The delicate and sensitive thoughts of her teenage years, mixed with the helplessness towards the changes in her most important person, were narrated by her with a tone of slight shyness and helplessness.
Fu Hua listened quietly, her gaze focused behind the lenses.
She could clearly feel the traces of past panic and unease remaining when Yun Mengxi recalled this past event.
"Then..." Yun Mengxi's voice suddenly carried a bit of bemusement, and her cheeks turned slightly red, because the subsequent events made her feel really "stupid" when recalling them now.
"At that time, I don't know what happened, but I accidentally saw a few... um, those kinds of novels that are very popular on the internet, about 'wealthy families fighting for inheritance'."
She looked at Fu Hua embarrassedly, as if saying "Don't laugh at me."
"At that time... my brain might have been muddled by those exaggerated plots."
Yun Mengxi rubbed her forehead: "So, I foolishly thought, did Brother think I grew up and would fight with him for Mom and Dad's love, for the family company and property... so he started to distance himself from me, having a grudge in his heart?"
A misunderstanding naive to the point of being almost cute, spoken from the mouth of an adult who is now a top idol, carried a childishness transcending time.
But it was precisely this clumsiness that clearly reflected the simple and pure worldview of that little girl at the time, and her unbearable fear of the possibility that "Brother is distancing himself from me."
"I was really scared by this thought at the time." Yun Mengxi's voice lowered, even carrying a trembling tone of lingering fear. "'Not being liked by Brother anymore', this thought was scarier than anything. In my world..."
She paused, seeming to search for the most accurate expression, and finally said in an almost pious, matter-of-fact tone:
"Brother is the most important... Mom and Dad, friends, even myself... everything combined is not as important as Brother.
"As long as he can walk on the path he likes confidently and dazzlingly like before, as long as he can still be my brother... I don't want anything else."
This was exactly the embodiment of the pure personality "If one learns the Dao in the morning, one can die in the evening without regret" that Su Mei had insight into.
In the heart of young Yun Mengxi, her brother Yun Feng, who represented the "absolute confidence" and life brilliance she yearned for, was her "Dao."
And to protect this "light," she could abandon everything else without hesitation.
"So," Yun Mengxi took a deep breath, as if returning to that flustered afternoon, "I rushed directly to find Brother. The tears couldn't stop at all. I cried and said everything I thought.
"I said I would absolutely not fight with him for the family property. I wouldn't take a single cent of the family's money in the future. I could even... even stop calling Mom and Dad, as long as he didn't abandon me, as long as he could continue to be my brother..."
Towards the end, her voice was still slightly low.
Even after many years, that panic of fear of losing her dearest person seemed to be vaguely transmitted through time.
She smiled somewhat embarrassedly at Fu Hua.
"Thinking about it now, it was really silly... Brother must have been dumbfounded at the time."
But this "silly" past event so vividly outlined the core texture of Yun Mengxi's character.
Pure, extreme, placing a certain person or a certain state at the top of the value sequence transcending everything.
And willing to pay any price to protect this "most important thing."
Backstage, Su Mei held her breath imperceptibly for a moment, a deep understanding of "as expected" flashing in her eyes.
She could almost guess the subsequent development.
Yun Feng... the sixth generation of the Yun Group... As the most outstanding child of a clan, how could he become a public superstar?
Especially when the others in the family were...
Not valued or capable...
A smile carrying relief and a little embarrassment reappeared on Yun Mengxi's face, as if breaking free a bit from the sadness she was immersed in just now.
"After Brother heard my words at that time, he was completely stunned, as if he didn't react to what I was saying at all."
She recalled, light in her eyes. "Then he laughed. Not mocking, but that kind of... especially helpless and especially gentle smile.
"He pulled me to his side, patted my head like when we were young, and said 'Silly sister, how could I hate you because of these things?'"
She unconsciously imitated her brother's bemused yet patient tone at that time. This imitation was full of confidence and certainty.
"He also said, rather, if you, Mengxi, really have the ability and interest to help me share these burdens, I would be especially happy."
Yun Mengxi smiled. "He apologized to me very seriously at that time, saying he must have been too busy recently and neglected his sister's feelings, making me think wildly."
The warm memory stopped abruptly here.
Yun Mengxi's smile slowly faded, and her voice also sank.
"But... it was also that time... Brother explained to me why he always seemed a bit gloomy during that period." Yun Mengxi's fingers unconsciously twisted together.
"He said, the family business, the company Dad worked hard to build, will need someone to take over one day, and I..."
She paused, her tone frank, without inferiority, just stating a fact she had long accepted.
"I indeed have no talent or interest in this area, and my ability is far from enough.
"If the company is forced upon me, the result will only make Dad's hard work, and the future of so many people relying on the company for a living, uncertain, and possibly even decline."
"And Brother... is exactly the opposite.
"He showed acuity and talent in this area very early. He learned everything quickly and saw problems accurately.
"Inside and outside the family, almost everyone felt that it was only natural for Brother to take over the company, to lead everything in a better direction.
"This expectation... like layers of invisible nets, or a mountain becoming clearer and heavier, slowly pressed on Brother."
Yun Mengxi's voice was very soft, as if afraid of disturbing the teenager gradually shrouded by reality in her memory.
"He told me he slowly understood that his future... left no space for his own dream of 'standing on stage as a big star.'
"His path, from being born in the Yun family and having such abilities, seemed to have already been demarcated.
"He has to walk that 'correct' path, that path responsible for the family, for parents, for more people, not the path he 'likes' himself."
She raised her eyes, looking at Fu Hua, her eyes filled with the incomprehensible heartache of that time.