Wu Man slept very lightly. She had long ago sensed Yu Jiaze enter the room, but there was no movement.

This soundless silence made her very uneasy.

Her eyelids moved up and down twice, then she heard Yu Jiaze speak in the darkness.

“Stop pretending.”

Her eyelid twitched. After a few seconds, she slowly opened her eyes.

Yu Jiaze sat on the sofa diagonally across from her. Their gazes met squarely.

“Put everything away?”

“Mm…” Wu Man’s gaze fell on the cardboard box in the corner. “Except for this box of clothes, because the wardrobe in your room is already full.”

“You’re using this method to protest to me?”

Wu Man said calmly: “I’m just stating facts. Even if we avoid talking about it, Tang Yingxue has already entered between us.”

“First of all, I haven’t agreed yet. But even if I’m already engaged to her now, it’s completely not contradictory.”

“For you, that’s true. But for me, I can’t turn a blind eye.” Wu Man paused. “You also know about my mother. She ended up in this situation because she deludedly thought she could have marriage with that man. I swore—I would absolutely not live as disgracefully as her.”

“And now, you’ve put me in this embarrassing situation, and it involves the Tang family too…” She took a deep breath. “Don’t you think that’s too cruel?”

“She became like that because Tang Jiarong dared to do it but didn’t dare take responsibility.” Yu Jiaze stood up, approaching the bedside to play with her hair. “You’re comparing me to Tang Jiarong?”

“No, my mother became like that because she wanted to fight for it.” Wu Man clenched her teeth. “If you insist on making me stay, aren’t you afraid I’ll fight for it too?”

Yu Jiaze lowered his eyes and said with certainty: “You won’t.”

Wu Man’s face pressed into the pillow, hiding the mocking curve that rose at the corners of her mouth.

“My ‘won’t’ is conditional.” A soft tone completely opposite to her expression. “Can you agree to my terms?”

Yu Jiaze’s fingertip played with her earlobe, interrupting her request.

“‘Spring Night’ and Zhui Ye, right?”

Wu Man nodded hesitantly.

Yu Jiaze slowly took a breath.

“You’ve already compromised to this extent. If I don’t give you a chance, it does seem unreasonable.”

He picked up Wu Man’s phone from beside the pillow, swiped it open, opened WeChat, and said casually: “You’ve already added him back. Why not exchange a few more pleasantries?”

He clicked on Zhui Ye’s profile picture, about to make a voice call.

Wu Man panicked immediately. She half sat up: “I have nothing to say to him.”

“But he seems to have a lot to say to me. Otherwise, why would he presume to answer your call?” Yu Jiaze pressed the call button. Before long, the voice call connected.

Yu Jiaze had it on speaker. Zhui Ye said “hello” and then: “Elder Sister?”

His tone concealed barely perceptible joy, making Wu Man feel even more mortified.

She bit her lip tight and didn’t make a sound. She lunged forward trying to snatch it.

Yu Jiaze didn’t mind, because his purpose wasn’t really to make her speak.

He raised his arm high, looking down at Wu Man’s struggle like teasing a small animal, finally throwing the phone onto the sofa beside them, unbuttoning his suit jacket with one hand, then throwing the clothes into the corner.

Wu Man stopped her movement, instinctively shrinking backward. With nowhere left to retreat, she hit the headboard with a thud.

Yu Jiaze pressed down on her body, gripping her shoulders. The two fragile butterfly bones pressed against the solid wood hard board, almost about to break.

She had no escape.

Yu Jiaze’s sweat-dampened palm pressed against her face, laughing breathlessly while asking knowingly: “Why so quiet today?”

Wu Man remained silent. She opened her mouth and viciously bit Yu Jiaze’s shoulder through his shirt.

She bit with extreme force. If possible, she would surely tear off skin and flesh together.

Yu Jiaze gave a pained muffled groan, pinched her chin, forcing her to release, and laughed angrily instead: “Your guts have gotten fat?”

The moment his hand left her shoulder, Wu Man’s elbow pushed him away. Using the counterforce, she rolled from his side down to the floor. With quick reflexes, she grabbed the phone from the sofa and smashed it decisively against the wall.

The phone shattered into pieces, permanently severing that voice call in one stroke.

Yu Jiaze got down from the bed, kicked aside the phone that had died miserably, and demanded: “So afraid of him hearing us making love? Have you two already done it behind my back?”

