Chapter 121: Ticklish
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
Ruan Yesheng didn’t say how long she wanted the hug to last.
She didn’t let go, so Xi Mo just kept holding her.
The hospital room was warm and bright.
It felt peaceful and comfortable.
Very different from when Ruan Yesheng had just woken up.
Ruan Yesheng held her tighter, arms wrapped around Xi Mo’s waist.
Her cheek pressed against Xi Mo’s hospital gown.
She felt like she was dreaming.
Whether it was the fact that they’d switched back, or that Xi Mo was holding her now—
this kind of wish-come-true joy made her feel like this happiness wasn’t real.
But she didn’t let herself get swept away by all the bubbles of joy.
She was still thinking about something important.
She said, “I thought about it. There are a few things…
I just feel like something’s not right.”
“You can tell me.”
Xi Mo actually had a good idea what she meant.
Xi Mo herself… felt the same way.
"First is the allergy problem." Ruan Yesheng was smart and sharp. She could sort out complicated things very clearly, and now she started to go through them one by one. "You and the people around you all know you're allergic to seafood. Everyone takes this matter very seriously. Usually, on the film set, there's a private chef that Lu Qingming hired to cook just for you. Your own chef, someone you trust. That can't be the problem. And whenever there's a banquet outside, Lu Qingming always reminds the kitchen very carefully. There's no way seafood could show up in your food. So why did you still have a seafood allergy this time? Judging by the time of reaction and the food we ate, the allergen must have been on our dining table. But this time, there was no seafood on our table. That means it must’ve been some dishes or soup that had seafood ingredients added. Hotel food has heavy seasoning. It’s not easy to notice. Especially the soup we drank. It was super flavorful. If there were seafood ingredients inside, it’d be really hard to tell.”
Xi Mo made a sound: “I think there’s something wrong with the soup. You had two bowls.”
“There are two possibilities. One is that the chef who made the soup accidentally added seafood. But that chance is super low. Lu Qingming is very responsible. He personally reminded every single chef in the kitchen. Even the kitchen assistants who helped with ingredients were told. In that kind of situation, if someone still 'accidentally' put in seafood, that’d be too weird.”
Ruan Yesheng frowned and said, “The way I see it, the second possibility is more likely. Someone did it on purpose. The target was you. That person must know you’re allergic to seafood. But even so, the list of people who know is still pretty big. A lot of people in the Sui Ting crew know you're allergic to seafood.”
After all, Xi Mo had to spend every day on set with others. Something this important, Lu Qingming had already explained everything in full when they first joined. He was afraid someone might give Xi Mo food out of kindness, and if they didn’t know she was allergic, and there was seafood inside, it’d be dangerous.
Xi Mo didn’t say anything.
There were lots of people in the crew, all kinds of people. Trying to find the suspect was like fishing a needle from the ocean.
“If the person really wanted to make you have a seafood allergy on purpose, then no doubt, this person really hates you, hates you a lot. Like this time your allergy was really serious, you almost died,” Ruan Yesheng’s voice had some shaking because she was scared after thinking about it, “so maybe, this person just wanted your life.”
Xi Mo's eyes looked down, there was a cold and sharp feeling inside.
“Think back. Did you make anyone mad? Did someone ever say something really mean or scary to you?” Ruan Yesheng asked her.
Xi Mo shook her head. “I didn’t make anyone mad. Everyone is nice to me. If someone hates me, it’s just those anti-fans. They say all kinds of mean things, like asking if I died yet. But those are just words. I never heard of any anti-fan really doing something bad to someone. That’s too crazy, I don’t think so.”
Ruan Yesheng stayed quiet and thought.
Yeah, Xi Mo was proud, but that was just her heart being proud by nature. She didn’t show it on the outside. She was smart when talking to people. In daily life, she was polite and kind. She treated everyone around her nicely and with manners. Plus, her status and her dad Xi Ji was like a big umbrella protecting her. So who would really dare to hurt her like that?
