After We Broke Up, She Started Pursuing Me [Entertainment Industry] 12

Chapter 12

Shi Qin could always control her facial expressions perfectly.

She knew her best angles, which smile was the most captivating.

Just like now. In a school uniform, she had shed her usual bewitching aura. When she smiled with her eyes squinted, she had a certain pure look. Most of the people present were drawn in by her.

Zhou Jinsi was no exception.

“Wow, I knew Shi Qin was beautiful, but she’s even more exquisite in person. She’s like a Barbie doll, and her face is so small…”

Shen Nan, standing beside her, couldn’t help but exclaim. From the perspective of the same gender, people’s aesthetic standards are often more critical. To be praised so generously for one’s appearance by someone of the same sex meant one was truly breathtaking.

Hearing this, Zhou Jinsi pursed her lips, her eyes dimming.

Back then, she too had been drawn in by her outstanding looks and charisma. The more she got to know her, the more infatuated Zhou Jinsi became, from her initial awe at her beauty to her later appreciation of her unique presence.

It had to be said, in her heart, Shi Qin was, and always would be, one of a kind.

Zhou Jinsi snapped back to her senses and sighed softly. When she looked up from the empty space toward them again, her eyes met Shi Qin’s.

It was a very direct gaze. Zhou Jinsi furrowed her brows slightly. In the next second, she saw Shi Qin nonchalantly continue her conversation with Yin Chenxuan.

“…”

Zhou Jinsi turned her head away, a faint bitterness rising in her heart. She suddenly didn’t understand the point of her coming here.

“Would you two like to come sit in the lounge with me?”

Shen Junnan suddenly turned to look at them. The last scene of the night was finished, and they could wrap up. But Shen Nan was his relative, after all, and a junior at that. It wouldn’t hurt to be a little more hospitable.

Shen Nan found everything about the film set novel and exciting. It was still early, so she naturally agreed. But Zhou Jinsi’s mind was a mess. She just wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible, to stop seeing Shi Qin laughing and talking intimately with someone else.

The three of them went back to the director’s lounge together.

Shen Nan chatted with Shen Junnan about family matters for a bit, while Zhou Jinsi sat to the side, listening, her thoughts having long since drifted off to who knows where.

Until the curtain at the doorway was pulled aside. Shi Qin first poked her head in to look at them, then let the curtain fall, saying in a very natural tone, “Director Shen, what are you chatting about?”

Shen Junnan smiled. “Oh, this is my younger sister, and this is her friend. They came to take a look.”

“What a coincidence.”
“She’s my friend too.”

Shi Qin looked at Zhou Jinsi with a gentle smile. If Zhou Jinsi didn’t know the truth, she might have really believed they had become good, close friends.

It wasn’t contrived at all; in fact, her smile was very sweet.

Shi Qin casually pulled a chair over next to Zhou Jinsi and linked her arm through hers intimately, smiling sweetly at her. “I didn’t expect to run into you here. We’re really fated to meet.”

“I thought we’d never see each other again after graduation.”

From the moment she got close, Zhou Jinsi’s heart was in her throat. Now, with Shi Qin so near, she felt completely ill at ease under her gaze.

She could only swallow and pretend to be calm. “Yes, what a coincidence.”

Shen Nan and Shen Junnan watched their interaction. They couldn’t put their finger on what was strange, but they felt the atmosphere was inexplicably odd.

“Oh, by the way, Xiao Shi,” it was Shen Junnan who finally broke the strange silence.

“You and Yin Chenxuan can interact more on set. We’re going to be filming some behind-the-scenes footage now, you know what I mean, right?” Shen Junnan gave Shi Qin a look.

Shi Qin, of course, understood. During filming, behind-the-scenes content was essential, especially for romance stories. It could enhance the sense of chemistry between the leads. The best-case scenario was to achieve an effect so realistic that it blurred the lines with reality, which could also generate some buzz for later promotions.

As an actress, she naturally had to cooperate with the production’s requests. Besides, she and Yin Chenxuan already had a “couple” marketing campaign.

“Okay, I understand,” Shi Qin agreed. But just as the words left her mouth, she felt the body she was pressed against grow stiff. She glanced over covertly and saw Zhou Jinsi staring blankly at the floor, lost in thought.

“I hope Chenxuan and I can bring more buzz to our film.”

Shen Junnan: “Good, good. You two can also discuss the script more with each other in the future. All of that can be part of our behind-the-scenes content.”

Shi Qin: “Hahaha, we communicate often. You just haven’t seen it, Director Shen.”

Shi Qin smiled naturally, telling a lie without even batting an eye.

But Zhou Jinsi, sitting beside her, couldn’t take it anymore. She stood up, bowed slightly in apology to everyone, and said, “I’m sorry, I have to go home now. I still have some things to take care of.”

With that, Zhou Jinsi walked out without giving Shi Qin a single glance.

The moment Zhou Jinsi left, Shi Qin stood up as well, a faint smile on her lips. “Director Shen, I’m going to go catch up with my old friend.”

“Oh, okay…”

One after the other, they left. The lounge suddenly held only Shen Junnan and Shen Nan, who looked at each other, baffled.

…

“Zhou Jinsi.”

