After Being Reborn, My Ex-Girlfriend Became Obsessed - Chapter 30

During the remaining days, An Yu and Lin Duxi coincidentally turned every evening after dinner into rehearsal time. Under Lin Duxi’s careful guidance, An Yu’s acting skills gradually improved.

Because An Yu was very popular on the variety show, even if the company wanted to shelve her as Qi Qi suggested, they still accepted some high-paying endorsements for her, all for the sake of money.

An Yu sat in front of the makeup mirror while the makeup artist applied her makeup slowly. She was flipping through the schedule when her phone suddenly lit up. She reached out and opened it.

Lin Duxi: “Did you practice today?”

An Yu typed back: “Filming GG.”

Lin Duxi: “Which GG?”

Without thinking, An Yu sent the name of the GG she was filming.

The phone showed “typing…” and then disappeared. An Yu waited for a while, but no message came back. She assumed Lin Duxi didn’t want to disturb her filming, so she put her phone away.

Ever since she had gone to rehearse with Lin Duxi, he constantly monitored her acting practice. Whenever she asked, he would respond in real-time, as if he had no work at all.

An Yu thought to herself: Lin Duxi’s work was filming movies, which shouldn’t be that tedious. So why did he come back to join Qiao Qingzhou’s variety show, which at the time wasn’t even very popular?

If it was the decision of the world’s author, wasn’t it a bit illogical? Why would an award-winning actress lower herself to a small show?

Could it be because of the attraction between the male and female leads? But if that attraction is built on such an illogical premise, doesn’t that prove the system’s claim of “100% compatibility” is a joke?

An Yu suddenly realized something important and decided to ask the system.

“System, why exactly did Lin Duxi come to participate in Hello, Friend?”

The system’s response was slow. After a long pause, the cold mechanical voice unique to it sounded in her mind, as emotionless as ever.

An Yu: “You said the male and female leads are 100% compatible, but this is based on a strange premise. Lin Duxi, an award-winning actress in high demand, chooses to appear on an unknown, small variety show. Doesn’t that seem odd?”

The system listened without responding. When she finished, it let out a sudden, cold laugh, as if it were a machine that only executes programs.

“The attraction and compatibility between the male and female leads are determined by the novel world. Your question is irrelevant here. Even if it weren’t Hello, Friend, they would still participate together in another variety show. This is not a problem.”

At first, this seemed to answer all of An Yu’s doubts, but in reality, it explained nothing, just a vague generality. An Yu nodded as if she understood, but a seed of doubt had taken root in her mind.

“The next episode, as you should know, Lin Duxi will be paired with the male lead. So you don’t need to work so hard. Since you won’t be able to see the relationship between the male and female leads, just observe their coordination and compatibility.”

Mentioning the next episode, the system’s voice carried a note of excitement.

An Yu remained silent, listening as it finished speaking and left.

“Ms. An, filming will begin soon,” a staff member reminded her softly. An Yu snapped back to reality and got up to prepare.

“This time you’ll be working with a younger photographer from our company. She graduated from Jiangcheng No. 2 High School too, so you’re alumni,” the staff member said, hoping to ease An Yu’s first-time nervousness.

“Really? What a coincidence,” An Yu smiled.

Footsteps approached. An Yu looked up and froze for a moment, quickly processing in her mind, then said:

“Tong Ge.”

The woman called Tong Ge raised her eyebrows and extended her hand. “An Yu, long time no see.” They shook hands politely.

The staff member standing nearby was surprised. “You two actually know each other.”

Tong Ge smiled: “We were high school classmates. Haven’t seen each other in six years, I think.”

An Yu nodded with a slight smile. Tong Ge had been the closest person to her in high school, besides Shiyu Lin Duxi, out of a bunch of classmates she wasn’t familiar with. After that incident back then, An Yu had lost contact with the whole class.

“Meeting here like this is really fate,” An Yu said, smiling.

“Since the two of you know each other, you won’t be awkward working together. That puts me at ease,” the staff member remarked. “Alright, let’s start filming.”

