The airport facilities were so modern that Zhen Bao was dazzled.
Fu Ming Shi explained everything to her in a low voice, like a tour guide. The spacious hall was brightly lit. The tall man and petite woman walked side by side, one bending down to speak and the other listening intently. The listener would occasionally express surprise or nod and smile. From afar, they looked like a couple in love.
After over ten minutes, Zhen Bao finally saw the airplane she would be boarding for the first time in her life. She thought the plane looked a bit small from the outside, but since she had never seen one before, Zhen Bao prudently held back her opinion for fear of embarrassing herself. Once on board, she was thoroughly confused to find that the plane only had a handful of seats. She whispered to Fu Ming Shi, "Does the plane only carry seven or eight passengers at a time?"
Fu Ming Shi held back a laugh, but the amusement in his eyes was about to spill over. "Have you heard of private jets?"
Zhen Bao had not, but now she understood based on the literal meaning.
She lowered her head and walked to the window seat, pretending to look outside, embarrassed about making a fool of herself.
The man sat down next to her. Zhen Bao turned her face so close to the glass she was nearly pressing against it.
"We're about to take off. Let me buckle your seatbelt for you," Fu Ming Shi considerately offered.
Recalling the seatbelt situation that morning, Zhen Bao's ears turned red. She quickly declined his help, lowering her head to find it herself.
However, the airplane seatbelts were different from the ones in cars. Zhen Bao was stumped again.
Fu Ming Shi took the seatbelt and helped buckle it around her waist, avoiding her chest area. Zhen Bao still felt rather awkward.
Fu Ming Shi opened his laptop to check for any new developments today.
Zhen Bao's attention was drawn to it once more.
Fu Ming Shi introduced her to Weibo and helped her register an account. "Think of a nickname," he said.
Put on the spot to come up with a name, Zhen Bao's mind went blank.
Staring at her, Fu Ming Shi's long fingers typed a few characters in the nickname field: Cinderella in Crystal Shoes.
Of course Zhen Bao knew the story of Cinderella. She stared at the nickname for a few seconds before suddenly pouting and pointing at the screen, indicating she wanted it changed. She didn't like such a high-profile nickname. One look and people would think of Cinderella, but she wasn't a real-life Cinderella.
"You don't like those high heels?" Fu Ming Shi entered the password on his own.
Zhen Bao was still agonizing over a nickname and didn't notice anything amiss with him inputting the password. By the time she wanted to suggest the high heels, the screen already displayed a successful registration message.
"If you really don't like this nickname, you can change it," Fu Ming Shi said as he opened the editing page and gave her the final say. "I can switch it if you truly don't like it."
Zhen Bao fell silent. The nickname Fu Ming Shi chose did sound quite nice.
"Then we'll use this for now. I'll follow you after your college entrance exam is over." Fu Ming Shi followed Zhen Bao first. Just as he finished following her, a new email came in. Fu Ming Shi taught Zhen Bao how to log in on mobile, while he handled his business correspondence first.
Zhen Bao browsed Fu Ming Shi's page and saw his verified account stated he was the CEO of Prosperity Group. She then clicked open Fu Ming Shi's most recent post from five months ago commenting on something. She saw many mentions of a "Xia Ying," plus a bunch of people calling Fu Ming Shi "husband," saying Xia Ying was unworthy of him. Some defended Xia Ying, describing her and Fu Ming Shi as a perfect match.
Head lowered, Zhen Bao read it all carefully. Then her hand inadvertently touched something and the page suddenly switched to Xia Ying's side. Zhen Bao gave a start, stealing a peek at Fu Ming Shi. The man's expression was focused. Zhen Bao inexplicably felt a bit guilty, but couldn't resist taking a look at Xia Ying's Weibo posts. There were ancient costume drama shots and magazine covers, all extraordinarily beautiful.
The more Zhen Bao looked, the more engrossed she became, gradually forgetting her initial gossipy motives. This Xia Ying was truly too gorgeous.
"Good makeup techniques, photos altered with beauty filters...in person she's quite ordinary," Fu Ming Shi remarked after finishing his emails, noticing Zhen Bao viewing Xia Ying, seemingly with an appreciative gaze. He couldn't help but weigh in with his very objective opinion.
Zhen Bao was puzzled. "What are beauty filters?"
Fu Ming Shi smiled, finding her like a curious baby.
