CHAPTER 56: CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX: BEHIND THE SMILE OF A NATION’S SWEETHEART

It had been years since she faced the spotlight, and anyone claiming she was not nervous would be fooling themselves.

Lu Jiaxin, once the nation’s sweetheart, was finally making her comeback.

She stood before the mirror in her private waiting room, fingertips lightly brushing the edge of her makeup table. The woman who looked back at her was still recognisable. She still had soft features, a gentle smile and the kind of presence that naturally evoked warmth. Yet there was a new steadiness in her eyes now, something shaped by time rather than youth.

Marriage had changed her. For a while, she had truly believed she was marrying for love.

She had believed in promises spoken softly in the dark, in the warmth of a hand held against hers, in the quiet dreams they once whispered about a future filled with simple happiness.

But reality had been far less gentle.

Affection faded. Priorities shifted. The man she married had not been unkind, yet he had never been able to give her what she needed. She realised too late that she had mistaken comfort for devotion and stability for love.

Over time, the marriage became something closer to obligation than companionship.

And when she finally stepped away from the entertainment industry to devote herself to that life, the silence that followed was not restful. It was suffocating.

The house had been quiet in a way that felt unnatural, the kind of silence that pressed against her ribs and reminded her how far she had drifted from herself.

Even the soft ticking of the antique clock in the hall had begun to feel like a reminder that time was passing while she remained trapped in place.

Many would probably scoff at her now. They would say she had married well, that she had become the wife of one of the richest men in the country, that she had stepped into a life others could only dream of. The family she married into was not only wealthy but also deeply influential. People assumed she had ascended into a fairy tale.

They never cared to understand the truth behind it.

While the world saw luxury, she saw walls.

While they envied her status, she felt trapped by expectations she never agreed to shoulder.

And while they praised her for securing a "perfect life," she quietly struggled with the knowledge that none of it had been meant for her.

It had been a marriage far beyond her league only in the way that it belonged to a world she was never truly welcomed into.

She had come from humble beginnings, raised in a small household where warmth mattered more than wealth. Every step she took in the industry had been earned through sweat and tears. She had clawed her way from obscurity to national fame, relying on her own effort rather than anyone’s influence.

Perhaps that was why the marriage had felt wrong from the beginning.

She had traded the stage for a gilded cage, believing she could reshape that life around her heart.

It never had.

She still remembered her first formal banquet as Mrs Lin, standing among glittering chandeliers and polite laughter while realising none of the smiles around her reached their eyes.

It did not take long for her to understand that in that household even kindness had conditions she could never quite meet.

Her mother-in-law never liked her. The woman had not needed to say it aloud. The disapproval was present in every glance, every comment sharpened just slightly too much, every carefully masked sigh whenever Lu Jiaxin entered a room.

She was not the daughter-in-law they had wanted.

She was not born into an old family.

She had no powerful connections behind her.

She was simply... her.

And so, in her attempt to fit into a world that resisted her presence, she had learned.

She learned to smile even when she felt small.

She learned to speak softly even when she wished to defend herself.

She learned which topics were acceptable, which outfits deemed appropriate, which expressions were considered respectful enough for the Lin household.

She learned to make herself smaller, quieter and unobtrusive.

The more she learned, the more she disappeared.

Her closest friends had started to ask if she was doing well, noting quietly that she no longer sounded like herself whenever she called.

Sometimes, she caught her reflection in passing and felt as though she were looking at a stranger wearing her face.

There were days she woke up wondering when she had stopped recognising the woman in the mirror. The vibrant actress adored by millions had faded into a polite, compliant wife who nodded through social events and swallowed every grievance before it reached her tongue.

And yet, despite all her effort, she had never been enough for them.

Not elegant enough.

Not cultured enough.

Not connected enough.

Not... theirs.

A quiet ache settled in her chest at the memory.

She rested a hand lightly over her heart, inhaling slowly. The breaking point had come the day her mother-in-law began pressuring her to adopt someone else’s son. She could still recall the look in the woman’s eyes, the cold flicker of disdain, as if Jiaxin had failed the simplest duty expected of a wife.

