Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

Chapter 49: Chapter 45: A Different Way to Live

She carried him as she climbed up from the bottom of a remote cliff.

Now that they were out of the dense forest that had blocked the view, a drone quickly spotted movement below.

The search and rescue team rushed over immediately.

From a few steps away, their experience told them the man had suffered a fatal injury and had been dead for some time. The woman’s consciousness was hazy, likely from a lack of food and water and from being overcome with grief.

Looking closer, they saw a pass hanging around her neck.

To prevent outsiders from swarming the epicenter and causing trouble, the government had immediately set up checkpoints at all major nearby intersections. Only those who had been vetted and issued a pass were allowed in.

Family members who had lost contact with relatives and volunteered to join the search were, of course, granted permission.

The earthquake had struck two days ago, and the rescue team members were already accustomed to the sight of life and death.

But it was still rare to see someone who had rushed in at the first opportunity to find a loved one and then fought desperately to carry the body to a safe place.

The team was exhausted, their dry eyes long past the point of shedding tears. But they were still happy to see a living person in the epicenter, even if it was just a family member who had come in from the outside to search.

They wanted to evacuate her from the epicenter first, but she lay draped over his body, refusing to leave.

There was a severely affected village just ahead, and the team was in a hurry to save more people. Seeing that the terrain here was flat and temporarily safe, they gave her some food and water. They told her to rest and compose herself for a while, and that they would send them out once the backup troops arrived and they had more personnel to spare.

After seeing the rescue team off, she drank half a bottle of water before finally coming to her senses and beginning to cry silently.

As she cried, she stroked his horribly disfigured face, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and leaned close to his mangled ear, speaking to him in a low voice.

"You... how could you be so foolish!"

"What is money, anyway!"

"As long as you were here, I would have paid off the debt with you! I’m such a hard worker, we would have cleared it in no time."

"How could you be so cruel as to leave us behind!"

"SOB SOB SOB... What am I going to do? What am I supposed to do! What will I do without you! Sometimes I honestly wish you had just cheated on me and run off with someone else. At least... at least you’d still be alive!"

"The children can’t be without their father! How am I supposed to tell them!"

"What will your parents do when they get the news!"

...

* * *

The person in the hospital bed opened his eyes. He stared blankly at the ceiling, the pillow beneath his head already soaked through.

It turned out he had been reborn.

Reborn in his first year of high school.

It was just that his soul had been so shattered that it had taken this long to repair and fuse together.

Now, he finally understood what had happened. He also understood how to determine if she was truly *her*.

"Sis, has filming for that show, *Qing Palace Sorrow*, wrapped up yet?"

The bedside was crowded with people. Not only were his parents there, but also his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. Aside from the elderly relatives, every one of his closest family members was present.

Only his wife was missing.

And their children.

Thinking back now, he couldn’t understand why he had worked himself to the bone in his past life.

With the fortune he had amassed back then, even the greatest ambitions should have been satisfied.

He could have easily carved out more time to ensure a happy life for her and the children.

’No amount of wealth can replace companionship!’

’A devoted man who loves his family, his wife, and his children—that’s what’s most precious to a woman, isn’t it?’

His family was already well-off. His parents only had two children, and since he had gotten an early start on his career in this life, both his future inheritance and his own net worth would be more than substantial.

’There’s nothing wrong with living a different kind of life—a cozy home with a wife and kids.’

"Little bro, are you okay?"

Asking such a bizarre question right after waking up... she worried something was wrong with his head.

Their mother loved watching TV dramas, but he never did.

Sang Mu couldn’t help but pat her younger brother’s head.

There was a gap of more than ten years between the siblings, and Sang Mu had always doted on her younger brother. Seeing him awake, she had already cried her eyes out.

Previously, when he heard she had hired Ni Bingyan for a cover shoot, he had suddenly asked to tag along. Sang Mu had thought the so-called "right time" had come. But it turned out he just hid in a corner, watching secretly, not even daring to go up and say hello.

Later, he had secretly moved back in with their parents just so he could watch over her from morning till night.

