Li Xian’s Departure

“Led them away? Who was it?” Su Yan couldn’t think of anyone.

But Bai Ruo, who heard that, stiffened; even her breathing slowed unconsciously, as if she were afraid to disturb the name that was about to come out next.

Li Xian...

“It should have been fans. They recognized me too,” Qin Qingyan recalled. “When the media rushed over, they reacted really fast. One girl put on a hat, lowered her head, and ran forward; another deliberately shouted my name from behind while chasing after her. The media thought the one running was me and went after her. That gave me a chance to get away.”

Su Yan let out a breath of relief; Bai Ruo’s eyes dimmed as well.

“How’s your foot?” Qin Qingyan sat down by the bed.

Bai Ruo stood up and went to wash the fruit.

“It’s fine, fine. It’s much better already. If it weren’t for the special situation, I could honestly walk just fine.” Su Yan moved her ankle; it still hurt a little.

“Then rest well and take care of your body first. I can handle what’s going on online; don’t worry.” Qin Qingyan smiled.

Su Yan looked down at her foot, fell silent, then sighed.

Their entire conversation reached Bai Ruo’s ears. After a deep breath, she carefully checked herself in the mirror to make sure her eyes showed nothing unusual, then forced a smile and brought out the fruit.

Overseas, in a high-rise office, Yan Yue looked at the pile of insults under Qin Qingyan’s Weibo post and turned her phone face-down on the desk, rubbing her brow. It was obvious that all these events had been planned long ago; that person was clearly trying to drag Qin Qingyan down.

That morning, she had called Ye Bai about this too. Even if they couldn’t find evidence proving Qin Qingyan’s innocence, the things those celebrities in Huanfeng were hiding would be enough to create a wave of buzz and divert public attention.

She had intended to do exactly that.

Ye Bai reminded her that there wasn’t enough evidence yet to clear Qin Qingyan’s name completely; it would be better to let Qin Qingyan handle it first and see what she would do, since that was also part of what a public figure should be able to do.

Yan Yue agreed with Ye Bai’s view, but every time she saw those glaring, vicious curses, even she, who always prided herself on being calm, wanted to throw caution to the wind for once.

She sighed softly and tapped her arm with her fingers, thinking.

Just as she had come, Qin Qingyan carefully avoided the crowd and kept watch on her surroundings at all times. Only after getting into the car and confirming there was no lens secretly filming her did she drive back to Jingsheng.

The moment the lights came on, the familiar objects in the living room came into view, and Qin Qingyan’s heart was instantly soothed by a gentle force. She sat down on the sofa, wrapped herself in Yan Yue’s thin blanket, and lay down quietly to rest.

Her ears were full of all kinds of noisy sounds, chaotic and jumbled.

Yan Yue...

Around ten o’clock, the phone rang.

Qin Qingyan wiped her hair and went to pick it up; it was Yan Yue!

She hurried to answer, her voice carrying a faint tremor even she hadn’t noticed: “Hello?”

“Video isn’t convenient, but I want to hear your voice.” Yan Yue said.

For some reason, Qin Qingyan’s heart warmed. Since Yan Yue had gone abroad on business, she seemed to have become even more proactive. Before, she had always been reserved; openly expressing her feelings had been rare.

But after going abroad, she’d said she missed her at least three times a week.

Qin Qingyan sat on the bed, the corners of her mouth relaxing into a faint smile. “If you want to hear it, I can keep talking to you all night. If you want, I can even tell you a bedtime story.”

Hearing the low laugh on the other end of the line, Qin Qingyan rarely felt so at ease. The bedroom light was dim; everything was hazy and indistinct. Only the laughter by her ear was real and beautiful.

“Quite a few things have happened lately. Don’t you want to talk about them?” Yan Yue asked.

Qin Qingyan said nothing. She knew what Yan Yue meant. After a while, she said, “It’s not that bad yet. Situations like this might happen again in the future*; I have to get used to them somehow. Let me think it through. I can handle it.”

“If it’s difficult, remember to tell me.”

“Okay.”

The next day, Qin Qingyan avoided the crowd when going out; the moment she got out of the car, she was surrounded by a large group of media that had surged up from nowhere. To avoid drawing attention, there was no one protecting her this time. The reporters rushed toward her in a frenzy; some were still in the back, but their cameras were already thrust high into the air in front.

Cameras circled around her; each person spoke over the others in a racket. It was as if they weren’t there to get an interview result at all, but cared more about whether they had managed to stake out Qin Qingyan.

Qin Qingyan kept stepping backward, but the paparazzi pressed closer without a shred of restraint.

“I heard Teacher Qin had a hard life before. Has this sudden explosion in popularity made you forget your original intentions?”

“Teacher Qin, is it true that you have multiple sugar daddies?”

“Teacher Qin, could you clarify the identities of the people you were with?”

...The media kept chattering on, showing no intention of letting her go.

Qin Qingyan was questioned like that for five or six minutes. She held a hand over her face and never answered a single word, until a black car arrived and honked to draw the paparazzi’s attention. The more sharp-eyed cameras immediately swung toward the black car.

The car door opened, and a pair of red high heels stepped out. A woman draped in a suit swayed as she walked, smiling as she greeted the cameras. The lenses hurried to capture the shot.

Xu Changlan met Qin Qingyan’s gaze; Qin Qingyan could clearly feel that hint of disappointment in her eyes. Then Xu Changlan said to the cameras, “Qingyan is my friend. I ask all of you media friends not to make things too difficult for her.”

“May I ask what your relationship with Teacher Qin is, President Xu?” a paparazzo asked at just the right moment.

