At night.
After he had sent Ning Xi and Little Treasure back to the Regal Riveria hotel, Lu Tingxiao did not go home right away. He called Lu Jingli and asked him to meet at a bar instead.
"Bro, you asked me out to a bar! I thought I was hallucinating!"
Under the dim light, Lu Tingxiao’s face was hidden in the shadows. There was a long silence before he spoke up, "Is it possible?"
"Possible? For?" Lu Jingli was confused.
"Ning Xi…might have fallen for someone else," Lu Tingxiao said.
Lu Jingli opened his eyes wide. "Huh? Who?"
"Me."
Lu Jingli almost spat out the drink he just gulped. "Why do you think so?"
"Feels like it."
Lu Jingli scratched his head. "Bro, did something happen today?"
There was a thick knot in between Lu Tingxiao’s brows. "It seems like she said…she likes me."
"What?! Xiao Xi Xi said she likes you?" Lu Jingli recovered from his excitement after a while, "Wait, why did you say 'seems like'?"
"During the firework show in the theme park, she said something to me, but it was too loud and I couldn’t hear anything." Lu Tingxiao frowned, as if trying very hard to remember.
Lu Jingli returned to his excited mode again. "But you know how to read lips! So, you understood?"
"Reading lips isn’t always 100% accurate and the environment made it hard to focus."
Most importantly, it just did not seem possible.
He did not even notice the first time. When she said it the second time as she closed in on him, he did not really read her lips properly as well. He had just glanced a little, not daring to jump to conclusions.
What made him suspicious was not what she said, but her eyes when she said it.
Her eyes at that moment were so beautiful as if they were speaking directly to his heart.
From her eyes, he saw something he had never thought about before…
"Bro, why don't you test Xiao Xi Xi after she returns?"
It was a rare occasion that Lu Tingxiao agreed with Lu Jingli’s suggestion. "Mmm."
He himself wanted to know the answer as well.
———————
The next day after they returned from the theme park, Ning Xi took an early morning flight out of the country. After several days of promoting the movie, she and the crew finally reached their last stop, Washington D.C., the capital of the United States.
Because it was not one of the featured cities, most of the crew did not want to go as they were tired from the previous venues. The only actress with slightly more scenes in the movie who was willing to go was Ning Xi and Guo Qisheng was genuinely touched.
She worked diligently without any complaints and was never one to snatch the limelight. He even had Ning Xi in mind for a new movie the following year and would like to have her as the main protagonist.
For some reason, Jiang Muye decided to attend this last day of promotion since he only appeared at one or two events for the past few days. He slept through the whole flight. As he took off his sleeping mask, he saw Ning Xi was reading a script under a dim light and was speechless. "Ning Xiao Xi, what’s wrong with you? Why are you working so hard?!"
Ning Xi realized that they were going to take off soon, so she put her script away and glanced at Jiang Muye. "How will I support Lu Tingxiao if I don’t work hard now?"
Jiang Muye was once again speechless.
She wanted to provide for Lu Tingxiao?
Was that not too difficult a goal?