Gu Ming grew increasingly helpless. She gently wiped away the girl’s tears, cupping a face that looked so much like her own…now sporting a tear-stained, utterly aggrieved expression. She felt a pang of pity, but she also wanted to laugh.
“Look at you. Even I barely ever cry, yet I’ve done nothing but watch you use this face to weep.”
Gu Yan lowered her eyelids guiltily.
Gu Ming gave her head a firm, playful rub. “Alright, stop overthinking. Let’s get the noodles going.”
She turned back around to light the stove, tossing in the tomatoes and eggs before adding water. When she noticed Gu Yan standing obediently right behind her, watching her every move, an overwhelming wave of affection washed over her for no particular reason.
Shaking her head with a wry smile, Gu Ming realized she was truly a goner.
Cooking the noodles was a quick affair. Once they finished eating, the two of them sat down to run their lines.
The morning scene included an intimate segment. Under a beam of sunlight filtering through the curtains, their characters were supposed to affectionately rub noses and kiss. Although they didn’t actually have to lock lips during rehearsals, just being that close…with their breaths tangling together…was enough. Even without physical contact, Gu Yan felt so overwhelmed by Gu Ming’s presence that her knees and waist felt weak.
She was practically enveloped by Gu Ming’s scent.
She was resting on Gu Ming’s pillow, sleeping in Gu Ming’s bed, pinned beneath Gu Ming’s body. Chest pressed against chest, heart beating against heart.
Gu Ming held her face, the heat from those palms transferring to her cheeks and down her neck until her entire body felt flushed.
As Gu Ming shifted angles, her warm breath brushed across Gu Yan’s forehead, the bridge of her nose, and the tip of her nose. Instinctively, Gu Yan wanted to pull away, but Gu Ming held her firmly in place, forcing her to accept it.
Gu Yan’s heart hammered wildly, her breathing growing fast and deep. She wanted to close her eyes, yet she couldn’t bear to miss a single second.
Her vision blurred, leaving her senses sharply, acutely attuned to where each of Gu Ming’s breaths landed.
Her cheek, her jawline, the side of her neck, her collarbone…
According to the script, they were supposed to be naked right now. Her skin would have perfectly registered the varying pressure and temperature of Gu Ming’s breath as it fell.
But even though they were fully clothed for practice, Gu Ming’s presence seemed to pierce through every stitch and thread, seeping right into her skin.
It was entirely too intimate.
Especially that single ray of light.
Even though it was just a bedside lamp mimicking sunlight, it transformed the decently sized room…and the king-sized bed…into a private, suffocatingly small universe meant only for the two of them.
Gu Yan swallowed hard, her mouth and throat suddenly parched. A sudden impulse surged within her…a reckless, devil-may-care impulse…and the moment Gu Ming began to pull away, it acted as the ultimate catalyst.
Gu Yan tightened her arms around Gu Ming’s neck, meeting a pair of eyes that were identical to her own yet completely distinct. In those pupils, she could clearly see a reflection of herself: ugly, wicked, and filthy.
But she couldn’t help it.
She really was that hideous, dirty, and vile.
“Gu Ming… Can…can I use an immunity pass?”
“What—mmph!—”
Before Gu Ming could even register the question, Gu Yan crashed her lips against hers.
It was frantic, chaotic, and completely clumsy…yet it was burning hot, deep, and laced with the salty taste of tears.
Realizing what she was tasting, Gu Ming’s initial shock melted into helplessness.
Silley girl.
You’re the one forcing a kiss on someone, so why are you crying again?
Gu Ming indulged her, letting Gu Yan kiss her until she had her fill. She had intended to have a proper talk afterward, but she didn’t expect Gu Yan to turn completely hostile the second the kiss ended. The girl sobbed out an apology and bolted out the door.
Gu Ming took a couple of steps to chase after her, intending to say something, but the moment she opened her mouth, she felt a sharp prickling sensation. Tapping the spot with her tongue, she realized her lip had been bitten open.
She let out a helpless laugh. “Little puppy.”
Gu Yan regretted it.
The regret hit the exact moment the kiss ended.
She shouldn’t have been so impulsive.
Now Gu Ming was going to be utterly disgusted by her.
How could she not hold herself back?
“Can I use an immunity pass?” “Is one even enough? I’ll give you ten.”
Gu Yan suddenly slapped her hands over her face and slid down against the door, burying herself in a suffocating wave of shame and regret.
