章 7: Mister Chu
編集者: EndlessFantasy Translation
The students in Di City No. 1 High School were seated in the examination hall according to their results. An Wen sat at the front of the first row during Exam 1 with Wu Yufei and Tang Rui sitting behind her.
An Wen hurriedly answered the questions when she received the test papers. She finished the test with forty minutes left because she wrote everything down quickly. An Wen checked her answers before she left the examination hall.
An Wen took her handphone and notebook out of her backpack, continuing to analyze the character of Qing Sha.
An Wen raced against time to analyze Qing Sha's character while carefully reading the original text. She imagined Qing Sha's speech patterns, and gestured as she learned her character's behavior and temperament.
Despite knowing that the roles were completely out of her reach, An Wen had loved analyzing characters in her previous life. She knew that she could only act out scenes in the mirror of her rented house.
During the first day of the exams, An Wen left the hall with 30 minutes left for each of her exams. During Exam 1, the other students glanced at An Wen's back while they answered questions. They had good results, but none of them would ever leave the examination hall early. These students spent every second in the examination hall to ensure that they did not make any mistakes that would cost them their marks. Di City No. 1 High School was extremely competitive. One mark could easily improve a student's ranking or move them to a higher examination hall.
The other students glanced at An Wen, who was outside, while they were still answering the questions. A girl with wavy hair rolled her eyes and said disdainfully, "She's putting on an act!"
Throughout the three consecutive days of exams, An Wen did this every day. Her thick notebook was half-filled.
She would start practicing in the mirror when she reached home. Her current face matched her acting skills perfectly.
She would occasionally watch entertainment news for awhile to understand the current situation in the entertainment industry.
When she believed that she was almost fully prepared, An Wen searched for Chu Qichen's contact number in her handphone and called him.
The dial tone rang several times before the other party answered his phone. An extremely deep male voice said, "An Wen, are you calling me to ask for a favor?"
"Mister Chu, I need to ask for your help," An Wen replied.
"What do you need?"
"Mister Chu, if I'm not mistaken, you previously donated a library to Di City No. 1 High School. You're an extremely influential person in Di City No. 1 High School. I wanted to ask you to suggest an activity to Di City No. 1 High School's volunteer association. I've already texted you information about the activity."
A vibrating noise echoed through An Wen's handphone when the person on the other line tapped on his screen. An Wen knew that Chu Qichen was currently reading her message. She quietly waited for Chu Qichen to respond.
A short while later, Chu Qichen said, "Alright, I'm going to make the arrangements now."
"Thank you, Mister Chu," An Wen replied.
"Alright." Chu Qichen looked rather stunned when he hung up and placed his handphone on the table. Why was An Wen respectfully calling him "Mister Chu" when she had always referred to him as "Brother Chu"?
On the third day, An Wen received the last bits of information about the Original Host. She had returned to China for Chu Qichen. The fifteen-year-old Original Host had fallen in love with Chu Qichen at first sight when he visited her home. The Original Host insisted on being transferred to another school when she heard that Chu Qichen had returned from being overseas.
An Wen's father had failed to persuade his daughter to change her mind. He begged Chu Qichen to take care of her because he could not bear to see her suffering. Unfortunately, Chu Qichen only viewed An Wen as a little sister. They had a close relationship, but he had always kept a certain distance between them.
An Wen had previously written a love letter for Chu Qichen and placed it in his pocket. However, Chu Qichen did not mention it when he visited her. He merely treated An Wen the same way he always did. An Wen felt resentful and embarrassed because she believed that Chu Qichen had rejected her. She did not know how to face him anymore.
Later, An Wen took a leave from school when she became a victim of physical bullying in the schoolyard.
When Chu Qichen heard that An Wen was absent from school, he called her several times to check on her. An Wen could not answer him, so she merely said that she was unwell. She managed to avoid Chu Qichen for half a month that way.
One day, Aunt Liu had just finished cooking lunch when she turned to An Wen and thoughtfully said, "Sir actually does care about you, miss."
An Wen realized that her thoughts had been incredibly obvious the entire time. Her heart was instantly filled with embarrassment and sadness again. The accident happened because her depression had made her distracted.
Chu Qichen was probably aware of the Original Host's feelings, but his actions were not wrong at all. The Original Host had been in an extremely fragile state that made her seem like a piece of paper that could be easily torn.
An Wen let out a drawn-out sigh when this thought crossed her mind.
...
-- 贈り物
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