Memory

Li Lan looked hazy, as if a layer of gloom had settled over her.

She shifted aside to make room for Zhu Qing.

“I’m not drinking,” Li Lan said, taking the bottle of mineral water, twisting off the cap, and handing it to Zhu Qing. “You should have some. Your lips are peeling.”

Zhu Qing took a sip from her hand and smiled. “Don’t be so formal. We’re just talking.”

Li Lan lowered her head a little and gave a soft “mm.”

Zhu Qing sat down beside Li Lan with her knees drawn up, gazing at the busy crowd in the distance.

“Work must be exhausting, right? With such a big production, you have to worry about everything, and you still have to make time to deal with public opinion outside. You’ve really lost weight,” Zhu Qing said very softly, like two close friends confiding in each other, with no pressure at all. “I’m telling you this because I want you to relax. I’m not the kind of person who causes trouble; I know what matters. Right now, the most important thing is to finish filming this properly and in peace. You don’t have to think about anything else.”

Li Lan looked at Zhu Qing with a pitiful sort of eagerness, somehow a little sad.

“But what if it can’t be peaceful?” Li Lan said under her breath. “The injury on your back, and the people hiding in the dark who are plotting against me, plotting against this film.”

Zhu Qing said calmly, “Then it won’t be peaceful.”

Li Lan said nothing.

“I’m not someone who backs down when something happens,” Zhu Qing said, taking her hand and leaning lightly against her. “Let’s finish the movie first. You take care of your work and your career; once everything has settled down, then we can talk about us.”

Zhu Qing’s meaning was very clear. She wasn’t being unreasonable; there was no way she would start a fight with Li Lan now.

It was just that Li Lan herself couldn’t get past the knot in her heart. She felt guilty, ashamed, and always thought she wasn’t capable enough; that she had let Zhu Qing down.

What the truth actually was, no one had the energy to sort out. It simply wasn’t the right time.

Li Lan didn’t know what to say. After a long while, she finally squeezed Zhu Qing’s hand back.

“Wait for me. It won’t be long.”

Zhu Qing curved her brows, revealing a slightly puzzled smile.

Wait for what?

Li Lan didn’t say it outright.

She was the film’s investor. As long as the movie became a hit, she could quickly obtain a huge amount of capital.

As long as the film could be completed smoothly, all problems would be resolved one by one.

After filming resumed, Li Lan finally got through the take once she had adjusted her emotions.

Zhu Qing wasn’t needed for the rest of today’s shoot, so she returned to the hotel early to rest.

After Zhu Qing was injured, Li Lan paid out of pocket to upgrade her suite. It had a living room and several bedrooms; Zhu Qing usually stayed in the master bedroom, and when Li Lan came back late, she would sleep in another room.

Not long after Zhu Qing got back to the hotel, someone knocked on the door.

It was Yang Huayi.

“President Yang,” Zhu Qing said, opening the door and letting her in. “What is it?”

After entering, Yang Huayi looked around once and didn’t sit down. She got straight to the point. “I suppressed the matter with Liu Ze. Liu He thinks she successfully pressured me, so she’ll definitely make another move later. Keeping Liu Ze around is useful.”

Yang Huayi had never been one for explanations; if Li Lan’s filming state hadn’t been off today, she wouldn’t have come in person to explain things to Zhu Qing.

Liu Ze was the one who had tampered with the wooden crate. Zhu Qing’s brows furrowed briefly, then smoothed out again. “So President Yang is using Li Lan?”

Yang Huayi lifted her eyelids, displeased. “What?”

Zhu Qing’s tone was calm, her reasoning clear. “Li Lan isn’t the kind of artist who goes along with the crowd. You’ve put a lot of resources into her, which has gradually caused the company’s upper management to have opinions. And the script for Unknown to Others, the meticulously produced soundtrack prepared years in advance, all kinds of props that are complete in genre and exquisite in style—those were probably all being prepared long ago, weren’t they?”

Yang Huayi gave no answer.

Zhu Qing said, “You used Li Lan as a chess piece. Your goal was to settle accounts with the dissenting voices inside the company, to drag out and crush people like Liu He. It’s a pity that Li Lan and I didn’t see through your purpose. We even thought you were acting out of old feelings.”

As she said this, Zhu Qing felt a little lost. Of course she wanted to be angry, wanted to question her, but when she thought about being treated as a chess piece by Yang Huayi, perhaps most people would actually think it was a pretty good deal; after all, those resources were all real money.

