After resting for half a day, as evening approached, everyone gathered in small groups to explore the area near the hotel. The concert is tomorrow night, and they still have most of the day to adjust their states, so they can relax a bit tonight.
Wen Ran had arranged with a few other girls and, before leaving, habitually asked Shen Jianian, "Jianian, do you want to go shopping with us? We’re planning to buy so clothes and souvenirs."
Shen Jianian was lying on her bed, awake but not yet up, checking her phone. Upon hearing Wen Ran’s words, she sat up slightly with a sowhat weak voice, "You guys go ahead, I won’t go, my stomach isn’t feeling too well."
Wen Ran knew she was on her period, so she didn’t insist. After tidying herself up, she left the room.
Around ten in the evening, Wen Ran returned with her hands full, placing several shopping bags on the armchair. Shen Jianian was still awake, watching a movie on her tablet with earphones in. Wen Ran greeted her and then went to the bathroom with her pajamas to take a shower.
Hot water from the shower rained down from above as she closed her eyes, recalling the incident of eting that woman in the bathroom in the morning. Her heart tightened, and her expression showed so daze.
She didn’t know whether she should take the gamble...
Even if Shen Jianian couldn’t perform, it wouldn’t be much of a loss, would it? At most, it would affect her emotionally. With her background, why would she care about one performance?
The money earned from one performance might not even be more expensive than one of her dresses.
With that thought, Wen Ran secretly made a decision. She raised her hands to gather all her hair up, lifting her face under the shower spray. Hot water poured continuously onto her face.
After finishing her shower, Shen Jianian was already asleep, her earphones and tablet placed on the nightstand beside her bed.
Wen Ran glanced at her, moved quietly, and lay down on the other bed. Staying in the sa room, it would be easy to make a move.
The next day ca quickly. At around three in the afternoon, the manager notified everyone in the group to get ready as they would be heading to the grand theater soon.
Shen Jianian had everything packed and was ready to go as soon as she woke up from her nap. Wen Ran, on the other hand, appeared a bit busy, rummaging through her suitcase at one mont, and heading to the bathroom the next. After a while, she went to fill a cup with water and casually asked, "Jianian, do you want so water?"
"Give a cup, please. Thanks." Shen Jianian replied without lifting her head, holding her phone and ssaging Fu Jichen, updating him on her schedule.
If Fu Jichen didn’t have to travel for work and the timing wasn’t off, he would have wanted to see her performance.
It was only after her repeated persuasion, telling him there would be plenty more opportunities to see her perform in the future, that he decided not to change his travel plans.
Wen Ran walked over to the water dispenser, sneakily sweeping a glance at Shen Jianian with her peripheral vision, seeing that she still hadn’t lifted her head. This slightly eased her tense nerves. She filled a half cup of warm water and dropped a small pill hidden in her palm into the cup, swirling it gently.
The small white pill quickly dissolved, leaving no trace of color; the water in the cup remained clear.
Wen Ran tightened her grip on the cup, swallowing hard. The woman she t in the bathroom didn’t specify how much dosage was needed to be effective. Not daring to overdo it, she only added one pill.
Given that Shen Jianian was on her period, and she seed to not be in good health, if sothing major happened, it wouldn’t be good... So to be safe, she only added one pill.
Just one pill, it shouldn’t be too serious.
Wen Ran mulled over this repeatedly. When handing the cup to Shen Jianian, her hand couldn’t help but shake a little. Fortunately, she held it tightly, so the cup didn’t fall: "Jianian, here’s your water."
Her voice sounded natural, without a hint of abnormality.
As expected, Shen Jianian didn’t notice anything, thanked her again, and took the cup from her hand.
At that mont, Wen Ran’s heart was in her throat, as if soone had grabbed it and lifted it into the air. She couldn’t stay in the room much longer, hurriedly saying, "I’ll go next door to check if Feifei and Xiao Yue are ready."
Without waiting for Shen Jianian’s response, Wen Ran left, forgetting to close the room door.
Just then, Fu Jichen sent a WeChat ssage. Shen Jianian found it inconvenient to type with one hand, so she set the cup on the table and replied to his ssage first.
Shen Jianian: "The flight is the night after tomorrow, and I should arrive in Beicheng around ten o’clock the morning after that. I’ve sent the flight information to Xiao Zheng."
Fu Jichen replied: "Be careful while you’re abroad, don’t wander off alone. Be ticulous with anything you eat or use, and take good care of yourself."
Shen Jianian: "Mm, you too."
After replying to this ssage, the door panel was lightly knocked twice, with a tentative tone: "Is anyone there?"
Shen Jianian put down the phone and got up. It was a girl from the team who played the violin, nad Hua Sui, two years younger than her, looking a bit pale.
Shen Jianian quickly asked, "What’s wrong?"
