Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Shi Tuo looked at Lan Yifang, who was gripping the door handle at the entrance of the trailer.

She was so nervous that she was almost trembling, but still, her face wore a strong, awkward smile as she nervously said, "An Jie is sleeping."

Shi Tuo looked at her.

Before coming here, he had wondered if he was overthinking things. After all, it wasn’t the first time she hadn’t answered his calls, and Lan Yifang’s stuttering on the phone might just be a habitual speech impediment. He had also seen the filming location updates in a fan management group today, with their photos being blocked, so he didn’t think anything unusual was happening.

But now, looking into Lan Yifang's eyes, he was certain that something had happened to An Ye.

The trailer was pitch black, and Lan Yifang’s hand gripping the door handle was so tight that her knuckles turned white.

"Xiao Lan." Shi Tuo took a second to steady himself before suppressing his impatience, "You can hold the door handle today, but what about tomorrow or the day after?"

Lan Yifang bit her lip.

She had a natural fear of Shi Tuo, maybe because he was so tall and always wore black, or maybe because he was always so calm and collected, always in control.

"Her status is here, and if this problem isn’t solved, you can block the door for one day, but not for a lifetime." Shi Tuo took a step forward.

"You..." Lan Yifang hesitated as she looked at him.

He spoke as if he already knew what had happened to An Ye, but in her heart, she knew that An Ye’s madness when she was immersed in a role was something only she and An Ye herself knew.

She also knew very well that she couldn’t hide this much longer.

Could Shi Tuo be trusted?

Would Shi Tuo run away when he saw An Ye in that state?

Lan Yifang bit her lip, staring at the man in front of her, whose face wasn’t looking good and who seemed ready to force his way in at any moment.

The day An Ye had asked her to go downstairs to meet Shi Tuo was the first time she had learned about this man. She knew An Ye had two emergency contacts, one of whom had never appeared, and she had never heard this name from An Ye or Wang Shanshan in their daily conversations.

An Ye had described him as: Shi Tuo is someone who seems to be able to do anything.

Such an abstract description had made Lan Yifang understand a bit when she saw Shi Tuo for the first time.

He was like this—he looked like someone who shouldn’t know anything, but still, he could stand there and ask her with such authority, “How long can you block the door?”

Yan Wan didn’t have this kind of aura. Yan Wan was all talk but no action. If he knew about An Ye’s condition, he would immediately hold a press conference, crying his heart out, and maybe even team up with Wang Shanshan to send An Ye to Jiuyuan for a 24-hour livestream.

An Ye had been mumbling in the car the whole day, from dawn to dusk.

Her condition had indeed worsened. Lan Yifang didn’t even know if An Ye would be able to film normally tomorrow.

Lan Yifang finally loosened her grip on the door handle just a little.

It was only a tiny bit, but the next second, she completely lost control of the door handle. Shi Tuo was much quicker, and in a flash, he stepped into the trailer.

"Ah!" Lan Yifang let out a single sound, hurriedly rushing in after him.

Shi Tuo wasn’t as calm as Lan Yifang thought. Not showing emotions was one of his signature skills, but when he burst into the trailer and heard An Ye mumbling in a completely emotionless voice, his hands and feet went numb.

"An Ye." He stood at the door and called out softly.An Ye ignored him.

"Jiu Jiu." He changed his address.

An Ye still didn't respond.

Lan Yifang, who was behind Shi Tuo, nervously blocked the door. In her mind, scenes of Shi Tuo leaving, Shi Tuo filming a video, Shi Tuo holding a press conference, Shi Tuo turning dark and eventually teaming up with Yan Wan—about a hundred thousand words of melodramatic plot—flashed through her thoughts. She stared eagerly at Shi Tuo, who stood at the door for what seemed like ten minutes before finally moving forward.

His legs were trembling, his back stiff, and his hands were tightly gripping.

In that moment, Lan Yifang pressed her hand firmly over her mouth to stifle the sobs.

But a little sound still slipped through.

Shi Tuo was startled by the sound and stood still for a while, looking back at Lan Yifang.

Neither of them spoke immediately.

"You..." Shi Tuo’s eyes were red, and his voice was hoarse. "You can go off for the day. Thank you."

He didn’t ask her why she was like this, didn’t panic. Lan Yifang watched as he squatted down in front of An Ye, helping her fix her hair, which had become messy after lying stiffly for two to three hours.

"I..." Lan Yifang held back a sob. "I’m staying at a hotel just outside the set. If you need anything, call me."

"Mm." Shi Tuo didn’t look at her. He quietly thanked her. "Thank you."

Lan Yifang wanted to say a few more things, like not letting An Ye meet outsiders in this condition, or that An Ye might not be able to hear outside sounds in her state, and that there was a low-fat meal in the fridge in case An Ye was hungry.