The plane would take off in fifteen minutes. Fu Ming Shi downloaded a beauty app on his phone, then left his seat to choose angles and take pictures of Zhen Bao. With her outgoing personality, Zhen Bao was only acting shy due to suddenly meeting wealthy people in an unfamiliar environment. Now rather familiar with Fu Ming Shi, she readily posed for him with a radiant smile, the same as when she had taken photos for the driver and bodyguard.
Seeing Zhen Bao's sweet and innocent smile in the camera frame, Fu Ming Shi froze for a moment before snapping quite a few consecutive shots.
After taking the photos, Fu Ming Shi showed Zhen Bao the difference between before and after beauty filters were applied.
Zhen Bao hadn't slept well last night and had some dark undereye circles today. That was the main difference after beautifying—the rest looked about the same. This made Zhen Bao doubt Fu Ming Shi's evaluation of Xia Ying. Fu Ming Shi didn't explain it was because Zhen Bao's foundation was too good. He simply clarified his relationship with Xia Ying: "Hardly any gossip in the entertainment industry is real. Just remember I only have one fiancée, you. Don't believe anything else."
Zhen Bao nodded. On a whim, she followed Xia Ying.
"No need to follow irrelevant people," Fu Ming Shi undid it for her, adding, "Focus on preparing for the college entrance exam. You can play on Weibo after."
Zhen Bao shrank back, feeling the pressure of a teacher's urging once more after having dropped out for so long.
"Mr. Fu, we're taking off soon."
Fu Ming Shi put away his laptop and phone for Zhen Bao as well.
"It might be a little shaky," he said, worried she wasn't used to flying.
Zhen Bao grew nervous. The plane really took off and her face paled. She shut her eyes tightly, hands clutching the armrests. Suddenly a large hand covered her left one. Zhen Bao opened her eyes in shock. Fu Ming Shi was casually continuing to hold her hand. Their eyes met. He gestured out the window with his chin. "Watching the sunset from a plane gives a very different feeling."
Zhen Bao couldn't help but turn towards the window.
She saw a magnificent sea of clouds, crimson at the horizon like waves, gradually fading in color.
She watched, mesmerized.
The setting sun coming through the glass window also tinted her cheeks red. Fu Ming Shi's gaze moved from her forehead all the way down, passing over her shimmering eyes, delicate nose, and landing on her pink lips, staring for a long time before slowly letting go just as she was about to react.
But the delicate sensation lingering on the back of her hand seemed to congeal in her palm.
~
Arriving in the capital, Zhen Bao began receiving intensive closed-door cram school tutoring for the college entrance exam. She was taking the science track. Fu Ming Shi selected six tutors from the résumés of top exam prep teachers forwarded by his assistant. Their average age was forty. They would directly stay at the villa and coach only Zhen Bao.
To prevent Zhen Bao from getting distracted, Fu Ming Shi stayed at another property these days and hadn't returned to the villa. He called every few days though. The old master had visited a few times.
All tutoring ended on the 5th since the exam officially started on the 7th. After seeing her English tutor Mr. Li out, Zhen Bao looked back at Fu Ming Shi's so-called European-style villa and suddenly felt an empty nest sensation.
Zhen Bao took Hei Dan to the second floor study, wanting to do some more English listening exercises, her weakest subject.
Hei Dan wandered around the desk before obediently lying down at its master's feet, head on the floor. After sprawling for a bit, Hei Dan suddenly perked up its ears and scampered to the French windows, beady dog eyes staring straight at a black car driving in.
"Woof!" Hei Dan barked.
Zhen Bao didn't hear it.
Hei Dan was a good guard dog. It didn't bother its master, running out on its own instead. Nimbly going downstairs and out to the living room, seeing the bad man who had bullied its master emerge from the black car, Hei Dan immediately began barking while retreating, still a bit afraid of the other party.
"Hei Dan!" Housekeeper Wang Ma admonished it in a low voice. Why make a fuss at every newcomer?
Hei Dan behaved itself a little better.
Fu Ming Shi took off his suit jacket as he walked inside, asking Wang Ma, "Where's Zhen Bao?"
"Miss Zhen is in the study, working very hard," Wang Ma said with a smile, speaking as if bragging about her own child, proud and wanting to show off to someone. Her son was now in 10th grade and taking the college entrance exam next year. Recently whenever she went home, she would use Zhen Bao as an example to spur him to study.
