Chapter 81

Gu Yanqiu called Lin Yuewei again half an hour later.

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later...”

It was the exact same mechanical female voice. Gu Yanqiu left Lin Yuewei three question marks on WeChat.

【Xi Gu: Why aren’t you answering my call?】

By the time Lin Yuewei finally snapped out of her absorbed state, she hurriedly sent Gu Yanqiu a curt “I’m working,” then ran to the bathroom and locked herself inside. Once that door was shut, another full day passed.

When Gu Yanqiu came home and still didn’t see her, the bathroom door was locked tight. After thinking for a while about where the bathroom key might be, she took it out and opened the door. Sure enough, Lin Yuewei was inside, idly turning something over in her hand—handcuffs she’d somehow gotten her hands on.

Gu Yanqiu greeted her and thoughtfully pulled the door shut behind her.

She moved very slowly, holding onto a sliver of hope that Lin Yuewei might come out and kiss her; but even after she finished closing the door, Lin Yuewei never once looked over.

In the end, Gu Yanqiu gave the bathroom door one last glance before heading to the kitchen, which was separated from it by only a single wall, to make herself dinner.

She had bought groceries today: ribs, fish. It was rare that she would make two hearty dishes. Originally, she’d done it to conserve strength for continuing her kissing experiments tonight. Now it seemed she wouldn’t need any help replenishing her energy at all; if anything, she should worry about whether her existing energy would even be used up.

“This footprint has red blood in it, Xiao Fang...” Lin Yuewei crouched on one knee, rubbing at a patch of faintly reddish mud that didn’t actually exist between her fingertips. She leaned in carefully to smell it. “..."

She’d forgotten her line.

Lin Yuewei: “...”

She pulled open the door, following the smell to the kitchen. Gu Yanqiu was wearing a teddy bear apron; steam billowed up from the wok in front of her, and tiny beads of sweat dotted her face as well.

Lin Yuewei stretched her head out to look. “Fish.”

Gu Yanqiu turned back at the sudden voice, a trace of barely noticeable amusement flashing through her eyes. “Do you want some?”

“I don’t—” Lin Yuewei was just about to say she didn’t, when her stomach rumbled loudly. She had been too absorbed all day; since breakfast, not a grain of rice had passed her lips, and she’d barely drunk any water. Only now had her stomach found the chance to stage a vigorous protest.

“Have a little,” Gu Yanqiu said. “I’ve heard a lot of celebrities get stomach problems from irregular eating. You’re at home now; it’s fine to eat a bit less. Worst case, don’t eat any rice.”

“Th-”

Gu Yanqiu cut her off before she could speak again. “Didn’t you say before that the role you’re playing now requires training? If it’s training, the workload must be huge. How can you not eat more?”

“I—”

Gu Yanqiu continued, “I didn’t use much oil. You can eat it without worrying.”

Gu Yanqiu went on and on until Lin Yuewei finally laughed helplessly and interrupted her. “I was going to say I’ll eat. I haven’t had lunch yet.”

Gu Yanqiu’s face went a little red. She cleared her throat and asked, “Why didn’t you eat lunch?”

Lin Yuewei poured herself a glass of water and drained it in one go, wiping the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. “I forgot.”

“You can forget that too?”

“I remembered for a while, but then I thought about having to make lunch myself, so I made myself forget it again as fast as possible.”

Lin Yuewei said it with complete frankness; after she finished, she saw the corners of Gu Yanqiu’s mouth involuntarily lifting.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Did I laugh? I was just thinking that making a bowl of noodles isn’t exactly troublesome; there’s some in the fridge, and it wouldn’t even take ten minutes. If you’re really lazy, you can order takeout.”

Lin Yuewei wagged a finger at her solemnly and said three times in a row, “No.”

“What is it, then?”

“Besides being too lazy to make it, I’m also too lazy to eat it.”

This time, Gu Yanqiu genuinely didn’t know what to say. Seeing her speechless expression, Lin Yuewei couldn’t help bursting out laughing. “I’m kidding. How are you so easy to fool?”

