Chapter 43: Delete
The car came to a steady stop in a corner of the set.
Hiding at this point would seem pretentious, so Jiang Mi got out of Yan Wei’s nanny van just like that.
Just as she got out, she heard Shen Ruoxi’s greeting.
She looked over. Shen Ruoxi’s car was not far away. She must have just arrived too. Soon, Shen Ruoxi came up and patted Jiang Mi on the shoulder familiarly. “Yo, you—eh… Teacher Yan… morning.”
Her words seemed to be suddenly cut off, the end of her voice abruptly changing tone. Her gaze was fixed on the still-open car door behind Jiang Mi.
Yan Wei was just about to get out of the car, her figure perfectly positioned at the dividing line of light and shadow.
Shen Ruoxi froze on the spot, her gaze quickly sweeping back and forth between Jiang Mi and Yan Wei in the car. It was as if she had choked on her own saliva. She gave two dry, covering coughs.
“I was just saying, this car looks strangely familiar. It’s not the one Mimi usually drives…”
Her eyes secretly gave Jiang Mi a look. Because she was too conscious of Yan Wei’s presence, it was hard to tell what she meant.
Jiang Mi thought for a moment and guessed, “My car broke down.”
“No wonder! What a coincidence… Last time, it was Teacher Yan’s car that had a problem. This time, it’s your turn to bask in Teacher Yan’s glow!” Shen Ruoxi’s attention had already shifted.
Jiang Mi turned to say goodbye to Yan Wei. After all, she had an early scene and had to go prepare. Shen Ruoxi also said goodbye and left with Jiang Mi.
After walking a few steps, Shen Ruoxi mysteriously leaned closer to Jiang Mi, unlocked her phone, and held it in front of her. “Quick, look at this. It’s… exploded!”
The two were very close, their shoulders lightly bumping as they moved forward. Their figures were clearly reflected in the calm yet slightly stagnant gaze behind them.
Yan Wei’s gaze faintly swept over the backs of the two people who were quite close. The cool morning light outlined her slender, cold, and beautiful silhouette.
She watched the two of them, her thin lips slightly pursed. A cold, almost mocking curve flashed across the corner of her lips.
Perhaps sensing it, Jiang Mi felt a chill on her back. She glanced at Shen Ruoxi and, without a trace, moved a little to the side, creating an imperceptible gap between her and Shen Ruoxi’s arm.
Only then did she lower her head to look at Shen Ruoxi’s phone screen.
“Do you remember that little girl who played a dirty trick on you in the DK restroom? She’s been attempting suicide for the past few days. Her family has made it a social news story.”
Jiang Mi’s brow furrowed unconsciously. “Suicide?”
She asked in a low voice, “Why?”
“I heard it was DK’s doing.” Shen Ruoxi’s tone was complicated. “That girl’s actions were quite out of line, but…”
She paused. “This method is really ruthless. It seems they sent the video to her mother’s workplace, and every relative got a copy. As a result, that mother is also a scoundrel. She beat and cursed the girl in front of the whole internet, and it was live-streamed. Anyway, the situation is quite ugly. The girl couldn’t take it and attempted suicide twice…”
Jiang Mi was silent for a few seconds, her fingertips unconsciously scratching the edge of her phone.
How did it get so serious?
“I just feel,” Shen Ruoxi also lowered her voice, “that mother and daughter might know that DK is a bigger and more powerful company, but they might not be afraid to bother you. You should be careful of this kind of petty person.”
“Me?” Jiang Mi’s lips twitched with a hint of self-mockery:
“I haven’t even had a chance to deal with them yet. I just mentioned it to Zhao Jia before, saying that we should find a way to get that little girl’s mother to sign a guarantee or something. But I heard that her family is having a hard time, and I always felt that it was Qin Yao at the time…”
She didn’t finish her sentence, as if she felt it was meaningless. She waved her hand. “Who knew it would turn out like this. In this situation, I don’t have much of a position to speak, because—in a way, the other party was also standing up for me, right?”
