NOVEL NEXT Chapter 675-683
Chapter 675: You’re the Joy of my Adolescence, the Adolescent Who I Liked (15)
Ji Yi didn’t know just how long she stood there for, nor did she notice how many people walked by as they entered and exited The Golden Lounge.
Moreover, she didn’t know just how many times her taxi driver called her or when he eventually cancelled her ride.
She only knew that after she came to her senses, her face was long covered in tears.
–
Because Cheng Weiwan’s health, the abortion was delayed till the end of April.
From mid-April onwards, Beijing had clear skies for the remainder of the month.
She wasn’t sure if God was pitying the baby inside her, but before her operation, the night was clear and full of stars. Then the weather turned gloomy the next morning.
The abortion was scheduled for ten in the morning.
Cheng Weiwan forced herself to sleep at three in the morning and woke up before five in the morning.
She hoped it was all a nightmare, but as she stared at the ceiling, she slowly reached her arm out and pinched her thigh. The sharp pain told her that the purgatory-like pain she was experiencing was all real.
She wasn’t sure if it was because she had been crying far too much recently, but Cheng Weiwan couldn’t cry anymore on the day of her operation.
She laid in bed like a corpse until her alarm rang. Then she climbed out of bed and entered the bathroom.
She showered unusually seriously as if she was in a ceremony. For someone who never really liked to put on makeup, she carefully applied her makeup. Then she opened up her wardrobe and put on her most expensive, beautiful dress.
All dressed, Cheng Weiwan took a glance at the time. It was ten to eight – there were still ten minutes until the time she agreed with Han Zhifan’s secretary.
Since she sent a text to say she decided to abort the child, neither she nor Han Zhifan contacted one another.
Cheng Weiwan stared out at the dark clouds in the sky, tightly clutching her phone. In the end, she found Han Zhifan’s phone and made the call.
Han Zhifan probably hadn’t woken up as the phone rang for a long time before it was picked up. From the other the line, he groggily said, “Hello?”
It was just a simple word, but it almost made the rims of Cheng Weiwan’s eyes turn red. She tried hard to force herself to speak. “I…I have the operation at ten in the morning today.”
Han Zhifan, do you know what I mean by that?
I hope that at the last minute, you have a change of heart and want to keep our child…
The phone was silent for a while before she heard the sudden realization in Han Zhifan’s voice. “Oh, it’s you.”
Oh, it’s you… those taunting three words…
How much time had passed? After he heard her voice, he actually took that long to react and realize she was the person calling…
The blood in Cheng Weiwan’s face instantly drained and her fingers around her phone couldn’t help but start to tremble.
She actually hoped he would have mercy and be mature. If she hadn’t made the call, he probably wouldn’t even have remembered she was having an operation today. In other words, he must’ve pushed her far to the back of his mind, right?
So to him, their story had long expired. She was the only one stupid enough to stay in their story, thinking it hadn’t completely ended yet…
Chapter 676: You’re the Joy of my Adolescence, the Adolescent Who I Liked (15)
Seeing as Cheng Weiwan didn’t say anything for a long time, Han Zhifan spoke again. “Is there anything else?”
Tears slowly streamed down from Cheng Weiwan’s eyes.
She didn’t manage to get a word in when Han Zhifan added, “If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”
The instant Cheng Weiwan heard what Han Zhifan said, she lowered the phone from her ear and pressed the button to hang up the call.
While clutching her phone, she sat down on the floor and started to sob quietly.
It seemed like there was traffic as Han Zhifan’s secretary arrived ten minutes late.
Cheng Weiwan didn’t pick up Han Zhifan’s secretary’s call, nor was she in a hurry to head downstairs. Instead, she calmed herself down before reapplying her makeup and leisurely stepping out the door.
It was already nine by the time they reached the hospital.
There was half an hour left until the operation.
The doctor checked Cheng Weiwan’s temperature. After they were sure it was fine, they called a nurse to put her on an IV.
Perhaps Han Zhifan ordered his secretary to report back on the operation because as the doctor injected the drip, Cheng Weiwan watched her record something on her phone and send it to somebody.
