Cool down for a few days
The sky had been gloomy all day. Although it was just a dense drizzle, it finally started to fall.
The early autumn wind poured in from the window with black iron bars in the hallway, carrying the cold, damp air that soaked into her skin.
Bai Xin stood waiting by the elevator, her fingertips trembling slightly. She was wearing a thin long dress without a jacket—she always forgot about that.
Then she remembered. When autumn began at the start of the month, Cheng Jiqing would always remind her to bring an extra jacket, remind her that the temperature difference between morning and night was significant, and remind her that it was going to rain today, so she should bring an umbrella.
In comparison, she had never been as thoughtful as Cheng Jiqing, and rarely paid attention to these things for Cheng Jiqing.
The elevator doors opened, and she walked in.
When she reached the sixteenth floor of Nanjing, Cheng Jiqing’s passcode was her birthday—the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.
Qixi Valentine’s Day1, an excellent day, with the year added to complete it.
Then there was the fingerprint.
This door only had two fingerprints registered. In fact, a long time ago, Cheng Jiqing had already given her this privilege.
A bitter feeling welled up in Bai Xin’s heart. The moment she walked through the door, she knew Cheng Jiqing wasn’t home.
The apartment was empty. By the entrance, there was only a lone, dark purple rug.
The shoes had all been put away. She took a pair of slippers from the cabinet and walked in.
The air wasn’t circulating… Bai Xin’s heart suddenly skipped a beat—the house was too tidy, so tidy it was unsettling.
Even if they weren’t lilies, Cheng Jiqing would always put fresh flowers in the vase on the balcony, but now the transparent glass vase just sat there, bare.
Bai Xin’s gaze darkened. A thought struck her, and she turned to open the refrigerator. The vegetables Cheng Jiqing usually used for salads weren’t there.
She rushed into Cheng Jiqing’s room. The bedding was put away, and there were noticeably fewer clothes in the wardrobe. What shocked her even more was—the suitcase in the closet was gone.
This was one of the few times Bai Xin had panicked in the more than ten years since Lu Man’s death.
She stood in the empty room, her fingertips trembling uncontrollably.
She recalled Cheng Jiqing’s words, “Take care of yourself.” Did it have a hidden meaning?
Was Cheng Jiqing going to leave her…?
Bai Xin took a deep breath. Her hand gripped the wardrobe door so tightly her fingers almost dug into it. A belated chill crept up from the soles of her feet. Bai Xin took out her phone and dialed the number again.
“Sorry, the number you have dialed is temporarily…”
She hadn’t been standing for long, but her legs felt slightly numb. She sat down on the edge of the bed.
She couldn’t reach Cheng Jiqing, nor could she find her.
Could she be at Song Ling’s place? Or at Cheng Jing’s?
Her rationality slowly returned—there was one more place.
Bai Xin directly called Ada.
Knowing that Cheng Jiqing had gone to Jiangcheng, her heart was filled with complicated emotions. She had to ask someone else to find out where Cheng Jiqing was.
The next flight to Jiangcheng was in two hours.
After the initial distress, a restless agitation began to surface in Bai Xin. Two hours was enough time for her patience to run out, but it was a distance of one thousand one hundred kilometers. What could she do?
Her mind was in turmoil. Due to her lack of energy, her heart was also beating fast. Her hand rested on the soft cushion beneath her.
She opened WeChat and tapped on Cheng Jiqing’s chat.
She typed out a few messages, but felt they all lacked sincerity. Compared to what Cheng Jiqing had given her, they always seemed too shallow.
【Cheng Jiqing, I really want to see you.】
She sent it anyway.
Cheng Jiqing hadn’t slept well last night, but she caught up on two hours of sleep on the plane, so she felt a bit more refreshed.
She only switched her phone off airplane mode after getting off the plane.
Then, several WeChat messages popped up on the screen.
Even though there were messages from several people, she saw Bai Xin’s at a glance. So what if she had unpinned the chat? It didn’t mean the person didn’t exist. It was just to make herself feel a bit better—to pretend she could be less concerned.
She stared at the message, silent for a moment, then turned off her phone screen again.
It wasn’t the first time she had heard such sweet words. Every time, her heart would be moved, and she would soften. Suddenly, she wanted to be a bit more ruthless.
She also wanted Bai Xin to know that she wouldn’t always soften up.
