There wasn’t any problem, even if there were twenty years between them. Lu Jin might be sixteen years older than Yun Xiangxiang, but it didn’t show when they stood together.
The older husband, younger wife pairing. Lu Jin and Wu Zhao had collaborated a few times. He knew the former was a man of integrity, knowledge, and virtue. He wasn’t going to play the matchmaker. Yun Xiangxiang was still young. But he would be happy to see it if it happened.
Sun Qiluo cared more about Lu Jin’s wine than topics about relationships. Yun Xiangxiang was prepared. She took her sobering pills half an hour before dinner. She wasn’t afraid to go a few rounds with her friends.
Hou Cang had to leave partway through. His daughter was down with a fever.
It suddenly didn’t feel as high when one of them left. The rest stopped drinking. After the feast, Yun Xiangxiang and Qiluo helped clean up the place. Xingzhou and Qiluo went back together, as their places were nearby. Yun Xiangxiang went with Lu Jin.
Lu Jin sent Yun Xiangxiang back, “Don’t listen to Xingzhou. I don’t have any ideas toward you. I have someone I like.”
Yun Xiangxiang knew, “I didn’t misunderstand, Brother Jin.”
Yun Xiangxiang knew who he liked. She didn’t gossip about it. There was a pregnant pause between them.
“Did He Wei tell you something?” Lu Jin asked.
“A bit,” she didn’t want to lie.
“I think it’s more than that,” Lu Jin smiled. “He’s right. The one I love is now a star among the heavens.”
Yun Xiangxiang had known about it from He Wei, but she didn’t know how to feel when Lu Jin confirmed it.
“I took care of you because you’re a bit like her. But a bigger part of it is because you’re admirable. And you’re still young,” Lu Jin explained.
He kept quiet for a while, “I will never find someone to replace her. It would be an insult to her and the girl I chose to be her replacement.”
If his love could be replaced just because someone similar was there, that would be cheap, and it wouldn’t be real love.
The more Lu Jin acted this way, the more somber Yun Xiangxiang felt, “If you loved her so much, why didn’t you go for it?”
“I was too late. Too late when I met her.” Regret swam in his eyes. “She was already taken when I met her. All of us were in the industry. If I were to be the third wheel, I would have hurt her gravely.”
Rumors were tools of destruction. Women would always be on the losing side in matters like these.
Nobody would think he was the third wheel. They would only think she cheated. At the same time, she was dating Ruo Feiqun, and she seduced Lu Jin.
If her boyfriend wasn’t in the industry, he didn’t mind fighting with her boyfriend fairly before marriage.
But this industry didn’t tolerate fair fights.
“They eventually broke up…,” after breaking up with Feiqun, she spent half a year alone.
“She had stomach cancer, and it was in the late stages. I sought out every doctor I could. When they saw her case, they said she couldn’t be saved.” Lu Jin closed his eyes. “If I couldn’t cure her, she would never accept me. She was a proud yet sensitive girl.”
He didn’t expect someone like her to commit suicide. She had six months left. He had already contacted the ancient family of doctors: the Song Family. How great would it be if she had waited for a while longer?
Yun Xiangxiang thought nobody understood Hua Xiangrong. Not Wen Lan, not Feiqun.
She didn’t expect a shining star to understand her the most.
But as the rewind button didn’t exist in the world. Hua Xiangrong was no longer of this world.
“Brother Jin, stay strong,” Yun Xiangxiang didn’t want Lu Jin to wallow in sadness.
It wasn’t as if she wanted to lessen her guilt. She didn’t feel guilty toward him. She was just advising him.
“I’m not 24,” Lu Jin was amused. “I am long past the age of impulse. I know the meaning of life. I just can’t forget her for now. I will start a new relationship when I do.”
“Don’t wallow in it for too long, Brother Jin,” Yun Xiangxiang had arrived at her hotel. She leaned on the window, “You’re already 34, after all.”
Yun Xiangxiang scurried away, afraid that Lu Jin might smack her head.
Lu Jin was half-amused, half-annoyed. He sent her off to her hotel. He wasn’t worried about her, not like He Wei was.
When he was leaving, he saw a van coming in the driveway. The people inside them looked around for a while before entering the elevator.
Lu Jin was concerned. He got out of his car and went after them. One of the elevators stopped on the ninth floor. It could be the place Yun Xiangxiang was staying. The other one was still going up. Lu Jin called Yun Xiangxiang.
“Hello, Brother Jin?”
“Look out, company’s coming your way,” Lu Jin reminded her.
The elevator had stopped at the eighth story. Beside Yun Xiangxiang was the security door. She hid inside the mezzanine floor behind it. “Talk to you later.”
Yun Xiangxiang sent a message to Ai Li.
Through the door’s gap, she saw a group of people walking along the corridor as they looked around.
Ai Li was in their room. After they went past her room, Yun Xiangxiang couldn’t see them, but she could hear them knocking.
Ai Li texted her: Not our room.
Then they were not here for them. But these guys were bad news. Should I poke my nose into this?
The cops wouldn’t be here on time. As Yun Xiangxiang was thinking, Ai Li sent her a message: They went into the room across from yours.
Yun Xiangxiang exited the mezzanine floor. One of them was smoking in the corridor. When he saw Yun Xiangxiang, he thought she looked familiar. He entertained that thought.
Yun Xiangxiang pretended she knew nothing and went to her room.
“Ai Li, what are they doing?” Yun Xiangxiang suspected something was afoul.
They looked like bad news. This hotel might not be a five-star one, but they had CCTV. And yet they came here without any disguise?
“Give me a second. I’ll look into this,” Ai Li would install a security system in the places Yun Xiangxiang stayed in.
She could hack into the hotel’s CCTV and snap the photo of the guy in the corridor. She just needed to post it, and she would know everything about him. If he had no criminal records, they would ignore this matter.
Yun Xiangxiang’s phone rang again. It was Lu Jin. “You okay?”
“I’m already back in my room. You can go home, Brother Jin. I’m fine,” Yun Xiangxiang wanted Lu Jin to stay out of this.
If the guy out there had any criminal records, she might already be in danger since she saw him. She couldn’t drag Lu Jin into this.