She Became The Black Lotus’s Pure, Untouchable Love - Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Ning Xiangxiang lay on her bed, replaying the day’s chaotic events in her mind.

Everything had happened far too suddenly. She had only just taken the first step of her new plan, and before she could even get moving, Huo Xingyu had smothered it in the cradle.

To Huo Xingyu, “halting production” was just a casual sentence, a whim. To please Miss Deng, she could rent out an entire venue and force everyone to stop working until her mood improved. If she wanted to, she could dissolve the entire crew with a snap of her fingers.

It was a trivial decision for Huo Xingyu, but for Ning Xiangxiang, it was a bitter pill to swallow. These inexplicable setbacks were piling up like a wall, blocking her path forward and forcing her back toward her original fate.

Ning Xiangxiang pulled out her phone and scrolled through the skyrocketing red carpet trends on Weibo. That was someone else’s glamorous life—not hers.

A film crew wasn’t like a government office or a corporate firm. If work stopped and filming wasn’t completed on schedule, it meant the funds would be frozen; salaries certainly wouldn’t be paid as usual. Song of the Sea was not a big-budget production; its funds were limited. Money had already been sunk into the early stages, and moving to a different location later was practically impossible.

If Huo Xingyu didn’t relent, who knew when they could start working again? For other actors, a delay might be nothing—they had other endorsements or scripts waiting. But for her, it was fatal.

Ning Xiangxiang was desperately short on money. To break free from the control of Ning Huaiai and Liu Si, and to cover her mother’s medical bills, she needed a fortune.

Right now, she was practically immobile. Looking at her cast-bound leg, she knew she couldn’t pick up new endorsements or roles like other stars while injured. The final payment from Song of the Sea was supposed to be the first real savings she could control. She just wanted to turn her life around as quickly as possible before it spiraled back into the old routine.

Books say that animals kept in captivity for too long gradually forget the dangers of the outside world; they forget how to forage, how to build nests, and how to avoid humans. Ning Xiangxiang felt like that—a small animal suddenly released back into the wild.

In those ten years with the Huo family, she had been a caged animal. Huo Xingyu had kept her trapped while providing for her every material need, causing her to forget that in the real world, things must be fought for. Without money, she had no way to stand up to Liu Si.

Everything had seemed to be going according to plan—Sister Luo was going to help her, and she would have had her money after the shoot. But then Huo Xingyu appeared.

With that exquisite, arrogant face, she had looked down on her with disdain and announced the shutdown in a tone that brooked no argument. In that moment, Ning Xiangxiang felt her carefully planned future shattered by a single, casual sentence.

Frustration, anger, and sadness swirled together.

Stop until when? Until Fourth Miss Huo is in a better mood.

Hearing that answer, Ning Xiangxiang seriously thought that if she didn’t have a broken leg in a heavy cast—and if the person weren’t Huo Xingyu—she definitely would have swung that cast at her.

What would make Fourth Miss Huo happy? She searched her memories of the past ten years. There were only two states in which Huo Xingyu was ever happy:

1. When Huo Group’s stock doubled.

2. When a rival of the Huo Group went bankrupt.

She fell into a silent contemplation. Neither of these was achievable through her own strength. She couldn’t manipulate the stock market, and the bankruptcy of their rival wasn’t due for another three or four years.

Ning Xiangxiang sighed. Pleasing Fourth Miss Huo was harder than climbing to heaven. Faced with what felt like a dead end, she felt like a ship lost at sea—surrounded by fog, unable to see the path, with no one to lean on.

Turning one’s life around for a free, independent future is truly difficult.

Thinking this, Ning Xiangxiang’s eyes grew hot. She rolled over and curled herself into the quilt. Her slender fingers slid through her WeChat list—from colorful stars and agents to a few meager relatives. She realized, quite tragically, that when she wanted someone to talk to, there wasn’t a single person she felt safe opening up to.

She tapped into her chat with “Aunt Chen” (Huo Xingyu’s pseudonym in her phone), staring at the solid black avatar. She usually hated sharing her troubles, but perhaps having someone to talk to would make things better?

She selected an emoji of a rabbit hugging a pillow and typed a message: What are you doing? Have you eaten?

…

Warm orange light refracted through a wine glass, making the pale amber liquid shimmer. Lin Xian swirled her glass, the ice cubes clinking crisply. She placed the glass on a tray and headed upstairs.

The moment Huo Xingyu returned today, Lin Xian could tell something was wrong. She had walked in with a deep frown, radiating a cold, “don’t come near me” aura—completely different from the absent-minded daze of the past few days.

What is she brooding over?

Lin Xian walked slowly toward Huo Xingyu’s door. Though Huo Xingyu wasn’t her biological daughter, she had raised her for over a decade. She was arguably the person who understood her best. There were no secrets between them; she didn’t allow for any.

Huo Xingyu never showed such intense irritability over company matters. If it was personal… Lin Xian sighed. It had to be about the recent blind dates.

