It was cold in Haizhou City in the evening; the temperature had just dropped, and I felt the chill as soon as I got off the plane.
People were coming and going all around, making a lot of noise.
Her assistant carried her luggage, while she walked ahead with her phone in hand.
After being on silent mode for over ten hours on the plane, my phone was flooded with messages as soon as I turned it on. They were mostly from Sally and Lin Luoxi chatting in a group chat, along with some messages from staff members.
During this period, Liang Shi only posted three messages.
"Honey, I'm going to film a movie."
Be careful on your way home.
Remember to let me know when you get back.
The time interval was a bit long, which was quite considerate.
If it were before, Xu Qingzhu would have been very happy to receive the news, and might have already asked the driver to take her to their film set to see her first. But now she was staring at the screen deep in thought.
In the end, he didn't reply to anything.
She's had that dream more than once.
I really don't remember anything after getting drunk. When I woke up the next day, I was still feeling down, as if something had been forcefully tearing my mind apart.
That day, Xu Qingzhu got up and went for a walk on the streets of a foreign country. Because she was absent-minded, she was almost hit by a car.
Even though it was just a close call, my arm was still slightly scraped.
It's not serious, but it looks quite noticeable on her sensitive skin.
The assistant was terrified, but Xu Qingzhu didn't react much. She disinfected the wound, applied medicine, and then lay down on the bed in her room and took another nap.
I keep having that dream again.
I used to think that sleeping was a wonderful thing, but now it has become the thing I fear the most.
But if you don't sleep, there's nothing to do.
Aside from meeting with clients to discuss business, I mostly handle company matters online.
Occasionally, I would have long-distance calls with Su Zhe that would last for hours to discuss the company's future development plans.
Minghui and Haiwei are both companies with their own strengths.
Minghui, as a long-established jewelry company, has a good reputation and a sense of mission, while Haiwei, as a benchmark in the industry that has stood out from thousands of jewelry companies, shows that it has followed the trend of the times.
The two companies are no longer competitors, and Su Zhe has helped Xu Qingzhu a lot in this regard.
Xu Qingzhu could even vaguely sense that Su Zhe was grooming her to be his successor.
Even though they weren't competitors, and were in the same industry but different companies, Su Zhe didn't avoid her when making any internal decisions for Haiwei. He even intentionally or unintentionally gave her some pointers on how to make the company bigger and stronger.
It seems they intend to merge the two companies.
Su Zhe had previously used the example of the Federation and the Confederation to illustrate this point.
Xu Qingzhu knew that none of Su's younger siblings wanted to join the company. One just wanted to focus on design, and the other was determined to study medicine. Su Zhe had no interest in power or influence.
He would occasionally tell Xu Qingzhu that if it weren't for those things back then, Haiwei Jewelry wouldn't have gotten to where it is today.
The implication is that if it weren't for the need to bring down Minghui, Su Zhe would have been a lazy rich kid, just like Su Meiqi is now.
Su Zhe even joked that Su Meiqi's current appearance is purely a result of inheriting his genes.
How come she didn't inherit any of her mother's diligence?
Xu Qingzhu didn't refuse Su Zhe's offer. Haiwei was willing to help Minghui, which would save her some effort. Moreover, in the fiercely competitive business world, having someone to lend a hand was definitely a beneficial thing.
Moreover, in Su Zhe's words, Haiwei wouldn't be the Haiwei she is today without Su Yao.
Therefore, if Su Yao has a share in Haiwei Jewelry, then Xu Qingzhu also has a share.
They didn't treat Xu Qingzhu like an outsider at all.
Even after taking over the affairs of two companies, Xu Qingzhu was able to handle them with ease.
However, I feel rather powerless when it comes to her life.
The effects of poor sleep are multifaceted.
She had already yelled at her assistant four times in two days, scaring the assistant so much that the assistant was now very careful when calling her for meals.
This assistant was also hired temporarily, but she was quite smart, highly educated, and had high emotional intelligence. Xu Qingzhu admired her very much.
I've been working here for two months and have almost never lost my temper with her.
But now, in just two days, it has been posted four times.
We eat together at the same frequency.
Not only was the assistant scared, but Xu Qingzhu herself was also scared, feeling as if she had contracted some kind of illness.
