Chapter 99
Seeing Lin Yuewei come out of the lounge, Wang Yuanyuan, who had been waiting anxiously outside, finally let out a breath. She hurried up to her in a few quick steps and asked in a low voice, “Are you all right?”
Lin Yuewei looked dazed, a trace of confusion on her face as she glanced at Wang Yuanyuan.
Wang Yuanyuan panicked. Oh no, something must’ve really happened.
She pulled Lin Yuewei aside and took out her phone, ready to call Chen Xuan. How could her artist be bullied on set? Just as Lin Yuewei came back to herself, she asked, “What are you doing?”
Wang Yuanyuan said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t rush in just now.”
Lin Yuewei: “……”
Wang Yuanyuan: “And the lounge’s soundproofing is so good, I didn’t hear a thing. Why didn’t you call me or send me a message?”
Lin Yuewei finally understood the nonsense she was talking about. She pinched the bridge of her nose and said, “Stop imagining things. Nothing happened.”
“Then she…” Wang Yuanyuan looked toward Qu Xuesong, who was leaning back in a recliner with her coat draped over her, eyes closed, resting leisurely.
“She just taught me a few things.”
“Don’t tell me…” Wang Yuanyuan made a sound of disgust.
Lin Yuewei lifted the notebook in her hand and knocked her on the head with it. “Filthy.”
Wang Yuanyuan pouted.
She said, “You were in there for almost twenty minutes just now; that’s enough for anything. You don’t even know how gossipy the crew is. Maybe tomorrow there’ll be rumors that you got slept by Qu Xuesong.”
Lin Yuewei smiled. “Wasn’t I already ‘slept’ long ago? I’ve been spending so much time with her lately.”
Wang Yuanyuan’s eyes went wide.
Lin Yuewei patted her shoulder in a seasoned way. “I read the script.”
Wang Yuanyuan lowered her voice. “Seriously?” She had a girlfriend, after all.
Lin Yuewei looked at her for a long moment, then broke into a bright smile. “Guess.”
“……” This time Wang Yuanyuan was the one thrown into disarray.
Then Lin Yuewei laughed again, showing a full mouth of white teeth. “I’m kidding. You believed that too?”
Wang Yuanyuan said, “You scared me to death.”
Lin Yuewei flipped through the script in her hands, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly as she thought: Qu Xuesong was right.
In this business, truth and lies were mixed together. You had to learn to see through things and find the truth beneath them; if you couldn’t, then at the very least, you couldn’t let other people lead you by the nose.
To be fair, Lin Yuewei did want to befriend Qu Xuesong, both professionally and personally. Professionally, Qu Xuesong was the highest-profile person she had met in this circle so far. If she wanted to keep climbing, frequent encounters with Qu Xuesong were unavoidable. As the saying went, leave someone room to back down so you can meet each other with ease; offending Qu Xuesong would bring her no benefit at all, and she had already gotten close to her before. If she suddenly backed away without warning, that too would count as offending her. She hadn’t expected Qu Xuesong to see through her so quickly, much less untie the knot in her heart.
Personally, Lin Yuewei admired Qu Xuesong very much, both for her looks and for her way of thinking.
Lin Yuewei adjusted her mindset, and her interactions with Qu Xuesong returned to normal. Qu Xuesong no longer brought up that day’s topic, but there really were whispers spreading privately around the crew. Lin Yuewei didn’t care. As long as there was no real proof, she wasn’t afraid of such rumors.
Once, Wang Yuanyuan watched her quietly for a long time before saying, “Weiwei, I feel like you’ve changed a little.”
Lin Yuewei kept her eyes on the script in her hands and didn’t look up. “Mm? How have I changed?”
Wang Yuanyuan said, “Less concerned with the world?”
Lin Yuewei smiled but didn’t confirm or deny it.
Wang Yuanyuan went on, “Is it true or not? You can’t lose your drive. You’re still a newcomer.”
