Chapter 8

End of Main Story

After the brief New Year holiday, production began on my next drama.

The moment Xiangxiang returned, he declared that he was no longer friends with He Jinnan.

The reason was that He Jinnan had secretly come back to spend the New Year with me without bringing him.

He even swore he would never play with him again for the rest of his life.

But when He Jinnan came bearing the newest Lego set as an apology,

the little fellow scampered after him again, calling, “Daddy is the best!”

He Jinnan still wandered around the set from time to time.

At the slightest hint of anything happening, he would appear.

Xiangxiang called his behavior that of a hopeless simp.

When He Jinnan found out, he was furious again.

For some reason, having the two of them around did not feel bad at all.

So I kept turning a blind eye.

I went on acting as usual, and none of my work suffered for it.

But later, during another bout of drunkenness, He Jinnan actually cried and asked me to make our relationship official.

I refused and said imperiously, “Marriage would hurt my career, and I’m still young. If you want to stay with me, stay. If you don’t, go home and stop hovering in front of me.”

He was speechless…

…

Bonus Chapter: He Jinnan

The first time I saw Wen Ni was at a drinking party.

Several fat, greasy old men were forcing drink after drink on her.

I could not stand watching and rebuked them coldly.

“Enough. Have you never had alcohol before?”

Only then did they stop.

After the gathering ended, the young woman timidly thanked me at the door.

That was the first time I truly looked at Wen Ni.

My first impression was that she was as beautiful as a fairy.

The second time I saw her was in the same kind of place.

Her agent pointed at her face and scolded, “If you refuse to attend events like this, what roles do you think you’ll get? Everyone goes through it. Just endure it and it’ll be over.”

Wen Ni turned her head away and said nothing.

But her eyes met mine.

Later, I saw her again in the restroom. She was bent over a sink, vomiting miserably.

Plenty of men in this industry kept women.

I had never been interested in that sort of thing, but when I saw her, I could not tell whether my heart had softened or begun to race.

I stepped forward and made her an offer.

She refused me.

No one had ever refused me in my life. It was rather novel.

The next time I met her was at the hospital.

I happened to be there to pick up my mother’s traditional medicine.

I saw her collapse in tears in the corridor.

My assistant told me what had happened to her family. I knew all about the games those old bastards at entertainment companies played. They signed as many newcomers as they could, gave roles to those willing to sleep with them, and blacklisted or froze out those who refused.

Then they kept their victims trapped until they could no longer endure it and broke their contracts, earning the company another penalty payment.

I told her, “That pride of yours isn’t worth much.”

The young woman said nothing.

But when I was about to leave, she caught my arm.

I knew she was agreeing.

At first, Wen Ni was still rather uncomfortable around me.

As we gradually became familiar, I learned that she was a lively young woman.

When she was in a good mood, she was wonderfully sweet-tempered. But when she was angry, she threw tantrums, kicking and cursing me.

What kind of patron gets treated like that?

No one had ever gotten the better of me before, so I found her endlessly fascinating in those days.

I promoted her with everything I had.

I raised the little sparrow into a phoenix.

My friends in the circle said I was asking to be abused.

Tch. I did not know why, but apparently I enjoyed asking for it.

Before I knew it, I had fallen deeper and deeper.

Eventually, word reached my father.

His assessment of Wen Ni was, “An actress is nothing but a performer. She’ll never be respectable. End it soon.”

Three generations of my family had grown up in government compounds.

I had been flattered and indulged since childhood, which had given me a somewhat rebellious, untamed streak.

The more my family spoke that way, the better I treated Wen Ni.

Opportunities, money, status—whatever I had, I gave her.

But no matter how well I treated her, I knew we had no future.

Neither my grandfather nor my father would ever agree to us being together.

I always kept that boundary in place. She knew it too and never made a scene over it.

Then she became pregnant.

When I found out, my first reaction was not joy. I simply did not know how to face her.

It was her body. Whether she kept the child or ended the pregnancy was not for me to decide.

In the end, she chose to have the baby.

She told me, “I can feel him growing little by little inside me. I can’t bear to let him go.”

I rested my hand on the slight curve of her stomach and said all right.

Not long after the child was born, everyone in the He family found out.

Grandfather was furious and berated me. That night, I knelt in the ancestral hall until morning.

I was full of anger and thought I might as well elope with Wen Ni.

Grandfather called me worthless. I accepted that.

But in the end, I did not do it. I was the only male heir the He family had produced in three generations. I could not be that selfish.

I wanted to tell Wen Ni to wait—just wait a little longer.

But later, Grandfather threatened me with his life and forced me to become engaged to Shen Nianci.

I refused, and he became so angry that he was hospitalized.

That was the first time my father flew into a true rage and slapped me.

Grandfather had raised me. The accusation of being an unfilial grandson was too grave. I was afraid—afraid that if I angered him once more, I might never see him again.

In the end, I gave in and separated from Wen Ni.

The He family had always had few descendants. Naturally, they would not allow the family’s own flesh and blood to remain outside the household.

The day I took Xiangxiang away, Wen Ni asked through her tears, “Will I be able to see him in the future?”

I said yes.

Later, Shen Nianci and I became engaged.

On the day of our engagement, Shen Nianci asked, “You still can’t let that woman go, can you?”

I said I could not.

She tossed out a scornful remark. “He Jinnan, you’re a damn coward.”

I did not argue, because I truly was a coward.

I thought I would be able to let Wen Ni go.

Later, I discovered I could not. I always found myself wondering whether she was doing well and whether anyone had mistreated her.

Whenever Shen Nianci saw me like that, she called me pathetic.

Eventually, I watched Shen Nianci run away from the wedding and leave the country without a backward glance.

Before leaving, she said, “He Jinnan, I have very little respect for you.”

She was right not to respect me. I did not respect myself either.

…

After that, I cast off my former idleness and drove myself mercilessly.

To escape my family’s control, I went to Shanghai alone and founded my own company.

I had once been a pampered young master with the world at my feet, but in Shanghai I spent a while bowing and scraping like a servant. At first, I ran myself ragged for even the smallest project, humbling myself and addressing one executive after another with deference.

Looking back, it still felt rather humiliating.

But when I imagined that success might give Wen Ni and me another chance, the exhaustion and hardship no longer seemed so terrible.

In truth, I shamelessly went to see her many times along the way.

But she never wanted anything to do with me.

As Xiangxiang grew older, he often asked me what his mother was like.

I never hid the truth. I told him the woman he saw on television was his mommy.

The little fellow had an unusual temperament. I had been busy in those early years, and his grandparents had raised him.

People say grandparents dote on their grandchildren, and it was certainly true. Without anyone realizing it, he grew into an utterly fearless child.

But even I never expected him to be that bold.

He dared to go find Wen Ni alone.

When he reached Hengdian, he told me proudly, “If you won’t take me to see Mommy, I’ll go by myself.”

At the time, I was so angry I truly wanted to spank him.

I hurriedly sent people over to bring him back.

But in the end, my heart softened. I merely had bodyguards watch over him.

I waited until he found Wen Ni and Wen Ni messaged me.

I did not have many virtues.

Confidence was one. I had always believed a shattered mirror could be made whole again.

But I had forgotten something.

The twenty-year-old Wen Ni truly had needed someone to save her.

But hadn’t the thirty-year-old Wen Ni already become her own salvation?

…

The End