Gu Yanqiu looked at her fixedly for two seconds, then suddenly turned her face away.

Lin Yuewei said softly, “You’re not actually angry, are you?”

Gu Yanqiu stayed silent.

“Really angry?” Lin Yuewei walked over. Gu Yanqiu deliberately kept her face out of sight.

Lin Yuewei couldn’t laugh anymore. Joking aside, she didn’t want to see Gu Yanqiu angry at all. She pressed one hand to Gu Yanqiu’s shoulder and used the other to cradle her face, slowly turning her back around until she was looking into a pair of calm, quiet eyes.

“I was wrong.” Lin Yuewei suddenly felt a little miserable inside and said quickly.

Gu Yanqiu shook her face free of her hand and said lightly, “I’m going to plate the food.”

“I’ll get you a plate.” Lin Yuewei rushed off to find one and handed it over with both hands.

“Wrong again; I need a long one, the kind used for fish.”

Having finally received exact instructions, Lin Yuewei went and found the right plate on her second try. Gu Yanqiu took it, plated the fish, and Lin Yuewei brought it to the table. Gu Yanqiu tilted her chin toward the side. “The ribs.”

“Coming right up.” Lin Yuewei called out as she came back in.

Two meat dishes, one vegetable, one soup. Lin Yuewei made amends by serving Gu Yanqiu a bowl of rice and placing it across from herself; she took an empty bowl and looked hungrily at the spread on the table.

Gu Yanqiu hadn’t really been angry in the first place; she’d only teased Lin Yuewei back when Lin Yuewei teased her, and who knew Lin Yuewei would take it seriously and act so apprehensive. Seeing her now, wanting to eat but not daring to, she found it amusing. A soft smile appeared at the corner of her mouth. “Eat.”

Lin Yuewei used her own untouched chopsticks to pick a piece of fish for Gu Yanqiu, then added a piece of rib, then two green vegetables; she made sure nothing on the table was neglected before saying, “You eat first.”

Gu Yanqiu gave her a meaningful look. After waiting until Lin Yuewei couldn’t hold back anymore and took a bite of fish, her eyes curving in satisfaction, she slowly picked up her chopsticks.

When Lin Yuewei took her first bite, she warned herself to be restrained. By the time she remembered the word restraint a second time, the fish on the plate in front of her was already gone, leaving only the head and a skeleton.

Lin Yuewei: “...”

Gu Yanqiu nudged the ribs toward her.

Lin Yuewei took a tissue and wiped her mouth, saying pointlessly, “I’ve been rude.”

“What’s rude about it with family? Eat. Worst case, we’ll go to the gym for two hours later. I’ll go with you,” Gu Yanqiu said. The villa had two rooms on the first floor opened up into a gym, so working out was very convenient. At a glance, Lin Yuewei clearly wasn’t someone without any fighting ability; she must come here often.

“I’m full,” Lin Yuewei said. “But I can go to the gym. I happen to have something to do.”

Something to do?

Gu Yanqiu thought: What something?

An hour later, the two of them went into the gym together.

Lin Yuewei was on the elliptical, with Gu Yanqiu right beside her. Lin Yuewei said, “Warm-up. After that, do you want to spar with me?”

Gu Yanqiu asked, “Why?”

Lin Yuewei explained, “I’m about to go into training soon, right? I wanted to find someone to test my skills on. Last time in S City, didn’t you pin me against the hotel door?”

“So you came to me?”

Lin Yuewei nodded.

“Any protective gear?”

Lin Yuewei shook her head. “Just a light spar.”

Gu Yanqiu said, “I refuse.”

Lin Yuewei was surprised. “Why?”

Gu Yanqiu said, “I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.” Seeing Lin Yuewei’s displeased expression, she added, “And I’m afraid you’ll hurt me. We’re perfectly fine at home; why do we need to fight? Whether it’s for real or just a light spar, I don’t want to point my fists at you.”

