How to Cheer Her Up

The next morning, Qin Qingyan woke before Yan Yue and propped her head on one hand, gazing tenderly at the lover beside her.

Yan Yue looked utterly exhausted from the night before, with no sign of waking anytime soon.

Qin Qingyan let out a soft laugh, rested the pad of her finger between Yan Yue’s brows, then slid it lightly down to the tip of her nose and tapped it. She had kissed this spot countless times last night, losing herself there over and over again.

Looking at Yan Yue now, Qin Qingyan felt, for the first time, that her life was complete.

From Qingyi Village to Nanjing City; from strangers being polite to each other to growing familiar and close, and now to loving one another, she was endlessly grateful. Grateful for so many things; most of all, grateful that Yan Yue loved her.

She reached out and wrapped an arm around Yan Yue’s smooth shoulder, kissed her on the forehead, then carefully got up without making a sound.

More than an hour later, Yan Yue’s brows relaxed. Her eyelids lifted, her mind still foggy, and then flashes of last night’s unrestrained scenes with Qin Qingyan crossed her mind.

The space beside her was already empty. The curtains were drawn, so she couldn’t tell what time it was. She groped for her phone and pressed the screen on; it was almost eleven.

All traces of sleep vanished at once. She sat up and got out of bed; the blanket slid down, leaving her completely unclothed, the evidence of last night’s excess plain to see.

The soreness all over her body made her curse Qin Qingyan several times in her heart, but when she noticed that place didn’t seem to hurt too badly, she guessed Qin Qingyan must have applied medicine for her.

That thought spared Qin Qingyan, just this once.

After pulling on her sleepwear and walking out to the living room, she caught a whiff of a sweet fragrance and only then realized she really was a little hungry.

When Qin Qingyan saw Yan Yue awake, she smiled and walked over. “Hungry? I’m making porridge. It’ll be ready in a minute.”

“Okay.”

Qin Qingyan led Yan Yue to the sofa and pressed on her shoulder until she sat down.

“Rest for a bit first. I’ll bring it over when it’s done,” Qin Qingyan said, looking at her.

Yan Yue nodded.

For some reason, she kept feeling that Qin Qingyan’s gaze on her was different from before.

Qin Qingyan kept a close eye on the porridge in the pot, while her phone was on a video call with Su Yan.

Su Yan looked at her with the air of someone instructing a promising pupil. “A little nourishment to replenish your blood and energy is good too. You’re just too timid. At this pace, other people would already have a kid old enough to walk. You haven’t even tasted meat yet, and I’m starting to wonder if the two of you are basically platonic.”

Qin Qingyan said nothing, letting Su Yan misunderstand.

“Still, I can’t tell with Yan Yue, but you definitely don’t look like one. If Yan Yue is, hypothetically, the same, wouldn’t you be holding yourself back to death?” Su Yan fretted.

“No,” Qin Qingyan said with a smile. “This is to replenish Yan Yue’s blood and energy.”

Su Yan froze, not catching on at first. Then she stared at Qin Qingyan in disbelief. “No, wait. You were so timid before; how did you suddenly wake up to it? You’re sure?”

Qin Qingyan smiled and nodded.

Su Yan’s expression turned knowingly amused. She had been suspicious, but seeing Qin Qingyan looking so satisfied, it was probably at least eight or nine parts true.

“I thought you asked me to teach you how to make this porridge because you were preparing to summon courage for tonight. Turns out you’d already eaten Yan-zong up completely.” Su Yan gave her a thumbs-up.

Qin Qingyan lifted her brows, confident.

Su Yan suddenly leaned closer to the camera and lowered her voice mysteriously. “One-sided, or mutual?”

Qin Qingyan took a while to react. She glanced back at Yan Yue, who was watching TV, and coughed softly. “One-sided.”

“Who’s on top?” Su Yan kept fishing.

