Chapter 26

Edited by Isalee

424.

I leant back on the couch, returning to my tyrannical attitude with much confidence, and raised my chin towards Gu Yiliang. “Confess, and you’ll get a lighter sentence. Tell me, what’s going on?”

Gu Yiliang coughed, and sat down next to me. “I… just wanted to research and learn from them a little, and see how this thing works.”

It was really difficult to imagine that he would actually be so professional as to read novels, and judging from it, he was even reading the boys’ love genre.

Half-admiring and half-amused, I was filled with pride for having exposed him. With much haughtiness, I asked, “So what did you learn?”

“Uhh…” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I-I just paid attention to what was important and learnt from them. I wanted to test them out to see which type you preferred.”

425.

He had really picked out the important points too well! What sort of top-quality summarising skill was this?!

What sort of skills and schemes were in these novels with such a really strong, lethal impact!

It was definitely not me whose defenses were too weak. Let me ask, if it was you, would you be able to withstand such an attack?

Not only did I manage to withstand it, heehee, but I was still smart enough to realise the truth.

I laughed, pleased with myself, then repeated the laugh again.

426.

I tilted my chin proudly. “Oh? Then tell me, what type do I prefer?”

He froze slightly, then gave a low laugh. “… You seem to like all of them pretty well.”

Me: “Bull—”

Me: “…”

It seemed like… I could not deny it.

Not only had I been stunned silly by his acts of sweetness, but I had even lost my breath over ten times.

I could no longer hold onto that tyrannical attitude of mine. Shamefully, I grabbed a cushion next to me and threw it at him.

427.

He laughed, catching the cushion. I collapsed back into the couch, depressed. “Didn’t we already agree that it doesn’t have to be so deliberate? It’ll be fine if we let things progress naturally.”

He could not hold back his smile. “But you seemed to have rather enjoyed the process?”

Me: “… You!”

Forget it. It was also thanks to his actions that allowed me to enjoy so much fluff for free.

Shooting him a disdainful glance, I admitted it outright. “Yes yes yes, it was pretty fun. But I kept feeling that something wasn’t quite right, so it might be better to be a bit more natural.”

He blinked. “You’re saying that you prefer how I was before?”

I nodded. “Yup.”

Me: “… Hold on, what sort of trap question is this?”

Me: “No! From which novels did you learn all these tactics? I want to learn too!”

He descended into an abrupt silence.

? What sort of treasured novel was this that he needed to hide it?

Him: “… Don’t go looking for it. There are no tactics, so I only researched a little on the types of characters and their style of interactions, and I came up with the specific details on the spot.”

He paused, then continued, “So, no matter what type of character or style I used, they all came from my personal style, and the words and actions I wanted to portray were the same as well.”

I froze.

428.

Did this mean that the fluff I enjoyed for free was real and genuine? Because of this, it was even sweeter?!

Hold on… What they meant by “enjoying fluff”, was to ship the two people in the CP together.

But… I’m one of the characters in this pairing?

Did I get confused between enjoying fluff and being flirted with…?

Wait.

Did that not mean that I had really fallen for his flirtations?!

429.

As I was stuck frozen, he pulled out another necklace from somewhere and placed it around my neck, his eyes curving in a smile. “So that means you’ve agreed. You can’t go back on your words.”

Me: “…”

Me: “… I won’t go back, I won’t go back. Hurry up and remove these dangly things, my neck is about to break!”

430.

After all the jewellery on me were removed, I felt that I grew 5kg lighter, enough to float up like a helium-filled balloon.

Rubbing my neck, I recalled the various versions of Gu Yiliang I met today. Thinking of it, all that was missing was the romantic type, and I could not help but tease him, “Fortunately, you didn’t plan on learning the type that would book an entire…”

Gu Yiliang’s fingers that were tapping on his phone paused slightly.

Me: “… expensive restaurant…”

Gu Yiliang’s wrist trembled slightly.

Me: “… and even arranged for a violinist…”

Gu Yiliang’s arm stiffened slightly.

Me: “… that sort of sucker…”

Gu Yiliang swiftly entered some words into his phone, then tucked it away. He laughed loudly, “Why would I do that? Pack up your things and let’s go look for some place to eat.”

I too laughed loudly, agreeing. Sure, sucker.

431.

Walking with our two assistants, we found a small restaurant and settled our dinner there. Leisurely, I drank my honey tea and enjoyed the breeze from the fan, listening to Little Chen chatter on.

“Ah, by the way, Yanyan, your scenes will be filmed in the evening tomorrow.” Little Chen scrolled through the schedule on his phone, showing me the timetable the crew had planned. “This means you have nearly one day of leave. Are you thinking about going somewhere to play?”

“Probably not.” I glanced at the screen, disinterested. “The location of the filming is so remote, no matter where I go we’ll be wasting time on the road. I might as well just stay in the hotel and sleep.”

Seeing how Little Chen wilted, I said, “You don’t have to follow me. You can go play by yourself, just come back when it’s time.”

Little Chen immediately turned radiant, solemnly bading me farewell and disappearing within five seconds.

Me: “…”

432.

Gu Yiliang tapped my shoulder. “You really don’t want to go anywhere? I drive, so it’ll be more convenient.”

My main reason was actually due to my lack of familiarity with this city, and I only knew a few famous bars. However, I did not want to drink.

I thought over it, then asked, “Hey, you’re a local, right?”

“Mn.” Gu Yiliang then introduced me to a few local sightseeing spots.

Fishing was too boring, hiking was too tiring, there were too many mosquitoes during farm tours, amusement parks were too crowded…

I was suddenly inspired. “Why don’t we go to your place to look at the cat?”

423.

Gu Yiliang was shocked. A moment later, he gave a stiff nod, and that solemnity seen on his face last night appeared again.

Me: “…? Is it not convenient? Don’t force yourself, it’s fine. If we’re not going then…”

He shook his head, solemnly cutting me off. “It’s convenient, I don’t feel forced.”

434.

No, wait, why did he always have to use such a tone as though he was making a very difficult decision?

435.

Confused, I watched him solemnly give his assistant a break for tomorrow, and solemnly stand up and lead the way to look for his car. In the process, he bumped into four of the restaurant’s customers, apologised five times, nearly knocked down two servers, and halfway, he stumbled on flat ground once, mistook other cars as his twice—

I was gaping.

Where did this morning’s Gu Yiliang go, who had strategised everything, held a decent conversation, and was an ace at flirting?

This person in front of me — he had lost at least half his soul, right?

Were we going to look at his car, or were we going to the execution grounds? Did his steps need to be so heavy?

436.

As I was hesitating over whether I should try calling his soul back, he recovered and adjusted his rearview mirror with his usual expression, even reminding me to put on my seat belt.

No, wait, truthfully speaking, he was making my hair stand on end, and I wanted to flee the car with my life.

Our past awkwardness quietly peered out from somewhere hidden. I tensed up, and hurriedly sought a topic of conversation to relax the atmosphere. “Haha, this car’s pretty nice. Uhh, shall we go for a ride?”

When I spoke, Gu Yiliang had just started his car. He then tapped on his brakes suddenly, giving me a fright. I heard a complicated tone coming from him. “… Shall we?” 1

Was this car very precious to him? Why did he have so much… trouble asking this question?

I quickly waved my hands. “No no no, it’s pretty late already. Let’s just go straight to your place and look at the cat.”2

Inexplicably, Gu Yiliang was silent for a few seconds. He rubbed his nose, and merged his car with the traffic.