NOVEL WEB Chapter 200-209
Chapter 200: I Wish You Would Be Lost Forever and Come To My Side (10)
As she waited for the waiter to serve her food, she reached for her phone and browsed Weibo to pass the time before she was drawn to a headline: “Three Thousand Lunatics” will officially start shooting on March fourteenth, White Day.
Don’t tell me… He Jichen accepted Lin Zhengyi’s investment?
Ji Yi furrowed her brows in bewilderment. Before she could even tap into “Three Thousand Lunatics”‘s thread, her phone continuously let out a “ding dong ding dong.”
She was afraid someone was urgently looking for her, so she exited Weibo and opened WeChat. The messages were sent by Tang Huahua; aside from a voice note, she also received a string of photos.
Ji Yi first clicked on the voice note, and she heard Tang Huahua’s voice through the clamor of the restaurant.
“Xiao Yi, quickly look at the screenshot I sent you. I found it on Lin Ya’s Moments and it’s going around many students from our university right now…”
At the mention of Lin Ya, Ji Yi’s heart shook for a moment. In the next second, she zoomed in on the image Tang Huahua sent.
The first image was a screenshot of Lin Ya’s Moments from an hour ago.
“I only just realized that someone looks all clean and flawless, but in reality, they drank with other people to keep her part as supporting actress. She was able to secure an investment with so much difficulty, but in the end, the company didn’t even care. They didn’t even take the investment…” Following that, there was a few laughing emojis with covered mouths, and underneath them were several photos.
Even though Tang Huahua didn’t enlarge those photos and share them with her, Ji Yi could tell that those photos were taken of her from Yue Yuan during her dinner with Lin Zhengyi.
After Ji Yi and Lin Ya got into an argument at the spa resort, Lin Ya had blocked Ji Yi on WeChat, so Ji Yi was only able to see Lin Ya’s Moments from the screenshot Tang Huahua sent her.
Someone asked if it was true and another said it was explosive news, but no matter what how many people commented, Lin Ya replied to them all.
From Tang Huahua’s screenshot, she could see that many people liked Lin Ya’s comment. She probably wanted everyone to see what she said, so she replied to the Moments for several days, instead of replying to the individual person’s comment.
“It’s true. Look at the image. A picture tells a thousand words! What’s more, someone I know from the industry told me about this.”
“Yeah, same here. I couldn’t tell she was that kind of person. Who knows, she might’ve slept with someone to get the investment.”
“She definitely wanted to get the investment to leave a good impression with the company. In the end, they didn’t even take the investment. What a big slap in the face!”
Ji Yi couldn’t read any longer, so she quickly swiped the screen and brushed past all the images Tang Huahua sent until she reached the final one. She saw what Tang Huahua had sent her and her fingers suddenly stopped moving.
It was news about the “Three Thousand Lunatics.”
The investor wasn’t Lin Zhengyi but a venture capital company that was more outstanding than Lin Zhengyi. It was leaked that the investment was greater than before, almost fifty percent more… Could it be that after He Jichen heard Lin Zhengyi wanted to reinvest, he declined it without even talking it over because he had other plans?
She was the one who didn’t know what she was capable of and meddled with their business. Having spent all her energy only to not get anything in return, she felt unbelievably humiliated, and now, someone brought it to Lin Ya’s attention. Everyone in the university knew about it, and it made her feel utterly embarassed.
Chapter 201: The Right to See You (1)
Lin Ya said someone with star power in the industry told her. That person was… Qian Ge right?
The two of them had known each other for quite some time. At first, when she joined the production team of “The Palace,” wasn’t it Lin Ya who helped Qian Ge trap her in the abandoned school building?
So, just like before, Qian Ge was using Lin Ya as a weapon against her.
Tang Huahua sent a new voice note: “Xiao Yi, Lin Ya’s mouth is so darn cheap…”
As Ji Yi heard her angry voice, she received Tang Huahua’s screenshot.
The conversation between Lin Ya and her two girl friends was buzzing. One of the lines was from Lin Ya: “Look at how she drank to each one of them. Her smile was so slutty. Who’s to say that everyone on that table isn’t her investor?”
Below that, one of the girls replied with three laughing emojis with their mouths covered.
Ji Yi silently pursed her lips. Before she could even click out of the image, Tang Huahua sent several more voice notes.
“Xiao Yi, look at how shameless she is! She went as far as to say that you’re having an affair with everyone at the table in her Moments1.”
