After sitting on the bed for a while, the effects of the anesthesia gradually wore off, and the pain surged back.

It felt both numb and stinging—not unbearably painful, but uncomfortable.

Fang Ruan went outside the hospital room to call the company and report the situation. When she returned, she handed the phone to Chen Die. “The big boss wants to talk to you.”

Chen Die silently mouthed, “Chen Shao?”

Fang Ruan nodded.

Chen Die answered, “Hello?”

“Little sister, I heard you were bullied by the princess?” Chen Shao’s tone was somewhat gleeful.

“…”

Chen Die couldn’t understand how someone who was the CEO of Yiming could open his mouth with “little sister” and “princess” without feeling the slightest bit awkward.

“The princess is both stupid and wicked. She’ll eventually destroy herself,” Chen Shao commented, then asked, “Are you at the hospital now?”

“Yes.”

“Is only Fang Ruan with you?”

“No, Director Feng and Director Lu came too. Director Lu called Chen Shuyuan to come over as well.” Chen Die paused, not hiding anything. “Wen Liang is also here.”

Chen Shao let out a long “ho,” dragging out his tone to tease her. “Well, well, then I won’t come over.”

“…Oh.”

Chen Die thought to herself that she hadn’t wanted him to come anyway.

Chen Shao cheerfully said, “Also, remember to inform the company before you start dating. But if it’s Wen Liang, I’ll refuse, you know.”

Refuse, you know.

Refuse, you know.

Refuse my ass!

When Chen Die heard his strange tone, her wound felt even more uncomfortable. She rolled her eyes. “Get lost.”

She hung up and returned the phone to Fang Ruan.

Fang Ruan felt she had reached a state of enlightenment. Now she didn’t think it was inappropriate for Chen Die to openly tell the boss to get lost, especially after seeing Chairman Wen carry Chen Die for X-rays and stitches.

“Your breakfast… was sent by Chairman Wen?” Fang Ruan asked.

“Ah.” Chen Die paused. “More or less. His assistant delivered it.”

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“I did tell you,” Chen Die replied innocently. “You just didn’t believe me.”

“The way you said it, only a fool would have believed you were telling the truth!”

Chen Die shrugged, not arguing with her.

Fang Ruan sat beside her and leaned in, lowering her voice. “So that endorsement invitation we received this morning—it’s not some kind of binding contract, is it?”

“…It’s not that bad.” Chen Die sighed. “He’s sort of my ex-boyfriend.”

Fang Ruan: “???”

“When Xiao Qi was doing his fortune-telling, the person Chairman Wen mentioned—it wasn’t you, was it?”

Chen Die didn’t want to admit she was the “mannish” person Wen Liang had described. “I guess so.”

“…”

Shocking.

The young actress she managed not only brought a famous director’s film to the company, and gained the boss’s attention but has now also been in a relationship with Chairman Wen, who still seemed to have feelings for her.

Fang Ruan felt she was still too young and inexperienced.

“By the way, Chen Shuyuan seems to have arrived. Director Lu has gone to confront her.”

“She won’t admit it,” Chen Die knew her well enough. Suddenly, her gaze paused. “Why has Wen Liang been gone for so long?”

Fang Ruan looked at her suspiciously. “You don’t still have feelings for Chairman Wen, do you?”

“Feelings my ass.” Chen Die didn’t have time to explain. She got up from the bed with her injured leg raised. “With his temperament, who knows what he might do if he runs into Chen Shuyuan.”

Chen Die was in such a hurry that Fang Ruan had to put a mask on her face before helping her hop out of the hospital room.

There was no one near the elevator. Chen Die was about to call him when she heard slight noises from the stairwell. Suddenly realizing something, she pushed the door open.

The first thing she saw was Wen Liang pressing the knife handle against Chen Shuyuan’s chin, lifting it.

Chen Shuyuan looked like she was about to cry, but Wen Liang’s face showed no expression at all.

The perfect embodiment of “I am an emotionless killer.jpg”

Chen Die almost wanted to applaud him. At 28, he was still as reckless and arrogant as an 18-year-old—truly “young at heart.”

