Chapter 5 Part1 (1/2)

Happy Lunar New Year! May the Year of the Pig be a wonderful year for all of you.

I think it's pretty obvious what Tian Chu's intentions are—“needles hidden within silk floss.” Humph. Now, what do you think Yi Wenze is preoccupied with?

Chapter 5.1 — A Brief Return to Shanghai (1)

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Two nurses were coming down the stairs, and one stole several extra peeks at them. She probably had connected them in her mind to Yi Wenze, currently an inpatient here. In quiet tones, she conversed with the person beside her as she brushed past Jia He.

”Actually, there's no need to deliberately explain these things.” Waiting until there was no one around them, Jia He turned a smiling gaze on Tian Chu. ”It could be that Teacher Yi didn't tell me about it because he felt that there isn't any need to pay attention to this type of thing. It was just a simple, ordinary breakfast.”

Screenwriting truly was such a good profession. She could easily find words like these and pick some to use without any effort. No longer was she like back then, only knowing to stupidly listen to other people as they spoke down haughtily to her and then, after listening for half an hour, feel like she had internal injuries so serious she could just die…

Wearing a flawless smile, Tian Chu patted her shoulder. ”You don't need to take it so seriously. Once you've encountered more of this type of thing, you'll get used to it. I used to be like this, too, where I had no clue even that someone had photographed me, and then when an issue did arise, I'd be thrown into a huge confusion and in a terribly wretched state.” Tian Chu's words were spoken like needles hidden within silk floss[1], each needle stabbing into just the right places but leaving behind no trace.

Jia He smiled. ”Nevertheless, thank you.”

Tian Chu said a few more words of exhortation, so close and kindly in her manner it was as if they were old friends. Before she left, she also remembered that endors.e.m.e.nt opportunity and specifically told Jia He that if the chance arose, she would certainly give priority to friends. Jia He also put on a cheery countenance and repeatedly expressed her thanks, but in her heart, she was secretly raking Xiao Yu, who was still in faraway Beijing, over the coals.

Likely out of worry about being besieged by the media, Tian Chu soon left.

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Jia He had no watch and her mobile phone was mere sc.r.a.p now, so she could only estimate the time based on her degree of hunger and then judge whether she should first have lunch and then go see her idol, or see her idol first and then have lunch. So, in this state, she once more made her way to the third floor, thinking to see where Xiao Ou might be. By now, the nurses had chased away the reporters until not even one remained. Outside the hospital room, there was only Qing talking on the phone, and it could be indistinctly heard that she seemed to be trying to re-juggle work schedules.

”Screenwriter.” Qing happened to catch sight of her, and covering her phone with a hand, she gave this greeting. ”It's perfect. There's no one right now. Hurry, come on over.”

She beckoned to her with a wave and opened the door all in one smooth movement.

It would not be appropriate if Jia He said anything else to object, so she hurriedly walked into the hospital room.

The room was very clean. There were only two beds, with many bouquets set on the unoccupied one, flowers of brilliant colours, a beautiful sight to behold.

Yi Wenze sat on the bed by the window, all of him enveloped in the warm, spring suns.h.i.+ne, and lifting his head, he gave a wordless glance at Jia He. A simple white, b.u.t.ton-up s.h.i.+rt garbed him, its sleeves rolled up to his elbows. To guard against all the cameras of the media, a plain, thin, white blanket covered his legs.

Beside him was the hospital monitoring equipment, while before him lay, surprisingly, an opened laptop computer.

Observing that he was wearing a Bluetooth headset over his ear, she could guess that he was in the middle of a phone call, and so she mouthed her silent greeting: Teacher Yi.

He gave her a slight smile. ”Have a seat. Just wait for me to finish up this call.”

Jia He obediently sat down, setting her backpack onto her thighs, and waited quietly for him as he had his phone conversation, not daring to make the slightest sound.

The other end seemed to be a phone conference, speaking wholly about some sort of report. From the looks of things, these were Yi Wenze's company's matters.

