015

        Qin Yinong asked: "Is Ningning adjusting to kindergarten?"

  

   Ji Shulan smiled from ear to ear when she heard ‘Ningning’, and said repeatedly: "Adjust, adjust, the teacher even called home to praise her, saying that Ningning is very smart, learning everything faster than other children."

  

        The old lady even forgot to eat. Her mouth was like a bamboo tube spilling out beans: "Last time the school sent some books to teach some simple characters, and the teacher urged parents to help their child revise. Ningning was very self-motivated and lay there to read as soon as she finished eating, there was no need for me to remind her. I’m just worried that she will be nearsighted if she loves to read so much..."

  

   Qin Yinong smiled: "Don't let her read too close, it should be fine."

  

   Ji Shulan: "So I usually pay attention to correcting her. By the way, she also studies English and learns bilingually. She can count from one to ten, and she can also say apples and oranges."

  

   Qin Yinong propped her chin and smiled: "Really? I will test her next time."

  

   Aunt Fang, who had been eating quietly, silently put a piece of meat into Ji Shulan’s bowl, avoiding Qin Yinong’s sight, just looking at Ji Shulan, and whispered, “Shall we eat first?”

  

   Ji Shulan's mouth was half open, and she seemed to want to continue speaking, her eyes looked at the meat in the bowl again, and she looked a little embarrassed. Qin Yinong smiled and added: "You have to eat first, and we will talk about it after eating. I should stay at home for a while this time."

  

   Only then did Ji Shulan start lunch with peace of mind.

  

   Aunt Fang cleaned up the dishes after the meal. There is a dishwasher at home, but Aunt Fang is used to washing dishes by hand. Qin Yinong didn't say anything when she saw it. People at their age have difficulty accepting new things freely. Most of those automated devices become furnishings, and they can no longer find interest to pass the time like young people. Doing housework can make them feel a little more secure.


   Ji Shulan returned to her room, and took Ningning's recent homework to let Qin Yinong have a look at them. The child’s handwriting is naive, and the letters are big and round, a little bit cute. Qin Yinong finished reading, smiled and said: "It’s written very well."

  

   Ji Shulan showed a look of relief.

  

   The mother and daughter were silent for a while.

  

   They actually don't have much to talk about, their generation gap is like mountains. One reason is habit since childhood. Ji Shulan had to earn money to support her family and did not have much energy to communicate with the children; second, Qin Yinong’s life is too far away from her. Sometimes when Ji Shulan looks at the bright star on the screen, she can't help but doubt whether Qin Yinong is really the daughter in front of her. It’s as if before she could see this daughter clearly, she has already grown up, become distant and powerful, become someone who can lift the whole family on one shoulder, and keep the wind and rain out firmly.

  

   She feels guilty towards this daughter. Her sister was able to experience a proper family for a short time, but by the time she was born, there were only endless quarrels and coldness left in the family. She and her sister were close since childhood, always dependent on each other, but in the end, her sister...

  

   Ji Shulan vaguely feels that the reason why Qin Yinong has such a playful and chaotic private life, as her bad reputation goes, is mainly the effect she and her sister had on her.

  

   But Ji Shulan also thinks, being playful is still better than breaking one's nerves and bones, at least she isn’t following her sister's footsteps.

  

   "Ningning..." Qin Yinong's fingers moved slightly beside hers, and after being silent for a long while, she decided to talk about the common topics they could talk about.

  

   The temperature was rising day by day, warm and sleepy, and while chatting, Ji Shulan couldn't help but yawn, tears in her eyes. Qin Yi exhaled without a trace, and suggested at the right time: "Mom, go take a nap, I will call you later, and we will pick up Ningning together."

  

   Ji Shulan also felt like there was a stone lifted off her back.

  

   She complied and went back to the room to rest.

  

   Ji Shulan is getting older, with inconvenient legs and physical strength, so her bedroom is arranged on the first floor. Qin Yinong watched her back disappear behind the door and sat for a while. Her knuckles suddenly twitched uncontrollably, her instinct surged with anxiety.

  

   Qin Yinong has filmed for many years, basically without interruption. Away from filming cameras, away from the call of “action” and of the clapperboard, she is often at a loss and doesn’t know what to do. To put it bluntly, since she acts too much, she doesn’t know how to live her own life. She doesn’t really want to live her own life either--she would rather sink into filming for a lifetime.

  

   When she went to the Cannes Film Festival this time, she met director Han Yuping who was shortlisted for her work. Han Yuping is her talent scout and was the one who revived her. Had ‘father’ not been a derogatory term to her, Han Yuping would be her second father. Han Yuping is a keen and sensitive person, so when he saw her, he knew right away that she was exhausted. He immediately raised his eyebrows and scolded, "You need to go back to China and rest!"

  

   Qin Yinong was startled, poured him a glass of wine, and smiled sweetly: "My market has just opened, and many directors are looking for me. It'd be a waste to go back to China now."

  

   Han Yuping didn’t buy it. He waved his hand, his face stern: "What open? Get out! I'll have you taken off the set if you continue filming!"

  

   Qin Yinong: "..."

  

        Han Yuping urged her in a fair manner: "Actors must be rooted in real life, and life is infinite. So what if you are talented? Sooner or later, you will just drain your own accumulation, and then you won't be able to act again. What else can you do?"

  

   Qin Yinong chuckled around a sip of champagne, agreed on the outside, but mentally she was resisting. Han Yuping would not really ask someone to tie her up anyway.

  

        Han Yuping saw through her with just a glance, withdrew his dignified manner to change into that of an elder, and counselled whole-heartedly: "I know you don't want to return to reality, always evading it, but you should at least give yourself a chance. Rest for a while, maybe you will find that there are more interesting things in life than filming."

