Time flowed past like spring streams rushing by.

In his personal capacity, Chen An sponsored a reality show with a documentary style, preparing to officially begin filming the construction of the small cinema museum at Taixi Cultural Plaza after the New Year.

Negotiations for investing in Kou She Media were nearing completion, with legal teams on both sides already reviewing contracts. Under the arrangement of Kou She’s chairman, Chen An and Jiang Litao even had a meal together. Compared to his sinister performance at the Hilton Hotel, Jiang Litao was much more proactive at the dinner, chatting extensively about his business strategies to pique Chen An’s interest. After the dinner ended, on their way out to find drivers, Jiang Litao said “Miss Cheng suffered quite a bit of grievance that day,” which counted as an apology. Chen An, unwilling to make enemies, replied “The young one at home was playful, thank you for President Jiang’s understanding,” which counted as turning the page on this matter.

But this didn’t affect the investment plan proceeding as usual. Chen An had no trust whatsoever in Jiang Litao. Having the cards in his own hands always brought more peace of mind.

The follow-up from the investigation company about Qin Wenfeng was rather interesting.

They discovered that Qin Wenfeng’s windfall from a few years ago came from insurance fraud in collusion with others. The investigation company had already submitted relevant evidence to the insurance company. While waiting for their legal department to file suit, they heard another piece of news.

After Ye Xiaomei’s death, to prevent Qin Rui from selling the property without authorization due to drug use, Qin Wenfeng forced him to transfer the house to his own name. Later, Qin Wenfeng encountered the free-spending noblewoman Shen Tianlan and thought he could resume his path of living off women. Under Shen Tianlan’s coaxing, Qin Wenfeng mortgaged his house and invested in a supposedly guaranteed-profit project.

But not long ago, Shen Tianlan suddenly disappeared, and that project evaporated like a mirage. Reportedly, Qin Wenfeng now had neither person nor money, was holding a court summons in his hand, and had cried himself unconscious at the drug rehabilitation center’s entrance.

Chen An felt this was a show where magic defeated magic—very entertaining and worth watching.

A few days before year’s end, Cheng Lele and Chen An went to Beijing together.

Guan Luning organized a startup exchange meeting for graduating students, and Chen An was invited as an instructor. Cheng Lele went because Tongda Group’s annual meeting was imminent, and since she had recently both filmed with Liang Yuchao and become a small internet celebrity, the department collectively voted to push her out to perform.

Upon returning to the company, Mark secretly informed her that the new operations director Alice, after learning about her situation, had specifically looked at the Taixi data, greatly admired her work ability, and intended to transfer her back to Beijing.

She was then called into Alice’s office.

Alice wore exquisite professional makeup and spoke very quickly—clearly an elite-type leader. After briefly praising her achievements, Alice gave her two choices without a single wasted word. One was to return to Beijing and continue her previous store support work. The other was to transfer to Hangzhou. There was a high-end cinema project there invested in by Tongda, primarily featuring niche films and healthy dining. Since it was the company’s entirely new direction, the company would allocate resources and hold small-scale film salons there irregularly.

“Go back and think it over carefully. Tell me your answer after the New Year. After selecting a suitable colleague to replace you, I’ll discuss it with that general manager.”

Cheng Lele smiled: “What if that general manager won’t let me go?”

Alice said: “It’s not up to him. The contract doesn’t specify it can only be you.”

“He might cause trouble for President Shen.”

Alice said confidently: “President Shen won’t care. His transfer order to film and television has already come down. The new boss is one of my people, don’t worry.” After speaking, she paused. “But you can also talk nicely with that general manager in advance. You two are relatively more familiar—play the emotional card. If everyone can resolve this peacefully, that’s naturally best.”

After leaving the office, Cheng Lele received project materials about Hangzhou from Alice. It was obvious she very much hoped she would choose this, which coincided with Cheng Lele’s own thinking.

She had a good impression of this Alice, possibly because Huang Tiangou was truly so terrible that any somewhat shrewd and capable leader was enough to utterly surpass him.

Alice seemed to appreciate her quite a bit, though she had nothing to be smug about. When new officials took office, people valued by previous leaders all had to be put in the cold palace. Fringe people like her who had nearly become footbath maids were actually more likely to get opportunities for favor. Fortune turns—who knew how long Alice would stay here. All she could do was borrow the wind when opportunity came.

Before returning to Taixi, Chen An went with her to her mother’s cemetery and handled the procedures for relocating the ashes.

Ever since having that dream of her parents saying goodbye to her, she had been determined to relocate them. Not having visited for half a year, the tombstone was covered in dust. Chen An pulled her to kowtow three times but didn’t say much. The cemetery professionals were going to open the grave to retrieve the ashes, but Chen An only had them give guidance while he did it himself.

