This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
Even though what Xi Mo was talking about happened back in her second year of college, and many years had passed, Ruan Yesheng still felt a little nervous as she listened. "Did you see that driver back then?"
Xi Mo nodded. "I saw him."
But the process was a bit tricky.
That was actually the first time in her life that she followed someone. No, to be exact, that person wasn’t just someone else. It was her dad, Xi Ji.
That morning, she was at home and heard Xi Ji talking on the phone with his driver. She found out he was going to a sanatorium. The sanatorium where the driver who ran over Jian Yuan stayed had always been like a thorn in her heart. At that time, Xi Mo hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she decided to follow Xi Ji.
She had to go back to school at 2:30 in the afternoon for a play rehearsal. She counted the time for the round trip and felt she could make it, so she didn’t think about asking for leave.
The sanatorium was in a quiet suburb. It had good equipment, and the service was very thoughtful, but the cost was pretty high.
Most of the patients resting there were from rich families. A lot of them were old people with weak bodies. Over there, they could get very careful care. After finishing work, their children would also go visit them on the weekends.
When she got to the sanatorium, Xi Mo saw Xi Ji and the driver go into the elevator in the first-floor lobby. She was scared of being found out, so she didn’t dare to follow too closely. Because of that, she couldn’t find out which floor they were going to.
She had no choice but to ask the nurse at the nurse station where the driver's room was.
The driver was called Zhang Dongyang. After Xi Mo asked, the nurse checked but said there was no patient with that name.
At that time, Xi Mo wasn’t really surprised.
Her dad always thought things through. If he wanted to hide something, it was really hard for people to find any clues. Xi Mo felt that this was on purpose. Xi Ji wanted to cover up Zhang Dongyang’s tracks. Maybe when he arranged for Zhang Dongyang to enter the sanatorium, he already faked Zhang Dongyang’s info and let him be admitted under another identity.
And for Xi Ji, that kind of thing was just a piece of cake.
Then Xi Mo asked the nurse to help check the records of the people who had entered the sanatorium around the same time Zhang Dongyang did back then.
She didn’t know if the nurse had become alert because she kept asking and didn’t seem like someone who came to visit a patient, or if it was because the time had passed too long ago and the old records really couldn’t be found anymore. Anyway, the nurse’s answer was that there were no records in the computer.
Xi Mo had no choice. She could only search room by room.
She knew her dad’s style very well. If he came to see Zhang Dongyang for something important, he’d meet him alone, and the driver would stay outside to keep watch. As long as she found which room the driver was guarding outside of, maybe she could find out where Zhang Dongyang was.
But there were so many floors, and she had to hurry.
Thinking about her dad’s personality, he would probably put Zhang Dongyang in a quiet room where not many people would disturb him. So the most likely place would be one of the higher floors.
Xi Mo took the elevator to the top floor, then started looking down one floor at a time.
After hearing her talk about what had happened back then, Ruan Yesheng felt very mixed. She was both nervous for Xi Mo and impressed by her determination.
"You just searched room by room?" Ruan Yesheng sighed.
"Yes. I had no other way at that time," Xi Mo said. "All I could think about was finding that room. I couldn’t care about anything else, and I didn’t even notice how fast time was passing."
"Then do you still remember when you found it?" Ruan Yesheng asked, curious.
"This thing left a deep impression on me. I remember it very clearly. It was right around lunchtime. I saw some patients’ family members bringing food. Zhang Dongyang’s room was at the end of that floor. A care worker was carrying a few meals. One of them was for my dad’s driver. He was sitting on the bench at the door, eating. The others were taken into the room. And I saw that the care worker and my dad’s driver seemed pretty close. He was probably someone my dad trusted. That’s why he was arranged to take care of Zhang Dongyang’s daily life."
"So that means your dad was eating lunch with Zhang Dongyang at that time?"
Xi Mo frowned. "I guess you could say that. But I couldn’t go over. I was afraid the driver would see me, and I couldn’t see what was going on inside the room."