But in the end, she swallowed her words.

She felt it might not be necessary.

Shi Tuo, to An Ye, was indeed someone she trusted even more than Wang Shanshan.

She suddenly felt certain of this.

An Ye's mumbling, although very soft and flat, was still very clear. She had been repeating it for two to three hours, and her voice was hoarse. She was still repeating the words from Jia Jia's mother.

"Jia Jia is usually very well-behaved, but this one flaw—no matter how much you teach, it just can't be fixed. I didn't expect Teacher An to run into this. This really..."

After hearing this for the second time, Shi Tuo finally understood the completely punctuation-less sentence, and his heart felt heavy.

He was in the car that day. He knew that An Ye acted because she thought of herself.

"You’re not Jia Jia." He gently patted her head. The heater was on in the trailer, and she was wrapped tightly, but her face and neck were covered in sweat.

An Ye ignored him, maintaining her stiff, up-and-down swaying posture.

Shi Tuo went to the bathroom and brought a dry towel. He gently wiped her face and then her neck.

An Ye didn’t move, her eyes not even twitching.

It was so hot. Her forehead and neck were sticky with sweat. Shi Tuo wiped carefully, afraid of pulling at her already messy hair. After wiping back and forth twice, he closed his eyes.

An Ye continued mumbling. Only when he was wiping her neck did she, slightly irritated by the itch, pull her neck back.

Shi Tuo took three deep breaths.He got up and went to the fridge to grab some ice cubes, wrapped them in a towel, and rubbed it on his face. It felt cold, so he added another layer of towel, touched it again, and still felt it wasn’t cold enough. After a few more attempts, An Ye had already gone through five cycles of her mumbling before he finally got the temperature right.

He took it over and gently touched An Ye's face.

An Ye shuddered, and the sentence she was halfway through got stuck. She paused, then started over from the beginning.

Shi Tuo stood there waiting, and when she was almost finished with her sentence, he touched her face again.

For six times, An Ye couldn't finish her sentence. Shi Tuo touched her at different moments, causing her words to break and scatter.

On the seventh time, as soon as she started speaking, Shi Tuo froze the towel again. The ice cubes had been in the towel for too long, and when he applied it, a drop of ice water fell onto her neck, making it feel extremely cold. Her eyes widened instantly.

"Sorry." Shi Tuo realized it and turned around to wring out the towel.

An Ye: "..."

She swayed like a quail for two minutes before beginning to recite her lines.

This time, Shi Tuo didn’t freeze her anymore. He asked, "Do you want to take off your jacket? You're all sweaty, and if you keep it on for the whole night, you’ll probably need to wash your hair."

An Ye: "..."

She slowly quieted down, stopped swaying, and seemed like a wandering soul who, after being triggered, looked back while leaving home in the empty space.

"Actually..." Shi Tuo sat down beside An Ye's bed and smiled down at her, "I have quite a lot of experience dealing with these things."

An Ye: "..."

"You hold this." Shi Tuo put the towel, still cold but now wrung out, into her hands. "It should feel a bit better."

An Ye held the cold towel, gently tilting her head.

"Right?" Shi Tuo smiled, patting her head. "A gentle external stimulus like this will make you feel better."

An Ye's hand, which was holding the towel, slowly tightened, covering the cold towel with her entire palm.

Shi Tuo saw it and smiled again, continuing to pat her head.

"Not scared anymore." He said, "I’m here."

An Ye froze.

The three words were like some kind of switch. It felt like someone had punched her in the back of the head, and her brain buzzed, only hearing those three words: "Not scared anymore." The voice was so familiar, and the words were so familiar.

Her hands started shaking.

Her vision began to blur.

When the tears fell, she knew Shi Tuo had gotten up and pulled her into his arms.

When she sobbed, she heard Shi Tuo lightly sniff.

Damn crybaby.

She thought.

What’s wrong with her?

She thought.“I…” She spoke and immediately felt a sharp pain in her throat, like the pain of reciting lines for eighteen years straight. Furrowing her brow, she said, “My throat hurts.”

“Do you want some water?” Shi Tuo asked.

“Lozenge,” An Ye said as she fumbled in her grey cocoon-like outfit, pulling out a lozenge. She put it in her mouth in a hugging posture.

The cool mint flavor rushed to her head. She crushed the hard candy, letting the pieces dissolve without swallowing them, waiting until a cool sensation spread around her throat. Then, she lightly tapped her chin on Shi Tuo’s shoulder.

“Doesn’t your back hurt?” she asked. “Your core training is really good.”

He was bent over hugging her, probably in a comforting manner, but not holding her too tightly, so it was a bit tiring. An Ye even thought that if this posture was captured on camera, it would probably look nice, though it was tough on the waist.

Shi Tuo sighed and straightened up.

