After Being Marked by the Top Celebrity Childhood Friend [Entertainment Industry] - Chapter 10

I’ll Do as You Say

Inside the restaurant, people came and went. Even though it wasn’t peak dining hours, the establishment was still bustling.

Lin Que finished ordering and noticed Lu Ling staring down at her phone, though the screen was black.

Tap.

Lu Ling snapped out of it, her eyes vacant.

Lin Que retracted her hand. “Did something happen?”

Lu Ling nodded first, then quickly shook her head. “What did you order?”

“Two bowls of beef noodles,” Lin Que said, handing the sanitized utensils to Lu Ling. Her eyes, the only part of her face visible and uncovered, sparkled. “With double meat!”

“…”

This was the seventh day in a row they were eating noodles.

Lu Ling gazed at Lin Que. The woman looked enthusiastic, as if she could happily keep eating this for another week.

Fine, she thought. What good food do female celebrities usually get to eat anyway? Nothing but bland leafy greens and chicken breast that tastes like chewing wax.

But—

“Are you sure we shouldn’t get it to go?” Lu Ling asked.

Lin Que shook her head. “Freshly made tastes best.”

Lu Ling hesitated, and Lin Que understood her concern.

She leaned back against her chair and crossed her arms. Her voice was low, devoid of obvious emotion: “Youyou, I’m not a wanted fugitive.”

“Sigh,” Lu Ling exhaled. “But you’ll be photographed.”

Being photographed meant exposure, and exposure meant another round of baseless trending hashtags. She didn’t care about those messy rumors, but Lu Ling cared for her.

“…I wonder if my current situation counts as ‘unpaid leave.'”

Lu Ling sighed again, pressing her hands together in prayer. “God bless me—actually, may any deity out there bless me—let your name be cleared quickly!”

Lin Que squinted at her sideways.

“Then you can hurry back to your busy schedule! Otherwise, when my mom asks, I won’t even know how to make up a story!”

Lin Que opened her mouth to speak, but before she could make a sound, Lu Ling had already lost all her energy, muttering to herself: “Then there’s the rent and utilities… Ugh, why am I so unlucky? I just started working and now I’m on a long vacation.”

The eyes are the windows to the soul.

Lin Que’s soul was currently filled with exasperation.

“You are my personal assistant.”

Lu Ling looked at her, her expression silently saying, So?

“So, you are allowed to live with me.”

As she spoke, Lin Que finally remembered something. Seeing Lu Ling’s strained, fake smile, she guiltily averted her eyes.

According to the original plan, they were supposed to stay in a presidential suite, but an accident had derailed the plan. Still, the result was the same—they were living together.

Lu Ling rolled her eyes and finally asked the question she’d been dying to ask: “Why do you always live in hotels?”

Lin Que looked at her, about to answer, when Lu Ling added cautiously: “Is it because you can’t afford a house in Chenghua either?”

“I can afford it, I just don’t want to buy one,” Lin Que said. “Hotels are convenient. You go out, you come back, and the room is as good as new.”

Lu Ling nodded, though she didn’t quite agree with the sentiment. Before she could speak, Lin Que’s phone—which had been silent for ages—suddenly rang.

Lin Que answered: “Hello?”

Lu Ling watched her expectantly.

“Song He?”

“Mm, okay.” Lin Que gestured to Lu Ling and stood up. “I’ll step outside to talk. We’re eating, no one is watching us…”

Lu Ling sat stunned for a long time. It wasn’t until the waiter served the noodles that she looked at the rising steam and eventually turned her head to watch Lin Que.

Is everything okay now?

Her heart suddenly twinged, as if a drop of lemon juice had fallen on it.

Lu Ling let out a breath, and as if to prove something to herself, she looked back at Lin Que. Her thoughts, however, drifted back to a summer twenty years ago.

The summer she first met Lin Que.

The sun had invaded everything on the ground. The cicadas shrieked, and heat crawled up from the soles of her feet. Little Lu Ling finally couldn’t help but stop.

