Self-Perception - Chapter 8

After a deep kiss, Gu Wansheng pulled away, their lips connecting and lingering with reluctance. Her thumb gently stroked the kissed, soft, and full lips, and when she finally spoke, her voice was slightly husky.

“I still want to…”

The words were left unfinished, inviting imagination, but her eyes were full of the unspoken thoughts.

“I have an appointment time,” Wen Jinyan took a breath, her chest rising and falling slightly.

She had meant to help Gu Wansheng with her immediate concern, but she had unknowingly whetted her appetite.

Gu Wansheng took a few deep, stabilizing breaths. The fresh, cool fragrance still lingered on her lips, making her yearn for more.

“Can we do it when I get back?” Wen Jinyan’s amber eyes were softly clouded with moisture, yet her voice was clean and clear.

She is so, so adorable?

Gu Wansheng’s heart melted.

“Go and come back soon.” Gu Wansheng tidied her collar and stepped aside.

Sure enough, she really loves kissing.

Wen Jinyan walked down the stairs.

Gu Wansheng watched her back until she disappeared from sight.

Even after Wen Jinyan had left for a while, she remained leaning against the door. Thinking of something, she smiled silently.

Wen Jinyan took the subway to the agreed-upon location with Editor Gu.

She pushed the door open. The wind chimes on the door gently swayed, their clear sound spreading to her ears, also alerting the server that a customer had arrived.

Wen Jinyan looked around, spotted a familiar figure, and walked toward her.

“Editor Gu,” Wen Jinyan pulled out the chair opposite Editor Gu and sat down.

“You’re here. What would you like to drink?” The server handed Wen Jinyan a drink menu.

“I’ll have a glass of iced orange juice, thank you,” Wen Jinyan said, looking up without taking the menu.

After the server left, Editor Gu took an agreement from her bag and handed it to Wen Jinyan.

It consisted of two pages. Wen Jinyan read it quickly, skimming line by line, and signed her name in the bottom right corner.

The entire process was as calm as a placid lake, without a ripple.

The carefully prepared speech Editor Gu had ready in her mind was left unspoken when she saw Wen Jinyan’s composed demeanor. She simply collected the agreement when Wen Jinyan handed it back, sat for a little while, and then left.

Wen Jinyan sat quietly in her chair. The sun at ten in the morning wasn’t blinding, but the rays projected through the window were quite hot. Wen Jinyan moved to another chair, avoiding the direct sunlight, and sat entirely in the shade.

The orange juice was brought over. The server looked at the empty seat opposite with some confusion but didn’t say anything.

Wen Jinyan silently sipped her orange juice. Outside the window, the sky was clear and cloudless.

They are all like this. There’s no difference. What was I expecting?

The door chimes rang again. The server looked up, watching a smoke-blue figure disappear in front of the door.

“Did you get the script?”

Gu Wansheng held the phone in one hand and flipped through the A4 papers on the coffee table with the other, replying lazily, “Got it, Director Bai.”

The last few words were drawn out.

Bai Jin on the other end of the phone let out a small tsk.

“See if it catches your eye.”

“Would you show me something that wouldn’t catch my eye?”

“…… No.”

“I’ll call you back after I read it.”

“By the way, who wrote this script?” Gu Wansheng couldn’t see the author’s name on the first page of the script.

“Luo Zhou wrote it. But you know about her situation. This script was only one-third complete. I bought it and revised and added to it myself to get this current version.”

“Luo Zhou…”

The 18-year-old genius screenwriter who won Best Screenwriter with The Question (Wen), which also helped the actor and director of The Question win Best Actor and Best Director, respectively. Her worth skyrocketed, yet her true identity remained unknown.

Until that incident…

“I know. At that time, I was still a small-time actor, still running around doing bit parts.”

“But now you are a major film empress.”

“What’s the title of this script?”

“The Utilization (Liyong).”

After chatting for a while, they hung up the phone. Gu Wansheng took the script and headed to the study.

When Wen Jinyan returned, the living room was empty.

Did she go out?

She didn’t think much of it and walked in her slippers toward the study, never imagining that someone would be inside.

Gu Wansheng was reading intently, a lock of hair falling naturally to one side, completely blocking the view from the doorway.

Wen Jinyan slowly approached. Her gaze fell on the pages, and her voice was clear, “Reading?”

Hearing the voice, Gu Wansheng was startled for a moment, then her shoulders relaxed, and she spoke gently, “You’re back. I’m reading a script.”

“Are you preparing to join a crew?” Wen Jinyan’s eyes met hers.

Gu Wansheng put down the pen. “Not necessarily. I’m just looking at it first.”

