I woke up to find I have a child - Chapter 46

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After leaving the bar, Lin Yi went straight back to her room while Ye Mingxin sent a message first to Lan Zhu before returning to her room.

Her room was a suite in the innermost section and the scenery was quite good.

However, before she made it back to her room she heard a faint voice shout out as she passed room 403, “It’s 3 versus 1. I’m begging you, please look carefully before you put down your card. We’re a team and she’s the landlord. I’m not the one you should be trying to defeat, it’s her!!!”

“…..”

Ye Mingxin walked over and found the door was ajar. When she pushed it open, the scene in front of her revealed 7-8 people inside the room. Han Feixu, Yin Jiahe, and another actress were sitting on the bet while several people surrounded them as they watched the game, including her assistant, Lan Zhu.

Lan Zhu stomped her feet in excitement, “You can’t play this one! Aiya, it’s over! You’re going to lose again.”

The person who spoke earlier was Yin Jiahe. She was about to break down from Han Feixu’s actions. Having bad luck with cards can be forgiven, but why is she always helping the landlord beat her own teammates? Everyone here is obviously a farmer! (T/N: They are playing this GAME where 1 person is the landlord while everyone else are farmers who have to defeat her) 

Han Feixu wasn’t doing it on purpose, but whenever she saw someone put down a card she would instinctively want to place a card in retaliation. However that led to her not thinking it through sometimes.

Ye Mingxin made her way behind Han Feixu and watched with her own eyes as Han Feixu played her bad hand and made it even worse than it was.

The other actress playing with them is named Xia Huaikong. She’s a small-time actress with little fame, but she has a good character and people liked itnerating with her. She was calculating something before turning to look at Han Feixu, “After calculating it, you know owe me 12,000 yuan.”

Han Feixu glanced at Yin Jiahe guiltily. It seems she has caused their team to lose again…

Yin Jiahe was angered to the point that she was going to lose her temper. She didn’t mind losing, but she suspected that Han Feixu was doing thai on purpose and so was purposely angering her!

12,000 is not a big deal among the people gathered here. In fact, the one with the lowest salary is Xia Huaikong who makes about 250k per episode. There was no need to talk about the others. However, this game was more about dignity than money.

Han Feixu turned his head silently and looked at Ye Mingxin aggrievedly, “I haven’t won a single game today.”

This was a little too unlucky = =

Ye Mingxin understood her meaning immediately and tapped on Han Feixu’s shoulder, “Get up, I’ll play for you.”

Han Feixu hurriedly retreated and gave up her position for Ye Mingxin. Seeing that Ye Mingxin was playing, Yin Jiahe also hurriedly withdrew from the game, “I’ve lost too many rounds so I don’t want to play anymore. Who wants to take my place?”

“Me, me, me!” Another actor raised his hand quickly, and so Yin Jiahe retreated before giving a pitying look at the actor who volunteered. She sighed in pity for him in her heart.

She hopes he doesn’t lose his life savings in this game today.

The game was very stimulating and after drinking two cans of beer, Han Feixu felt her face burning a little hot and so she went out for some air.  Coincidentally, Yin Jiahe also walked out and the two went out of the room right after each other. Yin Jiahe turned her head and seeing that Han Feixu was following her, she suggested, “Wanna get some grilled skewers?”

It was almost ten o’clock in the evening. Who would eat skewers at this time and there was no place to eat skewers nearby.

Even as her heart complained, Han Feixu’s mouth said something different, “Let’s go! Where can we buy some?”

Yin Jiahe didn’t use her words to explain as she took out her phone. It was obvious that she could get skewers from her phone.

They bought 500 yuan worth of barbecue skewers and the two of them sat on the swing chairs outside as they waited for their orders. The delivery time for takeout was rather slow and took over 40 minutes to deliver the food. Yin Jiahe stood up when she was notified that the food was here, but the bodyguard that followed her stopped her. It was clear that the bodyguard wanted to get the delivery for her but Yin Jiahe’s mood immediately dropped to a freezing point when she saw this and she patiently pushed the bodyguard away as she warned, “Do not follow me. We’re in the hotel, yet you still want to watch my every move. Why don’t you just tie me up? That way I can’t run and you can watch all you want.”