Throughout the infusion, she watched the phone in Han Zhifan’s secretary’s hands until the doctor called her into the operating room. Then Han Zhifan’s secretary’s phone didn’t receive any more replies from Han Zhifan.
The moment the doctor anesthetized her after she laid down in the operating room, tears fell from her eyes again.
She suddenly thought back to the afternoon she learned she was pregnant. On the way to Han Zhifan’s office, she fantasized about their future with their baby…
As she thought about it, more and more streams tears started to roll down from her eyes. When she thought about the name she was going to give their child, the two words popped up in her mind “rice bowl,” and she finally couldn’t help but break down.
Then the anesthesia kicked in. She lost consciousness…
…
The operation was quick. Twenty minutes hadn’t even passed before it was over.
After Cheng Weiwan was awoken by a nurse, she laid in bed for about ten minutes before she was notified that she could leave.
Han Zhifan’s secretary collected the medicine. On the journey back from the hospital, she relayed every single word of the doctor’s orders to Cheng Weiwan.
From start to end, Cheng Weiwan didn’t say a single word. It wasn’t until she stepped out of the hospital building that she saw the heavy rain and finally spoke: “It’s raining.”
Han Zhifan’s secretary stopped what she was saying in astonishment and replied to Cheng Weiwan, “Yeah, it’s raining.”
Again, Cheng Weiwan kept silent again but raised her head to stare up at the infinite raindrops. As she stared and stared, Han Zhifan’s secretary wasn’t sure if she was seeing things, but she actually saw Cheng Weiwan’s lips curve into a smile. However, her smile seemed even sadder than her tears.
…
Today, Han Zhifan finally managed to secure the big project he’d always wanted.
Everyone thought that Han Zhifan would be in a great mood, but who knew that after the contract was finalized, he actually erupted in anger like he’d just eaten gunpowder.
His terrible mood lasted all afternoon, causing everyone to fear stepping into his office, even if it was for an urgent matter.
It was already three in the afternoon when Han Zhifan’s secretary took Cheng Weiwan back home and returned to the company.
Chapter 677: You’re the Joy of my Adolescence, the Adolescent Who I Liked (17)
The moment she stepped into the office, she sensed an unusually gloomy atmosphere.
For as long as she’d worked for Han Zhifan, she’d rarely ever seen Han Zhifan get angry. After hearing her coworkers describe his mood, the secretary instinctively wanted to hide far away from Han Zhifan. However, she had to report to him, so all she could do was summon the courage to walk over to Han Zhifan’s office and knock on his door.
“Come in.”
After the secretary heard Han Zhifan’s voice from inside, she took a deep breath while facing the wooden door and carefully pushed it open.
Han Zhifan was sitting behind the desk, typing on his computer.
Flustered, the secretary took a few steps into the office, keeping a distance from Han Zhifan. “Mr. Han, I did what you requested. Miss Cheng’s operation is over and the baby has been aborted. I already took her back home.”
Han Zhifan looked as though he hadn’t heard what she said and didn’t stop typing in the slightest.
After the secretary finished her report, she held her breath for a while, but seeing as Han Zhifan didn’t look like he was going to say something, she added, “Mr. Han, if there’s nothing else, I’ll get back to work now.”
With that, the secretary continued to wait for a while. Seeing as Han Zhifan continued to type away and was completely ignoring her, she quickly turned around and bolted out of Han Zhifan’s office.
After shutting the door, the secretary took just two steps towards her desk when she heard “Bam” from behind her.
Her entire body shook as she quickly turned her head and heard another “Bang” from behind the wooden door.
Thereafter, the entire office heard the crashing sounds of things being thrown around…
–
The third day after Ji Yi and He Jichen bumped into each other at The Golden Lounge was the day the production crew was back at work filming the second half of “Jiuchong Palace.”
While in the same city, these two well-acquainted people didn’t contact each other, so they could only rely on fate to accidentally bump into each other. One was in the South and the other was in the North, so naturally, it was even more unlikely for them to meet.