Especially before everything was clarified.
The hotel was booked by the film crew.
Tong Yanxi, Li Yunlan, and a few other actors had already arrived. Tong Yanxi sent a message in their small group chat: on the first night, they wouldn’t do anything work-related but go out to ‘gather inspiration2‘.
Everyone was quite active.
Jiangcheng had boundless scenery and was known as ‘Little Jiangnan3‘. Behind the low houses with white walls and black tiles stood tall skyscrapers. Walking on stone slabs across the long, rain-swept street, the group arrived at a small building by Jiangcheng Lake.
It was past six o’clock, which should have been the busiest time at Jiangcheng Lake, but due to the rain today, the crowd was much smaller.
“Director Tong, you order first.” A few of them handed the menu card to Tong Yanxi.
Tong Yanxi took it, quickly ordered a few things, and said, “Don’t worry about dieting today. Order whatever you want to eat. Anyway, you won’t have many chances to indulge later on.”
They all laughed. Cheng Jiqing smiled too. It was true; there were many dance scenes in 《Cat and Mint》, and they would have to strictly maintain their weight for at least the two months of filming.
“The promotional photos have been taken, right? Are they going to be released in the next couple of days?” asked Zhou Qing4, who played the ex-wife and was also an actress with many years of filming experience.
Li Yunlan said, “Tomorrow morning.”
Tong Yanxi opened a can of cola and took a sip. “Nervous?”
Cheng Jiqing, sitting next to Tong Yanxi, realized the question was for her and shook her head. “Not really.”
Zhou Qing asked, “Hey, seriously, the more I look at Chengcheng, the more familiar you look. Have you really never acted before? I was telling my manager the other day that I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere.”
Cheng Jiqing smiled and said, “I really haven’t.”
Not in this ABO world.
“Wait, I remember a photo,” Li Yunlan said softly, then lowered her head to get her phone. After a moment, she placed it on the table. “Chengcheng, is this you?”
Cheng Jiqing and the others looked. It was actually the photo taken downstairs from the fire a while ago.
In the photo, the woman was wearing a tank top, her face smudged with black soot, yet she possessed a kind of resolute beauty.
“Ah… it’s me.”
“Oh my god, this is it!” Zhou Qing exclaimed. “It’s really you, Chengcheng? I knew you looked so familiar! This photo was trending back then. Later, when I tried to find it again, I couldn’t find it online anymore.”
Cheng Jing had someone remove all the photos from the internet at that time. After the hype died down, not many people knew about it.
“You guys can even recognize me from this.” Cheng Jiqing chuckled and reached for the orange soda in front of her.
Actually, she herself thought the photo was a bit blurry. She hadn’t expected that two of the people present could recognize her…
Zhou Qing said, “Well, I didn’t recognize you immediately, but once you’ve seen the photo, you get that familiar feeling when you see you.”
Li Yunlan, beside her, put her phone away and said with a smile, “It’s no big deal recognizing you. Chengcheng seems to have some misunderstanding about her own looks.”
The others looked at it and then at her, comparing.
“Indeed, anyone who’s met Chengcheng would recognize her. I just thought, when the promotional photos are released, this photo could even be used as a promotional angle,” one actor said. “Yixin really found a treasure.”
There was an element of flattery, but also genuine sentiment.
At first, everyone thought Cheng Jiqing was a newcomer who didn’t know anything and had no prior works. But after a few interactions, especially since Tong Yanxi had a habit of taking out a segment for a surprise ‘test’ after script readings, they got to know Cheng Jiqing better.
Her acting was good, her line delivery was excellent, and Cheng Jiqing had memorized the entire script. Sometimes, if someone was absent, Cheng Jiqing could even help run lines with others.
Moreover, Cheng Jiqing’s skill with lines was such that she wouldn’t need dubbing.
Besides that, her personality was genuinely likable.
Cheng Jiqing’s facial features were exquisitely beautiful and somewhat deep-set. When she didn’t smile, she exuded a cool indifference, and her aura was even more refined and ascetic. Yet, she was someone who smiled readily, and she happened to have a gentle voice.
She was efficient and not pretentious.
Everyone liked talking to her.
After that person finished speaking, Cheng Jiqing smiled. “Of course.”
But no one knew that Cheng Jiqing was thinking: Once this drama was finished filming, the first thing she would do was terminate her contract with Yixin.
