ebonymovies Chapter 41: Lin Zhou's bedtime story brought the entire crew to tears.
Chapter 41: Lin Zhou's bedtime story brought the entire crew to tears.
The chaotic chase ended with Lin Zhou's "surrender" and the signing of a series of unequal treaties that humiliated the country and ceded sovereignty.
Late at night.
The nights in Peach Blossom Village are free from the hustle and bustle of the city, with only the crisp chirping of insects and the occasional bark of a dog. Moonlight shines through the dilapidated windowpanes, casting a silvery frost on the ground.
In the dilapidated house, Lin Zhou finally reinforced the creaking canopy bed completely, working up a sweat.
The culprit, Nuonuo, had been running around outside all day and was now as energetic as a monkey that had just been injected with chicken blood. The little guy was wearing pink dinosaur pajamas and rolling around on the bed, refusing to close his eyes.
"Mom, I can't sleep."
"Then close your eyes and count sheep."
Su Qingge was sitting in front of the mottled mirror, going through her unwavering bedtime skincare routine. An expensive caviar mask covered her face, revealing only her cool, aloof eyes. Her voice was muffled, as if she were chanting a spell.
"Counting sheep won't work, Nuonuo wants to hear a story." The little dumpling climbed out of bed, ran barefoot to Lin Zhou's side, hugged his leg, and tilted her head back with her big eyes full of expectation. "Daddy, will you tell Nuonuo a story?"
"Again?"
Su Qingge glanced at Lin Zhou through the mirror and said irritably, "Ignore her, Lin Zhou. That little brat is just a show-off; the more you pay attention to her, the more energetic she gets. I've told that story eight hundred times already; let her go to sleep by herself."
Although she said that, she quietly slowed down her face mask application and her ears perked up more than a rabbit's.
"That won't do."
Lin Zhou wiped the sweat from his brow, picked up Nuonuo, and placed her on the edge of the bed. He himself sat cross-legged on the floor, leaning against the cold wall, his voice tinged with amusement:
"My daughter's request is like a royal decree. Today, I won't tell you Snow White; Daddy will tell you a new story."
"Yay!" Nuonuo clapped her little hands happily.
Lin Zhou cleared his throat, the dim light in the room casting a soft glow on his profile. His usually playful peach blossom eyes now seemed to hold the weight of countless stars, becoming deep and gentle.
"A long, long time ago, deep in the universe, there was a very, very beautiful star."
Lin Zhou's voice was soft and slow, like a babbling brook flowing gently in the quiet night.
"This star was brighter than all the other stars around it. She wore an ice-blue dress and hung proudly in the night sky. She felt she was the center of the universe and needed no one's company."
Su Qingge paused slightly as she applied the serum.
"Not far from the star, there is a very ugly meteorite. It is dark and pitted, and it doesn't emit any light. Every day, it just clumsily circles around that beautiful star."
"The stars hate this meteorite."
Lin Zhou's voice carried a hint of amusement, "She felt that this ugly rock was blocking other people's view of her, and every day she treated it coldly, hoping it would quickly roll away."
"But the meteorite didn't move; it just silently and stubbornly stayed there."
One day, a terrifying meteor shower storm swept through the universe. Countless burning rocks shot towards that beautiful star like arrows. The star was terrified and closed her eyes, thinking she was about to be smashed to pieces.
"However, the expected pain did not come."
She quietly opened her eyes and found that the ugly meteorite had somehow appeared in front of her. It used its cratered body to smash all the flying rocks in her place. With each impact, the meteorite would grow a new scar and lose some fragments, becoming even uglier.
"After the storm, the meteorite was broken and almost fell apart. Looking at it, Xingxing thought for the first time that this thing... wasn't so bad after all."
Lin Zhou's voice grew softer and softer, carrying a hint of distant melancholy.
"Later, the star learned that this meteorite had been silently protecting her for tens of thousands of years. It had shielded her from countless meteor showers, absorbed deadly radiation from black holes, and cleared away all the unsightly space debris in her orbit."
"It says nothing, but clumsily guards its light in its own way."
As the story reached this point, Lin A-zhou looked down and saw that Nuonuo in his arms had fallen asleep. A single, glistening tear clung to the corner of the little one's eye; he wondered what she was dreaming about.
Lin Zhou smiled and carefully carried his daughter to the bed, covering her with a blanket.
The entire room fell into an absolute silence.
Su Qingge remained in the same position as before, sitting motionless in front of the mirror.
That expensive caviar face mask, long past its optimal usage time, was now awkwardly hanging on her face.
But she was completely unaware.
The simple fairy tale she had just heard kept echoing in her mind.
A proud, beautiful, and lonely star…
Silent, ugly, clumsy meteorites…
Isn't this describing... her and Lin Zhou?
For the past seven years, she had always believed that she was the one making sacrifices, the one supporting the family and this useless man. She treated him with disdain and bossiness, regarding him as a dispensable appendage.
But she forgot.
Who stood in front of her like a wall when she was surrounded by sasaeng fans?
Who carried her three blocks to the hospital when she was suffering excruciating stomach pain?
Who was it that silently handed her a glass of warm water and quietly stood guard outside the door every time she broke down and cried because of work in the middle of the night?
These details, which she had deliberately ignored, flashed through her mind frame by frame, like a movie replay.
She always took it for granted.
But now she realizes that the "ugly stone" she had disliked for seven years had been clumsily protecting her, her so-called "star," in its own way.
But she never gave him a kind look.
An indescribable sense of sorrow and guilt surged into my heart like a tide.
Su Qingge's vision blurred, and tears uncontrollably slid down the edge of the face mask, mixing with the expensive essence and dripping onto the back of her hand.
...
at the same time.
The monitoring room of the production team was also deathly silent.
Director Yan Min stared blankly at the man leaning against the wall on the screen, his profile softly outlined by the moonlight, a half-smoked cigarette dangling from his mouth.
The young female directors next to him were already in tears, with tissues scattered all over the floor.
"Director..."
A female director wearing black-rimmed glasses sniffled, her voice choked with emotion, "This...this story is just too heartbreaking! What an amazing love story!"
"Yeah, I thought Lin Zhou was a good-for-nothing, but I was wrong! He's clearly a devoted knight in shining armor! Waaaaah..."
"This story is absolutely going to be a hit! It's a hundred times better than those mindless fairy tales currently on the market!"
Yan Min snapped out of his daze, abruptly stubbing out his cigarette, a startling light flashing in his eyes.
As a top-notch producer, he keenly sensed the terrifying commercial value behind this story!
Healing, heartwarming, and deeply meaningful—it appeals to men, women, young and old alike!
If this were adapted into an animated film… the box office would be at least two billion!
"Damn, I've struck gold!"
Yan Min slapped her thigh in excitement, forgetting that it was late at night, grabbed the walkie-talkie on the table, and began to roar wildly, her voice becoming shrill and piercing with excitement:
"Xiao Li! Xiao Li from the propaganda team! Is he dead?"
A sleepy voice came from the other end of the walkie-talkie: "Huh? Director Yan, I'm here..."
"Screw you! Wake up! Now! Right now!"
Yan Min's spittle sprayed so loudly that the walkie-talkie crackled, as if he were issuing an urgent military order:
"Go check! Search the entire internet! Which children's author wrote that story Lin Zhou just told about stars and meteorites?!"
"No matter who he is! No matter how much he asks! Copyright! We must acquire the animation adaptation rights immediately!"