The next day, Shen Xiaoyu sent Shi Qiubai to the company.
From a distance, she could see Shi Qiubai's manager, Fang Jiong, standing at the entrance, his serious face showing no expression.
Shen Xiaoyu waved at him as a greeting, then turned to Shi Qiubai beside her and said, "That's your manager. Follow him well."
Shi Qiubai left reluctantly, looking back repeatedly as she walked toward Fang Jiong.
Shen Xiaoyu turned to leave, but before she had taken a few steps, someone called out to her, "Shen Xiaoyu!"
Shen Xiaoyu turned around and met Qin Miao's murderous gaze. "Shen Xiaoyu, where have you hidden Su Huan!"
Shen Xiaoyu let out an "ah" sound. "Didn't Su Huan leave with you last night?"
Qin Miao's face was as purple as an eggplant with anger, breathing heavily. "This morning I received a call from the production team. Su Huan is missing! It's been four hours now, and I can't contact Su Huan. Where is she?"
Shen Xiaoyu spread her hands. "If your artist is missing, go find her! Why come to me? I'm not a worm in her stomach."
Having said that, she rolled her eyes and was about to leave when she was grabbed.
"You've been her manager for years; you must understand her better than I do." Qin Miao pressed her lips tightly, a flash of something quickly crossing her eyes. "Please help me find Su Huan's location."
Though she said "please," her tone was more like giving an order to Shen Xiaoyu.
Shen Xiaoyu listened impatiently and shook off her hand. "I said, I don't know where Su Huan went! You lost her and come to me? Am I some pathetic person who takes the blame for you every day?"
"Aren't you worried that Su Huan might be in danger?" Qin Miao said anxiously.
Shen Xiaoyu was silent for a moment before continuing: "Su Huan is an adult. She knows what she's doing. Even if, worst case scenario, she was kidnapped, the kidnappers would contact you for ransom first. But none of this has anything to do with me."
After saying this, she glanced in Shi Qiubai's direction, who was also looking at her with concern.
Shen Xiaoyu waved at them and turned to leave.
After that, Qin Miao didn't contact her again, but Shen Xiaoyu still learned about the situation from Shi Qiubai: Su Huan hadn't returned.
Qin Miao had gone to the set to talk with the director. They talked for two hours, and eventually postponed all of Su Huan's scenes to the end, filming other people's scenes first.
Shi Qiubai also told Shen Xiaoyu another piece of information: the company hadn't received any calls from kidnappers, but while investigating, they discovered that Su Huan had purchased an international flight ticket.
The time was early in the morning after the night Su Huan appeared at Shen Xiaoyu's new home.
Su Huan had gone abroad without telling anyone. Not only that, Qin Miao still couldn't contact Su Huan, but they found that there had been a large withdrawal from Su Huan's account.
Qin Miao had suppressed all this news and hired people to search for Su Huan's whereabouts in Country M.
The reason Shi Qiubai knew all this was because her manager Fang Jiong had told her. Fang Jiong seemed really capable—he knew the answer to whatever Shi Qiubai asked.
This was also very convenient for Shen Xiaoyu, though she was relieved to know that Su Huan was safe.
After all, it was still a human life.
Having left her life as a manager behind, Shen Xiaoyu's days were quiet and boring.
With nothing to do and plenty of money, Shen Xiaoyu went back to visit her parents. They had retired and were living a fulfilling life in the community. Seeing their rarely-visiting daughter come home, they immediately urged her to find a partner.
They didn't often go online, so they didn't know much about what happened on the internet. They only knew that their daughter barely came home once a year, and they didn't understand why she suddenly had time now.
Faced with her parents' questions, Shen Xiaoyu told a half-truth about managing a new artist who was filming, so she had taken a few days off to spend more time with them.
Shen Xiaoyu had complex feelings facing them. In her original world, her mother was seriously ill. After transmigrating to this world, she had rediscovered the warmth of family.
But before long, they would have to experience the pain of losing a daughter.
Shen Xiaoyu had set aside some money for them. After she was gone, they would receive ten thousand yuan each month, and someone would take care of them.
If necessary, someone would send them to a carefully selected nursing home to ensure they had a happy life in their old age.
Shen Xiaoyu spent a week with them, then set out for home.
While riding in the car, Shen Xiaoyu suddenly fainted and was taken to the hospital. After examination, it was found that Shen Xiaoyu had terminal cancer and didn't have many days left to live.
[In order for the host to leave this world without being too abrupt, your body will rapidly deteriorate in the remaining week.]
The system's voice sounded in her mind: [But don't worry too much, I've applied for permission and won't let you experience too much pain.]
Shen Xiaoyu scoffed at this. Would the pain of dying be worse than the electric shocks?
It didn't matter anyway. She didn't care about anything anymore. She only hoped the system would keep its promise and let her see her mother one last time before she was erased.
Shen Xiaoyu sat blankly on the bed, feeling a kind of indescribable sensation in her heart, slowly waiting for death to come.
After staying in the hospital for a day to recover her spirits, Shen Xiaoyu insisted on checking herself out despite the doctor's hesitant gaze.
