Fake Love with the Movie Queen - Chapter 12

Zhu Ningyue held her phone, thoroughly engrossed in reading a post. She tapped Gu Nanxuan’s shoulder from behind and said, “You’re trending again, you know.”

Gu Nanxuan responded with a calm “Oh.”

Zhu Ningyue leaned in closer. “Aren’t you going to check your phone?”

Gu Nanxuan stopped walking and gave her a sidelong glance. “To see how people are bashing me?”

“How do you know they’re bashing you?”

“Your expression says it all.”

“What’s wrong with my expression?”

Zhu Ningyue wiped the smile off her face, looking indignant.

“Ask Ge Jiang.”

Gu Nanxuan couldn’t be bothered to argue and stepped around her to catch up with Qiu Qing’an.

Zhu Ningyue turned to Ge Jiang. “What did my expression look like just now?”

Ge Jiang assessed her. “Schadenfreude.”

Zhu Ningyue turned off her phone and used the screen as a mirror to check her face. “Was it that obvious?”

She scrutinized herself but couldn’t find anything wrong. If anything, she thought she looked even prettier than before.

After admiring herself for a while longer, she happily put her phone away, only to find Ge Jiang watching her with an enigmatic look.

For once, Zhu Ningyue felt a rare flicker of self-consciousness. Ge Jiang’s gaze lingered on her face, intense enough to burn through her.

She cleared her throat, trying to mask her awkwardness. “I thought there was something on my face, so I was checking.”

“You’re adorable.”

Ge Jiang’s lips curled into a clear smile.

Whoosh—

Zhu Ningyue felt her face heat up instantly.

“R-really?”

She lowered her head, her voice softening into a shy murmur.

“Thank you.”

But there was no response.

After a moment, she slowly looked up and saw that Ge Jiang had already walked ahead, chatting with others.

Zhu Ningyue’s mood darkened, her lips pursing into a pout.

“Tsk, got ditched? That’s the face you’re making?”

Gu Nanxuan’s cool voice came from beside her.

“What do you want?”

Already feeling down, Zhu Ningyue’s tone turned sharp at the sarcasm.

Gu Nanxuan didn’t mind. “Want to grab dinner later? We can ask Ge Jiang along.”

They had arrived early that afternoon, and the host had dismissed everyone to eat before regrouping at seven in the evening.

Lost in her own emotions earlier, Zhu Ningyue hadn’t paid attention to the announcement.

She glanced around and saw that most people had already scattered, with the crew’s cameramen packing up their equipment.

“Let’s not invite her.”

Zhu Ningyue’s peripheral vision caught Ge Jiang laughing animatedly with others, and her voice dripped with bitterness.

“She probably wouldn’t say yes anyway.”

“How do you know if you don’t ask?”

Gu Nanxuan couldn’t stand her mopey expression any longer and said exasperatedly,

“Miss Zhu, could you muster some courage when chasing someone? You’ve been pining for so long—how many more years do you plan to keep this up? Five? Ten?”

“By then, Ge Jiang will already be thirty and long since taken by someone else.”

Not content with just that, she added fuel to the fire:

“Honestly, it might not even take that long. In a couple of years, you might just get a wedding invitation from her. After all, you two were on the same show together.”

Zhu Ningyue’s eyes reddened in an instant, as though struck by a sudden thought.

“You mean it?”

Her voice trembled with unshed tears, and before she could finish speaking, they spilled down her cheeks.

Gu Nanxuan sighed helplessly at her state, pulling out a tissue and handing it to her: “Of course I was lying to you.”

“Why… why would you lie to me?” Zhu Ningyue sniffled, wiping the tears from her face with the tissue.

Gu Nanxuan: “…How come I never noticed before how stubborn you are?”

Zhu Ningyue wasn’t listening. Instead, she cried even harder, the tissue in her hand quickly soaked through.

“Wait, I’ve scolded you before, but I’ve never seen you cry like this?”

Seeing that she couldn’t be consoled, Gu Nanxuan felt a headache coming on.

“Should I apologize to you?”

“Why is Ningyue crying?”

Qiu Qing’an noticed Zhu Ningyue bowing her head to wipe her tears and walked over to ask with concern.

She pulled a tissue from her bag and handed it to Zhu Ningyue: “Did something happen?”

Zhu Ningyue kept crying without answering.

Gu Nanxuan chimed in from the side: “She thinks Ge Jiang will run off with someone else.”

Zhu Ningyue choked out a retort: “That’s what you said!” Then she burst into tears again.

Qiu Qing’an now had a rough idea of what was going on.

“Step aside for a moment.”

She motioned for Gu Nanxuan to move away, then stood beside Zhu Ningyue, gently patting her back.

“Nanxuan just wanted you to be braver, so Jiangjiang wouldn’t miss out on your feelings. She didn’t mean it like that.”

“And as far as I know, Jiangjiang isn’t particularly close to anyone right now. How could she possibly be with someone else?”

“Really?” Zhu Ningyue wiped her tears and asked, “Jiangjiang really doesn’t have anyone she’s close to?”

“Of course.”

Seeing her calm down, Qiu Qing’an’s tone grew even gentler.

“Jiangjiang is usually busy filming—when would she even have time to get close to someone else?”

Zhu Ningyue still seemed doubtful, her eyes red as she wiped her tears. “But what about the other actors she works with?”

Qiu Qing’an smiled. “Don’t you know Jiangjiang’s personality best? If she really liked someone, you’d have known long ago.”

