One Pet Gets Married

Chapter 44

"Xici?" Tang You'an set the stick aside and looked quizzically at the wide-open window, the shattered glass on the floor, and a few fresh flowers. She quickly walked over.

"What happened to you?" After removing the pot from Song Xici's head and placing it on the counter, Tang You'an frowned at her disheveled, miserable state.

"I suddenly felt like practicing dance," Song Xici answered through gritted teeth, enduring the pain. "You know, the splits are a fundamental skill."

Although she used to be able to do the splits during physical training, it had been too long since she'd tried, and doing it on a slippery floor was honestly quite painful.

"You're sick and should be in bed. Why are you practicing dance?" Tang You'an looked at her, not knowing what to say.

She was so disobedient. In Tang You'an's mind, Song Xici now seemed like a severely disabled person without any self-care ability. Or perhaps she was just wise, after all, how could a normal person be so careless about their own well-being?

"Can you stand up?" Tang You'an asked again.

"Don't worry, I can..." Song Xici said, using her hands to support herself on the ground, preparing to slowly get up.

But as Song Xici reached out, Tang You'an noticed a small piece of glass embedded in her right palm. Moreover, bright red blood was flowing from the small cut, spreading outwards, looking quite frightening.

At the same time, Song Xici also noticed and held her hand in front of her eyes, looking dumbfounded. After a moment, she belatedly cried out "Ouch."

Her hand hurt, her legs hurt too. She truly felt like she was at death's door.

Tang You'an looked at her, said nothing, grasped her arm, helped her up, and led the trembling Song Xici to the living room.

After seating Song Xici on the sofa, Tang You'an immediately turned to fetch a first aid kit.

Rummaging through it, she took out tweezers, some cotton swabs, and hemostatic gauze. Then Tang You'an sat down next to Song Xici: "Give me your hand to look at."

Song Xici looked at the items, nodded, and then extended her hand. When she saw Tang You'an bring the tweezers towards her palm, she closed her eyes and turned her head away.

"Do you think you can take care of yourself alone?" Tang You'an asked while treating the wound on her hand.

"I should be able to..." At this moment, Song Xici's hand trembled, and she winced in pain.

"Should be?" Tang You'an looked up at her after bandaging her hand.

Song Xici looked at her and suddenly choked up.

"By the way, you haven't eaten dinner, right? What do you want to eat?" After treating her wound and tidying up the first aid kit, Tang You'an asked again.

"Noodles," Song Xici said, naming a random food.

"Alright, wait a moment." After speaking, Tang You'an stood up and walked to the kitchen.

Song Xici's gaze followed her retreating figure for a while, then she curled up on the sofa and let out a long sigh. She didn't know what she was doing day after day, acting so foolishly. Even when she was dating Zhang Ke years ago, or when she and Meng Meng were waving the flag of friendship, although she often suspected they were cheating and got upset about it, she never did anything this stupid.

Tang You'an entered the kitchen, cleaned up the shattered vase and flowers from the floor and threw them in the trash. Then she looked at the window, tried to pull it, found it was stuck and the lock broken. She called someone to arrange a time for repairs, then took some ingredients from the refrigerator and started cooking noodles for Song Xici.

As she put the noodles into the pot, Tang You'an's mind wandered back to Song Xici's words.

It seemed that Song Xici truly didn't care much about her, from the beginning until now.

Moreover, she seemed determined to stay single for life. Tang You'an wondered if continuing to cling to her would make Song Xici develop feelings of resentment.

Finally, Tang You'an turned off the heat. A steaming bowl of clear soup noodles was ready. She sprinkled some green onions on top, then carried it out and placed it on the coffee table in front of Song Xici: "Since you have a cold, eat something light. I didn't add chili or many seasonings."

Seeing this, Song Xici immediately put away the phone she had been using to chat with Meng Meng.

Although the noodles looked very plain, they gave off an incredibly fragrant aroma.

