After I Picked Up the Movie Queen Who Was Pretending to Be an Alpha - Chapter 11

Pei Suyuan had not expected the caller to be Wei Jinzhi. She stared at the number for a long time without moving, until the call automatically disconnected. Only then did she tighten her grip on the phone and place it facedown on her knees.

Then she pressed her forehead against it too.

A few minutes later, the vibration came from beneath her forehead. Pei Suyuan looked over through tear-blurred eyes. It was Zheng Xuncheng. She wiped her face, cleared her throat, and answered the call.

“Uncle…”

Even though she had cleared her throat, the sob in her voice was still obvious. Zheng Xuncheng paused for several seconds on the other end before saying, “Xiao Yuan, I’ll take your mom home first. Come back a little later.”

Tears gathered again. Her chest felt so stifled she could hardly breathe. Only after a long while did she answer in a low voice.

Before hanging up, Zheng Xuncheng reminded her to drive slowly.

Pei Suyuan responded to each word. After that, her tears broke through completely.

She was actually… quite fragile.

A grown adult, yet after being slapped once, she still had to hide in a corner and cry.

By the time she wiped her tears dry again, more than ten minutes had passed. She was waiting—waiting for Pei Jing to be taken away by Zheng Xuncheng, so they would not run into each other.

When she stood up, her feet had gone numb from squatting. She staggered and held onto the wall, leaving little by little.

……

After getting into the car, Pei Suyuan’s condition improved a great deal.

Then she remembered Wei Jinzhi’s earlier phone call and hesitated over whether to call her back.

When she checked, she discovered that Wei Jinzhi had called her two more times while she had been on the phone with Zheng Xuncheng.

She spaced out for a while, but in the end, she decided not to call back.

She had cried for too long. It would be too obvious in her voice.

At such an embarrassing moment, Pei Suyuan actually did not want anyone to find out.

With Zheng Xuncheng, there had been no helping it. But Wei Jinzhi…

She was afraid of embarrassing herself.

But after thinking about it, she felt it was not very good either. Pei Suyuan logged into WeChat. The first chat box was the WeChat account she had accepted this morning—Wei Jinzhi’s.

—[I’m not in Xijing. Is something wrong?]

After sending the message, Pei Suyuan locked the screen and drove toward the orphanage.

Along the way, her mind was filled with thoughts of Pei Jing. When she stopped at red lights, she was restless and anxious, her fingers tapping nonstop against the steering wheel.

By the time she arrived, Pei Suyuan felt a little dizzy.

She calmed herself for a long time before entering, then called Zheng Xuncheng.

She did not dare go upstairs so easily.

Only after Zheng Xuncheng told her that Pei Jing had already fallen asleep did she quietly walk upstairs.

When Pei Jing had been awake today, Pei Suyuan had still been thinking that she could sleep with her mother tonight. But now, she could only look at Pei Jing through the glass.

Because Pei Jing’s condition was unstable, going in recklessly would disturb her, so there was a small glass window in her room.

If it was too big, it would frighten Pei Jing. If it was too small, they would not be able to see clearly. This glass window was just right.

Pei Suyuan stood there, looking at Pei Jing through the glass.

Looking at the face that had barely changed in more than ten years, that sickly pale complexion.

With Pei Jing like this, she could not stay in Lin City to keep her company for long.

Because when Pei Jing was in this state, seeing Pei Suyuan would only make her more agitated. So agitated that first she would hit Pei Suyuan, then she would hurt herself.

Because of that, only on very rare occasions when Pei Jing was lucid could Pei Suyuan come see her.

……

After that, Pei Suyuan stayed in the small room at the orphanage. During the day, she did not go out. At night, when Pei Jing was deeply asleep, she would secretly go and look at her.

Two or three days later, Pei Suyuan prepared to leave Lin City. In the short term, Pei Jing probably would not wake up lucid again, and Pei Suyuan still had work to do.

During those few days in Lin City, she received two contracts.

One was an agency contract from Yuefeng Media.

The other was a contract for the variety show Hello, Detective.

However, that was not Pei Suyuan’s actual work.

She had a part-time job as a recording engineer.

After the group disbanded, she had obtained a junior recording engineer qualification certificate, thinking she would do this line of work for the long term. But where did she have any fame? The people who could find her were mostly influencers and singers.

She could earn money, but over the course of a year, it was only enough to support herself. Nothing would be left over, so Pei Suyuan’s work as a recording engineer could only change from full-time to part-time.

Because her work was scattered and miscellaneous, the qualification certificate she held had only reached the intermediate level for now. Her prices had not changed either. It was all old friends looking for her.

This time, the one who came to her was an influencer-singer she had played with and worked with before. Over the past year or so, he had managed to make a bit of a name for himself in the circle.

After returning to Xijing, the first thing Pei Suyuan did was go to the recording studio to find Ge Jun.

Ge Jun was a male alpha. He had known Pei Suyuan for many years. Perhaps because their interests matched, Pei Suyuan had a pretty good relationship with him. Although they did not talk much, they had enough tacit understanding.

When she arrived at the recording studio, Pei Suyuan saw Ge Jun’s omega boyfriend, along with several familiar friends.

This group of people all belonged to the same circle. Among them, Ge Jun’s omega boyfriend, Fang Xiaojie, did arrangements. A few of Pei Suyuan’s songs had even been arranged by him.

After entering, Pei Suyuan greeted them one by one and then began preparing for work without stopping.

Ge Jun had informed Pei Suyuan in advance, but everything during this period had left her head spinning. Last night, when Ge Jun sent her a WeChat message saying the arrangement demo was finished, she had stared at it for a while before finally remembering. That was why she had hurried back in such a rush.

In a familiar field, Pei Suyuan entered the right state very quickly.

