Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 380 Red Rose and White Rose, conflict breaks out!

[PS: I didn't finish writing yesterday because I was drinking, so I'm interrupted here. You can first look back at yesterday's chapter to immerse yourself in the emotions before reading this one.]

Bingbing's fingertips resting on the rim of the glass turned bluish-white, and the base of the glass made intermittent echoes on the tabletop somewhat uncontrollably.

Somewhat jarring.

The words pierced the tip of the tongue repeatedly like thorns, and every word left a barb in the flesh.

By swallowing her anger and taking the initiative to "propose", she means that she has already acknowledged her status as a loser.

Even though the calm-looking girl in front of him did not look at her as a winner as he had expected.

But she hadn't lowered her head for a long time, and her neck was already a little stiff today.

This proposal was also a huge humiliation to her self-esteem.

If it weren't for him, who would be willing to bring themselves down to the dust and shed tears of grief?

What else can I say?

She couldn't make a begging gesture. She couldn't beg for mercy from anyone except that person.
Requests? Suggestions? Neither of these are the appropriate attitudes and tones for today's occasion and the current atmosphere.

A not very accurate "proposal" is already ridiculous enough.

What position and suggestions do I have regarding their relationship?

If I were Concubine Liu Yi, I might have poured out a glass of red wine, watched the deep pomegranate-colored wine flow all over the other person's head and face, and then walked away in a huff.

It’s just that people can never empathize with others and can only speak and give feedback from their own perspective.

Concubine Liu Yi was no exception.

So Bingbing watched the graceful girl in front of him and slowly took his left hand off the table.

The delicate, protruding joints rubbed against the linen tablecloth, making a slight sound like silk being torn.

The last rays of the setting sun’s molten gold faded, and the searchlights of the Brooklyn Bridge swept across at that moment, casting the depths of her eyes like a glacier before a snowstorm.

Clear and solemn, it is filled with a cold indifference that keeps people at a distance.

Concubine Liu Yi saw the shadow and shape of Lu Kuan on Fan Bingbing. At this moment, Bingbing also found the same traces on her.

The dissatisfaction hidden under this gentle and warm appearance is exactly the same as his.

Concubine Liu Yi's voice gradually became stern: "You'd better not say it."

"At least we can sit together and have a drink today."

The bitter taste of red wine rose in Xiao Liu's throat, and she abruptly stopped herself from speaking, not wanting to give any more warnings.

She is not a white lotus, but she really does not have much aversion to the Bingbing in front of her.

Perhaps it was the sadness etched on her face after that phone call this morning;
Perhaps it’s because I’ve stood at the same crossroads before and can empathize with the sadness.

The night after the birthday party, she was heartbroken. In fact, Bingbing also suffered inhuman mental torture.

The waiter came over to replace the candlesticks, and the actress suddenly leaned forward.

The silk cuff accidentally brushed against the decanter, and the dark red wine slid down the glass wall, just like the trembling in her tense voice: "Liu Yifei, don't be childish!"

"Do you think you're in an idol drama? Do you think you're the heroine in the script who can conquer the world with just love?"

The necklace around her neck gently clattered against the wall of the goblet, a cold "ding!" that served as a wake-up call. "Just look around, from the Greek shipping magnate to the Ho family of Australia, which tycoon's bed isn't smeared with makeup?"

Bingbing stood up excitedly, his hands on the table, his fingertips bruised.

She stared at Xiao Liu fiercely: "You know him as well as I do. Look at how Jiang Qinqin was abandoned like a worn-out shoe. Haven't you ever been afraid of that day?"

"Yes, you are twenty years old now, with a beautiful complexion and a radiant beauty. What about ten years from now?"

"His power, status, and wealth will only grow higher, while the woman will only grow older and more wrinkled."

The twilight at the Brooklyn pier cuts Bingbing's profile into two areas of light and dark, and his diamond earrings rise and fall with his swallowing movements.

"When we were filming Shoplifters, he said that women in their twenties are the most beautiful, and they can fully embody purity and charm."

Bingbing looked at the last ray of sunlight in the sky that was about to be swallowed up, and his expression became more lively, as if he was recalling some sweetness he had accidentally experienced.

That’s right, this is about her, the character whose prototype is a girl from a Japanese high school brothel.

Bingbing also asked her for the storyboard drawings of this character and hid them in the most precious place.

