Substitute Lover [Entertainment Industry] - Chapter 46

The city hospital is as busy as ever. People came and went, all burdened by illness. At that moment, Ji Fan suddenly felt a strange sense of wonder. So many people were sick?

She carried her medicine and left the hospital.

Her first instinct was to call Jiang Cha.

The phone rang a few times, then connected, but it was another woman’s voice, both unfamiliar and familiar.

Ji Fan’s heart skipped a beat, and her headache started again. Just as she was thinking about something, she heard the woman say, “Hello, Ms. Ji. Ms. Jiang is filming. Can I take a message for you?”

Oh.

Filming.

She steadied herself and said, “It’s nothing.”

Then she hung up.

The hospital’s exterior had been renovated, with big red stripes and dark green reflective glass. If you ignored the large characters at the top, it didn’t look like a hospital at all, but rather a shopping center.

After such an incident, she had been thinking too much.

How could Jiang Cha be with someone else?

She chuckled bitterly and held her medical records in one hand and a bag of prescription drugs in the other. She felt reassured.

She simply wore a large coat and glanced sideways through the gap between her curls, waiting for the driver to pick her up.

Ji Fan had never had any serious illnesses since she was a child. She would just catch a cold during the changing seasons and cough for a week, and then she would be fine. She felt that her body was still in good shape, and it didn’t matter. This “it doesn’t matter” seemed to carry a hint of self-deceptive optimism, but it made her feel at ease.

She would take the medicine, and maybe it would be fine in a week.

Ji Fan went straight to the company after seeing the doctor.

She spent the morning and afternoon dealing with work.

There was no reaction.

In the evening, there was a meeting. A group of people surrounded her at the big red conference table. Ji Fan was as calm as usual, but her heart was a little uneasy. These gathered gazes seemed to want to devour her. Once she fell, these people would turn into beasts, pouncing on her, and devouring her carcass with hungry stomachs.

Halfway through the meeting, she suddenly started having a headache again.

She couldn’t help but hold her forehead, frowning, and looking annoyed.

The people sitting around the big red conference table looked at her in surprise.

“Ms. Ji?”

Ji Fan came to her senses and then stood up. “Let’s call it a day.”

The headache was like a bomb, coming on suddenly.

Birth, old age, sickness, and death, everyone had to go through it, and no one could escape.

Some lucky people might have a peaceful death, without any sensation or pain. They would simply close their eyes and lose consciousness. The unlucky ones, however, would be tortured by illness in the last moments of their lives, suffering unbearably and becoming unrecognizable.

Ji Fan had seen her grandmother pass away.

The old woman had a weak immune system and was infected with superbugs. Her platelets decreased more and more, and several diseases overlapped, causing her whole body to develop sores and bleed continuously. When she passed away, she had lost all the blood in her body, and she didn’t even finish her last words.

What did she look like when she died?

Would it be so ugly?

Ji Fan was a little worried, but only for a moment.

Even if she was ugly, who would see? Maybe when she died, there wouldn’t even be anyone to send her off.

She stood at the company entrance, pulling her coat tighter, looking around as she waited for her driver.
She couldn’t muster any enthusiasm that day.

That night, after washing up, Jiang Cha curled up in bed, ready to sleep.
Still wearing her doll-collar nightgown, the soft fabric and her long, flowing hair like silk. Jiang Cha was naturally delicate and beautiful, and with her profile exposed—snow-white skin, red lips, and long, curled eyelashes drooping—she looked both innocent and quiet.

Back when they were still close, Ji Fan would hold her while they slept, feeling as if she were holding a doll, a sense of childhood warmth and security.

Suddenly, a longing surged through Ji Fan.

She wanted to draw closer.

To seek some illusion of warmth.

She tiptoed over and sat on the edge of the bed, asking, “Can I sleep in the bed?”

Jiang Cha turned her head in surprise.

Then she saw the longing in Ji Fan’s eyes.

Her long lashes fell, and her cheeks grew a little hot. She pushed her away gently, “No, you can’t.”

It was just a gentle push to her shoulder, but somehow, Ji Fan staggered and grabbed the edge of the bed, her face a little pale, her eyes fixed.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Jiang Cha found it strange and didn’t know what was wrong with her.

“It’s been too cold at night lately,” Ji Fan recovered and smiled slightly. “I think I might have a cold, my head hurts so much.”

Jiang Cha didn’t know if she was telling the truth, and out of habit, she reached out and pressed her palm against Ji Fan’s forehead.

