The silence was equivalent to agreement, and as if she saw the light, Liang Zhu quickly let go of Han Feixu. She finally understood just a little bit where the misunderstandings and discord between Ye Mingxin and Han Feixu came from.

Ye Mingxin’s attitude towards Yiyi is the same as how a maternal mother would act towards her child so she should already know that Yiyi is her child.

Liang Zhu used to be a student of Han Feixu’s aunt. After Han Feixu became an actor, she became Han Feixu’s agent through this connection. She has a good relationship with her teacher, they were like a mother-daughter pair, and so she was intimately involved with Han Feixu’s family and has seen the photos.

Except for Han Feixu’s maternal grandparents, she knew everyone else in Han Feixu’s family. From what she knows, there were some complications with the maternal grandparents’ side of the family and her teacher never talked much about them. As for Han Feixu, the woman was even more tight-lipped than her teacher and never mentioned her grandparents at all. Even now she refused to answer Liang Zhu’s question.

From what Liang Zhu does know, Han Feixu always despised even the mention of cheating or having an affair, but she never told Liang Zhu why she despised it so much.

If she doesn’t know, then Shen Sangluo probably doesn’t know and Ye Mingxin most definitely doesn’t know.

Following this line of reasoning, if the person who made Han Feixu despise the word ‘cheating’ so much was either her grandfather or grandmother, and if one of them had foreign blood in them, then everything made sense. Ye Mingxin, who didn’t know a thing, once she saw Yiyi, might have asked Han Feixu this touchy question. Oh, but according to their current relationship…it probably was more like an interrogation.

“…….”

She believed she had finally connected all the dots and Liang Zhu then said helplessly, “Who would suspect you? Having mixed blood is not a big deal, so why did you try so hard to hide it? If you told me you were mixed-race earlier, I could’ve slapped that label on your profile early on and then we wouldn’t have had to spend so much on marketing! Great, what a waste of an advantage! We just let such a great opportunity slip out of our hands.”

Han Feixu did not speak.

That person who carried foreign blood in them was a piece of garbage she never wanted to even talk about in this lifetime. Whenever she thought about that person, she couldn’t help but feel nauseous with disgust and even a little scared. This was a psychological shadow left over from her childhood and has hung over her like a dark cloud for most of her life. She wouldn’t be able to get away from it even if she wanted to.

She didn’t even dare to mention anything related to that person, so Han Feixu could understand why her older self did not tell anyone about her mixed blood. For Yiyi to have inherited that person’s genes…..this was an unavoidable twist of fate.

Han Feixu understood that it was normal for someone to suspect her of cheating and having a child out of wedlock when they looked at Yiyi. She couldn’t blame them. In fact, her anger that shot out like a rocket earlier towards Liang Zhu has long dissipated. One could regard this as a psychological disorder. When she heard others suggest that she had cheated, she couldn’t help but grow angry. However, just after a few minutes, she was able to reflect and calm down. She also understood that it wasn’t right for her to get angry.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten angry with you.”

Liang Zhu was silent. It was just like last time. She had run over to Han Feixu to apologize, yet Han Feixu apologized to her first and even apologized in a very sincere manner. Just what is wrong with this woman?

The anger towards Liang Zhu may have dissipated, but a little bit of that frustration remained in her heart. So it turned out that even Ye Mingxin had doubted her.

She knew she shouldn’t blame others. It was only natural for Ye Mingxin to suspect her, she was only human after all, but for some reason, from the bottom of her heart, she felt wronged. If Ye Mingxin truly understood her, truly trusted her, she would never have suspected her of cheating from the get-go. Instead, she should have wondered if the hospital made a mistake before suspecting her of having an affair.

What did the previous her think about all this? Han Feixu didn’t have a way of knowing, but she could tell that this incident most likely became a thorn in her heart. She could now understand just a little why her previous self wanted to divorce Ye Mingxin.

