The night was deep.
Rong Guang sat in the driver’s seat, her head turned to look at the distant mountain range hidden in the mist. Her eyes could barely focus, gradually blurring.
The female voice from the radio broadcast continued its work. On the midnight channel, a slightly hoarse, warm voice was filled with sorrow, “After factual verification, it has been confirmed that flight T-4981, carrying award-winning actress Chu Feiliang, has crashed. There were a total of one hundred and eight people on board, all of whom perished. There were no survivors… It is reported that Chu Feiliang had just won the Best Actress award at the Hundred Flowers Awards, becoming the first in film history to…”
This sentence caused Rong Guang’s already unfocused pupils to focus once more. She felt as if all the blood in her body had frozen in an instant, and her eyes gradually filled with tears that welled up subconsciously.
Chu Feiliang had been dead for a week.
As an extremely close… friend.
She had come back this time specifically to attend her funeral.
She had been in love with Chu Feiliang for over a decade, always believing it was an unspeakable, one-sided secret crush destined to have no result.
It wasn’t until recently that she learned from Chu Feiliang’s older sister that Chu Feiliang had loved her back.
But it was too late.
Chu Feiliang was gone.
“Rong Guang, don’t you blame Dad,” a man’s voice sounded from the passenger seat, carrying a disgusting cloyingness. “Who asked you not to agree? If you had agreed earlier, you wouldn’t have to suffer like this. Boss Niu likes them a bit more obedient. Dad is doing this for you and your mom’s sake… As soon as this deal is done, your mother and I will take you abroad…”
She struggled to lift her head, her gaze turning once more to the fog-shrouded mountains outside the window. Finally, she pulled up a thoroughly mocking smile, her eyes growing cold.
“Heh…” Rong Guang let out a noncommittal chuckle, then lifted her head, her gaze shifting to her stepfather in the passenger seat.
He was still holding a towel soaked in ether. He probably thought the matter was in the bag, as he had even released the hands that were restraining her.
He and her mother had been married for a full eighteen years. During those eighteen years, he had cheated, gambled… everything a scoundrel could do, he had done. He had even tried drugs out of curiosity.
Ever since she was eight, after this man had offered to help her bathe and hit her when she refused, Rong Guang had been taken in by her elderly grandmother, completely cutting off contact with her mother’s family.
Unexpectedly, this man had claimed today that her mother was in a car accident and wanted to take her to see her one last time, yet he still harbored such intentions…
Looking at the man’s expression and thinking of her long-suffering, timid, and weak mother, a wave of extreme disgust rose in Rong Guang’s heart. At the same time, she had a thought that she found incredibly gratifying.
Rong Guang let out a heavy breath. Steeling herself, she bit down hard on the tip of her tongue, finally forcing out her remaining sanity through the pain.
While the man was on the phone with that boss, Rong Guang finally gripped the steering wheel tightly. Then, she slammed her foot on the accelerator, and the modified car shot forward like an arrow released from a bow!
“Ah!” the man screamed. His phone fell to the floor, and the car’s inertia made him dizzy and disoriented.
When he realized what was happening, his face turned deathly pale. “Are you fucking crazy?!”
“I’m perfectly lucid.” Rong Guang was drenched in sweat, but her expression was grim, her eyes struggling to find a focal point. “As long as I’m alive, don’t even think about getting my father’s inheritance from me. And even if I die, don’t you think you’ll get to live.”
The roadside scenery flew backward. Rong Guang could clearly see her own, almost placid expression in the rearview mirror.
“Dying is fine too.” A smile even touched the corners of Rong Guang’s lips, her expression momentarily seeming almost gentle. “After I die, maybe I can see her one more time.”
There was a curve just ahead. She accelerated again, the modified turbo surging, the sound of the engine deafening!
The man finally came to his senses and lunged for the steering wheel!
Rong Guang endured the sharp pain of her hair being pulled, becoming utterly ruthless. She bit down on the man’s arm, her foot pressed firmly on the accelerator!
Finally, with the sound of a heavy impact, the entire vehicle broke through the cliffside guardrail, tumbled several times due to inertia, and plunged heavily toward the bottom of the cliff.
Rong Guang’s last remaining memory was of the world spinning and the violent collision.
She thought she had been lucky enough not to die from the fall, but the nearly world-shattering explosion caused by the leaking fuel tank that followed didn’t seem fake.
Yet everything before her now gave her a feeling that was both strange and yet very familiar.
This was a very old house. The table and chairs were all made of red wood, many parts of which were already aged and peeling from the passage of time, revealing the pale yellow core underneath.
Before her was a pink gauze canopy, used in the summer to keep mosquitoes away—but this thing hadn’t appeared in her life since her grandmother passed away.
At this moment, she was extremely exhausted. A dense pain spread from the back of her head to her eyes. The moment she opened them, she felt they were full of white discharge.