Ji Fan was slightly startled, staring at her without blinking, a certain emotion flashing in her eyes.

Her hand was not a thermometer after all, and besides feeling a strange tension, she couldn’t detect anything else.

Jiang Cha wanted to take her hand away, but Ji Fan pressed it down at once. She looked over without blinking, her eyes dark and bright.
“Measure it a little longer,” she smiled with the corners of her eyes curved.

“You don’t have a fever.”

Jiang Cha withdrew her hand and said impatiently, “You’re not coughing or feverish, how could you have a cold?” She seemed annoyed, and her toes poked out of the quilt, kicking Ji Fan. “Go to sleep downstairs.”

Ji Fan’s expression dimmed for a moment, but she didn’t say anything. After a while, before Jiang Cha could order her again, she actually obediently climbed down.

She took a corner of the thin blanket on the sofa, spread it out and shook it, then suddenly paused.

Her body stiffened.

Jiang Cha had been glancing at her, and at this moment, she didn’t know if it was an illusion, but she felt inexplicably apprehensive and flustered.

“You…”

Jiang Cha hesitated for a moment, her long eyelashes trembling. “Are you really not feeling well?”

Ji Fan paused, then turned around: “The wind was strong last night, and I caught a chill. My headache is real.”

Jiang Cha didn’t say anything, and she couldn’t guess if she was telling the truth or not. She reached out and turned off the bedside switch. In the darkness, she closed her eyes, feeling restless.

She fell asleep in a daze.

The night was quiet, but there were always some wild cats in the neighborhood, meowing one after another, a little creepy. Half asleep and half awake, Jiang Cha suddenly trembled, and somehow woke up, then she found that light was seeping through the gap in the bedroom door, and there was the sound of water from outside, and faintly…

A cough.

Accompanied by dry retching.

Really has a cold?

She sat up, turned on the light, and was about to get out of bed when the bedroom door opened.

Ji Fan was wearing a nightgown, her curly hair was very messy, and her face was wooden, with no expression.

Ji Fan seemed to have just noticed her looking at her, turned her head, and explained:
“I woke up coughing in the middle of the night.”

Jiang Cha sighed, staring at her quietly. After a moment, she curled up in the quilt, turned her back to her, and mumbled, “Bring the quilt up.”

There was no sound from behind, and after a long time, a light laugh came:
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to bear it.”

That night was the first time in a long time that the two of them slept in the same bed.

Although they were separated by the quilt, they could always feel the warmth of each other’s body, and their hearts felt at ease.

••••

The next morning, both of them woke up almost simultaneously. Ji Fan sat still at the head of the bed for a while, then suddenly seemed to think of something, paused, and said softly, “Do me a favor, okay?”

“What?”

Ji Fan didn’t say much more. After breakfast, she called the driver and had him take her to her house.

Once inside, she went straight to her study.

The study was very spacious, with a floor-to-ceiling window that offered a broad view of a sparkling lake. It was late afternoon, and the scattered light shimmered like fine gold dust.

Ji Fan pointed at the entire wall of bookshelves and said slowly, “Read all these books.”

“Why?”

Jiang Cha’s heart skipped a beat, and she felt strangely uneasy.

Ji Fan smiled lightly, “After the divorce, half of the shares will be given to you. You should learn to manage them anyway.”

“…….”

“We studied the same major, so you should be able to understand these books.”

Ji Fan was actually starting to plan for their divorce.

Jiang Cha was slightly taken aback and felt a bit uncomfortable.

The study was not lit, and only the setting sun shone in from outside, casting oblique shadows inside. There were three pairs of brown suede sofas on the clean white floor, a gray-brown coffee table, and an office desk against the left wall.

Ji Fan didn’t say anything, and seemed tired again. She leaned on her knees, sat on the sofa, and rested her chin, leaving behind a long, disheveled back.

Jiang Cha looked up and glanced quickly at her bookshelves. Most of them were professional books, and the rest were some English original books. On the ones in front of her was Jared Diamond’s “Upheaval,” a Chinese translation of “The Republic,” several journals with invisible titles, and a few philosophy books.

She pulled out a book with her white fingers and flipped through it casually, seeing Ji Fan’s sharp handwriting.

Then she turned her head back.

Ji Fan, at some point, had also turned her head slightly, and was quietly looking at her.

The setting sun shone obliquely on her face, the light and shadow distinct, her features were three-dimensional and elegant, only her eyes, with an unreadable expression, seemed lost in thought.