Transmigrated as the Scumbag Alpha of a Cold Movie Queen - Chapter 100

Earlier in the year, Gu Qing’s two agents hadn’t scheduled much work for her. She was set to make cameo appearances in two productions, which would take about half a month altogether, plus shoot commercials for laundry detergent and coffee.

Aside from that, she’d only need to do a few photoshoots for postcard sets as fan gifts.

That was the agents’ plan. But Gu Qing had also arranged something for herself.

When she had previously been treating the scars on her face, Qi Siyu had given Gao Li some ointment. Later, Gao Li’s team focused on researching a restorative cream for facial injuries.

Of course, they couldn’t replicate anything as high-end as Qi Siyu’s original product, but they developed a facial mask with highly effective whitening and wrinkle-reducing properties. It had already passed all quality inspections and was ready for brand registration and factory production.

Gu Qing and Gao Li decided to personally get involved in the launch.

For actors, the usual approach is to earn early capital through acting fees and then invest in various businesses—restaurants and clothing stores being the most popular choices.

But the most important thing for Gu Qing, above all else, was still spending time glued to Qi Siyu.

Work during the day, cuddles at night—and soon, it was the end of the year.

Gu Junsi and Song Xinglin flew back to spend the New Year with Gu Qing.

Only then did they realize Gu Qing had been living in Qi Siyu’s house all along.

No one knew what exactly Song Xinglin did, but within three days of arriving, the apartments above and below Qi Siyu’s were suddenly transferred to Gu Qing’s name.

Song Xinglin even enthusiastically invited Gu Qing to move into one of them.

Gu Qing declined, which made Qi Siyu secretly delighted. Before, she hadn’t had the courage or standing to show it, but now that Gu Qing was hers, she boldly pulled a face at the rejected Song Xinglin.

An annoyed Song Xinglin immediately went for Qi Siyu’s cheeks, scaring Qi Siyu half to death.

Thus began the chaos—and that was just the start.

The New Year was a time for reunion. Normally, the three members of the Qi family lived in separate places, but come the holidays, they wanted to be together.

When Gao Lanyi failed to persuade Qi Siyu to return home, she brought Father Qi to stay at Lichun Garden instead.

Now the parents from both sides were meeting—smiles and politeness on the surface, while secretly sizing each other up.

The result? Gao Lanyi bought the apartments above Qi Siyu’s, the ones below, and even the ones below those, so the two families were stacked as neighbors up and down.

Qi Siyu had thought they were getting along well—until the butler, chatting idly with Gu Xiaoling, revealed that both sides had been quietly complaining about noise from the other.

In truth, the soundproofing was excellent. You could barely hear footsteps, let alone anything else.

“Gu Qing,” Qi Siyu said, “what do we do? They’re all just smiling tigers. If this keeps up, the poor community manager will be worn out. What if we just invite them to stay here instead? We’ve got two guest rooms, one on each end—they’d never disturb each other.”

Gu Qing nodded. “That works.”

But that brought a new problem: Song Xinglin refused to live in a “gifted” apartment. If they wanted her to stay, she insisted the property be sold to Gu Qing.

Qi Siyu: …

She had no idea what kind of contest this was supposed to be.

So she simply took Gu Qing to add her name to the title deed.

Only then did Song Xinglin seem satisfied.

Amid all the liveliness, New Year’s Eve quietly arrived.

That morning, Qi Siyu took the whole group out for holiday shopping—including Gu Lulu, Gao Li, and Gao Li’s partner.

The mall would be closing at 5:30 p.m., yet there were still plenty of shoppers.

“Spring couplets, lanterns, fireworks, ‘Fu’ characters, dragon-themed decorations for the Year of the Dragon, plus new clothes for everyone. And tomorrow we’ll make dumplings ourselves…” Qi Siyu pulled out a checklist to go over with everyone.

Gu Xiaoling interrupted. “Leave the food to me—I’ll handle the groceries.”

“Fine,” Qi Siyu said. “But everyone can also grab their favorite snacks. Today, President Qi and President Gu are picking up the tab.” She gave a cheeky grin.

The others played along, clapping dramatically and drawing the attention of nearby shoppers.

“Oh wow, they’re still having a company gathering on New Year’s Eve!”

“If I could shop like that on the boss’s dime, I’d happily work overtime too!”

The comments from strangers made it to their ears, and Qi Siyu quickly flushed red, tugging Gu Qing away.

“President Qi, what’s the rush?” Gu Qing teased.

