Chapter 74: Find Me
Yan Wei was out of touch.
That morning, Jiang Mi had opened her contacts, but she hadn’t waited for the familiar voice. She had sent a message to Yan Wei, but it was like a stone sinking into the sea.
She asked the assistant, Nine, if she could contact her.
Nine showed a difficult expression and said truthfully, “All my work has always been arranged by President Tan’s secretary.”
The internet had been fermenting for three days. Not only had the momentum not died down, but it was also getting more and more intense. But Yan Wei’s side had not responded at all. Mo Yun was still continuously outputting, and at this time, Mo Xi had opened her own live streaming account, acting as a middleman.
Jiang Mi sat on a folding chair. She was wearing a simple costume, and the gloomy sky was all in her eyes. She moved from the sky to the distant grass, which was swaying in the wind.
She asked herself, if she were Yan Wei at this moment, facing the backstabbing of her closest relatives, could she get through it?
The answer was no.
She couldn’t imagine her mother treating her in such a direct, such a terrible way.
This was abuse.
She couldn’t imagine that this abuse had started from her childhood, from the weakest, most helpless, and purest time of her life…
Jiang Mi felt sorry for Yan Wei from the bottom of her heart. Her heart was in a knot.
But on the other hand, she was also afraid of this pity.
She was afraid that this feeling would turn into soft-heartedness, and she would no longer be able to think rationally about the problems between her and Yan Wei. But at this moment, this matter seemed to have become not so important.
She wanted to see Yan Wei.
She didn’t want Yan Wei to be sitting alone in some empty house right now.
It was just that simple.
Jiang Mi felt a little like crying, but her expression was so calm that she really couldn’t shed a single tear. Zhao Jia handed her a glass of water from behind and asked, “Still no contact?”
Jiang Mi hummed in response.
“Maybe she needs to calm down on her own?” Zhao Jia said.
“Alright, actually, what I wanted to say is, I’m really afraid you’ll regret it. Your career is on the rise, no, it’s in a soaring period. When Yan Wei is doing well, it’s good for you to be with her, but at a time like this, a single careless move is no different from a moth to a flame. I don’t need to tell you this, right? After so many years of hard work, you have to be responsible for yourself.”
Jiang Mi took the water glass and took a sip.
After a long while, she said to Zhao Jia, “Actually, when I was very young, everyone knew that I was not my mom’s biological child, so from elementary school, people would use this to bully me. Once, I was bullied so badly that I was very sad and very wronged. I didn’t want to see anyone. After school, I didn’t go home. I ran to the alley behind the convenience store and hid. I hid from dawn to dusk.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Later, it was my mom and Jiang Hu who found me. My mom cried and scolded me for being heartless, for not being considerate of her at all. But she held me so tightly. I will never forget how warm her embrace was, and how safe it felt. That day, Jiang Hu’s eyes were red, and she didn’t say a word, but I will always remember the White Rabbit milk candy she stuffed into my hand, which had already melted. It was really sweet.”
“Before that, I had always thought that I was hiding because I didn’t want to see anyone.”
Zhao Jia suddenly understood what she meant.
She sighed slightly in her heart.
Jiang Mi said, “But at that moment, I finally understood that it wasn’t that I didn’t want to see anyone. On the contrary, I just hoped that someone would choose me firmly, that someone would choose me without hesitation. Jiajia, I want to stand by her side.”
“Aren’t you afraid of regretting it in the future?”
“At least at this moment, I’m willing.”
Then Zhao Jia had nothing more to say. She looked at Jiang Mi, and an inexplicable sense of jealousy arose in her heart. She was jealous of Yan Wei, for being able to meet someone like Jiang Mi.
“So, what do you need me to do now?”
Zhao Jia knew that Jiang Mi couldn’t sit still anymore. She must have an idea in her heart.
Hearing this, Jiang Mi’s lips curved, and a familiar, bright smile appeared. “You do have to do me a favor. But, this matter has to be discussed with Qi Wenxi first.”
“What is it?”
**
Another two days passed.
In the afternoon.
In the quiet space, the sound of light footsteps was heard.
The moment the curtains were opened, the spacious living room was instantly lit up. Looking out from the high-rise, the city scenery was in full view. The weather was not good. In the distance, dark clouds were a gray mass, and the wind was blowing wantonly, rolling the clouds, like a large army about to arrive.
It would be a heavy rain.
Just as Yan Wei pushed open the window, a raindrop “splashed” on the glass. She narrowed her eyes and lit the cigarette in her hand. The smoke was blown into the room by the wind, and the lifeless atmosphere seemed to have a hint of human presence.
The glass could almost reflect her appearance.
The bloodshot veins in her eyes were very deep, her hair was casually tied up behind her shoulders, and her skin was frighteningly white. Only the blood vessels on her neck showed an unusual redness.
