Chapter 68: She was a Valuable Butterfly
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
There was no signing on the card.
But Xia Ling knew who had sent it. There was only one person in the world that would call her like that, “Xia Ling, my butterfly.”
He had once said that she was a butterfly. When they had t, she was just a caterpillar and had evolved slowly in his garden. He said that he was a butterfly farr who had put in his all to rear a valuable Pteris butterfly, willingly doing everything to please it.
She had once been so grateful to hear these words, but she forgot that there could not only be just one butterfly in his garden.
The large bouquet of blue orchids fell and scattered on the sofa and Xia Ling stared at them for a long ti. She pondered, almost subconsciously, if Pei Ziheng had found out about her identity? No... that could not be right. Reincarnation was unimaginable, and was not sothing that soone as conservative as him would think of. What’s more, if he had found out that she was Xia Ling, what awaited her would not simply be a bouquet of blue orchids, but rather a nightmarish wild hunt for her.
Xia Ling breathed deeply as she concluded that he had just taken her as soone else, a small, insignificant fry, a new butterfly.
This made her feel extrely heartbroken.
She struggled to stand up and returned to her bedroom. Throwing herself onto the bed, she lay there motionless.
Ti passed slowly and the morning sun slowly turned into sunset. Her mobile rang countless tis, but Xia Ling could not hear or see anything. Her consciousness was floating in a faraway place, blurry and overco with sadness.
The doorbell rang loudly and for a long ti.
After a while, it beca the sound of soone opening and then closing the door.
Li Lei crashed into her room and found her lying on the soft, comfortable bed. He was alard at how she looked, the slender, fair girl, silently curled into a little ball, her eyes lifelessly gazing into a faraway, unknown direction. She looked like a fragile porcelain doll which could crumble and die with a simple touch.
“Xiao Ling... ” His heart suddenly felt tight in his chest and started to hurt, “Xiao Ling, what’s wrong?”
He walked beside the bed and half knelt beside it, holding her hand. “What in the world is wrong with you?” The anxiety in his voice could not be hidden, “Look at , look at ! Xiao Ling, talk to ?”
However, she simply lay there without moving, and was still staring into the distance with her empty eyes.
Li Lei’s hand holding hers started to grip harder as he shook her, “Xiao Ling, wake up! Wake up, please!”
As he shook her, the focus in her gaze ca back and she saw the face of this handso and concerned man in front of her with clarity. Under the warm light in the bedroom, Li Lei’s eyes were more defined and clear, and the deep green of his eyes were filled with complicated emotions as he stared at her cautiously, as if looking at the most precious treasure on earth.
“Xiao Ling, what is wrong with you? Stop scaring .” His voice was gentle, making her feel safer.
Xia Ling looked at him for a long ti, until the unhappy mories in her mind dissipated. She opened her mouth and said hoarsely, “I’m fine.”
Li Lei breathed a sigh of relief.
Xia Ling removed her hand from his dry, warm hand, and pushed herself up to a sitting position with both hands.
Li Lei lowered his gaze to his empty palm, and when he had lifted his eyes again, he had donned his usual playful expression. “It’s nice to know that you are fine.” He gave a lazy smile and said, “Little beauty, can you not go into such a trance every few days? You went almost insane with the surveillance caras, what were you triggered by this ti?”
“You’re the insane one.” Xia Ling scolded him weakly.
“Tsk, tsk, you can scold now, looks like you’re recovering well.” Li Lei laughed and continued, “Let guess... this ti it’s the blue orchids that I found on the lounge sofa?” He said this carelessly, but his eyes were trained in on her to see how she would react.
Xia Ling denied almost imdiately, “No.”
Li Lei’s eyes darkened.
Almost instantly, they reverted to his usual lazy smile and he said, “If you say so.” He was not going to force her to admit to sothing that she was not willing to, but this did not an that he was fooled. She did not want to admit? It’s alright, he had many subordinates who could investigate this slowly. Eventually, he would find out everything about her.
