Chapter 48: Forever and ever.
Gu Lai's schedule became increasingly tight.
He Xiaoqing's filming was wrapping up, and they were now in the post-production stage. Because of their friendship, He Xiaoqing genuinely mentored Gu Lai, so even for tasks like editing, dubbing, and mixing that were somewhat complicated and outside the director's responsibilities, He Xiaoqing would often communicate with Gu Lai and even ask her to watch together.
While "Gansui" was a relatively short and fast-paced television series, Kong Kang'an, originally a film director, had high standards for camera movement and lighting. The budget was also ample, so there was no rush to finish the series, and the filming schedule was quite tight. Fortunately, the script leaned towards an ensemble cast, meaning the camera didn't always focus on the main character, allowing Gu Lai to find time to move between the two.
At first, Jiang Yi would often visit her on set, and they would go out to find new restaurants to eat at or go shopping together. But after her new song was released and concert preparations began, Gu Lai started working non-stop, so later on, Jiang Yi would just wait for her at the hotel.
Once, even Jiang Yi himself joked that she was becoming more and more like a caged bird longing for its wife's return when she came here. Gu Lai didn't say anything at the time, but after thinking for half the night, she asked Jiang Yi what kind of compensation she wanted the next day.
Jiang Yi was spreading jam on bread at the time, her hair casually tied in a small bun, her floral shirt open, revealing her slender waist. She laughed at the question, not even looking up, and asked if this was the trouble that had kept her tossing and turning half the night before.
The assistant who delivered the breakfast hadn't left yet, and she blushed as she looked at Jiang Yiteng.
For a moment, Gu Lai felt that there were so many rivals in love in this world.
She sent her assistant out, and when she returned and saw Jiang Yi's teasing gaze, she felt that she had said something wrong, but she still nodded.
Jiang Yi said it's okay, I'll be the one who's busy in the second half of the year.
Then, without waiting for Gu Lai's reply, he looked up and said he wanted a kiss.
Gu Lai had no choice but to put aside her distracting thoughts and seriously respond to her kiss, which was filled with toast and strawberry jam.
Later, when Gu Lai was getting her makeup done for the play, she suddenly realized that what she said was almost like a response to her beloved wife, a deliberate echo of Jiang Yi's teasing remark. Yet, she spoke quite seriously, and in the end, she was still comforted by Jiang Yi.
Gu Lai pondered this matter for a long time, and one day she suddenly realized what she was conflicted about.
In the past, there were instances where one person revolved around the other, mainly Gu Lai revolving around Jiang Yi. But Jiang Yi could still turn around and attend to her career planning as an artist, providing her with resources and support. Now that it's Gu Lai's turn, all she can do is make sure Jiang Yi waits a little longer.
She consciously or unconsciously compared herself to the past, but all she could give was love that was tangible yet invisible.
But didn't Jiang Yi know all this? What Jiang Yi wanted was love, a pleasant and warm response from her, without needing much social value, just like when she asked for a kiss.
Her sense of guilt, anxiety, and subtle inferiority complex cannot be changed in a few words or overnight. Jiang Yi is waiting for her to reconcile with him, a process that no one can take his place in.
This realization added another layer of guilt to Gu Lai's heart, but it also brought her greater peace of mind. With her beloved quietly by her side, these changes came naturally, even leaving a sweet aftertaste.
Gu Lai's memorial concert was quite grand, commemorating her fifteenth anniversary in the industry. During her tenth year, she was busy filming, and although she was quite proactive in releasing albums, she wasn't too concerned about sales, and she didn't appear on variety shows or engage in excessive publicity.
Even though she didn't organize a tour of more than ten shows this time, as that would be too exhausting. Even so, the shrewd studio executives started asking Zhou Shanshan and Tan Junming if they would take on fewer acting roles in the future, focus more on producing, or even become behind-the-scenes figures like CEOs.
Tan Junming got annoyed by the questions, which in turn fueled the speculation within the fan community, creating a sense of panic that "the sister is about to retire from the entertainment industry." As a result, tickets sold out instantly as soon as they went on sale, and several songs from the album soared from the middle to the top ten of the hot song charts on various music apps.
When filming for "Gansui" was almost finished, Tan Junming came to the set to find Gu Lai.
Tan Junming would visit Gu Lai several times every time she joined a production. However, when he visited the set of "Mantangchun" and "Gansui" this year, Tan Junming deliberately avoided Jiang Yi, and this time was no different.
