Fu Yu listened to her until Changxin finished patiently. He nodded and said with a smile, “I’m just friends with Changqing right now, so I’m unable to not see her.”
Changxin came over with a chestful of words but she didn’t expect that reply from him.
If he said he couldn’t forget Changqing, it still wouldn’t be that hard to begin.
Now it seemed like her punch had landed on cotton.
She said gloomily, “She’s married. Why should a man like you keep trying to see her? What do you think Song Chuyi thinks?”
“Don’t tell me you have no friends of the opposite gender now that you’re married?” Fu Yu questioned her back. “You have so many colleagues of the opposite gender at the hospital, so don’t tell me your husband has an opinion about every single one of them. Changxin, instead of looking for me, why don’t you persuade Song Chuyi? Sometimes, he should be more big-hearted and not once-bitten-twice-shy.”
Changxin understood that this was a wasted trip today. “Fu Yu, can you guarantee that you will only be friends with Changqing for the rest of your life?”
Fu Yu smiled slightly. “Can you guarantee that Changqing and Song Chuyi won’t get a divorce for the rest of their lives?”
“Fu Yu, I understand what you mean.” Changxin suppressed the rage burning within her. “Well, I still have an appointment and won’t disturb your fish-gazing any longer.”
On the way over, she thought she would be able to talk peacefully with Fu Yu and talk peacefully she did, but she never expected Fu Yu to be so sly. She wasn’t even his match, not to mention Changqing.
When the time had come for them to meet at the restaurant, Changqing got there first and sat gloomily on the couch with her head resting on her hand.
The service staff came over to take their order but Changxin lost her appetite because of Fu Yu and only ordered a few random dishes. After that, she asked, “Did you sleep with Song Chuyi last night?”
Changqing didn’t expect Changxin to ask such an intense question the moment she opened her mouth and Changqing’s mind went down the gutter. She blushed slightly. “Yeah…”
Changxin looked at her and suddenly thought things looked promising and made eyes ambiguously at her. “Don’t tell me it was a lovers’ quarrel that ended up with make-up sex?”
Changqing was like a deflated rubber ball when she heard that.
If only it was a lovers’ quarrel that ended up with make-up sex.
However, some things weren’t that simple.
“Changqing, let me ask you something,” Changxin said sternly, “Do you like Song Chuyi? If you really don’t, I won’t oppose your divorce and I will help you with regards to Dad. If you still can’t let go of Fu Yu, I’ll let you be too and I won’t stand in your way as long as you’re happy. I also believe Song Chuyi isn’t the petty kind of person who’d hold onto a grudge and take revenge on our family.”
“Sis… I’ve long gotten over Fu Yu.” Changqing lowered her head. “It’s only that the things between the four of us are very complicated. Don’t tell me that being with Song Chuyi means I can’t even keep in touch with Auntie Shen? She treated me so well and she’s all alone in Northern City…”
Changxin frowned. “No one told you to stop keeping in touch with Auntie Shen. It’s just that when you go over to visit Auntie Shen, you can ask Song Chuyi to come along and that would prevent many misunderstandings.”
Changqing was in a daze. That was indeed a good idea. “What about Guan Ying?”
“We can’t talk about Guan Ying right now. After she recovers, she will naturally be busy with filming,” Changxin said, “When she becomes popular over time, would she still hold on to Song Chuyi? When that time comes, she’ll have a bunch of suitors around her. When she gets a boyfriend, all this would be over. If Song Chuyi was that attractive to her, they wouldn’t have broken up back then.”
Changqing blinked and following that, her eyes suddenly lit up.
It seemed she had been walking on a road leading to the edge of a cliff lately.
She wanted to go over but was afraid of falling.
Now, Changxin’s words seemed to have cleared her path.
“I understand, Sis. Thank you. Thank goodness you came back,” Changqing said gleefully, “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known what to do.”
Changxin shot her a glance and sighed. “Changqing, before I got married, I was also carefree like you, but once you’re married, there are things you have to consider. Even if this didn’t involve Song Chuyi, no matter which other man it was, you should think the same. Your brother-in-law and I might seem at bliss, but behind the scenes, there have also been many unhappy incidents.”
Changqing lowered her head silently and nodded.
She understood all of it. Lin Yiqin’s family wasn’t very well-off. When he got married with Changxin back then, she was also under a lot of pressure. Besides, Lin Yiqin’s relatives weren’t very good either. Back when both families were discussing the wedding feast, Yan Lei almost fell ill out of anger caused by the other party’s family.
Fortunately, Lin Yiqin was very good to Changxin.
After lunch, Lin Yiqin came to pick Changxin up and took her to the airport.
Changqing looked at Lin Yiqin, who helped Changxin carry her bags, and felt a sense of sorrow flashing in her heart. Perhaps this was what a real married couple should look like. Would that day come for her and Song Chuyi?
After leaving the restaurant, Changqing went over to the filming site. She wasn’t there the day before and suddenly found herself totally alienated.
She felt that way during filming before too, but the production staff was still quite nice to her. However, this time, the production staff largely spent break times crowding around actors like Zhao Zhu, He Yongsui and Chi Yining, laughing and chatting merrily.
