The Doorway [Entertainment Industry]

Many thanks to teacher @Lu Qiubai for the stunning cover!!!

■ Faux-siblings / age gap / winning her back / rekindled love / the one in power bows her head

■ One-on-one, switch couple, both are each other's first

*Nothing romantic happened while they were in that relationship.

Wen Xian had quietly loved her stepsister for eight years. Three doors stood between them.

When she knocked on the first door, her down-and-out mother brought Wen Xian to the Mei family.

It was a noisy summer night, and the beginning of her infatuation.

The woman lounged in a reclining chair, a little surprised but accepting of her arrival. "You're the little one my mom told me about?"

Amid the shifting light and shadows, Wen Xian seemed to glimpse something unusual in those flirtatious, seemingly heartless eyes.

Her mother had warned her long ago that this stepsister was fickle and flirtatious, and that she should keep her distance.

Mei Zhixue was like a dazzling poppy, drawing people in until they lost themselves, then leaving them with no ties at all. That was the conclusion Wen Xian reached after countless mornings and nights.

Because relationships formed through their mothers' friendship always ended when their mothers parted ways.

When she knocked on the second door, Mei Zhixue was already a big star, living in semi-retirement.

Wen Xian never imagined they would meet again, let alone that she would become Mei Zhixue's new lover.

After they got together, Wen Xian thought her youthful crush had come true, and that she had finally made it through the dark to see the moon.

They weren't exactly inseparable, but they lived together in harmony.

Until one day, at a gathering, Mei Zhixue drank too much, and Wen Xian went to pick her up.

When she arrived, she saw the women at the table from a distance.

She heard someone ask Mei Zhixue, "Why do you still like this type? The young ones?"

Mei Zhixue only slurred in reply, "Which type?"

Wen Xian's eyes reddened. She suddenly remembered all those faces, young like hers.

What made her any different from them?

Aside from sharing the same admiration, all she had over them was a hazy, youthful crush.

So she decided to leave.

In the end, Mei Zhixue opened the third door herself.

At the Golden Image Awards ceremony, everyone was worried that the award-presenting actress had disappeared. No one realized that an unknown little reporter was missing too.

But in a quiet corner where no one could see, the vanished guest of honor had pinned that little reporter against a doorframe, her fingertips slowly brushing over the other's soft lips.

Thinking of all the days Mei Zhixue had been away from home, and the women she had charmed, Wen Xian raised her chin. "Ms. Mei, I didn't come here for you today."

"There's neither family affection nor love between us. Please show some restraint."

"No, Xiao Xian." Mei Zhixue's captivating, alluring eyes were red, her voice breaking as she desperately reined in her surging feelings. "The novel likes me. It says... that you loved me."

She was still a feverish poppy, parched and desperate to drink in the dust, willing to become Wen Xian's most devout believer.

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