Acting Out of Character (GL) - Chapter 21

“Sister Luo, Sister Luo, open the door! Don’t make me leave. The cheating scandal isn’t actually what everyone outside says it is… I can explain!”

Su Qun continued lingering outside the door, alternating between crying and whining through it. The commotion she was making left Luo Jingyi somewhat baffled.

Who exactly are you acting spoiled with?

What makes you think you can act spoiled with me?

Luo Jingyi remained in the entryway, while Chen Ge hid near the bathroom door, not daring to come out.

Chen Ge decided she should remain there for now.

After all, Luo Xin had just been cheated on, and now her ex-girlfriend had come to her door demanding a chance to explain. No one would want an unfamiliar person witnessing such a private matter.

Su Qun pressed her forehead against the door. Her intermittent sobbing sounded particularly eerie in the hotel corridor late at night.

Luo Jingyi had no patience for this. Her voice was colder than ice.

“You can choose between being removed by hotel security or by the police.”

Through the door, the woman outside sounded somewhat muffled. Chen Ge could only occasionally make out one or two words.

But she heard every word and every trace of Luo Jingyi’s tone perfectly clearly and could not help shuddering.

Sister Luo truly was forceful—and genuinely frightening.

Tears hung in Su Qun’s eyes.

“…Sister Luo, how can you be so heartless? This genuinely wasn’t entirely my fault! Why won’t anyone believe me? Do you know how much effort I spent fighting for this role? Why should one minor issue in my private life invalidate my entire existence? What does my personal life have to do with my acting? What does it have to do with my career? I’m a victim too! Open the door and let me explain everything to you in person! Sister Luo!”

Like someone who had lost her mind, Su Qun began alternating between ringing the doorbell and pounding on the door.

Chen Ge caught several broken phrases: it wasn’t entirely my fault, one minor issue invalidating my entire existence, let me explain…

Chen Ge had never dated anyone, but she still understood such attempts to evade responsibility. Hearing them made her somewhat angry.

She poked half her head out and looked outside. Luo Jingyi was leaning beside the door with her head slightly lowered.

Was she feeling hurt?

Chen Ge became quite worried.

In reality, Luo Jingyi was silently reciting Buddhist scriptures to suppress her urge to grab a knife and commit murder.

Only after Su Qun finished her lengthy speech did Luo Jingyi respond. Having finally suppressed her agitation, she was no longer angry.

“You don’t need to explain anything to me. To be honest, I thought you were unsuitable from the beginning. But Old Tao and the others strongly recommended you, and I didn’t have a better candidate at the time, so I reluctantly agreed.”

Chen Ge thought: So they met through a blind date. Do lesbians go on blind dates now too?

“Whether it was entirely your fault or not, you disappointed the people who once trusted you. That is a fact. What you should do now isn’t come here and cause a scene. Go back and carefully consider what you intend to do from now on. As for me, there is absolutely no possibility of my taking you back.”

Sister Luo was decisive and never looked back. Chen Ge felt somewhat envious. She was truly free and unrestrained, able to pick things up and put them down without hesitation.

“If you leave now, I can still preserve some of your dignity. If you insist on remaining here, hotel security and the police can take turns giving you lessons in proper conduct. And if that still isn’t enough, I can immediately post something on Weibo and make you even more famous.”

Sister Luo even knew how to resolve disputes through Weibo. She might appear older, but she certainly kept up with current trends.

Luo Jingyi’s words were effective. Su Qun stopped pounding on the door and began crying quietly instead.

Forget Luo Jingyi—even Chen Ge was becoming furious with her.

At that moment, Luo Jingyi noticed Chen Ge.

Since she had already been seen, Chen Ge stopped hiding and openly approached.

“Sister Luo, do you need my help?”

Luo Jingyi became slightly interested. She stepped back, moving farther from the door, and asked, “How do you plan to help?”

Chen Ge said seriously, “If you don’t want to see her, I can go outside and speak with her for you. I’ll take her away first. I have a way to stop her from returning.”

Chen Ge stood proudly with her chest raised. Although her voice was quiet, it carried great confidence, as though she could march into battle for Luo Jingyi at any moment, personally spill Su Qun’s blood, then handle both the killing and burial.

Luo Jingyi laughed. “I couldn’t tell you were so formidable.”

Chen Ge said firmly, “At the very least, I can make her stop bothering you.”

“What impressive method do you have to prevent her from coming back?”

“I’ll take her somewhere and talk with her. I’ll keep talking all night until she collapses.”

