A Billion Stars Can’t Amount to You

The phone screen lit up. After Ji Yi entered the code to unlock her screen, she watched the home screen come up and silently waited for a couple seconds. Then some notifications for text messages and WeChat messages started to pop up.

After waiting for some time, her phone finally fell silent. Ji Yi first opened her text messages to see about a hundred reminders for missed calls sent from ”10086.”

Ji Yi’s fingers slid over the screen as she glossed over the notifications. The absolute majority of them were calls from He Jichen. Aside from those, there were some from Tang Huahua, Bo He, and Chen Bai. Ji Yi wasn’t sure if she was looking for her about something specific, but even Cheng Weiwan called her. After some thought, she figured that she’d wait until she was feeling better to call Cheng Weiwan back. She then continued to swipe down. The messages were all more or less the same as before; there was a long series of messages regarding He Jichen’s missed calls. Between the messages, there were also some calls from unknown landline numbers and some advertising notifications.

After she clicked out of the ”10086” messages, there were also text messages sent from other numbers.

The first to come into view was from He Jichen. She clicked them to find thirty to forty messages.

”Xiao Yi, where are you?”

”Xiao Yi, did you turn off your phone because of what happened last night?”

”Xiao Yi, I’m sorry. I admit I acted out of line.”

”Xiao Yi, turn on your phone. When you see my messages, can you send me a reply?”

”Xiao Yi, contact me. Let’s meet up and talk...”

”Xiao Yi...”

After reading all the messages, Ji Yi’s heart felt incredibly stifled. Without replying to He Jichen’s long series of messages, she clicked back and exited the page.

Then she glossed over most of the other messages from people who called her, and they were mostly messages asking where she was. Aside from those, there were some junk messages about loans and real estate.

Ji Yi didn’t reply to any messages but exited the messages screen and went straight back to the home screen. She found WeChat and clicked the app.

The first among the list of unread WeChat messages was from Tang Huahua.

Ji Yi casually clicked it to find that it was a string of voice messages.

Ji Yi found her earphones, plugged them in and checked the messages.

”Xiao Yi, where are you? Didn’t you say you finished filming and are coming back to Beijing? When will you be back? Bo He and I will come pick you up at the airport.”

”Xiao Yi, don’t forget that your holiday ends next Monday. You have to come back to class. If you don’t, you’ll fail this semester. Be careful, or you won’t get your graduation certificate.”

”Xiao Yi, He Xuezhang dropped by the dorm to look for you. He says you’re back in Beijing. Did something happen? Are you feeling down and hiding somewhere by yourself?”

”Xiao Yi, if you’re feeling down, you can talk to me or Bo He. We can help you...”

”...”

Ji Yi unconsciously listened to Tang Huahua’s fifth message.

It was sent about three hours ago.

”Xiao Yi, He Xuezhang came to the dorms looking for you again.”

”Xiao Yi, He Xuechang looks really worn out. He must’ve been looking for you for a really long time without getting any rest.”

”Xiao Yi, I was just on the balcony drying some clothes when I saw He Xuezhang’s car outside our dorm. Is he here on guard?”

Tang Huahua’s final voice note was sent five minutes ago. ”Xiao Yi, it’s almost twelve now. He Xuezhang hasn’t left. He can’t possibly wait outside our dorms all night, right?”