After A Secret Marriage With The Trending Queen - Chapter 43

Chapter 43

“Sister, it’s late, you should rest early. I’ll come call you tomorrow morning,” Shen Lu said, turning to run, and soon vanished from Ye Qin’s room.

She desperately wanted to escape the situation because she was afraid that if she stayed a moment longer—even just one more second—she would be unable to stop herself from admitting everything to her. After opening the door and returning to her own room, Shen Lu leaned against the cold wall for a long time, one hand pressed to her chest, feeling her violently heaving breaths, her palms slick with nervous sweat.

After Shen Lu left, Ye Qin poured herself a glass of red wine. She rested a hand on the window sill, standing on the top floor of Hotel F, overlooking the night lights of H City. Her eyes were clouded with an unknown melancholy.

…

The sun rose and a new day began. Major media outlets raced to report, with the accompanying picture being just one photo of Ye Qin gripping Shen Lu’s wrist, facing the camera without fear. However, the media eloquently and tirelessly edited lengthy articles to describe this single photo. As the saying goes, start with one picture, and the rest of the content is made up.

Suddenly, an overwhelming number of promotional articles focused on the rumored relationship between the popular young actress and her own assistant. But this was destined to be a failed battle. Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that this news was completely different from the usual slander and defamation against Ye Qin. Fans and passersby were already over this kind of trickery.

Where was the hard evidence? There was none. Relevant videos had already been dealt with by Ye Qin’s team.

Of course, regarding the ‘CP’ (Couple) being fabricated between Ye Qin and Shen Lu, her fans had two different camps and opinions.

One side was Supportive:

“Sister Lu Lu is so great, just go with our Qin. It’s not bad, and she can take good care of Qin in the future.” “A rabbit eats the grass around its own burrow! (Meaning: Keep relationships close to home)” “Beautiful Qin, you two actually have a great CP vibe.”

The other side was Opposed:

“Although Shen Lu is nice, she’s still just an assistant. Beautiful Qin is suitable for someone in the industry.” “Yeah, they don’t seem like a good match.” “Beautiful Qin is mine, no one is allowed to take her from me.” “Thank goodness it’s just malicious marketing. I was terrified when I saw the news.”

Tan Xueying’s people were furious, but she herself wasn’t in a hurry. She scrolled through the news, the corners of her lips turning up, a mysterious smile in her eyes. “This is just the beginning.”

Since the night Ye Qin dragged Shen Lu out of the restaurant, Tan Xueying had not bothered them when they met on set. She would only give a polite nod. For a while, the crew was buzzing with rumors about Tan Xueying’s feelings changing for Shen Lu, and Shen Lu transferring her affection to Ye Qin.

Shen Lu thought, Maybe after that night, Sister Xueying gave up the idea of pursuing me? Although the whole thing was incredible—her feelings for Shen Lu came out of nowhere and disappeared without a trace.

However, for Shen Lu, this was a small hurdle overcome. She finally escaped this predicament. She no longer had to pretend to be intimate with someone, no longer had to be forced to deceive anyone’s feelings, and was free of the psychological pressure.

…

Following this incident, Ye Qin and Wang Lin discussed the matter. Ye Qin believed that Tan Xueying purely disliked her and was setting her up with malicious marketing because she was blocking her path. She wasn’t afraid of ten more people like her.

Wang Lin, however, maintained a wait-and-see attitude. She didn’t know if the other party would strike again, so caution was necessary. “Especially you and Shen Lu, watch your boundaries and don’t cross the line.”

As the filming approached its wrap, the two female leads had an important and sensational scene today: a rain kiss. It wasn’t a simple lip-to-lip kiss, but a full-fledged, passionate french kiss.

After the series of events that happened recently, Ye Qin already considered it a measure of her good temperament and professionalism that she could stay on set and film calmly with this woman. Now, receiving a script with this kind of scene, she completely erupted. She rushed angrily to find the director.

“I am not shooting this kiss scene,” Ye Qin threw the script onto the director’s desk.

