The Legendary Actor - Chapter 61

Jennifer stood at the door of the hospital room, watching what was going on inside with some curiosity and some hesitation, .

Jennifer had to give up her position to make way for the doorway. When Renly came out, they exchanged glances, but only nodded politely, and then Jennifer looked inside the room again.

Hazel sat still, staring at the kite, the rare light outlining her tense muscles. There was a sense of powerlessness, her previous outburst left only void within her, with time stopping on her thin shoulders and forgetting to move on.

This Hazel was even more worrying than her earlier outbursts and roars.

At that moment, Hazel’s right hand hesitantly lifted and stretched out towards the kite, as if she wanted to reach out and touch it, but stopped because of her inner fear, the fingers that were frozen in mid-air were pale and delicate, trembling gently, revealing her weakness and struggle.

Jennifer’s nose felt a little sore, and she lowered her head embarrassedly, wiping the moisture from her eyes. As she lifted her foot to enter the room, the man beside her took a step forward, blocking the way to the door, and shook his head gently, a silent refusal with an irresistible force.

This made Jennifer puzzled and angry, and she opened her mouth to argue, but he shook his head again and said nothing, but looked up into the room. Jennifer couldn’t help but follow his gaze and look over together, and then saw Hazel’s right hand drop weakly, her shoulders slumped, and a wave of sadness sweep over her.

But just when Jennifer thought Hazel would collapse, Hazel straightened up again and sat quietly, her gaze falling back on the butterfly kite. Without getting out of bed to touch it, she didn’t lie back down, but just remained quietly in that sitting position. Not much had changed, but Jennifer could feel that Hazel’s violent and raging emotions were slowly subsiding.

So amazing.

“What’s going on here?” Jennifer was so puzzled that she raised her head to ask Renly about it, but out of the corner of her eye she caught Hazel moving back, and in a panic she turned and stuck to the wall, leaving the glass window of the hospital room door as far away as possible so as not to give away her whereabouts.

Her heart was pounding fast and Jennifer found such moments distressing. Turning her head, Jennifer then saw Renly on the other side, no different from her, stuck to the wall like a gecko, full of panic, with a look so funny it was hard to describe, which made Jennifer snort and laugh – and then she realized that this was not going to work, so she clenched her lips, controlling her laughter.

They remained in that position for a short while, and then Jennifer noticed that Renly stood up with a straight face. Jennifer froze a bit, and then immediately reacted – they had avoided the window of the door, there was no need to stay dead against the wall, much less crouch down, this wasn’t a spy movie, and there weren’t hidden cameras monitoring around.

Realizing this, Jennifer also stood up slowly, smoothing her hair behind her ears to hide her embarrassment. When she saw Renly striding away from the hospital room, she hurriedly followed him, and after taking a few big steps to catch up, she asked, “What the hell was that? Is Hazel really okay?”

When Renly stopped, Jennifer didn’t stop on time, only braking for a moment and actually going forward a bit, turning to stand face to face with Renly, but not actively approaching, just maintaining that proper two-step interval between them.

“I don’t know.” Renly answered, and Jennifer’s head full of questions grew more and more confused, “What?”

Renly shrugged his shoulders and repeated, “I said, I don’t know.” Then he went on, “I don’t know if Hazel has anything to do with it, and I don’t know what Hazel is thinking, but I’m just trying to think of her as a friend. I would be disappointed, even angry, if my friend suddenly left for a little over six months and wasn’t around to party and have fun with me, our friendships will take a blow; if I had a headache and a fever, I’d want someone to take care of me but not be too noisy, because my head hurts enough as it is, and I don’t need more noise.”

Jennifer tried to open her mouth to defend herself at first, but gradually her shoulders slumped down and the bar of her anger subsided. Not because of how right Renly’s words had been, but because of the core message Renly had revealed: what Hazel needed was not pity, not help, not inspiration, but a friend.

