The Martial Arts Stunt Double of the Entertainment Circle – Chapter 24

Gu Min stared blankly at Qiao Chunyi. Qiao Chunyi wore a simple, plain blue tracksuit, her hair pulled back in a brisk ponytail, carrying a bag of hot roujiamo¹.

Time seemed to cherish this hard-luck but resilient woman. She radiated the same vibrant, fiery life force as in her youth — her skin fine and fair, her features delicate and lovely. Unless you looked closely, you couldn’t make out the faint lines at the corners of her eyes at all.

Gu Min froze for a long moment, then suddenly realized her current appearance couldn’t possibly be any worse. She gathered her hair in embarrassment, trying to cover the handprint on her face, bit her lip, and turned her head away — she didn’t want Qiao Chunyi to see her looking so wretched.

            

Qiao Chunyi murmured, “Tuoba Xiu hit you?”

Gu Min didn’t make a sound. She sat rigid like a mannequin in a shop window, turning her head to avoid Qiao Chunyi’s gaze. She was genuinely terrified of seeing disgust and hatred in those bright eyes — the mere thought was enough to shatter her psychological defenses. She couldn’t face Qiao Chunyi.

Tuoba Jiao peeked out timidly from her mother’s arms, hair tangled, cheeks flushed with a feverish red, her clothes stained with blood. She called out in a small, panicked, tear-choked voice, “Aunt Qiao…”

            

Qiao Chunyi clenched her fists. Her gaze swept over Gu Min’s sleeves — a face could be hidden, a thin frame could be hidden, but the bruised scratch marks on those slender wrists and those skeletal, skin-and-bone fingers could not. Her voice trembled:

“That fucking bastard hit you, didn’t he? How did this happen… Tuoba Jiao, what happened to your mom? How long have you two been out here?”

“Aunt Qiao!” Tuoba Jiao couldn’t hold back anymore. She sobbed as she poured out the story to Qiao Chunyi. “He came home drunk last night, went on a rampage past one in the morning — yelling and hitting. Mom was bleeding from his beating. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her, slammed her to the ground… I was so scared! Mom couldn’t even move! Madam just stood there watching. She didn’t do a thing — she wished Mom would be beaten to death!”

            

Qiao Chunyi felt her brain explode with a buzzing roar. She took a deep breath, shoved the roujiamo into Tuoba Jiao’s hands, then cupped Gu Min’s chin with a palm that was gentle yet firm, forcing her to look up.

Gu Min wore only a thin nightgown. Her exposed neck was frighteningly thin — dry and sallow, skin practically wrapped around bone. Her overall condition was worse than when Tuoba Yan had stopped eating. The handprint on her cheek was red and swollen, the streaks of blood startling to behold.

But the most terrifying thing was her eyes.

            

Qiao Chunyi still remembered — when Gu Min first came to the Tuoba household looking for her cousin-uncle, Qiao Chunyi had been walking the dog in the courtyard. She’d heard a shy voice greet her from behind, and when she turned, she saw a pure, beautiful girl carrying an unfashionable large travel bag, smiling at her with timid eagerness, a small, cute dimple on her right cheek.

She’d thought at the time: how could there be such a naturally endearing girl? Even she, as a woman, couldn’t feel the slightest dislike.

Gu Min let her hold her face obediently, eyes vacant and dead, sunken into their sockets, the eyeballs barely moving. Qiao Chunyi could swear — if you took a still photo and said this was a corpse, nothing would look off.

            

Qiao Chunyi’s mind was in chaos. What had Gu Min been through all these years? That heartless bastard Tuoba Xiu — hadn’t he remarried right after the divorce? He’d fought so hard to win her, so why didn’t he cherish her? Why would he beat her so brutally?

But dwelling on that was useless now. Qiao Chunyi stripped off her tracksuit jacket and put it on Tuoba Jiao, keeping only a T-shirt on herself. Half-carrying, half-supporting the dazed Gu Min, the three of them headed toward the residential compound.

Gu Min was frighteningly light — Qiao Chunyi didn’t have to exert much effort. When she reached her door, she realized she’d forgotten her keys. The doorbell at the Qiao Family Home had been broken for ages. Qiao Chunyi braced Gu Min with her right arm and knocked three times.

            

Tuoba Yan was tossing clothes into the washing machine. She quickly dropped what she was doing and went to open the door. “Coming! I noticed your keys on the coffee table earlier — good thing I’m home… Xiao Mei, what are you doing here?”

