After Exchanging Shadows

⇔  ⇔ 

Once she"d finished bathing, Ruan Yesheng reluctantly emerged from the bathroom. When she did, Xi Mo was still sitting upright next to the table, her eyes having never left the door to the bathroom for even a moment.

"What took you so long?" Xi Mo glanced at her coldly.

The longer that Ruan Yesheng took in the bath, the longer that she"d interacted with her naked body. After all, there was no way that one could bathe fully clothed. It was inevitable that she"d touch her body, including even the intimate areas of her body.

For every minute that Ruan Yesheng was in the bath, Xi Mo"s irritation towards her grew stronger; she felt like strangling her to death.

However, if she hurried and didn"t bathe properly, it would also be unbearable to a mysophobic like Xi Mo. After all, she normally paid careful attention to bathing.

Faced with such a dilemma, Xi Fo felt so irritated that she couldn"t help but want to commit suicide.

"I"ve already told you that it"s inconvenient to bathe with my eyes closed." Ruan Yesheng said as she changed into a pair of pajamas. When she finished, she walked over, which caused a small gust of wind laden with a refreshing fragrance to form since she"d just taken a bath. She glanced at him and said, "To add to that, it took me ten minutes just to pick up the soap."

Xo Mo: "……"

Ruan Yesheng tapped her left palm with her right index finger and slowly said, "If I take too long, you feel like I"m dilly-dallying. If I"m too quick, you feel that I haven"t bathed properly. As the Empress is extremely picky, this servant doesn"t know what to do."

Xi Mo laughed coldly. "You don"t know what to do? I just have to give you a Yi Zhang Hong[1] and you"ll know what to do."

Ruan Yesheng gazed at Xi Mo, her pale face slightly flushed. However, whether or not it was from the bath wasn"t clearly distinguishable.

Even though she didn"t think that it was wrong, the fact that Xi Mo had barged in on her caused her voice to sour, "Anyway, I"ve done what I had to for the day; I"m heading to bed. What about you? Aren"t you going to bathe? Or have you actually considered my previous suggestion and want me to help you bathe? After all, your current body used to be mine; I"m quite the professional at doing so."

Xi Mo ignored her words and turned around to leave. "I"ve already told you what I need to, I"m heading back. Remember what I said clearly. Rest a.s.sured, I"ll shut my eyes tighter than you did when I bathe."

Ruan Yesheng laughed from behind her. "Hey, it"s fine with me if you admire my body. I"m quite confident in my figure. In fact, I"d give myself a ninety-five out of a hundred."

Xi Mo"s steps paused for a moment, before she quickly continued forwards, her steps laden with a trace of impatience.

However, Ruan Yesheng suddenly called out for her to stop, "Wait."

"What?" Xi Mo halted and looked back at her coldly.

"Nothing." Ruan Yesheng smiled. "Empress, please be careful when you return. Don"t fall."

Xi Mo immediately turned back around, pushed open the door, and left without a word.

The room had instantly become silent. The smile on Ruan Yesheng"s face disappeared, and she lay down on the bad and gazed at the room"s dazzlingly-white ceiling.

"Be careful." She murmured as she closed her eyes.

Once Xi Mo got back, she proceeded to take a bath that felt more unnatural than anything she"d ever felt. Her face wasn"t really hers, her hands weren"t really hers, her legs weren"t really hers, even…even her chest wasn"t really hers, not to mention the other parts of her body.

She closed her eyes and comforted herself repeatedly until she"d finished bathing. When she was finally able to lie down on the bed, she felt like she was about to go crazy.

Feeling a combined mix of fear, shock, and irritation from the loss of control of her body, she gradually drifted to sleep. When she did, she had a dream.

In her dream, her own body was standing right in front of her. The familiar face in front of her had Xi Mo"s appearance. However, she could only helplessly watch as her body slowly drifted further and further away from her, until it had nearly disappeared from her field of vision.

She felt extremely anxious and wished to get her body back as soon as possible. As such, her only choice was to unrelentingly chase after her body, which she did until she reached the seaside.

