The Whole World Is Waiting for Me and My Ex-Girlfriend to Remarry (Entertainment Industry) - Chapter 12

“Can’t you find a partner? Do you have to seek out your ex?”

Dong Huaci froze on the spot.

Zhong Qing controlled her strength, half-pulling and half-guiding her inside. Unfortunately, Dong Huaci’s skin was so fair that red marks were left on her arm.

A very mysterious feeling welled up again. Dong Huaci stared blankly at the marks. She sat on the sofa, feeling somewhat constrained.

“What do you want to say?” Zhong Qing looked around and opened an unsealed bottle of mineral water.

“I’m thirsty.” Dong Huaci reached out her hand as if possessed.

Fine. While Dong Huaci was fiercely gulping down the water, Zhong Qing continued: “Regarding the rehearsal guidance, I listened to you for the earlier parts. But given your performance later today, I don’t know what else you have to say?”

Dong Huaci choked. She was just as she remembered—when a conversation became professional, she was utterly merciless.

Closing the cap of the mineral water, Dong Huaci kept her head lowered, admitting it quite frankly: “Yes, that was an excuse.” Her voice lost confidence as she went on, “This is also an excuse.”

One excuse, two excuses.

Zhong Qing knew Dong Huaci’s way of doing things like the back of her hand. “Did your company make you do it?” She crossed her arms defensively, then knit her brows with a hint of unbearable pity. “Then it must have been a success. I was the one who pulled you in just now, so why do you look so miserable?”

Dong Huaci put the water down. “I’m sorry.”

Zhong Qing: “It’s fine, I was the one who opened the door.” She imperceptibly increased the distance between herself and Dong Huaci on the sofa, running her hand through her long hair with some irritation. “One more time won’t make a difference… Dong Huaci, you’ve always been like this. You know exactly what you need and what price you’re willing to pay for it. You have so many people and things to care about, and you’ve always done so well in front of them, haven’t you?”

In the entertainment industry, being popular means everything goes smoothly; traffic is synonymous with box office. Dong Huaci answered Zhong Qing’s questioning with silence. She lowered her head slightly, her body still trembling. This wasn’t just the aftereffect of seeing Zhong Qing alone; it was a deliberate, almost habitual display of weakness, like a little girl who had done something wrong.

That routine again. She was ill-equipped to deal with it. Zhong Qing turned her head away with difficulty. In this unexpected encounter with Dong Huaci, she had already spoken more than she could personally tolerate: “No matter what happened in the past, I never hit you, did I? What are you doing… back then, who was the one getting hit…”

Her voice stopped because Dong Huaci was crying.

When Zhong Qing went silent, it meant an emotional breakdown; conversely, when Dong Huaci cried, it meant big trouble. This realization was deeply etched into Zhong Qing’s subconscious. This no longer felt like Zhong Qing’s room. Dong Huaci sat on the sofa while Zhong Qing squatted directly beside it, her eyes wide, watching this uninvited guest. The subsequent development left her with no room to even be angry.

“It wasn’t on purpose! Why do they treat me like this? Is it because I’m too weak… No, it’s simply because I’m an easy target.” Dong Huaci grew more sorrowful as she spoke, her words carrying the tone of lines from some tragic short drama she might have acted in, but the sadness reached Zhong Qing’s heart quite tangibly. “Why would Liu Miao allow him to do this? Do you know that assistant director? He said, ‘This is a notification.’ Notification my foot!”

“So it wasn’t your company that told you to knock on my door, it was the director’s team?” Zhong Qing pieced it together from her string of complaints. “You were forced into this too.”

Dong Huaci continued to wipe her tears. “Shi Xiaonan and the others don’t know. He said it’s for the good of the crew. Since we’re both women anyway, nothing would happen.” She suddenly stopped crying and looked at Zhong Qing with wide eyes, beginning to laugh through her tears. “Do you know what he said? ‘It’s very safe!’ Haha, safe! Has he seen how we… do it?”

With these remarks today, Dong Huaci seemed drunk. Zhong Qing’s legs were already aching from squatting, and hearing this, she couldn’t help but chuckle: “Are you talking about the time you hit me? How do we ‘do it’?” She intentionally spoke the word “do” with such mock righteousness, only then realizing it was actually a bit embarrassing for her. “Then doing it back and forth is indeed very unsafe.”

Dong Huaci giggled. Zhong Qing suspected she really was drunk. “Oh, why didn’t he say you were ‘doing’ me! Aren’t you doing me? Can’t do it anymore, haha.” As she spoke, she almost slumped to the floor from the sofa, but then pulled herself up with a beautiful surge of strength—it was clear her dance training hadn’t been entirely lost. Zhong Qing shifted to a more comfortable position, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Dong Huaci reached out both arms to embrace her. Having finished crying, her eyes were still red, and her voice carried a strange, coquettish tone, as if she was certain that since Zhong Qing was desperate to avoid her, she wouldn’t dare do anything to her.

No answer came.

Zhong Qing kissed her.

To be precise, it wasn’t a kiss, but a bite. The subject had changed too—it wasn’t the mouth, but the hand.

Zhong Qing stared at Dong Huaci, squeezing her wrist and biting the first knuckles of her right index and middle fingers. Later, the bite turned into a kiss, repeatedly pressing against the pads of the fingers. The ordinary yet unique fingerprints seemed to hold some grand evidence of a crime, sucking away every word they were about to say next.