“Hmph, President Qi is shy. Let’s go pick out our New Year’s outfits first!” Qi Siyu declared, already plotting their route.

They had plenty of clothes already, but New Year’s outfits carried a special meaning. This year’s theme was “bright red with dragon elements.”

Three hours later, everyone was laden with purchases.

The groceries Gu Xiaoling had bought were sent home by the mall’s delivery service, but she still carried armfuls of decorations.

When she set them down in the living room, she frowned. “Why does it look like we all bought spring couplets and ‘Fu’ characters?”

The list had been general, without assigning who should get what—so they’d all bought them, in different designs.

The decorating battle began.

There were plenty of doors in the house, but only one main entrance. Qi Siyu, realizing it first, dashed over and claimed it for the couplets and ‘Fu’ character she and Gu Qing had picked out.

Song Xinglin was just as fast, hanging her small, golden dragon-shaped lanterns on either side of the entrance.

By the time Qi Siyu came back with more decorations, the front door area was already packed with people.

Even so, the space outside the door was big enough, so everyone else staked their claims there.

“Gu Qing, let’s decorate the living room!” Qi Siyu said, pulling her along.

But those who’d been too slow weren’t about to leave their carefully chosen decorations unused.

Soon, the living room ceiling was filled with lanterns and ornaments—so much so that it looked like a dragon’s den.

After a busy afternoon, dinner was catered by a team of imperial cuisine chefs. It was the New Year, after all—time to let Xiaoling rest.

After dinner, they drove to the riverside plaza with their fireworks, braving the cold wind to light them.

Then they joined the crowd for the New Year’s countdown.

“10, 9, 8… 3, 2, 1!”

Bang! Bang bang!

Amid the sound of fireworks, Qi Siyu and Gu Qing faced each other, exchanging New Year’s wishes.

In Qi Siyu’s sparkling eyes was the reflection of Gu Qing’s blooming smile.

She wanted to hug her, but couldn’t bear to interrupt that smile.

Hesitating, she was caught off guard when Gu Qing hugged her first. Qi Siyu instinctively returned the embrace, holding her tight.

The next morning, no one slept in. By a little after seven, everyone was up.

Gu Xiaoling had already set the table with prepared fillings, kneaded dough, and laid out rolling pins and cutting boards.

A pot of water simmered in the kitchen, ready to cook the dumplings.

The local tradition was that everyone in the household had to wrap dumplings, each person making at least one “lucky dumpling” with a hidden token inside—red beans, peanuts, dates, and so on.

Whoever bit into it would receive the blessing of the person who made it.

They used to use coins, but those were unsanitary and risked chipping teeth, so they’d switched to edible items.

To tell the blessings apart, Gu Xiaoling had assigned each person a different lucky ingredient—Qi Siyu’s was peanuts, Gu Qing’s was sesame…

However, once everyone had unwrapped their dumplings, Gu Xiaoling quickly realized that the whole idea was utterly useless.

Every dumpling had its own unique brand of ugliness—one glance and you could tell exactly who had made it.

Ten people, ten bowls of dumplings, lined up neatly across the dining table.

“Rock, paper, scissors—the winner picks first,” Qi Siyu suggested.

No one objected, so Qi Siyu rubbed her hands together, ready for battle.

One round later, she actually won first place—the first to choose her bowl.

System: Never thought the host would actually use the lottery system to cheat for something this trivial.

Qi Siyu had already made her choice. She spotted the bowl with the highest proportion of dumplings wrapped by Gu Qing and slid it right in front of herself. Then she shot Gu Qing a flirtatious wink.

Gu Qing found it rather amusing.

The second to pick was Gu Qing, who simply took the bowl in front of her.

Gu Xiaoling glanced suspiciously between Qi Siyu and Gu Qing, feeling that something was off, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

Round after round of rock-paper-scissors later, everyone had their dumplings.

Time to eat!

“Ahhh! Sesame! Black sesame!” Qi Siyu clapped her hands in delight. “Gu Qing, I’ve received your blessing!”

Gu Qing gave a faint smile. “Mm.”

A moment later, she too bit into a dumpling with a surprise filling.

Qi Siyu leaned toward her expectantly. “What is it?”

“Red bean,” Gu Qing replied.

Qi Siyu looked a little disappointed.

After another bite, Gu Qing found yet another lucky dumpling.

“What?!” Qi Siyu craned her neck to peek. “What is it, what is it?”

“Apple,” said Gu Qing.

Qi Siyu withdrew her neck with a pout. “Still not mine.”