She looked back into his eyes, gritting her teeth: “No.”

He silently scrutinized her expression.

“Don’t lie, little bird.” He muttered neurotically over and over. “You are mine.” His hands lifted her up, pressing her directly against the wall. Wu Man’s nails dug into the muscles of his shoulder, oozing mottled bloodstains.

The two regarded each other as enemies, torturing each other, vowing to make the other covered in wounds in this war.

—

The next day, Wu Man bought a new phone. As soon as she opened WeChat, it was full of messages from Zhui Ye.

The last message was: If you don’t reply again, I’m calling the police.

Wu Man hurriedly sent a voice message: “I’m fine.”

Before he could ask questions, she quickly explained: “That voice call yesterday was just an accidental misclick. Don’t overthink it.”

But unexpectedly, Zhui Ye, who had been so anxiously worried before, didn’t reply anything more.

She didn’t know if he had heard something… and therefore found her disgusting.

The day after, Wang Cheng called to share good news, thanking her for bridging connections behind the scenes. The review process for “Spring Night” had loosened up.

That meant the promotional period was coming soon.

She had never been as afraid of meeting Zhui Ye as she was now.

After all, that voice call had almost shattered her self-respect in front of him. It was as if even wearing clothes in daylight, she still felt stripped naked. Just thinking of his silence made her increasingly restless.

—

A few days later, Zhui Ye quietly held a press conference.

At the conference, he announced he had officially signed with New Loop Line—another move that shocked both inside and outside the industry.

Before this, he had always been an independent artist. After all, he had only taken on two productions total, both following Wang Cheng, decisions made directly without complications.

Therefore, major talent agencies and agents had tried every means to sign the Best Actor.

But after finishing filming “Spring Night,” these originally eager major agencies all went silent.

The reason was self-evident.

When it seemed there was no way forward, Zhui Ye actually carved out a soaring ladder to the heavens.

No one had expected this, including Wu Man.

Their thinking had been too limited. Looking domestically, of course there was no company that could rival the Yu family. Even if he signed with a company, it wouldn’t matter much—he’d be controlled by others.

But New Loop Line was different.

It was an old-school American film company. The films it produced and distributed from the sixties to nineties were all historically acclaimed and commercially successful movies. Its signed stars occupied half of Hollywood.

One couldn’t blame them for limited thinking, because New Loop Line had never signed a domestic entertainment industry actor before. Although in recent years China’s film market had grown very large, with many major foreign film and television companies wanting to come in for a piece of the pie and intending to develop domestically, while there was certainly this factor in Zhui Ye being signed by them, more importantly it was because his own value stood head and shoulders above the rest, possessing unlimited potential.

It was no exaggeration to say he had completed another pioneering achievement that could be written into domestic entertainment film history.

At the press conference, Zhui Ye wore a haute couture suit, again not properly buttoning it, wearing the proper suit with a roguish air, but the expression on his face was very serious, showing no hint of frivolity.

During the reporter Q&A session, people below waved their hands so much they were about to cramp.

Zhui Ye randomly called on one person, who seemed as happy as winning the lottery.

“May I ask, you didn’t sign before—was it because you had plans to sign with New Loop Line very early on?”

“No.” Zhui Ye shook his head without hesitation. “I didn’t sign because I hate being constrained.”

“…Ah? Then changing your mind now, is it because New Loop Line suddenly extended an olive branch to you?”

“It’s not that they extended an olive branch to me.” He straightened his back. “I recommended myself. I sought them out.”

“Why did you suddenly think to find New Loop Line to sign with? After all, New Loop Line’s home base isn’t domestic. Are you planning to focus your efforts abroad afterward?”

“About half my focus may be placed abroad. Specifically, you’d have to ask my agent.” Zhui Ye gazed at the camera. “As for why I had this idea, it’s because I realized that freedom and strength are contradictory yet interconnected things. Sometimes strength must sacrifice immediate freedom to be achieved. And when I’m truly strong enough, only then can I obtain true freedom. Only then will I have the qualifications to step onto life’s arena.”

He was unprecedentedly solemn: “I’m very sorry that I’m still so weak now, and my actions were also very reckless, possibly bringing harm to some people. I will work hard to grow. Thank you to everyone who looks forward to and likes me.”

Wu Man held her phone watching the live stream, making eye contact with Zhui Ye through the screen camera.

