At the Jin residence.
Jin Yan scrolled through Ai Xuan’s Weibo, looking at her photos one by one.
Her smile was radiant in the pictures. She really did seem to be doing well, and she looked completely different from before. He couldn’t help thinking how much she loved to smile. She was so dazzling that he could pick her out of a crowd at a glance.
She smiled often and was cheerful and optimistic. Her looks had drawn him in at first. Then she’d kept showing up in front of him, and little by little, he’d grown more aware of her. Eventually, there’d been something between them, though they’d never defined what it was.
She really didn’t know a good thing when she saw it. He’d meant to stop bothering with her, yet the frustration stayed lodged in his chest. He’d started checking her updates every day.
Mother Jin saw her son sitting on the sofa with his phone, staring into space. She called to him several times without getting a response and frowned. “I’m talking to you.”
Jin Yan snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her.
“It’s late. Take Yinyun home,” Mother Jin told him.
“I still have something to do. Have Uncle Li take her.” Jin Yan stood up and headed upstairs as he spoke.
“You!” Mother Jin’s face darkened, but he didn’t even look back.
“It’s all right, Auntie.” Xie Yinyun smiled faintly, as though she didn’t mind.
“He’s been in a bad mood lately. Don’t take it personally. We still haven’t figured out what happened with the crash, so I can’t stop worrying.” Mother Jin looked deeply troubled as she spoke.
“It was just an accident, Auntie. Try not to worry about it,” Xie Yinyun reassured her.
Mother Jin took her hand and patted it gently. “I hope so. It’s getting late. I’ll have Uncle Li take you home. Let him get on with his work. There’s a lot going on at the company lately.”
Xie Yinyun kept smiling as she said goodbye to Mother Jin and left.
In the car, she opened Weibo on her phone and saw a topic about Ai Xuan on the trending list. She tapped on it. Ai Xuan seemed to be in a good mood.
Xie Yinyun’s expression barely changed. After taking a closer look, she liked Ai Xuan’s latest post, closed the page, and exited the app. Then she smiled and started chatting with Uncle Li.
The next morning, in the parking lot.
Gu Heng wouldn’t let Ai Xuan take him to the airport after all. He said it was too far and there was no need for her to make the round trip and go to all that trouble.
“But I’m already up.” She stood in front of him and tilted her head back to look at him.
Ai Xuan was wearing a tracksuit and a face mask. She had a hat and sunglasses in her hand, ready to put them on in a moment.
“Wouldn’t I have to bring you back afterward?” Gu Heng asked with a helpless look.
That left her at a loss for an answer.
Both her manager and Zhang Xiaoru had told her to stay in. After she’d trended the day before, fans in the area might come and wait around for her.
Seeing her expression, Gu Heng parted his thin lips. “You’ve got something in your hair.”
“Huh?”
He suddenly lifted the hand at his side and laid it lightly over her bangs. He moved slowly, giving a few strands a gentle tug. His thin lips were pressed together as he tried to steady his breathing, and his body tensed a little.
Ai Xuan stood still. His touch was light and just teasing enough to set her mind wandering and make her heart itch. She even wondered if he was doing it on purpose.
She looked straight ahead, her gaze landing on his Adam’s apple as she breathed in his cool, fresh scent.
It looked like an ordinary gesture. He was cautiously testing the waters with that touch, and she was shyly letting him.
For a moment, the air between them was charged.
“There.” Gu Heng lowered his hand, his voice low and clear. “I’ll call you when I get to the airport.”
There was warmth in his gaze, and it set her heart fluttering. A little dazed, Ai Xuan agreed without thinking. As she walked back, her cheeks quietly turned pink.
A black Bentley headed toward the airport. Secretary Pei sat in the front passenger seat. Behind the partition, Gu Heng looked down at his right hand, slowly rubbing his thumb and forefinger together. His gaze was transfixed, a trace of greed creeping into his dark eyes.
Zhang Xiaoru came to wake Ai Xuan, only to find her coming back from outside with breakfast in hand.
Once they were back in the room, Zhang Xiaoru looked around. Ai Xuan noticed and made a point of saying, “We’re just friends.”
How could they possibly have stayed in the same room? Gu Heng was a gentleman. He had impeccable manners and treated her with respect.
That reminded her of what he’d just done. Her cheeks suddenly grew hot, and she hurried over to open all the windows.
