The frame is inlaid with jingling

Jiang Songhe imagined herself as a mollusk, trying to slide off the seat on Jonah's side onto the ground in an attempt to escape.

Unfortunately, the seat he had personally reclined and the footrest he had raised turned into a small bed, taking up half of the space in the middle row.

My waist and two long legs were confined to a narrow range of movement, and I couldn't exert any strength on the left side of my body. Any movement caused excruciating pain, and to make matters worse, my phone was in my left trouser pocket. I was truly helpless.

After struggling in vain for a long time, Jiang Songhe finally focused on the door latch. He moved his elbow with pain, straightened his forearm, and used the four fingers of his left hand to grip the edge of the seat back behind Jonathan's head for leverage. He then stretched out his right arm with difficulty to reach the middle door.

Just a hair's breadth away. Jiang Songhe's forehead was beaded with cold sweat, and his eyebrows were almost twisted into a pretzel. He had planned to take a leap and hook himself, but he twisted his left shoulder and fell onto "Sleeping Beauty" in a half-plank position.

The car door suddenly opened with a whoosh, and a dark shadow enveloped two people, one sitting on one side and the other on the other.

Before Jiang Songhe could react, he felt his belt being grabbed by a huge force and pulled sharply. He instantly lost his balance, followed by a dull pain in his shoulders and back. When he came to his senses, he found himself being slammed hard onto the cold, hard ground outside the car.

Before he could get angry, Jiang Songhe suppressed his dizziness and looked up at the wall of people blocking the door of the Vito. The man had a broad, hunched back and was fiddling with his hands inside the car. A moment later, a porcelain-white arm dangled onto the man's shoulder with a clattering sound...

It gives you the feeling of a wild beast dismembering and breaking apart a body.

The word "kidnapping" popped into Jiang Songhe's muddled mind. Relying on instinct and adrenaline, he shifted his upper body weight to the right, staggered to his feet, and rushed behind the "beast" to grab his shoulder.

"Put him down, or I'll call the police." Jiang Songhe judged that his current physical condition was no match for the much larger opponent, so he raised his phone to enter the police number and threatened him sternly.

Unmoved, the "beast" turned his back to Jiang Songhe, picked up Jonathan in his arms, and then turned his dark brown face to give him an even colder and fiercer look, saying protectively, "If you don't want to die, get out of here."

The man who came was the same burly man who had escorted Jiang Songhe and Jiang Songyun out of the TANG medical clinic yesterday.

Based on the previous events, Jiang Songhe guessed that this person should be Jonathan's bodyguard. With the misunderstanding cleared up, he let go of his hand, took a step back, and opened the driver's side door as if drawing a clear line, taking out the car keys and handing them over.

Thinking of how undignified he was when he was chased away last time, and how he would most likely be treated like some kind of sleazy old man again this time, Jiang Songhe forcibly fought off the pain, steadied his trembling hands, straightened his back, and said sarcastically, "Why don't you take care of your own artists first?"

The burly man took the car keys with one hand, locked the car, slammed the door shut with his massive arm, and carried Jonathan towards the elevator entrance of the underground parking garage.

Jiang Songhe glanced at the sleeve of his suit jacket hanging down from Jonathan, tightened his jaw, said nothing more, and walked away without looking back.

-

When Jiang Songhe exited the underground parking garage, he realized that it was already getting dark.

After all that commotion, he was mostly sober. He pulled out his phone, but there were no new messages or missed calls. A wave of exhaustion washed over him. He went to the roadside to hail a cab, his mind filled with only the thought of getting back to his hotel bed and getting some rest.

Who would have thought that Maner, known as the land that never sleeps, would be completely deserted at this moment?

Jiang Songhe suspiciously opened the ride-hailing app, but no driver accepted the order for a long time. Just as he was hesitating to call Ni Haolang, the phone screen froze, a buffer circle appeared and started spinning, and three seconds later, it went completely black.

The black screen displayed Jiang Songhe's face, which first froze and then gradually contorted. A gust of cold wind swept by, chilling him to the bone.