Fortunately, that pervasive pain was soon interrupted by an old woman who entered the room.
Rong Guang looked up and saw that the person who had come was actually her grandmother.
Her grandmother should have passed away eight years ago, when she was being cyberbullied by fans, from excessive worry… Rong Guang was stunned for a moment.
“Guangguang.” Grandma came forward and placed the prepared medicine in Rong Guang’s hand, her aged hand constantly rubbing Rong Guang’s forehead.
The touch wasn’t pleasant, but it had the feel of the sun and the scent of sandalwood that Rong Guang had loved most as a child, the scent that could always put her at ease.
After feeling her forehead, Grandma smiled gently, her graying hair meticulously coiled. She said with a smile, “Hurry and drink your medicine. You’re a grown-up now, why are you still running out to play in the rain like a child…”
The familiar words and the steaming aroma of the medicine washed over her, and Rong Guang seemed to remember something in a daze.
At this time, she had just been abandoned by her company, which wanted to ‘sell’ her to another company while she still had a bit of popularity left.
After all, her group, NO.1, was considered one of the hottest girl groups of the time, and she was the leader. Her Weibo account had nearly three million followers, making her a relatively valuable artist.
Unfortunately, the situation had turned very unpleasant. Under the pressure of capital, the direction public opinion would lean between the company and Rong Guang as an individual was naturally very clear.
Just like that, Rong Guang was branded a ‘traitor’.
The other members didn’t know the whole story, but because they were still young and so many people were saying it, they all believed the mainstream narrative.
The group’s ‘little princess’, Duan Nong, was straightforward and had an explosive temper. Without even asking her, she directly posted on Weibo, questioning why she would betray the group, questioning why, after they had endured three years of hardship, she would abandon her three sisters for a little bit of immediate gain.
In an instant, Rong Guang’s reputation was in tatters. The entire internet was denouncing her, which also caused her contract to become unsellable, leaving her stranded at her original company.
But by the same token, her situation instantly became extremely awkward—with discord among the members, she, as an individual without group invitations, suddenly lost much of her value, and was left in a state of being frozen.
Under these circumstances, one either had to find their own opportunities and regain importance, or wait until they couldn’t take it anymore, terminate the contract, and pay a hefty penalty.
In such a passive situation, the then eighteen-year-old Rong Guang was helpless and isolated for the first time.
And so, she chose to return to her grandmother’s home in the countryside, hoping to calm down a bit.
But that time, she had returned in a hurry without checking the weather forecast. A heavy rainstorm had started on the way, and although it was short, she was soaked through.
Her grandmother lived in the countryside, and she hadn’t encountered any cars that could give her a ride. She had to walk for a full hour from the station to get home.
And because of that, she had fallen ill.
Could it be… she had returned to eight years ago?
If this wasn’t a dream…
Rong Guang licked her dry lips, managed to sip the bitter medicinal soup, and looked at her grandmother’s kind face. She said softly, “Grandma…?”
“Hm?” Xu Mingli stopped her knitting, looked up at Rong Guang, and smiled kindly. “If you’re not feeling well, just lie down for a while longer.”
“No, I’m much better.” Rong Guang downed the incredibly foul-tasting medicine in a few gulps. Her tongue burned from the heat, but the sense of reality became even stronger.
She eagerly grabbed her grandmother’s hand and said, “Grandma, what’s the date today?”
Her grandmother was a bit forgetful. She thought for a moment before saying, “Today? Today is July 6th.”
July 6th.
The time matched.
Rong Guang let out a breath, sitting back on the bed as if a great weight had been lifted.
She had truly returned.
Back to eight years ago, to the place where it all began.
On the headboard sat a photograph. Rong Guang knew without even turning her head that it was a screenshot of Chu Feiliang during an interview, one she had paid a ‘high price’ to have developed.
The Chu Feiliang of that time was far from the steady and aloof person she would later become. She still carried a gentle aura, her head half-turned, her eyes gazing warmly at the camera.
When you looked at that photo, you felt as if she were looking at you with gentle affection.
A warmth spread through Rong Guang’s heart.
But immediately after, she thought of the things she was about to face—
The contract termination turmoil, the exorbitant compensation fee, and the stepfather who would inevitably harm her for his own selfish desires.
All of these things, she would have to, one by one, resolve them all with a more perfect approach!
“Guangguang.” Seeing Rong Guang fall silent again, Xu Mingli hesitantly put down her needlework. Her face was kind, but her words were full of careful concern and probing. “Did something happen to you?”
Rong Guang snapped back to reality, jolted!
In her past life, it was precisely because her mood had been so abnormal at home that her grandmother, out of worry, had decided to learn how to use the internet. It was only then, after seeing the overwhelming flood of insults, that she had passed away from grief!
That was her only regret from her previous life, a dull ache that would surface even years later, something she could only forcefully suppress in the depths of her heart!
This time, she absolutely could not repeat the same mistakes!
