Volume Two: Shadows of the Past, Chapter Eighty-Seven: Cao Xin's Inward Journey

"Cao Xin! You're here too!" Seeing Cao Xin waving at them, the female classmates around Wang Youxuan immediately cried out in delight.

If Wang Youxuan could be considered the campus belle of their class, then Cao Xin—with his good grades, decent looks, and pleasant personality—was undoubtedly the campus hunk.

As Wang Youxuan and the others converged with Cao Xin, he asked somewhat awkwardly, "Oh, what a coincidence. Are you all here to watch a movie too?" Cao Xin had assumed that Wang Youxuan had merely run into the girls from her class upon her arrival.

Just as he was inwardly cursing his bad luck, feeling that his date with Wang Youxuan had been gatecrashed by others, those female classmates replied, "That's right. We already arranged with Youxuan to come and watch Chen Jing's movie together. We didn't expect you to be here too."

"You arranged with Youxuan to watch a movie?" Cao Xin asked again in astonishment.

"Yeah, we planned to come together to support our idol's movie. And you? You must be here because you like Chen Jing's action film too, right?" The girls looked at Cao Xin with curiosity.

Hearing the name Chen Jing uttered by the girls, Cao Xin instantly understood the full story.

So Youxuan and these female classmates hadn't run into each other by chance; they had planned it all along. Cao Xin already knew that Chen Jing was the idol of the girls in their class, which made him realize that their collective gathering to watch the movie was an act of supporting their idol, Chen Jing, as a group.

No wonder when he had previously asked Wang Youxuan out to the movies, she had suggested this action film, *SPL: Sha Po Lang*. It turned out she had planned it all along. To think he had been so narcissistic as to assume Wang Youxuan wanted to go on a date with him.

At this thought, Cao Xin immediately felt his face flush and hastily nodded in agreement, "Yes, yes, yes. I'm also here because I like Chen Jing's movies."

Heaven knows what kind of garbage Chen Jing's movies were. If he hadn't thought he was going on a date with Wang Youxuan, who would spend money on a ticket to watch this film? Choosing that sci-fi movie *Alien vs.* would have been so much better!

Complaints aside, on the surface, Cao Xin still put on an act of being a huge fan of Chen Jing's films.

Just then, Wang Youxuan interrupted their chatter and urged, "Alright, alright, let's go get our tickets quickly. The movie is about to start."

"Oh right, let's go, let's go, let's hurry and get our tickets." The others snapped out of it and headed together to the automated ticketing machine nearby.

Naturally, the movie tickets had all been purchased online in advance. Otherwise, buying them at the cinema would mean not knowing if any tickets were left, and even if there were, choosing good seats would be impossible. Especially for a group like Wang Youxuan's who wanted to sit together, booking online ahead of time was a must.

While collecting the tickets, Cao Xin encountered another rather embarrassing situation.

Because he had assumed he was coming to the movies with just Wang Youxuan, he had naturally booked two adjacent seats when buying online. To his surprise, Wang Youxuan had never expected him to buy her a ticket; she had bought her own. Thus, when Cao Xin pulled out two tickets at the ticket machine, it looked somewhat awkward.

Fortunately, Wang Youxuan and the others didn't notice anything amiss with Cao Xin, and he hurriedly stowed one of the tickets away.

Cao Xin let out a sigh of relief internally, followed by another sigh, feeling that this moviegoing experience had been quite a setback.

He had expected this movie to be bought and watched only by ignorant fans like the girls in his class. To his astonishment, however, once they entered the screening hall, they found it already packed with people.

Seeing that almost every seat in the hall was occupied—truly packed to capacity—Cao Xin couldn't contain his amazement and blurted out, "How are there so many people?"

Because his voice was a bit loud, everyone around turned to look at him. Realizing all eyes were on him, Cao Xin quickly clapped a hand over his mouth.

Wang Youxuan said with a hint of pride, "Isn't this normal? Big Brother's movie is bound to be a huge hit."

In their class, all the girls who regarded Chen Jing as their idol referred to him in front of others as "my big brother" or "Brother Jing." Therefore, hearing Wang Youxuan claim Chen Jing was her big brother didn't surprise anyone; they simply assumed it was an affectionate nickname for her idol, never suspecting that Chen Jing might actually be Wang Youxuan's real brother.

"Oh..." Cao Xin still couldn't comprehend it. Wasn't Chen Jing just a singer? How could a movie he directed draw such a huge crowd? Could all these people in the hall be here purely because of the celebrity effect?

Cao Xin glanced around the auditorium and discovered that the majority of the attendees were actually male. Aside from their group, there were very few females present. This discovery left Cao Xin even more baffled.

Yet this was no time to ask questions, as the movie was about to begin. Cao Xin had no choice but to find his seat and sit down first.

