Chapter 40
The snow fell heavier and heavier, and Luo Mingxiu stood in the snow shivering, hoping to see the car return.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but his hands and feet were cold and numb. Finally, he saw a car rapidly approaching, but it wasn't Shen Li's car. He moved his body, but his vision went blank, and he fell straight down.
“Mingxiu—” Liang Jin got out of the car and slapped his face hard. “Hey, wake up, Luo Mingxiu.”
Luo Mingxiu opened his eyes, his face covered in ice crystals, tears still streaming down his face: "Brother Liang Jin, I made a mistake again. Shen Li will never forgive me. What should I do? I'm in so much pain..."
"Come inside first," Liang Jin grabbed his hand and put it on his shoulder, helping him to glancing at his face as he entered the room. "Your body is so cold, you've been standing here for so long, you're practically asking for trouble."
Which way is the bedroom?
"Go straight and then turn right." Luo Mingxiu pointed in the direction, struggling to even raise his hand. "Brother, I feel really dizzy."
"You have frostbite and a fever. In your condition, you've been standing outside for at least two hours and haven't answered your phone. Where's your cell phone?"
Luo Mingxiu: "In the room."
Liang Jin: "If I hadn't listened to President Cheng and told you that Shen Li and Li Nan went to meet with investors, and worried that you would have rushed over, you would have frozen to death outside tonight."
"Thanks."
After saying those two words, Liang Jin felt a weight on his shoulder; the person next to him had already fallen into a deep sleep.
The next day at noon, Luo Mingxiu opened his eyes, got up and leaned against the headboard to calm himself down. His mind gradually cleared up. He took off the fever-reducing patch from his forehead and picked up the coat draped over the bed and put it on.
"Awake?" The door opened behind me, and Liang Jin came in carrying takeout. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better," Luo Mingxiu coughed lightly. "My throat is still a little dry. Let's go to the living room. I'll have a glass of water first."
Liang Jin nodded, his expression much more relaxed: "Luckily, Shen Li's family always keeps a first-aid kit. After working up most of the night, your fever finally broke this morning, otherwise I was planning to take you to the hospital."
Luo Mingxiu paused for a moment: "The first-aid kit, she told you about it?"
Liang Jin: "Of course I'd ask her about her medicine kit."
Luo Mingxiu took a paper cup to get some water: "Did she say anything else?"
“No,” Liang Jin said. “I just told her you had a fever, and she said she would get medicine from the cabinet in her room, but she didn’t say anything else.”
"Hmm." Luo Mingxiu drank the hot water in his cup, his fingers curling up to flatten the paper cup, his whole being enveloped in a somber mood.
Seeing his actions, Liang Jin narrowed his eyes slightly: "What happened between you and Shen Li last night?"
"Brother, let's go look at houses this afternoon," Luo Mingxiu deliberately changed the subject.
"Oh ho, you've finally made up your mind." It seemed that he had made his obvious intentions even clearer. Liang Jin had no choice but to shut up and not ask any more questions, as he had a headache.
At the Li family home, Shen Li had just finished eating the lunch cooked by Uncle Li and got up on her own, wanting to clean up the kitchen with Li Nan.
The Li family doesn't have the habit of hiring a nanny. Uncle Li and Aunt Xu usually cook and clean for themselves when they are at home; they only hire hourly workers to clean the villa regularly when they go out to work.
Aunt Xu stopped her: "Lili, sit down and let him go by himself."
"Aunt Xu, please let me go," Shen Li said somewhat embarrassedly, "I didn't help much with cooking."
Uncle Li: "It's been too long since you've come to visit. Why are you being so polite?"
Shen Li smiled and looked at Li Nan. Li Nan noticed her unease and said, "You guys watch TV, let Shen Li keep me company and talk to me."
The elderly couple exchanged a glance and chuckled, "Alright, alright, go quickly."
Helpless, Shen Li followed Li Nan to the kitchen. She had helped out when she came to visit before. She genuinely felt that she should do something to feel comfortable when staying at someone else's house, and she didn't want people to misunderstand.
“Don’t worry about it. Mom and Dad still think I’m pursuing you,” Li Nan said. “I’ll find a chance to explain it to them.”
"It's alright." Shen Li yawned, glancing away to avoid the topic.
Seeing through her expression, Li Nan felt a pang of guilt and gave a bitter smile: "Didn't you sleep well last night?"
"It's alright," Shen Li said indifferently.
Having experienced a sudden event that upended her thinking, she naturally didn't sleep well. In her dreams, Luo Mingxiu appeared alternately as he was as a child and as he is now, pestering her to call him "sister."
"What do you mean by 'puppy love' and 'liking a girl from the same school'? Don't you understand yet? That person is you."
"From beginning to end, I've only ever loved you."
His tearful words from last night resurfaced in my mind. Why did I never realize he had this thought before?
If she had known it would turn out this way, she shouldn't have been so nice to that boy. The thought of that absurd kiss made her break down and feel scared.
