Best Actress A and Her White Moonlight - Chapter 3

There were only three periods of evening self-study on Fridays.

The moment the dismissal bell rang, Gu Chenxing—who had been tormented by internal conflict for most of the day—couldn’t care about anyone else. She didn’t even grab her backpack, leaving her friends’ shouts behind as she ran out without looking back.

Having attended junior high in Nanshi for three years and senior high for one and a half, this was the first time she had ever been the first person to charge out of the school gates.

It was the peak of the evening dismissal rush, and seven or eight taxis were waiting for passengers at the entrance. She dove into a random one, barked out her address, and didn’t forget to urge: “Please, Master, drive faster!”

She actually didn’t believe a word the woman calling herself Lin Wanchun had said. Her parents had always been the loving couple that relatives and friends envied; how could they have reached the point of divorce?

Yet her brain moved outside her conscious control, replaying Lin Wanchun’s image over and over in her mind.

Her expression and tone didn’t seem like someone who was lying.

Gu Chenxing shook her head violently, tossing the wild thoughts aside. Do Mom and Dad really look like they’re so incompatible they’d divorce?

She hadn’t believed that absurd nonsense. She was just…

Gu Chenxing stared at the neon lights flashing past the car window and thought: She just wanted to go home early.

She didn’t notice that after she got into the taxi, a silver-gray car parked not far from the school gate also started up, following the taxi at a steady distance.

The taxi stopped at the entrance of the residential complex. Gu Chenxing felt through her school jacket pockets, finding only a fifty-yuan bill. Unable to wait for the driver to find change, she pushed the door open, shouting as she ran: “Keep the change!”

Gu Chenxing jogged all the way to her building. The winter wind bit at her face, and the air she inhaled felt like tiny knives scraping her nasal passages and making her throat itch with pain.

After running for a bit, her pace gradually slowed. The heat from the exercise caught up with her body, and beads of sweat began to form on her forehead and back.

She looked up at the building. The area around the twelfth or thirteenth floor was pitch black; not a single unit had its lights on.

Gu Chenxing felt slightly relieved. She exhaled a large breath that turned into a cloud of white mist in the air.

There was no one home. She really had been tricked.

Thinking this, her anxious mood calmed significantly. In the gap while waiting for the elevator, she couldn’t help but think of Lin Wanchun again.

Though one shouldn’t judge by appearances, Lin Wanchun’s look and her every gesture made it truly hard to believe she was mentally unstable.

Or…

Ding—

The elevator doors opened, and Gu Chenxing stepped inside.

Or maybe Lin Wanchun is actually a con artist?

That seemed more plausible. A scammer would definitely do their homework beforehand; it wouldn’t be strange for them to know some of her basic information.

As for the “from the future” claim, maybe it was a new tactic cooked up by a fraud ring?

But what was there to steal from a high schooler?

It couldn’t be a “honey trap,” could it…

The moment that thought popped up, Gu Chenxing happened to lock eyes with her reflection in the elevator. The image reflected by the metal panel was distorted like a funhouse mirror.

Gu Chenxing pinched her own cheek. She admitted she had some looks, but for just that much, Lin Wanchun probably wouldn’t risk testing the law, right?

Gu Chenxing stepped out of the elevator and fished out her keys to open the door. As expected, the apartment was pitch black.

She hadn’t seen her parents for a long time.

They always seemed very busy, though she didn’t know what exactly they were busy with.

Gu Chenxing took off her shoes in the dark. Her fingers found the switch on the wall, but before she could press it, she heard—

Smash!

“Gu Zhenghua! You think I want to keep living with you? Back then, a useless waste like you—”

Gu Chenxing froze in place. Lin Wanchun’s voice echoed in her mind:

[December 7th. After evening self-study, you go home and walk right into the middle of your parents’ divorce argument.]

The hand touching the edge of the switch fell weakly to her side, yet her heart still struggled, refusing to believe.

It was impossible.

Weren’t Mom and Dad always so in love?

