Lu Jiayu didn’t know where Sang Yu’s parents would take her. He could only return to Shengshi Haoting in a daze.
This small apartment belonged to Sang Yu herself. She had said that if they ever argued in the future, she would come back to her own home.
Lu Jiayu drifted through the apartment like a wandering ghost, searching for the person he longed for.
No one was in the bedroom.
No one was in the bathroom either.
The kitchen was also empty.
“Xiao Yu, let’s not argue anymore.”
“I’ve come to take you home.”
The air seemed frozen, with no response at all.
Refusing to give up, Lu Jiayu searched again. “Xiao Yu, stop playing hide-and-seek. I promise I’ll never make you angry again. Will you come home with me?”
Sang Yu, following behind Lu Jiayu, thought he had gone mad.
What a lunatic!
If you’re sick, take your medicine!
“This is my home. Get out, please!”
“And besides, I’m already dead. Stop pretending to be crazy.”
“Just like Qiuqiu said, once you’ve made a decision, stick to it, okay? Being wishy-washy is really cheap and disgusting.”
Once again, Lu Jiayu heard Sang Yu’s voice. “Xiao Yu, I knew you hadn’t left.”
He began rummaging through drawers and cabinets, trying to find Sang Yu.
“Xiao Yu, this game really isn’t fun.”
“Stop playing with me, okay?”
Shen Yiqiu had just settled the two elders and rushed to Shengshi Haoting.
She knew the door code and entered without any obstacles.
“Lu Jiayu, what are you doing?”
The apartment was already in disarray.
Furious, Shen Yiqiu slapped Lu Jiayu across the face. “This is Xiao Yu’s home. I won’t allow you to taint this place anymore. Get out!”
Lu Jiayu’s face turned to the side from the force of the slap, and his mind cleared slightly.
The red mark on his face showed just how hard Shen Yiqiu had hit him.
Sang Yu floated over to her best friend’s side. “Does your hand hurt?”
“Slapping someone isn’t the smartest move. You could use a tool instead.”
Even though she knew they couldn’t hear her, Sang Yu couldn’t help but chatter away.
She hadn’t been this talkative when she was alive.
Perhaps wandering spirits were just too lonely.
As if sensing something, Shen Yiqiu picked up the baseball bat leaning against the wall.
Sang Yu had kept it for self-defense.
“If you don’t leave now, I’ll break your legs!”
Shen Yiqiu was Sang Yu’s best friend, and Lu Jiayu couldn’t hold his head up in front of her.
He had wronged Sang Yu and everyone who had sincerely wished them well.
After glancing around, he left without a word.
He had a feeling he would never be able to enter this apartment again.
Lu Jiayu wasn’t wrong. As soon as he left, Shen Yiqiu changed the door code.
Sang Yu looked back.
As expected of her best friend—she knew exactly what Sang Yu wanted.
This apartment had been bought for her outright by her parents the year she graduated. Because the security measures weren’t top-tier and she was afraid of being followed by paparazzi, Lu Jiayu had never stayed here.
This was a space entirely her own, and Sang Yu didn’t want it tainted by Lu Jiayu.
Lu Jiayu’s car was still parked downstairs.
It was already afternoon by then.
The blazing sun shone down on him, but Lu Jiayu still felt cold.
Returning to his car in despair, he wondered what he had left now.
Sang Yu was gone.
The future they had promised each other was gone too.
For a moment, Lu Jiayu wanted to follow Sang Yu and leave this world, but thinking of his parents, he hesitated.
He slammed the steering wheel several times—what should he do?
Who could save him?
Sang Yu sat in the back seat, watching Lu Jiayu’s current agony with keen interest.
Does it hurt?
She had hurt too when the knife pierced her body.
When she watched helplessly as her phone was pushed farther and farther away, she felt even more despair than he did now.
The living still have a chance to start over, but the dead have nothing left.
Perhaps before long, Lu Jiayu would forget her and begin a new life—after all, he and Ye Fei had already reached the point of intimacy.
This pain was only temporary.
Lu Jiayu cried. In just one day, he had lost count of how many times he had wept.
What should he do? He still couldn’t accept the fact that Sang Yu had left him completely.
Spring was coming.
The wedding they had promised each other was clearly just around the corner.
Lu Jiayu suddenly remembered there were still many of Sang Yu’s belongings at home. He needed to go back and put them away safely.
Those were the few things Xiao Yu had left for him.
…
“Jiayu, you’re back.”
Ye Fei rushed over to hug Lu Jiayu, but he dodged her.
“Why are you still here?” His tone was cold and indifferent.
No longer gentle.
It takes two to tango—dating Ye Fei had been his own decision.
Lu Jiayu didn’t want to take his anger out on Ye Fei, but he couldn’t help it.
Every time he saw Ye Fei, he remembered his Xiao Yu waiting alone for death while he held another woman, comforting her tenderly.
“Jiayu, what’s wrong? Is it because of that post I made on Weibo?”
Lu Jiayu rubbed his temples, cutting her off. “No.”
“I don’t want to see you right now. Can you leave?”
This was the home he had shared with Sang Yu for five years. How could he bring another woman here?
Lu Jiayu felt he wasn’t cut out to be an actor. He was trapped in the script’s setting, unable to distinguish between illusion and reality.
It was dangerous.
Reality had given him a bloody lesson.
Ye Fei couldn’t believe it. “You want me to leave?”
“This is my home with Sang Yu.”
“Then what am I? What do I count as?”
Ye Fei’s tears fell like broken beads, streaming endlessly. “Jiayu, don’t say things that break my heart.”
Yesterday, Lu Jiayu would have felt heartache at her tears. Now, he only felt a surge of rage.
“You still have the chance to cry, but what about my Xiao Yu? She’s gone. She’ll never have the chance to cry out in pain again.”
“She’s the one who should be crying out in pain, not you!”
“The one I should feel heartache for is her, not you, this impostor!”
Lu Jiayu stared at Ye Fei with bloodshot eyes, looking at her as if she were an enemy.
“We killed Xiao Yu. Neither you nor I are innocent.”
Lu Jiayu stated the fact, while Ye Fei shook her head repeatedly. “That’s not true. It was an accident. Neither of us wanted to hurt Sang Yu.”
“Hah.” Lu Jiayu sounded as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. “If you didn’t want to hurt Xiao Yu, why did you get close to me?”
“You knew perfectly well I had a fiancée, didn’t you?”
Lu Jiayu turned away. “Please leave now.”
If he stayed in the same space with Ye Fei any longer, he didn’t know what he might do.
Ye Fei wept pitifully, her face streaked with tears. “I know you can’t accept the fact that Sang Yu is gone, but it’s already happened. Driving me away now won’t change anything.”
“You love me, don’t you? Let me stay with you, please.”
Lu Jiayu shook his head. “No, the only one I love is Xiao Yu.”
It was simply that the experiences of the male and female leads in the script were too similar to his and Xiao Yu’s past, which was why he empathized with it.
He even became deeply immersed in it.
Treating Ye Fei as the Xiao Yu from the past.
From beginning to end, the only one he loved was Sang Yu!
Hearing Lu Jiayu’s confession, Sang Yu remained completely unmoved.
Once something is tainted, it’s tainted—there are no grand, noble reasons for it.
Knowing full well that you shouldn’t eat filth, yet still going to take a lick—that’s just being shameless.