They all felt that something about the girl had changed, but not even her brother could be sure if she was just acting differently because of the shock from her breakup.

Lately, Ni Bingyan would leave for the film set early at six in the morning, and her brother would follow her in his car at six, only turning back after seeing her safely to the studio entrance.

Once he found out when filming wrapped for the day, he would go wait for her ahead of time, tailing her car from a distance and only feeling at ease once he saw her get home.

Afraid of being discovered, he had recently bought several more cars to rotate between. When he ran out of space in the family garage, he actually had the nerve to call her and ask her to move her classic car collection, which nearly made Sang Mu die of anger!

What she didn’t know was that the reason her brother had fallen ill this time was because he had seen on Weibo that Ni Bingyan was fishing by a lake. Worried that she would be scared by the dark, gathering storm clouds, he had secretly gone to watch over her.

As a result, while hiding in a corner, his hat got caught on a fishhook, and he was unfortunately discovered.

The girl said a few words to him, and he got so scared he ran away.

Mrs. Sang didn’t have time to listen to what he was saying and hurriedly called the doctor over for an examination.

After a flurry of activity, the doctors advised continued observation and then filed out of the room, leaving only the family behind.

Sang Yuan asked again, "Sis, has filming for *Qing Palace Sorrow* wrapped up?"

"I’ll ask around."

She didn’t know why her brother was suddenly asking about this, but finding out wouldn’t be difficult for her.

As the daughter of a wealthy family who had married her childhood sweetheart, Sang Mu enjoyed a great deal of freedom both in her own family and her husband’s. The only reason she had taken the job as editor-in-chief for the supplement of *Beauty* was simply to have something she enjoyed doing.

Over the years, despite keeping a low profile, she had come to know many influential people in the entertainment industry. Inquiring about such a small matter would be incredibly easy.

But before she could even dial the number, she heard her mom say, "*Qing Palace Sorrow*? It’s a big hit on Blueberry Channel right now! I’m already on episode thirteen."

"What? It’s already airing?"

Sang Yuan was instantly excited!

"Is there something wrong with the show? It’s quite good. The costumes are exquisite, the plot is exciting, and the actors’ performances are on point."

But compared to other Qing court dramas, it wasn’t particularly outstanding.

Mrs. Sang was about to say something more, but seeing the look on her son’s face, and as a mother knows her son best, she worried her son-in-law might overhear things that couldn’t be explained. She lost the desire to chat about such messy topics and simply stroked his head.

"Alright, alright. Now that you’re okay, let’s eat first. Never mind the TV. Look, we haven’t even had a chance to eat dinner yet."

Sang Yuan wanted to say that he had just recalled in his dream that in his past life, Ni Bingyan had told him about her transmigration. She had also said that the first show she filmed after transmigrating was *Qing Palace Sorrow*, where she played a low-ranking imperial concubine.

But the words died on his lips, and he changed his mind.

Although his family and even his close relatives knew he had a strange illness that caused him to constantly dream about being in a relationship with a girl, he had no intention of revealing the fact that Ni Bingyan had transmigrated.

In his past life, to keep this secret, he had never drunk alcohol when he was out, nor had he ever slept with anyone other than his wife. He could be just as tight-lipped in this life.

"I am pretty hungry."

He apologized sheepishly, "I’m sorry for making you all worry. It’s my fault. It’s a bit late tonight, so let’s just have something simple. I’ll make you all a feast tomorrow after I’m discharged!"

’No wonder it was so easy for me to learn to cook in this life. Turns out I was taught by my father-in-law in my past one.’

Thinking about the dream he just had, Sang Yuan still felt a little down.

Seeing him awake, the whole family breathed a sigh of relief. To be on the safe side, they still had him stay in the hospital for another night for observation.

While Sang Yuan tossed and turned, his mind consumed with how to win his wife over ahead of schedule, Ni Bingyan had already finished her fish soup, done her yoga, taken a shower, and was getting ready for bed.

But just as she lay down, her phone started ringing.