Chapter 60
Xia Qingye had just started to drift off when she was forcefully shaken awake.
She opened her eyes to a pair of eyes staring at her like copper bells; just looking at them, she could feel the raging fire burning within the other woman.
Xia Qingye asked instinctively, “Zhuzi, what’s wrong?”
Nie Zhuying was practically fuming. To think that the contact nickname given to her wasn’t “Darling,” “Hubby,” or “Idol,” but Lazy-Egg!!!
In what way did she resemble that silly, cute hamster?!!
A certain someone completely forgot that when she first named her beloved pet, it was precisely because she felt Xia Qingye resembled “Xia-Xia” in some way.
Nie Zhuying gripped the phone, wishing she could paste the words “Lazy-Egg” directly onto Xia Qingye’s forehead. “What is this?”
Xia Qingye was stunned for a second or two before she realized she had been caught. She rubbed her head and murmured in a low voice, “Oh, Zhuzi, my head hurts.”
Nie Zhuying, who had intended to settle the score aggressively, felt a pang of pity upon seeing Xia Qingye’s pathetic “misery.” “Don’t think you can muddle through like this. If you don’t give me a reasonable explanation, I won’t let you off.”
As soon as the “harsh words” were spoken, Xia Qingye felt a pair of soft hands move to her temples, rubbing them with just the right amount of pressure.
Xia Qingye laughed silently to herself; her Zhuzi was exactly like this—sharp-tongued but soft-hearted, a classic case of “knife mouth, tofu heart.”
She was indeed tired, and with her lover by her side, the massage felt exceptionally comfortable. She soon fell fast asleep.
Seeing her asleep, Nie Zhuying stopped her hands and leaned in to stare at Xia Qingye’s long eyelashes. She couldn’t resist touching them a few times, nearly waking her up. She fiercely extended two fingers over the bridge of the other’s nose, wanting to give it a hard pinch, but seeing how child-like the woman looked in her sleep, she eventually let her hands drop dejectedly. “Hmph, Qingqing, tomorrow I’m giving that stupid hamster away so you stop thinking about it.”
The thought that this person shared her attention with a silly hamster made Nie Zhuying toss and turn for a long time, unable to sleep.
Xia Qingye, on the other hand, slept until dawn and felt exceptionally refreshed. Opening her eyes, she saw the person beside her propping up her head, having woken up at some unknown time.
“What is it?”
“Qingqing, I am very angry.”
Seeing her so serious, Xia Qingye didn’t know whether to laugh or be annoyed. Her temper was quite long-lasting; it hadn’t passed even after an entire night. “I’m sorry for making our Zhuzi so angry. May I ask, Great Lord Zhuzi, what should I do to appease your anger?”
Nie Zhuying hummed, her narrow phoenix eyes fixed unblinkingly on the other. After a long while, she said, “Come with me to see my friend.”
Xia Qingye: “…”
Well. She wondered why the other was being so easy-to-talk-to yesterday; it turns out she was waiting for her here.
Xia Qingye stood up and changed her clothes without hiding from her at all. “If I go, will you stop being angry?”
Nie Zhuying’s gaze was fixed on the other’s smooth back; she really wanted to lean in and feel it, but she managed to restrain herself. “Going will make me a little less angry, but don’t think I’ve forgiven you just yet.”
Xia Qingye’s face had thinned significantly; she gave a slight smile that appeared somewhat pale and weak. “Alright. When?”
Hearing this, Nie Zhuying immediately jumped off the bed, as if afraid she would go back on her word. She made a quick decision: “Today. I’ve already set a time with her.”
Psychologists are indispensable in their line of work. Xia Qingye had known this years ago, but because the media often talks nonsense and takes things out of context, many artists are terrified of being called “sick.” They would rather shoulder it alone than seek medical help, leading many to depression and a path of no return due to excessive pressure.
Xia Qingye hadn’t expected Nie Zhuying to be so frank about her past experiences. After a simple breakfast, they headed out. “If your friend confirms I’m fine, will you stop forcing me to see a psychologist?”
Seeing that she didn’t show any displeasure, Nie Zhuying took the initiative to soothe her. “Qingqing, I’ve told you many times, it’s not a medical visit, just a chat.”
Xia Qingye didn’t want to explain further; after all, preconceived notions are hard to change. “Are you busy today?”
