The Person I Love Who Has Been Missing For Three Years - Chapter 86

Chapter 86: A Cat’s Thoughts Are All Written on Its Face…

Because of the time they had lost earlier, her scenes were the last to be filmed. Her wrap-up meant the entire crew was done and heading on holiday.

They rushed to finish before New Year’s Day, and everyone was in high spirits, knowing they could go home for the holiday.

At the wrap-up party, Song Xiangwan toasted a few drinks, then found an excuse to leave. Everyone knew what was happening and didn’t expose her, waving her off.

New Year’s Day was in two days. The shops on the street were decked out in festive decorations, all in bright red. Today, a thin layer of snow had fallen, covering the rooftops with a chilly, wintry blanket. A timely snow promised a prosperous year, a good omen.

Song Xiangwan pushed open the door, untied her scarf, and rubbed her hands to warm up her cold palms before rushing over to hug Ming Jin.

“Why are you back so early?” Ming Jin caught her, looked down, and kissed the tip of her nose, her eyes smiling. “Did you sneak out?”

“Of course not. I left openly,” Song Xiangwan rubbed against Ming Jin, smelling a faint medicinal balm scent. Her heart softened slightly.

“Let’s go back tomorrow… The climate in Jin City is really bad…” Song Xiangwan whispered.

Ming Jin disliked using analgesic balms, largely because of her personality; she didn’t like being heavily scented with medicine.

She wouldn’t use it unless she was in severe pain.

The climate in Jin City in winter was damp, and staying here wasn’t as comfortable as being at home.

Song Xiangwan planned in her mind that before accepting future scripts, she had to check and avoid spending autumn and winter in Jin City. It wasn’t good for Ming Jin’s health.

“Sounds good. We can go back and spend New Year’s Day with Ah Yan. She called me yesterday, complaining about being all alone at home.” As she spoke, Ming Jin took Song Xiangwan’s hands and gently tucked them into her arms.

“Don’t…” Song Xiangwan quickly pulled her fingers back. “They’re too cold.”

“That’s why,” Ming Jin frowned slightly, placing her hands against her own abdomen and gently warming them. “The few years I managed your health, it was fine.”

“These past few years, you haven’t taken good care of yourself. Are you even drinking your traditional medicine?”

Song Xiangwan had a cold constitution, and in winter, it was like her blood couldn’t reach her extremities. Her hands and feet were icy cold with the slightest drop in temperature.

“It doesn’t taste good…” Song Xiangwan mumbled, trying to evade the question.

She genuinely disliked drinking traditional medicine. When Ming Jin supervised her, she could manage to drink some, but without supervision, who would willingly drink such bitter stuff?

“Don’t move,” Ming Jin stopped her from pulling her hand out and said softly, “They’ll warm up soon.”

She should have drunk it properly… Song Xiangwan pursed her lips, feeling guilty that Ming Jin was uncomfortable and still had to warm her hands.

With both hands restrained, Song Xiangwan wasn’t an obedient person. She brought her face close, gently rubbing against Ming Jin’s jaw: “Ah Jin…”

With a faint smell of wine, Ming Jin complied with her intention and lightly kissed her lips: “Little drunk cat.”

“I’m not drunk. That was only a few cups. I can drink a thousand and not fall,” Song Xiangwan laughed happily as she looked at Ming Jin, her eyes bright and shimmering.

She had a good tolerance for alcohol and wasn’t drunk.

But alcohol was an aphrodisiac. Having a little made her feel slightly giddy and want to do naughty things.

The hand pressed against Ming Jin’s abdomen became restless, moving upwards, and Ming Jin immediately grabbed it: “Behave.”

“Xiangwan, Xiaojin, dinner is ready. I’m leaving now…” Aunt Liu called out from the kitchen.

She didn’t come to look, just opened the door and left, the sound of the door closing with a thud.

“No one’s here,” Song Xiangwan’s lips curved up. Her fingers slipped out from the restraint, then gently, inch by inch, moved.

Her hand reached around, unhooked the metal clasp, held Ming Jin’s waist, and pressed her onto the sofa. She looked down at Ming Jin from above.

Ming Jin let out a soft sigh, her eyes holding a mix of helplessness and indulgence. She reached up and placed her hand on the back of Song Xiangwan’s neck.

The distance between them closed instantly, their faces pressed tightly together. Her thumb rubbed against the back of Song Xiangwan’s neck, gently making the skin slightly red.

“Mhm…” A soft breath escaped her lips. Song Xiangwan opened her mouth, lightly licked Ming Jin’s soft lips, her eyes filled with a brilliant smile.

After a light lick, she sat up: “Alright, alright, time to eat…”

“Song Xiangwan,” Ming Jin’s tone was deep. She grabbed the ankle of the person trying to escape and, with a slight force, restrained Song Xiangwan.

