Chapter 98
Gu Yanqiu narrowed her eyes and meowed with Schrödinger.
Lin Yuewei: “……”
Was Gu Yanqiu trying to kill her with cuteness because she thought her life on set was too comfortable? Did she not worry that if Lin Yuewei got cute-deathed, she’d be left a widow?
Without giving Lin Yuewei time to speak, Gu Yanqiu finished being adorable and ran; she reached out and pressed the hang-up button, the corners of her mouth lifted in a smile. “Wait for me to come back.”
The screen went dark.
Lin Yuewei rolled around on the bed. Compared with cuddling Schrödinger, whom she had only seen on video and never met in person, she wanted even more to hold Gu Yanqiu in her arms and make her meow for real.
The more she thought about it, the more her mind drifted off course. The study materials Jiang Congbi had sent her were mostly already read through. Some of them were fine; some were completely lacking in aesthetic appeal; the quality was all over the place. Jiang Congbi had said they were mainly for her to learn the basics; the rest would come naturally, and when it mattered, human instinct would take over.
Lin Yuewei believed it. Good or bad, gentle or rough, basic or advanced, she had roughly gone through all of it. The most important point in all those materials was sound; whether it was bold or tender, you had to make some noise.
What kind of sound would Gu Yanqiu make?
A sudden “meow” slipped into her mind.
Lin Yuewei: “……”
Gu Yanqiu was truly poisonous; she had indirectly destroyed all her fantasies in that area.
Lin Yuewei lay on the bed, tormented by cat noises for several minutes before she finally couldn’t stand it anymore and sent Gu Yanqiu a message. She didn’t type words; she sent a reversed smiling emoji.
Gu Yanqiu sent her the same one back.
Lin Yuewei was so annoyed she threatened her: 【Just you wait】
Gu Yanqiu replied: 【Okay~】
She even acted cute at her.
Lin Yuewei rolled around on the bed, unable to stop. She missed Gu Yanqiu so much she was almost going crazy. Even seeing her once and getting a hug would be good. She softened first and asked: 【Do you have any days off coming up?】
Lin Yuewei herself didn’t have any time off. Even if she could ask for leave, they were at the critical stage of wrapping up, so she wasn’t so clueless as to request leave now.
Gu Yanqiu replied with difficulty: 【I have to fly out of town this Saturday and Sunday】
Lin Yuewei bit her lower lip and typed one character at a time: 【It’s okay. Work comes first】
【Xi Gu: Or I can come over one night, then head back the next day?】
【Two Trees: No!】
【Two Trees: That would be too tiring. Stay home and wait for me to come back. You’re not allowed to sneak over. I’ll be angry】
Last time, Gu Yanqiu had flown over in the middle of the night; Lin Yuewei still remembered that Gu Yanqiu had barely slept at all that night. As much as she wanted to see her, she didn’t want Gu Yanqiu flying back and forth nonstop, even if the other woman was willing.
【Xi Gu: I can sleep on the plane】
Lin Yuewei directly sent back an angry emoji.
Only then did Gu Yanqiu realize she really would get angry. Twenty days then twenty days; she had already waited through three months. What was another twenty days?
Gu Yanqiu opened her phone and looked at it, only to realize that there was just one month left until the Spring Festival.
She and Lin Yuewei were already married, so they naturally had to face a fairly big problem: whose home would they spend the New Year at this year?
***
As the saying went, with wife and children waiting at home, one had warmth around the hearth. Lin Yuewei considered herself blessed with both wife and daughter; she was waiting eagerly for Gu Yanqiu to come back, while alone on set she felt homesick and pumped full of adrenaline at the same time, as if she had been injected with chicken blood. She could work with twelve parts of effort from ten.
Yang Xiao, standing behind the monitor, exclaimed in amazement, “What’s gotten into this kid today?”
Acting coach Teacher Chi smiled. “Who knows? Young people always have endless energy.”
Yang Xiao stroked his nonexistent beard and said, “What do you think of her?”
Teacher Chi said, “Pretty good.”
