BDB Chapter 51

Jiang Rao woke up with a face full of confusion.

Her first thought upon waking up was: After the author forced a happily-ever-after ending for this illogical CEO novel, the ending was actually so bleak?

Her second thought: Why did she have such a dream? Why did everything that happened to the original female lead manifest in her nightmares?

These two questions lingered in her mind, making her appear distracted on set.

Feng Ke noticed her off state but didn’t dare embarrass the big boss’ woman in front of everyone for no reason. Especially since this girl usually performed so well, even though she was a newbie. She knew how to adapt, ask questions, and was quick to learn. When working alongside the veteran actors, she had practically brought the character of Ruan Li to life. He didn’t want to scare her off with an unwarranted outburst, especially since she didn’t seem to have any ambition in the entertainment industry.

He called over Su He and, after exchanging a glance with her, whispered, “Help cheer her up, Sister Su. I’ll add a drumstick to your dinner tonight.”

“A drumstick? Cost price is at most 2.50 yuan. You’re going to brush me off with 2.50 yuan?”

“I’ll treat you to lobster and abalone when we get back to the city.”

When a woman reaches middle age and hits menopause, her gossip and busybody tendencies tend to be doubly activated.

Su He had no intention of refusing; she was just teasing him. Hearing this, she nodded directly.

Though filming usually stretched from morning till night, the actors weren’t always in front of the camera performing continuously.

With steady steps, Su He walked over to Jiang Rao, who was waiting for her next scene, and sat beside her with a friendly smile. “Falling in love? Your mind seems a bit off today.”

Jiang Rao turned to look at her. “Huh? No, it’s something else.”

Su He, a seasoned actress who could not only act but also read people, noticed the young girl’s momentary hesitation. But as she spoke, there was nothing overly awkward about her expression or actions. Su He realized that the passionate kiss she had witnessed the night before hadn’t easily swayed the young woman.

“Mind telling me what’s bothering you? You can’t stay like this forever.” Noticing Jiang Rao frown slightly at her words, Su He joked, “What, you don’t think Sister Su can dish out good advice? They say an elder in the family is like a treasure. A few hundred years ago, I’d be holding my great-grandchild by now at my age. So even if I can’t offer you solid advice, I should be able to help in some way.”

“You don’t need to go into too much detail, just give me a general idea. While I do love gossip, I’m not one to spread rumors. With this double assurance, you can rest easy—no third person will ever know about our conversation.”

Jiang Rao had always been good at reading people.

They were playing mother and child. The first scene they shot was about a family of three traveling around poverty-stricken counties, putting up missing person posters. Later, they had even more scenes together—out of ten scenes, seven or eight of them were with this veteran female actor.

Having worked with Su He for so long, Jiang Rao had received plenty of constructive advice from her. Su He’s character had already been verified during their time on set, so with the other person putting things this way, Jiang Rao saw no reason to resist.

She pondered for a moment, then asked, “Sister Su, do you think this world truly exists?”

“Of course it does. Every day the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In my early years, I had love. When love was gone, I had children. When my child was lost, I focused on my career. After my career took off, I found love again, and with the joint effort of my partner and me, we were able to find out what happened to my child.” Su He shrugged. “Since I can remember, I recall everything that has happened to me clearly. My joys, sorrows, the ups and downs of my life—all vivid in my memory. If this world isn’t real, are those memories fake?”

Jiang Rao hummed softly. When she first entered the book, she had only treated it as a fictional world.

But after she left the ancient castle and saw the bustling life that was no different from the world she had lived in for over twenty years, and after she safely mingled in this lively world, she started to think that this might indeed be a real place.

But if that was the case, how could she explain what had happened to her?

If this world was real, did that mean her past life was fake? And how should she explain the CEO novel she had read?

The most important question was, how could she explain the dream she had recently, which showed the heartbreaking and tormenting relationship between the original female lead and the male lead?

Seeing the young girl beside her grow silent and pensive after asking her question, Su He raised an eyebrow in confusion. “No other questions?”

