Chapter 38: Aftermath (Part 1) (First Update)

  First update, seeking recommendations~

  Thank you for the rewards from classmates Youyou Baobao and Qianhong Yue! Thank you for the update votes from classmate Zhansheng Cibei!

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  As she spoke, she supported her forehead which was splitting with pain, and felt around to lift the quilt that covered her body, then she froze.

  It wasn't something as ridiculous as being naked, but rather her body was wrapped up very tightly in a set of sky blue cotton pajamas with messy English letters printed on them. On her abdomen, where the fabric was wrinkled from getting out of bed and bending over, there was a picture of Winnie the Pooh smiling at her with a silly grin. The whole set of pajamas was full of childish charm, making people like it just by looking at it, but what was serious was - these clothes weren't hers, and even in her last memories that she could still recall, it was impossible for her to be wearing such pajamas.

  A sudden realization of a fact struck her, and for a moment her mind went blank.

  An Junhe didn't notice her movements, and when he found out she was awake, he went to the bathroom to fetch a basin of hot water, brought it to Lin Xiujing's bedside, wringing out a towel as he spoke: "This is a small inn. At the time, you were unconscious, and I didn't know where to take you either. I didn't dare tell your agent, fearing she would panic and call the police to arrest me. We couldn't go to a hotel either, or else headlines like 'Lin Xiujing gets drunk with boyfriend and opens room' would spread everywhere by the next day... After thinking about it, only this small inn wouldn't have so many worries... Ah, use the hot towel to apply some heat, maybe your headache will feel better."

  Lin Xiujing stared blankly at the hot towel handed to her, then looked down at her clothes, and suddenly a mix of emotions such as panic, fear, anger, and more surged up in her heart. For a moment, she felt like the whole world had turned gray, her nose stung, and tears fell uncontrollably.

  “…how did you end up crying?” An Junhe was taken aback, then saw that she had her hands tightly clutching the hem of her nightgown. He suddenly patted his forehead and couldn't help but laugh: “Heh…you thought…haha, don't cry, I didn't see anything, nor did I do anything. The clothes were changed by the hotel owner, an old aunt...uh, the nightgown was bought by me, if this is going to make you cry too.”

  As he spoke, he couldn't help but laugh again. Lin Xiujing usually looked too quiet, like a woman who had experienced many hardships and only lived in her own world, with a melancholic air about her. Her gentle temperament also gave people the feeling that she had been through a lot.

  But unexpectedly, she actually had such a fragile and childish side. No matter whether it was mistakenly thinking that her body had been seen by him or something else, if it were another woman, no matter what reaction she would have, it probably wouldn't be to cry first - this is the exclusive privilege of girls who grew up in a greenhouse.

  It's really "youthful looks"! Both mentally and physically as "young"…

  "Huh?"

  Deeply immersed in her own sorrow, Lin Xiujing suddenly froze, her crying stopped, and she looked up at Ahn Jun-hee with a stunned expression, as if her brain had suffered too many shocks in a short period of time and was slow to react.

  A moment later, she finally came to her senses, looking at An Junhe's expression of trying to hold back a smile, suddenly her face turned bright red, feeling embarrassed and lowering her head. After a while, she whispered: "...... Sorry......"

  "Hehe, never mind, come on, wipe your face first."

  He wrung out another hot towel and handed it over, Lin Xiujing hastily took it and thanked him softly.

  "You finally woke up, those guys must have given you some kind of medicine, and you've been sleeping until now." An Junhe smiled wryly, "I don't even dare to turn on my phone now, or it'll definitely be flooded with calls... Sigh, we two didn't come back for a whole night, let's think about how to explain this to our agent and the film crew..."

  "One night?" Lin Xiujing was taken aback, then relaxed, her last memory was still on a rainy day, but now the weather was sunny and bright. She gently wiped her face and asked in confusion: "I... what happened to me?"

  "Huh? I don't remember?"

  She shook her head.

  An Junhe nodded slightly, "It should be the side effect of ether and the medicine you were given later..." As he spoke, he told her about Lin Xiujing being deceived out of the TV station and then fainting. The process was true, all from Lin Zhengyuan's mouth, but the result would not be told to her. Not mentioning the general relationship, even if it's intimate, some things are too straightforward for both parties, so it's better not to mention it!

  He vaguely told her that someone was targeting the crew, knocking her out and using her phone to lure him out, but he was more vigilant, brought a few friends together, chased those people away, and then found her in the car left behind by the other party.

  Although these words actually have many places that cannot withstand scrutiny, Lin Xiujing's head is now aching and dizzy, and she has just been misunderstood and made a mistake, her whole mind is confused, how can she think so much, hearing his words, she was very grateful to him, and thanked him repeatedly.

  "......I really want to thank you, if it wasn't for you, I don't know what would have happened to me..." Lin Xiujing's heart skipped a beat as she imagined some terrible scenes.

  An Junhe shrugged his shoulders and said, "Heh, thanks for your words. Later when I go back, I'll stop your agent from killing me, that's all the gratitude I need."

  A small joke, but it made Lin Xiujing burst out laughing. She pursed her lips tightly and raised a small fist, leaning against his shoulder in a familiar protest.

  Then, as if suddenly realizing that such an action was too abrupt and intimate, she hastily withdrew her hand, pretending to be nonchalant as she smoothed out her hair, but a faint blush rose to the base of her ears.

  The sunlight shone from behind her, casting a crystal clear red glow on her earlobe, which complemented the shy expression beneath. It was as warm as the winter sun's color. The outline of her body was also rendered with a faint halo by the light, and as she smoothed out her hair, the strands turned golden. In that instant, an inexplicable aura emanated from her, like the sunlight behind her, making one dare not gaze at her directly or profane her.

