Chapter 48: Fate: A Meeting After Many Years

“You two must be twin siblings—your eyes are very beautiful.”

“And you, Akuya-kun, also give me a sense of familiarity—I wonder if we’ve met somewhere before?”

Facing Shengzai’s question, Starfield Akuya immediately lowered his head, avoiding direct eye contact with Shengzai.

When he finally calmed himself and raised his head again, his face had turned expressionless as he replied, “It must be a misperception—I’ve never met you in person before, Shengzai-kun.”

“You probably saw Akuya’s movies at your place before.”

“This guy’s been completely out of sight for years—how could you possibly have met him?”

Hearing the exchange between Shengzai and Akuya, Ma Jianai spoke up from beside them.

In the past, to study ways to defeat Akuya, Jianai had repeatedly analyzed his acting, and at that time, Shengzai and Jianai, as childhood friends, were often together.

So Jianai assumed Shengzai found Akuya familiar because of that reason.

Shengzai: “So that’s how it is? Then I must have imagined it.”

Glancing at Akuya’s calm expression, Shengzai smiled and accepted Ma Jianai’s explanation.

But in truth, Shengzai had already recognized the Akuya before him—he was the sole survivor of the attack over a decade ago.

Shengzai’s adoptive older brother in this world died trying to save him.

Moreover, from Akuya’s reaction just now, Shengzai was certain Akuya had recognized him too.

Why Akuya chose to conceal it, however, Shengzai had no idea.

No, the fan assassination incident over a decade ago was undoubtedly unforgettable for Akuya himself.

He had watched his past-life idol, his current-life mother Starfield Ai, die right before his eyes.

Akuya despised his own helplessness then, yet he also deeply admired another child of the same age who was present at the scene.

As a reincarnated soul, Starfield Akuya may appear as a seventeen-year-old boy, but in truth, his soul at birth was that of a thirty-year-old doctor.

It sounds absurd, but Starfield Ai, the idol, had once been the idol he, as Amemiya Gorō, passionately followed—even performing the delivery himself.

Yet by a twist of fate, he was reborn as one of the twin children of that very idol.

And his younger sister, Starfield Ruby, was also, like him, a reincarnated soul.

Though he didn’t know exactly who, through years of observation, he suspected her original age had been quite young.

Being reborn as the child of an idol he once adored should have been a blessing for Akuya.

But over a decade ago, disaster struck suddenly!

Starfield Ai’s deranged fan, upon learning the idol had married and given birth, tracked down her home and brutally murdered their mother.

Leaving aside the fanatic’s madness, how could he have found their residence? And how did he know Ai had children? Few people should have known.

To uncover the truth, Akuya spent years investigating from every angle, eventually cracking open one of Starfield Ai’s private phones and retrieving a list.

Akuya suspected the incident was far more complex than it seemed—Starfield Ai’s assassination was no random event!

That mad fan may have merely been a pawn—the real culprit might still be at large.

Among everyone present that day, Wenren Yazi, Shengzai, and even Shengzai’s deceased older brother, Akuya had secretly investigated them all.

Based on the web of connections, Shengzai and the others were among the first he eliminated from his suspect list.

Regarding Wenren Shengzai, Akuya could only say he was unforgettable.

After all, though he himself had been only five years old then, his soul was that of an adult—and even he had been paralyzed by fear and shock.

But Shengzai, of the same age, had used his small body to rescue one of the female victims.

If only he had possessed Shengzai’s courage back then, Ai might not have died…

Akuya’s emotional turmoil upon seeing Shengzai stemmed from the fact that every glance at him reminded him of his own weakness and helplessness.

Previously, Akuya had considered approaching Shengzai for cooperation—after all, Shengzai’s older brother was also a victim of that attack.

If there was a mastermind behind this, then he was also Shengzai’s enemy.

But the moment he thought of how Shengzai’s brother had died trying to save him, and how he would be dragging Shengzai into this, he felt he’d be no better than a pig or dog—so he ultimately decided to act alone.

Still, over the years, he had learned a little about Shengzai.

Or rather… he couldn’t help but know about Shengzai—just as his sister Starfield Ruby said, Shengzai was now a superstar among the younger generation of actors.

Yangdong High School had two tracks: the General Course and the Performing Arts Course.

As for the Performing Arts Course, academic performance requirements were actually quite low.

Many students in the Performing Arts Course were already professionals in the industry; though officially students, some earned far more than most adults.

Moreover, the campuses for the General Course and the Performing Arts Course were in entirely different areas. Though the school publicly claimed not to discriminate, the facilities and environment of the Performing Arts Campus were noticeably superior.

Even students in the General Course tacitly accepted this disparity.

The reason was simple: students in the Performing Arts Course had to pay exorbitant tuition fees and were required to sign with agencies or have prior professional experience in the industry.

Otherwise, the Performing Arts Course would be filled with nothing but good-looking youths—if fans merely seeking idols infiltrated, the course would lose its purpose entirely.

Ma Jianai assumed all three were from the Performing Arts Course, so she led them toward that campus.

But halfway there, Akuya revealed he had enrolled in the General Course and parted ways with Shengzai and the others.

“Looks like we’re quite fated—we’re in the same class.”

After Ma Jianai left, Shengzai and Ruby, searching for their classroom, met again at the door of Class 1-F.

As the two walked in side by side, many in the classroom froze upon seeing Shengzai.

“No way… is that Shengzai? Wenren Shengzai? The top-tier actor is in our class?!”

“Oh my god, he’s even more handsome in person than on TV!”

“I want to post this on LINE right now—our agency’s senior is Shengzai’s number-one fan!”

(End of Chapter)