Three months later, at the tail end of spring.
Wang Cheng led the main creative team of *Spring Night* to Cannes to prepare for the film festival.
Because Cannes had no airport, the plane could only fly directly to Nice Airport to land.
Speaking of which, it was quite regrettable. In all the years since Wu Man’s debut, she had come to France several times for fashion week or magazine shoots, but had only stayed in Paris and never found time to make a trip to the South of France. She also rarely gave herself vacations. Generally, she would just go to LA to see Wu Yulan, or fly to Japan, Korea, or Southeast Asia—short flight times meant she could rest for two more days.
Therefore, this was Wu Man’s first time setting foot in the South of France.
But this was Zhui Ye’s second visit, so compared to her he had experience. Throughout the flight, he kept chattering to her in the tone of someone who had been there before, his voice full of excitement.
“The South of France in May is truly as beautiful as an oil painting. The sunlight is so transparent it’s indescribable. Last time when I got off the plane unprepared, Director Wang was particularly mean—he put on a pair of sunglasses and leisurely got off, while I foolishly followed behind him and rushed out. Good heavens, I was nearly blinded!”
Wang Cheng, hearing this from the front row, said with a chuckle: “Alright, you can keep bringing this up for two years. This time I’m bringing you over a day early so you can walk around and relax on your own first. Then everyone will gather in Cannes. Haven’t I made sufficient amends?”
Zhui Ye leaned languidly against the back of Wang Cheng’s seat: “Director Wang, you’re so wise I want to give you a kiss.”
Wang Cheng glanced meaningfully at Wu Man: “Let Wu Man take those kisses on my behalf.”
Wu Man coughed twice and protested: “Don’t talk nonsense.”
Wang Cheng smiled knowingly.
Under the unfolded tray table, Zhui Ye secretly hooked her pinky finger.
Outside the window was Nice’s cloudless blue sky.
*
After the group left Nice Airport, Wang Cheng and the others took the train to Cannes first. Wu Man and Zhui Ye pretended they wanted to visit different places separately. As soon as they waved goodbye to the group, the two people who had turned left and right made a big circle in perfect synchronization and walked back to the starting point.
“This gentleman, you look familiar.”
“Elder sister, your pickup method is a bit old-fashioned.”
The two smiled at each other, held hands as they walked out, and caught the bus outside the terminal to go to the city center.
Because this was Wu Man’s first visit, as soon as she sat down she curiously gazed at the scenery flying past the window. Zhui Ye lowered his head and took out his phone, scrolling through something, suddenly laughing quietly to himself.
Only then did Wu Man’s attention shift back to him a bit. She couldn’t help but ask: “What are you looking at?”
Without raising his head, he said: “I’m scrolling through Weibo.”
Wu Man curiously leaned over to glance and discovered his secret.
—This kid’s main account looked aloof as hell, but it turned out it was because he was using an alternate account to scroll!
Wu Man nearly coughed up blood. To think she had spent so much time back then analyzing whether or not he posted on Weibo…
Although everyone in the industry definitely had at least one alternate account, some even more than one, Zhui Ye had inexplicably left her with the odd impression that he was above using alternate accounts to surf the internet, and that he’d just use his main account to confront whatever he wanted to see directly.
As a result, when she searched for his alternate account username, she was completely speechless.
Number of posts: over 1000.
He was such a chatterbox!
She scrolled down. Every single post on her main Weibo account had been reposted several times, like those automatic Weibo reposting bots.
“Why do you repost the same thing several times?”
“To boost your metrics!”
“I’m not an idol!”
“Elder sister’s Weibo must have prestige!”
Wu Man rolled her eyes and pointed at his profile: “…What is this ‘Spring Night Couple Super Topic Big Fan’ thing?!”
Mentioning this, Zhui Ye got energized.
“This is a good thing I discovered a while ago!” He was beaming with excitement. “After that video clearing our names was released, someone suddenly created this super topic, pairing you and me as a CP called Spring Night Couple. These people are incredibly talented. I check in every day to look around.”