The bodyguard hurriedly said that he “didn’t dare to” but his submissive and humble appearance just made Yin Jiahe’s mood even worse. She turned around and suddenly pulled on Han Feixu’s wrist, “Let’s go get our takeout.”

Han Feixu didn’t dare say a word during the entire interaction and let her pull her all the way. Once they got in the elevator, Yin Jiahe let go of her wrist and said somberly, “Sorry, I’ve let you see me make a fool of myself in front of you again.”

Han Feixu didn’t understand what she meant by “again” as she could be talking about the opening ceremony from before or some other memory from long ago that she no longer remembers.

She was silent for a while before she spoke up, “It’s fine, I don’t remember anything from before.”

Yin Jiahe smiled lightly as she thought that Han Feixu was just humoring her and not that she really didn’t remember anything from before.

Once the elevator’s doors opened, Yin Jiahe schooled her expression and walked out. She turned her head and said to Han Feixu, “Let’s not bring it back up there, and instead call them out to the dining area. Otherwise, if we eat in your room, it’ll smell like barbeque all night.”

Han Feixu had no opinion on the matter, “Alright, anywhere is fine.”

Yin Jiahe raised an eyebrow and smiled, “You’re a little too easy-going. What if I said let’s eat on the roof, would you agree then?”

Han Feixu answered with a serious face, “I’ll agree as long as there is some form of AC.”

The front desk had already accepted the takeout for them and so they just needed to get it from the receptionist. Han Feixu stood to the side as Yin Jiahe got the takeout when she suddenly felt something was not quite right. She quickly looked around but found nothing unusual.

Yin Jiahe walked over, “What’s wrong?”

Han Feixu couldn’t explain it but she said, “I feel like someone is watching me.”

Yin Jiahe dismissed her paranoia, “There are people all around us. Isn’t it normal for someone to be staring at you? Everywhere I go, people are always looking at me. It’s strange if someone wasn’t always looking at me.”

Well, if the boss says that’s the truth then she’ll just listen to the boss.

They took the takeout upstairs and Yin Jiahe found Ye Mingxin living up to her expectations. Sure enough, she had beaten her opponents into a miserable state in every round and had quickly turned the tables on everyone else. So when the others heard Yin Jiahe had bought barbecue skewers for everyone they all cheered and quickly threw the cards down as they hurried out to eat skewers.

Ye Mingxin was the last to walk out and she received a call as she did so. She looked at the called id on the screen and frowned before answering, “Second Uncle*, is something the matter?” (*T/N: Chinese specifies the family side so direct translation would be her father’s second younger brother)

Han Feixu glanced at her from a distance but couldn’t make out the words as Ye Mingxin walked away as she talked to the person on the phone. After finishing her call she waved at Han Feixu and then pointed at Han Feixu’s phone. Han Feixu quickly understood her meaning as she turned on her screen and found that Ye Mingxin had sent her a message.

?MingAn is getting engaged next Saturday at the Patrick Hotel.?

Han Feixu froze and then started counting out Ye Mingxin’s four relatives on her hands.

Xin, De, Yong, An. This is the order of the third generation of the Ye family with Ye Mingxin being the eldest. Then came the second eldest, her younger brother Ye MingDe. The remaining two are twins from her Second Uncle’s family with Ye MingAn being the youngest at 25 years old.

In this day and age, cousins are equivalent to brothers and sisters. Han Feixu stepped to the side as she clicked on the keyboard of her phone.

?Han Feixu: Do you want to go??

?Ye Mingxin: I’ll ask Director Tian to see if he can create some time for us this Saturday to make an appearance. At least one of us has to go. My parents are too far away to attend, I don’t know where MingDe is so it’s impossible for him to go. So, only the two of us can possibly go.?