"It smells so good even without adding anything!" Song Xici said, reaching for the chopsticks, but suddenly realizing her hand was bandaged and difficult to use.

"Let me feed you," Tang You'an saw this and took the chopsticks. "If you don't mind."

Song Xici paused slightly, then tucked her hair behind her ear and nodded.

Tang You'an dipped the chopsticks into the bowl, picked up a bundle of noodles, twirled them twice, then held her hand underneath as she brought them to Song Xici's lips: "Be careful, it's hot."

Song Xici nodded, blew on the steaming noodles twice, then carefully opened her mouth and took a bite.

"How's your schedule these days? Busy?" After Song Xici finished that mouthful, Tang You'an stirred the noodles and picked up a piece of vegetable.

"Not a celebrity, not busy," Song Xici shook her head, then added, "No, now I'm a semi-celebrity."

"It's not good if you're not busy. With your hand like this, it would be difficult to work," Tang You'an brought the vegetable to her lips.

"It's fine, I once continued acting with a stunt double even when I had a broken bone in a cast..."

"Is that the point? Hmm?" Tang You'an looked at her sternly.

This look made Song Xici feel as uneasy as a schoolchild caught by a teacher for not doing homework.

"The point is, you need to learn to take care of yourself. As you said, I'll leave sooner or later. When that time comes, if you're still living so carelessly on your own, what will you do?" Tang You'an continued picking up noodles.

Song Xici heard this, coughed lightly, and continued eating.

After a while, Song Xici's eyes darted and she spoke again: "Did I disturb you and Meimei?"

"Disturb?" Tang You'an looked up at her.

"Yes, you two were out having fun, but you had to leave halfway. Aren't you afraid she'll be unhappy?" Song Xici didn't know why she was asking such a strange question.

"We were planning to go home separately anyway." Tang You'an lowered her head to look at the noodles.

"Oh... I see." Song Xici nodded.

So, if it weren't for this, she might not have come back?

After another moment, seeing that most of the noodles were eaten, Song Xici wiped her mouth with a napkin and carefully asked: "Is she easy to get along with?"

"She's... not bad. The biggest gain from filming 'The Courtier' was meeting Director Chen, Teacher Zhao Zixi, and her. She's a... person who seems carefree on the surface but is actually very delicate. She's sincere to others and cares for people meticulously. Everyone likes her, including the media. Whenever the media interviews her, she always brings out prepared snacks to give to everyone." Tang You'an answered.

Hearing this, Song Xici raised her left hand to brush her hair. Oh. Isn't that great? She's really high-level.

"Moreover, her cooking skills are good too. Among modern people, especially celebrities, that's quite rare." Tang You'an spoke again, stating facts.

Hearing Tang You'an's various praises for Xiao Meimei, Song Xici felt like she was going to collapse.

Yes, yes, yes, Xiao Meimei was good at everything. Compared to her, Song Xici felt like a waste. Her cooking skills were forever stuck at just making ingredients edible, sometimes overcooking them, and she didn't know how to pair dishes well. Once she deviated from a recipe, all she could make was a big mess. How could she compare to even half of Xiao Meimei's skills?

Moreover, Xiao Meimei was beautiful with long legs, walked with a confident stride, and had countless girls on Weibo calling her "Meimei" and begging to be "cao" by her. Despite being a girl, she was called the "national boyfriend" and such.

Song Xici frowned, then smiled: "Haha, it's good that you get along well. Those piles of food in the fridge must be made by her, right?"

"Mm," Tang You'an nodded, helping Xiao Meimei gather feedback. "Have you tried them? How do they taste?"

"I haven't eaten them." Song Xici found those things irritating to look at, let alone eat.

"They taste quite good. You should try them. There's a jar of sauce that goes well with noodles," Tang You'an said.

"I see. I'm full now." After saying this, Song Xici stood up, preparing to take the bowl to the kitchen.

"You're not in a good condition. Let me wash it," Tang You'an took the bowl from her hands.

"It's fine..." Song Xici shook her head.