Lu Ye looked down, pressed her own hat onto little Lu Ling’s head, took a deep breath, and picked her up. Golden light shimmered across the red leather surface of the girl’s backpack.

“Give it to me.”

Little Lu Ling hugged Lu Ye’s neck. “This isn’t heavy.”

“It’s okay, what’s in Mommy’s hands isn’t heavy either.”

Back then, Lu Ye carried her entire fortune on her shoulders, and her whole world in her arms.

Lu Ling leaned on Lu Ye’s shoulder, watching the path they had walked. She felt like the road beneath them was getting narrower—

“Youyou, we’re here.”

The end of the alley suddenly opened up.

The path paved with bluestone was dark. Stepping on it felt cool.

Lu Ling looked up. The sun was still the same sun, but it was hidden behind a tall, dense pagoda tree. She couldn’t help but shiver.

Lowering her head, she came face-to-face with Lin Que’s eyes beneath the tree.

They were about the same height back then—though if one had to be picky, Lu Ling was slightly taller.

Lin Que stood there. Her face was a smooth, rounded oval, and her eyes were strikingly clear, like stones soaking in a deep pool.

Eerie.

Yet, one couldn’t bear to look away.

Lu Ye didn’t seem to share her daughter’s unease at all. She led Lu Ling into the shade and introduced herself to Lin Que: “Hello, I am Lu Ye. ‘Ye’ as in sunlight—Youyou,”

Lin Que blinked, her pupils trembling slightly, and she shook Lu Ye’s extended right hand.

“Lin Que.”

“Lin as in forest, Que as in forget.”

“You already know how to read?” Lu Ye looked at Lin Que with surprise.

“Yes.”

“That’s wonderful.”

After being praised, Lin Que lowered her head, her hand at her side tightening slightly.

“Youyou?”

The moment had come.

Lu Ling kept her hands behind her back, clenching them tight. Her palms were slick with a layer of fine sweat—likely the fault of the summer heat.

She knew how to read too; Lu Ye’s previous job had been a primary school teacher.

But in that moment, her mind went completely blank.

She hurriedly wiped her right hand on her back and the moment she grabbed Lin Que’s hand, her ears flushed hot—her palm still carried an unseemly dampness.

“Lu Ling.”

“Lu as in deer… Ling… Ling…”

“Ling as in ‘to listen,'” Lu Ye supplied in a light tone.

Lu Ling snatched her hand back, her face beneath the brim of the hat burning with a shameful red heat.

The three of them walked into the courtyard together. She was on Lu Ye’s left, and Lin Que was on the right.

Lu Ling kept her head down, rubbing her palm against the side of her pants over and over, her peripheral vision carefully watching Lin Que.

Lin Que followed naturally by Lu Ye’s side. Like Lu Ling, she listened quietly to Lu Ye speak, but the difference was that Lu Ling could feel she was happy.

—What is she happy about?

Is she happy because she completed a smooth introduction? Happy that her white dress is spotless? Happy that she’s cool and clean while I stuttered, wore old red-and-yellow clothes, and have sweaty palms?

Lu Ling looked at her. Lu Ye was describing something that happened during the move, her storytelling vivid and animated. Lin Que looked at her mother with a faint, graceful smile.

She liked Lu Ye.

And Lu Ye clearly liked her.

But Lu Ye was her mother.

As if sensing Lu Ling’s gaze, the moment Lin Que looked toward her, Lu Ling reached out and grabbed Lu Ye’s free hand.

“Xiao Lin, when is your birthday?” Lu Ye didn’t notice the string of “complex” motives behind the simple action. She assumed it was just her daughter’s insecurity in a new environment, so she squeezed the small hand and turned to ask Lin Que.

Lin Que didn’t seem to understand Lu Ling’s “complexity” either.

Those dark, brooding eyes held flecks of sunlight, carrying a surprisingly gentle meaning.

