By the time Angie finished her phone call, twenty minutes had already passed.
Ending the call, Angie felt a slight throbbing in her head; her older son was far too mischievous and increasingly difficult to keep in line. Raising a hand to massage the bridge of her nose, she glanced back into the room, recalling how Yunjun Ye had come in earlier, sat for a little while with drifting, evasive eyes that occasionally flicked toward her, and then abruptly fled with an abnormal expression. Her delicate brows knitted together.
Was she worried about something, came in to check on her, and then remembered another matter she needed to handle? Or did she actually come looking for her with something specific in mind?
Regardless of the reason, the person was no longer in the room. If she had come looking for her, she would probably drop by again later.
Not dwelling on it further, Angie freshened up in the bathroom, intending to catch some sleep and completely empty her mind.
Feeling mentally and physically exhausted, Angie fell asleep shortly after lying down, passing the night without a single dream.
She woke up to the sound of knocking on her door. Rubbing her sleepy eyes and checking the time, she saw it was already past 7:00 PM.
She had certainly slept soundly this time.
“Coming, just a moment,” she called out, getting up to tidy her hair briefly in the bathroom before heading over to unlock the door.
Standing outside was Irene, wearing a mischievous grin. Seeing Angie still in her pajamas and looking freshly awakened, Irene’s eyes darted around mischievously as she craned her neck to peer into the room.
Looking bewildered, Angie asked, “What are you looking at? Come on in.”
“Where’s Yezi? Is she in here?” Irene blurted out directly, stepping briskly into the room without hesitation.
“She’s not in my room. If you’re looking for her, shouldn’t you be checking her own room?” Angie looked at Irene’s ill-intentioned smile with utter perplexity, feeling somewhat baffled inside.
“She’s not here?” Irene searched the room from end to end especially the bed, finding no trace of evidence that Yunjun Ye had ever lingered there and said with a hint of disappointment, “I thought she was in here going over scenes with you.”
“She hasn’t been here today! Have you checked her room?” Angie asked with a faint smile.
“I knocked, but there was no response for ages, so I came straight to your room,” Irene answered honestly.
“Could she have been asleep and didn’t hear you?”
“Probably not? I knocked loud enough since you woke up, there’s no reason she wouldn’t have been stirred awake.” Pondering it, Irene realized she never held back when knocking on Yunjun Ye’s door, whereas she always softened her touch when knocking on Angie’s door, instinctively lightening her movements out of fear of disturbing the tranquil woman.
“Not in her room? Could she have gone out to grab dinner?” Angie’s own heart began to harbor doubts.
“Hard to say, maybe! But if she went out to eat, how could she not call you to join her?” Irene teased with a touch of amusement. In her mind, ever since filming the wedding ceremony and bridal chamber sequences, the two of them had seemingly become inseparable like glue and lacquer, where finding one automatically meant finding the other.
Angie: ……
She truly had nothing to say; Irene’s reasoning sounded suspiciously plausible.
“Let’s give her a call and ask. If she’s out eating, we can just have her bring something back for us,” Angie said, turning to retrieve her phone. “You probably haven’t eaten yet either, right?”
“Nope! Then let’s have her bring something back,” Irene agreed, curling her lips in mild dissatisfaction. “Sneaking off to eat by herself without even calling us she’s really something…”
While Irene muttered softly to herself, Angie had already fished out her phone.
“Have a seat and figure out what you want to eat,” Angie instructed while opening her phone’s contact list to keep Irene from standing around awkwardly due to her habitual shyness.
Funny enough, after exchanging phone numbers with Yunjun Ye, they hadn’t actually called each other once. This would be the very first time.
“I’m sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off. Please try again later…”
“I’m sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off. Please try again later…”
“I’m sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off. Please try again later…”
Angie’s brows furrowed as she verified the name and dialed repeatedly, only to be met by the same chilling system notification voice.
“What’s wrong?” Irene noticed Angie’s unusual behavior.
“Her phone is turned off!” Angie told Irene with a helpless expression.
“Turned off?”
“Why don’t you try calling? Maybe I saved the wrong number,” Angie stared at the string of digits, her brows knitted tight.
At that, Irene bolted out of the room like a gust of wind, only to breeze back in just as quickly a moment later.
“Same here, it’s powered off!” Irene said, pouting after making the call herself. “Could her battery be dead?”
“It’s possible,” Angie conceded, unable to think of any other explanation. “Let’s just wait a bit; she’ll probably be back soon.”
“When she gets back, see if I don’t give her a piece of my mind. Hmph…” Irene snorted with extreme dissatisfaction.
“Should we go grab some dinner together now?” Angie put her phone down and looked at Irene.
“Yes! It’s such a rare treat to have dinner alone with Teacher Angie,” Irene instantly swept her grievances regarding Yunjun Ye to the back of her mind, her eyes sparkling with adoration.
Angie smiled and shook her head at the response. No wonder she and Yunjun Ye got along so well in certain respects, their personalities were genuinely quite similar.
