The afternoon sunlight streamed in through the half-drawn curtains, scattering across the floor in mottled patterns.
On the coffee table, two glasses bore only faint traces of water, and Su Rui's second glass was already empty.
She sat upright, feeling an unspoken tension hanging in the air.
At the other end of the sofa, Li Kai's gaze never left her face—focused, probing, as if he were studying someone both familiar and foreign.
The face was his mother's, but the eyes, the rhythm of her breathing, the subtle expressions—none of them were the same.
Su Rui pressed her lips together, her palms rubbing lightly over her knees.
The longer she delayed, the harder this would be to explain.
Instead of going in circles, it was better to lay it all out at once.
She decided to put away all her acting, to stop pretending to be Lin Yueying, and face the boy in front of her with nothing but her truest self.
"Li Kai… listen to me."
Her voice was deliberately soft, as if afraid to disturb something fragile.
Then, slowly and steadily, she told him everything that had happened since she woke up—
from the dazzling lights of the red carpet to sweeping floors at her ex-husband's company at dawn;
from dancing with her idol in Lin Yueying's place to living each day in a life that was never meant to be hers…
Each word fell with weight, etching itself into the air.
Li Kai remained silent, his gaze fixed on her as though trying to extract the truth from her eyes.
Nearly an hour later, she finally stopped. Her throat was dry, and her fingers had unconsciously tightened around the hem of her clothes.
"So, you're… Su Rui? The top star? Not my mother, Lin Yueying? It's just your soul trapped in her body?"
His voice was low and steady.
Su Rui gave a small nod, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. "Yes. Do you believe everything I've just told you?"
A few seconds of silence passed, each one stretching like an entire season.
She held her breath, her chest tight, uncertain what he would say.
At last, Li Kai looked away and replied calmly, "I'll believe you for now. Because… you have no reason to lie to me."
Su Rui exhaled quietly, the corners of her lips lifting ever so slightly.
The boy in front of her was, at this moment, the only person she could rely on—and the one most likely to help her uncover Lin Yueying's past.
"Since you believe me," she said, her tone laced with urgency yet deliberately softened to sound more like a plea than a command, "can I ask you—will you help me fulfill your mother's wishes?"
"Please. I'm really asking you."
All of her longing to return to her own body was bound up in that single sentence.
And even now, she kept certain heavier truths locked away.
Some things, she knew—this was not the time to say them aloud.