Chapter 8: Melting the Iceberg

Not far from Li Linlin’s studio, Chen Xi’s studio also had an unexpected visitor in the afternoon.

She was helping Li Linlin to alter her previously ripped Snow White dress when she heard the little florist she had hired run over and call out to her, “Boss, there’s a beautiful woman outside looking for you.”

He lowered his voice and said mysteriously, “She looks like a star to me.”

“A star?” Chen Xi’s eyebrow rose. She put down the work she was doing and walked out.

In her small lounge, a woman stood in a grey, diamond-checkered coat, wearing a pair  of large sunglasses,  and maple-coloured  lipstick. When she saw Chen Xi come out, she took off her sunglasses, and smiled at her. “Hello, I’m Lu Siyu.”

It had been a long time since Lu Siyu chose the initiative  to introduce herself to anyone, after all, her face was recognisable all over China. Naturally, Chen Xi recognised her, too. But she wasn’t a fan of this film queen, and didn’t have any dealings with her. She felt that things were mysterious as she suddenly appeared in her place.

Lu Siyu seemed to be used to the surprised looks she received from everyone when they saw her. She walked up to Chen Xi on her high heeled boots and smiled at her, “I’m sorry for the sudden visit.”

“No, no.” Chen Xi finally came back to her senses and invited the big star inside, “Please have a seat, Queen Lu.”

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Nw Fkuw qszzsole bla yde pwahlule Ubld Dk’p pvweks. Mblal olal iwkvl y qlo xyddliwkdp kd vbl pvweks, yzz olyakdt nzsvblp elpktdle cu Ubld Dk, yde vblal olal psxl nwv qycakn sd vbl qzssa, yde y qlo elpktdp pnyvvlale ycswv.

“Fsaau, kv’p y ckv xlppu.” Ubld Dk vkekle vbkdtp wr y zkvvzl yde ypjle vbl zkvvzl qzsakpv pbl bkale vs rswa oyvla qsa Nw Fkuw.

“Psd’v csvbla.” Nw Fkuw blze bla pwdtzypplp kd bla byde yde pxkzle yv Ubld Dk. “R xykdzu oydv vs ypj usw vs elpktd y ealpp qsa xl.”

Ubld Dk qasgl. “Plpktd y ealpp?”

Nw Fkuw pbswze dsv byhl xwnb nbydnl vs olya bla sod nzsvblp dsaxyzzu, yde obld pbl yvvldele yd lhldv, pbl oswze byhl vbl cayde vs rashkel bla okvb nzsvblp, ps obu oswze pbl pweeldzu nsxl vs ypj xl vs xyjl nzsvblp? Ubld Dk vbswtbv vs blaplzq vbyv pbl oyp dsv qyxswp vs vbkp lmvldv.

Nw Fkuw iwknjzu ydpolale bla eswcvp, “Nypv vkxl yv vbl nbyakvu tyzy, R pyo pkpvla Nk Nkdzkd’p ealpp. Rv oyp clywvkqwz, ps R ldiwkale okvb bla, yde qswde vbyv usw xyel kv qsa bla. R alyzzu zkjl vbl ealpp usw elpktdle, ps R oydv usw vs xyjl sdl qsa xl, vss.”

“Xb, sjyu.” Ubld Dk dseele yde eked’v alrzu vs bla kxxlekyvlzu. Fbl eked’v jdso bso xwnb sq obyv Nw Fkuw pyke oyp vawl yde bso xwnb oyp dsv, yde pbl eked’v oydv vs twlpp obyv oyp kd bla xkde. Gduoyu, pbl alyzzu eked’v byhl vbl vkxl vs xyjl ealpplp qsa svblap aktbv dso.

“Fsaau, Yp. Nw, pkdnl R’x pvkzz kd pnbssz yde wpwyzzu esd’v byhl xwnb qall vkxl, R’x nwaaldvzu sdzu xyjkdt nzsvblp qsa Nkdzkd yzsdl.”

From time to time, Li Linlin would post the clothes she made on Weibo, and there were many people on Weibo asking her if the clothes were available for buying, but she really didn’t have the energy right now.

Lu Siyu smiled and didn’t seem to mind this problem. “It’s okay, I’m not in a hurry. You can take your time to do it.”

Chen Xi thought about it and told her, “How about this, I’ll recommend one of my schoolmates to you? She also makes very nice clothes and has more experience than me.”

Lu Siyu’s eyes twitched and she looked at her with a smile and said, “If sister Xixi is really too busy, I won’t force you, then when you officially run the studio in the future, you must reserve a slot for me.”

“Okay, okay.” Next time for sure.

After sending Lu Siyu away, Chen Xi didn’t have the heart to go back to work. The report of Lu Siyu and Chen Yiran was still on Weibo until now. She  didn’t believe that  this kind of report was authorized by Chen  Yiran, and on Lu Siyu’s part, there was no intention to dispel the rumor after such a long time. The woman was acknowledging it, ah.

She must have fallen for Brother Yiran!

She immediately called Li Linlin and told her about Lu Siyu’s visit to her. As soon as she heard it, Li Linlin realized that things were not simple.

“On the day of the charity party, she was throwing shade about my dress! How come she turned around and asked you to make her dress? She must have an ulterior motive.”

“I guess so. I think she’s trying to rope me in, and then get me to help her chase my brother.”

“Outrageous, I obviously thought of this solution first!”

Chen Xi: “……”

Oh, this plastic sisterhood. 🙂

“Don’t worry, I didn’t promise her anything. And is my brother so elusive, you can’t catch up after I helped you for so long?”

Li Linlin: “……”

That’s a good point.