Fu Ming Shi's eyes flickered. He tossed his jacket on the sofa and headed straight upstairs. Hei Dan wanted to follow but was called back by Wang Ma.
Fu Ming Shi's pace going up the stairs was neither loud nor soft. Reaching the second floor, looking at the half-open study door, he involuntarily slowed down. Arriving at the entrance, he saw Zhen Bao sitting sideways at the desk, headphones over her head, posture upright, left hand holding a practice exam paper, right hand gripping a pen, marking answers.
Fu Ming Shi knocked on the door.
The audio track had just finished reading a question when Zhen Bao turned in surprise to see the man she hadn't met in nearly a month standing at the door, black pants and white shirt accentuating his handsome features with a sense of distance. Shock winning over delight, Zhen Bao immediately took off her headphones and stood up with a smile. "You, why did you come back today?"
They weren't that familiar to begin with, and it had been a long time since seeing each other, so some estrangement was inevitable upon reuniting.
"Not welcome?" Fu Ming Shi walked over, asking lightly with a hint of laughter in his eyes.
Realizing he was joking, Zhen Bao suddenly rediscovered the dynamic between them from their journey to the capital. She couldn't help glaring at him a little.
There was an English practice exam Zhen Bao had just finished on the desk. Full score was 150 and she had gotten 114.
Zhen Bao lowered her head, fidgeting with the desk, aware it wasn't a high mark.
The exam being right around the corner, Fu Ming Shi didn't want to put more pressure on her. "Not bad. How much did you get for the other subjects?"
In the past couple days, Zhen Bao had been doing mock exams. She scored 135 in Chinese, 120 in math, and 213 in comprehensive science.
After Fu Ming Shi calculated it out and looked up last year's minimum admission scores in the capital on his phone, he laughed. He sincerely praised her, "Several dozen points above last year's first-tier minimum. Based on this, even if you relied on yourself, as long as your performance is steady during the actual exam, you should be able to get into a good university." With self-study alone, she could test into these scores. Zhen Bao would definitely have been a top student if she had stayed in school.
There was meaning behind his words. Zhen Bao repeated in puzzlement, "Even if I relied on myself?"
Fu Ming Shi turned around, leaning back against the desk with both hands braced on its surface, head tilted as he looked at her. The sunlight shining through illuminated half his face, also gentling his gaze. "Zhen Bao, you're my fiancée. If you want to attend university, even without taking the exam, I can arrange for you to enroll in any institution."
Having already witnessed the Fu family's wealth, Fu Ming Shi's statement didn't deliver any new shock value to Zhen Bao. She just felt a little uncomfortable, lowering her head to say, "However much I test into is how much it is. If I can't make it into first-tier, second-tier colleges are still pretty good. Don't get me in through connections." She didn't want classmates ridiculing her for taking a backdoor. She had no money, but she wanted to enter university through real scores.
"Alright, but before going into the exam, it'd be best to relax and not do any more practice questions tonight. Let's go out to eat."
Zhen Bao nodded with a smile.
Fu Ming Shi looked at her high school student attire. He first went upstairs to change into gray casual pants and sneakers.
Zhen Bao waited for him in the living room on the first floor. Five minutes later, seeing the white-shirted man descend the stairs, she felt this version of Fu Ming Shi seemed a few years younger than the suit-clad one.
"Let's go." Fu Ming Shi put on a black cap and came to her side.
Zhen Bao murmured in assent.
Fu Ming Shi took her to eat Beijing duck, a regional specialty. After eating, around 8 PM, he also brought her to watch a movie.
Fu Ming Shi kept holding the tickets in his hand without telling her what they were for. When the tickets were inspected, Zhen Bao tried peering down to see but was pulled away by Fu Ming Shi grasping her arm before she could make out the name. Zhen Bao pretended to be angry and ignore him until they were seated. Only then did she realize the seats in front of them each had one person while theirs was a couple's seat.
"How come the seats are different?" Zhen Bao placed her drink and asked the man beside her in a low voice.
Fu Ming Shi took out his phone and typed: Tickets bought late, only couple seats left.
Zhen Bao's face rapidly turned red, fortunately the theater lighting was dim.
Sitting properly, Zhen Bao held her drink, sipping it very attentively without looking elsewhere.
A few minutes later, the movie started playing. Zhen Bao looked up to see a fantastical castle on the big screen, followed by the title: Cinderella.