“Then wait for me a moment while I wash up and change my clothes,” Angie said, looking down at her pajamas.
“Okay, take your time.” Irene obediently walked over to the sofa and sat down, picking up a magazine from the coffee table to browse.
Their dinner was relatively simple. Because both were actresses who needed to maintain strict weight control, their evening meals were always kept light.
When they returned from dinner, it was still not yet 9:00 PM.
There was still no answer at Yunjun Ye’s room, and her phone remained switched off.
A faint thread of panic began to flutter in Angie’s chest. She called the director, only to be told that Yunjun Ye had only taken a half-day leave for the afternoon and had not been in contact since leaving the set.
“Do you happen to have her family’s number? Maybe she went back home,” Angie turned to ask the frowning Irene.
“I don’t, but I think Producer Han should have a way to reach her family. When she was sick and hospitalized last time, Producer Han was the one who handled it,” Irene recalled, snapping her fingers. “Should we ask Producer Han?”
Should she ask? Angie hesitated. The hour wasn’t particularly late the nightlife for regular office workers was only just beginning and raising such a large commotion might make a mountain out of a molehill.
“Let’s wait a little longer. Maybe she just went out to clear her head,” Angie offered a forced, reassuring smile.
“Yeah, alright. I’ll head back to my room then.”
After sending Irene off and locking the door, Angie felt her worry intensify noticeably.
Walking back into the room, she picked up her script, yet found herself utterly incapable of focusing on reading. Usually at this hour, Yunjun Ye would be sitting right here in her room, reading the script together, discussing lines, and running scenes; but tonight, the chair where Yunjun Ye always sat was glaringly empty, leaving Angie with an aching sense that something vital was missing.
She recalled how truly peculiar Yunjun Ye’s expression had been when she walked out of the room that afternoon.
What on earth happened to Yunjun Ye? Where could she have gone? Did she really head home without saying a word? Could something have happened to her?
A swirl of anxieties continued to plague Angie’s mind.
Abandoning the script entirely, she turned on the television, switched it to her favorite documentary channel, and left the door to her room slightly ajar so she could half-monitor the hallway.
Yunjun Ye’s room was diagonally across the hall. With the door open, any movement over there wouldn’t escape Angie’s notice.
Past 11:00 PM, and Yunjun Ye’s door remained completely still.
Past 12:00 AM, and the door still showed no movement.
When the clock hands ticked past 1:00 AM, everything remained unchanged…
Angie genuinely began to panic now, growing restless and unable to sit still in her room.
“Perhaps she’ll show up directly at the set tomorrow? Given her personality, staying out all night isn’t out of the question, right?”
Angie tried to rationalize it internally, comforting herself repeatedly that nothing bad had happened that tomorrow morning, the moment she opened her eyes, Yunjun Ye would appear with a bright smile, knocking on her door with her favorite breakfast just like always.
Such a worrisome habit I’ve picked up!
Plagued by nagging concern and self-reassurance, Angie kept her clothes on, leaned back against the head of the bed, and drifted off into a restless, light sleep.
Just past 5:00 AM, Angie snapped awake once more. Checking the time, she got up to quickly freshen up in the bathroom, then pulled back the curtains to gaze out into the inky black night speckled with distant pinpricks of starlight. There was no moon, and the chilly streets remained immersed in absolute stillness.
The darkness right before dawn truly was pitch black.
Trying to clear her head, she opened the door, returned to the sofa, and picked up the script once more.
Which scenes were scheduled for today? Having skipped their evening review session yesterday, Angie felt somewhat disoriented.
According to the script’s progression, they were currently right in the middle of the most deeply affectionate, honey-sweet phase between the scholar and the female lead.
Gazing at the pages, a faint curve naturally blossomed at the corners of Angie’s lips. The romance depicted in films and television dramas was genuinely yearning-inducing.
An ordinary, devoted couple in the mortal realm, devoid of grand, earth-shattering spectacles, bonded instead by trivial, heartwarming daily routines. In a society where the husband reigned supreme, the scholar managed to prioritize his wife above all else: offering no reprimands, only encouragement; actively sharing household chores; standing shoulder-to-shoulder to weather trials together with courage and accountability; making her the very first person he sought out upon returning home; fretting constantly over whether she ate well or dressed warmly; and growing so intensely nervous that he feared she might even stumble while walking.
Yunjun Ye portrayed these trivial nuances with such exquisite delicacy on screen that even though Angie knew full well it was just acting, her heart still conjured up unbidden longings.
“Ding-ling-ling…” The alarm rang out, shattering Angie’s train of thought.
Past 6:00 AM. Putting the script away, Angie walked across the hall and knocked firmly on the door diagonally opposite. After a long silence, there was still no response.
Angie’s mood plunged heavily once again.
“Hasn’t Yezi shown up yet?” Irene poked her head out from a nearby doorway.
Angie shook her head with a furrowed brow.
“Then let’s pack up and head to the set. Maybe she went straight there?”