Her husband did not say a word to defend her. He simply stood by and watched.

That moment had settled into her bones like frost.

She had looked at him, searching for even the slightest hint of warmth, of support, of anything that resembled the man she had once believed in. What she found instead was indifference so polished it almost looked like acceptance.

It was then she understood her place in that household.

A decorative wife.

A convenient figure.

An accessory that smiled when told to and vanished when no longer needed.

The ache inside her sharpened then, not because of the insult itself, but because of the clarity it brought.

She had traded her career, her freedom and her dreams for a life that did not want her.

She decided she wanted to leave. Except, in her young and perhaps more foolish days, she had signed a prenuptial agreement.

Back then, it had seemed harmless and even sensible. She had been in love, naïve and dazzled by promises of trust. She had believed him when he said it was "just procedure," that it would "protect both of them," that it "didn’t mean anything."

She had not understood what it truly meant until the marriage began to crack.

The agreement was airtight and ironclad.

Designed with the precision of a family that had money, power and generations of lawyers behind them.

She would leave with nothing.

No property.

No alimony.

No claim to anything she had helped build during the marriage.

All she would have was her name.

For a moment, she had felt small again, like the girl she once was, the one who scrambled through auditions who counted coins to pay for acting classes, who stitched her own dresses because she could not afford new ones.

So she decided to reach out to her old friend.

Her thumb hovered over his name more than once, retreating each time as fear tangled with hope in her chest.

For a long moment, she simply sat there with the phone resting on her lap, trying to gather the courage to reach out after so many years of silence.

It was a name she had not spoken in years.

A name that once echoed through award ceremonies, film festivals and headlines.

Wen Shaoheng.

He had been the industry’s pride, the youngest actor ever to sweep all three major Best Actor awards in the same year. Critics had called him a prodigy. Colleagues had called him untouchable. Fans had called him a legend.

And then, at the height of his career, he retired without warning.

Some said he left because of health.

Others whispered it was burnout.

A few believed he simply grew tired of fame.

No one knew the truth.

But Jiaxin knew that after stepping away from the spotlight, he had quietly rebuilt himself behind the cameras. He produced films that won international acclaim. He invested in scripts others overlooked. And eventually, he bought shares in Shen Entertainment Group, becoming one of its silent pillars of influence.

He was no longer the actor adored by every household.

He was the man who shaped the industry from the shadows.

She had not spoken to him since her marriage. Life had pulled them apart. The silence between them had stretched long enough to feel like a gulf she was no longer sure she could cross.

When she finally pressed his contact, her hands trembled.

He answered on the first ring.

"Jiaxin?"

His voice was warm, steady and impossibly familiar. For a moment, she could not speak.

Her breath caught, a small tremor running through her as the familiarity of his voice washed over her like warmth breaking through winter air.

She closed her eyes, steadying herself, surprised by how easily old comfort threaded through the sound of his greeting.

She had expected distance.

Instead, she heard genuine concern, the kind that softened the edges of her fear.

He listened as she spoke.

He did not rush her.

He did not comfort her with empty words.

When she finished, he was silent for a long moment.

Then he said quietly, "You deserved better."

Her eyes stung. She had not heard those words from anyone in years.

Wen Shaoheng continued, "If you want to return, I will help. Not because you need saving. But because your career should never have ended the way it did."

He offered her a contract that valued her capability, a project that would mark a dignified return, and the reassurance that she would not walk into the industry alone.

She accepted.

Now, standing in her dressing room, Lu Jiaxin inhaled slowly and felt a steady warmth settle in her chest.

Wen Shaoheng had always been a constant in her past.

It seemed he would be part of her future, too.

She adjusted the collar of her outfit with slow, deliberate movements, grounding herself in the present as the weight of her past finally loosened.

The lights above her mirror flickered on, illuminating her features with a clarity she had not seen in years, as if the room itself was acknowledging her return.

She lifted her chin and whispered to her reflection, "Welcome back."