Rebirth 02, the Celestial Being Told Me to Stop Pretending

The next day at noon, Lu Chen decided to go out and look for opportunities. He left the school gate with 69.8 yuan in his pocket and walked north along Jimen Bridge.

October in Beijing is already chilly, and some leaves on the roadside trees are beginning to turn yellow.

In 2002, Beijing was far less congested than it is today. The cars on the road were mainly taxis, vans, and Santanas, with the occasional Audi or Mercedes standing out in the traffic.

Lu Chen wasn't moving fast; his mind was racing, contemplating his future. What he needed most right now was his first decent income. Writing for Tianya Forum was an option, but it would take too long.

As he passed a newsstand, Lu Chen stopped and bought a bottle of mineral water. He unscrewed the cap, took a sip, and looked at the crowd of people hurrying across the street. Each person's face carried a rough but vibrant vitality unique to the beginning of this century.

He suddenly felt a little dazed.

In his past life, when he stood here, he was already in his forties, surrounded by a bunch of assistants, and always traveling in a business car.

Now he stood among this group of young people in their early twenties, wearing an old shirt he'd just bought from the zoo wholesale market, with a few dozen coins in his pocket. Though his body was the youngest, his mind was that of a man in his fifties.

This is probably the cruelest part of rebirth: "You have time, but you have lost the ability to resonate with time," but at the same time you have youth and the feeling of youth.

He looked at this world, knowing what it would become in the future, but he could never fit in.

"I'm so damn fed up." Lu Chen cursed under his breath, crushed the mineral water bottle, and threw it into the trash can next to him.

Just then, Lu Chen's gaze was drawn to a black Audi parked in front of the store.

It was an older Audi 100. The black paint was no longer very shiny, there was a noticeable scratch on the right rear door, and there were also rain marks on the body.

Judging from the vehicle model and condition, this is most likely not a boss's car, but a vehicle used for illegal taxi services.

In 2002, there were many such cars in Beijing. The drivers were not the car owners but rather the drivers of government agencies or big bosses. When they had nothing to do at work, they would pick up passengers near Peking University and Beijing Film Academy, picking up college students who thought taxis were beneath them and couldn't afford ride-hailing services.

Of course, there are also better cars, but they are usually used as wedding cars, a situation that is still common in later generations.

But what attracted Lu Chen was not the car, but the person inside the car window.

The passenger window was rolled down halfway, revealing a girl wearing a gray baseball cap pulled low over her shoulders.

Most of her face was hidden in shadow, with only her fair chin and a small section of her neck visible; her skin was almost unrealistically white.

She was wearing a very ordinary dark blue sports jacket, zipped up to her chest, and huddled in her seat like a cat curled up in a corner.

Lu Chen wasn't attracted to her because she was pretty, although she was indeed beautiful. The main reason was that he recognized her face. He knew that face too well; he could recognize her even from just her chin and neck.

In his past life, he had worked with almost all of the top actors in China. Among them was an actress he had worked with twice. She debuted at the age of fifteen, became a legend at eighteen, and became a national idol at twenty. Later, she transitioned to an international career.

After turning 35, her three works—"Dream Record," "Go to the Windy Place," and "The Story of Rose"—brought her back into the spotlight, solidifying her status as a "celestial beauty" in the Chinese entertainment industry.

Liu Yifei.

In 2002, Liu Yifei was fifteen years old and had just joined the cast of "The Story of a Noble Family" to play Bai Xiuzhu.

Based on the timeline, she should be a freshman who was admitted to the Performance Department of Taipei Film Academy this year, while also taking on filming duties.

Given his current situation, he only had 69.8 yuan left, not even enough to afford a proper meal. To try and chat up a 15-year-old college freshman was, from any perspective, an extremely undignified act.

But he didn't leave. In his previous life, he had collaborated with Liu Yifei twice: once in a commercial film and once in an art film.

His two collaborations gave him a very clear understanding of this girl: she was not just a pretty face; she was talented, resilient, and hardworking.

But her talent was buried for a long time by commercial packaging and external prejudice. If someone had given her the right guidance early on, her potential would certainly have been much higher than in her previous life.

Of course, these are all rational analyses. The emotional reason is that he saw her huddled in the car, looking a bit like a trapped cat. In this bustling city, two lonely souls, even if they only exchange a glance through the car window, could sense a loneliness emanating from each other that didn't belong here.

Lu Chen walked over and knocked on the car window.

The girl inside looked up, revealing a pair of large, bright eyes beneath her hat brim, but with a distinct sense of wariness and indifference.

Lu Chen activated the aura he had developed from dealing with people on film sets in his previous life. Instead of being arrogant, he exuded a confident and relaxed feeling.

He bent down slightly, his gaze level with the girl's, and a somewhat frivolous smile appeared on his lips.

"Hey beautiful, are you waiting for someone?"

The girl didn't say anything, she just glanced at him and then looked back ahead.

"This beat-up car isn't good enough for you. Shall we go for a spin?"

This time, the girl turned her head and looked him up and down, from the brim of his hat to his chin, from his shirt collar to his belt buckle, her gaze lingering on him for about a second.

"Are you going to Heping Gate?" she asked, her voice lower than Lu Chen had expected, carrying the rawness of someone just going through puberty. Hmm, it didn't have the same charm as when they collaborated in later years.

Lu Chen was taken aback; he hadn't expected this reaction. Normally, the other person would either ignore him or call him a lunatic and then close the window.

Asking her directly if she wants to go somewhere indicates that she really needs to go there, and that the driver is not available, or that she doesn't want to go with the driver.

"Go." Lu Chen opened the car door and got into the passenger seat.