Being an artiste is an arduous occupation, and those who have earned money from it will naturally use that money to make more money. The best case would be that they can ama.s.s enough wealth that their account is overflowing and they do not need anymore to be out working in the blowing wind, the beating sun, or the pouring rain. As a hardcore fan of more than ten years, she did very much pay attention to her idol's career and businesses. Though he was not at the level of the artistes one generation older who had several listed companies in their hands, he had made quite a bit of wealth.

As Jia He sighed secretly in admiration over her idol's professionalism and dedication to his work, she, without even being aware of it, ended up staring at him for quite a while, and it was not until Yi Wenze cast a quick look at her when he was picking up his drinking gla.s.s that she hurriedly moved her gaze elsewhere. After taking a small sip of water to moisten his throat, Yi Wenze set down his gla.s.s and continued with the telephone conference. Most of the time, he listened attentively, and only occasionally would he say a few words.

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”What are you thinking?” At some time, he had already hung up the phone, though he was still staring at his computer screen and typing.

”Nothing really,” Jia He hastily answered.

”Have you eaten yet?”

Jia He hesitated for a moment but nevertheless gave an honest answer of no.

He slid his eyes over to the bottom right corner of his screen. ”It's one-thirty already. You still haven't eaten?”

Jia He wanted to say that she had not had a chance at all to eat. But, when the words came to her lips, she swallowed them back down and merely found a random excuse. ”I forgot to eat.”

”Forgot?” His hands pausing for a moment, Yi Wenze calmly reiterated the one word.

”I woke up too late,” Jia He sheepishly added. ”And then I heard Qiao Qiao say you were injured, so I didn't have time to eat and just ran over here.”And then I saw a bunch of reporters, and then Tian Chu goaded me a bit, and then…This was plainly just a simple question. How come once it had to do with her idol, it would become really complicated?!

Yi Wenze did not press further. Calling Qing in, he instructed her to buy a boxed meal and bring it back. Then, right as Qing was about to step out the door, he casually added, ”See if there's a restaurant nearby that serves fresh-ground coffee, and bring back a cup of con panna. If there's no con panna, then buy a mocha.”

Qing was taken aback. ”Teacher, didn't you stop drinking coffee a long time ago?”

Yi Wenze answered nonchalantly, ”It's for Jia He.”

With an ”Oh, okay,” Qing shut the door and jogged off.

Yet again, silence that left you feeling restless whether you were standing or sitting.

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Jia He began thinking in anguish, how did she even seem like she was visiting someone in the hospital? She hadn't even said any polite words of comfort and instead, for some reason, ended up being taken care of and given a meal… Fixing her eyes on the hospital monitoring equipment, she all of a sudden recalled the matter of that photograph.

Earlier, she had spoken with such boldness to Tian Chu because, towards the cheating Tian Chu who had had the extramarital affair, she more or less held some animosity. However, Tian Chu's words were not unjustified. If that photograph, at this time, in this place, were to be distributed around, she could not even fathom what the outcome might be.

”There is one thing,” she began, deciding it would still be better if she asked and was clear on this, ”that I want to know if it will have any effect on you.”

”The matter of that photograph?” Yi Wenze clicked his mouse. His email was successfully sent out.

Answering with an ”mm-hmm,” Jia He was indecisive over whether she should tell him what Tian Chu had said to her. Yi Wenze had already closed his laptop, arbitrarily setting it on the table to his right. ”Tian Chu told you?”

Jia He nodded her head, feeling a sort of urge in her to venerate her idol as a prophet.

”You don't need to really take what Tian Chu said to heart. This matter is not serious.”

”That night, Ti—… Teacher Tian Chu said I look familiar. Was it because of this photo?”

Since they were already talking about it to this extent, she might as well clear up everything.

”Probably.”

”Then why didn't you tell me?” The words slipped from Jia He's mouth. Suddenly feeling that this question was very inappropriate, though, she immediately supplemented with another sentence. ”What I mean is, in the case that this photo really does bring about trouble, if I know about it, I can at least think up an appropriate statement in advance…”

Her word choice was really crossing the line now. What was this so-called ”appropriate statement”? That made it seem like there really was something going on between them. Forget it, she should just straight out apologize. It was her carelessness that had allowed someone to get such a clear photo of her face.

”My apologies.” Yi Wenze's voice was very warm and gentle. ”It's just a small matter, so I didn't purposely tell you about it.”