Thinking back on what she had just done, Jennifer realized that perhaps she had acted too hasty, “Sorry.” Jennifer sighed in frustration, “I just …” thought about it, but Jennifer couldn’t find the right words, which frustrated her a bit, “I just wanted to help. ”

“Me too.” Renly’s tone remained calm, “We’re all friends of Hazel’s, and I think there are different types of friends, like me and like you. That’s the only way life is colorful.”

“Are you trying to enlighten me? Or is it sarcasm?” Jennifer knew that she had a lot to learn about the future as with Hazel, but the smile on her lips still turned up at Renly’s words.

Renly held up his hands in surrender, “People always choose what they want to hear.”

The words were sarcastic, but not sharp. Instead, there was a touch of warmth, and Jennifer nodded her head in acknowledgement, biting her lower lip. Raising her head again, Jennifer tried to meet Renly’s eyes, “I think I owe you an apology for the last time we were at LAX.”

“No, I’m the one who should be apologizing.” Renly also offered an apology. He shouldn’t have been wearing earplugs in a public space as crowded as an airport.

“Heh.” Jennifer laughed out softly, she did not expect that Renly would respond like that. Come to think of it, it was the same in both meetings, starting with a misunderstanding and ending with a mess, “We’d better not keep apologizing, or people will think I stole your girlfriend.”

As he interpreted, it made Renly smile cheerfully and gently tuck his jaws, “That’s a reasonable explanation.”

Jennifer’s mood lightened as well, “But there is one thing, my personality is too impatient and always rash. For that, I have to improve. So, I do owe you an apology.”

“I thought we were past that one.” Renly’s smile caused Jennifer to pause for a moment, think hard, and then inquire, “Did someone say to you that you look like an Englishman?”

Renly stared, surprised, and said, “Is this … a good thing? Or is it a bad thing?”

Jennifer realized the mistake, and waved her hand, “Look at me, once again I’m being rash. I mean, your words, your tone of voice, you look like someone who came straight out of Cambridge or Oxford, but your smile …”. Looking at Renly’s deepening smile, Jennifer rolled her eyes in frustration at being herself. “Well, my personality is apparently going woo-woo again, so you’ll just have to pretend you didn’t hear me.”

The Englishmen don’t really smile much, they even refuse to talk on the subway, the smile on their lips has a kind of detachment and indifference, the distance between people is very obvious, especially in London; but Renly’s smile is like … like a child’s, Jennifer remembered the picture of Renly just now downstairs with the children flying a kite. This is really un-British.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Renly said with a light chuckle, and Jennifer laughed out loud with glee, “So was that a flirt?” Afterwards, Jennifer herself was entertained and laughed brightly, the laughter echoing softly in the hallway. She then realized her rudeness and covered her mouth.

Renly smiled and spread her hands, “If this is flirting, then we’re both doing terrible at it.”

Jennifer nodded in acknowledgement, looking disgusted, then she politely extended her right hand, “I think we’re missing an important part of the story. Second meeting gentleman, I am Jennifer Lawrence.”

Renly did forget this link, as they rightfully knew each other, but he still held out his right hand, “Second meeting … lady?” Renly’s gently upbeat questioning tone made Jennifer wrinkle her nose in protest, “I’m Renly Hall.”

The two people then shook their right hands in the air in a friendly manner, shortening the distance between them momentarily.

“I have work to do later, so I won’t be staying long today. I’ll see you next time.” After Renly said goodbye, he first bowed politely, and then walked around Jennifer toward the elevator.

Jennifer turned back and gave a friendly wave to Renly, “Goodbye.”

Renly took a few steps away and then stopped in his tracks once again. Annie sat down on the orange bench, looking unhappy. She obviously hadn’t finished today’s task. Renly touched Annie’s little head, whispered a few words, and then saw Annie’s chubby face completely wrinkled up, making a face at Renly, but the smile under her eyes still escaped, which made Renly laugh out loud.

Then Renly stood up, walked to the elevator, greeted the nurses at the nurse station, and quickly disappeared into the elevator.

Jennifer also turned around and walked off in the other direction, once again engaged in her volunteer work. The afternoon was far from over.