Chapter 219: Escaping Death
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Mu Jingzhe couldn’t imagine this cold scene, so she shook her head and pushed those thoughts away. She found Little Bei and the others and continued watching the movie.
Elsewhere, Shao Qihai, who had run home in a sorry state, heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that Mu Jingzhe hadn’t caught up with him. He felt like he had just escaped death.
He had almost been exposed. He had been scared out of his wits just now.
Shao Qihai let out a breath and washed his face. However, his eyes were still swollen. He touched his swollen eyes and accidentally hiccuped, smacking his head in frustration.
“I knew I shouldn’t have gone there.”
Shao Qihai never watched television dramas or movies. In front of outsiders, he’d claimed that he didn’t like them, but in reality, he was afraid of seeing people cry while watching television or movies. Once they cried, he would cry along with them.
He hadn’t gotten the chance to watch Little Bei’s movie yet, but it sounded like a very touching movie. To sum up, it contained a lot of crying scenes.
He couldn’t even take it if an ordinary person cried. If he saw Little Bei cry, he would probably cry to death with her.
Therefore, Shao Qihai hadn’t dared to go with them. Otherwise, if he cried in front of the men, women, and children of Great Eastern Village, as well as in front of other villagers, he would be finished. Who knew what those people would think of him.
Shao Qihai didn’t dare. When he had seen Little Bei’s disappointed expression, he had felt terrible but had still persisted.
However, he couldn’t bring himself to not watch it at all. That was Little Bei’s first movie, and it had even won an award. In the end, after they’d left, he had secretly followed them. He didn’t dare watch the movie in public, so he had hidden away to watch it.
Since he was too far away to see clearly, Shao Qihai had used a pair of binoculars. He had applied to bring the binoculars back after the army had discarded them.
Although they were a little shabby, they were better than the ones outside. One could see clearly through these binoculars. Because the volume was loud, he could watch the movie just fine even from a distance.
Shao Qihai had been very engrossed while watching it. He’d kept praising Little Bei in his heart, but he couldn’t help but cry along.
Unexpectedly, just as he’d been crying uncontrollably, Mu Jingzhe had discovered him. He didn’t even dare to imagine Mu Jingzhe’s expression if she saw him like this.
Shao Qihai had run away in fear. Because he was really anxious, he even scraped his ankle.
He lowered his head to look at his ankle. The wound was small and it was nothing serious, but Shao Qihai also realized that he had lost the binoculars while he had been in a hurry.
“Please don’t let Jingzhe pick them up.” If he was exposed, he would be finished.
Shao Qihai was hesitating, not sure whether he should take the risk and go out to look for them. Just as he was about to leave the house, he saw Shao Qiyang return.
These days, Shao Qiyang had been leaving early and returning late, so he’d rarely seen Shao Qihai. Ever since Shao Qihai had discovered his intentions, the two hadn’t met in private. When he saw Shao Qiyang return, he greeted him with conflicted thoughts.
“You’re back.”
“Mm.” Shao Qiyang glanced at Shao Qihai. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”
“Ah, I’m fine. I just accidentally rubbed some chili into my eyes and made them sting.” Shao Qihai forgot that the swelling in his eyes had yet to subside and hurriedly made up an excuse. “Have you eaten? I’ve saved you some food.”
Shao Qihai had originally wanted to talk to Shao Qiyang, but now that his eyes were red, he’d probably have to postpone it.
Shao Qiyang looked at Shao Qihai’s back and was silent for a moment. “Where are Jingzhe and the kids?”
“They went to the movies. Little Bei’s movie is being screened in the village.” Only then did Shao Qihai realize that Shao Qiyang had never called her second sister-in-law. He had always called her Jingzhe. There had actually been signs all along.
Shao Qiyang nodded in understanding. Then, he looked at Shao Qihai with disappointment in his eyes. “Then why didn’t you go?”
“You know I don’t like movies. We’ll talk about it later.” Shao Qihai was stiff.
Shao Qiyang sneered softly. “Even if you don’t, that’s the first movie Little Bei has starred in. She will probably be very disappointed.”
