Reborn, my online friend is the real me.

Around 8 PM, everyone gradually dispersed.

Su Yu, Lu Yang, and Wang Boxue said goodbye to Liu Yifei and walked out of the villa.

A cool night breeze blew by, carrying the fragrance of flowers from the garden, and dispelled the lingering smell of alcohol on Su Yu's face.

Shu Chang stood at the door to see them off, waving to Su Yu in a clear voice, "Su Yu, let's hang out together next time!"

Su Yu turned around and smiled: "Okay."

On the way back, Wang Boxue suddenly leaned over, looking gossipy, and asked in a low voice, "Su Yu, does Shu Chang have a crush on you?"

Su Yu leaned back in his seat, the streetlights casting flickering light on his face: "What nonsense are you talking about?"

"She asked you so many questions today, like what you like, whether you have a girlfriend, what kind of girls you like; isn't that just her trying to find out about you? And the way she looked at you, tsk tsk."

As Wang Boxue spoke, he even imitated Shu Chang's expression, tilting his head, squinting his eyes, and smiling.

Lu Yang pushed up his glasses from the passenger seat and interjected, unusually, "I also felt something was off. She asked too many detailed questions; it's not like she should be asking those on a first meeting."

Su Yu stared at the streetlights outside the car window receding one by one, and after thinking about it, he realized that something did seem a little off.

Shu Chang's enthusiasm didn't seem like the enthusiasm of someone meeting for the first time; it was more like... a purposeful enthusiasm.

"You're overthinking it," Su Yu said, trying to keep his tone light. "They're just being polite."

Wang Boxue snorted and leaned back in his chair: "Polite? Why didn't she ask me?"

Su Yu grinned: "Because you have a boyfriend."

.......

It was almost ten o'clock when Su Yu got back to the dormitory. He threw his coat on the bed, leaned back in his chair, put his legs on the edge of the table, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

Wang Boxue went to take a shower, and Lu Yang was organizing the photos he had taken that day. The dormitory was so quiet that you could hear the sound of running water coming from the washroom.

Su Yu's mind was still racing with the events of tonight: the questions Shu Chang had asked, the way Liu Yifei looked at him, and... He suddenly sat up straight.

He remembered when he went to the bathroom at Liu Yifei's house.

He pushed open the door at the end of the corridor, and there were bottles and jars of skincare products on the bathroom counter.

After washing his hands, he casually threw the paper towel into the trash can. In the instant he looked down, he saw a wig and a transparent plastic box on the table next to him, containing silver braces.

Su Yu didn't think much of it at the time. What's so strange about female celebrities having wigs and braces in their bathrooms?

He washed his hands and left the bathroom. The whole process took no more than three minutes, and he didn't even think much of it at the time.

Sitting in his dorm room, Su Yu felt as if something had struck his head.

Wig, ear-length. Braces, silver.

He turned on his computer and found the photo Anxi had posted; short hair, black-rimmed glasses, braces, and dark skin.

He zoomed in on the photo, looking at their necks; the two people had the same mark on their necks; because although Anxi had worn a scarf last time, she took it off after dinner.

Su Yu had previously thought that An Qian and Liu Yifei looked alike, but one was beautiful and the other was average, so he thought it was a coincidence.

Now compare the photo with Liu Yifei herself, removing the wig, braces, black-rimmed glasses, and dark foundation; the face below is Liu Yifei's face.

........

Su Yu placed the laptop face down on the table, leaned back in his chair, and stared at the ceiling.

Anxi is Liu Yifei, and Liu Yifei is Anxi.

He went through the scenes of the past two years in his mind like a movie.

Anxi joined him on QQ to complain about Liu Yifei, from her acting skills to her gums, from Wang Yuyan's love-struck mind to her godfather's motives; she also complained about herself, even more harshly than him.

Anxi transferred 10,000 yuan to him as a chat fee without batting an eye. Anxi said she did "performance work that conveys emotions," and when he asked if she was a stand-up comedian, she said "more or less."

Anxi was sent by her company to Sichuan, where the crew of "The Return of the Condor Heroes" was located. Anxi was then sent to Zhejiang, where the filming locations for "The Return of the Condor Heroes" were located.