It was said that the days were hard to bear, and that was the truth.
Ji Yi missed He Jichen every day and night; her eyes would turn red at the thought of him. There was even a period of time when she dreamt of He Jichen every day.
But no matter how hard her days were, the sun rose every day as usual and night fell on time. Time still went on, each second at a time.
Without even noticing, May passed and June arrived. As the heat rose day by day, the shooting of “Jiuchong Palace” slowly drew to an end.
As it was a historical drama, all the actors were wrapped in layers of clothing which made filming very hard. Most of the time, after a scene was shot, their inner clothes would be drenched.
With three days left before the end of production, Ji Yi’s eyelid twitched endlessly when she woke up that day.
She wasn’t superstitious, but after her eyelid twitched, her heart felt worried for some reason.
Ji Yi felt like something was going to happen, but she wasn’t sure what it could be. It wasn’t until after she finished lunch and headed back to grab her phone that was charging in her hotel room that she accidentally overheard a few of the high execs from the studio and learned why she felt so uneasy all afternoon.
Chapter 678: You’re the Joy of my Adolescence, the Adolescent Who I Liked (18)
It was a non-smoking hotel, but to accommodate smokers, there was a smoking area between the restaurant and escalators.
After dinner, the execs must’ve been craving for a cigarette as they didn’t rush upstairs to rest but headed straight for the smoking area together.
They stood in front of the window with their backs to the hallway, so no one noticed Ji Yi passing by.
The door to the smoking area wasn’t closed and several people inside were chatting rather loudly.
With their voices alone, Ji Yi could tell who they were.
Just as she was thinking about walking by, she heard the assistant director’s voice: “Oh yeah, did you guys hear? Mr. He seems to have left Beijing.”
“I vaguely heard about it earlier, but there are plenty of those kinds of rumors going around, so I figured it was fake. After all, YC has been doing well the past two years.” The person who replied was a runner.
“It’s not fake – it’s real. I saw assistant Chen the other day who confirmed that Mr. He left Beijing.” This time, Ji Yi was most familiar with the person who spoke – it was the casting director. He was the person who signed her for “Three Thousand Lunatics.”
Later, she learned that he worked for He Jichen and was quite close to Chen Bai in private, so what he said was certain to be true.
Which meant He Jichen really did leave Beijing?
Ji Yi’s heart suddenly stopped beating and she slowly took two steps forward then stopped.
“With Mr. He gone, who’s in charge of YC?”
“Probably the vice president?”
“But now that you mention it, it’s normal for Mr. He to leave Beijing. His family’s business empire is so powerful. If I were him, I would also consider leaving Beijing to take over the family business.”
“He may not be taking over the family business. I heard that after Mr. He left, assistant Chen seemed to have also left.”
“Their relationship has always been good; it’d be normal for assistant Chen to be with him…”
Ji Yi didn’t dare continue to listen. She hurriedly came back to her senses and quickly left the smoking area.
Once she stepped into the elevator, Ji Yi pulled out her phone despite the low battery and stared at the screen for a while. Then she found Chen Bai’s number and sent him a text.
“I heard He Jichen’s going to leave Beijing?”
Chen Bai was probably busy as he didn’t reply to Ji Yi’s message.
It wasn’t until after she grabbed her charger and met up with Zhuang Yi that she headed back to the set. Just as she was about to touch up her makeup, her phone vibrated.
Chen Bai replied to her with just one word: “Yeah.”
That one simple, easy-to-understand word pricked Ji Yi’s eyes and her fingers suddenly started to shiver, causing her phone to crash to the floor.
The makeup artist didn’t notice anything off with Ji Yi. She figured she must’ve not held her phone tightly and accidentally dropped it. She half-jokingly said, “Yi Jie, are you in a hurry to change your phone?”
Ji Yi couldn’t smile at all. The corners of her mouth twitched a little then she bent down and sat back in front of the vanity mirror.
Just as the makeup artist finished applying foundation and was looking for a lip color, Ji Yi put her head down and tapped the phone a few times. “Will you go with him?”
