Chapter 46

Chapter 46

When Yan Qing previously said she would invite traffic stars, He Wei never thought of Su Mu.

The “toilet incident” from today had left a deep impression on her. Su Mu’s persona had collapsed instantly, completely incompatible with the image of a clean, refined, gentle and warm “good man” he showed to the public.

Su Mu was already nearing thirty. It was normal for a man to have sex with a woman.

He Wei could understand that kind of need from a man, but she could not understand doing such things in a public restroom.

If Yan Huai dared to do something like that to her in a public place—

He Wei frowned. She lightly ground her teeth, and in the half-second she drifted off, her phone screen was suddenly covered by a hand.

That hand had distinct knuckles, clean and long fingers, firmly blocking the two characters “Su Mu” on the screen.

“Don’t look at it.”

Yan Huai pulled the blanket up over her shoulders. “Go to bed early.”

And he still had the nerve to tell her to go to bed early.

He Wei let out a soft huff and ignored him, reaching out on her own to grab her phone from under his hand.

Just as she pried open one of his fingers, the man suddenly lifted her phone upward.

Yan Huai’s hand rose into the air.

He Wei could only turn to reach for it. Her balance wasn’t very good, and she turned too quickly—accidentally falling straight into his arms.

Yan Huai caught her. After that kind of release from alcohol, and what followed between a man and a woman, neither side was particularly relaxed. He only lightly kissed the corner of He Wei’s lips and said softly, “Be good. Look at it tomorrow.”

He Wei finally said her first sentence in nearly half an hour, her voice low and slightly indignant: “I’m looking at something important!”

As she spoke, she reached again for her phone, but before she could touch it, Yan Huai rolled over and pinned her beneath him.

“Sleep, or—”

Those who understand the times are wise.

He Wei immediately shut her eyes: “Sleep.”

She closed them with extreme efficiency, her long eyelashes drooping. The warm bedside light cast down, stretching that small silhouette into a long shadow. Yan Huai’s lips curved slightly. He turned off her phone, then switched off the bedside lamp.

With the curtains drawn and the lamp extinguished, the entire room was instantly pitch black.

He Wei felt Yan Huai get off her and lie down on the other side of the bed before she cautiously opened her eyes. Her vision was completely dark—she couldn’t see anything at all.

The original owner didn’t have night blindness, but in complete darkness at night, she couldn’t see anything clearly either.

Others could adapt to darkness, but she couldn’t. No matter how long it passed, things still wouldn’t become clear.

It felt like she had suddenly developed nearsightedness.

She should probably eat more carrots, He Wei thought.

She stared at the vaguely gray ceiling for a few seconds, and just as she closed her eyes again, her right hand was suddenly gently held.

The man’s fingers slowly brushed across her palm, then interlocked with hers. His voice was very low and soft, not at all intrusive in the silent night.

He asked, “Does your hand still hurt?”

He Wei gave a soft “mm.”

She herself didn’t even know what she was sulking about.

It might have been because she had also felt something while helping him just now, or because he hadn’t been paying enough attention to her earlier and had used a bit too much force.

The exact reason was unknown.

Yan Huai’s voice grew even lower: “I’ll try to be gentler next time.”

What did he mean by “try”?

He Wei mumbled unhappily, “Take out the ‘try’.”

Yan Huai’s lips were still slightly curved.

Although he was tired today, he was in a good mood. Every cell in his body felt excited, every pore seemed to open up.

It felt very good.

His index finger curled slightly, lightly rubbing between He Wei’s fingers. He said word by word, “No.”

“……”

He Wei wanted to kick him off the bed.

But sleepiness washed over her, and she didn’t even feel like speaking anymore, let alone lifting her leg.

She yawned. Although she hadn’t completely calmed her anger, she still unconsciously moved closer into Yan Huai’s arms.

In the quiet night, only their breathing remained. After adjusting into a comfortable position, He Wei fell into a deep sleep.

The variety show “Let’s Go Travel Together” went viral before it even started filming.

Within a few days, it even trended online because of the rumored guest lineup.

Marketing accounts acted as if they had real insider knowledge, even creating promotional posters, claiming they had inside information when posting them.

He Wei glanced at it. Among the five guests posted by verified big accounts, two actually matched the names Yan Qing had sent her a few days earlier.

It was a model celebrity couple who had gotten together through acting and publicly confirmed their relationship.

As for the other three, He Wei wasn’t too sure.

She forwarded the Weibo post to Yan Qing.

Within five minutes, Yan Qing replied: 【The other three are fake. Su Mu is finishing up the drama you’re collaborating on next week, and he already accepted this variety show yesterday. Now there are still two spots open. Weiwei, how are you thinking about it?】

He Wei hesitated for a few seconds—just a few seconds—before replying: 【I’ll take it.】

This opportunity only came once. She couldn’t just hand over such a good variety show to someone else just because Su Mu’s persona had collapsed in her mind.

Yan Qing had no objections at all.

She had originally leaned toward He Wei taking the show anyway, for a very simple reason—she needed enough exposure.

This kind of exposure couldn’t be achieved just by taking a few dramas.