She kept chattering on beside her, but Lin Yuewei paid no attention. At last, she sighed helplessly and said, “Can you be quiet for a while? I still want to become famous, so relax, okay?”
“...Okay.”
“Go get me a bottle of water.”
“Got it.”
As the wrap date drew closer and closer, Lin Yuewei wanted a more concrete sense of time passing, so she specially asked Wang Yuanyuan to buy her a desk calendar. She circled each day in red pen.
Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve…
A small incident came up right before wrap.
***
After that video call with Lin Yuewei that night, Gu Yanqiu ranked Qu Xuesong as the second most dangerous person after Shao Yasi. She regretted endlessly not having met Qu Xuesong before, but there was no way to make time for a trip to City N now. So she entrusted the matter to her good friend Cheng Guiyuan.
Cheng Guiyuan was currently in a period of recuperation. Unlike her old self, she stayed home every day, holed up and conserving her strength, preparing to take over her father’s grand enterprise.
“To the set?” Cheng Guiyuan was curled up on her pink princess bed. The jangling, extravagant princess bed matched her style in high school; after she went abroad, her parents had originally planned to get her a new one, but Miss Cheng wanted to act young, so she kept the bed. Sleeping in it made her feel only sixteen.
“I’m worried about Qu Xuesong.”
“Qu Xuesong? How did she get mixed up in this?” Cheng Guiyuan picked up the tablet beside her and typed the name into a search engine. The encyclopedia entry came up first; the rest were all assorted articles. Aside from proper drama promotions and interviews, there was also a flood of gossip and scandals.
Cheng Guiyuan clicked on a few at random and then closed them. Fame bred trouble. At the very least, she counted as half an insider, so she just glanced at these things for amusement and left no trace in her heart.
“You go help me see whether she has... any ideas about me. Isn’t your family invested in the show? It should be reasonable for you to go over and take a look. I really can’t get away.”
“Okay. My dad was just telling me to go work at the company anyway. I’ll tell him, and I’ll leave tomorrow.”
“Thanks.”
“Why are you always so polite with me? We even raised a cat together.” Cheng Guiyuan smiled. “When I get back, you have to treat me to a meal.”
Gu Yanqiu smiled and nodded. “Definitely.”
“Bring Schrödinger.”
“Okay.”
The two of them reached an agreement.
Cheng Guiyuan went downstairs to let her father know. He didn’t say much, only expressed relief that she had finally shaken off several days of listless gloom and was willing to do something useful. He made a call to the company, and the next day his own daughter would officially be on duty for a business trip.
***
Today, Lin Yuewei had a gunfight scene to film in a factory.
After the props team checked all the safety measures, they handed the prop guns to the actors.
The slate clapped. “Mist City, scene… take one, action!”
It was at this moment that the rich sponsor, Cheng Guiyuan, was led in by the producer. The filming area was surrounded by a ring of staff, and the director stood behind the monitor, staring fixedly at the screen. The producer said, “Everyone’s busy. Why don’t we rest first and wait until they’re done shooting…”
Cheng Guiyuan waved a hand. “No need. I’ll just watch how they act.”
The producer parted the crowd enough to let Cheng Guiyuan stand where she could see the factory.
This was Cheng Guiyuan’s first time seeing Lin Yuewei. Gu Yanqiu had done an excellent job keeping things confidential; she hadn’t even revealed Lin Yuewei’s name before. Cheng Guiyuan only knew that the one Gu Yanqiu married was the daughter of the Lin family, but which daughter remained a mystery. Cheng Guiyuan knew Lin Yuewei’s father, not Lin Yuewei herself; the two of them had never met. They might have run into each other in some setting, but they had no acquaintance.
Cheng Guiyuan was overseas, and if Gu Yanqiu wasn’t planning to say something in detail, she certainly wouldn’t waste time having someone investigate it. After she returned to the country, she did know about it, but she had taken the initiative to refuse to look at any information about Lin Yuewei. She wanted the full impact to come all at once when they met; that would be more exciting.