An Ye grabbed another lozenge and popped it into her mouth, her face showing little expression.

Shi Tuo’s face also had little expression.

They were both awkward, especially since his eyes were still red.

“You…” An Ye chewed on the lozenge, hesitated, and then spoke, “Does your mom have this symptom too?”

“No,” Shi Tuo said. “I’ve read a lot of materials over the years, plus I’m seeing a therapist myself.”

An Ye looked at him.

“Insomnia,” Shi Tuo explained. “And anxiety.”

An Ye still looked at him for a while before asking, “The symptoms I had just now, that’s probably a mental illness, right?”

“What did your primary doctor say?” Shi Tuo asked.

An Ye paused. “He doesn’t know…”

“He only handles my KLS. I’ve never told him about the other symptoms,” An Ye said.

The rest of what she wanted to say was hard to voice. Even though they had reunited and cried together, she still didn’t want to say those things aloud.

It was just too tragic.

She hadn’t even realized how badly things had gone until now.

But Shi Tuo just kept looking at her without saying anything.

“When my symptoms flare up, only Xiao Lan has seen it. It happens when I’m filming. During breaks, I just lie down and rehearse my lines. It doesn’t affect the filming schedule.” An Ye finally spoke up. “Just like KLS, once I leave that environment, I’m a normal person.”

“You’re not abnormal,” Shi Tuo interjected. “It’s just emotional fluctuations.”

An Ye didn’t respond.

Who’s emotional fluctuations are like this?

Who has emotional fluctuations that make their assistant lock the door, and even their mother doesn’t dare to talk about it?

She pulled out another lozenge.

Before she could put it in her mouth, Shi Tuo intercepted it. He took it and tossed it into his own mouth.

An Ye: “...Are you going to steal my lozenges too?”“I talked to a client for four hours today.” Shi Tuo reached out and asked her for another piece. “I was the one doing all the talking the whole time.”

An Ye lowered her head, dug into her pocket. Her cocoon-like jacket was custom-made with several pockets, like a machine cat with everything inside. She pulled out a box of ginseng, opened it, and carefully gave him a piece.

Shi Tuo: “……”

He wanted to rub her head again.

But she was quite awake now, and if he touched her, she could probably crush him, just like when she tapped her chin on his shoulder earlier.

They each took a piece of fine ginseng.

“How did you come here today?” With the childlike atmosphere of sharing snacks, An Ye finally felt her soul return and asked.

It was still early, only a little past 7 in the evening.

“I originally wanted to call you to confirm the time for the night after tomorrow.” Shi Tuo chewed on the ginseng, straightened up, and walked to the kitchen. “But you didn’t answer when I called, and when I called Lan Yifang, her tone wasn’t quite right.”

An Ye also sat up, took off her cocoon jacket.

Sure enough, she was drenched in sweat.

She still remembered Shi Tuo telling her that if she kept it on all night, she’d have to wash her hair in the morning.

…

“I’m free the night after tomorrow.” An Ye tilted her head and looked at Shi Tuo, who was inspecting her fridge. When he took out a box of chicken wings, she called out, “Hey, I really can’t eat this today. I had a chicken leg for lunch, with the skin.”

Shi Tuo glanced at her, put the chicken wings back, and pulled out a box of what looked like very unappetizing and huge portioned fat-burning meals.

“You didn’t have dinner?” An Ye watched him heat up the fat-burning meal, with an expression of disdain, as he divided the meal into two portions.

“I came straight after work,” Shi Tuo handed her the plate.

“Couldn’t you just order some takeout? Why take mine?” An Ye grumbled, stuffing a piece of chicken breast into her mouth.

“You can’t finish it anyway,” Shi Tuo added a heap of hot sauce to his portion just to be able to swallow the meal.

She really was stingy, not once mentioning that the chicken wings could have been split between the two of them.

“Let’s find a place the night after tomorrow to deal with the contract termination. I’ll bring my assistant, it’s inconvenient to go to your house.” Shi Tuo waited for An Ye to slowly chew and swallow the dry, cardboard-like chicken breast before asking.

“You choose, just let me know in advance.” An Ye ate another bite of boiled egg, then hesitated and looked up. “Do I need to let your assistant know we already know each other?”

“Do we need to?” Shi Tuo asked in return.

An Ye smiled, “I’m just worried it might be inconvenient for your work. Being childhood friends with a female star is not exactly something to be proud of and publicize.”

Shi Tuo didn’t respond.

This was probably not the first time An Ye casually mentioned that she didn’t think being a female star was something to be proud of, or that she found it even embarrassing.

Shi Tuo poked at the mashed potatoes and asked, in a tone that didn’t seem too intentional, “Jiu Jiu, have you ever thought about seeing a therapist again? A counseling type, not a psychiatrist like Dr. Zuo.”