Injured

He took a tiny camera out of his pocket and, while everyone’s attention was on Qin Qingyan, secretly snapped a number of photos of Yan Yue.

“Who is that? She’s so beautiful. How come I’ve never heard of such a sister in the entertainment industry?” someone said first, and everyone immediately turned to look at Yan Yue.

The paparazzo quickly put the camera away, both to avoid being noticed and to keep from getting jostled in the crowd.

“Only a side profile; I can’t make her out clearly. Maybe she’s part of the production crew.”

“It must be! I’ve been in the fandom for so many years. No matter who it is, I can recognize them from the way they walk. If I can’t recognize them, then they’re definitely not from the entertainment industry.”

The crowd grew louder and louder. The man in charge had no choice but to raise his voice even more to drown out the noise.

Su Yan was waiting nearby. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone approaching; when she looked over and realized it was Yan Yue, she hurriedly stood up from the folding stool and instinctively wanted to tell Qin Qingyan. But Qin Qingyan was focused on filming, and everyone around her aside from Su Yan still didn’t know about her relationship with Yan Yue, so Su Yan forced herself to hold back.

Yan Yue found a discreet spot and quietly watched Qin Qingyan film. Qin Qingyan was in very good form, and she worked exceptionally well with her scene partner. The director watched the monitor and nodded in satisfaction.

When it was nearly noon, filming paused.

As Qin Qingyan was chatting with someone, she happened to glance over and see Yan Yue leaning against a peach tree. Her words faltered, her mind went blank for a moment, and then she quickly finished the conversation with the other person in a few hurried sentences.

She was about to stride over to Yan Yue when Su Yan suddenly stepped in front of her.

“Sister Qingyan, I brought your lunch.” Su Yan gave her a look, signaling toward the people around them.

Qin Qingyan understood that Su Yan was worried about rumors from outsiders; after all, Yan Yue’s identity was there for all to see.

Qin Qingyan wasn’t the only one who had noticed Yan Yue. When Yan Yue arrived, quite a few crew members kept glancing her way, full of curiosity, but they knew the rules of the trade, so no one asked a single extra word.

After wrapping the shot, the director came over to say hello. She had already guessed that the “higher-up” who had asked specifically to meet Qin Qingyan yesterday was Yan Yue. Putting that together with everything that had happened before, she had also formed a guess about their relationship.

Only from the looks of it, they didn’t seem to be planning to make it public yet.

“I’m just passing by and wanted to see how Huanfeng’s artist is doing,” Yan Yue said.

The director glanced at Qin Qingyan and caught the look of longing in her eyes before she could hide it when she looked at Yan Yue.

“Using a female lead nominated for the Golden Ro Award to shoot a promotional short like this; it feels a bit like using a butcher’s cleaver to kill a chicken,” the director said with a smile.

“Is that so?” Yan Yue looked at Qin Qingyan, then withdrew her gaze so naturally it was almost imperceptible. “Then how’s the result?”

“Qin Qingyan was indeed signed well. Very good.”

Those words were directed squarely at Qin Qingyan, not Yan Yue’s girlfriend.

After a few more casual words, the director tactfully gave them space.

They sat on folding stools around a small table in an open area. Qin Qingyan quietly transferred the larger chunks of meat from her lunch box into Yan Yue’s.

“That’s enough. I can’t eat that much.”

“Then eat the meat. I’ll take the vegetables you can’t finish,” Qin Qingyan said.

Yan Yue said, “You should eat more yourself. I’m not that hungry.”

Maybe it was because she was on her period; her appetite wasn’t very good. With so much meat piled up like a little hill in front of her, she could probably only manage a few bites.

Qin Qingyan could tell that she really didn’t look as energetic as usual. Could it be that last night had been too much? But it clearly still wasn’t longer than the first time.

“You… aren’t feeling unwell anywhere, are you?” Qin Qingyan asked cautiously.

Yan Yue met Qin Qingyan’s eyes, but Qin Qingyan looked away guiltily first. Next time she would be more restrained.

Seeing her like that, Yan Yue suddenly understood. If there hadn’t been people not far away, she would have already gone looking for something to start with.

“Tsk; what are you thinking about? I’m on my period. What you did wasn’t enough to do anything.”

Qin Qingyan raised a brow. She hadn’t heard the rest clearly, but the last sentence injured her dignity. Although she didn’t show it for the time being, she silently kept that debt in mind.

The people coming to watch still didn’t leave; instead, there were more and more of them.

Qin Qingyan found it strange. “We never said anything about this shoot publicly. Everything was normal when we got here yesterday, but this morning they suddenly all showed up.”

Among those people were fans, reporters, and even stalker fans, mixed together in a mass. That meant the news of her filming here had been completely leaked. Fortunately, this place was some distance from the city center; otherwise, there would have been far more than just the few hundred people outside.

Yan Yue asked, “When did you decide to shoot this?”

“An idea came up a month ago. The director approached me then, and I thought it was good, so I agreed.” Qin Qingyan looked at Yan Yue. Every time Yan Yue asked her a targeted question, it meant she already had a thought in mind.

And Yan Yue really did have a guess; rather than a guess, it was more like certainty.

Qin Qingyan suddenly laughed softly. “At least stay and finish this meal with me before going off to be busy?”

After filming resumed in the afternoon, Yan Yue went to find Zeng Nian and called to discuss something with her; it took half an hour before she finally ended the call.