“It’s time for dinner,” Song Xiangwan said innocently.

All the buttons on Ming Jin’s shirt were undone. Even the clothing underneath was unfastened, hanging loosely on her body after being nibbled on for half the time.

“Trying to run away?” Ming Jin pulled Song Xiangwan back with force.

Bad woman, so strong. Song Xiangwan crashed into Ming Jin’s arms, and before she could react, Ming Jin’s hand slipped under her clothes and unfastened the clasp in one move.

“When did you learn that?” Song Xiangwan was shocked. “Blind, one-handed unhooking?”

The rich aroma of lamb soup filled the air. Apart from the faint sound of the wind outside the window, there was no other sound.

The sofa was a little narrow. Pressed against Ming Jin, Song Xiangwan couldn’t help but want to curl up, but she was afraid of pushing Ming Jin off. She rubbed her tears onto Ming Jin’s clothes, mumbling: “You just like to bully me…”

Ming Jin sat up, casually tossed the remote control onto the table, and buttoned up her own shirt. She adjusted her clothes.

Her shirt hem was tightly clutched. A slightly choked, whimpering voice said: “Ah Jin… Can’t we stop now…”

Song Xiangwan moved closer, hugging Ming Jin’s waist tightly, burying her head in Ming Jin’s arms. Her breathing was unrestrained, accompanied by soft sobs.

Ming Jin’s heart was melting from the crying. Her thumb pressed onto the back of Song Xiangwan’s neck, gently rubbing, and she said warmly: “Weren’t you the one who wanted to mess around?”

Worried that the food would get cold and upset her stomach, she casually turned off the remote control and said lightly: “Alright, if you’ve learned your lesson, let’s go eat. Take it out.”

There was a strange sense of loss when it stopped. Song Xiangwan rubbed against Ming Jin in her arms, murmuring: “No, let’s continue later.”

She absolutely loved wearable items. She had bought many of them. She happily stood up and went to eat.

Ming Jin: “…” She hadn’t learned her lesson at all. She didn’t feel disciplined at all; instead, she seemed to enjoy it.

The lamb soup Aunt Liu stewed was very fresh, perfect for a winter evening. It was so warm that she broke out in a light sweat all over.

Song Xiangwan finished eating, propped her chin on her hand, and looked at Ming Jin opposite her with a smile.

Above the table, everything was normal.

Under the table, that restless foot slipped out of its slipper, went up Ming Jin’s leg, and squeezed into Ming Jin’s lap.

The foot lightly tapped and gently rubbed against Ming Jin’s abdomen.

“Song Xiangwan,” Ming Jin said flatly, a warning.

“What’s wrong?” Song Xiangwan blinked, her voice coquettish and sweet. “I just like looking at you like this, what’s wrong with letting my wife look?”

As she spoke, the foot became even more restless, probing further, taking an inch for every mile.

“You’re the one who said not to take it out,” Ming Jin chuckled softly, slowly drinking her soup, waiting for the foot to retreat on its own.

Song Xiangwan supported her chin with both hands, pursed her lips, and after a moment, she just slumped down, resting her chin on the table, looking at Ming Jin with a pitiful expression.

There were two light, cautious knocks on the door.

“I…” Song Xiangwan’s voice was slightly incoherent. She pleaded, “I’ll get the door… Wife…”

Song Xiangwan adjusted her breathing and her clothes until she looked normal before walking over to open the door.

Outside the door was only a little girl, holding a pink bunny plush toy, looking timidly at Song Xiangwan.

“Lele, do you need something from me, big sister?” Song Xiangwan asked, glancing behind her. It was just her, no one else.

“Big Sister Wanwan…” Lele’s voice was low. She whispered, “I’m alone at home, and I’m a little scared.”

“Why are you alone at home?” Song Xiangwan didn’t ask further. She quickly welcomed her in: “It’s quite cold outside, come in, come in first.”

“Thank you, Big Sister Wanwan.” Lele walked in, looked up, and saw Ming Jin, stopping in her tracks in fright.

Although Ming Jin often went to the set during this time, she didn’t interact much with the actors and staff. When she wasn’t smiling, her calm expression gave off an aura of do not approach. Let alone a child, even other actors wouldn’t dare to strike up a conversation with her.

“Have you eaten?” Ming Jin spoke, ladling a bowl of lamb soup and placing it on the empty seat next to her. “Come here.”

“Thank you, big sister…” Lele walked over in small steps and sat down.

After listening to Lele talk for a while, Song Xiangwan roughly understood the situation.

Child stars like Lele didn’t earn high incomes and rarely had a team around them. They were almost always taken to filming by their mother or father, with no other staff.

Lele’s mother had received an urgent call late this evening. Something major had happened at home.

