Chapter 8

The car had barely stopped when Lin Yuewei got out and slammed the door hard enough to rattle the frame.

Gu Yanqiu didn’t dare provoke her. She kept her distance and followed seven or eight meters behind. By the time Lin Yuewei reached the front gate, she had turned back abruptly, and the darkness had swallowed Gu Yanqiu from view.

The nameless anger in Lin Yuewei’s chest surged higher and higher; mixed with the fire the driver had just fanned for her, it became a single raging blaze that burned her from the inside out. The veins at her temples throbbed violently.

“Miss Lin?” A tall figure stepped out from beneath the tree shadows, speaking in that familiar cool voice. “Why did you stop all of a sudden?”

The balloon of Lin Yuewei’s anger was punctured. Her thoughts scattered, and by the time she came back to herself, the fire had unexpectedly died down.

“Nothing. I just wanted to see whether you were following.”

“I’m following. Let’s keep going.”

This time, the two of them kept a distance of one or two meters. A cool breeze drifted past as they entered the house in silence.

Lin Yuewei bent down first to change her shoes, then nodded at her. “I’m going back to my room.”

Gu Yanqiu said, “Okay. Good night.”

Lin Yuewei blurted out, “How do you know I’m going to sleep?” In truth, she really did plan to go into her room and not come out again.

Gu Yanqiu remained composed and met her gaze calmly. “I don’t know. Miss Lin, sleep whenever you want; I’m just saying good night in advance. No one says you can only say it once.”

“You…” Lin Yuewei stared at her for a long moment, countless words rising in her eyes, but in the end they all came down to two words. Fine. “...Good night.”

Gu Yanqiu nodded, the corners of her lips lifting into something almost gentle.

“Good night, Miss Lin.”

Lin Yuewei froze as if struck by static. She turned and went upstairs without looking back; on the very first step, she missed her footing and lurched forward. She grabbed the banister and steadied herself in a hurry, then continued as if nothing had happened. “I’ve made an appointment with the photographer. Tomorrow morning at nine; don’t sleep in.”

Gu Yanqiu watched her back disappear around the corner by the entryway and smiled, shaking her head.

She really was still a child; so stubborn for no reason. And so was she—why was she arguing with her over this?

Had she relaxed too much over these past two days? Gu Yanqiu lowered her eyes to the Buddhist beads on her wrist and stared at them for a moment without moving. Then she suddenly clenched her hand, set her lips in a cold line, and quickly went upstairs, closing the door behind her.

***

Morning.

Gu Yanqiu took a package of toast from the refrigerator and thought it over. To avoid setting off the young lady upstairs again, she decided to ask first whether Lin Yuewei wanted breakfast with her.

When she reached for her phone to send Lin Yuewei a message, she realized she hadn’t saved her contact information at all. With no other choice, she walked to Lin Yuewei’s door and knocked lightly.

“Miss Lin?”

Knock, knock, knock.

“Miss Lin?”

There was no response either time. She was very likely still asleep. After a brief hesitation, Gu Yanqiu lowered her hand and turned to leave, already planning ahead: she’d make two portions first. If Lin Yuewei showed she wanted some, she’d tell her breakfast was ready in the kitchen; if she didn’t, then so be it.

“Miss Gu? What is it?”

Just then, Lin Yuewei’s voice came from behind her.

Lin Yuewei said, “Sorry, I was washing up just now and didn’t hear you knock.”

Gu Yanqiu turned back and said politely, “It’s fine. I came to ask whether you’d like me to make your breakfast as well.”

“Thanks, but no need. I can make my own.” Lin Yuewei lifted a hand to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Her smile looked gentle and refined, but it kept them at a quiet distance.

Of course Gu Yanqiu could feel her coldness toward her; this wasn’t yesterday’s pretended coldness, but complete, genuine indifference and disregard, as if she had no wish at all to have anything to do with her. Coincidentally, after a night of cooling off, Gu Yanqiu felt exactly the same. She was barely keeping herself above water already; why drag someone else down with her?

