A lot of students listless and full of resentment against Monday were pa.s.sing by a particular school supply store that morning. Some were stopping by to get a replacement for the pens they lost at school or various types of paper for artworks. The place had many items ranging from normal school stuff to keychains and small souvenirs.As the shop helper a.s.sisted the students coming in, the owner was on one side of the store near the entrance, setting up the newspaper stand.
Since s.p.a.ce where people could move within the shop was not that large, one of the boys in uniform collided with the owner, causing her to drop the newspaper in her hand that she was about to place on the stand.
"Ooops." The boy panicked and kept on bowing at her. "I"m sorry, I"m sorry, Auntie! I was not paying enough attention."
"Auntie?"
The voice did not hint that the owner was offended, but the tone was a bit odd. It was asked in a soft tone, rendering the boy to lift his head. The woman was beautiful and familiar. However, he couldn"t recall where he had seen her face. That did not stop him from falling into daze though.
"I-I"m sorry. I mean, fairy!"
Hearing the kid"s reply, the woman laughed in a carefree manner. When the people pa.s.sing by and those inside looked towards their direction, they saw a male student holding a small stack of colored paper blus.h.i.+ng at a lady in simple blouse and jeans who was laughingly shaking her head at him. The latter was indeed pretty, although she seemed to be already more than thirty years old. Her hair was tied up, her lips were red and her face only had some powder. She wore no blush on, eye shadow, foundation or concealer, which all made her appearance fresh and easy to the eyes. It was no wonder many boys were mesmerized.
"Alright, you"re forgiven." The woman then picked up the newspaper and patted the dust there. She then raised her eyes back to the kid and said with the same tone and expression, "Be careful though. Others won"t be as kind as me. You should watch out for your steps next time, handsome boy."
The kid teased bowed one last time and ran away, probably too shy about receiving a compliment and reminder from her. The woman could only shake her head.
She raised the newspaper. Her eyes had traces of warmth as she looked down at the pages that got flipped open. A moment later though, albeit very subtle, the warmth became lukewarm.
"Boss." The woman"s employee walked over and gently called out. The latter must have noticed that her boss had been staring too long at the news and craned her neck to check what article had caught her attention. The younger woman was not worried about accidentally offending her boss since the other was a very mild person.
"Ah, I see." The employee let out a voice of realization. "The article is quite long but it"s only about the newborn of Mr. Jiang and his wife. No wonder. This couple is quite controversial. The whole country knows that Mr. Jiang had chased his wife for two years before becoming her boyfriend, and another year before finally succeeding in marrying her."
"Is that so?"
"Er, I"m not sure. Maybe they held a private wedding before Mrs. Jiang is announced pregnant. No matter what, the current news is nothing noteworthy. It"s only about a baby shower, not an alb.u.m or a new drama. Tch. The media is really unbelievable, reporting even the slightest scoop they could find. Are they that desperate to make their papers sell? Or is this done by the couple intentionally?"
The girl pondered over the question with seriousness.
There was a smile on the other woman"s face, but she was silent for a long while. She then jokingly replied, "Actually, your guess might not be too far-fetched. Maybe Jiang Li and Selena Tang intentionally leaked the news to brag about their baby. Look, there"s no way the media could get the newborn"s photo if they didn"t give them their consent."
"Oh, I see… Actually, I"m single but even I find it understandable since the baby looks like an angel…" said the girl, nodding. She then helped her boss placed the newspaper on the stand.
A bitter smile almost formed on the woman"s lips. Tears started to well up from her eyes. Her conversation partner did not see it since a customer came in that needed to be a.s.sisted. Also, she had hurriedly bowed and let her bangs conceal her teary expression.
While she was searching her pocket for her handkerchief, voices drifted into her ears. Her efficient a.s.sistant was talking to the new customer.
"h.e.l.lo, Little Miss. What would you like to buy? I can help you look for it in our store."
"Hi. Ahm… Yes… Do you have a notebook with numerous lines on its pages… It"s for writing music, or music symbols…." The voice of the female student who just walked in was soft and hinted enough that she was not sure what the item was called.
The employee kindly smiled, not making the customer embarra.s.sed by correcting her. "Of course. Hold on. Let me get one for you…"
The beautiful female boss turned away from the conversation since she didn"t wish for anyone else to see how she looked like right now.
The upward arc made by the corners of her mouth became quite tragic to behold. She was barely suppressing her trembling shoulders as random thoughts crossed her mind,
"… Had I not been so stupid to get blinded by my ambition… Had I not believed I was the protagonist of the world, that angel should have been his and mine…"
"I should have been the one enjoying fame and love from him… I should have not been fading away in obscureness, pretending I am alright being an ordinary, unremarkable, and lonely woman in the countryside…"
The woman was Mo Fang, the one who divorced Zheng Xiang, now Jiang Li, three and a half years ago. She had changed her name and was living a boringly peaceful life outside the capital. She was still as pretty as ever since as a former star, one of the things she mastered was taking care of her skin and keeping her appearance young. Sadly, her beautiful exterior was hiding a hollow heart.
If there was one thing that ruined her good looks a bit, it could only be the obvious dark circles under her eyes. Those were the results of recurring nightmares and sleepless nights spent on crying… and fantasizing about a life that she should not have let go.
