My Nemesis and My Wife - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: She’s Really Not Mentally Sound in an Ordinary Way.

“Waiting to be the first to say good evening to Teacher Qin.”

“Have you no shame?” she muttered under her breath. “Acting like a flirt in broad daylight.”

“What is there to be ashamed of with Teacher Qin?” Jiang Yan gave a shy smile, then sat down beside her with great poise, even pulling her assistant over: “Or has Teacher Qin never seen a qipao with a lower-cut slit?”

“Stop acting up,” Qin Lan scolded. “Did anyone tell you that you could sit here?” She then called out to Xiao Qing: “Xiao Qing, Xiao Qing! Take this person away!”

Seeing Xiao Qing dallying with a hesitant face, Qin Lan simply reached out to shove her away herself. Jiang Yan stood up staggeringly, her red lips parting slightly: “Why won’t Teacher Qin even let someone sit (zuò)…”

Qin Lan exploded in a second: “Do (zuò), do, do! Your mind is full of doing it! Just leave! Stop hanging around me!”

Jiang Yan froze, then intimately grasped her hand, her tone earnest and her breath as fragrant as orchids: “Teacher Qin has misunderstood. I only wanted to sit (zuò) beside Teacher Qin for a moment.”

Qin Lan shuddered from the disgust of the woman’s face-changing skills and snatched her hand back: “Sitting for a moment isn’t allowed either! Get lost!”

Jiang Yan wasn’t annoyed; her bare knee brushed against Qin Lan’s leg, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally. Qin Lan catapulted away instantly, her entire face rapidly flushing a hot red: “You—you—get out!!”

“I’m so sorry for making Teacher Qin unhappy…” Jiang Yan suppressed a laugh, looking pitiful on the surface, but the craftiness in her eyes was only visible to Qin Lan: “I’ll leave right now.”

Qin Lan held her arms, shaking incessantly: “AAAHHH! How can there be someone so shameless!!”

The extras were whispering in low voices: “Teacher Qin really does have a bad temper, not even letting her sit for a second.”

“Right? Teacher Jiang is much better, so gentle. Yesterday she saw I had low blood sugar and even gave me a candy.”

Qin fans weren’t happy: “Since the filming started, the afternoon tea for the entire crew has been covered by our Sister Qin, okay!”

“That’s because our Yanyan isn’t that rich. Yanyan is just an ordinary person, and she doesn’t have a lot of spare cash, yet she still regularly donates to impoverished areas.”

“Our Sister Qin donates even more. Not like certain people who have been debuted for years and filmed so many dramas, yet still have the nerve to say they have no money.”

Compared to this wave of bickering solo fans, the conversation between the three mysterious fans in the corner was far more peculiar.

Palace Maid No. 1: “Teacher Jiang said she wanted to do (zuò) it with Teacher Qin.” Palace Maid No. 2: “Teacher Qin had a huge reaction, saying Teacher Jiang’s mind is full of doing it.” Palace Maid No. 3: “Teacher Jiang said Teacher Qin misunderstood, she just wanted to sit (zuò) next to Teacher Qin.” Palace Maid No. 1: “Then again, Teacher Qin said sitting isn’t allowed either.” Palace Maid No. 2 said deeply: “It’s obvious who exactly has a mind full of doing it…”

“Ready yet?” Yu Jintang, having finished checking the shots with the assistant director, came over to discuss the next scene. The dance and etiquette teachers stood nearby. Next, Jiang Yan had a dance scene that required a style combining both softness and strength. The choreographer had uniquely added two sword-play moves. Jiang Yan was in the distance, following the teachers’ movements with a prop longsword.

“In a moment, Teacher Song and Teacher Feng will laugh together. Teacher Song will say the lines, and Teacher Feng can take a look at Teacher Song.”

Yu Jintang gestured with the script. The actor playing Li Zhi a man surnamed Song who had been a background extra for ten years—nodded and gave a knowing smile to Feng Manhong. Yu Jintang nodded repeatedly: “Yes, just like that. Both teachers are acting very well.”

