“A few specialized counters called me a couple of days ago and informed me that the latest spring series had arrived. Shopping by oneself is boring. How would Miss Meng like to go shopping with me?”

Meng Jie wasn’t an awkward one. She smiled and accepted her invitation. “What a coincidence? I have been wanting to check out the new spring series as well. It will be a pleasure to go with Mrs. Lu.”

This was a shopping center with a designer brand shop every three steps and a luxurious brand every five. Ye Zhen didn’t even need to pull out the VVVIP card that was given to her by Madam Lu before she left the house, just Meng Jie’s face alone was enough for the salesperson to go up to them enthusiastically.

Almost all of them were brands that Meng Jie had been the spokesperson for at some point in time.

During the height of her career, Meng Jie had stood and looked down from the apex of the entertainment circle.

“Hi, Miss Meng, what can we do for you today?”

“Mrs. Lu and I would like to look at some of your early spring series.”

The salesperson eagerly brought them over to a VIP room and brought in the early spring series for the two of them to choose from.

Ye Zhen picked and chose. Everything that she picked out was either suitable for Madam Lu or useful for either Lu Beichuan or Zhouzhou.

The salesperson placed a blue dress in front of Ye Zhen and said to her, “Mrs. Lu, this is the last one in the entire Asia region. Our shop only got two of them. I think it will fit you very well; would you like to try it out?”

No matter what it was, the “only one” would always lend it special meaning easily.

The salesperson brought in another woman the second that Ye Zhen walked inside of the dressing room.

The woman was very ostentatious with jewelries and designer brands from head to toe along with a very arrogant mannerism. She smiled a peculiar smile the minute she saw Meng Jie. “Meng Jie? I didn’t think I would bump into you here.”

Meng Jie didn’t seem too surprised at the woman’s reaction toward her. In fact, she didn’t even bother looking over at the woman.

The woman removed her shades and gave her a meaningful look. “It had been such a long time. Are you at least going to say hi? We have been friends for many years after all, right?”

Meng Jie had a mild temperament. She never got angry or lost her temper as though nothing was ever worth getting angry over. In the eyes of a provoker, nevertheless, that made her appear to be very arrogant.

“I learned a couple of days ago that Miss Meng had participated in a… movie directed by someone unheard of. It was very difficult to believe that Superstar Meng had to stoop so low as to join the production of such a low-budget film. Or is Miss Meng too poor to put food on the table now?”

Meng Jie showed no particular expression. “That’s not important. What is important is the movie itself.”

“The movie itself…”The woman snickered. “I can’t wait to see how Qinhuai's Riverbank would fare going head-to-head with my The Ultimate Warfare then.”

The door to the dressing room opened up. Ye Zhen, in the blue dress, walked leisurely over to the full-length mirror and appreciated the reflection of her own shapely body in the mirror. “Meng Jie, I heard that the actress for the protagonist in The Ultimate Warfare is Shen Weiyin. This lady does not look familiar at all. Pray tell, who is she playing in the movie?”

“I played the role of the second female lead, Ning Ke.”

“Ning Ke? Second female lead?” Ye Zhen chuckled and looked provokingly at the aggressive and arrogant woman in front of her. “Meng Jie is the first female lead in our movie. What makes you think you can measure up to her? You are just the second female lead. Comparing herself to you will be lowering her standing. Besides, since when can a second female lead represent an entire movie? Are you not aware of your own standing at all?”

Having said that, Ye Zhen smiled at the salesperson and said, “I’m in quite a good mood today. I’ll take this dress. Wrap it up for me.”

As the saying goes, whenever three women get together, there will be drama.

Ye Zhen had no interest in that arrogant woman. Any other time, she wouldn’t even care about chatting with her.

Ning Ke was very unhappy from Ye Zhen’s mocking words.

She was able to stand there and mock Meng Jie because Meng Jie had laid low for five years. And, when Meng Jie finally returned to the big screen, she joined the cast of a movie that obviously would not do well. Her future was grim to say the least, and she would never see the light of day again. That was the reason that Ning Ke felt confident in mocking her.

Ye Zhen, on the other hand, was not someone she would want to go up against. Or, one could say that Ye Zhen wasn’t someone that she could afford to offend.

Her status of being Lu Beichuan’s wife was enough to deter many from acting erratically in front of her.

The salesperson in the same room as the other three women felt very awkward.