“We’re classmates after all, but for her to make the situation worse, does she think we’ll never see each other again?
“Wouldn’t she feel bad when we see each other?”
“…”
Ji Yi didn’t listen to Tang Huahua’s later voice notes and she locked her phone screen before putting it down.
Her gaze was transfixed on the rustic lights hanging above the windows. The calm expression on her face looked as if she hadn’t seen anything on her phone just now. It wasn’t until the waiter served her some food before she withdrew her gaze, picked up her chopsticks, and silently started to eat.
Ji Yi ate for quite some time, but after eating a fifth of her food, she couldn’t eat anymore and put her chopsticks down. She called the waiter over, paid her bill, and got up to leave.
As she followed the cobbled road in the old town, she aimlessly followed the tourists in front of her. She continued to walk until she was tired and simply couldn’t walk anymore. Then she took a seat by the riverside as she stared transfixed at the glistening lights on the surface of the river and the boats occasionally sailing by.
Ji Yi was in a daze for who knows how long before she snapped to her senses and noticed that the busy little town was already empty.
All the stores aside from the noisy bar some distance away were shut for the evening.
There were a few sparse lights reflecting off the surface of the river. Besides the other lights from the few lanterns far away, various other spots were completely shrouded with a dim light.
How long had she been sitting there on her own?
Before Ji Yi pulled the food from her bags, she noticed that she had over 99 messages when she checked her phone for the time.
Ji Yi hesitated for a while but eventually opened WeChat.
Besides the few messages from Tang Huahua asking if she was alright, her other B-Film colleagues and friends also asked whether or not what Lin Ya wrote on her Moments was real. Even her classmate’s WeChat groups all happily chatted away about her.
Ji Yi didn’t click into their posts, but she was certain there were some nasty comments. The thought of it was already devastating, so she didn’t need to stifle her own heart. The next second, she exited WeChat without any hesitation.
- WeChat’s integrated social network
Chapter 202: The Right to See You (2)
She continued to sit by the riverside for a while before she got up and followed the stone steps to the road ahead.
Ji Yi was so distracted by the thought of what Lin Ya did that she didn’t notice the road and slipped on a rock, causing her to unexpectedly fall to the ground.
The piercing pain woke Ji Yi up in an instant.
She was spread out on the ground for an embarrassingly long time. When the pain gradually subsided a little, she forced herself up and realized just how painful her ankle was as she tried to walk.
She hastily turned on the flashlight on her phone, bent over to check her ankle and realized it was starting to swell up.
So as it turned out when she accidentally tripped, she twisted her ankle.
Ji Yi wasn’t too far from the hotel she was staying at. It would take just over ten minutes to walk back.
But a sharp pain struck her ankle with every step she took, so Ji Yi simply leaned against the tree and reached for her phone to call a taxi.
When she opened the app to call a taxi, she saw there wasn’t a single car around. Then she realized cars weren’t permitted in the ancient city.
Her parents were all the way in Hainan, she was unfamiliar with Lijiang, and she didn’t have a single friend here, so she had no one to rely on. There weren’t as many people there compared to the daytime, so who could she call for help? Ji Yi was deep in thought for some time before she put her phone away, gritted her teeth, endured the pain, and headed for the hotel.
At first, Ji Yi could hold it together as she took small steps forward, but the more she walked, the more intense the bone-piercing pain was in her ankle. Eventually, whenever Ji Yi’s leg hit the ground, she sharply inhaled a cold breath of air in pain as she shivered all over.
Ji Yi simply couldn’t take it anymore and couldn’t care less for how dirty the ground was as she sat right on the ground.
It was late in the evening, and she was the only person left on the well-lit road.
Waves of pain rushed to her ankle.
All of a sudden, Ji Yi felt really hurt. She couldn’t help but bury her head in her knees.
She stayed like that for who knows how long before her phone rang. She slowly looked up at her phone.
The three words “Yuguang Ge” flickered clearly on the screen.
Ji Yi stared at the phone screen for some time before she reached over to take the call with some hesitation.
Because He Yuguang couldn’t talk, the phone was silent.
At the same time, Ji Yi remained quiet for some time before she spoke. Even though she tried to remain calm until the very end, her voice still trembled as she spoke. “Yuguang Ge, it’s so late. Were you looking for me for something?”
After four to five seconds of silence over the phone, the call disconnected.
