When She Stops Being Dramatic

Chapter 151: Chapter 71: The Top Sister of the 1960s Cultural Troupe (10)

The audience suddenly went quiet, all eyes drawn to the front.

A lovely, fragrant figure hurried over, keeping her back bent. She squeezed in next to the man, patted her chest, and stuck out her tongue with a smile. ”Phew, I’m not late—”

The rest of her sentence was cut short by the man’s frigid glare. She had no choice but to begrudgingly settle down and watch the show in silence.

A sly glint flashed in Xia Zhaoyun’s eyes. ’The main character has arrived!’

The concert certainly lived up to its hype. It wasn’t just the lead singer and principal dancer who were exceptional; even the musicians and backup dancers possessed profound skill—any one of them could have been an instructor in a professional arts troupe.

The performance they created together was a rare cultural feast. It was so immersive that you forgot your surroundings, your entire being submerged in an ocean of joy and satisfaction.

Happy times always fly by. The two-hour performance was over in a flash. The audience erupted in thunderous applause, followed by excited chatter and wistful sighs. The spectacular fireworks they had witnessed through sound still seemed to echo in their minds.

Xia Zhaoyun scrambled to her feet and grinned at the man beside her. ”See you around, handsome...” With that, she slipped away like lightning, disappearing in the other direction.

The man sat fuming for a moment before abruptly shooting to his feet, ready to leave.

The young woman, who had been mustering her courage, saw that he was leaving without a word exchanged between them. She quickly stood up and stammered, ”Brother Huo, hello! I’m Xiao Meiqi. My brother just dropped me off and left. It’s so late, and I... I’m afraid of the dark...”

The man froze. His expression stiffened as he glanced at the dark-haired head beside him, then his gaze shot toward the splash of red that had already battled her way to the exit. ’So, I was just played?’

Once outside, Xia Zhaoyun let out a long sigh of relief, then couldn’t stop herself from biting her lip to stifle a smile.

He Qingran, worried she’d lose her friend in the crowd, had also pushed her way out immediately. Seeing the mischievous grin plastered on Xia Zhaoyun’s face, she couldn’t help but ask, ”What happened? I thought you went to a concert, not a comedy show. Look at you, you’re smiling so much your face is going to cramp up...”

Xia Zhaoyun rolled her eyes at her. Linking arms with her friend, she let out another silly giggle and told her what had just happened.

He Qingran asked in astonishment, ”There’s a man alive who can resist your bewitching charms? That’s a rare species! But why did you go and provoke him in the first place? Don’t tell me you’ve got a crush on him?”

Xia Zhaoyun scoffed, then held out her slender, fair hand and made a fierce grasping motion.

”A mountain can’t hold two tigers, I suppose. I can’t stand his type—the kind that has every woman fawning over him. I just wanted to take him down a peg, show him that even if women are like cats, we can still show our claws!”

”You’ve got too much time on your hands,” He Qingran said with a laugh, shaking her head. She wanted to say more, but then she considered that they were both still young with so much happening in their lives. It really wasn’t the right time for romance.

Back at the hotel, they washed up and went to bed. The next day, they visited the department store, picked up a few things, and then started their journey back to the factory.

In just two days, Xia Zhaoyun could already feel that her left ear and right hand were about seventy or eighty percent recovered. However, since she had gone out of her way to get an official injury report from the hospital, she kept her hand bandaged and continued to play the part of an injured person.

Besides, as long as the Song Family remained standing, she would never be ”well”!

After dropping their things off at the dorm, the two young women headed to the cafeteria, lunch boxes in hand. And there, with a sullen expression, Mother Song was finally waiting to corner Xia Zhaoyun.

”Yunyun, you...” Standing in the bustling cafeteria, she stared at Xia Zhaoyun for a long moment with a look of profound disappointment, before finally letting out a heavy sigh. ”Are you still mad at me?”

Xia Zhaoyun kept her gaze lowered, fiddling with the bow on her hand’s bandage. She gave a slight shake of her head. ”No.”

”Yunyun, you’re eighteen now. You should know better. You can’t keep throwing tantrums like a child. Baobao is your father’s and my biological daughter; of course we had to take her back. We were worried you’d be mistreated if you went back to your birth family, so we selfishly decided to let you stay.”

”In our hearts, we love you both the same. But you can’t be so tyrannical, so jealous that you can’t stand to see Baobao have anything good. You pushed her down the stairs behind our backs. We didn’t confront you about it at the time because we thought you felt guilty and would change your ways.”

”All you had to do was come home and apologize to Baobao, and we could have put this all behind us. But what did you do?”

”After pushing someone, how could you possibly have the heart to be on the radio and go to a concert?”

”But let’s not talk about that,” she said, her voice pitched just loud enough for the eavesdroppers at the surrounding tables to hear every word clearly. ”Let’s talk about Tong Yuanbin. Your engagement was arranged by your parents. How can you just break it off whenever you feel like it?”