Tuoba Jiao held her mother’s hand, not knowing how to answer. Qiao Chunyi said, “Let’s get inside first.”

Tuoba Yan helped ease Gu Min into Qiao Chunyi’s bedroom, then was shooed out by her mom. She puckered her lips — and found Tuoba Jiao standing behind her, eyes brimming with tears. Tuoba Yan had never been able to withstand a girl’s tears. She sighed, put an arm around Tuoba Jiao’s shoulders, and said, “Don’t cry. You must be freezing. Come sit in my room.”

            

Tuoba Jiao nodded frantically, tears still streaming.

Gu Min, in her daze, felt someone undressing her — but she had a feeling that the person undressing her was someone she could trust. Sure enough, the person wiped her down with a warm towel, changed her into dry clothes, and finally tucked her into a warm, soft haven.

She gradually sank into sleep. For the first time in years, she didn’t dream of Qiao Chunyi’s departure. Instead, she returned to her freshman year.

            

Back then, her teeth hadn’t been straightened yet, the acne on her face hadn’t faded, she wore an old-fashioned hairstyle, dressed shabbily, and had no idea how to socialize. Even her roommates shut her out — not a single person was willing to talk to her.

It was a summer day under a blazing sun, the cicadas crying maddeningly.

Gu Min hid on the rooftop. She’d overheard the boy she liked complaining to someone else about how annoying she was — that even if every woman in the world died, he’d never look at a hideous creature like her.

            

She was crying her heart out and hadn’t noticed that someone else had come up to the rooftop, until she heard a voice say:

“Hey, are you okay?”

Gu Min flinched, startled. She looked up instinctively and saw a very familiar, beautiful face looking at her with concern. She blinked and recognized the student union’s campus belle² senior, Qiao Chunyi.

            

Qiao Chunyi asked, “Can I sit down?”

Gu Min nodded blankly.

Qiao Chunyi sat down beside her, kicked off her sandals, and stretched lazily. “I’ve been on my feet all morning, I’m exhausted. Sometimes I think being human is really exhausting. There are so many grievances you can only swallow and bear alone. Whenever I feel like I absolutely can’t take it anymore, I find a place with no one around and cry it out. Hey — you’re a lot like me.”

            

Gu Min stole glances at Qiao Chunyi’s beautiful face from the corner of her eye and thought she was the most beautiful girl she’d ever seen.

“Look, I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. Whatever’s making you unhappy, why don’t you tell me about it? In exchange, you have to listen to me vent too. Pretty good deal, right?”

Qiao Chunyi launched into her own troubles — things like petty rivalries between girls, the malatang³ place on the snack street suddenly raising its prices, the art majors constantly graffitiing campus buildings, someone stealing women’s underwear off the drying racks, a student trying to snatch kittens from a nursing stray cat on campus and getting scratched…

            

Her phrasing was so witty and entertaining that Gu Min found herself captivated without realizing it.

“There are always going to be unpleasant things in life. Everyone deals with that. When you run into trouble, what you need to do is find a way to solve it. I know — all of this is pretty cliché advice.”

Gu Min knew that Senior Sister Qiao must have thought she was going to jump off the building, and was deliberately distracting her. Her heart ached with both sorrow and gratitude, and she couldn’t help crying again.

            

Qiao Chunyi wrapped her arms around Gu Min, patted her back, and comforted her. “Go ahead and cry. You’ll feel better once it’s out.”

Gu Min wished she could stay in that summer forever.

She followed Qiao Chunyi’s advice — got her teeth straightened; went to a proper hospital for the acne that wouldn’t clear up and bought medication for it; swept her bangs aside to show her full face and got a fresh, playful haircut; tried walking with her head up and her chest out…

            

Before she knew it, there were many boys vying for her attention. The roommates who’d once looked at her with contempt now showed something called jealousy in their eyes. The boy who’d said he’d “never choose her even if every woman in the world died” was bringing her desserts every day. Teachers no longer overlooked her. Getting stopped on the street and asked for her number became routine.

Gu Min didn’t accept anyone’s gifts or confessions. Her heart was filled entirely with Senior Sister Qiao’s gentle face.

But then the news that Qiao Chunyi had dropped out of university to marry into a wealthy family swept across the entire campus.

            

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The author has something to say:

Mother Gu and Xiao Mei are too soft-tempered. I need to figure out a way to toughen them up~~

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