I bought a ticket online to return to my hometown and checked out of the hospital.

Ten years ago, Pei Yan casually mentioned that actors could make more people like them. I made efforts to study hard to stay in A city for school, and even stayed here to work.

But six years have passed.

I still don't belong here.

Just before boarding the plane, my phone suddenly vibrated.

When I saw the caller ID, I was stunned.

"Hello, Pei Yan."

"Zhizhi, where are you? Why did the doctor say you would be discharged in the afternoon?"

Without waiting for my reply, Pei Yan on the other end of the phone quickly said, "Zhizhi, stop fooling around. Where are you now? Tell me, I'll pick you up and take you home."

At the airport, the announcement for passengers to board the plane promptly sounded.

"Are you at the airport?"

"Yes."

"Where are you heading?"

"Home."

There was silence from Pei Yan for a few seconds.

Then he said, "Okay, wait for me. I'm going to the airport now, I'll go with you."

"Why?" I asked.

"Or rather, Pei Yan, what identity are you coming with me?"

Despite the noisy crowd at the airport, I still heard the sound of Pei Yan closing the car door.

"Zhizhi, I'm sorry."

"Wait for me, I'll come to you right away, I'll tell you everything."

I turned around and took a final look at the azure sky of A city.

The evening glow had gradually dissipated, much like the two years I spent with Pei Yan.

"Everything?"

"The truth is, Pei Yan, you and I, it's over."

Before hanging up the phone, I heard him say, "I like you, I'm only guilty towards Chen Yao, there are no other feelings, I just want to be with you."

A sarcastic smile crossed my lips. "Pei Yan, you're disgusting."

The next moment, I turned off my phone and threw the SIM card into the nearby trash can.

Half an hour later, the plane carried me away from A city.

The Pei Yan who wore a white shirt back then may have long since stayed with me in that moat.

Extra Chapter 1

Only Lin Wan knew about my relationship with Pei Yan from start to finish.

When Chen Yao returned from abroad, Lin Wan called me angrily and asked, "Why do you like such a stinking man like Pei Yan?"

Lin Wan didn't know.

People like Pei Yan, who had once risked their lives to save me ten years ago.

When I was fifteen, my parents divorced, and my father brought his new wife to live in A city.

At sixteen, I came to A city and found their new home according to the address he left.

I followed them through the shopping malls and the traffic of A city.

Finally, they walked past the moat, leaving me far behind.

I suddenly remembered what my mother said before I left.

She said, "It's useless for you to find him. He just doesn't like you, doesn't want you."

Her words were harsh, but I simply didn't believe it.

It was only when I couldn't see their family anywhere along the moat's edge that I realized.

Indeed, no one liked me, no one wanted me.

When they divorced, they fought over the house, the car, even the furniture we had used for a long time.

But no one fought for my custody.

My father disliked me because I was a girl, not a boy.

My mother was annoyed by me following her, affecting her work.

Nobody liked me.

So when I stood by the moat, one leg uncontrollably stepped over the railing.

Just before falling, I saw a hand reaching out to me.

He didn't grab me.

Before losing consciousness, I heard a "plunk," and someone else jumped in.

He held my waist in the water, swimming with me to the shore.

"Why did you jump into the river?"

I coughed up water.

"Because, no one likes me."

He carefully placed me on the ground, "Nobody likes me either."

"But," he paused, his eyes hidden behind wet bangs, glinting slightly, "I will try to make them like me, just like you should."

"Promise me, never do something so foolish again."

"Make a deal with me, if you want everyone to like you, work hard, grow up, become a star, by that time, countless people will like you."

But Pei Yan was wrong.

Even though I struggled to become an actress, no one liked me.

Even he would unhesitatingly abandon me for Chen Yao.

Later, I got into a university in A city, graduated, and starred in my first movie.

But A city was very big.

Four years passed, and I never encountered that young man again.

Until the day I sat crying on the roadside, and someone handed me a tissue and told me not to cry.