Anxi said, "I'm good at English, and I started working when I was fifteen." Liu Yifei debuted at fifteen, and her English is indeed good.

Su Yu buried his face in his hands and let out a muffled groan: "I'm a fucking idiot."

Wang Boxue just pushed the door open and came in, his hair still dripping wet, a towel draped over his shoulder.

He was taken aback when he saw Su Yu's appearance: "What's wrong? Did you eat something bad?"

"No, you're out of your mind."

When have you ever been thinking straight?

Su Yu ignored him, stood up and walked around the dormitory twice, then sat down again, stood up again, and sat down again.

Su Yu picked up his phone, opened his chat history with An Qian, and started scrolling through the first message.

The records from two years ago scrolled up one by one. He saw the photos of her daily life and stills from her dramas that she posted, and at the time he thought, "This fan base is really strong." Now he realized that those were her own photos.

Su Yu put down his phone, covered his face with his hands, and his shoulders trembled.

Wang Boxue thought he was crying, but when he came closer, he saw that he was laughing, laughing so hard that he was shaking all over.

"What's wrong with you?" Wang Boxue asked, looking completely bewildered.

Su Yu raised his head, his eyes a little red, and waved his hand.

"It's nothing, I just remembered a joke."

"What joke?"

"It's a very long joke, you wouldn't understand it even if I told you."

........

Su Yu took a deep breath. What should he do now?

If I rush up to her and say, "I know you're Anxi," she'll definitely panic, feel embarrassed, and think she's been exposed.

Moreover, he had previously criticized Liu Yifei so much in front of "Anxi," from her gums to her baby voice, from her acting skills to her lack of realism. If she knew he knew all of that, those criticisms would become a direct slap in the face.

Su Yu touched his face and felt that although his skin was thick, it wasn't thick enough to be considered that thick.

Never mind, let's not expose it yet.

Wang Boxue had dried his hair and climbed into bed. Lu Yang turned off the desk lamp, leaving only the light coming from the corridor in the dormitory.

In the darkness, Su Yu stared at the stain on the wall with his eyes open.

He remembered Liu Yifei on set, secretly glancing in his direction while wearing her school uniform. He remembered the emojis Anxi sent on QQ—little figures banging on tables, little figures rolling their eyes. The two images slowly overlapped in his mind, like two negatives superimposed, fitting perfectly.

He suddenly remembered something: last month, on his birthday, Liu Yifei asked Luo Jin to give her a Hermes belt.

At the time, he thought, "My senior sister is so polite." Now that he thinks about it, Anxi once said, "I'll buy you something nice for your birthday."

Su Yu pulled the blanket over his head and chuckled silently in bed for a while.

Then he slowly stopped smiling, stared into the darkness before him, and felt a strange, indescribable feeling welling up inside him.

Liu Yifei! A fairy-like beauty. She debuted in her teens, comes from a good family, is beautiful, and has countless fans.

As for Su Yu, in his previous life he was a Didi driver. Although he was reborn in this life, won the Golden Bear, sold ringtones, and made tens of millions, what are these things compared to other people?

Su Yu turned over and buried his face in the pillow.

His memories from his past life told him that Liu Yifei's family background was exceptionally good. Her biological father was a diplomat, she lived in a villa from a young age, attended prestigious schools, had a nanny when she went out, and had an assistant when she was filming.

The gap is not just a small one.

Su Yu flipped the pillow over; it was cool and felt very comfortable against his face.

He recalled a quote he saw on Douyin in his past life: "Some gaps cannot be bridged by hard work alone."

At the time, he thought those words were too depressing, but now he thinks they are quite true.

Su Yu closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

I don't want to think about it anymore, I don't want to think about it for now.

He convinced himself not to expose it yet, to let time take its course; things would just be as they were.

As for whether Anxi is Liu Yifei, and whether Liu Yifei is Anxi, we'll discuss that after the film is released.

Su Yu rolled over in bed, kicked the blanket to one side, and then pulled it back.

"So what if I know?"

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