Yang Xiao looked pleased. “I originally took a liking to her looks. As for the acting, even if it’s a little lacking, so be it; as long as she isn’t hopelessly wooden, she can be trained.”
Teacher Chi asked, “And now?”
Yang Xiao said, “Hmm. Unexpected.”
The two of them exchanged a smile.
Teacher Chi said, “You noticed it too.”
What Yang Xiao noticed was that there was no sign of hardship or fatigue on Lin Yuewei. She was always full of energy; no matter what task was given to her, she could complete it. It couldn’t be said that she always finished quickly or perfectly, but she always did her utmost and turned in a result that satisfied people. And she was exceptionally relentless; in fight scenes, her punches landed with real force, so much so that even the martial arts coordinator was startled, unable to tell where that kind of persistence came from.
Once, while filming a drowning scene, Lin Yuewei had jumped into the water herself just to bring out that feeling; in the end, the crew had to pull her out.
What was talent? Yang Xiao felt that effort was also a kind of talent.
Lin Yuewei was quietly reciting from the script in her hands—her scenes for the day had already been shot, and there was no one else acting at the filming center. She had learned this trick from Qin Li: use every bit of available time. Qin Li wasn’t a naturally gifted actor either; he had climbed up steadily through one production after another, and Lin Yuewei had drawn a lot of experience from him.
A patch of shadow fell before her.
Lin Yuewei looked up. “Teacher Qu?”
Wang Yuanyuan gave up her little folding stool and stood a few steps away from Lin Yuewei. Qu Xuesong sat down beside Lin Yuewei with practiced ease and asked, “What’s going on with you?”
“What do you mean, what’s going on?”
“Your acting today looked like you were on drugs.”
Lin Yuewei raised a hand. “Careful now, you can’t go around saying things like that.”
Qu Xuesong smiled. “Breaking news! Newcomer Lin Yuewei caught using drugs!”
Lin Yuewei said helplessly, “Teacher Qu, that meme’s already old.”
Qu Xuesong put on a wounded expression. “I’m old.”
Lin Yuewei laughed. “Stop it, Teacher Qu.”
Qu Xuesong instantly returned to her usual smiling expression and asked, all smiles, “So tell me, why are you this excited?”
Lin Yuewei had been getting along fairly well with Qu Xuesong lately, but she didn’t trust people that easily. The entertainment industry was as deep as the sea; she felt she was still just a little shrimp, unable to see through people’s hearts. Besides Shao Yasi, Wang Yuanyuan, and her agent Chen Xuan, she kept one eye open around everyone.
Lin Yuewei said, “Isn’t it because we’re almost wrapped? I can go home for the holiday.”
Qu Xuesong said, “That’s nice.”
Lin Yuewei asked offhand, “Where are you planning to go when you get time off? Going home too?”
Qu Xuesong looked at her with quiet resentment.
Lin Yuewei: “……”
She had forgotten. Qu Xuesong never had a day off all year long; wrapping up one production only meant rushing from one place to another, with no real difference. Maybe it was even easier on set.
Lin Yuewei was just about to apologize when Qu Xuesong saw through her first and stopped her. “No need; that’d be too distant.”
Lin Yuewei smiled.
After smiling, she asked carefully, “Teacher Qu, why don’t you take a few days to rest? Like, go on a vacation or something.”
Qu Xuesong plucked at the weeds on the ground, her hands never idle as she wove something with them, and said with lowered eyes, “Alone. I don’t feel like moving.”
Lin Yuewei thought, stunned: How could that be?
As though she had read her thoughts, Qu Xuesong smiled and said, “Thinking it’s strange?”
Lin Yuewei honestly nodded.
Qu Xuesong’s fingers moved nimbly; two blades of grass wove back and forth in her hands, and a butterfly was already taking shape. “I’ve been too busy with work to even keep in touch with my parents, let alone friends.”
“Why..."
“Why so busy?”
“Mm.”
“I don’t know either.” Qu Xuesong said lightly, “I’m used to it. Once I stop, I don’t know what to do.” But sometimes she would also feel anxious because of that busyness, like a trapped beast. Her cage wasn’t locked, but once she got out, she didn’t know where to go; she could only keep roaring in frustration inside it.
