You look sexy
However, when the Qixi Festival arrived, whether it was Xiao Wanqing, Lin Xian, or Wen Tong, their plans all fell through. Xiao Wanqing was forced to change her itinerary at the last minute and had to go on a business trip to another province.
This issue’s in-depth personality interview features the retail magnate Wang Jingcheng. Mr. Wang usually keeps a low profile and never accepts interviews. It took Xiao Wanqing a huge effort to secure one with him. She leveraged her extensive network from past interviews and went through many hurdles to obtain this exclusive opportunity.
The interview had been scheduled for two days after the Qixi Festival, which was perfect as Xiao Wanqing could conduct it right after attending a forum. However, Wang Jingcheng’s schedule changed unexpectedly, and the interview had to be moved up.
When Wen Tong heard the news, she didn’t mind too much. Having been in the industry for years, she knew that working overtime during holidays was normal. As for the Qixi Festival, which wasn’t a traditional holiday, she had long since gotten used to it. So, she readily rescheduled with Xiao Wanqing and even joked that after all these years, she had met countless industry leaders through her interviews and had a basic understanding of various fields. She said that when her company grows and expands into marketing, she might have to seek her advice.
Xiao Wanqing joked back that she had quite the ambition to be planning for so far ahead already.
Wen Tong laughed heartily, her spirit buoyant as she confidently said, “It might not even take that long,” clearly demonstrating her assurance in her plans.
As long as Shi Jinglan was willing to delegate authority to her, she believed that they could quickly become leaders in this emerging field and establish a firm foothold. Deep down, she had an idea, but since everything was just starting and still not stable, she didn’t feel bold enough to invite Xiao Wanqing yet.
When Lin Xian heard the news, she took it much harder. They had been apart for over a month, and although she had made excuses to hang out with friends and sneaked back to Xiao Wanqing’s place to see her a few times, she was still pining for her.
Moreover, this was their first Qixi Festival together, and Lin Xian wanted to create special memories. She had envisioned countless romantic scenarios, but now, those dreams had been shattered.
On the other end of the phone, Lin Xian sighed gloomily, “This retail magnate must be a lonely soul.”
Having been single for many years, Xiao Wanqing had lost any special attachment to the Qixi Festival. But hearing the despondent tone in Lin Xian’s voice, she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of reluctance. Lin Xian missed her, and truly, the feeling was mutual, especially during each empty and silent night.
She consoled Lin Xian, saying, “How about I make it up to you when I return? Is that okay?”
“It just won’t feel the same,” Lin Xian paused, unable to suppress her longing, and tentatively asked Xiao Wanqing, “Can I come with you? I won’t disturb your work; I just want to keep you company. I can quietly wait for you in the hotel, can I?”
Xiao Wanqing was taken aback for a moment; a gentle smile appeared on her lips, clearly not averse to the girl’s clinginess, even finding it somewhat sweet. However, she still softly declined her: “Xianxian, I’m traveling with colleagues, and it wouldn’t look good.” In fact, even without colleagues, she wouldn’t have accepted Lin Xian’s request. She couldn’t get past her own principles. Work is work, and personal matters are personal; she couldn’t allow herself to mix the two by bringing a family member along on a business trip with such overt familiarity.
After posing the question, Lin Xian realized she might have overstepped her boundaries. She pursed her lips, not daring to press any further, and instead urged Xiao Wanqing to take care of herself while away. After a year of being together, she had come to see that her Xiao Panpan, though seemingly gentle and modest on the outside, was actually a person of strong principles and self-discipline on the inside.
On the morning of Qixi Festival at nine o’clock, Xiao Wanqing and two male colleagues took a high-speed train on the afternoon before Qixi, which lasted over four hours, to reach the neighboring province. They then checked into a hotel to rest freely, tidy up a bit, and prepare for the next day’s interview.
The ride from the high-speed rail station to the hotel they stayed at took over twenty minutes. When Xiao Wanqing arrived at the hotel past nine, she felt somewhat unwell, with a churning sensation in her stomach that came in waves of nausea. She assumed it might have been motion sickness, drank some hot water to settle her stomach, and didn’t think much of it.
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She took a shower in the bathroom and after tidying up, she connected to the hotel’s network, preparing to do a final revision of the interview script for the next day.
Just as she got online and logged into her account, a timely video request from Lin Xian came through.
Xiao Wanqing’s eyes softened, and without hesitation, she accepted the call.