Fang Ruan froze in place, never expecting to witness such an unfiltered display of violent aesthetics these days.

On the other side, Lu Chuan had tried to persuade him earlier, but Wen Liang had completely ignored him.

“Wen Liang,” Chen Die called out.

He remained silent, only turning his head slightly to glance at her.

“Chen Die, it really wasn’t me,” Chen Shuyuan was no longer concerned about competing with Chen Die. Her teeth chattering, she just hoped Chen Die could make Wen Liang back off.

She didn’t know why, but she felt that among all these people, only Chen Die could make Wen Liang listen.

Chen Die didn’t believe her either. She raised her eyes and gave Chen Shuyuan a fleeting glance. “Shut up. I’m not interested in hearing you speak.”

She moved toward the wall step by step, raised her hand, and grasped Wen Liang’s wrist. “Give me the knife.”

“Stay out of this,” Wen Liang’s tone was flat and cold.

From his reaction, Chen Die knew he was truly angry.

Wen Liang had a bad temper. When he usually got angry, he would vent it all out without restraint. But when he was most furious, he was like this—completely calm.

It was impossible to predict when he might explode.

And once he exploded, the consequences were unpredictable.

He slowly pressed the flat of the blade against Chen Shuyuan’s neck. Chen Shuyuan was so frightened she couldn’t stop crying, her head constantly moving backward as if trying to embed itself into the wall.

Chen Die gripped his wrist with force, but the strength difference was too great, and she couldn’t hold him back.

As blood marks were about to appear on Chen Shuyuan’s neck, Wen Liang coldly asked her again, “Will you do it yourself, or shall I?”

Chen Shuyuan was sobbing too much to speak.

Wen Liang lost patience, nodded, and calmly said “Fine,” then grabbed Chen Shuyuan’s collar and pulled her to the side. The military knife twirled between his five fingers before stopping steadily.

Chen Shuyuan had never been so miserable. She screamed as she backed away, wanting to run down the stairs but her legs were too weak.

Lu Chuan and Fang Ruan hadn’t fully grasped the situation yet.

They didn’t understand Wen Liang or know what he might do when he lost control, especially since he appeared extremely calm. After the initial shock, Fang Ruan momentarily thought Wen Liang might be using threats to force out the truth.

Lu Chuan stepped forward and grabbed the weak-kneed Chen Shuyuan.

Just as he was about to speak, Chen Die raised her voice slightly and called out again.

“Wen Liang.”

Wen Liang turned his head, looking impatient, but at least his movements stopped.

Chen Die sighed, her fingers tugging at his sleeve, pulling it slightly, and said softly, “My leg hurts.”

Wen Liang pressed his lips together tightly, still not showing much reaction.

“The anesthesia has worn off. I don’t want to stand anymore. Can you help me sit down for a while?” Chen Die said again.

The man lowered his eyelids, looking weary. After pausing for a few seconds, his hand finally moved.

Wen Liang certainly knew why Chen Die was unusually submissive and soft with him at this moment.

His loss of control had begun to spread after hearing that someone had tampered with the horse Chen Die was riding. The image of the young woman curled up in his arms, trembling uncontrollably while getting stitches, kept flashing in his mind.

Just thinking about someone maliciously causing Chen to Die in such pain made his blood boil.

Wen Liang had a possessive nature that bordered on pathological.

People who belonged to him could only be bullied by him—no one else should even think about it.

After exchanging glances with Chen Die for a moment, his hand holding the knife finally lowered. He took Chen Die’s arm and put it over his shoulder, wordlessly holding her waist as they walked out.

Opening the stairwell door, Chen Die paused, turning back to Chen Shuyuan:

“Whether or not we can find evidence that you did this, I hope you won’t appear at the film set again.”

Wen Liang supported Chen Die back to the private hospital room.

Fang Ruan, who didn’t know Chen Shuyuan, also followed them out of the stairwell, but she didn’t dare enter the hospital room, instead standing at the doorway.

The scene she had just witnessed completely shattered all her previous speculations.