Zhu Ningyue had been Ge Jiang’s top fan under a pseudonym for years, making her the second most knowledgeable about Ge Jiang after her manager.

She truly hadn’t heard of Ge Jiang being particularly close to anyone.

Earlier, trapped in her own emotional turmoil, her mind had been too muddled to remember any of that.

Now that she realized, everything suddenly became clear.

Zhu Ningyue took a deep breath, her expression visibly brighter. “Thank you, Qing’an.”

“No need to be so formal. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Qiu Qing’an, seeing she had stopped crying, handed her another tissue.

“Dry your tears. If Jiangjiang sees you like this later, she’ll ask what happened.”

No sooner had she spoken than Ge Jiang’s voice came from nearby: “What’s wrong with Ningyue?”

Zhu Ningyue quickly turned away, not wanting her to see her in such a state, and pretended nothing had happened. “It’s nothing, just got some sand in my eyes.”

But her noticeably hoarse voice gave her away.

Ge Jiang wisely didn’t press further and instead changed the subject. “Do you want to grab dinner together later?”

Hearing the invitation, Zhu Ningyue didn’t care that her eyes were still swollen and immediately turned back to agree: “Sure!”

Her eyes sparkled with excitement.

Qiu Qing’an smiled beside them. “We were just about to go ask you.”

“Done crying?”

Gu Nanxuan, hearing Zhu Ningyue’s lively voice, moved closer again.

Zhu Ningyue huffed and turned her head away, refusing to look at her. “I wasn’t crying. If you don’t know how to talk, then don’t say anything!”

“Okay, I won’t say a word.”

Gu Nanxian made a zipping motion over her lips with her fingers, signaling that she would keep quiet from now on.

Qiu Qing’an watched their interaction, the amusement in her eyes deepening. “Let’s go see what food options are nearby first.”

Ge Jiang took out her phone. “I saw some recommendations on the platform. Do you guys want hot pot, barbecue, or home-style dishes?”

“How about home-style dishes?” Zhu Ningyue suggested. “Hot pot and barbecue are both too heavy. You’ve been pulling all-nighters filming—eating those will definitely make you break out.”

She had often seen posts on Weibo about Ge Jiang’s crew working late into the night.

“Having it once in a while is fine. Besides, aren’t we technically on vacation now?”

Ge Jiang looked completely relaxed. It was rare for her to have such leisurely moments during filming.

Seeing that she wanted to eat it, Zhu Ningyue changed her mind. “Then let’s go for barbecue. I get the feeling you really like meat.”

This little detail had been inadvertently revealed by Ge Jiang’s manager during an interview.

Ge Jiang smiled. “I do like meat, but we also have Nanxian and Qing’an to consider.”

“Nanxian and I are fine with anything.”

Qiu Qing’an had no objections.

Gu Nanxian nodded in agreement.

Ge Jiang pulled up a nearby barbecue place. “The closest one is 500 meters away, and it has great reviews. Should we go there?”

She showed the phone screen to the other three.

Zhu Ningyue was surprised. “You found it that quickly?”

“This is how I always look for places when I eat out.”

Ge Jiang navigated the app with practiced ease.

“You can also buy vouchers here—it’s a bit cheaper.”

Zhu Ningyue looked at her with slight admiration. “Can you teach me?”

“Of course.”

These things were easy, so Ge Jiang naturally didn’t refuse.

“Let’s wait until we’re seated at the restaurant. I’ll teach you slowly then.”

Zhu Ningyue nodded eagerly. “Okay!”

Gu Nanxian watched her fawning behavior and couldn’t help but click her tongue.

Zhu Ningyue turned and glared at her. “You just said you wouldn’t talk!”

Gu Nanxian spread her hands and spoke. “Well, you’re the one who—”

Qiu Qing’an swiftly cut her off. “Let’s hurry up and go. We have to regroup by seven.”

Gu Nanxian didn’t continue.

Ge Jiang turned on the navigation and led the way to the barbecue place.

Zhu Ningyue followed her closely, occasionally glancing at her phone with an eager-to-learn expression.

Gu Nanxian trailed half a meter behind them and couldn’t resist whispering to Qiu Qing’an, “At this rate, how long is it going to take for her to make a move?”

Qiu Qing’an’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “I think Jiangjiang might already have an idea about Ningyue’s feelings.”

“Really?”

Gu Nanxian studied Ge Jiang for a moment but didn’t notice anything unusual.

“How can you tell?”

Qiu Qing’an thought for a second. “Probably intuition? After all, when I was chasing you, it was the same.”

“Excuse me, I was the one chasing you.”

Gu Nanxian wasn’t having it.

Though it was true that Qiu Qing’an had confessed first, she had already been preparing to propose.

The fact that she hadn’t made the first move still bothered Gu Nanxian a little.

Why couldn’t she have been more straightforward? Why couldn’t she have declared her feelings the moment they first met?

“Fine, we chased each other.”

Qiu Qing’an recalled the early days before they had defined their relationship, feeling both amused and sweet at the memory.

The two of them had fallen in love at first sight, yet both were too afraid of rejection to confess their feelings, delaying the moment of truth.

But when she finally spoke up, she discovered the other had been just as ready.

This kind of unspoken understanding between them meant they didn’t need exhaustive explanations to know they were perfect for each other.

Gu Nanxuan reluctantly accepted this reasoning but still held firm to her stance: “If we’re going to have a wedding, you have to let me prepare first.”

Qiu Qing’an agreed softly, “Alright.”