He noticed there was no driver in the driver's seat, but a canvas bag and a plastic bag were on the back seat. The plastic bag contained two loaves of bread and a bottle of mineral water. The driver had probably gone to the nearby shop to use the restroom or buy something.

Lu Chen closed the car door and glanced at a small piece of paper stuck in front of the driver's seat. It had a handwritten note that read: "Two yuan per kilometer, no bargaining."

He didn't pay any attention and turned to Liu Yifei, asking, "Where's Master?"

"I went to the toilet." Liu Yifei's tone was very calm, as if she were talking about something that had nothing to do with her.

Lu Chen nodded and leaned back in the passenger seat, looking very relaxed.

He noticed that the car's interior was well-maintained, and the seat covers were new, indicating that although the car was old, the company took good care of it.

About a minute later, a man in his forties sauntered over, paused for a moment when he saw someone sitting in the passenger seat, and then opened the car door and got in.

He glanced at Lu Chen, then at Liu Yifei in the back seat.

"To Hepingmen?" the driver asked.

"Yes," Liu Yifei said.

Lu Chen spoke first: "Master, no need to calculate the mileage, just follow her instructions. I'll get you a big one later."

The driver glanced at him in the rearview mirror, said nothing, and started the car.

The car entered the Third Ring Road from Jimen Bridge and headed south.

The Third Ring Road in Beijing in October wasn't particularly congested, but the traffic was still quite heavy. A black Audi weaved in and out of traffic, the driver driving rather recklessly.

Lu Chen's body swayed with the movement of the carriage. He appeared calm on the surface, but in reality, he was calculating rapidly in his mind.

From Jimen Bridge to Hepingmen, it's about thirteen or fourteen kilometers. At two yuan per kilometer, that's about twenty-seven or twenty-eight yuan. He said he'd give it to Zhang Da, so he'd have to come up with at least one hundred yuan.

The problem was that he only had sixty-nine dollars and eighty cents in his pocket. He reached into his back pocket and found his wallet was still there. That was enough.

After driving for about twenty minutes, they arrived near Hepingmen. Liu Yifei pointed to an intersection on the side of the road and said, "Let's go here."

The driver pulled over and turned to look at Lu Chen. "Twenty-eight yuan and fifty cents."

Lu Chen began rummaging through his pockets and wallet, which contained one-yuan, five-yuan, and ten-yuan bills. In front of the driver, Lu Chen pulled out a ten-yuan bill, handed the rest of the money to the driver, and said in a show of generosity, "Keep the change."

The driver looked at the pile of loose change, his expression complex, as if he wanted to laugh but was too embarrassed to.

Liu Yifei sat in the back seat, watching Lu Chen intently from the moment he started rummaging through his pockets.

Lu Chen handed the change to the driver with steady movements and no unnatural expression on his face.

The driver took the change and muttered something, but Lu Chen didn't pay attention. However, he didn't get out of the car immediately. He deliberately took his time unbuckling his seatbelt, giving himself about three seconds of buffer time.

"Is this what you meant by taking the big one?" A voice came from the back seat. The voice wasn't loud, but it was clear, with the kind of unforgiving spirit unique to a fifteen-year-old girl.

Lu Chen turned his head and saw Liu Yifei staring at him. There was no mockery in her eyes under the brim of her hat, but there was a pure understanding in them.

"I don't usually carry cash, it's all in my cards," Lu Chen said casually as he unbuckled his seatbelt. "It's just experiencing life, isn't it?"

Liu Yifei stared at him for two seconds, then rolled her eyes.

"Stop pretending, your hand was shaking when you touched your pocket just now."

She pushed open the car door and got out, her canvas bag slung across her shoulder, her steps light and quick.

After walking a few steps, she glanced back at him, her expression unremarkable, before turning and merging into the crowd on the roadside.

Lu Chen sat in the car without moving, looking down at the hand that had just been rummaging through his pockets. It was indeed trembling, not from nervousness, but from low blood sugar.

He only ate a bowl of rice and stir-fried cabbage for lunch today, and walked nearly 20,000 steps. His blood sugar had already spiked.

Lu Chen looked in the direction where Liu Yifei disappeared, then touched his pocket and found he had only ten yuan left.

He used his ten yuan savings to buy a bowl of noodles with soybean paste at a small shop near Hepingmen, which cost six yuan.

While eating noodles, one thing kept running through my mind: the tone of Liu Yifei's words "Stop pretending" didn't sound sarcastic.

It's like she's seen too many people pretending in front of her since she was a child, and she's long been too lazy to expose them, but Lu Chen is just too obvious, and she would feel guilty if she didn't say a word.

Hmm, this girl is a bit special.

After finishing his noodles, he spent two yuan to take the bus back to Beijing Film Academy.

Zhao Bo was the only one in the dormitory, and he was reading a book.

When Lu Chen went in, Zhao Bo looked up at him, didn't say anything, and then looked down again to continue looking.

Lu Chen lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling, his hands in his pockets touching the two coins, his mind going over all the information from the day.

Liu Yifei, 15 years old, played Bai Xiuzhu in "The Story of a Noble Family", and is a freshman in the Performance Department of Taipei Film Academy.

She played the role in her previous life fairly well, but it was just so-so. It was far from being a truly masterful performance.

The difficulty of the character Bai Xiuzhu lies not in her willfulness, but in the vulnerability behind it. Looking at the original script's lines from a modern perspective, they seem so "idiotic" that they are simply mind-numbing.

Of course, as for the actress's acting skills, well, those who know, know.

If given the chance, I could help her train—no, adjust—her. Of course, the prerequisite is that he first has to figure out how to survive this month.