“It’s not fighting; it’s sparring.”

“Even sparring won’t do.”

“You’re being so stubborn.”

“Am I the stubborn one, or are you? If you want practice, you can go find anyone at any club. Why insist on me?”

“Because I trust you. Do you want me to go find those nasty men... and nasty women?” Lin Yuewei stared at her and blurted it out without thinking.

“...” For a moment, Gu Yanqiu actually couldn’t find a reason to refute that.

Lin Yuewei pressed her advantage. She hopped down from the elliptical, steadied herself, then wrapped an arm around Gu Yanqiu’s waist and kissed her. After several clumsy attempts at probing each other, they finally moved from shallow to deep and, for the first time, glimpsed the doorway into a real deep kiss.

Lin Yuewei sat down on a nearby piece of equipment and pulled Gu Yanqiu into her lap. The overwhelming sensation of lips and tongue meeting made Gu Yanqiu temporarily forget that detail. She held Lin Yuewei tightly, and Lin Yuewei could feel the other woman holding her just as tightly, pressed together seamlessly with not a sliver of distance left between them.

Lin Yuewei still hadn’t learned how to breathe properly. After tangling for a long while, she had to separate briefly to catch her breath.

Gu Yanqiu got down from her lap, pressed her against the back of the chair, then bent over, lifted the back of her neck, and kissed her with fierce, almost aggressive intimacy.

Lin Yuewei was a little dizzy.

She must not have studied seriously enough last night. How had she been completely suppressed without any ability to fight back? No, she had to take the initiative. She planted a hand on the equipment beside her and tried to rise, but Gu Yanqiu was one step ahead; she pinned Lin Yuewei’s shoulder and wouldn’t let her get up.

Lin Yuewei: “!!!”

How could Gu Yanqiu do that! No, she had to resist... failed to resist... so comfortable... she couldn’t let herself fall... keep resisting, still failed, and her body was getting softer and softer... it had turned into light kisses now; Gu Yanqiu must have secretly taken extra lessons. Was she this unprofessional even when she was at the company? Up, people who refuse to be slaves, she had to... forget it; better enjoy it.

After a complicated internal struggle, Lin Yuewei finally decided to give up resisting.

Losing once in a while was no big deal. Next time, she’d win it back.

Unconsciously, Lin Yuewei’s arms slid up to wrap around Gu Yanqiu’s long neck. Gu Yanqiu caught the change in her and was overjoyed, pressing the advantage.

Lin Yuewei was kissed until she could hardly breathe, but it felt too good to stop. Then she heard a strange sound.

Not the wet sound of tongues and saliva; something else.

She split off a thread of consciousness and realized the sound was coming from herself... ragged, breathless gasps as if she were about to suffocate, mixed with soft, involuntary whimpers.

Lin Yuewei listened more carefully. Gu Yanqiu was also breathing heavily, but there were no other sounds.

Seizing the gap when their lips parted, Lin Yuewei drew in fresh air and asked, “Why don’t you?”

“Don’t what?” Gu Yanqiu’s gaze was dazed with desire; her fingertips brushed lightly over Lin Yuewei’s soft lower lip as she let out a long breath, finally fully satisfied. She was recalling the theory she’d studied during the day and hadn’t heard what Lin Yuewei was saying at all.

Lin Yuewei paused. “Mm.”

“Mm?”

“Yes.”

Gu Yanqiu still didn’t understand what she was talking about and moved as if she wanted to lean in again, but Lin Yuewei wasn’t cooperating this time. “Answer my question.”

“What question?” Gu Yanqiu had no choice but to straighten up and look at her.

“That...” Lin Yuewei stared at her fixedly and said, “Mm.”

Gu Yanqiu: “???”

Lin Yuewei said anxiously, “Why are you so stupid?”

Gu Yanqiu: “...”

Lin Yuewei hugged herself with both arms, looked at her for a while, then went back to the elliptical and kept running.

