"Try it! It's good for your skin, and it even helps with weight loss!"
"Great!" Ji Anxi took it, took a small sip, and said, "It's sweet and sour, very delicious! Zhou Paihuai, you're really amazing!"
"Drink up, and then hurry home!"
"..." Zhou Paihuai's words only made things worse, as Ji Anxi drank even slower, wanting to stay as long as possible.
After drinking a cup of tea for almost half an hour, Zhou Paihuai was speechless. Finally, she said, "Why don't you stay tonight?"
"Hmm?" Although Ji Anxi had been waiting for this question, what made her change her mind? Wasn't she eager for her to leave?
Zhou Paihuai pointed out the window: "It's snowing outside. I just saw someone post about it on WeChat Moments. With such heavy snow, it's not safe for you to go back."
The weather is perfect! Even though the weather forecast didn't mention snow tonight, Ji Anxi was secretly pleased, but said aloud, "Isn't this a bit much?"
"It's okay, you can sleep in my room tonight, my bed is a bit softer."
"That won't do!" Ji Anxi didn't want to take over the place on the first night.
"Two choices!" Zhou Huaihuai held up two fingers to her. "Either I sleep in the guest room, or you call your driver to pick you up."
"I choose one!"
Chapter 83 Car Accident
Zhou Paihuai found a full set of toiletries for Ji Anxi and even gave her brand new pajamas that she had never worn before. She said, "Let your family know first, I'm going to wash up now. You should wash up and go to bed soon too." She was mainly worried that her daughter, nicknamed "Little Blackie," was not used to sleeping in the same bed. If she didn't sleep well tonight, it would be difficult for her to get up tomorrow.
"good!"
Ji Anxi entered Zhou Paihuai's room and immediately started texting her family, telling them she wouldn't be coming home that night. Although Lin Shuya had agreed to let Ji Anxi move out in a few days, she hadn't agreed to her staying out all night, so after seeing the message, she immediately made a phone call.
"Mom, it's not that I don't want to go home tonight, it's just that it's snowing heavily outside. You can't let me go back in this snowstorm, it's too dangerous!"
"Tell me where you are first!" Lin Shuya had just realized it was snowing. "If all else fails, I'll have Old Chen pick you up."
"No need to trouble Uncle Chen, I'm at my colleague's house. She's incredibly kind and even gave me her room!"
"What are you doing at your colleague's house so late?" Lin Shuya still didn't give an answer.
Ji Anxi blinked and said, "Actually, she's also my senior. We both study acting under the same teacher. I have a very important scene tomorrow, so I came here today to ask my senior for advice."
This reason seemed to persuade Lin Shuya, but Lin Shuya still asked to see her senior sister: "Call your senior sister over so that Mom can see her and then she can feel at ease."
"...Wait while I go ask!"
After Ji Anxi told Zhou Paihuai, Zhou Paihuai had no objections. It was just a quick look, and if it would put the parents of the little hater at ease, that would be fine. Only after Zhou Paihuai agreed did Ji Anxi video call Lin Shuya.
"Hello, Auntie, I'm Anxi's senior sister." Zhou Paihuai smiled at the camera. "It snowed today, so Anxi can't go back. Don't worry, I'll take good care of her."
"Mom, is it okay now?" As soon as Zhou Paihuai finished speaking, Ji Anxi immediately took the phone. "If there's nothing else, I'll hang up!"
Lin Shuya didn't react at all, or even move. Ji Anxi thought her internet connection was down, so she hung up the phone. Thinking that since her mother had seen the message, she was sure she could get her mother's approval for not going home, Ji Anxi put down her phone and went to wash up.
Little did Lin Shuya know that her delayed response was due to shock; the girl just now really looked like Zhou Jiaojiao. The Zhou family and the Ji family had a good relationship, as did the Lin family. Lin Shuya and Zhou Jiaojiao had even been classmates back then, so it was impossible for her to mistake her.
"What's wrong?" Ji Chengyi asked, noticing his wife's expression. "Or is something wrong with Anxi?"
"I just met a girl who looks a lot like Jiaojiao."
Ji Chengyi thought it was something serious. He said, "People can look alike, that's normal. Is Anxi really not coming back tonight?"
Lin Shuya's attention was diverted. She said, "I only recently realized that Xiao Anxi has finally grown up and has more of her own ideas. Fortunately, this child is not as unreliable as Amber, so I don't need to spend too much effort on her."
“When a fledgling eagle grows up, it will eventually have to learn to fly on its own. Anxi, this child, has also grown up, and it’s time for us parents to let go.”
... ...
Ji Anxi was indeed a bit light on beds, but when she lay on Zhou Paihuai's big bed, she felt a sense of peace and comfort. She closed her eyes and soon drifted off to sleep.