Luo Jingyi said, “What kind of strategy is that? You’d injure the enemy by a thousand and yourself by fifteen hundred. Stop causing trouble. You haven’t even fully recovered from food poisoning, yet you’re already planning to talk to someone all night? What could you possibly discuss? You couldn’t even manage your preliminary interview properly. Aren’t you afraid you’ll collapse first?”

Chen Ge asked, “What does ‘collapse first’ mean?”

“It’s a local expression. It means you’ll be the one who gives out first.”

Chen Ge thought about it and smiled.

Because of their shape, when Chen Ge’s fox-like eyes were not smiling, their outer corners tilted slightly upward, forming an elegant rising curve with the inner corners. They made her appear intelligent and alluring.

But whenever she smiled sincerely, her eyes narrowed into two crescent moons, making her look adorably foolish and easy to bully.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Luo Jingyi smiled and said, “Besides, it’s already so late, and you’re alone in my room. How would you explain our relationship?”

At that moment, Luo Jingyi had absolutely no idea that Chen Ge had mistaken the actress outside—who was desperate to appear in one of Luo Jingyi’s productions—for Luo Jingyi’s ex-girlfriend.

Luo Jingyi had only made that comment to tease this young lesbian.

Unexpectedly, the question fit Chen Ge’s assumptions perfectly and struck directly at the heart of the matter.

Their conversation flowed exceptionally smoothly, yet their thoughts were moving in completely opposite directions. Nothing they meant matched what the other understood.

At Luo Jingyi’s reminder, Chen Ge froze slightly.

That’s right. If I go outside like this, the woman out there will almost certainly misunderstand.

Chen Ge knocked some sense into herself internally—although I’m straight, Sister Luo and her ex-girlfriend are both gay. If she sees us alone in a hotel room in the middle of the night, it would be strange if she didn’t misunderstand.

How could I use a straight person’s way of thinking to understand gay people?

Both believed themselves straight and assumed the other was gay. Neither Luo Jingyi nor Chen Ge could have imagined that a miraculous understanding was binding them together.

They exchanged a few quiet words, never expecting the room’s soundproofing to be so poor. Su Qun heard two people speaking inside.

Although she could not understand the conversation, she could clearly distinguish the voices of two different women.

Relying on her many years of experience struggling within the entertainment industry, Su Qun formed a guess.

“Sister Luo, am I… interrupting something?”

Was there someone inside Screenwriter Luo’s room?

And was that person a woman?

Hearing her from closer range, Chen Ge wondered whether this ex-girlfriend outside had a slight accent.

She pronounced the word “Luo” rather strangely.

But the minor detail merely brushed across Chen Ge’s mind. She did not investigate further.

The instant Luo Jingyi heard her question, she raised her voice and followed Su Qun’s assumption, snapping:

“If you know you’re interrupting us, then get lost!”

Even Chen Ge jumped at the sudden outburst. Su Qun’s heart trembled, and she finally said, “Sorry for disturbing you.”

Then a series of dull footsteps gradually faded outside.

After waiting a while and hearing nothing else, Luo Jingyi headed farther into the room.

“She’s gone.”

Chen Ge asked, “Does she think that you and I…?”

“Isn’t that good?” Luo Jingyi said. “Who cares what she thinks? As long as she leaves.”

“That’s true…”

“Did she frighten you? You haven’t even dried your hair.”

Luo Jingyi picked up her phone, only then remembering that it had run out of power and she had forgotten to charge it. She finally connected it to the charger.

A charging symbol appeared on the black screen.

Chen Ge said, “I’m brave. I wasn’t frightened,” then went to pick up the hair dryer.

When she returned holding it, she asked uneasily:

“Sister Luo, what if she genuinely misunderstood what just happened?”

Sitting before the dressing table and removing her makeup, Luo Jingyi said, “Then she misunderstood. People misunderstand me constantly anyway.”

As someone who had only recently misunderstood Luo Jingyi’s relationship with Feng Yunxin, Chen Ge’s mouth twitched twice.

“I’m only worried she might come back and bother you.”

“If she comes back once more, I’ll call the police immediately.”

Luo Jingyi had been harassed plenty of times over the years. Someone on Su Qun’s level could at least understand human language and did not count as a serious problem to her.

Luo Jingyi glanced at Chen Ge.

“Stop worrying about her. Dry your hair quickly. You’re dripping water everywhere. Your bathrobe is getting wet too. Doesn’t that feel uncomfortable?”

Luo Jingyi’s numerous peculiarities did not only apply to herself. Whenever someone nearby did something she found unpleasant, she could not resist reminding them.

She spoke too quickly and with a trace of impatience. Afterward, even Luo Jingyi felt that it had sounded somewhat inappropriate.