Zhang Xiaoru looked a little disappointed. Her idol had been in the industry for years and had never dated anyone. As the person who spent the most time with her, Zhang Xiaoru might have gotten to see a sweet romance unfold firsthand. She popped a bite of the cake Ai Xuan had brought back into her mouth, and her eyes lit up. “What kind of cake is this? It’s so good!”
“Pandan coconut milk cake.” Ai Xuan turned and came back to sit down.
“Where’d you get it?” Zhang Xiaoru nodded eagerly as she ate.
Ai Xuan paused with the cake in her hand. She lowered her eyes and took another small bite. After a long moment, she said softly, “Secretary Pei bought it.”
Secretary Pei had handed it to her on her way back, but she knew Gu Heng had gotten it for her. She’d loved it in Haicheng and had mentioned it to him when they chatted.
Zhang Xiaoru was about to say something else when Li Ping arrived. Distracted, she quickly popped the last bite of cake into her mouth and got ready to work.
“How’s the bump on your head?” Li Ping asked Ai Xuan.
“I put medicine on it twice yesterday. It’s fine now,” Ai Xuan replied.
Gu Heng had helped her apply it again when they got back. Today, there was barely a mark.
“Honestly, you. Next time you go live, have Xiaoru stay with you.” Li Ping didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Then something else occurred to her. “You said you were showing a friend around yesterday. What kind of friend?”
She’d kept an eye on the trending topic the night before. When nothing negative came up, she hadn’t given it much thought.
Ai Xuan slowed at the question, unsure how to answer.
What kind of friends were she and Gu Heng?
Li Ping picked up on her hesitation immediately. “Is he your boyfriend?”
“No.” This time, Ai Xuan answered right away.
“If you start dating someone, you need to tell me. I’ll have to prepare ahead of time.” That was all Li Ping said.
“Mm,” Ai Xuan replied.
She didn’t know where things with Gu Heng would go. At first, she’d only wanted to stay on good terms with him because she owed him so much. Later, she’d found that being with him was easy and comfortable. He made her feel at ease.
Li Ping caught Zhang Xiaoru listening with an eager look on her face and chided her with a smile. “Hurry up and get ready. We need to get to set. If we’re late, Director Lu will go on about it again.”
“Director Lu’s obviously picking on her on purpose!” Zhang Xiaoru protested.
Li Ping looked at Ai Xuan. “Everyone knows how much Director Lu cares about saving face. People always go along with him. You’re clearly more popular on set than he is. Of course you get on his nerves.”
“He can stew,” Ai Xuan said.
He was a grown man, and he was still throwing tantrums.
When they arrived on set, the assistant director was getting everyone ready to shoot.
Seeing Ai Xuan arrive, people were still thinking about what had happened the day before and wondering what might happen between Director Lu and Ai Xuan today.
Director Lu would probably make things difficult for someone again.
Ai Xuan greeted everyone with a smile, then went to the makeup room to get ready for filming.
When it was time to shoot, Lu Yuchen was still nowhere to be seen. That was unusual. He might have been the director in name only, but he liked to make an entrance, and everyone always had to wait for him before they could start.
The assistant director was getting anxious. He called Lu Yuchen, but there was no answer.
The sun climbed higher, and the heat grew stifling.
“Let’s start filming,” Ai Xuan suggested. “Otherwise, everyone’s just standing around waiting.”
The assistant director called again. Still no answer. He had no choice but to start without him.
They’d already shot several scenes by the time Lu Yuchen finally showed up. He had dark circles under both eyes and a vacant stare. His shoulders drooped as he dragged his feet like a wandering ghost.
He hadn’t slept all night, and it showed. He was slow to react and seemed dazed.
The assistant director got quite a fright when he saw him.
“Don’t mind me.” Lu Yuchen sat down in front of the camera, waved him off feebly, and hung his head.
The assistant director didn’t dare ask any more questions. The actors could tell Lu Yuchen was in a bad mood, so they did their best to keep a low profile. They figured Ai Xuan was probably in for another scolding.
But Lu Yuchen didn’t say a word all morning. He just sat in front of the camera, looking as wilted as an eggplant, occasionally casting a gloomy look at Ai Xuan.
Everyone was on edge except Ai Xuan, who acted even better than usual. They finished a full day’s worth of scenes in a single morning.
