Rebirth of a Star

Chapter 64 – Sowing Dissension (2)
On the small slate stone path in front of the villa, the street lamps on both sides glowed dimly. Two people, one tall and one short, were standing in the mottled shade of a large tree, their shadows shrouding the stone path ahead.

Xu Jin’ge hung her head low, while her hands were clasped in front of her body. She uneasily fidgeted with her fingers and didn’t dare to look up at the man standing beside her. She stood there quietly like a well-behaved cat.

“It’s getting late!”

“Huh?” She blankly stared at him for a second before saying, “Oh! Yes…it’s quite late now.”

Fu Bainian stopped in his tracks and turned sideways to look at her. “Since it’s already so late, then why did you show up at Meimei’s door? Also, you’ve got a key to her room. Say, what were you up to?”

Xu Jin’ge felt a burst of lingering fear at the thought of the injuries on Xu Yibei’s face. When Fu Bainian got angry, he was genuinely frightening.

Xu Jin’ge then shook her head and answered, “Nothing, I’m not up to anything at all. I just wanted to check whether she was already asleep or not!”

“And then?” asked Fu Bainian.

“And then…” Xu Jin’ge lowered her voice and hesitated before she said, “I wanted to see exactly what kind of woman she was, and what traits she possessed that suddenly made you fall for her. I wanted to…learn from her!”

The last three words she muttered were very faint, seemingly as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.

Fu Bainian immediately guessed Xu Jin’ge’s intention, so he said, “My Dad likes you a lot, so he may prefer you to be his daughter-in-law, but I have the final say concerning my own marriage. I want to spend all my life with the woman I like. Besides, I’m already married to her now.”

He was implying that even if Xu Jin’ge had learnt anything from Chen Meimei, it wouldn’t be of any use.

Xu Jin’ge understood the hint behind his words, so she clenched her fists and involuntarily raised her voice, asking, “Why?!”

In the quiet night, Fu Bainian’s voice sounded exceptionally clear and smooth as he said, “Because, it’s not going to be possible for me to fall for you in this lifetime. Besides, feelings and affection can’t be forced.”

Can’t be forced? “Haha…” laughed Xu Jin’ge.

Her laughter in the silence of the night sounded somewhat spooky.

“You’ve said the same thing to Chen Meimei in the past, but what about now? In the end, didn’t you still…” fall for her?

Xu Jin’ge’s remaining words were caught in her throat as she started sobbing with streams of tears flowing down her cheeks.

Fu Bainian turned his face away from her because he couldn’t tell her that things were not the same as before and that someone else’s soul was residing in the current Chen Meimei’s body.

Xu Jin’ge tugged at his sleeve and uttered while choking with sobs, “Bainian, this is unfair! You’re being unfair to me.”

When Fu Bainian heard this, he removed her hand off his sleeve before calmly saying, “There’s no such thing as absolute fairness in this world!”

“Then tell me, why did you suddenly fall in love with Chen Meimei? I initially thought that it would be impossible, but it still happened. Therefore, if you don’t tell me why, I won’t give up.”

Xu Jin’ge stood in front of him, and blocked his way, seemingly not wanting him to leave.

Fu Bainian felt a headache start when he saw Xu Jin’ge acting this way. The incident regarding Chen Meimei was outrageous, so he had no way of explaining it.

When Xu Jin’ge saw that he wasn’t going to utter a single word, she felt as if there was hope. She reasoned that he must’ve had some unspeakable thoughts, or, that he had some kind of secret agreement with Chen Meimei.

The IQ of Xu Jin’ge, who was currently blinded by love, seemed to have dropped to an insufficient degree. Because, if she was rational enough, she’d have been able to guess that if Fu Bainian really had some unspeakable thoughts, or if he really had some kind of secret agreement with Chen Meimei, then he wouldn’t have gone to the villa so late at night just to accompany Chen Meimei.

Under the street lamps, the man remained silent while the woman waited for him to answer.

Back in the room.

Lan Jinyao had been dreaming, but then, she’d abruptly woken up from her dream. She couldn’t remember what the dream was about; she just felt that it was a strange one.

When she looked around the room, she didn’t see Fu Bainian.

“Did he go home already?”

But, it was already so late, so that couldn’t be!

While she was thinking this, she sat up from the bed and soon after, she heard a woman’s voice from not too far away outside. She then put on some clothes and walked outside.

In the dark, Lan Jinyao bent down and moved forward cautiously and stealthily; like a thief in darkness.

After a while, she saw two figures standing on the small slate stone path ahead, which was illuminated by the street lamps. Upon a closer look, she saw Xu Jin’ge, whose eyes were watery as if she’d been crying, and Fu Bainian with his back facing the gate. He stood there under the tree and said something to Xu Jin’ge.

It was already so late at night; what was Xu Jin’ge doing there instead of sleeping? What were they talking about over there?

Lan Jinyao felt somewhat displeased upon witnessing this scene.

She wasn’t standing very far away, but the two’s voices weren’t very loud, so she couldn’t quite hear what they were saying. But, judging from her past experiences, it certainly wasn’t anything good. Xu Jin’ge was a scheming woman, so wasn’t everything about how she wanted to get into the Fu family and become the Fu family’s daughter-in-law?

After remaining silent for a long time, Fu Bainian finally spoke with a faint voice, “That’s because…I like her present temperament and attitude!”

In the end, he decided to tell a lie and fudge the issue.

Xu Jin’ge immediately turned her tears into laughter and said, “I understand, so that means that I still have a chance, right?”

Fu Bainian was worried that she would continue nagging at him, so he didn’t answer her question and instead said to her, “You should hurry back to your room and sleep!”

Xu Jin’ge fervently nodded. “Hmm, I’ll go back right away! Can you…give me a hug?!”

Her eyes were sparkling, and her appearance looked quite pitiful as she asked this, but Fu Bainian still didn’t give in and refused her request instead.

“Sorry!” he replied in a low voice.

Although Lan Jinyao had never said it before, Fu Bainian guessed that she would undoubtedly mind if she knew about this. Last time, he didn’t handle that matter for Lan Jinyao properly, so from then on, whenever they interacted with one another, she’d always pull a cold face and decline his help. That was also the case whenever he approached her.

Xu Jin’ge was quite disappointed when he apologised.

She lowered her head, her tone filled with disappointment as she said, “It’s fine!”

Yet, the moment Fu Bainian turned around, she tightly hugged him from behind.

Xu Jin’ge then said, “I’m sorry! Just let me hug you for a while, just for a little while longer.”

Lan Jinyao was hiding in the shadow of a tree nearby, so when she saw this scene in front of her, her expression immediately changed. She quickly turned around and returned to her room. She then locked the door and lay on the bed, panting heavily. It looked like she’d gotten quite mad this time.

“He’s too much! Fu Bainian, did you come to the villa in the middle of the night just to have a private rendezvous with Xu Jin’ge?”

She ferociously hit the bed head a few times, but her anger still didn’t subside. How she wished that she could hit Fu Bainian like this several times more.

When Fu Bainian returned to the villa and went to enter the room, he noticed that the door, which had initially been left slightly open, had now been locked.

“Was it the wind?”

He looked around but then realised that there was no wind.