Chapter 97

Chapter 97

The flight she bought at the last minute was not very convenient. It took off at 10:50 PM, flew for six hours, and landed at 5 AM, perfectly missing the goodnight message Shi Tuo had sent at around midnight, as well as a few missed calls from him.

An Ye thought for a moment, then sent Shi Tuo a message at 5 AM.

Xiao E: [I just arrived at the hotel, I’ll rest for a bit and then get to work.]

The WeChat message was being typed instantly, An Ye narrowed her eyes.

Xiao E: [You’re not asleep yet?]

Shi Tuo: [How can I sleep?]

Shi Tuo: [Where are you?]

Shi Tuo: Video call invitation.

An Ye didn’t answer. She first called Qi Wei. After confirming from a still groggy and half-asleep Qi Wei that Qi Wei had indeed said everything they discussed word-for-word, she finally felt relieved.

According to the script they had agreed on, if Shi Tuo had called her phone off last night, he would definitely contact Qi Wei, and Qi Wei would then say that she was on a plane, working on a last-minute photography job for the next couple of days.

To make it more convincing, they had set the location in Southeast Asia since there was a flight from Bai Gang around the same time going to Kuala Lumpur.

Her phone vibrated again—it was another video call invitation from Shi Tuo.

An Ye didn’t answer. After she got in the car with the local guide, she asked the driver to turn off the radio and make sure no external sounds would leak any information. Then, she called Shi Tuo.

An Ye: “Why aren’t you sleeping?” She said without waiting for Shi Tuo to speak, her voice low and hoarse, with a drawn-out tone, clearly in a coquettish manner.

Beside her, Lan Yifang covered her mouth, probably surprised that An Ye would use this tactic when feeling guilty.

An Ye didn’t expect it either, and awkwardly looked out the window.

Shi Tuo was silent for a moment.

An Ye: “I can’t go back to Bai Gang these days.” She continued, her voice getting even lower, “Are you planning on not sleeping at all these days?”

Shi Tuo: “I...” He was at a loss for words.

An Ye: “I’ll be back once I’m done with the shoot.” She lowered her voice again, “You be good.”

Lan Yifang’s ears quickly turned red, and she widened her eyes, staring at An Ye.

An Ye was determined not to look at Lan Yifang.

Shi Tuo: “...”

“You...” He cleared his throat, coughed once, and then cleared his throat again. “What exactly are you planning to do behind my back? Does it really need to be this extreme?”

An Ye: “...I’m hanging up.”

“Don’t turn off your phone.” An Ye’s playful tone must have worked, or maybe Shi Tuo just felt that she needed to act that way for something important. Either way, he finally relented. “No matter what you’re doing, just make sure to stay safe.”

An Ye: “Mm.”

Shi Tuo: “When will you be back in Bai Gang?”

An Ye: “If everything goes smoothly, the day after tomorrow afternoon.”Shi Tuo: "Mm."

An Ye hung up the phone.

This was why she occasionally felt that Shi Tuo was like her father, born on the same day as her.

He would judge whether something required his interference, even when he knew she was lying to him.

If he judged that she could handle the matter herself without overestimating her strength, he would suppress his worries and remind her to stay safe.

He had always been like this—when her grades weren’t good, he would drag her to study but never told her, “You can’t do this; you have to do this.” Instead, he would furrow his brows and patiently explain things she didn’t understand, repeatedly. When she chose to become an actress to earn money, despite his disapproval, he never said, “I’m worried for you because it’s for your own good.” He simply stated his concerns and let An Ye make her own judgments.

After their reunion, when her body was stiff and her consciousness blurry, he just asked her if she wanted to leave the industry due to the pressure. When he saw that she had no intention of doing so, he never brought it up again.

He would keep an eye on men who had other intentions toward her, but when she said she wanted to act in a romance movie, he never asked how far she planned to go in the role or who her co-stars were.

He was the only one in the world who could say, “You can’t do this,” and An Ye would listen.

But he never said that.

He respected her—her work, and her as a person.

He considered her to be an independent adult.

This respect, born from trust, was something Wang Shanshan had never given her.

But this respect made An Ye feel her own weight and gave her the courage to try.

This was An Ye's second time in Singapore. The last time she was here was three years ago when she won Best Actress at the Singapore International Film Festival. At that time, Shi Tuo was probably in Canada. The day before she arrived, she had sent him a red envelope on WeChat, casually using "Merry Christmas" as an excuse. That was the only time An Ye ever sent a red envelope, and Shi Tuo didn't reply on the same day.

