Chapter 33: Conversation Before Departure
June 7th, 1 p.m. Mr. Diplomat exited the airport and headed straight for the Amber family castle. His sons and daughters were already waiting for him at the entrance. “Father! Father! You’re finally back!” Mr. Diplomat looked at his own flesh and blood with a cold expression, as if they were strangers. “Who took Old Osric’s ashes?”
“Hansen…”
“A bunch of useless fools!” His spittle rained down on their faces. “Osric’s ashes hold a five-thousandth priority in the inheritance division! That urn of ashes is worth more than all five of you combined! And you let Hansen take it?! Did I leave you in charge of the family just to sit around and do nothing?!”
One of them quickly changed the subject. “Father, um, what about our sister? The one, the one… uh… uh…”
“Shirley,” an older woman reminded him.
“Oh, Shirley Amber, why didn’t she come back?”
At the mention of Shirley Amber, Mr. Diplomat’s face darkened even further. “She stayed in China.”
“What?!”
“How could she?”
“Doesn’t she have any sense of the bigger picture?”
Accusations flew, each trying to appease their father’s anger by attacking Shirley.
“Father, are you really going to let her stay in China?” the older woman asked.
“What else can I do?…” Mr. Diplomat’s face was grim. “Do any of you dare to challenge someone with the surname Chu on Chinese soil?”
Time rewound to more than ten days earlier. While Lu Li was walking alone on the Jinjiang Bridge, receiving life advice from a drunken man about “not giving up,” An Baili was undertaking a difficult task – taming a wildcat.
Stray cats weren’t easy to raise. They were too fragile, and because they were separated from their mothers too early, they retained their wild instincts and were prone to aggression. Especially during the first few days at home, they would meow incessantly at night, disturbing everyone’s sleep.
Who was the little wildcat? She didn’t say, but everyone knew.
Wen Hupo was packing her paints in the activity classroom. She glanced up and saw An Baili standing hesitantly at the front door. Her movements slowed slightly, hundreds of thoughts flashing through her mind. Finally, she said, “You didn’t go home with Lu Li today?” In fact, since their argument, the blonde girl had barely interacted with An Baili or Chu Jingyi. She was like the sloth frozen in ice in Ice Age, isolated from the world.
“Wen Hupo, since you like Lu Li, don’t go back to your country. Stay here.” An Baili didn’t bother with pleasantries, knowing that Wen Hupo’s clever words would easily twist her around in circles.
“…I don’t like Lu Li.” Wen Hupo lowered her gaze, turned her back to An Baili, and continued packing her paint box.
An Baili entered the room and locked the door behind her. “It’s just the two of us in the entire Building Three now. I think we can stop pretending, right?”
“…”
“Hupo, if you won’t admit it, I’ll admit it for you. Tell me, if you didn’t like Lu Li, why did you agree to play the prince and princess with him?”
“…Circumstances forced me…”
“You’re such a proud person. If it were any other boy, would you have continued playing the princess?” An Baili pressed her aggressively.
“…” Wen Hupo couldn’t answer. The answer was no. If the prince hadn’t been Lu Li, she wouldn’t have accepted the final misplaced kiss scene, she wouldn’t have even been able to perform the duet earlier.
“If you don’t like Lu Li, why did you help him draw the character designs for his game?”
“To repay his kindness. He helped me clear up those rumors…” Her voice lacked conviction. She knew this reason wasn’t convincing. Just to repay a favor, she spent the entire winter break and Spring Festival drawing for Lu Li? And didn’t even ask for payment afterwards?
“If you don’t like Lu Li, why did you hold his hand at the amusement park? Are you the type of woman who casually touches men?”
Of course not. As a solitary observer, she rarely even touched people of the same sex, let alone the opposite sex. “Did Jingyi tell you even that?” Wen Hupo was surprised by the intimacy between An Baili and Chu Jingyi, but also felt a strange sense of relief. Luckily, Jingyi only saw her holding Lu Li’s hand and didn’t see them squeezed together in the tiny bumper car…
“If you don’t like him, why did you insist on teaming up with him for the sports meet? Why did you name the cat you found together Lu Li? Why didn’t you even dare to tell him yourself that you were leaving?” An Baili became more and more agitated, her pretty face flushed red. “Hupo, how long are you going to deceive yourself? Your every action tells everyone that Lu Li is special to you, that you care about him deeply, that you like him!”
This time, Wen Hupo didn’t refute her. She turned around and looked steadily at An Baili. An Baili instinctively shrank back, but then straightened her posture. Wen Hupo knew that An Baili wasn’t capable of such sharp thinking. This must be Chu Jingyi’s conclusion. She always felt that Jingyi was very similar to her, possessing extraordinary insight into people’s hearts, just like now.
“Shirley Amber. Do you know? I used to be afraid of you, and I hated you.” An Baili thought of something, her eyes reddening. “Do you believe in rebirth?”
Wen Hupo paused, then shook her head.
“Let me tell you, Wen Hupo, without my interference, you and Lu Li would have had a happy marriage. You would have had a considerate husband who cared for his family, a pair of lovely and intelligent children, a comfortable life, and a successful career. You would have been the happiest woman in the world.” An Baili’s voice was hoarse.
Wen Hupo didn’t scoff. She seemed to be thinking. Rebirth? What an absurd word, like a fantasy from cheap literature. But the future An Baili described made her yearn for it. Could someone like her really have such a future? Wen Hupo had thought more than once that she and Lu Li were too compatible, so compatible that it seemed like they were made for each other. Was it possible that the world was a novel, and Lu Li and Wen Hupo were destined to be together?
She thought of those dreams again, those dreams that felt both real and unreal, ambiguous and elusive.
Rebirth?
“I believe you.” The blonde angel actually nodded slightly, which surprised An Baili. “An Baili, don’t you like Lu Li? Why are you persuading me to stay?”
An Baili gathered her thoughts before speaking. “I don’t like him.”
“…”
“I love him, love him to the bone.”
Wen Hupo noticed that for the first time, An Baili’s eyes shone with her own light. This girl, who had always lived for others, was now firmly declaring her own humble will, even from a position of submission.
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