After the Breakup, the Crazy Movie Queen Clings to Me Every Day (GL) - Chapter 16

Tan You didn’t answer, her slightly narrowed eyes sharp and bewitching. She extended her jade-like fingers, lowered her lashes, and gently gathered Lan Jingli’s stray temple hair.

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She twirled and played with it.

“But isn’t giving everyone just one small pudding popsicle a bit stingy?” Lan Jingli muttered, looking genuinely troubled. “Giving each person a whole box would cause stomachaches if they ate them all, and it would be wasteful if they didn’t finish them.”

She thought to herself that she was only nineteen, barely an adult. In a few more years, when she became more accomplished and mature, she could have a more serious conversation about love and lifelong commitment.

After rambling to herself for a while, she noticed Tan You resting with her eyes closed, looking both weary and composed.

A moment later, Tan You shook the dazzling gemstone in her hand casually, her dark lashes lifting slightly. “Li Li, don’t spoil the mood.”

“Sister, I was just joking. Don’t take it seriously,” Lan Jingli said, feeling a bit presumptuous. They had only been together for a little over half a year, and such a remark might make Tan You uncomfortable.

Tan You slightly lifted her eyelids, her usually cold and aloof gaze softening into a gentle, watery warmth, as if coaxing a child.

“Next time, I’ll have Aunt Wan prepare some pudding for you. Just take it whenever you want.”

Being treated like a child… Lan Jingli’s face flushed crimson, making it even more embarrassing to mention the pudding Tan You had bought her years ago.

Only a child would remember the taste of ice cream so vividly, right?

A faint smile lingered at the corners of Tan You’s lips until a familiar ache resurfaced. She calmly retrieved her medicine bottle and swallowed the bitter pills.

Yet ten minutes passed, and the pain and longing showed no signs of diminishing, growing instead more intense.

The loathing in her heart reached its peak. The feeling of being out of control was utterly repulsive. She bit down hard on her lip, desperately trying to maintain her composure.

“Sister, what’s wrong?”

The moonlight bathed the woman’s fair face as she repeatedly wiped Lan Jingli’s hands with alcohol-soaked wipes.

She was incredibly patient, moving with deliberate slowness. The soft, translucent paper traced each slender finger, as delicate as scallion stalks, leaving no crevice untouched.

To preserve the specimens properly, the temperature here was kept low, unlike the typical villa’s constant 24 degrees Celsius with 53% humidity.

Thus, their lovemaking began with a chill, only to later burn like a wildfire.

By the end, even the palms of Lan Jingli’s wrists were damp, forcing her to use multiple tissues to clean herself.

She had never liked the feeling of wet fingers before, but this liquid was nothing like tears—it was intoxicatingly warm.

“Let’s sleep,” the woman said, her voice so detached it bordered on indifference, though the lingering haze in her eyes still held traces of passion.

As usual, Tan You didn’t let Lan Jingli sleep with her. After their bath, she sent her back to the guest room to rest.

Everything followed this orderly routine, so serene that Lan Jingli felt she had found a beautiful little world of her own.

A world that gave her the strength to navigate a world where she had once felt utterly adrift.

In the company’s practice room, Wei Yixi gazed at the table overflowing with food and flowers, exclaiming in surprise, “You’re Wei Xueyin? You’re joining us to form a band?”

Wei Xueyin, dressed in hip-hop attire with casually worn accessories that cost a fortune, smiled humbly and warmly at Lan Jingli and Wei Yixi.

“I don’t know if you’ll welcome me, but I really want to be friends with you both.”

Lan Jingli had only added Wei Xueyin on WeChat before. Seeing her in person for the first time, she felt a vague sense of familiarity but couldn’t quite place it.

Wei Xueyin affectionately took Lan Jingli’s hand. “I bought tons of energy bars and beef jerky. Eat up—you’re too skinny!”

“Um, thank you,” Lan Jingli replied, unaccustomed to such unprompted kindness. But Wei Xueyin’s overwhelming enthusiasm made it impossible to refuse. “Let me teach you the new song now.”

“No way! To celebrate us becoming friends, I’m treating you both to dinner at that newly opened restaurant.”

Before the others could object, Wei Xueyin cut them off with, “I’ve already made a reservation.”

When they arrived at the restaurant, it was only four or five in the afternoon, but the early winter darkness made it feel like night. The city lights twinkled brilliantly, and pedestrians hurried past.

Just as the three of them settled into their seats, they saw a group of four or five impeccably dressed individuals escorting a woman through the restaurant. The woman in the center exuded an icy, snow-like aura.

“Wow, it’s Tan You! Can you believe we ran into her here?” Wei Yixi whispered excitedly.

Wei Xueyin took a sip of her guava juice. “Because this is where she broke up with her first love.”

Lan Jingli’s hand froze mid-motion as she was about to open her WeChat app.

“That’s intense!” Wei Yixi exclaimed, her eyes darting subtly toward Lan Jingli.

“Absolutely,” Wei Xueyin replied casually, as if chatting with close friends. “She and her first love were madly in love, a legendary romance. One Lunar New Year, to celebrate their anniversary, they set off fireworks here and gave out candy to everyone.”

“They gave out over a dozen kinds of handmade candies, right? Arranged in a candy tower?” Wei Yixi interjected excitedly. “And they were super expensive, right? Every passerby got one!”

“Not much,” Wei Xueyin said with a soft laugh. “The fireworks and candy combined only cost a few million.”

“Wow, Tan You, who always seems so serious and aloof, actually spoils her partner like that? I thought she never had any time.”

Wei Xueyin shook her head. “Even if she doesn’t have time to spend, she’ll make time.”

“Hard to imagine,” Lan Jingli said, her smile feeling like a mask glued in place.

Wei Yixi stared at Lan Jingli with a complex expression until the appetizers arrived: seared scallops with cauliflower purée and pan-fried asparagus. Only then did she look away.

As Wei Xueyin cut into her scallop, she glanced at Lan Jingli, a hint of cold mockery lingering at the corner of her lips.

The meal featured top-tier ingredients: squid ink ravioli filled with ricotta cheese and crab meat, pan-fried to a delicate crisp with a pleasant sage aroma.

The rare filet mignon, still pink and bloody, made Lan Jingli force down each bite, her stomach churning with discomfort.

She really is just the kind of poor person who belongs eating street-side fried rice.

After settling the bill, Wei Xueyin offered to bring some bird’s nest from home to stew for everyone, claiming it would be good for their health. She had effectively become the band’s nutritionist.

After she was picked up by her family’s luxury car, Lan Jingli and Wei Yixi walked back to their dormitory, showered, and went to bed.

However, Lan Jingli couldn’t sleep at all. Listening to the gentle breathing sounds from her MP3 player, she kept thinking about Tan You admiring the flowers, then about the New Year’s fireworks.

She hadn’t mentioned it earlier, but she had also received a candy tower that New Year’s because she was here for the school interview.

The grand and beautiful New Year’s scene seemed to be right before her eyes: the gentle sea breeze, the magnificent fireworks blooming in the sky.

As she listened to the distant, solemn New Year’s bells, she felt the urge to make a wish for the first time in her life, but her thoughts were interrupted by the candy tower being handed to her.

The golden city lights illuminated her small figure and the faces of the people gazing up in wonder.

The square was filled with laughter and joy, so lively that she was swept up in the festive mood, feeling as if the distant horizon had drawn closer.

She had gazed up at the sky, yearning like one who gazes at the moon, realizing that someone she had always thought unattainable had once willingly descended from that distant horizon for another.

She had once witnessed Tan You’s love, had looked up at the love that belonged to Tan You.