There had never been a person that he had set his eyes on that had manage to escape.
“Oh yes,” He passed sothing to her, “your mobile. You’ve been lying here on the bed all day, right? Wei Shaoyin’s been looking for you, and he called many tis but you did not answer, so he got Sister Mai Na and Tan Ying to help look for you. He only approached when they were at wits’ end.” If Wei Shaoyin had not co to him for help, he wouldn’t have found out that she was acting so abnormally today.
Xia Ling’s brain was still slow from her trance, “What’s he looking for for?”
Li Lei’s eyes sparkled as he answered, “‘Glass Fingertips’ is selling like hotcakes, better than we all expected. Ah Wei wants to film two more promotional videos and was looking for you to get your views on it. However... ” He looked over at Xia Ling, “in your current condition, I think you shouldn’t talk to him yet. He’s furious for not being able to find you, and if he sees how out of it you are...”
She understood, Li Lei was afraid that Wei Shaoyin would berate her.
Yet, her mobile started to ring off the hook just as Li Lei ended his sentence.
Xia Ling took the mobile out of Li Lei’s hands and saw that it was Wei Shaoyin calling as expected. Even though she was ntally prepared to accept his fires of fury, she still gave a big jump when she heard the furious shouting that began the mont she picked up the call. It was like he was ready to bite her head off and like he had a deep-seated hatred for her. Subconsciously, she threw the phone away from her with her hands shaking.
Li Lei was amused at this scene and gave a light laugh, crossing his legs to be in a more comfortable sitting position, and listened to Wei Shaoyin’s fury together with Xia Ling. On the other end of the line, Wei Shaoyin’s shouting was unceasing, and after a long while, when he had seemingly let everything off his chest, he finally stopped to catch his breath, saying, “Ye Xingling, say sothing.”
Xia Ling weakly stared at the mobile, not daring to answer.
Wei Shaoyin was on the brink of losing his temper again, “Why are you not saying anything?! Are you dead?!”
Xia Ling hesitated as she reached out for the phone, retracting her hand mid-way, a conflicted expression on her face.
Li Lei gave her a look and calmly reached out his thumb and index finger, picking up the phone from the edge of the bed, and said, “Hello, Ah Wei?”
At the other end of the line, Wei Shaoyin was stunned for a mont, before replying, “Boss?” He did not ask Li Lei what he was doing at Xia Ling’s. The fact that she was staying at Li Lei’s apartnt building was not unknown to the core people like Tan Ying, Sister Mai Na and himself even if it was unknown to everyone else.
“Mmhmm, it’s .” Li Lei’s voice had a tinge of laughter, “Soone is too afraid to pick up the phone after hearing all your scolding. Just tell and I’ll pass the ssage.”
Wei Shaoyin asked, his voice still discourteous, “Is Xiao Ling alright?”
Li Lei gave her a look and replied, “She won’t die yet. She seed to have caught a cold and was sleeping at ho the entire day.”
She kept silent. Since when had she caught a cold? This person was simply lying with his eyes wide open. However, it was a pretty good excuse and could perfectly explain her situation today. She could not tell Wei Shaoyin that she had just lain at ho all day for no good reason, right?
Luckily, Li Lei had covered for her.
Wei Shaoyin relaxed and said, “As long as she’s fine... ” But his tone suddenly beca urgent, “No, she’s fine but I’m not fine! How can she skip coming to the recording studio over a small cold?! Didn’t we agree that she was going to co over today? I cleared my schedule just to wait here all day! How can she act like a big shot without making it big yet?! Acting like she’s bigger than , huh?! Huh?! She...”
Li Lei calmly changed his sitting position and put the phone further away.
After a mont, he brought the phone closer when Wei Shaoyin paused to take a breath and said, “If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up now.”
“Don’t!” Wei Shaoyin sounded like he was going to jump up from where he was, “Get Xiao Ling to take the call! I have a new idea with regards to the promo film!”
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