The bedroom door opened a few minutes later. What followed was the sound of clothes being removed and, subsequently, the bathroom door being pushed open.
After some time, there came the sounds of the bathroom door being pushed open again and of his footsteps approaching.
An Xiaoning opened her eyes — their eyes met. “Have you eaten?”
“Yes.”
Compared to her eagerness to question him, he touched on the matter lightly, “I heard you went to that house with Gu Beicheng.”
“Yeah, I went to take a look.”
“What do you think of that house?”
“Very good.”
Her brief replies prompted him to turn over and lay on her side. “Do you have something to ask me?”
She outwardly denied, “No.”
Jin Qingyan reached out his hand and gently caressed her collarbone, his voice softening, “She’s only living there for some time. If you want to move there, we can move over tomorrow.”
An Xiaoning replied, “Living here is fine, so why move over there? I’m not moving.”
“Gu Beicheng brought you to Wei Ni Estate on purpose?” Although his tone sounded casual, An Xiaoning sensed his true meaning.
“Are you blaming him for showing me your secret base?”
He planted a kiss on her forehead. “How is that possible.”
An Xiaoning gazed at him.His eyes, which made one cave in easily, were light and refreshing. They were obviously full of infinite tenderness towards her, yet she could not find any trace of his emotion in them.
She reached out her hands to hug his waist and rested her head on his chest. The smell of his unique scent entered her nostrils — something which she had surprisingly become familiar with.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. In a few days, I’d have joined the set for one month already, don’t forget what you promised me.”
“That’s fast. Sure. When that day comes, I’ll agree to grant you a wish.”
She hugged him tighter, and a question suddenly popped up in her head. “Hubby, have you thought of having a child with me?”
At that moment, she clearly felt his body freeze. His hand, which was near his waist where she was hugging him, trembled.
“Why? You want children?”
“We’re already married. We’ll live together for the whole of our lives — of course we’ll have children. How many do you think is good?” An Xiaoning added, “How about two?”
Jin Qingyan’s lip touched her ear lightly, his voice became softer like a whisper, “Isn’t that a bit too many?”
“Then, one?”
“I don’t like children.” These few words made An Xiaoning swallow everything she had wanted to say.
An Xiaoning was no fool. When she’d just gotten married to him, she had felt that this might be her last marriage, but over time, it became clearer to her how important that woman’s position was in Jin Qingyan’s heart. So she became more doubtful about how long their marital life would last, especially after seeing Chi Rui’er today, such burning questions she had had become more evident.
Talking to him about children was only her attempt to find a topic.
Yet he really thought that she wanted to have children with him.
“Because I still haven’t had enough quality time with you.” He explained further, “I wouldn’t want the addition of a little fellow to disturb us.”
His explanation was reasonable, but An Xiaoning felt there was another significance behind it.
“Makes sense.”
She closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
She had a dream.
In the dream, she was drowning in an ice-cold river. The water from the river continued to fill up her throat, suffocating her increasingly — her limbs were flailing desperately in the water, it was simply insufferable. She didn’t know how to swim and was losing consciousness. At this point, she woke up.
She reached out her hand to feel her forehead. All she felt was a bunch of cold sweat.
An Xiaoning woke up. She poured herself a glass of water and drank a few sips.
She seldom had dreams, and when she did, they were either requests from others or a sign of something. There were also some which were hints.
Of course, there were some dreams she had which were completely illogical.
But this dream made her especially disturbed.
So at that moment, she made a decision: after her month in the crew ends, she was going to learn how to swim.
Anything that could become fatal to her, she wanted to be able to withstand them. One can never be too careful. Learning another skill for her meant she could worry less about the unknown future.
—
When she just arrived on-set, Mei Yangyang asked, “Sis, was that man in the car yesterday my Brother-in-law? He’s so handsome.”
“No.” An Xiaoning returned, “You don’t know who he is?”
“Actually, I didn’t see clearly, but his overall appearance looked very handsome.” Mei Yangyang became curious. “I feel like my Brother-in-law must be very outstanding. If not, you definitely wouldn’t take a fancy to him.”
An Xiaoning acknowledged her comment, “My judgment is still not too bad.”
She continued to ask her, “Yangyang, do you have a boyfriend?”
Mei Yangyang blushed. “No, my family is in this state now, so whoever becomes my boyfriend would feel pressured. Moreover, I’m only 20. There’s no rush.”
“How’s your sister recently?”
“I don’t see her all day, I can’t control her anymore. If my father tries to discipline her, she just talks back to him. We can’t do anything about her.”
“Yangyang, can you swim?”
“Yes, I can.” Mei Yangyang added, “And I’m really good at it.”
“Then, in a few days, let’s go to the hot spring. Can you teach me there?” The corner of An Xiaoning lips curled into a smile. “I treat you to a hot spring bath, you teach me how to swim.”
Mei Yangyang clapped. “Deal.”
They were inseparable during meal time. Even when they ended work, they went home together and were around the makeup artist throughout their working hours. So, for this period of time, Sun Weiwei and her assistant had a hard time finding any chance to play a dirty trick.
But without teaching her a lesson, Sun Weiwei did not feel comfortable inside.
Finally, it was her last day at work.
This was the latest in a day that they had ended filming. Plus, the makeup artist was not around as her child was ill. It was the first time An Xiaoning worked overtime until night; meanwhile, Mei Yangyang left after knocking off in the afternoon. An Xiaoning thought that since it was her last day, there was no harm in staying a few more hours.
Jing Tian inquired, “Are you really not intending to stay here anymore?”
An Xiaoning nodded. “A month is long enough. I’ll congratulate you beforehand on successful ratings for your period drama.”
Jing Tian nodded in acknowledgment. “Thank you. You didn’t leave a contact number all this while — may I have it?”
An Xiaoning told him directly, noting finally, “You didn’t ask me about future matters anymore, I’m not coming tomorrow, are you interested to know?”
“Yes,” Jing Tian replied. “Tell me in my office.”
She nodded.
Observing them going to his office, Sun Weiwei and her assistant popped their heads out from the corner. “See that, the both of them went to the director’s office. And they said she doesn’t have a thing with the director, who’ll believe that?”
“Exactly. Sister Weiwei, tonight is a good opportunity.”
“Teach her a lesson.” Sun Weiwei narrowed her eyes.
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“…”
An Xiaoning sat down, then described slowly, “In these one or two years, your relationships will end in failure. Your future wife will appear only when you’re 31 — that is to say, you’ll only meet her when you’re 31.”
“Then, how will my career turn out?”
“Career-wise, not too bad. Your career luck will be very good next year, because you will achieve some success with a movie. But you will attract some villains around you, just be more careful.”