As if her body and soul were torn into two halves, Shen Manyu’s soul stood quietly before her, gazing at her expressionlessly, patiently waiting for her to see her own heart clearly and give an answer that came from her true self.
Hua Yanqiu is a lesbian; should she hate her for it?
Not because of who she is as a person, discarding their brief interactions, and stepping outside of all influences on her thoughts simply because of this label attached to her.
Would she hate her?
Shen Manyu calmly scrutinized her various psychological states since transmigrating. During this period, her interactions with Hua Yanqiu had undoubtedly been the most frequent.
Through these brief contacts, she had roughly grasped something of Hua Yanqiu’s temperament.
Hua Yanqiu appeared cold and aloof, difficult to approach the kind of iceberg beauty who kept people a thousand miles away.
But as long as one received a bit of her permission and she actively opened a part of her heart, one could discover a fiery heart hidden beneath that cold exterior.
It wasn’t that Shen Manyu couldn’t see Hua Yanqiu’s attraction to her, and from that, she had confirmed Hua Yanqiu’s sexual orientation.
Hua Yanqiu belonged to the “cold outside, warm inside” type; she came from a good family and possessed excellent upbringing. Though she looked indifferent and unsympathetic, she was actually delicate in thought, meticulous, considerate, and very mindful of others.
Previously, Shen Manyu had looked for trouble at every turn and made things difficult for her repeatedly, yet Hua Yanqiu had never directly humiliated Shen Manyu in front of everyone or made things too awkward for her.
It was truly difficult to feel ill will toward a woman with such a character. If Hua Yanqiu were a man, he would surely be a gentleman with a noble spirit.
Even if Hua Yanqiu was a lesbian, Shen Manyu asked herself and realized she didn’t hate the person. In fact, she even felt a bit of curiosity and interest.
Hua Yanqiu’s attraction to her felt more like someone admiring a perfect work of art in a window—mostly appreciation, devoid of filthy desires.
This was the reason Shen Manyu couldn’t bring herself to feel any malice.
She slowly exhaled. It was the peak of summer, the air conditioner wasn’t on, and the temperature was approaching forty degrees Celsius. During her period of solitary brooding, her body had naturally reacted to the heat, and sweat had almost completely soaked through her clothes.
Shen Manyu propped herself up against the floor and stood up with difficulty. Having sat for a long time, the blood supply to her legs was insufficient, leaving them numb and tingling.
Rising suddenly caused a brief lack of oxygen to her brain; a flash of white light seemed to pass before her eyes, and she felt dizzy for a long time.
Leaning against the bedroom door, she waited a while before finally recovering.
The physical discomfort mixed with the extreme heat would inevitably make one irritable. However, now that Shen Manyu had thought things through, her heavy mood lightened, and she tossed the discomfort to the back of her mind.
The numbness in her legs wouldn’t subside quickly, so she hopped on one leg to turn on the air conditioner, then hopped to the bedside, leaping lightly to bury herself entirely in the quilts.
The thin quilt was pulled up, wrapping her firmly; the strong sense of fullness dissipated the various negative emotions lingering in her heart.
Shen Manyu narrowed her eyes slightly, her obsidian like pupils reflecting the faint glow of the air conditioner’s display screen, shimmering with light. Nestled in the warm blankets like a lazy, stretching cat, she let out a satisfied sigh.
She finally pulled her phone from her pocket. The device was still making regular chiming sounds, and the moment she brought it to her eyes, a new message happened to arrive. A friend request suddenly jumped out in front of her: [H has requested to add you as a friend]
Shen Manyu couldn’t help but curl her lips into a smile. She didn’t accept immediately but clicked on the profile details.
Hua Yanqiu’s profile picture wasn’t a photo of herself, but a hand drawn, imperfect, and rather wobbly sketch.
It was a Little Prince, sitting on a tiny planet, watching the sunset forty-four times all by himself.
Shen Manyu instinctively reached out, her fingertip lightly tapping the Little Prince’s head.
Does someone like Hua Yanqiu also feel lonely sometimes?
But on second thought, she felt it was just a profile picture and didn’t necessarily represent Hua Yanqiu’s state of mind. It might not even have been drawn by Hua Yanqiu herself; perhaps it was a picture found somewhere else.
Ever since Hua Yanqiu entered the entertainment industry, everything had been smooth sailing, and she had never suffered through the various filthy hidden rules of the circle.
