Chapter 41: Fragility Underneath the Ice (Part 1) (Second Update)

  That scheduled release is quite accurate, it's really high-tech!!! Wasn't it only available after going live previously??????

  Also, thank you for the evaluation votes from War Soul Tattoo classmate and thank you for the reward from Floating Ocean Within classmate ~

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  It was late at night when I arrived home.

  He pulled out the key he was carrying with him, and quietly opened the door. The faint sound of the door creaking open allowed the weak light from the corridor to shine into the dark entrance hall, stretching his shadow very long.

  Fumbling to turn on the light, the living room suddenly brightened up before his eyes. It was strange that he hadn't lived in this house for too long, but even now, occasionally, he could still smell the unique cold and empty scent of a new house from the corners. Yet, it seemed to have occupied a special place in his heart. Even after being away for a while, he felt a bit unfamiliar with the interior decorations, but as soon as he stepped onto the floor, a warm and secure feeling surged up in his chest.

  As soon as he relaxed his shoulders, he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off him instantly.

  Just like a long time ago, no matter what grievances were suffered outside, what kind of cold and wind and rain were encountered, as soon as he stepped through the door, it was like a boat entering a harbor, all kinds of oppression and tension disappeared, because he knew that this harbor could protect himself.

  Sometimes, after careful analysis, An Junhe also finds this mental state to be quite mysterious. If one wants to explain it, it's actually simple: humans are social animals, and even the strongest people have their own dependencies; they just manifest in different ways, and are more introverted compared to the weak, so outsiders can't detect them.

  He casually hung his outerwear on the coat rack at the entrance, stepped into the living room, and found that the nearly 10-ping large living room looked very empty due to the small amount of furniture, but it was clean. He ran his hand over the tabletop, rubbed it carefully, and there was no dust.

  The carpet on the wooden floor is also often washed and feels very soft underfoot.

  An Junhe nodded, since the crew required him to move into the dormitory with other leading actors, in addition to Meishan sister, he also hired two maids. At that time, due to tight schedule, there was no chance to examine them thoroughly, now it seems that the two girls he hired are very diligent.

  Just then, the door of a bedroom next to it suddenly opened a crack. In the pitch-black doorway, a clear and cold voice shouted loudly: "Who?"

  That's the voice of Zhī Xiù which I haven't heard for many days but will never forget.

  "It's me." An Junhe replied as he entered the bedroom, turned on the light, and found himself in a cozy room with warm-toned wallpaper, curtains, and furniture. On the soft bed, a beautiful girl was leaning against the headboard, one hand gripping the bedpost tightly, the other already holding an alarm button, ready to press it and trigger the ear-piercing siren that would echo through the security room of the residential complex.

  However, she wouldn't press on, seeing that it was An Junhe, her vigilant expression retracted, and her hand slightly loosened: "Brother? How did you come back?"

  An Junhe didn't respond to her words, his gaze swept over the baseball bat and alarm clock on her bedside table, his expression helpless. "When I came back, I found that the nanny wasn't here... did you ask them to move out? If you're scared, why didn't you let them stay with you?"

  A questioning tone mixed with a sigh made Zhī Xiù slightly turn her face away, remaining silent for a while before saying: "......don't like living with strangers......"

  An Junhe let out a silent sigh, during his days on set, he called home every day, and Mei Shan's sister had told him more than once that Zhi Xiu locked herself in her room all day, if this continued, she might develop social anxiety disorder. He originally thought it was nothing to worry about, thinking that as time passed, she would slowly come out of the psychological shadow, and when the time came, he would let her interact with the outside world again, and she should recover quickly.

  But now, looking at the situation, it may be even more severe than what Mei Shan said. Not even accepting a nanny, she would rather live alone in an empty and dark house, placing weapons and other things on her bedside table, unwilling to let anyone accompany her. This subconscious avoidance of people and lack of sense of security is quite dangerous.

  But there's no need to tell Ji-soo about this, she's still in a sensitive state of mind, so Ahn Jun-ho didn't ask any more questions and quietly walked over to the bed, putting the baseball bat under it while saying: "The film crew has had some issues recently, work has been suspended, so I'll be staying here for a few days until things are resolved."

  Her sister's bright eyes looked at him, "What's wrong? The crew has stopped working, it's very troublesome?"

  "No, just some trivial matters, trivial things are the most annoying, don't worry!"

  He sat on the edge of the bed, gently stroking her soft and smooth hair, feeling the silky warmth under his palm, and smiled: "Sleep! It's late."

  Zhī xiù slightly tilted her head, letting his fingers graze over her cheek. The delicate skin and rough fingertips touched, bringing a convergence of their body temperatures. Then, in her heart, it was as if the warmth had infected her, making her feel cozy and warm.

  She blinked and suddenly stretched out her two hands with her palms facing outward.

  An Junhe looked at her with a puzzled expression, "What's wrong?"

  "Hold me!"

  "Ha!" An Jun was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing, "How old are you now, still acting spoiled?"

  Although he said so, he still took off his shoes, climbed onto the bed, wrapped her in a quilt, and lay down on the bed with the quilt in his arms.

  I still remember, when I was a child, it was often like this. At that time, my family was poor and lived in a remote area. In the winter, we couldn't use heating or air conditioning, which we had never even seen before. Every night, if mother worked overtime, my brother and sister would snuggle up together in one quilt, relying on each other's body heat to keep warm.