Qin Qingyan frowned. How could Su Yan ask such private things with her face not even turning red? The entertainment industry really was a giant dye vat.

She didn’t want to answer, but was afraid Su Yan would make the wrong guess, so she said, “I’m on top.”

“Really? And your combat power?”

Qin Qingyan snorted and said nothing. Su Yan understood what she meant, but still teased her on purpose. “No good, Qingyan. You might as well drink a bowl of the porridge too. If you can’t give Yan-zong happiness, won’t you have to rely on tools all the time in the future?”

Qin Qingyan’s ears turned red. Su Yan had gone thoroughly off the rails.

Holding up five fingers, Qin Qingyan said, “One box of finger cots.”

Su Yan’s eyes changed instantly; full of admiration now, she said meaningfully, “Then Yan-zong really does need a good补一补.”

Qin Qingyan carried the bowl over and sat beside Yan Yue. The moment Yan Yue reached out to take it, Qin Qingyan dodged.

“I’ll feed you.”

Yan Yue didn’t refuse; she was happy to be taken care of.

With every spoonful, Qin Qingyan blew on it carefully, over and over, never getting tired of it. Yan Yue, on the other hand, was hungry enough to watch her slowly blow on each bite and nearly took the bowl from her hands several times to eat it herself.

After more than half the bowl was gone, Yan Yue finally felt full.

“I want something spicy,” she said, looking at Qin Qingyan.

Qin Qingyan’s eyes curved with a smile. “Okay. What do you want?”

Yan Yue thought about it and finally said, a little uncertainly, “Spicy strips?”

She really couldn’t think of anything else spicy to eat, and spicy strips did sound pretty good. Still, there was always a rule in the back of her mind telling her she had to eat healthily and nutritiously; snacks like spicy strips absolutely shouldn’t be on the list.

But right now, she really wanted to try them.

Qin Qingyan changed clothes. Yan Yue stood up, planning to go with her, but was refused. The reason was simple: Yan Yue still needed to rest.

After putting on a mask and a baseball cap, Qin Qingyan was ready to head downstairs. Yan Yue watched her; for some reason, she had seen Qin Qingyan dressed like this many times before, but only today did she actually find herself acknowledging the, um... aura of someone in a superior position around her.

Suddenly, Yan Yue understood what Qin Qingyan’s fans meant when they talked about her “older-sister” vibe.

While waiting for Qin Qingyan to come back, Yan Yue pulled out her laptop and handled some work. Not long after, someone sent her a few photos by email. She opened them and saw one of Qin Qingyan hugging Yu Shuran, along with several shots of the two of them smiling at each other.

Yan Yue guessed who it was and understood the other party’s intention, so she saved the pictures and replied to her on WeChat.

Yan Yue: Isn’t it a beautiful scene?

The reply came quickly: You really don’t care about your little girlfriend?

Yan Yue: It’s not that I don’t care. I trust her.

After a few minutes, the other side replied again: Trust. How touching. I didn’t expect to hear that from a businesswoman’s mouth.

Yan Yue: Aside from never letting people have the last word, your attitude toward Yu Shuran doesn’t sound very businesslike either.

The other side did not reply again.

Yan Yue stared at those photos for a long time, then deleted them.

They were an eyesore.

When Qin Qingyan came back with the things she bought, she saw at a glance that Yan Yue had a laptop in her arms and had gone back to work. She understood, but still felt annoyed. It was rare for them to have time alone together; how could work still be allowed to squeeze its way in?

She put a pile of snacks on the table and glanced at Yan Yue’s laptop. “Busy?” she asked casually.

“No. Almost done.”

“Oh.”

Qin Qingyan tore open a bag of spicy strips and played on her phone by herself.

Sensing that Qin Qingyan didn’t seem very happy, Yan Yue quickly finished replying to an email, closed the laptop, and set it aside.

“You’re unhappy?”