Her company was incredibly attentive and thorough in every detail. Without her even needing to speak, they proactively sent countless high-quality resources into her hands.
High-end endorsements and magazine features that others begged for were hers to take as she pleased; whether she accepted them or not depended entirely on her mood.
Good scripts were even more abundant. Many famous veteran directors directly named the then-newcomer Hua Yanqiu to be their leading lady.
It helped that Hua Yanqiu had an excellent temperament, remaining unruffled by fame or disgrace. She had been in the spotlight since her debut. While the resources were good, one couldn’t reach the summit solely through the “back door.”
In this industry, everyone must face public scrutiny. Audiences aren’t blind or mindless; they won’t blindly follow an actor just because their popularity is high.
To forge iron, one must be strong themselves; an actor naturally speaks through their work.
Hua Yanqiu did not disappoint. Her acting was indeed outstanding. Though she wasn’t professionally trained, she far surpassed many “little flowers” who were. From her first work to the present, improvement could be seen in every performance.
Consequently, the audience enjoyed the pleasure of watching her “grow.” Most became her die-hard fans, following her all the way, witnessing her flourishing development, and their affection for her was palpable.
Shen Manyu casually searched for Hua Yanqiu’s name. Every one of her Weibo posts reached the top of the trending searches within a very short time thanks to her fans.
Even if the Weibo content rarely touched upon her personal life and mostly consisted of work schedules and arrangements, as long as there was news, the fans below would be as excited as if it were New Year’s Day.
The numbness in her legs gradually faded, and the cold air from the air conditioner soon dispelled the heat in the room. As the temperature dropped, it took the irritability in her heart with it.
Shen Manyu absentmindedly scrolled through Hua Yanqiu’s Weibo. After looking through it, she gained an understanding of Hua Yanqiu’s work intensity knowing the woman was a typical workaholic who barely stopped all year round but found no other useful information.
Hua Yanqiu’s family background was mysterious; almost no one in the circle knew about it, and those who did were tight-lipped.
Judging only by the various circumstances of her journey, even if one knew nothing, they could guess her background must be extremely powerful.
Because of this, many actors who weren’t as successful as Hua Yanqiu were green with envy. They were always wary of the background behind her, only daring to say sour words behind her back and never daring to provoke her to her face.
Shen Manyu was the first “idiot” to jump out and openly oppose her.
People in the industry hadn’t voiced any opinions on the matter publicly, nor had they proactively spoken up for Hua Yanqiu or deliberately stepped on Shen Manyu in hopes of making Hua Yanqiu remember the favor.
But secretly, countless eyes were fixed on the two of them. Everyone was quietly watching the show, seeing how Hua Yanqiu would respond this time.
If she couldn’t suppress Shen Manyu directly, and if others followed suit, they would start to think Hua Yanqiu was just a “soft persimmon” who was only strong on the outside. Starting with Shen Manyu’s provocation, her future troubles would never end.
Had it not been for Shen Manyu transmigrating and encountering Hua Yanqiu, changing her attitude toward her, Hua Yanqiu’s company and team led by Manager Qi would likely have already launched a counterattack against Shen Manyu’s words and actions.
Shen Manyu exited Weibo and clicked “Accept” on Hua Yanqiu’s friend request. Her gaze remained on Hua Yanqiu’s profile picture, but her thoughts flew far away to her own manager, Mo Cheng.
As for her company… they had spent money to hire water armies for her and suppressed the hot searches. Her manager Mo Cheng had also been trying to stop her suicidal actions. They had done what they could, and it seemed they valued her.
But whether it was Mo Cheng’s attitude or the company’s, everything felt inconsistent.
If they valued her, then aside from Mo Cheng, there wasn’t a single message from the company on her phone.
There were no group chats, let alone contact info for colleagues. The chat history was pitifully sparse; the original owner almost seemed like an elderly person who had just touched a smartphone for the first time and hadn’t figured out how to use it.
She couldn’t even find Mo Cheng’s contact information earlier.
She didn’t know if the original owner was truly unfamiliar with her company and manager, or if she had deliberately deleted the information.
Shen Manyu switched out of WeChat again and downloaded the official app for her SIM card provider, preparing to pull up her recent call logs.
Just then, a message from Hua Yanqiu popped up: “Do you want to go out for dinner later? Are there any ingredients you’re allergic to or dislike?”