Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I stood outside Xie Xingyun’s house and pressed the doorbell.

No one came to open the door for a long time. I waited another five minutes, then started entering the passcode.

I handled every aspect of Xie Xingyun’s life.

I was the one who had introduced him to this house back when he earned his first real fortune. It offered excellent privacy and security. More importantly, I was fairly familiar with the developer, which saved him quite a bit of money.

When he was setting up the passcode, I asked him what he wanted it to be. He looked as though he hadn’t given it much thought and simply said, “Anything.”

I teased him with an amused smile. “Anything? So it can be whatever I want? Then I’ll set it to my birthday. That way, every time you enter the passcode, you’ll remember my birthday and remember to thank the talent scout who discovered you by giving me a generous gift on time.”

He had laughed then, too. Afterward, he kept using that passcode all the way to today. He had never changed it.

I entered my birthday, and the lock beeped before the door swung open.

I stood at the entrance and knocked once more. I had given Xie Xingyun plenty of time. I had no idea what I would find inside, but whatever had happened, he should have had enough time to clean everything up.

I stepped inside and was surprised to find that Xie Xingyun wasn’t there. The only person in the living room was a young woman standing right in the middle of it. She was wearing Xie Xingyun’s T-shirt, two long, snow-white legs exposed beneath it, and she stared at me in alarm and confusion.

It was Song Zhongtong.

I paused in the entryway before asking her, “Where’s Xie Xingyun?”

She looked at me hesitantly, then asked suspiciously, “Who are you?”

I said nothing. I opened the shoe cabinet, but my slippers were nowhere to be seen. I looked up at Song Zhongtong and, sure enough, found them on her feet.

I didn’t say anything. I had severe mysophobia. Once someone else touched my personal belongings, I couldn’t use them anymore.

I showed no emotion toward Song Zhongtong. Instead, I gave her a polite, courteous smile and introduced myself.

“Hello. I’m Xie Xingyun’s agent, and I’m also his girlfriend. Would you please tell me where Xie Xingyun is?”

Xie Xingyun and I had been together for a year. We were both consenting adults with ordinary physical needs, and I had always liked him. I had never hidden those feelings, either.

Xie Xingyun had actually been able to sense them all along, but neither of us had ever said it outright.

We got together because, two years ago, just as he was beginning to make a name for himself, I went to negotiate a brand endorsement for him. I drank quite a bit while entertaining the clients, but I kept chatting and laughing as if nothing were wrong. It wasn’t until after I had signed the contract and seen the brand representatives into their car that I finally started throwing up.

Xie Xingyun took me home and stayed behind to look after me.

In my half-conscious state, I heard him sigh helplessly beside my bed.

“Lin Jinhe, you push yourself too hard.”

Xie Xingyun was cold by nature and a man of few words. It was the first time I had ever heard such helplessness in his voice, and I couldn’t help laughing.

I was practically a legend in the industry. I had started as an agent’s assistant at a young age and worked my way up to become a top-tier talent agent. I was still young, but I handled every situation with painstaking thoroughness and had never given anyone cause for gossip.

Hearing me laugh, he smiled too. I opened my eyes and looked at him, teasing him half-seriously.

“If I didn’t push myself, how could I have made you a star?”

He froze for a moment, then said quietly, “Lin Jinhe, I’m lucky to have met you.”

It was the first time he had ever thanked me.

After that, we understood each other without saying a word. Perhaps the moment was right. In any case, that was how we ended up together.

Xie Xingyun and I were both adults with normal physical needs, and we spent every day together. As the saying goes, the moon closest to the water is the first to be reflected in it.

After seven years, I had finally claimed the moon I had fallen for in my youth.

But now, as I watched Song Zhongtong’s face turn deathly pale at my words, I thought absently to myself: It seemed that the moon I had fallen for in my youth had a moon of her own, too.

I was only the replacement. I wondered whether it was time for me to step down.