Qu Xuesong said, “Put out your hand.”
Lin Yuewei opened her palm.
Qu Xuesong placed the butterfly in her hand. “Do you know why I like you?”
Lin Yuewei asked, “Why?”
Qu Xuesong looked at her. It seemed as if she had a lot to say, but in the end she didn’t say it. A soothing smile bloomed at the corners of her mouth. “Because you’re good-looking.”
Lin Yuewei: “……”
That was obviously fake. There were so many good-looking people in the entertainment industry; what kind of person hadn’t Qu Xuesong seen?
Qu Xuesong said, “Don’t forget me.”
Lin Yuewei: “Huh?”
Qu Xuesong rubbed her head. “I treat you as a friend.”
Lin Yuewei nodded in confusion. “I won’t.”
Qu Xuesong stood up and left, leaving Lin Yuewei with a head full of questions.
Wang Yuanyuan leaned over and bumped Lin Yuewei’s shoulder lightly. “Teacher Qu’s trying to seduce you again?”
Lin Yuewei shot her a glance. “Go away. What seduce?”
No matter how Lin Yuewei felt about it, Wang Yuanyuan always carried a trace of wariness toward Qu Xuesong, always feeling that she had bad intentions toward Lin Yuewei. If she wasn’t after something, then she must have something to hide.
Wang Yuanyuan curled her lip, thinking to herself: Fine, don’t believe me. In any case, I’m not going to.
Lin Yuewei looked at the butterfly in her hand, unsure what to do. If she took it home, Gu Yanqiu would definitely be angry. But if she threw it away, it would be Qu Xuesong’s goodwill. Besides, she had just told her not to forget her; by rough estimation, this should count as a gift.
In the end, Lin Yuewei had no choice but to report it to Gu Yanqiu after she got back:
【Two Trees: How am I supposed to deal with this? Qu Xuesong gave it to me [picture]】
【Xi Gu: ……】
Gu Yanqiu had not met this Qu Xuesong during her last visit to the set; that was now her biggest regret. This Teacher Qu, who had been mentioned over and over in Lin Yuewei’s mouth, had caused her an enormous sense of crisis.
Gu Yanqiu called her on video. Lin Yuewei sat cross-legged on the bed and waved at her, “Hi.” She seemed to be in a pretty good mood.
Gu Yanqiu said sourly, “You’re this happy just because you got a gift from Teacher Qu?”
Lin Yuewei’s eyes curved. “No; I’m happy because I saw you.”
Gu Yanqiu’s anger eased, and she asked, “Why did this Teacher Qu give you this?”
Lin Yuewei explained what had happened that day, not missing a single word. Gu Yanqiu listened with a frown and said, “What do you mean, ‘don’t forget me’? It makes it sound like you and she have something going on.”
Lin Yuewei: “………………”
What on earth was in Gu Yanqiu’s head? An ordinary sentence could be twisted into something so far off the mark.
Lin Yuewei said, “She probably meant it in a friendship way.”
Gu Yanqiu shook her head. “That first time you told me about the grass butterfly you picked up in the crew, wasn’t that one woven by her?”
Lin Yuewei blinked. “Which one? When?”
Lin Yuewei’s goldfish memory about this matter made the corners of Gu Yanqiu’s mouth lift slightly. “At the beginning. You even took a picture and sent it to me. Later I went and learned to weave one too. It should’ve been not long after filming started.”
“Oh.” Lin Yuewei remembered and said, “It was woven by her, but that time was an accident.”
As Lin Yuewei recalled it for her, Gu Yanqiu said, “Do you really think it was an accident?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what if she deliberately drew your attention? Wasn’t it from that time on that your impression of her slowly changed?” Gu Yanqiu said. “Last time I visited your set, you even brought her up to me.”
“No way.”
“Let’s assume,” Gu Yanqiu said, “I’m assuming Qu Xuesong had feelings for you a long time ago, but knew her reputation was a mess and would definitely make you dislike her, so she used this kind of method to slowly open your defenses.”
