Shrine - Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Ruan Ruan is a very dedicated actress, as everyone who has worked with her says.
Those who interact with her in daily life know her even better; she is always meticulous and attentive to every detail.
After leaving the set, she went to the market to buy groceries, went home to cook, and also bought salmon scraps for Xiao Ju, who was currently nursing. Wu Mei slept until the sun was high in the sky, getting up just in time to sit at the table for lunch. In the afternoon, she went to help a newcomer from their hometown apply for an actor's permit, while Ruan Ruan cleaned the house.
Afterward, she took a hot bath, carefully trimming her nails in the steam. She tested the edges with her fingertips—they weren't that sharp anymore. She knew a little about these things, having read a few GL novels after all. After applying essential oils to her calves and lower abdomen, she sat in the bedroom wrapped in a towel, smelling fragrant. It was already nearly nine in the evening.
Xiao Ju lay on the floor nursing her babies, leisurely swishing her tail while watching her.
Ruan Ruan read a few more chapters of Shrine. Coincidentally, it was a story about having sex before falling in love. The female leads, Shen Bai and Qiao Qiao, developed desires under the temptation of greed within the shrine, sinking into each other, entirely captivated.
The author wrote that sex between girls was different, like wet firewood. They didn't want to ignite each other; they just wanted to know there were sparks inside the other person, and then use the dampness for restraint.
Ruan Ruan pursed her lips, her gaze gradually losing focus on the text.
She didn't know what kind of experience she would have tomorrow. Was it a transaction? It seemed so.
When she was little, she watched models walk the runway. Some models exposed their bodies, but they didn't feel ashamed of it because it was their job. In a sense, the body was a prop to showcase the clothes. Ruan Ruan didn't quite understand it back then, but after becoming an actress, she understood it somewhat. The body was also an actor's prop, like the dishes on a dining table or the fruits on a coffee table. When everything served the camera, the sense of self gradually diminished.
Perhaps because of this, Ruan Ruan didn't have a particularly strong sense of privacy regarding her own body. She could quickly accept such openness and mutual exploration.
But was it really just a transaction? If the other party wasn't Shi Ran, but someone else from the crew, would she have agreed?
She thought about it; the answer was no.
The reason was unknown. Perhaps it was because Shi Ran was so high and mighty that even a matter like this felt like the favor of the cold moon.
Ruan Ruan blinked, opened a food delivery app, entered a few keywords to search, scrolled a few times, exited, and sent a WeChat message to Shi Ran.
"Are you done with work?"
Ten minutes later, she received a reply: "Yes."
"Are you at the hotel?"
"Yes."
"Can I give you a call?"
Shi Ran called her back via voice call.
She didn't speak first, seemingly adhering to the principle of "Ruan Ruan is the one who wanted to call," waiting for the other party to say the first sentence.
"Hello?" Ruan Ruan greeted in a soft voice.
"Mhm." Shi Ran responded with a hint of languor. Perhaps because she had worked all day, she was tired, and her voice was a little low.
"Is it convenient to talk? I have something to ask you, but it's not really suitable to send over WeChat."
"Go ahead." The sound of clothing rustling came from Shi Ran's end; she seemed to have sat up, sighing softly.
Probably because of their appointment tomorrow, this sigh landed right on Ruan Ruan's heart, making it tingle.
She sat on the edge of the bed, looked down at the strolling Xiao Ju, and asked Shi Ran, "I want to buy some finger cots to use tomorrow. Do you have any preferences?"
Very earnest, very sincere, like asking if there were any dietary restrictions for a meal.
The other end of the phone fell silent, followed by a very faint laugh. At the tail end of her laughter, Shi Ran asked softly, "What about you?"
Goosebumps rose behind Ruan Ruan's ears. She hadn't done it with Shi Ran yet, but it was very strange; she felt like she was constantly doing it with Shi Ran.
Ever since that night, as long as they spoke to each other, it was like this.
"I don't know," Ruan Ruan rested her left hand on the edge of the bed. "I just searched, and there are many types."
"Buy the ones with the highest sales," Shi Ran made a cold and swift judgment.
"Okay."
Hanging up the phone, Ruan Ruan leaned over and picked up Xiao Ju. Xiao Ju leaned in to kiss her, and Ruan Ruan turned her head, rubbing against Xiao Ju's fluffy face. With a purring sound, both the person and the cat were very comfortable.
Before going to bed, she opened WeChat again and read the call sheet change notice sent by the coordinator in the afternoon over and over again. Finally, she swallowed and breathed peacefully while resting on her arm.
She didn't lose sleep over Shi Ran anymore; she slept exceptionally soundly.
In middle school, Ruan Ruan had participated in a school arts performance. As a performer, she got to leave school early after the second period in the afternoon to prepare to go on stage. That entire day, her heart felt like it was being held in both hands, occasionally giving a heavy thump during breaks in class. Whenever she thought about the fact that she was about to go on stage, she couldn't stop the aching excitement.