For several days in a row, she stayed holed up in the recording studio. Pei Suyuan completely forgot all the annoying things from before, as well as those two contracts.

Her phone had long since been tossed aside while she focused on work.

By the time she came out of the recording studio again, a week had already passed.

This week, she had not gone home once. It was called a recording studio, but in truth, it was also Ge Jun and Fang Xiaojie’s home. They worked and lived there, and there were enough rooms to stay in. When Pei Suyuan got tired, she slept there. When she was free, she played music with the others. Time passed extremely quickly, and it also let people forget their troubles.

It was only a little awkward when she went out to go home.

Back then, she had rushed back from Lin City in a hurry, so Pei Suyuan had only been able to grab clothes from her wardrobe and take them with her. Because of that, what she was wearing now was a yellow hoodie and a tracksuit.

The weather in early autumn was still all right, but once it reached late autumn, it became chilly. For warmth, Pei Suyuan could not change back into her previous clothes either.

It was still early morning now, and there were not many people on the street. Pei Suyuan got into her car in a few steps and drove toward Huajiang Garden.

There was a soup dumpling shop at the entrance of Huajiang Garden that Pei Suyuan liked.

She lowered her head and looked at her clothes. After hesitating for a long while, between possible embarrassment and going hungry, she chose possible embarrassment.

She got out of the car, bought soup dumplings, then hurried back.

Once she reached home, she ate them quickly while they were still hot.

Then she took a shower and buried her head under the covers to sleep.

By the time she woke up again, it was already three in the afternoon. Pei Suyuan had stayed up for several nights, so when she woke, she was still dizzy and unwilling to get out of bed.

Only when her phone vibrated did Pei Suyuan slowly and lazily answer it.

It was Yan Xin calling, asking whether she had come back and whether she wanted to eat together.

Pei Suyuan glanced at the time and knew Yan Xin would be streaming in another hour. By the time she washed up, went out, and then went to eat, it would probably be too late, so she refused.

Yan Xin was a little unhappy about being refused and huffed, “You’ve been gone for more than half a month. I missed you to death, and now that you’re back, you still won’t eat with me!”

Pei Suyuan knew her temper. She was a bit clingy.

After coaxing her for quite a while, and promising to buy her favorite fried chicken and milk tea tomorrow and deliver them to her door, Pei Suyuan finally managed to appease her.

Pei Suyuan played Snake in bed for another hour before slowly getting up and beginning to clean.

After not being home for so long, the first thing Pei Suyuan usually did was clean. But today, she was too tired, so she could only push it back.

After cleaning up, Pei Suyuan took another shower. Then she carried the trash downstairs, planning to buy something to eat.

She bought a serving of bridge-crossing rice noodles. When she was paying, Ge Jun’s transfer came through too.

Thirty thousand yuan.

Pei Suyuan did not accept the transfer for the time being. Instead, she paid for the rice noodles, then sent Ge Jun a WeChat message, asking why the price had changed.

Previously, when she did recording work for Ge Jun, the pay had always been ten thousand yuan. It was more or less the same for others too. Over the course of a year, the most money she earned usually came from Ge Jun, because he made two albums every year. Most of the other jobs were EPs, which took less time and only earned her about five or six thousand.

She had not expected this time to be thirty thousand yuan.

Ge Jun replied very quickly.

—[Bro’s rates have gone up, so of course yours have too!]

Since he put it that way, Pei Suyuan accepted the money with a clear conscience.

Who did not like money?

Pei Suyuan was truly happiest when she earned money. Carrying the rice noodles, she walked back, unconsciously beginning to imagine a life where she earned a lot more.

When the time came, she would buy a big house and bring Pei Jing to Xijing to live with her.

The wish was beautiful, but the moment she thought of reality, Pei Suyuan wilted again.

Pei Jing was not even willing to stay in the same space as her. How could they live together?

Happiness and sorrow always alternated very quickly in Pei Suyuan.

She lowered her head, looking at the road beneath her feet as she walked forward with a gloomy expression.

She no longer even had the urge to eat the bridge-crossing rice noodles. She walked to a trash can and threw them straight in, then sat down on a bench.

She was not wearing much. After sitting there for an hour, the tip of her nose was a little red, and she sneezed several times in a row.

She could not catch a cold.

Colds were uncomfortable and cost money.

Pei Suyuan got up from the bench and walked toward the entrance of her building.

But after only two steps, she heard soft, rustling footsteps behind her. She turned around.

And saw Wei Jinzhi beneath the moonlight.

Wei Jinzhi did not miss the surprise and embarrassment on her face. Then she took another step forward, coming close to her body as she asked, “Are you in a bad mood?”

Although Wei Jinzhi lived in the North District, her location was higher up. From the moment Pei Suyuan bought the rice noodles, she had seen her, and even when Pei Suyuan sat down on the bench, Wei Jinzhi had seen it all clearly.

Asked this question, Pei Suyuan felt too embarrassed to answer. She lowered her head and looked at the tips of her shoes, then suddenly smelled a trace of marshmallow.

It was Wei Jinzhi. She was… even closer to her.

Her voice was melodious and charming as she asked, “When you’re in a bad mood, you should eat something sweet. Do you want to eat marshmallow?”

Pei Suyuan lifted her eyes and stared at her blankly, as if confirming whether what she had heard was real.

Wei Jinzhi smiled faintly and brought her hand out from behind her back.

What appeared in front of Pei Suyuan was a fluffy, soft marshmallow, the kind that would sink inward with the lightest touch.

Pei Suyuan’s nose suddenly felt a little sour. Then Wei Jinzhi placed the wooden stick in her hand and spoke as softly as marshmallow.

“Try it. It’s sweet and soft.”