"Are you unhappy?" Tang You'an gripped her wrist. "You don't like me and her..."

"No... Haha, no," Song Xici shook her head, smiling and patting her stomach. "I was really full earlier."

So Tang You'an looked at her for a while, finally releasing her wrist, but still took the bowl and chopsticks herself as she turned to go to the kitchen. After pouring the leftover noodles into the trash can, Tang You'an lightly tapped the bowl with the chopsticks and stood up.

For some unclear reason, she rather hoped Song Xici was unhappy about this.

Meanwhile, Song Xici returned to her room and collapsed on the bed like a corpse drained of energy by a demon, feeling extremely upset.

"Xiao Meimei, Xiao Meimei, Xiao Meimei!" After rolling around on the bed, Song Xici reached out and pounded the bed hard, immediately wincing in pain.

After thinking for a while, Song Xici opened her phone, put earphones in her ears, and made a voice call to Meng Meng.

After a few rings, the call connected and Meng Meng asked: "What's up?"

"I can't take it anymore!" Hearing Meng Meng's voice, Song Xici gritted out these three words.

"Huh?"

"Tang You'an seems to like someone, and I'm so fucking miserable. I want to curse a hundred thousand times right now!" Song Xici's chest heaved with agitation.

"Huh, huh?"

"It's true. Now she's always going out with that woman every other day, and that woman is always making her piles of food. They're so clingy, not only arm in arm, but she even calls her 'Little Tang Tang'!" Song Xici spoke so urgently her face turned red.

"Huh, huh, huh?"

"What are you 'huh'-ing about..." Song Xici paused for a moment.

"If you really don't like her as you say, why do you care about all this?!" Meng Meng finally stopped 'huh'-ing.

"I..." Song Xici choked. "I'm not..."

She was just afraid Tang You'an would suddenly leave, just as she had suddenly arrived here. If only she had a time machine to travel to the future and see if Tang You'an was still here.

But even though she was afraid Tang You'an would leave, she still couldn't completely let go.

"Not what?" Meng Meng crunched on some snacks.

"I just... I think..." Song Xici finally closed her eyes. "I like her, but I'm just afraid she'll leave me."

"My God, you've finally faced yourself," Meng Meng immediately put away her snacks. "Then what are you waiting for? Tell her!"

"But, but..."

"Let me tell you, losing or not losing doesn't matter. What matters are the days you spend together. A person's life is made up of all these messy things. If you're afraid of this and afraid of that, throwing away this and not touching that, then your life will be lived in vain, meaningless, understand?" Meng Meng thought she was just talking about a simple fear of love.

Song Xici raised her hand to her forehead, finally sighing: "She already likes someone else."

"No way... We haven't seen each other for a while, what happened to you two... But so what?! If she's gotten together with someone else, then you should snatch her back!" Meng Meng said.

"Snatch... snatch?" Song Xici was confused for a moment.

"Yes, snatch. You're legally married now, and they're nothing. In your marriage, you're supposed to be good to each other and not date others, to avoid complications. Why can't you snatch her? She's even violating the contract." In Meng Meng's world, as long as it wasn't illegal or unethical, anything could be done, no big deal. "What, are you going to consider your love rival's feelings?"

"How to snatch..." Song Xici mumbled.

"Tsk, do I have to teach you? Set a trap for her, flirt with her, seduce her!" Meng Meng laughed. "You studied acting, sister. Do I really need to teach you?"

Song Xici felt a bit tired after hearing this, so she said "I'll think about it. I'm hanging up now, good night" and lay back down on the bed.

After a while, Song Xici's phone started vibrating continuously. She opened it to find several messages from Meng Meng. When she opened them, they were all sorts of messy photos.

Sexy lingerie, aphrodisiac perfume, seductive makeup tutorials, 100 hot ways to chase a wife...

Song Xici glanced at them and replied: "What are you doing?"

Meng Meng: "Get her! Go for it!"

Putting down her phone, Song Xici died.