Chen Die’s situation was not some cliché drama where she was pursued by a powerful man with a “you may have my body but not my heart” storyline.

Now it seemed that Xiao Qi’s fortune-telling had been quite accurate after all.

Although the ages didn’t match, the scene of Chairman Wen being led away by Chen Die truly resembled a devoted puppy.

Chen Die entered the room and removed her mask, no longer concerned about whether other people had recognized her.

…Probably not?

She was just a newly graduated young actress without even one work to her name. She shouldn’t have that kind of impact, especially with a mask on.

She sat on the bed. Earlier, she had changed into a hoodie and loose wide-leg pants that Fang Ruan had hastily bought from a nearby store. The right pant leg was rolled up above her wound.

Perhaps due to walking, the area around the wound now felt hot and itchy.

But she didn’t dare scratch it, fearing the pain. She could only gently rub the surrounding skin.

Wen Liang noticed this. He brought over a chair and sat opposite her, reaching out his hand.

“Slap!” Chen Die knocked his hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

“I’ll rub it for you.”

“No thank you.” Chen Die knocked his hand away again.

Wen Liang fell silent, pressing his tongue against the roof of his mouth and exhaling heavily. “What else can you do besides losing your temper with me? You got three stitches and just let Chen Shuyuan walk away like that?”

“If there was evidence captured, I would pursue it to the end. But we can’t take the law into our own hands like that. The hospital is covered with surveillance cameras. Don’t you realize that if you had cut her, you would have been the one to suffer in the end?”

Chen Die paused, looking at him, and finally softened her tone. “I know you could probably resolve it eventually, but I don’t want you to waste so much time on such a frustrating matter. It’s annoying. Besides, I didn’t suffer any serious problem—I just hope it won’t leave a scar.”

“Sigh, I hope it doesn’t scar. The wound is quite long.”

She lowered her head, her black hair sliding down one shoulder. She wore a youthful, student-like black hoodie, and her makeup was light, making her look like a student who had just come of age.

“I don’t want you to suffer any grievances,” Wen Liang said.

Chen Die was momentarily stunned.

“I don’t feel aggrieved,” she said softly. “Wen Liang, do you know what’s most hurtful?”

“Hmm?”

“It’s that Lin Quan and Chen Ke now know about this, and they probably realize this could truly be Chen Shuyuan’s doing, but they stand one hundred percent on her side and turn around to blame me.”

Wen Liang’s heart clenched.

These words caused him more heartache than when she was getting stitches.

He was a person with very faint feelings toward family and kinship, and so was Chen Die, it seemed.

This was the first time he had heard Chen Die speak this way, calmly and openly.

“I don’t want to have any more entanglements with Chen Shuyuan.” Chen Die shrugged, changing to a lighter topic. She pointed at Wen Liang’s shirt and asked, “Don’t you want to have Zhu Qicong bring you a change of clothes? Right now you look like you just came from a pig slaughterhouse.”

Wen Liang replied, “Don’t forget whose blood this is.”

Chen Die: “?”

Could this dog of a man be called a person???

She had just pulled him back from the edge of committing a crime and had said a series of heartfelt words to appease him, but he ungratefully turned around and compared her to a pig.

“Fine, you should go now. Don’t you have company matters to handle?” Chen Die dismissed him.

“Is your leg still hurting?” he asked.

“What do you think? Try getting stitches without anesthesia and see how it feels.”

Wen Liang scoffed lightly. “I’ve had stitches without anesthesia before, and I didn’t see myself getting scared to tears like you.”

Chen Die glared at him. “Just stop standing there. Seeing you makes my leg hurt even more.”

Chen Die felt that Wen Liang was probably sent by heaven to challenge her.

Zhu Qicong quickly delivered a brand new shirt and suit, which Wen Liang changed into at the hospital.

The investigation into the nail had hit a dead end. Lu Chuan took Chen Shuyuan to the hospital entrance, explicitly rejected her again, and demanded she not return to the film set.

Feng Zhi had also called to adjust the next day’s filming schedule. Chen Die would have a few days off to rest and recover.