As an adult, she once again experienced a similar mood, harboring a hidden yet abrupt anticipation in the gaps between filming, waiting for the night to arrive.
At four in the afternoon, Shi Ran wrapped up work first and waited for her in the car.
Approaching five, Ruan Ruan got into the car. As the heavy car door opened, she glanced up at Shi Ran, then sat obediently beside her.
They didn't go to Ruan Ruan's place; instead, they drove toward Jingyue International.
Shi Ran replied to messages on her phone, occasionally pressing the voice button to respond with a few words. Ruan Ruan looked out the window, resting her chin on her hand, spacing out aimlessly.
The familiar elevator and the familiar suite. Shi Ran again pointed to the sofa, motioning for her to sit, and asked what she wanted to eat. Ruan Ruan said anything was fine. Before long, room service delivered the meal. They chatted idly while eating pasta, and drank a little red wine. It was a bit astringent, so Shi Ran only took a few sips before setting it aside.
Later on, the executive lounge and infinity pool outside the hotel opened. The pool was in the sky garden, slightly lower than the 21st floor, so shimmering blue ripples wafted up, reflecting in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows like faint, elusive shadows of light. Ruan Ruan looked down in front of the windows for a while, then walked to the entryway to observe the buttons corresponding to the smart panel.
Meanwhile, Shi Ran was working, entirely focused on writing emails. Ruan Ruan suddenly felt like she had turned into Xiao Ju lying on the floor last night, getting up from time to time to stroll around on silent paw pads.
She and Shi Ran were both close and far, both intimate and distant.
At ten o'clock, Shi Ran was more or less done with her work. She closed her laptop and coldly tucked the corners of her lips at Ruan Ruan, "Sorry."
Her voice was slightly hoarse.
"It's okay, it's okay," Ruan Ruan hurriedly said.
"Do you want to take a shower first?" Shi Ran saw that she hadn't taken off her makeup yet.
"Then, I'll use your bathroom."
"Mhm."
Ruan Ruan was a bit conflicted about whether to wash her hair. It would be cleaner if she did, but she didn't know if Shi Ran would find it too time-consuming for her to blow-dry her hair. After some deliberation, she came out with her hair loose. Shi Ran had already finished washing in the other bathroom and was sitting on the edge of the bed in the bedroom, playing with her phone while waiting for her.
Ruan Ruan smiled; Shi Ran hadn't washed her hair either.
She was wearing a silk pajama set from Dior, with blue and white vertical stripes, looking incredibly high-end. In the past, when an artist wore the same set on a reality show, marketing accounts dug it up—it cost over 40,000. Meanwhile, the white set Ruan Ruan was wearing cost around 2,000, which in Wu Mei's eyes was already considered a luxury.
It was a very large bedroom. Walking on the carpet was completely silent, as if stepping on soft petals.
The bedding was gray, clearly brought by Shi Ran herself, and it matched her temperament very well. Hearing the movement, Shi Ran turned her head slightly, glancing at Ruan Ruan, then put down her phone and pressed a button next to the nightstand. The curtains in front of them slowly closed.
First the sheer curtains, then the drapes, layer by layer, enclosing the city's night view with an overwhelming sense of ritual.
Ruan Ruan's heart began to race uncontrollably.
She sat down next to Shi Ran and watched as Shi Ran opened a packet of sanitizing wipes to wipe her fingers. She had already washed them, but she had played with her phone for a while, so she was cleaning them again.
The sound of the plastic packaging, the sound of cleaning between her fingers, the sound of Shi Ran's breathing—everything seemed amplified. Ruan Ruan's heart was a loudspeaker, carrying a buzzing echo.
After wiping her hands, Shi Ran threw the tissue into the trash can, thought for a moment, and said, "I'd better go wash them one more time."
Ruan Ruan couldn't help but smile, and all of a sudden, she wasn't nervous anymore.
Shi Ran turned her head to look at her. Ruan Ruan had a bare face, making the mole under her eye much more prominent. Bathed in the halo of the bedside lamp, she looked as if she were framed in a camera lens.
Her smooth, long hair cascaded over her shoulders, gently pulling with her fine breaths, making it easy to imagine the round yet delicate neck and shoulders beneath.
"Have you ever done this before?" Shi Ran tilted her head, looking at her with an air of indifference.
Ruan Ruan met her gaze and shook her head.
"Me neither." Shi Ran blinked, pondering.
Then she smiled, and both of them smiled, looking away to stare at the bedside lamp.
Ruan Ruan was completely at ease now. She realized Shi Ran wasn't that aloof. Aside from her facial expressions being somewhat hard to decipher, sitting there in pajamas under the light, she didn't seem unapproachable at all.
