After Filming a WLW Movie With My Straight Girl Crush 38

Chapter 38

Gao Quan was woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call. Seeing that it was from Qin Cong’an, her heart instantly went into arrhythmia. Forget this hour, even during the day, Qin Cong’an rarely called her.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” Gao Quan asked, a little flustered.

“It seems Xu Ling just left. Does her manager know?”

“Hmm?” Gao Quan thought she was still half-asleep, but she sat up. “Wait, I’ll go ask. Don’t hang up.”

“Mhm.”

Gao Quan left her room and knocked on Yi Huai’s door. The door opened quickly, and she also had a sleepy look on her face.

“Did you know Xu Ling left?”

Being asked this question, Yi Huai was instantly wide awake. “What!?”

She had just managed to get Xu Ling settled. Well, it hadn’t taken much effort. Xu Ling wasn’t that drunk and was still conscious. It was mainly that she had spent half the night comforting the inexplicably crying Xu Ling. Yi Huai had just gone downstairs and felt like she had only been asleep for a short while when she heard this news.

Where could Xu Ling go in that state? And it was the middle of the night!

Yi Huai immediately contacted Xu Ling. She felt a little relieved when the call connected, and then she started yelling at the other end.

Gao Quan returned to her own room and said to Qin Cong’an, “Her manager got in touch with her… I’ve noticed you’re quite concerned about Xu Ling?”

“Am I? I’m just afraid she’ll die on the road.”

“Is that so? I thought you two got along well.”

Gao Quan heard a soft laugh from the other end.

“Not really. We’re not close. Good night, Sister Quan.”

“Mhm, good night.” The call ended, and Gao Quan sighed. Not close? Honestly, she had thought that Qin Cong’an had finally made a friend on set.

Last night, watching them ride the motorcycle together, the atmosphere had been quite good. It didn’t seem like something you could describe as “not close.”

***

In the speeding taxi, Xu Ling deleted Qin Cong’an’s side WeChat account. Anyway, it would be deleted by Qin Cong’an sooner or later. She might as well be the one to do it.

Just as she finished deleting it, she received a call from Sister Huai. She guessed that the actress she had run into on her way out had told her.

Sister Huai was yelling on the other end. Xu Ling already felt like throwing up, and now she felt even worse.

“Were you this undisciplined when you were a model!?” the other end was practically roaring. “Leaving in the middle of the night without a word. Xu Ling, I’ve never managed an artist as difficult as you!”

Xu Ling clutched her stomach and replied, “I told you I was flying to Tokyo today.”

“What time is your flight? Isn’t it at 8:30! Where are you going now?”

“Anyway, I can’t sleep. I’m afraid I’ll only fall asleep at dawn, and then I’ll oversleep. So I might as well go to the airport first.”

Yi Huai was about to die of anger. Although the trouble Xu Ling had caused so far wasn’t that big, she had a premonition that Xu Ling would give her a big “surprise” in the future.

“Alright, alright, be safe. Call me immediately if you have any problems.”

“I know, Sister Huai.”

“Send me the license plate number!” the other end roared one last time before hanging up.

Xu Ling sent the license plate number and leaned against the car window, looking outside. The whole way, there were almost only streetlights, no people, and very few lights from the buildings. It was so lonely, completely different from the hustle and bustle of the day, and the brilliance of nine or ten o’clock.

Xu Ling had thought she couldn’t cry anymore, but the tears were still falling. How could this day have come so quickly?

Three months had sounded like a long time, enough to rehearse a farewell in advance. But no matter how many times she rehearsed, it couldn’t compare to the emotions that erupted when the cameras officially started rolling.

She had told her to get lost. It wasn’t an unexpected reaction. When she had called her, she was already on her way out.

But… it still hurt so much.

“Miss, shall I put on some music?” the driver suddenly asked.

Lost in her own thoughts, Xu Ling didn’t recognize the local dialect at first. It took her two seconds to understand. She nodded. “Okay.”

The moment she heard the intro, Xu Ling was stunned. It was actually a song by Jiang Ruzhi, the one about parting.

Xu Ling suspected the driver was doing it on purpose. He had probably noticed something. A gruff-looking uncle with a surprisingly sensitive heart… A stranger suddenly playing a song that so perfectly matched her current mood. In her daze, Xu Ling actually felt a little like laughing.

