CH 32

After using some physical cooling methods, Xiang Wan’s fever finally subsided at 11 a.m. She slept for a while and woke up again, by 6 p.m. her fever had completely subsided.

The highest temperature reached 38.7° Celsius, at that moment, she called out for her mother.

Afterwards, she didn’t say anything nonsensical and remained quiet.

When she woke up, she looked exhausted, her hair was like seaweed sprawled on the pillow. She looked at Yu Zhou and said, “Yesterday, did you forget to make me the sugar water egg?”

“I didn’t make it,” Yu Zhou said. “Luckily, I didn’t, because you broke your promise. You had a fever again at night.”

“I only promised for the daytime.”

“Well, you didn’t say that in advance.”

“You didn’t specify… the ‘expiration date’ either.” She remembered the bear cookies and AD calcium milk, where she learned this phrase.

Yu Zhou stared at her closely and asked, “Xiang Wan, did your fever make your complexion look a bit dusky? You don’t seem as fair as before.”

Xiang Wan’s face suddenly turned pale, as white as ivory paint. She touched her face and said, “Give me a piece of that ex-boyfriend facial mask.”

“A joke can’t be used three times; you’d be criticized for doing that when you write a story,” Yu Zhou taught her.

“I earned money,” Xiang Wan said. “My voice. Director Peng used my voice.”

“Where’s the money?”

“I don’t have the ‘Ali’ for paying[1]. She must have given it to you.” Xiang Wan deduced.

“Indeed, she did give it to me. Do you know how much she gave?” Yu Zhou took out her phone and waved it.

Xiang Wan shook her head.

Yu Zhou clicked to play Peng Xiangzhi’s voice message: “Zhouzhou, I have something to tell you about Wanwan’s payment. The thing is, the character doesn’t have many lines, so I asked my friend to make a guest appearance. We’ve always done this, helping each other out with a few lines, so there wasn’t a budget for this.”

Yu Zhou well understood that a favor was not lighter than money.

“But now Wanwan was there, if we were to pay her based on her experience for these few lines, the compensation would be very little. It’s just too little, so I’d feel embarrassed for giving that remuneration.”

“So, I thought, why not bring her along when we wrap up the recording, I’ll treat her to a meal and prepare a small gift for her. She might like that more than receiving money. What do you think?”

Xiang Wan’s eyes lit up: “What kind of gift?” This would be the first gift she will receive here, well, if Yu Zhou’s AD calcium milk didn’t count.

“I don’t know. You’ll find out when you get there.”

Xiang Wan nodded: “When?”

“It seems to be next weekend.” Yu Zhou scrolled through her chat history.

Xiang Wan looked at Yu Zhou with her eyes, suggesting that she thought it was too far away.

“You shouldn’t be so impatient. As the saying goes, good food is worth waiting for. Take a few days to rest and recover, then I’ll take you to buy some clothes. Since you’re staying, it’s not quite right for you to always wear my clothes. You should have your own style. Also, you need to think long-term. Literacy is the foundation. Besides, without a diploma, it’s hard to get around in this world. I have to see how I can help you get something like an adult education diploma.” Yu Zhou said.

“And,” she sat on the edge of the bed, picking at the wooden headboard, “Wanwan, I’m out of money.”

She had been unemployed for several months and had been living off her savings. Xiang Wan hadn’t spent too much money, but it was enough to make her feel tight on cash.

“I may have to sign a contract.” She looked out the window with the eyes of someone facing the execution ground.

“Sign a contract? What do you mean?”

“It means I might have to sign with Changpei and become a full-time writer. Because of what happened earlier, bookmarks of my book have grown quite quickly in the past two months. An editor has taken a liking to me and asked me to sign a contract.”

Yu Zhou explained, “After signing the contract, I can make money by writing. I probably won’t make too much, but what if I become popular? I heard that popular writers can make a decent amount. I’ll try my best and write some popular topics.”

Xiang Wan holded her quilt and sat up, she leaned against the edge of the bed and looked at Yu Zhou, saying, “You don’t seem very happy.”

Yu Zhou smiled: “I have Chūnibyō.[2]“

“I always feel that signing a contract with requirements like how many words to write in a few years or how often to update in a few months is very restrictive. And after signing, I’ll definitely have to pay more attention to the marketing data, after all, that’s about money. I’ll no longer be a free writer.” She sounded very experienced.

“Don’t sign.” Xiang Wan shook her head.