Xu Changlan gave a meaningful smile, then said slowly, “Didn’t I say? We’re friends.”

“Really just friends?” came the follow-up.

Qin Qingyan took off her hat and mask, exposing herself completely to the cameras. Xu Changlan had clearly appeared on purpose at this moment.

The paparazzi immediately swung back toward her. Qin Qingyan smiled politely into the cameras, then looked at Xu Changlan.

“President Xu is young and promising. It’s rare for us to meet; this should actually be my first time seeing you.” Then she smiled again at the cameras. “At three this afternoon, I’ll be issuing a clarification about the rumors that have been spreading online recently. So right now, I hope all of you reporters can refrain from disturbing me too much.”

The reporters looked at one another, then slowly parted to make a path.

Qin Qingyan walked up to Xu Changlan and said, “Thank you for helping me out today, President Xu. Goodbye.”

Xu Changlan smiled back. “Goodbye.”

Watching Qin Qingyan walk away, Xu Changlan thought that after all, a photo was only a photo. No wonder Zheng Jingteng had protected her so stubbornly; with a face like that, young and beautiful, who could blame him?

She had already looked into the man in the earlier photo with Qin Qingyan; he was an undergraduate student at Qing University. But the other woman had never been identified with any certainty. Yet just now, she thought she should know who it was.

Qin Qingyan deliberately took a longer route when driving, and once she was sure the media weren’t tailing her anymore, she changed direction and drove to Bai Ruo’s home.

At the Li residence, Li Xian’s father and mother looked at each other and each saw deep helplessness in the other’s eyes. They shook their heads and looked toward their daughter, who was packing her luggage.

“Ah Xian, isn’t Yinan good? I think you get along very well with him, and you have topics you’re both interested in. You’re satisfied with him too, aren’t you? This... seems like such a good fit,” Li Xian’s mother said.

Ever since Li Xian had come around, they had been trying to bring the two of them together. They had thought things were close to working out, but Li Xian suddenly brought up going abroad.

As she packed, Li Xian said, “I want to go abroad for further study. That’ll take at least a year or two, right? Making him waste time waiting for me wouldn’t be fair to him, would it?”

Li Xian’s mother didn’t know what to say. She could persuade her daughter to give up that actress, but when it came to professional development, she had no reason to stop her.

“Since it’s for study, then study properly. As long as you learn something, it won’t be a waste of time,” Li Xian’s father said.

Li Xian smiled at them. “I will.”

“What time is your flight?” Li Xian’s father asked.

“One o’clock.”

“So soon?” Li Xian’s mother said in surprise. She had thought it would be tomorrow at the earliest. It was almost ten now; getting to the airport from here would take about twenty minutes, and they’d still need to arrive early for check-in.

“Then I’ll take you there later,” Li Xian’s father said.

Li Xian smiled lightly. “No need. I’m planning to leave now anyway; don’t trouble Uncle Zhao either. I can just take a taxi myself.”

“You’re leaving now?” Li Xian’s mother said. “At least stay for lunch. I’ll go prepare right now; it’ll be quick.”

“No need, Mom.” Li Xian picked up her luggage and grabbed her things. “I’m going.”

“All right. Leaving early will also keep certain people from coming to bother you,” Li Xian’s father said pointedly. “Come on; your mother and I will see you out to the car.”

Li Xian’s father took her luggage and went down the stairs.

His steps were steady and firm, descending stair by stair; his back seemed to shrink little by little with each step. Li Xian lifted her head, forcing back the tears in her eyes. Quietly drawing a deep breath so her mother wouldn’t notice, she walked down after them.

The car arrived quickly and soon disappeared from Li Xian’s parents’ sight.

After driving for a while, Li Xian glanced at the rearview mirror, then looked ahead. “Driver, turn right up ahead.”

The driver was puzzled. “Aren’t you going to the airport? You can’t get there from that way.”

“I know. I just... want to see a friend first,” she said.

“A friend?” The driver turned his head back a little. “Oh? A friend you’re personally saying goodbye to? Your boyfriend?”

Li Xian hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. “No.”

The car followed the direction Li Xian had pointed out and stopped outside Bai Ruo’s residential complex. She looked through the window at one of the windows in the high-rise.

“Why don’t you get out first and go up to say goodbye properly before coming back down? There’s no parking here, and I have to drive off first,” the driver said with some embarrassment.

Li Xian withdrew her gaze and smiled lightly. “No need. Let’s go, driver. To the airport.”

“You’re leaving already? Weren’t you coming specially to say goodbye?” the driver asked.

In the rearview mirror, she looked worn out. Yet he remembered that when she got into the car, she had clearly seemed like someone wearing a smile, someone whose presence made others feel the spring breeze at a glance. How had she suddenly come to look so weathered?

“She won’t want to see me,” Li Xian said. “Let’s go.”

“That’s her business whether she wants to see you or not; it doesn’t conflict with your wanting to see her,” the driver said.

“No. Let’s go.”

“Just like that? You’re not even going to meet her face-to-face?”

“Mm.”

“Ah, then really leaving?”

“Okay.”

Bai Ruo learned that Li Xian was at the airport only after twelve o’clock. One of her classmates had recognized Li Xian at the airport.

Almost by instinct, before she could even gather anything up, Bai Ruo grabbed her car keys and rushed out the door, only to run straight into Qin Qingyan, who had just arrived. Looking at Qin Qingyan, tears filled her eyes; she couldn’t say a word, only shook her head.

Qin Qingyan vaguely understood something and sharply turned the car around. “Get in.”