Qin Qingyan blinked; her scrolling finger paused. It wasn’t really unhappiness. Yan Yue did have a lot to deal with, and she understood that. But since Yan Yue had said it, whether true or not, she of course had to be unhappy.

So she turned slightly away, presenting her back to Yan Yue and saying nothing, continuing to scroll on her phone.

Yan Yue’s hand froze over the spicy strips. Qin Qingyan wasn’t even paying attention to her? She was really angry?

Qin Qingyan’s fingers kept moving aimlessly over the screen, but all her attention was on what was happening behind her. She was actually looking forward to how Yan Yue would coax her.

But there was no movement behind her at all.

She wanted to turn and see what Yan Yue was doing, but that would be no different from showing weakness, so she gave up and stubbornly continued ignoring Yan Yue.

Before long, a cold mechanical female voice came from behind her: “The harms of anger include increased risk of breast cancer, heart muscle damage, skyrocketing blood pressure, stagnation of liver qi, lowered immunity...”

Qin Qingyan nearly laughed out loud; she held it back in a hurry.

She turned to look at Yan Yue. Yan Yue was eating spicy strips on her own, very seriously. Looking at her, Qin Qingyan suddenly felt all her irritation fade away. Forget it; what would it matter if she surrendered once more?

She rolled over and leaned on one arm, looking at Yan Yue. “You can tell at a glance that you don’t know how to coax people.”

Yan Yue nodded. “Very rarely. Maybe never.”

“Your way of coaxing people is terrible, you know that?” Qin Qingyan said with a smile.

“Aren’t you not angry?”

Qin Qingyan: “I’m obviously angry. Didn’t you notice I wasn’t talking to you?”

Yan Yue nodded in deep agreement. “Do you like looking at pig-raising guides when you’re angry?”

What? It took Qin Qingyan a moment to understand. She hurriedly unlocked her phone; sure enough, it was all about pig raising. She hadn’t even noticed.

“Well, that still doesn’t prove I wasn’t angry. You should at least coax me a little.”

Yan Yue looked at Qin Qingyan. At first, she had wanted to ask Qin Qingyan to tell her how she should coax her, and then she would do exactly that. But it felt inappropriate to ask out loud.

As for how to coax her...

Yan Yue let out a breath. This was harder than a business war. More importantly, to her, the word “coax” itself felt more like an accommodating compromise; it suited a master and a pet, not partners. If there was a problem, it needed to be solved. Being honest with each other was what mattered.

Seeing Yan Yue think so hard for so long, Qin Qingyan more or less guessed what she was thinking. Yan Yue was the kind of person whose reason outweighed her feelings; sometimes she was changeable, like when it came to work. Sometimes she was stubborn as a nail, like now.

“If you’re wrong, you should admit it; if you’re going to be punished, stand properly for it. Right?” Qin Qingyan asked.

Yan Yue thought about it and nodded.

“So the key is attitude. Attitude is very important. So what do you think you should do to make me stop being angry?”

“Don’t talk about work when you’re resting,” Yan Yue said.

Qin Qingyan nodded in approval. “That’s for the future. What about now? What’s the way to make me feel better right now?”

Yan Yue considered seriously, then thought of something. “How about I give you a gift?”

“A gift? What kind of gift?”

“A wood carving. I’ll carve one for you,” Yan Yue said.

Qin Qingyan kept looking at Yan Yue, then suddenly smiled again. She wouldn’t tell her that, in truth, many times, the moment she saw Yan Yue’s face, she couldn’t stay angry at all.

“Are you sure? You won’t be halfway through and then get busy again?”

“I won’t.”

Qin Qingyan smiled with satisfaction. Then, catching sight of a tiny spot of chili oil at the corner of Yan Yue’s mouth, she moved on impulse. “I’ll tell you a method. No matter how angry I get in the future, you only need to do this..."

She leaned forward and kissed Yan Yue, lingering in the kiss for a long while before finally pulling back, their foreheads resting together.

“That way, I won’t be angry at all.”