She knocked for a long time before Shen Wenyi opened the door. Afraid Shen Wenyi would close it again, she quickly wedged her foot in the gap.
Shen Wenyi had her phone pressed to her ear, mid-call. She glanced at the foot, then spoke to the person on the other end. “Hold on, don’t hang up. Something came up. It’ll be quick.”
What did she mean, “something came up”? “Quick”? Was she planning to brush her off? And was that woman on the line again?
A sudden wave of discomfort washed over her. She had half a mind to reach out and hang up the phone for Shen Wenyi.
Shen Wenyi looked at her. “Is there something you need?”
She raised the ice pack in her hand. “I came to thank you. For the ice pack.”
Shen Wenyi’s tone was icy. “No need. I was simply returning the favor for the cooling gel you gave me last time.”
“Still, I have to thank you,” she insisted.
Shen Wenyi said, “Is that all? Can your foot leave now?”
“I have something else.”
“What is it? Say it quickly. I’m on an international long-distance call.”
An international long-distance call?!
It was that woman!
She met Shen Wenyi’s gaze, which held no warmth whatsoever. It was like looking at a stranger. Even during their most vicious fights in the past, Shen Wenyi had never looked at her like this.
She, usually so sharp-tongued, suddenly found herself at a loss for words.
Shen Wenyi said, “If you have nothing to say, I’m closing the door.”
“I do! I really do!”
“Then say it.”
“I…” she stammered.
Shen Wenyi sighed. “Foot out. I’ll release the safety chain and open the door.”
Huh? Before, it took endless coaxing just to get the door open. Why was she offering today?
“Don’t lie to me,” she said. “I won’t fall for it. The second I move, you’ll lock the door again.”
Shen Wenyi replied, “Give us both a chance to be frank and open with each other.”
Looking at Shen Wenyi’s stern, unsmiling face, she slowly pulled her foot back.
Shen Wenyi closed the door. A moment later, she opened it again, stepping aside to let her in. The phone call had already ended.
She walked over to the bed, ice pack still in hand. Turning back, she saw Shen Wenyi go into the bathroom and come out with a towel.
Shen Wenyi extended her hand. “Give me the ice pack.”
She handed it over. Shen Wenyi wrapped it in the towel and gave it back. “Press it against your face. It’ll help the swelling go down faster.”
She pressed it to her faintly throbbing cheek and settled into the small sofa.
The sofa was next to a narrow floor-to-ceiling window, half a meter wide and two meters long. Outside was the pitch-black night of the film studio, making the scattered stars in the distant sky seem a little brighter.
Shen Wenyi sat on the edge of the bed and looked at her. “Let’s not beat around the bush. You should understand my feelings by now. We’re not naive kids anymore; we’re both grown adults. I hope what happened today won’t happen again.”
What happened today? What was she talking about?
Her gaze drifted back from the window. “What do you mean?”
Shen Wenyi’s face was expressionless. “Changing the script without permission. Making inappropriate moves.”
She felt a twinge of guilt but still retorted with more bluster than conviction. “Don’t be so paranoid. I did that entirely to stay true to the character. Didn’t Director Chen himself say it was a good change?”
Shen Wenyi nodded slightly. “Fine. Let’s say I misunderstood your intentions. From now on, keep your distance. We are neither friends nor anything more than mere colleagues. Temporary ones, at that. Once this film wraps, we go our separate ways. There’s no need to force a connection. Do I make myself clear?”
Clear? How could she be any clearer?
Translation: Since we can’t be lovers, we’re cutting all ties, right?
But Shen Wenyi wasn’t wrong. There really was no bond between them, only accumulated resentment.
In the past, faced with such a blunt rejection from Shen Wenyi, she would have had her pride. She’d have stood up and left immediately.
But…
Now it wasn’t about pride anymore. It was about her life. A life worse than death!
If she didn’t get close to Shen Wenyi, how could she complete her mission? Without completing the mission, how could she regain her human form? Without her human form, she really would be better off dead!
Another day was almost over. Only five days left. And there was that huge bottle of body lotion waiting for her!
Now Shen Wenyi was suddenly saying these things. Her feelings about their relationship were already a mess, and now it was all tangled up worse than a pot of mapo tofu.
Go back to being pure nemeses? Impossible.
Be just friends? Shen Wenyi wasn’t willing.
Be just colleagues? What about the mission?
Did she have to resign herself to being a test subject?
No way! Being the top wasn’t the answer either. A woman with a woman… no, absolutely not! Listening to audio dramas was one thing, reading steamy fanfics was one thing. Some people love watching horror movies—does that mean they want to become a zombie?
There was a solid wall between fantasy and reality!
But she also didn’t want a life worse than death.
Between resigning herself to being a test subject and a fate worse than death, couldn’t she find some middle ground?!
Ugh, this was too hard. She wanted to cry.
Shen Wenyi pulled open a drawer, took out Little Xie’s little notebook, and handed it to her.
“I’ve signed it. Give it to Little Xie. Starting tomorrow, we have a purely professional relationship. Aside from work, don’t say a single word to me. I don’t want to hear it.”
She awkwardly took the notebook, flipped it open for a look, then glanced back at Shen Wenyi.
“I… I truly want to be friends with you,” she said.
Shen Wenyi gave a contemptuous scoff. “I might have agreed before. But now, it’s too late. Now that you know, I can never be friends with you.”
She forced a smile. “Don’t say that. We’ve had a relationship for so many years. Even if we can’t… we can still be friends.”
“What kind of relationship have we had all these years?” Shen Wenyi asked. “An antagonistic one?”
