After My Flash Marriage with the Movie Queen - Chapter 87

She had always believed that she was different in Shi Nanbei’s eyes. She had heard people say that Shi Nanbei was notoriously blunt and dismissive toward anyone who tried to pursue her—but Shi Nanbei had never treated her like that.

They went to class together, ate together, played games together. Sometimes they even went shopping, grumbling to each other about how absurd some of their exam questions were.

It was practically the stage of “more than friends, not yet lovers.”

She had even secretly felt pleased about it, wondering when Shi Nanbei would finally make their relationship official.

Maybe it was because she’d lived too long surrounded by admiration and attention that—even when she was the one doing the chasing, even when she had already taken the initiative to that extent—she still couldn’t bring herself to confess outright.

Teenagers were often like that: afraid of being too impulsive, afraid of being too direct, hesitant and restrained, yet always wanting—aching—to tell the other person how they felt.

She thought Shi Nanbei definitely knew.

Girls had their pride, and she simply couldn’t bring herself to ask. She felt she’d made things obvious enough; their friends openly teased them about it too. Surely Shi Nanbei understood, right?

But unfortunately, Shi Nanbei didn’t.

Or maybe she did—but she simply didn’t feel that way about her.

Shi Nanbei’s fondness for her wasn’t the kind she had hoped for. That girl was always like that—kind, gentle, her lips perpetually curved in a soft smile, full of energy, excelling at everything she put her mind to.

She had considered confessing before. But she was shy by nature. They’d spent so much time together, and she had dropped hints—sometimes vague, sometimes not so vague. The most direct moment was that Christmas Eve when Shi Nanbei complained that all her teammates had gone on dates, leaving her with no one to play games with.

Hearing that, she immediately closed the paper she was writing, logged into the game, and typed:

“I’ll always keep you company—as long as you want me to.”

She hesitated, afraid Shi Nanbei might still not get it, and added:

“I like you, Xiao Nanbei. Did you know that?”

Nobody knew how loudly her heart pounded after hitting send, or how clammy her palms were.

She thought—surely Shi Nanbei would understand now?

But after waiting for what felt like a century—even though only a minute had passed—she finally received Shi Nanbei’s reply:

“Awoo, Senior, you’re way too nice!”

A lukewarm answer.

She wondered if Shi Nanbei was hinting—telling her she didn’t like her that way.

She had always been slow to react, always acting like the perfect junior around her, calling her “Senior” with such earnestness. Even after all their time together, Shi Nanbei instinctively avoided physical contact with her. They had never even held hands while walking—something any two ordinary girls might do casually. And whenever they walked side by side, Shi Nanbei always kept the most comfortable and polite distance between people—sixty centimeters. Never too close. Never intentionally distant.

She thought Shi Nanbei was simply like that with everyone.

Until she watched that variety show and saw Shi Nanbei holding Zhao Xunyin’s hand—and the effortless intimacy between them.

The Shi Nanbei who acted like the perfect, polite junior in front of her suddenly became mischievous, bold, proud, playful, full of clever banter—when she was with Zhao Xunyin.

So that was what Shi Nanbei was like when she liked someone: eyes full of that person alone, wanting to show her everything, share everything. Not the polite, measured version she had always shown her.

Maybe because she had already seen what Shi Nanbei looked like when she didn’t like someone—

that was why, after seeing just one photo of Shi Nanbei and Zhao Xunyin together, she instantly knew Shi Nanbei truly liked her.

Senior.

Who wants to be your Senior? I wanted to be your girlfriend, Shi Nanbei. Didn’t you know?

“Long time no see, Senior.” Shi Nanbei was still all smiles, endlessly good-tempered. Even though Han Chaoge hadn’t reached out in so long, she still didn’t seem to hold any grudges.

Of course she didn’t, her heart now belonged to someone else.

“Want to go to the cafeteria together?” Han Chaoge smiled and asked.

Shi Nanbei tilted her head toward Wu Lili. And clever, perceptive Wu Lili naturally wasn’t going to let Shi Nanbei walk alone with her Senior, so she shamelessly tagged along.

“Sure.”

The three walked together—Han Chaoge on Shi Nanbei’s left, Wu Lili on her right.

“Senior, you’re interning at the hospital now, right? Must be pretty busy?” Shi Nanbei asked.

Han Chaoge, now a first-year graduate student, had indeed been assigned to intern at the hospital. That was why Shi Nanbei asked.

“Yeah.” Han Chaoge lifted a hand and brushed aside a loose strand of hair. She had held back the entire walk, building up courage over the past few days, but the moment she saw Shi Nanbei, she couldn’t hold it in anymore. She asked, unable to wait even another minute:

“I heard you’re married?”

The show was so popular, and Zhao Xunyin so famous, that Shi Nanbei didn’t expect anyone not to know.

“Yep,” Shi Nanbei admitted without hesitation.

Wu Lili stared at the sky: “…”

Could you maybe be a little more tactful??? Did you not see Senior’s smile already cracking at the edges??

“Mm.” Han Chaoge’s expression remained composed, but if one looked closely, there was a faint sadness beneath it—subtle enough that Shi Nanbei wouldn’t notice. And she had no reason to.