Today is Sunday so even if they are in Antarctica, Ye Junyuan and his wife can make it back by next Saturday. However, it’s not a matter of if they can come or not but that they don’t want to come back in the first place. Ye MingAn may be 25 years old this year but this is not her first engagement. She has already had two engagement parties before but due to various reasons the engagements fell through. The first two engagement parties went all out but this time they didn’t do anything too much as they gave all the responsibility of planning the party to the male’s side. Perhaps the Ye family was getting tired of doing this again and could no longer come up with justifiable excuses as to why the engagements never stuck.

Han Feixu thought the possibility of Director Tian giving them the day off was very unlikely. Next week she and Yin Jiahe are going to Shanghai to film their variety show so they already have a tight schedule as they try to get their scenes done before they leave. After much work of trying to work around their already busy schedule, if they ask for another day off….then she’s afraid that Director Tian will get really angry this time.

Ye Mingxin thought so too but when she went to ask Director Tian, the man simply pondered over the matter for a few seconds before saying, “It’s a bit difficult to give both of you a day off as we just started filming and there is a lot of work to do. However, I can give one of you a short leave of absence.”

Granting them a request was aren;ty quite good and so Ye Mingxin smiled lightly as she said, “Then I will go. Since there are more shots of Han Feixu in the beginning of the series we can let her stay and work.”

“Ai, no that won’t do,” Director Tian shook his head, “She does have a lot of scenes in the beginning, but only for that little bit. After the sixth episode when Yingxiu meets the emperor, her scenes will decrease. You should stay instead. Your acting is the best here and so you’ll also be able to advise the other actors as well.”

Ye Mingxin felt that Director Tian was not telling the truth and hiding something, so she frowned and said, “You have invited so many senior actors this time. In terms of advising, there are others much more qualified than me. Just tell me directly, what do you actually need me to do?”

Director Tian remained silent for a few seconds, but in the end he couldn’t hide it from her and so he told her the truth, “This is what happened. The actress playing Concubine Wen Xi has breached her contract and will not be coming to act in this role anymore.”

Ye Mingxin hummed in throat, “And then?”

“Concubine Wen Xi is an important supporting role so I’ve been looking for actresses with free schedules in my free time today but everyone seems to have decided they would be busy with prior commitments. In the end….an acquaintance came knocking on our door after hearing the news.”

“Who?”

Although he didn’t sigh, Ye Mingxin could hear the helplessness in his words as he said the name, “Lu Rong.”

Ye Mingxin was dumbfounded for a moment and then remembered the grudge between Director Tian and Lu Rong. Director Tian’s last series was ruined by Lu Rong;s bad acting and horrible attitude.

He looked at Ye Mingxin pleadingly and almost begged on his knees, “I haven’t signed a contract with her yet and only agreed to let her come and try it out. She’s coming on Saturday and so you must stay. If you act with her, you will definitely crush her with your skills till she is unable to show her face due to shame!”

Ye Mingxin: “….Alright.”

It shouldn’t be a problem if Han Feixu goes to the engagement banquet alone. She only needs to show her face, watch the ceremony, and then deliver the red envelope* before coming back. (*T/N: While Americans give engagement gifts, Chinese simply give money in envelopes.) 

At least that’s what…should happen.

Ye Mingxin didn’t have that much confidence in Han Feixu. She just needs to go back and make sure Han Feixu memorizes the relationship between her and Second Uncle’s family so that no trouble can break out.

The fourth episode of the variety show will be filmed on Wednesday, and only for one day. On Monday and Tuesday, they filmed only Han Feixu and Yin Jiahe solo scenes together. Any scenes with these two together were filmed first and so for the past two days the two of them worked hard like huskies pulling a sled and tiring them out so much that they fell asleep the moment they hit their pillow only to get up early the next day.