When Gu Lai arrived, she was changing her makeup. Looking at Tan Junming's empty hands in the mirror, she said, "You didn't even bring me anything good to eat?"
Tan Junming pulled up a chair and sat back diagonally: "I'm treating Director Kong to dinner tonight. There'll be good food. Want to come?"
The makeup artist used a small spray nozzle to apply the final touches, and Gu Lai, with her eyes closed, chuckled lightly, "Unfortunately, Jiang Yi is coming tonight."
Tan Junming was stunned for a moment: "Oh, weren't you not coming?"
"Everything's alright now, isn't it?" Gu Lai didn't seem to care much about it. "She went straight to the hotel, so she won't run into you."
Tan Junming scoffed, looked down at the documents, and waited for the makeup artist to leave and close the door before saying, "I was going to call you anyway. Weren't we supposed to be discussing the contract with Director Kong? So, are you having dinner with President Jiang tonight, or with me?"
Gu Lai hesitated for half a second, then said, "Jiang Yi, I guess."
“…” Tan Junming said, “How about we invite President Jiang as well? It’s on me.”
Gu Lai refused decisively: "No, she doesn't like Director Kong."
Tan Junming had only said it casually; she wasn't really keen on seeing Jiang Yi anyway. But Gu Lai's overly blunt rejection still made her choke up: "Does she know about Director Kong's foolish move of sending you a beauty?"
“I know, I told her a long time ago. And before, there was an assistant director and an agent who were talking nonsense behind my back, and she caught them.” Gu Lai said naturally, “You forgot, before, because of Director Kong, the marketing accounts gave me a cheating scandal as a trending topic. With so many messy things going on, the public image is naturally not good.”
Tan Junming wore an expression that was hard to describe.
Gu Lai suddenly became curious: "You used to see her quite frequently, what's wrong with you lately? Is it because of me?"
Tan Junming sighed: "It's hard to say... It's my own problem. The situation is changing too fast, and I'm still a bit confused. I'll be fine once I calm down."
After thinking it over, Gu Lai realized what was going on and started laughing, despite Tan Junming's somewhat resentful gaze.
Tan Junming had a bit of a maternal older sister mentality. When the two had their falling out, she initially thought it was just a routine argument, but somehow it escalated. When she tried to reconcile them, Gu Lai informed her that they were preparing divorce papers.
With the agreement ready and the assets distributed at an unexpected speed, she began to think about how to help Gu Lai get out of the shadow of divorce and prepare for the next time when Gu Lai was more obedient. Gu Lai told her to listen to Jiang Yi's arrangements and cooperate in preparing public relations news related to her parents.
Tan Junming felt that the marriage might be reconciled sooner or later, or they might not be able to get a divorce at all. But when Zhou Shanshan complained to her, she found out that the two of them had already started their honeymoon in Guizhou Province, and she had been thinking wildly.
"I'm sorry," Gu Lai said with a slight embarrassment after laughing, "I made you worry."
Tan Junming waved his hand: "My problem is that I didn't keep up. In serious cases, it would be dereliction of duty. But the changes are too fast. After your concert, are you going back to live with President Jiang and not staying at Huating No. 1 anymore?"
"No." Gu Lai unexpectedly denied it, but her eyes showed a hint of excitement. "Let's go on vacation first."
Tan Junming: "…………"
Tan Junming said with a hint of helplessness, "So happy? I thought I could start preparing for the project you wanted to run after this was over."
Gu Lai said, "Next year, I'll take a break first. I've acted quite a lot over the years, and it's a bit too much to put in all that energy each time."
Tan Junming stared at her thoughtfully for a while: "Now that you mention it... I feel like you're not as hard to break character as you were before when filming 'Gansui'? Are you in good shape?"
Gu Lai hadn't thought of that. She paused for a moment and said, "Maybe it's because 'Gansui' is a TV series, which is quite different from the movie."
She makes many movies, but rarely films a TV series. This is mainly because TV series have much stricter script requirements; if a series flops, it's even worse than a movie that fails both critically and commercially.
“That’s because of acting skills… Oh,” Tan Junming suddenly paused, his gaze sharpening, “Could it be because President Jiang comes so often?”
Gu Lai thought about it for a moment, and surprisingly, she didn't deny it.
Tan Junming spoke with concern, like a loyal minister seeing a femme fatale: "This is a good thing, but she shouldn't have disturbed your acting, right?"
