Queen of a Thousand Faces: Did He Love Her or Leave Her?

Jiang Wangyue is hailed across the entertainment industry as the “Queen of a Thousand Faces.” She’s played sweet, naive girls, wicked supporting characters, and beautiful madwomen. Whatever she acts in becomes a hit. The one role she can’t play is “someone Lu Ci once loved,” because he really did love her, and then he really did leave her.

Lu Ci is a top-tier star and award-winning actor, with no scandals since his debut. He’s as cold as an iceberg. That is, until the celebrity dating show Heartbeat in Business pairs him with Jiang Wangyue as “contract lovers.” The whole internet goes wild shipping them, unaware that behind the cameras lies her secret: she doesn’t have long to live. And he spends his nights staring at her silhouette in anguish.

In the first episode, he shields her from a drink, his gaze as indifferent as if she were a stranger. In the third, he carries her through the mud and whispers in her ear, “Jiang Wangyue, you’ve lost weight.” In the fifth, he suddenly kisses her in front of the livestream cameras. It isn’t part of the script. The internet explodes.

Three years ago, she was his secret girlfriend. At the height of his fame, he cut off all contact with her himself to protect her. She never knew that on a stormy night, he stood outside her apartment building until dawn. Every social media account he deleted had the username “The Moon Is Off Duty.” The only condition he set for appearing on that dating show was, “My partner has to be Jiang Wangyue.”

The cruelest part is that she has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and has little time left. At an awards ceremony, in front of tens of millions of viewers, he says, “I’m giving this award to my moon. Today... she’s made her final appearance.”

But the truth is far crueler than the script.

The one who was said not to live past spring was never her.