Feng Manhong smiled: “I’ve worked with Teacher Song before. He’s very experienced, and acting with him is effortless. I just didn’t expect working with the other actors to be so smooth. Xiao Jiang and Xiao Qin’s acting is very mature; the youth are to be feared.”

Yu Jintang gave a formal response: “Speaking of which, both Teacher Qin and Teacher Jiang are graduates of Northern Media. They were already famous when the ‘New Four Small Flower Dan’ were selected four years ago. Both possess both beauty and talent; Northern Media hopes every year that they can go back to share their experiences.”

Qin Lan wanted to roll her eyes.

“I heard Director Yu is also from Northern Media?” the ten-year extra surnamed Song joined the conversation.

“Yes, I was in the same year as the two teachers,” Yu Jintang replied with a slight curve of her lips.

Feng Manhong laughed: “Then you all must be my juniors.”

“Xiao Qin and Xiao Jiang were actually classmates?” the ten-year extra was surprised. He didn’t follow the internet much and only knew that Qin Lan and Jiang Yan had a terrible relationship; he hadn’t expected them to be classmates.

“Yes, Xiao Jiang often mentions Xiao Qin to me,” Feng Manhong said with a mysterious “auntie smile” for some reason.

Qin Lan blinked. Her face remained indifferent, but in reality, she didn’t miss a single word. What a joke. What else could a ‘vixen’ spill from her mouth besides bitter tea?

The extra was very surprised, his face showing an odd expression: “Xiao Jiang often mentions Xiao Qin to you?”

Yu Jintang also calmly pricked up her ears.

“Yes,” Feng Manhong adjusted her headpiece, thinking: “Xiao Jiang is a good child. She recommended Xiao Qin to me, saying her acting is much better than her own and hoping I could look after her during our future collaboration. Now it seems it wasn’t necessary at all; Teacher Qin’s acting is very seasoned and she’s already among the best at her age, except for some issues with romance scenes…”

Qin Lan’s heart skipped a beat, her expression shifting momentarily.

The extra pondered: “It seems both Teacher Jiang and Teacher Qin are good people. This is why I don’t like looking at the internet; it’s a mess of lies…”

“I don’t like it either,” Feng Manhong laughed. “You have to understand the situation through actual interaction.”

By this time, Jiang Yan was ready, and the choreographers left the center of the set. Yu Jintang sat back down. “Alright, everyone and equipment back in position. Silence on set.”

Qin Lan walked to Feng Manhong’s side with a complex heart, unable to resist glancing down. Jiang Yan was already fully dressed, her robe completely hiding the bare legs that had just brushed against her. At this moment she was Jiang Yan, but the second filming began, her smile changed; she was Princess Taiping of the Great Tang.

Princess Taiping was still smiling, her voice sounding perky as she spoke: “Your child wishes to dance to entertain Father and Mother.”

With that, the Princess began to dance, her expression vivid and spirited, her movements powerful.

The Emperor and Empress laughed: “Since our daughter is not a military officer, what is the meaning of this attire?”

Taiping said: “Though I am not a military officer, if Father and Mother could grant me a Prince Consort, then these clothes would have a use.”

Li Zhi froze, then laughed heartily. Empress Wu also laughed, saying with relief: “Our daughter has grown up and wants to choose a husband.”

Taiping responded with a beaming smile, but in her gaze, Shangguan Wan’er still kept her head lowered, only her whole body shuddering slightly when Taiping mentioned the word “Prince Consort.”

She wore a bright smile, but her heart was bitter. The silhouette of her turning to leave was magnificent yet lonely. Shangguan didn’t love her, but they had once been close friends. She knew Shangguan’s thoughts, and Shangguan understood her mind. She was a Princess, feared by most, while Shangguan had been a slave, suffering countless cold looks and mockery.

Neither of them had friends. Two people who valued independence had gradually come together in the deep palace. In their lonely youth, they had truly considered each other their best friend in this life.

And her choice meant that from then on, she and Shangguan Wan’er would be as strangers.

Filming continued at the set that night, but Qin Lan had no scenes. However, Bai Ai had taken an interview for her, so by the time Qin Lan returned to the hotel, the set had already finished, and the crew’s cars were parked outside.