Lin Yuewei said, “Isn’t that a bit too dramatic?”
Gu Yanqiu shrugged and said very seriously, “Not dramatic at all; and they’re all very ordinary tricks.”
Lin Yuewei glanced at Gu Yanqiu’s expression on the screen. She was holding a string of agarwood Buddhist prayer beads in both hands, slowly flicking through them as they rested on her lap. The calmer Gu Yanqiu looked, the more Lin Yuewei could feel the storm beneath that calm; the contempt in her words had suddenly become a little funny.
Lin Yuewei asked on impulse, “Then what are the advanced tricks?”
Gu Yanqiu: “………………”
She coughed lightly and turned her head expressionlessly to call for Schrödinger.
Lin Yuewei was dying of laughter inside.
Gu Yanqiu had also had a cute day today.
“In short... in short, be careful. You’re on set, and I can’t keep an eye on you.” Gu Yanqiu held Schrödinger in her arms. The tips of her ears were a little red, hidden by her hair so Lin Yuewei couldn’t see them.
“Got it, wife. I only like you.” Lin Yuewei suddenly tilted her head and said in a spoiled voice.
Gu Yanqiu blushed even more and moved farther away from the camera, lifting a hand to smooth her long hair.
Lin Yuewei and Gu Yanqiu exchanged a few sweet words until both of them were red-faced, then hung up the video feeling entirely satisfied.
Gu Yanqiu’s words hadn’t stirred nothing in her heart. The next day, when she looked at Qu Xuesong, there was more thoughtfulness in her gaze. Taking advantage of Qu Xuesong’s break in the makeup room, Lin Yuewei quietly asked Wang Yuanyuan beside her, “Do you think Teacher Qu is deliberately getting close to me?”
Wang Yuanyuan rolled her eyes at her with great vigor and said with heartfelt anguish, “Good heavens, you only just noticed?”
“Not that kind of getting close. More like the kind with a purpose, like trying to hit on me.” If Lin Yuewei were sensitive to emotions, she wouldn’t have spent so long guessing with Gu Yanqiu. In matters like this, the outsider sees clearer than the person in it. Asking Wang Yuanyuan was perfect; however, Wang Yuanyuan probably had some prejudice against Qu Xuesong, so after Lin Yuewei asked, she emphasized, “No black-filter bias three feet thick.”
Wang Yuanyuan swallowed back the first word that rose to her lips and said, as objectively and fairly as she could manage, “Yes.”
Lin Yuewei: “…………”
She didn’t believe it. “Give me an example.”
Wang Yuanyuan said, “There are so many people in our crew, and she isn’t close to anyone else; she’s only close to you. If that’s not hitting on you, what is it?”
Lin Yuewei said, “You’re such a hater.”
Wang Yuanyuan said with an air of weary age, “Since you already had a conclusion in mind, why ask me?”
Lin Yuewei stared at her for a long while and felt that she still had a black-filter bias. But after repeated reminders from Gu Yanqiu and Wang Yuanyuan; mainly Gu Yanqiu, really, she started to feel uneasy. During breaks in filming, she no longer went looking for Qu Xuesong and just nailed herself to her own spot.
The next day, afraid she was making it too obvious, she went to find Qu Xuesong again. Qu Xuesong showed no suspicion, and Lin Yuewei sighed in relief.
She thought she’d kept the distance very well. Three or five days passed like that, and by Lin Yuewei’s own routine, she went to find Qu Xuesong again; but Qu Xuesong wore a stern expression and looked at her coldly.
“Is this fun?”
Lin Yuewei flinched.
Qu Xuesong’s new assistant closed the door to the rest room. Lin Yuewei wanted to follow her out, but under Qu Xuesong’s gaze she didn’t dare move.
Qu Xuesong said, “I thought you were different from the others.”
Lin Yuewei immediately felt guilty. “Teacher Qu, I..."
Qu Xuesong cut her off. “Who did you hear new rumors from this time?”
Lin Yuewei mumbled, “I’m not...”