"No, no, it's not that bad," Gu Lai said, both amused and exasperated. "Director Kong may be a bit obsequious, but he has high standards for acting, and Jiang Yi doesn't come to the set very often. What exactly is your opinion of her right now?"
Tan Junming answered cautiously, "A succubus, perhaps."
Gu Lai: "…………"
Tan Junming laughed for a while, then sighed, "I'm not exaggerating. Before you two started talking about divorce, you were in a really bad state, and I didn't know how to comfort you. Especially around December last year, Jiang Yi's name was almost never mentioned."
Gu Lai said, "I don't think you were particularly surprised that we didn't divorce?"
"Because of the song you wrote," Tan Junming said helplessly. "A person who is usually quite decisive, would he really ask in a song, 'Do you miss me as much as I miss you,' if he really wanted a divorce?"
Gu Lai averted her gaze and cleared her throat.
She finished writing the lyrics and composing the music early on, but she wasn't in good shape or had enough energy at the time, so she sent it to the company and handed it over to a professional producer for arrangement. Later, Gu Lai was not satisfied with it after listening to it, so she took it and arranged it herself.
Tan Junming remembered and asked, "Speaking of which, didn't you think Lao Zheng's arrangement was too trendy before? I thought your first version of the arrangement was pretty good, why did you change to the second version? If you're just worried about it being difficult to sing at the concert, you can use the first version when you release the song."
“The first version was good, but I felt it was too poignant, so I changed the lyrics as well. This song was originally written because of my own personal feelings, and I couldn’t let her feel guilty or burdened after listening to it,” Gu Lai said earnestly. “Besides, things are different now than when I was writing the lyrics. The questions I had in the lyrics back then, I have… received affirmative answers.”
Tan Junming frowned and remained silent.
"I originally wanted to give up on this song, just throw it away or whatever."
Gu Lai shook her head at Tan Junming, whose expression had suddenly changed, indicating that this was a hypothetical situation.
"But I also wanted to sing it to her, since it was originally written for her. You don't know, I couldn't help but tell her about this song. If it weren't for the fact that the lyrics were still the original version, I almost sang it to her. But then again, what I really wanted was to sing it to her in front of a lot of people."
Tan Junming complained, "You two have been showing off your affection in public quite frequently."
Gu Lai smiled and said, "That's different. If I post it on online platforms, it might seem like a marketing ploy. Even with that wedding, it was something she gave to me, not something I gave to her."
Tan Junming had a "good, good, good" look on his face.
"But you also reminded me that I need to talk to my film and television agent about choosing scripts. No matter if I become a producer, director, or actor, I won't take on any romance films anymore," Gu Lai said. "Actually, it's fortunate that I didn't end up acting in 'Full House of Spring,' because I'm a bit resistant to these kinds of films now."
Tan Junming paused for a moment, then said, "Okay, I'll pass it on later."
Gu Lai looked at her and said, "I thought you would try to persuade me."
"With so many resources, you can pick and choose. As for transformation... well, if someone else were in this situation, they would definitely be planning a transformation. Acting is so tiring, being a boss is so much more enjoyable."
Tan Junming sighed: "I just steered the conversation toward President Jiang... I actually wanted to ask if you and her are really together. But it's an unpleasant question to ask, like cursing someone, so I just couldn't bring myself to ask."
Gu Lai shook her head and then nodded, saying gently, "It's really better now, nothing's wrong. I know you were worried."
"I'm worried about my job," Tan Junming said with a self-deprecating laugh, then asked, "Should we hype up the fact that President Jiang will be attending the concert? Should we engage in any interaction?"
Gu Lai: "Let me ask her and then I'll tell you."
Tan Junming gave her a relieved look: "It's really different now. Before, it should have been me communicating with Ge Li's side."
Gu Lai said, "It was my fault before; I shouldn't have let everything go."
Tan Junming gently patted her hand and stood up: "Then I'll go chat with Director Kong for a while. I'll treat you to dinner tonight, are you sure you don't want to come?"
Gu Lai smiled and said, "Bye-bye, I'm really not going."
Tan Junming made a "call me anytime" gesture to her: "Okay, I wish you two a happy life together, forever and ever."
Forever and ever. Gu Lai repeated this to herself.
She smiled and waved at Tan Junming.
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I almost had to take the day off today too... I'll thank the list of people who helped me with the typos tomorrow, sob sob sob.
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