Chapter 569: Beautiful, Here Alone?

Chapter 569: Beautiful, Here Alone?

Xia Jinyu’s life was extremely regular, and she almost never acted on a sudden whim. Everything she did was planned and arranged in advance.

Wu Chen had crossed paths with her countless times throughout his thousand-year loop. Traveling from Donghai to Modu took only about two hours by high-speed rail, and Wu Chen had plenty of time every day to learn about people who lived in Modu.

Xia Jinyu also had an unusual personality.

This had led Wu Chen to study her in great depth during the loop. By comparison, Li Ruobing possessed a far more entertaining personality, whereas Xia Jinyu could hardly be described as amusing. Someone who had nearly seen through the ways of the world was unlikely to have much emotional fluctuation.

Yet Xia Jinyu’s abilities made her fascinating in her own way—especially during psychological contests, when something unexpected would provoke a reaction from her.

Wu Chen reached over for the phone on the cabinet, set a vibrating alarm, and slipped it beneath his pillow. Then he rolled over, put an arm around Li Ruobing, and went back to sleep peacefully.

The two of them had stayed up very late before finally falling asleep.

Naturally, they had taken care of a few things during the night.

8:15 a.m.

Bzz, bzz.

The phone under the pillow vibrated. Wu Chen opened his eyes, retrieved the device, and opened a movie-ticketing app to inspect the morning’s screening schedule. Indeed… every Friday morning, Xia Jinyu went to see a film!

She didn’t like crowds.

During the thousand-year loop, Wu Chen had shared countless conversations with her. After he learned how to lull her to sleep, they would sometimes talk afterward, and Xia Jinyu would open up about herself. She was a lonely person; if someone managed to open her heart, she was willing to tell them anything.

So most of what Wu Chen knew about her had not come from investigating the people around her, such as her housekeeper or assistant. Xia Jinyu had told him herself.

She almost never lied.

Even when faced with a question she preferred not to answer, she would deftly steer the conversation elsewhere rather than refuse outright or offer a falsehood.

Xia Jinyu got up at seven every morning.

She washed up, checked her email, drank a cup of black coffee, and read the news. Around 8:10, she began breakfast. On Fridays, while eating, she would browse the day’s listings on her phone and select a film.

She didn’t stick to one particular cinema.

She rotated among four!

All four theaters were situated between three hundred meters and a little over two kilometers from her residence. She chose screenings starting at 9:30 a.m. If two films shared that time slot, she opted for whichever had lower box-office earnings.

Among the four cinemas, she chose the screening with the fewest tickets sold.

Friday was still a workday, meaning morning audiences were sparse to begin with. By choosing the screening with the fewest tickets sold, Xia Jinyu sometimes ended up with a screening all to herself.

Such occurrences were rare, however.

Most of the time, a handful of other patrons remained scattered about.

Wu Chen reviewed the films currently showing, cross-referencing box-office receipts, showtimes, and seat maps across every screening room. He factored in that more than four weeks had passed since July 7, making this the fifth Friday following the date. Based on their release windows, he eliminated the titles Xia Jinyu would have already viewed in preceding weeks.

Ultimately, Wu Chen settled on a low-budget horror flick titled Evil Incidents in the Girls’ Dormitory 2—a spectacularly awful film with a “whopping” rating of 3.9 on the app. A production with such a title was bound to be terrible, yet it had somehow spawned a sequel!

Wu Chen was certain Xia Jinyu would choose it.

She wasn’t picky!

Looked at from another angle, one could even call her a fan of bad movies.

The app displayed the screening at Dream Voice International Cinema, Sun Moonlight Center branch: Mandarin 2D, high-definition laser Theater 2. Of the roughly 180 or 190 seats shown in white on the chart, a mere seven were marked red, indicating seven tickets sold.

Six of those seats, though not next to one another, were all in the “best viewing area.”

Only the single red-marked seat in the bottom-left corner stood out as glaringly bizarre. It was pushed far to the back and tucked against the left wall, as though the buyer wished to hide away from all other patrons and watch the film in solitary isolation.

Weighing every variable, Wu Chen reached his verdict.

The person who had bought that ticket was probably Xia Jinyu!

Without hesitation, Wu Chen purchased the two seats directly adjacent to it. Then he opened the notes app on his phone and typed out several lines.

Having arranged everything, he looked over at Li Ruobing.

Mm… she would need to put on a convincing performance! Although Xia Jinyu would see through the act, how committed Li Ruobing was to it would have a major effect on the final outcome.

Around 8:30 a.m.