She remembered in elementary school, her young aunt had complained that even after being married for so many years, her parents were more clingy than her aunt was with her new boyfriend.

“Ha! As if I want to keep living with you. Since it’s all out in the open, we’re getting divorced tomorrow! Take your daughter and get the hell away from me!”

A piercing female voice rang out: “My daughter? Isn’t she your daughter? You’re out there playing happy family with a mistress, raising a seven-year-old bastard, and after the divorce, you want me to raise your seed?!”

[They start fighting over who will raise you…]

Gu Chenxing stopped outside the lit study door, breathing with difficulty.

It turns out… they weren’t fighting because they both wanted custody of her. They were fighting because neither of them wanted her.

The man sneered: “Give it a rest, Xie Lin. At least I’m raising my own kid. You treat a wild brat like a treasure, so why act like some saint here?”

“I heard that to send your lover’s son to a private elite kindergarten, you spent several million? Have too much money and nowhere to spend it? How come I never saw you send Gu Chenxing to the city for school?”

Gu Chenxing couldn’t describe the feeling. It was as if her blood was flowing backward, as if she were standing naked in a frozen wasteland—so cold she was shivering, unable to utter a single word.

No wonder…

No wonder she barely saw them once a year now. They always said they were busy, busy, busy. It turned out they were busy accompanying another family and other children outside.

They had long ago established themselves in the big city, yet neither was willing to take her with them.

“Laughable! So what if I spend money? I earned it, I’ll use it however I want! We can divorce, but I want twenty percent of the shares! Otherwise, your precious son and little mistress will forever be shameful bastards and home-wreckers!”

“In your dreams!”

Following that was a stream of foul insults. It was unclear what the two were doing inside, but the cursing was punctuated by the sound of various objects being hurled onto the floor.

“Gu Zhenghua, you—ah!!”

Gu Chenxing was jolted out of her dazed state by the scream. She instinctively grabbed the doorknob, wanting to rush in and stop the farce. But Lin Wanchun’s voice, like a lingering ghost, rang out again—

[You try to break it up, but you’re hit by a flying porcelain shard, leaving a scar about three centimeters long.]

She only hesitated for a moment before gritting her teeth and pushing the door open. Before she could even process the scene, a white ceramic cup enlarged in her field of vision—

Crasheroo!

Click.

A tiny flame emerged from the lighter, flickering precariously against the threat of the cold wind, ready to die out at any second.

Lin Wanchun lit the cigarette between her lips. The bright red ember pulsed in the dim residential complex.

She was waiting.

Waiting for Gu Chenxing to verify her words, and after recognizing reality, to tearfully fall into her embrace.

The two fingers Lin Wanchun used to hold the thin cigarette tightened slightly, leaving a shallow mark.

If possible, she didn’t want Gu Chenxing to face all of this.

Against the frost and wind of the outside world, she could build a safe harbor for her. But against the harm dealt by parents and family, she was powerless.

At least—Lin Wanchun slowly exhaled a plume of swirling smoke—at least now, she wouldn’t let her face this kind of despair alone.

That couple, whose affection had long since shattered, had already succeeded in starting businesses elsewhere and risen to the wealthy class. They had new families, yet had delayed the divorce because of company shares and interests.

As for the “crystallization of their past love” left in this small town—Gu Chenxing—she had long ago become a “drag” in their eyes.

Neither was willing to look after her. They were even afraid that if she knew their true financial status, she would cling to them. So, they had reached a tacit agreement to spin lies about being busy and struggling.

When the lies were exposed, the couple—now angry from embarrassment—didn’t even bother to keep up the facade. they directly declared they would only support her until she was an adult, and she should expect nothing more.

Lin Wanchun looked up. She didn’t know which floor or unit Gu Chenxing was in, so she could only stare blankly at the windows where light and shadow alternated.

She had already warned Gu Chenxing. Gu Chenxing surely wouldn’t be so foolish as to charge in again, get hurt, and leave a scar, right?