She has already scheduled a full medical check-up online.
She had forgotten everything she had talked about with Liang Shi after drinking too much that day, but she could still vaguely guess that Liang Shi knew something about her condition.
And he knows quite a lot.
But she didn't even have the desire to ask.
A voice kept reminding her that even if she asked, she would only get a deceitful answer.
It's better not to ask.
She couldn't sleep or eat well, which made her feel extremely bad.
Nothing can improve things.
Just like now, she has no desire to reply to Liang Shi's messages.
I don't know what's wrong.
After taking her suitcase off the carousel, her assistant followed her out of the station. The driver was already waiting at the exit. As soon as she got in the car, Xu Qingzhu closed her eyes and pretended to sleep.
It can open its eyes again after two seconds.
I can't sleep, because if I do, I'll have nightmares.
This has truly become an unsolvable problem.
Feeling rather bored, Xu Qingzhu turned on her phone, logged into her alternate account, and discovered that the blogger she followed had posted a Weibo post.
This is a daily blog post by Liang Shi from the film crew.
The crew's boxed lunches and her fresh selfie.
The release date is noon today.
She's quite good at promoting herself; the photos she posts show no obvious signs of Photoshop editing, making it look like she's wearing no makeup.
Because of the plot, her hair was straightened, dyed black, and cut shorter.
We can only glean some information from the photos.
The two hadn't video chatted for several days because whenever they did, Xu Qingzhu would feel the urge to drink to numb herself.
Liang Shi noticed this as well, so he didn't initiate a video call.
It was as if an invisible rope was twisting them both, making it difficult for either of them.
Xu Qingzhu liked the Weibo post and then clicked to view the larger image.
The crew's boxed meals consisted of two dishes and a soup, with very little rice, probably because they were worried that eating too many carbohydrates would make the actresses look bad on camera.
In the second picture, she looks exceptionally pure and innocent.
She has strikingly beautiful features, yet she conceals all her sharpness, appearing quiet and well-behaved, and even convincingly portrays a student.
Xu Qingzhu saved the photo and then browsed the comments.
Many people praised her for being beautiful, and some even asked which movie she was filming.
But nobody knows.
Even the news that Gu Yixue's new drama "Heart's Journey" had started filming was not released.
Not to mention the two lead actors.
After scrolling through Liang Shi's Weibo posts, Xu Qingzhu checked the trending topics, but there weren't any interesting entries.
However, Yang Shuyan has officially announced her new drama, and she is wearing a red dress in the official poster.
This time, Yang Shuyan will be acting in a period drama, and she will be paired with a female star from the same company.
It's obvious that the actresses aren't as famous as Yang Shuyan; it's purely the company having Yang Shuyan promote newcomers.
As soon as the official announcement came out, the page for Yang Shuyan's hashtag was flooded with messages from her fans.
Including the newcomer and the company staff, no one was spared.
Fans are criticizing the company for being inhumane, making Yang Shuyan act in their own low-budget web series and dragging three newcomers into it, which is simply exploiting Yang Shuyan. They hope Yang Shuyan will withdraw from this series.
But no one responded.
The online battle between fans intensified, and two or three hashtags related to Yang Shuyan appeared on the charts.
One of the entries even led to a post on popular Weibo that read:
[It's better to have Yang Shuyan act alongside Zhao Ying than to have her mentor a newcomer; at least both of them have decent acting skills.]
One Weibo post received 30,000 likes.
Both Yang Shuyan's and Zhao Ying's fans remained silent.
However, the two companies continued their usual pattern of feuding.
Xu Qingzhu was just browsing; she wasn't even really a bystander. She went through all the trending topics, then opened other apps, and after browsing around for a while, she returned to her original social media app.
She had re-marked Liang Shi's message as unread, but her obsessive-compulsive disorder prevented her from opening the chat window and making the red dot disappear.
She hesitated until she arrived at the store, where the stylist who would do her hair and makeup was already in place.
She opened the chat window a split second before entering the store and replied expressionlessly: 【Mm.】
Concise and to the point.
Xu Qingzhu handed her phone to her assistant, then quietly let the stylist do her hair and makeup.