Night cherry blossoms spun as they fell from the branches. Zhui Ye raised his head, as if looking at the cherry blossoms.
His silence made Wu Man feel uneasy, thinking could it be that this time she messed up…
Thinking carefully, she was already thirty-six, more than halfway through the journey to forty. While Zhui Ye had just barely reached twenty-five—for a man, still too early an age to talk about maturity. It was hard to say he’d be willing to be bound by marriage just like that.
Plus, with the achievements he now possessed, anyone would want to desperately hold on to them.
So for her to propose seemed to make her, this older unmarried woman, appear overly anxious.
Only now did Wu Man notice these subtle points, but when she spoke those five words, she couldn’t consider any of this. Reserve, position, conditions… none of these mattered.
At this moment, she was just a little girl wanting to tightly grasp love. Wanting to stay by his side with an even closer bond, through the long years, never to part.
Zhui Ye blinked once, lowered his head again to meet Wu Man’s gaze, the expression on his face showing not much emotion.
He smiled lightly and said, “Elder Sister, you’ve acted in so many dramas. How did you choose such a clichéd proposal method?”
Wu Man felt a bit annoyed. “Clichéd or not, are you agreeing or not?”
“What if I say I’m not agreeing?” He shook his head lightly. “In the future when we’re old and reminiscing, when others ask how you got married, I’ll say my wife stuffed the ring into a cake—people might laugh so hard their dentures fall out from how clichéd it is.”
Wu Man’s expression darkened, feeling embarrassed. She reached out to snatch the ring back from his hand.
“I haven’t finished yet!” Zhui Ye immediately clenched his fist. “Aren’t you going to ask me what wouldn’t be a clichéd proposal method?”
“Don’t want to know.”
“…” He sighed. “Then I’ll proactively demonstrate for you. Will you do me the honor of watching, okay?”
While speaking, Zhui Ye pulled out a small blue velvet box from his jacket pocket. Opening it, inside were two ring bands, the inner side of each ring inlaid with the other’s initials.
Although the design was simple, this was clearly custom-made in advance. Unlike the ring she gave—no matter how exquisite, it was still one she had rushed to select that same day in Ginza.
She asked dumbfoundedly, “…When was this?”
“When you agreed to be with me, I secretly ordered rings.” Zhui Ye looked a bit embarrassed. “But I was afraid you’d think I was rash and impulsive, so I never dared give it to you. I just carried it with me.”
So that was why he could suddenly pull it out from his person.
The small ring he carried close to his heart was his eternally fervent heart.
Now the person raising their head to look at the cherry blossoms for a long time, not daring to lower it, became her.
Wu Man blinked once. The night cherry blossoms were blurred by mist into a wet print, and she heard her own voice pretending to be nonchalant as it mocked him, “Brat, your proposal method is clearly even more clichéd than mine.”
“Then that means we’re a match made in heaven.”
The young man grinned, his eyes rimmed with red. Her puppy had become a crybaby again.
“If I hadn’t said anything, when were you planning to give it to me?”
Hearing her question, Zhui Ye was stunned for a moment, shaking his head. “To be honest, I don’t know.” He asked in return, “Why did Elder Sister choose today to… propose to me?”
When he said those last two words, the smile he couldn’t suppress emerged foolishly from his eyes and the corners of his mouth.
“Nothing much. Today at the convenience store, I saw an elderly couple. They both looked over seventy, walking unsteadily.” Wu Man recalled the morning scene. “They were the oldest among the people buying cake, and then the two of them carried the cake and, like us, viewed flowers and chatted under the cherry tree. I unconsciously thought, if there’s someone in this world willing to accompany me to view cherry blossoms with such ceremony even when so old, that person could only be you.”
Sometimes, falling in love with someone can list many grand and beautiful reasons, but when deciding to spend a lifetime with them, it’s actually just a very tiny moment.
And when life reaches its end, what you can take with you is nothing more than those few scorching moments.
That day, Zhui Ye’s fans discovered that the person himself, who hadn’t updated his social media in ages, had finally come back from the dead.
He uploaded a photo of night cherry blossoms with the caption: “Cherry blossom petals scatter, falling on a crow’s dull wings.”
Fans rushed to the comments at lightning speed.
“Ahhhhhhh big brother did you finally remember your account password?”
“Going to see cherry blossoms alone again! Next time I’ll just wait under the cherry blossom trees for handsome guys wuwuwu!!”
“Cherry blossoms aren’t as beautiful as you! You’re the April sky of the human world!”
Fans’ rainbow farts were endless. The Weibo post he made inexplicably climbed the trending search again.
#ZhuiYeCherryBlossomViewing
Even Zhui Ye himself found it a bit speechless after seeing it. Why did such a trivial thing make the trending search?
This was also why they had delayed going public. At first it was to protect Elder Sister, but later they became more and more famous. His every move caused citywide storms, not to mention Wu Man also had a stormy constitution. The two of them stirring together would only turn the internet upside down.
And Wu Man was unwilling to be criticized by others like that, even more unwilling to have their feelings judged by outsiders. Perhaps a casual small gesture could be over-interpreted. For instance, if they didn’t interact on Weibo, were they fighting? If they were photographed eating with others, had they broken up? They were destined to be a couple not favored by others—after all, the age gap was truly too large.
Speaking of which, it was quite helpless. May-December romances in the entertainment industry weren’t anything new, but everyone seemed accustomed to men with a ten-plus year age gap pairing with girls. Even more exaggerated cases were common. But once a woman found a boy with such a gap, it would be viewed as an incredible feat.
This incredibility was both praise and criticism. It was clearly just the most ordinary love, so how did it become a spectacle for opposing viewpoints to tear at each other? This actually meant discrimination, because love shouldn’t need to be controversial. The world’s harsh treatment of women was always daunting, often causing people to overlook love itself.