Shen Ruoxi nodded in understanding. “I know that. But I feel…” She looked at Jiang Mi, her tone becoming a little heavier. “These capital bigwigs at DK, their methods are really… something. This isn’t just ruthless; this is clearly driving people to a dead end. I don’t know which executive made the decision. I really want to see who this person is. But you know, it’s quite reassuring to cooperate with them in the future.”
Shen Ruoxi sighed, half-joking.
Listening, Jiang Mi’s gaze suddenly looked back. Yan Wei was still standing quietly a few steps away, holding a cup of coffee, probably just brought by Surui. Her gaze seemed to be on the distance. Perhaps sensing her gaze, she looked over.
Jiang Mi’s heart stirred for no reason, and she smiled at Yan Wei.
Shen Ruoxi followed her expression and also looked back, sucking in a breath. Her voice was almost squeezed out from between her teeth, “To be honest, I really admire you. You can get along so well with Yan Wei. Really, you’re this.”
She gave Jiang Mi a thumbs-up.
Jiang Mi felt a little like laughing at her gesture. She looked at the exaggerated expression on Shen Ruoxi’s face and commented calmly, “Teacher Yan is actually… quite soft-tempered.”
Especially last night.
Mmm, especially, especially soft.
Shen Ruoxi turned her head and looked at Jiang Mi as if she were an alien. Her lips moved, and after a long time, she squeezed out in disbelief:
“Are you okay?”
**
The morning scenes with Shen Ruoxi ended smoothly.
As the light faded, the last scene was a scene between Jiang Mi and Yan Wei.
Zhang Lu knocked on the door and brought in a bouquet of flowers with dew on them. She looked at Qin Shui in the room with a smile. “Cousin, what’s your relationship with the sister downstairs?”
Qin Shui’s hand, holding the water glass, paused. “What?”
Zhang Lu said, “I heard she’s leaving.”
She added, “Leaving here with her fiancée.”
“Clang!”
A crisp, piercing shattering sound exploded without warning. The glass of clear water in Qin Shui’s hand slipped from her stiff fingers.
The transparent shards and liquid splashed into a small mess on the dry floor.
Qin Shui’s face was paler than paper, and her whole person was as if nailed to the spot.
Before long, a knock came from the downstairs door. Liang Yongping opened the door. Seeing the person, her expression was calm. She asked Qin Shui, “Is something the matter?”
Her fingertips were white. She forced herself to control her emotions, then turned and went back to the kitchen.
The light there was not bright, with a suffocating dim yellow.
“When were you…” Qin Shui’s voice was very tight, and every word was like cutting through cold air, “…going to tell me?”
Liang Yongping was looking down and wiping the already clean countertop. Her movements didn’t stop. The two were very close, their shoulders lightly bumping as they moved forward. Their figures were clearly reflected in the calm yet slightly stagnant gaze behind them. Her voice was calm, “Is there a need to tell you?”
Qin Shui’s gaze suddenly fixed on the place on the side of Liang Yongping’s neck that her collar couldn’t completely cover.
The light was dim yellow, and that faint red mark with an ambiguous color clearly burst into her eyes.
A sharp, stabbing pain suddenly seized Qin Shui’s heart. She almost squeezed out the words through her gritted teeth, “No need? Liang Yongping… do you really have no heart?”
The heavy words rolled in her throat and finally turned into a heavy sigh, which was swallowed along with the heavy pain. Liang Yongping took a deep breath. “Actually, I’m also at fault. This messy account, who can settle it? We’re both at fault. I’m just more at fault.”
She suddenly paused, her voice carrying a near-exhausted fatigue and determination.
Qin Shui heard Liang Yongping say, “Qin Shui, I don’t think I’ll ever make a mistake again in my life.”
Qin Shui couldn’t hold on and suddenly took two steps back. She looked at Liang Yongping’s back. “Even if we never see each other again from now on?”
“Didn’t you…” Liang Yongping finally stopped wiping the table, but she didn’t turn her head, only spitting out a few words from between her teeth, “…also have other arrangements?”
There was no need to say the second half of the sentence. The air seemed to be completely sucked dry.