Hua Sui clutched her stomach, and within a few seconds, her complexion worsened: "I don’t know if it’s because of the change in environnt or so other reason, but my period suddenly started a week early. Did you bring any painkillers?"
The luggage that Shen Jianian took when she went out was packed by Aunt Cheng. Besides daily necessities, she also packed a small dical kit with common dications that comply with exit requirents.
"I have both ibuprofen and etoricoxib. Which one do you want to take?" Shen Jianian said as she turned around, took out the suitcase, laid it on the floor, opened the zipper, and found a small storage box inside, locating the two kinds of painkillers.
"Which one works faster?" Hua Sui asked.
"They’re about the sa, but etoricoxib has fewer side effects on the stomach." Shen Jianian replied, "I’m on my period too, and I took this one."
"Then I’ll take this one." Hua Sui looked at her with eyes full of gratitude, "Thank you so much, I asked a few people, and none of them brought any dication."
Shen Jianian said, "You’re welco," and handed her the entire box of dicine.
Hua Sui waved her hand, saying, "I don’t need that much. Just one pill will do. I usually only have significant pain on the first day of my period, and not much discomfort in the following days, so I don’t need dication."
Shen Jianian opened the dicine box and wanted to pour her a glass of water. Her gaze fell on a glass of water she hadn’t drunk from, and she picked it up, handing it to her along with a strip of pills: "I haven’t drunk from this water, you can have it."
"Thank you." Hua Sui popped a pill into her mouth, took a sip of water to swallow it, and handed the cup back to Shen Jianian, "Thank you, Jianian."
"You’ve already said thank you many tis, it’s just a small thing, really don’t worry about it."
Hua Sui knew she had a good nature, always willing to help others. Hearing her words, she didn’t insist further, and with pursed lips, she gave her a weak smile, pointing outside the door: "I’ll go get ready, see you later."
Shen Jianian nodded and replied, "See you later."
Hua Sui’s lower abdon was still a bit painful. She held it with her hand and slowly walked out of Shen Jianian’s room.
Shen Jianian looked at her watch, picked up the cup from the table, went to the bathroom to pour out the remaining water, cleaned the cup thoroughly, and put it back.
At this mont, the door was pushed open from the outside. Wen Ran, who had gone out earlier, returned. Her gaze happened to catch Shen Jianian placing the cup back on the table, noting that the water inside was gone.
"Are you leaving?" Shen Jianian asked her.
Wen Ran’s thoughts had long wandered, her expression dazed, not registering what Shen Jianian had said, her eyes lingering on the empty cup for a few seconds before she awkwardly shifted her gaze to avoid any slip.
Shen Jianian waved her hand in front of her eyes twice, amused, "What are you thinking? I called you twice, and you didn’t hear."
Wen Ran ca back to her senses, instinctively uttered an "Ah," and then shifted her gaze to Shen Jianian’s face, quickly masking her awkwardness with a pretense of composure, "I was thinking about where to go for dinner after the performance, didn’t hear you."
"I was asking, are we leaving?"
"Yes, yes, we’re leaving... the car is already at the hotel entrance."
Shen Jianian didn’t say anything more, picked up her already packed bag, placed her phone inside, and turned to the still slightly dazed Wen Ran, "Let’s go."
The instrunts had already been transported to the grand theater in advance, allowing them to travel lightly. Wen Ran also grabbed her bag, followed Shen Jianian out of the room, so preoccupied that she nearly forgot to take her room card, only rembering when Shen Jianian reminded her it was still in the card slot.
Wen Ran had no choice but to turn back and grab the room card, then closed the door.
So of the band mbers were already downstairs, while a few, like the two of them, had just left their rooms and were waiting for the elevator.
A mont later, the elevator stopped, and the group of people slowly filed in, pressing the button for the first floor. The elevator descended slowly. Shen Jianian had entered first, standing in the back with her back against the elevator wall, her expression calm.
In contrast, Wen Ran was nervous, with her mind preoccupied, her palms sweating intermittently, and she occasionally glanced at Shen Jianian to see if she showed any signs of discomfort, but she appeared as normal, not seeming unwell anywhere.
Could it be that the effect of the dicine is slow?
Wen Ran felt a twinge of suspicion. Then, the elevator reached the first floor, and a crowd of people flooded out, passing through the hotel lobby to the outside.
Several business vans were parked outside, and Shen Jianian and Wen Ran got into one of them.
As people gradually arrived, the manager started counting heads, noticed two people missing, and pulled out his phone to ntion the two late-cors in the WeChat group.
After waiting for a while with no reply, the manager was about to call to check what was going on but received a call from one of the missing persons.
The mont the phone was placed to his ear, a panicked female voice ca through: "Manager Xie, sothing’s wrong, Hua Sui suddenly coughed up blood!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)