Nie Zhuying had been so scared by Yu Lan’s call that she pushed her work back by two days. “I’ll stay with you these two days.”
The corners of Xia Qingye’s eyes curved. “After meeting your friend, I want to go to a place to find a certain ‘feeling’.”
Nie Zhuying gave her a puzzled look. “The feeling from the script?”
Xia Qingye smiled without answering.
Both were heavily disguised when they went out—large sunglasses covering half their faces, hats, and scarves. Fortunately, it was deep autumn, so it didn’t feel as sweltering as summer.
Xia Qingye followed Nie Zhuying to the entrance of a private hospital. Not long after they got out of the car, a girl in a nurse’s uniform sought them out and beckoned to them. Nie Zhuying proactively took Xia Qingye’s hand and walked over.
Xia Qingye was startled and struggled slightly, but the other gripped even tighter. She could only lower her head, glancing around, and whispered, “Zhuzi, let go, it’s not good if we’re photographed.”
Nie Zhuying shot her a dissatisfied look. “What’s there to fear? If we’re photographed, I’ll just say you’re my younger sister.”
Xia Qingye laughed; even if they were biological sisters, most people wouldn’t hold hands like this. “People will always make things up; it’s better to be careful.”
“Don’t be afraid. The more frank we are, the less they’ll be able to figure out the truth.”
Despite those words, the conservatism in Xia Qingye’s bones made it impossible for her to agree with this fallacy. Amidst this internal conflict, she was led into a private elevator.
Standing face to face, the little nurse suddenly said, “Sister Nie, you have to give me another autograph later.”
Nie Zhuying made an “OK” gesture.
The elevator stopped on the seventh floor. The nurse went out first to check, then beckoned them back like a secret agent. Nie Zhuying held Xia Qingye’s hand and strode out, following the nurse into an office. Xia Qingye didn’t even have time to see what the sign on the door said.
Inside was a desk where someone sat. As they entered, the person looked up and pushed her glasses. “You’re here.”
Nie Zhuying gave Xia Qingye a nudge toward the desk. “How long will it take?”
The person replied, “Depends on how deep she is.”
Xia Qingye had no idea what riddles they were speaking. “May I ask your name?”
The person finally turned her gaze to Xia Qingye, looking quite surprised. “Everyone calls me Doctor Mo.”
Xia Qingye said, “Fine. Doctor Mo, let’s begin.”
The nurse invited Nie Zhuying out. Xia Qingye sat down casually in a chair and opened with: “Doctor Mo, I have some questions I’d like to ask you.”
Mo Ru: “…”
She felt like the roles had been reversed.
Xia Qingye sat with her palms up, looking relaxed. “Doctor Mo, I am frequently abused by my husband. It’s very painful and I want to leave him, but I’m afraid he’ll hurt my family. I am desperate…”
Nie Zhuying was taken to a lounge area by the nurse, who excitedly brought out paper and a pen. “Sister Nie, I thought you wouldn’t come here again. I’m so surprised to see you! Help me sign a few more so I can share them when I get back.”
Nie Zhuying flicked the papers. “I won’t sign on paper printed with the hospital name. Others would scramble to hand me the best paper and pens in the world for an autograph, but you just make do with whatever’s around.”
The nurse laughed drily. “Sister Nie knows I’m not really a fan, but Xiao Qiu and the others miss you so much and ask me all the time. I really didn’t expect you to come today; I didn’t have time to prepare.”
Nie Zhuying hummed and decisively tore off the parts marked with the hospital’s name, signing her name grandly. “Who is this for?”
“For Xiao Qiu.”
“And Xiao Hei.”
“And Xiao Guang.”
In the room, the girl kept calling out names followed by the sound of the pen scratching against the paper. Suddenly, a sharp “beep” rang out. Nie Zhuying’s pen slipped, and the signature turned into a squiggle.
The nurse said in surprise, “That’s Doctor Mo’s ‘guest-leaving’ signal. Sister Nie, your friend…”
Before she could finish, Nie Zhuying was already on her feet.
“Qingqing!”
Xia Qingye saw Nie Zhuying arrive and said with a smile, “Doctor Mo says I’m not sick and that I can go.”
Nie Zhuying looked at Mo Ru.
Mo Ru’s face was dark. “Miss Xia’s psychological aptitude is better than mine. If Miss Xia ever considers quitting acting, my door is always open for you.”
