Chapter 195 - The Woman Who Jumped into the River
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Hong Dali stretched lazily and said, “Ah, today was fun. Let’s head home and get some sleep, get some sleep!”
He turned around, grabbed Li Nianwei’s hand, and smilingly said, “Sister Nianwei, in a few days, I’ll write a script. Let’s make a movie for fun. It has been kind of boring recently.”
Li Nianwei, who had never been in an advertisement or film before, answered without hesitation. “Okay.”
Tang Muxin got excited about the idea too. She said, “Okay, okay. Dali, I want to go too!”
Hong Dali laughed out loud. “You will definitely be included. Dali’s productions must be the best. I will have to make sure the cast line-up is spectacular. Don’t be impatient. I’ll start on the script in the next few days.
“We should have quite a lot of money on our hands. The broadcasting rights fees for I Am a Singer, the download fees from Unexpectedly! , and there is more than forty thousand every day from Ye Lai Xiang. We might as well make good use of all this money!”
How one is a prodigal son without spending money?!
Right, since we don’t have much experience with anything else, let’s start with movies.
There are so many classic movies in existence on Earth. We don’t even have to remember the storyline and setting for all of them, just random snippets here and there is enough.
If we include Chuyin’s set-up, wahaha! It’ll be something spectacular!
Hong Dali had already given some thought to this matter. However, he had not come up with a concrete plan yet. Now, all he had to do was wait for Chu Zhongqin to gracefully leave the stage of I Am a Singer and he’d be free to move on to other things. All he had to do was wait for the payments to come in. With Zhang Cai handling things, he had nothing to worry about.
It was getting late and he should be going home. However, he got caught in a traffic jam. Pedestrians, bicycles, private cars and taxis, as well as buses, had completely clogged up the roads, which were actually quite wide. He thought of going backward, but the cars behind had completely blocked off any exit.
Right, seems like they would have to walk.
However, Hong Dali did not seem to be in any hurry. Instead, he laid down and declared. “I’ll take a nap first.”
Tang Muxin hugged Quentin and was unable to fall asleep. Her thoughts were filled with the song Hong Dali wrote. She could see that Dali was tired, but she was bored. She decided to find out what was happening outside. Rolling down the windows, she stuck her head out to ask a passerby who got here before they did. “Mister, what is happening ahead?”
The passerby was a man in his fifties. He pointed towards the front. Tang Muxin looked toward the direction his finger pointed.
She saw a woman standing on the bridge over Fengyuan Lake, looking down into the waters. Her face couldn’t be seen clearly. As the chilly night winds rose, the white dress the woman wore fluttered in the wind like a fairy’s dress, and her waist-length hair danced in the wind.
Tang Muxin exclaimed. “She is going to jump into the river!”
This was probably the most ethereal lake-jumping scene in the history of lake-jumping.
Hong Dali snapped awake upon hearing that someone was going to jump into the river. He asked the passerby, “Is it a man or a woman? What happened?” He had no idea that it was a woman who wanted to end her life.
The passerby said, “I heard that her career has not been going well, and she was unable to find a proper job, her childhood dreams dashed…”
Hong Dali and Tang Muxin said in unison, “Poor thing.”
The passerby continued, “The woman climbed up half an hour ago, saying she wanted to jump. There are already a couple of men around who have taken off their shirts waiting for her to jump. It would be a great opportunity for them to be the hero and save the damsel in distress—she has a great figure. Everyone is waiting, but the woman has not moved, all she did was cry.”
Hong Dali said, “That would be her fault, then. How could she be so inconsiderate? They didn’t take off their pants?”
The passerby said, “No, I did hear people saying that a few men got aroused, but as time passed, it went down again.”
Look at what the passerby was implying.
Hong Dali laughed. “The lady is going to kill herself just because she couldn’t find a job? How weak is her mind?”
The passerby said, “Rumors say that she has emotional problems too. Her boyfriend hooked up with a rich lady and dumped her.”
That was it. Other news might not affect her, but this hit a nerve with Tang Muxin. They were women, after all. Tang Muxin made a small sound of indignation and started shaking Hong Dali’s wrist. “Dali, think of a way to save her.”
Hong Dali replied, “Don’t worry. If she wanted to jump, she would have done so long ago. If you ask me, I don’t think she will jump at all today. Didn’t you hear, it’s likely she’s just emotional. There are so many men there with their shirts off waiting to be heroes, there are probably enough of them to start a fight. Why would we be needed to help her?”
The passerby said, “Who knows. Big Young Master, you look like a rich man yourself, what do you think the lady wants to do?”
Hong Dali rubbed his chin. “I wouldn’t know. Forget it, we’re stuck in the jam, anyway. Let’s go see what’s happening.”
Before Dali transmigrated, he was nicknamed Goody Dali. After all, he came here because he was trying to save two kids. Seeing the situation, he wanted to go save her.
They all alighted from the car.