Ye Zhen turned and gave Ning Ke a look. “Ning Ke, right? Pardon me. Perhaps what I have said was a little overboard. It was, after all, my first time encountering the entertainment circle and I don’t know it very well. What kind of awards had Miss Ning earned in the past?”

“I…” Ning Ke stuttered some and said, “I have received the best female support…”

“Best Female Supporting Character?” Ye Zhen was surprised, as though her interest had been revived. “Was that in the Golden Eagle Award, the Academy Award, or the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival?”

The smile froze on Ning Ke. All of her arrogance was gone under Ye Zhen’s aggressive questioning.

“Or, perhaps it was the Oscar?”

Ning Ke stiffened.

“Judging from Miss Ning’s look, it was none of those? What a waste of your standard female supporting character look.”

Her words were both aggravating and hurtful. She was clearly saying that she would be a female supporting character for life.

Even Meng Jie, who was very good at controlling her expression, couldn't help but chuckle a little.

Ning Ke felt even more hateful when she saw the smile on Meng Jie. She might have only been a female supporting character so far, but all these years of playing those roles had still earned her a lot of fans and her status within the entertainment circle could rival some first-tier actresses. All she was missing was an opportunity.

What was so funny to Meng Jie? And who was she to be laughing at her?

“Mrs. Lu, truth was, I have a lot of respect for you. After all, you had the courage to become a producer in the entertainment circle. As you have said so earlier, you have not been in the field for very long and don’t know all the ins and outs in this circle.” She suppressed her anger and embarrassment from earlier and put on a different expression altogether. Smiling, she said, “This lead actress of yours has a lot of history. It’s just that not many know about it now after she had been put on the back burner for the past five years. Do you know what Miss Meng was known for five years ago?”

Ning Ke looked at Ye Zhen excitedly. “That she was a kept woman for several years. When she had offended her employer for whatever reason, her employer had blocked all of her avenues. Mrs. Lu, it wasn’t that I question your judgement of characters; I just feel that you need to know the truth when it comes to someone like Meng Jie, who is good at making others feel pitiful for her.”

“A kept woman?” Ye Zhen pulled out her cellphone. “Can Miss Ning repeat that into my phone?”

“Whatever do you mean, Mrs. Lu?”

“Didn’t you just tell me in no uncertain terms that five years ago Miss Meng Jie had the history of being a kept woman for several years.”

The smile disappeared from Ning Ke, “I… I have only heard of it in passing.”

She knew that Ye Zhen only pulled her phone out to record her. Being in the entertainment circle for so many years, she had an idea how this worked. Saying something without proof would constitute slandering and she could be sued for that.

Not to mention that the Lu’s Corporation was known in the entertainment industry for sending out lawyers’ letters.

Lu Beichuan fully utilized the team of lawyers that he kept on his payroll.

“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.

You Jing was a player and Meng Jie should not have fallen for his fake tenderness. She was not a good fit for someone who went through life as though it was nothing but a game, and neither was You Jing a good fit for her.

What she hadn’t expected was how persistent You Jing was about her.

It had already been five years, and he still hasn’t moved on.

“Something happened later on and I lost the child.” Meng Jie smiled helplessly. “Perhaps it was all meant to be. I didn’t tell You Jing the reason I broke up with him because I didn’t want to drag it out anymore. Yet he dragged it out for another four more years nevertheless. I merely feel that it was time to talk things out with him. You don’t need to feel responsible for it, Mrs. Lu.”

Ye Zhen went silent and didn’t say anything for a while.

“And that Ning Ke… she, too, was one of You Jing’s close lady friends in the past. You don’t need to care too much about what she says. She wouldn’t dare to offend you.”

Ye Zhen smiled. “Does it look like I will let what she said bothers me?”

Meng Jie gave her a smile and realized she had been worrying over nothing.

Ye Zhen gestured to her bodyguards that they no longer needed to follow her. She then went inside a coffee shop with Meng Jie for a quick rest. As soon as the two of them had stepped inside the shop, a silver Lamborghini came to a screeching stop on the street and slammed into another car that was also stopped on the street.

The owner of the little car got out of his car aggressively, demanding an answer. You Jing, who had gotten out of the sportscar, didn't care about the man at all and was looking left and right. When he was frustrated by the man, he pulled out a business card, handed it over to the man, and said something to him arrogantly before he pushed him away and made a call while panting.

