Chapter 45

Chapter 45

Until after eleven o’clock, He Wei still hadn’t come up with any conclusion.

Time spent indulging always passes quickly. The director ordered a dozen beers, and a few people drank and sang; two hours passed just like that.

The alcohol was only meant to liven up the atmosphere. None of them were very old, and before taking on this drama they weren’t even considered part of the industry, so they still couldn’t fully let loose.

A dozen beers totaled sixteen cans. Seven or eight people in the group had only drunk half of them.

He Wei was afraid that drinking would cause trouble, so she only took a symbolic few sips.

At 11:15, under the urging of his wife’s third phone call, the director finally ended the crew’s first celebration for the start of filming.

He Wei went to the restroom again.

Although she hadn’t drunk much, the private room was dimly lit and the air wasn’t well ventilated; staying inside for too long made her feel somewhat uncomfortable.

He Wei washed her face with cold water. After her head completely cleared, she sent Yan Huai a WeChat message.

The reply came fairly quickly: 【B2.】

He was referring to the parking garage.

Two hours had passed, and this man had become increasingly cold toward her.

He Wei curled her lips slightly, put her phone away, and wound her way out of the club.

The parking spots in the B2 parking garage were all reserved; at this hour there weren’t many cars parked.

The vast parking garage was as bright as daylight, with a few luxury cars scattered sparsely.

Yan Huai’s black car was the most inconspicuous.

He Wei opened the front passenger door, and just as she was about to get in, the driver Xiao Wu in the driver’s seat coughed and said, “Miss He, you should sit in the back.”

So he actually knew her surname was He.

He Wei smiled at him and then moved to sit in the back seat.

Yan Huai was sitting on the other side, eyes closed; it was unclear whether he was asleep or just feigning sleep.

He Wei didn’t make a sound, and she closed the door much more softly.

After sitting properly, she leaned forward and told Xiao Wu her home address: “Go…”

Before she could finish speaking, her hand was suddenly grabbed. Yan Huai hadn’t even opened his eyes: “Go to my house.”

He Wei’s shoulders instantly stiffened.

She wasn’t a three-year-old child; she understood better than anyone what those words meant.

He Wei’s lips moved slightly, her upper lip touching her lower lip, but she still didn’t say the words of refusal.

Seeing that He Wei had no objection, Xiao Wu nodded and drove toward Guan Hai Yuan.

He Wei sat back down. She lightly leaned against the seat and turned her head to look at the man beside her.

Streetlights outside the car window flashed past, casting his facial features in deep and shallow shadows, indistinct and dim.

The man’s shirt and suit were perfectly neat, with not a single wrinkle. The corners of his mouth naturally curved into a faint arc.

At this moment, he indeed looked sufficiently ascetic.

As for what exactly lay beneath that ascetic, self-restrained appearance, it was impossible to tell.

He Wei pursed her lips slightly, feeling an inexplicable tension.

Her heartbeat suddenly quickened, as if receiving some kind of signal, and even her eyelids began twitching uncontrollably.

At that moment, her phone vibrated.

He Wei took it out and looked. It was several WeChat messages from Yan Qing.

Yan Qing: 【Weiwei, I received an invitation for a variety show here, but it hasn’t been decided yet whether I should take it. Let’s take a look first.】 There was also a file attached afterward.

It was several megabytes in size. He Wei directly used mobile data to download it.

Yan Qing continued sending messages: 【The file lists the proposed invited guests. This variety show is being produced for the first time this year, so we don’t know what the actual effect will be.】

Yan Qing: 【The production team told me that you need to reserve two days a week—Thursday and Friday—for filming. There are a total of ten episodes. The first two episodes are filmed overseas, and the remaining eight are filmed domestically. Each episode is in a different city, which is quite exhausting, so I also need to ask for your opinion.】

After typing so much, she seemed tired, so Yan Qing simply sent a voice message instead:

“At first I didn’t plan to let you take variety shows. But I saw that the campus drama you accepted doesn’t have a packed schedule—Wednesday to Friday every week are completely free—so I didn’t directly reject it this time.”

“Also, this kind of reality show is relatively easy to build a persona. However, correspondingly, for someone like you who’s a newcomer, the pay per episode won’t be very high.”