She dismissed Bai Ai and stepped into the lobby. A beauty was sitting on the sofa with her back to them. Qin Lan took a few looks and said casually to Xiao Qing: “Look over there, that’s a beauty from the back.”

Xiao Qing nodded: “Sister Qin’s vision is definitely top-tier. But it would be great to see her face, hehe.”

“Her back has a lot of temperament, but why does it feel a bit familiar…” Qin Lan wondered.

Xiao Qing said earnestly: “Sister Qin, that opening is too old-fashioned. I’ll just go up and say ‘Hello, beauty’…”

The beauty stood up. The beauty turned her head. The beauty was Jiang Yan: “Good evening, Teacher Qin.”

Qin Lan went numb on the spot. “Hello” Xiao Qing silently hid behind her.

“Wait, Sister,” she was speechless for a long time. “What are you doing sitting in the hotel lobby in the middle of the night?”

Jiang Yan curled her lips and smiled: “Waiting to be the first to say good evening to Teacher Qin.”

Qin Lan: “Are you sick in the head!”

Jiang Yan held up her script: “Fine, actually there’s a scene I don’t quite understand and I wanted to ask Teacher Qin.”

Qin Lan: “Don’t you have a relationship with Best Actress Feng? Go ask her.”

Jiang Yan paused subtly: “It’s a scene with Teacher Qin. It wouldn’t be appropriate to ask Best Actress Feng.”

“I think you’re acting it quite clearly,” Qin Lan walked toward the elevator. “Yu Jintang definitely isn’t asleep yet, go ask her.”

Jiang Yan: “Is Teacher Qin sure she wants me to do that?”

Qin Lan knew the scenes to be filmed tomorrow by heart and didn’t see anything wrong: “Go ahead.”

Jiang Yan looked a bit regretful, but in a flash, she was high-spirited again: “Alright then, I’ll go ask Director Yu right now about the bed scene between Teacher Qin and me…”

Qin Lan turned abruptly and covered her mouth. Xiao Qing coughed loudly, choked by the air.

Jiang Yan’s eyes narrowed into crescent moons. Her lips moved slightly, pecking the center of Qin Lan’s palm. Qin Lan’s eyes widened, and she snatched her hand back, accidentally smacking Xiao Qing in the face.

“Are you crazy!” she scolded in a hushed but uncontrollably high voice.

“Mmph—” Xiao Qing’s eyes filled with tears from the pain.

Qin Lan glanced at her irritably and said casually: “Go back and put some ice on it. Go to Bai Ai tomorrow to claim injury compensation.”

Xiao Qing stopped crying. Xiao Qing was overjoyed. Xiao Qing left with a beaming face.

The elevator doors opened, and the crowd ebbed away from them. Jiang Yan walked in, her hand pressing the “open” button. Qin Lan pointedly didn’t look at her, waiting outside with her arms crossed.

“It’s late. Isn’t Teacher Qin coming up?” Jiang Yan asked her.

“None of your business,” Qin Lan looked arrogant. “Are you the Pacific Ocean police?”

Jiang Yan pondered: “Could it be that Teacher Qin is afraid to come in?”

Qin Lan sneered as she strode into the elevator: “What is there to be afraid of? Don’t actually think of yourself as some big figure.”

Jiang Yan smiled and moved a bit closer to her. Qin Lan immediately took a step to the side, looking at her defensively: “What are you doing?”

Jiang Yan said seriously: “If Teacher Qin is so repulsed by contact with me off-camera, how can we enter character on set?”

“That’s for me to worry about.” Qin Lan was disgruntled because Jiang Yan’s slight proximity made her heart tremble.

The elevator reached the fourth floor. Qin Lan pointed outside: “You’re here.”

Jiang Yan said in surprise: “But I haven’t rehearsed the scene with Teacher Qin yet.”

“No need to rehearse.” Qin Lan tilted her chin, trying to sound confident: “I never need to rehearse for my acting.”