Ruan Yesheng thought for a while, then said, "So from beginning to end, you never saw how your dad interacted with Zhang Dongyang? You couldn’t see his attitude toward him?"
"No, I didn’t. My dad stayed inside that room the whole time. I don’t know what he said to Zhang Dongyang. The driver was guarding the door, so I couldn’t get close at all."
"What about afterward? When your dad came out, did he show any special emotions?"
Xi Mo shook her head. "No. He was calm the whole time. No one could tell what my dad was thinking."
"Even you, a level-ten expert in your dad’s language, couldn’t tell?" Ruan Yesheng tilted her head.
Xi Mo: "…"
Ruan Yesheng stared at her without blinking, smiling a little.
She thought Xi Mo and her dad were kind of alike in this way. Before, she thought she could read some of Xi Mo’s thoughts, but lately, she felt it was getting harder and harder. Sometimes, she even wondered if Xi Mo was doing it on purpose—hiding what she was thinking.
She couldn’t figure out Xi Mo’s mind.
It made Ruan Yesheng feel like there was a hook scratching at her heart. No matter how much she guessed, she couldn’t come to a solid answer.
She stopped teasing and kept asking, "After your dad left, did you just go into the room like that?"
"Of course not." Xi Mo gave her a sideways look. "If I went straight in and someone saw me, or if Zhang Dongyang told my dad he saw me, what then? I disguised myself before I went in."
Ruan Yesheng folded her arms on the back of the chair, resting her chin on top. She looked like she just heard something really fun and laughed. "What did you dress up as?"
"What else? A room cleaner, of course." Xi Mo looked a little embarrassed. "I sneaked into the cleaning room and changed into the cleaner's clothes. I wore a mask and a hat too."
Ruan Yesheng blinked and tried to picture how Xi Mo had looked back then. She almost laughed right onto the back of the chair.
Back in university, Xi Mo had looked much more youthful than now. Her skin had been fair and clear, so delicate it looked like it could drip water, and her features always carried a hint of aloof pride. She was like light itself—wherever she went, she drew everyone’s eyes.
Someone like that, wearing a cleaner’s uniform, fully covered with a mask and hat, sneaking into a hospital room with a mop and trash bag to do some undercover work—who would believe it if they heard?
Ruan Yesheng kept saying, “What a shame, I didn’t get to see it. Back then, I was still at school waiting desperately for you to rehearse the play. Teacher Wang got so mad when you didn’t show up and your phone wouldn’t connect. She scolded all of us for a long time.”
“I was worried someone would call while I was tailing them. What if my dad heard it? My phone was on silent. I didn’t even know Teacher Wang called me.”
“Not just Teacher Wang, I called too.” Ruan Yesheng held up her fingers. “I called you five times, but you didn’t answer even once.”
“Sorry,” Xi Mo said.
Ruan Yesheng was stunned. After a while, she asked, “Why are you suddenly apologizing?”
“I missed your calls back then.”
Ruan Yesheng waved her hand with a smile. “That was so long ago. Besides, what’s there to be sorry for? Back in school, when I called you, you ignored my calls more often than you answered.”
Xi Mo’s usually calm face cracked, and she looked surprised. “Was I really like that?”
“What did you think you were like?” Ruan Yesheng gave her a side-eye, half teasing, half annoyed.
Xi Mo seemed a little anxious. She stood up right away and explained, “I remember I didn’t ignore you. Back then, I really did miss a lot of your calls, but every time I saw your number in the call log, I always called you back.”
Ruan Yesheng let out a laugh and stood up too. She pressed down on Xi Mo’s shoulders and pushed her gently back into the chair.
Xi Mo looked up at her.
Ruan Yesheng leaned down, gazing at Xi Mo with a bright smile. “I know. You always called me back.”
Every single time.
Not once had she failed to.
Even though Xi Mo had not been too willing to deal with her back then, and had always seemed cold and distant, whenever Ruan Yesheng called and Xi Mo saw it, she would still answer.
And if she did not pick up, it must have been because she had not heard it.