Yan Qing: “But I’m also worried it might be too exhausting for you. Think it over carefully these next few days. I’m asking the production team who else is interested in joining. We’ll decide based on the situation.”

He Wei replied very sincerely: 【Thank you, Sister Qing.】

After replying, she finally opened the file to take a look.

The variety show was called “Let’s Travel Together”. There wasn’t much content in it—only a dozen or so provisional filming locations listed.

He Wei had no impression of this show at all.

She didn’t intend to ask the system for help either, and after roughly browsing through it, she closed the interface.

Another message from Yan Qing came in: 【Did you look at it?】

He Wei: 【I did.】

【What do you think?】

【I think it’s pretty good.】

He Wei truly thought it was pretty good.

Although there was no information in the files she had read about this show, just from its concept and theme, it should be able to attract a portion of viewers.

Of course, the most important thing was still the participating guests.

This program was set to have five to six guests. If all of them were people with little recognition like He Wei, then the show would probably flop badly.

She had watched quite a few variety shows before. Since it was a variety show, it needed to include both traffic celebrities and one or two newcomers mixed in—this made the entertainment effect stronger.

Clearly, He Wei belonged to that “one or two newcomers.”

Yan Qing: 【I also think it’s okay. Mainly I felt your schedule is empty anyway, and it’s not like I can arrange another drama for you right now. But I’m also worried you might get too tired… alright, I’ll wait for news from the production team.】

The two chatted a bit more.

A few minutes after ending the conversation, Xiao Wu parked the car in front of the villa at Guan Hai Yuan.

“President Yan, Miss He, we’ve arrived.”

He Wei turned and looked at Yan Huai.

He seemed to have truly fallen asleep earlier; only after hearing Xiao Wu speak did he lift his eyelids slightly. He gave a faint, indifferent “mm,” then released He Wei’s hand and got out of the car.

He Wei thanked Xiao Wu, and just as she stepped out of the car, Yan Huai grabbed her hand.

He lowered his head and inhaled lightly at her neck. “You drank alcohol?”

Even though the smell of alcohol on him was clearly stronger, he still managed to detect the scent on her.

He Wei raised her wrist and sniffed it. There was indeed a faint smell of smoke and alcohol carried over from the private room.

She nodded and honestly said, “I only had a few sips.”

Yan Huai gave a soft “mm,” and pulled her toward the villa. “Drink less in the future.”

“…Mm.”

He Wei didn’t take those words to heart.

Although she wasn’t the kind of office worker who relied on drinking to secure clients, in a place like the entertainment industry, an artist’s status was ultimately low.

Especially for someone like her, a bottom-tier nobody with no standing whatsoever.

Yan Huai had drunk quite a bit today, but wasn’t too drunk. As soon as he entered the house, he loosened his tie.

Aunt Han was getting older and always went to rest right at ten o’clock, but she knew Yan Huai had a social engagement tonight, so she had already prepared sober-up soup and left it in the kitchen.

He Wei also didn’t expect Yan Huai to go get it himself. She went to the kitchen and reheated the sober-up soup. By the time she poured it into a bowl and brought it out, five minutes had already passed.

Yan Huai had already gone upstairs.

The first-floor living room was empty, only the faint, slightly heavy smell of alcohol lingering in the air.

He Wei carried the sober-up soup upstairs.

There weren’t many rooms on the second floor. Although her sense of direction wasn’t great, she only pushed open the wrong door once before accurately finding Yan Huai’s room.

The room was spacious. The main light wasn’t on—only a desk lamp was lit.

He Wei glanced away and noticed the bathroom door was closed. The door and wall were semi-transparent glass, and she could see a faint silhouette moving inside.

She swallowed hard, heavily, and after placing the sober-up soup on the bedside table, she was just about to leave when the person inside spoke: “He Wei.”

He Wei froze in place and didn’t respond.

“Come here.”

“……”

He Wei’s expression tightened as she stood still without moving.

“I haven’t taken my clothes off. Come here.”

Only then did the tight corner of He Wei’s mouth relax slightly.

She stood there for nearly half a minute more, thinking Yan Huai might need something he forgot, before she walked to the door and knocked. “What do you want?”

The next second, the door was opened from inside.

