After Encountering My Deceased Wife, I Became the Male Lead's Love Rival - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Exposure

“The Lin family’s house is fully furnished, so they likely won’t bother making any furniture.” Looking at the only chair in the house, Ling Qiu felt a bit of a headache. “We should go feel out the program team and find a way to trade for some furniture.”

She remembered that Lin Mengyan and the others had been forced to hand over a batch of furniture to the program team in exchange for ingredients. Perhaps they could use food to trade that furniture back. Simply put, the theme of this show was “self-reliance”—if you wanted something, you had to buy it or trade for it. Ling Qiu also noticed many fields around the village; she suspected they might eventually have to do farm work to earn food and money.

“No need, I can make it.” Fang Ziyue took out her tools and began fiddling with the timber in front of her.

While she liked seeing Ling Qiu care for their little home, she couldn’t accept her wife using second-hand furniture discarded by others especially items previously used by those two bastards, the leads. It made her uncomfortable.

“You know how to make furniture?” Ling Qiu’s eyes widened in surprise, revealing a rare moment of soft cuteness.

The comments section erupted with cries of “Sister, look at me!” and “Ling-ling is so cute, I want to steal her away.”

Seeing this, Fang Ziyue smugly brushed the sawdust off her hands. No matter how loud the audience cheered, Ling Qiu could only be her wife.

“I don’t know much,” Fang Ziyue shook her head. “I only learned the basics from a master carpenter.”

Ling Qiu, as supportive as the live stream audience, offered a few words of praise. After all, it was quite incredible for a celebrity to know carpentry.

“Then I’ll be your assistant.” Ling Qiu couldn’t let Fang Ziyue do all the work alone, so she volunteered to help.

This was exactly what Fang Ziyue wanted. With a smile, she said, “Sure. Why don’t you hand me the tools?”

Fang Ziyue didn’t dare let Ling Qiu do anything else, fearing she might get hurt. Woodworking involved a lot of bumping and scraping; for a beginner, cuts and bruises were common.

“Handing tools… I don’t recognize them…” Ling Qiu said with some embarrassment. It seemed she might only be a hindrance, making her earlier offer to help feel a bit humiliating.

Fang Ziyue was waiting for her to say that. She looked at Ling Qiu and naturally smoothed things over: “It’s fine, I’ll teach you.”

“It’s perfectly normal not to know the tools the first time you do woodwork. When I first started learning, I almost made my master quit in anger.” Fang Ziyue shared an old joke from her apprenticeship.

“He tried to teach me ‘saw, plane, chisel, hammer, ruler, clamp,’ but when he quizzed me, it became ‘orange, date, wash, cut, blow, and perm.'” Fang Ziyue intentionally teased Ling Qiu, asking, “My master was so mad he wanted to kick me to the ‘other side.’ Do you know what was there?”

“What?” Ling Qiu was amused and instinctively responded in a soft, curious tone: “I can’t guess.”

Charmed by her wife’s cuteness, Fang Ziyue’s gaze softened. “The other side was a large bathhouse that offered tangerine peel medicinal baths and hair styling and they gave you a plate of dates as a snack. My master suspected I was craving the dates and insisted on kicking me over there to be an apprentice.”

Fang Ziyue sighed with nostalgia, remembering the stubborn old man. “But honestly, those dates were good, though they couldn’t beat the honeyed dates my master’s wife made. Thinking about it, how could I have been craving the shop’s dates? The old man just liked to frame me.”

“There’s no smoke without fire; I bet you definitely had your eye on their food,” Ling Qiu countered with a laugh, not believing her “tall tale.”

Haha, is Fang Ziyue’s master that funny? Does anyone have info on him? I’ll go buy his stuff to support the old man! Never heard of him. But doesn’t this feel a bit awkward? True. Best Actress Ling might not have meant it, but her words just now sounded like an innuendo about Fang Ziyue’s drugging scandal (no smoke without fire).

Which agency sent these trolls? Ling-ling clearly didn’t mean it that way, okay? If you maliciously twist her words, you’re dead. Smile/Smile. Lol, is this the level of Ling-fans? I see, I see just like their idol. Haters get out, stop stirring the pot!

Ling Qiu hadn’t expected a casual remark to cause such a mess. The smile on her face froze in embarrassment. Having been in the industry for so many years, how could she have made such a low-level mistake?!

“Forget it, why bother with them?” Fang Ziyue couldn’t stand seeing her wife troubled. She reached out toward Ling Qiu: “The saw.”

Looking at the woman who was helping her out of the awkwardness with such gentleness, Ling Qiu suddenly had an absurd feeling that she was in trouble. If Fang Ziyue hadn’t changed if she were still the person she used to be Ling Qiu would never have let her guard down or instinctively joked with her. She wouldn’t have given people a reason to criticize.

Ling Qiu handed over the saw and whispered with pursed lips, “I’m sorry.” Even as a Best Actress and a senior, she apologized when she misspoke.