She hadn’t expected their first meeting to be like this, not with Gu Yanqiu linking arms with her and bringing her to her, but in a setting like this.
At a glance, Cheng Guiyuan spotted Lin Yuewei holding a gun and curled her lips with interest. She was a little different from what Cheng Guiyuan had imagined. Her features were sharper, the line of her jaw and side profile drawing out a fiercely cutting angle, and her eyes were locked onto the criminals ahead like a leopard’s.
Gunfire crackled nonstop.
Lin Yuewei rolled across the ground in one clean motion, moving from one piece of cover to another. She panted and shouted, “Da Wang, Xiao Jian.”
Two voices answered at once, “Here!”
“Cover me!”
“Yes!”
Lin Yuewei picked her moment and charged toward the thickest hail of bullets.
Even though they weren’t real bullets, the sound made by the effects was real. Lin Yuewei’s movements were extremely standard and sharp; the coach had taught her every move. If Cheng Guiyuan hadn’t been watching with her own eyes, she might have mistaken her for a professional stunt double.
Cheng Guiyuan thought: Not bad at all.
Under the cover of her side’s gunfire, Lin Yuewei successfully advanced several meters, found a new piece of cover, pressed her back against it, and panted heavily with both hands on the gun. She wore a lightweight long-sleeved shirt, with a black work vest underneath. As she breathed, her chest rose and fell continuously. Sweat ran down from her face along her jaw; her collarbones gleamed in the reflected light. Instead of looking indecent, it highlighted the beauty of female strength even more.
One sleeve of her shirt had slipped down during the run, hanging half off her arm. Lin Yuewei casually yanked it back up; the healthy, taut muscle of her shoulder and arm flashed across the camera for an instant.
Cheng Guiyuan swallowed and thought: Oh wow. Gu Yanqiu is too lucky.
Just as Lin Yuewei poked her head out, a stray bullet scraped past the side of her neck. If she had reacted a fraction slower, that shot would have hit her head dead-on. The makeup artist had painted a thin red wound on her neck; Lin Yuewei lightly brushed her fingers there and formed a mouth shape, as if cursing.
Cheng Guiyuan: !!!
A battle-damage look was way too hot!
If photography weren’t forbidden on set, Cheng Guiyuan would be taking a picture right now to send to Gu Yanqiu.
The producer beside her had been observing her for a long time. Seeing her stare unblinkingly at Lin Yuewei in the center of the set, he couldn’t help forming his own judgment. The person in charge of Chimo Media at the beginning was trailing behind this young lady, and when the young miss arrived, she went straight to the filming center. Most likely, she was here under the pretext of business to fangirl in private. The producer relaxed a little. He had thought the sponsor had come for some major inspection. Since she was here to fangirl, perhaps he could ask for a little more investment?
Lin Yuewei’s scene was mostly action. She had a foundation already, and she had also worked hard training on set during this period, so it was actually even easier to get through than an ordinary scene. Most of the time was spent setting up the environment, so by the time she walked down from in front of the camera, several hours had already passed.
Lin Yuewei took the wet towel Wang Yuanyuan handed her and wiped the dirt from her face first, while Wang Yuanyuan brushed the dust off her clothes. One of Yang Xiao’s requirements was to act, hear, and watch for real; if the script said to roll on the ground, then you rolled on the ground. He absolutely would not allow a gunfight scene where every cop on camera looked like a pretty-faced pretty boy.
Wang Yuanyuan said, “You must be exhausted. Want some water?”
Lin Yuewei had hoarsed her throat to the point she couldn’t speak when she first started filming, so she held out a hand to indicate she wanted water.
Wang Yuanyuan turned to get a bottle of mineral water. Lin Yuewei watched her move, but then a whistle sounded in her ear.
She lifted her head and saw a young, beautiful woman standing not far away.