“Alright then.” Jiang Yan was graceful in her retreat, walking out slowly: “Good night, Teacher Qin.”

Qin Lan went upstairs in a huff and kicked off her high heels: “Damn Jiang Yan! All she thinks about is taking advantage of me!”

She had the script memorized perfectly and knew that her bed scene with Jiang Yan wouldn’t start filming until the day after tomorrow at the earliest. It was one thing for Jiang Yan to pull that “rehearsing” trick, but she wasn’t even willing to wait a single day; her black-hearted intentions were laid bare.

Qin Lan finally understood what all those past actions—which she thought were Jiang Yan trying to gross her out were really about.

She walked angrily into the bathroom to run a bath. As she washed, she started to worry again. In fact, Jiang Yan’s suggestion had made her heart sway for a split second. She understood that her reaction to physical contact with Jiang Yan was exceptionally strong. Although she was very unwilling to admit it, she was indeed anxious about the upcoming intimate scene.

She was so worried she couldn’t continue washing. After a quick rinse, she put on a bathrobe, went to the coffee table, picked up the script, and began to study hard.

The end of Princess Taiping’s youth concluded with her marriage to Xue Shao. Xue Shao was the direct nephew of Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi, the second son of Princess Chengyang, and the perfect choice for Taiping’s Prince Consort.

The wedding was grand and luxurious. The entire city of Chang’an was brilliantly lit, as bright as day. The wedding carriage passed through Zhuque Street, the procession winding like a fire dragon. The rows of torches even scorched the leaves along the path.

Shangguan Wan’er had to deliver a decree for Empress Wu, so she had to be at the wedding site, witnessing the entire process of Taiping’s marriage.

Qin Lan was there in person, but her heart was not on the set. Even Jiang Yan in her wedding attire couldn’t attract her in the slightest she stared into space, single-mindedly pondering how to complete tomorrow’s bed scene.

Qin Lan was competitive and never thought of running away or using her investor status to ask Yu Jintang to change the script. But she was worried. Right now, she already lacked confidence when facing Jiang Yan. What if her reaction was too strong when Jiang Yan got close, causing her to constantly break character?

Xiao Qing was holding a fan, chatting with a few extras. The set was chaotic, and Yu Jintang’s voice was hoarse from shouting. Actors of various roles walked around in floor-length robes. This scene was one of the grand spectacles of the drama, focusing on the set design and cinematography, which had burned through a lot of money. Yu Jintang had been running around all day and finally got all the shots in place. Qin Lan didn’t have many scenes, and virtually no lines, so no one noticed she wasn’t in the right state.

That night, Jiang Yan was kept again for pick-up shots. Qin Lan felt like she had received a royal pardon and returned to the hotel early for a shower. she was extremely depressed; after staring at the script for a while and becoming even more restless, she simply changed clothes and went out again.

“Are you still in Luocheng?” She called Yang Xingji: “Come out and play.”

“Play? Sister Qin, you’re willing to go to a bar again?” Yang Xingji’s side was filled with booming electronic music, making the phone vibrate.

“What bar? I said I’m never going to a bar again in this life,” Qin Lan said fiercely. “I want to go somewhere quiet.”

“What did you say? I can’t hear clearly? Go somewhere quiet to play? Where are you going? The library?”

“Find a quiet place to talk to me!” Qin Lan roared, unable to take it.

“Wait for me to call back!” Yang Xingji hung up.

Qin Lan became even more fuming after the call and wandered around downstairs. After a while, she realized that wandering like this might lead her to run into the finished Jiang Yan, so she quickly left the hotel and moved toward a nearby place with air conditioning.

A moment later, a message from Yang Xingji came in: Send me the address.

Qin Lan sent her the location. Twenty minutes later, Yang Xingji appeared at the convenience store entrance in a shiny pink leather jacket, her stage makeup not yet removed under her hat and mask, looking very suspicious.

“I say, Sister Qin, you’re in the same crew as Best Actress Feng and you didn’t send me any perks?” Yang Xingji leaned toward her and whispered a complaint: “Are we sisters? That’s totally uncool.”

