Lady By The Pillow - Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Counterattack (Part 1)

“I maintained a friends-with-benefits relationship with her for a year.”

“I’m planning on moving here so I can take care of you. What do you think?”

Fei Ying’s tone was more of a statement than a question.

Shi Qing paused while taking off her shoes and said, “Aren’t you supposed to be rushing to finish your manuscript?”

Fei Ying nodded. “Yes, that’s why I brought my laptop.”

“But you didn’t bring any luggage.”

“My mom can pack some things and send them over. She can also include some of the pastries she makes. I remember you used to love them when you were in college.”

Shi Qing lowered her eyes and didn’t say anything.

Fei Ying studied her for a few seconds, taking the opportunity to confess, “Xiao Qing, I have a new book coming out soon, but when I saw that something had happened to you, I came right away without finishing my manuscript. I didn’t even pack any luggage. I just grabbed my phone and ID. Don’t you know how I feel about you?”

As she spoke, she tried to take Shi Qing’s hand. “Please let me take care of you and be by your side. Is that okay?”

Shi Qing’s eyes were still lowered. A dark mist clung to her heart, weighing her down. “Fei-jie,” she finally said after a long time, “I’m not used to people being too good to me.”

This was her way of rejecting Fei Ying’s attempt to “move in.”

Fei Ying’s expression froze for a moment. “Why not?” she asked.

Shi Qing pulled her hand away. “I don’t like it when people change their lives for me.”

“How is this changing my life? Whether I write at home or at a hotel, it’s the same,” Fei Ying said dismissively.

“But you came all this way. Haven’t you already wasted a lot of time?”

“I can call the publisher and ask to postpone it for a few days.”

“And your publication date would be delayed because of me.”

Fei Ying fell silent. She scrutinized Shi Qing with a deeper gaze but still couldn’t see the expression in her lowered eyes. “Do you feel pressured by my efforts to help you?”

Shi Qing nodded. “Yes.”

Fei Ying explained, “But it’s a happy thing to do something for the person you like.”

“I haven’t learned to accept your kindness with a clear conscience yet.”

A needle snapped in the air. The sound was subtle but extremely sharp.

Fei Ying straightened her upper body, which had been leaning forward. The distance between them grew. The resolute look in her eyes was suddenly replaced by pain. She said, “That’s because you don’t like me right now.”

Shi Qing looked up, her gaze on Fei Ying sincere and calm. “So, I told you that day that I can’t return your feelings right now. If you think—”

“—I don’t think that,” Fei Ying interrupted her. “Xiao Qing, I don’t feel tired or upset. As I said, I’m pursuing you right now, and you don’t have to return my feelings. Just treat me as a normal admirer.”

As she spoke, she glanced at the door. The closed door seemed to become transparent for a moment, and she could see Wei Jiuyi across the hall. Her animal instincts flared up again. She moved her lips and continued, “But I need to know, are you rejecting me because you can’t return anyone’s feelings, or is it because of Wei Jiuyi?”

Shi Qing was stunned, a little taken aback. “It has nothing to do with her.”

Fei Ying stared at her expression. Her beautiful face was marred by a sickly, fractured look. Peeling back the shattered glass, there was a transparent bag containing glass ten times more beautiful. She despairingly discovered a fact: “‘It has nothing to do with her,’ but you hesitated when you said that.”

Shi Qing’s tense muscles went slack. She sank down onto the armrest of the sofa, speaking frankly, “After all, I maintained a friends-with-benefits relationship with her for a year.”

Fei Ying’s brows furrowed. “You don’t have to remind me every time.”

Shi Qing pursed her lips. “I’m sorry, but it’s the truth.”

The sound of a fierce wind came from outside the window, making the glass pane shake slightly. The entire floor felt uneasy.

Fei Ying walked over to her, pulled her from the armrest to the cushion, and sat down next to her, speaking earnestly. “I’m very sure you don’t like Wei Jiuyi. The death of Xiao Jun back then hurt you a lot.”

Shi Qing painfully closed her eyes for a moment and pleaded, “Can we not talk about her?”

But Fei Ying continued, “How can I not talk about her? She pursued love and ended up like that. You were her best friend, so that’s why you lost faith in love, isn’t it? But you’re not Xiao Jun, and I’m not the scumbag who abandoned her. You can try to love me.”

Shi Qing couldn’t bear to hear any more about Xiao Jun. It was a demon in her heart that had taken her two years to overcome. “Fei-jie,” she said with a rare firmness in her voice, her eyes turning slightly red, “The deceased are at peace. Can we please not talk about her anymore?”

When Fei Ying saw her reddened eyes, she realized she had crossed a line. “Okay, we won’t talk about her.”

Shi Qing tightly clasped her left and right hands together, her knuckles protruding like jagged bones. Fei Ying felt as if a knife had been plunged into her heart. “Xiao Qing, I’m sorry. Forget what I just said. I just wanted to confirm if you won’t fall in love with anyone or if it’s just me you won’t fall in love with.”

Love is selfish. It’s so selfish that you want to possess everything about the person you love. Fei Ying didn’t just want to ask about herself, but about Wei Jiuyi as well. Xiao Qing, can you guarantee that you didn’t fall for her during the whole year you spent together? But she didn’t ask.

Wei Jiuyi was so young and so immature. Shi Qing was probably just having a fling with her. If she, a senior whom Shi Qing had genuinely liked before, couldn’t make her heart flutter, what was a clueless little girl to her?