During the summer vacation, Lin Xian had a regular routine; she would usually send Xiao Wanqing a text message during her lunch break every day, sometimes make a call, and without fail, call her around ten o’clock every night. Occasionally, when she saw Xiao Wanqing online, she would send a video request.
When Xiao was available, she would pick up the video call, and they would chat leisurely; when she was busy, she might pick up and exchange a few words before getting absorbed in her work and forgetting about Lin Xian. Lin Xian didn’t mind, seemingly content to watch her at work as if she herself could have a great time just sitting in front of the computer.
Lin Xian appeared as if she just took a shower as well, wearing shorts and a camisole, with her wet hair draped over her shoulders. She casually pushed the stray hair from her forehead, a gesture casual yet inherently graceful. Xiao Wanqing watched, her gaze holding involuntary admiration and infatuation as she propped her chin with one hand.
This hair-tucking gesture was actually intentional; Lin Xian had practiced it countless times alone in front of a mirror, like a fool. She saw Xiao Wanqing’s look and felt a joyful satisfaction, sly like a little fox that had gotten away with stealing cream, teasing her with a sly and slightly shy tone, “Xiao Xiaowan, what are you looking at so intently? Why do you seem a bit… enamored?”
Xiao Wanqing’s gaze grew even softer, and she let out a light laugh in response, “I’m looking at my lovely little kitten. I want to touch its wet fur.” Lin Xian was like a panacea for her; seeing her smile made her feel a lot better, as if her discomfort had diminished greatly.
Immediately sensing the cue, Lin Xian obediently angled her hair towards the camera, smiling cheerily, “Here, touch…” She liked the way Xiao Wanqing looked at her, and was even more eager for the day when she would see an even more passionate gaze from her.
After a little bit of chatting, Lin Xian keenly noticed, “Xiao Xiaowan, is it the hotel lighting or something? Your complexion doesn’t look good, are you feeling unwell?”
Xiao Wanqing casually reassured her, “It’s nothing, I just felt a bit dizzy after getting out of the train.”
Lin Xian couldn’t help but worry and started fussing over her with a flurry of caring instructions, and finally, uncharacteristically serious, advised her to finish her work and then go to sleep.
She didn’t end the video call, watching until Xiao Wanqing finished her work, obediently lay down on the bed, and fell soundly asleep. After a long while, Lin Xian tenderly kissed the sleeping face of Xiao Wanqing on the screen, whispered a goodnight, and then lay down herself to sleep.
However, Xiao Wanqing was awakened by a sharp pain in her abdomen after 2 AM. She sat up, clutching her chest, only to feel a suffocating tightness in her breath. She got out of bed and went to the bathroom, where she vomited until everything spun around her.
It was only then she belatedly realized that maybe it was the hastily eaten dinner near the bus station that evening—perhaps something there wasn’t clean. She suspected she had contracted gastroenteritis. By the end, she had nothing left to vomit, and her eyes were filled with tears. Propping herself up, she stood from the toilet, flushed, rinsed her mouth, and then went to her room to find the medicine she always carried with her from her suitcase. She twisted open a bottle of mineral water from the hotel desk to take the medication, hoping to alleviate some of the discomfort.
Back in bed, she saw her laptop on the bedside table. Awakening the screen, she saw that it showed Lin Xian, bundled in blankets, with a sweetly pouting sleeping face.
In the silent and unbearable night, Xiao Wanqing gently stroked the screen, suddenly moved, her thoughts flowing like a fountain. She reached for paper and pen beside her and began to write, head bowed.
The cramping in her abdomen continued, but Xiao Wanqing gradually forgot about the pain.
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As the dawn broke, she finished writing—the first love poem she had ever written for Lin Xian, drawn with the greatest skill she possessed, capturing the sweet visage of the sleeping girl. Looking at the girl’s unknowing sleeping face, Xiao Wanqing felt an unexpected twinge of emotion as she penned “Written on the Qixi Festival of 2012.”
This was their first Qixi Festival together, and she had not cherished it, had not spent it with Lin Xian. Would they have another year, another Qixi Festival together in the future?
Perhaps it was the physical discomfort that made her more sentimental, and Xiao Wanqing’s mood began to sink.
But adults, no matter what, do not have too much time to indulge in melancholy. She suppressed her superfluous emotions, took one last precious look at the girl’s sleeping face, then turned off the video, shut down her computer, and went to wash up and prepare for work.
