Chapter 97: Yun Yi's Past

Misfortune seemed to come one day after another.

The night before, Lin Xi had only just made travel plans with Lu Yuxiu. Yet before she could even catch her breath, the entertainment world erupted with another earth-shattering scandal, and she truly understood what it meant when troubles come in threes.

The next morning, a bombshell news story took the top spot on every major platform.

Shu Yunye was exposed for keeping two men at once and living a chaotic private life.

The matter caused a huge sensation not only online, but also throughout the industry.

The person behind the leak was a veteran paparazzo in the circle, known as Shadow Brother. He specialized in tailing and secretly photographing all kinds of celebrities’ gossip, and had never once been discovered until rumors concerning himself were thrown onto the internet. People in the industry hated him to the core, yet there was no evidence with which to sue him.

Lin Xi’s first reaction upon hearing the news was disbelief. She trusted Yunye’s character; Yunye would absolutely never do something like this.

She clicked on the Weibo post that had been pushed to the trending charts. Inside were photos of Yunye drinking with different men, and at the end, she even saw a face-to-face shot of Yunye and Su Chen.

There was also accompanying text:

A female child star with a surname beginning with Y. Once loved the son of a senior executive, but unsatisfied with her lot, she betrayed him while still dating him, was taken advantage of by multiple successful men, and has kept two lovers for years.

Below it, netizens hurled all manner of vile abuse:

"Why hasn’t this disgusting woman been kicked out of the business yet? She’s trash, plain and simple!"

"Honestly, I’m speechless. Her face is perfect for playing mistresses and homewrecking teasers. Just looking at her makes me nauseous. Keep it up, though."

"Absolutely unbelievable, a once-in-a-century courtesan of the entertainment world! She’ll do anything to climb the ladder. Does being such a shameless woman really feel that good? After being kept, she still goes on to torment others."

Shu Yunye was once again subjected to a nationwide cyberbullying frenzy.

Just as Lin Xi did not know what to do, another message struck her like a bolt from the blue.

Her phone rang insistently. Seeing that it was Mia calling, Lin Xi answered at once.

Mia’s frantic voice came straight through the line. "Sister Xi, something has happened! Sister Yunye was attacked by people in the crowd at today’s event. She seems seriously hurt, and she’s already been sent to the hospital!"

"What?!" Lin Xi was utterly stunned. How had it come to this?

Her panic rose. "Quick... quickly tell me which hospital!"

Mia hesitated, then asked, "Sister Xi, are you going? There must be reporters and media everywhere. You won’t be able to get in."

"I can get in. Just tell me," Lin Xi replied with unwavering resolve.

At last, through all kinds of connections, Lin Xi was escorted by Lu Yuxiu into Shu Yunye’s hospital room through the back entrance.

When Lin Xi pushed open the door, Shu Yunye happened to look up as well. Their eyes met head-on.

For some reason, Lin Xi felt an eerie sense that years had passed in the blink of an eye.

Seeing Yunye again, her head was wrapped in bandages, her face haggard, her eye sockets deeply hollowed out, yet the gaze she turned toward Lin Xi remained as pure and clean as ever.

"Xiao Xi, you’re here. Come, sit down!" Shu Yunye smiled gently and pointed to the chair, as if none of this had affected her at all.

A sharp ache flashed through Lin Xi’s heart. She sat in the chair by the bed and reached out to lightly cover Yunye’s hand. Even her voice was too quiet to be loud. "Yunye, are you all right?"

"I’m fine." Her eyes curved as she looked at Lin Xi, as if she were wearing a mask.

Lin Xi did not believe a word of it.

"If you don’t want to smile, then don’t force it," Lin Xi said. She held Shu Yunye’s left hand, which rested on the quilt, with both of her own hands, and looked at her earnestly. "Yunye, tell me. We’re good friends, aren’t we? I told you before, whenever you want to talk, I’ll always be here."

Her sincerity made Shu Yunye freeze for a second. The smile on her face stiffened slightly. Looking back at Lin Xi uncertainly, she spoke with great caution. "Are you really willing to spend time listening to my boring past...?"

At that, Lin Xi’s heart tightened even more. She squeezed her hand firmly and gave a helpless, tender smile. "Yunye, even if the past is unbearable, it is still part of who we are. Don’t doubt or deny yourself."

"All right..." Shu Yunye closed her eyes hard. As if making some sort of decision, she let out a long breath and began to speak of her past.

Since childhood, her family had been poor. Her parents, needing to earn money simply to survive, had to work in another city, and she and her younger brother Shu Yiran were left to be fostered in their aunt’s home.

Leaning back against the pillow and lowering her eyes, she described her childhood: "I was about thirteen then, and my brother was only five. We were left at my aunt’s house, and I understood that I was living under someone else’s roof and couldn’t cause them trouble, so I fought to do every chore. Sweeping, washing dishes, doing laundry... I lived every day with extreme caution. If there was something I wanted, I didn’t dare say it. If there was something I wanted to eat, I didn’t dare say it. I could only say I didn’t like it. I never dared to be willful about anything, always afraid that others wouldn’t like me, afraid that if I did something, someone would be unhappy, afraid my brother would be wronged..."

As Lin Xi listened, her brow gradually furrowed tighter and tighter. She could feel the loneliness in those words, and could only tighten her grip on Shu Yunye’s hand in silent comfort.

Yet Shu Yunye merely smiled indifferently and went on. "My aunt was very good to us, but my uncle and their son did not welcome us. If I did something wrong, my uncle would beat and scold me without mercy. You can’t imagine how ugly the things he said were. Their son would also secretly kick and hit us, and even if my aunt knew, she couldn’t stop it from happening. I could only protect my younger brother and keep him from being hurt."

"For the first few months, I also desperately hoped that one day my parents would appear at the door, take my brother and me away, and we could be loved too. But as time went on, hope became longing, longing became disappointment, and in the end I no longer held on to any extravagant dreams. I came to accept and obey it—not because I had grown up, but because I no longer cared. Maybe they had their own helplessness, but I still gave up on this so-called kind of affection."

The air was thick with the smell of disinfectant, pressing so heavily on Lin Xi that she could hardly breathe.

The more she listened, the more distressed she felt. Though she could not fully understand such suffering, she grieved for the child Yunye had once been, helpless and alone. She had been just a child, yet she had borne what most people could not endure, and the burden of her younger brother rested on her alone.

"If you don’t want to talk about it, then don’t," Lin Xi said, feeling a little guilty for making her revisit those painful memories.

Shu Yunye shook her head lightly and smiled faintly. "There’s nothing wrong with saying it."

She continued in a calm voice. "When I was in my second year of high school, I suddenly received the news that my father had died in an accident at a construction site. He fell from a high building and died on the spot. After that, my mother simply vanished without a trace. Even now, I still don’t know where she is. Maybe she left, maybe she remarried."

She paused.

"As for what happened to my parents, perhaps my sense of family was always weak. I wasn’t very heartbroken. Life went on, still full of hardships. Only now there was no fixed living allowance, and my uncle hated us even more. My aunt no longer had a good face for us either. In the end, I made it through until I was admitted to university, and with scholarships and part-time work, I moved out with my brother."

By the time she reached this point, Shu Yunye seemed to let out a long breath.

Lin Xi could clearly feel the hardship of enduring humiliation and bearing great burdens. She had no idea how to comfort her, so she could only clasp her hand tightly, wanting to give her some strength.