Gu Wansheng looked up, tilted her head to look at Wen Jinyan, her eyes swimming with emotion. In just a second, Wen Jinyan stepped forward and kissed her.

It was strange. They had only been married for two days, yet she knew exactly what Gu Wansheng wanted from just a glance, a simple gesture.

Her hand gently cupped the back of the woman’s neck, her palm warm. The kiss was started by Wen Jinyan but quickly taken over by Gu Wansheng.

At some point, their position changed to Wen Jinyan sitting on Gu Wansheng’s lap, her nape clasped by the woman’s hand.

Done kissing,

Wen Jinyan pulled back, giving them time to breathe.

Gu Wansheng patted her back, signaling her to stand up.

“What do you want for lunch?”

“I’m not picky.”

“Ginger-Cut Chicken or Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs?”

“Either is fine.”

“What I mean is, choose one. Time is limited,” Gu Wansheng watched her intently, a playful smile on her face.

“Choose one.”

This look reminded Wen Jinyan of her elementary school teacher, a smile with a hidden catch.

“… Ginger-Cut Chicken.”

“Good. Then help me out, please.” Her tone was suggestive, yet her action was indisputable.

Wen Jinyan was led by the hand into the kitchen, and subconsciously looked up to see half a chicken lying in the sink.

“Didn’t you say you were ready to make Ginger-Cut Chicken?” Why did you make me choose one then?

“We have a telepathic connection,” Gu Wansheng pressed the chicken with her hand, confirmed it was mostly thawed, put on an apron, grabbed a cutting board, and prepared to cut the chicken.

“What if I hadn’t chosen Ginger-Cut Chicken?”

“Then I would make Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs again,” Gu Wansheng’s voice was calm. The sound of the knife hitting the cutting board was particularly clear in the space.

Wen Jinyan pursed her lips. She found Gu Wansheng a bit hard to figure out.

“Didn’t you say time was limited and we could only choose one?”

Gu Wansheng paused her chicken cutting. She mumbled to herself: Why does she have to keep questioning everything?

“Because you like it.”

Wen Jinyan stopped washing the dishes. The water ran against the bowl, and the colliding droplets splashed onto the back of her hands, faintly glistening under the fluorescent light. After a few seconds, she seemed to snap back to reality and grabbed the chopsticks to clean them.

Wen Jinyan didn’t reply. Gu Wansheng glanced at her expression from the corner of her eye. Her side profile was smooth, her eyes were slightly lowered, and her hands didn’t stop moving.

“There’s no like or dislike.”

The sound of running water gradually stopped. Gu Wansheng heard the sound of footsteps growing farther away until they disappeared.

Gu Wansheng set the cut chicken pieces aside, heated oil, and started cooking…

Wen Jinyan brought her laptop to the study and began drafting the outline for her new novel.

After finishing the meal, Gu Wansheng went upstairs to call her down to eat.

There was a plate of Ginger-Cut Chicken and a soup on the table. Wen Jinyan noticed that Gu Wansheng’s place setting only had a vegetable salad, and she sighed, lamenting how hard it was to be an actress.

“Can your body handle just eating that?”

She is worried about me!

The earlier worry she felt in the kitchen dissipated like smoke. Gu Wansheng smiled, “It’s a professional necessity, there’s no helping it.”

Wen Jinyan nodded and ate her food in small bites.

Gu Wansheng finished first. She cleaned up the dishes and went upstairs. Half an hour later.

She saw Wen Jinyan in the living room. Wen Jinyan saw her coming downstairs in formal attire and asked, “Are you going out?”

“Yes, a photoshoot for a brand endorsement,” Gu Wansheng checked the time on her phone.

Brand endorsement…

Wen Jinyan thought for a moment and requested, “Can you take me with you?” She insisted, adding, “I want to understand your work.”

This would be a more direct way to express it, and it would also make the writing in her novel clearer.

However, to Gu Wansheng’s ears, this sounded like she wants to understand me.

Even though the season for peach blossoms had passed in March, Gu Wansheng felt as if the blossoms were fluttering all around her.

Her brows relaxed, her eyes curved, like a crescent moon, full of smiles, and she replied, “Okay.”

Meng Qiu knocked on the door upstairs, and Gu Wansheng opened it.

“Sister Gu, let’s go,” Meng Qiu said. As soon as she finished speaking, Gu Wansheng took Wen Jinyan’s hand, holding it in her palm, “Let’s go.”

Meng Qiu “???”

Once they were in the elevator, Meng Qiu leaned close to Gu Wansheng and quietly asked, “Sister Gu, why are you bringing your wife?”

“Can’t I?”

“You can, but bringing your wife so boldly will attract attention.”