Not long after, Tang You'an received the audition results for "Divine Sacrifice." As expected, she successfully landed the role.

When Zhao Zixi found out, she was all smiles. Indeed, her judgment had never failed him. This time she had picked up a gem. She believed there was still much to be unearthed from Tang You'an.

However, when this result spread, the public exploded with reactions.

Even though Ouyang Du was a great director, people didn't reduce their attacks because of this. Instead, under the tags "What's wrong with Ouyang Du" and "What's wrong with Chinese films" on a marketing account, they flooded the comments with angry remarks.

Usually, not many people paid attention to Ouyang Du through his films, but now they all expressed their love for Ouyang Du on Weibo, followed by disappointment, as if Ouyang Du owed them billions.

[If all the auditionees were a bunch of talentless pretty faces, and Tang You'an stood out, I'd have nothing to say. But several actors with real skills and a few new-generation talented actresses all auditioned and were rejected, while only Tang You'an was chosen. If you say there's nothing fishy about this, I don't believe it. Which one of those who went isn't better than her? What qualifies her to be chosen? Her recent trending ability?]

[I grew up watching Ouyang Du's films. You could say I'm a die-hard fan. I've watched each of his films several times, but this time... I'm really disappointed...]

[Maybe it's for traffic, for hype, to cater to the masses. Seeing Tang You'an's fans increasing rapidly recently, they probably think they can make a lot of money, so they've sold out.]

[So disappointed. Someone who always uses a stunt double is going to star in Director Ouyang's big film...]

[Yeah, someone who keeps calling for breaks after filming for a while, can't endure any hardship, and acts like a diva is going to film this movie. Is that really appropriate?!]

……

Moreover, since some big-name actors were rejected, their fans were also quite unhappy with Tang You'an, disguising themselves as passersby to attack and insult her in roundabout ways.

For a time, everyone argued heatedly, even dragging other popular young actors and actresses into the fray. They were essentially carpet-bombing the idea that our country has nothing good anymore, only rehashing old ideas and using traffic stars like Tang You'an to ruin scripts. They claimed that celebrities' money was too easy to earn.

Moreover, this time, many ordinary people also joined the ranks questioning Tang You'an. Although many had become fans due to her performance in "Literati Gathering," that was different from filming. This showed how poorly received Tang You'an's original self's acting ability had been.

Sitting on the sofa at home, Tang You'an scrolled through various comments about her online. After some thought, she posted a Weibo: "I have nothing to say. In the future, please continue to supervise and urge me on."

Afterward, Tang You'an posted another: "To my Ping'an Fruits, please listen to me. When faced with doubts, don't be provoked by others into rash actions. Stay calm and go with the flow. I will also accumulate knowledge silently, learn broadly but take sparingly, neither be arrogant nor impatient, be humble in learning, use dreams as my steed, and not waste my youth. Let's encourage each other."

After all, her fan base had grown considerably now. As a public figure, she couldn't turn a blind eye to everything and let her fans run out to engage in 300 rounds of fights with others. That would always lead to karmic retribution.

So, she managed what she could. As long as they liked her, there would always be some people who would listen to her.

Indeed, Tang You'an's Weibo post proved to be the right move.

As soon as it was posted, fans in the comment section started posting "Okay," "Accepting instructions," "Civilized fan behavior, refusing to fight, starting with me. You'an, fighting!" and similar comments.

At the same time, Song Xici, the director of "The Courtier," and some colleagues all reposted Tang You'an's Weibo, saying she spoke well and that they would grow together.

Later, Tang You'an also noticed many fans with her avatar purifying comments in the resentful comment sections while telling some people, "Thank you for caring about our You'an's acting skills. We know she's not good enough yet. We will keep working hard. Please continue to pay attention."

This greatly improved the public's perception of Tang You'an's side, while those who kept nitpicking seemed unreasonable and somewhat shrew-like to onlookers.

After scrolling until she felt tired, Tang You'an put down her phone, picked up a nail clipper, then turned her head to look at Song Xici sitting nearby.