The entertainment industry never lacked newcomers. Waves of the new replace the old; if people in the current batch didn’t fight hard enough, they would quickly be swept away.

It was easy to fade into obscurity, but extremely difficult to become popular again.

Yan Qing quickly replied to the production team.

The production team was familiar with her, and before long, they gave a confirmed response.

All five guests were finalized. Besides He Wei, Su Mu, and the model celebrity couple, there was also a very popular singer.

The singer was a new-generation rapper named Fu Chengyu, only two years older than He Wei.

He Wei didn’t pay much attention to the singer circle, so her understanding of him was very superficial—limited to occasional Weibo trending searches.

The male singer’s public persona was completely different from Su Mu’s. Su Mu was gentle and considerate toward others, while this man was a “steel straight man destined to be single.”

He Wei inexplicably had a favorable impression of this type of person.

Steel straight men were great—they didn’t randomly flirt with girls.

Yan Qing didn’t introduce these people to her in detail either, only telling her to check Baidu if she didn’t understand something, and if she still didn’t get it, then ask her.

She had already received the script for the first episode. After reading it once, she sent it to He Wei.

Yan Qing: 【The first episode is being filmed in Dubai. The five of you will meet up at the capital airport.】 It included the time and specific itinerary. After replying to Yan Qing, He Wei opened the file on her computer and read through it page by page.

The content of the variety show wasn’t too complicated—it mainly involved traveling to different places and completing challenges to earn corresponding rewards or punishments.

Probably for the sake of entertainment value, the challenge rules were only written in general terms.

The five of them were fixed regular guests, and each episode would also invite a traffic celebrity as a flying guest.

He Wei scrolled to the bottom.

She didn’t see the flying guest for the first episode, but she did see a line at the very end: Because the first episode requires the fixed guests to get familiar with each other, no additional guests will be invited. We wish all guests a wonderful two days!

Only then did He Wei close her laptop.

The filming time for the first episode was May 21st and 22nd.

These two days did not include travel time.

It didn’t conflict with the drama she was filming, but Yan Huai’s side—

He Wei thought for a moment, then still sent him a WeChat message.

He Wei: 【I’m going abroad for a few days next week.】

Yan Huai didn’t reply.

He was probably in a meeting.

After sending that message, He Wei didn’t deliberately wait for his reply. She went to the kitchen and made dinner. Only after slowly finishing a bowl of noodles did Yan Huai’s message finally come back: 【What for?】 【Filming a variety show.】

【With who?】

【Several people.】

【Who.】

He Wei: “……”

As expected, she immediately copied and pasted the names of the other four guests and sent them over.

Very quickly, Yan Huai sent back a question mark.

He was probably referring to Su Mu.

He Wei stopped talking.

After several minutes of silent stalemate, Yan Huai called her.

For some reason, He Wei felt a little guilty. At first she didn’t even dare to pick up. Only when the call automatically hung up, and it rang a second time, did she finally answer it.

The other end fell silent.

He Wei also fell silent.

About half a minute passed before He Wei heard him say two words—“Meeting over.”

“……”

He was actually calling during a meeting.

He Wei became even more afraid to make a sound. She heard the sound of a chair scraping across the floor on the other end, followed by scattered footsteps, and then the sound of a door opening and closing.

After things became a little quieter, Yan Huai finally spoke: “Stay away from him.”

He Wei responded with an “oh.”

“Don’t let me see him touch you.”

“……”

When she was filming with Su Mu, she had even shot a hugging scene… maybe she should just ask Cheng Yan to cut that part out too.

He Wei curled her lips slightly and responded unwillingly.

Yan Huai could hear her emotions, so his voice softened a little: “How many days are you going for?”

“Three or four days.”

Yan Huai gave a soft “mm” and asked again: “Is my sister going too?”

“Sister Yan Qing isn’t going.”

Yan Qing didn’t have time to accompany her running around everywhere; only Feng Ning would go with her.

Yan Huai frowned. “I’ll let my sister—”

“No, absolutely not,” He Wei immediately refused. “Sister Yan Qing still has important things to do.”

After a pause, she called his name: “Yan Huai.”

“Mm.”

“If you’re really doing this for my sake—”

“What?”

He Wei’s ears grew warm. She pressed her lips together, as if afraid someone might overhear, and said softly, “Then next time don’t let me help you… that thing.”

That feeling really wasn’t very good—like rolling dumpling wrappers for too long, the palm of her hand getting itchy and numb from the pressure of the rolling pin.

Seeing that he didn’t respond, He Wei gathered her courage and asked again, “Okay?”

“No.”

Yan Huai’s voice dropped, his emotions clearly darkening. “Come to my place tonight.”

Tch.

He Wei hung up the phone in one motion.

Yan Huai had actually already gone along with He Wei’s wishes quite a bit.

Since He Wei didn’t want it, he had been handling it himself these past few days.

But he was too obedient, and He Wei actually felt a little guilty about it. After all, she was now Yan Huai’s girlfriend—continuing like this didn’t seem like a proper solution.

