Part 5 of Chapter 49
This chapter is brought to you by Celestialsiren, thanks for the ko-fi! (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･
Do You Still Hate Her? 39 – Becoming popular through a character trailer
At this very moment, Wang Rong asked, “Where is Duan Anguo? Why isn’t he here?”
“Cheng Baojiao went to pick him up and will be here soon,” Xue Zishan replied, then looked at Shang Lu and said, “Cheng Baojiao is Duan Anguo’s wife. She’s a more serious person and doesn’t pay much attention to the entertainment industry. She usually teaches at the university. You can just call her Sister Cheng and don’t treat her like an elder.”
“Okay,” Shang Lu obediently agreed but couldn’t help feeling a bit nervous.
She didn’t have much experience dealing with elders. Normally, Duan Anguo treated her like peers, and Wang Rong and Xue Zishan were very accommodating to her. Suddenly, facing a stranger who was an elder made her a little nervous.
Because Cheng Baojiao was Duan Anguo’s wife, a friend of Xue Zishan and Wang Rong, Shang Lu really hoped that she would be accepted and liked by Cheng Baojiao.
Soon enough, Duan Anguo entered with his wife, his voice full of laughter, and he called out from a distance, “Baojiao has arrived, everyone make way!”
The staff outside the door were amused by Duan Anguo, and they were all laughing at this moment.
Cheng Baojiao, who was Duan Anguo’s wife, scolded him as well, “You’re already an adult, can’t you be a bit more serious?”
She said this, but her tone didn’t sound genuinely angry.
So, Duan Anguo responded with laughter.
Shang Lu’s inexplicable anxiety was instantly relieved, and she couldn’t help but burst into laughter. However, after making eye contact with the person next to Duan Anguo, she suddenly froze.
Seeing Shang Lu’s momentary look of fear, Xue Zishan thought Shang Lu was afraid to be perceived as disrespectful to the elder and said, “You can laugh if you want, it’s okay.”
Shang Lu swallowed hard. Even though she knew Cheng Baojiao probably wouldn’t recognize her, she still didn’t dare to speak.
Oh my.
Could there be anything more coincidental in this world?
She should have realized it when she heard Xue Zishan mentioned that Cheng Baojiao teaches at the university. But she still finds it absurd now.
Because the university Cheng Baojiao teaches at and the class she teaches happen to be the microfilm production class Shang Lu once attended.
It was also in this class that Shang Lu almost became Cheng Baojiao’s class representative.
At the same time, Shang Lu finally understood why Cheng Baojiao had later asked a somewhat obscure question that Xue Zishan and Wang Rong had coincidentally told Shang Lu about. It turns out they are friends!
Shang Lu felt a bit embarrassed but stood up to greet, “Sister Cheng.”
Xue Zishan happily introduced Shang Lu to Cheng Baojiao, saying, “This is Xiao Lu that I often mention to you.”
Cheng Baojiao raised an eyebrow and asked with some skepticism, “Lu Shang?”
Shang Lu : “???”
Huh? How did she recognize her?
Duan Anguo, somewhat surprised, looked at his somewhat ‘old-fashioned’ wife and said, “Have you finally gotten interested in the entertainment industry or gotten interested in me? Although you got the name wrong, you’re making progress. Keep it up!”
Cheng Baojiao looked directly at Shang Lu and asked, “Why didn’t you come to class? Were you too busy with acting?”
Others : “???”
Xue Zishan glanced at Cheng Baojiao and then at Shang Lu, her eyes revealing a sense of confusion.
Shang Lu honestly recounted the previous misunderstanding, admitting that she wasn’t a student at the school but was there to visit a friend while they were filming, and she had lied about being a student from another major.
She hung her head lower and her voice grew quieter.
Because Xue Zishan had mentioned that Cheng Baojiao was a relatively serious and traditional person, lying didn’t seem like a good idea for any reason.
Duan Anguo’s laughter suddenly rang out, “What a coincidence!”