The conversation continued.
“So the ‘angelic beauty’ from the news was right here with us! I remember that little girl in the video crying and asking for your WeChat, it was hilarious. Did Chengcheng give it to her later? Haha,” Zhou Qing said.
“No,” Cheng Jiqing said.
Afterward, she donated some money to the Red Cross Society and had someone pass a few words to the little girl. She hadn’t paid any attention to it since.
She answered, but mostly because she wasn’t in a good mood, she didn’t have much enthusiasm. She kept up her energy to respond so as not to spoil the mood.
Her mind and heart were a bit of a mess, but she didn’t quite know what she was thinking.
After Cheng Jiqing spoke, someone turned to Li Yunlan.
“Lanlan, did you save it all this time? You found it so quickly! You didn’t know all along, did you?”
Everyone looked at Li Yunlan. Because the two of them had many scenes together, the atmosphere in the crew was excellent.
During their recent online and offline script readings, they even occasionally joked using phrases like ‘your teacher’ and ‘your student’.
So, their words inevitably carried a teasing tone.
Even this question could give an impression of ambiguity or intimacy.
Li Yunlan shook her head, glanced at Cheng Jiqing, perhaps afraid the young woman would mind, and explained seriously, “It was quite a coincidence. You know I’ve been learning to draw, right? I saw this photo back then, really liked it, and saved it. Later, my agent reminded me it might be copyright infringement, so I never drew it. I was also quite surprised after meeting Chengcheng, but I wasn’t sure, so I’ve dragged it out until now.”
Actually, she also hadn’t found a suitable opportunity, as they had only known each other for a short time.
Hearing this, Cheng Jiqing smiled slightly. “It’s okay, Teacher Lanlan, drawing me isn’t copyright infringement.”
Li Yunlan’s peach-blossom eyes curved. “Then thank you very much, Teacher Chengcheng.”
Everyone laughed at this exchange.
“Is everyone done ordering?” Tong Yanxi asked.
The topic finally moved away from Cheng Jiqing.
After a while, Cheng Jiqing stood up and walked to the window.
The conversation was lively, and the atmosphere was warm, not cool at all.
The lakeside scenery was beautiful. Pushing open the solid wood window, the wind was damp. If one added a cup of tea, it would be quite atmospheric.
But soda and snacks also had their own charm.
Cheng Jiqing looked at the lake view below, but her mind was on Beicheng, thousands of li away. Tonight, it was raining in many places.
She saw on Song Ling’s Moments that it was pouring rain in Beicheng right then.
“Cheng Jiqing, your phone.”
Tong Yanxi reminded her.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Bai Xin had called expecting it not to go through, but this time, surprisingly, it connected smoothly.
“Hello.” Cheng Jiqing’s voice was very soft, and Bai Xin could tell the environment on the other end was quiet.
There was no follow-up. Bai Xin’s heart inexplicably beat a little faster.
She paused for two seconds, then said, “Where are you now? I’ll come find you.”
Before she could finish, she suddenly heard a gentle voice from the other end, “Chengcheng, I got you…”
The woman’s voice stopped abruptly.
Bai Xin gripped her phone, her lips dry. “Who are you with?”
“A few colleagues.” Cheng Jiqing paused. “I’m not in Beicheng.”
Bai Xin fell silent, her chest tight and uncomfortable. “I’ll come find you, okay?”
She heard a bit of wind from the other end, then Cheng Jiqing’s clear voice, “Everyone here is from the film crew. It’s not convenient. Wait a few days.”
Bai Xin suppressed her emotions. “I have something to tell you.”
“I know.”
Cheng Jiqing said slowly, “Wait until I get back, we’ll talk then.”
Bai Xin tilted her head up slightly, a light rain blowing onto her face. She stood by the roadside listening as Cheng Jiqing said, “Then I’ll hang up first.”
Cheng Jiqing stood by the window in the hallway.
The rain outside was getting heavier, and the temperature seemed to have dropped a bit. Her phone screen hadn’t gone dark yet, and its coolness felt almost burning to her hand.
No matter how angry she was, she knew she and Bai Xin needed to talk.
But at this point in time, she couldn’t just let Bai Xin come over.
After tomorrow, she would be busy with training and work. Even if they met, she might not be able to settle down and talk properly with Bai Xin.
