After the Breakup, the Crazy Movie Queen Clings to Me Every Day (GL) - Chapter 23

Tan You didn’t choose a single wedding dress. The store manager and sales associates bowed as they watched her leave, both feeling…

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Tan You didn’t choose a single wedding dress. The store manager and sales associates bowed as they watched her leave, both feeling a little worried that they might have done something wrong.

After leaving the store, Lan Jingli walked blankly in the opposite direction until Tan You called out to her.

“Where are you going?”

“Back to the company dormitory,” Lan Jingli replied, her voice tinged with confusion. “Sister, is something wrong?”

Tan You gave her a mock-reproachful look. “Don’t you want to come home with me?”

Lan Jingli’s eyes lit up, but she hesitated. “Ah, I thought it wasn’t Saturday today, so…”

“Today is an exception,” Tan You said, her tone gentle but her expression remained aloof.

Lan Jingli sensed the woman’s underlying pleasure, as if she were being rewarded.

Could it be because I pleased her by going along with her wishes, making her happy? Is that why she’s deigning to invite me to share her paradise?

In the back seat of the Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tan You gazed at Lan Jingli and suddenly asked, “When is Li Li’s birthday?”

Knowing Tan You was planning a surprise for her, Lan Jingli struggled to maintain her composure. Her heart raced, yet she forced herself to appear calm and collected.

“Is Sister planning to celebrate my birthday?”

Tan You’s dark eyes, deep and perceptive, saw through Lan Jingli’s facade. She found this obedient, easily pleased girl utterly fascinating.

“Yes.”

“My birthday… I don’t know,” Lan Jingli hesitated, her beautiful, innocent features betraying a hint of confusion.

In truth, she didn’t know the exact date of her birth. After her father’s death, her mother had moved them from city to city, and amidst the constant upheaval, the date had been forgotten.

“Your ID card lists your birthday as June,” Tan You pointed out casually. “Don’t you like it?”

Lan Jingli’s bright eyes suddenly sparkled with starlight. “I don’t like it. I like… winter.”

She wished, with all her heart, that she had been born in winter—a quiet winter, with a bright hearth, a home where she could wait in peace, and warmth that never faded.

“Then how about we set your birthday on the winter solstice every year?” Tan You’s gaze shifted, a subtle smile playing on her lips.

“Is that okay?”

“Of course,” the woman purred, coquettishly brushing aside her long hair. Her voice was cool yet flirtatious. “We’ll celebrate our birthdays together every winter solstice.”

This sudden happiness was almost frightening, but Lan Jingli resolved to protect it fiercely. For the first time, she dared to believe that good days wouldn’t end.

“Sister, can we eat pudding together on the winter solstice?”

“Sure. And what about birthday cake?”

“Yes!”

“Li Li, you’re so into rituals, aren’t you?”

Lan Jingli blushed, suddenly remembering her first meeting with Tan You. That afternoon, she had bought Tan You’s painting and treated her to pudding. Yet that evening, when they met again, Tan You had pretended not to recognize her, saying languidly, “We’re not properly acquainted until I know your name.”

Tan You is the one who’s obsessed with rituals, Lan Jingli thought.

After getting out of the car, Tan You seemed unusually cheerful and didn’t immediately retreat to her room to rest. Instead, she led Lan Jingli on a stroll through the intoxicatingly fragrant courtyard. They paused by a tree, and before Lan Jingli could ask, Tan You softly explained, “Rose apple. Its fruit has a hint of rose fragrance. The harvest season is in May.”

“Does it taste good?”

“You’ll find out when the fruit ripens. We can eat them together then.”

“Then let’s pick the fruit together next May and eat them together.”

The mountain wind swirled like mist, and Tan You paused beneath the tree. She suddenly turned, gently touching Lan Jingli’s lips, her gaze drifting in the wind. Her upturned face looked as if she were asking for a kiss.

“Sister?” Lan Jingli stood obediently, letting Tan You do as she pleased.

The woman leaned closer, the distance between them fluctuating. She murmured softly, “Okay.”

This unspoken agreement seemed to ignite the ambiguous tension between them more intensely than a kiss ever could.

But Tan You swiftly regained control, gracefully retrieving and swallowing an inhibitor.

Perhaps because Lan Jingli had been acting as a substitute for the medication for so long, the drug worked more effectively than usual. The tormenting, unspeakable desire quickly dissipated.