“I haven’t done anything guilty, what’s there to be afraid of? Besides, we are legally married. Also, her name is Wen Jinyan, and she’s three years older than you. You should call her Sister.”

“I’m just afraid that people with bad intentions will try to make an issue of it,” Meng Qiu looked down slightly.

Gu Wansheng realized her words had been a bit harsh and spoke softly, “I know you’re looking out for me.”

From the corner of her eye, Wen Jinyan saw Gu Wansheng and Meng Qiu whispering. Their voices were very low, so she took out her phone and mindlessly scrolled through her social media feed.

The elevator reached the basement. Gu Wansheng kept holding Wen Jinyan’s hand. After being held for a while, Wen Jinyan pulled away, saying, “It’s hot.”

Gu Wansheng wasn’t annoyed; she just smiled. Once they got into the car, she quickly told Meng Qiu to turn on the air conditioning. As the cold air filled the car, Gu Wansheng turned her head and asked, “Is it still hot now?”

Wen Jinyan shook her head. The next second, a warm hand grasped her fingers, slid down them, and took hold of her palm again.

Wen Jinyan “…”

She turned her head to look out the window. Gu Wansheng, seeing that she didn’t pull away, smiled broadly.

Meng Qiu saw her Sister Gu’s silly, lovestruck smile in the rearview mirror and sighed inwardly: Ah, love. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

“Sister Gu, several magazine publishers have sent invitations, hoping to do an interview with you about your award. Sister Shang said to let you choose one.”

“Which ones are there?”

“Yingyue (Shadow’s Delight), Feiqin (Flying Zither), and Write, which has become quite popular in recent years. The other magazines were either not well-known or lacked solid work, so they were automatically filtered out.”

When Wen Jinyan heard “Write”, she looked up, seeing her reflection in the window glass.

“How are the reputation and quality of these three?”

“Feiqin has a high reputation and very good quality. Yingyue’s reputation is similar to Feiqin’s but its quality isn’t as good. Write has become popular in recent years, and its reputation and quality are decent.”

Meng Qiu handed the electronic files of the three magazines to Gu Wansheng. Gu Wansheng took the tablet and scrolled through them.

“Write, I think. I feel their photography is excellent, and their writing style is good too.”

“Then I’ll confirm with the editor-in-chief of Write,” Meng Qiu opened WeChat on her phone to coordinate the work.

Wen Jinyan had been watching the reflection in the car window until Gu Wansheng chose Write before retracting her gaze.

Upon arriving at the photoshoot location, Gu Wansheng gave Wen Jinyan a mask and a baseball cap, and then put on a mask herself before getting out of the car.

She held Wen Jinyan’s hand and followed behind Meng Qiu. The person in charge came out to greet them.

Gu Wansheng noticed the staring and subtly moved half a step closer to Wen Jinyan.

The woman smiled awkwardly, “Then, Teacher Gu, please come with me to the makeup room.”

“Alright.”

The person who greeted them was a young woman. Seeing the two of them holding hands, the woman instantly understood.

This must be the beautiful Gu’s wife!!!

There were no pictures or names of her wife online, so the woman couldn’t help but look twice out of curiosity.

They arrived at a door. The woman pushed it open and led Gu Wansheng inside. Wen Jinyan and Meng Qiu sat in the waiting area outside.

“Can I call you Sister Jinyan, just like Sister Gu does?”

Meng Qiu felt as if she was sitting next to a block of ice beside Wen Jinyan dry and cold.

“You can,” the voice was also cool and clear.

Meng Qiu said “Okay” and fell back into silence, feeling that the atmosphere around them had gone cold. Fortunately, Gu Wansheng came out quickly.

Gu Wansheng watched Meng Qiu rub her arms and asked, confused, “Are you very cold?”

Meng Qiu chuckled sheepishly and explained, “Maybe the air conditioning inside is too low, and I haven’t fully adjusted yet.”

Gu Wansheng didn’t think too much of it. She stood by Wen Jinyan, tossed her hair, and asked, “Do I look good?”

The brand’s perfume, a rose-like scent that was inherently beautiful and striking, coupled with the beauty in the red dress, gave off a dazzling charm.

Wen Jinyan stared blankly for two seconds, then slowly came back to her senses, nodding, and sincerely praising, “Beautiful.”

Hearing Wen Jinyan’s compliment, Gu Wansheng broke into a wide smile. The woman who had led them in happened to see this scene and screamed internally.

Mom, shipping a real couple is the best! So sweet, so sweet.

The woman cleared her throat, “Miss Gu, please follow me.”

“Lighting technician, move the number one light a little to the left. Bring the reflector over here.”

“Makeup artist, touch up Teacher Gu’s contour.”

“Props team, prepare.”