On the way to Shanghai, they didn’t drive or take a plane, but took the high-speed train. The two bought tickets for the same train, and they both sat in business class. They didn’t even get to eat breakfast and both of them slept all the way to Shanghai.

When they got off the train, both were armed and ready to go as they got into the car. Yin Jiahe sat next to her and asked, “So you’re coming back to Shanghai again on Saturday?”

“Yeah, I’m attending a relative’s engagement party. The fiance is a businessman in Shanghai so they decided to have their party in Shanghai.”

The driver could hear them from the front so Han Feixu couldn’t say who she was going to see out loud. Meanwhile, Yin Jiahe couldn’t recall any big news coming from the Ye family recently so she guessed that it really was a relative on Han Feixu’s side.

When they got to the filming location for the show, they greeted everyone and got to know the staff of the Shanghai Women’s Federation who were leading them today. Beside the staff were two unremarkable looking young people who were very quiet.

The two adults did not look very old with the older one maybe in their early 20s while the other one looked to be just barely an adult.

There were no judges for this episode as the final score would be given by the staff instead. Jiang Lingyan also said that the focus of this episode is on growth and learning while the scores were secondary.

The Shanghai Women’s Federation, as the name suggests, is a place where they help women and children. Every year, they receive countless women and children who have suffered kidnappings, domestic violence, sexual assult, abuse, and so on. Some of these victims would eventually defeat their shadows and regain their confidence with the help of the staff, but a lot of the victims could never truly get over their trauma.

In order to protect the identity of the victims, their stories were slightly altered and the victim’s faces will not be filmed.

What impressed Han Feixu most was a few words from an older woman who had worked here for 20 years.

“Children’s hearts are fragile. In fact, many adults don’t understand this. They think that children don’t know what’s going on or won’t remember anything so they don’t bother hiding their actions. What they don’t know is that these actions will leave behind many psychological shadows in the child’s heart.”

“Women who are domestically abused won’t come to us unless their lives are in danger. Even then, many of them wouldn’t even think about calling the police as they are about to be beaten to death. This is because they themselves had seen their mothers being beaten like this when they were young and their mothers before them. I have led many young volunteers before and many did not believe me. They thought that if a child sees their mother getting beaten, then they will try their best to avoid this situation when they grow up.”

The older woman shook her head bitterly, “This is a form of survivor bias and we always see more happy people than miserable people so many can’t understand the mentality of those unfortunate people. I have told many people this: if you silently endure getting beaten then in another 20 years the person who lies on the ground and covers their head, the one who will feel so much pain but don’t dare to cry, will be your child.” (T/N: aka as generational trauma/abuse) 

“But, I’ve worked in this line of work for twenty years but my words have not reached more than twenty people.”

Han Feixu looked at the poster on the wall that called for resistance against domestic violence. She could barely look at the devastating poster for a second before lowering her eyes and refusing to look at it again.

Each member of the staff was in charge of different departments. The older woman Han Feixu followed specializes in domestic violence and helping victims heal from their trauma. The contestants Han Yiren and Qi Qing, however, had the most heartbreaking experiences. They spent a day with a victim of sexual assult and when Han Yiren returned that night her face was pale and her mood incredibly low.

The Women’s Federation can’t let them shoot them for too long. It’s already good enough to let them shoot for a day. Except for the two victims of human trafficking who voluntarily showed their faces, the rest wouldn’t show the crew a single corner of their clothes, let alone their faces even if it would be blurred out.

In this kind of place, everyone had to strictly abide by the professional rules of conduct and never cross the line.

The last segment of the episode was to listen to the experiences of the two victims who were abducted and then trafficked. One man and one woman, they both spoke about their experiences of being sold and then “adopted” by the families who bought them.  When the man spoke, Han Feixu only felt anguish for him, but the woman’s words made her cry immediately.

