After Rebirth, My Ex-Girlfriend Became Obsessive - Chapter 95
The person who killed An Yu was quickly apprehended, but Lin Duxi never expected it to be Lin Ze.
Lin Ze was sentenced to death, and Lin Yongfeng came to her for help.
On a stormy night, thunder rumbled incessantly, yet the icy coldness in Lin Duxi’s eyes was even more biting than the downpour. A sharp, frigid glint surfaced completely as raindrops pounded against the ground.
In the brief illumination of a lightning flash, Lin Yongfeng found himself frozen in place under the weight of her hate-filled, crimson gaze.
Drenched and dripping, Lin Duxi returned to her villa and lay there for three days. It wasn’t until Ji Qi noticed something was wrong and rushed to her home that she discovered Lin Duxi had already fallen into a high fever-induced coma.
Panicked, Ji Qi rushed her to the hospital. The roar of the speeding car jolted Lin Duxi’s muddled, unconscious mind, and the blurry world before her eyes, paired with the chaotic noise, made her feel as though she had been transported back six years.
The missing piece of her heart finally pulsed with sensation, the aching feeling mocking her for the ridiculous choice she had made back then-so self-righteous, so prideful.
Ji Qi, driving frantically, glanced anxiously at the red light. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Lin Duxi’s pale, cracked lips moving silently in the rearview mirror.
Thinking something else might be wrong with Lin Duxi, she leaned over in alarm-only to freeze the next second.
What Lin Duxi had said was: “Don’t break up.”
After Lin Duxi was hospitalized, her studio released an announcement stating that she would be taking time off to recuperate. Ji Qi stayed by her bedside every day, occasionally reporting updates to Jiang Yu.
But she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off about Lin Duxi.
Very off.
As her agent, Ji Qi was responsible for Lin Duxi’s career, and her personal life only mattered insofar as it didn’t interfere with work. But that person she had never met-the one who had already passed away-seemed to have an impact on Lin Duxi far beyond what she had imagined.
The words Lin Duxi had muttered in her feverish state forced Ji Qi to connect this illness to An Yu.
Fortunately, Lin Duxi only had a fever and recovered after a few days of rest.
Ji Qi watched as Lin Duxi sat on the hospital bed, staring blankly out the window at the trees. An inexplicable sigh rose in her chest. She wanted to say something to comfort her, but the words lodged in her throat before she could voice them.
All of this is just my speculation anyway. Bringing up An Yu in front of Lin Duxi now wouldn’t do any good.
But then Lin Duxi spoke, her previously lifeless eyes flickering with the faintest tremor as she gazed outside.
“It’s wrong.”
Ji Qi: “What’s wrong?”
She followed Lin Duxi’s gaze out the window but saw nothing unusual-just the lush, verdant branches swaying outside, a stark contrast to the deathly stillness of Lin Duxi in the hospital room. The dissonance was so jarring that Ji Qi had to look away.
Lin Duxi only shook her head, lowering her eyes to her own pale, bloodless hands before repeating:
“It’s wrong. Too much of a coincidence.”
Everything had happened all at once-things that could have been avoided.
“I should have realized it sooner.”
Ji Qi was completely baffled by these two statements, but after uttering them, Lin Duxi fell silent again. Normally tight-lipped, she now seemed even more unwilling to speak.
Unsure of what else to say, Ji Qi could only relay the studio’s arrangements: “The studio wants you to rest for a while. Your mental-no, your physical condition isn’t great right now. Focus on recovering first.”
She knew Lin Duxi wouldn’t respond-might not even listen-but she had to say it anyway. Such was the duty of an agent.
To her surprise, Lin Duxi looked up and replied, “No need. I know my own body. We’ll proceed with work as usual.”
Her eyes were unwavering, leaving Ji Qi no room to argue. Frustrated, Ji Qi stormed out of the hospital room.
Once alone again, Lin Duxi no longer looked out the window. To her, the vibrant greenery outside might as well have been monochrome.
She closed her eyes and lay back, seemingly exhausted and ready to rest. But her chaotic, throbbing mind was clearer than ever before.
During her feverish haze, when Ji Qi was rushing her to the hospital, she had thought she had traveled back in time to that fever years ago. The memories she had buried for nearly six years resurfaced, and she gradually began to sense something amiss.
She had learned about the deaths of An Yu’s parents the year after their breakup. Their separation had been clean, and she had assumed An Yu had gone abroad.
Knowing the Lin father and son would come looking for her if they discovered her preferred university, Lin Duxi had secretly chosen a prestigious school without telling anyone, determined to cut ties with them completely.
She thought An Yu was overseas, that their paths would never cross again-until one day during her third year of college, she stumbled upon An Yu’s official promotional photo on her phone. The location listed beneath it made her realize that An Yu had never left the country at all. Instead, she had chosen the very school Lin Duxi had applied to for her.
It was then that Lin Duxi decided to reach out to An Yu again. But fearing An Yu’s disgust at the sight of her, she suppressed her emotions and submitted a resume to a talent agency. With her striking looks, she officially debuted as an artist.
Later, her acting roles and performances were all just excuses to get closer to An Yu-to narrow the distance between them. Even when their filming sets were in the same studio lot, Lin Duxi was content just being near her.
