How About A Divorce? - Chapter 39

Chapter 39: So-called Liking [VIP]

Lin Yanqing stood at the door, closed her eyes, and let out a long breath. All her energy and spirit dissipated with that breath.

To be honest, she regretted saying those things.

Does Wen Yu really like her that much? Lin Yanqing wasn’t very sure. Those words were just to force Wen Yu to think clearly about what she really wanted to do.

That agreement, Wen Yu was the one who started it, and Wen Yu was the one who ended it. If everyone was happy to follow the script, then everyone would be happy. Lin Yanqing could slowly make Wen Yu completely inseparable from her. Any talk of “breaking the habit” was nonsense.

But the drawback of having an emotionally clueless person write the script was also obvious—this clueless person could easily give up and stop playing halfway through, not understanding her core demands, and only focusing on the surface conflicts.

But Lin Yanqing wasn’t in a position to say that either… she was also clueless, dragging her feet for seven years without confessing. Now that she had said it so many times, the other person didn’t believe her anymore.

…

“Why are you going back alone?” Chen Yu’an saw Wen Yu off at the door.

Wen Yu: “I asked Lin Yanqing a question, got my answer, and told her to leave.”

When she said that, Wen Yu’s eyelids closed like curtains, and the dark circles under her eyes drooped. The words “tossing and turning” were clearly written on her face. Chen Yu’an was worried. “I’ll have someone drive you back.”

“Mhm.”

“Don’t worry. Maybe Lin Yanqing is waiting for you at home. You both need to calm down and have a good talk.”

Wen Yu twitched one side of her mouth. “Why are you trying to play matchmaker now?”

Chen Yu’an rubbed Wen Yu’s face. “What do you think?”

Wen Yu’s smile looked like her bones were separating from her flesh. It was creepy.

Wen Yu waved her hand. “I’m leaving.”

Chen Yu’an: “If you’re in a bad mood, come find me. Don’t sulk at home by yourself.”

Through the car window, Wen Yu nodded and waved again. In about an hour, the car arrived at her home.

The door opened. The house was cold and empty. The only three living things were the fish in the living room. Wen Yu walked over and saw fish food floating on the water, not yet soaked through.

Lin Yanqing had been back.

Wen Yu went to the room and glanced around. A lot of Lin Yanqing’s clothes were gone.

An unspeakable sense of grievance welled up.

That bastard, Wen Yu thought. Didn’t you go against me before? Why are you so obedient this time? You left just because I said so.

Feeling annoyed, she paced back and forth in the room and finally went into the study.

A thin blanket that Lin Yanqing used to cover her legs was draped over a chair. Wen Yu pulled it over and messed it up. Her eyes couldn’t help but turn red.

It had been a day, and Lin Yanqing hadn’t called or sent a single message.

Wen Yu was curled up in the single armchair in the study, unconsciously scrolling through her phone. She clicked on Lin Yanqing’s chatbox a few times and then exited.

The mechanical movements made her feel tired. She hadn’t slept well the night before. Everything was playing out like a big show in her mind. Now that the show was ending, Wen Yu’s eyelids drooped halfway and soon closed completely.

When she woke up again, it was 8 AM. She had slept for fifteen hours. Her body was stiff within the small space, and her joints felt rusty.

Suddenly, there was a noise downstairs.

Wen Yu was startled. She stood up abruptly, making a clicking sound in her joints. Like a puppet, she shuffled towards the stairs.

“Lin…” Only one word came out before she saw the person downstairs.

The cleaning lady greeted her kindly. “Miss Wen.”

Only then did Wen Yu remember that she had booked this cleaning service before she left.

“Auntie,” Wen Yu nodded, not in the mood. “You can start cleaning.”

“Okay!”

Wen Yu turned back to the room. Her bones ached. She stretched her neck and stood in front of Lin Yanqing’s bookshelf.

Even if Lin Yanqing was leaving, she would have to come back to move these books. Wen Yu thought she wasn’t happy about helping her move, nor was she happy about having someone else come into her house to move them.

She just glanced over and noticed something tucked inside a book. The corner of a page was sticking out and looked quite thick.

Wen Yu pulled the book out.

Principles of Macroeconomics.

What a boring name.

She put the book back.

She didn’t have the hobby of reading to soothe her emotions.

Suddenly, her phone rang. Wen Yu clicked on it and saw the battery was at 2%. The call almost killed her phone.

She answered, half-dead like her phone. “Director Shi.”

“CEO Wen, do you have time now? The film is ready. Do you want to come and take a look?”

“Now?”

“Mhm,” Shi Li said. “It’s more efficient to watch it in person. The quality isn’t as good when you download it, and it doesn’t have the same effect as watching it on a big screen.”

