Chapter 66

The fifth day of the year was particularly cold.

Chu Ying walked out of the changing room, tidied up the buttons, and looking up, saw Su Yi walk out of the opposite changing room.

The woman had too many clothes, he had cleaned out a small room for her to use as her closet.

She wore a wine-red dress that hugged her body. It emphasized her curves and figure, exposing her ankles. In her hands was a pair of red heels.

Seeing him, she raised a brow. “Let’s go, we can’t be late.”

Saying so, she had just raised her leg when the guy hugged her and dragged her back to the changing room.

“You, what are you doing!”

“Ay, don’t, no, no, no, don’t we’re going to be late –”

“Wu-wu-wu-wu, no…”

“Enough, enough…”

Five minutes later.

Su Yi wore long black slacks that hid five pairs of autumn pants (the thermal kind), then walked out angrily.

“Look! I’m so fat now!” She raised a leg, patted it, and said, “Even hitting it doesn’t hurt!”

“Do you know what the temperature is outside?”

“It’s not like there’s no heater there…”

“No, be good.” Chu Ying patted her head. “Let’s go.”

Chu Ying’s choice of location was a hotel under the Chu Corporations. The ballroom was golden and glittery, the light shimmery – contrasting greatly with the cold, empty roads. Because they were officially declaring the company’s change of hands, they had invited quite a number of media. The moment Su Yi got off the car she saw a lot of familiar faces.

And the moment she entered the hall Su Yi encountered a breathtaking truth – other than her, every other woman was wearing a gown. Her two thick, long legs among the crowd were very eye-catching. She was so ashamed she wanted to find a hole and crawl in.

Chu Ying, though, didn’t think that there were any issues. When realising that her expression was off, he calmly comforted her, “When you wear more you won’t get sick as easily, your immune system is too weak.”

She was about to say something when someone patted her on the shoulder.

Chu Xi was behind her, continuously looking her up and down. “Why do you come dressed in this? Are you sick?”

Su Yi hugged the guy’s hand and complained out loud, “Stop mentioning it, it’s all because of your brother.”

Very soon Father and Mother Chu came out from backstage too.

Seeing the way she dressed, Mother Chu kept nodding. “This is good, it’s warm. Girls should take good care of their bodies. Look at Chu Xi, she reveals so much of her shoulders, she’d freeze sooner or later.”

Chu Xi said, “There’s a heater here, only idiots wear so many layers!”

SU Yi first glanced at her with an unsmiling smile, then went to greet Father and Mother Chu.

Father Chu didn’t say anything, inclining his head in acknowledgment before saying lightly, “Chu Ying, come over here first.”

After Chu Ying went with Father Chu, Mother Chu tilted her head and asked, “Can you drink?”

Su Yi hurriedly nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then take a glass of wine and go greet some guests with me.”

Su Yi paused, taking a while to process that. Didn’t this mean making it clear to others?

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing… Coming.” Su Yi randomly picked up a glass of wine and hurriedly followed.

Su Yi wasn’t too good with this kind of handling of people. In contrast, the usually wilder Chu Xi looked more like a well-bred lady here at this time. She was having some trouble socialising and needed to think of the proper words to say for a long while before managing to speak but she stayed smiling.

While others weren’t paying attention, she snuck a glance at the Chu Ying following Father Chu and conversing with other men. His lips were curved and his posture was graceful; his figure was that of a clothes-rack too, so in that suit, he looked better than others by far.

While her mind wandered wherenot, Mother Chu suddenly put a hand on her back. “Yes, she’s an actress.”

Ah, while she wasn’t paying attention the conversation had turned to her! She hurriedly resumed smiling. “Hello.”

“No wonder you look so familiar.” The rich lady in front, upon hearing ‘actress’, raised an eyebrow almost indistinguishably – it was a slight, minute action that Su Yi noticed nonetheless. “You look quite pretty.”

Su Yi said politely, “Thank you, you too.”

The other then sharply changed the topic. “Speaking of this, my Nian Nian, when she was young, wanted to be an actress too.”

Su Yi knew that the other didn’t have any good thoughts but still asked, “Yeah, and?”

“Then the one at home didn’t agree of course, since it’s a little messy in the industry. To help her get rid of this thought she was sent to learn piano – and see, after the Lunar New Year’s she’s going to hold her own personal concert, it’d be great if Madam Chu would be willing to show up and give us some face.”

As expected, here it was again. The whole way here, everyone was trying to sell their daughters to Mother Chu. Everyone treated her as someone who was easy to bully.

The pity was, tonight’s Su Yi was, indeed, easily bullied. She couldn’t sneer and return their jibes nor speak with barbs in her words, she could only take the others’ words as they came. Only her smile had lessened.

“Off late I’m not too interested in recitals.” Mother Chu smiled. “Now, I wait before the television every day for Xiao Yi’s show, it’s got me hooked.”

Not having expected her reply, the lady laughed dryly. “… I see.”

Su Yi glanced at Mother Chu gratefully. Mother Chu was still holding her hand, her smile still present.

Chu Xi suddenly leant forward, catching her other arm.

“Sao-zi

, want to go eat dessert?”

This ‘sao-zi’ caught most people’s attention.

Mother Chu didn’t refute her. “Go, Xiao Ying brought back a chef from another place who’s said to make very tasty desserts.”

“Alright.”

Finally able to get a breather, the moment Su Yi reached the table she found that everyone was looking at the door.

Su Yi looked over. Yang Ruolin and her grandfather were standing at the door; they hadn’t yet come in and were talking to the people there.