Completely devastated, Jiang Songhe looked up to the sky and roared, "Damn it—this is the worst luck ever—"

...

After enduring the cold and wind for most of the night, Jiang Songhe finally returned to the hotel by following the route in his memory.

Once inside the elevator, seeing that the car was empty, he lowered himself, leaning on the handrail and hunching over to catch his breath. As his senses slowly returned, he felt as if his internal organs were about to explode from the heat, while his skin was ice-cold. This clash of hot and cold caused thousands upon thousands of "worms" to hatch beneath his skin, crawling around numbly.

I'm being hit with this extreme contrast of hot and cold again!

Why is it "again"?

Before she could even sort things out, the elevator doors opened, and Jiang Songhe composed herself, stepping out of the elevator and back to her room.

Jiang Songhe assumed that Jiang Songyun must be asleep by now, since it was late and he hadn't received any updates from the hotel all day. However, when Jiang Songhe arrived at the room, he found that Jiang Songyun's door was wide open, and he could hear people walking back and forth inside.

Jiang Songhe straightened his shirt collar, sniffed it, stepped outside the room, and knocked on the door: "Songyun?"

The footsteps quickly stopped in the inner room, then pounded towards the door. Jiang Songhe stiffly put his hands into his pockets.

"Brother, you're back?! Why are you so late?!" Jiang Songyun exclaimed excitedly, clutching his laptop.

Feeling this long-lost intimacy, Jiang Songhe was momentarily dazed. She smiled awkwardly, then responded with a heartfelt "Hey," but said nothing more. Jiang Songyun didn't seem to care, and excitedly stepped forward to show Jiang Songhe his laptop.

"You went to see the people from Xingxiu today, right?!" Jiang Songyun swiped his finger across the touchpad, and an email popped up on the screen. "Hey! I got the shortlist notification! I knew you still care about me!"

"..." Jiang Songhe's mind went blank for a moment. She took out a hand and leaned against the door frame, squinting as she asked, "Whatever makes you happy. What did the notice say?"

"You still ask? How could you not know what you were talking about?" Jiang Songyun's smile remained unchanged, taking it as his older brother's way of showing affection and taking credit.

"Tsk, I'm asking about the follow-up arrangements." Jiang Songhe was about to rub her temples in annoyance, but then, remembering Jiang Songyun's comment that she "always gets angry when she lies," she put her hand back down and asked gently, "What do you say we need to prepare?"

"Oh, maybe it's because of my special circumstances that the notification was a bit rushed. Tomorrow afternoon—no, this afternoon—we're going to Tangang again to fill out forms, check in, and then go through the check-in process. When you go back to your room later, don't forget to find both of our passports and put them out in plain sight..."

"Wait a minute." Jiang Songhe thought she was hallucinating. "What are you checking in for? 'Check-in'?"

"That's right. Our contestants stayed at hotels under the Tang Group from the preliminary rounds to the finals, just a few blocks away from the Tang Building."

"..." Jiang Songhe still couldn't help but take out his other hand and rub his temples, weak but gritting his teeth, "Heh right, TANG increased its investment in Xingxiu, very reasonable."

"Of course! Hey bro, did you know? Janus is now the fourth judge on Star Show, I might have a chance to join my idol's team!!"

Jiang Songhe scratched at the door frame: "I know all too well."

"Why are you being so sarcastic today? You're unhappy that I can get close to Janus? Could it be because of last time..."

"Happy, I'm happy." Jiang Songhe lightly tapped the doorframe, then straightened up, a hint of dazedness in his smile. "What time tomorrow? I'll take you. I happen to have a few words to say to this Janus..."

Jiang Songyun was horrified by Jiang Songhe's laughter. He closed his laptop and tentatively said, "Three o'clock... I see you've had quite a bit to drink again, haven't you? It's almost dawn. How about... I go by myself? I've got everything sorted out, so don't worry about it. Just relax at the hotel tonight."

"No." Jiang Songhe didn't intend to give Jiang Songyun a chance to plead or beg, and turned around to swipe her card and go back to her room.