Wen Yu wasn’t interested, nor did she have the motivation to check the quality. “You’re the professional. You can handle it.”

“Come on, CEO Wen,” Shi Li said. “It’s good to get some fresh air.”

Wen Yu was surprised.

“I could hear the commotion from your room yesterday in my room next door.” A rustling sound came from Shi Li’s end, as if she had walked outside. The sound of wind came through the microphone. “I went out and saw Lin Yanqing looked terrible. I called out to her, but she ignored me and just left.”

Wen Yu: “She…”

“Don’t ask me anything,” Shi Li said. “I haven’t been in touch with her.”

“Come and watch the film. It’ll distract you. Sang Yun is here too.”

“I know,” Wen Yu said.

This was her first time here. Not many people knew her. She found someone and asked, “Where is Shi Li?”

The man first sized up Wen Yu and then asked, “Are you here for an interview?”

Wen Yu: “No…”

“You’re a production assistant, right? I’ll take you to the office.” The man walked inside. Wen Yu didn’t move. He turned back and urged her. “Hurry up.”

Wen Yu looked past him and waved her hand.

Shi Li walked over with big steps. “Why didn’t you call when you got here?”

Wen Yu: “I was asking for directions.”

She just hadn’t expected the person to not listen to her at all.

The man was startled. “Director Shi?”

He apologized to Wen Yu. “Sorry, ma’am, I mistook you for an intern here for an interview.”

Wen Yu waved her hand dismissively.

The man quickly walked away. Wen Yu followed Shi Li down a path to the right and asked, “Why are you looking for interns?”

Shi Li: “That’s also what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Hmm?”

“I’ve already separated my business from Zero One. I want to expand, and I’ve poached a lot of talented people. I’m short on staff, and funds are a bit tight.”

Wen Yu smiled. “Are you treating me like an ATM?”

“Don’t say that. Isn’t this a win-win situation? You can think about it,” Shi Li pulled open a door and let Wen Yu go in first. “We’re here.”

Three people inside looked up.

Yuan Yiyang and Sang Yun stood on either side of a woman. The woman was sitting in front of a screen and smiled at Wen Yu. “You must be CEO Wen? I’m in charge of post-production. You can watch with the two actors and give me your feedback together.”

The woman stood up and offered her seat. “You can watch. I’m going to go check on the voice-over for another film.”

Sang Yun said happily, “Wen Wen, long time no see.”

Yuan Yiyang: “CEO Wen.”

Wen Yu greeted them and sat down. “A sneak peek.”

Shi Li smiled. “It’s way ahead of time.”

Wen Yu started watching from the first episode. Three minutes later, the episode ended. She said to Yuan Yiyang, “The camera makes you look ugly.”

Yuan Yiyang agreed. “I’m not photogenic.”

Wen Yu watched episode after episode. When she got to the part where she had to pay to continue watching, she asked, “Can Jiang Chi escape?”

Jiang Chi was the character played by Yuan Yiyang.

“To find out, you have to pay to keep watching,” Shi Li joked.

“A VIP can just watch the original film,” Wen Yu said, clicking on the next episode.

She didn’t escape.

Wen Yu smiled knowingly. “Are they going to drag this out for another twenty episodes?”

“Something like that,” Yuan Yiyang said.

Sang Yun played Yuan Yiyang’s cellmate, who broke out of prison with her. She had a lot of screen time later on, which Shi Li had added, giving the character a lot of depth.

“Let me guess. In the end, there’s going to be a sacrifice to add some value to the story.”

Wen Yu hadn’t read the script, but she was pretty close.

“Yes,” Shi Li went straight to the fifth to last episode. “Around here, Jiang Chi is supposed to die.”

“I saved her at the last minute,” Sang Yun said. On the screen, the female prisoner she played pulled Jiang Chi, who was about to be exposed to the prison guards, into a pipe. They were both soaked in sewage.

“It’s filmed very well,” Wen Yu said. “It’s a little borderline though.”

Politically sensitive.

Shi Li: “The disclaimer has already been written. It’s at the beginning of the first episode and emphasizes that it’s a fictional story.”

“You called me here because you still want my help, right?”

“Yes,” Shi Li nodded. “You said it’s borderline, so we need CEO Wen to personally step in. It’s easy to get the approval from Zero One, but…”

“The censorship is not a problem,” Wen Yu said. “I can make a call.”

“I appreciate it.”

“No problem. You’re making me money too.”

Wen Yu watched the whole series at three times the speed. She had no objections. “It’s pretty much what I expected. It should do well once it’s released.”

Sang Yun: “You know all this, Wen Wen.”

“When you’ve spent so much money, of course you have to understand it from all angles.”

“You know the tropes of short dramas like the back of your hand,” Yuan Yiyang said with a smile.

