“Heard of that in passing? Meaning to say that Miss Ning had no evidence proving that Miss Meng Jie had been a kept woman for several years in the entertainment circle, am I right?”


  Who’d ever have any evidence in the entertainment circle? Everything was passed down through the grapevines. Everybody knew what kind of an environment the entertainment circle was and nobody would ever say that out loud.

  “.…… That is correct.”


  “Then it won’t be unreasonable for me to ask Miss Ning, who has no evidence whatsoever, to apologize to Miss Meng over the rumors that you had just repeated, right?”


  Ning Ke did not look happy at all. She turned toward Meng Jie with difficulty, feeling helpless and hateful, but finally nodded begrudgingly, “I apologize, Miss Meng. I misspoke.”


  Meng Jie smiled but did not respond.

  She couldn’t be bothered with someone who willfully propagated rumors, submitted to benefits, and apologized insincerely.

  Ye Zhen gave Ning Ke a look, smiled, and didn’t say anything else. Changing out of her dress in the dressing room, Ye Zhen had the salesperson wrap the dress up and walk out of the store along with Meng Jie.

  Right before the two took off, Ning Ke was still very unhappy. Remembering all the past rumors, she gritted her teeth, picked up her cellphone, and made a call pretentiously.

  “Hello, Young Master You. It’s me, Ning Ke.” Ning Ke’s voice was of a fake sweetness that could give one goosebumps. “Oh, nothing much. I am just shopping. It just hit me that we haven’t seen each other in a while and you just popped into my mind……”


  “Hey, no no no. Don’t hang up on me. Guess who I ran into here? Meng Jie! Yeah! She’s right here, shopping, with a man……”


  Naturally, Meng Jie heard every word that Ning Ke intended for her to hear.

  Except that, the name You Jing was no longer meaningful to her.

  Ye Zhen asked, “Truth is…… as an outsider, I had no right to ask about what happened between You Jing and you. But, you were the one who resolved the issue with the production team last time and all of those were due to You Jing’s influence. I would like to know what you have promised You Jing over that or what kind of trade you have made with him.”


  Meng Jie smiled. “I didn’t promise him anything nor did I trade anything with him. I only told him why I broke up with him in the past.”


  “Why?” Ye Zhen asked reflexively.

  After she had asked out loud, Ye Zhen felt a bit embarrassed. She was not exactly a close friend with Meng Jie. It wasn’t her place to ask her something so private.

  Meng Jie, on the other hand, didn’t seem to feel that it was inappropriate. She recounted as if she was but an outsider herself.

  “It wasn’t much. He should have figured it out a long time ago. We belong in two different worlds. Our backgrounds were too different, as were our personalities and the way to handle issues. He had always been a player and didn’t feel that there was anything wrong with that. Nevertheless, he could not handle my normal interactions with male actors during filming and wished that I would leave the entertainment circle. I wished that he could come around. We were both wrong by asking each other to change too much. A relationship should be consensual. I was too overconfident and thought that I could change him. I was proven wrong. A person’s nature should not be changed by another, nor could it be changed.”


  “And then…… you two broke up?”


  “No, I found out that I was pregnant. I was filming at the time and had no idea that I was pregnant. I only found out when I was three months along.”


  Ye Zhen was surprised. “Pregnant?”


  Meng Jie looked at the setting sun reflected off of the skyscraper. She seemed to have gone back to that very same day. It was a bright red sun like this one as well, looking like blood oozing out. She painfully called You Jing repeatedly, but her calls were hung up on repeatedly. She refused to give up and called again. Finally, a woman answered the call.

  Many romances ended when a woman was disappointed too many times and gained clarity.