CH 25

Chapter 25

He actually doesn’t like sweets.

Just at a very young age, children have the natural love for sweets and wanted to eat a candy. But that man doesn’t want to buy him anything and used it instead on drinking alcohol and gambling that they couldn’t even afford to eat let alone candy.

He looked at the colorful fruit candy in the hands of the children in the town and quietly swallowed together with the other child as they eat. After they peeled of the candy paper and threw it on the ground, he secretly picked up the candy paper and licked it.

One winter, the mayor of the town sent a very expensive jar full of candies to their home which was put on the second floor of the cupboard by that man. As the Chinese New Year approached, that man went out to play cards again. He even forgot his three-year-old son and didn’t go home for two days.

Cen Feng lay in bed hungry for two says.

There was nothing in the house but the expensive jar full of candy on the cupboard. The child who was still so small and skinny pushed the stool which was taller than him to the front of the cupboard, climbed on it and opened the jar.

He was afraid of being beaten and did not dare to eat too much so he only ate two then obediently screwed back the lid and put it back on the cupboard. The candy in his mouth has a wisps of sweetness, he did not chew and just held it in his mouth until he fell asleep.

And was finally woken up by a punch.

He did not know when the man came back, but after seeing the opened jar on the table he scolded, punched and kicked, like a storm poured down on him.

“Didn’t I tell you that this jar of candy is going to be exchange for money, and that you are not allowed to eat it! Didn’t I tell you that! You hungry debt collector! I’ll fucking kill you!”

After the beating, he still didn’t seem to be relieved and picked him up from the bed and pressed him on the table.

He then opened the jar of candy and grabbed him hard, squeezed his chin to force him to open his mouth and shoved half a fist of the candy into his mouth like crazy.

Those candies filled his mouth, tearing the corner of his mouth and choking him until he coughed hard.

Since then, Cen Feng doesn’t like to eat candy.

For a long time, he did not even dare to eat sweet things, the smell would be physiologically regurgitated.

He usually recovered but the sweet food became his bitter spice in his life. He could drink milk tea with a lot of sugar and eat cake with a lot of sugar but he still didn’t touch a piece of candy.

The sound of hard candy crushing his teeth still causes him to retch.

When the fans saw that he liked sweets they all thought that he also like candy and always enthusiastically gave him lots of candy. He would take them with a smile and put them in his locker, never to be opened again.

The glass jar of flowery green candy paper reflected the colorful light glow.

The shopkeeper looked at him a little fearfully and pushed the candy forward again.

“You take it.”

Cen Feng lowered his eyes and stared at the candy with a cold expression for a while then suddenly looked and said.

“When she comes over next time, you tell her I didn’t come here again and return the stuff to her.”

The shopkeeper was stunned.

“Huh? You don’t want it?”

He showed little emotion.

“No, don’t tell her I was here.”

After saying that, he turned around with his guitar on his back and left.

There was a string of purple wind chimes hanging at the door on the shop, when pushed opened the door would emit a nice crisp sound. Halfway through the door, he stopped moving and paused then turned back.

The shopkeeper looked at him with a little surprise.

Cen Feng reached out, opened the lid of the candy jar took a red candy from inside then closed the lid again and pushed it back with his calm as water expression.

“Please.”

The female shopkeeper hurriedly waved her hand.

“No trouble, no trouble.”

He nodded slightly, tugged the candy jar into his hand and pushed the door.

When he walked to the door, he met the man who stopped to listen to him sing a few lines every time he passed by after work and greeted him in a friendly manner.

“Hey, little brother haven’t seen you for a while, are you singing today?”

Cen Feng looked at the ground and shook his head.

“Not singing today.”

He paused for a moment and added,

“And will not come in the future to sing anymore.”

The man was a little disappointed.

“You’re leaving huh? Hey, then wish you to sing as a big star soon ah.”

He smiled a little and walked across the winter night street with his guitar on his back, as night deepened.