Gu Ming had only been joking along with her. How could she have actually believed that Gu Ming would forgive and tolerate her over and over again?
She had wanted that immunity pass hoping that one day, when Gu Ming found out about her feelings, she wouldn’t hate her for keeping it a secret. How could she have wasted it on this?
“Look who finally decided to come back. You certainly kept me waiting.”
The bedroom door suddenly swung open, and Yan Ling stepped out into the living room. The lights flicked on, casting a harsh glow over her tall figure as she walked over, radiating pure intimidation.
Gu Yan’s heart seized. She hurriedly wiped away her tears and stood up.
“Ah!”
But the moment she got to her feet, Yan Ling delivered a brutal kick straight to her stomach. Gu Yan crashed back down against the door, and before she could recover, Yan Ling grabbed a fistful of her hair, forcing her head up.
“Well aren’t you something, Gu Yan. Now that you’ve got Gu Ming backing you up, you think your wings are fully grown? You dare treat my words like background noise?”
Yan Ling violently pinched Gu Yan’s cheeks, leaning in to whisper viciously, “Gu Yan, sometimes I really want to cut you open and see just how many lives you think you have.”
Her stomach throbbed with intense pain and her scalp stung, but Gu Yan managed a smile…even if it was a battered, defiant one.
“If you have the guts, then cut me open. I’d love to see exactly how brave I can be with Gu Ming protecting me.”
Yan Ling’s eyes grew even more venomous. “Gu Yan, do you really want to die?”
Gu Yan met her gaze without a hint of fear.
Yan Ling let out a sharp, angry laugh. Her grip shifted from a pinch to a mockingly gentle caress, tracing Gu Yan’s cheek and chin. “Gu Yan, do you honestly think I only have a few basic tricks up my sleeve to deal with you?”
Gu Yan remained silent, staring back coldly.
“If it weren’t for this face keeping you safe, who do you think you’d be talking to right now?” Yan Ling suddenly wrapped her hand around Gu Yan’s throat, squeezing hard. Gu Yan’s face quickly flushed a deep crimson, her breath choked off as her face began to swell from the lack of oxygen.
Yet, she didn’t beg for mercy. She didn’t even make a sound. She just watched her with absolute composure.
“Gu Yan, in that little world of yours, do you think being played with by another woman is disgusting? Do you think it makes you dirty?”
“Isn’t it dirty enough? You, a woman—”
Yan Ling pinched Gu Yan’s mouth shut, clicking her tongue as she shook her head with malicious amusement. “You are so naive, Gu Yan. How can you be this naive? You’ve experienced so much cruelty in life, yet you still hold onto such childish ideas.”
“If it weren’t because your face looks so much like Gu Ming’s…making me hesitant to use the truly nasty methods on you…do you really think you’d be standing here in one piece, talking back to me? Why don’t you take a guess at what your predecessor stand-ins are doing right now?”
Gu Yan’s expression shifted slightly, though she tried her best to mask her rising anger and dread.
She might behave as though she feared nothing because she had a safety net, but she wasn’t completely oblivious to how the world worked.
Having survived at the rock bottom of society, she had heard far too many horror stories of people selling their dignity and bodies for money. Whether they were tricked into it initially, did it willingly, or simply had no other choice, the realities were chilling.
It was precisely because she feared falling down that exact rabbit hole that she had preferred to do grueling manual labor…nearly starving to death in the process…rather than take those supposedly high-paying, easy jobs.
She had thought she could dodge the malice of fate, only for the heavens to drop Yan Ling right into her path.
The entertainment industry was notoriously filthy, and anywhere there were people, there was a dark underbelly. Since she had already succumbed to Yan Ling’s threats and coercion, how could she not have looked into what happened to others like her?
Being ruined and forced out of the industry was considered a happy ending. The real terror was when these people wouldn’t let you go even in death, determined to squeeze out every last drop of your utility.
She didn’t know what happened to the older lookalikes; the information was buried too deep. But she had caught whispers about her immediate predecessor. Apparently, she had been moved to the Public Relations department.
As for what kind of “public relations” she was handling, and what exactly she was servicing, that was entirely open to interpretation.
“You people are truly filthy.”
“And you think you’re clean?” Yan Ling’s finger slid downward, tapping lightly against Gu Yan’s heart. She let out a dark, amused chuckle. “Hasn’t this body of yours already been ruined by me long ago?”