“It’s hard to say.” This time, Chen Bai replied quickly. Just as Ji Yi finished reading those four words, another message popped up on the screen. “I might also go to another company.”
So, the reality of He Jichen leaving Beijing is confirmed…
Chapter 679: You’re the Joy of my Adolescence, the Adolescent Who I Liked (19)
The two of them were well past the stage of keeping in contact. They were now in two different cities. Are things going to go back to how they were four years ago and are we never going to cross paths?
With him gone, she was afraid they’d never be able to meet again in their lives…
Even if they didn’t keep in contact while living in the same city, there was still a chance of them bumping into each other.
With that thought, Ji Yi realized she wouldn’t even have the slightest bit of hope left. In a split-second, an intense piercing pain crept upon her heart.
“Yi Jie?” asked the makeup artist who found the right lip gloss. She dipped the brush and was about to apply it when Ji Yi lowered her head while staring at her black phone screen. The makeup artist couldn’t help but be concerned.
Ji Yi didn’t react in the slightest.
The makeup artist raised her voice and spoke again. “Yi Jie? Yi Jie?”
After calling her several times, the makeup artist saw how motionless Ji Yi was and gently nudged Ji Yi’s shoulder with her arm.
Ji Yi sat frozen in front of the dresser table for a while before gradually coming to the realization that someone was touching her shoulder. She slowly turned her head and looked at the makeup artist.
“Hm?” she said to the makeup artist in a daze. She apologetically followed with an “Oh” and “Thank you” before getting up.
“Yi Jie, I haven’t put on your lipgloss yet!” said the makeup artist in a worried voice.
Ji Yi paused as though she didn’t quite understand what the makeup artist was saying. After a couple seconds, she finally realized what the makeup artist said and replied “Oh really?” and sat back down.
To even out the lip color, the makeup artist applied it twice.
After she was done, she quietly told Ji Yi, “Yi Jie, it’s done.”
Transfixed, Ji Yi stared at herself in the mirror. Her eyelashes didn’t tremble for a moment, nor did she get up.
The makeup artist added some lip liner and turned to look at Ji Yi, who was still sitting in her seat. Seeing as Ji Yi wasn’t getting up, she said, “Yi Jie?”
This time, Ji Yi heard the makeup artist’s voice. She slowly turned her head and looked towards the source of the sound.
That was when the makeup artist realized Ji Yi’s face was frighteningly pale. “Yi Jie, what’s wrong? You don’t look so good. Are you not feeling well?”
Just like before, Ji Yi’s reactions were sluggish. Some time after hearing the makeup artist’s worried voice, she shook her head and got up without saying a single word. Then she headed over to a chair in the lounge nearby.
While Ji Yi had her lip gloss applied, she casually left her phone on the dressing table.
The makeup artist caught a glimpse of it and hurriedly cried after Ji Yi. “Yi Jie, your phone.”
Ji Yi looked back. The phone was clearly in her line of sight, but she stared at the dressing table for a really long time. She was so out of it that she didn’t see her own phone.
The makeup artist simply couldn’t watch her like that any longer, so she grabbed the phone and handed it right to her. Ji Yi vacantly let out an “Oh” then reached out to take the phone.
Zhuang Yi, who was sitting on a chair in the lounge, handed her some water with a straw in it. Ji Yi sensed it in her hands but didn’t take a single sip.
Zhuang Yi said a few things to her which she didn’t listen to carefully. Ji Yi half-heartedly nodded her head softly every now and then.
Soon enough, the director sent someone over to rush them. They called all the actors on set to get ready to start filming.
Before the shoot, the director went over the scene and outlined positions for the actors.
All the actors were ready, but Ji Yi still stood motionlessly rooted to the spot.
Chapter 680: You’re the Joy of my Adolescence, the Adolescent Who I Liked (20)
The director raised the megaphone to his mouth again. “Ji Yi!”
The director’s voice was already loud, but with the megaphone, he was deafeningly loud.
Ji Yi was so shocked that her body shivered and she suddenly snapped back to reality.