She would find the perfect balance between Lan Jingli and the inhibitors.

Seizing the calm period after taking the medication, Tan You settled into Lan Jingli’s lap, idly teasing the tip of her ear. Her red lips glistened, her expression distant.

“Alright, go to sleep now. I still have work to finish.”

Early spring blazed with life, awakening all living things.

As Shu Su stepped out of the car, she was deeply moved by the sight of the mountain villa nestled amidst a riot of wildflowers.

She had borrowed money from Tan You—a common occurrence, as a few hundred million was mere pocket change to Tan You. Still, Shu Su had thoughtfully brought a gift: a peony she had won at auction.
Since Tan You couldn’t tolerate the wind, their meeting was arranged on a semi-open second-floor balcony. The expansive view stretched across sprawling grasslands and scattered trees, evoking a sense of freedom and untamed nature.

“Miss Shu, what would you like to drink?” a servant asked politely.

Seeing Tan You wrapped in a cashmere blanket even indoors, her complexion pale and languid despite the warm room, Shu Su unconsciously lowered her voice.

“Fire Whiskey, on the rocks. I have news: my cousin Shu Lan will graduate next year and return. You’d better be careful; she used to chase after you relentlessly.”

The snow in the courtyard shimmered like molten silver. The elegant woman gazed at Shu Su with a puzzled expression, her dark eyes as luminous as the moon.

“Your cousin Shu Lan…”

Shu Su wore a mischievous grin. “Exactly! She talks about you constantly at home, she’s completely obsessed. She’s watched all your movies at least thirty times and prepares birthday gifts for you every year. I’m starting to get jealous.”

“Who is it?” Tan You asked.

Shu Su nearly choked on her drink. “Not you. Never mind… never mind. Who could ever catch your eye, except for these plants?”

“This ancient peony must be over a century old,” Tan You murmured, sipping warm water. Her exquisite features glowed in the soft morning light filtering through the snow. “Cultivating such a specimen is extremely challenging. I’ll tend to it personally.”

Shu Su watched the ice melt in her Fire Whiskey. “Is it really that remarkable? When I filmed it, they were hyping it up like crazy, but I didn’t pay much attention. I guess I’ve always been blind to these things.”

“A beauty beyond compare. When you visit next time, you might see it in full bloom.”

“Didn’t you major in philosophy in college? Why did you switch to Botany later?” Shu Su still remembered the idyllic scenes of Tan You reading and strolling by the river on campus, drawing crowds of admirers—underclassmen, upperclassmen, all vying for her attention with breakfast, rare books, pearls, and jade, desperate to win her favor. Yet Tan You remained aloof, as if no one else existed.

Later, she stubbornly switched to Botany, practically living in the lab, and even when collecting specimens in the wild, she radiated an aura of “keep away.”
The woman’s expression turned distant and complex, as if lost in thought. “Botany has its own unique pleasures.”

Shu Su hesitated, suppressing the question she wanted to ask, and continued, “I think you never should have given up botany. Wouldn’t it have been better to pursue a PhD and become a university professor? Why come back and fight over the family business? It’s exhausting and utterly boring.”

Tan You lowered her gaze and smiled faintly. “Just because I don’t want something doesn’t mean others can take it.”

Shu Su nodded, recalling recent rumors. She asked bluntly, “I heard you’ve been keeping a mistress lately?”

“You could say that. I haven’t had my fill of her yet.”

Hearing Tan You’s direct admission, Shu Su felt the Fire Whiskey she’d just drunk burning fiercely in her stomach.

What’s going on?

She’d only asked casually, not expecting a serious answer, yet Tan You herself had confirmed it.

Wait, who is Tan You?

The cold, sickly, rigid, and utterly dull Tan You—the one who never drank, smoked, or indulged in entertainment, who played the guqin and practiced calligraphy like a reclusive hermit—was really keeping a mistress?

Had she truly been so out of touch during her years abroad, completely unaware of her friend’s transformation?

“Hold on,” Shu Su asked, forcing herself to remain calm. “Given your personality, why not marriage instead of… this arrangement?”
The woman’s full, crimson lips parted slightly, her smile cool and detached, as if compelled by some unavoidable necessity.

“She’s too good for me. And I don’t love her enough.”