Seeing her made Qin Lan feel a bit better. She laughed: “I don’t even have perks, and you want perks? In your dreams.”

Yang Xingji walked out with her arm around Qin Lan’s shoulder. The heat waves rolled in; she couldn’t take it and pulled Qin Lan into a low-key car parked by the road.

“I don’t care. I’m moving elsewhere the day after tomorrow, and I have to practice tomorrow. Tonight you have to take me to your set for a look.”

“Go to the set?” Qin Lan instinctively wanted to refuse: “Stop bothering me, I just came back from there.”

“Please, Sister Qin, please, please, please,” Yang Xingji begged pitifully: “She’s my only idol. Just letting me see her from a distance is enough. I know you don’t want to see Jiang Yan, I won’t make it too hard for you. Just take me in for a look, then we’ll leave.”

Yang Xingji and Qin Lan’s mother were close friends despite the age gap; the two had become inseparable because of celebrity stanning. Although Qin Lan also liked Feng Manhong, her mother complained that Qin Lan always had a “stink face” when she wasn’t smiling, unlike that child Xingji, who wore double ponytails and jumped around all day, full of youthful energy and very down-to-earth when it came to stanning.

Since the day Yang Xingji fell for Feng Manhong, she and her fellow fan Qin Lan’s mother had maintained daily contact. Her fanaticism was evident. Qin Lan knew her wish and thought that compared to Yang Xingji’s lifelong desire, she wasn’t being inconvenienced to that extent. It was more important to satisfy this “pink thing” clinging pitifully to her leg.

“Get up already,” Qin Lan complained. “If your fans knew their top idol was this pathetic, they’d un-stan on the spot.”

“Eh, I am who I am, why care what they think?” Yang Xingji immediately looked up, dabbing away a tear from her eye with her fingertip, and picked up a mirror to check her eye makeup: “Uncle Wang, go where Sister Qin says.”

The driver, Old Wang, turned the car around as instructed. Qin Lan helplessly gave the directions.

Yang Xingji took off her hat and mask and pulled out a small box from the car to start removing her makeup. She had just finished her stage performance tonight and was afraid her heavy idol makeup would leave a bad impression on Feng Manhong. Qin Lan helped her adjust her features toward Yu Jintang’s style. Halfway through, she remembered something: “Best Actress Feng seems to quite like that damn Jiang Yan. Should I put some ‘vixen-like’ makeup on you?”

Yang Xingji waved her hands frantically in fear: “The Goddess’s taste is that… that intense? Forget it, I can’t pull off that style.”

Qin Lan held the eyebrow pencil, studying her high-energy face, then suddenly curled her lips into a smile: “At least you have some self-awareness.”

Yang Xingji: “?”

The two of them slipped onto the set suspiciously. A key prop for a set had collapsed, and filming hadn’t finished yet. Feng Manhong had likely just finished and was walking toward the dressing room.

Qin Lan looked into the center of the crowd with wide eyes; Jiang Yan was still there, still wearing the bright green wedding robe.

Qin Lan felt relieved. The sky was completely dark. She half-covered the light of her phone’s flashlight with her hand and led Yang Xingji into the dressing room area, step by cautious step.

It was chaotic inside. Various actors from the previous scene were removing makeup and changing clothes outside. Feng Manhong had a private room, and the door was half-ajar.

Qin Lan planned to go in and knock, but Yang Xingji was dying of excitement, pulling her and asking repeatedly: “Would it be bad to go in like this? Best Actress Feng must be removing her makeup! I saw her wearing very thick clothes just now. It’s so hot; let’s wait until she finishes changing before we go in.”

Qin Lan had the same idea and was very afraid Jiang Yan would show up. Just as she was hesitating, her right shoulder was suddenly patted.

She turned her head; there was no one on the right. Qin Lan froze for a moment, then understood the trick. She looked to the left impatiently: “Who is it? Stop being boring… AHH!!”

Jiang Yan stood beside her with a beaming smile, her hands clasped together, looking full of anticipation.

“Why are you here?” she cried out in shock, her face paling. “Aren’t you doing pick-up shots?”

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