After Flirting with the Wrong Stand-in, I Overturned (GL) - Chapter 39

“I really have to go.” Seeing that the girl before her showed no reluctance, Ning Chun said with a trace of sadness, “Father has urged me many times. The Southern Rong are attacking, and I must go on campaign with him.”

“You… on campaign?” Qin Yuantang, having already recognized this fake “Ning An,” asked skeptically.

“Is it not allowed?” Ning Chun patted her chest and said proudly, “I am ten years old this year; I can go to the battlefield.”

“Riding a horse past the slanted bridge, the building is full of red sleeves waving—tell me, if I return after winning a victory, would I get to enjoy such a scene?”

Qin Yuantang pondered silently for a moment. With a face like Ning Chun’s, in a few more years, walking down the street would indeed elicit such a scene.

Ning Chun suddenly leaned in close to the girl. “What do you think of me? I heard Father say many people have childhood betrothals,” Ning Chun’s young face looked a bit troubled. “I don’t have one. How about you marry into the Ning Estate?”

“It’s much better than the life you have now.”

Qin Yuantang didn’t give her a second look and walked straight back toward the Cold Palace. This person was talking nonsense again. Ning Chun hurriedly chased after her; the two girls, one following the other, left their laughter echoing in the quiet, distant long street.

It was an ordinary afternoon, and neither of them knew that their next meeting would be at a welcome banquet.

Rong Yu and Lin Shuyan sat nearby, watching the two child actors finish practicing their last line. No one knew where the director had found these two little girls. The one playing young Qin Yuantang had a nose and chin extremely similar to Lin Shuyan’s, and the young Ning Chun looked seventy to eighty percent like Rong Yu, especially when she grinned—a perfect mini-version of Rong Yu.

The childhood scenes weren’t many, about ten minutes in total. After a few scene transitions, the two children were done. “Rong Yu, Shuyan,” Director Wu walked over to arrange the upcoming scenes with them, then turned to busy herself with something else.

Lin Shuyan planned to review her lines once more. With a casual glance, she spotted Lin Xuejin. The photographer was hurriedly peeking outside, and after a moment, Lin Shuyan saw a woman walk up to her.

The woman said something to Lin Xuejin, who then took her hand, seemingly coaxing her. After another moment, Lin Xuejin pressed her palms together in a pleading gesture.

Looking at the person opposite Lin Xuejin from afar, Lin Shuyan had an idea; it must be her girlfriend. She had heard Lin Xuejin say that her girlfriend was a fellow student at her university. Shouldn’t she be at school? Did she come all this way just because she was worried?

A smile touched Lin Shuyan’s lips, and she suddenly thought of the previous two sets where Ren Xuan had visited. Perhaps she could find a day with fewer scenes to go back once. Yecheng wasn’t far; a flight was only a bit over an hour. She could leave at night and be back by the next morning.

Unfortunately, Ren Xuan wouldn’t allow it. When Shuyan had mentioned it once, Ren Xuan had interrupted her immediately. If she pushed further, Shuyan worried Ren Xuan would see through her little scheme. Even if Ren Xuan didn’t say it, Shuyan felt as if she were being stripped bare and looked at.

Once the scene finished filming, Rong Yu said a hurried goodbye and left. Lin Shuyan packed her things and got into the car, but someone suddenly slipped into the cabin.

“Why are you here?” Shuyan watched as she moved cautiously, as if afraid of being discovered, feeling very puzzled.

“She,” Lin Xuejin said unhappily, “doesn’t want me staying with the crew.”

The “she” referred to her girlfriend. Shuyan thought about it and understood. “Why? Is she worried it will affect your studies?”

“My grades are excellent; doing part-time work here doesn’t delay my studies at all,” Lin Xuejin looked up in frustration. “This is such a great opportunity, yet she insists on taking me back.”

“Teacher Lin, can I hide at your place tonight? I ran off too fast just now. My ID and everything are in my bag; I’m afraid I’ll run into her if I go back to get them.”

“You don’t plan to go with her?” Shuyan thought of the person in her own heart, then looked at Lin Xuejin’s girlfriend who had traveled all this way. She smiled and said, “Even if it’s in the same city, it wasn’t easy for her to come here. Avoiding her won’t solve the problem.”

“What right does she have to control me?” Lin Xuejin muttered softly. “We don’t even have an official status yet.”

She thought she hadn’t said it aloud, but Shuyan heard the mumble. “That’s not what you told me the week before last?”

“Investigation,” Lin Xuejin reacted quickly. “She’s still in the investigation period.”

Shuyan was amused. Since the driver hadn’t received Shuyan’s signal, the car hadn’t moved. Shuyan naturally couldn’t really take Lin Xuejin with her, so she pushed the car door open a crack for her.

Outside the car, someone was already standing there, straight as a board, staring fixedly at the car door. Shuyan said, “Go on, she’s waiting for you.”

As she looked up, her gaze met that person’s. The woman was wearing a light gray trench coat and white shoes, looking casual and relaxed. But her gaze was very strange—Shuyan couldn’t quite describe it. After waving goodbye to Lin Xuejin, she hurriedly closed the door.

“What’s wrong?” Chen Yan also took a peek outside.

“Nothing.” Shuyan shook her head. In truth, she felt a lingering fear. She wanted to take another look but didn’t dare. Thinking back, she felt as if she hadn’t even seen the woman’s face clearly—it was too strange. Shuyan closed her eyes.