After watching the filming for a while longer, the heat in her lower abdomen reminded her that it was time to change once. She returned to the hotel, took the elevator up to the third floor, and used her key card to open the door. Just as she was about to go back to the bedroom, she noticed that the balcony window had been pulled open; she distinctly remembered closing it before she left.

Had she remembered wrong?

Yan Yue walked toward the balcony and quickly noticed something was off. There was a layer of dusty footprints on the floor, the toes pointing inward; someone had climbed in through here.

She stepped forward and looked down. Though it was the third floor, it wasn’t impossible for someone to risk climbing in. Suddenly, Yan Yue had a bad feeling. She turned around at once.

A few steps away, a slightly plump young woman was pressing down her cap and staring at her viciously.

In her hand was a very small utility knife.

Yan Yue backed up, and the young woman advanced.

“Why do all of you like forcing my Qingyan? She already refused, didn’t she? Why are you still forcing her?!”

Yan Yue did her best to stay calm. “What are you talking about?”

“I heard it! You were the one who made that disgusting man demand that my Qingyan meet you no matter what! She’s already this popular now; she finally made it to where she is today. Why do you still have to stand in her way?!” the girl cried out at the top of her lungs.

Yan Yue understood what was going on. “You really like Qin Qingyan?”

The girl calmed down a little. “Yes! Everything related to her, I treasure it all. Wherever she goes, I go too.”

The bedroom door was open. Yan Yue guessed the girl must have stayed inside all this time; if that was the case, she must have gone through the things in there.

Then…

“You were waiting specifically for me to come back. If you really love her because of all the things that surround her, how could you think of hurting me?” Yan Yue said.

The girl clearly froze, then grew even angrier. “You’re the one who blocked my Qingyan’s development, the one who forced her to do things she doesn’t like. You’re the one who hurt her, so of course I’m going to come after you!”

Yan Yue leaned against the balcony and glanced back. Below was a wide open area. When she looked at the girl again, the girl was even closer.

Yan Yue said, “You should know I didn’t force her into anything. Besides the used finger cot, you should have found other things too; that should be enough to prove that Qin Qingyan and I are…”

The girl suddenly rushed forward, and the little knife slashed wildly. Yan Yue dodged just in time.

She was panting. She usually dealt with plenty of hypocrites too, but they were mostly still reasonable to some degree. The girl in front of her was clearly not.

Come to think of it, this was the first time she had ever run into someone like this.

Yan Yue also suddenly understood how terrifying a stalker fan really was.

“It’s fake! My Qingyan doesn’t have any damn girlfriend. The media made it all up on purpose, and you can’t be one either. Even if you are, you won’t be in the future.” The girl slashed at Yan Yue again.

Her target was very clear; she was aiming straight for Yan Yue’s face. Yan Yue grabbed the vase beside her, but she didn’t smash it at the girl. Instead, she quickly looked outside to make sure no one was below, then forcefully threw the vase as far away as she could.

As expected, the sound of shattering drew people’s attention, but they didn’t know which room had thrown it down.

Someone walked over to where the vase had landed and looked up. His expression changed immediately, and he pointed upstairs. “Hey! Someone’s killing people! Someone’s killing people!”

And while Yan Yue’s attention was drawn outside, the girl slashed at her face again. Yan Yue instinctively raised her hand to block it.

The little knife cut through the sleeve on her arm, then across her palm; a long, thin gash opened up at once.

Yan Yue didn’t have time to worry about the pain. She seized the girl’s knife-wielding arm and forced it down. In the chaos, the girl kicked Yan Yue in the abdomen. Yan Yue’s expression changed visibly.

Their footing faltered, and they both fell to the ground.

Yan Yue tore down the gauze curtain beside her, wrapped it around the girl, and pressed her body down on top of her, pinning her so she couldn’t move.

The girl struggled and screamed hysterically.

Very soon, the door was broken open from the outside, and a crowd surged in to help restrain her. The person in charge hurried over to help Yan Yue up, already breaking out in a cold sweat. If anything happened to Yan Yue here, there would be no hope for him to get anywhere higher for the rest of his life.

Qin Qingyan almost burst out from the crowd. The first thing she saw was blood everywhere: on the gauze curtain, on the floor, and on the shirt stained red on Yan Yue’s body. She froze in place, not moving an inch, as an unprecedented panic swept over her. She had only ever felt this way once before; when Yan Yue had been in the car accident.

They drove to the hospital. After the doctor examined her, he cleaned and bandaged the wound. But Yan Yue still looked terribly wrong. Qin Qingyan’s eyes were red, and there was nothing she could do.

At that moment, Su Yan called Qin Qingyan: “That crazy woman said she also kicked Yan Zong in the stomach! Hurry up and get Yan Zong checked out.”

When Qin Qingyan took Yan Yue for an examination, she was sweating profusely, her steps unsteady, nausea churning strongly in her stomach.

The doctor beside them said, “If the abdomen was kicked, and the condition is severe, there’s a possibility of internal organ damage or bleeding. And since she’s currently on her period, there’s also concern that it could be a ruptured corpus luteum. Any of these would be very dangerous.”

Qin Qingyan listened as she looked at Yan Yue’s bandaged palm. The frightening-looking wound there somehow seemed like the lesser injury.

After a full series of examinations, the doctor looked at the results and visibly relaxed. He turned to Qin Qingyan, whose face was full of worry, and said, “She was injured, but there’s no major problem. Abdominal wall contusion isn’t uncommon either. She’ll need proper rest afterward, apply warm compresses every day to help recovery, and try to lie flat when sleeping. She should improve in a few days.”

Only then did Qin Qingyan’s tightly strung nerves finally ease.