Sensing the teasing undertone in Su Leli’s words, Jiang Tong glanced back at Xie Weiyi and gave a soft sigh.
She could easily imagine what kind of expression would appear on Xie Weiyi’s face if she had spilled the beans to Su Leli about them dating in the past.
Sharing past romantic anecdotes between close friends was naturally understandable, and she could also comprehend venting a few complaints to a friend about an ex-girlfriend being heartless.
So, was Su Leli planning to stand up and fight injustice on Xie Weiyi’s behalf next?
Jiang Tong had no desire to listen to any accusations; she had been in a difficult position back then, and to whom could she vent her overwhelming grievances?
Therefore, Jiang Tong took a half-step back, turned around, and walked toward the door: “I apologize, I overstepped. I shouldn’t have come.”
Hearing this, Xie Weiyi abruptly snapped her eyes open, brandishing a fist at Su Leli with a furious expression that practically shouted, “How did you manage to chase my girlfriend away?! Hurry up and coax her back!”
Su Leli shot Xie Weiyi a disdainful look, stepped forward to block Jiang Tong’s path, and said, “Teacher Jiang, are you looking for the listening device?”
“Listening device?”
“Mhm, I found a micro listening device on Aine’s collar. Yu Ningzhi had already sneaked in and taken it,” Su Leli explained with a small smile as she tugged on Jiang Tong’s sleeve, pulling her back inside. “I didn’t mean anything else just now; I was simply curious about the past between you and Aine.”
Jiang Tong’s lips parted slightly, any words of rebuttal stuck in her throat, unable to push out even a single syllable.
Since Su Leli already knew, any further pretense or evasion was entirely pointless.
Jiang Tong offered no verbal response, which served as tacit acknowledgment of her past history with Xie Weiyi.
“I think you can tell that Yu Ningzhi holds quite a favorable impression of Aine,” Su Leli said, folding her arms across her chest while lifting her right hand to prop up her chin in a deep, sagacious posture, drawing out her tone. “However… Yu Ningzhi is truly someone you can never afford to truly be close with.”
Driven backward step by step by Su Leli’s sharp gaze, Jiang Tong pressed her back against the cold wooden door panel, causing her to shiver involuntarily.
“Are you at ease letting Aine stay with her? With someone so full of schemes and adept at disguising herself… an assailant,” Su Leli added immediately after.
The word “assailant” made Jiang Tong’s heart tremble.
When that car accident happened seven years ago, Yu Ningzhi had been present as well. But her father, Station Director Yu, instantly sealed off the news and sent her away to live with a music teacher, fabricating an alibi for her.
Consequently, everyone felt it was nothing more than an accident.
Jiang Tong had also spent day and night brainwashing herself: “It was just an accident.”
Yet at this moment, that solid yet superficial facade of “peace” was tapped into fragments by a casual piece of gossip from Su Leli, as though puncturing the truth of that year wasn’t as difficult as she had imagined—not even requiring courage.
Jiang Tong realized that the lies she had told Xie Weiyi were also crumbling alongside it.
She opened her mouth, wanting to shake Xie Weiyi awake and tell her she still remembered everything.
Unfortunately, Jiang Tong could not.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but that she simply couldn’t.
The agony of these past seven years had long since worn down her courage, and she had never prepared herself to face the tempestuous truth head-on.
Or perhaps, she had already grown accustomed to this kind of life. A life without Xie Weiyi, but where both of them remained safe and sound.
Clenching her fists nervously, Jiang Tong looked up and asked, “What all do you know?”
“I don’t know anything, just heard a tiny whisper of wind.” Seeing her tense up, Su Leli realized she was pressing her too hard, so she patted her shoulder to reassure her. “My apologies, I said a bit too much tonight.”
“Alright, since you know about the listening device, I’ll head back then.” Jiang Tong nodded, forcing herself to pull at the corners of her mouth toward Su Leli, squeezing out a grimace that was neither a smile nor a frown.
Su Leli glanced at Xie Weiyi on the bed, who was finding it harder and harder to keep up her fake sleep, and reached out to block Jiang Tong once more.
“Jiang Tong, be bolder. Aine is yours. Over these past few years, she has constantly been searching for you, never letting you go. As long as you crook your finger at her, she’ll charge right over.”
Jiang Tong turned around, her gaze brushing lightly across Xie Weiyi’s lips, which appeared exceptionally glossy and hydrated from having consumed a fair amount of wine earlier.
The memory of her begging Jiang Tong to feed her porridge while drunk was still vivid in her mind. Jiang Tong quickly averted her gaze, finally letting it fall upon the deep, dark night sky outside the window.
If it were the Xie Weiyi of the past who charged over, Jiang Tong would have caught her and embraced her without a moment’s hesitation.
But the current Aine wouldn’t do; Jiang Tong couldn’t let her plunge into the mire. That would be far too selfish.
Keeping her voice very soft, Jiang Tong sounded more as though she were talking to herself. Facing the empty moonlight, she whispered to that youthful lover locked away in her memories: “Goodnight, Xie Weiyi.”
Back inside her room, Jiang Tong bolted the door and leaned her back against the cold wooden panel, feeling as though she had exhausted every ounce of her strength.
The faint sound of ocean tides drifted in from outside the window, making the room feel all the more terrifyingly quiet.
Sitting on the floor, she buried her face deep into her knees, wrapping her arms around herself to curl up into a tiny ball.
The pretense of calmness completely unraveled the moment she was left alone.
“Xie Weiyi…”
She heard her own hoarse, breathy voice echo in the empty room, so faint it was nearly swallowed by the roar of the waves.
Buzz—
The smartphone charging on the bedside table vibrated a few times.
Picking up the phone, Jiang Tong discovered several missed calls from Sister Li sitting in the notification bar.
