After Joining the Same Variety Show as My Arch-Nemesis - Chapter 2

After serving the tomato scrambled eggs from the pan and scooping rice from the rice cooker, Gu Jingxi sat at the dining table and fell into complete silence.

Who could have imagined that after being away for a month, on the very first day she came home, her own mother would only fry her some tomato scrambled eggs—and even leave halfway through making it for her to finish herself, while she ran off with her own father on a movie date and candlelit dinner?

If she did not know those two people’s personalities so well, Gu Jingxi would seriously suspect that she was not their biological daughter at all, but someone they had picked up outside.

But…

Damn it! She was still so mad!

Fuming, she took a photo and posted it to her Moments.

Xixi: Tonight’s dinner. 【teary-eyed】【photo】

Then she turned off her phone and obediently ate. By the time she finished eating and cleaned everything up, she finally dragged her exhausted body back to her room. Leaning against the small bay window in her bedroom, she looked at the deepening dusk outside, then turned on her phone.

Only to discover that her Moments had exploded.

Friend A: Holy crap, Best Actress Gu is only eating this? Shouldn’t you be having delicacies from land and sea? 【dog head】

Friend B: I was still wondering why Xixi was eating so lightly, then I turned around and saw Uncle Gu showing off his love life. As expected, Uncle Gu and Aunt Tang are the true match made in heaven. Xixi can only be called an accident. 【side-eye smile】

Fu Wen: Serves you right. That’s what you get for showing off.

Fu Hang: Hahahahahahahahahaha, Gu Jingxi, so you have this day too!

…

With a blank face, Gu Jingxi scrolled through her Moments. Very well. Right after she posted her tomato scrambled eggs with rice, her dad soon posted photos of his candlelit dinner with Tang Yun.

Cheese-baked Australian lobster, foie gras with matsutake sauce, and so on…

Her teeth itched. She wanted to bite someone!

Just then, her biological father, Gu Feng, sent her a message.

Gu Feng: Rest early. Tomorrow, we’re going to your Uncle Jian’s house for dinner. Your Aunt Xiao invited you.

Gu Jingxi: ???

Gu Feng: You’re not allowed to refuse.

Gu Jingxi: Oh.

Looking at the phone screen, Gu Jingxi’s little face instantly turned bitter.

Her family and the Jian family were old family friends. Her father and Jian Lang had grown up wearing the same pair of pants, brothers without blood ties. The Jian couple had been very good to her since she was little and had always taken care of her. She also liked them quite a lot. It was just that…

A cold, expressionless face involuntarily surfaced in her mind.

Immediately, her expression twisted a little, and she could not help grinding her teeth.

She and their daughter, Jian Lan, were extremely, very, especially, extraordinarily incompatible!

Jian Lan was three years older than her. Logically, she should call her Sister, but…

Since childhood, Jian Lan had been the kind of child other people’s parents praised: excellent in both character and studies, a model student whom teachers wished they could enshrine and worship. As for Gu Jingxi, she climbed roofs, pried tiles, slipped out onto the streets, chased dogs—she did everything. Since the two families were neighbors and they had grown up together, she was inevitably compared to Jian Lan.

Compare them, then. She was broad-minded.

But that Jian Lan was far too much! Relying on the fact that she was older, she wanted to meddle in everything Gu Jingxi did! She had even ruined Gu Jingxi’s “good deeds” several times! Although, well, they could not really be called good deeds…

But Gu Jingxi was not someone who would suffer losses quietly. If Jian Lan ruined her good deeds, then she would ruin Jian Lan’s good deeds.

Back and forth, their grudge had been formed since childhood. Up until now, she and Jian Lan had reached the point where there was no room for one if the other existed.

If Jian Lan as a child had been a little adult, then Jian Lan now…

Gu Jingxi could not help shuddering.

How had that cold, paralyzed face been raised? Uncle Jian and Aunt Xiao were not aloof people at all. How had the daughter they raised become colder and colder?!

