“Jiang Ruotang, after taking down Lin Chengdong, you actually planned to cut ties with me, right? You gave me a rope, pulled me out of the mud, and once I trusted and relied on you mentally, you mercilessly turned and left. Lin Lu wanted to control me; he failed. You disdained controlling me, yet you easily did it. After being a puppet for so long, suddenly there are no strings. Do you think the puppet gains freedom, or destruction?”

Jiang Ruotang’s gaze deepened. “Because I didn’t treat you like a puppet.”

A sudden, cold silence fell in the ward.

“Get some good rest. I’ll head back now…”

After all, he still had so many practice papers to do. He wasn’t a genius and could only hope that diligence would compensate for his shortcomings.

“Wait…”

“Hm?”

“After I was hit, I blacked out due to a concussion. Even though I wasn’t fully conscious, I had a very long dream.”

“A dream?”

“In the dream, I hated you very much… Because Lin Lu had branded you as a lunatic, I watched you stir up trouble in my fan group, enjoying the feeling of being called upon in my name, and even flaunted some explicit sketches in front of me. I hated your undisguised gaze of liking me, I hated you using my name to indulge your desire for control among fans, I hated you being pampered by your father and doing whatever you pleased. What I hated even more was… that you loved the characters I played, but didn’t understand me at all.”

At that moment, Jiang Ruotang’s eyes widened in disbelief, because the feelings Bai Yingchuan described were exactly like his previous life!

How was this possible?

“And then? What else happened in your dream?” Jiang Ruotang’s heart pounded violently.

Because he wanted to know, what happened to Lu Guifan in his previous life…?

“Later, your father took over Lin Chengdong’s mess, and I specifically withdrew from that project. Although I hated you, deep down I didn’t want Director Jiang to become Lin Chengdong’s sacrifice; after all, he was the only truly pure-hearted director in the industry. I wanted my assistant to notify Director Jiang that there was a problem with the project, but I didn’t expect that assistant to turn around and tell my mother. That’s when my mother revealed… the leverage she had on Lin Chengdong was enough to ruin our mother-son reputation. I could only keep quiet and watch Director Jiang get deeply entangled. I became a puppet pulled by fame and fortune, someone I myself looked down upon.”

Jiang Ruotang’s throat moved. He and his father had never dreamed Lin Chengdong would be so heartless and ungrateful.

“Do you know? I also dreamed that Lin Lu recruited you into my studio, joining my management team… You negotiated many endorsements and roles for me, truly amazing, so amazing. Whatever I wanted, you seemed able to accomplish… But I didn’t dare show you even a hint of gratitude, because as soon as Lin Lu found out, he would ‘punish’ me, finding all sorts of reasons to reject the announcements I really wanted. I could only continue to hate you. Hating you was my most exquisite acting.”

Jiang Ruotang was stunned, only able to let out a sigh.

In his previous life, whether Bai Yingchuan’s indifference and aversion were genuine emotions or helpless acting, it no longer mattered to Jiang Ruotang.

“I cowardly and basely thought… my hatred was my rejection of you. I never gave you a good face, never gave you any hints. I wouldn’t even drink the bottled water you handed me. I was already trapped in their father-son quagmire. If you could cut your losses in time and leave quickly, it would be the only thing I, who was completely rotten, could do. But if you were still serving Lin Lu like a beast of burden, that was your problem. I owed you nothing.”

Jiang Ruotang lowered his eyes, smiling self-deprecatingly.

Yes, his obsession with Bai Yingchuan in his previous life was a gamble, indeed. He had placed too many bets, staked his entire fortune, and didn’t want to lose everything, so he found it hard to extricate himself.

“But how could there be no debt owed?” Bai Yingchuan lifted his head, his voice sounding steady, yet tinged with a sob. “The only true affection in this world was betrayed and hurt by me. Even when you got cancer, I didn’t dare to visit you, didn’t dare to send you a single comforting message… Because without you, there were no resources, and Lin Lu could manipulate me more easily than a paper doll. Hahaha… how could there be such a cowardly, despicable, and selfish person like me in this world?”

Jiang Ruotang asked calmly, “In your dream, what happened to Lin Chengdong and his son later?”

“They were jointly investigated by Dai Ming and Zhao Yunshu, who collected evidence and sent them to jail. Behind them, someone was helping, someone rich and powerful, but I don’t know who.”

“Then… Lu… Class President? What happened to him in your dream?”

When Jiang Ruotang asked this question, Bai Yingchuan acutely sensed something unusual.

Because this was originally just his dream. In the dream, both he and Lin Chengdong’s father and son had personalities and ways of doing things that were no different from reality. The only difference was Jiang Ruotang’s attitude towards him, so this dream was so real that Bai Yingchuan felt terrified, waking up covered in cold sweat.