Dong Huaci didn’t react in time, setting even the pain aside. Her expression held a trace of expectation amidst the surprise, and a trace of realization amidst the expectation. She sat obediently on the sofa, lowering her gaze. Her clothes were as neat as new, and her face turned serene, entering a state that was both peaceful and uneasy.

The other side was different. Zhong Qing stared at her expression for a long time before letting go of her hand. Seeing the hand snap back like a spring, she felt a surge of mischievous interest. “I didn’t ‘do’ you. Why that expression?”

There were no tissues nearby, so Dong Huaci used her other hand to wipe it, only to make more of a mess. “Zhong Qing, are you a baby?”

Zhong Qing smoothed her hair, looking incredibly charming, and nodded grandly as she stood up. “Revenge. You’ve ‘done’ me many times recently; I need to collect some interest.”

Dong Huaci shook her head, still not daring to look at her. “The airport was a coincidence. The awards ceremony was others setting me up; it had nothing to do with me. The script—I had no idea you were coming! I usually avoid you in all my activities; we aren’t even on the same path…”

Those last words seemed to thoroughly provoke Zhong Qing.

This time, she really kissed her.

Fragrance, an overwhelming fragrance. Dong Huaci was submerged in Zhong Qing’s scent.

It was the woody scent she was familiar with.

In the past—that is, the past when they were both at Xingtu Company. During their passionate relationship, on Qixi Festival, Dong Huaci would hold a bottle of high-end woody perfume like a precious treasure and give it to her, saying: “From now on, I want this scent. Please, I beg you, my Great Lover.” After uttering this original title, she would first admire Zhong Qing’s flushed face before doubling over with laughter, her whole face turning into a silly, pale dough-like grin.

Zhong Qing would endure the urge to kiss her, just admiring the perfume. Asking about the price would be a bit too vulgar, so she could only ask indirectly: “Can you still afford to eat?”

What kind of thing to say? Dong Huaci was very dissatisfied. She patted Zhong Qing’s hand. “You’re such a buzzkill. Shouldn’t you put it on right now and give me a kiss?”

Fine. Zhong Qing’s eyes crinkled into crescents, granting her wish. Dong Huaci lunged at her like a cat, sniffing her neck for a long time, making Zhong Qing unable to stand steady. Finally, they fell onto the bed together.

Dong Huaci smelled good, too.

According to her, one could go without food, but not without perfume. Whether it was an off-brand or something deathly expensive, you could see them on her dressing table in the dormitory. Of course, the ones that were deathly expensive were usually gifts from Zhong Qing.

The main note Dong Huaci used most was rose. She just loved that cliché, vulgar scent. Even her gaze seemed to become more seductive as her body was soaked in that fragrance; it was the kind of look Zhong Qing couldn’t resist. When close to her, Dong Huaci was the most brilliant and wanton rose blooming in the thicket. Embracing her felt like personally snapping her stem—a sensation akin to trampling on fresh snow.

Destruction is creation.

Dong Huaci was very good at stimulating Zhong Qing’s creative inspiration, including now, even after they had broken up, after things had turned ugly, after they had both vowed never to let their names be mentioned together again.

They were simply too familiar with each other.

Zhong Qing’s kissing skills were still that good. Dong Huaci felt sorry that she had to use such objective language in her heart to evaluate Zhong Qing’s kiss at this moment. But this time, she felt neither honored nor surprised. A strange sense of humiliation rose from the bottom of her heart. Is this how you collect your debt? She patted Zhong Qing’s back—hard—not as flirting. Later, she almost used her fingernails to pinch her, a bad habit left over from before.

Zhong Qing released her, panting. “You still haven’t changed that?”

Dong Huaci’s eyes grew even redder. This time, it wasn’t because of the previous matter; Zhong Qing’s words were undoubtedly more lethal. She pushed her away ruthlessly, then forced herself to stay calm and gulped down two more mouthfuls of water. She gritted her teeth as if to swallow this grievance, because in the end, it was Zhong Qing who had been set up by her first, even if she had been forced. But she also seemed very unwilling. She patted her long black dress, though she didn’t know what dirt was actually on it. She said, “I’m using the bathroom. I need to rinse my mouth.”

Zhong Qing had just found a stable sitting position on the carpet. She didn’t agree, nor did she object; she just thought of something very funny and was still laughing.

Dong Huaci was truly angry. She walked over softly in her disposable cotton slippers. “Can’t you find a partner? You’re so incompetent yourself that you have to look for your ex?”

Under the ceiling light, Zhong Qing tilted her face up. This angle made her gaze look exceptionally affectionate. “The headline I give the reporters could be: Ex-girlfriend Throws Herself into My Arms, Then Gets Angry and Sneaks Away in the Middle of the Night Because She Can’t Handle the Stakes?”

The Hong Kong media—it’s a waste of talent for you not to be in the Hong Kong media. Dong Huaci muttered under her breath and walked away with a weak air. She really didn’t have the strength to compete or be angry with Zhong Qing right now. She went to the bathroom in a pretentious manner. Once she actually got to the bathroom, she didn’t know what to do. Truly rinse her mouth? She locked herself in the bathroom, looking at that pouting but still flower-like face in the mirror—Huaci, Huaci, it would be a pity for this face not to be a star—who was it that said that? Dong Huaci’s mind was a mess. She looked down, wanting to find something to distract herself, but in her daze, she suddenly realized that her phone was still in her bag outside the door.