuewei fall even deeper, helplessly and without escape.

Their cars were parked side by side; one was a Maserati, the other a used Volkswagen. Gu Yanqiu asked, "Do you want me to drive you?"

"No need." If she got out of a Maserati, and someone saw her, who knew what kind of rumors would start? Lin Yuewei didn't want to go out of her way to hand herself more black marks. She returned the courtesy and asked, "Then do you want me to drive you?"

She hadn't actually expected Gu Yanqiu to answer. She unlocked the car and sat in the driver's seat, only to hear Gu Yanqiu say something behind her.

"What did you say?" Lin Yuewei fastened her seat belt, one hand on the key already in the ignition, intending to start the car after she finished replying.

"I said yes."

Yes to what? Lin Yuewei was utterly lost.

Gu Yanqiu smiled. "You said you'd drive me to work, and I said yes."

Lin Yuewei: "..."

Leaving the Maserati behind to ride in her used Volkswagen instead; what kind of mindset was that? Lin Yuewei confirmed it with her eyes. Gu Yanqiu nodded firmly. Fine then. Lin Yuewei unlocked the car again, and Gu Yanqiu opened the front passenger door and got in.

Lin Yuewei felt as if the whole car had brightened several degrees. This must be what people meant by bringing glory to a humble house. That was the thought that popped into her head for no reason.

Gu Yanqiu sat properly, buckled her seat belt, and said with a serious expression, "Drive."

Lin Yuewei almost wrenched her back in her own head.

She hurriedly reined in her "dirty" thoughts, criticized herself internally for a good while, and transformed once again into the great, glorious, and correct Lin Yuewei; she felt her spiritual purity level had risen another notch. She skillfully drove the car out of the garage and said, "If I drive you to the company like this and someone sees, will it cause gossip?"

"What gossip?" Gu Yanqiu asked, tilting her head toward her in confusion.

Lin Yuewei glanced at her briefly, then kept looking at the road. "That your car doesn't match your status? They might say you found yourself some poor kid or something."

"If you drove a luxury car, they'd still talk. Offices always have gossip; it's either this or that."

"Fair enough. Oh, by the way, do the people at your company know you're married?" Lin Yuewei added, "I mean, literally married."

"Most of them don't. The only ones who do are two top executives, and they don't gossip."

Lin Yuewei tightened her fingers slightly around the steering wheel and brought it up as if on a whim. "That day—I mean the day at the teahouse—I saw you wearing a ring. Do you wear a ring whenever you go out to discuss business?"

"Ah."

Lin Yuewei: "???"

Ah? What did ah mean? Yes or no?

Lin Yuewei was tormented by curiosity, but didn't have the heart to ask directly.

Gu Yanqiu looked ahead and said lightly, "That day, the business partner was a little rude. He spoke without manners and asked about my relationship status, so I put on the ring and told him I was married."

Lin Yuewei said indignantly, "There's actually someone like that!"

"There are quite a lot of them. When you're out discussing business, especially over drinks, you run into plenty." Gu Yanqiu propped her forehead with a slender hand, looking troubled.

"Then wear it from now on. It can cut down on some trouble." Lin Yuewei spoke very quickly; the moment she finished, her heart jumped straight into her throat, and even the leg pressing the gas pedal began to tremble.

Lin Yuewei stared straight ahead and couldn't see Gu Yanqiu's expression at all, so she hurried to explain, "I-I mean, those people aren't worthy of you anyway, so it doesn't matter if you wear it. More good than harm."

After a long pause, Gu Yanqiu said, "Oh."

Lin Yuewei was nearly losing her mind.

First an "ah," now an "oh"; what did oh mean? Good or bad?

Gu Yanqiu thought seriously for a moment. "What you said makes sense."

Lin Yuewei smiled tensely. "Right?"

Gu Yanqiu nodded. "Mm." Her eyes curved with pleasure.

Lin Yuewei had achieved a stage goal and was already very satisfied. After that, she didn't say anything else and concentrated on following the navigation instructions. It was still rush hour, with heavy traffic and crowds; she had to brake and slow down from time to time, and couldn't spare any mental energy for conversation.

Gu Yanqiu noticed the hand on the steering wheel; Lin Yuewei's fingers were long and beautiful, her nails neatly trimmed with a soft, rounded curve, the tips faintly pink.

Gu Yanqiu stared for a while until her mouth felt dry, and she unconsciously licked her lips.

Coming back to her senses, and thinking of some discourteous thoughts, she quietly looked away toward the window.

Author's Note:

I've seen all the comments, and I have a rough idea of the controversy, but this pace is just how it is; I personally think it's okay. The relationship is developing gradually, and these two have only really spent less than half a month together. Some people think it's reasonable, some think it's slow; it's hard to satisfy everyone. For the kids who don't like the ambiguous stage, I can't really do anything about that, just don't fight, okay? Peace keeps the money flowing, muah muah muah.

And I can spoil a little: as for the whirring little train, neither of these two will do that ﹁_﹁

So whoever learns faster gets to take the lead first; Lin is the top, go Lin, charge!!!

Stone-fruit stands with Lin as top; you do whatever you want, hahaha