“But I have one question,” Zhu Qing said softly, drawing in a breath. “If Li Lan can’t carry this film, or to put it another way, if you lose, what happens to Li Lan?”

Yang Huayi answered openly, “She’ll be blacklisted and leave the entertainment industry. In the worst case, she’ll have to bear a huge breach-of-contract penalty.”

Zhu Qing challenged her, “Then you’d ruin her.”

Yang Huayi looked at Zhu Qing calmly. “I don’t deny it. I was the one who brought her into the industry. How to manage her image, how to deal with people and conduct herself, the rules of how this circle works, all of her skills were taught by me. I said before that she was my most perfect work. Now she can help me achieve my wish; each of us gets what we need. That’s the best win-win.”

Zhu Qing stared at her, not backing down. “Li Lan doesn’t want this kind of risk. She could still win by taking the steady route.”

“Little Zhu Qing,” Yang Huayi suddenly laughed, “don’t underestimate an orphan’s ambition. She might want to gamble everything on one throw even more than you do. That’s a massive return.”

Zhu Qing enunciated each word, “I understand Li Lan. She is absolutely not someone who puts profit first. If she knew what you were planning, she would definitely not take part.”

Yang Huayi said nothing, only looking at Zhu Qing with a gaze that mixed mockery and something like pity; as if she disdained arguing, and yet also found her pathetic.

“What about Yu Ling?” Zhu Qing asked after Yang Huayi’s back.

Yang Huayi was opening the door. Without looking back, she kept walking out. “A failed work.”

A chill spread through Zhu Qing’s heart. She pressed, “You intentionally let her go find Liu He?”

Yang Huayi was already outside the door. She turned her face slightly and gave Zhu Qing an unreadable look. “What do you think?”

The cold crept up Zhu Qing’s spine.

If Yu Ling had been a target Yang Huayi planted from the very beginning, then everything made sense.

Yang Huayi had deliberately shifted a huge amount of resources toward Li Lan after her return to the country; she had also deliberately let Yu Ling and Qi Yao get involved, stirring the waters until they turned muddy.

In that muddy water, Liu He surfaced, and Yang Huayi’s follow-up moves against her would only be more numerous.

A single thread hidden from the ashes, a thousand-mile setup beneath the grass; this woman had used everyone. There was no other word for it than terrifying.

Then what about Li Lan? Zhu Qing could even see through Yang Huayi’s exploitation; how could Li Lan not?

Why would Li Lan join forces with a tiger and ask it for its skin?

Zhu Qing’s brain had been overloaded for days. The successive riddles made her think and think until something finally snapped today.

A sharp pain exploded in her head, her vision went black, and she instantly lost consciousness.

When she woke up, it was ten minutes later. She was lying on the floor, apparently having collapsed sideways, with half her body resting on the sofa; fortunately, she wasn’t injured.

The stabbing pain in her head had already vanished, as if everything that had just happened was an illusion.

Zhu Qing pushed herself up, then lay down on the sofa. She was exhausted; her eyelids felt incredibly heavy, as though something were pressing down on her forehead and all she wanted to do was sleep.

But the moment she closed her eyes, her thoughts became startlingly clear, and several unfamiliar fragments flashed through her mind.

Like looking through frosted glass, long stretches of the past surfaced one after another like a revolving lantern. Zhu Qing felt dizzy and sank rapidly into sleep.

-

When she woke again, it was already two days later.

Li Lan was sitting by the hospital bed, her head resting lightly against the bedside as she slept.

It took Zhu Qing a long while to pull herself out of her dazed thoughts.

She remembered many things.

Including her first meeting with Li Lan, their sweet days after marriage, and the point where the relationship between the two of them began to crack.

She could already reconstruct the entire timeline. Only the memories from the last few months were still blank; everything else had been filled in.

One piece of good news: she and Li Lan really had loved each other.

There was no pretense of harmony, no mere mutual respect; it was just two people who didn’t know how to speak plainly, testing each other while they liked each other, and falling in love with remarkable speed.

But there was also one piece of bad news.

Zhu Qing’s mental state had a problem.

At the beginning of this marriage, Zhu Qing had only thought of it as a contract. Even after the two of them fell in love in the end, she still always felt that she was the inferior one. Whether toward Xiao Bao or toward Li Lan herself, she was constantly cautious, suppressing her true nature.

For example, after marriage, Li Lan had casually complained once that the ingredients weren’t fresh, and Zhu Qing no longer dared to prepare meals for her. Zhu Qing thought Li Lan had her own nutritionist; she shouldn’t interfere with Li Lan’s diet. From then on, Li Lan hardly ever ate Zhu Qing’s cooking again.