Calculating the time, the first call had come in right as the evening live broadcast ended.
Checking the trending search lists, neither her name nor Xie Weiyi’s was hanging at the top, and there was nothing out of the ordinary within the topics associated with them.
So Jiang Tong dialed back.
Sister Li answered quickly, her tone trembling nervously: “Tongtong, a provincial TV station sent an invitation, wanting to book an exclusive interview with you.”
“An exclusive interview? Did they invite the other romance show guests as well?” Jiang Tong asked, puzzled, before pausing and asking, “Which station is it?”
“Ocean TV.”
Ocean TV…
That girl group survival show from years ago had been hosted by Ocean TV.
The floodgates of memory burst open, and countless days and nights spent in the practice room rushed forward overwhelmingly.
Jiang Tong remembered her very first time meeting Xie Weiyi in the backstage area during the survival show’s initial evaluations. A mixed-race girl was standing amidst the crowd, dazzlingly pretty.
She and Jiang Tong had chosen the same song. Logically speaking, two people in a competitive relationship shouldn’t have felt any goodwill toward each other, yet there was not an ounce of hostility between them.
Jiang Tong taught Xie Weiyi pinyin word by word, correcting her tones, while Xie Weiyi gifted Jiang Tong the second-prettiest dress from her suitcase.
Later on, both of them successfully passed the initial selections and officially became contestants.
From then on, Xie Weiyi acted like a little tail, always following behind Jiang Tong, calling her “Tongtong, Tongtong.”
When asked why she kept following, Xie Weiyi would blink those gorgeous glass-colored eyes of hers, looking both self-assured and slightly bashful: “Tongtong is pretty, and her voice is al-also nice. Plus… you’ll teach me.”
Thus, the two of them shared every sweat-drenched day and night, surviving elimination round after elimination round.
She remembered the late-night convenience store where the two of them shared a single bowl of oden. Xie Weiyi would suck in air from the heat yet still look at her with sparkling eyes, saying in her halting Mandarin: “Tongtong, delicious.”
Those glass-colored eyes were brimming with complete reliance and a budding emotion they hadn’t yet fully articulated.
She remembered even more how, after they began secretly dating, they exchanged kisses and embraces in unseen corners. Xie Weiyi loved burying her face in the crook of Jiang Tong’s neck, breathing warm air as she whispered by her ear: “Tongtong, I like you so much, Tongtong.”
Every word Xie Weiyi spoke was like it had been dipped in honey, sweet enough to make one’s heartstrings quiver.
They were supposed to debut together, standing side by side under the spotlight to receive flowers and applause.
Jiang Tong had even secretly written a song, revising it over and over, practicing it countless times, preparing to sing it to Xie Weiyi on the debut night.
That song was filled with all the love she wanted to confess aloud, only to keep hiding it away due to shyness.
Yet, that “accidental” car accident and that cold contract completely shattered all of it.
Blinding headlights, screeching brakes, intense pain, the smell of antiseptic… and that single sheet of paper covered in harsh terms.
Those things crushed every beautiful scene she and Xie Weiyi had shared over the days past, smashing them beyond recognition.
The contract demanded that Jiang Tong withdraw from the survival show and write songs for STAR Girl Group throughout their five-year contract term. Naturally, the copyright and credit for her songwriting wouldn’t belong to her either.
Jiang Tong had no choice but to sign that contract, which was practically equivalent to selling herself into indenture, because the other party threatened that the price of her refusal would be dragging Xie Weiyi down with her.
Lying in the hospital bed, staring at the sterile ceiling and listening to the production crew’s cold “notification,” Jiang Tong realized for the very first time with crystal clarity: in the face of capital and interests, dreams and romance were fragile to the point of being vulnerable.
Forced to give up the stage, she dragged her unhealed body away and vanished from everyone’s sight.
Afterward, she became the unseen creator behind the scenes, using her talent stroke by stroke to pave the glittering red carpets for others.
Fortunately, “others” happened to include Xie Weiyi, which meant Jiang Tong’s five years weren’t entirely unbearable.
Just like that, completely unaware of the truth, Xie Weiyi became the dazzling girl group leader chosen by capital.
The difference between heaven and mud had already been sealed the moment Jiang Tong signed her name on that contract.
Jiang Tong had never regretted her choice back then. If she had to relive it, faced with the exact same circumstances, she would still sign that “indentured contract,” trading her own disappearance for Xie Weiyi’s safety and smooth road ahead.
Yet, not regretting didn’t mean she wouldn’t feel pain or grievances.
Every time she watched the five members of STAR Girl Group shine brightly on stage, Jiang Tong would think of her own shattered debut dream.
Why was it that while the five of them smiled calmly on the podium and outshone everyone on the red carpet, she could only hide in a dark corner and look up?
Thinking of these things, her heart felt tightly gripped by an invisible hand, the sourness and grievance threatening to suffocate her.
“Why?”
Warm tears slipped down her cheeks without warning, flowing down and dropping silently onto the cold floor—one drop, two drops—splattering and blooming into dark damp marks.
Biting her lower lip hard, Jiang Tong locked her sobs deep within her throat, not daring to let out a single sound for fear of being heard by Xie Weiyi and Susan just a wall away.
Her slender shoulders trembled slightly like a wounded little beast licking its wounds alone.
STAR Girl Group had debuted for five years, and Jiang Tong had spent five years backstage propping Xie Weiyi up, after which Xie Weiyi went abroad, leaving Jiang Tong with another two years of separation spanning thousands of miles.
All by herself, Xie Weiyi occupied a full seven years of time within Jiang Tong’s heart.
She had no idea whether she occupied an equal weight in Xie Weiyi’s heart.
She had no idea whether she truly held the vital importance to Xie Weiyi that Su Leli claimed she did.