The girl had remembered snapshots of her parents and her home, but she was too young at the time and didn’t know how to return home. After 10 years, she no longer remembers the feeling of fear and sadness at the time and only remembers that she used to cry all the time. She would be fine during the day but when night fell she cried for her mother, but her mother never came. When the night passed, she would find herself still stuck in this unfamiliar place.

Han Feixu didn’t expect that she would lose control of her emotions so badly, but she took one look at the girl and unconsciously thought of Yiyi and what would happen if Yiyi ended up in this situation.

This thought was something she couldn’t continue. It’s a thought she couldn’t bear and just the thought of it made her want to break down immediately.

Among all the contestants, only Han Feixu has a child but none of them knew this and couldn’t understand why she was crying so much. They thought she was just a very sensitive person. Only Yin Jiahe understood why she cried, and lightly sighed before drawing Han Feixu into a hug and patting on her back in comfort and then letting her go.

The morning passed and the evening came, and Ye Mingxin already called Han Feixu earlier so she knew that Han Feixu was in a low mood due to the variety show. She immediately went back to the hotel after filming, knocking lightly on Han Feixu’s door before opening it and walking in. Before she could even speak, she felt an extra weight collide into her arms.

Han Feixu suddenly hugging Ye Mingxin caught her off guard and her back hit the door, her waist slamming into the door handle and causing a tingling pain up her body. Her body froze as she endured the pain and didn’t cry out. Instead she slowly reached out her hand and lightly stroked the head of hair in her arms.

“The world is such a scary place and there are so many dangers in it, but why are all these dangers always surrounding girls?”

Han Feixu asked stuffily.

Ye Mingxin paused for a moment before moving her hand again as she said in an even tone, “Because girls are treasures and treasures will always be invited and coveted by others.”

Han Feixu pursed her lips, and she raised her head, “Ye Mingxin, aren’t you afraid?”

Ye Mingxin smiled slightly, “Not afraid. I promise I’ll use everything I have to protect the two of you. The world may be scary, but I am much scarier than the world.”

Han Feixu felt amused by her words and laughed. Then she nodded and said firmly, “Then I will protect you too.”

Ye Mingxin’s eyes darkened a little and glanced down at Han Feixu’s lips. The atmosphere felt right, so she laid her hands on her shoulders and whispered in her ears, “You’ve seen the dark sides of this world today. You might have a nightmare tonight…how about I stay and accompany you tonight?”

Han Feixu: “…..”

How fake. The other party clearly just wanted to stay but she came up with an excuse about her having nightmares. Hah, she won’t fall for her tricks.

“Ok, but you’ll have to go back by yourself in the morning.”

“…”

One of them is fake and the other has no principles. From a certain point of view, they are a good match.

Since Han Feixu was in a low mood, Ye Mingxin didn’t try to do anything. The two went to bed early and set an alarm for five o’clock in the morning. Ye Mingxin believed no one would be up that early in the morning or come looking for them that early.

However, before the alarm clock even went off a loud banging sounded at their door.

Han Feixu woke up immediately, and Ye Mingxin also opened her eyes. The sky outside wasn’t even light yet and looking at the phone it was only 4:20 in the morning.

Han Feixu and Ye Mingxin looked at each other and walked to the door together. Han Feixu glanced through the peephole and saw that it was Yu Tingxue.

Both of them were in pajamas so Han Feixu motioned for Ye Mingxin to stand behind the door and out of sight in case there was anyone else with Yu Tingxue.

Once she opened the door, Yu Tingxue stormed in with a dark face. As she walked in, she saw from the corner of her eye someone open the door due to the noise and immediately turned her head to glare at the person with a fierce expression. The other person was so frightened that they immediately jumped back and closed the door, not daring to come out again.

Yu Tingxue turned her head back around after slamming the door after herself. She asked Han Feixu fiercely, “What is going on between you and Jiahe?!”

Han Feixu had just woken up and was still sleepy so she asked in dazed confusion, “Who’s Jiahe?”