Sure enough, Zhui Ye’s trending search hadn’t been up for more than a few minutes when Wu Man’s trending search also climbed up, but what it was paired with wasn’t any good term.
#WuManDesperateToMarry
Clicking in, someone had somehow secretly photographed her shopping for rings in Ginza that afternoon.
Netizens got excited now, their imaginations running wild over this image. Who told her to be the only one among the well-known A-list actresses who hadn’t married? They had to seize the opportunity to bombard her.
Look, even though she has money, achievements, and looks, she still can’t get married. She’s not even as good as me.
Some netizens wantonly mocked Wu Man with this strange sense of superiority, opening threads in the anonymous section.
Main post: “Good news—a certain leftover flower is finally going to marry herself off! [image.jpg]”
1st floor: Gongs and drums resound, firecrackers blaze!!
2nd floor: Really getting married??
3rd floor: She’s already buying rings—isn’t this a sign? Obviously a private itinerary. I bet a cucumber it won’t be long before marriage news is announced.
4th floor: What man with any dignity would marry her… a woman who’s been played with by others is just damaged goods
5th floor: So she’s reduced to buying a ring alone, right? Normally either two people buy together, or the man buys and gives it. Where does a woman buy it herself? At a glance, Wu Man is clearly trying to trap a man, desperately eager to get married
6th floor: I’ll light a candle in advance for this poor man
7th floor: Don’t spew bullshit—how many women in the entertainment industry are clean? Ridiculous. Don’t they all marry pretty well?
8th floor: Here it comes, Wu Man fans’ favorite move, dragging others down together~ I advise you to stop jumping around. Instead of this idle effort, worry about your brother-in-law who won’t even accompany her to buy a ring. Scumbag confirmed
9th floor: I think I know who brother-in-law is
10th floor: !!?! Who!
11th floor: [image.jpg] Someone in group 8 dug out that Weng Shaoyuan was also shopping in Ginza, Tokyo the same day
12th floor: Do they have any connection??
13th floor: The theme song for Wu Man’s new movie was sung by Weng Shaoyuan, right?
14th floor: And three years ago they were on “Double Bed” together. I originally watched the first episode wanting to ship them, but after watching the first episode they were so awkward together with zero chemistry that I quickly fled (As long as I run fast enough, the bad ending can’t catch me!
15th floor: Same feeling. I was following that show too wuwuwu. I’ll say sorry first but even if you held a knife to my neck I’d still have to say Wu Man and Zhui Ye in there were so shippable they destroyed every CP on the current rankings!!
16th floor: Fuck me, how is it that I randomly eat some melon and still see people cuing the handsome guy? Taking the handsome guy away, he has nothing to do with this. He’d have CP chemistry even with a pig, thanks
17th floor: Damn, then looks like it’s Weng Shaoyuan. Maybe they’ve been together since three years ago… really good at hiding.
18th floor: I think maybe it’s just hype. Their movie roadshow is the day after tomorrow—just happens to leak two pictures at this time?
19th floor: If it’s hype, that makes sense. I was wondering, at WM’s age who would want her? Isn’t an 18-year-old little flower more appealing?
Marketing accounts moved the material dug up from group 8 to Weibo. Before long, Wu Man and Weng Shaoyuan’s names appeared side by side, both soaring to the trending search, with a “hot” character showing the sensation of the news.
And on the day of Wu Man’s new movie roadshow, quite a few media weren’t there to ask about the movie at all. Not only did the male and female leads at the center of the scandal not avoid suspicion, they appeared together at the event venue—this was totally going to be an official announcement.
The media members in their seats rubbed their hands together. Their press releases were already fabricated—they just needed to dig out one formal acknowledgment from the two people’s mouths.
Finally, they endured until the film screening finished. One by one below, they eagerly straightened up, wishing they could grow eight mouths to ask questions.
“Are you two getting hitched soon?”
“When did you start dating?”
“Who proposed, was it Wu Man? Are you a bit anxious about still not having entered marriage at such a late age?”
On stage, Weng Shaoyuan had unspeakable difficulties. That photo was actually deliberately released by the film’s publicity team—it wasn’t even from the same time period. This was indeed all hype for the movie’s promotion.
He thought Wu Man was also cooperating with the publicity and couldn’t help looking at her with some sympathy, admiring her even more.
He absolutely couldn’t guess that the person who came up with this publicity idea… was her herself.
Since she and Zhui Ye had already decided to get married, there was no need to hide this relationship. But being secretly photographed and having photos released—this development was unexpected and disrupted their plans.
So before clarifying, they might as well go with the flow, create some buzz for the new movie first, and let her and Zhui Ye’s relationship hide a bit longer.
Wu Man calmly picked up the microphone. “Everyone’s questions seem to have nothing to do with the movie. This is a screening and exchange meeting, so I’m afraid I can’t answer your questions.” She looked around at the seats in the venue. “So then, does anyone else want to ask questions related to the movie?”
In the audience seats looking at each other, someone in the very last row raised their hand uninhibitedly.
Before Wu Man could call on him to stand and answer, the young man stood up with his hands in his pockets.
He removed his hoodie, took off his mask, and surprised exclamations erupted all around. Camera shutters turned toward the young man’s direction, clicking wildly.
“I have a question I want to ask the female lead of this movie.” Zhui Ye smiled broadly. “When we discussed it at home, the ending performance method you told me about is different from what you actually performed. Why is that?”
Wait?! At home?! What is all this!
Zhui Ye rather affectedly furrowed his brow. “…Did I take up an audience member’s question slot? Then just pretend I didn’t ask. I’ll give it to someone else. As for the answer to this question, you can tell me after you get home, okay, wife?”