After I died, they cried in the live studio

Chapter 42: The Edge of Absurdity and Regret
That day, Chu Ling accidentally learned from a mutual friend that his ex-girlfriend had a new relationship and was even pregnant. The news was like a heavy hammer, hitting him hard in the heart, making his ears buzz and his mind go blank. The sweet memories of the past surged back like a tide, colliding violently with the cruel reality of the moment, stirring him up with resentment and mixed feelings.

Impulsive and furious, he rushed to the downstairs of his ex-girlfriend's house. Before he got close, he saw her chatting with her parents, smiling, praising the man next to her. The happiness on her face made Chu Ling's eyes red. His ex-girlfriend's parents were also pleased, nodding frequently, looking extremely satisfied with their new son-in-law. After the two elders left satisfied, Chu Ling could no longer hold back, took a few steps forward, his eyes wide open, pointed at her with trembling fingers, and cursed: "You found someone else so soon? Are you worthy of our past!" Every word was filled with resentment and resentment.

The ex-girlfriend was stunned at first, then retorted: "We ended a long time ago, my life has nothing to do with you!" After that, she turned around and walked quickly into the house, slamming the door, leaving Chu Ling standing there in a daze, shaking with anger.

After a sleepless night, Chu Ling was filled with resentment and humiliation. As soon as the day dawned, he came again. However, he was greeted by a tightly closed door and a letter stuck in the crack. He unfolded the letter and saw the beautiful handwriting of his ex-girlfriend: "Chu Ling, don't bother me or interfere in my life anymore. The past is the past. Let's go our separate ways." After reading the letter, Chu Ling clenched the letter with both hands, his knuckles turned white, his breathing became rapid, and veins on his forehead bulged.

The uncontrolled anger completely burned his reason. Chu crumpled the letter into a ball and stuffed it into his pocket. With the only clue, he frantically searched for his ex-girlfriend and boyfriend. Finally, he blocked the man on the street and punched him without saying a word. His eyes were red, and every punch was filled with hatred and grievances that had been accumulated for a long time. He yelled while hitting: "You are worthy of taking someone's love!" The passers-by around exclaimed and stepped forward to dissuade him, but Chu Ling seemed to have lost his mind. He kept punching and kicking until he was forcibly pulled away by the crowd, and he still struggled to rush forward again.

Chu Ling's fist was still hanging in the air, his face full of anger, panting. Just as he was about to throw another punch, the man suddenly hugged his head, curled up, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Stop hitting me! I'm not her boyfriend at all!" Chu Ling's movements froze, his brows twisted into the shape of a "川" character, his eyes still blazing with anger, he stared at him suspiciously, and spat: "Make up, keep making up!"

Seeing Chu Ling didn't believe him, the man hurriedly took a few steps back, raised his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, and said in a trembling voice with a bit of urgency: "Really! She hired me to play her boyfriend for a few days to make her parents happy." As he spoke, he tremblingly took out his mobile phone from his pocket, checked the transfer record, and handed it to Chu Ling. His eyes were red, and he muttered: "Look, the money is all here, how dare I lie to you."

Chu Ling took a closer look and saw the transfer details clearly. His heart was shocked and his anger instantly turned into laughter. He raised his head and laughed, his laughter was full of self-mockery and absurdity. After laughing, he glared at the man in front of him coldly: "You are really amazing. For such a small amount of money, you lied without hesitation and dared not say a word even if you were beaten."

The man was embarrassed and stammered, "I was just trying to make a little money, but I didn't expect to get into this kind of trouble. Big brother, it's my fault, please spare me." Chu Ling snorted coldly and put away his fists and feet, feeling mixed emotions. He thought his ex-girlfriend had found a new lover and completely abandoned him, and he was so unwilling that he had this farce, but it turned out to be an absurd scam. He stood there for a moment, waved his hand, signaling the man to get out, turned around and looked in the direction of his ex-girlfriend's house, his face solemn, secretly wondering why she did this.

The man saw Chu Ling waving his hand to let him go, but he didn't move. After hesitating for a long time, he still shouted at Chu Ling's back: "Wait!" Chu Ling turned back impatiently, frowning, and the anger in his eyes had not yet dissipated: "What's wrong? Haven't you been beaten enough?" The man timidly approached and lowered his voice and said: "Brother, there is something I want to tell you. The child in her belly is most likely yours."

Chu Ling was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter, which echoed in the streets, full of absurdity and sarcasm: "You are really good at talking nonsense, don't fool me with this!" But in an instant, his smile froze, a trace of doubt arose in his heart, his brows knitted, and he unconsciously clenched his fists. The man saw his hesitation and hurriedly added: "Brother, think about it calmly, she has always been a good girl, and she had a deep relationship with you before, how could she betray her boyfriend so easily? If it wasn't a serious matter, I wouldn't dare to say anything."

Chu Ling's breathing stagnated, and his mind flashed through the past with his ex-girlfriend, those tender and affectionate moments of sharing hardships. He bit his lip, his expression solemn, and looked at the man with a little more inquiry: "Why do you say that?" The man took out his mobile phone, flipped through the chat records with his ex-girlfriend, and handed it over: "Look, she accidentally revealed the time of pregnancy, which coincides with the time when you two broke up. I also made this idea after many speculations."

