After Being Reborn, My Ex-Girlfriend Became Obsessed - Chapter 16

Facing the tenderness in her eyes, ripples slowly gathered in the depths of An Yu’s gaze. The flickering firelight wove between the two of them, blurring the line between what emotions were real and what were illusions.

Then, An Yu inconspicuously moved her eyes away, calmly fixing them on the cup before her. The firelight cast shifting shadows across her face, making her expression unreadable.

Xie An’an’s eyes flicked between the two of them, quietly tucking the scene away in her mind. She lifted her glass, took a small sip, and thought to herself with clarity—

They quarreled.

An Yu raised her own glass, downed it in one go while staring into the distance, and then stood up.
“The barbecue should be ready. I’ll go take a look.”

As she walked toward the grill, her gaze unavoidably landed on Lin Duxi sitting in a chair, staring into the bonfire. Though night had fallen, she still saw the strands of hair swaying with the breeze and the way Lin Duxi’s eyes drooped faintly.

The flames leapt in her pupils. Lin Duxi was lost in thought, and in that moment the strong armor seemed stripped away, revealing a soft, fragile core. Her eyes brimmed with sorrow—

As if she had been abandoned, left with nothing.

An Yu frowned, baffled at her own thought. Passing by Lin Duxi, she reached the grill and absentmindedly flipped the skewers that were already done.

Lin Duxi, meanwhile, was distracted. She had thought long about An Yu’s strange behavior today yet found no real reason for it. That feeling of finally moving a step forward only to be dragged back to the starting point again and again, with no end in sight, irritated her deeply. It reminded her of those suffocating nights of darkness. She took slow, deep breaths, trying to suppress the pain, her brows knitting together.

She looked up, urgently searching for something—then saw An Yu, focused on tending the grill. Her expression softened instantly.

Thank goodness A Yu was still by her side. As long as they stayed together, there would be a way for An Yu to continue loving her, desiring her, just like before.

They would always be together—close, loving, forever. After hardship came light. That was what A Yu had once told her, and what she had always believed.

A Yu wouldn’t lie to her.

Lin Duxi’s gaze gradually darkened, sinking like into a vast deep sea that swallowed every dark thought, leaving only the calm surface of the ocean, still and unbroken.

A pair of pale, delicate hands suddenly entered her vision, breaking An Yu’s daze. Following them up, An Yu saw Lin Duxi smiling softly, stretching out her hand as if today’s lapses had never happened, forgotten—or covered up.

“Teacher An, may I taste your cooking?” Lin Duxi asked half playfully.

Could her emotions really stabilize this fast? An Yu wondered. She chose a skewer with the best balance of meat, and handed it to Lin Duxi.

Lin Duxi happily accepted it, standing close at her side. She ate as she watched An Yu’s skilled movements, her eyes sparkling with light.

Seeing this, Xie An’an shamelessly asked for one too. Before long, An Yu’s grilling shifted from cooking only for herself to grilling for all six of them.

Looking up at the cameras of the production crew, An Yu understood. With her status, even if she wasn’t too willing, she couldn’t exactly reject the others’ requests. Besides, she hadn’t planned to mingle much with the group anyway. This quieter task suited her just fine, so she accepted without fuss.

By the fire, the others chattered away, sharing stories of their careers or describing their ideal types in a partner. The atmosphere was lively.

Taking advantage of the mood, Pei Lu drank and spoke more boldly. While talking about his ideal type, he couldn’t stop glancing toward Lin Duxi, his hints unmistakable—that she was the one. The livestream chat filled with CP comments flying by. The others present noticed as well, though the center of it all seemed lost in her own thoughts.

Lin Duxi sat farther from the fire, close enough to converse but not drawn into every topic. Her head kept turning toward An Yu at the grill. At first, just a glance now and then—but gradually, she couldn’t look away, until she was outright staring in a daze.

“Teacher Lin, Teacher Lin,” Xie An’an called softly.

Lin Duxi returned to herself, offering a polite yet detached smile. “Yes?”

“We were just talking about our ideal types. What’s yours, Teacher Lin?” Xie An’an asked, silently hoping her answer would mirror An Yu, so that Pei Lu would give up.

Lin Duxi only smiled without answering. Then, under everyone’s expectant gaze, she rose and walked over to An Yu’s side.

“Teacher An, let me help you.” Without waiting for permission, she took the tongs from An Yu’s hands. Their fingers brushed together, overlapping for a fleeting moment—subtle, intimate. The contact ended quickly, but the cameras caught it clearly.

That brief touch shortened the distance between them. There was nothing improper in their actions, but to the others—and to the livestream—it was unmistakably charged with intimacy.

The moonlight filtered through the trees, casting shadows across them, as if forming a natural barrier enclosing the two together.

【This silence says more than words! I’m shipping them already!】
【Did Lin Duxi say anything? No. Did she show it? Hard to tell. This is only for those who feel it!】
【Who was shipping Pei Lu and Lin Duxi earlier? This CP is way better—this is the real deal!】
【Believe they’re not together if you want, but I’ve written a 10k-word thesis proving otherwise.】

The barrage quickly shifted, with Lin Duxi’s personal “sugar drop” fueling a frenzy of CP comments like mushrooms after rain.

The night breeze carried a coolness through the trees, but An Yu felt none of it. The space around her seemed crowded out, filled with heat emanating from the person beside her—like a furnace. Her movements grew sticky, as if weighed down by sweat.

Yet Lin Duxi acted as if nothing unusual had happened, relaxed and cheerful as she grilled, occasionally chatting softly with An Yu. Her voice was gentle, too soft for those by the fire to hear, and the clip-on microphones had conveniently been removed—only An Yu could hear her.

“A Yu, you didn’t want me to go today, did you?” Her tone framed it as a question, but carried absolute certainty.

An Yu’s hand paused, then she answered, “No.”

Lin Duxi chuckled softly, the sound teasing to An Yu’s ears. “But I never said what it was you didn’t want me to do. And yet An Yu knows so clearly.”

An Yu’s pupils widened slightly. She kept silent, but Lin Duxi’s voice continued.

“They were just talking about their ideal types—you must have heard, An Yu. Do you know mine? Of course you do. Don’t be upset with me, okay?”

Even knowing the cameras were focused on them and that lip-readers could easily interpret her words, Lin Duxi chose to speak anyway. All she wanted was to use her unguarded sincerity to win back even a sliver of An Yu’s trust—just a little was enough.

An Yu stopped flipping the skewers. Then she smiled faintly, her voice as soft as a murmur. The fire crackled, but Lin Duxi couldn’t catch the words. She grew anxious, certain they were crucial—perhaps the key to bringing them closer again. But An Yu only handed her another freshly grilled skewer.

Just as Lin Duxi reached for it—

Bang!

The loud crash of a door slamming shattered the quiet of the courtyard.

Startled, An Yu looked up. At the glass door stood Yu Fei, scratching his head with an embarrassed grin. He waved sheepishly at everyone.

“Sorry, everyone. Guess I slammed it too hard.”

An Yu turned her eyes back. Out of the corner of her vision, she caught Lin Duxi’s trembling shoulders, her dazed expression. But when she fully looked, Lin Duxi had already returned to normal.

She accepted the skewer from An Yu without pressing further, whispered a thanks, and walked away.

The charcoal still crackled, glowing red. An Yu stared at the dancing flames reflected in her eyes.

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