“There is.” Jiang Rao forced a small smile. “If you deeply loved a man, but the process of building your relationship constantly hurt you, both physically and emotionally, and in the end, it ruined your health and left you in misery in your later years, but you still loved him so much—what would you do?”

Su He initially wanted to say that a man like that wasn’t even worth eating after chopping him up and adding some sesame oil, cilantro, and vinegar. But seeing the serious expression on the young girl’s face, clearly not wanting that kind of flippant answer, she took a moment to put herself in those shoes. After thinking it over, she replied, “I wouldn’t live anymore. What’s the point? Before dying, I’d get my revenge and make sure he suffered for the rest of his life.”

“And if there was another life? Would you still love him and choose to be with him again?”

Su He shrank her neck slightly when she heard that, then crossed her arms and said, “Little Jiang, our generation may know how to write the words ‘feudal superstition’, but we’ve still been somewhat influenced by the older generation, and I’m a bit afraid of ghosts. Don’t go turning this into a full-blown ghost story or I might end up asking you for compensation for emotional distress.”

Though she made a joke, Su He still returned to seriousness after her quip. “I may not be able to give you a definite answer to that question, but for me, living one day at a time is most important. Being happy matters the most. Ask your heart—if he really disappeared from your life, would you feel happy? Or would you be heartbroken beyond measure?”

Would you be happy?

Or heartbroken beyond measure?

As these two options swirled around in Jiang Rao’s mind, she couldn’t come up with a definitive answer for herself after a long time.

By the time Su He finished speaking, she had already been called by the director to start filming her scenes, and before Jiang Rao realized it, someone else had sat down next to her.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed the person beside her had been resting their chin on their hand, watching her for quite some time. It wasn’t until she, feeling frustrated for not finding an answer, snapped out of her thoughts that she became aware of the burning gaze that had been fixed on her.

She turned her head and locked eyes with the man’s dark, intense gaze.

“Jiang Rao, Mengmeng is a dog?”

She heard him ask.

His voice was no longer as cold and hard as it had been yesterday. Instead, it carried a light, playful tone. “Not bad. You calling me a dog makes up for all the swearing I couldn’t hold back around you.”

This man always had a way of twisting his words to make it hard for anyone to like him.

Jiang Rao quietly watched as he finished speaking, then saw him give a mischievous grin. He reached over to grab a square paper bag from beside the chair. “Considering I was a jerk and totally out of line yesterday, and the fact that neither of us are particularly good people, I’ve got a gift for you as an apology. Are you excited? Didn’t you always want to strike it rich? So, everything I’m giving you this time is pure gold.”

He opened the bag with one hand, and Jiang Rao glanced inside.

Sure enough, as he said, it was filled with gold items—at least ten pieces by her conservative estimate.

None of the gold items were wrapped in gift boxes, so she could clearly see their shapes.

There was a gold Buddha, a gold qilin, a gold taotie, a gold fortune melon, a gold lock, a gold ruyi scepter, and a gold luck bead…

In Jiang Rao’s understanding, all these items seemed to be symbols of safety and protection.

The hand she rested on the edge of her clothes trembled slightly. After a long pause, she asked, “Why are you giving me these?”

“Didn’t I say? To apologize with a gift. Didn’t you say you wanted to strike it rich? You can sell these for at least three to five hundred thousand…”

“Li Jueyan, I want the truth.”

As someone who had been a leader for so many years, he was rarely interrupted when speaking.

This was the first time someone had dared to do so, and a trace of displeasure rose uncontrollably within him.

But that feeling didn’t last long.

Because in that fleeting moment, he noticed her trembling wrist and the unsteady tone in her voice.

He didn’t know what was going on with her, but he didn’t dare lie to her any longer. “Why are you upset? It’s to keep you safe for a hundred years. Do you think I would harm you?”

He had never met a more ungrateful woman than her.

“Why are you suddenly concerned about me living a long life?”

“Haven’t you always had bad luck? And your health isn’t great either?”

“Li Jueyan.” She took a deep breath, struggling to maintain a calm expression. “Is this because you investigated me, or is it because of something in a dream? Let me put it another way—did you dream again last night?”

——