Chu Ling browsed the records, his hands trembling slightly, and his heartbeat accelerated sharply. The man whispered again: "Brother, if you don't believe it, you can take the child for a DNA test, and you will know the truth once you check it out." Chu Ling took a deep breath and returned the phone to the man. His face was complicated, with shock, suspicion, and a hint of secret expectation. He said nothing more, turned around and hurried away, his steps anxious, thinking about how to confirm the matter next and sort out the truth of this mess.

Chu Ling's eyes were bloodshot, like a lit gunpowder barrel, he rushed into the company, completely ignoring the strange looks from the people around him. When he found his ex-girlfriend's workstation, his colleagues gathered around him instantly, whispering to each other, and the atmosphere in the office suddenly became tense. "What's wrong with the child? Explain it to me!" Chu Ling stepped forward and grabbed his ex-girlfriend's arm, his voice hoarse with anger and anxiety. His ex-girlfriend's face suddenly changed, her eyes flushed, she was embarrassed and annoyed, and she shook his hand away fiercely: "You have to make a scene here, right?" The discussions around him became louder and louder, some people covered their mouths and laughed, and some pretended to be busy but pricked up their ears.

The ex-girlfriend was driven to despair by this embarrassing situation. She took a deep breath and walked quickly to the boss' office. A few minutes later, she came out with her resignation letter in her hand and slammed it on the table. She looked at Chu Ling with a determined look: "Are you satisfied now? I quit!"

Chu Ling refused to give up and stepped forward to block her way, veins popping out on his forehead: "You must make it clear today." The ex-girlfriend burst into tears and shouted hysterically: "Yes, the child is yours! But look at you now, impulsive and reckless, how can you be a father? The child doesn't want a father like you!"

These words hit Chu Ling's heart like a heavy hammer. He stood there, at a loss. His ex-girlfriend took advantage of the situation to bypass him and quickly left the company. Since then, there has been no news. Later, Chu Ling asked around and found out that she had completed the formalities and went abroad, completely disappearing from his life. At night, Chu Ling sat alone in front of the window, looking at the night outside the window, full of regret gnawing at him. His mind kept repeating the resolute look of his ex-girlfriend and the hurtful words, and he couldn't let it go for a long time.

It was late at night, the city was asleep, and only a single lamp was on in Chu Ling's residence. He was curled up on the sofa alone, shaking a half-glass of red wine in his hand. The red wine swayed gently in the crystal glass, reflecting his lonely and self-deprecating face.

Taking a sip, the rich aroma of wine spreads on the tip of the tongue, but it does not bring back any pleasure, but instead brings back memories of the past. In the rental house, the ex-girlfriend smiled sweetly, cooked for him, and mended his cuffs. Everything was a trivial daily routine, but now it is full of love; but what about him at that time? His career had no improvement, and he was in a daze all day long. He threw her expectations behind his mind. Facing the pressure from her family, he was left with only useless anger and could not give a single stable promise.

Thinking of this, Chu Ling smiled bitterly, and the laughter echoed in the empty room, making the loneliness even more obvious. "I'm not a complete rotten person." He muttered to himself, his eyes red, put down the wine glass, put his hands into his hair, and pulled hard, as if to dispel the regret in his heart. At the beginning, she was forced to leave a foreign country by rumors, but he was powerless to stop it; when the child's matter came to light, he should have handled it calmly, but he acted rashly and made a scene, which shattered her life.

These days, Chu Ling missed her so much that he picked up his phone countless times, his finger hovering over the dial button, but he didn't have the courage to press it; he deleted and rewrote the text messages he had written, but he didn't have the courage to send them. He wanted to see her, hug her, ask her if she had been doing well these years, and how her children were; but he was afraid to face the disappointment and hatred in her eyes, and he didn't dare to imagine her resolutely refusing. As the night deepened outside the window, Chu Ling raised his head and drank the remaining red wine, letting the bitterness spread in his heart, trapped between the past and the present, in a dilemma.

Under the dim desk lamp, Chu Ling clutched an old photo tightly, his knuckles whitening. In the photo, his ex-girlfriend's smile was as bright and beautiful as before. He looked out the window and saw Sang Shuwan passing by. The resemblance between her eyebrows and eyes to the person in the photo made him confused.

The guilt and regret of the past, like shackles, locked his hands and feet tightly. The scene of making a scene at his ex-girlfriend's company and forcing her to leave the country was still vivid in his mind, like a nightmare that kept haunting him. He knew that he was impulsive and reckless, and pushed his beloved further and further away with his own hands. Those irreparable mistakes became the deepest scars in his heart.

So when Sang Shuwan appeared, even though he was dazed for a moment and his attachment to her grew quietly, Chu Ling could only hide in the dark and watch silently. He was afraid of repeating the same mistake and disturbing her if he got close to her. He was even more afraid that his image as a "bad guy" would taint the purity in front of him. Every time he saw Sang Shuwan surrounded by her friends and laughing from afar, Chu Ling felt both comforted and bitter. He felt comforted that she did not suffer because of him, and bitter that he was not qualified to be by her side.

(End of this chapter)