The woman was tall, over 170 centimeters by estimation, wearing a white buttoned trench coat. Slim-waisted and long-legged, she had both hands in the coat pockets, her head slightly tilted. Her long hair fell forward over her chest, and the corners of her mouth were hooked in an overly enthusiastic smile that made her seem a little brazen, as though she were very familiar with Lin Yuewei.
Lin Yuewei searched through her memory for everything she knew about this face and confirmed she didn’t know her. So she turned away as if she hadn’t seen her.
Cheng Guiyuan’s smile turned more teasing.
The producer beside her noticed her expression and grew tense. He thought this young lady wasn’t just here to fangirl; maybe she was also here to pull some underhanded casting-couch move. What should they do now?
People outside often said there were many dirty dealings in the industry; producers, directors, even the smallest crew staff could enjoy plenty of romantic favors on set. The rumor spread and became exaggerated into something monstrous. It was true that some productions were rotten from top to bottom, but there were also people in the circle who maintained their self-respect all along. Whether producer or actor, it wasn’t as wild as outsiders claimed; at the very least, the atmosphere on Yang Xiao’s set was clean.
Just as Cheng Guiyuan took a step forward, the producer stopped her and said, “Miss Cheng, would you like to meet the director?”
Cheng Guiyuan was here to see Lin Yuewei. Why would she want to see the director? But in order to fit the role she was supposed to be playing today, she had no choice but to go along and chat awkwardly with Director Yang Xiao for a few minutes. In the middle of the conversation, she kept glancing toward Lin Yuewei, afraid she’d leave.
Yang Xiao noticed and said, “Miss Cheng likes Lin Yuewei?”
Cheng Guiyuan said, “Fairly much. I’ve seen her program.”
Yang Xiao kept talking without end. Cheng Guiyuan was growing impatient inside, but on the surface she remained polite and agreeable. Finally, when one topic ended, she cut in before the next could start. “I have something to do, Director Yang. Let’s leave it here for now.”
Yang Xiao said, “Miss Cheng!”
Cheng Guiyuan raised a hand at him without turning back.
This time, no one stopped Cheng Guiyuan. She strode toward Lin Yuewei.
But a figure blocked her path at that very moment.
Cheng Guiyuan looked down at the woman who was a few centimeters shorter than her and narrowed her eyes. It was Qu Xuesong. While she had been in the country, she had watched the other woman’s dramas before; she counted as a casual fan, and she had even specifically looked up her information before coming.
Qu Xuesong was clearly looking up at her from below, carrying a pressure that couldn’t be ignored. She smiled faintly and said, “And you are…”
“My surname is Cheng.” Cheng Guiyuan had always been very patient with beauties. Beauties were treasures of the universe. She stepped back two paces so that her gaze and Qu Xuesong’s met at a polite level, her words carrying a touch of warmth as she raised her brows and said lightly, “If you would?”
Qu Xuesong didn’t move aside. Still smiling, she asked, “What is Miss Cheng going to do?”
Cheng Guiyuan answered her patiently and gently, “Oh, I’m looking for someone.”
“Who? Would it be convenient to tell me?”
“The person I’m looking for is right behind you. Her name is Lin Yuewei.”
“She already left.”
“Huh?” Cheng Guiyuan shifted her attention away from Qu Xuesong and looked past her shoulder. Her expression changed immediately. Lin Yuewei was gone. She had seen her before Qu Xuesong stepped in; it was obvious Qu Xuesong had done it on purpose.
Qu Xuesong blinked innocently. “Her scene for today is finished.”
Cheng Guiyuan: “……”
***
[Qu Xuesong: The new woman is from the investor side. She seems to have taken a liking to you. I’ll stop her in a moment; slip out quietly while you can.]
The moment Lin Yuewei saw Qu Xuesong’s message, she looked toward the unfamiliar woman’s direction and happened to meet the other woman’s sweeping gaze. Her heart tightened. This was really a disaster falling from the sky.
She stayed where she was and packed everything up properly.