  Even An Junhe was slightly stunned at this moment, it was a completely different feeling from her usual melancholy, like holding a cup of boiling water with gloves in winter, pure and without any impurities, just to feel its temperature, the warmth would penetrate directly to the bottom of her heart.

  But if you touch it carelessly, your tongue will get scalded.

  Such a daze only lasted for an instant, and then he came to his senses. His expression didn't change as he said, "Since you're fine now, let's gather our things and head back to the TV station. If we delay any further, I'm afraid the police will have to search the entire city for us."

  This sentence suddenly made Lin Xiujing wake up from her shyness, she looked at the pajamas on her body with difficulty, and An Junhe, who noticed this action, went to the bathroom to pick out a bag and handed it to her: "I threw away your clothes, this is randomly bought according to your size, may not be very suitable, just make do for now... I'll wait for you outside."

  Having said that, he turned around and went out the door.

  The sound of the door closing lightly came, and Lin Xiujing opened the bag and took out the clothes inside.

  An Junhe obviously didn't have the habit of buying clothes for girls, there was no fancy matching inside, just a simple set of white sportswear, with pants, shoes and socks all complete, the size was also right, but... there was no underwear.

  ……

  Outside the room door, Ahn Jun-ho, waiting for Lim Soo-jung, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Then someone next to him lit a lighter and came over to help him light it up.

  He was a young man with an ordinary appearance and a calm temperament, but he seemed to be not good at communicating, and his face didn't have any expression at this moment.

  After taking a drag of his cigarette, An Junhe said in a low voice: "Yuancheng, from now on you'll follow me!"

  Upon hearing this, Che Yuan Cheng nodded, "Yes, brother!" His response was crisp and concise, without any questions or extra words.

  But understanding An Junhe, he naturally knew that he just didn't like to talk, not that he couldn't think. He continued: "I also have arrangements for Wen Sheng and the others. Tell them to go back to Busan, take care of things at home, and then come over directly. For now, I'll temporarily hand over a few nightclubs for them to manage. As for other matters, let's talk about it again at the end of the year."

  "Got it, bro!"

  Che Yuan Cheng responded, then hesitated a bit, just about to say something else, when the door creaked open behind him and Lin Xiujing appeared in the doorway, dressed in all-white sportswear.

  An Junhe hastily extinguished his cigarette and looked her up and down, smiling: "Looks like it fits pretty well?"

  "It's...it's fine..." Lin Xiujing replied, her face flushing slightly as she shrank into herself. What else could she say? She couldn't very well tell him that not wearing a bra was actually quite uncomfortable!

  An Junhe didn't have the mood to pay attention to that many things, if not for fear of misunderstanding, he would have sent Lin Xiujing back to the crew last night. Now the two people disappeared for a night, and no matter how they tried to contact them, they couldn't get in touch, nor did they know what kind of anxious state they were in on that side.

  So she had changed her clothes, and casually introduced Che Yuancheng to her. The three of them went downstairs to check out, under the strange gaze of the boss's wife, hailed a taxi and rushed to the TV station.

  When I arrived at the TV station, as Ahn Jun-hee worried, the entire crew was in disarray. The male lead was hospitalized, the second male and female leads were nowhere to be found, and more than half of the main cast was gone, leaving only Joo Ji-young alone. The crew was instantly paralyzed. Of course, this was secondary, what's more important is that after Soo Ji-seop got injured, the TV station suspected that someone might be targeting the crew. Under such circumstances, the disappearance of Ahn Jun-hee and Lim Soo-jung made people even more worried.

  If it weren't for the fact that she had been missing for too short a time, even if they reported it to the police, they wouldn't have taken it seriously. Probably by now everyone would know about it already. So as soon as the three of them arrived at the film set, they saw a crowd of people rushing over, an middle-aged woman threw herself at Lin Xiujing and burst into tears: "Xiujing, I was worried to death! How...huh?" As if she had sensed something, the middle-aged woman suddenly stopped crying, stared blankly at her with wide eyes, and stretched out a hand to touch her chest, as if trying to confirm something.

  Lin Xiujing hastily blushed and hugged the middle-aged woman tightly, leaning into her ear to whisper something.

  On the other side, Quan Baogen was also tense, holding onto An Junhe and looking left and right, while repeatedly muttering: "Nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong? I didn't sleep well all night, every time I closed my eyes it was your face covered in blood... Spit, spit, spit, let's not talk about such unlucky things, as long as you're back, as long as you're back..."

  Behind Gwon Bo-geun was Lee Kyung-hee, who also looked worried and carefully examined him until he confirmed that nothing was wrong before letting out a sigh of relief.

  An Junhe smiled and hugged them, apologizing: "Delayed outside, making the two elders worry, it's really..."

  "Don't say such things." Li Qingxi chuckled and said, "As long as nothing's wrong, everything else is secondary."

  "Yes, it's okay, I was worried when I saw So Ji-sub get hurt like that yesterday..." Kwon Bok-geun sighed, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he noticed Lee Kyung-hee's expression suddenly change and immediately realized it wasn't the right time to talk about this, so he shut his mouth.

  But Ahn Jun-hee had already heard it clearly. He looked at them with a slight frown, "Senior Soo Ji-hyun... are you badly hurt?"

  Across from each other, the two of them exchanged a glance, their tense and joyful expressions fading away, replaced by gloominess. A nod, this action suddenly made An Junhe's heart sink.

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