At that moment, I thought maybe Pei Yan and I were meant to be together.

I was like a obedient canary, by Pei Yan's side for two years.

When Chen Yao appeared, I finally understood that he and I were fated but not destined.

[Pei Yan Extra]

"As long as I'm alive, you will never be able to marry that woman!"

This was my mother's response the first time I mentioned wanting to marry Shen Zhi in front of her.

She raised the cane in her hand and struck me hard on the back.

"If you say those words again, Pei Yan, you know what I can do."

Of course, I knew.

My mother would handle Shen Zhi just as she did with all the women around my father in the past.

Fierce and ruthless.

My mother seemed to treat me as an object.

She was afraid of me getting out of hand, so she would send someone to follow me.

She even knew what I said at dinner parties with my friends.

At first, I was only suspicious until the time I took Shen Zhi to a friend's gathering.

That night, my mother called: "I heard you and that little actress haven't broken up yet?"

I just responded with an "Okay."

My mother then continued, "But you're behaving well. It's just for fun. Like you said, she's not qualified to enter the Pei family without any qualifications as an actress."

Before hanging up, she added, "Have you called Yao Yao recently? I heard she plans to return to the country, go care for her."

"Pei Yan, if you recognize me as your mother, listen well, I only acknowledge Yao Yao as my daughter-in-law."

Chen Yao had been overseas for three years.

She got injured partly because of me.

My mother would remind me from time to time, to always remember what Chen Yao had done for me and to feel guilty towards her.

So when Chen Yao returned to the country,

Even if I didn't want to, my mother would still use Shen Zhi to threaten me to go to the airport to pick up Chen Yao.

But, isn't Chen Yao also an actress?

Why could my mom accept Chen Yao?

After multiple encounters with Chen Yao, I found out she was like the young version of Shen Zhi.

My heart was uncontrollably drawn to the younger version of Chen Yao, Shen Zhi.

When I realized this was wrong, Shen Zhi had already left the apartment with her luggage.

I hesitated on whether to apologize when I ran into Shen Zhi again on set.

At the moment she fainted, my mind went blank.

I just wanted to be good to Shen Zhi, even if I had nothing.

As I sat beside Shen Zhi's pale face on the hospital bed, filled with regret.

I promised Shen Zhi that we would go home together after she was discharged.

But Chen Yao called to say my mother had fainted and they were on the way to the emergency room.

Even though my mother was strict, she was still my mom.

I made an excuse to leave Shen Zhi's hospital room.

What I didn't expect was, that would be the last time I saw Shen Zhi.

My mother's fainting was just a lie to deceive me.

After settling the company shares with full disappointment, I immediately went back to the apartment to pick up my luggage and go to the hospital to find Shen Zhi.

I wanted to leave A city with her, away from my mother's control.

But as I stood in front of the empty hospital bed, I was dumbfounded.

After making countless phone calls, I finally heard Shen Zhi's voice.

And the announcement voice at the airport.

I panicked.

I tried to explain to her.

She said, "You're disgusting!!!"

I felt she must have misunderstood my intentions, so I frantically redialed her number.

But the message I got was that the user's phone was switched off.

I suddenly realized.

I could never hold onto her again.

Just like that day on the bridge over the moat, I couldn't hold onto her.

Many years later, I was invited to a TV show.

The host asked if there was anyone I wanted to thank.

I took the microphone and immediately answered, "Yes."

"When I was seventeen, unable to bear my mother's control, I wanted to jump from the moat and end it all."

"But before me, another girl had already jumped."

"I didn't think of anything and followed her, after pulling her ashore, she said no one likes her."

"I smiled and said me neither, but, I will strive to make others like me."

"It was that conversation that got me through many difficult moments in life."

After Shen Zhi left, her friend Lin Wan told me that Shen Zhi was very grateful to me for saving her from the moat back then.

But no one knew.

That winter, by that frigid moat, she was also my salvation.

(The End)