Yan Huai indeed hadn’t taken his clothes off. He was still wearing a white shirt and black suit pants. His tie had already been pulled off and thrown onto the sofa in the downstairs living room, and several buttons of his shirt were undone.

He looked, in fact, almost impeccably proper.

Yet He Wei instinctively wanted to step back. Just as she moved half a step, her wrist was seized and she was dragged into the bathroom.

Yan Huai’s eyes were deep, his gaze landing on her slightly widened eyes from shock. Her eyelashes were long, making those eyes look especially bright and striking.

He Wei was truly frightened.

Her eardrums thumped heavily, filled entirely with the sound of her own panicked heartbeat.

Yan Huai’s Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed. His hand loosened, sliding down along He Wei’s wrist, then stopping at the hem of her skirt.

He Wei pressed herself back against the wall.

The wall was cold. Her entire body trembled.

She didn’t dare look down, yet she could clearly feel her skirt being gently lifted.

Yan Huai leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Give it to me.”

That voice was low and hoarse, far too seductive. For a few seconds, He Wei’s mental defenses nearly collapsed. Just as her mind heated up and she was about to give in, a line from the system suddenly echoed in her ear: “Congratulations, Host, for achieving the hundred-day achievement.”

He Wei faintly felt a sharp pain somewhere in her body. Her breathing quickened, and she hurriedly grabbed Yan Huai’s hand that was causing trouble under her skirt. “N-no… don’t…”

Normally she could stay calm, but the trauma from her previous life was simply too deep—so deep that she wasn’t ready to try again so easily.

Although He Wei also knew the last time wasn’t actually because of that reason that she reset the timeline, the memory of that night of sex was still painfully vivid. Every bit of pain had been real.

Who would actually cry during something like that?

Yet that night, He Wei had cried the entire time. She couldn’t relate at all to those romance novels describing “pain mixed with pleasure” or “shy yet wanting more.” All she could feel was real, undeniable pain.

Just thinking about it made her scalp tingle. Her eyes grew warm, and she said softly, “Yan Huai… can we not do this?”

Yan Huai slightly lifted his gaze. The double eyelid crease of his eyes was deep, the outer corners slightly raised, his gaze filled with desire—and confusion.

He Wei pulled down her skirt, her voice trembling with tears in it: “Let’s… never do this again.”

Yan Huai: “……”

He Wei’s fingers gripping his hand were shaking.

Her eyelashes were trembling too.

Although Yan Huai didn’t know why He Wei said that, he could tell she was very afraid.

Afraid—and unwilling.

Yan Huai frowned, his voice turning colder. “What did Yan Chen do to you?”

Yan Chen usually played hard; Yan Huai worried he had messed with He Wei.

He Wei shook her head.

What the hell did Yan Chen have to do with this.

Yan Huai’s gaze stayed fixed on the girl’s pale face. After several seconds, he asked, “He doesn’t work?”

He Wei: “……”

It wasn’t that Yan Chen didn’t work—it was that she couldn’t.

She couldn’t tell Yan Huai the truth, so she only bit her lip and stayed silent.

After more than half a minute of silence, He Wei finally whispered, “I’m not ready yet…”

Yan Huai could tell she truly didn’t want it.

Even though he was struggling to hold back, he couldn’t force her. He let out a heavy breath and said, “Mm. Then we won’t do it.”

As the words fell, Yan Huai withdrew his hand.

Only then did He Wei breathe a sigh of relief. She casually adjusted her skirt, just about to slip away, when she was suddenly pulled back into an embrace. Yan Huai precisely grabbed her wrist again and moved her hand downward. His voice grew even hoarser as he said, “Be good. Help me.”

The two of them tossed around until nearly one o’clock.

Although He Wei got what she wanted, it came at a severe cost to her stamina.

Her hands felt as if they were no longer her own. After taking a shower and lying back down on the bed, she felt both shy and angry, and she didn’t even look at Yan Huai once.

That man lifted the blanket and lay down beside her, shamelessly moving closer. “Mad at me?”

He Wei ignored him.

She took out her phone and glanced at it.

Just after midnight, Yan Qing had sent her a message listing three guests that the production team had basically finalized.

He Wei glanced over it—and then saw a familiar name.

Su Mu.

He Wei suddenly thought of a phrase—

Fate is truly a wondrous thing.