Spring Night of Misty Rain - Chapter 32

As it turned out, Shen Zeyu, who had spent the entire night pondering how to make an escape, was stood up by Xu Luosu the very next morning.

At breakfast, Xu Luosu pressed her palms together in an apologetic gesture. “I’m so sorry, something suddenly came up on my end, so I can’t go with you, Senior Sister.”

Hearing that the main host wasn’t going, Shen Zeyu immediately began to back out. “Maybe we should pick another day—”

She had barely started the sentence when Xu Luosu vetoed it. “No. It’s rare to come here, and everything is already arranged. You must go.”

“How about this: you go ahead, and I’ll come find you as soon as I’m finished? Please?” By the end, Xu Luosu was practically pleading. “I beg you…”

Since things had reached this point, what else could Shen Zeyu say? She could only sigh and compromise. “Fine, fine, fine. I’ll go.”

It wasn’t until it was time to leave that Shen Zeyu realized Xu Luosu had planned everything down to the last detail. Although she wasn’t going herself, she had called seven or eight employees who were proficient in diving to accompany Shen Zeyu into the water.

Wang Wenqing was one of them.

While boarding the boat, Xu Luosu introduced her. “This is our company’s General Assistant, Wang Wenqing; she’s also my classmate. She’s excellent at diving, so I’ll let her lead you today.”

Shen Zeyu shifted her gaze to Wang Wenqing and realized that this tall, thin, handsome girl with smooth muscle lines was one of the people standing beside her yesterday shouting “Susu is so hot.”

Shen Zeyu reached out and gave a graceful greeting. “I’ll have to trouble Assistant Wang to look after me today.”

Wang Wenqing took Shen Zeyu’s hand, her smile radiant and enthusiastic. “Not at all, not at all! It is my honor to be a guide for Teacher Shen.”

Xu Luosu introduced the others in turn. After everyone had exchanged greetings, they boarded the ferry and headed toward the diving area.

On the way, Shen Zeyu—already changed into her diving gear—leaned alone against the ferry railing. She stared down at the white foam kicked up by the speeding boat and the startled fish, her mind drifting far away.

When Wang Wenqing and the others finished changing, they walked out of the cabin laughing and playing, but they all fell silent the moment they saw Shen Zeyu leaning against the railing.

The reason was simple: the woman leaning there possessed a cold, sharply defined face. When the sea breeze brushed back her messy curls, revealing handsome features that looked as though they had been meticulously carved by a sculptor, everyone thought of the same name—Narcissus.

Someone whispered a praise: “What a powerful profile! She looks Slavic!”

Seemingly hearing their conversation, Shen Zeyu turned to look at them, her amber eyes reflecting a slight haze of confusion. It happened to be a clear day, and the sun was intense. Under the direct light, the group seemed to catch a glimpse of deep green within those amber pupils.

Seeing that hint of green, they began to whisper: “Does she really have Slavic blood…?”

This time, Shen Zeyu heard them clearly. She leaned against the boat and gave a light chuckle. “I do indeed have some Slavic heritage… but since you’re so curious, why didn’t you just ask me to my face?”

Shen Zeyu’s grandfather had been a citizen of the Soviet Union who came to aid Xia. Later, when diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed, her grandfather was sent back home. He vanished without a trace, leaving her grandmother to raise their child alone. Many years later, her grandmother followed a diplomatic mission to the Soviet Union; after extensive inquiries, she learned that her lover had been persecuted to death during an interrogation for leaking Soviet secrets to the Xia.

Of course, she wouldn’t share these private details with others.

But hearing her admit it, everyone’s eyes lit up. They immediately swarmed her, asking a barrage of questions: “Then can I ask for some entertainment industry gossip? Did Lu Fubai and Chu Zhi actually fall in love while filming?”

“By the way, is Teacher Qin Zhiyue a lesbian?”

“Teacher, you’ve collaborated with so many actresses; who is your favorite?”

“I heard Tang Qingyue is dating a girl group member, is that true?”

“And another thing, another thing—”

Shen Zeyu, who was accustomed to quiet environments, felt her head buzzing as she was surrounded by a group of girls in their early twenties. She shrank back, but behind her was the railing; there was nowhere to hide. Out of necessity, she raised her hands in front of her chest and gave a symbolic push. “Sorry, these are all my professional colleagues, and those are their private matters. It wouldn’t be right for me to answer.”

The group didn’t pressure her, saying readily, “That’s okay, it’s fine.”

But one girl named Zhang Jia curled her lips and asked with a beaming smile, “Then can Teacher Shen tell us what kind of girls you like?”

“Mature ‘big sister’ types?” As soon as Zhang Jia spoke, others began rolling their eyes meaningfully, joining in. “Cute ‘lolita’ types?”

“Or perhaps…” Everyone looked at each other and laughed in unison. “Do you like a young girl like our Susu?”

As the words fell, everyone clutched their stomachs in a burst of laughter.

Shen Zeyu remained expressionless, but her heart was nearly burning with embarrassment. Her gaze calmly swept past the girls blocking her and landed on Wang Wenqing, who was standing on the deck. She spoke in a deadpan voice, “Assistant Wang, how much longer until we arrive?”

Wang Wenqing immediately retracted her grinning expression and replaced it with a professional smile. “About twenty minutes…”

Hearing there was that much time left, Shen Zeyu felt like dying. She sighed, withdrew her gaze, and decided to take control of the conversation herself. “I see you’re all quite young. Did you just graduate? What kind of work do you usually handle?”