She was in a daze for a few seconds as she noticed the director, who was originally standing beside her, discussing the scene with the other actors in the vicinity. That was when she realized it was almost time for her to start shooting, so she quickly rushed over to her position.
After Ji Yi got in position, the director cried, “Get ready! 3, 2, 1 – Action!”
This scene featured several characters, but most importantly, it was a scene Ji Yi had with the male lead.
In the drama, the male lead left mid-banquet.
The character Ji Yi played had been paying attention to him all along. When she saw him leave the Imperial Hall, she found an excuse to follow him.
In the back garden, the two of them stared at each other in silence for a long time before the male lead said goodbye. Ji Yi shouted out to stop him then asked if they could go back to how things were before…
Because of He Jichen, Ji Yi was in a poor state of mind; she couldn’t focus and she was particularly distracted while acting. A simple scene such as the banquet scene could’ve been done in one take, but because of her emotional state, she made two mistakes.
After finishing that scene with much difficulty, Ji Yi used her break to reread the lines she acted so poorly earlier.
Maybe Ji Yi really did reset her state of mind during the break because when it came time to shoot the scene outside in the back garden, Ji Yi seemed a lot more focused. She strode over to the male lead’s side.
The male lead sensed someone coming closer and turned his head slightly. When he saw her, his brows appeared stunned for a moment, but he didn’t utter a word.
The two of them stared at the Japanese roses in front of them for a while. After the director cried out “good,” the male lead turned, keeping a respectful distance from Ji Yi, and bid her farewell.
Even though Ji Yi didn’t respond, the male lead turned around, ready to head back to the palace through the winding path.
Ji Yi stared at his back silhouette with pursed lips. Her expression changed slightly to show that she just stopped herself from speaking her mind. Then when the director repeated “good,” she cried out for the male lead.
The male lead stopped in his tracks but didn’t look back at her.
Ji Yi stared at his back with a deeply complex look in her eyes. The corners of her lips trembled incredibly and she tried hard to spit out her lines. “Can we really not go back to how things were before?”
As those words fell, Ji Yi suddenly heard He Jichen’s voice in her ear: “…Can we go back to how things were before?”
Ji Yi suddenly forgot she was on camera and stood frozen like that on set.
After disappearing all of a sudden at her birthday party last year, she found He Jichen alone on the balcony. Those were the words he said to her.
He even said, “Back to when you were seventeen and I was eighteen.”
“Go back to that summer; go back to that summer when we were best friends at Sucheng Yizhong; go back to when I could call you Xiao Yi and when you weren’t scared of me like other people. That same summer you dared to call me He Jichen without holding back…”
After the male lead finished his lines, there was a long string of dialogue that followed afterward.
As Ji Yi was suddenly frozen, the director was stunned, assuming she was improvising. However, after waiting a while without her showing any signs of keeping up her act, he raised the megaphone and screamed her name.
Chapter 681: You’re the Joy of my Adolescence, the Adolescent Who I Liked (21)
It was like Ji Yi’s soul had left her body as she couldn’t hear anything around her.
That was when Zhuang Yi sensed something was wrong and apologized to the director. Zhuang Yi hurriedly ran over to the set and reached out to touch Ji Yi’s arm. “Xiao Yi, you’re on set! How could you be daydreaming?”
That was when Ji Yi blinked and looked at Zhuang Yi with red eyes.
Sensing that Ji Yi was acting strange, a hint of worry surfaced Zhuang Yi’s face. She hurriedly whispered in her ear, “What’s wrong?”
Ji Yi shook her head and looked down.
When she raised her eyes again, the redness had completely disappeared. She didn’t reply to Zhuang Yi but glanced over at the director.
The director had been paying attention to Ji Yi’s condition all along, so seeing her look over at him, he hurriedly said, “You’re okay, right?”
Ji Yi shook her head and forced an apologetic smile at him.
The director wasn’t mad, but he ordered the makeup artist to touch up her makeup. They would shoot again later.