She hadn’t taken many puffs of the cigarette when her hand started to tremble faintly, and the paleness on her face was gradually replaced by a flush, like a fire burning in the dark.
She suddenly crushed the cigarette in her palm, her other hand holding onto the window frame tightly. After standing still for a few seconds, she turned and walked to the sofa, and took a syringe from the box on the table.
She skillfully expelled the air.
The moment the silver needle entered the skin on the side of her neck, she suddenly arched her body, her head tilted back, and she let out a long breath.
When she lost her voice, she couldn’t help but whisper, “Jiang Mi.”
Her fingertips were deep in the cracks of the sofa, as if she were holding onto some invisible person.
When she relaxed, her eyes were even redder.
The agitation brought by her heat finally receded again. Apart from her cheeks, her skin was once again covered with a cold whiteness. She slowly moved her gaze and landed on the two phones on the table.
As if sensing her gaze, one of the screens suddenly lit up.
She bent down and picked it up, curling up on the sofa.
It was a call from Tan Zhaoxin.
“If you don’t suppress this matter, I really won’t be able to,” Tan Zhaoxin said. “Everything has an extreme point. I think it’s about time.”
“Mmm.”
“Also, I’ve been thinking these past two days… have you seriously considered what the most fundamental conflict between you and Jiang Mi is?”
Yan Wei looked up, and a dark light flashed in her eyes.
She sensed that Tan Zhaoxin had other things to say.
Tan Zhaoxin said, “This matter has to be wrapped up. At that time, if Jiang Mi finds out that everything you’re doing now is purposeful, what will she think?”
Like water splashing on hot oil.
Yan Wei’s eyelashes trembled.
“Actually, I’m not any more successful than you in love. But from my own feelings, I never care about them spending my money or using my connections. My only bottom line is that my partner can’t deceive me or hide things from me. I think most people in this world are like this. So the matter hasn’t reached an irreparable point. You must think clearly.”
Tan Zhaoxin couldn’t help but remember the first time she had seen Yan Wei. It was in her first year of middle school, in a corner of the school’s sports field, surrounded by a few girls. Fortunately, a teacher had discovered it in time. Yan Wei had walked out of the crowd, her collar torn.
The second time she had seen Yan Wei was at the school gate after school. The corner of Yan Wei’s mouth was broken.
The third time, after the school’s parent-teacher conference, in the office, the teacher had asked Yan Wei why her parents hadn’t attended.
The day their relationship had taken a turn was the mid-term exam of their first year of middle school.
That was the year Yan Wei’s life had taken a turn. Accident, notice, dropping out, transferring, acting, becoming a movie queen.
Tan Zhaoxin had witnessed almost all of Yan Wei’s life from the age of twelve until now.
And because of this, she knew better than anyone: to be liked by someone like Yan Wei was how difficult, how lucky, and at the same time, how frightening.
Yan Wei’s love was too extreme.
It hurt others when it was cold, and it hurt herself when it was passionate.
So she understood better than anyone what Jiang Mi meant to Yan Wei.
Yan Wei had been silent all along.
She turned to look at the rain outside the window, pitter-patter, as if it were all dripping into her collar. She felt cold, but her heart was hot and restless.
After a long time, she finally spoke softly, “I have nothing.”
She didn’t know how to keep Jiang Mi.
How to make Jiang Mi stay by her side willingly, for a long, long time.
Tan Zhaoxin was also quiet for a moment.
Yan Wei had acted in too many dramas, and there were many romance dramas. She had interpreted every one of them impeccably. But Tan Zhaoxin knew that Yan Wei almost never really got into those roles—she acted for the audience, and she also acted for herself.
She pretended that she could feel, could empathize, but she never believed that there was such an unreserved feeling in this world.
So even when she was experiencing it, she was always cautious, even wary.
Tan Zhaoxin said, “Then do you think that between us, until now, we’ve only been bound by interests? If I go bankrupt now, will you immediately turn to another company? If you won’t, then this is called a bond.”
“Yan Wei, not all bonds will hurt you. Some bonds, once you accept them, will instead fill you, complete you.”
“Just like Jiang Mi. Has she ever gotten any actual benefits from you? Apart from your feelings, she has no other desires. This is called sincerity. It is purity. It is a rare kindness you have received, and it is also a blessing.”
Tan Zhaoxin knew that she had said a little too much, but in these past few days, and with some things she had heard from Jiang Yuying, she had a deeper understanding of Jiang Mi.
Someone like Jiang Mi was a rare find.
Her words, like a fine electric current, seeped into Yan Wei’s perception inch by inch, and finally gathered in her heart.
Sincerity and purity—were precisely the things she had never believed she could have.
“Those words just now, you can just treat them as me being nosy. Because what I’m about to say next is the real business.” Tan Zhaoxin’s side paused, and the sound of paper turning was heard. She seemed to have turned her head to give instructions to her secretary, and the call was briefly muted.