Lele had a scene to shoot with another crew tomorrow, so her mother had no choice but to leave her there to stay alone for the night.

The wind was blowing at night, and being so young, she was scared alone at home.

Even though her mother had strictly forbidden her from disturbing Big Sister Wanwan, she came anyway.

Song Xiangwan called Lele’s mother, confirmed the situation—it was a terminally ill elder at home, and she truly had no choice—and reassured her that Lele was safe here.

Lele had eaten dinner, but now she had another bowl of soup and kept looking at Ming Jin timidly.

“She’s not the Big Bad Wolf. She won’t eat you.”

They quickly tidied up the guest room. Song Xiangwan confirmed several times that Lele could sleep alone and left a nightlight for her before returning to her room.

“I thought you weren’t planning on coming back,” Ming Jin said faintly, leaning against the headboard reading a book.

Song Xiangwan walked over, lay down on the bed, rested her chin on Ming Jin’s leg, and couldn’t help but laugh: “Are you jealous of a child?”

Ming Jin didn’t say anything, her eyes calm, but she put down the book in her hand, her deep gaze fixed on Song Xiangwan.

Song Xiangwan: “…” What a pervert.

This was a bit too much.

Lele was only eight years old.

“There’s someone else in the house. Don’t mess around,” Ming Jin leaned back casually, increasing the distance between her and Song Xiangwan.

But the person crawled forward again, leaning close to Ming Jin’s ear, whispering: “I can hold back from making noise, Big Bad Wolf. Can you?”

A tone of provocation.

By the time Ming Jin looked up, the cat had swiftly gotten out of bed and darted into the bathroom.

Who was the truly wicked woman?

Ming Jin couldn’t help but sigh softly, her eyes filled with helplessness.

She set an alarm. When the alarm went off in the morning, Song Xiangwan was still too exhausted to lift a finger and immediately turned it off.

Then she heard Ming Jin’s voice: “Didn’t you say you were going to accompany Lele to the shoot?”

“Oh, right,” Song Xiangwan opened her eyes instantly, checked the time. “Oh no, oh no, oh no, I have to wake Lele up. We’re going to be late.”

She quickly got up. Before she could even change out of her pajamas, she pushed open the door, ready to call Lele.

Then she saw Lele sitting at the dining table, neatly eating the breakfast Aunt Liu had prepared. She raised her hand and greeted Song Xiangwan: “Good morning, Big Sister Wanwan.”

“I didn’t call you. You got up by yourself?” Song Xiangwan was surprised.

“Yes, I usually wake up by myself,” Lele smiled. “Big Sister Wanwan, hurry up. We’re going to be late.”

Song Xiangwan: “…” She felt slightly mocked by the child.

But Lele was indeed more mature than the average child, probably due to growing up filming and being exposed to the world from a young age.

Lele only had one scene today, but according to the crew’s usual practice, these minor, unimportant actors would be asked to be in place early, while the lead actors often arrived late.

Lele finished her makeup, neither whining nor causing trouble. After reciting her lines, she took out her homework from her backpack and started working on it.

Song Xiangwan waited with her for a while, feeling a bit impatient.

“How does the director have time…” The set manager blurted out impatiently, but then froze when he saw Song Xiangwan’s face.

His attitude did a 180-degree turn: “Teacher Song, why are you here? Are you visiting? The director is over there. I’ll go call him right now.”

In this industry, people were often quick to flatter the powerful and step on the weak.

In a moment, the director rushed over: “Xiangwan, you didn’t tell us you were visiting. Look at the trouble.”

“It’s fine, I’m not visiting. I’m here to accompany Lele to her shoot,” Song Xiangwan knew this director; they had worked together before.

“Oh…” The director hadn’t fully processed it yet. “I see…”

“I see on Lele’s call sheet that she has the first scene this morning. Why hasn’t it started yet?” Song Xiangwan frowned.

“Well, the actors for the first scene haven’t all arrived, so we started filming the later scenes first,” the director explained. These kinds of accidents happened often in film crews.

“Haven’t all arrived? Who is missing?” Song Xiangwan frowned again.

Then she got her answer, hearing a voice from behind: “Sorry, Director. I woke up with a slight cold this morning, so I’m late.”

Song Xiangwan turned around. Her eyes met the speaker’s. Her lips curled up. Oh, an old acquaintance.

She ran into Su Chenxing here.

“Teacher Song is here too…” Su Chenxing’s tone was somewhat meaningful.

“Hurry up and film. I still need to take Lele to lunch after this. Thank you, Director,” Song Xiangwan chose to ignore her directly.

“Yes, yes, yes. We’ll be quick. Teacher Su, please hurry and get your makeup done. Everyone is waiting.” The director also probably realized these two didn’t get along and quickly tried to smooth things over.

They rushed through it, but by the time the first scene was finished, it was already 12:00 PM.

