When the doctor came in to do his rounds, he told Wen Tingli she could get out of bed and walk around, just being careful not to bump the wound.

The moment this was said, Wen Tingli felt as if she’d been granted a pardon, and immediately asked the nurse to help her out to call Zhou Sao.

After finishing the call, she paced slowly up and down the corridor. Strangely, after circling several times, she still didn’t see any sign of Lu Shicheng or Kuang Zhilin. The nurse told Wen Tingli there was a VIP room at the end of the first floor, and Mr. Lu and Mr. Kuang might be discussing business in there.

Wen Tingli had no choice but to return to her room first.

Lying down, she thought about what Lu Shicheng had told her before he left, and her heart couldn’t help filling with anticipation—he was actually being treated for his muteness. She had heard Lu Shicheng speak once before, that time he was badly injured and unconscious—a typical young man’s vocal tone, with a bit of youthful quality, that voice both clear and magnetic.

If one day he were to speak to her face to face… She imagined that scene and couldn’t help laughing to herself, then, afraid the nurse would notice, quietly turned toward the window and continued her wild flights of fancy.

She remembered Principal Zou once saying that Lu Shicheng had loved talking and been quite the talker as a child.

“Even at a young age, he often said the most astonishing things.” Those were Principal Zou’s exact words.

Now that Lu Shicheng had grown this much, if his stubborn ailment could really be cured, she wondered if he’d still be as eloquent as he was as a child.

She suddenly realized that ordinarily, she and Lu Shicheng basically communicated through gestures and writing—Lu Shicheng rarely formally addressed her by any name on paper.

If it were face-to-face conversation instead, she wondered what he would call her?

“Miss Wen,” “Miss Wen Tingli”—this would suit his calm and composed personality, but given their current relationship, this form of address would be far too formal.

Calling her directly by her full name, “Wen Tingli”? —intimate enough, certainly, but in her impression, couples only seemed to do that when quarreling.

Or perhaps—”Tingli”?

She mused this way and that, her heart fluttering like a little bird being hatched, unable to settle for even a second. The last time she’d felt this fluttery was when the joint entrance exam scores were posted.

She suddenly heard the nurse behind her say, “Mr. Lu.”

Wen Tingli turned around happily—it was indeed Lu Shicheng returning.

She looked at him and smiled broadly, and her smile had the most infectious quality. Lu Shicheng couldn’t help but smile too. His expression looked no different from before he left, but Kuang Zhilin behind him wore a somewhat complicated expression.

However, within moments, Kuang Zhilin had returned to his usual warm yet appropriately measured manner.

“Miss Wen must be hungry. Young Master Cheng has already had someone order dinner from Kangle Restaurant. If there’s anything else you’d like to eat or need bought, just tell the attendant outside the door. I have some urgent business to attend to, so I’ll take my leave first.”

Wen Tingli quickly said, “Go ahead and take care of it.”

Although Kuang Zhilin quickly returned to his usual demeanor, she hadn’t missed the wariness in his eyes just now.

Her mind filled with doubts—Kuang Zhilin hadn’t looked at her with that kind of gaze in a long while.

Could it be—

Wait, today at the Cantonese trading firm she’d made two phone calls total. Could Kuang Zhilin have discovered something while helping track down the assailant?

She unconsciously shifted her gaze back to Lu Shicheng’s face, hoping to discern something from his eyes, but Lu Shicheng was looking at the nurse on the other side. The nurse replied, “She ate a bit of fruit, walked around for ten minutes…”

Wen Tingli couldn’t help reminding Lu Shicheng: “You’re still covered in blood, should I have someone bring you a change of clean clothes?”

Lu Shicheng looked down at himself, and the nurse said obligingly, “Mr. Lu’s attendant went to fetch clothes early this morning, should be back soon, I’ll go check.”

After the nurse closed the door and left, Lu Shicheng sat by the bed and took Wen Tingli’s hand as she reached it toward him.

This was the second time the two of them had held hands. Lu Shicheng’s fingertips were warmer than hers, and holding them felt very warm.

It was a very concrete sense of reality. She unconsciously gripped this hand tighter, wondering whether she should take the initiative to explain herself.

Lu Shicheng immediately noticed, and looked up at her.