Yang Ruolin was recently quite famous. In fact there was a pretty hot topic a while back, #Was Yang Ruolin hung up* today?#. The news about her was appearing one after another, it’s shocking she had the time and energy to come join a gala.

[*t/l note: strung up to be ridiculed]

Chu Xi tsked. “Why are they here? My father didn’t invite them.”

Su Yi raised a brow. “How do you know?”

“I heard them discuss that last time after my father rejected them, the Yang family tried to do a lot of things in private. If not for my father closing one eye because of their grandpa, they wouldn’t be living so great – though now they are indeed leading not-so-great lives. In the past, the old man Yang was expecting Yang Ruolin to marry into a good family but now that her name is this bad, I’d like to see who’d like to marry her.”

In the end, even till the time the door closed, the other didn’t manage to enter successfully. Remembering the way Yang Ruolin acted so high and mighty before, Su Yi couldn’t help but want to sigh.

As it was festival time, Chu Ying had arranged for the party to be from 5-8. Since Chu Xi said that, the number of those who came to converse with Su Yi increased gradually. Those who could show up for this party were, if not rich, then powerful; all were very well-known hosts or really well-known actors. After the party, she had a dozen or so more friends.

That night, the media friends worked overtime to report on Father Chu’s birthday party and emphasized how Su Yi’s had received the Chu parents’ approval.

The moment this news came out, a few groups of people appeared in her comments section.

The first were the group urging her to marry, showing up every night at her Weibo’s comment sections to check-in: [Did Su Yi get married today? – Still no.]

The second were the FFF group*; to anger the group urging her to marry, their catchphrase was: [Did Su Yi get dumped today? – still no.]

[*t/l note: referring to the sexy free and single, all ready to mingle group (: ]

The third group were the ones looking to eat dog food: [I’m not sure when I can see Su Yi show off her relationship. I want to see how Chu Ying really is like in private ~~~]

Very soon, plenty of people replied beneath that: [As a man, I want to see what Su Yi is like in private too.]

Seeing those media praising her as if she made the sky, Su Yi didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

Even Captain Ying had learnt to buy hot topic paid posters, the world really was getting more degenerate!

**

In the three months she was resting for, Su Yi spent most of her time at the Chu Corporation’s main building. To be more accurate, it was Chu Ying’s office.

She really was lazy. She didn’t even want to travel and the most she’d do usually was to go out and have tea or shop with Wu Xue and Chu Xi, occasionally going to dance at the plaza with Mother Chu.

Just like this, she reached the last day of her holidays. Wu Xue came to find her, ready to discuss the new work.

“I’ve good news. Remember the TV series with the wife of an army man? After three months they still haven’t found a suitable female lead so you still have a chance for an audition. So, you want to try?”

“What role?” Su Yi propped up her chin and asked with confusion, “Did I mention it?”

Wu Xue handed her the script. “You really are a very high person who is too forgetful.”

[*t/l note: a jab about the higher status people less needing to be preoccupied by these things and therefore being more forgetful about them.]

Su Yi took it and hurriedly went through a few pages, finally having some impression of it. “No, anything else?”

“Others?” At least, Wu Xue had the habit of taking her work with her. She took all the scripts out of her bag. “You really change your mind very easily.”

“The Chu family don’t quite care about this, so of course I needn’t care about that.” Su Yi looked around for a long time before digging out one about a male lead’s white lotus first love. “I’ll take a look at this.”

“You really… it’s such a good way to change your image, and you don’t want it?”

“I think I was pretty good before. It leaves an impression, and it’s fun. The previous time when I was filming the high school show, just by reading the script I’d almost suffocate myself to death.” Casually she took a sip of the coffee. “I have to maintain my image and not lose it.”

“Alright, up to you. Recently the company has assigned me a few artists that aren’t that bad.” Wu Xue said, “I’ve chosen a new assistant for you, I won’t be following you around again.”

Su Yi nodded. “Alright.”

“Right, have you seen the news these days? Lin Xia has been taken away by the police to interrogate, I suspect that she’s most likely done for.”

“I saw, she deserved it. She’s been allowed to roam free for so many years – just thinking about that disgusts me.”

Wu Xue smiled and was about to say something when she saw a white Benz G65 waiting outside the café. She teased, “Your hero is here.”

Su Yi glanced back and hurriedly got up. “I’m going first, later.”

It was afternoon. The winter had passed and outside, it was sunny and bright, making her figure appear extra beautiful.

The guy had one hand in his pocket, the other spread out for her – a pose for receiving and greeting.

Su Yi put a hand on his palm and used it to help herself onto the car.

Seeing her smile widening, Chu Ying laughed lightly. “What are you smiling about?”

Su Yi asked out of the blue, “Have you seen ?”

“I have, what about it?”

“There’s a classic line in there, do you know which it is?”

“I know.” Chu Ying thought about it and said uncertainly, “Humans are birthed by humans’ mothers, demons are birthed by demons’…”

Heh, straight guys.

“You should just drive your car properly.”

The guy picked up her hand. “Then, you tell me.”

Su Yi tilted her head, a smile tugging at her lips. “No.”

The car slowly left the café and entered the stream of cars, disappearing into the lush green end of the spring day.

**

My intended is a hero. There will be someday where he’d drive some random car to come marry me. Now, I have a hero, and he has a car.

Su Yi opened her Weibo alt account and silently commented under her own Weibo comment with something that made her sound dissociated.

[Did Chu Ying propose to Su Yi today? – How angry, still, no :]]