“Mm, then I’ll go downstairs.” She swallowed the rest of the sentence—then remember to eat breakfast—so as not to cause another misunderstanding.

“I’ll come down later.”

“Okay.”

When they ate breakfast, the two of them sat at opposite corners. Lin Yuewei warmed herself a glass of milk and ate it with some biscuits, while Gu Yanqiu had a simple Western breakfast with coffee, rich and fragrant. Seeing that, Lin Yuewei couldn’t help thinking: so yesterday morning, she really had made congee just to accommodate me.

Setting aside the fact that this was a contract marriage, if Lin Yuewei met someone like this in ordinary life, she definitely wouldn’t have drawn such a clear line between them. At the very least, she wouldn’t have rejected her so directly; if left to develop naturally, they might even have become good friends.

Come to think of it, she was refusing so hard for two reasons. The first was her mother. This marriage had been arranged by her mother. As a rich madam, her mother had far too much free time on her hands; from the time Lin Yuewei became an adult to now, her mother had never stopped trying to line her up with this “good match” and that “good match.” It wasn’t the tyrannical kind of parental pressure you saw in TV dramas or novels; it was nagging, just relentless nagging, to the point that Lin Yuewei’s ears were practically callused. Naturally, she developed an instinctive aversion to anything her mother introduced, the same way some people hated blind dates. But if she hated it that much, why had she agreed to the marriage? First, to repay a debt of gratitude; second, to make a clean break. Since the marriage was already done, at least she wouldn’t have to listen to her mother’s nagging anymore, right? She was also old enough to move out and stand on her own now. At least for the moment, that was indeed the case. Her mother might have been afraid of disturbing her “two-person world,” because the number of times she bothered her had dropped dramatically, which saved Lin Yuewei a lot of trouble. Even more reassuring was the fact that her marriage partner seemed like a reliable, ice-cold workaholic who had no intention of getting entangled with her. That was simply wonderful. Of course, at this very moment, she still didn’t know that her mother, who was always bored out of her mind, would go on to pull every possible trick in the book.

As for the second reason, even she wasn’t sure. She quietly pressed that thought down in her heart.

Lost in thought, Lin Yuewei absentmindedly choked on a biscuit and hurriedly drank a few gulps of milk. Gu Yanqiu’s fingers twitched slightly, but she didn’t move; in silence, she listened to the sound of her coughing.

Lin Yuewei finally caught her breath and glanced at Gu Yanqiu, who was seated a table’s distance away. Her movements as she ate were still composed and elegant, without a single flaw. What a thoroughly unrelated pair they looked like.

“I’m done eating.” Lin Yuewei was also someone who strictly observed table manners, so she let her know before taking her cup away.

Gu Yanqiu nodded.

She watched the kitchen out of the corner of her eye; the moment the other woman finished washing her cup and came back out, she stood up and brushed past her. Neither of them made eye contact.

***

Click—

“Groom, no, bride, no, neither. Lin... Miss Gu, could you come a little closer to Miss Lin?”

At the wedding photo shoot, the photographer addressed the two brides.

Lin Yuewei said, “My surname is Lin. Which one of us are you talking about?”

The photographer studied the person who had spoken for a moment before saying, “You.”

Lin Yuewei said, “My surname is Lin. Remember that. If you really can’t manage it, just call us left and right.”

She suspected the photographer was face-blind. He had already called them by the wrong names several times. Was this really some famous photographer? Had her mother screwed her over again?

The photographer said, “Miss Gu, please believe in my skills. You may insult my eyes, but you cannot insult my ability.”

Lin Yuewei couldn’t be bothered to correct him. “Fine, fine. Hurry up and take the pictures.”

The photographer said, “Then move a little closer to her.”

Lin Yuewei complied, and all she could smell was the faint, cool fragrance of Gu Yanqiu’s agarwood. She pulled her upper body away slightly, and the photographer spoke again. “Miss Lin, I didn’t call you wrong this time, did I? Don’t hunch your chest and hunch your back. This is a wedding shoot, not a horror film. Your wife isn’t a ghost.”