Before going to sleep, Zhou Paihuai was worried about her, so she came in to check on her carefully, making no noise so that Xiao Heifen wouldn't be woken up. She even covered Xiao Heifen, who had kicked off her blanket, before going back to sleep herself.
The next day, after Zhou Paihuai got up, she found that Xiao Heifen was still lying in bed. After calling her a few times without getting a response, she got some cold water and splashed it directly on Xiao Heifen's face, a method that was extremely cold and cruel.
"Ah!" Ji Anxi screamed out because she dreamt of a great flood, but when she opened her eyes, she saw that the flood was man-made. "What are you doing?"
"Get up quickly, Xiaole will take us to the film set in a bit, so you need to hurry so we won't be late!" After all, the two of them are filming in different locations.
"Oh, okay!" The reason was perfectly valid, and even if Ji Anxi was grumpy when she woke up, she couldn't vent it. Besides, she wasn't angry when facing Zhou Paihuai.
The two moved very quickly. By the time Tang Xiaole called Zhou Huaihuai, Ji Anxi had already finished packing.
"We're heading out right away, please wait a moment!"
Hearing the busy tone on the phone, Tang Xiaole wondered if she had misheard. "We"? Wasn't she alone?
Once Zhou Paihuai and Ji Anxi came into view, she realized what "we" meant. Why was Ji Anxi coming downstairs with Zhou Zhou all of a sudden? And judging from Zhou Zhou's words, she had stayed at her place last night?
"you--"
"It was snowing when she came to see me yesterday, so she couldn't go back," Zhou Paihuai explained. "Take her to the film set first. There's still snow on the roads, so drive carefully!"
"Okay!" Tang Xiaole nodded. Zhou Paihuai was the boss, so whatever she said was fine.
Ji Anxi disagreed, saying, "Let me take you first, otherwise you'll be late! It won't matter if I'm late!"
"Don't talk nonsense. Although your second brother invested in the production, the director and others are all established figures in this industry. If a newcomer like you is late right away, it will damage your reputation." Zhou Paihuai directly rejected her words. "Let's drive!"
"..." Tang Xiaole was speechless. So Zhou Zhou knew that being late was bad. Why didn't she think about how many times she had been late and what her reputation in the industry was like now? Did she think her reputation was beyond repair and wanted her junior sister not to follow in her footsteps?
The car headed towards Ji Anxi's filming location first, and only after safely dropping her off did Tang Xiaole change direction. It was already late, and to ensure Zhouzhou wouldn't be late, she wasn't driving too slowly.
"Slow down!" For some reason, Zhou Paihuai felt a little flustered. She reminded Tang Xiaole to slow down. "It's not too late now, you don't need to be in such a hurry."
Tang Xiaole responded and gradually slowed down, driving smoothly on the road. But at a corner, a sports car suddenly sped towards them. The moment she saw the car coming, Tang Xiaole tried to swerve to avoid it, but the ground was too slippery, and she couldn't avoid it no matter how hard she tried.
Zhou Paihuai and Tang Xiaole watched helplessly as their car collided with the other car, hearing a piercing sound before both of them lost consciousness.
Chapter 84 Go and handle this matter properly.
"Which ward is Zhou wandering around in?"
After Zhou Paihuai's car accident, Ji Anxi rushed to the hospital as soon as she received the news. She didn't know which ward Zhou Paihuai was in, and she broke down and asked loudly in the hospital lobby, but no one told her the answer.
"Get up, I'll take you to see her!" Cheng Minxin saw Ji Anxi, but instead of asking her why she had left the set without permission, she suppressed her grief, grabbed her arm, and led her to the emergency room.
During this short journey, Ji Anxi kept blaming herself: "It's all because of me. If they hadn't been trying to take me, they wouldn't have had the car accident. Sister Cheng, Zhou Huaihuai, how is she now?"
"The doctor is still trying to save them, don't scare yourself, they'll both be fine!" Cheng Minxin seemed calm, but her voice was trembling.
Several hours later, the emergency room door finally opened. Seeing the doctor emerge, Ji Anxi and Cheng Minxin were both visibly flustered; they didn't even have the courage to ask a single question.
"Doctor, how are they?" Ji Anxi finally mustered up the courage to ask.
"They are lucky; their lives have been saved, but they still need to be observed to see if there are any problems after they wake up."
Upon hearing the doctor say that Zhou Paihuai's life had been saved, Ji Anxi was so overwhelmed with emotion that she fainted. No one knew that the moment she received the news, she rushed from the film set to the hospital. During her run and while waiting outside the emergency room, she was on edge, unable to bear the thought of anything happening to Zhou Paihuai. Now, suddenly hearing the doctor say she wouldn't die, she finally didn't have to tough it out anymore.