He scrolled on his phone and flipped to a particular post to show her: “This is what I just saw. It’s amazing.”
Wu Man clicked on the image. It showed two children: a little girl holding a small stuffed toy, with a little boy beside her holding the little girl.
This little girl, Wu Man naturally wouldn’t find unfamiliar, because it was a photo of herself as a child. And this little boy…
She looked at the image, then looked at Zhui Ye.
“That’s you?”
Zhui Ye nodded: “Fans photoshopped us as childhood sweethearts. It’s amazing—I was holding an ice pop in my hand at the time. How did they change it from an ice pop to you?” He laughed heartily, with obvious envy in his tone. “If only this photo were real.”
Wu Man stared at this photo, infected by his tone, and also felt a trace of wistfulness.
What if… what if they had really grown up together from childhood? Instead of being separated by eleven years of staggered time.
She traced the edge of the photo: “Maybe in another parallel universe, we’re like this. You would protect me, and I would protect you. We’d grow up supporting each other.”
Zhui Ye nodded vigorously: “Maybe in another parallel universe, we’ve already been married for many years.”
Wu Man said deliberately: “You’re thinking quite beautifully. Two parallel universes worth of me both given to you—would the next one fall for you too?”
Zhui Ye pressed his lips together. The hand around her waist immediately and imperceptibly pinched the soft flesh.
He whispered in her ear: “I believe that version of me in that universe would also recklessly snatch you back.”
Wu Man’s face flushed. She made a show of returning the phone to him, but couldn’t help taking another look at that photo.
…This version of Zhui Ye’s face always gave her a sense of ready-to-emerge familiarity.
Looking at it this way, she had indeed seen him once in Qing Ling, hadn’t she?
This young face awakened a tiny bit of distant memory deep in her brain, yet it was still like looking at flowers through fog—not quite clear.
*
The day they arrived in Nice was Monday. The Saleya Square in the old town just happened to have its once-weekly flea market open, so they headed straight for the old town.
Nice was quite small but still rather winding. However, Zhui Ye was like a human GPS, leading her through seven twists and eight turns right to the destination.
Wu Man said in surprise: “You remember after coming just once?”
He proudly puffed out his chest: “I’ve been traveling everywhere since I was sixteen. I don’t have other skills, but I still have the ability to remember roads I’ve walked once.”
“The tour guide industry’s loss of you is truly tremendous.”
Wu Man teased him while shifting her attention to the dazzling array of small items.
The stalls sold everything—oil paintings, handicrafts, vintage luxury goods, jewelry and clothing. No woman could resist these elegant and period-rich things, and Wu Man was no exception.
Zhui Ye was like all boyfriends in the world accompanying their girlfriends shopping, walking beside her without complaint.
When they passed a stall, they saw that the vendor had her dog tied to her feet. The dog barked at passing people. The vendor shook her head helplessly, took a price tag from the side and wrote down 20 euros, sticking it on the dog’s fluffy back. Thinking it over and feeling it wasn’t right, she peeled off the sticker and added countless zeros after it, re-sticking it on the dog’s head.
The dog whimpered and nuzzled against her ankle.
The vendor smiled, picked up the dog, and kissed its round head.
Wu Man couldn’t help but watch this scene with amusement, instinctively stopping to observe the person and dog. Zhui Ye laughed outright and said: “This is a good move. Next time Xiao Huang poops on my bed again, I’ll carry it to the market, stick a price tag on it, and let it know that being naughty means getting sold.”
Wu Man nodded seriously: “I should also prepare a dozen price tags. If you do something that displeases me, I’ll stick one on you and take you for a stroll down the street.”
“Does elder sister mean… I’m your little dog?”
Zhui Ye imitated her and bent down, his chin lightly nuzzling against her neck. The corners of his mouth turned down pitifully, though his eyes held laughter.
Wu Man reached out and ruffled his hair.
“With your height, you’re at least a big dog, the majestic kind.”
He closed his eyes, enjoying the breeze, the sunshine, and her palm.
“I want to be a little dog, nestled in your arms.”
