Wen Ran hid in the bathroom, turned on the shower, letting the water pour down, the sound of water masking her heavy breathing.
She clutched her chest, layers of fear flooding over her like an overflowing river, engulfing her entirely, with a strong sense of suffocation gripping her.
An uncontrollable, terrifying thought erged in her mind. Shen Jianian said that Hua Sui ca to find her for painkillers in the room, was it possible... that Hua Sui happened to drink the glass of water with the drug?
However, the woman she t in the bathroom with sunglasses told her that the drug was just regular stomach dicine, which would only cause so discomfort and affect normal activities.
How could it cause vomiting blood and fainting?
The cold water splashing onto her calves gave Wen Ran a shiver; she stared blankly at the white tiled wall, belatedly realizing she had been too trusting of others.
That woman was a complete stranger unrelated to her; why did she trust her words so much?
Perhaps there was a deep grudge between that woman and Shen Jianian, wanting to harm her without dirtying her own hands, planning a "killing with a borrowed knife" strategy.
Killing with a borrowed knife. These four words lingered in Wen Ran’s mind, sending another shiver through her as she increasingly believed this idea was correct. The bottle of dicine was unlabeled; whether it was stomach dicine or sothing else, who would know, it was just that woman’s casual words.
Unfortunately, she realized this too late, and now a huge mistake had occurred. Where would she find that woman? If soone investigated, she would truly be in big trouble.
If Hua Sui died...
Wen Ran didn’t know why she thought of this, but all the color drained from her face instantly, letting out a low sob, afraid that Shen Jianian outside would hear, she tightly covered her mouth, preventing any sound from escaping.
She really was a fool, what was she thinking back then, why did she allow herself to be swayed by that woman’s words and lose her mind attempting to sche against Shen Jianian.
Wen Ran slapped herself on the face, but the pain did not alleviate the fear in her heart, knowing that nothing she did now could undo what happened, she could only pray that Hua Sui in the hospital would be alright.
Shen Jianian yawned repeatedly, feeling sleepy, she tiredly raised her eyelids, glancing toward the bathroom, the sound of water still persisted, indicating Wen Ran was still showering.
She patted her cheeks, trying to stay awake, opening the ssages in the WeChat group.
Soone sent a ssage saying they just saw Manager Xie return, he ca back alone, Hua Sui did not co with him.
Imdiately, soone in the group tagged Manager Xie, asking him about Hua Sui’s condition.
Manager Xie didn’t respond, but a few minutes later, he sent a ssage in the group: "Who’s free tonight to help take care of Hua Sui at the hospital?"
Since the manager is a man, it’s not convenient for him to take care of Hua Sui at night; being in a foreign country, finding a suitable caregiver isn’t easy either.
A girl who was relatively close to Hua Sui replied: "I’ll go."
Manager Xie: "Alright. The car is downstairs, it will take you to the hospital, just be careful."
The girl replied with an "okay", and then Manager Xie didn’t send any more ssages in the group, while everyone else started discussing, one after another.
Shen Jianian put down her phone, rubbed her sowhat sore brow bones, gave another glance towards the bathroom, wondering what happened with Wen Ran, she had been showering for more than an hour and still hadn’t co out.
Feeling so sleepy that her eyes were about to close, Shen Jianian, after so struggle, decided to give Wen Ran a gentle reminder. She got up and knocked on the bathroom door: "Wen Ran, are you done showering? I’m a bit tired."
Normally, she wouldn’t urge others like this, but today she was truly exhausted and wanted to sleep early.
"Oh, okay, I’m almost done," Wen Ran’s voice ca from behind the water and the door, sounding a bit muffled.
Shen Jianian wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but Wen Ran’s voice seed tinged with panic, causing Shen to reflect, wondering if she had startled Wen Ran by suddenly knocking.
After waiting five or six minutes, the bathroom door was pulled open from inside, Wen Ran ca out wearing her pajamas, her head lowered slightly. Without the water and door muffling her voice, she sounded a bit subdued and unnatural: "Sorry, I took a bit long."
"It’s all right." As Shen Jianian passed by her, she inadvertently noticed her slightly red eyes, made a slight pause in her steps and asked, "What happened to your eyes?"
"Ah?" Wen Ran’s heart sank heavily, panic rising within her, she raised her hand to rub the corner of her eye, casually pulling a lie to cover it up, "Whilst showering, so body wash foam accidentally got into my eyes."
