Foreseeing the Future: The Scheming Film Queen and I Got Married - Chapter 27

“What do I believe?” Dong Yao did not quite understand. At the same time, she did not notice the change in Gu Shiqiu’s mood.

She was still struggling over something, not knowing whether she should tell Gu Shiqiu or not. That hesitation was written all over her face.

Gu Shiqiu stared at her, observing every tiny change in her expression. The more she observed, the colder her heart became.

Gu Shiqiu lowered her eyes, her heart sinking to the bottom of the valley.

So, she really did believe those words.

What had she been expecting? Not believing her, not trusting her—was that not only natural?

Dong Yao pressed her lips together and decided that she still had to say it.

Looking at Gu Shiqiu, Dong Yao said, “I was pretty conflicted about whether I should tell you. Is she your friend?”

Without waiting for Gu Shiqiu to answer, Dong Yao waved her hand. “But whether she’s your friend or not, after thinking about it, I still feel like there’s something I need to tell you.”

Gu Shiqiu looked at her and said nothing.

“She badmouthed you!” Dong Yao said.

Gu Shiqiu’s expression froze slightly.

Dong Yao said, “She really badmouthed you. What did she say again? She said you did some shady things behind people’s backs, and she told me to be careful of you. Is she really your friend? If she is, then you really have to watch out for her.”

A few ripples appeared across Gu Shiqiu’s dead-still lake of a heart. “You don’t suspect that those bad things she said might be true?”

Dong Yao said, “How could I? Why would I ignore my own friend and believe some stranger I’ve never even met before? Besides, that person doesn’t look like a good person at all. If I believed what she said, then my brain really wouldn’t be working properly.”

A smile once again spread across Gu Shiqiu’s face.

Dong Yao said, “Why are you smiling? I’m talking to you seriously. What exactly is your relationship with that person? If she really is your friend, then you have to be careful. People who badmouth you behind your back like that might stab you in the back someday.”

Gu Shiqiu said, “She isn’t a friend. You could say there’s a bit of an old grudge.”

Dong Yao nodded thoughtfully. “No wonder. She must be holding a grudge against you, so she’s going around saying bad things about you.”

The smile on Gu Shiqiu’s face deepened. Visibly, she was very happy.

Dong Yao only found it baffling. “Someone said bad things about you, and you’re still this happy?”

Gu Shiqiu laughed softly. “That’s not what I’m happy about.”

Dong Yao looked at her, not understanding.

“What I’m happy about is…” Gu Shiqiu paused, then continued, “What I’m happy about is you.”

Dong Yao said, “Hm?”

Gu Shiqiu shook her head. “Nothing.”

Dong Yao did not dwell on it and instead asked, “But speaking of which, why did you come here? And that woman came here just to say a few bad things about you?”

“I don’t know why she came. But the reason I came here is because…” Gu Shiqiu leaned a little closer to Dong Yao. “I missed you.”

Dong Yao looked at the person who had suddenly come closer, her expression pausing.

Gu Shiqiu raised her brows. “At a time like this, shouldn’t you give some kind of response?”

Dong Yao touched her nose. “Why are your words so cheesy?”

Gu Shiqiu asked, “Cheesy?”

Dong Yao spoke against her true feelings. Although she was very happy inside, what came out of her mouth was, “A little.”

Gu Shiqiu laughed softly. “Then I won’t say it next time.”

Dong Yao gave an “oh,” not very happy.

You can say it. I really like hearing it. Why won’t you say it in the future!

Her inner monologue was lively, but on the surface, she remained calm and breezy.

As if seeing through her, Gu Shiqiu said, “If you think ‘I missed you’ is too cheesy, then what words should I use instead?”

Gu Shiqiu rested her hand against her chin and thought for a moment before saying, “Then I’ll change it to: I want to eat braised pork belly. How does that sound?”

Dong Yao was amused by her. “What is that?”