The wound on Song Xici's hand wasn't deep and had almost healed by today. At the moment, she was peeling an orange. She particularly disliked the white pith inside oranges, so she always carefully pulled out those stringy bits and tossed them aside.

It was early March.

The sunlight was warm today. Song Xici wore an olive green silk inner layer topped with a loosely knitted off-white sweater. The colors suited her well, giving her a lazy cat-like air as she curled up on the sofa. Her hair fell from one shoulder across her chest, and in the backlight, she looked both serene and gentle.

Tang You'an filed her nails with the nail clipper, occasionally looking up at her, breathing shallowly. She felt that if they could maintain this scene forever, it would be wonderful.

Even without talking to Song Xici, just staying quietly like this made her feel very comfortable. So, she still couldn't follow Song Xici's pace.

"Have you still not received a reply on your end?" After thinking for a while, Tang You'an asked.

"Hm?" Song Xici turned her head to look at her.

"About the role of Xiao Yujun." Tang You'an closed the nail clipper and put it in the drawer under the coffee table.

Song Xici sighed upon hearing this, saying nothing, just shaking her head and putting an orange segment in her mouth. At this moment, two things were spinning in her mind: the matter of the role, and the issue of Tang You'an and Xiao Meimei.

On the surface, she appeared completely calm, but in reality, Meng Meng's previous words had been echoing in her mind countless times.

Just then, Song Xici's phone lit up, displaying Chen Shihan's name.

So Song Xici quickly patted her hands and answered the phone: "Hello?"

"Congratulations!"

As soon as the call connected, Chen Shihan's excited voice came through, nearly bursting her eardrum.

"Hm?" Song Xici's hand holding the phone trembled slightly.

"You passed! Xiao Yujun is yours!" Chen Shihan continued.

"Ah..." Song Xici covered her mouth in disbelief, her eyes widening.

"Hahaha, I'll send you the details on WeChat!" Chen Shihan said.

"Okay!" Song Xici nodded, holding her phone.

Afterward, Song Xici immediately lay back on the sofa, clenching her fists happily and pedaling her feet in the air several times. She then grabbed a pillow and pressed it to her face.

"Xici, did you pass?" Tang You'an, seeing her so excited, asked.

"Yes, I passed." Song Xici put her legs on the sofa armrest, her face brimming with smiles.

Hearing this, Tang You'an also quietly let out a breath.

At this moment, Tang You'an's phone suddenly rang. So she picked it up.

"Hello? Oh... I'm at home. Dinner?"

Hearing Tang You'an's voice, Song Xici immediately sat up hugging the pillow.

"Oh... I didn't forget. I'll be there a bit later." After saying this, Tang You'an hung up the phone.

"Who was it?" Song Xici asked.

"Meimei, Zhao Xiaochen, and Zhang Ze," Tang You'an said.

Zhao Xiaochen was a media reporter, and Zhang Ze was a well-known screenwriter. Xiao Meimei said it wouldn't hurt to get to know more people.

Song Xici, however, was allergic to hearing the name "Meimei." This wouldn't do.

"Okay... Then, you go... I'll just stay home and rest..." Song Xici glanced at her, then raised her hand to rub her shoulder.

"Is your shoulder uncomfortable?" Tang You'an turned her head to look at her, noticing her pained expression, and asked.

"Mm, yesterday when filming a GG scene with wire work, the equipment wasn't very good. It made my whole body uncomfortable," Song Xici nodded.

"Then, how about I give you a massage?" Tang You'an looked at her.

"No need, you go have dinner," Song Xici shook her head.

"I'll give you a massage," Tang You'an stared at her steadily. "It's fine if I don't eat dinner."

Song Xici heard this, lowered her head and glanced to the side, her lips curling slightly: "Alright then."

"Let's go to your room on the bed, come on." Tang You'an said, leading the way.

Song Xici watched Tang You'an's retreating figure, clenched her fist, and thought, "To hell with reservations!"