The accident happened on the night of An Yu’s 24th birthday. Lin Duxi had learned in advance that a director from An Yu’s crew was planning to exploit her, so she arrived early-only to find that An Yu was nowhere to be seen.
When she finally broke through the hotel room door, An Yu had already injured someone and fled. Once again, she hadn’t been of any help-An Yu simply didn’t need her.
From that moment on, Lin Duxi stopped actively approaching An Yu. She was content just watching her from afar, at least she could still see her.
But then An Yu died. The murderer didn’t even have a justifiable reason, still denying any wrongdoing until the very end.
Lin Duxi’s brows, which had just relaxed, furrowed again. With her lifelong emotional anchor gone, the obsession and darkness buried deep in her heart began to consume her bit by bit.
A fever forced Lin Duxi to revisit everything that had happened that summer six years ago. She relentlessly dissected her own heart, dredging up painful memories over and over, each time uncovering something unsettling.
Eventually, Lin Duxi threw herself back into work, more intensely than ever before. She immersed herself completely in acting, losing all interest in anything else, becoming little more than a machine.
Over the years, award after award found its way into her hands. She became the youngest actress to achieve a grand slam of major acting accolades. Yet she kept working.
As her agent, Ji Qi was thrilled. But as a friend, he couldn’t shake a growing sense of unease.
Lin Duxi’s relentless work ethic was like she was borrowing against her own future.
During a break on set, Lin Duxi was studying her script in the restroom when her assistant turned away for just a second. In that moment, Lin Duxi’s brow tightened, and a trickle of crimson spilled from her lips.
She wiped the blood away indifferently, but then something flickered in her mind. The world around her seemed to crack. Staring at the bloodstain on her hand, she suddenly laughed.
In that instant, she understood. All of this-the so-called “protagonist’s halo,” the years of suffering-it was all just “trial and tribulation.”
Because a voice had echoed in her mind, fleeting and hollow, but unmistakable:
“You’re utterly incorrigible!”
Lin Duxi smiled. She had found a way.
Her work ethic grew even more frenzied, to the point where she became indistinguishable from her roles. The media dubbed her the “Obsessive Acting Demon.”
When Ji Qi came to talk some sense into her, he found her staring at her palm, her lips stained red, her hand smeared with blood.
Before he could react, Lin Duxi turned to him, her eyes burning with a madness and obsession that sent a chill down his spine.
She smiled faintly, the blood making her pale skin seem even more ghostly. Her lips trembled as she whispered:
“I’m close to finding her.”
Her voice shook, her eyes alight with a fervor Ji Qi hadn’t seen in years-twisted with delusion and fixation, terrifying to behold.
Lin Duxi had lost her mind.
Ji Qi forcibly hospitalized her, but it was too late. The diagnosis was severe, and he couldn’t help but tear up as he read it.
Yet Lin Duxi was overjoyed. She had made a reckless decision-one that would fail with even the slightest miscalculation, a gamble on thin ice.
She was converting her life into energy. The weaker she grew, the stronger that being became. Lately, she had been hearing its curses more and more frequently-proof her plan was working.
That being was an unfathomable force looming over them all, manipulating everything. Every hardship Lin Duxi and An Yu had endured was its doing. Yet Lin Duxi shared an inexplicable connection with it.
From its words, she gathered she had strayed far from its intended path.
And it was beginning to realize that “An Yu” was the key to everything.
Once aware of this, Lin Duxi began her scheme.
She covertly transferred her energy into that being , hiding within it. As expected, she could manipulate the energy to move undetected.
It was vigilant, so she couldn’t linger on the surface. Instead, Lin Duxi burrowed deeper into its mechanisms-specifically, its “punishment mode.” A place it never entered, giving her room to hide.
There was another reason: based on its behavior, if it ever tried to punish An Yu, Lin Duxi would have the means to protect her.
Lin Duxi laughed, coughing up more blood in her joy.
An Yu… An Yu. How long had it been since she last dreamed of her? She could barely remember An Yu’s face now. That radiant, smiling sun of a person felt like a relic from another lifetime.
But she didn’t want An Yu in her dreams.
Her dreams were too horrifying. An Yu would be afraid, and she couldn’t bear that.
Lin Duxi was forced to halt all work and undergo treatment, but nothing helped. She vomited more blood each day, growing weaker, yet happier.
Outside her window, the leaves turned green, then yellow, before being swept away by the wind, desolate as specks of dust.
The day before winter began, Lin Duxi passed away in the hospital. She was only 28.
In the darkness of night, the unknown swelled, shrouded in black. A faint breeze slipped through the window’s cracks, stirring the curtains.
As consciousness returned, the familiar desolation and pain took root once more.
Lin Duxi reached out, as she had countless times before, for the photo hidden in her bedside drawer-the only thing that could ground her wavering mind.
But this time, her hand met nothing.
She shifted, trying again-
Then, an unfamiliar yet familiar warmth pressed against her waist. A force pulled her into a tight embrace, the scent of a faint, soothing fragrance filling her senses.
Lin Duxi froze, breath catching.
Then, a voice-soft, husky, and achingly familiar-spoke beside her ear, fingers gently carding through her hair in a way that made her heart clench.
“No filming at noon. We can sleep in. Be good.”
Tired. Time to sleep.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Zei_An
Did she just finally remembered it all? Huh, so she was able to deduce a “protagonist halo” biasedness…