In the entertainment industry, lots of people were jealous of her. But not so jealous to try and kill her. Everyone still wanted to look good on the outside. At most, they just fought for jobs or made things hard for each other in secret. Nobody would really think of doing something illegal.
Xi Mo tried hard to remember. “I don’t have any clear person to suspect.”
“Then we have to look into it,” Ruan Yesheng said. “Tell Lu Qingming to go ask around. Try to get the security camera videos from the wrap up party day. The kitchen and the part when they brought out the food are most important. Check everything. The one who did it must have shown up in there. Go through each person one by one, see if anything is weird.”
“Okay. Lu Qingming is already working on it.”
Ruan Yesheng loosened her arms a little, sat down on the edge of the bed, looked up at Xi Mo who was standing in front of her, and said, “There’s another problem. If the person wanted to target you, then they had to make sure you’d eat the food that had seafood in it. But how could they know which dishes you were going to eat? Which soup you’d drink? Even if they checked your food habits before, this time it was me going to the wrap party instead of you. My taste is not the same as yours. Could it really be just a lucky guess? That the seafood was added to the soup I just happened to like?”
Xi Mo moved the hand she was placing on Ruan Yesheng’s back and gently rested it on her shoulder. She looked into her eyes and said in a soft voice, “From how criminals think, in a big party like that, if someone doesn’t want to hurt everyone, but just wants to poison one target, they must be very careful and hit only that person. If other people who don’t know anything eat the poisoned food and die too, and the number of dead people becomes big, then the criminal is in big trouble. So they try their best to make sure only the victim gets the poison.”
“But this isn’t poison,” Ruan Yesheng quickly understood what Xi Mo meant. “It’s using an allergy to get the same result.”
“Yes.” Xi Mo nodded. “An allergy is different from poison because it can hit one person very exactly and won’t hurt others. Like at that table, I was the only one who’s allergic to seafood. So if that person put seafood into every dish or every soup, I’d for sure touch the allergy trigger at some point. Just a little bit is enough to make me have the reaction. And I didn’t only eat one dish, so it could pile up and become stronger. But the others at the table, even if they ate the same food, nothing would happen to them. No one would suspect a thing.”
"Then we need to test every dish and soup we had on the table back then. But the hotel already cleaned up the table. The leftovers were thrown into the trash with other food waste. Without the right samples, how can we test anything?"
"It was an emergency. I was so flustered, I didn't think that much. I totally forgot to tell Lu Qingming to keep some of the leftovers from our table." Xi Mo let out a sigh and said, "So there's no proof to support it. What I said just now, it's all just my guess."
"You... were flustered?" Ruan Yesheng hugged her tighter. When she looked up at her, her eyes were full of deep emotion.
Xi Mo: "..."
"Who were you flustered for?" Ruan Yesheng asked her, "Were you worried your body had an allergic reaction, or were you worried..."
...or were you worried about me?
The corners of Ruan Yesheng’s eyes turned a little red.
It felt like a rush of heat swelled up inside her chest, but when it reached her lips, she just couldn’t say it out loud.
Xi Mo lowered her eyes slightly. "…Both."
Actually, even she wasn’t sure.
At that time, it was a matter of life and death. All she wanted was for Ruan Yesheng to live. Only if her own body made it through, the Ruan Yesheng trapped inside would have a chance. She wanted her body to survive so Ruan Yesheng could be okay. What she said was truly from the heart. She was nervous for both of them. But if she really had to pick or weigh which one more, she couldn’t tell.
But just hearing “both” made Ruan Yesheng feel deeply satisfied.
She asked that question not to figure out which was more important. After all, that was Xi Mo’s own body. It had to do with the rest of her life. It was only natural for Xi Mo to be nervous.
She just wanted to know if Xi Mo was nervous for her too.
Even if it was only a little bit of worry, it would already be enough.
Ruan Yesheng hugged Xi Mo and rubbed her head lightly against the hospital gown she wore. “I’m happy.”
This kind of happiness came so simply. Just the word “both” was enough to open up her heart.
