“Don’t worry, I’ll pay the taxes due. Tax evasion’s illegal—stupid to lose big over small gains. I won’t ruin my lifetime reputation over money; that’d make people die laughing.”
【You… make a good point. A model boss who leads by example.】 Chi Yumo’s mouth twitched.
“I’m a model boss who leads by example?” Shen Muxi stared at her with a grin.
【……】 Chi Yumo felt chills, sensing Shen Muxi was brewing some mischief.
“Yeah, you said it yourself. I’m a good boss, so you can’t slack as a good employee.” Shen Muxi fished her phone from the sofa crevice, swiped a few times, and Chi Yumo’s phone pinged with a message.
Chi Yumo pulled out her phone from her pocket. At the top of her WeChat was an unread message from Shen Muxi: [Image]
She tapped it open. It was a poster.
“A good employee treating a good boss to a play is only right, yeah? Next weekend you’re free, and I happen to be heading back to Yinzhou City then.”
Good boss Shen Muxi made a solid case; good employee Chi Yumo focused on the poster.
The poster’s text announced the premiere date and venue for the Jinhuai Provincial Drama Troupe’s original suspense play Startling Night, with a still from lead actress Cheng Xiangxiang.
She and Xiangxiang were friends; she checked Moments daily but hadn’t seen Xiangxiang post about the play.
In prior chats, Cheng Xiangxiang had mentioned rehearsing her first lead role since joining the troupe. Chi Yumo hadn’t pressed for details to avoid pressure, and Cheng Xiangxiang hadn’t elaborated.
“Your friends came all the way to Lingjiang to cheer you on. Don’t you think you should go to Yinzhou to support them in return?”
As Shen Muxi spoke, Chi Yumo zoomed in on the poster and spotted Cheng Xiangxiang’s Weibo ID watermark in the bottom right corner. No wonder she hadn’t seen it in her Moments feed.
Her Weibo alt account was just for checking trending news and such, with zero friends and a nickname that was nothing but a string of numbers, so she’d missed Cheng Xiangxiang’s post about the play.
But how had Shen Muxi seen it? Had she followed Cheng Xiangxiang’s account?
[This is Xiangxiang’s first time taking the lead role since graduation, and her first time performing on the stage of Jinhuai Grand Theater. It’s a huge milestone. I really should go support her. Which night works for you, Saturday or Sunday?]
“Sunday night,” Shen Muxi said as she stood up, her tone casual, as if saying—you invited me so sincerely, so I’ll deign to go.
Next weekend, from Saturday to Tuesday, Chi Yumo had four days free. Wednesday was the audition for Mina’s new song MV. If she passed, filming would happen by the end of the month or early next.
While Shen Muxi was in the bathroom, Chi Yumo searched for Startling Night in the ticketing app. She tapped into Sunday night’s show page, but all the good seats were gone. The remaining ones were either in the back rows or tucked into awkward corners.
She knew Jinhuai Grand Theater’s seating chart and actual layout inside out—which spots were truly prime and which looked good but weren’t, she had crystal clear in her mind.
She went back a step and checked Saturday’s show. Fewer tickets left than Sunday’s, and from the sales, attendance was already at eighty or ninety percent.
Just buy any two tickets?
Bad seats meant a subpar experience, and Shen Muxi would surely call her out for half-assing it.
Chi Yumo frowned, pondering which platforms to hit up later for tickets. Over her four years of university, she’d seen no fewer than twenty plays and musicals in theaters big and small across the province. Snagging hot tickets was a skill in itself.
It hit her belatedly that Shen Muxi hadn’t mentioned Cheng Xiangxiang by name once from start to finish—just “your friend.”
She could’ve gone completely under the radar by herself, so why drag her along? Could Shen Muxi really have designs on Xiangxiang?
Shen Muxi didn’t ask about the tickets. After coming back from the bathroom, she dropped the play topic entirely and shifted to Dino.
After chatting about Dino and the Unique shoot, Chi Yumo asked about Lin Yuan.
[What did you find out about that woman named Lin Yuan?]
Since the charity gala night, they’d agreed that any scrap of info about her mother—true or not—Shen Muxi would tell her right away, no need to ask. Since she hadn’t mentioned it, there was nothing.
The table was laden with home-cooked dishes, and Xu Liqin had tactfully gone downstairs for a stroll in the complex, waiting for Shen Muxi’s message before coming back up to clear.
Shen Muxi picked up a piece of stir-fried yellow beef, slurped it down, and stuck out her tongue from the spice. She couldn’t handle super spicy food, but she loved the flavor—more satisfying than salty, sweet, or sour.
After cooling the heat, she pointed at the beef with her chopsticks. “Aren’t you a beef fan? This whole plate’s yours.”
[…] Chi Yumo rarely ate spicy either, but she could take a bit more than Shen Muxi.
“Aunt Qin’s cooking is top-notch—you won’t find this elsewhere. Eat up.”
[…] It smelled amazing. Chi Yumo swallowed, then filled her bowl to the brim with steamed rice.
Seeing Chi Yumo’s rare obedient side, Shen Muxi felt a sudden wave of “good kid, easy to raise” satisfaction.