“Not?” Qu Xuesong stood up. She was a little shorter than Lin Yuewei, but her presence still firmly overshadowed hers. “Sit down.”
Lin Yuewei looked around.
Qu Xuesong said, “The sofa.”
Lin Yuewei sat with her knees together and both hands resting on them, so nervous she looked like a grade-schooler. If it were normal, that would be one thing, but lately Lin Yuewei had been guarding against Qu Xuesong, so she was guilty. She was still a newcomer in the circle; she hadn’t met many people, and she was terrified of offending people as well as of disappointing them.
Qu Xuesong sat on the other sofa beside her.
She crossed her legs and leaned lazily back, one hand draped over the back of the couch and the other supporting her chin. She looked Lin Yuewei up and down, then sneered, “With guts like yours, how did you have the nerve to survive in the entertainment industry?”
Lin Yuewei: “……”
Today was another day of being looked down on for her intelligence by Qu Xuesong.
Qu Xuesong said, “After all this, you’re just worried I’m one of those collection freaks, right?”
Lin Yuewei didn’t dare answer.
Qu Xuesong asked, “Do you know how that reputation came about?”
Lin Yuewei shook her head, very slightly.
Qu Xuesong said succinctly, “Hype.”
Lin Yuewei: “Huh?” That was different from what Qu Xuesong had told her last time.
Qu Xuesong said, “Hype is for buzz. In today’s industry, buzz equals heat, and heat is everything. Some people don’t even have scandals, yet they manufacture one just to stir up heat. Do you know XXX?”
Lin Yuewei said, “I know.”
Since her debut, the words “plastic surgery” had followed XXX everywhere. Even now, she still hadn’t cleared it up. Could it be that...
Qu Xuesong said, “Her team did that themselves; they bought trolls to blacken her over plastic surgery, then issued statements denying it, over and over again, repeatedly building the heat. In any case, she’ll never admit it. There’s no need for a trick to be new; if it works, that’s enough. Then there are people like you, silly little thing, who remember her name through that kind of hype.”
Silly little thing Lin Yuewei: “……”
Qu Xuesong said, “Later others copied her too, but none of them were as effective. The first person to eat the crab gets the meat; the second person can only pick up scraps behind them.”
Lin Yuewei gathered her courage and asked, “Then what does that have to do with you? Are you hype too?”
Qu Xuesong shrugged. “Yeah. Otherwise, why would a pure and innocent—this is meant as a compliment, by the way—little fairy persona of mine suddenly have such black material explode out overnight? All these years of rumors and speculation flying everywhere; that was all hype.”
Lin Yuewei frowned. “Aren’t you afraid...” Qu Xuesong had debuted with a pure, innocent goddess image. If she chose such an aggressive method of hype, wasn’t she afraid of destroying her reputation completely?
Qu Xuesong said, “My team decided it at the time, and I was getting older. A transition was imminent, so I simply used the chance to act in roles I wouldn’t have taken before, like the role I’m playing now. There’s no way I would have taken it a few years ago.”
After thinking it through, Lin Yuewei realized that seemed to be true. Qu Xuesong used the scandal to hype up her image, then took the opportunity to transition. That team was really quite formidable; they dared take such a huge risk, and in the end they still succeeded.
“The most important thing is that Teacher Qu is good at acting. Later you took a few shows, two of them blew up, and those rumors could naturally be broken without even trying.” Lin Yuewei praised her sincerely, ignoring the faint strangeness she felt deep down.
A trace of amusement flashed quickly in Qu Xuesong’s eyes. When Lin Yuewei tried to catch it, all she saw was Qu Xuesong’s indifferent gaze.
Qu Xuesong said, “From then on, that label stuck to me. Aside from making it a little harder to find someone to date, there’s not much else. It’s just that the hype was too successful, so many people in the industry also think I’m really that kind of person.”
Lin Yuewei said apologetically, “Teacher Qu, I’m sorry.”
Qu Xuesong waved it off. “It’s fine.”
Lin Yuewei said, “From now on, I...”