Chen Yan thought she was tired and wanted to sleep, so she thoughtfully signaled the driver to adjust the temperature. The distance from the set to the hotel wasn’t far, but the road was a bit congested. After about twenty minutes, Chen Yan knocked on Shuyan’s door.

“Teacher Lin, we’re here.”

“Mhm.” Shuyan hadn’t expected to actually fall asleep. Twenty minutes wasn’t nearly enough rest, but she felt as if a long time had passed. Upon waking, the unease the woman had caused her seemed to have vanished.

Shuyan gave a slight smile, suddenly realizing. A girlfriend travels a long way to find her partner, only to see her partner crawl into someone else’s car—isn’t it natural to be jealous and look at her with a guarded gaze?

If she went back to see Ren Xuan tonight and saw her chatting happily with another woman… Shuyan shook her head to clear the nonsense. One couldn’t make such a comparison; Ren Xuan wouldn’t.

Speaking of which, she really hadn’t seen what Ren Xuan was like with other women. She knew Ren Xuan had a good friend, President Ning Yinman.

They had known each other since childhood, and Shuyan had heard plenty of entertainment gossip about President Ning. What was Ren Xuan like with President Ning? Would she be the same as when she was with Shuyan? Would she speak gently and smile warmly at her?

Shuyan’s mind was a mess, alternating between thinking she should keep her distance from Lin Xuejin and imagining scenes of Ren Xuan and President Ning…

President Ning and Ren Xuan are just friends! Shuyan wanted to slap herself for the thoughts in her head.

“Teacher Lin, get some good rest. I’m heading back.” Chen Yan walked Shuyan to her door and gave her a few more instructions before leaving.

Once she was gone, the room became silent. Shuyan walked in and turned on the lights one by one. When the bedroom light flickered on, Shuyan rubbed her eyes in disbelief.

There was someone at the dressing table!

Shuyan reached out, wanting to touch the person to check their temperature, but she was too nervous; her fingers trembled, and she didn’t dare make contact. “You… how did you get here?”

“I sent you a message.” Ren Xuan walked toward her helplessly. “Did you not receive it?”

“I…” Shuyan stammered as she pulled out her phone, suddenly remembering it was out of battery. She had meant to charge it but had forgotten in her panic. She should have told Chen Yan in the car, but she’d been distracted by other things.

“How… how did you get in?” Shuyan was both pleasantly surprised and shocked.

“You forgot,” Ren Xuan reminded her with a smile, “this is a two-room suite.”

Right. When Shuyan came to book, the hotel said they were short on single rooms, so she could choose a two-room suite. It cost more, but she could find someone to stay with her.

Shuyan hadn’t intended to stay with anyone else, but she had thought back then that if Ren Xuan ever visited, the two of them could perhaps… Since it was two separate rooms, she had used Ren Xuan’s digital ID to make the reservation.

“I originally thought about opening a room in the front to wait for you.” Ren Xuan had a smile at the corner of her mouth. “But when I pulled out my ID, the staff suddenly told me…”

“Don’t… don’t say it.” Shuyan covered Ren Xuan’s mouth in shame. “My brain was malfunctioning back then.”

“And here I thought Shuyan was looking forward to staying with me.”

No. Shuyan’s face was half-flushed with shyness as she pointed next door. “There… there’s another room. I just… didn’t want the resource to go to waste…”

“Right.” Ren Xuan gently put her arm around Shuyan’s waist. “In the future, letting Shuyan manage the household will definitely yield twice the results; our little vault will grow richer and richer.”

Who said anything about managing the household? The more she spoke, the more outrageous it became. Shuyan was held in her arms, unable to break free. She asked softly, “Why… why didn’t you turn on the lights?”

“Afraid you wouldn’t dare come in.”

“Huh?”

“There was no response to my messages, so I figured you hadn’t seen them. If I had turned on a light in your bedroom, wouldn’t you have screamed for help? Your assistant was right outside.”

It still scared me, Shuyan thought, leaning lazily against Ren Xuan’s chest.

“And I didn’t dare stay in the living room,” Ren Xuan laughed, “for fear of bumping into your assistant.”

“When… when did you arrive?” Shuyan asked with immense guilt. This scene had been filming since lunch, and she didn’t know how long Ren Xuan had been waiting for her.

“Not long,” Ren Xuan smiled. “I rushed over after work.”

“I’ve eaten,” Ren Xuan answered all of Shuyan’s unasked questions at once. “Thinking you’d be hungry coming back so late, I prepared some late-night snacks for you. Want a taste?”

Exquisitely packaged snacks sat on a nearby chair.

“Mhm.” Shuyan nodded vigorously. Halfway through eating, the lump in her throat could no longer be suppressed.

“Not good?”

Shuyan shook her head.

“Then what’s wrong?”

Shuyan stopped. “I’m too busy with filming. You…” Thinking about it, since she and Ren Xuan had gotten together, they hadn’t actually spent many days together. Especially since she joined the crew, aside from video calls, they had no other chances to see each other.

To see her, Ren Xuan had to waste her rest time and fly a long distance. She felt like she was a very irresponsible girlfriend. She didn’t even have time to properly accompany Ren Xuan.

“As the ancients said,” Ren Xuan teased, “‘If the feelings between two people are long-lasting, do they need to be together every day and night?’”

“We are in modern times…” In modern times, there are planes and high-speed rails, yet she and Ren Xuan still barely saw each other.

“Then what should we do?” Ren Xuan asked as if troubled. “How about you stop acting and come home to accompany me? Or I can resign and be your manager?”

“A-Xuan.”