“We found her. Name’s exactly the two characters you said. She’s twenty-one, should’ve been a junior at Lingjiang Transportation University, but she took a leave of absence shortly after starting college. Adding it up, she’s been on leave for a year and a half now. If she takes this semester off too, the school will force her out.”
[Was she a contestant in some model competition?]
Shen Muxi shook her head. “No record of her in past contestant lists. But we heard from her high school classmates that a few years back, she did print modeling for several online clothing stores and worked as a model at a few photo studios, shooting promo portraits and such. All those photos have been taken down now, not a single one left. Probably after she hooked up with Li Longfeng, Li Longfeng had someone scrub them.”
Family member gravely ill, desperate for money, taking leave to work nonstop… then getting kept…
Such a familiar story.
Chi Yumo lowered her head, her thumb unconsciously digging into her index finger. Veins bulged slightly on her wrist, the vivid other shore flower tattoo looking like blood spilling wildly.
Shocking to the eye.
No, she was Shi Youwan’s lover, sure—but not a kept lover.
At least, not those two years.
Seeing her off, Shen Muxi used the serving chopsticks to drop a slice of stir-fried yam into her bowl. “The photo studio folks suggested she pitch herself to an entertainment company—said if she got lucky, she could be a small streamer, minor celeb, or join a girl group. One gig fee would make up for a year of hustling around. After that, she never went back to those studios.”
When Shen Muxi first heard Lin Yuan’s backstory, she’d felt real pity too. Cursed by bad luck, living hand-to-mouth, yet smart enough to get into a top school like Lingjiang Transportation University—she could’ve been a pillar of the nation on the broad road ahead.
“After the college entrance exam, her father’s condition worsened. He’s been hospitalized long-term, propped up on pricey imported meds. Her brother’s in high school, her mom’s juggling caregiving and odd jobs in housekeeping and cleaning, but wore herself out from overwork. So she had to take leave to help at home, look after her parents, let her brother focus on school.”
[Can we help her?] Purely on looks, vibe, and figure, Lin Yuan wasn’t inferior to some of the female artists under Shen Muxi.
Shen Muxi chewed her asparagus slowly, swallowed, took a sip of the mushroom shrimp soup, then went for some broccoli. “If you don’t eat soon, the hot dishes’ll go cold.”
Once Chi Yumo picked up her chopsticks again, she continued, “Nianhua talked to her, asked if she wanted to try entertainment. If she joined our company, as long as she could grind and schmooze, money wouldn’t be an issue. She could earn openly, then hire nurses and nannies for her parents fair and square. But she turned it down—said her life now is fine, doesn’t want to change.”
Was it not wanting change, fearing it… or not daring?
[Mu Xi-jie, I want to meet her.]
…
Lin Yuan’s father had liver cirrhosis, treated with meds for five long years already.
Liver cirrhosis is progressive. When diagnosed, Lin Yuan’s father was mid-to-late stage, but with aggressive treatment, it was controlled well—which also burned through the couple’s lifelong savings early on, emptying their coffers.
His cirrhosis was viral, with fast-replicating hepatitis that was highly active—not suitable for transplant.
By the year before last, complications piled up, and his health declined steadily.
In the shared ward, Chi Yumo first spotted Lin Yuan’s father, gaunt from illness, sitting in a wheelchair playing Chinese chess under the square table by the wall with another middle-aged man in patient garb.
“Uncle Lin, you let me win. After days of games, dozens of moves, I finally beat you once.”
“You’re improving.”
“Thanks to your guidance, Uncle Lin.”
Chi Yumo didn’t linger, pretending to pass by the door. After a short distance, she leaned against the wall with eyes closed, her mind filled with her grandmother’s face and voice.
—Silently, go home and sleep. Nurses patrol at night, and Grandma sleeps soundly, doesn’t get up.
—Silently’s here! Come over, let me introduce Zhang Nurse’s daughter. She comes weekends to pick up her mom after shift. Ten years younger than you, still in elementary.
—Winter’s here again. Wonder when the first snow falls this year? Silently, let’s build a snowman together then.
Footsteps shuffled busily in the corridor, approaching then receding, far then near. Until a light, small set of steps halted beside her—Chi Yumo opened her eyes. It was Lin Yuan, the one she’d been waiting for.
The day Nianhua approached her, Lin Yuan had guessed it involved Chi Yumo. But she had no clue why they kept coming.
To play savior?
She didn’t buy it.
No training, no skills in singing, dancing, instruments—beyond her looks, what did she have going?
Just being pretty enough to get scooped up by a top actress? Ridiculous.
A skill-less, broke girl signing with an entertainment company? It’d be jumping from one wolf’s den to another. Why bother, just to “betray” the volatile Fifth Miss who’d kept her for over two years, for an unknown path?
“So, you’re here to talk me into it too?” Lin Yuan said, then realized Chi Yumo was mute. “No need. I don’t know you, got nothing to say. Stop messing with my life.”
Chi Yumo could hardly connect this cool, aloof Alpha to the one gasping in the villa that day.
This one looked every bit the sharp-minded top student. No— she was one.
Shipping and Ocean Engineering at Lingjiang Transportation University—a national top-tier program full of talent.
Chi Yumo pulled out her tablet from her bag and typed: [Lin Yuan, your beloved major, your lofty dreams, that bright future—are you really okay abandoning it all?]
[Or have you fallen for her?]