“Uncle, you have great taste. I’m her fan,” Xu Ling started to chat, trying to distract herself.

“Oh! Me too! I even went to her concert a while ago!”

How could she distract herself? She had gone too, with that person.

“I went too!” Xu Ling tried to forget. Anyway, Qin Cong’an hadn’t been very involved that day.

“What a coincidence! I went with my wife. Oh, we had a great time!” The uncle was also getting hyped up and started to sing along with the music.

Xu Ling couldn’t hold it in anymore. She also really wanted to say that line: I went with my wife.

But the uncle’s intoxicated singing was so funny, so off-key that Xu Ling almost forgot the original.

When Xu Ling got out of the car, her voice was hoarse. The taxi just now had been like a mobile KTV. They had been singing along the whole way. It was strangely stress-relieving.

Xu Ling found a relatively comfortable place in the airport and lay down. Apart from sending a message to Yi Huai to say she had arrived safely, she didn’t look at her phone. She didn’t want to.

She just stared at the high ceiling, never falling asleep, even though she was very, very tired.

After boarding, the moment the plane left the runway, Xu Ling finally fell asleep, a deep, death-like sleep. During the layover, she was only half-awake, until she arrived at Narita Airport.

The moment Meng Bai saw her swollen-like-lightbulbs eyes, she was scared to death. “What happened to your face? Did you cry? Why? Because of the wrap?”

Xu Ling nodded. It was indeed because of the wrap.

“Tsk, tsk, you’re quite sentimental. But it makes sense. Your first movie, and you’re the female lead.”

Xu Ling nodded again. It was indeed because of her first movie as the female lead.

“Say something!”

“My voice is hoarse,” Xu Ling said, her voice like a saw cutting wood.

Meng Bai said, “Oh dear. Then you’d better keep your mouth shut.”

A long-awaited trip to Tokyo. The first stop was the hospital. Xu Ling had tonsillitis and was prescribed some anti-inflammatory medicine.

Soon, she met up with Li Yan and Naoko. It had been four years since the four of them had last hung out together.

Li Yan had long left the fashion industry and was now an architect. She was in Tokyo for work this time, but she was dressed very stylishly. Xu Ling felt this was just Li Yan’s habit. After all, when they used to live together, even if she was just resting at home all day, she would still dress up carefully.

Naoko was even more decked out in a trendy designer brand. With a more exaggerated necklace, she could have been on the cover of ELLE magazine.

They went to a dessert shop. The four of them sat down, ordered desserts, coffee, and tea, and took many photos. The decor and desserts in the shop were very beautiful and looked great in pictures.

Xu Ling was a little listless, not in the mood, and not wearing any makeup. Only her hands were in the photos.

Xu Ling didn’t want to talk, just wanted to listen to them chat. She also had the excuse of having tonsillitis. But with the inflammation, she couldn’t eat any desserts, which was a pity.

Naoko’s Chinese was limited to a few simple phrases. The group communicated in English, which also allowed them to complain that the desserts here weren’t as good as everyone said, just very fancy-looking.

“It’s a pity Ling can’t eat.”

“How is that a pity? It’s a narrow escape.”

“This matcha cake is not bad. It has black honey inside, a good combination. Ling would probably like it. It’s very similar to the taste of the ones I make.”

Xu Ling swallowed, looking at what Li Yan had said, a little tempted.

Her swallowing was so obvious that it made Meng Bai laugh out loud. “You still love to eat the things Yanzi makes. It’s been years, and you still can’t forget.”

Xu Ling shook her head. Couldn’t forget, couldn’t forget at all.

Li Yan leaned her face closer to Xu Ling and asked with a bewitching smile, “Is it just my desserts that you can’t forget?”

Xu Ling looked at this bright, beautiful face with a hint of mixed heritage and tilted her head. “?”

“Nothing.” Li Yan sat back up straight and continued to eat her matcha cake.

Xu Ling didn’t pay it any mind and continued to immerse herself in her multiple sorrows. It was a good thing she had them with her. Otherwise, if she had gone home, she would have been bored to death alone.

But Meng Bai and Naoko exchanged a look. They had both sensed a hint of something intriguing in Li Yan’s words. Meng Bai, who loved gossip, immediately asked, “What do you mean? What else can’t she forget?”