Or for example, Zhu Qing had agreed to a teacher who had taken care of her many times that she would do volunteer work to help society. At first, she hadn’t planned to choose the Xiyuan Welfare Institute, because its management was too outdated. But selfish motives got the better of her. She knew Li Lan’s daughter studied at Xiyuan Kindergarten, so she applied to be a teaching assistant at the kindergarten, trying to reunite with Li Lan while also helping at the welfare institute. After they reunited, because Li Lan didn’t like the welfare institute, Zhu Qing didn’t dare reveal the truth and could only keep hiding it while working two jobs. She made herself tense and overwhelmed by stress.

Zhu Qing had only just entered society; there were many things she didn’t know how to handle. The pressure from work and family made it hard for her to breathe. On top of that, Li Lan grew busier and busier, her replies to messages were always delayed, and she came home less and less often, which made Zhu Qing increasingly anxious.

That anxiety eventually developed into depressive symptoms, and Zhu Qing had already started taking medication to help herself recover her energy.

Her memories stopped here, and Zhu Qing reached out to touch Li Lan’s head.

Li Lan was woken by her movement. After a brief pause, she lifted her head quickly. “Xiao Qing?”

Still that face from memory; such a dazzling, refined, magnificent face.

Zhu Qing forced out a smile. “I’m fine.”

The doctor came over to check her indicators and also said she was fine.

After the doctor left, Li Lan came over and looked at her with concern for a long time before hesitantly asking, “The bruise in your head is gone. Have you... recovered some memory?”

Zhu Qing’s gaze was calm, carrying a reassuring strength. “I’ve recovered a little.”

Li Lan’s breathing suddenly quickened. “...Really? Then, then you...”

Zhu Qing nodded. “I remembered how we fell in love.”

Li Lan asked nervously, “From where to where?”

Zhu Qing shook her head. She couldn’t bear to see Li Lan so anxious; whether it was the her in her memories or the her after losing her memory, neither could bear to see Li Lan suffer.

She said directly what Li Lan cared about most. “I still don’t remember why we had a conflict.”

A flicker of melancholy crossed Li Lan’s eyes.

Zhu Qing thought that the outbreak of the conflict might have involved other factors, but it was definitely closely related to her mental state at the time.

Still, there was no need to tell Li Lan that now; it would only add to her pressure.

In any case, her current condition was still acceptable; there was no need to rush into solving questions that already sounded difficult.

“In my memories, I was unhappy sometimes,” Zhu Qing said on purpose, giving Li Lan’s hand a little shake. “You have to coax me more and make me happy, okay?”

Li Lan nodded anxiously. “Okay. As long as you’re fine, we’ll do whatever makes you happy.”

Zhu Qing asked, “Why are you here? Has the crew finished filming?”

Li Lan’s expression changed slightly and quickly. “The crew needed a rest too. They took a day off yesterday so everyone could recover.”

Zhu Qing didn’t press further. She said casually, “I’m a little hungry. I want some congee.”

Li Lan said, “I’ll have someone send it over.”

Zhu Qing coughed twice and felt a little unwell. “Just plain white congee from the hospital cafeteria is fine. I’m starving.”

Seeing her like this, Li Lan no longer waited for delivery. She stood up at once. “Then I’ll go buy you some. I’ll be back soon.”

After Li Lan left, Zhu Qing quickly searched for her phone. After unlocking it, she was about to open the crew group chat when she caught sight of Qian Cancan’s 99+ messages.

Qian Cancan was usually full of nonsense, but today, as if possessed, Zhu Qing opened her chat window first.

[Are you upset? You haven’t replied to me at all. Are you okay?]

Zhu Qing frowned and jumped straight to the top.

At the very top was a Weibo post from a burner account.

[We are Zhu Qing’s parents. Since she got married, we haven’t been in contact at all. We hope netizens can help us get in touch with our daughter. We’re both old now, and we really want to ask our daughter how she’s doing, and enjoy some family happiness from her.]

A trending topic that was no longer number one now, but had definitely been there before, with terrifying reading volume, #ZhuQingAbandonedHerParents, lay quietly in the chat window.

Abandoned?

She, abandoned her parents?

Absurd... ridiculous!

Zhu Qing blinked, and that sticky, damp emotion from her memories surged up like something revived.

————————!!————————

Zhu Qing: I hate it.