Even Li Zhaodi and Mu Teng had thought of screening Little Bei’s movie to make her happy. In the end, her father had refused to watch it because he didn’t like movies. How ironic. He didn’t even go although the movie was being screened almost right on their doorstep.
Shao Qihai froze, also knowing that it was wrong of him to do this. “I’ll go and see it later. I just won’t watch it for the time being.”
“It’s up to you.” Shao Qiyang was increasingly disappointed in Shao Qihai. He couldn’t be bothered to continue speaking to him, so he turned to look for Mu Jingzhe and the five kids.
The movie had already ended, but Little Bei was surrounded by passionate viewers and couldn’t leave for a while.
Even after the movie was finished, everyone was crying. When they looked at Little Bei again, they were still immersed in the movie, and someone even rolled up his sleeves, wanting to settle the score with Zhao Lan. “Where is this old, wicked woman? Didn’t she appear previously? Let’s go and hit her. Let’s just beat her to death.”
Zhao Lan had just been hit by a rock. If this person went over, she might really be beaten up again. Little Bei hadn’t expected that after such a long time, someone would finally stand up for her.
She was quite happy in her heart, but she was sensible enough to stop everyone from acting rashly. She repeatedly told everyone that everything in the movie was fake and that it wasn’t true. She had a mother and brothers who treated her very well.
Although she said that, everyone in Great Eastern Village was there. It was a fact that this was just a performance in a movie, but it was also a fact that Zhao Lan wasn’t a good person. Everyone couldn’t help but be reminded of what Eldest Brother Zhao, Zhao Lan, and the others had done to the kids.
Hence, Fu, Lu, Shou, and Xǐ, who had blended into the crowd and were crying with everyone else, once again entered everyone’s line of sight.
Fu, Lu, Shou, and Xǐ, who were originally very happy to be watching the movie and even silently admired Little Bei and wanted to say a few words to her, saw everyone’s gazes and ran away crying.
After what Little Bei had said, the crowd gave up on the idea of beating Zhao Lan up. Then, someone said that it would be great if they could take a picture with her. Since this was her first time watching Little Bei’s movie in the village, Mu Jingzhe had brought her camera. Hence, they ended up taking a group photo that would one day be precious.
Although there were no autographs, everyone did take group photos.
One village after another took a group photo with her, gathering around Little Bei. Then, they even stuffed money into Mu Jingzhe’s hands, insisting that she buy a copy for them when she developed the photos.
Because of this fan meeting, they were delayed for a while and didn’t return home.
After Shao Qiyang came over and helped the five children and Mu Jingzhe take a photo, they walked home amid everyone’s enthusiastic encouragement to stay.
On the way home, Shao Dong noticed the binoculars that Mu Jingzhe had hung in front of her chest to free her hands up to take photos. “Mom, where did you get these binoculars?”
“I picked them up. What’s wrong?”
“These binoculars look familiar. I think I’ve seen them before.”
“Really? Whose are they?” If only she could find that person and return the binoculars. Most importantly, she had to persuade him not to take things too seriously.
Shao Dong’s expression was strange for a moment. “I must have seen wrong. They shouldn’t be his.” He seemed to have seen these binoculars among Shao Qihai’s belongings before.
Mu Jingzhe understood what Shao Dong meant. “You mean that these belong to your father?”
She realized that the children weren’t willing to call Shao Qihai ‘Daddy’ anymore. They didn’t want to call Shao Qihai ‘Daddy’ in front of him, and they didn’t want to call him ‘Daddy’ in private either. They would replace the word ‘Daddy’ with ‘he’, but she didn’t feel like it was her place to speak to them about this.
“I think I’ve seen them before, but I don’t think so.”
“I don’t think so either. They probably belong to someone else.”
As they spoke, they returned home and happened to encounter Shao Qihai, who was about to leave the house.. He had originally planned on going back to look for the binoculars, but when he raised his head, he saw that the binoculars were hanging over Mu Jingzhe’s chest.