Another reason was that she was indeed still angry.
The rain fell harder and harder. When they headed back to the hotel, it was just past eight o’clock.
Cheng Jiqing returned to her hotel room. Her shoes and pants were mostly damp. She took them off and had a shower. Since she hadn’t slept well last night, she planned to take a bath today and go to bed early tonight.
She couldn’t lack energy tomorrow.
After her shower, she changed into a set of beige pajamas, got into bed, lay down, and glanced at her phone.
There were two missed calls.
And one WeChat message.
Bai Xin: 【I’m in the hotel lobby downstairs.】
The message was from ten minutes ago.
Cheng Jiqing’s back stiffened slightly. After a moment, she took a deep breath, swung her legs off the bed, and turned to get dressed.
At this hour, it was still pouring rain outside.
It wasn’t the weekend, and it was a rainy day.
There weren’t many people in the hotel lobby. The pale gold lighting cast a layer of false warmth over the cold night.
Cheng Jiqing changed into a sweater and wide-leg pants, with a trench coat over them.
As soon as she got out of the elevator, she spotted the Omega in the corner, eyes downcast.
The person was wearing only a long dress, her dark tea-brown, long curly hair resting lightly on her cheeks. From over ten meters away, for a moment, all Cheng Jiqing could see was the stark contrast between her hair and her pale face.
Cheng Jiqing walked over and sat down on the sofa opposite her.
Bai Xin looked up. Her hair was damp with a little rainwater. Her lips were pale pink, and her cheeks even more colorless.
The healthy color she had nurtured in Bai Xin recently was all gone. Cheng Jiqing’s anger couldn’t help but intensify a little.
“How did you know I was here?” Cheng Jiqing asked, then paused for two seconds and remembered. “Oh, Yixin also has shares in XM.”
XM belongs to Zhou Yushu; it would be very easy for Bai Xin to find out.
She hadn’t felt it just now, but the coldness was creeping up again. Bai Xin unconsciously curled her hands and looked at Cheng Jiqing. “XM doesn’t belong to Zhou Yushu.”
Her light voice carried a slight tremble, and only then did she realize how cold she had become.
Cheng Jiqing looked up.
Surprised by these words, and by the tremor in Bai Xin’s voice.
Cheng Jiqing looked at her for two seconds, then took off her trench coat and handed it over.
“Put it on.”
Her tone was unquestionable, faintly carrying a hint of an Alpha’s assertiveness.
Bai Xin’s cold hand reached out. The brown trench coat still held Cheng Jiqing’s warmth, and the moment her fingertips touched it, she felt only warmth.
She clutched the coat. “I’ll tell you everything.”
Cheng Jiqing’s eyelashes fluttered. At this moment, Bai Xin looked just like a drenched kitten hiding in a coat after being caught in the rain, her usual claws retracted, appearing unusually docile.
Seeing her take it, Cheng Jiqing let go.
Bai Xin put it on, and it was as if she only then regained some body heat.
“The person truly connected to XM is me.” She looked incredibly fragile, as if she would shatter at a touch, yet her voice held an inexplicable firmness.
Like some kind of resolve.
Cheng Jiqing’s gaze swept over Bai Xin’s pale, curled hands as she listened.
“Zhou Yushu and I met over ten years ago, before my mother passed away. Back then, my mother had a piece of land…”
More than ten minutes passed.
Bai Xin said, “Recently, it was also because of Bai Corporation. I was thinking of resolving matters sooner…”
Bai Xin gradually explained to Cheng Jiqing the reasons for her contact with the Zhou family over the past decade and when her plans had begun.
After listening, Cheng Jiqing took a light breath.
She had considered many possibilities, but she had never imagined that Bai Xin was the person behind XM.
Yet, she didn’t find it that hard to accept. What she cared about had never been these things.
For example, she cared that Bai Xin and Zhou Yushu were close enough to wear two ‘only two in the world’ watches.
Cheng Jiqing asked, “You’ve known each other for over ten years, so you wear identical watches?”
“This watch is custom-made, for preventing danger… I didn’t know Zhou Yushu had ordered two of them back then.”
Bai Xin wrapped Cheng Jiqing’s coat around herself, the reassuring scent of Cheng Jiqing in the air she breathed.
It suppressed the agitation and gloom within her deep down. Cheng Jiqing’s reaction made her uneasy, so much so that after those two missed calls, she resisted the impulse to go directly upstairs to find her.