She knew this was the last thing Chen An could do for her mother as an adopted son and son-in-law. She let him busy himself while she leisurely sat aside watching the blue sky and white clouds for a while. She remembered that half a year ago, she had sat here all alone saying goodbye to her mother. The sky that day was even bluer than now. She had asked her mother if she would have a chance to see Chen An, but held no hope in her heart. Yet half a year later, Chen An came back holding her hand. She was no longer alone.

On the twenty-ninth day of the lunar year, bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, Cheng Lele stayed at the cinema, working with staff until five in the afternoon when the cinema closed. Then Chen An brought her back to the provincial capital to celebrate the New Year with Grandmother and Aunt.

Now the New Year atmosphere was getting weaker. Besides watching the Spring Festival Gala, there wasn’t much else to do. The four of them turned on the TV and gathered around a table to play mahjong. Grandmother’s eyesight wasn’t good and her mind reacted slowly—it took her forever to draw and discard tiles. Cheng Lele was even slower than Grandmother. She moved her thirteen tiles back and forth, and somehow a tile would go missing. Grandmother randomly fished one out from the mahjong pool for her.

Chen An, sitting across from them, got tired of waiting and said to play the rightmost tile. Cheng Lele played the last one. Wang Liting said, “Why are you so obedient?” and leaned over to look at the tiles.

“Baby, you already have a pure hand ready to win.”

To actually hear the word “baby” from Wang Liting’s mouth—Chen An felt very surprised.

Cheng Lele was still frowning, asking dumbly: “How did I win?”

Chen An smiled and called over Ah Chou: “Come explain it properly to your mom.”

Wang Liting glared at Chen An and arranged Cheng Lele’s tiles. Cheng Lele suddenly understood.

After this round, Cheng Lele got the hang of it. She played better and better, becoming the night’s biggest winner.

“Are you all letting me win?” Cheng Lele asked, holding a stack of money.

Chen An stuffed the money into her pocket: “No, beginners have strong luck. Winning money tonight means you’ll have good fortune all next year.”

It was Cheng Lele’s first time playing mahjong—she didn’t really understand these things: “Ah? Then wouldn’t I be building my good fortune on your—ah, ptui ptui ptui.”

Saying inauspicious things during the New Year. Cheng Lele started returning money: “Everyone come get some good luck.”

The other three each symbolically took one bill: “The rule is to take one bill.”

Cheng Lele nodded and obediently put away the money.

Chen An found silly-cute Cheng Lele very amusing. He pinched her nose and said: “Come here, I have a gift for you.”

Cheng Lele asked excitedly: “What gift?”

Chen An covered her eyes and walked toward the room.

Wang Liting and Grandmother watched Zhang Kaili urging marriage in a sketch show with eyes straight ahead.

Grandmother said in Taixi dialect: “Young people in love can’t be stopped even if you try. What’s the use of urging? When they want to marry themselves, they’re more anxious than us old folks.”

Wang Liting cracked sunflower seeds and said: “I heard from An An that Lele is going to Hangzhou after the New Year.”

Grandmother said: “Won’t that make him a grass widower?”

“Don’t know. Probably commute between both places. An An said they have to get married first before she goes.”

“He’s quite clever. Why not just have the baby too?”

“He dares to think it but not do it.”

Grandmother sighed: “He’s a bit cowardly.”

The cowardly man Chen An removed the hand covering Cheng Lele’s eyes.

Only the corner lights were on in the room—not bright. When Cheng Lele opened her eyes, it didn’t hurt.

Though perhaps it did hurt a little, because when she saw an enormous miniature model on the table, all her attention was instantly drawn away.

“You made this yourself?”

Chen An’s smile was radiant: “Yes. Do you like it?”

Cheng Lele nodded and turned on the small desk lamp beside it to examine it carefully. A square gray brick building, two floors, with glass doors opened in the center of the ground floor. Gently pushing with a fingertip, she could see an extremely long counter inside. Multiple cash register computers lined the counter. Several television screens above the counter were each only as big as a fingernail, but still very meticulously posted with screening movie information.

“Lust, Caution,” “A Little Thing Called Love,” “The Avengers”… all movies they had watched together over those years.

The floor-to-ceiling LED screen on the east side was a one-inch-square electronic screen, looping the Christmas Eve lottery interface from that day. The protruding lounge above the escalator had mascots like octopuses and tigers, with a small figure in black clothes and red skirt in front.

Cheng Lele couldn’t help touching that figure. Immediately the “lobby” lights blazed bright, “Always look on the bright side…” music sounded, and the little figure began doing the frog movement—very cute.

Due to depth issues, the screening rooms on the second floor couldn’t be opened—they were more symbolic. However, the door of the frontmost theater could be opened. Cheng Lele tried pushing it, and the lights immediately dimmed. A beam of light shot from the base into mid-air, presenting a cinema model with many seats.