"Fei Yi, go look at the entertainment industry, the Beijing Film Academy, the Central Academy of Drama, and the Beijing Dance Academy. How many twenty-year-old girls are there with beautiful faces?"

"They will rush towards these powerful people like moths to a flame, even at the cost of their lives."

"You are beautiful, but you will also grow old. For a powerful man like him, beautiful women are just consumables."

Bingbing's smile seemed to be poisoned, sour and fearful.

Her lightly drawn black eyeliner revealed a hint of rebellion: "If one day, your beauty fades, and he calls out your name to another twenty-year-old girl..."

"Tell me, how much shame is there in this name? How much pleasure is there?"

No matter how elegant and calm he was, these hurtful remarks made Xiao Liu furious.

She knocked the cup holder against the table lightly, and the clear and trembling sound startled the night heron perched on the ropes at the dock.

Shouting her name on another woman seemed more desperate than shouting another woman's name on her.

Because it means that he still loves you, but he no longer loves your aging face and body, and he is disgusted with your fading beauty and love.

He imprints your most beautiful appearance when you were twenty years old in his mind, enters another person's body with fantasy, and uses his private spiritual world to provide the courage to cheat.

Women cannot resist the erosion of natural laws, but men can use power and wealth to protect themselves. This is the cruel reality.

Fan Bingbing ignored her reaction, talked to himself, and threw his body into the dust.

She lowered her proud head, just to get some long-lost rain on her lips to prolong her life.

"Fei Yi, think about it, instead of this, why can't this person be me?"

"I don't want anything. I can agree to all your conditions! I can accept being a shady person. I'm not a threat to you!"

"Isn't that better than facing the endless stream of moths just as beautiful and young as you?"

"They want much more than I do..."

The gentle curve of Xiao Liu's real girlfriend's lips was completely condensed into a sharp straight line.

As Fan Bingbing's confession became more and more explicit, Concubine Liu Yi's eyes gradually changed from initial astonishment to deep disgust and pity.

When the searchlight swept across the ends of her hair, the pearl earrings reflected a cold light like a frost blade.

"I didn't expect that you would actually dare to say it out loud."

"It's a pity that I don't have the awareness and habit of sharing my love with others."

She leaned back slowly like a warrior sheathing his sword, her fingertips drawing a sharp semicircle on the edge of the glass, the way a pianist presses a rest.

By this point, Concubine Liu Yi was already somewhat fed up with this kind of conversation.

"You're right, who doesn't get old?"

Xiao Liu said self-deprecatingly, "Don't worry if you laugh at me, but I'm always worried about whether I have moles on my face, whether my teeth have some flaws, whether my breasts are not big enough, and whether I have enough talent and appearance to match him. He always teases me about these things."

"But this is just a woman's willingness to dress up to please the man she loves, not turning herself into the mud on the bottom of his shoes."

"Yes, it turned into mud on the soles of his shoes, and it could move forward with him. The height he stood at was the height of the mud."

"But once he turned to mud, he could no longer see the blue sky above his head, the rising sun before his eyes, and all the beauty in the world."

"What's the point of getting closer to him?"

Xiao Liu raised his glass and drank it all in one gulp. The curve of his neck tilted back like a glacier collapsing, and the dark red wine swirled in his throat as he swallowed it.

"As for the endless supply of twenty-year-old humanoid replacements you mentioned, I haven't even thought about it."

"If I love him for one day, I will enjoy that day. If I love him for one second, I will enjoy that second."

"Even if I wake up tomorrow and get ruthlessly abandoned, the worst that can happen is I can just put on my clothes and leave. So what?"

"Therefore, I do not accept, let alone approve, your proposal."

She turned the red wine glass upside down on the linen tablecloth and slowly stood up. The wine stains were a bit shocking:
"Sister Bingbing, this is the first time we've had a drink together, and it should also be the last time."

The girl's gentle smile was even brighter and more charming in the night of Brooklyn Pier: "I never thought of hurting anyone. I just lived my own life, acted my own play, and loved who I loved. That's all."

"Goodbye."

"and many more!"

Xiao Liu stood up to leave, but Bingbing held her back with rapid breathing.

As if she had a premonition of her unknown fate and was about to walk towards an even deeper unknown, the famous actress looked extremely excited for the first time today!
Despite Concubine Liu Yi's consistent calmness, her emotions were almost broken, and even her voice had a hint of crying.