She pondered and said, “I can take orders on WeChat groups all day.”

Yu Zhou laughed and patted her quilt, “Why do you make it seem like we’re a pair of miserable lovebirds?”

“Lovebirds?” Xiang Wan pursed her lips and looked at her with knowing eyes.

“It’s a metaphor. You’re all good but just too serious.”

Xiang Wan changed the topic and asked her, “What other jobs can I do?”

“No need, you rest for now. If it really doesn’t work, I can still find a job. The reason I mentioned being out of money is to see if you can sell your face and ask Director Peng to, considering you’re talented, ummm, offer you a discount for that training class.” She felt guilty. She was not good at taking advantage of others.

“What does ‘sell face’ mean?”

“It means… acting cute.”

“I can’t.”

“You were pretty good at it when you were sick last time.”

Xiang Wan thought about the situation last time and carefully confirmed, “So, I should go to Director Peng’s house, lie on her bed, and act cute?”

Hey! Yu Zhou really wanted to cover her mouth.

“That’s called an unspoken rule!” What insane words, Yu Zhou thought.

After chatting for a while, Xiang Wan felt sleepy, Yu Zhou asked her to take a good rest. She went outside and took out a piece of bread to eat. Taking care of a sick person was indeed exhausting, not as easy as being sick herself.

While chewing on her bread, she started browsing Weibo again.

An hour ago, Su Chang posted an original Weibo post. In that familiar lounge, she took a photo of a beautifully arranged afternoon tea and tagged Peng Xiangzhi.

The CP fans went crazy. In their opinion, tagging was equivalent to an official announcement of dating. They couldn’t wait to move the civil affairs bureau[3] to the front row for the couple.

But Yu Zhou, who was biting her bread, thought that she had missed out on such a nice afternoon tea. The last afternoon tea before the main actor wrapped up the recording should be even more delicious than usual.

Though she had been wondering where Peng Xiangzhi developed this bad habit of inviting people to eat every day.

It’s quite expensive.

She clicked on the comment section, and Peng Xiangzhi replied below, “Xiangzhi is generous.”

Yu Zhou laughed and gave her a like.

Then she put down her phone and decided to cook herself a bag of hot and sour noodles, treating herself better.

In the lounge on the 15th floor of the Tianyin Building, there were only Su Chang and Peng Xiangzhi. The others didn’t want to eat too many sweets and left after a few bites. Peng Xiangzhi scolded them for wasting her money while encouraging Su Chang to take a photo and post it online, tagging her.

“They don’t appreciate it. You should make a post on Weibo and get some people to praise me, otherwise, I’d feel frustrated.” She said.

Usually, Su Chang would ignore her, but today was different. Su Chang thought about it, picked up her phone, and really took a photo and posted it on Weibo.

“Oh, dripping water wears away a stone, huh? You little stone is finally warmed up.” Peng Xiangzhi looked satisfied at the stream of comments saying “Xiangzhi is generous” and sighed.

The next second, she raised her tone a little, “Huh? Zhouzhou liked my comment.” Wasn’t she taking care of Xiang Wan? She had time to browse Weibo, so it seemed that Xiang Wan was fine?

Generally speaking, Peng Xiangzhi wouldn’t notice the likes, but she accidentally clicked on the list, scrolled down casually, and saw Yu Zhou’s profile picture.

Su Chang looked over, picked up her own phone, opened Peng Xiangzhi’s comments, found that she couldn’t check the likes in the mobile app, so she put down her phone and whispered, “Let me check.”

“What are you checking?” Peng Xiangzhi was puzzled.

Su Chang paused, “Checking her likes.”

“Whose?”

“Yu Zhou’s.”

Peng Xiangzhi blinked twice, then suddenly turned her phone over onto her shoulder in a hiding gesture, leaning towards the table and smiling at Su Chang, “I found out that you have a special interest in her.”

It had happened several times; she wasn’t stupid.

“Hmm?” Su Chang looked up.

“Why don’t you check my likes? You don’t even look at my Weibo! I tag you once, and if I didn’t call you, you wouldn’t even reply to me!” Peng Xiangzhi complained about her like dumping a bowl of beans.

“Besides, she liked my comment, not your original post. What does it have to do with you? What’s there for you to see?”

Peng Xiangzhi looked at her disdainfully.

Then she saw Su Chang’s shoulders sink.

“She’s my ex-girlfriend.” Su Chang said.