The hospital wouldn't extend her life; staying there would only be a waste of time.
When Shen Xiaoyu returned home and saw the empty room, she suddenly felt a bit relieved. It was good that she hadn't kept any pets; otherwise, they would be left alone here, how pitiful!
Shen Xiaoyu hadn't told anyone about her illness, but someone still dug it up.
It started when a fan of Tang Tang was at the hospital visiting a friend and happened to see Shen Xiaoyu being brought in. After inquiring from various sources, the fan learned about Shen Xiaoyu's condition.
The fan spread this widely in fan groups, and more and more people found out. Tang Tang's superfans publicly celebrated, causing the news of Shen Xiaoyu's illness to spread even further.
When Tang Tang saw the news, it was the tenth day since Su Huan had lost contact.
Qin Miao had made excuses, and the production team thought Su Huan had family matters to attend to. But only Tang Tang knew that Qin Miao was so worried she couldn't sleep at night. Without Su Huan, the company lost a big moneymaker, and she lost someone she truly cared about.
Moreover, she had always believed that Su Huan's disappearance was connected to Shen Xiaoyu.
So when Tang Tang saw the fan's message, she immediately contacted Qin Miao.
"Perhaps, I have a way to bring Su Huan back."
When Qin Miao asked what method, Tang Tang was mysteriously silent. After returning from the set, she knocked on Shen Xiaoyu's door.
"Miss Shen, let's have a chat."
Shen Xiaoyu standing at the door looked listless, leaning weakly against the doorframe, her face as pale as if she had been seriously ill.
Shen Xiaoyu felt terrible. She had originally thought she could travel around and enjoy good food in her remaining time, but unexpectedly, a disease struck, and her body rapidly deteriorated.
As the system had said, she wouldn't feel too much pain, and her body didn't show any obvious abnormalities. But only she could feel the weakness in her body, a despair like slowly rotting wood.
She slept longer and longer, with less and less time awake. The only thing that made her feel alive was when her body received electric shocks—the pain surging through her body gave her a sense of being alive. The rest of the time just felt annoying.
So when Tang Tang knocked on the door, Shen Xiaoyu just gave her a faint glance and was about to close the door.
Tang Tang reached out to block it, effortlessly pushing the door open. "So unwilling to see me? Could it be that you have some unspeakable secret?"
She walked into Shen Xiaoyu's home uninvited, looking around and examining the house. Her expression seemed somewhat disdainful.
"You moved out of Sister Huan's place to live in such a small place. If I had known, I would have told her to give you more breakup money. It would have been a reward for your dedicated service to her for ten years."
Shen Xiaoyu blinked slowly. "If you're here to be insulted, I'm sorry, I'm not in the mood. Please leave my home."
"Don't mind me. I just wanted to come and talk to you." Tang Tang sat on the sofa, her expression melancholic. "You know, for celebrities like us, we don't have many friends in our daily lives. It's even troublesome to find someone to talk to; we're always afraid the other person is setting a trap."
"But you're different. We've known each other for ten years, right? In these ten years, although we haven't been together often, I've always heard about your matters from Sister Huan."
Shen Xiaoyu closed the door and walked to the sofa to sit down. She was so physically and mentally exhausted that she didn't want to talk at all, directly treating Tang Tang as air.
Tang Tang wasn't discouraged and continued speaking: "Actually, Sister Huan's disappearance this time is my fault. She wanted to make our relationship public quickly, but I wasn't willing. After all, I'm still in my rising period, and making our relationship public wouldn't be good for me. Huan got angry and went abroad."
"But she sent me a message a couple of days ago, saying she would be back in these days."
Shen Xiaoyu half-reclined on the sofa with her eyes closed, showing no reaction.
Tang Tang pressed her lips together and dropped a bombshell, "We're planning to invite you to dinner together, to thank you for all your contributions to her over these ten years."
"And by the way, to say sorry that we can't let you complete your mission to pursue her."
Shen Xiaoyu's body froze, and she suddenly opened her eyes, staring sharply at Tang Tang. Her body unconsciously sat up straight. "What do you mean?"
The system in her mind also emitted a sharp ringing sound. [How-how does she know? No, no... no!]
[System error!]
[System error!]
[System error!]
The red exclamation marks filling her mind made Shen Xiaoyu cry out in pain, clutching her head.
But Tang Tang in front of her seemed not to see her pain, a smile hanging on her face, as she said word by word, "Isn't your existence just to pursue Su Huan?"
"Let me guess what the condition for your successful pursuit is. Is it for Su Huan to fall in love with you?"
Shen Xiaoyu curled up painfully on the sofa, breathing slightly as she raised her head to look at the person in front of her. "Who-who exactly are you?"
"Who I am isn't important. What's important is that your mission has failed." She said, "Want to know why it failed?"
Almost instantly, Shen Xiaoyu understood the cause and effect. She felt a chill run down her spine, her body instantly cooling. She suddenly had a bad premonition, her heart trembling with fear.
Tang Tang's voice was soft, but her words were like a thunderclap, booming loudly.
"Yes, I just told Su Huan that you are the pursuer, and your mission is to make her fall in love with you."