  At that time, the darkness was deep, with the lights off, in a room where you couldn't see your fingers when you stretched out your hand. The silence was such that you could hear each other's heartbeat, and the pulsing frequency was the same. In that tight embrace, it occasionally occurred to me that many times there was an illusion that the two of us were actually one body.

  So at this moment.

  Ji Hyeon, wrapped tightly in a thin blanket, rested her head on his shoulder, her small head squeezed into his chest, her ear pressed against his breastbone. After a moment, she murmured, "The heartbeat is still the same..."

  "Of course we're the same, we're twins!"

  "They say twins have telepathy, so why are our heartbeats just alike?"

  "EKG is unscientific, don't believe it."

  "But I think there is..."

  "Don't think nonsense anymore, go to sleep!"

  "Oh..."

  The girl snuggled into her quilt, closed her eyes contentedly and soon began to snore softly. Her posture was calm and peaceful, perhaps only when he was by her side could she let go of everything and fall asleep so peacefully.

  To her, he is also her dependence, as familiar and safe as a part of her body, inseparable!

  Watching her gradually fall asleep and sink into a dreamland, An Junhe's mouth corner hung with a gentle smile. After waiting for a while, he slowly pulled out his arm, got up to turn off the light, and looked at the soft and weak light shining from the living room onto her sweet sleeping face. He leaned down and kissed her clean forehead silently saying "goodnight".

  Then quietly left, before closing the door behind him, a faint murmur was also heard:

  "Good night..."

  He smiled and shook his head, slowly closing the door. The last ray of light was blocked by the door, and the dense darkness in the room spread out, but for the girl sleeping on the bed, this darkness was no longer a concern...

  ……

  When Jingxiu woke up, the sky was already bright, and there was a sound of vacuum cleaner outside the bedroom. The nanny must have come to clean!

  She thought, touching around her, where it was icy cold, and her mood suddenly became somewhat depressed: "Was I dreaming?"

  The scenes of last night were still echoing in her mind, so real that she could hardly tell what was true and what was false. Her mind was a jumble of thoughts as she shook the bell on her bedside table. Before long, a plainly dressed girl came in, speaking Mandarin with a thick Qingbei accent: "Miss is awake?" She helped her get out of bed, got her dressed, and then pushed her into a wheelchair.

  "Has brother come back?" Zhī Xiù asked, trying hard to suppress the anxiety in her heart.

  "Sir?" The little nanny was stunned for a moment before saying: "Oh, I almost forgot... Sir is back, but he said he had something to do and went out again this morning."

  It's not a dream...

  Zhixiu exhaled slowly, and her mood suddenly brightened up at this moment. Her face, which had been expressionless and looked very cold, seemed to thaw out like ice, and a bright and beautiful color floated up.

  At that moment, the beauty was released, and even Xiaobao's mother, a woman, was stunned, secretly calling out: "So beautiful..."

  But such a bright smile was just for an instant, Ji-soo furrowed her brow afterwards, "Did brother say when he's coming back?"

  "Ah, yes! The master said he'd be back by noon... and maybe there's a lady guest too, he told us to prepare more drinks when he left!"

  The first half of what Xiao Baomu said made Zhixiu's heart feel joyful, but the second half suddenly made her mood turn bad again.

  Female customer

  Who?

  ……

  At the time when Ji Xiu was guessing with a bad feeling about which female guest An Junhe wanted to invite, An Junhe was running around in S·M company.

  The matter of acquiring the TV series rights is not something that can be settled immediately, and the crew's work has also come to a halt. With some free time on his hands and no need to stay in the dormitory anymore, he moved back home, which also helped to resolve his sister's psychological issues.

  I used to think that letting Zhixiu walk out of the shadow by herself was a good idea, but judging from her performance last night, it's clear that such a laissez-faire approach has completely failed.

  This thing had been bothering An Junhe for a night, thinking that he still had to let his sister communicate with people, but this kind of thing couldn't be done by spending money to hire someone, and even a psychologist dared not to be invited, fearing that it would stimulate his sister. The most suitable one was naturally to find his friends, and the girls he knew were not many, and only Xiuying and Yuli had deep relationships with him, so he rushed to the company in the morning to ask those girls for help.

  But probably in practice, their phones were not answered, and An Junhe had to find a practice room one by one. For a period of time without coming to the company, he was originally low-key and almost forgotten by people. During this time, I met a trainee who had seen before, stopped him and asked where Soo-young and others were, and the other person looked at him for half a day before recognizing him, while helping him guide the way, and exclaimed: "Isn't it said that you are going to debut? How come, didn't succeed?"

  There was a hint of sourness and a tinge of schadenfreude in his words, apparently thinking that since he hadn't seen any news about him for a long time, he must have failed to make it big. An Junhe could only smile wryly at this, but fortunately, his goal had been achieved, so he didn't bother to argue with such a person and just exchanged a few pleasantries before turning around and leaving.

  Following the direction he pointed, when I found a dance studio, there was no such thing as he imagined, like usual several girls gathered together making noise. In the empty and spacious dance studio, there was only one thin figure practicing basic movements repeatedly, sweat dripping down her still tender face, reflecting the stubbornness and loneliness in her eyes.

  That's Jung Soo-yeon!

  ;