Tong Ge nodded and looked at An Yu: “After filming, want to go to the café downstairs together?”

An Yu thought for a moment and nodded.

Being classmates with Tong Ge helped reduce An Yu’s nervousness. Filming went smoothly and ended slightly ahead of schedule.

An Yu packed up and changed out of makeup before heading downstairs.

Tong Ge sat in the corner of the café. An Yu followed the server’s directions and took a seat across from her.

“It’s really been a long time. You missed the last class reunion too,” Tong Ge said casually while handing her the menu.

An Yu smiled. “I really couldn’t make it back then.” Her gaze quickly scanned the desserts and settled on one.

“Mango pancake roll.” She ordered it with the server.

Tong Ge raised her eyebrows slightly and said casually, “After all these years, your taste has changed. I remember you didn’t really like mango back then.”

She left the rest of her sentence unsaid. Lin Duxi, however, loved mango most.

An Yu: “I’ve grown up; I accept everything now.” She decided to get straight to the point.

Tong Ge, who had been looking out at the traffic, said: “It really is fate that we meet here today. I was shocked to know I’d be working with you.”

“After graduation, we never saw each other again. I always wanted to say sorry to you,” Tong Ge said sincerely.

An Yu was taken aback, stirring her coffee with her spoon. “Why? It doesn’t really have anything to do with you.”

Tong Ge lowered her head and shook it. “Not about that. I only learned after the semester started that your uncle and aunt… had passed away.”

As An Yu’s only relatively close classmate, Tong Ge had been unaware of An Yu’s struggles with her friends going abroad and breakups. She had felt guilty for failing as a friend.

Tong Ge’s hands unconsciously fiddled on the table. For years, she had felt she owed An Yu something. When she found out she’d be working with her, she decided to finally say the apology.

Hearing the apology, An Yu smiled slightly. “Not many people knew about my parents’ passing back then. I accept your apology; don’t feel bad.”

Tong Ge finally relaxed, her eyes still misty. An Yu handed her a tissue; Tong Ge wiped her tears, feeling embarrassed.

“You’re laughing at me, but aren’t you back together with Lin Duxi now?”

An Yu froze mid-smile and refused: “No.”

Tong Ge’s hands stopped mid-wipe. Realizing she spoke carelessly, she closed her mouth.

It turned out the online rumors were false! Truly mind-boggling.

“Sorry, I saw your variety show together and it seemed like you two were the same as before, so I—” she apologized.

An Yu was stunned. “Same as before? Are you saying my relationship with Lin Duxi is the same as it was?”

“It’s not really the same,” Tong Ge said, seeing An Yu’s curious look. She hesitated, then made up a story.

“Back then, you two together just looked so compatible. Everyone knew you were dating after graduation; many classmates who liked you two were heartbroken. You had a kind of magnetic connection, like no one else existed—you understood each other perfectly.”

Tong Ge didn’t mention one more thing: that they looked even more pleasing together now, with an almost teasingly distant intimacy that made it even more delightful to observe.

Listening to someone who had witnessed it all, An Yu felt chills and sat patiently as Tong Ge spoke.

“That’s it?”

“How much more do you want to hear?” Tong Ge was surprised, suspecting An Yu might be lying about not getting back together.

“When you broke up back then, I thought it was just a normal quarrel. But you really disappeared, and Lin Duxi also left Jiangcheng. I regretted it for so long. Fortunately, you two met again and even joined the same variety show,” Tong Ge added.

An Yu lowered her head and carefully thought back. After the breakup, she had been busy with her parents’ funeral and fighting for the company’s inheritance, living like a walking corpse.

Perhaps as a protective mechanism during extreme pain, she had lost most memories of that summer, remembering only the rainy day phone call, which was so vivid because it was so painful.

An Yu couldn’t help but smile wryly, taking a forkful of the mango pancake roll.

The sweet mango fragrance hit her taste buds, the flavor slowly spreading to her mind. A fleeting image flashed across her brain.