Qu Xuesong stared at her without blinking, and Lin Yuewei’s heart tightened under that gaze; the rest of her words got stuck in her throat.
Qu Xuesong smiled brightly. “You believed it?”
Lin Yuewei: “……”
She was completely thrown into disarray.
Qu Xuesong’s smile was light, a small dimple appearing in one cheek. “Don’t you think my team is a bunch of idiots? A female celebrity hyping her chaotic private life? Are they eager for me to die young, or do they think my reputation is so good they have to ruin my brand on purpose? You think everyone in the industry is stupid? Getting toyed around by my team like that?”
“Then...” Lin Yuewei backed further into the sofa.
“I really am a collection freak, you know~” Qu Xuesong put on that signature smile that was halfway between a smile and not a smile, overlapping with the female lead in Mist City, who had plenty of scenes opposite the police officer Lin Yuewei was playing. An alarm started blaring in Lin Yuewei’s brain.
Qu Xuesong suddenly curved her lips and smiled, raised two fingers, pressed them lightly to her own lips, and flicked them toward Lin Yuewei. In a relaxed tone, she said, “There are only the two of us in this rest room right now. Didn’t you realize you’ve walked a sheep straight into the tiger’s mouth?”
Lin Yuewei swallowed. Her body and mind were both on guard. If Qu Xuesong dared do anything inappropriate to her, she’d make sure Qu Xuesong never smiled again. The reason she didn’t immediately bolt for the door was also because of Lin Yuewei’s own intuition; she kept feeling that things couldn’t be this simple.
Qu Xuesong glanced at her wolf-like eyes, leisurely sizing her up from head to toe as though considering where to start first.
The two of them held each other off for several minutes.
Then Qu Xuesong suddenly sighed. “What am I going to do with you?”
Lin Yuewei: “???”
Qu Xuesong smiled and blinked. “Everything I just said was a lie.”
“...” Lin Yuewei no longer knew what expression she was supposed to make.
Qu Xuesong shook her head and laughed. “What I told you the first time was true. In the early years, my agency team wasn’t very good. Back then I was competing with Tang Xinyuan to the point of bloodshed. Although we were both classified as part of the Four Little Flower Girls, her acting, the dramas she took, and her commercial value were all worse than mine; she ranked dead last among the four. But her team was very powerful, and they kept spreading my black material everywhere. Their methods were so high-level that I almost started to believe I’d sleepwalked out to collect stamps. At the time even my agent and assistant asked me whether I’d actually done those things.
“Of course I never did, but my own team didn’t pay much attention to me and kept dragging their feet, all the way until I changed to my current agent. But by then the damage had already happened; the negative impact it caused couldn’t be clarified away anymore. Thankfully the dramas I took later were all pretty good, and I was lucky enough to become hot again and successfully transition. Otherwise, I would’ve already gone down under that wave back then. But Tang Xinyuan still hasn’t let me go. Looks like she wants to keep this up until one of us is dead. Fortunately, I’m not afraid of her now. She can blacken me, and I can have people blacken her too. Who’s afraid of whom?”
Lin Yuewei listened, dumbfounded.
Qu Xuesong stood up and rubbed her head, smiling in exasperation. “Silly thing. From now on, you should call yourself Saffu.”
Lin Yuewei needed a little time to digest all this.
Qu Xuesong’s eyes curved into crescent moons as she smiled. “The two of us stayed alone in this rest room for so long; if word gets out, my stamp collection will have another stamp in it. Thinking about it makes me a little excited.”
Lin Yuewei: “……”
“Believe everything people say.” Qu Xuesong muttered under her breath, patted her shoulder twice, and walked to the door with her hands behind her back. Raising her voice, she called, “Use your brain a little, Saffu.”
Author’s Note:
Teacher Qu should count as a fairly important supporting character, I think.
Unfortunately, her story is destined not to be fully written in the novel.
The reason Lin is so submissive in front of Teacher Qu is because she’s a newcomer, and because the entertainment industry is unfamiliar to her. If it were somewhere else, she wouldn’t be like this; especially not when facing the Forbidden City.
Tomorrow they wrap, go, Lin!