Gu Yanqiu stood there blankly for a while, repeating that single syllable over and over in her mind—short, drawn out, twisting and turning—until, in one sudden flash, she finally understood what Lin Yuewei had meant.

Gu Yanqiu went online to look it up, then thought with a wry smile: how was she supposed to explain this to her? Was she meant to say it was because she was more sensitive? Or that everyone was different, that some people did it and some didn’t? No matter which answer she gave, Lin Yuewei probably wouldn’t accept it.

Lin Yuewei was good in every way except that, for some things, she absolutely had to fight for a win. She probably treated even this sort of thing the same way. What a headache.

After a while on the elliptical, Lin Yuewei secretly glanced back at Gu Yanqiu. Gu Yanqiu was sitting there playing on her phone. Suddenly struck by inspiration, Lin Yuewei secretly took out her own phone too and typed quickly into the search bar: Why do people make sounds when they kiss?

After clicking into one answer after another, Lin Yuewei: “...”

She almost wanted to slap herself. Why had she asked Gu Yanqiu that question? Gu Yanqiu was definitely laughing at her in her heart by now. She’d lost another round, and this time she’d handed it over herself.

She raised the incline on the elliptical and vented her excess energy with every forceful step.

At this point, Gu Yanqiu, who had finally organized her words, walked over and said with difficulty, “Yuewei...”

Sensing her movement, Lin Yuewei immediately lowered the incline ahead of time. Her feet practically flew, her whole body entering a kind of fanatical state of loving exercise; she paid no attention at all to what Gu Yanqiu was saying. Gu Yanqiu called her twice, but still got no response and had no choice but to stop.

What had originally been meant as a warm-up turned into an all-out workout. Lin Yuewei came down drenched in sweat, sat on a chair, and massaged her calves; Gu Yanqiu had already gone back first, and their promised sparring session never happened.

By day, Lin Yuewei had already finished most of the script tasks for the day. At night, she continued reviewing the earlier lessons and taking notes. These were usually things she did sitting on the bed, which meant that the two of them would have to spend about three or four hours awake alone together.

Lin Yuewei entered the room without so much as glancing sideways, grabbed her pajamas, then quickly slipped off in one smooth motion and disappeared into the bathroom, never once daring to look Gu Yanqiu in the eye the whole time.

The inexplicably snubbed Gu Yanqiu: “???”

What now?

Having a girlfriend in love was like June weather; her face changed whenever she wanted.

Lin Yuewei, whose face had changed, spent more than half an hour in the shower before crawling under the blanket. Her face still stern, she opened the tablet she kept on her side of the bedside table, put on her headphones, and didn’t even offer the usual greeting.

Gu Yanqiu opened her mouth. “Yuewei...”

Lin Yuewei’s scalp tightened.

Here it comes, here it comes; just as expected, Gu Yanqiu was definitely going to bring up the past and laugh at her, or else solemnly explain why she made that sound. Gu Yanqiu looked generous, but she was actually devious and petty and held grudges!

She absolutely could not give her that chance.

Lin Yuewei turned her head and interrupted Gu Yanqiu seriously. “I’m studying first. If you have something to say, wait until we’re asleep.”

Gu Yanqiu looked at her unusually earnest expression and couldn’t help nodding.

Lin Yuewei angled the tablet a little to make sure Gu Yanqiu couldn’t see what was on it, then opened the browser and typed in a search: how to make your girlfriend make sounds when kissing.

Gu Yanqiu, reading beside her, felt the person next to her behaving oddly and turned her head. Lin Yuewei’s cheeks were flushing red; her eyes were wide as she bit on her own finger with restraint, wearing the sort of embarrassed yet desperately eager look that said, Oh my god, so it can be like this too.

Author’s note: Lin A-tong always knows how to turn unfavorable conditions to her advantage﹁_﹁

Charge!

The Palace... emm, do your best.

This pair should be the purest of them all; even seasoned driver Shiliu couldn’t help blushing furiously.