Xi Mo looked at her soft, long hair and seemed to be affected by that happiness too. A faint smile rose at the corners of her lips.
“Then I passed out.” Ruan Yesheng was more lively now than before. She kept talking to Xi Mo about the things she didn’t understand: “So how did we switch back in the end? Was it really like what we guessed before? That as long as one of us is in a near-death state, we’ll switch back?”
Xi Mo noticed she used the words “near-death,” and her eyes dimmed a little.
Back then, after they got on the ambulance, Ruan Yesheng was lying there cold all over, with no response. But now she knew she was actually near death at that time. That meant she still had some tiny bit of awareness when she was in the ambulance, and she knew her body was breaking down.
That also meant Ruan Yesheng had been suffering in pain the whole time.
“…Did it hurt a lot?” Xi Mo’s mind went blank for a second as she asked.
Ruan Yesheng didn’t expect that question. She froze.
“I mean… during the rescue.” Xi Mo spoke even more softly, “You must’ve still had some consciousness, right?”
Ruan Yesheng understood and gave a relaxed smile. “I still had a bit of consciousness. Of course it hurt a lot, but it’s all over now. I don’t feel anything now. I just remember that you were talking to me back then.”
“Did you hear the doctor and nurses talking?” Xi Mo asked her.
“I could only hear your voice,” Ruan Yesheng said. “At that time, I couldn’t care about anything else.”
“Mm.” Xi Mo gave another vague sound, but her eyes had grown much gentler.
“This time we switched back, does that prove the guess we made before?” Ruan Yesheng checked again.
“I’m not completely sure either.” Xi Mo thought of that doctor, and her expression turned complicated. “The situation in the ambulance was very strange.”
“Strange?” Ruan Yesheng became alert.
“At that time in the ambulance, besides you and me, there was one doctor, two nurses, and actually... one more box,” Xi Mo said. “That box was silver and pretty big. It was placed under the seat. It could move.”
Ruan Yesheng’s face changed. “There was someone inside, or…”
“From the size of the box, it was about as big as a cello case. But it was more narrow and long. It couldn’t hold a person.”
“Then it must’ve been some other living thing.”
“There was also a smell. A bit strange,” Xi Mo tried to remember what happened that time, doing her best not to miss any little detail. “The smell was kind of familiar. At that moment, I couldn’t remember where I’d smelled it before. But now I think it’s a bit like what I smelled before I passed out during that hotel fire. Back then, there was also the smell of burning and thick smoke, so the scent was mixed in and not as clear as it was this time.”
“Near-death, the box, a living thing, the smell…” Ruan Yesheng listed them one by one.
“And that doctor,” Xi Mo’s eyes turned a bit sharp.
“The doctor was strange too?” Ruan Yesheng was surprised.
“I can’t explain it clearly. From how she talked, she actually seemed like a nice person, and she worked hard to save us. But some things she said… I just felt something was off, though I can’t say exactly what.”
Ruan Yesheng was still hugging her. She felt that when Xi Mo brought up the doctor, her waist tensed up a little. She must’ve gotten nervous again. So Ruan Yesheng patted her gently on the waist and said, “It’s okay. Maybe we can’t check other things, but the doctor works at this hospital. After we eat later, let’s go take a look.”
But right after that pat, Xi Mo suddenly froze up like she’d been shocked. She pulled away from Ruan Yesheng and looked at her sideways, kinda awkward.
“…What’s wrong?” Ruan Yesheng couldn’t help laughing. “Not letting me hug you anymore?”
“No,” Xi Mo said awkwardly. “What you just did… it tickled.”
Ruan Yesheng acted like she found a big secret. She laughed even harder. “Wait, do you have a ticklish spot on your waist? I’ve known you for so many years and this is the first time I heard about it.”
“I don’t,” Xi Mo’s face turned serious again. “I wasn’t like that before.”
She really didn’t have a ticklish spot before and wasn’t afraid of being tickled.
But it was really weird. When Ruan Yesheng patted her waist, Xi Mo actually felt a ticklish itch that she couldn’t hold back.