Wen Tingli pretended to be admiring his hand—in truth, the first time she’d met Lu Shicheng, she’d already noticed how nice his hands were, slender and fair fingers, smooth and rounded nails. Now these hands were held in hers.

Lu Shicheng leaned his face closer, and Wen Tingli’s heart raced as she looked up at him.

Lu Shicheng’s dark pupils held only her reflection.

He gestured for her to look at his hand—his knuckles had gone somewhat white from being gripped by her.

Wen Tingli was startled, and quickly let go with a smile. She tried to read something in Lu Shicheng’s eyes, but she only saw calm, tolerance, understanding—all of which reminded her of the sea at dawn.

Even if there had been the slightest hint of suspicion in his eyes, she wouldn’t have felt as uneasy as she did right now, but there wasn’t even a trace of expected reproach, or condescending scrutiny.

This left her somewhat at a loss. In her moment of silence, Lu Shicheng was also watching Wen Tingli. He thought for a moment, then casually picked up the notepad on the bedside table and wrote the character “Peach” on it.

Wen Tingli immediately understood he was asking whether she wanted Xiao Taozi and Zhou Sao brought over.

Her heart warmed, and she shook her head. “I already called and told her about my injury earlier. She’ll bring Xiao Taozi to the hospital in a bit. No, no, no… you don’t need to go pick them up, I’ve already hired a car from the car rental company for them.”

She pointed to the book bag hanging on the railing at the foot of the bed. “I want that.”

Lu Shicheng helped pass it to her, and Wen Tingli took out a thick photo album and two certificates in front of him, opening it to show him.

“Look, these are photos from when I participated in outside performances while studying at Xiude Middle School. My classmate gave them to me this afternoon.”

She pointed to a girl standing beside her in the photo.

“That’s her, Qiao Baoxin. You should have met her too—when I was studying at Xiude, she was the one I was closest to.”

She studied Lu Shicheng’s expression carefully, then continued, “Her family is arranging a matchmaking meeting for her. To resist her family, she specifically applied to a university in Beiping. Right now she’s hiding out at her cousin’s uncle’s house—which is Meng Qiguang’s residence.”

Ripples finally stirred in Lu Shicheng’s eyes.

“This morning Qiao Baoxin called me. She said she’ll be leaving for Beiping any day now, and before she goes she really wanted to see me, but she can’t come out easily because she’s afraid of being caught and locked up again by her family, so she asked me to go—”

Lu Shicheng raised his hand to cover Wen Tingli’s mouth.

Wen Tingli’s chest thumped wildly—this was the first time Lu Shicheng had interrupted her.

She stared blankly at him.

Lu Shicheng slowly shook his head at her, looking very serious.

He trusted her, so he wouldn’t ask anything, and she needed not explain anything further to him.

Wen Tingli’s eyes grew moist, and her smile immediately relaxed.

“Let me finish… I agreed to go see her, but I didn’t want to linger too long at the Meng mansion, so I took some wigs and makeup from the crew beforehand, and once there I made Qiao Baoxin up to look like a middle-aged madam, then took her to the nearby snack shop on Maigen Road to talk. We both felt it would be more relaxed and comfortable that way. We parted ways not long after—she went back to the Meng mansion, and I went alone to the Cantonese trading firm across the street to make a call, and right after that I ran into the assailant on the second floor.”

This time, she didn’t emphasize that she’d only made one call to Lu Shicheng, but she also didn’t clarify further exactly how many calls she’d made.

Li Chengying was a line she had to hold firm.

But at the same time, she had also achieved maximum honesty in front of him.

Having said all this, her heart felt considerably more at ease.

Looking at Lu Shicheng again, she found he was smiling.

After gazing at each other for a moment, she leaned her head against his shoulder. “What are you smiling about?”

Lu Shicheng gently kissed the top of her head.

Wen Tingli’s mouth curved up high as she mumbled, “I’m hungry… why hasn’t the food arrived yet?”

Less than five minutes after Wen Tingli complained of hunger, the food from Kangle Restaurant arrived.

Lu Shicheng fed her spoonful by spoonful by the bedside, just as she had done for him when he lay badly injured before.

Only after Wen Tingli was fully fed did Lu Shicheng start eating his own portion.

“Try the ribs, the ribs are good.” She pointed things out beside him.

