“I checked your pulse, you probably have low blood sugar. Does anything feel off? Headache? Nausea?” The gentle voice patiently asked.
Jiang Chen reluctantly stood up, leaning against the wall and weakly mustering, “I’m okay, thank you… big sister.”
He had debuted before Xiang Yi, but he was only nineteen this year.
Xiang Yi was very fond of polite children like this and continued, “Do you want to rest in this dressing room for a bit?” She then added, “It’ll just be you, I won’t go in.”
After all, she was still bearing the reputation of “spoiling” young fresh meats at every turn…
Jiang Chen was naturally aware of the rumors too as his expression became awkward. “No need, it’s an old problem. No need to trouble big sister.”
Xiang Yi nodded her chin slightly. “Okay, take care of yourself then.”
Having said that, she really didn’t plan on caring more about him as she lifted her skirt and walked back into the dressing room.
Jiang Chen felt an inexplicable strangeness in his heart as he eerily stopped Xiang Yi, “Big sister… Do you have more candy?”
Since he’s been recording “Heartbeat” recently, his agent had informed him he looked fat in the live footage. In the last few days, he hadn’t eaten much. Paired with squeezing in time to exercise and dance at night, he was afraid he’d faint again on stage at the gala.
Xiang Yi pulled out a few more pieces of candy from her purse and handed it to him.
Gummy candies, fruit candies, and chocolates were all there.
She loved little kids, so she would always carry candy on her.
But recently, it would seem they’ve been used more frequently to coax larger children…
Jiang Chen rubbed the edges of his candy wrapper and whispered, “Thank you.” He wasn’t the kind of person to actively reach out in social situations and was always the kind that needed to be persuaded to talk. However, at this moment, he began to find topics of discussion out of nothing. “Big sister, are you a TCM* doctor?”
“I just know some very surface skills,” the young girl’s clear eyes fell on him as she batted her feathery eyelashes. She could see through Jiang Chen’s anxiety and embarrassment. “I’ll grab you a chair?”
Jiang CHen was evidently relieved as he sighed, hanging his head in shame the next second.
He was inwardly feeling contradicted. He was afraid of creating a scandal with Xiang Yi, but he couldn’t help relying on her like a helpless chick.
But Xiang Yi didn’t seem to care as she brought a chair with a backrest for him, along with a cute pillow that belonged to Ah Nan.
At the end of the corridor where nobody paid attention to, after the voice-activated light was turned off and all was dim, Xiang Yi did not continue to talk to him. The atmosphere was quiet, yet Jiang Chen felt extremely safe.
He squeezed the suede pillow that was soft and warm.
The rich fragrance of milk bloomed on the tip of his tongue as his dizziness subsided, his vision and physical strength beginning to slowly recover.
He couldn’t help but glance inside the dressing room through its half-open door. Vaguely, he could make out the hem of a girl’s skirt, red as the freesias in his mother’s garden back in their hometown, which looked brightest at full bloom.
She… was quite different from the rumors.
If he were to open the door a bit more, he would be able to see what the girl was doing.
Playing on her phone? Dozing off? Fixing her makeup?
But Jiang Chen’s eyes burned for only a moment before dimming again.
When Ah Nan came to pick up Xiang Yi, Jiang Chen was already gone.
A few pieces of candy wrappers were on the chair standing in attention as if in a military position, neatly placed as if done by a person with an obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Inside the van.
Ah Nan held Xiang Yi’s purse for her. Feeling the bag constantly vibrating, he hurriedly pulled out the mobile phone.
“Sweetie, maybe someone has an emergency and needs to talk to you.”
Xiang Yi opened the message to find a text message from an unknown contact.
When she opened it, they were pictures of Xiao Naofu. No more, no less—nine photos altogether.
Followed by two lines of text:
— It’s behaving very well.
— In my arms, watching the stream.
*Translator’s note: Abbreviation of “Traditional Chinese Medicine” used for easier translating
