Chapter 183: All Sides
The moment the bright red curtain closed, the stage was silent. They saw the boy reach out and touch the corner of the girl’s eye. The play ended abruptly.
The story itself was not particularly outstanding. It was just another story of national hatred and family feuds mixed with love, a story of unrequited love, so sour that it made one’s teeth ache. But the costumes and the performance of the characters had a captivating magic, as if… they had really recreated the story from the script from thousands of years ago.
A clear applause suddenly sounded. The audience was stunned for a moment, and then they all began to applaud. In an instant, the applause rose and fell, like a surging tide.
A few students in the back row were subconsciously attracted by the source of the first applause. They saw the woman standing at the main entrance of the hall. The main entrance was unlit, and she was standing in the darkness. Her beautiful facial contours were hidden by the shadows, and her expression was unclear.
The woman was the first to applaud. The lonely applause broke the silence of the set. She squinted her long, narrow eyes, the corners of her eyes alluringly upturned, a mole dotted under the corner of her eye. She stared at the man and woman on the stage, and there was not a single ripple in her dark eyes, but it was so sinister that it made people feel as if they had been doused with a basin of cold water in the middle of winter. A few people subconsciously looked away.
The applause lasted for a long time. Gu Zhi’s palms were red and sore from clapping before she stopped. She fixed her gaze on the few props on the stage that were used as shackles.
Something in her brain seemed to have been crushed and dissolved, and her consciousness suddenly became a little muddled.
A cage.
…
“An Zhi?”
“What’s wrong with you…”
“It’s nothing. I was just spacing out.”
An Zhi suddenly pulled her gaze back from the gradually closing curtain. She looked at Nie Hong, who was looking at her with concern, and shook her head vigorously. She was never very good at lying and could only force a smile. The sourness that was rising in her nose rushed to the depths of her nerves.
Why did she come to watch this play? She was clearly the one who had run away first. But she had still shamelessly come. She wanted to see if Xia Qiange was more suitable for this role than her.
This thought was like a faint flame that had been lit in her heart. She was vaguely looking forward to something…
But her sister was so beautiful… how could she not be suitable? This was just her foolish fantasy.
The performance was indeed met with thunderous applause. The long princess in a red dress on the stage, with her alluring and flamboyant appearance, was etched into everyone’s eyes.
Her sister’s performance was very successful. She should be happy… she should be happy.
But those dark thoughts occupied her mind for the first time. She found that she couldn’t feel a single bit of joy, as if something had been stolen from her heart. She was sitting in the noisy venue, but she felt so empty that she couldn’t find her own existence.
She couldn’t help but fantasize that if she hadn’t chosen to leave, the long princess in the flamboyant red dress on the stage would have been her. The person who was looking at the boy with affectionate eyes… would also have been her.
Her relationship with the boy might have taken a step further because of this. She could have gathered the courage to say the words that were hidden in her heart and couldn’t be said. They would have gotten to know each other again, and even… fallen in love.
But in the end, she was just a pathetic deserter, reduced to the status of a spectator. She looked at the entrance of the theater with longing. Occasionally, someone would walk over and hand her a ticket out of pity, letting her glimpse a corner of the curtain of the plot called love, but she was not allowed to see the whole picture.
But just that small corner, she felt as if she had swallowed a forbidden fruit, and from then on, she could never forget that wonderful taste. She longed for more, but she could only be punished to fall into the lower world as a sinner.
“Sister Hong, I’m going to the bathroom.”
“Oh, okay. Are you okay…”, Nie Hong looked at the girl’s slightly dim pupils and opened her mouth. She glanced at the closed curtain on the stage and seemed to have noticed something. She sighed helplessly. “Go ahead. It’s okay.”
An Zhi bit her pale and dry lips. She looked up and smiled.
“Yeah… I’ll be back in a while.”
…
“Oh… that hurts so much. Hey… where are you going, Su Yu?”
Tang Xin rubbed her shoulder, which had been bumped a little sore. She looked at Su Yu, who was rushing out of the lounge, and smacked her lips in confusion. “Forget it… if you hadn’t performed so well this time, I really wouldn’t have let you off the hook.”
She walked in from the door. The people in the lounge were all busy getting on stage for the second performance. She saw Xia Qiange in the lounge at a glance, and her face immediately lit up. She pounced on Xia Qiange and hugged her.
“Sister, you guys performed so well. The impromptu action of looking at each other and wiping away tears at the end… it just ended abruptly. It was a sublimation. It was so great. I almost cried…”
Xia Qiange didn’t speak. She was held by Tang Xin as if she had lost her senses. Her dark pupils shone with a faint light. She stared at the boy’s pathetic appearance as he fled, and a suppressed laugh escaped her throat. Her hand, which was hidden in her loose sleeve, trembled slightly. She was so excited that she was about to explode.
Like a hungry wolf on a barren land, imagining the feeling of its sharp teeth piercing the prey’s soft neck, the warm and sweet blood that overflowed between its teeth made her boil, on the verge of losing control…
The corners of her lips, which were painted with red makeup, were so bright that they seemed to be about to drip blood. They were slightly curved, creating a dark arc.
You can’t escape… Ah Yu.
“Sister!”
Xia Qiange calmly broke free from Tang Xin’s grip on her wrist. She turned her head and saw the little girl standing behind her, looking at her pitifully…
Like a miserable little white rabbit. But, a little white rabbit… was destined to have its neck broken.
“What’s wrong? Xiaozhi.”
Xia Qiange smiled, the long corners of her eyes curving into a gentle arc. The arrogant and domineering air she had on stage seemed to have been stripped from her bones, and she was once again the gentle and beautiful sister of the past.
“Why are you crying? Who bullied my little An Zhi?” Xia Qiange’s eyes were full of doting. Her fingertips gently caressed the red and swollen corners of An Zhi’s eyes. “So pitiful. I feel sorry for you.”
“Sister, you… sister.” An Zhi reached out and held Xia Qiange’s hand, which was on her cheek. A strong light for the first time appeared in her soft and innocent eyes.
“Do you like Su Yu, sister?”
The girl asked with a firm voice, the question that had been weighing on her heart and was about to crush her. She felt that her evasive appearance was so stupid. She had made a choice for the first time.
The smile on Xia Qiange’s lips froze for a moment. She then slowly held the girl’s nervous and trembling palm and gently shook her head, whispering in her ear.
“No. I don’t like him, sister. If An Zhi likes him… haha, don’t hesitate anymore.”