Shen Jianian gave an "oh" in response, without further ado, and entered the bathroom.
Wen Ran let out a sigh of relief, perched on the bed, and picked up her phone from the duvet. The ssages in the band group had piled up over ninety; she bit her lower lip lightly, scrolling back up until she saw Manager Xie’s ssage, and her pupils suddenly constricted.
Hua Sui needed a caregiver; could it be that her condition wasn’t good...
What exactly was that bottle of dicine?
Poison?
This thought rushed into her mind, Wen Ran bit down on her lower lip so hard that she tasted iron, the slight stinging from her lips making her realize she had broken the skin.
Wen Ran lay down on the bed, covering herself with the duvet, yet feeling as if she were in the depths of winter, shivering uncontrollably.
Shen Jianian, finishing her shower, saw Wen Ran lying on her side on the other bed, with the duvet pulled over her head. She assud Wen Ran was asleep, so she switched off the lights, got into her own bed and went to sleep.
Clearly having been very sleepy earlier, she didn’t know if the shower had shaken off her drowsiness because once she lay down, sleep eluded her.
After what seed like ages, an hour, maybe two, as Shen Jianian drifted off to sleep, she heard a subtle noise from the other bed—rustling of the duvet being pulled aside, shuffling of slippers, and then footsteps moving towards the bathroom.
Soon, the sound of the toilet flushing echoed prominently in the silent night.
Shen Jianian’s eyelids twitched, and then she fell asleep. She had no recollection of Wen Ran returning from the bathroom.
She slept soundly until daylight, getting up feeling fully refreshed, turning to see Wen Ran still asleep, she tiptoed to the bathroom to wash up. Their flight was in the evening, so there was no rush; she could let Wen Ran sleep a bit longer.
The truth was, Wen Ran hadn’t slept a wink all night long, listening to Shen Jianian getting up, she checked her phone, realizing it was already past 8 AM.
When Shen Jianian ca out of the bathroom, she saw that Wen Ran was awake, leaning against the headboard looking at her phone, and suddenly rembered sothing, casually asking: "Wen Ran, did you get up to use the bathroom last night? I think I heard the flushing sound."
Though Shen Jianian just asked it in passing while applying her skincare, in Wen Ran’s guilty conscience it was not the sa; her heart tightened instantly, her hand trembling lightly, causing her phone to drop onto the blanket.
Denying wasn’t an option, Shen Jianian had heard it, so Wen Ran tried her best to cover it up: "I drank lots of soft drinks during dinner and had to get up once at night."
While spreading the cream on her face, Shen Jianian asked, "Have you seen the group ssages? Is there any news about Hua Sui?"
Right now, the last thing Wen Ran wanted to hear was the na "Hua Sui," causing her eyelashes to tremble, and after a pause, she muttered: "I just woke up, haven’t had the chance to check yet."
As she was speaking, Wen Ran opened the WeChat group, and coincidentally, the girl who went to the hospital last night had just posted an explosive ssage three minutes ago.
"The hospital’s test results are out; Sui Sui has been poisoned. I don’t quite understand the dical jargon, but from what the translator said, it poisons can lead to organ failure."
With this statent, the group imdiately exploded.
"No way? Poisoned? Was it food poisoning? Didn’t we all eat at the hotel’s restaurant, how could this happen?"
"Did Hua Sui eat outside and have sothing bad?"
"Oh my god, is Hua Sui okay? Is she out of danger?"
"You think it was a setup?"
"Nonsense, you think this is a TV drama with people plotting against each other."
With words like "poisoned," "life-threatening," and "conspiracy" jumping into Wen Ran’s wide-eyed view, she felt consud by panic. Her worst fears about the bottle of pills were confird— it was poison, with the intent to kill Shen Jianian, and inadvertently, Hua Sui took her place.
Tears dripped from Wen Ran’s eyes onto her hand without her even noticing.
Shen Jianian, having finished her skincare routine, was taken aback seeing Wen Ran’s state: "Wen Ran, what’s wrong?"
Forget about organizing her clothes, she went straight to Wen Ran. But when she read the fast-scrolling group ssages on her screen, she realized from others’ comnts—the horrific truth, that Hua Sui had been poisoned.
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