Foreseeing the Future: The Scheming Film Queen and I Got Married - Chapter 9

Before stepping off the stage, Dong Yao looked back.

Gu Shiqiu was no longer looking at her. She was already waving goodbye to the fans below the stage.

Dong Yao felt somewhat dazed. Although the matter had already been confirmed, it still felt unreal.

The concert ended. Gu Shiqiu left the stage, and the stage lights went out.

The audience gradually left their seats.

Dong Yao, weighed down by thoughts, followed the crowd toward the exit.

After they came out, Lin Yunyi grabbed Dong Yao by the shoulders and shook her wildly.

Dong Yao was shaken until she felt dizzy. Even the heaviest thoughts had been shaken clean away. “Enough, enough. If you keep shaking me, I’m going to throw up.”

“Can you let me look at the personally signed album? Please?” Lin Yunyi clasped her hands together. “Please, please.”

Right now, she was saying “please, please,” but Dong Yao understood her very well. If she did not let her look, the next second this person would start “robbing” her. And this girl was freakishly strong.

Dong Yao was very sensible and handed the item to her.

Lin Yunyi took the album and could not bear to let it go. Then she openly stuffed it into her own bag.

Dong Yao: “…”

Lin Yunyi tugged Dong Yao’s hand and shook it left and right, acting spoiled in a deliberately affected way. “I remember that aside from the signed album, there was also a signed poster…”

“That’s enough. That one’s not for you,” Dong Yao refused immediately.

Lin Yunyi snorted. “You won’t give it to me? Tell me, is it because after watching one concert and seeing my Shiqiu’s peerless beauty up close on stage, you fell in love?”

Dong Yao said, “Didn’t you often recommend her to me before? Now that I’ve become a fan, aren’t you happy?”

Lin Yunyi was delighted. “Of course I’m happy. From now on, I can chase stars with you. You won’t dislike me mentioning her in front of you anymore.”

After saying that, Lin Yunyi suddenly looked over with a sneaky expression.

Dong Yao had a bad premonition. “What are you doing?”

“You held my Shiqiu’s hand just now. Let me hold yours!” Lin Yunyi said excitedly.

Dong Yao instinctively hid her hand behind her back. “Can you put away your perverted tendencies?”

“Perverted or not, let me hold it.”

“Get lost.”

“You don’t know how to read palms at all. You just wanted to hold my Shiqiu’s hand. Your intentions are impure. No, let me hold your hand and feel it too.”

Lin Yunyi desperately tried to hold her hand.

Dong Yao desperately dodged.

After making a fuss for a while, they grew tired and stopped. Lin Yunyi said, “All right, I won’t mess with you anymore. Are we still eating hotpot?”

They had discussed it before. After the concert, they would go to a nearby popular internet-famous restaurant to check in and eat hotpot.

Dong Yao had no sense of direction and could not tell the roads apart. Lin Yunyi was also only half-understanding as she followed the map. After wandering around for half an hour, they ended up back where they had started. Helpless, they hailed a taxi.

The starting fare was ten yuan. At midnight, an extra five yuan was added. Just getting into the car cost fifteen. The driver drove forward for one minute, then made a U-turn.

The hotpot restaurant was right across the road from where they had gotten in.

Dong Yao: “…”

Lin Yunyi: “…”

They tearfully paid the fare.

After entering the hotpot restaurant, they were warmly received by the server and found a seat.

After ordering, Dong Yao sat there absentmindedly, lost in thought. Lin Yunyi called her several times, but she did not respond.

“Has your soul left your body?” Lin Yunyi waved her hand in front of Dong Yao’s face a few times. “What are you thinking about so deeply? I called you several times.”

Dong Yao pressed her lips together, her face solemn, as though she were about to talk about some life-or-death matter.

Lin Yunyi was made serious by her expression as well and quietly waited for what she would say next.

In the end, Dong Yao said, “Do you think there’s a possibility that Gu Shiqiu is a man?”

Lin Yunyi’s mouth twitched.

Not far behind them, a masked woman paused in her steps and turned her head to look in Dong Yao’s direction.