“By the way, have you altered or repaired my Snow White dress yet? The show is happening soon.”

“I’ll get it done tomorrow. You can come get it from me tomorrow.”

“Good, then I’ll give you the tickets.”

*******

Li Linlin’s drama club was only a student club, and the performances were all staged in the theatres within the school, and students of the Imperial University could purchase them through the school’s website, and the ticket prices were much cheaper than the commercial performances outside.

The group also gave out friends and family tickets to members, so they could invite their friends  and family to come and watch. And Li Linlin gave Chen Xi a ticket every time. Because there were fans who wanted to come in and see Li Linlin’s plays, some students at the Imperial University bought and sold the tickets outside and sold them at a high price. Although the university had been cracking down on this kind of behaviour, there were always fish that slipped through the net.

Every time there was a performance, Li Linlin made a point on posting on Weibo for people not to buy these tickets at high prices, but it didn’t help much either.

This time the group sent her two tickets, and she gave them all to Chen Xi. “There’s another ticket, you can ask a classmate to accompany you to watch.”

Li Linlin originally wanted to give this ticket to Chen Yiran, but after the double whammy of confession and the KTV, she didn’t dare to see Chen Yiran recently.

Chen Xi didn’t say anything, she just showed the altered dress to her, “Look at the skirt, is it okay like this?”

Even if Chen Xi was highly skilled, she would not be able to mend the destroyed area without leaving a trace. In order to preserve the dress, she added more designs like embroidery and bows to mend the damaged parts.

“My goodness, did you embroider this yourself?!” Li Linlin looked at the extra embroidery on the dress and marvelled, “Xixi, you’re too good!”

Not only did these embroideries stitch the skirt together, the patterns were beautifully detailed, adding to the detail of the dress, not to mention not looking the least bit out of place.

“I love this dress!” Li Linlin took it and tried it on. Then, she carefully placed the dress on her suitcase.  “I still have to go back to school for rehearsal. I’ll buy your dinner when the show is over!”

“Sure, let’s go to that hot pot from last time!”

“Well, don’t tell Wu Hui’er, we’ll both go secretly.” Wu Hui would only tell her to go on a diet every day, she was not going to take Wu Hui to the hot pot.

When she got back to the drama club, Li Linlin showed everyone the mended dress and went to put on her make-up and change her clothes. While she was getting her hair done, Ning Le, who played the Queen, was also there, having changed into her costume and sitting next to her to fix her make-up.

Li Linlin glanced at her and asked, “Ning Le, where were you during  the last rehearsal?”

Ning Le clipped her eyelashes while replying to her, “Lu Sheng and I went out of town to go stargazing. He said there was some astronomical wonder, but we ended up missing the plane. When we got back, the President scolded me.”

“Oh…” Li Linlin brushed her hair and responded thoughtfully.

“Last time, I heard the club was very busy, ah. I missed such a big melon as if I missed a billion.” Ning Le finished curling her eyelashes and picked up her mascara again. “But Shen Jie is still willing to continue on stage, I didn’t expect that.”

“It’s not easy to find a replacement when there’s such a rush, and she’s been practicing for so long.” Li Linlin continued to brush her hair and curiously leaned in Ning Le’s direction. “Ning Le, Ning Le, how did you catch Lu Sheng?”

Ning Le glanced at her and asked, “Why do you suddenly want to ask this? Little sister is in love?”

Although Li Linlin was in the same university level as Ning Le, because Li Linlin had skipped a grade, her actual age was younger than Ning Le’s.

Li Linlin smiled and said vaguely, “I’m just curious, everyone says that Lu Shengdu is the coldest male god in our school, tell me, how did you make the iceberg melt?”

Then, she would try it on Chen Yiran.

“How did I make the iceberg melt?” Ning Le put down her mascara brush and looked at her. Her lips curved into a smile. “That was all because I warmed  it up bit by bit with money, ah.”

Li Linlin: “…..”

She was silent for a moment before asking Ning Le, “So what if the other party has more money than me?”

Ning Le nudged her little head with her fingertip. “You’re silly, who would let you really give money, that’s so tacky. You have to give him something he likes.”

“Oh!” Li Linlin hammered her palms together, as if she understood.

“Like Lu Sheng, he loves astronomy, so I helped him find all sorts of original books, invited him to an astronomy exhibition, and gave him a DSLR to take pictures of the stars.” Ning Le poured out her experience, “What does the one in your heart like?”

“He …” Li Linlin thought for a moment and said, “Likes to buy houses.”

Ning Le: “……”

Then this might take a little more money to warm up.

Li Linlin sighed inwardly in worry for herself. In her memory, Chen Yiran really didn’t have anything in particular that he liked.When he was studying he was all about his studies, after he returned to China he was all about his work, the only little hobby he had was buying a house.

Was she going to give a house to Brother Yiran? But he didn’t lack them either, she even doubted he could remember how many houses he had himself.

Li Linlin felt she was facing a dilemma of the century – if she had money, she was getting further and further away from love, but if she didn’t have money, what was she going to do to warm up the iceberg?!

She suspected that God was deliberately making things difficult for her, Li Linlin.

*******

On the day of the official performance, the theatre at the Imperial University was packed to the rafters. Before she had even gone on stage, she heard the sound of her name being shouted from outside. She peeked out and saw that there was indeed a small group of people in the audience holding up support banners.

What was an improvement was that no one had brought glow sticks this time.

She sighed and glanced in the direction of the family and friends seats. A small area of the theatre had been set aside for family and friends invited by members of the club. Chen Xi had already arrived, and next to her, sat Chen Yiran.