“I have doubts,” Ruan Yesheng said on purpose, teasing her. She stood up from the edge of the bed, planning to tickle Xi Mo’s waist.
Xi Mo saw her intention right away and quickly stepped back. But Ruan Yesheng leaned in close to her, eyes and smile sweet like honey. Xi Mo quietly looked at her smiling face, shifted to the side to avoid her, then quickly caught her left hand.
At the same time, Xi Mo used her other hand to wrap around and pressed it on Ruan Yesheng’s lower back.
Who would’ve thought, just as Xi Mo reached over, Ruan Yesheng moved aside and didn’t tickle her anymore. Xi Mo followed the direction where she dodged and reached over again. Since Ruan Yesheng kept avoiding, Xi Mo had to keep using her hand again and again, her fingers sliding around Ruan Yesheng’s side.
Ruan Yesheng bent down quickly, pulling herself into a ball, but she couldn’t help laughing, begging for mercy, “...Okay, I was wrong, I was wrong, stop, it’s too ticklish!”
Xi Mo: “…”
Now Xi Mo finally realized, the one with the ticklish spot wasn’t her— it was Ruan Yesheng.
And the spot was right on her lower back.
“How’d you know?” Ruan Yesheng was laughing so hard there were tears at the corner of her eyes. She asked, “Did you find out back when we switched bodies, and now you’re getting revenge on me?”
“...I just found out,” Xi Mo said. “It’s a coincidence. I never touched that spot before, how would I know?”
Ruan Yesheng rubbed her numb lower back, let out a hum, and said, “Didn’t you touch my waist when you took a shower?”
“At that time, touching you and touching myself—was there even a difference?” Xi Mo asked back. “When you tickle yourself, do you feel ticklish?”
Ruan Yesheng’s face turned red. She lowered her voice and said, “…That’s true.”
Tickling yourself doesn’t work. When you scratch yourself, your brain knows exactly what’s coming, so there’s no reaction.
This kind of thing… has to be done by someone else.
The mood suddenly turned strange. Ruan Yesheng didn’t say anything. Xi Mo’s eyes also looked down at the floor.
“So hungry… why isn’t Gu Qisong back yet?” After a while, Ruan Yesheng finally said.
“…I’m also waiting for Lu Qingming to bring food.” Xi Mo also used her excuse as a shield.
Just then, the door opened. But Gu Qisong and Lu Qingming didn’t show up. What came in was a piece of candy.
Feng Tangtang put something down. Right after pushing the door open, she bent down to pick up a big clear storage box from the floor. But when she saw the two people in the room, she stopped right away, left the box where it was, and walked in quickly.
“Ruanruan!” Feng Tangtang was both shocked and happy. She’d been friends with Ruan Yesheng for years. The moment she saw her awake, she ran up and hugged her tight.
Ruan Yesheng patted her back. Feng Tangtang couldn’t hold it in for a moment. Her eyes turned red, and she started crying.
She was both worried and happy, crying with snot and tears. After hugging Ruan Yesheng, she went to hug Xi Mo too. Anyway, in her mind, both of them just woke up, so she wanted to hug them and celebrate.
But right before hugging, she finally realized that this was a bit too much—especially since the one in front of her was Xi Mo. Xi Mo wasn’t just her idol, but also her boss. With that difference, how could she dare cross the line? She quickly said, “…Sister Xi, I’m sorry, I lost control.”
“It’s okay.” Xi Mo was generous and stepped up to give her a hug before letting go.
Feng Tangtang got so excited she almost burst like fireworks. She sniffled and nearly blew out a snot bubble.
Then she quickly carried in the storage box and said, “Ruanruan, these are your change of clothes and daily things. Since you’re staying in the hospital, I brought them from the hotel. Sister Xi, your box is in your room. If you need anything else, I’ll go buy it for you.”
“Alright, I’ll go check later.” Xi Mo nodded. “Thanks, Tangtang.”