Each person had wrapped about twenty dumplings, with three lucky ones hidden inside. Unless you were truly unlucky, you were bound to get a blessing or two—though not necessarily from the person you wanted.

But as Gu Qing kept eating, she unearthed pear, soybeans, rainbow rice… almost collecting everyone’s blessings.

Finally, only one dumpling remained in her bowl.

Gu Qing looked at Qi Siyu, who had already given up hope. She was the very definition of unlucky—the blessings she sent out never ended up in the mouth she intended.

Not that it mattered—she had secretly wrapped a few peanut-filled dumplings, planning to cook them at lunch and force-feed them to Gu Qing if she had to.

But Gu Qing picked up her last dumpling, glanced at Qi Siyu again, and took a slow bite… revealing a filling packed with peanuts.

“Ahhh! Mine! Mine!” Qi Siyu jumped to her feet in joy. “You finally ate my peanut!”

Oh, the twist of fate!

Qi Siyu was over the moon, finally tasting the joy of a happy ending.

The system, watching all this, could only shake its head—its host was no match for the heroine.

Sure, Qi Siyu had cheated with the lottery system to pick first. But Gu Qing had already used subtle persuasion (read: intimidation) to learn exactly where the peanut dumplings were.

Yes—Qi Siyu relied on luck; Gu Qing relied on leverage.

Still, the system thought, I prefer Qi Siyu.

“Pfft, a blessing’s a blessing, no matter who it’s from,” Gu Xiaoling muttered.

“Tsk, how can it be the same? Ask Gao Li and her girlfriend if they want anyone else’s blessing,” Qi Siyu retorted. “Couples want to give and receive from each other!”

Gao Li and her partner exchanged a shy glance and smiled. “Of course.”

They’d even cheated a little, marking their lucky dumplings so the other would recognize them.

Pink bubbles practically floated over their heads.

Gu Xiaoling, defeated, shut her mouth and focused on eating.

Fine, fine—it’s just a partner. She’d find one herself… eventually.

After finishing the dumplings, the group met up with Su Ningqing and her wife, heading to the cinema.

Today was the premiere of No Spending New Year’s Alone, starring Gu Qing. Naturally, they had to go support her.

For the past few days, Qi Siyu, Gu Xiaoling, and Su Ningmo had been refreshing the film’s box office stats nonstop. Watching the steadily rising numbers and glowing reviews, everyone felt satisfied.

After the New Year, Gu Qing’s work schedule picked up again.

Her plan—made with Qi Siyu and two managers—was two TV dramas, three movies, plus endorsements and variety appearances as her schedule allowed.

As an actress, Gu Qing couldn’t commit to a variety show full-time, but appearing as a guest once or twice was perfect.

Of the three movies, one was a summer blockbuster, one was an art film aimed at awards season, and one was a mystery film directed by Qi Siyu.

Qi Siyu had stumbled across a novel, bought the rights, and had the system’s top screenwriter polish it into a stellar script.

The busier they became, the happier the system grew.

With Gu Qing’s steady output of quality work, her fame rose, her fanbase expanded, and energy flowed in endlessly.

At first, the system never thought Qi Siyu could accomplish her mission in just one lifetime—normally, it would take at least a dozen reincarnations to even see hope.

But now… it was starting to believe.

________________________________________

Ten years later – Cannes Film Festival

Gu Qing and Qi Siyu sat in the audience, waiting for the results.

Five years earlier, Gu Qing had already swept every major award in the country.

Three years ago, she’d claimed Best Actress at both Berlin and Venice.

After two more years of honing her craft, she and Qi Siyu came to Cannes—Gu Qing nominated for Best Actress, Qi Siyu for the Palme d’Or.

When the host finally read the name of the film and Gu Qing, Qi Siyu leapt up and hugged her tight.

“Ahhh! Gu Qing, it’s you! It’s you!” she shouted, her voice trembling with excitement.

After two years of near misses, they’d finally done it.

Gu Qing, as calm as ever, seemed entirely unsurprised.

She walked to the stage with quiet poise.

Under the spotlight, she shone brilliantly—but her eyes held only Qi Siyu. She thanked her role, her team, her family, her fans…

And at last, her voice trembled:

“Finally, I want to thank my beloved, Qi Siyu—for crossing time and distance to be by my side. You are the most unexpected surprise of my life. My dreams and hopes are born because of you. My glory will always be yours to share.”

Qi Siyu, already crying buckets, embraced her tightly when she came down from the stage, tears still falling like raindrops.

Through sobs, she said with conviction, “I love you.”