The fourth female lead's scenes were almost all with the protagonist, Mi Feifei. 'So…'
Chu Yao couldn't help but think of that profile again, her heart clenching suddenly. Mi Feifei had gotten into Lu Xize's car. What exactly was their relationship?
'Boyfriend and girlfriend?'
They were both adults. Lu Xize was even four years older than her. It wouldn't be strange if they were a couple.
Mi Feifei was a famous star, with looks and a figure that were one in a million. Plus, her career was so successful. A woman like that being with him… it seemed perfectly normal. It was just… Chu Yao rubbed her chest. 'What a strange feeling.'
She had just managed to pull herself out of her thoughts, only to sink back into them without realizing it. Her phone rang again, finally yanking Chu Yao back to reality.
"Hello? Dad."
On the other end of the line, a weathered, deep male voice asked, "Yaoyao, have you eaten?"
"I have. What about you, Dad?"
"I've eaten too. Yaoyao, I saw you on TV. How did you get so thin again? You need to eat properly. Don't ruin your health just to look good on camera."
"I haven't, Dad. I'm fine. The camera just makes you look thinner, that's all."
Chu Zhen Dong covered the receiver and coughed twice, not bothering to call out Chu Yao's clumsy lie.
'The camera makes you look thinner?'
That line might work on an ordinary person, but back in his glory days, Chu Zhen Dong had been interviewed and appeared on television himself. How could he not know better?
There was no sound from the other end of the line. Chu Yao fell silent for a moment, her hands on her knees clenching into fists.
"Dad."
"Hm?"
"Dad, I think I saw Brother Lu today."
"..."
A long silence hung over the phone. No one in Chu Yao's current life knew about Lu Xize. She had no one she could confide in, except for the man on the other end of the line—her father.
Chu Zhen Dong was silent for a long time before he finally sighed. "Is that so? I trust that boy is doing well?"
"I suppose so."
"Well, he is a member of the Lu Family, after all. He wouldn't be doing poorly. Yaoyao, if he still recognizes you, say hello. If he doesn't, then just let it go. It's all in the past."
Chu Zhen Dong's words were filled with a world-weariness, and a sour feeling welled up in Chu Yao's heart as she listened.
Climbing from the bottom to the peak is difficult, but also joyful. However, falling from the peak into the abyss is nothing but overwhelming bitterness and defeat.
Often, getting back on your feet is far harder than climbing up in the first place.
Chu Yao understood what her father meant. He no longer had the spirit to make a comeback. That meant she and Lu Xize were destined to live in different worlds now.
'Different worlds…'
Chu Yao's hands tightened again, her expression faltering. 'That's right. I've been agonizing over this for so long, but I don't even know if he still recognizes me.'
And even if, by some miracle, his memory was good enough that he still remembered her, so what?
Back then, he had warned her with such disgust never to appear before him again.
They had been separated for six years, not six days.
Six years and thirty-four days. That wasn't a short time.
More than six years was enough time to change many things.
Chu Yao didn't know if Lu Xize was still the same Lu Xize from the past, but she was certain that she was no longer the same Chu Yao.
Her father was right. Lu Xize was already in the past.
She could no longer shamelessly chase him all over the world like she used to.
'So this is what it feels like to run into an old friend. It's actually pretty awful.'