Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Illness comes like a mountain collapsing.
Especially after the original host had been delicate and weak for twenty-one years, her body recovered much slower than ordinary people.
After returning home, He Wei was bedridden for an entire day. She took a large handful of medicine and slept in a daze until evening before waking up groggily.
Night had already fallen. The room lights were off, and the streetlight outside shone in, reflecting a layer of light on the floor.
He Wei rubbed her slightly aching forehead, turned on the bedside lamp, then picked up her phone to check the time.
Past eight-thirty.
He Wei first replied to Yan Chen’s message: [Slept all day, headache. Got up to take medicine and will continue sleeping.] She controlled the degree of playing miserable well—not too excessive, yet not perfunctory.
Yan Chen should fall for this.
Sure enough, a reply quickly came from the other side: [Feeling better? Want to go to the hospital again?] He still naively thought He Wei had really come out of the hospital this morning.
He Wei got out of bed and poured a cup of hot water. After slowly drinking it, ten minutes had passed, and Yan Chen had already sent seven or eight more messages.
With the previous lesson in mind, he called her almost every minute this time.
He Wei tugged at the corner of her lips. Her throat burned painfully. She raised her hand to press her throat and coughed, then unhurriedly replied: [I’m going to sleep, good night.] After sending this message, He Wei ignored him. She had just tossed the phone aside to continue sleeping when the screen lit up again.
This time it was Cheng Nuo’s message—[Weiwei, I heard from my brother that you’re sick. How are you? Is it serious?]
Of course it was serious.
But Cheng Nuo was different from Yan Chen.
With the latter, she wished she could display all her miserable sides. As for the former, He Wei didn’t want to say anything that might make her worry.
She briefly explained: [Didn’t eat last night, then got a fever. I don’t know how I fainted, but I’m much better now.]
Cheng Nuo: [Do you still have medicine at home?]
He Wei: [Already took it.]
Cheng Nuo: [Really don’t need me to accompany you to see a doctor?]
It was late at night, so He Wei immediately refused: [No, I’m about to sleep.]
Through the phone screen, Cheng Nuo couldn’t hear her voice. After confirming several times, she finally felt somewhat relieved and hurriedly urged her to rest well.
He Wei’s head throbbed.
She lay flat on the bed, thinking that after recovering from this illness, she must persist in exercising and improve her health.
She really couldn’t handle this delicate constitution.
Forget fighting monsters and abusing scum—she might end up abusing herself instead.
The breathing in the room was noticeably heavier than before, as if a man were lying there.
He Wei closed her eyes to gather sleepiness. Before sleep came, her phone rang first.
She weakly fumbled for the phone, squinted at it, then habitually swiped to answer.
A male voice quickly came through, “Weiwei, you’re not asleep, right?”
The voice sounded somewhat familiar.
He Wei was muddled from the fever, so she didn’t recognize it at first. Only after glancing at the caller ID did she respond, “Brother Cheng Yan.”
“I’m calling to inform you that you passed the audition for ‘Imperial Princess.’”
He Wei took several seconds to react. She froze for a moment, then curved her lips. “Thank you, Brother Cheng Yan.”
“And also, Song Zhenzhen’s second female lead role has been withdrawn.”
He Wei asked knowingly, “Why?”
“The investor requested a change.”
Cheng Yan clicked his tongue. “We’re all people mixing in this circle, why take things so seriously?”
He Wei said nothing.
Only then did Cheng Yan realize his wording was inappropriate—he had accidentally included He Wei as well. He laughed awkwardly. “Not including you.”
He Wei coughed too.
Her throat was really itchy.
Cheng Yan got straight to the point again. “Originally I didn’t tell you that you passed the audition because I was thinking about whether to move you to the second female lead. But after thinking it over, the fourth female lead suits you better.”
The medicine was taking effect. He Wei felt drowsy and responded half-heartedly.
“Last year, near the end of the year, there was a female actress who became famous by playing a villain. I thought maybe you could take that path too.”
“…Mm.”
Hearing her respond, Cheng Yan didn’t hold back and continued, “When the time comes, I’ll have the screenwriter give you more scenes.”
“…Mm.”
“There’s a backup candidate for the second female lead. If this week’s audition goes well, it’ll probably be finalized.”
“…Mm.”
“Filming should start around next week. I’ll notify you then. Rest well these next few days and recover your health…”
This time, before she responded, the man beside him frowned. “Stop making noise.”
Cheng Yan was stunned, not understanding where he was being noisy.
He was simply doing a director’s normal notification to an actor, and this was even special treatment for He Wei. For ordinary people, he wouldn’t bother informing them.
Cheng Yan glanced at Yan Huai.
The latter’s face had been gloomy all day, but now his expression eased a bit. “She fell asleep.”
Cheng Yan: “……”
After staring in shock for a full minute, Cheng Yan hung up the phone. “Weren’t you going to let her go?”
Yan Huai frowned. “Mm.”
“Then why are you still paying so much attention to her?”
Yan Huai still frowned. “I’m not.”
Yeah right.
Cheng Yan smiled ambiguously, too lazy to expose him.
The days ahead were going to be interesting, Cheng Yan thought happily.
He Wei had IV drips for three days, then took medicine for another four days.
After a week passed, her cold finally almost recovered.
This week was the most stable and comfortable week she had spent, not needing to deal with Yan Chen, nor worrying about running into the vicious female supporting character making a move against her.
On Sunday night, He Wei held her laptop and watched a short film.
The film was only about twenty minutes long, but by the end He Wei still felt her eyes hurt.
She had slept too much these past few days and hadn’t gone out to see sunlight, so her eyes couldn’t quite adapt to the brightness of the computer screen.
At eight-thirty, she received a message from the campus magazine’s chief editor inviting her to shoot illustrations.
