“Not bad,” Lin Xiaoman stood up, turned on the accompaniment, “Let’s see if you can keep up with me.”
As the grand accompaniment sounded, Lin Xiaoman moved slowly, Wei Qinghuan following with a sleeve flip and a glance back. As the music gradually reached its climax, their movements became faster, graceful and enchanting. As the rhythm accelerated, Wei Qinghuan could no longer keep up, but Lin Xiaoman seemed immersed in the music, each movement seeming to be born for this music.
Wei Qinghuan was mesmerized.
“How about it, want to try again?”
At the end of the song, Lin Xiaoman looked at the young girl, her eyes seemingly glowing with light.
Wei Qinghuan was infected and laughed: “Of course.”
She walked to the center of the dance room, and as the music played again, they began dancing once more. This time, Lin Xiaoman deliberately slowed the music’s tempo.
Although still somewhat awkward, Wei Qinghuan could now barely keep up with her movements.
After repeating this dozens of times, even without watching Lin Xiaoman, Wei Qinghuan could now complete the entire set of movements.
However, due to the long persistence, her stamina seemed to be failing.
“Want to continue?” Lin Xiaoman asked.
“I’ve just finished warming up,” Wei Qinghuan was not conceding, “Are you already tired?”
“Just getting into the groove.”
Lin Xiaoman’s mouth curved, laughing more happily. They repeated the dance over ten times, drenched in sweat, but moving like twins in perfect sync, their movements becoming increasingly consistent.
The night grew deep, and the radio tower’s lights gradually went out, with only the thirteenth floor’s dance room still illuminated. Like stars in the night sky, they remained bright until dawn.
When Lin Xiaoman awoke, she found her shoulder felt heavy. Looking sideways, she saw Wei Qinghuan soundly asleep on her shoulder.
Last night, they practiced too late, and she still remembered that in the end, both of them were too exhausted to move, so they sat in the corner of the wall to rest, and unexpectedly fell asleep just like that.
She carefully moved a chair over for the other person to lean on, and then took the coat from the sofa to drape over her.
Afterwards, Lin Xiaoman left the dance practice room to go wash up first. When she reached the third floor, she happened to see Zhang Jiajia coming down from upstairs with a suitcase.
Lin Xiaoman directly ignored her and brushed past.
“Stop right there!” Zhang Jiajia became completely enraged when she saw her cold appearance and remembered what Ning Yumu said about her having someone backing her. Without caring about anything else, she grabbed her, “You shameless woman, do you think you’re something just because you have someone backing you?”
Lin Xiaoman easily broke free, still with a cold expression: “Relying on others, what right do you have to say that about me?”
“At least I’m not like you, selling myself out!” Zhang Jiajia said contemptuously. “You’re just feeling proud now, wait until people get tired of you and see what you’ll have to be proud of.”
“At least I still have the chance to be proud,” Lin Xiaoman gave her a slight smile, her tone flat. “While you, I’m afraid you’ll never have such a chance.”
“Bitch!” Zhang Jiajia had completely lost her mind and lunged at her.
Lin Xiaoman had been watching to see if she would go crazy like last time, so when she moved, she dodged to the side. Zhang Jiajia missed and, unable to stop, was carried towards the stairs.
Lin Xiaoman was startled and reached out to grab her, catching her waistband. But because she was too tired, she didn’t have much strength and was pulled down with her.
She quickly grabbed the railing, but the waistband in her hand came loose, and Zhang Jiajia tumbled down the stairs.
Everything happened in an instant. By the time Lin Xiaoman came to her senses, the other person was lying quietly at the bottom of the stairs.
She hurriedly dialed the emergency number.
Afterwards, everything seemed like a dream.
Lin Xiaoman saw the flashing red and blue lights and people coming and going, just like the scene of her car accident. She heard someone asking her questions, but she couldn’t hear anything clearly.
As if existing in another space, she couldn’t move or speak, watching the changing scenes before her eyes, unable to do anything. She panicked, wanting to escape, but could only stand in place.
Then, there was endless darkness.
And a silence like death.
“No!”
Lin Xiaoman suddenly woke up.
Before her was an unfamiliar environment – the unpleasant smell of disinfectant, white sheets, and the dripping of medication…
She was in the hospital again.
Who was she now?
She sat up in panic, looking around frantically.
The man sitting nearby, seeing her awake, had a hint of joy in his usually calm eyes, which quickly disappeared.
“You’re really troublesome.”
The man’s cold voice made Lin Xiaoman realize that this tone and dialogue could never have come from Tang Feifei. She was still Lin Xiaoman, the kept woman in a relationship with him.
“What about Zhang Jiajia?” she asked.
“She’s fine.”
Lin Xiaoman breathed a sigh of relief.
Ji Zhixian saw her expression and his gaze grew colder: “You have time to worry about others?”
Falling down the stairs with someone she had old grudges with would surely lead to all kinds of speculation outside. There would definitely be unfavorable comments about her.
“Pull up the stairwell surveillance to clear my name,” Lin Xiaoman said calmly.
“The surveillance is broken.”
Lin Xiaoman furrowed her brow, quickly realizing that if things were this easy to solve, Ji Zhixian would have solved it long ago and wouldn’t have waited for her input.
“Use your advantage to publish online that Zhang Jiajia was trying to harm you, and you both fell down the stairs together.”
Lin Xiaoman remained silent.
Ji Zhixian continued: “Even if Zhang Jiajia wakes up and says you pushed her, you can immediately fight back. Understand?”
Lin Xiaoman forced a smile: “Still as decisive as ever.”
Ji Zhixian ignored her sarcastic tone and said flatly: “If you’re not quick, public opinion will be controlled by others, and you’ll only be on the receiving end.”
“Control public opinion?” Lin Xiaoman stared directly at Ji Zhixian, “I don’t need to control public opinion, and I don’t have the ability to control others’ thoughts.”
“So you want everyone to say you have a vicious character and got into a verbal and physical altercation with your peer?”
“Ji Zhixian stared back, his deep eyes filled with an invisible pressure.
Lin Xiaoman refused to back down, still looking at him: “Is that how you see me?”
From the maliciously edited incident to her dispute with Xu Wei, and now the staircase fall, although Ji Zhixian chose to help her, his words showed no trust in her at all.
Lin Xiaoman knew that trust wasn’t easily built, but he repeatedly assumed she was the one who needed to make excuses for doing something wrong.
Lin Xiaoman was getting a bit angry.
“What kind of person you are in my eyes is not important; what matters is how others will see you,” Ji Zhixian said coldly, looking at her. “You need to understand the key point!”
“The one who needs to understand the key point is you!”
Lin Xiaoman suddenly raised her voice, her exquisite and beautiful face showing a few more determined expressions that brooked no argument.
This reminded Ji Zhixian of Tang Feifei again.
★ Chapter Thirteen: Trust
When Ji Zhixian was filming with Tang Feifei, they initially had no chemistry at all. The director moved the scenes of life-and-death companionship forward, hoping they would quickly get into character and find their rhythm.
But after repeated attempts, he would unconsciously avoid Tang Feifei every time he got close, and the effect was still not good.”