Ji Yi figured she could use this short break to regain her composure. However, when it came time to shoot for the second time, her mind wandered to He Jichen again before she could even ask the male lead: “Can we really not go back to how things were before?” Even after trying so hard to calm down, she was distracted again and her hands balled into fists. She wanted to calm down, but after balling her hands up so hard, her palms hurt so badly that they lost all feeling. She still felt unbelievably confused until, in the end, her mind went completely blank. Not to mention the lines she memorized long ago, but she couldn’t even remember the line “Can we really not go back to how things were before?”
Seeing as the director hadn’t yet asked Ji Yi what was wrong, she turned to the male lead, who was waiting for her to say her line. She bowed and apologized, “Sorry.”
Then she ran over to the director.
Stopping in front of the director, Ji Yi put on an earnest front and said, “Director, I’m really sorry. I can’t seem to get into character today because I have some personal issues to deal with. Do you think we can…”
Before she could finish, the director understood what she wanted.
Since she started filming “Jiuchong Palace,” Ji Yi hadn’t made any mistakes. This was the first time, so the director wasn’t mad at her for delaying the production process or wasting time. In contrast, he nodded at Ji Yi with forgiveness and said, “Alright. We’ll shoot other scenes first until you’ve recovered.”
After a short pause, the director remembered that there were just two days till the end of production and added, “As quickly as possible. We can’t delay shooting for too long.”
Ji Yi apologized again to the director then said, “Thank you.” To avoid interrupting everyone during their shoot, she and Zhuang Yi left the set.
Back at the hotel, Ji Yi didn’t let Zhuang Yi stay with her and immediately locked herself up in the hotel room.
Ji Yi laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling. She clearly sensed her rupturing pain and sadness from the deepest part of her heart, hitting her wave after wave.
It hurt. It really did hurt…
That helpless feeling of clearly not wanting him to leave. It really hurt…
The dull feeling in her chest didn’t subside in time, but instead, it became heavier and heavier.
Chapter 682: You’re the Joy of my Adolescence, the Adolescent Who I Liked (22)
Ji Yi didn’t know just how long she endured this pain for; all she knew was that when she slowly came back to her senses, her room was already pitch black.
She reached for her phone and glanced at the time.
It was nine in the evening.
After she came back from the studio, she actually laid in bed for almost six hours.
At this time, the hotel restaurant was closed. She hadn’t had dinner and she had work the next day. If any problems came up because of her hunger, that would delay production.
With that thought, Ji Yi reached out, turned on the lights, then climbed out of bed. She found her purse and left the hotel.
After entering the hotel supermarket, Ji Yi picked out two buns. When she went to pay, she happened to pass by the alcohol section. She hesitated for a moment then crouched down and picked up a tasty beer she tried before. In the heat of the moment, she went back and grabbed a dozen bottles.
Back at the hotel room, Ji Yi tore into the buns. Without tasting a thing, she ate until she was full. Then she opened a bottle of beer. As she sat on the wooden floors in front of the tall windows, she stared out at the night sky, drinking on her own.
The room was very quiet. Aside from the sound of her chugging beer, nothing else could be heard.
The still atmosphere made Ji Yi feel quite stifled. She reached around for her phone on the ground, tapped a music app, and randomly picked a song.
While listening to music, Ji Yi drank one bottle after another.
She figured she could sleep well if she got drunk, but who knew that the more she drank, the sadder she would feel?
Eventually, tears crashed down from her eyes as she drank.
She wasn’t sure how many songs played from her playlist when all of a sudden, a familiar melody started to play.
Ji Yi stopped drinking then heard He Jichen’s voice coming out from her phone.
“It honestly feels like a good thing that doesn’t have to be promised. I thought I could let you do what you want. Besides, I have nowhere to go.”
This was the audio clip Tang Huahua recorded and sent to her a few days ago. Tang Huahua was organizing her phone when she incidentally came across the clip she recorded on Ji Yi’s birthday last year.
After Tang Huahua sent it to her, she saved it to her phone.
Ji Yi had been feeling so down about him lately and was afraid she’d lose herself, so she hadn’t dared to listen to it. She never imagined that this song would come up today after she randomly put on a playlist.
