Famous Actresses, Please Keep Your Distance From Me - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

When Cen Zhi woke up, her phone had already run out of battery and shut down. She plugged it in to charge before getting up to wash. After finishing her breakfast, she walked back into the bedroom with a carton of milk, only to see that she had been on a WeChat voice call with Duan Rujin for several hundred minutes last night.

She was so startled she accidentally bit down hard on her straw.

So, she wasn’t the only one who had fallen asleep and forgotten to hang up; Duan Rujin, on the other end, had done the same.

Cen Zhi pressed a hand to her forehead, not quite knowing what to say. This couldn’t happen again.

She wasn’t sure what time Duan Rujin’s flight was, and it was already past 9:00 AM. Her finger hovered over the screen, hesitant, before ultimately deciding against sending the words “Safe travels.”

Forget it.

They probably wouldn’t meet again anyway. Duan Rujin would continue being the radiant star, and she would carry on as a pet mortician.

The cat café incident was still trending. The video had surpassed 100,000 reposts, including a share from the official “Shining Star” account. To Cen Zhi’s surprise, she saw that Duan Rujin had also reposted it last night.

As more people paid attention, Cen Zhi looked at the pink urns in the columbarium and couldn’t help but sigh. Most of the animals she handled had died of illness or old age; it was inevitably harder to process cases of human cruelty. The fact that these abusers rarely faced severe consequences only added to her frustration.

Around 10:00 AM, as Cen Zhi was about to head back to the office, Wen Lin arrived.

“Aren’t you off today?” Cen Zhi asked, dusting a glass display case with a feather duster.

Wen Lin pulled up a chair and sat beside her. “I came to see them.”

“Didn’t sleep well?”

Wen Lin had noticeable dark circles under her eyes, and her sclera was streaked with bloodshot lines that were hard to ignore.

“Cen Zhi,” Wen Lin said, staring ahead. “When I was on vacation before, I actually visited that cat café. The owner chatted with me and found out I was in pet funeral services. She even joked that she’d never see me at our shop… I’ve petted those cats one by one…”

Cen Zhi stood up and patted her shoulder. “Stay for a while, then go home and sleep. Don’t think about anything else.”

“Mhm.”

Cen Zhi left the columbarium. Feng Xingxing was off today, so Lin Wen was at the front desk. Seeing her come out, Lin Wen said, “Sister Cen, I just got a call. Someone was asking if the cats from the café were handled by our shop. They asked very technical questions; I suspect it’s a competitor snooping.”

“How did you answer?”

“I said, ‘That’s private information, we won’t provide any answers. Is there anything else?'”

Cen Zhi gave a cold laugh. “These people even want to capitalize on murdered cats.” She instructed, “There might be a lot of calls like this for the next few days—maybe even reporters. Refuse them all.”

“Got it, I will.”

Cen Zhi returned to her office, her mood still overcast. Even though it was a bright, sunny day outside, she felt the same suffocating gloom as the rainy days before. Because it was mid-week, the workload was light, so she spent her time reviewing files.

Around 11:00 AM, she received a message from Wei Shu.

Wei Shu: “I’m not seeing things, am I, A-Zhi?”

Wei Shu: “Why does the Husky-like thing in Duan Rujin’s hand look so familiar?”

Wei Shu: [Image]

The picture showed Duan Rujin at the airport. She was holding a toy that looked like a Husky, looking down and fiddling with it while waiting for security.

Cen Zhi: “It does look a little familiar.”

Wei Shu immediately sent a voice message: “A-Zhi, don’t tell me you gave that to Duan Rujin.”

“Then I won’t tell you.”

“Holy sh*t! Why didn’t you say so earlier? If I knew you were giving it to her, I would have painted it myself!”

Cen Zhi stared at the transcribed text for a few seconds before replying: “Yeah, why didn’t I say so earlier.”

She could have easily asked Wei Shu to help with the coloring—Wei Shu was a professional. Why did she insist on doing it herself? To the point where she later felt her own work wasn’t good enough and got all conflicted about it.

Was it because her own handiwork was “more meaningful”? But Duan Rujin probably just liked the ornament itself; her “meaning” had no real significance.

Cen Zhi felt she was being ridiculous.

Wei Shu: “Ahhh!”

Wei Shu: “You know I love her!”

“She was my university classmate.” Cen Zhi explained simply. “But we won’t see each other again. We aren’t in touch.”

Wei Shu: “?”

Wei Shu: “You really know how to keep a secret. If it were me, I’d get a megaphone and tell the whole world Duan Rujin was my classmate.”

Wei Shu: “Then again, it fits you. You’ve never been one to show off.”

Cen Zhi quickly changed the subject: “Back to my files now.”

But her hand didn’t move to turn the pages. She pursed her lips and opened Weibo, searching for the name “Duan Rujin” for the first time in years.

A second later, she saw today’s “Duan Rujin airport departure” photos trending. The outfit was the same as in Wei Shu’s photo, though this time she wasn’t wearing a mask—just a beret Cen Zhi hadn’t seen before. The Husky made an appearance in several shots.

Scrolling down, there were videos. Cen Zhi didn’t click them; she just stared at the smile on Duan Rujin’s face in the thumbnails. Undoubtedly, Duan Rujin was stunning when she smiled, and her eyes were warm and sincere—looking at the camera, she didn’t seem “above it all.”

Cen Zhi thought back to Duan Rujin’s question last night about “distance.” At this moment, the sense of distance seemed to have peaked.

Cen Zhi exited the interface and returned to her own profile, but her mind was stuck on the moment she parted with Duan Rujin. She realized she could have taken one of those mints after all.

Just as the thought crossed her mind, a new notification appeared in the “Go Fur-babies Go” group.

By Any Means: “I’ve boarded.”

By Any Means: “I’ll discuss the details with my team when I get to Haicheng. I’ll let you know once we have a result.”

Yu Lu: “Let us know when you land!”

Cen Zhi pressed her lips together and finally typed: “Safe travels.”

By Any Means: “Goodbye.”

Cen Zhi didn’t reply. She locked her screen.

The heat of the cat café incident faded after two days. “Shining Star” did receive many strange calls, but Lin Wen and Feng Xingxing rejected them all. Some people even tried to sneak into the columbarium, but Zhang Lin and the others stopped them.

Everything settled back into a “dead calm”—one of the most terrifying things about these situations.

On Saturday at 7:00 PM, Yu Lu posted about the stray animal rescue on all her platforms. The traffic was massive; likes and comments poured in. The rescue station’s backend received far more inquiries about adoption than before.

Cen Zhi felt relieved. She had just returned from another rescue station when she saw Chen Kai by the wall near the shop entrance again. He was holding a bouquet of flowers and smiled when he saw her. “For you.”

“No thanks,” Cen Zhi refused this time.

Chen Kai scratched the back of his head, his face reddening. “Do you not like the flowers I picked today?”

“It’s you I don’t like.”

Cen Zhi pursed her lips. “This is getting pointless, Chen Kai. I rejected you from the start. You persisted in giving me flowers, and I accepted them to save you some face, but you don’t seem to understand—or you’re pretending not to.” She said, “I have a record of every bouquet you’ve sent. I will pay you back for all of them at market price.”

Chen Kai’s face darkened. He turned and walked away with the flowers.

Cen Zhi watched him disappear, her heart unmoved. Then, she was stunned to see someone who shouldn’t have been there, wearing a hat and a mask.

“Just passing by,” Duan Rujin said, meeting her eyes.

Cen Zhi didn’t know how to feel. She exposed her: “Passing by… by any means?”

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