But when she thought of going there for dinner tomorrow, Gu Jingxi could only pray that someone as busy as Jian Lan would best not come home.

Otherwise, she would not even be able to eat that meal in peace.

Feeling uneasy, she took a bath. The exhaustion of running around for days made her fall asleep the moment she touched the bed. She did not even know when Gu Feng and Tang Yun came home.

The next day, she was pulled out of bed by Tang Yun early in the morning.

“Ah! Ms. Tang Yun! Your dear precious daughter has been running around outside for so long and finally came home to get some sleep, yet you’re disturbing my beautiful dream!” Gu Jingxi, with hair like a chicken’s nest, clung desperately to her blanket and refused to let Tang Yun mercilessly pull it away.

“That’s enough. Don’t bring your Best Actress Gu act into this house. Hurry up and get up. Come running with me,” Tang Yun glared at her and said.

“I won’t!”

“Oh. Then I’ll tell that girl Fu that you’ve gained weight again.” Tang Yun let go of the blanket and reached for her phone.

The moment she heard that Tang Yun was going to contact Fu Wen, Gu Jingxi’s sleepiness vanished completely. She sprang up on the spot and pressed down Tang Yun’s hand that was reaching for the phone, her amber eyes staring at her own mother in disbelief.

“You really are my own mother. If Sister Fu finds out I gained weight, she’ll kill me!”

“That’s why you’re getting up now and going for a morning run with me,” Tang Yun replied as if it were perfectly reasonable.

Gu Jingxi stared at her. Seeing this, Tang Yun prepared to continue reaching for her phone.

“Ahhh! I’ll go, I’ll go, okay?!”

Early in the morning, Gu Jingxi’s wail echoed through the Gu residence.

The Gu family lived in a high-end villa community. The neighborhood had its own small park, which had become a popular place for wealthy madams to check in and chat.

The Gu couple were regulars here. That’s right, you read that correctly—the Gu couple.

Gu Feng, this wife slave, only had no choice but to be apart from Tang Yun when the two of them were at work. At all other times, he wished he could stick to Tang Yun every single day.

Morning runs were no exception.

Gu Jingxi followed numbly behind her parents, watching the two of them flirt even while running, and wondered why, if they were the ones running, she had to follow along too—and even had to deal with greetings from a group of madams she did not know.

“I can’t do it anymore.” After running two laps, Gu Jingxi stopped and leaned one hand against a nearby tree, panting.

“You two keep going. I’ll rest for a bit.”

“Xixi, your stamina is way too poor,” Gu Feng said with a frown.

“I’m leaving you time alone with your dear wife,” Gu Jingxi said irritably.

Tang Yun glanced at her speechlessly, then pulled Gu Feng along. “Alright, stop worrying about her. Let’s go.”

Gu Feng was dragged away by Tang Yun, and Gu Jingxi finally got what she wanted and breathed a sigh of relief. She slowly walked toward a bench not far away.

Only after the soreness in her muscles eased a little did Gu Jingxi lazily sit down and cover her lips as she yawned.

With nothing to do, she leaned against the bench, took out her phone, and casually scrolled through messages.

The fact that she had returned was already known throughout the city. After all, she had just won Best Actress and still dared to swagger home without her security team. She was definitely the first person to do that.

The internet was full of news about the recent Golden Spirit Award winners. Because of her looks, public opinion about her in the entertainment industry was split between praise and criticism. So online, some people said she deserved the award, while others said her virtue was unworthy of her position.

But she only looked through it with little interest and did not react much.

Some people specifically came to comfort her, telling her not to care about public opinion online. She only thanked them one by one, without any extra resentment.

After all, when she decided to enter this circle, she had already mentally prepared herself.

As she was scrolling through her phone, the Gu couple returned from their morning run. Seeing the two of them, Gu Jingxi put away her phone and curled her lips. “Teacher Tang, President Gu, can we go back now?”

“Look at you. You don’t look like a big star at all,” Tang Yun said with a smile as she saw Gu Jingxi’s lazy appearance.