-

Jiang Songhe took the fastest shower of his life, found his passport and put it on the bedside table, charged his phone, set five or six alarms, and then fell asleep as soon as he lay down on the bed.

...

So tired, so tired.

Exhausted from taking on the responsibility of raising her younger brother alone after the death of her parents, and then being tamed by herself into a vulgar agent, the weariness of nearly eighteen years has materialized into a bottomless black pool, entangled, pulled, and relentless.

Jiang Songhe felt like he was floundering in black water that was like asphalt, his limbs aching, and he was sinking deeper and deeper. When he was completely disoriented, he plunged into even deeper water and began to have dreams that he couldn't distinguish between reality and illusion.

He dreamt that when he was a child, he bought his only pet, a lame chick, from a peddler. The chick became critically ill overnight. He cried and gave the chick a final resting place, burying it in a flowerpot without flowers and sticking a bare branch as a grave.

Late at night, he heard someone shouting from under the flowerpot, "It's so dark, I'm so scared." He went to check and found Jonathan crawling out of the soil, starkly questioning him about why he hadn't saved him and why he had left him there all alone.

Jonathan said he was cold and asked him to hug him. He half-heartedly hugged him. Jonathan whispered his thanks in his ear. He hesitated and touched that porcelain white, slender neck. The skin he touched began to turn sandy the moment they touched.

A gust of wind blew it, and upon closer inspection, one skeleton was embedded within another, clanging loudly.

Grass! ! !

Jiang Songhe woke up in a cold sweat, glancing out of the corner of her eye at her phone pressed against her face, ringing loudly.

Who was the brilliant genius who invented using a rain stick as the default ringtone?

He glanced at the caller ID on his phone and swiped it angrily.

Ni Hou Liangzai: "Bro, was it that intense last night? I called you over a dozen times and you didn't answer... Well, men definitely need more energy than women!"

Waking up from a nightmare and hearing all that rubbish, Jiang Songhe was so angry he wanted to sit up and yell at him, but as soon as he moved, he felt like his whole body was being torn apart.

Jiang Songhe: "Hiss..."

Ni Hou Liangzai: "Holy crap? What's that? You guys aren't still together, are you? Aren't you afraid Song Yun will hear us?!"

Jiang Songhe: "Ni Haolang, do you want to die?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Jiang Songhe was startled by his own voice. His throat was hoarse, and the sound coming out of his mouth was like it had been scraped by a rusty file.

He sat up abruptly, his mind went blank again, and he felt dizzy. He wiped his face; he had a fever.

Ni Hou Liangzai: "What did you just say? Hey, it's not important. I was just thinking about our get-together. You have someone with you now, so it won't be a problem. I'll ask you to set a time so we can have a drink together then~"

Jiang Songhe hadn't done much of a proper job in the past few days since arriving in Maner; he'd just been drinking. He choked on his drink, reached for a tissue on the bedside table, and was about to refuse when the back of his hand touched something icy cold.

Looking up, I saw a glass of milk with a notepad underneath.

"Brother: I'm taking our passports and your room key with me. I'll bring them back when I'm done. I'm not a child anymore, I can manage on my own. You get some rest. Songyun."

"You still say you're not a child? Don't you know you can get a replacement room card from the hotel front desk? Who do you think you can fool with your little schemes?" Jiang Songhe was momentarily speechless or angry.

Ni Haolang's dog ears came to life again: "Hey, you two just slept together once, and you've already reached the point of living together without anyone bothering you? I'm really curious about who this handsome man is. Hurry up and set a time to bring him over to meet us!"

“…” Cursing and swearing was too much of a strain on her voice, so Jiang Songhe was too lazy to argue.

Once he sobered up, he was no longer swayed by alcohol or anything else that could cause emotional breakdowns. How could the question of "should I make amends or play dumb" be more important than Song Yun's future? He only had one more pressing matter to attend to—

Make sure Jonah stays far away from Kang Song-yoon.

Although he had always disdained using connections, this time he decided to make an exception and act like a villain.

"Where to meet?" Jiang Songhe asked. "With that Kun Ji'en."