This was with Song Xiangwan present. If it weren’t for Song Xiangwan’s presence, Lele would probably have waited there all day and might not have even filmed her scene by evening.

As she left with Lele, Song Xiangwan again chose to ignore Su Chenxing when they brushed past each other, walking straight past while holding Lele’s hand.

Outside, Ming Jin’s car was waiting by the roadside. She watched them get in: “Did you run into someone you dislike?”

“Huh?” Song Xiangwan blinked. “How did you know?”

Ming Jin handed her phone to Song Xiangwan: “I just suppressed a news article. It seems to be a photo taken by an internal crew member.”

The main subjects of the photos were Song Xiangwan and Lele.

Song Xiangwan was squatting down, helping Lele adjust her clothes, saying something, both of them smiling.

Song Xiangwan: ???

She read the report. It sounded quite credible.

It claimed that Song Xiangwan came from a poor background but gained the favor of capital during college because she was noticed by a powerful figure behind the scenes.

She allegedly bore the powerful figure a daughter, and then she rose in status thanks to her daughter, soaring in her acting career from then on.

It claimed Song Xiangwan’s “man-hater” persona was completely false and that she was not clean at all. It was all a persona for attracting fans—all business.

Now, she was reportedly pushing her daughter to the top, accompanying her to acting gigs, and even having her daughter play her younger self in the new movie.

Ming Jin: “Something this outrageous, do people actually believe it when it’s posted?”

Song Xiangwan: “…” Although she didn’t want to admit it, the entertainment industry was like this. The more outrageous and flashy the story, the more people actually believed it.

“Didn’t you ever doubt it?” Song Xiangwan blinked, a mischievous thought bubbling up. “I was nineteen when I got together with you. The timeline matches…”

Ming Jin glanced at her, as if looking at an idiot: “Do you have any idea who did it?”

“Su Chenxing, of course. She’s persistent,” Song Xiangwan couldn’t help but click her tongue.

She didn’t need to guess whose doing it was. This Su Chenxing was someone who didn’t bite much but was incredibly irritating.

“However…” Ming Jin paused, her gaze falling on Lele’s face, which bore some resemblance to Song Xiangwan’s. “This did inspire me.”

“Wait, what are you thinking now? I can’t quite follow your train of thought,” Song Xiangwan hadn’t caught up.

“The owner of that phone number has been found,” Ming Jin said slowly.

“But this person has no connection to me whatsoever, and has never even been to Haicheng. So, someone must have used his ID to register the phone number.”

“The trail ends there…”

“But I’ve roughly filtered the people who would have a reason to do this. There aren’t many.”

“No more than three types: The first, someone with a vendetta against the Ming family, hoping to make our sisters turn on each other.”

“The second, someone with a vendetta against me, simply wanting revenge.”

“The third, someone who could profit from the conflict between Ah Yan and me.”

“The car accident was a serious attempt, aimed at killing me. If I hadn’t been lucky, I would be a corpse now. So, my death would also benefit her. It should be the second or third type.”

“If the hatred for me were that deep, based on my way of doing things, I wouldn’t have given her a chance to act.”

“Therefore, it should be the third type. Whether Ah Yan and I fought or if I died and Ah Yan took power, it would be beneficial to her.”

“Plus, the ability to get the information that I was going to meet Cheng Yu that day.”

“Meaning, they knew I was going to invest in Cheng Yu’s movie.”

“The largest scope is just a few of my secretaries at the time, and some staff in the investment department.”

“But for these people, my death doesn’t benefit them much. They probably just accepted a bribe and leaked the information.”

“The range of people who could contact internal staff at the Ming Corporation and benefit from this whole process is already very, very small.”

“But I have meticulously thought about all these people. Over the past few years, they have all been quite law-abiding, with no slip-ups exposed.”

“Since she’s hiding so well, we’ll have to think of a way to make her jump out on her own.”

Song Xiangwan: “…” All she could think of was checking the owner of the phone number.

If the phone number couldn’t be traced, the trail was completely dead.

Ming Jin seemed to be explaining her deduction process to her now, but how could Song Xiangwan not understand a single word?

Who was it?

What inspiration did Lele give her?

What was she planning to do?

My head is itching. I feel like I need to grow a brain.

But then again, maybe she didn’t have a brain.

It’s exhausting dealing with smart people.

Song Xiangwan pondered for a moment and asked Ming Jin: “Ah Jin, when you talk to me usually, are you talking down to me?”

Normally, Song Xiangwan didn’t think Ming Jin was much smarter than her.

But now…

She likes me. Could it be because she doesn’t have to use her brain when she’s with me, and it’s relaxing?

Ming Jin reached out, pinched her nose, and chuckled softly: “I told you a long time ago, a cat’s thoughts are all written on its face, very easy to understand.”