“Mr. Lu, so you’re a picky eater! You won’t touch even a single piece of fish?”

Lu Shicheng’s chopsticks paused in mid-air, and Wen Tingli laughed and covered her own mouth. “Okay, okay, I won’t say anything more.”

Just then Kuang Zhilin returned, and seeing this scene, couldn’t help but tease: “I’ve discovered that as long as Miss Wen is around, there’s never a dull moment.”

Wen Tingli greeted Kuang Zhilin naturally. Kuang Zhilin carefully studied the expressions of the two of them, and seemed to secretly let out a breath of relief.

He specifically waited until Lu Shicheng finished eating before bringing up business: “That man has been caught. Surname Huang, from Suzhou.”

Wen Tingli quickly asked, “Is it connected to Deng Tianxing?”

Lu Shicheng nodded at her. Wen Tingli was overjoyed, and Kuang Zhilin explained the whole situation to Wen Tingli.

“This Deng Tianxing is truly vicious. I wondered why he kept spreading rumors about me on set—turns out it was to help someone steal my role.” Wen Tingli was so angry she nearly jumped out of bed, only to be pressed back down by Lu Shicheng.

Kuang Zhilin continued: “For someone as vain and money-hungry as Deng Tianxing, the Luo family is his ladder to instant success. This scheme was admittedly a huge risk, but it could win over Miss Luo’s heart in the shortest time possible. If he’d managed to pull it off by luck, from start to finish he’d only have needed to pay that Suzhou hoodlum a small ‘labor fee’—a hugely profitable deal, calculated that way. Unfortunately, this fellow surnamed Deng is ultimately just a petty street hoodlum, his vision and methods really are too crude.”

The attendant outside knocked on the door: “There’s a colleague of Miss Wen’s here to see you.”

The door opened, and it was Huang Yuanshan.

“Sister Huang! How did you know I was here?”

Huang Yuanshan carried several bags of fruit and tonics, and upon entering first warmly greeted Lu Shicheng, then Kuang Zhilin, before saying to Wen Tingli, “Aren’t you supposed to have the screen test tomorrow? I wanted to give you a few pointers in advance, but I couldn’t find you anywhere. I just called your house, and Zhou Sao said she was about to bring Xiao Taozi to the hospital to see you—that’s how I learned you were injured. I happened to have business nearby, so I drove over first. What exactly happened?”

Wen Tingli resentfully repeated what Kuang Zhilin had said.

“What a scoundrel!” Huang Yuanshan trembled with anger. “Never doing an honest day’s work, always up to these immoral schemes! No wonder he kept asking me about the progress of Southern Beauty these past few days, so this was his rotten idea all along. I say he’s just asking to die!”

After cursing furiously for a while, she laughed with a sigh: “I was wondering just what hard rock Deng Tianxing had kicked this time—turns out it’s Young Master Lu, swift and decisive, wonderful, wonderful!”

She beamed at Lu Shicheng. “As for reshooting Sands of Time and swapping the male lead, I, Huang, wholeheartedly approve with both hands and feet. Ever since that scoundrel surnamed Deng had two decently box-office films, he’s gotten more and more full of himself. This time Young Master Lu dealt with him, and there wasn’t a single person at the company who didn’t applaud. What’s more, the Zhu Xiaozhou they found has even better acting skills than Deng Tianxing—actually, we’d considered Zhu Xiaozhou ourselves at one point, but he claimed he had no free schedule. Who knew Young Master Lu would send someone to negotiate with him and strike a deal right away. Mr. Lu, you’re so sharp-eyed and decisive, no one would guess this is your first time investing in film.”

She heaped on a whole basketful of flattery, watching Lu Shicheng’s reaction as she spoke. Lu Shicheng never showed the slightest arrogance or perfunctoriness—he listened to her the whole time, and listened quite attentively, which gave Huang Yuanshan tremendous encouragement.

She rubbed her hands excitedly. “The film industry desperately needs an investor with your kind of strength. Mr. Lu, have you heard of Meini Company? Those two brothers built their company in Beiping five years ago, and in just a few short years they’ve grown tremendously—last year alone they made over six hundred thousand silver dollars. If the Lu family were to get into film, it would surely develop even faster than a small operation like Meini’s. Mr. Lu, why don’t we take this opportunity to have a proper talk about future cooperation? Besides Sands of Time, my company has many more brilliant scripts—family dramas, romantic art films, wuxia films, detective films, comedies. Would Mr. Lu like to learn more together?”