…
Bothered all night by random thoughts and nightmares, Mo Fang decided to sneak into the capital to witness how her former husband was doing. She didn"t immediately head to the new Jiang mansion, but visited their former home.
She later found out that the one who bought the place was abroad so it was left to a caretaker who was quite easy to talk to. From this middle-aged lady, she learned that it had already been three and a half years ago, a few weeks after the "Zheng Xiang and Mo Fang Divorce Controversy". The caretaker kept bragging that it was bought from the then poor producer. It was a piece of news that made her, as the other protagonist, bitter in her heart.
That didn"t damp her motivation to check on Zheng Xiang though. The only problem was that she forgot the man had already made quite the fortune and married a real member of the upper society so there was no way he would settle his family in a random neighborhood. It had to be a community with tall gates guarded by men equipped with real guns and batons.
Naturally, a person like her with no contact whatsoever with those living inside was not allowed entry.
Mo Fang was in a daze for a long time and had even p.i.s.sed off one of the guards since she kept standing before the gate.
When she was chased away, she left, feeling ashamed, and then realized that her trip was a wasted one. Why did she even let herself be carried away by her emotions and made a fool out of herself? Hadn"t she accepted her ending?
"Mo Fang, beat it. If he sees you, you"ll stop yourself anyway. Selena is hateful, but Zheng Xiang is not. You gave him enough pain already, and he doesn"t know about the incident in the mountain city."
She laughed satirically at herself and then made a trip back home. She didn"t know that while she was heading towards the bus station, she crossed paths with the man she was looking for.
The actor-singer briefly watched her, expressionlessly. Not long after, she disappeared from sight after hopping into a bus.
In his mind, the system spoke: Mo Fang appears here. It must be due to the news yesterday.
Of course, he didn"t hear it since it was muted. But similar thoughts were playing in his mind.
Mo Fang got what she deserved and even then, she was lucky since she was still alive and could get a good life in the countryside if she works for it. However, there was also a large possibility that she was having a hard time extricating herself from the past.
It was her difference from other normal villainous people. She had memories of her past life. There were two lifetimes to compare. With good old times to recall and once she sobered up and realized what she had done three years ago, her present life would seem unbearable and shameful.
He knew exactly the feeling since before being the slave of the system, he was bearing so many embarra.s.sing memories and blaming himself for a lot of things that sped up his family"s downfall. Yep, once in his life, he had probably been one of the greatest fools in history.
It was funny, but there were people who only became a bit smarter after rebirth, but there were also people whose intelligence decreased after rebirth. None of them were really noteworthy.
It had to be said that those who lived spectacular and fulfilling days in one lifetime were the really amazing ones. They needed no rebirth or transmigration for their lives to be meaningful.
Jiang Li was, of course, excluded from that list. He was one of those who needed several lives to learn, and he found it not glorious to mention, of course.
The good thing was he could live and experience a few more worlds. Maybe his journey would not even end. But somebody was there to accompany him at least, and he could learn and see many things.
He grinned and then drove away, more eager to look at his beautiful wife and cute newborn at home than somebody never part of his life as Jiang Li.
...
Years would past and he would learn that Liu De was exposed by his model friend, Dwight in a gala in Taiwan. The male lead drowned in another series of controversies before getting ganged up and forced out of the entertainment world for real. There was no possibility of restart since his face had been quite mutilated in one of the encounters with a fan-turned-hater.
It was around this time that Liu De remembered that he had a child and a woman who waited and loved him for so long. Yet when he went back to China using his little savings, he discovered that the woman he abandoned had long moved on from him and married another. That led to the male lead losing his motivation to improve and work, mostly drinking his sorrows away in the latter part of his short life.
More or less fifty years later, when Jiang Li was leaving for the next world, he would learn from his own system that Liu De"s Superstar System had long left for another host since he was no longer "interesting".
It then showed Jiang Li some amusing video clips where he discovered that the Superstar System was created by somebody from another planet, somewhere more technologically advanced than Earth.
"The Superstar System is something controlled by a superior species of humans outside this planet. The male lead is like an experimental subject and his journey is being broadcasted, like some sort of drama in a TV for the other aliens" enjoyment. Every time Liu De received an upgrade, the alien controller was actually just sending an invisible robot that would inject a syringe of drugs into Liu De"s bloodstream. Fancy items were delivered through an invisible courier, and communication was done through an invisible chip implanted somewhere in Liu De"s body," the system explained.
In his deathbed he laughed, asking it in his mind, "So it"s like that, huh. How are you different then? You"re from a different creator? Or made by somebody from a different civilization?"
"Host, like I told you, that Superstar system can"t travel from world to world like we do. Or even if it can, it"s limited to this galaxy. I have been bringing you to different worlds and points of time since the beginning of our journey!"
The system wanted to answer it was not even a true system but reined itself in since Jiang Li did not have enough authority to know this yet.
It did not take long for the old man to pa.s.s away. Once again, he died before Na Yu"s incarnation, thus filling Selena"s heart with anger.
However, it could not be denied that the grief was stronger. After all these years, she learned to truly love her eccentric husband, and not only became obsessed with keeping him by her side due to the weird voices in her head.
…