Rebirth 02, the Celestial Being Told Me to Stop Pretending

His voice was hoarse, but he had a strong voice.

"I watched your movie." "It was well made."

Lu Chen sat down opposite her.

I did my homework beforehand, going through everything from pathology to clinical trials.

Olaparib (a PARP inhibitor), a targeted drug for BRCA mutations in ovarian cancer, is also effective against cervical cancer.

Bristol-Myers Squibb is developing an immunotherapy drug that has shown promising clinical results but is not yet on the market.

If they can survive until the clinical trial stage, they will have a chance to be treated.

The key is the time window. If stage III cervical cancer is treated promptly and in a standardized manner, there is still a 40% to 50% five-year survival rate.

But if it's delayed until the fourth phase, the maximum is only 10%.

The room was quiet for a while. She looked down and flipped through the pages. When she got to the last page, her finger stopped moving at a certain spot.

It stated that Stanley Kwan, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Andy Lau, and Jacky Cheung had all come forward to persuade her to postpone the concert.

She insisted on holding the concert, and no one could stop her.

Her fingers lingered on those names for a long time, then she slowly turned the page, closed the paper, placed it on her lap, looked up, and smiled.

"You went through a lot of trouble."

"It's worth it," Lu Chen said.

"Is it worth it?" she asked softly, as if she were laughing.

Lu Chen looked into her eyes.

"Sister Anita Mui, after someone passed away, the streets were covered in white flowers, fans cried until they lost their voices, and all TV stations stopped broadcasting entertainment news for a whole week."

Anita Mui's smile didn't fade, but her eyelashes trembled slightly.

"I'm not afraid of dying. But I'm afraid they'll be too sad."

"Then could you, for their sake," Lu Chen paused, "be afraid just this once?"

Anita Mui looked down at her hands, her fingers curling slightly.

Chemotherapy turned her nails black, and even a thick layer of dark red nail polish couldn't cover it up very well.

"it is good."

she says.

His voice was hoarse, but his tone was firm.

"I'll listen to you."

She paused, then flipped the pages back to the first page, her gaze falling on the third page.

"Sister Mei."

She looked up at him.

"When you wear your wedding dress, someone should accompany you as you enter."

"Who?"

Lu Chen glanced at Liu Yifei.

Liu Yifei was stunned.

She didn't know when she was arranged to do this.

But under Anita Mui's gaze, she stood up from her daze, walked up to her, and gently took her arm.

"Sister Mei," Liu Yifei said softly, "I'll be with you then."

Anita Mui glanced at her hand, then at her eyes.

Suddenly he laughed.

"Who are you to him?"

Liu Yifei did not answer, a very faint pink blush rising on her cheeks.

Anita Mui turned her gaze to Lu Chen, and the corners of her mouth curved upwards slightly.

"The people you brought are not bad."

Lu Chen didn't reply, but held Liu Yifei's fingers briefly at his side before pulling away.

Liu Yifei's ears turned bright red, but she didn't dodge.

She simply made sure Anita Mui's arm was steady.

When Lu Chen returned to Emperor Group headquarters from Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, Albert Yeung was sitting behind his desk waiting for him, with a contract on the table.

"Three million in Hong Kong and overseas distribution." Albert Yeung pushed the contract towards him.

"This is the important business you came for; we can talk about it now."

Lu Chen didn't look at the contract. Instead, he took out his phone from his pocket, found a calendar reminder, and turned the screen towards Albert Yeung.

Albert Yeung's pupils contracted slightly.

The date was too reflective to make out the exact numbers, but it overlapped with several red-marked squares on Emperor Entertainment's schedule.

That was April 1, 2003, the date of a press conference the company was originally scheduled to hold.

"Was your meeting with Zhang Sheng that day really about discussing the script?" Lu Chen asked him.

The meeting room door opened from the outside, and Leslie Cheung stood in the doorway, holding a document with a line of text printed on the cover.

Albert Yeung turned around.

The two looked at each other for a moment.

Leslie Cheung didn't explain much, he only said,

"If I want to postpone deciding whether to take those roles for a month," his voice was as faint as a thin shadow on a wall, "would you help me?"

Albert Yeung looked at Leslie Cheung.

"Those who have been with me in the Hong Kong film industry for over twenty years know," he said in a low voice, "that the two words I, Albert Yeung, value most in my life are loyalty and righteousness."

He stood up, walked up to Leslie Cheung, and without shaking hands or exchanging pleasantries, said, "I will definitely help."

Leslie Cheung nodded.

She paused briefly beside Lu Chen as she walked out.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the throat lozenge, which was still unopened.

"I'll accept this."

Then he took out a cigarette case from his other pocket, pulled out a cigarette, and handed it to Lu Chen.

"Probably."

Lu Chen took it.

Leslie Cheung leaned against the wall in the corridor and lit it for him with a lighter.

Leslie Cheung watched the tiny spark flickering between Lu Chen's fingers and suddenly smiled.

"Thank you," he said calmly, his voice as gentle as ever.

He held a cigarette between his fingers, his gaze fixed on the window at the end of the corridor, where the outline of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel was faintly visible.

Lu Chen and Liu Yifei walked in the Hong Kong night breeze in March.

The sea breeze from Victoria Harbour, carrying a salty and damp scent, blew through her hair.

He didn't stop walking, and his profile looked somber under the streetlights.