Lin Xian would never believe that Huo Xingyu could like Ning Xiangxiang. She knew her. To Huo Xingyu, marriage was just a new form of financing to start a subsidiary. For a person to change their nature or their way of treating the world, something life-altering—like a brush with death or a catastrophic injury—would have to force the change. Lin Xian didn’t believe Huo Xingyu would just wake up one day, abandon her company, and chase after “true love.”

After their argument the other day, Lin Xian had discreetly asked her circle of friends. Everyone assumed Huo Xingyu was only using that third-rate starlet to express her dissatisfaction with Wen Ran. Otherwise, who would pass up a prime choice for someone so mediocre? Especially someone as profit-driven as Huo Xingyu.

Lin Xian decided she should do as others suggested: ask Huo Xingyu what type she actually liked, and then find candidates based on that. She knocked, and upon hearing the invitation, entered and placed the wine on the desk.

Seeing Huo Xingyu’s expression, which was even colder than usual, Lin Xian asked, “Do you want to continue with the blind dates?”

Huo Xingyu’s eyes remained on the dense clauses on her screen. She instinctively wanted to say no, but when she spoke, the words stuck in her throat became: “Continue.”

“Then tell me, what kind of girls do you prefer?”

What kind of girls? Huo Xingyu had never been interested, so she had no standard. But she knew what she didn’t like.

For example… for example, someone like Ning Xiangxiang. Someone who provoked her anger, who was disobedient, who only watched her blankly from a distance.

“Someone who won’t make me angry. Someone well-behaved, obedient, with a pretty smile. Preferably clingy, a bit lively…” She took a sip of the wine. Somehow, the look Ning Xiangxiang gave her at the film set flashed before her eyes again—a mixture of resentment, sadness, and anger.

In a daze, she spoke unconsciously: “Maybe the kind who… looks pretty even when she’s angry. Someone with questionable taste, so poor she can’t even afford an assistant… maybe, that’s also okay.”

The more Lin Xian heard, the darker her expression became. To her, it sounded like Huo Xingyu was making up every possible excuse to avoid a real match. She waved her hand and said, “If you don’t like blind dating, I won’t force you. Just stop talking nonsense.” With that, Lin Xian left, ending the fruitless conversation.

Huo Xingyu stared at the heavy wooden door for a while before turning back to the project proposal. She flipped through a few pages, but the words wouldn’t sink in. A strange agitation rose in her heart. Now, no matter what she did, a voice seemed to be buzzing in her ear, and images of those deer-like eyes and that aggrieved expression kept flickering in her mind.

On what grounds? Huo Xingyu slammed her pen onto the desk in frustration.

Clearly, she was the one who was wronged! She was the one who dropped everything to go see Ning Xiangxiang. She was the one who rushed to the set only to get nothing in return. She had halted the production, so Ning Xiangxiang could even rest!

It felt as though she was the one bullying Ning Xiangxiang. Huo Xingyu gnashed her teeth.

Suddenly, her phone chimed with a notification. She picked it up and saw Ning Xiangxiang’s little red notification dot at the very top. Opening it, she saw the pink-and-white rabbit rolling around with a pillow.

What are you doing? Have you eaten?

Huo Xingyu’s brows knitted together. Finally, after all this time, she remembers to message me. She knew to come find her, but didn’t know how to say something nice? Asking if she’d eaten?

Huo Xingyu glanced at the clock and laughed in irritation. It was already 9:30 PM. Ning Xiangxiang was asking if she had eaten now??

Perfunctory. Too perfunctory!

With a huff, she locked the screen and tossed the phone aside. She wouldn’t forgive her easily this time. She wouldn’t let a single pitiful look make her forget her anger, like last time.

She had abandoned so much work to see her. Fine, Ning Xiangxiang was acting with that “White Snake” guy—she could digest that as part of an actor’s job. Just like in her previous life, she simply wouldn’t let her act. But! Even though Ning Xiangxiang saw that she was angry, she didn’t even run to her side!

The fire of her anger continued to swell. She tried to force her attention back to work, looking at the annual reports and tomorrow’s meeting drafts. But in that brief moment of busyness, her eyes “accidentally” landed on the phone again. Her fingers hovering over the keyboard froze.

Just one more look.

She picked up the phone again, staring at the rolling rabbit. The rabbit was belly-down on the ground, looking quite pitiful as if begging for forgiveness.

Ning Xiangxiang is trying to coax me, Huo Xingyu thought with certainty. If I don’t reply, she’ll definitely be heartbroken.

Not that her being heartbroken had anything to do with her. After all, she was angry, and Ning Xiangxiang hadn’t properly apologized. However, she would reply mainly to see what else Ning Xiangxiang would dare to say. Not because Ning Xiangxiang would be sad, and certainly not because she couldn’t resist talking to her.

So… she would reply with one sentence, just to see how Ning Xiangxiang would respond.