The thought of the consequences that would soon follow made Rong Guang feel as if someone were taking a dull knife and slowly, cruelly, grinding it against her heart.
She let out a breath, suppressing the welling ache in her chest. Her emotions were tucked away in an instant as she said with a smile, “Grandma, what are you talking about? How could anything possibly happen to me?”
Xu Mingli was still worried, and she anxiously stroked the back of Rong Guang’s hand again.
Rong Guang softened, her whole body nestled into that familiar, still very warm embrace. “Grandma, I still have a headache,” she said. “You have no idea, getting caught in that rain on the way home really chilled me to the bone…”
After a bit of playful coaxing, she finally dispelled the old woman’s budding suspicions and even successfully wheedled a bowl of steamed egg custard that Rong Guang had craved for eight years.
The familiar taste flooded her taste buds, and Rong Guang was so moved she almost gulped down the scalding hot steamed egg custard in one go.
As she stuck out her tongue from the heat, she glanced around the slightly dated old house.
This was a small, two-story duplex-style building in the countryside. Like most villagers, the ground floor was used to store farming tools.
But because her grandmother was getting on in years, all the family’s land had been contracted out to other farmers. She only needed to collect the rent. Later, because her father’s career had become somewhat successful, her grandmother was able to enjoy a life of leisure.
Her daily tasks were just to feed herself and the big yellow dog they kept at home, and to tidy up the house.
Rong Guang looked around, and to completely dispel her grandmother’s worries, she took a card out of her pocket and said with a beaming smile, “Grandma, look what this is!”
Xu Mingli glanced down, then continued knitting a sweater for Rong Guang in the sunlight, saying, “Isn’t this a bank card…”
“Yes, a bank card.” Rong Guang nodded, her spirits lifting. Her eyes sparkled, and her smile was as bright as a small sun. “This is from my recent salary. I saved up a part of it, twenty thousand in total. Grandma, you keep it and spend it. Buy yourself some nice things to eat when you have time. When I’m free, I can send you lots of things too.”
Xu Mingli chided her gently, “You silly child, you’re still so young. Grandma has money.”
In any case, this gesture completely dispelled Xu Mingli’s worries.
Rong Guang insisted on giving her the card, and Xu Mingli ultimately couldn’t refuse. While telling Rong Guang to buy herself nice things when she had money in the future, she carefully put the card away in a locked cabinet.
The things in there, when she got old, were all to be left for her Guangguang.
She stayed at home for another two days, during which Rong Guang’s phone didn’t receive a single call.
At this time, her situation was extremely awkward. She was on bad terms with her group members, and the company was acting as if she didn’t exist.
Next, they were probably going to sell her contract.
Unfortunately, before her contract could be sold, she was saddled with a bad reputation, making it unsellable.
Timing it just right, Rong Guang received a phone call before she left.
It was Rong Guang’s first manager, a woman named Cai Xiang. She was harsh and shrewd, with mediocre professional skills, but her ability to read the wind and steer the ship was second to none, which was how she had managed to get by until now.
“Rong Guang?” The person on the other end was even a little stunned that Rong Guang had answered the phone so quickly, thinking they might have dialed the wrong number.
At that moment, Rong Guang was enjoying a rare candlelight dinner with her grandmother—the power was out. Hearing the voice, she responded nonchalantly, “It’s me, Sister Cai.”
“Oh,” Cai Xiang replied, then said, “Wait in the dorm on Saturday morning. A car will pick you up for a company meeting.”
After speaking, without giving Rong Guang a chance to respond, she hung up the phone.
Rong Guang’s expression was indifferent. After the other party hung up, she still hummed a few “uh-huhs” and even smiled at the end, saying to the empty air, “Alright, Sister Cai.”
After hanging up, she saw her grandmother’s curious gaze, just as she expected.
Xu Mingli whispered, “Guangguang, was that your boss on the phone?”
“Yes, Grandma,” Rong Guang also whispered. “My boss said there’s a drama for me to film and wants me to go back to B City for work tomorrow morning! I’m going to be a big star!”
Just as she finished speaking, the power came back on.
The whole house was brightly lit, and at the same time, the endless cheers of children could be heard—after all, a power outage in the sweltering heat of July was truly hard to bear.
Grandmother and granddaughter looked at each other under the brilliant lights, and their faces bloomed into smiles.
Before leaving, Rong Guang took a trip deeper into the mountains.
There was someone there, her young assistant from her past life. Her parents had died early, and her grandfather had passed away before the new year, leaving her all alone, surviving on the meager poverty-relief food the village managed to provide.
When she arrived, the young assistant was alone, gathered around a dug-out pit, starting a fire to roast potatoes.
The potato skins were greenish, and some had already sprouted. A single glance was enough to know they were no longer edible.
Rong Guang sighed, took two steps forward, and said, “Chacha.”
Li Chacha turned her head. When she realized it was Rong Guang, the eyes hidden behind her bangs lit up. Then, with a “swoosh,” she darted in front of Rong Guang and said, “Sister Guangguang!”
“Come on, big sister is taking you with her this time.” Rong Guang smiled and pinched her cheek. “How about coming to B City to be my little assistant?”
“I’m willing.” Li Chacha had no idea what a “little assistant” was, but she liked being with Rong Guang.