Liang Zhu snuffed out the cigarette in her ashtray, “The show in the afternoon is an educational show, where famous people from all walks of life are often invited to lecture about what they learned in life. A bit like 《Voice》, but it’s broadcasted on the internet rather than on TV.” (T/N: Voice (开讲啦) was a public lecture program targeted towards youth, kinda like ted-talk).

Although it is a web show, the audience was still very big and the show received lots of traffic. She has been out of the loop for six years ever since she stopped working, and yet Han Feixu was able to get on such a show. It can be said that Liang Zhu must have a lot of ability to win her a spot in this program.

The program also chose Han Feixu because she won a newcomer’s award when she was young and so they invited her to come in and give a talk.

But now Han Feixu can’t remember anything. If someone asks her about how she felt at the time and some other details, she will definitely have no idea how to answer.

Liang Zhu began to scratch her head in annoyance again, “Forget it, I’ll just go apologize to someone later and then say you suddenly came down with a case of acute gastritis and can’t go on the show.”

After saying this, Liang Zhu raised her head, “By the way, with your current problem, shouldn’t you be getting some kind of treatment? About your comeback…”

“I’ll go to the hospital again and have them give me another examination. As for my comeback…let’s do it. Liang-jie, just give me a week to rest first, I still need to sort out some of my thoughts. After a week, I will start working. If you accept any assignments for me, please pay attention to not accept any work that might give away my current situation.”

If she wanted to work, of course, it would be better to start sooner than later. If she wanted to rest, then she should take a long vacation and recover from her illness first. So what’s her reason for starting work only after one week of rest?

Liang Zhu had her doubts and asked Han Feixu for a clarification. Han Feixu let out a sigh, “One week should give me enough time to fully recover from the news of my parents’ death.”

“At least it….should be enough.”

Liang Zhu was silent and did not dare to ask anything more.

Han Feixu walked out of the restaurant and arrived at an intersection when she turned the corner. She stopped for a full two minutes at the intersection. She was trying to test if anyone recognized her. After about two minutes, no one gave her a confused expression of ‘huh, this person looks familiar’ and felt relieved. She crossed the intersection and arrived at a place she was familiar with.

Beijing’s Eighty-Sixth High School looked exactly the same as it did ten years ago. In these ten years, Beijing has gone under drastic change. The Fuwa* posters, and ads have long since disappeared and have been replaced by various advertisements for ‘ofo’ yellow bikes, travel apps, and the Tmall global shopping festival. All of these things were quite strange to her as she didn’t understand what any of them meant. (*T/N: Fuwa were these tiny doll mascots that Beijing used to promote the 2008 Olympics. Very cute little creatures, my childhood right there.)

Only the Eighty-Sixth High School remained unchanged and looked the same as when she went there.

Opposite of the Eighty-Sixth High School sat a large high-end apartment building and two kilometers further to the west the Zhongguancun district where the research institute her father worked at is.

Han Feixu sat on the edge of the flower bed diagonally across from the school, one leg straight on the ground, one leg bent, with her toes pressed against the granite wall. She watched all kinds of people pass by and not long afterward, the school’s bell rang out. Students rushed out of the school and flooded the streets in search of meals and fun, scattering all over the streets. About ten minutes later, the scene of students ‘escaping their prison’ gradually faded and only a few groups could still be seen.

She had watched them hurry out of the school and not long after the lunch break, she watched as they hurried back. The bell rang again and one of the girls rushing back to the school ran a little too quickly and tripped over a water pipe and stumbled and hopped about four times to avoid the fate of falling face-first into the mud.

The girl behind her laughed crazily and who knew what they said, but the girl who tripped grew angry and punched her friend playfully before the two of them both hurriedly rushed into the school and disappeared.

After seeing such a scene, Han Feixu also let out a light chuckle.

After laughing, she finally stood up and looked at the apartment building behind her. Slowly, she trudged up the stairs and then found herself standing in front of a closed door. She took out a bunch of keys she had found in her bedroom.