Lu Ling felt her face grow even hotter from the sun.

“October 21st.”

“Youyou is a bit older than you,” Lu Ye patted Lu Ling’s shoulder. “Youyou’s birthday is in April. April 7th.”

It wasn’t something particularly worth bragging about, yet Lu Ye’s tone carried a sense of pride.

Thus, an unconscious, secret joy bubbled up, washing away the heat on Lu Ling’s face.

“Youyou, you’re the older sister now.”

Lu Ling looked at Lin Que.

Suddenly, a breeze blew, the warm wind stirring her skirt. Lin Que seemed to be thinking, and a smile slowly reached her eyes—

“Ha.”

Lin Que let out a short laugh.

It wasn’t a mocking one.

“Well then, hello, Big Sister.”

Like the ice melting in a stream, with flower petals drifting quietly along;

In the height of summer,

She witnessed spring in another person.

“…We have work.”

Lu Ling returned to the present and looked up. The sunlight fractured in her eyes, turning her pupils into a very light shade, like the glow of spring.

“What work?” Lu Ling asked, withdrawing her gaze.

“A healing-style slow variety show.”

Lin Que handed her the phone, propping her head up with her hand.

The file name: Healing Lifestyle Slow Variety: NEXT Proposal.

Lu Ling clicked in. While the file was loading, her right eyelid twitched uncontrollably.

When she saw the “Proposed Guests” column, Lu Ling froze.

She looked at Lin Que, then looked down to confirm again, rubbing her eyes—she hadn’t misread it.

“Proposed Guests: Chu Man, Lin Que, Mo Li, Xie Qizhi!”

Lu Ling realized her reaction was a bit intense. She instinctively covered her mouth, bowing her head slightly. After confirming no one was paying attention to them, she lowered her voice and asked, “Is it the one I’m thinking of?”

Lin Que smiled and nodded. Her tone was light, as if she were an indifferent commentator: “Someone dared to dream it, and someone dared to do it.”

Lu Ling continued reading, pausing after every line.

She had thought the shock of this show was limited to bringing “crack-ship” CP fantasies into reality. It wasn’t until the end that she realized the biggest shock was the “Arch-Nemesis” factor.

Xie Qizhi: A gold-medal host, twelve years of being a model of virtue and art.

The only “stain” on her career happened three years ago. As a special guest host for Brand C’s grand ceremony, she was subjected to a verbal battle on the red carpet by the then-unstoppable top model Mo Li. It was a masterclass in passive-aggression—a true war without smoke.

Mo Li had been relentless, while Xie Qizhi mostly stayed on the defensive.

The battle ended with Mo Li leaving in a huff, while Xie Qizhi gracefully completed the rest of her work.

The two were from completely different circles, and since the source of their hatred couldn’t be traced, people assumed it was actually a complicated, unspoken love.

The “Li-Zhi” ship was born out of nowhere.

Lu Ling handed the phone back to Lin Que, picking up her chopsticks only to put them down again. “Will anyone actually invest in this show?”

Lin Que took the vinegar and tossed three generous swirls into her bowl. “Song He told me about it, which means they’ve already secured the investment.”

Lu Ling thought for a moment and leaned forward. “You aren’t close with Chu Man, but what about Xie Qizhi and Mo Li?”

“Not close either.”

“Oh.”

An expected answer.

Lu Ling sat back and looked toward the ceiling.

The shock of these four “Drama Queens” gathering in one place was no less than a top-tier idol going on a dating show with their rumored partner.

“Will they participate?”

“I don’t know.” Lin Que took a sip of water, sounding like an outsider to her own career.

“What about you?”

“I don’t know either,” Lin Que turned her head slightly, a faint smile playing on her lips. “If you don’t want me to participate—”

“I do.”

Lu Ling looked at Lin Que. “I want you to participate.”

“Okay.”

Lin Que’s eyes crinkled into a smile instantly. “I’ll do as you say.”