Chapter 79
Clatter
The phone slipped from my pocket and fell to the ground, its vibrating ringtone ringing out.
On the lock screen, the number labeled "Little Cotton-padded Jacket" kept vibrating. Just before it was about to hang up automatically, it was grasped by a blood-stained hand, and the answer button was pressed.
Volume 1: Chapter 89. Chu Yuanqing's Choice, The Door Gods. (5K)
Zhelong Town.
Behind Chu Wangshu was a cluster of antique-style buildings, composed of multiple film and television shooting locations. She gazed at the Parisian-style antique shops in the distance, and not far away was a pure white English-style church.
After getting off the bus, Dream Weaver Rabbit gave each contestant a mobile phone and announced that everyone could move freely within the film and television base until 10 p. m.
The girl pursed her lips and lowered her eyes nervously, looking at the number on her phone screen. She had originally planned to call her Dad with her best friend's help for courage.
Xiao Qing said she had to leave first, and Liuli looked preoccupied, so it was awkward to disturb her. After thinking it over, I decided to go myself.
Chu Yuanqing's phone rang with a Japanese song, which lingered in the summer breeze as the call didn't connect.
"けたYesterday's missing piece を, ひとつずつかきassemble めても, えたページはっている..."
Yesterday's fragments are already shattered; even if we piece them together one by one, we know our story has long since come to an end.
Will Dad answer the phone?
Clatter
The phone slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.
Chu Yuanqing looked down and saw that her trembling fingertips and palms were covered in sticky blood. She endured the pain, and the image reflected on her retina was shaking violently.
--This is the price of that stage.
Neither the highly efficient imitation learning of "Flow State" nor Self-hypnosis, which involves seeing oneself as Charlotte, can truly simulate the charm of the world's number one idol.
These methods may make the dance more fluid and the emotions more engaging, but they won't fundamentally change the idol's overall abilities, nor will they allow them to showcase any impressive stage presence.
To put it bluntly, unlike the other contestants who unleash their special abilities through intense desire, her [Flow State] only reaches the most superficial stage because she has to constantly fight against the curse; there's nothing supernatural Flow State it.
Currently, only Tang Liuli's [Flow State] ability has the potential to simulate Charlotte's charm.
Therefore, she chose another extreme method.
That is, to extract a few strands of Charlotte's blessing and stuff them into the lantern that is the embodiment of the soul.
This is a parting gift from the Doomsday Diva, a record of Charlotte's emotions and memories.
When the blessing falls into the lantern, forming a beautiful azure, her personality will inevitably be sculpted.
Under such circumstances, using [Flow State] simulation can naturally reproduce some of the charm of the world's number one idol, which can be described as a true "invitation of the god".
This approach is tantamount to robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Charlotte's blessing, like many of her remaining blessings, is now used to ward off the curse of the Sea of Truth. Taking away this blessing will not shorten one's lifespan, but it will make the pain caused by the curse a hundred times more severe in the short term afterward.
Furthermore, the rejection reaction after the lantern absorbed too much magic power explains why it suffered such a terrible fate.
Chu Yuanqing has an extremely high pain tolerance. Currently, he is mainly overcoming physiological tremors and the blankness of consciousness caused by the shattering and repair of his soul.
The girl was dazed and stared blankly for a while until her gaze fell on the dirty, blood-stained phone next to her. Seeing the answer button still vibrating on it, as if urging her urgently, she realized she had to answer the phone.
She vigorously rubbed the bright red blood from her hands onto the hem of her pure white skirt, coughing uncontrollably.
Beside me, the phone was still ringing, the volume turned down low, a calm and ethereal female voice softly chanting, filling the room:
"It's frozen season, it's frozen, it's frozen, it's gone, it's zero, it's dream, it's memory, it's memory..."
In this season of impending freezing, I only took you away, encountering a dream that drifted away, our memories are lying.
Chu Yuanqing's ears were filled with a cacophony of buzzing sounds. The melodious singing was fragmented and dissected, leaving scattered words that pierced her heart. Ignoring everything else, she picked up the phone with her cleanest hand and finally pressed the answer button.
The singing stopped.
The restroom fell silent for a moment.
On the other end of the phone, Chu Wangshu paused for a moment, seemingly nervous, before speaking:
"Dad, did you see that text message?"