At exactly eleven, Lu Yuchen stood up and said listlessly, “That’s a wrap.”
Everyone thought they’d misheard him. He was actually letting them stop early for lunch. That was a first.
They were always trying to stay on schedule, so they usually didn’t get to eat until after noon. Working overtime was nothing unusual.
The crew handed out boxed lunches. There was plenty of food today, including seafood. Everyone put their other concerns aside and dug in.
Zhang Xiaoru picked up Ai Xuan’s lunch and set it on a makeshift table nearby. The assistant director was about to eat with Lu Yuchen and discuss what came next for the production when Lu Yuchen picked up his lunch and headed straight for Ai Xuan.
Everyone turned to watch.
Lu Yuchen sat down across from Ai Xuan and studied her closely.
Ai Xuan kept eating in small bites. When she glanced up at him, she couldn’t help laughing. “What did you get up to last night? You look like a ghost.”
Lu Yuchen didn’t take offense. He checked who was nearby, then leaned toward her. Eyes wide above his dark circles, he lowered his voice. “What exactly is going on between you and Third Brother?”
He’d racked his brain and still couldn’t believe Gu Heng had something going on with Ai Xuan. It was clearly romantic. The idea made his jaw drop.
In the past, Ai Xuan would’ve given him an ambiguous answer. Being on good terms with someone from a prominent family could open doors and give her someone to fall back on. She would’ve gone out of her way to strike up a conversation and build that connection.
Now she didn’t dare make their relationship sound like anything more. She looked at Lu Yuchen and pressed her lips together. “We’re friends.”
“You think I’m stupid?” Lu Yuchen said. “A friend would come all this way just to see you?”
“He was passing through,” Ai Xuan reminded him.
Lu Yuchen shook his head. “No, you’re deliberately downplaying it. Come on, tell me. How far have things gone between you two?”
“…”
How had that backfired?
Lu Yuchen thought back to the way Gu Heng had acted and remembered how strangely Secretary Pei had been behaving. The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed. He looked at Ai Xuan. “You saved his life, didn’t you?”
Why else would Gu Heng treat her so well?
As far as the Gu family was concerned, Gu Heng was cold-blooded, merciless, and capable of real cruelty. The idea of him falling in love was unthinkable. There had never been a woman at his side, and no woman had ever dared get close to him.
It was bizarre, almost surreal.
The only explanation Lu Yuchen could think of was that Ai Xuan had saved Gu Heng’s life.
Ai Xuan kept her head down and went on eating. After a while, she said softly, “He saved my life.”
Gu Heng had saved her and stayed by her side through a difficult time.
That only made Lu Yuchen more perplexed. “He saved my life too. Why isn’t he that nice to me?”
Ai Xuan lifted her head to look at him.
“When I was fifteen, I was going through a rebellious phase. I made my eldest brother angry, and he pushed me into a pool. Third Brother pulled me out. My leg cramped up, and I almost drowned.” Lu Yuchen spoke in fits and starts, then glossed over much of what had happened afterward, as if he didn’t want to remember it.
His mother had been a low-ranking attendant at a karaoke club and had no say in the Lu family. She’d lived in fear that he wouldn’t make it to adulthood. A few years later, his eldest brother went to prison, and only then did Lu Yuchen’s position in the Lu family improve.
His brother’s imprisonment had something to do with the eldest branch of the Gu family, too. In a way, Gu Heng had saved him again.
“He’s always ready to help, huh?” The description sounded so unlike Gu Heng that Ai Xuan smiled and added, “He’s a good person.”
“If he’s so good, why are you still tangled up with Jin Yan?” Lu Yuchen abruptly changed tack, indignant on Gu Heng’s behalf.
Ai Xuan stared at him. “?”
When she didn’t answer, Lu Yuchen reconsidered his tone, reined himself in, and spoke more civilly. “I saw it myself that day. Jin Yan came here specifically to see you. And you’re the reason he wants to invest in the series and get involved in the production.” He leaned a little closer. “Do you think that’s fair to Third Brother?”
Ai Xuan froze for a second. Did Gu Heng know about it too? What would he think? But she had nothing to feel guilty about, so she set the record straight at once. “That’s Jin Yan’s business. There’s absolutely nothing between us.”
Seeing how little she seemed to care, Lu Yuchen half believed her.