The young woman had been trying to help resolve her problem. When would she have had time to dry her hair?

Now that the trouble had left, Luo Jingyi had immediately begun nagging her. Wasn’t that slightly unreasonable?

Unexpectedly, Chen Ge showed no temper at all. After acknowledging her, she immediately followed Luo Jingyi’s instructions and went to dry her hair.

She did not do it outside, afraid the dryer might scatter water from her hair throughout the room. Instead, Chen Ge returned to the bathroom.

After drying her hair, she remained inside for a while. Luo Jingyi did not know what she was doing, and more than ten minutes passed before she emerged.

“I’m finished,” Chen Ge said. “You can shower now, Sister Luo.”

As an actress, Chen Ge did not need to maintain a perfect appearance at every moment like an idol, but she still paid considerable attention to her image.

Whenever they met during the past several days, she had always looked neat, and her long, straight hair had appeared glossy and smooth.

But now that she had just dried it, her hair was slightly fluffy and frizzy, making her resemble a small lion.

Chen Ge used the hotel comb while walking toward the door, then looked outside through the peephole.

“What are you doing?”

Holding her pajamas against her chest, Luo Jingyi looked at her. Her gaze fell on the comb.

Luo Jingyi could not stop herself from watching Chen Ge brush her hair because combing could cause strands to fall out.

The hotel carpet was dark. If a strand of black hair fell onto it, there was a high chance no one would notice.

A sudden, hidden, cold strand of hair separated from a human body… concealed somewhere Luo Jingyi did not know about.

To Luo Jingyi, that was utterly terrifying.

If Chen Ge truly dropped hair onto the carpet and they could not find it, Luo Jingyi might spend the entire night thinking about it and be unable to sleep.

“I’m checking whether she came back.”

Chen Ge slowly combed her hair, gathering every loose strand in her hand without missing a single one.

She pulled out a tissue, placed the few strands she had brushed out inside, and folded it into a neat little square. She even tucked the outermost corner securely into a fold.

The square wrapped the hair so tightly that it could not possibly come loose. Only then did Chen Ge throw it into the rubbish bin.

Luo Jingyi finally released a breath of relief. She moved her intensely focused gaze away and went to shower.

Chen Ge also exhaled heavily.

No one was outside. Sister Luo also seemed satisfied with how she had disposed of her hair and no longer stared at her like a school disciplinarian who might produce a pointer at any moment.

Luo Jingyi closed the bathroom door.

She had originally assumed she would need to clean the bathroom before using it after someone else. The thought alone had already made her tired.

Unexpectedly, when she entered, the entire bathroom had been wiped perfectly clean without a single trace of water.

Had the bath towels not shown signs of having been used and carefully refolded, no one would have been able to tell that Chen Ge had showered there.

Luo Jingyi looked around the clean, refreshing bathroom and felt comfortable.

This child was young but remarkably observant.

Luo Jingyi had never said anything aloud, but Chen Ge must have been quietly observing her and noticed her various habits. That was why she had carefully wrapped up the loose hair and cleaned the bathroom—to avoid making Luo Jingyi uncomfortable.

Standing beneath the showerhead, Luo Jingyi experienced, for the first time while sharing a space with a stranger, the feeling that she did not need to worry about anything.

It was even somewhat comfortable.

When Luo Jingyi emerged, Chen Ge was speaking on the phone.

“Mm… Yes, I haven’t been in Beijing recently. I’m working somewhere else.”

Sitting on the sofa, Chen Ge spoke softly into the phone.

“Don’t worry, Mom. There are many people in the production, and everyone is very kind. They take excellent care of me. Yes, it’s in the south, in a place called Li Village. No, it’s quite far from home. There are two provinces between us.”

She was already in her mid-twenties, yet she was calling her mother in the middle of the night.

Luo Jingyi used a cotton swab to absorb the water inside her ears.

She’s so obedient? She isn’t chatting with a girlfriend or anything?

After thinking about it, Luo Jingyi understood.

Of course. The child had already said, “No one can replace Teacher Luo Jingyi’s place in my heart.”

She had probably remained single until now because she was faithfully guarding the white moonlight in her heart.

Thinking this, Luo Jingyi began feeling somewhat sorry for her.

These days, young people with taste and unwavering devotion like Chen Ge were genuinely rare.

Author’s Note:

Luo Jingyi: You’re the unofficial Oscar-winning actress of the imagination world and a grandmaster of reading comprehension.

Chen Ge: Doesn’t that description fit Sister Luo herself?

Luo Jingyi: “…”
(Unable to refute it.)