Rong Guang sighed, brought Li Chacha back to her grandmother’s house, and after getting her washed up, she looked at her fair little face and her eyes curved into a smile.
Chacha was still young this year, just barely fourteen. She couldn’t really do much work, but it was nice to have her around like a little sister, serving as a simple personal assistant.
In her past life, Chacha had come to her two months from now, after she was at her most isolated and helpless, and had just suffered the sudden death of her grandmother.
Because she was unfamiliar with the process, she had almost been abducted by human traffickers. So this time, Rong Guang decided to act earlier and take her away directly.
When she returned to her own place in B City, Rong Guang froze the moment she walked through the door.
Besides her, there were three other people in the room—her former group members from NO.1.
They seemed to have been eating together. Before she opened the door, she could hear their noisy chatter.
They probably hadn’t expected Rong Guang to return at this moment, so when the door opened, she was met with dead silence and the gazes of three people staring at her in unison.
Rong Guang rubbed her nose.
Back then, she had also been young and had been so upset by this scene that she cried her eyes out. For a long time, this memory was a thorn in her heart.
But looking back now after so many years, they were just a group of immature kids throwing a tantrum, who, not knowing what else to do, chose to band together and give her the silent treatment.
She found it secretly amusing. Ignoring them, she had Chacha, who was behind her, come in and change her shoes. Under the watch of three people and six eyes, she walked into the room with complete composure.
The three people outside the room had varied expressions. Finally, a very cute girl with long, curly, golden hair asked, “What does she mean by that?”
“I don’t know.” The girl with ear-length short hair who replied also frowned, clearly displeased with Rong Guang’s reaction to them.
Duan Nong’s face darkened. Suddenly, she threw all the popcorn in her hands onto the floor and said coldly, “Who knows what that traitor is thinking! Bringing someone back to the dorm to live!”
She heavily emphasized the words “live in the dorm,” and seemed to want to say more, but when she remembered Rong Guang’s pale face upon her return, her lips moved, but she ultimately said nothing.
Duan Nong glanced again at Rong Guang’s closed door, then returned to her own room with a cold expression, slamming the door with a deafening bang.
The two remaining outside looked at each other. Neither of them cleaned up the mess, and they simply returned to their rooms as well.
Hearing the commotion outside, Rong Guang looked helpless.
She looked at Chacha’s curious gaze and asked, “Are you hungry?”
Chacha nodded, studying Rong Guang’s face for a moment before asking, “Aren’t you upset?”
“Not at all. What’s there to be upset about?” Rong Guang shrugged and went out to get Chacha something to eat. When she saw the messy room, she felt rather helpless—in her past life, she had felt she’d done something wrong and had started trying to please the other three in many ways.
Tidying the room, taking out the trash, even preparing three meals a day… but all she got in return was escalating malice from the other three.
Ignoring the mess, Rong Guang returned to her room and said, “Tomorrow morning, you’ll come with me to the company. Then the two of us will go to an interview somewhere, and after that, we’ll look for an apartment.”
“Okay. Why are we looking for an apartment?” Chacha asked, wolfing down the food in her hands.
“To move out,” Rong Guang said.
If circumstances allowed, the place she most wanted to live was National Treasure Garden. That was also where Chu Feiliang had always lived.
Unfortunately, that place was far too expensive… With her current savings, she couldn’t even afford the first three months’ rent.
She could only settle for the next best thing: finding a relatively cheaper place within five kilometers.
“Oh,” Chacha replied.
The next morning, amidst a series of relentless knocks on the door, Rong Guang slowly finished applying her lipstick and called out, “Who is it?”
“It’s me, open up!” It was Cai Xiang outside the door, her knocking incessant and rude.
The sound of knocking also woke up the other three in the apartment. Duan Nong, Tang Shi, and Yi Chun, who were mostly ready, came out of Duan Nong’s room together, joking and shoving. After all, the person outside was, in a way, their bread and butter.
However, the moment the door opened, the three of them, just like Cai Xiang at the doorway, froze.
The person before them wore a simple, white shirtdress. Her shoulder-length hair fell neatly down her back, and her heavy, straight bangs had been combed up and tied into a small bun on her head. It was an ordinary outfit, but for some reason, Rong Guang wore it as if she were on her way to a high-fashion photoshoot.
She had unbuttoned the top two buttons of her shirt, revealing her delicate collarbones and beautiful swan-like neck, which was further accentuated by a simple swan necklace.
Her shoulders and neck were so fair they seemed to glow in the morning light, forcing the others to squint as if stung by the brightness.
Cai Xiang, who was standing at the door, was so shocked by Rong Guang’s appearance that she took two steps back.
She couldn’t believe that the person standing before her was the same Rong Guang from before—the one who had looked gaunt and unremarkable, always wearing heavy stage makeup.
“You… you…” Duan Nong began hesitantly, calling out, “Rong Guang?”
“Yes?” Rong Guang gave a radiant smile. Her orange-toned lipstick revealed clean, bright white teeth, and a beauty mark she had deliberately accentuated at the corner of her eye was particularly striking.
Duan Nong stared at Rong Guang’s beautiful eyes, which were almost impossible to look away from when she smiled. Her breath hitched, and her thoughts seemed to grind to a halt.
How had she never realized before… that Rong Guang was actually this beautiful?