She was terrified by Luo Mingxiu's dangerous aura and his insanely jealous demeanor; he seemed like a completely different person, and she simply couldn't handle him.
Shen Li clenched the rag in her hand and wiped hard, but because she was distracted, she kept wiping the same spot.
Li Nan saw this and walked over to take the rag away from her: "Go back to your room and rest."
"I went to the dance troupe this morning and took a nap in the car." Shen Li waved her hand and sprayed cleaning agent to wipe it.
She wasn't really sleepy, her mind was just too chaotic, and she couldn't fall asleep no matter what she tried.
“Then you wait for me outside,” Li Nan tossed her a mop. “I’ll wipe it down, and you can mop the floor.”
"Okay." Shen Li took the mop and stood by the door, no longer bothering him.
She watched him quietly wash the stains off the countertop, just like watching stress-relieving videos. Her chaotic nerves relaxed, and she stopped thinking about the things that were giving her headaches.
Are all the people in the dance troupe Aunt Xu's students?
“Some are her students, but most are dance teachers from other troupes whom she met during her tours,” Li Nan said, continuing her work without stopping. “Did you dance today?”
"I did some simple dances," Shen Li gestured with her hand, "and regained a little bit of my rhythm."
Li Nan was charmed by her cuteness and raised an eyebrow: "Take your time. If you're okay, how about you train over there from now on?"
“Sure, they’re all professionals over there,” Shen Li leaned against the door frame and thought for a moment. “I think besides Auntie, there are a lot of other people with good looks who could act.”
“You were right, a few of them have already signed on as special guests.” After cleaning up, Li Nan washed his hands and gestured for her to proceed. “If you don’t mind the trouble, you can go to the dance troupe for special training and learn from each other.”
"Learn from each other?" Shen Li snorted and shoved the mop at his feet. "You want me to be your acting coach, right? So we don't have to spend money to hire a teacher."
Li Nan stepped aside and teased, "Is that not allowed, Teacher Shen?"
"Well done, you've become much more shrewd since you moved behind the scenes."
“I’ll invest in this movie too. You can talk to Cheng Qingqing about it later,” Shen Li said jokingly.
Li Nan raised an eyebrow: "I couldn't ask for more."
"I had this idea after meeting with President Wang last night, but I was afraid you would mind my private relationship, so I didn't tell you."
Li Nan looked at her with a sincere expression, "Chen Li, I know that confessing made you feel embarrassed. I apologize again. It was my eagerness to get an answer that troubled you."
Actually, after thinking about it, I realized that more than pursuing you and winning your love, I don't want to lose you as a friend. Now that Qingli is thriving, I hope we can collaborate on suitable projects in the future.
When he called her name, Shen Li stopped what she was doing, looked at it intently, and listened to him finish speaking.
Li Nan has always been a calm person who can deal with any situation, but only on that day's confession and today, she saw expectation and fear for her on his face.
He longed for her to look at him, yet feared she would ignore him.
That expression is like...
The image of Luo Mingxiu flashed through her mind. Shen Li frowned, then smiled at Li Nan: "I've said we'll always be friends. Let's pretend that never happened and not bring it up again."
Now she understands that both Li Nan and Luo Mingxiu are more devoted to their relationships than she imagined. She can't control others; she can only do her best.
Too many people like her, does she have to care about everyone? It's only because two men are so close to her that she thinks too much; her head isn't for these kinds of thoughts.
When it comes to matters of the heart, thinking about them is useless and only adds to your troubles.
Shen Li never needs anyone to dispel her negative emotions. In the afternoon, she went to see a play with Aunt Xu and felt relaxed when she came back, and slept well.
Cheng Qingqing called the next day. After that night, Shen Li decided to avoid Luo Mingxiu as much as possible, avoiding him if possible, because she was afraid that if she met him, she would remember that absurd kiss and would lose control and want to slap him.
So she kept asking Cheng Qingqing to inquire with Liang Jin whether Luo Mingxiu had moved out. If she hadn't, she planned to stay with her for a while.
"Liang Jin has already found him a place to move out, so you can go home tonight without worry."
"Then we don't need to keep an eye on them anymore." Hearing this news, Shen Li finally breathed a sigh of relief. At least that kid had some sense of shame and knew how big a mistake he had made.
Cheng Qingqing laughed: "Look how nervous you are. I'm really curious what happened that night that made our beautiful Shen so scared."
"Stop your curiosity," Chen Li scolded playfully. "Do you know how upset I am? And you still dare to tease me."
"You're not telling me the truth, how am I supposed to know?" Cheng Qingqing said. "I'm guessing that guy probably told you the truth, and then you rejected him and you two had a fight?"
"Liang Jin said that the day you took your luggage and left, Luo Mingxiu had a high fever until dawn. He said that the kid just stood there in the snow like an idiot, he must have been traumatized."
"He wouldn't have misunderstood and thought there was something between you and Li Nan, would he?"
Cheng Qingqing guessed the general situation correctly, but she didn't expect that she would be forcibly kissed without saying a word, without even having a chance to resist.
