The Whole World Is Waiting for Me and My Ex-Girlfriend to Remarry (Entertainment Industry) - Chapter 27

“Kiss me once, and we’ll call the debt even.”

During the period when Dong Huaci’s popularity was skyrocketing—to put it in a way that others, like Zhao Xuanxuan who was currently frantically searching for supporting roles, wouldn’t want to hear—Dong Huaci’s heart was constantly in her throat.

A large part of that was because, ever since she had blacklisted her gambling addict of a father, the man hadn’t come to bother her again. He had made a dozen or so calls one day; Dong Huaci hardened her heart and didn’t pick up, and after that, there was no news, no trace of him at all.

One day, while seizing a moment of leisure after finishing a gold jewelry endorsement shoot—her account balance looking much more substantial—Dong Huaci finally spoke to Shi Xiaonan about it. Shi Xiaonan didn’t say much; she knew Dong Huaci’s situation inside and out. She just played with her phone in silence for a while before saying in a tone of exasperated sympathy, “Sigh, this family… sigh!”

Dong Huaci knew she meant no ill will; it was heartache. Dong Huaci hadn’t even removed her makeup yet; she still carried the dignified, prosperous aura of the gold brand, every strand of her hair shimmering under the light. Finding joy in sorrow, she leaned on Shi Xiaonan’s shoulder to comfort her instead, returning to the persona of that girl who had just escaped from Xingtu Company with nothing but a bad reputation and a pretty face. “Xiaonan, it would be great if you were my family. What a reliable backup that would be.”

Shi Xiaonan pursed her lips and dropped a sentence: “I’ll go find out what the situation is first. Xiaoshu, you know as well as I do that we can’t afford any slip-ups at this stage—he has no way out, but you still do.”

Dong Huaci nodded, her head feeling heavy under the weight of the gold jewelry. She hadn’t expected that a single investigation would uncover so much: her father was no longer in China. Whether it was a blessing in disguise or a curse, he had flown abroad for reasons unknown. Now, he was truly unreachable unless Dong Huaci was determined to track him down. Furthermore, the source of the money that had suddenly cleared most of his gambling debts and left a balance in his account was now clear. When Dong Huaci realized who had settled the debt for him, her composure instantly crumbled.

Thanks to her previous “shamelessness” in adding the person back on WeChat first.

It was another voice call without any preliminary chat. When the other person picked up, Dong Huaci was calm this time, keeping her voice as steady and peaceful as possible. “Zhong Qing, let’s meet.”

“You sound so forceful,” Zhong Qing replied. “I don’t like such forceful invitations.”

Dong Huaci remained silent on the other end, her inner fire sparking again. With Zhong Qing, after all these years, once the relationship softened even slightly, her emotions became incredibly unstable. She suppressed the mess of feelings and suddenly spoke with a hint of grievance: “Then… are you willing to invite me?”

“Hard to say. I know you’ve been busy lately, and I’ve been busy too.” The other end actually let out a low laugh, as if intentionally treating Dong Huaci’s every reaction as some kind of fun game. “Wait until there are fewer eyes on us. I’ll send you a message—My Lady, I thought I’d never live to see the day you sent me a message.”

Fine. Dong Huaci finally caught a glimmer of the truth: it turned out Zhong Qing was nursing a grudge over this. She hadn’t taken the initiative to message her.

Message her what? What was their relationship?

After the call ended, Dong Huaci finally sent her an emoji. A cute, acting-spoiled cat head.

Zhong Qing didn’t reply to that message, but she didn’t make Dong Huaci wait too long for the meeting. Once the initial hype of Huang Jue had passed and Zhong Qing’s new album was settled—at a time when, in the words of the “Zhong Shu” CP fans, the two were “Kings not seeing Kings” in their respective fields—Dong Huaci went to a private Japanese restaurant in Shanghai to quietly keep her appointment with Zhong Qing.

Dong Huaci was very low-key today, swapping her previous all-black outfit for an all-blue one. However, this time she had reported it to Shi Xiaonan, and the PR department was prepared for potential public opinion risks. Speaking of which, it was strange: Ruiyuan wasn’t entirely opposed to Dong Huaci meeting Zhong Qing. In the words of the investors, it wasn’t a male celebrity, and it wasn’t tax evasion or illegal business—but anyway, being a celebrity had this one drawback: everything felt like a “guilty pleasure” operation.

It was evening. The restaurant was in the suburbs. She got out of the car and entered through the back door, greeted by a courtyard with a winding stream. The owner and his wife came to greet her personally. Dong Huaci had never seen such a grand reception; her professional smile went up instantly. She took off her black mask and greeted them warmly, even leaving a solo photo for the owner before entering the private room.

Dong Huaci didn’t even dare to look at Zhong Qing first, instead thanking the owner’s wife.

Zhong Qing, however, offered no greetings at all. It was as if, once she stepped off the stage, the word “professionalism” had nothing to do with her. There was no expression on her face, and her makeup was minimal at best. She just sat there cross-legged, arranging plates and picking up food, treating today’s meal like a piece of art being processed. Only when everyone else had disappeared did Zhong Qing look up and say her first word: “Salmon.”

She looked up at people, yet her aura was still overbearing. Her black hair was thick and long like precious silk, and her complexion was quite rosy.

Dong Huaci thought: Did she open the wine already?

Meeting her gaze, Dong Huaci nodded and sat down gracefully. She had been so rattled by Zhong Qing’s comment about not liking “forceful invitations” that she suddenly didn’t know how to speak. The two knew each other too well; they knew that this state meant they both had unnamed frustrations in their hearts. Dong Huaci thanked her politely; while she couldn’t beat Zhong Qing at acting cold and cool, no one could beat Dong Huaci at being pretentious.