Ruan Yesheng had known this early on. Xi Mo was polite to others. She was not the kind of person who would see someone calling and ignore it on purpose. Ruan Yesheng did not know how Xi Mo treated other people’s calls, but with her—it had always been like this.
Xi Mo often missed her calls because she had always kept her phone on vibrate. She thought ringtones were too noisy. If her phone was in her bag, and she was too busy, she might not notice a call coming in.
But once she saw it, she would call back right away.
If it was too late—like in the middle of the night—she would wait until the next day to avoid disturbing Ruan Yesheng.
“That time was the only exception,” Xi Mo said. “When I went to the sanatorium.”
Ruan Yesheng took out her phone, lowered her head, and dialed a number. She said, “That time doesn't count. You lost your phone and couldn't see the call log. If I hadn't told you today, you wouldn't even know I called you back then.”
A soft piano ringtone started playing. Xi Mo reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone.
She glanced at the screen. It was a call from Ruan Yesheng.
Her expression shifted slightly, then she looked up at Ruan Yesheng.
“I just wanted to check your ringtone,” Ruan Yesheng said, her eyes lighting up. “I thought I heard your phone ring last time you answered a call. You used to keep it on vibrate. When did you change it?”
“It’s been a while,” Xi Mo said as she put her phone away.
Before they got back together, Xi Mo had always used two phones—one for work and one personal. She still kept that habit. Since she was often on set, just like before, her work phone was usually with Feng Tangtang. If someone called, Feng Tangtang would pass it on. Even the ringtone on that phone was set by Feng Tangtang.
As for her personal phone, it had always been on vibrate.
She didn’t like being disturbed.
But now, the phone in her pocket was her personal one—and she had set a ringtone for it.
“You’ve suddenly changed your ways?” Ruan Yesheng asked. “I thought you hated noisy ringtones.”
Xi Mo replied, “Setting a ringtone makes it easier to hear. I won’t miss important calls.”
Ruan Yesheng thought about it, then her eyes curved with a smile. “No wonder you’ve been picking up my calls more often lately. So that’s why.”
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
Xi Mo gave a cold snort. “I didn’t set a ringtone just to pick up your calls. I’ve got plenty of other important ones too.”
As the buzz around Suiting kept building, Ruan Yesheng finally made her official return to the entertainment industry.
Back when she left, she had been at the peak of her fame. With such a strong foundation, and with the media fanning the flames, it was easy for her to step back into the public eye. Plus, with Xi Mo and Shen Qingbie—two top-tier celebrities—drawing even more attention, even if she was still far from her former level, she was already off to a promising start.
Many of her former partners remembered her, and even her old company reached out with an olive branch. Lately, Xi Mo often received invitations on Ruan Yesheng’s behalf asking about her schedule. There were TV dramas, movies, even variety shows. None of them were big-budget projects, but there were way more opportunities than before.
“Other important calls.” Ruan Yesheng locked onto that point. “So that means my calls count as important too, right?”
Xi Mo: “…”
Watching her expression, Ruan Yesheng pressed on, “What’s that ringtone? I haven’t heard it before. It sounds really nice.”
“A random piano piece I played and recorded.”
“You just played it randomly? You mean… you wrote it yourself?”
Xi Mo had practiced piano since she was young and was well-versed in music theory. Ruan Yesheng knew she could compose, but she rarely did. She used to say she had neither the mood nor the time for it.
If she had enough leisure to write a song, she might as well spend it reading a few more scripts.
“Mm.” Xi Mo gave a vague nod, which counted as an admission.
"I want to use your song as my ringtone too," Ruan Yesheng said right away. "Can I?"
Xi Mo: "..."
Author’s Note:
How can it not be allowed? Let me answer: You can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[The more exclamation marks, the more it I can express my inner excitement. [What?]
Note: The next update will be slightly delayed. It will be updated on the last day of this month, which is the night of March 31st. Just letting everyone know~ Come read it then, mwah mwah~
It’s not far from switching back now.
I hope everyone keeps leaving cute ratings and comments. Mwah mwah~