The sun was setting on the horizon, causing both the sea and the sand to be dyed a romantic golden red.

As she continued to chase her body, it ran across the beach while pinching together its thumb and middle-finger. After taking a few steps, her body looked back at her with a grin.

Ruan Yesheng was in her body, yet was running across the sand with her bare legs, and smiling coquettishly as she did so. "Hahahaha! Xi Mo, quickly chase after me! If you want your body back, you"ll have to catch me! Hahahaha! Come and get me!"

The two of them continued to run beneath the sun, one behind the other. As they did, laughter akin to a silver bell reverberated through the romantic tropical air.

Xi Mo suddenly threw off her blanket and sat up as if she"d had a seizure, shivering.

Her forehead was covered in sweat, her face was pale white, and she was trembling like she"d been afflicted with a grievous illness.

Luckily it had just been a dream.

That scene had been so beautiful that it had almost blinded her.

As the morning light began to shine through the gaps in the curtain, the sounds of patients and nurses shuffling about began to penetrate through from the corridor outside.

Xi Mo sat and relaxed on the bed for a while before she got up. Her expression taut, she slowly walked towards the basin in preparation for washing up. However, when she looked up into the mirror and still saw Ruan Yesheng"s face, she nearly broke her toothbrush.

I"m haunted!

Once Feng Tangtang had left yesterday, none of Ruan Yesheng"s other relatives or friends had come over to visit, nor had any nurses entered. Xi Mo felt grim now that she"d fallen into this desolate pit in Ruan Yesheng"s place. She went and bought herself breakfast and then waited for the nurse to give her her injection. While she was waiting, she received a message from Ruan Yesheng.

The message said: "Long live the queen. This servant has already been transferred to another hospital alongside Eunuch Lu. Everything went smoothly, so please don"t be worried. You don"t need to specially visit this servant"s room either. After all, this servant is no longer there."

Xi Mo coldly laughed and typed, "You"ve done well. Listen to Eunuch Lu"s words carefully from now, else I"ll break your leg."

"Empress, if you break this servant"s leg, you"ll also be breaking your leg! This servant is terrified."

Xi Mo was too lazy to bulls.h.i.t with her. "Don"t text me with this nonsense. I didn"t text much in the past, thus I"m worried that Lu Qingming will notice. When does he plan to announce the news about me?"

"A week from now, at your office. We"re letting the online discussion continue this week; there"ll be a press conference next week."

If the news was announced too quickly, it wouldn"t build up enough hype. However, if they took too long to announce it, people become bored. Their fans" acc.u.mulated anger might also cause them to take it out the company as well. Lu Qingming understood all of this very well, thus he chose the best time possible to announce the news.

Xi Mo wasn"t opposed to this. She didn"t reply when she received this information.

She simply lay down on Ruan Yesheng"s bed with an IV drip in place. However, she received another message from Ruan Yesheng about half an hour later. "How did it feel to sleep using my body for the first time?"

Xi Mo wanted to reply that she"d felt so comfortable that she could die, but she ended up choosing to throw her phone aside and closed her eyes to rest.

This sudden mishap had caused quite a disruptive change in Xi Mo"s body. However, Ruan Yesheng"s original body didn"t have many problems, thus she was able to be discharged after three days of rest.

Feng Tangtang gave Xi Mo the gift box that Ruan Yesheng had asked her to give her.

Feng Tangtang was quite moved as she accompanied Xi Mo back to Ruan Yesheng"s home. "I didn"t expect for sister Xi to send you a gift, Ruan Ruan. Don"t tell me that the two of you became friends because you overcame the same adversity in this incident!"

She naively a.s.sumed that Ruan Ruan could finally hug sister Xi"s thigh. The show that they"d been preparing to host was still missing an important supporting character that they"d not yet decided on; would sister Xi recommend Ruan Ruan to the producers and directors?