"You act your part! You love the person you love! But you want to monopolize him and never give him a glimmer of hope!" "Liu Yifei! Of course you can say these words calmly! Because you're lucky!"

"You can act in CCTV dramas at the age of 15, you can act in his movies at the age of 15, and you can walk the red carpet with him in Venice at the age of 15!"

Night fog gradually rose over the Donghe River, condensing into ice beads on Bingbing's black lace collar, and rolling into the depths of the shadows with her rapid breathing.

She walked quickly up to her and held Concubine Liu Yi's arms tightly with both hands. It was hard to tell whether she resented her or him.

"Do you know what I was doing when I was 15? I was ready to pack up and leave my hometown to study acting in Shanghai."

"I was choking on a steamed bun in the alley, watching my role being snatched away by someone from Taiwan in the name of a co-production!"

"For a minor supporting role that Teacher Xie recommended to me, I memorized the script under a streetlight until three in the morning. When a cockroach crawled past my feet, I didn't even have the energy to scream!"

"You don't admit that you're the protagonist, but apart from 'The Golden Age', you've hardly ever played a supporting role, right?"

"Because of a supporting role, Qiong Yao almost had the words 'Maid's Life' carved into my face! The lawsuit for contract termination hasn't even begun, but the reporters' ridicule is hotter than the verdict!"

The night wind in downtown New York was howling, but even though she was very excited, the actress did not shed a tear.

She was afraid of ruining her makeup, and she wanted to always live as pure and charming as the twenty-year-old girl in Lu Kuan's painting.

She thought that was his favorite color.

As soon as she thought of this, the actress became like a black rose blooming in the night, and her whole body became lively.

The curve at the corner of Bingbing's lips was like the blade of a poisoned dagger, and the smile was swallowed up by the shadow cast by his eyelashes before it reached his eyes.

It seemed as if today she was going to pour out all the resentment she had accumulated for ten years. After a pause, her hoarse venting and questioning did not stop there:

"Liu Yifei, you are so lucky, you really don't understand."

"I was forced by two dogs from Huayi to come to the Hong Kong circle in exchange for resources. The night before, my throat was almost burned out by alcohol, and the next day, I had to smile sweeter than anyone else under the spotlight."

"The company forced you to actively spread rumors and negative information about yourself. I didn't even have the courage to refuse those cannibalistic contract clauses."

The famous actress smiled sadly, "Everything you have at your fingertips, I'm going to gamble my entire youth for a ticket. Seeing the entertainment headlines filled with disgusting fake news that I fabricated myself, all my dignity will be eaten away."

"Do you know how it feels to listen to your family and old neighbors talking about you?"

"Do you understand!"

Concubine Liu Yi was not moved at all. She just looked at her coldly and let Fan Bingbing vent.

It would be easy to get rid of her, but she knew that this matter had to come to an end.

If not today, then later.

Bingbing suddenly fell silent while talking, his index finger unconsciously stroking the obsidian necklace on his chest.

It was a gift he gave himself when he was filming Shoplifters in Taiwan.

The lips soaked in red wine were suddenly pursed into a soft arc. The smile seemed to be from an old film, with the haziness and distortion of being soaked in developer.

"Fortunately, fortunately, I also met him when I was twenty, but it was a little late."

"Princess Yi, I don't envy you for anything. I only envy you for meeting him so early."

"You can be clean and unencumbered, like a blank piece of paper, to be painted and scribbled upon, and become the one he loves most."

Bingbing's pair of phoenix eyes stared into Concubine Liu Yi's eyes!

"Before I met him at Mei Yanfang's house, I was frozen to the very bones. He was the one who ignited a wildfire in me."

"Liu Yifei! Why?"

"Why should you be the one adding the firewood to his fire, while I can only be the ash left behind?"

"Why!"

Concubine Liu Yi looked at Fan Bingbing in front of her speechlessly.

I felt sorry for her loneliness during the day, and her suggestion just now touched the psychological barrier.

Wait until Bingbing gritted his teeth and expressed his grievances and unwillingness.

She really didn't know what to say.

It's so sad and lamentable.

Jing Tian also said the same thing to her, but can she decide some things?
"My origin, my family, my circumstances, I have no control over."

“I am neither proud nor inferior.”

"But you have to know that at some point in my life, or at many points in my life, I was in the same pain as you are now."

Concubine Liu Yi reached out and smoothed the collar of her suit that was lifted by the night wind. Her movements to smooth out the wrinkles were as graceful as brushing away dust from the strings of a musical instrument.