Who could have imagined that her usually meek and obedient younger brother would do such a thing?
Are you trying to freeze to death by standing in the snow?
Why would she resort to such a self-inflicted injury tactic? She's the fool who always thought he was innocent and obedient. She was so wrong about him; he's practically a madman.
"Oh, finally finished moving. Luckily you didn't have too much stuff. Go tidy up."
Liang Jin moved in the last box, lay down on the sofa in his new apartment, and replied to messages on his phone. He turned to Luo Mingxiu and said, "I've already hired a cleaning lady. I carefully selected this neighborhood because it's close to the company. If President Cheng or President Chen needs to have a meeting, it will be convenient for them to get to the company, right?"
"You've worked hard." Luo Mingxiu stood on the balcony and watched for a while, then squatted down in front of the boxes and began to unpack and sort the items.
He opened a box near his feet, paused for a moment, then closed it again.
The items inside were all related to Shen Li: her magazines, posters, merchandise, and so on.
Seeing that he wasn't moving the box, Liang Jin curiously went over to take a look, and then had a look of sudden realization: "When I was helping the workers move this box, I wondered why it was so heavy? You really are... a total fanatic. Didn't you say before that you stopped buying these things a long time ago?"
"I'm used to it." Luo Mingxiu only said these three words before putting the box into the locker.
After moving away from the Shen family, he went through a period of depression. He seemed to have lost his purpose, wasting his life, losing interest in everything, staying up all night, and living a life that was neither human nor ghost.
His mother felt sorry for him and didn't let him live at school. Instead, she rented a house off-campus to take care of him, took him to see a psychologist regularly, and even bought him a dog, now known as Xiuxiu, to keep him company. This helped him gradually pull himself back to reality.
But what was the root cause of his illness? Through repeated psychotherapy sessions, Luo Mingxiu knew better than anyone else. He couldn't tell his mother the truth, for fear that she might also develop psychological problems.
The longing for Shen Li can only be buried deep in my heart; it will never end.
He studied and worked part-time diligently, never daring to be idle, because whenever he was free, the longing in his heart would grow wildly like vines, reaching outwards.
It was this intense longing that made him start buying Shen Li's merchandise again, and it was during that time that he opened an account and started editing videos about her online.
While gaining popularity, he also cherished this feeling, repeatedly watching her scenes on the monitor of the editing software, appreciating every frame of her performance.
Gradually, a thought began to pop into his head: perhaps one day he could become an actor, and then he could get closer to her?
Having finished tidying up the one at hand, Luo Mingxiu bent down to continue tidying up the other side. After finishing everything, he suddenly realized that something was missing. He searched through the box he had just put down, but it wasn't there.
"Have you seen a wooden keychain shaped like a puppy?" Luo Mingxiu turned around and asked Liang Jin, who was leaning against the sofa, leisurely scrolling through short videos.
Liang Jin was engrossed in watching the video and only replied after a while: "What dog? Oh, I think I saw you playing with it before."
Luo Mingxiu was a little anxious: "I'm asking if you saw it when you were moving things just now? I can't find it."
"Huh? Look again carefully. That little thing is easy to lose when you move. Anyway, it's not worth much. Just buy another one."
"That's unavailable." Luo Mingxiu lowered his eyes in disappointment and began rummaging through drawers and cabinets again.
"Stop, take a break," Liang Jin stopped him from making noise, saying, "I reckon he probably didn't bring it at all and left it at Shen Li's house. Why don't you ask him?"
Luo Mingxiu paused after taking out his phone, images flashing through his mind. His face flushed red. He wanted to slap himself for doing such outrageous and despicable things.
How could I dare to message her, let alone see her?
If the item really is with her, I hope she'll keep it. It was originally a gift I was going to give her back then.
When Shen Li returned home at night, she knew that he had moved out. She still glanced at the shoe cabinet in the entryway and, sure enough, his shoes were gone.
After putting down her luggage, she went straight to the bedroom where he had stayed. The room was empty and bright.
They're gone.
They cleaned it up quite quickly and thoroughly.
Just as Shen Li was about to close the door, she glanced at it and saw a piece of wood by the door. She bent down to pick it up and breathed on it.
What? Isn't this his prized wooden puppy? She picked it up before, and he immediately snatched it back. Now he's just casually tossed it here?
Was it an accident, or was it intentional?
While she was inwardly grumbling, she was also worried that he might genuinely believe it was lost and be anxious if he couldn't find it, so she still took a picture of the keychain and sent it to him.
Shen Li: I'll leave it with Cheng Qingqing tomorrow. You can pick it up when you have time.
Luo Mingxiu replied instantly: No need, it was originally a gift for you.
Shen Li was still angry and didn't want to talk to him anymore: "Don't stuff all sorts of things into my hands, I don't need them."
She angrily typed out the message, sent it, and turned off her phone.
You're a liar. Even now, you're still saying these nonsensical things to coax her.
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