At the time, An Ye was still in a stage where she couldn't even take care of herself. When she sent the red envelope and saw that it wasn't rejected, she didn't think much of it.

An Ye furrowed her brows and opened WeChat to check her chat history with Shi Tuo.

In November of three years ago, she had sent Shi Tuo a red envelope. He replied two weeks later, by which time she had already returned to the country.

Calculating the time, he had already become a member of her fan club by then. He should have been very aware of her public schedule. Why would this happen?

An Ye pursed her lips, flipping through their chat history one page at a time.

In the past ten years, she had changed phones a few times, but every time, she imported the chat history again, and never deleted a single message from Shi Tuo.

She had never gone back to review them.

Now, as she went through them one by one, she could see that something was off.

The first year after going abroad was actually fine. Even though she had closed-off training and had to take the entrance exam for the film academy, and Shi Tuo had to adjust to his new environment and study law, they kept in frequent contact. On non-closed-off days, they would talk a few times a day, and video calls happened three or four times a week.

Their communication mode at that time was similar to before—bickering a lot, but still talking about simple personal matters.

It was clear that neither of them expressed the most negative emotions, but at least they were still talking about everything.

The second year, things changed.

That year, she had finished filming "Lin Luo" but couldn’t get out of the character. The movie wasn’t released, and the divorce case between An Huai Min and Wang Shanshan dragged on and on. In the end, she and Wang Shanshan lost their house, and with the money she made from acting, An Ye rented a small apartment in Bai Gang.

Life did not get better because she acted in Yang Zhengyi’s movie.That year, she was very anxious, frequently arguing with Wang Shanshan. When An Huai Min divorced, he called Wang Shanshan a crazy woman, obsessed with becoming a "star mom," and her brain had already stopped functioning properly.

Wang Shanshan hated this label, but in her heart, she transferred that “crazy woman” label to An Ye, who couldn’t get out of character. Their mother-daughter relationship, after the divorce, shifted the focus of their conflict and deteriorated rapidly.

Wang Shanshan’s frustration had no other outlet and was all directed at An Ye.

In this chaos, An Ye didn’t have much energy to care about Shi Tuo.

But as An Ye thought back to the past ten years that Shi Tuo had talked about after their reunion.

In the second year after Shi Tuo went to Singapore, Shi Dingbang died in a car accident, and his uncle’s noodle shop was shut down due to hygiene complaints. Zhang Rou’s condition worsened after she found out about Shi Dingbang’s death.

An Ye flipped through that year's chat records.

Shi Tuo had kept advising her not to sign with any agency, sending her jokes, telling her funny things that happened to him in Singapore, and sharing bizarre legal cases he had encountered in law school.

He kept trying to make her laugh.

But she never responded.

In the third year.

They stopped video calling.

An Ye remembered that on New Year's Eve of the third year, Shi Tuo sent her three or four video invites. She was arguing with Wang Shanshan at the time. Wang Shanshan insisted that An Ye post a short video eating chicken breast on Weibo, saying she was preparing for a role.

At that time, An Ye hadn't even received any scripts and didn’t want to do such things. So, they argued until the New Year's Eve dinner was missed.

Naturally, she didn’t take Shi Tuo’s video call.

After that, An Ye went back and checked the chat history. She vaguely remembered that year, Shi Tuo often called her late at night. During the movie promotion period, she was running around so much that she would fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She never answered his calls. She told him to contact her during the day, and Shi Tuo replied it wasn’t important.

Later, in July, Shi Tuo suddenly told her he could return to the country and they could meet.

An Ye checked her schedule. By then, "Lin Luo’s Paradise" had already aired, and she had more work. July was packed with variety shows, so she told him, “Next time.”

But Shi Tuo never mentioned the “next time” again.

An Ye rubbed her brow.

She was thinking, what happened to Shi Tuo in the third year?

She only knew that his anxiety started in the third year. He had told her it was a combination of small things—his mother’s frequent suicide attempts, heavy academic pressure, and his uncle’s shop issues. He just couldn’t handle it.

An Ye locked her screen.

It must have been that year.

After their reunion, the things Shi Tuo was willing to share with her in detail seemed to be from the years before their separation. She didn’t know when Zhang Rou remarried, nor did she know what happened after his uncle’s noodle shop closed two stores. These events were all described by Shi Tuo as trivial things.

The way he described the problems was problematic. The “small things” he casually mentioned were his mother’s suicide attempts and the only financial support falling apart, along with his own academic struggles.