With the nine lackeys leading the way and making space between the crowd for him, Hong Dali and his people reached the bridge in no time. As they got near the bridge, Hong Dali saw the lonely silhouette of the lady standing on the railings, her flowy white dress fluttering and the wind running through her long hair. Unfortunately, her face was obscured, and he couldn’t see her clearly.
He had just been talking about making a movie. Hong Dali felt a shiver run through him.
If this lady had come out from a movie, she would be Sadako. She didn’t even need further make-up or costumes!
Just at that moment, the lady sensed a change in the atmosphere around her and turned around. She discovered Hong Dali and his people behind her and cried out in agitation, “Don’t come any closer!”
Hong Dali shrugged. His expression remained friendly and smiling. “We’re just here to gawk, but my eyesight is not so good, so I wanted to come closer.”
The lady turned around. Hong Dali still couldn’t see her face clearly. He could only hear her say with self-deprecating laughter, “Here to see me for a joke?”
Isn’t it obvious? You decided to jump, are you afraid of people looking?
That was what Hong Dali thought, but he didn’t say it out loud. Instead, he asked curiously, “Speaking of which, sister, why do you want to kill yourself? You have a great figure, curves in all the right places, your waist is slim, and your legs are long. Your dress is pretty, and your hair long and flowy. You look like a goddess, so what are you troubled about?”
Although it was her freedom as an adult to want to commit suicide, Hong Dali was unable to suppress his natural urge to want to try and save her.
He didn’t expect her to simply answer sadly, “If you want to talk me out of it…”
Hong Dali was crushed. “You’re going to jump soon anyway. No harm chatting a little, right? We can talk about our hopes and aspirations, or about life in general. Whatever will do. That won’t be too bad, will it?”
Hong Dali knew something was very wrong when the lady didn’t find what he said funny, and only nodded slightly. The aura the lady gave off was peaceful. The chilly night air would have made anyone shiver, but she gave no signs of feeling cold.
What Hong Dali originally thought was wrong. This lady was bent on killing herself.
Her voice was serene. “What do you want to chat about?”
Hong Dali thought for a while but realized he didn’t know. Finally, he asked, “Hrm… Do you smoke?”
The lady replied, “I don’t smoke.”
Hong Dali snapped his fingers. “You’re going to jump anyway, there’s no harm trying. Even if you choke, take it as a new experience before you die.” As soon as he finished talking, a lackey came forward and respectfully passed him a cigarette.
The lady reached out, took the cigarette from him, and put it to her lips.”Well… Okay…”
She had long slim fingers which were very pale. He could see that not only was her clothing white, but her complexion was also white as well.
This made Hong Dali more curious than ever. What made such a naturally beautiful lady want to kill herself? Was it because she was jobless? He had never heard of anyone who wanted to commit suicide because they couldn’t find a job. Was it because she fell out of love? Which man would be so stupid as to give up a beautiful woman such as this?
Hong Dali commanded. “Light it!”
The lackey took out a few hundred dollar notes, set them on fire, and used them to light the lady’s cigarette.
“You’re very rich.” The lady took a deep draw of the cigarette. She had never smoked before and choked, which set off a coughing fit, her long, luscious hair blowing in the wind. She took another two puffs, after which she commented, “Cigarettes taste bitter, and hot, and acidic…”
Hong Dali stomped his foot impatiently. “You shouldn’t be complaining now. Why do you want to jump into the river? Tell me about it.”
The woman continued smoking. “I’ve never amounted to anything all my life. I loved drawing comics. I drew characters and their settings and submitted my drawings to the comic publisher. After…”
Hong Dali asked curiously, “That’s good. What happened after that?”
The lady gave a bitter laugh. “After that? The comic book publisher’s company caught fire. That fire turned four years worth of my drawings into nothing. Four years. How many four years do we have in life? They were all hand-drawn and irreplaceable. The comic book publisher went out of business as a result of the fire. I didn’t get a single cent…”
This was such a tragedy. If it had happened to Hong Dali, he definitely would have been badly affected. “That’s really sad.”
The lady said in a dry voice, “After that, I found a boyfriend, but he soon left me for a rich lady.”
Hong Dali asked forlornly, “You can draw the comics again even after they were gone. Speaking of which, you’re jumping into the river for him, and he is still not concerned? Is the rich lady very rich?”
The lady said slowly, “Richer than me at least.”
Hong Dali nodded and said, “Right, that’s his fault then. But as the saying goes, out with the old and in with the new.”
The lady said miserably, “It’s not that easy. I wanted to work hard and earn more money, but who knew my luck was so bad? No matter which company I joined, it folded. Finally, I went to work at a supermarket. Within two months, the supermarket closed down. Sigh, I have no other way out, how can I continue living?”
The lady really had quite an unfortunate life. Hong Dali asked, “Did you try to find out why?”
She laughed bitterly. “I tried to find out. I’m very ugly. I’m an ugly and unlucky woman. I have no place on this earth. Who would treat me as a human being?”
As she talked, her face started looking sadder and sadder. She shrugged her shoulders hopelessly. “Thank you for chatting with me.”
After saying that, she smiled and finally turned around to take one last glance at Hong Dali.