She used the key that was most familiar to her and opened the door. Inside, everything was the same, but also not the same.

All the furniture was still in there, but not a trace of human life could be seen. Everything that signified a person lived here was gone.

---

After five days of working overtime as a dog for the company, the censoring of that movie was finally finished. Before Shen Sangluo could relax and celebrate with her colleagues, she received a call telling her to come downstairs.

There are all kinds of cars parked at the entrance of the National Radio and Television Administration, but it was quite rare to see a trailer car that celebrities would use sitting there. After all, when a celebrity comes to visit the National Radio and Television Administration, it usually is not a good thing as this place was equivalent to the Judicial Bureau for the entertainment industry. There is only one reason why a celebrity would be here. Usually, the headlines went a little something like this:

—The National Radio and Television Administration are back at it again, another actor has been brutally banned! 

(T/N: In China, actors can be blacklisted and effectively ‘banned’ from acting for some time. Usually when the actor does drugs or gets caught doing something illegal.)

“…..”

She made her way out the door and a gentle-looking man noticed her and gave her a nod. This is the gold-star agent from Gan-shi’s Film, Television, and Media company, also known as Ye Mingxin’s special agent, Qi Yu.

After Qi Yu nodded at her, he turned and left. Who knew where he was going, but he left quite quickly. Shen Sangluo stayed silent and walked over to the trailer, opened the car door, and got in.

As soon as she entered, the electric car door closed behind her automatically. Inside the confined space, it was very quiet. Lan Zhu, who sat in front of her, smiled sweetly at her, “Section Chief Shen, long time no see.”

Shen Sangluo twisted her body and answered dryly, “Ahahaha, yes, long time no see.”

After saying their greetings, Lan Zhu looked over towards Ye Mingxin who sat on the left side of the back row of the trailer, “Then Mingxin-jie, I will be leaving first. I’ll go buy us some ice cream cones. Give some to Yiyi when you see her. The last time I bought her one, she said she liked it a lot.”

Ye Mingxin answered calmly, “Okay.”

After Lan Zhu left, Shen Sangluo and Ye Mingxin were the only two left in the car. Shen Sangluo felt her throat was a bit dry and looked around the interior of the car, “You changed cars. It seems that it’s not the same as the trailers that you can buy in the domestic market, you must have bought this one from a foreign country again.”

“En, I ordered this one from Germany. Yiyi likes to play in here, the original car didn’t have enough space to fit her things so I ordered another three just like this one.”

“Haha, so that’s how it is.” Damn rich people, how hateful.

Ye Mingxin turned her head. She hasn’t accepted any scripts lately, so she doesn’t need to keep her hair styled for her character like she usually does. Her current hairstyle follows after her own aesthetics. In between films, her hair is not straightened or dyed and even if she attends an event, she has her stylist do something temporary for that day. Today, since there is no public event and she has no films she needs to be in, she had her hair combed up and tied tightly to her scalp in a low ponytail.

This type of style is clean, elegant, and was not a hair out of place, giving one a sense of restraint.

She smiled at Shen Sangluo, “You don’t need to be so nervous.”

“I am not nervous.”

“Then why are your hands tucked so tightly under your legs? I’ve turned on the heat, so it should not be cold in here.”

“…..”

With this not so subtle hint, Shen Sangluo realized she was sitting like an elementary school student waiting to be scolded. She immediately took out her hands and coughed dryly, “Why did you come here to find me today? If it’s nothing major, then I need to leave. I am busy today.”

The smile on Ye Mingxin’s face remained unchanged, “Really? But hasn’t all the censoring for 《The Battle of Gaojiayu》been finished?”

Sh*t, she forgot that Ye Mingxin was one of the investors for this film.

Hateful evil investor!

---

 

Author’s notes:

Author:【offers up with both hands】Here, this is your hypocrite warning for today.

Shen Sangluo: …..I don’t want it!