The director immediately took off his headphones and walked to her side, trying to placate her like a spoiled ancestor. “Ye Qin, this scene serves as a climax for the whole drama. Deleting it will have a huge impact. Look, you and Xueying have already shot kiss scenes for commercials; you shouldn’t mind this little bit, right?”

“I do mind.”

Seeing that the gentle approach failed, the director straightened up and spoke firmly, “Let me tell you, you will shoot this scene whether you want to or not!”

Returning empty-handed, Ye Qin sat sullenly under the resting tent for a long time with the script in her hands.

“Sister, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Ye Qin didn’t bother to explain much to Shen Lu. She was just in a very bad mood, extremely unhappy.

“Alright, actors to your positions!”

At the command, Ye Qin put down the script, took off her coat, and walked forward. Shen Lu sat under the tent, resting her chin on her hand, calculating how soon she could go home. If the final stage of filming went quickly, it wouldn’t be long.

She missed the breakfast and food of A City, and the flavor. The food in H City was too bland; it felt like a carnivore had been eating grass for months—very uncomfortable and suffocating.

Shen Lu had not read this part of the script. Non-actors like her were not entitled to read the script, but after spending time watching the filming, she had a general understanding of the whole story’s development.

She wondered what would happen in today’s scene. Shen Lu got some sunflower seeds from Shen Jing and started cracking them while watching the show.

The artificial rain equipment was ready. The actors arrived at the designated spot and stood in position. After the final touch-up of their makeup, the director shouted “Action,” and the clapperboard started.

From that moment on, Shen Lu completely saw the two people opposite her not as Tan Xueying and Ye Qin, but as the two characters in the drama. Every line, every movement, every expression, every emotion of theirs tugged at her heart. It was incredibly agonizing; it looked like a heartbreaker.

The heavy rain poured down, soaking the two of them. The next second, the two people unexpectedly embraced and kissed, and it was an especially fierce and passionate kiss… The onlookers all had expressions of watching a good show. The sunflower seed Shen Lu was feeding into her mouth paused mid-air. She froze for a long while, unable to react. She suddenly felt breathless and quickly turned and ran away.

“Hey, Sister, where are you going!”

She was suddenly blocked by a hindrance that leaped out midway.

“Get out of the way, Shen Jing!”

“I heard the female leads have a kiss scene today. I’m going to watch the fun,” Shen Jing stretched his neck to look inside.

Shen Lu smacked him and strode away angrily.

Shen Jing chuckled mischievously, My sister is jealous, hahahahaha… Time to watch the show.

…

Despite a million dissatisfactions, Ye Qin finally finished the shoot smoothly. After all, everyone knew that the less cooperative she was, the more times they would have to kiss because they would repeatedly have to retake the scene. It was better to get it right the first time and be done with it quickly.

Returning, she didn’t see Shen Lu, but Shen Jing was sitting in Shen Lu’s seat. “Where is your sister?”

Shen Jing looked around and, seeing no one, whispered, “Sister Qin, my sister is jealous.”

Jealous? Ye Qin instantly understood and couldn’t help but smile. “Alright, I know.” She then walked off in a certain direction.

Not far outside the set.

Shen Lu was sitting on the curb of a roadside flower bed, picking up fallen leaves and tearing them apart. Unbeknownst to her, someone silently approached from behind.

“It looks like someone is very annoyed.”

Shen Lu jumped and suddenly turned her head. Seeing it was Ye Qin, she sighed in relief. “Sister, you scared me to death.”

Ye Qin glanced around, seeing that the area was deserted except for passing vehicles, as it was in the suburbs. Just as she was about to sit down next to Shen Lu, Shen Lu anxiously stopped her. “Wait, Sister.”

With that, she hastily pulled out a spare tissue from her bag and laid it on the edge of the flower bed next to her, explaining, “It’s a bit dirty, but you can sit now.”

Ye Qin sat down, tilting her head to look at her. “Why did you run out here?”

Shen Lu lowered her head and continued fiddling with the leaves. “I felt a bit stuffy, so I came out for a walk.”

“Is that really true?” Ye Qin asked again, smiling faintly, her tone sounding like she was deliberately trying to bait her.

“That’s really true, only that,” Shen Lu blushed, her eyes darting away from Ye Qin’s intense gaze.