“I thought you were going to say something important, but you’re here talking nonsense with me. Boring.” Lin Yunyi rolled her eyes.

Dong Yao said, “I’m serious. Do you think there’s any possibility that she’s a man disguised as a woman?”

Lin Yunyi smiled. “Do you think there’s any possibility that you’re stupid?”

Dong Yao choked.

In truth, Dong Yao had once asked Gu Shiqiu herself this question in the dream, but before she could receive a definite answer, she had woken up.

Inside the private room.

There was one-way glass. The people inside could see outside, but the people outside could not see inside.

Gu Shiqiu looked at the person sitting on the other side of the one-way glass and recalled what she had just said: “Do you think there’s a possibility that Gu Shiqiu is a man?”

Gu Shiqiu tilted her head in confusion.

Did she look like a boy? This was the first time she had heard such an assessment.

Assistant Xiaowen followed the direction of Gu Shiqiu’s gaze and looked outside. She was surprised. “Isn’t that the audience member who went on stage to read your palm, Sister Shiqiu?”

The others in the private room also looked over.

There were seven or eight people in the private room, all staff members involved in organizing the concert. They had gathered here to celebrate the successful conclusion of the concert.

Xiaowen said, “She looks so young. I wonder if she’s even an adult.”

Gu Shiqiu withdrew her gaze, picked up her cup, and took a sip. She did indeed look very young.

The hotpot tasted average. Gu Shiqiu did not have much appetite and barely ate. But the person on the other side of the one-way glass seemed to be eating with particular relish.

One bite after another. It was clearly very hot, yet she could not wait. When she burned herself, she fanned her mouth with her hand and exhaled. After eating a piece of pork belly, she narrowed her eyes happily.

They were ordinary ingredients, yet this person somehow ate them as though they were rare delicacies.

Gu Shiqiu could not help becoming curious. She picked up a cooked piece of pork belly and ate it.

Gu Shiqiu frowned.

Too spicy. Too salty. She was used to light food, and hotpot was clearly not among the things she liked to eat.

But the person on the other side of the glass ate in a way that was truly… appetite-inducing.

Dong Yao ate a piece of green vegetable.

For some reason, Gu Shiqiu also followed and ate one.

Dong Yao ate a meatball. Gu Shiqiu followed and ate a meatball too.

Just then, someone suddenly pressed down on Gu Shiqiu’s wrist.

Gu Shiqiu withdrew the gaze that had fallen on Dong Yao and turned to look at the person holding her wrist.

Assistant Xiaowen smiled awkwardly. “Sister Shiqiu, you can’t eat like this. You still have a shoot tomorrow morning. If you eat too much and get puffy, it won’t look good on camera.”

Gu Shiqiu came back to herself and nodded. “All right. I know. I won’t eat anymore.”

Xiaowen let out a breath of relief. At the same time, she felt puzzled. Usually, when Gu Shiqiu attended dinners or gatherings, she never ate much and did not need anyone to supervise her at all.

Xiaowen had once suspected that she disliked food and had no interest in any food whatsoever. It gave people the impression that she ate only to survive.

A situation like just now, where she ate one chopstickful after another without restraint, was the first time it had ever happened.

Could it be that this hotpot tasted exceptionally good? Xiaowen picked up her chopsticks and took a big bite.

Not really. It was just ordinary hotpot flavor, not much different from the hotpot she usually ate.

“Want to drink?” Lin Yunyi suddenly said.

Dong Yao’s eyes darted around, then she nodded. “Yes.”

Both of them were good kids. Having grown this old, they had barely drunk alcohol before. Naturally, they did not dare order strong liquor, so they ordered two bottles of fruit wine. It tasted rather sweet, with only a faint alcoholic flavor.

Dong Yao picked up her glass and drank more than half of it in one go. “It’s basically the same as a drink.”

Lin Yunyi shook her head. “The taste is weird. It’s like soda, but with a bitter flavor.”

Lin Yunyi stopped after one sip, while Dong Yao directly treated the stuff as water to relieve the spiciness. One bite of hotpot, one sip of wine.