Dong Huaci didn’t bring up the matter anymore. She just sat there, eating as if she had never had a good meal before, constantly stuffing salmon into her mouth.

Zhong Qing watched and laughed. “Did you come here without eating?”

Dong Huaci: “This place usually does that ‘O-something’… I forgot. It’s so expensive.” She said, “It was supposed to be served course by course, but because of us, it turned into a private room setting. But expensive is still expensive.”

As she said this, Dong Huaci was still eating, speaking with the casual air of a dream.

Zhong Qing seemed to have been eating for a while. Watching Dong Huaci eat like this—especially the “O-something, I forgot, so expensive” part—made the cost of treating her feel like a bargain, and she found it extra amusing. She liked this version of Dong Huaci very much; this Dong Huaci made her feel like she was still living in a certain period of the past. Zhong Qing’s anger vanished with that laugh. She was half-finished with her meal and had cast aside the resentment of waiting half an hour, even taking the leisure to introduce the place: “Normally there are no private rooms, but I have connections.”

“You’re the real ‘Lady.’ Look at my colleagues, every single one of them acting like a daughter of some wealthy family—hmph, it’s not the rich ones who love acting rich; real heiresses are afraid of having their family backgrounds checked, right?” Dong Huaci grumbled a few words. “And you keep calling me ‘My Lady,’ are you mocking me?”

Zhong Qing stopped eating too, just staring intently at Dong Huaci while fiddling with her own long hair. “Slow down.”

“There’s no one else here. If we get caught, we’re both finished anyway. Eating manners are a minor issue.” Dong Huaci put on gloves; she didn’t notice that this action made Zhong Qing’s gaze follow her hands for a long time. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“I don’t mind.” Zhong Qing even kindly pushed a plate toward her. “The veins are removed, but the tails are still there. Watch your hands.”

She continued to stare at Dong Huaci’s hands and said casually, “Your new manicure is quite pretty.”

Dong Huaci looked down at her fingernails. “Eating like this isn’t very convenient, but it’s okay, at least I have a mouth.”

The moment those words came out, Dong Huaci didn’t think much of it, but Zhong Qing’s face turned bright red. What a sensitive brain, Dong Huaci thought in hindsight, offering a forced, futile laugh. “My teeth have been quite good lately too. Yeah, everything tastes great.”

Zhong Qing directly coughed twice.

For the rest of the meal, Dong Huaci adopted the mindset that “the more I say, the more I mess up,” and buried her head in the colorful, exquisite dishes. The pre-planned atmosphere of sorrow was entirely replaced by the sentiment of “this is too delicious.” Out of nowhere, Zhong Qing handed her a cup of mung bean smoothie. Zhong Qing was something else—sitting across from her, not eating much, sipping moody wine, yet pushing a mung bean smoothie toward her. The feeling was complicated. Dong Huaci wanted to cry, but luckily the smoothie was sweet. If someone tried to give her money, she’d consider for three years if it was a scam, but if someone gave her dessert, she’d take it without a second thought, ignoring calorie counts or sugar control. Her recent workload had granted her the freedom to eat.

She opened her mouth and took small sips, drinking the smoothie as if it were high-end liquor.

Zhong Qing was delighted, looking half-drunk, though Dong Huaci remembered she wasn’t someone who got drunk easily. She said, “Xiaoshu, what are you doing?”

Dong Huaci wanted to cry. She said, “I should be asking you that. Why did you give my dad money? What are you trying to do?”

Zhong Qing leaned her head on her hand. “He asked for money, I found him annoying, so I gave it. Buying peace, buying happiness. I felt like it. Otherwise, what’s the point of having so much money?”

Dong Huaci’s face was flushed, but it wasn’t from shyness; it was from shame. She lowered her head, her palm-sized face nearly drowned by her thick brown hair. She said, “Give me a bank account number. I’ll pay you back when I can. This amount is too large.”

Zhong Qing tilted her head. “Can we even settle our accounts clearly? There’s no need.”

Dong Huaci looked up, courage and temper flaring together. “Do you think you’re being really cool right now?”

“Kiss me once, and we’ll call the debt even.” Zhong Qing narrowed her eyes. “I’m a woman of my word.”

Dong Huaci didn’t know if she was truly drunk or faking it; either way, she felt Zhong Qing had gone mad today. What, was the pressure from the new album’s sales too high? No, that wasn’t it. Or had she gone crazy from the backlash of her guest appearance? Had her teammates’ fans attacked her family background? That would be understandable. Dong Huaci thought of everything but the fact that Zhong Qing was upset that Dong Huaci hadn’t sent a single greeting since their reunion. She just stood there, probably still holding the mung bean smoothie; sweetness lingered at the corners of her mouth, but bitterness sizzled from the bottom of her heart.

Zhong Qing didn’t like Dong Huaci being forceful, but she loved being forceful with Dong Huaci.

This was a tacit understanding between them. Seeing Dong Huaci not moving, just dazed, Zhong Qing’s heart suddenly softened. She didn’t know where she had picked up such a bad habit from some dinner party, or why she was using it all on Dong Huaci. She was about to say, “I’m joking, keep eating,” and let the matter pass quietly, when she saw Dong Huaci stand up and step off the tatami mat. Like an obedient puppet, she knelt beside Zhong Qing and, under Zhong Qing’s unwavering gaze, leaned over and kissed Zhong Qing’s right ear.