Gu Shiqiu looked at her and said very seriously, “I want to eat braised pork belly.”

Meeting her gentle, focused eyes, Dong Yao’s heart thumped.

“Then, then eat it.” Dong Yao stammered slightly, answering something completely unrelated.

Gu Shiqiu asked, “Can you make it?”

Dong Yao nodded, then shook her head. “I can, but it doesn’t taste very good.”

Gu Shiqiu said, “I can.”

Surprise appeared in Dong Yao’s eyes. “You can?”

“Is it strange that I can?” Gu Shiqiu raised her brows.

Dong Yao nodded honestly, her gaze landing on Gu Shiqiu’s slender, fair fingers. “Looking at your hands, you don’t seem like someone who can cook.”

Gu Shiqiu raised her right hand. “You can tell whether someone can cook by looking at their hands?”

Long, fair, with distinct knuckles. Very beautiful.

Gu Shiqiu suddenly stretched her hand over and placed it beside Dong Yao’s hand for comparison. “But I feel like my hands are about the same as yours. Does that mean you also don’t know how to cook? Your theory isn’t accurate at all. I’m very good at cooking.”

With the two hands placed together, Gu Shiqiu’s fingers seemed a little longer in comparison.

Dong Yao silently withdrew her hand.

At that moment, Dong Yao suddenly noticed four or five obvious scratches on Gu Shiqiu’s arm. They had bled and scabbed over, leaving a large patch of red.

Dong Yao grabbed her arm. “What happened?”

Gu Shiqiu said, “Nothing. I was scratched by some branches just now.”

Dong Yao stared at the wounds. They did not really look like scratches from branches. They looked more like marks dug out by someone’s fingernails.

Dong Yao did not think too deeply and said, “No, you need to apply medicine and disinfect it. Otherwise, what if it leaves scars?”

As she spoke, Dong Yao walked inside. “Wait here. I’ll go get the first-aid kit and handle it briefly first.”

Dong Yao took iodine and cotton swabs from the first-aid kit.

“If it hurts, tell me,” Dong Yao said as she treated Gu Shiqiu’s wound. Her movements were very light.

The cotton swab pressed against the wound. It did not hurt. It even brought a slight itch.

Gu Shiqiu looked at Dong Yao’s face, her gaze gentle as water.

“This wound isn’t serious. Just don’t let it touch water afterward.” As she spoke, Dong Yao raised her head.

At close range, their eyes met.

Outside, the summer cicadas rose and fell, endlessly crying, “Zhi-liao, zhi-liao.”

Time seemed to stop for an instant.

Gu Shiqiu said, “I know. I won’t let it touch water.”

Dong Yao’s face became somewhat unnatural. She lowered her head and continued using the cotton swab to disinfect the wound.

“All done.” Dong Yao threw away the used cotton swabs, closed the iodine bottle, and put it back into the first-aid kit.

Gu Shiqiu watched her movements and said, “Thank you.”

Dong Yao said, “No need to be polite. Actually, I’m the one who should thank you. About you commenting under my account.”

Gu Shiqiu said, “I only commented once. You thanked me on WeChat and now you’re thanking me in person. Aren’t you being a bit too polite?”

“That wasn’t a thank-you on WeChat. It was a thank-you sticker,” Dong Yao corrected from a very particular angle.

Gu Shiqiu smiled. “Is there any difference between the two?”

Dong Yao said, “Yes. One is very stiff, and the other is cuter.”

Gu Shiqiu nodded, acknowledging her explanation.

So why had they suddenly started arguing over whether “thank you” was stiff or not?

“This has nothing to do with being polite or not. I owe you a favor. You brought so much traffic to my account,” Dong Yao said.

Gu Shiqiu said, “It’s not as exaggerated as you say. If your video itself weren’t good enough, even if I commented under your posts every day and followed you, it wouldn’t bring you any real benefit. It was your own ability that kept people there.”