Ever since Zhou Jinsi had come out, Shi Qin had been following right behind her. Wherever she went, Shi Qin followed. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, Zhou Jinsi stopped at the corner of the stairwell.

“What on earth do you want?”

Zhou Jinsi turned around, glaring at her with a frown, her voice even rising a few decibels. This was the first time Shi Qin had so directly felt this person’s anger.

The little one seems really angry.

Shi Qin just stared at her, her silence fanning the flames of Zhou Jinsi’s anger even more.

She felt like a doll in Shi Qin’s hands now, her emotions completely manipulated by her, with no restraint.

“What on earth do you want? Shi Qin.”

The person in front of her still didn’t speak. The two of them just stood there, staring at each other. After a long moment, Shi Qin crossed her arms and took a step toward her.

She raised an eyebrow and parted her lips. “What are you angry about? Zhou Jinsi.”

That single sentence made Zhou Jinsi freeze.

“Didn’t you say we broke up? Then what are you angry about now?”

Shi Qin’s words were sharp and to the point, like a sword piercing straight into the deepest part of Zhou Jinsi’s heart.

She frowned and lowered her head, unable to refute it.

But Shi Qin had no intention of letting her go just like that. She wanted to see what this person was really thinking.

She closed in on Zhou Jinsi step by step. Zhou Jinsi was slightly bent over. Shi Qin tilted her head up, just enough to get close to her ear, and said in a voice only the two of them could hear:

“Are you angry because I can still treat you as a good friend, or… because you saw me with Yin Chenxuan…”

Zhou Jinsi: “?!”

“I’m not.”

Without thinking, Zhou Jinsi shot her head up and reflexively denied it.

But Shi Qin just continued to look at her with a smile, not saying a word.

The little one is getting flustered.

Zhou Jinsi looked at Shi Qin’s direct gaze, which seemed to see through to the depths of her soul. She couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt and turned her head away, swallowing hard.

“Really not?”
Shi Qin raised her eyebrows again and took another step closer.

After a few seconds, hearing her question again, Zhou Jinsi’s emotions began to shift. She slowly lifted her lowered head and looked at Shi Qin’s all-knowing expression. It was as if she were a tiny ant, caught in her palm, with no escape.

Shi Qin could completely grasp her feelings, even her thoughts. And her? A silly, emotional idiot, naturally insensitive to emotions. In her relationship with Shi Qin, it seemed she had never truly understood her.

Just like how she could suddenly show affection to Yin Chenxuan just now, then her sudden forwardness toward her didn’t seem so strange anymore…

Thinking it over and over, the last image that surfaced in Zhou Jinsi’s mind was from graduation night. She was on the phone, looking for someone, and there she was, just ahead, intimately embracing her old flame…

A string in her heart snapped once again.

Shi Qin watched the person in front of her staring blankly, not saying a word. She thought she was tacitly admitting that she was indeed angry about her being intimate with someone else. Didn’t that prove that Zhou Jinsi still cared about her?

At this thought, a glimmer of joy rose in Shi Qin’s heart. She was about to say something more when Zhou Jinsi’s cold gaze met hers, making her freeze.

She had never seen Zhou Jinsi look at her with such a cold expression. Never.

Zhou Jinsi seemed to have made a big decision. After taking a sharp breath, she refocused her gaze on Shi Qin.

She spoke. “I’m not angry because of you. I’m angry because I don’t like you always bringing up our past in front of others, intentionally or not. I said it before, it’s all in the past.”

“There’s really no need, Shi Qin.”

“We… can’t go back.”

Shi Qin, I don’t want to make the same mistake again.

Zhou Jinsi’s words were spoken calmly, as if devoid of any emotional fluctuation. But only her trembling voice and the hand hidden in her sleeve, its fingertips squeezed white, betrayed her true state of mind.

She was scared. She was really scared.

Not scared of finding out that she wasn’t in Shi Qin’s heart, but scared that, even if she knew she wasn’t, if there was a chance, she still wouldn’t be able to stop herself from wanting to get close to her…

She had never said anything harsh to Shi Qin before. This time, she would be the cruel one, no matter what Shi Qin thought of her.

This relationship ends here.

Zhou Jinsi looked at Shi Qin, who was frozen in place, seemingly unable to react for a moment, her expression unreadable. Zhou Jinsi sighed softly and brushed past her.

When the sound of footsteps had completely disappeared from the stairwell, a single tear slowly slid from the corner of Shi Qin’s reddened eye.

She hated crying the most.

She hated this feeling of being abandoned the most.

Abandoned… why, do they all like to do this…

Zhou Jinsi…

In an instant, Shi Qin’s fists clenched tightly. Her closed eyes reopened. She raised a hand and silently wiped away the wet tear from her face. She looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror on the wall, and only after confirming that her expression was back to normal did she head upstairs with a blank face, preparing to return to the lounge.

Zhou Jinsi didn’t know that Shi Qin had never been one to take the initiative, much less one to invest her feelings in another person.

If she didn’t truly have her in her heart…

“Huu…”

Shi Qin stood at the entrance to the rooftop, collecting her emotions. She forced the corners of her mouth up, practiced a smile, and only then did she walk back in…