He Wei remembered Cheng Yan’s words and politely declined.
The next day, it was a new week.
Sure enough, she received Cheng Yan’s call, informing her that filming would start on Tuesday.
Filming started Tuesday, and on Monday night there was a crew opening banquet, prepared specifically for several main actors, meant to let everyone get familiar and adjust to each other.
He Wei was unfortunately among them. She wanted to refuse, but if she really did, she would definitely be rumored to be acting like a diva.
With no other choice, that evening He Wei still arrived on time.
Present were three directors, three investors, one producer, two screenwriters, and seven main actors.
Thirteen people, eleven men and five women.
After only half an hour of toasting and drinking, He Wei felt a wave of nausea.
She had taken a lot of medicine these past few days; her mouth tasted bitter, and her stomach seemed thinner than an ordinary person’s.
She felt really uncomfortable.
He Wei found an opening to slip out of the private room and rushed into the restroom to wash her face.
She hadn’t actually drunk many glasses.
Cheng Yan probably knew her body was weak, so both openly and secretly he blocked quite a few for her.
He Wei stayed in the restroom for a few minutes. When she came out, she got a bottle of mineral water from a waiter and rinsed her mouth several times, until the whole bottle was emptied.
Yan Chen’s call came in just at that moment.
He Wei’s voice was a bit weak, slightly breathy. “Hello?”
“He He, are you at home now?”
“The crew’s opening banquet. I’m at the dinner gathering.”
“These kinds of places aren’t very safe. Be careful yourself. Don’t drink just because someone offers you alcohol. When those people get drunk, they can do anything.”
He Wei responded.
Yan Chen gave a few more reminders, and after a few minutes, the call ended.
He Wei actually felt reassured today, because the system hadn’t reminded her of any abuse points.
She threw the empty mineral water bottle into the trash, then stepped back into the private room in her high heels.
This time, it wasn’t until eleven at night that the dinner finally ended.
During those three hours, He Wei saw the middle-aged balding investor beside her reach his hand into a female actress’s skirt four times.
The two of them—one willing to hit, the other willing to take it—He Wei treated it as if she hadn’t seen anything.
With Cheng Yan protecting her, she wasn’t taken advantage of much at the dinner table.
When it ended, one investor joked to Cheng Yan, “Director Cheng, is this your little girlfriend? You’ve been protecting her the whole time, she hasn’t even had a few drinks?”
Cheng Yan smiled. “Younger sister.”
Everyone smiled ambiguously, understanding.
He Wei didn’t explain further. It was better if these people misunderstood; that way they probably wouldn’t have any ideas about her.
At eleven fifteen, the group dispersed, each going their own way.
Two actresses directly followed the investors upstairs to book rooms. He Wei had gone through this many times already and was long used to such things, not even sparing them an extra glance.
Stomach acid surged up again. He Wei ran to the restroom and vomited everything she had eaten that night.
By the time she left the club, it was even later.
Recently the weather had warmed. He Wei wasn’t wearing much—inside a white shirt and black casual trousers, with a trench coat over it, and seven or eight centimeter high heels on her feet.
Her ankles were bare. Fortunately, the temperature had been high these past few days, and even the wind carried a bit of warmth.
He Wei had just been about to go to the roadside to hail a taxi when someone called out behind her, “Miss He?”
He Wei stopped, then turned around.
It was one of the investors from today’s dinner, looking about thirty, fairly presentable.
But who knew whether under that layer of skin was a person or a ghost.
He Wei nodded at him, neither cold nor warm.
The investor spoke again, “It’s so late, I’ll send you back?”
“No need, thank you.”
“How did you meet Director Cheng?”
He Wei organized her thoughts, not yet answering, when the man suddenly leaned close and asked in a low voice, “You slept with him and he only gave you the fourth female lead?”
He misunderstood the meaning of “younger sister” from Cheng Yan.
He Wei’s expression turned cold.
The investor had clearly drunk quite a bit. As he spoke, the smell of alcohol drifted over with the wind. “You sleep with me one night, I’ll give you the second female lead, how about that?”
“It’s that campus drama that’s been very popular recently. The second female lead hasn’t been decided yet.”
As he spoke, his hand had already reached over. “You look so pure, more suitable for campus dramas…”
He Wei frowned and stepped back half a step. “Please show some respect.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the system prompted: “Host, run quickly!”
Before He Wei could react, the man’s groping hand reached over again and grabbed her hand. “If I show respect, how can I give you the second female lead, right?”
The smell on him was truly unpleasant. He Wei’s brows furrowed deeper, and she retched.
The difference in strength between men and women was already huge, not to mention the original host’s setting was a soft girl without the strength to truss a chicken.
He Wei struggled, but couldn’t break free no matter what.
Her breathing quickened. She didn’t have time to think further; she lifted her knee and drove it straight toward the man’s crotch.
The man couldn’t hold back a howl.
Taking advantage of the few seconds his grip loosened, He Wei quickly broke free and ran toward the roadside.
The man wasn’t easy to deal with either, chasing while shouting, “Stop! If I catch you, I won’t spare you!”
The man behind had long strides and wasn’t slow.
While running, He Wei kicked off the obstructive high heels and simply ran barefoot to the roadside.
No taxis passed by.
He Wei’s heartbeat sped up. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a white Maserati parked not far away, the license plate familiar.
It was Cheng Yan’s car.
He Wei hurried over, yanked open the front passenger door and got in. She hadn’t recovered yet, her voice slightly breathless with a hint of crying. Her hand instinctively grabbed the arm of the man in the driver’s seat. “Cheng Yan gege…”
Cheng Yan in the back seat sobered up halfway from the alcohol: “……”
Little sister, you grabbed the wrong person.