Yu Tingxue thought that Han Feixu was playing stupid with her and agressively took two steps towards her, but someone beat her too it. Ye Mingxin stood in front of Han Feixu protectively. In a summer pajama outfit, her pair of straight and long legs were generously revealed. She frowned at Yu Tingxue, “Yu Tingxue. Watch your attitude.”

Yu Tingxue was stunned for a moment, and the aura of a death god receded a little and she looked a little less scary than before, “Why are you here?”

“What’s strange about me being here? The question is why are you here?”

As soon as Yu Tingxue had arrived she had treated Han Feixu poorly so Ye Mingxin’s tone was naturally unpleasant as well. No one was allowed to treat Han Feixu like this, not even her closest friends.

Yu Tingxue’s eyes lingered back and forth between the two.With her short stature and her small face, she looked like a little white rabbit. However, right now she’s a little white rabbit with steel fangs.

She adjusted her tone and although she still sounded a little stiff and cold, it was no longer like she was interrogating a prisoner, “Look at Weibo. At two in the morning, an advertising account suddenly released an article saying you and Jiahe are together.”

Han Feixu finally recovered enough to remember which Jiahe they were talking about. She pointed at herself in surprise, “Me? And Yin Jiahe? Is that even possible?”

Ye Mingxin had already started searching on her phone and she stared blankly at the screen for a while before handing it over, “It’s possible, just see for yourself.”

There were four photos in total in the article. The background for the photos were the hotel. In the first one was of them standing together in the corridor of the hotel. For this angle and the shakiness of the photo, it seemed like they were standing close as if they were hugging each other. In the second and third photos, they were in the lobby and were clearly getting takeout together. These two photos were in relatively high resolution and showed their faces clearly. The fourth and last photo showed Yin Jiahe’s face while she comforted Han Feixu during the variety show.

The fourth picture is taken out of context and easy to clarify. However, the first three pictures were not as easy. Han Feixu didn’t understand. They live on the fourth floor and are far from the window where the corridor is. Did the paparazzi have a star-gazing telescope to take pictures with or something?!

Ah her focus was shifted again. Fortunately, she quickly regained her focus as she put down the phone. Han Feixu’s first reaction was to look at Ye Mingxin’s face. The other party also looked back at her. Although she didn’t look very happy, it also didn’t seem like she was angry or upset either.

Han Feixu let out a sigh of relief.

She turned her head and explained to Yu Tingxue, “The first three photos are from last Sunday. We played together and there were nine others with us, all in the same room. Halfway through, I wanted to go out for a breath of fresh air and Yin Jiahe wanted to get some skewers so we went out together. Later we went down to grab the takeout and were photographed together. The fourth picture is from yesterday’s variety when she comforted me as a friend.”

Yu Tingxue was cold as she spoke, “Why didn’t you avoid her when she tried to comfort you?”

Han Feixu thought she might have heard wrong, “What did you say?”

“I said, why didn’t you avoid it? You are a married woman and she is my girlfriend, do you not understand?”

Han Feixu was dumbfounded. She looked at Ye Mingxin, who was rubbing her forehead tiredly as if she was having a headache. This was not the first time she’s heard her friend Yu Tingxue make unreasonable remarks. She felt helpless and Han Feixu was speechless.

“Is your brain okay? She was only comforting me, why would I avoid her? If you don’t want her to comfort me, the person you should be talking to is Yin Jiahe and not me.”

Speaking of Yin Jiahe, Han Feixu remembered another thing, “Also, when something like this broke out, why did you come knocking on my door first? Shouldn’t you be going to Yin Jiahe for an explanation first?”

Yu Tingxue answered boldly and forcefully, “I would be disturbing Jiahe’s sleep if I go to her now.”

Han Feixu & Ye Mingxin: “……”

So it’s fine to disturb our sleep?!!!!!

T/N:

Yin Jiahe and Yu Tingxue’s messy relationship will be explored in later chapters. Also our main couple protecting and cuddling each other is so cute.