  

   Qin Yinong's smile gradually faded, and she looked at him blankly.

  

   Han Yuping stared at her seriously, and said: "Take it as I’m begging you."

  

   Qin Yinong was silent for a long time, and her eyes gradually became glassy. She averted her eyes and said in a muted voice, "I'll try."

  

   Qin Yinong stood up and walked around, planning to find something to do for herself, and finally carried the stack of scripts that she had taken from An Ling's office. Looking at the thick stack of scripts, Qin Yinong couldn't help smiling, thinking that if Han Yuping knew that if she wasn’t filming then she was reading the script, he would be so angry that his hair would stand up.

  

   Just as she’s about to turn to the first page——

  

   The phone on the coffee table shook.

  

   Guan Han: [The medicine has been delivered]

  

   Qin Yinong's numb brain seemed to be infused with vitality. Tang Ruoyao, the three words whirled in her throat, warming up the chilled blood in her veins.

  

   Qin Yinong couldn't help but choke, put the script aside, exhaled softly, and typed: [How did you send it?]

  

   Guan Han: [I gave it to Ruan Qin, I didn’t show up in person. I’m at the gate of Miss Yao’s house now]

  

   Guan Han sat in the car, lowered her head to continue typing, but suddenly there was an incoming call on the screen.

  

   "How’s her face?" After removing the pretense, Qin Yinong's voice sounded ice cold on the phone.

  

  "Ruan Qin said it’s faded."

  

   "Are you sure she’s telling the truth?"

  

   "She doesn't dare to tell lies even if you let her." Guan Han said, "Miss Yao will have a magazine shoot tomorrow, and she will have to tag along. If there really is something left on her face, she will probably be scared to death."

  

   "Did Yaoyao say anything to her? Like some kind of warning?"

  

   Guan Han paused and said, "No."

  

   Qin Yinong sighed wearily.

  

   Guan Han moved her lips but said nothing.

  

        A while later.

  

   Qin Yinong said: "Forget it. Tell Ruan Qin, if she dares raise her hand again, I’ll have it cut off."

  

   Guan Han hesitated: "What about her taunts?" For Ruan Qin to develop to the point of getting physical, it definitely didn’t happen overnight.

  

   Qin Yinong said coldly: "If she always only ever endures them, how can I stop her?"

  

   Guan Han was silent.

  

   Qin Yinong pinched her eyebrows, and said languidly: “That’s that first. If there’s nothing then it’s fine."

  

   She turned off the call.

  

   What Han Yuping said was wrong, she has long discovered her interesting things in life. She has found her Neverland.

  

   Tang Ruoyao is her Neverland, but she is not Peter Pan and cannot live here forever.

  

   What she is most worried about now is that once Tang Ruoyao leaves her, without her protection, she might not be able to withstand the miserable wind and rain outside in the future.


  ***

  

   Ruan Qin left nervously. She wanted to say a few more words to Tang Ruoyao, and asked her to help plead with Qin Yinong. But Tang Ruoyao's face was so cold that it could drop icicles, and it left her scared out of her wits.

  

   Tang Ruoyao is very good-tempered most of the time, but there are also times when she’s irritable. She felt that not asking Ruan Qin to get out was already her limit. Ruan Qin stood at the door for just a minute, delivered the ointment, looked at her face, and then disappeared from her sight.

  

   Tang Ruoyao didn't even give it a glance, so she threw the ointment on the coffee table and continued to watch her documentary.

  

   She didn't know if her mood of concentration was interrupted by Ruan Qin or some other reason, but Tang Ruoyao found that it was difficult to focus. She kept forgetting the previous sentence the moment the low baritone on the TV finished saying the next one.

  

   Tang Ruoyao pressed pause, leaned her head back on the sofa and exhaled heavily. In her peripheral vision, she caught a glimpse of the container of ointment on the coffee table, and picked it up again.

  

   This ointment was very strange.

  

   There was no packaging, not even a brand.

  

   Tang Ruoyao unscrewed the lid and held it up to the tip of her nose to smell it. There was a very light scent, quite different from the usual ointment.

  

   She squeezed a little on the back of her hand and rubbed it around. The paste was transparent and cool to the touch.

  

   Tang Ruoyao recalled Ruan Qin's nervous and frightened look when she was standing at the door, and something went through her mind, and she caught it. Where did Ruan Qin get the ointment? It's common to get injured while filming, but she had never given her any ointment before?

  

   Did she hide it from her privately until today? Or... did someone instruct her?

  

   Tang Ruoyao didn't think Ruan Qin was a person who could have this idea. Once she thought that it was very likely to be the latter case, her heartbeat started to speed up uncontrollably.

  

  Guan Han is a very capable person, and this is proven in the fact that if Qin Yinong didn’t order her to do something, she would never take matters into her own hands.

  

   Tang Ruoyao was so nervous that her palms were sweating, and she took her phone out, her fingertips quivering. She made several mistakes before she could send a complete message.

  

   Guan Han was on the way home when the phone in her hand shook. She turned it on, and her breathing suddenly stopped.

  

   Tang Ruoyao: [Did Jiejie ask you to give me the ointment?]


  

Insert bookmark 

The author has something to say:

Small theater:

Guan Han (Holding the big and red apple that I haven’t had time to eat, hand trembling slightly): I’m exposed.

Qin Yinong: It's okay, I haven't been exposed yet

Guan Han (cold): You're almost too

Qin Yinong: Wow, wow, so can I be eaten? I have been abstinent for so many years QAQ

Guan Han:...

The author's voice-over: My sister will be thirty soon~

Thanks to the little angel who voted for me or irrigated the nutrient solution~

Thanks to the little angel [a long list of readers]

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!


next chapter


previous chapter


translated by drew, edited by noba