Ji Yi hadn’t snapped out of the busy tone when her phone rang. “Ding dong!” “He Yuguang” sent a text: “Manman, did something happen?”
Ji Yi knew Yuguang Ge only asked because he heard that something was wrong in her voice.
With her phone in hand, she ignored the issue with Lin Ya and focused on more important matters: “It’s nothing. I just sprained my ankle.”
After sending that text out, Ji Yi typed what she just said over the phone and sent it: “Yuguang Ge, it’s so late. Were you looking for me for something?”
Chapter 203: The Right to See You (3)
“He Yuguang” replied quickly as usual, but he didn’t answer her question. Instead, he asked what was on his mind: “Manman, are you all on your own?”
“Mhm…” Ji Yi sent just the one word. She was just about to explain how she wasn’t in Hainan to give her parents some space.
But she only managed to type a few words before “He Yuguang” sent another message: “Where are you now?”
Ji Yi didn’t think too much of it and casually typed just two words: “Lijiang.”
“He Yuguang”: “Where in Lijiang?”
“Do you know your exact location?”
“He Yuguang” sent two consecutive messages as though he was anxious.
Before Ji Yi could tap the reply box, a notification popped up on WeChat so she casually clicked on it. Having just seen the three words “He Yuguang,” she clicked “agree” before she could clearly see what was sent. When she tapped it, she realized that she shared her location.
Ji Yi instinctively typed a reply to “He Yuguang”: “Yuguang Ge, why did you send a location share request?”
She wasn’t sure if “He Yuguang” saw her message, but he was slow to reply.
About a minute passed when “He Yuguang” stopped sharing the location.
That was when Ji Yi knew he on WeChat, so she sent out a question mark.
She waited for quite some time. Seeing as “He Yuguang” didn’t reply, she thought he probably clicked it by accident, so she didn’t message him again.
The phone was quiet for about five minutes. Seeing as “He Yuguang” didn’t reply, she figured that he might’ve fallen asleep by now, or he was busy with something, so she put her phone away.
She endured the pain in her ankle as she tried to get up. She gritted her teeth and pushed her way back to the hotel. However, she still couldn’t get up. All of a sudden, her phone started to ring.
She quickly stopped what she was doing and pulled out her phone to see that “He Yuguang” had replied to her message: “Manman, are you still where you were before?”
Why’s he asking where I am?
Ji Yi furrowed her brows in confusion and replied: “Yeah, why?”
“He Yuguang”: “Manman, stay there and don’t move.”
Why does Yuguang Ge not want me to move?
Ji Yi was just about to message “He Yuguang” to ask, when she received yet another message: “I’ll call you to be with you.”
Then Ji Yi really did get a call. It was “He Yuguang.”
Ji Yi took the call, and out of habit, she cried “Yuguang Ge,” but she was met with a wall of silence.
She knew He Yugung couldn’t talk, so she didn’t say anything more.
On the other side of the phone, it was ridiculously silent. She could hear rustling from his end of the phone every now and then.
Ji Yi knew he was using these little noises to tell her that he was there.
In actuality, the sounds from his end of the phone didn’t sound good, but Ji Yi thought they were heavenly, and it lifted her up from the terrible mood she was in because of Lin Ya. Little by little, she started to warm up.
Although Yuguang Ge wasn’t perfect and there was no way for him to have a comforting conversation with her, he could use this call to silently be with her. This made her heart feel unbelievably calm.
Ji Yi felt like her heart was carefully held by a pair of large, warm hands. Her mood became unusually delicate and soft.
Chapter 204: The Right to See You (4)
Perhaps it was because both sides of the line were too quiet, but the sound of singing came from “He Yuguang”‘s side of the phone.
Through the gentle sound of music, Ji Yi could hear the faint sound of “He Yuguang”‘s breath. It was low but strong.
Being all alone at night instantly started to feel beautiful.
With the phone raised, Ji Yi couldn’t help but look up at the stars in the sky above.
After some time had passed, Ji Yi heard a phone start to ring on “He Yuguang”‘s end.
Ji Yi instinctively wanted to cry out “Yuguang Ge” and say: “If you have an incoming call, let’s hang up first.” However, before she could speak, she heard the sound of two sets of footsteps close by.
Ji Yi turned her head to see a man and woman walk over.