That made Lin Yuewei laugh. Then she moved forward by a barely visible centimeter and asked the photographer, “Is this okay?”

The photographer: “...”

Lin Yuewei lurched. “Hey, hey—”

Gu Yanqiu’s back went warm as Lin Yuewei suddenly pressed against her. Of course, she hadn’t leaned in on her own; the photographer had forcibly pressed her into position. He let out a sigh. “Bear with it for a moment. Keep smiling, Miss Lin.”

Gu Yanqiu pretended not to feel the faster beat of Lin Yuewei’s heart against her back. Lin Yuewei acted as if nothing had happened too; she had been startled by the photographer’s sudden movement, nothing else.

Once they had crossed that line of physical closeness, the rest of the shoot became much easier. Face-to-face shots and the like were manageable; as long as they didn’t have to kiss, Lin Yuewei handled everything with ease, though the photographer had to urge her again and again each time.

The undercurrents hidden beneath the surface could only be felt by the people involved.

“Haa.” Lin Yuewei let out a long breath. “Finally done.”

Gu Yanqiu stood there like a statue, her eyes half-lidded, slowly rolling the Buddhist beads on her wrist one by one. At her words, her lashes moved, swept over Lin Yuewei’s face, and she gave a faint nod.

This was Lin Yuewei’s first time taking wedding photos. To say she felt nothing would have been impossible. Even if the person she was shooting with didn’t interest her, she still wanted to see what her wedding photos would look like. But Gu Yanqiu’s utterly indifferent expression made her enthusiasm wither at once.

The photographer was Chinese American and had lived abroad for many years. Looking at the finished photos, he kept exclaiming in his native language with obvious admiration.

The photographer said, “Miss Gu, Miss Lin, these are really wonderful. Would you like to take a look? And maybe choose the size and format while you’re at it? I can have someone frame them later.”

Gu Yanqiu said, “Miss Lin can decide.”

She didn’t even look at them!

After noticing that, Lin Yuewei went from mildly uninterested to irritated. She said, “You decide. You have experience with what kind of photo should be printed in what size. Make the rest into an album. I suddenly remembered I have something to do, so I’ll go first.”

The photographer craned his neck after her retreating figure. “Huh?”

What on earth was going on?

Gu Yanqiu said, “Sorry.” She took out a palm-sized notebook and a ballpoint pen from the outer layer of her handbag, quickly wrote down a string of numbers, tore off the page, and handed it to the photographer. “This is my phone number. Please send all of the photos to me later.”

With that, she hurried after Lin Yuewei.

“Hey.” Left behind, the photographer was blown half-stupid by the wind. He had been doing this for so many years and had never seen a couple like this. How could this be a couple? They were practically strangers. Yet if you said they weren’t, he really did think the two of them looked alike; otherwise, he wouldn’t have mixed them up.

He looked down at the number on the slip of paper and only then belatedly shouted, “You could at least leave me a WeChat! Who still uses phone calls these days?”

By then, the two of them were already long gone.

“Miss Lin—” When Gu Yanqiu caught up with Lin Yuewei, the other woman had just pulled open the door of a taxi she’d hailed by the roadside and gotten in.

The crease between Lin Yuewei’s brows still hadn’t eased, but the tip of her brow lifted slightly; the corner of her mouth looked like it wanted to smile but wouldn’t. She pinched her own cheeks, rolled the window down, and revealed a face devoid of expression. “What is it? I really am going home today. I can’t keep living with you.”

“You forgot your bag.” Gu Yanqiu handed the bag in through the window.

“...Thanks, Miss Gu.” Lin Yuewei ground her back teeth; a vein at her temple jumped on the spot. “Drive!”

Gu Yanqiu was sprayed in the face by the taxi’s exhaust.

Gu Yanqiu: “???”

Author’s note: Welcome to the grand situational comedy, I Got Single on My Own Merit. ﹁_﹁

The situation may be confusing, but you can still see the truth from the scene. Who will be the first to fall in love? ╰(*°▽°*)╯