Chu Yuanqing's mind went blank, and he was speechless with shock.
Text message? What text message?
Was it... the message Xiao Shu sent me before the match?
Chu Yuanqing did notice that the other party had sent a text message.
She got her phone from Dream Weaver Rabbit as soon as she got off the bus, and immediately made an excuse to get rid of her Little Cotton-padded Jacket and Tang Liuli, and went to a coffee shop that was not crowded. Then she started coughing up blood continuously, and didn't have a chance to check her message history at all.
Chu Yuanqing was a little flustered.
From the daughter's perspective, the text message had been sent more than a week ago, so even if she was busy with work, there was no reason why she wouldn't have seen it.
Chu Yuanqing immediately looked at the bloodstains on her phone screen. Her retina had not yet returned to normal, and the images she saw were sometimes distorted and sometimes trembling. Even after wiping the screen with her sleeve, she couldn't see the text message at all. For now, she could only use magic to adjust her voice and said guiltily:
"I saw it."
Chu Wangshu was somewhat suspicious:
"Really? You're not going through my message history now because you heard me, are you?"
Chu Yuanqing coughed a few times, silently wiping the crimson from her lips. The lantern on her chest was burning hot as if it were overloaded. Under the state of magical rejection, even acrobatic magic like correcting her voice would put a huge burden on her body.
Slashing with a knife, chopping with a sword, hacking with a hammer, whipping with a whip, boiling in a cauldron, strangling, nailing to death...
The curse distorts the five senses, confuses consciousness, and deceives the soul, like deliberate torture, creating a cruel illusion filled with thorns.
Chu Yuanqing was used to it. She frowned slightly, coughed a few times, and beads of blood slid down her chin. Her clear golden eyes filled with tenderness. She smiled and changed the subject:
"How could that be? Oh, right, you have your public Public Performance today."
"I caught a glimpse of the live stream when I had a spare moment. You were standing in the third row on the main stage, and you danced wonderfully. However, the dance for the theme song looked quite different from the folk dances you learned. Did you find it easy to adapt when you were learning it there?"
"And in the first episode, I noticed your contestants were eating mostly vegetables... cough cough cough, with such intense training, they should eat something better, it's free anyway."
Chu Wangshu's eyelashes trembled slightly, her heart pounded, and she was somewhat at a loss.
These seemingly ordinary greetings were a source of care and warmth she hadn't experienced in many years, a result she had never expected before making the call.
The little girl felt as if fireworks were exploding all at once in her head, and she couldn't help but smile slightly. She shook her head to shake off the dizzying feeling of happiness, and while she breathed a sigh of relief, she also felt a bit awkward.
My Dad has been acting a bit strange lately.
From visiting me at school to offer money to talk to me, to a series of greetings over the phone, these are all unprecedented events in recent years.
And there were no warning signs at all. Could it be... that he forgot his mother's death anniversary, and now he realizes he's neglecting those around him and is starting to repent?
This was the only possibility Chu Wangshu could think of for the time being.
Over the years, her Dad has never talked to her about her mother, and there isn't even a single photo of them in the house. Even when she tried to secretly look through her Dad's phone a few years ago, she couldn't find any trace of her mother.
Even in the cemetery, there were no clues about my mother's tombstone. To the naked eye, it was just an empty tombstone with a few black squares carved on it, the meaning of which was somewhat unclear.
When Chu Wangshu was a child, he asked his mother what her name was and why her name wasn't engraved on it.
At that time, my Dad, who had a weathered air but still looked somewhat youthful, would always show a complicated expression, as if he were sad or confused. In the end, the answer he received was either perfunctory or a change of topic.
Over time, she stopped asking.
Looking back now, the way my Dad's relationship and past were shrouded in mystery must have been incredibly eventful. It's quite reasonable that he would change because of that, right?
Chu Wangshu replied while simultaneously filling in the blanks in her mind.
But as she pondered, her eyes suddenly widened as she considered a more plausible yet unsettling and indescribable possibility.
--My dad... he's not going to find me a stepmother, is he?!
This is also a perfectly reasonable line of reasoning.
Generally speaking, the most likely thing that can drastically change a single father's mental state is starting a new relationship and rekindling his hope for life.