[Qu Xuesong: I’m going. Get ready to leave.]
After that came the scene Cheng Guiyuan saw.
After returning to the hotel, Cheng Guiyuan reported the situation to Gu Yanqiu. “This Qu Xuesong really is weird. I went to find Lin Yuewei, and she covered for her. I didn’t even get a single word in.”
“What exactly was it like?”
Cheng Guiyuan described it in detail.
Although Gu Yanqiu felt suspicious, she did not blindly believe Cheng Guiyuan’s one-sided account. Sometimes, from each person’s perspective, the thing they saw was different.
After she finished the call with Cheng Guiyuan, she sent Lin Yuewei a message.
[Xi Gu: My best friend went to the set today. Did you see her?]
Gu Yanqiu had asked Cheng Guiyuan to go to the set. No matter how nicely she put it, there was a little bit of surveillance in it. Rather than hiding it, she might as well say it openly. If Lin Yuewei found it uncomfortable, she could bring it up directly.
[Liang Mu: ???]
Lin Yuewei had just encountered someone who seemed to want to use the casting couch on her. She was still shaken. When she suddenly saw this message from Gu Yanqiu, she quickly connected the “best friend” with the woman who had smiled at her so familiarly.
[Liang Mu: Was she pretty tall, very pretty, and around the same age as you?]
[Xi Gu: Yes. She’s back in the country, had enough rest at home, and insisted on going over to see you.]
[Liang Mu: ……]
Gu Yanqiu waited for Lin Yuewei’s reply, puzzled, when a new message suddenly popped up in the chat window: [Liang Mu: Teacher Qu said she had ideas about me. I thought that woman was going to use the casting couch on me, so I got scared and ran away [smile]]
[Xi Gu: [smile]]
Lin Yuewei called immediately, her tone carrying complaint as she said, “Why didn’t you tell me in advance? You almost scared me to death.” She was, after all, still a newcomer with “no power and no backing.” If she really ran into someone like that, aside from physically refusing, she had no effective way to deal with it.
Gu Yanqiu apologized sincerely. “I’m sorry.”
Lin Yuewei was furious and spoke without thinking. “You clearly know what my situation is now; I’m being careful every step of the way. When you said she was coming, couldn’t you have thought a little more for me? Even sending me a photo beforehand so I could recognize her would’ve been fine. Can you stop causing me trouble?” As wrap approached, besides anticipation, Lin Yuewei was under immense psychological pressure. She was buried in the script day and night, studying it over and over, terrified of performing poorly at the last moment. She was already a hair-trigger away from blowing up.
Gu Yanqiu’s voice caught. The words she had been trying to use to coax her were all blocked back down her throat. “I caused you trouble?” If she hadn’t been worried that Qu Xuesong might be bad for Lin Yuewei, would she have lowered herself to have Cheng Guiyuan go to the set?
“I didn’t mean it that way.” Lin Yuewei tried to suppress her emotions. “I’m saying you should’ve told me in advance, so I wouldn’t have been caught off guard. If it hadn’t been for Teacher Qu today—”
“You’re fighting with me over Qu Xuesong?” Since Lin Yuewei had gone out to film, the two of them hadn’t had a single real fight. Gu Yanqiu had thought their relationship was already very stable.
“What does our business have to do with Qu Xuesong?” Lin Yuewei said in surprise. “I’m just grateful she helped me.”
Gu Yanqiu was furious. Qu Xuesong was like a thorn stuck in her heart. Every time Lin Yuewei mentioned Qu Xuesong’s name, her anger rose another level, and she threw reason completely out the window. “You’re grateful to her? What did she do that makes you grateful? My best friend just went to see you, to see what my girlfriend looks like. She cares about me and, by the way, cares about you too. What’s wrong with that? It was her who explained it to you as the casting couch, her who scared you out of your wits, not my best friend.”