Xu Zhaixing returned to S city not long before the school started.

She was not able the finished the winter vacation homework within two days so she asked Cheng You to come over to help and let her copy. When Cheng You was doing her homework, she took a cloth ruler to sew and cut, then sew and cut.

The prototype of the dress had been made when Chen You asked her.

“Zhaixing, can you really make that dress in sketch? Don’t you only know how to sew clothes for Barbie dolls at most?”

“Children just do their homework quietly, do not disturb adults when working.”

“Who am I helping with this homework!!!”

“Good girl, I’ll take you to eat fried chicken later. You can eat big pieces.”

How could a child say no to a piece of chicken? Of course it would make her automatically quiet.

After the start of the school year, Xu Zhaixing was even busier. The dress was her hard work for several years, she had sewn every stich without the help from others.

Sometimes when Mother Xu wanted to help, she was driven out by Xu Zhaixing. Standing at door, she sighed and to Father Xu.

“When she used to buy those Barbie dolls home and make clothes from scratch– who would have thought she would have the ability like this now?”

**

After the beginning of spring, the weather warmed up and the tree branches on the street sprouted new buds, Xu Zhaixing’s dress were finally all finished, she flown to B city before the competition starts.

She went to her homeroom teacher and asked for leave of absence. After explaining her reason, the homeroom teacher immediately agreed and wished her good results.

This time, of course it was Xu Yan who came to picked her up again.

He change into a thin spring shirt, and his long legs and narrow waist were more noticeable making all the girls looking at him all the way. Xu Zhaixing pondered and said.

“Brother, why don’t you package yourself up and send yourself out. You are really getting more and more handsome than our company’s male artist!”

Xu Yan gave her look.

“I think you are getting better and better at playing lip service.”

“…I was sincerely complimenting you, why questioning my sincerity for?”

The two of them bickered all the way to the parking lot and from a far she could see a car window was down, and a woman sitting inside was waving her hand at her.

As soon as they approached, Zhao Jinjin hurriedly got out of the car and said happily.

“Miss, it’s been a long time.”

Xu Zhaixing also smiled.

“What brings you here?”

The two got on the car as Zhao Jinjin said.

“Mr. Xu asked me to go home with you so that I can try the dress on!”

Xu Zhaixing looked at her up and down for a while.

“You’ve maintained your figure quite well, you have more curved than before and your skin is also better than before!”

Zhao Jinjin said proudly.

“Of course!”

She held out a finger and said pitifully.

“I haven’t even had a sip of coke in the past few months.”

Xu Zhaixing almost laughed to death.

The dress was at Xu Yan’s place, and Xu Zhaixing sent the dress with mannequin. Xu Yan kept it very well as requested, what it was when it arrived was still the same.

Zhao Jinjin was laughing and joking with her, but after entering the room and seeing the dress the whole person could not say anything.

She was so excited that her pupils dilated and asked Xu Zhaixing incredulously.

“Miss did you make this? My heavens, this dress is too beautiful! It’s more beautiful than the high luxury custom-made dress I wore on the red carpet last time! Can I really wear this dress? Am I qualified? Can I really?”

Xu Zhaixing slammed the bedroom door shut.

“You can! Take it off!”

Zhao Jinjin bashfully took off her clothes.

The dress was made according to the proportions of her figure, and every single line fit the curve of her body. Xu Zhaixing appreciated the devilish figure as she helped her changer her dress, she then simply did her hair.

Zhao Jinjin had only one sentence the whole time.

“How much more can you be awesome?”

After putting it on, Xu Zhaixing carefully looked at where it still need to be adjusted and found that there was absolutely no need to do so, it was already very perfect.

She opened the door, and asked Xu Yan to come in and see.

Xu Yan looked up and down at Zhao Jinjin who was trembling because of excitement. He nodded pertinently.

“Good, let’s take the prize.”