She followed half a step behind, and only spoke after a long time.

"You're not like the person I know today," she said.

"What's different about it?"

"The person I know," she thought for a moment, then spoke softly, "only talks business, doesn't do fortune-telling."

Lu Chen's lips twitched, but he didn't explain.

She took a half-step forward to walk alongside him.

"Never mind." She turned her gaze to the railing beside the walkway, her fingers lightly tracing the edge of the railing.

Lu Chen didn't reply.

The two walked for a while.

The silence was blown away by the sea breeze several times, only to solidify again.

"If you won't tell me," Liu Yifei said, "I won't ask anymore."

Lu Chen suddenly stopped.

She didn't stop, took two more steps forward, and turned to look at him.

The light from the streetlamp fell on his face, and the shadow on his brow bone obscured part of his expression.

"If I were to say," he began, his voice lower than usual, "that I should say..."

"I had a very long dream, a dream that lasted longer than when I was awake. The people in the dream were going through various things, and then one day I suddenly woke up. And then everything started all over again."

He paused.

"Do you think I'm crazy?"

Liu Yifei looked at him, her eyes shining brightly under the streetlights, as if they were filled with water.

"No," she said.

"You've always been a bit crazy."

Lu Chen was stunned for a moment.

"What did you regret in your dream?" she asked.

"...things that didn't have time to be done."

"So, is what you did today in time?"

Lu Chen did not answer.

She took a step forward, getting very close to him.

"Then," she said, "is there anything in your dreams that you never had time to say, but always wanted to say?"

Lu Chen looked at her.

Her face had a faint glow under the light, like a freshly peeled lychee.

He opened his mouth, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of candy.

Hand it over.

"Throat lozenges?" Liu Yifei took them, glanced down at them, and burst out laughing. "How many do you have in your pocket?"

She unwrapped the candy and put it in her mouth.

"Sweet."

She added, "You give candy to people even in your dreams?"

"Just for you."

She kept her eyes downcast, not looking at him, the candy pressed against the back of her teeth.

A few seconds later, the sound drifted out indistinctly.

"Lu Chen".

"Um."

"Today," she finally looked up at him, "you held my hand in front of Sister Mei."

Her tone wasn't exactly accusatory, but it carried a hint of stubborn confidence.

Lu Chen didn't answer, but simply reached out and gently took her fingers in his hand.

This time, I didn't loosen my grip.

She couldn't break free.

Their hands hung down between them, neither of them looking down. She gripped his hand tightly; his palm was warm.

The night breeze blew her hair onto his cheek.

"Let's go," he said.

"Where to?"

"I'll take you back to your hotel."

The two walked for a long time without saying a word.

The March night wind in Hong Kong blew her hair onto his shoulder, but he didn't flinch.

When I came out of the shower, my phone screen was lit up.

A text message from an unknown number, unsigned, containing only one sentence:

Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental has been cancelled.

Lu Chen stared at his phone for a long time.

The night view of Victoria Harbour outside the window was as dazzling as a galaxy. He sat on the edge of the bed with the light on.

In the next room, Liu Yifei was on the phone with her mother.

My phone vibrated.

She quickly apologized to her mother, hung up the phone, and opened her text message.

It was a short message from Lu Chen:

Holding your hand in front of Sister Mei today is to let others know.

She stared at the words on the screen, her heart skipping a beat.

Reply to him:

What do you know?

Within seconds of sending it, the reply came back:

You are mine.

She held her phone to her chest and lay back on the bed.

The ceiling is spinning, but actually it's my heart pounding.

After a while, she picked up her phone, typed a few words, and then deleted them.

It was repeated three times.

In the end, only two words were sent:

understood.

Then he stuffed his phone under his pillow and pulled the blanket over his face.

The tips of their ears are so hot they could be used to fry an egg.

A while later, Liu Yifei called him again.

"Are you asleep?"

"Not yet. Want to go grab some late-night snacks? My treat."

"It's a late-night snack, wait two minutes."

When Liu Yifei came out, she was simply wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and her hair was casually tied into a ponytail at the back of her head.

But her eyes were sparkling. "I've heard Hong Kong's tea restaurants are amazing, let's go, let's go!"

Lu Chen looked at her.

The fifteen-year-old girl's eyes were full of anticipation, like a puppy waiting to go out.

Lu Chen looked down at her hand that was pulling on his sleeve, then turned around and grabbed her wrist.

"Walk."

In the early hours of the morning in Causeway Bay, the streetlights cast a dim yellow glow, and the signs of the tea restaurants were lit up.

They sat by the window and ordered some of the signature dishes recommended by the waiter.

"Is it tasty?"

"It's delicious." She bit her chopsticks. "It's better than BJ's."

Lu Chen looked at her, a fifteen-year-old girl, her head down, the tips of her ears red.

"Liu Yifei."

"Um?"

"I'll treat you to a nice meal when we get back."

"real?"

"real."

She looked up, her eyes bright.

"Then I want to eat the expensive stuff."

"OK."

"It's very expensive."

"OK."

"Very, very expensive."

"Liu Yifei."

"what?"

Are you trying to blackmail me?

She paused for a moment, then smiled.

Her eyes curved into crescent moons as she laughed.

"Yes," she said.

"I'm just blackmailing you."

Looking at her, Lu Chen suddenly realized that this trip to Hong Kong was indeed much more interesting than he had imagined.