Sure enough, Wang Youxuan and her clique of female friends were seated in the row directly in front of Cao Xin. Their seats were all connected, clearly booked after prior consultation.

At that moment, Cao Xin finally understood why, when he had previously asked Wang Youxuan what seat tickets she wanted, she had replied that any seat around number 25 would do. It was because the ticket Wang Youxuan had booked for herself was seat number 25.

To his relief, seat number 25 happened to be right in front of Cao Xin, which provided a small comfort to his heart. Although their seats weren't directly linked, at least Wang Youxuan was sitting right in front of him. All he had to do was lean his body slightly forward, and he could catch the scent of shower gel lingering in his goddess's hair.

As the movie began, the opening scene showed a view of the seaside. Finding it somewhat boring, Cao Xin casually looked around and noticed that every single seat in the entire theater was indeed completely filled. Not a single empty seat was left... well, except for one unoccupied seat—the one right next to him.

As for why that seat was empty? Others might not know, but Cao Xin knew all too well. He touched the movie ticket in his pants pocket, feeling inevitably rather awkward.

His goddess wasn't sitting beside him, he had no one to talk to, and he had bought two tickets for this movie for nothing. No, he had to watch this movie properly and at least get his money's worth.

Driven by this thought, Cao Xin put Wang Youxuan sitting in front of him out of his mind and began to watch the film attentively.

As he watched, Cao Xin unconsciously realized, *Hey! This movie is actually pretty good! At least I can get into it.*

When the protagonist, played by Chen Jing, made his entrance, a wave of delighted cheers erupted from the girls in the auditorium.

"Ah!! Big Brother is out! Look, Brother Jing is out."

"So handsome..."

Hearing the joyful cheers of his female classmates in front of him, Cao Xin curled his lip in mild disdain. He felt they were still too vulgar, only caring about looks when watching a movie.

In truth, as Cao Xin looked at Chen Jing on the screen, he admitted to himself that Chen Jing really was quite handsome. If only he were as handsome as that.

Following the entrance of Ma Jun, the protagonist played by Chen Jing, the plot development of the movie began to accelerate.

Cao Xin was hooked by the tightly paced narrative, completely devoid of dull moments. By now, he had even forgotten about the goddess sitting in front of him, entirely absorbed in the film.

When he saw the assassin A Jie make his entrance, kill those three police officers, and stroll away with effortless cool, Cao Xin couldn't help feeling a sense of fascination toward this killer. It was the first time he had seen a villain in a movie portrayed with such coolness.

Next came the classic alley fight between the protagonist and the assassin. Watching this close-quarters combat in the narrow alley, only one phrase echoed in Cao Xin's mind: *Holy shit!*

When he saw the assassin suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of the protagonist, collapsing to the ground covered in blood, Cao Xin unexpectedly felt a profound sense of pity.

The excitement continued. The subsequent epic battle between the protagonist and the ultimate boss left Cao Xin uttering praise after praise.

Before he knew it, while Cao Xin was still craving more, the duel between the two characters in the film reached its conclusion. Naturally, the protagonist won in the end.

Yet just when Cao Xin thought the movie was over like that, the plot took a massive twist.

Witnessing the ending where the protagonist fell to his death while the final boss Wong Po sat weeping on the top floor of a building, Cao Xin was left completely dumbfounded.

What kind of ending was this? All the good guys died, even the protagonist died, yet the ultimate villain received no comeuppance at all? This...

As the movie concluded and the credits began to roll on the screen, Cao Xin remained frozen in his seat. The female classmates in front of him began to stand up.

"The movie my idol made is really good, even for someone like me who doesn't like action films. I found it thoroughly entertaining."

"Yeah, yeah, Chen Jing is just so cool. It's a pity about the ending though, it broke my heart. Hey! Youxuan, why do you think Chen Jing arranged an ending like this?"

Hearing her classmate's question, Wang Youxuan thought for a moment and said, "Um, I'm not sure either. But I think this ending is great. If it had been like other movies where the protagonist completely triumphs, it would have been way too ordinary. At least nobody could have guessed this ending to Big Brother's movie."

"True." That female classmate nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly noticed that Cao Xin was still seated behind her, so she asked with a smile, "Hey, Cao Xin! The movie is over, what are you still sitting there for?"

"Huh? Oh!" Hearing this, Cao Xin snapped back to reality, quickly stood up, and checked his belongings to make sure he hadn't left anything behind.

"Huh? Cao Xin, has this seat next to you been empty the whole time? From the start of the movie until now, I noticed this seat seemed vacant without anyone in it."

Faced with his female classmate's question, Cao Xin felt intensely awkward. He hurriedly feigned ignorance and said, "Ah, haha! I guess so. Someone probably bought a ticket, couldn't make it due to something, and left it empty. Yes, that must be it. He... hehehe..." With that, Cao Xin let out a dry laugh.