Li Yan still said, “nothing,” which was driving Meng Bai crazy.

Li Yan even changed the subject and asked Naoko, “Didn’t you break up? How did you get over it? You look much better than Ling. Tell her. She looks worse than someone who’s just broken up.”

Naoko smiled brightly. “We got back together.”

“…” Xu Ling looked up at her, her heart breaking.

A few days ago, when she had heard from Meng Bai that she had broken up, Xu Ling had been worried that her post-breakup mood would affect her. But now, hearing this news, she felt even more pain.

Fine, as long as you’re happy. Just let me wither away.

Li Yan was also a little surprised. She smiled and said, “Then you still have time to hang out with us.”

“Of course. It’s rare for the few of us to get together,” Naoko said.

“Aren’t you the same?” Meng Bai reached out from a distance and tapped the ring on Li Yan’s ring finger. “What’s this? You have a partner too?”

Li Yan rubbed the ring on her hand. “This? Just wearing it for fun. It doesn’t mean anything. And I’m in Tokyo for work. I just took some time out today.”

Meng Bai still remembered what Li Yan had said earlier and tried to probe indirectly. “You took today off because of Xu Ling, right?”

“Yeah, you said she was coming today, and we haven’t seen each other in a long time.” Li Yan looked at Xu Ling, her expression normal. “It’s a pity she can’t talk.”

Meng Bai wavered between them being friends and more than friends. She knew that if Li Yan didn’t want to talk, she couldn’t get anything out of her, and Xu Ling was a ditz. But she would never give up on gossip.

Meng Bai asked, “So you’ve never had a partner?”

“I dated one, but we broke up.”

“Why?”

“She said I was too busy and flew around too much.”

“She?”

Li Yan shrugged, an “of course” expression on her face.

Indeed, Meng Bai had also seen some signs, but she had never explicitly seen Li Yan date a girl.

Xu Ling finally interjected in a hoarse voice, “What? Yanzi, you’re not straight?”

Li Yan burst out laughing and said to Meng Bai, “Do you know why I didn’t say anything just now? It’s useless. She didn’t even know I had a crush on her.”

“Whoa.” This was a big piece of gossip for Meng Bai. She leaned back. “You know, I didn’t see it either… but it’s not surprising.”

Naoko clenched her fist at the side. “I knew it!”

Only Xu Ling was in a mess… huh?

Li Yan drank her melon soda, enjoying Xu Ling’s stunned expression.

“But… cough,” Xu Ling’s throat was both uncomfortable and she was choked by this news. “You brought a guy home. I even told you not to.”

“Who? Oh, I remember. He’s gay.”

“…” Xu Ling was hit with a critical blow. She had always thought that guy was her boyfriend.

“I thought you could tell. It was so obvious.”

“No, it wasn’t!” After saying that, Xu Ling suddenly thought of something and had a shocked expression again. She had seen that guy later, being a little too intimate with another guy. But because she had always thought he had dated Li Yan, she had thought it was just brotherly affection. So…?

Meng Bai understood. “That’s just how Ling is. Once she’s set on something, she can’t seem to change her mind. Before she had met Naoko, when we were talking about her, she had always thought it was the Naoko in her class. The key is that the two of them are completely different except for the pronunciation of their names and their nationality. She insisted on thinking of them as the same person and only realized it two months later.”

Xu Ling’s mouth twitched. She was embarrassed just thinking about it.

Before, when she had heard them talk, she had been thinking, the Japanese girl in my class seems so introverted, not as individualistic as they say. But then she thought, people must have multiple sides, so she just treated them as the same person.

She had rationalized away all the inconsistencies.

Meng Bai asked Li Yan curiously, “How did you show your feelings?”

“I made her favorite desserts for her for two years.”

“No, that’s quite subtle.”

“Subtle?” Li Yan no longer thought it was subtle. Who would do that for someone for two years straight?

Xu Ling was dumbfounded again. “But don’t you like to bake?”

“I don’t dislike it, but I don’t like it enough to do it three or four times a week. Later on, I rarely did it, maybe once every one or two months.”

“You… got busy later, right?”

“Wasn’t I busy in my junior and senior years? I had to work on my thesis, my graduation project, attend brand events, and also bake cakes for you, and cook for you on the weekends.”

