Chapter 35
The lawn music festival lasted for two days. On the second day, a Sunday, they enjoyed a rare cool and sunny day before the official start of the rainy season.
Song Yihuan has been busy every day since she returned home for half a month. She is either busy rehearsing or busy editing rehearsal vlogs.
After the collaboration between "I Don't Talk in My Sleep" and the Ember Music Festival was officially announced, there was a brief period of awkwardness between the fans of both sides, and there were even some signs of a fight over billing order similar to that in the entertainment industry—after all, they had been arguing fiercely before.
But ever since Song Yihuan started updating her vlog, the fans of both sides quickly made peace and became very polite to each other.
This has even spawned a third, massive group of fans: CP (couple) fans.
She didn't edit the video in that direction at all, since Chi Ran didn't even appear on screen, and she couldn't understand how these fans started shipping them.
The initial mistakes were very subtle; she didn't even notice them while editing the video.
One instance was when she was warming up her voice in the rehearsal hall, Chi Ran casually said, "It's dry, have some water."
Another instance was when she was communicating with the staff sent by the organizers and said, "I'll come again tomorrow." Amidst the noise, Chi Ran let out a low laugh, the kind that she couldn't help but suppress despite her deliberate attempt to.
After the CP fans started shipping them, she deliberately reduced Chi Ran's presence in her videos, focusing instead on sharing her daily life. However, the resourceful fans could still find plenty of evidence in the smallest details, making it impossible to guard against.
Sometimes she would secretly browse those details and read the loving words from the CP fans.
She felt flustered, but at the same time, she secretly wondered if the fact that she couldn't hide it meant that it contained a lot of love and sincerity.
But she dared not delve deeper; she was only fit to indulge in fleeting dreams.
Rehearsals have been quite tiring lately, and her condition has been fluctuating, which makes her very worried about the performance.
She kept telling herself that rehearsals were important, as this was an opportunity she had been looking forward to for a long time.
Let's not think about anything else for now.
"Will we be there in half an hour?" Song Yihuan yawned and curled up in the back seat. "I'm going to take a nap."
Chi Ran said, "Yes, the cushion is in the back seat."
She gave a vague "hmm".
"I'm so sleepy," Qian Yu yawned as he drove. "It's not even dawn yet!"
Chi Ran raised her hand precisely and punched his arm, whispering, "Don't disturb her, she's almost asleep."
Before long, Song Yihuan's breathing became even and steady.
"This schedule is insane." Qian Yu dared not shout anymore and said in a low voice, "They rehearse from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. for three consecutive days. This is only the second day. Who can stand it?"
Chi Ran didn't say anything.
Actually, being an artist is a good thing. Before, when I was working behind the scenes, I basically had to stay up all night, contacting each person one by one, and I was kept awake by coffee.
Song Yihuan had never participated before and was clearly struggling to keep up. Whether she was sitting, leaning, or standing, she could fall asleep as soon as she had a moment of free time, whether on the bus or in the rest area.
This time too, I basically fell asleep as soon as I lay down.
The chairs in the dressing room weren't laid flat enough to make them uncomfortable to sleep on. He specifically asked Qian Yu to bring a folding bed that morning, and he would set it up during rehearsals so she could sleep more comfortably.
At this moment, some artist tripped and fell on stage. He didn't fall down, but he touched the ground and stood up. But it still caused quite a stir.
Shifting blame, creating marketing videos, and stalker fans causing trouble...
What he hates most about the entertainment industry is its superficiality and hypocrisy.
The organizers, agents, and makeup artists around me were making a racket, running around and arguing, which was giving me a headache.
He listened intently; the person next to him was breathing steadily and hadn't woken up.
If this continues, the rehearsal schedule will have to be pushed back even further.
"What time will you arrive?" Chi Ran asked, frowning. "If it's late, go back to the car first."
"They said we can't leave, we have to rehearse again later," Qian Yu said. "We can't leave."
"At this rate, it's impossible to get a line before dark. We'll stay here, let her go sleep in the car."
Chi Ran gently patted Song Yihuan and softened her voice: "Wake up, it's too noisy here, and it's cold without air conditioning. Go sleep in the car."
She was already having trouble sleeping because of the noise, so she quickly got up, rubbing her eyes, and asked groggily, "Hmm?"
"You're awake. Go sleep in the car." Chi Ran chuckled at her cloying voice. "Not so fast."