The two were essentially kicked out. On the way, Nie Zhuying kept glancing at Xia Qingye. “Qingqing, what did you do? Look at Mo Ru’s face; it was almost distorted with anger.”
Xia Qingye threw up her hands helplessly. “I didn’t really do anything. I just saw Doctor Mo and she reminded me of Qin Lin from Domestic Violence. Since she’s also a doctor, I wanted to ask for her insights on victims of domestic abuse so I could better grasp the psychology of Xiao Ai and Qin Lin.”
Nie Zhuying: “…”
No wonder Mo Ru was so angry.
Xia Qingye said with a laugh, “Doctor Mo wasn’t really angry. Didn’t you hear her say she’d welcome me? Maybe once I—”
As they walked and talked, Xia Qingye suddenly stopped. The smile on her face vanished abruptly. In her field of vision, she saw a familiar person turn a corner from the area they had just left.
Why is Zhong Ruanqin here?
Nie Zhuying didn’t see her; she just found it strange that the person beside her had stopped. She looked at her in confusion. “Qingqing, what are you looking at?”
Xia Qingye hesitated for a moment, then quickly dragged Nie Zhuying to follow. They trailed the figure to the elevator and saw it stop on the sixteenth floor.
Nie Zhuying pulled her back. “Qingqing, what are you doing? Are you feeling unwell again?”
Xia Qingye thought for a bit. “No… I just saw Zhong Ruanqin. She was alone—”
Nie Zhuying interrupted her quickly, saying with great disdain, “What’s there to see about that bad woman named Zhong!”
The words Xia Qingye wanted to say were cut short. Right, her and Zhong Ruanqin…
“Forget it, Zhuzi, let’s go.”
“Wait, the sixteenth floor seems to be the Obstetrics and Gynecology department.”
Because of this small interlude, the excitement in Xia Qingye’s heart sank to the bottom.
Nie Zhuying thought she was unhappy because she saw Zhong Ruanqin and comforted her: “Qingqing, one day you will surpass that bad woman.”
Xia Qingye pulled herself together and asked curiously, “From the moment I met you until now, you’ve always called her ‘the bad woman named Zhong.’ I’m curious, has she done many bad things?”
Nie Zhuying let out a disdainful hum, her face a mask of contempt. “You don’t have to do the deed yourself for it to be bad. In my view, many bad things start because of her, and afterward, she remains unrepentant. Besides, Qingqing, did you forget she hit you before?”
Xia Qingye murmured Nie Zhuying’s argument to herself. With hindsight, she felt she was something of a troublemaker herself, having harmed several people. “So, Zhuzi, you think she’s ‘bad’ because she refuses to change and makes mistake after mistake?”
Nie Zhuying, driving the car, didn’t want to talk about Zhong Ruanqin anymore. She gave a vague reply. “Qingqing, where did you say you wanted to go earlier?”
Xia Qingye checked the time and felt her current low mood was perfect for this trip. “To the orphanage. I want to experience Hu Li’s past.”
Nie Zhuying slammed on the brakes and stared at Xia Qingye. “Qingqing, are you really too deep in the role?”
Xia Qingye shook her head. “Didn’t you just take me to see Doctor Mo? Do you not trust her skill level?”
Nie Zhuying was starting to doubt it. “But I feel like your whole person is shifting toward this Hu Li character. It’s dangerous.”
Xia Qingye cupped the other’s face and lightly pinched those full cheeks. “I can tell the difference between whether you are Fang Xing or Zhuzi. Don’t worry, I just want to walk in her footsteps and speculate on her psychology to present the best performance to everyone.”
Characters with flesh, blood, and profound emotions are the ones people can’t forget. Xia Qingye felt Hu Li was exactly such a character.
Wanting to see the actual conditions of an orphanage, they searched the capital for a long time before finding a welfare home that was poorly managed and on the verge of closing.
The home was quite remote; Nie Zhuying drove for two hours to find it. Upon reaching the destination and seeing the dilapidated scene, Nie Zhuying almost dragged Xia Qingye away.
Xia Qingye had lived a hard life in her previous existence, so she wasn’t as repulsed by the messy welfare home as Nie Zhuying, but she was still startled by the pairs of numb eyes within. She suddenly thought that the young Hu Li in the script should have had such clear, numb, fearful eyes with a tiny hint of expectation.