Li Ruobing slowly stirred. Seeing Wu Chen propped on one elbow studying her, she smiled, stretched, rolled over to lie against his chest, and kissed him. Then she rolled back and sat up.

Getting up as soon as you decided to, without dragging your feet, was a skill in itself.

“Morning, Mr. Wu.”

“Morning, Miss Li.”

Wu Chen sat up as well.

The two slipped out of bed from opposite sides. Walking toward the bathroom, Li Ruobing called out, “Are we going clothes shopping today? I came to Modu on short notice and brought no luggage. If I’m role-playing… do I need to dress like a young assistant fresh out of school?”

“No need,” Wu Chen replied. “It would serve no purpose.”

“Why not?” Li Ruobing paused and looked back at him with a slight frown. “You asked me to play your assistant and help you out, yet now you claim it serves no purpose?”

“What I mean,” Wu Chen said with an easy smile, “is that the whole thing matters, but changing clothes doesn’t. No matter how well you act, Xia Jinyu will see right away that you’re not my assistant. What matters is acting out the process; how well you perform doesn’t matter in itself. So changing your clothes or dressing up would be pointless.”

“You’re saying that woman will see right through me?” Li Ruobing asked.

She grasped his general meaning, yet she despised hearing him elevate that woman so high! Li Ruobing considered herself a good actress and was skilled at hiding her thoughts. How could he claim she would be unmasked in a single instant?

“What I mean is… your presence is too strong. Your habitual mannerisms and unconscious gestures make it virtually impossible for you to pass as an ordinary, fresh-faced college graduate, no matter how hard you act. Even an ordinary bystander would sense your air of privilege, let alone Xia Jinyu!”

Wu Chen paused, then added, “Xia Jinyu is not merely a world-class master of psychology. Her powers of observation rival those of the greatest detectives you’ve ever heard of.”

Wu Chen’s compliments regarding her aura and refined grace flattered Li Ruobing.

Yet his continued praise of Xia Jinyu did not!

It ignited her fierce competitive streak. She was determined to prove herself.

“When are we leaving?” she asked.

“Nine sharp. You only have time to wash up and do your makeup,” Wu Chen smiled. “There’s no time for shopping.”

Li Ruobing strode directly to the nightstand, snatched up her phone, and dialed her bodyguards.

“I need an outfit that makes me look like a female college student—including shoes, a watch, and a bag. Pick whatever looks appropriate, but keep it inexpensive! The malls aren’t open yet, so figure out how to source them yourselves. You have twenty minutes!”

She hung up the moment the words left her lips.

It was an order, not a request.

The previous day, Li Ruobing’s bodyguards had split into two groups to accompany An Menglan and Zhuang Xiaodie, and they had all returned to the hotel by evening. Some were stationed outside the suite, some downstairs, while others occupied adjacent rooms to rest.

Naturally, Li Ruobing covered all expenses.

That was how it always worked. Whenever Li Ruobing traveled, her bodyguards stayed in rooms next door or across the hall, taking turns sleeping and standing guard. They ate in the hotel restaurant, and Li Ruobing covered all the expenses.

Only after issuing her directives did Li Ruobing enter the bathroom, thoroughly satisfied.

Trailing behind her, Wu Chen let a subtle smile touch his lips.

This woman always had that damned competitive streak! Clearly, she was going to throw everything into this performance, trying to make it as convincing as possible.

9:28 a.m., Dream Voice International Cinema.

Theater 2, standard screening room.

The theater seating was tiered, rising higher toward the back to offer an expansive view. From those elevated rows, one could take in the entire auditorium while resting assured that no one would pay them any heed.

The feature had not yet begun; trailers were rolling across the screen.

In the far-left rear corner, perched in an elevated, secluded seat, sat a woman with her hair pulled into a single ponytail. She wore an intellectual white dress paired with a beige scarf tied neatly at her neck. A massive tub of popcorn rested in her lap, flanked on the left by bags of chips and various snacks. She waited quietly for the film to start.

A young man clad in a suit, carrying a bucket of popcorn in one hand, approached from the right aisle. Walking past rows of vacant seats, he finally came to a halt beside the woman in white, turned, and sat down.

He cast a casual glance around, as though taking in his surroundings.

The woman in white furrowed her brow slightly, glancing at him with a peculiar smile—the sort of amused expression born of finding an absurd situation mildly comical.

“Beautiful, here alone?” Wu Chen asked with a smile, turning toward her.

“How old are you, little brother?” Xia Jinyu replied, offering him the gentle but clear expression of someone who had no intention of becoming the target of his pickup attempt.