It was an unfamiliar number.
Lu Wenxi hesitated for a while before pressing the answer button.
The next second.
A familiar female voice came from the other end of the phone.
"Wenxi."
Hearing the voice, Lu Wenxi's eyes widened in shock. She immediately took the phone away from her ear and turned on the speaker.
Hearing the voice, Ji Bai stepped on the brake and pulled the car over to the side of the road.
"Mianbao, what's going on with you these days? Why can't I reach you and you haven't returned my calls? Do you know how worried I've been? Where's your phone? Why are you calling me from someone else's phone?" Lu Wenxi rattled off one question after another.
This feeling of being truly cared about was a luxury for Jiang Zhirou.
It felt as if something was stuck in her throat. She couldn't say a word for a long time.
Lu Wenxi was Chen Qingmian's friend. Jiang Zhirou was very clear about this.
This phone call today was also to say a proper goodbye to her.
Even if they couldn't be friends forever, at least they should part on good terms.
She couldn't remember why she had to say goodbye to Wenxi properly.
But she always had a feeling that if she didn't say goodbye properly now, they might part on bad terms one day.
Just thinking about it made Jiang Zhirou feel inexplicably panicked.
This feeling of fear was so real.
It was as if... such a thing had happened once before.
Lu Wenxi didn't hear a sound from the other end of the phone for a long time. "Mianbao, are you still there?"
Jiang Zhirou on the other end of the phone took a deep breath before slowly speaking. "Wenxi, I guess Brother Ji Bai is beside you, too."
Lu Wenxi was stunned for a moment. She didn't know what she was getting at, but she still nodded seriously. "Yes."
"Brother Ji Bai, you should have told Wenxi about my situation."
Since Chi Yu already knew, it was impossible for Lu Wenxi not to know.
The reason she still called her that now was completely out of her affection for Chen Qingmian.
And her unwillingness to believe that Chen Qingmian would suddenly disappear.
But wasn't she feeling the same way?
Chen Qingmian suddenly disappeared, and she appeared without any preparation. She even had to live under Chen Qingmian's identity.
She wasn't any better off than anyone else.
Thinking of this, Jiang Zhirou's nose tingled, but she still held back her emotions and spoke softly into the phone.
"Wenxi, I'm not Chen Qingmian."
As soon as the words left her mouth, Lu Wenxi tightened her grip on the phone. A hint of panic flashed across her eyes, and her voice began to tremble.
"Mian, Mianbao... This joke isn't funny at all. Please don't play such a joke on me, okay?"
"Wenxi, I had a great time in the imperial capital. You're a really good friend. I also envy Chen Qingmian for having a friend like you. I don't want to keep lying to you, and I don't want to steal things that don't belong to me from her."
"I'm going back to Country A. If nothing unexpected happens, we probably won't have a chance to see each other again. Take care."
"Qingmian!"
Jiang Zhirou quickly hung up the phone after she finished speaking. Lu Wenxi's voice came through just as the call was disconnected.
Ji Bai in the driver's seat saw Wenxi like this and gently patted her on the back. "Wenxi, think about it from another perspective. Actually, Qingmian is still here. It's just that her original name is Jiang Zhirou. It's just that... she lost a part of her memory..."
Ji Bai's voice got softer and softer as he spoke. He didn't have much confidence.
Even he thought such words of comfort were useless, let alone Lu Wenxi.
Who would have thought that the next second, Lu Wenxi suddenly looked up sharply.
"That's right! Why didn't I think of it? Since there's no second personality in her body, it means that Mianbao is still Mianbao. It's just that there's a problem with her memory. I'll just help her get it back!"
There was a glint of excitement in Lu Wenxi's eyes.
Ji Bai beside her watched this scene and didn't quite understand Lu Wenxi's train of thought. He opened his mouth to say something, but her idea was actually correct.
There was no second personality in Qingmian's body, so there was no way she could have disappeared.
It was only possible that the memory of Chen Qingmian had been deliberately blocked by herself, which was why the memory of Jiang Zhirou became more vivid and intense.
Judging from this.
If Jiang Zhirou had the memory of Chen Qingmian, it was very likely that she had actually been living among everyone all along, but no one had noticed.
Thinking of this, a bunch of details that had been overlooked before suddenly popped up in Ji Bai's mind.
It also explained why he always thought that Qingmian's personality was a bit different from time to time.
Ji Bai suddenly grabbed Wenxi's hand. "Wenxi, you're the closest to Qingmian and know her best. Did she ever show a side that was different from usual?"
Lu Wenxi thought carefully. There were actually many such moments.
When she first met Qingmian, she didn't really like her. She thought she was just a girl with a good-looking face.
After getting along with her, she found that she was timid and cried easily. But every time something big happened, Qingmian would always stand in front of her and solve the problem calmly and quickly.
She didn't pay much attention to it before. She thought that Qingmian might just have been overly protected by Chen Yu'an.
But now that she thought about it carefully, there were indeed many doubts.
How could a person handle the same thing in different ways? It was really strange.
Lu Wenxi suddenly remembered that she had told Chi Yu before that there were many secrets about Qingmian.
But she didn't know what they were. Now it seemed that she probably had the answer.
...
After Jiang Zhirou hung up the phone, she immediately turned off the phone.
Si Moshen beside her saw this. A hint of meaning flashed across his dark eyes. He deliberately asked casually, "Why did you turn off the phone?"
"You're not in the imperial capital now. How can your friends in the imperial capital contact you if you turn off your phone?"
Jiang Zhirou casually put the phone aside. There wasn't much expression on her face.
"I don't have many friends. Besides, those aren't my friends. They're Chen Qingmian's. Now that everyone knows my identity, no one will contact me."
Hearing this, Si Moshen was completely sure that she really didn't remember Chi Yu.
A barely noticeable arc curled up on his lips.
Jiang Zhirou's voice rang in his ear again.
"I don't need the phone. You might as well prepare a walkie - talkie for me. It'll be convenient for me to contact you."
Si Moshen was amused by her words. A smile played on his lips, and his voice was no longer as cold as before.
"Okay. Just tell me what you want. I'll ask Uncle Shen to prepare it for you."
There was a hint of hidden, hard - to - detect happiness in his voice.
Jiang Zhirou wasn't one to be polite. Since he had offered, she started to think seriously.
She actually didn't want anything. There was nothing lacking here.
Suddenly, her eyes lit up. As if she had thought of something, she looked at Si Moshen.
"Prepare a gun for me. Kai hasn't made any moves for a long time. I always feel like he's up to something big. Prepare a gun for me for self - defense."