“An actress,” Gu Jingxi corrected her. “Teacher Tang, my profession is actress. It’s the same principle as you being a dancer.”

“Fine, fine. Our family’s Actress Gu, let’s go home.” Tang Yun smiled.

“Mhm~” Only then did Gu Jingxi, like a proud little peacock, forcefully insert herself between the two of them, linking one arm with each as she began complaining.

“I say, you two stick together every day. Can’t you leave a little space for your dear precious daughter? Spare me a bit of your attention!”

“Aiya, Xixi, you’re all grown up now. You should learn to be independent.” Hearing this, Gu Feng spoke with a grin, trying to squeeze closer to his wife.

“Wow, President Gu, those words really hurt my heart. I go out for a month, and the moment I come back, I’m no longer the family’s little padded jacket.” Gu Jingxi spoke hypocritically, yet refused to yield even an inch.

Watching the father and daughter bicker, Tang Yun rolled her eyes beside them. Then, taking one in each hand, she separated them and said, “Enough. Stop arguing. You’re both mine.”

Neither of them dared say another word.

They slowly wandered back home. The auntie at home had already served breakfast on the table today.

“Mr. Gu, Mrs. Gu, Miss Gu.” When the auntie saw the three of them return, she smiled and said, “Breakfast is ready. Hurry and wash your hands so you can eat.”

“Got it. Thank you for your hard work, Zhang Ma.” Tang Yun let go of the father and daughter pair and said, “Hurry up and wash your hands for breakfast.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Father and daughter answered in unison.

Breakfast was the same as usual: the father and daughter occasionally bickering, with Tang Yun occasionally speaking up. After breakfast, Gu Jingxi finally went back upstairs to tidy herself up.

The moment she thought of going to the Jian family’s house today, her whole body felt uncomfortable. Although the Jian family lived right next door to them—when they said “next door,” there was still almost a hundred meters between the houses, for the so-called sake of privacy.

A common setup in high-end communities.

After she dawdled through putting on makeup and changing clothes, and after Ms. Tang Yun knocked on her door for the third time and threatened that if she still did not come out, she would have Fu Wen come invite her personally, Gu Jingxi finally deigned to come out of her room.

Even though she was reluctant in every possible way, Gu Jingxi was still dragged out the door by Tang Yun.

Then, she saw a silver-gray SUV drive into the Jian family residence not far away.

Gu Jingxi’s face instantly froze.

“Aiya, I didn’t expect Lanlan to come back today too. This is really wonderful!” Tang Yun, however, looked very happy.

Gu Jingxi tugged at the corners of her lips. She could already imagine the other woman’s paralyzed face.

“Mom…” Gu Jingxi tried to struggle.

“Try refusing to go and see what happens,” Tang Yun said with a smile, without even looking at her.

Gu Jingxi: “…”

Very good. She did not dare.

And so, she stood at the Jian family’s front door and saw Xiao Wenjun come to open it.

“Aiya, Old Gu, Little Tang, you’re here. Xixi, hurry and come in. Aunt Xiao made your favorite braised pork ribs for you,” Xiao Wenjun greeted them cheerfully.

“Aunt Xiao.” Gu Jingxi obediently greeted her.

After entering the house, her gaze immediately landed on the tall woman who had come out of the kitchen carrying a soup pot.

The woman had a slender waist and long legs. She was dressed in a white chiffon blouse paired with fitted black pants. Her long hair was pinned up, and gold-rimmed glasses rested on the bridge of her nose. Her deep eyes were calm, like a lake frozen over in winter.

For no reason, Gu Jingxi shuddered.

The woman set down the soup pot, removed her heat-resistant gloves, stepped forward, and parted her lips to greet them.

Her voice was cold, like a mountain spring in winter.

“Uncle Gu, Aunt Tang.”

Then her gaze fell on Gu Jingxi, who wished she could disappear on the spot.

“Xixi, long time no see.”