Lu Shicheng smiled slightly.

He shook his head without the slightest hesitation.

He had no interest whatsoever in the film industry; this time was merely about taking down Deng Tianxing.

Wen Tingli didn’t presume to interject, only smiled.

Huang Yuanshan wasn’t offended either, and casually changed the subject: “Look at me, forgetting the main business. Tingli, given how injured you are now, can you still participate in tomorrow morning’s screen test?”

“Of course I can participate!” Wen Tingli said urgently. “This role was meant to be mine to begin with. Even if my leg were broken I’d still go.”

“Ptooey ptooey ptooey, what broken leg talk.” Though she spat out the words, a proud smile surfaced on Huang Yuanshan’s face.

She recounted the arrangements for tomorrow morning’s screen test in full detail.

A while back, Southern Beauty had secured investment from several bosses at Feidi’er, catapulting it to become Golden Film Studio’s top priority production. Now most preparations were basically complete, only the casting remained contentious. To make Huang Yuanshan comply with the arrangements, the producers had invited Yu Peiling, Le Zhiwen, Xiao Diejun, and Lin Manru to screen test alongside Wen Tingli.

With each name Huang Yuanshan mentioned, Wen Tingli’s heart sank a little more.

Yu Peiling had just recently been named Film Queen, drawing enormous crowds wherever she went.

Xiao Diejun had a face that was naturally endearing to audiences—several films she’d made since debuting had all done well at the box office, earning her the title “box office charm.”

Lin Manru came from a Huangmei opera background, unmatched in her figure and poise, especially skilled at crying scenes, known as the “orchid of the empty valley.”

Le Zhiwen was a famous child star, and the only actress Wen Tingli had ever crossed paths with—earlier this year the two had participated in a youth drama competition together, and Wen Tingli had been utterly impressed by Le Zhiwen’s professionalism and acting talent. Last time, Le Zhiwen had lost to her by a narrow margin, so it would be strange if she weren’t trying to even the score this time.

“Those Feidi’er bosses are so afraid their investment won’t pay off, they’re pulling out all the stops to create a hit. In just half a month, who knows how many new tricks they’ve come up with. I tried to stop it, but couldn’t. Tingli, why has your face changed color? Are you alright?”

Wen Tingli looked up to find everyone in the room’s eyes fixed on her face, including Lu Shicheng.

“I’m fine.” She lifted her chin. “Of course I’m fine.”

When Huang Yuanshan left, Lu Shicheng personally saw her out.

Kuang Zhilin stood on the steps with Lu Shicheng, watching Huang Yuanshan’s retreating figure.

“Young Master Cheng, from the sound of it, Miss Wen doesn’t seem to have great odds of winning. But… even I know Miss Wen has spent the past several months constantly poring over the script whenever she’s free, otherwise rushing to the studio early and staying late to learn. Having put in so much effort, if she’s kicked out just like that, Miss Wen is bound to be devastated. We’re going to Golden Film Studio tomorrow anyway to discuss the box office split for Sands of Time, so why not, along the way—”

Lu Shicheng shook his head without hesitation.

Kuang Zhilin was taken aback: “That’s fair too—this is ultimately Miss Wen’s own career, and given her personality, she may not even want our help.”

But Lu Shicheng had a different thought entirely.

Ever since he’d known Wen Tingli, he’d never seen her lose.

He simply had unwavering confidence in her.

Wen Tingli tangled herself up in worry for a while, then quickly let it go. No amount of worrying would change the outcome, so why waste energy fretting? So by the time Lu Shicheng pushed open the door, Wen Tingli was already sitting there radiantly eating an orange.

Lu Shicheng’s eyes unconsciously filled with a smile.

Wen Tingli waved him over. Lu Shicheng walked to the bedside, and took the orange from her hand, setting it on the bedside table in passing.

“How about I give you a set of clothes? Look, your last outfit got smeared with my tears and snot, and this one’s been dirtied by my blood again—oh, this cufflink of yours is quite unique, what’s it made of?”

