“It wasn’t that obvious in the beginning,” Lu Man piped in, “but the more you interacted with her, the more special you treated her. We saw it clearly from the sidelines.”
“That’s right, we don’t even need to know you that well. You don’t even spare a glance for other women usually, but what about Shi Xiaoya? This explained everything!” Han Zhuoli spread his hands.
“…” Han Zhuoling raised a single brow, feeling slightly uncomfortable. “That obvious?”
Han Zhuoli and Lu Man nodded in unison.
Han Zhuoling: “…”
He cleared his throat, and the secretary Yang Fangtong entered with tea, placing it in front of Han Zhuoling.
After she left, Han Zhuoling picked up the tea and sipped it, saying, “I do like her a lot.”
“So are you going this Sunday?” Han Zhuoli pressed. “Man Man asked Shi Xiaoya to do her makeup that day and reserved two tickets for her. She and her assistant will be staying to watch the competition.”
“I’ll go.” Han Zhuoling looked at Lu Man. “Remember to reserve a seat for me next to Shi Xiaoya.”
Actually, the school would reserve a seat for him directly if Han Zhuoling wanted to go. There was no need to reserve tickets.
But Shi Xiaoya’s seat was definitely not in the guests-of-honor’s row, and Han Zhuoling wanted to sit with her.
As for Han Zhuoli, the school had already arranged a seat for him in the guest-of-honor row.
Lu Man was seated with the other competitors, so she couldn’t sit with Han Zhuoli.
“No problem!” Lu Man agreed readily.
***
Soon, it was the day of the competition.
Shi Xiaoya and Guo Yujie arrived three hours prior.
The scene Deng Xu chose from “After Sunset” depicted a scene with people from all walks of life.
As the lead, Lu Man was someone who traveled from the country to work in the city, using the money earned to search for her missing younger brother.
Her brother was one of the few from the village who’d managed to make it into a university in the city, and her family had spent every single money they had and barely managed to pay for his first year of study.
Yet her younger brother went missing a year later.
Many said that her brother had died, but the female lead didn’t believe that.
Bringing the few clothes that she owned and clenching the few cash she had to travel to the city, she’d left to seek her brother.
She retraced her brother’s footsteps, working in her brother’s university as a cleaner by day and cleaning a private clubhouse by night.
Step by step, she retraced everywhere he went, looking for clues diligently.
In the movie, the female lead’s makeup was dull and dirty.
This was because she only ate a plain bun a day to scrimp on money.
Half for breakfast and half for lunch, and nothing for dinner.
Sometimes, she could sneak leftovers from the school canteen.
She saved every penny she could to use in finding her brother.
And the scene to be performed today was about what Lu Man saw after exiting the school at night, all the way to the private clubhouse.
From the cleaning job the lead engaged in, to waiters, leaders, managers, to escort ladies in the bars, and more—
Everyone had their own masks and own stories; everyone had their own goals.
A whole day, and it was just about people from all walks of life.
The main character had long-term malnourishment, and apart from being neat she did not have any other attraction. Her face was naturally a sickly yellow, her lips dry and pale.
