A Billion Stars Can’t Amount to You

”Chen Bai, I dragged him down. He Jichen’s misery all started because of me...”

Ji Yi wiped her tears as she grabbed her beer bottle and downed it.

After she finished drinking all the beer, Ji Yi slammed the bottle down heavily on the table. Then she mumbled, ”...How great would it have been if I didn’t wake up? If I hadn’t woken up, he wouldn’t be attacked like this now...”

”Miss Ji, you got it wrong,” interrupted Chen Bai, who had been listening all along. ”From how you see things, you might think He Jichen’s misery all started with you, but you don’t know... Mr. He was happiest when he was doing things for you.”

”Because Mr. He once said that by doing things for you, he felt like he was really, really close to you.”

”Back when Qian Ge threatened Mr. He with the video, Mr. He decided how to handle it. I asked him why he wanted to do this, and Mr. He said he promised you a bright future, so that’s what he was doing to do. He didn’t want to get in your way, so he had no other choice but to get out of the way uncompromisingly!”

Ji Yi’s tears fell furiously until a sob escaped her lips.

”I even asked Mr. He if he now regrets doing that to Qian Ge back then?”

”Mr. He said he didn’t regret it because he’s never regretted anything he did for you.”

”Mr. He even said that if he had the chance, he would do it again because he couldn’t sit back and do nothing while knowing that you were sabotaged!”

Ji Yi finally couldn’t hold it back anymore and sprawled out on the table crying.

Chen Bai let her cry until her cries got softer. That was when he reached out and touched her shoulder.

Ji Yi raised her head and looked over at Chen Bai, who handed her a tissue.

”Thanks,” she said.

Right after she wiped her eyes, they got wet again.

She might as well not have wiped them. Clutching the tissue, she lifted her head and looked over at Chen Bai. ”You’ve been with him for a long time. You must know a lot about him. Can you tell me about him...?”

Ji Yi was afraid Chen Bai was going to refuse, so she added, ”...say whatever you want - it’s fine as long as it’s about him.”

Because I really, really, really miss him.

Chen Bai paused for a while and replied to Ji Yi with just one word: ”Alright.”

Ji Yi didn’t utter a word as she cupped her chin with both hands and looked at Chen Bai seriously, like a child paying full attention.

”The first time I met Mr. He was at boarding school...”

”We just finished our military training a few days earlier when someone sent Mr. He a love letter. Also, there were girls crowded at the entrance of the canteen, trying to confess to Mr. He.”

”I distinctly remember that there was a girl who ran over to the field on Valentine’s day and arranged a bunch of candles into the words: ’He Jichen, I love you.’”

”When Mr. He first started up YC, it was really tough. He often had to work late into the night.”

”You probably never imagined that Mr. He’s way of relieving stress is by watching Spongebob Squarepants.”

”Let me tell you... Mr. He’s afraid of cats.”

”Also, Mr. He likes peaches, but he hates washing peaches the most.”

”...”

Chen Bai spoke a lot about He Jichen.

The two of them only stopped talking when the hot pot restaurant closed. They paid the bill and left.

Ji Yi didn’t let Chen Bai take her home, so he drove her back to the school.

Ji Yi walked into the school and stopped as she approached her dorm.

She stood there for a while then turned around. She walked out of the school and hailed a cab for He Jichen’s apartment.

She stood outside his apartment the day she found out he was going to leave.

That night, the lights in his study were on, but tonight, his apartment was pitch black.

He was gone. He was really gone. It had been two months since he left, but it felt like a dream...

Ji Yi raised her head and stared up at He Jichen’s apartment for a long time. Then she walked into the building, took the elevator up, and stopped at He Jichen’s floor.