Almost sleepless and overwhelmingly tired, tortured by a recurring stomach ache, Xiao Wanqing still summoned her energy to complete her interview task impeccably. It wasn’t until the interview was over and they all left the reception room that Xiao Wanqing couldn’t hold up any longer and rushed to the restroom. However, with her stomach in turmoil, she could only retch.
She had vomited everything the night before; in the morning, she only managed a few mouthfuls of plain porridge. Her stomach felt painfully empty, containing only bitter bile.
Xiao Wanqing truly couldn’t bear it any longer. She explained the situation to her colleagues and asked them to proceed to lunch without waiting for her. The male cameraman offered to accompany Xiao Wanqing to the hospital, but she, always preferring to keep a certain distance from men, declined his offer and took a taxi to the nearest hospital’s emergency department.
Just when Xiao Wanqing was sitting in the hospital lobby waiting to pick up her medication, Lin Xian called. They had barely exchanged a few words when the announcement for medication pickup echoed through the area. Lin Xian, with sharp ears, caught it immediately.
Her eyebrows furrowing, she immediately asked with concern, “Auntie Xiao, are you at the hospital right now?”
Xiao Wanqing, not wanting to worry her, instinctively thought to hide the truth. However, as she was about to speak, she suddenly remembered the time when she discovered that Lin Xian was keeping her part-time job a secret; they had promised each other then to try to be as honest as possible.
After a moment of thought, she chose to be honest and told her, “Yes, I am at the hospital. Don’t worry about me. I just ate something bad yesterday and got a bit of acute gastroenteritis. Some medicine should fix it.”
Lin Xian’s worry was immediate; her heart twisted with concern. “Xiao Xiaowan, you promised to take care of yourself. Why are you so disobedient? You’re not letting anyone feel at ease,” came the girl’s voice, sounding not so gentle and even a bit fierce.
Xiao Wanqing looked at the medication dispensing screen in front of her and the pairs of patients around her; hearing the girl’s fierce voice unexpectedly made her feel warm and comforted. A slight smile graced her lips as she softly admitted her mistake, “I was wrong to make you worry, sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Seeing her like this, so docile, Lin Xian’s frown eased, and she didn’t have the heart to scold her anymore. She softened her tone, “Have you eaten yet?”
Xiao Wanqing talked with a rare coquettish tone, expressing her grievance, “No, I don’t have an appetite. Here you can’t buy anything but plain congee, and if I buy plain congee, there are no light side dishes to go with it.”
Lin Xian’s heart softened upon hearing this, and she soothed Xiao Wanqing with a gentle tone, encouraging her to eat at least a little.
Xiao Wanqing, listening to the girl’s tender words akin to those of a reliable lover, bit her lip, feeling both shy and delighted. She chided herself for acting like a coquettish teenager at the age of over thirty and for needing someone to coddle her; it was really shameless.
However, her anxious heart, troubled by the morning’s woes, gradually settled in the softness of the girl’s words. Regardless of everything else, in that moment, she felt that in Lin Xian’s heart, Lin Xian was by her side.
Around six in the evening, Xiao Wanqing began to develop a slight fever. Wen Tong called to show her concern, knowing she was out of town on a business trip, and speculated whether Qixi was particularly lonely for her. Jokingly, Xiao Wanqing said it was the most miserable Qixi she had ever spent.
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Upon learning about Xiao Wanqing’s gastroenteritis, Wen Tong was naturally distressed. But the distance was too great, and aside from advising Xiao Wanqing to drink some salt water, eat light, and rest well, she felt helpless to do more.
Just after seven, Xiao Wanqing casually ate some plain congee, sorted through some manuscript for a while, but eventually, due to physical exhaustion, she could not hold on and drifted into a drowsy sleep.
It’s unclear how much time had passed when, half-asleep, half-awake, she faintly heard knocking sounds at her door, persistent and rhythmic. Struggling to consciousness, bleary-eyed, she listened intently and realized it was indeed her room’s door that was making the noise.
In her pajamas, Xiao Wanqing wearily got out of bed, guessing it might be a colleague looking for her. Men and women should be distinguished, she glanced at the clock; it was already after ten, and no matter what it was, she decided she wouldn’t open the door.
As she politely responded to the knocking with a “Who is it?” she was internally drafting how to decline once her colleague responded.
To her surprise, the response from outside the door was not the rough male voice she had anticipated.
“It’s me.” A clear and pleasant, the captivatingly youthful female voice she had been dreaming of rang out from the other side.