Chen Bai gradually felt his breathing growing unsteady, so to escape this stifled feeling, he drove faster.
Just as the car passed "China World Hotel, Beijing," He Jichen, who remained quiet all this time, finally broke the silence. "Stop the car."
Chen Bai slammed the brakes but because they were going so quickly, the car traveled for quite some distance before stopping.
"Head to China World Hotel, Beijing," ordered He Jichen in a flat voice, leaving the car to fall silent once again. But it was alright this time as the car turned around and quickly stopped at the entrance of China World Hotel, Beijing.
The manager for China World Hotel, Beijing happened to be seeing a guest off at the entrance and recognized He Jichen's car. After the customer left, he immediately ran over.
Chen Bai rolled the window down and the manager bent over to speak to He Jichen with a smile. "Mr. He, are you here to dine?"
He Jichen let out a soft "Mm" turned his head and looked over at Ji Yi. "You haven't had dinner. Let's go eat."
In three short days, the whole world had changed for Ji Yi. At this very moment, how could she have an appetite? When she heard He Jichen's voice, she didn't look at him but gently shook her head. "I'm not hungry."
She paused for a moment then wondered whether He Jichen and Chen Bai would try to persuade her, so she added, "I'm a little tired. I want to go home and get some rest. If you guys want to eat, I'll call a taxi from here."
He Jichen stared at Ji Yi's profile for a while then his eyes fell to the manager's face. "How about this? Ask the chef to cook us something to go."
"Alright Mr. He, what would you like?" After the manager grabbed his walkie-talkie and called the chef, he looked over at He Jichen.
He Jichen didn't even look at the menu and listed a few dishes.
Those dishes were Ji Yi's favorites.
Ji Yi knew He Jichen ordered them for her.
If this was yesterday, she would definitely be happy to receive this special treatment, but right now, she felt unspeakable pain and discomfort inside.
"Mr. He, is there anything else you'd like to add?" asked the manager as he noticed He Jichen had stopped listing dishes.
He Jichen shook his head.
The manager straightened up and was about to go back into the restaurant to relay the order when He Jichen suddenly remembered something. Then he cried, "Oh right! And a portion of hot spicy soup."
Hot spicy soup... Those three simple words made the rims of Ji Yi's eyes turn red.
When did it begin?
It might've been the day of the end-of-production party for "Three Thousand Lunatics" when she was forced to drink. He Jichen was afraid she drank too much, so he called her over to him and asked what she wanted to eat. She said she really wanted some hot spicy soup and from that day on, whenever they went to a classy restaurant or a Chinese restaurant together, he always asked them to make hot spicy soup...
But now, these things that once secretly made her happy now hurt her beyond measure.
Ji Yi was afraid to cry in front of He Jichen, so she kept her head down and pretended to look at her phone.
On her Moments, she saw the Weibo posts shared between classmates at B-film.
"I love eating mangoes" had a new post: "According to an insider on the set of 'The Tempestuous Grand Tang,' when Ji Yi had to shoot the scene where she watched the male lead fall in deep sleep, she made a lot of mistakes. In the end, the director asked her to get some rest, so she left on her own. When she came back, she filmed it perfectly, but it was the same as Qian Ge's scene in 'The Legend of Qingcheng'..."