In a dim room, a schoolgirl in uniform sat with her eyes closed, smiling sweetly, holding a roughly-made cake and making a wish. The dim candlelight barely lit her face, making her expression look serene. Tears remained at the corners of her eyes, yet she was still beautiful.

“An Yu, An Yu.” Tong Ge waved her hand in front of An Yu.

An Yu came back to reality, still slightly dazed.

“What’s wrong? You zoned out just now,” Tong Ge asked, puzzled.

An Yu’s gaze flickered. “Nothing, just remembering old times. Tong Ge, I have to go now. Please don’t tell anyone in the class about meeting today.”

Tong Ge: “O-okay, see you next time.”

An Yu returned to the company car. Assistant Xia Song started briefing her on upcoming work. On the surface, she listened attentively, but her hands secretly clenched.

Thanks to Lin Duxi’s careful guidance in recent days, An Yu’s understanding and conception of her role had reached a new level.

These days, Lin Duxi often invited her to try food and desserts he had made himself, sometimes inviting her to his home, and kept in constant contact via phone. An Yu appeared calm on the outside, but she had already developed a habit.

But that day, Lin Duxi didn’t contact her at all. No messages, no knocks. An Yu studied her script carefully, but spent an hour on a single page.

Suddenly, her phone rang. An Yu glanced over and casually opened it.

Junk message.

An Yu: “……”

She got up and paced in the living room, frowning. Had something happened to Lin Duxi? Then she laughed at herself for worrying. What did it matter to her if something happened? Maybe he was just busy.

She sent Lin Duxi two messages, then returned to the sofa to read the script. Her gaze fell on the cookies on the table.

They were cookies Lin Duxi had baked yesterday, claiming he “made too many” and wanted her to have them. She hadn’t finished them yet.

Soon, the script in her hand was closed. She picked up a cookie, took a bite, and found it delicious. She thought of Lin Duxi’s smiling face when he gave her cookies yesterday, and her brow relaxed.

She patted the crumbs from her hands and went to the kitchen. She opened the top cabinet and searched for something, eventually taking out a long-unused dessert recipe book that had come with her furniture.

Bored and with time to spare, she happily decided to make something.

It turned out that making desserts was not the same as cooking. After several failures, An Yu finally made a visually decent egg tart. She tried a bite and it was acceptable.

She collapsed on the sofa, looking out the window. She didn’t notice when it got dark. She got up to prepare ingredients for one last attempt.

Lin Duxi came home very late, with Ji Qi’s words still echoing in her mind:

“This time, they just bribed their way through. Next time, who knows?”

Lin Duxi rubbed her temple, her head aching, annoyed and exhausted. She just wanted to sleep.

The doorbell rang suddenly. Lin Duxi, thinking it was An Yu, shook her face to appear more awake and went to the door.

“An Yu,” she said with a smile, “Want to rehearse? Wait a moment—I haven’t washed up yet…”

Her view was blocked by a piece of clothing.

“While tidying up, I found your jacket here. Returning it to you.”

Lin Duxi froze, feeling a bit sad. She clutched the jacket, glancing toward the balcony. “But your clothes aren’t dry yet.”

An Yu waved it off: “My clothes don’t matter, no rush.” She handed Lin Duxi a box.

“Since I had free time today, I made extra desserts. Consider it a gift in return,” An Yu said, giving the dessert box.

Lin Duxi was stunned, feeling something stir deep in her soul. Her tired nerves didn’t react immediately, her eyelashes trembling.

An Yu held her hand, placing the box into it. “Don’t worry. I’ve tasted it. No poison.”

Lin Duxi couldn’t help but smile. Warmth from the box spread through her body, and her emotions surged like waves.

All her fatigue and annoyance from the day vanished. In that moment, her world consisted only of An Yu.

“Can I consider this a gift from you?” she asked, mist in her eyes.

An Yu: “Sure, anything you like.”

“Back in high school, did I ever make desserts for you, like cakes?”

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