Fang Ziyue couldn’t help but chuckle. Her voice was tender and magnetic, tugging at one’s heartstrings: “Don’t be unhappy. The words of outsiders don’t affect me. The only one who can affect me is…”

Fang Ziyue didn’t finish the sentence, but seeing the deep look she directed at her, Ling Qiu’s heart skipped a beat. How could this be? Ling Qiu was certain she wasn’t misinterpreting the hard-to-conceal affection in Fang Ziyue’s eyes.

“I just remembered the vegetables I took out yesterday haven’t been washed. I’ll go take care of that.” Making a clumsy excuse, Ling Qiu practically fled the scene.

Fang Ziyue wasn’t disappointed by scaring her off. She hummed a tune as she worked on the mortise and tenon joints. Chasing a wife was like handling joints: they had to fit perfectly, and it required a careful balance of push and pull.

She had been “slow-cooking the frog” with silent devotion until now. Since the atmosphere was right, it was time for some “strong medicine,” otherwise her wife might mistake her intentions for wanting to be best friends.

Tsk, who wants to be her friend?

Fang Ziyue blew away the sawdust. The white wood shavings momentarily obscured the flash of predatory light in her eyes; she wouldn’t let the “meat” at her lips get away.

Meanwhile, Ling Qiu was distracted while washing vegetables in the kitchen. She never dreamed that the woman who had once been obsessed with Lin Mingcheng to the point of making a grave mistake would suddenly fall for her after four years. Moreover, she was still technically Lin Mingcheng’s ex-fiancée! Was Fang Ziyue crazy? But… the affection in her eyes didn’t seem fake. What was going on?

Unsettled, Ling Qiu didn’t even notice leaves falling out of the basin. Her mind was a chaotic mess of Fang Ziyue’s gaze and voice. No wonder she helped me build bridges, no wonder she carried me back when I was sick, no wonder she sent me the Strychnos!

Suddenly connecting the dots, Ling Qiu’s face turned beet-red. She was both shamed and angry—how could two women have children?! Wait, who was going to have a child with that bastard Fang Ziyue?! No, no, she wouldn’t be with Fang Ziyue at all!

Under the watchful eyes of the audience, Ling Qiu went from blushing to shocked and angry, and then proceeded to cook lunch into a bright red, extra-spicy ordeal. Many comments began to offer silent prayers for Fang Ziyue. That poor woman, who couldn’t handle spicy food well… though they didn’t know how she’d angered Ling-ling, given this lethal level of spiciness… well, they hoped she’d see the sun tomorrow.

Truthfully, Fang Ziyue, who was happily carrying the finished table home, started coughing from the spicy fumes before she even crossed the threshold. She set the table down, hesitating. Should she skip lunch? She wasn’t that hungry anyway…

“What are you standing there for? Come in and eat.” Ling Qiu’s rare, soft tone sounded like a death warrant to Fang Ziyue’s ears.

Fang Ziyue instinctively considered retreating, but meeting Ling Qiu’s “smiling but not smiling” expression, she could only carry the table in and accept her fate with a numb scalp. Her look of “heroic sacrifice” actually made Ling Qiu’s anger dissipate quite a bit.

To be honest, Ling Qiu had always felt Fang Ziyue must be up to something bad, but she never imagined she was the target! Ling Qiu piled the spicy dishes in front of her. After enjoying Fang Ziyue’s expression of utter despair, she let out a hummed laugh and sat down.

In truth, while cooking, she had thought it through. Perhaps Fang Ziyue really had changed, or perhaps she was just a very good actress. None of that mattered. What mattered was that she wouldn’t give up her career for her. The drugging scandal had nearly destroyed everything for Ling Qiu; she had been surrounded by people kicking her while she was down.

Even if she wasn’t at fault, being a “prominent tree in the forest” meant her high status and the resulting envy were the roots of all trouble. Now that she had finally made a comeback with Z’s help, she couldn’t afford a scandal like “coming out.”

Reaching out to turn off their mics, Ling Qiu gave Fang Ziyue a direct and thorough rejection with a smile: “I am a career-oriented person. I won’t give up my future for anyone, so I won’t be with anyone.”

“I know,” Fang Ziyue responded with a smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t cross the line.”

The audience couldn’t hear them, and could only infer from their smiles that the atmosphere was good. Even lip-readers couldn’t see anything as they used their hands and bowls to shield their mouths.

Ling Qiu’s grip on her chopsticks tightened. To be honest, this answer left her very unsatisfied. She wanted Fang Ziyue to back off.

Fang Ziyue knew that true love isn’t a burden. She knew her wife was a strong, independent woman who loved her career. That was why she had stayed abroad for four years, preferring to live in a psychiatrist’s studio rather than return to the country with nothing. She needed connections and resources to be able to protect Ling Qiu regardless of what impact they faced.

That was the meaning behind the existence of her “Designer Z” persona.

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