Yet his hands did the opposite, pulling her into his embrace.
They looked around the entire circuit and ultimately bought nothing, only purchasing two ice creams with flavors that sounded quite strange. When the young clerk handed over the ice cream cones, he threw in a flirtatious wink at Wu Man for free. Wu Man politely smiled back at him, and Zhui Ye caught it perfectly.
He grunted quietly, standing at the counter and impatiently tasting the ice cream in his hand, as if trying to cool down his irritation and make himself look more magnanimous.
“Is it good?” She pointed at the cactus flavor in his hand—truly bizarre, that flavor.
He continued grunting: “Not bad.”
Wu Man curiously extended her hand: “Then let me taste a bite.”
He passed over the ice cream ball in his hand. Just as she was about to receive it, his other hand suddenly intervened, his fingertips grabbing her sleeve and pulling her toward him. He lowered his head, took a sip of ice cream, and brought it to her lips.
The old town’s church bells rang out, melodious and solemn. From the tenth century onwards, continuing to today in the twenty-first century, spanning hundreds of years, they rang at the moment their lips touched.
The solemn atmosphere melted with the sweetness of the ice cream. They only touched briefly. Wu Man closed her eyes in a daze and opened them again, seeing the young man’s slightly longer hair projected on the old walls, like a cluster of spring dandelions, wrapped in honey and floating into her mouth.
Zhui Ye childishly glanced sideways at the clerk, only then blowing the horn of victory and pulling her away triumphantly.
Wu Man pretended to be annoyed and flicked his forehead, but her tongue lightly explored, licking the dandelion seeds remaining at her lips.
Afterward, they wandered aimlessly along the old town. May’s late spring connected with early summer, the temperature straddling the boundary between scorching and warm, but the wind that blew was refreshing. It brushed over the fine hairs on their skin like it brushed over wheat waves in a rice field. Two wheat waves knotted in the wind because their hands were intertwined.
Along the road were jogging pedestrians, an old gentleman sitting on the street corner playing an accordion, and a vendor selling bubbles. Two or three curly-haired children curiously gathered around his feet, watching him pull apart two long thin sticks, and a huge dreamlike bubble appeared in his hands.
The children were exclaiming, laughing, their voices drifting over from afar, along with Zhui Ye’s casual murmuring in her ear.
Wu Man thought that in her life, there had never been a more gentle and warm afternoon than this.
*
They took the evening train to Cannes. Half an hour later, the train pulled into the station.
This was a very small station. Who would have thought that the narrow gate at the exit had actually accommodated countless celebrities?
The moment Wu Man’s footsteps landed here, her mood was already completely different from half an hour ago in Nice. Her mood became heavy along with her footsteps. But she concealed this emotion and walked out of the station exit with feigned ease, surveying this small city surrounded by mountains and sea.
By now, the lights were just coming on. The flowing scent of the ocean drifted from afar. The houses on the mountain slopes were stacked layer upon layer with warm yellow lights. The buildings were all quite low, not magnificent, making this thunderously famous small city of Cannes appear so plain and simple.
But upon reaching the coastline, the row of luxury stores and the interspersed luxury hotels proclaimed its prestige.
Their luggage had already been brought to the hotel in advance. The two walked empty-handed, preparing to have dinner.
Zhui Ye wanted to take her to that restaurant he thought was very good. Wu Man remembered that interview and asked teasingly: “I wonder if the owner will give you a discount?”
Zhui Ye touched his nose: “I was alone at that time… If I’m bringing my girlfriend, I’d better not clamor for a discount. That would damage my dignity.”
Before long, they arrived at the restaurant he mentioned, on the street directly across from the Cannes Festival Palace.
The dining table on the second-floor terrace offered a perfect view of a corner of the Festival Palace.
Very soon, they would put on glamorous attire, walk the red carpet, and welcome the most magnificent day of their lives thus far.
She didn’t know if this day would be a turning point—whether the infamy she had borne all these years, her assessment of her own talent, the sacrifices she had made for this film, would be washed away and rewarded.
Or perhaps in the end, it would just be empty joy.