Changqing wanted to join in on the conversation several times, but she was always cut off after less than two sentences, whether they were doing it on purpose or not, and everyone would seem to neglect her and continue their conversation.
After this happened once or twice, she didn’t want to head over anymore. Most of the time, she sat alone at the side with Wen Tong.
Wen Tong peeled an orange for her and consoled her. “There’s still a little more than a month of filming to go. Just bear with it for a little longer. I heard Zhao Zhu and Guan Ying are both newly contracted artistes from Shang Wei and are also competitors from the same company. There were a few times Chi Yining tried to get close to her and said you were friends with Guan Ying, and on top of that, Director Su is a little biased towards you now, so she currently hates the sight of you.”
Changqing was depressed. “Why do you understand the whole situation so clearly?”
“Hehe, so only Zhao Zhu is allowed to gift this and that to curry the favor of the people on the production team while I can’t?” Wen Tong said, “You just need to focus on filming. They can do whatever they want. When the drama series airs, the audience will only look at the acting.”
Although Changqing knew Wen Tong’s words made sense, she was ultimately still a little disappointed.
When filming ended that night, Changqing returned to Ruan Yang’s apartment.
Wen Tong had a date with her boyfriend and had no time for her.
Changqing was alone in the empty, two-storey house. She switched on the television and all the lights in the house but still felt a little scared.
She thought of how she was all alone during filming and at night, she was still all alone. She wanted to go home but was afraid Yan Lei would chide her, so she didn’t dare.
A strong sense of melancholy overwhelmed her. She sat on the bed flipping through the channels on the wall-mounted television set after bathing.
Suddenly, it was dark everywhere.
It was a blackout!
She was stupefied and endless amounts of fear surged through her.
She quickly looked for her phone. She found it after feeling around on the bed for a long time, and she switched on the flashlight function. The darkness surrounding the dim spot of light enveloped her.
She went downstairs in fear and opened the door outside. There were lights all over outside and the elevator was also working. There was just no electricity in the house.
She quickly called Ruan Yang but the call didn’t go through.
She flipped through her contacts once and finally stopped at Song Chuyi’s number. She mustered up her courage and dialled it.
“What’s wrong?”
At that time, Song Chulang was at the Song Family, playing chess with Song Chulang.
“There’s a blackout here…” Changqing said weakly, “I’m afraid. Can you come over for a while?”
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few seconds before Song Chuyi finally spoke again. “Tell me the address.”
He put the phone down and said to Song Chulang, “Let’s stop here. I have something to do, so I’ll have to step out for a while.”
“The call was from Yan Changqing?” Song Chulang said coldly as he stared at the chessboard.
“… I’ll get going first.” Song Chuyi stood up and turned to leave.
He reached the neighborhood Changqing described and took the elevator up. The moment he stepped out, he saw Changqing curled up, standing at the doorstep. Her dark, long hair was in a bun and she was still wearing a set of pink pyjamas with a jacket. When she saw that he arrived, a luster seemed to have seeped into her dark eyes all of a sudden and immediately, a thin film of moisture started to surge.
He frowned slightly. She stood up and she suddenly pounced into his embrace, saying weakly, “There was a sudden blackout, and I was scared…”
All this happened too quickly and Song Chuyi was in shock.
He lowered his head and saw a section of the skin on her neck was as fair as lanolin and at that moment, even his heart of steel softened.
“Was the electricity bill overdue?” He pushed her away lightly, opened the door and walked in.
Changqing tugged on his shirt and followed him. “I called the property company and asked. The bill isn’t due yet.”
Song Chuyi switched on the flashlight on his phone. Even though it was still pitch black all around, looking at that big and tall back before her made Changqing not so scared anymore.
It seemed as though with him around, everything would be safe.
“Where’s the main circuit?” He asked and looked around.
“I don’t know…” Changqing shook her head. She knew nothing about all of this.
Song Chuyi could only look for it himself. Luckily, he had some experience and quickly found it behind a painting.
Changqing followed closely behind him and he accidentally knocked into her when he turned around. He said helplessly, “Sit down first, I’ll check it out. Maybe there’s a problem with the main circuit.”
“Then what should I do?” Changqing looked at him blankly and said, “Whenever there was a short-circuit in my house villa, it was always my Dad or the guard who fixed it.”
“Let me try.” He meddled around with the main circuit.
Changqing stood beside him and held the light up for him, blinking her eyes as she watched him fiddle around. A man who was deep in concentration seemed even more alluring. Even the way he looked when he turned the screwdriver was extremely pleasing to the eye.
When the lights came on again, the light stung Changqing’s eyes and she rubbed them as she was filled with disbelief. “You could even fix this? That’s incredible.”
Her bright amorous eyes watched him with a face full of worship. Song Chuyi coughed into his fist uncomfortably. “This was actually quite simple. This happened in my dormitory often when I studied overseas in the States.”
“Did you always fix it by yourself?” Changqing asked. She was so full of admiration she didn’t know what to say.
Women would always worship capable men, especially women like her who basically had no strengths.
In the past, she thought he only knew about medicine and didn’t know that he was actually very skilled in hacking. Now he even knew how to solve basic household problems.