He Wei struggled over it for several days, but still couldn’t come up with a good solution.

Before long, the new week arrived, and the campus drama “Finally, I Found You” officially began filming as scheduled.

This drama didn’t have any well-known actors. Aside from the director, who was a somewhat talked-about rich second-generation, there was basically no other buzz. On the day filming started, there was not a single trace of movement on Weibo.

A stone dropped into the ocean would at least create ripples, but their drama didn’t even make the slightest splash.

The early scenes mainly introduced the background and characters, with no major conflicts, so filming went relatively smoothly.

He Wei wore a high school uniform for several days, her hair tied up, her face bare under the sunlight. She looked even more fresh and pure than real high school students.

The director was extremely satisfied with her, always feeling that as long as this girl stood there, she embodied youth itself.

He thought to himself that if he didn’t make this drama a hit, he would be letting down these actors.

The actors hadn’t acted much before. Although their acting skills had many shortcomings, they were eager to improve and highly proactive, adapting quickly.

The filming of the first episode went especially smoothly, even finishing half a day ahead of schedule.

The director had originally booked a restaurant to treat everyone to dinner, but He Wei couldn’t go.

She had a flight to catch tonight.

After returning home to change clothes and pack her suitcase, just as she was about to leave, she received a message.

From an unknown number—【Leaving together?】

He Wei thought it was a wrong number and didn’t plan to reply.

But after she left the apartment and got into a taxi, that number sent another message: 【It’s Su Mu.】

He Wei nearly threw her phone in shock.

Su Mu: 【Your flight is at 8:30 too, right?】

He Wei knew why he was asking that.

Because the five guests had to meet at the capital airport, and from Tongcheng to the capital, there was only that one flight at night.

He Wei didn’t know how to respond.

If she refused, they would still end up on the same flight anyway; if she didn’t refuse… she genuinely felt uncomfortable.

The only thing she was grateful for was that Yan Huai had an engagement tonight and couldn’t send her off.

Otherwise, if he ran into Su Mu… He Wei didn’t dare imagine it.

She stared at those messages for a moment, then simply pretended she hadn’t seen them and put her phone back into her bag.

Half an hour later, He Wei came to understand the saying that “man proposes, God disposes.”

The moment she stepped into the airport, she saw Su Mu not far away signing autographs for fans.

She quickly brushed her hair to cover her face and was just about to go get her boarding pass when Su Mu noticed her. Apparently thinking there was nothing to hide between them, he didn’t avoid the situation at all and called out with a smile, “He Wei?”

“……”

The group of fans surrounding him immediately turned to look over.

He Wei became the center of attention in the entire area.

She couldn’t pretend not to see him anymore, so she nodded at him. “Senior Brother, what a coincidence.”

Su Mu had already stepped over. He was tall with long legs and took big strides; in just a few steps he was in front of her. With considerable gentlemanly manners, he took her suitcase from her. “Let me help you carry it.”

“No need,” He Wei glanced at the fans watching them like hawks and quickly refused. “It’s not that heavy. I can carry it myself.”

But Su Mu ignored her refusal and instead asked, “I’ll go with you to get your boarding pass.”

“No need…”

“You’re a girl, and you’re my junior sister,” Su Mu looked back at her. “Taking care of you is what I should do. Don’t overthink it.”

He Wei: “……”

She had already heard what he did with another woman—how could she possibly not overthink it?

But He Wei didn’t refuse again.

She had already refused enough times; continuing would only make her seem like she was playing hard to get. She nodded properly, thanked him politely, and followed Su Mu at a distance of about half a meter.

Perhaps because the ticket was expensive, this flight had an extremely high on-time rate.

It took off at 8:30, and by 8:10, passengers had already boarded.

There were many people on the plane—adults and children alike—so it couldn’t be considered quiet.

He Wei sat in her seat without saying a word, absentmindedly fidgeting her fingers amid the noise.

The man beside her turned his head to look at her. “Want some water?”

He Wei quickly shook her head. As she did, she thought that fate really was a strange thing.

Even on a flight, she could end up seated next to Su Mu.

She let out a slow breath and was just about to close her eyes and rest under the principle of “out of sight, out of mind,” when someone across the aisle gave a light cough. “Weiwei?”

“……”

The voice was extremely familiar. He Wei reacted immediately and instinctively turned her head.

Cheng Yan, whom she hadn’t seen for some time, was sitting about a meter away on the other side of the aisle. He curved his lips and winked at her. “It really is you.”

He Wei saw that he was holding a phone in his hand, currently pressed to his ear.

The plane hadn’t taken off yet; he was still on a call.

Although she wasn’t sure who was on the other end of the call, He Wei still felt an inexplicable tension rise.

She swallowed hard, trying to suppress her wildly beating heart. The next second, she heard Cheng Yan say into the phone: “Ah Huai, I actually ended up on the same flight as He Wei.”

Cheng Yan: “You want to ask who she’s sitting with?”

“Su Mu…” Cheng Yan glanced at He Wei, then at Su Mu. “Their seats are next to each other.”

He Wei’s lips twitched slightly as she thought—

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