It was an eerie atmosphere; they seemed like a pair of best friends from college.
So Ruan Ruan used her slightly raspy voice to ask a question she had been pondering for a while, "When you brought it up, you didn't even ask if I was... What if I couldn't accept being with a woman?"
"You wouldn't be unable to accept being with a woman. You'd only be unable to accept me," Shi Ran said.
"Why?" Ruan Ruan was taken aback.
"You participated in a GL variety show and are very interested in GL adaptations, aren't you?" How could she be repulsed by women?
Oh... so that was it. That seemed right.
They fell silent, and suddenly both lost their words. Finally, Ruan Ruan broke the quiet. She took out a tiny finger cot from her pocket, pinched it in her palm, and asked Shi Ran in a soft voice, "Do you use your left hand or your right hand?"
The ring finger on Shi Ran's right hand twitched slightly.
Ruan Ruan nodded, tore open the packaging, glanced at Shi Ran's hand, then back at her, and asked softly, "Do you... want me to help you put it on?"
Since neither of them had experience, doing this one-handed might not be very convenient for Shi Ran, right?
Shi Ran reached her hand over.
Ruan Ruan used her index finger to hook Shi Ran's middle finger, lifting it slightly, then rolled the finger cot onto her finger. The thin layer of transparent rubber surprisingly made her finger look even more crystal clear, as if encased in a glass dome.
A numbing sensation traveled from the fingertip down to the base. As the rubber ring was pushed down, it felt like putting on a ring, but completely different from the feeling of a stylist putting a ring on Shi Ran.
Perhaps it was because Ruan Ruan was too careful, too earnest, holding her breath with too much concentration.
The atmosphere began to change from this moment on. Ruan Ruan stared at Shi Ran's hand, while Shi Ran stared at Ruan Ruan's lips.
If she liked to purse them that much, then Shi Ran wanted a taste.
Without a director shouting "Action," they spontaneously began an intimate scene. Ruan Ruan sank into the bed; the kiss started from the corner of her mouth, moved to the center, and was then gently taken in.
It wasn't the first kiss for either of them; they had kissed while filming, so they wouldn't be overly restrained.
Hands naturally climbed up the neck, crossing at the back.
Ruan Ruan could see Shi Ran's eyelashes and the nebulae swirling in her eyes. If this were a scene, she had already lost focus.
So women really were different; even their breathing was touching, making one want to swallow them whole.
Shi Ran was a guide who understood the process. Because of the special nature of the female lead's image in Desire That Isn't Desire, she couldn't observe the female lead's reaction to desire by watching erotic films. But she could do her homework beforehand through erotic films to know how to eat the little bread.
It was really fragrant, very soft, even more delicious than it looked in the display window.
If encountering someone who really knew how to savor her, she would turn into even softer tofu, soaking in water, trembling, likely to break with a little force.
Ruan Ruan was prone to flushing; the rosy hue on her knees had run up to her face.
She was also prone to sweating. There was a thin layer of sweat on her forehead, a line of thin sweat running down the center of her spine, and fine beads of sweat in the crooks of her knees and the dimples of her lower back.
Held in Shi Ran's arms, she truly sank into the water.
She had always been a quiet person, even at moments like this. She became even quieter, withdrawing all her emotions, pressing her head against Shi Ran's shoulder, wishing she could shrink right into her skin.
Even though she was wet enough, the moment the fingertips sank in, she still tensed up, furrowing her brows in discomfort.
Sweat flowed into her eyes, and she reached out to wipe it away. It stung, and a teardrop was blinked out of her right eye.
But Ruan Ruan was a girl with such strong vitality. She grasped Shi Ran's wrist, gently rubbing against the front end, comforting herself in this way, automatically making herself adapt and feel comfortable.
Even as a bed partner, she wanted to be the most hassle-free one.
A top-tier actress definitely possessed enough comprehension and intelligence, and Shi Ran undoubtedly did. She quickly grasped the rhythm, sending Ruan Ruan into the clouds.
Without missing a single expression, without missing half a faint moan.
Ruan Ruan's heart was still trembling, and she involuntarily reached her hand under the hem of Shi Ran's clothes, finding the source of the water and gently caressing it.
Shi Ran let her touch for a while, her facial expression still indifferent. Then she said softly, "Take it out."
At the end of the sentence, she let out a short sigh.
Ruan Ruan was very obedient. If Shi Ran didn't want it, then she wouldn't do it. Holding Shi Ran's face, she placed her wet fingers below her eyes, creating a betraying contrast with her detached expression, a sight that stirred the heart.
Ruan Ruan panted slightly, her voice so soft it seemed filtered, "Are we done? Are you still watching?"
"That's enough."
Shi Ran lowered her head, burying it in the crook of Ruan Ruan's neck, gently rubbing her chin against it.
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