“…Good.” Qin Shui’s voice was hoarse. “I understand.”
It was like the sound of something completely collapsing.
She didn’t look at Liang Yongping again. She turned, almost crashing through the thin kitchen door, and stumbled away, disappearing into the shadows of the set.
The day’s filming finally came to an end.
Most of the lights were turned off, and the set suddenly felt as if it had been hollowed out, leaving only a huge, heavy sense of embers hanging in the air.
Jiang Mi looked at the residential building where “Liang Yongping” and “Qin Shui” were about to part, her heart in a mess. There were some words on the tip of her tongue that she didn’t know how to say.
She looked at Yan Wei, who was talking to Surui nearby. She had a little emotion in her heart, a stuffy feeling, and she wanted to say something to Yan Wei.
But she kept looking at Yan Wei, and Yan Wei never looked back.
“Jiang Mi.”
Jiang Qu suddenly called her.
Jiang Mi turned, her gaze meeting Jiang Qu’s direction, and she nodded silently. Almost at the same time, she subconsciously looked up at Yan Wei.
The two gazes met in mid-air this time, like sparks igniting in the silence.
Yan Wei’s gaze lingered on her face for a very short time, and then she looked away without a trace.
That gaze had no extra emotion, nor did it linger. It just slid over Jiang Mi lightly and quickly, and landed steadily on Jiang Qu a few steps away.
She was stunned for a moment. There was a feeling of weightlessness in that instant.
By the time she had walked naturally to Jiang Qu’s side and looked again, all she could see was Yan Wei’s departing figure.
Her gaze subconsciously scanned the messy set, only to find it empty.
Jiang Qu was in a very good mood and was very satisfied with all of Jiang Mi’s later states. “Jiang Mi, you’ve grasped the state very well. The emotions are very good.”
That voice was encouraging, piercing through Jiang Mi’s confused thoughts.
Almost instinctively, Jiang Mi smiled at the director, “Thank you, Director.”
But she knew that this smile was fake. Right now, she didn’t want to smile at all.
The discomfort in her heart spread heavily. It wasn’t just sadness, nor was it anxiety. It was more like a feeling of stagnation that didn’t know where to go, couldn’t find a shape, and couldn’t be named.
Getting into character was a consumption, a kind of erosion.
It was a kind of self-harm.
This was what an actor had told her a long time ago.
She had thought she understood before, but it seemed that only today, in that sudden moment, did she really feel that she had a little bit of understanding…
Jiang Mi didn’t know what was suddenly wrong with her.
She returned to the break room alone. It was still early. The crew had prepared dinner, and the boxed meal was now sitting peacefully on the table.
Zhao Jia was packing things up on one side and said to Jiang Mi, “You should eat a little. The food today is not bad.”
But Jiang Mi had no appetite at all. She poked the plastic lid of the box with her disposable chopsticks. What she was thinking was—where did Yan Wei go?
If it were Yan Wei, how would she digest this emotion? Or rather, would Yan Wei not have this kind of emotion at all?
Jiang Mi put down her chopsticks and suddenly said to Zhao Jia, “We have more than a month left on this drama.”
Zhao Jia was surprised and turned back. “Yes. What’s wrong?”
Jiang Mi shook her head and said it was nothing.
More than a month, it would be over soon.
That feeling of being blocked, which she couldn’t find anyone to talk to about and didn’t know how to express, was all tangled up, like a stone falling on Jiang Mi’s heart, so stuffy that she took a deep breath.
She took out her phone, found that number, and typed a few words in the dialog box: [Where did you go?]
Send.
Then wait.
As expected.
The black-screened phone was as calm as a deep, dark pool.
So calm that it was familiar.
So calm that it was heartbreaking.
She stared at her phone in silence for a moment, then swiped the screen and typed another sentence: [You’re still sick. Take care of your body.]
Then, she deleted it again.
[Teacher Yan.]
Delete.
[Sister.]
Delete.
Finally, under that anxiety and gloom, Jiang Mi sent a sentence:
[Yan Wei, I don’t like this. I really don’t like it.]