Dong Yao’s eyes lit up. Once again, she asked from a very particular angle, “Are you praising me?”

Gu Shiqiu nodded. “Yes. I’m praising you.”

Dong Yao said, “Mm. I also think my videos are very good.”

Gu Shiqiu was amused by her. She realized that this little one truly was very smug.

Being laughed at, Dong Yao pouted and clicked her tongue.

“All right, I won’t laugh anymore.” Gu Shiqiu restrained her smile. “Where’s Auntie? Why isn’t she here today?”

Dong Yao said, “Today happens to be market day. She went out to buy things.”

Gu Shiqiu nodded, then lowered her head and took a palm-sized small gift box from her pocket, placing it on the table.

Dong Yao was curious. “What’s this?”

“A gift I brought for you,” Gu Shiqiu said.

Dong Yao’s eyes brightened. “Why do you bring me a gift every time you come?”

“It’s just some small thing. Nothing much,” Gu Shiqiu said. “Open it and have a look.”

Dong Yao was just about to reach out and take it when Gu Shiqiu suddenly remembered something and took it back first.

Dong Yao looked at her in confusion.

“I’ll open it for you,” Gu Shiqiu said. She still remembered that Dong Yao did not seem very good at opening things. Last time, when opening the osmanthus cake, she had pulled and torn it apart by force, completely ruining the beautiful packaging.

Gu Shiqiu tugged on the ribbon around the packaging, and the wrapping easily came apart. “All right. You can open it now.”

Dong Yao looked baffled. Why did Gu Shiqiu look a bit like she was afraid a child could not open the packaging, so she had helped open it first?

Dong Yao muttered softly, “I know how to open it.”

Gu Shiqiu said, “I know. I just wanted to help you open it.”

Dong Yao: “…”

She opened the box. Inside was a small glass marble only the size of a thumb joint.

Dong Yao took the marble out and held it up toward the brighter light. Inside the glass marble was embedded…

Dong Yao blinked, then looked again in disbelief.

“Is that braised pork belly inside?!” Dong Yao looked at Gu Shiqiu with surprise and delight.

Gu Shiqiu nodded.

“Wow, there really are glass marbles like this. When I was little, I especially loved playing marbles, but the patterns inside marbles were always those flowery kinds. When I was little, my biggest dream was to own a marble with a braised pork belly pattern inside,” Dong Yao said excitedly.

Gu Shiqiu quietly listened to her.

As she spoke, Dong Yao’s words suddenly stopped.

Gu Shiqiu asked, “Why did you suddenly stop talking?”

Dong Yao looked at the small glass marble in her hand, then at Gu Shiqiu in front of her. “How did you know I liked this?”

This kind of niche interest was something only a few of her childhood playmates knew. No one else knew at all.

Before Gu Shiqiu could answer, Dong Yao suddenly remembered that she had posted about this interest in her Moments.

Osmanthus cake, glass marble—these were all things she had posted about in Moments. And they were all Moments from many years ago.

“You…” Dong Yao asked uncertainly, “You knew I liked this from my Moments?”

Gu Shiqiu did not deny it and gave an “mm.”

Dong Yao said, “But that Moment was from several years ago.”

Gu Shiqiu said, “I think it was from three years ago. April seventeenth.”

Dong Yao was shocked. “Your memory is that good?”

Dong Yao herself did not even remember the exact day she had posted it.

Gu Shiqiu said, “It’s not especially good. But important things, I remember.”

Dong Yao froze. Her Moments were important things???

Gu Shiqiu could not have gone through all her Moments, right? The Moments from three years ago were still considered normal. Any farther back, those things she had posted during her chunibyo period four or five years ago were not suitable for human eyes! Too humiliating!

Holding on to a bit of luck, Dong Yao asked, “You couldn’t have read through all of them, right?”

Gu Shiqiu looked at her and did not answer, but her expression clearly said: Yes, I read them all.

Dong Yao felt gloomy.