Song Yihuan slowly lifted the blanket covering her, stood up in a daze, and said "okay".
Her soft, sleepy tone made Chi Ran laugh again.
He took her wrist, gently touched it, felt the warmth of her body, and said with a smile, "You're sleeping soundly and warmly."
Qian Yu suddenly glanced at Song Yihuan, his eyes filled with an indescribable complexity and seriousness.
When Song Yihuan looked over out of the corner of her eye, it seemed like it was just her imagination.
"Go sleep in the car, turn on the alarm, we'll call you when it's your turn," Chi Ran said, turning to Qian Yu. "Give her the car keys."
Qian Yu didn't move, but said, "The car is parked far away, I'll take her there."
Song Yihuan glanced at him in surprise.
Qian Yu has never been such a meticulous and considerate person.
On the way there, Qian Yu looked at her several times, seemingly wanting to say something but ultimately saying nothing.
After getting into the car, she hesitated before speaking, "You..."
He turned and left as if fleeing, the sound of the door closing hitting her heart with a gentle but firm thud.
Qian Yu walked away quickly.
Song Yihuan had a bad feeling. He had seen her alarm clock before, and on the way here he saw messages from her cancer science popularization account.
He discovered it?
Judging from Chi Ran's reaction, he probably doesn't know yet, but if Qian Yu knew, he might tell him when he gets back now.
Song Yihuan's mind was in a mess. She curled up in the back seat like a child who had done something wrong, poking at the leather cushion with her hand.
Before she could hesitate for long, the back door was suddenly pulled open.
It's Qian Yu.
He returned, his face contorted in a grimace, a mixture of conflict and anger.
He slumped back onto the seat as if exhausted, then didn't say a word or look at her. He just propped his head up with his hand, staring blankly into space.
Seeing Qian Yu's extremely conflicted expression, Song Yihuan's heart sank to the bottom.
"Ask." She forced a few words to sound confident, but she was still unsure of herself.
"I want to ask," Qian Yu said, sounding even more uneasy than her. "I said I'd give it to you so that Ran-ge wouldn't have to ask you about it."
Okay, then I understand.
"Ran Ge has a difficult temper, but he's really good to me, he's incredibly kind to me! So I need to ask you clearly, I need to avoid him and ask you clearly alone."
Qian Yu rambled on for a while, as if trying to bolster his courage, before finally getting to the point, which was unusually direct: "You can't hurt Brother Ran."
Song Yihuan was initially a little hesitant, but his words were so thoughtless and infuriating that they were practically a blow to the heart.
"She's still alive, not a female ghost or a demon, what harm could she possibly cause?"
She sat up straight and couldn't help but retort.
Qian Yu was used to being humiliated and wasn't good at arguing, so he didn't say a word back.
He stood there stunned for a long time, then started tapping on his phone with trembling hands, saying with a sense of resignation, "Then... then it's true. You're really sick?"
"Alive, but on the verge of death." Song Yihuan's anger hadn't subsided, and her words were harsh. "You found out by looking at my phone, didn't you?"
Qian Yu finally managed to bring up the app on his phone, his hands trembling, and handed it to her to show her.
"Is it you?"
The screen displays the account homepage of the original Resurrection Armor.
"When I saw it that day, I thought it was a game account... but when I got back, the big data analysis system started recommending it to me. At first, I thought it was a coincidence, but the more I thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. I looked at the pictures posted by this account carefully... and several of them clearly showed that it was the table in your kitchen."
Qian Yu seemed to have a tongue problem, repeating each word over and over several times.
He asked again, "Is it you?"
"yes."
Song Yihuan pressed her head against the window and didn't look a second time.
There's no fairness in this damn world. She clearly meant well by creating this account, but it shattered her carefully maintained dream.
That's not fair.
"That day, on your birthday, the alarm clock with so many exclamation marks, was it because you were taking your medicine?" Qian Yu's voice trembled.
She replied blankly, "Yes."
Qian Yu: "Brother Ran doesn't know."
This is not a problem.
Song Yihuan closed her eyes briefly, but still answered, "Yes."
"Then aren't you just hurting him?!" Qian Yu couldn't control his voice and his words cracked.
Song Yihuan wanted to say, "What's it to you?" but even with her thick skin, she couldn't bring herself to do it.
She is not innocent; even she herself is not on her own side.