She was afraid Cheng Jiqing really didn’t want to see her, afraid of being too aggressive and annoying. Her inherent nature wasn’t a likable one. It never had been, ever since she was little.
But she had never been afraid of others disliking her—except for Cheng Jiqing.
That’s why, after the call, she sent Cheng Jiqing a WeChat message.
She thought that if Cheng Jiqing really didn’t come down, she would wait a few hours, then leave.
And then… she hadn’t thought about what would happen after that.
Because at that moment, just thinking about Cheng Jiqing ‘not wanting to come downstairs to meet,’ the flawed trait in her very bones already had the impulse to grow—even if disliked, she didn’t want Cheng Jiqing to leave her.
“That day you came to Nanjing to find me, was this what you wanted to tell me?”
“Yes.”
Cheng Jiqing’s thoughts drifted to their meeting two days ago. “But you didn’t come back.”
When Bai Xin was vulnerable, her eyes and brows were most captivating.
Before the other could speak, Cheng Jiqing stated the answer, “Because you wavered, right?”
It wasn’t because she and Cheng Jing went up, not because she was angry at her words, but because Bai Xin had wavered, so she hadn’t come back.
“Then why did you come this time?” The Buddhist prayer beads on Cheng Jiqing’s wrist rested on her lap; through her pants, she felt the coolness of the beads. She said softly, “Because you realized that between the Cheng family and you, I chose you.”
Her innermost thoughts, laid bare so bluntly, made Bai Xin’s eardrums throb and her heart tremble. She felt terrified, guilty, her mind in turmoil, and panicked.
She could hear the calmness in Cheng Jiqing’s voice, and also, her disappointment.
Bai Xin stared intently at Cheng Jiqing, as if Cheng Jiqing would leave immediately at the slightest misstep.
“Cheng Jiqing, I’m sorry.”
Cheng Jiqing raised her hand, and it paused on the white jade bodhi beads. When her mind was in turmoil, she also relied on their coolness to calm herself.
“Don’t be angry with me, okay?”
A cautious, coaxing tone.
A long time passed.
Bai Xin sat up a little straighter. “Cheng Jiqing, talk to me. Don’t be silent.”
Cheng Jiqing slowly let out a breath. She was just thinking about what to say.
After another moment, Cheng Jiqing looked up, gazing into Bai Xin’s beautiful eyes, and said slowly, “I’m not entirely blameless either.”
“My mistake was not telling you clearly when I realized I cared—that I wanted to know your confusion, your difficulties, what you needed, what was troubling you.”
Her mistake was not telling Bai Xin, word for word, that she too would feel sad, get angry, and find it hard to let go.
She often believed that in interactions between people, it wasn’t necessary to know everything; the other person would tell her when they were willing.
But she forgot that vagueness and guesswork in a relationship can hurt people.
So, her pain also had an element of reaping what she sowed.
But.
But after acknowledging her own share of the blame, the remaining part became the crux of what she couldn’t let go of for the moment.
“I believe it was very difficult for you to say these things today, and I understand you. But when I think about how, for the past few months, you were guarding against me as if I were a thief, saying nothing, keeping everything hidden, yet you could fight side-by-side with Zhou Yushu.”
“When I think that even though we’re together, you still haven’t fully trusted me, didn’t believe I would help you…”
Her heart felt as if it were being twisted by a knife, and she couldn’t avoid feeling angry and hurt.
She needed some time.
Because it was cold, Bai Xin clutched the trench coat around her, absorbing what little warmth remained from Cheng Jiqing into her body.
She wanted to argue. If it were in the past, or with someone else, she could use many reasons, excuses, disguises, and lies to refute it.
But she didn’t want to be like that with Cheng Jiqing anymore.
Her voice came out almost at the same time as Cheng Jiqing’s—
“I won’t do it again in the future…”
“Let’s cool down for a few days.”
The author has something to say:
Our Chengcheng’s popularity is going to be no joke5 in the future. So many people will like her!
Bai-jie posts on VB6 asking a not-so-famous relationship blogger—Fukafufu7—for help.
‘Wifey is heartbroken, how should I coax her?’
Fukafufu: Lie flat8 let her, f#ck9 (a type of plant)
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Nothing can’t be settle in bed ..i heard