This was a topic she could latch onto. “And whose fault is that? You were always picking on me! Looking down on me! I was just acting in self-defense.”
Shen Wenyi countered, “You were the one picking on me. And you were the one looking down on me.”
“That’s a misunderstanding!” she quickly said. “A huge misunderstanding! How could I possibly look down on you? You’re so beautiful, so talented at your job. How could I…”
Shen Wenyi raised a hand, cutting her off. “Stop. I don’t want to hear another word. I just want you to remember what I said and then leave my room. From tomorrow on, unless work demands it, let’s have no further contact.”
Shen Wenyi stood, walked to the door, and pulled it open.
“Please leave, Teacher Jiang.”
She tried to salvage the situation, more meekly than she’d ever been in her life, stubbornly cozying up to this cold shoulder. “Don’t be like this. I admit I was wrong to pretend I didn’t know and run off that night. I shouldn’t have avoided it. But I… I truly didn’t want to hurt you. You know me. My orientation is very mainstream, I…”
“Leave!” Shen Wenyi commanded, her voice cold.
“I’m sorry. I apologize. Can we just talk this out properly?” she pleaded.
The answer was the same single word: “Leave!”
Seeing Shen Wenyi’s completely immovable stance, she knew she shouldn’t get worked up. But after years of fighting with Shen Wenyi, it was a habit she fell into reflexively.
She stood up, abandoning her pleas, her face hardening.
Reason was screaming: Shut up! Don’t say a word! Jiang Shiyang, don’t!
But what actually came out of her mouth was: “Shen Wenyi, stop acting so pure and noble, okay? Do you have any idea how many NGs you caused on set? You could have nailed the scene in one take. Why all the NGs? Wasn’t it just to kiss me a few more times?”
All the color instantly drained from Shen Wenyi’s face, just like that night when she’d brought up the words “Abnormal Heartbeat.”
A pang of softness hit her heart.
Don’t speak, she told herself. Why did she still say that?!
She wanted to smack her own mouth.
Shen Wenyi said, “Don’t flatter yourself. I wasn’t thinking about anything else during work. You haven’t forgotten the slap I gave you, have you? If I really wanted to kiss you more, why would I have slapped you? I could have done it after you forced the kiss.”
That actually made sense.
She felt her conviction waver.
No.
“Director Chen isn’t a first-time collaborator for you,” she countered. “You had to know his temper. I was just about to convince him, so why did you suddenly jump in? You deliberately brought up queerbaiting, deliberately provoked him into a rage. Wasn’t that just to kiss me?”
Go on, deny it again. Let’s see you deny it this time! I’ll counter every move until you have nothing left to say!
She braced herself for the parry.
Shen Wenyi looked at her, her red lips parting slightly. “Yes. I wanted to kiss you.”
Wh-What?!
Her fighting spirit deflated instantly, faster than a balloon with a hole poked in it. Shen Wenyi had completely thrown her off!
Suddenly, she couldn’t quite manage her facial expression. She had no idea what look she was giving Shen Wenyi as she stammered, “Wh-What did you say?”
Shen Wenyi gazed at her, her eyes deep and profound, and enunciated each word clearly. “Actually, it’s not impossible for us to be friends. But only halfway.”
A spark of hope instantly ignited within her. “What does ‘halfway’ mean?”
“Halfway means the first letter of ‘friend’,” Shen Wenyi replied.
She murmured to herself, “First letter… F?”
F?!
Her eyes widened slightly. She stared at Shen Wenyi, incredulous.
It couldn’t be what she was thinking, could it? It couldn’t be.
“I… don’t quite understand,” she said.
Shen Wenyi said, “I know you understand. It doesn’t matter if you want to play dumb. In any case, I can only be this kind of ‘half-friend’ with you. Otherwise, we are just work acquaintances.”
A headache bloomed. “Wait, no. That… let’s discuss this a bit more, I…”
Shen Wenyi looked at her with a bitter smile. “Don’t be naive. I’m just trying to tell you we can never go back to how things were. Whether as good friends or bitter rivals, it’s impossible now.”
Seeing that bitter smile, she suddenly felt a pang of pain. She had never spoken so openly and honestly with Shen Wenyi before. She never imagined their first such conversation would end like this.
Shen Wenyi pulled the door open again. “Go.”
She glanced at the door, then back at Shen Wenyi. She didn’t even know what she was thinking herself when the words flew out of her mouth: “Actually, I came to… borrow your shower. Mine is broken. The service desk said they can only fix it tomorrow.”
Shen Wenyi looked at her, shaking her head with a bitter smile. “Still as shameless as ever. Go shower at your assistant’s.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” she said. “Little Xie’s boyfriend came to visit her on set. They’re all lovey-dovey. It’d be… inconvenient for me to go there.”
In another part of the hotel, Little Xie suddenly sneezed. On the other end of the phone, her mother was saying, “If you can’t make it for New Year’s, then it’ll have to be after. But you must come back for a blind date! You’re not getting any younger! You don’t even have a boyfriend—are you planning on becoming an old spinster?!”
Little Xie rubbed her nose. “Mom, think about it. I’m with Teacher Jiang on set every day, surrounded by top-tier handsome guys. Why would I need a blind date? My standards are ridiculously high now. I’m not interested in anyone. Just stop pushing me.”
Jiang Shiyang stood near the door, smiling at Shen Wenyi. A fawning, sycophantic smile.
“Please, help me out,” she coaxed. “Didn’t you say the work-only relationship starts tomorrow? It’s not tomorrow yet.”