She curiously stroked his cuff, and without meaning to, lowered her head and got her hair caught on the cap of the pen in Lu Shicheng’s shirt pocket.

“Ow.” She cried out in pain.

Lu Shicheng helplessly held her wrist, carefully helping to untangle the strand of hair caught on the pen. Wen Tingli fumbled around with her own hand too, ending up touching Lu Shicheng’s chin at one point, then his nose bridge at another.

He couldn’t help but laugh, and she couldn’t help laughing too.

He suddenly leaned down and kissed her, and Wen Tingli kissed him back. He simply cupped her face with his hand and kissed all over her face, and Wen Tingli closed her eyes, giggling softly. Just as they were getting cozy, a child’s tender voice suddenly rang out from outside the door, accompanied by “pat pat pat” knocking sounds.

“Sister.”

The two of them sprang apart as if triggered by a spring mechanism. As Lu Shicheng pulled back, he didn’t forget to steady Wen Tingli, worried about her pulling on her wound.

When Zhou Sao entered the room, this was the scene she caught: one of Wen Tingli’s hands hadn’t yet withdrawn from behind Lu Shicheng’s waist; Lu Shicheng seemed about to step away, but his hand was still resting on Wen Tingli’s shoulder.

Lu Shicheng feigned nonchalance, patting his own trouser pocket, but not finding anything interesting there, casually took a round citrus orange from the fruit basket instead, crouching down to hand it to Xiao Taozi.

Xiao Taozi’s eyes lit up—she’d never had such a beautiful orange before. Lu Shicheng patiently peeled it for her, then handed one to Zhou Sao as well.

Xiao Taozi, delighted, hugged the foreign orange and tried to climb onto the bed.

“Sister hurt, Xiao Taozi kiss it better.”

Zhou Sao hurried to lift Xiao Taozi down. Wen Tingli kissed Xiao Taozi’s cheek. “Sister doesn’t hurt.”

Zhou Sao looked Wen Tingli over with worry all over her face: “You’ll be the death of me. What on earth happened, everything was fine and then this.”

Wen Tingli gave a rough account of what happened. Zhou Sao had already noticed the room was fully stocked with fruit and daily necessities, and a nurse was on hand as well. For a moment she didn’t know what to say, moved beyond words: “Mr. Lu, you’re so young, yet you know how to take care of people so well.”

Lu Shicheng nodded politely at Zhou Sao, then pointed toward the door, gesturing for them to talk inside while he stepped out for a bit.

Xiao Taozi pulled a chocolate candy out of her little satchel and stood on tiptoe to offer it to Lu Shicheng.

“Mr. Lu, eat.” This was Xiao Taozi’s way of expressing gratitude—young as she was, she already understood some of the conversations between adults, and she understood that Mr. Lu was the one who’d taken her injured sister to the hospital.

Just then Kuang Zhilin came in, and seeing this, laughed: “Uncle Kuang loves Xiao Taozi the most. Can this candy be given to Uncle Kuang too?”

Xiao Taozi generously gave Kuang Zhilin a candy too, then thought about it and turned back to give Lu Shicheng a second one.

The nurse teased from the side: “Amazing, so young and already knows how to play favorites.”

The whole room burst into laughter.

That night Zhou Sao and Xiao Taozi slept in the adjoining room of the ward, and Lu Shicheng didn’t return to the Lu mansion until midnight.

The next morning when the doctor came to do his rounds, Wen Tingli strongly requested that the doctor remove her bandages.

Though Lu Shicheng was naturally worried about her injury, he also knew how crucial this screen test was to Wen Tingli. After some discussion, the chief surgeon finally agreed to let Wen Tingli be discharged in the morning, but she would have to return immediately in the afternoon to continue stabilizing treatment.

Before leaving, the chief surgeon gave Wen Tingli another painkiller injection.

“Don’t think this settles everything.” The chief emphasized, “The recovery over these next two days is crucial, you absolutely must not make any big movements.”

The moment this was said, everyone secretly broke into a cold sweat over Wen Tingli’s screen test today. Wen Tingli herself, however, didn’t seem worried in the least, only noticeably quieter than usual on the way to the studio—not pestering Lu Shicheng to talk, not glancing left and right out the window, just fully absorbed in reading through the script.

Lu Shicheng kept glancing over at her from time to time.