Bringing the Nation's Husband Home

After Lu Jinnian hung up, he walked over to the balcony and stood there for a while with his phone in his hands. He then stealthily retreated back into the room and climbed into the bed. When he reached his arm underneath Qiao Anhao’s neck, it prompted her to turn around and move her body into his arms. In her sleep, she found a comfortable position and continued to rest soundly.

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Last night, Qiao Anhao’s painful cries released all the pent up anguish and haziness inside her. The next day when she woke, she was a lot more relaxed in comparison to yesterday’s dreadful heaviness.

Life is never able to run smooth. When some difficult situations befall, one first feels the earth shattering and the pressure climbing up... so much so that a gentle voice starts to emerge, whispering to give up. But once you’ve endured the hardest, the darkest times, you’ll actually realize that they were no big deal.

Qiao Anhao had already prepared herself for the worst. If worst came to worst, then she’d just be known as an example for what not to do.

It’s not that she didn’t care, but no matter how much she cared… even if she cared so much she could die... she couldn’t change reality.

Everyone in the world was making life difficult for her, so why shouldn’t she make herself happier? What’s more, even if her reputation was ruined, so what? She still had Lu Jinnian who she loved the most and who loved her back just as much, by her side.

She was over it, and she wasn’t so upset anymore.

Because the scandal had gotten so big, Lu Jinnian brought all his work back home with him, so he spent twenty-four hours everyday with Qiao Anhao.

She assumed that because of her scandal, it would reflect poorly on the Hollywood’s casting competition and she would be kicked out of the running. However, she never imagined that after waiting for two days, she wouldn’t receive a call from the show’s organizers to say she was kicked out.

Since the competition would run during the weekend and she was bored at home, Qiao Anhao figured she might as well prepare for it. Lu Jinnian was with her through it all and gave some suggestions.

In her second round in the competition she was to act as ”Empress Wu Zetian”. She looked up the empresses’ famous quotes, and then in five short minutes, without saying any lines, she had to act a young Empress Wu Zetian.

For an actor, this was a major challenge. There were very few people who had such an acting range.

Regardless, Qiao Anhao worked her hardest for three days before the show to get it right.

On the day of the competition, she woke Lu Jinnian up just as it was light out. In her pajamas, she wore a professional expression on her face and ran through her lines with him for tonight’s competition.

After hearing three days worth of Empress Wu Zetian’s lines, Lu Jinnian’s ears were about to form a cocoon. At that very moment, he just wanted to hug Qiao Anhao and go back to sleep, but seeing how serious she was, he got it together and played audience to her hundred and thirty-fourth take.

After three days of enthusiastic hard work, Qiao Anhao grasped well every emotion and grandeur from her initial naive impression of Empress Wu Zetian to her final domineering finesse.

That last was especially clear when Qiao Anhao said Empress Wu Zetian’s final words, ”In my next life, I will no longer be an empress, but the daughter-in-law of the Lee family”. Right then, she had practically captured the vivid legendary feeling of the Empress of China.