The man had a phone in his hand and was talking into it: “I’ve arrived at the place you sent me, but I haven’t found her yet…”
Before the man could finish, the woman beside him saw Ji Yi and nudged the man’s arm and pointed. “Isn’t that her?”
The man’s line of sight fell on Ji Yi then he spoke into the phone, “…Found her. Found her.”
As the man hung up, Ji Yi and He Yuguang’s call was also cut.
Straight after, a string of messages was received. She lowered her phone and saw that “He Yuguang” had sent her a message: “Those are my friends – I asked them to take you to your hotel.”
So, Yuguang Ge didn’t mistakenly get her to share her location just now – he wanted to know where she was so he could send people to take care of her?
He was afraid she’d be bored waiting there on her own, so he stayed on the phone with her?
Ji Yi stared at the message suddenly with so much confusion.
That man and woman had already walked over to Ji Yi. “Hello, excuse me, are you Ji Yi?”
Ji Yi quickly composed herself, looked up, and politely replied, “Hello, yes, I’m Ji Yi.”
“You know Mr. He? He asked us to take you to your hotel…” said the woman with the beaming smile. She then looked down at Ji Yi’s leg and said, “…Mr. He said you twisted your ankle. Can you get up? If you can’t then let this man carry you. I called this strong guy over…”
As she said this, the woman shot the man a look, to which he immediately turned around and crouched in front of Ji Yi.
The woman was probably afraid that Ji Yi would feel embarrassed, so she continued by saying, “It’s alright. Don’t be embarrassed. They don’t let cars into the ancient city, so this is the best we can do.”
Having said this, any word of timidness would only make Ji Yi seem unreasonable. She quietly said “Thank you” and laid on the man’s back.
After the woman asked Ji Yi for the hotel’s name, she opened her navigation app and the three of them set off in the direction of the hotel.
The woman stayed with Ji Yi in the hotel room, but the man walked out with his phone. Who knows who he was on the phone with.
After about a minute, a man came in. He was an orthopedic doctor.
The woman recognised him and greeted him: “Old Zhang.” Then she moved to make space for him to check Ji Yi’s ankle.
In the process, the man who carried Ji Yi on his back shot her a glance from outside the door. Then he talked on the phone while he walked away.
…
“Mr. He, Miss. Ji Yi has reached the hotel with me and my wife. Now Old Zhang is checking her ankle.”
Chapter 205: The Right to See You (5)
“Mr. He, Miss Ji Yi has reached the hotel with me and my wife. Now Old Zhang is checking her ankle.”
“Mr. He, just now, I secretly went over to her door and overheard Old Zhang say that she didn’t injure the muscles and bones in her ankle.”
He Jichen stood in front of the tall windows of the airport’s VIP lounge and stared at a plane about to make a landing. One hand was on the phone listening to the call, and the other hand was reaching for a cigarette. He put it to his lips and grabbed a lighter, but just when he was going to light it up, he heard the man on the phone reporting what was happening. “Now Old Zhang is smearing bruise removal cream. He says she’ll be able to walk like normal after two days.”
He Jichen put his lighter away, removed the cigarette from his mouth, and flatly said into the phone: “Mhm,” to indicate that he heard what he said.
“Mr. He, Old Zhang has applied the medicine. It looks like she fell, since her knee was a little injured. Old Zhang is helping her disinfect it…” They almost finished in the hotel room, so the man knew it was time to go back. Just as he was about to say goodbye to He Jichen, he heard the sweet sound of a woman’s voice on He Jichen’s end of the line. “Mr. He, your private plane is in position. You can board now.”
The man suddenly stopped what he was going to say. “Mr. He, it’s so late. You still want to get on the plane? Just to…”
Mid-speech, the man seemed like he suddenly thought of something and changed what he was going to say. “…Mr. He, are you coming to Lijiang?”
Having guessed He Jichen’s thoughts, he didn’t hide a thing and replied with an honest “Mhm.”
“Miss Ji Yi really is fine. If you’re worried, my wife and I can stay with her tomorrow. Aren’t you busy over there? You don’t have to rush here overnight…”
Before the man could finish trying to persuade him, He Jichen suddenly asked, “She doesn’t know that I arranged for you both to be there right?”
“No, she doesn’t know. I didn’t mention your name, just as you asked. I just said that Mr. He asked us to come…”
“Thanks,” replied He Jichen flatly. He paused for a moment and added, “Hanging up.” He didn’t even wait for the man to respond before ending the call on his own accord. He pinched the cigarette as he followed the flight attendant through the VIP path to board the plane.