He said a couple things into the phone before he spotted Meng Jie who had walked inside the coffee shop. He hung up on the phone and quickly headed toward her direction.

A server walked up to greet him after he stepped inside the coffeeshop. You Jing pushed them aside, looked around, and said, “I am looking for someone.”

Ning Ke had told him over the phone that Meng Jie was shopping with a man. You Jing, who was extremely anxious, immediately floored his gas and came over. There was no anger, just unsettlement and anxiousness. He knew all of those stemmed from guilt.

He had made too many mistakes when it came to Meng Jie.

Ever since Meng Jie had told him about her miscarriage, he had sent people to look into it. He was able to confirmed Meng Jie’s words that she had a miscarriage in a hospital five years ago. The baby was already four months along and they could already tell her gender. Yet, he knew nothing about it.

An indescribable anger rose up in him the moment he found out about it.

That was his daughter too but Meng Jie had never told him about her. And she continued to refuse to tell him the truth even after such a long time!

Meng Jie had finally decided to tell him the truth after five years. Her tone was very calm. She would not have been able to retold this story so calmly had she not already moved past it.

Many things had happened in five years and enough to change a person.

If Meng Jie had made up her mind to start her life afresh and look for a tender and attentive boyfriend, a woman who was soft and kind like her could have any man that her heart desired.

At that very moment, You Jing could picture Meng Jie dating, getting married, going onto her honeymoon, having children, and even the names of her children in his mind. He could visualize her entire happy and complete life in his head. But what about him when she was living happily ever after?

If only he knew what he knew now and that Meng Jie would have told him about what had happened five years ago, he would for sure have been very nice to her and never did the crazy things that he had done!

You Jing’s palms were sweaty. He looked around the coffeeshop for a long while and worried that he would see her having a good time with another man. The moment that he spotted Ye Zhen, his pounding heart calmed down.

Standing in front of the table, he looked awkwardly at Ye Zhen, who was looking at him casually. The smile on his face was awkward as well, “What a coincidence… Mrs. Lu.”

Ye Zhen found You Jing, who was panting and sweating in the early spring time, amusing. She smiled and said to him, “It is, indeed. What can we do for you, Young Master You?”

You Jing glanced over at Meng Jie, but Meng Jie acted like he wasn’t even there. That made him feel very disappointed.

You Jing was very happy to have found out that Meng Jie wasn’t out shopping with any man but was with Ye Zhen instead.

That being said, You Jing still felt helpless in front of Meng Jie. His Adam's apple rolled up and down ,and he had no idea what to say to her.

Ye Zhen took a sip from her cup of steaming coffee. As she was enveloped in the aroma of the coffee, she could not just sit by and watch anymore.

“Young Master You, please feel free to go and attend to your own business if there is nothing else. I would like to continue enjoying my afternoon tea with Miss Meng.”

Ye Zhen’s intention of sending him away could not have been more obvious. You Jing, a playboy who had perfected his smooth talk, was now standing there speechless like a statue.

Okay, so he didn’t know what to say but couldn’t he at least catch the drift?

Could he not tell from Meng Jie’s look that she wanted nothing to do with him?

It wasn’t that You Jing didn’t know what to say, he just couldn’t get himself to say them out loud in front of Meng Jie. Let alone the fact that Ye Zhen was there as well.

Had Ye Zhen not been there, You Jing might still be able to shamefully force out a word or two.

“I…”

You Jing had just drummed up his courage to start when Meng Jie, sitting across from Ye Zhen, said apologetically to Ye Zhen, “I had fun shopping with you today, Mrs. Lu. It is getting late, however, and I have something else to attend to. Let me take you out to dinner on a later day if the opportunity presents itself.”

Ye Zhen understood why she sounded apologetic and played along with her. “No worries. Let’s keep in touch.”

Meng Jie stood up apologetically, said goodbye to Ye Zhen, and headed out.

You Jing continued to follow behind her. Without Ye Zhen around, he said something to Meng Jie. Ye Zhen didn’t know what he said, but Meng Jie looked as nonchalant as she was before as though You Jing wasn’t there at all. When she had reached her car, she finally stopped and faced You Jing. She said something to him, and his face dropped all of a sudden. As though his feet were nailed on the spot, he stood there motionlessly.

You Jing did not follow her any more after Meng Jie had gotten into her car. He just watched her leave with a very lonely look.

Ye Zhen took another sip of her coffee and sighed.