On this day, he had become very different from that day in Hokkaido. He carried a composure he’d never had before, shedding his former unbridled arrogance. He was a butterfly emerged from its chrysalis after labor pains, even more dazzling and charming.

In that instant, her heart that had been tormented for days was miraculously soothed.

Just looking at him like this, she too gained some kind of firm courage to face tribulation.

—

Although the distribution certificate for “Spring Night” had loosened up, there was still no sign of it coming down imminently. Wang Cheng had done all he could humanly do and could only leave it to fate. He proposed that the main creators of the crew return to the temple where the opening ceremony was held to pray. If things still weren’t smooth, this year’s submission would be delayed. If they missed this session, they’d have to wait until next year.

As the important female lead, Wu Man definitely couldn’t not participate.

However, Zhui Ye was absent.

He had been unable to take on work for a long time. Once signed, he finally accepted a film from New Loop Line, an atypical sports competition genre film requiring intensive closed training to learn boxing. He couldn’t get out for the time being.

However, for Wu Man, this might be good news.

In the end, those who flew to Guangzhou to fulfill their vows were her, the director, the screenwriter, and the producer.

Stepping foot on this Buddhist sacred ground again, with less than a year elapsed, she felt in a trance that everything had changed dramatically.

Even kneeling before the Buddha statue to fulfill her vows, she couldn’t help thinking how absurd it was that someone who didn’t believe in deities knelt here fulfilling vows, while the one who believed in deities hadn’t come.

After everyone finished offering incense one by one, Wu Man finished first. Coming out to the corridor, she again saw that young novice monk squatting at the door selling bells.

The second person to come out was the screenwriter sister. She hadn’t come for the opening ceremony, so this was her first time visiting and encountering the young novice. She couldn’t help but become interested, asking Wu Man: “Is this for attracting romance?”

Wu Man very ungraciously said: “It’s for attracting fools.”

The young novice immediately bristled: “Don’t listen to her nonsense,施主. People from our office come to send banners from time to time. Look, the one hanging at the door over there was just sent yesterday!”

Wu Man and the screenwriter looked into the distance and indeed saw a red banner hanging at the door of the office that had been painted as a side room, inscribed with: A thousand-mile marriage bound by a single thread, the mortal world’s matchmaker right beside you.

The screenwriter was clearly tempted: “I just need to write a note on the bell and finally hang it on the marriage tree?”

The young novice immediately pulled one out: “Of course! Would you施主 like to try?”

The screenwriter hesitated: “But so many people buy them. Can the bells all be hung? How do I know if you’ll pull them down and throw them away the next day?”

He shook his head in horror: “That would damage virtue. We would never do that. If you don’t believe me, go look in the back courtyard. Pick any one at random—the notes all have dates on them.”

The screenwriter pulled Wu Man along: “Xiao Man, come look with me.”

She was five years older than Wu Man and had already been divorced once, but that didn’t affect her anticipation of the next love.

Wu Man didn’t want to dampen her spirits and nodded in agreement.

The two walked to the back courtyard. Wu Man stood to the side like a post, watching as she really did go flip through the dates on the notes on the bells, thinking to herself: worthy of being a screenwriter—never overlooking details.

Suddenly, the screenwriter sister shook a bell in surprise, her face unable to suppress her gossip.

“I think I’ve discovered something incredible.” She said mysteriously. “I saw Zhui Ye’s name.”

Wu Man found this both funny and exasperating, thinking: this couldn’t be considered gossip at all.

She also knew the name following it was a dog.

Just as she was about to tease, the screenwriter’s expression suddenly became subtle. She glanced at Wu Man, then turned her head with deep meaning to look at the next bell.

“What’s wrong…?”

Her expression changed too quickly, and she wasn’t good at concealing it, immediately making Wu Man sense something was off.

Wu Man stepped forward, raising her hand to grab the bell. The note indeed had Zhui Ye and Xiao Huang written on it.

But what was different was that due to the passage of time, the adhesive at the note’s corners had lost its stickiness. At this moment, it curled up, revealing another note beneath it that had been stuck seamlessly together with it all along.

That note exposed a small half of its surface. In hasty handwriting, her name could be faintly discerned.

The screenwriter deliberately walked some distance away. Wu Man was shocked and reached up to completely tear off the top note.

The note hidden beneath finally revealed its true form. The same handwriting, but different names. Simply placed together, causing stormy waves to rise in her heart—

“Zhui Ye, Wu Man.”