Cheng Baojiao patted Shang Lu on the shoulder and praised, “You’re a good kid. You did well in the last class. I thought you didn’t want to attend my class anymore, which is a bit of a shame. I’m relieved now, and you’re welcome to come again when you have time.”
Shang Lu raised his head, somewhat surprised, and then flashed a shy smile, nodding and saying, “Alright.”
At the same time, Shang Lu asked the question he had been wanting to ask, “But how did you recognize me?”
Cheng Baojiao pointed to the badge on Shang Lu’s hat and said, “I’ve seen the badge before. Apart from the different hat colors, your voice, and your figure are exactly the same as that day.”
Duan Anguo whispered to Shang Lu, “She’s quite observant. She can tell at a glance where I’ve hidden cigarettes on my body every day. I dare not bring a single one home.”
Shang Lu suddenly realized, “No wonder you hide behind the public restroom every day to smoke.”
After saying that, Shang Lu and Duan Anguo looked at each other, both falling into silence.
Duan Anguo wore a pained expression, his face saying, Why did you have to say that?
Shang Lu : “…”
Her mouth was quicker than her brain.
Cheng Baojiao gave her husband a glance and said, “Let you off the hook this time.”
Duan Anguo immediately exaggerated, “Thank you for your mercy!”
Xue Zishan laughed happily, her hand around Shang Lu’s shoulder, somewhat proudly telling Cheng Baojiao, “I told you that you would like her when you meet. This child takes acting very seriously and is well-behaved in daily life. It would be great if she was really my child.”
Wang Rong rubbed his head and then looked at Shang Lu, asking, “Xiao Lu, what do you think of us?”
Shang Lu was momentarily stunned, not immediately understanding what this meant.
Xue Zishan and her husband had discussed this matter privately, but they couldn’t find the right time to bring it up and had been putting it off. Now that the conversation had come this far, they decided to speak frankly, “He’s feeling a bit embarrassed, so let me say it. We don’t have any children, and we both genuinely like you. If you’re willing, we’d like to recognize you as our goddaughter.”
Wang Rong, usually a composed person, was nervous at this moment and licked his lips, saying, “We know your family is well-off, and we’re just ordinary actors who don’t make much money, mostly doing charity work. We have two properties, and we can give them both to you. We also have some connections in the industry. If you want to learn acting, we can even try to get you the best teachers.”
When it came to this point, he rubbed his hands again, suddenly feeling a bit awkward, even a little regretful for impulsively saying these words.
They wanted to give their prospective daughter the best of everything, but now they realized they didn’t have much, as if they couldn’t produce anything valuable.
Shang Lu didn’t respond; instead, she bent down and hugged Xue Zishan directly, burying her face in Xue Zishan’s shoulder.
Xue Zishan’s body reacted faster than her brain; she quickly hugged Shang Lu back.
Holding Xue Zishan, Shang Lu listened to the rapid beating of her own heart, her brain tangled with a multitude of emotions, even feeling a bit blank at this moment.
This feeling was strange.
It was as if… she was about to have a family.
rokumi’s note : there’s a part of me imagining that this is actually a switched at birth novel and Lulu is actually Wang Rong & Xue Zishan’s biological daughter….
(just my imagination, don’t take it seriously)
Switch at birth plot wouldn’t really made sense since Shang Lu’s father had mentioned before that she looked like her mother
🥹 They are so sincere and loving
I hope they actually adopt her instead of just establishing a Godparents-Goddaughter relationship… Is it possible to adopt an adult???
Yes, you can adopt an adult in some countries, but most countries will cap adoptions at 18 years of age. As soon as the adoption is finalised, a new birth certificate is issued.
I sorta wonder, from what I can tell the implications of a godparent/godkid relationship in Chinese culture seem at least a few degrees more serious than like, the Catholic kind.
I think you can in China (plus Korea and Japan). You ad them to your family registry. It’s also a way for same-sex couples to become family when marriage isn’t allowed.
Ahhh, my heart! You deserve familial love Shang Lu. *cries*