“So in your eyes, your best friend coming to see me is more important than me getting scared, is that it? Gu Yanqiu, get this straight: she’s your best friend. I don’t know her, and I’m under no obligation to cater to her, much less to cater to you. I’m not your string-puppet doll for you to toy with as you please just because someone handed me over to you.”
Gu Yanqiu thought, What on earth is all this nonsense? She couldn’t help but raise her voice. “I never said you were a string-puppet doll.”
Lin Yuewei also raised her voice. “That’s exactly what you mean. I was scared, didn’t you hear me? The only thing you care about is your best friend. Have you even cared about my feelings?”
“I do care about you. I—” Gu Yanqiu paced back and forth in the room. “At the end of the day, this is all because of Qu Xuesong. If she hadn’t said something so random to you, wouldn’t everything have been fine?”
“Someone kindly helped me, and you’re blaming her for meddling?”
“I’m not blaming her for meddling!” Gu Yanqiu shut her eyes and said, “I admit it; I was jealous of her. I don’t want you to get too close to her!”
“Is your jealousy more important, or my personal safety?”
Without hesitation, Gu Yanqiu said, “Of course you’re more important.”
“Then why do you always interfere in my social life? Shao Yasi looks bad to you, Qu Xuesong looks bad to you; how many people do you actually find acceptable? Should I never have any friends and just have you? Would that make you happy?”
“What does this have to do with personal safety?”
“It doesn’t, but I just thought of it because of this.” Lin Yuewei pressed her. “So whoever you think is acceptable, I’ll go play with them, okay? Give me two names.”
“I clearly don’t mean that. Don’t make trouble out of nothing.”
“You’re the one being irrationally jealous. I’ve explained it so many times already. Shao Yasi and I are just friends, and Qu Xuesong and I are just friends too. Why do you never believe me?”
“I’m not saying I don’t believe you. I don’t believe them.”
“Do you know them better than I do? Have you spent every day and every night with them, or have I?”
Gu Yanqiu clenched the prayer beads in her hand, veins standing out at her temple. “So in the end, you’re just taking their side, is that it? Not only are you fighting with me over Qu Xuesong, you’re bringing Shao Yasi into this too. Have you been holding all this in for a long time?”
“I’ll give your own words right back to you: stop making trouble out of nothing.” Lin Yuewei said calmly, “I have nothing more to say. If you insist on thinking that way, there’s nothing I can do.”
Once, someone online had summarized several classic lines that make straight men’s arguments worse, and one of them was: “If you insist on thinking that way, there’s nothing I can do.”
The instant those words came out, Gu Yanqiu exploded. “I’m really going to be angry now.” The kind that was very hard to coax.
Lin Yuewei scoffed. “As if you weren’t already angry just now.” She had been yelling at her all along. This was the first time she had ever heard Gu Yanqiu speak so loudly; even the prayer beads couldn’t calm her down.
“I’ve already apologized for bothering you because of her. Now it’s your turn to apologize. You were the one who took your anger out on me for no reason first.”
“Apologize?”
“Yes.” Gu Yanqiu said. As long as Lin Yuewei apologized, she would speak properly with her and sort the misunderstanding out. A lot of what she said had been the opposite of what she really meant; everything could be explained.
“Are you a little too naive, Gu Yanqiu?” Lin Yuewei laughed.
Just as Gu Yanqiu was about to ask what she meant, the speaker emitted a burst of busy-tone beeping—
Lin Yuewei had hung up on her.
Gu Yanqiu turned the prayer beads in her hand twice and gripped them tightly, then spun around and kicked hard at the wooden bedframe.
Author’s Note:
Please stop saying President Gu is out of character. She’s still exactly the same outside; there’s no such thing as a character setting when it comes to a lover. If you’re still maintaining your persona, then how are you supposed to date?
They’re in the adjustment phase; they’ll make up very soon, don’t panic.
Cheng Huge Wronged: I was thinking that this pot really does need to be carried by me o(╥﹏╥)o
Shake me up already; I’ve got everyone seated.