As he took a seat, He Jichen fastened the seat belt and waited for the plane to take off. When it was steadily in the air, a tall and slender air hostess walked over, offering a menu. “Mr. He, please let me know what you’d like to order?”
He Jichen didn’t take the menu but said in a flat voice, “A cup of cool boiled water.” Then he readjusted his seat to sit back in the most comfortable position and shut his eyes.
The air hostess quickly brought back a cup of cold water, but seeing as he had his eyes shut, she assumed he was sleeping so she didn’t disturb him. She gently put the cup of water down and attentively helped him turn off the lights above his head before she left.
He Jichen continued to shut his eyes to get some rest for a while before his eyelids flickered open again and he reached for the cup of water. When he drank half the cup, he put it down and turned to look out the window at the pitch-black sky. The stars glistened radiantly and the moonlight shone brightly.
He stared at the shockingly beautiful night view and suddenly thought back to the WeChat messages Tang Huahua sent him four hours ago…
…
Since “Three Thousand Lunatics” was going to start shooting in under a month, he only had new year’s family dinner at home on Chinese new year’s eve before getting on an overnight plane back to Beijing.
Chapter 206: The Right to See You (6)
Tonight, he originally planned to meet the the production team for “Three Thousand Lunatics” to discuss the script, but after talking to everybody for just a short while, his phone rang.
As they were all alerts from WeChat, he didn’t really bother with them. Thinking that it couldn’t possibly be anything important, he put his phone on silent and continued with the meeting about the script.
After about half an hour passed, the phone in his pocket started to vibrate.
He knew it was an incoming call, so he reached to pull out his phone as he continued to point out to the people around him the areas where the script could be improved.
As he spoke, he lowered his head and glanced over at the phone screen to see the three words “Tang Huahua.” He furrowed his brows, and he felt a little bewildered. Why was Tang Huahua looking for him on new year’s day?
He Jichen immediately tapped the button to take the call. When he finished what he had to say at the meeting, he raised the phone to his ear and said nonchalantly, “Hello?”
As soon as Tang Huahua heard him speak, she immediately said in a panic, “He Xuezhang, I can’t get a hold of Xiao Yi. I’m afraid she’s taking things too hard and something happened to her…”
When He Jichen heard the two words “Xiao Yi,” he suddenly stopped circling the script with a pen. The next second, he apologized to the room full of people then kicked his chair back and walked out of the meeting room with his phone.
When he reached a quiet spot, He Jichen then asked over the phone, “What’s going on?”
“It’s Lin Ya. Lin Ya sent a photo of Xiao Yi on Moments then started to talk a lot of crap. I told Xiao Yi about it then she started ignoring me. I was afraid she was feeling horrible, so I constantly sent her messages to comfort her, but she never replied. I was a little worried so I called her, but nobody picked up…”
Over the phone, Tang Huahua talked for a long time, but He Jichen caught the key point in an instant. “What kind of photo did Lin Ya send?”
“Half an hour ago, I sent it to you on WeChat…”
As Tang Huahua was in mid-speech, He Jichen hung up the call without a word and opened WeChat.
He ignored the other unread messages but searched for Tang Huahua’s name and clicked on it.
The first screenshot turned He Jichen’s eyes cold. As he remained frozen in place while swiping the screen to see the screenshot, the expression on his face grew bleak. Eventually, he looked like he was going to break a sweat.
Lin Ya actually hadn’t change one bit, and she dared to do something like this to Ji Yi?!
A flash of fury crossed He Jichen’s eyes. The next second, he found Ji Yi’s phone number and called her.
Compared to Lin Ya, Ji Yi should be his priority…
But when he called her, the line was cut.
He tried it a few times over, but just as he thought there was something wrong with his phone, he suddenly remembered that after what happened at the Four Seasons Hotel, she put his number on her blocked list.
He Jichen put his phone away and strode back into the meeting room. He called his secretary, wanting to borrow his phone, but then remembered how terrible Ji Yi must be feeling right now, seeing what Lin Ya wrote on Moments.
He saw her the same day she broke for winter holidays. When she saw him at the university gates, she turned away, so that meant she obviously didn’t want to see him.
Chapter 207: The Right to See You (7)
This situation with Lin Ya involved him, so he was afraid that she loathed and blamed him deep down inside.
It would only make her bad mood worse if he just called her.
