The interior of the car was narrow and enclosed, filtering the clamor of the city’s nightscape into a blurred backdrop of sound.
The taxi glided smoothly through the thinning post-rush-hour traffic.
The windows were like two moving canvases of dark color, constantly sweeping past a kaleidoscope of out-of-focus neon lights, the hurried silhouettes of pedestrians, and countless unfamiliar windows glowing with bright or dim lights.
These lights and shadows were like a tide, silently lapping against the windows, and likewise, they repeatedly washed over and eroded the chaotic thoughts of the person in the back seat.
Su Yuqing leaned against the door, her body slightly tense, her gaze unfocused on the fleeting lights outside the window, not really seeing anything.
Lin Wei’s earth-shattering question in the training room—”Does she really want to become an idol?”—was like a boulder thrown into the lake of her heart.
The ripples it stirred hadn’t calmed with time; instead, they kept expanding and echoing in the silence of the journey home, crashing against the embankment of her reason.
Beside her came the sound of steady, shallow breathing, mixed with the fresh scent of someone who had just bathed and a hint of the unique, slightly cool fragrance that belonged to Bai Wanxue.
This scent should have been comforting, but at this moment, it made Su Yuqing feel a heaviness that was almost suffocating.
At the very least, this matter—
She had to ask about it now.
Right now!
Her fingernails unconsciously dug into her palm.
Su Yuqing finally slowly turned her head to look at the person beside her.
Bai Wanxue sat quietly, her head slightly tilted as she gazed out the window.
Her silver-gray hair took on a soft luster under the passing streetlights, her profile as exquisite as a doll’s.
She seemed completely immersed in her own thoughts, or perhaps simply zoned out, utterly unaware of the tempest raging in Su Yuqing’s heart.
“Um… Wanxue.”
Su Yuqing spoke up, her voice somewhat dry, sounding abrupt in the quiet cabin.
Hearing her, Bai Wanxue turned her head almost immediately.
Her pale red eyes focused precisely on Su Yuqing’s face, clearly reflecting her somewhat tense expression.
“Hmm?”
She responded softly, her tone carrying a questioning lilt.
Then, as if sensing Su Yuqing’s formality, she adjusted her posture slightly to face her more directly, and repeated with a hint of uncertainty in her tentative address:
“Yuqing… Big Sister? What’s wrong? Meow.”
That careful “Big Sister” inexplicably pricked Su Yuqing’s heart.
She avoided the other’s overly clear gaze, her eyes falling on her own folded knees, weighing her words as if disarming a dangerous bomb.
“It’s just…”
She took a deep breath and finally, with difficulty, voiced the question that had been circling in her mind the entire journey:
“You… are you really, from the bottom of your heart, the one who wants to become an idol?”
The moment the question was thrown out, the air in the car seemed to freeze for an instant.
Only the low rumble of the engine and the constant wind noise from outside filled the silence.
Bai Wanxue clearly hadn’t expected this question.
A flicker of genuine confusion passed clearly through her pale red eyes.
Her brow furrowed slightly, as if she had encountered a difficult puzzle to solve.
“Why… is Big Sister suddenly asking Wanxue this question? Meow.”
She didn’t answer directly but instead voiced her own bewilderment first.
Su Yuqing licked her somewhat dry lips, trying to make her explanation sound more reasonable, more like a responsible guide rather than a snoop:
“Because… because becoming an idol is no child’s play, after all. It requires investing a lot, a lot of energy, time, and even… sacrifice.”
“You have to learn countless unfamiliar skills, endure dull and repetitive training, bear the gaze and judgments of the outside world, and you might even encounter setbacks and criticism…”
Her speech unconsciously sped up, as if listing a heavy inventory, trying to make Bai Wanxue understand its weight:
“In other words… as long as you decide to walk this path and truly commit to it, then for a very long time, it might occupy the vast majority of your life. You probably won’t have much time or energy left to consider or try anything else… Your life, your choices, will all be redefined by it.”
She raised her head, her gaze tightly locked onto Bai Wanxue, not wanting to miss the slightest change in her expression:
“That’s why I need to know even more if this is really… the future you yourself truly want. Not one forced upon you by others, or… one you’re reluctantly accepting for some other reason.”
After this lengthy explanation, Su Yuqing held her breath and waited.
She had already anticipated several possible reactions to her words: confusion, contemplation, hesitation, or a firm affirmation.
However, Bai Wanxue’s reaction once again exceeded her expectations.
The confusion in those pale red eyes didn’t dissipate; instead, it grew even more pronounced.
She tilted her head slightly, her silver-gray hair sliding over her shoulder.
In a tone of almost naive, pure bewilderment, she softly asked in return:
“But… wasn’t it Big Sister who wanted Wanxue to become an idol? Meow.”
“Huh…?”
Su Yuqing was stunned, her brain short-circuiting for a moment.
Seeing her astonishment, Bai Wanxue blinked her pale red eyes, seeming somewhat puzzled by her forgetfulness, and continued in that matter-of-fact tone as a reminder:
“Yes, has Big Sister… already forgotten? Meow.”
She leaned forward slightly, closing the distance a little.
Her voice echoed clearly in the narrow confines of the car:
“It was that night, in that park with the willow trees. Before it rained, when the wind was blowing.”
Her description was specific and clear, instantly pulling Su Yuqing back to that night filled with a sense of absurdity and a touch of “grasping at straws” desperation.
“Because of Big Sister’s paper… that colorful paper with writing on it.”
She seemed unsure of the word “flyer,” gesturing with her hand.
“It was Big Sister who stuffed it into Wanxue’s arms. It was you who told Wanxue she could come and give it a try.”
She paused, her gaze becoming distant, as if recalling that difficult “journey”:
“So, Wanxue took that paper and asked… asked many, many stray cat friends in the park, in the alleys, some she knew and some she didn’t… asking all the way, searching all the way, and finally found that big building with many lights on, found the place called ‘Little Paw.’ Meow.”
Her narration was calm and unruffled, yet it painted a picture that was both heartbreaking and hard to believe: a silver-haired girl, holding a vague invitation on a piece of paper, desperately asking for directions from stray peers in the corners of the city, finally tracing the path to arrive.
Then, she raised her eyes to look at Su Yuqing.
Those pure eyes clearly reflected Su Yuqing’s suddenly pale face and the shock and guilt churning within.
Bai Wanxue continued to ask softly, her voice carrying a trace of almost imperceptible grievance, as if she had been forgotten:
“Could it be… Big Sister has already forgotten all of these things now? Meow.”
“I…”
Su Yuqing felt as if something was blocking her throat; she couldn’t utter a single word.
To be fair, she hadn’t simply forgotten these things.
It was just… she had never imagined all of this from Bai Wanxue’s perspective.
After all, how much of her action of handing out that flyer was perfunctory, how much was a desperate impulse without much hope, and how much was even a laughable attempt to escape reality?
She had never imagined that the other party would take it so seriously, would go through such hardship to “keep the appointment”…
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