A Billion Stars Can’t Amount to You

All of Little Nine’s scenes were shot indoors, so Ji Yi only needed to make it to the giant set built in the suburbs for ”The Palace” at nine in the morning.

Ji Yi was afraid of being late, so she set her alarm for five in the morning.

To make sure her skin was good for the big day, Ji Yi climbed into bed before eight the evening before.

Ji Yi shut her eyes and was about to go to sleep when the dorm room doors opened. It was Lin Ya, who hadn’t come back to the dorms for over two months now.

After the argument at the hot springs resort, Lin Ya hadn’t spoken with Ji Yi, and Ji Yi wasn’t too concerned about speaking to her either. Ji Yi just glanced at Lin Ya and shut her eyes again.

The atmosphere in the dorm room was evidently awkward with Lin Ya’s return. As the resident assistant, Bo He attempted to soften the atmosphere as Ji Yi heard her speak softly to Lin Ya.

”Xiao Ya, you’re back?”

”Mm.”

”Are you planning to move back into the dorms for the long-term?”

”No, my tutor wants to see me early tomorrow morning, and I was scared I couldn’t wake up, so I came back to stay a night.”

”...”

Ji Yi stopped paying attention to their conversation and forced herself to go to sleep.

The next day at five, Ji Yi woke up on time. She freshened up, put last night’s pajamas into her packed bags, and tiptoed out of the dorms.

...

The second the door closed shut, Lin Ya opened her eyes, grabbed her phone, and sent out a text.

...

It was winter in Beijing, so it was still dark at five in the morning; there was practically nobody at school. Since Ji Yi was in a rush, she deliberately took a shortcut through campus.

There were two young men smoking outside the old abandoned building on campus. As Ji Yi drew closer, they shot glances at her every now and then.

Ji Yi ignored them and walked faster. As she brushed past them, one of the men suddenly tossed the cigarette in his hands and reached out to grab her wrist.

Ji Yi instinctively wanted to struggle and scream for help, but before she could make a sound, the other man covered her mouth. The two men used their joint force to drag her into the old abandoned building.

They moved quickly—so quickly in fact, that before Ji Yi could come to her senses, the two men had already thrown her into a dirty, messy, cobweb-filled classroom. They tied her up against an old, broken chair, and covered her mouth. Without staying a second longer, they quickly fled the classroom.

Through the wooden boards, Ji Yi first heard them lock the doors from the outside then the sound of their footsteps slowly disappeared.

In an instant, she was left all alone in the old classroom block. It was terrifyingly silent.

With her mouth covered, Ji Yi could only let out a weak whimper. She tried her hardest to struggle out of the ties around her body but to no avail.

Through the window, Ji Yi clearly saw the sun was slowly rising, and she knew that time was running out. If she didn’t turn up on set before nine, she wouldn’t be able to keep her role as Little Nine.