Fang Ruan drove everyone back to the hotel.

Wen Liang and Chen Die stayed on the same floor. He naturally took on the task of helping her back to her room. No one else dared to have any opinions about it anyway, and given the atmosphere between these two, saying anything would only show a lack of social awareness.

Fang Ruan was angry but didn’t dare express it.

If it were just any actor in the industry, it would be one thing, but this was Wen Liang—a man who could transform into a financial backer with just the flick of a finger.

Wen Liang supported Chen Die into the room, placed her on the sofa, and then went to boil some water. Turning back, he asked, “What do you want for dinner?”

“I’ll just order takeout later.”

“Then order it now.”

A moment later, the water boiled. Wen Liang poured half a cup and then added some cold mineral water to cool it down. He placed it in front of Chen Die and squeezed out two anti-inflammatory pills. “Take your medicine first.”

Chen Die was surprised by Wen Liang’s attentiveness for the first time.

Wen Liang did indeed have work to handle. After Chen Die took her medicine, he went out to get his laptop from his room next door, then sat at the other end of the sofa and began dealing with emails.

“If you’re busy, you can go back,” Chen Die said, glancing at him. “I don’t need anything.”

“It’s fine.”

“…Oh.”

The standard hotel single room wasn’t particularly spacious. After Wen Liang’s instructions, the room service had been replacing various equipment from the presidential suite for her every day.

They had even placed a half-leg-high wine cabinet beside the table.

With the two of them sitting at opposite ends of the sofa, the room somehow felt increasingly cramped.

Chen Die couldn’t move her leg, so she rested it on the coffee table with a towel underneath her ankle.

After all the people coming and going to the hospital, the news hadn’t stayed contained.

Chen Die finished her delivered meal, picked up her phone to check, and immediately saw a news push notification about herself.

—”‘Hairpin’ Filming Encounters Accident, Chen Die Falls from Horse and Injured!”

Below was a photo of her wearing a mask at the hospital. But after searching through all the pictures, Chen Die couldn’t find a single one showing Wen Liang. Either they were solo shots, or she was with Fang Ruan or Feng Zhi.

“Did you give advance notice? There are no photos of you in the news,” Chen Die asked, turning her head.

“What?”

Chen Die showed him her phone.

“Usually, the media doesn’t publish my photos without permission. Zhu Qicong probably handled it.”

Chen Die nodded and clicked to read the comments on the news article. There were quite a few concerned fans.

“Ah, I just saw the beautiful sister in Qi God’s live stream this afternoon, how could she fall from a horse in the evening? Hope the injury isn’t serious.”

“The crew needs to take proper safety measures. Falling from a horse can be extremely dangerous!”

“Is there anyone at the hospital who knows the situation? Nothing serious happened, right?”

…

Chen Die paused, then logged into her account and posted a reassurance on Weibo.

Soon, other actors from the crew who weren’t present at the time also learned about the situation and sent messages asking about her condition. After Chen Die replied to each one, she received a call from Xia Ying.

“I’m fine, really,” Chen Die said with a smile. “I’m already back at the hotel resting.”

Xia Ying said, “I’ll come over tonight.”

“Don’t you have to work overtime?”

“Work is nowhere near as important as you.”

“I’m fine. Don’t trouble yourself,” Chen Die disliked causing inconvenience for anyone. “You can come see me on the weekend. Right now, I just want to get some sleep soon.”

Given Chen Die’s words, Xia Ying had to agree. “Alright then. Let me know if you need anything, and I’ll bring it when I come.”

After hanging up, Chen Die put away the takeout boxes and stood up to go to the bathroom.

“Where are you going?” Wen Liang, who had been handling work, looked up.

“To the bathroom.”

He stood up. “I’ll go with you.”

Chen Die: ???

What’s wrong with you?

“I. Am. Going. To. The. Bathroom,” Chen Die enunciated each word.

Wen Liang raised an eyebrow. “I’ll help you to the door.”

