After I Transmigrated into the Novel, I made the Heroine Fall for Me - Chapter 43

“Ding dong.”

In the dimly lit room, the curtains swayed gently in the breeze. Suddenly, a notification chime rang out from the nightstand, piercing the silence with an almost jarring clarity.

Buried in the plush bedding lay a figure, half-hidden in shadows, a slender arm emerging from beneath the blanket.

With a soft groan, a flawless, jade-white hand reached out and grabbed the source of the sound. Her voice husky from sleep, she muttered to herself, “Who is it? Sending messages in the middle of the night, disturbing my dreams?”

Her thumb unlocked the screen, the bright light nearly illuminating the entire darkened room. Fang Qingying froze for a moment before quickly flipping the phone face-down onto the bed.

She turned to switch on the bedside lamp. Under the warm yellow glow, her face still bore traces of lingering shock.

“Good grief, almost blinded me,” Fang Qingying muttered as she picked up the phone again and adjusted the brightness.

The first thing she noticed was the time on the screen 10:20 p.m. It dawned on her that she had been asleep for quite a while.

Yet despite that, she still felt overwhelmingly drowsy, her eyelids heavy as lead.

No matter how hard she tried, she could only manage to pry them open a sliver.

Trying to see anything with that kind of vision.

Fang Qingying: “…”

Forget it. Too tired.

Acting on impulse, she powered off the phone without hesitation and tossed it back to its original spot. Then, rolling over, she turned off the bedside lamp.

What Fang Qingying didn’t know was that the message had been sent by Gu Shengxiao.

Gu Shengxiao, who had yet to receive a reply, lowered her gaze slightly, her figure tinged with loneliness. Her clenched fingers had turned white from the force.

She comforted herself inwardly perhaps Fang Qingying was simply asleep and hadn’t seen the message yet.

Nearby, Yu Lu was engrossed in a lively phone call with Shen Lixie, their conversation anything but the demeanor of strangers.

Unable to resist, Gu Shengxiao pressed her tongue against her cheek and cast a long, silent glance at Yu Lu. Back when she had asked if Yu Lu knew Shen Lixie, the latter had said.

“Pfft, me and him? Nah, don’t know him. If it weren’t for you, Shengxiao, I’d still be some no-name agent.”

But judging by the current situation, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Gu Shengxiao’s already somber mood darkened further, like a sky heavy with rain.

Yu Lu, seemingly caught up in the excitement of her chat with Shen Lixie, unconsciously raised her voice.

“Senior! How’s our teacher doing? Bet he misses me like crazy, huh?”

“Hahaha! I knew that old coot would never admit it!”

“Oh, right, senior, I wanted to ask does your Miss Fang plan to join ‘Come On, Let’s Team Up and Explore’?”

As if hitting a switch, Shen Lixie fell silent on the other end.

Yu Lu scratched her head awkwardly and pressed on, “Uh, senior, I really think this variety show has a lot of potential.”

Once again, Yu Lu unleashed her silver tongue, extolling every possible merit of the show before finally coaxing a tentative “we’ll consider it” from the other side.

“Senior, let me know once you’ve decided.”

The moment she finished speaking, Yu Lu hung up in a flash, as if afraid Shen Lixie might change his mind and refuse.

“Senior?”

Hearing the word, Yu Lu almost reflexively echoed it until she belatedly noticed Gu Shengxiao, who had silently risen from her seat at some point. A wave of guilt washed over her.

“Shengxiao, I can actually explain this.” Yu Lu instantly backed down.

Hiding certain things was her fault. At the time, she was in the middle of running away from home, of course she didn’t want to reveal their relationship.

“Don’t want to hear it.” Gu Shengxiao lazily lifted her gaze, her eyelashes fluttering like little palm-leaf fans as she pressed her lips together and walked past Yu Lu.

In a panic, Yu Lu grabbed Gu Shengxiao’s hand and blurted out, “Shen Lixie and I went to the same university and had the same advisor. Our professor wanted both me and my senior to join the research institute, but that bastard Shen Lixie had no loyalty, he ran off first.”

“So, I followed suit and ran too, nearly making our professor so angry he wanted to disown us both. In that kind of situation, how could I just say it outright?”

“Do you know finance?” Gu Shengxiao swept a cold glance at the hand gripping her arm.

Yu Lu gave an awkward laugh and quickly withdrew her hand. “Of course I—”

Mid-sentence, she suddenly froze like a short-circuited robot before forcibly changing her answer. “No.”

“Hmph. Half a month’s salary, gone.” Gu Shengxiao took one look at her reaction and immediately knew the truth.

“Wait, no! Boss, let’s talk about the money, how about I teach you how to predict exam questions instead?”

At this, Yu Lu’s elite persona instantly crumbled.

She rubbed her hands together, looking every bit the sly merchant from ancient times.

Leaning in close to Gu Shengxiao, she raised a finger and pleaded, “Give me one more chance?”

“Do you want a month, or half a month?” Gu Shengxiao frowned and took a step back, as if uncomfortable with Yu Lu’s sudden shift in demeanor.

“Half a month,” Yu Lu answered, her face falling.

“Key points as usual.”

“Fine.”

Yu Lu gritted her teeth, cursing inwardly, what a swindler.

“It’s getting late. You should head back.” Gu Shengxiao pointed at the door, signaling for Yu Lu to leave she wasn’t about to see her out.