Just like her usual voice and tone at this moment, elegant and leisurely.

"Sister Bingbing, even though you said these things to me today, I still can't feel any ill will towards you."

"Perhaps it's because I can empathize with your demands and resentment."

"I'm not qualified, nor do I want to preach anything. I'm just sharing a quote I saw on a stone tablet in front of Milan Cathedral, which is also a line from Dante's Divine Comedy—"

"In the deepest recesses of hell stand those who betray their own souls."

Concubine Liu Yi's deafening words made Fan Bingbing feel like he was struck by lightning, and he couldn't help shaking all over.

The hardships and difficulties along the way, and the grievance that her entire spiritual world had to crawl at his feet, finally made the leading actress shed tears quietly.

The twilight at the Brooklyn pier, wrapped in the salty sea breeze, smudged her carefully drawn black eyeliner into turbid tear marks.

It was the meltwater from the glaciers that broke through the carefully constructed dams.

She suddenly sat down on the chair somewhat powerlessly, her five fingers holding onto the glass tabletop cramping horribly, and her red nail polish scratched the tablecloth.

The obsidian necklace on her chest swayed in the hollow of her collarbone with her rapid breathing, like a knot swinging on a gallows.

Bingbing hates it so much!
The embarrassment at this moment reminded her of the gloomy eyes of the two Huayi dogs many years ago, and the arrogant grin of Qiong Yao when she demoted her to a maid.

The leading actress angrily smashed the goblet to pieces. "Concubine Liu Yi! Do you think the Lu Kuan you saw is real? Do you know all his secrets and plans?"

"You don't know! You don't know how much I mean to him!"

"For people like him, profit always comes first."

"He's already got you. You'll only become more and more worthless, and I'll make myself even more important! Don't think you've already won!"

The searchlight swept across Bingbing's trembling fingertips, making the cracks in the nail polish look like dried bloodstains.

She suddenly straightened her back, her silk shirt rustling in the night wind, like a defeated general raising a broken battle flag.
"Liu Yifei, don't say you are his girlfriend, so what if you are married?"

"If you don't give it to me, I'll take it myself!"

"you dare!?"

Concubine Liu Yi's pair of phoenix eyes seemed to carry cold lightning as they shot straight at Bingbing, who was already emotionally crazy, and she scolded him harshly.

The turbid waves of New York City's East River cleared, and the night wind blew up the silver embroidery on Xiao Liu's white suit.

When passing by Fan Bingbing, the rustling hem of her dress swept across the diamond earrings on the temples of the actress, as if Mulan was about to swing her sword to cut off Medusa's head!
The two people who had been restrained today finally had their first conflict!
Fan Bingbing also stood up suddenly, the lace under his collarbone trembling like a snake in the night wind. The moment he grabbed Liu Yifei's wrist, because he was too excited, the red nail polish cut into Liu Yifei's snow-white skin like blood lines.

The black of the day versus the white of the night.

Bi Yao faced Lu Xueqi.

The red rose faced the white rose.

The drinkers around looked sideways and saw two beautiful Asian women standing opposite each other.

The moment the searchlight swept across, two silhouettes appeared like black and white film stuck in the projector's sprocket holes, resembling the film composition designed by Lu Kuan:
Liu Yifei's white suit was evaporated into a lonely moon on the ice field by the twilight, and Fan Bingbing's black lace turned into dark matter that swallowed up the light.

The rainbow light reflected by the pearl earrings and diamond pendant intertwined in the void, just like the silver cone and rose that pierced Dracula's heart in "Bram Stoker's Dracula".

In this game, how can we tell who is right and who is wrong, and who is right and who is wrong?

The white that Concubine Liu Yi wears is the proud character left blank on rice paper, and it is a resolute protection of this pure feeling.

The black armor that Fan Bingbing wears is the remnants of fate and her stubborn resistance to becoming a beheaded queen.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the night completely engulfed Manhattan.

Xiao Liu straightened the wrinkles on his suit, his movements like brushing away the dust on a battlefield.

She exchanged a last look with Bingbing and then left.

This glance is the victor's compassion for the trapped beast, and it is also the awakened one's memorial to the fallen.

Liu Yifei pursed her lips, stepped on the broken glass scattered on the ground by Bingbing in her high heels, and walked towards the rising moon at the end of the Brooklyn Bridge cable.

(End of this chapter)