“There are only a few ways to do it,” Wen Yu smiled.

Wen Yu suddenly thought, if only Lin Yanqing were as easy to understand as a short drama.

Rising action, climax, and falling action. Everything was under control, and the audience could watch it all in one go, eating a feast that only had different seasonings. Their stomachs would sigh in satisfaction, and no matter what they ate, the taste in their mouth and throat would be familiar and without fault.

But unfortunately, Lin Yanqing wasn’t like that.

Wen Yu couldn’t see through her, and she couldn’t see through herself.

She didn’t follow the script and pulled her around savagely. So the ending was yet to be determined. You wouldn’t know what you’d get until you hit a wall.

“Let’s have dinner together tonight,” Shi Li said. “I’ve already booked a restaurant.”

Sang Yun was the happiest. “Okay!”

Wen Yu: “Look how happy you are. Do you like eating that much?”

Sang Yun: “Isn’t that what we live for?”

“What do you like to eat?” Wen Yu asked casually on the way.

“The noodles have to be handmade. I don’t like dry noodles. I don’t like tomatoes, and I don’t like fruits. I love meat the most, but I don’t like beef with yellow fat…” Sang Yun listed a lot of things.

Wen Yu was shocked. “That detailed?”

“Of course!”

“You and your stomach must have had a two hundred gigabyte conversation.”

“Oh,” Sang Yun said innocently. “How can a person not know what they like?”

The speaker was unintentional, but the listener took it to heart.

Wen Yu was stunned.

The fog that had been clouding her mind had lifted a little, but it wasn’t clear.

“You eat what you want to eat. You can’t always do the last four words, but you should at least know the first four words,” Sang Yun’s voice came through. “If you don’t even know what you like to eat, then what’s the point of living?”

A clicking sound echoed in Wen Yu’s ears.

Sang Yun added a disclaimer. “Of course, this is just my personal opinion! Rich people seem to have so much to eat. You probably don’t know, right? Because there are too many options.”

“Too many options?”

“Yes, like those dishes with a bunch of foreign words, and all kinds of fancy dishes from all over the world,” Sang Yun said. “It’s normal not to know what you like to eat.”

Wen Yu realized for the first time. “…I don’t think I have the concept of liking or not liking something.”

“Maybe you’ve always eaten what you like, so you haven’t really thought about it,” Yuan Yiyang interjected.

This sentence, in the darkroom of Wen Yu’s mind, formed a small negative film. A truth was hidden on it, and it could be developed as long as it was soaked in developer.

Sang Yun didn’t notice the strange look on the person next to her and just nodded. “You eat what you want every day, and you probably haven’t had a bad meal, so you haven’t thought about what you like to eat.”

She sighed. “You don’t know what I ate when I was working on set. I was literally eating whatever a dog would eat.”

“If you eat pig food for a long time, you’ll know what you want to eat. You just haven’t eaten pig food,” Sang Yun clicked her tongue. “Next time, I’ll air freight you a bento box.”

Wen Yu pulled herself out of her thoughts and said a random sentence. “…You’re too kind.”

You don’t have to.

Shi Li, in the passenger seat, smiled. “That’s a deep conversation.”

Sang Yun was confused. “Huh?”

We were just talking about food and drinks.

Yuan Yiyang immediately understood Shi Li’s thought process. “You’re getting all professional again. Don’t read too much into it.”

“I’m not. This is just life’s many flavors,” Shi Li looked back. “Of course, this is just my personal opinion. CEO Wen can have a different view.”

“…I do,” Wen Yu suddenly took a deep breath. “I’m still too full.”

Sang Yun was confused again. “What? That’s a different view?”

And we haven’t even eaten yet.

“Stop the car up ahead,” Wen Yu said.

Shi Li raised an eyebrow. “Not eating anymore?”

“Mhm.”

Sang Yun: “Why are you suddenly not eating? Where are you going?”

Shi Li just smiled knowingly and turned to the driver to give him directions. “Just there. Park the car there.”

The car stopped. Wen Yu got out. Shi Li poked her head out. “Have a good meal.”

Sang Yun was still out of the loop. “So Wen Wen is going to eat somewhere else?”

Yuan Yiyang: “I don’t know.”

She didn’t know either but felt it was better not to ask.

Shi Li waved her hand. “Good luck.”

The group left. Wen Yu waited for five minutes, and a driver arrived.

Driver: “Miss.”

Wen Yu got into the car and let out a breath, as if she had just let go of a heavy burden. Her tone was a lot lighter. “I’m going to find someone.”

Driver: “Who?”

Wen Yu: “Lin Yanqing.”

She was going to ask this person for a dish, from the inside out, in every way, a dish only for her to eat.