In the end, it was Dong Ya who took care of Shi Qing. Fei Ying hesitated in the entrance hall for a while, not wanting to put any more pressure on Shi Qing, so she booked a room downstairs.

The sudden turn of events wrote a story in everyone’s minds, but no one changed their opinion. Shi Qing stuck to her schedule, taking acting classes, learning English, practicing her dance, and memorizing her lines—this was her way of improving herself and distracting herself from the unpredictable thing called love. Shi Qing was indifferent, even heartless. She believed that a relationship didn’t have to be based on love. It could be something else, like s3x. She had maintained a relationship with Wei Jiuyi for a year based purely on compatible s3x.

The hot water from the shower poured down on her, flowing from her head to her entire body, warming every cell and making her thoughts heat up as well.

Fei Ying’s words echoed in her mind. She had indeed hesitated when she said, “It has nothing to do with her.” But it wasn’t because of love, it was because of the s3x. They had been intimate for a whole year. They knew each other’s most sensitive spots. Even if they had logically broken up, even if the gifts had been returned, and even if they used their most practiced acting skills to pretend they were strangers, how could they just cut ties so cleanly? She had to brainwash herself every day. Look forward, look forward, look forward. A purely sexual relationship is easy to end.

At 11 o’clock, Dong Ya was already asleep. Shi Qing opened her English app and continued from where she left off. After reading two paragraphs, Dong Ya knocked on her door. “Sister, something’s happened.”

Dong Ya stumbled in, her phone showing the real-time trending searches on Weibo. “Number one actress’s relationship has been exposed. With that Tang Bin.”

“Hmm?” Shi Qing looked up from her learning app, a strand of hair falling across her forehead. “What relationship?”

Dong Ya handed her the phone. “The two of them were caught on camera on a date. They went in and out of the same hotel multiple times, one after the other.”

Shi Qing clicked on the post. Although it was a candid shot, the video quality was very clear. Wen Yi was wearing a mask, but a person who was familiar with her could recognize her at a glance. Not to mention Tang Bin, who wasn’t taking any precautions and wasn’t even wearing a baseball cap.

The video showed four instances, with the time and location noted in the top right corner. All four times, they entered the hotel late at night and left in the early morning, one after the other. One time, they didn’t even try to avoid suspicion. Tang Bin followed Wen Yi a few meters behind her and got into the elevator with her.

“They’re in the same frame. It feels real.” Dong Ya clenched her small fist, filled with righteous indignation. “I knew it. Why would that Tang Bin target us for no reason? They must have been together for a long time. That day, Wen Yi asked you to give her the role, and you didn’t agree, so she told Tang Bin to make things difficult for you. That must be it!”

Shi Qing finished watching the exposed video, but her thoughts were different from Dong Ya’s. “The paparazzi must have been following them for a long time to get this video. Four times, from summer to winter. It doesn’t look recent.”

Dong Ya was thrilled. “That means they’ve been in a secret relationship for a long time. The paparazzi just hadn’t released it until they had enough evidence.”

Shi Qing handed her phone back. “Probably.”

Dong Ya felt even better the more she thought about it. “Wen Yi has gained a lot of fans by pretending to be gay in the past two years. Now that it’s been exposed that she likes men, and an old man with a beard like Tang Bin, she’s definitely going to lose a ton of fans. Hmph, he even tried to mess with you. This is what you call karma. This is called the King of Hell keeping a detailed account. He doesn’t miss a single thing. Oh, I wonder which god helped us get revenge!”

After her impassioned speech, she saw that Shi Qing didn’t look like she had gotten her revenge, so she asked, “What’s wrong, Sister? What are you thinking about? These two villains are getting their just deserts. Why aren’t you happy at all?”

Shi Qing was deep in thought. “I’m just thinking, Wen Yi doesn’t have any new projects or endorsements right now. Why would her relationship suddenly be exposed?”

Dong Ya didn’t think it was strange. “What’s so weird about that? Wen Yi is already popular. Exposing her relationship would definitely bring in a lot of money for the media. And even though our company is low-key, we definitely have rivals. She’s always been competitive, so maybe she offended someone?”

Her analysis made a lot of sense, and Shi Qing believed half of it. The slight doubt in her mind was well-hidden before it even reached her eyebrows. “Hmm, that’s possible. But the video only shows the garage, not the room, so there’s still room for public relations. It just depends on how Wen-jie’s team handles it.”

Dong Ya was having too much fun. “How can they handle this? The company chat group is already blowing up. I just checked social media, and a lot of her fans have already left. Isn’t there a saying that goes, ‘Straight girls who pretend to be gay will be struck by lightning’?”

Shi Qing, however, found the sudden gossip strange. She cautioned Dong Ya, “This matter hasn’t been officially confirmed yet. You can gossip, but be careful with your words.”

Dong Ya was overjoyed. “Hehe, of course. Don’t worry, Sister, I won’t say anything online. This has nothing to do with us, so there’s no need to get involved. You should get some rest. I’m going to sleep now too.”

Shi Qing nodded. “Mmm.”

“The thermos has hot milk. Drink some before you go to bed. It’ll warm your stomach.”

“Okay, thank you.”

After making sure Shi Qing was taken care of, Dong Ya returned to her room, feeling triumphant. She then opened Wei Jiuyi’s chat window.

[Were you the one who exposed Wen Yi’s gossip?!]