Peninsula: I can steal the luck of disgraced celebrities

She grabbed Lin Zhixun's wrist and pulled him into the storage room next door.

The storage room was only a few square meters, with cardboard boxes filled with old textbooks and performance costumes piled up on all four sides, and the air was filled with the smell of mothballs and dust.

A light bulb without a lampshade hung from the ceiling, casting uneven shadows between the cardboard boxes with its dim yellow light.

Jang Nara released his wrist, turned around and closed the door tightly, then leaned against the door, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"How much money did you just give Dean Cui?"

"The salary for 'Sungkyunkwan Scandal' wasn't much. You know how much Korean actors are paid; after taxes, it's roughly—"

"How much did you keep?"

Lin Chih-hsun did not answer immediately.

"About... half."

Lin Zhixun lied; he had only kept enough for one month's living expenses.

Jang Nara closed her eyes briefly, as if trying to suppress some emotion.

"Do you know what Dean Cui used to do?"

Lin Chih-hsun genuinely didn't know, but is this question important?

Whatever job Dean Cui did before doesn't affect the fact that she's a good dean now.

Lin Zhixun guessed, "An assassin?"

Jang Nara opened her eyes and stared straight at him.

"She used to be a psychologist."

Lin Zhixun frowned and pondered:

"A psychologist would be a very suitable director for an orphanage; they could observe whether the children have any psychological problems and take better care of them..."

Jang Nara interrupted Lim Ji-hoon.

"Dean Cui told me that you have serious psychological problems."

Lin Zhixun was taken aback and pointed to himself.

"I?"

"You," Jang Nara confirmed.

"Dean Cui told me about this after you donated money for the first time. She said you have a very serious self-destructive tendency."

Lin Zhixun was taken aback again by this unexpected answer.

I don't have any mental health issues. I feel like I'm no different from anyone else. I only donate money to increase my good deeds points and help the original owner fulfill her wishes. I only keep a month's living expenses for myself. At most, I just have some mental health issues.

Jang Nara leaned against the door of the storage room, looking up at the swaying light bulb on the ceiling, as if she was thinking about something.

Her hands were tucked into the pockets of her down jacket, and her shoulders were slightly tense, not from nervousness, but from seriousness.

"Dean Cui told me at the time, 'You and I are very similar; we both isolate ourselves from the world and don't want to accept it.'"

She looked at Lin Zhixun, her eyes appearing particularly deep in the dim light.

"That was me last year. Back then, influenced by public opinion, I felt particularly disgusted with the world."

"I want to grab a giant nuclear bomb and destroy the Earth with it."

"Do you know how happy I was when I heard what Dean Cui said!"

"We met similar people at the same time."

I consider you one of my own kind.

"But... I've moved on from that. Have you?"

Jang Nara paused for a moment, her tone somewhat melancholy.

"I'm sorry, after our first meeting, I was afraid you were a paparazzi digging up dirt on me, so I had someone check your family background."

Lin Zhixun frowned.

Anyone who hears "I investigated you" will instinctively feel disgusted and a chilling sense of invasion of privacy.

But Jang Nara didn't give him time to react.

"Your father is the president of Nightingale Medical Devices Co., Ltd. Your mother abandoned you when you were in the third grade and raised you. Your grandmother passed away last year."

"You were a notorious oddball in junior and senior high school, and you didn't have a single friend."

"As for your stepmother's side... I couldn't find anything."

She paused here, her gaze shifting from the light bulb to Lin Zhixun's face.

Those eyes held pity and an unusual calm.

"I told Dean Cui about this."

"After Dean Cui heard my explanation of your situation, she remained silent for a long time, and then she said something."

Jang Nara took her hand out of her pocket and walked up to Lim Ji-hoon, with only a cardboard box separating them.

She said, "You're like a balloon floating high in the sky; you have no connection to the world."

"Without anyone holding the string, the balloon just kept floating upwards, higher and higher, farther and farther away, not knowing where it was going or when it would burst."

"You are isolating yourself from the world, unwilling to accept it, and unwilling to accept yourself."

"You are destroying yourself—destroying yourself in a way that seems benevolent."

She reached out a hand and gently touched Lin Zhixun's chest, where his heart was.

Last Christmas, didn't you ask me if I was going to pursue you?

"I'll give you the answer now."

She took a deep breath, as if making a long-prepared announcement.

I want to be your friend.

"I want to be your connection to this world."

"I want to be the one holding your rope."

"I can't watch you drift away alone."

"Because you are a good person."

After he finished speaking, the storage room fell silent. It was so quiet that you could hear the faint hum of the tungsten filament in the light bulb.

Jang Nara's finger was still touching his chest.

Through the down jacket and sweater, the touch was so light it was almost weightless, but Lin Zhixun felt as if he had been burned by something.

It wasn't pain, but a strange temperature that seeped from her fingertips into her clothes, into her skin, and then lingered in a place he couldn't name.

Lin Zhixun recalled his past life.

In his previous life, he was a well-known "other people's child".

Every time other parents walk past him with their children, they point at him.

"You absolutely mustn't hang out with him. He's always fighting and going to internet cafes. If you hang out with him, you'll be corrupted."

After a difficult childhood, he was unwilling to spend his life as an ordinary office worker.

So he took tens of thousands of yuan and went to Japan to do some shady business.

Once he had earned enough to make a small fortune, he returned to his hometown in wealth, finally allowing his parents to hold their heads high in front of their neighbors.

But did he take anything with him when he left that world?

There was nothing there.

Since people come into this world empty-handed and leave empty-handed, what is the purpose of pursuing worldly fame and fortune?

Therefore, in this life, he wants to help the original owner fulfill her wishes.

As for the rest, just do as you please.

He looked at Jang Nara.

Her eyes appeared exceptionally clear under the dim light, not the kind of clarity born of innocence, but the kind of clarity that settles after being repeatedly washed by mud and sand.

The stones at the bottom of the river were exposed, and their textures became visible.

She waited for his reply, but did not urge him.

She leaned against the cardboard box, her posture relaxed, leaving him the space of silence.

Lin Zhixun finally spoke.

"So... last Christmas, you gave that gift as a fellow human being, or as a friend, right?"

Jang Nara looked into Lim Ji-hoon's eyes, then couldn't help but look away, finally replying:

"Um."