Zhao Jinjin was so excited that she was about to cry.

“I’ve never worn such a nice dress, I’m so expensive ooooooo….”

Xu Zhaixing clapped her hands.

“Look at this, hey take two steps, you take two steps! And stop trembling!”

Zhao Jinjin shivered and walked two circles and found that wearing the dress and not wearing the dress was not a concept at all. She has been training very well in recent months, how come she couldn’t walk the way she wanted with the dress on!

She wanted to cry without tears and said to Xu Zhaixing.

“I’m so afraid of ruining it, if I move too much will I will drop the diamonds while walking?”

Xu Zhaixing looked at her coolly.

“Do you think you are Yueyong, Bingjing Dieling, Zimeng, Xueya, Shangxue that tears will turn to pearls?”

“Who?”

**

The next few days, Xu Zhaixing let Zhao Jinjin practice walking wearing the dress. Wu Zhiyun specifically invited a model teacher for Zhao Jinjin to teach her by words and actions. She was full of spirit and was quick to learn, after practicing for a few days she got used to the dress and could now walked like a model.

Soon it would be the official competition.

The competition venue was located in the famous showground in B city and the stage was built months ago. There were two rounds of the competition, the semi-final and the finals. But there was no gap in between, the semi-final was mainly to see if the designer presented the work on the drawing perfectly and the performance of the model.

The final round would be held immediately after the screening, and the competition was the merit and foundation of the designer.

Xu Yan sent the two to the entrance of the participating designers since he could not continue to follow them, only the designers themselves and the models could enter. He patted Xu Zhaixing on the head and said nothing else but.

“Jiayou!”

Xu Zhaixing nodded with pride and ambition.

In international competition, the distribution for each contestant was very reasonable. Each contestant in the group were arrange in the same large dressing room, each with its own dressing table and dressing room. There was no crowding, no collision to avoid a lot of conflicts.

Xu Zhaixing entered with Zhao Jinjin in the room full of people busy with their models preparing. Zhao Jinjin looked at them in daze.

Xu Zhaixing purposely did not dress up, she even did not bother to put on makeup. She simply tied a ponytail, wearing sweatpants and was on white sneakers, looking more like a child than an adult.

But she was wearing the designer’s nameplate on her chest and ‘27’ sign on her waist.

Those who could enter the semi-finals, no matter how young they were at the very least they have graduated from college so when did they have a underage contestant.

They all looked at Xu Zhaixing with astonishment and incredulity and if it were for the fact that the contestants were still anonymous until now, they would have wonder if there was a backdoor opening.

A male designer with a beard and makeup brush who was applying makeup to his model couldn’t help but greet her.

“My goodness, how old are you little girl?”

Xu Zhaixing said politely.

“I’m 16.”

The whole room was filled with gasp of surprise.

Then he shockingly said.

“Genius ah.”

He looked Zhao Jinjin holding the dress and slowly reacted.

“You are not that….that….”

He couldn’t complete his sentence, he patted his forehead and pointed to the room behind him.

“Go and change your clothes, room 27 is here.”

The two said thanks and went straight pass him.

Only when they entered the room and closed the door did Zhao Jinjin finally breathed a sighe of relief then whispered.

“I thought someone would come after us and turn on the battle mode immediately.”

She was not yet well known in the circle but every time she goes to an event she more or less encounters something unpleasant and though that this time would be the same.

Xu Zhaixing replied while helping her put on the dress.

“Most designers have pride, we are lucky that we did not meet those who were not.”

She couldn’t help but say.

“Miss, it’s good to follow you no one will bully me.”

A sentence that tells how much hardship in the entertainment industry an artist could experience.

Xu Zhaixing signaled with her finger to paused, before saying softly.

“Chen Xing will become more powerful, believe me. In a few years, those who use to bully you will all look up to you, we will become stronger.”

We will all get stronger and protect the people we want to protect.

***