Hurried footsteps were exceptionally clear in the silent complex. Lin Wanchun looked toward the sound and saw Gu Chenxing running out.

The dim streetlights made it impossible for Lin Wanchun to tell if Gu Chenxing was injured. She stepped forward, then suddenly realized something, crushed her cigarette, and tossed it into the trash.

Gu Chenxing also noticed Lin Wanchun standing under the old tree. Under the other’s tranquil gaze, her pace gradually slowed, finally stopping in front of Lin Wanchun.

“Everything you said was true.” As soon as she spoke, her choked-up voice gave her away. Her forced strength disintegrated at that moment.

She covered her eyes, trying to stop the pathetic tears from falling. But her hands couldn’t block the warm droplets; they rolled through the gaps of her fingers, hitting the ground one by one and vanishing.

Lin Wanchun opened her mouth, but couldn’t bring herself to say her prepared lines. In the face of genuine sorrow, words felt too hollow.

Perhaps many years later, when Gu Chenxing looked back on this matter, she would feel it was “just that.” But for the sixteen-year-old Gu Chenxing standing here, her parents’ hollow marriage and their blatant distaste for her made her feel a despair as if the sky had collapsed.

Lin Wanchun grabbed Gu Chenxing’s hands and firmly pulled those tear-soaked hands away from her face.

She leaned in very close, using the dim yellow streetlight to carefully examine Gu Chenxing’s face.

Aside from the dense tear tracks, there were no other marks.

Lin Wanchun felt a wave of relief and let out a soft laugh.

“You!” Gu Chenxing hadn’t expected that while she was crying her heart out, this woman would actually be able to laugh.

Her throat was tight with sobs, and her chaotic brain couldn’t think of words to accuse her. She could only stomp her foot hard and shout at Lin Wanchun through her tears: “Didn’t you say you were my future best friend? Seeing me cry like this, how can you laugh?”

“I just,” Lin Wanchun gently touched Gu Chenxing’s brow bone. She knew she shouldn’t smile in this atmosphere, but she couldn’t restrain it. “I just confirmed that I really can change the future.”

The System kept saying she had returned to seventeen years ago, constantly tempting her to kill the “self” of this timeline, saying it was her chance to rewrite the past.

Lin Wanchun had believed it, yet couldn’t fully trust it.

She was already thirty-three, not a teenage girl prone to fantasies. The more she had seen of the world, the harder it was to give her trust easily.

They say the future is a fixed fact, so can the past truly be changed?

Lin Wanchun had thought about it for a long time. Until now, she was finally certain that she could change the future and rewrite Gu Chenxing’s tragic fate.

She reached out and pulled the sobbing, shivering Gu Chenxing into her arms.

In an instant, Lin Wanchun felt as if she could hear the massive roar of the river of time rushing and pulling. Separated by seventeen years, two people who shouldn’t have met at this moment held each other tightly.

Like an ostrich, Gu Chenxing buried her face in Lin Wanchun’s chest. She was like a drowning person catching a straw, death-gripping the collar of the wool coat.

“Cry.” Lin Wanchun gently stroked Gu Chenxing’s back, her voice soft. “I will be with you.”

The words, like a promise, made Gu Chenxing finally unable to restrain her breakdown. Her sobbing whimpers transformed into heart-wrenching, loud wails.

“They…” Like a wounded little animal, she trembled and cried out her grievance. “None of them want me… Why? Why?”

Why does nobody want me?

She lifted her head, revealing eyes red and swollen from crying. “Did I do something wrong? Or am I not good enough—”

“Neither.” Lin Wanchun interrupted Gu Chenxing’s self-doubt. She gently wiped away the remaining tears on Gu Chenxing’s cheeks. Her words were soft, yet held a firmness that brooked no contradiction. “You didn’t do anything wrong, and you are already more than good enough.”

“Gu Chenxing, you must remember: when terrible things happen, everyone might be at fault, but the victim is always innocent.”

“Whether you are ‘good enough’ or whether you did something wrong—neither of those is the reason your parents abandoned you.”