“After all I’ve sacrificed, I don’t even get a guest room?” Yu Lu widened her eyes in disbelief, staring at the spacious house that refused to accommodate her.

“I don’t want Xiao Ying misunderstanding.” Gu Shengxiao’s gaze turned icy, her expression darkening as if recalling something unpleasant.

“I’ll leave right this second.” A chill ran down Yu Lu’s spine as she grabbed her briefcase and bolted for the door.

How impressive my boss is already feeding me dog food over something that hasn’t even happened yet.

But wait, had Gu Shengxiao just remembered something?

Something to do with Shen Lixie? But wasn’t that already cleared up?

Puzzled, Yu Lu drove home.

Gu Shengxiao stared at the trending hashtag about Shen Lixie on Weibo before letting out a derisive laugh.

She would never admit she was jealous of Shen Lixie.

No matter. They’d meet tomorrow.

I want to see you.

Opening her phone’s photo album, Gu Shengxiao scrolled through the hidden folder every picture was of Fang Qingying.

Dark eyes shimmering with longing, her thumb brushed over a recent photo of Fang Qingying as if touching the real person.

Her gaze darkened slightly as she cradled the phone, whispering like a lover murmuring into their beloved’s ear, “I want to see you.”

I want to be close to you, to touch you.

Only then could she be certain that everything before her was real not just another illusion.

On the phone screen, Fang Qingying leaned against a large tree, slightly tilting her head to gaze into the distance, her lips curled into a faint smile. It was as if she had seen the person she longed to meet, unable to suppress her joy.

Gu Shengxiao stood in front of her bedroom door for a long time before finally turning and entering another locked room.

The dim space was slightly stuffy. Gu Shengxiao didn’t turn on the light but walked straight into the room. She turned on the air conditioner and buried herself under the blankets.

“Goodnight, Xiao Ying.”

The brief flash of light from her phone revealed that the entire room was filled with Fang Qingying’s merchandise.

Early in the morning, Fang Qingying put on casual clothes and happily slung a small backpack over her shoulder as she ran downstairs.

Gao Tian, dressed in a sleek and professional women’s suit, sat in the driver’s seat. When she spotted Fang Qingying, she opened the car door.

“Ying-jie, over here!” Gao Tian waved at Fang Qingying from afar.

With the online controversy settled, the TV drama could resume filming as scheduled.

Gao Tian drove Fang Qingying to the filming set. The moment they stepped out of the car, passing crew members greeted Fang Qingying warmly, calling her “Ying-jie.”

Fang Qingying found it particularly strange. Given the original owner’s terrible reputation, even fellow actors wouldn’t necessarily greet her, let alone the crew members being so familiar.

“Ying-jie, shall we head in first?” Gao Tian glanced around, immediately understanding their behavior.

“Sure.” Fang Qingying nodded.

Gao Tian walked beside Fang Qingying, her demeanor completely different from her usual soft and cute appearance now exuding the aura of a confident leader.

Gao Tian thought to herself, After all, Fang Qingying is the eldest daughter of the Fang family. As her assistant, dressing more assertively can’t hurt.

Completely unaware of her assistant’s thoughts, Fang Qingying leisurely greeted Director Liu before heading to the makeup room.

According to the script, she only had one or two scenes left before wrapping up.

The female supporting character in this drama, who had initially acted out for the male lead’s attention, finally underwent a change after meeting the female lead.

Upon realizing that this resilient girl was her love rival, the female supporting character unexpectedly switched sides, turning her hostility toward the male lead instead.

It was as if she were saying, You’re trash, male lead. You don’t deserve the female lead at all.

Of course, her final scene was simple the female supporting character ultimately followed her family’s wishes and went abroad for further studies.

Right now, they were filming the scene where the female supporting character tells the female lead about her plans to study overseas.

And in this scene, Fang Qingying particularly loved the moment when the female supporting character warns the male lead for the female lead’s sake, grabbing him by the collar and delivering a fierce line.

After finishing her makeup, Fang Qingying stepped out, her gleeful smile accidentally caught by the actor playing the male lead.

The male lead was a popular actor whose every project had been well-received never once starring in a bad film.

“Fang-laoshi, your smile is a bit terrifying?” The male lead took a few cautious steps back.

“No, no, Zhong-laoshi, I just think it’s quite fun acting opposite you,” Fang Qingying quickly waved her hands in explanation. “Please go easy on me in the next scene.”

Forced into “going easy,” Zhong-laoshi, the male lead, watched in confusion as Fang Qingying dashed off toward Gu Shengxiao’s figure.

Teacher Zhong scratched his head and turned to his assistant, asking, “What does she mean by ‘go easy on me’?”

“Probably wants you to be gentler,” the male assistant guessed.

“She’s the one lifting me, and she wants me to go easy?” Teacher Zhong suddenly remembered the upcoming shoot. He pointed at Fang Qingying, then at himself, looking utterly bewildered.

“For the sake of the scene, you might even have to be on wires,” the assistant added, barely suppressing a chuckle.

Using wires in a modern drama especially for something like this was pretty rare.

Teacher Zhong: “Damn.”

Meanwhile, Fang Qingying dashed over to Gu Shengxiao so fast that Little Lin was left speechless.

Gu Shengxiao was discussing the script with Director Liu when suddenly, a warm body pressed against her back along with something soft.

“Got you!”

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