No one knew the reason behind why Ruan Yesheng hadn"t ever really had the chance to star in a show. Back then, her popularity had boomed due to "Stepping Stone"; she"d been like a brilliant new star with a bright future. And yet, she"d only been able to star in in advertis.e.m.e.nts since then.

A very long time ago, rumours had gone around saying that Ruan Yesheng had been purposefully obscured by someone, which was why no one was willing to take her in. However, n.o.body knew who exactly Ruan Yesheng had offended.

However, now that these rumours were no longer circulating, one would only occasionally find some old news; many people had forgotten about Ruan Yesheng entirely.

Xi Mo opened the gift box and looked at the two bank cards nestled at the bottom. She faintly said, "You"re thinking inyo it too much. She"s just free and trying to find something to do."

She paused for a moment, before looking up and smiling lightly. "Tangtang, you won"t say anything about this to your new boss, sister Xi, will you?"

Feng Tangtang laughed as she drove. "How could I? I can"t count the number of times that you"ve bad-mouthed sister Xi in front of me since I became her a.s.sistant. When have I ever told her?"

Xi Mo: "……"

Hehe, Ruan Yesheng, how great of you.

"What"ve I bad-mouthed her about?" Xi Mo twirled her hair between her fingers while she sat in the pa.s.senger seat.

"Have you forgot what you said?"

Xi Mo looked forwards and sighed. She then said in casual tone, "I wasn"t affected much by the fire, but I sometimes feel like a few details are missing from my memory. Even though I"ve done it before, I simply can"t remember it. I don"t have an impression of the action you just mentioned. The doctor said that this was normal, and that the people around me just need to constantly remind me, as it"ll be beneficial to my recovery."

Feng Tangtang nodded seriously. "Alright, I understand; that"s a concussion."

Xi Mo: "……"

Feng Tangtang thought about it for a moment, and then said, "You"ve bad-mouthed sister Xi several times. The insults you"ve said the most are that she"s supercilious and arrogant, that she has facial paralysis all year long, and that she"s a cold-blooded and heartless empress. Oh, wait, that"s right! You"ve also called her a cold, pretentious slob!"

Xi Mo: "……"

Xi Mo"s lips hooked into a smile. She lightly tapped her palm, and then acted like she"d had a sudden realization and smiled happily. "Right, right, that was it. I only needed one reminder from you and I"ve already remembered everything. The doctor was right; you should remind me about stuff more often. Isn"t what I said right? That"s all she amounts to: cold-blooded and heartless. She has facial paralysis and likes to act all pretentious."

Feng Tangtang was really too sweet. She simply nodded her head like she was smashing garlic. "Yup, yup."

Xi Mo: "……"

Are you asking to be fired?

Since Feng Tangtang was driving, Xi Mo took out Ruan Yesheng"s phone and sent a quick message..

Ruan Yesheng was currently surfing the web in Xi Mo"s exclusive room on the twenty-fourth floor of the office. Currently, her screen was displaying the information she"d been looking for.

The two spare cards that Xi Mo had given her as pocket change contained roughly three million and four million respectively. If she added the amount in the two cards that she"d pa.s.sed to Xi Mo through the gift box, they added up to roughly ten million.

Ruan Yesheng: "……"

Is ten million considered pocket change these days?

A message had been received. Ruan Yesheng picked up her phone when she heard the notification and saw Xi Mo"s message.

The message said, "Supercilious and arrogant, having facial paralysis all year long, the cold-blooded and heartless Empress Xi who"s n.o.ble yet cold and likes to act?"

Ruan Yesheng: "……"

…Tangtang, you"re going to get me killed.

Ruan Yesheng"s finger quickly typed to reply, "This servant is terrified."

Footnotes:

[1]Yi Zhang Hong – This is a torturing method that can only be carried out by the orders of the emperor, the emperor"s mother and the empress. It involves using a two-inch, five-foot-long board to punish a servant. The area under the waist would be hit by the board until all the bones are broken and the flesh and blood cannot be differentiated, looking like a puddle of red from the distance.

⇔  ⇔