“I forgot to congratulate you on your marriage,” Han Chaoge said softly.

Wu Lili: “…”

Damn. This hurts.

“Hahahaha, Senior, saying it now isn’t too late!” Shi Nanbei grinned, oblivious. Of the three, only she remained cheerful and carefree—the other two completely understood the emotional subtext.

Wu Lili: “…”

“Maybe just say a little less.”

Hearing that, the senior sister turned her head to the side. She was tall—around one-seventy-plus—and when she wore heels, she stood a full head above Shi Nanbei. Her features were soft and elegant, the poised, graceful kind. From the side, she even resembled Dong Qing, the renowned CCTV host.

Shi Nanbei’s response made the senior sister pause. It was impossible to tell what emotion flickered through her voice, but Wu Lili was the only one who noticed the faint tremor in the woman’s beautiful fingers as they tightened around the strap of her bag.

Wu Lili: “…”

And just like that—it officially turned tragic.

“I didn’t expect you to get married so soon.” The senior sister tried to smile as she said it, but the smile barely lasted a breath before fading. “I always thought that you wouldn’t be the type to like someone.”

Listening from the side, Wu Lili felt her liver cramp in pain. What was this—an earnest blessing from someone secretly in love with her crush??? Or the final farewell between an admirer and the person she’d never dared confess to???

Why did it feel strangely thrilling?

“It’s not a big deal.” Shi Nanbei had absolutely no sense of the undercurrents swirling beneath this calm scene. Even Wu Lili, a bystander, felt the tension squeezing her to death—yet Shi Nanbei just carried on chatting as casually as ever, oblivious, like someone with half a brain. “I just like her too much. If I’d met her two years earlier, I probably would’ve gotten married even sooner.”

Wu Lili: “…”

Big sis PLEASE. Must you pick the most painful line every time?

The senior sister let out a soft sigh. “You like her that much? You must’ve dated for many years?”

Shi Nanbei shook her head. “No. I met her once, and she said she wanted to marry me. I thought it sounded nice, so we got married.”

The senior sister froze, whipping her head over. “You didn’t date her at all?”

Shi Nanbei didn’t think the reaction was odd; she assumed the senior sister was also a fan of Zhao Xunyin. She smiled. “Nope. But after we got married, we started dating.”

Han Chaoge’s expression dimmed for a split second. She had always believed Shi Nanbei and Zhao Xunyin had been together for years. She had always thought Shi Nanbei rejected her back then because she was already in a relationship—just unable to make it public because she was a celebrity, so she had to pretend she was single.

But now Shi Nanbei was telling her that she’d married Zhao Xunyin after a single meeting.

And she regretted it. Deeply.

She suddenly remembered, back when they first met, Shi Nanbei had said her brain was slow to react, and if she ever offended her somehow, she hoped the senior sister wouldn’t hold it against her.

She had thought Shi Nanbei was just being polite. She never realized that, from the very beginning, Shi Nanbei had already told her how she processed emotions.

If—an outrageous thought surged up in Han Chaoge’s mind. She couldn’t stop herself from imagining: if she had confessed to Shi Nanbei right from the start, would their ending have been different?

Or if she had been bold, like Zhao Xunyin, and directly proposed marriage, would Shi Nanbei have taken her feelings seriously?

If, if it had been her, how wonderful that would’ve been.

If only she had been more decisive, more straightforward.

What pride? What dignity? What shame?

She should’ve thrown all of that away.

“Senior sister? Senior sister?” Seeing the beautiful woman staring at her with unreadable emotion—especially when she noticed the sudden tear slipping from the corner of her eye—Shi Nanbei panicked. She thought something terrible had happened and asked with sincere concern, “What’s wrong?”

Han Chaoge snapped back to awareness. Looking at Shi Nanbei’s concerned face, she realized she had been lying to herself all along. Watching that variety show, watching Shi Nanbei shine so brightly on screen, she had felt that faint unwillingness in her chest. She only wanted clarity, a proper ending to the feelings that had fizzled out without resolution. That was why she had come.

But now, standing before her—this girl who had appeared countless times in her dreams—she realized she wasn’t as strong as she thought. She hadn’t forgotten. Not even close. A semester, 153 days—time had done nothing.

She had once known this person so well.

Once yearned for her so deeply.

But things had changed. Shi Nanbei now belonged to someone else, while she was still, in the quietest hours of the night, shamefully hoping the marriage was only a joke—because then she might still have a chance.

Han Chaoge, how despicable can you be?

She looked at Shi Nanbei, all the words stuck in her throat. In the end, she could only wipe away that tear calmly with the back of her hand and say, “I’m fine.”

Just remembered something, that’s all.

“Really?” Shi Nanbei asked.

“Really.” The senior sister lowered her gaze and smiled lightly. “I suddenly remembered I have some things to take care of. I should go.”

It turns out that when you’re young, you really shouldn’t meet someone too dazzling. Once you do, they’re impossible to forget.

Composed again, she smiled at Shi Nanbei. “Congratulations on your marriage, Xiao Nanbei. I wish you happiness.”

And I hope I can let go.