“I would rather stay within your radius. At least I can feel your happiness and sadness…”
When Ji Yi heard this, her momentarily-halted tears started to pour out again.
He Jichen, do you know? Right now, I identify so strongly with the lyrics of this song. I want to keep you within my radius. It doesn’t matter if you don’t love me, and it’s fine if we never speak again as long as I can see you every now and then from afar. But you’re leaving Beijing now, so I can’t even hope for that…
“You can choose to love me or not; I am still yours no matter what. Because I love you, so it has nothing to do with you…”
Ji Yi couldn’t listen anymore. She quickly swiped on her phone and stopped the music.
She gripped her phone tightly as her body couldn’t help but tremble. She started to sob quietly.
Stunned for two seconds, she realized a sound was coming from her phone. She looked over at it and realized that while she was clutching onto her phone, her fingers accidentally made a call…
With that thought, Ji Yi glanced at the screen.
She just saw the three words “He Jichen” and had no time to react before his crisp voice came out from the phone: “Xiao Yi?”
Chapter 683: You’re the Joy of my Adolescence, the Adolescent Who I Liked (23)
The familiar voice made Ji Yi’s heart suddenly shudder, causing her phone to almost fall to the floor.
She stared at the flashing phone screen like an illusion had appeared. All of a sudden, she forgot to speak.
He Jichen waited a while, but seeing as Ji Yi still hadn’t made a sound, he repeated, “Xiao Yi?”
Ji Yi shuddered from He Jichen’s voice then she instinctively blurted out, “At…”
She made the call without knowing, so she hadn’t planned what she was going to say to him. She replied with just one word then stopped.
“What’s wrong?” probed He Jichen again, seeing as Ji Yi didn’t say anything. After waiting just a few short seconds, his voice came out from the phone again. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“No…” This time, Ji Yi didn’t pause for too long. She quickly said something but stopped again after just one syllable.
Perhaps it was because she’d been crying far too heavily that her nose couldn’t help but quietly sniff.
Even though it was very soft, He Jichen caught on. He didn’t wait for her to continue speaking and quickly said, “Did something happen?”
His voice sounded pleasant and elegant, but there was a hidden worry that Ji Yi was far too familiar with. Ji Yi felt her tears suddenly falling again.
Though they were a phone call apart, she still hurriedly lifted her hand to wipe her tears, but as she did so, more and more tears fell. Soon enough, her palm was drenched.
“Xiao Yi?” He Jichen’s voice worriedly cried her name again.
Ji Yi heard those two words and cried even more loudly. She couldn’t hold it in as the sound of a sob suddenly escaped.
She was afraid to cry aloud, so in a split-second, she quickly covered her mouth and swiftly ended the call.
She buried her face in her palms and cried with her shoulders shuddering for quite some time. After the weight on her mind subsided, she reached out and grabbed a bottle of beer.
Just as she removed the lid and took a gulp, a knock came at her hotel room door.
Ji Yi glanced at the time on the hotel clock. It was almost eleven in the evening. Is Zhuang Yi looking for me?
With that thought, another knock came at the door.
Ji Yi hurriedly put the beer down, got up and ran to the door.
Before she opened the door, she didn’t forget to run into the bathroom and splash water over her face to wash off the tear stains.
She randomly pulled out two pieces of tissue and wiped her face and hands while walking over to the door. Just as she pulled the door open without seeing who was on the other side of the door, another knock came. However, it was just two knocks. The person knocking at the door probably didn’t notice that the door was open. The person stopped knocking then a voice was heard. “Xiao Yi.”
The blood in Ji Yi’s body suddenly stopped running.
She sluggishly raised her head for a few seconds then stared at the person outside.
He Jichen, who she just hung up on, was now standing right in front of her.
He didn’t seem to realize that she was in a trance as he took a step towards her. “What the hell is wrong?”
After he asked, he smelled the scent of alcohol and furrowed his brows. Then he said, “Have you been drinking?”
As he said this, he raised his head and looked into her eyes, scanning her up and down.
The strands of hair by her temple were wet. She must’ve washed her face before opening the door.