Listening to Li Yan list all the little things she had done for her, Xu Ling was in a continuous state of shock. She had always thought that Li Yan was a good senior. To meet someone like that while studying abroad was such good luck… and now she was saying it was because she liked her?

Li Yan wasn’t angry, or rather, she had already gotten over it. “I realized you never had feelings for me. I was tired. And just then, I got an offer from a professor I really liked at TUM, so I left.”

Meng Bai was enjoying the show. “So now…?” She now understood why Li Yan had said that earlier. She wanted to test if Xu Ling liked more than just her desserts, but Xu Ling hadn’t even understood the situation.

“I gave up a long time ago. Look at her now, she still doesn’t know. So dense. Let her go torture someone else,” Li Yan said with a smile, then said to Xu Ling, “I’m joking. Don’t be angry.”

“Oh… huh?” Xu Ling no longer knew what they were talking about. What was she joking about? Why would she be angry… her brain couldn’t keep up.

Li Yan took a call and said her boss was looking for her, so she had to leave. She had taken some time out, but she still had work to do.

Before leaving, she said to Xu Ling, “It was great to see you again. Don’t take my words to heart. Don’t feel burdened. By the way, I’m really looking forward to your movie.”

After a long time, Xu Ling’s brain finally managed to say, “Thank you.”

Meng Bai quickly said, “We haven’t taken a group photo yet. Xu Ling wasn’t in the pictures just now. Let’s take one last one. We don’t have to post it online.”

The four of them took a group photo together. A beauty next to a beauty. Xu Ling had a bare face and was a little dazed, but her eyes were no longer swollen. The photo still looked good.

Li Yan looked at the photo and helplessly wanted to pat Xu Ling’s head, but just shook her head. “I told you not to feel burdened. Look at your expression. I’m leaving. Bye.”

After parting with Li Yan, the three of them didn’t go anywhere else. Xu Ling was really not feeling well. She went back to the hotel and lay down to rest.

She only felt a little better after lying down for a day. She was woken up by Meng Bai to chat, asking her if she had something on her mind.

“Although I’ve never thought you were very smart, you’re clearly not right. You’re like a zombie has eaten your brain.”

“…I can tell you’re insulting me.” Xu Ling drank some water to soothe her throat, but how could she answer this question? She could only say, “Filming was too tiring.”

“It’s really not easy.” Meng Bai leaned on the sofa, editing photos while chatting casually. “What about Qin Cong’an? Is she tired? Didn’t you ask your senior for some advice?”

Xu Ling drank her water and didn’t answer. Why did she have to bring her up?

Meng Bai looked up. “I’m talking to you.”

Xu Ling pointed to her throat.

“Still hurts? You’re so pitiful.” Meng Bai stood up and showed her the edited photo. “I still want to post this one. Is it okay? The four of us were hanging out together. If I post a photo of three people, it’ll look like you were excluded by us. Look, I edited it to make you look good.”

“Don’t make such a big deal out of it. Just post it if you want.”

Meng Bai was suspicious. “Is your throat really okay or not?” It felt like she was selectively answering questions, and her voice didn’t sound like it did yesterday.

“…” Xu Ling chugged her water.

***

Qin Cong’an returned home. A few days ago, Gao Quan had had someone clean the room that had been empty for several months. As soon as she got home, she lay down on the sofa and turned on the TV to watch a movie, just as she always did.

In the past, she would have felt like she was recharging after being drained. But at this moment, she couldn’t relax at all. She felt like there should be something in her arms.

She took a cushion into her arms, but it didn’t fill the emptiness.

She only fell asleep after taking a sleeping pill, but she didn’t sleep well.

In her dream, Qin Cong’an even dreamed that Xu Ling said she was too naive to actually think their relationship was real.

After a few muddled days, Qin Cong’an still couldn’t help but open her various social media accounts, wanting to see if she had posted any photos from her trip to Tokyo.

Xu Ling’s account hadn’t posted anything, but she saw that Meng Bai had.

A group photo of the four of them. Xu Ling was standing next to Li Yan. Although she was looking at the camera, the angle of her face was turned towards Li Yan, who was next to her. The atmosphere between the two of them was strangely indescribable.

Xu Ling had said they were just roommates. Qin Cong’an had believed her at the time. But looking at it now, it seemed there was a question mark.

She was a little scared, a little afraid to believe Xu Ling’s words and the image she presented anymore.