“Mengjue, are you listening?”
Sister Ling’s voice came through the phone.
“Yeah,” Li Mengjue snapped back to attention. “You were talking about the new script.”
“The crew said the version they sent over is the final draft,” Sister Ling said. “I’ve looked it over. Your scenes haven’t been cut, but your interactions with the second female lead have increased significantly. After all, the Young Miss increased her sponsorship by quite a bit.”
Li Mengjue wasn’t surprised. In the storyline, the second female lead was effectively a secondary protagonist. The old script had only cut her scenes due to a lack of budget and the previous actress’s poor skills. Now that Ruan Qingxiao had taken the role, those two problems had vanished.
Sister Ling, always focused on Li Mengjue’s career, was actually calling to remind her to stay on Ruan’s good side. “I know you hate socializing, but Miss Ruan is different. She definitely did all this—the sponsorship, joining this specific small production—for you.”
You wouldn’t believe it, Li Mengjue thought, staring at the ceiling, but she’s actually my super fan.
She kept that secret to herself. Ruan was currently an amnesiac, but before the accident, she hadn’t been warm at all. If Li Mengjue blurted out the truth now, what would happen if Ruan regained her memory and felt humiliated? It would be best if Ruan forgot this period of “spoiled kitten” behavior entirely once she recovered.
After hanging up with her manager, Li Mengjue saw Assistant Zheng leaving the ward.
“I asked the doctor,” Zheng said. “Qingxiao will stay for two more days. If the check-up the day after tomorrow is clear, she can be discharged.”
“Then the day after tomorrow—”
“I’m afraid I won’t have time to come,” Zheng said with a regretful look. “There’s a shareholders’ meeting, and I have to attend on her behalf to keep her family at bay.”
They had agreed to keep the amnesia a secret. Since Ruan usually avoided company affairs anyway, having Zheng attend wasn’t unusual.
“I’ve booked a hotel for her,” Zheng continued, looking at Li Mengjue hesitantly. “But arranging a new life assistant will take time. I have an intrusive favor to ask… could you look after her until she’s discharged? I’m worried someone might try to take advantage of her while she remembers nothing.”
Li Mengjue saw the genuine worry in Zheng’s eyes. Amnesia, a suspicious accident, and predatory family members—it was a mess. She eventually nodded. “Fine. I’ll stay with her until the check-up is done.”
Zheng breathed a sigh of relief. Before leaving for City A, she made sure Ruan had her phone updated with important contacts and background info on people she might encounter. She also gave Ruan the new script.
When Ruan received the materials, she looked up and stared expectantly at Li Mengjue. Li Mengjue offered a polite, perfunctory smile. Ruan’s expression immediately crumbled, her invisible ears and tail drooping in disappointment.
The next morning, the rain had stopped. Li Mengjue woke up early to feed the kittens she was fostering. She sent some photos to her friend Yu Siqing, who was still away on business.
Yu Siqing cooed over the photos and asked, “There are two of them; do you want to keep one? They’re so cute.”
“No,” Li Mengjue replied. “I don’t keep pets.”
Keeping them temporarily was her limit. She just didn’t want to watch them die in the rain. On her way out, she passed the spot where she found them and saw a dead kitten by the wall. It was a stark reminder of how fragile they were. She decided not to tell Yu Siqing; at least two had survived.
When she arrived at the hospital, the ward door was slightly ajar. Ruan Qingxiao was sitting on the bed, staring at her phone in a daze.
Li Mengjue knocked, startling her.
“Sister Li!” Ruan’s face lit up with a joy that bordered on being starstruck. “I thought you weren’t coming today.”
“I promised Assistant Zheng I’d stay until the check-up,” Li Mengjue said. “But if you don’t want to see me, I can come back tomorrow morning—”
Before she could finish, Ruan instinctively reached out and grabbed Li Mengjue’s sleeve.
“No! Don’t go!”
Li Mengjue was surprised by the desperation in the gesture. Ruan realized what she’d done and hurriedly let go, looking down like a child who had broken a vase.
Li Mengjue looked at her sleeve. A decorative button had been torn clean off by Ruan’s frantic grip, leaving only a stray thread.
“It’s nothing. My clothes are just poor quality,” Li Mengjue said, trying to lighten the mood. “I was just joking.”
She sat down, trying to keep her eye level equal to Ruan’s. But Ruan’s cautiousness wasn’t about physical height. Li Mengjue couldn’t decide which was worse: the old, icy Ruan who felt like a ticking bomb, or this new, overly friendly version who seemed like she was stifling herself to be “good.”
“Are you afraid of me?” Li Mengjue asked.
Ruan shook her head, then whispered, “Did I do something bad to you in the past?”
“No,” Li Mengjue said truthfully. They had barely met.
The problem was that Assistant Zheng had explained everything to Ruan except the true nature of their “friendship.”
“But aren’t we best friends?” Ruan asked, her voice trembling. “I can feel that I liked you very much. But why… why haven’t we seen each other in so long?”
She looked at Li Mengjue’s polite, distant face and felt a wave of insecurity. If Sister Li was this cold, it must be Ruan’s fault.
“Did I do something wrong?” Ruan asked, looking like she was on the verge of tears.