A countdown of 3, 2, 1 appeared in the dark space before the seats.

With a loud cry, two baby photos appeared in mid-air. The images quickly changed, the babies growing up rapidly. The two of them, wearing red lipstick and gold powder, swayed left and right at Taixi Theater, the background music changing to the childish voices of “Love Each Other as One Family.” Next was the elementary school tug-of-war competition—she fell to the ground, crying with all her features scrunched together, while Chen An carried her running quickly to the infirmary. Then the middle school sports meet—after Chen An’s high jump, she ran over and hugged him tightly. Then in high school, she cheered on the rooftop, parading around in a certificate-bearing outfit…

After playing precious growth videos, photos flew in from all corners like snowflakes. There was choking on water while learning to swim, crying over a lost tooth, wearing a red scarf for the first time, holding a perfect-score test paper, being punished to stand in the corner, successfully applying makeup for the first time as a grown-up and feeling pretty, rushing to the provincial capital to see a concert and being frozen by cold wind…

Every single one was of her.

After the photos finished playing, two lines of text appeared in mid-air.

Life is like a movie.

My movie has had a female lead from the very beginning.

The image flashed, and another line appeared: Now, I want to ask my female lead a question.

Cheng Lele was already full of tears, both eyes cried into looking like a rabbit’s: “Okay, Little Ge, I’m willing.”

Chen An wiped her wet face, but couldn’t hide his smile: “I haven’t asked yet.”

He pulled out a dazzling, brilliant diamond ring and quickly slipped it onto Cheng Lele’s ring finger: “Good baby, are you willing to marry me?”

Not a single step of the two people’s proposal process was correct.

Cheng Lele’s tears suddenly evaporated. Looking at that brilliantly shining big ring, her throat made meaningless gurgling sounds.

After a long time, she finally shouted: “Little Ge, you put the six million for buying the cinema on my hand? Is my hand about to be worth more than Li Yundi’s and Lang Lang’s? Holy shit, Little Ge, are you crazy? Don’t you know people will chop off hands for this?”

Chen An anticipated this would be Cheng Lele’s reaction. He calmly touched her head and said: “Wear it when you go to Hangzhou. People there are more worldly than us in Taixi, and public security is very good. Don’t worry about wearing it.”

Cheng Lele was instantly silenced: “Hang—Hangzhou…”

“You’ve spent quite a bit of mental effort these past few days thinking about how to convince me, haven’t you?”

“Not really.” Cheng Lele took advantage and acted cute: “Just didn’t expect Little Ge to be so considerate and understanding…”

“Get married first before you go.”

“That’s a must.” Cheng Lele nodded repeatedly.

“Your ring hangs on your neck, my ring goes on your hand. I’ll conduct surprise inspections.”

“Tsk…”

“Then don’t go to Hangzhou.”

“Tsk, this ring on my hand makes my hand look especially white, especially slender.”

“That’s more like it.”

“Little Ge, does this ring have a miniature model? Like this mini cinema, smaller, faker, so I have less psychological burden…”

“Cheng Lele, I advise you not to have these crooked ideas, or you won’t go to Hangzhou.”

“Oh, I’m just saying… This ring is so good, so big, it can hide weapons inside. Hey, do you think Li Xunhuan from ‘Little Li’s Flying Dagger’ also wore one of these?”

Chen An pounced over to ruffle her hair. Cheng Lele giggled in his arms.

Outside the door, Wang Liting and Grandmother stood guard. Grandmother, hard of hearing, asked: “Was the proposal successful?”

Wang Liting nodded.

Grandmother muttered: “Then what are they still hiding inside for?” Then briskly went to bang on the door: “It’s almost midnight—come out and eat tangyuan!”

Cheng Lele opened the door, waving a huge ring to show Grandmother: “Grandmother, look—is this suitable for hiding poison? In movies, they poison people this way without anyone knowing.”

Chen An rolled his eyes behind her.

Wang Liting couldn’t help laughing. Cheng Lele started snapping her fingers: “Aunt, if I collect four more, I can be Thanos!”

The TV suddenly broadcast a countdown.

“Grandmother! Happy New Year!” Cheng Lele gave Grandmother’s face a loud kiss. “Mom, Happy New Year!” Cheng Lele went to kiss Wang Liting next. “Son, Happy New Year!” Cheng Lele went to hug Ah Chou.

Chen An was ranked last. Cheng Lele ran over to give him a big hug and crisply called out: “Husband, Happy New Year!”

Chen An originally had a bellyful of irritation, but when Cheng Lele wanted to be sweet-tongued, he simply couldn’t resist. He could only beam with smiles all over his face and reply: “Wife, Happy New Year!”

(The End)