Very soon, her cheeks turned red.

Lin Yunyi saw that her complexion seemed off. “Don’t tell me you got drunk on fruit wine.”

Dong Yao shook her head. “I’m not drunk. How could it be that exaggerated?”

Lin Yunyi glanced at the empty bottles beside Dong Yao’s hand. Two whole bottles. She had finished them all.

“You really treated it like water. It may be fruit wine, but it’s still wine.” Lin Yunyi rolled her eyes. “If you get drunk, I’m not taking responsibility for you.”

“Who needs you to take care of me? Eat your hotpot.” Dong Yao’s head felt dizzy, her face was hot, and even her speech had begun to slur, but she still insisted on continuing to eat hotpot.

Even if she was drunk, she could not let good food down!

Once they had eaten most of the hotpot, the alcohol fully kicked in. Dong Yao dizzily patted her overstuffed stomach, wiped her mouth, and began touching up her lipstick in the glass beside her.

Her hand trembled, and she kept missing the right place. Then, unsurprisingly, she applied it crookedly.

She puckered her lips at the glass mirror and giggled foolishly. “Perfect.”

On the other side, Gu Shiqiu choked on a mouthful of water. “Cough, cough, cough…”

Xiaowen asked, “Sister Shiqiu, are you all right?”

Gu Shiqiu shook her head and glanced at the person on the other side of the glass, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

Lin Yunyi looked at Dong Yao speechlessly. “Perfect, my foot. You’ve painted yourself into a bloody gaping mouth. I really give up on you. You’d better not go crazy from drunkenness later, or I’ll throw you onto the road.”

Dong Yao stood up. Her body felt floaty, and stepping on the ground felt like stepping on cotton, soft and unsteady.

Lin Yunyi supported her and walked toward the shop entrance.

Through the one-way glass, Gu Shiqiu’s gaze followed them all the way until Dong Yao disappeared through the door. Only then did she withdraw her gaze. After that, she did not look outside again.

When the dinner gathering ended, Gu Shiqiu put on her mask and stood at the entrance, waiting for the driver to bring the car over.

Behind a pillar, there was a noise. Suddenly, a head poked out.

Gu Shiqiu’s expression froze.

It was her.

Dong Yao’s face was flushed red, and she was smiling foolishly.

She looked exactly like a child who had secretly drunk wine and ended up drunk into a silly little kid.

Dong Yao hugged the pillar and gave it a loud smack of a kiss, leaving behind a big lipstick mark.

Gu Shiqiu quietly watched her movements. What had she mistaken the pillar for? There were already three or four lipstick marks on it, so presumably, they were all her handiwork.

After kissing the pillar several times, Dong Yao tilted her head and looked over.

There was a person standing not far away. A mask covered her appearance, but her figure was tall and slender. Especially her eyes—they were very beautiful.

“Gu Shiqiu!” Dong Yao pointed at her and shouted.

Gu Shiqiu was surprised. Even drunk to this extent, she could still recognize her through a mask?

Dong Yao staggered closer and stopped in front of Gu Shiqiu.

Then she let out a rather loud drunken burp.

Gu Shiqiu: “…”

“Sorry. I couldn’t hold it in.” Dong Yao’s words were muddled, and her expression was dazed and not very sober, but she was very polite.

Gu Shiqiu laughed softly. This person was not only cute in appearance, but her behavior was also rather… cute?

Dong Yao walked once around Gu Shiqiu.

Gu Shiqiu did not disturb her and simply let her look.

“Sorry. I’m going to be rude.” Dong Yao solemnly bowed to Gu Shiqiu.

Gu Shiqiu’s pretty brows furrowed slightly. This little drunkard was suddenly bowing and apologizing for no reason. What was she planning to do?

Dong Yao abruptly grabbed Gu Shiqiu’s arm. “Just one look. Just one look. I just want to confirm whether you’re a man or a woman. I promise I won’t look more than once. Just one look.”

As she spoke, she actually tried to pull open Gu Shiqiu’s clothes in public.