On this end, Yan Wei could almost hear her own somewhat impatient breathing.
She frowned and asked, “What is it?”
“Jiang Mi hasn’t asked about you at all these past two days,” Tan Zhaoxin’s tone was flat. “If you want to know why, you might as well go online and see for yourself. Yan Wei, no one will wait forever.”
Yan Wei’s gaze suddenly turned cold.
Just as the call ended, before she could search, Tan Zhaoxin had already sent a Weibo link.
She opened it.
It was a video posted by a big V: #JiangMiQiWenxiKissingScene##MiQiCP#, Blessing‘s latest spoiler exposed! It’s even a wet-body kissing scene!!! Sob sob Qi Wenxi, what luck!!! Jiang Mi is so good, help…
Before she had even opened the video, the moment she saw the caption, Yan Wei’s teeth had unconsciously clenched.
Yan Wei took a deep breath, and the video started to play automatically—in the dim light, water droplets dripped from the ends of Jiang Mi’s wet hair. She closed her eyes and held another woman in her arms.
The steam was hazy, the camera was shaking, and everything was so ambiguous it was suffocating.
Her knuckles instantly tensed, and her nails dug deep into her palm, a sharp pain, but it was far from the fierce fire that had suddenly ignited in her chest. That flame was almost about to burn through her reason, so much so that her limbs were letting out a silent scream.
She slammed the phone screen down on the sofa, as if by doing so, she could cut off that glaring image. But that image had already been branded in her mind, replaying over and over again.
A wave of cold rage swept over her, more violent than any heat she had ever experienced.
She grabbed her phone again, her fingertips trembling uncontrollably, and she slammed it into the comment section.
Those words of cheers, screams, and blessings were now like the most vicious curses, rushing into her sight one after another.
‘Ahhhh this is the dual-female-lead in my heart!’
‘They’re so compatible, please get married on the spot!’
‘Is there no one else who has shipped her and Yan Wei like me?’
‘What has Yan Wei’s image collapsed into?’
‘Qi Wenxi, go for it! I’m Xiao Li, I support MiQi!’
Every one of them was like a poisoned needle, densely pricking her nerves. She really wanted to see the expression on Jiang Mi’s face as she read these comments, but unfortunately, she couldn’t imagine it, and she couldn’t imagine it, because every thought made her so jealous she was going crazy.
What made her even more unable to calm down was that Tan Zhaoxin had quickly sent her a new message.
It was a behind-the-scenes video of Jiang Mi during filming.
The blogger asked, “Mimi, are there a lot of kissing scenes in this drama? I heard there will be more in a couple of days?”
“I can’t say,” Jiang Mi replied.
“Was the filming not smooth just now? You don’t seem very happy.”
Under the camera, Jiang Mi stopped, a little regretful. “Yes, actually… I don’t have much experience in this area. I’m planning to ask other teachers for advice.”
The blogger said with a smile, “But you look like you’re very good at kissing.”
Jiang Mi was very embarrassed and glanced at the camera, waved her hand, and used the excuse that she had to touch up her makeup. She ran away, saying, “I’m leaving, I’m leaving.”
This voice was like a sharp knife, fiercely cutting through Yan Wei’s heart.
She suddenly stood up and paced back and forth in the empty room, like a caged beast, her whole body exuding a cold and anxious aura. She remembered Jiang Mi’s warmth, remembered the passionate look in her eyes when she occasionally looked at her, remembered the unique, untouchable intimacy she had when she was by her side.
Those all belonged to her.
They could only be hers.
But now, there was another person, in the most public, and the most unbearable way, whose name was placed next to Jiang Mi’s, and the whole world was cheering for it.
A very strong desire for destruction was growing wildly in her heart.
She wanted to appear in front of Jiang Mi immediately, to confirm her belonging in the most direct way.
She wanted to erase all the traces that shouldn’t exist, to let everyone see clearly—the position by Jiang Mi’s side had always been hers alone.
A hint of a crazy, dark light flashed in her eyes. She picked up her phone and directly dialed the number that she knew by heart.
The waiting tone in the receiver rang once, and her breathing sank a little.
Until the call was answered, and Jiang Mi’s slightly hesitant “Hello?” came through, all of Yan Wei’s emotions seemed to have finally found a bursting outlet.
In the black car, the glass window blocked some of the rain.
The call was from a strange phone number.
Jiang Mi glanced at it, leaned back in her chair, and said lightly and firmly, “Teacher Yan.”
Jiang Mi had been waiting for this call for a long time.
She didn’t wait for Yan Wei to speak, but said another sentence, “I have a scene recently that I can’t act well no matter how I try. Do you have time to teach me?”
The air was silent.
Even more terrifying than the calm before a storm.
A few seconds.
The voice in the microphone was very low, like a taut string, with a coldness and a suppressed, extreme danger, giving Jiang Mi a response, “Come find me.”