After the secretary noticed that He Jichen didn’t say anything after calling for him, he asked in bewilderment, “Mr. He?”
When He Jichen heard this, he hastily snapped back to reality and looked over at the secretary.
“Mr. He, you called for me?” the secretary quickly asked as he met He Jichen’s gaze.
He Jichen clenched his hands tightly and shook his head. He replied in a flat tone, “It’s nothing.”
After some time, he spoke again. “I have other matters to attend to. Discuss and edit the script amongst yourselves and email it to me later. I’ll reply to you all in a bit.”
With that, He Jichen turned around and left the meeting room.
Back in his own office, He Jichen leaned against the wooden door and stood there without moving an inch for a long time. Then he strode over to the desk, pulled out He Yuguang’s phone from the drawer, and turned it on.
She liked He Yuguang so much when she was young, so it would more or less make her feel better if he called her as He Yuguang, right?
He had always been ill-tempered. Above all, he couldn’t stand how non-existent he was in her eyes. Every time he pretended to be his older brother, he had to remember to contain himself so he never lost control in front of her.
The only reason he was so willing to endure this suffering was because he was afraid that without pretending to be his older brother at all, they would truly be worlds apart.
He Jichen tried hard to push down the bitterness in his heart. He texted Ji Yi, copying He Yuguang’s style of writing.
It was just as Tang Huahua said. She didn’t reply to his messages or pick up his calls.
He started to panic slightly, and without thinking twice, he headed for the underground car park. Last night, when he sent her new years wishes as He Yuguang, he found out her family of three was in Hainan, so he headed straight for the airport.
It was late, so there weren’t any more flights to Hainan for a while; He Jichen could only book a private ride.
As he waited for a notification from the airport, he called her a number of times. It wasn’t until his phone almost ran out of battery when she finally picked up.
He found out she was in Lijiang, so he hurriedly ordered the staff at the airport to change their course from Hainan to Lijiang.
She was quite some distance away from him, and he didn’t know how serious her sprained ankle was, so he called employees from his company to take care of her.
The instant she picked up his call, he sensed a grunt in her voice and knew she had been affected by Lin Ya after all. Alone in a foreign place, he was afraid she was upset, so he stayed on the line with her to silently accompany her.
His anxious heart only settled down slowly when his employee called him back to let him know that they found her.
He pushed the car door open and was about to walk into the airport when he glanced over at the well-decorated box in the front passenger seat. He hesitated for a moment then reached his hand out and picked it up.
…
After boarding the plane, He Jichen blinked softly then averted his gaze from the plane’s window to the gift by his foot.
It was a new year’s gift he prepared for her, but he didn’t know how to give it to her.
Just like tonight, he knew she was devastated, but he still really wanted to be with her. There was no way he could get close to her as He Jichen.
Chapter 208: The Right to See You (8)
Did you know? Ji Yi… Every day, my heart comes up with a thousand, no, a million reasons to see you, but I don’t have any right to see you.
He Jichen felt a deep feeling of grief spew out little by little from his heart.
He looked at peace as though he wasn’t bothered by his thoughts at all, but his hands slowly clenched into fists.
He tried hard to stop himself from losing it completely on the plane.
Even as his nails painfully pierced his palms, there was no sign of him easing up. It took quite a long time for the throbbing pain and sorrow in his heart to subside before he slowly relaxed his fists. He felt his left palm was a little sticky, so he looked down to find tiny drops of blood from his nails digging into his palm.
–
Because of the medicine applied to her leg, Ji Yi couldn’t take a shower. She waited for the doctor, man and woman to leave before she limped over to the bathroom to freshen up a little and laid back in bed.
It was already two in the morning, but Ji Yi wasn’t sleepy. With her phone in hand, before she realized what she was doing, her fingers opened WeChat and typed in “He Yuguang.”
“They are my friends. I asked them to help take you to the hotel.” When she met the man and woman, he received her message which read, “I see them.”
Up till now, he hadn’t sent her a reply.
About forty-five minutes passed. Could he already be asleep?
Ji Yi bit her fingers and stared at her phone screen for some time before she typed a single line message and sent it. “Yuguang Ge, I’ve safely reached the hotel. They even found a doctor to take care of my injury.”
After a moment, Ji Yi added, “They’ve left now.”