Before she could say anything, Qian Yu panicked: "No... what is this? What should we do? What should we do? What should we do?"
"have no idea."
Song Yihuan let out a long breath; she was so tired that her head ached and she felt unwell all over.
"What else can we do?" Qian Yu said accusingly. "If you do this and then say you didn't hurt him, who will believe you? Ran Ge may look tough and arrogant, but he's never suffered anything except for his eyes. His heart is more fragile than mine. What you're doing is hurting him, you're going to kill him!"
Song Yihuan knew all this better than anyone else. Qian Yu said she had harmed people, which she denied, but whenever Qian Yu mentioned Chi Ran, she would immediately become mute.
She remained silent for a long time, gazing quietly out the window.
The music festival stage was already set up, and staff were busy at work, taking turns testing the lights, flames, and smoke. Although the stage was noisy and chaotic, it gave a glimpse of the excitement to come.
These past few days have been sunny, and even as sunset approaches, the sunlight remains a clear, golden hue—a truly clear and sunny day.
She greedily gazed at the scenery outside the window until she was satisfied, then whispered, "I didn't mean to hurt him. I had no intention of swindling him out of his money, nor did I intend to let him know the truth. I didn't want to hurt... him."
She deliberately avoided saying his name.
Even just thinking of that name makes my heart ache as if it's been struck by lightning.
“You have to leave,” Qian Yu said. “You have to stay away from Chi Ran.”
After hearing the name Chi Ran, Song Yihuan paused for a long time before saying, "That's my plan. I didn't intend to stay by his side until the end."
"So how long do you want to stay?" Qian Yu asked. "Today? Tomorrow?"
have no idea.
I want to be greedy until the very last second.
Greed continues until it can't be greedier anymore.
The answer lingered in Song Yihuan's mind, but she still didn't say it aloud.
“This won’t do, you’re driving him to his death.” Qian Yu muttered, “This won’t do, you can’t be here. If you’re here, I’ll sue… I can’t tell him either, if I tell him it’ll be even worse, his life will be over. I can’t tell him.”
Listening to his rambling, Song Yihuan knew he wasn't that forceful; he wouldn't do anything to force her to leave.
Qian Yu kept muttering, "He's so good to you! You must know how good he is to you. He's never been this nice and gentle to anyone before, given his bad temper. He's so good to you, you can't treat him like this."
Qian Yu, seemingly lost in thought, suddenly looked up and stared directly at her, anger taking over.
He said, "How could you be like this..."
Song Yihuan was momentarily dazed.
Selfish.
"How selfish!" Qian Yu said angrily.
A wave of grievance washed over Song Yihuan. She knew she had nothing to do with him, but she was too upset to care.
"He's so good to me, can't I want him, can't I cherish him?"
Qian Yu clearly wasn't listening. He waved his hand and said, "Don't try to fool me. I knew you had to leave."
Song Yihuan glared at him with her neck stiffened, and stopped talking.
Later, Qian Yu repeated the same thing several times, basically saying that she had to leave and couldn't hurt anyone.
She bit her lip and refused to speak, just staring at him intently.
Later, Qian Yu was delayed for too long, and Chi Ran called him. Only then did he hurriedly answer the phone and leave.
As he got out of the car, he abruptly turned around and slammed the door shut.
Bang!
The vibration from the car door reached her, making even her fingertips numb. The tremor shook her chest, shaking her heart that she had been trying to toughen up.
She slumped down in the back seat as if all her strength had left her, and used the car key to open the sunroof.
The clear sunlight slanted down, enveloping her like a thin veil, beautiful but not warm.
She looked up and saw the sky tinged with a hazy pinkish-purple, draped with shimmering gold, flowing slowly and gradually dimming.
She stretched her hands out in front of her, palms facing the sky, and tilted her head to look.
She got her nails done specifically for the music festival. The nails resembled the sky at that moment, like slices of sunset, softly shimmering with fragmented light.
The manicure was very thick, perfectly covering her deformed and thin natural nails.
What do you do when your nails grow long?
Then it won't be able to be covered up anymore.
She thought about it somewhat blankly.
As darkness gradually fell, the beautiful sunset was slowly devoured by the darkness until it could no longer be seen.
She stared blankly into the darkness, silently immersed in the darkness.
See?
The moment beauty exists, the clock begins to tick away in farewell.
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