Anxi—
The doctor must have seen this kind of thing many times before, because he wasn't flustered at all. Instead, he called a nurse over to help carry Ji Anxi to a ward.
"You've worked so hard!" Cheng Minxin knew that after such a long period of emergency treatment, the doctors also needed rest. "I'm really sorry to have troubled you."
"It's alright, she should wake up soon!"
When can I go see them both?
The doctor said, "It's not possible right now. The patient's condition is still unstable. We will notify you once we are able to see the patient again."
"I see!"
... ...
After Ji Anxi woke up, the first thing she did was to ask about Zhou Paihuai's condition.
"We can't see them yet, but the doctor told us not to worry, and you shouldn't worry too much either," Cheng Minxin reassured her, just in case something else went wrong.
"What exactly happened in the car accident? Was it really because you were in a hurry to get to the film set that the accident happened?" Unable to get any information about Zhou Paihuai, Ji Anxi could only ask about the car accident.
Cheng Minxin shook her head and said, "The police are still investigating the cause of the car accident, and there is no news yet."
Where was the accident located? Was it due to excessive speed?
"Don't overthink it. This was just an accident. Nobody wanted this to happen. It has nothing to do with you." Seeing that she was blaming herself again, Cheng Minxin could only try to comfort her. "If Zhouzhou could come to her senses, she definitely wouldn't want to see you thinking like this either."
Hearing Zhou Paihuai's voice, Ji Anxi finally calmed down a bit. Cheng Minxin then asked her, "How did you find out about this? And did you ask the director for leave when you left the set?"
Ji Anxi glanced at her and said, "I didn't have time. My second brother told me about their car accident." After all, Ji Anbo had a wider range of sources, so he probably already knew about it by the time the news reached Genesis.
"You... never mind, I'll talk to the director. You should rest first, so that you don't collapse again when Zhou Zhou wakes up." Cheng Minxin originally wanted to talk about the crew, but since the two of them were so close, she put herself in Ji Anxi's shoes and thought that if she were Ji Anxi, she probably wouldn't be able to concentrate on filming either.
"I won't! I'll wait for her to wake up!" Ji Anxi said firmly.
... ...
In the other ward, Zhou Chengli, the eldest son of the Zhou family, who had only suffered minor injuries, had woken up, and all the members of the Zhou family, young and old, had rushed to the ward.
"What exactly happened? How could he have gotten into a car accident out of nowhere?" Looking at the bandages wrapped around his legs and head, Old Madam Zhou still felt a pang of heartache.
Zhou Chengli, however, was getting impatient and said, "It's because that car couldn't be avoided at all, it's so stupid!"
"So, this car accident wasn't your fault?" Zhou Chengli's mother immediately said, "Then we must hold the other party accountable."
This matter should have been handled by Zhou Xueyao, but there was something going on at the company today, so Zhou Xueyao hadn't arrived at the hospital yet. So, Old Madam Zhou said to another younger relative present, Zhou Chengli's cousin Zhou Chengru, "You handle this matter, and make sure it doesn't have any impact on the company later."
This was the first time Zhou Chengru had been "entrusted with an important task" by the old woman, and he immediately assured her: "Grandma, don't worry, I will definitely do a great job."
Today, Madam Zhou came to the hospital for two reasons: first, to see Zhou Chengli, and second, to find someone to clean up this mess. After all, Zhou Chengli is the eldest son of the Zhou family, and she couldn't let his affairs affect the Zhou family. Now that both matters have been resolved, she is preparing to leave.
They arrived in a hurry and left in a hurry, so Old Madam Zhou did not notice that the person rushing past her was Zhou Paihuai's agent, nor did she know that the person her eldest grandson kept saying was responsible for the accident was Zhou Paihuai.
Cheng Minxin rushed from one ward to another because she heard from the doctor that Tang Xiaole had woken up. Although the doctor said both of their lives had been saved, Cheng Minxin's heart had been constantly in her throat since neither of them had woken up for so long. Tang Xiaole's awakening finally brought some relief to Cheng Minxin.
Tang Xiaole was covered in injuries. Even if she woke up now, all she could do was open her eyes. She couldn't move, couldn't speak, and couldn't even turn to look at Zhou Paihuai.
Seeing Cheng Minxin appear in her sight, Tang Xiaole struggled to move, but she had no strength at all. Cheng Minxin was afraid that something would happen to her, but she didn't dare to touch her. She could only say, "Xiaole, don't move. Zhouzhou is fine. You should take care of yourself first."
Tang Xiaole nodded gently, her head barely moving, but a tear clearly fell from the corner of her eye.
Cheng Minxin felt a lump in her throat, but quickly turned her back. She couldn't let Xiaole see her vulnerability; if it affected Xiaole's current emotions, it would definitely be bad for her health.