The two followed the director around. Many children stared at them with curiosity, envy, and fear. Nie Zhuying first smelled a strange odor, then realized it was coming from the children. Her gaze toward the director became increasingly unfriendly.
The director was a woman in her forties, wearing very cheap clothes, appearing to live quite a meager life herself. Under Nie Zhuying’s stare, she confessed, “The place is too remote, and too many children are sent here every year. Very few are adopted, so they keep accumulating. We don’t have enough staff, and many volunteers don’t like running out here. I really have no choice…”
Xia Qingye looked at their environment. Compared to orphanages in small cities, the situation in the capital was actually much better. “Zhuzi, let’s help them if we can. The children are too pitiful.”
They stayed at the welfare home for three or four hours; the day passed in a flash.
“Next time I can discuss it with Manxi and have our two studios go to the welfare home as volunteers together.”
Xia Qingye hadn’t expected her casual remark would be remembered. She said with a smile, “Call me when the time comes.”
Nie Zhuying nodded. “Sure.”
The next day, Xia Qingye went to a prison, but was blocked outside. It took several calls from Nie Zhuying under the pretext of “collecting material” to get in.
It was Xia Qingye’s first time in such a place. Following behind the prison guard and meeting those fierce, aggressive eyes made her heart throb. She suddenly realized that every character she had played in the past seemed to have stayed on the surface.
“This is a murderer. In a fit of rage, he killed a family of four, not even sparing the pet dog.”
Xia Qingye met the young man’s gaze. Hearing the guard’s introduction, he also looked over. Meeting Xia Qingye’s probing gaze, his reaction was different from the anger she expected; he smiled at her, his eyes exceptionally calm.
They followed the guard and met a few people, hearing a bit of their “histories.”
On the way back, both were very quiet, as if immersed in the previous atmosphere. It wasn’t until they reached home that Nie Zhuying suddenly said, “Qingqing, from now on, if you want to experience a character’s background and go somewhere, I can go with you. But you cannot go alone.”
Xia Qingye didn’t understand why she made such a request, but she could feel the concern. She walked over and hugged her. “Zhuzi, thank you for staying with me these two days.”
“Having seen it with my own eyes these two days, I realized many of my previous speculations were flawed. Practice really is necessary.”
Nie Zhuying said worriedly, “Qingqing, I’m starting to regret giving you this script.”
“Don’t! I’m still waiting for the second half.”
That night, they huddled in bed and chatted about the drama, the welfare home, the people in prison…
“Zhuzi, who are you planning to invite to film this? Is the funding sufficient?”
“Still a bit short. It’s a secret for now. Once the director is hired and funding is in place, we can start.”
Xia Qingye had never seen the other troubled by problems; on the contrary, she heard a hint of anticipation and excitement in her voice. “How much funding is still missing?”
Nie Zhuying glanced at her, and Xia Qingye smiled back.
“Oh, Qingqing, are you thinking of investing?”
“You can think of it that way. Since we’re collaborating on a movie, I should offer some support.”
“Fine then. Seeing as you want to support me so much, I’ll let you invest. It’s about twenty to thirty million short.”
Xia Qingye calculated her savings—never mind twenty million, she didn’t even have ten. She wasn’t famous, and she didn’t lack money before, so she hadn’t cared much about her pay.
When money is needed, one regrets having so little.
“Zhuzi, let’s sleep. I’ll give you an answer tomorrow.”
Nie Zhuying first dove into the covers, then moved down to grab the other’s waist. “Sleep? What sleep? Today you’re lying flat; I’m doing it myself.”
Xia Qingye was caught by surprise, her waist feeling weak. She kicked the other’s shin with her foot. “Don’t play around. You have to be busy all day tomorrow; it’s better to rest early.”
Nie Zhuying didn’t care; this was what “rare opportunity” meant. “We agreed you’d lie flat, don’t try to back out now!”
Xia Qingye found her persistence quite hilarious and dove into the covers as well. Their limbs became entangled. She asked once more, “Zhuzi, are you for real?”
Nie Zhuying let out a hum.
Xia Qingye reminded her, “Last time you said you’d do it yourself. Aha, I’m letting you do it yourself now.”
Bright moonlight spilled through the window into the room, illuminating the small bed where two young bodies rolled back and forth from time to time…
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