But when he told Jiang Ruotang about this dream, Jiang Ruotang brought up Lu Guifan instead.

“After he… returned to the country, he and some overseas Chinese established a new energy company that reached the industry’s top level. When I woke up, his company had already gone public… it was among the top ten globally in its field, and he was even invited to participate in the design of energy supply devices for rockets, a truly protected talent.”

At that moment, Jiang Ruotang’s eyes reddened. Lu Guifan’s life, which he had dragged down, flowed like a mighty river eastward, finally reaching its sea.

Jiang Ruotang was so happy, so happy that his heart was tightly constricted. A surge of passion had no outlet, so it just boiled in his chest, making him hotter and hotter.

It was such a pity that he couldn’t see him in his prime.

Bai Yingchuan was silent for a long time, then said, “He once said in an interview that he would remain unmarried for life.”

Jiang Ruotang looked up, and this time, his tears could no longer be held back, sliding down his face.

He remembered Lu Guifan rushing to the hospital through the wind and snow, looking disheveled, remembered him searching the world for food he wanted to eat, remembered them squeezed onto a small hospital bed, Lu Guifan describing the battery device he designed in his mind to solve the problem of rocket thermal runaway…

Their time together was only three years in high school and those final days, which were too brief compared to Lu Guifan’s life. Logically, it shouldn’t have left such an unforgettable mark.

But Jiang Ruotang couldn’t help but fantasize. Lu Guifan’s lifelong celibacy probably wasn’t just about making research his entire life… Had he also, at some point, crossed the boundaries of friendship and liked him very, very deeply?

“Jiang Ruotang, was that a dream? Or something that happened in another world?” Bai Yingchuan’s throat was choked up.

He feared the answer, yet he had to get it from Jiang Ruotang.

Jiang Ruotang stood up, wiping away the tears on his face, because he didn’t want Lu Guifan to worry.

“Dwelling on that is meaningless, after all, you live here.”

Bai Yingchuan’s voice trembled: “Aren’t you curious at all about what happened to me in that world?”

Jiang Ruotang replied, “What’s there to be curious about? The Lin Chengdong father-son snowball kept growing. When that big snowball burst, Bai Yue could only be crushed in that avalanche. As for you, if you didn’t have the courage to resist their father and son, you could only bear the consequences.”

No matter how beautiful his appearance, once he touched the sensitive nerves of this society, there was only one outcome.

As Jiang Ruotang walked to the ward door, Bai Yingchuan suddenly asked again, “Am I finished?”

At this moment, Bai Yingchuan, having experienced fear and loneliness for too long, knew that the scars on his face and his uncertain future were burdens he alone had to bear.

But he instinctively trusted Jiang Ruotang. If Jiang Ruotang pronounced his doom, he would accept his fate.

“Whether you’re finished or not, shouldn’t that depend on you? You guessed one thing right: after you break free from Lin Chengdong, I won’t promote you. The world is vast; you seize opportunities yourself. I have no interest in manipulating puppets. It’s all about fire baptism. Some are reduced to ashes, while others are reborn and soar. Bai Yingchuan, if you don’t want to be burned by the ashes, you have to fly. I also want to know if there will ever be a day when you can earn my respect.”

With that, Jiang Ruotang pushed open the door and left.

At that moment, Bai Yingchuan was certain: for Jiang Ruotang, that dream was real.

The more real it was, the more cruel, so brutally vivid that Bai Yingchuan couldn’t breathe.

He knew Jiang Ruotang would never like him.

Who would be infatuated with a cowardly, selfish clown?

Suddenly, the scars on his face and his unknown future didn’t matter. Had Jiang Ruotang always looked down on him?

Bai Yingchuan clenched his teeth, his entire skeleton trembling from the effort of holding back.

This was the first time in his brief yet glamorous life that he felt such unbearable pain.

Jiang Ruotang walked out of the ward. Manager Yu quickly rushed over, and whatever she said sounded to Jiang Ruotang like it came from another world.

His eyes searched for Lu Guifan, but he didn’t see him on the long bench outside the ward.

Jiang Ruotang quickened his pace, anxiously searching for him, the surging emotions in his heart pouring out towards that person.

He only found Lu Guifan at the end of the corridor, standing by the window, his back to him, talking on the phone with Teacher Song.

The next second, Jiang Ruotang rushed over. Regardless of how Lu Guifan would react, he embraced him tightly, pressing his face firmly against Lu Guifan’s back.

Lu Guifan was startled by the impact. Feeling the force of the embrace around his waist, he immediately sensed Jiang Ruotang’s emotions and quickly said into the phone, “Teacher Song, we’ll talk when we get back.”