It was just small talk—she knew how to do that too.

Since she didn’t answer the previous question, the group didn’t press her. Zhang Jia, the one in the lead, took the initiative to introduce herself. “I’ve been working for five years. I’m currently a branch secretary in the Film and Television Department. I was also at the meeting to select the director last time.”

“Oh…” Shen Zeyu nodded, and the others began to introduce themselves. Including Wang Wenqing, there were seven girls in total. Aside from 27-year-old Zhang Jia, the others were like Wang Wenqing—barely in their early twenties—and they had all been recipients of Xu Luosu’s financial aid.

Since there were twenty minutes of idle chatter, Shen Zeyu began to fish for information. Through their fragments of conversation, she pieced together Xu Luosu’s adolescence and youth.

This girl from a wealthy background had started trading stocks at age ten. By her teens, she had established her own education fund, sponsoring girls from impoverished families. In high school, she founded a company, setting up a skeleton crew based on the Student Union model, expanding the business as she learned the ropes.

From their stories, Shen Zeyu learned for the first time that Xu Luosu’s original motivation for starting the education fund was because of her first self-written and self-directed film, If I Could Still Embrace You.

The film told the story of a young girl who dropped out of high school to work at sea. After finally earning her first pot of gold, she turned into a golden retriever puppy. The nineteen-year-old Shen Zeyu had still been green back then; her works bore the marks of master influences, and the structure of that particular film was very similar to Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.

However, the focus of that story wasn’t on the puppy, but on the puppy’s girlfriend. The role of the girlfriend was played by Shang Qiuchi—a 24-year-old female teacher.

The 24-year-old teacher picked up the 18-year-old girl who had been raised in a family that favored boys and had dropped out to work. Over time, they fell in love and lived a poor but very happy life. But when the girl reached age thirty-two, they encountered a crisis. First, there was pressure from home to marry; then, a student at the school fell in love with the teacher, and upon being rejected, reported her for being a lesbian. For the sake of her lover, the girl painfully pushed the teacher away.

In the end, while arguing at a crossroad, a car lost control. The girl pushed the teacher out of the way and died herself. The teacher, refusing to accept reality, fell into a coma. In her dreams, she believed the girl had simply turned into a golden retriever and hadn’t actually died.

But dreams must eventually end. After reliving everything they had been through in the dream, the puppy barked: “Live. Keep living.”

As long as you are alive, I will live forever in your heart.

Under this catalyst, the teacher opened her eyes. The story ended with her starting a journey, visiting every place they had promised to go together.

Back then, the movie was a massive hit among students. Many fans fell in love with Shang Qiuchi because of that film, and Xia Sijue was one of them. Mentioning this, Wang Wenqing added a complaint: “We were nervously preparing for final exams back then, and Xia—”

Shen Zeyu suddenly didn’t know what to say. “…”

Wang Wenqing continued, “Then one day after Susu finished watching the movie, she ran to ask me, ‘Can parents really hate someone just because they aren’t a boy?'”

At the mention of Xu Luosu, Shen Zeyu’s interest was piqued. She curled her lips into a slight smile. “Oh? And how did you answer?”

Wang Wenqing laughed, her eyes full of soft light. “I told her that some families are exactly like that.”

“And then?”

Wang Wenqing replied, “And then she ran off. Two days later, she came back to find me and said, ‘If one day someone doesn’t let you go to school, you must tell me. I will help you.'”

For Wang Wenqing, who came from a poor family that favored boys, this was a deeply reassuring promise. It was no wonder the people in Xu Luosu’s company were young, talented, and willing to work themselves to the bone for her.

Shen Zeyu shook her head, letting out a silent laugh. “That really is…”

“Hehe… very much Susu’s style, right?” Wang Wenqing smiled, her expression somewhat nostalgic. “She’s just like that—very frank, very direct, and very clear about what she loves and hates. When she was a kid, she didn’t know how to hide it at all. Now that she’s grown up, she’s become a bit more subtle.”

Wang Wenqing tilted her head, looking straight at Shen Zeyu. “But even so, what she likes and what she hates is still plain to see.”

Not only did she say so, but Zhang Jia also added a sentimental comment: “Yeah… even now, that movie is a mandatory item in our employee training. For all these years, every time one of your movies is released, Teacher, our company does a team-building trip to go see it.”

There was a deeper meaning in their words, but Shen Zeyu didn’t want to hear it. She curled her lips slightly, letting the comment pass. “Is that so? Then it truly is my honor.”

Shen Zeyu turned back toward the ocean and stretched. “Assistant Wang, are we almost there?”

She changed the subject, and since everyone was good at reading the room, they didn’t continue. Wang Wenqing glanced at the sea and nodded. “Mm.”

Shen Zeyu turned around and looked at the group of girls with a warm, kind expression. “I’ll be in your hands from here on out. I believe you all can make my first diving experience a perfect one, right?”

Today was about going out to play, not about discussing how much Xu Luosu liked her. Furthermore, having a delicate personality since childhood, she understood the darker corners of human nature well enough to perceive a thing or two—did she really need them to tell her how much Xu Luosu cared?

Not to mention, Xu Luosu was rational, clear-headed, and motivated by interest—strong enough not to be swayed by emotion. But that also meant she was emotionally dense—so dense that everyone around her dared to make jokes in front of Shen Zeyu, while she herself remained oblivious.

Creating an emotional connection with that type of person is a very exhausting endeavor. In Shen Zeyu’s life plan, that path did not exist.

Even if she saw Xu Luosu, she would act as if she hadn’t.