Divorce Application - Chapter 19
Chapter 19: Cruelty
The filming of Crossover Dance Queen was scheduled for next month, which gave Liu Sinan some time to get back in shape.
Wu Haoxue was not mistaken; she had started ballet when she was very young.
At that time, her parents were still around, and everything in their family was well. Her mother would even personally attach lace trim to her ballet tutu.
However, after not dancing for over a decade, all that was left of her childhood training was her flexibility.
From age 14 to now, a span of 9 years, picking it up again felt like her body was sluggish and heavy. The lightness she had in her early years was gone.
Liu Sinan silently pinched the flesh on her thigh, wondering if she needed to lose more weight.
Just then, Wu Haoxue cried out in surprise, “Steamed Chicken with Sanqi? Mix Sanqi powder, rock sugar, and chicken slices, steam it in a sealed container, and eat it in two sittings within a day!?”
Sanqi? Tianqi? What was all this? Liu Sinan turned her phone screen to get a look.
It was a neatly formatted document. Different ingredients were marked in different colors, making it easy to read. The title was “A Week’s Meal Plan for a Patient with a Bone Fracture.”
It was a detailed classification, with a picture next to each ingredient and even the exact amount of each seasoning.
In the top left corner, there was a small heart.
It was clear that the person who created this document had put a lot of thought and love into it.
Liu Sinan was speechless. “…Thank you.”
“You’re so thoughtful,” Liu Sinan immediately dropped the phone as if it were a hot potato. She had just seen some things like “ox knee wine” and “medicinal cuisine” in the meal plan. Her tone was complex. “Truly a person of culture.”
Wu Haoxue also wanted to explain. She pointed at her phone and then at herself, feeling like she had a bitter pill to swallow.
Liu Sinan’s gaze on her was strange, and she silently backed away a few steps. “I’m going out for a bit.”
Wu Haoxue was internally frantic. “Who wants to eat Sanqi and ox knee? No, who wants to cook for Liu Sinan!”
Lan Qi: Make her eat according to the meal plan. She needs some meat, or she won’t be able to dance.
xue: Are you telling me what to do?
Lan Qi: ??
Lan Qi: Is she not your little Sinan anymore?
xue: Is that the point?! I can’t cook, okay!
She had been taken care of all her life. After growing up, she plunged herself into her studies. Wherever her mother could reach her, the family would send food. If not, she would eat at the cafeteria or order takeout. When had she ever been in a kitchen?
Lan Qi: It’s okay. Liu Sinan can cook.
xue: Give me a break. She’s even more helpless than I am. Forget it, I’m not talking to you anymore. I owe you guys one.
Lan Qi’s face was illuminated by the screen. She let go of the mouse, the cursor on the computer screen paused on the last ingredient listed.
Li Jinping had sent her a meal plan, which Lan Qi then refined and sent to Wu Haoxue, and she could imagine the look on Miss Wu’s face even through the screen.
Liu Sinan rarely reported her personal matters to her. As a manager, Lan Qi required her artists to send her selfies every morning and evening and to report their weight weekly. They couldn’t be too fat or too thin.
Not to mention such a major injury.
But Liu Sinan didn’t want others to know how she got her injury, so Lan Qi pretended not to know.
However, she felt for her artist. Although Liu Sinan was her boss in name, she was 9 years older than her. Seeing Liu Sinan and Wu Haoxue was like seeing her own younger sisters. Caring for them had become a subconscious instinct.
“Buzz—”
Wu Haoxue sent a frantic panda emoji of a person jumping off a building.
Lan Qi long-pressed it to save it, sent it back, and then replied to Li Jinping.
Lan Qi: It’s been sent.
Li: Okay. Keep an eye on her and make sure she eats. Thank you for your trouble.
Lan Qi could easily imagine Li Jinping’s state of mind when she sent that message. Just like she took care of her own younger sister, Li Jinping took care of Liu Sinan. Worrying about her every expression, every meal, and every detail of her life had become as natural as eating and drinking water.
To have to force herself to stop this habit would not be easy in the short term.
Even a person as strong as Li Jinping could not do it.
Lan Qi picked up her car keys and went to the supermarket.
Meanwhile, Liu Sinan went to her bedroom and sent Li Jinping a clip of her dancing.
She sent two versions, with very different styles.
Li Jinping grew up with her grandparents, so she was steeped in traditional Chinese culture. She admired the character of scholars, and many of her designs contained classical Chinese elements.
The first version was a dance with a lot of classical dance movements. She played a girl with amnesia, waiting for someone at a bridge. The whole mood was like a weeping song, yet it contained a certain fleeting sense of unreality, making reality and dreams intertwine.
The second version also featured a girl with amnesia, but the setting was a mental institution. The range of body movements was smaller. She had to complete three stages of character development—from ignorance to assimilation to suspicion—in three minutes, elevating the emptiness of her actions to the barrenness of her inner world.
nan: I can’t make up my mind. I don’t know which version to choose.
Li Jinping’s reply came back quickly.
Li: The second version.
A little surprised, Liu Sinan looked again with a hesitant expression.
Li: It suits your style better.
This was even more unexpected for Liu Sinan.
nan: Why…
Li: The elements in the first version are too jumbled. It’s not conducive to your performance and could easily result in a lower score.
So it was about the score… She had thought Li Jinping would prefer the more classical first version.
Biting her lip and agonizing for a while, Liu Sinan asked directly.
nan: I thought you would prefer the first version.
This time, the interval before Li Jinping’s reply was longer.
After about two minutes, a voice message popped up that was over fifty seconds long.
Liu Sinan’s breathing hitched, and she quickly clicked on it.
Li Jinping’s voice unfolded like water, calm and unhurried.
“You are very adaptable and suited to many styles. But since you want to transition, you should choose a style that you like. You are still young and like to seek happiness and excitement. You have an impatient temper. A gentle and soft style would suppress you and would be unsuitable.
“The stage needs your confidence. Only confidence from within will be infectious. You can be yourself to the fullest; you don’t need to be shackled by past styles.”
Another voice message.
Li Jinping’s speaking speed was very slow. She seemed to have lit a cigarette, letting the smoke drift from her nostrils, as if she were speaking to herself.
“I have always regretted giving you the makeup and styling for Hao Fou back then. That was my inspiration, but it wasn’t necessarily suitable for you. It made you fall into my style instead.”
“This is a good opportunity, Sinan. Seize it and go down your own path.”
At the end of the voice message, Li Jinping’s voice was lost in the sigh of the smoke, weak and blurry, hard to hear clearly.
Liu Sinan’s eyes welled up with moisture, but she blinked it away quickly.
The phone screen flickered on and off, repeatedly playing the messages. She listened to those voice messages over and over again until the panic, anxiety, confusion, and helplessness in her heart subsided. Only then did she type a reply with trembling fingers.
nan: Thank you.
It was one thing for her to work hard and move forward on her own, and another for Li Jinping to tell her to look ahead.
Li Jinping opened the golden and jade-inlaid cage, and even thoughtfully plucked the golden flecks from her feathers, telling her to go far away and fly into her own sky.
Liu Sinan suddenly felt that she was so cruel.