“How are you two feeling now? Are you better?” Feng Tangtang was a simple person. Besides taking care of their daily needs, what she cared most about was their health. “I was scared to death earlier.”
“Much better,” Ruan Yesheng said. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry. Have you eaten yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Then let’s eat together later.”
Feng Tangtang nodded. Seeing that they looked normal and calm, she finally felt relieved. She stood to the side and helped Ruan Yesheng sort through the things in her storage box, checking what was missing and taking notes so she could get them later.
After a while, Lu Qingming called. He asked Xi Mo, “Why aren’t you in your room?”
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
“I’m in Ruan Yesheng’s room,” Xi Mo told him. “Bring the food here. Gu Qisong isn’t back yet, and she’s hungry. I’ll eat with her.”
Lu Qingming didn’t say anything else. He agreed and soon brought the food and soup to Ruan Yesheng’s room.
Feng Tangtang opened each food container one by one and started setting the table. Lu Qingming looked at Ruan Yesheng and asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Ruan Yesheng smiled gratefully. “Mr. Lu, if you don’t mind, you can join us for dinner.”
Lu Qingming looked at Xi Mo. She nodded, so he said, “Alright.”
The four of them washed their hands, then sat around the table and started eating.
Lu Qingming knew Xi Mo had high standards for food. He was afraid she wouldn’t like the taste, so he brought many different dishes—main courses and snacks. He was going to let her pick what she liked, but with more people, the food was just enough.
Ruan Yesheng said, “This is Mr. Lu’s first time eating with us, right?”
Lu Qingming straightened his collar and said, “Yes.”
Feng Tangtang usually felt nervous around Lu Qingming because he was always serious and also in charge of her pay and work schedule. But now that she was eating at the same table with him, she found that he was actually quite easygoing. He also had good table manners. So, the tension slowly faded.
While they were eating, Lu Qingming said, “Feng Tangtang.”
Feng Tangtang straightened up right away and waited for instructions. “...Mr. Lu, yes?”
Lu Qingming said, “Take a photo of Xi Mo right now. Just take one of her eating dinner. The company needs it later. The fans are really worried and making a fuss. If they don’t know how she’s doing, things won’t calm down.”
“Okay.” Feng Tangtang often took photos of Xi Mo. She took out her phone and stood to the side, trying to find the right angle.
When Ruan Yesheng heard that, her chopsticks paused for a second, then she continued eating like nothing happened.
Before dinner, she had gone online for a while. She saw that everyone was talking about Xi Mo. But since she and Xi Mo were in the hospital together, there were also some posts talking about her. Her old fans were leaving comments under gossip accounts, carefully asking for any little bit of info they could get.
Xi Mo was in the hospital, but fans could hear updates through her company.
Ruan Yesheng was different. She had no place to give news now. Everything from before was gone. Even though she was in the hospital too, her old fans were worried sick and running in circles, but couldn’t find out anything.
Xi Mo noticed her tiny pause. She seemed to think of something. She turned to Feng Tangtang and said, “Include Ruan Yesheng in the photo too. But don’t show her full face. Just show part of it.”
Ruan Yesheng stopped her chopsticks and looked at Xi Mo.
Feng Tangtang was confused. “Then how much should I show?”
“Just enough so that her fans can tell she’s okay,” Xi Mo said.
Ruan Yesheng’s eyes moved gently. For a moment, she didn’t know what to say.
Xi Mo thought about how Ruan Yesheng might feel, so she gently asked her, “Do you want to be in the photo? Once my company posts the picture, the media will definitely notice. I don’t know if it’s okay for you, but if we do this, your fans will know how you’re doing.”
“Will it cause trouble for you?” Ruan Yesheng’s eyes were a little red.
What should she do?
Xi Mo was being so good to her.
She already couldn’t stay away from her kindness anymore.
“It won’t,” Xi Mo said.
Author’s Note:
Ruanruan, this gentleness belongs to you. Not being able to leave it is just perfect =W=
Thank you everyone for the ratings, comments, overlord tickets, and nutrient solution. Everyone muah muah muah muah~