After about five minutes, Ji Yi saw that “He Yuguang” still hadn’t replied to her message, so she simply scrolled through Weibo on her phone to waste time. She glanced at her Moments until she saw that “He Yuguang” was still silent two and a half hours later, so she clicked on their WeChat conversation and found one last topic to talk about. “Yuguang Ge, I need to sleep now. Thank you for tonight.”
“He Yuguang” didn’t reply as usual. Ji Yi, who wasn’t really sleepy, swiped the screen and read all the messages between herself and “He Yuguang” from the moment they were reunited till the present day.
When she finished, Ji Yi still felt wide awake, so she started to re-read their conversation from start to end again. A third of the way down, her eyelids started to struggle, and she fought with her sleepiness to push through ten more lines. Then her eyelids closed and she stopped resisting.
Her phone screen wasn’t locked, so the bright light shone on her fair complexion, making her look peaceful and beautiful.
Having not yet fallen asleep yet, her mind wandered for some reason to what she read a month ago in the study of the apartment of “He Yuguang”: “I wish you would get lost all your life and come to my side.” The line became clearer in her mind, and she eventually remembered how she sat alone in the ancient city by the road, listening to his silent call over an hour ago.
She couldn’t help but curve the corner of her lips into a smile.
Since it had been a long time since the phone was touched, the screen locked automatically.
As Ji Yi’s consciousness slipped into the darkness, she fell asleep.
Chapter 209: The Right to See You (9)
Even though the situation with Lin Ya was so irritating, Ji Yi still managed to sleep unusually well. When she woke up, it was already eleven in the morning.
She removed the covers, and the first thing she did when she sat up was check her ankle. Her red, swollen ankle seemed to have improved a lot with the applied medicine.
She tried to walk two steps, and though it still hurt, it was better than how it was last night.
It looked like it was just as the orthopedic doctor said last night – she probably only needed to rest at the hotel for a day before she could walk like normal.
Ji Yi went to brush her teeth and freshened up in the bathroom. When she came out, she found her phone on the bed, tapped to unlock it, and saw that “He Yuguang” sent her two replies.
One was a polite “Don’t worry,” and the other read: “Goodnight.”
After she clicked on the message, Ji Yi then saw that he sent the messages at half past four in the morning.
Did Yuguang reply with those messages after waking up at half past four, or was he up all that time, busy with something?
With that thought, Ji Yi’s fingers typed a message and she sent it over. “Yuguang Ge, why were you up so late?”
He probably didn’t have his phone on him, so Ji Yi waited for some time without receiving a reply. She put down her phone and was just about to grab the landline on her bedside table to request the front desk for breakfast when her phone rang: “Ding!”
Ji Yi glanced over at her glowing phone screen and saw “He Yuguang”‘s reply, “Manman, open the door.”
Open the door? Open what door?
Ji Yi was stunned for a moment, thinking that “He Yuguang” must’ve sent the message to the wrong person. Just as she was about to reply with a “?”, three loud knocks rang out from the hotel room door: “Dong! Dong! Dong!”
Ji Yi casually asked, “Who is it?” The knocks stopped. With her phone in hand, she hopped over to the door as she unlocked her phone to check He Yuguang’s reply.
“Yuguang Ge, did you send the wrong message?” After Ji Yi typed this, she walked over to the door without sending the reply, and she reached her hand out to open the door.
The man standing at the door carried two bags in one hand, and his phone in the other. His head was lowered as he looked at his phone like he was going to type something.
Both his fair wrists were exposed, and aside from a watch on his left hand, he didn’t have any accessories on.
Ji Yi instantly froze as she stared at the man before her eyes, like her pressure points had been struck.
When the man heard the sound of the door being opened, he raised his head and silently smiled at the sight of Ji Yi.
The moment Ji Yi saw his smile, she softly moved her lips, seemingly distracted. After being stunned for quite some time, she asked in disbelief and hesitantly said, “Yu-Yuguang Ge?”
He Jichen didn’t say anything but kindly smiled at her like usual.
Ji Yi slowly snapped back from the sudden shock of “He Yuguang”‘s appearance and said, “Yuguang Ge, why are you here?”
After Ji Yi asked this, she realized just how tired “He Yuguang” looked. The heavy, dark circles under his eyes made it seem like he hadn’t slept all night.
She suddenly thought back to the message he sent at half past four in the morning, and an unbelievable thought suddenly crossed her mind: Yuguang Ge, c-couldn’t have taken a plane through the night to get to Lijiang, right?!