In the end, Chen Die didn’t let him help her. It was too awkward. She supported herself against the wall, walked into the bathroom, and closed the door.

When she had answered Xia Ying’s call, she felt something wasn’t quite right. After mentally calculating the dates, she realized her period was coming soon. Now she confirmed it was true.

Chen Die felt desperate.

And there wasn’t even a sanitary pad in the room.

Bad things did come in clusters.

Chen Die sighed, temporarily wrapped some tissues around, and walked out of the bathroom. “I need to go downstairs to buy something.”

“With your leg like that? What do you need?” Wen Liang asked.

“…”

He frowned. “Hmm?”

Hmm, my ass!

“…Sanitary pads.” After living together for so many years, it wasn’t too difficult to say out loud.

Wen Liang paused. “Your period?”

“What else?”

“I’ll have my assistant bring some over.”

Chen Die blushed just imagining that scene. “We’re in the suburbs, and with traffic so congested at this time, it might take an hour for delivery.”

She hopped back to the sofa, supported herself against the wall, and picked up her bag. “I’d better go myself.”

“Sit down,” Wen Liang pushed her back down. “I’ll go.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll go,” Wen Liang repeated.

There was a convenience store just across from the hotel.

Besides that, there was also a university branch campus nearby. It was right after evening classes ended, and many students were streaming out of the campus gates.

Wen Liang didn’t think it was embarrassing for a man to buy sanitary pads.

But that didn’t mean he could comfortably stand in front of a shelf full of colorful, various sanitary pad packages, especially with many laughing college students around.

How could there be so many types??

He didn’t want to get close and look at each package to see their differences.

So he took out his phone and sent Chen Die a message: What kind should I buy?

Chen Die couldn’t move at that moment and was playing a game she hadn’t played in a long time. At a critical moment, Wen Liang’s message popped up, causing her to die in the game.

“…”

She had to exit the game.

Chen Die: Night use, 350mm. Any brand is fine.

Chen Die: Just buy one pack. More would be inconvenient to carry.

After a pause, she realized that Wen Liang’s character had probably never thought about understanding women’s issues. At his age, he might not even know the difference between day and night use.

So she sent another reply.

Chen Die: Just buy the one with black packaging. Choose the one that feels thicker.

Wen Liang stood by the drink refrigerator, read the message, put his phone back in his pocket, and then scanned the shelves again. He quickly spotted the black packaging in a corner.

He walked over, calmly picked up a pack, grabbed a bottle of mineral water, and went to the checkout counter to pay.

Perhaps because the store was near a university, it wasn’t uncommon for male students to buy sanitary pads for their girlfriends. The cashier didn’t seem surprised at all.

Wen Liang stuffed the black package back into his pocket and drove back to the hotel.

Soon, after Chen Die played another round of her game, she heard the doorbell. She moved to the door and opened it. “Did you get it?”

The man entered, nodding. “Yes.”

“Did you get the right one?”

Wen Liang had never had his suit pocket so bulging before. It was even a bit difficult to take out what was inside.

He placed the black package in Chen Die’s hand.

Chen Die lowered her eyes.

…Huh???

“Just this?” she asked.

Wen Liang was quite calm, with a hint of confidence in his calmness. “Didn’t you say one pack was enough?”

“Here, read this,” Chen Die pushed the package in front of his eyes. “What do these characters say?”

—Super Large Box of Baby Wet Wipes.

—80 sheets.

Wen Liang: “…”

This was the first time Chen Die had seen him with such a defeated expression. Although she had waited all this time only to receive baby wet wipes, it didn’t diminish her current joy.

She gave him a small applause. “You’re so creative.”

Wen Liang’s face darkened. “Shut up.”

Chen Die was silent for a few seconds but eventually couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

Her leg was unsteady, so she could only lean against the wall. Her shoulders shook uncontrollably as she laughed. The laughter made her leg hurt, but she couldn’t stop.

The collar of her hoodie was loose, revealing a section of her thin collarbone.

She looked extremely punchable as she laughed.

Wen Liang looked down at her for a while, then sighed helplessly. “That’s enough.”