Chu Wangshu couldn't hold back any longer, and she cautiously probed:
"Dad, has the landlady come to chat with you lately?"
Chu Yuanqing tried to recall, but couldn't really recall much. Her vision had mostly returned to normal, and she was currently carefully reading her daughter's text message. She casually remarked:
"We didn't talk much, why are you asking this?"
"No, I was just asking, what about Sister Lin who studies painting and runs a yoga studio across the street? And what about that pretty junior colleague at your company who always brings you coffee? How's your relationship with her?"
"Just an acquaintance."
"And to the client who came to thank you last time, and to those who like cosplay..."
Chu Yuanqing answered each question, and because of her poor concentration, she was busy covering up her coughs and reading the text messages, and didn't notice that the conversation had gone off-topic.
Chu Wangshu, however, suddenly realized as she asked the questions that she had called to invite her Dad over for a meeting. She quickly steered the conversation back to the main point, asking with some anticipation:
"Dad, are you free now?"
"The Program Group said that the contestants are allowed to move around freely here today and can even meet with their families."
I want to see you.
The daughter's words conveyed this meaning.
Chu Yuanqing remained silent for a while. She had grown accustomed to the backlash of the curse, coughing up blood to the point of being an expert. More than the pain she had to endure when they met, she cared more about... whether she, as Chu Yuanqing, should respond to her daughter's expectations?
Xiao Shu would certainly be happy if she responded.
But if their relationship were to grow closer, would all his years of efforts to get his daughter used to independence, to not having her own life, and to not having expectations of herself be in vain?
But if she doesn't respond, can Xiao Shu really accept her own death?
Chu Yuanqing used to think that as long as the relationship between the two of them dropped to a freezing point, her daughter wouldn't be too sad after she left.
But now, her thoughts are wavering again.
Because...
The text message sent by Chu Wangshu seemed to confirm his mistake.
[Dad, I've gone to record <Shining Stage>.]
[Well, actually I wanted to talk to you first before deciding whether to participate in the audition, but because you happened to forget your mother's death anniversary that day, so... in a fit of anger, I just went and entered the audition anyway, and unexpectedly passed.]
I'm sorry I didn't tell you when you came to see me at school that day.
[But it's not too late now. I know that even if I told you, you would say to just do what you truly want to do.]
[Didn't you say last time you wanted to know about topics relevant to my age? Well, go check it out. I probably won't get in the final cut, but who knows?]
[Finally... if, I mean if.]
[If I can debut through this show and become the moon on stage, I'll definitely earn a lot of money. Then I can buy a big house in Sea Capital, and you won't have to work so hard every day.]
[Dad, we haven't had a proper talk in years. If that day ever comes, let's find somewhere to sit down—a coffee shop, an aquarium, a park bench, anything... and have a good chat.]
Chu Yuanqing could not remain indifferent.
Over the years, my daughter has gradually become rebellious and indifferent. She not only took the initiative to overcome her lack of understanding, but even without knowing the inside story, she chose to forgive my years of numbness and alienation.
And that last sentence was nothing short of an invitation to reconcile.
Chu Yuanqing thought she knew her daughter well, but the emotions contained in this text message, every line piercing her heart, made her taste the bitterness of her own arrogance and ignorance.
Chu Wangshu is the top student in her grade; she is hardworking and well-behaved.
She would finish all the food she cooked and never wasted any.
She would voluntarily put on an apron and go to the kitchen to wash the dishes, taking care of most of the housework.
She doesn't have her own computer, is very frugal, and her closet is mostly filled with clothes bought from discount stores. She also turns down all social activities at school that require money.
She was never particularly rebellious; she was just a lonely but kind-hearted girl who would squeeze out her allowance to buy cat food, sit by the roadside feeding small animals and daydreaming, and didn't have many friends.
Can...
Chu Yuanqing still thought that his daughter would hate him to some extent.
Or rather, she hoped her daughter would hate her, ideally to the point that she would be indifferent to hearing of her death, or even happy to receive a large insurance payout.
But things didn't go as planned. As a father, Chu Yuanqing was too clumsy. He was numb and slow-witted, so slow-witted that he had to become like this before he belatedly realized that his initial decision might not have been correct.