That was nearly everything in his life. How could it be considered small?

Qi Wei’s work style became increasingly unique after establishing her own studio. An Ye stood outside the small house that Qi Wei had prepared for them, still in a daze, not responding for a long time.

“Just…” Lan Yifang, who was accompanying An Ye on her private trip for the first time, and for an overseas trip, couldn’t contain her excitement. “Shi Tuo’s mom... is in that little building across the street, right?”An Ye: "……Mm."

She had expected the accommodation Qi Wei found for her to be close to Zhang Rou’s house, after all, she had already seen her large jewelry endorsement ad in a mall as soon as she entered the city. It was best to keep her activity range to a minimum.

But she didn't expect it to be this close.

Close enough that crossing the street would get her there...

She didn’t even have time to feel nervous...

While An Ye was washing up in the small building, she couldn’t help but glance at Zhang Rou’s house across the street.

The economic conditions were pretty good. It wasn’t a public housing unit but a private home—a three-story little villa, which looked a bit old, with orchids blooming at the entrance in the colors of pink, white, and pale yellow, all of which were Zhang Rou’s favorite colors.

It was well-maintained and comfortable.

An Ye stared at it, somewhat lost in thought.

Zhang Rou had lived in this place after she married, but Shi Tuo didn’t stay here for long. It was almost impossible to find any traces of him here. Still, An Ye couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable.

Ten years ago, what was Shi Tuo thinking when he first stepped out of the airport at eighteen? At that time, his forehead was still bandaged. Zhang Rou was too sick to talk to anyone. What was he thinking in this completely unfamiliar place?

An Ye spat out the toothpaste foam, lowered her head, and washed her face.

At 6:30 in the morning, the door of the small building across the street opened, and a woman dressed simply and comfortably walked out, taking milk from the milk box at the door.

An Ye froze as she watched. Although she couldn’t clearly see her face, she knew it was probably Zhang Rou.

Her long hair was tied into a simple bun, and she always liked wearing cotton dresses like that. Her voice was very gentle, and she would say, "Jiu Jiu, secretly have a bite, the braised pork I made today is so delicious."

Back then, she was Wang Shanshan's best friend.

At that time, Wang Shanshan was still trying hard to be a good mother.

Over the past ten years, whenever Zhang Rou was mentioned, Wang Shanshan would always sigh and say, "As a woman, you have to be strong. Otherwise, look at Aunt Zhang—she just collapsed, putting all the pressure on her son. Luckily, she gave birth to a son. If it were a daughter, wouldn’t both mother and daughter jump off a building?"

An Ye would get impatient hearing this, quickly changing the topic to something else that could make her argue with Wang Shanshan, and they would fight until they were both upset.

Wang Shanshan’s half-sensible, half-ridiculous values always made An Ye feel agitated. Wang Shanshan would project all the world’s disasters onto herself and then tell An Ye, "Look, luckily you still have me. This world is so dangerous, if I hadn’t supported you, what would you do? You’d probably jump off a building."

It was hard to refute such words because they were based on hypothetical situations built on facts.

So, for a while, An Ye was made to feel that Zhang Rou's personality was too soft.

But now, seeing Zhang Rou’s back, An Ye couldn’t help but wonder—what had Zhang Rou done wrong?

Shi Dingbang’s guarantee wasn’t requested by Zhang Rou, and Shi Tuo’s grandfather’s cerebral hemorrhage wasn’t caused by Zhang Rou either. Zhang Rou was a graduate of a prestigious university in her time, married for love, and when she couldn’t adapt to working in a newspaper, she chose to become a housewife. When Shi Dingbang gave up on the family, this woman, who had graduated with a degree in Chinese language, couldn’t find work after several years of absence from society and could only take on scattered handcraft jobs to make ends meet.

At least she didn’t give up on her family like Shi Dingbang did.

When An Ye was young, she looked at her family with Shi Tuo and could only sigh that love wasn’t reliable and that marriage couldn’t guarantee anything.

But now, ten years later, having seen so much, she thought Shi Tuo’s words—that human nature just can’t stand the test—really didn’t seem like something an eighteen-year-old could say.

Wang Shanshan and Zhang Rou, both of them had put their lives on the line for their husbands, marriages, and children when they were independent. They had taken the path that most women of their generation would choose, failing due to human nature and leading lives of unhappiness, just like many others.

It wasn’t about right or wrong.

It was just that, in this life, An Ye would never allow herself to become Wang Shanshan or Zhang Rou.